Meanwhile…
The dragons on the black mountains were merely resting as they watched their own kind and cyclops fight each other to the death. The ones who rested were usually the injured or the weak ones. Mostly the Apex dragons fought against the ongoing battle against the cyclops.
A familiar dragon stopped to rest on top of a giant platform. This dragon was the same one that Will had encountered earlier.
"Noitcifnaf ym daer. (So you killed your brother)" A pink dragon asked him in an ancient language. The pink dragon was also at the second layer.
"Gop. (It was easier than I expected}" Responded the dragon.
"Gniyfsitas tub drah si gnitirw. (If a feud between dragon arises, the only way to solve it is by making one side submit to the dominant figure. But you didn't even give him a chance to give up)"
"D'iakesi gnieb fo maerd a evah also I. Reverof enog eb lliw loohcs yad eno taht maerd a evah I. (I know. Next time my other brothers or other dragons will think twice before they think they can touch my mate!)"
"Efil si ilol, evol si ilol. (Yeah, whatever}" The pink dragon closed her eyes and went to sleep for a bit.
Then, a black dragon that is bigger than them flew down beside him. This dragon was at the Apex layer.
"Rohtua eht esiarp. (Roydus!}"
Both dragons and all the dragons nearby lowered their heads before him out of respect and fear. His name is Roydus, the second strongest dragon.
"?htaed ro ecnadnepedni. (I smell gunpowder on you. There were humans here?)"
Back when Will shot at one of the dragons some gunpowder spread to him. This dragon has a very keen sense of smell that not even the strongest dragon could match.
Seeing as how Roydus was asking him, this dragon sweated coldly but still responded.
"Elatyh. (I did see some humans nearby, but they ran away. I didn't put too much thought into it since they are mere weaklings, I barely paid any attention to them)"
Roydus opened up it's huge mouth and bit on the dragon's neck. Next it flung him off the black mountains and right into the ground.
"Yadhtrib yppah. (Are you an actual idiot? If you see a human nearby you kill them immediately!)"
"Efas yats. (They aren't that strong, I assessed them. Although one of them is a sorcerer, that human was so weak that it made me feel sorry for them. It would be a miracle if they make it out of this area alive)"
Of course he left out the part where it was because of them that he managed to kill his brother with relative ease.
"!drac part ym detavitca uoy. (I am not willing to take that risk. What if they saw something they weren't supposed to see?! Find them, bring them back, or else forget about ever coming back here again!}"
"Deod diputs sa si diputs. (Yes, sir!)"
The dragon flew away while retracing back it's steps and tracked Will, Jasmine, and Adaline down.
Meanwhile...
"Sorry we couldn't get that dragon you wanted, Will." Jasmine said while eating. "You could always send out a request to the black tower."
"How much would that cost?" Asked Will.
"A dragon on the third layer costs about… 76-99 gold coins per corpse. The second layer is twice as expensive or even more. Not to mention the Apex layer, only a few sorcerers dare to take on such a monster."
"Hmm…"
Will thought about it, it did seem like a good idea to hire sorcerers. And he doesn't need super powerful dragons, only their hearts, even a dragon on the third layer would do.
"Can you send out a request for me? Tell them I only accept dragon corpses on the third layer. I'll pay them 100 gold for each dragon corpse."
Will had over 500 gold coins, which he thinks it's good enough. And with the extra gold he made from the trade with the elves, he basically had over 800 gold coins now. He needs to save 500 gold ores to make an inventory.
Gold coins are basically useless to him since he can literally build anything or craft anything he wants as long as he has the materials. He didn't lack food, shelter, or weapons. But since the gold coins are taking up space, he thought it would be a good idea to use it properly. It was his plan anyways to spend money on things that will benefit him.
"Sure. What about the time limit?"
"A month would be good enough, But the faster it is the better. I'll buy as many dragon corpses as possible."
"Does the body need to be intact?"
"Yes, but I understand if it's a little 'broken' as long as the heart is good I am fine with it."
Although Will only required the heart, he needed to see if other parts of the dragon could be used to craft materials. So far he had crafted dragon armor made out of bones. What other crafting choices could there be?
"Um, sure. I'll send you a message when someone completes your request."
"Thanks, Jasmine."
Before he could finish his meal, he felt several roots coil around his waist and pull him back to Adaline.
