Chapter 4: Training Days
AN: Apologies for the late update. Life happened. Going back to school and having to work through fields I have almost zero experience in had taken up a majority of my time. I don't know what the schedule is going to be like for the next few months so I will update when I can.
Training Days
It had been quite a nasty morning for Naofumi. He had woken up robbed, dragged before the king in his night clothing, falsely accused of one of the worst crimes in the kingdom, and now without a party or any support at all had to start over almost from scratch.
The king's words about the supposed crime did indeed ring true. He had already spread the word on his false accusation quickly.
About the only silver lining this morning was that he had Edward's support in the matter; however small that support was.
Speaking of silver, the shield hero before he had walked out the door revealed to Ed how much Myne had spent on the new armor and sword. Four Hundred and Eighty silvers, over half of his purse from the king yesterday.
Both Ed and Naofumi knew he wouldn't be seeing that amount of coin again to be repaid but if Ed kept to his promise, he had a feeling that Myne Sophia might be paying for it for quite some time.
Unfortunately, that brought up his issue: his current funds. Myne convinced him to spend a large amount of his silvers for his armor. One hundred twenty silvers. Even if he traded it in he would have to begin like Edward and just use basic clothing for now.
The situation was far from desirable, his gullible nature towards women cost him financially. A cheaper, even the affordable would still cost some silvers. Total loss? Over three-quarters of the funds are gone due to his gullible actions.
The nauseous feeling came back in full force.
As he made his way back towards the blacksmith's shop, his hearing was bombarded by the accusations of what he did to his own companion. Drowning it out was almost impossible as he had never needed to deal with these situations before ever.
Making his way to the blacksmith's shop from yesterday, Naofumi called out for Erhad. The balding man came out to see his customer.
The blacksmith grabbed him by the front of his clothing.
"Were the rumors from the castle true kid? About you and the adventurer Myne?"
Naofumi gave a resigned sigh as he looked at Erhad. He blindly trusted a stranger and looked at where it got him. "Can we take this up in your shop Erhad? I'd rather not deal with this in the street."
While inside the shop, Naofumi divulged what had happened that morning and how Myne almost entirely got away with her actions. How the spear hero had stood up for him and testified against the accusations.
Sadly Myne Sophia was largely believed by the populace and his reputation was pretty much shot. Erhad gave the lad a look of pity, knowing that he would be in for a rough time while he was here in Melromarc.
With that out of the way, they got to why Naofumi was there at his shop to which the shield hero gave his reasons.
Erhad inquired about the armor that he had, and Naofumi had mentioned that when he bought it yesterday, even if he had returned it he would get a discounted refund or something like that. He was tired of dishonest people and while he wasn't exactly sure where to place Ed, the spear hero was more supportive than all the others. But… even he knew it was dangerous to put your trust in just one individual alone.
Thankfully Erhad was a fair man and offered a partial refund as he said for a full 100 silvers. Naofumi was grateful despite being low on funds but he took Ed's advice and asked for something on clearance if possible. The request left a bitter taste in his mouth but like the spear hero said, he needed to start rebuilding his funds. Even a few hundred silvers would only go so far until the next wave.
If he couldn't handle the minor monsters then what would he do when the real threats come?
That day Naofumi went into the fields and used any advice he had to take down the balloons. The body tackles and assistance of gravity and body weight helped a small bit.
Letting out a small sigh he began to get to work. He needed to get stronger, not just for himself but for others too.
Elsewhere:
Edward had ordered his party to take him to the nearest clearing outside of castle town. The team thought that they were finally going to be taking out monsters today but he denied that. Instead, he was going to gauge their skills in combat.
He would fight all of them. One at a time first and then, they were going to fight him together. Myne Sophia thought that she would be getting a chance to show him that she wasn't to be messed with either. Ed thought she was too full of herself and needed to be shown a lesson on the scale for fighters and where she stood.
Needless to say, even when he ordered her to tell him what her skills were and what she specialized in, she claimed to have skills in fire and wind magic and had skills with a sword.
Lesty had claimed to be skilled in hand-to-hand combat, earth magic, and some experience with wind. Elena claimed to be skilled in some swordsmanship, earth magic, and non-combative areas like merchant work. Rino had skills in wind, healing, and support magic.
Edward didn't exactly like what he was looking at. The majority of offense was settled around this so-called magic. He'll take a page out of Olivia's book then. Hopefully, the four of them could back up their claims like he intends to do.
For now, though, hand-to-hand combat and freestyle fighting with a spear will have to do; since he can't use alchemy.
