*NOTICE - September 2, 2023* This story will now be updated weekly.
Chapter 1 – The Call to Adventure!
"Stand. Bow."
"Thank you very much."
With that, the day of school ended. Those on cleanup duty for the day got started. Others began making their way to their clubs. Fewer still needed to get to their part-time jobs.
Not Reina Suzuki.
She was not on cleanup duty. Even if she was, she would always exchange days with someone else on Friday. Sometimes she'd take two days, if whatever classmates she asked wouldn't budge. She did have a part-time job, but that was on Saturday and Sunday. And as for a club? She was part of one of the more illustrious clubs that existed in this school. Indeed, a club that could be joined by anyone anywhere, even other countries.
The Going-Home club.
After taking care of any last minute needs, she exited the school on her bicycle and went on her way. Her mid-back-length hair was hardly affected by the wind, given how she had it bundled in a single braid. She wasn't going home, but the place she was going to was like a second home. Sort of. It also functioned as someone's home, but that wasn't the point.
Ten minutes of riding later, she reached her destination: [Game Time]. She knew what the words meant, despite them being written in English and her not being particularly good at the language. Not for a lack of trying, of course. She just wasn't very good at learning other languages, let alone ones that were completely different from Japanese.
Parking her bike on the side of the shop, Reina looked up, spotting an aircon hanging out of the window as it rattled.
"Wow. That does not look safe." She thought to herself, though she thought the same thing every time she came here.
Reina approached the entrance to the building and pulled open the door. Despite what the name might imply, this wasn't a store for video games. No, this was a place that sold games that were to be played on a board, using dice and pencils and paper.
She walked near the counter, waving at the owner. "Hey, Mark. How's it going?"
"[Ah, Reina.]" The older man greeted her with a nod, his slightly long blond hair sweeping across his eyes. "[Good to see you still have nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon.]"
"Oh, you!" She gave him a smile and continued on to the back.
It was a joke they shared. He would say something she didn't understand, possibly a friendly insult, and she'd treat it as a compliment. He spoke fluent Japanese, but he'd always pull out the English when dealing with a customer that decided to endlessly complain about something irrelevant. Or young customers who thought it was cool.
When she opened the door to the room, she saw two members-but-not-really of her club. Seated at the opposite end of the table from where she stood was Shun Hara, Mark's son.
"Hey Sean." Reina gave him a wave.
Sean gave a sigh and looked up at her from behind his laminated cardboard screen. "That's still not funny, short-stack."
"But it will be eventually!" She beamed at him.
That was the joke between them. For Shun, it was how his appearance was distinctly more American-looking despite being half Japanese. He did retain his mother's black hair, but he otherwise looked American. Reina remembered hearing the name "Sean" from some American drama she saw at one point and the name just stuck. To her, at least, since no one else called him that.
And, begrudgingly, she had to admit she was a bit on the short side. More than once she was confused for a middle schooler, despite clearly being 17 years old. Anyone who said otherwise was a liar.
"Don't I get a greeting?" Said the other person in the room.
Reina lazily looked over at the woman seated two chairs from Sean. "Oh, right, yeah. Hi, Bo."
She could see a visible tick mark on the woman's face. "Still can't remember my name? It's 'Ko'. Not that a young child should be addressing an adult by their name so casually like that."
"I'm sure I'll remember eventually, Bo." Reina responded, a tick mark of her own forming.
That was the joke between them, though much less friendly. Ko Hara was a skeleton of a woman, barely a gram of fat on her body. It wasn't Reina's fault the woman looked like a bo [stick]. At the very least, the woman didn't respond with her usual—
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Bo reached under the table and pulled out a small carton, placing it near Reina's usual seat. "Make sure you drink that to grow up big and strong!" Reina could feel the smile in that sentence, added by the fact Bo was actually smiling.
"Well, isn't that thoughtful of you!" Reina resisted the urge to grind her teeth.
Should she have drank more milk growing up? Probably. Did her parents always try to get her to? Yes. Did she do it? The answer wasn't important. She just happened to be a tiny bit shorter.
The double meaning behind her mentioning of 'big' was not lost on Reina.
"So!" Deciding to be the mature one—as she always was, of course—Reina turned back to Sean. "Are the others coming?"
