Secret hole

With a map on hand Will continued to fly even after the sun rose. The map is empty, but it is a map from the exclusive crafts section. The map filled itself wherever the map was.

'I am used to playing games days at a time with no sleep. This much is nothing to me.' Will chuckled. Even before his death, he made several challenges on youtube to clear minecraft in VR, hardcore mode without sleeping. None of which were ever successful.

'Now that I remember, I don't have insomnia anymore. Which is great.'

Will suffered from an extreme case of insomnia. It got worse after Alex died, to the point where he sometimes couldn't tell between his dreams or reality.

Morning rose, and Will was feeling tired already. Flying did not take any stamina. He was just tired mentally.

'I'm bored. It's boring flying without doing anything else. Not as fun compared to when I played video games.'

Will decided to sleep for now. He had underestimated how tired he was.

This made him feel old. When he was a kid he could stay up playing games all night without feeling tired at all.

He flew down a thick forest. Pulled out an ax from his chest and cut down a few trees to make a small shack, it was well protected as it had no doors. No way in and no way out. This way he wouldn't have to worry about monsters sneaking up on him, such as goblins.

Should any monster approach him, he believes the wooden shack will give him enough time to cut a hole and escape through the roof by flying.

Will had not noticed, but his building skills have improved since the beginning. Before he wouldn't have been able to construct an intact building like a little shack, not to mention in such a short amount of time.

"This seems comfy enough." Will laid on the ground with no bed. He didn't bring a bed, because if he sleeps on another bed his respawn point will be reset. The same goes should his bed be destroyed or misplaced.

Which is why before he left, he had slept in a secret room with a bed in it, he made it a long time ago, it was his original room where he wouldn't worry about his respawn point being destroyed. Should his bed be destroyed, and should he die before he can sleep in a new one to set up a respawn point, he will be teleported to god knows where.

As he was scrolling through the brown book, looking at all the items he could craft, Will fell asleep.

No longer than three hours had passed. While he was sleeping, several figures approached him quietly, barely making a sound like ninjas.

These figures are elves.

Will did fly north, where the Empire is. But Will unfortunately stopped near the edge of the forest.

There are several elven villages near the center of Lea's forest, some of which are near the edge of the forest. The center of Lea's forest is where elves like Silvas, Grace, and Arbor live. These small elven villages live near the edge of the forest for one reason only, to kill humans.

These elves lost the protection of the forest, most of which were forced by humans to eat meat and therefore lost their ultimate protection, it's some sort of pleasure that humans get off of. But some elves gave in to their desires to eat the delicious food known as 'meat.'

Some are also half-human and half-elf, also known as halflings, who escaped from captivity. 95% of cases where a human and elf produce a halfling were cases of rape. These villages have a lot of beef with humans.

The remaining 5% are cases that are formed from love between human and elf. The chances of an elf and a human falling in love are very, very low, considering the two race's violent history with each other it is no surprise they hate each other.

"How many do you think there are?"

"Hard to tell. But not many can fit in that tiny little crap. At most 4 people are in there."

"I don't see any windows or doors. These humans are getting dumber and dumber."

The elves spoke amongst themselves in a low voice as to not alert the human(s) inside the wooden cube.

The number of elves is exactly 7. One scout saw Will's little shack. Upon seeing the obvious man made building he immediately ran out to gather others to help him kill the human or humans living inside.

They did not know the exact number of people inside the wooden shack, but they assumed the worst and prepared to face more than one human.

It did not matter the reason Will was here, they sought to kill him as they sought to kill any human wandering in the forest.

And the thought that Will was a hero did not cross their minds. First reason: this generation's heroes are useless, cowardly, and they are staying cooped up in the kingdom.

Second reason: what are the chances that they would stumble on a hero? Most elves, despite living for hundreds of years, have never met a hero. The few elves who have met, killed, or died by the hero's hands are low.

The seven elves drew their enchanted bow strings with enchanted arrows tipped with metal-grass. Metal-grass tipped arrows with enchantments can easily break through steel with ease.

"On my mark release your arrows. Make sure none of them make it out alive. 3, 2,1… go!"

The elves released their arrows.

The arrows broke easily through the walls like breaking through butter with a hot knife. A few arrows made direct contact with Will's body, one on his face, and 2 on his torso.

*Dink* *Dink* *Dink*

The arrows bounced off of Will's armor, not leaving a single scratch.

The arrows could indeed pierce through steel. Dragon scales are not only tougher, but the enchants Will had applied to his armor made it nearly impossible for any weapon to break it.

"What? Where am… oh, right." Will woke up. The sound woke him up, not the impact of the arrows that hit his armor.

