Greetings and salutations my absolutely gorgeous reader, it is wonderful to see that you have chosen to read this fanfiction out of all the wonderful works out there.
And for that, I must thank you.
Anyways, this story originates from an ongoing RP me and my friend Jax are doing, and will be mostly unchanged from it.
The only real changes being a few minor dialogue alterations and added context to make the story go more smoothly.
Aside from that though, you'll be reading what we created together.
So lets get on with it shall we?
P.S. There's a special guest in the RP who will be named at the end of the chapter.
Note: Jax also has no clue I'm doing this, so by the time he finds out I'll have already written the entire chapter.
Chapter 1: The Summoning of the Heroes
"AAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Jax's cry of surprise and slight fear were painfully cut off as his face made contact with a stone floor.
Which was strange, since he was pretty sure he was in his room, which had a carpet.
Getting up and looking around, he noticed a few things.
1: There was a strange, ornate-looking bow sitting in the palm of his left hand.
2: He was surrounded by weird-looking people in robes.
3: There were three other people holding ornate-looking weapons like him. Two dudes and a girl.
4: The ground around them was slowly ceasing to glow(And the fact that it was glowing moments ago).
So this all bid the question, where the hell was he!?
"Sorry for the abruptness and the language, but I'll just shout it for the four of us... WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?" Jax complained as he rubbed his sore head.
Everyone, including the three other weapon-holders, flinched back from his yelling.
Hesitantly, one of the robed individuals spoke up.
"Oh great Cardinal Heroes! Please use the power within your divine weapons to save our world!" he said, not really explaining shit to the four of them.
Why? You know, because they're Humans, Humans are idiots.
One of them, the shield-wielder and the only girl of the four, spoke her thoughts on it.
"Yeah, that explains jack-shit to us." she said with the most deadpan stare Jax had ever seen in his entire life of 18 years.
The white-haired sword-wielder then spoke his piece on the subject.
"Agreed, so either you start making sense or I start stabbing the shit out of every robed-person here until we get our answers." he spoke calmly as he raised his sword in a basic stance.
The priest, or whatever the hell he was, quickly spoke.
"Please meet with our king sir heroes! I am sure he can properly explain the situation to you!" he said, trying to contemplate the surprisingly aggressive heroes.
"Hmph, while I'm an atheist, I swear to the gods that you better have a way to send us all back, otherwise, we'll have problems." he paused, before turning to the others and briefly summarising. "I was about to graduate for my Engineering Degree. There was a scholarship, and I had plans for tech."
Shield-Girl gave a nod of understanding, Sword-Guy simply lowered his sword but was still visibly tense, and Spear-Dude just gave him a friendly, yet awkward, smile and wave.
"Y-yes! Just please meet with our king so he may explain the circumstances in which we were forced to summon you!" the priest-man said before beckoning the "Heroes" to follow him.
Without any real other choice, they followed.
There was a small stop on the way though, as Shield-Girl decided to annoy the summoners a bit by "Stopping to enjoy the scenery" as she put it.
He likes her already.
Shield-Girl's POV
Goddamn, this looks so much like my favourite game it's not even funny.
Let's see... If I'm right then...
Ah, here's my stat screen!
Title: [Tate no Yuusha]
Name: Asuki Hatashi
Class: [Shield Hero]
HP: 2,900/2,900
MP: 1,400/1,400
SP: 1,700/1,700
EP: 1,200/1,200
Level: [1(0/100)]
Stats
ATK: 0
DEF: 80
AGI: 10
MAG ATK: 5
MAG DEF: 75
MAG: 20
Stat Points: [100]
Well, this is concerning.
I get that Shielders are meant to have low ATK, but to give me absolutely zero offensive capability outside of magic?
Hmm... Lets see if I can fix that.
ATK: 5
DEF: 130
AGI: 10
MAG ATK: 5
MAG DEF: 120
MAG: 20
Stat Points: [0]
Damn Level/Stat Caps...
Welp, at least I cant be killed easily! I'm basically a literal tank!
Slow, but impossible to kill for those of my level range!
Back to Jax's Third Person POV
Once they arrived at the throne room, they saw the king sitting on his throne with two empty thrones besides his own. Presumably for the queen and their heir/heiress.
"Greeting, heroes, my name is Aultcray Melromarc the XXXII, please identify yourselves."
Seeing his fellow heroes looking at him to start, Jax guessed he would be the one kicking off introductions.
Jax was about to introduce himself, but instead grinned and decided to pull a "Kakashi".
