Chapter 2 – Thunderstruck
Despite the appearance of her little spirit companion, Reina could barely hold back her excitement. She made a mental note to not start doing poses when she used it.
"I look forward to seeing what else you can do in the future." Prince Johan said, a wide smile still on his face.
"Uh, yeah, me too." Reina returned. Excitement aside, she really had no idea what she was capable of. Being a summoned hero probably meant she could do a lot.
"With that said, I believe it's time to introduce you to your party." Johan waved to one of the knights, who promptly left the room. "We've assembled adventurers willing to embark on a quest with you to increase your power and save our world."
"Oh, good!" Reina internally sighed with relief. "I was afraid I'd have to go around and find people on my own."
Johan went on. "You might think it strange to send you out like this, but it's important you grow into your power, rather than it being given to you. Otherwise, I'd send my knights to rapidly increase your level."
"I guess that makes sense." Reina reasoned before speaking. "What can you tell me about the Demon Lord?"
"As it happens, my father was the one to discover his existence." Prince Johan said. "We've had some conflict with a neighboring country and the king took his men to quell them. Once there, they found conclusive proof of the rising of another Demon Lord."
"'Another'?" Reina questioned.
Johan nodded. "The first Demon Lord struck over 20 years ago and plunged the continent into chaos. Since then, others have risen, but never to the same extent. My father believes this one will be stronger than the others that rose up, possibly even stronger than the first one."
If that was the case, it was understandable why they went and summoned a hero to help them. It depended on the setting, but a Demon Lord could be anywhere between someone physically strong with some magic and a world-eating monster. Based on what she's heard so far, Reina figured it was somewhere in the middle.
"Do you know where the Demon Lord is?" Reina asked. If she knew that, she'd know where to avoid going until she gained enough levels, if her status was any indication.
Sadly, Johan shook his head. "We only know of their existence, and a few of the monsters in their service. We don't know what they look like, or if they're a man or a woman."
That wasn't good news. Sure, it might make for a more exciting story, but it didn't help the person chosen to fight them.
"Rest assured," Johan continued, "the kingdom of Savia will work to uncover as much as we can about this Demon Lord. Your only job, Spirit Forger, is to grow stronger and—oh!"
The prince's exclamation was accompanied by a soft popping noise. The spirit Reina created just winked out of existence.
"What the…" Reina looked to where the spirit was just a moment ago.
"What happened to your spirit?" Johan asked.
Reina brought up her status in hopes of finding an answer. It didn't take long, practically immediately. Near the top, she saw her SP bar was depleted. It slowly began to fill up, but the answer was obvious.
"I ran out of SP." She said. "I guess having my spirit out uses it up."
"SP?" Johan asked. "What's that?"
Reina cocked her head to the side a bit. "Huh? It's one of the bars at the top of my status."
"Oh! I see." Johan nodded in understanding. "Normal people don't have that, Spirit Forger. It seems to be something unique to heroes."
As if to confirm that, Reina saw a popup in her status.
SP: Spirit Points. Used for abilities granted by Legendary Weapons.
"Huh. I really need to read through this help menu some more. More importantly, I'm not sure how well I'll be able to use that spirit. It took five minutes to create and lasted less than a minute. Maybe the times will get better when I gain more levels."
"I'm sure this all must be overwhelming, Spirit Forger." Prince Johan said.
"It's…a bit strange." Reina nodded. Suddenly having a level and stats would do that, after all.
"I realize this is a heavy burden to place on someone so young." Johan lowered his head slightly. "With all of that, perhaps my joke to you earlier was less appropriate than I intended. I was merely trying to add some levity to your situation."
"No, no, it's fine!" Reina quickly responded, waving her hands. "This is just new to me, that's all!"
"Be that as it may, I want to assure you." Johan looked Reina in the eyes. "If the situation was otherwise, we wouldn't call forth a child to fight for us."
"Really, it's not…'child'?" Reina stopped. "What…do you mean? Who?"