First up on the field was Rino. Being specialized in magic, she brought her staff up and chanted a spell of wind to blow Ed away. She put more power into it than normal but in all honesty, she disliked how Ed believed them all weak. Sad to say it wasn't really meant to be.
The fact that she was using a chant at all mortified him. This mishmash of so-called magic and chanting took away all elements of surprise and time. Not to mention that it cuts out offense and defense if the opponent gets close to you.
Using his skills honed from fighting, Edward maneuvered around the shot of wind, and after two more consecutive attempts by Rino, he had gotten in close and knocked the staff from her hand.
"You're out." he declared as he pointed the spearhead in her direction.
Edward wiped the floor with her literally. Leaving her gobsmacked at how efficiently he had disarmed the girl.
The same thing applied to Elena and Lesty, Edward was still locked from his alchemy but still, he was able to make do against them both.
When it came time for Myne Sophia to engage in combat with him, she had opened up with a swing of her sword which Edward lazily stepped out of the way. Even with his limited knowledge of swords, he could tell she didn't practice with a sword as much as she should have. As such, he concluded that her skills were either rusted; or practically non-existent, and don't get him started on her usage of fire magic, Roy Mustang would have been embarrassed to even be compared to her if she was considered one of the best adventurers in the country, even worse if she was of the nobility. Myne was just launching fire balls without any care in the world, she almost hit one of the other girls.
Having gone against countless adversaries in the past who were much taller than him, Ed managed to take her down without much effort.
To add further salt to the wounds on their pride, Edward never even used his spear against Myne.
Ouch.
But he saw where they stood as a group. As for being prepared for these so-called waves of monsters, this group was a far cry from helping anyone.
Nevertheless, he needed to be able to utilize this spear too. He had informed the ladies that they were going to train in the fields to get stronger.
Seeing some balloon monsters coming for him, he spun the spear in quick swings to not stop and waste time. He missed a few monsters but these were training days and he needed to get into the routine of using the spear in conjugation with his alchemy when he got it back.
Not to mention getting his right arm and left leg into peak condition. 'Damn, that's going to take a while'.
The field was full of balloon monsters. When one was dispatched using his spear, two more came in. This pattern continued for a full hour, with Edward cutting them down like wheat in the fields.
There were numbers appearing in his vision which was something called EXP. This number grew every time he killed a monster with the spear. With this new bit of knowledge he began to fill up the bar and once it filled up, he had noticed that the bar indicated he leveled up to two.
So the more he fills up the bar with EXP the stronger that he gets. If he were to fill it up, he would increase to another level and get stronger.
Of course, when the next bar appeared, he noticed the requirement for EXP had increased as well meaning that for each new level to get stronger, he would need to acquire EXP in some form or another.
By the end of this, Edward's levels had increased to four.
To be honest, the spear-wielding was a lot more different than usual. It's true that in some cases he wielded a spear during his time as a state alchemist, sadly the majority of the time it involved any fighting, Ed just ended up transmuting the automail on his arm into a blade.
His skills with a spear are about average though. It was his teacher Izumi Curtis who was the better spear wielder. Too bad that he can't ask her for some pointers on how to wield this thing better.
All things considered however, he was going to need to get stronger and he only had a month to do so.
"Sir Spear Hero can't we take a break? Use some of those potions you bought for crying out loud." Myne was begging him with faux tears.
Edward scoffed at Myne and tossed her a water canteen. He had a feeling this would happen and got a couple to last the day between each of them. Though by the looks of it, Myne would finish hers off before lunch.
The training was threefold, he was going to get the hang of this spear before trying out on anything bigger. Fighting against human opponents was supposed to help both strengthen his muscles and get the team up to speed in working together. Through the procrastinating from Myne and her friend Lesty, he was starting to wonder if the latter was going to work at all. Elena wasn't far behind and the only person who had any intention of improving in terms of combat was Rino.
Don't get Ed wrong, while he understood the desperation in wanting to stop these waves of catastrophe, he was also stripped of the joy in seeing his brother coming back to the world of the living. Maybe not even seeing his friends again.
They say that fighting and ending the waves was the only way to get back home. That was starting to look less and less of a likelihood, this unstable team was proof of that.
He decided to try and see what these other monsters that the so called adventurers made such a fuss about and so they made their way to another area where Elena and Rino both claimed had far bigger challenges.
Some of the other monsters that Ed encountered were known as ursapils and these resembled small rabbits. Sadly, he could see just how much energy was spent by those four in taking down the things.
Ed slew a number of the beasts and saw that his spear had absorbed the ursapil body causing his spear to take on a new appearance.
