Heart of Akasha
Gashadokuro Amanojaku: Akarin!
Akari: Here!
Akari: Heart of Akasha, starting now~!
Chapter 6: Munny, Munny, Munny
{You have slept for eight hours in a comfortable bed.
Your HP and MP have been fully restored.}
Ji-Han stretched. Man, that was a good-night's sleep. He wondered if the others were still asleep or not. Though he didn't want to check less he accidentally walked in on Akari changing… not that they had any clothes Akari could change into. And neither did he. The guestrooms had each their own personal bathroom with towels so at last he could refresh himself… or so he thought. But the bathroom was hardly more than a toilet, a hand dryer and a rectangular niche next to it.
What was that supposed to be?
"[Inventory]", he said, took out the manual and opened it on the part for Sanitary Equipment. As it turned out, only one guestroom had an actual bathtub, the one he had put Akari and Shua to bed in. The others had the same equipment as the quarters of the staff and command: Magical showers. He only needed to step in and then magic would remove any dirt and germs from his body within seconds. The same with the hand dryer. So, cleaning but not refreshing.
With a sigh, he put the manual away, undressed, stepped into the "shower" and watched as a magic circle sprung to life below his feet and went up to the ceiling. Once it was finished, he stepped out, dressed himself and then went to the canteen. The bed had been made magically, too and so he had nothing left to do in the room. Better to go to a place where people could find him easily while he began to prepare for the day ahead.
For that he opened the inventory again and took a look at the things they had. He had a total of 15 Lucid Shards, leaving him still 5 short from the quota. And then he needed one more to give to Naofumi to absorb. Then there also was the deer leather they planned to sell at Michiru and Mitsuyo. With all the Air Soldiers they had defeated, he had currently 4 Chrome-Tanned and 1 Brain-Tanned Deer Leather in his inventory, additionally with 2 Vegetable-Tanned Deer Leather. That should give them some more money.
Opposite to the 27 Oumukade Legs that Seikuu hadn't wanted and thus they could only pawn off at the Leon Shop, meaning that they could not expect to get the full value. At last they wouldn't need to get any more meat for a while. 1.058 ton would be enough to get them through months… or at last Shua and Naofumi. He and Akari wouldn't be able to eat only centipede meat all the time. Shua as an omnivorous Pokémon wasn't picky and Naofumi could survive entirely on water. But even if they were alright with that and his Gamer's Body would probably make eating unnecessary, he still wanted to eat and with variety. Not to mention that Akari was a growing girl and thus should get as much variety as possible.
But what they really needed to get was more clothing. Ji-Han had literally nothing more than the ones he was currently wearing and different occasions needed different clothes. He would have to check with the others if they had some at the place they had been living before... maybe it would be better to check what the others had before going shopping. Maybe they also had a spare toothbrush or something. And toothpaste. And soap… wait, would they even need soap? They had the magical cleaning gadgets. Speaking of, would they even need to brush their teeth or did that automatically happen when he showered? He couldn't imagine them having no magical teeth cleaning when they already had things like that. Maybe before he decided on what to get, he should first look through the manual and see what they would actually need and what wasn't taken care of by some magical device. And he should get some paper to make a list. He was bound to be forgetting something when he didn't keep track of it that way.
Ji-Han sighed and closed the inventory. It didn't make sense to try to note what they needed without something to write. Maybe he should train until the others got awake… speaking of…
"[Hidden Key]!" Ji-Han summoned his Keyblade and activated the skill he had gotten when Keyblade Mastery had reached Level 20. Hidden Key was so far the second skill after Night Eye that he had gotten that had a cost over time and stayed activated until he deactivated it. Once he started that and then every 10 seconds, it would automatically take 30 MP from his MP-bar.
"[Status Window]", he followed thus up to keep a watch on his MP.
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv7
Status: Unaffected
HP: 400/400
MP: 170/200
STR: 15 (14+1) ← (+0) →
VIT: 12 ← (+0) →
DEX: 16 ← (+0) →
INT: 9 ← (+0) →
WIS: 12 ← (+0) →
LUK: 13 ← (+0) →
Points: 15
Munny: 93 900}
Right, that reminded him, he did get 2 STR the day before when he was carrying Shua, didn't he? And he had still his weights, so he could train both his STR and VIT at the same time. Though, to be fair, he could hardly train anything else. His INT was the lowest, but to increase that one he first had to get something to study and most skills needed MP or a target. The only exceptions was Dodge Roll. {MP: 140/200}
"Oh! [Hidden Key]!"
Ji-Han quickly deactivated the skill. He didn't want to get too low on HP. Hidden Key's only purpose was to reduce the presence of his Keyblade, resulting in Heartless ignoring him. Useful for stealth-operations but not for grinding. And here in the Spaceship FO Vimana, there were no Heartless, so it made hardly any sense to use it. But he did it anyway for the same reason he sometimes used Power Strike on weak enemies: To get his MP-regeneration starting. And he didn't want to use Power Strike at the moment in case the others were still sleeping.
Having done that step, he took out the weights from his inventory and strapped them all on his limbs. Not that it could really compare to carrying their owner but it was definitively easier to run with those than when carrying a large object. There was a reason why only his STR and not his VIT had increased at that point.
His preparations finished, he went towards the training area, right opposite the canteen. Though since he was coming in from the main entrance, he first got into some sort of entrance room whose only features were a spiral staircase on the left and a fireman's pole on the right, leading to and from the observation room above.
But since he wasn't currently interested in watching, he ignored them and went towards the next door, the one to the actual training area. Yet as he approached it, some kind of holographic message appeared in front of him, a striking yellow color different from any his Gamer-ability had previously created.
{WARNING!
Training Room currently in use.
Training Mode: Survival
Do you wish to join the training?}
It took a moment for him to realize that the message was not from his ability but from the ship. Because he had no idea what was currently going on, he just said "no". To his surprise, the door still opened, allowing him to take a look inside.
There was Naofumi, being bombarded by short laser-like lights originating from flying metallic spheres surrounded by a green barrier. But none of them actually hit. The Hero of the Shield ran around, ducked, jumped and moved his shield all over his body to evade or block each and every one of them.
Ji-Han stepped into the room and was suddenly assaulted by the sound of Naofumi's movements and the robot's fire. That was, when the Hero of the Shield summoned his [Air Strike Shield] and slammed half of the robots on the ground while he used the same summoned shield as a stepping stone to reach another flying robot.
It shot at him, but Naofumi had already moved his real shield to the front and changed it two dog heads. As the robot hit the shield, it was already in range of the dog heads, which bit down on it in revenge. Or at last, they tried to. But they teeth clashed together without hitting anything, going through the robot without resistance. Yet it vanished all the same.
Naofumi landed on the ground, rolled forward and turned around. His eyes met Ji-Han's but he quickly ignored the Gamer in favor of the rest of the robots who were now shooting at him. Yet, once again, futilely. However, suddenly behind Naofumi a robot materialized and shot at him from his blind spot. However, as if he knew it was coming, the hero turned around and put his shield and put it in the way of the attack before ducking out of the way and spinning around to face attacks from the old ones.
Ji-Han didn't knew how long he had watched Naofumi as he evaded, blocked and destroyed only for another robot to appear, but then with a "DING!" all the robots and even the laser bullets still in flight vanished, followed by a mechanic voice:
[You have completed the training program. Your score is 160 points. Do you want the detailed report?]
"Yes", Naofumi answered and in front of him a hologram with statistics appeared.
"How did you do, Naofumi-Hyung?" Ji-Han inquired curiously and Naofumi snorted.
"I had ten enemies on the second-easiest difficulty in my specialty. You tell me. For now I had just been testing the waters. We'll see how good I really am once I do [Escort] instead of [Survival]."
"You are amazing, Naofumi-Hyung", Ji-Han told the Hero of the Shield honestly, "you already know so much about the training system without even the manual to help you."
Naofumi rolled his eyes.
"I just had to choose the options step by step", he explained. "Even a child could have done that."
"…right", Ji-Han responded embarrassed and Naofumi closed the hologram in front of him, before turning to Ji-Han.
"What are your plans for today?" He asked him.
"First, I want to get some pen and paper so that I can write down what we need", he responded. "And then I want to go to your living places and get what you have. The rest depends on how many things we still need."
"I do not own much, so I won't be needing your Inventory", Naofumi mused. "I can get them while you are going with Akari or shopping or what else."
"But then we won't be setting your home as fast-travel", Ji-Han pointed out. "You still okay with that, Naofumi-Hyung?"
"It's just a random place", he noted. "I don't care much about it. And even if, can't you just scan Traverse Town from orbit and set the destination manually?"
"You are right!" Ji-Han realized. "Do you want me to try that right now?"
"You should try to add landmarks first, like the Konohanatei", Naofumi told him "That's where Akari had lived before. I'll just go on foot for now. If you're still not finished by the time I get to the Shopping Arcade, I'll go buy some pen and paper and start the list. Just give me 5000 Munny and I'll go."
"Right", acknowledged Ji-Han and did as he was told. "I'll see you later then."
And so they went their separate ways, Naofumi to the teleporter room in the back, Ji-Han to the bridge. The Gamer sat down on the chair reserved for the commanding officer and pulled out the manual.
"Let's see…"
Setting up a new teleportation point was a lot more complicated than just choosing one. Already the first step, scanning the world, forced him to stand up and go to one of the seats below. Scanning a world was just not the job of the captain but of one of the other members of the staff. This really was a spaceship made for multiple people working together. He just hoped that he didn't need to jump from seat to seat and could do everything from this one.
With the book guiding him through the steps, he soon brought up a picture of Traverse Town in the middle of the big screen. As in, the whole Traverse Town, even the places where people didn't live. Did that mean he could theoretically do the job for exploring the mapping of Traverse Town without standing up from this seat? Thoughts for now he did some more steps and the teleportation points were highlighted on the picture. Now he took out the map of Traverse Town.
Since the Shopping Arcade is there and The Smithy there… that means the Konohanatei has to be around there…
Ji-Han zoomed into the picture and moved it around until he managed to get to the right place.
"Wow! It's the Konohanatei!" Akari suddenly exclaimed, making him turn sharply towards her. He hadn't noticed her coming in!
Akari, noticing him staring at her, quickly greeted him:
"Good morning, Han-san. What are you doing?"
"Ah, hello, Akari-Yang", he responded. "I am adding new points to teleport to. That way we can travel around faster."
"It took a lot of time yesterday", Akari agreed. "And we won't have to fight so much."
"Only that currently we are still trying to get Shua to level up", Ji-Han reminded her. "Speaking of, where is he? Is he still asleep?"
Akari shook her head.
"He's painting the ship", she reported, making Ji-Han raise an eyebrow. Sure, he's got a paint brush for a tail but paining the ship? For what reason? The corridors weren't well lit in the first place so would they really be able to see any of the pictures he drew? Ji-Han activated the voice chat and began to speak:
"Shua? You there? We are currently on the bridge. Come on over when you are finished."
It took a bit, but sure enough, an answer came in the form of a "Smear!"
"Alright." Then he addressed Akari directly:
"Once Shua is here, we are going to the Konohanatei and get all of your belongings, alright?"
"Yes!"
Good. Back to the task at hand, now he just needed to add the location into the list…
…
…
…
…
…and done. Then renaming it and voila! One fast-travel completed. Though Shua still wasn't here. So, since he was already at it…
"…what other locations should I add?" He asked out loud.
"Oh, oh, how about The Hospital?" Akari suggested enthusiastically and Ji-Han agreed. That was definitively something he should add. And afterwards he'd go with the White Ant if Shua wasn't finished yet. And Chie's Apartment Building. He still owned Shikamaru that favor, after all.
