Will bought all the supplies from the Empire that he needed and stored them safely inside his new ring. The supplies included salt, cotton, many types of delicious food, and so on.
The bad thing was they didn't sell any monster parts. Meaning that he had to hunt the monsters himself.
First things first he delivered the supplies to Sandra since she would take care of it for him. He teleported to his base using the waystone.
"Hey Sandra, look what I… brought?"
"PLAYYYYY THE SONNNNNNG YOU SANG LONG AGOOOOOO! ANNNNND WHEREVER THE STORRRM MAY BLOWWWW! YOUUUUU WILL FINNNNND THE KEYYYYY TO MY HEARRRRRRT WE'LL NEVER BEEEE APARRRRRT!"
(Song: Search in Youtube: Davy Jones LYRICS song from PoTC}
She stood on top of the throne and sang her heart out. She tore her sleeves from her shirt, she wore the expensive crown, she was lost in her little world.
The entire room was covered in smoke, and there were several dozens of people made of smoke who were cheering for her like they would be in a rock band concert, though they made no noise because they are smoke, and Sandra controlled each and every one of them.
She found out long ago that her smoke is non-lethal, anybody could breath her smoke and not be affected in the slightest apart from being blind by the smoke. It really only worked like a smoke grenade in a CoD game, that can impair everyone's vision who is caught up in her smoke, even her allies.
Will looked amused and wanted to join since it's a song they are both familiar with. But for now he had to gather food for Adaline.
She was so into singing that she didn't even notice that he opened the door, then again the smoke did limit her vision by a bit. He left her a chest in the kitchen filled with the supplies he bought along with a little note, this way he wouldn't interrupt her mood.
Adaline came running at Will, almost knocking him down.
"Woah, easy there." Will hugged Adaline, she acted like an adorable puppy, if the puppy was 6ft and made entirely out of vines and flowers. But he let go shortly after.
"Sorry, girl, I miss you as well. But I have to bring some food for you first." Will teleported to his underground mine. With the waystone it is so much faster and very convenient.
Using the 500 mana ores that he got from the Empress, plus the mana ores that his golems mined, he crafted 69 more golems, making the total amount of golems now exactly 100.
He used all low-tier and some mid-tier mana ores to craft more low-tier golems. The mid-tier mana ores he kept because he wanted to use it to upgrade his inventory to {Inventory II} which meant that he would be able to carry more items.
Lo and behold, he did a bit of math and as it turns out, he could indeed upgrade his inventory.
He had 297 mid-tier mana ores. 250 of it came from trading with the Empress, the extra 47 came from the golems who mined it. He had to spend 37 mid-tier mana ores to create 37 low-tier golems, making the total of mid-tier ores 260. Then he spent 150 mid-tier ores to upgrade his inventory.
The total number of inventory slots he had went up from 10 to 20.
Now he has 110 mid-tier mana ores remaining.
Doing the math once again, he crafted 1 high-tier mana using 100 mid-tier mana ores. And in turn, he got something incredible.
"Woah… cool." Will said.
{High-tier mana ore}
{Impossible to break. The strongest and most powerful version of mana ore in this world}
The ore was bigger, it couldn't even fit in his palm anymore, it was relatively heavy like a small bowling ball. Instead of the blue color of the other lower tiers, this one had multiple colors such as pink, blue, and purple, they moved like flowing water inside the crystal.
The original shape even changed. It went from a round shape to a large egg shape, as it was as if he was carrying a large crystal egg.
Of course the thing that really caught Will's attention are the exclusive crafts.
"Woah… that is cool." Will read the new exclusive crafts and he couldn't wait to craft them.
Sadly he was too poor to afford them at the moment.
Will teleported to the waystone that was near the Empire to do some hunting . Flying around he could scout the forest for monsters, with his enchanted mask he could see afar. This made him feel like an eagle, who flies up high and hunts for prey as it scouts for food with its insane range of sight.
He had to fly far away since the Empire prioritizes killing nearby monsters for the safety of their people. The really dangerous ones the Empress takes it to her own hands to ensure that more of her people survive.
