43 Encounter with a hero

1 week later.

Will was mining in his cave, going deeper and deeper. Adaline has remained by his side and helped mine. She has really helped him a lot this past week.

The deeper they got, the more Will noticed that they dug more rare gems and ores.

He had found so much gold it was unbelievable, including gems even diamonds. The weird part is that there were no new ores or gems to be found, not even monsters.

"Am I missing something here?" Will stood in a spot and went into a deep thinking.

In both Minecraft and Terraria, it was obvious that the deeper you mined the more treasure you would find. But it seemed that no matter how much he dug down, the only thing that changed was the number of ores and gems.

He couldn't complain about grinding since that's what he likes to do, but he dug down so deep that it took him an hour just to reach the bottom of his cave, not to mention going upstairs.

"I tried crafting a steel minecart to travel easier, but that doesn't seem to work." Will sighed.

When he crafted a minecart to travel through the mines quicker, the first time it flung him off the cart and he crashed on a wall, if he didn't wear his armor he would've been seriously injured.

He tried many, many times to make the minecart useful to him, but it was to no avail. He gave up trying for now, but he really did need a better way to travel through his caves, it started taking up a lot of his time.

"Maybe I can somehow exploit the system's bed, place it here, and when I kill myself I'll spawn right here. But I don't like dying. And I can also think of a few good reasons as to why that wouldn't so well. Hmmmmm."

Will looked at his enchanted, exotic pickaxe. It is his best pickaxe by far, and that's most likely because of the enchantments it has.

{Enchanted, Exotic, Metal-grass pickaxe}

{Enchantment: Mining speed+ III: Increases your mining speed significantly}

{Enchantment: Durability IV:}

{Enchantment: Loot miner I: Increases your chances to earn double the drops from mining ores or gems}

The loot miner enchantment is what caught his eye most, it's like the fortune enchantment from minecraft, but this one works on all the ores and gems he mines. The only bad thing is that he could only apply enchantment level I, most likely he needed a better power source to raise the enchantment level.

Will abused this pickaxe as much as he could, kept all the gems safe and hidden, and when he could make that cursed power source generator, he is going to go all out on enchanting.

He got really lucky with this pickaxe, since he didn't expect to get such good enchants. Unfortunately, the method to apply more enchants to an item is still unknown to him.

"Good thing I also enchanted this too." Will looked at his mask and the new enchantments he applied to it.

{Exotic mask: Enchanted}

{Enchantment: Night vision I: Allows you to see in the darkness}

This mask was indeed useful now, but Will felt that he got unlucky to get such a good enchantment but nothing else. Until he gets his cursed power source generator, he won't spend any more gems. The only exceptions are his sentry-turrets.

{Will, you there?} Jasmine wrote to Will.

{I'm here}

{Good, you need to go back to the kingdom of Reyes as soon as possible.}

Will's heart skipped a beat, he didn't want to go near that place because there is a HUGE chance that the Great sage will somehow find out his true identity, or come across a hero who knew him. But that last one is highly unlikely.

{Why?}

{I was contacted by the black tower, they said that someone had already completed the request you sent them. They managed to bring back over 10 dragon corpses all of which are at the third layer, and one from the second layer.}

{Over ten?!} Will was impressed, luckily for him he had mined enough gold to afford it easily and still have enough to craft his inventory.

{Yes. I don't know who the one who completed the request is, but you need to get there.}

{Can't you do it? I'll pay you the money.} Asked Will.

{I don't have that much free time to do all your biddings, Will, I still need to practice to become a kingsguard.}

Jasmine right now was honing her skills without rest, which is why she didn't want to do all these little things that anyone else can do.

{...fine.}

Will felt that he couldn't keep relying on Jasmine like this and treat her like a chore boy. But the risk was too high.

{If you're worried that someone will recognize you, just wear another mask.} Jasmine was referring to the 'Mr Scary eyes' profile, the kids named him that because of his mask that glowed. Will did not like that name.

{I will then. Thanks anyways. Tell the one with the dragon corpses that I'll be there in two hours.]

Will didn't wait for a response, he placed the communication stone down and rubbed his forehead.

"Fine, I'll do it, I really need those dragon hearts. But what should I wear?"

