The thought of taking care of people, raising a village had never crossed his mind. It was obviously way different in video games where he can just stick two people in a box and call it a day. It was times like this that he wished he was transported to a more simple world, like a minecraft world, like a minecraft fanfiction world.
"Well… I won't chase them away, but I won't have anything to do with them either. I'll be going now." Will was not eager to help people any time soon.
He considered the pros and cons, and just decided to wait it out and see how it goes. Who knows, maybe this village might bring something good.
"..." Sandra.
He could easily build a simple wooden house in minutes, not including furniture for these people, and he could estimate he could build a decent village in a day or two. Thanks to all the materials and experience he gained during these past few months he has gotten adept at building and crafting.
Sandra knew and understood why Will didn't want to help out the people he just met. The first two villages he went to made him distrust people easily. Even in the first village that was struggling to survive, Will wanted to give them some of his water supply before they wanted to take Adaline to sell her off.
If this was before, Will would have already helped this new village by building them homes, giving them food, clothes, money, everything. He basically would have been a slave to their every need.
The people of the village were really eager to meet the missing hero, and they still do. But they found it better to set up a new, permanent home in the forbidden lands. It was a place that was safe, basically tax free, and a really great place to stay for them and their families.
Days went by in the blink of an eye. Will experimented with the new golem.
When he created another low-tier golem he experimented with them, and found out a few interesting things about these golems.
It's much like a hive mind as he expected, a single being is not one but multiple beings as well and they're all connected. If Will crafted 100 golems, all of them would be able to see what the others see, if one hears something then they all hear it. This function makes them great for many things.
Unfortunately it is not simple, because low-tier golems are incapable of speech even though the mid-tier golem fully knows how to speak. Meaning that in order to use its complete ability he needed to have multiple mid-tier golems or higher tier golems.
And not only that but he compared the mid-tier and low-tier golems and found other interesting things: The low-tier golem moves and reacts slower than the mid-tier golem, despite them being the same being. It seems that there are some downsides and upsides on crafting higher tier golems.
"What other kinds of functions do these golems have, I wonder." Will asked himself, not even the golem knew what he was talking about when he asked him about his functions.
He was currently in his pool that he built, drinking some cool water, wearing nothing but his shorts.
His best ideas always come to him when he's showering, or relaxing peacefully in the pool. He even built a small canoe that let him float. The method to craft an inflatable balloon did not exist in this world, or he hasn't found it yet, either way he could not craft them.
Right now his plan was simple: Craft a bunch of low-tier golems, the more he has the faster he gathers mana ores, and the more golems he can create. At one point he'll have so many mana ores that he can create many mid-tier golems and higher tier golems as well.
After a few days he now had 4 golems. If he didn't craft a mid-tier golem perhaps he would have over 20 golems. But the fact that the mid-tier golem is able to think and stop before trouble hits was worth sacrificing the 10 low-tier golem cores. That way Will doesn't have to keep watch anymore.
"Will?"
"Yes?" Will looked up to see Sandra looking down on him from the edge of his pool.
Sandra appeared to be busy, her clothes were simply but covered in dirt and splinters, her hands and nails covered in soil. These past few days she has been helping people with whatever she could, so the village could grow.
Thanks to Adaline and the nice weather that made it possible to grow anything on this land.
"When did you build a swimming pool?"
"A couple hours ago while you were outside. Honestly it's not that hard to build one, just make a giant hole, cement the walls of the empty pool to stop the water from leaking out, then fill it up with water and ta-da! You have yourself a swimming pool."
Will did build another pool before, but had to remove it because he had to rebuild his entire castle when the foundation was still weak.
People can easily build a pool with enough time, patience, and tools. Like those two guys on youtube who build insane stuff by hand with basically almost nothing.
"You're getting better at this."
"Thank you. Honestly I think I deserve a break." Will cannot remember the last time he took a decent break.
After all the building he did, all those times he died, he thought he deserved a long break.
Before being reincarnated he could enjoy some good food, sodas, everything he wanted. He dearly missed those things in his life.
This feeling can only be described as finally beating a soul's boss after getting killed by it 200 hundred times in a row.
"Well can't argue with that."
"Wanna join me? There's a lot of space. Even Adaline likes it." Will pointed to Adaline who was just floating peacefully on the water.
"I didn't even know organic creatures could float or swim."
Adaline was made of organic material, so did it make sense for her to be able to swim? Sandra honestly had no idea. It's not like she can compare an organic creature with any other creature from her home world.
