Finding Grace

Will woke up startled from a dream he had. He noticed he was naked on his bed. Beside him Sandra was also naked, but the sheets covered their bodies.

'Right…' Will remembered what happened last night, he couldn't help but smile. He put on his clothes and dragon armor quickly and quietly.

Sandra woke up.

"Will? What time is it?" Sandra said weakly. She was still half asleep.

"Go to sleep, Sandra. We barely got any sleep." Will was also tired, but he felt like he had to check if he had enough logs to make 100 {Blue prints} to make the item he needs.

He dreamt that he lacked a single piece of wood to make 100 {Blue prints}. It was more of a nightmare than a dream.

"Last night was…" Sandra smiled as a light blush could be seen on her face.

"But, what happened to you that made you want to do that?" Asked Sandra. They've been living together in their castle for over a week now, but this is the first time they've done it.

"A lot of things happened last night. I'll tell you later but I need to check something."

"Okay." Sandra fell into a deep sleep once more.

Will exited the building and checked all the logs he and Bruce collected. Seeing the large quantity of logs in his chests made him feel great. It's like having so many diamonds that you don't know what to do with them.

"Man, Bruce, you are a lifesaver." Will could have never gotten this many logs in a single day.

Of course one by one he crafted hundreds and thousands of sheets of paper using those logs. Using those sheets of paper he crafted the {Blueprints} that he so needed. It was a boring process, but Will was used to this sort of thing.

1 {Blue print}, 12 {Blue prints}, 37 {Blue prints}, 68 {Blue prints}, and finally 100 {Blueprints}.

"Like I thought, not only did I have enough but I have so much wood left over. Maybe I should hire Bruce again if I ever need him. Nah, by then I'll probably have made enough golems to do it for me. And I am talking to myself, again."

'Now, I just need to wait for the Empress to trade the mana ores and anti-hero metals. I wish I had a way to mine for anti-hero metal. I wonder how the Empress is able to collect anti-hero metal when it's at the bottom of the ocean.' Will thought.

'Hmm… perhaps I should make some sort of water golems? Fish golems? Man, that's not a bad idea. But the real question is 'how' exactly can I do that?'

Will placed all 100 {Blue prints} in his inventory so he doesn't lose them. His inventory was already full, and he still didn't know how to expand his inventory. Still he's grateful to have 10 slots.

Will went inside the large building. He saw Sandra was already up. She was looking at herself in front of a mirror. She was tying her hair in a ponytail.

"Hey, Will, what would you like to eat?"

"Whatever's fine. Just no eggs, please." Will sat down on a comfy sofa that he crafted. Now that he crafted 100 {Blue prints} he could only wait for the Empress to deliver the mana ores and the anti-hero metal.

Will hates eggs more than any other food.

"Yeah. Sounds good." Sandra already knows Will's hate for eggs, but she likes them.

"Before I forget, I talked to Bruce yesterday. He said that there's a tournament of some kind? A tournament of heroes?"

"Bruce was here?"

"Last night. He said that the king sent him to deliver you a message or something, the message was to let you know about the tournament."

"Oh yeah, that. I already knew about the tournament. I saw the posters 4 days ago when I was on errands. Seemed like it was nothing special. Apart from that the first place gets a magical item, and second and third place gets some prize money."

"Having a magical item seems like a nice idea. Why don't you join the tournament? You might win." Asked Will.

He knows just how powerful and useful magical items are. He has a cloak with the ability of short distance teleportation, a weird gun that he took from Clement, a ring and a bracelet that allows him to store stuff inside.

Will also has a magical item that can help him find and identify other magical items. Sadly he could never find the magical item he wanted, the item to change the weather to his own choosing.

"Unlike in fiction, I don't think I'll make it far like the main characters. My odds of winning are low, and I don't like the idea of fighting our classmates and beating each other up. And it seems kinda like a waste of time. First, I am not the strongest hero, or have the most experience in fighting, probably Josh, Britney, Peter, Henry, Bruce, or Victoria will get the first spot. And even if I do get second or third place the money will just be gone. I'd much rather stay here."

