Chapter 8: Armed and Ready

Summary: Who knew getting a weapon would be so difficult.

I sold off the skins I earned yesterday, and with Ezbel's payments and what I already had, my budget was about 4 silver. Barely enough for what I wanted, but I had to buy a weapon sooner rather than later. Lunch I skipped, to save both money and time, rushing to Erhard's shop instead.

I found him inside, behind the counter as usual. He had a few other clients, and they were in the process of picking out new swords. Quite expensive looking, so they were likely high level adventurers.

"...and there were so many demi-humans, you wouldn't believe it," one of them said.

I perked up, inching closer to listen in. It was a bad habit I was starting to develop, but eavesdropping was by far the most efficient way to gather intel around here. Anything and everything of interest would turn to rumors and gossip by the looks of it.

"A slave town?" Erhard asked.

"Yeah," the same guy confirmed. "All owned by a single man. They have mines, farms, livestock, he probably earns a fortune. But the town wasn't there a few months ago, it cropped up overnight."

"Who would have that kind of starting capital?" Erhard wondered aloud. "Is the man a noble?"

"Maybe, but we didn't recognize him," the guy answered.

All of that sounded…interesting, but it wasn't useful information for me. So I stopped paying full attention. They talked about it for a little while longer, and the adventurers pointed out the spot for Erhard on a map. Erhard just shrugged his shoulders, mumbling something about decent ore in the area.

With their purchase finalized, they took off, leaving me alone with Erhard in the shop.

"Hey, what's up kid?" He asked.

"Not much. I have money for a starter weapon now, one of those daggers you mentioned."

He looked at me funny for a moment, then realization crossed his face.

"Oh, you were here with the Shield earlier, I remember now," he said.

Way to make me feel awkward. But then again, I couldn't expect him to remember every single face that passed through his shop.

"That's me," I said instead, waving my hand to dissipate the awkwardness and let him know it was alright. By the knowing chuckle he gave me, I figured it worked.

"Right. You wanted a cheap weapon to start you off, and I said I have daggers. Wait a moment and I'll bring you some."

He went to the back, returning with a few sheathed daggers. Besides some small differences in appearance, they looked pretty much the same.

"Bronze," he explained as he laid them out on the counter. "They have the same stats, so just pick one you like. They're not treated with bloodclean, and it's a pretty soft metal, so they won't serve you for long. But they're not meant to."

"That's fine with me, I plan to upgrade fast anyway."

I looked between them, picking them up to get a feel for their weight. Except for their shapes and ornaments, however, they really were identical.

"This one will do," I decided, picking one with a curved blade. "Three silver, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Just let me test something before I pay."

"Hey, test what?" Erhard piped up. But I was already navigating the menu. "If you damage it, you buy it!"

"I will, don't worry," I assured him.

Trying to open any of the tabs, even with the dagger in hand, gave me the same prompt from before.

Please imprint a weapon archetype to the naked Core to unlock full functionality.

I gripped the dagger tighter and tried again. It rewarded me with a new prompt.

Weapon detected, would you like to attempt imprinting?

[Yes/No]

Attempt? Could it fail or something? I wasn't ready for that, I only had enough money for one weapon. If it broke, I'd be back to square one.

'I'll have to take the risk,' I decided.

"What are you doing exactly?" Erhard asked.

Right, I forgot about him. It would've been a better idea to pay for the dagger and do this somewhere else, I didn't know what would happen. But I was all out of patience, so I picked yes. A new icon appeared, like a loading circle that spun around as it filled up. I watched it with bated breath until the process was finalized.

Imprinting failed, weapon archetype already in use.

'What now?'

The hell was that supposed to mean? I threw the dagger on the counter and picked up another one, trying again. Same result. I tried the next dagger, and the one after that, but they all returned the same prompt.

"What the hell are you doing, kid?" Erhard asked, perplexed by my wordless display of madness.

"Do you have any other weapons in this price range? Anything, doesn't matter, just keep it under 4 silver."

Erhard sighed.

"Some short swords, and some rusted one-hand swords," he said, pointing to a barrel in the corner. "But I wouldn't recommend them, they're not…"

I rushed over and picked up the first handle I could grab. Pulling it out revealed a sword, its blade rusted and dirty with long dried up specs of blood just like Erhard warned. I tried to imprint it to the core regardless, but I got the same result. So I moved on as Erhard watched, trying all of the weapons in the barrel over the course of a few minutes.

