A/N: Hey there everyone! Welcome to Chapter 2 of JOTBSH. I hope all of you guys enjoy the tidbits of world building the previous chapter, but we got more world building to reveal!
Like I said previously, we will be learning about the Shaolin Tool's Power Up Methods. But we'll also learn maybe a few more things?
There will also be a P.O.V change in this chapter.
Also found out, I mistakenly misspelled the capital of Pan Bo in the previous chapter. It's called Jingyi not Lingyi
Key:
"Whisper"
'Thoughts'
[Skills Menu]
[Magic Chant]
"Speech"
"Whisper"
Sounds*
Chapter 2 "Getting a Taste for this"
Before he had gone to bed, Owen had spent his time looking through the Help Menus and began to understand the capabilities of the Bo Staff.
He had learned that his weapon can absorb material, both organic and non organic to unlock new weapon forms.
He had tried out a few things to absorb. Mainly a piece of his brown hair, and a small piece of cloth he ripped from a towel in the washroom of the bathhouse.
As a result, he unlocked the following forms:
[Human Hair Jo Staff] Tier 0
Equip Bonus: Agility 1, Attack 1
[Towel Cloth Bo Staff] Tier 0
Abilities Locked Equip Bonus: Water Resistance 1
The human hair weaon form was actually a different weapon! When Owen equipped it, his basic Bo Staff transformed into a Jo Staff, which was just smaller in length. It honestly made Owen what other tools were part of the Holy Weapon. While the cloth was locked beind level 2
He had then spent last night in bed looking at the Power Up Methods his weapon had. Since they were used to improve the overall stats, resistance, and power of the Bo Staff Hero.
A/N: Power Up Methods coming right up. Now these are the new ones the Shaolin Tools use.
The 1st power up method was called: [Level Link]
Essentially as Owen levels up, all of his weapon forms get stronger as a result.
…
The 2nd Power Up Method was called: [Tier Cultivation]
Each weapon form starts off as Tier 0. But by feeding the same material as the weapon form, you have a chance it will upgrade the tier to the next level. Each tier grants a stat buff (percentages). But every next tiers require more materials and has a higher chance of faling.
Tier 0 -- Tier 5
If cultivating fails, the Tier is reset to 0 and Owen loses the resources he fed into it.
…
…
…
The 3rd Power Up Method was called: [Trust]
By trusting others, they get more stronger. With people trusting you, you get stronger. The more people trust you, the stronger you are. Dependd onthe amount of trust you have.
TL:DR
Owen would have to start making friends. Sure, he could meet people but trusting them? Especially in another world? They'll have to gain it first...
…
…
…
The fourth power up method is called: [Skill Cultivaton]
So apparently some weapon forms had skills and Owen could cultivate those skills effect by feeding materials with similar effects.
A/N: That's the power up methods of the Shaolin Tools.
But he would soon fall asleep and his second day in this new world began as a polite shove would cause Owen to wake up from his slumber. What had happened again? Oh yeah, he was summoned to another world as the Shaolin Tools Hero and was tasked with stopping the Waves of Calamity.
'Well, it's not like they're going to wait for me to get done resting. I gotta meet with the princess to learn some more information about this kingdom.'
Owen had roughly formed an idea on what he would do for the day. He would talk to the princess and try to know more about the numerous Shrines that apparently littered the world, before registering to the Dragon Hourglass, finding a forge to get equipment for himself, before setting out for the city gates to fight some low leveled monsters hopefully.
But he shook his head of those thoughts and looked at the caretaker who had taken him up. Getting up from bed, Owen would make sure his new robes were secure before addressing the female caretaker.
"Thank you for waking me. Is the princess awake? Where will I be able to find her?" Owen asked.
"She is in the dining room, please allow us to help you look presentable, your holiness." The caretaker replied.
"O-oh okay…" Owen stood up and allowed the servant to fix his robes, all the while embarrassed from such actions.
'No one treated me like I was noblility before…I feel awkward that I essentially look like a mess. Though now I gotta get use to servants helping me around…well at least they're not looking for a long conversation'
After what seemed like forever, Owen would look down at his uniform and find that it was straightened out and look how it did when it was given to him after his wash in the bathhouse.
Scratching the back of his head, Owen would mutter an apology for his previous state of dress to the caretaker. Though the caretaker told him that it was fine and now was time to follow her to the princess.
They would both proceed to leave the room before eventually arriving at the dining room of the Royal Palace.
…
…
…
It wasn't what he was expecting. Before going inside, he expected a huge hall banquet but he was surprised to see a decently sized wooden table against the wall of the backside of the room that had a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling.
There Owen saw Princess Pan Bo Róngyaó reading what appeared to be a small book, though what the title said, Owen couldn't figure it out.
Wait, how come he was able to understand people from a different world? Wouldn't there be language barriers?
His weapon answered his question before he could ask the princess.
[Legendary Weapon translate the spoken language of the people around it. This does not extend to written language]
'Ah okay so the weapon has been doing all of this for me the whole time. Though I wonder why it doesn't extend to written words…does that mean I gotta learn how to write again?!? Dang it…and I can't even be lazy about it since what if I get some letter from people needing me to save them or something? Guess I'll have to ask the princess another question as well…'
"Ah, you're here Sir Jenkins. How was your night?" Pan Bo asked as she put down the small novel onto the table gently, before turning her gaze on the Bo Staff Hero.
A caretaker would pull a chair for Owen across the table and, thanking them, he would sit down to answer the princess' questions.
'Huh, a much less ceremonial outfit than yesterday. It looks good on her, it compliments her hairstyle. Though I won't say she's pretty in front of her, that would be embarrassing'
"It was good, thank you for asking, my princess. I had recently gone through the help menu like you said and I have a couple questions I would like to ask."
"Feel free to ask, your holiness."
"Okay the first question, well, it's not a question but more of an issue," Owen paused before continuing, "I can't read your world's language. The Holy Weapon only translates what I hear and say."
Pan Bo Róngyaó nodded her head in understanding, "I can see why that is such a concern. Perhaps you can tell me your plans for the day and at the end, we can see to having a teacher hired to teach you."
So Owen would tell the princess his finalized plan of the day. He will head out into the city district to find the Lingyi Shrine that had the Dragon Hourglass, before going to a blacksmith to check out the armor he can get, and then going out of the city to level up.
The Princess would call out for one of her servants to come forward before giving an order, "please head to the royal coffers and give out the Mon-Coins equivalent to 1 Mon-Thou. Also get our messenger to tell the city guards that he can enter and leave the city without having to pay the entrance fee."
The servant would bow before leaving the room, leaving the princess and Owen by themselves.
"You see, in this world, we have three types of coins: Mon-One, Mon-Fif, and Mon-Thou. It was made by a previous Bo Staff Hero hundreds of years ago," the princess explained.
'Ah, so that person didn't want to deal with remembering different names for a currency so just came up with using the word 'Money' over and over again…'
"50 Mon-One's make 1 Mon-Fif, and 50 Mon-Fif makes 1 Mon-Thou."
"So what are the average costs for people here?" Owen asked. If he was going to go out into this new world then he wanted to make sure he knew the costs so he wouldn't be scammed too harshly.
"Purchasing a meal for your average person will cost them 5-10 Mon-One's. When it comes to small towns, 30-50 Mon-One's is enough to get some supplies."
…
…
…
The princess then moved onto Mon-Fif's.
"Since you are going to a blacksmith today, you would likely be using a lot of Mon-Fif's. You see, your beginning armor would cost around 1-5 Mon-Fifs. A decent set of armor that can last you months will cost around 5-10 coins. Finally, an armor set that can last you a year will cost around 10-20 Mon-Fif's."
Okay, so common people could purchase their own set of armor if their village helps pool in the money together. Though armor seems to be costly.
Better be some good armor then…
…
…
…
The princess finally moved onto the last type of coin, Mon-Thou.
Apparently 1-2 of these coins was enough to buy you a set of armor that could last year's. She also stated many nations use these coins when dealing with trade, big purchases, military budgets, and etc.
