73 A deal with the empire

Sandra woke up from a rough night. The bed Will made for them wasn't as comfy as the beds from the kingdom. She didn't mind the beds or how this place isn't as good as the kingdom but she was willing to put up with that for Will. But last night made her feel a little sad knowing that the only reason they're together is because of minecraft.

For the longest time she wondered why Will ever asked her out like that. She did enjoy his company for the years that they dated and she still loves him.

But now she got her answer, and it isn't the answer she wanted. It's basically no different from finding out that you only got together with someone because someone dared them to.

Sandra walked up to Will who was still asleep.

"Will, where's the shower?" Asked Sandra. Her morning routine is to take a bath first thing.

"Down the cave. Take a few steps down then go to the left." Will said slowly and tired. He was still wearing his dragon scale armor.

Sandra just noticed his armor, and found it beyond weird. Nobody in their right mind would ever want to sleep with such hard armor on. Might as well sleep inside on a pointy rock.

But Sandra didn't know that no matter what kind of armor he wore, metal, dragon scales, wood, the armor will always feel like cotton to Will. But to anybody else it'll feel exactly what the material is made of.

This meant that Will could sleep with armor and wear it all day long and he wouldn't feel a thing.

Sandra went down the cave. And there was no shampoo, just like Will said. And also no towels, or anything to dry herself off with.

"... Is this how Will has been living these past few months?" Sandra's view of Will changed yet again.

Before he was a spoiled kid but never acted like a spoiled brat. So she knew just how dependent he was on daily items like warm food, hot water, clothes, entertainment, and his parents. In fact Will would have never gone outside camping if it meant it'll keep him away from all that he loves.

But this was no different than living like a caveman.

Will finally got up from his bed. Waking up in the morning is always the difficult part for Will.

Will saw the bed Sandra slept on, and remembered that she is currently showering. His back slouched as if he was ashamed.

"I should have gotten some cotton to make some towels, and shampoo." Will felt like he should have been able to at least give that to Sandra but failed.

"Damn. I have so much to do! The kingdom, the pain-in-the-ass scorpions, the golems, food. And then there's the Empress who's just waiting outside… one problem at a time."

While Sandra was busy taking a shower, Will exited his base. The Empress's soldiers noticed him and informed Valerie.

Will knew what they wanted, or more specifically the Empress. What she really wanted is the infinite ammo enchantment. He knows how powerful it is. But they also had something that he needed, that 'anti-hero' metal. With that metal combined with his golems, they'll be powerful. And who knows what other uses they'll have.

Of course he either needed to first hire a professional who makes human-like statues. Relying on his own skills to improve would take too long, and frankly speaking he didn't feel life wasting time on that yet.

And he didn't need them to make golden statues, even simply statues like clay worked. All he needed to do was copy their design on one of his 'blueprints' and he'll be able to make golems using different materials.

Will walked up to the soldiers who stopped him.

"Hero, you need something?" The soldier asked as politely as he could.

"Yeah. Tell the Empress that I am willing to make a deal with her."

"I'm already here."

Valerie appeared before them wearing an apron and a chef's hat on top of her clothes. Her sleeves were rolled up but were slightly damp around the edges.

She was washing the dishes when she saw Will. As for the hat, she just liked the hat for some reason. She's not a chef but likes to wear it.

Her soldiers stood beside her very closely. She wasn't wearing any sort of protection. If Will were to shoot her while she is wearing nothing she'll be as good as dead. At least if they were close to her they'll be able to protect her.

"At ease. He's not going to harm me." Valerie firmly said as she tidied up her hair.

Actually she didn't know if that was true. But she needed to show Will that she is willing to trust him, so he could trust her.

"So, you want to trade then?" Asked Valerie.

"Yes-"

"Hold that thought. Follow me." Valerie walked further away from her camp. No more than 20 meters she stood further from her men. If she didn't order it her men would have followed her.

"I didn't want others to hear our conversation. I suspect one of them is a spy. Then again I could be wrong." Valerie wasn't sure, but it was better safe than sorry.

