Author's Note: Okay so Fanfiction isn't being a pain today, and if it was I've learned ways of making it do what I want. So Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 26: Upgrade in Process
Kuro felt like she was being taken advantage off. She had taken a look through every spear Katarina could turn her weapon into and now had lined up copies along the street which Katarina was running across hand touching them as she went along and taking the resulting upgrades into her legendary weapon already unlocked weapons spiking in quality. Which in turn was serving to make her grow stronger.
'The Legendary Sword can copy other Swords that the Hero has picked up.'
The notification appeared, along with briefly touching upon the bone weapons that had given Kuro the crafting bonuses in the first place.
"I'm not starting that Cycle Byakuya." Kuro stated as she dismissed one set of projected spears and spawned another, getting zapped in protest in response.
Bone weapons traced, for her connection with the legendary weapon meant that she could get data on it's forms that sight alone could not provide and thus produce a more accurate and stronger copy than what she could ever do working by herself, and upgraded through that tracing, resulting in a increase to her crafting bonus, which would augment the tracing process and by extension bone weapons and with them the crafting Bonus. It was a vicious cycle that while Kuro was confident would stop eventually it would cause all of her Noble Phantasms to sky rocket in power and level.
"Whose Byakuya?" Atla asked looking confused.
"The name of the consciousness inside of my sword." Kuro replied watching Tanya and Maple get there.
Atla was wearing a hoodie with shorts now, still just as imaginary as the day before until Aranaya had her clothes ready.
"We're almost ready to leave and you two are playing around with spears?" Tanya asked looking at Kuro suspiciously.
"I'm using Kuro's magic to upgrade all of my spears!" Katarina shouted proudly, even as she continued to run back and forth re-acquiring weapons in the process.
"Kuro?" Tanya asked looking suspicious.
"This sword has upgraded my tracings, which upgraded my weapons in the process." Kuro explained before gesturing to Katarina. "She decided to take advantage of that." Kuro stated indicating the girl running along a fresh set of magical formerly imaginary spears.
"I see. But it's not worth the delay." Tanya stated indicating for them to move along. "Finish on the carriage ride over."
"Huu." Considering Kuro had nothing to gain from this exercise she had nothing to lose by doing it on the way over to what ever tail they were going to pull out of the fire next. "Your tailor should be working on some proper clothes for Atla and her brother right now." Kuro stated as she tapped the side of Atla's chair, her elder brother who was still kowtowing in apology, to take his sister inside so that she could stop wearing clothes that would dissolve if she got too far away.
"She can do that on the carriage." Tanya retorted and it was probably true, though it'd have to be a hell of a carriage to do that.
"Um I'm sorry but, you said that your sword keeps upgrading your blade making?" Maple asked looking at Kuro confused. "How?"
"Proficiency obviously. Didn't you read about that in your help menu." Kuro asked looking equally confused and Tanya already didn't like where this conversation had gone.
"Do you mean Enchantment?" Katarina asked brow in the air. That's strike three.
"Alright so clearly our weapons are working off of different systems." Tanya stated eyes glaring up at the heavens. "Since I seem to have figured this out first I'll start things off: Refinement has it that every weapon transformation has a corresponding ore that if you feed to the damned thing it'll upgrade it. It works off of tiers, common, uncommon, rare and legendary, which is not how refinement is suppose to work but I assume that has something to do with the increasingly higher chance of failure associated with each tier. Kuro?"
"The longer I have a weapon out the more I build proficiency increasing the power behind it, and whatever associated equip bonus it gives me. I can transfer proficiency to weapons I have not already unlocked to unlock them and if I max out proficiency with a weapon I can choose to master it which makes for a permanent untransferable power up to both the weapon's stats and equip bonus. Katarina if you wouldn't mind?"
"Enchantment extracts energy from materials stored inside of my spear and imbues them into other weapons to give them bonus stats. Doesn't do anything for the equip bonuses though. I can however unlock equip bonuses from weapons I haven't yet by stuffing them full of the material that unlocked them in the first place. Maple?"
"Nothing about weapons. Mine is called Relationship Meter. I form close ties with my companions which takes the form of a mutual building of power with one another. In short, the closer the relationship we have with one another the stronger that we both get in the process. When I got enough bonds high enough with enough people I unlocked the 'companion series' which offers growth bonuses to everyone in my party."
With all of that established two things needed to be established. The first: what the hell are these weapons thinking? They all have these convenient methods of increasing their power and they're not sharing them with one another. The second was how to fix this situation immediately.
"Kuro your weapon talks to you what does it have to say about this stupidity?" Tanya asked looking at Kuro suspiciously.
'The Legendary sword cannot access that data.'
"What do you mean you cannot access that information you useless butt-" Kuro was interrupted by a electrical shock from the weapon, which further disturbed the rest of the group by way of Kuro's moaning in pleasure from it.
'The Legendary Sword is not useless! The Legendary Sword has not received permission from the Binder!'
"Binder? What is there a legendary book hero out there too?" Kuro snapped while Maple seemed to have suddenly found something in her help menu.
"Girls."
"Apparently there are seven other weapons besides ours, if they're like Maple's then they probably had abilities that affect other people too." Tanya stated prompting Katarina to nod her head.
"Girls!"
"That makes sense, I mean Kuro's hack with her world's magic is giving me a huge boost in stats." Katarina stated as she nodded her head.
"GIRLS!" The others turned their attention to Maple who had been trying to get their attention. "Ahem. My help menu says I can do everything you guys were talking about just now." The others blinked stupidly at Maple's statement.
"All of it?" Kuro asked looking confused.
"All of it. Kuro's talk about proficiency just now." Tanya and Katarina both received notifications. "Tanya's talk about Refinement from before." Kuro and Katarina both got notifications. "And Katarina's talk about Enchantment." Kuro and Tanya both received more notifications. "I have no idea what kind of 'binder' I fed to my weapon but..."
"DDDAAAMMMNNNIIITTT!" Kuro suddenly got down on her knees and screamed towards the sky. Kuro's screams of despair corresponded to the notification that her Bone series of weapons had just finished multiple reinforcements bringing them up to Legendary, for which the sword somehow made use of Kuro's ability to skip inconvenient processes when refining weapons, which in turn upgraded her Noble Phantasms again. The weakest among them was now in the 130's. Katarina's enchantment didn't do anything for them, so Kuro took what blessings that she could in this situation.
"Hey all my stats went up again!" Katarina stated ignorant to Kuro's despair.
"Let's... just go to the hot spring now. I think we all need to have a look through our weapon menu's for a bit." Tanya stated helping Kuro to her feet. "That and Kuro needs to start mass producing weapons again." Tanya stated which just made Kuro sink further into despair.
'1000 swords: create 1000 blades out of spirit power and fire them at enemy forces.'
"Don't talk to me." Kuro snapped at the blade glaring in blatant annoyance even while she dropped more of Maple's Shields and Tanya's bows into the carriage. "You went ahead and tampered with my Noble Phantasms again, you stupi-Uuu!" Kuro got zapped by the blade again before she could finish her sentence.
'The Legendary Sword is not Stupid!' The blade went through Kuro's help menu again and stopping on the section that mentioned 'Combo skills. Magic can be imbued into skills to create a enhanced effect.'
"I knew that already." Saved her life a couple of times too, since the resulting construct became apart of the skill for the blade instead of it's own independent existence it let her use things like Maria the Ripper and Rule Breaker. "What about it?"
'As a skill or magic is upgraded and mastered it's fuel efficiency is gradually increased which in turn means that it requires less mana.' Kuro had a look at her stats again.
"Byakuya, why is my mana stat so much higher than everything else again?" The sword had started mastering equip bonuses for things other than increasing her crafting bonuses or boosting her mana, or so she recalled.
'Refining weapons increases their corresponding Equip bonuses.'
"So the only reason why you were evening out my stats before is because you ran out of ones to boost my mana and crafts?" Kuro asked brow twitching.
Putting the sword away Kuro slumped backwards as the carriage continued to be filled and emptied of weapons.
"You and your sword having a argument again?" Tanya asked as bows were dropped in her hands and then dropped on the floor.
"We have disagreements yes."
"What I don't understand is why Maple's shield hasn't been talking to her." Katarina asked even as she dropped the spear in her hands. "I mean she unlocked a 'virtue' too, she used it during the wave in Zeltoble."
"I have no idea." Maple stated as she dropped another shield on the floor of the carriage. "I've been able to sleep better since I got it though."
Between Midori and Filo the four carriages filled with hero party members soon arrived at the familiar hotsprings town the group had stayed at before the last wave to hit Melromarc. The king was already there, this was made evident by the heavy presence of soldiers from the capital that was already waiting for them.
"Sir Heroes." One of the soldiers gave a salute as the leading carriage stopped in front of the town's gate.
"Where's the prince consort?" Tanya asked brow cocked suspiciously.
"In a private room he reserved in advance. Fantastic choice for holding the meeting by the way." The soldier stated relaying the King's appreciation.
"Irrelevant." Tanya stated bluntly.
The four Heroes were led to the private room in question where the King was waiting for them, a soak in the hot springs having invigorated his old body and leaving him refreshed. It should help him salvage his dignity after he gets verbally dressed down by four children most of whom weren't any older than his youngest. The four heroes filled into the room the king had reserved and took their seats around the table he was sitting at.
"Heroes. I trust your time in Zeltoble was... productive?" The King ventured seeing if he can probe information related to the impending demise of the largest criminal organisation in the world.
"I've compiled a list of things we need to get done." Tanya stated a folder thick with relevant information dropped on the table from her bow. "We believe we are being targeted by either Faubrey or more specifically it's whip hero." Tanya stated as she opened the section of information up that relates to what they've gathered. "Kuro was attacked by someone who was wielding not only five different weapons but also all seven of the cursed series."
"And you believe the Whip Hero is responsible?" The King asked looking at Tanya suspicious. "It would be the second time she's been attacked, the first being a impostor pretending to be the claw hero in Siltvelt, this time it was impostor pretending to be the Projectile Hero." Tanya explained bluntly.
"The Axe Hero never showed up for the wave in Shieldfreeden too!" Katarina piped up prompting Tanya to nod her head.
"Likely because the person who killed him and took his identity was already on his way to Siltvelt after Kuro killed his companion." Tanya followed up with what she thought was more theory than fact at this point.
"Those are serious accusations young lady. I hope you have proof about them." The King stated and Kuro was quick to provide, pulling a small blue crystal out of her bow.
"You're familiar with recording crystals yes?" Tanya put the crystal ball on top of the table. "Zeltoble recorded the wave, either for money or a historical document, and in the process caught more then what they initially bargained for." It was all there, the holes in the sky, the never before seen monsters, the desert landscape. But key to Tanya's point was the masses of light that flew out from a central point and then scattered into the sky. "We've been trying to get a read on where they went." Tanya produced a map next, where Kuro thought she had been, where the crystal had taken the footage, lines indicating the path's the weapons took before they lost track of them.
"I will get the cartographers on this. The more pressing issue here is that, according to your claims, someone had five of them." The King stated looking at the map dubiously.
"Nearly added my sword to the mix too before I Rule Breaker him." Kuro stated shoulders shrugged.
"Rule Breaker?" The King asked causing Kuro to smile.
"Part of the reason why I think I was summoned here really, but we'll get to the finer details of that later." Kuro had a look around the King. "Where's your cane Cane Hero?"
"Haven't used it in years." The King stated shrugging his shoulders. "We came to a disagreement."
"I can relate." Kuro stated causing her to get zapped again.
"What sort of disagreement?" Tanya asked rolling her eyes.
"I took issue with the Staff turning me into a unhinged psychotic artillery cannon that led me to murder my own sister in cold blood and nearly her two children as well." The King stated which managed to stun the entire group into shocked silence. "Would you like some tea? The blend they serve here is positively divine."
"...Um. Can we-"
"No." Was the King's tort reply.