Akari certainly had a lot of fun watching him move the picture around to the different locations. It was a bit like sightseeing, actually. He also found the Tokyo Tower there, only for Akari to tell him that it was actually just one of two Tokyo Towers within Traverse Town, the so-called Tokyo Tower A.
Not the most impressive name, but it wasn't like he had any better idea.
But even with the distractions they managed to set up all the three planned points before Shua showed up and painted two big stripes on the two sides of the entrance.
"Working hard?" Ji-Han asked, earning him a happy "Smear"! Then Shua went towards him, looking at him expectantly.
"Are you finished?"
"Smear!"
"Alright. Then let's go."
"You sure took your time", Naofumi voiced as the three walked into the Leon Shop. He stood up from one of the chairs near the entrance and handed Ji-Han 1040 Munny, two Ballpoint Pens, a College Block, a loose piece of paper, as well as one Scrap Aluminum and one Scrap Lead.
"Sorry", Ji-Han responded as he put the metal items into his inventory. "After we got all her belongings we had to cancel her room. That took a lot more time than expected." On the plus-side, Akari had donated the rest of her money, 2584 Munny, to their funds.
Ji-Han looked at the list Naofumi had prepared for him. Food, medical supplies or a healing ability, and clothes for every occasion were a must, while more clothes, weapons, armor, weights, spell books, study materials and cleaning tools were put in as optional.
"Are you sure that is all we need?" He asked. "And so many things are optional?"
"No Shampoo?" Added Akari. "Or Games?"
"Everything not on that list is either provided by the ship or a luxury", Naofumi responded. "You can add to the list what you want but it will just delay until we can depart."
"So the showers do come with a tooth brushing feature?" Ji-Han inquired and Naofumi shrugged.
"Would that even matter? Akari's the only one of us who actually needs one and she lived in the Konohanatei. She should already have one."
Ji-Han still decided to check the manual on this one just in case. He still had to check the manual for the other stuff, so he could do that while he was already at it.
As it turned out, the showers were indeed made to clean the teeth while one was using them. And the clothes, too. Ji-Han would have called that high-tech, if it wasn't done by magic. Still, that meant that they wouldn't need to waste their money on laundry detergent, which was always a good thing.
Speaking of clothes, they turned up on more pages than just the sleeping quarters. They showed up in a short mention in the training room – just saying that they would not be damaged since everything was just a hologram – but more interestingly, they also showed up in the Beaming-segment. There it said that when their appearance changed to fit the locals, so did their clothes.
To an extent. For example, while clothes would change their form, that was just their outward appearance. They would protect from the local weather but they wouldn't suddenly become more durable. It also only worked for clothes they actually wore and, more importantly, it only worked for the climate they first landed in. If they had to travel to a region of a different climate in one world, they would have to get new clothes fit for the new climate. And weapons wouldn't change at all. So they might have to invest into some bags for those if they didn't want to grab the wrong kind of attention.
Still, the changing clothes meant that they didn't actually had to get ones for every occasion. And if they did, it would be better to buy them from the locals nonetheless since then the style would fit, too.
All in all, that meant they only really needed new clothes in case their current ones got damaged – besides what they wanted to wear onboard the FO Vimana. Like pajamas. After getting her stuff from the Konohanatei, Akari had enough of everything and Shua didn't need clothes in the first place. Naofumi was also a minimum-luggage kind of guy. He even slept inside his normal clothes.
Ji-Han also wore just boxer-shorts and a t-shirt for sleep but at last he changed them before going to bed. And his other casual clothes, he liked to change often. But he guessed, he had to make due with less than he was used to for now. Even in his world clothes weren't cheap and in Traverse Town they should be even harder to get. So, two t-shirts, two boxer-shorts, two pair of socks, and one pair of trousers at first. And hopefully more of them later.
Also on the list were medical supplies. Or a healing ability?
"Are there people in Traverse Town who can teach a healing ability?" Ji-Han inquired and Naofumi rolled his eyes.
"No, you are supposed to look for a book. You can learn new skills through books, can't you? The bookstore Book Girl is right here in the Shopping Arcade, too."
Right. So, food and medical supplies at the Leon Shop, clothes at Michiru and Mitsuyo, possible skill books and study materials at Book Girl and weapons, armor and weights at The Smithy. Those were the places they could get things. First, food. It was the most important thing on their list and they were already at the Leon Shop. It just made sense.
Unfortunately, they came upon another problem besides money. Even with a million Munny, they could not buy what wasn't there. The Leon Shop had 10 500g-bags of Koshihikari Rice and that was it. So, even if they bought all of them, which they could since one went for 6605 Munny, it was questionable, whether or not the amount of food would be enough for their journey. If there only was a way to see how long it would take to… was there?
Ji-Han took out the manual and looked at the Travel-section. And indeed, he could find out the travel time easily enough. In fact, it was shown automatically when he was selecting a world to travel to.
"Can you go ahead and sell our stuff?" Ji-Han asked his comrades. "I'll just want to check quickly how long it'll take to get to the other world."
But Naofumi stopped him.
"Do you really want to leave a pile of giant centipede legs behind?" He asked him and Ji-Han had to agree that that wasn't such a good idea.
"Then you go and look it up", Ji-Han told him and gave Naofumi the manual. Upon his agreement, they all went back on the FO Vimana together and split up there. But when Ji-Han wanted to go down again, he noticed that there was no new automatic safe-point at the Leon Shop. As it appeared, the two places where too close to each other for that to happen. And so they had to walk all the way from the entrance just to get back to the shop.
In the shop they had to get both Fino and Raul to sell their stuff, as it was just so much that they could hardly find place on the counter. So Fino would scan the items, while Raul, Shua and Akari were carrying them to the back afterwards. All in all, they got 19798 Munny from the centipede legs and Scrap Lead, giving them a total of 114738 Munny to work with.
In the meantime Naofumi had come back and told them that the journey would take three days or 60 hours, to be more precise. Still, that meant that they had to pack food for seven days at last… which made the rice barely last just enough. If they supplemented it with other stuff. Like noodles. Though rather the spiraling fusilli instead of the long spaghetti he was used to because they were cheaper. Then they also found some eggs, tofu, spinach and onions.
When Ji-Han saw the onions, he was reminded that there was something important that they mustn't forget: Spices. With spices and seasoning they could get a lot more variety into their food without actually having a lot of variety. Considering how much centipede meat they had, that one was pretty much vital.
But naturally they were not exactly cheap. Except for the [Traverse Town Salt] which only cost 873 Munny for 500g. But salt alone would not be enough so he chose curry and paprika powder, too. He had thought about taking some pepper, too, but for 25 000 Munny per 500g? Too expensive. They got 2kg [Milone Onions] and 500ml [Seasoning Vinegar] instead.
After that it was a constant back-and forth on what they should get. Even if it became clear soon enough that their current founds would not be enough. They would have to use up all of their money to get enough variety and then they still had to get clothes. But if they had double the amount of Munny, things would already look different. In other words, they had to complete Zelretch's Fetch Quest before they could get started. But once they had…
So for the moment they put the big shopping on hold and only got the seasonings and what they needed a lot of. 3 kg [Koshikari Rice], leaving behind four bags because Ji-Han felt bad taking all there was when they didn't need it right away, 4 kg [Fusilli Noodles], 12 bottles of [Mineral Water], because there were no empty bottles to buy, 2kg [Milone Onions], 1.5 kg [Traverse Town Salt], 100 g [Milone Curry Powder (Spicy)] and 100 g [Milone Paprika Powder (Spicy)].
It came all together to a total of 93643, leaving them with 21095 Munny. Seeing their money problems, they decided to separate. Naofumi would take Shua and fight against Heartless, hopefully getting some item drops and EXP from them, while Ji-Han and Akari would go to the clothes store. Theoretically Akari could have gone with them, too, but…
"Welcome", a voice greeted them as they entered the clothing store.
"Hello, Michiru-san", Akari greeted back, redirecting the attention of the store owner towards Akari and making her eyes widen in recognition. But before they could say anything, another person came speeding from behind a wall.
"Did I hear Akarin?" They asked and, seeing the person in question, brightened up considerably.
"Oh, Akarin!" They called out as they walked towards the younger girl. "Did you come too try some more clothes?!"
"Not at the moment, Mitsuyo-san", Akari denied. "We are actually here to sell and buy stuff for him."
"Him?" Mitsuyo repeated and, for the first time, noticed Ji-Han. They studied him and turned back to Akari.
"Isn't he a bit too old for you?" They asked, making the girl blush in response.
"It's not like that!" She denied vehemently, making Mitsuyo chuckle.
"Please excuse her", Michiru told Ji-Han. "I am Akechi Michiru and this is my wife Mitsuyo. We are the owners of Michiru and Mitsuyo. What can we do for you?"
[-Michiru and Mitsuyo Owner-
Lv12 Akechi, Michiru]
[Cheeky Devil
-Michiru and Mitsuyo Owner-
Lv9 Akechi, Mitsuyo]
Ji-Han had known that they were related in some way as he had already seen their names beforehand, but he was surprised to hear they were married. His mind just didn't jump to marriage when seeing two females with the same last name. After all, wasn't same-sex marriage illegal?
…at last in his home country it was, even if the sex in itself was legal. But in the end that didn't matter, right? All laws of their home worlds stopped mattering after their arrival in Traverse Town. And those two were definitively not even from a world like his in the first place. Why he was so sure about that? Because they both had horns.
Michiru was a middle-aged woman with blue eyes and long blond hair styled in a ponytail. On top of her head were two long ears similar to those of an equine with short fur-like hair of the same color. On the inside however, the fur was white and fluffy instead. Also, her forehead was free of any hair and instead there was a long, spiraling white horn like from a unicorn.
Mitsuyo on the other hand had green eyes and shoulder-length blue hair with a tint of green. But like Michiru, she had two equine ears were the outside was of the same color as her hair and the inside was fluffy with fur of a brighter color. But while Michuru had only one horn, Mitsuyo had two. They began from the back of her head and curved around the sides over her hair towards the front where they then twisted, curving up and to the outside. They also had the same spiraling structure, but they had more of a yellowish-brown tint that made it look closer to gold than white.
Their clothes also differed a lot. Michiru wore a fancy silken dress of dark blue color reaching all the way to her ankles, nearly hiding the shoes of the same color. Mitsuyo, on the other hand, had a red parka over a comfortable yellow sweater and a dark blue skirt through which a tail with a bushy end showed, also in the same bluish color as her hair. She also wore white sneakers, opposite to Michiru's fancy lace-less slip-on shoes.
"Hello, I am Han Ji-Han", he greeted them. "My world has just recently been devoured by Heartless and now I am in need for new clothing. I also have found some leather that I would like to sell here. [Inventory]."
With that he pulled out the leather, only for Mitsuyo to shout excited:
"You have a real-life inventory?!"
Ji-Han nodded.
"I have all kinds of Gamer-like abilities", he explained. "An inventory, a body that doesn't show damage, levels and stats, voice-activated skills and many more."
"That's really cool", Mitsuyo exclaimed and Ji-Han grinned.
"It is pretty amazing, isn't it?" He agreed smugly. "In fact, the items I want to sell you are items the Air-Soldier-Heartless dropped when I defeated them."
"Drop items?" She repeated. "So that is why they are all in perfect squares of the same size. Damn, I am jealous… did you know that I was quite the otaku in our home world?"
"I can see that."
