Heart of Akasha
Gashadokuro Amanojaku: Akarin!
Akari: Here!
Akari: Heart of Akasha, starting now~!
Chapter 5: Welcome on Board
Ji-Han took a good look at the newcomer. It was a young girl of maybe twelve to fourteen years with purple eyes red hair reaching her chin and building an "M"-kind of shape above her eyes. Not to mention two buns on the sides of her head. She wore a white robe with a pulled-down hood over comfortable yellow sweater and light blue skirt with white knee-socks and sneakers. On her back was a brown quiver with arrows and a simple wooden bow and around her waist a leather girdle with a small knife in a holder. And above her head:
[Forgotten Protagonist
Lv13 Akaza, Akari]
"You don't need to say it, geez", she suddenly exclaimed, making Ji-Han wonder what she was referring to. Then, to his surprise, the letters above her head changed, giving her a different title:
[Alabaster Archer
Lv13 Akaza, Akari]
The heck?! Titles could change… huh, now that he thought about it, was that really something to be surprised about? Titles showed what kind of a person someone was, so of course they could change when the person changed. It was just surprising that it happened right in front of him.
"It's nice to meet you", Akari caught his attention. "My name is Akaza Akari. I have heard of your plans to save the world from Shinichi-san and would like to join you. Can I?"
Ji-Han was torn.
On one hand, he was glad for every ally. On the other hand, he wasn't comfortable with taking a young girl into a danger zone… But then again, she was still stronger than him… argh! What should he do?!
"Ah, it's a dog!" She suddenly exclaimed exited and ran over to Shua, starting to pet him.
"I always wanted a dog", she confessed, ripping Ji-Han from his stupor.
"Are you sure you want to come with us, Akari-Yang?" He asked her. "This is going to be dangerous."
"I don't care", declared Akari. "This is my chance to finally do something! Not just be someone everyone instantly forgets."
"So, what?" Naofumi asked. "You want fame? Sounds like a pretty stupid reason to risk your life."
"It's not about fame", Akari denied. "I just want to stop being a side-character in my own life!"
The Hero of the Shield studied her.
"Well, not any of my business", he finally decided. "So, what'll it be, leader? Are you going to let her come with you?"
"Please?" Akari asked earnestly. "I even learned how to shoot bow and arrow and trained under Kuroko-sensei how to use my low presence for fights. I can do this! So, please?"
"Fine", Ji-Han caved in. If she felt so strongly about it and even trained so much, he hadn't had the heart to refuse her. And she was stronger than him.
"Yay!" She shouted enthusiastically.
"Alright", Ji-Han continued, "you are an archer, right? Naofumi here is our Tank, so make sure you stick behind him until he got the enemy's attention and deal with those that get past him first. If he's not available, I have some minor defensive abilities. You are also the only one so far to be able to hit enemies at long range, so we will be counting on you for that. Akari, [Party Invite]!"
"Yes~!"
{[Akaza, Akari] has joined your party [World Salvation Party].}
"And don't forget to use [Status Window], [Skills] and [Perks] to see your abilities."
"Yes~!"
"Alright. Then let's go and see what else is going to happen!"
What happened next was another group of Heartless, three Shadows and three Soldiers.
"I won't be able to keep them all at bay", admitted Naofumi even as he went to stand in their way.
"Got it", acknowledged Ji-Han, readying his Keyblade but not engaging the enemy. As expected, two of the Shadows and a Soldier made it past Naofumi. Another Soldier had tried, but the shield hero had kicked him, redirecting its attention towards him. That left him with three enemies but no matter how much they attacked him, he wasn't even flinching. And then he changed the shield into that with the two dog heads, which started to bite back instantly.
Suddenly an arrow flew past him, hitting one of the Shadows. Where did… oh, right, Akari. The other Shadow was still sliding flat on the ground and Ji-Han ignored it in favor of the Soldier who came clattering towards him. Ji-Han used a [Power Strike] to push it back and knock it down, but it was not enough to eliminate it. Yet he didn't concentrate on finishing that one, as the Shadow that Akari had attacked, was now jumping towards Akari, right past him.
Not wanting to let that opportunity go to waste, he smacked it out of the air with a normal attack while Shua engaged the other Shadow with hit and run-tactics. That normal attack turned out to be enough for the comparable weak Shadow-Heartless, evaporating it on the spot and releasing the arrow that hat stuck in it.
Speaking of, not wanting to hit Shua who was running circles around the other Shadow as it ran, or rather skidded, circles around him, Akari released another arrow towards the Soldier who was getting up, which damaged it enough that Ji-Han could kill it with a single normal attack, too.
He quickly looked over to Shua, but he seemed to have everything under control. Thus he brought his attention back to Naofumi, whose shield was constantly moving about his body, always to where the Heartless were attacking to get some bites in.
"[Party Options]", Ji-Han called forth because Naofumi had said not to use Observe on him and, as he thought, Naofumi's HP hadn't gone down even a bit. While the enemy…
"[Observe]."
{Soldier Lv9
HP: 56/85
MP: 11/26
Type: Emblem-Heartless
Heartless that emerge from various places. They are brisk in their movements, and rush into their opponents.
STR: 17 VIT: 14 DEX: 15
INT: 5 WIS: 5 LUK: 0}
…Had their HP constantly reduced. Even if it was only by 9 or 10 every bite, if it went on long enough, he could easily pill up enough damage to take them out. And with the enemies not being able to damage him at all, they stood no chance at all. Maybe that was why the Heartless of Traverse Town were considered small-fry.
Nevertheless, the other Soldier made the mistake of going at Naofumi from the side, giving Akari the opportunity to shoot it with an arrow without worrying about hitting one of her allies.
"[Observe]."
{Soldier Lv9
HP: 43/88
MP: 22/27
Type: Emblem-Heartless
Heartless that emerge from various places. They are brisk in their movements, and rush into their opponents.
STR: 17 VIT: 13 DEX: 14
INT: 6 WIS: 5 LUK: 0}
So that one had lower VIT and DEX but higher HP, MP and INT than the other? Good to know.
Not wanting to get into Akari's way, Ji-Han opened his inventory to take out a stone and threw it towards the lone Heartless, knocking it on its head {HP: 41/88} and momentarily stunning it, preventing it from going after Akari or Naofumi for even longer. Long enough for it to get hit by another arrow while it was standing still. {HP: 16/88}
Ji-Han threw another stone, but missed and the Soldier was now coming after them, forcing him to change back to the Keyblade. Not that Ji-Han was worried as its HP was most likely low enough to take it out with a one more simple hit, regardless of from him or Akari.
However, he got distracted when multiple panels opened in front of him:
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to throw objects, [Throwing Mastery], has been created.}
{[Throwing Mastery (passive) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Allows the user to throw objects at a target.
10% increase in attack damage with thrown objects.
5% increase in speed while moving to throw an object.
1% increase in accuracy with objects thrown at a target.}
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to deliver a strong blow,
[Power Throw], has been created.}
{[Power Throw (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 5 MP
Throw an object with strong force.
10% increase in critical rate.
100% increase in attack damage.
10% increase in throwing speed.
20% decrease in accuracy.}
He even got the throwing version of his Power Strike… wait, that wasn't an increase in accuracy, it was a decrease! Not using that in the direction of his party members then… maybe he should try it out in a safe environment first. In case missing with that skill turned out like his failed cooking attempts and he ended up throwing the stone backwards or something.
He was ripped out from his musings when the Soldier finally reached him and did a spinning axe-kick on him.
"[Guard]!" Ji-Han quickly activated, stopping the attack and throwing the Heartless on its back, before instantly attacking it, finishing it in a single hit. Which gave him {+17 EXP}, while another {+8 EXP} signaled Shua finishing with his enemy.
That left one Shadow and one Soldier with Naofumi to which Shua instantly went.
"Draw one of the enemies away from Naofumi so we can safely finish him off", Ji-Han told Shua who with an acknowledging "Smeargle" used his spectral claw on the Soldier before running towards Ji-Han.
Only for the Soldier to not acknowledge the attack at all and instead continuing to attack Naofumi. Confused Shua stopped, looked at the Soldier, looking at his tail and back at the Soldier who was again bitten by a dog head. Then Shua ran back to the Soldier, attacking him again and again, but the Soldier was still not reacting. In frustration Shua attacked the Shadow instead and managed to eliminate it after two claw-attacks, giving Ji-Han {+9 EXP}.
Satisfied, he started attacking the Soldier again, making Ji-Han curiously use an [Observe] at it. That was telling him that Shua was damaging the Heartless, but only one or three HP at a time. So he went over there himself and took down the Soldier with one strike {+17 EXP}. Man, was their DPS different.
Shua, having come to the same conclusion, walked a bit away, sat down in a curling position and sulked, his arms and tail wrapped around his legs.
"Don't be so mad", Ji-Han tried to placate the Smeargle. "It's not your fault that the enemies have so high VIT. They are around twice your level. Once you level up, I am sure you will be able to defeat them easily."
"Smear?" Shua asked, hesitantly looking up from his knees and Ji-Han nodded.
"I am sure of it! I was pretty useless at the beginning, too, you know. The first skill I learned was Food Preparation. Cooking in a sense. So, don't worry, you'll become strong soon enough!"
"Smear!" Shua declared enthusiastically and Ji-Han smiled.
"That's the spirit!" He declared before turning to face Naofumi. "Any item drops?"
"No", he denied as a handful of pebbles was pushed into his face.
