40 A fake hero?

Will successfully arrived at the same village where he and Jasmine agreed to meet. So far Jasmine hasn't arrived yet.

Arbor had been tailing Adaline using his father's flying organic creature, but Adaline's speed was far superior, Arbor soon lost sight of Adaline.

Adaline has a special ability that lets her regrow trees that she tramples on. She's part of and loves nature, so whenever she runs through a thick forest she automatically repairs the trees.

{When do you arrive?} Will wrote to Jasmine.

{Give me 20 minutes}

Will shrugged and laid by the village. He put on his exotic armor because this forest was dangerous, and not wearing his armor is giving the monsters to possibly kill him in one shot.

Just like Radix shot an arrow through his head, he needed to protect himself at all times or else he'll die again. To him it was getting really annoying having to deal with death.

Will got bored and decided to check out the village one more time.

"Adaline, stay here."

Adaline nodded and camouflaged herself within the forest.

Will noticed as soon as he entered the village, there were more people in it than before. At least 5 times the size. There was no reason why people would live here, it was a good village but it's a little on the poor side.

"Sorry, we will need to see some form of I.D." A soldier stopped him at the entrance.

Will didn't feel like giving this man his I.D. he didn't want anyone to know his true identity behind this mask. It made him feel cool and mysterious, like Batman.

"Why are there more people here? I was here a couple days ago and all of a sudden the village grew." Will asked.

"Oh, didn't you hear? This is the village where Taker was last seen before he was captured."

"Yes, I have heard of that, but I still don't understand."

"Ever since the child killers were killed, this place has become a tourist attraction."

"...what?" Will didn't believe what he was hearing. Was this real?

"Yeah, people are selling shirts, mugs, cups, all kinds of stuff saying things like 'We killed Taker' or 'Child killers no more' or something like that. It's a happy celebration indeed. All the money that people make here goes to the families who lost their children. I even bought a bracelet." The soldier showed Will a wooden bracelet.

Will sighed, he thought that they were using Taker's death to earn money for their own selfish reasons. He had no problem if people made money, but using the deaths of those kids to earn money? That was low. He was glad that they didn't do that and instead gave it to the families.

"It seems not all villages are rotten to the core." Will muttered under his breath.

"Pardon?" A soldier asked.

"Nothing."

"Wait, your description sounds awesully familiar." The soldier squinted his eyes as he was trying to remember where he heard about a man wearing weird, glowing armor.

"Bye."

Will ran back in the forest and Jasmine for Jasmine.

Moments later Jasmine arrived at the entrance.

"Jasmine!" Will called out to her.

"Oh, Will. Why are you there?"

"Waiting for you."

"But, you can wait inside the village."

"They'll recognize the armor that I wore when I rescued those kids."

"So take off the armor."

"There are monsters nearby."

"Where? After Taker was killed near here, this village is now under the protection of the kingdom. If there was even a goblin scout nearby, everyone would know." Jasmine pointed out.

"Oh." Will took off the armor and entered the village with Jasmine.

"Why did you want to meet here?" Asked Will after showing the soldiers his I.D. He changed his clothes behind a tree before so the soldiers wouldn't recognize him.

"To plan this out. We can't just travel to the south and hope to find a wandering cyclops or Dragon. That would be a waste of time and dangerous." Jasmine said.

"I see. So do you know where we can find some Dragons or Cyclops?"

Will was planning on not just making 1 {Cursed power source generator} but to make a bunch of them. That way he can enchant more items at the same time.

It is costly to enchant items over the 4th level, but the 3rd level and below was basically free and they also carried good enchants on them. He planned on experimenting with enchants, and leaving the best enchants to his most used and powerful items.

"Some, but they're mostly taken." Jasmine sat down by a bench and Will sat beside her.

"Taken? By who?"

"Most likely other sorcerers like me. Being able to kill powerful monsters is something most sorcerers should be able to do, and every sorcerer is aiming for the spot of a kingsguard. So for every monster they kill, it gives them a better chance to earn that spot."