"Well, it's actually the reason I opened this clothing store. In my free time I made my own cosplay outfits. And when we got stranded in Traverse Town two decades ago, I was the only one able to make clothes." She had a solemn expression on her face as she continued to talk. "It is funny that with all the things I learned in school, it was the skills I developed for my hobby that came in handy later. Though to be fair to the teachers, it is not like anyone planned out there future with the possible end of the world in mind."
She chuckled, but it sounded a bit sad.
"Don't worry", Ji-Han told her. "I've got the Keyblade and a spaceship. With those I'll travel from world to world and take out the Heartless so that no more worlds will get destroyed."
"And I'll help him!" Akari proclaimed loudly, making the two demi-humans look at her with worry.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Michiru asked her. "Are you sure you will be alright?"
"My ability classifies her as a Level 13", Ji-Han supplied helpfully. "That makes her the highest-level person in the room. And the only times I have seen her getting hit was when she was so sleepy that she literally ran into the enemy's attack. I am not saying it won't be dangerous, but she is pretty strong."
"Ehehehe", Akari laughed in embarrassment at the praise. "I'll do my best!"
"Just be careful, okay?" Michiru told her and Mitsuyo nodded.
"I don't want to lose my favorite dress-up doll", she added, making her wife roll her eyes.
Akari meanwhile was still happily responding with a "Yes~."
"Then back to business", Mitsuyo decided and brought the deer leather over to the counter. She brought out a scanning device similar to those that the Leon Shop used but she stopped short before using it. She then took the white piece and stroke over it with her hand.
"This texture…" She mused as she finally took the scanner and scanned it.
"Wow", she exclaimed as she turned to face him, "your ability made leather that was brain-tanned?"
"I was trying to forget that", Ji-Han cringed. Mitsuyo looked at him stumbled for a moment, before she realized why he was behaving that way and laughed.
"Oh, don't be such a wuss", she told him playfully. "Brain-tanning is just another way to process hide. In fact, brain-tanned leather is actually really valuable because the process is so long and hard with the end result speaking for itself."
"It is?" Huh, you learned something new every day.
"It is", she confirmed as she scanned it. "Like I thought, 37.000 Munny."
37.000?! That was more than the pepper! Even if that had to do with the fact that the Heartless dropped a whole 1 m² at once, it was still pretty impressive. Speaking of…
"Can you cut off a hand-sized piece from each different types?" He asked. "One of my party members needs it."
"Sure, I can do that", Mitsuyo told him. "But it will feature into the price since I'll have to be careful not to damage it."
"Better than using up the whole thing at once", he told her which she accepted as "making sense".
While she was busy cutting up the leather, Ji-Han got some EXP-Notifications, showing that Shua and Naofumi had stumbled upon Heartless. One Soldier and two Shadows from the looks of it. {+15 EXP} …make that two Soldiers.
Regardless, once Mitsuyo was finished, they got 55.980 more Munny, leaving them with a total of 71.075. Which should be enough to get some clothes. At last for sleeping. In fact, he was able to get himself one t-shirt, one chinos trousers and one boxer-shorts, all in a whitish color. That left him with 5926 Munny so he could technically get another boxer-shorts, but he didn't want to be left with less than 5000 Munny for now.
With that in mind, after their shopping was concluded there was only one thing to do: farming.
"I've got another Lucid Shard", Akari happily proclaimed through their voice-chat.
"Really?" Responded Ji-Han enthusiastically. "Good job. With that there is only one missing!"
{+6 EXP} And that was another Shadow taken down by Akari, even if it didn't sound like she got another Lucid Shard out of it.
"Do you want to meet up again?" He asked in the voice chat. "It's been over two hours, again."
"We still have enough space in our inventory", replied Naofumi. "So we don't actually need to meet up for now. I suggest we wait until we got the last Lucid Shard."
That made sense. After their first two hours separated, they had originally only met up to put the unwieldy deer leather and poisonous lead into Ji-Han's inventory space. And to switch out Shua and Akari, so that Akari could finish the Air Soldiers that Naofumi brought down from the sky as a form of power-leveling Shua.
So, since Naofumi's team has yet to come upon another leather or lead drop and Naofumi had raised no objection to giving the, for him, meager EXP of the Air Soldiers to Shua, there was no urgent need to meet up again.
"Alright, we'll see you later then", he told them, just as he noticed the appearance of Heartless out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, they just appeared here, too." But no Shadows. Just two Soldiers and three… what?
"[Observe]!"
{Bizarre Archer Lv8
Status: Unaffected
HP: 48/48
MP: 50/50
Type: Emblem-Heartless
Elemental Alignment: None, Darkness
Heartless that take the appearance of humanoid archers.
Alone they are little more than annoying but they can pose a great threat in packs.
STR: 5 VIT: 10 DEX: 19
INT: 5 WIS: 8 LUK: 5}
As the description said, they resembled human archers, at last a bit. Though Ji-Han would have described them more as Soldier-Heartless who had exchanged their spandex suit for a dress with serrated ends and a silver girdle, their black shoes for yellow ones, their claws for white gloves and the metal helmet for a red cap with two spiraling ends and two spirals above the place where the eyes where, as well as a white scarf. And like their name suggested, they held a small silver bow in their hands, from which they were already firing arrows.
"[Dodge Roll]", activated Ji-Han to avoid the pointy objects and lose no beat in attacking the first Soldier. The Heartless in question was coming to attack Ji-Han, too, but at this point Ji-Han's Blunt Weapon Mastery was at level 27, allowing him to take down Soldiers in two normal hits. As it found out the hard way like so many of its brethren before it.
"Go after the archers", Ji-Han told Shua, as the notification {+15 EXP} came and he moved on to the next Soldier. "But don't let them hit you!" The Bizarre Archers seem to have less VIT than Soldiers in general, so Shua should be able to deal with them more easily, as long as he managed to get close.
So, Ji-Han quickly took care of the second Soldier, while the Bizarre Archers that didn't suddenly got knocked around by a Pokémon, were busy "reloading". {+15 EXP}
Alright, now the archers.
With another Dodge Roll to the side, he escaped the arrows yet again. They just didn't know how to hit something that was on the move. Still, they were quicker to attack than any other enemies and thus he had to zigzag with two more Dodge Rolls, before he was upon them.
But then they were finished. One swing from the left to the right hit both of them before they could ready another arrow, while the return-swing took care of them just like that. {+15 EXP} {+16 EXP}
And then Shua came through, adding another {+16 EXP}. And when the Bizarre Archer vanished, it also dropped an arrow.
"[Observe]."
{[Weasel Yokai Arrow – Rank: Super]
Weapon Type: Arrow
An arrow made out of the teeth and claws of a Weasel Yokai.
Base Damage: 10}
Oh, an arrow-type made out of Yokai-parts? Did that mean that they could hurt Heartless?
{+25 EXP}
Speaking of our own archer, looks like she just took down an Air Soldier.
"Hey, guys", he spoke through the voice-chat. "Have you ever seen an archer-Heartless?"
"An archer-Heartless?" Naofumi repeated. "That doesn't sound good."
"There are around the strength of a Soldier", Ji-Han told them. "So, not really that difficult."
{+25 EXP}
"I haven't heard of an archer-like Heartless before", Naofumi refuted. "And unknowns are always bad when it comes to Heartless. I have not experienced it myself, yet, but for the people here this usually means the arrival of the Guard Armor. Let's regroup at… I think the Konohanatei is the closest and then head for the White Ant to get a grasp at the situation." {+15 EXP}
"Alright", agreed Ji-Han. Let's go.
Ji-Han and Shua needed to wait around 20 minutes until the others arrived, having been stalled by Heartless on their way. But once they were all together, they quickly teleported onto their spaceship, changed their teleportation point and then went back down again.
And promptly got into a fight with Heartless. But thanks to Naofumi's quick thinking in deploying his defensive abilities, they came out unscratched. Still, even just trying to reach Zenkichi they had to fight their way through not a small amount of Heartless. But when they reached the command center, the door to the room was already open, as well as the window on the other side and Genos was nowhere to be seen.
Instead there was a tall middle-aged man with wavy black hair flowing all the way to his chest and a single strand of hair reaching over the left side of his face, reaching to his neck, also in a flowing manner. That was when Ji-Han noticed the large burn scar reached from his left eyebrow to his left cheek, which was a lot more eye-catching than the gray eyes or the wide mouth.
He wore a dark red cloak, buttoned together at his right shoulder over a black bodysuit. Around his waist were two belts, one worn normally, the other hanging a bit loosely on his right side. And around his right tight he had fastened a pouch with a book.
[Chain Magic
-Magician-
Lv? Revchi]
Revchi noticed the first and, as his gaze fell upon Naofumi, put on a maniac smile on his face.
"Hey, aren't you the brat who tried to take my job from me? Are you also after the Guard Armor? How unfortunate but I will be the one to take care of it."
But as he made to leave the room, Zenkichi stopped him.
"Please wait a moment, Revchi-san", he told him, before addressing Ji-Han.
"I assume you are here because of the irregularities with the Heartless?"
"Yes", Ji-Han confirmed. "Is it really the work of the Guard Armor?"
"We are assuming as much. That is why I want you to team up with Revchi-san and take it down."
"And what good would that do?" The person in question interjected. "I am strong enough to destroy the Guard Armor with a single attack. What good would teaming up with anyone do?"
"This time the purpose is not just to defeat the Guard Armor", Mikage explained. "It is to defeat the Guard Armor permanently. As such, it is vital that the last strike will be done with Han-san's Keyblade. Fail to do that and there will be no reward."
"What?" Revchi exclaimed in anger and he turned to get a good look at Ji-Han. "Do you really possess a Keyblade?!"
Ji-Han summoned it and Revchi grit his teeth.
"So there really is a Keyblade", he mused and afterwards took deep breaths.
"So my job is to protect the little chick from the attacks of the Guard Armor while he scratches at it", he summarized calmly. "Sure, I can do that. But seeing as I am the one doing the actual work, it is only fitting that I will get the reward, isn't it?"
"I don't think we actually need you", denied Naofumi. "We are all strong in our own right. Actually, it is not at all that we need you. They need him. Anyone can keep the Guard Armor busy, but only he can defeat it permanently. And any money he gets is used to go and save more worlds. If he hadn't become a member of the Hero Union, they would throw it after him. And unless you plan to join him in his quest, you are little more than a replaceable mercenary."
"That is enough", Zenkichi interrupted Naofumi harshly before the magician could blow a fuse. "Do you want to turn Revchi-san into a Heartless?!"
That stopped the hero in the shield in his tracks.
"I apologize", he said. "That wasn't my intention. But I don't like people who think they are just entitled to things."
"I ask you to keep these impulses under control as much as possible", Zenkichi told him. "Strife is our most dangerous foe. The same goes for you, Revchi-san. Be mindful of what you say as not every comment can be dismissed as harmless fun by everybody."
"Yes", Naofumi and Revchi responded at the same time.
"Good. Now, back to the matter at hand, Revchi-san might not be the only possibly candidate to restrain the Guard Armor, but his Chain Magic makes him the best. And even if you think, you can defeat the Guard Armor on your own, if Han-san dies, then so dies our only hope of dealing with the Heartless permanently. And while I am not telling you how to go about your quest, here in Traverse Town, I will not let you fight against the Guard Armor without backup.
So, if you do not agree to fight with him against the Guard Armor, I will ask you to stay in this room until the situation has been dealt with."
"No need", declared Ji-Han. "There is no way that I would not agree to take down the Guard Armor for good. Some extra money would be nice, but it's not really the most important thing. Still, I would like to see how our group stacks up against some kind of boss monster."
