After building 4 iron gates around his castle's walls, Will could finally relax for now.
Thanks to Sandra and the idea he stole from the Empire's gates, Will was able to build a functional working gate using the holographic platform. All he had to do was add a wheel lever, some chains attached to the top of the gate. It sounded simple but Will had a bit of trouble building the gates for some reason.
What he ended up doing, instead of relying on people or golems to pull the wheel lever to open the gate, Will made the wheel lever out of steel. Then finally he placed a single low-tier golem core inside the middle of the wheel.
And as he thought, the wheel lever became a golem. It couldn't speak, but it could hear Will.
As long as something is made of any type of metal, be it whatever shape or size, Will could make golems out of it as long as he places a core inside.
Now the gates can open by themselves without having to rely on anyone.
Will wondered how that is even possible because you needed someone to push or pull the lever. Where does the… lever wheel golem, as he calls it, even get the force necessary to pull an entire gate? Is it possible that it's pushing itself to pull an entire iron gate which weighs hundreds of pounds?
A mid-tier golem told him 'that's how it works, master.'
Then Will crafted something he had almost forgotten about.
{Builders touch: Able to move any items you have crafted and ONLY the ones you have crafted, nothing else. Like using telekinesis. Very useful for building. And only the system user can use its ability}
Will crafted this item which he had ignored at first. It was somewhat expensive as it required anti-hero metal to craft.
The item is a single thin, simple, black glove. It felt as smooth as silk and worked as any other glove, but to others it was as hard as metal and heavy.
Using his brain for the first time he wore the thin glove underneath his dragon armor and it worked. The ability works while the glove is underneath some armor.
Will first thought that small items such as pickaxes would only work, but it was much more than he expected.
The leftover iron ores he crafted levitated. He could also move the stone buildings, accidentally managed to tore off a piece of his iron wall, and even managed to fling a sentry turret by accident. He could even lift his golems, but they did feel heavy like an invisible force was weighing down his hand. It felt as if he was holding a dumbbell that weighs a few pounds.
What limited this amazing ability he just discovered is that he only has one thing glove, and also he cannot move anything with his touch that isn't what he crafted, as it was stated in the item's description.
So then he created a second glove, which unfortunately left Will with little to no anti-hero metal.
Still, to him it was worth it.
He could lift multiple objects at once with a wave of his hand. At first it was difficult to control and still is, but with enough practice Will believed he could use the builder's touch ability to its full potential.
Even someone like Will could see just how amazing the potential this new item really is.
Will even crafted a piece of iron floor to lift himself off the ground and it worked. It was different from flying. He didn't have to flap his wings every second. And although he does like flying, having something to stand on made him feel more comfortable.
"Hmm… interesting. OH!" Will had an idea.
Will crafted a comfy couch that was a bit bigger than it should be, and even included a cup holder to make it look 'fancy'. Will sat down, and lifting the chair off the ground with him in it, he flew far away.
With one hand he could fly as fast, or perhaps even faster than he could than using dragon wings. Dragon wings are great, but that is all Will has. While flying with this chair he could be sitting which made him feel amazing.
He then made a horrible mistake of using both his hands to fly. In turn it did go faster, over twice as fast as before, but he lost his control and he crashed horribly into the ground, it felt as if one were to suddenly drive at full speed on an ice ring.
The speed went so fast that he couldn't produce his wings to help him. On top of that the chair behind him also pushed him down. It did hurt but thankfully his armor protected him.
{HP: 4903/5025}
Will felt that he was getting more durable the more his HP increases. Even with armor Will believes that his injuries would have been far worse if his HP were around 200.
Will decided to put that plan on hold for now. For now he still had other things to worry about, like his farm. What was important was creating his own source of food, but it had to be somewhere far from his kingdom, where it would be safer and more secretive.
Will returned to his kingdom. Sandra saw him and ran up to him with a worried look on her face.
"Will, I need your help."
"What is it?" Will thought something horrible had happened, or else why would Sandra have that look on her face?
"Come." Sandra dragged him by his hand rather forcefully.
She led him to this family of five. A husband, his wife, a newborn, and their two daughters.
One of the girls is wearing a comically large scarf that covers her neck. Will first wondered where any would even get such a scarf.
Then looking upwards at the little girl with the scarf, Will stared at something that was on top of the girl that was invisible to others, but visible to him.
"Will, this girl here needs your help." Sandra said.
