Chapter 1

It was hard to be an American in Japan, Lucatiel Niazaki knew that from the moment his parents moved him and his sick brother here ten years ago, for his fathers new job and to get better treatment for his little brother Noah. It had been hell to get settled in and begin learning a whole new language, as well as losing all of his friends and taking a Japanese last name.

However, that had been ten years ago, and it got easier for a time. But four years in when he was just thirteen. Suddenly, Lucatiel's father died from a freak accident at work that electrocuted him, frying his brain and effectively condemning his family to a life long of hardship, with no way to get back to America and his mother turning to drugs to help with the grief of losing the love of her life, Lucatiel was left to care for his younger sibling.

He was thankful to finish high-school at seventeen, but because of him also working two jobs, his grades were far from being college acceptable, he couldn't get a sports scholarship either because he didn't have any clubs to fall back on, being so overloaded as it was.

His brother Noah: who was fifteen years old, was so sick and frail he could barely walk down the street without needing assistance, let alone go to school made the older brother work even harder to try and keep him alive, the treatments at the hospital worked for a time. SO well in fact that Noah finally started getting better… until their dad died, and the money stopped coming in and the treatment's stopped.

All of this on the oldest siblings back left him feeling Jaded and hateful at the world, which bled into him hating his family a little. Most people avoided Lucatiel entirely because of this, leaving him isolated from the world.

Which left him in a bit of a mental conundrom as he found himself in a pawn shop, looking for a gift for the mother that he convinced himself he hated. He had managed to save to 25,000 yen, a small part of his mind told him to keep saving until he could buy a plane ticket to get the hell out of there, but the more sensible part of him told him that was terribly unrealistic.

He wasn't cold hearted enough to do that anyway… yet.

"Hey kid, what can I do you for?" The man behind the counter asked, surprising Lucatiel when he spoke in near perfect english. It wasn't like it was rare for that to happen, in fact a lot of people in this country were very acomodating, when they noticed him they would attempt to converse with him in his native language.

It was endlessly amusing when he spoke back to them in perfect Japanese, the look on their faces was priceless. "I'm looking for a gift for my mother." Lucatiel spoke back in Japanese. He would not be graced with amusement today, the pawn shop owner, a middle aged man with graying hair at the edges didn't react whatsoever, except for a nod and a look to his counter picking a book out under what he assumed to be a mini shelf.

"Take a look around, let me know whenever your ready, take your time." He said, and started reading said book.

"Don't mind if I do." Lucatiel mumbled, immediately moving towards the back half of the store, almost knocking over a wooden sword in the process. Usually the back of the store held cheaper items, which he was going for, no sense in spending too much in a pawn shop of all things.

He looked over an assortment of garbage, stuffed animals and mostly broken toys, until his body gravitated towards a clearance section, morbidly curious more than anything else.

"How bad does something have to be in quality to be in a clearance bin in a pawn shop." Lucatiel rummaged through the bin: partly convinced he would have to bathe in alcohol to get any bacteria off of him before his hand hit something interesting.

"Well now, your an interesting find." from the bottom of the bin Lucatiel pulled out a solid black ring with a purple and red gemstone adorning it. "Your rather beautiful, but you have to be fake, no way in hell would you be here if you weren't."

Lucatiel examined the ring a bit more, inside was an engraving in a language that he had no inclination of, he knew there were tons of them, and even more languages that no longer existed outside of books through the passage of time.

The ring was also perfectly fit for his fingers, he knew this because he and his mother had the exact same slender fingers. 'A pianist's hands' one of his teachers once called them, and the ring looked to be pretty much the size of his mothers wedding ring, which she sold for drugs a year after his father passed.

He slid it on just to make sure, and was satisfied to see it was even better than expected, it was perfect, almost like it was made for him. A pleasurable chill went down his back at the thought of it.

"Hey kid." The pawn shop owner suddenly spoke from beside him, and a second before Lucatiel could respond a loud CRACK resounded through the room, and Lucatiel was screaming in agony as he collapsed to the ground, knocking shelves of crap down with him.

"Think you could steal from me? ME!? You little American shit!" Pawn shop guy snarled, Lucatiel was holding his side and coughing blood, more blood spilling through his fingers as he looked up at the guy.

That's when he realized it, the son of a bitch shot Lucatiel in the right side of his chest under his arm. "Y-You bastard!" Lucatiel cursed in between spasms of pain. "I-I w-wasn't stealing from you, you fucking shit!"

The pawn shop guy scowled and yanked on Lucatiel's left hand and pointed his gun at his middle finger. "Then what the fuck is this?"

Lucatiel's vision was beginning to get staticy around the edges. "Pl-please, you gotta get me to a hospital. I don't deserve to die."

The pawn shop guy spit on Lucatiel before dropping his hand. "Fuck you, don't steal in the next life you punk." He said before aiming and firing into Lucatiel's head, killing the nineteen year old.

The ring on Lucatiel's finger began to glow after he died, and the pawn shop psycho got to widen his eyes in surprise before his gun was forcibly turned on to him by some unknown force and the clip was emptied into his face and neck.

The cops would eventually make it the scene, but other than the blood, there was no sign of Lucatiel at all, eventually he would be reported missing but shortly after no sign of him was found the mother would snap and finally take her life. Noah, would be put into a hospital for his disease, the little brother praying for his elder's safety.

Line break, Pov Change to first person.

I don't remember how I ended up here, I just remember that psycho shooting me to death. There was a flash of light, and what felt like a bunch of portals going through my brain. leaving me here.

