Outside of the kingdom of Reyes, were two lazy guards standing by the gate. One was talking about his life to pass the time.
"You see, people call her a hoe, but I call her a 'whore' huh?"
"Yeah, that's not much of a difference." The other guard beside him said.
"Are you talking about your mom again?" Another soldier stationed a bit further away overheard his chatting.
"No, that was 40 minutes ago. I'm talking about your sister!"
"Hey! You are currently married to my sister, remember!"
"Oh… right. Please don't tell her I said that."
"Ohoho, trust me, I won't." He was most definitely going to tell her.
*Ding* *Ding* *Ding*
Above the castle walls, a heavy bell was rung 3 times in a row.
"The alarm bells?!"
Many of the people living within the castle's walls hurriedly ran back to their homes as soon as they heard the bells.
The King, the Great Sage, and the other Heroes reacted to the alarm bell.
"It's the Fat Empress! Everyone be ready!" A general on top of the walls shouted and lined up all the soldiers.
Not far from their kingdom, they saw many tamed monsters with men on top slowly headed their way. Many of them were giant lizards which varied in sizes and colors, some were red, white, black. Those animals were all wearing enchanted armor suited for them.
They were all in a formation protecting a black carriage that was pulled by 2 lizards
Their armor and carriage all had the same symbol. A black circle with a red '+' and a red 'x' and a red 'v' symbol overlapping on top of each other.
The monsters stopped meters away from the castle walls.
Someone came out of the black carriage, it was a tall, slim, woman.
She wore enchanted armor that had a bit of gold in it, but was mostly made out of mythril that covered her entire body, but it gave her a type of charm. Her hair was in a bun position, her hair was also red. Her eyes were also red. Red is obviously her favourite color.
On her ear she had an enchanted earring that was shaped like a diamond, but was made out of ruby, the outer layer was shielded by diamond and gold.
On her hip, was a longsword, It wasn't enchanted, just the sheath, but the sword was a magical weapon.
Behind her, 8 men stood near her, all of them wearing heavy, enchanted armor, as well as shields, guns, and swords.
Every soldier in the Reyes kingdom stood there frozen in fear.
"Why are you all surprised to see me?" The Fat Empress spoke in a confused manner.
The Great Sage appeared before her in an instant.
"The Great Sage." The Empress didn't bat an eye when seeing him, but was surprised that he showed up.
However, the soldiers and even the lizards behind the Empress were feeling very scared right now. This man is the strongest man in existence, and he was standing right in front of them.
The Great Sage was carefully observing her, checking if she wasn't carrying any destructive weapons on her.
The Empress was asking herself one question, why did the Great Sage appear before her like a loyal dog?
Everyone knows that the Great Sage lives in the kingdom, but he has never taken orders from anyone else, not even the king nor many other heroes. The kingdom has no power over him. The only reason he lives in the kingdom is because of the summoning circle and the heroes it summons.
Despite that, she was staring at something that was over his head. When she saw it, she uncontrollably let out a smirk.
"The king invites you inside the kingdom, Valerie." The Great Sage said.
Valerie is the Empress's name. Most people refer to her by her own title. Very few dare to call her by her real name.
"Thanks." Valierie, and her bodyguards, which were now no less than 20 entered the kingdom with her.
"I believe you already know why I'm here, correct?"
"You're here to propose a business trade of some sort." The Great Sage responded. He had already vaguely guessed what she wanted to trade.
"Hm."
As they strolled through the kingdom, the citizens hid in their homes. Some dared to peek out to stare at the Empress from their windows.
Valerie was looking at all of those people, but was mostly staring at something that was on top of their heads, something that only she could see.
Minutes later, the Empress was inside the castle along with her bodyguards. They were in the dinner hall, in front of them was a large dinner table that was exaggeratedly long, it also had a lot of high-classed food that was prepared by their best chefs.
The King sat in front of the Empress, behind him were 2 kings guards, the Great Sage, and Hero Shaun Quincy,
The king wasn't as envious as he should be, in fact he was glad that the Empress was here. Now that the 100 heroes were summoned (technically 99) he could finally shove something in her face.
No one had the thought of attacking the Empress right now to claim her empire and wealth. It's like a code of honor to respect the guests and will not attack, unless they attack first.
This was more like an unspoken rule that the Great Sage created. If all they did was pillage, destroy, and conquer, then could they honestly call themselves heroes?
