Will finished texting with Sandra. They just talked about what happened in their day and other things. Will had to end their conversation short. Now that he got ahold of the magical item that locates other magical items, he didn't want to waste more time and headed straight to the mines.
Grace stood outside of the cave, sort of admiring Will's builds. The castle was still under construction and it looked unfinished and messy. Still she admired it because she knew how long this would take if several people were to attempt it; it'd take at most 2 years to make this kind of progress. But Will merely took a few hours.
After a while, she went to sleep after getting comfortable once again in his base.
On the way down, Will checked on his golem, who was doing a decent job at mining. One of it's legs wasn't functioning properly so it didn't move as quickly as Will hoped.
"Note, I have to improve him before I decide to make more of them." Will made a mental note of it and left to find that magical item.
He once again entered the temple that the hero buried himself in along with his family. Will has respect for the dead, so he was careful not to move the remains or damage the temple.
Will aimed the magical item locator and scanned it all around the area. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't near the temple no matter how much he looked.
"Doesn't make sense. It should work." Will looked at the magical item's description one more time.
{Magical item locator}
{Locates magical items at a 1-5km radius. The item will shine a bright color once a magical item enters its radius, not including itself}
{You can set the distance of this item to your desire. Of course it cannot detect items further than it's allowed to}
Will made sure to take off his cloak, bracelet, and ring before entering the cave because it kept glowing brightly since they were all magical items. He made sure to leave the items back on his base because he can't place items that carry items inside in one box.
But his cloak was in his inventory. This showed him that this magical item locator cannot detect magical items that were inside his inventory could not be detected at all.
"This is a pain. I was hoping that the magical item would be somewhere here. But it isn't. Gah!" Will was annoyed. He had been looking forward to this for so long.
Entering the temple once more, he read Christopher's diary once more, only the parts that included the magical item.
"There is nothing here valuable to steal. I hid the magical item… I thought he was kidding, but the item truly isn't here. But just where could it be?" Will sat down and thought.
There was nothing in the diary that could help him find that magical item, not it's current location or how it looks. Christopher Lawrence really did take all that information with him to his grave. Will thought that he might have cleverly hid it somewhere near, but he was clearly wrong.
Will continued to explore the caverns, trying to see if it was here or not. But after walking for two hours, he figured it could not possibly be here. Still he carried it with him.
Will was sad at the moment. Still he went back to building his castle. Throughout the entire night, up till sunset, Will only worked on building his castle. He didn't even notice how much he worked until it was sunrise.
"God, was I seriously up all ni-... I shouldn't make a big deal of this. Back then I could even play video games 24 hours straight for a youtube challenge or simply cause I wanted to. And yet that somehow didn't make me a popular minecraft youtuber."
Will now noticed how he was tired and sleepy. This brought back painful memories before he got reincarnated here, back when he used to suffer from insomnia. He took a long shower to wash the dirt away, and headed straight to bed feeling refreshed.
On the way he saw Grace already leaving his base.
"You're leaving already?" Will asked grumpily. If he doesn't get enough sleep he gets angry, annoyed by everything and everyone.
"I did say I would stay here until sunrise. Thanks for letting me stay here. And nice work. It's starting to come together." Grace said, surprised by how much Will progressed on a single night.
Will added a giant gate for his castle, which didn't work because in this world redstone or command blocks weren't a thing. There was a door beside the gate which was used as a substitute until he could get it to work.
But he is going to figure out how to build a functioning castle gate. Until then the gate is just for show, sadly.
Arguably the coolest thing about any castle are giant, working gates.
The gates were made out of silver and metal, which gave it a shiny brightness as well as made it sturdy. The gate was even taller than the walls. If he wanted to make a castle, he had to go big. He could have finished sooner, but he had to fix the tiny problems he saw in the gate which ended up taking most of his time. Going up and down many times took time, but his short teleportation cloak made it easier to move around.
Will also added some stone stairs for convenience. That was basically everything he accomplished in one night.
"Thanks." Will liked to be praised for his work.
"Are you still using the magical item I lent you?"
"Yes."
"Okay… By the way, I thought I heard something in the mines. Is someone there right now?" Grace asked.
"Yes." Will said in a more annoyed tone.
"Okay… see yeah later."
Grace left with her organic goat. Along with her she took some water for the road. She wanted to ask about Will's exotic armor, which looks like it came from the exotic trees, but she left it be because she didn't want to accidentally intrude, again.
Will was simply too tired to make conversation at the moment. He jumped in his bed and simply slept soundly throughout the entire day.
