20 King's Guard

Will kept a close eye on the elf before him, but this was leading to nowhere. How was he gonna ask an elf a question when they don't even speak the same language?

"Maybe I should have built a cell. That might have been useful."

Obviously he can't have the elf alone in his base. As far as he knows this elf could've been sent on a mission to retrieve Adaline, and also kill him in the process. It wouldn't be the first time it happened.

"And my gun doesn't even help in this situation at all."

The gun he was referring to was the magical handgun that he stole from a man since the very beginning. It was magical and could do many things a normal handgun wouldn't have been able to. But now his magical handgun is almost broken.

{Durability: 3/600}

After using it so many times this past month, its durability had reached an all time low. Will tries his best to not use the magical handgun as much until he finds the materials to fix it's durability.

But thanks to this handgun it has proved to have helped him various times.

"Adaline, do you know how to write?" Asked Will.

Adaline shook her head. She had no idea what 'writing' even meant.

"Yeah, makes sense." Will thought of sending the elf messages through Adaline but she didn't know how to write in both languages.

Arbor kept a cool mind and observed the man before him. It's clear that him and Adaline have a deep relationship. This meant that bringing back Adaline might prove to be even more difficult than he thought.

It would be easy to kill the man and bring Adaline back, but at the cost of her running away and hating him forever? No way is he gonna let that happen. And also it wasn't his plan from the beginning to hurt the man in front of him unless it is necessary.

"Adalis! Can you still understand me?" Asked Arbor.

Adaline looked at Arbor for a bit then nodded.

"Can you remove these cuffs? I want you to know that I bring no harm to you or him. I come in peace."

Adaline tilted her head unsure of what she should do. She's been with that man for a week at most, so she doesn't know him very well. Adaline has not realized that the elf before her has also taken care of her when she was still in her incubation process.

"Please, trust me." Arbor asked sincerely. He could break out of these chains when he was at full health, but that would make Will think that he broke out to cause trouble. It would be wiser to settle this without disputes.

Adaline looked at Will, he had no idea what he just said.

Adaline's roots pointed at Arbor's cuffs as if she was telling him something.

"You want me to add more cuffs?" Asked Will.

Adaline shook her head.

"You want me to release him from those cuffs?"

Adaline nodded.

"Hmm…" Will had a bit of trouble trusting him, even though he has not done anything to him, but why take a chance?

"I'll do it, but keep a close eye on him. The moment he does something pin him down or stab him I don't care."

Adaline nodded seriously.

Will quickly crafted a steel key that unlocks the handcuffs. He uncuffed Arbor from his hands and stepped back quickly. Will threw the key at Arbor.

"You can unlock the cuffs yourself now." Will said very wary of Arbor.

Arbor put his hands up slowly.

He slowly unlocked the cuffs from his feet and massaged them. Wearing cuffs is very tight and it hurts.

"I don't bring harm, human. I am not here to kill you." Arbor got up slowly as Will backed up.

"My name is Arbor… Arbor. Arbor." Arbor pointed at himself as he repeated his own name.

"Arbor? Is his name Arbor?" Asked Will.

Adaline nodded.

"My name is Will… Will." Will repeated the same actions as Arbor.

"Will? Is that his name?" Asked Arbor.

Adaline nodded. In a sense she somehow became a translator for the both of them but was limited by her being unable to talk.

"This is Adaline… Adaline." Will pointed at Adaline.

"Ad… Adaline? That's your name?"

Adaline nodded.

Arbor could feel his heart shatter a bit. The creature before him was like a daughter to him, and it felt like someone took her away from him and changed her entirely.

"Where are my swords?" Asked Arbor as he made several slash actions as if he carried two invisible blades.

"...oh. Yeah, you're not getting those back." Will understood what he meant and shook his head. Why give this man 2 powerful weapons that could one-shot him?

"Why are you shaking your head? Do you not know or do you not want to give them back?" Asked Arbor but obviously Will didn't understand.

"Adalis?" Arbor looked at her.

"Does he not want to give me back my swords?"

Adaline nodded her head.

"This is gonna be hard to earn his trust."