The family decided to tell Sandra in secret of the girl's slave collar, as they had deemed her somewhat trustworthy, they really had no other choice but to trust her.
Once Sandra heard of the slave collar, she felt insanely disgusted. Some perverted bastard is cruel, sick, twisted, and perverted enough to put a slave collar on a girl who doesn't even appear to be older than 13 years old.
Of course she had to help out the girl. Sadly they had no way to safely remove the collar from the girl's neck. Sandra could tear the collar with her strength, but it isn't guaranteed to not harm the little girl.
Sandra knows her strength could easily break the girl's neck if she was careless enough. It is why the collar is extremely thick, tight, and has no keyholes to be lock picked.
Will heard everything from the family.
'Should I help her? Do they not know what she really is?' Will thought, he looked at the words floating above the little girl's head.
{Dragon}
{HP: 90,000,000/90,000,000}
{Cursed: Enslaved}
Will remembers seeing the little girl. It was the time when he traded dragon corpses with Josh. He doesn't believe he has a great memory to instantly recognize anyone upon seeing them a second time, but there aren't exactly too many dragons who can transform themselves into little girls that are enslaved.
Maid, who is now called 'Amelia' backed away ever so slightly upon seeing Will, especially his dragon armor. Will wearing dragon scaled armor in front of Maid is the equivalent of a pig wearing human flesh, in her eyes at least.
"You guys do know that she's a dragon, right?" Will blurted it out.
They were in a room that was a bit further away from the other villagers' new houses. They were brought here by Sandra so no one else could see or hear about Maid's slave collar.
They were all silent. Not sure what Will just said.
"What?" The father asked, confused as much as everybody else. Maid however was scared all of a sudden.
Most heroes of each generation have killed dragons for fame and fortune. And now that she is in her human form, weak, and bound to a slave collar, would these two heroes in front of her kill her for that same purpose?
She didn't think anyone else could figure out her identity. Nobody has until now. Who would think that a little girl would turn out to be a dragon?
"I won't go into great detail but one of my abilities tells me she is a dragon, and a powerful one as well." Will could tell that much from her HP.
At minimum she is an apex dragon, one of the strongest and biggest. If he were to release her, would she transform into her dragon form and kill everyone here, and possibly destroy his kingdom?
His turrets might take her down, but why would he risk it? His turrets are aimed at the outside of his castle, as well as upwards in case there were flying enemies.
So far he hasn't placed many turrets that aimed at the inside of his kingdom, which is a mistake he had overlooked.
"Is that true, Will? Wait, a little girl dragon… ohhhhh." Sandra came to a realization. "I think I know who she is, or at least who bound her with that slave collar, it was Josh."
"Josh? The hero?" Kat said, shocked. Most people knew about Josh, his fame mostly comes from him having such destructive power.
Suddenly the father stood up and placed Kat and Maid behind him, protecting him and gently pushing them back further away from Will. The mother carried her baby and stood beside her husband.
"Please, let us go. We will be on our way. Just don't hurt them." The father gently pushed back his two daughters, one which he had already adopted at this point.
Once they heard that it was a hero who enslaved her, they thought these two heroes were all in it together, because they're heroes from the same planet. And now that they know, they believe that they would forcefully take Maid back to the one who enslaved her.
"Wait, so you know she's a dragon and you still want to protect her?" Will asked.
Will believed if he was in their shoes he would do the same. Adaline and Sandra are too important to him, much like how the little dragon girl must be important to that family.
"Yes, but we will figure something out. Just let us go."
"I mean, I'm not stopping you. You're free to go."
"What Will means to say is that we don't care about Josh. This kingdom and the Reyes kingdom are two entirely different things. We won't do anything to harm her, right Will?" Sandra looked at Will with a stern look on her face.
Dragon or not, enslaving a little girl is far too gross, immoral, and perverted. Even so Sandra believes that they could take down a dragon.
"She's right. But still she's a dragon. I don't care about Josh but I am more worried if she suddenly transforms into a huge dragon and destroys and kills everyone here."
'Oh, right.' Sandra realized what she had overlooked.
"She won't." Kat said.
Seeing Will at first he reminded him of 'mr scary eyes' which is a name the kids have given Will when he saved them. But his eyes weren't glowing bright blue like last time, and he wasn't wearing wooden exotic armor but rather dragon scale armor.
Right now she was too focused on Maid to think about anything else, she was like a sister at this point.
