Things hadn't been great in the new world for Naofumi, he had been summoned here as one of the four cardinal heroes to save the planet from a threat known as the Waves of Calamity, but he was struck with this Legendary Shield that although gave him a high defense, it made him unable to hurt a thing! This world had a video game mechanism, but different from the other three heroes who all had somehow played games identical to this world and knew everything about it, he didn't know shit! And his only companion, a beautiful red-haired lady, turned out to be a spawn of hell! Who not only stole all his money but also accused him of rape! Now he was branded as a criminal and for what? He hadn't even done anything since he arrived here! And people already seemed to hate him for no reason! Was it because of the shield?! He had lost his once innocent and joyful outlook on things, now he was only a shell of hate and angst of his former self
Thankfully he had made an ally at the very least, a blacksmith by the name of Erhard, who he was going to meet to ask for a way to get more money, as threatening scamming shop owners into buying his balloon scraps for their market price instead of ripping him off was not getting him much coin
"hey" naofumi said as he entered the shop of the blacksmith, which was empty of clients for this morning, naofumi didn't want Erhard to be associated with him, so he only came when he knew nobody was there besides the blacksmith
"Ah welcome back kid, what do you want?" Erhard replied as he cleaned his forehead from sweat, as a blacksmith he had to work on heated metal often, especially to complete his work before the deadline his clients put, which were usually extremely short because people can't wait for a weapon to be made for more than a week or so it seemed
"Information, I need to know a way to get more money quickly" naofumi explained his current situation to the old man(which was his unknowing nickname)
"Huh" Erhard put his hand to his chin before thinking of a solution "Well if you want, there's an old mine in a cave closed by free to the people, you could go and look for ores, and since I know you get scammed if you try to sell to anyone else, so I will buy them from you" he offered
"Mining silver, copper, and perhaps gold could be useful" naofumi thought, if he could find those, he could try and make fake coins that he could-
"No kid, there's nothing like that anymore in those caves, as said is an 'old' mine, thing was excavated to hell and back" Erhard responded as he seemly knew what the kid was thinking and how criminal it was
"Then why do you want me to go there?" naofumi asked since he didn't saw what was the point to go to a mine that had already been cleared out
"You see this?" Erhard said as he took out a small crystal that glowed bright yellow from under his table "This is a sun crystal, they naturally regrow which makes them the only thing left in that cave, they absorb sunlight and that makes them glow, it's used as a form of lamp for the wealthy or for people that don't want to have to buy candles all the time, but if they break they stop glowing so be cautious when mining them" Erhard explained
"How much is it worth?" naofumi asked, if they regrow then they couldn't be worth much
"Well it is not much but one small piece like this one is worth three times the price of 30 ballon scraps" Erhard said, knowing that was what the kid had been relying for money
"I see..." naofumi said with a greedy smile on his face, if one small piece like this was worth so much more than what took days for him to gather then this was worth his time, if he could find more of this then he could make enough to leave this city and not have to worry about money for until after the wave
"Plus they can grow into different sizes, in Siltvet there is one so big it's the size of a tower" Erhard said as he stretched his arms outwards to try and show how big it was
'Siltvet? Is that a city or something?' Naofumi thought as he heard that name for the first time, it seemed significant
"It's easier than killing ballons for sure are there any monsters in the cave?" naofumi asked
"None aside from the occasional Eggu hiding from the rain, but there were reports about tremors happening in there after the first wave hit, so it's empty because people fear the ceiling will fall on their heads" Erhard explained, naofumi understood why nobody would go there if that was the case, but he needed the money
"I will be careful" naofumi said as he handed the crystal back to Erhard "Can I borrow a pickaxe?" he requested as he couldn't mine without a tool
"Don't have one here, but there's a free one in the mine shaft close to the entrance, I said it's free but is just abandoned" Erhard explained