"But I replenished your stock", Akari explained happily, stunning Ji-Han for a moment, before he thanked her and put the items into his inventory, raising the number of pebbles to 9.
"Did you pick up your arrow, too?" Ji-Han asked and Akari nodded.
"Normal arrows don't work on Heartless so I have to use ones made from monster parts. So I always make sure to pick them up after a battle if they didn't break."
"That makes sense."
"That aside", voiced Naofumi. "You don't need to wait until the enemy is away from me before you fire your arrows. I've noticed you hesitating way too much."
Akari was visibly shocked at that declaration.
"I can't do that!" She protested. "What if I hit you?! You could get hurt!"
"How high is your STR?" He asked and got "13" as reply. Huh, so she actually had the same STR as him. Good to know.
"My defense is 93." Holy- "Hitting me is more likely to break your arrows than hurting me."
93?! No wonder these guys couldn't even scratch him. That was thrice as high as an Air Soldier!
Yet Akari was still not convinced.
"But what if I hit your eye?"
"I am the Hero of the Shield. My defense extends to every part of my body."
Huh, really? That was an interesting piece of information.
"But what if…"
"Hit me", Naofumi told Ji-Han to interrupt Akari. "Hit me with a [Power Strike]." It seemed he was fed up with her excuses and decided to stop trying to convince her with words. But then he got an idea.
"Though wait for a bit, I want to try something out."
With that he changed his shield to the Smeargle one.
"If you want", Ji-Han agreed. "But if her arrows break when they hit you, I think it would be better for her to try not to hit you."
Naofumi stopped for a moment.
"If we are just going up against those small-fries, fine", he finally relented. "But if we end up having to deal with a stronger enemy, I'd rather she fight with no hesitation. Now use a [Power Strike]. But not at me, I want to see whether or not I can use Sketch on any attack or only those it blocked."
"Sure!"
"Wait!" Akari suddenly interrupted as he had raised his key. "Don't destroy stuff!"
Naofumi looked at her as if he couldn't belief her, while Ji-Han looked dumbfounded at her, then down at the asphalt below him. He went over to the side of the road into some front yard where there was only earth.
"Is this better" he asked her and she smiled in a blindingly bright way.
"Yes. Thank you." She answered happily while Ji-Han was forced to literally shield his eyes from the brightness.
"What the-?" Exclaimed Naofumi as he, too, covered his eyes.
Akari noticed what the others were doing but got confused as to why. Which was enough for the light to stop, allowing them to look at her again. Which Ji-Han did. Dumbfounded. Did she just activate a special skill of hers? But for what reason would she decide to do that? Did she always glow when she was thinking something especially nice and kind-hearted? He really wanted to level up his Observe and take a look at her Perks but like Naofumi had implied, that was an invasion of privacy.
"Nevertheless", the shield hero ripped Ji-Han from his thoughts. "Weren't you going to do something?"
"Ah, right. [Power Strike]!" With that Ji-Han smashed his Keyblade on the ground, creating a small hole.
"[Sketch]!" Naofumi called out, but nothing seemed to happen. "[Sketch]." Still nothing.
"Okay", decided Naofumi, "now attack me."
Akari looked troubled as Ji-Han made his way towards Naofumi. The Gamer stopped in front of the Shield Hero and, without further ado, raised his Keyblade.
"[Power Strike]!" He shouted and, with the sound of a hammer falling on an anvil, the Keyblade made contact with the shield.
"Now step back."
Ji-Han did as Naofumi told him.
"[Sketch]!"
Nothing happened. But Naofumi looked thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking about?" Ji-Han inquired and Naofumi contemplated, before answering:
"It said I can only use the attack after 3 minutes have passed", he noted. "Which means it did copy the attack. So the copying appears to be automatic and happens when the shield is hit with an attack. But we have to wait to see if it is permanent."
Then he answered in an afterthought:
"And I have not lost a single HP."
"Great", responded Ji-Han. "So we know we now can attack you without worries… by the way, since we are already trying out skills, I want to know if my skills go up if I attack you."
"Sure."
"Okay. [Skills]!" Ji-Han opened his Skills-Menu and tipped on [Blunt Weapon Mastery].
{[Blunt Weapon Mastery (passive) Lv9 EXP: 48.9%]
Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons.
50% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.
15% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.}
"Here goes", he said and started whacking at Naofumi and, soon enough, the value rose to {EXP: 49.2%}
"It works", Ji-Han noted happily even as it stopped rising as he stopped attacking Naofumi. "So they do rise in training."
"Good for you", exclaimed Naofumi. "But I am not going to be your training dummy."
"Yeah, I guess I should have seen that coming…" Ji-Han closed the window and his eyes fell on his other skills, especially his most powerful one. How was [Power Strike] coming along? Just how much did he have to use it to level up anyway?! Shouldn't it already be leveled up by now?
{[Power Strike (active) Lv1 EXP: 93.3%]
Cost: 15 MP
Strikes the target with strong force.
10% increase in critical rate.
50% increase in attack damage.}
Oh, you've gotta…
"{93}?!" Ji-Han exclaimed out loud. Are you telling me I am literally one or two attacks away from a level-up?
"Oi, Naofumi-Hyung, you ready for another [Power Strike]? I want to see what happens, when it's level 2."
"…fine."
"[Power Strike]!"
CLANG!
"It's now {96}?! [Power Strike]!"
CLANG!
PING!
{[Power Strike]'s Level has risen by 1.}
{[Power Strike (active) Lv2 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 15 MP
Strikes the target with strong force.
11% increase in critical rate.
100% increase in attack damage.}
"Hell, yes! Power Strike has gotten a 50 percent increase in attack damage. I might be finally able to take down Shadows with one attack."
"Congratulation", Naofumi quipped. "Now the smallest of the smallest Heartless in Traverse Town in so problem for you. At last if they don't show up in groups more than ten."
That put definitively a damper on Ji-Han's enthusiasm.
"It's the principle of the matter", he refuted, even if he couldn't actually deny how leveling up [Blunt Weapon Mastery] was actually more useful in the long run. Maybe he should do another run with Heartless on his tail... or maybe have Naofumi carry one around since he seemed to be immune to them.
Wait…
"Naofumi-Hyung", he addressed the Hero of the Shield. "How would you like getting some merchandise?"
The next time they came upon a group of Heartless, they defeated them all with the exception of a single Shadow clinging to Naofumi. Which the shield hero than progressed to keep under his cloak as they continued their way to the Konohanatei. While Ji-Han made sure to keep his Keyblade out all the time.
How good an idea that was, got proved instantly as he got 1 WIS when he thought about it. It seemed his ability liked exploits. And then his [Blunt Weapon Mastery] and [Keyblade Mastery] leveled up like crazy, always a good indicator he had done something right. Time he had previously spend just walking around, now allowed him to increase his skills, without doing anything else besides having the Keyblade ready.
The only real issue with that kind of training was, that from time to time the Heartless would stop trying to damage Naofumi, come out from under his cloak and attack Ji-Han until Naofumi redirected its attention back towards himself. It seemed the Heartless really did dislike the Keyblade, after all.
Nevertheless, his [Blunt Weapon Mastery] was now level 12 and his [Keyblade Mastery] level 10!
…which came with a bit of a disappointment when the skill had reached level 8. Since he had gotten [Guard Break] at level 4, he had hoped to get another skill with his [Keyblade Mastery] reached level 7 or 8. But he didn't. What he did was messages saying:
{Because [Keyblade Mastery] has reached Level 8
and The Gamer already has the skill [Guard],
[Guard]'s Level has risen by 11.}
In other words, he would have gotten the skill [Guard] at level 8 but because he had already gotten that skill through an action earlier, he got proficiency instead. A nice mechanic that encouraged getting as many skills as early as possible. But also sucked because he'd rather have gotten a different skill, one that was more difficult to get than simple blocking. Hopefully more interesting skills would show up once he leveled up his [Keyblade Mastery] more.
Other than that, the only interesting stuff happening were the two item drops they got: Another [Chrome-Tanned Deer Leather (1 m²)] and the squicky-sounding [Brain-Tanned Deer Leather (1 m²)] which was of a white color compared to the black other leather and felt softer. He still put it away in his inventory as fast as possible once he read its name. And now had the desire to wash his hand.
Luckily they were finally at the Konohanatei and thus the best place to wash at. But first things first, seeing whether or not there was a new comrade.
The Konohanatei was a large traditional building closer to the Chinese version than the Korean one with four floors, including the ground floor where every floor had an upwards-pointing bluish roof at the edges. The building also didn't had just four edges but looked more like one had taken one giant block and set it at the front, then took a wider block for the row behind it and then other longer one, before going for smaller blocks again. And in front of the large sliding door was a curved overhang and two traditional stone lanterns.
Ji-Han went into the inn and was greeted by a young woman behind the wooden counter.
The woman had pink eyes and long hair of the same color that she had styled into a single bun and tied with a blue ribbon. She wore a dark blue kimono with a light blue flower pattern as well as something resembling a simple dark red apron, only that it started below the purple sash of the kimono and went all the way to half her shin.
[-Konohanatei Employee-
Lv5 Amatsuka, Megumi]
"Welcome", she spoke to him. "Do you wish to make use of our services or are you here for your request?"
Request? How did she knew it was him that was looking for comrades? Oh, right, new people were rare in Traverse Town. And he was still carrying the Keyblade. It was probably hard to miss that he was Han Ji-Han after they heard of him.
