This chapter was just meant fill up space, and show some fun interaction.
Naofumi parked his scooter in his inventory before going to Erhard's blacksmith.
"Hey Erhard."
"Hey kid!" the old man greeted back. "It's been a week, how you been treating yourself?!"
"Things have been OK, I guess. School's been treating me well and I made myself some armor and weapons."
"You don't need armor? That's a shame, I was going to make a custom order for you."
"Thank you but I'm covered."
"So have registered to the dragon hourglass?"
"The what now?"
"The dragon hourglass, it counts the time between waves, the heroes are capable of registering to one and are even capable of teleporting to the location of the wave once done." Erhard explained.
"Why wasn't I told this?" Naofumi says, a look of anger crossing his face.
"Not sure, it's common knowledge. It's in the church nearby."
"Thank you." Naofumi left the blacksmith before going to the obvious church nearby.
Naofumi entered the place with a light grimace on his face, he really disliked this place just by the air it gave. He was lead to a room.
Inside was a massive hourglass, it glowed bright and sported attached and floating gold ornaments. As well as 2 huge rubies that looked like eyes.
A light shot out of it and entered his shield.
20:36:45
'Less than a day left, I really wish someone could of told me.'
"Such a lame get-up, you can't seriously be thinking of fighting the waves in that!" Motoyasu's stuck up voice called throughout the room.
Naofumi couldn't help but grit his fangs and let out a really low growl, so low some occupants looked around for a powerful animal.
"Wow, you still don't have party members, that's a shock!" came another sarcastic comment.
Naofumi gripped his [Spiked clawed gauntlet, his hand begging to shoot out a explosion. He turned around towards the door, keeping his head low.
"Motoyasu is talking to you! Answer him!" came the gratey red haired whore's voice.
Naofumi just kept walking, his rage truly beginning to boil.
He ran over to the fields, but then to the forest, he couldn't express his rage on one-hit balloons.
He began to furiously attack anything that moves, even punching the trees.
Naofumi slashed furiously at a tree. The number of glowing marks gradually multiplying. Out of caution he did a backflip, distancing himself from the tree.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
A quadruple explosion occurred, the tree immediately fell to the ground.
Naofumi panted, his berserk frenzy had lasted a whole 40 minutes and he had already felled 9 trees and killed half the population of the forest.
"Wow, I was wondering what those explosions were, looks like the shield hero isn't completely pathetic."
Naofumi turned to his side and could see a group of thugs, 3 in total, they looked scruffy and just overall pathetic. However, each of them were were level 25 - 30.
"What do you want?" Naofumi asks, irritated.
"Is that explosion yours or the gauntlet's?" one of them asks, ignoring his question.
"It's the gauntlet's." Naofumi answered, because he knew what was coming.
"Well to answer your first question, we are robbing you, particularly the gauntlet. Now hand it over and we'll let you live." the leader said, arrogantly.
'From earth to hell, from the largest cities to the smallest forests, bastards lay everywhere!' Naofumi thought with a look of fury.
"Just come and take it." he said in a intimidating manner.
"Ooohhhh, scary." a fat one mocked.
"THAT'S IT!![MAD CHARGE[!!"
Naofumi rushed forward in a burst of speed. It felt more like he was being thrown rather than a speed boost.
Naofumi slammed his fist into the bandit. He flew back before hitting a tree.
"KYAA!!" Naofumi just barely ducked under a dagger slash from the leader. Naofumi raised his [Enchanted lightmetal alloy shield] and let the bandit wail on his shield with very fast attacks.
"Damn, this thing is sturdy, but you'll pay for Ned!"
Naofumi blocked one particular strike before countering. He slammed the shield into the bandit's face, and then punched him in the face. He then smashed the side of the gauntlet into the guy's face, hitting him with the spikes.
The leader dropped to the ground.
The 3rd guy that had seen the whole finally acted. He pointed his hand at Naofumi and yelled "First hellfire!"
Naofumi couldn't act in time and tanked the fireball to the face. He fell to the ground.
Naofumi then dodged a second fireball before running behind a tree. The guy attempted to follow him behind the tree, fireball ready, when he had to dodge a blue bullet.
The bandit looked forward, he looked at Naofumi, [NI - 19 Kagatsuchi shield] aimed.
The next they knew they were in a gunfight, only with fire bullets and fireballs, Naofumi was actually winning, he's watched enough action movies to know how to gunfight.
One final bullet led to the shield hero's victory.
Naofumi walked away into a different part of the forest.
"Bastards."
Luckily for him, those dumbasses allowed him to work out his anger.
He took this time to do some exercises. Push-ups, sit-ups, pulls ups, more ups, and squats.
Naofumi went to continue exploring the forest out of curiosity, occasionally doing exercises to pass the time.
The shield hero then found himself looking down a cave, his instincts telling him that value was to be found.
"When the world starts falling, craftsmen, miners and more will always find diamonds in the rough, let's see if I'm one of them."
Naofumi entered the cave with his pickaxe and new shield.
[Pickaxe shield]
Equip bonus: Mining 1
Naofumi mined ores, gaining iron, coal, and lead. Though he cared not for the common ores and just kept making his way down the cave.
The arrow from his Mining shield informed him of a decently sized ore vein in the wall. The metal had a light blue glow to it.
"Jackpot!"
This was mithril, a decently hard to find magic metal that was perfect for enchanting. It was a great conductor of magic and could even strengthen enchantments. It was no stronger than iron but Mithril carbide did exist.
Naofumi mined it with vigor. He made his way back to the city and bought himself a inn room. He began to craft using his tools and blueprints. He was making quite a lot with the limited time he had.
The next day, Naofumi got ready. Packed his weapons and put his armor on.
He decided to visit the blacksmith one more time before the wave.
"Yo old man."
"Hey Kid-HOLY HELL!" Erhard yelled in shock. "When you said that you made your own armor, I didn't think it was otherworldly armor?!!"
Naofumi had modeled his armor based on real-life super military armor, special force armor and Spartan armor from his Halo phase. But it couldn't of looked that crazy.
"Hey, this armor is strong, versatile and tailored for me and me alone. Plus, knowing you'd make me look like a bandit or viking, as it would match me." Naofumi grumbled.
"...you know me too well." the blacksmith said bashfully.
"Yeah, I work with what'll be best, not based on how much I'm paid."
"At least I know what I'm working with, what even is this stuff?" he asked, poking at the bullet-immune membrane.
"My own self made material, it's effective for making armor." Naofumi simply explained.
"Anyway, did you come here to show off your custom armor or did you want to buy something?"
"I came to give you these." Naofumi passed the old Smith a basket, filled with rejuvenating drinks, health potions, medicine, and fruit juice. "Just help you survive the wave."
Erhard picked up a bottle of juice and examined it. "Looks refreshing." He took off the cap and took a sip...before immediately downing the whole drink. "And I was right! Sweet, sour, refreshing and cool! How'd you keep 'em cool?"
"The bottles having a cooling enchantment."
"Nice! But why are you really giving me these?"
"To thank you for your help. I might ask for more favors though."
"Totally worth it."
3 hours later...
Naofumi was in his armor doing stretches, gear in his inventory and still alone.
17...12...
9...5...4
3...2...1
Author's notes: Do you have any suggestions for weapons Naofumi can develop? One problem I've noticed is 'the duel'. Motoyasu has no motivation to fight Naofumi and I already have the fight scene down, do you have a solution?