"Better make this quick" a young Japanese man wearing a green and white hoodie with black hair said as he walked across the street
"I should be able to pull for the Pattaya Dragon Cookie tonight, if I complete all the daily event tasks..." the young man said as he thought over if he would be lucky enough to get the dragon this week while he approached his destination
"Right now I just have to find an interesting book for me to read this weekend, which might be a challenge" he finished as the young man looked at the library, taking a deep breath before entering
Naofumi found himself passing time in the library again. He'd been trying to find something that could catch his attention and burn some time. Of course he had his favorite gacha game to do that, but he couldn't play Cookie Run Kingdom ever time he was bored, he needed something like a book to read when his phone was charging. Eventually his eyes came across the light novel section, an old favorite of his but looking around it clearly falled off during the years. The options weren't as good as before with the most notable and abundant example being the Isekai's in the section, from 'I was reborn as a aristocrat family pet and used a op skill to become the greatest sage of all' to 'My enemy is an OP demon lord that has a crush on me' and so on. It had become stale and uncreative which was a disappointement for Naofumi, but with so many Isekai's saturating the market it would lead to this sort of thing
thud
"Huh?" He looks to his side to see the source of the sound, looking the down he noticed a book had seemly fallen from the bookshelf
"How did this fall off?" Naofumi asked as he picked up the fallen book, it seemed old, the once deep red now but a rust color. Far too old to be carried in this modern library. He tried his best to handle it with care, afraid that it could simply fall to pieces. He read the title 'The record of the four cardinal weapons'.
"A simple name and this looks like a really old book... perhaps this is an old fairy tale of sorts?" he thought for a moment, wondering why it was in the light novel section
He opened the book and began to skim through it, not really finding anything of interest. In fact, it was downright generic. The first few pages were about something called 'Waves of calamity' and some Princess. "No reason to read about the lore until I know I'll care, it's sounding like your average Isekai by the looks of things"
As he skipped to the second chapter, it began to cover the heroes that were the book's namesake. The Bow hero had a strong sense of justice, the Spear hero trusted his friends with all his heart and the Sword hero was the mightiest of them, fighting all foes by himself. He then turned the page to see just a heading titled 'Shield Hero', but the page was blank. He turned the page again and again, but all further pages were blank.
Just then a bright light began to radiate from the book as wind gathered from seemingly nowhere.
"Wha-what? What's happening?" Naofumi asked himself as panic began to take over. He felt like he was being lifted by some unseen force almost like he was being abducted by aliens, he let go of the book. The light continued to brighten as the wind raged. Pages of the book fly off it and began circling him as Naofumi was soon completely engulfed by light and the wind stopped as Naofumi had disappeared
"Aaaaaarrrggghhh!?!?" Naofumi screamed as he falled through the seemly unending hole of light, he couldn't tell what was up and what was down, if he was falling for a minute or a second. or if it would end. Soon he began approaching a large ball made of light, he braces himself for impact but instead he goes to the orb.
"O brave heroes please save our world and our people!" a voice called out as Naofumi began to recover his senses
Naofumi shot up. The brightness was gone and he was finally not falling. First, he noticed the robbed men surrounding him, then he noticed the 3 other people in the bright circle. The tall blond man of an athletic build, the well-kept young boy and a surprisingly calm boy with dark straight hair. However what gave him pause was that they each held a weapon in their hands. He looked down in doubt, in his left hand he held a small pointed silver shield that had a green gem on it
'There is no way that- wait... Is any of this real? Where I am? How in the hell is this shield on me? I am dead? hallucinating?' Naofumi's mind was racing at this, he had no idea what was going on or what the hell he was doing there, he would scream in panic if he wasn't mentally overwhelmed by all of his questions.
"What do you mean by that? Save your world? From what?" The youngest of the four with the bow said, Naofumi looked over and saw he was the only one that hadn't stood yet. He got to his feet as he answered, cutting off the robed man.
"It wouldn't be like a world ending monster, would it?" He sounded very unsure of himself, Naofumi felt like he should have read the book with more patience instead of just small glimpses of them since he seemed to be stuck in it now.
"Not exactly shield hero, those dreadful waves will bring monsters that will be our end." the robed man in front of the group explained, this only caused Naofumi to get shaken a bit
"What waves? Like a tsunami? like a natural disaster?" This time the black-haired boy asked, although considering what the robed man said, he was now picturing a tsunami with a bunch of monsters floating inside it.
"No no, I bet he means like waves of enemies, right!?" That was the blond spear wielder who seemed too excited by the idea of fighting and killing swarms of enemies, he was not seeing the majority of downsides of this sort of things and instead just the exciting parts.
"O brave cardinal heroes, please. these waves will bury us without your aid!" The robed man was quickly becoming desperate and Naofumi felt stupid it took him a moment to figure out why.
'None of us have given him a positive response...' Naofumi pondered while looking at the other heroes, he was honestly unsure of what to actually responded
'I'm willing to help in whatever way I can..., but I kinda only have a shield right now...' He thought while looking over the shield in his arm, it wasn't really a weapon nor did he think much could be done with it. But it was legendary after all so it must be good and he was needed to fight off waves of monsters, despite wanting to go home, Naofumi decided to be the first to agree on saving this new world
"Alright I'll... land you my shield" Naofumi said in a somewhat corny way but he kept his neutral composure. The robed man was slightly relieved by this, but for some reason a few of the other robed men seemed like they did not like that.
"Wait? Your weapon is a shield? Dude, that's not even a weapon, that's armor." The blond spoke loudly. It sounded like he felt pity for him more than trying to insult him, but the slight giggle made it look like thought it was funny.
"I for one refuse" came the bow hero proudly.
"Likewise" followed the sword hero quietly, who crossed his arms and nodded in agreement
"Yeah, you two may have the right of it. Hey! Send me back." the spear hero said brazenly as if he was demanding it
"P-Please! Our world teeters on the edge of collapse!" The robed man argued letting just enough anger slip to let Naofumi know he was probably very angry, but just hiding it.
"Hey buddy, don't you feel bad about kidnapping us? We never agreed to this" The sword hero actually pointed his sword at the man. Naofumi didn't have a side in this, but pointing the weapon they gave you at them seemed... dickish.
