After my talk with the king, I decided to see if Froggy was ok after the stunt they pulled, from the reactions of the others I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to flex their muscles even after the king told them to stand down.
But the message was sent, and now everyone should know not to take the witches for granted as the Elders wanted. A risky plan but it worked so I couldn't say anything against the results.
From asking around I managed to arrive at a certain wooden door which I opened up without even knocking.
"-you saying that you got infected by the huge Zombie, lost control over your body, and had to call Trader to save you?"
As I entered I saw that I wasn't the first to greet Froggy, Bobby managed to beat me to it.
But with my sudden entrance, the conversation was cut short as both of them looked at me.
"Hello there, how are you two doing on such a fine day?"
"Doing pretty well, I'm also just finding out why you were teleported all of a sudden. Why didn't you tell me you killed the Zombie Lord? That monster was a danger to the whole world. I would mention at least to every person I talk to that I did that if I could."
While Froggy seems impressed by my achievement, Bobby was more relaxed about it, most likely because he had a few days to digest all the information and because this isn't the only big achievement I have.
The fact that I'm from another world, came back from the dead, and have knowledge dangerous enough that the System is telling me not to use must be pretty high on his list.
The fact that I helped kill a monster that threatened to take over the world is not that impressive anymore.
Dang it, I just realized that it's going to be much harder to shock Bobby now, how can I amuse myself now that the bar is so high for me to overcome?
I'll think of something with time, otherwise I'll have to teach Froggy about the world so I can shock him instead.
"How did you do it? Why didn't you break my pearl as well, I could've helped you with something I'm sure."
"I had to use some dangerous weapons that I prefer not to use too often, as for the reason I didn't bring you along was because I didn't want to distract you from your mission. This was an important mission for the Witches, you can't just disappear without an explanation, otherwise, you'll worry the others."
While Froggy didn't seem to be satisfied with my answer he still nodded his head in understanding.
I hoped this would be enough since I didn't want to tell him the real reason that I didn't bother him was because I was too scared he would die or suffer because of me.
"How was your trip instead, and why did you to pull that off in front of everyone? Don't you know how dangerous that stunt was?"
Bobby changed the subject quickly, and I was curious as well for his explanation.
I don't even need to be around Foggy to get him into trouble since he seems to have a knack for getting himself just fine.
Don't know if I should be proud or worried about this.
"At the beginning, I was also skeptical about this plan, but the Elders were the ones that thought of this. Luckily Ellen was smart enough to explain to the rest of us. We weren't as worried about retaliations as we should've been because we knew that the Stone Kingdom needed us more than we needed them. They had an army of zombies at their doorstep and we were able to easily brew them potion. Even now that the Zombie Lord is dead it's not too much worry for us, since this war cost a lot of funds for almost nothing in return. We can help them get out of this economic crisis with our expertise, so I'm sure they would be more forgiving with us."
That was a point I didn't expect to be brought up but realized that there was a flaw in it as well. They didn't need the witches specifically since they could use the piglings to craft and brew anything without restrictions.
But then I thought some more and realized that won't be an easy thing to do since they are under my protection, and if they piss me off I can just say to them not to work with the Stone Kingdom anymore and they couldn't do anything about it.
The next tribe would be tens to thousands of blocks away, and they couldn't enslave them since Bobby made them take an oath specifically against that.
Only now have I realized how much I actually influenced this kingdom, and how much influence I still have.
No wonder the Royal Family didn't want to bother me while I stayed here, they wanted to get as much information as possible related to me.
But the only information they have is that I came out of nowhere, have dangerous knowledge, can come back from the dead, and have a strong grip over the tribe that can bring them most of the profits that will get them out of this debt.
No wonder the king was pretty lenient with me at the office, he didn't want to risk offending me since he didn't know how to control me.
It would've been safer to leave me alone than keep antagonizing me.
For the first time since I came here, I realized how powerful I was, and I didn't know how to feel about that.
Unfortunately, I also realized that I wasn't powerful enough to get what I truly wanted so that thought humbled me a little.
"That was a pretty big gamble, but luckily you won it. What's the next step now?"
"We would send two more witches here to get some influence. We hope in about a decade well managed to get enough power where we can walk on the streets without a worry over getting arrested."
That's a nice goal to have, unfortunately, the problem isn't really with the people but more with the System. But if they managed to make Froggy be seen as a hero at the Sandstone Palace, I'm sure they'll be able to pull something similar here as well.
"That's awesome to hear, how are you getting along with the other teammates? Any problems?"
"They are nicer now after the mission, but I feel like I still have to earn everyone's trust. Also, the others want to thank you for helping catch the rough Witch, but unfortunately, you left too early."
Froggy looked at me which made me remember that everyone was still confused about my sudden disappearance. I hope they won't think I'm a spy sent by the Kingdome.
"Sure I'll visit them later, actually I wanted to go back with you to the clan, I still have some unfinished books there that I want to read."
Froggy was happy while Bobby was surprised at the sudden news.
"You don't want to stay here for the festival? This is in honor of the heroes that fought against the Zombie Lord and won, it's specifically made for you and Merry."
