Will saw the sun rise up. No matter how many times he sees the sunrise it always calms him down. He wasn't able to sleep the whole night. Grace's disappearance worried him.
Although he was worried he was thinking about his next move, what else should he build, what else can he do?
Now that Adaline is gone because she was searching for Grace, Will was all alone.
"I'm worried about Adaline. Wish I could make her some armor, but, this stupid system doesn't include it. What a joke."
Will made fun of his 'crafting' system which isn't able to craft everything like he thought at first. Some things he needs to build by hand like buildings or his golems.
"Hmmm… wait, there's Jack." Will thought of something.
He sent a message to Jack through his communication stone.
Meanwhile…
Jack, who just woke up, was blinded by his communication stone. It was a dark room and Jack's eyes barely adjusted to the darkness, it wasn't even a bright light. It's like turning your smartphone on in the dark right after waking up.
Jack was too lazy to respond back. He saw it was from Will and only then did he really try to get used to the light. Because he just woke up he didn't remember that he only messaged two people, Jasmine and Will. His family also has a communication stone but they're all home.
{Jack, I am calling in for a favor} Will said.
{What can I do to help?} Jack's handwriting was a bit sloppy. He owed Will a lot for helping Jasmine during the dragon attack.
{I want you to make me some armor for Adaline.}
'Adaline? Oh, right, the organic creature.' Jack remembered Adaline. The organic creature that Will tamed scared him.
{I don't know much about making custom armor for organic creatures. I think this is the first time anyone has asked anyone to do that. But it is a request from you, so I'll see what I can do. Also my uncle is still here so he might want to help out, but he's been in a bad mood lately. Still I'll try my best.}
{Awesome. Thanks Jack.}
{Yeah. I just need to measure Adaline, can you bring her here?}
This was technically a custom made armor, and a very unique one as well. They needed Adaline there to measure her body to fit her in armor.
It's like how people make custom clothes for others, they need to measure them as everyone is built differently.
People do make armor for horses and their mounts. Even the Empire makes armor for their giant lizards. However an organic creature wearing armor is unheard of.
{Oof. Not right now. I'll send you a message when Adaline comes back.}
{Where did Adaline go?}
{Helping someone. I gotta go, someone just arrived at my base.}
Will placed his communication stone away. He saw several more people coming this way on horses, over 50 men protecting a fancy looking carriage.
Like the other 80 men who were camping in front of his base, they were all heavily geared, not a single piece of armor or weapon wasn't enchanted or magical.
Will wondered if all those men combined would be able to successfully raid his protected base. The only things protecting it from intruders were his multiple diamond sentry turrets, and himself.
Golems could also count as part of his defense but they are useless in fighting, but amazing in mining. He plans to fix that sooner or later.
The carriage stopped. Inside came out a tall, gorgeous woman with red hair. She wore enchanted armor as well, and kept her soldiers by her side.
Unlike all the rumors he's heard of, she is anything but fat! And yet people call her 'fat' when she clearly wasn't. Like how people call Napoleon 'short' even though he was average height for the time.
Will cursed to himself 'Crap. She's my type!'
Will always liked mature looking women, and also redheads. He might have a thing for redheads because his ex is also a redhead.
It's maybe why he doesn't simp for elves like Grace. They were beautiful but not his type.
"Empress!" The soldiers saluted the Empress by forming a line and placing their hands on their chests.
"At ease." The Empress stood right outside of the wooden fence Will made. She was more focused on the base that Will build.
"Rico, how long do you believe it would take us to build something like that?"
Valerie was impressed by the walls alone. She knew for a fact that building something like that would take several years, hundreds of men, and lots of resources.
It might take longer since monsters do attack them but they always repel them back.
"Hard to say, Empress. But we believe it would take us no more than 5 years, and that is if we're quick."
"Yeah, I thought so, too. What about the inside? Still nothing?"
"Afraid not. The Hero was insisting that we cannot enter his base at all. So we do not know the layout of this… I want to say castle?" They weren't sure what to call it, it was somewhere between the lines of it being a castle or a stone fortress.
