Will was looking at the {Exclusive} crafts section of his book. He really wanted the {Hologram platform} which is literally the perfect item to use for building golems.
"Finally! This is exactly what I needed!"
Will thought of building golems obviously, but he couldn't do it by hand since he had no idea on how to make working golems.
But this item not only would help him create various types of golems, but also possibly vehicles, buildings, traps, and many other things.
The golems are his greatest source of grinding materials while he's doing something else.
He had other golems in mind he wanted to build but couldn't, like a golem with a machine gun strapped on his shoulders or hands, golems that fight, protect, gather, farm resources.
One time he tried to add a sentry turret and a simple minigun to a golem, but it didn't work for many, many reasons:
Most of the time their weapons didn't work, or their aim was off, or their arm and hand movements were limited, their sight was limited since Will couldn't make eyes by hand, the weight of the gun was affecting their movement, they sometimes overheated the gun from overusing it, and more errors that he found out later.
The fact that he was able to build a crappy but working golem was a blessing.
"Okay, so I got 6 half bars of anti-hero metal, but according to the system this only counts as 3… not even close." Will rubbed the part of his nose where his eyes didn't connect.
Will, for a few months now, he has many questions about the crafting system, one of which is what counts as one item?
For example, when he mines a single iron ore it counts as a single ore, but if he mines another ore that's a little bit heavier or lighter it also counts as one. Same with the height, if it is a little bit different it still counts as one.
Like say if you have a loaf of bread, it would count as one. But if he were to cut it in half it doesn't make it two but rather zero.
Will knows that this isn't a video game, so it's not surprising that not everything he mines is different in size, shape or weight, but what counts as a single item?
If he were to cut an iron ore in half it doesn't count as a single item but nothing, unless if he holds both cut halves it counts as one instead of two, same goes for the loaf of bread.
Will doesn't know how it works, but what he does know is that it's a rule of the system and has no choice but to follow it.
"Man, I need to grind a lot. Especially that 100 blueprints. Just how many trees do I have to cut down?" Will's body ached at the thought of it.
He had to switch to his exotic-wooden armor for that strength and speed boost, which helps him a lot when cutting down trees.
He also needed to get an advanced-tier mana ore.
A single middle-tier mana ore equals 10 low-tier mana ore. An advanced-tier mana ores equals 100 low-tier mana ores, which is actually not a bad deal, but that would mean he has to give up 10 golems.
"Gah! Next week the Empress will send people to trade with me again, and I can use their mana ores and anti-hero metal to craft the {Hologram platform} but I still need those 100 blueprints. I don't think 1 week is enough. Welp!"
First he placed the mana ores and the anti-hero metals in the last two empty slots in his inventory. Will went inside his base and saw Sandra waiting for him.
"Weren't you gonna take a shower?" Asked Will.
"I was worried about you. I thought that those people would try to attack you or something."
"Thanks for worrying. Looks like we're gonna have to put building the castle on hold for a while."
"Why? It's looking great."
"It is. But there's something I must do. I have to gather A LOT of wood." Will was just glad he could make trees grow fully in a night, otherwise he'd clear out entire forests.
'I remember MrBeast once made a thing called #Teamtrees and planted like 10 million trees or something like that I wonder if he ever cleared the garbage from the ocean would it be called #Teamseas? #Teamoceans? #Teamblue? Nah, #Teamtrees sounds right. Too bad I can never see him do it.'
(Donate to #Teamseas)
"Can I know why?"
"Sorry, no."
"Hm… okay, then." Sandra was feeling let down that Will couldn't tell her anything when she really wanted to know.
She understands why he's not telling her everything, but it still made her feel bad.
At first she thought Will told her everything, but that story of Alex made her realize it was not the case. Of course Alex could have asked Will to keep it a secret for whatever reason.
Sandra went down the cave to shower the dust and sweat off.
Will took a lot of enchanted steel axes and stored them inside an empty iron chest. Will carried with him more empty iron chests, flew all the way to the forest. which was far away from his base, and started cutting down trees.
"This is not FUN! And here I thought I LOVED GRINDING! But NO! I really NEED to make a GOLEM who can CUT DOWN THESE DAMN TREES!" With every shout, Will swung his axe with everything he had. It's as if shouting made it easier to cut down trees.
Sometimes if he's lucky he can cut down a tree in a single swing, sometimes two or three swings is all it takes.