"They should be." Sean nodded. "Hachi said he'd be about 10 minutes late. Unless Miki forgot to set his alarm again, he'll be here."
The last two members of their little group. Miki worked the night shift during the week, so he was actually waking up a bit early to play with them. No nickname was given to him, since he often forgot Reina's name. It wasn't entirely his fault, since Reina only joined this group about a year ago. Surely it takes a long time to remember someone's name.
As for Hachi, his name was already a nickname. It wasn't shortened from anything, it just matched his personality too much. Hachi was a good name for a dog, after all, and that's how he acted. Not in the perverted sense one might ascribe to a man for being a dog, but in the energetic way dogs—or puppies—would act. He was also 35, so it was funny to watch him act like he was younger than her.
Reina was, in fact, the youngest member of their group. Miki was the closest, though older by eight years. Bo was the oldest at 36. Despite being in the middle of the age group at 28, Sean was definitely the most mature of them all. Especially over Bo, who couldn't possibly be mature since she always bickered with someone she considered to be a child, not that Reina was. That was why Sean ran the game, not because his father owned the shop. That did give him the advantage of being able to read numerous game manuals and story quests whenever he wanted.
"In that case, I'm going to grab a bite to eat real quick." Reina set down her bag from school, rustling through it. "But, before I do, I made some characters if anyone wants to use one for today's session."
"Oh, joy." Bo dryly commented as she saw the large stack. "Don't you have schoolwork you should be doing instead of that?"
"Already done!" Reina happily replied. She usually got her homework done in other classes. At least, most of it. She had to do reading at home, since she usually used up her study period for the rest of her work. "I think you'll like this one, Bo."
She gave Bo the entire stack, which contained at least five times the amount of characters necessary for their group size. Reina tapped the top sheet, which was the character she knew Bo would be interested in.
"Ah, a Death Knight." The thin woman nodded in understanding. "I see. Because it's a skeleton. How funny." Nothing about her tone suggested humor.
"You'll be happy to know it's perfectly made without any flaws." Reina boasted.
"Hmmm." Bo looked it over. "Two levels of Fighter, a level of Barbarian, three of Blackguard…"
"[Oh my god…]" Sean let out his English, not unlike his father. "Reina, how complex are all these characters?"
"They are as complex as they need to be." Reina said.
Bo leafed through the sheets, stopping at one. "Child, this is a level 13 questline we're doing. This one has seven different classes."
"But it works." Reina pointed out. All the characters she made worked.
"Yeah, at this level." Bo set down the sheet. "If we were starting at level one, I bet half of these would have died a horrible death-by-goblin-swarm. They'd never reach where they are now."
"Well…these ones did!" Reina gave her a smile, pointing at her cheeks.
"I swear…" Bo sighed, slumping in her seat.
Reina wasn't bothered by it. Sure, she had to admit Bo was right—just not out loud. She always had fun min-maxing characters into crazy beasts. Of course, the road those characters would need to travel was long and likely filled with certain death. That's why she liked sessions like today's. A one-shot adventure from a new booklet that just got translated, which wouldn't be part of their normal campaign.
"I'll be back soon." Reina turned to leave, ready for some early dinner.
"Bring me back something cheap with beef in it." Bo told her, pulling a can of beer from her own bag. "I'll pay you when you get back."
"Trying to put some meat on your bones?" Reina looked over her shoulder and stuck out her tongue.
Bo had a tight grin on her face. "Easier than trying to increase my breast size, Chibi!"
"I don't want to hear that from you, skeleton woman!" With that last retort, Reina walked out of the room. She refused to accept that that woman had larger…whatever.
Her little spat with Bo aside, she always enjoyed coming here. Not only was it one of the few game shops within a reasonable distance from her home and school, it was also the only one that had people who liked to play the same game as her. She tried setting up something at another shop, one that allowed people to play inside, but no one really cared to try it out. It wasn't that popular, since it was an older foreign game and most of the gamers preferred the newer domestic ones. If she lived closer to Tokyo, Akihabara, or one of the bigger cities, she might have had an easier time.
That was the great thing about Mark. He was a big old nerd from overseas that brought a lot of his games with him. Some games he bought translations of, while less popular ones he did himself. Not that he could sell those, of course. He did that so he and Sean could enjoy them. Plus, it was always good practice for translating. That's how Sean got a job as a freelance translator.