It was Johan's turn to tilt his head to the side. Coming from a prince, it was a bit strange to see. "You, Spirit Forger."
"Me?" Reina pointed to herself. "I'm not…I mean, sure, my country considers you an adult at 20, but I'm not that far off. How old are adults here?"
"15 summers, generally." Johan said.
Reina had to resist the urge to…well, do anything that would be inappropriate in the presence of royalty. "Then…how old do you think I am?"
Johan stroked his chin. "I believe you to be around 13."
Reina blinked in response. She had no words. It was like meeting Bo all over again. The skeleton woman spent months calling her a middle-schooler, despite being in her second year of high school at the time.
"…I'm 17." She finally said.
"Oh!" Prince Johan held a hand to his lips. "My apologies, Spirit Forger."
"It's fine…" Hopefully, this wouldn't be a trend.
~Forging Legends~
"WHY IS THIS A TREND?!" Reina screamed in her mind. "Even in a fantasy world, nothing's changed!"
"Again, my apologies, Spirit Forger!" One of Reina's followers said as they walked out of the castle.
She had been silently fuming since shortly after their introductions. Of course, outwardly she was the epitome of civility. Meaning, she didn't say what she was thinking.
The prince introduced her to four adventurers that wanted to form a party with her. She looked up how that worked when that specific detail was mentioned. Johan also mentioned that having more than six people in a party gave a penalty to XP gains. Reina could add another person later if she wanted. Just like in every fantasy game she'd read or played, the four adventurers had a diverse set of skills.
The one who just spoke was Max, a swordsman. He had scruffy brown hair and wore mostly leather armor. He also thought Reina was about 12 years old.
"We truly meant no offense." The second adventurer, Dalton, said. He wore heavy plate armor, heavier than what the knights wore, and a tower shield. His weapon of choice was a spear with a backup shortsword. To set himself apart, he thought Reina was a boy in addition to being young.
Begrudgingly, Reina somewhat accepted his reasoning. While many of the knights in the castle wore a form of plate mail, the city guards opted for armor more resembling ancient Romans or Greeks, based on his description. Since her school uniform incorporated a skirt, she could understand the mistake. That didn't make her any happier about it.
"It was a complement, really." The archer of the group, Celia, spoke next. Like Max, she had on leather armor and had a bow slung over her back, her short blond hair having no chance of getting tangled in the bowstring. A pair of shortswords hung at her hips as well. She, too, thought Reina was 12 years old.
"Perhaps we can take you to the fields as soon as we get you outfitted?" Martin, the last member of the party offered. He was a church member, though seemingly different from the ones who summoned her. His armor was bronze chainmail covered with a white tunic, a four-pointed blue star etched on the center. He believed Reina was a man—being at least 15 years old. His excuse was that his cousin looked similar to Reina, including the long, braided black hair halfway down her back.
"It's fine!" Reina said a bit more forcefully than she intended.
Part of her was angry about the complete mischaracterization of her age and sex. A larger, more prominent part of her was embarrassed at her outburst before they left. In a volume not very appropriate in the presence of the prince, she set the record straight.
"I'M 17 AND A GIRL!"
Needless to say, the start of her quest did not go how she thought it would. On a good day, she was able to properly meet new people, though not this many. This was not a good day, and her desire to hide was growing.
On the plus side, her SP had already completely refilled.
Once they neared the gatehouse to the wall surrounding the castle, Reina slowed to a stop.
"Look," she began, "I'm…sorry I yelled. I'm just a bit overwhelmed by everything."
It wasn't a complete lie, since she did apparently die and get summoned to another world. Hearing the unintended insults that Bo used to say to her was just a tad too much.
Reina turned around and gave a light bow. "Let's start again. I'm Reina Suzuki, 17 years old, a girl, and the Spirit Forger." She rose back up. "I look forward to working with you."
Her new party followed suit, giving their names and professions to her once more.