Ursapil Spear Unlocked:
ATK +3
AGI + 5
DEF +2
Was this what the king meant earlier when he said the weapons could get stronger?
'Heh' he thought it was at first just the coins and whatnot but this just opens up a whole new door of possibilities.
He would need to look into doing this with some of the other beasts that he came across.
The other field proved to be an excellent training area for improvements. Of course he would need to find out if he could do the same thing with other monsters like what Naofumi said he could do with the balloon animals.
Well, no time like the present.
Glancing towards the group he had requested Rino to show them where some of the more advanced things were. Normally Edward would go for other more powerful creatures, but he was in another world, his limbs in bad shape, and being requested to fight what may be another world ending event that could end his life within who knows how long.
At least in a way, he knew how his former teacher Izumi Curtis felt when training them.
The day passed at a snail's pace to Edward. It's true that taking on the monsters in the forest was similar to when he and Al hunted on that island when they were little. Of course, this paled in comparison to some of the things he had ended up hunting. He knew that he would need to learn to cook some of the things here if they didn't exist in Amestris.
That looked to be a mountain in itself to climb. Three of the four teammates didn't want anything to do with cooking, causing Edward to groan in resignation.
"You guys claim to be adventurers, you go around fighting, you do these so called jobs, but do any of you know how to live out in the wilderness?" This made most of his group seem like he was the ridiculous one.
Myne scoffed at Edward. "Well, as towns and villages hold the most resources, we can always get the best food there." Her response made Edward's eye twitch in irritation.
'These are supposed to be the best? Whoever taught these four either should not be teaching, or have their teaching practices banned.'
Ed shook it off.
"Look, if we are going to be out on the road, then in some cases, we will not be anywhere near a town, and since we are camping, you need to learn to live off the land in this case. Not a village or town market."
He was already seeing Myne turning her nose up in distaste at this. Well, if she wants to play it that way then…
"Seeing as how we are going to be out in the woods, I want to observe what your camping expertise involves, and yes, I will be judging how you each do. From catching and preparing dinner, to how you set up camp.
The four ladies' faces were comical with Myne and Lesty having the most hilarious of expressions. Going by that, it shows that they have never had much experience, relied only on foods from markets, or just relied on others to do the work for them.
Some time had passed as Edward watched to see the group try and attempt to catch their meals. Rino and Elena settled on getting fish and cooking it. Elena had requested Rino to try and help her refresh her memory on what to do with cooking fish.
Malty and Lesty just stood there waiting as if to see whether the spear hero would provide for them like they always imagined. Sad to say it didn't pan out the way that they had thought that it would.
Edward shook his head at the results. Only Rino and Elena had any sort of survival training, but for the other two, it was practically non-existent.
"Alright, here's the results for the group. Rino, you passed with knowledge on how to forage for food and set up camp. Elana, you need to be refreshed on what is needed and required so as to not cause a disaster." The aforementioned party members are somewhat pleased with that remark.
"Myne and Lesty, are you two sure that you should be adventuring at all?" Edward hated laying it on thick but this needed to be said. Said women displayed enraged expressions at the remarks the assigned cardinal hero was making.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SPEAR HERO? AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE FOR US?" The fourth member Lesty was practically livid at Ed's assessment.
Said hero gave the other two a cold glare. "In the event that I, or any of the other competent members of the group are unable to perform said duties on providing food and water for the group, each individual needs to know the basic necessities for survival. Fighting and discussion in any mission is only part of the travel journey, if you are unable to pay for food or lodging, knowledge of survival outdoors is necessary for any needed person."
He took a moment to calm down. "Besides, you are familiar with the philosophy: You don't work then you don't eat?"
Rino bit back a laugh. 'Way to lay it on thick Spear Hero. You really should watch who you talk to sometimes though.'
Myne balled her fists at Edwards's remarks. She wasn't taking this blow to her ego and yelled: "ZWEITE FIREBALL". As a fireball was launched towards Edward, he ran towards the caster and swept her feet out from underneath her.
The first princess shot a dark look at the Spear Hero. "I may have been ordered by the king to protect you when it comes to training for the waves, but there is nothing that says I can't goad you into pulling your weight in supporting the group." In the beginning, Malty thought that she would have had this Hero wrapped right around her finger just like her father, but he just sprouts off so much nonsense, even her charm isn't working.