"How many do you want?" naofumi asked wanting to know how many he had to look for
"As much as you can carry I guess" Erhard said a bit uninterested as he didn't care how many the kid got of the stuff
"Then I see you later" naofumi said as went out of the shop, before coming back to ask where this mine was
After getting the location with Erhard, Naofumi found the cave and shaft on the outskirts of town, it was at least two hours from the capital which he assumed was part of why no one was coming there and since no one was there, he grabbed two pickaxes and absorbed one into his shield
[Pickaxe Shield]
1 def 3 earth resistance
[Ability:mining skills 1]
"Nice" he smirked as he equipped it, he didn't know if he was gonna get better at mining or improve the quality of the ores like his [Leaf Shield] did to plants, but it was best to have it on
As he ventured into the cave, he was having a hard time finding anything to mine, especially in the dark but as he went deeper he found a little bit of light and when he came close to check, there it was poking out from the ground, a little small crystal in a similar size to the one Erhard showed
"Let's see" He picked one and absorbed it into his shield
[Sun Crystal Shield] (1/5 needed to unlock)
10 light resistance
[Ability: Solar Power: can store up solar energy and use it to power up your skills, you gain 0.001 solar energy per second when in contact with sunlight]
[Unique equip effect: illuminate a small area around you depending on your charge of solar energy]
"This is pretty good" he said as he grabbed the remaining amount he needed, unlocking it, he continued exploring and mining the cave, putting the crystals in his inventory so they wouldn't break 'Erhard will regret saying "All that you can carry" after I'm done ' he thought before he hit a wall with his pickaxe, seeing something glimmer as it felt to the ground, but it wasn't a sun crystal, it was something Naofumi recognized
"Gold!...huh?" he exclaimed in excitement and confusion as he looked at it better, it was a small golden cube with some carvings in it, which was definitely man-made "This looks like it belongs to an ancient time...well that just means it's worth more" he said as he put it in his pocket, maybe he could sell it to a merchant
As he continued to move into the deepest parts of the cave, he sees a sun crystal bigger than any of the others he had encountered
"This should be good" As he went to mine the massive ore he felt a quake and almost lost balance "Must be those tremors Erhard talked about, I got enough already I should just get out-" Before he could do so, the ground beneath began to shake violently and finally crack under his feet "Fuuuuuu-" Naofumi cursed as he fell
"Auuuughhhhh!" naofumi screamed as he was hitting some of the rocky edges of the hole he was in as he dropped to the core of the mine until he finally hit the bottom
Thud!
"Ughh..." naofumi grunted as he tried to get up, a fall like that would have killed an average person but not him "guess being a tank has its benefits..." he said as he checked his health bar, it had dropped to two-fourths of its original max and now being a yellow health bar instead of the usual green color, thankfully it seemed he hadn't got injured in the process
"I have to get out of here" He looked around but found he only had one tunnel to go through "I can go into the unknown deeps of this cave or try and climb my way up..." while he weighed his choices, another earthquake stroked, this time more intense than the latter, naofumi looked up and saw a bunch of rocks failing his way, without any other option, he ran for the tunnel to avoid getting crush, and although successful he was now blocked from the hole he had fallen
"guess is the ominous tunnel then" he said while equipping the [Sun Crystal Shield] for its ability to generate a light source, as he went along, he found a few odd things on the floor and walls
"What the hell?" he took out the relic he found earlier and compared it with the dozens he was seeing in front of him "Some of these are made of what looks to be wood, but they are obviously the same as this gold one I found..." he said while trying to put one in his shield to absorb it, perhaps to learn more about them, but when he did, sparks came out of the shield and the piece was discharged at high speed away from him with such force it stuck to the wall it had crashed into
[Due to their arcane magical properties, the legendary shield cannot absorb The Relics]
"The actual fuck?" naofumi stood in disbelief at this as he grabbed the relic from the wall, as he stared at the relics in the room "Arcane magic?...there's more to these than I thought" he went and grabbed all of the ones he could and put in a bag, either Erhard could explain this to him, or he may have found something big...