Will shrugged his shoulders. He grabbed his cloth of teleportation and made a huge robe that covered his entire body.

He needed to wear something that didn't let him stand out too much as to not attract attention, but also cover his face in case someone knew who he was, it was better to be safe than sorry. He wore his armor underneath just in case but not the mask.

Will ran off and grabbed a ton of gold coins, even more gold ores and converted them to gold bars. Gold bars are worth way more than gold coins, this way he didn't need to waste so much gold to make coins.

"If someone saw me with this much gold on me, there's no telling what they'd do to me."

He teleported to the exit of the cave, which took him some time since he can only do short-distance teleportation. It was way faster and less energy consuming compared to running.

Adaline was sitting there, then someone was already on top of her.

"Sentry mode {on} attack mode {on}" Will activated his sentries, which are now over 20 and all of them are diamond sentries.

"Come on, girl, let's go to the kingdom of Reyes!"

Still too tired, and yawning while stretching her body, Adaline dashed out of the door and headed at the direction of the kingdom of Reyes. She also liked it when she headed to the forest because there are more trees there.

Meanwhile…

Inside a blacksmith, two blacksmiths had finished making a weapon.

"Woo, we're finally done." Sam wiped the sweat off his forehead. The gun in front of his was a shotgun that was heavily modified and enchanted.

"You did most of the work, uncle, I didn't do much." Jack felt a bit terrible that he had to stay by the side and watch his uncle, as he gave him some tips and tricks as well.

"To be fair, you're still an apprentice. With enough time you can become a great blacksmith." Sam consoled Jack since he too knows how it feels to feel useless.

"I hope so."

In the room was another shotgun that was hanging on the side of a wall. It is the same shotgun that Will made and gifted it to them. This shotgun was the best shotgun they've ever seen, it was too good to sell it.

"Anyone there? I'm here for my shotgun." A familiar voice called out to them.

"Kyle? Man, his timing is rather perfect." Sam chuckled a bit. They brought the shotgun over to Kyle.

"Hey, here's your gun. It's rather great if I do say so myself." Sam scratched his forehead once again.

"Yeah, that's good." Kyle didn't react much at all but stored the shotgun inside his ring.

"Something wrong?" Asked Sam.

"Yeah, a little bit, as you know the heroes have just-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kyle." Sam interrupted him mid-sentence, "I think I gave you the impression that I actually care." Sam smiled but left the store. He had better things to do than to listen to his problems, he didn't like Kyle anyways.

"..." Kyle.

"You mentioned something about heroes?" Asked Jack.

Kyle might be weird to him, but Jack cannot resist when he hears the word 'heroes' he just admires them so much.

"Yeah, I did. You know how the heroes usually train for a few months after being summoned? And then afterwards they are allowed to go outside and kill powerful monsters and bring down criminals, right?"

"Yeah, I've read the stories and that's how it usually goes. Is there something wrong about that?" Asked Jack.

"A little, well a whole lot. Ever since this hero Josh Jones came out, he's been killing dragons, and other powerful monsters left and right. He even took over some of my favourite hunting spots." Kyle scratched the back of his head due to nervousness.

"Is that bad?"

"No, but for us sorcerers, yes. If we can't hunt down monsters and let other heroes do the job for us, it'll make us look weak, this goes for Jasmine as well. And my family, as well as other important and powerful people, especially nobles, have begun trying to make connections with him. They even gave him some of our hot spots for hunting monsters just to get him on their good side."

"Oh." Jack frowned a bit, this would without a doubt affect Jasmine's progress of becoming a kingsguard.

"You know, I've heard something weird, want to hear it?" Kyle changed the topic.

"Uh, sure."

"I've heard rumors that the 100th hero is actually in this world, but is hidden."

"HIUP!" Jack almost forgot to breathe after hearing that sentence.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just, a muscle spasm." Jack collected himself and remained calm.

"Yeah, I know you like heroes, so I knew you would like to hear this."

"Is there any… evidence that the 100th hero is here?" Jack needed to know. It involved Will's secret identity.

"No, not really. Like I said, it's a baseless rumor. Although it would be nice if it was true, then I would be friends with him. Imagine being a friend of a hero, that would without a doubt help my future."

"Yeah… where did you hear this rumor?"

