In the middle of a village was Josh eating to his heart's content. Stuffing himself with all the food he could eat.
*Nom* *Nom* *Nom*
"Are… do all heroes have a big appetite?" Naveah asked.
"Juhd meh (Just me)." Josh said while having a mouth full of food. Basically he was stress eating after losing Maid, and his magical weapon, which cost the kingdom a lot of money to make.
Felicia gently tapped Naveah's foot under the table.
"I'm going to the bathroom." Felicia stood up.
"I'll accompany you." Naveah followed Felicia to the bathroom.
Josh didn't put much thought into it and continued eating.
Naveah and Felicia once they were in the public bathroom, and when they saw no one else there, Felicia immediately reprimanded her,
"Are you serious? We lied to Josh about Maid's death!" Felicia said as if it was the worst thing she had done in her entire life.
"We had no other choice. If he knew she was still alive he would have gone through the enchanted forest again. We have no chance of finding her in the forest, especially after what it did to us." Naveah could still faintly feel the pain lingering on her body.
"This is a problem! We lied to a hero, a legend, a god! And you made me a part of it."
"Felicia, do not tell Josh about this, not a word." Naveah said seriously.
"I just don't feel good about keeping this secret from him."
"If he finds out, we will get kicked out of his party. For all we know this could be the only hero that will ever welcome us."
"Oh, I get it, you only want Josh so you can have a better chance of obtaining the kingsmen title." Felicia knew that every sorcerer was aiming for that spot.
"No, that is not my goal. No sorceress has ever gotten it, and I know for certain it's never going to happen." Naveah said truthfully, she was already satisfied with her 5-striped sorceress title.
"Then what do we do?" Felicia asked in a sad tone. It didn't feel right to lie to a hero.
"We'll get him someone else to replace Maid's position. A monster transforming into a human is very, very rare so we can't hope to capture another monster like Maid. So let's get him an elf, one that has lost the protection of the forest.".
Capturing an elf that has the protection of the forest is obviously much more difficult, and there wasn't much difference between one who has the protection of the forest, and one who doesn't.
"Where can we find one?" Felicia asked.
"Although elf slaves are now legal, the Great Sage doesn't like elves within the kingdom. He seriously doesn't even want to see them. So if we get an elf we can't bring it with us to the kingdom."
"Oh… how about the black market?" Felicia said.
The black market is a cliche place where they sell cliche items or beings. It used to be illegal because they liked to sell elves since it is the one item that always sold out.
The black market has been around for a long time now, no one really knows when or who created it, but it has been around since before the 1900's. Back then it used to be a very secretive and an illegal place, but now it's an exclusive club.
"That place… I don't think we can get in."
"How come?"
"Don't you know? It's a very exclusive club. Only rich, famous, and powerful people can get in…" Naveah stopped talking midway as she realized something important.
"So, would someone like Josh, a hero, be enough?" Felicia asked.
"Actually, yes. But we need money in order to get in. It costs 100 gold each to become members.." Naveah counted how much gold they had inside.
"Doesn't Josh get a discount or something for being a hero?" Asked Felicia.
"No, discounts are viewed as something that belongs to the lower class, like you and I. Since heroes can make a ton of money quite easily they don't need discounts."
"Do we have enough money to get it in?"
"No. We have less than 200 gold. And Josh is planning on using the money to buy another magical weapon, since he lost his wand. But a magical item costs thousands of gold coins to make. And elves can easily go over 1000 gold coins, I heard that one time an elf got sold for 5000 gold coins."
"That's okay. I mean, Josh is a hero and can easily make that kind of money, right?"
"Yes, but I don't think he can make it on time. The black market opens every 3 full moons."
"Once every 3 months?"
"Yes. And the black market is going to open in 8 days from now on. We don't have a lot of time. And Josh isn't the patient type, I don't think he can earn that much in such a short amount of time. We also have to take into account travelling distance, minor obstacles along the way, sleep, food, and so much more."