"And if you just send us back as soon as we solve all your problems, we'll have worked for nothing." The bow hero started standing more emboldened than he was already. Naofumi had to admit, maybe he was being too nice...I mean he could die? To risk his very life and ask for nothing in return certainly sounds all noble, but it was unrealistic of him.
"How are you willing to accommodate us? depending on your answer, we may become your enemies" The spear hero leapt at the opening the bow hero made now point his spear at the robed individuals. Naofumi thought they were not being reasonable at all, that they've definitely crossed the line. But yet he could see their point too, it wasn't something he would do himself but he couldn't deny that taking advantage of this sort of opportunity wasn't bad, it was a two sided moral coin in his eyes as being very heroic or being somewhat villainous had in the end benefits and negatives for both.
"Oh, is that all?" The robed man felt relieved. "Of course, we will compensate you! You are the four cardinal heroes. It is only right that we reward you for what is to come..."
"However I cannot make you these promises. The king of this great country is the one with the power and resources to reward you, not I. Please let me lead you to him, his majesty is most eager to meet you." The robed man said in a much more serious tone than he was before, very little if not no anger at all in his voice anymore. He motioned with his hands as he led them out of the room.
There was a brief moment were all heroes were silent and looked at each other.
"I guess" the sword hero murmured, putting his sword down
"Well, we can at least see what they offer" The bow hero sounded like he thought the whole world should be grateful for his indifference.
"King or no, our demands will be high. No amount of talking will change that" the spear hero sounded like that stubbornness was a good thing.
For his part Naofumi looked at the robed man who had done the talking and gave him a sympathetic look, which the robed man seemed to receive.
They all began following the robed man down hallways and upstairs, this place was huge. "How on earth did they clean ceilings that high up... oh wait, not on earth" he allowed a small smirk as he followed behind
"Social queues and language seem to be the same here? It's odd for these people who seem to be similar to medieval Europe speak Japanese with all it's cultural intricacies. That makes no sense at all... So how do I understand them? And they, me?" Naofumi was wondering before a notification appeared in his front
[Legendary weapons translate the spoken word between the wielder and others. noises made with intent or the written word is not within the scope of this ability. Legendary weapons do not inherently translate the written word however]
"What the hell?" Naofumi was confused by the sudden pop up in his face, jumping back and brushing his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again the screen was gone.
'What was that just now?' He asked himself for a moment before he continues up the stairs, he eventually saw a long row of windows showing off the capital city. Naofumi was blown away. While the architecture was simple, the scope of this city was surprising. Games often said their cities be big, but weren't actually. With max 20 buildings and not even all of them had interiors...
'Wait, Of course this would be more realistic. It's real duh.' Naofumi felt mighty foolish for having actually mistaken real life for a game simply due to aesthetics. Although that strange notification from earlier sure made look like that was the case.
As the four heroes and their guide approached a set of large doors leading to the largest section of the castle, they all knew what was ahead. The robed man turned to them. "Beyond this door lies our king, please try to show some respect" Once again that was said as a plea not an order. As the doors opened and they began to enter, a booming voice announced them.
"Now entering, the four cardinal heroes!" A guard from the other side shouted. As they entered, they eyed the large room.
There were many more people here than Naofumi thought there would be. Obviously, there would be knights to guard the king. He looked at them. all men of tall and strong build and all wearing armor from head to toe... No. a few were women. Not completely generic then. Yet despite their armor and build they didn't give him the impression of being very strong. Stronger than himself? Absolutely. But... just not as impressive as he'd imagined they should be. He expected them to have red capes and gold armor, helmets that completely obscured their facial features and some incredibly detailed swords but instead it was the most basic knight look possible
'Maybe my expectations were too high? but I mean they're guarding a king here.' He thought despite a few seeming more intimidating. Weird that some seemed radically weaker than others, yet stood side by side like that.
Then Naofumi eyed the unexpected audience. They all seemed very rich with layered extravagant clothing paired with more jewelry than would seem practical... not that jewelry was practical in the first place. Oddest of all is that they seemed to go from happy to upset very quickly, whispering to each other blocking their mouths with their hands or fans. Naofumi assumed these were nobles. Meaning this country had local lords who governed provinces or states that collected taxes and handled more local issues while giving some tax to the royalty as well as provide military support. He might have got a few things wrong, but this was close to the truth, he could tell.
Finally, his eyes rested on the king. He definitely looked the part. Wearing finer clothes than the nobles, large rings upon each finger, a bulky thick crown atop his head. Yeah, this was almost stereotypical. He looked very stressed, but hid it well. He was also quite old by the looks of things... maybe even overweight?
'It must be these waves. He was probably a king during times of peace, he is probably not used to governing in wartimes?' Naofumi thought to himself not knowing he was quite wrong on his assumption, not that he'd known anyway.
As the four heroes made it to the spot their guide showed them, the king began his speech.
"Ah so these are to be our heroes..." The king glanced at them for a moment, seemly analysing the four. "I am King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, the King of this glorious country of Melromarc"
"Now heroes name yourselves" he said in a booming voice that filled the room with much authority. Nothing like the robed man who seemed to only be able of pleading and begging.
"I'm Amaki Ren, 16 years old, highschooler" the sword hero said as he held his sword with both hands.
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu, 21, college student" The tallest of the group said next. Taking a step forward and placing his thumb to his heart as if doing a flashy pose to impress them.
"Guess I'm next, huh? Kawasume Itsuki, 17, highschooler" the bow wielder spoke before he raised his bow and began inspecting it
Naofumi realized that the other 3 boys all seemed better looking than him. He'd pout about being the least desirable hero, but it was his turn. Naofumi was wanting to make a good first impression.
"My name is Nao-"
"Hmm, I see. Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki" The king had completely ignored him.
"Excuse me, King Aultcray was it? I believe you've skipped over me" Naofumi shyly said as he didn't want to get gloshed over
The King looked at him for a single instant before looking elsewhere, "Ah forgive me..." Naofumi felt weird. It wasn't that the king had looked away, but that in the moment that he looked at Naofumi, he noticed that was the only instant the king was looking at him. Almost like the king was pretending he wasn't there.
