chapter 1/ Unusual Royal Summoning

"We did it! The summoning was a success!"

"... Huh?"

Naofumi's mind was still spinning, but as his senses slowly returned to him, he discovered that he was lying flat on cold, stone tiles. Bright lights were dimming down around him, but his body's first instinct was to try and get back on his feet. In a groggily state, it proved difficult, but it was possible as his headache started leaving him.

"What's going on…?"

As his blurry vision cleared up, he saw that he was no longer in his apartment. In its place, he was in a dark room, lit up by torches. Not exactly the best environment to be waking up to; if he didn't know any better, he would have guessed that he was kidnapped for some sick experiment. that might have been his reading experiences jumping in, but given the circumstances, assumptions were all he could play with.

Only then did the images of his friends falling to the ground regain themselves in his memory. If he hadn't been awake, the adrenaline, pressed up with panic, would have been enough to shake him around for good.

"Ren!? Itsuki!? Motoyasu!?"

"Ugh, my ears are still ringing. Could you not shout so loudly when you're so close?"

Behind him, Ren was sitting down with his hands on his ears. His anxiety was calmed as a breath expanded across Naofumi's body, making him want to drop to his knees out of relief. His other two friends were there as well, but they were still on the ground, trying to recover.

"That was… painful."

"Just… five more minutes please…"

Itsuki leered to his side. "I see someone is at least enjoying himself."

"Not for long."

As Itsuki pulled himself up, Ren kicked Motoyasu awake after standing up.

"Rise and shine!"

"Ah! Crap! I'm getting up! I'm getting up!"

Motoyasu tried standing up as quickly as he could, but finally succumbed to the effects of the headache. Although it looked as if it occurred all within a split second, Motoyasu still suffered a delayed collapse, falling back onto his rear.

Naofumi came over and extended his hand.

"Need some help?"

"Y-Yeah… Thanks…"

Their hands clapped together as Naofumi pulled Motoyasu back onto his feet.

"Funny. I don't remember drinking that much to have a severe hangover like that. And weren't you just reading the book just now? Sorry, I think I fell asleep because it was so boring."

"I think that's the least of our problems."

"Least of our problems? What do you—Ah."

Motoyasu looked at the room, seeing the obvious problem that Naofumi left out on his brief inspection of the room. Not only was their environment vastly different, but there had been a crowd of hooded figures, almost like priests or mages, standing in a crowd a few meters away from the altar space he and his friends were standing on.

"Uh, did we get kidnapped?"

"That's what I first thought!"

"Maybe if we shut up for a bit, we'll get an explanation."

Ren's firm statement was followed by one of the hooded figures approaching the altar.

"Oh, Heroes! Please save our world!"

"Okay, I think I need to rewind a bit because we skipped a few steps here." Poor Itsuki's brain was short-circuiting and frankly, Naofumi couldn't blame him. "What exactly is going on here?"

"You haven't noticed the weapons in our hands yet?" Ren asked.

"Weapons?" Naofumi raised his eyebrow.

Instinctively, his first thought was to look at his friends and surely enough, there had been weapons in their possession as said. Ren had a sword, while Itsuki and Motoyasu had a bow and a spear respectively. None of them owned any weapons to begin with, not they should have, but that only spurred on even more confusion. Even so when both Itsuki and Motoyasu were raising their own concerns.

"What's with this bow…?"

"H-hey, this is a bit freaky. I can't let go of the spear!"

Regardless, Naofumi didn't feel anything in his hand, but when he looked down, he noticed a small shield connected to his arm. It was almost as light as a feather and if Ren didn't point it out, it might have taken a few minutes for him to realize he had something there.

Considering that the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was the book emitting a mysterious light, abnormal to their world, things started to piece themselves together. Naofumi wasn't sure if he was liking what type of hypothesis his mind was cooking up, but there wasn't any reason to keep himself in the dark for any longer.

"You asked us to save your world?" Naofumi responded to the hooded man. It should be good to receive confirmation. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"It's a complicated situation, but to simply put it, the world is in great danger and that has forced us to summon the four heroes of the holy weapons in order to save us from certain destruction. Otherwise, the waves of destruction will consume us all and leave nothing behind."

Naofumi silently glanced at his friends. A quick exchange of eye movements were enough to know that everyone had been on the same page of what the fuck, same chapter of seriously, is this real.

With a deep breath to relax himself, Naofumi continued.

"Is… there someone we speak to regarding all of this…?"