"Good. You listened to him and that way you didn't piss him off."
She read the reports he'd been sending her, but she thought he was exaggerating when there was a giant stone wall in the middle of the white desert.
Back when her empire was built she wasn't even born yet when they were building the walls. The empire has been a thing for 5-6 decades now.
And she was happy to see that her men were following her orders to the word. If they had acted on their own she would have never had a chance to meet with a hero. This would be the third hero she'd meet in person.
'So I guess building is his hero ability. Though there is a slight chance that he has two hero abilities, like that Josh guy.' The Empress thought.
"Also, what are those things?" Valerie pointed at the top of the stone walls, it was the diamond turret sentries that were placed only on top of the walls.
"We are not sure. But they look like the mounted mini guns we have back in the Empire. But we can tell that they're different, most likely this is the hero's ability."
"Empress, he's out!" One of them pointed at the door.
Will exited his base, but this time he wasn't wearing his exotic wooden armor, instead he's wearing his strongest dragon scale armor.
This armor provided more defense than any of his other armor, and it gave him a nice set bonus he's been meaning to use for some time now, the ability to fly freely using dragon wings.
With the 80 men camping outside his base he couldn't use it.
And the main reason he's wearing this armor is because it looked intimidating for anyone, giving people the thought that he is powerful and fearsome. He thought it made him look like a Dark Souls boss, sort of.
He doesn't know how powerful the Empress and her men are, but he wasn't very confident in beating them if he had to, but he can't show weakness.
One of Sun Tzu's famous quotes popped into his head a few days ago:
"Appear strong when you are weak, and weak when you are strong."
He thought of this a few days ago, and he hoped it would work.
He knew he was weak and wasn't confident in his strength, but they didn't know everything about him. Which is why he thought that instead of showing his weakness, he'd fake being strong.
Will strolled his way over to them taking his sweet time.
'What?' The Empress thought when she looked above Will. Her eyes showed a hint of shock and confusion.
Above him she could see numbers floating above his head.
00:00:0:00:00:00
She knew what those numbers meant, a person's lifespan. It was only possible to see a person's lifespan due to the enchanted-magical earring she wears.
Every living thing has a lifespan, and once all those numbers reach '0' they're dead.
According to what she has figured out this is how the 'biological clock' as what she refers to, works from left-to-right:
Years-weeks-days-hours-minutes-seconds.
'What kind of ability does he have that even my magical item can't see his time of death? Is he an immortal? Is that his second hero ability?' The Empress' thought. Many things popped in her mind but it didn't make sense.
Shaun Quincy, is a hero whose ability is having a longer lifespan, but even his own biological clock doesn't work like Will's. The same goes for the Great Sage. When she saw their biological clocks it seemed to work fine like always.
This is the first time something like this has happened. The only logical reason as to why it shows only '0's is because Will is an immortal.
She doesn't know of any heroes who have immortality, even the Great Sage doesn't.
What she doesn't know is that a system user is not bound to fate like everyone else is. Their time of death cannot be counted down because they weren't given a time of death.
"Hero." The Empress said coldly to hide her expression.
"Sup. Why are you here?" Will responded casually.
She took a deep breath. She realized that she must not make an enemy of this hero at all costs, not that she planned to anyway. Still she needed to act tough.
"Right to the point. I merely came here to observe you, find out your powers, and hopefully we can become allies. I just thought it'd be better if we first chatted in person rather than use communication stones."
The Empress knows the abilities of the other 99 heroes thanks to her spies reporting it to her. Even when the kingdom tried their best to keep it a secret, there was bound to be a rat who would expose their secrets.
"Allies? And what if I refused to become your ally? Would you want to kill me then to eliminate any threats?"
Will placed his hand close to his inventory where his gun is.
"I don't kill unless I have to. As long as you don't get it in my way I won't get in your way." The Empress shook her head.
Becoming an enemy of a hero is not favorable. If anything, having them on her side is way more beneficial.
"But." The Empress added, "I want to know, are you with the kingdom, or are you not?" She already knew the answer, but wanted to hear it from him.