"I understand. But I have to admit it sounds like fun. Do you want to go see it anyways?" Asked Will.

Right now they have no way to entertain themselves like back in their world. What this world had to offer as 'entertainment' could be considered boring back in their world, like reading, writing, pottery, and so on.

And it reminded him of when they lived back in their own world. Every time there was a new interesting movie playing in the theaters, he'd always invite Alex or Sandra to watch movies with him, most of the time they'd see it together with the three of them. Alex loved watching the MCU movies more than anything.

It wasn't just the movies, sometimes he would take her on normal dates like the zoo, the mall, a park, a carnival, or ask her out to play video games with him. If it wasn't for Alex Will would have never had the courage to ask her on 50% of their dates.

"Aren't you… like in hiding?" Asked Sandra. Why else would Will hide in the middle of the deserted lands?

"Yeah… but it's not like I am a criminal. And also the Great Sage already knows about me… Actually, you're right, let's not go." Will quickly changed his mind.

"What made you change your mind?"

"I just remembered Victoria is going there."

"Ohhh. Right. Are you still scared of her?"

"Me? No. Not anymore at least. It's just that I feel like if I ever see her ugly face, I won't be able to hold myself back from putting a bullet in her head." Will said with anger in his voice.

Will hated Victoria more than anyone. She's almost on par with that actress who ruined the life of a great man with her lies and deceit, who's last name rhymes with 'Turd.'

"Well if you don't want to go then that is fine with me. I didn't want to go anyways. Let's just continue building our castle."

"Mhm. Oh, Sandra, I just remembered but is there a word for racism against animals?"

After all this time, Will still wanted to know what the word is.

"Racism against… I understand what you're saying, but if there is, I don't know."

"I call it 'animal-ism' sounds neat, right?"

"No. No it doesn't."

"Fair enough. Sad thing is that without the internet, there's no way to fact check it."

They went on with their day like they normally would.

Meanwhile…

A certain elven woman was placed in an isolated room with a bucket, and a barely lit candle. This elf is Grace, who failed miserably to protect even a single elf from the black market buyers.

During these past 2 weeks she has been constantly thinking, planning on getting out. The problem is that she wasn't able to do it, no matter how much she planned it

Tricking them, taunting them, anything didn't seem to work. All they did was give her food through a tiny slot in the door, a lit candle, and empty her bucket once a week.

Both of her captors have guns. They made sure to keep their distance from her when opening the door. So there wasn't anything she could do to escape without dying.

They made sure to keep the contact as minimal as possible.

As Grace was lost in her thoughts, she heard a loud commotion happening behind the door. As if a mob fight broke out, with loud crashing noises, and a large monster pouncing and damaging everything in its path.

"Wait, wait, wait, GEUAAH!"

Two men shouted in pain, and their voices disappeared all of a sudden along with the loud noises.

Grace didn't like that sound at all. Did a monster break in and kill her captors? Would that mean that she's about to die if the monster finds her?

'Dammit! Is this how I will die? I guess it's better to die than to be defiled.' Grace had long accepted that something bad might happen to her someday.

*SLAM*

The heavy door was forcibly pulled back with a great force. Only a monster with such great strength could pull it off.

'It's over.' Grace thought as she tightly closed her eyes, tears running down her cheeks. She didn't want to die.

"Grace!"

To her surprise, she heard her dad's voice. Upon opening her eyes, which her vision is now hazy because of her tears, she saw not only her dad, but many other elves in the room with her. Including her mom, Rias, Arbor, and her grandfather. They were all carrying weapons and some wore armor with enchantments on them.

Elves have a special metal called 'metal-grass' which is the only metal that can grow like a plant, and be made into weapons and armor.

"Dad? Mom?" Grace couldn't believe it.

Arbor took down the chains that bound Grace to the wall, by cutting them down with his enchanted blades.

