The king was in a meeting room, but it was just him alone. Currently he is planning on dealing with the new tax laws, and the villagers moving to the empire.
"Okay, so far only the majority of the villagers decided to stay, that's good. But the rest who left will take a heavy toll on our economy. The only reason these people are staying is mainly because of the heroes, and I don't want more of them to leave. Hmmm… that gives me an idea."
The king took out a giant piece of paper and some quill and ink. If he didn't write something down he'd most likely forget it the next minute.
"Have the heroes battle each other, but not to the death. Genius! That way people will see how great they are, and they won't want to move to the empire! Now that I think about it I don't think I was the first king to come up with this."
He once heard that one of his ancestors many years ago, the king of that time, made the heroes fight each other in front of people. Unlike back then he didn't have a problem with people leaving the kingdom, instead it was because of boredom.
"It seems logical. About 90 heroes still don't have the courage to leave the castle, and we've been keeping them fed, clothed, and clean for all this time. Not only that but Shaun has been training all of them about every day. So this tournament would be a good way to repay us for treating them well, and they might even have enough courage to go outside of the castle's walls. I should have Morgan grab some decently powerful monsters for the heroes to kill, to boost their courage."
"My king!" Andre, one of the king's men came barging through the door.
"What?"
"Hero Josh just arrived."
"Oh, good. Call back the people who were tasked to find Josh."
Josh was gone for over 10 days and no one knew whether he was dead or alive. The 2 girls who accompanied him, Naveah and Felicia, both told the king what happened. No sooner than later the king sent over hundreds of his own men to find Josh.
He needed to know if he was dead or alive.
But hearing that he's alive well made him sigh in relief. Losing a hero so early would be such a waste.
God knows how many soldiers died trying to find Josh all because he had a terrible sense of direction.
"King! I need to talk to you."
Josh marched through the room.
"Ah, Josh, so nice to see you again." The king found Josh's behaviour a little too inappropriate, but he is a hero and must show them respect, especially after seeing just how fragile this group of heroes is, emotionally and mentally speaking.
"King, I heard that you collected a lot of money from the villagers right?"
"It's true."
"Then please spend some of that money on me. I need another magical weapon, preferably a wand, please."
"What happened to your magical wand that was given to you?" Asked the king.
"I lost it… when I was fighting a very powerful dragon."
"That so?"
"It's true(not). So please, can I have another one?"
"Why of cou-"
'Hold on!' The King suddenly had a thought,
'This is a good chance to use the heroes to fix the problem.'
"Sorry, hero Josh. But I am planning on giving someone else a magical weapon."
"Who?"
"To whoever wins first place in the tournament, the tournament of heroes!"
"Tournament?! I'm in!" Josh's eyes sparkled like beautiful little diamonds.
Tournament arcs are by far one of his most favourite arcs in any story and movie.
"Great. But I am afraid that I cannot start the tournament until at least 20 heroes participate. If they don't join, there won't be a tournament, if there's no tournament then there's no prize." The king acted sad.
"Please, let me handle this. I'll get at least 50 of my friends to join the tournament."
"Okay, then. You have 10 days to make at least 50 heroes join, that'll give me enough time to set up a place for the heroes to fight. Tell them about the first place prize, as well as the second and third place prizes such as money or something."
10 days may seem a lot when he thought that 3 or 5 days would be more than enough, but these heroes were very nervous and sensitive, like meek little children. So he gave them extra time to be prepared and make up their minds.
'It feels like I am taking care of almost 100 children at once.' The king thought.
Josh ran out of the room in a flash.
Josh has been played like a fiddle and he didn't even realize it.
The King smiled. He could not believe his plan went perfectly.
'Instead of me asking the heroes to join, it'll be better if they heard it from their own group.'
1 week1 went by in a flash.
Currently Will and Sandra both are busy building their castle, and also making slight improvements, always adding little details as they continue to add more and more things to make it better.
Because Sandra has a better imagination than Will, the castle looked a lot better, and is far sturdier than last time.
Will didn't want to let Sandra know about most of his system abilities, but that would be difficult to do so. It's not that he didn't trust her, but he worried that the Great Sage would know from reading her mind.
Right now his greatest secrets are his system, the infinity enchantment, and the exotic flower seed. Those things he must never reveal.
But because Sandra is now always with him he had to show her the sentry turrets. As for the golems they were still a secret. He decided to postpone using the golems for the time being, at least until he can make better ones.
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Sandra was at first weirded out that Will could make sentry turrets, something that shouldn't be possible with today's technology. If Will could make sentry turrets, then why can't he make different kinds of advanced technology, like talking robots, or perhaps A.I.'s?
She doesn't know that this is the limit of his system, otherwise he would have done something like that.
"Man, I miss Adaline." Will said. He was worried for Adaline who hasn't contacted him in over a week. He wondered if something had happened to her.
