"Fantastic! The summoning has been a succes!" - he heard a voice.
Naofumi Iwatani. That's his name. He is your standard japanese isekai protagonist before going to a different world (read: shut-in neet).
However! He wasn't a total loser! He sometimes went outside! He even had actual friends!
When it comes to his personality he was generally easy-going and he was maybe a little bit naive. Other than that he was pretty quiet most of the time.
So... what happened? Last thing he remembers was...
...right...
That day his friend, Ren, had turned 18 and they together with two other friends went out to town to celebrate. Three of his friends got drunk, forcing Naofumi to drive them all home. (car wasn't his.)
Unfortunately he completely failed. Like, you couldn't fail more. He crashed the car and killed them all.
And here he is now. In one second he sees that truck that was about to hit them, in the very next second he was laying on some stone floor, and now he was hearing this voice.
"Brave heroes! Would you please save our world from pure evil?"
"What?" - a united voice of four young men answered, Naofumi's mixed into it as well.
Iwatani looked around, he noticed all three of his friends being next to him, they looked just as confused as him.
A tall blonde guy with long hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a red, checked shirt and mustard jeans. He was also holding some sort of a spear in his hands. Motoyasu Kitamura.
A slightly shorter guy with straight black hair and blue eyes, dressed in a blue blouse and black trousers. Vielding a short sword, Ren Amaki.
Finally, the shortest and youngest out of all of them, Itsuki Kawasumi, who was now holding some sort of a bow. He had blonde hair and bright green eyes, almost yellow in fact. He was dressed in his school uniform since he didn't have any better clothes, and he didn't know how to dress up for his friend's birthday.
They had many differences between each other, but they all had one thing in common: They liked MMO RPG games. They spent countless hours playing together through the internet, and ever since Motoyasu and Naofumi became flatmates (they went to the same college) the four of them often met to play DnD.
"Guys!" - he called to them, happy to see them alive.
"Ugh... What happened?" - Ren said while grabbing his head.
"Naofumi... where the hell did you bring us while we were blasted?" - Motoyasu, Naofumi's flatmate and best bro for life asked.
"...I'm never drinking again..." - Itsuki said, while looking a little bit pale.
"Guys..I-I..W-we...S-sorry..." - Naofumi had no idea what to say. He wanted to apologise, but... they are all alive? Is there anything to apologise for?
"Save it for later, I think I know what's going on..." - Ren said to him after raising his hand to stop him.
Ren was very stoic, he barely showed any emotions. That said, Naofumi and the other two learned to tell what mood is he truly in. And Naofumi could tell Ren wasn't angry at all, which confused him.
"Plese, oh brave heroes. Our world is in dire need for saving." - that guy started his rant again. He was wearing some sort of a ceremonial robe, which only added to the confusion.
Oh, that bunch of hooded figures behind him with the same robes didn't help at all.
Motoyasu, who carefully looked around already, gasped and quietly said: "Oh my God! I think I know what happened too!" - he said with a smile.
"What do you mean?" - Itsuki asked while scretching the bow's string.
"We got Isekai'd" - Ren answered.
Itsuki's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. In all of this shock he also released the chord, which struck him in his wrist, making him drop the weapon and hiss in pain.
"What!?" - Naofumi asked noone in particular.
"Best. Birthday. Ever." - Ren said slowly with a smile on his face like nobody ever saw before.
Naofumi, looked around. Indeed, it really looked like they were in some sort of a medieval castle like in tales and mangas.
The robe guy cleared his throat to get their attention and started his speech:
"You are the four cardinal heroes, and you have been summoned using an ancient ritual. Our world is in the most fragile state, and is currently on the verge of destruction. So we beg you, heroes, please, lend us your aid!" - he bowed after finishing, and hooded figures behind him did the same.
"What do we get for helping you guys?" - Ren's answer surprised Naofumi.
"What type of guarantee do we get that you won't simply throw us away after we fix your mess?" - Itsuki added.
'Ohhh... Fair point.' - Naofumi, altough he didn't like it, had to agree.
"You can send us back to our homeworld, right?" - Motoyasu.
"G-good heroes! Before anything, let me take you to our king, and let us agree upon your rewards with him!"
