"Sometimes you have to pick the gun up, to put the Gun down [for good]."
― Malcom X
-To War by Jingo-
-New World, Same Sins: Chapter 3-
The early morning found the Gun Hero and his party preparing for an expedition. They had just finished a basic strategy meeting, detailing some basic adjustments to formations, courtesy of Weiss' report, the monster's known in the dungeon they would be exploring, and some basic rules. Will's rules were simple: everyone needed at least two minor healing potions, and a medium grade one in case of emergency. Everyone also needed a backup weapon in case something happened to their main one, it didn't have to be anything fancy, even a simple knife would do, but have something in case things go south. The group would not leave, until every last person met those requirements
They had purchased an additional bag to help carry supplies, but instead of being for loot, this one was stocked with bandages, water, some basic rations, and some other miscellaneous supplies.
Three knocks interrupted their preparations.
Slightly annoyed, William walked over to the door and opened it to reveal, of all things, a royal guard.
"Sir Bow Hero!" The man said with a salute.
"Yea? Whaddya' want?" The Hero said with a glare.
"I've been instructed to inform you that you are being requested at the castle!"
"What for?"
"The Shield Hero has committed a terrible crime, and a trial is taking place at the Throne room!"
Will blinked. "Did he kill someone?"
"W-What? No, bu-"
"Then piss off, I don't really care."
"Look," he sighed, seeing the dumbfounded look on the guard's face "Back in my world, diplomats would have something called 'Diplomatic Immunity' where they couldn't be charged with any crime by the country they were visiting, this is because there are lots of differences in culture and laws when you travel between countries. It's very common that people from other countries will break small laws like loitering, or traffic violations, by complete accident, because it was legal where they were from."
"In fact, I actually expected something like this to happen" He said to the guard's shock "And I've been expecting it since I read that this kingdom didn't have that system set up. And think, if the laws between countries vary so widely, just imagine the difference between alternate worlds." He nodded, "So yea, I'm not really interested in your trial."
"B-But it wasn't a small law the Shield Hero broke!" The guard stammered, as the Hero tried to close the door.
"Was he Driving while Intoxicated, and/or under the influence of Illegal drugs?"
"Wha- Driving?"
"Answer th' damn question."
"No, that wasn't what he did! He-"
"Larceny? Did he violate liquor regulation laws? Abuse offenses against family and children?"
"No, the Shield-"
"Burglary? Vandalism? Tax Fraud? Weapon violations? How 'bout forgery and counterfeiting?"
"NO! You're not listening!"
"You're right! I ain't," Will smiled "I just listed off the most common felony charges that occur every year back where I'm from, and if it ain't one a' those, then it's most likely what I said earlier. Just a cultural law that you- a native, care deeply for, but I, a foreigner to this world, really don't!"
"Wait! Bow Hero, please!
"My party and I have a real busy day 'head of us, and you've managed to set us behind a whole good ten minutes, so hav' a good day, but I'll be takin ma' leave now."
And with a slam of the door, and a click of a lock, the Guard was stuck outside.
And unknowingly, William had just helped shift the course a certain Hero would take, the country with him, and the world with it.
The royalty, and most of the Nobility, were biased against the Shield Hero, and the church had helped Myne set the whole thing up. Meaning that the only people, at all, who Naofumi could plead to, were his fellow heroes. Only three people out of an entire gallery's worth.
But Myne had Motoyasu wrapped around her finger, William wasn't even in attendance, and Ren was a loner who didn't play well with others.
… The less said about the trial's verdict, the better.
-To War by Jingo-
"RWAAAARG!"
With a terrible roar, the monster threw itself at a nearby wall, before quickly jumping from there to the ceiling, then to another wall, then to the floor, then back to the ceiling.
Faster, faster! It was everywhere. Faster, faster! It's prey was surrounded. Faster, faster! It's prey was confused. Faster, faster! It's prey was scared. Faster, faster! It's prey was PREY!