"Yes, I know." Sandra responded. This would be the 50th time she heard him say that. She could tell he cared for Adaline, but he was starting to sound like a broken record.
Because Adaline wasn't here his HP has been rising at an incredibly slow pace.
'2 more week until I can make a proper golem. Hope the wait was worth it. And I believe I have enough blueprints.' Will thought.
He checked the system inventory. He still could only place 10 items in his inventory because he still doesn't know how to unlock the {System Inventory II}
Inside the inventory was 3 blueprints, which wasn't easy to obtain. Cutting down the trees and regrowing them was a painful, boring, and tiring process.
The reason he has 3 is just in case he needs more. These blueprints are handy to have.
In his inventory he has his golem cores, mana ores, 2 emergency enchanted weapons, healing pills, a bunch of steel knives, and 5 empty chests. Leaving him with only 2 empty inventory slots.
He also had 3 weapons and 1 explosive bullet on his {Hot belt} (check chapter 31) that could store weapons inside no matter the size, and he could easily access them faster than accessing items in his system.
After the surprise attack by the giant scorpions, Will realized how useful his {Hot belt} would have been had he remembered to use it. Because he never used it he had completely forgotten about it.
As for his inventory, Will realized he could stack items together which saved him a ton of space, even identical weapons, like in minecraft kind of. The item limit seemed to have no limits so far. Not like in Minecraft where the limit is 64 or in Terraria where the limit is 999.
But, he found something strange about the functions of the {Inventory}.
As it turns out, enchanted weapons cannot be stacked on top of one another. Ordinary weapons can, but enchanted weapons cannot.
The same goes for weapons with bullets in them. Empty weapons could be stacked together but loaded weapons cannot, including ammo magz.
Even if the weapons are exactly the same with the exact same enchantments or ammo it can't stack.
As for the magical items Will doesn't know yet. He still doesn't have 2 identical magical items.
"I think the castle is turning up real nicely." Sandra said with a smile on her face.
They already made so many buildings, a large farm(under construction), a proper bathroom in each of the buildings, proper furniture, a giant castle in the middle that still needed time.
The walls were thick like last time which had sentry turrets on top of the walls. The walls were by far the only thing that looked the same before it was destroyed.
The farms have various fruits and vegetables, at first. Without Adaline's help the fruits dried out fast, and the greenery was dying, too. Sandra had to run back and forward to the castle once every few days for food.
Most of the work was done by Will obviously, but Sandra did a lot of the planning.
"I think so, too. If it were just me I don't think it would have turned out this nicely."
"Alex would be proud."
"Agreed."
'Rest in peace, Alex.' Will and Sandra thought the same thing. This castle was for Alex.
They were standing on top of the castle walls. They got a good view of the castle they were building.
"I hear someone approaching." Sandra said suddenly.
"Where?"
"Behind us."
Will couldn't hear it, but that's because he doesn't have an acute sense of hearing like Sandra does.
Turning around, from a fair distance, Will could clearly see 3 men approaching them on horses. Each of them are fully equipped with enchanted armor and weapons. Their armor carried the familiar symbol of the empire.
Without Will's enchanted mask he wouldn't have been able to see the men. And yes he never takes off his armor apart from eating and bathing.
"This week sure went fast. Sandra, I have some business to attend to."
"Oh, right, the thing you have with the empire."
Sandra didn't know exactly what it is they're doing, but she'd rather not question it. Still she is worried considering the rumors she heard about the empire, especially their Empress.
"Well I am gonna take a shower then. Be careful." Sandra wasn't going to shower really. She is just going to get her weapons and wait to hear if a fight were to break out, that way she can aid Will at a moment's notice.
"Thanks for believing in me." Will was glad that Sandra never asked questions.
Now that he thought about it she didn't like asking questions a lot, which is why she never suspected anything when she saw Alex in his house all those times.
"Yep."
Will sprouted his dragon wings and flew towards the 3 men. The feeling of being able to fly will never get old for him.
"It's him!" One of them shouted. They stopped the moment they saw Will. These three men were actually here the last time they accompanied the Empress, one of which is Rico.
Since they were sorta trustworthy, and they already knew the way, the Empress trusted them with the task of delivering and receiving items from Will.
Will landed in a superhero landing, making him look badass in front of them.
'Wooh! Superhero landing. Glad I practiced that before.' Will patted himself in the back. He always wanted to do a cool landing in front of someone for no particular reason, he just wanted to flex.
"So, did you bring the 'stuff'" Will asked.
'I sound like I'm dealing drugs…'
"We do. According to the trade, 6 mana ores per weapon, or 14 pounds of pure anti-hero metal per weapon as well. Must be some preeeetty good weapons."
The 3 men knew that anti-hero metal was very rare. They'd never thought that their Empress would give some of it up for a few measly weapons.
They thought that their Empress must have some other motive to make such an unfair trade, like coaxing the hero to join them.