"Ahhh! Fucking hell!" I yelled when all of them failed.

I was growing desperate. I needed something, anything, any weapon that worked was fine with me.

"Just stop already!" Erhard yelled when I looked around for something else. "Explain what's wrong so I can help you."

"What the hell is a weapon archetype?" I asked.

"Dunno, why?" Erhard asked back.

"Just…tell me, old man."

"Well," he started, rubbing his chin as he thought it over. "This is just a guess, but a weapon archetype is probably the type of weapon. So a bladed weapon would be a sword archetype, anything long would be a spear archetype, and so on. But why do you ask? What's wrong?"

My eyes widened as realization hit me. The four legendary weapons were all unique, both in shape and utility. Naofumi could only use a shield since that was the archetype of his legendary weapon. When he tried to use a sword, which was Ren's archetype, he couldn't. Each one of us needed something unique, no overlap was allowed.

'That's fucking bullshit, what the hell am I supposed to get?!' I wondered.

Erhard looked at me insistently, waiting for an explanation for the last few minutes of mad dashing around his shop. Telling him the truth felt like a bad idea, I would expose myself to unnecessary risks, but then again he could help. As a native, and more importantly as a blacksmith, he understood all of this stuff better than me. His guidance could prove invaluable.

With a sigh and a heavy heart, I removed the right glove to reveal the weapon core. Erhard gasped.

"What's that?"

"I'm…I'm the fifth summon," I admitted, lifting my hand in front of my face.

"The Faux Hero?!"

"Keep it down, no one can find out about this!"

"Right, right," Erhard said, reining in his own excitement. "Sorry about that, please continue."

"I'm the Faux Hero people are talking about, yeah. The fifth summon, brought to your world by accident. Unlike the others, I don't have a legendary weapon, just the weapon core," I explained, tapping the round jewel with my other hand. "But I can't use it for anything, it's asking me to imprint a weapon archetype onto it before it unlocks."

"Come closer," Erhard demanded, so I did.

He pulled out his magnifying glass and tried to examine the core like he'd done with Naofumi's, but just like back then, he got nothing.

"I have no idea what to tell you," he admitted. "Whatever these legendary weapons and their cores are, I can't tell."

"Any weapon archetypes that wouldn't fall under the other four?" I asked. "No overlap is allowed as far as I can tell, so I need something else."

Erhard thought about it for a moment before he answered.

"Maybe? You could try whips, maces, axes, there are many weapon types out there."

"Sounds great, do you have any of those in my price range?"

"Afraid not," Erhard answered. "But," he continued, rubbing the back of his head, "tell me this: what do you plan to do if you unlock the core?"

"Not sure," I answered honestly. "Level up, grow stronger, fight those Waves of Calamity I keep hearing about."

"So you'll try to save our world?"

"Don't have anything better to do," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I don't know a lot of stuff at the moment, maybe I'm too weak to make a difference. Maybe my presence really is an accident. But it sounds exciting, so I want to at least give it a shot."

"Well in that case, how about this? I offer you a starter weapon, you pay me what you have now, and I'll wait for the rest. It's the least I can do."

I thought it over for a moment. I didn't really like the idea, owing anyone anything didn't sit right with me. It was another handout, plain and simple. I didn't earn it, I was offered it for my status. But with the next Wave a mere month away, I needed to get stronger as fast as possible.

"Fine, sounds good. Fetch me some weapons, old man!"

"On it!" Erhard said with excitement.

He ran in the back, and around the shop, gathering various weapons for me to try out. Whips, battle axes, maces, even chakrams. He had a lot of variety on display, I had to give him that much.

"How expensive are these?" I asked.

"They don't go above 20 silver," he assured me. "Just pick one and try it, they should all be unique types."

I did. I went for the axes first, but they were a bust. The whip followed, as it seemed like the most exciting weapon to try out. The fighting style would be something new and interesting. But it failed as well. So did the mace, and the chakrams, and anything else I tried. I even tried knuckle dusters when both me and Erhard grew desperate.

"What the hell is going on?!" I burst out, feeling downright angry by that point. "Why the hell do none of them work?"

Erhard slapped his forehead.

"The Vassal Weapons," he let out with a frustrated sigh. "Those could be interfering as well."

"The hell are those?"

"They're like weaker variants of the Legendary Weapons," Erhard explained. "And they're all unique as well. I don't think there are any weapon types left for you to use."

"Fuck!"

"Pretty much," he agreed. "Sorry, kid, but you're out of luck."