"Very well", Zenkichi responded. "Then we will do it like this: If you take down the Guard Armor with the Keyblade and release its heart, we will grand both parties together a total of 100,000 Munny. 25,000 of it will be given to each party for the accomplished mission. Then other half will be given according to your merits. 25,000 Munny will go to those who find the Guard Armor first. In Revchi-san's case, he will also have to keep it busy until Han-san arrives, while in the latter's case, he will not engage until the back-up has arrived. Then his party will finally fight against the Heartless and if they manage to defeat it on their own, earn the last 25,000 Munny. If Revchi-san has to intervene, they will go to him instead. Do you agree?"
PING!
{A quest has been created.}
Ah, there it was. He had already wondered when it would show up.
{Quest Alert
Menace of the Dayless Town: Empty Guardian
The Guard Armor shows up in Traverse Town from time to time, increasing the amount of weaker Heartless and their aggression.
Defeat the [Guard Armor] with the Keyblade to make sure it never bothers Traverse Town again.
Bonus Objective:
1: Find the Guard Armor before Revchi does.
2: Defeat the Guard Armor without Revchi's help.
Completion Award: +5 000 EXP.
A payment of 25 000 Munny.
Increased reputation with most people of Twilight Town.
Decreased reputation with Revchi, Gokudo Yuccot Kikansky and Koizumi Takashi.
Bonus Award:
1: +2000 EXP.
A payment of 25 000 Munny.
Decreased reputation with Revchi.
2: +2000 EXP.
A payment of 25 000 Munny.
Increased reputation with Revchi.
Completion Failure: +1 000 EXP.
Decreased reputation with the people of Twilight Town.}
That sounded about right… except that that he'd get decreased reputation as a completion reward. Even with people he had never even heard of before. Where there people that would actually hate him if he took out an enemy that plagued Traverse Town?! Would Revchi?!
…He would, wouldn't he? He wanted to get the money for defeated the Guard Armor. He didn't want to share.
But killing the Heartless was a lot more important than making that guy happy. So Ji-Han accepted without reservation, followed by Revchi himself.
"Then you better accept this party invitation", Ji-Han told the Chain Magician. "Once you have, you can use the voice chat to talk with us wherever you are. Revchi, [Party Invite]."
"What the-", Revchi exclaimed in surprise as in front of him, a blue panel appeared.
"Is that so?" Zenkichi voiced with interest. "Then would you please extend an invitation to me, too, so that we can keep updated on any new developments? Or is there a maximum party size."
"If there is, I haven't found it yet. [Party Invite]."
{[Hitoyoshi, Zenkichi] has joined your party [World Salvation Party].}
{[Revchi] has joined your party [World Salvation Party].}
"World Salvation Party?" Zenkichi read out loud and Ji-Han blushed.
"I had to give it some name", he defended himself.
"Alright. How do I activate the voice chat?"
"You say 'Party Options', chose {Voice Chat} and then set him to {ON}. Then, whenever you say something with the intention of people hearing it through the voice chat, they will."
"Like this?" Zenkichi spoke through the voice chat and Ji-Han nodded.
"Just like this."
"Good. The Guard Armor appears in areas with a lot of space. This can mean placed like parks, school front yards, sport arenas or wide crossroads. The priority are the areas in the Urban District as it has yet to show up in any other district."
"[Inventory]." Ji-Han pulled out his map.
"Let's see… where to first."
"Aren't you going to start?" Naofumi asked Revchi. "Wouldn't it be better for you to get a running start?"
"Tch. Might as well." With that he left and Naofumi turned towards Zenkichi.
"Any information on our opponent's fighting style?"
"The Guard Armor is a three-story sized, living armor-like Heartless", Mikage explained. It is made out of a torso with a head, two gauntlets and two legs. There are no visible connections between the body parts, but destroying the torso destroys the other parts, too. The reverse is not true, unfortunately.
It attacks by moving its body parts, often spinning for additional power. Sometimes it also flies up all its parts before crashing them onto the ground, creating a shockwave. I advice to be especially careful not to be in range when that happens."
"Noted", Naofumi responded, than turned towards Ji-Han. "Have you decided were to go?"
"Maybe there…"
"A good choice as any", commented Naofumi. "But let's go in a curve around here. That way there are some more crossroads until we teach the Haunted Park."
"H-haunted?!" Exclaimed Akari in fright, redirecting the others attention to her.
"Is it really haunted?" Ji-Han inquired with interest and Mikage nodded.
"If you define 'haunted' as 'inhabited by ghosts', yes", she answered. "But it has nothing of that atmosphere and the two ghosts that live there are more like people you can't see."
"Oh, that's good", Akari said relieved. "I don't like spooky things."
"Then our destination is set", declared Naofumi. "Let's go."
It really looked like the Guard Armor was going to show up soon. They had to fight a lot more enemies on the way to the park. Normally it took some time for them to show up, but the further they went, the more frequently they showed up. In fact, they showed up so often that Shua was close to a level-up. They were actually making bets on whether or not Shua would level-up before they fought the Guard Armor.
But this was not just all in good spirits. It was a fact that currently Shua was too weak to fight against the stronger mooks, less alone a boss monster. And not just because of his STR. In fact, his STR was now nearly as high as Ji-Han's and Akari's thanks to the training. Yet he still did less damage than those two. The reason for that was his attack. The scratch-like attack was a lot weaker than the weapons Akari and Ji-Han used, meaning he needed more STR to get the same result.
So if they met the Guard Armor before his level-up, they were better of leaving Shua near Revchi and deal with the Heartless on their own.
Which was why, when they reached the park and saw a group of smaller Heartless, Shua was visible relieved. That guy really wanted to fight with them. But even so, what was with these numbers?! 3 Shadows, 4 Soldiers, 3 Bizarre Archers and 2 Air Soldiers? That was like double the amount that usually showed up!
SMACK!
And then Ji-Han had the pleasure to witness a Soldier flying through the air after getting hit by a white person-sized rectangular sign. A sign, which was now flying around in mid-air, curving around the Heartless, swatting them away with the flat or hitting them with its edge.
But as Ji-Han was stumped by the strange occurrence, Shua was already running towards the enemies with Akari shooting at an Air Soldier, while Naofumi smacked the second one out of the sky with an [Air Strike Shield], right towards him. That got him to finally move, too and he used a [Power Strike] to slam the Heartless against the ground, earning him a {Critical}, before he wailed at its grounded form with normal attacks.
He hadn't managed to take down its HP completely before the other one Air Soldier reached him, now two of Akari's arrow lodged in its torso. That forced him to abandon the current attack and [Guard] instead. Luckily that skill was good against those kind of foes as the Heartless was too stunned at the successful block to do anything, before it, too, was brought out of the air by a well-placed strike.
Meanwhile Naofumi had hurried past him and stood, shield-raised, against the arrows shot towards them from the Bizarre Archers while Akari finished what Ji-Han started and stabbed the other Air Soldier on the ground.
{+28 EXP}
That threat eliminated, Ji-Han stepped on the other Air Soldier and pulled out Akari's arrows. Thanks to the special body of the Heartless things like that didn't really do much damage, if any at all, but it gave Akari her limited ammunition back and he now could attack the Heartless without risking to break the arrows.
The downside was that that gave it enough time and focus to start clawing at him.
{-1}
Not that it did it much good. Trapped like that, Ji-Han had no trouble whittling its HP down one step at a time, only receiving minimal damage in return while Naofumi and Akari went to deal with the rest of the enemies.
Which meant 2 Shadows, 2 Soldiers and 3 Bizarre Archers, as 1 Shadow and 2 Soldiers had been taken down by Shua and the "sign". Akari reached the closest Archer who aimed at her, only for Akari to duck to the right. For some reason that was something the Heartless had not anticipated, stopping it in its tracks, allowing Akari to close in on it and, before the Heartless could react, slash at its head twice in succession, obliterating it.
{+18 EXP}
"[Shield Prison]!"
Suddenly Akari was surrounded by multiple greenish shields put together to form a sphere, held together by chains of the same color. Which stopped the arrows from the other two Bizarre Archers, as well as the dropkick from a Soldier-Heartless, which fell onto his back because of that.
"Downed Soldier at four, Archers at eleven", Naofumi told her through the voice chat, before letting go of the [Shield Prison]. Akari instantly jumped towards the Soldier on the ground, stabbing it as she landed. Then she quickly pulled it out and stabbed again, destroying the Heartless, giving them {+18 EXP} and a Scrap Aluminum.
That done, she quickly jumped to the side, making the arrows fired by the Bizarre Archers miss her. Who then suddenly got attacked in melee by Shua who, together with the sign, had dealt with the Shadows and the Soldier.
Which meant that the fight was pretty much over and soon enough, their experience got added to their party.
"Are you alright?" Ji-Han asked the sign. "Tip over for 'Yes' and shake for 'No'."
"I can talk, you know", a deep voice suddenly intoned.
The sign straightening itself, allowing Ji-Han to see for the first time what was on it. Which didn't help much since it were just two rows of Japanese kanji, with the first two on the left side and the exclamation mark that followed in red color opposite to the others in black.
"Oh, I am sorry", apologized Ji-Han. "I just assumed you couldn't talk since you hadn't done so before."
"It is alright", the sign told him. "I assume you have not much experiences with ghosts were you are from. I am known as the Bounded Spirit of the Park. Who are you?"
"Oh, I am Han Ji-Han. Have you met Naofumi-Hyung, Akari-Yang and Shua?"
"Not yet. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise", responded Akari, bowing her head.
That was when another voice was raised:
"Is everything all right, Bounded Spirit-san?"
Ji-Han turned towards the voice and saw a young woman, maybe slightly older than him. She had brown eyes that appeared to be shimmering in the lights of Traverse and smooth purple hair that was flowing in long straight strands all the way to her waist. Other strands nearly as long as the hair on her backside were on each side of her face, in between her eyes and ears. Her forehead, meanwhile, was covered with bangs reaching all the way to her eyes. Yet even though the hair looked well-cared for, there were a lot of loose hairs, swaying with every move of her head. Her clothes consisted of a blue knee-length skirt, a pink-colored anorak that emphasized her slender waist and thin, brown shoes.
[Voice of the Dead
Lv3 Amami, Hibiki]
"Everything is alright", the Bounded Spirit told her, ripping Ji-Han out of his thoughts and making him realize that he had been staring. With a slight tint on his cheeks The Gamer turned towards the sign as the ghost continued: "The Heartless have been taken care of."
"Thank you for your hard work", Hibiki told him, making him respond with a "You're welcome."
That said, she turned to Ji-Han and greeted him and his group:
"Hello", she said, "what brings you to this place?"
"Oh, we are looking for the Guard Armor", Ji-Han explained. "But I guess, it hasn't shows up here?"
"Luckily not", the voice of a young girl said next to Amami. "It's always so much work to refill the water."
"Oh, this is Hanako-san", Hibiki introduced the space next to her and then, brought her mouth to her face in shock.
"Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to introduce myself", she quickly added. "I am Amami Hibiki. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you", responded Ji-Han politely. "I am Han Ji-Han and these are Iwatani Naofumi and Shua."
"And Akaza Akari", the person he had forgotten to introduce piped up, making him flinch.
"And Akaza Akari", he amended. But man, didn't that already happen before? He really needed to keep his act together.
"Yeah, it's nice meeting you and all", Naofumi interrupted. "But we do gotta find it. Before that guy does."
"Right", agreed Naofumi and turned back towards Hibiki. "Please excuse us."
"Please, take care."
"Helloooooo, brats~!"
