Note: this chapter will be covering almost a month, but only showing the important parts, because I don't want to bore everyone with the writing and reading of bureaucratic paperwork.

"A leader is the man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it."

-Harry S. Truman

-To War by Jingo-

-Arc Start: Away Down South-

-Away Down South: Chapter 1-

It had been three days since they reached the city of Maria, and things had progressed rather smoothly, no summons to the capitol, no wanted posters, no royal knights marching into town after them. No one had any clue they were responsible for the raid, it had all gone perfectly.

It had all gone according to plan.

Once they were in the city, Will had used the Party fund to rent out an entire small Inn on the far side of town, to fit their large group of 25- even with everyone sharing, it was still 12 rooms they had to rent. Once they had secured a place to stay, they had begun the process of selling off all the merchandise they had stolen from Beloukas, every party member got a commission from how much they sold, which kept them competitive and appeased, while the bulk of the money earned went to Will.

This on top of his slice of the Goblin Nest loot, and all the money that they had taken from the slaver's business, meant he had a small fortune of money to his name. And oh boy, did he have plans for that money!

First thing he did was an overhaul on his clothes, now his old ones had been great and all, but they were civilian grade, and had gotten more than a little roughed up in his dungeon foray. But what to replace it with? He had considered standard adventuring gear, for durability and protection, but his mother's favorite saying had always been "dress for the Job you want, not the job you have", so he decided against it, because it was, well, gruntwear.

He wanted people to know he was important just at a glance, to know he was in charge immediately. He wanted an air of authority, of power. People should be impressed just by seeing him. They should be able to look at him and go "that's someone I want to follow", and while your standard knight in shining armor was a good look for that purpose, it wasn't really the type of leader he was. (And even if he wanted to go that route, Motoyasu had already stolen that shtick)

And because he didn't want to dress up in the heavy, stuffy outfits of medieval nobility and royalty (or even be associated with such), he had to do one of the things he did best- improvise.

His coat was something that people had begun to identify him by, so he had kept the premise of it. A dark charcoal longcoat hung down to his knees, with a pouched leather belt, and completed by gold buttons and golden trimmed neck & arm cuffs. Granted it wasn't real gold, no, it was actually something a tad more expensive. The gold 'trimmings' along the edges, were actually the layer of soul thread woven beneath the fabric. Magic thread was nice, because it was quite durable, easily enchantable, and the real selling point was that if it was made from your magic, it could repair itself by drawing from your MP.

And who knew, the color of his soul was apparently Gold.

Neat.

All together, the coat gave off an aura of prestige, intellect, and wealth.

Dark blue pants led down, and were tucked into the only part of his original outfit he had kept- his leather boots. He had kept them because A: turns out midevil shoes are uncomfortable as fuck, B: having steel toed shoes is actually pretty useful, and C: Cowboy.

He had also swapped out his hat, having had to draw out the design he wanted for the tailor, and pay extra for her to make it custom, because apparently they didn't have any equivalent in this world.

Wide rimmed, with a high crested crown, and made with sturdy, treated leather: awww yeah, he was bringin' back the cowboy hat.

Throw it all together, toss in some leather combat gloves, and you have an ensemble that gave off the authority that he was looking for.

It was pretty pricey, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to his next purchase: he was going to make himself nobility. Nobility in Melromarc was defined only by whether or not you owned land. And he was going to buy land, not 'own' the land like most farmers and such did, where they got to use the land in exchange for giving the lord/baron that actually owned the land a cut of their profit, be it in crops or money. He was actually aiming to own the deed of a plot of land.

It used to be that only the Royal family could own land, and they could give it to nobility to rule over in their name. The land would default back to the royals when the noble died, and their heir would have to swear loyalty to the crown for it to be 'gifted' back to them, thus keeping all the nobles under the royal family's control.

But a little over a century ago, a particularly benevolent queen passed several land reforms that allowed land to be purchased, and owned by anyone with the money to do so. Of course, Will questioned the "benevolence" of someone who only did this as a last resort to stop the full fledged peasant rebellion that was about to break out, and had deliberately rigged the reform so that it wouldn't really change anything.

The land would still go back to the crown when whoever bought it died, and the crown had put such a ludicrous price tag on it, that the only ones who could afford it were the nobility.

