POV: Merry Paper
The training for the past few days was brutal, to say the least. I thought Trader was going hard on me with me to memorize pages upon pages, but at least when I went to bed, only my head hurt.
Here I had to wake up at the first sight of light, get a good breakfast, and start the first exercise for today, which was running around the castle five times minimum.
Was it an impossible task?
Very much so. But before I start my morning run I have to drink a regeneration potion which would regenerate my muscle fast enough to keep me going but not too fast so I won't feel tired.
After that is done, I have a short break before moving to the next training exercise, which is training with weapons.
Honestly, this is the most painful part of the day but also the reason I came here.
My first opponent would only attack me with a sword, then a sword and a shield and finally ending with a bow on top of all.
While fighting with my instructors I realized why Trader liked to build walls when I fought him. When you know you can't win in skill, just overwhelm them with surprises.
I tried to do some of the tricks he did but I could tell that I wasn't at his level.
When the instructor saw me use this method for the first time, he was shocked enough that I could finally land a hit on him. Unfortunately, that was the only damage that I did to him on that day since I got my ass beaten down the rest of the training.
The instructor tried to tell me not to use those dirty methods, but the other instructions surprisingly told him that's not a good suggestion.
They fought for a while between them while I was recuperating from such a shameful loss until they arrived at one conclusion.
I should keep using this method of fighting, even if they don't have experience in it as well, it's a promising fight style that could revolutionize the world if it can be replicated.
If they are shocked about what I can do, I wonder how they would react when they see some true gamers who know how to do this properly.
Of course, I don't know what they're like but Trader said that he was nothing compared to them so I'll take his word for it.
I had a brake after this, some food, and went to learn how to craft and brew potions.
The first few days I learned crafting and brewing, but after realizing that I already knew enough about those skills they decided to switch to something else, like dancing and block placement exercises.
For some reason, they were curious about Trader once they found out how much I know about potion making, but I promised Trader that I wouldn't tell his name, so I just said that he wasn't interested.
Bobby looked disappointed at me for some reason and Froggy was working extra hard to finish his potions.
One eventful day after I finished my training, I heard Bobby and Froggy talking about how Trader somehow managed to find out about some secret Clan of witches and he wanted to meet them.
Bobby and Froggy as good friends decided to join him even if he wasn't that willing at first, but when I heard that I quickly joined that as well.
I didn't want to stay here alone otherwise I'd be forced to build towers of dirt and destroy them for 'exercise'.
And if I'm not bothered by that, the second prince will try to woo me over with one of his weird gifts.
One time he left a statue of me in front of my room, it was all white and pretty close to my proportions.
How did he know my measurements? How did he even do this in such a short time?!
At least the other siblings didn't seem too interested in forcing me on their side once they understood my standing.
After a few days, I finally met Trader fully armored which I was glad to have, made me feel more like a hero or a knight at least.
"Hey Trader! Missed me?"
For some reason, he seemed surprised by my presence.
"Merry, did you get bored with the training at the castle and want to go back to the Nether?"
"Can't I just visit my teacher? For your information, you are very popular with the Royal Family, but I keep my promise and didn't mention your name."
He froze at my mention of the Royal Family, and that made me more curious about his past experiences.
"Well I'm glad to see everyone once again, as I mentioned before I stumbled upon a witch in the city, and maybe they'll give me a clue on how to get my revenge on those Piligers."
We all nodded in understanding, I read some books about witches at the castle and I was surprised by how little information there was about them.
The book that I read wasn't even about them specifically, it was about the last crusade that was started to eradicate them.
The Piligers got along well with the nobles, too well some would say, and someone found out that it wasn't all that natural.
A Piligers with the job of Illusionist hypnotized some important people which led the church to have a good excuse to start a crusade against them.
It was brutal for all parties involved, the normal people were greater in numbers, but the Piligers had potions, beasts, magic, and even strange weapons.
So after both parties had existed, they signed a treaty that wasn't described in the book, and for the past 100 years Piligers have become something similar to the bogyman for the kids in this world, but witches are rarer to see than the Piligers, to the point where it's thought they were extinct.
Trader finding Froggy is a miracle, the fact that he found another one, and this one is connected to a Clan!
If I wasn't the hero already, I would've thought I lived in his story.
We went to the place of the meeting, it was tense at the beginning, but we managed to get a good deal.