"Now then!" Reina clapped her hands, hoping to disperse the awkwardness of it all. "I believe we have an adventure to start!"
They began their march anew, with Reina following behind this time. Dalton knew a few good blacksmiths in the city for good starting armor, so those were their first destinations.
It was only a few steps past the gatehouse before they stopped again.
"Whoa…" The thing that caught Reina's eye was the giant statue that stood next to the gatehouse and was nearly as tall as the building.
There were two, in fact, one on either side. 'Statue' wasn't exactly right, since they looked like they were wearing armor. A sword was held in their hands that reached from their chests with the points resting on the ground. On their heads were helmets that looked to be gold plated.
"Those must have been expensive to make." Reina remarked.
"Oh, incredibly." Martin said, gazing upon them as well. "Golems like these are powerful guardians, so they're worth every simoleon."
That was the currency in this world, used mostly by adventurers and merchants. The prince gave her 700 pieces to start with, and a promise of continued support. They looked like square, silver coins, so Reina assumed there were also gold and either copper or—
"I'm sorry, what?" Reina turned to the party cleric, realizing what she heard. "Did you say 'golems'? As in, statues that move, fight, and are immune to magic?"
"Correct!" Martin beamed at her. "You really know your stuff, Spirit Forger!"
Max stepped forward, scratching his chin. "Though, they aren't completely immune to magic. I think these ones can be affected by some earth spells."
Martin nodded. "Generally, the more expensive the golem, the more magical immunities it has. Simple constructs don't have any, though only the wealthy would really bother making any. Like that one over there."
Reina looked to where Martin pointed. There was a nice looking carriage being pulled down the road. 'Pulled' wasn't the right word there either, since there wasn't an animal in front of it. Reina did spot what could loosely be considered eyes on the front.
"You know, I don't remember a lot of campaign or quest books that had these types of things being used." Reina thought. "It would be a good way to show off wealth, but I guess only magic users would actually have direct control of them. Pretty sure nobles wouldn't want to step inside something that could easily become a prison. Maybe it works differently here."
The group made their way to one of the blacksmiths and got Reina fitted with some armor. They all had suggestions for what she should start with, with Reina deciding on Celia's choice. It was a piece of chainmail made out of steel, unlike Martin's bronze one. The stats looked decently spread out and it cost 150 simoleons. She also got a padded shirt and pants, along with boots.
When it came to a weapon, however…
"Ow!" Reina dropped the mace she tried to swing. Since she couldn't drop the totem in her hand, she wanted to try out an easy-to-use one-handed weapon.
"You alright there, lad?" The gruff-looking blacksmith asked, leaning over the counter.
Reina took in a deep breath. "Let it go, Reina."
"Yeah…" She opened and closed her hand, reading the newest popup in her vision.
A Hero may not use any weapon other than their assigned Legendary Weapon with the intent to fight.
On the one hand, having a legendary weapon should make anyone not want to use anything else. On the other hand…hers was a totem.
"I can't use any other weapons." She told her party and the blacksmith.
"Hm. That's strange." The gruff man scratched his chin. "Well, I don't see any reason your other hand can't do anything."
The blacksmith walked around the counter and picked a shield off the wall. It wasn't anything crazy, a wooden shield with one side covered in a sheet of bronze.
"Try this on, Spirit Forger." He held up the shield, letting Reina slip her arm into it. The length of it was just enough to cover her torso, though her small stature helped with that. Other than that, it fit the theme of the Greek-looking armor, since she recalled they used shields a bit bigger than these.
"I think this'll work." Reina said, moving the shield around. Hesitantly, she gave it a swing, though no shock happened this time. Since it was basically armor and not meant for attacking, she was safe. Probably. She could test that out later.
Now that she was outfitted, it was time to fight some monsters! Her party took her through the city gates out into the field. While they mostly stayed away from roads and paths, weak monsters made their homes in the tall grass. If that didn't make this all feel like a game, Reina didn't know what would.