"We did it! The summoning was a success!" the voice ahead of me sounded extremely relieved, I wasn't. I was supposed to be dead… was this hell?

"Ahh, what the hell, where am I?" A voice beside me spoke, I blinked the blurriness out of my vision and saw four other people beside me with various weapons. Well, three weapons and a shield.

"Oh great heroes, please save our world from catastrophe!" the leader of the robed men pleaded, he held his hands out and beseeched the four to my right.

Well… this didn't seem to be hell. It seemed I was summoned here like the others beside me, there was just one problem...

"Hey, I hate to say this but I think you've made a mistake. Can you send me back to my world please?" I asked, I startled all of them and they looked at me like fish out of water.

Wait… did they not notice I was there? Did that mean they summoned me by accident? "Listen, I'm sure you have your own problems but can't you be more considerate?"

"I agree with him. Don't you feel at least a little guilt in bringing us to another world without our consent?" The boy who spoke earlier brandished the weapon he was holding, a white and gold sword with a blue gemstone inside it. He looked kind of cool, he seemed to be the most comfortable with this situation. I got the feeling that he was just pretending though, maybe he was just trying to act cool.

My eye's were drawn to the sword in his hand. Somehow I knew what that weapon was, the legendary sword, as a matter of fact for some reason I knew what all the weapons here were. The legendary sword, bow, spear and shield. I didn't know how I knew that. I had a faint memory of a book I read once, called the record of the lost hero. though I can't remember what it was about, did dying interfere with my memories?

Actually now that I think about it, I'm not panicking like you would expect. Neither are the other guys, the smarter part of my brain told me I'd been Isekai'd. I'd seen the term in some of the anime I'd watched in my spare time, and I think Noah used to play an Isekai game?

"And if you sent us home as soon as peace is restored, we'd have worked for nothing, a little unreasonable don't you think?" the blonde teen with a bow clearly agreed. Following up on the current conversation. He looked like some private school rich kid, he was stringing his bow like a harp. Maybe he was a musician? I could get down with that, I'd always loved the piano and before my father died I was taking piano and singing lessons.

The tallest one of the group, a long blond haired man nodded his head. "We can talk about your issues after we go back to our world." This dude was pretty handsome honestly, he'd probably have a harem like in some anime.

The only one who seemed willing to help was the dude with the shield, he had a more honest look about him, if not a little naive, and he was looking at the rest of us as if he couldn't believe what we were saying. But it seemed that he was also a little impressed at us taking this in stride, he was having the most realistic reaction to this. Panic, confusion and possibly a little excitement.

"So how are you willing to accommodate us? Depending on your answer we may just become your enemies instead." Tall guy said. The other's aside from shield dude nodded with him. I didn't say anything, but I also didn't fully agree with what he was saying.

The guys in robes were clearly starting to get nervous, they fidgeted and stuttered when speaking, as if they couldn't believe that the heroes they called weren't just jumping to help them, and they couldn't stop looking atmein a mixture of confusion and amazement, I was starting to feel like I wasn't supposed to be here and that was annoying me. Why summon me if I wasn't supposed to be here?

"F-first, we'd like you to have an audience with the king of our country, Melromarc." Their leader said, stepping forward with his hands spread in a placating gesture. "You can negotiate your reward after that, so please…"

"I don't care about some reward, I've asked for you to send me home so do it dammit." My anger was starting to rise, my voice taking an edge without meaning to. How dare they just… ignore my requests?

"I-i-i-i'm sure our king has ways that can get you what you want… sir hero?" the leader backpeddaled again. "B-but as of right now we personally don't know how to do that."

A hand on my shoulder brought me out of my rising anger, it was the tall handsome dude who'd done it. "Hey man, try to calm down a little okay? You heard them, their king might be able to send you home."

My anger subsided a bit, replaced by a small bit of guilt. The people who called us were clearly scared… "Okay, okay fine I'll hear you out."

The robed people sighed in relief. "I-if you would just follow me please, we'll take you to the king."

The others walked forward with me taking up the rear, various barred windows showing glimpses of the outside world, I felt a little bit of awe at how beautiful of a spectacle it was. Forced summoning aside… this place looked incredible.

"We really are in another world huh…" The boy with the bow said at the top of the staircase, I nudged by the shield dude as he looked out one of those windows.

"It's like the typical sales pitch in all of those tour brochures." shield guy said.

The bow guy looked amused and smirked. "Wait, have you really never travelled outside of Japan before?"

"Don't act like it's not expensive to travel to another country." I said, there was more than a little bitterness to my voice. "Take it from me, I'm an American who's essentially been stuck there for ten years."

The smirk left his face replaced by a glare at me but everyone else chuckled. And the dude with the sword spoke quietly, not even bothering to look back at us. "this place probably has your standard Mediterranean climate."

We followed the depressed looking mage until we reached a large throne room, in at the forefront sat two thrones, though only one was currently occupied by an old man, the king if the crown on his head had anything to say about it.

"Hmm… so these are the four cardinal heroes, but I have to ask. Who is this stranger you've brought to me with them?" he asked the mage who escorted us here.

"I'm not sure my liege, but… he was summoned with the four cardinal heroes, so we assume he's a hero of some kind, but we only have four legendary weapons."

"I'm Lucatiel Niazaki. Nineteen years old, but I'm no hero. And I just want to go home." I tried to keep my voice reasonable in respect to the King. If this was anything like history then disrespecting a King was punishable by death.

"And I'm the King of Melromarc young hero, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. And you must be a hero, for were you not you would not have been summoned to our world."

