21 Grace's Journey

Will was shocked to see that his base had not only one, but two trees. One tree was the one that Arbor grew. The other one was in the same place where he planted that acorn. Meaning that this tree that he planted was the same one that he planted.

It hasn't even been a week and another tree just grew. Will expected it to take months to show minimal results, and he also tried to make Arbor grow some trees as well to fasten the pace.

But, the tree he planted grew way too fast.

"Adaline, did you or Arbor have anything to do with this?"

Adaline shook her head. Will made her keep an eye on Arbor at all times in case he tries anything funny. Even now he carries his gun and wears his dragon armor on him at all times.

"What's going… huh?" Arbor came out and saw another grown tree in front of him.

"That's odd. Did I do that?." Arbor scratched his head. He was still tired from growing that other tree.

Will touched the tree but it was just a normal tree. He also checked the acorns but they were normal.

"I couldn't have done this… unless." Will had realized something important that he overlooked.

In the games of Minecraft and Terraria time goes faster there than in real life. Minecraft takes 20 minutes for a full cycle, while Terraria takes 24 in game minutes for a full day and night cycle.

Each in-game day lasts 20-25 minutes. And there's another important thing he forgot, tree growth rate.

Each tree on those games takes 1-3 in game days to grow not including bone meal. That's literally about an 1 hour that a tree takes to grow naturally in real life, sometimes more sometimes less.

He had overlooked this important fact, like how those players can pick up beds and so many heavy items easily as if they've shrunk in size, or how they can wear metal armor 24/7 even while sleeping, playing, building, killing, pillaging.

This meant that he had another ability he didn't know he had, the ability to grow trees very fast. Not a super awesome ability for most people, but for him this is a very useful ability.

"I swear, if I ever meet the person or god or whoever it is that forced this system onto me, I am gonna punch them."

How many times does he have to suffer like this? He could have known everything about his system by now if someone took 5 minutes to explain it to him. But they just dumb on him on this world with no information about anything, and expect him to do good and for what? Everything he had accomplished until now, everything that he knew about the system he figured it out himself.

He took another few acorns and planted them on the ground. Will sat there and watched. He needed to know how long exactly it takes for a tree that he planted to fully grow.

Will needs to know this to help him understand the system's capabilities. But a few minutes later he got up and left.

"I don't have anything to tell me the time…" Is what he said and left to go mining.

What was the point of knowing how long it takes for a tree to grow if he doesn't even have a watch. It feels like he's been here for years now, but it's been a month. His sense of time isn't something he'd rely on.

But at least the trees grow fast so that takes care of his wood problem. Now all he needs to fix is the food problem. If he continues eating grass like this he will take his chances on the deserted lands to find something else to eat. Eating the same thing for a long period of time can make you go insane.

Arbor also examined the tree, but there was nothing wrong with it. It was as if the tree was here the whole time.

Arbor touched the tree to communicate with it. What he heard shocked him.

"That man did this in a single night?" Arbor couldn't believe it. Will did something in a day that elves had trouble accomplishing in a month.

Trees obviously take many, many years to grow. But elves can shorten that time little by little. The fact that Arbor grew the other tree in 4 days is already pushing himself to the limits. Arbor needed a tree to communicate with a nearby forest, but the range was too far for him to contact other trees, it worked like a radio.

Arbor was now a little bit more curious about Will. He knew he was special when the forest told him before, but did not really understand his abilities. Now having seen it firsthand, he is indeed surprised but not amazed.

"Is he a hero? No, can't be. All the heroes have been summoned to the kingdom of Reyes. Except that 100th hero that might or might not have been summoned… here. Oh. Now that makes much more sense."

Arbor finally figured out Will's real identity, the missing hero.

It made sense. No sorcerer is able to manipulate nature, only elves and their Goddess Lea could do it. But Heroes on the other hand are all unique.

Many heroes have been able to do amazing things, so it wouldn't be weird if there was a Hero destined to use nature magic like elves.

What Arbor doesn't know is that Will has a crafting system, and growing trees is just a few of its unnatural abilities.

Will sat on the dark mines near the entrance. He pondered for a long while. What else was there about the system that he was missing?

He racked up his brain trying to remember everything he could about those sandbox games he played and loved.

Reviving after dying? Check. Shrink items? Check. Growing trees at an incredible fast rate? Check. Growing various vegetables and fruits easily? It's possible, but not yet fully proven that he's capable of it.