"I don't really feel comfortable being in the center of attention, and this party will make me more popular than ever. I don't want to be bothered by rich people afterwards, it would be a nightmare."
Bobby started to smile thinking about that specific scenario which made me kick him in the leg out of annoyance.
"But don't worry I won't be gone for long, there's a high chance we'll talk more often, I think the king will be more interested in reaching out to the witches for his next project."
"What do you mean?"
Froggy asked curiously and a little afraid."
I then told them what happened with my meeting, how he wanted to know the recipe for the Undying Totem, how I made him sign a contract to not bother me anymore, and how I explained to him that the only ones that have access to those items are the Piligers.
I specifically showed Bobby the book so he could stop any prince who wanted to bother me since their father signed a contract.
Now they shouldn't have an excuse that they didn't know about it.
"So you really don't know how to make those Undying Totems? They sound very useful to have."
"Unfortunately I don't think it's even possible to craft them, at least not to my knowledge. That's why I think it's something made without the help of the System and being held by the people who despise the System the most. Maybe if I sneak into their libraries I could find out their secret?"
We kept talking like that until we decided we had enough for today.
Bobby was slowly getting back to his usual work, Froggy needed to get some rest after the long journey, and I had to keep myself occupied until tomorrow when I'd have to leave.
I walked down the hallways and arrived at the training grounds where someone was using it already.
That someone was the hero Merry.
She was together with one of her instructors and was in a spar.
Merry was on the defensive, with her shield and a wooden sword, the instructor didn't have a shield but attacked aggressively not leaving any chance for Merry to retaliate.
That was until the instructor made a wide swing which made the hero fall back a few steps.
But that seemed to be planned as she quickly towered herself up and shot an arrow from her crossbow.
The instructor quickly jumped out of the arrow path and took out his shield.
Merry placed a block down making a bridge while keeping the man preoccupied with constant shooting.
After a few slow seconds, she was finally close enough and she jumped off her bridge onto the poor instructor taking him by surprise and bringing him down.
Before he could gather himself up, Merry started to punch him down then finishing the spar with her wooden sword on his neck.
That was brutal, and not that necessary, but she won.
"I think that enough training for today Hero, your progress is astonishingly fast, and there is no more threat to train for."
The instructor got up and ate some food to speed up his regeneration.
"Thank you instructor, but I still want to improve, I feel like I didn't do enough in the last fight and don't want to be in that postion ever again."
The instructor didn't know what to say to her anymore so he just told her to get some rest until the next training session.
Probably with a different instructor.
"Wow Merry, you really are something now, that fight was awesome."
I slowly revealed my presence while clapping to congratulate her on her win.
This took her by surprise since she didn't know she had an audience.
"Trader! I didn't know you were here. Perfect, do you want to have a spar with me?"
She gave me a mischievous smile which I didn't like.
From the fight that I just saw, she greatly improved. She now uses more of her abilities as a player than fighting 'fairly' as she used to.
She has a pretty high chance of beating me if we fight now.
But still, I decided to accept her challenge.
"Sure, I wanted to test out my new weapon anyway."
This seems to put Merry on guard but still didn't back down.
The instructor decided to stay and watch the spar, so he was the one to say go.
Both of us didn't have any armor, we could only use the wooden sword and everything else we had in our inventory.
"Go!"
The instructor yelled the beginning of the battle.
I quickly started to tower up before anything else.
"Oh no you don't!"
Merry who already expecting this started to sprint towords me and quickly placed some blocks down to elevate herself before jumping towards my tower, probably to knock me off.
She jumped from her blocks and I could see she would reach my feet if I didn't do anything about it.
So I took out a stick from my inventory and threw it at her face.
She quickly shielded her face with her arms, but that made her lose the opportunity to grab onto my tower and knock me down.
Now she just hit my tower and fell down.
"You always do this and I hate it!"
While she was yelling angrily at me, she still took her shield and crossbow out of her inventory ready for anything.
When I was at a sufficient height, I took out my secret weapon.
"Is that a fishing road? What are yo-whaaaa!"
With a fishing road in my hand I quickly 'fished' out Merry and by magic, I managed to pull her to my level and even higher, which greatly confused her.
It was much harder to do it than I expected, but it had the same results.
As she was falling back down while yelling I kicked her while she passed me which dealt additional damage.
Once she hit the ground I quickly jumped down and put my wooden sword at her neck claiming my victory.
"That was a good fight, but it's my win."
I said that with a smile on my face.
Unfortunately Merry didn't see it since she was still growing In pain from her fall.
"It's that why she likes to fight so brutally? No wonder she's so reckless when fighting, what did you even do?"
The instructor was coming towards me, impressed and confused at what just happened.
"This is a method I've seen some people use and I wanted to try it as well, I'm glad to know that I can manage it."
"That's-"
"I want a rematch, Trader! That was dirty even by your standards, this time with the armor on, no more holding back!"
Merry got up with an angry look on her face.
And I made the wise decision to run away. I knew when I was going to lose a fight.
"Coward! Come back here!"
But I kept running.