Each tree surprisingly produced a ton of paper which made it a bit easy. But the annoying and slow part was cutting down the already cut down trees into tiny logs. Each log Will uses can produce up to 300-400 sheets of paper.
It might seem easy, but it's so much work, it's boring, the heat still affects him. Sometimes the trees fall on him when he's not paying attention and crushing him to death, which has already happened two times now.
And tiny splinters somehow manage to enter through the cracks of his armor, as well as sawdust when axes don't work on certain situations, and he feels like dozens of bugs are biting him. And the stumps are a pain to get rid of, and if he doesn't get rid of those stumps they become a burden to him.
It was a pain. Will had never realized how people back then were so brave at cutting down trees with normal axes. He had a newfound respect for those people.
"Will, do you need help?"
Will looked over his shoulder, and he saw Bruce standing there, menacingly but not really.
"Oh, you… Peter, right?" Will had forgotten about him.
"It's Bruce,"
"Right, sorry. What are you doing here?"
"Came to check up on Sandra. Is she okay?"
Sandra told nobody where she was going. But Bruce knew where she was.
"Couldn't you have messaged her or something?"
"Can't. You still have the communication stone I lent you."
"Oh." Will had completely forgotten about that.
"But, you need help with that?" Bruce pointed to the trees.
"Yeah. Please." Will handed him an axe.
Bruce was about to swing the axe, but Will stopped him.
"Woah, stop. You can't just do that! You need to make sure you know where you're gonna cut the tree and where it's gonna… actually you don't need to worry, I think your hero strength alone can carry an entire tree."
Will was worried about Bruce, but remembering that he's a hero he shouldn't be worried at all.
"Okay, then."
Bruce swung his axe, and the tree fell down onto another tree.
"Oh man, this is satisfying!" Bruce cut down another tree, and another, and another, and so on.
There was something about cutting down something that made it feel satisfying.
"Actually Bruce, you don't need to cut down that… actually, I need 100 blueprints, each blueprint takes 1000 sheets of paper to craft, and each log gives me a minimum of 400 sheets of paper, and each tree gives me about 7-10 logs. I actually have no freakin' idea how many logs I need, so KEEP IT UP BRUCE!" Will shouted.
Shortly after 30 minutes, Bruce realized that he was gonna cut down all the trees.
"Oh, crap! I cut down too many."
Bruce was your typical good guy. He never liters, always cleans up after himself, is polite to people, and always offers a helping hand. Although he's a nice person he also likes to fight.
He doesn't feel bad about cutting down the trees, because every day humans cut trees because we need it. But he only felt bad that most of the trees that Will won't use would go to waste and rot.
"Bruce, good job. You made it easier for me." Will said. He handed Bruce a leather pouch full of water.
"Sorry, I cut down too many." Bruce accepted the water. It was cool and refreshing.
"That's alright. Here's your payment." Will handed Bruce a few gold coins.
"What's… why?" Bruce asked.
"It's the reason you offered to help, right?" Will said.
"No… but I'll gladly take it." Bruce put the money in his pockets. If it was given to him he had no reason to decline.
"Want to make more money?"
"Nah, I need to talk to Sandra about… something… important."
Bruce's eyes widened in shock when Will handed Bruce a pouch full of gold and silver coins.
"Still don't want to help me?"
"What must I do?" Bruce completely changed his mind.
Bruce is 20 years old. He might love fighting, but he also liked money. After all, what kind of normal person doesn't want money?
He still had money left over when the king rewarded him, Sandra and Jasmine, but it never hurts to have more. After all, he also wants a magical weapon to help him get stronger.
Underneath his mask, Will smiled. He knew that Bruce offered to help him out of the kindness of his heart, which he was grateful but he wanted Bruce to help him cut down trees.
It's why he offered him a lot of money, after all he's a strong, kind hero.
He could ask Sandra for help and he knows she'll help him, but he didn't want her to suffer the same pain he goes through when he cuts down trees.
"Help me turn the trees you cut down into logs. And once you do that make sure to place them inside the chest."
Will was only going to craft them into sheets of paper, but Bruce cut down so many trees that Will believes that after he's finished he'll have many logs left. It'd be a waste to leave them rot, so he decided to gather them in case he ever had a use for them.
"No problem. Do you have another axe? This one is almost broken." Bruce pointed to the axe in his hand.
"I have tons. Go nuts." Will took out a chest from his pocket filled with enchanted, steel axes.