"Am I with the ones who kidnapped me and brought me to this foreign world? Not in a million years."
Will had mixed emotions for the kingdom, but mostly on the negative side. If he were given the chance to join them he wouldn't. And he would never help them in any way, but he won't hurt them either unless he had a good reason to.
Will couldn't really blame the kingdom for kidnapping him. After all he did die moments before being reincarnated, then again it was because of their bright summoning circle that caused his death, so they're the ones who killed him even if it was indirectly.
Like he said, he won't ever side with the kingdom at all.
"Hmm… I also came here to strike a deal with you. Join us, and you can have this."
The Empress took off her ring, and out of the ring a small hill of gold appeared out of thin air. It was only gold bars and gold coins. The bright sun reflected off the gold making it super shiny.
"Pass. I don't need it." Will shook his head. He estimated he could make this much gold in an hour or less. And the more golems he creates the faster they'll gather gold. Meaning that this was basically nothing to him.
The Empress was surprised that Will wasn't fazed, without even missing a beat he flat out rejected the gold.
According to what she knew about the majority of the other heroes, is that they'll easily be tempted by riches and are easily manipulated. It seems that Will isn't like them.
She couldn't see his expression because it was hidden underneath his dragon mask.
'Was he always like this or did this world change him?' She thought.
Will, before he was brought to this world was a wimp, weak, common, miserable just like anybody his age really.
It's because of these past 3 months that shaped Will into who he is right now. If this were Will 3 months ago he would have taken the gold without a doubt.
"What I want is simple, I want stronger metals, better ores, and better materials overall."
Will needed their help as well. There is a high chance that they had something stronger than steel, or possibly something as good or better than mana ore. It's why he waited for them instead of kicking them out.
Meanwhile…
Beneath them, the gold golems were working non-stop. There were now 9 in total. They mined through the ores and stone like it was nothing.
*Screech*
They heard screeching noises coming from behind the walls, like hundreds of insects screaming. But their only orders are to mine no matter what. So they continued to mine and mine.
As they progressed the screeching noises got louder. They paid no heed to it.
Then, one of the golems hit the walls but green blood was on his pickaxe and on the walls.
Then the wall in front of them collapsed. Hundreds of giant scorpions rushed out of the hole that the golems had created.
Still the golems didn't pay any attention to it. But the hundreds of scorpions stepped and crushed down on the golems. For the golems it was like being run over hundreds of cars.
They weren't designed to feel pain so they didn't cry or say anything. But their limbs and bodies were being crushed and torn apart. The scorpions didn't pay the golems any attention, all they wanted was to see where this tunnel that they found would lead them.
Back to Will.
"We can give you what you want, but I expect something else in return, what do you have?" Asked Valerie.
In a trade both sides must offer something the other side wants. Valerie could see that Will needed rare materials that she does have, but she needs something good in return.
This also benefited her since her main goal is to make connections with Will.
"Something in return…" Will thought about it, but what did he have that she wanted?
The Empress had everything she could ever need, men, resources, weapons, power, information.
Will had golems to trade, but he needs those. He also has the exotic flower and exotic seed, but he will never reveal the existence of those two to anyone. And his armor is outstanding, but it only works for him.
*Rumble*
They felt the ground shake and it got stronger to the point it felt like it felt like an earthquake.
"Earthquake?" Will said to himself. But he doesn't know that this world doesn't have earthquakes.
*Didididididididididididididi*
For no reason at all, all of Will's sentry turrets started shooting at the ground, specifically at the mining area.
Will was outside so he didn't see what they were shooting or why they were shooting.
*SCREECH!*
A familiar screeching noise echoed. Will recognized those screams, he had already long forgotten about those things.
Hundreds of scorpions very angrily tore down the stone walls with ease using their giant claws and exo-skeleton. They were aiming for the turrets since they were shooting them. The turrets were able to kill many but not all.
"NO!" Will took out his turret pistol and began shooting at the scorpions.
All his work, all his progress, it was being destroyed by those damn scorpions. It was the equivalent of hundreds of creepers blowing up everything you've worked for.
The scorpions began running towards Will and the Empress and her men.