"I really was just coming to see if someone wanted to come with me", he confirmed. "Has anybody said something?"
Megumi shook her head.
"No", she responded. "Besides Akari there was no one who had expressed an interest in joining so far."
Okay. That was that then. He had no idea where else he could go to see some more people. How much time was even remaining?
"[Quest Log]." Huh, {1:46:50}. That was still nearly two hours.
"Anywhere specific you want to go?" He asked his teammates. "We have one and three-quarters of an hour before Zelretch shows up for the spaceship matter."
"We could go to eat at Wagnaria", suggested Akari but Naofumi shot the idea down.
"Eating is just a waste of time and money", he declared. "You don't get hungry in Traverse Town."
"But we will have to get something for our journey", noted Ji-Han. "With all the other essentials like toothbrushes. For that we need money. So why don't we go to Totosai? I still haven't gotten to see how much worth scrap metal is…"
PING!
{[Blunt Weapon Mastery]'s Level has risen by 1.}
Nice, but he was currently in the middle of a conversation.
"That guy lives in the Rural District, right?" Naofumi wanted to confirm. "It is on the way to the Mountain District which I suggest as our next goal. I think it's in our best interests to level up Shua fast so that he can hurt more than just the Shadows and with just Heartless, this will take too long."
"Smeargle!" The Pokémon in question responded in an annoyed tone. But he did have a point. Still, bringing Shua into such an environment wasn't the brightest idea.
"We could split up to cover more ground", suggested Ji-Han, "or try to see if Totosai has some items that raise STR…"
"Totosai it is", agreed Naofumi. "I don't know how expensive such an item would be but we can still decide after meeting him."
"Right!" Added Akari while Shua did his "Smear!"
"Then that's settl- whoa!"
That was the moment the Shadow-Heartless jumped out from under Naofumi's cloak to attack Ji-Han again.
"[Guard]!" Ji-Han called out, stopped it in its tracks and threw it back to Naofumi, who hit it on the head. That was enough to redirect its attention back to him, resulting in it scratching on his head.
"Okay, let's go."
"Is it just me, or are the Heartless stronger than before?" Wondered Ji-Han as he took down the last of the Air Soldiers, earning him {+27 EXP}. Had that something to do with the Level-Up he had gotten earlier? He hadn't used his points yet because he hadn't needed them at the time and had wanted to keep them for when he, in fact, did. But if a higher level drew stronger Heartless to him, he might have to change his strategies.
Luckily for him, Naofumi knew the actual cause:
"I have heard that the more people there are together, the stronger the overall encountered Heartless become", he explained. "Something to do with the darkness in people's hearts."
Ah, so it depended not on the people's strength but on the total negative emotions they held. Made sense.
"That explains why we are meeting multiple Air Soldiers at the same time while when alone I had rarely seen even one", acknowledged Ji-Han.
PING! Huh? What now?
{[Keyblade Mastery]'s Level has risen by 1.}
Again? Wait, since it had already leveled once after leaving the Konohanatei that meant…
PING!
{Because [Keyblade Mastery] has reached Level 12,
a new skill has been created.}
Oh, hell yeah!
{A technique to jump out of harm's way,
[Dodge Roll], has been created.}
{[Dodge Roll (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
A technique to roll into the direction one is facing or
running without interrupting one's rhythm.
Rolls to a distance of 1.50m.}
A rolling skill?! What was this supposed to help with? Still, it was called [Dodge Roll] which implied that it was good for evading attacks though there was nothing saying he could only do it to evade attacks.
"[Dodge Roll]!" He chanted and moved forward. His body automatically crouched down and he executed a perfect roll at which point he was standing again, just a bit further away.
"So you can now roll?" Naofumi asked him, sounding condescending as he did so.
"Apparently", he responded flatly. But what was that with the rhythm supposed to mean?
"Maybe it has some other effect when I use it to dodge…" Not that he could try it out now since they had taken down the last of them for now. Except the one Shadow still hanging around Naofumi.
"Let's just get going for now", Naofumi told him. "We should arrive at the Smithy soon if the map is still correct."
"Right."
As they continued walking, Ji-Han mused on just how different the Rural District was compared to his imagination. When he heard the word rural, he had imagined large fields with crops or livestock and small cottages. The cottages, he still saw from time to time. But there were no people or animals living there. And crops? You could forget that. Instead there were large areas of dirt and stone or, in the best case, brown and thin-looking sticks that fell apart as soon as one touched them.
The trees weren't any better. Devoid of leaves, hanging branches and covered in mushrooms, which also fell apart, they gave a picture of sickness that was disconcerting.
"Does it ever rain in Traverse Town?" He wondered out loud.
"Depends on what you call rain", Naofumi answered his question, having noticed his gaze on another dead tree. "I've been to areas where water constantly falls from above, but it does not make you wet. It's like it's vanishing the instant it hits you. That's why even there plants are only dying, even though the 'rain' never stops."
"The poor plants…" Akari commented and Ji-Han had to agree. At last humans didn't have to eat, or they would have already followed. Speaking of…
"Does that mean that whatever keeps the people alive doesn't work on plants?" He asked and Naofumi shrugged.
"Looks like it. But greenhouses with artificial light and water still work. And some supernatural plants like Goldfish Plants and Jack o'Lanterns are able to survive just on water. There it is."
Ji-Han got a bit surprised at the sudden change in topic until he followed Naofumi's gaze, directing him to a group of small wooden huts a bit in the distance. So that was their goal. The so-called Smithy. Or at last, one building that was looking like a traditional Japanese forge, open for them to see. Two of the huts looked like small buildings to live in, while the last one looked like a large shed.
The forge was currently in use as the hammering sounds indicated and as they came closer, they could also see by whom. Yet while Ji-Han could instantly tell the person was a [-Blacksmith-] thanks to The Gamer, at the same time he could tell that the person was not Totosai but a young man called [Arai, Seikuu] with a level of 17 for the same reason.
Seikuu had brown eyes and brown hair that went in a mop around his hair at eye-length, with the exception of his forehead where a large cut was missing and replaced by a short triangle-cut. The blacksmith wore a simple blue kimono with a black belt, both dirty from all the work at the forge. And as for what Seikuu was forging… it wasn't a sword like he had expected but looked more like a spatula… ah, no, now that the smith had stopped hammering on it and, after cooling it down, added a wooden shaft, he could see that it was a going to be a hoe instead.
However, now that the hammering stopped, he could make out another sound: Snoring. Surprised at who would be able to sleep with such a ruckus, he turned towards the sound. Was this perhaps Totosai? Ji-Han couldn't read anything about him, so he had to be high-leveled. Still, instead of blacksmith-clothes, the young man with spiky green hair was wearing a simple white Jacket over a green T-Shirt, black trousers and blue sneakers. Additionally the clothes didn't show the dirt of forge-work, so it was questionable, whether or not the guy was the master blacksmith everybody talked about. Not to mention how he was just lazing about on his chair, his head supported by his folded arms on top of a small school table.
"Oi, Arai-san", Naofumi shouted, getting the attention of the smith, "we're here to sell stuff."
"Iwatani-dono?" He addressed the shield hero. "I did not expect you to return this quickly. Oh, I see, you've just escorted someone else."
"Something like that", Naofumi confirmed before turning to Ji-Han. "What are you waiting for? This is what we came here for."
"Right", Ji-Han responded and opened his inventory. "I had just assumed Totosai would be the one to buy the stuff."
"Totosai prefers living on his own outside of civilization", Arai explained. "If it wasn't for the fact that only he has the capabilities to forge supernatural weapons, he would possibly be gone indefinitely. To follow his wishes as much as possible, I only contact him when his abilities are actually needed. And you do not appear in need for a weapon against the Heartless."
His gaze had fallen on the Keyblade and Ji-Han confirmed sheepishly.
"Alright, here, Scrap Aluminum and Scrap Iron. What can we get for those?"
Seikuu studied the goods, took some tools from his workbench and studied it some more, hitting them with a small hammer.
Waiting for him to finish, Ji-Han took a look around and his eyes met the large yet angular eyes with black pupils of the green-haired guy who had stopped sleeping and had raised his head, but only so much that he could watch Ji-Han.
"Yo", he greeted. "The name's Ueki Kousuke. You new here?"
"Yes, I have arrived in Traverse Town just recently", Ji-Han admitted. "My name is Han Ji-Han. Han being my family name and Ji-Han my first name."
"Alright", Kousuke said and laid his head back down, making himself comfortable again.
"My condolences." Ji-Han turned back to Arai who looked at him with a somber expression on his face. Like the last times the matter was brought up, Ji-Han shook his head.
"I am planning on restoring all the lost worlds. So I am not going to mourn just yet."
Arai shook his head.
"Please do not give me hope", he told Ji-Han, surprising him. "Hope is too treacherous."
"R-right", Ji-Han responded, taken aback. Was it really that bad? He remembered Raiga saying something similar. About how hope would only lead to despair. Would that actually happen? Would people turn into Heartless because of the hope? He wouldn't think so, but maybe he should stop talking about it. He had enough teammates for Zelretch's bet already and he did not want to responsible for something like that.
"Regardless", Seikuu changed the topic as he weighted the items, "your goods do not show the signs, I associate with scrap metal. No combination with other metals or non-metal materials and no alloys either. If it wasn't for the shape, I would assume it to have never been used before."
"It had been created just recently", admitted Ji-Han. "So, what does this mean for the price?"