"It's okay. You're okay." Arbor hugged his daughter tighter than he ever did. Tears also rolled down his cheeks. Grace's mom, Joyce, also embraced her daughter tightly.

"How did you guys find me?" Grace asked, sobbingly.

"Adaline did." Silvas answered with a smile.

On the other side of the room was Adaline along with a bunch of other elves. There are also two men binded by Adaline's vines, behind them was a cracked wall.

Because Adaline was mad she made them fall unconscious when she used her body to slam them into the wall.

They also raised their weapons on her which made her all the more furious. Arbor and the other elves couldn't even help Adaline because she took them down faster than they could.

"Adaline did? So is Will…"

"No. He stayed behind, said that he couldn't help." Rias answered Grace before she could complete her question.

"Figures."

"This is why I say we should kill humans. They kidnapped Grace, and so many others as well! Silvas, please let me kill the two bastards who kidnapped your granddaughter! They don't deserve to live." Radix voiced out his thoughts, which a lot of elves also thought.

The tension between the humans and elves is already so bad. There is one reason that they don't just raid the kingdom, The Great Sage. As for the empire, it's just too far away, and they don't enslave elves. But if they have the chance, they'll kill the humans from the empire as well.

"Hm… not yet. I'd like to question those first." Silvas said calmly. But inside he wasn't calm, he was furious.

As much as he'd like to slash those two's throats right now, something bothered him about this.

Not only were these two ordinary humans able to kidnap Grace, who is protected by Lea, but they didn't even attempt to sell her to the black market. And it seemed like they didn't do anything to her. It was more like keeping a bird in a cage.

Humans always have a reason to enslave elves, to satisfy their lust, for their own personal gain, or simply because they're bored and want an elf?

But why did they kidnap Grace and bring her to such a remote place?

A few weeks ago right after Grace went missing, they secretly infiltrated the black market. Destroying it is still too difficult for them. If they were to raid the black market then many elves would die.

They successfully managed to brainwash a single person who is a member of the black market. That didn't go so well as they had hoped, because that person is merely an ordinary person in the black market, so he had no idea about the slaves or anything really.

Adaline was the one who had to use her own roots, dig her way to the black market's secret underground base, and confirm that Grace wasn't there.

They only found Grace after carefully planning it out, now that they knew that Grace wasn't being held captive in the black market..

They knew that Grace should be in a spot where there isn't even a single blade of grass, otherwise their goddess, Lea, would have told them already or protected Grace, which is why they searched the black market.

There are many spots where their goddess can't reach. After searching those spots, most of which were near the black market, they found Grace thanks to Adaline. Because Adaline could feel the vibrations on the ground, she felt something underground, and that was how they found Grace.

"Take them to the prison. I have some questions for them." Silvas ordered his men.

"Wait, since when do we have a prison?" Asked Radix. They have no use for bringing back slaves or prisoners, as they would either kill them on the spot. As for elves, they exile elves should they ever commit a foul deed.

They really don't have a reason to imprison humans, mostly because their Goddess Lea would kill them.

"Since now." Silvas said angrily.

"..." The elves felt like he didn't make much sense, but they could understand because Silvas was angry.

They had no idea where the 'prison' is, so they just dragged their bodies somewhere far until Silvas's anger cooled down.

"Silvas, please give me permission to kill those two." Radix asked.

"Patience, Radix. You'll have plenty of chances to kill humans in the future. Just not now."

Silvas squinted his eyes when he looked at Radix. But he shook his head and focused on Adaline instead. He gently patted her head.

"Thank you, Adalis, or Adaline. If it weren't for you, many elves would have died, and I might have never recovered my granddaughter." Silvas was grateful for Adaline's help.

Before Adaline arrived, they were ready to raid a few nearby villages who actually have some slave elves who have lost the protection of Lea. They thought that it was most likely where Grace would be.

