This is a Full Metal Alchemist and Rising of the Shield Hero Fanfiction only.

"His Majesty has not given you permission to leave, how could you be as rude as to walk away when our king is graciously trying to explain the reason for your summon?" This guy must be an officer, I guess if someone did the same to my father someone would react like him.

"Excuse me, but since I was not given time to introduce myself, it gave me the impression that I was not needed in this particular discussion, so instead of being a distraction I simply attempted to leave so that the people who were needed for this important discussion would not be troubled."

The men sheathed their swords and I heard the King clear his throat, "Ah, yes, excuse me, it is simply that I wish to explain why you have been summoned to ease any concerns, you are quite correct, I did not give you a chance to introduce yourself, please do so now."

I walked up to be right next to Motoyasu and bowed, "My name is Roy Mustang the second, Captain of the State Military of Amestris, Age 29." One of them began to laugh, boy these guys need to learn some manners.

"Yea, right, and next thing you are going to tell us you are the Full Metal Alchemist, stop pretending and admit you are a university student like me and stop putting up airs." I do not like the tone Motoyasu just said that I looked at him and I could barely contain my anger at his rude interruption.

"Actually the Full Metal Alchemist is my uncle in all things other than blood, his name is Edward Elric, I happen to be the Flame Alchemist, I am the successor to my father, Roy Mustang, or more commonly known as King Mustang. I apologize for this outburst but I simply can not stand for rude behavior. I humbly ask his majesty's forgiveness in this matter. I bowed again."

The man was silent and he finally decided to speak, "You are forgiven, as I was about to say, our world is being threatened by some unnatural calamities, our wisest men have foretold that our world is to suffer these calamities in waves, should these waves not be stopped our world will cease to exist."

"I may call them waves but in reality they are an invasion of thousands of immensely powerful monsters, I would not have summoned you four had we been able to take care of this threat by ourselves, we have tried to stop one of these waves, we managed but the death toll was massive, it was clear then that only the four cardinal heroes would have the strength to save us."

Everything checks with the knowledge I got from the last shield hero, well almost everything, he sure didn't mention how could we return back home or the fact that previous heroes have met their end on this world and never returned back to their worlds. I do not need to cause a panic or be rude in front of the king so I decided to remain quiet.

He may be the one that summoned me but only a fool would share all he knows with people he never met before, I am not entirely sure if I am with allies or am I in hostile territory.

"As heroes you have access to skills we simply do not have or ever could have one of such is called Status Magic, you may use it to check the status of yourself and of those you look at." Wait you can check the condition of people with a single glance, how? I have no idea what he means by magic.

"Well I am sorry but how? I got no clue what you mean by Status Magic." I guess Itsuki was having the same doubts as I was, Ren simply looked at him with this utter look of disbelief. "You see that small square by the lower right side of your field of vision? Concentrate on that and you should be able to see your status."

I tried and sure enough, I saw the status of Itsuki and then my own, "Thank you for your explanation." I was not about to be rude. My mother raised me better than that.

"I am surprised it was even needed, it is a standard mechanic in games such as this. Everyone that plays VRMMORPG games like this know of it." Again I got no clue what he means by VRMMORPG, the memories from the previous shield hero had no mention of games that were called by that name.

The king once again called for our attention by pretending to clear his throat, "Now that you checked your status you will notice that your current levels are low, and thus you are not as strong as you need to be in order to defeat the waves, which I am told get progressively stronger after each wave."

"We will have you go and do most quests to obtain much-needed experience so you can increase your level, get stronger and unlock the abilities of your legendary weapons, we shall also provide you with money to help you get started, tomorrow we shall call on adventures so that you may form parties so that you may gain said experience more efficiently."

I don't like this one bit, for them to assign us members to our unit it could mean that they are concerned about our well being, however, I am more than likely leaning towards these members are there to keep us under control, and be under constant surveillance. If these weapons are so strong what could stop us from say killing the king and taking over?

I still don't understand why they keep talking about this shield as a weapon, but I know I should be careful with this king and anything that comes from him or those that serve him. I don't know if it is me or the memories of the previous shield hero screaming that I should not trust him.

I decided to put my hand up and waited to be given permission to speak, the king looked at me and nodded his head which to me it means I had permission to speak freely.