The empire wasn't the first major powerhouse in this world. There had been many kingdoms who were created by heroes in order to expand their power, but those kingdoms did not last long due to monster attacks, or when the hero who created the kingdom died and the kingdom they've built over the years went into complete chaos..
There was a long awkward silence lingering in the room. Valerie kept eyeing something that was on top of their heads despite seeing nothing.
"Empress, I read your letter, and you said you had a business proposal?" The King spoke first getting straight to the point.
"I am indeed. I came here because I am willing to make a trade."
"What kind of trade?" The King took some grapes from the table and ate a handful of them.
"I am trading half of everything I own, money, resources, soldiers, weapons, except my magical, enchanted item."
"PFFFFT!!!" The King spat out his food but composed himself quickly. The others behind him were equally surprised.
The Great Sage could read minds, but there have been many people who have been able to counter his telepathic ability. It was annoying to him. The King did not want to own such an item because he's afraid that that would put the Great Sage on his bad side.
"Half of everything! Are you serious?!" The King felt like that was too good to be true.
If they could actually own half of what she owns, then that would put the kingdom at a greater advantage in terms of power. They could easily take over the Empire with it.
There is a reason why this kingdom is not doing as well as the Empire in terms of resources, it's because of the heroes. For many obvious reasons, the king places the heroes safety and health first before everything, so more than half of the resources they accumulate goes to the heroes. It's the 100 years worth of resources that gets poured onto those heroes.
After all, heroes only happen once every 100 years. It would be a great waste and shame if they happened to die before they could contribute to this world.
"But, if I am willing to give you half of everything, I also need something in return." The Empress smiled seeing his expression. She knows how he envied her infinite pool of resources.
"Right… what do you want?" The King asked.
"If I am willing to give you half of everything, I expect to get half the heroes in return. I'll take 49 or 50, either is fine." The Empress sipped on some tea that was on the table, one of her body guards checked it beforehand to see if it was poisoned.
"Not happening!" The King responded quickly.
No matter how rich she is, the Heroes can only be summoned every 100 years. It's something that only happens once in a lifetime. By the time the next heroes are summoned, most of them would be already dead or very old.
"Ok, fine, I'll do 40 heroes but I get to choose."
"I won't be giving you any heroes. So you can keep dreaming."
"After your kingdom has faced so many problems lately, I thought you needed this. After all, Clement, your best gunmen, kidnapped your daughter."
"That's just one thing."
"Your child kidnapper was just recently killed AFTER he managed to kidnap hundreds of kids over the years from your kingdom."
"He's already dead."
"Thanks to a young Sorceress, it turns out that she found out that a noble was the cause of those children's deaths. How do you know that the other nobles or half nobles aren't as corrupted?"
"Well…"
"The black sun killed many of your people, not mine since our empire is always ready for the worst. I heard that many talented blacksmiths and potion makers died, am I right? If I heard correctly, that was because they threw a party to celebrate the heroes arrival, however that only included the potion makers and blacksmiths who helped the heroes."
"About that…"
"And not only that, but you're a hero short, even though those 10 willing 'participants' paid their lives to summon the hero, he or she didn't show up."
It takes 10 willing people to sacrifice their lives to summon a hero.
"That was out of our reach. The summoning circle has never failed before."
"Yes, 'before' perhaps next time the summoning circle won't even summon a single hero at all. Maybe after hundreds of years of summoning heroes, the summoning circle is starting to break?"
The King's face darkened, he too thought of this.
When the 100th hero failed to be summoned properly, this brought fear into their hearts. It was just one hero, but what if that was just the beginning? Wouldn't that mean that it could fail them next time and not summon a single hero?
"Regardless of that, we still have 99 heroes, the Great Sage, and the century hero. I won't be 'trading' you any of my heroes, not now, not ever!"
"Shame, really. But, I heard a rumor. About the hundredth hero, the missing hero, is actually here but is in hiding." The Empress said while carefully observing the faces of the king and the two heroes behind him.
"They're merely rumors. It's nothing new. Like that one rumor that the Witch is still alive to this day, which we all know is impossible." The King said.
"If these rumors turn out to be true, and I find him first, I am not going to give him to you. After all, finders keepers. Perhaps I should search the deserted lands, since many rumors claim that he lives there."
"Good luck with that." The King didn't believe that the 100th here is actually hiding, as he believes that it would be a stupid move. Why live in a wasteland when they could live inside a kingdom where there's food, clothes, water, and people who admire them?
The Great Sage was the only one in the room who knew about Will.
"Hm." The Empress watched their expressions and she knew that they weren't lying.