Once it had reached maximum velocity, it jettisoned itself at its unfortunate target, it's wicked maw opened wide to tear it's victim in hal-
William scoffed as the large black balloon impaled itself on his bayonet before popping like, well, like a balloon.
They were on the fifth floor of the Verusha Dungeon, a dungeon more than a few levels higher than they were, but his info had been right, and the monster numbers hadn't recovered yet, meaning they were able to progress with minimum issue. Fighting high level mobs when they were swarming you from all directions was one thing, fighting them when you outnumbered them and had room to use decent flanking tactics, was a completely different story.
And so his party was able to repeatedly separate, encircle, and eliminate high level monster after high level monster, earning quite a hefty amount of XP every time they did so.
Surprisingly what had given them the most trouble wasn't higher level enemies like the Spike Crabs, Dark Spirits, and Mega Slugs, it was all the fucking black balloons!
Fast, bouncy, the size of a large watermelon, and able to blend in with the shadows, they would come flying out of nowhere while everyone was focusing on another enemy, and because their party was under leveled, the balloons actually did a decent chunk of damage. And speaking of damage-
"WAHSSsss…"
The cries of the Dark Spirit they had encircled died off in a whimper, the semi-solid black miasma that made up it's form, breaking apart and flowing past the two swords, and the spear that had been propping the dying body up. It splattered to the ground in thick drops before evaporating, leaving only a few black stains behind.
[!Level Up!]
[Level 10]
Attack: up1
Defense: up 4
Magic Attack: up 2
Magic Defense: up 3
Agility: up1
HP: up 7
MP: up 12
The entrepreneur couldn't help the smug smile he had on his face, as the bountiful fruits of working smarter instead of harder, made themselves known.
Normally when you killed mob after mob, the XP they gave would become less and less valuable as you leveled up, needing an ever increasing amount to level up again. But because they were gradually progressing down the dungeon levels, where the Mob levels increased as they went, the XP ratio had stayed more or less consistent throughout their expedition.
And considering that the 'ratio' they were receiving per kill was more akin to a mini-boss than that of a normal mob, they were making great headway.
"I reached Level Ten!?" Tanya exclaimed, with a shriek, at her own notification "In two days! I can't believe this!"
William couldn't believe it either, but he wasn't talking about her level, the girl's stats were insane. From what he had read, every person in this world gained stats differently as they leveled up. It was partially determined by class, sure, but some people naturally gained more base Agility than others, they were just naturally fast- the same was true for every stat. This often led to people selecting classes and roles that best suit them.
But Tanya, specifically the rate she was gaining Attack and Magic Attack, was something else. Her natural skill in those categories, on top of the Legendary weapon's slight stat modifier, made it a guarantee she'd be an absolute terror when she reached a high level.
Speaking of Tanya, she'd been giving him weird looks since last night, occasionally shuddering and sending a nervous yet excited grin at him, like she was expecting him to do something insane. And this coming from someone who only really cared about getting stronger, he was a little concerned.
"Sir, we've cleared the area." Weiss walked towards him, flicking his blade clean of black gunk.
Then again, Weiss' stats were still busted too, but he gave off one of those confident old teacher auras of 'I'm uber wise, so of course I'm strong, what did you expect?' so it wasn't something Will was too surprised about.
...although these were combatants that the crown had personally selected to accompany the Heroes to save the world, maybe he shouldn't be that surprised that some of them were this powerful.
But it wasn't like his allies being strong was a bad thing, if anything he needed all of them to be BS strong, especially if he was going to pull off his plan.
William sneered as he was reminded of a certain group of people.
The royal family, and most of the nobility, had to die. There was no other option.
The most basic lesson of economics is that supply will be made to meet a demand, by nature of profit seeking. The nobility of this kingdom were in deep with demihuman and even some human slavery, it didn't matter if he went around and busted every slave dealer in the kingdom, if the nobles were willing to pay exuberant money to get slaves, people would go out and get slaves to sell them.