"Indeed. We can immediately arrange a meeting with our wise king."

"Could you take us there? I think it would be helpful for us."

"Of course, Cardinal Heroes."

The crowd gave a path for the heroes to exit while the leading robed man had the doors of the chamber open up. Ren left the altar platform first, followed by Itsuki and Motoyasu. Naofumi couldn't shake off the disorienting feeling. When he looked back at the hooded crowd, a shiver was sent down his spine. Should he have ignored it just like the red flags he was receiving concerning that mysterious book?

"Hey, Naofumi! We're waiting on you!"

Motoyasu called out to him with an abundant amount of energy at the door. The light from outside the chamber was falling into the room as his friends all stood in front of it. All of them were refusing to leave until everyone, Naofumi included, was with them. With a smile on their faces, Naofumi couldn't help in doing the same.

"Getting cold feet?" Ren smirked.

"C'mon! Hurry it up!" Itsuki shouted out cheerfully.

"R-right!" Naofumi finally took his first steps off the platform and caught up with them. "Thanks for waiting, you guys!"

-/IV/-

With the large double-doors opening wide to the throne room by knights, the friends were brought in to see an old man sitting on the regal seat of the castle. He stroked his white beard, as if he was already inspecting their attributes and personalities before anyone could say a word.

"These are the Cardinal Heroes?"

"Indeed they are, Your Majesty." The hooded mage bowed his head. "As per your request to summon them, we made sure that it would be successful."

"Excellent work. Please move aside, such that I may be able to have a better look at them."

The man shuffled off the carpet, leaving nothing in between the four friends and the king.

"Welcome, Cardinal Heroes. My name is Aultcray Melromarc the 32nd. As you may know already, I am the king that presides over this country." His voice, although only introducing himself, held an air of confidence and command. "I'd like the heroes to name themselves for me."

His friends all looked over to each other, wondering which order they should go about it. With a mere hand gesture from Motoyasu, swinging his finger from right to left, they decided on making introductions in that order.

"Alright, I'll start. My name is Itsuki Kawasumi. I'm seventeen years old and I'm a highschool student."

"Ren Amaki. Sixteen years old in highschool."

"It's a pleasure to meet you! My name is Motoyasu Kitamura, but you can call me by my first name! No need for formalities! And I'm twenty-one years old, attending university!"

"And I'm—"

"So it's Itsuki, Ren, and Motoyasu?"

Naofumi blinked, seeing how the king had completely forgotten that there was still one hero that hadn't introduced himself yet. He didn't want to come off as assertive or rude, but it was like the king was content on simply moving along.

He glanced over to his friends, but they were all glaring at the king for what he did to him.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?"

"It's a bit rude to cut someone off from their introduction, isn't it?"

"Hey, our friend here hasn't gotten his turn yet, Your Majesty. Could you let him finish?"

Without hesitation, his friends all jumped on top of the small mistake that the king made. Ren and Itsuki were showing mild displeasure over it, while Motoyasu was still keeping his smile.

"O-oh? M-my apologies." The king looked a bit surprised as to how quickly the other three heroes snapped back on him. He looked over to Naofumi. "I… I must be going senile. I have been presiding over these lands as its king for quite some time, so you will have to forgive me if things like these slip by my thoughts."

Was this the first time during their meeting that they made any eye contact? The sight that the king was giving to him felt distant and cold for some reason, like the feeling he was getting from some of the mages from the summoning room; if not, then colder than that.

"Uhm, Naofumi? Your introduction?"

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Naofumi bowed to the king quickly for respect before introducing himself. "My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I'm a university student at age twenty. It's nice to meet you."

"Uh huh."

And literally nothing else except for a disinterested nod. Although the king was moving on without addressing it, his friends were able to pick it up.

Ren slid behind Motoyasu and grumbled to Naofumi. "I already don't like that guy."

"N-now, now… Let's not get hasty…" Naofumi replied, trying to settle him down. While that was a weird reaction from the king, Naofumi added another items of things he was ignoring for the sake of simplicity.

"I expect the heroes to already know about the situation we have here, concerning the Waves of Destruction?" the king continued.

"More details would be helpful," Itsuki responded—

—through the grit of his teeth. It seems like Itsuki was just as pissed as Ren that the king was trying to dismiss the incident altogether as well. Naofumi could only laugh wryly to himself, hoping that they weren't going to stir up any trouble before they got a better idea of their own situation.