"Alright, take us there." - Ren said with emotionless voice and face. But after he turned to others he was smiling. - "You guys going?"
"Of course!" - Itsuki said with a smile
"Right behind you!" - Motoyasu added while resting his spear on his shoulder.
Naofumi who was still dumfounded stood still however. Once the other three realised that they called out to him, waking him up from his thoughts.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
They were now in the throne room. Very big and spacious, walls and columns made out of marble, with big windows and red carpet inf front of a big throne, which was occupied by the king himself.
"So, you are the four heroes of ancient legends?" - king started, he was a man who looked a bit old, with long gray hair, a beard and purple eyes. His face looked a bit scary, but he sounded polite. He was dressed in purple robes, he had many rings on his fingers and on his head he had a golden crown with a big purple crystal within. - "This is the land of Merlomarc, and I am her king, Aultcray Merlomarc XXXII. Welcome, brave heroes. Please, identify yourselves."
"Ren Amaki. I'm a high school student and I'm 18 years old."
"Motoyasu Kitamura. College student, 21."
"I suppose I'm up next. Itsuki Kawasumi, still in high school, and I'm 16."
Naofumi sighed, they all seemed happy like kids.
"Guess that leaves me, my name is-..." - he has been cut short by the king.
"Good. Ren, Motoyasu and Itsu-..." - In return however, the king has been short by Itsuki.
"Excuse me, king, but you have skipped on our colleague." - He said while pointing at Iwatani.
Ren nodded while Motoyasu hummed.
"Thanks." - Naofumi said.
"You're welcome."
"Ahh, yes, please forgive me." - king said. Altough there was no actual regret or shame in his words.
"Alright... My name is Naofumi Iwatani, college student. 20 years old."
"Now then, I suppose I owe you four an explanation...-" - the king started. - "Lately our world has been haunted by a series of natural disasters known as 'Waves'. Every few months or so a number of cracks in the sky will open and an army of demonic monsters emerge from them, spreading chaos and misery everywhere. The only way to stop a 'wave' is to defeat its 'Boss' which is a term we use to describe the most powerful enemy of the 'wave'. Last wave happened about a month ago. We send our knights to fight, and altough in the end we won we suffered giant losses. On top of that the 'waves' are known for the fact that each is harder than the previous one. That's why once we realised that we couldn't defend ourselves, we knew we had to summon the four legendary heroes."
"Of course, if you succed, you will be handsomely rewarded." - Some noble added.
Naofumi's friends showed their approvance by humming and nodding.
"Now, if we have reached an agreement, I would like to ask you to check your statuses."
Status? What's that?
"Wait, what's a 'status'?" - Naofumi had to ask.
"Yeah, exactly?" - Itsuki joined.
"Are you guys dense? It should have been the very first thing you noticed when we got here." - Ren answered/scoffed - "See that icon in the bottom right corner of your vision? It's kinda like a menu. Try focusing your eyesight on it."
Looking there Naofumi noticed, that, in fact, there was some green square icon there. He focused his vision on it, and after a short while a big holographic menu popped up in front of him, showing him his statistics and level. His current level being a mere '1'.
Naofumi Iwatani: Shield Hero LV.1
Equipment: Small Shield (legendary weapon), otherwordly clothes
As for statistics, he couldn't know wether they were high or low, but he could see that his 'build' was meant for defense, in fact, his 'attack' statistic was standing at '1'
"What's all of this stuff?" - he asked.
"It's called 'Status Magic', an ability exclusive to heroes." - the noble answered.
"So where do we go? What's the first step?" - Ren asked, altough his voice emotionless, his friends could feel his impatience.
"You will set off to an adventure, to develop and upgrade those legendary weapons you have been equipped with."
'"Upgrade' legendary weapons? What does that mean? Shouldn't they be maxed out already? Also, mine is not even a weapon technically!" - Naofumi complained after noticing his 'weapon' was a small, plain-looking pointed shield on his right forearm.
Motoyasu spinned his spear around and said:
"Can't we just use some other weapons till these are usable?" - a very good point!
"I suppose we will have to figure it out as we go. Also it looks like we've got a lot of training ahead of us." - Ren gave his two cents.
