'Standing here, I realize… you were just like me trying to make history.' Will sang to himself as he read a book that Grace gifted him to learn elven language, he was skimming through it to refresh his memory.
Learning an entirely new language is incredibly difficult for anybody. Will patted himself in the back for at least learning a few words.
Most humans don't even bother learning elven language. Even elves, despite their incredibly long lifespan, won't or can't learn another language.
Many heroes from the past had tried to bring their own main language to this world, French, Chinese, German, etc, but they are quickly forgotten and thrown away because all humans are used to speaking english. And in a world where there are monsters they can't afford to learn or teach another language.
*Creak*
The Empire's gates were opening. It made a loud and heavy sound as the chains pulled the metal gate.
"Hm?" The noise caught Will's attention.
'Gotta copy down how they do that with the gate and add it to my kingdom.' Will thought.
He has a gate, but it didn't open like he wanted it to.
He heard another rumbling noise being him. Over 200 people were walking towards the Empire. Leading them was the Empress.
"Let him in. He's with me." The Empress ordered his men.
She, along with 200 of her men and her giant lizard mounts, came back after defeating ogres who were near her Empire. They brought back their corpses as they could be used to make magical weapons.
Will was more startled upon seeing the giant lizards. After the giant scorpion incident, he has started to hate over-sized animals.
"Are you coming or what?" The Empress asked Will.
Will got up and entered the castle along with her men.
Being alongside her men made Will feel small, weak, insecure. He could never imagine having the command and respect of others like that. The giant lizards made it worse for Will.
Golems don't count as he made them, are not living, and their sole purpose is to serve him.
Everyone stared at Will, giving him an awkward feeling.
The people who stayed outside the kingdom didn't give him such a feeling. That was more of a feeling of being admired, and being hailed as a celebrity.
But in the Empire it felt more as if he was out of place. It was quiet and weird.
'This feels like whenever I was called out by the teacher in school and everyone would stare at me.' Will thought.
"The Empress is back! They're here!"
People began shouting, and celebrating for their safe return and success in killing the ogres. They all stared at them with admiration in their eyes. Families of the soldiers came to greet their families.
"William, can you stay here for a bit?" The Empress asked Will.
She walked up to a few people, a pair of women with normal looks, and 3 children who are still far too young to understand anything. These are the families of the two men who died while fighting the ogres.
Every time one of her soldiers dies, if they have family she will bring them the news herself, exempt their families from ever paying taxes, and make bronze statues of them to honor them. It's the best she could do for them to help them grieve.
Even if she tried her best she could not have saved those men. Their time was up, she knew because she can see everyone's biological clock. No one can live past their time.
The women broke to the ground in tears, the children wondering where their daddies were. The Empress did her best to console them, as did everybody else when they realized what had happened.
In a few hours the crowd dispersed and went on with their daily lives.
A few of her men stayed with her to keep her safe. Even within her kingdom she must be protected and be accompanied by guards.
"Come with me, Will… should I call you Will or hero or William or…?" The Empress asked.
She asks because her people always refer to her as 'Empress' . She doesn't mind it as it is her title, but she would like it more if people called her by her name.
"Will is fine."
"Good. Can you please take off your armor?"
"No. Last time I took it off at my own kingdom I got ki… shot at." Will almost gave away that he could be killed and respawn.
"I understand. But I cannot allow anyone to step further into the Empire wearing armor like yours. Sorry to say but you might be carrying a weapon for all I know."
As much as she wants to befriend Will, everyone else's safety comes first.
And the '0's on top of Will's head still gave her doubts. Was he an immortal? A zombie? What could it possibly mean?
If she sees his face and he's undead, like the ones that the Witch could make, it would make sense.
A few months ago there was an incident relating to the Witch, which explains why there was a zombie in the earlier chapters. Since then she has tried her best to keep it a secret from everybody.
But zombies are stupid, can't communicate, and eat humans, all of which Will hasn't displayed.
Will has to make a difficult decision. Should he take off his armor?
"Fine." Will decided to trust her this one time. Since he could respawn and teleport back here at any moment, he had nothing to fear. If he were to be kidnapped and held against his will, he had an idea to get out of the situation. The answer is: kamikaze. He had a single enchanted bullet in his inventory that could blow up if he applied enough pressure such as biting it.
He could bring more but for some reason the inventory does not allow him to story enchanted items in this inventory. One bullet was more than enough to cause enough destruction and kill himself.
He took off his armor revealing his tan face. He wore his ordinary clothes underneath.
'So not a zombie.' The Empress was secretly relieved that Will wasn't some sort of intelligent zombie, since he always hides his face and body. Still the '0's really did make her doubt Will's real identity. If he were a zombie those '0's would make a ton of sense since zombies are dead.
Now that he took off his armor, they inspected him closely to check for any hidden weapons.
"We also need to take that." One of the Empress's guards pointed at Will's mini chest.