According to the king, they were called to the country of Melromarc in order to fend off against the waves of destruction. They were large rifts that formed in the sky and from it, monsters of unknown kinds would leak out into their world and begin ravaging through everything in their way. Other than that, not much about these waves were known to the people. They didn't know how they functioned, why they would occur, or even how to stop them in its entirety.

All the people knew was to summon the Cardinal Heroes whenever this threat returned to them.

As the supposed heroes, their roles were fairly simple. They needed to grow stronger as heroes, travel the lands to gain experience, and take on the waves of destruction before it could damage the land and its people any further. There were still some things that felt unanswered, but Naofumi understood the gist of things. His friends understood quite easily as well, but they took it into another direction.

"Sounds like you're asking a lot from us," Ren scoffed. "Are you expecting us to be working for free and everything? Since you brought us into your mess without any signs of a warning, I'm expecting some compensation here."

"After we're done here, you're probably just going to send us home with a simple pat on the back like we're some tools to your endeavors," Itsuki growled. "What's the point in us helping you out if we're going to be tossed to the side once we're done?"

They definitely haven't let go of how the king was trying to casually skip over Naofumi during introductions. Making enemies this early on was probably not the best play they could be doing. He looked over to Motoyasu, silently pleading for him to help him resolve this, but Motoyasu didn't notice and considered their points.

"I mean, we did just get ripped out of our daily lives. We have things to do, but you're basically making us do your chores without much negotiation. I kinda want to go back home, if I'm going to be honest…"

Although Motoyasu was more nice about his concern, it wasn't exactly helping them, but to his surprise, the king answered them earnestly. "If that is the case, we will be ready to accommodate for what you request. If it is rewards that you seek, we will prepare them for when the waves come to an end. As for a return home, we are unsure of such a method." The king stood up briefly to give the heroes a deep sorrowful bow. "My apologies for that. We should have taken that into consideration, but please know that we do not intend to let you fend for yourself."

Despite apologizing for the second time, this was the first time he was bowing.

The king sat back down. "We will provide the heroes with whatever resources they will require in order to make this daunting task more manageable. You will not be fighting the waves by yourself, for the knights of Melromarc will be there by your side."

"Do you guys have any further complaints?" Naofumi whispered loudly.

"Enough to piss him off," Ren immediately responded, preparing to step forwards.

"Please don't. That was rhetorical."

"... Fine."

Motoyasu, standing in between them, wryly chuckled. "N-none here, Your Majesty. We'll listen to what you have to say."

"That's good to hear." The king raised his hand towards the heroes. "If there are no other concerns to be addressed, I would like to have the heroes check their own Status Magic."

"... Status Magic?"

Naofumi glanced over to Motoyasu, who returned to him a shrug of bewilderment. Adversely, both Ren and Itsuki were both calm about it, looking like they were spacing out. Their eyes were busy though, so what were they looking at exactly?

"Hey, Ren? Itsuki? Do you guys know what Status Magic is?" Naofumi asked.

"I mean, they don't look as baffled as us," Motoyasu said.

"Oh, right. Forgot you two haven't played much virtual reality games," Ren's empty hand hovered around his peripheral. "Look, it's simple. You want to focus on the sides of your vision. Once you take note of the icons, focus on it a bit more and it'll open up what you were trying to access."

"I never thought that playing BSO would give me some comfortability here," Itsuki pondered aloud. "Granted, I only played about thirty to forty hours, but to have this virtual reality knowledge come back to help me…"

Naofumi gave Motoyasu a worried look before trying it out for himself. He noticed the icons that Ren was talking about. Like a ping of a computer, the icon expanded outwards, causing him to reflexively back up. It was like an internet browser was jumping right up into his face and that would frighten anyone who hadn't been expecting it.

This was certainly something he'll have to get used to. He figured from how naturally the king talked about it, people of this world normally had access to the same ability.

Now, what exactly was written on the so-called Status Magic?

[Naofumi Iwatani]

[Class] : Shield Hero LV1

[Equipment] : Small Shield (Legendary Weapon), Other-World Clothes

[Skills] : None

[Magic] : None

[MAP: None

[Weapon upgrade: borderlands skill tree/ other Heroes weapon upgrade methods

"This isn't my imagination, right? You're thinking the same thing?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about it too. These stats are way too low, even for a Level 1."

Stats? Not being sure what Itsuki and Ren were talking about, Naofumi tried to frantically look for these supposed stats, but he decided that it wasn't worth the effort. When they wrap things up here, he could simply ask them about it. At least he was able to find the Status Magic itself, so that was progress.

