While checking out manga and light novels at the library, Naofumi stumbles across a book called "The Four Cardinal Weapons" and while skimming through it, he finds himself transported to another world along with three other people.

Naofumi soon discovers a shield attached to his arm and people ask him and the others to save their world. While Naofumi is confused about the situation he finds himself in the other three, Motoyasu Kitamura who is holding a spear, Ren Amaki who is holding a sword and Itsuki Kawasumi who is holding a bow are already negotiating payment with their summoners, apparently having familiarity with this new world already.

The summoners promise an explanation to them before they lead the four heroes to the king of their country, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. The king began asking each of the four to introduce themselves and pointedly ignoring Naofumi, the King explains that their world is under threat from Waves of Calamity, inter-dimensional portals that open periodically and dump monsters onto their lands and need the four to stop them.

They are Heroes chosen by the four Legendary Weapons as champions to defend them from the waves. In exchange for defending their world the Heroes weapons have the ability to send them back to their worlds to live under highly favorable conditions or live in this new world where the King promises they will be treated as heroes for the rest of their lives.

However as they are now, the four will not stand a chance against the incoming waves: thus come morning the King will have prepared volunteers to join the four of them to hunt monsters and increase their power. As the four heroes retire to the room prepared for them they learn various things about both each other and the world they now find themselves in

After food was brought, the heroes ate their meals, eventually they talked on and off for a few hours between navigating their menus. the Four heroes also learn that although they all come from Japan, they don't come from the same Japan. While the other three have all played different games whose plot and 'game play' remind them of the world they're now in, but the games were all on different systems for each hero (except of course, for Naofumi, who got a book)

They also confirm that their Japan's histories and cultures are different from one another via a round of trivia. The other three also confirm that in their respective games in which they learned about the world, Naofumi's class, the Shield, was the 'loser's class.' While Naofumi can expect to have an easy time at first being invulnerable to low-level monsters he has next to zero attack power and it won't increase as he levels.

While the three other heroes were talking about their respective games and how good they were and that they would have no problem handling all the saving the world stuff, Naofumi was left sulking in a corner about his situation as the shield hero, it was when he put his hands in his hoodie pocket that he felt something and pulled out his small digital device

"My old Tamagotchi... I guess you won't really be of use in a place like this, might as well absorb you then" He allowed his shield to devour his virtual pet game.

[Digimon Digivice Virtual Pet shield unlocked!]

[Processing data...]

[process completed, the digivice is fully functional]

Naofumi equipped it and observed the new shield he had gotten, the shield didn't exactly look like his old device, it was more modern and stylish in a way, less blocky and more like a type of sci-fi spy gadget but he did preferred this over the very simplistic design of the original, plus the colors of green, white and black were way more visually better than just red all over with a yellow button

"uh?" Itsuki let out as he took notice of Naofumi's shield change and he was shockingly surprised

"Hey, what's that shield? how the heck did you get that?" Itsuki asked and Ren and Motoyasu turned their attention to Naofumi now, the three wondering how he got such a strange shield

"I just absorbed an old Tamagotchi I had and unlocked this..." Naofumi explained, he didn't know what type of ability this had but he wondered if it was something cool, suddenly he caught glimpse of something in the corner of his vision, he looked and saw a little pixelated creature in the corner in a sort of idle animation with a name 'kuromon' above it, Naofumi was briefly surprised but he kinda expected that sort of thing from absorbing a tamagotchi

"You played those? that's so retro" Motoyasu said as he found that type of thing geeky, Naofumi was now a nerd in motoyasu's mind

"Does it have any ability?" Ren asked, wanting to know if it was something that would give Naofumi an unfair advantage over them or not

"Huhm... only seems to make a digital pet appear in the corner of my vision..." Naofumi said as he clicked on the little monster and the creature responded by giggling, he did again and the thing jumped in place

"When I click on him, he just plays a song, walks around and other pet stuff..." Naofumi responded as he focused on the small monster, this was a bit fun but he did hope that it wasn't going to get annoying, especially if it also had the ability of popping just like in the tamagotchi

"So it's useless" Ren said coldly but he was satisfied enough with that being the only thing that shield did

"I guess but it is cool to have I suppose" Naofumi said as he didn't see the tactical use for this, in fact it was kind of a distraction for him, but he was sure he could turn it off if it ever became a problem... he hoped

[kuromon wants to go outside and play]

[allow] [decline]