During the day, 3 idiots were wandering the world. The three heroes named Pete, Henry, and Britney were peacefully eating their food.
"Man, all this walking and exploring sure is fun." Pete said while eating some food.
"It's been days since we left the castle. And we barely walked at all! We just stayed in this hotel at a village because you saw a dead goblin on the side of the road! Heck! I can still see the castle from here." Henry pointed at the castle which was literally no less than 50 steps away.
They barely made any progress at all. Pete was simply too scared to explore the world. Even back in his world, he hated going outside because everyone and everything looked too scary to him. He was a very scared man indeed.
"Yeah, we're not ready for this." Britney said carefully.
"What do you mean?" Asked Henry.
"I've been thinking, instead of exploring this world, perhaps we should find a way to go back home." Britney said what she had been thinking.
Henry and Pete were surprised to hear this. They both thought she wanted to explore the world.
"I am too scared. I thought I was strong enough to do this but I am not. When I saw that dead goblin, it was more scary than disgusting. I just want to go back home to mom and dad." Britney hugged her own legs. She was shaking from fear.
Britney thought that after two months of being prepared and training, she thought that she'd been ready to face the dangers of this world. But now she just can't even imagine herself fighting or killing monsters for no reason other than because they're heroes.
The heroes of this age are weak minded compared to the other heroes from the past. These heroes only know peace, fun, and being free. This world is anything but peaceful and fun.
"Hey, it's okay. If you want to go back we'll find a way to go back, whatever it takes." Henry, the one who was looking forward to exploring the world the most suddenly changed his mind.
"Wow… what a simp." Pete said annoyed. He begged his friend for days that he too wants to go back to his world, but Henry always went against his words. Pete thought that Henry was the most stubborn man alive because nothing he did or said would change his mind.
Now that Britney wants out, Henry immediately complies.
" 'Ello, my fello' heroes." Josh came out of nowhere and greeted his hero companions but putting his arms around them.
"What are you doing here, Josh?" Asked Henry who pushed his arm away. He also cringed at the way he just talked.
Neither Pete, Henry nor Britney had any sort of relationship with Josh. They only knew him because they all went to the same school and attended the same class for many years. So they had a neutral feeling for one another.
"Ah, same as you. I just came here to eat, chat, ask for a smaaal favour." Josh sat down beside Pete making himself comfortable. Behind Josh followed his loyal harem of two.
Felicia was beyond ecstatic to meet 3 other heroes. Like many people in this world they idolized heroes and treated them as if they were a godlike existence.
Naveah felt nothing from seeing the heroes. She already met the Great Sage before, and had been hanging around Josh for a while now.
"What favor?" Britney asked.
"Well… you know something worthless to us… like money."
"If money is so worthless, then why do you want it?" Asked Britney.
Josh shut his mouth. He didn't think about what he was gonna say beforehand.
"How much?" Asked Henry.
"Just… a minimum of 100 million gold coins." Josh said.
"The fuck? Gah!" Pete choked on his own food once he heard Josh. He quickly grabbed some of Henry's drink and drank it all.
"Why do you need so much? I don't think even the king has that much money." Henry said.
"Okay, fine. I'll round it down to 10,000 gold coins. Fair deal?"
Josh purposefully raised the number a lot at first so that by the time he lowered his asking price, it would seem a lot cheaper and make it seem like he wasn't asking for much, but his plan was to always get 10,000 gold coins or more. It was a simple scam/con technique.
"Don't think I don't know what you're planning, Josh." Henry said.
"Yeah, it's kind of obvious." Britney added.
"What is?" Pete asked not sure what they were talking about.
"Dang." Josh was disappointed that his plan didn't work, yet again.
When Naveah introduced him to some wealthy people, they simply weren't able to afford to give Josh 10,000 gold coins. Nobody in their right mind would.
As much as many people would love to get acquainted with as many heroes as possible and form connections with them, it simply wasn't worth going bankrupt for it, because some of them actually had common sense, especially now that the King is going to raise and add new taxes.
So Josh thought that he could have his other hero friends give him some money to afford the elf slave he wants.
"Wait, I also overheard that you guys want to go back home. Why?" Changing the subject, Josh asked in a very confused manner.
Why would they ever want to return to their boring world?
"I have a family." Britney said.
"I have friends there. And I miss the internet, the food, my house." Henry said.
"And also it was a little bit safer there. I'd rather take my chances with a deadly virus than a dragon. And I also miss my playstation." Pete said.
"Wow, you guys are all idiots." Josh said very loud and angry at them.
The three of them got annoyed by him. They don't like being called idiots.