The dense forest had many monsters and animals living in it. It ranged from goblins, crocodiles, special types of red, giant, fat goblins, ogres, and the powerful cyclops. Dragons are rarely ever seen in these parts of the land.
Cyclops gave him the most trouble. Sometimes they like to stay in groups of 4 or more, some were loners, and cyclops sometimes grouped up with other cyclops to raid villages. And with their laser eyes, they were a pain.
Of course Will solved the problem of the cyclops by simply blowing them up with explosive rounds… kinda anticlimactic for Will since cyclops are known to be powerful, especially the ones at the Apex level, but he hadn't come across a single Apex cyclops. The most powerful monster was a cyclops on the second layer..
These explosions would ruin the cyclops bodies, but Will didn't care since Adaline ate them no matter what. She apparently even liked to eat poisonous scorpions.
Will's a gamer by heart, gamers will always find ways to cheese their way out of things. Nothing says that he has to take them down in a specific/heroic/epic way.
Of course he didn't forget to include the most important thing: Soul stones for his cursed enchantments. Every time he killed a monster, their life energy or whatever would be placed inside a soul stone, sometimes multiple stones at a time would be filled by killing a cyclops.
The surrounding area would catch fire because explosives also mean fire, and also all the monsters he hunted all were in a dense and dry forest. Of course he would only bomb the ones who gave him the most trouble.
Will solved this problem by making it rain heavily to turn off the fire. He wouldn't want a forest fire to happen in such a great place to hunt monsters.
He also picked up whatever logs he could, and planted more trees. The forest reminded him a bit of Adaline since she is part of nature.
Second day…
Nothing abnormal had happened. He continued to grind for monsters practically non stop till it was dark. He sometimes had to go back to his base using his waystone to craft more soul stones. Of course he secretly left some food for Adaline while avoiding Sandra.
He checked on his golems, saw that they were making good progress, made some more golems and golem cores thanks to them mining non stop.
He wasn't ready to go back yet. He was on a grind. It reminded him of grinding in video games. The feeling was coming back to him.
Last day…
The third and final day something happened that made him go back to his kingdom.
Will felt as if he had flown in a straight line for hours. And he was right. He wasn't lost since he had a handy map to guide him. It was just getting scarce finding good monsters since they were hiding from him. He had long stopped hunting lonely goblins since he believed they weren't worth his time anymore.
Goblins are weaker than most monsters. They couldn't even fill up a single soul stone. Unless he sees a huge red goblin, those are worth killing.
Will had been so busy hunting down monsters that he had forgotten one thing: he can also be hunted.
*Flap* *Flap*
Will heard something flapping and it wasn't his own wings, it sounded heavy and strong, and the sound only grew louder by the second. It came from behind so he couldn't see what it was.
"What is-H$@DFIS)!$H@@&#U#OHO!" Will began crying out in gibberish.
A dragon, an Apex dragon no less, scared the living crap out of him as it was flying towards him. If one fails to notice a huge monster flying at you and is already so close, anyone would be scared.
*ROAR*
The dragon roared furiously. It was just passing by when it noticed Will. Since he knows it's a human he wanted to kill him, anyone can tell it's a human by its shape and smell. It flew behind Will and didn't make any noise, however his enormous wings would give him away by the sound they made.
Also the smell coming from Will's armor caught his attention, this made him very angry. The smell was from someone of his own race, and someone the dragon once knew, a close companion. The fact that Will was wearing his scales made him boil with rage.
"Nonononono! I got so much shit on me!" Will was scared, but the thought of losing all the items he had on him made him fear for his life.
He got lucky on the third day. He hunted more monsters than he did on the first 2 days combined. There was a giant goblin's nest that had hundreds of goblins. There were also female elves and humans, and also many bones as well. All the captives unfortunately were all already dead when he arrived.
The thought of fighting back didn't occur to him. All he wanted was to run away and retreat to his kingdom where he could safely place his stuff back, much like in every single game he played that you can lose stuff upon death, Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, No Man's sky, Terraria mediumcore mode, and others.