The chests are exactly like shulker boxes in minecraft, and functioned like a pokeball. The chest could shrink and grow in their ordinary size once they leave Will's grasp. While they could carry a large amount of items, they could not be placed inside his inventory unless they're empty.
"But… fine." Will placed two of his chests on the ground and they grew into its ordinary size in an instant, shocking the guards and Empress alike.
"Relax, I only brought some food with me for the road. And the other chest has um… tools. And um… here." Will handed them a large leather pouch with gold coins in it. In case everything went well he thought to buy a few things from the Empire if he needed it.
The men took Will's chests by dragging it since it was heavy. A large chest made of solid iron is very heavy.
Someone else brought in a weird object that looked like a smooth brick long before as he was patiently waiting. It was a magical item that can detect other magical items. The item didn't react when it reached Will so they assumed that he didn't carry any magical items.
Any magical items that are in Will's inventory cannot be detected. Of course nobody else but Will knows that.
All the important stuff he carried is in his inventory. That includes the golden device that can change the weather, mana ores, his teleporting hood thingy, {hologram platform} Everything else was left behind, even his weapon with an infinite enchantment. He only carried with him his enchanted dragon armor, some food, an enchanted gun with some bullets, and a chest to carry some stuff with him.
"My men will take your armor. When you're about to leave you can have it back."
The Empress kept a close eye on Will as always. She has some secret tests she wants to use to see if Will is really a hero, an immortal, or anything. There had to be a good reason why Will has '0's like a dead person would.
Will felt as if he was naked in public being taken off his dragon armor. Should the Empress try to kill him instead, he is ready to release hell with the weapons he still has in his inventory,
First, he'll make it snow heavily for good, everyone knows that terrible weather affects everything. Why cold weather and not intense heat? Will honestly didn't know what was worse, cold or heat, so he's taking a gamble and going for cold weather.
Second, he will fly around the Empire where people could barely make out his figure, and shoot at the Empire with infinite and explosive bullets. It would be the equivalent of a bomber plane releasing infinite bombs. The destruction would be immeasurable.
Of course the last one would be in case he has to take it to the extreme.
Will wanted to take out the {hologram platform} but he feels if the Empress's men were to see him take out a foriegn object, he would be tackled or shot at.
Will followed the Empress all the way to her throne room. It looked rather clean but the room was barely ever used. Instead of sitting around all day doing nothing, the Empress would rather work or cover for someone else so they could have a day off.
She personally dragged in a wooden chair for Will to sit on. There are barely any maids or butlers in this building as it is rarely ever used by her. Once every month the throne room gets cleaned. She just never really saw the point of sitting on a throne all day while her men worked.
As for her men they're standing and keeping close to Will.
Valerie then sat on her throne, cross legged. She carefully observed Will's face, his body language, his facial expressions.
"Is there anything I can offer you, Will? Juice, water, wine?"
"No thanks. I-I don't drink alcohol."
There was a time when Will wanted to drink alcohol because he thought he would look cool. It was when Alex intervened and prevented him from drinking alcohol since Alex had a tragic past thanks to his alcoholic and drugged abusive parents.
It was that day when Alex told him of his past and Will, in consideration for his friend, threw away the idea of drinking any kind of alcohol. Even if he did his own parents would have given him the beating of a lifetime since he was underage at the time.
(Read 'Killer of Mc's' to understand better. :) )
"Hm. Before your mana ores and anti-hero metals arrive, how about a chat? Just the two of us… in private." The Empress turned to her bodyguards behind Will signaling them with her eyes to leave them be.
"But, Empress-" The two guards understood her and thought that it was too risky to let her be alone with a hero.
"It's fine. Just go."
"But… yes."
One of the guards secretly poked Will in the arm with a knife and made him bleed a little making it look like an accident.
"Ow! What the heck."
"Sorry!"
{HP: 4249/4250}
The guards begrudgingly left the room, not before glaring at Will by secretly warning him that if anything were to happen to the Empress they'll make him suffer.
Of course the Empress wasn't alone with Will. Behind a few secret holes in the throne room were some of her guards aiming rifles at Will.
The Empress didn't know if her bullets could pierce through Will's enchanted dragon scale armor, so she made him take it off to find out if he was a zombie, and to take off his only form of protection leaving him vulnerable, and to read his expression better when she is talking to him, and this way she would make Will think that she trusts him.
She also asked beforehand for one of them to poke Will with a knife to see if his tiny wound heals as fast as the other heroes. It did not. Which proved that he does not have the ability that all heroes do.
Valerie planned this all out before she arrived at her kingdom.
"Sorry about that. Now that we are alone I want to ask you something that's been bothering me." Valerie said with a smile.
"What?"
"What exactly are you?"
"Um… human? Male?" Will didn't understand her question but answered anyway, something that many could relate to in school during a difficult question in a test.
"Not that. You're certainly not a hero yet you come from the place where all heroes come from, Earth, yet you possess many abilities and yet you lack the strength and regenerative abilities that every hero has. A tiny scratch wound like that should have healed you… actually, it shouldn't have even been able to cut you that easily since heroes are also slightly durable. So therefore you're not really a hero but something else. And also you didn't teleport like all the other heroes."