He continued down the tunnel until coming face to face with a large golden door with more of the mysterious marks on it, as he approached it to try and forced it open, the door open itself in front of him, he was a bit hesitant of going inside, but there was no way out except forward, and so he proceeds
Entering the chamber, Naofumi saw something unexpected, in the middle of the room there was a floating gold orb being surrounding by flying relics that spin around it like they were gravitating to it, the light blue gem in the center of it was seemly illuminating the room with blue light of sorts, he subconsciously reached his hand outwards to grab it, and when he did, his shield's gem began to glow bright green as so did the orb with its blue light, naofumi closed and covered his eyes until it stopped
When he opened them to see, the relics in his pocket flew out and joined the ones floating around the orb, which were seemingly assembling around the orb to form what seemed to be a small goblin-like golem made of relics, it stared at Naofumi, who instinctively pull out his shield up wanting for it to attack while staring back it, but the creature just keep there still
"Are you going to attack me or what?" he asked it with anger in his voice, but the creature simply shook its head slowly to show it didn't mean harm, naofumi wasn't entirely convinced of that but he at least knew it could understand him, so he tried talking with it
"Okay...then can you show me a way out of here?" he asked, never letting go of his defensive stance, the creature put its hand to its chin as if he was thinking before nodding as a yes, and it turned its back to naofumi and walked to the opposite side of the room, touching a wall that revealed itself to be a door similar to the one naofumi entered through, waving his arm like trying to say 'follow me' as it went through, with naofumi following suit
As they walked, a few relics in the ground and walls were flying into the little golem, adding themselves to his body but they didn't seem to change much from it, naofumi kept watch of the creature for any suspicious activities, but he couldn't help but wonder about it
'those relics had magic in them, and this thing is made of it, could it be a magic golem? And if it is...is it under my command? My shield seemed to have interacted with it...I need to test it' he thought while thinking of a command for it to do
"Hey!" naofumi called out and the golem looked at him
"Do a little dance" he said, with the creature raising an eyebrow at this as if saying 'really?' although confused, it did it anyways
"Now do a spin" naofumi demanded spinning his finger, with the creature rolling its eyes and doing as told
"Uh...bow down to me" he commanded but the creature instead crossed its arms and looked at him frowning with its eyebrows as if to say 'no way I'm going to do that buddy' which naofumi took as a sign that it was self-aware
"So you can think on your own it seems..." naofumi let out, and the creature and he resumed their walk, he was a bit worried that this thing might try something against him, but so far it had only helped him and there's no way that something that was buried underground could know him because of his rumors, but he needed to be cautious and for that, he would need a plan, but before he could think of something, two giant spiders fell from the ceiling and in front of them
"Great" naofumi responded sarcastically as he prepared for combat, but the little golem beat him to it, running at the spiders and attacking them, it handles the first one by punching and scratching its face, making it dizzy before he dodge the second one who was trying to stab it, he keeps trying to get an opening but is unsuccessful until naofumi blocks the spiders attack "Now!" he screamed and the small golem took the chance and slid under his leg before delivering an uppercut to the spider's head, finishing it off by cutting it's abdomen open with his claws
The first spider regained its senses and began to shoot acid from his mouth, naofumi and the golem began dodging its attack, with the golem approaching it while dodging most attacks, but it gets hit on its head, and although briefly stunned, the relics in his body didn't seem to be affected by the acid, finally catching up with it, he kills it by continuously hitting its head, doing a little dance to commemorate before checking back on naofumi
"Good job...I guess" naofumi said as he absorbed the remains of the first spider
[Cave Spider Shield]
1 dark resistance 2 poison resistance
He looked to see the small golem pick up a sun crystal and break it, he was confused before seeing the light of the crystal go inside the orb with a small glow coming from the golem before it stops 'the sun crystals... Does he use them to recharge like a battery? That would explain it being in this mine' naofumi thought for a moment
"Let's keep going" he said as they resumed their walk, after a few seconds, naofumi saw that the walls of the cave had more markings and didn't even look to be the same type of rock as the cave, there was also what looked like old wood boxes, and when the golem saw them, he ran towards them and started breaking all of the boxes
"What are you do..." naofumi asked before seeing that the boxes contained the same type of relics as the creature, and after it lifted his arms and closed its 'eyes' like it was concentrating on something, in a second, all the relics in the ground flew to him, making him grow larger and making him look more troll-like, he was about the same size of Itsuki from the looks of it
"Much better" the creature said while it stretched its arm as if it was accommodating to its new size
"You can talk?!" naofumi was caught off guard by this, if it could talk why didn't it did before?
"Yeah I can, just needed to grow up a bit, since I couldn't in my small form" the golem explained while looking at naofumi
"What are you anyways?" naofumi asks the creature as knowing more about it would be useful, and depending on his willingness to share with him, he could deduce if it was malicious or not
"A relic golem, you can call me Knack" he explains and introduces himself, naofumi at least was right in his assumption of it being a golem, but even if this was a fantasy world, who names himself Knack?