"Metals like aluminum and iron are not hard to come by in Traverse Town. If we were to take apart the unneeded buildings and their interiors. But it would still be a lot of work to separate the components. As such it is worth more than the name of scrap metal would suggest. I am willing to buy it at market value, 2000 Munny for the aluminum and 15000 for the iron."
"Seems legit", noted Naofumi and Ji-Han took out the other two Scrap Aluminum, he still had in his inventory, giving away all his metal in exchange for 21000 Munny.
Alright, that meant he had finally something in his pocket. Now he only had to see how expensive things were and then decide, whether they still had to farm for items before they could start their journey.
{[Blunt Weapon Mastery]'s Level has risen by 1.}
Right, right.
"So, how much does food cost around here", he asked Naofumi who rolled his eyes.
"I am not eating anything, remember? Even outside of Traverse Town I can survive entirely on water thanks to the Fishplant Shield."
"Good idea", decided Ji-Han. "Let's start with water. How much does a liter water costs in Traverse Town?"
"Technically nothing, as long as we get it from a river", noted Naofumi. "How much are empty bottles?"
"You get 300 Munny for every bottle you return to the Leon Shop", Akari supplied helpfully.
That meant, if everyone drank 2 liter water a day, to get by a week, they had to get 2 times 4 times 7, meaning 56 bottles. 56 times 300… that really would be faster with a calculator. 50 times 3 was 150, 6 times 3 was 18, together 168, adding two 0: 16800. He had currently 23750 Munny. That would leave him with… 50… 950… 6950 Munny. And only with buying empty bottles for a week.
"We'll need more money", decided Ji-Han. "There is no way we can buy enough food and daily necessities with the money we currently have."
"So, more monsters?" Naofumi inquired and Ji-Han nodded.
"Or jobs", he added. "But since we still need to level up Shua, we should try item drops. Especially getting 20 Lucid Shards would do great for our funds. Speaking of Shua… Seikuu-Ssi, do you have any items that increases strength just by wearing them? Like an amulet or something?"
"We do have some armor made from monster parts that might give the wearer additional power", the blacksmith responded. "But since I do not have the eye for the supernatural, I wouldn't be able to tell how it would effects the user."
"Just show us the goods and we'll see", Naofumi demanded. "But it's for the little one so don't go pulling out the XXL-versions."
Seikuu studied Shua thoughtfully.
"This will be difficult", he exclaimed. "With his thin arms even a guard would be more akin to a small shield. Generally his proportions are so different from a normal human, he would need custom-made armor to fit. For what does he need higher strength? If it is against Heartless, I would suggest a new weapon instead. Like wrist-mounted claws or daggers, if he cannot hold any weapon."
"I don't think that would work", responded Ji-Han. "He's using a spectral copy of another attack to attack. Since he's not actually using the weapon, carrying it wouldn't really help, right?"
"Wouldn't trying to increase his magical power be more useful than physical strength?" Seikuu wondered, stumping Ji-Han.
"It could be… but… [Observe]!"
{Name: Shua
Class: none
Title: none
Level: Lv4 (57.71%)
HP: 435/500
MP: 125/125
STR: 5 VIT: 8 DEX: 18
INT: 2 WIS: 4 LUK: 5}
PING!
{[Keyblade Mastery]'s Level has risen by 1.}
Huh, already? Hadn't Observe just leveled up recently? Was it already… ah, wait, it was Keyblade Mastery that leveled up. Damn, that timing had confused him.
Nevertheless, back to business.
"Shua's STR and INT are too close to each other", he explained. "I can't tell, which one effects his attacks."
"We do have a lab rat with us", reminded Naofumi as he hit the Shadow under his mantle on the head just in case it had gotten bored with attacking him. Ji-Han nodded.
"But we still need to get his stat to increase in some way, before we can tell if it had an effect or not."
"Then we've got no choice but to do this the old-fashioned way", claimed Naofumi. "Let's go and kill some monsters."
"Right", confirmed Ji-Han before turning to Seikuu. "Thank you for your time."
"Thank you for your patronage."
"This isn't working", exclaimed Ji-Han frustrated.
When they had decided to go to the Mountain District to defeat monsters for more experience, they hadn't realized what a hassle that was. Specifically, how dark it was away from the common roads. Naofumi on his own had no problems with that, as he had a shield that emitted light, gotten from the remnants of a broken Lacrima Lantern. But as that was literally the only source of light within kilometers, it was harder than usual to fight against the Heartless. And if the monsters gave more EXP, they should also be harder to defeat.
"With the current light we have, we just can't deal with the enemies without taking too much damage", he continued. "We should get back to civilization."
"Speak for yourself", declared Naofumi. "I have no such problems. Maybe we should split up, after all."
"I think you are right", conceded Ji-Han. "If I take Shua into town to take down Shadows while you and Akari try to get EXP from stronger enemies… that would seem like the most efficient way." But…
"[Quest Log]." Ji-Han took a look at the bet.
"29 minutes", he read. "In half-an-hour Zelretch shows up and I don't want to be split up when he does."
"Why's that?" Naofumi wanted to know. "Can't you meet that guy on your own?"
"I am worried he'll turn me into a Magical Girl if I do", Ji-Han answered, surprising the Hero of the Shield.
"A Magical Girl? Seriously? Did you make him angry or something?"
"Oh, I haven't told you, yet?" Ji-Han spoke. "It was the terms of the bet I made with him. I get a spaceship but if I don't get at last two companions for my quest, I'll have to transform every time I want to use the Keyblade."
Naofumi laughed at that. It wasn't a very nice laughter, filled with schadenfreude on the expense of someone else, namely Ji-Han, but for the first time The Gamer could see him finding something funny. Probably the idea of Ji-Han in a frilly dress, waving around a cutesy staff-like Keyblade.
"I am tempted to leave the party just to see that", he revealed and Ji-Han put his hands together.
"Please don't", he asked of him like in a prayer and Naofumi snorted.
"Don't worry", Akari told him beaming, "I'll never leave your side!"
"Damn", noted Naofumi, shielding his eyes. "If she knew how to do that on purpose, we wouldn't need another light to fight!"
"I don't think I can fight like that", refuted Ji-Han. "This is just too bright."
Akari tilted her head in confusion, ending the spell and allowing the boys to take their hands away from their faces.
"Let's go back to the lit roads", Ji-Han suggested. "We'll stick around at the edge until time's up and then, after we've gotten the spaceship from Zelretch, separate into teams of two."
And so they did. However, before the time ran out, something else spectacular happened: Keyblade Mastery reached Level 16. And with it came a new ability: Night Eye.
{[Night Eye (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 50 MP every started 10s.
Allows the user to see his surroundings
no matter how dark it is.}
If that wasn't ironic, he didn't know what was. They had talked earlier on how the night of Traverse Town was making things difficult for them and the next ability he got was night vision? Definitively ironic. Unfortunately, the skill wouldn't help them much as it was. It had such a ridiculous high MP-cost that he could only use it thrice before recharging was necessary. Even with his MP-regeneration now 2 MP per minute, something he had no idea where it came from and only noticed at that moment, he wouldn't be going monster hunting in the mountains anytime soon.
So, their plans were still the same. Getting the spaceship from Zelretch and splitting up afterwards.
Speaking of…
"[Quest Log]. 3 minutes left, guys."
"Finally", exclaimed Naofumi exasperated. "Waiting for the time to run out is boring without any Heartless to fight."
"Hopefully he's at last on time", Ji-Han pointed out. "Even if the bet was set for six hours, there is nothing that says that he has to show up exactly when the time is up. He could just decide to check in later."
"If he does that, I'll be taking the girl to the mountains", Naofumi decided. "If he turns you into a Magical Girl because of that, that's your problem."
A drop of sweat ran down the side of Ji-Han's face.
"He shouldn't do that as long as you are here when the time runs out", he surmised. "From what I've heard of him, he always keeps his end of the bargain."
"You are right about that", a known voice suddenly cut in. "A bet loses all its substance if the loser does not uphold to the terms."
"Hello again, Zelretch-Nim", Ji-Han greeted the man with the power to traverse worlds. "Let me introduce you my new companions, Iwatani Naofumi and Shua."
"Don't forget about me!" Akari reminded him, making him flinch.
"And Akaza Akari", he corrected quickly. "They have agreed to help me on my quest to restore all the worlds."
"Greetings", the Zelretch addressed his companions. "As you heard, I am Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, also known as the Wizard Marshall, the Old Man of the Jewel and the Kaleidoscope. May I ask your reason for joining him on this difficult quest?"
"I want to become a main character", Akari revealed enthusiastically and Naofumi rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath.
"I don't really think that is any of your business", he then told the Wizard Marshall out loud, "but it's not really a secret either that I am looking to restore a person."
"And Shua here is looking for his home world", Ji-Han spoke for the Pokémon.
"Smear!"
"I see." Zelretch nodded thoughtfully. "And I assume you are all serious in your decision?"
Unanimous nods.
"Very well. I have to say, I am surprised. Not only did you win the bet, you managed to assemble a group with such complementary abilities. I say, they will serve you well on your journey."
"As soon as Shua levels-up at last", interjected Naofumi, earning him an angry "Smeargle" from the Pokémon in question and a chuckle from the old wizard.
"Now that you have gathered your companions, it falls upon you to keep them from focusing on the task", he told Ji-Han who took one look at Naofumi and gulped. Somehow he couldn't see him ordering around the Hero of the Shield. Or rather, tell him to play nice. That guy didn't care what others thought about him, going so far as to openly declare his apathy regarding destroyed worlds. This showed itself in the way he addressed other people, too.
