Well. I've been going over this idea for a while in my head now, researching, talking with people and answering questions. Until I couldn't take it anymore and I just had to sit down and write. That's usually my creative process, i sit down with an idea for days planning it, until i can't hold it back anymore, and i just sit down and try to make it a reality as best as i can.
So yeah, this is an OC swap with Naofumi. I know most people's opinions, because I also share it. But I couldn't stop myself from wanting to put my ideas into words. So, if you want to give this a chance and a reading, then i'm happy to have you on board! But this story is manly a way for me to have fun and express my creativity.
Without further ado… Welcome, to The forging of the shield hero.
Chapter 1-The summoning of a Blacksmith
Kieran was very thankful for the life he had. He had his own house on the outskirts of the town, where he could bother no one when he dove deep into the passion that was his craft. I mean, blacksmithing was a very loud job, with the constant hammering of metal, it can get old quite quickly to most people. Thankfully, Kieran's teacher was wise enough to build his house farther away from the main part of the village. As such, he never got any complaints.
The white haired man had very jovial features, looking younger than he actually was. That fact sparked envy from some of the women of the village, who saw their faces being taken over by wrinkles, while his own kept being smooth.
"Genetics", was what he always told them when asked for his that always made them pout and seethe. What could he do? It was just how he was. But appearance wasn't something he worried too much about in his daily life, especially how he looked after a day's hard work. Just like any other man in the village, sitting by the forge all day did wonders to leave him sweaty.
He was wearing his usual work clothes. Leather boots and gloves, dark pants, and a larger Grey T-shirt on top of another shirt that had long sleeves in a red color. Quite bright choice of colors, but these clothes were more expensive than they looked, made to withstand the heat of the forge.
The purple eyes scanned his surroundings, currently he was on top of a ladder, climbing into a ceiling. Being careful to not make it cave in from stepping into the broken part, that he was called in to fix. He took a moment to look around Dullard, the village he resided in. He knew everyone here, some were friends of his, others knew him just because of his occupation. Being the only blacksmith in town had its perks.
After seeing the shingles that were broken, he carefully replaced them, gosh. Too many, it wasn't a surprise that Mary had to use so many pots to catch the leaks. When asked the cause of this she simply said that "the cats are fighting again, how can those cute little things cause so much damage?"
He giggled with the information, if he had to guess the culprits were probably Mocha, Toto and Ivan. Which owners were the neighbors of the woman in question. Nothing that a couple spare shingles and some work couldn't fix. Those jobs usually were left for the Old man Bob. But when he heard Mary complaining about the leaks when he went to visit her and get a book from her ever growing collection.
I mean. He loved crafting things, but a man needs to do some more unique stuff sometimes.
After double checking to be sure, he carefully made his way back to the ladder, climbing down to find a relieved Mary waiting for him.
"Thanks for the help again dear. I was going to call Bob so he would fix it for me. But with the way the clouds are darkening…" The blonde woman said while looking at the graying sky. Rain clouds were forming.
"No worries, it's the least I can do when I come so often to borrow books from you."
"Well, you certainly earned it. Come inside, I have some fresh juice for you to drink while you pick a book." While she said that, she turned her back and made her way inside the house. Soon followed by the blacksmith.
"I didn't even need my tools. Just needed to change a couple shingles, the cats broke 3 of them. But there were others that just slid out of place." He casually explained while following the older lady, he was soon given a big glass of guava juice.
"Ahh… Sweet!" The blacksmith said after getting a couple gulps of his drink. Using that moment to savor it before he moved over to her living room. 4 bookshelves lined the walls, each had lots of books neatly positioned against each of the four walls, with some space for a couple paintings and other decorations to stand out.
Mary left him to pick his choice, while she went back to the kitchen. She began to clean the pots she used to catch the leaks. She could finally use them for their intended purpose.
The pale man began to read the titles on the covers, trying to see if something caught his attention. He spent about two minutes there, and was about to settle for Banished Paradise when a loud thud startled him, nearly making him drop the half full glass of juice.
A rather worn out looking book, with a red cover was now resting on the floor. Wondering how it could've fallen, Kieran scooped it up and saw the title.
"The records of the four holy weapons? Huh. I don't think I have seen this book here… Looks so old. Maybe Mary just had it in her bedroom?" He wondered, looking at it for a bit and finishing his juice. Walking towards the kitchen and leaving the empty glass on the counter.
"I need to go now, I don't want to walk in the rain and ruin the book. Thanks for the juice!" He thanked her, and went by the door to grab his trusted red toolbox. Rather bulky when compared to his rather shor frame, but he didn't seem to have problems carrying it.
"Take care Kieran!" She said in response, she kept tending to the dishes until she was done. Going over to her collection to see which book he had picked.
"Huh. How strange… All of my books are here. But he said that he picked one?" Her face became puzzled, and she kept spending a good while checking every single book of her collection. Much later, she would arrive at the conclusion of whatever book he had chosen. Wasn't hers.