Did I really have no other choice? Would I have to go at it with my fists alone, or worse yet hang up my metaphorical cape? Settle into a life of normalcy and become an average peasant?

'No, come on, there has to be something,' I thought. 'Something we didn't think about. Why would a fifth core exist if there's no weapon for it to bind to?'

I thought about it long and hard. Swords, spears, bows, and shields, those were off the table on account of the fact they were Legendary Weapons. Erhard told me about the Vassal Weapons as well, which were an axe, a hammer, a gauntlet, a staff, a whip, claws, and projectiles. Whatever that last one was supposed to mean.

Those covered everything as far as I could tell. Everything, save for maybe one thing. The oldest weapon known to mankind: our own bodies. Fists, feet, claws, teeth, our natural arsenal basically. I couldn't tell if it would work, but I was desperate enough to try.

'And I'm better at hand to hand fighting anyway.'

I focused on my own body, on skin and muscles and bones, on the techniques I learned in the last few months. To my delight, the core answered with another prompt.

Weapon detected, would you like to attempt imprinting?

[Yes/No]

'Fucking yes!'

The loading icon appeared, swirling around for the hundredth time. When it was done, and I saw the resulting prompt, I nearly yelped with excitement.

Imprinting successful. Full core functionality is now unlocked.

Please check the help tab for more information.

Light emanated from the core, swirling around my body. Erhard let out a gasp as he backed away, but I just looked at it in awe. A silver border grew around the jewel out of thin air. Strands of it shot down into my flesh, burrowing into my veins as they spread throughout my body. I couldn't see all of that, but I could feel it. And it felt strange as all hell, but luckily it wasn't painful.

When the process finished, I could feel those strands running all throughout my body. Through every last artery, capillary, vein, into every muscle fiber and down into the marrow of my bones. I fused with the core, completely and utterly. The shine faded, and the other tabs became available.

"What happened?" Erhard asked.

"I imprinted my own body onto it as a weapon," I answered, giving the core a probing push. It still moved freely across my skin.

"So what does that make you now? The Body Hero?"

"Not sure. The Body Hero, the Muscle Hero, the Physical Hero maybe. I'll decide on a title later," I answered. "It doesn't really matter, what's important is that I can finally level up and unlock skills and stuff. So I'll get to that, cya!"

I turned and ran for the door, throwing it open.

"You're welcome!" Erhard yelled after me.

I waved at him over my shoulder as I gunned it down the street. I was too excited to try out everything, to see what I could do now.

On my way to the meadows, running between people and carts and whatnot, I checked the menu. It was hard to read and run at the same time, but patience was a long forgotten memory by that point.

For starters, I found that my level was still 1. I killed balloons, but since the core wasn't unlocked, that experience likely went to waste. It didn't gather in a buffer for me to unlock later, which was a bummer. But oh well, leveling up shouldn't be a problem now.

Of my stats I didn't know what to make, I'd need some time to figure them out. What I could tell at a first glance, however, was that my attack and movement speed were decent, while my defense was really low.

'Makes sense, human skin isn't the best armor. Gonna need to do something about that.'

And then there were the skills, the thing I was most excited about. Opening the tab revealed an entire tree of them, though most were locked. To start me off, I only had access to two.

Muscle Density I: Conditions Met

Adrenaline Rush I: Conditions Met

I looked into them further, and found the explanations lacking.

Muscle Density I

Special Ability: Locked

Active Effect: Increases Musclemass (small)

Adrenaline Rush I

Special Ability: Locked

Active Effect: Floods your blood with adrenaline

Just to test it out, I activated Adrenaline Rush. It was basically adrenaline on command, which was right up my alley. I felt it coursing through my veins, putting my body into overdrive as my heart rate went up. I didn't know the specifics, but I felt a lot faster for those ten seconds. Light as a feather too, at least until it ran out and went on a three minute cooldown.

'Damn.'

I looked further up the skill tree to try and get an idea of what I could unlock, but I couldn't find much. The skills were all there, but they were locked and the only information they would provide was that the conditions for unlocking weren't met yet.

'Do I have to level up to unlock them?' I wondered.

I checked the other tabs. The item and magic tabs were empty, since I had no items equipped or any magic learned. I'd expected as much. The party and contract tabs were empty as well, since I had no party members and hadn't forged any contracts with anyone yet.

'Are contracts like quests? Or jobs?' I wondered. 'Doesn't matter, I'll find out later.'