Not this was a game to her, of course. It was just a game-like world with a game-like quest to defeat the Demon Lord. That didn't mean she couldn't have a bit of fun.
"I see one." Celia pointed ahead a bit, movement in the grass indicating where it was.
"Alright, I'll bring out my spirit." Reina said, preparing her skill. Just like before, she lifted her totem. "Forge Spirit!"
She was pleasantly surprised when it immediately appeared before her.
"Huh. I wonder why that happened. Maybe I can call it out quickly until it's destroyed or something." She reasoned.
Reina dismissed those thoughts for later. Walking with the spirit in front and her party close behind, they approached the rustling grass. When they were about 30 feet away, the grass parted and the monster jumped out.
"…Seriously?" Reina stared at her opponent. There were plenty of things that could have popped out at her. A slime, a giant rat, some other animal—enlarged or not—or even a goblin.
Instead, a stuffed doll stood before her. It sported blue overalls and had raggedy, cotton-like red hair. Even at her not-so-imposing four and a half feet of height, the two foot tall doll didn't inspire fear.
"Is something wrong, Spirit Forger?" Dalton asked, standing ready with his tower shield.
"No, no, it's nothing." Reina gave a quick shake of her head. "I mean, golems are just metal dolls, so why not?"
She pointed at the doll with her totem. "Spirit, attack!" Though, her spirit started to move before she finished her command. It seemed to work off of her intent, so that was nice.
What was less nice was that it stopped about 10 feet away from her.
"And that's the range of it, I guess." Reina mused. "Not bad. I'm sure I can increase it later."
She quickly moved forward to close the distance. The doll put up its hand-mitts as if to start boxing. That didn't deter her round, stubby-armed spirit from getting the first hit. With its appearance, Reina didn't expect much, but a slap was near the edge of her expectations. The doll was able to get a single punch in before getting slapped twice more, once with each stub.
"Heh. The most powerful of slaps." Reina chuckled.
XP 3
The doll fell to the ground as the notification appeared in Reina's vision.
"Whoa…" Reina turned to see Max staring at the dead…unmoving doll.
"What?" She asked the swordsman. She really hoped he wasn't impressed by her spirit's attack.
"I just got XP for that." Max said, looking at Reina.
"Same here." Dalton added with a nod. The others nodded in agreement as well.
"Isn't that how it's supposed to work?" Reina asked.
"Well, yes, but dolls don't give enough XP to really get split up." Max explained. "Even in a party, it should only give 3 XP to the person who kills it."
"It must be because we're in a party with a hero." Martin guessed.
Reina had to admit, that would be another benefit to summoning a hero to fight for them. Thinking about it, she was summoned after they learned about the Demon Lord, so it wasn't like they had someone ready to go from the start. Being able to gain levels quickly would be important.
Before she got too lost in thought, Reina dismissed her spirit to conserve SP. It didn't cost anything to call it back out again. She walked over to the doll, flipping it over with her shield. The stuffing in its face was slightly exposed.
"Hey, can we sell this?" Reina asked her party. Monsters should be sold for loot in a fantasy setting.
"Yeah. They usually go for two soldi." Celia answered.
"How are those compared to simoleons?" Reina asked.
"100 soldi per simoleon."
That would be an easy conversion. Since it wasn't worth much, Reina opted to use a weapon function she saw before. She placed her totem against the doll, the purple gem near the center lighting up as the doll was pulled into it. A notification appeared in her vision.
Doll Totem
(abilities locked) Equip Bonus: spirit attack 1
"Neat! I guess this increases the attack of my spirit when I unlock it. Hmmm. The stats on this totem are worse. I should probably unlock the Novice Totem first, if for nothing else than the skill."
That thought did bring up another idea. Reina searched around her status for a moment until she found what she was looking for. The stats for her spirit were displayed, pulled up right next to hers. They were less than hers, and she saw its HP wasn't full. Having something that could fight for her and be made again had to come with drawbacks, so this was probably it.