Most of those villages aren't even close to a single tree, because they know that elves rely on their goddess to protect them. And those villages are also protected by the 'black market' but compared to the kingdom or the empire, they were severely lacking in power and men, but still shouldn't be taken lightly.

Silvas knew about those villages. But in order to bring back their elves, a lot of lives would have to be sacrificed. He knows this because he has done this before, many, many times.

Before he could rely on the Great Sage to deal with the problem peacefully, but now he can't be relied on anymore.

'Perhaps my old age is starting to affect my thinking as well. Just like Morgan(Great Sage).' Silvas thought.

Adaline merely ignored Silvas and went outside. Outside of the secret room was basically nothing. The doors were perfectly covered in stone that blended in with the environment.

Compared to the deserted lands, it wasn't nearly as hot. But it was indeed warm.

Adaline laid down on the ground, looking to the north, to where Will was. She missed her 'home' where she could laze around and eat delicious scorpion and dragon meat.

Using her roots she drank from some groundwater that was deep underground. Extending her roots far because she was bored, she sensed something abnormal. She found a small box that was wrapped around in a dirty, old cloth. It had obviously been buried there, it looked like a woman's clothing was wrapped around it but old and worn out.

Sometimes she would find little surprises underground every now and then. Mostly skeletons from monsters or in rare cases humans or elves. It wasn't that fun but since she was bored it was fun to her, and it helped her pass the time.

One time she tried to extend the greenery like she did the deserted lands. It was a success and she didn't need to tend to it because it wasn't as hot as the deserted lands.

Adaline saw that the box was as big as an adult's palm. She hid it underneath her body between her vines.

Adaline's body is made of organic material, mostly thick vines, some beautiful flowers, and a giant beak in her mouth. As she hid the box between the lines of her thick vines, one could faintly see dozens of exotic flowers as well.

During the first few days, Adaline continued to produce exotic flowers like it was nothing, and made sure no one was looking. But one day she just stopped. The exotic flowers she produced she hid from the elves, letting nobody else know about them as Will had told her to.

The reason she stopped producing exotic flowers after a few days, is because Will stopped feeding her. That's it.

Just like how Will can make trees grow in a single day, or how he can grow batches of crops and fruits in a few hours, or how he can make animals like camels produce baby animals very quickly and make them grow quickly as well. It was all part of his system's passive abilities.

After a while Grace and the other elves left the hidden room.

"Adaline, thank you for rescuing me." Grace was happy to be alive. She hugged Adaline tightly, so did Arbor and Joyce.

"I love a happy ending." Rias said from the side.

"Yeah. Happy." Radix was pissed and he did a poor job to hide it.

If it weren't for Adaline they would have had a perfect excuse to raid and kill humans in those villages.

And because Adaline is a part of the hero he failed to kill, it just made him angrier.

"Relax, Radix. You'll get your chance to kill humans." Rias comforted Radix.

"Mhm." Radix left angrily, rumbling to himself.

Silvas approached Rias when Radix left.

"Rias?"

"Yes, my king?"

"Was it my imagination, or did Radix seem pissed off?"

Silvas didn't see a reason not to be happy right now. They just rescued Grace.

"Yeah. You know him, he just really wanted to kill some humans, like always."

"I thought you also hated humans." Asked Silvas.

"Not as much as compared to Radix. But I feel like Grace will soon be headed to the same path."

"Ah… I know what you mean." Silvas said.

Because humans kidnapped Grace, there is no doubt that this would make Grace and possibly even Arbor hate humans more than ever. Should Grace have died, even Silvas would have trouble controlling his anger, and might have ordered to kill and destroy any and all human villages.

"Hm… Rias, can you keep a close eye on the prisoners?" Silvas said.

"Sure."

"And if by any chance you see Radix going near those humans, don't do anything, just tell me if anything happens, okay?"

"Uh… yes, my king." Rias didn't know what Silvas wanted, but nonetheless she is going to obey his every word.

Silvas kept a close eye on Radix, and also some of the other elves who have immense hatred for humans.