As she got to her bike, she thought of where to go. She had plenty of time before they started, so she had options.
"A place with cheap beef…well, I'm in the mood for some myself. Maybe—" Her thoughts were interrupted by loud rattling.
Just as she looked up, she saw a heavy appliance fall right toward her head.
"Oh—"
~Forging Legends~
"—Crap!" Her body hit the hard ground.
"No, I don't want to die yet! I'm too young! I never even got to kiss a…" She paused in her thoughts after she realized she still had them.
Slowly, she lifted her head off the cold stone beneath her. That couldn't have been right. While close, cement didn't feel like stone. And it was the afternoon. The ground shouldn't be cold. Or this dark. Well, it wasn't that dark, but—
"The summoning was a success!" A voice called out.
Reina's head snapped up. There were six figures around her, all dressed the same. No, that wasn't right. Five of them had on matching clothes, mostly white robes with a blue sash and…scarf? Whatever it was, it was draped around the backs of their necks and hang down almost their entire upper bodies. On the front of their robes was what looked to be a design of a yellow hammer.
"Okay…what?" She couldn't quite process what was before her.
"Oh great hero, thank you for answering our call!" One of the white-robed men said, raising his hands.
"What?" The question repeated itself in her mind.
"Our lands are under threat by a terrible evil! Please, great Spirit Forger, we ask for your help!"
"…What?" This time, her question was vocalized.
This was not how she expected her day to go. Then again, she wasn't exactly sure what just happened. She was pretty sure she was about to get crushed by a poorly installed aircon, or possibly an old one that hadn't been serviced in a while. Then, all of a sudden, she falls to the ground and gets surrounded by men and women in white robes.
"Okay, so, either I just suffered a brain injury and this is a dream, or…" The thought was there, she just didn't want to put it into words.
"Where am I?" She voiced the obvious question.
"You are in the Kingdom of Savia." The robed man who was speaking before said. "We have summoned you to save our kingdom from the Demon Lord! Please, Spirit Forger, aid us in our time of need!"
This was far too much for her at the moment. She needed to check her head for any blood, not that she'd find any if this was a dream.
Before her hand could reach her head, however, there was a soft 'clunk'. She looked to her side at what was apparently in her hand.
There, she found a small, square head made of wood. The teeth were somewhat large, as were the eyes near the top of it. The thing itself wasn't entirely a square, just square-shaped. The back of it, she could feel, was rounded, as was the top and sides. Really, just the face on it looked square.
"[Oh my god.]" She repeated Sean's most often used English phrase in her head.
"I…don't really know what's going on." She admitted.
As the robed figures cast quick glances at one another, someone else stepped forward.
"Idiots." He said with a sigh.
This one's robes were a dark blue, almost black. Instead of reaching down to his feet, they stopped around mid-thigh, with some sort of pants going down the rest of the way to a pair of heavy boots. His head was mostly covered by a hood, but Reina could see piercing silver eyes looking down at her. A red cloak hung off his back.
"She isn't going to understand you when you talk like that. Damn cultists." He lowered himself, being taller than the tallest white-robed-person by a few inches, and offered his hand to Reina.
Cautiously, she took it with her free hand, letting herself be lifted from the ground. Curiously, she couldn't let go of the strange totem.
"Yes, well, thank you for your service, mage." The presumably lead white-robed-person said with noticeable disdain. "You may leave now."
The mage kept his eyes on Reina for a moment, making her shrink back slightly. He didn't seem angry, just…intense. "My fee?" He asked as he turned, holding out his hand.
"Ah, yes…" The leader slid his hand between his robes and pulled out a small sack. "Now then, if you would?"
The mage looked inside the bag. Metal clinking was heard as coins moved about with his finger. With a grunt, he closed the bag and tied it to his hip.
"Gate!" With a snap of his fingers, a large, vertical circle appeared to the side. The mage walked toward it, giving Reina one last look. "Good luck, kid." He said with a nod before stepping through, the circle quickly closing behind him.
"Okay…what!? Am I just not going to know what's happening here!? That was totally magic!" She pleaded to anything that would listen.