This kind of routine continued over the next few days until Edward yelled: "YOU KNOW WHAT? IF THE TWO OF YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN LET OTHER PEOPLE DO THE WORK AND YOU EXPECT TO BE REWARDED FOR SAID WORK? YOU WON'T GET ANYWHERE IN THIS WORLD! I DON'T CARE IF YOU THINK THE TRIAL WENT YOUR WAY."
The females in his group were taken aback by how the Spear Hero was talking to Myne. Lesty knew of her true identity, yet she was looking forward to the day when Myne would reveal her true identity.
'Just you wait Spear Hero' she thought darkly. 'Myne has more power than you might think.'
With each passing day, the strain on Edward's mental state was beginning to take its toll.
'Can't believe this girl. It's like she doesn't accept that the world doesn't revolve around her. If it weren't for the king's orders I would have kicked her out and told her to just make her way back to the capital.' That would have only had him with the king's ire towards him in the same boat as Naofumi. 'I want to show that she is not qualified to work with me or anyone else, this isn't the same as Amestris's Military. I don't exactly have that kind of pull here as I did back home. Not that I did pull rank..' Too bad that the trial by fire would be during the so-called Waves of Calamity and I will not use that just to prove a point unless the situation calls for it.
Edward looked down at the Spear that had selected him. 'Geez, these idiots believe in the concept of MAGIC and I cannot truly comprehend why these people put so much focus on it. There are sciences like alchemy but after experiencing the portal of truth a few times, he can admit that there is such a thing as acknowledging a new concept of the universe.
Too bad it's not exactly going to help him in this endeavor. The other heroes would probably know how to use their so-called cardinal weapons in the fields of magic more so than him and the only one who he is on good terms with is Naofumi.
Right now though, that's not even an option with Myne in his group. They would most likely tear each other's heads off.
Guess he is on his own on how to work this ***** spear, if it is magical.
Going off on his own, Edward sat down on a rock with the spear head in his lap.
Taking his canteen, Edward opened the lid and after a few drops of water dropped onto the red gem. There was another greenish light like what happened with the rabbit creature from earlier.
Water Spear Unlocked LV 1
Atk: +2
Agi: +3
Def: +5
Enhances Spear with water-based attacks and provides higher defense, especially against fire type attacks and monsters.
'Water Spear? Are you telling me that it's not just animal and monster parts but all forms of matter?' Excitement flew through Ed. Then he calmed down as he knew he had to be very careful with putting things into this thing. While he had no idea what he could unlock with this, he knew that by overindulging on the spear's ability to absorb, the power would go to his head and fast. He almost felt like he was channeling Olivier Armstrong.
At that moment, Edward had a plan, but he would wait until tonight to confirm it.
When the group got ready for bed, Edward took a small branch from the ground, and lit it with the flames from the campfire. Taking the flame to the gemstone, the spear absorbed that as well, displaying:
Fire Spear Unlocked LV 1
Atk: +7
Agi: +1
Def: -/+ 0
Enhances the spear's power with fire and can inflict heavier damage against plant monsters.
'So Fire brings up my atk, must mean to attack now that I think about it. but I should probably train with these three spears tomorrow. Provided I can access them in the first place.'
The Next Morning:
"Alright then everyone. Hope that you all have gotten some rest today. We are going to be doing some hunting. This got some of the girls excited, though, for Lesty, she was at least happy that she was going to finally see what Edward was capable of outside this ridiculous training.
"Of course, before we go into the forest to hunt for anything that would need to be cleared out, I am going to be practicing for an hour on something and the four of you are going to help me." Rino's and Elena's faces faltered, sure there was a catch after all.
"You see, last night, my spear said that it had unlocked two new spears and I want to be able to train with them before we go anywhere.
Going to select the first spear in his repertoire: the ursapil, and a somewhat forest-like covering took the place of the spear in his hand. 'So that's how it works huh?' better get to training with this. "You guys ready?" Elena and Lesty charge at Edward as he begins to parry their attacks. Then Rino started shooting off spells randomly at the spear hero.
This kind of sparing was so that Edward would learn to not only be able to access the spears created but to wield them efficiently.
This continued throughout the hour, with him rotating between the ursapil, the water, and the fire spear. The next two surprised the party members as Edward wielded the spears in a form of a dance with beauty and rhythm.
His party had prepared for their trek into the woods after an hour. Sure it may have been a late start, but better to have practiced and prepared with the tools he had before the outdoor test.
He felt a bit weird doing things this way, but he needed to learn to work with more people out in the wild at peaceful times rather than his brother and the people he knew. Back home, hunting with a spear like this might be a bit overkill. Maybe use some hunting traps but he didn't know what he was hunting here. That's why the others were with him.
