(Goblin slayer abridged reference by Grimmjack)
The sun rose once again. Will closed his eyes when the sun touched his face. He didn't get a wink of sleep all night,
He petted Adaline all night as she slept on his lap. Despite being over 5ft, she was surprisingly lighter than most people think.
Will noticed that Adaline's body was changing colors. She only had thick roots for a body, which should be only green. Now certain parts of her body are changing to a darker color.
"Oh, no." Will knew why that is.
When he first met her, her body was black entirely, her roots were basically dead and withered. Her colors changed to green when he fed her goblin parts.
"We need to get you some food." Will got up and left the cave. Arbor and Grace had already fallen asleep, but before that they threw the bodies on the holes after taking their weapons.
Will heard them but didn't bother to help, he was deep in his thoughts.
The trap holes were still there. On the bottom were all the men that they killed last night.
Will got a lot of stone and covered the trap.
Beside the entrance of the castle, which Arbor made when he cut off that part of the wall, were all the guns that the men used.
Will examined the guns, he wondered how Jim was able to deal so much damage. None of the guns were enchanted, or even magical, he checked them one by one.
"I don't understand. Then how about the bullets?" He took out all the bullets from the guns, and sure enough, he found several enchanted bullets inside one pistol.
There were only 6 enchanted bullets left. Jim had used 5 last night, and 1 more a month ago.
{Lead bullets(enchanted)}
{Impact I: Each bullet has the force of a cannon}
"Now this makes a ton of sense." Will understood why Jim caused so much damage to him, Adaline, and his walls. It really did feel like being shot by a cannon at close range. Although he has never been shot by a canon, he could faintly guess how it could feel.
"Didn't think it was possible to enchant bullets. Good to know."
"Who are you talking to?" Grace got out of her house that she shared with her father. Her hair looked like a bird's nest. Her eyes were still droopy after last night.
"No one. I'm going out. Adaline needs monster parts to eat. She's sick and she needs it." Will planned on walking back to where he came from before he entered the deserted lands.
Adaline came out of the cave, she was weak and couldn't move much. She produced sunflowers on her body so it would absorb the energy of the sun.
"Her body is getting darker." Grace examined her body.
"Thanks, Sherlock."
Before Will left, he grabbed his old map and drew on the back using ink.
He wrote down a list of things he needs before he comes back.
{Step 1: find monster parts as many as you can for Adaline}
{Step 2: find seeds, any seeds to plant and grow crops}
{Step 3: find out how to make potions}
{Step 4: possibly figure out how blacksmiths enchant items}
{Step 5: bring back more animals to breed}
{Step 6: make profitable trades}
The reason Will never tried to leave until now is because of JIm. He feared that when he walked out of his base, JIm would find Adaline, and kill her. Now he's gone for good.
And also, he had camels to ride so he could make it out of the deserted lands quicker than on foot.
He needs to learn how to make potions because he now had the knowledge on how to increase his HP, he only lacked the ingredients which is called 'ajio' which is something he needs.
Will had also mined a lot of silver ore in the past month, and could convert all of it into silver coins. He needed to know if it was better to use the ore for coins, or to craft jewellery. Silver is something that no one should use if they're planning on making weapons with it, unless they make silver bullets for werewolves.
Will needs to grow seeds because it'll help with his food problem.
And he plans to trade for more powerful items, something that'll prove to be useful to him.
But his most important goal is to find monster parts for Adaline.
"Take care of Adaline for me." Will said after sorting out his stuff. He grabbed a camel and mounted it. The camel was too tall for him to mount, so he made a few footsteps to climb the camel.
It was a bit weird sitting on a camel between it's two humps, but he thought he'll get used to it. Before he left, he added a small, wooden door on the walls in case Arbor or Grace wanted to go outside, that way he doesn't need to climb or jump off the 10ft walls.
"Woah, easy there." Will had trouble riding a camel at first, but he somehow got used to it.
"Where is he going?" Arbor asked.
"To get monster parts is all that he told me. Adaline is a bit sick right now, and she needs to eat." Grace understood.