"Iwatani Naofumi, 20 years old, college student" Naofumi decided to drop anything unnecessary like the other heroes did
"Good" the king did a very small nod before turning his attention back to the three other heroes
'What? he's treating my introduction as an annoyance, but he asked us to introduce ourselves?' Naofumi was a bit frustrated by how the king was treating him, he expected a little bit of respect since he was also a legendary hero and all.
"Now my country of Melromarc is in grave danger of a threat known as the waves." The king prepared to explain the situation of the Waves of calamity.
He gave a description of it. They could happen anywhere at any time, lasting for multiple hours or until the boss is killed. During that time monsters would continue to pour out of the wave and even after it stopped, any monster already here would remain until slain.
All the heroes listen respectfully. Naofumi out of politeness, the other three due to not knowing all the details about the wave. They were told that the first wave had already occurred, apparently the local guards and adventurers at the time were enough to stop that wave. Before any of the heroes could speak the king knew what they were going to ask.
"As to why we were able to defend from that wave, but now feel we needed to summon you... The waves are said to become stronger over time. They last longer, the wave bosses and all under them will be stronger. There are even written accounts of waves with more than one wave boss..."
He gave a glance at the first three heroes "It is best to summon you now, when the waves are weak to give you time to strengthen yourselves to stay ahead of the waves' growing threat".
"Strengthen ourselves? Are we not legendary heroes? are these not legendary weapons?" Ren spoke, which seemed off to Naofumi. No one starts overwhelmingly powerful, with the exception of the pay to win people in games or the self inserts of a writer in an bad Isekai novel.
"Ah, yes" The king responded "You are legendary heroes and those weapons are the 4 greatest weapons in this world..., but not right now" They all looked at him confused, Naofumi included.
"Each weapon has its own strengthening method. It gains strength alongside you heroes, as for you yourselves, could you activate your status magic?" the king asked with three out of the four heroes staring at him with confusion
Immediately Ren had activated his menu
"Um what? status?" Motoyasu breathed, Naofumi was just as confused but he didn't want to show
Ren sighed heavily "it's simple, it's your menu. Either touch the menu icon or focus on it" Ren explained, seemly bothered by having to tell them that like it was basic knowledge
Both Motoyasu and Naofumi found their menu icon right after that, and with slight embarrassment Itsuki came in as the last. All four grew silent once they saw their stats
[Name: Naofumi Iwatani]
[LV 1]
[Class: Shield Hero]
[Equipment: Legendary shield (locked), otherworldly clothes]
[Hp: 150]
[MP: 40]
[SP: 40]
[ATK: 1]
[Mag: 11]
[Def: 17]
[Mdef: 17]
[Agi: 9]
They all stared at their stats, but Naofumi was quietly losing his mind.
'What the hell? 1 attack? can that even hurt anything? much less kill something?' He tried to work around this, using the knowledge he had from the games he played 'Well... my magic is much better. Guess I'll have to go a wizard route?... but wizards have traditionally terrible defense, does that mean I'd be the exception to the rule or would doing that lower my best stats over time?'
"This is worse than I thought..." Ren was thinking out loud, not linking how low his stats were
"I know right? Level 1?" Motoyasu was losing motivation, being level 1 meant they would have to grind up a bunch which could either be fun!... or a tedious process take took hours.
"This will be a lot of work and we've confirmed no rewards still..." Itsuki spoke as he looked at the king while raising a eyebrow, if they were to do this then they would have to be rewarded handsomely
"Yeah, that's right! Do you expect us to do this for free? Surely not?" Motoyasu was sounding more disrespectful the more he spoke, Naofumi could somewhat understand wanting a reward but he wouldn't be asking about it every time
"Of course, you will be rewarded handsomely and not just at the end, but after every wave we will reward you heroes. Every step of the way." A man to the king's right side using a purple robe responded as he took a step forward.
The three other heroes looked at themselves proudly as if they attained some sort of victory. Naofumi was still figuring out what to do with his stats
"Don't think this can tame us" Ren said in an arrogant manner, Naofumi was beginning to think these guys either didn't know how to act in front of royalty or thought very highly of themselves to the point of seeing everyone as stepping stone
"We can't have you looking down on us" Itsuki joined in, with Motoyasu nodding as well.
Naofumi was rightly getting nervous. These idiots were pushing their luck and his along with it. The king seemed unfazed by this oddly enough, Naofumi was finding it harder and harder to read the room, sometimes someone would look angry or happy and switch between them for seemingly no reason. There had to be something else going on or he was just terrible at noticing poker faces.
"Well even if are level 1, there are 4 of us. If we form a party-"
"Excuse me, but that won't do at all." The man beside the king spoke up and yet again Naofumi was cut off, it felt like this sort of thing was on purpose.
"Due to the unique qualities of the holy weapons, none of you can gain experience while near one another." The man explained and a new notification appeared to the four heroes
[The four holy weapons dampen one another's power while within close quarters. Distance advised whenever possible]
Naofumi was now annoyed, his situation seemed worst and worst "then how-"
"You must form parties separately. Gather strength then fight the waves together" the king said in his serious tone. Naofumi had another question, in fact he had many questions, but at this point he was tired of being cut off.
"Would that not mean that we won't receive any experience during waves?" Ren asked, sounding a little firmer, Naofumi assumed he asked his question so firmly as not to be cut off like he was, were they seeing this too? or was he just being paranoid?
"Unfortunately, yes... the waves will have numerous enemies that you can't receive experience for slaying, but you can harvest your prey to still gain power" the king said very vaguely, the four weren't sure what he meant by harvesting prey for power
"Could you elaborate." Naofumi asked, he was still very curious about so many things and yet he felt like he should be careful, asking very little questions at a time in fear of being cut off again.
"You should see this within your status magic, but it is said that the holy weapons can feed upon the fallen to gain new powers and forms"
[The cardinal shield can absorb objects to unlock new forms, new forms provide stat increases, as well as abilities. Fully mastering a shield provides its bonuses permanently and allows most skills to be used with another shield form in use]
'Not just prey, but 'objects' as a whole? Should I just try shoving everything into it?' Naofumi pondered, he thought it should be more detailed but expecting magic from another world to work like what he wanted was a dumb thing to start with, but if there was no limitation to what he could absorb... did that mean he had unlimited potential to grow stronger?