Even now he is not confident in taking down a dragon, especially an Apex level dragon.
*ROAR*
The dragon breathed fire and the fire flew at Will.
Will dived down to the deep forest to take cover with the fire barely roasting him alive.
{HP: 4214/4400}
"GAH!" Will could feel the flames burning his feet as he was diving.
*BOOM*
"Ahhhhhggggggg…" Will felt as if everything on his body was broken.
Will crashed on the ground very heavily. The fire had burned his wings to a crisp, making him unable to fly anymore, it was the equivalent of one parachute breaking. The wings are also a weakness that dragon's have since they are not entirely fireproof, if you manage to damage them, dragons will be unable to fly.
His entire right arm was broken as he landed on it when he crashed. It was completely broken.
{HP 1321/4400} his HP increased the last time he went back to his kingdom thanks to Adaline and the exotic seed producing exotic flowers for him.
If this was before when he started with 50 HP, he would have died before he crashed on the ground.
What he knows is that the higher his HP is, the more hits he can take much like a tank in an RPG game, unless the hits he takes are fatal in which case it means insta kill.
"Crap! Crap!" Will took off his armor with his injured left hand since it was burning him, his legs were burned and he couldn't feel the burning sensation in his legs for some reason.
Dragon's are resistant to fire and heat, while the scales do help, but their tough skin also helps a lot. And humans do not have tough skin unfortunately.
*ROAR*
The dragon landed on the forest causing a mini earthquake tearing down all the trees around it. The nearby animals already started to flee long ago.
"Run! Run! You stupid legs, MOVE!" Will wanted to cry. His body wasn't responding to how he wanted.
He had been paralyzed on the lower half of his body when he crashed, it's why he couldn't feel any pain from his legs. He might take more hits now, but his body was still fragile.
Will wanted to eat some healing pills he had on his chest, but he would most likely die before he could even take out a chest from his pockets. It takes all but a few seconds to retrieve an item from his chest, but those few seconds is all the dragon needs to kill him.
"Screw it!" Will knew his death was inevitable at this point.
He aimed his weapon and went all trigger happy at the dragon's face. It's all he could do for now, it's all he could think of with the amount of adrenaline rushing through his body, and the fear of losing his stuff.
Since he was right handed, not only was his left hand injured, his left arm aim was horrible. Most of the shots completely either missed or hit another part of the dragon's body. He wanted to aim for the dragon's eyes, but failed.
The dragon, who was actually being repelled by the sudden flurry of explosions, flew away because it knew he couldn't take on Will. And thus Will had survived due to sheer luck and determination to stay alive…
Is what would happen in a perfect world.
Sadly what really happened is that it jumped up high and crushed Will with his feet and weight.
The Apex dragon would have crushed Will sooner before when he first landed. But he wanted to make Will suffer for a bit. After all in his eyes Will not only killed a friend of his, but is wearing his body as armor.
Will had died.
"Gasp!" Will woke up on his bed that was hidden underground moments later. He realized what happened and groaned angrily on his bed. This was nothing like losing your items in a video game, the feeling was much worse.
Will was unfortunate. If he had encountered a weaker dragon, perhaps he might have escaped or survived. But not only was that dragon one of the strongest ones, it was also out for blood.
With the realization that his enchanted dragon scale armor was gone, his weapons, his mask, his items, it made him feel terrible. He didn't even know if his items could be safely retrieved at this point, he didn't even know at which part of the forest he died.
He wanted to place his important stuff inside his inventory, but the thought didn't occur to him until now. He was just so scared and focused on survival.
He lost his map as well. They weren't difficult to make but it was time consuming to fill it out,
"If only I noticed that dragon sooner. If only I had gone straight to my kingdom after killing those goblins. Goddammit!"
Will now knew that he was still weak. He is indeed stronger than when he first started without a doubt, but he still couldn't take down a dragon on his own.
This also proves Josh's power, who can take down an Apex dragon with ease. A terrible person but with a powerful and explosive ability.
The dragon staggered and took minor damage when Will shot it with explosives. But it wasn't enough to kill it, not even close. It was akin to being slapped a few times with a large and heavy pillow.