"Adaline?!" Will got scared for a second, Adaline has never dragged him forcefully like this.
Jasmine looked at those two running away and sighed. How she wished she had a good mount.
Will knew that Adaline had a reason to drag him. So he didn't question her and let her take him wherever she wanted.
Not long after did he realize that Adaline was headed back to his base.
"Did something happen to Grace?" Will felt a bit fearful. If something happened to her it meant something must have happened to his base as well. The first thing that popped into his mind was another raid.
He quickly put on his armor while riding Adaline.
Half an hour later they arrived back at their base, and it looked the same as he left it. Radix was still outside the walls clinging to his poor life.
Will took out his gun and forcefully entered his base while aiming his gun everywhere.
"What do you sense, Adaline?" Asked Will.
Adaline quickly ran down the cave and so did Will.
They saw Grace and Rias trying to patch up the holes that they made. The two elves didn't expect Will to come back so early.
Will frowned. His secret entrance to the exotic trees and seed was discovered by the two elves. There were also several holes around his cave that he knew weren't there before.
The reason he left them by themselves is because he trusted Grace to not go snooping around. If Rias was curious he was hoping that Grace would defend his privacy. He did this so Grace wouldn't think he was hiding something, but that failed.
And also, he noticed that he was still wearing his exotic armor. It didn't matter anyway as they already knew his secret.
"Um…" Grace was at a loss for words.
"So, you found it."
Will was seriously thinking about his next course of action, to kill or not to kill. The existence of the seed is too dangerous for others to know, it's the only thing elves and humans want because it prolongs their lifespan.
He didn't want to keep prisoners here for many reasons, it was better to kill because like the saying goes 'dead man tell no tales' however, this is different.
Grace and Arbor both helped him and Adaline when Jim invaded his base. If it weren't for them, he would have lost everything. Not only that but Adaline has bonded with them. And also they're both descendants of the king of the elves.
He feels grateful to them, which is why it was difficult to make a choice right now.
"Grace, why?" Asked Will.
"Wait, I made her do it." Rias stepped up.
"I know, Grace wouldn't have decided that by herself. But, Grace, why would you help her?"
"I didn't think we'd find anything. Especially this." Grace pointed to the exotic trees and seed.
"That's not an excuse. You betrayed my trust."
"But you lied to us. You said you didn't have any more before you left."
"I did lie, but for a good reason. That seed right there, is the reason why elves and humans are at war. The less people know about it, the better. It's already bad enough that more elves know about my true identity, now this?" And also because it helps him raise his max HP.
"If you'd told us, we would help you."
"I trust you, well I trusted you. But I know fully well that I cannot trust ALL of the elves, right?" Will pointed to the outside of his cave, more specifically to Radix.
Some elves, like Radix, hate humans to the core, especially heroes. Once they find out he's a hero they will kill him or worse. And if anyone else finds out that another exotic seed exists, they will stop at nothing to get to him.
After all, it is much easier to kill him than to invade the elven kingdom.
Rias was confused as to why that place is so important.
"I will not deny that, but, you can trust me with this! My father will understand."
"I wish I could. But now I can't. What I am saying is that I don't trust you anymore. Leave this place, now." Will stepped aside.
"Will?" Grace could not believe what she heard. Was he kicking him out?
"I am banning all of you from this place. Leave, before I change my mind and I make sure both of you never leave this place."
Will didn't think it would be wise to kill them or keep them captive for many reasons, Arbor, and the fury of the elven kingdom. If they found out that 4 elves suddenly went missing, two of which are related to Silvas, they would come to this place and raid it.
They already knew of his base's location. Either way it seemed like he had no way to escape.
"Wait, Will, this isn't her fault. I made her do it!" Rias added.
Rias could tell that Grace trusted Will and even saw him as a friend. But, because of her, she broke their trust and friendship. She felt responsible for what was happening.
"Doesn't matter. Both of you leave now!" Will took out his gun. He was furious. The first ones he took into his home, they come here and betray his trust. He can never be safe knowing that these two are here in his base.
It's true he did lie to Grace about the exotic seed, but did it for a good reason. It's too dangerous if more people knew about its existence, but it was too good to destroy it when it can raise his HP.
Adaline was turning her head as she was scared and nervous. She saw them all as friends or family, this was heartbreaking for her.