The walk towards his home was filled with the reading of that mysterious book. The story talked about four heroes who came together in a great time of need to fight something called The waves of catastrophe. Apparently, it was an event that occured in the world. Monsters poured down and caused chaos and destruction whenever the wave happened.
The four cardinal heroes, as they were called, each wielded a different weapon. Those being a Sword, Spear, Bow and finally Shield.
"Huh. Someone that fights only with a shield? Interesting… That's super rare. But that guy has my respect." He commented while his eyes skimmed through the words. He fixed his toolbox and kept walking, he was almost at home.
He kept reading, finding information about the heroes. The Sword hero was a brave man that had the power to slay lots of foes, a big powerhouse, that secretly suffered from a lot of anxiety and shyness, and kept those feelings hidden away by trying to be a loner.
The Bow hero considered himself the paragon of justice, taking down evil overlords, punishing bad deeds and hunting criminals. But he was a traumatized individual, who suffered greatly from the injustice in his world, molding him into someone who never wants another person to suffer the same he suffered.
The Spear hero was interesting. He was the most loyal and friendly out of the heroes. Smiling a lot of the time, and always trying his best to keep those he cared most happy. But he was also a womanizer, trying to get as many girls under him as he could. But that attitude actually came from the results of commitment problems inherited from his home life.
There was also another character mentioned… Some sort of princess, that just anything in her power to screw the heroes over in whatever way she could. Making them know despair… Her long red hair was the most memorable thing about her.
"Red means danger…" He said to himself playfully, already seeing that woman was going to be the main villain of the story. A nice commentary on the fact that the true villains aren't natural disasters, but normal people in our day to day lives.
Kieran was about to turn the page when he noticed there was a letter sticking out of his door. He scooped it up and when he saw the name written inside, he couldn't help but smile.
"Alicia! Glad to see she still remembers me." He joked, putting the letter inside the pocket on his smithing apron, before he went back to the book. But just as he turned the page, he saw it empty.
"Huh? It's… Empty? What the…?!" He was about to say a curse word, when a bright light began to come out of the book, blinding him. He flinched, closing his eyes. Then just as things turned white… They became dark.
"It… It worked!" Kieran could hear a voice saying, he felt horrible. His head was tingling like he had been hit in the head with a hammer. Did he hit himself in the head with his toolbox? It seemed like he didn't, he could feel the handle still on his hand. He grunted, slowly opening his eyes, seeing himself in a dimly lit room, and some figures were standing there, he quickly got up, getting into a defensive position.
That was when he noticed that the hand in which he had previously held the heavy book, now had a silver shield resting on the back of his hand. He didn't remember picking anything from his stock… That shield was something he hadn't ever seen actually. But still looked quite well crafted, he found himself lost admiring the craftsmanship.
So lost that he didn't even notice the other three young men standing right next to him.
"What's going on?! Where am i?" One of the young men asked, the black haired guy with a sword. He seemed a bit lost, and a bit scared, but when he noticed he wasn't alone, he cleaned his throat and did his best to act cool.
"Oh holy heroes! Our world is on the brink of collapse! Save us!" One of the men said, taking the blacksmith out of his trance. He finally looked around to see the figures all around him, he began to pay attention and focus on gathering information for now. Clutching his toolbox in case he needed to defend himself.
The thing was super sturdy and heavy, it would do wonders as a makeshift mace.
But just as he thought that, he was zapped, making him scream, and let out a curse, dropping the object on the floor, and making everyone focus their attention on him. He shook his hand, surprised that he felt that.
"Cardinal heroes may only wield their holy weapon with intent of attacking."
"Hey dude, are you alright?" The blonde guy with a spear asked him, walking towards him after witnessing what had happened.
"Y-yeah… I am. Thanks for asking. Damn thing shocked me when I got worried about those dudes. I have no idea what's going on. I got some words in my vision that said I can only wield my holy weapon and stuff… From my experience when a bunch of robed guys take you to a dark room, it usually means bad stuff."
"Sir Shield hero, you have no need to be afraid. We don't plan on doing anything to you, I promise. Please be at peace, we used a ritual to summon all of you so you can help us save our world." The same robbed guy said, trying to calm him down.
"Yeah about that, I was going to say that I have a few problems with that." The third hero said, wielding his bow.
"Please, all your questions and complaints can be said to the king. He requests an audience with you. Would you kindly follow us?" He asked, gesturing for them to come with them.
Oh no.
It was happening.
That dreaded thing, his curse had come once again to torment him. Kieran screamed internally, as the information was digested by his mind.
The call of a world saving adventure.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed in his head. Things were perfect! It had been years since the last group of "chosen ones" had come to his shop to drag him into their messes. His worst nightmare was coming to reality, he couldn't help but place his hands on the sides of his head. Having a small panic attack.
