108 The apex level
Two dragons were headed to the Sun kingdom in search of Josh. Nearly every dragon alive is looking for this one hero. Never has a hero been this 'wanted' by nearly every single dragon.
Many have already started circling around the Reyes kingdom just out of the Great Sage's sight. Once they concluded that Josh had not been able to reach the kingdom before they could, many dragons then circled as to not let Josh enter the Reyes kingdom.
They concluded that Josh would most likely go to the Reyes kingdom to inform the Great Sage of the mountain dragon's existence.
The rest of the dragons started to fly everywhere to find Josh, many could find him by tracking his scent but was lost when Josh began to be one with nature as he did his best to avoid other villages, thus he slept for the past week in the forest and because of that his scent was masked.
The dragons did know of the existence of the empire, but they didn't have nearly enough dragons to circle around the empire as well as the kingdom. Most were already out searching for Josh. The empire has had multiple dragon attacks over the years but each time the dragons were repelled and sometimes killed.
Once the two dragons got near the deserted lands they noticed something off.
The sun wasn't scorching, there is now grass and trees, and there are traces of mass groups of humans traveling towards the deserted lands. They had only ever seen the deserted lands in this state once, but that was long ago.
"Etirw ot esle gnihtyna fo kniht t'nac I esuaceb no won morf rotareneg ecnetnes modnar a gnisu ma I." (I smell humans but I don't recognize that hero's scent.) a dragon said.
This dragon was a completely red dragon on the second layer, it was huge but almost nothing compared to a dragon on the apex level.
The other dragon was an apex dragon, also red but parts on its face were black and blue, as well as its wings.
"Hguone doog t'nsaw ecnadnetta ym tub ,noitomorp eht nettog evah dluow I." (But I also smell something familiar. I think I smell another dragon.)
One of the dragons landed on the ground that made a loud noise. He focused on his sense of his trying to figure out where that dragon scent is coming from.
From what he could tell this dragon has been here for a few days or even longer.
"Reiriah neve kool mih edam riah on gnivah." (I can smell it, a young dragon, and I can also smell some humans on her but no blood. What would a kid be doing here? Let's look for her.)
The dragon felt something weird about this. Dragons might be powerful but no dragon likes to stay in the same place for too long unless it's back in their base, there's no telling what might happen.
If the dragon was here to kill or eat humans there would have been various scents on the young dragon's body, smoke from her fire breath, gunpowder, human remains, steel, but he could smell none of that.
"Sdog eht elots revir eht." (We're only here to look for the hero that ran away.)
"Laem eht hsinif ot htnom a mih koot ti." (I know but I don't like this. I want to know what this dragon is doing with these humans.)
The dragon followed the scent of the young dragon. The other dragon, hesitant at first, followed him.
Meanwhile in the Sun kingdom.
"And that's how you make a knife." Jack said with a smile as he wiped off his sweat.
"Ohh." Sandra inspected the knife and it was so pretty. It had a lot of details carved into it making it a very fancy cooking knife.
Sandra is with Jack who is teaching her some basic stuff about the art of blacksmithing.
Sandra by no means wants to become a blacksmith, but thought she could see if it piqued her interest.
Once Jack and his family moved to the Sun kingdom they started to make knives, gates, furniture, cooking utensils, decorative items, tools, and others.
Sandra was surprised how many different types of items blacksmiths can make.
All blacksmiths learn to make these items because it helps them make money as well, but weapons and armor are always in demand that's why blacksmiths focus mostly on those.
Jack, his mother, and uncle, are the only blacksmiths in the village.
"Anything else I can teach you, my queen?" Jack said, smirking every time he called her queen.
In order to do Will a favor, Jack told everyone in the village that Sandra is the queen of the Sun kingdom, which is why nearly every villager calls her 'queen' or 'hero queen' which the latter doesn't sound that great.
"Do you know how to make… matching necklaces?" Sandra asked. She asked Jack for the knife in the first place to see his skill.
"Ohh?" Jack realized what she was thinking, "of course I know! Heck, you'd be surprised how many couples ask blacksmiths to make them those kinds of things, especially wedding rings."