Ji-Han flinched as Revchi's cheerful voice spoke directly into his ear.
"I've found it~! Now hurry up over before it accidentally kills itself on my chains!"
"Right", acknowledged Ji-Han, ignoring anything besides the actual message. "Where are you?"
"Oh, I'm in front of that school building with the lightning bolt. Don't know what it's called."
"Oh, it's the Raimon School", Akari exclaimed enthusiastically. "I know where it is!"
"Alright", declared Ji-Han, "please take us there, Akari-Yang. Shua, how's your level?"
"Smear!" He shouted, raising his hand with the tail victoriously in the air, making Ji-Han smile.
"[Observe]!"
{Name: Shua
Class: none
Title: none
Level: Lv5 (0.55%)
Gender: male
Age: 2
Status: Unaffected
HP: 511/600
MP: 150/150
STR: 17 VIT: 9 DEX: 19
INT: 2 WIS: 4 LUK: 5}
An STR of 17, good. That meant that he put in the points himself. Otherwise, it would most likely be his DEX that would really get an increase instead.
"He's now got an STR of 17", Ji-Han told his companions. "That should be enough for the Guard Armor."
As Mikage had told them, the Guard Armor was made up out of six separated parts, all with purple shades. The head was round with metal spikes on top and on its sizes and some sort of visor with small holes at the front. The torso was an empty and exaggerated hourglass figure of a normal human torso with metal plates on the sides where the neck would have been and one in a ring at its bottom. And at the center of the torso, was the black and red symbol that was on every Emblem-Heartless. The limbs all had the same base, some kind of bottle-like design that acted like a ball-and-socket joint toa black plate with three silver claws in the case of the hands and two black hammer head-like structures in the case of the feet.
Behind the Guard Armor was a large fancy building with a lightning bolt hanging above stairs coming from left and right to the entrance. To the left was a building that looked like three square towers with windows stacked next to each other, with water towers atop the two outward ones. To the right was a small hall-like structure with a curved ceiling. The front yard, where the Guard Armor was, had also something resembling a sandbox with yellow concrete blocks on its edges and a lamb on each corner.
And all the parts of the Guard Armor were surrounded by multiple chains, struggling futilely against their restraints.
"Oh, so you are finally here", Revchi noted bored as he walked towards them. "Took you long enough."
"We came as fast as we could", Ji-Han defended himself and Revchi shrugged as he walked past them, sitting against the fenced walls of the school compound.
"If you say so. Now, it's your turn." With that the chains holding back the Guard Armor vanished.
"Wait-", Ji-Han began to speak, but it was already too late. The Guard Armor had decided on him as his new target, spinning its hands around as he slowly walked over to him.
Damn. No time for preparation.
"Let's go! [Observe]!"
To his surprise, when he used Observe, four more panels opened together with the usual one.
{Guard Armor Lv22
Status: Unaffected
HP: 610/610
MP: 330/330
Type: Emblem-Heartless
Elemental Alignment: Fight, Sound
Leader of the Heartless in Traverse Town.
It falls apart when it receives damage, but each part attacks individually.
STR: 28 VIT: 45 DEX: 26
INT: 12 WIS: 15 LUK: 10}
{Guard Gauntlet Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 82/82}
{Guard Gauntlet Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 82/82}
{Hammerleg Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 110/110}
{Hammerleg Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 110/110}
So, from the looks of it, each body part had an individual health-bar, but still belonged to the Heartless at a whole. Which was why destroying the torso took care of all parts while destroying a gauntlet or leg only destroying it. But destroying the limbs would probably make fighting it easier.
"The Guard Gauntlets have 82 HP and the Hammerlegs 110", he conveyed the facts to his party members. "But other than that they don't have any stats, which probably means that they probably have the same as the Guard Armor itself. Its HP is 610, MP 330, STR 28, VIT 45, DEX 26…" Wait. Its VIT was 45?! How were they supposed to damage it?!
"Smear!" The Pokémon shouted enthusiastically, as it hit the left leg with its attack, dealing one damage to both it and the torso. Akari shot an arrow at it, but the arrow just bounced of it without dealing any damage.
Damn, that was bad, really bad.
"Get back here, Shua!" Ji-Han shouted as he ran forward. But it was already too late. The Guard Gauntlets suddenly took up speed and spun circles around the torso, only not hitting Shua because of a suddenly appearing [Air Strike Shield] interrupting the attack.
Akari had ran forward just like him, giving up on ranged attacks and attacked the other Hammerleg with her knife, dealing two damage to it.
Damn it, damn it.
"[Power Strike]!" Ji-Han, finally reaching the Heartless, attacking the same leg. Only for him to hit the ground, creating an explosion of sand as all the Heartless parts flew up into the air and out of their reach. Wait, didn't Mikage say something about that?!
"Get clear!" Shouted Ji-Han as he ducked and rolled out of the way.
PING!
{By using [Dodge Roll] without using the skill,
[Dodge Roll]'s level has risen by 7.}
Ji-Han would have rejoiced about that message a lot more, if he had actually managed to get clear of the shockwave as the Heartless-parts came crashing down again. But he hadn't been far enough from it and thus it hit him right in the back as he had straightened himself out of his impromptu Dodge Roll, giving him {-73} HP damage and throwing him all the way to the building on the left, nearly making him hit it.
PING!
{[Physical Endurance]'s Level has risen by 1.}
"Ji-Han!" Akari's shout could be heard through their voice chat and Ji-Han quickly reassured her that he was fine. The Gamer's Body really came in handy in such situations. And now it got even stronger. He had to remember to check how much later… huh?
"Shua, no!" He shouted towards the Pokémon who, disregarding his earlier failure, was now running towards the Heartless whose body parts were rearranging themselves again in the right order. Yet Shua did not listen. He ran towards the right Hammerleg and used his hand to direct his tail in a downward motion while shouting "Gle!"
To everybody's surprise, it wasn't the image of a claw that appeared. Instead it was the image of giant metal key that was glowing and hit the Hammerleg with the backside of its tip. And then the Hammerleg exploded and completely vanished without any trace.
"What the-", was the only thing that Ji-Han could voice in surprise at the new development. But while he was too shocked to do anything, the Guard Armor wasn't. Angrily it stomped with his last leg and rotated the gauntlets around its body.
Yet once again, Shua was protected by Naofumi. With a [Shield Prison] instead of a [Air Strike Shield] this time though. Which meant that while Shua did not get any damage as he was safely inside the ball of shields, the attack was not stopped and the Shield Prison was thrown away, Smeargle inside includes.
"Power Strike seems to be really effective", Naofumi told Ji-Han through their voice-chat, confirming that yes, Shua had just Power Strike on the enemy. His Power Strike. Did he copy it?! If he could do that, why didn't he do that earlier? Oh, the level-up! Did that meant he would get the copying ability, every time he leveled up? That was great!
Ji-Han ran towards the Heartless, grinning.
Shua had used his copy-skill to copy his Power Strike, basically telling him, Power Strike was the strongest attack they all currently had. Not that he was wrong, but it was clearly nice to hear that.
"[Power Strike]", Ji-Han attacked the other leg and with a {Critical}, obliterated it all the same. Then he quickly [Dodge Roll]ed out of the way of the angry retaliation, a series of two punches with its left Guard Gauntlet.
Meanwhile Akari jumped up from behind and, stabbed it with her dagger, before running away again. Probably to redirect its attention as it didn't really do much damage. Only for Ji-Han's attention to get redirected instead, as a PING with a message appeared:
{[Observe]'s Level has risen by 1.}
{Guard Armor Lv22
Status: Unaffected
HP: 388/610
MP: 280/330
Type: Emblem-Heartless
Elemental Alignment: Fight, Sound, None
Leader of the Heartless in Traverse Town.
It falls apart when it receives damage, but each part attacks individually.
STR: 28 VIT: 45 DEX: 26
INT: 12 WIS: 15 LUK: 10}
{Guard Gauntlet Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 82/82}
{Guard Gauntlet Lv22
A part of the Guard Armor.
HP: 82/82}
Seriously, if the Hammerlegs hadn't already been defeated, he would have had too many panels open at once. Seriously, couldn't he get the information like HP atop their head or something?! This was getting annoying!
"Smeargle!" As Ji-Han closed the panels for the two gauntlets, he heard Shua shout. It seemed he was back onto the battlefield from his impromptu trip in the ball of shields.
"Get on its other side", Ji-Han told the Pokémon. "We're going to attack from two fronts! But run away once it starts spinning!"
"Smear!"
"[Power Strike]!" Ji-Han activated, only for the Guard Armor to dance out of the way of his attack. Ji-Han cursed but luckily Shua had more luck, hitting one of the gauntlets if the spectral key, destroying it instantly.
"That's it!" Ji-Han shouted enthusiastically and jumped away as the Guard Armor spun with its last gauntlet.
That was when Naofumi also arrived at the vicinity of the enemy and blocked the spinning hand with his shield. The shield, which now looked like the head of a Smeargle.
"[Sketch]!" Activated Naofumi and just like with Shua before, the ghostly image of a key appeared and attacked the gauntlet. This time, however, the gauntlet did not get destroyed. Instead, it only took two HP from the Guard Armor's HP-pool.
"Smeargle, smeargle, smeargle", Shua spoke with a condescending tone of voice but Naofumi ignored him.
"Looks like a Power Strike with low attack is useless, too", he noted. "Looks like I am still stuck with defending."
"I'll take care of it!" Ji-Han promised as he jumped into the air, using [Power Strike]. But, once again the torso swayed out of the way, this time with the last gauntlet punching towards Ji-Han from his side.
"[Air Strike Shield]", Naofumi activated, blocking both punches and allowing Shua to destroy the last remaining limb.
"Now back off", Naofumi told them as the Guard Armor's HP went down to 224. "We don't now how it'll attack now!"
True to his words, the torso suddenly started spinning on its own. First slowly, but then faster. Then, while it was still spinning, it moved around the place, zigzagging from one point to the other like a pinball hitting invisible walls, or in case of Naofumi's shield, a visible one.
But the Hero of the Shield was the only one able to block the attack. When it hit the others, it threw them around like bowling pins. An only Shua was save from harm thanks to a timely [Shield Prison]. Ji-Han and Akari didn't have the same protection.
It hit him twice, once during its initial attack, throwing him to the ground and then, just as he was starting to stand up again, a second time from behind. {-44} {-45}
"Are you guys alright?" Naofumi asked through their voice-chat when the Guard Armor finally stopped.
"I'm alright", Akari spoke up, thought Ji-Han himself was a bit more worried.
"I am not hurt but that attack took nearly 100 of my HP", he reported. "I can't take many more of those…" He trailed of when black portals all appeared around them, on the ground and in the air. Through them appeared many Soldiers, Air Soldiers, Bizarre Archers and Air Soldiers carrying Bizarre Archers.
What the- it summoned other Heartless, too?!
"Oh, look", Revchi's condescending voice resounded through their voice chat. "You took so long that all the Heartless from the surroundings have appeared, too. Should I help you get rid of them?"
"Not yet!" Ji-Han refuted. They were so close! "Naofumi, keep the Guard Armor busy. The rest goes after the small-fry!"
As he said that, he was already running towards a group of Soldier-Heartless. Personally he found the Bizarre Archer's to be more dangerous thanks to their ranged attacks, but for now the first priority was to whittle down their numbers. And the Soldiers were already coming towards him.