"Dude? Hey, calm down." Motoyasu said, shaking his fellow hero to try and snap him out of it. He looked so young too… About the bow guy's age. At least that was what he thought from his height. Motoyasu was standing at least half a feet taller than him after all. "Everything's gonna be fine alright? I'm Motoyasu Kitamura. What's your name?"
"Kieran… Thanks man. This is all too sudden for me. Here I was, just planning to have a calm day of relaxation at home reading a book, when I suddenly found myself in this mess." He said in response, sighing deeply and grabbing his toolbox. The four soon began to follow the robed dudes through the corridors.
They found themselves in a more lit place soon enough, they could recognize the place as being a nobleman's place, from all the expensive looking furniture and decorations. When they walked through a window, Kieran got a sight of the kingdom down below and smiled. Moyasu that was next to him stopped to do the same, but his smile was a lot bigger, and his eyes shined brightly.
"First time seeing a kingdom like this?" Kieran asked while they were called again to keep up with the group, the two heroes with ponytails walked faster to reach the others, and continued making small talk on their way to meet the king.
"Of course dude! You can only see things like this in fantasy books and maybe in Europe?" He said in response, that earned a puzzled look from the blacksmith, but it was food for thought. He began to craft a theory.
He decided to try something.
"It's been a long time since I last went to a castle… Queen Ursula's capital was mostly situated in a large plain, so I didn't get this good of a view." He replied casually, making Motayasu's eyes widen, but before he could ask anything else, they had arrived.
Large doors were open for them, the group soon found themselves in front of a rather big group of people. Using their clothes as references, Kieran concluded they were nobles, and the rather old man with the crown was the king obviously. He took a moment to oversee the entire room, the nobles had different expressions. He thought he saw some of them looking at him with disgust.
His instincts were telling him to be careful.
"Ah! Great heroes! Welcome! I'm King Autocray Melromac XXXII. The ruler of this glorious nation, I was informed you had questions about this ordeal. Please, feel free to ask them. But first, please introduce yourselves."
Each of their heroes said their name, and what he thought was their occupation. The words themselves were a bit strange to him, but judging by how young most of them were, and the fact that Motoyasu introduced himself as a college "student", Kieran concluded they were all students of some school. Itsuki specially, dressed the most formal out of them.
"Hmmm… I guess one of those elite schools for rich people?" He considered. He was about to introduce himself when he was interrupted.
"So, Sir Itsuki, Ren and Motoyasu huh?" Autocray asked, rubbing his beard with a smile on his face.
"Something is clearly wrong here… I'm not going to get the attention back on me, so i'll just be silent and…"
"Hey! Excuse me, Sir Autocray." Motoyasu called the king out, the way he spoke to him like he was any random older guy made Kieran surprised.
"Yes, Sir Motoyasu. Did you want to be the first one to ask a question?" The king asked with a warm smile.
"No, you interrupted Kieran here." He said, pointing to the fellow ponytail bro next to him.
"Did i? Pardon me, sir Motoyasu." His face turned towards the shield hero. And despite him doing his best to keep a normal face, his frown was twitching.
"Kieran Belfort, I'm a blacksmith… And it's a pleasure to know you, your majesty." He bowed to the king, doing his best to act respectfully, but his eyes kept reading the expression's of the people in the room.
How could things get any worse?
"Right, Kieran is the shield hero… Well, with introductions finished. Please, open your status magic." Autocray said before any of them could begin asking any questions. That was making Itsuki tap his feet on the floor in annoyance. Why wasn't anyone letting him ask his questions and make his demands?!
"Status magic?" The blacksmith asked, the words made a bit of sense to him, but he had no idea how to do that.
Thankfully, Ren came right up to help them.
"See the little symbol on the corner of your vision? Focus on it." Ren instructed them, and soon they could all see their status.
Name: Kieran Belfort
Class: Shield hero
Equipment: Otherworldly clothes, Otherworldly toolbox, Small shield.
He saw a few of the texts glitch out for a moment before they went back to normal.
Race: Human
-Stats-
HP: 150
ATK: 1
MP: 49
SP: 43
DEF: 19
: 19
AGI: 11
DEX: 31
MAG: 16
His eyes widened at the 1 atk.
"Wait… Those numbers. How are they so low? I'm sure I should be a lot stronger than this!" He said to himself, then he noticed he was level 1. Another curse under his breath was given as he sighed. He needed to stay calm. Something popped up in his vision.
[Help Menu]
"The legendary weapons affect their wielders when they are assigned to their weapon. Their past strength can be achieved again with enough levels, and even surpassed."
"Then why the hell is my attack stat so low?! My magic isn't that high either…."
"The legendary shield is currently limiting the user's abilities. Offensive capabilities are heavily weakened and limited."
"Wait… That means…?!"
"The user cannot make use of any direct damage spells, despite being capable of performing them back in their original worlds. Any spells known also cannot be used thanks to the difference in how magic works."
