You know when Archer complained about boredom after being stuck in a stone alter for three days? He took it all back.
It had been over three weeks since he had 'accidentally' landed it when appeared to be mana draining soil. Three weeks of not even having thumbs to twiddle. He hadn't even had to wait this long for his execution.
Seriously, there was a dirt road just thirty feet away from him, why the hell had no one shown up let? Archer wouldn't complain if another goblin came around to pull him out. He might even spare that one out of gratitude.
Even worse, while as a Servant one didn't need to sleep, as a sword it was literal impossible to. Archer was so bored that he opted to try to count the swords in his Unlimited Blade Works and spent a massive amount of time pondering the truths of this World.
He had in those few days of freedom gathered quite a few different forms of magecraft. Fire Magic, Wind Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Recovery Magic, Oath Magic, Contract Magic, Summon Familiar, Purification Magic. More than fifty individual spells in all. However, rather than knowing the mechanics behind the spells, all Archer knew was the words that needed to be chanted in order to activate them, and how to shape the mana. He didn't understand how they worked or even what some of them even did, and he was fairly certain that the monsters he took them from hadn't really known any better than he had. The world itself was providing them with the ability, even without them having any understanding to act as a base.
It was obnoxious, because it meant that he couldn't modify or create his own spells. But then again, how many years of research would it usually take to learn so many spells? Some of them were the kind that a Caster might have in their personal arsenal for quick use. The magus of his old world would probably accuse him of getting everything handed to him on a silver platter. He had gone from being compatible with just his own unique magecraft to being able to use all the basic elements and then some.
It was just like when he was starting out, copying weapons of legendary figures and stealing their fighting styles. He had knowledge of all their work, but his own skills and muscles lagged behind, making it far less effective. Only in this world it was even weirder, as every goblin with lv1 [Sword Art] had the exact same fighting style.
Archer could imagine thousands of ways to take advantage of the holes in the [Sword Art] style, up to the 7th level using nothing but basic kendo skills common to the average high school club. If understood, no one who depends on the [Skill] would be an actual threat. Not without such overwhelming physical parameters as to make fighting them impossible. The giving of the knowledge was presented as a sort of blessing, but in reality, it was creating a ceiling. One could only get as far as [Sword Art] would take them, because depending on it to grow would rob them of the kind of outlook required to grow even further.
Archer wondered if the humans of this world realized that, if there were any humans. He actually hadn't seen a single human since he had arrived, but the Goblin King had said something about human settlements. For all he knew, what he took for a dirt road was really just a trail made by a passive monster, and no one ever really came this way.
...God he was bored.
[Hey, Goddess of Chaos. You brought me here to entertain you, didn't you? Well, are you entertained by seeing me just sitting here in the ground?] Archer throw out into the void, hoping to get some kind of response.
Perhaps his attempt to provoke fate worked, because he started to hear something coming.
It was faint at first, but it quickly grew louder. The sounds of a wagon coming his way.
[Thank you, Goddess.]
He was in luck, the wagon was taking the bend far too quickly. When it tried to take the turn, it would hit that lump in the road and get overturned right in front of him.
And so it was, just as Archer predicted. The wagon was overturned, pouring out both items and people, including a seriously obess middle aged man who was dressed like a merchant, a thin and short driver… and over a dozen men and women wearing metal collars around their necks.
Archer was momentarily dumbfounded at the sight of all of those slaves, dressed in what could generously be called rags. Even in the position that he was in, he had no trouble identifying the magic on the slave collars, which would force the people to do whatever they were told.
Even though they were injured from the fall, they got up when the fat man ordered them to and quickly got to work trying to pick up the various objects that had been dumped out. Those whose injuries were too great to allow them to obey gave out cries of pain as they were punished for their disobedience.
But as the two free men tried to motivate the slaves to work faster, the reason for their haste became known. A massive two-headed bear came from the trees and started to charge towards the group.
With proper motivation, the slaves managed to get the wagon back up on its wheels and the items back inside of it. But the bear was faster than the horse drawn wagon.