The royal family didn't 'technically' own any slaves themselves, they were too 'proper' for that. Instead they used indentured servitude, where workers would work their whole lives to pay off a debt that continued to rise indefinitely. They were treated better than traditional slaves, but they were still just that, slaves. Chains were chains, 'doesn't matter if they're made of rusted iron or polished gold.
And even if they hadn't owned slaves themselves, they still allowed it to be legal, and the king had spent his life pushing every anti-demi agenda he could.
The Church was another big problem, especially with how much influence it had, but he was the Bow Hero, which was one of their three apostles, so he might be able to work on them in a non-violent way. The whole reason they had gone off the deep end was that the previous Shield Hero had sided with Siltvelt, a demi-human country, in their war against Melromarc. The situation was made even worse when after the Shield was gone, Siltvelt started slipping into a Demi-supremacist country that fought another war with Melromarc.
So now they viewed Demi-Humans as an enemy to Melromarc, and the Shield as a race traitor.
Fanaticism based on actual logic and reasoning, was still something you could reason with… he hoped.
His plan was still in very early stages, but it consisted of luering all the important people in the nation to the capital via a royal ball or something similar, while the Heroes and their parties were out of the country (likely due to a false lead he would give them), and with all the strongest fighters in the country gone, he would have men block off all the exits of the palace, and do here what Lincoln had done in 1863.
He'd end slavery in this country, permanently, and with as many bullets as needed.
It doesn't matter how fancy the clothes they wear, slavers are still slavers.
"Good job everyone," He turned to his team "let's take a moment to rest, and then see if we can make the last push to clear out this floo-"
But that's the thing about life, just when you think you're on top of everything…
His sentence was cut off as the stone brick beneath then cracked, and split apart.
… It'll throw you a curveball, just to ruin your day.
The Bow Hero and his party screamed as the floor gave out, and they fell below.
-To War by Jingo-
"...ero...Sir He...ake up...re y...lright!?...IR BOW HERO!"
William's eyes snapped open, revealing the worried faces of his party, and a huge hole above him, easily over twenty feet, with the lights of the 5th floor's torches just barely visible at the very top. Sitting up and shaking his head, he quickly tried to take stock of the situation. The Room they were in obviously wasn't part of the dungeon, it was connected to the dungeon, through several hallways that lead to familiar stone bricks, but this room wasn't naturally part of the dungeon. If anything, the wooden support beams, and countless chips on the rock walls from pickaxe heads, lended to the idea that this had been dug out.
But by who?
Well, the answer was kind of obvious, after all they'd landed on one.
"Goblins?" Weiss asked himself, as he crouched down next to one such monster that had been crushed by the falling rocks. "What are Goblins doing here?"
"I don't know, and honestly I don't really care all too much." The Hero waved off a concerned Rushia, their healing Mage "We've just fallen down further into the Dungeon, potentially even to the bottom floor, the mobs that gather here are a higher level than we're prepared to deal with. We need to start looking for an escape route."
"And-" he took a deep breath, sniffing the air "-is that methane?"
He sighed when his party just tilted their heads at his question. "It's a flammable gas, Rushia, no fire magic."
"Yes Sir!"
He walked past his party, and towards one of the hallways, popping the lid off and quickly downing a minor health potion to replenish himself from the fall. But as he crept down it and peaked his head around the corner, the sight that greeted him wasn't what he expected.
Instead of high level mobs slowly roaming about, the hallway was filled with Goblins skittering about, dragging all sorts of materials around the dungeon, with more than a few larger Hobgoblins ordering them around.
'They're making a nest, they stumbled on the dungeon when the adventurers first cleared it, scampered to the bottom, and made a nest.' He thought to himself in awe.
This was both good and bad.
On one hand: There weren't too many Hobgoblins, and Goblins were much weaker than his party now, being around level 3-6.
On the other hand, there were so many of the little shits, that the plan for stealth was totally blown.
...At least it explained where the methane was coming from, cow shit released methane as it decomposed, and the Goblins had obviously been here awhile, and there were a lot of them...
Quietly walking back to his team, he briefly explained the situation to them, (exempting the part about Goblin poo), and brainstormed a plan on how to deal with this.
