Chapter 5: Establishment of Name & Preparations

The days following Edward's registration in the adventurer's guild were filled with labor and intensive training. There were things that were rather simple for him that he needed to do such as clearing out the monsters that were inhabiting the woods near crop farms. Others involved taking out bandits who were ambushing travelers, to removing low to mid level creatures that were terrorizing small villages.

With each mission completed, the pay for the missions had increased, which, like what Rino had described regarding adventuring, had filled his funds for anything else that he deemed would be needed; provided it was within reason of course.

Although unlike what some people were expecting, the spear requested that they do a little bit more to help the smaller towns. Some of this involved helping to harvest crops for the waves and repairing carts. When it came to offering to help with the fortification of the buildings, things came to a head and the team was beginning to split.

Ed was adamant on doing this for the people. He was tempted to use his alchemy on this to make things go faster, but who knew what these people would do if they saw it. Yeah he knew that this would cause a rift later, but he did not want to come to rely on his alchemy like what he did back in Amestris.

At some point, Ed had asked for only a smaller portion of the funds needed for the jobs or gave some of the money back to the people to be used on building funds to the relief of the people and the rage of two of his party.

This raised the ire of both Myne and Lesty, as they were under the guise that they came and did what they needed to do for the missions. They completed the task, so they shouldn't be dawdling with needless work. "Let the villagers deal with these issues on their own." Myne would always procrastinate that they needed to raise their levels and their stats for the waves.

While she had a point, there were other things that she had failed to consider, which Edward laid the facts down for the entitled adventurer. "SHUT UP AND LISTEN." The two quieted in shock that the Spear Hero lost his cool like that. "YOU BOTH ARE RIGHT THAT WE COMPLETED THIS MISSION WITHIN THE PARAMETERS. BUT, WHAT ABOUT THE MESS THAT THE COMPLETED MISSION LEAVES? ARE YOU GOING TO LEAVE DAMAGED HOMES FROM THE MONSTERS OR BANDITS TO BE HIT BY THE WAVES?"

Of course, the alchemist was not finished yet. "I MAY NOT KNOW WHERE THESE WAVES ARE GOING TO HIT IN THIS COUNTRY, BUT IF I WASN'T THE SPEAR HERO, I WOULD AT THE VERY LEAST KNOW THAT MY HOME WAS FORTIFIED AGAINST ANYTHING."

Elena knew what the Spear Hero was getting at. Damaged homes and dwellings, while providing an opportunity hurts profits and therefore hurts income for the people who own said dwellings. She came from a family with low nobility but even she understood what that meant if the buildings were damaged.

Damage to buildings means loss of funds, loss of funds means loss of revenue.

To restore the buildings requires time and money. Money, which some places may not have and be forced to close. Which leads to people leaving said towns. The less people there are in a town, the less life for said village. If everyone suffered damaged dwellings to the point that they could not repair them, the people would leave and the village itself would die.

Becoming a ghost town.

Edwards actions led to earning the name the Sturdy Spear. As he became a household topic in the eyes of the people, the people's opinion of the Spear Hero remained positive while going against a lot of the suggestions of his party members. His resolve remained un-wavered and that got him and some of his party members support from the townsfolk.

That however was only part of the issue that Edward was facing. With each passing day, he kept wanting more and more to just use his alchemy on this red-headed nuisance. But he dared not, he did not want to chance here tattling and having all of his hard work thrown down the drain.

Not to mention that he knew that Myne still needed to pay Naofumi back for her swindling the funds from him for her armor and sword.

He knew that there was a chance that he was going to end up having to pay them their share of funds if and when they left his group. So he has been keeping a journal ledger of all the missions that they have been completing. Even keeping a check of how much she owed Naofumi for settling the debt. At one point, they were curious about Edward Elric's cheap meals and low quality weapons.

He had responded that even though he would restore the weapons needed to upgrade, he would only do so when it was needed as he had requested the blacksmith in Castletown for something to help them to keep their weapons in good condition for longer periods of time like a whet-stone for Elena and Myne. Though Myne hardly ever sharpened hers.