"Uh? sure why not" Naofumi clicked on [allow] and suddenly the digital pet disappeared from his vision, then the black screen on the shield began to glow a strong little blue as Naofumi's arm began to shake a bit

"Hey why is your shield-" before Itsuki could finish his question, something jumped out from Naofumi's shield

"Yeeep!" the digital creature said as it stopped being a pixelated mess and turned into a alive and breathing monster, jumping a bit in place as it then turned to face the shocked Naofumi with a astonished smile

"... holiest of craps..." Naofumi muttered as he observed the pink monster in front of him, as he and the other three heroes could only stare eyes wide at what had just happened

"Hi master! I'm Kuro-" before the small pink digimon could even finish it's introduction, Ren's sword was now piercing the poor creature's head and after a few seconds the small digimon explodes in pixels with one being grabbed and put in Ren's sword before they disappeared

"Hum... 10% more damage against digital monsters? don't see that being useful" Ren said as he observed the stats of his new sword not realizing the other three heroes slowly turning their heads to look at him, as their jaws were dropped and their faces full of terror and shock on his behavior

"...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" the three heroes screamed out at Ren, the latter was a bit shocked at this and briefly changed his usual expressionless face for one of confused shock but quickly changed back

"What? it was a one of a kind monster that wasn't in my game, I just wanted to see if it gave a good sword" Ren justified, even if Itsuki and Motoyasu understood where he was coming from, it didn't mean they would excuse him this time

"Dude that's messed up" Itsuki said as he stared at Ren, sure that was a monster that wasn't in the game they played but it didn't mean he had to kill it so suddenly since it technically belonged to the owner, especially when the creature was introducing himself, which only made his action worse since he killed an intelligent creature that was not guilty of anything since it just became alive a few seconds ago and looked as innocent as a button

"Kuromon..." Naofumi let out as his face seemed devastated by what just transpired, it looked like he was about to cry which only made the bow and spear heroes fell even more sorry for him

"Man that's not cool, you don't kill someone's digital pet in cold blood like that, would you like it if I went to your house and killed your dog?" Motoyasu begins scolding Ren for doing such a thing, he had a virtual companion back in Emerald online and so he could relate to Naofumi, of course that thing wasn't as cute or precious as his angel Freon but still you wouldn't just kill someone's pet

"Pets are useless, they serve no purpose other than being a extra mouth to feed" Ren said as he tried to sound serious but it only made the other heroes look at him in a worst light

"Geez you're cold" Motoyasu said as he took a step back, he really hated Ren now as he just seemed like the type of guy that would kick a dog out of reflexes and don't feel bad about it

"I'm going to my room..." Naofumi said with a almost dead expression as he moved out to the door, needing some time to process what happened

"Yeah me as well, don't want to be with mister 'I murder animals just because' for the night" Motoyasu said as he also exited the room with Naofumi, always looking at Ren with hate filled eyes

"It was just a digital pet" Ren said as he found their reactions so over exaggerated, they would have done the same thing as well... probably

"You know damn well that a shielder needs party members to fight, do you? you basically killed his sword" Itsuki whispered close to Ren, considering that the pink creature called Naofumi master, it meant Naofumi had some command over it making it a battle beast, which was something very useful for shielders since they can't attack on their own and need party members to help them gain exp, so what Ren just did was the same as killing one of his party members, which is something really messed up

"We are getting party members tomorrow, you all are making too big of a fuzz about it" Ren responded but it did get to him, he hadn't thought about it that way, he fucked over Naofumi just for a mediocre sword with bad stats and a useless ability... looking at it this way, it did make him look like a jerk, but it was too late for feeling guilt, he was justified, any person would have done the same...right?

"Okay sicko" Itsuki said as he also left the room, leaving Ren alone to observe the new sword he had gotten, as he thought over if it was a good thing that he basically made his "co-workers" hate him just for a stupid pixelated sword

Naofumi entered his room and just laid against the door, he was honestly considering to cry which was weird, he hadn't bother with that digital pet for much but something about seeing it appeared out of his shield as a not a pixelated creature and instead a actual living monster with such a happy and innocent expression just to then be murdered in front of his eyes felt terrible, it was almost like he watched a puppy be killed

He looked at the corner where Kuromon originally was, until an egg popped up with a timer

[hatching new egg]

[8:47:59]

"This is... thank God... hope he doesn't get killed as soon" Naofumi said as he was at least glad that he would still have hope for a new companion, maybe he would get a different digital monster but he would be happy with any of them... except the poop one that was super useless, but that would only happen if he neglected his pet monster so Naofumi was hopeful for what the morning would bring

The morning came and Naofumi got up early and went to brush his tooth only to find that his bathroom did not have a sink 'at least I have a toilet...'. Naofumi mentally remarked before getting a notification

[the egg has hatched!]

[betamon has been born!]

"Great" Naofumi said as he looked at the corner of his vision and saw a small black blob-like thing with small cat ears, he clicked on it and tried to hold it for a moment, this made a small menu open up and between the options one was called [play out]

[do you want to let betamon out?]

[Yes] [No]

he clicked yes and once again his shield's black screen glowed and some pixels shot out as something exited the device

"kyuu!" the small black creature let out as it looked at Naofumi

"Hey little guy" Naofumi said as he picked up the thing and inspected it carefully, noting how defenseless and weak and it was compared to kuromon, but to consider their size difference it made sense

"You don't have sharp teeth to bite... or any teeth for that matter, you're a baby?" Naofumi asked the Digimon before realizing how stupid that question was, the thing had just hatched out of a egg, of course it was a baby

"kyuukyu!" betamon responded but Naofumi didn't understand a thing, one more point for this being a baby and not possessing the ability to talk like the previous one, the creature jumped off his arms and landed on his head

"Hehe, alright then let's go and try to level up together partner" Naofumi said excited as he had no problem balancing the thing on his head as it was basically weightless

"kyuu!" betamon responded as they exited the room, both saw the other three heroes in the corridor

"Good morning" Naofumi greeted the other heroes as he approached them, with his small betamon showing a happy expression that was almost impossible to notice if not for it's little yellow dots for eyes

"Oh hey Naofumi-" Motoyasu stopped as he saw naofumi's weird hat, before realizing it wasn't a hat and that it was in fact a new monster that his shield probably gave him after the last one died

"Who's the new pet?" Motoyasu said as he went and pet the thing who meowed like a cat,the spear hero saw that as incredibly cute

"It's betamon, and before you try anything Ren, it is literally a new born baby so don't try to kill it" Naofumi said as he looked at Ren with grudge considering the sword hero killed his first virtual/monster pet

"Whatever" Ren responded as he didn't like that he was being treated as if he had ruined a group project or lost a big game for the team

They were taken by a servant to eat breakfast and later meet with the king, as they walked the halls and stairs of the castle, many people couldn't help but eye the heroes and most importantly, the weird thing on the shield hero's head. When they got to the dining hall the four heroes and betamon eat breakfast contently although they were all questioning how betamon was able to eat considering it's lack of a mouth

"Ah heroes welcome I have gathered-" the king stopped briefly as he sees the small creature on top of the shield hero's head, him and the adventurers currently present had expressions of small to mild confusion

"Huh... shield hero what is that thing in your head and how did you come into possession of it?" the king asked, wanting to know exactly how the shield hero got this strange and exotic creature so suddenly... and if he should send the guards to kill it immediately

"Oh! well long story short, it's a creature that came out of my shield" Naofumi quickly explained as he used one of his fingers to tickle the adorable little Digimon, the king then notices the new form of Naofumi's shield and assume that was responsible for the creature's existence

"I see... anyways, these brave adventurers have come here today to join you all to help you all grow stronger and to fight against the wave" the king said as he reached a hand out and pointed to the multitude of people in front of him

"Are we going to choose them or are they the ones who will choose us" Motoyasu asked as it would change drastically how their teams are built, but the spear hero mostly wanted to be able to score some of the attractive ladies amongst the line. The king responded saying that the adventurers would be choosing who to follow

'Let's see... there's 12 of them and four of us, so it will be 3 members each, guess betamon can be our team's mascot' Naofumi thought as he observed the line of adventurers, seeing some who he definitely would like by his side since they looked like good combatants

"Now our future champions! it is time to start your journey!" the group of people walked forward and started to go behind the hero of their choice

"...Huh?" Naofumi looked behind himself and saw that out of 12 people, none of them were behind him, as they stood behind the other three heroes, leaving Naofumi alone

"Why didn't no one join me?" Naofumi asked as this seemed like an impossibility 'was it because of betamon? did they think I already had a party member? but still one other person would join me right?' he mentally questioned, did all this people think that this small little blob of a creature that was in his head was enough or did they just find it weird