Some of the things that the group had hunted were small animals which they had eliminated and taken the parts to the market to be sold. Ed had taken a couple of the animal parts and added them to the spear showing new combinations as well. This got him thinking that maybe he could try something else. Even unlocking some spears like a stone spear which brought higher defense, but lowered his speed.
He placed some everyday things like egg shells and some spare eating utensils and unlocked a cooking spear. This got his hopes up a bit, he may have known to make good meals with meat and produce from his world, but with the description of the spear, he would hopefully be able to use foods from this world to make good dishes, if he practiced with it.
The ones he liked the most were the fire, water, and metal based spears. Call him a bit nostalgic but the metal spear reminded him a bit of home.
Once he had managed to defeat a large reptilian monster that evening, Edward had finally had enough. Though he had managed to defeat said monster, the monster was extremely powerful, a level 25 beast.
There was a good lining to this though, not only did he get stronger, but he finally reached level 10 according to the meter, as it declared that he had finally unlocked the seal on his alchemy. While this was great, to him as it allowed him a better artillery to fall back on, he was going to have to hold back on the alchemy. He had a feeling that it would be better to do so in the long run rather than leaning on alchemy for everything to settle things like he did back home in Amestris.
The next morning, Rino suggested that they all go to help Edward register at the Adventurers Guild. This baffled Ed as he had never heard of anything like this before. Rino and Elena were surprised at this but Ed mentioned that such things like this even if they were missions were handed out by the military or bounty hunters.
When the head of the guild asked for Ed's adventurer name, his face showed confusion. "Adventurer Name? What's that?"
Rino spoke up: "Basically Sir Edward, an adventurer name is a name or a moniker that people go by when they don't use their real name." The head of the guild hall asked him what his adventurer name would be and Ed asked if it would be known to everyone or would it be a non-disclosed name, to which he revealed that the adventurer name would be your choice.
"Sir Spear Hero, sometimes people use something that resembles their name or derived from it, maybe even something that they used or their physical appearance to help describe their adventurer name."
Ed smiled as he already knew which name to use. This was his title and moniker given to him by someone while evil was well respected and he made this title his own over the years. A title for which he took passion and was honored.
"Yeah, I know which name to use."
The group listened tentatively.
"Fullmetal".
OMAKE: Myne gets sprayed
The group of adventurers made their way into the woods where they were going to try and level up by cutting down some monsters in the area. Ed had asked them all not to go out of earshot from him or to go too far so that they couldn't be seen.
After culling the monsters down to a reasonable amount they were about to move into another area, when Myne Sophia saw another rustle in the bushes. Not listening to the Spear Hero's wishes, she decided that one more kill wouldn't hurt since it was going to be sold anyway.
Taking her sword she swung it into the bushes to not only kill it but coax it out two and coax it out she did.
What came out though was the last thing anyone had expected. The thing that came out was three feet long, one foot high, with gnarly teeth, a small muzzle,
Black Fur, Small Claws, Bushy Tail, and…
A white stripe goes down its back from its head to its tail.
The little beast quickly turned and sprayed a stinky mist into the red heads direction.
Three Seconds passed…
And a scream filled the forest in a half-mile radius.
Birds were flying away from the area. Other adventurers were baffled by the sound of the screams and went to help. When they got to the area they found the spear hero clutching his cloak over his face, eyes red and a disgusted look displayed on his face.
Three of his party members were not much better. When the other adventurers caught sight of the smell, quite a few of them laughed then quickly covered their faces as a couple of the adventurers recognized Myne Sophia.
Ed had forlorn thoughts storming through his head. 'Well this is just PEACHY. I can already see the scuffle this is going to cause. On the plus side, this more than makes up for Myne swindling Naofumi. I wonder if the king will let me get another party member since I have no ideas how long it will take for this smell to go away.,,, IF IT EVEN WILL.'
Author's Note:
Despite it being so so long since posting a chapter, I did want to post this but it has been a nightmare with the inspiration well drying up for this chapter. It was a pain to do the second half and find a good stopping point.. I had more fun coming up with future ideas for this fic that were rather enlightening and humorous to the readers.
In case anyone was wondering why Edward doesn't yell much in this chapter towards Myne, like he does back home, Ed, unlike his earlier years, is finally starting to grow after helping get his brother back. Not to mention, that the colorful language that one would see in other fics would be rather explosive and cause the group to fall apart faster. I do intend to make some changes but not quite yet. The ones that I intend to introduce to the group will be a bit of an unexpected plot twist surprise compared to the rest of the shield hero fics that I have read.