Curious about the weapon form she revealed, Reina recalled another bit of information she saw. Focusing on the new weapon, the totem in her hand changed shapes with a rush of wind. Now it looked like the doll she just absorbed, about a third of its original size with the purple gem on its forehead.
"…I'm not sure what I was expecting." She let out a sigh.
From there, Reina continued to fight dolls that were pointed out to her. As starter monsters, they were good practice for using her spirit. Her SP restored at a decent rate, so she didn't have to worry about it depleting during a fight that only required three hits from it.
After the third doll, her spirit stopped getting hit. She was able to maneuver it around the dolls to attack them from behind while she approached from the front. With their attention divided, they were easy to pick off.
She did have to fight a pair of dolls a few times, where her spirit did take a hit. She blocked one doll while her spirit fought the other. Thankfully, she didn't need to focus on what her spirit was attacking for it to do so. Once one was killed, they double teamed the remaining one. She even threw a punch with her totem a few times, though it didn't deal enough damage to reduce the number of attacks.
By evening, Reina stood victorious over a sea of dolls. She would have felt prouder, but that description was more than enough to deter such feelings. She did feel accomplished, since she was able to rise to level 4.
"That should be good for today, Spirit Forger." Max said, watching as Reina absorbed the last of the dolls near her.
For the most part, her party stood back and watched her fight. She wasn't complaining about it. Reina needed to learn how to fight, and practicing against weak enemies was perfect for that. It was a bit like when she started working at a convenience store, where her senpai showed her the ropes and then watched to make sure she did it right, pointing out any errors she made.
It also gave her the chance to test out using her shield. She didn't get shocked when she smacked a doll with it, but it didn't seem to do any damage either. The doll didn't even register that it was hit, only a soft 'clang' coming from it. It was so bizarre that Reina did it a few more times to make sure she wasn't hearing things.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Reina said as she stood. She wanted to keep going, but she couldn't put it off. Before they left the castle, the prince asked her to return before sunset. He was going to hold a small feast to celebrate her arrival.
"A more difficult challenge: a social gathering with me as the topic. Ugh." She was not looking forward to it.
The sound of heavy bells came from the city. They didn't sound musical, so Reina figured it was an alert of some sort. Her party confirmed that as they quickly ran over to her, each one facing out in the large circle around her.
"What's happening?" She asked, looking around for anything.
"Violet Rain." Dalton said, keeping his head pointing up.
"'Violet Rain'?" Reina repeated. "What's that?"
"Something very dangerous if you're caught in it." Max said, scanning the sky.
Before she could ask more, Celia shouted. "There!" She pointed to a spot in the sky roughly 100 feet away and about twice as high up. Dark purple clouds formed from nothing, spreading out about a dozen or so feet.
"It looks like a small one." Martin eased his stance.
Reina observed the hovering cloud, waiting to see what all the worrying was about. She took a few steps toward it, then a few more, but still remained very far back. After a few seconds, there was a loud crash. A lightning bolt struck a doll that was unfortunate enough to be close to it. A moment later, the clouds dispersed.
"Wow. I can see why it's so dangerous." Reina commented. It had to be more than coincidence that the doll was hit.
"That's pretty rare…" Celia murmured. "Normally, rain comes down from the clouds. Anyone caught in it, even for a few seconds, isn't likely to survive long."
"Well, that's not terrifying at all!" Reina internally yelled.
"Be careful, Spirit Forger." Max warned. "You don't want to fight a monster like that this early, even a doll."
Reina was confused, but looked again at the doll that was struck. From this distance, she could make out blue sparks coming off it. It spun around to look at her, its normally black, beady eyes now a bright blue. Most of it looked the same. The only other difference was…
"Is it holding a knife?" Reina asked aloud. "Wait, no, that's…a fork? I mean, seeing how big the doll is, I guess you could call it a trident. It doesn't look that scary—oh, crap!"
