Yes, you know who exactly this guy is.
Chapter 4 Warm welcome
I managed to meet up with them on the way to this friend of theirs. My alarm started to ring on the way but seeing no potential enemies around, I put it on silent. I also made sure to wear the cape S'yne gave me.
"They are not after you, right?" Hisato asked.
"I made sure to leave no easy to follow trails behind, we should have at least two days. Also, I'm detecting an enemy nearby, but the signal is weak. Be prepared for an attack."
"I guess we won't relax from now on."
We seem to have headed to a larger town. Hisato told me that this friend is one of the innkeepers. They used her rooms as their base when they were here. The town was in ruins tough. He said that the remaining people moved into the sewers. With him and S'yne showing that they are heroes, we should not have any problems getting in. Apparently, a lot of the tools used to pretend to be heroes were already lost.
The walls are destroyed, clearly won't protect anything. The roofs are burnt and collapsed. Most of the building walls still seem to be standing, but monsters already made nests among the ruins.
When we arrived at the remnants of the gates but we did not enter that way. Instead, we kept on going to the river flowing next to the town. We approached a large pipe, that has been blocked by a wall, and got a small door on it just large enough for one person to go through… They don't seem to use carriages anymore. I can also see a pile of broken bricks nearby.
"Our markers to this town got carried away in a bandit attack" S'yne explained. So that is why we had to walk. Hisato told me that their teleport skill works by placing small marking pins on the places where they want to teleport. If it moves than the point also moves. They can also observe the area around the pin.
As we approached the gate, a window opened with a person pointing a crossbow at us.
"That kind of weapon was really hard to figure out. It can deal large amounts of damage, even if the user's stats would not allow it" Hisato explained. "It's also very hard to make, so we only have a few of them."
"Don't you see who we are!" He shouted at the gatekeeper, arms out, pushing his chest forward to make the gem visible. The woman(? I see long hair I think) signed with her hand to come closer. They opened the gate for us. I have gotten some suspicious looks, but they don't ask any questions. Most likely because I'm with a Hero.
"I think this is what a Legendary Hero would describe as `post-apocalyptic`, right?"
"You must have seen a lot, yeah. That is how I'd describe it." Hisato nervously answered my question.
They are holding up, but I can see a lot of skinny children, who seem to have their makeshift beds aligned around the walls. This is not good. Are there enough souls left to support the barrier? If not, then we're going to be in big trouble. I'll have to ask them about the status of their protective beasts.
After entering the door, I see the remnants of an old sewer pipe. Although, I can also see that it has seen better days. Segments of the pipes are missing, and those parts are being held up by wooden beams. It looks like the mixture of a mineshaft and a sewer pipe.
They lead me to a hole in the wall. It looks like it was meant to be an inn/tavern of some sort. A short guy is greeting us, he has a lot of bottles behind him. Definitely a tavern for sure.
"Hey, A'rula!"
"Greetings, Hisato it's been a long time. Have you finally decided to stay in the city?"
"No, we'd still like to keep a lower profile. Have you seen Tsuyoshi recently?"
"Oh yeah, he left about an hour ago. You might have just missed him"
The signal is stronger now, but I can't get a direction on it.
"Did he find any new rings I should be aware of?" Hisato asks him while keeping a straight face. I doubt that Tsuyoshi would have survived after that guy took the Ring.
"Yeah, he found a rare metal with some interesting properties, here take it."
He pulls out 2 chunks of ore and 2 pieces of metal ingots and hands them over to S'yne and Hisato.
"Do you have more? I'd like to experiment with it."
"Let me go to the back."
After he left our view, I whispered to Hisato.
"The signal is stronger, but I can't get a direction on it. He must be in this city."
"That's gonna be a problem."
He returned with a bag full of rocks.
"This is all I have of it."
"Thank you."
I hope I can get my hands on that ore. It never hurts to have a new weapon.
"And who's this new fella'?" A'rula asks while pointing at me.
"We met him on the way here. He's a strong warrior."
"I see. Can you actually trust him?" I guess he's right.
"He has shown his loyalty time and time again, in a way that I can't deny. He also made us stronger."
"I see. Anyways, what you think, how much his help will contribute to finally stopping the waves?"
"We'll have to see. We're definitely onto something."
"Great! I hope I can get back to my usual business as quickly as possible. I can give you a separate room for the night. On the house of course!"
Hisato looks at me. I nod. We should stay here to find the target.
"Fine, we'll accept your offer."
"Good, good."
So that's settled we took in a small room that was clearly designed for one person but had four beds in it. The walls were raw stone and dirt, and it had a small lantern hanging from the ceiling.
"Let's see what it unlocks, we can look after the invader when we have a location."
We take the ore and let our weapons absorb it. S'yne also takes her doll and starts working on it.
SSMG-375 `Meteoric` (C/empty)
Ability Locked:
Equip bonus:
Skill: Cosmic Shot
Attack +3
Equip effect:
Low Gravity
Mastery level:0
Magazine size: 40
Caliber: 9mm
Range: 2000m
I swap into it. What does "low gravity" even mean? Feeling lighter, I do a light hop and subsequently hit my head on a ceiling beam.
"What was that?" S'yne exclaimed. Hisato is chuckling.
"This weapon has an equip effect called low gravity."
"Low what?" S'yne looks confused, Hisato bursts out laughing. "What's so funny?" She looks really embarrassed.
"That weapon really gives you low gravity?" He's laughing. "It gave me `Starline Shield`, and `Weight Reduction`" He turns over to S'yne "In a nutshell, as you could see, it makes him fall slower, and jump higher. Also possible run faster." She nods, a little confused.
My alarm is showing a direction, the enemy is on the other side of the door. I quickly stand up, leaving a surprised pair of heroes behind me, and I aim my gun at the door.
"The enemy is behind the door!"
They stand up and get ready for battle. The Hisato doll reanimates and gets ready to attack.
"Get behind us, don't show your weapon yet!" Hiato whispers in my ear, I back off.
Someone is knocking on the door.
"Who's there?" S'yne responds.
The door opens, it's A'rula I don't see anyone behind him.
"Greetings, I brought you some dinner!"
Could he be the invader? No. They must be doing some tricks, and I have to figure out what. The sensor looks for a very specific signature that they receive after getting power.
Hisato and S'yne relax.
"What?" The innkeeper asks, slightly confused
"Nah we just had a bad feeling about something," Hisato responds.
"You don't need to worry. We already survived several attacks, without any breaches. Now have at it!" A'rula responds really happily.
He closes the door.
"Well, there was no enemy there," Hisato says to me, disappointed.
"I have a poison detection ability. Can I at least check it?" I have to know if my detection can fail. My hand is smoking. Hisato looks at my hand.
"Okey. Checking won't hurt, but you should calm down."
Without a response, I take a chunk of the food and put it into my weapon.
"Nah?" Hisato is impatient.
"It is poisoned." That is what I see. "If you have a poison detection skill, use it, I want to be proven wrong..." I don't want to be right.
They both check it. Their faces go white. One of the inhabitants of this world turned on a legendary hero. Their friend tried to kill us while pretending to be nice. My gun is smoking. I can't fail like that.
"Calm down!"