After all, what type of peasants had money?

...

And then the merchant class started to boom.

With the construction of new roads, trade both in Melromarc, and out to other countries, began to flourish, merchant families started growing their business, and started getting richer, and richer. and richer.

So when the Nobility amassed the influence to force the crown to drop the 'return upon death' clause, who were the first people to line up at the door?

The merchants.

Commoners.

These were the people who founded the city of Maria, and these were the people he was looking to get some deals in with.

These "Merchant Lords" as the pureblood nobles had taken to calling them, had decent control over the trade in Melromarc, and had banded together to form a semi loose "anti-nobility" faction, that sought to push more rights into the hands of the common folk, so that they could finally be equal to the old nobles.

And if he was going to buy land off the road from Maria, it was these guys he'd have to talk to.

But luck seemed to be on his side for once, and Markus, the guy who owned the land the city was built on, was actually a pretty cool fellow!

Will was worried he'd get a stuck up asshole, that tried to intimidate the old nobility to be like them, but surprisingly no. Instead he got a guy who liked to golf, enjoyed talking about the lumber industry, favored the taste of rum, and loved to show off paintings of the dog he had as a boy.

Will had gotten on pretty well with the portly old man, and their 45 minute meeting about Will buying land just off Matkus' property, was bleeding into the 3rd hour.

"It's a shame you Heros were summoned while the Queen was out of country," The merchant chuckled, and he took another swig from his large mug of rum, carved out of fine boreal wood, "Instead you had to deal with that limp dick of a king."

"Oh?" Will peaked up in interest, he'd read about the Queen "Is she easier to deal with than the King? A bit less of an entitled ass?"

"Ehhh," Markus shuffled his hands in a so-so motion "The Queen just runs on different logic, she's a real leader, and cares about her country more than anything else- including herself!" The old man exclaimed, before sighing as he sunk into his chair and took a sip of rum "And that's what makes her so damn scary. Let me put it like this: if she thought that killing you would help Melromarc, then you'd be dead in a heartbeat, it doesn't matter if you're a stranger or her best friend."

He leaned forward and tapped on the wooden coffee table with his mug "There's been times where she was one of my best allies, helping at every corner and always having my back: and it was because having us Merchants' own land acted as a counterbalance to the old Nobility that were undermining Royal authority. And then a few years later, she turned into one of us Merchant's most vicious enemies. Increasing tariffs, ludicrous land taxes, driving several of us into bankruptcy: because the rising influence of the Merchant lords was seen as a threat to Royal control over the economy."

"She sounds competent," Will hummed, processing the information "a bit too competent for comfort."

"Haha!" Markus laughed "You're starting to sound like one of us Merchants already! Soon you'll be complaining about export tariffs, and the recent regulations on lumber imports!"

"Thanks for the compliment, but I doubt I'll be dealing with lumber any time soon."

"That's what they all say lad!" Markus grinned as he poured himself another cup of rum, offering it to Will before shrugging and gulping straight from the bottle when the Hero refused. "Although speaking of that, the lumber trade, and pretty much all trade for that matter, has been up in chaos ever since the Waves started," His grin sobered and he grimaced "The first one was devastating to the southwest region, took damn near a month for the army to close it, and the prospect of another wave coming through and wrecking that kind of havoc anywhere in the kingdom, well…"

Markus sighed a heavy sigh, and took a long drink of rum "It's kinda awful, knowing your fate's up to some cosmic dice, we don't know where it'll happen, we don't know when it'll happen, just that it will and is bound to destroy whatever poor souls it drops on."

The land owner looked like he was going to continue his tale of woe, before Will raised his hand to cut him off.

"Wait, you mean you haven't been told when it's going to happen?"

"Told? No, I…" Markus blinked for a moment, before looking at Will owl eyed "Wait, you KNOW!?"

"Yeah, it's-" Will glanced at the countdown on the top of his HUD "-in 20 days, the Heroes get a countdown when we register with the hourglass, and I know for a fact Ren and I told the King when it was going to happen so he could prepare the country."