"I keep telling everyone, something went wrong with the summoning thing and it messed me up."
That was Will's excuse for now. He can't tell anyone about his system, so he'll blame everything he could on the summoning circle. By far that is the best and only answer he can come up with.
If he told someone about his system, chances are people would hardly believe or understand him. Even he himself doesn't understand how the system fully works. All he knows is that it works like it would in a sandbox game.
Of course there are at least some heroes out there who are weebs and could understand it better than Will could, he just didn't know it. Even Sandra would understand better.
"That could be true. But another question, did you die before you were summoned or was that after?"
Will was surprised, but quickly hid his facial expression by answering back immediately, Valerie noticed it.
"Um… what? Did I die? I don't know how that makes any sense."
Valerie noticed his expression, but didn't know if it was genuinely because he was confused, nervous, or taken aback by her question.
If someone were to ask anyone if they died, they would also react like Will did.
"You're right, that was a dumb question to ask. Do you have any plans to… Do you have any questions for me? Seems fair that you can ask me some questions."
She wanted to ask him to think about moving to the Empire but refrained from doing so. If she did ask, chances are that the King would be angry and there might be some kind of a fight between them. And right now not even the Kingdom knows that the Empire and Will have a form of relationship, so keeping it secret seemed like the right call for now.
And lastly, she didn't know Will and trusted him enough to be living in the Empire. The fact that he can make infinite ammo weapons and even build structures with ease and so fast, made her want him to move in the Empire with her.
"Hm… could I tour the Empire for a bit? I brought money to trade but your men took it away."
"That's… it?" Valerie was sure that Will had more important questions to ask, but that was it?
"Yeah. I mean I only came here to receive the mana ores and the anti-hero metals. After that I planned to browse around for a bit."
'Browse… My Empire isn't a market where people can 'browse' however they like.' Valerie thought.
"You want me to get someone to give you a tour of the Empire?"
"Nah. I feel like it's better if I do it myself." Will simply wanted to be alone and copy down buildings that caught his eye.
People might say that he is lazy for copying down already made structures instead of building it by hand. But Technoblade once said in one of his potato war videos, 'The dream that all skyblock players share is to not have to play anymore.'
And that quote stuck with Will because just like Technoblade, he also played skyblock, but didn't want to put the immense time and effort to grind for it but also kept wanting to play it since it is so addicting and fun at first.
So instead he has to find a way to make it easier for himself by finding a way to not grind for the items himself.
Much like his golems right now. Even while he is far away they are already gathering valuable resources for him.
'No matter how I see it, this is simply suspicious.' Valerie thought that he was acting weird all of a sudden. Why does he want to be alone?
As she placed her hand on her back, one of her guards entered the room and handed Will a ring.
Placing her hand behind her head was a signal to deliver the items. She was stalling to have a conversation with Will.
"The ring has the anti-hero metal and mana ores I promised you. After this I trust that you won't give or say anything about 'those' weapons you have to the kingdom or anyone else besides us?" Valerie said to be sure.
"I may not look like it but I am a man of my word. Should I return the ring later or…?"
"Keep it. We have a ton of those anyways. Consider it a gift."
"Well even better. Thanks, anyway." With this ring Will had 3 different magical weapons that can store items.
The first is when he accidentally stole the ring from Josh when traded dragon corpses for gold coins and gold bars. The second item is when he spared Radix's life and an elf, Rias, gave him a bracelet in exchange for his life.
"You can have the money back from my men. But your armor and… chests, will be given back to you when you leave the Empire. Sorry, nobody but guards are allowed to carry weapons or armor. No exceptions allowed even for you."
"I understand. See you. If you have any more anti-hero metals or mana ores, tell me and I will bring more weapons over." Will left by himself.
His parents always told him, 'if you are living in someone else's place, follow their rules.' and Will felt like they were right. If anyone acted disrespectful inside of his own kingdom he'd kick them out in a second.
'We have an abundance of mana ores. It's just that I first want to test out the weapons you brought before I make another trade.' Valerie thought.
Even if the first two trades with Will are somehow not as good as she expected, at least this way she has some connections to a hero.
She saw Will leave her building. People immediately ran to her side.
"Empress, are you okay?" Her men and best friend were worried for her sake despite keeping a close eye on her this whole time.
"Nothing terrible happened fortunately. But I want a few of you to follow him and report his actions to me. I trust you all to know what to do." Valerie said as she placed her chef's hat.
"Yes, Chef… Empress!" 3 men in enchanted chainmail armor followed Will. Because of her hat they sometimes call her 'chef' which she doesn't mind. Too bad that she can't cook, not due to lack of trying.
"Veronica, where are the weapons I bought?"
"In the weapon testing building."
"Excellent. Make sure nobody else knows or comes near the building for now."
"Okay."