Having an inventory? How he wishes to God that he had one. Having placed blocks float on mid-air defying the laws of gravity? Not checked.

Will mined some stone and placed 2 square blocks that were 20x20 centimeters long.

He mined the bottom block but the block on top fell. This meant that the blocks he placed cannot defy gravity like in Minecraft or Terraria.

"Check." Will threw the pickaxe away and began experimenting again.

Landing safely on water no matter how high he falls? Check. Keeping your stuff on you after dying? Check but doesn't keep his stuff after respawning. Cheat codes or mods? Like that will ever be a thing in this world. Having a purpose? Not checked.

So far there is no clear purpose to why he is here. No dragon to slay, no moon god to kill. Was it possible that he had no actual purpose? All he had to do was live in this world the way he wants to?

There is no one to answer his questions. Will continued to mine and mine collecting all the ores and stone he could get.

Meanwhile…

Grace had been travelling with two humans these past few days across the deserted lands. The water she brought had run out, her feet were burning and bruised. She felt like passing out at any moment, and so were the other 2 men.

"Didn't you two bother to bring a mount here?" Grace asked.

"We did, but it ran away the first chance it had. I don't blame it, but we really could use its help right about now." Billy wiped the sweat off his forehead and flicked it on the ground, which made a sizzling noise.

"So hungry, so thirsty. So hungry, so thirsty." Tucker kept repeating that same sentence over and over again.

"Here, have another drink. Only one, the rest is for the villagers." Billy opened a metal container and gave it to Tucker.

Tucker took some sips and even poured some of it on top of his head.

Billy did not mind, he brought a whole bunch of water containers for this exact purpose. It would be weird if they didn't prepare for this kind of heat.

Grace noticed that Billy had a magical item, a silver ring that is like an inventory space. This works great because whatever is inside of the ring does not get affected by the heat of the sun, meaning that their water will remain cool during this intense heat.

She too brought water because she knew about the heat in the deserted lands, but it seemed like it's barely enough.

"Finally, we're here."

Surprisingly it was the same village that Will visited a month ago. The same village that almost killed him and Adaline. It looked way more guarded than before. Even 1 tower was built so someone with a sniper rifle could keep an eye out. Another tower was being built right now.

"Hopefully your dad is here." Billy and Tucker entered the village and immediately went into this poor wooden building.

Grace hesitated for a moment before entering the village. She didn't follow them directly into a house they entered, she just looked around the village to look for some clues about her father.

Unlike her father Grace did not wander around aimlessly. Which is why she didn't suffer as much as him when Arbor first travelled through the deserted lands.

Inside the house was Jim smoking a cigar. The arm that was crushed by Will's iron chest was completely gone. Jim learned to use only one hand, it was hard but he's getting the hang of it.

There used to be a light in his eyes, but now not so much.

"Dada!" Tucker ran at full speed and shook the house because he's tall and heavy.

But, Tucker saw his dad's missing arm and started to cry.

Jim rubbed his forehead but the life on his eyes came back.

"At least you two boys made it back safely. Did you find what I sent you to look for?" Asked Jim.

"No." Billy shook his head.

"We found and killed some travelling merchants, but they don't carry regeneration potions or any potions at all for that matter. And because of the black sun and because of the heroes being summoned, it looks like most potion makers are either gone or too busy. It'll take months before everything goes back to the way it was."

"Next time then." Jim understood his son.

"We managed to bring enough water to last many villagers here a month at least." Tucker wiped the snot and tears from his face.

"There's bad news." Jim said, a bit worried.

"What? Did the man who crushed your arm came back?" Asked Billy.

Tucker's breathing immediately hastened, his eyes were shot red. If he were a cartoon character steam would escape from his ears.

"I'll kill the man who hurt dada!"

"No, it has nothing to do with him. Our village population... it grew."

"Grew? How much?" Billy asked with a deep\ frown.

"You said that you brought enough water to last the village a month, right? Right now I believe it would barely last us 2 days, and that is if we limit the water to everyone."

Billy started to massage his forehead. This was indeed problematic.

These are people who have nowhere else to go. And Jim and his sons are in charge of taking care of the village. The population grew thanks to the black sun and the locusts killing and eating everything they could.

"We can't handle that many people in this village." Billy said.

"Yes, you're right. I'm already working on that."

"Oh, right, here." Billy handed his dad the magical silver ring.

"Thanks so much." Jim took a water barrel out of the ring and drank some water using a cup.

