Author's Note: I responded to some of the reviews through Private Messages because I felt that they deserved direct responses. I am thankful to all the reviewers so far though! All the positive feedback this story has gotten so far motivated me to get to writing the next chapter asap. So once again, thank you! Thanks so much also to all who followed, favorited and just plain old read my story! Here we go.


Chapter 1: Kensei

It started with a rumor about how a level 1 adventurer had defeated a Minotaur that made its way up to a lower level of the dungeon. In one blow. Of course at first no one gave any credence to the rumor, they simply refused to believe some no name newbie adventurer that was just starting out was able to pull off such a feat, on his first day no less.

Nobody believed it possible until the Sword Princess herself, Ais Wallenstein gave her own account of witnessing the event. That's when people started changing their tune about it.

Then came in two other rumors.

The first new rumor came in a week since the start of the supposed adventurer's first day, there was talk of how a thousand Goblins and Kobolds spawned throughout floors 1-4 and spilled over onto floor five. All the level 1 adventurers present at the time were sure they were going to die in the face of such a horde. But they didn't die. Not a single one died that day. How is this possible you may ask? Well, all the witnesses say the same thing about how they were able to survive. There was a blur, a silver blur with a hint of red and black that came swooping in slashing out against all of the Goblins and Kobolds that spawned. Most were decapitated, others were slashed from shoulder to hip or stabbed through various vital points. But all the monsters were killed. And if the rumor is to be believed, it was done by one man. Perhaps the number of monsters was exaggerated, perhaps the survivors embellished their side of the story here and there but some details were the same no matter what.

The one that saved them? Had red hair, amber eyes, silver armor and wielded two swords at any given time. This was the description given of the man that would occasionally appear once he stopped blurring all over the place. The monsters that attacked? Just Goblins and Kobolds but it is always an army that is described as the attacking force. No one knows what prompted the dungeon to spawn so many monsters throughout the first few floors but all were decidedly thankful no tragedy had occurred. Oh yeah, the blur also made sure to collect all Magic Stones as he fought. The survivors rationalized this as the reason he never asked for recompense from them.

The second rumor came in the second week. There was talk of a rapid increase in the spawn rate for the Frog Shooter (A frog monster that has one large eye. It attacks by shooting out its long tongue.) and War Shadow (A dark humanoid monster that has long arms with three claws that are sharp like knives. It is the strongest monster on the 6th Floor.) out on the 6th floor of the dungeon. At the time it happened, supposedly the only one present on the 6th floor was the Silver Blur, or Shirou Emiya his name seemed to be which had been spreading like wildfire since the rumor of the Minotaur came about. Not to mention the incident with the Goblin-Kobold army. No wait, that's not quite right… He wasn't the only one there at the time. He was there with a supporter! Some Pallum named Liliruca Arde or something that was there to help him carry Drop Items and Magic Stones. There we go. Anyway, the respawn rate seemed to be ten minute intervals only so the Frog Shooter and War Shadows were spawning by the dozens at an incredible rate. Even with his insane speed and sword work he could not hope to defeat them all in time while protecting his petite supporter. Then he pulled off something amazing, nay, beyond amazing it was simply the stuff of legends.

He spoke out two words: "Trace on!" And then hundreds of steel swords of expert make rained down upon the Frog Shooters and War Shadows in quick succession for about half an hour and all the while he was still blurring around hacking and slashing the remainder from the spawn rate. It is said that he kept fighting like that for three hours straight without running out of Mind and not a scratch was made upon his silver armor nor upon his Pallum supporter. The only things that he lost were the two steel swords he had been wielding at the time which lost their strength from all the use they got in such a short amount of time.

A Hero of the Sword. A Sword Saint or Kensei. Those were the new nicknames spreading about after the second rumor which came after the Minotaur one began to spread. And so the story shall now pick up during the aftermath of that great battle against Frog Shooters and War Shadows. With an exhausted Shirou lying down on his back with his head resting on the lap of his supporter Lili.


Shirou was simply resting on Lili's lap so that he could catch his breath and then he would begin collecting all the Magic Stones and War Shadow's Finger Blade strewn about the battle field that was the 6th floor of the dungeon. Then he realized something wet was falling down upon his face and then he opened his eyes to the sight of Lili crying, and quite a lot it would seem.

