My Body is the Shield Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 47)
I reached out and pressed the icon of the helmet, causing a smaller window to pop up.
[Light Masked Helm of the Shield Hero]
A basic helmet modified to conceal the identity of its wearer, using both a mask and imbued powers. No matter how much you act like yourself, no one will ever connect your civilian guise to your masked one unless they see you equipping the armour and helm.
Defence Bonus: +5
Durability: 30/30
Equip Bonuses: Identity Concealment
"Whoa…this kicks ass." I muttered. Checking the other pieces of armour, they weren't as special as the helmet, just adding bonuses to Defence by being worn. Then I checked the mantle, which I remembered to be an old-fashioned name for a cloak.
[Red Mantle of the Shield Hero]
A red cloak emblazoned with the symbol for the Shield Hero. It is empowered to add to your Defence of someone attempts to attack you from behind. Otherwise, it is a fairly ordinary, but impressive, cloak.
Durability: 30/30
Equip Bonus: [Rearguard Protection]: Casts a shield behind you if attacked from behind. Rearguard Shield Durability: 50. Duration: Until destroyed or user cancels it. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
"Again, whoa." That was a very useful skill, especially in a place like Brockton Bay. I was musing about what to do next when another window popped up.
Would you like you go through the Tutorial for absorbing items into your shield?
Yes | No
"As if you have to ask?" I said and hit 'Yes' with one finger.
Very Well.
Once you close this window, all items that glow in the room around you are absorbable. Please choose one and wait for further instructions.
Closing the window, I blinked as quite a few things in the living room lit up; things you wouldn't really think of as being suitable for a shield too. Needles and thread from where Dad had been darning his socks, the tool chest and its contents, the cutlery left over from my lunch, the plates…the list went on.
Deciding to start off easy, I went over to the spare needles and grabbed one. After hesitating for a moment, I also grabbed some black thread. The two usually went together, so maybe it would count as the same item? It was worth an experiment.
Good. Now, place the item atop the orb of your shield. The Holy Shield shall do the rest of the work for you.
Shrugging, I did so. In a flash, the needle and thread vanished and a new window popped up.
New Shields have been unlocked!
[Needle Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 15
Defence: 19
Equip Active Skill: [Needle Spray]: The shield fires a barrage of 20-25 needles that strike the foe for 2-3 Damage per needle.
Equip Passive Skill: [Defence Damage]: Any attacker who strikes you receives 2 Damage per strike. Adds +2 to any strike you make with any skills such as [Shield Bash].
Passive Skill: [AGI Up (Small)], [Needle Proficiency 1]
[Black Thread Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 2
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: [Black Thread Binding]: The shield fires up to 10 strings of thread that wrap and bind the enemy for 10-secs per thread. Can also be used to produce thread for selling or usage.
Passive Skill: [AGI Up (Small)], [Wire Proficiency 1].
[Sewing Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack:15
Defence: 21
Equip Active Skill: [Automatic Sewing]: Produces needles and thread that move according to your will and has sewing skills equal to your equipped [Sewing Proficiency]. Non-combat skill.
Passive Skills: [AGI Up (Small)], [Sewing Proficiency 1]
Three shields for the price of one…not bad. Actually, something that made me wonder was what my current shield's status looked like.
Congratulations on unlocking your first shield! Close this window to go to the shield screen.
Doing so, a new screen popped up with pictures of four shields on it. One was a picture of the shield I had equipped currently, while the other three were new to me. One seemed to be a square made up of countless little needles joined together; one was made out of black thread and was more a ball than a shield and the last was triangular, with the symbol of a threaded needle on it.
Pressing the picture of my current shield, I opened a smaller window that detailed its stats.
[Holy Shield (Small)] (Mastered)
The initially unlocked shield granted to the Shield Hero. It is the symbol of the Shield Hero and is instantly recognised as being their trademark. While it offers no special offensive of powerful supplementary skills, it holds a relatively high Defence and is useful for when you are hunting weak enemies.
