I woke up feeling refreshed, I got more tired than I expected yesterday when I had to run through the whole castle while being chased by an angry hero.
In the end, I had to use an invisible potion to escape her and wait for her anger to lessen.
I checked one last time if I had everything on me.
Honestly, this sudden trip was pretty good overall, I now have a fully enchanted diamond armor and a sword, I'm surprised they let me 'keep' them but maybe they wanted to leave them as a gift for their hero.
Not only that, but I also have a few blocks of obsidian in my inventory which I'll probably use for later to make an Ender Chest.
I wonder what level my Crafting Skill needs to be so I can do one myself.
But it didn't matter, everything was in place and I was ready to say my goodbyes.
I walked along the hallways and stopped at one particular door that had a small group forming already.
*bang, bang, bang
"Froggy, wake up already, we have to leave!"
Ellen together with the other witches were banging on the door yelling for Froggy to wake up.
It was always an amusing sight to see.
"Good morning everyone, did you manage to sleep well?"
Everyone stopped and looked at me.
"Morning Trader, yes I did sleep well. Do you have a method to wake up Froggy by any chance?"
"I can think of something."
I then opened the door without getting permission finally seeing the man we all waited for sleeping in an uncomfortable position.
How was he doing that, I would never know the answer.
I went to him and gently shook his shoulder, no reaction.
Then I shook it with more force, no reaction this time as well.
"Hard way it is then."
To everyone's surpise, I took an axe from my inventory and broke the bed under Froggy.
Suddenly the bed disappeared making Froggy hit the floor which finally woke him up.
"Wha-what?"
"Morning Froggy my friend, I didn't know you liked to sleep on the floor."
I said that with a smile on my face as he looked confused around him, before realizing what had happened.
"Ha, ha Trader, put the bed back, I don't want to bother the servants."
I listened to him and placed the bed back down which was already made. That's one interesting way to make a bed.
My job was done and the others looked uncomfortable at what they just saw.
But Froggy wasn't too bothered by my way of waking him up since he was used to it.
"Froggy are you ready to leave?"
"Yes sir, I have everything in my inventory!"
"Good, let's go then."
"Sorry, can I come with you as well?"
Ellen stopped, looked at me up and down, and nodded his head, so I followed everyone else.
On the way out, the guards were there to greet us together with Bobby, that was a good thing since I also needed a horse.
Bobby only gave a sigh and granted my request. After our final goodbyes, we left through the gates of the castle.
We were going back to the Clan.
Everyone was in a happy mood, the mission was done, the Zombie Lord wasn't a threat anymore, and they would be greatly rewarded when they arrived home.
It took a few days to arrive at the misty swamps, but nothing too noteworthy happened on the way there.
With the help of the enchanted token, we arrived at the Clan compound.
"Welcome back everyone, how was the mission?"
"It went pretty well, wait for the good news after we report to the Elders."
The leader casually spoke with the guards at the gates before letting us in.
I only got a confused look but otherwise wasn't stopped, which was a good thing.
Once the land stopped and the swamp started, we got off our horses and waited to see what would be our next course of action.
"Congratulations team, we managed to finish a mission that would be written in history books, what we've done here will inspire generations to come, we are heroes!"
Everyone cheered loudly.
"You are all free for today, I will meet with the Elders and report everything to them. And yes Trader, I will tell them about you as well."
Well, that solved everything I wanted to know, Ellen walked to report to the Elders and the others decided to go and get some drinks.
I didn't know what to do, so I joined with them, hoping that I didn't intrude too much.
Luckily the fact that I helped them capture the rough witch made them more friendly towards me.
We went to a bigger hut which was the bar of the Clan, everyone ordered alcohol loudly while making jokes and having a good time.
I and Froggy decided to drink some slime juice instead because I wasn't a fan of alcohol and Froggy... well he likes slime-related foods.
It's an interesting taste, to say the least.
Time passed, and anyone's mouth got looser, I heard some good gossip about each other's life, past relationships, failed business, and embarrassing accidents that all ended with Denis and Brian fighting about who drank the most potions.
The barman had to throw us out because we were making a ruckus, which we eventually did.
That's how the day ended and everyone went back to their homes.
---
The next morning when I woke up and looked for Ellen to see if Elder Flora had any other missions for me.
After half an hour I finally found him and to my surprise, the Elders didn't seem to require my presence, which was a good thing I guess.
That meant that I could finally start my plans, and in the end, I decided to grind my Skills.
My final goal is to learn Enchanting better, but to do that I need an enchanting teble, and unfortunately, I don't think Elder Brutus would let me use his anymore since it's not an emergency.