She knows how easy it is for men and women to be corrupted by greed. It's so easy to be swayed by one's own desires.

"Seriously? You suspect your men but you don't suspect me?" Will found that thought a bit too dumb.

"You're right. It's a risky gamble, but I hope it pays off. If I play it safe all the time I would never get anywhere."

'Besides, I have a few things on me that can protect me if this goes wrong.' Thought the Empress. She was risking it, but she wasn't stupid enough to put her life on the line.

"Fine. How much are you willing to trade that metal for my weapons?" Will said, getting straight to the point.

"The anti hero metal is rare, and rather difficult to obtain but useful against heroes. It weighs about the same as gold… so how about 14 pounds of anti hero metal per every single one of your weapons? That should be roughly the same weight as half a gold bar."

Will thought about it. He didn't know if that was a fair trade on his part. Because he's worked with gold for so long he's gotten a clear sense of what he's receiving.

'The gold golems… damn I don't know how much they each weigh. But I suspect hundreds of pounds each. If I get 14 pounds of that metal per weapon, I'd have to sell… a lot of weapons.'

"Wait, where do you get the metal from?" Will asked.

Valerie merely smiled. She expected this answer.

"From the bottom of the ocean."

"This world has an ocean?" Will doesn't remember hearing that.

"You just came to this world so you don't know much about our world yet. Yes, most of the metal comes from the ocean. There was a meteor that once crashed into our world, it happened before the birth of the first heroes. Fragments scattered across the land so you might be able to find some of it on land, but the odds of finding one on land is rather low. But the majority of it fell to the bottom of the ocean."

Hearing the word 'ocean' any plans Will had about getting that metal was thrown out of his mind. He feared the ocean and everything that lived in there.

In this world that's filled with monsters, there's a high chance that 'sea monsters' are a thing.

The kingdom doesn't expand because it simply lacks the funds to continue to expand. The Great Sage did at one point expand the kingdom long ago and conquer more territory, but he realized he couldn't be everywhere at once, and people took advantage of that. It wasn't just people who took advantage of it, monsters as well. .

It's the main reason why the kingdom doesn't have more territory, even though it has been around far longer than the empire.

And it's not like some people and even heroes haven't tried either, but they all have failed, including the Hero Christopher Lawrence, the previous owner of the deserted lands, and even his own base failed after he died.

Only the Empire could have achieved what no one thought was possible.

'Now that I remember, I think a sea serpent or something killed me on my first day.' Will thought. He was glad he died quickly that time.

"So, do we have a deal?" Asked Valerie.

"Wait, do you by any chance have mana ores?"

"Mana… I think we do. Give me a second." Valerie took out her communication stone and messaged her blue-haired friend.

Back in the empire, Veronica was temporarily in charge of running the empire while Valerie was out.

If a situation should arise that is too much for her to handle she immediately contacts Valerie Via message.

But the empire was rather peaceful, and there wasn't much for her to do. Most of the problems were already fixed by Valerie.

Veronica was currently exploring the large building that was made for the empress checking for dust bunnies. It was well maintained despite that the empress rarely ever uses this building.

The huge building is not as big as the kingdom's castle but it was just as magnificent. This building was actually built for the ruler before Valerie.

"Dududududu. Oh." Veronica noticed her pocket was shining. The only one who could message her is the empress.

{Veronica, please go to the storage room and tell me if we have any mana ores? I forgot if we have any.}

"Mana… oh, those things."

Mana ores are known to be very helpful to the sorcerers and the Great Sage because they could be used to make weapons for them. Other than that nobody else has found any other uses for them. And they wouldn't ever trade these ores with the kingdom, otherwise it'll be no different from helping their enemy.

They're not hostile with the kingdom, but they're not on friendly terms either.

{Sure.}

Veronica went downstairs through a secret door. At the bottom of the stairs was a 3 meter door that was locked with 2 giant keys. The doors were 5 inches thick, and made entirely of iron. The giant door leads to the empire's treasury room. It was guarded by 6 heavily geared soldiers.