"Ah. So, do you know any other good places? Like I remember you killing a cyclops when we first met. Actually, now that I remember correctly that was me."

Jasmine got irritated when she remembered that part.

"That was merely a wandering cyclops, they usually wander around because they were kicked out of their group because they're weak. If you want to face powerful monsters go to the south."

"Then let's go."

"Why are you so impatient? Are you that eager to die? Dragons and cyclops aren't the only things we should be wary of, like poisonous insects, swamps, plant monsters, other monsters."

"So, what do you recommend?" Asked Will. He didn't care where they went as long as he killed some cyclops and dragons. Personally he wanted to slay a dragon to get back at them.

"Plans, lots and lots of plans."

"Plans?"

"Yes, like escape plans, attack plans, plans for everything. We need to be careful."

"How long will that take?"

"A few hours. I also need to know your weapons, enchants, strengths, basically I need to know everything about you before I can get started."

"Um…"

Jasmine did want to be a sorcerer and get stronger as quickly as possible, but there was no point if she's going to die.

But Will didn't want to tell Jasmine everything, that would give away his true identity.

"Well, I am sorta strong. Adaline is also very strong. And I have a few weapons I modified."

"Modified? Are you an expert blacksmith now?"

"Something like that."

"That's good."

Will explained many things to Jasmine, but also left many things out.

"I guess I can somewhat understand what you're capable of, although I can't say about your marksmanship."

"I'm decent when shooting a gun."

"Seeing is believing. Let's go kill some cyclops first."

"Sweet."

As they were leaving the village, Will saw the same little girl, Kat, who he had rescued. Kat and her dad helped sell stuff to help the other families who weren't as fortunate as they are.

Jasmine noticed what he was thinking and smiled.

"You see? Because of you, those kids are alive. They get to be happy. Sure, some of them might be emotionally scarred for life, but they're home safe and sound."

Will didn't say anything and left the village with Jasmine. He wasn't going to start solving everyone's problems starting now, that was just a one-time-thing he did, and also because he felt like it.

"Hold my hand." Jasmine said.

"Why?"

"Where we're going is pretty far. Flying is the fastest method I have of travelling, plus it helps avoid most of the monsters on land."

"I have a better idea. Come out, Adaline."

Adaline showed itself before Jasmine and Will.

"Woah! I didn't know organic creatures could camouflage." Jasmine was a little jealous that Will got such a great mount without much effort.

"She's a special one." Will patted Adaline's head.

"But you're gonna have to leave her. Most land creatures can't run as fast as I can fly, especially when they have to go through such a thick layer of forests."

"Okay, you fly and we'll follow. Lead the way." Will got on top of Adaline. He put on his armor quickly.

Jasmine shrugged and flew away.

"This way." Jasmine said.

"Adaline, follow her."

Meanwhile…

Arbor was flying around looking for Adaline, but found was far behind.

"How can she be so fast?" Arbor asked himself. Every time he had no clue where they were, he'd make the organic creature fly down, then he'd talk to the trees, and resume following them.

Meanwhile…

Rias was looking around Will's cave searching for some specifically.

"What are you looking for?" Grace asked. She wasn't helping her look, but stood on the side as a mere spectator.

"Something."

"That's not helpful. What exactly are you looking for?"

"Like I said, something."

"But."

"Grace, princess, I also don't know what I am looking for exactly, but I am looking for it." Rias responded.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"No, not really."

Grace had no idea what Rias was looking for. She already examined the sentries, but there's little chance she can even replicate those weapons. Rias almost found a zombie cure but ran out of zombies to test on, so the chances of finding the complete cure in Will's base are zero.

"Grace, please help me here."

"Like I said, I don't feel comfortable prying into his things."

"I thought you despised humans, not as much as Radix but you were getting there." Rias stopped looking and talked to Grace.