This means that I either have to make a portal, find a tribe in the Nether, and ask them to make me some items, or I'll grind my Crafting skill high enough that I don't need to keep asking their help for my projects.
With that, I opened up my skill Tab in what felt like a lifetime ago.
_______________________________
SKILLS
_Crafting lvl 5
13.267/1.000.000
_Enchanting lvl 6
470.130/10.000.000
_Brewing lvl 4
20.500/100.000
_Trading lvl 4
51.500/100.000
________________________________
"I'm considered pretty high level for the people of this world, especially my Enchanting Skill. I truly am a jack of all trades, but I should concentrate on my Crafting skill for now."
For that, I need to make as many golden shovels as possible, this is going to take a while but the result would be more than worth it.
Can't wait to finally be able to craft with diamonds, maybe I can even concentrate on getting some Netherite after this, that would be a fun project.
No!
Don't lose your focus, get to the level where you can craft with diamonds then concentrate on enchanting.
This is a ticket for your way home.
You can't get distracted that easily.
With that, I decided on my next course of action.
I left the unwanted items in the chest, bought some potions of invisibility and night vision from whoever witch had at the moment, and of course not forget to take a bed and plenty of food with me.
Learning from my mistakes after all.
I also dropped by Froggy's house to tell him my plans and not to panic if nobody would see me for a couple of days.
He was still sleepy when I talked with him but I think he got the message.
With excited steps, I walked down to the mine.
No one was at the entrance which probably meant that everyone was working already or was taking a break for the day.
But it didn't matter, I knew where to roughly start from just by following the signs on the walls.
Once I arrived at my old tunnel I went a little deeper into it, before turning to the side and starting a new tunnel.
"It's time to mine."
My pickaxe hit the wall.
POV: Elder Flora
The mission was a success, the rouge witch was captured and nobody got too hurt on the mission, and after some 'light' interrogation, we finally found out how he managed to stay sane for the past few years.
And it wasn't a pleasant thing to learn.
The Piligers once again are involved with the chaos around the land.
From what the man told us, only one Piliger contacted him regularly, unfortunately, he was someone with great influence which meant that he was part of a bigger plan.
The man was crazy but still wanted us to spear him, he even told us that he'd share his secrets of the dark arts be we decided to end the integration then and there.
The Elders's role in the Clan is to guide the Witches and manage to community, but another important matter is to keep the dark arts out of the Clan.
This is what all of our predecessors agreed and hammered heavily when we got to our position.
When the temptation was presented, it was best to get rid of it before it became a problem. Unfortunately, we still needed him alive for our next plan so we could only drug him unconscious.
The team went with the prisoner with no problem, my only concern was with the sudden disappearance of Trader, Froggy seemed to have an idea where he could be, but he was still stressed.
Well, it was a short time he stayed but he greatly helped us which I could only be thankful for.
If he wants to come back, he will be welcomed with open arms.
A little over a week passed and the team was back, this time with some additional company.
Ellen came into my office after he reported to Brutus, and told me everything that happened.
I was happy to hear that the mission was a success without the Nobles having to strong off a reaction, but I was taken by surprise when he told me that the upcoming threat, the Zombie Lord was dealt with.
By none other than Trader himself as well.
I asked if he was sure about that, but apparently, he appeared out of nowhere, ordered the Royal Family to prepare a trap for the monster and when the battle started he managed to win.
Not only that, there was no army involved, only him and the Hero who referred to him as her teacher.
That was shocking to hear, Trader was much bigger than I anticipated.
Maybe I should trade with him some more, nothing bad can happen when you have connections to such powerful people.
I dismissed the man and told him not to worry about the other Elders since I'd be delivering the news to them.
Ellen was thankful for that and left to get some rest with the others.
Those were some great news, and this was worthy of a celebration!
I told the other Elders who were as happy as me, and all agreed that this was a good time to celebrate.
The next day me and the others started to organize some stuff, we would get some exotic foods from the nearby town and some other necessities.
After everything was done I decided to pay a visit to Trader and see how he was doing, unfortunately I couldn't find him at his house.
I asked around but nobody seemed to have seen him since he went to the bar with the others.
Finally, I asked Froggy who seemed to know more than the others.
"Oh Trader? He told me he will do some mining and we shouldn't worry about him if he's missing for a few days."
"He's gone back to mining? Why?"
"I don't know, he didn't tell me the reason, but it shouldn't be anything bad."
Yeah, but the last time he went to mine he didn't come to the surface for three whole days!
That was an abnormal amount of time to go mining.
I hope he won't stay too long this time as well, and why would he need to mine?
Unfortunately, the only thing I could do was wait for him to come back.
So I went back to my house to finish some other projects.