"Lili is sorry, Shirou-sama… Hrrk! Lili is so sorry she tried to trick and steal from you! Even though Lili tried to run away after stealing all the money you had on hand, Shirou-sama still rushed in to save Lili from the monsters that spawned like crazy! Thank you so much for saving Lili! Waaaaaahhhh!"

That was when Shirou instantly knew what to do. He sat up kneeling seiza style in front of Lili and hugged her close to his chest where she continued to bawl her heart out. "It's okay, Lili… I forgive you and of course I rushed in to save you. I will always rush in to save you, whenever you need me. You know why? Because that's what a Hero of Justice does. Haha!"

About ten minutes of crying later Lili looks up into Shirou's amber eyes full of mirth and kindness and his radiant smile and begins to smile herself. "Thank you so much, Shirou-sama!"

And then the Pallum supporter and her Hero began the arduous task of collecting the myriad Magic Stones and Drop Items from the War Shadows. The total amounted to 500 Magic Stones that were not destroyed in the fight from the Frog Shooters and War Shadows and 250 War Shadow's Finger Blade.

Shirou liked what he saw when he used Structural Analysis on the War Shadow's Finger Blade, it seemed it would make a good crafting material for two swords that he would make. After having stored into the Unlimited Blade Works all of the current weapons in the Hephaestus Familia shop on the 8th floor of Babel he had a good grasp on the best smithing techniques of this world and so decided to forge his next two swords himself.

The haul of the day amounted to 250,000 valis and he gave half of that to Lili as payment for her services that day. She tried to decline her share as penance for what she tried to do but Shirou was having none of it and made sure she accepted the payment. From defeating the horde of Goblins and Kobolds the other week Shirou had roughly 500,000 valis saved up but minus his weekly food expenses up to this week that would be… 493,700 valis plus the 125,000 valis he earned today will bring his savings up to 618,700 valis.

But that does not include the expenses he will be accruing from paying to use a forge, the materials he will be using in the forging process, maintenance on his armor to be done by Welf Crozzo...and whatever else may come up but for now 618,700 valis is more or less what Shirou has saved up to this point in time.

"Shirou-sama, do you really still want Lili to stick around as your supporter?"

"Yes, Lili. You sure know your way around gathering various loot and well you've really grown on me in this short time so please. Be my supporter, Lili." Shirou then hugs her close to his chest once more and the petite Pallum stills at his touch.

"Hai, Shirou-sama…" She returns the hug for a few scant moments then dashes off to return to her own Familia.

Shirou then makes his way back to the abandoned church where he resides with Hestia.

"Shirou-kun! Thank you for your hard work today as well!" He was immediately glomped by the petite Goddess upon his arrival back at the church.

"Hestia-sama! Too close, too close! You're too close!" Hestia's bosoms were rubbing and bouncing against his chest so much it was all Shirou could do to not faint from the stimulation!

"Hahahahaha! Oh Shirou-kun, there's no need to be so shy, we even share a bed so what's the problem?!" Giving in Shirou settles his hands on Hestia's hips and then promptly lifts her up so she can straddle him.

"Ah-ah, you know I can't resist you when you're this cute, Hestia-sama." The kiss they share at that moment is like Magic that seeps warmth into their very bones.

That's right, Shirou thinks to himself, I'm lucky enough to be madly in love with this wonderful Goddess of mine. It was after the fiasco with that army of monsters wherein Hestia nursed Shirou back to health all night. The closeness and intimacy of it all was too much for their feeble hearts and they could not help but fall madly in love for each other right then and there.

It was the culmination of the build up of all the home cooked meals being shared together and Shirou always coming home to her after a long day at work in the dungeon that led to them growing closer and closer each passing they for that first week. The fiasco with the army of monsters acted as the catalyst to hit the final nail in the coffin as it were and the two were smitten with each other since that night.

Anyway, soon after the makeout session that ensued in their bedroom Hestia updated Shirou's Status since he had then told her of the most recent incident he had dealt with in the dungeon. They soon called it a night after dinner together.

And then for two more weeks Shirou hunted War Shadows for the most part in the dungeon with Lili at his side all the while. Gathering more of the War Shadow's Finger Blade in order to make sure he had a sturdy base for the two swords he planned on making.

