Chapter 35. Plans to escape

It's been a few day's since I've been stuck in this palace, the library was huge so I was not bored while looking through it. There were stories about history that thought me a lot about this world like the fact that every Nation has its specialty.

The Sandstone Kingdom is specialized in enchanting items, the ruler of this country has to have level 7 in the enchanting skill before they can even be considered a candidate for the throne. They're also the only nation that knows how to break the obsidian block which they keep close to their hearts as a secret. With that resources, they have certain advantages in trading with the Coral Kingdom to get some good deals since they live in a desert after all.

The Coral Kingdom is the only kingdom that is not connected to the unclaimed land, which sounds like a good thing but they have their challenges with the monsters as well. While they're the only nation that is connected to the sea it also brings problems called drawn and phantoms every now and then to challenge their warriors.

Their specialty is Crafting, it's not a nation ruled by a king or nobility, they have a hierarchy of who is the richest is also the smartest. A country is a big place for trading, there travels wealth unimaginable to normal people every day.

It was a fascinating thing to read about.

The Stone Kingdom has a specialty in the Brewing skill since it's the only nation that has access to blaze powder and other resources from an unknown source.

A fan fact about the royalty there is that their name is Mending, which is connected to every royalty because each one of them has a trade with mending surprisingly. This is a way to show that they are chosen by the system by being given a rare trade that only they have access to.

Now I don't know if their truly born this way, or they just keep changing jobs until they got the desired book like in the game. But this is one factor that keeps them in the ruling line for sure.

From what I read in the books that I saw, the other kingdoms don't know about the existence of the Nether, and I think not even the Stone Kingdom knows the existence of the End dimension.

And finally but not least, the unclaimed land. This territory was bigger than even the three nations combined.

With such a vast empty land why is nobody trying to occupy it?

Well, it's a simple reason for that. The whole land was filled with monsters. And while the nobles were equipped enough to deal with some monsters it wasn't as easy as it seems. The deeper you go the more monsters you meet, some of them won't stop spawning even when you put a light source down.

And even if you managed to go through all of that to find the lost cities and their forgotten knowledge. You'll be stopped by the biggest obstacle.

Corruption.

The deeper you go the closer you get to the battlefield that took place a long time ago. Even if the portal was closed, the corruption was still there slowly expanding its domain.

When a villager stands for some time in corruption, a change starts to appear in them, they suddenly lose their speech and reasoning. They become the villages that Bobby was tasked to take care of.

That's how you become an outcast in here.

Luckily I was spawned pretty close to a nation so I didn't have to deal with too many monsters, and I don't know if the corruption would effect me the same way as the villagers.

But I wasn't only reading in the library this whole time.

I tried to meet with my witch friend to see what he learned and what kind of propaganda he was going through, but I haven't been able to see him those past few days, which was not a good sign to see.

So I felt that I needed to do something to help him, something that could help both of us.

I needed a way to escape from this beautiful prison.

But I already started to see some trouble in my escape plan.

My genius idea was a classic one, that was so foul proof that nothing could go wrong.

Dig a tunnel.

But I had to be careful while digging the tunnel since I had people watching after me from various corners of the library.

Once I found a place where I was pretty sure that I was not seen I started to dig down on the wooden floor which took longer than usual since I only had an iron pickaxe to use. After a few minutes of hitting the wooden block, I was finally able to break it which showed me a sandstone block.

"Jackpot!"

I then started to brake that block as well which was faster since I used the pickaxe.

But while I started to plan how I should meet with Froggy and escape this place I was blocked by a block that I never expected to see here, an obsidian block.

"What's an obsidian block doing here? It can't be that this whole palace is on top of an obsidian platform."

I broke some more blocks only to see more and more obsidian under me.

There were three blocks between the floor and the obsidian base.

"I know that Sandstone kingdom is special because it knows how to brake obsidian, but I don't think there's enough lava in this whole desert to cover the whole palace."

I had to stop digging since my supervisors were starting to wonder where I am.

I quickly covered the small tunnel that I just did and opened a book right before the librarian checked me from the corner.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you know perhaps how can I find my friend Froggy?"

The man looked surprised that I talked with him.

"Are you referring to the hero that can cure the infected?"

"That's him."

"He's too busy you can't meet him yet."

"What do you mean he's too busy to meet me, what's he doing?"

"He's going through the program that would let him be a good companion for the Hero of course."

"Wasn't I suppose to take the same course as him?"

"Uhh, yeah... I think they forgot about you."

The librarian tried to avoid his eyes from mine once he said that.

That was a weird reaction to have. He looks like he does know where my friend is but doesn't want to help me.

Then it hit me. The Sultan wanted to keep the two of us separated as looming as possible so he can have control over Froggy's movement.

This made my mouth taste sour, so I decided to end my learning for today and digging plans and try to search for my friend more carefully even if they didn't want to guide me.

I exited the library and started to wander around the place trying to remember every path that I took so I won't get lost.

I managed to walk for a few minutes like that before a guard with iron armor stopped me.

"Sorry sir, what are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for my friend, you can recognize him by the title of the witch."

"I think I recognize that name, follow me and I'll be guiding you there."

The guard responded calmly which took me by surprise.

I expect to be told that I'm not supposed to meet him like the librarian, but the guard seemed more friendly and just led me along the hallway.

After a few minutes of walking, we stood outside a door that I was quick to recognize.

"This is my room, what does that have to do with my friend Froggy's location?"

I asked the guard confused about the situation.

"Your friend is too preoccupied for now, so he requested to be left alone until he is free again."

The guard answered with a smile which left me shocked realizing that I've just been tricked.

"I wish you a pleasant day sir."

He then turned and left me alone.

I was frustrated by what just happened and went into my room.

"At least there's some privacy in my room. Maybe I should start making plans about escaping in here from now on."

Unfortunately, I was on the second floor so I couldn't mine underneath my room.

Or maybe I could.

I broke a block from the floor in one of the corners of my room, and underneath was a room filled with barrels on the walls.

"Is this a storage room?"

I looked more carefully around the room in case someone was there, but fortunately for me, I was alone.

I then carefully claimed down and looked through the barrels only to see food in them.

There was cooked and uncooked meat, there was bread and there was milk, every kind of meal that I could think was here. But what truly caught my attention was the barrel that was full of coal.

"This must be the storage room for the kitchen. I hope nobody will be mad If I take some coal with me."

I then took out a stack of coal and put it in my inventory before getting back to my room.

The only thing that I was missing was some wood and I could finally make some torches that can light up the tunnels that I would make under the palace. That way I won't have problems with monsters who would suddenly appear while I work on a way out.

I then went outside my room again and walked towards the guard that was suddenly by my door guarding it.

"Hey there, is there a facility where I can increase my level of Crafting?"

The guard looked suspiciously at me.

"Yes we do have such a room, it's the crafting room, but it only has materials for the first three levels."

"I guess I'll have to use what I have. I don't want to fall behind my friend and not make any progress. I know I don't have a brewing talent but I want to help the hero in any way that I can."

While the guard was still suspicious of me he still guided me to the Crafting room.

It was a big room with a few crafting tables here and there but the rest of the room was filled with labeled chests.

I went towards the one that was filled with wood and took some sticks and planks out.

With the new materials that I got, I could finally make what I truly wanted.

Torches.

I made four snacks of torches which took around half an hour to make, and I also used some of the wood to make some chests where I would put the blocks that I'll mine.

With everything done I started to look more carefully around the room to see if there was something else that caught my attention.

There were chests filled with wood, some with stone and cobblestone and the rest with wheat.

"This is truly for the first three levels of the crafting skill. Once you get to level four, there is no iron that can help you get to the next level faster."

I took a bit more wood with me and some wheat.

I kept the wood in my inventory while I used the wheat to craft some bread.

If I was stuck here, why shouldn't I profit from the free stuff and increase my levels, even if it is only by a small percentage?

So for the next few hours, I was crafting bread which was a weird concept as always.

I even put some bread in the furnace to bake while I was working, so by the end of my grinding session I had enough bread that I could take with me on my escape, so I won't keep eating the golden carrots.

With everything that I needed in my inventory, I went towards my room with the guard right behind me.

But once I got in my room he stopped right at the door without taking a step closer.

"Time to see how much I can dig."

I then took out my pickaxe.