"I'm Jax Yurei, I like some things, I hate others, and my dreams are now brutally butchered "Thanks" to you folks by summoning us without any warning into whatever world we're in."
Cue Shield-Girl and Spear-Dude laughing their asses off due to his savagery and Sword-Guy facepalming with a smile on his face.
Hey, at least he was a bit less tense now.
"I guess it's my turn." Sword-Guy said, drawing the attention of the embarrassed king to himself.
"My name is Shiro Cancer, I'm 19 years old, and I have no qualms with stabbing someone if they prove to be too much of an inconvenience." the now-named Shiro said without missing a single beat.
He was 5ft11 in height, had smooth white hair which went down to his shoulders, cold blue eyes, and had a decently fit body which was stuffed into a white sweater and blue jeans.
Next on the list of introductions was Spear-Dude.
"What's up? Name's Motoyasu Kitamura, 21 years old, and your new Yari no Yuusha!" he said with a laid back tone of voice.
And lastly was Shield-Girl.
"Welp, guess I'm las-" she was then cut off by the king, who began to explain about the "Waves of Catastrophe" and how they'd end the world.
Wow, what an asshole.
Jax wasn't having any of it though.
"Wow! You disrespect someone that would help you in your time of need. You know, from your attitude alone you probably think the Shield is the worst. Well, if the walls of your kingdom are "shields", tell us again that the Shield is useless when all of you are dead from no defences." he said with the savagery of a thousands sabre tooth tigers.
"Daaaaaaaaaaamn, Jax coming in with that savagery!" Shiro exclaimed with a small grin plastered on his face, while Motoyasu looked around awkwardly and Shield-Girl was giving him a surprised stare.
"Erm... Apologies, I simply wished to start explaining the situation immediately due to the limited time we have." Aultcray said, trying to save face.
"And now that tells me that you aren't the one in charge. You backtracked, sure. That could show that you are in a hurry, but if you were really in a hurry, you wouldn't have let us introduce ourselves, merely telling us that we can introduce ourselves later after a rundown of the situation. And with how that there's no lady around, I'm pretty sure we're missing the 'queen' of this land. I made business deals before, and I'm pretty sure you're only trying to make us hear and believe everything at face-value. After all, if this is really that important, then everyone that's royalty or is important would be here." Jax scoffed while crossing his arms.
Aultcray blanched at Jax's casual deflection of his argument, and tried to explain himself.
Emphasis on the word, tried.
"Damn Jax, that intelligence will be useful later down the line." Shield-Girl spoke up, cutting off the king like he did to her.
How does it feel, ya bastard?
"And finally, I'm pretty sure that there's a lack of important people around here. While you were distracted by listening to me, I noticed a lack of people around us. No tailors to take our body measurements for clothing and/or armour, no crowds of people to offer us supplies for what we need to do, and I'm pretty sure there's no problems given the fact that this place is still in good condition along with how people are not even interjecting these rants of mine. Seriously, you are waiting for me to finish talking like how your parents teach you to be kind to others." Jax concluded his "minor" rant.
I say minor with quotation marks because "Minor" is subjective.
He then paused, before asking the others curiously, "Any of you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?"
Shield-girl merely raised her hand with a grin, guessing what he was planning to say.
Jax groaned and shouted, "Oh, come on! You also had to separate us from our friends, family, and loved ones!?"
"While I understand your aggression, our world is-" Aultcray was cut off again, but this time by Shiro.
"Yeah yeah, your world is in danger, we get it. But that doesn't excuse how you basically just kidnapped us from our homes and decided we'd just fight for the fate of this world without even hearing our own opinions on the matter." he stated as he rested his sword on his shoulder.
"Well regardless, what's done is done, as there is no known way to return the heroes home until all of the Waves have been defeated." Aultcray replied with an irritated look on his face.
"And how long would that take?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Due to how time between Waves vary, it is uncertain. Though they have been known to go on for years at a time." Aultcray said with a frown marring his face.
"So you took us away from our homes, without our consent, away from all those we love and care about, just so you can drag us into what's effectively a war which we originally had no place in?" Shield-Girl asked with her own frown.
"Our circumstances drove us to desper-" Aultcray was cut off again when Shiro tapped his sword on the ground.
"All heroes who agree we should just let this country burn to the ground, raise your hand." he said before raising his own hand, quickly joined by Jax and Shield-Girl.
"Wha-!? But-!" Aultcray tried to say something, but was ignored as the three began to walk out of the room.
As you can probably tell, this ain't gonna be like the canon story at all.