In most cases, he claimed that they needed to stretch their resources as much as they could. Tighten the belts so to speak. Rino wanted to object to this but then realized that Edward was doing things on the cheap as well. She didn't know what the increase in funds were for, but he probably had a very good reason.

When Rino asked Edward about the issue, she was rather disturbed by his answer though he made some sense.

"Rino, what exactly happened to the last village in Melromarc hit by a wave?"

She was stupefied by the question but replied "It was destroyed by the waves, though some speculate and argue that it was done by bandits afterwards. Why do you ask?"

He gave her his answer. "If the village is hit by the waves, then even if we as the cardinal heroes were to fight them off, there would still be damage to the place and if the village was targeted by bandits when the people are trying to rebuild, then they would be defenseless."

Neither she nor Elena could argue with that. Though Myne and Lesty were of a different opinion. "If they cannot learn to stand on their own feet then they don't deserve your help, Spear Hero." Only when the words left Lesty's mouth did she realize she may have overstepped her boundaries as the glare that Edward sent her way felt like she was facing the deadly stare of a dragon. The emotions from Edward flowed into the Spear as he instinctively activated the Fire Spear.

The girls cowered in fright that he would launch that attack right at Lesty and Myne was ready to attack when Edward launched the flaming attack at a large stone crumbling it into thousands of pieces.

"Do not forget Lesty, that as a cardinal hero, my obligation isn't just to fight the creatures of the wave, but to protect the people in this world. So what would happen if say, I let you attempt to handle a stronger foe like the wave monsters. On. Your. Own?"

Don't get her wrong, Lesty took some pride in her skills, but she would sooner leave herself than to admit that she would rather let Edward help boost her levels so she could get stronger the easy way.

With that out of the way they made their way to an Inn where they spent the night and allowed things to calm down. Though in one hero's mind, he was of the opinion that something needed to change and soon or else this team would fall apart. If it hasn't already.

As the days were winding down to the when the waves were declared to happen, Edward had a thought. "Hey Rino, how in the world do the people know where the wave is supposed to be happening and when?"

Rino and the others turned back to him, shock and fear written on some faces. He didn't know? "We need to return to the capital. Immediately."

Ed paid a bit of a high fare for a carriage ride back to the capital post haste. On the way back he turned to Rino. "Rino, what is going on? What's gotten you on edge?"

The petite mage's hands were shaking, her face white. "Sir Spear Hero, please tell me that you were ignorant when asked about when and where the wave was starting." Ed was starting to worry about what she was getting at, though he balked, affronted and eye twitching, when she called him ignorant.

"OH COME ON, I'VE ONLY BEEN HERE A FEW WEEKS, YOU CAN'T EXPECT ME TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE COUNTRY RIGHT?" Elena shook her head at the Spear Hero's antics, though she could say that they both had equal points.

Elena's exasperated face was speaking volumes on what she thought about Edward's antics. "To be blunt Sir Spear Hero, everyone knew that in order to be teleported to the waves, the holy weapons need to sync up with a dragon hourglass which for Melromarc is located in the capital, more specifically the Three Hero's Church.

"Why am I only hearing about this now? And what do you mean by THREE HEROES? Last I checked there are four. Someone want to clue me in on this too?" Edward rattled off.

"Well Mr. Edward, it goes something like this. Long ago, the demi humans and beastman were at war with humans in Melromarc. At one point the cardinal heroes had decided to step in to settle the dispute. The Sword, the Bow, and the Spear Cardinal Heroes had sided with the humans in order to conquer the demi humans and the beast men. The Shield Hero on the other hand, sided with the opposing demi-humans." Elena had thought to bring up the history of Melromarc and the opposing nation had ended up worshiping the Shield hero as their God since he had supported them.