"We will have to level up nice and fast!" - Itsuki added.
"Then once the four of us feel strong enough we can form a party and-..." - Naofumi's been cut short once again.
"One moment, brave heroes, I've neglected to mention, you must each recruit allies and adventure separately."
"And why is that?"
"It is said that by their very nature the legendary weapons repell one another, If you will try to work together it will apparently hinder their development."
At that moment on Naofumi's 'screen' an announcement popped up:
Help: "When two or more legendary weapon vielders operate together, it causes an adverse reaction in the weapons. Working separately is highly advised."
'...What does that even mean?' - Naofumi said in his mind.
"Since the sun is about ot set tonight. Go and rest, and begin your quest tomorrow. We will gather the finest warriors for your allies in the meantime." - King announced.
At that moment a certain lady in an orange dress came closer to them and said: "We have quarters prepared for you. Please, sirs, right this way." - she said and pointed in the direction of some hallway.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
"I guess when you're the hero of legend you get special treatment. That girl who lead us here was cute!" - Motoyasu started.
All three of them ignored the last part, they all knew way too well that Motoyasu was a womanizer. Pretty annoying trait, and they had to admit they were super jealous of their friend's adventures with the opposite sex, but other than that it was pretty much his only real flaw.
They were now in their quarters. A pretty big living room with a table full of expensive food and a fireplace which was burning at the moment. It was also connected to four separate bedrooms for all of them.
Ren, who was looking at his reflection in his sword's blue gem quielty said:
"I still can't believe we got Isekai'd"
Naofumi had to agree. Who would have known that this is what awaited them after dea-...
...right...
His smile disappeared and he looked at the ground.
"I'm sorry guys. I killed all of you. You trusted me and I failed all of you."
The other three were dumbfounded - 'What's he talking about?'
"What do you mean?" - Itsuki asked.
"I crashed while I was driving with the three of you."
The other three looked at each other and started laughing.
Naofumi, only confused at that moment looked at them.
After calming down Ren came closer, put his arm on his shoulder and said with a smile: "I do not blame you for what happened."
"Me neither!" - Itsuki.
"Bro! We got isekai'd! That's like, dream come true!" - Motoyasu.
"...So...You're not angry?"
"Dude." - Ren put his other arm on his other shoulder and looked right into his eyes - "I know it may sound weird, but this is the BEST birthday present I have ever gotten. No joke."
Naofumi felt a bit uncomfortable at the thought that the fact that he killed his friend was regarded as a 'present'.
"So don't you dare ruin this for me and let your guilt distract you from what we're supposed to do here - which is saving the god damn world - do you understand?"
Naofumi smiled. Even though they forgave him, he still hasn't forgiven himself.
"Alright. You are right, saving this world should be our priority..."
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" - Motoyasu cheered.
Itsuki chuckled and started his own topic: "Okay guys, since we got that out of the way how about we talk about our weapons for a bit? I still don't quite understand how they work."
"I guess it's quite complicated, so let me tell you what I know so far." - Ren started, gaining everyone's attention.
"You see, the reason why they are regarded as all-powerful even though they are pretty weak at this point in time is that, as we've been told, they can grow stronger and evolve as we go, right?"
The other three hummed and/or nodded in response.
"The way it works is quite interesting, in order to upgrade your weapon you need 'materials' and let your weapon absorb them to gain their powers. For example, if I absorbed a ... let's say a gold bar, my sword would permamently increase some of its stats AND unlock a new form, most likely something like "Golden Sword" which would have its own set of abilities. You can unlock an nigh-infinte amount of forms for your weapons and switch between them at any time, all you need to do is to let your weapon unlock a new form by absorbing some 'material' and you are good to go. You should be able to see some kind of a skilltree in your 'menu' and you'll understand." - Ren explained
The other three started looking in their 'menus' and viewed their skilltrees. Naofumi's being green, Motoyasu's red and Itsuki's yellow. Ren's was blue.
"Whoah! There is so many!" - Naofumi said, flabbergasted by the humongous size of his skilltree.
"...Which brings us to the next topic, which is how Naofumi's gonna fight without our help. He is a shielder after all." - Motoyasu started.