"Right." Tanya stated pausing while she got her bearings.
"What's the reinforcement method for the cane? Near as we can tell they're all unique for each weapon." Maple asked using the opening Tanya had generously provided for her.
"Magic point. Every level up gives points that can be sunk into magic spells to reduce their consumption rate, shorten their chants and increase their power." The King replied mildly intrigued. Kuro just let out a exhausted sigh as Maple checked her menu and shook her head in the negative. It seems that they needed the actual cane.
"The attacker was able to take Kuro's sword, however briefly, but doesn't seem to be able to snatch the gauntlets. Since changing his appearance is no big deal to him and they're not under any unreasonable amount of guard we can assume he can only steal weapons, and not claim them." Tanya explained having absorbed the relevant information and so choose to move the conversation along now.
"The fact that he can do this at all is madness." The King stated leaning back in his chair. "No one has ever claimed more than one weapon before. What makes you think the whip hero is responsible?"
"Takt Alsaholn Faubrey..." Tanya stated opening up another folder. "Hero of the Whip. 'Inventor' of a vast number of technologies in a diverse array of different if not wholly unrelated fields. Prodigy in the use of magic. Candidate for the position of King of Faubrey albeit a low ranking one." Tanya proceeded to list out the reasons one by one.
"Some people are blessed by the gods." The king stated the look on his face wondering when Tanya was about to reach her point.
"Precisely." Tanya agreed as the king hit the point directly on the head. "So then what if a god sent him to soften up this world up for the waves?" The king's eyes went wide at that. "None of our world's have ever had anything happen to them that resembles a wave." Tanya stated making her point clear. "You are being invaded, regularly by somewhat coordinated monster attacks." The moment the dogs from the first wave met the zombies of the second they immediately hooked up and attacked the village they were both at. "Your world is being seeded by enemy combatants of a growing level of power that has been disguised as a natural disaster. Who ever is responsible is patient, clever, and does not seem to be short on resources to throw at us, nor do we have a realistic way of stopping them."
"This is not a battle we can win. Is that what you're saying?" Aultcray asked looking at the fellow military tactician and having come to the same conclusion as she had.
"Yes. That would seem to be the case." Tanya stated as she scratched her chin. "Not until we know what objective the enemy means to accomplish." The King closed his eyes and turned to Kuro.
"Rule Breaker. Explain." Towards this end Kuro made a blade appear out of thin air. "I am aware of your ability to copy objects you have seen. If you meant for it to be a surprise you should have limited the amount of times that you have used it to play dress up." The king stated making his displeasure clear.
"But that is not the power of Rule Breaker." Kuro said though the King did admit it wouldn't surprise him, Kuro's power certainly took a hatchet to the rules of this world. "Let us imagine for a moment that all of the great figures of history in your entire world could be gathered together for the purpose of beating the snot out of each other."
"The Heroes?" The King asked brow suspicious.
"Oh they would certainly be among them, the ones that got to leave their name in history." Kuro admitted thinking back to the main with the tiger shield she saw.
"Then any great historical figure?" The king asked stroking an invisible beard.
"Now you're learning. Any great and well known story will do, and you want to know why?" The King raised his brow indicating for Kuro to continue. "Because that is what they fight with: stories. Beaten and shaped into the weapons that they're built around their powers the ones dictated by the legend. Take the Rule Breaker for instance." Kuro drew the dagger on a sheet of paper, because while she could manifest it she wasn't going to waste the mana when she has more work to do tonight. "Princess Medea of the Mage empire of Colchis was both the eldest and heir of the Colchis royal family. They had the unfortunate designation of having something the gods wanted so they conspired to take it, and used her as a pawn. The goddess Aphrodite cast a curse on her that made her fall in love with her champion, Jason of Argo, without ever having met him. As a result of that love she helped make off with the Golden Fleece, a national treasure, butchered her own brother and turned him into fish food, killed the current king of Argo, unrelated to Jason, and later when Jason cast her aside to marry into the royal family of Corinth Medea showed up to roast the bride and all the wedding guests." The King understood the context holding his chin.