"Knack?...well alright, just show me the exit" naofumi got back to their current objective, as escaping this cave was his priority at the moment
"Fine...by the way, what about you?" Knack asked him
"Huh? What do you want?" naofumi inquired about what this creature would want to know about him
"Why are you wearing a shield?" he pointed to the shield in his arm
"For protection obviously" naofumi answered somewhat sarcastically
"I know that, is just...are you a miner, archeologist, or something else? Because why bring a shield instead of a weapon?" knack questioned him, he especially wanted to know why he was using a shield seemingly made of sun crystal, but due to their ability to light a room it could make sense for a miner to have, but it seemed a bit too extravagant
"I came here to mine but the ground broke below me and that's how I found you in that chamber" naofumi explained how things came to be
"Guess you lost your pickaxe then, you could have fought against those spiders if you had it" Knack joked
"Yeah..." naofumi whispered, as he couldn't use it even if he had it because of his shield's restrictions
"Why were you here anyways? Are you the guardian of this place?" naofumi asked, as these sorts of ruins usually had that sort of thing as a defense mechanism
"I...don't know...my memories are all fuzzy and fragmented" Knack responded while putting his hand to his face as he tried to remember anything about himself 'I remember a boy...machines...bright lights...goblins...and picking up a...miniature castle?' he thought to himself as anything about how and why he was here was a total blank
"Silly question but how advanced is this society, do you guys have flying vehicles and self-running automobiles?" Knack asked to see if he was at least close to a location in his memories or at least at the same period
"What? There's nothing of that sort here" naofumi answered, so far everything except for the status magic was your usual medieval fantasy things, but there was the cliche of ancient civilization having somehow extremely advanced technology that gets lost to time, so he was probably asking about a flying machine resembling a manta ray rather than an actual plane
"Was I here so long, society went backward?" the golem asked himself
"You must have been here for a long time then" naofumi responded, he did read and watched a bunch of science and fantasy stuff that used a similar concept, there was a whole anime about a kid that thinks he was sent to another world when in reality he was sent to japan in a thousand years in the future
After a bit of walking and going up some stairs, they found another door which was possibly their exit, but different from the others, this one seemed to be required to open manually
"It's probably jammed" Naofumi said as Knack approached it
"Let me do it" Knack said as he began to force open the door "Exit is right..." He stops his speech when he sees the exit blocked by what seemed to be a boulder
"Great that means we're stuck" Naofumi sarcastically remarked
"Calm down and go back a bit, things are about to get dusty" Knack said as he put his hand back and began to hit the rock with great strength multiple times, cracking it until...
"Rargh!" the boulder was broken into dust and pebbles by the last hit, with naofumi and Knack finally going out of the cave
Naofumi analyzed the surroundings and recognized an abandoned minecart a bit further away from them "Seems like we are around in the back of the mine" he said
"Guess this is where we part ways" Knack says before starting to walk forward and naofumi gets confused at this
"Wait! Where are you going?" he asks the golem, as he still felt there was something suspicious about him, and even if it was something noble, what could it be? Was he going to look for others of his kind, his creator, or something else
"I'm going to look for more relics, I feel that the more I have, the more of my memories will come back" Knack said as he was looking around before focusing on a forest close by
"..." Naofumi stood quiet for a bit before deciding to say something "Fine...but be careful..." he alerted the golem
"Why?" Knack questioned, as the teen hadn't seemed to care much beforehand about his well-being so far
"Is just...I don't think people will hear you out before attacking you" naofumi warned him, as it stands, he didn't care much for the creature, but he at least felt the need to warn it of the dangers of this country after all the help he was
"Because of my handsome looks?" knack joked a bit before looking serious at the distance "But thanks, hope to see you again" Knack responded while giving him a thumbs up
"I doubt that" naofumi responded coldly as he went off to get back to the capital and sell the crystals he collected
'he is probably gonna get killed by a group of adventurers or those three idiots...I could have asked him to be my companion...nah, he probably would turn his back on me the moment I don't look' naofumi thought as he went away
'Jeez, angsty much?' knack thought as he went away into the close by forest as he felt there were relics close by
"Here's the crystals" naofumi said as laid the sun crystals he collected on Erhards counter
"Uhm, this is all incredibly good" Erhard said as used his [appraisal] magic on them, grabbing a bag of silver and handing it to naofumi "Here you go, 185 silver for them" he said as put the crystals in a crate
"Nice...hey can I ask a question?" naofumi let out, as this was kind of bugging him
"Huh? Sure what is it?" Erhard replied
"Do you know anything about relics?" naofumi asked, as unlikely as it was that Erhard knew about some ancient objects, it was still worth a try
"Relics? Do you mean little cubes, triangles, and spheres made of gold or wood? Did you find one?" Erhard asked for clarification, with naofumi a bit surprised that the old man knew something
"Yeah, but I lost it when I fell into a hole in the mines, what are those anyways?" he specified, leaving out the magic golem made of said relics