"You're now gonna tell me that…"
"Functions of Heart gem greatly limited."
Kieran was about to beat someone really hard… With their fists! Not with the toolbox. He could feel the stupid shield about to shock him, but he managed to change his thoughts into something that wouldn't get him shocked.
That trance lasted enough time that he missed a good amount of the conversation the other three heroes had with the king. Threatening to turn on them if they weren't compensated enough. He only got out of his thoughts when he heard the king saying that they would get the support needed to get stronger to fight the waves. The other 3 finally relented.
"Now heroes, with your questions addressed. We have prepared beds and a room for you all to sleep in. Food will be brought to your room shortly, tomorrow, we'll introduce you to the brave adventurers that will accompany you on your journey."
The four of them were then escorted to a room deeper in the castle, during the walk, Kieran made sure to look around. In search for more clues, but he didn't find anything too noteworthy. Soon, they entered their room.
"Woah, those beds are really comfortable!" Motoyasu said after jumping in one of them.
"This is crazy… I can't believe we're in a videogame world!" Itsuki said happily, toying around with his bow and aiming it at the wall.
"So you guys know it too, right?" Ren asked them, sitting down while holding his sword.
"Of course! Dimension Wave was my favorite game." Itsuki said casually, looking through the window.
"Wait, don't you mean Emerald online?"
"No no! It's Brave star online!" Ren argued back, the three then began to talk to one another loudly, trying to convince the other that they were right.
"What is a Vidja game? Is that some kind of sport?" Kieran finally spoke, sitting down in his chair while looking at them with a puzzled look.
The three heroes looked at him in disbelief. Like they had just met a caveman.
"Dude, you don't know what video games are?" Motoyasu asked.
"Are you maybe from some third world country?" Ren wondered, clearly baffled. That broke his serious and cool mask.
"Ren! You shouldn't say it like it's a bad thing!" Itsuki reprimanded him. But soon spoke again. "But… Where are you from?"
Kieran scratched his head, then began to describe where he was from. A small village called Dullard, in the center of the west kingdom from his continent. He began to describe a world very similar to those the other three knew from fiction, their doubt growing the more he spoke. About his occupation, about the monsters that livedin the lands, the magic, and the different races too.
"You're joking right? You're some kind of Otaku chunibyo?" Itsuki interrupted while he was telling him about when a flood put his village in danger, and a giant Golem creature stepped out of the forest and helped the people fortify the dam that was holding the water from flooding the villa even more.
"I have no idea what those words are, but I don't believe I am." He replied, crossing his arms. "What's like in the world you three came from?"
"Alright, I think before we do anything else, we should check out where we three come from. Japan?" Ren asked the others.
"Japan." They replied together.
"Alright, and it seems like we all played games that resemble this world. Right?"
"Yeah! Dimension wave was a console game I played every day after school. The lore, gameplay… Everything was so amazing!" Itsuki said with a nostalgic smile.
"Emerald Online was the online game I played. I had so much game time and legendary loot… You guys would feel jealous!" Motoyasu said after him, laying back on the bed.
"You guys are still in the times of consoles? All games are VRMMORPG." Ren interjected, raising his eyebrow.
"That term… That only exists in fiction." Itsuki with his eyes narrowing.
"In my world there's only prototypes of those things. And it's super clunky and ugly." The spear hero chimed in.
"So I guess you three come from three diferent versions of Japan?" Kieran finally spoke, and they turned their heads toward him.
What followed was a bunch of questions they began to ask one another. All yielding different responses. After that, they had arrived at the conclusion that they had indeed come from different worlds.
"I'm not really surprised considering your clothes. They look really complicated, but cool." He gave them a casual praise, which brought smirks to their faces. "I kinda already knew that, the multiple dimension thingie… Ehhh… Demons sometimes leaked to our world through cracks in space and time."
"Man… I can't believe it. It's hard to trust what you're saying… But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It's hard to believe Ren too." The blonde casually joked, making Ren give him an "Hey!"
"I don't believe you." Itsuki chimed in skeptically. "Do you have any proof of your claim?"
Kieran thought for a moment… What could he show them to prove he was from a "fantasy world"?
"Oh, I have something here!" He finally remembered his toolbox. Thank god he had it with him, he opened it up and the three heroes saw a bunch of different tools, some of which they recognized, but others they had never seen in their life.
But the object that the blacksmith wanted to show them was actually his trusting forge hammer. They watched him as he pulled out a black ornate tool, with green drawings that as soon as it was picked up shined faintly.
"This is my hammer. I use it for basically everything in my workshop. It's enchanted so it can work on much stronger metals, and also withstand the heat more properly. He said while giving it to them so they could see it, Ren's eyes widened.
"Uhhh… The stats are glitched out, but it does say Otherworldly enchanted hammer." Ren concluded, after the information popped up on his inventory.