"I don't have any weapon King, nothing in fact, just my clothes and this ring here." I held up the ring to show him and the entire room of people stopped in shock.

It was quiet for an eerie amount of time before the room exploded into an excited frenzy. people above us started running around, and some knights from behind us shouted out the massive doors to the outside world. The king was leaning forward, his hands crossed in prayer… was he crying?

"A… A ring! A RING!" Someone from the second floor shouted in excitement. "Oh my god!"

"He has the ring! HE HAS THE RING! The Fifth has returned at long last!"

"Oh praise god!"

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!" I shouted, shutting everyone down. The king cleared his throat to regain some composure, but that didn't take away the newfound shine in his eyes.

"It's… hard to explain, and I give you my word we will, but first, we must not forget about our other heroes!" He raised his hand for silence, and when it was given he pointed to the other hereos. "Name yourselves."

"I'm Ren Amaki, 16 years old. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Itsuki Kawasumi. 17 years old my liege."

"My turn next? I'm Motoyasu Kitamura, I am 21 years old sir."

"I said this a moment ago but… Lucatiel Niazaki, 19 years old."

"Well heroes, it's a pleasure to meet yo-"

"Wait sir! Uh can I call you sir? You forgot about me!" The shield dude asked, I didn't even think about it but he was right. The King had just glossed over the dude.

"Whoa man, you mustn't be so disrespectful to the King." Itsuki whispered to him.

"His highness then?"

"Little bit to formal now bro." Motoyasu smirked.

"Oh, right… My apologies Sir Shield. Just King is fine. Please, introduce yourself." The King cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Well, whatever works then… My name is Naofumi Iwatani, I'm 20 years… old…" Naofumi trailed off awkwardly, the King literally wasn't listening. Looking away and staring at the wall.

"Oh, your finished? Well I'll continue then." The King said.

"...Sure." Naofumi retreated back to his spot beside us, he was definitely upset. I didn't blame him, there was something a little strange about that exchange.

The king went on the explain about the world and my origin I'll summarize, this world has an apocalyptic prophecy called the waves of catastrophe, those waves will destroy the world unless the four cardinal heroes come together to stop them, the waves are predicted by a dragon hourglass and when the sand inside it runs out the heroes are teleported to the sight of the wave.

One wave has already passed, fended off by local Knights and wayward adventurers, but the others will be stronger, which is why they summoned the legendary heroes… which comes to me, apparently, this isn't the first time the waves of catastrophe appeared. Apparently there used to be five Heroes.

The sword Hero.

The bow Hero.

The spear Hero.

The shield Hero.

And me, the Ring hero. But the last Ring Hero apparently lost his mind at some point during history and stole the Legendary Ring and escaped back to his world, taking the ring which lost almost all of its power, needing a vessel to get back to it's world, I found it, however I had to die for it to activate.

"We severely underestimated the waves, we thought they weren't that big of a deal until the first one came." The King admitted, his grip on his chair tightened as if pained. "We quickly realized that the only way to counter them was the four cardinal heroes. And so we called upon you."

The King suddenly turned his eyes to me. "We never expected the Ring to return, this is an unprecedented boon. With your power, our world will surely be saved."

…

Well… all eyes on me now.

"I still want to go back to my world, but I'll help for a little while until you find out how. I'll leave this ring behind and you can call another hero to save you."

"I understand Lucatiel-dono, I truly apologize for the inconvenience we're putting you through."

Ren let his sword drop, it clanged against the ground slightly. "We get the Gist of it, anyway. You surely didn't expect us to help you for free?"

The kings hand stepped forward and spoke up. He was a rather sinister looking individual, his face stuck in some sort of wilting smirk."Of course we didn't. Once you stop the waves you shall be rewarded handsomely, think of the best thing you can and we shall double it."

"Oooh, in that case you better not renege on your promise." Motoyasu smirked.

"Well work with you provided you don't turn on us, but don't think you can tame us, we're gonna do what we want." Ren said.

"I agree." Itsuki smiled. "We can't have you looking down on us like tools."

I heard Naofumi mutter something about 'high and mighty assholes' under his breath. But he also agreed in the end.

I had only been half listening to the conversation. I'd found something interesting. There was a box of some sort in the corner of my vision, you could only really see it if you focused on it. And by accident I opened it.

I let out a surprised Yelp when my eyes were assaulted by a much bigger box full of numbers and… wait, were these stats? Like video game stats? Did we get Isekai'd to an actual game?

"I see you've found the status screen." Ren said. "You have the same stuff like I do I'm guessing, like cold resistance and strength."

"ehh? What are you talking about?" Motoyasu asked.

"That would be the Status magic exclusive to heroes." The King explained. "We don't have it so we're not sure how it works, but we assume it helps you track your progress."

"Iiii don't see anything." Naofumi said.

"Seriously guys? It should have been the first thing you noticed in this game. Check the bottom right corner of your vision and focus on it." Ren chastised with an eye roll.

"Oh quit acting like you know everything…" Naofumi muttered, before squinting his eyes. "Whoa! Here it is."

"Level 1? That's… not good."

"Yeah, no telling if we can fight like this."

"There are probably places to grind outside of the city, we should get to work on that."

"Wait, I have only 1 attack stat!" Naofumi suddenly said. "But I have extremely high defense and strength."

"It's probably because your the shield hero." Ren said, "I have a lot of attack power because of the sword, and I have a lot of speed. Are beginning stats are likely based off our weapons, Lucatiel probably has a lot of magic attack and defense, but less physical stuff."