"That is why we request that you head off on a journey in order to strengthen yourselves for the upcoming waves," the king answered. "Your weapons do not start off strong, but it is the potential to which your weapons can become that will be able to save us all."

Motoyasu had been spinning his spear around before resting it on his shoulder, giving Itsuki and Ren a cheerful smirk. "What do you two have to worry about? Doesn't that mean we're going to be together during our quest? So it's not going to be as bad as you think it might be! Don't you think we can take on anything when we've formed a party?"

"That's a bit optimistic," Naofumi chuckled.

"Yeah, I was a bit hesitant about all of this, but then I realized about the mere fact that we're going on a fantasy adventure together makes it all worth it! We'll be unstoppable together!"

"Unfortunately, it is not that simple."

Motoyasu froze, letting all that energy become static in mere seconds. Naofumi could see his spirit escape him, leaving nothing except the white skin to his body. His head twitched over to the king, like a robot who hadn't had his oil changed in a long time.

"W-what is that supposed to mean!? Are you saying we can't party up together!?"

"That would be a great problem if you do so."

"Why not!? That sounds absurd!"

"The holy weapons are unusual in their function. Although they can achieve great power, they cannot be near another holy weapon for them to grow stronger. If the heroes wish to gain experience, you must be apart from each other."

"Well, that's just dumb," Motoyasu croaked. "Who made up that stupid rule!?"

Ren clicked his tongue, as if jumping back into the conversation. "It looks like he's telling the truth. The tutorial menus inside of the Status Magic say the exact same thing."

Naofumi decided to take the moment to try and navigate his way around this new Status Magic function. Not before long, though it conveniently showed up by itself as he was planning to look for it, a menu screen opened up.

[Attention]

[Cardinal Heroes are highly advised to fight separately. The Holy Weapons will experience adverse effects of growth if they are near each other.]

"It really is in here…" Itsuki groaned, sounding a bit depressed.

That mood was probably shared among the group of friends. Who wouldn't have wanted to go on an adventure with their friends? This rule literally destroyed any chances of that occurrence.

"Damn, that really sucks!" Motoyasu was more loud about his displeasure, holding his forehead in exasperation. "What the hell are we going to do now?"

"Do not fear, heroes," the king responded. "As part of the agreement to support the Cardinal Heroes, we shall be supplying you with carefully-selected adventurers, suitable for your journey."

"Not too bad, but…" Ren wanted to say some more, but sighed to dismiss himself. "Never mind, whatever. It's not like we can do anything about that."

"We still need some time in order to sort out a few more things, but until then, I suggest that the heroes should rest up in one of our guest rooms. Tonight, we shall hold a banquet in your honor and for tomorrow morning, your journey shall begin with your new party members. Please look forward to it."

A servant of the castle, dressed in maid uniform, came over and bowed to the heroes.

"I shall bring you to your room. Please follow me."

The group of friends followed the maid out from the throne room. Naofumi, however, looked behind him once more as the doors were closing, watching the king through the collapsing slit. It might have been a good thing to respond accordingly to his worries, but even if he wanted to, what exactly could he have done?

"Hey, Naofumi." Motoyasu wrapped his arm around Naofumi as they walked down the hall. "Don't you think that maid is pretty cute?"

"Huh? Y-yeah, I guess so."

"There's probably more cuties like her around the castle, so if you want, why don't we go try and pick some ladies up while we're here? Just leave the details to me; I'll get both of us hooked. I need my go-to wingman, after all!"

Motoyasu's offer was only then registered and sank in for Naofumi. He didn't have many chances to meet many girls back in their own world, despite Motoyasu's constant proposals to help him out. There were a few times where Motoyasu brought him to mixer events, but Naofumi never found himself enjoying any of them. Maybe this time would be different, considering they were in a new world.

"I don't think it would hurt to—"

"What are you trying to do? We just arrived here," Ren deadpanned, interrupting the response. "Don't be dragging Naofumi into your usual shenanigans."

"What are you talking about? Shenanigans? How dare you?" He feigned a melodramatic heartbreak. "This is the passion of manhood that burns in our hearts! C'mon, Ren, I know you're interested~!" Motoyasu sang. "What do you say? Big Brother Motoyasu will hook you up too if you want to pursue some romance in your life!"

"D-don't drag me into these shenanigans either!" Ren spat. His face was a little flustered.