-To War by Jingo-
The Gun Hero walked boldly down the hallway, his party in tow, and rounded the corner, crossing his arms as he stared down over half a hundred Goblins, waiting for them to accept his challenge, and rush at him.
Or at least, that's what should have happened, instead he stood there looking like an idiot as none of the Goblins even bothered to look at him, far too absorbed in their jobs of carrying building supplies to notice him down the hallway.
After standing in silence for a few seconds, looking like a fool, he sighed before bringing up a hand to his mouth and giving a loud whistle, and a "Hey! Asshats!"
That got the monsters' attention, as they all turned towards him, their eyes widening as they realised an enemy had gotten deep into the nest without raising the alarm.
And as the monsters who had been stuck underground for at least a couple weeks had their eyes wide open in shock, Rushia, their mage, cast the brightest light spell she could. It wasn't an offensive spell by any means, and she wasn't even proficient in that type of magic, but the branch was close enough to fire magic that she could use at least some basic spells, but to the Goblins and their dark adjusted eyes, it was like a flashbang.
The enemy panicked, shielding their eyes and crying out in pain, Will's party charged forward, and chaos ensued.
Their attack went well enough at first, but as they fought their way through the hoard, the fight ground on, becoming more and more bloody, as more monsters were drawn to the sound of the combat.
The hero batted away a crudely made wooden spear, and landed a nasty kick to a goblin's side, sending it flying, his steel toed, hard leather boots making for as good a weapon as any when paired with sufficient force.
He deflected a sword swing with his gun, and thrusted his bayonet at the Hobgoblin who had attacked him, digging into its gut and causing it to cry in pain. But Hobgoblins were bigger and tougher than their normal Goblin kin, so it stayed standing… they were also a tad smarter too, being able to use actual tactics in battle.
Will heaved his weapon out of the Hobgoblin, and used the force to smash the butt of his rifle into the face of the one that had been sneaking up on him while his back was turned, breaking it's nose and knocking it down. Sidestepping a poorly aimed swing, he lightly tossed his gun in the air, grabbed it by its end and swung it like a baseball bat at the first Hobgoblin, crashing into its head and snapping it to the side at an odd angle.
The second Hobgoblin was just dragging itself up off the ground, clutching its nose with an angry expression, when it found itself looking down the barrel of his gun. It's expression stopped being much of an expression at all, a moment later.
Their party was being hard pressed against the seemingly endless swarm, as Goblins seemed to be climbing out of every nook and cranny. The only reasons they hadn't been overrun yet, was because of their forward momentum, which they were slowly losing, and their Mage.
Rushia was damn near useless for offense after she was banned from using Fire Magic down here, but her healing spells were still very much useful, being spammed whenever needed. They had also been using the flash bang technique at uneven intervals, to stun their enemies. Will would send a ping over the party interface, signaling Rushia to use the spell, and give the party a heads up to close their eyes. And because it was through the party system, the Goblins didn't have any way to know when they were going to use it, and shield their eyes.
There was also the liberal use of all the health pots in his party's bags but, I mean, that was just a given.
William spartan kicked a Goblin's head in, and ran through another of the little bastards with his bayonet, lifting it up and catapulting it at one of it's friends.
What? They were monsters, they didn't have human rights, also, brutal violence was a great way to break enemy morale.
A loud roar stalled all their fighting, everyone's heads whirling to where the noise had come from, looking down the Hallway with wide eyes. The Goblin's in awe, and his party in Terror.
Running at them, full speed, knocking Goblins out of the way as it went, was an Orc. 6 and a half feet tall, with leathery dark green skin, and crooked yellow canines for teeth, it was definitely an Orc. One with decent ramshackle armor, and a proper sword too… how fun.
Normally dealing with an Orc wouldn't be that bad, the things only being levels 15-20ish, the same level that they had been dealing with in the above floors, but fighting one when they could surround it and wear it down over time, was much easier than fighting in a swarm of Goblins that kept the group mostly divided.
