On the edge of Lea's forest…

More than 20 elves were all sitting high up on the trees with their bows and arrows ready to aim and kill at a moment's notice.

"Dad, the human flew away with wings. I don't think he's coming back any time soon."

"Luckily none of us died. Still we should wait for a few days in case he comes back." The elf, who was grazed by the bullet, had applied a small healing herb that healed his face.

These elves are none other than the elves that attacked Will.

They got ready to ambush Will with other enchanted arrows that can pierce through armor easier {Piercing II} Since these arrows are rarer and harder to make due to their enchantment level. The last time they had to use such arrows was decades ago.

Elves do not kill dragons. Not because they don't want to but because they can't. They only relied on bows and arrows and some enchantments. If a huge monster were to attack the elves, Lea will protect them and kill said monsters.

The only ones who use magical weapons are Silvas and his family. And in one case, an elf who lost the protection of Lea used a magical weapon against humans and some heroes over 200 years ago.

They all got magical items thanks to Lea, such as how Josh used to own a magical wand, but lost it when he attempted to attack the elves.

Elves won't make magical weapons despite the immense advantage that they would gain. It's a law within the elves. Even the elves don't know why that is, but Silvas, and past kings have always kept this law.

They also won't make guns since they see guns as nothing but a part of humans. Using guns would be an insult to the elves who really hate humans. That is why they rely on bows, arrows, and sometimes blades or short knives.

Some elves have used guns since they realized that guns are better than bows and arrows. But most like to use bows since it's a tradition for elves to use bows and arrows.

"Radix is here!" An elf said softly.

Radix, the one who killed Will, showed up before them.

"Parum!" Radix went to greet the one in charge whose name is 'Parum'.

"Brother." Both shook hands. A green glow enveloped Parum's body.

"Nothing serious. Sometimes these humans like to coat poison on their bullets." Radix said as he sighed in relief.

Parum and Radix are not brothers by blood. They are both roughly the same age with a single year difference between them. Both had lost their families from the Witch. But both were adopted by the same parents who cared for them when they were children, over 300 years ago.

Parum, on the other hand, lost the protection of the elves thanks to the humans when he was captured.

It is no secret that both these elves held a deep grudge against humans.

"No one else was shot or hurt?" Radix asked.

"No."

"Good. Who found the human?"

"I did, uncle." The son of Parum raised his hand. His name is Viridis.

Radix held the young elf's shoulder and a green light enveloped his body as well.

"Nothing out of the ordinary either. As far as I can tell."

There are cases where elves are manipulated by humans, and therefore bring unsuspecting elves to the outside or edge of the forest and kidnap them in bulk.

Sometimes humans use slave collars on elves but those are very noticeable when they're on their necks and are thick.

The preferred way is to kidnap other elves and use them as hostages for other elves to do their bidding. Or in one case 'mind control.'

"What did the human look like?"

"He wore dragon scale armor the whole time. It completely covered his body. Other than that we are not sure." Parum said.

"Dragon scales? Seriously?" Radix almost wanted to laugh. While dragon scales are tough, they are heavy, and almost impossible to use as armor. It's why no human has ever used full or even light dragon scale armor.

It made sense. It doesn't matter if people wear full-plate armor with enchantments, they can still be crushed to death by a huge monster, laser beamed by a cyclops, burned or eaten by a dragon, dragged to the ground by Lea, or poisoned by goblins who sometimes use poison powder instead of poison tipped arrows.

"Yeah. He had full dragon scale armor. Even a dragon scale mask. After which he shot one of us and flew away."

"Flew away? A mask? Wait, did this person by any chance wear some kind of wooden armor?" Radix remembered that Will always wore wooden armor, which should be impossible.

Will reminded Radix of the Great Sage, while he wasn't as powerful he had as many abilities as he did.

He hasn't heard much of him lately so he didn't know that Will wears dragon scale armor now.