"This has been a waste of time. I shall take my leave then."
The Empress left elegantly with her bodyguards protecting her at all times. The Great Sage was confused, as he was certain that she came here for the heroes, unless he was wrong.
"Strange. She's not someone who backs down like that. I was certain that she was going to do so much more in order to obtain the heroes or the summoning circle." The King said.
Many others thought the same.
"I find it strange that she's been staring at our heads most of the time." Shaun said, he and the Great Sage both noticed that but couldn't figure out why.
"If I had to guess, it's probably because of the magical enchanted item she owns." The Great Sage spoke inside their heads.
They were talking about the earring she was wearing. No one knows what it actually does, as the Empress is the only one who knew of its uses. Not even her closest friend knew anything about it.
The Empress left the kingdom, went inside her carriage, and left for her Empire.
Not far away, was basically an entire army waiting at her command. They were all wearing enchanted and powerful items and weapons. It was clear that they were preparing for war.
The Empress's magnificent carriage stopped. Another woman, roughly the same age as her, ran up to her carriage to talk to Valerie.
"Valerie, we await your orders." This woman wore similar clothes to Valerie. Her hair was long, tied up in a fashionable way that made her seem more charming, and was also blue.
"We head back to the empire." Valerie said calmly.
"So we attack… oh. Okay." The woman waved her hands and the entire army turned around and headed back home. Most of them were disappointed but they still followed her orders.
The woman went inside the carriage to talk to Valerie.
"Does this mean that the king actually gave in to your demands?" She asked.
"No." Valerie smiled and responded gently.
"No? Didn't you say that you would get those heroes and the summoning circle no matter the costs?"
"I did say that. But that was before." Valerie gently caressed the earring that was dangling on her ear.
"Before what?"
Valerie smirked at the thought of seeing that invisible thing that was on top of their heads. She looked at the top of the young girl in front of her.
On top of the girl, were these numbers that only Valerie could see.
55:09:1:21:55:30.
"Before I realized how little time the Great Sage, and so many people, have left to live."
Above them, almost as high as the skies, was the Great Sage looking down on them. He was making sure that they had no ulterior motives, and as far as he can tell, it seemed like they were actually going back.
...
Two people were walking on a dirt road, a man and a woman. At first glance these two people looked like ordinary travellers. But, within the kingdom these two are very powerful and important figures.
"Sandra, what do you hope to find in that village?"
The one talking is Bruce, one of the heroes that has been recently summoned.
"Something. We cannot lose hope." Sandra said.
The last two days have been slow for these two new heroes, who knew nothing about this world.
When Sandra saw that wanted poster of Will, she thought that it might be him. Some might call it a woman's intuition, and they're right.
Bruce followed her without question. Instead of being shirtless, he wore what appeared to be a plain black gi, which looked nice and new. This was like a karate uniform, it was handmade by expert tailorists that were hired by the kingdom.
Sandra and Brice stopped dead in their tracks when they saw two cloaked figures blocking their way. Both of which had weapons on them, a knife and a gun.
"Hello there. What's a pair like you doing in the middle of this, abandoned, secluded part of the forest?" Asked one of the cloaked figures.
Bruce got in a defensive stance.
"What does it matter to you?" Sandra responded, she also thought that these two were gonna attack them.
"It matters to us because it's dangerous here and you might get hurt." One of the cloaked figures took off his hoodie and revealed the face of a young man.
"He's right, many monsters like goblins and trolls live around here. It's better if you find a village before it gets dark."
"..." Bruce. Were this guys actually giving them helpful advice? Did his knowledge of these bandits from movies fail him?
"We're looking for a village. We don't know the name, but it's supposed to be somewhere around here." Sandra said.
"Near here? Oh ya. The nearest village got raided by 2 elves not too long ago. Sad really, so many people died. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"That's the one we're looking for."
"Oh. Just keep going in that direction where the sun is, and in about an hour or two of walking you should be able to reach it." One of the figures pointed at a specific area.
"Wait, why are you guys here?" Bruce asked, this was way too suspicious.
"Because."
"..." Bruce.
"I guess that's an answer." Sandra walked to where those strange men pointed at with Bruce following behind her.
"Don't you find that a little bit suspicious? I bet it's a trap of some sort. They seem really sus." Bruce said. Something told him that this was way too sus..
"If this is a trap, then it's the worst trap I've ever seen. And yeah, they are pretty sus."
They looked back and saw those two men were waving goodbye to them.
When Bruce and Sandra left their sights, the two hooded figures began hid behind a large tree where nobody could see them.
