The half-elf half-noble, also known as Morgan. He was in charge of tailing Jasmine and finding out her 'friend' who killed Taker and owned the teleportation item. The king needed it since magical teleportation items are very rare.
Morgan followed Jasmine for days now without being caught once, which proves that his stealth is fearsome.
But, when Jasmine went to the south, Morgan did not follow. No matter how stealthy he was, a dragon could smell him and kill him on the spot, as if crushing an ant.
Morgan reported it to the king, and the king was disappointed in Morgan and even gave him a harsh punishment for not trying hard enough.
Until he found the Mr. Scary Eyes person and took the teleportation item from him, the king will not free him from his punishment.
When he heard Jasmine came back to the kingdom using the king's network, he ran back and tailed her. After following her for so long he connected a few dots together, and waited for Will to arrive.
And now that Will was here, he is not going to let him go. Even though the king told him to never be seen, Morgan just wants to be free of his punishment.
"What?" Will asked, he didn't recognize him but he knew that he was a noble. Nobles have a huge influence in this kingdom, it would be unwise to do anything rash to him, even if he was just a half-noble.
"I am getting straight to the point here; I am acting on orders from the king. He said that he's willing to give you 5000 gold coins for your teleportation item. The one you took from Taker."
Will raised his eyes unintentionally. This meant that someone did recognize him, even after he did his best to hide his face.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Will could never let go of this cloak, because it was awesome and useful. Besides, money isn't worth much to him anyways.
"I know you are the one who killed Taker, Jasmine's friend."
Will frowned. Jasmine must've been followed by this guy without her even realizing it.
"And if I say no?"
"Then I will do nothing." Morgan shrugged his arms.
Will didn't trust him one bit, he now had a hard time trusting people. And also Morgan has been tailing Jasmine for over a week, it didn't seem like he would give up after a simple 'no' coming from him.
He remembered how Jim tried to kill Adaline to sell her corpse to earn money for his people. It's the same right now but for selfish reasons instead.
'If I run away, they'll find me through Jasmine, and they will find out about Jack. I don't want to put him in trouble because of me.' Will thought. And he cannot kill him because they were in the middle of the kingdom, and the last thing he wanted was to cause attention.
'Maybe if I kill him in secret it'll be fine. I'll try to lure him into a trap outside of the kingdom.' Will was about to go with that plan, but something unexpected happened, it made his heart stop.
"So? What will it be?" Morgan asked.
"How about 'no' Morgan." A voice could be heard inside Morgan's head. He felt a heavy presence behind him going through his spine.
The one behind him was none other than Roy Morgan, the Great Sage.
Will, however, was horrified seeing this man's status.
{Hero}
{HP: 100,000,000/100,000,000}
His HP was 100 million! Only Apex monsters could achieve something like that.
{Cursed: Dead men tell no tales: Cannot speak all, tell, or mention anything about a specific topic, or else death will be immediately cast on the victim}
[Status: Exotic: Increased your lifespan after consuming an exotic flower}
It was indeed shocking to see the Great Sage appear in front of him, especially after Will tried his best to avoid him at all costs.
Will would have ever have thought that the Great Sage would be cursed. It looked like a very powerful one as well.
'Was this curse from the Witch?' Will thought and it made sense to him, but he could be wrong.
"Go back to the king, and tell him that if he makes another move on him or anyone else like this, I will have to take measures on my own hands, understood?"
Morgan nodded. No matter what, the king wasn't held as highly as the Great Sage. People could always replace him, but the Great Sage is irreplaceable.
Roy touched Morgan's head and Morgan disappeared from the spot.
The people around him started to surround the Great Sage. It's a rare sight to see him out in public.
"Much better now. How are you-... hello?"
The Great Sage didn't notice that Will had disappeared before his very eyes.
When the Great Sage was busy with Morgan, Will took this chance to instantly teleport himself out of the kingdom as fast as possible. He cannot confront the Great Sage right now, or probably ever.