There were 12 keys hanging on the wall beside the giant door. Only two of them were the real keys, while the rest were fakes.

"Veronica, something you need?" Asked a soldier.

The Empress rarely trusts others to enter the room. After all, the room has very rare and expensive items. Only her and a few people she trusts could enter. But even those people she is wary of them.

"Valerie sent me."

The guards look at each other. Valerie trusts Veronica more than anybody else. But still, it is possible that Veronica could betray her.

"We'll come with you. Just to be safe."

"Yeah, I know. You guys are just doing your jobs. Besides, I won't be touching anything. I just need to see something.'

2 of the guards grabbed the right keys, and they inserted the keys at the same time. The door was unlocked, but it was a rather heavy do0r so 4 of them used all their strength to push it open.

The inside of the treasury was emptier than one would expect, but that was because it was surprisingly a long room. There was hardly any gold or silver in it, that's because the money they make is used for the people and the empire.

The only valuable items in the treasury are the neatly stacked armor and weapons meant to be used in an emergency only. Some books and some maps were neatly placed on long tables on one side of the room. But the greatest treasures in this room are the magical weapons, and the anti-hero metals.

Veronica entered the room. This would be the first time she'd ever seen the treasury room. 3 guards followed her into the room.

"Where are the mana ores located?" Veronica needed to see it with her own eyes.

"By the corner."

On the corner of the room are at least dozens of giant crates that are 120x120.

All of them had the words labelled 'MANA ORES' which is good because it means that they didn't have to check inside every single crate.

"Can you guys open one crate? I just need to confirm." Veronica asked.

One of the guards, who is an old man, drew out his sword to cut the lock. Inside the crate are various 'low-tier mana ores' that easily number over 100.

"I didn't know we had a lot."

"Most of them come from when Emperor Philip ruled the empire. But we've been getting quite a handful of mana ores lately."

"That's cool. Good job, Sebastian."

'Why 'good job' though?' Sebastian thought that he did nothing to be praised.

Veronica took out her communication stone and wrote down {About a few.}

Valerie received her message.

"Apparently we have a 'few' mana ores." Valerie knew her friend, and she knew exactly what she meant by 'few' because it's not the first time she's done this.

"Better than nothing I guess." Will thought that they had no more than 10 or 20, which is surprising because the empire is known for their resources. He expected them to have hundreds, not just a 'few' of them

"Why do you need mana ores?" Asked Valerie. If Will had ideas to sell the ores to the kingdom, she'd have to call off the deal.

But she remembered how unfazed he was when she took out a pile of gold, so he most likely won't sell it to the kingdom for profitable gains. Still she didn't want the kingdom to get their hands on the mana ores.

"I have some uses for them."

"Very well. How about 5 mana ores per weapon?"

"6."

"Fine. 6."

'Crap. Should have asked for more. Idiot!' Will cursed himself.

"Okay then, 14 pounds of anti hero metal per weapon, or 6 mana ores per weapon. We have a deal?" Valerie extended her hand to Will.

"Deal." Will shook her hand. He couldn't feel her hand since he's still wearing his dragon scale armor.

"I'll send someone over in about 2 weeks."

Valerie then walked towards her men and signaled them to pack up and leave.

Will was momentarily confused. He thought she would give him a communication stone or something to keep in touch, but she just left.

Will didn't know if this trade was good or bad, nobody could really know, but he was desperate for mana ores and stronger metals. If he were to mine for them again, who knows what else might pop out of the ground the next time.

No more than 5 minutes later all of Valerie's men successfully packed up and left. Their speed is something else. Obviously they were experienced in this sort of thing.

Valerie left with a smile on her face.

"That went better than I expected. Did not think that the 100th hero would prove to be the most useful one out of the rest of them. But that '0' on his head is something I still don't understand."

She kept a detailed list of all the heroes thanks to the spies she planted in the kingdom. A few of them interested her, but they still acted like kids, and she can't trust 'kids' because they'll likely screw it up. She was just glad that Will was more mature than the rest, and definitely the most useful one.

Now that Will is making her powerful weapons, it'll help her to accomplish her long awaited goal.

And yes, that '0' did bother her for many reasons as it shouldn't possibly exist. Most people in her shoes would rather kill Will than to ally with him, after all Will could be a threat to them.

But Valerie knows something called 'common sense' and instead of making enemies with Will she'd rather be allied with him. It is better to make friends rather than enemies.

And she didn't dare to invite him to live in the empire. It's clear that he's worked hard to live in the deserted lands. Asking him to walk away from it would seem rude on her part.

It would be more beneficial for her if he moves to the empire, but she knows that not everything could go her way. She just has to work with what she's got.

"The ability to fly, the ability to create buildings and giant walls in a single night, the ability to make guns and dragon-scale armor perfectly, that '0' on the top of his head… is Will, possibly another Great Sage? Only he is known to have multiple abilities.

No, that isn't it. While he does have multiple abilities he doesn't seem to have the strength of the Sage, otherwise those scorpions would have been obliterated in seconds. Not only that but when he shook my hand it wasn't a strong grip either.

Either he's very good at controlling his hero strength, or he isn't a hero, which might explain why he didn't teleport properly like those 99 other heroes. Hmm… I just don't know."

Throughout the entire journey back to her empire, Valerie went into deep thought about Will's actual identity. It wasn't until halfway that she remembered something.

"Crap! I forgot to give him a communication stone. Oh well."

Meanwhile, Will was just happy that they left.

"Hmm… I already rebuilt most of my base. But all my camels are dead, so I need something like sheep or cows to raise, breed, and eat, just like in minecraft.

Will entered his base again. He was surprised to see familiar damp clothes hanging on top of some stone pillars that were neatly stacked. These pillars were 2 meters high and 2.5 inches wide, and he crafted these before to give himself better ideas as to what to build.

"Oh, I'm just drying my clothes. I didn't bring an extra set."

Sandra came out of his building wearing only her underwear. She didn't feel embarrassed as Will had already seen everything. It was just plain, white underwear.

Sandra had washed her dirty clothes that were filled with sweat and dirt. With the intense heat her clothes should dry out in no time.

"It's been a while since I've seen you like that." Will didn't look away, or rather he didn't want to.

"Eh. So what are we gonna build now?"

"You're staying?" Will asked. The kingdom is a far better place to live. They have food, extra sets of clothes, comfortable beds and chairs, basically everything. All Will has is cold water and a bed made of leather instead of cotton.

"Don't you want me to stay?"

"No, I do, but right now our 'kingdom' isn't exactly a 5-star hotel, I don't think it could be qualified as a 1-star hotel."

"More like half-a-star. Hehehe." Sandra chuckled to herself.

"..." Will.

"Kidding, I'm kidding. Yeah, you're right, this isn't exactly the best place to live, but what you said about Alex, you, me, never finishing that castle on our minecraft server, it really hit me. We should finish building this castle, even if it might take a couple of years.

"Yeah, but didn't you say you were trying to find a way to go back home?"

"And how would I do that? I've been thinking about it, but no other hero has been able to go back and I am sure that most of them have tried. Yeah I shouldn't lose faith, but I am not strong enough to explore this world and fight off the monsters that live here. I learned that when we fought those cyclops in that village."

Sandra doesn't lose faith easily, but she knows that she only has one life, and she shouldn't overestimate her strength when it barely amounts to much.

"You're right." Will agreed. He wanted to go back home to talk to his family one more time, to tell them that he's alright, but how would he go back when nobody else has been able to?

"First, I am going back to the kingdom to buy some shampoo, towels, clothes, food, and everything else that we'll need." Sandra said. Her clothes were already dry so she put them on.

"I'll lend you some money." Will got some gold, then he crafted it into coins and gave it to Sandra.

"Your hero ability… lets you turn metals into coins?" Sandra was gonna refuse his money as she still had money left over from protecting the villagers, but that surprised her. It's like he has multiple abilities.

"Yes."

Sandra wanted to know what his ability is, but she can't know because if she knows then the Great Sage will know once he reads her mind.

"Oh, and before you leave." Will ran to get a piece of paper and some ink and wrote in it.

"Please hang this on the job... board thingy when you're in the kingdom. You know that board where all the jobs posters are."

Will wrote down on the paper, "Am willing to pay a hefty sum of money to people who can create a perfect statue of a replica of a man by next week by sunrise. Doesn't matter what materials you use to create said statue. I will be standing by the board before sunrise so you will know who I am."

Last time he was there he wanted to make use of the job poster.

Will wanted to have someone make him a perfect statue of a person so that way he could copy it down on his blueprint, then make functional golems using that blueprint. His crappy golems could barely walk or use their bodies properly.

He didn't just want to hire one man to do it, but wanted to have multiple people do it at the same time. That way he could pick the best one and copy it down on his blueprint.

And he knows there will be some people who will do it. People are desperate for money these days.

"... Um… Will you know that a week isn't even enough time to make a statue of a man, right?" Sandra knew that a week wouldn't be enough time.

"Really? 2 weeks then?" Will didn't know how long it would take either. But he was impatient.

"Eh, perhaps if they used clay or something easy like that. How about 3 weeks? Think you can wait that long? After all, if it's rushed it won't be 'perfect' like those rushed video games you hate."

(*Cough* Cyberpunk 2077 *Cough*)

"Guess you're right." Will grabbed a new piece of paper and rewrote it.

"I'll be back in a few. Take care."

"You, too."

Sandra ran back to the kingdom at full speed.

Will went back to rebuilding his base. He also crafted more potions, made some weapons for the Empress. He couldn't wait to get the anti-hero metal.

Meanwhile…

A certain loli, who was wearing plain clothes, was living peacefully inside a home with a loving family. The only weird part about her that stood out is the thick metal collar that was around her neck.

This is 'Maid' who is actually a dragon.

Right after she escaped from the hero Josh, she came across this village and also a girl, who has helped her during all this time.

Kat convinced her family to take care of Maid until they found her parents.

Kat's parents were eternally grateful to whoever rescued their daughter from the child murderer. So they saw this as a sign that they should help Maid, like a way to repay that person who brought back their daughter.

Maid at first wasn't planning to live in a human village, but the food, and the warm clothes they provided was just too good to pass on.

At first they couldn't understand her and she couldn't understand him. But little by little, she is slowly learning their language but hasn't made an effort to communicate with them.

They tried to remove the collar, keeping it a secret from everybody else. No one else even knew about Maid.

Kat's dad knew that the collar is a slave collar, meant for large animals and elves. Removing or even attempting to remove a slave collar could mean they would be punished to death.

But seeing the little girl, who is younger than his daughter, he knew he had to help her despite whatever she did to get that collar on her.

The collar was tough to break or open. It was designed to be extremely resistant. If he used something powerful to remove the collar it could fatally injure Maid in the process.

"Help, please! I've been lost for almost 10 years." A man cried out outside of the village, his voice could be heard from a kilometer away.

The cry for help got the people's attention.

Maid woke up in panic. That voice was all too familiar to her. Rage welled up within her.

Josh had arrived in the village. His clothes were torn or burned, the clothes around his private parts barely covered anything.

Felicia and Naveah always knew which way to go and he followed them. Without them he has been helplessly lost in the woods.

He thought they were kidnapped by a fat noble after he didn't see them when he left the black market, (they weren't) he wanted to go back to the kingdom to rescue them, but ended up getting lost in the forest for about 10 days.

Josh barely ate or drank, there was nothing to kill in the forest, as if the forest was purposefully messing around with him because one time he tried to kidnap the elven princess...

Maid immediately got a hold of a kitchen knife. She could finally get her revenge.

The day she decided to attack the kingdom, she knew she could never bring it down or even kill the Great Sage, no one could.

She attacked the kingdom for one reason only...

To die from the hands of the Great Sage.

And Josh ruined that when he showed her mercy and enslaved her instead! Had he not intervened the Great Sage would have killed her.