If that thing reached them, it would be able to pick them off one at a time while the others were busy.
It would be a death sentence.
Giving a swift kick to the new Hobgoblin that had run up, to stagger the damn thing, William disengaged and hopped backwards between Weiss and Tanya for some room to maneuver.
He dropped the wooden shield he had picked up from a Goblin, absentmindedly noted that Tanya had swapped out her crossbow for her backup weapon (an iron shortsword) sometime during the fighting, shouldered his rifle, aimed…
And Fired.
CRACK! 40 damage
CRACK! 80 damage
CRACK! 120 damage
CRACK! 160 damage
CRACK! 200 damage
The damage stacked quickly, each shot slamming into the Orc's ugly face, each hurting more than the last. Until, with a yelp much less threatening than the roar it had started with, the Orc crashed to the stone floor, crushing an unfortunate Goblin under its weight.
…
All was quiet, everyone staring in shock.
And then, with most of their brethren brutally killed, and one of their strongest warriors defeated with ease, the Goblins panicked and ran, their morale completely broken.
The commanding Hobgoblins tried to stop the rout, but his party was quick to cut them down before they could succeed. And ten seconds of screaming later, his party was alone in the corridor, surrounded by the dead and dying green bodies.
[!Level Up!]
[Level 11]
Attack: up 2
Defense: up 3
Magic Attack: up 3
Magic Defense: up 2
Agility: up 2
HP: up 8
MP: up 10
He had leveled up enough times, and gained enough MP, that he could fire his gun 17 times, so using it in combat was actually a bit more viable, unfortunately he had used up 10 of those shots since entering the dungeon.
It took a good few seconds for William to realise everyone was staring at him.
"Th-That…" Tanya pointed at his gun in shock.
Meanwhile Will was just confused, they had seen him use it multiple times before, why were they so spooked all of a sudden?
"I can't believe it," Weiss walked towards him "That weapon, I thought it was just another weak replica, but it's the real deal. It's one of the ranged weapons the kingdom of Faubrey uses in its grand armies!"
'Faubrey?' The Hero cocked his head 'The country to the north? The one with a supposedly "undefeatable army"?'
"Please sir! Faubrey is incredibly secretive about how these weapons work, you must tell me where you got one!"
"Uhhhh, I brought it from my home world, I'll tell y'all the story later," He waved off Weiss with a sweatdrop "Let's focus on getting out of here for now."
-To War by Jingo-
"Stairs? Are you here?" William asked no one in particular as he quietly opened a large set of stone doors, the Hobgoblins that had been guarding it, dead before they could raise the alarm.
Peeping through the door revealed no stairs, actually it revealed exactly the opposite: what Will had been afraid of finding in this Goblin nest. In the middle of the room, sitting high on a throne cobbled together out of skulls, gold bars, and various other shiny trinkets, was a large, fat creature, with sickly pale skin, horribly messed up yellow teeth, and a large self made crown of shiny things.
It was a Troll, and not just any Troll, but a High Troll.
When Humans and Demihumans reach a certain level, they are able to class up to receive new stats and abilities. When monsters reached certain levels, they did the same thing, except instead of a 'class up' they evolved into a new form.
Goblins evolved into Hobgoblins, then into Orcs, and then into Ogres as their final form.
Trolls are a special evolution that occurs when a Hobgoblin with an abnormally high intelligence reaches the level to evolve into an Orc. Based solely on it's stats, Trolls were technically a mage class, and even after evolving into a High Troll, the creatures are actually quite weak in combat compared to Ogres. Unfortunately there was just one tiny thing that made Trolls incredibly dangerous.
They were extremely intelligent, and had the nasty habit of amassing huge numbers of Goblin's and such under them.
High Trolls were considered "Boss Monsters" by the guild, even though the System didn't classify them as such, just because of how dangerous these Mobs could be. Their intelligence allowed them to grow Goblin tribes to enormous sizes, planning out raids, and building proper defenses. Tribes that grew to such a size, would often contain not just Goblins and Hobgoblins, but also Orcs and even fearsome Ogres, that required high level adventurers to take down.