"What do you mean?" - Iwatani asked.
"You are a shielder, meaning that you have stupidly high defense, but almost zero attack, am I right?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So during the waves when we will fight together we should be OK, but how are you going to prepare yourself for them without any options to attack?" - Motoyasu said, honestly worried.
Naofumi wanted to respond, but Ren was quicker.
"No need to worry, keep in mind we will be given strong companions tomorrow, they will be able to help him."
"Plus, there is a ton of ways in which you can use a shield to deal damage." - Itsuki added.
"Really?" - Naofumi asked.
"Yeah, I can't see your skilltree, but I'm pretty sure you have a 'thorns' or 'deflect' shield somewhere in there."
"Well... since all of them are still locked I can't really know for sure, but it does sound very likely to be the case." - Naofumi said with a smile. For a moment he thought he will be only dead weight to others.
"Don't get me wrong Naofumi, I've never said that I think that you are weak. Keep in mind that you are a shielder, so your main job is to not deal damage but keep your teammates alive by becoming a tank. With your stupidly high defense you should soak up all the damage from enemies while your teammates will slowly kill them."
"That... sounds kinda lame, to be honest."
"Yeah, hehe, but your job is arguably the most important one, because unlike us, you are not meant to take lives, but to save them."
Ren nodded while Itsuki hummed in agreement.
That... somehow gave Naofumi all the encouragment he needed. But there was still one thing he didn't quite understand.
"Thanks guys, but there is still something I don't understand. Ren, you said that our weapons can absorb 'materials' but what exactly classifies as one?"
Ren grabbed his chin and thought for a second.
"That...I don't know. Funnily enough simply absorbing everything you can will probably be the best option." - to confirm this he grabbed a lit candle from the table and moved it close to his sword's gem. A flash of blue light and the candle was gone.
Candle Sword unlocked.
MP + 1
Passive Bonus: Shadow Resistance (minor)
Equip Skill: Small Torch
In order to demonstrate exactly how it works Ren transfromed his sword into its newly unlocked form and used the equip skill, which simply created some light to see in the darkness.
Other three heroes watched as Ren's holy sword changed its appearance completely - now it looked like a regular iron shortsword with its blade covered in half-melted wax, with a lit candle at the end of the blade.
"Whoah" - their combined gasps.
After that each of them grabbed a candle of their own and did the same.
Candle Spear unlocked.
Candle Shield unlocked.
Candle Bow unlocked.
"Whoah this is so cool!"
"So, any more questions / things we should discuss?"
"Nah, the king should explain everything more tomorrow, so I think that we should just call it a day and get a good night's sleep so that we can start the next day fresh and full of energy!" - Itsuki said with a smile
"Agreed" - Ren
"Nighty night then!" - Motoyasu
The three offensive heroes left to their respective rooms leaving Naoufumi alone with his thoughts.
'I'm now in a different world... new world... I got isekai'd... Everything looks like a game... But this is real... And now this entire world is counting on me...no, on us to save it... But... How can I save lives if I couldn't even drive my friends safely home? How can they still trust me? Sure, getting Isekai'd was something I always wanted even though I thought it would be impossible... And here I am...' - At that moment he looked at his reflection in his shield's green gem - 'Can I do it?... NO...I HAVE TO do it... I failed once, but I got a second chance, something that doesn't happen very often, and I'm sure as hell I won't fail again! I won't fail my friends and I won't fail this world! I will take all the hits for them, hell, I'll even DIE for them if I'll have to! ... As Motoyasu said, It's my job to SAVE lives, not to take them!' - with newly found determination Naofumi went to sleep as well.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Next day came.
The four heroes were now back in the throne room, standing in front of the king. After a short while of awkward silence a bunch of people in varying clothing came in. After looking at them Naofumi and the other three realised that those were the adventurers they were promised to be given as party members yesterday. The group was very diverse, ranging from big and muscular barbarian-looking types to small girls who looked like some sort of mages.
"These people are the adventurers that have been chosen to give their aid to heroes on their journeys."
The heores merely nodded/hummed in response.
The king however smirked and added this:
"These people have already decided who they want to travel with."
Altough a bit surprised to hear that, the four heroes accepted that - 'it's only fair' - they guessed.
