บท 11: Progress
Every human on this planet was in their own houses too afraid to go outside, just like in 2020 on Earth, but it was much worse for the people of this world. They had to hide for over a week from flesh eating bugs, gigantic monsters, and so on.
Usually they would prepare for this moment when the 'black sun' comes up, but it came WAY too early, and so most of them were caught off guard.
Most people who were travelling met their unfortunate ends, the same went for monsters. Some of them managed to find a cave or an abandoned cottage, but how could they survive in a cave over a week without food, water, or weapons?
For the next two days, Will just chilled with his friend Jack and Adaline inside a bunker. Will was pretty much used to being inside a room for long periods of time so it didn't bother him much.
Will also fixed the steel wall that he broke down. It came as a surprise to Sam because how was that even possible? It would have taken machines, groups of men, time, and money to repair the damages. But Will did it in a single night, alone, and easily.
Both Jasmine and Sam noticed that Will had strange abilities, but could not find out exactly what it was, as he nor Jack ever said anything about it. After living with him they got accustomed to his powers, but never questioned him. They at least respected Will's privacy.
Will on the other hand found it kinda difficult to keep a conversation going with Sam or Jasmine. Sam keeps talking about his blacksmithing abilities. He's not being cocky, well maybe a little bit, but he mostly talks about being able to craft a single weapon that is magical and enchanted. Something which is the dream of every blacksmith. Only 2 of them have ever been produced.
Jasmine was the opposite. She barely ever talked to Will. She would talk to Jack or Sam normally. Will never understood why, but he attributed it to jealousy. Or it might be something else.
Jack was the same as usual. But his fear for Adaline never changed. He always avoided her. It must be because Adaline literally hisses at everyone that comes near her, except Will.
This went one for an entire day.
On the other hand, two elves were busy experimenting with zombie blood, trying to find a cure, as humans were deep asleep due to a sleeping poison.
Rias didn't sleep at all. Her focus was only on finding the zombie cure. She was very careful not to be infected by the disease.
Radix did sleep the whole night. He made sure that those zombies nor humans would ever escape from his binds.
"Rias, why didn't you experiment with that zombie that Grace brought to the village?" Asked Radix. He was bored and wanted to find something to keep him occupied.
"Because the body that Grace brought was dead."
"Well duh. According to my knowledge, all zombies are dead."
"No, I meant that the zombie has his brain destroyed. If I need to find a cure, I need to use a moving zombie in order to see if it could cure it. If it works, it'll return that zombie back to its original state."
"I think I get it now."
Radix continued observing the room. They'll be here for a long time, either until the black sun disappears or when they find a cure.
"I think I got it." Rias said. She held a syringe with a green liquid in it.
"That was fast."
"Not yet. I need to be sure it works."
She injected one of the infected zombies. She took many steps back to see what kind of effects it had on the zombie.
They both waited in anticipation. 10 minutes later nothing happened.
"Damn, it didn't-"
*BOOM*
The zombie blew up, as if it has an explosive inside of it. It's innards spilled across the room. Leaving nothing but its rotting flesh on the floor, walls, and roof, even some other zombies sprayed with its flesh.
Some humans who were near, were unfortunately infected because blood entered through their noses, or mouth. Only 3 men were infected, the rest were fine.
There was no way that he was going to take care of those humans, who will most probably die if they're just asleep for over a week.
In Radix's mind, it was necessary if they just stay asleep. Just like back then, that one soldier was so freaked out, that he was going to open the door and let millions and millions of bloody locusts consume them all.
Should Radix ever release the humans from their binds, there's no telling how they'll react. Probably in a panic of some sort.
Still that did not mean that he was going to take care of them. They can die for all he cares.
"Okay… that was unexpected." Rias used her clothes to cover her face, and so did Radix. As long as a zombie's DNA doesn't enter their system, they won't get the disease.
"What the hell did you add in that so-called 'cure' ? Can I have it?"