The last tab to check out was the help tab. It displayed a lot of information, too much for me to parse and understand without stopping and paying full attention, but here's the gist of it. Since I made my own body my weapon, all of my skills would be physical in nature. I could unlock them by performing various feats, as well as having the appropriate level, and I could upgrade the skills by using them. So basically I had to do physical training to improve.

'Good thing I started working on Ezbel's farm,' I thought. 'All of the physical labor will make for great training.'

I reached the meadows a few minutes later, all out of breath, and even running around madly like that helped. A notification appeared, letting me know I unlocked a new skill.

Lung Capacity I: Conditions Met

Lung Capacity I

Special Ability: Locked

Active Effect: Increased Lung Capacity (small)

What was up with the ability being locked, though? How did that differ from the effect of the skill? Even more questions for later. I looked around for Naofumi, finding him all the way off in the distance.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked when I reached him.

He was bent down, plucking random weeds from the ground. His shield glowed out of the blue, and in response he brought the plant he'd just picked closer. It disinterested and was absorbed into the shield's core.

"What was that?" I asked. "Did you put that plant into your inventory or something? Do we have internal inventories?"

"What? No," Naofumi answered. "I let the shield absorb it to unlock a new form."

"To what now?" I asked, perplexed. Was that how his shield worked?

Naofumi got to his feet and extended his shield in my direction. He yelled leaf shield and the thing changed, from the basic shield to one that looked like it was made of plant matter.

"Whoa, that's cool!" I said, getting pumped up.

"Too bad it doesn't let me do much," Naofumi complained. "It doesn't give me any offensive options, none of the shields I unlocked this far do."

"Bummer," I agreed. "But I don't think you'll ever get much attack power, to be honest. Shields are for defending."

"That's what I'm afraid of as well," Naofumi admitted. "But I have to try."

"Good luck with that. Also, since I'm here, should we get to fighting?"

"Sure."

We went off into the fields, looking for balloons together. Now that I had a weapon and could level up, working with Naofumi was a bad idea. But a promise was a promise and I had to see it through. I had to help him out until he'd have enough money to hire a party member.

We fought for a while, and he explained what he was doing. Apparently, he wasn't picking random weeds, but medicinal herbs. They didn't sell for much, but they were still better for profits than fighting on his own to get battle loot.

"And the leaf shield gives me a gathering bonus, so going that route might even be better than fighting with you," he explained. "But a promise is a promise, so I'll…"

"Oh, I already got a weapon," I told him.

He gave me a lopsided look.

"Where…is it?"

"Right here," I said with a wide grin, flexing a bicep.

I explained to him what happened back at Erhard's shop, and how I made my own body my weapon when I was left with no other choice. He didn't want to believe me at first, but then I showed him how the core looked now.

"That's…interesting," he said, though I could tell he didn't sound particularly impressed.

"Yeah, and it's also interesting how we have different power-up methods," I said. "I wonder if the others have unique systems as well."

Naofumi thought about it. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and he rubbed his chin.

"Could be," he said dryly. "But you could also be an outlier. I can't find anything similar to what you're saying in my help tab."

"Yeah, well, I can't find anything about your power-up method either," I shot back, looking through my own help tab. "They're probably unique to everyone, like our weapons are. I've played MMOs like that."

"Maybe," Naofumi conceded.

I had no reason not to believe him, it made no difference either way. Even if our power-up methods were the same or wildly different, our goal didn't change: grow strong and save the world. As soon as I made up my mind about Naofumi's claims, I received a new notification.

New power-up method unlocked: absorption.

See the help tab for more details.

"Uhhh…Naofumi?"

He didn't answer. I turned to look at him, finding him focused on his own menu. Or at least that's what I assumed, seeing him staring off into empty space.

"I just got access to a new power-up method," Naofumi mumbled. "And by the looks of it, it's…your method."

"I got access to yours as well," I admitted.

He looked up at me. We made eye contact, staring dumbfounded at each other for a long moment. Neither one of us knew what to say anymore.

"I have to try it out!" We both yelled, taking off in different directions.

I went around picking random weeds, while Naofumi fought with balloons. What his plan was I couldn't tell, but since I'd seen him absorb plants, that's what I wanted to replicate. The first few I got bore no results, they were probably useless. But then I got one that my core reacted to. With bated breath and a lot of anticipation, I brought the plant closer to it and let the core absorb it.