"...You aren't wrong, my magic attack and defense is nearly in the triple digits, but my physical stuff leaves something to be desired."

"I hope I can upgrade my attack power eventually then." Naofumi said. "This wouldn't be too fun if all I can do is get hit."

There was one thing that stood out to me though, the ring had a unique ability called Ultimate Item Creation. From the slight overview, I can create items from materials found in this world that would normally create other items.

Huh… I wonder if I could create advanced healing potions or something from regular healing potion materials, or maybe make something new entirely.

The legendary ring. This might not be too bad, I loved video games back in my world. But I've never played a game like this. So being put into one was like a dream come true… maybe I shouldn't go back?

If I could, maybe I could bring my brother Noah, he loved video games just as much as I did.

"Well, I suppose we could party up and fight together, that'd be the most ideal way to do it." Motoyasu suggested. "Since you don't have any attack power Naofumi you could tank for us while we kill monsters."

It was a fair idea, all of us were Level: 1 which meant that we were basically useless, Naofumi, the shield hero mourned that we weren't already maxed to start with, which made sense, why summon us and call us heroes if we were weak?

"A moment, heroes." A voice called, the king's aide again. "Each of you will adventure separately from each other."

"And why is that?" The bow hero, Itsuki asked. "That sound's like a command."

"Didn't we just tell you that you can't tame us?" Ren asked.

"It has been said that the legendary weapons repel one another by nature, therefore when you are close by you are blocked from gaining strength." he explained. "Previous heroes have told of some sort of 'help' menu, if you look there you should find more clarity."

The four Heroes looked at said help menu including me. "Huh, so he's telling the truth, we can't gain XP if we work together."

"Same here."

"Me too."

"Well that sucks."

"Uh… excuse me." I called, getting everybody's attention. "Mine says differently." they all stared at me with varying levels of disbelief as I stared at the message in front of me, I realized they couldn't see it so I recited it back to them.

Unlike the other four cardinal weapons, the ring is in harmony with all of them, therefore it's development is not hindered by the other weapons due to lack of adverse reaction, and in turn other heroes will gain experience when fighting together with The Ring.

"Well now… this is unexpected." the King rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "That wasn't originally the case with the Legendary ring. It used to have the same hindrance as the other legendary weapons."

"Hah! So we can party together I say!" Motoyasu laughed and stomped his spear into the floor in glee.

"Looks like the admin gave you some benefits that'll help all of us." Itsuki said.

"Heh, I promise I didn't speak to any admin." I laughed off Itsuki's suggestion.

"Well, the sun is about to set." The king interjected. "Rest up for tonight, and set forth tomorrow. In the meantime we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties."

"We don't need parties if we can work together though, it'll be best to fight with each other in order to learn to work together no?" I asked.

"I-I suppose so, but surely a little extra help would be welcomed yes?" The King asked. "It would be bad if you were to die by accident."

"Fair enough." Naofumi shrugged. "At the least we could use another tank, It'll be hard protecting you guys on my own."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm more of a solo player anyway. But I'll help out for now." Ren said.

"Th-then it's decided! We shall get the best for your teams, perhaps you can travel as one big group!"

A regal looking woman walked up to them, but she was probably just a servant by her posture. "Right this way please, we've prepared rooms for you in anticipation of your arrival."

"Uh.. sure." I mumbled.

…...

"Hey, did anyone notice that everyone was speaking Japanese?" Naofumi suddenly asked, we were hanging out In Motoyasu's assigned room. Chatting and eating.

"Now that you mention it… I noticed that as well." Itsuki put a hand on his chin in thought. "I think it was also visual information as well."

"Really? I was hearing English." I said. "Except from you guys which I heard Japanese, to be honest I was kind of wondering how you all understood it myself."

"The weapon probably translates our native language back to us." Ren explained. "it's just common sense, the developers likely wouldn't hang us out to dry like that."

"Well it's probably just special treatment since we're the legendary heroes anyway." Motoyasu said. "Did you guys check out the woman that showed us up here? She was a cutie."

"Our dinner was sumptuous, but tasted strange." Itsuki remarked. "Like… unreal almost?"

"Seriously, this is really like a game." Naofumi muttered aloud, he seemed to be looking at his status screen. "All these stats, equipment. Even our weapons."

"You mean it is a game." Motoyasu corrected. "This is totally like Emerald Online, there might even be romance here too."

"I've never heard of a game like that." I said. "Is it an MMO?"

"Wait seriously? It's super famous man."

"Oh give me a break, This isn't a MMO, it's a console game called Dimension web. I played it all the time after school."

"Your both wrong, it's a VRMMO called Brave star online, console games and computer MMO's are super outdated so it makes sense that you don't understand."

"Wait a minute, VR is still incredibly wonky so you're lying." I said. "So there's no way a VRMMO could exist."

"Why would I be lying!?" Ren shouted. "You're the one who's lying."

"Hold on, something isn't right here." Naofumi realized.

"Right… let's sort out the information we have." Motoyasu stood up and brushed crumbs off his pants. "Ren, I'm assuming we can take VRMMO literally right?"

"Yeah. Like I said, I have no reason to lie."

"You guys get what that means too right?" Motoyasu asked us.

I think I was beginning to understand the implications, we might be from alternate versions of Earth. Which is mind-breaking when you think about it.

"I've read Light novel's about the concept."

"I've also played Sci-fi games with the same."

"Just to be sure… who's the face on the thousand Yen bill, Go!"