"Why?"
"Uhmmm." Radix looked at the humans. "No reason."
"No. This failure won't do anything for humans… I think. I'm not too sure."
"There's only one way to find out."
"Hey! You swore to your god, and your ancestors. You cannot kill humans."
"I can't, but you can."
Rias ignored him and proceeded to continue finding a cure.
The situation with Grace, Arbor, and July was still bad. They didn't speak to each other. It was just complete silence.
Will looked into his book and checked the bestiary. There were new things added.
{One-horned cyclops}
{Bloody locusts}
The description of the cyclops was pretty much the same as how Jack described it last night.
But, the bloody locusts were a completely different thing. It even shocked him.
{Bloody locusts}
{They come from another world. They will eat anything as long as it is made out of flesh}
{It is said that a powerful god banished them to another plane of existence, because these things were not only terrifying, but they are a species that can never go extinct, no matter how hard someone tries, even though they can easily die like a mosquito}
{The god that banished them also laid a powerful curse on their species, should the sunlight ever hit them, they will be reduced to ash}
{Not only do they love devouring everything, even their own kind, but they produce at an abnormal rate. It is believe that a million of them can reproduce in a manner of minutes}
{Bloody locusts also have an average lifespan of one day}
At least Will knew that these locusts have a major weakness, the sun. But with the eclipse happening, the locusts weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
"I guess dark souls was right, we should 'praise the sun.'"
He closed the book and went into deep thinking. He had to plan out the things he needed to accomplish after the eclipse was over.
Step 1: get more blacksmith recipes, and also possibly profit. Becoming stronger in the process.
Step 2; build a temporary base where he can store his stuff safely.
Step 3: gather materials. And build a castle. Having a castle will at least give him some protection, rather than roaming around everywhere.
Step 4: research further on what the crafting system is capable of.
So far the crafting system has been able to craft weapons, tools, and building blocks. He just doesn't believe that it can't be all there is to it.
Will believed he could create much more than this, like some iron man suit, a moving castle, potions.
But that will have to wait for now.
"I wonder what system those other 'heroes' have."
Will also believed that the heroes who were summoned also had systems. If he had a system it would only make sense that they would have one too, right?
He was curious, but at the same time he didn't want to see them. It was a complicated choice for him to make.
But that also makes him question something else, why were they summoned?
According to his knowledge, there was absolutely NO reason why they should have been summoned. There was no evil, demon king to destroy. The human race is doing fine by themselves. So why were they summoned?
Jack told Will it's because the King of Reyes from 300 years ago, believes that one day there will be a day that humanity will be in trouble. Until then, they will just have to keep summoning heroes. This has been going on for hundreds of years now. And many future kings have said the same.
If Will had to say something to those kings, he would call them 'LIARS' because NOTHING bad has EVER happened in the last 300 years, since the Witch was murdered by the other two heroes and almost caused the end of the world..
And if there is a problem, like a monster invasion, the guards deal with it. If there is a powerful murderer on the loose, the sorcerers/sorceress deal with them. If there's the possibility of another fallen hero plotting to destroy the humans once again, the great sage deals with it.
It seems that the most a hero has ever done is kill dragons, 3-horned cyclops, or sea monsters. That is what most of them do. Some die early due to being over confident. Others have useless abilities, like jumping really high, but that hero once jumped so high, that once he landed on the ground he died. Will thought that it was a joke, but Jack, Sam, and Jasmine told Will that this actually happened.
It was rated 'the dumbest death in history' imagine dying from jumping too high?
But not all heroes were failures. There have been many who wanted to do good in the world. Well… for some of them it didn't go exactly the way they wanted it.
Some hero grew all kinds of food to end world hunger, he managed to grow foods that did not originally exist in this world. Unfortunately, his food didn't last because the monsters kept eating his crops, or the weather kept wiped it all out. They didn't have the technology or methods to safely preserve his crops. He really tried to help the world end world hunger, but the world was too cruel to him. He died trying to protect his crops, but failed miserably.