"Like the hero you told us of? No. But he also knew a bit of elven tongue. Although it wasn't very good. And he somehow built a tiny wooden shack but he tore it down."

Radix had a grim expression on his face. There is only one person he could think of, Will. He built a kingdom in such a short amount of time, a wooden shack might have only taken him seconds to build.

Not only that but he had heard that Grace even gave him a book to study elven tongue. At that point Grace was tired of translating for Will and her father that she wrote a book for Will. Her father, Arbor, refuses to learn human tongue. Elves are stubborn sometimes and refuse to learn a new language despite being decades or even centuries old.

"You know who he is." Parum knew his brother well.

"Just a second. I need to check something first." Radix touched a nearby tree, a green glow enveloped part of his hand and part of the tree as well.

Arbor, along with his wife, were trying to keep Grace occupied and take her mind off humans. After her traumatic experience with humans she became scared, afraid.

Grace didn't think much of it when she was captured as she only had thoughts of escaping.

But after being rescued by Adaline and her family, she came back to her senses and realized just how dire her situation was. Her tears and sadness overwhelmed her at the thought of dying, being defiled for the rest of her life, or never seeing her family again.

Many elves thought that Grace was incredibly lucky. Most elves who are kidnapped rarely come back alive. And those who come back alive are broken mentally, physically, and spiritually.

But nothing terrible had happened to Grace. She wasn't forced to eat meat. She wasn't sold despite being held hostage for days. And she still remained pure which is unfortunately unheard of by any elf after being kidnapped.

Grace's two kidnappers had been interrogated by none other than Silvas, something he hadn't done a long time ago. They haven't said anything useful to him, not because they're loyal and refuse to cooperate, but because they really don't know anything.

As it turned out, the two humans who kidnapped Grace were forced to kidnap her by someone. Their loved ones were also being held hostage and had no choice but to comply with the man's demands.

He had explicitly told in a letter not to feed her meat, only fruits and veggies, not to torture her or touch her in a perverted way. Keep her safe but locked up. Until a certain time passes he would let go of their loved ones.

Once they memorized the instructions on the letter they should burn the letter, to erase all the evidence.

Silvas found out something that day… there was a traitor among them. And he set out to find the elf who planned his granddaughter's kidnapping.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

How does he know it's an elf? Because no human would care for an elf, especially an elven princess, Grace would have sold for a great amount of gold, it's something that no human would refuse. And also only the elves knew that Grace would attack the black market on that exact date.

Why would they plan a kidnapping all of a sudden? Because elves wanted to pin the blame on humans and find a good excuse to send out all the elves to kill humans. Now that the Great Sage is getting lazier, they thought it was a good chance to do some serious damage.

Sadly for them, Adaline found Grace before elves could do anything drastic.

Silvas listed down all the things he knew about this traitor. It had to be an elf who hates humans, which is basically 99% of the elven population.

It also had to be someone who knows human tongue since he gave the humans instruction on a letter, which luckily rules out most of the elves.

Had to be an elf who comes in and out of the forest and is used to it enough to force humans to kidnap Grace. Most elves don't even leave the forest due to their own safety. This also made Silvas think since there happens to be many elves who have lost Lea's protection who do this. Chances are that it could have been them.

Silvas will now secretly test and monitor some elves who he thinks are prime suspects.

As for the two human kidnappers, Silvas will think what to do with them later on. On one hand he understands their reason to kidnap Grace. On the other hand, they kidnapped Grace…

Now Arbor and his wife were helping Grace since she needed help mentally. Grace knew she was lucky, but she was still scared.

'Arbor… Arbor…'

Arbor heard someone calling out to him. He knew who it was by the sound of the voice.

Using the forest they can communicate with each other as long as they are nearby and beside a tree.

Arbor lied against a tree to communicate with that person.

'This better be important, Radix.'

'Remember the human who wears wooden armor?'

'You mean Will?'

'Does he wear dragon armor as well?'

'I don't have time for this.' Arbor cut off communications with Radix.