Going and seeing the "mythical" Dragon Hourglass had been one of the things he'd done one the first day, and when he'd run into Ren there, the sword had given him a rundown on the thing: gives you countdown, teleports you to wave, and the sand gives you a teleport form to your weapon. (sadly, that last one didn't work for his Gun).

"Wait, you told the King? Then why…" Markus trailed off, before slamming his fist into the table with a scowl "So that's why the scheduled deployment dates of the recent draft have been so odd! That damn RAT already knew when it was going to hit, and had 'magically forgotten' to tell us Merchants! Bastard! He'd probably be happy for us all to die, leaving him and his blueblood buddies free to do whatever the hell they want!"

He suddenly deflated into his chair, the fire draining from him, and leaving him looking a few decades older. "Not that it matters much anyway, the Royals and bluebloods have the legal power to draft commoners into their armies, us Merchant's have to actually hire people, then there's the area we're talking about. Damn' assholes hole up in their castles and forts, more than happy to leave everyone outside to die. We have to defend our entire cities, even if we wanted to hide away like the bluebloods, our money depends on the economy, we need commoners to buy our products, and trade routes to transfer those products on. We wind up with more area to defend, with less people to defend it." He chuckled sadly, "Rigged from the start."

Will scratched his chin in thought. This, this could be an opportunity, a really big opportunity for some moves that could shift the layout of the entire board. But he'd have to be very careful, and very precise.

"Markus," Will said after almost a minute of silence "You know us Heroes come from other worlds, right? Well I came from one with much more advanced military history than yours, and, well…" He looked the man dead in the eye "What if I told you I had a solution to your problem?"

-To War by Jingo-

The three cities of the southmost of Melromarc had a loose set of treaties and agreements between them, exempting travelers of entry and exit fees when coming and going along the single path roads that linked them, no tariffs on goods sold between the cities, they would share food and water in case of a severe drought, etc. These weren't formal, didn't have any sort of official name, and were mostly centered on encouraging a growing economy within the cities, but more importantly it was a foundation.

A foundation that Will could work upon.

Normally convincing the cities to agree to any changes in this sort of thing would take forever, with countless arguments and bureaucratic BS, but panic and fear are two of the greatest motivators. With both of those on his side, and being the apostle for their church, getting the cities to sign off on the "Articles of Southern Co-Prosperity" went faster and smoother than a politician's wettest dream.

The articles were first and foremost about protection, it established a unified fund that was solely for this. Each city would pay a small percentage of its income every month to the fund, and this would be used to fund things like police, guards, and the recently created Minutemen.

Back on Earth the Minutemen were civilian colonists who independently formed militia companies that prided themselves at always being ready "at a minute's notice", hence the name. Minutemen provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats. The minutemen were among the first to fight in the American Revolution, and their fast maneuverability was highly effective against the British's large, slow moving armies, and rigid formations.

The Minutemen in Melromarc were going to be a well equipped, properly trained, highly mobile cavalry unit that would be able to swiftly deploy along the roads between cities and counter the randomized location of the waves. Each city would have a small garrison of them that would be able to protect the city from minor threats, and stall major threats long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Meanwhile the rapid nature would allow other Minutemen units to meet up and unify into a full company before entering combat.

To appease the Merchants, and help convince them that they weren't selling themselves to a military pact (even though it totally was one), the articles also tied the cities closer together economically, formalising all of the original agreements, joining the cities together as an economic block, and created a second joint fund that would go towards road and infrastructure.

Will had also sent out various letters to several of the other nearby Merchant owned cities, trying to get them to join the pact as well.

Needless to say, this whole thing was a big risk. If it fell through, and he would lose all the good faith they had in him, and if it backfired completely, failing to protect them from the Waves, it could put the entirety of the Merchant lords against him.

...But if it worked

…Well, he may have just made his own powerbase.

-To War by Jingo-

It had been a week and half since his talk with Markus, three days since the last pages of the "Articles of Southern Co-Prosperity" had been signed, and two weeks since he first arrived in the city. Pretty good progress all things considered, especially since he had been able to finalize his purchase of the small plot of land west of Maria- a feat only possible due to finally selling off all of Beloukas' wares, and taking out a small loan.

