"*Yawn*, you ready, man?" Leona asked, stretching in her bed, pulling her blanket off of her body.
"Been ready for the last few hours. I was beginning to wonder if you were gonna wake up or not," Hol muttered, trying not to look in Leona's direction. Instead he scrolled through his status and swapped his weapon one last time before the wave started. "And please, cover yourself up."
"Don't tell me how to act in my own home! I can walk around naked as long as I want here!" she yelled back, crawling out of bed. "Now where are my clothes?"
"Keep your voice down, we're at an inn, not your house. You passed out yesterday after beating up some monsters and I had to drag your body here," Hol complained. "And it's to your right."
"Oh… whoops!" Leona laughed shamelessly, getting dressed. "So, when you kill that other vassal, how do you plan on returning?"
"By the next wave that will connect my world and yours. Though I don't know how soon that will come," he replied, glancing at Leona, and then quickly looking away as she was still topless.
"No need to be shy, you can stare if you want," Leona teased, leaning against Hol and wrapping her arms around him. "Now be a good boy and pass me a bottle of booze from my bag!"
"It's not even noon, and you already wanna start drinking? You have a wave in less than 5 hours!" Hol reprimanded her, nudging her back with difficulty.
"Don't tell me how to live my life! I'm here for a good time not a long time, now gimme my booze!" Leona whined, throwing her arms up and down like a child. "I did not carry your sorry ass through several levels to be treated like this! Gimme!"
"Fine! Just don't break the bed," Hol grumbled, handing her her bag.
"You paid for the inn with my money, I can do whatever," she remarked. Leona chugged the bottle in seconds and sighed in delight. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff."
"Just put a shirt on and meet me outside," he muttered, grabbing the door handle.
"Why don't you give me yours and we ca-,' she started to say in a flirty tone, but Hol closed the door behind him, cutting her off. She slumped in her bed and laid back down. "Party pooper."
Hol stood on the other side of the door and looked back in Leona's direction.
A hero that doesn't take sh*t seriously, a hero that kills other heroes, and a hero that drinks herself to death. F*ck this world's batch of heroes.
The ring hero looked down at the list of knights. It was a bit larger than the one for the previous wave, with some new adventurers joining in at the last second to try and level up and hopefully get new never before seen rare items to sell. The king could understand this, as deep down he also wanted to fight the waves to get new weapon forms and skills for his vassal ring. However, he was more worried about his kingdom he helped progress being destroyed due to outside interference from said waves.
Let's hope Leon can make something useful out of the next boss' drops. Now if only we could locate the vassal from the other world, but he apparently met some hooded chick who teleported him away. I don't have any doubt that this woman is the pickaxe hero. But why did she show up now only to disappear again?! She lives in this world too. Does she have no regard for the people or what happens because of the waves?! Why am I the only one who takes my job seriously?!
One hero is a gaming weeb who is gonna burn down my kingdom and the other disappears as she pleases! Well we got the vassal jar, but it's going to be a while before William's stats match up to my own since the spirit adamantly refuses to work with me and let William use its methods!
"Your majesty?"
The voice brought him out of his thoughts. Two shadow figures stood behind him with worried expressions. He sighed and turned to them.
"How do you always manage to sneak by me?" the ring hero asked, glancing up to see if there were any holes in his roof.
"You tend to not notice things when you're so deep in thought. Is there a way we can help?" Amanda walked up to her king and cast a glance onto his desk. "Are those all the knights who signed up for the wave subjugation?"
He nodded and closed the folder, stashing it away into his cloak. "Unfortunately. But most of them are barely level 30. Well, I do need distractions, but I want you two to keep an eye on as many people as you can and evacuate those too injured to fight. But don't either of you die on me. If it gets too dangerous, prioritize yourselves. Is that clear?"
"You don't have to worry too much about us. We are more than capable of defending ourselves, you know this. Just promise us you'll take it easy after this wave. We hate to see you so worn out like this," Amelia assured him, walking up from behind and wrapping her arms around him.
"I trust William to have my back. Now that he's got a vassal weapon, none of the monsters should pose as much of a threat to him," he responded, patting her head. "Since there are two vassal heroes on the job, we shouldn't have any major casualties."
"Well, I feel better knowing William is gonna be there," Amelia smiled and took a step back. "Let's have some drinks after today, alright?"
And before he could answer, she melted into the shadows and disappeared. When he turned towards her sister, the woman was already gone.
These two and their batman level disappearances, I swear.
