After poking around for a bit, Josh discovered where to find William.

William was the same age as Johan, four years older than Josh himself and he had known him since they were kids, having seen him playing with his brother practically all his life... Deep inside, Josh still had a shred of trust in him, but he was still resisting the idea of getting help. But in the end, he knew there was no other choice.

One of the places where the habitants of Musharv made a living, besides the farms, was by excavating stones. The stone molders would use their cards to go through the ground in several locations, in hopes of finding precious stones. Sometimes, that worked, and they could make a good living, but some others, they would just be killed by monsters.

He got to one of those sites, he saw a throng of men moving around, covered in dirt and sweat. The smell was as horrible as the sight, but he knew most didn’t have it in them to hunt monsters.

After asking around for a bit, Josh finally found William, who just like the others, was covered in dirt. But what caught Josh’s attention was the frame he had.

Just like Josh himself, William had a wide frame, but there were quite some muscles in it. He was not well-fed in any manner, but it seemed he was doing a lot better than Josh himself.

“William.” Josh approached, and the large man turned around, looking at him. “I’m Josh, Johan’s brother.”

William's eyes went wide. “You are alive!? That’s some good news!” The man came forward, and Josh couldn’t step back in time. He was taken in a bear hug and felt his bones creaking.

“S-Stop! I’m wounded!” Josh hissed from the pain.

“Sorry!” William carefully let him down. “I thought you were dead. I was quite surprised.”

William looked at Josh top down. “You really look like a mix of your parents, you remember me of Johan a lot as well.”

“Thanks.” Josh just nodded at that. “I have something to talk to you.” He looked around for a moment. “Can we… Go somewhere more private?”

William raised a brow but didn’t refuse. “Sure… Follow me.”

They walked out of the excavating site, leaving the mess behind and going into the wilderness. From where they were, Josh could see everything around him, relieved that there was no one nearby, he began.

William stood in front of him, arms crossed and brows furrowed.

“William, first, I have to say I’m sorry for not showing up all those years. You know how I must have felt. After everyone was gone, I was too scared and didn’t know who to trust.”

William’s expression softened at that, he un-crossed his arms and said.

“I understand how you feel. After my parents died I was lost for some time as well.”

“I know, and it’s because I believe you know how I feel that I came to you. I have a proposition.” Josh lowered his voice. “I discovered a secret about the central farm, and I need help to execute a plan.”

“What are you talking about?” A glint appeared in William’s eyes. “A way to give a blow to those bastards? I’m in!”

“But don’t you want to hear the plan? And what the secret is?” Josh was the one surprised by William’s response.

‘I told you he would want to help, he hates those bastards.’ Johan added.

“Of course I want, but if it gives them a blow, I’m in.” William smiled.

“Fine. Let’s leave this place and go to my place, I have some things that’ll help in executing it.” Josh turned around, leading William away.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

---

After they were comfortable in Josh’s home, away from prying eyes, Josh finally explained the plan.

“I discovered that the Shroo’s will get a rare card. I want to get it.” Josh said it, he knew that from this point onward there was no turning back.

“Wow!” William nodded heavily. “That’s really quite daring, and how are you going to get it? Their guards won’t let you get close to them.”

“Of course they won’t but I thought of something.” Josh structured his thoughts before explaining. “You know how when the people from the upper layers come, they don’t set foot on the island, right?”

“Of course I know of that. They just exchange the goods and go up after that” William nodded.

“Great. So, it’s a custom for the members of the families to stay close by the edge to wait for them to ascend through the clouds…” Josh said, and William made a surprised expression.

“No way…” William got up and walked from side to side in excitement. “Do you want to attack from the outer side of the edge? But how you’ll escape from there?”

Before Josh could answer, William continued. “Wait, wait, I got it! You want to escape through a cave, right? That’s actually a good plan.” He seemed to have realized something and his excitement died down. “But the port also had its lateral caves closed up. Digging down there will take too long.”

“But they’ll come from a secondary port, and I’ve already found a cave that leads directly below the deck,” Josh added.

“It’s not close to the deck, right? That’s why you need my help.” William quickly caught on.

“Exactly.” By now he had nothing to hide, William knew what his plan was exactly, and if he wanted to betray him, Josh was already done. “It’s about thirty meters from the cave, It’s a pretty big distance, without a proper foothold, it’s a suicide plan.”

“I see…” William sat down again, his excitement clearly lowered. “And when does it come?”

“Three days from now.” Josh thought again and quickly corrected himself. “Two and a half if you count today.”

“Shit… It’s too little time. I’ll have to work without stopping… And on the edge at that. It’s too risky.”

Seeing that William was leaning on not going forward with the plan, he quickly used his trump card. “But I have something that may help with that.” He picked up the tree mold stone cards from his backpack, showing them to William. “And I can get more from those while you make the footholds.”

William's eyes shone, he quickly approached Josh and picked the cards up. “How did you…”

“Just as I said, there’s more where those came from.” He observed William closely while asking his next question. “How many cards do you need to make to make your stack of ten?”

Stacks of ten were a milestone to cards, they would double the effect of the card and enhance the energy usage.

“I… With those three, I need two more.” William said after some hesitation.

Josh just nodded and extended his hand. “Help me with this plan and consider it done.”

William looked down at Josh’s hands, and after some seconds, took it.

“Count me in.”

---

Josh used the next two days to hunt for more mold rock cards for William to stack and cleared the caves as best as he could. The rats would always come back, but their numbers would not replenish that quickly, which gave him time to explore the caves and find a proper path to leave to the surface as far as possible from the port.

William had been hard at work, and Josh had gotten him five more mold rock cards instead of two, he had killed much more monsters than expected, and the effects of Reaper had been much stronger than what he thought now that he had begun to use it.

Normally, from the number of kills Josh did, it would be a miracle if one card had dropped. He knew his brother had something special at hand.

---

The duo stood there on the precipice, but now there was a set of handholds that Josh would use to go up and down. They were pretty big and had a lot of redundancies so that if an accident happened he wouldn't fall to his death.

"Is it really ok for me to do this? You know that they'll probably be looking for the one that helped build those handholds." Josh asked, making sure that William was okay with what would proceed.

"I knew that from the beginning, I'm not dumb." William's eyes were glued to the abyss. "Don't worry, I have no one they can go after. I'll just hide and starve myself to change my appearance."

Josh was shocked by the naturality that William had said those words. He had starved for a while after his parents were dead, and knew better than anyone how that could affect you. Doing that required a lot of willpower.

"And what about you? Any plans after the great theft? If they'll be searching for me, they will surely be hunting for you. Your life will be a living hell. The Shroo's are not ones to forget." William said.

"I don't plan on staying on the island for that long either way…" Josh looked up, gazing at the shimmering light that was now getting stronger through the clouds. "I plan to leave this island and find the golden card at the top of the world."

Josh's eyes were determined and sharp.

William was impressed by Josh's determination, his firm tone and stoic face showed there was nothing he wouldn't face to get that card.