"So, you were gonna show me?" One of the two men asked the other one with anticipation in his eyes.
"Yes, and remember, you cannot show anyone else this. It's considered sacred since it came from the heroes. You must swear an oath that you cannot tell or show another soul what I am about to show you."
"I swear."
"Good, now what I am gonna show you is simple but VERY important."
"I'm so happy right now!" The man was practically filled with joy.
"Okay, so what you're gonna do is follow my lead. I believe the heroes called this a 'fortnite' or 'fortnight' dance move. It starts by swinging your arms and knees like this." He started doing a dance move which most people on Earth should have seen at least once in their lives.
"And you're sure that this came from the heroes?"
"Positive. My uncle's friend taught my uncle, who was taught by his brother, who was taught by his cousin, and then by his friend, and finally his brother-in-law, who works with the heroes, who was told and taught by the heroes personally of this sacred dance move that practically everyone in his world knows."
"That sounds amazing!"
And the two men started to dance in the middle of the woods just to keep it a secret from the rest of the world. But, this dance was slowly spreading throughout this world, like a plague.
Will, who was staring at a wall, was thinking about something. Beyond that wall that he was staring, were so many people there looking for the 100th hero, which is him.
So many people have started to look for him when the rumors started to spread. It was like those people suddenly decided to throw a party above his place for some reason.
Many even saw this as a business opportunity and brought various foods and drinks to sell to these people. It sold well since the deserted lands are scorching hot. But at this rate it won't be deserted anymore.
"This can't be happening. This is not happening." Will repeated that sentence to himself various times.
He didn't want people to find him. Ever since he came to this world he's been in hiding, trying to hide his identity and powers from the rest of the world. The heat should have prevented people from willingly trying to live in this place, but the grass and trees Adaline is growing around the area has started to attract people to live here.
Some don't like the heat at all and went back home. However, others stayed because they actually liked the heat, or because it was a much safer place to be in compared to the other lands where dangerous monsters exist.
If they had to choose between the intense heat or monsters and dragons, they would much rather live with the heat.
Some of them had even forgotten why they came here in the first place.
The people above his place were all chatting and discussing various things. Some of them even made some wooden roofs to provide shade to protect them from the sun.
"Man, searching for this hero is tiring." A random man wiped the sweat off his forehead and started to drink a cool glass of water.
"Even if the rumors are false, this is actually a good place to live." A young woman with freckles and short brown hair rested her head on that man's shoulder.
"It is. It's safer, there's green here, it'll be a matter of time before other types of wildlife start living here."
"The way I see it is that maybe if the kingdom could find a nearby water source, make a few buildings, it could possibly make this place safe for us to live in a few years."
"That's what I thought as well."
This idea was shared amongst the people and they all somewhat agreed to start living here. They even had the bright idea to start building. Most of them had family they wanted to take care of, and living here would give them a sense of comfort and peace.
However, Will did not want that. He wanted to get rid of those people without being seen. And he knew exactly how. It's not because he wants to deny them the comfort of living a peaceful life, it's because the last time he came across groups of people, they all thought about killing Adaline or because they thought he was an elf, and he cannot take that risk again. It's the main reason he doesn't want to affiliate himself with a bunch of people like many other MC's in other stories.
In short, they owe him nothing, and he owes them nothing.
"Adaline brought them here, and now she's going to get rid of them. Adaline!"
Adaline, who was asleep, woke up startled.
"Can you stop watering the greener and trees outside of the base?" Will asked.
Adaline nodded.
"Okay, I want you to stop watering all of it, except the exotic trees and crops." Will had to make this hard decision. Wood is a very important resource for him. Without it he can't make most of his tools. Luckily, he had a bunch left in his chests.
Adaline didn't want to get rid of the greenery, it took a long time to keep that greenery alive. But she could understand why Will needed it gone, for now.
"I know that this is a difficult choice to make. But, once those people stop looking, you can grow it back." Will could sense how Adaline feels about it. He too would be disheartened if someone asked him to destroy his hard work that he put so much time and effort into.
Adaline went back to sleep seconds after. It looked like she didn't do anything, but now she stopped caring for the greenery outside of the base.
Will lied beside her and stroked her head gently.
"I swear I'll make it up to you. I don't know how, but I will." Will promised her. Adaline was a being of nature. Asking her to do that is like asking her to kill a part of herself. This made his heart ache in pain as she did that because of him.
Many hours later, the grass that was growing on the deserted lands started to slowly dry.