Well… most of the wares anyway, there was some illegal stuff they couldn't sell, and then there were these two assholes. Will glanced up over his book on monster taming, and sent an annoyed glare at the two eggs in front of him.

One of them was small and looked just like a type of chicken egg: apparently everyone who was in the market to buy monster eggs, actually knew shit about monster eggs, and could tell this one was too close to hatching, so they wouldn't have enough time to turn around and pawn it off to someone else.

The other was about quarter the size of the chicken egg, and no one wanted to buy it because it "sucked ass"- direct quote from random merchant. Although Will couldn't blame them for not buying it, turns out it was a worm egg. And not even a magic BS fantasy worm either, just a normal worm.

Beloukas only had five of the things, and four of them got smashed in the rush south, leaving only this one. Small mercies, I guess, at least he didn't have to deal with trying to sell five of the things.

And so he was here with the eggs… and a book!

The book was very interesting, 'turns out that way back in the day, taming monsters had been all the rage, with them even being used as shock troops in some armies. The "Slave Ink" as it's known today was originally made and used on monster eggs… and then some twisted bastard had the idea to put it on a person, and the rest was, unfortunately, history.

Will had originally wanted to throw the things away, but his father had taught him to use life's opportunities, and this was technically an opportunity. If the things turned out to be useful, then great, if not, then he'd hand them off to one of his soldiers (who were currently off and killing stuff without him).

Grabbing the brush from the bowl of ink he'd stolen from Beloukas, Will traced the runes from the book onto the eggs. With a brief influx of MP, and a flash of light, two basic, low level, monster crests were etched onto the eggs, and not a moment too soon.

Almost as soon as the runes finished carving themselves, the white chicken egg started cracking, shaking until the top of it weakly caved in.

Leaning in, Will carefully removed the broken bit of the egg, revealing-

"Man that thing's ugly."

-Exactly what you'd expect from a bird egg. It was a small, pink, featherless, chick, with a head too big for its body, and eyes closed tight.

Pointing at the thing, Will brought up his menu and used the new system function he'd accidentally unlocked after absorbing a magnifying glass. (He'd been hoping for a scope attachment)

"Scan!"

[Scanning]

...

[Aves]

[LV 1]

Well that was kinda disappointing, it wasn't even a Filolial, if it were he coulda sold it for some nice coin. Aves were small bird monsters that flew about and pecked people, they were rarely seen outside of forest areas. They didn't have much attack, or defense, or health, or much of anything really, but it could maybe be used as a decent scout?

A cracking to his left snapped him out of his thoughts and drew his attention to the other egg.

Crack

Crack

Crack

Splat

…

"That critter's even uglier than the bird."

Will stared at the worm that had just plopped out of the egg, it was about as long as his pinky finger, and a hundred times as gross. It was jet black, which was kinda cool, but it was also lumpy, covered in egg slime, and was writhing around on the table, spreading the gunk around.

[Lesser Tenebrae]

[LV 1]

The word Tenebrae is Latin for shadows and dark, and it sounds really cool, but it was a total waste of a good name to be used on a worm. It didn't even evolve into anything cool, it just went from Lesser Tenebrae to Small Tenebrae to Tenebrae to Large Tenebrae and so on and so forth, just becoming a slightly larger worm every time.

A bird and a worm, and the bird hatched before the worm…

There had to be a joke there somewhere, but it just wasn't coming to him.

*Two Days Later*

"Sorry for disturbing you sir, but, uh, I was told you wanted to see me?" Tanya scratched her neck, and raised an eyebrow in confusion "I can come back later if you're busy?"

"Nonsense, I need to talk with you about something of importance…" Will trailed off, as he followed her gaze and realised what had her so confused.

"Oh, I haven't introduced y'all have I? Tanya, this is Bird," Will gestured to the bird on his shoulder that was nipping at his leather hat "Bird, say hi to Tanya"

The bird tweeted and gave a little hop, causing her to coo over it.

"That is Worm," Will pointed at the dirt filled jar on the far side of his desk "Worm, say hi to Tanya"

Worm did, in fact, not say hi.