"Wh-wha-what-what is your hero ability?" It's the first time Bruce saw Will take out a tiny object and enlarge it. His best guess is the ability to shrink and un-shrink items.
"Secret."
A few hours of non-stop work, they finished. A part of the forest was gone, all that was left were the stumps where the trees once were.
Will didn't care. For every tree they cut down he planted 2 more. He could always remove the stumps at another time. But he planned to have his golems do it instead, when he makes them.
"Ow, the splinters are on my ass!" Bruce sat down on the ground, but like he said various splinters impaled him.
"Yeah…" Seeing Bruce like that made Will realize just how lucky he was if he didn't wear armor.
"But it was worth it." Bruce chuckled as he counted the pouch full of coins.
"Are you a masochist?" Will would never think that any amount of money would be worth going through all that trouble. Then again Will has never suffered financial problems so he can't relate.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Bruce took off his clothes and used all his strength to whip time in the air making a loud *CRACK!* noise, like when one's parents are preparing to use their belt.
Whipping his clothes removed most of the splinters.
"Man, I never realized that cutting down trees would be tiring." Said Bruce.
"And a pain in the ass. Hehehe!" Will laughed.
"Haha, I understand what you meant." Bruce and Will laughed.
"Will, when are you going to reveal your identity to the kingdom? It's been like 4 months since we've been here." Bruce wanted to know why Will just doesn't ask the kingdom for help. He's a hero, why wouldn't the kingdom help him?
"I don't want to. It's only a matter of time, though. A lot of people know about me already."
Jack, Jasmine, Sandra, Bruce, the Great Sage, Clement, the Princess, the Empress and her men, some elves, and that's it.
He doesn't know how long it'll take until someone else finds out about him and tells everyone.
'Actually, I think someone else told everyone about me one time and I had to hide underground. Honestly that was pure luck and skill on my side. Heh.' Will chuckled.
"Oh, Will, can you pass on a message to Sandra? It's late and I don't want to bother her. And I also want to go back and wash off the splinters."
"What message?"
"Tell her that the king invited all the heroes to join the tournament of heroes. We need 50 heroes for the tournament to proceed, but we already have 60. I just wanted to let her know if she wants to join."
"Really? When did he announce the tournament?"
"A week ago. Everyone in the kingdom already knows. It's already spread to all the villages. I just wanted to make sure that Sandra knows as well."
"Huh. That's weird."
"What is?"
"Nothing."
'Sandra last went to the kingdom a few days ago to buy food, there's no way she doesn't know.'
Jack and Jasmine also know about the tournament, but they did not tell Will because he wants to keep his identity a secret, so it wouldn't make much sense for him to join. And also they believed he already knew.
"Okay. Please tell her." As Bruce was about to leave, Will asked him a question.
"You like her, right?" Will asked.
Bruce didn't take another step. It was an unexpected question.
"Isn't it obvious?" Bruce didn't deny it.
"Yeah, I figured."
Will saw Bruce accompanying Sandra when she was looking for him, and now he went through all this trouble to relay her a message. It was obvious he liked her, because Will was also like Bruce at first, doing everything he could for her, and always thinking about her, treating her like a queen.
Their relationship started off a bit rocky from the start. Then again Will only confessed to her because Alex threatened to destroy their minecraft base, no relationship that starts like that will ever start fine. Thinking about it made him cringe. He was grateful to Alex but at the same time he didn't feel thankful to him.
But as time went on their relationship went smoother and better. It wasn't love at first sight, but it slowly progressed to the point where they had sex and loved each other like old married couples.
Will could tell Bruce liked her, but Will loved Sandra and she loved him back. It made him realize just how much of an idiot he was.
What if Sandra didn't try to look for him? Would she have ended up dating or loving Bruce instead? What if he had died that day instead of being summoned here?
The thought devastated him. The thought of him ending things with Sandra made him feel like shit. Even though it wasn't her fault that Alex died, not like he lashed out his anger on her or anything, but he did cut her off from his life, the only woman who loved him..
"Can't say I blame you, Bruce. But don't do anything to her. Or else."
"Woah, Will, what kind of person do you take me for?" Bruce said, a bit annoyed.
"What?"
"I will not lie, part of me wished that you weren't here. Over 800 students in our school, and out of all of those people you were summoned along with us. But do you know how Sandra felt when she was summoned here?"
"No. What?"
