Chapter 3 –
Basics of Combat
Homura looked between some of the other stores in the area as she and Myne left the blacksmith. Rolling her shoulders slightly, she was conscious of the new weight that was resting on her shoulders and torso. She had never worn armor before, and while she was glad that the weight was negligible, she figured it would take a while to get used to the rather elegant if simple half plate armor. Turning her attention to the still scowling Myne, she let out a soft sigh to herself.
"Miss Myne," she called out, bringing her attention to her. "Yes Madam Shield Hero?" Myne responded.
Homura narrowed her eyes slightly. 'It's strange. I don't think she's called me by name once this whole time.' She thought to herself. "First off, you may call me Homura. If we are going to be a party saving the world together, then I feel like we can afford that much respect between each other." Myne gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, acting properly shocked. But to Homura it looked just like that. An act.
"I could never!" Myne gasped out. All of this was starting to grate severely on Homura's nerves, but she held off. After all, dealing with Myne would at least save her some time getting started. So with a slowly growing scowl, Homura continued on. "Second, is there anywhere near by where we can acquire some basic medical supplies? I want to be prepared in the case something happens to either of us."
Myne regarded her curiously. "But Madam Shield Hero, aren't you going to protect us both from the monsters and bandits that are going to attack us?"
Homura scowled and started to glare up at the older woman. "As I have told you Miss Myne. It is unlikely that I will always be able to cover both of us, nor that we will always be together. What if we are attacked by something that deals more damage than I can stop? Am I to just let one of us bleed to death?"
The two women had yet another stand-off, this time in front of the shop, some people stopping to stare at the oddly mismatched pair, what with young beauty and the other a more adult one, the younger of the two having more fanciful armor in comparison. It created an image that did not paint Homura in a good light.
Hearing the people around them starting to mutter some not nice words about her, she crossed her arms in front of herself and chose her words carefully. "I would just like to make sure we have medicine and supplies in case that we need them. I have always believed it is better to be safer than sorry later on." She stated firmly, and a bit louder than she would've normally, making sure everyone around them heard. "Since you chose not to get armor we could afford, it is even more important to get medicine to begin with. So please, if you can show me the way to the store, the sooner we may be on the road."
Myne scowled down at the younger girl, her eyes flicking around at the people who were starting to agree with Homura. Obviously to Homura, it looked like she had tried to use the crowd against her and hadn't expected her to use it herself. "Fine. It is this way Madam Shield Hero."
Homura looked after her with slight confusion on her face. She had emphasized her title more than necessary. The magical girl noticed the change that automatically happened to a few of the people around her. The faces they made, it looked like the face that Sayaka would make towards her after meeting the Incubator and Mami Tomoe.
Suspicion.
Distrust.
For some reason, a decent chunk of the population seemed to not like or trust the Shield Hero. Why would that be? What had happened in the past to make one of the [Four Holy Heroes] an outcast? It was all a very uncomfortably familiar position to Homura.
S-*-*-*-H
She followed her party member the short way to a store. Stopping in front of the store she took the time to stop and read the sign. It took a moment to translate and mumble out a proper enough pronunciation for the shield to translate it for her. Apothecary.
It made sense to Homura. This world was based on a time before a scientifically backed pharmaceutical industry took the place of a medieval apothecary. But considering magic was more commonplace in this world, it would not surprise her if magic were involved unlike it just was believed to be in her world.
Finally entering the store, Homura looked around. Some familiar medical supplies such as wrap bandages were on display, along with a variety of creams and potions of various colors. Behind the counter, working away on a mortar and pestle with a small pile of herbs next to him was an old man. Unlike the blacksmith, the apothecary looked old, with longer white hair, well-worn hands, and kind of spindly. But he mixed the medicine with experience, not allowing himself to be distracted from the simple looking work.
It reminded Homura of making her munitions back in her world. It filled her with frustration. She didn't want to have to rely on others. She hated the thought of it. She had lost and been hurt so much trusting others. But this world decided the rules she had to follow if she wanted to return and save Madoka. So, as much as she hated it, she would play along. For now.
