Chapter One - New Tactics

/ Start Note \

Not much to say here. Just want to remind you all to review and let me know what you like/dislike. Hopefully this chapter will start the wheels rolling on everything a little more.

/ \

As per usual, Kooper woke up around the same time that dawn broke the horizon between the trees. For a split second, he thought he was back in his bed at home, and he kept his eyes closed, wondering why his alarm hadn't gone off like usual.

right. I'm not home.

He flitted his eyes open, staring at the forest roof, between the leaves into the morning sky, a blood red and dawn white. He lay there for long over a minute. His body still ached, more so after spending the night sleeping over tree roots and hard earth, but he ignored it by the time he had sat up again. He slipped his uniform back on, making sure it was still relatively clean, and he immediately stamped out the burning embers of his fire into nothing before gathering his kit and making his way back from where he came, east, towards the capital city again. He decided to take his time, moving at a slow walking pace and taking in the beautiful countryside and the early birdsong. While he navigated the outer fields along the outskirts of the city limits, however, his eyes caught movement to one side, in the tall, healthy grass. He stopped in his tracks to make sure he wasn't just seeing things, and he confirmed that there was in fact something moving, no, slithering through the blades, moving in his direction quickly. He positioned his body and his shield in a defensive stance. Another flight of grass was pushed apart as something else also began coming towards him, then another, and another, totaling four.

What in the…

Out of nowhere, from the grass, an orange balloon-like creature bobbed up to hit him square in the chest. Caleb batted it away with surprising ease, and it bounced aside into the fields again. The other three balloon monsters came at him as well. He kicked one aside with his foot, and then the next, but the last one managed to latch onto his forearm, biting into the exposed skin. Nothing happened. If anything, it felt like a slight tickle to him.

Hm… either these things are normally useless, or my high defense is proving useful.

He plucked the balloon monster from his arm and threw it aside, and then continued along his way before the other orange balloons could reconverge on him for another time wasting attack.

Despite how harmless they are, they probably still classify as "monsters." Which means they'll give me… "experience," or whatever.

I'll need to remember that.

By the time morning had come into full swing, he was back inside the city. Since he hadn't eaten in, quite literally, a full day, he decided to spend a silver on a decent breakfast at an inn bordering the city walls. Part of the reason was obviously to sate his appetite, but the other reason was simply to pass time until he had all the equipment he ordered from Erhart. He was hoping to be able to simply wait in peace until then and plan out his next few days, however, while he sat at his table in the corner of the dimly lit inn, the front doors swung open. Slowly, a young woman with brilliant green eyes and bright red hair tied back in a messy ponytail came inside, and for some reason, she made a straight beeline for Caleb.

Great… maybe she's a messenger from the castle. I'll follow any order the king gives me if needed, but I thought I made it clear that I'd prefer to do this alone-...

He narrowed his eyes at the girl as she made her way over to him. Her hair… I remember that hair. That figure…

She's the person who was watching me and the other Heroes through the castle window yesterday.

Although there was nothing inherently suspicious about the connection, it still felt genuinely off to Caleb, and he immediately sat rigid in his seat, steeling himself for whatever might happen.

The redhead stopped directly in front of him, just across the table. She didn't sit down, but instead she smiled impressively and leaned over the table; it was obvious even to Caleb, who had little interest in women, that she was immediately trying to flaunt her body to him.

I'm getting severe red flags from her. I think I'll call her a bitch in my head for now…

"Hello, sir Shield Hero!"

Her voice was sweet, warm, and welcoming. Too sweet. To him, it almost seemed scripted, from the way she had approached him so smoothly, to the way she was presenting herself to him. "Would you kindly accept me as one of your party members? I've been looking everywhere for you since this morning! I heard that you left the castle last night already~!"

She made some sort of half smile, half pout that Caleb assumed was supposed to have some sort of effect on him, however instead he just narrowed his eyes at her, and promptly stood up in his seat.

"Fuck off." he said in the most bland and flat way possible. The redhead stared at him, completely taken aback, and then she snarled at him. "You could at least try to be polite!" she exclaimed. She was obviously furious, and if Caleb had to guess, she was always that way on the inside, and his blunt response had just caused her to drop whatever mask she was wearing.

"I'm not here to make friends, or party members." he explained to her in a more professional and calm tone this time. He took a final sip from his mug of ale, then set it down, and started making his way out the door. The redheaded girl tried following him, so he turned to face her and pushed her back with the flat side of his shield.