Grace looked at Will closely, and could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn't kidding, he was dead serious. She felt terrible all of a sudden. She walked out of the cave with her head down. But. before she left, she stopped beside him and said.
"Sorry. This probably won't change your mind, but I am going to keep this a secret from my family and others, so that they won't cause you trouble. I'll make up some excuse to my father so he doesn't come back. But, this isn't his fault, he sees Adaline as a daughter, they shouldn't be split up because of something we did. Bye."
Will closed his eyes and didn't respond to her.
Grace and Rias left the base. They took Radix with them who was almost dead at this point. Rias first applied him some healing potions and fed him some food and water.
"Grace, I am so sorry!" Rias started crying, this was all her fault and she knew it.
"I know you didn't mean this. It's all good."
Grace smiled at Rias. As soon as her back was turned to her, Grace let out a few tears. The first human she trusted, she betrayed his trust. Now that she thought about it she could have done this differently and it wouldn't have ended up like this.
Throughout most of her life she has never trusted humans, and even thought that Will would've betrayed her, not the other way around.
Will sat down and didn't say anything. He just sat there staring at the cave he was in.
Adaline sat down beside him while she rested her head on his lap. She too was sad.
"It's just us both again." Will patted Adaline's head. The only ones he could trust right now are Adaline, Jack, and maybe Jasmine.
"Hmmmm…" Adaline let out a small sound, a sound that Will has never heard come from her before. Like how some dogs whimper when they're feeling bad, this is her way of expressing her emotions.
The next few days this happened:
Will fixed the cave and collected more exotic flowers, turned them into potions, and increased his HP once again. It felt a little but lonely now but he didn't let that bother him. He enchanted bullets this time and tested it out on the turrets, and it worked splendidly.
Grace, Rias, Radix, all three elves walked across the deserted lands. A few days later Arbor found them and took them back to the elven kingdom.
Grace made up some story that didn't expose the second exotic seed that Will had. And she also made up a lie on the spot to make her father not go near Adaline or Will for now.
Arbor was feeling distraught right now. This meant that he couldn't see Adaline anymore. He trusted his daughter and let it be for now. But there is no way he's gonna let Adaline stay away from him for too long.
Will realized that Adaline felt a little bit down, either from loneliness or boredom. He made sure to spend some time with her to liven up her mood.
A week has gone by since then.
Jasmine had already sent out a request for the dragon corpses. Not many lined up for the offer as she already expected, since dragons are too dangerous.
Will returned to one of the villages and bought all the leather the butcher had. It was well over 1000 leather pieces, it was somewhat pricey but he could afford it. The butcher was never more happier to be a butcher.
As Will was going across the bags that the elves gave him, he saw a thick book.
Will was confused as he never asked for a book. He read what was inside first.
"Learn how to talk and write in elven tongue for beginners." Will understood now.
Grace was teaching him to speak their language for some time now, but she didn't have time to tutor him all the time. When she was back at the village, she asked her father to bring Will a book that teaches them to speak and write in their language.
Will took the book and started studying it when he had spare time.
The rest of the time he mined, built, crafted, experimented, he was glad to see that he was progressing. The only bad thing is that he still didn't get a chance to craft his inventory, or his cursed power source generator.
No matter how deep he dug, there didn't seem to be any cobalt. Either he needs to go deeper or there is another way to find cobalt. Fortunately for Will he didn't encounter any more scorpions or creatures.
And one day, he crafted his {Hot belt} which was his second most desired item to make, next to the inventory.
It depleted half of his leather as it required a ton of leather to craft. He stored the rest away safely.
"Sweet." Will smiled.
He later realized how it worked. It worked like a small inventory space, he could store items inside including weapons. He placed dirt, and his gun inside the belt to test it out further.
Not long after did he figure out how it worked. With a mere thought he could make his items from his hot belt appear in his hand in an instant, like a magic trick. This would save him lots of time and possibly catch his enemies by surprise in the middle of a fight.
Meanwhile…
In the elven kingdom, Grace was practicing with her bow by using trees as target practice. She was looking for ways to distract herself.
Silvas, who was giving her some tips, could sense her terrible mood.
"Want to talk about what happened?" Silvas asked.
"I already told you, I did something terrible to him, and he doesn't want to see us anymore." Grace responded quickly.
"I know that. But if there is one thing I know is forgiveness."
"I don't think Will is going to forgive me any time soon. Not after what I did." Grace said.