"I mean, come on! Do you know how many people would kill to be in our shoes? This is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity."
"Josh, don't you have a family back home?" Asked Britney.
"Yeah, I do, my parents. But I won't miss them. They were simply the worst people in the world. Hate them."
Britney, Henry, and Pete were visibly confused.
"The worst? I may not have known them, but didn't they always pick you up in a limousine? And also sent you in the best clothes, provided you with the best tutors?" Britney said.
Josh wasn't the richest man in the world, but he certainly was richer than most of them even though they all went to private school, which wasn't cheap.
"How do you know that?" Josh asked in a confused manner. He didn't tell her any of that.
"You posted it on your instagram profile."
"Ah, right. Ugh, don't remind me. I always hated wearing those expensive clothes. And my tutors? I had so many of them, I wasted so much time on them when I could have spent it on something else like anime, or games. And when I wore those expensive clothes, if I had a stain on it, I would get punished for it!"
And the reason for the limousine, is because he begged his parents to take him on a limousine that way he might end up getting a girlfriend in the process. It worked numerous times, but they all left him due to his terrible personality. His longest relationship lasted no more than 2 weeks.
'Spoiled brat.' The three of them thought the exact same thing.
"How many tutors did you have?" Asked Pete. He also had tutors so he could kind of understand Josh.
"A lot. Like 2. And they were so old and fat men. If they had been sexy women instead I might have paid attention to them."
'Douchebag.' The three of them thought the exact same thing.
Pete also had numerous tutors, like 7 because his parents wanted him to have a good career. And because of them he got to be one of the best students in his class.
"But, you guys, think about it, why would we want to go back? We had no lives out there. At most we would have been homeless or worked in a fast food restaurant for the rest of our lives!" Josh said.
"Actually I was studying for my Bar exam at Harvard. But due to COVID I had to take online courses instead which was a pain." Henry said.
Painful memories rose when he recalled them. Somehow online lessons were just far worse and much more difficult, contrary to what he first believed would be easier.
"I was taking model courses for a rich company. You know they would take pictures of me wearing their company's clothings and post my pictures outside of their shops? But then COVID happened and I had to postpone that." Britney said.
"And I was gonna become an astronaut." Pete said.
"Lies, you became an online french tutor, and you only knew french because your mom knew french and taught you when you were little." Henry exposed Pete's lies.
"Well being a french tutor isn't exactly as cool or as high class as modeling for a rich company, or becoming a lawyer. Now that I think about it, I was earning a bit of decent money when I was teaching those kids french. But still I always did like teaching other people french."
"I always wanted to learn french. Is it easy?" Britney said, crossing her legs and arms.
"Is learning a new language easy?" Pete said in a sarcastic and sassy tone. If it was easy, everyone would know french.
"Okay, people, so you all want to go back? Seriously?" Asked Josh.
They turned to each other and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we do."
"Well, sorry to say that it's too bad. As far as I know, no hero has ever been able to return to their world. See ya, suckers!" Josh left laughing along with his harem.
The three heroes looked at his figure leaving. What was the point of all that?
"Next time I see him, I will punch him." Britney said.
"You read my mind."
"Same here."
They were all pretty annoyed by him but continued eating. It was indeed impossible to return, and they knew that. But they can't just give up without trying at least.
"How do we get back?" Asked Pete.
"I guess… we could explore the world and see if we can find anything?" Henry suggested his plan.
"I know you're just trying to explore this world, but it sounds like it's the only plausible answer." Pete agreed, feeling dejected.
Britney agreed as well. Both of them were rather scared. Only Henry was the brave one of the group.
"Hey, I wonder what happened to Victoria? Did someone actually pair up with her?" Pete asked. He didn't want to go back to the kingdom because of her. As long as there isn't a slight chance that she'll pair up with them, he won't go back to the castle no matter what.
"We've literally been with you all this time. How the hell should we know?" Henry said.
"..." Pete.
Meanwhile…
A group of nobles and sorcerers were teamed up and fighting a third layer cyclops, or as some people call it a single-horned cyclops, by far the weakest type of cyclops. The cyclops tried its best to fight, but it couldn't overpower the powerful group of individuals fighting it. It was completely one sided.
The group consisted of 5 5-striped sorcerers, 2 nobles, and 1 half-noble, the half-noble is a familiar man named Morgan, a half-hero and half-elf. The very same man that was tasked by the king to find Will and take the magical cloak from him. All of which were carrying top enchanted armor and weapons.
Morgan could have found Will by now and taken his cloak from him, but then the Great Sage found out and he was ordered to give up on the cloak for now.