"Grace, go with him. I'll protect Adaline." Arbor said.
"But-"
"I want you to go with him so you can let your grandfather, and mother know that we're fine."
Grace understood now. She got on a camel and followed Will.
Arbor sat beside Adaline and petted her head gently. The sunlight hit their faces as they enjoyed each other's company.
"You're very strong, you know that, right?" Arbor comforted her.
Adaline was a bit too weak to even nod, and she fell asleep comfortably on the grass.
Arbor got some grass and ate it. He had nothing else to eat.
Will rode the camel and went into a deep thought. He was planning on how to use the system's powers effectively.
"I need more power." He stared at the enchanted bullets on his hand. He needs to learn how to enchant, otherwise if he faced another enemy who had more than enchanted bullets, he will lose.
"Hey!"
Will turned around and saw Grace gaining behind him.
"Why are you here?"
"Dad told me to follow you."
"Why?" Will knew the reason they were both here is because of Adaline, they don't care that much about him.
"Because..."
"... you're planning on letting the forest and the rest of the elves know about us, am I right?" Will immediately knew the reason.
"Um… yeah." Grace didn't expect Will to see through her so easily.
"I don't care anyways. It's not like you plan on calling them for help or something."
Will had no doubts that they were planning something, because those two elves could kill him before he has the chance to kill them. It was thanks to Adaline that they didn't make a move against him.
The elf and main character rode off across the desert.
It went for many hours, and the heat of the sun was as intense as ever. Even if Will got a little bit used to living to the heat, no one could become immune to it.
"Hey, elf."
"Grace." Grace added.
"What?"
"My name is Grace, not elf."
"Grace, how did you learn our language? Not even your father knows how to speak it."
"It took a few years for me to learn. I didn't want to learn it, but I had to."
"Maybe… you could teach me how to speak the language of the elves?" Asked Will. He was interested in learning to speak elven tongue in case he meets other elves like Arbor.
"Why would I?"
"Because I want to learn. Is that not a good enough reason?"
"It's not weird for humans to learn our language, but it's difficult to learn." Grace said.
"With the camels we'll arrive at our location in 2-3 days. We have enough time for you to teach me even a little bit."
"Hmmmm, I won't do it."
"Really? Okay, but I wonder how long you can last in this intense heat with no food or water?" Will smirked.
Grace's eyes widened. She had gotten on the camel and followed him so fast that she didn't think to prepare anything for the long road ahead.
"It's important to come prepared." Will waved an iron chest in front of her, it carried all the water that they needed, and also lots of grass to eat. He brought more just in case something happened to him on the way.
"Fine, I'll teach you." Grace had no choice now.
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"How do I know you won't teach me a bunch of nonsense?"
"Have you known me to lie?"
"I don't even know you that well."
"Then you have no choice but to trust me."
"Fair enough."
Meanwhile…
Jack was still in his blacksmith shop, and business did not get any better.
"Opened for business!" A woman screamed really loudly.
Jack woke from his nap. Near his shop was another building where they were going to build a brothel, but the owner of the brothel died and the building went to a relative instead. And instead of making a brothel, she made it into a potion shop.
"So that potion shop finally opened. How nice." Jack yawned as he stretched.
"You're right, it is good for us too." Sam was also there. "More shops that are added to this village, the more it attracts people. And the more people that come the more we can sell and buy."
Business wasn't going well for them, not because they had nothing to sell, but because no one was buying. Sam was an expert blacksmith, he could not make better weapons than Jack and Julia, and enchant them. But there weren't that many people willing to come here to buy from them.
There were already several guns, bullets, knives, swords, armor for sale.
"Kyle came back again and bought some bullets. So I guess that's okay." Jack added.
Sorcerers could indeed use guns instead of staffs, some also used knives, swords, or in a rare case bows and arrows. They weren't only limited to using a staff as some might think
"He even ordered me to make him enchanted bullets. Since it was a special order I could charge him more for it." Sam smiled.
"Are my bullets here?" Kyle entered the shop.
"Well, speak of the devil." Sam reached for the floor and got 2 wooden with different colored boxes. He opened those boxes to reveal dozens of enchanted shells. There were exactly 88 shells in each box. They were all lined up neatly
"The box with the red coating has enchanted shotgun shells that easily pierce through 5 layers of steel. The box with the green coating has enchanted shells that have more explosive power in them. If you shoot a cyclops in the head his whole head will explode." Sam explained in great detail.
"Oh wow." Kyle examined the shells and nodded in satisfaction.
"This is definitely worth the price. Thank you, Sam."
"We're not that close to call each other by our names." Sam smiled a bit.
"Yeah. Do you think it's possible that you could make a weapon as good or better than this?" Kyle handed Sam an enchanted shotgun.
Sam looked carefully at the enchanted shotgun after taking out all of the bullets inside.
"An enchanted battery shotgun, semi-automatic, pump action, can hold up to 4 shells per round… no, 8 shells per round, someone successfully made alterations to it." Sam was impressed by the shotgun.
(Sorry if I got some of these wrong, I am not that knowledgeable on guns. I know that shotguns can hold up to 3-4 or even 5 rounds, but I made it a little different here)
"Yeah, my family has our own expert blacksmiths. But they all died during the black sun. They were out drunk one night, and… you know, got eaten by the locusts." Kyle was sad that those blacksmiths died.
"Sorry for your losses."
"It's okay. It's way more difficult right now getting enchanted weapons since all expert and master blacksmiths are still making armor and weapons for the 99 heroes. I didn't think that an expert would be here. No offense, Jack."
"None taken." Jack also admitted that this isn't the best village to live in.
Sam was closely examining the shotgun not missing out on the smallest detail.
He took out a pair of enchanted glasses and put them on. These glasses can identify a weapon's enchantment, what type it had, and how strong it was. All expert blacksmiths have these glasses.
"This shotgun has a pretty good enchantment. It can deal up to 2x the normal damage it can usually do."
If Will was here, this is how the enchantment would look like.
{Battery shotgun: custom(enchanted}
{Damage 300-500+200}
{Enchantment: power IV: increases the shotguns might and power}
"So, can you make another shotgun as good as this?" Asked Kyle.
"I do have the materials to make a battery shotgun, but the custom designs are really good and compliment this shotgun well, it'll be a challenge to make something like this, but it's nothing I can't handle. And also the enchantment added to it is a difficult level to achieve. But yeah, give me about 3-4 weeks and I am pretty sure I can make you a shotgun as good as this. It'll cost about 80 gold pieces."
Sam handed Kyle back the shotgun.
"Thanks. I'll be waiting." Kyle handed Sam 82 gold pieces. The 2 extra gold pieces were from the special bullets he ordered.
Kyle and Jack's eyes opened when they saw that much money handed to them.
"I trust you both enough to pay this many gold pieces in advance." Kyle took his shells and left the store without saying much.
This world some people refer to the currency as 'coins' or 'pieces' depends which they prefer, sometimes both.
"Uncle, why do you help Kyle? We're on Jasmine's side." Jack added.
"I am on Jasmine's side, but this is good business. Even if I declined Kyle's offer he would've gone to another expert blacksmith. His family is rich so I don't have doubts that they can find another expert or even a master blacksmith. This money will also help our current situation. Why bother turning down a good business deal when it wouldn't even affect Kyle negatively?"
"I guess you're right."
"Want to help me make the weapon for Kyle?" Asked Sam.
"I'm still a beginner. I don't know how to make a shotgun, only pistols. And enchantments are out of my reach as well."
"I know. Leave the heavy lifting to me. You can help me and I can teach you as well, so you can become an expert blacksmith. You're already a few steps away from becoming one."
"Okay." Jack and Sam both began working on the shotgun as quickly as possible.
Sam saw talent in Jack's skills as a blacksmith. However his sister, Julia, didn't have such talent, which is why she's still a beginner blacksmith even though she's almost as old as him.
Sam was also the one who taught Jack the basics of blacksmith, and turned him into a blacksmith, which is how Sam got to be an expert blacksmith, since the requirements to become one is to teach a student and have them become a beginner blacksmith. Jack did the same thing to Will.
Meanwhile…
3 days had gone by in a blink of an eye. Will and Grace made it to the end of the deserted lands.
"Finally. Trees. Fresh air." Will stretched his arms out and enjoyed the beautiful scene that is nature.
Grace touched one of the trees and communicated with them. Soon the trees would inform Silvas about her and Arbor.
The camels ran as fast as they could when Will and Grace got off of them. If they could talk they would yell at that very moment, "FREEDOM!"
"Oh no you don't." Will threw his steel cages at the camels and captured them.
"NOOOO! We were so close." The camels cried on the inside. This is what they would say if they could talk.
Will put the caged camels in his pockets.
"Grace?"
"Yeah?"
"You mentioned that you've ventured in this world for many years, right? Do you know where the nearest village is?"
"No, but I can ask the trees."
"Tell them if they can also tell us where we can find monsters."
"Sure." Grace shrugged her arms and communicated with the forest again.
Will looked at his list. He didn't want to waste too much time here. At most he'll spend 5 days here, and go back to Adaline. He can rest easy knowing that Arbor is with her.
"There's a goblin hut about 20 minutes from here on foot. And there's a village not too far away from there. It's probably where you want to go."
"Could you lead the way?"
"Ah… fine."
"I'll buy you something nice for your troubles." Will smiled. It's nice to have a guide, unlike his system who left him here without helping him.
"I don't need anything… but I could use more arrows. Those steel tipped arrows that you gave me were very good."
"I can do that."
They began running towards the goblin hut.
After twenty minutes they reached it. They hid behind a small hill where the goblins couldn't see them.
"It seems like their numbers aren't that big. But when there's a group of goblins like this, there's usually a stronger goblin in charge of them." Grace said.
"How strong?" Asked Will.
"It's different for each hut. But goblins on the fourth layer are usually the ones in charge of groups this size."
Jack once explained to Will that monsters are categorized on a pyramid scale, the higher they were, the stronger they are.
Normal goblins are on the 5th layer, which is on the bottom layer. The 4th layer is just above the 5th layer. On the very top is the 1st layer, also known as 'the apex layer' where only the strongest monsters are known.
The goblin hut had a sniper tower where two goblins were located. They kept watch and warned the other goblins if they spotted any monsters or humans. They each had bows and arrows with them.
The other goblins were dancing around a fire as they ate small animals like rats, rabbits, squirrels.
"Good, they don't have guns. I'll take the ones on the tower. As soon as I kill them, you rain down bullets on the other goblins." Grace said.
"Sure." Will took out his assault rifle and pointed at the goblins.
Grace concentrated hard. She pulled the bow's string and aimed it for the two goblins on top of the sniper tower.
She released the arrow, and killed one of the goblins, but the other one had his shoulder grazed by the arrow.
"Crap." Grace cursed. Killing two goblins with a single arrow is still too hard for her.
Will didn't care at all. He began his assault on the goblins and killed as many as he could.
The goblins were caught completely off-guard, but some of them grabbed their weapons and charged at Will and Grace.
Grace kept raining down arrows, but her speed was nothing compared to an assault rifle.
The goblins couldn't do much when there was an assault rifle aimed at them, so they ran back into a cave that they built,
Will ran behind them but didn't go inside the cave. It was too dangerous and could be full of traps.
"Should we go in?" Will asked. He had no idea what to expect, but Grace did, since she's been living in this world far longer than he has.
"No. We cannot risk it."
"Well then." Will placed down and chest and placed all the goblin bodies he killed.
"Ugh, I can never forget the putrid scent of goblins."
Grace kept a close eye on the goblin cave. But, she saw something near the entrance of the cave.
She picked it up, it was a bow identical to hers.
"Oh no." Grace had a terrified look.
"What?" Will asked.
"An elf has been abducted."
"Oh…" Will didn't know how to feel about that.
The bow Grace is holding is something that elves use.
"We must go in."
"Didn't you say it was too dangerous?"
"That was before I knew that they kidnapped one of my people."
Will stopped her by grabbing her arm.
"Hold on, if this elf was kidnapped, then why didn't the forest tell you before?"
Grace looked at the cave and realized something. He had a point.
"I think I know why. Because that elf lost the protection of Lea."
"I guess that makes sense." Will let go of her arm.
"I'm still going to help them, don't try to stop me." Grace ran inside the cave and Will did too.
Those elves who eat meat will forever lose Lea's protection, and their connection to the forest. It's mostly those elves that get killed, kidnapped, and raped because their goddess doesn't protect them anymore.
But even so, the elves will keep on helping their people. Because they are all still elves in the end.
The cave was too dark for them to see. Will got a lit torch from his chest and lit the area they were in.
Will also had his pistol on his waste because the cave is too small and narrow to use an assault rifle.
Grace put away her bow and arrows and took out a cobalt knife that she had.
Goblins could see well in the dark, which is why they didn't use torches to light up the path.
The cave kept going down and down, it was as if a giant worm made the cave.
"They already know that we're here. They're probably waiting to ambush us." Grace said.
"I think I know how to draw them out. Stand behind me." Will took out his pickaxe and began mining.
Grace looked at Will wierdly. What is he thinking?
Will got a lot of rocks from mining. Next he placed down a crafting table, and crafted a boulder.
"What?" Grace was still confused. The boulder in his hand was the size of his palm.
"Observe." Will threw the boulder on his hand and it grew in size. It rolled down and it kept rolling.
The goblins who were waiting didn't expect to see a boulder rushing at them. They couldn't outrun it before it turned them all into meat paste.
At the end of the cave was a goblin that was bigger, fatter, and red. He sat down on a chair made out of human and monster bones.
He was busy eating freshly torn human limbs. He didn't even notice a boulder rolling toward him and crushing him flat.
Grace and Will quickly ran down, and they both were shocked. The boulder alone had killed the majority of the goblins.
"Oh wow, that actually worked! High IQ play bitches!" Will laughed a bit. He didn't expect such an outcome.
"You are a… I don't even know what to say." Grace observed the area. On the far side of the cave, there were various women chained up. Their clothes were torn. They were beaten up, bruised, and bloodied.
Some of them were human, but 2 of them were elven women.
Grace first ran up to the elves and freed them.
When Will saw those women, the proud and happy expression that he had on his face was replaced by shock and horror.
"It's okay. You're both safe now." Grace helped the elven women from their chains.
Will brought the torch closer to where the boulder was. A thick, fat, red arm was slapping the side of the boulder as someone was trapped underneath and wanted to push it off.
Will got a good look at who it was, it was a goblin he had never seen. It was pinned down by the boulder and couldn't get out. It's legs and stomach were crushed.
Will felt no pity for it. He took out his rifle and aimed it at the goblin's head and blew its brains out.
Later he destroyed the boulder and collected all the goblin corpses for Adaline. Some of which were just paste, but he got what he could out of it. The big one was a great harvest though for Adaline.
"Will… do you have anything that can help them?" Grace said as she laid down the elven women. She saw how Will could make a lot of stuff, so she hoped that he had a healing ability.
Will looked at their HP, they both had 2/150 HP, they were close to dying.
"I don't. I'm sorry." He said. He released the other women from their chains.
"Even if I talk to the forest they won't help them or send help for them. And if the humans see that they're elves, they won't help either, but use them as slaves instead." Grace felt helpless.
"Then we have no choice, we need to go to the human village."
"That's too risky… but it does seem it's our only choice."
Will placed down another crafting table, and made wooden helmets.
"Place these on them. It'll hide their ears, that way nobody can tell if they're elves." Will said.
One of the physical traits that elves had was their long, pointy ears. It might seem like a dumb idea to hide the elves identities using helmets, but that's the best they could do.
"Thank you."
"Stay here with them. I'll get some help. On the way here we saw the village, remember? I can ask them for help."
Grace nodded.
Will ran off to the village. He didn't feel like helping, but Grace would never let this go. And also he owed her and Arbor for helping him defend his base, even if they were ultimately trying to protect Adaline.