The three of them were soon walking through the streets of the city, earning odd stares from the residents due to how different their clothing was in comparison.
Jax snapped his fingers as they made their way to find a weapon or armour shop, "Oh yeah. Shield-girl, what's your name?"
"Hm? Oh, it's Asuki Hatashi, 17 years old, and Guild Master of my guild in Moon Dynasty." she replied casually.
However, there was one thing.
Jax didn't know what the fuck Moon Dynasty was.
"Moon Dynasty? I'm the heir to the Kikai Clan, and I haven't heard of it." Jax said, confused.
"Hm? What era do you live in? Moon Dynasty is the most popular game in the world. You'd have to live under the earth itself to have not even heard about it." Asuki replied while looking at the bow-user curiously.
"I don't know what either of you two are talking about, "Clans" don't exist and I've never even heard of a game with either "Moon" or "Dynasty" in the name." Shiro cut in with his own two cents.
The three of them then began to compare their general knowledge and, as it turned out, all three of them were from different worlds.
"Well, assuming that Spear Guy's is also from a different world... Talk about an 'Isekai Quartet'." Jax muttered.
"Indeed... So, have either of you two played any video games?" Asuki asked with a small head tilt as the three of them continued with their walk through town.
Jax blinked. "What the fuck is a videogame?"
The other two heroes then paused, turned around, and looked him right in his eyes.
"My Clan and the rest of my world has to deal with Dungeons spawning various monsters in select regions of the world." Jax replied with a deadpan tone.
"Right... Alternate worlds and all..." Shiro trailed off awkwardly as he looked away from Jax.
"To summarise, video game are basically games you play through various types of technology, such as a PC. They can range from the fantasy-genre like this world to a more modern or even higher technologically advanced setting than the one you live in." Asuki explained as she eyed down some robe for some reason.
Jax absentmindedly nodded, before asking Asuki, "So, when I was ranting, you mentioned that you have a loved one. Who is it?"
Asuki's face grew a loving smile as she explained.
"Her name is Hitomi Chishio, and she's just absolutely perfect! She's kind, beautiful, affectionate, caring, and just so many more things if I were to list them all we would be here for half a week!" she ranted, gazing off into the distance, clearly thinking of her loved one.
She then paused, and looked as if she were reading something.
Except, there was nothing but air in front of her face.
Asuki's First Person perspective at the same time
I stared at the two notifications which suddenly appeared in front of my face.
Purity Series - [Shield of Love]: Unlocked
Due to intense emotions [Shield of Love] has evolved to [Shield of Love III]
Well, ain't this interesting?
Back to following Jax in Third Person
"Well, your 'perfect girlfriend' or whatever is now separated from you, a literal world away at the very least, so-" Jax stated, wincing at his own words since he didn't intend to sound like such an asshole.
"Wait, you see something?" Jax asked, both redirecting the topic while trying to see what Asuki was.
Asuki, for her part, nodded before explaining.
"It looks like we can unlock new Weapon Forms for our weapons through our emotions, since I just got a new shield called the "Shield of Love"." she explained while somehow switching her shield into it's newly unlocked form.
Appearance wise, it had a basic colour scheme of pink with silver edges.
The actual design of the shield was basically three hearts stacked up to form a shield which was somewhere between the size of a normal shield, and a tower shield.
He also noticed the Shield's gem, which was once green, was now a gentle pink colour.
Jax blinked. "Um, how do I check for whatever I "unlock"?"
Asuki looked at him in confusion for a few moments, before realisation hit her.
"Oh right, you haven't played a single video game before. Welp, not to worry since I'll teach you how!" she exclaimed while the three of them sit down on the grass just outside of town.
How did they get there? Simple, they walked while they talked.
"Ok, first thing you'll need to do is access your status screen, which can easily be done by looking at the lower right corner of your field of view and mentally "clicking" the icon which is there." low and behold, in Jax's field of vision was a small squad with three dots in it.
Doing as Asuki explained and "clicking" on it, brought up his "status screen".
Title: [Yumi no Yusha]
Name: Jax 'Kikai' Yurei
Class: [Bow Hero]
HP: 400/400
MP: 900/900
SP: 1,100/1,100
Level: [1(0/100)]
Stats
ATK: 20
DEF: 5
AGI: 30
MAG ATK: 25
MAG DEF: 5
MAG: 10
"Anything else you have figured out that I need to know?" Jax asked with a frown.
"My guess is everything, due to the fact that this is almost exactly like Moon Dynasty, so cut the back-talk unless you don't want my help anymore." Asuki quipped before refocusing.