"[Power Strike]", Ji-Han activated to instantly obliterate the first Soldier {+18 EXP}. Then he danced around the attack of the second and third one and [Guard]ed against the fourth. But instead of attacking the Heartless now on the ground thanks to the recoil, he turned back around and attacked the undefended backsides of the other two Soldiers, who he didn't need to bend down to attack, making himself vulnerable to other attacks. And his swings were wide enough that he hit both of them at the same time, allowing him to take out both with two strikes total instead of two each.
The second one actually dropped Scrap Lead, but Ji-Han was too busy to pick it up as pain assaulting him in his right shoulder, where an arrow from a Bizarre Archer had hit. {-4}
He quickly changed location as one of the best methods to avoid attacks from Heartless was to be on the move and took a look around on the battlefield. Akari had managed to sneak up behind a group of Bizarre Archers on the ground and decimated them with her dagger, while Shua was wrecking havoc inside a group of Soldiers with his [Power Strike].
"Don't use up all your MP, Shua", he admonished the Smeargle through their voice-chat. "We'll need some for the boss."
Then he quickly jumped out of the way as a bunch of Bizarre Archers carried by Air Soldiers had now decided to use him for some target practice.
"Akari-Yang, take down the airborne Archers", he told her as she was the only one with the reach that wasn't busy stopping the boss from killing them all. "Shua, go for the grounded ones. But be careful you don't get hit." After all, it wouldn't do for the Air Soldiers to suddenly pick up the other Bizarre Archers. And he was currently a bit busy trying to evade all the arrows the guys above him send after him.
"Ji-Han, Guard Armor six o'clock!" Naofumi suddenly shouted through their voice-chat, making him curse as he turned around. Couldn't that guy leave him alone at last until they dealt with the small-fry?
"[Guard]!" He shouted as he brought up his Keyblade to defend himself from the spinning torso. His timing was on point and so the Heartless reflected away from his Keyblade as if it was Noafumi's shield.
Additionally, the large frame of the Guard Armor had blocked any arrows for the moment, allowing him to take a look at the airborne Heartless and watch as a Bizarre Archer was pierced by one of Akari's arrows, destroying it and making it drop all four of the arrows that had before been stuck in its body.
The Air Soldier, who was suddenly without any luggage to carry, looked around confused and then dove down towards Ji-Han, while the three other Bizarre Archers held in the air continued to shoot at him. Now, if the Air Soldier had come at him on its own, he would have stood his ground and blocked the attack before attacking the helpless Heartless on the ground. But together with the arrows? No chance! So, he rather [Dodge Roll]ed out of the way, under all the attacks.
Then he jumped and, to his surprise, actually managed to get the feet of one of the Bizarre Archers with his Keyblade. And the Air Soldier carrying the Archer did not flew higher. It just turned around so that the Bizarre Archer could have a better shot at him.
Ji-Han smiled at that blunder as he jumped again. But this time he missed as in mid-jump his attention was redirected elsewhere thanks to a cry of "Ua!"
"Akari!" Ji-Han called out to her, but Naofumi tried to placate him saying "She can take it."
Now Ji-Han would have loved to check up on her using the party option, but he had to trust Naofumi for now, as the three arrows suddenly sticking into his back gave him something of a higher priority. Especially the special delivery taking down 14 of his HP instead of the usual 4 or 5. So he ran, again, hoping that Akari's higher level would get her through this.
That brought him towards a group of two Soldiers, which he both "tagged" with his Keyblade on the way through as he couldn't stop because of the Archers on his tail. Now adding the two Soldiers, too. Heck, maybe he should just agro all of them and have his teammates taking pot-shots at them while he was running around… {+20 EXP} though they were making good headway already.
"Smeargle!" Came suddenly Shua's panicking cry as if to mock him. Ji-Han took a look around and saw the Pokémon getting hunted by a group of three Air Soldiers. Damn those high VIT enemies…
"Shua, to Naofumi!" Ji-Han ordered the Smeargle. "Hide under his legs until they ignore you."
"Oi, I can't deal with the Guard Armor like that", protested Naofumi and Ji-Han cursed.
"Never mind, Shua, just keep running", he told the Pokémon, "you can use Power Strike again, if you want to." Shua needed that attack if he wanted to be able to deal with the enemies. They just had to make sure that Ji-Han would keep enough MP to use it on the Guard Armor.
{+20 EXP}
"I am out of arrows", Akari now brought some more bad news, even as it was accompanied with the declaration of a dead enemy. "One carried Archer, seven Air Soldiers and three Soldiers left."
"Defeat the Soldiers and ignore the arrows for now", Ji-Han ordered as he curved around, trying to get a look behind him without compromising his running. Really, only one Bizarre Archer left. The three other Air Soldiers were luggage-free.
"Shua, I want you to use me as a stepping stone and Power Strike the last Archer. Can you do it?"
"Smear!"
"Then let's go!"
Ji-Han and Shua changed their course and were now running towards each other. Meanwhile the Guard Armor had started spinning again and was coming towards them, too. This time, however, Naofumi suddenly appeared in the way, having run faster than they had seen him do so before at any time. There he blocked the attacking Guard Armor with a shield looking like a centipede spiraling around the inner core of the shield.
"Thanks", Ji-Han voiced his gratitude as he ran past the Hero of the Shield. Then his attention was taken by Shua who had jumped onto his head and from there jumped into the air towards the last Bizarre Archer.
But Ji-Han had underestimated the recoil and was now flying towards the ground face-first.
"[Dodge Roll]", he shouted in panic and to his surprise it actually worked, making him save the fall and his dignity.
{+20 EXP}
And that was Shua eliminating the last of the ranged attackers.
{+18 EXP} {+18 EXP}
And that was Akari coming through with the Soldiers. That left one Soldier, seven Air Soldiers and the Guard Armor.
Ji-Han jumped and slashed at of the Air Soldiers that had previously gone after Shua, hoping to get the attention of it and its brethren. Then he ran towards a wall and turned around, his Keyblade ready to block any of those winged nuisances that decided to think it a good idea to come down to him.
"[Guard]!"
And there was already one candidate. But Ji-Han couldn't capitalize on the opportunity as another Air Soldier came down, forcing him to [Guard] again. And then five more times, until he had parried every one of the flying Heartless once. Unfortunately there were seven of them in total, meaning that there were enough of them that once the last Air Soldier was flapping helplessly on the ground, the first one had already back in the air, ready to strike.
Luckily Ji-Han was not alone and especially Shua was eager for some payback on these annoying enemies. And now that he, Shua and Akari were at one place, Naofumi had an easier time blocking the spinning attacks of the Guard Armor, allowing them to eliminate the Air Soldiers in peace.
They only got one scare when an Air Soldier decided to ignore Ji-Han and went after Shua instead. But they made sure the Heartless would regret it and afterwards they were a lot more careful.
And then all the Air Soldiers were dealt with and only the Guard Armor was left. Now the problem was to get to it while it was spinning like that. They could just not predict where it would stop. And if they ran towards that place, there was a chance that the Guard Armor would suddenly start again.
So, they didn't.
"Ready?" Naofumi asked and Ji-Han checked the HP of the boss, in the Observe-panel.
{HP: 224/610}
"Ready."
The Guard Armor stopped spinning and they went into action. Ji-Han jumped and Naofumi activated "[Air Strike Shield]" directly below him. Ji-Han landed on the shield, kneeling down and holding onto its tip with its left hand, with the Keyblade in his right. Then Naofumi send the Air Strike Shield forward with the passenger towards the floating Heartless.
As the transparent shield reached it, Ji-Han jumped off it and shouted "[Power Strike]!"
The HP went down to {145} as he slashed it on his way down. Then, on the bottom, he quickly brought the Keyblade up and down again, using another [Power Strike]. {82}
Then the Guard Armor started to spin again, yet Ji-Han did not even curse as he was too busy preparing another [Power Strike]. {28}
And then the Guard Armor rammed him, making him fly through the air. {-45}
Damn it! So. Close!
"[Thousand Feet Charge]!" Shouted Naofumi and, with the centipede shield, speed in front of Ji-Han before the Guard Armor could come in for seconds.
"28 HP!" Ji-Han voiced agitated. "One more Power Strike and I got it!"
Ji-Han looked at the spinning Heartless, grit his teeth, and then ran past Naofumi.
"Han-san!" Akari shouted but he paid her no mind. He had only eyes for the Guard Armor. It was all just a matter of timing, wasn't it? He had managed to block its charge with Guard before, a skill needing timing. Was there really that much difference in using that moment to attack instead?
So he ran towards the Guard Armor, turned around when it zagged past him, always careful to keep it within his sight, waiting for the moment it would come at him.
But the moment never came. It just stopped at one point and stayed there, as if mocking him.
"Screw you!" He shouted as he ran towards it, but halfway on the way, the Guard Armor started to rotate again. No matter. He would end it now!
"[Power Strike]", he shouted but missed as the Guard Armor danced out of the way, zigzagging around the place again.
Damn, that thing was mocking him, wasn't it?
"[Thousand Feet Charge]!" Naofumi activated. But this time he wasn't running towards anyone to defend them. Instead he was rushing towards the Guard Armor itself. The Heartless hit the shield, flew into the opposite direction, hit the wall of a building and ricocheted away from that, directly towards Ji-Han.
"[Power Strike]!" Shouted Ji-Han finally for the last time as his attack brought the HP of the Heartless to {0} and slung him into the ground a bit away from him.
Unlike the other Heartless, however, it did not disappear at once. Instead it was shakingly trying to levitate itself upwards again. The round head rose one last time in defiance, that it fell down with a loud THUMP and stayed motionlessly on the ground. Then, out of the empty torso, rose a giant jewel in the shape of a heart. It rotated softly around its own axis until it became more and more transparent, in the end vanishing completely.
Then the head and torso dispersed into black particle, leaving some objects behind.
{+9166 EXP}
PING!
{Your level went up by 1.}
Oh, hell yeah.
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv8
Status: Unaffected
HP: 98/450
MP: 32/225
STR: 15 (14+1) ← (+0) →
VIT: 12 ← (+0) →
DEX: 16 ← (+0) →
INT: 9 ← (+0) →
WIS: 12 ← (+0) →
LUK: 13 ← (+0) →
Points: 20
Munny: 5 926}
Alright! Now he got even more HP, MP and points to spend on…
He was so getting some weights before this day was over. He was going to get his STR so high that it could not improve anymore through training and then put all of his points into it so that he would never forget to put in the points before a big fight! Seriously! How much damage could he have dealt, if he did have 30 STR?!
Ji-Han exhaled to calm himself down and closed the panel without allocating any points. The Guard Armor was supposedly the only boss monster in Traverse Town and so, adding points to STR now would just be a waste when he could still train them.
"Alright, everybody", he told his team. "Gather anything on the ground that might be useful. Whether they are item drops or the arrows Akari left behind. I'll take a look at what the Guard Armor has dropped…"
He trailed of as his gaze fell upon the items on the ground in front of him. Or, to be precise, the two large yellow and blue orbs that lay there.
"[Observe]!"
{[Munny Orb – Rank: Ultimate]
Type: Currency
The result of a system set up over Traverse Town by the Hero Union
to transform all different currencies into a single usable one.}
"That thing dropped money?!" Ji-Han was completely dumbfounded as he took the Munny orbs, opened his [Status Window] again and put the orbs inside, increasing his Munny to {405 926}. Did that meant that those were legit?! Holy shit!
"So you get Munny when you kill a Heartless?" Revchi, who had appeared next to him, asked with interest.
"That's the first time that ever happened", Ji-Han refuted. "Of course, in games monster usually drop money but since here they only ever dropped items, I thought that was it. Can I even use the Munny without crashing the economy of Traverse Town?"