And also there was one other person with the group, Victoria. She stood by the side, watching how they took down the cyclops. She watched with glee as the cyclops was bleeding heavily, screaming and begging for help, pleading for mercy. The cyclops could not speak english, but she just liked to imagine that is what it was doing.
"Man, having a hero watch our moves gives me energy!" Noble 1 said.
"It does! It's so damn awesome! Who would have thought we'd get paired up with a hero!" Sorcerer 1 said.
"I could tell this to my friends in a bar for 50 years and it'll never get old!"
They didn't even need to focus entirely on the cyclops since it was so close to dying.
Once the cyclops was down on its stomach, heavily breathing for air, barely able to move from the pain and blood loss, they all stopped attacking it.
"Okay, hero, as you requested, you may have the final hit."
Victoria, who was actually the one in charge, asked the group to let her have the last hit, she wanted to be the one who killed the cyclops. The others didn't understand why, but her words were absolute so they immediately complied.
Victoria didn't say anything. She just strolled slowly to the barely-alive cyclops. There was a huge smile on her face.
She raised her fat arm, and it turned into the body of a snake. It extended long and far and the snake bit the cyclops neck with it's long fangs, injecting it's toxic poison. The cyclops who was near death's door, simply died seconds later.
"Splendid kill." The group applauded for the hero's efforts.
Victoria has the ability to transform into any animal she desires, even fully transforming into something she desires. It came as a surprise when she found out that her ability could even allow her to just transform her limbs into other animals, like a snake for an arm.
Her arm returned to normal. Next she focused on her hand, and it transformed into an eagle claw.
"Find another one." Victoria said loudly.
"With pleasure, hero."
"No, find one, and leave it to me. I'll take care of it myself." Victoria let them know clearly what she wanted.
"Yes, hero." In their eyes, this hero was selfless and brave to attempt to take down a powerful monster.
But Victoria simply wanted to kill, and this was the perfect excuse. Back in her world, she used to kill small animals, and sometimes torture them. When she couldn't find some, she'd have to make best with small insects like moths, butterflies, spiders, or anything really.
"Hero, we found another one!" A sorcerer called out to her.
Following the noise, she found another cyclops attacking the group.
Victoria walked toward it from behind. She grabbed an entire tree and flung it towards the cyclops like it was a javelin.
The cyclops heard something from behind. And before he realized it, something from behind it injured it so badly that it heavily injured his back and spine, paralyzing it from the waist down but he could still use it's horns.
"Woah." The group said in awe. They could never do something like that since they lacked the hero's strength. While noble and half nobles could attempt something like that, they couldn't pull it off as quickly as her.
Victoria jumped up and landed on the cyclops back, her momentum and weight completely crushed the cyclops's back and paralyzing it completely.
"Come on, cry! Beg for mercy!" Victoria enjoyed causing it pain and misery. She walked on top of it's head, grabbed it's horn and pulled it off from it's head. It's face was covered in blood when she pulled it's horn which was bleeding heavily. At this point, the cyclops would die from blood loss.
"Oof." The group said in shock and horror. Even they had never seen something so sadistic.
And finally, Victoria turned into a giant snake, completely towering over a cyclops body, who was over 12 feet. But snakes could go even taller than that.
Victoria always liked snakes. The reason she likes them is because of how some snakes like to crush their prey using their bodies before devouring them, or how some other snakes inject their poison onto their prey, paralyzing them most of the time, and killing them.
At some point, she would have liked to become a snake and play with her prey before killing them. Ever since her parents could remember, she has always been sadistic, enjoying watching the pain and suffering of others.
Using her snake body, she completely crushed the cyclop's body applying literal tons of pressure, it felt like being crushed by the sheer force of the ocean when one dives too low.
The cyclops' eyes popped out first. Next it's bones began cracking down popcorn popping. Then it's insides were being crushed entirely. After that point it was dead, no point to keep continuing Victoria let go of it's body and transformed back into her human self. She was stained in blood all over her body.
"Gross. You, hand me your robe." Victoria pointed at the biggest guy, who is a sorcerer.
"Me?"
Victoria didn't want to respond so she ripped the robe right out of him, completely exposing his body except the underwear he wore beneath.
"My orders are absolute, is what the king said. Now find me more cyclops, or goblins, I don't care. Find me something to kill."
The group scattered and complied with her request. That day Victoria went on a killing spree. Cyclops, goblins, ogres, no one was safe.
It was until that day that the group of sorcerers did not respect this hero any more, but feared her instead.