"I just need some matching necklaces for now. Do you know how to make custom made necklaces?" Sandra smiled a bit.
Before, Will had bought himself and Sandra some nice matching jewelry. It was two necklaces, one necklace was a heart shape but in the center was an empty one that had the shape of a board puzzle. The second necklace was smaller compared to the other necklace but it was the shape of a board puzzle that perfectly fits in the other necklace.
Will bought this because he seeked help from his only friend, Alex, and his 'dating' experience only came from anime at the time. Alex gave him the idea of matching couple jewelry to help out his friend in love. Will saw the necklaces on Amazon and bought them.
Sandra regrets not having her necklace with her as she had placed it on top of her drawer the moment she was teleported.
"I was wondering if you could make the necklaces-"
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
*RAWR*
*BANG* *BANG*
*Rumble*
Before anyone else realized, they heard a bunch of explosions, followed by two dragon's roaring, followed by what could only be described as two big and heavy things crashing on the ground, then finally a small rumble that could barely be felt.
"What was that?" Jack asked, obviously scared. Not long ago Victoria just destroyed the kingdom.
"I don't know."
Sandra exited the smithy. What she first saw were the worried looks of people. Many wondered and asked what just happened? It all happened so fast.
Sandra tried to jump over the iron wall, but the wall was over 50 ft tall even a hero like her couldn't jump over it.
Instead she opened the kingdom's gate. To her surprise the kingdom's gate did not go down when she let go of the wheel, because there was nothing there to hold the gate open.
Many of the villagers were curious and exited the gate, one of them being Amelia a.k.a. The dragon loli.
"Holy… fuck." One of the villagers said in complete disbelief.
*Gasp*
Everybody else was in complete shock as well.
Sandra was also in disbelief.
Amelia did not know what to feel. But one thing was certain, she is never going to transform into a dragon unless she has too.
They all saw two huge dragons on the ground. The area around them was damaged and bloody.
The red dragon had the cursed net chain on his face along with large dents on the side of its body, it had burned that covered the back of his body as his tail and part of its leg was nearly blown off.
The apex dragon was in worse shape. It was lying with his stomach pointing up and in great pain. Its entire right arm was missing with a few pieces of flesh connecting it to the body.
When a cannonball had shot out of a cannon and hit its arm it went right through his arm. The entire front side of his body was completely scorched as if a giant bomb detonated in front of him.
Two cursed net chains were wrapped around the apex dragon's body, one of its horns, and another one on its stomach.
Due to the curses Will added to the net chains both dragons were completely immobile although very much alive but who knows for how long in their state.
Sentry turrets cannot be activated by anyone except the user, Will.
Man made turrets and cannonballs however are another thing that Will can leave up to the Golems.
Will added cannons because he realized one thing about them, they can also be enchanted. Will wondered what would happen if he were to enchant a cannonball with {Explosion V}? Would the explosion be as powerful as using a regular bullet, or would it be much more powerful.
Will never got to experimenting as he had forgotten, but one thing was certain it was more powerful.
The same went for adding the {Piercing V} enchantment on another cannonball, it just went through an apex dragon's limb that only pieces of flesh were barely connected to the body.
After this the villagers had learned that this kingdom was indeed safe even from apex dragons.
"Okay, everyone back inside now." Sandra said. It wouldn't be wise to get close to those dragons for obvious reasons.
Now she knows that those cannons and turrets aren't just for show.
Amelia slipped through the crowd of people and ran towards one of the dragons.
"Amelia!" Kat and her parents screamed.
"I got her. Everyone inside now!" Sandra chased after Amelia.
A few curious people wanted to continue watching the dragons. But others complied with Sandra, because she's the queen, and they gently pushed everyone back into the castle. The gates then closed by themselves.
"Amelia, I know you're a dragon but you can't get close to them."
Sandra worried for her. Amelia might be a dragon but she was still in her human form.
Amelia ignored Sandra. She got close to the red dragon.
Both of them started to communicate with each other. The red dragon sounded tired, slow. The other dragon was completely unconscious.
Seeing both of them talk Sandra didn't know what to do. But she was near Amelia on guard.
Sandra could see Amelia's expression as she talked to the red dragon. They talked to each other for 8 minutes.