"Next thing you need to do is check the tabs, which will either be on the top or bottom of your vision depending on your preference, until you find one which looks like your weapon, then "click" on it and you'll be brought to your Weapon Tree, which houses all of your available Weapon Forms." she explained as she appeared to be going through her own menu of options.
"Got it, thanks." Shiro replied as, he to, went through his "stats".
Shiro's POV
Well this is certainly interesting.
I have six stats, and all of them are used for calculating battle-potential, unlike the seven stats of STR, DEX, END, INT, WIS, CHA, and LUK I'm used to.
Title: [Ken no Yuusha]
Name: Shiro Cancer
Class: [Sword Hero]
HP: 1,000/1,000
MP: 800/800
SP: 1,200/1,200
Level: [1(0/100)]
Stats:
ATK: 50
DEF: 20
AGI: 10
MAG ATK: 25
MAG DEF: 10
MAG: 10
Clearly, his build is geared towards overwhelming his opponent with raw offensive power, rather than clever battle tactics.
Though, that doesn't mean he isn't going to make any, he's a thinker at heart after all, thinking is what he does.
Back to Jax's Third Person POV(Again)
Looking through his own, Jax realised he had a heavy emphasis on his offensive stats, while his defensive ones sucked.
Frowning, he muttered, "Long distance attacks... Makes sense."
"Yeah, sorry man but the [Archer] class and its variants are pretty much glass cannons, they can dish out a shit ton of damage, but can easily be taken out by even lower level monsters if they aren't careful." Asuki explain as she plucked some grass and held it close to her Shield's gem, which somehow absorbed said grass into itself.
She then switched the Shield into a new form, with the entire form appearing as if it was a round shield weaved out of grass.
Oh, and the gem reverted to its original green hue.
"Sweet, +2 DEF and a new skill." Asuki said with a small smile.
Um, what?
"Eh?" was Jax's intelligent reply.
"Hm? Oh right, sorry I keep forgetting. To put it simply, you can obtain new Weapon Forms by "feeding" your weapon different materials. This can range from monster drops, to exotic minerals like diamonds and rubies, to even mundane things like robe and pipes." Asuki explain as grabbed some dirt and also fed that to her shield.
Blinking, Jax tried it out by feeding dirt and grass to his own weapon.
Weapon Form unlocked: [Dirt Bow]
Weapon Form unlocked: [Grass Bow]
[Dirt Bow]: +1 ATK
[Grass Bow]: +2 AGI - Skill: [Snare Trap]
"[Snare Trap]?" Jax muttered just loud enough for the others to hear.
"Oh, I remember that skill from the time I played as an [Archer], even though you can get it really early on it's incredibly useful since it can immobilise enemies for you to either worry about later, or give you time to aim up for a headshot for more damage." Asuki explained with a smile.
Jax blinked, before reading the Skill Description.
Sure enough, it "Infused an arrow with the power of nature to create an immobilising trap", all in all it seemed it would be decently useful despite the 10 seconds cooldown period it had on it.
Which made sense, since if Jax could spam it all willy nilly he could literally stop an entire army in its tracks for him to just pick off one by one.
Ideally, it would best used when he has time to prepare, or to briefly stun an enemy while he or an ally retreated to safety.
Jax frowned, looking around, "Think it's possible for the three of us to team up? Whether we like it or not, we cannot readily trust anyone around here..."
"Sorry Jaxxy-boi, but unfortunately we cant do that." Asuki replied with a frown.
"Why not?" Shiro, who had been remarkably quiet this whole time, asked curiously.
"Because for some reason our weapons "repel" each other, stopping us from gaining EXP if we're too close together, with the only exception being when the Waves are occurring." Asuki explained, before a notice appeared in the other two heroes' vision.
Weapon Restriction Rule: The Cardinal Weapons naturally repel each other by nature, thus it is advised to work separately in order to avoid wasted EXP.
Well then, that sucks.
Jax groaned in annoyance, "Well... now we need to get some allies that won't stab us in the back..."
"Well, for now we can fight solo separately since we're all decently strong in our own ways." Asuki said before looking at Jax.
"For you, your best strategy for now would be to climb up a tree or some other tall object in a place where there are only ground enemies, that way even if they try to get to you, they'll be full of arrows long before they get close." Asuki explained while leaning back, and then turned to Shiro.
"Since [Swordsman] are decently balanced from the start, I doubt you'll have any trouble Shiro, especially if you can kill the monsters before they even realise what's going on." Asuki continued to offer her professional advice.
It made sense, after all if you can attack your opponent, but they cant attack you, then generally you'll win unless they retreat.