"Damn… So you're really a blacksmith? Awesome!" Motoyasu praised him, clearly fascinated by what he saw.
"It's still a bit hard to believe it… But… Alright. It's crazy, I kinda wanna hear some stories now…" He said a bit more friendly after having some proof.
"I have many stories I can tell. But first… Could you guys share some information with me?" He asked, placing the hammer back at its proper place in the toolbox.
The other three heroes looked at each other with doubt, they didn't really want to spell their beans. After all, knowledge was important. And telling this to a random person? For all they could know, he could be an NPC! Filling in for the worst class from their games. That made some sense… No one would pick the Shielder class, so to let them have their adventure, the game picked up an NPC to fill in the spot. Yeah, it made sense.
"It's not that we don't like you or anything…" Motoyasu began.
"But giving information like this doesn't sit well with me." Itsuki completed the statement.
"Yeah. Sorry about that…" Ren said while looking away shyly. He hoped he hadn't picked the bad conversation option.
He didn't want to make the NPC sad, or lose karma.
Kieran sighed, a bit sad that they would do this to him. But he concluded that it was fair. Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to being in a foreign world. He slapped his thighs and smiled at them.
"Fine, I get it. So, how about instead of just giving me information for free… I can buy it from you instead?" He offered, holding his hands against his chest, then opening them, making an offering gesture.
"Wait… Buy information? But you don't have any money, do you?" Ren asked, quite surprised at his proposition.
"Not with money, no no. But with something that has the same value as money. Service!" He replied proudly, picking up his hammer again, and spinning it on his hand.
"Services? You mean forging weapons for us and stuff?" Itsuki asked, not expecting that.
"I don't have a workshop to do that… No. But I can do something that I don't need my workshop for." He replied, still calm, and his grin was growing larger now at their interest.
"Then what?" Motoyasu asked, pulling his chair closer to him.
"Elemental enchanting!" He said happily, hitting his hand with his hammer jokingly.
The three heroes looked at him once again with doubt, maybe even more than before.
"I've never heard of that before, have you two?" Ren asked the others. That exactly they hadn't.
"In my game I had enchantment, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing. I could do it myself and didn't need a blacksmith to do it for me."
"Yeah, my strengthening method had enchantment too, but it wasn't called that." Motoyasu gave his own two bits about it, Ren seemed to not believe them.
"My game had nothing like that… Can you demonstrate it to us?" Ren asked, he had proved he was from a world with magic…
"Maybe he's a new NPC? Could it be something like an update?" Motoyasu considered.
"Let's wait and see." Itsuki replied, turning his attention back to the blacksmith.
"Alright. I can enchant those weapons of yours. Who's willing to go first?" He asked, getting up and gesturing to the table.
They all looked at each other. But Motoyasu was the first to step up.
"Alright, you seem to be a nice person from our talks so far. So, do your work." He said while placing his legendary spear on the table.
"Wait, you're going to enchant that? That could be a waste of resources…" He said, crossing his arms.
"You should get a rarer weapon." Itsuki said, but Motoyasu didn't care.
"Relax, if the enchantment is so good, I can just smelt and upgrade my weapon. What does that enchantment do by the way?" Motoyasu asked, the other two seemed about to chime in and complain about his mention of a smelting method.
But Kieran spoke over them.
"Well, normal strikes will deal an extra elemental damage based on your stren… I guess attack stat here. Also, it can boost the magic from the same element that I enchant it with, you can only enchant a weapon with one element, so choose carefully." The blacksmith explained, pulling his gloves up.
Motoyasu wondered for a moment. Before he replied.
"Ehh… Go for fire. It's a classic right?" He said with a shrug not minding much.
"That can't be true… It's too good if you think about it." Ren said, very skeptical. And so was Itsuki. Motoyasu was more willing to believe the blacksmith, but still had his doubts.
"Alright, here we…" An error message popped on his screen.
"ERROR! ERROR! Action denied!"
"Wait a moment…" He asked the others, and began to fumble with his status magic, growing quite angry when he couldn't do what he wanted to. "My shield is interfering…"
"ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!"
"ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!"
"ACTION DENIED! ACTION DENIED!"
Kieran was growing increasingly exasperated, the other three saw his expression and took it as a confirmation of a lie. Motoyasu rested his arm on his shoulder, and was about to say some words of comfort, and that he didn't mind the small lie…
"ACTION DENIED! ACTION DENIED!"
"ACTION DEN…"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE DETECTED!"
"FORCE UNLOCK ACTION EXECUTED!"
-Enchanting shield-
+2 Magic +1
Skill: Elementalist Enchanter (Allows the user to enchant weapons with different elements at the cost of SP and MP. Elements available currently: Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Light and darkness.)