"How about that one guy who bought those dragons from us? He must be pretty wealthy." Felicia pointed out.
"No… wait, that's a good idea. But we don't know who he is. I can use my connections to find out who he is, but we need to hurry."
Meanwhile…
"Why would I want to move closer to the enchanted forest?" Will asked.
Grace, Will, and the others were having a conversation. Arbor told Grace to tell Will that he should move closer to them, so Adaline could be more at home and closer as well.
Arbor has been thinking about this for a while now. Since Adaline cannot leave Will's side, he thought that Will should move closer to where they live.
"My dad really wants you to move closer to us." Grace felt bad asking him, but that's what her dad wanted.
Will looked at Arbor and said in elven tongue, "No." It was one word but Will thought he knew what he meant. He only memorized a few words, and could not hold a proper conversation yet.
Arbor did not seem angry, but he kept talking to Grace in his elven language trying to convince him through her.
"Okay, dad, this is getting annoying for me." Grace said in elven tongue, it's beginning to be a brother to translate from elven tongue to english and back again.
Sandra, Bruce, and Rias were just on the side watching.
"So, heroes." Rias awkwardly looked at Bruce and Sandra.
"Yeah?" Bruce asked.
"Do you guys have an ability that can revive the dead? Or know if your other hero buddies have that ability?" Rias asked for her father.
"...not that I know of." Bruce answered truthfully.
"Oh." Rias felt dejected. Heroes all have supernatural abilities when they are summoned, perhaps she thought that one day one of those heroes would have an ability that could revive her father.
"Okay, enough, enough!" Will said, annoyed after arguing with Arbor through Grace.
"I am not moving. I plan on staying in the deserted lands, even if it's nothing more than a burning, dry, wasteland."
Will cannot afford to move into a more populated area. The existence of those exotic flowers and the seed must be kept a secret at all costs. Not only is it something that everybody yearns for, but it's his only way to increase his HP.
And also he needs to work on his golems back at his base.
"Dad, Will said that-"
"I can tell by the tone of his voice what he said." Arbor interrupted Grace. He pinched the part of his nose where the eyes didn't connect.
"Hold on, I'm confused, what do we do now?" Bruce asked the group.
"What do you mean?" Sandra asked.
"I mean, we found Will, we find out he's friends with the elves, he lives in a white desert for some reason. Didn't we leave the kingdom in the first place to find a way to go back?"
"Going back?" Will asked. He had never thought of it.
"According to what I know, no hero has ever been able to return to their world. You're as good as stuck in this world of ours." Rias pointed out.
"You don't know that for certain." Sandra said.
"Fair enough."
"What do you mean by going back? We can actually do that?" Will asked Sandra and Bruce.
"It's never been done but we can try."
"Going back…" Will went into a very deep thought. He sincerely misses his family and wishes he could talk to them one more time.
"Don't you miss your family?" Sandra asked Will.
"I do, very much. But in this world…" Will thought about the advantages and disadvantages that this world has to offer.
He has made some friends in this world, Adaline, Jack, etc. He had been shot multiple times, ambushed, eaten, starved to death on many occasions, worked harder than he had ever done in all his life, became a user of the crafting system which might be good or bad, can respawn infinitely, has learned to stand up for himself, his insomnia is gone, and has tried to survive in this world.
"Actually… now that I think about it…"
Then Will thought about the advantages and disadvantages of going back to his world.
He was already dead, so it'd be extremely strange and scary if he'd come back to life. Also he lost his friend Alex, his ex is now in this new world, his loving family is there, he has no future ahead of him because it's tough surviving in that world, he graduated high school, but knows for certain that he will not live a great life, and doesn't have to worry about monsters eating him alive.
'Do I even want to go back?' He thought.
"Give me a few days to think about it." Will said. It's hard to make that choice.
"You're not actually thinking of staying in this world?" Sandra asked worryingly.
"I… I don't know."