"I heard my family talking about it. And I think that I heard them say that this hero can't die? Or was that reincarnation? I don't know, the details are very vague."

"Oh, that's a really cool hero ability to have."

Jack doesn't know about Will's ability to respawn. So he didn't think it could be Will since Jack thought he could only make and craft stuff.

"And I also heard that he lives up East on the deserted lands, but no one is stupid enough to live there, especially a hero, am I right?" Kyle laughed a bit.

"Ahahahahahaha!" Jack's mouth was moving but his eyes were not moving at all. Will obviously lives up there.

"Yeah… anyways, tell your uncle that I am grateful about the gun. And thanks for listening to me, Jack." Kyle left the store. He had already paid for his gun in advance.

Kyle left the store. Not long after did Jack run up the room as fast as a cartoon character, and decided to contact Will about the rumors he heard.

"Wait, Jasmine can also see the messages I write down. I need to be vague about this." Jack told himself and began writing.

{Hey, Will, Jasmine, have you heard rumors about the '100th hero' right?}

Will, who was riding Adaline, saw his communication stone glowing. He frowned when he saw that message. It was obvious that Jack was making it vague because Jasmine doesn't know his identity.

{What rumors?}

{Oh, you know, that he is hiding, and that he lives up East, and that he can reincarnate and such. You know…}

Will almost let go of his stone. That rumor is not a rumor but true. He hasn't even told Jack about his reincarnation ability.

"How could they know? Does the kingdom have a psychic… no, if that was true then Taker wouldn't have evaded them for so long. And the only ones who knew of my identity are the… elves."

Will shut his eyes tightly.

"It has to be them. Most likely it's not Grace since she hasn't told anyone about the exotic seed, or else I would have already been raided. Arbor? He wouldn't want to bring Adaline into trouble by troubling me as well. It's either that other female elf, or that other elf that pierced my head with an arrow."

Will couldn't do anything much anyway about the rumor, since it had already spread. He could only hope that no one is crazy enough to check this rumor to see if it's real.

"I spared their lives, and this is how they repay me? Next time, I won't be as merciful." Will told himself.

"Adaline, once I gather what I need from the Reyes kingdom, we'll come back to the base as quickly as possible."

If someone was crazy enough to confirm those rumors about him, then they will soon know that it's true, and all his efforts into hiding would've been in vain.

Adaline nodded.

Jasmine, who read the message, frowned when she read Jack's message.

"Deserted lands? Didn't Will say that he lives there?" Jasmine asked herself. Everyday she thinks that Will's true identity is the 100th hero, but she doesn't want to do anything until she is absolutely sure.

Meanwhile…

Will finally arrived at the Reyes kingdom. It has been a while since he came here. Adaline stayed outside and camouflaged herself to the surroundings.

"Here." Will greeted the two soldiers by giving him his papers. He did not wear his armor or cloth for now, because they won't let anyone who covers their face enter for obvious reasons.

"Proceed." The soldiers let Will enter the kingdom. The giant, wooden gate opened and let him inside.

Will wondered how it was possible to make such an amazing gate like that. All he has is a small wooden door, nothing too grand.

The reason why the kingdom let them inside the kingdom without checking if he had weapons or not, is because they are that confident in their ability to guard the kingdom at all costs.

Every corner and every street had a solider in enchanted armor and tools, it would be suicide to try to commit any crimes within the kingdom, not to mention they have heroes and sorcerers as well. Not even an Apex dragon could cause any damage.

Will went inside one of the public restrooms, put his armor and cloth, and teleported out of the restroom without being seen.

He let out a huge breath, this is the riskiest thing he had ever done.

"I just hope that the Great Sage doesn't find me and read my mind. But then again I do have this."

Will held an important item that he brought with him.

{Black ball: Enchanted}

{Enchantment: Blocks telepathy}

This is the black ball that Taker used to avoid the Great Sage's telepathy. Taker was a very careful man, and acted quickly, which is why no one found him until Will did, and the only reason Will found him is due to luck and Adaline.

Will headed towards the black tower, which is the place where the requests are made, as well as the place where the Great Sage lives.

But, looking closely at the tower, there didn't seem to be a way to enter it. It had no doors or exits, not even windows.