Attack: 17
Defence: 40
Equip Active Skill: None
Passive Skills: [Auto-Defend], [Defence Up (Small)]
Hmm…so the [Lesser Pain Resistance] was from what then? An ability I already had? Or was it from one of my clothes?
Using this screen, you can review the specifics of the skills and abilities that your shields give you. Check out your new shields!
I decided to do so.
[Needle Spray] (MLV 1/10) {Locked}
Fire a barrage of 20-25 needles at the enemy from either the surface of the shield or from any of the edges.
MP per Use: 10
Range: 1 Metre.
Damage per Needle: 2-3.
[Black Thread Binding] (MLV1/10) {Locked}
Launch up to ten threads to bind your enemies. May be launched from any part of the shield.
MP per Use: 10
Range: 2 Metres.
Binding Duration: 10 secs per thread.
These were…less than thrilling skills. Very underwhelming, actually. Still, I had an entire house's worth of objects to absorb once I got the tutorial done. I shifted my attention to the new window that popped up.
As you can see, all of the shields you currently possess have the '(Small)' indicator on them. There are several sizes of shields. These are, in order of smallest to biggest: Small, Medium, Large and Tower.
Small shields are usually the size of bucklers and are often round, square or trigonal. Their size gives them relatively low Defence values, but they can possess useful abilities both passive and active. Usually, they are also limited to one skill each of Equip Active Skill, Equip Passive Skill and Passive Skill, although there are exceptions.
Medium Shields are the type you see that Vikings or Medieval soldiers use and come in the greatest variety of shapes, from circular, trigonal and square to kite, rectangular and other, stranger shapes. The weaker Medium shields can be little different from the Small shields, but usually have at least two abilities in one of the stats.
Large shields are usually the size of the Roman Legionnaire's Scutum or the Greek Hoplite's Hoplon/Aspis and offers the best protection-to-weight ratio out of all shield sizes. Usually, they are restricted to being either rectangular or round, but a few are of unique shapes. Shields of this size usually only have one category that has one skill in it and that is from the weaker shields.
Tower Shields are, as the name suggests, very large shields and are often bigger than you are. The first demerit of using this shield type is that you will be inflicted with a movement penalty while it is equipped unless your strength stat is above a certain level that varies from shield to shield. The second demerit is that you cannot use physical offensive shield skills while equipped with a tower shield. While those are large demerits, the offsetting positive gains are that Tower Shields possess the highest Defence out of all the shields and they also have the largest number of Active and Passive skills.
I blinked as I read through the blurb. It was very informative and, despite my grades, fuck you very much Emma, I was not stupid. I could think of several facts and conclusions that could be drawn from that information, but it was better to see if the information the screen gave me matched up with my own conclusions first before jumping the gun.
When it comes to shields, the size of the object being absorbed can determine the size of the shield. In general, objects that fit into the palm of your and are always going to be Small shields. There are special exceptions, but we will go into that later.
All shields start as Small Shields, but some grow to Medium, Large and even Tower shields once a condition is satisfied. That condition is that their Active Equip and Passive Equip Skills have to be Mastered. In other words, their Mastery Level has to be Maxed Out. Additionally, once you get the first shield of each new level (Medium, Large and Tower), you get an equivalent Holy Shield of that size free, although unlike the [Holy Shield (Small)], you will have to Master their abilities yourself.
Now, close this screen to continue.
Doing so I examined the shield on my arm curiously. Getting one of these every time I attained a new level in shield size was pretty cool. Problem was that I didn't know what shields grew to what size. The three that I had just acquired were definitely going to stay at the (Small) level though. That was almost a guarantee.
In addition to metal and wood, organic tissue can be absorbed into the shield. It cannot be alive though, or ordinary human flesh. Go into the kitchen and absorb some meat!
This once again made me blink. Absorbing organic matter? Wasn't that obvious from the cotton thread? Whatever.