"Heroes you can ask us questions all day; however, your status magic should be a great aid. Please refer to it tonight." The king motioned to several servants.
"For now, please rest and adjust to these trying circumstances. Tomorrow I will introduce you to adventures who have agreed to aid you in your difficult quest. Between your status magic and seasoned adventures by your side, most questions you have will be answered soon enough" the king finished
The servants motioned to the heroes to follow. Naofumi noticed that only they left. all the nobles, knights, and the king stayed where they were.
'I guess they'll hold court now, no need for us to stay and bog down matters of state.' Naofumi thought while looking back briefly before following the others
They followed the servant into a large room. The room had 1 large bed, a bookshelf and a table with 4 chairs at the center of the room.
"Heroes. Are any of you hungry? If not, food will be served in a few hours." All four declined. She walked to just outside the room, bowed, then closed the door.
"Our maids were kinda hot, right?" Motoyasu said the moment they were inside the room, Naofumi and the other two thought the same thing at that moment 'he's one of those kind of guys...'
"Uhn...Well maybe we should talk a little,you know? getting to know each" Naofumi suggested trying to start conversasion that diren't involved girls
"Great! We can discuse game knowlegde and grinnding spots!" Motoyasu cheerfully said with a smile as he sat in a chair in a 'cool guy' style
"That seems like a good idea, this game has a few diferencess from what i'm accustomed to, so it would be good to know what's the same or what's not" Itsuki nodded in agreedement
"I prefer to play alone, but it guess you noobs are gonna need my help" Ren spoke in usual cold demeaner
"Game? What are guys talking about" Naofumi asked, not understanding why they were referring to that sort of thing now
"Wow, you serious? How can you not know Emerald Online? Is probably one of the most popular games of a time! And we have been transported to it!" Motoyasu leaned back in a little suprised
"Wait, you don't mean Dimension Wave, do you? I never heard of any game called Emerald Online" Itsuki spoke next, confused by the game motoyasu referring to
"I'm serious! Emerald Online is pretty famous!" Motoyasu was a bit irritated at the fact none of these guys had played the most popular MMO of all time
"But Dimension Wave is a single-player console game! It doesn't have a multiplayer mode!" Itsuki said screaming semminly losing his cool
"Console game? I thought we were in Brave Star Online, which is a VRMMO, you're guys are fossils or anything?" Ren join in the conversation, but what he said caught the other three heroes attention
Naofumi, Motoyasu and Itsuki all looked at Ren with wide eyes, which slightly unconfated Ren
"W-why are you guys looking at me like this?" He asked, he didn't like people staring at him in that way or in almost any way really
"Ren...VRMMO don't exist, they are just cience-fiction" Naofumi responded, he had read numerous light novels about this and although VR technology was getting better, it still was a far cry from playing a entire MMO with a headset.
"What?! But they are super common!" Ren spoke, baffled as to why he would say such thing
"Nah man, that's the sort of thing you see from anime and manga" Motoyasu said in blankly, he played VR once in a gaming event and to say it was bad would be a understatement. He would never play a game on that thing for how nauseating and disorienting it was, he would much rather play in his computer for 9 hours over 10 minutes on that headset.
"Yeah, the technology for such a thing doesn't exist" Itsuki pointed out, he had seen research on the thing but as it stood, there was no way a device like that could become super common
"Unless..." Naofumi says as he put his hand to his chin and focused on his thought before continuing "...we all came from diferent worlds"
All the other's flinched, as they began to consider this possibility. despite how outlandish it was, the fact they were in this place right now proves that it could be possible
"I have an idea. Who's the Prime Minister?" Ren asked the question on everyone's mind.
The four Heroes all gave different answers to that question and the next five after that.
"So we all came from Alternate Japans?" Naofumi said still shocked at the revelation, it was almost too much to process.
"Seems like it" Motoyasu was suprised but seemed to have regain his composer
"At the very lest this world is very similar to the games we played, so we should'ent have any problems" Itsuki commented as he crossed his arms and leaned back to his chair
"About that... I read a book and got transported here...it only explained what were the waves, the heroes and their functions and nothing else..." Naofumi said while lowering his head
"Gosh dude... I feel bad for you" Motoyasu sadly sighed, he felt bad for the guy having no idea of what to do, but at same time he was jealous that he got the no death teleportation
"You not only a shielder but also doesn't know anything usefull about this world" Itsuki commented coldly as it was quite pathetic something like that to happen, his comment grabbed Naofumi attention though
"what's wrong with the shield?" He asked, afraid of what the anwser was
"To simply put, it's the worst class in the game" Itsuki anwserd bluntly and somewhat cold
"Same here, even after many updates,it was still the worst" Ren added, making matters worst for Naofumi
"Same thing, none of the builds were good" Motoyasu said as well and with that Naofumi's biggest worry became all but true
"But this world is not same as those games! The shield could be just as good as the other weapons!" He screamed in frustration, ge couldn't accept that he got so unlucky with the starter weapon. It should have a good ability, it needed to be good in some way!
"You can denie it, but it is the True" Itsuki spoke death serious, seemly looking at him condescendingly
"I-i..."Naofumi was speechless, was he really that screwed? It seems like his destiny to lose just because of a shield? One that he did not choose, did he got the worst possible possible outcome?
"What the hell! there's got to be some benefit right?" Naofumi screamed out as he had to hold himself from falling down
"Listen. In life we get handed the cards and wether we like it or not, someone will always get the worst hand" Ren said like it was common sense with Motoyasu and Itsuki nodded in agreement.