Amelia's facial expression went from concern, to horror, to anger, to sadness. When Amelia looked at Sandra and the Sun kingdom, her expression changed to fear. And Sandra had no idea why.
"Amelia, what's wrong?" Sandra asked.
Amelia looked at Sandra. It appeared that she wanted to say something important to her, but all she could say was, "Me… traitor…"
Sandra is a great observer. And she could tell while she was genuinely sad, she was also afraid.
"Why are you a traitor?" Sandra asked, concerned for her. She kneeled down to match Amelia's height.
Amelia couldn't say, or wouldn't say. Sandra did not know because Amelia has yet to fully learn human tongue.
Sandra decided not to press further and let Amelia by the hand back to the kingdom.
The gates opened and closed after entering the kingdom.
"Amelia." Amelia's adoptive family ran up to her, hugged her tightly, and took her back to their home.
"Thank you for opening the gates." Sandra said to the nearest person near the wheel. It was a fully grown man.
"I didn't open it. It opened by itself." The man said, perplexed.
"Seriously?" Sandra knew most of these people after getting to spend time with them, and this man was not one to make jokes or lie.
"I swear." The man had both his hands up. "Isn't that right?" He looked around the crowd of people and many nodded and agreed with him. No one pulled the gate.
"Now that I think about it, who shot those cannonballs?" Sandra looked at the top of the walls. The only way to get up those giant iron walls was by climbing a ladder that was behind a couple of doors that could be seen everywhere around the walls, and all the doors are locked and made of pure steel.
She knew Will was behind this, but how? And what kind of ability lets him do all this?
"Hero, was it the king who did this?"
"Of course it was, who else could it be?"
"He really is powerful enough to take down those dragons despite not being here in person."
Many of the villagers started to praise and ask questions about Will.
Sandra left to contact Will through the communication stone.
20 minutes ago…
A few hundred kilometers away from the kingdom was Will. In front of him was a giant spider made of iron.
The spider was taller than Will standing at 2 meters tall, 2 meters long, and 1.5 meters wide. It has 10 legs as opposed to 8, 5 legs were pointing down and the other 5 pointed upwards, each leg is 1 meter long and extremely sharp like blades. Each leg can retract inside its body for easier traveling while inside a tunnel.
The body of the spider was also made of tiny sharp spikes, like knives. It had no face. Instead it had a massive mouth that could snap anything should it come between its mouth like scissors, the backside of the spider had a giant drill.
Unlike the tiny spider golem, this could not only scout but attack as well. And should anybody who has a deep fear of spiders face this thing, Will was sure they would die from fear… probably.
"Can't wait to test this baby out in the caves." Will placed his hand on the spider Golem, he could hear scraping noises once his dragon scale armor came in contact with the spikes.
There were other different types of Golems beside the huge spider golem. It was only the spider Golem that he was working on.
20 minutes later after working on and making some slight improvements…
"I don't see why I can't test it out now. My advanced Golem core can give me pointers on its body to make it better."
Will placed the advanced Golem core inside a small hole he added for it.
The giant spider Golem came to life. And it immediately started to act creepy. It didn't attack Will but it was moving everywhere trying to give Will a sign.
"Uhhhh… What the hell?" Will couldn't understand. Was it having a malfunction or something?
'Did I perhaps create too many Golems and now it's not working anymore?' Will thought.
The advanced Golem spider stopped moving after seeing it didn't have a mouth to communicate with Will.
He used its sharp spider leg to leave a message to Will on the ground.
Will read the message that was written on the ground, "Sun kingdom."
"What about… are we being attacked?" Will asked, scared and nervous. Was it Victoria again?
The spider Golem raised its arms and nodded with them.
"CRAP!"
Will then placed down a waystone. Before he could teleport his communication stone lit up, it was from Sandra.
Ignoring the stone assuming she was asking for help, Will teleported back to the kingdom with his guns out in his hands.
"WhEre? Sandra!" Will was prepared for the worst already.
"Master! Everything's fine." A mid-tier Golem immediately came up to Will after seeing how he was acting through the advanced spider.
"Everything… we're not being attacked?" Will calmed down a bit but was still on alert.