"I do not mean to be rude your majesty, but the others may need the help more than me, they are civilians after all, I am an officer and have received appropriate military training, as such I suggest that you take any money you planned to give me and any party members you wish to assign to me and distribute all equally among Motoyasu, Ren and Itsuki, sorry, I hope you do not mind me using your names so casually."

The king for a second smiled, "Are you sure? You will need money to purchase initial gear and essentials. The adventures will be called today but they will assemble tomorrow. We have prepared a room for you to rest since it is so late."

I looked at the king and something in me told me not to take anything at face value, there was a hidden purpose for doing that. "I appreciate your concern your majesty, but I must state again, I do not require aide as much as my fellow heroes, as such I need to begin my work, these waves simply will not stop for our convenience. I just await your permission so that I may leave and begin my mission."

Ren looked at me with anger in his eyes, "Don't you want to hear what you shall receive for all that work?" I simply told him that I live under a simple principle, Alchemist is thou for the people. I will make more than enough to survive and manage to help as many people as I can, it is not anything new to me.

I was told that I had permission to leave, but it was suggested that I visit the Dragon Hourglass. That pretty much told me the memories I got where indeed accurate, I know about the Hourglass, the giant sand-filled clock that tells when the waves shall appear, and the only way to grow stronger after a person reaches a certain experience limit.

I began to walk away and once I reached the large doors I heard Itsuki laugh this smug laugh I guess he really is a kid after all, "Don't you want to rest? They prepared these rooms and food for us, why are you in such a hurry? By the way, the king spoke it is nearly night time."

I looked at him and could not help to shake my head at him, "From personal experience there are many dangerous animals that are nocturnal, it would be the best time to find beast to gain experience using these legendary pieces of equipment, enjoy your dinner and soft bed, but I can not, I have to prepare, or else this world will be in danger or am I wrong your majesty?"

He did not say a word he simply nodded his head and I walked out of the throne room, I began to walk down the corridors, down the stairs and began to walk outside the castle, the groundskeepers have done a magnificent job, these gardens are beautiful even this late in the evening.

This will tell me if this nation is friendly or not, they expect the heroes to be under surveillance so for me to go against their plans, means a perfect opportunity for them to strike. I walked down the streets and saw that there were many homes, businesses and carefully placed shop signs.

I guess it is also good that the memories of the previous shield hero gave me a basic understanding of the spoken and written language of this world, I would be in a mess of a situation had I not received this knowledge.

Well my uniform is really the only thing I ever needed as far as armor, and I need to make some money and fast, I will not be the idiot that is sleeping under a tree basically begging for someone to slit my throat and try to get anything from me, this shield looks pretty nice and I known people to kill for less, yes I am thinking of you King Bradley.

The first enemies were pretty much a joke, and I don't mean that because they made me laugh when they tried to bite me, I mean the reward for killing these stupid things was pathetic, I just kept killing these so-called balloons, or should I say popping them?

Anyways I found quite by mistake that I can actually drop the remains of them into the green gem that is on my shield and the thing will eat it, and gain experience, so at least I know what I can do when carrying too many of these balloon pieces or chucks from other things gets a little heavy.

One night and I realized that I could actually use alchemy to transmute the balloon pieces into other things, wouldn't you know it, equivalent exchange law was still very much a thing. If I was an unscrupulous fiend well I could probably transmute these chucks from these beasts into gold. Sadly I was raised with morals, and ethics, ruining another world's economy for my own benefit would surely come and bite me in the end, Karma is a bitch after all.

It took me a whole night to level up a single level, I decided to be daring and went deeper and further into the forest near what I would call the capital city of Melromarc, I killed beasts, animals that wanted to kill me in all sorts of shapes and forms, and even some plants.

I also learned that I could change the shield into different types of shields and each had unique skills and skills I could always use once I mastered how to use that particular shield. All in all, I got plenty of things to do, boredom was clearly not going to be an issue, for now, food and shelter was.

I managed to unlock several shields, one from plants that improved the quality of plants I harvested, a whole bunch that let me blend, cook, and even see more information about plants and monsters, I killed my fair share and fed a lot of it to my shield which in turn managed to master two or three shields.

I also learned that if I wanted to do this more efficiently I would need some help. First things first, I need money and better armor so that I don't stick out like a green thumb. I was getting pretty nasty looks from people as I walked into the city early in the morning, then again I was carrying a few kilos worth of monster parts.

I walked where I knew there was a shop to sell the monster chunks I was carrying and I found that I got one copper piece for every two pieces from a balloon, two silver pieces for every rabbit looking monster, and one for every five healing herbs I sold to the apothecary. All in all, I made twelve gold pieces in a single night, not bad if I do say so myself.