"Things came to a head some decades ago when the former head of Siltvelt, the kingdom of the demi-humans: Taiyo Faylon; a hakuko, decided to go to war and claim all of the surrounding countries for the demi-humans. The war lasted for years. When our king, King Aultcrey joined the fights, he ended up killing the former king of Siltvelt in combat and Siltvelt lost the war. Since that time, there has been a tense standoff between our country and theirs. A small village, Lurolona in the Seatte Territory was the start of a truce that was made between the Queen of Melromarc and Siltvelt as a refugee village for demi-humans." She paused to catch her breath.

'Demi-humans, she can't possibly be talking about the Chimeras I had seen in the capitol, right?' Edward thought with uncertainty.

"Unfortunately a majority of the people did not agree to this even though Siltvelt did the same thing on their end for humans. The church of the three heroes have the people believing that demi-humans and beastman are all devils. Especially since they level up and mature physically faster than humans do. The Shield hero is especially taken with hostility since the people believe he will always side with the demi-humans."

Ed looked somewhat troubled but needed some more information. "First off, you said Hakuko, what exactly is that?" Rino took it up and said that hakuko were tiger demi humans.

"What about this demi-human village in Melromarc? Does it still stand?"

Elena shook her head. "No Sir Edward, when the first wave of Melromarc had appeared, it appeared over Lurolona Village. The village was raised to the ground by monsters and the head of the territory was killed trying to defend it. Sadly, what demi-humans remained left in Lurolona were captured by slavers and the rest of the village ransacked."

Ed couldn't believe the unfairness of it all.

Its true that for all his power that he couldn't save everyone, but that didn't mean that he was not going to help people to the best of his ability.

The people of Ishval had their whole country ransacked by the military and hundreds of the people became displaced in the aftermath of the civil war.

He had a feeling that there were going to be several more instances in the coming weeks.

Within the afternoon, the group of five made it to the capital and as such at Rino's request, were going to need to upgrade some of their equipment.

Ed on the other hand thought that they needed to register for the wave first to see how long before the wave did they have if they had any time at all for upgrading. Saddened, the group made their way to the Church of the Three Heroes.

The architecture of the Three Heroes Church left much to be desired in Ed's eyes. To him , despite the so-called wonder of the church, the upper parts looked completely unsafe. There wasn't much he could safely say about the rest of the church without getting attacked. He didn't have the best experience with churches, especially after the fiasco with the so-called church of Leto in Liore.

It was here that Ed saw Naofumi again, and at his side was someone else.

Naofumi had just had a beam of green light shoot from the dragon hourglass to the shield on Naofumi's arm.

He had to do a double take at the girl next him. "HEY THERE, NAOFUMI." The Shield Hero tensed at the sudden call but then calmed down on seeing who it was. "Oh, Ed, sorry, just been a bit tense lately. Preparing for the wave and all. Its last minute stuff." Ed noticed that there were some bags under his eyes showing that he hadn't gotten a peaceful rest for quite a while. He hated seeing someone like Naofumi going through this before a big fight. It never ends well. Having experienced it himself.

Maybe there was something he could give him to lift his spirits up sometime after this.

"Um Master Naofumi, who is this?" The girl with the tail and brownish red hair asked him.

"Raphtalia, this is Edward, the Spear Hero."

Ed walked up to the demi-human. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Raphtalia. I can see that you finally found someone you can trust in this huh Naofumi?"

Naofumi didn't know what it was, but with things going like they are he might start having things look up after the long month.

No, he can't think that way. The moment things look good they will always head south. Raphtalia may have been a stroke of good fortune but she could be taken away at any time. He had to work hard with her over the whole month to get her to where the both of them were today and he still doesn't believe that he is strong enough. Looking further along the chamber, he sees Itsuki and Ren. Both of them decked out in high class adventurer gear. Jealousy raging in his heart.

He does hope for the best with Edward though. Myne left a bad impression on him and he doesn't know how Edward was able to handle her.

He really wishes he did though.

"Sir Edward, you shouldn't mitigate with a demi-human, they're disgusting." Myne admonished Raphtalia prompting Naofumi to defend his comrade.