"Adaline, run back to the base!" Will got on Adaline and she ran at a terrifying speed.
But, they saw an old man waiting for them already. It was none other than the Great Sage himself.
"What?!" Will was scared, he was sure that he made a quick escape, but the Great Sage already caught up to him.
Adaline stopped in front of him, she was trembling as she could sense an extremely powerful aura within him.
"Ye are… you are quite in a hurry." The Great Sage chuckled a bit, he was still levitating while his legs were crossed in a lotus position. And he always held firmly onto his staff, as to not give anyone a chance to steal it from him.
Will didn't speak or move at all. Out of all the people he didn't want to encounter, he was at the top of his list.
"Hmm…"
The Great Sage circled around Will and Adaline, as if he was analysing them.
"Well, it's finally nice to meet you, Will."
"..."
Will looked at the Great Sage with fear. Will couldn't hear him because the Great Sage was using telepathy to speak to him, and Will carried a special item that lets him block telepathy.
"?" The Great Sage was confused but realized something.
'Ah, so that's how it is.'
The Great Sage took out a weird item from his robe, it looked like a metal ball that fit the palm of his hand, it looked like it was something like play doh from all the different types of colors it has, the colors were different and didn't fit together.
Then, a voice came from it.
"Nice to meet you, Will."
Will's eyes opened behind his mask. How did he know his name when he was blocking his telepathy? And why was he talking through that object?
"Don't fret, I knew your name when I read Jasmine's mind. This device allows me to speak to a group of people at the same time, since it's troublesome talking through so many people using telepathy. I made it myself."
When the Great Sage speaks to people using his telepathy, he can usually communicate with one person at a time, sometimes a few more. But, when the number of people gets to a point where he can't handle it, it's hard to communicate with them since they are all thinking of something, and he cannot make word of what was going on.
It's like trying to watch 100 movies at a same time, or watching a reaction video mashup on youtube.
"Oh." Will found that weird but didn't question it.
"You have done a wonderful deed for us, some people would refer to it as a heroic act."
"I only did… what I had to do." Will responded calmly. He got used to the tension little by little.
"Did you like my present?"
"Present?"
"That obsidian VIP badge. It's not something I hand out to just anybody, even nobles don't have the privilege to receive such a gift."
Will now realized why he was given a VIP badge, he didn't know it's true value so he didn't put much thought into it.
When the Great Sage read Jasmine's mind when she filed out a request, he knew that Will had to come since she was constantly thinking of honing her skills, which gave her no time at all to come back.
"Then… I guess, thank you?"
Will did not appreciate the gift entirely, as he didn't plan on coming back to the kingdom ever again unless he had to.
"You can even use it to enter the kingdom and the guards will treat you better."
"Um… sure."
Once again, he didn't care about that.
"What a powerful beast you have there. I haven't seen an Adalis since my late 50's or was that 60's?"
Adaline backed away a little bit from him, she didn't trust strangers, especially when the one in front of her is considered one of the strongest heroes in existence.
"Now, Will, I will get straight to the point, you're not from this world, are you?"
"Um… what?"
Will started to get cold shoulders. He didn't want anyone else to know his true identity, especially him.
"When you caught my attention when you took down Taker, I started researching you since not even I was able to track him down. So far, you have no prior records, no family records, birth certificates. I checked everything there is about you, leaving no stone unturned. Coincidentally, or it's not a coincidence that you didn't exist until 2 weeks after the heroes summoning, am I right?"
Will needed to make an I.D. for his blacksmith badge, and to enter other villages without having to break it. He thought it would be helpful, but it basically gave away his identity.
"And it looks like you didn't even try your best to hide your identity, I read a few of the heroes' minds, and 1 one of them, a girl, kept thinking about you, Will Connor."
"Cass…"
"Cassandra." The Great Sage added.
Will closed his eyes and took a long breath. It looks like it didn't matter how well he hid his identity from him, because he already knew.