Seeing that, Kieran quickly swapped to that shield. The small shield in his arm transformed, it was quite unique and eye-catching. The sudden change made the heroes jump in surprise. The shield had a very unique shape, and was divided in multiple sections from what seemed like a star with ten points, each one colored with a different color, and they were covered by another shape. Looking closely, the heroes could see some known colors, like Yellow, Blue, red, green, Brown… With the green gemstone embedded in it.
A large smirk appeared on his lips, Kieran gave Motoyasu's spear two hits with his hammer, and the green gemstone on his shield flashed for a moment, as did Motoyasu's. Text flashed over on his status magic.
"Fire enchantment applied with success!"
"Holy shit! It worked!" Motoyasu squealed, not believing what he had just seen. He checked out his spear on the menu and there was a small reddish orange symbol of a flame.
Ren's eyes widened as he came closer, there was never anything in his game. It was all about usage and levels. But now, this new NPC was introducing this new addition? He was really lucky that they added this new bonus content.
"No way. That can't be right." Itsuki interjected, quickly running up towards the pair to examine the spear. He couldn't get a reading right, but they had just met… They couldn't be lying to him… Or could they?
"Alright, but I don't want to empower these weak weapons…" Ren finally spoke, wanting to save something like that for a stronger weapon he could obtain later in the game.
"How about coupons?" Kieran suggested, reaching into his pockets to get a small block of papers, he showed them casually. "I sometimes gave these off to adventurers in exchange for monster parts and other materials if they didn't want to enchant their weapons right away."
Motoyasu was still playing with his spear, accidentally hitting a nightstand, making a few ember sparks fly out of the tip of his weapon. Starting a small fire.
"Oh god! Sorry! Sorry! A little help here!" He asked, two knights that had been stationed outside heard the commotion and quickly put off the fire with a weak water spell.
"Please be careful Sir heroes! This fire could've spread." The youngest of them reprimanded them a bit nervously, not wanting to anger the cardinal heroes. But also fearing for their safety.
"Shut up brat, don't speak to the cardinal heroes like that!" The other one scolded him, making him flinch.
"Hey, you don't need to scream at him. He's justified to ask that, Motoyasu. Please be more Careful, I know you're excited now. But tomorrow you'll be able to do that just fine." The blacksmith said to the blonde, who sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"Sorry… Sorry. I got too excited. I'll be more careful now." Motoyasu said while rubbing the back of his head, surprised that he acted like that. Usually he would've shrugged it off… No one was hurt after all. And he was a hero now! That tiny little damage was nothing compared to how awesome the good he would do would be…
But he couldn't help himself.
"Very well… If any of you need anything, we'll be sitting by the door. Just ask us and we'll try to accomodate your needs." The older knight said while walking out of the room.
Ake bowed to the heroes, before following his superior. But earned a sympathetic smile from the shield hero.
"Now, I know it's getting late. But we can nap in the afternoon or have some coffee to keep our energy up. Motoyasu, give me some information that you have." Kieran said while sitting down, still clutching the coupons in his hand.
"Right… Of course. It's only fair." The blonde sat down as well, the other two heroes joined the conversation at the table. "Okay, you just unlocked a weapon form, right? That usually happens when you absorb stuff into your weapon, it can unlock new weapon forms."
"I see… Stuff is quite vague. Does it mean objects? A clarification would be nice." Kieran asked, looking at his Enchanting shield.
"Some objects… But manly monster parts. If you kill a monster, feed them to your shield, that will unlock new weapon forms." With that, Motoyasu had paid for his enchantment.
"Absorbing monster parts and objects into your shield will wield new weapon forms. Some shields can also be forcefully unlocked by external forces…"
Kieran read the notice his help menu gave him, and shook his head.
"My shield just told me that some stuff can also be forcefully unlocked… I think some of my mana… Sorry. I think here is Magical power, poured into the shield while I tried enchanting your weapon. That's what I think happened." Kieran said to them. Lying, he had already said a bunch of stuff that he had to prove… Which was a pain.
"Right… I guess I'll go next. If that will help me get stronger… I don't mind sharing this." Ren continued, sighing. Really excited about the new feature, but his gamer mindset wasn't going to let him waste fee resources on trash weapons. "If you pick a weapon of the same type you hold, you can copy and use it. It's the Weapon copy system feature. Whenever you see a shield, you should try touching it to copy it."
"Copy? You mean, getting my own version of the shield, while the original still exists?" Kieran asked, a greedy grin coming across his face. That meant he could make his own shields, then sell them for extra profit… Maybe he could even make himself a shield that would give him some more attack!
"Yes, that is correct. Since you're a blacksmith, I thought that would be very useful to you." The black haired boy said with a small smile, seeing his reaction.
"Information on Weapon copy system available on help menu."
"It really is Ren! Thanks for that. Here you go." He took one of the coupons and handed it to Ren, and he was surprised he could understand some of the writing. It was written in english.
"Thanks… Itsuki? You want to go next?" Ren asked, seeing the schoolboy with his arms crossed, not liking that he had to give information up to an NPC. He should be given free upgrades since he was going to bring law and order to this country!