"He will in due time. Like I said I know about forgiveness."
"What did you forgive?" Asked Grace.
"I have forgiven Lea, our Goddess, for killing your grandmother."
"What?" Grace thought she heard wrong.
"I never told anyone this, but it seems to me like you need to hear it. Over 300 years ago, before the era of heroes, your grandmother gave birth to your father. She was weak, I knew she wouldn't survive the pregnancy."
Grace didn't say anything, but this story wasn't new to her.
"When she died after giving birth, I blamed Lea for it. I cursed at her, insulted her, said and did everything that no elf should do."
"You did?" Grace couldn't believe it. Her grandfather is the most calm and gentle person she knew, and extremely loyal to their goddess.
"The plan was that the exotic flower would have bloomed before she gave birth, I knew that it had to bloom by then, and I would have given it to her, it could've saved her life."
Silvas started to tear up eventually.
"That was the entire plan. I didn't expect her to be gone like that. But, for some reason, the exotic flower bloomed 20 years later. I didn't know why my calculations were so off. All I could think of was that Lea was at fault, that she made the exotic flower bloom later than it was supposed to."
"So you forgave Lea?" Asked Grace.
"I did, but it took me years to forgive her. But, I realized why your grandmother died."
"Why is that?"
"Because of the heroes. The Great Sage has done a good job protecting us for over 300 years, even now he still does. Because of him, and because we gave him the exotic flower, he was able to protect us from monsters, humans. I forgave Lea for that, because in a way your grandmother saved you, your father, and countless elves. I believe that Lea knew this would happen, and so… she made the exotic flower bloom later than it should have."
Grace wiped a tear off her eye.
"Point is that if I could forgive our Goddess for taking your grandmother from us, I am sure that Will can forgive you when the time comes. As long as you didn't kill someone important to him, it should be fine."
"I guess. But I don't think he'll ever trust me again. It's funny. I had a hard time trusting humans for 20 years now, and the first time I trust one, I break that trust."
Silvas and Grace had a long chat after that.
Meanwhile…
The second layer dragon, who was sent to kill Will and Jasmine, was flying around the area.
'How could this be? They couldn't have survived, right? Gah! Had I known that this would've happened, I would've killed them when I had the chance.'
The dragon was tired of looking, he's not a good tracker, and he keeps attracting attention to him because of his enormous size.
Then, out of nowhere, multiple fireballs crashed on his body and he was badly damaged. This dragon didn't expect it and failed to protect itself.
The fireball barrage didn't stop there, it continued until its body was roasted dark. A huge portion of its wings were missing. He was missing limbs as well. It died seconds later without knowing who or what killed him.
"Well, would you look at that, easy money." A familiar man said.
The man was none other than the hero Josh Jones. Beside him was the cliche loli dragon, a cliche useless female character whose only purpose in life is to cheer for the hero or call for help when trouble rises. And there was a new member on his team.
A seductive woman, with an hourglass figure, tall, huge breasts, who looked very sexy in her tight, blue robes. This woman is a 5-striped sorceress.
"My, you are really powerful." The sorceress woman got very clingy on Josh, who was also enjoying the feeling of her soft, bouncy breasts, her warmth as well.
"Indeed, Josh Jones is an amazing hero!" Felicia, the useless girl, took Josh's other arm and hugged him tightly. Her figure was nothing compared to the sorceress.
'I am living the life!' Josh thought. Like every cliche hero, they start out their adventure with a harem, and it will grow from here on out.
The loli dragon stood back, and tried to pry the collar off her when she could, but a special enchantment kept her from breaking it. Her strength was like a dragon's, very powerful indeed, but now she was a slave to the hero in front of her.
And now she needs to stand back to see her own kind being roasted alive by him, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"You said that someone was paying good money for these dragon corpses, right?" Josh asked.
"Indeed, but he did ask in the request to keep it as intact as possible. I don't know if he's willing to accept this. Plus this is a dragon on the second layer, he said that he's only buying dragons on the third layer." The sorceress said.
"Welp, we can always sell it elsewhere. Let's keep hunting for dragons!" Josh led his harem through the south to hunt dragons, earn money, grow his harem, this is his goal ever since he was summoned to this world.
The sorceress touched the dragon with her staff, and it disappeared from sight.
The dragon loli, stood there and followed them against her will.