"Well as far as I know, they predate society as we know, they are said to be older than the waves and heroes themselves" Erhard tried to explain to the best of his knowledge
"Really? So they are rare?" naofumi asked out of greed, if they were, then he just left a walking pile of money go away
"Here in Melromarc, yes, in the rest of the world, no" Erhard specified the answer
"Huh? Why is that?" naofumi asked, they didn't seem to be specifically tied to a region considering he found a temple here, although it could be a colonizing thing of stabilization of bases or the sorts
"Melromarc sold all of their relics to another country, Faubley, it was named the 'stupidest political decision of the decade' We still get made fun of by that ever so often" Erhard reminisced about back when he was just a lad, it was before the ascension of the queen and when her father did said transaction that helped Faubley become so powerful, something the other countries were not to found
"Faubley? why do they want them?" naofumi questioned, as they only seemed like fancy paperweights
"Because it powers their machines" Erhard said, the one time he went to Faubley to study their weapons and armor designs and smithing tricks, he caught a good look at one of their 'cars' but didn't understand a thing about how they worked
"Machines?!" naofumi shouted out loud, this world wasn't stuck in the middle ages?! he needed to calm down, it was probably not his idea of modern-day machines and technology
"Yeah, they are the most powerful country in the world because of how advanced they are, they have self-riding carriages, flying "planes" whatever that means, mechanical servants, lightning guns, and more, all of that because of those relics" Erhard explained which only caused naofumi's eyes to wide
"Oh my god..." naofumi just was jaw dropped, a entire country with modern technology and even sci-fi stuff, and he was stuck in this muddy hole of a kingdom, life was so unfair!
"Uhm that's how people usually react" Erhard sarcastically remarked while he remembered the apothecary's and magic shop owner's faces when he told them about his travel there
"And I going to guess that they hog all that technology to themselves" naofumi said as that's the only reason why this place wouldn't have even the slight hint of modern society
"Yeah pretty much, no one except for Faubley has an actual use for these so they just either sell them for profit or keep and hide them in fear of powering an army of robots...but that's just propaganda" Erhard answered back since he had seen the many different excuses that people make to gain attention, especially when it involves the peoples fear
"So they are a threat?" Naofumi asked, he wasn't sure if that country was either a utopian future city or a dystopian one, and seeing how bad the country he was in is, he rather not take the chances
"Not really, largely everyone in the country prefers peace and doesn't see the need to go to war or something, places like the capital, New Haven all most utopias, is just that the people in power, especially the king are well..." Erhard said, just like anywhere in the world, the good people were usually outshined by the viler members of society
"Corrupt, evil, greedy, everything in between?" Naofumi gave some examples
"That's an exaggeration, but not far off" Erhard said, as the kid was not wrong but he shouldn't be that pessimistic
"How bad is the king? Is he as bad as the thrash monarch here?" naofumi growled at even remembering the guy
"Well, our king isn't used as a boogeyman to scare little girls and adult women" Erhard said, getting a goosebump after remembering the rumors about the guy
"What the actual fuck does he even do to-"
"Kidnapp any lady he is interested in, turning them into slaves and fucking them all day while slowly mutilating them beyond recognition until they die and violating their dead bodies before they rot" Erhard said, having to stop himself from losing his lunch
"WHY THE FUCK IS SOMEONE LIKE THAT IN POWER?!" naofumi shouted, as he didn't think it possible for someone to be so vile and maybe even worst than that princess and king combine
"because everyone who tries something against him is killed or exiled" Erhard said as he hated how that awful man was in power just because he was a descended of a past hero
"Thankfully for the world, the counsel of minds are the ones who do most of the political and economic job, they are all more focused on improving the quality of life for the people and studying the relics and their origins rather than satisfying the creepy desires of a 'pig king' as he's called" Erhard sighed, almost all bad things about Faubley existed because of that disgusting king, he was the cause of their still being a slave market in there
"...somehow this place became better and worst at the same time" naofumi was perplexed at such a prospect
"Maybe I should go there? Certainly could be better than staying here..." naofumi said thinking about the prospect of having air conditioning and robot helpers, instead of staying in a place that hated him and housed that bitchy princess
"I hear you, I would go there but they don't need blacksmiths around, and I don't know anything about programming and hydraulics or any of those other fancy words"
"Yeah..." naofumi stopped before remembering the golem he had just met and asked an important question "How far is Faubley from here?"
"Well I think is like a month or so in a carriage being pulled at high speeds if you don't stop to eat or sleep and that's not even talking about the situation of passing the border" Erhard said thinking the kid was wanting to leave this kingdom for a possible better one, which he couldn't blame him for
"Okay, and how many relics do they have in comparison to Melromarc? On a scale of 1 to 10" naofumi asked if that thing had 40 or so relics and it was already human size, how many more would it take to grow up to the size of a house? a castle? a mountain?
"...melromarc would be a 1 or 2/10 and Faubley would be a 15/10..." Erhard responded, although confused about why the kid wanted to know that
"...I need to find Knack..." he whispered, he had to either A) convince it to become his ally so he could have a giant monster as his bodyguard or B) find a way to destroy it before it grew to the size of a city
"Find what? Kid, I feel like you're not telling me something" Erhard demanded, as the kid was acting more weird and suspicious than normal
"Is just...I found a thing that 'eats' relics to grow, and now it is walking free in the world..." naofumi shyly explained, he hated having to say that he had potentially unleashed a small troll that could perhaps become a giant kaiju of sorts
"But they are indestru...For our sake, let's hope it gets killed by a guard or adventurer before it reaches the border" Erhard said as he wasn't sure what type of creature would even be able to eat those relics since they were proven to be virtually indestructible to anything of this world, even vassal weapons, so whatever it was, is sure to be powerful
"Yeah..." naofumi gulped, as he had to pray for Knack not to be an ancient evil that was sealed away
"Got it" Knack exclaimed as he pulled out a relic from the hole he had been digging for quite a while, looking at the red piece that had no mud or dirt on it "Under the earth for a thousand years yet not dirty in the slightest" he said as he absorbed it into his body, he focused on trying to detect any relic close by, but it was to no use
"This is odd" Knack said to himself as he made his way through the forest "I thought there would have more relics around here, but I only found two" Knack pondered, even if his memories were all a complete blank, he remembered these relics being everywhere
"Maybe I should go inside the city, I feel more relics there" Knack said as he looked in the direction of the castle, perhaps they have all been collected and were now powering the city, which could be a problem since he doubted that they would just allow him to absorb them even for a second, but it was his best option
"This next quest might be a tough one, Mister Ren," a man wielding a book said as he and his group were following behind a teenager with black hair wielding a white and gold sword
"For you people maybe" Ren responded coldly, confident in his abilities to handle things alone
"Well I just think we-"
"W-what is that!" a green-haired girl in a red outfit shouted as she pointed at the moving mass of relics
"Don't waste our..." Ren's speech was stopped once he saw the 'thing' at hand, what he thought at first was a naked troll with red fur, was a golem made of tiny small pieces of various shapes and colors 'Is that a monster? It looks like some sort of golem... how come I didn't find it when I was grinding here? Could it be...a special encounter? If so then it must be the boss monster of these place' he thought for a moment before going at the creature
"I should better come up with a good reason for them to let me in" Knack said before he heard a sound from the bushes behind him, he thought that it was another one of those weird mushrooms creatures but before he could turn to see
"Argh!" Knack shouted as a slash was made in his back, turning around quickly to see a black-haired teen holding a sword, the sword wielder try and hit the golem again but Knack dodged by shifting around his pieces and dashed back to get distance
"Why in the world did you do that!" Knack said making the boy flinch in confusion
"You can talk?" Ren asked in surprise, not only this was a special encounter with a seemingly rare creature but it was able of understanding and communicating through language? He really hit the jackpot on this one
"Yeah I can! Now kid you better turn back before I lose my temper" Knack threatens the teen, wanting him to go away before he would be force to use his fists
"As if I would let a boss encounter pass" Ren responded, letting a random encounter go would be the same as dropping water in the dessert, a waste
"Boss encounter? What in blazes are you talking about?" Knack asked
"Enough talking, prepare to meet your end" Ren finished saying as he prepared to fight
The teen once again rushes to Knack, who keeps defending and dodging the attacks much to the annoyance of Ren, tired of playing around Knack pushes Ren away with his hand and enters a battle stance
"Last chance, I know you're young and by extension foolish, so I am going to forget all about this if you give up" Knack warns Ren, wanting to let the kid think about reconsider it before committing a mistake
"Huh, as if I couldn't handle a beginner boss" Ren arrogantly proclaimed
"Okay, you asked for it" knack responded, finally having enough of the teenager's arrogance
Knack approaches the sword hero and starts a two-hit punch sequence that is mostly blocked but leaves Ren open to Knack to finish with a sweep of his leg, making Ren stumble to the ground, he rolls out to the sides before Knack could hit him and lifting himself
"...I may have underestimated you, creature" Ren complimented, surprised on his attack and defense patterns being so much better than he thought for the boss monster of the tutorial forest
"It's Knack, not 'creature' and if we are introducing ourselves, how about you?" Knack demanded as he stared down the kid
"Knack? That's possibly the most fictional monster name I heard so far, but fine, I'm Ren Amaki the legendary sword hero, and the one to take you out" Ren finished as he took a glance at Knack's central orb in his chest 'you might have good combat skills, but leaving your so obvious weak spot exposed just shows how limited you are in design' he thought while smirking for a brief moment
Now knowing where to attack, Ren once again rushed Knack, but this time, instead of doing long and wide swings to try and hit more of the golem, he did rapidly consecutive strikes to his chest, which although were blocked by Knack's arms, were not having a much harder time blocking as they began to lose their pieces
'your defenses are breaking down just like your body, you might have been tricky in the beginning but it was only a matter of-' he couldn't finish his inner monologue as Knack hit him in the gut to send him away, and much to his dismay, he saw Knack just magically reattached his missing pieces
"Oh, you got to be kidding me! You can regenerate?!" Ren shouted in outrage, 'enemies with regenerative properties this early on is unfair!' he complained in his head
"Yes, cry about it, chump" Knack sarcastically responded back, ready to hear the kid give up
"Sir Ren, can we assist you now?" one his party members asked, they usually didn't intervened when Ren was fighting by his orders, but this time it seemed he was struggling
"...Fine, let's just end this" Ren reluctantly accepts the offer
"Yes!" they all exclaimed as they surrounded Knack from all sides
"Five against one? That seems unfair don't you think?" knack remarked as he looked at his opponents
"Just means things are serious" Ren responds as he snaps his finger as they all ran at the golem
Knack was trying his best to fight off the entire team, while the martial artist couldn't do anything against him all the others were big problems as Ren continued his rush of attacks now covered in a white glow that had been cast by the wizard of the group 'his attacks are faster than before' knack thought while trying to dodge the attacks just to be hit in the back by a axe, reducing him to his smaller form, briefly confusing the group
"Aww! How cute!" Tersia exclaimed as she stared at Knack's 'midget' form
"Dont get distracted, it still a threat!" Ren said as he tried to finish it off, but before he could, Knack used the energy from the crystals he had collect to unleash a special attack of his own, making all the fallen pieces of himself to spin around him to create a miniature tornado, making Ren and his team fall back, giving him a brief moment to try and restore himself, but Ren took noticed of this and came forward to finally deal with it for good
"Now to finish this!" Ren screaamed as he jumped and swung his sword down on Knack, who didn't had time to block it as he had just got back into his middle size form
"Ugh!..." Knack let out a grunt as his body broke apart into pieces while hitting the soil
"We did it, Mister Ren!" his team cheered him on their newest victory
"...I guess" Ren responded, having his usual neutral expression, but hiding a bit of happiness from this
"These are relics..." Tersia said as she picked a red one up, admiring the details of the piece
"What was that? You know what this is?" Ren demanded wanting to know just what the heck he had just fought against
"Ah! Yes sir Ren, I kind of...collected them as a hobby when I was young, but I only found five of them, and then my parents sold them for-"
"Focus" the sword hero interrupted her from diverting to something unrelated
"Oh, alright then, to put in short, they are the last remnants of a ancient civilization, they are kind of useless but they are indestructible...which kind of only makes them more useless...but they are pretty cool to collect!" the martial artist said eager with the many new additions to her collection once they picked the 'monster remains' she hoped Ren would allow her to keep it instead of selling them
"Ancient relics you say?" Ren whispered 'there was nothing like this in Brave Star Online, and thinking about it, there was no such thing as 'relic golem' was this exclusive stuff from this world?' He rationalize, although he wanted that this world was perfectly identical to the game he played, he had notice some small differences, but nothing like whole new content like this, he would just need to see for himself, and that starts with claiming his loot
"Now let's see what I get from you" Ren said as he picked a relic from the ground and tried to absorb it, only to be shocked by his sword
[Due to their arcane magical properties, the legendary sword cannot absorb The Relics]
"Huh?!" Ren exclaimed in confusion, something that his weapon couldn't absorb? That was totally absurd and illogical to him 'what are this things?!' he thought before taking notice of the central gold orb that was Knack's weak point, walking towards it "...you were controlling those pieces..." he whispered to himself
"...perhaps I just need to absorb you and then I will be able to put these relics to good use..." Ren whispered as he picked up the orb, thinking that maybe he would unlock a sword form that could manipulate the relics to make a shape changing sword but as soon as he did, his sword and orb began to produce powerful magical electricity and shocking him, he and the orb were launch a great distance from one another, with Ren flying into a tree while the orb went through two before stopping on the third
