AN: Uploaded early so enjoy.
Chapter 3: A New World of Adventure
It is almost sun rise over at Melromarc and Arthur is all set despite not being able to use his weapons other than his shield. He already exited out of his room and heads over to the other three, getting them out of their beds and into his room.
Motoyatsu yawns as Ren asks, "So what is this about?"
"I figure out who is gonna take the fall from the false accusation the princess will try to pull."
"You did?!" Itsuki says out loud. "How did you manage to find that out?!"
Arthur answers, "My sister was skulking around and got some information."
Motoyatsu is fully awake, "She's here?!"
Arthur raises his shield and about ready to bash him so Motoyatsu shuts himself up. He clears his throat before saying, "This country turns out to be a human supremacist country that worships three heroes. Not four, three! The bow, the spear, and the sword."
Rem quickly figures it out, "So the shield hero is gonna take the fall."
Motoyatsu laughs a little, "You can't be serious?"
Arthur just stares at him with a serious look on his face.
"You are serious."
"But did you get her name?" Itsuki asks. "Or at least what the princess looks like?"
"She didn't find out." Arthur says to the three, "But I do have a plan on drawing her out with some info she provided. Not only that, we should keep quiet about this until something happens."
Motoyatsu speaks, "By the way. I know I might get bashed in the face like last time but I'm gonna risk it. Did she say anything about us?"
Arthur looks at Itsuki, "She says that you maybe cute but too clean and tidy for her."
"Umm... Thanks?" 'Although now that I think about it, I didn't see her when we were summoned.'
He then looks at Ren, "You may look cool but a little scary with that face of yours but seem more trustworthy."
Ren has no idea how to respond to that.
Arthur looks at Motoyatsu, who seems to be eager, "She says you may look like a nice guy, but you are a womanizing piece of shit that she wants to beat up before mutilating your balls."
Motoyatsu close up his legs and covers his crotch.
"Her words, not mine."
Itsuki chuckles a little while Ren says, "At least your sister has good taste."
"HEY!"
The four made it to the throne room with the king on his thrown and everyone in the palace watches. Not only that, there seems to be twelve people in front of the king. These will be the adventurers that will assist the heroes.
The king speaks, "We have gathered the greatest warriors in the land. These brave souls will fight the waves along side you."
Arthur eyed one of the adventurers with emerald green eyes and royal red hair that is semi-long. 'Bingo.' he thought to himself, 'That's her. Yet why the hell does she look familiar for some reason? As a matter of fact, they all do.'
The girl looks at Arthur and smiles, but Arthur turned his face away. She is a little upset about that.
The king continues to speak, "Our future champions, the time has come to begin your journey!"
The adventurers walk forward as they choose on who to form a party with. Itsuki has three adventurers joining his party while Rem has five for his party. Motoyatsu has four girls for his party and Arthur gets none. Yet Arthur is not surprised.
The king says, "I'm loathed to admit it, but even I wasn't expecting this."
The minister says with his head down and eyes closed, "No volunteers? He must have zero charisma."
Another one of the kings ministers came to whisper to the kings ear. Once he is done the king speaks again.
"I've been made aware of an unsettling rumor."
Arthur says, "Let me guess; the rumor is about me being ignorant about this world."
The king is taken by surprise there, "Yes. But how-"
"Excuse me, your majesty, King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII." Arthur interrupts. "Or perhaps I should call you by your real name. Lüge Lansarz Faubrey. Formerly third in line of the throne of Faubley."
The king was completely caught off guard when Arthur says the king's real name. Ault- I mean Lüge, started to sweat a little as the people in the court are murmuring about this new news. It was a bit of a shock to everyone.
Itsuki asks Arthur, "Lüge Lansarz Faubrey?"
"That is correct. But did you know that summoning all four of us here even created a diplomatic issue with all other nations? The queen went out to plea for an alliance with the surrounding nations about each of the nations summoning their own hero. The king doesn't have the authority to summon us here. Because this country is under matriarchy rule, not patriarchy. Now she is trying to prevent them from declaring war on Melromarc."