"That sounds correct. Here." Will took out a small iron chest from his pocket and tossed it to the ground. Once the chest left his hand it grew in size.
Will took out the enchanted weapons from the chest while ignoring the shocked faces of the 3 men.
"I have a total of 100 weapons that your Empress wanted."
"100?" They weren't sure if they had brought enough materials to cover 100 weapons. Not because they were poor, but because the Empress made an error to think that Will couldn't produce more than 10 or less in a week.
"Hold on, the Empress told us to inspect each and every one of them. Hope you don't mind." Rico said, following her orders to the letter.
Will shrugged his shoulders as he handed them a single enchanted pistol. The weapons only have the 'infinite ammo' enchantment. Adding more enchantments would require him to waste more time and resources.
Besides he knows that Valerie is only after the 'infinite ammo' enchantment. Adding anything else would be unnecessary.
Rico took out an enchanted magnifying glass to use it to inspect the enchanted weapons.
Will recognized the magnifying glass, it was the same he saw when he made that trade with Josh. He couldn't forget as it was the same day he 'stole' their magical ring.
Seeing the pistol, Rico was shocked.
'I made a mistake. No wonder the Empress wanted these weapons. I have never heard of this enchantment before.' Rico thought.
Even Valerie didn't know it was an enchantment, but she knew it had to do with Will's ability.
"I am afraid we can only afford 12 at the moment. By next week we should be able to bring more."
"Sounds good. But bring a lot more next time." Will wasn't in a rush. He still had to wait 2 more weeks until he could make proper golems.
Rico took out a plain silver necklace with a picture of his wife and son. The necklace might seem like a normal necklace but it is a magical item.
Magical items with a 'space inventory' type are one of the most common types of magical items. Other magical items such as teleportation, flying, sentient, or such are rare.
Even some weapons have the 'space inventory' function when blacksmiths make them.
There's no telling just what kind of magical item will come out when they are making one. It all depends on luck.
Rico took out several blue metals, and a giant leather bag.
Will saw a couple of precious blue metals. The blue color in it moved like it was alive, almost as if it was mimicking the gentle waves of the ocean,
They were in the shape of half a gold bar instead of imperfect chunks.
Inside the bag contained only 36 mana ores.
Most of his golem cores were destroyed by the scorpions, leaving him only 2 golem cores intact. Ever since then he could no longer gather more resources.
Aside from the golem cores, the mana ores had many other functions like exclusive crafts like the {portal chests} which is basically an ender chest.
Will wanted to know what other uses the mana ores had. What would happen if he crafted an {Advance mana ore}? What other types of exclusive crafts could he create?
"36 mana ores, that equals 6 of your guns. And also 6 14 pound anti-hero metal, that also equals 6 of your weapons. Bringing a total of 12."
"Got it. I may not be good at math, but I can do at least basic math somewhat." Will said.
Will handed them 2 pistols, 2 ak-47's, 2 shotguns, 2 turret pistols, 2 sniper rifles, and 2 submachine guns. The reason he made 2 of every weapon is because he was bored of making the same weapon every time. Besides this'll show them that he can make a variety of weapons.
Not like it'll matter, because the Empress will soon realize that it is the enchantment that is overpowered.
Will stuffed the mana ores in his inventory and the anti-hero metals. Once he touched the metal he had unlocked new types of craftable items.
"See you, hero." Rico and his men left and headed back to the empire.
Will took a look at the new crafts he had unlocked.
"That's neat, I can make anti-hero pickaxes, even weapons and such. It's even better than the dragon armor I am wearing, but I don't know if it has an ability like 'flying' or such."
Will scrolled through the list of items he could craft. Then he checked the {Exclusive crafts] section. His eyes opened wide as he had unlocked 2 new useful crafts.
One of the crafts is a thin glove.
{Builders touch: Able to move any items you have crafted and ONLY the ones you crafted, nothing else. Like using telekinesis. Very useful for building. And only the system user can use its ability}
{Note: Does not drop upon death}
{Crafting recipes: 20 anti-hero metal(s)}
{Hologram platform: Able to create, plan, and build different types of 3-D holographic pictures using this item. A very useful item for building and crafting various items that the system cannot craft. The only limit to this is your imagination}
{Note: If you haven't already unlocked or crafted a {Blueprint} do it now. Both of these cannot show their full use if they're not used together}
{Note: Now you can create golems easier with this. You're welcome}
{P.S. I just came to check up on you for a second and I cannot believe you didn't unlock this item until now. How is your progress this slow?}
{Crafting recipe: 100 blueprints, 8 anti-hero metal, 1 advanced mana ore}
At first, Will was happy to unlock 2 new crafts. But reading that last paragraph made him think of that dream that he had of that man, the one who made him a system user.
"That wasn't a dream?" Will looked around, and sure enough he saw no one else. It was just him.