"Worm sucks, and does not contribute to society" Will nodded sagely before going back to his papers. "Birdo here had useful skills such as [Peck], and [Gust], Worm on the other hand only has the one super useful skill of [Flop]"

The two monsters had leveled up due to the XP his group had been sending through the Party System, and had gotten to LV 8 in just two days, explaining their rapid growth. Being such weak monsters, their XP requirements for leveling up were much lower than that of, say, a Dragon or Human. Worm had even evolved from Lesser Tenebrae to Small Tenebrae when it hit LV 5. (whole lotta' good that did them)

But the two monsters hadn't been the only, err, rapid growth.

"Mr Dixie! Mr Dixie! Can we borrow some money to go to the market?" Fina, A young Demi-human girl asked from the doorway, with a small group of her fellows clustered behind her, smiles on all of their faces.

"Well of course you can!" Will smiled, summoning his Bag Attachment and reaching in for some money, causing all the kids in the hall to cheer "But I can't give you too much beca-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know, you blew all your savings on that useless hunk of land." Fina said with a smirk on her face.

"Hey! I'll have you know that 'useless hunk of land' is actually what's letting us stay here, not to mention I'm actually hiring someone to buil-"

"It's important, and you're going to build stuff on it, you've already told us," Will was cut off by the girl as she swiped the coins from his hand and jetted off with her friends "Thanks Pops!"

He had originally added the kids to his party so that he'd be able to keep track of their HP, illnesses, and injuries, even going and putting them under a different tab than his normal troops in the Party System. Unfortunately he hadn't taken into account the fact that when his soldiers went out to grind XP, the XP would be transferred to the kids as well.

So here he was, a week and a half later, with all the kids being levels 15 to 19, and shooting up fast. He knew that Demi-Humans grew with their level, but jeez this was something else. The girl who had just run out of his office, who had been 7 years old just a week prior, now looked and acted like she was 18.

And some of them called him Pops!

...it made him feel old.

"Pops?" Tanya asked, covering her mouth to suppress a laugh, reminding Will that she was there.

"Don't ask," He pinched the bridge of his nose. "One of them started it as a joke to mess with me, and now it's spread."

"Anyway, back to what I originally called you here for," He crossed his arms on the desk, and looked at Tanya, who straightened back into business mode. "We have nine days until the Wave hits, we need to be as prepared as possible, and I'm currently going through another list of potential hires-"

"Can we afford that?" Tanya asked with a grimace.

"No, but they don't know that, and we will be able to, once we fight off the wave. Besides, I need to shift everyone's contracts from a percentage, to a set salary, it will make managing finances much easier," He stroked his chin in thought "If I can sell the XP boost as part of their payment, and pledge to provide housing and equipment during their service, I should be able to cut the expected payment down by a sufficient margin, potentially even to nothing if I also throw in amenities and food."

"I hope you aren't cutting my pay" Tanya sweatdropped.

"Don't worry, you and Weiss will be getting promotions. With the mercenaries I've hired in the last two weeks, our number rose to 15, and with the hires I'm planning now, we should be looking at 20 to 22 by the end of the week. I'm making my own private army, and I need competent and trustworthy people to help lead it, you and Weiss will each be given control over half-" Will looked up at her as he placed a badge, and several accompanying papers on the table "-If you're up for it, of course."

"But," He said with a tired sigh "I can understand if your not interested, it is a lot of responsibility after all," He slowly began pulling the badge back "I can always find someone else to-"

"NO!"

Will couldn't help the cruel smile that formed on his face as he watched Tanya grab the medal pendant from him and stammer out various praises, promising to serve beyond her abilities as she rushed out the door to get started on the new duties written on the papers. Tanya was one of the strongest people in his party, and with the way her attack stats were growing, and the effort she put into refining her skills, that strength was going to continue grow, and could very well, lead to her being one of the best fighters in the kingdom aside from the two offensive Heroes.

A candidate to be one of the strongest fighters in the kingdom, and he practically had her on a leash.

Tanya's motives were dry cut, she wanted to be strong, more specifically she wanted to feel like she was in control of her own fate.

Her village had been attacked by bandits when she was little, and the fear of someone else being stronger than her, being able to take everything from her without her being able to stop them, it had stuck with her.

Ironically her desire to control her own fate was what made it so easy to manipulate her. Just keep a bone in front of her, and reward her for her work, and she would never betray him.