To Naofumi's surprise though, Edward raced to his partner's defense. "That's quite enough Myne." The words no sooner than they had left Edwards mouth left the chamber in shock. Who Naofumi chooses to work with is his choice. My guess is that the amount of trust he has in her is higher than any he has to any of us thanks to you."

I have done my absolute best to help you all grow and to prepare not just for the wave of catastrophe, but also to ensure you can survive off of nature's resources and to be able to interact and inspire the people. Only the waves will help in this judgment. Who is more than capable to handle the upcoming waves and who has the best or worst performance in this crisis. I won't just analyze you in the waves but how you help the people."

'This will also show if it is a good idea to allow some people to continue in this group or not'.

A beam of green light shot from the dragon hourglass hitting Edwards spear on the red gem.

Edward's face lit up as the timer on the dragon hourglass spread to his vision. If he was reading that right then there was little more than twenty hours before the hourglass sent the four cardinal heroes and their parties to where this so-called wave was supposed to take place.

"Take care of yourself Naofumi. You too Miss Raphtalia."

The group of five made their way to Erhads in order to get their gear upgraded, however much they can considering how close it is to the wave.

Reluctantly, Ed had asked Myne to accompany him to the blacksmith.

"Why hello again Spear Hero, or should I say Fullmetal". Erhad sported a cheeky grin at the shorter boy. Ed's conduct had received such a positive response that even those in the capital were beginning to take notice. Hopefully it could continue.

Edward smiled at the blacksmith. "Hello again to you too Erhad. I take it that things have been alright since the last time we saw each other?" The blacksmith knew what he was talking about but kept quiet.

"They have and my customers have been leaving satisfied with their purchases. So tell me what can I do for you today Fullmetal?"

"I know it's last minute but I was wondering what all you had in store in preparation for the wave."

Erhad looked around uncomfortably. "Well I already have a bunch of custom made orders so I won't be able to help with the anything that will take so much time considering how close we are to the wave. You did remember to register with the hourglass right?"

His question was answered with a nod. "Yeah, team building, learning about the country, building the funds, and wave preparation takes a lot of time. Though that aside I want you to look at all of the equipment we have and tell us what do you think we need to upgrade to and what would work best with our needs."

Using his appraisal tool and analyzing the tools that Edward got from drops he had speculated that some of the things that could be traded for some of what he had could work for the wave such as a new sword for Elena, an upgraded magic staff for Rino, some heavy leather arm guards for Lesty and Myne, well her armor and sword were in decent condition, so she didn't need any upgrading, to her ire and his delight, despite Edward knowing that she hasn't taken proper care of it or used it much for that matter.

"What about you? You want something like full body armor, I'm afraid I don't have much in that regard." He asked the spear hero who shook his head and saying some metal arm and leg guards would be fine, since he needed to allow himself better mobility.

Thankfully he still had a few selections lying around in Ed's sizes. Erhad managed to provide Edward with metallic arm and leg guards at his request. This pleased him a bit since he needed some defense for his recovering limbs.

The metal arm guards had covered his forearms and the leg guards covered his shins.

Though Ed had paid a pretty high amount of silver they were all prepared in terms of equipment. Of, course, Ed wanted to try want last thing as practice.

"Would the four of you wait outside, I need to ask Erhad something."

Finding it a bit unusual, the four obeyed.

The group walked out and Ed asked: "Would you have any broken pieces of metal or wood that needs to be thrown out or if people no longer needed metal.

The blacksmith nodded that yes he did have something of the sort and gestured Ed to follow him.

Erhad led Edward to the back room and shut the door. "Alright kid, this is where I have all the scrap iron and broken weapons. What exactly do you need them for?"

The Fullmetal Alchemist turned towards him. "What you are about to see. Please don't mention this to anybody. I never even showed my team since I can tell that they will most likely come to rely on it for everything without understanding everything that comes with it. I've hidden it for the last few weeks"

The blacksmith raised an eyebrow wondering what Edward was about to do when Ed clapped both of his hands together and placed them over the assortment of broken and damaged metal.

Lightning began to light up the room as Ed began his work. Slowly, but surely a silvery metal handle with a spike formed over the pile and wooden handle followed. As a weapon was taking shape, Erhad gasped with awe, seeing the formation of a spearhead with small spikes coming backwards on the rear of the spearhead with two smaller blades and jagged points facing downward. There was even a bronze plating over the spear head to help hold the blade in place. All the details he had on the exquisite spear gave off the appearance of a dragon.

No take that back, the appearance was that of a dragon.

Ed sighed giving off a nostalgic smile. "Looks like I still got it after all." A notification popped up in his vision asking him: ALCHEMICALLY MADE MAGIC IRON SPEAR. COPY WEAPON? YES/NO? Edward cautiously said yes as he felt the spear on his back shift to where the cardinal spear took on the form of his signature spear but with the addition of the red gem in the middle of the spearhead where the dragon spines were. .

Smile on his face, the spear he made really did suit him now rather than the base form.

"K..K…Kid. Wha.. What was that?" Erhad shakingly asked. Shock clearly plastered over his face.

"This Erhad… is Alchemy. The art of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction. I took the materials from the broken and damaged spears to create something new. Seeing as I used your materials, would you like to give it a try? He handed the spear to Erhad. The blacksmith took what looked to be a green monocle out of his pocket and analyzed the offered weapon.

He had to do a double take when he saw the weapon.

ALCHEMICALLY MADE MAGIC IRON SPEAR

ATK: 20

DEF: 14

AGI: 10

MAG: 15

SPEAR MADE WITH MAGIC IRON TO HELP AUGMENT MAGICAL ATTACKS

"Kid I don't know what you did exactly but this… spear… its worth at least 165 silvers. No, scratch that, it could almost pass for an heirloom or even for someone highly ranked in the military. I can see why you would want to keep this hidden from people. But I got a few warnings for you kid. The waves will happen soon and I got a feeling that you will be forced to use this skill anyway. With each wave getting harder even if you hid it from people this long, it would not be long before people learned about it anyway. Finally, the longer you keep this from your party the trust they have in you could be put in dangerous waters."

Shaking his head, Edward knew where the blacksmith was coming from. Still when making his argument, he asked what he thinks that Myne would have done with this information. Prompting Erhad to cringe. "Okay kid you got me there, but you need to know one more thing."

Ed gave the blacksmith his undivided attention. "You could put blacksmiths like me out of business if you're not careful. You claim you may not know everything about this but if you work with something that you have limited or zero knowledge about, you could mess up the craft."

Or a Rebound, Ed concluded.

"Oh Erhad, the cardinal spear asked me something about wanting to copy the weapon. Do all the cardinal weapons do that?"

Erhad looked thunderous. "WAS THAT WHAT THOSE OTHER TWO HEROES WERE DOING IN HERE? DAMMIT THEY'RE TAKING AWAY MY BUSINESS."

Ed felt bad and thought about it. Looking at the two spears Ed smiled and got a wicked idea. "You know, I may have an idea about how to have them pay you back as a warning to them of course."

"I'm listening".

"Well how about this: for each weapon that the heroes, including myself, copy without your approval, you run a little tax hike or charge an interest fee, say 5% increase on the hero party total purchases, get back a little of the income and punish them for stealing your work so to speak."

Erhad had a matching grin on his face. "Fullmetal, I think that this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

A joyful chuckle sounded throughout the room.

"Now is there anything else that you can think of?"

Ed smiled at him. "I think that is everything that I can think of. All that is needed is food and potion supplies since we don't exactly have a medic."

With that last declaration, he bid Erhad farewell and left the blacksmith's office and went shopping for potions and finished the preparation for the wave.

WIth any luck he will have done as much prep work as needed. However, as he mentioned before, this wave will be the test of his actions.

Author's Note: I decided to stop the chapter right here and give people a basic idea of what Ed looks like and to do the wave and duel prep new chapter.

Please wait for when I put up the sixth chapter ok?