"I must say, I did not see this outcome happening..." the king said as he held his chin before a man to his side came and whispered something to him

"I see, so there are rumors..." the king said with a pleased expression, as if all his doubts were answered

"It says that the shield hero lacks important knowledge of this world that the other heroes possess, it is told in legends that all the heroes come with deep knowledge of how the world works and its culture"

"That's...ugh...at least I have you betamon"

"kyu" the small pet responded happily

"I can join the shield hero" a feminine voice from behind the spear hero spoke up as the beautiful red head with green eyes raised her hand as to give her opinion

"If that's okay with you sir spear hero" she asked and the entire court was surprised

"No problem" Motoyasu couldn't force the girl to stay at his party, if she wanted to join that guy it was her choice to do it 'hate to let her go when that guy already has a pet to fight for him, but that thing doesn't look like it can actually do anything besides being adorable'

"Pleasure to meet you sir Shield hero, my name is Myne Sophia" She introduced herself while offering a handshake to the shield hero which he happily complied

"Pleasure, Naofumi itawani and this is betamon" he introduced himself and his pet to their newly added party member

"Well, it seems that the shield hero will have to look for companions elsewhere, due to his current situation, he will receive a slightly more silver for the first time" as the king said that four servants came to deliver four bags of silver coins, Steve had received 1000 silver coins as compensation for his lack of allies while the other three had a respectable 600 silver given to them which didn't bother the trio much

"I wish you all good luck heroes and that may god favor your journeys" The king gave his goodbyes to the heroes before guards escorted them out of the castle and into the passage to the main bridge, the four heroes talked their goodbyes Before going their separate ways as each took a different route

"So where to first?" Naofumi asked as he didn't really have any idea of where to start this whole adventuring thing

"A blacksmith shop, I know a good one to get you some armor for our adventure" Myne suggests as she knew a great blacksmith that was good in his craft

"Okay, lead the way"

"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

"kyuu!" kuromon exclaimed as to introduce himself to the blacksmith

"And what is that on your head? is some type of pet monster of yours" Erhard asked somewhat surprised as it wasn't something you would see often

"This is Betamon and he is my companion monster, you could say I'm a monster tamer"

"Ha! I rarely see any of those here in the Capital, but I bet you're here for some armor for yourself"

"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

[Basic Chain Mail Armor]

[Equip Bonus 10 agi 15 def]

[Equip Effect 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 to put it on while leaving betamon on the counter, he put the chest armor and moved a bit, 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 to store his old hoodie in his inventory for now

"You look great Naofumi-sama!" Myne complimented him while clapping her hands

"Kyuu!" betamon responded in adorable agreement

"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

"So what are we fighting? slimes?" Naofumi said as he looked around the vast green fields,

"um... they should be around here... oh there!" Myne said as she pointed to a couple of orange balls that seemed to have eyes

"Those monsters, balloons, they are perfect for anyone starting out" Myne said as she and the shield hero approached them

"Huh, well let's go there and kill some" Naofumi said while mustering the courage to fight and kill those things

"kyu!" betamon jumped out of his head and went on its own to pick a fight with a lonely balloon close by

"You can go mister shield hero, I do not think you will require my help with those creatures" Maybe said as she walked close to a tree where she would rest, only going to help the shield hero if his life was in danger

"Alright, take on this!" the shield hero exclaimed as he punched a balloon monster and sent it flying a couple of meters, the monster got back up and went after him again

"And more of this! and this! have some more!" Naofumi keep shouting as he fought the balloon, throwing punch after punch in the orange ball

Pop!

[1 exp gained]

"huff...one exp?! after all of that?..huff...this took forever..." he said almost defeated in all of his tiredness

"Maybe I should ask Myne if she can-"

pop! pop! pop!

[6 exp gained]

"Huh?" Naofumi was confused by this, turning around he saw betamon fighting a group of balloons by himself. despite being just a baby form, the small digimon was handling very well the opposing monsters, dodging their attacks and popping them with no trouble. despite being weak the small digimon made the balloons attack each other by accident and the then finishing them off once weakened enough

"kyu!" the small black blob of a digimon shouted as it head-butted the last balloon, turning around and running closer to Naofumi

"You...betamon that's it! you fight them and I protect you!" Naofumi said with renewed excitement as he held betamon in the air for a bit before both ran off to fight some, they were able to fight some more orange balloons and even some yellow ones, the two sat in the grass as they took a break

"Great work betamon, we got to level 3" Naofumi said as he went to do a fist bump with betamon before realizing that he would have to headbutt and he didn't want his small pet to get brain damage

"kyu!" betamon responded as it started to make a weird noise

"What are you doing?" Naofumi asked wondering if it was pooping since that was something that happened in tamagotchi but then it started to be wrapped in a bright light and a sort of... musical jingle started to play?