Heading into the kitchen, I opened the fridge and scanned the contents. We were low on food again…let's see…ah. We had three chicken breasts close to their sell-by date and one would just go to waste as neither Dad nor I were big eaters, so it made sense to use that.
Grabbing the biggest one, I placed it on my shield and watched it vanish.
Congratulations! A new Shield has been unlocked!
[Battery Chicken Meat Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 4
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: None
Equip Passive Skill: [Food Quality Discernment]: You are able to gauge the quality of food items at a glance.
Passive Skill: [Social Discernment 1], [AGI Up (Small)]
I scowled as I read that title. That was supposed to be a free-range chicken breast! Making a note not to shop at that minimart again, I eyed the skills. The [Food Quality Discernment] would be very useful to get the best food for the lower price once I unlocked it, and the [Social Discernment] part would be useful at school as well. Other than that, it wasn't exactly a good shield.
Two items left to do. First, go out into the back garden and look for a leaf and a dead animal to absorb.
Wait, what?!
I shrunk the shield down so people wouldn't think it was anything but a bracelet or something and headed out into the back once I calmed down. Right. So it absorbed organic matter, but absorbing an entire dead animal is just too surprising. Though I guess it shouldn't be, what with what happened with the needle and thread.
Finding a leaf was easy. I just plucked it off a tree that had been planted there since before I was born and put it on the shield. Even shrunk down to the size of a dollar coin, it sucked up the larger leaf without any problems.
[Leaf Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 3
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: [Leaf Storm]: Creates a flurry of leaves that briefly obscures your position outside of a certain distance. Temporarily disorients enemies within the storm.
Passive Skill: [Plant Collection 1]
An actual useful skill, although the shield had all the defence of cardboard.
I looked around for a dead animal, but came up with noting until I turned back to head inside. There was a dead bird on the left side of the steps leading up to the back door. It hadn't been there yesterday, so the poor thing must have died just today.
"I'm sorry." I whispered to it, not caring if I sounded weird to anyone listening, "I'm sorry that you're dead and I promise that your body will be used for the right cause."
Fetching several pieces of kitchen paper, I picked up the bird and grew my shield to the size of a saucer before placing the corpse onto it. No offense, but I really didn't want to touch a dead bird any more than was absolutely necessary.
[House Sparrow Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 15
Defence: 15
Equip Active Skill: [Sparrow Flight Speed Boost]: Boosts AGI by 30 for twenty seconds. Cooldown: 60secs.
Passive: [AGI Up (Medium)], [Magnetic Field Perception 1], [Disease Resistance 1]
[House Sparrow Meat Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 7
Defence: 12
Equip Active Skill: None
Equip Passive Skill: [AGI Up (Small)]
Passive Skills: [AGI Up (Small)]
[House Sparrow Bone Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 10
Defence: 14
Equip Active Skill: None
Equip Passive Skill: [Weight Down (Small)]
Passive Skills: [AGI Up (Small)]
[House Sparrow Feather Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 1
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: [Flying Feather Shield]: Creates a formation of feathers in front of the user that can absorb attacks for a short while before dispersing.
Passive Skill: [Feather Cleansing 1]
Whoa…all these shields from one little bird? I had to wonder about that as I threw the kitchen paper into the bin and washed my hands; sparrows were chock full of parasites and diseases. At least I'd have a harder time getting colds once I eventually equipped [Disease Resistance 1].
As you can see, absorbing an entire animal is much more efficient than gathering the pieces separately. Sometimes, you may not have the option, but it is advised to take advantage of it whenever possible.
For the last part regarding the absorption tutorial, please enter your house and place some medicine on the shield, as well as some form of cleaning product.
Huh? This whole shield thing was getting more and more bizarre.
Heading back inside, grabbed some aspirin from the medicine cabinet, as well as some shoe polish that Dad used on his good shoes when he went to beg the Mayor to stop being such a stubborn dickhead and throw the Dockworker's Union a bone.