"Well, after she realized that she could never see you again, or her family, it devastated her. She tried desperately to find a way back. When she heard that the 100th hero wasn't summoned like the rest of us, she held onto the thought that it was you but you weren't properly summoned, and tracked you down to find and protect you. Honestly, if you weren't summoned but somebody else was, I don't know if she would be devastated to never see you again, or glad that you were safe at home."
Will didn't think about that. He remembered how Sandra was desperate to find a way back home. But after she found him she didn't put much effort into it anymore.
"After she found you, she's been more at rest, happy. How can I take that away from her?" Bruce said, a bit heart broken.
"You know, it's funny. The very same day you confessed to Sandra behind the school, that exact same day I decided I too would confess to her. I decided to confess to her if I ever won a gold medal in a Jiu Jitsu tournament. I even bought her a dozen roses to match her hair color. I waited for her after school, but didn't see her. Then I saw you confess to her, and I realized I was a step too late."
Will faintly remembers seeing a bouquet of roses on the ground the same day as well. Bruce dropped them after being heartbroken. He never realized there was a story behind it.
"I did think of ruining your relationship, only for a second. A few months since then I saw how happy you two were in school. Then I told myself 'how can I ever ruin that smile?' it was then I thought it was better if I just… moved on. I thought that in this world I would have a chance, but it seems like luck wasn't on my side. Like my teacher once said, 'sometimes in life it feels like the universe hates you.' and that's how I felt. I still do."
Will didn't know what to say. He only asked him a question because he feels like Bruce would do something, and would only give him a warning. He felt like Bruce would somehow try to sabotage them.
The reason he thinks that is because he would have done so. He pictured Sandra with another man, and it made him feel beyond pissed. But it looks like Bruce is stronger than him in other parts.
"But Will, if you hurt Sandra, I will hunt you down like a dog, and bury you alive as deep as I have repressed my feelings for her for all these years. Goodbye."
After saying his piece, Bruce left. Somehow he felt relieved to finally say that to Will, as if he was free of a burden.
Bottling up one's feelings is basically a ticking time bomb. People who bottle up their feelings have their own ways to release those pent up feelings, Bruce's way was to say the words he'd been meaning to say to Will for years now.
Will sat there in thought. It was already night so he thought he should go back to his base. He carried all his stuff, put on his dragon armor and flew back. Once he flew back to his base, he saw Sandra making some clay pots.
She was in her casual clothes, her hair was in a ponytail position, her hands all covered in mud from making clay pots. This world didn't provide them with a lot of entertainment aside from playing with instruments, reading books, or something else.
A few days ago Sandra wanted to try out pottery because it looked interesting, and she'd always wanted to take pottery classes. Her pots weren't turning out great, but she was doing her best.
"Oh, Will!" Sandra heard Will.
"Hi, Sandra."
"Do you want to eat something?"
"No. I had something to eat. I'll take a quick shower." Will went to the cave to take a shower. He threw away his exotic-wooden armor to wash the splinters later.
He plucked the splinters that were stuck on his body. It was annoying as hell, which is why he hates cutting down trees.
After a while he finished. He stood in his bathroom thinking about Sandra.
This time he decided to only put on casual clothes and not his armor. He always wore clothes underneath his armor but never took off his armor apart from using the bathroom or eating.
He saw Sandra heating some food for him. It wasn't a stove or something fancy, just a small campfire with a frying pan on top of it. She was cooking him some delicious steak.
"Oh, Will." Sandra didn't look at him. She was just focusing on the food to make sure it doesn't burn.
"I know you said you didn't want to eat, but knowing you, you'll just eat something in a few minutes."
Will smiled. He walked up to her and hugged her from behind.
"Will?" Sandra's heart jolted. She realized that Will wasn't in his armor. His touch felt soft, and yet sturdy, as a result of doing heavy labor work for almost 4 months.
"I love you so much." Will gently held onto Sandra's chin and kissed her gently.
Sandra felt her body tensed up at first, then it succumbed to him and he embraced her body, locking closer to each other.
"Will?" Sandra felt weak all of a sudden. It was a sudden surprise that she didn't expect.
"Can you ever forgive me? For everything I did?"
Sandra knew exactly what he meant.
"I already have, long ago."
She hugged him tighter than ever, and their bodies lingered. Their clothes flew everywhere as their lust took control of their bodies.
One could only hear the sounds of pleasurable moans echoing through the night. By sunrise the sounds stopped.