He walked out of the room and found William leaning on the wall next to the door.
"Let's go. We have a wave to get too."
"Another one," Jim mumbled, tossing a stone ring into the center of the room. Instantly, several people rushed towards it, trying to grab it before anyone else.
"Geeze. You really got a market here. Should have started selling them," Oblek mumbled, looking over at the people.
"Eh, I'm getting stats out of this, so I don't really care," Jim replied, quickly getting to work on another one.
Damn, I'm leveling up my crafter level even faster than a normal one. Well, this is surprisingly an easy way to grind craft exp, so I won't complain.
"Alright, just don't wear yourself out. You need to be ready, remember?" Oblek reminded him.
"Yeah, don't worry. I got my own 10 rings, so I'm good to go," he said, patting his pocket.
"10 minutes everyone!" the guard yelled, warning them.
"Huh?! But isn't there another 30 usually?" someone exclaimed.
"Yeah, but the king wants the knights to be ready if anything happens, so we have to cut this early," the guard explained. "Plus, you guys have this craftsmith making half of your rings, you'll be fine."
"Hey, I'll give you some of my lunch if you give me that ring you're making," one of the prisoners said, frantically sanding away the ring in his hand.
"You smoke? I'll give you a pack of cigs," another one whispered. A few more offers came in until Oblek spoke up.
"Less talking, more sanding!" he yelled, shooing the prisoners away. They grumbled in disdain and turned back to their workstations. "Don't be pressured. Plus, it won't matter later anyway."
"Thanks, but I'm fine. I did a bit of crafting off screen," Jim replied, covering the holy drill press with his body to hide it from the guard. He reached towards the gem and Oblek watched as several rings popped out of it.
"Huh?! How does that work?" he inquired.
"I fed it a couple of rocks and told it to auto craft," Jim whispered back. "Not as profitable stat wise but it can work alongside me and a bonus is a bonus."
Since autocrafting only gives normal quality, it only gives me 5 exp per ring. But there is no shortage of rings and it doesn't really cost me anything to just set it to autocraft and get 3 rings at a time every hour. Not super fast, but definitely profitable in the long run. And it lets me do stuff like this.
"Here, gather round for some rings," Jim exclaimed, dropping a pile of stone rings onto the ground. In a matter of seconds the pile disappeared, and prisoners began to walk out of the room without a second thought. Quickly the room emptied out, with a few more rings left on the ground, leaving just Oblek and Jim behind.
"Damn, if you do this too often the guard is gonna start raising the amount we need. Well, I guess it won't matter. Let's go," Oblek said, handing in his rings.
"Alright. I got everything I need. The wave is in a bit, so let's get ready," Jim replied, walking up the stairs. The door that led to them was slightly open, a small unlocked lock hanging on the handle.
Cobalt must have picked it open. That's one less problem to worry about.
Oblek chuckled as the two made their way upwards. "To think that I would one day be doing a prison break side by side with the hero of legends. What a world we live in."
"I never thought I'd be in prison in the first place. Guess there is a first for everything," Jim smiled. The two made it up the stairs and snuck closer to the corner where Cobalt was already waiting.
"Took you guys long enough. I was waiting here for ages!" he whispered to the two men.
"Craftin' duty is like that. So, shall we start?" Oblek asked, sneaking a peak around the corner. Several guards were gathered there, sitting around and playing with a deck of cards.
"Give it a second. The new shift should arrive any minute now. You remember your steps?" Cobalt asked, turning to Jim.
"Wait for the warden to open the door, go invisible, run inside, watch him input the code, wait for him to leave, get the rings, blast through the wall and drop rings onto the cafeteria," Jim recited.
"Good. Oh shoot, here he comes!" Cobalt exclaimed in a whisper and patted Jim on the shoulder. Jim equipped his smallest hammer and attached it to his leg so it wouldn't get in the way.
The gang watched large and heavy double doors open before the warden walked inside. Unlike the guards who wore some basic armor, the warden only wore a uniform with very little padding. Almost as if laughing at the idea of being in any danger. Well, he had several next shift guards behind him, so why wouldn't he be?
The knights gathered at the entrance stood up and saluted them as the other warden hidden behind his guards the whole time greeted him.
"Hey man, good luck on the shift. Any news about the next wave?" this shift's warden asked.
"Supposed to start in like ten minutes and a bunch of knights gathered at the castle. I think you can still catch up with the knights if you go now. Maybe get me some loot as well," the next shift's warden said, shaking his hand.
