((MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!))

{Advanced crafting table}

{A more advanced crafting table with more crafting options. With this you can unlock more powerful weapons, armor, tools, and most importantly, system exclusive crafts that are only beneficial to the user, which is you}

{Crafting ingredients required: 100x gold bars, 100x iron bars, 100x copper bars}

Will had his eyes wide open. System exclusive crafts for him only? That sounded important. All this happened as soon as he touched the gold.

That made him think what he could craft with that, plus the other crafting options.

This reminded him of the mythril/orichalcum anvil from Terraria, where with that anvil could craft more powerful items compared to the normal anvil.

The problem was that it required 100 bars from each ore that he mines. Whenever he smelts ore it turns into bars.

"I'm sure I have at least 100 iron and copper back at base… but I cannot say the same about gold."

Will frowned. He only got the gold bars purely from luck. He didn't know how to find gold yet.

Gold would obviously be found deep in the ground. But there was a thick layer of granite that he could never get through. He'll need a stronger pickaxe or as an alternative, use explosives. But he doesn't know how to make explosives yet.

"What about diamonds? What would they give me?"

"Are you talking to me?" Asked Grace.

"I'm talking to myself." He responded honestly.

He touched the diamonds and unlocked several new features.

{Diamonds: A rare and very durable mineral. It is one of the best minerals for sorcerers}

{Diamond power source: used for enchanting}

Will was beyond delighted. Jack and Sam had told him briefly about enchanting items, but failed to mention diamonds could be used like this.

There were also items for crafting diamonds like jewelry, and mage staffs as well. But the one that caught his eye the most was the {Diamond power source}

{Diamond power source crafting ingredients: 10x diamonds, anvil, crafting table}

He checked how many diamonds he had, and only 11, just barely enough. He let out the biggest sigh of relief. Sometimes gamer's in their lives get lucky, and other times, not so much.

Will and Grace began walking away from the village before someone else saw them.

Back at the village the soldiers kept searching everywhere, not leaving a single stone unturned.

"Sir, we have not been able to find the elves. They're gone." A soldier reported to the one in command.

The leader looked at the body of a young man whose head had been crushed. Around them were the corpses of several people with bullet holes in their bodies.

The leader is a man in his early 50's. His hair was already grey and so was his beard. Even so he was tall, strong, and had a dominating aura of a retired veteran soldier..

"The fight started here. I guess that the villagers surrounded one of the elves, but he retaliated and used a type of machine gun." He examined the area and walked inside a room filled with more corpses. There were exactly three dead men, one had his throat sliced, and the others had arrows on their hearts.

"He ran to this building, and I guess that the other elf killed these men, since the weapons that they were killed with are completely different."

The commander brought the other soldier with him to another building and stood there.

"And then they completely disappeared here." He said.

"How would you know?" The soldier asked.

"The elder of this village told me that a metal safe was missing, it was this village's entire savings in case an emergency happened, and now it's gone. He said that they had over 500 gold coins worth of diamonds here, and 10 gold coins, and 3 gold bars."

"Want me to fill out a form to any nearby villages if someone's trading gold bars and/or diamonds?"

"I already did. But what's weird here is that I can't tell how they escaped. We clearly surrounded the area before they could leave, and they didn't enter any other buildings… it's like they teleported but they shouldn't have been able to. How could 4 elves, with a heavy safe, disappear like that? And not only that, but why would elves bother stealing a safe? Were they really elves or bandits disguised as elves? But that wouldn't make sense" He rubbed his chin and thought really hard.

Elves view currency as a useless thing. And they don't focus on accessories like diamonds, or gold. They were beings of nature.

This made him think that it was bandits with machine guns, but also a bow and arrows. This was too confusing for him.

The commander was starting to doubt if these elves were actually elves, but the villagers mistook them for elves.

Then he drew out his enchanted blade and cut the ground beneath him. It was like cutting butter.

"They didn't escape underground either." He had a sharp mind. If Will hadn't covered the dirt hole that he made they would've been found out sooner.

"I might be losing my touch since I'm too old now."

"So what now, sir?"

"For now, we wait. Have you printed posters of their faces and spread them out to the other villages?"

If there was a chance that they weren't elves but bandits, there's a huge chance that they're planning on selling the items that they stole to earn a quick buck. But there was also a chance that they would also go to an expert blacksmith and offer him the diamonds to make a powerful weapon.

"Yes sir, as you requested, they now have a bounty of 10 gold pieces each. We also included that if anyone has any information about them they get 1 gold piece, on top of the extra pieces that they receive for the capture of the elves by law."