Arbor didn't want to waste time on anything that wasn't important. And Arbor did at one point see Will in dragon armor, it was when he and Rias visited Will to ask if he knew anything about Grace when she was kidnapped. At that point he had forgotten about Will's armor since the only thing weighing on his mind was finding his daughter.

'...' Radix stood there dumbfounded.

"Perhaps Rias knows something." Arbor contacted Rias using the same method.

Rias had just exited a secret cave. Her hands, arms, and part of her clothing was covered in human blood. She had just finished feeding her father human meat to keep him alive… more like 'well preserved' since zombies are dead.

'Rias…'

"EEK!"

Rias jumped out of fright. If anybody knew about her zombie father they would burn his corpse before she can find a way to find a cure. And just now she heard Radix calling out to her.

'Rias…'

As she heard his faint voice again, she could tell it came from the trees calling out to her. She relaxed a bit but she was still nervous.

'Yes, Radix?' Rias answered back. She could feel her hands getting colder from the sheer horror. She thinks that this is not a coincidence and has found out about her dad. Despite that, she just hoped that Radix wouldn't notice her nervous voice.

'Do you remember that hero who wears weird wooden armor all the time?'

'You mean Will?'

'Last time you saw him did you see him wear scaled armor? Dragon scales more specifically?'

'Yes. Why?' Rias said.

'Reasons. I gotta go now.'

Radix looked at his brother and nephew and nodded to them.

"It's indeed the hero who lives in the deserted lands. A friend confirmed it with me just now." Radix sat down as anger showed in their eyes.

To them they hated humans and heroes alike. But hearing that it is indeed Will who they saw, they hated him even more.

"He flew towards the Empire. Do you think he is going to live there or…?"

"I really doubt it." Radix said. "For a dumb reason he made a huge base or whatever at the middle of the desert. I don't think he suddenly feels like moving after putting all that hard work into making his base."

Elves don't have a deep grudge against the Empire as compared to the kingdom. They had rarely come into contact with each other. Still they wouldn't hesitate to kill any humans living there if given the chance.

"Now that we know it's the missing hero, how do we kill him then?"

They heard from Radix and a bit from others such as Rias, and Arbor, how this hero can come back from the dead after a clean headshot, make weapons, wood armor, grow trees in less than a day, tame the Adalis, and make buildings very quick.

While the elves believed them, the humans who have heard of this merely addressed it as 'rumors' because nobody believed that a hero can have more than 2 abilities except the Great Sage.

And after Will showed them that he can 'only' fly they truly did believe that the rumors were really just rumors. However the ability to make buildings quickly is becoming a hot topic after several people have confirmed the castle Will built in the middle of the deserted lands.

The 'coming back from the dead' part is what worried them the most. How can they kill a hero that can literally come back from the dead? Not to mention there are most likely other abilities that they don't know about.

Radix took some time to think. He had an idea, but he hated it.

"Every hero has to have some sort of weakness. I don't believe that this hero can't come back from the dead infinitely. But I have an idea… but you are all going to hate it." Radix pinched the top of his nose.

When he told the elves about Will, Radix thought that he would get a team of elves to get rid of Will quickly since he couldn't do it by himself. The plan didn't turn out as he wanted it to.

The elves, despite their immense hatred for humans, didn't want to properly dispose of him at first since Will lived far away from the forest, and that would leave them vulnerable. It was better if they fought on their own territory and they were right.

But now that Will had attacked one of the elves for defending himself and minding his own business, they realized they had to deal with him sooner than later.

Radix didn't know if this was a blessing in disguise. They can get rid of Will at last.

"What's the plan?" Parum asked.

"We need to infiltrate his castle. One of us needs to be disguised as a human to get close to this hero. We need all the information we can get out of him." Radix suggested.

He knows he can't fight Will on his own turf. The sentry turrets will practically manage to kill all the elves in a second.

"Can't we hypnotize him or something? I know some of our women would be able to charm him." Parum said.