"I still do. But I've come to learn that not all humans are terrible as I imagined."

"Huh. Maybe it's a good thing you changed." Rias resumed to look for something.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this could be a good chance to get Will on our side."

"Our side?"

"Yeah, the elves side."

"I still don't get what you mean by that."

"Look, Grace, I may not despise humans as much as Radix, in fact I am more curious about them, especially heroes, but they are dangerous. Remember how we suffered 300 years ago because of them?"

"I don't remember. I wasn't born yet. But, you were." Grace said.

"Yeah, I was merely a child when it happened, I was about 20 years old."

Elves have a different definition of 'child' compared to humans. By the time they reach a certain age they will stick to that appearance for most of their life.

"Point is, Grace, if we found the missing 100th hero, can you imagine how long it'll take until others find him? If we're lucky, years. It might not be my style, but getting Will to join our side is better than him joining their side." Rias said.

"True, and we have done that in the past before. But I don't think Will has any plans to join the kingdom or the Empire. I think he's more on the neutral side."

"I can see that. But, if Will doesn't join them, he'll be labeled as a 'fallen hero' and everyone will hunt him down. Best case scenario they'll kill him and he'll revive. Worst case scenario, they'll control him using a slave enchant on him."

Grace frowned.

In this world, slavery exists. Of course not all slaves are willing to be 'slaves' but there is a method to control them, a slave enchantment.

It's how some sorcerers tame mounts. Some take their time grooming them, feeding them, bonding together, but that takes too long and it's not guaranteed to succeed in doing so. So the fastest method is to control them using a 'slave' enchantment.

But, apart from torturing the slaves into obeying them, they have a more 'humane' method to control them, adding a slave enchantment collar on them.

"Now help me find the thing I'm looking for." Rias said.

"Not until you tell me what you think you're looking for."

"...fine, but I don't know if this is true or not, it's merely a theory of mine, but I am looking for his method to revive himself from the dead." Rias answered truthfully.

"What? How does that make sense? How can you find the method that lets him revive himself. That's an ability he has, the ability of a hero."

"Grace, these past few days alone I've seen Will do so many things that none of the other heroes have ever been able to accomplish. Only the Great Sage has that many abilities or maybe less, but not the other heroes after him. The other heroes are only born with one special ability, sometimes two. Which means that Will must be hiding something."

The reason the Great Sage is so powerful is because of his variety of powerful spells.

"Wait, you think Will is not a hero, but uses magical items that give him these abilities?" Grace asked.

"Not exactly magical items, but something else. My best guess is that he found the 'cave' when he was mining here."

"That's not possible. Humans and elves have been searching for that 'cave' but haven't found it, not since Kleo found it 300 years ago."

The reason the summoning circle exists in the first place is that 300 years ago, a man named 'Kleo' found this cave full of powerful items, but only took back the summoning circle for some reason to help save humanity.

Kleo, unfortunately, sacrificed himself for the greater good to summon the first three heroes. But he never told the location of the cave before his death, only that it had more powerful items like the summoning circle. Since then, many have tried looking for it to find those other powerful items to claim their power as their own.

"What you're saying that hero isn't a hero but a fake… that makes sense now that I think about it." Grace admitted.

A hero is born with only one natural ability or 2 but never more than that. But they can also make that ability grow.

For example, a cleric healer can heal one person at the beginning and run out of energy completely. But, if they practice for years, they can heal 100 people and not break a single sweat. But Will has displayed many, many abilities even till this day it seemed unreal now that she thought of it.

No one really knows why that's a thing. But that's how it's been for 300 years now and they've gone to accept it. The only exceptions are Will, the Great Sage, the Witch, and the other hero no one talks about.

"Great, now let's get mining." Rias handed Grace a pickaxe and started mining away.

Meanwhile…

Jasmine was flying south, Will was slightly behind her. Jasmine was surprised to see that Adaline was able to catch up to her.