And if he could get her cemented into a power structure, where she had a vested interest in keeping the chain of command together, she would never be tempted away by another side.

-To War by Jingo-

The sun was setting, and Will was finalising the last of the paperwork that would accept two new cities into the Articles of Southern Co-Prosperity. Well, the new council, made of the lords running the cities currently in the pact, still had to vote- but this close to the wave and scared out of their minds, he just had to spin it as 'for their own protection', and it was a guarantee they'd agree to whatever he said.

He had the last few papers in front of him, a half drunk cup of hot chocolate to his left, and the remnants of a cookie on a napkin to his right.

It was the perfect atmosphere to get this sort of monotonous work done.

Unfortunately, not everyone seemed to agree with him on that.

Will sighed, and put down his pen "How can I help you Fina?" He asked the Demi girl with a sigh, when it became clear she wouldn't leave the room, no matter how hard he pretended she wasn't there.

"Sir, you removed us from your party…"

"Yes, because everyone in my party will be teleported with me to fight the wave, and you obviously aren't going," He chuckled "Y'all can't even fight"

"But we can!" She slammed her hands down on the table with angry eyes, disturbing Bird, who had been sleeping on the window perch.

"Huh?" Will leaned back, not expecting to be attacked in his own office.

"We can fight! We've been training outside with wooden swords we bought at the market!" She crossed her arms and looked to the side dejectedly "...we want to repay you for saving us"

Will stared at her in surprise. 1: His brain was still trying to decipher how children who had been half dead two weeks prior, had not only recovered enough, but grown enough to be able to fight. 2: Fina's arms were crossed over her chest, and she was unknowingly pushing up evidence of just how much they'd all grown.

Forcing himself to tear his eyes away, Will looked to Bird, and blinked rapidly a few times to get his thoughts in order.

They'd been doing what? And behind his back!? Really it was more the fact that they hadn't told him that had him a little pissed off, than what they were doing. And they wanted to fight in a deadly war against monsters? They were children! ...well, were children, now they weren't… man that was kinda difficult to wrap his head around, they had just grown so fast.

But on the other hand…

"Fina, how long have y'all been training?"

"Erm, uhh, I-I'm not sure on the exact dates, but the first of us started back when we hit level 7. A-And while we're not great, a few days ago, we paid a passing mercenary to teach us some basic stances and swings, and um, it's really helped us improve- b-but that's not to say the training before that was useless, uh…" Fina trailed off, and shifted in her spot, clearly not experienced with sales pitches, and frustrated at herself for not making it sound better.

Will stroked his chin in thought, the stubble of a beard was starting to form due to not having good equipment to shave since coming here. His men had been grinding higher level mobs, so the kids had probably reached level 7 relatively quickly, meaning it couldn't have been long after they recovered from their illnesses. So let's assume they've been training for a little under a week and a half, then there's 9 days to the wave, hmmm.

So a week and a half to get down the basics, and another 9 days to learn enough to bring them up to a passable performance. Weiss and the others were experienced fighters, who could teach the kids better than any standard sword teacher could- skip straight past all the 'proper' bits, and focus on what'll keep them alive in combat.

The kid's wouldn't be on the front line, obviously, but acting as a supporting force to the main line was more than possible. Not to mention, if this did actually work, it would boost their numbers considerably, from 20 to 37, almost doubling their fighting strength. Twice as many soldiers to aid him, not only in his fight against the waves, but also to unknowingly help him lay the groundwork for his grand plan.

Soldiers loyal to him, not to their paycheck, or the strength he gave them, but to him personally.

...perhaps even loyal enough to eventually help enact that plan.

"Fina," Will drummed his fingers on his desk "Have everyone meet me in that 'useless chunk of land' you drone on about." He smirked at the surprised look on her face "I'm gonna have y'all give me a little demonstration."

-To War by Jingo-

*Three Days until the Wave*

"Here you are," The grey bearded blacksmith said with a heavy grunt as he lifted, and then dropped, his creation onto the counter. "I'm still not sure what it is, or what the hell you're planning to use it for- Hell, I think it's useless. But I followed your blueprint to the letter, and used all materials you requested, so you don't have any excuse to back out of the deal."