"Will, our family is there, worried to death about us. I don't deny that this world 'might' be amazing, like out of a poorly written light novel, but we, at least I feel that we should let our parents know that we're fine."
"Actually… that's a very good point. But can we even go back?"
"No." Sandra shook her head. "But we cannot lose hope. Like you once said, 'when there's a 'Will' there's a way."'
"..." Everybody except Will.
"You still remember that?" Will teared up a bit.
"Of course I do!"
Then vines gently coiled around Will's body, embracing him tightly as they lifted him up, and slowly pulled him into Adaline's side.
"What's wrong?" Will has only seen this side of Adaline a few times, and all of those times was when she was scared, or in pain.
"Wait, you're afraid that I'll leave you behind if I were to return to my world?" Will couldn't talk to her, but after spending so much time with her, he'd began to understand her more and more every day.
Adaline nodded slowly and began to tighten her grip, as if he'd let him go for a second he'll leave forever.
"Aww." Rias and Sandra covered their mouths. It was too sweet.
'I don't know what's happening, but that's nice.' Arbor thought and smiled.
Grace smiled a bit. But looking up at the sky the moon was already out, she frowned.
'It's almost a full moon again.' Grace wasn't too happy about this, but she didn't let it show that it bothered her.
Meanwhile…
Jasmine, wiped the sweat off her forehead using her sleeve. Behind her were the various corpses of many goblins and ogres, no more than 30 were there. They were all killed by her. Most of those monsters were weak, but a handful of them were considerably strong.
"Damn, it's broken." She looked at her staff and noticed several large cracks on it, on the near edge of breaking. The more she used it the more its durability worsened.
"And I just got it from Sam. Then again a cyclops broke it in half, but it was fixed by Will. I need to pay them another visit. But…"
Jasmine looked at her pockets, only a few measly silver coins were on her.
"The King raised the taxes after the hero's summoning, and it's getting more difficult to support my family like this. Gah I wish I was a 5-striped sorceress, I could earn more money and take on better paying jobs. Then again sorceresses don't earn as much as sorcerers do. And I didn't even get money as a reward, just a 'thank you' letter from the king which is worth nothing."
Jasmine ranted on about her money problems for a while.
"I should take on stronger monsters, but without a staff or a sorceress type weapon, I'm weak." Jasmine started to think how to fix it.
Monster parts on the 4th and 5th layer aren't worth much, however dragons and powerful cyclops are worth so much money.
"Perhaps, I can ask Jack… no, I cannot use him like that. Oh well, I better sell these corpses before they start to rot and attract the scent of monsters. Ugh." Jasmine took an ogres legs and flew up high with it.
"It's so heavy!" Jasmine already was having difficulty breathing and her flying pace was rather slow. She dropped it on the ground as it made a heavy noise.
"This is not gonna work. Might as well rent out a portable cargo or something. Fortunately there's a village nearby of blacksmiths, pretty sure they have something that can help me carry these monster corpses." Jasmine flew in the direction of the village which was a bit far.
Half an hour later, not far away from that spot, a certain pink dragon was flying, searching for something or someone.
'Where did that idiot go? He was tasked to find those humans. If I didn't open my big mouth, Roydus wouldn't have remembered him and I wouldn't be here looking for him.' She thought to herself.
*Sniff* *Sniff*
'This smell, food! Great, I am starving!' The pink dragon flew towards the scent that lured her. It was surprisingly far away, but a dragon has an acute sense of smell, especially if they're hungry.
She found the mountain of corpses of monsters and ate them all in a few bites no less.
'Delicious. But that was hardly anything. *Sniff* I smell humans, my favourite! But, wait, those blasted heroes might be there. Roydus said that I should not make trouble with humans.'
She looked around her area, to make sure that she wasn't being followed by another dragon, especially Roydus. After confirming that she was indeed not being followed, she made up her mind then and there.
'But… I don't care, I am too hungry to care!'