"Betamon digievolves to!..." a voice from the aether called out as betamon spin in place as his form changed

"Kuromon!" the digimon called out as the light disappeared while doing little jumps

"Oh my goodness" Naofumi said as he looked at kuromon with a smile, he had totally forgotten that this thing could evolve, his mind tried its hardest to remember what kuromon evolved into next but he couldn't recall, he did assume that it would be some sort of rabbit

"Sir shield hero everything alright? I saw a bright light and-" Myne stopped as she saw the pink monster close to the shield hero

"What is that thing? never saw a monster like that before" Myne said as it reminded her of a mixture between a furless usapil and a balloon

"It's kuromon, betamon evolved into it" Naofumi said as he took the digimon in his arms and let it rest on his lap

"That thing in your head turned into this?" Myne said as she never saw a case of such a drastic change in a creature from possibly leveling up except for bug monsters

"That thing has a name you know? It's Kuromon and now I can attack using bubble blast!" kuromon said as it looked to Myne a bit annoyed, he then turned and shot a couple of bubbles out of his mouth to show it's new attack

"It talks?!" Myne said a bit surprised, since talking monsters were a rarity that almost did not exist in this world

"Yeah it does, now let's try out this bubble move on some more monsters" Naofumi said excited as he could be, he was truly living the Isekai fantasy, minus the harem

"Alright!" Kuromon said as he and Naofumi went out and got to hunt more balloons to pop

after a long afternoon of fighting, Naofumi was level 7 while kuromon got to level 9. It was very productive all things considered and Naofumi was hopeful that the next day would be even better, he collected the monster remains and Myne led them to an inn to spend the night

"Uhm sorry sir but pets and beasts are not allowed" a man in front of the inn said as he lifted a hand to motion them to stop before pointing to kuromon

"Oh! well then, kuromon could you wait outside for a few minutes?" Naofumi asked, he was a bit worried that someone would try to catch kuromon to try and sell, but he was sure that no one would do that, kuromon was nothing special... besides being a digital monster granted life by a mythical shield

"*yawn* no need, I'm going to sleep for a bit..." Kuromon said half a sleep as he jumped at Naofumi's shield and disappeared, having entered inside the shield's gem

"Whoa" Naofumi let out, seeing a pixelated kuromon in his vision as he was sleeping, indicated by his closed eyes and the little 'z' that was coming from a thought bubble of him

"...There, can we enter now?" Naofumi asked as he looked back at the man guarding the entrance

"...Sure, I think that counts?" the man said while scratching his head, unsure of what he had just witnessed. They got into an inn which Naofumi thought it felt cozy, they got a simple meal, Naofumi wanted to get a more expensive thing for himself and Myne or maybe even something to give kuromon later, but he couldn't just waste money away

"Would you like a drink Naofumi-sama~" Myne told the shield hero in a slightly sexual manner as she offered him a wooden cup

"Oh no thanks" Naofumi denied nonchalantly while biting his meal, the steak felt almost like rubber but the sauce was the only thing saving this meal from being awful

"Huh? Why?" Myne was confused by his response as she didn't know a single 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 be able to in this world

"That's a hero from another world for you" Myne said sarcastically

"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, a confident smug as she did

'Matriarchy? Then why was a king on the throne? Is the queen dead or something' Naofumi pondered for a bit, it was weird for a matriarchy to have a king in place as the princess would technically have more power than him. But he stopped giving it much thought, it wasn't like things would have been that different if the queen was here instead

"If you say so" he responded before drinking the beer and as expected Naofumi didn't feel anything.

"Well anyways, I'm going to sleep have a nice night Myne" Naofumi said while getting up, going to the room he rented for himself

"You too sir Naofumi" Myne said while taking another sip of her wine

Naofumi got into a night-wear that was provided by the inn, he hid his chainmail armor and money under the wardrobe just in case, he laid in bed ready to end this day in a happy mood, but that wouldn't last long...

[author's notes]