In those two weeks Shirou had amassed an enormous wealth of 2,500,000 valis but 2,000,000 valis of that had been spent paying off Hestia's debt. Then Shirou spent 400,000 valis more in order to have the church completely refurbished. It now looks spick and span with all the rebuilding and redecorating that was done, new furniture and whatnot was included for free as a package deal.

And so, it has been one month since Shirou's start as an adventurer in the city of Orario and he has done quite well for himself. Earned three nicknames and Denatus was still two months away. Most likely his Alias would end up being one of his more popular nicknames at this rate, it would save the Gods and Goddesses time.

At any rate, it is now night time on the last day of the month and Hestia was straddling Shirou's back as per usual since she was updating his Status. And so far it was looking real good:

Name: Shirou Emiya

Level: 1

Strength: B799

Endurance: A830

Dexterity: C650

Agility: A890

Magic: S999


It was the next day and Shirou was currently pounding away in a forge he rented out from the Hephaestus Familia. He melted down all of the War Shadow's Finger Blade he had gathered up to this point and poured it all into two molds for steel swords. He then heated that up and forged steel hilts and guards, melded it all together with some Alteration and then he proceeded to Reinforce the sharpness and durability of the finished products to the utmost limit bringing it to C rank level rivaling the base stats of Kanshou and Bakuya.

He named the two dual War Shadow longswords "Twin Shadow," it was direct and to the point and still had a bit of style so he was going with it.

He sheathed Twin Shadow on his back using leather scabbards that he had made beforehand, and they fit like a glove since he made sure to get all of the measurements just right.

Shirou was thinking that he'd just keep Twin Shadow around as his signature weapons, because every Hero needed something to be recognized by and he wanted it to be swords he had made himself. Maybe one day it would reach the ranks of his own Noble Phantasm as he made a name for himself in this day and age.

The blades of Twin Shadow were dark as midnight with a slight silver to the edge, the hilts and guard were polished steel and had black wrapping for a good grip. The shape of the blades were simply straight and double edged like any regular steel longsword. One of the properties of War Shadow's Finger Blade Shirou discovered was that they were completely malleable when it came to Magic so he could just repair with Alteration and Reinforce them as many times as he wanted. And once Shirou can get his hands on some rare materials from the dungeon he can go about mixing them into Twin Shadow to improve the swords. Also, with some Alteration he could grant the sharpness of say, Durandal onto his swords indefinitely bringing him to just some minor maintenance on the blades every now and then from having to house such a strong power.

With Twin Shadow on his back and with his trademark silver armor on Shirou made his way back into the dungeon for some more monster hunting. Ah yes, Shirou had long since made sure that from his regular clothes to his silver armor were Reinforced to the utmost limit just in case he ever got hit, so far he hasn't been hit once but better safe than sorry.

"Wow! Those are some pretty good looking swords, Shirou-sama! Did you really make them yourself?"

"That's right, Lili. And today we're going to test them out on some Killer Ants."

The Killer Ant. A red ant monster with four legs and two arms. It has a hard shell and has high attack, causing it to be called a new adventurer killer. It can use pheromones to attract companions in a pinch.

And so there Shirou and Lili were on the 7th floor of the dungeon fighting off against a swarm of Killer Ants. Twin Shadow was slicing through their hard shell like a hot knife through butter without any problem, and that's with just the Reinforcement and the monster slaying properties of Kanshou and Bakuya for an added kick to their strength.

Lili was helping fight too with a brand new, high end crossbow she bought recently with her earnings. She kept aiming for a spot right between their eyes.

When the swarm of Killer Ants seemingly tripled in size that was when Shirou had a veritable wall of Twin Shadow be Traced. He Traced exactly a dozen pairs of Twin Shadow filled to the brim with prana and then launched it all at the gathered army of Killer Ants. The resulting explosions killed the monster by the hundreds.

The remainder were quickly dealt with through some good old fashioned hacking and slashing. The Magic Stones were promptly gathered and the two companions made their way back to the guild to sell their spoils. They earned about 1,000,000 valis each from that excursion, there really were a lot of Killer Ants that tried to kill them that day.


I typed all of this in a few hours from what I can tell. I hope it is to your liking, dear readers! Till next time!