'I knew I should've changed my name, but that isn't a guarantee that it would hide my identity. Maybe I should've never taken the initiative to take down Taker… no, those children that I saved would've died by now, many more could've died from his hands. And this cloth of teleportation was too good to pass.'
Will secretly gripped his gun, he wasn't going down without a fight. Even if his opponent is the Great Sage, he is going to fight him.
"Looks like I was right, you are the missing 100th hero."
"Yeah, I am." He admitted.
"Okay, that's all I needed to know. Goodbye."
The Great Sage slowly floated back to the kingdom.
"Wait! What?!"
"Hm?"
"You aren't gonna force me to go with you?" Will asked in a very confused tone. He was absolutely sure that he would take him to the kingdom of Reyes where the other heroes are.
"Why would I?"
"Because I'm a hero."
"You are indeed a hero, but what of it? I am also a hero."
"Yes, but, I thought that you were going to use my abilities for the kingdom's sake, work me to death like a slave."
"Ah. You're mistaken kid, I am only letting you go because you saved my friend's granddaughter. You might know her as Grace."
"Grace." Will didn't expect that.
"Silvas and I have been friends for over three centuries now, I care about the elves as much as I care about others, including animals." The Great Sage was referring to Adaline.
Will secretly put his gun away after hearing that he had no intentions of taking him to the kingdom.
"So that's it? You're gonna let me go away?"
"I am. The other reason I'm letting you go is because so far you've done better than most people would expect. Most heroes would die if they found themselves alone in this world, but to me it looks like you don't require my protection."
What he didn't know is that Will is only alive because of his system. If it were anybody else, they would have died within the first week.
Will thought that the Great Sage had another reason to let him go, but he didn't want to tell Will about it. Will didn't even want to mention him about his curse.
"Hold on, before you said that Sandra was thinking of me?" Will asked. Sandra is Cassandra for short.
"Indeed, she does. She thinks about you all the time, your well being and such. She even asked the king and me if it was possible to send you and her family a message, no matter what price she has to pay, but obviously that isn't possible and she feels horrible. Not even I am able to do something like that."
The Great Sage felt a bit bad, but this isn't new to him. Many heroes have been in the same situation as Sandra.
Will, however, felt guilty. He had all this time to tell her, but he didn't act on it.
'I cannot tell her that I am here. I don't want anyone from the kingdom to know who I am. I was lucky that the Great Sage is an understandable guy.' Will thought.
"Can you give her a mess-"
"It's not my place to tell her anything." Great Sage interrupted Will as if he knew what he was about to say.
"If you want to see her, then you have to do it on your own."
"Hm… that's fair." Will understood, the man in front of him is the strongest in existence, he's not a messenger. And besides, it would be better if they saw each other in person instead of giving her a message. But that time isn't today.
"Come, Adaline, let's go back home… and thanks, for letting me go and keeping this a secret." Will got on top of Adaline and they sped off.
"No problem."
As the Great Sage was about to leave, a giant red lizard wearing enchanted armor, on top of it was a man.
'A messenger of the Empire.' That is the first thing that popped into his mind. The Fat Empress uses lizard mounts since that is the most common monster found where she rules.
Dragons are also technically lizards, but these types of lizards can't fly, and are more suitable on the ground. And also, it is much safer to tame a giant lizard than a dragon.
"The Great Sage!"
The messenger man didn't expect the Great Sage to be outside of the kingdom. He hurriedly got off of his mount to give him a letter with an engraved sign attached to it.
"This is to the Empress from the kingdom of Reyes to the men. Wait, no."
He was very nervous right now which is why his line didn't make much sense, as if one was reading a third rate cultivation manga/manhua/manhwa with a crappy translator who never went to any school and still somehow flunked all his classes.
He's merely a messenger, he's nothing compared to someone as powerful as the Great Sage.
"Hm."
The letter flew from the man's hands and it appeared in front of the Great Sage's face.