"Slaves, hold it back!" The merchant shouted at the slave, who all froze in shock, before their collars forced them to obey.
The weaponless and defenseless slaves stood there ground… waiting to be eaten so that their master could escape. Despite the Bear only having a threat level of F class, the slaves were helpless before it, and Archer could do nothing but watch as they were ripped apart one by one. Each of them crying and cursing their fate.
He wanted to call out to them. He wanted to help them. But without mana, he could do nothing but sit there and watch. And as he watched, he made a silent oath never to try to taunt a God into action again.
But as many of the slaves stood there to face their deaths, one of them acted differently.
A young girl, no more than twelve years old, with black hair and eyes, as well as a cat's ears and tail. She was dirty and dangerously thin. She had scraps over much of her body, likely from being beaten. She looked as though she was already half dead, and her face was slack, as if lacking emotion.
But there was a will in her eyes. A will to survive.
She had noticed Archer and had moved towards him, unimpeded by the slave collar, as her orders were to 'hold back' the bear, not necessarily to allow herself to be eaten.
She grabbed onto Archer's hilt and pulled… but the sword didn't so much as budge. She tried again and again as the cries of the rest of the slaves were silenced, one after another, until only this girl remained.
Then, the bear's eyes fell on her. It's twin-heads snarling as blood dripped from its mouths, though the monster seemed to be in no hurry.
Time was running out, and the child's desperate tugs started to get weaker and weaker.
[Don't give up! There is still time!] Archer shouted at the girl, managing to project his limited telepathy the few inches between them.
"...A voice?" The child said, her tone flat as she looked around for the source.
[Pull me out of the ground! Hurry!]
"A talking sword? Surprising." She said, though she didn't sound surprised at all.
[Be surprised later! If you want to live, pull now!] Archer urged the child. [Pull me out, and I promise that I will save you!]
The girl nodded and dug in her heels, putting all her weight behind getting Archer's blade to budge, and after a long, hard push, it slowly did.
Archer's blade slide free from the ground. The girl pulled him to the side, though her arms were too weak to properly lift him, and free as Archer was from the dirt, he was still without any mana.
Name: Nameless
Age: 12
Race: Black Catkin
Job: None
Status: Enslaved, Malnutrition
Level: 4/45
HP: 29, MP: 17, STR: 13, END: 10, AGI: 16, INT: 8, MGC: 7, DEX: 15
Skills: Sword Arts: Lv1, Night Vision, Directional Sense, Hunger Resistance: Lv3, Cold Resistance: Lv2, Exhaustion Resistance: Lv2
Titles: None
Equipment: Old Rags
Level 4 and [Sword Arts] level 1. It wasn't much, but the girl still some kind of fighter.
[Listen carefully. I need you to equip me.] Archer told the girl.
"I do have you equipped." She replied.
[Not good enough. Imagine it going deeper.]
The girl nodded and focused herself.
(Registered wielder: Nameless)
All of the Skills that Archer had been hoarding transferred to the girl, giving her more combat knowledge and strength.
(Nameless has received Multiple Titles)
Name: Nameless
Age: 12
Race: Black Catkin
Job: None
Status: Enslaved, Malnutrition
Level: 4/45
HP: 49, MP: 37, STR: 39, END: 30, AGI: 36, INT: 28, MGC: 27, DEX: 35
Shared Skills: Sword Arts: Lv7, Fire Magic: LvMax, Flame Magic: Lv1, Cooking: LvMax, Dismantling: LvMax, Digging: LvMax, ...
Titles: Fire Mage, Lord of Cooking, Lord of Dismantling, Lord of Digging, Skill Collector, Incarnation of the Sword, Favoured of the Goddess of Chaos
Equipment: Nameless, Old Rags
Equipping Archer had given the girl +20 to all her stats due to a [Wielder ALL ↑ Low] Skill, with an extra boost to her STR from a [STR ↑ Low] he had picked up somewhere, which over doubled her stats.