"Oh, that is your problem", Revchi noted gleefully as he turned to walk away. "I've already told Zenkichi of our success, so I am going ahead. I still have things to do."
With that Revchi walked away and Ji-Han looked towards the next objects.
"[Observe]."
{[Recovery Potion]
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
{[Recovery Potion]
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
Okay, two of the standard Recovery Potions. Looks like they were going to be a standard with boss-like enemies. And his Max-HP was also getting to the point where he did not feel like using one was wasting it.
He put them in the inventory and looked at the last item.
{[Guard Armor - Rank: Secret]
Type: Armor
Heavy armor resembling the Guard Armor-Heartless's torso.
It changes the size to fit the wearer.
Wearing it automatically adds a helmet, gauntlets and shin guards.
Base Defense: 30}
What the-
Ji-Han picked up the armor with both of its hand and held it high into the air.
"A rare item!" He suddenly shouted from the top of his lungs, making his comrades give him odd looks but he didn't care.
Armor that changes the size to fit its wielder?! Sure, in games you generally can equip any person with any armor regardless of body figure of the character. But that was in games. In real life that was a different story. And his other drop items had been things that, besides the Lucid Shards, already existed in some way. But now his ability had created an item working on game logic. There were probably some people in Traverse Town and the rest of the multiverse who could replicate the effects through magic but that still didn't make this item drop any less special.
"Shua!" He called out to the Pokémon who quickly came towards him, holding two Wooden Arrows in his left hand.
"Thank you", he told him as he took the two arrows and put them in his inventory. "Would you mind trying on that armor for me?"
Without even questioning whether Ji-Han was serious because of the large size of the armor, he slipped into it. And, as advertised, the armor shrunk to fit his form, adding purple gauntlets around the hands, leg guards and a helmet. The result looked like someone had dressed up their pet. Especially the large helmet with the point on top seemed a bit ridiculous but at last it had no visor that blocked his vision.
"Can you walk?" Ji-Han asked and Shua tried it.
"Smear… gle. Smear… gle." It appeared that while he could walk, it still took a lot of effort. Seemed like one had to have some more STR before they could use it without trouble… hey, thinking about it, could this one actually be used instead of weights to train one's STR?! That seemed like a good idea.
"Is that the drop from the Guard Armor?" Naofumi inquired as he gave Ji-Han one piece of Scrap Lead and another Wooden Arrow.
"It also dropped two Recovery Potion and 400,000 Munny!"
"Your ability makes actual Munny?" The Hero of the Shield repeated dumbfounded. "Isn't that counterfeiting?"
"I don't know", he responded. "We'll have to ask Zenkichi-Ssi."
"I have gathered 11 Weasel Yokai Arrows!" Akari reported then and there. 11. That was one more than when they started the fight against the Guard Armor. So the Bizarre Archers dropped at last one useful thing.
"Alright", he decided. "Let's go to Zenkichi-Ssi and get the reward and ask what we should do about the Munny. After that we'll see if we still want to do something or call it a day. We don't need to go on until we can't."
"Right!" "Sure." "Smear!"
PING!
{You have completed the quest
[Menace of the Dayless Town: Empty Guardian].
Completion Award: +5 000 EXP.
A payment of 25 000 Munny.
Increased reputation with most people of Twilight Town.
Decreased reputation with Revchi, Gokudo Yuccot Kikansky and Koizumi Takashi.
Bonus Award for
[Defeat the Guard Armor without Revchi's help.]:
+2000 EXP.
A payment of 25 000 Munny.
Increased reputation with Revchi.}
"Thank you very much for your hard work", Zenkichi exclaimed. "With the Guard Armor permanently taken care off, we don't need to deal with irregular Heartless-behavior anymore. At last until another big Heartless finds Traverse Town. But even then we will have one menace less to deal with."
"You're welcome", Ji-Han responded. "I am just glad that it's over. All those Air Soldiers were way more problematic than the Guard Armor. And that I had to do the rest alone in case Shua got a Crit and made us fail the mission."
"That would have been problematic" agreed Zenkichi. "But as you completed the main objective, here is your reward: 25 000 Munny for the completed mission and 25 000 Munny for managing to defeat the Guard Armor in combat."
Ji-Han thanked him as he put the money away.
"But regarding that", Ji-Han spoke up, "we do have a bit of a problem. One of the drops that Guard Armor… dropped, was actually Munny. 400 000 to be precise. What do we do with that now?!"
"Oh, that is not as much of a problem as you'd think", placated Zenkichi him. "Traverse Town often gets new influx on money when a world is devoured. And then that money moves to other worlds through the Leon Shop, Hero Union and TSAB and back from them to Traverse Town. And you, too, plan to travel to other worlds and buy and sell objects there. It would take an extremely large amount of Munny to shake the economy in the multiverse, if it is even possible."
"…really?" Mused Ji-Han surprised. "If you say so, I take your word for it."
"Yes, do not worry. Use it to your leisure when preparing for your quest."
"Alright." He turned to his companions. "That should be enough to buy food for our journey. Speaking of…" He turned back to Zenkichi. "…when does the Leon Shop actually restock?" Even if they had gotten more Munny than expected, it would still be better to buy the cheaper products and they got nearly all of their rice.
"That depends on how much they have sold", explained Mikage. "They generally only restock when they need to."
So the more they bought from them, the faster they could buy other things from them. Made sense since Traverse Town was just like an out-of-way town. But it was clearly not good for them.
"Looks like we have to go with their original idea of getting other things to fill out quota…" Ji-Han mused.
"Don't forget that we also need medical supplies", reminded Naofumi and Ji-Han nodded. Right. Even if they had enough money for food, it didn't matter if they didn't get the other stuff they needed like medical supplies and some more clothes.
"Right", he voiced his agreement out loud. "Then let's get to it. Goodbye, Zenkichi-Ssi, Mikage-Ssi."
"Please take care."
Yet once they left the White Ant, before they could go to the Shopping Arcade, there was someone else who wanted to talk to them.
"Congratulations on defeating the Guard Armor, Han Ji-Han", Zelretch exclaimed. "Do you now feel prepared to take on the Heartless of other worlds?"
"Ah, good day, Zelretch-Nim", greeted Ji-Han the old wizard. "You have already heard of it?"
"Indeed. And I applaud your decision on having Revchi stay back. You will rarely have as strong help in other worlds and thus it is vital for you to learn how to deal with strong foes on your own. Which brings me back to my question: Do you now feel prepared enough to take on the Heartless of other worlds?"
"We might are going to have some troubles if all Heartless in that world have a defense as high as the Guard Armor", admitted Ji-Han. "Which is why we will train at last a bit more before we start on the quest. Speaking of, thank you very much for all the features you put into the spaceship. There are so many useful things it is sometimes a bit overwhelming."
"Oh, most of the features were part of the FO Vimana before I found it", Zelretch responded. "I just upgraded some of them."
"That reminds me", interjected Naofumi. "When we were on the bridge, the Keyblade acted up and gave Ji-Han a quest to save a specific world. Did you expect that to happen when you added your Magic to the ship?"
"Interesting", Zelretch noted. "Did the Keyblade follow the wielder's subconscious wishes and found a world suitable for his goals? Or did the world itself reach out to a Keyblade Wielder as a cry of help? I am curious to see, where your journey will take you."
"Me, too", agreed Ji-Han and Zelretch nodded.
"Then if you have no other business with me, I shall take my leave", he told them, but Naofumi stopped him, quickly reminding Ji-Han of the Lucid Shards.
"Ah, that's right", exclaimed The Gamer. "We finally have 20 Lucid Shards! [Inventory]!"
He took the required 20 Lucid Shards out of the inventory and held them out to Zelretch.
"You have my gratitude", Zelretch responded as he took the jewel-like shards. "As promised, here your payment."
PING!
{You have completed the quest
[Buying in Bulk: 20 Lucid Shards].
Completion Award: +4 000 EXP.
A payment of 150 000 Munny.
Increased reputation with Zelretch.}
{Your level went up by 1.}
Already? That was quick.
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv9
Status: Unaffected
HP: 98/500
MP: 54/250
STR: 15 (14+1) ← (+0) →
VIT: 12 ← (+0) →
DEX: 16 ← (+0) →
INT: 9 ← (+0) →
WIS: 12 ← (+0) →
LUK: 13 ← (+0) →
Points: 25
Munny: 455 926}
PING!
{Warning! HP reached critical 20 %.}
Oh, right. Now his Max-HP increased but his actual HP did not, making it fall into the critical zone without him taking any damage. Which unfortunately meant he could not just invest any points in VIT and heal himself or something like that.
Nevertheless, since there weren't any stronger enemies as far as he knew, he decided to ignore the warning, not wanting to use up one of his potions. Instead he picked the money from Zelretch and put it into his already open Status Window, meaning his Munny was now whooping {605 926}.
"Alright. Then let's see how far we get with this amount of cash." One step closer to starting the journey.
"Farewell then, Han Ji-Han", Zelretch told him. "I shall visit you once I have found a use for the Lucid Shards."
"Good bye."
"So this is the bookstore?" Ji-Han mused. It actually looked like a real bookstore. Glass windows with lots of books on display left and right of the single glass door. The books in question were all of different kinds. An English-Japanese dictionary, a book on cooking, one on camping, the English Version of [The Hobbit], a simple two-thirds red and one-third white book with two simple Japanese words, a bible and one with an orange-brownish one with a white David's star inside a circle were just some of them.
And once they went inside, there were literally rows of books, as if they were in a library instead of a bookstore. In fact…
"…isn't this a lot bigger than what it looks like from the outside?" Ji-Han voiced his confusion, making Noafumi turn to him eyebrow raised.
"You only noticed that now?" He asked. "The Leon Shop does the same thing. How else do you think they keep all the stuff contained in the middle of a city?"
"Oh… I guess that makes sense", Ji-Han admitted. Still, not noticing the Leon Shop was bigger on the inside after how long he had spend there? Pretty embarrassing.
PING!
{An ominous vibe had been detected.}
A what now?!
Ji-Han quickly spun around looking all over the place. Naofumi, instantly noticing his change in demeanor, quickly put forth his shield, his back to his comrades, eyes also scanning the surroundings.
"What happened?" He asked the Gamer who was just as confused as all his party members.
"I don't know", Ji-Han admitted. "My ability just suddenly said something like 'an ominous vibe detected'. I have no idea what it is…"
That was when his gaze fell upon a book lying on the counter. It stood on its side without falling thanks to its many pages, presenting its cover towards Ji-Han. It was brown, if a bit dusty, with the relief of a golden cross-like shape layered over a simple circle. Though calling it a cross was way too simple. It had a yellow orb in the middle with four extremely short poles going in each cardinal direction. At the end of each of those was a kite- or spearhead-like protrusion, having another small, traditional cross in a dark color painted on them. Out of all the protrusions the one pointing down was the longest, nearly touching the golden frame surrounding the symbol just like the ones to the side. The one pointing upwards was just as long as those at the side but thanks to the size of the book did not came close to the frame, which was actually interrupted right over it, giving it an ornamental end.
And the way it just stood there, was really unnerving. As if it was staring at him. As if it wanted something from him. Was that really just a simple book?"
"[Ob-" "What are you doing?" "-uwaah!"
Ji-Han nearly jumped when he heard the voice behind him, turning to face the newcomer. Then he had to turn some more as the person walked past him, towards the book and scooped it up and held it close to their chest.
[Glutton for Stories
-Book Girl Owner-
Lv8 Amano, Tohko]
Tohko was a young woman around his age, maybe a bit lower, with black eyes and black hair. The latter was especially extraordinary as she had to ankle-long braids of hair that flew around whenever she moved, completely attracting his attention at first. But another look revealed her straight, eyebrow long bangs and two shoulder-length strands of heir framing her extremely pale face.