At least after his death, the foods that he produced were somehow kept safe, and now the world has beans, coconuts, apples, oranges, and such.
Another hero had the ability to heal injuries, but not diseases or anything else, she was the only healer to have ever existed. But her powers were overshadowed once potion-makers were introduced. It was faster to use, cheaper, and they could use it any time anywhere they wanted.
This hero was a little too greedy, and demanded them to pay her a huge amount in order to heal their injuries. Even a small cut would cost a single gold coin for her to heal it, where most people would only need to use a band-aid, but back then they didn't have many methods to heal themselves. And besides, her healing powers were very effective.
If some commoner had lost a limb, or even a finger, and they wanted her to heal it, they would have to pay off their debt for the rest of their lives.
Funny enough, this is what actually created the potion-makers in the first place.
One man was too poor to afford the heroes medical bills, so he ventured out to the forest, tested out some plants and herbs on himself, and succeeded in making the very first healing potions.
He passed his knowledge onto the rest of the world. And it has saved so many lives. A normal man managed to become more of a hero than an actual hero. And best of all, all the money he made he gave to the poor, as a final, hard slap to the hero's face.
The healer went bankrupt after the potion business was made. She died after she failed in robbing a bank when they shot her down. It was only after they realized that the robber was a hero.
Will had fun learning these fun facts about heroes.
There have been other heroes that succeeded. One hero had the idea to make guns. He had the idea, but had no clue on how to make it. Would an ordinary man know how to make something like a gun? Most likely no. It's like today, people know what an iron man suit is, but would they know how to invent it? This hero had the same problem, especially in a world where even gunpowder wasn't a thing yet.
Many years later, a genius man took this hero's idea, and managed to produce the first guns the world had ever seen. It was so much easier killing monsters after that.
Even though it was the heroes idea, all the credit went to the man.
Another hero who was deemed as 'useless' changed the world, but he's not well known today. His power was being able to memorize everything in his life, every scent, sound, scenery, number, face, everything. He took all his knowledge from his previous life, and taught the world martial arts. Now today an ordinary man can mostly protect himself from another dangerous man. But this hero was long forgotten, as if he just faded in history.
What Will realized is that these heroes made an actual difference in the world, would be painted as 'useless' 'boring' 'unskilled' and such.
But the heroes that everyone remembers, have done nothing but slay giant monsters, and murderers. all because the people were more fascinated with the idea of killing giant monsters, and having so much power. The worst part, is that these monsters would be minding their own business, only to have some hero cut off their heads for no reason other than fame.
What Will believes is that the king summons these heroes so they could bring their knowledge, and power, and make their kingdom grow stronger and better. In the end, it was all for their personal gain, and nothing else.
Many people realized this, but nobody would even bother listening or they would simply forget about it. Nobody cared.
This made Will realize that he made the right call in not telling everyone that he's a hero. Should they realize what his power is, they'll use him to build castles, strongholds, giant cities, powerful weapons, and in the end, Will will only be deemed a 'useless, boring hero who has never contributed to society.'
The less people know about his system, the better.
Days passed in the blink of an eye.
The day of the black sun had finally ended.
"Alright, the sun is up. Those bloody locusts are gone for good. At least for another hundred years." Sam said, still scratching his head.
"How are you so sure about that?" Asked Will.
Sam pointed to a pair of lenses behind him. The lenses connected to the outside, which showed him the outside world without having to risk going outside.
"How come I never noticed that?" Will touched it, and now it was in his crafting book.
Sam was the first to exit. He stretched his arms out and let the sun touch his face.
"Ah man, that was boring as hell."
"..." Will wished he could tell him that his world was doing much worse. They had to stay inside for a measly week.
Jasmine and Jack felt like they haven't been outside in so long. They enjoyed the scenery.
Will looked around, and noticed the skeletal remains of two giant monsters.
One was the skeleton of the cyclops he killed. The locusts must have eaten its corpse.
Not far away there was a dragon's skeletal remains, at least 30 meters in length.
"This is a dragon on the third layer. He never stood a chance against those locusts." Sam examined the remains of the dragon.
Will was curious about something. So he touched the bones of the cyclops.
And sure enough, a new crafting recipe was added to his book.
{1-horned Cyclops-bones}
{The bones of monsters can be used to craft tough armor, depending on the bones of the monster. Each monster's skeleton has a different set of skills once the user is wearing an entire bone armor set}
{Cyclops set bonus: laser eyes}
{Requires anvil}
This surprised Will. Wearing bone armor was possible? And it could even give him a set bonus?
When he crafted an entire steel armor set, he did not get a bonus set, which made him think that set bonuses weren't possible. But now he realized that it is possible, only that he needed better gear than steel.
"Oh, my, god."
He quickly touched the dragon's bones to see what set bonus it would give him.
{Small Dragon bones}
{The bones of monsters can be used to craft tough armor, depending on the bones of the monster. Each monster's skeleton has a different set of skills once the user is wearing an entire bone armor set}
{Small Dragon set bonus: dragon roar}
{Requires anvil}
"Dragon roar? What does it do exactly?"
Although he knew what it does by the name alone, he needed to know what it exactly does. Does it scare off enemies? Does it hurt enemies? Does it do both?
Will tried looking for it in his book, but it did not tell him. He needs to craft it and test it in order to know what it does.
As for the cyclops set bonus, it's name was pretty self explanatory.
"Hey, Sam, is it okay if I take the bones of this cyclops?" Asked Will.
"The bones? I don't mind. We usually just toss out the bones because they're useless."
"Thanks."
Will placed the bones of the Dragon and Cyclops inside his chest. Sam and Jasmine saw this, but didn't think too much about it. After a while, they thought that Will was carrying a magical item that made him do these things. Magical items defy all logic, which is why they didn't think much of it.
Will planned on crafting the bones later. He already carried an anvil in his chest, which was something he crafted after working in Jack's shop.
Will thought that if there were cyclops and Dragon bones lying around, then was it possible that there are other monster bones just lying around? It seemed plausible.
He will store every single bone he sees and hope that it could be crafted into something amazing.
Adaline crawled out of the ground, the same place where Will had dug a giant hole. Will had to take down the steel wall from the bunker again.
"I never got to thank you, for protecting us during the black sun." Will said.
"It's nothing much. A friend of my nephew is a friend of mine. So what are you two going to do now?"
"I believe we're headed to the kingdom of Reyes. For my blacksmith badge."
"Ah, then be careful on your way."
After bidding their farewells, Jack and Will mounted Adaline and they left at an abnormal speed.
Sam and Jasmine returned to their village, which was mostly destroyed by the bloody locusts during the black sun.
"What are you going to do, Sam?" Jasmine asked.
"I don't know." Sam held onto a horn that was in his pocket the whole time. The horn belonged to the cyclops that they had killed before.
"Now that I have overstayed my welcome, I must go home."
Jasmine levitated and flew away to another location.
Meanwhile…
Rias and Radix weren't doing so well. Rias had not slept the entire week. Her eyes were red, baggy, black. But she continued trying to find the cure.
So far, she has had 9 failures. Each one the zombie exploded. But it improved gradually.
By the end, the last few zombies only had their head and limbs blown off. It was an improvement from her perspective, but still a long way to go from finding an actual cure.
This was her last zombie. Once it explodes there won't be another chance to test on them.
"Rias, the black sun is gone. And you're running out of zombies to test."
"I can feel it. I am so close."
"That's what you said last time. But somehow you made his nether regions explode." Radix shivered when he thought about that.
"Just give me one more minute. I can do this."
Rias injected her cure on the last zombie.
10 minutes later, something happened.
"Gah, hel- halp- meeee- pleeeeaaahhh."
The zombie started to talk.
"It, it's talking! It's working!" Rias cheered. The zombies have only been able to growl at them. They showed no signs of intelligence. The fact that they even managed to say a word is a miracle on its own.
But, the zombie's throat exploded, along with his head. But the rest of his body was still intact.
"That, did you see that, it talked! It worked!"
"..." Radix didn't know how to feel.
At first it felt great to see the zombies die in a brutal manner. But now it just got disturbing and gross. Even he started to feel bad for the humans.
He used his vines to suck the blood and corpses of the zombies. Maintaining this place clean of all zombie blood was important, as there was a chance that the disease could go airborne. But even so, it started to smell terrible.
After cleaning the zombie's remains, Radix was ready to leave,
"We should go now." Radix said. But he was prepared to drag Rias out. Knowing her, she will fight to stay and continue with her cure.
"Okay. Let's go."
Rias started to place all her stuff inside her magical wrist in a hurry.
"Huh?" Radix was confused. He was sure that he was going to fight it out with her. But it was that easy?
"What? I don't want to stay here too long. I just want to go home and lie down."
"But, the cure."
"Ah, it's okay. At least now there isn't a zombie around to spread the disease."
"Okay…" Radix exited the room. The vines that kept the humans bound were starting to loosen. They kept the humans in another room so they wouldn't become infected.
As soon as Radix left, Rias smiled. She took a blood sample out of her pocket, it was from a zombie that she extracted earlier, and placed it in her wrist pocket along with her cure.
"Soon, I'll be able to find a cure."
She exited the room and left the village with Radix.
Hours later after they left, several dark figures were scouting the area. There was only three of them.
"I found something." One of them said.
They saw dried blood just outside the village.
One of them touched the blood with a black, leather glove.
"Yup, this blood is definitely from him. It seems that patient zero managed to make it this far. But someone destroyed its brain and fell here, but the body was taken."
"Can you locate the body?" One of them said.
"Hard to tell. It seems that there were many footsteps here, at least a few dozen people have crossed this area, as well as some animals. Luckily it didn't rain, or else this blood would have washed away. But the scent is also gone. I cannot locate it."
"Shit. You don't think that somebody in this village has contracted the disease?"
"I really hope not. If it did, then 'she' won't be able to release this disease to the whole world without anyone expecting it. If her plan fails because we didn't recover or destroy patient zero, she'll have our heads."
"Let's check the village to see if anybody has the disease. And if one of them contracted the disease, we'll burn them all to the ground. Just to be safe."
The men checked the village leaving no stone unturned.
Meanwhile…
July, Grace and Arbor were following July who was riding her mule.
"Can't you slow down? We don't have mounts like you." Grace said. They followed her on foot.
"If you can't keep up it's your fault."
July wasn't going to slow down. Not until she sees Jack safe and in her arms.
"Hm."
Grace was tired, but Arbor was as cool as a cucumber.
"Grace, if you have to, make peace with her." Arbor added.
"No."
"There is nothing to gain from hating her, even though she has done nothing to you."
"I don't plan on doing nothing with her. We're only doing this for the Adalis."
"..." Arbor stared at his daughter, but continued running.
Arbor doesn't hate humans, because they haven't done anything to him. There is no reason to hate them.
Meanwhile…
Will and Jack collected every single bone they could find on the way. Only ogres, cyclops, and dragons.
They only found 2 small dragons, 3 one-horned cyclops, and 4 ogres, who give him a strength set bonus.
There were other bones, like goblins, imps, but they offered no set bonuses, but they could have their uses, so Will also stored them in his chest.
Unfortunately they could not find any stronger skeletal remains of monsters.
Will could not wait to craft some powerful tools and armor using these monster bones.
"Wait, why should I wait to craft the bone armor, when I can do it right now?"
Will placed the anvil down, and crafted the bone armor.
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