"But I'll pass. Listen, about the village-"
"Gonna stop you right there, Sandra. I said I won't have anything to do with the village or its people."
"I know you said that. But someone says he knows you, like actually knows you. He said his name is Jack?"
"Jack? What's he doing here?" Will knows Jack, the noob blacksmith who helped him a lot ever since he reincarnated into this world.
"Guess I'll step outside for a bit. Man." Will did not feel like leaving the pool, but if Jack is here he needs to at least see the person who helped him out.
Meanwhile…
Josh was sitting on a pile of dead monsters, the monsters varied from orcs and goblins. All of the monsters are as dark as charcoal due to being burned to a crisp.
They were in an open grass field. Josh did his best to avoid the forest at all times. After almost getting killed by nature herself, he had been scarred mentally.
"Who would have known that using my ability is far easier and better than using bows and arrows." Josh threw out the bow and arrows because they weren't overpowered weapons that just happened to be sitting in the shop.
It's a cliche that happens far too often.
"Mhm." Both Felicia and Naveah nodded, but they already knew that this is how it was gonna play out.
"Maybe my luck is just bad. Next time I'll buy another bow, or maybe a sword, or even a shield! Maybe I'll get a shield like the shield hero! And then I'll be able to slay dragons." Josh's eyes sparkled in anticipation.
Both of his harem are looking at Josh like, "WHY?" because none of those primitive weapons he just mentioned cannot be compared to his hero ability. His hero ability can already take down dragons.
"Hey, Naveah, didn't you have a mount or something?"
"Huh? Yes, I do… for now." Naveah had a wyvern as a mount. Most sorcerers have mounts as it's a requirement to rise through the ranks.
"When can you bring it with us? I'm getting kinda tired having to walk around everywhere."
"It's being taken care of by my family. It's more like a family pet to us, and he's old already so he can't carry too many people at once, and can't fly as far or as fast as he used to."
At first Naveah thought that her wyvern, which originally belonged to her grandpa, was sick. But they thought it was tired or had injured itself, never would they have thought it would have to do something with its age.
"Really? Such a shame. How do you get a mount?"
"You just have to tame a giant beast by feeding it, caring for it, and so on. Honestly there aren't that many varieties of mounts to be honest."
"You think I don't know that? Maid would have been the perfect ideal mount! Not only was she a huge dragon, but also cute. If she was still alive it wouldn't be surprising if she had already fallen for me long ago."
Both of his loyal harem disagreed with him in their minds. If it weren't for the slave collar he had placed around her neck she would have killed him long ago.
"Since Maid is gone, and your wyvern is too old, I think it's about time we tame a mount. Where can I find a dragon egg?"
After all, he can't call himself an MC if he doesn't get a monster egg of some kind.
"A dragon… hero, I know you're strong but there is no way you can get a dragon egg! It is not possible to tame a dragon!" Naveah and Felicia both had a look of horror on their faces.
Many heroes, including the Great Sage had tried to tame a dragon, because who wouldn't want to keep a cool dragon as a pet?
After nearly 300 years of trying, and over 100 heroes failing to tame a dragon, it was deemed impossible.
"Why is that?" It's the first time Josh saw that look on their faces.
But this was perfect for him! How many times has the main character faced a situation where many said "It's not possible no matter how hard anyone tries." "It's never been done. And you'll never succeed." or his favorite, "No one in a million bajillion years has been able to do 'x' since 'x' did it." and so on.
Answer? Too many to count.
"The only place where dragon's go to lay their eggs is in the black mountains."
The black mountains are home to all the dragons, it's in the south where monsters as strong as dragons reside as well such as Apex level cyclops. It's far south that it's distant from the kingdom.
The black mountains are incredibly high, dark, and pointy that they go over the clouds. It's that place where dragons are born, live, and protect.
Many heroes have met their demise as they all foolishly believed they could conquer or destroy the black mountains, like Josh.
Even the Great Sage in his peak at the time said that he could not kill every dragon in the black mountains, but he could have driven them away if he wanted to but didn't. He believed that indeed the black mountains are dangerous, but is also the reason why people don't experience dragon attacks every day like goblins.
It was safer to keep the dragons in one spot rather than have them split up.
"Oh yeah. That makes sense. Thanks for the info. Let's go."
"Go where?"
"To the black mountains. How else am I gonna get a dragon mount?" Josh was gonna try to get a dragon mount no matter what.
Did he almost die when he tried to get an elf? Yes, but he has read that many MC's have faced similar life and death situations and have grown and learned from that experience. He however has learned nothing.