"I said, fuck. Off." he snarled. With that, the girl finally gave up, huffing loudly and stalking away from him, past him and out the front door from where she came.

Finally…

I don't like being so blunt. But I could tell there was something off about her. I really hate it when people don't act like themselves. Besides, it's just as I said to her. I'm not here to pick up chicks and damsels. My mission is to stop the Waves and get the fuck out of here.

With that train of thought, he made his way back out into the city, and he wasted away the last hour or so until the deadline for his equipment in the afternoon came. When it was time, he returned to Erhart's shop and collected everything from the blacksmith.

The blacksmith had delivered on the order even better than Caleb had expected him to, given that it was medieval times. Each metal cylinder, the large and the small ones, were made quite well, not quite to the level of modern day machining and milling, however each cylinder would still serve its purpose completely fine. The copper wire was thin as requested, as well as the copper sticks, and Erhart had even made sure both sides of the cylindrical strainer he'd ordered was polished.

The cylindrical tubes, as he assumed they would be, were made of aluminum, and the caps simply screwed on through simple divots which held them on securely, but also made them quick and easy to take on and off.

This is perfect. Caleb thought to himself as he put everything away in his bag. Finally, on his list of items, Erhart presented to him the plate carrier that he had described. It was a little rough in design, but to Caleb's surprise, all it looked like was a World War One or World War Two era plate vest. It was simple in design, but completely practical, and the dark green patterning on it matched his uniform well, almost perfectly.

"This is good shit, Erhart. Thanks." Kooper exclaimed happily.

Erhart let out a hearty laugh behind the counter. "Well, I don't understand what you need all that stuff for, but if the customer's happy, so am I."

Caleb smiled back at the burly blacksmith before slinging the vest over his shoulder. "I'll be back with more orders in the future. Keep your forge hot."

The two men bid their goodbyes, and Caleb began making his way back out the city, retracing his route back to the edge of the forest a couple kilometers away from the city area. There, he set up camp again in the exact same spot, using the same ash-ridden campfire to start a humble fire for himself.

Time to get to work. First step… I need to make myself the proper armor for my profession.

He set his cooking pot over the fire after filling it with a fair amount of water. Once the water began to boil, he took all the natural-grown cotton fiber that he had bought from the market as well as the sand powder he had gotten from the chemist's shop. He stirred all of it in with the water, and then let it sit, watching it all mix together and turn gradually into a yellow-white goo as the water either was absorbed by the fiber or evaporated into steam. Once Caleb had determined it had settled and heated properly, he used two connected sticks to lift the pot up, and over to his metal strainer. He poured the goop of mixed fiber, water, and powder into the strainer. Small strings of water came out the bottom, but the particularly tough goop refused to go through on its own, and that was exactly what Kooper wanted.

After waiting a minute for the mixture to cool down to a reasonable point, Caleb began pushing down on it, forcing it to strain through the holes. The process forced the mixture to turn into thin, tiny threads, much like hardened rope by the time it had all been pushed through and it had time to dry. About an hour passed, and by the end of it, Caleb was left with a large pile of the threads.

Perfect. Blending natural resources, I managed to make Aramid. Or in other words…

Kevlar.

The process would have been much faster and more perfected if it was done with modern machine technology, but given the situation, Caleb knew it was the best he was going to get. He spent the next hour lining and weaving the inside pockets of his freshly made plate carrier with the Kevlar strings, until finally, he had a fully ready Kevlar vest. He slipped it on immediately, making sure it fit him properly and adjusting it where necessary until he felt it gave the perfect blend between protection and comfort for him.

Good… the first step is done, now on to the next task. Before the day ends.

Now I have the protection I need to start work on the… tools that I'll be using to survive.

He removed his next set of items from his bag, namely, the bar of soap he had gotten, and the bottle of Nitric Acid.

This is going to be nerve wracking…

Well, shit, here goes.

He set down a relatively bowl-shaped slate of bark that he pulled from a nearby oak tree, and after wetting the bar of soap with his water canteen, he got to work rubbing it until the foaming bubbles formed from it, making a small pile of soapy liquid on the bark, also known as Glycerol. While he did that, he let the bottle of Nitric Acid sit over the fire with the cap off, letting it boil until it turned into what was known as fuming Nitric Acid. Once that was ready, and he had gathered enough Glycerol, he carefully, gently brought the Nitric Acid over and mixed it with the Glycerol. The process created a relatively large pool of Nitroglycerin inside the wooden bowl.

Nitroglycerin… a high explosive. So touchy that if I literally drop it into my lap now it'll blow me to hell, even with my Kevlar on.