I even joked with Trader that he got a Waifu, which only confused the others. I wanted to tease him more about this, but then I remembered that I had a prince at the castle waiting to give me another weird surprise, so I stopped there.
We gave our final goodbyes and went back to the castle, where Froggy went directly to his workshop to finish up the last potions.
I went to my room and got some sleep.
----
The next day, Froggy was gone which was a surprise for me since that guy couldn't wake up early if his life depended on it.
I went back to my training, and talked a little with Bobby about the plan to defeat the Zombie Lord and he was open about the plans.
Trader's idea was interesting even if I didn't know anything about Redstone.
"Don't worry, I don't know too much about it either, but we have a few people that are specialized in this, and they said it could be done without too much of a problem. Trader truly has a lot of skills."
I could see some admiration towards my fellow world traveler which I can understand, his knowledge is vast for the common people.
Unfortunately, his plan only worked on stopping his army not defeating the Zombie Lord.
"How about we use the Iron golems, they seem pretty powerful if we have a dozen of them."
His eyes lit up to the idea but they changed to hesitation.
"How can I explain the knowledge to the others, it's not like it's something that is easily known."
"Why don't I tell them that the System gave the information to me when I got here."
"That could work, let's go and tell them about the golems now, the sooner we start the more iron we can get."
It's a good thing that he knows how to make the golem as well since I forgot what I had to do with the pumpkin before placing it on top of the iron blocks.
We meet with the king after an hour, which is very short notice showing how important Bobby is around here, and my proposition caught his attention.
Until he heard the price for it, then his face turned a little ugly.
"There's no problem with getting some pumpkins, but four blocks of iron are not that easy to get. But if what you said is true, we can spare a few to make a special division."
They don't have that much iron?
Aren't they a mining nation?
How could they not have that much iron, did something happen?
Luckily Bobby saw my confusion as we walked out of the room and explained it to me.
"The kingdom it's hundreds of years old and everything around us is already mined, now we have to send miners further from populated cities, which requires bigger expeditions, and more resources spent and they arrive later since they have to go a lot further in the wilderness."
Aha, so they over-mined the closest area, so it takes more time now to get ores. That's something that I didn't think about, but with how easy it is to mine in this world it shouldn't surprise me, especially when they don't have to worry about collapsing tunnels.
We walked to the training area where I was given the items necessary for the golem.
I put the blocks in a T shape as Trader told me, and Bobby gave me a pumpkin with a face carved by him, he knew more about this than me so I trusted him and put it on top.
*Poff
Suddenly I was surrounded by thick smoke making me and Bobby caught profusely for a few seconds.
The Royal Family who came to see the miracle started to panic and called for the guards, not knowing what just happened.
I looked back at the position of the golem and saw only a huge shadow with powerful red eyes looking back at me.
"H-hi?"
I said with a shaky voice, the sheer size and presence intimidated me a little, but I knew that it wouldn't hurt me unless I ordered it.
"Can you clear out the smoke?"
He looked for one more second at me before I could see his hands ready to attack something.
My heart started to beat faster thinking it was going to attack me, instead, he just clapped his hands.
A loud ringing went through the whole training ground as the two metal arms met, and the sheer shockwave of that clap cleared all the smoke around us finally letting us see, and others as well.
Soon a few dozen guards were already here, ready with their weapons to defend the Royal Family, but the golem wasn't bothered by what was happening around it, instead, it looked back at me and waited for my orders.
"Lift your arms."
It did exactly as I said which made every guard more tense.
"As you can see, I have complete control over the golem, it can follow simple instructions and I can even share my authority with others."
The Royal Family finally got out of the sock and slowly got closer, at least the boys did that, since the girls weren't too happy to get close to such a powerful machine.
"Fascinating, I order you to put your arms down."
The king looked with awe at the iron beast, which of course didn't follow the order.
He wasn't offended, instead noded his head with admiration.
The first prince had the same expression as his father, the second one had something similar but his eyes weren't on the iron golem, instead on me.
He was fascinated by the fact that I created something like this, and now I think I gave him more reasons to come after me.
Oh boy, he would get more annoying, isn't he?
I have the Royal Family authority to control the golem and the boys were more than excited to test it, but the girls only stayed a few more minutes to see that nobody was in any danger, and then they left.
Surprisingly the king canceled all his plans for today for 'training' purposes.
But who I'm I to comment on their taste?
It's not like I was jealous that I didn't get the chance to be the first one to ride the golem's shoulder, no, I don't know what you're talking about.