But he knew the other two were going to be against him… As such, he relented.
"Fine, you have an inventory in your weapon. Without limits to storage space." Kieran perked up once again at that. "You can carry as much stuff as you want. Monsters can also drop extra stuff after you kill them, you can check it out on your item drop menu. Make sure to absorb all the monster parts and store it there. You can use it for…"
Itsuki stopped himself, closing his eyes and stopped talking, but Kieran kept that in mind. Despite what he had spoken being cut in half, Kieran still accepted what he said. He was familiar with that kind of thing.
"Information on Inventory available in the help menu."
"Information on Drop items available in the help menu."
"It's basically like a bag of holding from my world. Magical rare items that few people had. I had one, but it wasn't on me when I got dragged into this place…" He sighed, the others looked a bit surprised. "Alright, does anyone want to share more stuff?"
"Back to me again! Haha, you guys forgot to mention the crafting function!" Motoyasu exclamed, cutting off Ren. That grunted a bit for being too slow. "If you have a recipe for something, you can put the ingredients into your legendary weapon and it will do the crafting for you."
"Information on the crafting function available. Multiple recipes unlocked."
Kieran's vision was filled with notifications. Mostly it was for food, but there were a couple other things too. That information was useful, but he didn't like it as much. The fun thing about crafting was doing it yourself. But nonetheless. He shook his head, and handed the Blonde his coupon, he was all smiles now. Wondering which element he should pick next…
"Before I get interrupted again… There's another thing I can share with you. I wasn't going to… Knowledge shouldn't be given to noobs like this after all. But since you're offering us a service… I'll tell you the secret of getting stronger." Ren said seriously, Kieran raised his eyebrow. Itsuki was bumme he hadn't shared the strengthening methods while he spoke… But he wanted to maximize coupons.
"That seems important, go on ahead Ren. I'm all ears." Kieran told him, straightening his back and looking at him seriously.
"The secret to your maximum potential is all based on weapon mastery…" Ren was about to continue, but was interrupted.
"Ren, don't lie to the NPC. Rarity is all that matters!" Itsuki spoke, chastising Ren.
"Wrong! Both of you are lying, Smelting and investing into a weapon is the way to go!" Motoyasu said, getting up. All the heroes then began to discuss with one another. Screaming about who was right, Kieran heard the cacophony for a couple seconds become picking up his hammer and hitting it up like a gong, the sound made them stop, and cover their ears. Huh. Neat little trick there.
"Alright, calm down all of you. Sit down and relax, we're all fellow heroes here. Are we not?" Kieran said, being the responsible one. His tone was very stern, and it didn't really match his appearance. He soon softened up, looking into each of them.
"Alright, one by one, you can speak about those strengthening methods of yours. Everyone gets their turn to talk. No one interrupts. Please, I've been working with customers for years by this point. Just calm down and we'll arrive at the bottom of this, alright?" He pleaded, with an expression that made Motoyasu feel really bad for angering his new friend NPC.
Itsuki was annoyed, but his pride made him stay and comply. He didn't want to share information, but he wasn't going to stand for lies. Ren felt a bit bad, but kept his serious facade. But deep inside he was actually feeling more sorry than Motoyasu.
He hated picking the bad dialogue options.
"Ren, you're up. Since you were speaking before you got interrupted." Kieran gave the word to Ren.
Ren then explained all about his strengthening methods. The first part was that the weapon forms grew stronger the more you leveled. Also, using a weapon made them acquire Mastery over time. That Mastery could then be reset, giving you energy that you could use to Awaken other weapon could also increase their rarity using that energy.
Itsuki wanted to interrupt multiple times, more and more outraged the more of that bullshit he heard. Ren was so… So wrong.
Motoyasu was a bit irritated. But didn't say anything, and just kept frowning with everything he heard.
"Alright. I'm done explaining." Ren said simply after he was done, closing his eyes and smiling confidently. He had seen his Mastery gauge going up since everything began. There was no way he was the liar. "You can check up your help menu and see that I'm speaking the truth."
"No you aren't! I'll go next. There's nothing to do with any of that… Don't believe him, Kieran. I'll tell you the REAL way to get stronger." Itsuki said, letting some of his irritation seep from his voice.
Itsuki's method was more complicated, and needed more investment rather than just something that would happen over time. He explained that his method also had energy, but no mastery, you gained energy by dissolving itens. The more rare an item was, the more energy it gave. He also said each weapon had different levels of rarity, like Ren said, but they couldn't be increased by any means. The rarer the materials a weapon was made of, the stronger it was.
Energy could be used to make two things, the first was enchanting a weapon with different effects, the first time you applied that enchantment it never failed, but if you decided to keep making it stronger it could fail and reset completely. Wasting resources. The second thing was being able to raise a stat permanently. It began at +1, but the more you used, the stronger it grew. But it also got more expensive to raise that stat with time.