"Good."

"Sir!" Another soldier entered the building.

"What?"

"A sorceress had just arrived at the village. Her name is Jasmine."

At the entrance of the village, Jasmine was observing the area. On her hand was a sheet of paper, it was a request from this village to send help to exterminate a goblin's nest.

The elder of the village mentioned to Will how he thought that the kingdom had sent them to deal with the goblin's nest, which is why he gave him 50 silver coins. But Will only eradicated the nest due to a series of incidents that led him and Grace there.

Jasmine saw this request for help and took the job. It was also a good way for her to raise her rank as a sorceress. Most goblin nests have a 4th or 3rd layered monster in charge of these nests.

Before she was a 1-striped sorceress, now she's a 2-striped sorceress. Her hard work during the past month had paid off. There was an 'v' shape mark across on her robe covering her body.

When sorcerers' go up in ranks their stripes take a different shape.

1-stripe has only a single strip going across their robe from their abdomen.

2-stripes have an 'v' shape on their front and back side.

3-stripes are in the form of a triangle.

4-stripes have a diamond shape.

5-stripes have all f fives stripes across their body.

As soon as the commander heard that a sorceress was here, they immediately ran to her and kneeled.

Sorcerers are very strong and respected. Even an old commander like him needs to pay respects to even a 1-striped sorcerer.

"What's going on here?" Jasmine said.

"Miss…"

"Jasmine."

"Sorceress Jasmine, we heard that there were elves in this village and we immediately came here. It was like this when we arrived. The perpetrators have apparently ran off before we could find them. We have no clues to their whereabouts."

Jasmine frowned. The request to aid this village was at most a month old, and no one bothered to help. But at the news of an elf being here they came rushing with armed men, horses, in a matter of minutes.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She decided not to press on this matter.

"What do these elves look like? I imagine they're in human disguises." She asked. It's not weird for elves to use disguises to fit in.

One of the soldiers showed her two pictures of Grace and Will.

"Don't you have a better description of this other elf wearing bone… armor." Jasmine remembered something important when seeing that bone armor.

"This is the best description we could make out of them."

"I'll go fly over the forest and see if I can find them." Jasmine took off and flew above the forest, like an eagle searching for its prey.

Jasmine took this time to take out her communication stone and drew on it while flying. It was a form of texting and flying.

{Do you still have that bone armor with you?}

Jasmine texted Jack and waited for a response. Jack mentioned to her that Will made him bone armor made out of a cyclops, so it could protect him on his journey. Ever since then Jack had taken care of it, because it's basically a gift from a hero. It's like getting a signature from his idol.

Jack did not see the communication stone light up. He and Sam were still making a shotgun for Kyle, and he was learning a lot.

Grace and Will kept walking, until they both stopped.

"Where are we going?" Asked Grace. They've been walking around and have no idea on where they were going.

"I was following you. You were the one leading the way."

"No I wasn't… never mind. It's probably a good idea if we went back to your base. We already have goblin parts for Adaline, and you found a way to make your potions." Grace sat down cross-legged.

Will also sat down and was in deep thought, what she said was true.

Not only did he get monster parts and ajio, but he found a way to make enchantments now. And he also has a new objective to unlock the {Advanced crafting table} which is something he needs.

The problem was the gold. How was he going to break through the granite layer?

Grace was talking to the trees while Will was thinking. She got up, walked a fair distance away. Later she returned with some fruits.

"You might also need this."

She handed him an apple. She ate one too.

"Oh! Thanks." Will took the apple and ate it wholeheartedly. It's the first time he put something in his mouth that wasn't grass.

Ever since arriving here the first thing he promised to himself was to eat something else. But many things happened so fast that he forgot about food.

Will devoured the apple in a minute. He spat out the seeds and examined it.

{Apple seed}

{It's an apple seed. Plant it and you'll grow an apple tree}

"Grace, are there any more fruits or vegetables nearby?" Asked Will. If he could bring more seeds back to his base and grow more, it'll definitely help with his food problem.

"There are only oranges and grapes nearby. If you want any more fruits it's gonna take us a few hours to get there."

"Let's just get those two fruits and leave. Grab as many as you can for the road." Will wanted to go back home but did not want to eat grass on the way anymore.

Grace grabbed all the oranges, apples, and grapes and placed them inside an empty chest.

Will was starting to see that carrying too many chests was a bother. He needed a better way to carry stuff without putting so many chests in his pockets.

