POV: Merry Paper
"Hero Merry you can't do this and you know it!"
"What are you talking about, I was the one who introduced them to you!"
"And we were the ones to bring the materials to make the golems."
I was fighting with the First prince over who would be the one to control the new team of golems.
Since they didn't have a lot of resources from the new expenses, we could only make 12 golems, which was a lot less than I expected, but still, a force to be afraid of.
The king couldn't go to battle, since he was old and weak, the princess didn't want to be in any way shape or form close to those magnificent beings, and the second prince was willing to give up on them for me, even though he wanted them as bad as we did.
That only left the first prince who needed some achievements over his sister, and me the hero and the creator of those golems.
Nobody backed down, this was my chance to have my small legion of golems following me into the deadly battle, and I wasn't going to lose it to some rich kid.
"Both of you, calm down before things get too heated."
The king yelled with a strong voice, making us stop from almost jumping into a fight.
"It's clear that neither of you is capable of handling such responsibility, especially your son. I expected more from you than to fight like a child."
The first Prince looked away in shame from his father and I also felt bad with how I acted.
"Since neither of you can resolve this as adults, I will appoint Bobby to be the one in control of the golems."
Bobby who was leaning on the wall staying in the shades looked up from his book in surprise.
"Me? But I don't have any experience with commanding people into battle, I'm sure you have more capable commanders at your hand that can use them better the me."
The king turned towards him.
"I do have great commanders under my watch, but they will be too preoccupied with handling the management of the soldiers since it needs more brainpower. The golems can only follow simple commands and I've seen you how you've worked under my daughter, and I know you worked well under pressure. Take this as an opportunity and a blessing for your hard work."
With that, he turned around and went back to the castle leaving all of us in shock.
Nobody expected Bobby to be chosen, and while I was a little saddened that I wasn't the one allowed to lead the golems, I was satisfied with knowing that the first prince was in the same situation as me.
Bobby only had a big sigh and mumbled something about how his work kept piling up before giving some simple orders to the iron golems to see what their limit was.
I decided I had enough fun for the morning, so I went back to my training.
First was the sword, then the shield, and lastly the crossbow. I started to get the hang of it pretty quickly, and combined with my ability to place blocks at inconvenient times, this made me win a few times.
Days passed, with the people in the castle getting more and more busy.
They got all the people who knew how to use Redstone, gave them the necessary materials, and sent them on a big expedition to prepare the trap.
Overall 50 people were gone, risking their lives to make a trap capable of holding the growing army in one place.
Not too long after they left, another event came that shook the palace.
Froggy got back with some of his new friends, and while suspicious at first, the Royal Family was pretty happy to get the new workforce.
With them, the Kingdome will manage to get some money by selling more potions. The recent purchase of materials and manpower started to strain the Royal Vault.
Everyone was happy except for the second prince, Elizabeth managed to get a witch under her wing, and the first prince did the same with another one, leaving one more witch up for the taking excluding Froggy.
The second prince tried to do the same as his siblings but didn't have the money or influence to keep the witch interested.
In anger, together with a few important nobels, they managed to make a complaint to the king, who unfortunately couldn't ignore them.
"Because of the rampant Witch in our borders, we can't focus all our forces towards the zombie invasion. That's why, to prove your loyalty you'll bring us that rough witch dead or alive."
The second prince yelled with a few nobles on the sides looking smug at the poor witches.
I know Froggy is not a bad guy, and I'm sure his friends are not either, but those stupid nobles had to make their lives harder.
The witches didn't like what they heard, and the fact that two of them had to stay as hostages didn't make them any happier either.
But with nothing to fight back, they could only bite their lips and accept the deal.
So tomorrow, Froggy and the other Witch have to go back to tell the news, I felt bad so I went to talk with Froggy.
"Hey Froggy, how are you holding?"
"Not so good, but we did expect to have some pushback eventually. The others are more surprised how easily they managed to get here."
"The fact that a zombie invasion is happening must've been a great reason for this. How's Trader doing?"
"He's doing fine, he was busy studying an enchanted wall the last time I left. But you don't have to worry about him, he's not in any danger in the clan."
He found an enchanted wall.
I know you can enchant normal items as well, but it's not something that happens regularly, tools and armor are way more useful with enchantments than regular items.
But If that wall managed to catch Traders eye, that means it's something pretty valuable.
Unfortunately, I didn't find a lot of books related to enchanting In the Royal Library so I'll probably have to visit the Witch Clan as well to make some progress with my enchanted tattoo project.
I continued to talk with Froggy for a while until it got late and he had to get some rest for the journey.
With a final goodbye, I went back to training, the time was ticking and I could feel the pressure of the deadline approaching.