To Ji-Han's fortune, Naofumi seemed pragmatic and so probably wouldn't go so far in antagonizing the others that it would come to problems in battle.
"Nevertheless", Zelretch brought him out of his musings, "the six hours have now passed. As such our bet comes to a close with you as the victor. As such I will now give you your price."
PING!
{You have completed the quest
[True Companions: Your Merry Band of Misfits].
Completion Award: +6000 EXP.
A ship to travel between worlds.
Increased reputation with Zelretch.}
Alright! Now it was official. He managed to complete the quest!
Zelretch, unaware of the messages, continued:
"The spaceship is already stationed within the dimensional sea. To board it, you have to say 'Beam me up.' Then you and anyone in contact, will be transported onto the ship. You cannot do this when there are people around without knowledge of other worlds or while you are surrounded by hostiles."
Ah, dang it, there goes that idea.
"To leave the ship you have to stand in one of the teleporter rooms, chose your destination and say 'Beam me down.' A new destination on the world is added automatically when you board the ship and also when you arrive at a world the first time. In the latter's case, the destination is a random time and place out of the way of the population. Unless you are arriving at the world with a goal in mind. In that case the destination is the closest secure location in time and space to your goal."
"Sorry to interrupt, Zelretch-Nim", Ji-Han spoke up. "But what exactly do you mean with time and space?"
"I have upgraded the ship with the power of the Kaleidoscope, the Second Magic. This does not just allow you to travel to different worlds, but also to specific points in time when it is most useful to you. This means that, for example, if you accepted the task to defeat a specific Heartless in a world, the Kaleidoscope will set your place of arrival close to the place where it had been last sighted and your time of arrival to the point when you accepted the task, regardless of how long you took to get there."
Wait. What?
"Seriously?" Ji-Han inquired "Even if we do like a thousand side-quests before?"
Zelretch nodded.
"There are only two instances when this mechanic stops working. First, you need the Second Magic, so if the spaceship is destroyed, you will lose that ability. Second, time resumes automatically when you have set foot on the world. You will not be able to leave the world and come back later without the time having passed on. Regardless whether you have finished your original goal or not."
So he could take all in time in the world to prepare before starting a mission but once it was going, he couldn't go to another world for things he might have forgotten. He had to plan ahead instead.
Still, it was a really convenient ability to have, downright game-breaking, actually. He wondered if he had gotten that one had he gotten the spaceship from someone else.
"Though, you do not actually need to teleport onto the world for that to happen", Zelretch continued. "Scanning the world or otherwise getting information from it, will also have that effect."
Ji-Han blinked.
"Scanning the world?"
Zelretch nodded.
"The spaceship is fitted with a scanner that allows you to take a look of a close world before stepping on it. This allows you to set more location as arrival points manually if they fulfill the criteria. The disadvantages are, as I've said, that using it counts as arriving at the world, letting time and space flow normally from your perspective and that, if the world has inhabitants capable of noticing it, tells these inhabitants that you have scanned the world. You will have to decide for yourself, whether you want to use it or are satisfied with the automatically added destinations."
PING! Not now, [Bunt Weapon Mastery].
"That should be everything regarding the destinations. If I have forgotten anything, I've left a manual behind in the driver's seat that you can consult if you have any questions. The only thing important enough to still tell you in person, is about how to get to the other worlds. If you have the ID, the code used for the world, you can enter autopilot. This is the only recommended travel method as even though you can traverse through the dimensional sea without it, it will be too difficult to actually find any other world this way.
But you can stop the autopilot and use the manual controls, or move the spaceship in relation to the course of the autopilot if you feel the need to. Like if you are attacked by space pirates or something."
"Space pirates are a thing?" Ji-Han voiced surprised and Zelretch laughed.
"I wouldn't know, as I don't use the dimensional sea", he explained. "But as there is trade between the worlds, it is safe to assume that there are pirates. Even if only the most stupid ones would attack an unknown ship with unknown cargo."
Considering the kind of people Ji-Han had met in Traverse Town, he had to agree. Attacking random ships was just asking to run afoul of a being too powerful to handle.
"On that note, you should also avoid getting into the flight path of anything unknown", continued Zelretch. "In my homeworld exists a being that looks like a flying saucer when it is moving and eats anything close to it."
Ji-Han gulped.
"Right", he acknowledged. When Zelretch, the guy traveling through the multiverse on his own, was warning him of a dangerous being, he'd better take his advice to heart.
"That said, spaceships are generally too uninteresting for those kinds of beings and thus you will be alright as long as you move out of the way", the Wizard Marshall added to reassure him. "And the autopilot guides you around locations in the dimensional sea that are deemed too dangerous to traverse."
"That's a relief", exclaimed Ji-Han. Fighting against Heartless would be difficult enough without some giant man-eating UFO hunting them.
"On a more happier note, I also have taken the liberty to add some other useful features", Zelretch changed the topic. "Namely, everyone using "Beam me Down" will have their appearance to fit those of the inhabitants of the world and will be able to converse with them without needing to learn a new language first. This should make your operations in the worlds a lot easier."
Seriously? There was just one bonus after another with this guy, wasn't it? Apparently Naofumi had thought the same thing, as he spoke up with unveiled suspicion in his voice:
"Aren't you generous?"
"Naturally", the Kaleidoscope responded as if he hadn't heard any of it. "I am really well known for my generosity in my homeworld. People always fight about who shall become my next student!"
"And how many of your students died?" Naofumi continued, making Zelretch chuckle.
"Oh, they don't die." For some reason that did nothing to pacify Naofumi. Might have been the emphasis on the last word.
"Thank you for all your help", Ji-Han thus interjected in the topic. "You did a lot more than you had to. Sorry if that makes Naofumi-Hyung looking for a catch."
Naofumi send him a disapproving glare while Zelretch chuckled.
"You two will be better for each other than you realize at the moment. To answer your question, Iwatani Naofumi, I have taken an interest in Han Ji-Han. And the features I have added to the spaceship are things I find necessary for him to save the worlds. I do not want him to accept a mission to save a world only to arrive too late because the travel time was too long. I do not want him to waste time trying to learn the local language when the world is heading for an apocalypse. The same with convincing people of his intentions because he has an alien appearance. He could have learned spells for the latter two on his own but that would take time, when one of the reasons for using my help was, that he could start his mission at any point, not needing to waste years for other things. Is that enough to satisfy you, former Hero?"
Ji-Han was dumbfounded. He hadn't realized just how much thought had been put behind the gifts Zelretch was giving him. And how much was necessary to save a world. He was preparing for the journey but he had forgotten to take into account everything that would happen once he arrived.
Especially the language. Even if he could be excused for not taking the appearance into count because he was used to only humans, even his homeworld had multiple languages and he had gotten into trouble because of the written languages already. He really should have thought about that at last… It probably would be good if he took a moment to think of all the other things they might need in other worlds, before they actually left Traverse Town.
"If you have no other questions for me, I told you everything I felt necessary", Zelretch ripped him out of his thoughts. "How does my request come along?"
Request? Oh, right.
"I am around halfway done", he answered. "But since it's based a lot on luck, I can't tell if I'll get them all soon or if it'll take a long time."
Zelretch nodded.
"I assumed as much. I'll show up from time to time. For now, farewell."
With that the Wizard Marshall vanished, once again in the blink of an eye and Ji-Han turned towards his companions.
"So", he began, "do you want to take a look at the spaceship or do you want to continue leveling-up first?"
"Spaceship!" Akari exclaimed enthusiastically, followed by Shua who raised his tail with his hand shouting "Smear!" just as exited. Only Naofumi had reservations.
"If we explore the spaceship now it will just take longer until we manage to raise Shua's STR enough to be useful."
Ji-Han, Shua and Akari, all three flinched. Ji-Han knew he was right, that they could always take a look at it later…
"…but spaceship", he whined, earning him a flat stare from the shield hero. Damn, if there only was a way to raise the stats outside of battle. Though, technically there was but that one only worked for him… right?"
"[Observe]", he used once again on his companion.
{Name: Shua
Class: none
Title: none
Level: Lv4 (57.71%)
HP: 411/500
MP: 125/125
STR: 5 VIT: 8 DEX: 18
INT: 2 WIS: 4 LUK: 5}
His STR was 5. His VIT 8. His INT 2. Those were the three stats he had an idea on how to increase through work. Raising the INT would be easiest on the account of how low it already was, but studying would need books and a place to sit down. To lift weights, he had to be stationary, too. But not so much for VIT. That one he had increased through running.
So, if Shua ran all the time without stopping, would he increase VIT, too? If that was the case, it would probably be faster trying to increase his STR through training than level-up. Heck, why stop there? Why not combine these tow?! He could get some weights for Shua and level his VIT and STR at the same time! His friend Sun-Il had told him on how that wasn't that effective compared to the movies, but his ability played around with the rules of physics already on its own and then he had met Shikamaru whose friend Lee had been using weights to great effect. Even if it wasn't working for Shua, he could still get weights for himself. There was no reason not to try!
{By making a high number of logical conjectures,
your WIS has increased by 2.}
Two at once?! He was so trying that idea!
"You still there?" Naofumi tried to get his attention and Ji-Han quickly nodded.
"It seems we might have to postpone the spaceship for a bit", he told the others, gaining two voices of disappointment in response.