"Thank god. Water ran out 2 days ago."

"Dad, we can't keep going on like this. We need water and food to survive. Tucker and I can't keep going back and forward like this to gather food and water, it takes too long and it's too dangerous walking here to there and back here again. There is only so much we can carry using the magical ring."

"Like I said, I'm working on it. Do you know something? Some of my scouts claimed to have seen fresh grass growing on these parts of the land. According to them, it would take a day at most to reach there by foot."

"Really?" Billy's eyes shot up.

Grass or any type of greens does not grow on these lands because it's dry. But, if what Jim said was true meant that there was a nearby water source, otherwise it is not possible for grass to grow.

"But then why didn't your scouts look further into it?" Asked Billy.

"That's what I asked them as well. They responded with 'I don't know' some people are just dumb..." Jim and Billy looked at Tucker who was picking his nose.

"The Gods finally took pity on us and possibly blessed us with a water source."

"Have you sent people over to check if it's true?"

"They should be back by tomorrow. I also waited for you two to come back. Because of this." Jim held the ring.

Without the ring they would only be able to carry some water back. And by then the water would be boiling or evaporated. It would be wiser to use the ring to carry a bunch of water back swiftly.

Having a nearby water source would solve a bunch of their problems.

"And what if there's no water there?"

"Then I would have no choice but to kick some people out of the village whether they like it or not. Honestly, if my men didn't tell me about this possible water source yesterday, I would have taken action."

Jim was dead serious. In order for this village to survive they need water. But overpopulation was a major problem to them. Either they find a water source or Jim will have to reduce the population one way or another.

Tucker who was silently picking his nose said something, "Dad, Billy brought home a girlfriend. She's real 'purty' too."

"Oh really?" Jim suddenly got a little interested.

"She's not my girlfriend, you liar. But yes she's really pretty. I brought her here because she thinks that her dad is here. *Cough* And I also hope that she'll remain by my side for many years to come." Billy got flustered all of a sudden.

"That's my son. Real proud of you." Jim hit his son on the back various times showing that he was proud.

His son Billy has never taken a liking to girls because they were never his type. Jim got worried that his son was either gay or planned to die alone.

JIm is the type of father to spoil his children, which is why Tucker is fat despite living in such a deserted land for more than 5 years.

"Listen, Billy, now that I am extremely relieved to know that you're not gay, I am gonna tell you just how to make a woman fall head over heels for you. I am gonna show you what I did that made your mother fall in love with me."

"Ugh, gross… you thought I was gay?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely. Now, here is the secret to tame a woman's heart. It won't be easy, but here it is…" And then Jim started to pass on the secret to his son.

Grace looked around the village, and she has never seen such a poor village before. It was fairly large, but there were way too many people.

"Beautiful lady, can you help my mother? She's not moving."

A small child wearing ragged clothes, was very skinny and malnourished. He tugged on Grace's clothes as he pointed to his mother who sat on the ground cross-legged. It looked more like a skeleton at this point.

"I cannot." Grace was saying the truth. Unlike her father she was not that adept with nature like him, her only natural ability is being able to communicate with trees, but every elf can do that.

She has no healing potions, or magical abilities to cure anything. Grace was an elf, not a healer, or a saintess, or a priestess. Saying that she will help the child will only raise his spirits for nothing.

"Okay." The kid went to another person and repeated the same thing over and over again.

Grace kept looking around and saw many men who were somewhat healthier compared to the other villagers, who were fixing many buildings that have been blown up and holes on the ground that were being patched up.

"What happened here?" Asked Grace.

"Something obviously happened here, missy." One of the men said. He looked at Grace and raised an eyebrow. To him she looked beautiful but she was a bit above average on looks.

She was still in her human disguise. If she were to reveal her true form everyone would be stunned by her beauty. It's because of her elven genes, as elves are known for their beauty.

But with the majority of the people in the village that are malnourished and smell terrible, an average looking woman to these villagers would look like a top-NOTCH beauty,

"But tell me what really happened here." Her eyes glowed a tiny bit.

The man's eyes glowed a bit just like Grace's eyes. Now he was under a trance.

"About a month ago a man came and caused havoc here for no reason. Our boss and friends of mine tried to stop them, but our boss lost his arm and many of our men died or were seriously injured that day."

Grace frowned. Seems like her dad is not here after all, nor were there any clues.