Slowly, with more caution than perhaps anything else in his life, he set the bowl down on the ground in front of him. He left the explosive liquid for a moment to gather several piles of soft, clayish dirt by the small stream just several meters away, returning with several handfuls. He repeated the process until he had a sizable pile of moist dirt beside him. With all the ingredients at hand, he took the larger six-inch aluminum cylinders that he had in his bag and unscrewed all of them, setting them up in a line for him to use. With extreme caution, he began dipping little bits of clay and dirt into the nitroglycerin, letting each chunk soak in the dangerous explosive before stuffing them inside each metal cylinder until every one of them was full. He capped them all off, and stored them up inside a groove in the tree he had his bedroll in in order to keep them secure, and to let them dry.

Step two, done. I just made dynamite. A crude version of it, but it will have to do…

/ NOTE \

Please DO NOT do this at home, or… at all, remotely, please. I'm already probably on a watchlist for doing research on how to make dynamite. This stuff should only be used for constructive purposes and it is usually handed only by PROFESSIONALS who are QUALIFIED to handle this very dangerous material. Kooper is a Combat Engineer who in theory should be able to do this. It does NOT mean you suddenly can because you read this.

Don't kill yourselves. I'm not responsible for any of you.

/ \

The sun was beginning to set, which meant that Caleb only worked faster, rummaging out the glass bottles from his bag, along with the copper sticks, the copper wiring, and the salt from the chemist. He went to refill his water canteen, and then he immediately started filling each small bottle about halfway with water, followed by about a tablespoon of salt in each bottle as well. After mixing the salt water well in each glass, he began work on the copper components. Using his knife, he cripped off the ends of the copper sticks to small bits only a couple inches each until he had two short sticks for each bottle, and he stored the extra copper he had left back in his bag. He punched the sharper edges of each stick through the cork caps of each glass, which kept the bottles sealed but allowed the copper sticks to travel through into the salt water.

And now I have batteries. Once I find a way to charge them, I'll have a way to detonate the dynamite. Although, I'll still need a method of setting them off, since I have no form of remote control yet…

One final step.

He set aside the uncharged makeshift batteries after placing them all inside the small metal cylinders for protection, letting them rest beside, but just apart from the dynamite, just in case one of them happened to retain some kind of small charge and set it all off. He pulled out the last of the items that he'd bought from the chemist shop the day before: the crude oil, which he had given to him in about a dozen medium sized containers, the Phosphorus, and the Palmitic Acid. He began by opening the containers of oil and setting them all out, similar to how he had worked on the other items. He started to make a mixture of about 60% Oil to 33% Acid, with the rest being pure Phosphorus in each container, and he took care not to let any of it touch his bare skin, mixing it all in their respective containers carefully with a stick. By the end of it all, the substances eventually all morphed into gel-like messes inside their containers, and Kooper sealed them all off again.

Final step done for today… Napalm.

This is good. I have dynamite as my primary explosive. Batteries which I can use to detonate the explosives. Kevlar armor in case anything goes wrong, so I have some extra protection… and Napalm, in case things really get ugly and I need to turn my homemade pipe bombs into complete hellfires.

Regardless, I would reckon all of this should be to my advantage when the wave comes. But I need to play it smart still. I only have so much material I can put out at once, and lugging around explosives like a mentally insane sapper is never going to be safe. I need to play my cards right, use my equipment only when I need to. Instead of using my dynamite to target small enemies and only gain a little experience, I'll go on large hunts against monsters way out of my league. It'll be a huge risk, but if I kill them, I can fast track my leveling.

Caleb looked over all of the materials that he had left after spending all that time making the things he needed. Overall, he noted that he had a little Kevlar left over, and a few drops worth of Nitroglycerin inside the bark bowl. Everything else he had already either used up or stored away. He was about to dispose of the extra Nitroglycerin, however he stopped while picking it up, narrowing his eyes in thought.

One of my abilities is… "Absorption." I wonder if I can just, absorb this stuff safely instead of risking my life trying to dump it somewhere.

A notification from his "Status Magic" flew up over his vision. It was a brief summary of Absorption, and it informed him of the Shield's ability to absorb materials and create new shields and abilities from whatever was received.

New shields and abilities. From Nitroglycerin?

Hesitantly, he raised his shield arm up to the last bit of the liquid. With an iron grip and very slow movement, he tilted the Nitroglycerin off the bark and into the center of his shield, right into the large green gem in the middle of it. I just hope this isn't how I die. Killing myself over something this stupid would just be embarassing.