Motoyatsu is shocked to here this news, "Seriously?!"
"Indeed. Because of us being here, many of the nations were planning to invade Melromarc along with some industrial age, steampunk weapons from Faubley like guns and cannons. Not to mention some of the demi-human races from Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt who are fanatical about the shield hero. As a matter of fact, before I got the shield, the shield hero before me was mysteriously murdered." Arthur looks at the king, "There is something else you should know. The country that is most upset about us being here is Faubley because many of its family members are descendants of the heroes and the seven star heroes. But if I'm correct, the king would want to have your daughter as a piece offering through marriage."
The girl that Arthur eyed before screamed out, "NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" She quickly covered her mouth when she realized what she had done. The three heroes look at her and are a bit surprised.
'So she's the princess.' Itsuki thought.
Ren thinks to himself, 'He managed to identify the princess with what he said. This guy must be one hell of a negotiator with the right intel. I need to remember not to piss this guy off.'
'So she's the princess?' Motoyatsu thinks to himself. 'Now that I think about it, she is pretty hot! Oh wait, she's a bad girl. Still though.'
The king grits his teeth in anger as he looks at Arthur, "How?! How do you know so much?!"
"My sister has been collecting info around the castle. Plus the people do love to gossip. If I don't have anyone in my party, then I guess I can rely on my sister for help. But one last thing; the queen may see this act as an act of treason." He addresses the crowd, "And we all know what happened to those that commit treason in this country correct?"
Everyone murmured a little louder when they hear the word 'treason'.
Arthur looks at the king, "Look, Lüge, I get it why you summon us and that reason is to protect your family. That much I can understand." He gives Lüge a serious glare, "However, did you think about the consequences of your actions that might get your family killed? If it is not the Waves, then it is your actions that would have repercussions that would have gotten killed. Like your wife and second daughter if one of those nations decide to kill them because of you."
Lüge looks down as he looks a shamed of what he has done as he tighten his grip on his thrown.
"You should be more cautious on what you should do before you do it." Arthur throws a fishing hook on a piano wire at someone holding onto the biggest bag full of silver and yoinked it into his right hand. It surprised everyone on how fast he managed to snatch it before Arthur continues talking. "King Lüge. You must always be aware of everything that might kill the people you love. Whether it is the Waves, the other nations..." Arthur glares at the priests at the corner of his eye, "...or your faith." Arthur turns around and leaves, "I will take care of these Waves for you for now. But don't make me into a bad guy. Fair well."
The priests in the crowd are a little frightened as they hold their...symbols tightly as they are a little shaken.
Itsuki, Ren and Motoyatsu look back at Arthur as the doors close.
"That guy was a dark horse." Motoyatsu pointed out.
Itsuki says, "Remind me to never get on his bad side."
Ren glances at Motoyatsu, "Too late for Motoyatsu. He's already on Arthur's bad side."
"HEY!"
Outside the throne room, Arthur takes a few steps closer to a staircase before leaning against a wall and sitting down.
"Holy shit!" Arthur says to himself. "That was too much! I don't think I have done anything like that before!"
Gwen pops her head from the staircase, "You're not used to talking to people who are staring at you."
Arthur looks at Gwen, "You have no idea. I mean when I brought some stuff over to that settlement, they were focus on my goods than me."
Gwen runs up and grabs Arthur's right arm, "Come on! Let's go exploring! We have a new world to see and experience something that doesn't smell like decaying crap with radiation!"
Arthur and Gwen went out of the castle and into the town. The place is full of people who are busy doing their work or shopping for certain materials. The place is so crowded that Arthur was feeling nauseous and went to an alleyway to barf due to crowd anxiety. He never went to places that are so pact with people that wasn't trying to kill him.
Arthur threw-up a bit.
"Geez, Arty!" Gwen speaks to Arthur from the entrance of the alleyway. "You really need to get used to this because the whole world is like this."
Arthur gets done barfing and says, "I told you...not to..." He throws-up again. "Forget it. I can't argue while in this state."
Gwen gives a thumbs-up, "And I should consider this a victory!"
But a bald man with some scars and dressed as a blacksmith with a well-built figure appears. "Hey kid! You alright?!" He approaches.
Arthur tries to catch his breath and looks at the man. "Sorry. I'm not used to crowds so-" He throws-up a little bit more.
The blacksmith takes a look at the teenage boy and noticed that he is strangely dressed but also notices something on his right arm. "Hang on." he says. "Are you, the shield hero?"
After that, Arthur is taken into the blacksmith's shop. The shop has a lot of swords, armor sets, shields, and other weapons in an organized manner.
"I can't believe it!" the blacksmith says. "One of the four heroes here in my shop! Although I wasn't expecting a hero to be so...young."
Arthur takes a few sips of water from his canteen before he says anything. "Well, expect the unexpected pal. I learned that from my pops." He puts away his canteen, "The name's is Arthur van Buren. And I do apologize for puking on the side of your shop. Never been in large crowds before."
"My name is Erhard and you're in the best blacksmith shop in all of Melromarc! But don't worry about that. Got a few drunks puking in that alleyway almost all the time. Do you need armor? Because it looks like you already have weapons on you."
"True. But for some reason I'm unable to use them. Even some that I got stashed on my sides."
"Now that is strange." Erhard pulls out some sort of magic monocle and examines the shield. "Hmm. Judging by its appearance, it looks like any other small shield. But there appears to be some sort of hidden magical potential in it. At least that's how it looks."
"Damn." Arthur says under his breath. He looks at Erhard, "But do you think I could get some armor I can hide under my duster? Like a chain mail shirt or something like that in that category? I'm willing to spend around 200 silvers plus 50 for helping out."
Erhard laughed, "Plus 50 for helping?! You sure throw a hard bargain. I'm liking you already. Let me see if I got something."
Erhard found some sort of mail shirt that is worth around 75 silvers. After getting it on, he shows it off to the shop owner.
"Now you look a little more like an adventurer." Erhard compliments the shirt.
Arthur examines it while wearing it. "A good iron chain mail shirt. Good condition. Sturdy. But a little hard to lift my shoulders a bit. Hmm." He touches the shirt to test its durability and to make sure nothing is wrong with it. "Thanks. But I will come back to sell this back and prep something special for me when I get the materials. Like some light weight and extremely harden materials and possibly dragon leather to make a new duster when I find them. The chain mail inside the duster. Hidden. Like secretly having armor inside of a coat."
"That's gonna cost you some gold."
"That's understandable." Arthur puts his old duster on and pays Erhard 135 silvers. "Here you go."
Erhard counts the money and notices the extra 10. "Hey, wait a minute. There's 10 silvers extra here."
"Consider it a tip. Which means a way of saying thank you."
Erhard takes the money and smiles, "Just don't go overboard. Otherwise I may not give you a hero's discount and you have to pay full price. Okay?"
"Got it! Later." As soon as Arthur is about ready to leave the door, someone opens it and knocks the door to his face. "OW!" and cause him to loose his hat.
"My bad!" a familiar voice says as Arthur rubs his head. Arthur looked and sees Motoyatsu. "Oh, hey little man. Sorry about that."
"Oh, hey Motoyatsu. Getting some new gear?"
Motoyatsu looks a bit unsure as he says, "Yeah, well..." The person coming in behind him is none other than Princess Malty S. Melromarc.
When Arthur sees the princess, Arthur picks up his hat and leaves while saying, "Later." in a more subtle hostile tone. Behind Malty's back, he gives her a middle right finger and sticks his tongue out before exiting.
Once we exited, Gwen is there leaning against the wall and asks, "Guessing you ran into the princess."
Arthur walks off, "Yeah. Although, that was the first time I get to spend actual money rather than doing any trading."
So after that, Gwen and Arthur went out and head to an open field where he encounters his first monster. Balloons. Round and orange small monsters with teeth and angry eyes.
Gwen looks at them and goes, "Seriously? That's the first monster that ya' need to face? A mutant rat and giant cockroach is more terrifying than those things!"
Arthur also looks disappointed at such a pathetic monster design. "Well, they ain't gonna get themselves killed so let's get rid of them."
Arthur charges in and attacks the balloon monsters he tries to punch one of them but managed to dodge and bite his left arm. However, he doesn't feel any pain. So, he grabs it and rips it in half by the mouth while gaining only 1 exp. Another one tries to chomp his head but he grabs it, throws it onto the ground, and stomps it. Causing it to die. He holds down two more and squeezed them between his pits and they explode.
'Huh.' he thought to himself. 'It's like squeezing those regular balloons back home when we used to do parties.'
He continues to rip apart the balloon monsters and gradually gain some experience points for each of the balloon monsters he has killed. However, he is attacked by a strange monster that looks like some large egg with a mouth where the egg contents are leaking out.
"The fuck?" Gwen says when she sees it. She points out, "Hey! There's some weirdo egg monster thingy attacking you!"
Arthur looks behind him and sees the egg monster and punches it.
Gwen shouts out, "Try putting some of their corpses in your shield!"
Arthur looks at Gwen and shouts back, "How the fuck does that work!?"
"Just put them on your green jewel thing on your shield!"
Arthur looks at his shield and takes a piece of the balloon monster into the green jewel. Once did, the remains swirl around like a flushing toilet and gains the [Balloon Shield]. "What the fuck?" He can now gain +2 Defense with his Balloon Shield.
Which some text shows up; 'Mastery Bonus: When a shield is used for a while to achieve a certain level of proficiency, it will grant its wielder permanent bonuses.'
He then puts the egg shell of the monster into his shield and gained the [Egg Shield] which increases his culinary skills by 1. "Weird." he says. "Why do I get the feeling this is gonna be like that KonoSuba anime." But he had an idea. 'Wait a sec.' he looks at his data pods on his bandoliers, 'What happens if I use these?' He takes one and loads it into his shield.
He did unlock something but the text says, 'UNKNOWN: Unable to identify the contents of the absorbed material. However, information will be available when certain conditions are meant.'
"Certain conditions?" Arthur has no idea what that means. "Hmm..."
Gwen takes a look, "Anything?"
"Well, it did something but it says that certain conditions need to be met in order to unlock the contents of my data pods." Arthur then loads his shield with all his data pods that he had on him. He keeps on doing so to see what happens but gets the same text. "Okay? Guess I have to find out how to unlock them. I'll worry about that later."
Gwen leans over, "I say we should sell those monster pieces at that one shop we did pass by. I did see someone selling one of those balloon pieces for one copper at the shop."
Arthur loads them up in his bag but doesn't go to town just yet. "Hold on. If these things are worth one copper, guess we should hunt down some more monsters. Yet I get the sneaking suspicion that the egg monster is worth more."
So Arthur continues to hunt down the monsters in order to gain more money. He hunted down 14 balloons plus the eight he already killed (except one is placed in his shield so it is 7) and 2 dozen egg monsters as he entered into a forest. But he then notices some familiar looking plants that he saw at an herb and medicine shop back in town. He picked up a piece of leaf from that plant and puts it in his shield he gained [Leaf Shield] which increases his foraging skill by 1 and improve the foraged object's quality. However, he has to be level 2 in order to use it.
"Ah nuts." he says. "Guess I have to level up and fast in order to use this shield." He went back to the town and started selling some of his items. But before he then looks at his katanas and starts to think of something.
Three yellow balloons that are close by as he grabs his right katana. The static and electricity that prevents him from using his sword starts to get intense as he tries drawing the sword out. The yellow balloons are all lined up and ready to attack him. Arthur draws the sword out as he grips the sword as tightly as he can with his arm getting numb as he points his katana at the monsters. What happened next is that he lets go of the sword as it flew at the three balloons that killed them and gets stuck in a tree.
"Holy shit! That actually worked!" Arthur is pretty impressed that his idea actually worked. Since the shield prevents him from using other weapons and cause them to just fly away, he devised a way to have it worked to his advantage.
"Way to go!" Gwen compliments her younger brother. But points out a serious flaw. "How are you gonna put it back into its sheath?"
"God-DAMMIT!"
When he made it back to town, he found a place that buys monster parts where he witnessed a man trying to sell three balloon remnants to the guy at the stall. The man that is buying gave the seller three copper coins. Once the man left with his copper coins, Arthur came up with all the monster pieces he has gathered.
"How much will you get me for these?"
The man looks at all the monster pieces Arthur has obtained as he smirks when he notices Arthur's shield. "Quite the haul you got there little boy. I would say...three copper."
Arthur looks at the man with a serious look as he says, "You might wanna rethink that because I witnessed you give three copper to the guy who brought in three of those balloon pieces. Not to mention one silver for a dozen egg shells from the person before. Are you trying to rip me off?" He grabs his left katana as static electricity is scattered as he slowly pulls it out, "Because we got a thing back where I'm from when we deal with those that try to rip people off." Arthur gives a menacing look as the shop keep starts to get scared.
"Okay okay!" He tossed some money on the counter, "Here! Twenty-one coppers and two silvers!"
Arthur puts his sword back and takes the money. "Thanks." Before he leaves, he gives a warning. "Oh and before I forget, tell everyone not to rip me off. An honest merchant is considered the best merchant around. A merchant that tries to rip off their customers will pay the price in terms of blood. Got it?"
The man still cowers as he says, "Got it!"
And Arthur leaves as he goes back to the forest.
Gwen follows, "Hey now! That wasn't very nice."
"That guy was trying to rip me off because I'm the fucking shield hero. Last I check, the shield hero isn't treated right because of the damn religion these people got."
"Still though."
"Let's just grab a bite to eat. I'm fucking hungry." Arthur seems to get a little excited. "Besides. I want to try to eat cheese. I really want to try it."
Back at Arthur's homeworld, real cheese is pretty much non-existent since the apocalypse came. Whatever cheese there was left has gotten all rotten and eaten by whatever can scavenge for food. He is also used to drinking powdered milk as well which doesn't make good cheese. Once he ordered a sandwich from a tavern that has cheese in it. He takes a little piece of cheese from it and tries it out. Once he did, he understands how delicious cheese made from real milk is like. To people who had it for centuries before the apocalypse took it for granted. For someone like Arthur, it tasted like silky smooth heaven on his tongue and going down his throat.
His eyes tear up, "So, this is cheese. It so delicious." Then slowly eats the sandwich to enjoy the cheese that is in it.
Afterwards, he heads back to the forest to gain more experience in order to level-up.
Arthur spent the entire afternoon killing any of the monsters that he can find. Mostly a bunch of balloons that are orange, yellow, and red. Orange is the weakest while red ones turn out to be a little tougher than expected yet still gained 1 exp per balloon. Yet he is trying his hardest to kill them for the loot that they drop in order to survive. He even found a few of those eggnug (or eggy) monsters. Then he came across a new species of monsters called Mush, which looks like some weird mushroom-like creatures. They come in white, green, and blue.
"Seriously?!" Arthur says with disappointment. "What's next, flying cabbages?!" He just took them out by stomping on them.
Unfortunately, they don't drop of anything of value but he loads them into his shield and gain a bunch of [Mush Shields]. With them, he gets Plant Identification I, Apprentice's Compounding, and Simple Compounding Recipes I. He also gained experience points ranging from 5-15.
"Okay, that's something. At least it doesn't have some sort of balancing issue. Better than the egg monsters but no loot." He looks at his EXP meter and sees that he has 70% more to go to level 2. He groans before saying, "Dammit. I need to find something strong to defeat. This is fucking ridiculous."
"You can say that again." Gwen is sitting on a tree branch close to where Arthur is. "The whole status thing is fucking dumb and only able to use a shield as an only weapon is complete shit."