"He's lucky that the bastard had an organic creature with him. Otherwise he would not have been able to escape."

"Organic… what did this creature look like?" Grace was shocked. She didn't expect any clues at all regarding her father or the Adalis. If her father isn't here chances are that he is with the Adalis. The chances of that happening are low, but she has no other clues leading up to him.

"I wasn't there so I don't know. But what I have heard is that it was about 8 feet tall, was really strong, and unique."

"It must be the Adalis."

Adaline is a rare type of organic creature.

"Where did they go?"

"We don't know. We assume they ran off back to where they came from, which is not in the deserted lands. Going after them was not a good idea." They thought that Will ran back to somewhere like the Kingdom of Reyes, because why would those two ever want to live in the deserted lands?

Even if they did somehow chase after Will and Adaline, they had no mount that could catch up to them with Adaline's speed.

Grace was in a deep thought. It would be suicide to walk around aimlessely in the deserted lands to find the Adalis and her father.

"Anything else that I should know?" Asked Grace.

"Well,,, I heard rumours about a water source nearby, about a day's foot from here."

"Useless information."

Grace was about to walk away but stopped.

'If the Adalis hasn't come back to anywhere near the forest it must mean that she's still here. Organic creatures cannot go without water or sunlight for long periods of time.'

"Water source… they must be there."

Grace connected the dots easily. She looked at the man very seriously.

"Where is the water source? Tell me?"

"Somewhere South-East."

"South-East..."

"Hey, John, are you gonna keep working or what?" Another man yelled at John.

"What?" John was free from Grace's trance. He shook his head slightly as he experienced a slight headache.

Grace got a compass out of her pocket that she got from Billy. She learned how to use it during her walk over here. It was easy to use. There was no point in using it because she had the forest to guide her before.

She looked at what she had right now. 2 water cans that were somewhat full, a compass, bow, arrows, and a knife. It wouldn't be enough water to last for a full day of walking.

"I could ask Billy for some water. But, if what Billy and this man said was true, then that means that the Adalis and the human with her are the ones who attacked his father and this village."

There was a chance that if she told Billy where she was going he would follow her. She doesn't want that to happen. It seems like a problem waiting to happen if she brings them to her.

Grace ran with full speed to where the Adalis could be without letting anyone else know.

Meanwhile…

Two men who were riding on top of camels were exhausted from the heat. These two were scouts sent by Jim to look for the rumours water source. They had umbrellas, wore nothing but shorts, and had sunglasses.

"I'm starting to think this is bogus. Why would grass suddenly show up out of nowhere?"

One of them started to complain.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you said the word 'bogus' besides we have no choice, this is the boss's orders. We're lucky he gave us 3 days worth of water and food. And we're lucky to have tamed these camels on the way."

"Ugh, if only we had checked thoroughly before, we wouldn't have had to travel back here again."

Then, both of their camels stopped abruptly.

"Hey, stupid camels, why'd you… stop…"

One of the scouts noticed that the ground looked greener. He took off his glasses and saw patches of grass.

"Grass? So it was true."

"HALLELUJAH! WHERE'S THE FUCKING WATER?!"

"Race you to it." They both got off their camels and ran full speed to where they seemed to have more grass.

"Wait, what is that?" One of them pointed.

Meanwhile…

Adaline, who was sleeping near the trees sensed something eating and stepping on her grass. She immediately called for Will and Arbor.

Will was mining peacefully before two vines crept up on him and shook him.

"HOLY! I thought that was a snake." Not expecting that it spooked him. He still ran outside to see why Adaline called him.

"What's wrong?" Will asked. She pointed outside the stone wall using her roots. Arbor was already on top of the stone walls keeping a lookout.

"Over there." Arbor pointed.

"What?" Will did not understand what he said, but understood why he pointed there. Something was nearby.

He took out his handgun and looked out the walls. On the far side he saw two distinct figures running towards him.

"They could be dangerous. Hand me my swords." Arbor stretched his arm out to him. Despite looking everywhere he could not find his swords. Will kept them inside a chest with him at all times.

"No." Will understood what he meant when he stretched his arm towards him.

"This'll be a good time to test out my newest weapons."

He took out from a nearby chest 2 weapons.

{Iron long-barrel rifle}

{Damage: 170-190}

{Keen eye: raises your accuracy}

Will wished he could add a scope to this weapon, but he didn't have the materials to make one.