"It's okay if you want to find a girlfriend too," Itsuki smirked. "No need to feel jealous."

"W-why did this suddenly turn on me!?"

Naofumi felt a little bad, but that was simply how things were within their group. He couldn't help himself in chuckling as Ren tried to calm himself down from the confrontation.

-/IV/-

The guest room itself was something that Naofumi could only imagine being from a high luxury location like those premium suites in hotels. Extravagant tables and couches for them to sit around, comfortable beds that look heavenly to lie upon, not even a speck of dust could be seen on the furniture; there was even a balcony with a beautiful scenery of the city underneath it.

The maid told them that someone else came to get them for the banquet, but until then, they were to enjoy themselves here however they wanted. Motoyasu quickly took his shot in grabbing the maid's number, only for him to realize that the concept of phones didn't exist here. Before he could follow up with asking her out, Ren pulled him away, apologizing for their friend. The maid, a bit confused, departed with a simple bow and closed the door behind her.

"Hey, I had that in the bag! This is blatant sabotage! I thought we were friends!"

"We have better things to worry about then whose skirt you're going to chase after first!"

Motoyasu laughed. "Yeah, I suppose so!"

"We're all thinking about that mysterious book, aren't we?" Itsuki announced. "It's one thing to have a random book show up the way that it did for Naofumi, but so far, everything's been matching up with what Naofumi had been reading out to us. From the weapons to the wave of destruction, it's all the same."

The friends all sat down around the table once the situation calmed down, leaving them to their own thoughts and feelings about what had happened within the past hour or so.

"Yeah, I suppose it was strange," Motoyasu pondered. "It's almost as if the book dragged into its page. We wouldn't happen to be dreaming right now? I did fall asleep in the middle of the book, so it's definitely supposed that this is one whole elaborate dream sequence!"

"We can find out." Ren leaned forwards towards Motoyasu.

"Huh?" A question mark popped out of his head. "What are you—?"

With a blank expression, Ren immediately grabbed Motoyasu's cheeks on both sides and pulled them as far from his face as possible. His eyes widened out as the pain rushed in almost instantly.

"OW OW OW! HEY, HEY! THAT HURTS, QUIT IT! QUIT IT ALREADY!"

Ren released his grip, letting Motoyasu cheeks slap back to his face with a red sore spot showing up for a bit. The ill-fated friend groaned in agony, rubbing his pains with a shudder to his shoulders and tears welling up in his eyes.

"You could have warned me!"

"You would have expected it," Ren responded, leaning back into his seat, "and considering our results, I'd say it's safe to assume that we aren't dreaming."

"Well, I might not be dreaming, but you might! I'll just pinch you back!"

"Pinch me and I'll uppercut you."

"O-or not…"

"Then we were actually summoned to another world, specifically the world inside The Record of the Four Holy Weapons?" Itsuki mulled. "No matter how much I try to process that, it still feels unreal to me. Being a hero comes with significant responsibilities as well."

"I want to get to the bottom of this," Ren said. "This entire circumstance is weird, if you think about it. If we aren't getting any solid explanations, other than what we already know, from the king, it leaves too many holes for us to point our questions through. For instance, what exactly was that book? It definitely isn't the normal work of literature."

"It's not as if I can go back to the library to inspect clues of where I found it." Naofumi scratched the back of his head. "If there was any method to go between our world and this world, we might be in business, but you heard what the king said. He didn't even know if there was a way for us to leave for even a one-way return trip."

"I'm not trusting a single word that stupid king says," Itsuki scowled. "He was intentionally leaving Naofumi out of the introductions! There's no way that an old man would be that forgetful!"

Ren frowned as he nodded."Yeah, I'm not buying whatever the king says unless I can check the information myself. We don't know if he's hiding any other information that might be helpful for us."

"You guys sure hold your grudges," Motoyasu wryly laughed. "C'mon, I'm sure it was an honest mistake. There's no need to be antagonistic so soon when everyone can still get along."

Itsuki sighed, releasing his displeasure. "I guess you're right. Still though, we left a bunch of things behind us back in our world. If we don't have a way back, that means we're stuck here. I don't think time is going to wait for us to get back to our normal lives. Wouldn't it be as if we disappeared?"

"I'm rather worried about that too." Naofumi twirled his thumbs with his hands grasped together. "My little brother would be worried if I suddenly disappeared one day. My parents, uh, probably not, but…"

"That is if you assume that time runs at an equivalent ratio between the two worlds," Ren responded. "There's no guarantee that time hasn't slowed down in comparison to this world. That's typically the excuse that stories of summonings would have, right?"