"What was that? And why are there holes in my walls and why are there… arrows?" Will looked at the arrows on the ground. He picked one up and examined it. Being sleepy made him not able to think straight.

{Elven arrow (grass-metal tipped}

{Enchantment: Penetrating I}

*Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink*

More arrows hit his armor and ricochet like it was nothing.

"Elves… oh, god elves are attacking me. Why?" Will wasn't worried. He has died many times, dying again didn't seem like a big deal anymore.

And right now he was more confused than anything. Why are elves attacking him? He's friends with Arbor, and Grace, the son and granddaughter of the king of the elves.

*Dink* *Dink*

"Okay, that's getting annoying."

Will remembered the deep grudge that the elves and humans have. A while ago Will died because an elf shot him in the head when he took off his armor. Since then he's developed a habit of always wearing armor. And that also showed him that some elves don't care if humans have connections with elves, they will still kill humans.

"Are they dead?" An elf asked another elf.

"I don't know"

"Just keep shooting at the wooden box. Better safe than sorry."

As they prepared to release another volley of arrows, they saw a hole appear on the side of the wooden shack, and a person came out of the shack.

"What the hell is the big idea here?" Will asked.

"Are those… dragon scales he's wearing?" The elf said.

"I think so. Either way, kill him."

The elves released their arrows at Will. They wouldn't bother communicating with Will because they hated humans, and none of them know human tongue.

*Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink*

Will stood in place and took the arrows like it was nothing.

"Why… you shooting… me wit arrows." Will spoke up in elven tongue, but not very well.

The elves were stunned that he could speak elven tongue, but that only made them angrier. Why would a human want to speak elven tongue?

They couldn't think of any good reason. All they knew is that he must have ulterior motives to speak and learn elven tongue.

In reality Will was learning elven tongue when he could because he thought it would help him out. Not in this case.

"Kill him!"

'Did he just say to kill me?' Will thought. He knew he couldn't speak elven tongue properly, but they didn't even want to give him a chance to communicate with him.

*Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink* *Dink*

'...If they can see that arrows don't work on me, why bother keep trying?' Will thought.

"Arrows are not working. What do we do?"

"Keep shooting. Just kill him."

*BANG*

A shot rang out, and a bullet grazed one of the elf's face.

Will shot a normal bullet.

'Oops, I meant to hit the tree but grazed his face. Ah whatever.'

The reason why Will didn't want to kill them, even though he wanted to was because of their Goddess, Lea.

He has heard from not only Grace, but also from Sandra, Jack, Jasmine, basically almost everybody said that there is a Goddess who protects elves when they're in her forest. Even past heroes have died from her hands.

Will has never seen the Goddess in action. But seeing what Adaline could do with nature, he could only imagine the power their Goddess must possess.

Was he worried about dying? No. He's worried about having to respawn back on his bed, craft new items like his armor, and fly all the way back here again and therefor losing all the progress he had made. That would be annoying.

"Dad!" An elf, the same who called the other elves, ran up to his dad who had been grazed.

"I'm okay."

"That was… warning… shoot again… and die…" Will warned them terribly in elven tongue.

"I think he said that was a warning-"

"We know! We heard! We can piece that together, Grass."

Yes, the elf's name is Grass, short for Grassy.

"Arrows may not work. But something has to. Retreat, for now. We will gather reinforcements. We must not let this man live."

The elves jumped back from the branches that they stood on.

Will saw the elves leave. Thanks to his mask, which has an enchantment that enhances his eyesight, he could see that the elves are really retreating.

"I hope they don't come back. If their Goddess kills me that'll be a pain in the ass."

In a second, Will sprouted his wings and continued to fly towards the Empire again.

Meanwhile…

Sandra read the note Will had left her by their bed.

"Sandra, I gotta leave for now. I will be back soon. I don't know how long it'll take but it shouldn't be more than 2 weeks or something like that. If something happens contact me with the communication stone and I will rush back there immediately. And also take care of Adaline. She doesn't have anyone else for the moment."

Sandra placed the note down and chuckled to herself.

Sandra finished her morning ritual which was mostly washing herself.

Seeing Adaline was asleep, Sandra ran inside the throne room, placed the golden crown on her head. It was a crown made of diamonds, covered with gold, and on top placed with several rare gems with even more diamonds. She had no idea how Will made the crown, and he only made it for fun.

At this point in time she would be helping out the people outside, mingling and trading with them. But for now she just wanted time for herself.

She took a broom and held it like a guitar.

"Well… guess there is only one thing left to do."

She used her hero ability to conjure a fog of people. Sandra's ability lets her produce smoke and use it as a smoke screen. It may not seem like an amazing or powerful ability, and she was fine with that. One day she started to practice her hero ability and found out that she could manipulate smoke easily.