"So she was betrayed by everyone and so betrayed everyone in return." The King stated summarising Kuro's already summarised story.
"And so Rule Breaker has the power of inducing betrayal in whatever it stabs, severing all magical contracts in the process." Kuro replied simply.
"And this was how you stripped the fake Projectile Hero of his weapons?" Kuro snapped her fingers in the affirmative.
"My issue here is that they're, without exception, costly to produce. The more powerful they are the more costly they become." Kuro stated bluntly. "My magic involves convincing creation that the blade I'm holding in my hand exists when it doesn't." Kuro tossed the blade aside and watched it dissolved just to make her point. "To exist a Noble Phantasm requires the support of the legends associated with them, so here in this world where those legends do not exist the expense to create them has dramatically skyrocketed."
The King nodded his head. He could probably reduce the cost behind those if he could spread those legends throughout the four corners of this world but he doubted that would quite be enough.
"Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt?" The King asked looking at the four of them suspiciously.
"I'll be heading back to Siltvelt." Kuro stated hand raised.
"I'll be going to Shieldfreeden." Tanya stated hand raised. "Besides Katarina wanting to focus on Grinding for now I want to track down any sign of what happened to the Axe Hero."
"I'm going to be staying behind too." Maple stated which was a entirely correct response to do until they could convince Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden to share the girl, or if not share at least come to the mutual agreement that she was far more useful to them chasing off the waves if she wasn't split in half.
He would have recommended her staying in Zeltoble, if it wasn't for the fact that they started a civil war there. Hopefully the mess would be cleaned up by the time they have to deal with their wave again. Around that point in time one of the King's men came in to whisper something in his ear prompting a exasperated sigh.
"Anything else? Something has come up." The King stated very much wanting to wrap this up.
"Plans for Melromarc's wave. We want to add the Kingdom's army to our parties before the wave starts." Tanya stated and the King nodded his head in the affirmative, before he left with his man.
"What has him so ruffled?" Maple asked genuine concern on her features.
The internment camp outside of Melromarc's borders had been destroyed, the majority of it's prisoners and staff killed and the entire place torched. The ones responsible were making a retreat in a air ship, prominently displaying the heraldry of Faubrey before it suddenly turned invisible in midair. Malty had been allowed to change into proper Noble women's attire, something red, scandalously low cut and hugging her curvy body, and have a shower to wash the camp out of her system, and was currently downing healing potions like cheap booze trying to regrow her tongue that Elena cut out with a bit too much enthusiasm to be considered strictly safe.
"Feeling better?" Takt asked sitting across from Malty with perverse fascination. Malty scribbled something across a note pad before sliding it over to him.
'Better. I'll feel even better when that little brat and her two companions heads are mounted on her spear!'
"Would you prefer that fate over what I have planned?" Takt stated letting out a dark chuckle. "I seem to recall your parents sending you to boarding school in my home and native land as a not too subtle threat to feed you to our illustrious and respected King." Takt stated, tone dripping with so much sarcasm his tongue had practically turned into a viper, before he leaned forward. "What do you think of the idea of sending her and her fellow 'heroes' to him instead?"
Malty's face went wide as she grinned in a manner that was all malice. The Princess turned farmer/prisoner turned princess once more quickly scribbled out another sentence.
'I'm listening.' And with two words the Princess of Melromarc betrayed her country.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: They often do. Aside from Kuro and Atla and Katarina with the boys in her party. No. Saying things like 'what kind' implies that there's a limit on the kinds of magic you can cast which defeats the whole point of mages in the first place.
Captain Imaginat: I'm pretty sure you said that already. Not Maple, Raphtalia.
Kisame Hoshigaki: To be fair she was probably flat out raised by the sex slaves whenever her brother wasn't around to look after her. Kuro, from what little I've seen of her because I never actually watched her show, seems to be bisexual. All true.
drmcgraw186: Why would Maple be drinking alcohol? Yes I do agree that people need to let Keel be them-self. Well Fohl was made for bullying anyway.
Sentaislice: Understandable, have a nice day.
Amatsumi: Something I am working on ways around.