"...besides, with your defense you'll be safe enough from danger as you find your way." Ren said but Naofumi felt like that was not really what he wanted to say
"But I already have this huge handicap of being 'a useless shielder' like you guys said. what I am supposed to do?" Naofumi said as he opened his status menu and started to look for something that would help him
"It's like that king guy said. Between our help menus and our party members, we have plenty of info to start with. Check your help menu if it helps in anything" Motoyasu said as he was not caring much about how a guy in his side was having a possible mental breakdown
"There's gotta be something that I- Huh?" Naofumi stopped as he found a tab in his menu called 'GACHA' he clicked on it and got send to a menu that was completely black with the exception of the top having a decorative golden logo written 'weapon roll' a image of his shield and a lime green button saying 'Roll'
"Hey do you guys have a weapon roll?" he asked the other three heroes since they would probably know something about it
"What?" the three responded, confused at to what he was even referring to
"What you're talking about?" Ren asked completely confuse at to what he was asking 'what does he mean by that? is it something in the help menu?'
"The... I'm talking about the gacha mechanic" Naofumi responded, by their reactions it meant that they either hadn't seen the gacha tab or it wasn't part of their original game
"Gacha mechanic?" the three all ask in confusion
"Yeah, is one of my strengthening methods" Naofumi explained a bit, he had checked the strengthening methods and it was listed there along with something called 'share' which Naofumi didn't even check to see what it did
"Dimension Wave didn't have gacha mechanics..." Itsuki was thinking out loud, he never played something that had such system since it was basically gambling. but if Naofumi had that, it meant each of their strengthening methods might be different
"Well I don't know about you guys but I was addicted to this sort of thing back in my world" the shield hero replied with a excited smile, it seemed that finally his luck was beginning to chance for the better
"I guess that's your one advantage..." motoyasu said trying to make it seemed like he didn't care but in reality his thoughts were 'Ah man! I hate these sort of stuff! he is gonna get exclusive forms then' Motoyasu mentally complained
'I hate this, he could get a super powerful and exclusive weapon form because of luck! and not skill' Ren thought to himself, it was so unbalance that this threb could potentially become the strongest out of them
'This system seems to work like your run-of-the-mill gacha... Only is saying that there is a endless amounts of shields I could get, I can't check the probability of each shield and I must assume each has a different chance of dropping.' Naofumi thought as he read over more about this system through the help menu
'Shit... I can get repeats, and each shield has a different leveling up speed too?' Naofumi felt like that was unfair but it was a gacha, what did he expect?
'So despite sounding busted, this still requires a lot of luck' Naofumi remarked as he thought about this, his entire progress in how strong he got would depend on how good the shields he got, he hoped for his luck to be the best it ever was right now
"The first poll is free so hopefully I will get something good" Naofumi said a he pressed the button, afterwards his shield began glowing as the gem on the midle swapped between many different colors, while Naofumi was hoping to get something good or even incredibly powerful, the other three heroes were hoping he would get something god awful. after 10 seconds the shield reshaped into a new form and stopped glowing, revealing...
[Skateboard Shield LV 1 unlocked] (Common Rarity)
[equip bonus 4 agi]
[Equip Effect: when this shield is equipped the user becomes a pro level skater, along with gaining a small speed buff of 2% when riding]
"I got a common one... not sure why I expected to get anything else..." Naofumi said a bit bummed out about it but he shouldn't have left his expectations get that high, the other three heroes smiled at that smugly, happy that he didn't get something overpowered
'this shield is not bad, I can use it as a skateboard and all. but I wish that something like a epic or legendary tier was my first roll' Naofumi lament, he was hoping for something that at least gave him attack. Looking at the screen showed that he had 0 of the 10 shield tokens to roll another shield, these tokens were green and white poker chips with a yellow shield drawing on them
'huh? I need 10 shield tokens to roll another one, how do I get those?' Naofumi asked himself before receiving a notification from his help guide
[shield tokens can be obtained from monsters you have slain. each has a different amount of shield tokens they can drop, along with a different probability of dropping it]
Naofumi was slowly begining to get a hang of this now, of course he still knew less than the others but at least he could put his experience with gacha games to use just like they were doing with their game knowledge. The fact this was exclusive to him only reinforces that mind set, after all he was a passionate player of this sort of game so one of his strengthening methods being a gacha felt right, like it was taller made for him.
"It's getting late so I better go to my room" Ren said as he exited the room, wanting to get away from the 'stupid pervert' and 'mister gamble game' so that he could sleep
"Yeah good call, see you guys tomorrow I guess" Itsuki said as he left the room as well
"I better get going too, can't wait to test this out once we start" Naofumi said as he places his skate board on his feet and skates pass Ren and Itsuki in the corridor, doing a kick flip on his skate before turning the corner
'show off...' Ren thought to himself as he went to his room irritated
"Man... this changes everything!" Motoyasu shouted in pure anger at the revelation
"How I am supposed to compete with a gacha mechanic? I can hope he only gets shitty shields since he is a shielder but... Argh! he is going to get something good eventually" Motoyasu was frustrated beyond belief. not only there was a gacha system but it was also exclusive to only one of them, that meant Naofumi would eventually get powerful and exclusive weapon forms that the others could never get no matter how hard they work for it
"But what if... Nah it would be useless... unless..." Motoyasu began thinking more than he ever had since getting in this new world. If he could find an effective way to get stronger, stronger than the other heroes, stronger than any shield Naofumi could unlock in the gacha. then he would make the gap between the two of them so big it would be impossible for the luck dependent Naofumi to ever surpass him, he quickly opened his status magic and entered the strengthening methods section
[Weapon Mastery(core): By growing more and more accustomed to one weapon form, you will find its strength starting to increase.]
[Smelting: The user can power up a piece of equipment using ores. While there is no limit to this method, there is a chance of failure which increases as it is used.]
[Spirit Enchantment: Pieces of monsters' souls that have been absorbed into a weapon can be used to imbue the weapon with special powers. This has no chance of failure-maybe.]
[Status Enchantment: Stats can also be increased by absorbing items dropped from monsters.]
'Not quite what I was looking for...' Motoyasu was a bit disappointed, he could see his strengthening methods and they weren't bad. But he wanted a more specific answer
"What is the best way to raise my stats?" he asked his status magic, hoping it would answer his question since it is supposed to help them after all. A screen popped up just 2 seconds after he asked
[mastering a spear form will give it's equip bonus to you permanently which will be added to your base stats]
"How can I master a spear form?" Motoyasu asked again, seeing that his question actually got answered and with a good response only made him want to ask for more detail
[you can master a spear form by just having it equipped on you, they will level up faster if used in combat or by using its ability. absorbing enough of the same material as the spear form can also increase it's level]
"How long it takes to master a spear?" Motoyasu asked a final time, he was satisfied with what he learned so far, but if the process took longer than he hoped than he could kiss this idea goodbye
[fully mastering a spear will differ depending on its strength, the weaker spears take 4 to 6 hours to fully master. it's advised to train your abilities with your spear so that [Weapon Mastery (core)] can make all spear forms stronger]
Seeing this Motoyasu decides to pick something up and absorbed it just to see if he could get a spear from, well anything. he walked over to the bookshelf and absorbed a random book
[Paper Spear LV 1 unlocked]
[equip bonus 1 mag]
[Book Spear LV 1 unlocked]
[equip bonus 1 mag 2 mdef]
[Ability: Mana efficiency (small)]
[Dictionary Spear LV 1 unlocked]
[equip bonus 2 mag 1 mdef]
[Ability Linguistic Expert I: you can now read and write the Melromarc language]
he equips the [dictionary spear] and looks at it for a moment, it had a book where the gem of the spear stayed while the handle and blade of the spear were made of layers upon layers of written paper.
'I shouldn't have to rely on mastering these sort of shitty spears but I could use the permanent stat bonus' Motoyasu thought as he smugly smiled, thinking himself a genius for find a method to fight against the gacha
Morning came and Naofumi got out of bed and did some stretching a little bit, he felt incredible, like he never had slept so well before
'I don't know if a can sleep on a normal bed now! Royalty does have the good stuff!' He thought to himself, he looked at his arm, and seeing that the [skateboard shield] was still equipped, he changed back to the [small shield] not seeing a need to have it equipped right now while he was indoors but he would for sure use it when he was outside the castle's walls.
He was told they would guide them to eat breakfast in a few moments and after that, they'd meet the king again. Naofumi would see what kind of people he'd be traveling with. While not as open about it as Motoyasu was, he too hoped for at least 1 beautiful female companion.
As they ate breakfast Itsuki noticed Motoyasu's spear had a new appearance.
"Huh? Hey Motoyasu. How did you already get a new spear? We haven't had a chance to do anything yet, but you already have a power-up?" Itsuki whispered to motoyasu, he was curious how he could have gotten such a thing so fast
"Game knowledge is to be acquired and used by those who learned it, not handed out to noobs you know?" Motoyasu replied with a smirk, Itsuki seemed to get visibly mad at this
"Okay I'll bring you in the secret" Motoyasu whispered very confidently. The bow hero leaned in closer, awaiting an answer. "I absorbed a random book from the bookshelf that was in my room."
"Why?" Itsuki asked silently, not understand why Motoyasu would go and absorb stuff just to get thrash weapon forms
"It's in the help menu so you can check by yourself later but once mastered the equip bonus of a weapon form becomes permanent, so I thought that mastering a ton of spears would lead to a pretty swell deal" motoyasu confidently said as he felt immense proud from being the only one to figure this out
"That... has some merit actually" Itsuki said as he put a hand on his chin and began to thought this over
'I could use that to get over Naofumi's stupid gacha mechanic... yeah, it could work!' Itsuki happily exclaimed in his head, glad that he now wouldn't be outshine by some stupid luck mechanic
Naofumi and Ren just ate their meals in silent, the shield hero wondered what both Itsuki and Motoyasu were whispering about but he ignored as it wasn't in his place to spy on their conversation.
As they made their way back to that large throne room from yesterday, they all seemed to want to slow down a bit. Being slingshot from one place to another with no deviation was starting to get to them, but their freedom to take on this new world as heroes of legend was less than an hour away. Naofumi wondered who was slowing down in annoyance and who was slowing down due to anxiousness. Even for himself, he had no answer.
As the large doors caved to their presence, the light of the formidable room invaded them in turn. The room seemed vastly different. There were only a few nobles in attendance now, making the already large room feel even larger. The four heroes came to rest in the same places they stood, but a day ago. The king seemed in better spirits today than the day prior, at least Naofumi thought so. The king spoke with a voice that would have been well enough without the now mostly empty room to echo to further enhance it.
"Thank you for answering my summons brave heroes! Yesterday I promised that I'd provide you with talented and experienced adventures, allies willing to face the waves beside you and help answer any questions you will no doubt have in this world you now find yourselves in. I would now like to show you that as king I stand by my promises. Enter!" As the doors behind the kind on both sides opened and several people filed into the room, forming a line in front of the king. the four looked at them for a moment, eyeing anyone they found interesting.
"Are we going to choose them or will they choose us?" Itsuki asked as depending on which answer, they could have very different team builds that could change how they would have to fight 'hopefully I will get someone that can stay in the front line'
"the latter sir bow hero" the king said and suddenly, a invisible tension formed across the heroes
'Just like dodgeball' Motoyasu, Itsuki and Ren thought the same thing once the king said that. Itsuki and Motoyasu were popular picks back in their highschool years for this sort of thing while Ren was not as commun to get picked, usually skipping dodgeball class to study if he felt like it.
"Now! Our future champions! Is time to start your journey!" The king exclaimed and the adventurers made their way to the heroes of their choice, Naofumi began thinking of possible party combinations.
'there is 12 of them so we each get 3 but it is possible for one to get 4 or 2 if th-' Naofumi was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed a lot of people looking his way. He realized in a moment. No one stood with him.
Motoyasu had 4 women behind him, every single one being 10/10 in terms of beauty. the spear hero had a very smug face, almost like he wasn't surprised by this outcome
'Yes!' Motoyasu did screamed in his head as he got what he wanted, he would have been okay with one babe but he scored four! he won in the lottery in terms of party members now
'Damn. leave some for the rest of us!'
Itsuki had three members, each looking like they focused on different things like a rogue, a tank and what seemed to be a rogue. The bow hero was satisfied with this team, he just hoped that they would be righteous warriors that shared his sentiment for justice
'He has a good balance I guess'
Ren had five members, among them was a man with a strong man with an axe, a kind of cute green haired girl with some chinese costume of sorts, a man dressed as an rogue straight from DnD and a man carrying a book. Ren didn't change his expression from his normal one but he was probably content with his situation.