It was annoying and slow placing down the chest, searching and grabbing stuff out of the chest, and using a tool to shrink the chest. In the middle of a fight it's not efficient enough. Sometimes he messes up and grabs another chest because they all look alike.

It's a great tool for carrying a bunch of stuff for travelling at long distances, but it could be better.

Grace stopped as she heard whispers of the forest telling her something.

"Hide!" Grace pushed Will back underneath a tree.

Above them a robed person flew by them. It was Jasmine. She's still looking for the two 'elves' but missed them.

The forest saw Jasmine and told Grace, which is how she was able to react quickly before Jasmine spotted them.

"A sorceress. We cannot mess with those. Most likely they were sent here by those soldiers after they couldn't find us. But how did they react so quickly?." Grace was a bit afraid at the moment. No matter what sorcerers were way more powerful than ordinary guards. She had no way to defeat them, neither did Will.

"Grace, could you get off of me? You're heavy." Will was still underneath Grace.

Grace got off of him while still being wary of the sorcerer.

"I think she's gone." Grace felt relieved.

"Then we better leave now." They got their stuff and left the forest.

From far away, Silvas, grandfather of Grace, also felt relieved. Now he knew that his son and granddaughter were still alive and well.

As soon as Grace contacted him he felt as if the weight of the world finally left his shoulders. It's been a month since he saw them, and was planning on sending more elves to find them.

Silvas learned a few things from Grace, Will was the 100th hero, the Adalis is doing well and her name was now Adaline, and that he had a base on the deserted lands, and found an exotic flower as well.

He had asked the forest to keep sending him information. It did bother him that the 100th hero was with Grace and that he had many weird abilities. But after what he saw, he felt that Grace was a little bit safer with him.

When the soldiers were heading to that village where Grace and a few other elves stayed he planned on going there himself to save them. But when they got out he sat down.

It was like riding a roller coaster of emotions.

"Thank you, Lea. For protecting them." Silvas said.

Meanwhile…

Jack was still working with Sam and were both making good progress.

The shotgun was in several pieces across the table. Sam was adding some major customizations that required a lot of skill, money, and patience.

"And now, for the enchanting part. I am so glad I didn't sell the enchanting power source… I think someone wants to talk to you." Sam nudged his head over to the communication stone that was glowing.

Jack picked it up and read what it said.

{Do you still have that bone armor with you?}

The letters disappeared as soon as he read it.

{Yes. Why do you ask?}

{Did the bone armor look like it was made out of a dragon's bones?}

{Not mine. Mine is made out of a cyclops. But my friend did have dragon bone armor, you know him the one who tamed the organic monster}

{Oh… is there a chance that he's by any chance an elf?}

{I can assure you that there isn't even a 1% chance that he is. Why do you ask?} Will is the 100th hero, how could he be an elf?

{Ok, good. I think it's better if you throw out that bone armor you have}

{Why?}

{You'll understand soon. Just please hide the armor and don't tell anyone else about it}

{Um… okay?}

Jack didn't understand but he listened to Jasmine's command.

"What's wrong? What did Jasmine want?" Asked Sam.

"She asked me to do something. I'll be right back."

"Hurry. At this rate we might just finish before the deadline."

Jasmine put away her communication stone and kept flying around the area. She thought that the dragon armor sounded familiar. There was nobody else in the world that could make armor out of monsters because it's useless. Using metal was better.

It's why she asked Jack to hide or throw out his dragon armor, since people could think that they're the same person or related somehow.

Now that she knew that it was Will she still needed to find them, but not kill them. It was easier to deal with someone if you know them. The problem was if she could find them.

After a while of running Will and Grace finally made it to the deserted lands.

"I don't think that sorcerer will look for us this far." Grace said.

"Good thing I still have our camels." Will took out the two caged camels from his pocket.

"I'm not gonna ride on those camels anymore. I have a better idea."

At that moment a 6-legged, organic goat came out of the trees and rubbed itself on Grace.

"We're taking him. With his speed we'll arrive in a day instead of 3."

"Even better." Will tried to touch the organic goat, but it bit his hand.

"Ow!" Will retracted his arm.

{HP: 47/50}

"Sorry, this one doesn't like humans in particular. I raised it like that." Grace gently caressed the goat's head and fed him an apple. She got another apple and put it on Will's hand.

"It might not like humans, but I can tell it to trust you for now. Just give him this apple."

Grace got on top of the goat and gently whispered on its ears.

Will slowly crept up on the goat and gave him the apple, but the goat wasn't moving or reacting to it. It was staring directly at Will's eyes not losing eye contact.

"It's very stubborn." Grace added.

"I can tell." Will kept touching the goat's mouth with the apple but it still didn't move.

"Just get on, slowly. Don't make any sudden movements." Grace said.

Will slowly got on the goat's side but it didn't move, only it's eyes kept locked on Will.

Grace kept caressing the goat's head to calm it down and not attack.

Will successfully made it on top of the goat.

"Okay, Sten. Go!"

Sten ran as fast as he could while purposefully trying to knock only Will down.

Will grabbed tightly onto the side of the goat but that only made the goat trying harder to knock him off.

"Oh, Sten, always playing games." Grace laughed a bit.

"I don't think it wants to play games." Will said while holding on for his life.

"Okay, take it easy Sten, don't waste so much energy. We have a long way ahead." Grace fed it another apple and it somewhat calmed down.

The brown book glowed and it showed Will the information about Sten, mostly about it's biology and species, just normal stuff.

It was a little awkward riding on a goat, but it did travel faster than a camel.

"You know, back at the village… for a second I did think that you had betrayed me." Grace suddenly said to break the silence.

"Why would I do that? You're my guide." Will responded.

"Do you know why humans want elves so much?"

"Because they're deranged sex maniacs who enjoy the pleasure of enslaving another race?"

"That's… oddly specific, but you're not wrong. What humans are looking for are the exotic flowers. Like the one you ate."

Will shivered from remembering that painful experience.

"Once humans somehow knew about the existence of the exotic flower over 200 years ago, they've been constantly trying to break into the elven kingdom, to steal that flower. It's thanks to Lea that no human has ever made it through the village… well, only one I guess, but that's because my grandfather invited him."

"It's a flower that only grants one vitality right?"

"Yes, but they don't know it's poisonous to them. It'll let them live a few hundred years more than the average human. Which is why they want it."

"Ah." Will now understood. He wondered why there's a great fight between those two races.

"Your grandfather." Will said, "Who did he invite?"

"The great sage. They are surprisingly good friends. I still don't know how or why, but they're on good terms with one another."

"Makes sense. But if they're good friends, can't he make the Great Sage make a law that punishes those who kill or kidnap elves? I heard that he's strong."

"You just came to this world, so it's not surprising you don't know yet. The Great Sage did what you said he should do about 200 years ago, but he's old now. They changed the elf laws and made it legal to enslave elves 70-80 years ago. The Great Sage still holds power, but not as much as he used to. It'll be a matter of time before he's gone for good."

"Did… did your grandfather give the Great Sage an exotic flower to extend his lifespan."

"Good guess. Yes he did. The Great Sage is the only hero and human to have eaten an exotic flower and lived. Grandfather says that it's the mana flowing through the Great Sage that made it possible to eat the flower, and extend his lifespan. He did this to protect the elves, and it worked, for a while. Although the didn't stop the humans from killing and enslaving us 200 years ago either."

Now Will knew why the Great Sage had a long lifespan. It's because of the exotic flower.

This made him shiver once more. He had over 20 exotic flowers, and humans would wage war against a race for 1. Now he's really glad he didn't set up base in a village or somewhere populated. If someone found out, they would give him a worse fate than death.

Now he was glad that he set up base in the deserted lands, away from anyone else.

It seems that all the suffering he and Adaline went through in this desert was actually a good sacrifice.

"I never got to ask, but how did you get 2 exotic flowers?" Grace asked.

"From Adaline."

"That's not possible. Although an Adalis can indeed produce exotic flowers, it takes about 100 years before that can happen. Even my grandfather can only get an exotic flower every 300-500 years if he's lucky from an exotic seed."

"Oh… how does he get an exotic flower?" Will thought he heard wrong.

"From an exotic flower seed. The elven kingdom only has one and it's well protected, even from other elves."

Will thought about the seed he had. Maybe it's because they've never seen the exotic flower seed that they didn't recognize it. He showed it to them with the exotic flower, but they paid more attention to the flower instead of the seed.

"Maybe it's better if I keep it to myself." Mumbled Will. There was no reason why he should show them the flower seed, or the other 20 exotic flowers he had at base.

"What?"

"Nothing."

They continued with their long journey. Once they stopped Grace continued teaching Will to speak in elven tongue. Sten never took a liking to Will and distanced himself from him whenever he could.

And in short of one day, they arrived back at base.