Little by little they sorta began communicating with each other using hand actions or other types of signs. Adaline tried to help as much as she could as well.

Meanwhile…

Jack was making several weapons on the back of his shop, and by several it means very little as the shop is still doing poorly. All they had right now was knives and short-blades. Anything big or fancy wasn't possible for them to make due to their limited resources.

Julia wanted to help them but did not want to. That would be very unwise if she were to buy ores and weapons for them to sell. How would people react if suddenly a terrible shop with no money were to suddenly have a lot of ores and fine weapons? People will come to realize that they have money and steal from them.

The family had thought of moving out to a better village, but now doesn't seem wise. They need to choose a time when monster attacks aren't happening too much. The monster and bandit attacks have to do with the black sun.

The locusts destroyed everything and caught the whole world off-guard. It'll take several years before people could recover.

Some had suffered a lot because of it and had no choice but to become bandits to survive. Same goes for the monsters.

*Ring*

The doorbell to the door rang. Jack while he was drawing details for the knife heard the ringing and left to greet the customer.

"Welcome to our store. How may I-"

"Jack? Is that you?" A man's voice said.

"Oh no." Jack realized who it was, Kyle, the pedophile.

Jack slowly stepped back to the store hoping that he could avoid Kyle.

"Wait, hold on a minute." Kyle intrudes the store and towers over Jack. Jack was shorter than most people his age, and Kyle was over 6ft tall.

"You're not supposed to be here, Kyle. Get out or I will call the guards."

"Jack, come on, aren't we friends?"

"Not at all."

Jack did not seem angry or pissed at Kyle, just bothered.

"Is this about Jasmine?" He asked.

"Very much. She's my best friend since we were kids. You've been chasing her for years. While you were 19 and she was 9 you had every intention of getting your hands on her."

"But Jack, it's true I am in love with Jasmine, but I have never even touched her." Kyle said very earnestly.

"You tried to make her parents sell her to you."

"No! I did not! That was merely an engagement gift."

"That was 1000 gold coins and several rare pills! To anyone else that looks wrong."

"Again, wrong. I said that I wanted to marry her, but until she was of age appropriate, you know until she turned 18 years old."

"You took every chance you could to get close to her."

"What's wrong with that? I wanted to have a normal friendship, like friends that could trust each other, and then we could you know, go to the next step, which is marriage."

"And she doesn't even like you." Jack added.

"Yet."

"You've memorized everything about her, her birthday, favorite meals, all of her clothes, her family. And you even became a sorcerer just to get close to her."

There's a difference between being persistent and a stalker, but Kyle had a case of being a persistent stalker.

"Shouldn't most people know about those kinds of things from their partners?"

"The two of you are not anything. And most couples probably don't know THAT much about each other. I am not an expert, but I know what I am saying is true."

"Fair enough. But still, I am not going to give up on her. So, how's she doing?"

"She's fine. Now please get out of this room. Only employees can enter."

"Right, right. I just wanted to buy some weapons. Do you have anything good on stock?"

"Just those knives and some arrows."

"Oh… okay, never mind I'm good. Say, do you know any monster spots?"

"Monster spots?" Asked Jack.

"Yeah, you know where monsters live. I need to earn my 3rd stripe as soon as possible."

Just like a blacksmith has different rankings, a sorcerer has one, too.

They all wear normal white coats. But there is a stripe on their abdomen area. Each stripe represents a sorcerer's strength and ranking.

The highest one can achieve are 5 stripes. 1 stripe means that they're basically noobs. 2 means amateurs, and so on.

"Why bother? Isn't the only reason that you became a sorcerer is because of Jasmine?"

"Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Want me to tell you?" Asked Kyle.

Jack had his arms crossed. He sighed. Kyle might be a pedophile, but what he said is true, not once has he made any improper advancements on Jasmine during the whole time. Although he is creepy and a stalker, he's a nice guy. Still, he does not want to become friends with him.

"Alright, tell me."

Jack is only doing this for one reason, Jasmine. According to what he heard from her is that Kyle is a stronger sorcerer than her, and could possibly become the next Kings Guard in 4 years time.