It felt like such a short time, I wasn't ready, I've seen the Zombie Lord and I wasn't confident that I could defeat him.
I could only train to get better and trust the others to come up with a plan that would stop that monster once and for all.
---
A few days passed, and we got the confirmation that everything was ready, the trap was laid, nobody was killed and now they were coming back.
We also got news that the zombie army increased greatly in numbers and in a few days it would most likely start to march once again.
We have to be there once that happens, we have to fight for one last time and win for humanity.
There was no backing down.
We were going to war.
Before we left me and Bobby were called to meet the king at the Royal Vault, here were the most precious items in the whole kingdom. The king waited patiently in front of the door.
"Welcome, I want to gift you two something before you leave."
The king then turned towards the two guards with enchanted Diamond Armor and signaled them with his hand.
The two guards sprung into action and took a lever from their inventory and put it in a random place on the obsidian wall, both of them then flicked the lever, and the wall of iron was moved by pistons, once it was done I could see that the obsidian walls were three blocks thick with the only vulnerable part being the entrance.
The three of us entered the vault and the iron wall was closed behind us, I could also see the pistons now that pushed all of those blocks.
I turned back towards the vault, it was all made with iron blocks which surprised me since I thought it was hard to get this much ore.
The room was 5 blocks tall, and 20 blocks wide on each side,
On the walls, there were chests upon chests, some of them had item frames with different ores, food items, potions, Nether blocks, obsidian, weapons, and armor.
But further back into the room there stood three armor stands with glowing blue armor on top of it, and it was clear what the king wanted to gift us.
A few steps further we were in from of the mighty armor, I could see the beautiful design of the diamond armor and the glowing effect from the enchantment only made it more mesmerizing.
"I want you two to have this armor in the battle. Bobby be safe while commanding the golems, there's no need to risk yourself so just stay in the back. And you Hero Marry, to be able to stand a chance against the Zombie Lord and keep it preoccupied on yourself if something goes wrong."
He then gave us both our respect armor, making me have mixed feelings about how I was sent to fight on the front lines.
But it's better this way, Bobby is not a fighter, and the only reason that he will even be on the battlefield it's because I kept fighting with the First Prince over who should have the golems.
So it's a good thing that the king values him so much that he's willing to lend this powerful armor.
Speaking about that, I started to look at the stats of my new armor, and I was surprised, to say the least.
SWORD - Sharpness 5
- Fire Aspect 2
- Unbreaking 3
- Mending 1
HELMET- Unbreaking 3
- Respiration 2
- Protection 4
- Mending 1
CHEST PLATE- Unbreaking 3
- Protection 4
- Mending 1
LEGGINGS- Unbreaking 3
- Protection 4
- Mending 1
BOOTS- Depth Strider 2
- Protection 4
- Unbreaking 3
- Feather Falling 3
- Mending 1
This was the best armor I've ever laid my eyes on, this is something that the hero will get at the end of the journey, and the king was willing to just give it to us.
I had the impression that they would keep something so precious close to their chest and never share it with others.
Suddenly the king started to speak.
"Officer Bobby, I give you one of the best armor that my kingdom has to offer, I don't request you to fight in the front line, I want you to lead the Iron golems and defeat the Zombie Lord, do this for your family, do this for the country, do this for your village!"
A short but powerful speech was given to Bobby, and I could already feel the blood rushing through my veins even if it wasn't for me.
But the king wasn't over, because soon he turned towards me and continued.
"This is something passed from generation to generation, it's not even used for ceremonies, only in case of a great war and a champion is needed. Hero Merry, you've been chosen by the System to save us, I saw your skill and your ability to adapt to any environment, I trust you with the most powerful weapon and armor that my kingdom has to offer, with this you have a chance to fight against the Zombie Lord. Go now and save humanity, save the world!"
I was ready for a fight!
My blood was boiling with energy, I felt powerful with my new equipment, I couldn't even imagine how I could be hurt in it.
We left the vault after this, unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to explore it for any other treasure, but it didn't matter, since I got the most powerful item in there anyway.
The others were ready to march, another 50 strong men all with enchanted iron armor stood ready for war.
But before we left the king gave us one last speech.
"My people, you have lost your brothers and sisters to that monstrosity at our borders. He killed many of us, and worse than that, made it so they became monsters as well. We tried to save who we could, but the problem was not solved just delayed. Now the Zombie Lord is raising his army once again but this time we won't let him have his way. We will defeat the Zombie Lord and his army! We will survive this war and grow stronger than ever. We will show the world that the Stone people will never crack under pressure. You are the hero, you are the hope for tomorrow! For the Stone Kingdome! "
"" For the Stone Kingdome!!""
The army yelled back with force, and I could feel how everyone was ready.
There was no more fear, only courage and one enemy to kill.
We will win.