"Will do. Wish we could both be there but too bad the waves don't wait for our shifts. Let's go guys," the first warden said, quickly leaving the prison through the heavy doors. As soon as they were locked, the new crew all grunted and seemed to buckle under their own weight.
"Damn, never get used to this," the warden grumbled, walking up to a green door next to the entrance. He pulled out a set of keys and began to open the lock.
"Jim, get ready!" Cobalt muttered, tapping Jim on the shoulder.
"Alright, see you guys in the cafeteria. Hide Hammer," Jim replied, disappearing from view. He took off his shoes and quickly ran up next to the warden just as the man began to pull the door back with all of his weakened might. As the doors opened up, Jim quickly slipped into the room and surveyed his surroundings. There were a few rows of weapons and a stack of wooden crates in the room. Right across from the door was a wall with a ring carving and a small door with a five digit lock on it.
The warden walked inside and grabbed the lock. He began to spin the numbers. Just as Jim was about to get a better look at the combo, he noticed that his SP bar was reaching 0.
Sh*t! Curse my half stat of SP! Gotta hide!
As several knights walked into the room chatting with each other, Jim quickly ran to the other side and ducked behind the stack of crates just as his SP got completely depleted. However, as he did that, his hammer got caught on the edge, producing a soft thud that got the attention of one of the guards.
Well… sh*t.
The knight glanced in Jim's direction and began to slowly approach the stack of crates. Just as Jim was about to be busted however…
"FREEEEEEDOOOOOOM!" Cobalt screamed, bolting towards the large double doors and getting the attention of the guards. They quickly tackled the man to the ground before one of the guards with the rings walked up and punched him in the head.
"God damn it, my brother forgot to lock the door again," the warden grumbled, looking at the sight. "Kick him back in with the others."
The knights who got their rings dragged him off and walked towards the staircase. However, this seemed to get the attention away from Jim.
Of course, if you say out the plan in a heist then stuff almost always goes wrong.
"Alright, everyone got their rings? Good. Let's go. This shift is a disaster already so I want everyone to keep their eyes out for anything else. Got it?" the warden barked, closing up the safe and scrambling the lock. The knights groaned in return as everyone stumbled out of the room, leaving Jim alone with a locked safe. He waited for a few minutes until everything was silent and then quickly ran towards the safe. He raised the lock to his eye level to get a better look and sighed
Damn it, I didn't get the code and I don't even understand the symbols… wait is that a goddamn logo from my world? Did a previous hero make this? Anyway, what the hell do I do? I can try to break this but I don't even know if I can with my low stats right now.
Jim pulled on the lock and began to aimlessly spin one of the wheels, trying to guess the combo. Suddenly he heard a click as the wheel he was spinning stopped resisting him and clicked into place.
Wait what? Why did it… oh my god it's just like the locks from my world. Pretty sure I saw a video about how to pick these. What was it again? Find the ring with the most resistance and spin until it clicks?
Jim jiggled around the second and third rings, but they barely gave any resistance. The fourth ring, however, barely moved at all. He began to spin it until it clicked again, now easily jiggling a bit from side to side. He repeated the same with the third ring, then the second, then finally…
*Click*
The lock opened up and Jim set it to the side. He paused for a second as he looked at it again.
I mean, no electricity or tech means no digital padlocks, but what the hell is this? I mean, they could have had another lock with a key and… nope. Not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. Free pass for me and I will take it.
Jim looked at the timer and smiled.
3…2…1… time to go.
Jim threw the lock into his hammer and then opened up the door to the safe. Inside were dozens, if not hundreds of rings all neatly placed in foam slots on several shelves. Jim took off his jacket and began to drop ring after ring into his jacket until the safe was completely empty and he was left with a pile of rings inside his jacket. He put one on and gasped as strength surged through his body.
Oh my god, stats how I missed you.
Jim grabbed his jacket with the rings and ran up to the wall that would lead him to the cafeteria. He transformed his hammer into the royal mirror hammer and pulled his hand back as far as he could.
Time for a jailbreak episode.
"Erst… MJOLNIR!" Jim yelled, swinging his hammer as hard as he could. The reflective hammerhead burst through the wall and a bright flash of thunder erupted from its surface, blasting the wall to bits. The guards began to scream as they tried to understand what was happening. However, every prisoner looked up at Jim with hope and joy.
"ALRIGHT BOYS!" Jim yelled, swinging his jacket into the air, releasing all the glowing green rings onto the crowds of prisoners. "TIME TO RECLAIM OUR FREEDOM!"