Did he lose an 'important' tournament? Yes, but some MC's have also lost tournaments before and learned from that experience. Once again he learned nothing from that time.
If anything all these 'failures' that the 'plot' has given him made him believe that he's the MC.
"Hero, please listen to us. You must not go there, please!" Naveah and Felicia both begged. They couldn't even defend themselves from the force of nature, how the hell are they gonna face off against every dragon that lives in those mountains?
"Relax, if you two don't want to go, don't go. And it's not like I am just gonna walk in there and take a dragon egg like that. Instead I have a plan in mind." Josh smiled as he had a plan.
"A plan? What is it?"
1 hour later, Josh arrived at the kingdom to seek out a certain individual.
Three individuals were sitting at a table enjoying their dinner peacefully in their room.
"This is the best chicken I've ever had." Pete said happily.
"That's ham." Britney corrected him.
"Wait? Seriously?"
"Seriously." Henry said.
"No wonder it didn't look like chicken. I thought that it looked different because it's a different world."
"Pete, we've been living here for 4 months now, you've had chicken to eat dozens of times already including yesterday. Why would you think that the chicken would look different right now than it did yesterday?"
"I mean anything is possible."
"This idiot!" Henry rubs Pete's head with his hand and he secretly steals some ham for himself.
"Hey, that's my chicken!"
"Not anymore, nerd!" Both began bickering and fighting for no reason.
Britney was just eating calmly as it is not the first time this has happened.
'I live with children.' Britney thought as she secretly stole some ham from Henry without him noticing. It was a very good ham indeed.
"Peter!" Josh barged into their room.
Everyone stared at Josh. Why was this loser here? Pete looked at him angrily especially, he hates it when people get his name wrong.
"Man, that smells delicious! Is that turkey?" Josh asked.
"Ham!" Henry almost shouted at Josh.
"Okay, okay, jeez hostile. Anyways, Peter, wanna help me in my awesome and kewl quest for obtaining awesomeness?"
"Ow! Oh!" Pete held his stomach in pain.
"You okay?" Henry looked seemingly worried for his friend.
"I'm lactose intolerant, I just didn't expect so much cheese to come out from his mouth."
"Pft!" Britney almost let out a laugh and spat out the food in her mouth.
"And also my name is PETE! Not PETER! PETE!"
"Okay fine, no need to yell. But seriously I need your help, Pete."
"You need my help? With what?" Pete asked. It's the first time anyone's asked for his help.
"I'm trying to tame a mount for me and my harem, but I'll need your hero ability that lets you communicate with monsters."
This is Josh's plan. After watching anime for so many years he is confident that he has mastered every main character's ultimate technique: Talk-no-jutsu!
Of course he needed Pete's ability to communicate with the dragons. The language barrier is what kept him from going directly to the black mountains.
If he relies on his plot armor, he is confident that all of the dragon's will end up BEGGING to take their eggs with him, to raise them as his own little pets. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened to a 'main character' as he likes to call himself.
"A mount?" Pete never thought of that. They have been busy trying to explore the world, and failing miserably, they haven't thought of getting a mount to travel and fight for them.
Pete has the ability to communicate with animals. Henry can copy the abilities of other heroes, despite that amazing ability it has its limits unfortunately.
And lastly Britney can suck the energy out of anything.
"Why have we not thought of that before?" Henry asked. Everyone else shrugged, all of them agreeing internally that they're idiots.
"Please, Pete, help me out, man."
"I don't know man. It's not like a Nintendo game, we only have one life. If we go out there we will die!"
"Ha! Nonsense! I've been going back and forward all this time and not once have I been hurt, except in the tournament. And if you have forgotten, my hero ability is pretty powerful enough to take down dragons!"
Josh knows that everyone knows that he took down that Apex dragon that attacked the kingdom a few months ago. That same dragon turned out to be Maid.
Josh will never tell them, or anyone that he almost died. It would hurt his pride as the main character if he showed weakness.
Not like the heroes thought much of him to begin with.
"What mount do you have in mind?" Henry asked, for Pete's sake. It depends what kind of animal Josh wants to tame.
If it was too dangerous they would have to reject Josh. Their life was not worth getting a mount.
"A lizard, really." Josh said, avoiding telling the whole truth. If he told them the truth of going to the black mountains, without a doubt they would reject the idea.
'I mean dragon's are technically lizards.' Josh thought.
"I mean, I do kinda want a lizard. Lizard's are cool." Pete nodded his head.