She also gained sixty Skills of varying levels of usefulness through Archer's [Skill Sharing] ability. She seemed to have gained titles for Archer's maxed out skills, that increased the effectiveness of the related Skills, and Skill Collector increased the ease by which one could gain new Skills and level up existing ones.
As for 'Incarnation of the Sword', it increased the rate by which one could level up any weapon based Skill, and 'Favoured of the Goddess of Chaos' granted a dramatic increase in luck while raises the chance of randomly getting into trouble with both monsters and people… What?
Something to worry about later.
With her strength increased and her [Sword Arts] boosted, the girl managed to pick up Archer and stand in what was a pretty decent stance… only her body was still too weak from fatigue.
As the bear attacked her, she less than gracefully moved out of the way, as that was about the most she could do.
Archer needed to do something to restore her stamina, but he didn't have any mana.
...He could drain her mana to do it.
No, that would be counterproductive. Any stamina he managed to restore would have came at the price of her own energy, leaving them back where they started.
But there was no mana in the air, and they couldn't get close enough to the bear to steal its mana without risking injury.
Then it hit him.
[Girl, raise me to your slave collar!] Archer instructed her.
"Nn." She said with a nod, lifting Archer's body up to the metal collar.
As soon as he came into contact with it, he immediately used [Mana Drain] to suck all of the mana that was being used to fuel the contract out of the girl's collar. Once it was all gone, the collar crumbled away into nothing.
Normally, breaking the collar would have killed the slave, however, as Archer had drained away all the power the contract had, it had no means by which to execute her.
(Nameless's 'Enslaved' status has been lifted.)
"I'm… free?" The girl said, still somehow managing to sound monotone about it as she continued to move away from the bear's attacks.
Archer wasn't listening though. He was too busy trying to make things work.
He only had 11 MP to work with, so he had to make it count.
He quickly spent 6 Evolution Points to level up his Recovery Magic Skill to level 5, gaining some spells that were handy for the situation, and could be cast for cheap; 'Lesser Heal' and 'Stamina Heal'.
The scraps and bruises one the child's body disappeared and her physical strength returned to its normal levels.
With her body recovered, her movements became much more elegant and her eyes became sharper. As the bear charged her, its two heads snapping wildly, she spotted an opening and made her move.
The Demonic Beast gave out a gasp as its heart was pieces in a single fluid strike. Archer's blade sinking into the mana crystal contained within and consuming it in an instant. The Twin-Headed Bear collapsed to the ground, dead.
"...Eh?" The girl said dumbly as she stared at the creature.
[Congratulations, you killed it.] Archer said to the girl.
"Nn... Is that thanks to you?" The girl asked, holding up Archer in order to look more closely at him.
[In a way, but I am just a sword. It was you who wielded me. You did very well.]
"Thank you." After saying so, the girl prepared to put me back into the ground, so Archer stopper her in a hurry.
[Wait! Don't put me back into the ground!] Archer managed to say before she finished the action. [The ground here has been draining me of my mana. Because of it, I can't do anything. So, would you mind taking me with you instead?]
"Nn..." The girl said with a nod of her head. She was still expressionless, but Archer had the impression that she was happy about it. Though soon enough, her eyes did go to the other slaves, the ones lying dead in the road.
It felt wrong to just leave them there...
[...I suppose I could stand having my blade put in the soil a little longer.] Archer said with a sigh, it wasn't like he had any mana at the moment anyways. So he told the girl to go ahead and use him like a shovel.
Between the max leveled digging Skill that he got from killing so many Goblins, and the Lord of Digging title, it didn't take long for them to dig graves for the fallen slaves.
Then, they were rewarded for their good deed. The Slave Traders had came back to see if they could salvage any more of their lost cargo.
The child seemed excited to see them return. Apparently, she had been trying to kill them for a long time, but the slave collar had always stopped her.
Well, there was no slave collar now.
She slashed off their heads and left their bodies to the beasts. Taking the horse, wagon and whatever materials they had with them, the girl and Archer rode off into the sunset, leaving that cursed forest behind them.