The results were surprising.
[Acetylsalicylic Acid Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 4
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: None
Equip Passive Effect: [Party Pain Resistance Up (Small)]
Passive Skills: [Pain Resistance Up (Small)], [Inflammation Resistance 1 (Small)], [Medicine Appraisal 1]
[Shoe Polish Shield (Small)] (Locked)
Attack: 5
Defence: 10
Equip Active Skill: None
Equip Passive Skills: [Leather Waterproofing], [Poison Attack (Small)]
Equip Demerits: [Flammability Up (Small)]
Passive Skills: [Poison Resistance 1], [Leather Preservation]
While, once again, neither of the shields I had gotten were what you might call strong, they did have some very useful effects, especially the Aspirin Shield (I couldn't even pronounce the full name of the drug, so I just called it its common name). The other shield was the first that I'd seen to have a definite downside to equipping it.
You have seen now that almost everything can be absorbed by the Holy Shield. As stated before, no living animals can be absorbed and no human parts can be absorbed either. In terms of nonorganic matter or manmade products, you cannot absorb something larger than, say, an office desk.
The limitations on human remains or cuttings doesn't apply to pieces taken from a Parahuman's Changer or Breaker state, although it has to be either a solid or a liquid; the Holy Shield cannot absorb gaseous material.
Now, close this window to go to the Combat Screen.
Ah, now this would be interesting.
Attack: 22 (STR + AGI)
Defence: 47 (Holy Shield Defence + Defence Up (Small) + Armour Bonuses)
HP: 90 (END x STR)
MP: 300 (WIS x INT)
Available AP: 0
Available SP: 0
The information on the page was very interesting for me to read. On one side, my high INT and WIS gave me a pretty large pool of SP, while on the downside my low STR and END gave me a piss-poor amount of HP, less than a third of my SP!
Your Attack is determined by combining your STR and AGI, while your Defence is determined mainly by what your currently equipped shield is, adding in passive bonuses and armour defence as well.
Your HP is determined by multiplying your END and STR together. You might want to improve this somewhat.
Your MP is determined by multiplying your WIS and INT together. This is pretty good for a beginner. Keep it up!
Every time you level up, you gain 5 AP and 5+ SP. AP (Attribute Points) is used to increase your physical and mental abilities, while SP (Skill Points) is used to increase your mastery of your various skills. The amount of SP that you receive will always be at least five, plus you receive +1 SP for every Shield you acquire and +5SP for every Shield whose abilities you unlock before levelling up. This is far harder than you might imagine.
Close this screen to go to the unlock time comparison screen.
Doing, so, I saw representations of every shield that I had unlocked, along with a name and an estimated time to unlock next to them. The [House Sparrow Shield], just for an example, would take six hours to unlock, which was the longest out of all my shields. The [Black Thread Shield] would take only half an hour by comparison, with most of the other shields taking more or less the same amount of time. A couple were up at the three hour mark too.
Choose the shield that has the shortest unlock time and concentrate on it. Think its name strongly enough and it will replace the Holy Shield.
OK. I looked through the list and found the one that fit the criteria, which was the [Needle Shield] at 25 minutes. Concentrating on its name, I saw the [Holy Shield] become the [Needle Shield] in a small flash of light. A countdown appeared in the corner of my vision.
24:59
Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial!
You are awarded 50 EXP!
You have earned 50 EXP!
Congratulations! You have levelled up! LV1-2!
You gain 5 AP!
You gain 16 SP!
As I read the notice, a small smile crossed my face. It was time to start training. Heroes didn't become stronger overnight, after all.
If anyone's curious, the Passive Skills are set up in a similar way to the Magic Stones system from FFIX, and both Active and Passive Skills can also be learned in a similar way to FFIX as well; master by using. Sufficient use of the skill can gain it a Mastery Skill Point without Taylor needing to add one to it. She won't find that out until later though. Review if you please. A simple 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' will be more than enough.