"Sir Ren!" his party members screamed as they went to check on him
"Ughhh..." Ren groaned as he laid there knocked out, while his party members were taking care of him, they did not notice the relics of their defeated foe fly away, returning to the orb to form once again it fisical form
"Got to...get away..." Knack whispered as he began his sneaky escape, even if he did not usually sensed pain, this time it was like he was being tortured but he had to power through it and hide in the forest or a cave for now
"What has happened..." he said still recovering from the impact before a screen he hadn't seen before of his status magic appeared in front of him
[Rule Violation]
[the lengedary sword cannot absorb a living being]
[You tried to absorb the core of the relic titan of this world, the core is a powerful and important artifact of this world similar to a vassal weapon or dragon hourglass and as such, it can only be temporarily knocked out or deactivated, not destroyed, attempting to absorb it will count as a violation of the lengedary sword restrictions]
"What?..." Ren said as he lifted himself
"Sir Ren! Are you hurt? Please take this potion!" the mage of the group handed out a small glass bottle with a green liquid in it
"Thanks..." Ren said as he drank the liquid as brief green glow surrounded his body
"Let's just grab all of those relics and...core, we can ask for some explanations from the king or whoever knows anything about this..." Ren stopped once he saw that all of them were not there anymore
"What!? Where did they...shit! It must have regenerated! Look around for it!" Ren screamed out to his party members as he ran into the direction the orb was send away
"Alright sir!" they all said in unison as they spread out to look for Knack
'I got to find it!' Ren said as he looked around for the golem
After a hour of search through out the forest and nearby areas, their search came to yield no results as the creature known as Knack was no where to be found
"Damn it got away!" Ren said in frustration, as this was the first real lost in his time in the new world, so far he had slay every monster he fought and never had any escape, losing felt bad, but at least it was against a boss and not just a random creature
"Did any of you found it?" he asked his teammates as they returned from their own search
"No sir Ren" they said in defeat over their inability to find it
"But what was that thing..." Ren pondered as he put his hand to his chin and started thinking, this whole encounter felt...important, not just like fighting a random giant wolf or murderous bear, this felt like it had some story behind it, like a important side quest he stumbled upon accidentally, which he need to know how it end, what could it bring to the plot already, what cool reward it would have, etc. He had to admit that this was making him excited
"Here's what we gonna do, we will continue to level up as normal, but I want us to continue our search for this...Knack creature, we will ask information about it in the guild, inns or wherever rumors float around, I will see if Motoyasu, Itsuki and perhaps...Naofumi know anything" Ren commanded his team as they now had a new mission besides the waves
"Yes sir!" they screamed in unison as they started their way back to the capital
"Oh, and Tersia" Ren said as he touched her shoulder to get her attention
"Yes?" she asked
"I want you to tell me everything you know about this relics...in details" Ren said as he had to mentally prepare himself to the amount of exposition that he was about to receive
"Great! I don't know much but I will make an effort! So this relics can come in many shapes including..." Tersia began explaining the many shapes and colors the relics could come in
'Oh boy' Ren thought as he was hearing about the whole thing
"Grah" Knack grunted as he reached the top of a cliff and now looked over the forest he had just fled
"Guess that miner with the shield was right" he said as the encounter with that 'sword hero' replayed in his head "I will have to look for relics while hiding from civilization" Knack finished as he went off into the distance to continue with his quest for his memories
[Authors Notes]
This is the first one of my crossover fanfictions to actually change the world of the shield hero instead of putting someone else into it, and I got to say, I'm pretty excited about it
The sun crystals being able to regrow is more of a headcannon thing as to why they can be found in such random locations, that doesn't mean they regrow instantaneously, it would take months or year for them to reform
This version of Knack is not the same as the one in the two games, he is a Knack that woke up thanks to the magic of the shield rather than doctor vargas studies and experiments, because of this, Knack's memories will be mostly original and will depict the ancient past of this world, I really wanted to make this version of Knack special since I'm already changing the world his in
Faubley here will be a somewhat nice country that doesn't have anything overly malicious and down right evil besides the hoarding of knowledge and of course the awful brother of Aultclay who is basically the only reason slavery is still a market there
I plan on adding more Knack characters but it should take until after the second wave for us to see them, although I'm not sure how to adapt the first game story in the moment, but I will need a bit more brainstorming before getting there