"Now that we are done with me selling my things, mind if I ask you where can I get better equipment than the junk I have on?" The shop owner looked at me and he began to laugh, he even mentioned a bath wouldn't hurt either.

"I know exactly what you might need, and if you don't want to be taken advantage off I would go to the shop that is near mine, his name is Erhard, he might look a little scary but trust me, the guy is one of the nicest merchants you will ever meet, he comes to my shop to buy medicines sometimes."

I could not help but to thank the old man for his advice, "Hey, is there any equipment you don't use I can buy in order for me to blend some medicines?" He looked at me and for a second I was thinking that he was going to tell me to jump off a bridge, I was basically asking him how could I become a competition to his business.

He came back with a sack full things I could use, "If you promise to give me a chance to check on the medicine you produce and if it is good, give me the chance to buy it from you. Thanks to the threat of the coming waves, medicine simply flies off the shelves, I can't make enough to keep my place stocked, so if you can make medicines I would appreciate it and they sell better than just selling the herbs."

I looked at him and he even taught me how to deal with things I carry, it seems I have an interesting ability to turn things into energy and place it in a strange part of my status magic, a place aptly named the inventory. Boy that made carrying things a lot easier, but it seems even the so-called inventory had limits on how much it could carry.

Something that was limited by the size of the inventory, here I am hoping that as I gain levels through gaining experience that size will increase other than that I might need something to carry large quantities or large chucks if the beasts and others things I kill are big.

I thanked the apothecary owner and I went towards the weapons and armor shop. As I walked into the shop I saw a dark-skinned man with a cleanly shaven head, and a beautiful young woman, she was dressed in leather armor and had this flowing red hair, not bad, she had a very alluring figure or maybe the armor simply made it that obvious.

"Excuse me, I am looking for a man named Erhard, the potion maker a few blocks away told me that I should seek this person out if I wanted some better equipment." The young woman began to laugh and really looked quite cute while doing so.

"If you are looking the shop owned by Erhard then you are in the right place, Sir Hero, I will tell you this is the best weapons and armor shop there is here in the capital, you may call me Myne Sophia, and don't worry I already know who you are. I was told you and the other heroes would get to meet adventurers today to form a party."

She looked at me with this sultry look, "You can't imagine my disappointment when I heard you were not even there, I went there to join your party and you were not even there. Made me feel a bit sad, so I came here, I knew eventually you would need better gear and I would meet you."

I had no time to flirt or hearing someone else flirt I had work to do, and from what I read in the book and what I knew from my memories, something about Myne made me feel like this leather-clad beauty had an ulterior motive, one that I do well to avoid.

"Well, Mr. Erhard, I have to admit your weapons and armor do in fact look impressive, however, since I am the shield hero, I can't use any weapons, so could you suggest some armor for me. I need armor that can handle magical energy, so magic weaving is a must."

Myne looked surprised I knew this much, "Well I got some chain mail armor but I would say some leather armor with a chain mail undershirt would be a lot better for you, helps with the weight and lets you be more mobile."

"Do you have to wear those gloves?" I guess he doesn't know about it, but I rather not discuss this with a person I just met. I told him yes, it was a family tradition. I could never be without them, I even sleep with them on.

That, of course, was a lie, I had the transmutation circle tattooed on my hands long ago, dad said it would prevent others from tearing or stealing my gloves to make me unable to use my alchemy.

He gave me the armor and I went behind a large curtain to put it on. I had to admit it was pretty comfortable. I fed the uniform to my shield which surprises surprise it unlocked the Alchemist shield, a shield which when active could make using my alchemy more time effective, and the passive of causing my alchemy to grow stronger based on my current level.

I came out to find Myne whistling at me, that was not something I liked, I guess I know now what those ladies felt when they walked near a construction site. "I will take the armor, Mr. Erhard, how much do I owe you?"

Myne was surprised when I asked for the price, I guess she must have heard from the other heroes that I pretty much denied getting any money from the king. The memories I got said that the less I owe King Melromarc the better, he has a history of hating the shield hero. The church only as things representing the spear, the sword, and bow, no shield anywhere.

This must be because the King and a lot of people still hate the shield hero, I happen to know it was once a faith that revolved around the four heroes, but that changed after the last war. War does bring out the worst in people.