Arthur gathers the corpses of the Mush to increase his [Mush Shields] capabilities while having a conversation. "At least the idea about my katanas work, we know that much. But once they are gone, I need to use some wires to sheath them back in. The idea only works if the monsters are in a row and I only got two katanas. Yet I wonder. Do throwing weapons still work?"
"Beats me." she shrugs. "But try out one of those knives you have stashed away."
Arthur check his backpack and tries to pull out some rusty old shurikens he has but he also gets an electrical shock. He then tries to grab his hunting knife, but he gets electrocuted again. But when he grabs an old metal butter knife, he didn't get electrocuted. Despite not being a weapon, he uses it anyway to kill a few enemies before it snapped.
"FUCK!" Arthur swears as he looks at the snapped butter knife and tosses it. "I can't work like this!" He punches the ground, "Screw it, I'm setting up camp!"
Not long after a while, Arthur has set-up camp by finding a few sticks, some branches that still have leaves, use some long grass to tie a few things up and he got himself a makeshift tent. Gwen is up on the trees keeping an eye out for anyone or anything that might attack the camp. Arthur gets a fire going and roast some mushrooms with some berries that he managed to forage. The sun sets and Arthur eats some of the more edible mushrooms with some berries for dessert. He would've gotten some fish but decides that will be for later. He also could've gotten some food and gotten dinner, but doesn't wanna run into Princess Malty (aka Manipulative Bitchy Slut) nor anyone affiliated with the king.
Arthur just sits by the fire but Gwen says, "Someone's coming!" from her treetop perch.
Arthur looked up and sees Ren coming towards his camp. Rem is wearing a mail coat like everyone else.
"Hey, Ren." Arthur gives him a friendly greeting. "Late night leveling up?"
"Yeah." he nods. "Camping out of the town for the night?"
"Yup. Because I'm not a fan of crowds. Prefer to stay out here."
Ren approach and sits on the other side of the campfire, "What about your sister?"
"Still around, somewhere." he shrugs. "She has a tendency to scout out on her own and managed to find things before coming back when she discovered something. Like with the information she told me that I used on that king back in the throne room." Arthur chuckles a little as he smirks.
"But how does she do it?" Ren asks. "Is she some sort of ninja or something?"
"Kinda." Arthur shrugs. "But here is something I outta tell you. You kinda remind me of this one character from a series called Sword Art Online." Arthur went into detail about SAO, Kirito, the VRMMO, and some other stuff that happened in the series.
Ren actually smiled a little, "You really think I'm like this guy? This...Kirito character?"
"Well, you looked the part. Prefer to be a loner and all that crap."
"I see. But has it always been you and your sister? Surviving with just the two of you?"
Arthur takes a deep breath as he looks down at the fire with his hat hiding his face, "Ren. You see that-"
"There you are Ren!" A young woman dressed like a martial artist with long green hair shows up. "Oh shield hero."
"Call me Arthur. Arthur van Buren."
She just ignores him and looks at Ren, "Come on Ren. Everyone is waiting for you at the inn."
Ren sighs as he get off his butt and follows his party member, "I'm coming."
The two walked away back to town with the martial arts girl asking, "What were you doing with the shield hero?"
"We were just having a chat. Why?"
Arthur turns in for the evening and sleeps after brushing his teeth with some toothbrush and homemade toothpaste in his bag. Gwen on the other hand, stays up on the tree and keeps an eye out.
She smiles and looks at Arthur while whispering, "Goodnight, little bro."
AN: Okay, next chapter is up and ready. Hope you are enjoying this series. Now for Q&A:
Guest #1: More about her will be revealed in the future.
Guest #2: That will remain a mystery for now. All will be revealed in time.
ptl: Take it easy, this is only the start.
Remember, that I've only seen the anime and I never read the manga or novels. So in order for the story to continue when we reached the last episode of season 1, we may have to wait for season 2. Plus I hope it will tie some people over until the sequel to Survival on a Strange World will come out in late 2019 or early 2020. Either way, I hope you enjoy.
Also, if you guys are part of any community that supports Rising of the Shield Hero, please but it into that community's archive so more people can enjoy.