"But if everything works out, not for long", he added. Then he told them about this specific part of his abilities and how to try it for Shua. For that, instead of walking, they, or at last Shua would constantly jog around them until they got back to the Smithy where they planned to get the weights. And, if their idea worked, they would then board the spaceship. If it didn't… they had to wait for it. Ji-Han had gotten the others to agree by claiming it as a reward for hard work.
But in the end it hadn't been necessary. After some time they heard the triumphant shout of "Smeargle!" and then they knew it had worked. When they reached The Smithy, Shua's Vitality has risen by 1. Not much, true, but at last that meant that it worked and that was all that mattered.
So they got the weights from Seikuu. Four [Iron Wrist Weight (1.5 kg)] and two [Iron Ankle Weight (2kg)] for Shua. Thanks to the Pokémon's peculiar build, they had to get him two weights for the arms less they slipped all over the place, even if the weights in question were just really metal plates adjusted with strings of leather. And the same build was also what made it impossible to get a waist girdle. The only place they could fit something like that on him was the chest, which interfered with his breathing. A jacket might have been a solution, but, again, they had nothing in his size.
Furthermore, Ji-Han refrained from getting weights for him for now because they were freaking expensive! All in all he had to pay 21,600 Munny for Shua's stuff alone. That had been nearly all of his savings. Luckily they had met enough Soldier-Heartless to cover the cost, getting 11,900 Munny for 2 Scrap Aluminum and 2 Scarp Iron that the Heartless had dropped since they had been to the Smithy the last time. They had also gotten another Scrap Lead, but Seikuu hadn't wanted to buy that one, as it was poisonous. But he did offer to turn it into fitting weights for a fee instead. Since lead was heavier, it was something to take into consideration. But since making them took time, he had decided to buy the normal already finished weights for now.
Besides, Shua was already struggling with the weight as he was. They could get the heavier ones once he got used to them. But he still got the heaviest one that would fit Shua as it was literally to grind STR. He had to get enough attack power to be able to at last deal with Soldiers. Still…
"…are you alright there, buddy?" He asked, earning him a weak but determined "Smear" from his companion.
"Can you walk?"
"Smear."
"Are you ready to go see the spaceship?"
"Smear!"
"Alright then, everybody gather together!" He held out his hand and waited a moment before his companions put their hands on top of his, Shua being the last one thanks to the weights. Zelretch had mentioned that every place they boarded the ship from was automatically added, right? Then what better place to do so was there, then in front of The Smithy, their so far most frequently visited shop?
"Ready? Then let's go! [Beam me up!]"
But nothing happened.
"Huh? Did I say it wrong?" Wondered Ji-Han but Naofumi shook his head.
"That was exactly what Zelretch had said", he confirmed. "So, either he gave us the wrong password or we are near hostiles…" He trailed off, sighed, and then pulled a struggling Shadow out from the inside of his mantle.
Ji-Han and Shua had to laugh on the absurdity of the situation as the former took the hand from their get-together, summoned the Keyblade and, with a [Power Strike], obliterated the Heartless from Naofumi's grasp.
Maybe a bit of an overkill with his [Blunt Weapon Mastery] giving him now an added 105% damage, but if the Shadow was above level 15, he might still need two normal attacks to take it down. And since he could easily take down any enemies with the friends he had, MP wasn't much of a rare resource he had to keep for the most crucial moments, like it had been when he was all on his own. Now it acted more like a limiter on how fast he could level-up skills like [Power Strike]. In other words, if he let the MP get to its MAX-value, he lost some opportunities for leveling-up his skills.
So, while he was not comfortable to completely waste his MP for enemies he could defeat without, in case some unexpectedly tough enemy showed up, he also didn't want his MP to get too high and miss out on some minutes of MP-regeneration. His Gamer-senses wouldn't allow it. Thus the use of skills on enemies he knew he could defeat without. And who knew when he was going to meet his next enemy since he was now going to investigate the spaceship. So, all according to Min-Maxing.
Nevertheless, once the Heartless had been defeated and he had gotten {+8 EXP}, he put the Keyblade away and put his hand on top of his comrades', before declaring:
"[Beam me up!]"
This time something happened. To be precise, green pillars of light surrounded them, taking away their vision. And once they receded, he and his companions had changed locations. They were now inside a large room, larger than what he would thought necessary. It was the size of a plot of land and the ceiling was like 10 stores above them. The ground consisted of multiple glowing white lanes as wide as a sidewalk, separated by parallel blue lines. The lanes led from the door at the other end, resembling two elevator doors put together, to where they stood now, a large magic circle behind them, filling up the whole wall.
The walls were also rather eerie-looking, black in color but giving a tint of color by illuminating support structures, blue on the lower half and red on the upper. The support structures themselves resembled the Greek letter "λ" with an additional stroke going directly up from the top of the symbol. At last the ones on the right side. The ones on the left were mirrored.
All in all, not quite what he had expected from a spaceship, especially ones that Zelretch would give him. But then again, he didn't actually need one for himself and didn't he say he found it? It made sense the ship didn't fit his personality.
Nevertheless, there was only one way to go and so they went that way: Towards the door. Akari was sticking close to him, her hands balled to fist and close to her chest as she carefully looked from one side of the room to the other and back, as if she expected something to jump at them any moment. It certainly didn't help that is was so quiet, their footsteps being the only sounds.
As they reached the doors, they opened in the middle, sliding towards the sides like a metallic automatic door, making the same sound that Ji-Han knew from the automatic doors of convenient stores. It seemed like some things stayed the same no matter where you are.
Behind the doors was a long corridor. To their left was a metal wall for a bit, until it branched off to another corridor while to their right there was another metal sliding door. The floor was glowing just like in the room before, being the only source of light besides some reddish-white stripes on the upper parts of the ceiling. Though the stripes weren't really giving off much light. Maybe they were the emergency lights when the main power was cut off.
"Let's try this one first", Akari decided as she went towards the right and the doors parted before her. And to their surprise, the room behind was actually comforting. Instead of the eerie lights from before, the room was fully illuminated from lambs in the ceiling and had warm white walls. There were multiple beds with white covers in a row separated by white curtains and on the other side… operation tables?
"The infirmary", Ji-Han realized and Naofumi took a closer look at the contents of one of the white cupboards.
"But there are no medical supplies", he observed. "We'll have to get them on our own…"
Ji-Han nodded as he walked through the room, following the left wall. He passed a section that was surrounded by transparent walls, until he reached the end. There was another door leading towards the main corridor from before, but also one at the wall adjacent towards it. As he went through the latter, he was in some sort of side-corridor, with another door directly in front of him.
Going through that one and he came into a large empty room with a ceiling as high as the room where they teleported in. On the opposite side was another door and so was one on in the middle of the left wall. However, additionally to the door there were also a glass wall on the uppermost part of it, as if it was made for the people on the other side to look down on where he stood.
That was when an electronic voice called out [Do you want to start a training program?] and Ji-Han knew what the room was for.
"No", he quickly replied. He could train later, for now they were going to explore the rest of the ship.
"A training program?" Naofumi noted thoughtfully. "I wonder if you gain EXP from the enemies in one of those…"
That was actually a good question and something they would need to try out. Later.
"For now let's continue, Naofumi-Hyung", Ji-Han said. "We still need to find the bridge."
The door lead to another side-corridor with another door directly in front of him, leading to a room which ledges on the walls at waist-height, rectangular tables and, on the opposite wall, a medium-sized cabinet with a comparable large cylinder in it. The cylinder was mostly made out of metal except for the front, which was transparent and on the inside were metal arms with all sorts of tools attached to them.
"What do you think?" Ji-Han addressed Naofumi. "Some sort of engineering room?"
Naofumi agreed.
"Most likely", he responded. "But I don't know if we should try it out. Things like that can break easily when handled incorrectly."
"Right", Ji-Han conceded. "Maybe the manual Zelretch talked about has something about that."
Continuing the tour was now only possible through one of two doors, the first going back to where they came from, the second was on the left wall, leading back to the main corridor. As they continued right, they came closer and closer to the end of the main corridor. All the while on the right and left were large sleeping quarters.
The only exception was the last one before the end of the corridor on the left side, which was a small cafeteria, as far as they could tell. But the real highlight was the room beyond the door at the end of the corridor.
It was a semi-round room with windows going from one side to the other, depicting something like primordial chaos, violet, blue and red streams of circling matter inside a dark void. Below the windows were metal desks, connected to each other without a gap with futuristic keyboards imbedded into them. In front of each of them was a blue arm chair that was rotatable, but still fixed at its location.
But all of those desks were actually a level below the entrance. Ji-Han and his friends were now standing on some sort of elevation with stairs to the left and right, leading to the level below. Yet the elevation also had one desk and chair combination at its rounded front. Speaking of the chair, it was actually with the back to the desk, allowing them to see the book laying on it.
Ji-Han picked up the book and read its title:
{FO Vimana
Instruction Manual}
PING!
Huh? What now?
{You have obtained the skill book
[Trans-dimensional Ship Operating Techniques].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
The heck?!
"What is the matter?" Naofumi ripped him from his thoughts. "That is the manual, right?"
"Yeah, right", confirmed Ji-Han. "But I just got a message telling me this is a skill book of… [Trans-dimensional Ship Operating Techniques] and if I want to learn it."
"Skill book?" Naofumi repeated. "So, what? Does that mean you'll instantly learn the skill if you use it?" Ji-Han nodded.