Slowly she approached the counter, paying attention to what the old apothecary was doing. While she would be lacking the exact knowledge and technical skills, if she could teach herself to make some simple medicine, she figured it would come in handy eventually. So while she waited patiently, Myne kicked back against the wall nearby with a huff, crossing her arms across her chest.
Eventually deeming his current task finished, the old man looked up at Homura. His gaze switched between her and Myne a few times before settling back on to her. Whatever he had been thinking about, and whatever he decided he hid well behind his old age.
"May I help you?" he asked in a gruff voice. Nodding slightly, Homura nodded in response. "Yes sir. I am looking to buy a beginning stock of medicine and equipment for me and my party member."
He regarded her for a moment before standing and moving around his store, grabbing various potions and equipment off of his shelves. He took the time to arrange them out before her.
"Please pay attention, I don't want you giving or taking the wrong kind of potion. These green ones are health potions, they will restore an amount of your health when consumed. Small wounds that have stopped bleeding may be healed, and higher-grade potions have been reported to stop bleeding and restore larger wounds.
"The orange paste is a burn cream. It will ease the pain and at this quality likely cure first degree burns. Do not use it on third degree burns, as the damage is too extensive for normal medicine to handle. The light purple potion is a basic antidote. It will cure most poison from sources equivalent to or below level 20. The blue potion is a mana potion and will restore your mana. Do not drink more than two in an hour, or it will cause mana poisoning.
"Finally, a couple of rolls of bandages. They are best used when soaked in a potion for longer lasting exposure but can be used for general purposes such as slowing bleeding or creating a splint in case of a broken bone." He explained slowly, before quizzing Homura on each of them randomly. Making sure she had each one memorized to his satisfaction.
Once that was completed, he carefully gathered it all up into a small pouch. "That will be 30 silver young lady." Homura made a slightly disgruntled face. It sounded a bit high but considering that she had received her armor for less than it was worth at 150 silver, she figured she wasn't being overcharged. So she counted out the money from her bag and handed it to the old apothecary.
"That pouch can be attached to your belt or strapped to your leg. If you want to have your companion carry some, she can get a pouch on her own." He explained after double checking the money.
Homura gave him a small bow. "Thank you very much." She responded honestly. The shop owner looked a bit confused at her actions but waved her off. "Not a problem girl. Just please try to take care of your partner there. While I appreciate the business, I don't like seeing people in my shop too often."
"Are you done yet Madam Shield Hero?" Myne interjected before Homura could reply. "I would like to get to the fields sometime before the sun goes down. Homura glanced outside the window in the store. Judging by the shadows, it was just barely coming up on midday. That still left several hours. More and more, Homura felt something was going on.
With a soft sigh of frustration, she turned and looked towards her frustrating partner. "Yes Miss Myne. I believe we are ready to begin hunting some monsters for the day. If you would like to lead the way, we can afford to stop and grab a small snack from a stall before heading outside the gates."
Myne rolled her eyes and left the store quickly. Before Homura could leave, the old man stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Turning to look at him curiously he made a small face. "Be careful of her, Lady Shield Hero. While I may not appreciate what you represent, you earned a few points in coming here before heading out to fight. She is not one to be trusted. And for you, finding someone to trust is important." Before she could respond, he had retreated to the back of his shop.
Homura scowled deeply. His words set off even more flags in her head. Something was going on. This something seemed to involve being the [Shield Hero]. Something had happened, she was sure of it now. Something bad enough that apparently warranted a partly systematic hate of her position. That would make saving this world even more difficult. And she was supposed to be the child?
S-*-*-*-H
Following Myne out of the gate in the large stone wall around the castle town, Homura took a moment to look around at the green fields that surrounded her before they gave way to woodlands, which in the distance she could see grew into a towering forest. It was a sight that was rare in her world, and it had been years even prior to her loops that she had last seen anything remotely similar.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, letting a moment of relative calm and peace settle over her as a gentle breeze tousled her hair.
"What are you waiting for, Madam Shield Hero?" Myne broke her out of the small trance she had begun to slip into. Letting out a small sigh, Homura opened her eyes and turned her attention to her companion.
"I was merely taking a moment to appreciate nature. Places like this are rare in my world, and it has been a long time since I could last enjoy it." she decided to explain. Myne regarded her curiously.
"Nature like this is rare in your world? Is it the same for the other heroes?" she questioned; her curiosity seemed actually peaked at this new revelation.
Homura took a moment to decide on how to explain. "I can not answer for them, but I would imagine it would be awfully similar." she finally began. "In my home, we had towers that were several dozen times taller than the castle," Homura made a vague gesture to the castle that loomed over the town they stood outside of, "side by side, dozens of times over, with somewhat varied heights. Typically, they were made of glass and steel, but some of the older buildings were made of cement and steel. We used…. a form of lightning magic, I suppose, to power motors that would raise or lower steel platforms up and down the towers so we did not have to climb several hundred meters worth of stairs. My home itself was a bit smaller than the castle but housed several hundred people. We called it an apartment complex. It was a normal place for single people or freshly married couples to live in their own assigned rooms. But we also had houses like you do here for larger, or wealthier families."
Myne looked progressively more and more shocked the more Homura explained. "So... what are these massive towers used for? Surely they had to serve some kind of purpose?"
Homura decided to start walking out into the fields, but turned her head slightly towards Myne, making sure she was following but so she could be heard clearly. "Mostly they were used by businesses. Some contained shops, normally for clothes, and sometimes had spots designated as apartments for the workers of the businesses."
Myne regarded the younger girl for a moment, looking like she had more questions, but was unsure if she was willing to ask them. When suddenly Homura moved around her and snatched an orange blur out of the air that had lunged to attack Myne.
Homura looked down at the… 'orange ball with sharp teeth and eyes?' she held in her hands. As she focused on it, she saw a name appear above the ball.
{ Orange Balloon }
"Thank you for stopping that balloon from attacking me, Madam Shield Hero." Myne thanked with a small bow. "They're nasty little things. Not really strong, but their sharp teeth are the bane of many new and young adventurers. Why don't you try popping it? See how well you can fight?"
Homura scowled slightly at the suggestion, already knowing from this morning how well that was going to go. But she finally just let out a sigh and decided it was time to prove a point. She threw the balloon down into the ground and stomped it firmly under her heel before it could move. It took a few minutes of grinding it under her heel before it finally popped with a small whining sound.
{ EXP +1 }
Homura flinched slightly, not expecting the pop up, before glaring down at the rubber like scraps under her boot. "That...is not what I was expecting." Myne muttered, waving away the pop up that apparently popped up for her as well. "Even without a weapon, most people would've been able to pop it like that fairly quickly."
Homura let out another sigh. "I am the [Shield Hero], Miss Myne. My job is to defend and restrain opponents. While I can technically deal damage, especially this early with all the weapons being this weak, I do not expect to get far by myself. Unfortunately," she quietly uttered the last part to herself.
Myne suddenly jerked before pointing a shaking hand towards Homura's arm. "Hmm?" Homura turned and looked down at where the older woman was pointing. She blinked slightly at the sight of another Orange Balloon gnawing on her arm. Judging by her partner's expression, it was supposed to hurt, but she barely felt anything. Like a faint itching if anything.
Grabbing it firmly like she caught the last one, she held it out towards Myne. "Like I said, my role is to defend. I require party members to defeat enemies and make progress to help save the world."
Myne looked at her weirdly, looking like she was trying to figure out Homura was telling her, though it looked so faked to her. Growling in her head, Homura made a gesture to her sword. "So if you don't mind drawing your sword, Miss Myne, and dealing with this nuisance, we can move on to something a bit better."
Myne looked like she wanted to argue but couldn't come up with a good reason not to. Finally sighing she drew her sword and lazily swung it at the balloon, not making any attempt to avoid hitting Homura. The magical girl almost missed it underneath the sound of the balloon popping. A sound similar to when she kicked Motoyasu this morning. A sound that Homura was beginning to understand what it meant.
Damage Cancellation.
Holding the balloon scraps in her hand as she clenched it into a fist, Homura ignored the experience pop up that disappeared by itself shortly after. Glaring up at Myne who was momentarily startled at the venom in her glare, she began to glare back. "What was that Miss Sophia?" Homura ground out.
"Whatever do you mean Madam Shield Hero?" Myne spat back. "I merely killed the balloon like you asked me too."
Homura scowled at her. "Yes. However, you made no attempt to avoid hitting me, and in fact did hit me. Had my defense not been as high as it is, you would have wounded me."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Myne tried to play ignorant.
Homura took a deep breath, dropping her glare for an icy gaze as she made her final decision. Quickly navigating her [Status Menu] she pulled up the option she was looking for.
{ Would you like to dismiss Myne Sophia from your party?
[Yes] or [No]? }
Selecting yes, she took internal pleasure at seeing the surprise jerk on her ex party member's face when she received the notification.
"If that is the mindset you are going to have Myne Sophia, then I cannot trust you with my back nor my life. You are free to return to the town by yourself. Surely an experienced adventurer selected by his Majesty can do that much without a hero." Without waiting for a response, Homura turned away, tossing her hair as she did so, and began to walk towards the forest. She figured that if nothing out here was able to hurt her, then there was no waste in at least looking around.
Had she turned around, she would have seen an angry red head glaring at her with a look that would have set lesser creatures on fire before she turned around and stormed back into town.
After punting a few balloons away smoothly when they came to bother her, Homura began to calm down. After starting to calm down, she turned and glanced back towards where she had come from, only to see the last wisps of a red ponytail walking into the town's gate. Clenching her fist in frustration for a moment, she lightly startled herself with the feeling of what felt like rubber in her fist.
Turning her hand upwards and opening it she noticed that she was still holding the remains of the balloon in her hand. About to toss them away, she noticed the jewel on her shield glowing faintly. It was then that she remembered she should feed items to her shield to see about unlocking new forms.
{ Orange Balloon acquired! }
Homura looked at it curiously. That wasn't what had appeared last night with Madoka's Ribbon. Navigating and opening her [Weapon Book] she saw that a new icon had lit up connecting to her base [Small Shield], this one looked the exact same, but orange in color. However, there was still a lock over the icon, just like the two shields connecting to her [Companion Shield I].
Thinking over why this could be, she remembered something her [Help Menu] had mentioned in unlocking weapon forms. 'Am I not a high enough level?' she thought to herself. It made a certain amount of sense. If this was the equivalent of a [Tutorial] in a video game, and Homura hated thinking of the world like that, then it would make sense to reinforce the idea that levels are also needed in unlocking new weapons. 'I will probably unlock that shield for use when I reach LV 2.'
Remembering her Ribbon Shield from this morning, she looked at the icon for her [Companion Shield I]. She remembered that some kind of instinct was telling her to not use it around Myne, but since she was no longer part of her party, she figured she could finally work on unlocking it. Holding her hand over the edge of her shield, she intoned in her mind '[Companion Shield I]!'
With a small flash that she was starting to get used to, her [Small Shield] switched itself into something that resembled a small harp. It possessed only 5 strings and was rather simple appearance wise despite the jewel embedded in the center of it's base. What did stand out to Homura however were the small symbols that were apparently etched into the wood of her new shield.
It looked like the symbols she associated with the other magical girls from Mitakihara. An eye, a flower, a musical note and... a teardrop. Scowling at the harp, Homura couldn't help but to feel conflicting emotions about the name and what it's design implied.
Releasing yet another sigh, she lowered her arm back to her side, figuring there was nothing she could do about it. So the best way to handle it was to ignore it. While she didn't know exactly what 'companion growth up' was, she was far from stupid. From a video game standpoint, it would probably mean that people in her party would receive either more experience or more stats as they leveled up, or both. It's something that would only help in the long run.
Feeling that same almost not quite itching feeling from earlier, but this time on her calf she looked down. This time it appeared there was a Yellow Balloon gnawing on her. This time when she paid attention to it, Homura noticed a faint purple glow surrounding her body. Since the balloon was doing no damage to her according to the mini status in her upper vision, she decided it was lower priority and traced the flow of the purple aura back to the source, which was apparently her shield.
Homura quirked her brow at seeing that. It appeared that the shield spread it's defense all over her body, and from how she saw the magic flowing, her clothes as well. But it looked thinner if she had to give it a word. Almost as if that, yes, while her shield protected her whole body, it was overall only a part of the defense that was directly available from the shield. She'll have to remember to test it later on when a monster was able to overcome her body's defense. Which if she was being honest, she hoped was way off into the future.
While no stranger to pain, it did not mean that she reveled in it. She was also unsure if she would be able to spiritually disassociate from it like she could back in her own world with her soul gem apparently gone. She hoped back where it belonged if she was going to be honest.
Finally turning her attention back to the Yellow Balloon, she also noticed several more balloons, both Orange and Yellow approaching her. Grabbing the one currently biting her leg, she pulled it off, and after punting the several approaching balloons away in a single graceful kick, regarded it for a moment.
She felt silly even thinking about punching it. But without an actual weapon, all she had was her body and what martial arts she knew. Traditional martial arts wasn't going to help on something like this, so it would just be basic punching, or stomping it into the ground like she did previously. Homura really didn't want to spend all afternoon wasting so much time popping balloons of all things with her essentially nonexistent damage output.
Deflating slightly, she knew her pride wouldn't let her return to town without having gained at least a single level. So she decided to swallow her embarrassment and started to firmly punch the yellow biting ball in her hands.
For ten minutes.
During those 10 minutes, the balloons she had originally kicked away from her had come back. Having an idea, she stomped firmly on to one of the Orange Balloons and began to grind it under her heel like earlier. She steadily kept kicking the other ones away while she punched the Yellow Balloon. In the time it took her to pop a single yellow, she managed to pop three more orange balloons.
{ EXP +1! }
{ EXP +1! }
{ EXP +1! }
{ EXP +5! }
Homura scowled slightly. It took so long for her to gain so little experience. Vaguely remembering something Sayaka had pointed out to her so long ago, she expanded her [Status Menu]. After looking for a moment, at the very bottom she found what she had been looking for.
{ Level 1
Experience to Level 2 : 9 / 100 }
Along with the text information was also a bar that covered the entire bottom length of her status window, that was about 10% filled. Quickly running the math, that meant that Homura would be out killing balloons for roughly another two hours. Not how she wanted to spend her afternoon, but she knew she had to achieve level 2 before dinner. It was reasonable, considering that would give her roughly another three hours.
But the embarrassment from punching balloons.
For hours.
With yet another sigh, Homura set to work. Slowly wandering the fields, letting the balloons come to her more than anything, steadily decimating the population of the rubber spheres. After about an hour, the young woman came across a patch of what looked like small red leaves to her. But she recognized them as the plants that the apothecary had been grinding up when she had stopped by. Even if she was sure they were next to useless, she had dutifully absorbed the balloon scraps left by her current prey. If this plant were truly a medicinal herb, then it would be both more valuable and more useful.
Deciding to take a small break from balloon hunting since she was currently at 66 / 100 experience, she knelt by the side of the possible herbs. Looking for some in worse conditions for the experiment, she eventually located and picked a small batch.
{ Aloe: quality: poor, a medicinal herb for treating wounds }
Homura tilted her head slightly to the side at that. She had heard of aloe, she knew it was used as a soothing agent for first degree burns, but she hadn't heard of other uses for it back in her world. But she then thought that it might just be her shield giving it a comparable name. After all, it was common for things to have names in one language and not another, so this might have been a case of that with her shield.
After a moment, she decided to feed the herb to her shield. With a glow and small rush of wind, the herb was dissolved and absorbed.
{ Leaf Shield conditions met! }
{ Leaf Shield
Abilities Locked equip bonus: [Gathering] skill +1 }
Looking at the supposed abilities she would unlock, she tried to figure out what it would do. Based on what had unlocked the shield and how she had gotten it, 'Will it increase the quality of the herb after I pick it?' she wondered. Deciding to give it a try, she swapped to her newly unlocked [Leaf Shield]. Finding an herb that looked of better quality than the first one, but not much, it gave a soft green glow after being picked before dimming and visibly looking better.
{ Aloe: quality: somewhat poor increased to decent, a medicinal herb for treating wounds }
Regarding the magically better herb, Homura deliberated for a moment. Finally coming to a decision, she nodded to herself and proceeded to pick some of the better herbs she could find. Alternating every now and then between that and killing balloons as they approached her. Homura steadily increased the supply of herbs in her inventory while working her way towards Level 2.
After another hour and half, she heard a small chiming sound in her ear, and felt her body grow slightly lighter and stronger in feeling after popping yet another yellow balloon. Blinking in confusion for a moment at the sudden feeling, she was startled when the notification popped up.
{ Level Up!
You are now Level 2.
Orange Small Shield conditions met!
Yellow Small Shield conditions met! }
"Finally," Homura huffed to herself as she dismissed the message. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she opened her [Weapon Book] and navigated to the newly unlocked shields.
{ Orange Small Shield
-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Defense +2 }
{ Yellow Small Shield
-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Defense +2 }
Rolling her eyes, she closed her weapons list, deciding to unlock them later, once she had unlocked her current higher priority shields. As she started paying attention again, she saw a new monster rolling toward her, a Red Balloon.
Watching it, she felt her irritation start growing again. She was used to boring repetitive tasks, but she was starting to feel a bit vindictive against these balloon monsters. So when the Red Balloon leaped out of the grass and tried to attack Homura, she deftly caught it midair and proceeded to punch it in frustration, only to become more so at the annoyingly familiar sound.
Damage Cancellation.
That meant that the monster that had just attacked her was significantly stronger than an Orange or Yellow Balloon, and put it outside of her ATK of 1. The line in her combat capability had just been firmly drawn.
And it pissed her off.
Letting out a small scream of frustration she dropped and kicked the Red Balloon away from her as hard as she could. The small thing went flying with a loud screech, disappearing deep into the trees of the forest. Tossing her hair over her shoulder in frustration, she turned towards the town gates and proceeded to head back into town. Her goal for the day was accomplished.
S-*-*-*-H
As Homura walked through the town, she idly looked around, trying to decide where to stop for food and possibly a bed. As she walked, she became annoyed by the constant light bouncing of her coin pouch on her belt. She had long since gotten used to keeping everything in her shield back in her world.
She stopped suddenly at that thought. Why hadn't she tried to put it into her shield? Was it because of her distrust of Myne? Her frustration at what she'd had to deal with today? Whatever it was, she quickly pulled the pouch off her belt and fed it to her shield. In the corner near her mini status, [65000 G] popped up. Along with that her inventory icon illuminated to show she had a new item.
Pulling up her inventory she went to the lit-up icon.
{ Medium Leather Bag, a utility bag designed to hold coins and other items }
'So since that is just the bag with no money, does that mean that the [65000 G] is my money? I had 650 silver, so that would be showing me the amount of money I had in coppers.' Pursing her lips slightly in thought, Homura tried to pull out a single copper, something she theoretically shouldn't be able to do since she only had silvers.
She was shocked speechless when a single copper coin appeared in her hand, her money indicator dropping to [64999 G]. Staring in shock at the coin that shouldn't exist, it began to set in the scope of the power of the holy weapons. With a slightly shaking hand she deposited the copper back into her shield.
"Homura?" a familiar voice spoke up from behind her. Turning around she saw the approaching form of an effeminate swordsman, Ren.
"Amaki-senpai, how did your day go?" Homura questioned. While she might not have strictly cared, she figured it would be worth trying to make sure some rapport is built with the other heroes. It helped that Ren was the one she got along the easiest with. She also noticed that he had also bought some armor to wear over his griffon hide clothes.
Nodding in greeting to her, he stopped a respectful arms length away from her. "It went well enough I suppose. I made it to Level 5. While not as far as I would have liked, it will have to do. I spent longer than I intended at the weapon store." As he was talking, the members of his party came up behind him, but kept a distance that made Homura almost feel awkward. "We were just heading to get dinner at an inn for the night before we hit the road tomorrow morning. Speaking of, where's your party member?"
Crossing her arms, Homura was unable to keep her eye from twitching. 'Level 5? How is that fair?' "Myne Sophia and I had multiple...disagreements and decided that we could not reliably work together." Homura tactfully explained. "I plan to search for a new companion tomorrow. Would you mind if I joined you and your party for dinner?"
Ren regarded her for a moment, keeping his face carefully blank. "That would be fine with me," he finally answered.
Homura gave a half bow. "Thank you Amaki-senpai. If you do not mind, would I be able to ask you some questions over dinner?"
Ren waved his hand dismissively as he continued his way to a nearby inn, where he and his party had previously decided they would stay, Homura keeping pace with him. "Yeah, that's fine. I don't mind helping out noobs. If you're skilled enough to make it as long as you're just lacking information, that's fine for me. Just don't make me carry you down the road."
Homura narrowed her eyes at him, a sharp comment on the tip of her tongue at his casual callousness. But then she stopped. How was that any different than she had treated her friends? While the language was a bit different, and it was aimed at her, the intention behind it was the same. She could respect that, she guessed. "That is agreeable."
After getting a table, Homura watched Ren's party go sit off at their own table, while she joined Ren at their own.
"Don't worry about them. I asked them to eat separately from me if I ran into one of the other heroes." Ren explained seeing where she was looking. Homura nodded at that explanation. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Since I could not join you boys after dinner last night, I was wondering if you all had made a plan on where to go initially to prevent us from overlapping each other?" Homura began, skimming over the menu, unfortunately not seeing any familiar words in the still unfamiliar language, before putting the menu down to focus on Ren.
Ren lightly tapped the table, having glanced at the menu before dismissing it immediately. After a moment of thought he touched the jewel of his sword at his hip, a rolled-up piece of paper appearing in his hand. Laying it out on the currently empty table in front of him, he unrolled it, revealing what was obviously a map.
"I bought this earlier because I figured it would come in handy once I hit the road. This is a map of Melromarc with some of the surrounding countries." Ren began his explanation. Homura nodding along as she dedicated as much of the map to memory as possible. She had been planning on getting one eventually, preliminarily relying on whatever party members she had to get around the immediate area. She would possibly have to change that.
"Eventually, all of us were planning on making it down here, to Zeltoble. They are known to have the best gear possible. I would keep that in mind, so that once you are approaching level 40 at least, you can make your way there. As for immediate plans tomorrow, Castle Town has four gates, one in each cardinal direction. With there being four heroes, we decided that we would each take a gate and follow that route to begin with. I was going to head East, Motoyasu to the South, and Itsuki was going to go West. Each one of those directions have a good collection of weapons for our respective weapons. I am unfamiliar with the Shielder class, so I can't tell you what quality of shields you'll find."
Homura frowned slightly in thought, before answering the unasked question. "That is fine with me Amaki-senpai. I am most worried about running into you boys and enacting whatever issues our weapons imply will happen when we're close to each other."
Ren nodded in understanding, rolling up the map whenever the waitress approached their table.
"I apologize for the wait! Is there anything I can get you or your sister?" the waitress asked Ren as the obviously older one.
Ren and Homura both furrowed their brows.
"She's not my sister."
"He's not my brother."
They both spoke at the same time, glancing sharply at each other, before looking back to the waitress. The waitress could only sweat slightly as her hospitality smile became a bit strained. "I'm deeply sorry about that. You two totally look like siblings."
Ren gave a sigh, and just leaned back in his chair. "Whatever, I'll take whatever you recommend."
"Same as well." Homura answered, crossing her arms as she looked away from Ren, a little uncomfortable.
The waitress just looked between the two of them and nodded before walking away. Homura heard her mutter under her breath, "They're definitely siblings…"
With a sigh, Ren drew her attention back to him by running his hand through her hair. "Before I forget Homura, did you copy any shields from the blacksmith's?"
Homura tapped her fingers against her bicep. She wasn't going to admit that her weapon copy ability listed in her help menu had completely slipped her mind. "No. Myne Sophia was...impatient and I was distracted by learning our rule on [Weapon Restriction] while waiting on Erhard to gather my armor from the back."
Ren looked at her like she was crazy for a minute, before making a face of realization. "Ah. We should have warned you about that last night, or at least this morning. My apologies." Ren replied sheepishly. "Well, I would recommend stopping at a store tomorrow and copying what you can. It will help boost you along getting going."
Homura nodded in response, but before she could ask a question that just occurred to her, the waitress came by with a couple of bowls of what looked like soup and bread. After replying that they were good and didn't need anything else. Homura continued on, "I am curious Amaki-senpai. Besides unlocking new forms, is there anything specific you recommend to strengthen our weapons?"
Ren looked at her in confusion for a minute, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "She's a noob Ren. She's not a gamer. She doesn't know these things." Homura heard him mutter under his breath. She felt like she should be annoyed, but let it go. After taking a moment to recollect himself he turned his attention back to her.
"So outside of leveling and collecting strong weapons, it is important to [Upgrade] your weapons. That's done using something called [Mastery]." He answered her.
"[Mastery]?" Homura questioned. She hasn't seen anything like that, whether with her weapons or her [Help Menu].
Ren gave a nod. "As you use your weapons, you'll find your weapon forms gain experience themselves. Once you've filled out this experience bar, it won't gain any more experience, or Mastery as it's called, until you've reset it. Once you've reset the Mastery on the weapon, it will be put into an [Energy Bank]. That energy is then able to be transferred to a different weapon or reinvested back into the same weapon."
Homura looked at him oddly. "Why would I want to reinvest the energy back into a weapon?"
"Because it'll increase the rarity of the weapon." Ren explained. "I imagine that for a long while, you'll only have weapons that are at a [Common] rarity once you've unlocked the initial level of mastery. So you would use your energy to upgrade it to [Uncommon], increasing it's stats and abilities. Then it would be upgraded to [Rare], [Super Rare], [Ultra Rare], [Ancient] and [Legendary]. Each level is far stronger than the last, but also comparatively more expensive to upgrade each time."
"Ah. That makes sense I suppose." Homura replied. While she hadn't seen anything about it yesterday or this morning, she remembered the several times that the menu had changed itself while she was looking at it. So she opened her [Weapon Book] and pulled up her Leaf Shield that she'd been using all day.
{ Leaf Shield
-Abilities Unlocked- Equip Bonus: [Gathering] +1
Mastery: 15 / 100 }
Homura gave a small sigh. "Well apparently the shield I have been using all day is only at 15 percent mastery. So I have got a bit before I can even unlock this one."
Ren regarded her curiously. "15 percent in one day? That's not terrible considering your lack of attack ability."
Setting his utensils down after finishing his meal, he moved to stand up. "It was nice running into you Homura. Thank you for joining me for dinner." Setting down some coins on to the counter, he then put his hand into his pockets. "I wish you good luck in your journey. I hope you're ready by the time the Wave rolls in."
Without waiting for a response, he turned around and went towards his party. "Thank you for your assistance Amaki-senpai." Homura called out to him anyway. Pulling up her [Help Menu] she looked over the new entries that popped up from Ren's explanation: [Mastery], [Energy Transfer], and [Rarity]. Soon the waitress had come back by, and Homura paid off the remainder of her meal. After that, she made her way to what she thought of as the front desk to rent herself a room for the knife.
S-*-*-*-H
Myne watched the Shield Hero head upstairs after presumably renting a room. It took longer than she had thought it would to find where the girl was going to stay for the night.
"What are you planning, Princess Malty?" a person standing behind her in a nun like outfit questioned her. While she didn't care for or really put stock into what the Church of Three Heroes said about the supposed Shield Devil, after dealing with the girl for even just half a day, she could honestly say that she couldn't stand the little wench.
"Had the Shield simply been a male, it would've been easy enough to accuse her for rape." she began. "If we're going to blame her for a crime against me, then I have an idea that might work."
"Hmmm, and what would that be?" the nun, her contact with the Church, said.
Malty hated what she was about to say. But since it was to get her on to the throne, she knew the occasional sacrifice was going to be necessary.