"Well then!" The white-robed leader clapped his hands together. "We should see the prince. He will be able to answer any questions you might have."
"Uh…sure." Reina had no clue how to respond.
The leader opened the door to the room and gestured for her to follow. She did, but not before giving her surroundings a quick look. The room was cozy and fairly well lit, despite not paying attention to it before.
"Huh. There's some incense burning on the table there. I thought I smelled something like that. A ring, a hand mirror, a…is that a knife!?" She quickly decided she did not want to be in the room anymore. She wasn't afraid of knives, just ones that looked like squiggly lines that looked like they'd be used in some sort of ancient ritual she didn't want to be a part of.
As she tried to calm her nerves while following the white-robed leader, she took a look at her surroundings again. The theme of the hall they walked through seemed to be 'gold'. Not that everything was made of gold, but most everything was gold-colored. It gave off a very rich feeling, which was only increased with the nice looking long rugs and the multitude of candle holders, also gold-colored.
"Okay, let's think through this logically." She began. "…Nope, nothing logical about all this."
They arrived at a set of large, double doors, also gold-colored. Two men in armor bowed before pushing them open. Inside was what Reina could only describe as a throne room, though it was shorter than what she imagined. She'd played enough fantasy games in a Europe-like setting to get an idea.
"This is her?" The blue-haired man on a throne said. He had a smile on his face as he stood, his gold-themed clothes glittering in the light passing through the tall windows behind him. This time, Reina was pretty sure it was actual gold in the clothing.
"Yes, Prince Johan!" The leader bowed and stepped to the side.
The prince walked forward. He passed by a few armored men and women, being followed by a couple attendants.
"It is an honor to meet you, Spirit Forger." Prince Johan bent forward slightly. He took Reina's free left hand in his and placed his lips on the back of it.
"I, uh, um…" Were all the words Reina could utter. She could feel her face heating up at the action.
"My apologies if I've offended you." He straightened out, a smile still on his face.
"Ah! No, nothing like that." Reina turned her head down slightly.
That got a laugh out of the prince. He looked to be a few years older than her, but not too much.
"Um, what's going on?" She needed to understand her situation.
"Marcus, have you not told her?" Johan turned to the leader, Marcus. His playfulness seemed contagious, as Marcus smiled in turn.
"Only in small details, Your Grace." He gave another bow.
"He said…I was summoned? To fight a Demon Lord?" It felt weird to say that out loud outside the context of one of her gaming sessions.
"That's right." Marcus turned back to her. "As the Spirit Forger, you are the best equipped to fight the Demon Lord and save our world."
Reina blinked at the prince. Hearing it a second time helped, but only slightly. Fighting a Demon Lord? How could she possibly be the one to do that? She was in her third year of high school, not some great warrior or some magical…
She paused, realization dawning on her.
"Was I…Is this an isekai? Did I die and end up here? Oh my…that's totally it! This is every fantasy nerd's dream!" Reina was ecstatic to come to that conclusion. She simply had to keep herself from jumping up and down like an excited child.
"We've made preparations for your arrival, Spirit Forger." Prince Johan broke her from her thoughts. "But first, may I ask you to check you status?"
"My what?" She looked at him, hopefully not letting her excitement leak out.
"Do you not have that in your lands? In the bottom right of your vision, you should see a small circle. Focus on that and you'll understand." The prince instructed her.
Doing as she was told, a screen popped up in her vision.
Name: Reina Suzuki
Class: Ritual Implement Hero LV 1
Equipment: Novice Totem (legendary weapon), otherworld clothes
Skills: None
Magic: None
Reina passed along the information to everyone around her, including her name, doing which had escaped her until just then. Though not gold-colored, Prince Johan's eyes shined.
"Excellent!" He clapped his hands together, startling her. "Before I go into more detail, I would love to see your guardian."
"My…what?" Reina hesitantly asked.
"The spirit you call to fight for you." Johan explained. "The legends we have say that the Spirit Forger can bring about their warrior the moment they set foot into the world."
"Um…" Reina quickly looked through her status, not wanting to disappoint. She found a help menu, which she began skimming. She then found a section which might help.
Skills: Certain abilities may be activated by shouting their name or performing certain actions.
"Okay, that's something. Now, where do I find skills? My status said I didn't have any. Uh, weapon forms? Where's that at?" She hastily scanned her eyes up and down at what only she could see.
