Last time on journey of the shield, Son Wukong was sentenced to fight off the waves of calamity by the great Buddha and he finds himself in a new world with three other chosen 'heroes' alongside him. After an intense show of attitude in front of the king the four heroes are led to select rooms for them to sleep in, what will happen next? Find out now in Journey of the Shield!
Wukong woke up the next morning 'This bed is too hard and the pillow is too soft, I should have slept on a tree' the monkey king thought to himself before hearing a knock on the door, getting up and opening it to see a maid with cat ears
"what do you want?" Wukong rudely asked the maid
"u-uh sir shield hero the king has requested that all four heroes go meet him in the throne room" she responds with her face looking full of anxiety
"pfft fine but I hope that this time he will treat me with the respect I want, now leave"
"A-ah sure! Right away!" she leaves in a hurry in a bit of fear of angering the fabled hero, going to the other rooms to wake up the three other heroes
All four heroes were gathered to have breakfast before seeing the king and Wukong was glad at least this time there were fruits for him to eat but 'still no peaches' he thought while biting an apple
The four entered the throne room and this time a line of 12 people was formed in front of the king, all of them were less than impressive in Wukong's eyes as they didn't have the look of brave warriors or exceptional fighters, instead, he saw a bunch of push overs that compared to the weakest monkeys of his army
"Heroes! I have gathered these braves souls before you today, these are the best warriors in the land and they will be accompanying you on your journey to save the world" the king said in a booming voice, he gave an angry look towards Wukong's unimpressed face
"are we going to choose them or is it them who will choose us?" motoyasu asked, wanting to see if he could score of the beauties amongst the line-up, the redhead with green eyes especially caught his attention
"the latter sir spear hero" the king responded his serious tone from before still in his voice
"Now! Our future champions! Is time to start your journey!" The king exclaimed and the adventurers made their way to the heroes of their choice
While Motoyasu had 4 members, Ren had 5 and Itsuki had 3 which left Sun Wukong with no one but that was exactly what he wanted
"This seems a bit unfair..." Motoyasu comments, he was glad that he scored a party full of beautiful women, and seeing that Wukong had no one to help him made him feel a bit bad for the monkey, but considering that he was stuck as the shield class, it made sense they wouldn't want to join up with the worst option
"Is there a reason mister wukong doesn't have any party members?" Itsuki asked wanting to know if they had a good reason to not choose him, he knew the shield class was bad but at least one other person would have joined him right?
"I must say I also didn't expect this" the king said before one of his advisors come close to his ears whispering something in his ear
"I see... So there are rumors" the king said seemingly pleased by this confirmation
"Huh?" Sun Wukong and the other heroes got curious, how could such rumors already be spread out? The four only arrived yesterday
"There are rumors of the Shield Hero's lack of knowledge of this world while the other three legendary heroes possess this knowledge, along with talk about his short temper has also been going around" the king said with a soft smile on his face, wukong noticed but didn't care about it
"Someone must have heard our conversation" Ren said, it was the only way for someone to know that Wukong lacked knowledge of the world although they had seemed to skip the fact that he had fought many monsters before being transported here 'who ever made these rumor only seemed to focus on making him look like the worst option... I should assume it is because of his look like a monkey being one of the legendary heroes might have made someone mad'
"Definitely" Itsuki responded in agreement, he considered that it was probably a maid or servant that had eavesdropped on their talk last night but there was a chance of something more complex at play
'although it makes sense that rumors of his temper would be going around, he made quite the display yesterday and I bet the rich guys that were watching us probably started them too' Ren thought to himself, coming up with a rational conclusion of the situation
"Huh, it seems my reputation proceeds me" Son Wukong said proudly as he saw that as a bonus instead of a negative, he didn't want to be slowed down by these...
"I can go with the shield hero" a red-haired girl at motoyasus party said catching the attention of everyone in the room
"If that's okay with you sir spear hero?" she asked, Wukong was wishing that he would say no as he was against having someone going with him just to be a handicap
"Not at all" Motoyasu said to the dismay of Wukong
"It's a pleasure to meet you mister Shield hero, my name is Myne Sophia" she introduced herself, her friendly introduction didn't make Wukong give any reaction other than one of distaste and frustration
"You better not slow me down" he said while frowning at the girl before turning around and walking to the exit
"Now that this is done I will head out-"
"Wait shield hero" the king said while extending his arm out, Sun Wukong looked at him annoyed and pissed
"What now?" the monkey king said with his eyes flaring up red, everyone in the room tensed up a bit
"You still haven't received your money bag" the king said frustrated but he saw the shield hero calm himself and went back to his original position
"Since the shield hero will have to find party members by himself, he will receive a larger amount of money this time" the king said as the maids came in to deliver bags of silver coins to the heroes with Wukong having 800 while the others got 600
"Heroes I wish you all luck for the adventure ahead of you" the king said, the heroes were taken to outside the castle gates and they all went their separate ways
"Sir shield hero we should go to a blacksmith, I know the best one in town" Myne cheerfully said as they made their way across the streets of the castle town, the monkey king grabbed many eyes with some looking at him with disgust while a few looked surprised, especially one of the people wearing rags that had animal ears on top like the maid from before
"Why?" he asked, as the Great sage equal to heaven he didn't need armor to fight and even the one he used was better than anything this place could offer
"Well you will need good armor to fight against the monsters" she said while doing a wink, probably trying to look cute but failing as the monkey king didn't seem convinced
"Please, I could kill a giant tiger without getting a single scratch using only rags, as a stone monkey I don't need armor to fight weak monsters like you soft humans" he said boldly giving him more stinky eyes from the people of this place, seeing how the people around lived gave him a feeling that despite being a capital of a kingdom it still felt cheap as he saw a man sell a fancy looking bread for some cooper coins
"S-still why don't we go around to see it?" Myne was starting to get desperate 'come on already you stupid shield monkey! Why do you have to be so dense!'
"If it will make you shut up" the monkey king said, reluctantly agreeing to see the place
"Here it is! This is the best shop for an adventurer" Myne said as she opened the door of the shop, Wukong looked and sure enough, there were swords, spears, and armor decorating the shop. He was disappointed at how everything looked basic and weak but he couldn't blame the blacksmith, after all he was just human, and at the end of the day he will never be able to compare to the heavenly empire or the Dragon King's armory
"Welcome to my shop, how may I help you and your friend?" A man said at the counter, he was a tall buff figure, with a beard and a bald head with a scar to the side of it, he looked like he had fought as a mighty warrior before "My name is Erhard by the way... Well you don't see this every day" he says surprised by the appearance of his new customer, by the looks of it he was a demi-human of some sort, which was rare to see around here without a slave mark
"Hello, we are to get equipment for Wukong-sama" Myne said as she grabbed Wukong's arm and hugged it, the monkey king almost screamed in anger from that but he just frowned at her
"What is your best armor?" Wukong asked right away, wanting to get the best thing this place could offer and then leave
"That would be the magic steel-plated armor set I have in the back, it is around 10 gold coins" Erhard says while pointing at the door frame behind him, he was surprised that someone like a demi-human would have the money to buy this sort of thing here at Melromarc
'Gold? I only have silver!' wukong thought for a brief moment, annoyed that the king hadn't given them the highest amount of money, and if he was to guess silver would be the medium currency of this place with gold being the highest, which left cooper at the lowest. But still, as the legendary hero meant that he should get the best this place for free
"I will take that" the monkey king says without a change in tone, but his response surprises myne
"But sir Wukong that is too expensive for us to buy" Myne said as with only 800 silver they would still be short 200 coins to get the armor and even if they did there would be nothing left for them to spend on other essentials
"And? I should be allowed to have the best armor if I'm going to fight in those waves" he responded angered at the girl, back in China if he wanted something he would go and demand it from whoever owned it, even if they didn't he would just take it from force if necessary
"What are you..." the blacksmith stops for a moment just now seeing the shield in his arm "You're the shield hero!"
"So you heard of me" the monkey king said, if rumors of him had already spread out then it would make sense the man knew who he was, but the fact that it took him this long to realize just showed that this so called rumor didn't even describe his appearance only that he carried a shield
"Yeah rumors say that you have a short temper, especially with the king it seemed, you are also the king of the flower fruit planes or something"
"It's flower fruit mountain! But you're correct, I am the monkey king and about that armor?" wukong wanted to get this armor already and leave, his time could be better spent than chit-chatting with this man or the annoying girl
"Look the best I can give you is a discount on anything in the store, the magic steel armor goes by 7 gold with the discount" Erhard said, even if Wukong was a cardinal hero it didn't mean that he could just hand out his weapons and armor for free
"This should be enou-"
"But Wukong-sama we are gonna need that money later, there are more things than just some cool looking armor"
"Fine" he looks around the shop to see something worthwhile "I will take that armor" He points at a chest piece on display
"Chain mail it is then" Erhard said as he grabbed the metallic black shirt with silver details and gave it to Wukong, when he looked at it some information appeared to him
[Chain mail armor]
10 agi 15 def
10% Slashing resistance
"There's a changing room if you want to try it out" Erhard said as he pointed to a small room with a mirror inside
Wukong went into a changing room and put it on, seeing how it felt, it was light and flexible, and if he was completely honest, almost didn't feel like there were chains in it, only when he touched the outside part he felt the chains inside, it was probably padded in the inside to prevent the skin from feeling the cold of the metal, after looking himself in the mirror of the changing room, he noted that it made him look like a common foot soldier, he was certain that he would look better in that magic steel armor but at last he was gonna have to settle down with this for the time being
"I will take it" he said as he came out of the changing room, still feeling that it was a mockery for having him wear such a thing
"You look great Wukong-sama!" Myne complimented him, but the monkey king just ignored her and looked over to the blacksmith
"how much?" he asked
"That's gonna be 150 silver with the Hero discount" Erhard said as he gave Wukong a thumbs up, the golden fur of the monkey gave a nice contrast to the armor
"And how much for selling it back?" Myne said getting a confused look from both Wukong and Erhard
"Why are you asking that?" the monkey king asked, why buy the armor if they were going to sell it off later? Then he should just continues as he was before entering the shop
"Well because once you get strong enough you won't need this armor anymore" she responded, trying to capitalize on his ego
"You finally said somenthing smart for once" Wukong compliments the girl at the same time he insults her, as she was right that once he gets most of his powers back he wouldn't need to depend on the weak armor like the other heroes would
"It will depend on the state of the armor but it is the same as it is her price right now" the blacksmith said
"here" Wukong drops a couple of coins on the counter before turning around to leave "Now let's go fight the monsters of this place, I am curious to see what you consider dangerous around here"
Planes outside of the city
"You're kidding me..." Wukong said as he stared down the so-called monster, it was an orange ball with two dots for eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth, it was biting his arm to try and hurt him to no avail
"Be careful Wukong-sama!" myne cheered him close to a tree, not really wanting to fight along side him but knowing that he was so pridefull that he would refure help anyway
"Careful!? One of my most incompetent monkey servants with nothing but a rock could kill this creature in a second!" the monkey king picks up the small ball with a hand and prepares a punch with the other
"I don't have to worry about such weak..." He stops his speech after seeing not only the balloon survive but also get up in a few seconds
"no..." he let out a small squeal before charging at the small ball with unrelenting anger, punching, kicking, and biting it to no avail
"THIS CANNOT BE! I AM SUN WUKONG! THE GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN!! I CAN DESTROY A ENTIRE ARMY WITH A SWING OF MY HAND! I CANNOT BE WEAKER THAN THIS EXCUSE OF A MONSTER!! CURSE YOU BUDDHA!!!!!" Wukong's scream filled the entire field and caught the attention of more ballons and even people inside the city's wall with myne had to cover her ears as she was close to the monkey king
After about 15 minutes of constant attacks at high speed from Wukong, the balloon finally pops
1 EXP
"What is this? That's what I need to get stronger right? How many more do I need?" a screen appears on his face
[1/20 Exp required to go to level 2]
The monkey king ground his teeth at this "How much longer will this gonna take!?" he said pulling his hair out of his head, realizing what he did an idea comes to his mind
"Why didn't I think of this sooner?" He puts his hand on his head "I will just have my clones fight these creatures for me"
He opens his hands and blows the pieces of hair into the wind with each turning into an exact clone of Son Wukong with the exception that none of the clones had a shield, meaning that only the original Son Wukong could use the abilities of said shield "now go fight those orange balls my clones" he says with each doing exactly that
"I will have this done in an hour or so..."
Puff
Son Wukong turns around thinking that one of his clones had already killed one of the orange ballons when in reality he saw his clones get killed off one by one against the balloons
"What in the" a message appears on his face once again, this time showing something that infuriated the monkey king
[due to your current level all your clones have 1 in each of their stats, to prevent this you must raise your level to level 10 or above]
Myne opens her eyes and uncovers her ears to see what was with all the popping sound but she saw nothing but a bunch of smoke and Wukong looking angry at the balloons 'for a moment I thought he was beating them, guess I can take a nap'
"fine! If I have to do it all by myself then so be it!" he shouted as he ran into the group of balloons
The monkey king fought wave after wave of the small balloons and as the sun was setting he now stood among many pieces of rubber left by his dead round enemies
[you have reached level 2]
"After all of that, I just got up one level..." he left out a small squeal of anger as he was taking a breath 'i never had to put this much effort before! I'm going to strangle that damn buddha once i get back'
"Sir shield hero..." myne called him out reaching her hand out to touch him on the shoulder
"What!?" he turned around angry, eyes bloodshot red
"W-we should go to stay the night at an inn, we can sell all of these monster parts later..." Myne was scared at the display but keep her cute and gentle demeanor
"Fine... This has better be worth it" As he picked the pieces of balloons and put them inside his inventory he noticed that the shield in his arm had its gem glow whenever a piece was near it, so he puts a piece of red ballon scrap with a message appearing in front of him
[Small red Shield] 1/10 pieces required
Equip bonus 1 atk
Seeing this he put more pieces of different colored balloons unlocking four new shields
'so this is how you work, still these other shields are useless to me' he thought as he collected all the remaining scraps leaving him with 138 pieces of balloon scrap to sell later
Myne lead him to a run-down inn where they would spend the night, he was very much offended by this but only agreed so that the girl wouldn't start complaining, the monkey king sat on his table eating a cheap meal 'ugh I should have ordered a salad or just a bowl of fruit, although I bet it would be rotten considering the state of this place' he thinks to himself before myne returns with two cups full of beer
"Wukon-sama I brought you a drink" myne saidnas she came with two cups full of beer
"Great I need something to wash down the bad taste in my mouth" As he takes a sip of the drink a weird taste goes along with it
"This got to be the worst saki I have ever drank" Wukong says before putting the cup down on the table and getting up from the chair "I will head into my room and see if it is at least comfortable"
"Good night Wukong-sama" she waves his goodbye although she had different intentions 'now that he drank the spiked beer, I just have to go into his room and get his belongings'
A few hours later myne made her way to Son Wukong's room to try and steal from him while he was sleeping but to her surprise, she found the place empty with no sign of the fabled monkey king 'where did he... Doesn't matter it just makes it easier for me to steal his...' Myne's train of thought is stopped as she realizes that he had taken his armor and money with him, ruining her plan
On the rooftop of the inn, Sun Wukong rests there in his sleep finding the place more comfortable than the bed of the place
When the sun went up the monkey king awoke from his sleep and went inside the room again "Now to test something" He picks a string of hair and creates a clone of himself once more
"alright what do your stats show?" he asks with the clone opening up his status screen
"it is showing that everything increased at least by one point" the clone comments
"Really? Then if I get to level 10 will all the stats be 10?" Wukong asked once again, the message from before said that all his clones had 1 in every stat when he was level 1 so would they only increase by exactly 1 every time he went up a level?
"nah magic and health are on 10 while agility is on 5" the clone replied
"that's good to know" With this response the monkey king was at least relieved that his clones would get stronger in more than one aspect without the need for him to get to level 200 just for them to be viable
"Although the attack is still 1 it says here that once you hit level 10 it will increase" the clone says once again, as it was on his status magic a 3 in front of his attack but in a faded color compared to the 1 so he would assume that once he hit level 10 it would the other attack stat would overwrite the 1 in his stats
"Great so we better head into the-"
Knock knock
"open the door shield hero!" a muffled voice of an angry man comes from the other side
"go get the door," he says to the clone while transforming into a bug and placing itself on the arm of his clone so it would look like it was the original monkey king as the shield would look like it was on him
I should probably look like I just woke up" the clone says before snapping his finger, a cloud of smoke appears, and when the clone was now wearing nothing but a pair of stitched-up pants on him
"What do you want?" the monkey asked
"The king has requested you to go to the castle immediately!" a man with a prominent mustache in the front said trying his best to appear serious and fierce to the monkey, which failed
"Really? What does he want with me? Is he gonna give me the treatment I deserve? or perhaps he will give a better amount of money than the pitiful excuse from yesterday?" the monkey joked annoying the guards in front of him
"Silence! Now come willing with us" one of the skinnier guards said out loud, mad at the attitude of the monkey in front of him
"You got a lot of courage to try and boss me around, but fine I will" the clone said before following the guards outside the inn
Once they got into the castle doors the guards at the door place their spears close to the clone's neck, the monkey simply raises an eyebrow and joked once more "Not the most welcoming way to treat a guest"
"Silence devil!" One of the guards scowled
"Huh it's been a while since someone called me that" he says as he led into the throne room where Motoyasu, Ren, Itsuki and his missing 'companion' Myne
"It seems we are all gathered up here" He looked up at the king "Hey your majesty, mind telling-"
"Silence you utter filth!" Aultrcray snapped at the monkey who wasn't intimidated in the slightest
"Now myne, my dear could you repeat what you told me and the royal guard" he asked while looking with pith at the girl
"If must" she holds Motoyasu's arm "the shield hero he... Burst into my room smelling like booze and..." she placed her hands in her mouth
"He pinned me to the wall and said 'the night is still young' and then he...he... He tore my clothes off and tried to..." she stopped as she forced back a sob "I managed to escape and arrived at the castle"
"How can you do something so unforgivable as soon as you got here you bastard!" Motoyasu was vividly angry, he hated people that would abuse innocent women and when Myne came to him crying at the horrible thing that had happened, he just wanted to make Wukong into a dead man from the number of holes he would put in him with his spear
"I have no words, other than you're a disgrace to the title of hero" Itsuki said, he was insulted by the act that Wukong had done, he expected Wukong to be a good hero despite his anger issues but now he saw that he was nothing more than an uncivilized monkey that thought he could do anything without having to worry about justice, but nothing escapes the eye of justice!
Ren kept quiet to himself seemingly lost in thought
"An assault on a woman alone is punishable by death" one of the king's advisors gave his scowl "If you weren't the chosen shield hero, you would be executed on sight"
"Hehe..." A small chuckle came out of Wukong's mouth
"HEHAHEHEHAHEHAHA!!!" The booming sound of Wukongs laughter filled the entire room
"You dare laugh at this! I'm going to thrust my spear into your knee, you bastard!" motoyasu tries to walk forward but is held back by Myne
"I'm sorry is just that... This is the worst joke I ever heard" he said while swiping a tear of laughter out of his eye
"You think this is a joke!?" Motoyasu said enraged at the display, not only he but every other guard, noble and king were
"What else would it be? I mean why would go and fuck some ugly human girl when I could just go out and-"
"You will shut your mouth you fowl beast!" The king said with anger at the monkey who was still trying to hold in his laughter
"You have nothing to say in this court!" Aulcraty says with immense anger 'this demon has not only raped my daughter but also thinks his own trial was some type of joke? I want to execute him myself!'
"Oh but I do actually" the clone says before spitting right in the king's face which was surprising for some considering the distance between him and the king
"You..." the king couldn't contain his anger anymore "Send him to the dungeons this instant! For your crimes, you shall be imprisoned for the rest of your life!"
"oh no, what will I do?" wukong said in a sarcastic tone that only helped to anger the king even more
"TAKE HIM AWAY!!!" the king ordered and the knights took the monkey out of the room with very little resistance from the monkey, he looks back to see the king's sheer anger at him, the other three heroes giving him looks and the most interesting one of myne sticking her tongue out while pulling one of her eye sockets down to mock him
"This spices things up" he says seemingly satisfied by the situation, after he is escorted off the nobles start discussions about the trial and the king tries to compose him
"you gonna be fine now myne, I won't let you get hurt like that" Motoyasu says while holding her hand
" *sniff* thank you Motoyasu-sama" she says before wiping a tear and leaving happy that the rape plan had gone smoothly 'ha! This is perfect! Now the shield hero is in jail, the plan was to ruin his reputation to make his life a living hell but this is just as good'
"I can't believe that abominable creature!" motoyasu said still angry that the bastard was not killed for what he did, unless he was treated like the worst in those dungeons he still considered that he got off easy
"Yes, he just spits right at the king's face, he has no respect for authority" Itsuki adds, he knew the monkey was a bad person and that he disliked the king from the beginning but what he just did would be a declaration of war in itself
"Didn't something feel wrong for you guys?" Ren finally spoke up
"Why are you asking that?" motoyasu asked, still enraged by the whole ordeal
"He didn't even try to deny the accusations" Ren points out, Wukong could have tried to deny, lie or asked for more evidence besides Myne's testimony, but instead he just rolled with it, all he did to defend himself was claiming that he wouldn't rape myne because she was ugly, which somehow seemed to make sense in Ren's head, the monkey king would probably prefer to do such act with a member of his kind
"That's because his guilty!" motoyasu screamed out at such a stupid thing, with only Itsuki understanding how weird it was that the 'arrogant monkey king' would just accept being put in jail
"I don't know if he is more guilty for not defending himself or not" Ren says still trying to understand the thought process of the 'monkey king'
"It wouldn't change the outcome in any way especially after he spits in the king's face" Itsuki comments
"I guess so, still he seemed fine with just going to prison for the rest of his life" Ren couldn't tell why Wukong would just go with the guards without resistance or an attempt at escape, after all he was now going to spend the rest of his days on a prison cell never to see the outside
"Why should we care? He is gonna pay for his crime and that's all that matters" Motoyasu says before storming off the place
"I agree" Itsuki says following Motoyasu's lead, after all Justice had won today and that was what mattered to him
"Well... At least we won't have to worry about him getting on our way during the waves" Ren says before going to his party to leave and go to the guild, getting stronger was the only thing that he should focus on right now 'the grind never stops'
Castle's prison
"Enjoy your cell devil because it is the only place you will ever see from now on!" the guard says before leaving, a smug smile on his face
"So what now?" The clone asked as much as he would like to destroy this place, as of right now they were too weak to do a thing against the king, heck if he wanted he could just wait until the waves end or lay there for a couple of hundred years and go out as none of this people would be alive by then
"Well I'm going to leave this place, you stay here I can't wait to see their reaction" Wukong says as he flies of the arm of the clone and turns back into his normal form, he smile at the thought of the faces of three heroes when they saw him free and them their even dumber faces once they went to the cell to see his clone in it
"Do i need to?" the other monkey asked as he didn't like spend his time on a empty cell with nothing to do
"Yes! It is very important that this idiots think that I am stuck here for now" Wukong said not wanting his payback plan to be ruined
"Roger that, just hope I find something to do while I am here" the clone says before Wukong turns back into a bug and flys off from the cell
Outside of the city walls, the monkey king changes his form once again now back to his normal form "Well it seems that my 'friend' Myne went on and blamed me for a crime I didn't do to make the other three 'heroes' hate me"
"so this entire place is against me and they see me as an unreasonable devil?" he smiles at this "This place is finally getting interesting!" Wukong exclaimed as he went into the forest ready to kill as many monsters as he could, if they thought they could just get rid of him by throwing the great sage equal to heaven in a prison cell, he was going to make sure they would regret such decision
Will Sun Wukong be able to clear his name? Will the king realize he got the wrong guy in prison? How will the other three heroes react when they see the shield walking around freely? Will the clone left in the prison do something? Find out next time in Journey of the Shield
[author's notes]
Here it is at last! The second chapter of the Journey of the Shield is done, it took a bit to make this since I was focussing on my other stories and I honestly wasn't much in the mood to write more of it, but once I forced myself to do it, I got it going and was done very quickly
The king put Wukong in jail because, hero or not, there's no way Aultcray would let a demi human that raped his daughter just walk away with just some bad rumors about him, and since he can't give him the death sentence, he just gonna make sure he has the rest of life stuck in a cell and with the worst conditions and perhaps torture instead