Who knew she was such a strategist?
Jax sighed, but nodded, "Got it. Question, though... Is there a way for us to exchange messages quickly? Like a 'Telepathy' spell or something? That way, we can better coordinate ourselves with information."
"There are Crystal Balls which can be linked to each other, but since they require the knowledge of magic and how they work..." Asuki trailed off, letting them come to their own conclusions.
Jax nodded, "Yeah, the 'Magic System' might be different from the one I'm use too, as well..." he said as he began to look around.
He then noticed what appeared to be orange balls bouncing about in the grass.
What the actual fuck?
Asuki followed his line of sight, also taking note of the orange dots bouncing about.
"Oh yeah, those are Orange Balloons, the first type of enemy you typically encounter. They are quite tricky to catch and/or hit, but they do give a decent amount of EXP, and since they only have 3-4 ATK at most, they are quite safe to engage, even if you're Level 1." she explained as she got up, and turned her palm to face them.
"[Ensnare]!" she called out her skill, causing the Orange Balloons to be trapped by long blades of grass coming up from the ground.
"Take your time in taking them out, I doubt they can escape. Also even though we wont get any EXP from this, we can still split the drops to unlock more Weapon Forms and thus, get stronger." Asuki explained while slowly starting to walk towards the tied up balloons.
Jax slowly nodded, before muttering as he drew and held, purposely aiming 30 degrees off, "Let's see what [Auto Aim] does..."
He noticed a small force "pull" his bow into a different position, and kept it steady there.
Aimed a bit above the balloon he was aiming for, slightly to the right.
He then let off the shot, seeing it sail through the air before hitting the balloon head-on, instantly killing it due to his high ATK stat.
He may not have gotten any EXP, but man did he feel a bit badass making a shot like that from about 40 metres away.
Snapping out of it, he looked around for unrestrained Orange Balloons before heading over to check the drops.
He easily got there before the other two heroes, even though Asuki had a head start, and killed off the rest of the balloons before feeding some of their remains to his Bow.
Weapon Form unlocked: [Orange Balloon Bow]
[Orange Balloon Bow]: +4 ATK
It may not have been much, but if he kept unlocking weapons like this his stats would be in the hundreds in no time.
Also, looking at a small hint from his Help Guide told him if he kept using the Weapon Form, it would "fully unlock" its stat bonuses and Skills so that they would be active regardless of which Weapon Form he currently had equipped.
That's nice to know.
Looking back, he saw Asuki casually picking up Orange Balloon remnants while multiple living Orange Balloons tried biting through her skin.
It wasn't doing shit to her though, evident by the fact that she doesn't look the least bit fazed by them, like at all.
Rolling his eyes, he went back to killing the balloons with his new bow, even managing to kill two of them with one arrow.
He noticed Shiro having a bit of fun with his Sword, easily dancing around the Balloons before ending them with swift single strikes.
There was an Orange Balloon latched onto his leg though, though it was obvious he didn't really care about it.
Shaking his head, he continued to look around, absentmindedly feeding his bow materials.
There wasn't really much around due to them being in a plains biome, but he could see a forest and a cave.
Though, it may not be a good idea to go just yet since, well, he is still only Level 1.
Sniping off a few more balloons, he gathered his drops and regrouped with the others.
Asuki was currently seeing if she could "strangle" a Balloon to death while Shiro was staring into his status screen.
Yup, these were two of the people he was summoned with.
Jesus, he hopes that Motoyasu isn't too weird.
Meanwhile, with Motoyasu
"Alright ladies, lets do our best!" Motoyasu said while striking an odd pose.
Oh, and his entire party consisted of nothing but females.
Back with our regularly scheduled story
Shaking his head, he told the others, "I'm heading back to town to get a feel of where everything is."
Asuki gave him a nod of confirmation while Shiro got up and started walking with him.
"I'll join you since I'd like to know as well." he explained as they strolled back to town, easily batting aside anything which stood in their way without even needing to draw their weapons.
Oh, and apparently their weapons stick to them like glue, so even if they don't have a holster they'll still remain on their bodies.
How convenient!
And so began the adventure, and the Rising of the Heroes!
So... Yeah.
This is what we created.
Granted, I didn't type out the scenes in Asuki's and Shiro's perspectives, I just added them in while writing this.
Btw Shiro is the great being known as "The Dark Wolf Shiro", one of my favourite authors of all time.
So go check him out, 'cause he's coolio.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and continue to enjoy this story.
And without further adieu, adios, mi amigos.