This feeling that Will was feeling is something all gamers can relate to. The feeling of losing something important, the wanting to cry, to hit something, to quit, to rage, to curse, to rant, it's part of life.
Nothing ever turns out like anyone wants it to.
"GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhh…" Will let out a cry to vent his anger. It took him 10 minutes to get out of bed.
"Let's see… I lost my map, my dragon armor, the ring that the Empress gave me, multiple chests with resources such as monster corpses, over a hundred soul stones, my enchanted pistol with infinite enchantment and explosive rounds… god I hope no one finds that weapon."
Will didn't lose anything that was in his inventory. One of the great perks about his inventory is that his stuff doesn't drop upon death.
"I still have my magical teleporting cloak, the golden ball that changes the weather, all the anti hero metal, my cape. I really hope I didn't lose anything important."
If this were a video game Will would have rage quit. Sadly this is reality, and the best thing he could do right now is to continue.
Will left his secret hiding spot where his bed is. There was no door in the room, it had small and barely noticeable cracks to let air inside to circulate, or else he would die and/or suffer greatly from carbon dioxide if his room is airtight shut. The same went for the secret exotic seed that he planted in another secret room. Since it was a plant he thought it needed oxygen.
The only way people can enter the secret rooms is by teleporting through the walls since it doesn't have doors. Or people could break down the walls like Grace and Rias did one time.
"Master."
The sound of 100 golems saluted Will in unison, the ground shaked a bit from their deep and powerful voices.
"Hey." Will said, not in a good mood. Will sat down and began counting the materials he accumulated from hunting down monsters.
'Only 80 soul stones, whereas before I had about 300. And only 7 cyclops, some goblins, crocodiles, and 2 ogres. Damn it's not a lot for Adaline. I have to go back hunting but in a different spot.' Will thought. At most the amount of bodies would last Adaline 2 weeks or less.
He would have gladly placed those soul stones and monster parts inside his inventory since it seemed like a smart thing to do, but the sad thing is enchanted stones and soul stones do not stack inside his inventory, nor do monster corpses since they varied in size and shape.
Enchanted stones are the only way to add more than one of your own preferable enchantments to any item, much like how enchanting books work in minecraft.
It's one of the bad perks of the inventory, some items do not stack, especially enchanted items.
The majority of the golems went back to work. One walked up to Will and kneeled on one leg.
"Master, I have the report ready."
"Alright… fine… Let's hear it." Will said, still feeling dejected.
Two days ago Will told the golem to keep a detailed report on all the minerals and ore they mined during his absence.
Will wanted them to write it on paper, but as it turned out since they were a hive mind they were all connected, and the best part the advanced-tier golem had a photographic memory.
He couldn't wait to see what a high-tier golem would be like. Sadly they are expensive to make.
"We mined a total of 542 mana ores. 322 are low-tier and the rest are mid-tier. We have mined a total of 632 diamonds, 2213 gold ores, 3443 iron ores, and 5511 copper ore."
"Holy… all that from two days of work?" Will had greatly underestimated how many ores and minerals 100 golems can mine.
Thanks to the restless and powerful and improved golems, their efficiency benefited their ability to mine valuable resources.
And it is also thanks to the enchanted pickaxes Will crafted for them that they could mine so many. Every single pickaxe has an important enchantment called {Loot miner+ V} which can multiply the ores and minerals they mine.
"And also… we detected a nest of scorpions."
"A nest… again!" Will stood up. The last time this happened his golems cores, and base were destroyed.
Right now if they escaped again it would be worse. Sandra and Adaline are here, there were 100 golems here, and people were all literally right outside his base. The scorpions can endanger all of their lives.
"We heard it and purposefully avoided it and mined another location."
"Did they escape their nest?"
"Not one."
"Okay. Next time it's better if you don't mine at all if you hear a scorpion nest, or anything like that, understand? Now take me to the scorpion nest."
As much as Will hated the idea of losing resources, it was better if they didn't mine if they heard scorpions.
Will needed to take care of those scorpions asap.