She can use the smoke to make people, items, anything that she could think of in the form of smoke. To her it's still a terrible ability since it's nothing but odorless smoke.

The people made of smoke, which almost looked like Will, and her parents, started clapping for her in rhythm but they didn't make any sound since they're nothing but smoke.

"There lived a certain man in Russia long ago…"

She then began singing songs she could remember which include: Rockefeller street, it has to be this way(metal gear) Rasputin, Queen, and others.

For the longest time she has always wanted to sing in a big building all to herself. It might seem strange but it's something she's been trying to do for nearly a month. The building that Will and her built was perfect.

And by the end of the day, after having the best fun of her life alone, she ends up with her in a bikini floating on the pool.

"I love my life." Sandra smiled as she began humming to herself, enjoying her life to the fullest. After working for so long she believes she deserves a break from everything.

"Hm?"

Sandra noticed Adaline floating alongside her in the pool. Both very much enjoyed the pool.

"Hi."

Adaline turned to face her for a second before pretending she doesn't exist.

Sandra believes she is good with people, but intelligent animals like Adaline she finds it hard to communicate with, and also awkward at times especially when Will wasn't around.

Sandra's eyes kept wandering around Will's secret man cave. She knew he had many secrets, secrets that he could not share even with her. She understood because if he tells her, and the Great Sage reads her mind, he'll know whatever secrets he has.

Sandra believes that the Great Sage wouldn't care. But what if Will has a secret that if the Great Sage hears about it, he might actually do something.

She really wanted to know, to help out and understand Will.

Meanwhile…

8 hours had gone by. Will flew nonstop, not even to eat. The forest is vast, and everywhere he flew there was nothing but forest. Will was afraid that if he stopped to rest some elves might attack him again and he might have no choice but to fight back, and in doing so it'll incur the wrath of their Goddess.

In reality he could have gone around the forest, saved himself the trouble. But if he did he would have wasted so much time and it would take him 2-3 days to reach the Empire.

"I feel old now and I'm only 21 years old. God I miss my childhood." Will thought of the wonderful times of his childhood, back when he was dumber, more immature, had his video games, had no worries about anything, when there was no COVID, and no elves or other mythical creatures trying to kill you.

"No, now's not the time to think about the past. Now where am I?" Will looked at the map. It was originally an empty map that he made from the crafting system, the map fills itself whenever Will travels with it in his hand.

So far on the left part of his map was his amazing castle. On the bottom was the Kingdom's even greater and vast castle. And in the middle was nothing but forest. The right was empty because even though he had accidentally gone to the Black Mountains once, he forgot to hold his map.

Right now he could see that the top part of the map was almost complete. Somewhere in the North is the Empire.

"Wish coordinates were a thing in this world. Would save me time and trouble." With no other choice left, Will began to fly around the area in search of the Empire.

And by some work of fate, Will somehow found a way to find the Empire…

Meanwhile…

The Empress, Valerie, was leading her men to fight the giant ogres that were causing problems for her people.

It ended in a smooth fight with minimal casualties, 2 dead, 11 wounded, and over 200 men still alive.

For the ogres side were 12 small ogres which are on the third layer, the weakest layer for ogres, 8 ogres on the second layer, and 2 ogres on the Apex layer,

The Empress held a cloth to her forehead to wipe the sweat. The people around her were sitting on the ground taking a small break, while others kept watch.

"Make sure those who were killed that their families are compensated and don't pay taxes." The Empress said to her friend.

"Yes, ma'am, like always. But your arm… that was way too close this time." Veronica pointed at Valerie's left arm.

Valerie wore the same armor as all her men. It was enchanted, light chainmail armor. It covered their entire bodies. It was great for taking down huge monsters since it doesn't weigh much, and could protect them from an ogre;s monstrous strength once or twice.

While the armor could protect its wearer, the impact from an ogre would shatter their bodies.

Part of Valerie's armor around her arm had been bitten off and devoured by an ogre armor and all, this sometimes happens when people fight in the front lines.

"It's nothing new. Luckily we brought regeneration pills with us and it's good as new. Well mostly." Valerie saw a barely noticeable scar around the area where her arm had been bitten off.

Since the Empire is known for their wealth, it is no secret that they have rare healing medicine such as regenerating pills.

"I mean I know you sacrificed your arm to push away someone else to safety, but if you die we all wouldn't know what to do without you."

"I'll be more careful from now on."

"That's what you said last week when you led your men to fight that dragon."

"And I was careful. I only got a burn on my leg, sure, but it was nothing since it got healed."

"But still-"

Veronica saw her and Valerie's communication stone light up.

"Valerie, our men brought the first batch of guns you traded for with the hero." Veronica said.

"Good. And also it looks like we got a special guest. He came here way faster than I thought. Let's head back home." She was obviously referring to Will.