To his slight surprise, the shield glowed a bright green, and instead of colliding with the shield directly, the explosive liquid seemed to float just an inch away from the orb and slowly evaporate and shrink into it, dissipating away safely until it was all completely gone and the shield had eaten it up.

Explosive Shield Unlocked!

A circular shield the size of a torso that sends a directed explosion at anyone who touches it.

+2 DMG per -1 MAG, depending on how much MAG the user decides to use.

The feeling that Caleb received knowing that he'd already found a way to do damage to opponents gave him a rush of invigorating satisfaction.

This is perfect. If I keep using my head like this, I can find ways around my horrible attack stat.

Out of curiosity, Caleb turned to the leftover Kevlar sitting beside his bedroll, and he fed the remainder of the material to his shield as well, letting it disappear magically into the legendary item.

Kevlar Shield Unlocked!

A rectangular shield that covers half of the user's body, laced with Kevlar inside.

Blast Protection: High.

Projectile Protection: Low.

Now more or less excited to try just about anything he had on hand, Kooper moved to rummage through his other manufactured items. He set aside two more things to test on it, first, a small bit of Napalm which he dipped out of its container with a stick, and the other one of the batteries he'd made. He first let a bit of Napalm dribble into his shield, and then he sunk the battery into let, letting both of the items be taken in by the convenient device.

Napalm Shield Unlocked!

A rectangular shield the size of a torso that is constantly ablaze with Napalm.

Cold Resistance: High.

Burns targets who touch it. Water and ice will not put it out. 1 DMG per second.

Electric Shield Unlocked!

An oval shield the size of a torso that can generate electricity in exchange for magic points.

Caleb turned to look at another one of his batteries, and he pulled another one towards him. In theory, I should be able to charge these now…

He was unsure of what to do, so in an awkward guess, he simply held out his shield arm and "willed" for the Electric Shield to come. He was met with a brief flash of light in response, which didn't take him by surprise at this point, and in place of his usual rectangular shield was a sizably larger oval-shaped shield. It looked to be like any regular functional shield at first glance with similar coloration and design to his original shield, however when Caleb took a closer look at the gem section in the middle he noticed two protruding metal juts that were etched into the gem in the center.

Two ends… a positive and negative?

Caleb held the top end of his uncharged battery to the two points, letting the copper ends come as close to the juts as they could. As he had guessed, the points between the shield and the battery itself began to spark and send a small beam of electricity from point to part, and a bit of smoke rose from it all. Within seconds, Caleb was forced to drop the battery onto the ground, as it was heating up exceptionally fast.

That's good. he thought to himself, picking up the battery after giving it a second to cool down. The heat means it produced a charge. Now, I just need a way to safely combine these batteries with my explosive charges.

He looked at the tubes of dynamite settling behind him. Making sure to keep the charged battery separated from the capped end a good distance, he pulled out one of his explosives. He gently combined both the battery and the dynamite together by using some of the string he had bought from the market store, and then he fed the now ready explosive to his shield, which he had switched back beforehand. The shield took a moment longer to absorb it all given its more complex structure and larger size, however within a moment the entire explosive was gone, replaced with a new shield.

Detonator Shield Unlocked!

A small rectangular that can detonate explosives with an uncharged battery attached to them in exchange for magic points.

He summoned the Detonator Shield as soon as he had it unlocked. The shield was small, darker in color compared to the regular one and just as small, if not even smaller. The shield itself held little value in terms of protection, however there was one feature in particular that caught his attention; it was a squeeze trigger that was attached to the inside of the Detonator Shield which automatically found its way into his palm.

Huh…

So, essentially… this shield using some of my magic points to send a distant electric charge through the battery attached to the explosive, which sets it off.

Everything was going better than Caleb had even expected it to. Within a day, he had already discovered several useful shields and had created most of the gear that he assumed he would be using on his own.

The sun was almost down over the horizon. By the time Kooper was finished inspecting each of his unlocked shields and had cleaned up his camp area, it was night time, and he had to rely on the light of his campfire to see well into the area around him. Despite the time, Caleb found that he wasn't exhausted in the least, unlike the previous day. In fact, he was practically energetic with anticipation.

There's no time to waste on sleep right now. There are probably stronger monsters roaming about at night anyway. And now that I have everything I need…

He spent the next half hour or so connecting the uncharged batteries to the dynamite cylinders using the copper wire and the rest of the copper sticks inside the dynamite itself, ending up with a total of ten ready explosives. He combined four of them with the napalm containers to make four napalm explosives out of the ten. He doused his campfire, and packed his bedroll and everything else into his bag before setting out, further east, away from the capital city of Melromarc.