Hushed rumors spoke of enormous Goblin nests at the far reaches of the continent, where no Human since the previous Heroes was brave enough to venture. Nests spanning entire mountain ranges, their High Trolls accruing incredible power, potentially enough to unlock a hitherto unknown evolution.
Nests that were so large, even mighty Ogres were common sights.
One such beast sat behind the throne, with green skin so dark it was almost black, and a huge worn down greatsword on its back, playing personal guard of the nasty king.
The rest of the room was filled with countless Goblins, with a much higher ratio of Hobgoblins and even Orcs than Will was at all comfortable with.
Slowly closing the door, the party decided to move on, and continue looking for an exit.
-To War by Jingo-
Update: they had found the exit, a large set of stairs that spiraled up to the next level.'
Buuuut, they had also found a storage room.
"It looks like they've been attacking merchants as they come through, maybe even raiding nearby villages." Weiss sighed as he looked over the mess they were shifting through.
And his conclusion did seem likely, the storage room wasn't anything special, it was just a slightly larger normal room that the Goblins had taken to dumping stuff in. "Stuff" being used on purpose, as it was the best way to describe the array of items in the room. Most of the shiny things had been taken to the throne room and this was merely the leftovers.
Boxes full of leather, wooden trinkets, blankets, paintings, and countless other things, even piles of corroded coins that weren't "shiny enough" anymore. Some of it was worthless, others were valuable, the room was just filled with "stuff". "Stuff" that they were rummaging through and salvaging anything of value.
"My God!" Tanya cried, covering her mouth, her eyes wide in terror.
Drawing the attention of the party, everyone walked over to see what had spooked her, only to freeze as they saw it.
Will slowly reached down and gently it picked up with care. A shadow covered his face as he cradled it against his chest.
It was a small cotton doll in a pink dress… stained red with the blood of the little girl that had owned it.
William stared at the doll in silence, his thumb running over the side of its face.
…
"'Anyone here know wind magic?"
His party all looked at him in confusion.
"I asked if anyone here knows wind magic!"
"I-I know a little, b-but not enough for it to be of any use in combat." Tanya raised her hand, still shocked.
"Good… Rushia!"
"Y-Yes!?" The Mage stammered.
"If I remember our debriefing on everyone's skills correctly, you can cast delayed fire magic, right?"
"That's right," she nodded "But delayed magic only works with low level spells, high level ones are too unstable. So it's useless for combat purposes."
"That'll do jus' fine, don't worry 'bout it." The southerner hummed as the pieces clicked together in his head.
"'Right then," William turned to his party, an unreadable expression on his face "Now here's how this's gonna work…"
-To War by Jingo-
The High Troll sat on it's throne and smiled.
This new dungeon was turning out to be a perfect nesting place, for too long had his tribe been making camp in the caves that ran through the hills. They were so long and interconnected that they were a nightmare to properly defend, and trying to stay out of sight of all the adventurers that constantly went through there was a pain.
He couldn't kill too many, or else more would come looking for them, and if he killed the ones that kept coming to look, eventually they would realise a powerful monster lived in the caves, and send an army to kill him.
But if one saw the Troll, and he didn't kill them, then they would run back, tell everyone, and the same situation would happen. Big army sent to kill him.
When he found this place, he had originally tried to conquer it himself, with his tribe, but had failed. Then the humans had gone and done it for him! Now he could have his tribe dig and make the nest as big as they wanted, and by the time the Humans found out he was here, his tribe would be too well entrenched to drive out.
The king laughed to itself, before being distracted by the stone door scraping open.
A small, round rock flew in, skidding across the floor.
The King leaned closer to get a better view as the rock rolled into the middle of his throne room.
It flashed red as a basic magic symbol appeared on it, and the King's vision went white as the symbol created a small spark, igniting all the Methane in the air.