When they thought he was done, he also mentioned the Ore equipping method. Each weapon had a number of slots that you could put different ores into. And depending on the rarity of the ore, the more stats they gave.
"That's the real method! Ren couldn't even come up with a convincing lie and said something so simple and small." Itsuki jabbed at his fellow hero, smirking with his hands on his waist.
"I'm no liar! Look at all the mumbo jumbo you just spoke! That barely makes sense." Ren replied while closing his eyes. He had understood what Itsuki had explained. But it sounded too convoluted…
"Both of you are wrong. Kieran here is a blacksmith, so of course he'll know that smelting makes your weapons stronger! You can refine them, and turn even the weakest one into late game godhood!" Motoyasu declared, hitting his spear on the floor.
Motoyasu was the last, but he knew he was right. He could see all the options from his menu. He didn't have the materials, but as soon as he had, he could upgrade his spear using Ore. He explained that the Smelting was a bit similar to Itsuki's enchantment, where you could power up a weapon from a +1, all the way to +9, but the chance of failure increased each time. There was no energy, weapons also grew stronger the more you used it, and you couldn't awaken them like Ren had mentioned.
Finally, defeating monsters could sometimes award you with a Monster soul that could be equipped to raise one of the stats of the weapon. The soul could be taken at any time and re-equipped into another weapon. Like Itsuki could do with his Ore slots.
"Open up your menu, it will be right there!" Motoyasu finally said, and with that all hell broke loose, they began screaming with one another, while the blacksmith put his hands on his ears.
"WHO IS RIGHT?!" All three asked, turning their focus away from each other, to the small figure sitting in the chair. The knights outside considered going in, but they were a bit scared of angering the heroes… Even poor Ake.
Kieran sighed, rubbing his forehead. That was a huge info dump. He gave a look at all of them, checked for any of the obvious signs that someone lying would give. Even Ren lost the mannerisms of someone pretending to have a different personality.
"So… Either they're really good at lying, or they're all speaking the truth… Motoyasu seems a bit too sincere to lie about something like this. He was the first one to worry about me when I panicked back then… Maybe he wants to stab me in the back and is pretending to be my friend. But I don't believe so."
"Ren was pretending to be this cool and edgy dark warrior type of guy. I know the type. But it seems he just lacks confidence, I can see that he's being truly serious now. His fingers stopped twitching anxiously… That was the biggest giveaway."
"Itsuki is too prideful to lie in these circumstances. He hated that I didn't want to just give out my services for free… He didn't even hide his annoyance. Typical privileged kid. But his morals are strong. I'll give him that."
Kieran considered all that with his arms crossed. He revised all the clues and after a bit, he opened his eyes again.
"I don't think any of you are lying. I can't test any of those methods much right now, since I don't have the items. And I feel like we've been doing this for too long… We could spend the entire night debating. But I think we all deserve at least some sleep. It was a very stressful day… But I thank you all for your cooperation."
The blacksmith then handed each one of them a coupon. The other heroes were a bit surprised.
"After I know who is right or wrong, I'll give them another coupon. Let's wait until tomorrow at least, we can join together for dinner and I'll share my findings, is this fair?" He proposed, and looked at them with a sincere smile.
The other three begrudgingly accepted, after the adrenaline of the discussion faded, they began to feel the sleep catching up to them. As such, they all went to their respective beds. Motoyasu and Ren bid their goodnights to the blacksmith, before going to sleep. Itsuki kept silent and didn't say anything.
His pride hurt.
Kieran went to bed and closed his eyes. After the candles were blown off, he waited until the heroes seemed to be asleep and got up. He was, in fact, very tired. But late nights were made to gather information.
He climbed out of bed and made his way out of the small light the window provided, and sank deep into the darkest corner of the room… Disappearing completely into the shadows…
Only to re-emerge not too long later. A frustrated look on his face.
"Goddammit… Stupid shield…"
Well, we have arrived at the end of the first chapter. I'm proud of myself to go back to working on some more serious stuff. I've been doing a lot of research. So, before we end, I want to clarify a couple things.
Firstly, the enchanting shield's shape is actually the symbol in the cover of the story. Just with the green gemstone in the center inside the gray pentagon. Also, I changed some heroes' personalities a bit. Motoyasu is more friendly, Ren is shy and Itsuki is even more prideful. But they'll grow more as the story progresses.
The reason Kieran managed to enchant Motoyasu's spear, was that the enchanting wasn't bound by the shield's limits. Kind of a cheat actually. But one that is available to everyone. Yeah, he can enchant normal weapons as well. And will be doing that to bring in some extra money.
There's a bunch of lore for my OC that i've written, and it's going to be presented with time. Some will be given with time, just wait for it.
Well. When this is posted, I'll be working on the second chapter already. Looking forward to it!
Take care, and I'll see you in the next chapter!