Valerie read the message that Will sent her telling her that he had arrived. It was very surprising how Will was able to arrive at the Empire so fast.

As Will was flying around, he saw and followed this dirt path that led him to these men in a carriage that were delivering the weapons that he traded nearly 2 weeks ago. Apparently they still hadn't made it to the Empire yet.

They recognized Will because they had heard from their friends that they met a hero who wears dragon scale armor and can fly. It wasn't hard to tell that the one in front of them is the same one.

Will hitched a ride with these men and they brought him straight to the Empire.

Will saw the majestic walls made of some sort of stone but also had some iron in it to make it more durable. The walls were not nearly as tall as compared to his own kingdom, but they stretched out more covering more land.

'Adding iron to the walls. Damn that's a good idea, and I have a ton of iron to spare.' Will thought.

Before they could cross the Empire's gates, they were stopped by two men covered heavily in enchanted armor with enchanted spears, swords, and guns in hand.

"Sorry, we cannot let you in. We did say we can only bring you up to the gates but that's it." One of the riders in the cart said. He promised to bring Will to the Empire and he did. Without the Empress's permission he is not allowed in.

It was the same with the kingdom. People cannot just waltz inside anytime they want. They could be carrying weapons or explosions that could cause so much destruction.

The Empire however was stricter, without the Empress's personal approval nobody could be let inside, and yes only she could give permission to others.

This rule was implied because the Empress is afraid that one of her men in high ranking places would be corrupted and knowingly let in dangerous people.

"I understand. I'll wait till she gets here." Will said. Even if he showed him the Empress's communication stone he realized how easy it is to fake it. The Empress doesn't give out special permission tokens like the King or Great Sage does because there are so many ways that it can be faked or stolen.

Even the guards don't carry a communication stone because the Empress knows that if her communication stone is taken, and someone pretends to be her on the other side, terrible things could happen.

These methods she implies are slower but safer in her opinion.

The wooden cart entered the Empire after the two guards carefully searched for anything out of the ordinary,

"So… is it okay if I just stay here?" Will asked.

The two guards didn't say anything or move from their spot. They were like those British soldiers with the long puffy hats, that couldn't speak or move.

"Okay… where's the bathroom?"

One of the guards moved his hand and pointed at the gates. The bathroom was inside.

"Got it… I am just going to take a shit in the forest. Be right back."

Will began walking away from the Empire with the two guards glaring at him.

The area around the Empire was mostly plain grasslands. The forest was just 10 minutes away by foot from the Empire. They cleared out the trees nearby so monsters couldn't use trees as cover or weapons. Ogres sometimes like to throw trees and launch them like catapults.

Once he was out of their sights and entered the forest, Will made a hole with such speed using a pickaxe. He made a tiny room underground using wood. It took him less than 10 minutes to build it.

Upon finishing the room, he placed the Waystone.

"Finally." Will sighed in relief. With the waystone here he could teleport back or forth to any other waystones he placed. Now he didn't need to worry about having to start over.

He carefully covered the entrance of the hole with dirt.

"I just have to remember where I placed the hole." Will looked around and it was nothing but forest. Everywhere looked nearly identical to him. Even his map could not tell him where the hole was. It only showed him everything as if he was watching from above.

As he was thinking, he failed to notice a few miscreants prowling behind him, Goblins.

These goblins always hide in the forest to kill small animals for food, or kill humans and elves if they come across one. While a few were hunting for food, they saw Will standing there like a complete idiot.

Without wasting time, one goblin jumped high with a stone dagger in his hand. The dagger hit the back side of Will's helmet, but the stone dagger's tip broke upon making contact with Will's stone dagger.

"What the hell was that? Goblins?" Will turned when he felt something push him from the back of his head.

He saw 4 goblins, one with a broken stone dagger, two with mini bows and arrows, and another one with a blow pipe.

"You're dead."

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Will shot them all in the head. After shooting the first one the others ran, but Will wasted no time and shot them all fast before they could take cover.

"These goblins will be perfect for Adaline. It's not nearly enough but I'll find some more later." Will stuffed their bodies in a chest.

Will looked at one of the goblin's arrows. It was tipped with poison.

"This brings back awful memories. Then again it's because of these guys that I met Adaline."

When Will first encountered goblins they shot him with a poison arrow and nearly died. Then he later made a trap for goblins, and thanks to their dead bodies a very hungry Adaline came out of nowhere to feed on their bodies, and that is how they met.

Will took the arrow and jammed it into the tree, and also scattered their weapons around the hole. He left their weapons that way if he comes back he'll remember where it is.

"That'll do it." Will headed back to the Empire, taking mental notes on how to come back to the secret hole.