"Yawara Gotaro!"

"Yuda Masato!"

"Noguchi Hideyo!

"Kodaka Enichi!"

"Kensei Hirachiae!"

…..

"Well, that settles it in my opinion." Motoyasu fell back into his seat.

"Yeah, we're all from different Japans."

"You know… I can't believe that our worlds are entirely different and you three still managed to play a game exactly like this." Naofumi complained. "Why am I the only one without any knowledge of this stuff?"

"I don't have any knowledge about this world either, and I played a lot of games in my time off." I shrugged. "All five of us having an understanding of this world before coming here would be virtually impossible."

"I-I was thinking it might have been because he was the shield hero to be honest." Itsuki admitted sheepishly.

"You too?" Motoyasu laughed.

"It's only natural. The shielder is the weakest class by far."

"Whaaaaaat!? Are you serious?" Naofumi shouted. "Hey wait! Don't just gang up on me! Lucatiel doesn't know anything either."

"Yeah but… at least in Emerald Online mages are extremely powerful. The shielder is pathetic, it's almost impossible for them to level up by themselves. And no high level player uses that class."

"NOOOOOOOO!" Naofumi screamed into the air. "H-How about you guys!?"

"...Sorry." Ren looked away, he didn't look all that sorry.

"Likewise, they suck." Itsuki confirmed. "It's probably why you're attack stat is 1."

"That doesn't make much sense to me to be honest, why would being a shielder mean you don't know much about the game?" I asked. "Especially here, the truth is you guys just got lucky."

They didn't exactly like hearing that. What was wrong with these guys? This may be a game but in all MMO's a tank was important, if you didn't have a tank the enemies would gang up on the players with less defense and slaughter them. I've seen it before.

"We're not saying the Shielder class is worthless entirely, we're saying that it sucks alone. But to be honest even later paladins become worth more because they have high defense and attack." Ren defended.

"Yeah."

"Agreed."

So you guys are just gonna be stubborn about this… fine. Whatever. Naofumi collapsed dramatically onto the couch, groaning in misery which was funny. Motoyasu turned towards the others:

"So what's the terrain like here?"

"Very similar to what I'm familiar with."

"Each weapon has it's own ideal hunting ground so we could spread out and grind there."

"We could also party up and fight together." Naofumi said, he seemed to have collected himself again. "Remember Lucatiel's Ring allows us to do that."

"Hey I'm down! I like you guys a lot, no hard feelings Naofumi. I didn't mean to upset you." Motoyasu patted the Shield hero's back.

"It's fine."

"Should we start tonight to get a feel for the area?" I asked. "It's not like we're being kept here."

Well, aside from being trapped in another world.

"I was gonna do it by myself, but fine." Ren shrugged his acceptance. Trying to act all cool.

"Sure, we should head out now, but we should also try not to get too far away. I don't wanna get lost in the darkness." Naofumi said.

"There's a night vision setting in the help menu. Seriously, read it." Ren sighed. Naofumi muttered something about 'arrogant dick'.

We were accosted as soon as we left the room: "Sir heroes? Is everything okay?" a servant girl asked.

"Whoaaaaa you're so cute! What's your name?" Motoyasu immediately walked up and began flirting with her.

"Alright Casanova let's not get distracted." I pulled Motoyasu away from the girl. "Sorry about that miss, we're just heading out to do some leveling."

"W-what? B-but you cant!" The girl rushed in front of them and held her arms out desperately.

"Why not?" Itsuki asked. "The whole point of this is to level up and grow stronger."

"Because…. Because there's a really powerful monster outside the city!" She lied. "It could kill you if you're not careful."

"You're lying." Ren said harshly. "This Is a beginners area, the biggest threat would be the balloon legion and it rarely comes down to fight."

"I-I… you just can't!" she stuttered. Why was she trying to stop us so badly?

"Guy's… maybe we should just call it a day?" Naofumi offered.

No… something was wrong. I stepped forward and shoved her aside, she squeaked as she slammed into the wall. "Get out of our way, what are you hiding?"

"Hey Lucatiel! Not cool man that's a woman." Motoyasu shouted, cradling the now crying girl in his arms. "You shouldn't-"

"She's trying to stop us from leaving the castle. That means she's hiding something."

"She could just be worried about us man!"

"There's five LEGENDARY heroes. We can take care of ourselves if we fought together no doubt, which means that she's stopping us because she doesn't want us to see something. What is it?"

"He… it's a reasonable point. What if they're doing something wrong? We can't just sit by." Itsuki said.

"And pushing a woman against the wall is reasonable too!?"

"I can explain sir Ring hero." A voice called from the darkness. He was a Knight, a fancy looking one. "I am the Knight commander, it's a pleasure to make you're acquaintances."

I felt a little suspicious at how conveniently he showed up, but I listened anyway: "You see heroes, we are currently transporting a dangerous prisoner. She's a traitor to the king and very dangerous-"

"You said dangerous twice." Ren interrupted. The Knight commander looked abashed and a little outraged.

"I-I was merely trying to emphasize it, she's a former knight-in-training. And she's level 25, she even killed her own father during the last wave. And is likely intending to plan to overthrow the kingdom. If you'd like, I could have you escorted out of the castle if you wish to see the city, from there you can find your own way."

"T-Told you she was just worried!" Motoyasu leapt to the servant girls defense. "You should apologize to her."

"Wait a minute…" I rubbed my temples to stave off a headache. "How can you say she's intending to plan to overthrow the kingdom? Aren't you just saying that you don't have any evidence and are just guessing?"