'Five members! one of them looks cute and another has to have more defense than me! and that's all I'm good for!'
'Why wasn't it 3 per hero!?' Naofumi pondered himself as to try and comprend this situation, while the other three heroes were also shocked by this they also felt that he deserved it, after all he had access to a gacha that could give him a unfair advantage. It made sense for them that he wouldn't have party members right at the beginning.
"King what's going on?" naofumi asked very confused and worried on why nobody joined him
"I must say I didn't see that result" the king commented before his advisor came closer to whisper something to his ear
"I see, so there are rumors" he said seemly content with this confirmation, not that any of the heroes noticed
"Rumors?! What rumors?" Naofumi asked completely caught off guard by that response
'what types of rumors were going around to make no one join me?!' He screamed in his head, he hadn't been in this world for a day and already rumors about him spread
"There are rumors that the shield hero doesn't know about how this world works while the others do, it's said that all the heroes come with vast knowledge of this world" the king explained
"So someone was spying on us last night" Ren whispered to Itsuki, there was no other way such a rumor could have spread otherwise
"Seems like it" Itsuki whispered back, was it there a maid or another servant who just listen in to them or was there something else at play? He favored the first idea, but for some reason, he couldn't deny the possibility of the latter
"But how I'm gonna raise my levels without a party?" Naofumi asked, he had 1 attack and that would make level up a torture, sure he could roll for a shield that gave an attack bonus and had a good offensive ability. But that could take many attempts at the shield roll and just to roll one could take an entire day
"I can join the shield hero party" a voice spoke, it was one of the members of Motoyasu party, a beautiful red-hair with lush green eyes, wearing what seemed like Leather armor atop a white and purple dress, upon seeing her smile, Naofumi heart began to beat faster
"If that's okay with you, sir spear hero?" She asked Motoyasu while giving him a soft smile
"Of course" Motoyasu responded, he was sad to lose the prettiest girl at his party, much more to a someone with a built in cheat mechanic. But a true gentleman wouldn't deprive a woman of doing what she thinks is right 'her kind heart must have had pity for him'
"Pleasure to meet you sir iwatani, my name is Myne Sophia" she said as she put a hand out to greet him
"T-thanks" he shook her hand 'they are so soft!' Naofumi thought, he couldn't believe such a beautiful girl would be his companion, he sure was lucky
"Well then shield hero, you will have to form a party for yourselves, to help with this you will receive a little more money for your journey right now" the king said as the maids came in to deliver bags of silver coins to the heroes with Naofumi having 800 while the others got 600
"Heroes I wish you all luck for the adventure ahead of you" the king said, and with that, the heroes were finally out of the castle, and into the city
"So...what now?" Naofumi asked, he wasn't quite sure what to do outside of hitting the field to fight monsters and get more shield tokens to roll another shield, hopefully a offensive one.
"We should go to a blacksmith! I know one of the best of the kingdom" she said excitedly as she grabbed his hand and tried to take him there
"So we gear up then fight monsters? sounds good" Naofumi said as he went with myne to the blacksmith
"Here it is! This is the best shop for an adventurer" myne said as she opened the door of the shop, Naofumi looked and sure enough, there were swords, spears, and armor decorating the shop
"Welcome to my shop, how may I help you and your friend?" A man said at the counter, he was a tall buff figure, with a beard and a bald head with a scar to the side of it "my name is Erhard by the way"
"Hello, we are to get equipment for Naofumi-sama" myne said as she grabbed Naofumi's arm and hugged it, Naofumi almost screamed in happiness from that
"Do you have something light and easy to move around while also giving some defense?" Naofumi said while looking at the armor on display
"There's chainmail, here let's show you" Erhard said as grabbed a metallic black shirt with silver details and gave it to Naofumi, when he looked at it some information appeared to him
[Chain mail armor]
10 agi 15 def
10% Slashing resistance
"There's a changing room if you want to try it out" Erhard said as he pointed to a small room with a mirror inside
Naofumi went into a changing room and put it on, seeing how it felt, it was light and flexible, and if he was completely honest, almost didn't feel like there were chains in it, only when he touched the outside part he felt the chains inside, it was probably padded in the inside to prevent the skin from feeling the cold of the metal, after looking himself in the mirror of the changing room, he noted that it made him look a bit cool, certainly better than in his normal attire did.
"I will take it" he said as he came out of the changing room, he had store his old hoodie in his inventory for now
"You look great Naofumi-sama!" Myne complimented him while clapping her hands
"That's gonna be 150 silver with the Hero discount" Erhard said as he gave Naofumi a thumbs up
"You're giving me a discount?" Naofumi asked, surprised that he would get that, he briefly thought maybe it was a first purchase thing. But considering the Hero discount part, it was likely that he had discounts in any shop thanks to his hero status
"Well, here you go" Naofumi gave the coins to the blacksmith, greeting him farewell before leaving the shop.
"We better hit the fields before the sun sets, where is it exactly?" Naofumi said as he tried to look around but the high walls were probably a good indicator that the fields were outside the city limits
"just straight ahead sir hero, but the walk will take a coupl-" Myne stopped her talk as she saw Naofumi change his shield into the strange [skateboard shield] and place it on the ground
"Hop in" Naofumi said as he moved himself to the up front of the board leaving a small space for Myne to get on
"Uh... what?" Myne said confused, as she did not understand why he was asking for that, the shield he was currently in didn't seemed suited for two people unless they were hugging each and even then it probably would fall over from the combined weight
"Hop on to my shield and we can get there faster" Naofumi explained, since he had a faster way to move than walking around he could save some time...plus, it could be a good way to help him and Myne get closer
"..." the red head stayed silent for a moment
"You can go ahead Shield hero, I will follow behind you" Myne said as she much rather walk then go with the shield hero in his small shield with wheels. Naofumi was understanding of this and decided to skate ahead, thankfully the ground was mostly even so he rode with no problem
In the fields outside the walls of melromac, Naofumi stared at the vast green fields in front of him, he wondered what type of things they were gonna find here, giant bugs? Slimes? All the started creatures in rpg began to run through his head
"Naofumi-sama! Look! In the tall grass!" Myne said as she pointed out to the now moving grass as three orange balls came out from it
"What are those?" he asked, those look like the beginner monster to him but he couldn't tell if they were supposed to be slimes or not since they looked like they were made of rubber
"Those are ballons sir hero, they are the weakest monster in this world, but they are known to be dangerous in large numbers" Myne explained as she stood a small distance from the shield hero
'so they are like the slime equivalent of this world? Well they might be weak but I think they still have more defense than I have attack' Naofumi thought, knowing that his attacks would be useless, but he needed to kill them so that he could get a new shield.