"Yeah, sometimes," Naofumi nodded. It was the usual light novel setup, so he was familiar with the concept Ren was suggesting. "Of course, if the protagonist wasn't brought over after they died."

"I mean…" Ren's eyes suddenly casted downwards in glum. "I really would rather not miss the BSO events. There's going to be one in two weeks that will drop a limited-event item that's good for my build. I need that so badly…"

"Ah. Copium." Itsuki deadpanned. "I see that you're still around, even in another world."

"Yeah, that does sound like it sucks. I'm definitely going to miss out on some of Emerald Online's events too." Motoyasu seemed more accepting of that fact than Ren was.

"That's why I just stick to console games like Dimension Wave," Itsuki smugly said. "There's no real need to play to the game's schedule in that case, so I can play whenever I feel like playing."

"While we're on that topic, I want to ask something." Naofumi had the thought pass him briefly, but the whole idea of this world's Status Magic was nagging at him. "Don't you think this feels a bit like a game? There's the stats, magic, skills, and whatever else they put into the whole magic status menu. It really gives off gaming vibes."

"Well, duh." Motoyasu plainly answered him, as if it was obvious. "It's basically Emerald Online. I thought I showed you the game once before."

"Right, and I remember that. After playing it for not even a few hours, I went back to playing my usual games of Odin Spirit and Fantasy Moon Strike, so I don't recall much of it. I've been slacking on my accounts on my usual games as of late as well."

"While I can see the resemblance with Emerald Online, I think it's much closer to BSO here." Ren had played Motoyasu's game before, so he might have had a better grasp when it comes to the comparison. "It even has the virtual reality menu mechanics down to the small details. I wouldn't be surprised if the combat system is similar as well."

"You think so? Hmm, I guess I can see it." Itsuki rubbed his chin. "Personally, I would say it's more like Dimension Wave's narrative setup. So in that regard, wouldn't it be closer to that game?"

"I only found it weird that the setting feels very game-like," Naofumi continued. "And moreso, it reminds everyone of the games that we've played. Do you think that has to do something with… why we were selected to be the Cardinal Heroes?"

His friends glanced at each other, faltering a bit from Naofumi's concerns. After all, they were just talking about their games, only for Naofumi to drop something heavy at their feet.

"I don't think an occasion like this could be attributed to mere luck of the draw. If I considered what happened before, it was as if the book was trying to make me read it by making itself as mysterious as possible. As well as the fact that it fell down behind me when I was the only person around to hear it. If it was any simple book from the shelf, I probably would have stopped reading before the first few pages and put it back. Whatever power that book had…"

Naofumi glanced down at the shield stuck on his arm.

"It had to be intentional, but that only gave me concern."

His hand touched the shield,across his finger. His hand then landed on the green gem, almost feeling some type of warmth or mysterious power coming from it. "Do we have what it takes to answer the cries of these people? Do we have what it takes to actually save this world?"

The three friends all looked at each other once again, but instead of keeping the mood all serious, they all bursted out with varying degrees of laughter.

"Really? Isn't it obvious?" Motoyasu answered boisterously. "It's only because we've got what it takes that we were summoned in the first place!"

Ren nodded gently. "If it's similar to a game world, then that would mean that we're already well-equipped for the job based on our knowledge. We already have a good understanding of what to do and how to do it, so it's all on execution now."

"And it's a good chance to become heroes for these people, right?" Itsuki smiled with a cheer. "Who wouldn't want to have an opportunity like this?"

"You guys really think so?" Naofumi looked up to see the positive vibes. It was difficult not to be influenced by their contagious expressions. "I can't help myself to be a little… cautious, I guess?"

"Naofumi. You'll be fine." Motoyasu came over to ease his friend's patch of anxiety, hanging a relaxed arm over his shoulder. "We might not be partying up together, but we're definitely in this fight against the waves as one. We'll always be happy to help you out whenever you need it. Ask away to anything!"

Ren smirked. "If Naofumi can't keep up with us, that's the only thing we can do. He's a hero as much as we are, and it would be a bad image to have one of us be lagging behind like that."

"Yeah, it is as Motoyasu and Ren says," Itsuki followed, pumping his two fists. "We know you aren't much of a serious gamer nowadays, so you can take your time to get used to all of this."