It is the reason why Jasmine did not witness the summoning of the heroes. She gave up on going to that once in a lifetime event to practice her sorceress skills.

"As you know my family is rich. We are just like a step behind nobles, right?"

Jack nodded. Kyle's family is indeed rich. How else could Kyle bring a dowry of over 1000 gold coins?

"It's thanks to my parents who are sorcerers. Well basically my whole family comes from a line of sorcerers. And so my parents want to force me onto this role so I could keep the reputation of my family going for future generations."

"I did not know that your parents are sorcerers."

"Meh, they retired long ago. So it's not weird that many people might not know."

Even though Kyle's parents are sorcerers Kyle wasn't born as one, which is very normal.

You could have 100 couples who are all sorcerers, but they will never be able to produce an offspring that has mana in him/her. The chances of an offspring of a sorcerer having mana is zero percent.

The only known way to receive mana is from the Great Sage himself. There is no other way.

"I never wanted to become a sorcerer. I wanted to become a painter, but I was rejected from the art school. Makes sense, the best I could draw are stick figures."

"Same here."

"But, thanks to Jasmine, I became a sorcerer so I could get closer to her. At first I thought I was making a mistake, and that sorcerers were dangerous, but as it turns out, it's fun. I never knew that blowing up stuff was fun." Kyle smiled sinisterly.

Jack backed up a couple of feet.

"Relax, I haven't killed anybody yet. I've only blown up buildings and monster heads. Nothing to fret about."

"Okay, but what does this have to do with the stripes? Wait yet?"

"Oh right. It's because I want to earn my 5th stripe to qualify to become a King's Guard."

"King's… like Jasmine?" Jack was shocked.

"Yep."

"Isn't that going too far? There is only one spot open. If you plan to take that away from her then…"

"No no no, being a King's Guard has nothing to do with Jasmine, believe it or not." Kyle shook her head.

"No?"

"No, it's not. I realized something important before I even met Jasmine. I will never forget it, it basically changed my life. So I once had my chef make me a tuna sandwich."

"A… sandwich?"

"Tuna sandwich. Yes. So, when I was younger, stupid, naive, I thought that my whole future was planned out. I had a rich loving family, all of their inheritance would belong to me since I did not have siblings or other relatives. So one night, I ordered for a tuna sandwich. When my servant served me my sandwich, I was excited, then I noticed when I took that first bite, it was a chicken sandwich. This made me realize something, nothing ever goes out the way it should. And that is when I had a striking realization, like my world view had changed."

"Because of a tuna sandwich that happened to be chicken instead?" Jack had a hard time believing this story.

"It made me realize that my future is not set in stone. I could die at any moment. Which is why I decided that starting from their that I should-"

"Your whole world view changed… your eyes opened up… the thought that you could die at any moment… is because of a sandwich?"

"Yes. So yeah, from there on out I started to become wary of my future. Like my wife, kids, descendants, keeping the family business going. Although it wasn't until much later that I realized becoming a sorcerer is important, it was also then that I realized that no one in my family has ever become a King's Guard. And I did a little bit of digging and realized that each King's Guard has been successful and lived a full life.

They all served kings, fought alongside the greatest heroes, were honored and praised by all for many years, had money, fame, and protection. They are literally second to heroes. And so I aim to become a King's Guard from now on. To provide my family protection, and even Jasmine, should she become my bride in the future."

"Let me get this straight: the reason you were chasing Jasmine, the reason why you're aiming to become a King's Guard, is all BECAUSE A SANDWICH changed your view?"

"I think you're starting to get too focused on this life-changing-sandwich thing." Kyle looked at Jack weirdly.

"LIKE YOU'RE ONE TO TALK!!!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just do me a favor, if you see Jasmine, tell her that I love her."

"Pass."

"Tell her that I am to become a King's Guard. I am not going to give up."

"Only if I see her again." Jack said.

"Thank you, Jack… one more thing, this is not for her only, but for you and your family."

"What?"

"There's a rumor going on that zombies are still alive."

"Zombies? That's not possible."