The Knight-commander's face turned red, Itsuki stepped forward with hard eyes. "He's right, if you're just assuming her intentions, does that mean you're just assuming she killed her father as well?"

The Knight-commander was becoming very tomato-like. "I-I-I was just making guess-work. It's possible she might not be I'll admit… But I was there when she killed her father! Stabbed him in the back during the wave, the murderous look in her eyes was… terrible. I figured that overthrowing the kingdom would be a goal of hers too."

"Hmm, Okay then. I apologize for getting upset." Itsuki smiled and backed down, then everyone looked at me.

"Dude… apologize to the fair lady!" Motoyasu hissed.

Something didn't feel right about his explanation to me. It felt fake. I looked between her, the Knight commander and the other heroes before I sighed and relented, no one was on my side it seemed. "I'm sorry miss, please forgive me."

"It-it's fine Sir Ring hero, I can't truly be angry with you. Y-You're gonna save our world right?" She asked. I saw the fear, the desperate need for me to agree and say yes and I broke.

"I'll do my best." I said, I've always hated it when someone was sad. I've been around too much despair in my life. I'm sick of it.

"Well, now that that's done. You said you could escort us out the castle?" Ren stepped forward and asked. "I'm tired of wasting time standing here."

"O-Of course sir hero, right this way please." The Knight commander gestured we follow.

…

"Man, we're totally the talk of the town." Naofumi grinned at a group of people who flinched away as we walked by. "I guess being heroes is a pretty big deal."

"Duh man, we're basically the protagonists. Every fair maiden is bound to love us, I'm totally gonna try to build a harem." Motoyasu elbowed Naofumi and grinned at him, who blushed and looked away.

"You maybe, everybody seems wary of me for some reason."

"Maybe it's because of the shield? Or your face in general." Itsuki said.

"Hey I resent that!" Naofumi scowled.

"You have a pretty scary face." I smirked. "At least when you're scowling."

"This city is almost exactly like the one in Brave star online." Ren remarked as we walked the streets, our knight escorts were a reasonable distance behind us as to not disturb us. But I noticed that Ren was getting annoyed by their presence. "I'm pretty sure there's a marketplace in the central area of town, there's probably a fountain there too."

"Emerald online is basically the same, in fact down that alleyway there's a side-quest for some early EXP. Should we do it?" Motoyasu asked.

"I don't think so, remember that we're level 1. We should probably stick to monster farming for now." I suggested, I was interested in the side-quest myself but in the games I played there were rarely side-quests geared towards level 1 players, level 1-5 was for the tutorial, 6 and beyond was when RPG's started letting you roam free.

"Yeah but you said it yourself, we're heroes and there's five of us. How are we gonna make this world a better place if we don't try to rise up to the challenges?" Itsuki asked.

"We weren't tasked with making it better, just saving it."

"So you're okay with just standing by!?" Itsuki asked. "What if someone needed our help right then and there? You'd just walk away?"

"That's entirely different." I said defensively. I was already getting sick of that self-righteous attitude. "Have you forgotten we're inside a game? We can't save everyone and in the end it does it really matter?"

…

All the heroes were staring at me as if I was a horrible person. Perhaps I was, but I didn't care about their opinions that much, I doubt they've gone through what I have to make me so pragmatic.

Itsuki was already wrong about me, just because I knew I couldn't help or save everybody doesn't mean I'd walk away if someone in my vision was in trouble. I still have basic morals, even inside a game.

"I'm not really in the mood to do some fighting now…" Motoyasu said. "I'm going back to the castle."

"Yeah… I think I'll join you on that." Itsuki said.

"I'm still gonna do it, but not with you. Like I said I prefer to play solo." Ren waved a hand and walked away from everyone else. He was heading towards the castle gates.

"H-hey guys! Come on don't bail now!" Naofumi called after them, leaving an awkward silence in the air after. We stood together awkwardly for a couple of minutes before Naofumi cleared his throat awkwardly.

"H-hey Lucatiel? I think I'm gonna go back to my room kay?"

"You too huh…" I whispered.

"Sorry man. It's getting really late anyway. I promise we can fight together tomorrow though." Naofumi scurried away to a guard, a knight with a sharp scar on his face before gesturing back to the castle and walking behind the shield hero.

Suddenly, I was left alone in the city. There wasn't even a guard left to watch over me, I was fine with that. I didn't like being mother-henned anyway, it felt too much like when I was working at a factory back in my world. The manager basically held an iron fist on his employees and was only fired when we went on strike.

I shudder just to think about it, the money was decent but never again. I decided to just stop standing around but I wondered what I should do next. Should I go find Ren and ask to fight with him?

Nah. He said he didn't want to work with us, and the other three clearly don't want to either. So I guess I'm riding solo.

"Excuse me sir, may I interest you in something?" A voice from the shadows made me tense up. Out of the darkness came a fat and ugly man. His hat was almost too big for his head and his glasses were stupid looking too. And his black overcoat has some sort of purple frills on it. (Which I hated that I liked a little. Purple was my favorite color).

"Not interested." I dismissed him off-hand and began to walk away, better to ignore those types than to get involved at all in my opinion.

"Are you sure you want to dismiss me so candidly Sir hero? I may have something of interest to you." He asked again, following behind me if his loud steps were anything to go buy. How did I not hear him initially?

"So you know I'm a hero? Doesn't matter, I already told you I'm-"

"My name is Beloukas. I'm a trader."

"I have nothing to trade you old man." I grit my teeth and breathed deeply to stem the frustration of being interrupted.