"At last in the games I know of, you've got things that can teach skills like that. One variant are skill books. And it looks like my game now transforms specific books into such skill books…"
"You're gonna learn it?" Akari inquired and Ji-Han shook his head.
"Since I am the only Gamer, I am pretty sure skill-teaching items are single-use only. If I learn the skill, the book might disappear."
"Do not destroy our only instruction manual", Naofumi quickly ordered and Ji-Han chuckled as he pressed {NO}.
"I'll be careful."
Curious he opened the book and took a look at the first page.
{Disclaimer
With the exception of attacks from outside, travel with the FO Vimana is completely safe. Its weapon systems, however, are not. Do not touch the operational end of the magic cannons. Do not look directly at the operational end of the magic cannons. Do not submerge the magic cannons in the blood of enemies, even partially. Most importantly, under no circumstances, should you-}
And the rest was unreadable. Damn it. Didn't Zelretch made his himself? Why was there smudge on the page?
"{Do not submerge the magic cannons in the blood of enemies, even partially}?" Naofumi read over Ji-Han's shoulder. "Are we supposed to take that seriously?"
"Probably not", realized Ji-Han. "We don't even know how the ship looks like from the outside since we beamed up. How are we supposed to {look directly at the operational end of the magic cannons}?"
He flipped the page and came upon a table of contents like in any other instruction manual… wait! A map! Ji-Han quickly flipped the book in his hands and opened it from the other end. And lo and behold, there was a map of the ship, showing all the rooms and their purposes.
The ship in general was like a triangle with two wings or arms parallel to the sides of the ship to which side-corridors let. Though as the arms appeared to be the weapons, those were just for maintenance. The same with two cylinder-like towers at the edges of the end of the ship.
Beside of those, they had explored most of the right side at this point, only missing the observer room near the training area. The left held, from the bridge where they were to the teleporter room, the cafeteria, quarters for some more command staff, corridors with quarters for the other staff and bathrooms, a large canteen, some more quarters and bathrooms, and then guest rooms, though one of them was to only to welcome the guests. And probably for diplomatic talks if they were needed to.
"There is a lot of places to sleep", Naofumi pointed out. "Even if we get more companions, you're most likely be set with the ones near the bridge."
"Can I see?" Akari asked and Ji-Han sat in the chair, lowering the book so that she and Shua could see the plan, too.
"Still, that's quite the long way to the beamers", Ji-Han noted. "Do we have to go that far every time we want to leave?"
"Aren't those teleporters, too?" Naofumi asked, pointing at the row of three circles on the bridge on the map.
Ji-Han looked at the map and then on the platform near them, finding three circles on the ground.
"As far as the map goes", he confirmed. "But then why did we come in at the other point? Do we have to change something with the controls? I think there was a section on the teleporters in the table of contents…"
Ji-Han took the book closer and flipped to the correct page. What followed was a period of silence as Ji-Han skimmed through the sentences, ignoring what Zelretch had already told him.
"Smear!" Shua suddenly called out exited, surprising Ji-Han.
"What, what is it?"
Shua pointed towards his left wrist weights.
Oh.
"Did you get a point in STR?"
"Smear!"
Ji-Han smiled.
"Good job", he praised as he turned back to the book.
"It seems the teleporters on the bridge are OUT-only", he finally said. "And you need the permission of the captain. Does that mean me?"
"Who else?" Naofumi retorted.
"Right, stupid question." He stood up.
"You want to try out the teleporters or look at the rest of the ship?" He asked them. "The sleeping quarters will probably be nothing new but I want to take a look at the canteen. And the guest rooms. What do you think?"
The canteen looked actually a lot like one from a school, with kitchen and small tables set in rows. Quite large for their meager number. And the guest rooms were few in number but better-furnished than the captain quarters. Made sense, but it still made them wonder, if they shouldn't sleep there instead. Alas, sleeping so far away from the command center was probably a bad idea. They just had to run too far if anything came up.
Leaving behind the "luxuries", they went back towards the bridge, to try out the teleporters there.
There was only one problem.
"It doesn't say anything regarding whether or not it's possible to beam two people at the same time", Ji-Han exclaimed, flipping through the pages of the manual. The problem was, that they were one teleporter short for everyone to get their own. So the question was, if they could still teleport while two people were on one field.
"Why don't you just try it out?" Naofumi asked annoyed. "It's either going to work, or not."
"Alright, alright", Ji-Han placated him as he sat down on the chair, setting down the book next to the "keyboard".
Let's see. Only half was actually the keyboard. The other, a bit tilted part was a screen. Though notably, the screen on the captain-seat, where he currently was, was a bit smaller than the other ones.
Regardless, the first necessary action was switching the power on… or rather, deactivating the lock that prevented someone from accidentally pushing buttons when they touched the keyboard…
There was a flash of digital symbols on his right hand and his Keyblade appeared.
"Does that really only work with the Keyblade?" Asked Naofumi skeptically. It was one thing making Ji-Han the only one who could bring people onto the ship but making it so that only he could drive it? Couldn't they get a team member for the specific purpose of driving them around?
Yet Ji-Han shook his head.
"I didn't meant to do that", he defended himself and, to his horror, the Keyblade moved on its own, pulling his arm with it as it hit the screen with its tip. Ji-Han tried to pull away, but it was immobile as lines of digital symbols circled around his Keyblade, going further and further towards the head, until they moved over to the screen, sinking in it. Now the Keyblade vanished and on the screen appeared the words {A NEW DESTINATION HAS BEEN ADDED}.
The heck?!
PING!
{A quest has been created.}
{Quest Alert
The World's Heart: 135-32-1412-qlj-hjykk
Heartless are using the keyhole to the heart of the world to travel into the heart of the world in an attempt to devour it.
Close the keyhole to the heart of the world to prevent it from being devoured by darkness.
Completion Award: +20 000 EXP to you and every party member not from that world.
The world is not devoured by darkness.
Increased reputation with all allies you meet on the world and their comrades.
Increased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.
Completion Failure:
Decreased reputation with everyone you meet on the world and everyone they know.
Decreased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.}
"What just happened?" Akari wondered and the others two looked at him for answers, too. As if he knew what just happened… technically he did know what happened, but he had no idea as to why and how.
"I just got another quest", he told them. "One for closing the keyhole of a specific world. You don't happen to know a… {135-32-1412-qlj-hjykk}?"
"Do you really expect us to know which world you are talking about by telling us the ID?" Naofumi asked dryly and Ji-Han sighed.
"Of course not", he responded. "I just have no idea why I suddenly got this quest. And why my Keyblade moved on its own. Is my Keyblade telling me to save this world? How would it even know?"
"Maybe it intercepted a distress call?" Akari suggested. Ji-Han opened his mouth, before closing it again.
"You think that's it?" He asked his companions and Naofumi shrugged while Shua spoke enthusiastically:
"Smeargle. Smear, smear. Smear!"
"I'll take that as an 'it could be'", Ji-Han decided and turned back to the quest alert in front of him. Should he accept? He had no real reason to refuse. Except that they weren't ready yet. They hadn't bought any food or daily necessaries. But a world was in danger. Could he really take his time… wait.
"Do you think Zelretch knew that would happen?" He asked the others. "Do you think that's why he added the fixed arrival time?"
"Maybe", Naofumi said. "Or he expected you to take requests from the Hero Union or TSAB instead. In both cases having unlimited time for travel and preparation could be a matter of life and death. Why don't you ask him the next time you see him?"
"Yeah, I'll do that", Ji-Han agreed. "Still, back to the quest, does anyone have something against taking it as our first goal?"
Naofumi shrugged.
"It's not like we have any clue as to what kind of world it is", he pointed out. "But since you are a guy who wants to save all the worlds, you're just going to go ahead anyway, right? Might as well then start with this one."
"Let's save the world!" Akari shouted enthusiastically, followed by "Smear!"
"Alright", Ji-Han said, accepting the quest. Now, back to the teleporters…
It took a bit but soon he had managed to open a list of possible location…
{
X → Auto-Safe #1
0 - Back
}
Not that they had more than one location yet. Did that mean that Zelretch had never once boarded the ship in Traverse Town? Or had he wiped the data when he gave it to them? Speaking of, would they have other worlds already saved in the navigation menu besides the one they got from the Keyblade? Or were those wiped, too? He had to look into that later. For now he just had set the number of times the teleporters would be allowed to use. And put in the password. The manual said that the password for that action was currently "MERLIN" and he was encouraged to change it.
It also said on how to change the names of the locations, which he did first, less he forgot what it stood for.
{
X → The Smithy
0 - Back
}
"Alright", he finally said as he moved towards the last free teleporter. "I've set it so that the teleporters now can be used 3 times before I need to put in the password again. So, try it out."
"[Beam me down]", Naofumi said and, with a green light creating a dome around him, vanished.
"[Beam me down]", Akari followed and she and Shua vanished the same way. So, it worked. Good to know. Then now it was his turn:
"[Beam me down]!"
As it appeared, there were no complications and they all four managed to get back to Traverse Town without trouble.
"Then let's split up like we planned", Naofumi told them. "Akari, you are with me. Shua, don't forget you are weighted down. That makes you slower. Stick to Ji-Han and let the enemies come to you."
"Smear? Smear!"
"Good", he acknowledged. "When do you want to meet again for the first time? Half an hour?"
"Wait, I've got an idea", exclaimed Ji-Han instead of answering. "[Party Options]."
Right, there it was. Voice Chat – ON.