The doll charged at her at a speed she didn't think possible for something its size.
"Forge Spirit!" Reina called out her skill, bringing her summoned warrior out as far as it could go. It swung its short arm at the doll, only for the fork-trident to pierce its chest. With a loud pop, the spirit disappeared.
Reina held her chest in pain. It felt like she was just stabbed. She barely had enough time to bring up her shield to block a jumping kick from the doll. It knocked her to the ground, knocking the air from her lungs. She saw it leap in the air again at her.
"Hah!" Dalton swung his massive shield at the doll, batting it away.
The doll landed on the ground, jumping back just quick enough to avoid an arrow as it struck just in front of it. That gave Max enough of a distraction to swoop in and slash open its chest. The stuffing exploded from its chest as it fell back.
XP 20
The notification popped up in Reina's vision. If that was her share, she could only wonder what Max just got from it.
"Healing Hands." Martin knelt next to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and the pain quickly faded. "Are you alright, Spirit Forger?"
"Yeah…" Reina breathed out.
Dalton stood close and offered his hand, which Reina graciously accepted. Despite how goofy parts of her experience in this world was, it could easily be a dangerous place. She'd need to be prepared.
Max brought the doll over for her to absorb into her totem.
Thunderstruck Doll Totem level not met.
"If I can't use the weapon yet, that must mean it was pretty powerful. I'm thankful my party is still at least 10 levels higher than me." She thought to herself before they began their trip back to the city.
~Forging Legends~
Prince Johan watched as the lively Spirit Forger left with her new party for the day. They'd return to rest in the castle tonight, though the young hero may not have heard that. Still, her party should remind her.
"Your Grace…" The priest Marcus stood by the prince's side.
Johan looked over his shoulder. "Leave us."
The knights and attendants left the room, leaving Johan and Marcus alone.
"This isn't what we agreed to, Your Grace." Marcus said, his tone still respectful, but strained.
"No, it isn't." Johan said without turning to face him.
"You said the Spirit Forger would be joined by members of my order." Marcus went on.
"Is that so? I don't recall." Johan held his hands behind his back.
"Your Grace." Marcus grit his teeth.
Prince Johan turned around to face the priest. "As I recall, you were supposed to summon her yourselves. Instead, you called in that mage."
"We didn't have the knowledge of how to summon the Spirit Forger!" Marcus argued.
"Yes, I'm aware." Johan nodded, a smirk on his face. "But you knew someone who did."
Marcus's eyes widened. "You planned on us having that mage summon her, didn't you?"
"Perhaps." Johan shrugged. "In the end, since you didn't summon the Spirit Forger—like you said you would—I had no reason to send her off with you. Not while I have my own plans for her."
Marcus balled his fists. "The king might take exception to whatever you might be planning."
"Hah!" Johan tilted his head back as he laughed. "My father has spent too much time out on campaigns, throwing away lives for hardly any land or resources. Same as mother, really, though she had the decency to take more clergy with her." He walked around the now stunned priest. "I have no intention of letting this kingdom turn into a theocracy. Not that the minor presence your church has here could hope to accomplish that."
Johan finished his circling, standing in front of the priest. "My ambitions are larger. Once the Spirit Forger defeats the Demon Lord, under my guidance, the other realms will see Savia as the rightful successor to the old empire. After that, we'll be able to deal with these Waves of Destruction those Dragon Hourglasses are counting down to."
Author's Notes:
The charged doll's fork is a nod to Robotech275, who wrote my story's name as 'Forking Legends' in Discord. It was originally a knife, but I think a fork works well here.
While I know Japan uses the metric system, I don't. It's just a preference of not wanting to do a bunch of conversion, and that most of my readers are in the States, so yeah.
Sorry it was so long between updates. Dividing my attention between 2 stories and only having 1 maintain a strict schedule, well…this is the result.