"Um, hello?" Will knocked on the black tower but his hand went through it, as if there was nothing there.

"Woah, that is amazing." Will's eyes sparkled like a star, he wanted this on his base.

Will entered the black tower, and inside was way different than he thought it would turn out.

The black tower from the outside was very tall, but it's width was small. But the inside of the tower was massive, as if there was an entire castle within it.

It's like the box from the 'Doctor Who' show. It might look small on the outside but it's bigger on the inside.

The first thing Will saw was an old lady, who had 5 stars on her robes.

{Sorceress}

{HP: 20000/20000}

That was the most HP he had ever seen in a person. He couldn't imagine how much HP the Great Sage must have.

"Yes?" The lady asked in a gentle voice.

"I'm here because someone completed my request." Will said.

"Which one?"

"Um, dragon hunting."

"Oh, was Jasmine the one who requested it on your behalf?"

"Yes."

"Your buyer is in the VIP room. Take this." The lady handed Will a VIP badge. The badge was made out of obsidian, just like the black tower. But the letters were engraved in gold and were bold.

The book glowed brightly. When he touched the obsidian badge he got new recipes related to obsidian..

"Keep this on your person when inside the tower at all times. You can come back here and visit the VIP area any time you want."

"Thanks, I guess." Will didn't understand why he got a VIP badge, but he didn't complain about it.

"Marilyn!" The old lady shouted.

"Yes, grandma!" A young sorceress, who had some identical features like the old woman, ran up to her.

This sorceress is merely 2-stripes and was younger than Jasmine. Sorceres working here is not uncommon.

"Show him the VIP lounge number 3."

"Number 3!!!" The young lady was surprised.

Will tilted his head in confusion. Was that lounge haunted or what?

"Yes, go now, we can't keep him waiting."

"Of course! Come, uh… may I know your name?"

"No." Will responded.

"Just, come." The young lady took his arm and dragged Will across the room while flying.

While Will flew, he could see how the inside of the tower was enormous. Many sorcerers were here working, taking requests, fighting, betting.

The area was well lit by electricity, and had expensive furniture, as well as high-classed food and drinks.

All of the sorcerers had either enchanted or magical gear. Some of them were a little poor and couldn't afford to own such expensive items.

The people around him started to look at him weirdly as they got closer to the room.

"Is the one who took my request that important?" Will asked the young sorceress.

"It's not weird that you don't know. Just wait till we get there." The young sorceress responded.

Will could not think of anyone that was important, apart from the Great Sage, the king, but that wouldn't make much sense.

"Wait, if it's not the king or the Great Sage, then that could mean that it's either a kingsguard, a 5-stripped sorcerer, or most unlikely, a he-"

"We've arrived. Hero Josh Jones! The one who requested the job is here!"

They both landed in front of this room with the door opened wide. The room was different and much more luxurious compared to the other rooms, most likely because it was VIP.

Josh, and his harem sat in this chair that was long and was built in a 'U' pattern with a table in the middle. There was expensive food on the table as well.

"Ah, finally."

Josh Jones got up and so did his harem. The dragon loli stood by the chair and table.

Will was frozen in shock. This is the one scenario he didn't want to come true. Out of all the odds, a hero, from his world, had taken the request. And he was standing in front of him!

"I'll take my leave." The young sorceress bowed and flew away.

"Aw, she was cute. Oh, well. So, where's the money?" Josh asked hastily.

"Where is the money? We've been waiting here for hours!" The seductive sorceress asked in a loud and annoyed tone.

Will was still frozen, not thinking at all.

"Hey! We asked you a question!" The seductive sorceress said in a loud tone and snapped her fingers at him.

"Oh!" Will was back in reality.

"Ah, you were shocked because you didn't expect someone as amazing as a hero to be here, right?" Josh asked.

"Uh, uh, yeah…"

Will knew who Josh Jones is. They were merely classmates, but they've been in the same school for years. If he takes off his mask, Josh will recognize him. Although Will's appearance changed drastically since the beginning, there was still a chance of him being recognized.

'Keep calm. He doesn't know who you are as long as you cover your face.'

Will took a good look at the heroes HP.

{Hero}

{HP: 121,000/121,000}

Josh has been in this world as long as him, and yet his HP was over 100,000. If all the heroes were like him, it's no wonder they're considered the strongest.