"Oh, no, we were almost attacked but I took care of it."
"Was it Victoria again?"
"It was dragons. Check over there. They aren't dead but they are no longer a threat anymore." The Golem pointed to where the dragon's are lying.
Will flew over not to the dragons, but towards the villagers. He dropped down in the middle of a lot of people.
The villagers were quite ecstatic to see their king.
"Where's Sandra?" Will asked, he needed to be sure she was okay.
A couple of people stretched their arms and pointed towards the same general area.
Will flew once more. Once he saw Sandra he flew towards her and hugged her.
"Will?" Sandra was messaging Will but he wouldn't respond. Next thing she knew Will was in front of her and was going to crash into her.
"Are you okay?" Will asked as he sweated underneath his armor.
"I'm fine. Everyone's fine." Sandra grabbed his wrists and assured him nothing horrible had happened.
Sandra told him everything that happened.
Now that he knew what happened, Will walked towards the gate.
"Open the gate."
And the gate opened by itself upon Will's command.
Seeing this Sandra, along with other villagers were once again shocked. How was that possible?
The Sun kingdom is still relatively new, and no one has migrated to the Sun kingdom in the past week and so the kingdom's gates have never been used. And also no one has set foot outside the kingdom because they had no reason to.
The gate remained open.
Will walked towards the dragons and inspected them.
He was amazed just how much firepower cannons had, he honestly did it for laughs as he thought cannons are useless, but the cannons ended up being amazing enough to take down two dragons in a few seconds.
What did bother him was his sentry turrets. They are amazing indeed but if Will doesn't activate them himself, while he's near them, they will be no use.
'I need to change all the sentry turrets and add some Golem cores in them. I believe they might be more reliable.' Will thought. He won't always be in the kingdom when something bad happens, he couldn't believe he didn't think of that before.
"Will, be careful." Sandra ran up to Will worrying about him.
Even if those dragons are bound and heavily injured, there is still the risk of dying, after all nothing is certain.
"Stay back, Sandra." Will said. He didn't fear death anymore so there was no need to play it safe.
And besides…
{Dragon}
{HP: 0/120,000,000}
{Dragon}
{10,277/20,100,000}
{Cursed: Enslaved, fatigue, weakness}
The apex dragon was dead. The smaller one was barely alive.
The curses on the red one were from the cursed net chains he had made beforehand with the purpose of taking down Amelia should she turn into a dragon.
Sandra stopped in her tracks.
"You said Amelia talked to the red one? What did she say again?" Will asked, stepping over the dead dragon and taking part of its scales.
"Something about 'traitor' I don't know exactly what that means, but if I use logic I think they consider her a traitor for living with humans?" Sandra said, that's her greatest guess.
But she felt there was more because from their conversation, Amelia seemed worried about something else.
"Maybe. Perhaps these two dragons were looking for Amelia to kill her, maybe that's why she didn't go back to her real family once she was free. Although I don't know how they found her in this part of the world." Will said as he continued to rip out the scales from the apex dragon.
Will does not have apex dragon scales or apex dragon bones to make armor, now he does. Once he grabbed some of the apex dragon's scales new recipes were added to his brown book.
"I'll go back to talk to Amelia. I feel that she's hiding something."
"Go for it. But remember she's still a kid."
"I know. Just be careful with whatever it is you're gonna do." Sandra, though hesitant, walked back to Amelia. She trusted Will not to do anything stupid like put his life in danger.
It took Will a bit to get into the apex dragon's bones. And finally he had complete dragons set descriptions from the third layer up to the apex layer.
{Small dragon scale armor set}
{Defense total: 99}
{Set bonus: Immune to penetrating attacks}
{Small dragon bone armor set}
{Defense total: 90}
{Set bonus: Dragon shout}
{Medium dragon scale armor set}
{Defense total: 300}
{Set bonus: Dragon wings}
{Medium dragon bone armor set}
{Defense total: 277}
{Set bonus: Fire breath}
{Large dragon scale armor set}
{Defense total: 1000}
{Set bonus: Dragon apex strength}
{Large dragon bone armor set}
{Defense total: 933}
{Set bonus: Immune to fire}