Her clothes were actual looking like a School uniform, with a white blazer having a blue color adorned with a turquoise corn pattern and blue skirt as well as black knee-socks and white indoor schools.
"Geez", Tohko muttered as she turned towards Ji-Han and his friends. "In any case, thank you for coming. I'm the shop owner, Amano Tohko. How can I help you?"
"Ah, hello, I am Han Ji-Han", he greeted back. "We're looking for some study materials. Elementary School math in Japanese and then some science book at High School level in Korean."
"Textbooks?" Inquired Tohko, sounding disappointed. "But they are all so bland. Except for history there are all close to stale bread that you would to eat when you have nothing else. I've gotten some that were like buttered toast freshly prepared by a mother but none of them made the trip to Traverse Town.
"…What?"
At Ji-Han confused expression, Tohko was ripped out of her monologue and quickly shook her head.
"Sorry. Textbooks, right? Right this way!"
Quickly refocusing on the matter at hand, Tohko lead them through the long rows of books until they reached what she dubbed the "textbook" section.
"Okay, here we have 'First Steps – Numbers and Mathematics' for a Japanese Math book. Now onto Korean…" She moved a bit away and started looking at another section. "Ah, here, do you want physics or biology?"
"Let's go with physics for now", Ji-Han decided. Even if he only got the book to study to grind his INT, physics still seemed like it would be more applicable in other worlds than biology.
"Alright. Physics it is. That makes 7500 Munny for the math book and 54 000 Munny for the physics one. That is alright with you?"
"That works."
That went better than expected. Even with the clothes, first aid kid, food and weights he had bought before coming to the book store, he would still be over 500 000 Munny. Granted, they had only really bought the least amount necessary but to still have so much left, it looks like he could get some more spare clothes…
"Ah, please wait a moment!" Tohko stopped him as he went to give her the required Munny. "I need to check them off at the counter. Please go ahead while I put this girl back to the others."
This girl? The book with the cross?
"Do you have other magical books?" Inquired Naofumi. "Perhaps some that teach healing magic?"
"Healing magic?" Repeated Tohko. "Not any magic can be learned by anyone. Often you need an aptitude specific to the world the magic is from. The TSAB can teach you spells that most people with magic can use. That would be a lot easier than trying to find a book with magic you can use."
"We are trying to see if I can't cheat", Ji-Han told her. With all the stuff that had happened, he had forgotten about that but now that Naofumi mentioned it, he remembered. "We found out that I can learn a piloting skill as long as I have gotten my hands on the instruction manual. We want to see if that works with magic, too."
"Really?" She asked with interest. "I never got any skills when I ate books… though I have never eaten an instruction manual because they are so disgusting…"
"You eat books?" Ji-Han exclaimed surprised and she nodded.
"That's because I am a literature girl", she declared, puffing her non-existent chest out proudly. Huh. So her title [Glutton for Stories] was meant literally.
"Can we then now get to the magic books?" Naofumi urged impatiently and Tohko nodded.
"Right, this way!"
Tohko lead them further and further into the large bookstore until they reached yet another bookshelf.
"We're here", Tohko finally said and put her book into an empty space. As if it was just another book of many. And, to be fair, Ji-Han could not tell the difference between these supposedly magic books and the mundane ones… maybe this?
Ji-Han took out one of the books from the shelf. It had caught his eye because its spine was glistening like some crystal. Yet once he actually held it in his hands, it felt like any other book.
PING!
{You have obtained the skill book
[Glass Magic: Tausend Scherben].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
"It works!" Ji-Han exclaimed enthusiastically, only for Tohko to quickly take it away by telling him, that one was 700 000 Munny.
"700 000?" Repeated Naofumi. "Isn't that high for a book that you admitted probably nobody else could use?"
"It's not", declared Tohko puffing out her chest proudly. "I always know how much a book is worth! Since I am a literature girl! For example, this one is 750 000 Munny, this one is the cheapest with 100 000 Munny…" Damn, that was a tiny one. It fit easily into the palm of his hand. "…That golden one up there is worth a billion…" Holy- "…and this little fellow here is literally priceless."
At the last one she pointed to the brown book with the golden one she had just put back. So they wouldn't be able to buy that one. And they were a far cry away from the golden one. But with the cheapest being 100 000 Munny, they actually could buy at last some of them.
Ji-Han took a hold of the small one and instantly got the PING with the message:
{You have obtained the skill book
[Fire Magic: Torch Light].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
Huh, that one could maybe get useful when they were trying to fight against the monsters in the wilderness of Traverse Town… though he had Night Eye already and Akari wouldn't want to go there and hurt the beasts. So it would be a bit of a waste of money that they could use for something else.
"Then do you know which ones are healing magic?" Naofumi inquired and Tohko nodded.
"Here, this one is 850 000 Munny, this one is 600 000 Munny and… this… one…" Tohko tiptoed to try and get a blue one before Ji-Han took pity on her and took it out himself.
PING!
{You have obtained the skill book
[Rain Magic: Shower of Healing].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
"…Is 750 000 Munny", Tohko finished for him and gave him the other two books.
PING!
{You have obtained the skill book
[Wind Magic: Breeze of Regeneration].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
PING!
{You have obtained the skill book
[Plant Magic: Raíces de la Vida].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
Still, even the plant one was 600 000 Munny, meaning it was too expensive for them. They would have been able to buy it, if they hadn't invested into the first aid kids… and actually, they could still buy it if they sold those…
"Though I can't tell what kind of healing abilities they have," Tohko continued. "But I know that they are more inclined to healing than anything else and are connected to the elements Water, Wood and Wind."
In that case it probably would be better not to sell their first aid kids for magic. There was no telling if the magic would actually be useful or not.
"Then let's wait before magic books", he thus told his comrades, "and instead get some more food. I think farming mobs until we get enough cash will take just too long."
"Right", agreed Naofumi. "And there's no telling if the shops are still going to buy other stuff with how much we've already sold."
Oh, right, there was that problem, too. If they sold too much at once, the shops wouldn't have time selling stuff to get some Munny back and they would be forced to sell to the Leon Shop for less, increasing the time it would take to get the necessary amount of money… even if in this case it was probably more that they wouldn't want to buy new stuff while they were still processing the old ones…
"But you are still going to buy the textbooks?" Tohko interrupted his train of thoughts and Ji-Han nodded.
"Yes, we still need those", he confirmed. Those, some more food and a new set of clothes and they would be set.
"Okay", he decided, "let's finish our shopping and then head to bed so that we then can head to the other world first thing in the morning. Any objections?"
"I want to say goodbye to everyone", Akari noted and Ji-Han nodded.
"Yeah, we should do that, too", he agreed. "How about you go guys ahead and do that while I finish our shopping?"
"Yes", Akari spoke enthusiastically but Naofumi just shrugged.
"I don't need to do that, so I'll just use the time to fight against some more Heartless. Just call me, when you are finished."
"Right, until later then."
"I am honestly surprised", Shikamaru told Ji-Han as he studied Naofumi. "I never thought he of all people would become one of your companions. How did you get him to trust you?"
"I don't actually trust him", the Hero of the Shield denied, surprising the Gamer. "I just don't care what happens if he would betray me. That is all."
"Damn, that's harsh", responded Ji-Han while Shikamaru just nodded as if to say, "that explains it".
"It's the truth", Naofumi declared. "I will do everything to support you in your quest, but only because that is the only way to get Raphtalia back."
"That sounds like you are going to betray me at the first opportunity", noted Ji-Han and Naofumi shrugged.
"I am free to leave the party whenever I want, aren't I?" He denied. "And unless your goals are the opposite of mine, which would mean, making my world even less likely to be restored, which on its own already is a tall order considering you are the first shot in however to restore them, I have no reason to fight you. Would you call that betrayal?"
"Not really", admitted Ji-Han. He couldn't think of any way why Naofumi would go against him and Koyuki thought so, too.
"Don't worry", she reassured him. "He is still the most suited to be your companion."
Ji-Han smiled.
"Thanks Koyuki-Seonbae", he spoke to her. "You have really helped me out a lot."
"I am glad I could help", she responded earnestly happy and Ji-Han turned to the ninja.
"Thank you very much, too, Shikamaru-Ssi", he told him. "Have you already decided on what the favor should be?"
"I have some ideas", exclaimed the Nara, "but those can wait for once you are back in Traverse Town."
"Right", he nodded. They should go. He was already started to get tired and they finished all their preparations. There wasn't any reason to procrastinate, was there?
"Then, goodbye everyone, we'll be going."
"Take care!" Came the answer threefold from Koyuki, Shikamaru and Shion.
Ji-Han nodded and stretched out his arm, so that his party members could hold onto it.
"Beam me up!"
A/N:
Hi, guys and gals.
And that's the first real boss fight: The Guard Armor. And if it hadn't been weak against the Power Strike, they would have been hard-pressed to do more than minor damage against it. After all, in real life it never mattered how strong you are, the enemies will not suddenly be weaker. Though on that note, the Guard Armor does not bring new Heartless to Traverse Town every time it shows up. They generally are just more common, active and stronger. A new kind of Heartless is just an easy way to tell that it's coming.
Speaking of real life, in real-life the items are generally a lot more diverse than the items in video games. So I've invested a lot of time in finding different types of the same item. For example, what kind of leather is generally used, different tanning processes that exist, what kind of scrap metal is generally brought and so forth. And then I've got to set a price for them. That means I have to research how expensive they normally are and then how valuable they would be in Traverse Town. And with (nearly) every drop item comes a new shield for Naofumi. Though that's literally the smallest issue when making a new drop item.
Next on the list of things to mention would be Shua and his attack Sketch. Normally Smeargle learn Sketch every ten levels. But since the party members adopt Ji-Han's Gamer-system, it changed to every level. One every ten levels is just too long for Shua to be useful. And it also prevents one from having to calculate just which level in Pokémon is equivalent to which level in The Gamer.
Lastly, there are the magic books. In The Gamer Ji-Han gets books for new abilities from the underground market, but since that doesn't exist in Traverse Town, he'd have to get skill books for magic in a different way, if one isn't satisfied with skills from drop items. I've decided on grimoires from Black Clover. And while the grimoires write in the spells of their user and so are not limited to one, they have, as far as I know, one to start with and a certain "element" and direction the user is most proficient in like healing, attack, support or traps and so on. Which decides which ability Ji-Han would get from absorbing them.
Though the magic books aren't the only thing from Black Clover. Revchi is just one of them. He's one of the guys who are bad in canon but play nice because people who don't play nice in Traverse Town don't last long. What's with Zelretch, Yuuko and Yato around and the Hero Union and TSAB having an interest in it. That's way too many heavy hitters.
The person who owns the magical books, Tohko, was chosen because of how her whole existence would be a warning sign to any books to act out, making even the most unruly books stay mostly calm, no matter how dangerous they actually would be for Tohko.
The last important shop owners for now are Michiru and Mitsuyo. It's actually quite difficult to find memorable tailors in anime or manga. So instead of bothering with that, I decided to make a cosplay the owner of the clothing store, just like I made a school nurse the first doctor, showing once again the difference between supply and demand in the post-apocalyptic town. That those two aren't human is a nice bonus.
Now for the last group of people introduced in Traverse Town we have Amami Hibiki and her two ghost friends. They are more or less just random citizens with no other purpose than to flesh out Traverse Town with people who wouldn't join Ji-Han.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku
