"You know, Bruce, you don't have to follow me. I'm only doing this for personal reasons. I'm not even sure if what I am doing is correct." Sandra felt bad that Bruce tagged along with her all this time. But then again it's not like she asked him to.
"Yeah, but like I said, we need to stick together. And I also want to go back home. I'm worried that my teacher and family will worry about me when she finds out I've been missing."
As much as people wish to be summoned to another world, not everyone wants to. They missed their old lives, that includes good food, internet, great entertainment, and monster-free.
"Ah, but no hero has ever been able to return back home. But then again we were summoned to this world, so it's possible that we can be re-summoned back. But 'how' is the question." Sandra said.
"So, you think that this poster is actually Will?" Bruce looked at the wanted poster on his hands.
"I don't know. But, there is a chance it could be. Most of our schoolmates in our grade have been summoned, just like in those mangas my brother and father reads. And Will was in our classroom, and the 100th summon failed to summon that one person. The summon might've worked but he was summoned in another place."
"But, Sandra."
"Yes?"
"N-nevermind." Bruce didn't say what he was thinking.
Their school had over hundreds of students in their grade alone. Not to mention that several other students from other grades were also summoned. Bruce didn't want to tell her that because it might make her depressed.
"I know what you wanted to say, and you're right, the odds that Will was actually summoned, out of everyone else in our school, is pretty slim." Sandra didn't show it, but for a second a tear escaped from her eye but she wiped it off.
"Sorry. I know this isn't any of my business, but what happened between you and Will that made you two break up?"
Bruce was never good friends with Sandra or Will, so he didn't know much about their affairs. And Bruce is the type of guy that doesn't like to use social media like facebook, instagram, or snapchat. Youtube is the only social media he uses.
"He… broke up with me."
"Why?" Asked Bruce.
"He was hurt. He was in pain. He had lost his best friend during a store robbery, and he blames himself for it. I probably know Will better than he knows himself. The reason he broke up with me is because he was afraid that he would hurt me, too, and he couldn't let that happen."
"Oh. He pushed you away just so he could avoid the pain of losing you, like he lost his friend." Bruce understood.
"Something like that."
"But, I don't think he considered that pushing you would also bring you a great amount of pain. Am I right?"
Sandra stopped dead in her tracks, and only gave him a light nod.
"Y-yes." Sandra's voice cracked due to her sadness.
"Sorry for bringing it up. I didn't know it would make you-"
"It's okay. I'm fine." Sandra interrupted him.
Bruce kept his mouth shut after that and never brought up that topic again.
"I tried to help him, you know. But, he locked himself away from everyone, both physically and emotionally, he even distanced himself from his parents. I gave him his distance so he could mourn. But I wonder if I should have tried harder to be there for him."
"I'm sure you tried your best."
"I don't know about that."
"You know, one time I was also in great pain so I can understand how Will must've felt. I have received various wounds from fighting in tournaments and fights, but this one hurt me the most. My teacher, who is the best teacher in the world, taught me how to overcome this pain. Thanks to her, it made me stronger, not weaker. Perhaps what Will experienced then would make him stronger."
"Like that one saying goes, 'what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.'"
"Exactly like that. Perhaps the next time you see him, he'll be healed completely from those emotional scars" Bruce said.
"I never thought of it that way. This pain that you said you received, can I know what it was and how did it happen?" Asked Sandra.
"I remember it clearly. I was 18 or 19 at the time. It was the day of my first jiu jitsu tournament, who were all black belts. I've been taking jiu jitsu classes since I was a kid. It was a great experience." Bruce smiled when he remembered that time, probably his most memorable one yet.
"Let me guess, someone hurt you during the tournament, right?" Sandra guessed.
"No, actually it was after the tournament when I got hurt. Just so you know I got the gold medal."
"Someone jumped you after the tournament because you got a gold medal?"
"No, nothing like that."
"Then what happened?"
"Let's just say… I was a second too late."
"???" Sandra didn't know what he meant by that.
And finally, they had arrived at the village.
"This is the place." Sandra said.
They had just arrived at the village where Will and Grace escaped from. The village was still in shambles, but after some time had passed, they had somewhat mended the wounds almost destroyed them. It'll take longer for the villagers to recover emotionally from the damage they received.
If one didn't know before, they wouldn't tell that the village was attacked.
"You think that Will was here?"
"Only one way to find out. Excuse me!" Sandra called to the first person she saw which was a young woman who was obviously abused mentally and physically, but showed signs of healing.
"Eep!" A young woman jumped in fright.
"Are you okay?" Sandra and Bruce noticed the state of the woman and were concerned.
"No, no, I'm fine. I'm good." She unconsciously stepped back due to fear and nervousness.
"Okay… could you tell us what happened here?" Sandra asked.
"You mean, like, the guys who attacked our village?"
"Hm." Sandra nodded.
"Does it matter? They were killed. We've been served justice."
"Oh, I se… wait, wait, wait, killed? They were killed?" Sandra thought she heard wrong.
"Mhm. People from the kingdom personally came to our village a few days ago, they said they found the ones who raided our village and were killed after resisting arrest."
"But, that can't be." Sandra had a hard time believing this.
"It's true. The Great Sage said so, at least according to the messenger."
Sandra looked at Bruce who was sweating a bit.
"Did they tell you about this?" Asked Sandra.
"They might have. I didn't think that they would be dead. The one who I showed the wanted poster to said that 'don't worry about it anymore' I didn't think he meant this. I thought it was something else entirely." Bruce said.
Sandra looked at the wanted poster carefully. Was it real?
"No, I cannot lose hope! I will not stop until I see it with my own eyes!"
"Is something wrong?" The young woman asked.
"Ah, yes, we forgot to mention that we came from the kingdom." Bruce said, "and we would like to know what happened here, why these two elves attacked the village, and if they were actually elves."
"Does it matter? They're both dead. And yes they are both elves without a doubt."
"What makes you so sure about that?"
"Oh, because I was the one who overheard them talking about protecting the elves. You see I was kidnapped by goblins, along with some other village girls, and also two elven women who were also kidnapped. Once we were free, I immediately told my parents and everyone what I heard, and informed the guards about the presence of the four elves."
"..." Bruce.
"What...?" Asked Sandra in a lower voice.
"It's true. And yet, for some reason they attacked us, one of them even used a machine gun."
"Let's get out of here." Sandra said and Bruce agreed.
They didn't even enter the village and just left.
"No wonder that happened to them. They had it coming. The 'elves' only defended themselves." Sandra said.
"I don't like cursing people, but if they betrayed the people who saved them, then yes they had it coming."
"Hm."
According to what the king told them, when they were first summoned, is that they were at war with the elves, and that they had abilities that they should watch out for. They don't hate elves since there is no reason to hate them, but they are wary of them.
"But Sandra, do you think Will could actually kill? I don't know much about him but I don't think he is the kind of person to do something like that."
Bruce is a fighter by heart, but even he cannot bring himself to kill people in cold blood like that.
"Good point. I don't know anymore. It wasn't until I while ago that we realized that there is another world that exists that has magic and dragons. Now I believe that anything is possible. I guess our only clue now is talking to the Great Sage about this." Sandra said confidently.
"What? You think he knows something about Will?"
"I am almost positive. I mean, the Great Sage doesn't even bother to search for the princess, why would he suddenly care about finding two killer elves and secretly report it without providing any proper evidence?"
"You'd really go to great lengths for Will."
"I would, and I will. Not just for him but for the people I love."
Thus the two heroes went back to the kingdom again to confront the Great Sage.
Meanwhile…
A group of familiar people were strolling through the park. It looks like they were all wealthy because they were all wearing and carrying expensive stuff like weapons, armor, clothes, jewelry, and so on.
These groups of people were none other than the Hero Josh Jones and his loyal flock of sheep, plus a loli dragon.
"Man, having money is the best. I haven't had anything that good since I was first summoned to this world, and also the many other times I was living in my own boring world with my parents." Josh rubbed his full belly in pure delight.
Josh may not look like it at first, but back in his world his family was really rich, not the richest but definitely rich enough to afford expensive meals once in a while.
"Out of all that money we got from hunting dragons and other monsters, we still have over 200 gold coins left." Naveah, the sorceress said after counting whatever savings they had left.
"But, it wasn't long ago that we had over 1000 coins. How did we spend so much money that we only have a little over 200?"
"Beats me." Naveah shrugged her shoulders while the jewellery in her body swayed. She also had a new, expensive staff that she didn't have before.
"Who knows." Felicia also shrugged her shoulders but her brand new dress was being swayed by the wind.
The loli dragon stood by with a deadpan expression. But touched her stomach after eating well. Dragon's have large appetites and require a large amount of food. A large chunk of their money went to her as well.
"Weird… oh well."
"Excuse me, where do you think you're going?"
Two familiar hooded figures came out of the woods and got in front of them. These two hooded figures looked like bandits, but they were the same two guys that Bruce and Sandra came across not too long ago.
"Bandits! Die!" Josh knew exactly where this cliche scene was headed, and before he could give the 'bandits' a chance to attack, he launched a single fireball that caused a mini explosion and injured the two bandits. They even caught fire.
"AAAHH IT BURNS" The two hooded figures were in fire and obviously in a great amount of pain. They couldn't think properly to extinguish the fire.
"No! Naveah, please help them! They don't deserve to die." Felicia asked the sorceress for help.
Naveah looked at Josh, and he nodded his head slightly. And while taking her sweet time, Naveah used her staff to produce water and extinguish the fire from their bodies.
"Gah… why." One of the hooded figures asked weakly. Both were suffering greatly from second degree burns.
"That's what you get for trying to rob us. Next time, if I see you doing any more 'vile' stuff like robbing, killing, and raping innocent girls, I'll turn you all into mashed potatoes."
"But we weren't, we didn't do…" The two hooded men were merely just dancing. They did nothing of what Josh just said.
"Spoken like a true bandit, always lying through your perverted teeth. On second thought, I'm gonna just kill you both right now so you can never hurt another person again!" Josh raised his wand upward and conjured up a giant fireball.
But, a figure quickly got in front of him, it was Felicia.
"Please, hero, give these two criminals a chance. We need to learn to forgive even those who have committed vile acts." Felicia pleaded sincerely for the two 'criminals' with all her heart.
"But, Felicia… fine." Josh was quick to change his mind and he canceled the fireball.
"Let's get out of here before their 'bandit friends' show up. But, if I ever see you again, I won't be as merciful." Josh, and his harem, left the two injured men who clearly need medical attention.
Felicia gave them some healing potions and followed the group afterward.
"Are you okay?" One of the hooded men asked the other hooded man in a soft and weak voice.
They were never going to attack that group, only offer it directions to the nearest village in case they were lost.
"No, I'm not. We need to go back to the village. These healing potions aren't doing much for these burns."
"We better hurry then… before the sun sets."
The two injured men crawled slowly to the nearest village.
"How did you know that those two were bandits?" Naveah asked.
"It's pretty simple: why else would two men be out in the woods, if not to steal from unsuspecting victims!"
"Oh, I get it… but couldn't they also be doing something else? Like hunting monsters, collecting herbs, or something?" Felicia asked.
"Oh, Felicia. You're so naive. Back in my world, the main character will always face these kinds of situations. This is meant to be. It was only a matter of time before bandits would come knocking on the front door."
"Oh… okay." Felicia didn't know what he was talking about but agreed anyways.
"Hero Josh Jones, didn't you say that we would be going to the south?" Naveah asked.
"I did. But that looks like a long walk. And I'm not sure we have the time to walk there, fight some dragons or cyclops or both. I mean, why shouldn't we take it slowly? This is a new world! Who knows what this world has to offer."
"We could always get a mount." Navaeh recommended.
"Oh right, Naveah, you have a mount, correct?"
"Yes, but she's having children and cannot accompany us."
"What was it, again?"
"A wyvern. It's like a dragon but smaller, with only two legs."
"Huh, what's the best mount to have? You know, to flex on everybody!"
"Flex?" Naveah and Felicia didn't know what that meant.
"To flex is another word for 'showing off'"
"Wow, your world has everything." Felicia said.
"Except for magic, monsters, heroes, magical items, and everything else this world has. So, Naveah, what is the best mount to have?"
"If I had to guess, a mutated dragon. Like Maid over there." Naveah pointed at the dragon loli.
"I don't want to see Maid in her dragon form! She's perfect as she is! And I also don't want another dragon in our team!" Josh hugged the little loli but the loli was seething with anger, rage, killing intent.
"Hmm… perhaps a rare type of creature would be a good way to… flex. For example, I once heard of a lizard that is able to spit acidic poison. It was a rare breed of lizard, not a magical one."
"Lizards? Hmm… well I guess lizards are cool in a way. But they're reptiles, just like dragons. I'm looking for more variety. Any more ideas?"
"In the north, there were also these giant scorpions, but those went extinct years ago."
"I don't like insects. Next."
"Cyclops, or ogres, or goblins."
"Next. Too ugly."
"Organic creatures. They live in the forest."
"Organic creatures. Huh. Are they strong, fast, agile?"
"Not particularly, no. They're very weak to fire, and with your destructive fire power I don't think it's wise to keep one. They are connected to nature like the elves. And are also-"
"Woah, woah, woah, wait… this world has elves?" Josh couldn't believe what he had heard.
"Yes, they do. Didn't you know? I know that the king told all the heroes after all 99 of you were recently summoned to this world."
"Did he? My mind must've been elsewhere." Josh's mind was in a state of confusion when he first entered this world, it's not weird that he didn't listen to the king.
"We can forget about the mounts! Honestly, who cares about them? I have decided that we are going to add another member to the team, a sexy elf!"
"But be warned, Hero, elves are protected by their godd-"
"Yeah, yeah, do elves have a king and queen?"
"Royalty? Yes they do."
"How about a princess? Do they have one of those?"
"I heard that they have a princess indeed. She should be like about 20 or so years by now."
"Even better. Where is the elven kingdom?"
"Nobody really knows. No human, or hero has ever been able to see the elven kingdom."
The Great Sage was the only hero to go to the elven kingdom but he never told anybody about it.
"Then that means we'll be the first. Come! There is no time to waste."
Josh led the group to the forest and explored as deep as they could go. Using his knowledge about elves from his past life, he guessed that they lived in the middle of the forest.
But he never stopped to think why no hero or man has ever been able to see the elven kingdom.
Meanwhile…
Will, carefully looked outside the walls. There were now fewer people than before. Thanks to Adaline, they were all leaving the area for good.
"That's good. In a few weeks the rumors should die down. Unless the elves open their mouths again and start spreading more rumors. If they do, I will give them a piece of my mind."
Adaline was merely walking around in circles for some reason. Then she got comfortable and lied down again.
"Thank you for doing this, girl. You were a great help, like always." Will patted her head gently.
Adaline rubbed her head against his chest, as if she was telling him that there were no hard feelings, and she resumed sleeping again.
"I'll keep mining. You stay here and rest."
Will took his pickaxe and left to mine. It took a long while to reach the end since it was such a long hole. Thanks to the night flowers that Grace brought him, he could see clearly. Of course his night vision enchantment that he applied to his mask helped as well.
Will continued to mine to find more cobalt while singing a catchy song.
"I am a dwarf and I'm digging a… I wish I had brought my phone. My entire playlist was there. Shame. What other songs did I know? Oh right. 'Creeper, aw man. So way back in the mine, got our pickaxe swingin' from side to-gah!"
While he was dozing off, he accidentally fell in a hole when he mined an entrance to it. It wasn't a long drop, but he was all wet not because the hole had running water.
"Unspoken rule of minecraft: never dig straight down."
Will got up and looked around the hole. Thanks to his exotic armor he didn't feel a thing.
"At least there's more water here. It doesn't matter since it seems I also have an unlimited supply of water up in my base…"
Will noticed something weird about this hole. It wasn't merely a hole, it was more like a passage. And it didn't look like it was a natural cave, but was man made instead.
The cave was way too symmetrical and perfectically squared. And also, there were these iron bars hanging on the wall, which looked like they were meant to hold torches.
"Someone made this cave? Who would be crazy enough to mine all the way deep down here… except me."
Will got way too curious about this. So he followed one of the paths, specifically the direction where the water is flowing towards.
"If someone was crazy enough to mine all the way deep here, it means that they must have been really bored out of their minds, or they must have had something to hide, something very important."
Greed invaded Will's mind, and now he wanted whatever treasure this person was hiding, if there is any treasure in the first place.
After 20-30 minutes of walking, Will came across these doors. The doors were literally the size made for giants. At least 11-12 feet tall, perhaps taller. The doors were made out of iron. One needed a giant key to unlock the door. But it seemed a tiny bit rusted, and old, covered in dust. These doors had been here for a long time.
"Jesus, those are some awesome looking doors. Man, if I only had the key to see what lies beyond this door… is what I would say if I was an idiot."
Will took his pickaxe and collected the doors for himself. Upon doing so, behind the doors the first thing that happened was that a pile of stones fell upon him. Apparently the doors were holding a bunch of heavy stones.
"If it weren't for this armor, that would have hurt." Will used his pickaxe and got rid of all of the stone by collecting it and storing it safely.
After collecting all the stone, Will saw something he didn't expect.
A hidden stone temple, behind the door. The stone temple was made out of pure, white, smooth stone. It stood at an impressive 20 feet. The length of the temple was at least 12 feet. It would have looked amazing, but most of the stone temple collapsed, at least one part only. As if someone tried to destroy it from the outside but failed miserably.
"Seriously, what the hell did I find?"
Will entered the stone temple. To his surprise, there was nothing.
"Did someone else find the temple and robbed it all?" Will touched the smooth stone floor, analyzing it. Many large cracks were formed on the floor.
Out of instinct, Will began to destroy the stone temple's floors. After mining a bit, he found something unexpected.
Bodies, no, various skeletons of people were laid present in a large room.
"It's cold here." Will could feel a chill coming from that room. The room was fairly large. There were stone chairs and benches, as well as beds.
On the far end of the room, was another skeleton. This skeleton was sitting on an iron throne. Beside it was a large, copper shield, that was rusted.
Will jumped inside the room.
"It seems like these people died from natural causes. It's like they all chose to die voluntarily. But why?"
Will was careful not to step on their skeleton remains. Will also noticed on that skeleton, the one who was sitting on the iron throne, had a worn out book on its side.
Will placed his pickaxe down and carefully opened the book. It was written in english. Then he read what was written…