Will thought about it. He too, wanted to help out this child, but at the risk of people and his kingdom being destroyed? It wasn't worth taking the risk.
"We'll do something. Follow me."
Will walked outside his kingdom. The entire family, and Sandra, had no idea what Will was planning.
"We should follow him. Don't worry, I know he won't take away Amelia. He's not that kind of person." Sandra comforted the family.
It took a solid minute for the family to think this through. Should they follow him or not? At first they were willing to follow a hero because they're heroes, but now that they know who it was that placed that damned collar on Amelia, they didn't know who to trust anymore.
Eventually the family decided to trust in this hero, even if the one who placed the collar on Maid is another hero. They all surrounded Amelia to 'protect' her.
Will finally stopped when they couldn't even see his kingdom anymore.
"What's her name again?" Will asked, looking at Maid.
"Amelia."
"Right. I can understand why you want me to remove her collar, but at the same time you have to understand why I don't want a dragon in the middle of my kingdom. So this is what 's going to happen. I will remove her collar, which is easy, but if she wants to go back to her… family of dragons, then let her go. But if she wants to stay with you all in the Sun kingdom, then she needs to wear the collar which is binding her the ability to transform back into a dragon. It's the only guarantee we have that won't let her transform and kill anyone in the Sun kingdom. So what will it be?"
Will wanted to see whether this dragon wanted to go back to its family or stay with its human family.
Now, if she were to transform and attack his Sun kingdom, he believes his numerous enchanted sentry turrets with their enchanted bullets could rip her apart in pieces before she can reach his kingdom.
The family looked at each other and ultimately at Maid.
"I think… we should let Amelia choose." The mother said. Her family, although hesitant, agreed with her.
Maid looked at Will, and looked at the family that adopted her.
Overtime she had been able to slowly understand them but still found it hard to properly communicate with them.
When they took her in she was weary, angry, and did not trust anyone. But overtime she came to warm up to them, especially Kat. When she saw the baby being born she felt a certain feeling to protect the little innocent being. When she spent time with this new family of hers she felt a warmth she never did before.
When the father tried to protect her from two heroes, despite learning of her true identity, she felt happy.
Maid walked towards Will to free her from this collar.
"Amelia?" Kat said. The family stared at Maid, did she not want to be with them? They know it's her choice, but if she were to leave it wouldn't mean that they wouldn't feel sad.
Maid stepped in front of Will, holding her collar.
"Please… take… off…" Amelia/Maid was slowly learning to communicate with humans.
Will smiled a bit behind his mask. He could also relate as he is learning elven tongue and also has trouble communicating.
"Very well."
Will pulled out a pickaxe from his inventory.
When the family and Sandra saw the pickaxe, they wanted to step in. A pickaxe would almost certainly hurt anyone.
"Relax." Will stretched his arm to them. "I won't do anything to hurt her. Now don't move or else I might miss. Oh, and Sandra, please lead them a bit far away in case… Amelia decides to transform into a dragon."
Sandra slowly led the family away from Amelia and Will, although it took some effort. Once they were a fair distance apart Will got to work.
He slowly brought the tip of the pickaxe to the collar ever so gently, which made Amelia sweat due to nervousness, and gently touched it. The thick collar opened from the back of her neck.
The collar was designed so there is no way to lockpick it. The entrance was added to the inside of the collar so that once it closes there is no way to open it without using force, but that amount of force needed to open the collar could end up severely damaging the wearer of the collar.
Once the collar opened, Maid massaged her neck like there was no tomorrow.
Will noticed a dark mark around Maid's neck. It was easy to tell as Maid's skin was white, and the color around her neck was almost dark and bruised. It was as if one were to wear handcuffs, after a while it hurts. But wearing it for weeks or even months could end up permanently damaging the skin.
This made Will feel extremely regretful for not helping her that time when he saw her with Josh. Even if she is a dragon in disguise, Will felt sick seeing someone being treated like this.
All of a sudden, Maid began running away as fast as her tiny legs could manage.
"Amelia?" Maid's family saw Amelia run and wanted to chase after her.
Then Amelia transformed into a dragon once she was a bit far away. She flew up high.
The feeling of power, the feeling of freedom made her feel extremely joyful. All that time being enslaved by a delusional hero was torment for her.
The day she was enslaved, she set out to attack the kingdom for a single purpose, to die.
Amelia is indeed a little kid which is why her form is that of a little girl. Despite her age she is smart enough to know what would happen if anyone knew about her powers, which is a mutation she never wanted.