Green Thumb I: Conditions Met

Green Thumb I

Special Ability: Locked

Active Effect: Gathering (small)

'Gathering?'

I activated it just to see what happened. My hands started to glow, and the skin changed in an instant, turning into what looked like a mix of tree bark and moss that reached to about half-way up my forearm. I looked at it perplexed. It didn't feel any different from before, and trying to move my fingers still worked the same.

'I need to absorb more,' I decided. 'I need to absorb everything.'

In the distance, Naofumi fought some ten balloons all at once. They jumped him and bit onto him, he punched them away for a while, then he suddenly stopped. He grew still as a statue while the balloons piled him, until he wasn't even visible beneath them anymore.

"Yo!" I yelled.

"I'm fine!" He answered, though his voice came out dampened. "I unlocked one of your abilities!"

"Which one?!"

"Thick skin!"

"I don't have that one!"

I looked through my skills tab, but I really couldn't find any ability called thick skin. Some sounded similar, but none were exactly the same. But then again, I didn't exactly get a leaf shield either from absorbing a plant, I got an ability called green thumb. Would the power-up methods give us different skills based on our weapon? It made sense, we weren't expanding our arsenal just the way we used it.

We ran around like that for a while, doing a bit of everything as we both tried to unlock as many skills as humanly possible. At some point I fought an orange balloon and absorbed the skins, which gave something new.

Orange Balloon Fangs: Conditions Met

Orange Balloon Fangs

Special Ability: Locked

Active Effect: Increased Attack (small)

I activated it to see what would happen, and a collar materialized out of thin air around my neck. It grew up and down, covering my face to below my eyes like a mask, and stopping at the base of my neck.

"That looks creepy!" Naofumi yelled from a little distance away.

I opened my mouth to answer, and the mask parted as well, like a set of jaws on top of my own. But it wasn't a smooth line, it was jagged and resembled cartoonish teeth. Like the fangs of an orange balloon.

"I have a feeling all of them will be," I answered.

With the collar still around my mouth, I ran around and caught another balloon. It squirmed in my grasp and tried to bite me, and I was eager to give it a taste of its own medicine. I bit down into it with the fake teeth, popping it almost instantly. It blew up in my face, pushing my hair back but doing no damage. Naofumi started to laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, haha," I shot back with a grin. "At least I can kill them now."

"In that case, scram," he answered. "We both need to level up so we can't stick together anymore."

"But you don't have your money yet," I said. "I made a promise."

Naofumi scratched his chin, thinking it over.

"You won't earn exp gathering weeds anyway," I pushed on.

"Fine, but let's go further. It'll take too long with orange balloon skins, and I want to be done as soon as possible."

"Let's," I said and gave him a thumbs up.

Going further meant stronger monsters, but also new drops for me to absorb and new feats to perform. So further we went. If anyone would've seen us and our methods, I bet they'd have gotten a good laugh. We found more balloons on the way, and Naofumi let them bite into him. Then I swept in, biting them back and popping them off of him. He didn't seem amused, but even I couldn't hold back my laughter after a while.

We reached the forest after a bit, so we looked around for different monsters. The first ones we found were balloons as well, though they were different colors. Yellow and red balloons, giving us appropriately colored skins. We both absorbed a few to see what we would unlock. Naofumi got some new shields, but I didn't get anything. I was reaching the limit of what my level was allowing me to use.

These balloons were also sturdier, taking more bites to pop than the orange ones, so I was reaching the limit of my abilities as well. But I still wanted to push just a little further.

"We shouldn't," Naofumi said.

"They still didn't put a dent in you," I pressed on. "We'll manage just a little further out, and stronger monsters will give better battle loot. With your protection, I'll be fine."

"Suit yourself," Naofumi said, shrugging his shoulders.

So we pushed deeper into the forest, until we stopped encountering balloons. We found some mushroom looking monsters instead, and those took even more bites to kill. They also tasted horrible when I bit down into them. But I managed to kill quite a few, and just like before, we both absorbed some of the loot. Even though it didn't give me any new skills, it would at least knock off some of the requirements for later. All I needed to do now was level up.

"That's enough," Naofumi said after a couple of hours, with our packs nearly bursting at the seams with loot. "We'll sell these, and I'll gather some more medicinal plants to cover the difference."

We both pushed ourselves and were tired by that point, so I accepted his verdict. Even though we could push ourselves, I still needed to get back to the farm anyway, so I had to save some of my strength for the work I was supposed to do.