"Spread out! Line formation! Fire at the scorpions!" Valerie reacted quickly. Standing along with her men, they all formed a line and began shooting down the scorpions with everything they got.
Will spread out his dragon wings and ascended to get a better shooting angle. But this was his first time flying, so he began flying everywhere with no control, like a kite in the air.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!"
Will crashed. But he wasn't giving up.
"Dammit! Out of all days!" Will got out his chest and took out stone blocks that were 1 meters long and high. These stone blocks were used to construct his base.
Will instantly made a high ramp as he continued shooting at the scorpions, providing him a somewhat better angle to shoot. If this was like in minecraft he'd build upward like many minecraft players do, but because gravity is a thing if he attempted to build something like that, it'll fall down.
*Screech*
Seeing his base already being completely destroyed, Will teared a bit. So he said "Fuck it! I am killing every single one of those fuckers!"
Feeling nothing but anger, he took out a special bullet from his inventory.
{Lead bullet}
{Enchantment: Explosion V}
The cursed power source generator has many enchantments, explosions were one of them.
The explosion enchantment he believes is the most destructive enchantment on the list, but also the most dangerous.
Using this explosion enchantment very obviously creates explosions, the higher level it is the more destructive. Not many people have seen this enchantment in their lives, only some. And none have ever seen an infinite enchantment.
The reason people don't use this enchantment is because they mostly enchant items that last like swords, guns, armor, not one time use items like bullets.
And even if they get the explosion enchantment on the guns instead of the bullets, it won't work. The gun would just end up shooting ordinary bullets instead of explosive bullets. Will found that out the hard way.
It was as if that enchantment literally made the weapon a bomb. If you hit something hard enough with it or something hits it it explodes upon impact.
It's why Will added the explosion enchantment to the bullets instead of his handgun turret.
Anyways, together with the explosive bullets, and the infinite enchantment added to his gun, Will was ready to unleash hell on these damn scorpions.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Scorpions were being blasted out of the ground and into the air. Dirt, fire, dust, green blood splattered everywhere.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Will hated it most when creepers blew up his minecraft base. Can't imagine when something destroys something you worked hard for in real life, it just can't be compared.
The already destroyed castle is now completely destroyed. What was once a magnificent castle is now a pile of disgusting rubble.
The countless number of scorpions started to diminish considerably. Will didn't know if it was because he killed them all, or because they ran back into their hole.
After what seemed like an eternity, it was peaceful again.
"God… dammit!" Will threw down his gun out of anger. These past three months he worked hard to build this, only to have it be destroyed in an instant.
The gun was already broken. There's a limit to how long his gun could last before it would overheat and eventually break.
He knew he could build his base again, but this was just annoying. If he could he would have rage quit already. It just wasn't fair, why do bad things happen to good people? Like getting goddamn cancer!
"Hero." Valerie stood beside him. They all saw the incredible destruction he had just displayed.
"Not now." Will said in a low tone.
Valerie understood his anger and stood back. Her men were all on guard in case another scorpion appeared.
Few minutes pass. Will got up, found his mining cave entrance covered with stone. He had to mine the ones that blocked his path. There is something he needed to check, his gold golems and the exotic seed. Those two are by far his two greatest treasures. As long as those two are there it would be okay.
Of course he had another gun with him, it was another handgun turret. He made many of these weapons in case his other one were to break down from overheating.
Reaching the cave he found the exotic seed completely intact. Will hid the exotic seed behind a stone wall with no clear entrance, that's because he could simply teleport behind the walls using his magical item.
But, reaching the end of the cave, Will saw his golems completely destroyed. The golems if they were destroyed it was fine, the golem cores are what truly mattered.
Unfortunately, out of the 9 golems cores he had created, only 2 were intact. The rest were shattered like glass which are now unusable.
Will didn't say anything. He just stood there, thinking. He blocked the wall where the scorpions came from. He didn't know if there were more scorpions there, but one day he was going back there, and he was going to make sure that they were all eliminated.
He would be sure to bathe in their blood.
"Blood for the blood god." Will muttered and left the cave.