If the dragons knew she could transform into a human they would kill her as to keep their secret safe from humans knowing, because if she can transform into a human chances are she can communicate with them.
The secret being the existence of the giant mountain dragon.
If humans find out they would most likely enslave her, as it had already happened to her. Ironically she never would have thought that it would be humans to release her.
Amelia counted herself lucky that she was alone hunting food one day when she suddenly transformed into a little girl. That same day she sought to kill herself.
At least if the Great Sage kills her it would be quick and painless.
As she continued to fly, all suicidal thoughts were put aside as they were replaced by one thought, revenge, revenge on the hero who enslaved her and robbed her chance for a quick and painless death.
Amelia's adopted family saw her dragon figure fly around in circles in the sky.
Will examined the slave collar in his hand. On the inside of the collar is this piece of metal that had a dark aura similar to the cursed enchantments he uses.
He touched the piece of metal to examine it. The curse did not affect him as it didn't touch his skin directly thanks to his armor.
{Cursed enchantment: Slave}
{As long as the curse continues to touch someone they will be bound to {Roy Morgan} and cannot defy his/her command}
'Roy Morgan? Not Josh… whatever his last name is. But who is Roy Morgan? I know I heard that name before.' Will thought. That name sounded so familiar.
Will walked towards Sandra to ask her.
"Sandra."
Sandra hugged Will before he could say anything.
"Thank you for this. I know you didn't want to do it but you did." Sandra was happy to see Amelia free.
"Yeah. Anyways, do you know who Roy Morgan is?"
"Roy Morgan? Oh, you mean the Great Sage. Why do you ask?"
"No reason."
'It's the Great Sage? Why would the Great Sage bind this collar on a dragon? Did he do it for malicious purposes? Or was it because he didn't trust Josh with a dragon? Honestly those are the only two questions I can come up with at the moment.'
Will decided not to dwell on it so he placed the collar in his inventory to dispose of it later. He really didn't like to have slaves or prisoners. He didn't like using people or animals as slaves because he would feel horrible from it, something he thinks he got from Sandra after years of being with her.
As for prisoners, it was better to simply execute them so they wouldn't have a chance to bite him in the ass, much like Taker, or the people who tried to raid his base a few months back. It was common sense for Will.
The heroes he imprisoned in their little jail he believes is a whole 'nother thing. If he were to kill them the Great Sage might do something about it. Then again, they are people he used to go to school with, even if they have never shared a single sentence throughout their school years together.
After a long while, Amelia transformed back into her human form.
The poor clothes she was wearing before were gone as they were ripped the moment she transformed into a dragon. Instead she wore a fluttery, long, dark dress. On the side of her head were dragon short dragon horns. Small dragon wings on her back, and a long but slender dragon tail. The color of her hair was short and blue.
The one thing she was missing were shoes and socks.
'Where the hell did those clothes come from? How does that make sense?' Will asked, trying to make sense of this.
The answer Will was seeking was obvious: the author decided that's how it's going to be.
Amelia walked to her adopted family and halted her steps a few meters away. Amelia was very worried that they might reject her after seeing her true form. Knowing about it is one thing but witnessing it themselves is another thing.
Before she never would have considered these lower beings(humans) anything more than delicious appetizers. But now, after being free from her collar, she didn't want to go back to the dragons or die, she wanted to stay with her human family.
Of course her revenge will never be satiated till Josh is 6 feet underground.
Kat ran up to Amelia and hugged her tightly.
"Amelia, that was so cool! Your dragon form was soooo cool, how you were flying and everything!" Kat was very happy to see Amelia didn't leave them when she had the chance.
Truth to be told, when they saw Amelia fly away the whole family tensed up the whole time, they believed she would really leave them. They were happy to see her free without a doubt, but at the same time were worried about her leaving them.
The parents hugged Kat and Amelia and they were all in a warm embrace.
Amelia couldn't help but shed a few tears. This new feeling of being loved felt… nice.
Sandra, who was beside Will, couldn't help but smile the whole time. She leaned and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you still going to place that collar on her?" Sandra didn't want to, but using her brain it was only logical.
Will thought about it. He felt the same way. His heart said 'hell no!' but logically speaking he should place the collar if the family wanted to live in his castle.
"I think she has suffered enough thanks to this collar. Tell them not to enter the kingdom for an hour tops." Will flew back to his kingdom to craft something that would stop Amelia in case she decides to transform into a dragon.