{Iron assault rifle}

{90-110 damage}

{bullet saving: 5% chance per shot that you don't waste a bullet} (It's like he has a 5% chance that he can save up a bullet per shot. For example, he has 40 bullets in a magazine round, he can shoot more than 40 bullets using the same magazine, it's like having more bullets without wasting more bullets}

He's been practicing with these weapons almost for a month.

Will kept those guns by his side, he waited for those two men to get closer. If they were merely travelling here he would find nothing wrong with that. But, if they were Jim's scouts, he's gonna have to kill them.

Arbor kept a close eye on them. Even without his weapons he can still take them out using his hands.

Adaline hid inside a stone house that Will built for her not too long ago.

"What? Who are you?" One of the scouts asked, they didn't expect to see stone walls here much less people.

"I would like to ask you two the same question. Why are you two here?" Will gripped onto a handgun that was on his back.

The scouts looked at each other.

"We come from a village. Our people are in need of help. We just want to know if there is water here."

Will gripped onto his gun tighter. There is only one village nearby, and that same village needed a lot of help, especially water.

He planned on giving them some water before, but that thought was quickly thrown out after they tried taking Adaline from him. Now they could all rot in hell for all he cared.

Arbor noticed Will's behavior change. Something about those two made him angry.

"Do you two know of a man named Jim?" Asked Will.

"Of course we do. He sent us here because he heard that there was water here."

"He knows! How?" Will was confused. How can word spread that he has water when the only ones here were Adaline, Arbor and him.

Unless Arbor told someone about it, but that did not seem possible. He doesn't know English, and he was at death's door when Will found him.

Will closed his eyes tightly and hit the stone wall with his other hand as realization struck him.

"The grass. I should have known." Having fresh grass grow is what possibly gave it out. Someone must've seen the grass and told Jim.

It's not like he could've hid it for long. If no one saw the grass they could've possibly spotted the stone walls he built.

"Wait, doesn't he look a bit familiar?" One of the scouts said as he looked at Will.

"Adaline, now!" Will screamed not because he heard them, but because now they knew about this place. If they go back and tell Jim about this place, he'll bring everyone here to raid the place.

Adaline used her roots to impale the two men's feet.

"Son of a-"

Now both of them knew who it was in front of them, the same one who attacked them a month ago, the one who had the rare organic creature.

Will took out his assault rifle and started blasting at them.

"Run!" They said but their feet were impaled by thick roots, making their ability to run difficult.

Arbor was immediately shocked. What the hell did they say that made Will shoot them?

But Will unleashed a hail of bullets. Not long after did they both die.

Will saw two corpses in front of him. He took out his assault rifle and shot them both.

"Double tap."

Arbor stayed back and did nothing. He never would've thought that Will had this kind of side.

Arbor looked at Adaline and she trembled in fear.

"What's wrong?" He comforted her. He had never seen her this scared.

Guns did not scare her because Will practiced with them every day.

Now that he thought about it, she was scared as soon as those men arrived.

"Did something happen? Did those humans harm you?"

Adaline nodded.

Arbor clenched his fist. He didn't know exactly what happened, but something terrible must've happened to cause Adaline to shake in fear from their presence alone.

Adaline was like a daughter to him, and any dad who sees her daughter getting hurt by someone will always get angry and act.

"I wish I'd know what they did to you, so I can pay them back 100 fold."

He patted her on her head and she felt somewhat relieved now.

Will went to check what the men had on their person. He knew they were dead because their hp dropped to 0.

He thought that killing those two was going to be difficult, but it was easy, barely an inconvenience.

They had some water which was useless to Will. They carried some dried out food which was probably the best thing ever. A pair of sunglasses but thanks to him it was now just pieces of glass, but he kept those anyway.

And lastly 2 smooth stones and some ink and quills.

{Communication stone}

{Used to communicate with someone else holding another communication stone}

"So something like this does exist." Will most likely guessed that these communication stones were a way to communicate with Jim from far away.

He also unlocked how to craft communication stones, ink, quills, and even sunglasses.

Will had no idea what to do with these corpses. He dug a hole on the ground and dumped them there after covering it up. Nobody besides him will know where the bodies are buried.

Will noticed a pair of camels calmly eating grass.

His eyes shined immediately, those camels to him looked like food. Honestly he's willing to eat anything that isn't grass at this point.

He smiled as he went inside his base to craft something important to catch those camels.

Seeing Arbor comfort Adaline made him feel warm. Maybe he could trust Arbor just a little bit.