His cousin owned a lizard, they named him the 'Dragon warrior' after his cousin's favorite movie, Kung Fu Panda.
"I thought lizards only lived on the Empire? That's a 2 week trip or longer." Britney said. She has been secretly reading about this world.
"Do you guys wanna help or not? Besides I know a place where there's a lot of lizards and it's a week trip at most." Josh said.
"We never stayed outside of the kingdom longer than a day, and you expect us to go with you to someplace for a week?" Henry pointed out.
They tried staying out longer, but they're too chicken but also like to play it safe.
"Well I just need Pete's ability. And also I've been outside of the kingdom for weeks at a time, and I haven't as much as gotten a single scratch on me. I can take down anything on my path with my ability." Josh stood upright as he smiled confidently as he pointed to himself with his thumb, it was more of a funny and cringey type of pose.
All he needs to say is 'That is my ninja/hero way' and he would be copying Naruto.
"What anime character are you trying to pose as?" Henry did not believe that any normal person would ever pose like that, unless if he was a weeb which would make sense.
"What? What pose?" Josh had no idea what he meant.
"Nevermind."
"I guess… I should follow Josh." Pete said.
'Yes!' Josh smiled but tried to keep it hidden.
Henry looked at Britney and both rolled their eyes.
"I mean, Bruce was kinda cool in the tournament. I kinda wanna be that strong. And who knows I might be stronger than the Great Sage. Perhaps this is my chance to be strong." Pete said.
Yes, he was what many would call a 'pussy' but playing DnD for so long made him rethink and made him want to try actually using his hero abilities.
Any man, woman, person has at least once in their lives wished to be strong, to be someone they're not.
Pete's hero ability reminds him of the movie 'Aquaman' where he can communicate with marine life and command them. If he could harness its power, control any monsters, he could indeed be stronger than any hero who has ever lived.
"Okay, Josh, let's do this!" Pete got up.
"Sweet. You two coming?" Josh asked Britney and Henry.
"No." Both answered immediately.
"Let's go, Pete."
Both heroes left the room. Henry and Britney were all alone.
"How long do you give Pete before he comes back?" Britney asked.
"About 11 minutes."
"20 minutes, at most."
3 minutes later, Pete comes back.
"Sorry, I need to eat my food first." Pete said.
Josh was annoyed, but waited patiently.
Britney and Henry smirked. Josh doesn't know Pete as well as they do.
After cleaning his plate clean, Pete stood up.
"Ready?"
"Not yet. My dessert is not here yet."
"You just ate dinner for four people."
"Yes, and I am so full and *yawn* I'm so sleepy. You know what? Let's do this tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow is too soon. How about in 3-10 days. Actually, why don't we wait until the lizards migrate to this part of the kingdom? Would save us a lot of time."
Josh looked at Britney and Henry, signaling him with his eyes to help him out.
Pete was the one who kept making excuses about everything. When they do go out, he complains about EVERYTHING.
And sometimes he says he wants to be 'this strong' or 'that strong' but lacks the will to do it.
Later Pete was sound asleep.
"Is he usually like this?" Josh asked.
"No, sometimes he's lazy." Henry said mockingly.
Pete was someone who didn't want to do anything. It's why Pete has such a large beard that made him look older than he really is, because he just didn't want to shave his own beard.
If it weren't for Henry and Britney, and also Victoria for scaring the hell out of him, Pete would have never moved from his comfy bed.
"Wait, can't you copy his hero ability?" Josh had another idea.
"I am not helping you in any way."
"Yeah, that's fair."
Josh left the room. It seems that Pete will not be helping him get that dragon egg he wanted, but Josh really needed his hero ability.
'I need to do something to get Pete outside the kingdom?'
Josh could tell a few things about those three, Pete was the easiest one to trick and manipulate, but Henry and Britney are smart, and could figure out what he really wanted to do.
'It's best if I don't bring those two with me, they'll find out I want a dragon egg long before I can reach the black mountains. But how? Oh main character plot armor, please help me out!'
At that moment he saw a figure walking towards his way, it's someone he did not want to see, Victoria.
Victoria's body jiggled by every step she took. Her entire body was covered in blood that wasn't hers, as well as a terrible smell came out of her that Josh could smell from afar. Her scent reminded him of the time he dissected a frog in science class but way more pungent.
'Oh god no! Not her, please!' Josh took this as a sign and did not like it one bit. He was very afraid of her.
'Welp, beggars can't be choosers.'
Josh walked up to Victoria and talked to her.