'Man, I'm envious of him. If only I had a flying mount or even a normal mount. That would be nice.' Jasmine thought.

As Jasmine was lost in thought, she saw Adaline stop as Will was flailing her arms to her and yelling.

"CYCLOPS!"

Jasmine was confused at first. But, through the corner of her eye, she saw the giant figure looking at her from below.

This figure was a cyclops at the 3rd layer. It looked at Jasmine and shot a laser out of its eye.

Jasmine fortunately barely avoided it, but at the cost of her staff being sliced in half.

"Crap! I let my guard down at the worst possible moment." Jasmine said, without her weapon she's weak.

"Get down from there!" Will yelled.

"AHHH!" The cyclops roared and shot another laser at her. Jasmine avoided it and flew down with Will.

"Will, that laser of his is dangerous. It's easy to fight them on the air as their attack patterns are easy to read. But on the ground it's dangerous. We need to run!" Jasmine hurriedly said in fear for their lives.

"Adaline, we're in the middle of a forest, you know what to do." Will ignored Jasmine's warnings.

Adaline nodded.

The cyclops ran through the thick trees, the trees didn't even slow him down as he trampled on them.

But, the trees and vines coiled his arms and body. He could easily break it using his own brute strength, or using his laser eye to cut it, but more of them appeared to bind the cyclops.

"Infinite ammo enchant, don't let me down."

While the cyclops was distracted, Will pointed his turret-pistol at it and let out a barrage of bullets.

"AAHHHH!" The cyclops in a desperate attempt cried out in pain and anger, and spammed his laser attack everywhere.

Not long after the cyclops entire face was covered in holes. The bullets were so strong and powerful that they exited the other side of his head. It died.

"Huh, easier than expected. But that's thanks to you, Adaline." Will patted Adaline's head.

His pistol also had a piercing III enchantment, those bullets could even pierce through metal, not to mention the skull of a cyclops,

Jasmine's mouth was opened widely.

"What gun is that?" She asked. She's never seen a gun like that.

"It's a pistol sorta. I already told you about it before." Will said as he collected the cyclops body and stored it into his chest and magical bracelet.

"It's a good thing I have this bracelet." Will was happy to make that trade with Rias.

He got on top of Adaline and slowly walked towards the east. It was better if they didn't run as to not attract the attention of another monster like that.

"Let's keep going, Adaline."

But, Adaline used her vines and gave Jasmine back her broken staff.

"Aw, bummer." Will pitied Jasmine, he too knows how painful it is when an important tool or weapon breaks like that.

"That's okay. I can still go without a staff." Jasmine was upset but she didn't let it bother her too much.

Will took the broken staff from her hands. Not a second later did the broken staff fix itself before her.

"What?!" Jasmine didn't believe it, Will fixed her weapon in an instant by merely touching it.

"Be more careful next time. If it breaks into pieces I don't know if I could fix it again."

Will said he fixed it, but that's not entirely true. The staff had low durability now. He needed better materials to restore it back to its proper self.

This was only possible due to having his universal table, which can allow him to craft and fix weapons without needing to place an anvil.

Jasmine didn't question it. She sat on top of Adaline.

Ever since she saw Will she knew he was full of mysteries. And she got curious every time she saw him.

No one has ever found Taker until he did. No ordinary expert blacksmith could create such a deadly and weird gun that isn't magical. Of course she first thought that it was because he owned a magical item, but unless he carried over a dozen magical items, then it had to be something else.

'Is he… the 100th… nah, couldn't be.' Jasmine didn't think much of it anymore. The odds that Will is the 100th hero is slim to none. No one really knows if the 100th hero was even summoned in the first place.

And also, Jack would've most likely known by now because he's so into the whole hero thing, and he would've told her long ago.

While she was in thought, Will smiled. The fact that his modified gun could kill a cyclops that easily made him smile. This meant that with this system alone he could become overpowered if he kept going at this rate.