"I'll took mine left then." The messenger got on his mount and left as fast as he could, even now he can't speak clearly without messing up his wording.
'Let's see… I wrote this letter to let you know in advance that I am headed to the Reyes kingdom to talk about a business proposal. Signed, Empress Valerie.'
The letter folded multiple times in front of him and it disappeared from his sight.
'That's not good.'
The Great Sage can only think of one thing that the Fat Empress wants, the heroes' summoning circle.
Meanwhile…
Adaline began running again back to the base. The rumors are a thing, and it'll be a matter of time before people realize the truth.
"I need to blend my base so nobody can spot it. And I think I know how."
Will's base stood out. It was basically a stone building surrounded by grass. Ever since he and Adaline began living there, the surroundings had changed drastically. What was once a plain field was now a grassy-plain field.
But, he had an idea on how to cover his base, by using a system exclusive craft.
{Blueprint}
This exclusive craft can basically /copy and /paste like in a minecraft game with commands added. However, he needs the crafting materials to craft it.
For example, if he wants to build 100 wooden houses but doesn't want to put in the work, he just needs to copy down one wooden house and make another one using his blueprint craft.
But, he cannot craft something out of nothing. In order to make that exact same wooden house, he needs the exact same materials that he used to craft that house, on hand. Otherwise it won't work.
The blueprint craft cannot only make buildings, but also different types of structures.
"Luckily for me, I know exactly what to build. However, I need a lot of wood to make that blueprint crafting recipe, which I lack."
Will was going to chop down all the trees he has on his base, use it all up and turn it into paper. If he's lucky, he'll have enough to make a blueprint.
Meanwhile…
Inside the kingdom of Reyes at the training grounds, were over 20 people training, one of which was training them. Most of which showed to have various unique powers.
These individuals were none other than the heroes that were summoned. Not all of the heroes are training, some of them were in their rooms, and some were doing their own little 'training' according to the powers they were blessed with.
The training ground was massive in size, which is understandable since this is the area that all heroes use to train when they are first summoned in this world.
There were many objects scattered everywhere, shields, armor, swords, guns. There were also other people there who are doctors sort of, they are in charge of making sure that when the heroes are injured they are there to apply medical treatment like potions and such, even though heroes are born with natural regeneration.
"Why are you working yourself to death, Sandra?"
The one in charge of their training was none other than Shaun Quincy, the hero that was summoned before them.
Shaun was wearing what looked like a military uniform like the ones that the U.S.A wears in the military. He was even standing in a tall and firm manner, like a military officer. On his back, was a magical spear.
"I don't want to be here for too long." Sandra was sweating and breathed heavily, Shaun however looked calm and cool.
"I guess I understand, you want to see what this world has to offer, am I right?"
"Not really. I want to find the way to go back home." Sandra has a belief that she is able to go back home, to see her family, to see Will.
Unlike most people, some of them, like Sandra, had a life that they cherished, a life that they would never trade for.
"I already told you, that isn't possible. Not even the Great Sage, the hero who's been here longer than us, is able to do that."
"As long as there is hope, I will not rest until I find it." Sandra didn't let that take away her hope of returning back home.
"Then I wish you good luck, soldier!" Shaun put his hand over his forehead like in a military salute.
"What?"
"You have proven yourself long ago that you are ready to leave. I only kept you here a little longer because I want you to have experience when it comes to fighting for your life, which is inevitable the moment you set foot outside these walls."
"Thank you." Sandra said.
"What was that?"
"Thank you, sir!" Sandra stood upright with her hand on her forehead like a military salute.
"Better. Now, the rest of you lazy sons of bastards, stop jerking off and give me 100 pushups!" Shaun turned his attention to the other heroes.
Sandra wiped the blood off her lip. Then her mouth curved into a smile.
'If there is a way to come here, then there has to be a way to go back. I will not rest until I find that way. To see you, mom, dad, brother, but also you… Will. Just wait for me, and I'll be there.'