After a few minutes of adventurers choosing their heroes Naofumi counted the results:
Ren - five people
Itsuki - three people
Motoyasu - four people, all female on top of that (Motherfu-..!)
Naofumi himself - ...
"NOBODY!?" - he practically shouted.
"To think this would come to this... The shield hero doesn't seem very popular..." - the king said with neutral tone. But Naofumi could just feel the sass.
"Please excuse me, your majesty, but this doesn't seem very fair." - Itsuki said
"I have no control over the adventurers' choices." - he responded.
Naofumi looked with pleading eyes at his friends. They understood him and tried to persuade their soon-to-be party members in their own respective ways:
"Anybody who will not keep up will be left behind." - Ren said with a harsh tone to his teammates, but nobody left him.
"Are you sure you don't want to follow the shield hero? I'm sure he would be better at protecting you guys than me." - Itsuki tried to persuade, but failed.
"I can promise you ladies that my friend shield will treat you with respect and protect you from any danger, you sure you don't want him?" - Ughh... Motoyasu...
Suddenly something completely unexpected happened - a girl from Motoyasu's group, and a beautiful one at that, raised her hand and said:
"I will!" - The red haired girl in light armor said, causing everyone in the room, including Naofumi to think 'Wait, really?'. She then moved closer to the shield hero and with a smile on her face said:
"Doesn't your heart just bleed? To think of him out there all alone? I'm Myne Suphia, Nice to meet you, hero!" - her voice was so sweet... almost too sweet.
"U-Umm...N-nice to meet..y-you." - Naofumi, as any virgin otaku got a little bit nervous.
"Does anybody else wish to join the shield?" - king said.
After it was clear that nobody else wanted to go with him king said:
"As I promised you yesterday I will give each of you a big amount of money to start off your adventures. 500 silver coins each, to be exact."
"Please forgive me, your majesty, but if that's the case then it's only fair to give our friend, the shield, a bit more to cover the cost of recruiting some party members on his own." - Itsuki started
"That is correct. We all need to strengthen ourselves and if we will leave the two of them alone they may have trouble levelling up." - Ren added.
The king looked at them for a second and said with a neutral tone: "Very well, the shield hero will receive 800 silver coins, but only this one time."
Naofumi sighed in relief and thanked his friends for that.
'It really feels like this entire world is against me, thank goodness I still have my friends to back me up.' - he thought. - 'That girl will be a huge help too!'
"Now that everything is settled, oh brave heroes, please set off on your adventures to grow stronger in order to fight the waves. I wish all of you the best of luck."- the king finished their conference.
They all left the hall with their respective parties.
As they were leaving the castle they started chatting.
"And so our epic adventure begins!" - Itsuki said with a smile.
"Yes. I wish all of you the best of luck." - Ren said coldly, but they were used to it.
"Who needs luck when we got those legendary weapons?" - Motoyasu said.
"Hmmm... yeah, especially since I can't even attack!" - Naofumi said jokingly, causing all four of them to laugh.
"Oh, c'mon, I'm sure such a hacker like you will find a way around this!" - Motoyasu joked, referring to the fact that when they all played videogames Naofumi was usually the best of them, so the other three often joked that he was hacking.
"Who knows!? Maybe I will!" - Shield answered with a joke of his own.
After they stopped laughing it was finally time to separate.
They wished each other luck and bid their farewells.
*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Ok, so here are a few words of explanation:
- I have read the entirety of manga and watched all of the anime, but I haven't read the light novel.
-I was like: "Dude, i wish the three heroes were less stupid and actually helped out Naofumi a bit"
-After searching for a fic like that I haven't found anything, so I wrote this, and plan on continuing it
-I messed a bit with their personalities and ages, but overall they still should be similiar to originals (all four heroes)
-Also this fic will not only focus around Naofumi, but all four heroes instead, switching in between all of their POV's
-Rape accusation will still happen and Shield will still be hated by everyone... except the other heroes this time... what will they do exactly? I wish I knew already.
As always, feel free to ask me whatever you would like to know, leave a suggestion or two and share your thoughts via review.
Anyway, I hope you liked it.
Cya.