"So listen, uh… what's your name?"

"My name… doesn't matter. I only came here for the dragon corpses. You can have the money after I've confirmed it." Will gave up the idea of running away, he had already come this far.

"I know. Maid, give him the ring and the other item as well."

The dragon loli, against her will, handed Will a special ring and another item.

Will looked at the loli's HP.

{Dragon}

{HP: 90,000,000/90,000,000}

{Cursed: Enslaved}

To him, the status bar above their heads showed him only a few things, their race or title, HP, and other effects like poison, curses and such. This is the first time he's heard of a cursed item.

And even though this dragon was in disguise, Will could see through it thanks to his system. This also worked when Arbor and Grace changed their appearances to a human, but Will knew that they were elves the second he saw them.

Will looked at the tool in his hand, it looked like an enchanted magnifying glass.

"You can look inside the contents of the ring using this tool. The black tower uses these for situations like this." The seductive sorceress said.

It wasn't wise to take out what was inside the ring because of many reasons. If Josh took out the dragon corpses inside the black tower, many obvious problems would arise.

People use such items to look inside the magical items like the ring which worked like an inventory. It is also used to identify the type of enchantment a tool has.

Will examined the enchanted magnifying glass.

{Magnifying glass: Enchanted}

{Enchantment: Observe III: Identifies the item by looking through glass. It can tell many things that the holder can't see}

Will knew about the enchantment already but deemed it useless, because his system had a similar ability, but it was much better.

The system can indeed tell him what is inside the ring without using the magnifying glass, it was the same when using his chests, otherwise how can he tell what was inside the chests when they were all identical?

Too bad for him, he didn't realize this function until much later.

Will pretended to use the magnifying glass and scanned the inside of the ring. It seemed good.

"I don't believe I asked for a dragon of the second layer. I only asked for the third layer only."

"Yeah, I know, but you could pay me a little extra for it."

"I'll give you only 50 gold coins for it." Will said.

"Really? Only 50? Come on dude, this is a dragon on the second layer."

"I know it is. But I asked that the bodies be intact as much as possible, this dragon was brutally destroyed, it's even missing some wings and limbs."

"Uh…" Josh forgot about that.

"The scales are also badly damaged, which is not good. I also guess that it was injured internally. If it was fully intact I'd gladly give you much more, but this is broken. It's like buying a broken toy, who would pay for that?"

"Hold on, this is a hero you're talking to! Don't forget that." Felicia and the seductive woman said.

For a second, Will forgot about it. But he composed himself.

"Money doesn't grow on trees. And I also only asked for dragons on the third layer not the second."

"Okay, fine, we'll take the 50 gold." Josh said.

"But, Hero-"

"It's okay. We already killed over 10 dragons on the third layer. That's already 1000 gold right there. But you better pay up."

"Yes, you better! We earned that money"

"You better pay up or else."

His harem got a little too forceful, aside from the loli who couldn't speak their same language. Will was starting to get annoyed by them.

"Here."

Will handed them 800 coins and a few gold bars. It appeared on top of the table and entirely covered it.

"Gold bars?" Josh Jones asked but his eyes were shining brightly.

"Each gold bar is worth 20 gold coins. I didn't expect someone to come here with 10 dragons."

"Oh really?" Josh turned to his harem, the sorceress nodded.

"Okay, that's not bad. Hahahaha! This is amazing! 1000 gold coins on the spot! Easy money!"

Josh and the other two celebrated, they've never seen so much money in their lives. The loli however was mad, that money was made because Josh hunted down her own kind.

"Come on, dance as well!"

The loli began dancing like a robot. This was the effects of the slave enchantment.

Will sneaked away while they were dancing and celebrating. It was better if he left quicker or Josh would find out who he is.

The people were looking at him weirdly. Will left the black tower as quickly as he could.

"Oh my god. That… was." Will didn't even finish his sentence, he was just glad that Josh never found out his identity.

"I need to go back home as soon as possible. Now that I have what I wanted."

"Hey!"

Someone called out to Will.

Will turned and saw someone he didn't recognize. His status bar is what caught his attention.

{Half-noble, Half-elf}

Half nobles, they are the descendants of heroes who had off-springs with non-heroes.