We turned and started walking back, when a shrill screech from a nearby bush stopped us in our tracks. A monster jumped out at us, too fast for us to react. I didn't get to dodge, and Naofumi didn't get to jump in the way to block it. The monster was a rabbit, called an Usapil, with spotless white fur, the size of a bulldog and with a crazed look in its eyes.

It landed on my back and bit into my left shoulder, sending blood flying everywhere. That might sound funny, it's just a rabbit, but let me assure you that a rabbit that large can do some serious damage. I started running around, trying to pry it off of me, but that only made it bite down harder. It also started to scratch with all of its limbs, piercing my puny tunic and sending long cuts down the length of my back.

"Fucking fuck!" I yelled.

"Come here, damn it!" Naofumi yelled, chasing after me.

He only wanted to help, but I knew he'd make things worse. Trying to pry that thing off of me would result in more wounds as it struggled. So I changed tactics, activating both adrenaline rush and muscle density. Adrenaline flooded my bloodstream, and I felt my muscles swelling under my skin. Using the extra strength I was granted, I rushed towards the closest tree with full force. When I was close enough, I did a front flip, making sure to push as hard as possible with my legs.

I collided into the tree back first, hearing the rabbit monster getting squashed in the process. Its teeth loosened around my shoulder and its frantic scratching ceased, so I rolled away before it had a chance to regain its senses and attack again. When Naofumi caught up, he jumped on top of it and bashed it with the shield to keep it in place.

"End it!" He screamed.

"Oh, it'll be my pleasure, believe me," I said, activating lung capacity as well just to be sure.

Naofumi lifted it up, maintaining a tight grip on the monster as it started squirming again. I dashed in, feeling the rage and bloodlust building up in my soul and welling out in a cascade of killer intent. With so many skills active at once, enhancing my body and the damage I dealt, I bit down into its soft abdomen. The teeth of the mask went right through the pelt and skin, spilling blood and guts on my face.

"Fuck! This one has blood!" I screamed, backing away as it got into my eyes and blinded me. Some even got into my mouth, satiating my bloodlust in the most literal sense of the word.

"Of course it does," Naofumi said as he discarded the thrasing rabbit. "It's an animal."

"A heads up would've been nice!" I complained, rubbing blood off my face. "I was expecting all of them to evaporate!"

"How was I supposed to know you were gonna bite its stomach?!" Naofumi answered.

"Whatever," I said when I could finally see again. I was a complete mess, full of scratches and bites, covered from head to toe in my own blood and Usapil blood and guts. "I need to clean myself and treat these wounds, I can't return to the farm looking like this. Ezbel will have a heart attack."

I looked at my health bar, seeing about half of it gone. This wasn't even a high level monster, or all that strong for that matter. It got the drop on me, sure, and maybe surprise attacks got a damage bonus or something. But even so, I was too weak. A glass cannon.

"Yeah, you better do that," Naofumi agreed, picking up the rabbit that finally died on the ground.

"What the fuck, leave it," I said with disgust.

"Why would I?" He said, holding onto its long ears as he slung it over his shoulder. "I can try to sell it, or butcher it myself for dinner to save money."

"Suit yourself, man."

And with that, we walked side by side back to the capital.

A/N: Okay, it's been a hot minute since I updated this fic, and there's a reason for that. I've been busy writing for my next novel, so all of my time and energy went towards that. And it's still going towards that, so I'll put this fic on hiatus for a bit. I'm all out of buffer chapters.

For how long I don't know, until the end of summer at most. I'll try to make some room in my schedule to write for it as well, but I want to have a few buffer chapters again before I return.

Also, I'm not sure I understood how skills work in Shield Hero, but I tried my best. If anyone wants to explain it to me in the comments or PMs feel free to, if I get a better grasp of it I'll re-write this chapter to correct it.

Now onto the comments!

To LordofPride213, something like that yeah. This chapter should explain it, I hope. He won't exactly get fighting types as skills, he still has to learn that stuff by himself, but his skills will enhance his body. Also, let's just say things will get interesting once Kenji finds out what Motoyasu's power-up method is ;)

To FORD B, thanks. And yeah, that's Raphtalia, yay :D She'll come into play in a bit, but not by Kenji's side.

To Soup, no replacing or re-writing any of the Vassal Weapons. They stay the same. Plus I don't know enough about them to do that. But as far as I've watched and read, I haven't seen a Hero or Vassal with their body as their weapon, so I'm going with that.

Anyways, that's about it, thank you for tuning in!