The pink dragon flew at a great speed following that scent of humans.
Meanwhile, Jasmine safely landed on a village that was doing very well. It has stone walls, stone houses, and lots of blacksmiths in that village. It was tiny, even smaller than Jack's village, but well fortified.
There are some battle marks and damage on the walls, as there had been monster attacks but have never gotten through the walls.
In the middle of the tiny village, was a giant tower with a bell on it. Someone always kept watch up there. And if they saw a monster they'd alert the village so it could give them a chance to defend themselves.
There weren't that many villagers, no more than 100 were currently living there.
"Excuse me?" Jasmine freely entered the first blacksmith shop she saw.
"Hello?" The ono who greeted Jasmine looked like a dwarven male, short, bald, big belly, strong, long grey beard. Dwarves are not a thing in this world, he just happened to look like one.
"Can I rent one of your, um, I forgot the name but it's like a portable wooden cargo?" Jasmine said she'd been trying to remember what it was called. We all had a time when we forget the name of something.
"You mean a wooden cart?"
"Yes! That!"
"Of course I have those. How else do you think we buy precious metals and ores from other independent villages?"
"That makes sense. How many carts do you have?"
"How many do you need?"
"Enough to fit about 3-"
*DING!!!* *DING!!!* *DING!!!*
"What's that?" Jasmine asked.
"Just another monster nearby. Probably an ogre or something. If it was a dragon or a cyclops, we'd be doomed. but they rarely ever come here." The short man gleefully grabbed an enchanted, giant hammer and ran outside eager to kill the monster.
"DRAGON! DRAGON INCOMING!" villagers began seeing a giant winged figure flying towards them and shouted.
"Out of all places!" Jasmine's first instinct was to fight and protect the village. A sorcerer follows one important rule, protect the people. Like a hero would. Those who break that rule, will obviously face dire consequences.
Jasmine saw the dragon flying towards them. Around her were several villages all carrying weapons, most of which were enchanted.
"It's… a dragon on the second layer!" Jasmine said she knew from seeing its size.
"I'll be damned!" The short blacksmith said, they were all staring at it fearfully.
"Get the woman and children inside the bunker!" Another blacksmith shouted.
Some of them ran inside the bunkers, but most of them stayed outside, fearless like soldiers.
*ROAR* The pink dragon roared. It stood on top of the stone walls which could barely stand its weight. It flailed her wings creating powerful gusts of winds that pushed most of the villagers back and caused serious damage.
"ATTACK!"
Several of the villagers shot the dragon using their weapons, most of which were guns which aimed at its face.
The pink dragon purposefully did not cause too much damage to the village, if it did the villagers would either be crushed, burned to cinders, and she wouldn't be able to enjoy a proper meal. Not thinking that they would defend themselves, it started taking them seriously.
First, the dragon flew up and let out a fire breath that covered the village in a circle of fire. Then it dived down and ate a handful of the villagers, enjoying the taste.
'Ah, yes, nothing tastes better than humans… except maybe pork.' The pink dragon thought.
"Aim for the wings! Aim for the eyes!" Another villager shouted and they concentrated their attacks on it.
"SOMEONE GET A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER! HURRY!" The short man yelled, a younger but strong man ran into the nearest blacksmith to get a barrel of gunpowder.
'That tickles.' The pink dragon smirked at their futile efforts.
Then, a blue light shot from one of the villagers at the speed of a bullet, it barely managed to hit the dragon's face.
The pink dragon saw Jasmine, pointed its staff at it. Jasmine looked scared all of a sudden.
"Crap! Why isn't it working!" Jasmine looked at her staff, it suddenly stopped shooting and only shot that one time.
As the dragon attempted to eat Jasmine, it suddenly felt a great pain from her claw. A short man successfully managed to crush most of its claw using its enchanted hammer.
"Hey, ugly, over here!" The dwarven-like man grabbed its attention and managed to draw its attention away from Jasmine.