Naofumi felt extremely lucky that he was summoned here with his friends. Everyone had been rather supportive, despite his uneasiness swelling in his chest. It certainly made it easier to bear, making him wonder what might have happened if he didn't know the people that were summoned with him.

It might have been for the best if he looked the other way regarding this, being better to look onwards to what he could do for the future. His friends appeared to already be on that road. That being said, he did have a question for them, being more intensive gamers for games with settings similar to this.

"Actually, I wanted to ask something about Status Magic."

"Still haven't gotten used to it?" Ren asked.

"Yes, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk about." Naofumi pulled up his menu, just to make sure that his memory was correct. "I was checking up on my statss and I noticed something weird. It says my attack stat is one, but that couldn't be right, especially compared to all my other stats. Wouldn't that mean I deal basically no damage and there is something called weapon upgrade.

The room went silent, leaving Naofumi sweating a bit. Itsuki glanced away, Motoyasu started whistling while Ren closed his eyes, grunting something underneath his breath. Based on those reactions, Naofumi started to wonder if he really wanted an answer or not.

"You explain it, Motoyasu," Ren suddenly said.

"W-what!? No way! Why do I have to say it!?"

"Not it." "Not it."

Both Ren and Itsuki were quick on their draw, leaving Motoyasu in the dust.

"N-not—Oh, come on! That's not fair!"

Feeling defeated by the pair, Motoyasu groaned and pointed over to Naofumi's shield.

"Ugh, look, Naofumi. My man, my guy, my dude." His voice was as solemn as it could be. "I don't want to be the harbinger of bad news here, but it's exactly what you're thinking. You can't deal any damage with how your stats have been allocated. And if you can't deal damage, you won't be able to get a good amount of experience points to level up like we can. It's a pretty crap position to be in and the weapon upgrade is the method in which your weapon can be upgraded with."

"Oh, right. We briefly talked about it when I was reading through the list of the heroes..."

"T-that doesn't mean you're entirely useless!" Motoyasu held up his hands, trying to contain Naofumi's depressive thoughts. "I-I mean, you should have been given a surplus of defense in comparison to your other stats to alleviate the difference! The shield isn't a weapon, but it makes you into a good tank! Silver lining, right? You just need good party members!"

Naofumi sighed out of relief but he and the others don't hear what Motoyasu said after that. "Oh, at least the king is going to be providing us with them. I wouldn't know what to do if we had to start off as we were summoned and all."

"Do you really think that would happen?" Ren had muttered so lowly underneath his breath. Itsuki glanced over though, hearing its remnants, but he didn't need to ask. They were already sharing the same thoughts, but the optimistic Naofumi was still hopeful.

"I mean, I still got the short end of the stick…"

"It's not all terrible for you," Ren said. "The tutorial menus do say that we're stuck with our class and thus, our weapons—"

"That sounds bad to me though!?"

"—but it looks like we can enhance and upgrade their capabilities as well," Ren continued, coughing to emphasize that he wasn't finished.

"The strengthening methods! Of course!" Motoyasu smiled happily. "You can just use those to give yourself the edge that you need! Obviously, those mechanics should exist!"

"I guess it wouldn't be much of a weapon system if there wasn't," Itsuki chuckled.

"You guys already know about it?"

"Yep! It's all about smelting, spirit enhancing and status enhancing. They're the same from Emerald Online, so things are going to be mighty easy for me!"

"It's just the usual innate rarity, ore equipment, and item enhancements. They're the staple weapon strengthening techniques from Dimension Wave."

"Huh?" "Huh?"

Motoyasu and Itsuki looked at each other in confusion, leaving an awkward silence in the contrasting methods. It wasn't as if any of them would intentionally lie to him, after all.

Was it possible that both of them were correct?

"Wait, what are you talking about, Itsuki?"

"I'm more confused on how you managed to misread it. It's obviously the strengthening methods from Dimension Wave."

"Hey, I have the strengthening method menus right in front of me and I don't see anything like that! It's not like I doubt you or anything, but I would have expected that our methods would have been the same here. It was universal throughout all weapon types in Emerald Online."

"Maybe every weapon has its own unique method? Hey, Ren? Do you get anything different?"

Ren nodded. "Yeah. Instead of anything you guys mentioned, my methods are rarity strengthening, mastery levels and prestige energy transferring."

"Wait, but that's from BSO."

"Exactly. That probably confirms that all the weapons are running on their own system. It's probably meaningless to tell Naofumi any of this, mainly because he should have his own system to use."