As the entire dungeon floor shook, William and his party held the doors closed from the other side with all their might, throwing all their strength against them to keep the stone slabs from flinging open. Meanwhile Tanya was blasting the petty amount of wind magic she knew with all her might, creating a small localised, harsh blow of wind that desperately fought to keep the Methane in the air outside of the door away, so that the entire dungeon didn't explode.
The moment the blast subsided, Will reeled back off the door, and kicked the thing with the heel of his boot, sending it flying open.
Inside was a sight to behold, nearly the entire room was charred black, small fires still burning all over the place. The vast majority of the swarming goblins had been fried to the crisp, and the few remaining survivors were sprawled about all around the room, dazed and confused at what just happened.
"Sick 'em!" William shouted as his soldiers charged forward.
"This ain't just a fight anymore, it's an EXTERMINATION!" His voice echoed around the room as he marched forward.
Cries of panic and pain filled the air, as his party fell upon the enemy. Dazed, confused, panicking, and badly wounded, even though they were higher levels, the surviving Orcs and Hobgoblins were no match for the adventurers as they brutally slaughtered their way through the once mighty hoard.
"We'll PURGE the world of this EVIL!" He sneered in livid anger as he brought his boot down on a Goblin's head, one who had just barely managed to survive the explosion.
"We'll show these VERMIN, the RIGHTEOUS FURY OF JUSTICE!" His eyes burned with a blazing fury as he marched up the steps of the throne.
The Ogre, mostly dead, it's dark skin mostly seared off to reveal burnt muscle and organs beneath, crashed down in front of him, opening its mouth to release a mighty roar cry- one that it never got the chance to make as William thrusted his gun into the roof of the creature's open mouth.
A bayonet stab straight to the brain, on top of-
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Six loud cracks rang out, and the Ogre's limp body fell to the side, now missing the top half of it's head.
Six of his seven remaining shots, leaving him dangerously low on ammunition, but that was fine… he only needed one.
The High Troll was cowering on its throne as he approached. It was disheveled, singed, and had lost its crown, but was mostly still in decent shape.
Will didn't know how the thing had survived, but he honestly didn't care.
It was already dead, it just didn't know it yet.
The Troll trembled as he watched the thing approach, it's face obscured by shadows, the only thing visible being dual eyes that burned with fury.
His Ogre had used itself to shield him mostly from the blast, and even then he had to use up all of his MP to form a shield strong enough to survive, so he couldn't use any of his spells or skills, which meant- if he wanted to survive, he had to get physical!
Grabbing it's staff with a desperate cry, the High Troll swung at the monster with all its strength, only to watch in horror as it ducked under his swing and thrusted it's spear upwards, impaling it into the king's neck.
Reaching its hands up to clutch its neck, the Troll gargled as it tried to breath through its own blood. It struggled to pull itself off the blade, but weakened and rapidly losing blood, it was unable to do so. With fading consciousness, this close to the monster's weapon, it realised something… why was the spear hollow?
And with an audible click, the Troll's vision went white.
…
..
.
William sighed as he watched the Troll crumple to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Whoever had said that revenge wasn't fulfilling was a liar, revenge was extraordinarily fulfilling. Being the 'bigger man' and letting injustices go unpunished, that was what was hollow. You just let the problem persist and eventually turn on someone else.
The relief and fulfilment of ending a problem before it could harm any more people would come later, he knew from experience, right now though he was just angry. Angry that someone hadn't killed this thing sooner, angry that it took him this long, angry that people had died because action wasn't taken sooner.
"Boss!"
Peering over his shoulder, he saw Weiss, and another knight walking towards him with Tanya in tow.
Held between the two melee fighters like a prisoner, was a battered Hobgoblin, tears streaming down it's face.
"Boss, this one was hiding in the corner, but when we went after it, it dropped it's weapon and surrendered…"
"I'z sorwy!" The little thing sobbed "I'z just folo' wat da boss sai, I'z no mean it! I-I pwomiz to be gud, jus pweze don' hur me!"
It was obvious that this was one of the rare Goblins born with the intelligence to become a Troll, just from the fact it could talk.
William held up his hand to cut off it's pleas and turned to Tanya who seemed unsure about the situation.