"Ah, you do you see. You have money, I have goods."

"Not exactly a trader then are you? You're a merchant, traders usually give you something for something else of equal value."

The old man grinned and shivered as if in ecstasy which made me feel a little creeped out. "I promise you sir, money is equally valuable to me as this. And I'm sure you'll feel the same."

"….I'm listening. But I don't have any money." I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.

His eyes suddenly widened and he back-pedaled, beads of nervous sweat formed on his forehead. "Y-y-you don't have any money? N-never mind then never mind. Good day to you Sir hero."

"H-hey wait." I said, but this Beloukas was already gone. "What the hell was that about…?"

I turned and continued, realizing that I was heading back to the castle; an idea came to me suddenly: That prisoner girl that killed her father. Earlier, that Knight-commanders explanation felt too… convenient, maybe the others were content to just sit by but I wasn't.

Suddenly, I stopped. I realized that I was being a hypocrite, Itsuki had just gotten angry at me for saying we couldn't save everybody and here I was going out of my way to see if someone was innocent and trying to help them.

….

Okay, maybe Itsuki had a point a little. Just a little. I stalked into the castle, careful not to wake the sleeping guard at the gate. (Which is terrible security by the way). I quickly realized that I had no idea where the dungeons were.

I passed the doors to the throne room and traveled several long hallways while dodging guards as they came along, I decided to try my luck with some random doors. I opened several doors that led to rooms I didn't know the purpose of, just a room with a couch, table and window view into a courtyard.

"So… the shield hero being summoned to Melromarc, what is the king thinking bringing him here?" I heard a voice through a door in one of the darker corridors and leaned up against it, the walls were surprisingly thin here for some reason. I then noticed that the door was very slightly opened, just enough to peek through.

I heard a sinister giggle. "It doesn't matter, he'll never get the chance to repair the reputation of the past shield-devils." a woman's voice said, she was breathing heavily for some reason.

Shield devils? I thought. But the shield is a cardinal weapon… Naofumi's a hero then, not a devil.

"W-what about the Ring hero?" The other voice asked, my blood chilled for a moment. Then I realized he was breathing heavily too. What the hell is going on?

"O-oh him? W-well he's untouchable frankly, plus he's got a nice face. Maybe I'll try to be in his party tomorrow."

"S-Stick to the plan. We can't have you compromise t-this."

What plan? Was Naofumi in danger? I had to know more, I decided to peek into the cracked doorway to see the people talking.

The first thing I saw was a shock of blood-red hair, then my jaw dropped as I saw she was stark naked on a couch. Roughly moving on top of a man who was also naked, I felt my face turn red and I back-pedaled as quickly as I could. Plugging my ears as they started to get louder.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I groaned into my hands. I suddenly regretted every decision I'd ever made up until this point. I could have gone my whole life without listening or seeing that and I would have been just fine.

Suddenly, I noticed the noises were gone. Instinct drove me to back up into the darkest corner I could and pray as they walked out, the girl limping as if injured. I noticed the man had a mask on, I couldn't see his face. But the girl was completely visible. She was soul-stopping level's of beautiful, what anime fans would call waifu material. But I could see depravity in her eyes, pure spoiled cruelty. It made me nervous, I was praying they couldn't see me in this dark corner.

"So, tomorrow the shield hero becomes the most hated man in the country." The man picked up the conversation as if they weren't just going at it in the previous room.

"Yes. It won't take much convincing papa, he already hates the shield hero. All I have to do is manipulate either the Ring hero or the Spear hero, they're both handsome enough, might as well." the girl was fixing her hair and straightening her clothing out in an effort to look presentable.

"If you want my take on it, the Spear hero will be easier to manipulate. The Ring hero is already asking questions it seems."

"Is that so? Well, we can just snuff him out discreetely I'm sure."

"Didn't you just say he was untouchable a few moments ago?"

"True, but I am papa's favorite. Not that little bitch sister of mine. Shouldn't be too hard to spin a tale."

Okayyyy…. I was already hating her.

"Okay, well. I'm leaving." The red-haired woman said.

"W-wait, do you… maybe wanna do this again some time? I had a good time…" the man asked sheepishly, I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously? Who do you think you are? You're lucky I even gave you a chance. Now piss off before I decide you're not worth keeping alive."

"But I have to walk that way though, behind us is the way to the dungeon…" he said quietly while following her into the darkness.

I waited to make sure they were gone before moving, letting out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. So… she's going to frame Naofumi for something serious, possibly me for something as well.

I wanted to do something… but I wasn't sure what I could do. Whoever that girls father is must be pretty high up, which meant that whatever I did could be silenced. But I did know something I could do now. Without them realizing it, they just helped me.

I walked further down the corridor, eventually I came to a door with a long-winding staircase leading down. Thankfully the staircase itself was well lit, I stepped carefully; if the Knight-commander was telling the truth then she was very likely under heavy guard.

…

It ended up not mattering, the place was completely empty. Well lit, but empty. There wasn't a single guard in sight.

"Seriously? There's no one?" I said aloud, I didn't really mean to honestly. I was just flabbergasted. My voice echoed ominously throughout the dungeon giving me the chills.

"Hello? Is someone there? I-if you could be so kind… can you get me some water?" a hoarse voice called out to me.

Water? Are they not hydrating her? I looked around for something I could use, on a desk nearby I saw a pitcher of water and a mug, I smelled the water for stagnation before pouring it and searched for her cell.