"Take your time. Don't worry." The prince eased her down, seeing the tension in her.
"S-Sorry…" She muttered.
She was able to open up something called a 'weapon tree'. It was a large spider web of circles and lines connecting to one another. In the center was an icon with her Novice Totem. She pulled up the information on it.
Novice Totem
(abilities locked) Equip Bonus: Skill "Forge Spirit"
"Found it! Okay, I think I saw something about equip bonuses…well, I can use it right now, at least." She thought.
"I think I'm ready, uh, my prince." She cautiously said to the man.
He let out another laugh. "Is that your way of flirting? We've only just met!" Reina stammered out a nigh-uncoherent response before Johan raised his hand. "I'm only joking with you. 'Prince Johan' is fine, or even just 'Johan'. As the Spirit Forger, you are held in high regard."
Reina nodded, though her face wouldn't return to its normal color.
"Now, please, come to the center here." Johan led her by the hand to the middle of the room. There were a dozen knights on either side of her, all now paying attention to her. The prince, his attendants, and Marcus all stood in front of her a few feet away. "I'm looking forward to seeing this myself!"
"Er, right…" Reina looked through her status again, making sure she had it right. The added pressure of being watched by everyone in the room didn't help.
Another menu popped up when she was about to activate her skill, but there was nothing written there. Dismissing it, she held her totem in her hand, arm raised out and slightly above her head.
"Forge Spirit!" Reina called out.
…
…
…
Nothing happened. Well, nothing visible happened.
"Is something wrong, Spirit Forger?" Prince Johan asked.
"Um…" Reina looked down again. "It says…it'll take five minutes…"
"Oh!" Johan slowly nodded his head. "Well, then…"
He rubbed his hands together for a moment before he returned to his throne, the attendants following him once more.
Since she had a little time, Reina took note of the room. It followed the same design as the halls she walked through, but with more decorations. It was still hard to focus with so many people watching, but she did see two other thrones next to Johan's. They were more extravagant, more gold and the like on them than what she saw on the prince's. They must belong to the king and queen, she reasoned.
Time seemed to pass slowly, leaving Reina to venture inward to her thoughts.
"This is so crazy! I'm a hero! A summoned hero! I'm going to go on an adventure and fight a Demon Lord. That's actually pretty scary sounding, but I'm sure it'll work out. That's how these things go, right?"
"Oh, and this skill! It sounds an awful lot like…well, I'm not a huge fan of the series, though I have read all of the manga and seen all the anime, even the old OVAs. And skills are used by saying them out loud. Okay, fine, whatever! I'm a shonen protagonist and I'm about to bring out my Stand! I'm not going to pretend this isn't awesome!"
Barely containing her glee, the skill finally reached its end. When it did, she saw one of the bars in her status dropped by a third. The one marked 'SP'. She'd worry about that later.
Then, something appeared right in front of her. More accurately, it sprang out from her totem. She looked at it and…was disappointed.
Before her floated an off-white ball-looking thing. It had stubby arms and looked almost like a cartoon ghost, though very solid looking. At least when it turned to face her, its face wasn't cartoonish and smiley. It looked, well, as fierce as something like that could look.
"Um…" Reina wasn't sure what to say.
"Amazing!" Johan shouted, standing from his seat. His eyes sparkled as he quickly ran forward. "I've never seen anything like it before! With you by my side, the Demon Lord won't stand a chance!"
Huzzahs and shouts of agreement came from the knights in the room. Reina heard Marcus utter a sort of prayer. Despite what she thought, everyone looked quite pleased with the result.
"Well, why not?" She thought to herself. Stranger things have happened to her, though that really only included coming here in the first place.
And so, the story of the Spirit Forger would soon begin!
Author's Notes:
This will be my second story written. Part of the Many Worlds Project, this is a one-hero world (with two vassal heroes, to be introduced later). It'll have its own magic system, setting, and all that good stuff.
I'm not sure what my update schedule for this will be. Until I finish "The Wrong Hero", it probably won't be weekly, since that one will be my priority. Or I'll switch between stories every week to let my thoughts grow, not sure. I'll still try to update this one at a reasonable rate.
I hope you all enjoy the ride.