The night was remarkably cold and misty, which was a stark contrast to the usual Mediterranean warmth that the days around Melromarc provided. Caleb navigated through the forest, making sure not to make too much noise, working around thicker sections of shrubbery, and eyeing the areas around him to see if he could spot any monsters he could kill or for any landmarks.

The night began to draw out. Caleb checked his watch, of which he had switched the time to match Melromarc, and he observed that it was only a couple hours from dawn.

Perhaps searching for large prey with no plan like this isn't the best idea.

Almost as soon as he finished the thought, a loud thud erupted from his left side, to the north. The thud was followed by a small series of similar shakes, reminiscent of massive footsteps or similar. Kooper took cover behind a small bush and a thick oak, and he peered in the direction of the noise. What he saw was unlike anything he'd ever witnessed before.

About twenty meters away was some sort of massive three-headed dog creature, almost three times his height, and much larger in mass. It was similar to a large pitbull or other vicious dog in it's body shape, and it's eyes, all three pairs of them, glowed a menacing blood red in the night. It appeared to be sniffing the area, searching the area around it. Caleb took note of the wind, which was traveling back and forth between him and the dog, stirring in every direction.

There's no stable wind current. It can probably smell me, but it isn't sure of my location yet. I have only a little time.

He pulled out one of his explosive charges, one without a napalm container attached to it. He didn't want to set the forest on fire, especially not with napalm, which he knew wouldn't die out easily. He took stock of his surroundings, considering the terrain and thinking of different ways he could use it to his advantage while keeping an eye on the massive dog monster.

There's nothing behind me, or to the left. Just more forest, and the stream. He peered over to his right, over the tree leaves above him. In the dark light of the moon, he could see the steep incline of a rock cliff that towered high above both him and the three-headed dog. It was at such a steep incline that the rocky surface bent inward towards the ground.

That rock formation will do.

Carefully, slowly, so as not to alert the monster further to his presence, Caleb began navigating through the shrubbery again, avoiding any major pile of leaves or twigs or anything else that might make noise and alert the exceptional hearing of the monster. He crouch walked all the way to the cliffside some fifty meters away from the dog monster. In a crook inside the base of the cliff, right in the center of the area, he slipped the explosive charge inside a crack in the hard, gray rock. He made sure the wiring and the battery was all set to detonate it, and then he made his way back to his original spot. The massive dog was still there, but this time, it appeared to be following a slight scent trail that it had picked up from Caleb, in the direction of where he had been before.

No time to waste… let's move on this creature before dawn breaks. I need to do this to get strong. On my own.

Without another thought, Kooper stood up from his hiding place behind two smaller tree trunks, and he summoned his Explosive Shield.

"Hey, you ugly fucker!" he shouted into the night.

The three heads of the dog each respectively turned to look at Caleb for a second before growling at him. The body of the massive creature turned on him and began charging straight at him. Caleb waited, body tensed, ready to make a move. He waited, and waited, watching as the monster closed the gap between them. Right as the three-headed dog was about to pounce on him, he ducked behind the tree trunk on his left, dodging to one side and flanking the monster. The massive creature was by no means slow despite it's size, and it turned on Caleb immediately, barking and snapping it's heads in an attempt to catch him. Before it could land a bite, Caleb willed his Explosive Shield to do its work, lifting it up to collide with the dog's left head. He smashed the shield over the dog's jaw, and without warning, there was a massive kick back as the front of the shield exploded in a dark puff of smoke and raw ash. Caleb dug his feet into the ground, absorbing the grenade-sized blast with his body and holding his shield in both arms. Once the smoke cleared, he noticed that the dog was definitely hurt a little, its one head was seared and ripped apart through the first layers of skin from the residue of the blast. Even though it was taken by surprise, and minorly injured, Kooper knew he had only startled it for a second. He used the opportunity to sprint in the opposite direction, weaving and ducking between the trees and low-hanging branches, finding ways to make it difficult for the monster to chase him down while he led it to the cliff. Despite his efforts, he could feel the stomping movements of the massive creature closing the gap between them ever so gradually as they neared the cliff.

Keep calm. Stick to the plan you have in mind.