"Yes, yes, half upfront half after the product, I remember the agreement," Will waved the man away as he tossed a few silvers over to the blacksmith, and walked over to his item.

He was running dangerously low on money with all his recent purchases and hires, he wouldn't be able to spend any more than a few coppers here and there until the wave hit. He was confident enough in his speaking skills that he'd be able to weasel a reasonably large check out of the royals on the pretense of "saving the world" or some BS, but he'd actually have to have to do at least a little of that, before he could start exploiting his 'Hero' status to the fullest.

And he was a Hero, even despite how inconcise and overused he thought the term was, the system even recognised him as one, it was straight up his title in his status screen.

-[William Dixie: Hero Lv.26]-

His title was "Hero", it appeared right next to his name and everything. He could, and would, totally use it to scam as many people as he wanted.

"Every Silver Donated is Another Monster Slain! Every Gold is a Boss Defeated! Are You Doing Your Part? Help Save the World Today!"

Ahem.

He was getting off track.

The wave was approaching, and it was approaching fast, only a few days away. And while they would most likely be fine, as long as the military's reports from the previous wave proved consistent, Will's father and grandfathers hadn't been so successful by trusting "should be's". He was hoping for the best, yes, but he was preparing for the worst.

A private army, better gear, more manpower, political influence, connections, economic investment.

A small fortune poured out and completely spent preparing for what was to come.

And it was finally time to add the final touch, the cherry on top to wrap it all up nicely.

He was getting a better weapon.

What he had wouldn't cut it later on, 40 damage wouldn't even scratch larger mobs, and since there weren't any firearms for him to copy on this half of the continent, he decided to make his own… of course while he knew, in detail, about how firearms operated due to his father's company, he didn't actually have any experience in building them, or even crafting things in general. His plan to make a flintlock had stalled considerably because of this, which was what brought him to the blacksmith.

Now the blacksmith was just that, a blacksmith, he could only really forge metal into armor and weapons, and couldn't make what Will was looking for. But remember, this world runs on the system, the system runs on definitions, and definitions could be stretched and twisted.

Will picked up the heavy steel tube with a sinister grin on his face. The fact the system hadn't shocked him meant that it didn't register it as a weapon, which just made him more eager to test it out, as he walked over to the large wooden beam in the corner of the shop that acted as a 'test dummy'. It was embedded into the ground, and covered in countless nicks and cuts from swords, axes, knives, and everything else, well… almost everything else. He decided to fix that as he lifted his device up, and began to ready it.

It was a large steel tube with a flared muzzle. The opening at the front was quite large, easily a good half a foot, and the metal extended almost three feet. Needless to say, it was rather heavy, not enough to be painful or unusable, but enough to make it cumbersome. To help make it easier to use, instead of bringing it up to your shoulder, it had two handles on the top of it, to hold at waist level. One was halfway to the front, and the other was at the back.

It looked like he was walking around with a hand cannon.

… and that really wasn't all that far from the truth.

Opening a latch right in front of the rear handle, he pulled two bundles from his bag, wrapped in thin cloth, and placed them in, one in front of the other. The one in the back was a powdery mix of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. The one in front contained a bunch of marble sized lead chunks and iron balls, or as it was more commonly known in late 18th century Europe-

Will pumped MP into the rear handle, which was carried down into the back of the weapon by magic thread, and activated a basic fire rune etched onto a stone implanted into the back of the tube. The fire lit the powder, the powder exploded, and the contents of the first bag were sent flying out the barrel. And the so-called Hero laughed like a villain, as the wooden post, and most of the wall behind it, were torn apart as large, sharp, metal shards ripped open large gashes as they impacted at incredible speeds.

-Grapeshot, Napoleon's favorite anti-infantry weapon.

He continued to laugh even after the device suddenly grew hot in his hands and began to burn him, forcing him to drop it as the system registered it as a weapon.

[Hand Cannon- Legendary Weapon]

-Ranged Attack: 150 (15dmg per projectile)

-Melee Attack: 6 (slow)

-MP cost: 70

He had done it!

He had unlocked a new form!

He was no longer locked to 40 damage!

The other heroes had undoubtedly unlocked numerous forms already, but if he could make his own, he could beat them in quality over quantity.