The thought of merely detaining and imprisoning Will has never crossed their minds. They all preferred to kill humans as quickly as possible. After all, it is better to remove a pest, virus, or disease quickly rather than later.

They could also 'hypnotize' Will with their elven hypnotizing charm.

Their elven hypnotizing charm works especially well on virgins and even sometimes non-virgins, since they practically have almost zero resistance against the charm of the opposite sex not to mention the elves known for their beauty.

In simple words: The hornier you are, the more likely you are to fall for their charm.

"No. Grace couldn't even charm him." Radix pointed out.

"Are we sure this hero isn't gay and that's why her charm failed? This wouldn't be the first time it happened."

"I am absolutely sure."

"Father, I'll do it. I'll find the hero's weakness." Viridis raised his hand to volunteer.

"I don't know if Silvas will disguise you as a human, Viridis. I have some friends inside who are already disguised as humans. They can infiltrate instead. Not only that but you don't have any experience in infiltrating." Radix pointed out.

Silvas owns a magical item that can disguise anybody into any other living thing, depending on the size of the organism they want.

For example: Silvas can disguise elves as humans and humans as elves. He can change their physical appearance, but it would all be a disguise, an illusion. He can also change them into an animal but it won't be highly convincing.

"Uncle, he shot my father, how am I supposed to just stand back and do nothing?"

Despite his calm attitude, Viridis was pissed and scared on the inside. Pissed that Will shot his father. Scared that he almost lost his father. Should the bullet have gone a few centimeters to the left, his father would have had a bullet hole on his face instead.

"Viridis, I don't think you're ready yet." Parum said as he rested his hand on his son's shoulder.

"Father, you've been saying that to me for 30 years. This is the perfect opportunity to show you that I can do this. That I can kill a hero." Viridis said with a passion.

"You can't kill this hero. I already did that. What we need is to do something else entirely."

And so the elves continued to spew out ideas and methods to properly rid of Will for good.

Meanwhile…

Will strolled through the Empire. It was indeed different compared to the kingdom, even better or so he believes.

He still didn't wear armor or carried his weapons apart from the ones in his inventory. All he had in his was a pouch full of gold coins, and his {Hologram platform} which was hidden from plain sight.

People stared at Will, very cautious and weary of him. The Empire is usually wary of strangers since strangers are rarely welcomed at first, but after a while they begin to accept them. Everyone knew who everyone was since they all practically lived together.

"Can't believe I'm copying down so many cool buildings." on the inside Will was laughing. It would save him so much time copying down buildings and structures that catch his eye.

Also, he liked the looks of the Empire more than the kingdom.

The kingdom and the Empire both had buildings made of either wood or stone. The Empire however looked newer, cleaner, polished, rich. People had money, jobs, were doing better overall, and were not taxing their people left and right about everything.

The kingdom however, although it is older than the Empire, it looked worse. The streets were sometimes sweeped, cracks forming on the ground and buildings. It also looked empty since people couldn't pay taxes. People didn't have money or jobs to pay to keep their house in better shape which in turn caused problems for everybody. Overall it was a mess compared to the kingdom.

Considering that only 3 people are hired by the king to clean the ENTIRE kingdom it made sense that it looked unclean.

"Hm?" Will's attention turned to a shop that sold live fish. Something he had not seen before since coming to this world.

"Excuse me." Will approached the saleswomen.

"Yes?" The woman appeared to be somewhere in her late 30's. She was a bit chubby but her arms were strong and bulky. She had short green hair that was covered by a hair net. Across her face were freckles.

"Where did you get the fish?" Will asked.

"How? Oh… you must be the hero." The lady smiled.

"You know… actually it doesn't matter." Will didn't think it was weird for people to know him. People did like to spread gossip.

And there is the fact that Will is the first hero to visit the Empire. Even the Great Sage or Shaun Quincy were not invited, because they didn't care or see the benefit to visiting the Empire.

"I got my fish from my husband. He works as a fisherman and delivers the fish to me, and I sell or cook the fish."

"Aren't… sea monsters a thing?" Will was deeply afraid of sea monsters, more specifically anything that has to do with the bottom of the ocean.

"Yes, they are a thing. But they don't appear or attack unless you go too far in the ocean."

"Cool. How much for some fish? And… oh my god, salt." Will had noticed on the corner of the table a pink color that was… in the shape of a 1 centimeter cube?

"You noticed. It's a bit more expensive but you can buy salt from me, or any other fish food vendor here. However I guarantee that my salt is the cheapest."

"Shut up and take my money!" Will placed the pouch on the table.

Why was the salt in the form of cubes? He didn't know, didn't ask, and didn't care.

For a while, he had been meaning to buy salt. Cooking food without salt was… a new experience for Will and Sandra. They had gotten used to eating without salt, but now he really wanted to buy salt. Salt is typically found in bodies of water.

It was not a priority but he had been meaning to buy salt but never found the time to look or buy for some. Even in the kingdom they never sold salt, or other condiments.

Buying all the salt he could and some fish, Will began buying stuff he didn't know he wanted before. Better and comfortable beds, more clothes, shampoo.

And the best of all, was when he found and bought a book.

Not just any book, but the "Art of War" written by none other than Sun Tsu. Apparently a hero had read his book 100 years ago, translated it to english, and published the book to the world and got some money out of it. Luckily it was a hero who had the photographic memory ability that some heroes have.

The book wasn't rare or anything. The book could be found in some villages, and also in the kingdom apparently.

Will was glad to find this book. For the past few months he had been memorizing bits and pieces of the book and writing them down.

"I better head home now. Almost out of money anyways. The salt was surprisingly expensive." Will left the Empire. The amount of gold he spent was practically nothing to him. Even now his golems were mining gold for him, gold that he can convert into gold coins. If he wanted to he could ruin the Empire's economy.

Meanwhile…

Within the Empire, the Empress was testing out the guns with infinite ammo enchantment.

"It was a great buy." The Empress said. The weapons were in good condition, there was also a variety of guns that ranged from rifles, automatics, semi-automatics, pistols, and so on.

The only gun to break was when the Empress had overheated an automatic.

"What will you be doing now, Valerie?" Veronica asked.

"I dunno. When will the next shipment of guns arrive?" Valerie put down a gun as she stretched her arms up.

"About… 2 weeks if they hurry."

"Good. Please send 20 or so men to properly secure those weapons, just to be safe."

Valerie did not expect the weapons with infinite ammo to actually have infinite ammo. She had thought that Will was exaggerating.

"Will do, Valerie."

"And have our spies keep a closer eye on the kingdom. If they get any shipments, especially guns or anything from Will, let me know asap!"

"Okay."

"And lastly, I want you to get every single mana ore we have and trade it to Will. Except the advanced mana ores."

"Umm… every single one?" Veronica asked to be sure.

"Yes. All of it. They don't have a use anyways. We experimented with those ores for years and it yielded no results. They're just there collecting dust and taking up space."

"But… that's thousands… doesn't it seem strange that the hero is asking for useless mana ores? I could understand asking for advanced mana ores, but low and mid-tier mana ores?"

"It does seem strange. Frankly I believe he has found a use for them. For all I know he could be creating something with them."

"Then why would you…"

"Because we have to show him that we are on the same side. And as a man once said 'Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.` By showing Will the support and help that he has never received from the kingdom, I believe he Will be on our side instead of the kingdom. Hopefully."

She says that but she is afraid that Will will betray her trust. The infinite ammo weapons are too powerful if used correctly.

"I read the book as well. Still I believe it's risky to put your trust in a hero like that."

"No. It's necessary."

"For what?"

Valerie smiled.

"You'll see."

'36 days left. 36 days until the Great Sage… dies.'

Valerie counted the days in her head.

Once the day arrives, her plan will fall into action.