As soon as he cleared the treeline, into the short clearing between the trees and the cliff itself, he turned on his heels, summoning his Napalm Shield right as the massive dog creature leapt out of the bushes to tackle him. Kooper side-stepped to one side and used his blazing shield to push off against the weight of the dog coming towards him. The dog howled and barked angrily as the shield's flames engulfed the side of it's chest for a moment, and the Napalm caught it's fur, setting it ablaze instantly and causing the dog to panic, kicking back on it's hind legs and retreating a few feet from the unexpected attack. While the dog writhed and howled in pain from the slow damage the fire did to it, Caleb used the opportunity of panic to flank it to it's hind legs and set it's backside on fire. The monster dog began yipping and snapping in pain and rage, and it tried turning on Caleb to bite down on his neck, however he already had his shield raised to protect himself, and the dog was only met with more hellfire and steel. He began taking slow steps forward, keeping his feet in place firmly as he slowly started to force the creature back, towards the wall of the cliffside. The dog tried several more times to reach it's ugly heads around or onto him in order to get a quick bite in, but he allowed himself to take proper cover behind his shield, trusting in it to keep the creature spooked long enough until it was in the right position.

Just another second… one more push back.

The dog found it's back legs up against the wall, right in between the crack where Caleb had planted the explosive charge. In the span of a second, Kooper jumped back, before the dog could regather it's courage and charge him down again. He switched his shield to the Detonator Shield, and he subconsciously tied the Detonator magic to the charge.

Back to the hell you came from.

He squeezed down on the trigger. In an instant, almost immediately, he was practically thrown back a few steps as the air around him heated up to an insane degree, so much so that it was nearly unsafe, and the entire area around him was blasted with soot and bits of debris and smoke. The following concussion was deafening, and he was thrown onto his back, using the Kevlar Shield to keep himself safe from any slower debris immediately. The three headed dog let out a shrill wail and a yelp as it's back legs were completely shredded and torn apart by the explosion, and it fell onto it's side, convulsing and bleeding pus and blood profusely. The dog began to go into shock, but it was still alive, which was why Caleb planned to have his charge explode by the cliffside.

The earth creaked and shook around the area where Caleb was laying down; within seconds, between the burning light of the napalm fire, the thick smoke, and the bright moonlight, he saw and heard the rocks that formed the cliff begin to crack and break apart from bottom to top. He got up, quickly, backing up into the treeline and taking a knee with his shield still propped in front of his body to protect himself from what was to come.

Before the dog could do anything, whimper, die, or even try to crawl away on it's two functioning legs, the entire cliff face crumbled apart and came crashing down on top of it, burying it completely under a cloud of rubble and dust and rock and killing it instantly.

+2826 EXP

+11 LVL

HP - 315

MP - 180

SP - 64

ATK - 2

MAG - 130

DEF - 281

MDEF - 156

AGI - 191

END - 179

Good shit, Caleb.

Making his way back from the scene was gradual. He still felt sore from being pushed back by the explosion of his bomb, but he did his best to ignore it. He wanted to be back in the capital city by the time morning came, since he wanted to put in more orders at the blacksmith and the chemist shop.

I'll start a stable system of orders. Constant material needed for making more explosives. I'll also start feeding other chemicals to the shield to see if I can get anything else that might be useful.

The sun was breaking over the fields once Caleb had come out into them, just a kilometer or so away from the city. He took in a deep sigh and slowed his pace to enjoy the scenery, just as he had before.

At least, there haven't been any major complications yet. This world seems simple enough to survive in, if anything.

Ahead of him, from the gates of the city, a group of several armored soldiers with spears and swords came out. They took a circular formation and began spreading out as Caleb was approaching them, and after a minute or so, he realized that they were moving to surround him.

What is this?

A knight with a red plume, marking him as some sort of leader or captain, stepped forward out of the group of knights. By then, they all had their spears trained on him. Kooper simply stood there, rigid, silent, but inside, he was both confused, angry, and a little afraid.

"Shield Hero!" the knight captain called out to him. They sounded brash in their tone, and for some reason also angry. "You are to be escorted to the palace at once for an audience with the King of Melromarc! Give yourself up!"

Give myself up…? They're taking me prisoner?

Caleb refused to raise his hands in a direct surrender. He knew that with his current power level, he could probably fight his way out of the situation, but instead of doing that he thought about the situation while he still had time.

If I become hostile now, I'm condemning myself against an entire kingdom. Even if I'm a "Legendary Hero," I doubt I have that kind of power yet.

Fine. I'll be a good boy. For now.

"Lead the way, soldier." Caleb muttered dryly,

He was escorted back into the city walls, straight for the castle.