Ren was deep in the forest killing monster after monster with easy, he was in reality venting a bit of frustration as he was still made at the Gacha system Naofumi had. He couldn't accept that a luck based mechanic like that would be in this world, Brave Start was one of his favorite games because it didn't had this sort of mechanic and yet Naofumi had access to this broken thing that eventually would get him an op shield form that none of the other heroes could get.
"Damnit... how can I beat this guy in the late game while being a free to play? I could grind harder but... it might not be that effective..." Ren said as he sit close to the remaining dead usapils bodies as he watched his party members fight off some monsters in the distance, briefly looking back at the dead bodies as his started to have a crazy thought
"I got the [usapil sword] but I wonder if that's the whole series... Maybe I should absorb a individual part? Sounds like extra work... but is better than grinding to the point of breaking my bones" Ren said as he took one of the legs of the dead usapil and absorbed it into his sword
[Usapil Feet Sword LV 1 unlocked]
[equip bonus 3 agi]
[Ability Lucky Charm: increases item drop rate by a small amount]
Seeing that he actually got something from this got Ren more curious, he took a single silver coin from his bag and put it inside his sword to confirm it
[Silver Coin Sword LV 1]
[equip bonus 1 ATK, 1 Mag, item drop rate increase (small)]
[Unique Ability Silver Safe: Can store and retrieve silver coins. Limit 250 Silver coins 3 for each level you possess.]
[Silver Sword LV 1]
[equip bonus 1 atk, 1 Mdef, 1 Agi 3 Additional damage against fiends]
"..." Ren just stared at the new swords he got, he never expected to actually receive something from them...and this sparked up a idea in his head
"You know what? I think I'm just gonna shove anything I feel like it in this, mastering as many swords as I can... could be the way to beat that gacha" Ren said as he would not bother with this if Naofumi didn't have a stupid gacha, but with a infinite amount of possible shields and enough luck, he could get something to put him above himself and the others and Ren was not gonna let himself be rolled over by a weak shielder
"That *huf* should do it" Naofumi says while crouching to breathe and because he was tired, it took 4 hours to kill 13 balloons and get enough shield tokens for the poll. it would have been sooner if 3 of those had dropped shield tokens but he learned that the chances of getting 1 shield token from a balloon seemed to be 50/50 but that wasn't important right now, what was important was doing a shield poll.
"come on *huf* gimme something good!" He exclaimed while pressing the button, once again the shield turned into an white light and it's gem began glowing a rainbow, he soon got...
[Calculator Shield LV 1 unlocked] (Commum Rarity)
[equip bonus 2 mag, 1 def, 1mdef]
[Ability Calculator: Can do simple calculations immediately upon request]
"...Damn" Naofumi said as once again, this was not a bad shield since it gave him a useful ability for his daily life, but he wanted something to attack with
"Sir Naofumi" Myne called out as she approached him
"Oh! yes Myne?" Naofumi said as he turned to face Myne, meanwhile equipping the [Calculator Shield]
"We should go to a inn, it's getting dark" Myne said as she pointed to the sunset in the distance
"Huh, I didn't notice it was getting so late" Naofumi stared at the now-forming night sky "okay, let's go to an inn or something to rest and eat up" he said while starting to walk to the city gates
"I know a good inn for us~" she playfully said, though Naofumi wasn't paying attention as he was checking his inventory
he had 650 silver, 1 chainmail armor, 42 balloon skins, and 3 balloon play-balls that he got from the [Drop Menu, they looked like an orange round ball the size of his head with a balloons eye and mouth drawn in it with a black marker 'perhaps I can sell the balloon's skin, and the balls might be worth a pretty penny since it's probably an exclusive item from the [Drop Menu] I just need someone to buy these...' he thought as they entered the city
They got into an inn, Naofumi thought it felt cozy, and they got a simple meal, Naofumi wanted to get a more expensive thing for himself and Myne, but he couldn't just waste money away
"Would you like a drink Naofumi-sama~" Myne told in a slightly sexual manner as she offered him a glass
"Oh no thanks" Naofumi said nonchalantly while bitting his meal
"Huh? Why?" Myne asked. She didn't know a man that didn't like beer, it was basically the male equivalent of wine in her eyes.
"I don't like alcoholic beverages" Naofumi responded as he finished his meal, he couldn't really taste alcohol or get drunk back home so he didn't expect to able to in this world.
"That's a hero from another world for you" Myne said sarcastically as she drank a bit more from her cup
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naofumi asked, confused by her statement
"As a matriarchy, you know it's quite rude to refuse a drink from a woman" she said while taking a sip from her drink
'Matriarchy? Then why was a king on the throne? Is the queen dead or something' Naofumi pondered for a bit before drinking the beer and as expected he didn't feel anything.
"Well *yawn* anyways, I'm going to sleep have a nice night Myne" Naofumi said while getting up, surprised to be feeling so tired but he did spend an entire afternoon fighting non stop to get a shield roll, going to the room he rented for himself
"You too sir Naofumi" Myne said while taking another sip of her wine, a malicious smile on her face as she did.
[author's notes]
hope you all like the this chapter, leave a comment as it really helps but please don't spam or comment on stuff that have no relation with the fanfic
so here is my first ever venture into a non crossover fanfic of shield hero, some may not like how I made the other three heroes developed the same mentality as canon Naofumi im terms of getting new weapon forms and strengthen them, but in my defense if I didn't do this than Naofumi would be way more over power than them, even more than he was be in canon since for this he would get some powerful shields. I have a list of changes that will happen in the story but first I need to get to the when they happen
this fanfic will not be updated often, but I will try to continue this story if possible