"No, wait!" Jasmine yelled.
Jasmine, knowing what was about to happen and quickly flew towards the short man.
Out of rage, the pink dragon raised its foot and crushed the short man. It's force of its stomp created a shockwave that pushed Jasmine and the surrounding areas back.
Jasmine had to witness a man sacrifice himself for her. And her wand broke in two at that moment, making it completely useless.
"NOW! HUA!" The same young man finally came out with a barrel of gunpowder and hurled it at the dragon's feet.
'Sniff… gunpowder? Please.' The dragon knew what they attempted to do.
Gunpowder does indeed hurt them if it blows that close to a dragon, but that only drives away the least intelligent dragons of fear of dying. However, this dragon is intelligent, even if it detonated it would indeed injure her, and would also make her very mad.
She quickly used its tail to cover the gunpowder, protecting it from being detonated. She smirked as she looked at the villagers trying their best to survive.
"It's smart? FORGET ABOUT IT JUST CONTINUE SHOOTING IT!" The few villagers that were still fighting for their lives.
'Shame that there weren't anymore humans. I wonder if there's more nearby.' The dragon got bored and her thoughts wandered elsewhere.
Then, she saw Jasmine just a few feet away from its face with her palm aimed at her eye. Her face was full of anger, all she thought was getting her revenge.
Jasmine is not the best sorceress, nor the strongest, fastest. But if she got close enough to its eye it could still cause serious pain to it.
*Boom*
Jasmine poured all her mana into this shot, a mana ball came out of her palm and successfully managed to blind the dragon's eye temporarily.
Completely out of mana, Jasmine dropped to the ground. Barely able to stand or move, she could only stare at the dragon crying in pain.
'OUGH! THAT STINGS!' The dragon rubbed its eye using its claw. It also stopped protecting the barrel of gunpowder.
"EVERYBODY NOW!" One of the villagers quickly hurled the gunpowder at the dragon and someone shot it, exploding from underneath the dragon.
"TO THE BUNKER!" One of them grabbed Jasmine like a sack of potatoes and ran to the bunker.
'OW! I CHANGE MY MIND! DIE!'
The dragon roared and let out a breath of fire which completely turned the buildings and the surrounding area to ashes.
Unfortunately for the villagers, they didn't make it to the bunker in time. Which resulted in most of them to perish on the fires.
Jasmine could feel the heat on her entire body. It was inevitable, she was going to die in that spot.
Then, another dragon, ever bigger than the pink one, swooped down and grabbed the dragon by it's neck using its giant claw.
"oiD, em saw ti tub, ecnetnes revelc a eb d'ti taht thguoht ouy. (Roydus! Why are you here?)"
The pink dragon was scared for its life. Roydus is the second strongest dragon. She couldn't even smell him despite her having an acute sense of smell. Either Roydus covered his scent with something, or he was keeping an eye on her from far away so that her nose couldn't detect him.
"Eaw eht wonk uoy od. (I followed you, I clearly told you not to mess with the humans! Were my orders not enough?! We don't need the heroes, especially the Great Sage coming to us! We're already having enough trouble from the cyclops!)"
For a hundred years now, Roydus made sure to keep most dragons at check. Some dragons think too highly of themselves and attack the kingdom or other villagers because they think that heroes are weak, and yeah some manage to escape from it's sight. But he knew that the heroes, especially the Great Sage, is not a force to mess with.
"Eno dah I fi, drocsid ym nioj. (I'm sorry, I won't do it again!)"
"Skcus divoc! (I know you won't.)"
The giant dragon, Roydus, bit the pink dragon's head off and left her body there. It would at least show that the one dragon who caused the destruction died, and hopefully this won't anger the humans and come seeking revenge, especially from the Great Sage.
If the pink dragon was willing to cause such destruction without a good reason other than to satisfy her hunger, they wouldn't need her then as it would bring them more harm than good to let her keep living.
Roydus fled the scene. It flew back to its home.