He obviously still wouldn't be able to match them in a fair fight, but since when did he ever fight fair? If you found yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan properly!

With higher tier weapons, a burgeoning power bloc under his influence, several deep investments into the economy, and his own fucking army backing him up, he'd finally start to have the power he needed. It wasn't the normal type of 'power' that traditional Heroes had- personal strength to storm the enemy lines alone and save the day despite the odds. No, he had power, influence. He wasn't aiming to throw the enemy lines into disarray, he was aiming to throw the whole fucking playing field into chaos.

He was going to put his own pieces on the board, and make himself into a player on the world stage. He'd become someone who could actually change things on a large scale, a permanent scale.

The sword and the spear thought they were playing a game.

But William Dixie wasn't playing for fun.

He was playing for keeps.

And he was going all in.

-To War by Jingo-

Naofumi scowled from his hidden spot in the tree line.

The wave was coming up and he was frantically power leveling, so when he learned both Ren and Will were nearby, he had decided to spy on his fellow "Heroes" to see if they led him to any useful leveling spots.

He'd had… mixed results.

Ren had moved through the area much faster than Naofumi could chase him, but just following the Solo player's trail had led to some decent locations. And apparently Ren's threat back on the second day hadn't just been for show, the word of the locals was that Ren had dropped three of his original five guys, with the last two barely managing to keep up.

Another thing Nafumi had learnt was that for people who claimed to have played similar games, their strategies were complete opposites. Finding William was much easier than finding Ren, because while Ren was never in the same spot twice, Will hadn't even moved.

From what Naofumi had gathered, Will had plopped himself down in the city of Maria, and had been entrenching himself there: buddying up to the people in charge, buying out businesses, and purchasing his own land.

Word was that the bow had only left the city to fight monsters twice since he got there, but that didn't mean he wasn't grinding XP, quite the opposite in fact.

The shielder glared at the group of soldiers, fighting in the clearing.

Where Ren had been trimming his numbers to be more streamlined, Will had been building up like a madman. From what Naofumi had counted, he had anywhere from 20 to 30 people under his command, and it was easy to tell as well, anyone hired had good equipment provided to them, built with function taking priority over looks. Their gear was always the steel gray of metal, layered over the brown of leather, it lacked the colors and flowery design that most of this fantasy world seemed to love.

And to make them even easier to spot, someone in charge had decided to start carving Will's symbol into the shoulders of everyone's armor, the one Will had on his stupid hat. A big star surrounded by 16 smaller stars, it had been the logo of his company or something.

And these guys were everywhere, every clearing, every dungeon, every forest, every fucking guild quest! Every damn time you found a spot to kill some mobs, you'd either find it already full of these guys, or empty of everything because they already cleared it out! And merchants had started saying that these guys were being spotted further out, all over the southernmost parts of the kingdom.

"Mr Naofumi..."

The shield hero pulled himself out of his angry thoughts, and glanced over to his side.

"Mr Naofumi, there's nothing here either…" Raphtalia walked over, her ears down, and her tail drooped, clearly upset that she hadn't been able to help. "This is the third day in a row we've gone without substantial XP, a-and the wave should be coming up soon…" She looked up at him with a worried expression. "...what should we do?"

Naofumi sighed, and sent a glare towards the city, whose tallest towers were just barely visible over the trees. Will was probably holed up there somewhere, continuing to build up his base of operations.

He looked down to his shield, and looked over his status one more time.

-[Naofumi Iwatani: Hero Lv.19]-

[Light Metal Shield- Legendary Weapon]

Defense: up 15

Special Equip Effect: magic defense 1

"...Raphtalia, pack up all the supplies," He said after a long moment "I think it's time we head back to the capitol."

-End Chapter-

So apparently, there are people from the UK reading this, and I'm sorry, but for some reason the idea of some old traditionalist British guy, reading the first chapter, not knowing what the Confederacy was, and wondering why Will is so aghast at slavery, is really fucking funny to me. (For some reason)

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

Next Time: WaVe~TiMe~FuN

(Also, if your worried about there being a ton of OCs, don't. The only ones of any real importance (and even then not really) are Tanya and Weiss, the rest are just there to make the world seem less flat.)