"Did you find anything like that, Naofumi?" Motoyasu asked.

"Yeah, the two strengthening methods are showing up for me. I have the skill tree system from the Borderlands series

Everyone glanced at each other before staring back at Naofumi.

"... Hello? Is there something wrong?"

"Well, there goes that theory," Itsuki groaned. "So, uh, how do you have both of our methods?"

"You guys told me and I… looked for it in my menus?" Naofumi raised his eyebrows. Did he do something wrong? Was he not supposed to find them? "I just took what you guys said to heart and, well, looked for both of them."

"So you just believed that the methods worked?" Ren rubbed his chin before accessing his menu. Not before long, his low mutterings was interrupted by a surprised gasp. "What do you know? Looks like Naofumi was onto something. Believing in the methods appears to have given me access to enhancements from Emerald Online and Dimension Wave."

Hearing Ren's discovery, both Motoyasu and Itsuki accessed their menus as well and quickly found the same thing. Even the methods from Brave Star Online had been present for them, merely with the belief that Ren had been telling the truth as well. Naofumi later got Ren's methods and had that inserted itself in his menu.

"Isn't it weird?" Itsuki asked, once everyone settled down. "This is such a roundabout method."

"Better like this than nothing," Ren shrugged. "Maybe we should take the time to figure out if there are other things that we've missed here."

"That's probably a good idea," Naofumi nodded. "That could be a nice way to pass the time as well. Though, it might feel like we're just studying together."

"You ruined it," Itsuki grumbled. "Why did you have to say that?"

"I wouldn't mind it much!" Motoyasu chuckled. "We can even go over some of the basics with Naofumi when it comes to a game setting like this!"

"Oh, that would be nice. Thanks, you guys."

Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki all discussed different parts that everyone, as heroes, would need to keep in mind, so it wasn't simply a lesson for Naofumi to pay attention to. It ranged from the potential geography that they should be aware of, collapsing to where the place hunting places might be. There was conveniently a map of Melromarc laid out along the wall like a painting and seeing some familiar areas, Naofumi kept in mind all of the good places to check up on.

There were the mountains off the right of the capital Ren knew about that had monsters with materials drops as rare as they were strong. There were a few dungeons that Motoyasu pointed out that were promised to have valuable loot. There were even some towns where Itsuki had knowledge that they sold good equipment for them to buy.

There was frankly a lot that Naofumi had to remember, but seeing how they were overloading their friend, the three decided to simply slow down a bit and try and route out a good objective for him. Unfortunately, the names on the map were unreadable to them, but they were confident enough to give suggestions. Taking into consideration their new strengthening methods, they decided together that Naofumi should try and find a few mining areas. Apparently, good quality ores would be helpful in giving him some power and he should try and focus on getting his hands on some in the early game.

"If you need a reminder, feel free to always ask us," Itsuki announced. "You might have gotten stuck with a crappy class compared to ours, but if it's you, I'm sure you can figure something out."

"Maybe you'll be returning the favor one day by carrying us through a fight with your bulk!" Motoyasu laughed whole-heartedly. "You know what they say. A steady stone makes for a firm foundation."

"I literally have never heard anyone say that," Ren deadpanned.

"I said it. Just now."

"That's not what I meant…"

With how casually everyone was acting, Naofumi knew that they would probably be alright by themselves. Being separated by the weapon's rules was a bit hard to swallow, but as long as they could meet back up like this every so often, he wasn't going to mind it all that much.

A fantasy adventure like this one might not be so bad.

"What's with that smile on your face, Naofumi?"

"O-oh? Was I smiling?"

Motoyasu nodded. "Yeah, it was hard not to see it. Thought of a good joke or something?"

"If anything, it's a bit contagious," Itsuki said, replicating a similar smile. "Though, I'm sure Naofumi is as excited as the rest of us in becoming heroes for these people."

"I'm just happy to be here with you guys, that's all."

"Ah, the feeling is mutual!" Motoyasu chuckled. "Don't you think so too, Ren?"

"Hmph. I guess this is one of the better outcomes to have here."

And yet, though all this enjoyment of anticipation, that bad feeling in his gut never left him. As his friends gathered before him, maybe it was foolish to think like that. After all, if anything bad happened, he was certain that they would pick him back up to his feet when he asked.

Was he wrong in thinking that? Why did he falter at that thought?

That had to be his imagination again, right