It wasn't hard, hers was the only lit one. When I came into view she looked up from the quiet 'splash' my foot made in front of her cell. The first thing I noticed was that she was breathtakingly beautiful, not quite 'sexy' as that red-haired woman. Instead there was a dignified quality to her that I couldn't look away from. She also had red-hair, though more strawberry-blonde colored to be fair. Were all NPC's this beautiful? Maybe Motoyasu was on to something here…

Yeah let's not think like that, best to put that thought out of my mind. Suddenly I realized I was just staring at her silently.

"Uh… h-here." I stuttered, handing the water to her through a little opening in the cell. Just big enough for a food tray and a mug. She looked at me hesitantly for a moment before taking the mug.

"Thank you." She said before loosing all sense of dignity and just chugging the water as fast as she could. It was gone in seconds, the sight would have been funny if she wasn't crying while drinking.

"C-could you be so kind as to get me more please?" She asked. I did so, and watched as she did the same exact thing to the second mug, just with less tears.

She cleared her throat before speaking: "Thank you so much. The others… when I asked for water they would bring it and just… dump it in front of my cell and tell me to drink it off the floor."

Just hearing that sent a surge of primal rage through my body, but I swallowed hard and forced myself to tamper it down. "That's… horrible, I hope you didn't give them the satisfaction."

She shook her head. "I didn't. I refuse to stoop that low." she looked at me again and stood up, then she bowed surprisingly. "Thank you again. My name is Eclair Seaetto, I am in your debt."

"Lucatiel Niazaki, I am the Ring hero."Her eye's widened at the mention of my name, or maybe it was my status.

"S-Sir Ring hero! You do me a high honor by visiting me. M-may I ask what it's for?" Suddenly she was nervous for some reason.

"Well, I heard from the grapevine that you were down here for a serious crime." I started, I watched her eyes fall. There was a grief there that I was familiar with, the grief of losing someone you love. "But I was getting the feeling that the grapevine was a little… spoiled let's say."

I watched her eyes light up again in hope, hope that maybe I was thinking she was innocent. She had beautiful eyes. The color of the ocean.

Focus Lucatiel you're getting distracted. I chided myself.

"I came to hear you're side of the story. They say that you murdered your father during the first wave, they even tried to proclaim that you were intending to overthrow the kingdom."

"T-That's preposterous!" She raised her voice. "I would never do that to my King and Queen!"

"Then, I would like you to tell me your truth. I want to try and help you if possible?" I prodded gently. It was the truth, I wished to help her if I was capable of doing so. I didn't know how much power a hero had in this world, but I figured it was safe to assume it was substantial.

Eclair took a deep breath to calm herself, then she explained to me her story. I'll summarize for you. She didn't kill her father, the church of the three heroes assassinated him during the first wave because she and him openly supported a race of animal-people called 'demi-humans'. She was captured while hunting down slave-hunters and thieves to bring them to justice, which delayed her from meeting us heroes. While defending her village, the three heroes church came and declared her brainwashed by the shield demon and arrested. (Which is bullshit, we weren't even in the fucking world yet).

I was furious. To say the least, pacing back in forth just seething in rage. It took me a little while to calm down, I had half a mind to get Itsuki and bring him down here. Let him hear this with that self-righteous attitude of his and start hunting down these people.

I dismissed the idea, it would be the worst thing possible to start attacking a beloved religious group, even if it is more like a cult. It also brought to light some of the things I heard from the two in the corridor… other than their 'activities'.

So, Naofumi was fucked. Hated by the entire country, but… for what? Were the past shield heroes awful people? Or were they hated because they weren't blindly racist to demi-humans?

Actually, maybe that was it. I haven't even seen a demi-human yet. Maybe I should ask the Itsuki, Motoyasu or Ren if they had them in their versions of the game. I mean why wouldn't they? They've already made it obvious they think they have an edge just because they've played games similar to this.

"S-Sir hero?" Eclair interrupted my seething. "Do you believe me?"

"What? Of course I do." I said. It was the truth, I've gotten pretty decent at detecting a liar over the years. As far as I could tell she wasn't lying. At all. It took me a moment to notice that she was crying, and even longer that it was from gratefulness.

"I-I didn't think anybody would believe me, I screamed. I pleaded and they just didn't listen…" She said after a long moment.

"It's because the three heroes church is corrupt, of course they would find a reason to vilify you. It's not your fault." I put my hands on the bars and got as close as I could, I wanted to show her I trusted her and that she could trust me In return. She didn't move any closer, but I could tell that she understood.

"I can't promise you anything, but I can say that the next chance I get I'm gonna speak to the King and try to get you out of here, okay? It's not justice to keep an innocent locked up."

Oh Jesus, that sounded like something Itsuki would probably say.

She nodded, her eyes were resolute and determined. Watery with unshed tears. "I understand. thank you again, Lucatiel-sama."

A/N: So you remember how I said that I would try to have chapter 1 and 2 out by monday? Yeah… well this chapter ended up about 4000 words longer than it was initially going to be.

And I don't regret a single bit of it. I feel like this is some of my best fanfic writing, I hope you do too. This first chapter officially kicks off the Hero of the Ring Revived. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you enjoyed my characterization of the heroes (So far). And of Lucatiel (Who I think I effectively changed personality-wise). As well as the extra pieces of dialogue.

I'll try to have chapter 2 out as soon as I can, preferably by Friday.

Also, side note. I kept the Point of view third person for the prologue (When Lucatiel was still in his world) because I viewed it as not as important as the rest of what I wanted to do, which was a lot. That's it.