"Tanya, what type of operation did I say this was?" He asked, his voice clipped and cold, as if he was just barely able to keep ahold of his emotions enough to not slip into his accent "Back when we first entered the room."
"An 'extermination'?" She said uncertainly, trying to think back past the fading adrenaline.
"Exactly," He nodded, stepping back.
Tanya blinked for a moment, before her expression morphed to a predatory grin as she walked in front of the Hobgoblin and raised her crossbow, her mental register of the creature in front of her changing from 'captive?' to 'Free XP'.
And as the creature's sobs and desperate begging was cut off by a wet thunk, the Hero of the Bow walked off, his footsteps echoing in the dark, empty chamber.
[!Multiple Level Ups!]
-To War by Jingo-
William's party has returned back to the capital in high spirits, their loot from the Goblin's throne room selling for a small fortune, one that they had agreed to split in half, one part to divide between everyone, and the other to put in a 'party fund' of sorts. The fund was solely dedicated to future repairs, gear upgrades, expedition supplies, and anything that could help them in their quest to become stronger.
Everyone had gone their own ways, with orders to get some rest and sleep in tomorrow. After today, they were going to be taking tomorrow easy.
And really, what a day it was! William smiled as he glanced over his Status Magic, proudly displaying himself as level 14. He had overheard the Spear Heroes bragging to the Sword about being level 9 in the bar earlier, which meant that he was ahead of them by a decent margin.
This was good. It was what he needed to keep up if he wanted to properly execute his plan to end the injustices of this country.
His smile widened as he walked through the streets, he was making progress, and it was proof that he could eventually make a difference! Right now he was walking back from the market, his bag full of various new purchases. He had finished his registration at the adventurers guild, and had paid to put up advertisements on their billboard, he was looking to hire more members to his party, ones he could interview himself before accepting. After that, he swung by the market and bought several different carpenter's kits and a box worth of odd knickknacks like springs, gears, and such.
His idea was to see if he could fashion some form of prototype flintlock pistol that his gun could copy, it would obviously be of very poor quality, and wouldn't even have real bullets to shoot, but if he could get something that used less MP, he could increase the time he spent in combat, and the viability of his class.
His musings were interrupted as someone in a green cloak shoved their way past him.
"Hey! Watch where you're going ya'-!" Will turned around to yell at the guy and trailed off "Naofumi?"
And sure enough, under that green hood was the scowling face of the Shield Hero.
"Ya' look terrible, what the Hell happened to you?"
"As if you don't already know!" He sneered "I bet you were laughing from wherever you were hiding in the crowd!"
"Now hol' on one damn minute, Naofumi! What's goin' on? Why're ya-" The gunner froze, his hand half outstretched to reach for his fellow Hero, his eyes wide as he finally caught sight of the small form being tugged behind Naofumi's coat.
A small demi-human girl, covered in bruises, her skin sickly pale, and shivering from the cold… her eyes empty, as if she'd already accepted death.
William let his arm drop, staring after them as they rounded a corner. His hands clenched into fists as he forced himself to turn away and continue his walk home.
He was too weak, he wasn't strong enough to do anything yet.
But he had… he had adjustments to make to his plans.
"Use your head, not your fists, make a plan," William whispered to himself, repeating his father's words "Don't play by other people's rules, out-think the system, outplay everyone else, scam them all to hell and back without them even realising…"
He just had to take solace that he'd eventually be strong enough to put his plans into action… he had to.
-End Chapter-
Hopefully you're beginning to see how I've structured William to be a protagonist of this fic & someone who means well, but who can still act as a "Villain" to Naofumi's story. (A better "villain" than the cannon bow Hero is, at any rate.)
"The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions" is a famous quote for a good reason.
*sips Hot Chocolate*
Also, I love the suggestions, keep 'em coming! And please review! I read all of them!
-Next chapter: September 7th (ish)-
(This chap was pushed out early because I wanted to spend some time on another thing, so the 2 week update length is from the day it was scheduled to be posted)