"Test, test, one, two, is it working?"
"I hear you!" Akari exclaimed excitedly. Ji-Han assumed she meant she heard him twice because considering how close they were, it didn't really make sense for her to be so exited otherwise.
"But I couldn't hear Akari", Naofumi noted. "[Party Options]. I guess it was the voice chat-option? Can you hear me?"
Now Ji-Han could indeed hear Naofumi twice. One was his regular voice, but the second one was like from a plug inside his ear, just without any static.
"Good, it's working", Ji-Han voiced his satisfaction. "Then we can just call each other when we want to meet up again.
"That is a lot more efficient", agreed Naofumi. "We'll use this if something comes up."
"Take care~", Ji-Han told them, like a mother would see off her child, earning him a stink-eye from the Hero of the Shield which made him flinch. Akari, on the other hand, seemed to like it, as she responded happily with "We are off" instead.
Ji-Han watched them for a while, until he decided to start, too.
"Let's go."
"Smear!"
"I am sorry", Akari apologized again with tears in her eyes as she gave Ji-Han the two Lucid Shards that the enemies she had defeated had dropped.
But of course, she wasn't apologizing for that. What she was apologizing for was the fact that their first fight against a monster pretty much ended in disaster. That wasn't to say that they got damaged a lot. In fact, Akari was only hit once and Naofumi had only taken scratch-damage. The problem came from the fact that Naofumi had to fight on his own against one of the strongest monsters in Traverse Town, because Akari had been too scared to attack. As in, she had been scared of hurting the poor monster.
A centipede the size of a bus and Akari could not bring herself to attack it because she didn't want it to get hurt. Yes, as it turns out, Akari was such a pure soul that even the thought of hurting a man-eating insect that could rip her in half, shut down her mind. Naofumi had to literally carry her away from the corpse of the monster before she finally became responsive again.
Needless to say, once the Hero of the Shield found out exactly why Akari hadn't been able to attack the monster, he had been pissed. He hadn't lashed out towards the girl, but he had been clearly annoyed when he had told Ji-Han to meet up with them over the voice chat.
"But I can't help it", she told them. "I just can't bear the thought of hurting a living being…"
"But with Heartless you don't have a problem?" Ji-Han inquired and Akari shook her head.
"Heartless aren't alive. They don't feel pain and defeating them is the only way to help them. So I can still fight with you against the Heartless! ...Just not big animals…"
"And I am not comfortable with leaving Shua without someone able to act as a Tank, so we can't stick him with Akari", the Gamer contemplated. "Looks like we'll have to stick together for now." And as if to add mock him, his own level had increased once more thanks to one of the Heartless that Akari did defeat, when it was Shua whose level-up they needed.
"Let's at last get the rest of the corpse from the Oumukade", Naofumi said. "I have only met one before and with how large it is, it should sell for at last a bit."
"Yeah, let's do that", Ji-Han agreed. "But what do you mean with rest?"
"Right…" Naofumi gave Ji-Han two black objects that he had hanging from his belt like small scimitars.
"[Observe]", Ji-Han used on one of them to get a better picture at what it was:
{[Oumukade Pincer – Rank: Ultra]
The pincer of a giant man-eating centipede.
Base Damage: 30}
Damage? Can this be used as a weapon? And would it work against Heartless? Speaking of, since he now could see the attack damage…
He out one of them in the inventory and used [Observe] on his Keyblade.
{[Gaia Key – Rank: Ultimate]
The Base-Form of the Gamer's Keyblade.
Base Damage: 20
Decreases damage taken by 50% when in clearly
disadvantageous situations.}
What the- that thing was stronger than his Keyblade! …Only a bit awkward to wield… and it didn't have the "defeat Heartless permanently"-attribute that the Keyblade had. And using it instead of the Keyblade would just make it take longer to get new skills. So, not really worth it.
"Alright, our next steps", he declared. "First, get the rest of the centipede. Second, sell it. On the way I want you, Shua, to stay near us and, once Heartless attack, do some push-ups or sit-ups while we deal with them. That should hopefully reduce the time it takes for your STR to increase."
"Smear!"
"Naofumi-Hyung?" He addressed the Hero of the Shield. "Can we get some merchandise again? The faster I level up Keyblade Mastery, the better."
"Sure."
"Alright, then let's go!"
"Yawn", escaped Akari as she looked up towards the tuna of the Shopping District. "We are there…."
"This is close enough", Ji-Han decided. "Naofumi-Hyung, the merchandise?"
Wordlessly Naofumi held out the Heartless from beneath his mantle and Ji-Han stabbed it twice, evaporating it and gaining {+9 EXP}. He didn't use a Power Strike this time for two reasons. First, he already had used up nearly all of his MP in the battles on their way towards this place. Second, he didn't want to wake Shua.
The little Smeargle wasn't used to so much walking and fighting and had gotten sleepy on the way. After the first signs of tiredness, Ji-Han had taken off the weights of him and put them into his inventory, reasoning that a STR of {11} was good enough for the moment. But it still didn't took away the exhaustion that was already there and after a while Shua had become too tired to walk. And, once Ji-Han had started to carry the Pokémon, fell asleep in his arms soon enough.
But he wasn't the only one who was tired. Akari was more dead on her feet than awake and even Naofumi already showed signs. In the end, it had been a long day for them all, but thanks to the fact that Traverse Town didn't have a sun, it was hard to figure out, what time it actually was.
More than once Ji-Han had thought of teleporting to the FO Vimana and call it a day, but they had decided to make their way to the Shopping Arcade before they used it again. They already cut down on the travel time when they used it to teleport from the forest to The Smithy. And when they then sold the Oumukade Carapace for 8750 and the Pincers for whooping 30000 each – Seikuu didn't had any interest in the legs but took two Scarp Aluminum they had gathered on the way to the forest – they had decided that 93900 Munny should be enough to get some first supplies for the journey. Especially if they sold the rest of the items.
So they then went towards the Shopping Arcade. Since this was also a rather important place, it would also be a good point to save the teleportation-coordinates of. Along the way they had gotten more tired and tired but stubbornly continued on until they reached their goal. But by now nobody thought on selling stuff and then calling it a day. They would rather sleep now.
Thus they gathered around Ji-Han, Naofumi putting his hand on Ji-Han's right arm, while Akari clung to the other, leaning against Ji-Han's shoulder. Ji-Han said the magic words and soon they were on board.
Ji-Han guided the half-asleep Akari to one of the guest rooms, being the closest room to the teleporters. That was, when he realized they should have gotten pajamas or other sleepwear, but at the moment Akari was too tired to care. Ji-Han put Shua on the bed and helped Akari take off her bow, her quiver with the arrows, her sneakers and her belt with the knife, as well as her robe.
That was enough for her and she laid down on the bed next to Shua, promptly hugging the Pokémon and nuzzling into its fur like it was a stuffed animal. Shua meanwhile, responded in kind, coiling its tail around her waist and pulling her close.
Ji-Han froze for a second at the development and then just chuckled, pulling the bed cover over both of them.
Damn, he wished he had a camera… wait.
Ji-Han put his hand into the pocket and took out his smartphone. So he still had that. But no signal, naturally. And it was only at 22%. He should see if it was possible to recharge it in Traverse Town. But for his current purposes that was enough.
He quickly snapped a photo, then quietly left the room. Naofumi had already vanished, probably into a room of his own. Something he should also do. So, he shut down the smartphone, put it into his inventory and went into a room nearby.
"Man, what a day", he mused as he laid on his bed.
So much had happened this day. He had met the Seeker of Truth, his world had been destroyed, sending him in Traverse Town where he met a bunch of more people, fought against monsters and found out he was the only one able to save the worlds with the special weapon that he suddenly could use. He assembled a team, got his very own spaceship and was now preparing a journey into the unknown. His normal everyday life suddenly turned into a fantastic adventure. And he would be lying, if he said, he wasn't looking forward to it.
A/N:
Hi, guys and gals.
D'aww, aren't Akari and Shua just precious?
And here we've got the other advantages of Zelretch being the one giving the means for the travel between the worlds: The Kaleidoscope, replacing Donald's role of supplying disguises as well as adding an actual Take your Time mechanic that doubles as an explanation for why Ji-Han would always be in the correct time and space to do stuff. After all, the journey is not instantly and so they otherwise might be too late to help. This way they reach a world exactly when the world asked for their help. Or at last, the next time they get to the console of the spaceship. And it also prevents having to choose between multiple worlds asking for help at the same time. That it allows me to implement video game mechanics from canon Kingdom Hearts in a realistic fashion is a nice bonus.
Now onto the newly shown denizens of Traverse Town: Megumi, Arai, Totosai and Ueki. Ueki is one other person who is too lazy to join Ji-Han but is actually strong. Instead he sticks around The Smithy to protect Arai while Totosai is out. Even the threat of Heartless does not make him change his aversion for civilization, but since he was once the only one in Traverse Town able to make weapons capable of hurting the Heartless, staying away completely would have meant leaving the rest to die. Something I felt he wouldn't do. So most of the weapon you see being used in Traverse Town are made by him, especially those being used by people who didn't had weapons in their canon. Arai who does not like to make weapons in his canon, would in my opinion have less of a problem in Traverse Town thanks to the fact that the targets are literally heartless monsters. But he's still not making them, because he doesn't have the know-how. Instead he's making armor additionally to the tools he normally makes. Megumi I've already hinted on in the last chapter as a friend of Shion.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku
