"We did it! The summoning was a success!" a voice said.
"Huh?" another voice called out.
"What the hell is this?" another asked.
Where am I? Last thing I remember is finding a random book in my chest and opening it, and why is there a shield on my arm?
The man thinking this noticed a shield on his arm that he couldn't remove, as well as the people next to him. Besides were three other men. Like him, they each had a weapon in their hand. A sword, a bow, and a spear. But that was barely the first problem.
Everything was square.
What the hell? Am I a minecraft character?
The guy with a shield tried to drop it, but it seemed to be magically tied to his body. He moved it onto his back while the other three began to move. They looked around, just as confused as he was. It seemed that every building was square, but not entities or the items they were holding.
"Oh brave heroes, please save our world!"
What the hell is this? The build is impressive tho, so that's cool.
"Seriously?" the guy with the sword mumbled, still wildly looking around.
"What do you mean by that?" The bow hero asked.
"There is a long and complicated story behind this, but we've summoned you four Heroes here using an ancient ritual. Our world teeters on the brink of destruction. We beg you, oh brave heroes! Please save our world."
"I refuse," the sword guy said sharply.
"Likewise," the bow hero agreed.
"Don't you guys have any shame at all, suddenly dragging us here without our consent?" the sword guy said.
"Even if you send us home when the job is done, that's basically just using us as slave labor, you know?" the bow explained.
"How are you willing to accommodate us?" the guy with the spear and a ponytail chimed in. "You get where we're coming from, right? Keep in mind that depending on your answer we might have to become your enemies."
I get where they're coming from, but I would have totally expected a different reaction.
The one with the shield looked at the corner of his vision and noticed a single box with three dots on it. There was also a row of boxes he recognized on the bottom of his vision that got larger when he tried to get a better look.
Interesting. The hotbar is still the same as minecraft… I wonder.
He focused on the last box and watched as an inventory 4 by 9 appeared in front of him, with a small picture of himself and a two by two box on top, pointing to a single box to the right.
"P-please have an audience with the king first. You can negotiate your reward after that, so please…"
"Fine, I guess," the swordsman said.
"I suppose we could consider their offer," the bow hero nodded.
"Not like our demands are gonna change, no matter who we talk to," the guy with the spear said, walking forward.
Damn, they talk as if they have already gone through this before. Well, let's see what this world has to offer, I'm getting so excited!
The four were led out of the room, and walked past a window. They looked outside to see a bunch of square buildings with red roofs, and just behind those mountains and a clear sky.
"We really are in another world, huh?" the bow kid asked.
"We sure are," the guy with the shield responded. "Such clean air."
"Heroes, the king is waiting."
"Coming."
They arrived at a large throne room. In front of them were two thrones. The one on the left was occupied by an old looking man with a fancy crown.
"So these are the Four Cardinal Heroes of legend? I am the king of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. Heroes, name yourselves," the old man said.
"Amaki Ren, sixteen years old, high schooler," the one with the sword replied.
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu. Twenty-one, and a college student," the one with the spear chimed in. the one with the bow stepped forward.
"I suppose I'm up next. Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, and a high schooler."
"And last but not leas…'' the one with the shield began, but was interrupted by the king.
"I see. Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki, huh?" the king said, completely ignoring the last hero as he turned to the other three. "I suppose I owe you an explanation.
Bru… ok, I guess I'll just go sit in a corner or something. Might as well look through the second icon while I can.
"My country, Melromarc, and the entire world is headed toward destruction," the king began, still not acknowledging the shield hero. The hero in question focused on the little icon in the right bottom corner of his vision and watched as he opened his status.
Status
Weapons
Skills
Magic
Help
He opened the first one and watched as his stats appeared.
Name: John Smith
Level: 0
Attack: 1
Defense: 10
Speed: 4
Health: 20
Mana: 10
Soul: 10
Regeneration: 1
Mana Regeneration: 1
Soul Regeneration:1
Huh. This seems a bit less like minecraft and more like some RPG but in minecraft. I mean, the stats, other than defense and the last five, actually seem pretty accurate. If speed is meters a second and attack is attack. Though the beginning attack is supposed to be 2 if I remember correctly. But in terms of minecraft, my defense should not be this high. I mean, each defense point gives a 4% damage negation, that's 40% right there at level zero. And what the hell is Soul?
John opened his weapons but only found one small circle with a pixel picture of the shield he was using and a name that said [Small Shield]. So he pressed on it and a screen with the weapons stats showed up.
[Small Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (2 Defense)
Defense: 7
Abilities unmastered? equip effect? Do those two defense points join my base stats after I use it enough times? And 7 defense? I guess the defense stat works differently in this world, because that would mean I'm only 3 points away from top armor, and 8 from immortality.
The king finished explaining about the "Waves" that plague this world and would destroy it unless the four heroes protected them. There is also the Dragon Beacon which shows the timing of the waves arrival, and apparently everyone has already missed a wave. And the next one would come in less than a month.
"We get the gist of it now. Anyway, surely you didn't summon us expecting us to save you for free," Ren asked.
"Of course, once you repel all the waves, we shall reward you handsomely," the man next to the king replied.
"Will you, now? Well, as long as we have your word," the spear hero explained.
"We'll work with you provided you don't turn on us," the sword hero agreed. "But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."
"Exactly. We can't have you looking down on us."
What the hell is wrong with these guys? I get wanting to not seem like pushovers, but this is too much!
"I trust we have an agreement," the king replied.
Wait, that actually worked?
"Then, heroes, please check your statuses."
"uh…" Itsuki looked at the king confused.
"The tiny icon in the bottom right of your vision," John pointed out. Soon the three of them were poking at what seemed like air.
Looks like the status is player based.
"Level 0? That's unsettling," the bow hero said after a few seconds.
"Yeah. No telling if we can fight like this," the spear mumbled.
"You four will have to leave on an adventure to develop and upgrade the legendary weapons that you have equipped," the king explained.
"Couldn't we just wield other weapons until these are usable?" Motoyasu asked, giving the spear a practice twirl.
"We'll figure it out eventually. Can we party up?" John asked.
"I'm afraid that won't be possible. It is said that the legendary weapons repel one another by nature. If you work together, it apparently hinders their development," the man next to the king explained.
When Two more wielders of the legendary weapons operate together, it causes an adverse reaction in the weapons. Working separately is highly advised.
John looked at the new rule that popped up in his help manual.
Funny, that wasn't here before. Does the help manual update as I find out things? That's BS! What's the point of a help manual if you can't tell me the things I don't know?
"The sun is about to set. Rest up tonight, and set forth tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties," the king promised, and a cute girl in a yellow dress led them to their room.
Once the four of them were alone in the room, the heroes sighed.
"What the hell? Am I the only one who sees this world as a blocky mess?" Motoyasu asked, sitting down on the bed.
"So I'm not the only one," was all Ren said, leaning on the fireplace.
"It is really weird to look at. However the mechanics don't seem to be too far from what I'm used to, other than these weird boxes on the bottom," Itsuki added.
The hotbar?
"This game has such bad graphics, I could probably run it on my calculator," Motoyasu laughed.
"Oh please, that would be an insult to calculators. What kind of VRMMO is this?"
"A what now?" John asked, wondering if he heard Ren correctly.
"Did you hit your head or something? Those kinds of games only exist in science fiction. This is totally an online game!" Motoyasu objected.
"What!?" Ren asked, surprised.
"Don't you mean a console game?"
"I was thinking about a mobile game actually, but…"
"A what?" all three turned to him.
"Ok, first of all, where are you all from?"
"""Japan,""" the three answered, almost in perfect sync.
"America?" John replied, taking a step back.
"Have you heard of Emerald online?" Motoyasu asked.
"Nope, never heard of it. And what the hell is a VRMMO?" John sat onto a chair that was in the room.
"In science fiction it's a virtual reality game," Itsuki explained.
"I mean, I have VR."
"Have you heard of Brave Star Online?"
"I heard of Braw stars, and it was a mobile game, but I never heard of Brave Star Online."
"What about Dimensional Wave?" Itsuki leaned closer.
"Nope, never heard of any of these. Have any of you heard of Minecraft?"
"Never heard of it," Ren shrugged.
"How have you never heard of it?! It's what began PewDiePie's youtube career! The top youtuber on the platform?"
"Who?" Motoyasu asked.
"Oh my god, what the hell. What's the current pandemic situation?"
"What pandemic?"
After about 3 more minutes of arguing, the heroes came to the conclusion that they were not from the same world, since barely any of their knowledge matched up.
"So how did all of you end up here anyways?" John asked, looking at his shield.
"I can't say I'm really interested in small talk, but I suppose we should at least consolidate our information," Ren stated. "I was walking home when I stumbled upon a murder in progress. I managed to tackle the murderer to save my childhood friend, but…"
"Damn."
"Anyway, I woke up here."
"That's kinda awesome man," John commented and Ren just laughed it off.
"My turn!" Motoyasu declared. "Before I came here, I had a lot of girlfriends, and because of that…"
"...you were two or three-timing them and got stabbed, right?" Ren asked sarcastically, but Motoyasu nodded.
"...Women are scary."
"As for me, I was crossing the street on the way home from cram school, when a dump truck came barreling around the curve at full speed. After that..."
"My god."
"And what about you…. uh… what's your name?"
"John Smith, I'm 19 and a university student. Oh yeah, wasn't it a bit weird that the king didn't even look in my direction?"
"Well…" Ren began, but didn't finish.
"The shield…" Itsuki said, before looking at Motoyasu.
"Ok, what's wrong?" John asked, looking at the shield, and back at the three heroes.
"Don't worry, your big bro Motoyasu will explain," Motoyasu said, walking up to John. "The shield class, the one that uses the shield-."
He leaned in closer, until he was just a few inches away. John swore he could smell perfume on Motoyasu.
"-is for losers. No high level player plays it," Motoyasu finished, dropping the smile he had just a moment ago.
"BRU! Da fak you on about?!" John exclaimed, pushing Motoyasu out of his face.
"It was the same in my game," Itsuki said. Ren just nodded.
"Huh. Funny enough, in Minecraft the shield was a pretty broken item."
"What do you mean?" Motoyasu asked.
"Well you couldn't attack while using it, but it would block pretty much any damage that came from the front. Tnt, swords, tridents, a whole damn dragon. Though looking at my stats, I suppose the defense works a bit differently. Who here has the highest attack? Weapon and base together."
"11," Motoyasu replied quickly. Ren and Itsuki smiled
"13,""17," Ren and Itsuki said at the same time. Then Ren and Motoyasu glared at Itsuki.
"How come you have the most damage!"
"Hey, you guys are lucky! I have 1 attack! I mean, I can probably punch monsters to death, but still" John exclaimed.
"Sucks to be you I guess," Motoyasu shrugged. John walked towards Itsuki and raised his shield.
"Shoot me."
"What?"
"Shoot me. I wanna see if the damage function is different from my world," John replied. Itsuki shrugged and pulled the string of his bow back. An arrow magically appeared in the bow and flew at John. It was a bit slower than they had expected, but it still pushed John back a block as it hit. As soon as it hit him, it disappeared, leaving no trace of it ever existing. He checked his damage and found out that it did no none.
"Huh, alright. Thanks for that."
So 17-17=0? Guess I'll go with that before I can test it.
"Heroes! Your food is ready," the woman from before walked in. The four heroes were led back to the throne room where several tables with different types of food were set.
And it was all minecraft food.
Take that 24 hour minecraft food challengers.
"What the hell is this?" Ren muttered in surprise.
"Is something wrong, heroes? Is the food not to your liking?" The king asked.
On the table were sections with beef, pork chops, rabbit, chicken, some cakes, potatoes, carrots, apples, bread, cookies, and like 5 different types of stew. It was literally unmodded minecraft food.
"This is standard food in my game. It seems like the world is much closer to mine than yours," John muttered to the sword hero and walked up to the table. The food he grabbed disappeared and popped up in his hotbar in the first slot. It was then that he noticed the shield shifted into the off hand slot.
Huh. So it's always going to be equipped?
The heroes shifted behind me for a few seconds before walking forward. The piece of meat in John's hand tasted greasy and juicy, however his hand was as clean as before he picked it up. He finished eating and reached for another one. It appeared in his inventory again. Out of the corner of his eye the gem on the shield lit up for a sec. John put the shield closer to the food and watched as the gem got brighter. He pulled away and the glow disappeared. It reappeared when he put the shield closer again. John looked around to see if anyone was watching him and noticed that all eyes were on the other three, and the only looks he got were of disgust. However they were quick to turn away when John met eyes with them. When everyone was looking away from him he put a few more pieces of meat into his inventory and threw one onto his shield.
He watched in awe as the meat began to glow and disappeared into the shield. He looked through his status to see if anything changed. Then he looked into the Weapons. A line appeared reaching from the circle of the first shield and pointed to a second empty circle. A third of the rim was about three times as thick as the rest of the rim. He also noticed that the first circle with a full thick rim had a green section which was growing very slowly.
Is that the equip bonus mastery? And does the thick rim mean I need to absorb three pieces of beef?
John reached towards the different foods and put them into his inventory when no one was watching, eating some here and there to not appear suspicious.
When he absorbed 2 more pieces of beef he watched as the circle in his Weapons status filled up and a shield with a picture of beef appeared.
[Requirements for the Cooked Beef Shield have been met]
Despite how excited John got, unlocking something new, he didn't switch it right away as to not show this to the other heroes. Instead he stored up a bunch of food and absorbed some into the shield.
[Requirements for the Cooked Porkchop Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cooked Mutton Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cooked Chicken Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cooked Rabbit Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cooked Cod Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cooked Salmon Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Carrot Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Baked Potato Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Mushroom Stew Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Rabbit Stew Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Beetroot Stew Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Bread Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cookie Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Pumpkin Pie Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Apple Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Cake Shield have been met]
[Requirements for the Watermelon Shield have been met]
Oh hell, the f*ck, the YES! The amount of shields I just got is just insane! I have 19 shield forms already! And the other heroes don't seem to realize this yet.
A new section in his help manual appeared, explaining that heroes can unlock new weapon forms by absorbing material.
Thank you captain obvious, you're a great help to society.
After the four heroes had their fill, they were escorted back to the room.
"Despite the simple meal, it was surprisingly delicious," Itsuki commented once they were left alone.
"That's another world for you. Let's get some shut eye before tomorrow. It's gonna be a long day of adjusting to a new world and grinding," John said, looking at his status.
"See ya," Motoyasu said, walking into his room. Ren and Itsuki left him as well, and John quickly walked into the room assigned to him. As soon as everyone was out of sight, John closed the window curtains and opened his weapons hmenu. The circle around the small shield was now half green and a line went down to the food section where a bunch of new circles were with different pictures of the food he absorbed into them. He also had quite a bit of food in his inventory so he quickly put it in the back so as to not accidentally let others see it. It didn't seem like the food rotted or even went cold when it was in his player inventory.
He equipped one of the shields, and was disappointed when his defense dropped drastically.
[Cooked Beef Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: Food Saturation Up 5%
Defense: 1
I mean, it is literally a piece of meat. I don't know what I was expecting.
John noticed that the green bar around the shield went by a lot faster than around the default shield.
I guess the lower the stats, the faster it masters? Also, what does the Saturation Up do? Makes me more full for every piece of food I eat?
He looked through the other shields and found one that he liked.
[Cooked Rabbit Shield]
Abilities Unmastered:
Equip Effect: (1 Speed)
Defense: 1
Speed: 1
Guess I should master this one first, and master the starter shield in front of everyone else.
He put the shield onto his left arm, hid it under the pillow and slowly went to sleep.