"Like I said, it's merely a rumor. Then again a lot has happened these past two months, the Princess got kidnapped, the summoning of the heroes, the 100th hero missing, the black sun catching everyone off-guard. It's been a terrible year, don't you agree? I wouldn't be surprised if some giant-ass Dragon were to appear and terrorize the world."

"Well, yeah."

Jack flinched when he mentioned the '100th hero' because he knows the identity of the 100th hero. Everyone else thinks that the 100th hero was never really summoned.

"And also, tell Jasmine that she needs to work hard. Or else she'll never become a King's Guard."

"Don't worry about that. I know she'll become a King's Guard." Jack said with a hint of confidence.

"Maybe, but the reason she became a sorceress is due to luck. You know that, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"I don't know if she would get as lucky if she were to become a King's Guard, but that's probably not even probable. But, there's one more thing, there have been no King's Guards that were women. Out of the hundreds of King's Guards they were all men. She might be at a disadvantage already."

"Anything can happen. Like that 100th hero thing, nobody expected it, right?" Jack said.

"Guess you're right. So long." He entered the shop hoping to buy some weapons, but instead told his story to Jack.

He called his mount by whistling loudly, and flew over to the deeper part of the forests hoping to find a powerful monster to kill.

Jack sighed. He took out some ink and a quill and started writing on a smooth white stone. His eyes opened widely as if a sudden realization occurred to him.

"Crap! I should've given a communication stone to Will! Stupid!"

Jack had forgotten about keeping in touch with Will. Will had no idea that these kinds of stones even existed.

Getting over that fact for now, Jack started writing to Jasmine everything that Kyle told him, even about the sandwich part.

{A sandwich? Are you kidding me?} The stone replied almost immediately.

{Does it sound like I would make that up?}

{No, you would probably do better than that. But that is HILARIOUS!}

Jack chuckled. There was an awkward pause between them. They weren't in the same room but they felt somewhat awkward.

Since nobody replied they left their communication stones in a safe place.

It might look silly that a sandwich changed someone's worldview, but there are many things that could change one's world view.

Like one's rich parents being shot behind a dark alley and hiring no bodyguards and then becoming a vigilante. A contagious virus spreading. An apple falling down from an apple tree and dropping on your head.

And many other things could happen like an author experiencing writer's block and this is the best he could come up with while not having to go on hiatus for another 2 months!!!

Meanwhile…

For the next few days Will and Arbor have been trying to understand each other, but barely any progress has been made.

Will was still wary of Arbor and kept a close eye on him, so did Adaline. Arbor was just happy that Adaline was safe, and that he had some water and food. Grass is more than enough to feed an elf.

Will gave Arbor his stone house to live in, this way he won't give away his system powers. It didn't bother him much, he was using that stone house as a storage space. It carried all the ores and stone he mined over the past month

Living underground was better. It was cool, dark, had water, and was spacious after all the mining he did. Will would occasionally go out to eat some grass and practice his shooting skills.

One day he noticed that Arbor was touching the ground full of grass. He didn't mind it as it could be an elf thing. Who would have thought that on the first day that spot would grow a tiny sapling.

Arbor somehow made a tiny tree grow on the ground even though he had no seeds.

Will realized that this was an elves' ability. But there was no information written on his bestiary which unfortunately could not provide him a lot of help.

But this meant one crucial thing for Will, wood. He could finally grow his own trees to make wood!

A sapling takes many years to grow into a fully mature tree, but not in this case. Arbor would occasionally touch the sapling and a strange green glow would appear on Arbor and the sapling. Adaline saw this but she is not able to use this ability, whatever it could do, Will had no idea.

The sapling took 3-4 days to fully grow. It was without a doubt thanks to Arbor's weird ability. It's like how bone meal works in Minecraft but not really.

The tree would just dry out with the heat of the sun, but no. Adaline made sure to keep it safe. Her ability lets grass survive the intense heat, so she made sure that the tree could survive as well. It was super easy for her, and very convenient for Will.

Arbor would just occasionally touch the tree, but would always frown soon after.

Then Will grabbed one of the acorns the tree grew and planted it on the ground. He thought that if he grew more trees it would be slow but would pay off in the end.

The next day, the results shocked him.