…
…
…
It took a while for Owen to realize the princess wanted to give him 1 Mon-Thou essentially.
"Wait what? That's a lot of money princess, are you sure it's okay for me to take that?" Owen asked in worry. He didn't want to seem greedy and anger the royal family, especially the Emperor and Empress. Who by the way, he has never met.
Pan Bo Róngyaó waved off his concern with a chuckle.
"There is no need to panic, sir hero. My parents have given me the power to give you that money before we summoned you. Now I hope that my explanation gave you a sense of how our currency worked."
Owen nodded his head before sitting back down in his chair. Conveniently, the servant returned with a decently sized brown bag that was then placed in his hands.
Opening the bag, Owen saw the difference between 2 of the 3 coin types. Mon-One's were a bronze color, and the Mon-Fifs were a sliver.
"I'm sorry we couldn't hand you any more, we need to budget our coffers thanks to the previous wave and pool it into our defensive budgets," the princess replied sadly.
"It's okay, I think this will be enough for me to budget on until I find some way to earn some coins."
He didn't want to make someone sad, it was awkward trying to then bring someone's hopes up when you didn't interact with people most of your life.
Though he now got money and he got a rough idea on how it worked. Well then, it was time for him to head to town!
Getting up, Owen would say his goodbyes to the princess before getting escorted out of the Royal Palace.
Pan Bo Róngyaó would watch the Bo Staff Hero leave the room before turning to her advisor Ming Gúwén who entered through another door.
"You know the Emperor and Empress want you to get closer to him, your highness," Ming said in a respectful and firm voice.
'...Yes I know that…'
Róngyaó thought to herself without saying it out loud. She would then ask a question for her advisor regarding Sir Jenkins.
"What do you think of Sir Jenkins? Do you think he will be successful in fending off the Waves of Calamity?"
"I can tell he has a few issues with interacting with others if his behavior last night was a hint. But I believe if he follows his duty to save the world, I can see him becoming an admirable man," Ming Gúwén replied.
She couldn't deny what her advisor said as she nodded in agreement. So she would do what her parents wanted her to do, it wasn't like she had a choice to object either…
But perhaps it wouldn't be too bad…she could only hope that summoning him wasn't a bad choice.
Moving through the crowded streets, Owen would find himself overwhelmed by the numerous people of all sorts of social ranking.
He could see what he assumed were nobles, because of their well made uniforms, ignoring many commoners calling them to check out their food stands.
'Hmm…hopefully any nobles I meet won't be condescending…though this city is so cool! The architecture is so pretty.'
While he had never left his home country before, Owen did have an appreciation for unique architecture. There was even a beautiful jade color bridge he crossed because the town had a river that ran through it that numerous merchant boats pass through.
But he knew he had to stop sightseeing and find a blacksmith so he could get some armor. He would ask for directions from the two palace guards that were following him.
"Excuse me, do you guys know if there are any nearby blacksmiths that adventurers go to get beginner gear?"
'Now that I think about it, I haven't heard anything about an adventurer's guild. Maybe they don't exist in this world?'
The two guards would stare at each other before one of them stepped forward, "There is a good blacksmith we can take you too, your holiness. Though I don't know what 'adventurers' are. Do you mean mercenaries or merchant bodyguards?"
So it seemed there were no adventuring guild…well there goes a potential source of income. Being a mercenary could be a job he could do, but he wasn't sure how they were seen. However a bodyguard was something that sounded interesting, perhaps he can offer his services to someone while going from town to town.
But ignoring those thoughts, Owen quickly ignored the gazes and whispers of the many people who were now looking straight at him.
"Did that guard say 'your holiness?'"
"Does that mean they summoned the Holy Shaolin Tools Hero?"
"Do you not see his weapon? That's clearly the weapon of legends!"
"Then our world is surely saved right?"
"We can only hope…"
Oh yeah, those words definitely didn't help with the pressure of being the world's hero at all…
…
…
…
He and the guards would arrive in front of a wooden building with a slide-able door out front.
"You guys can just stand outside, I have some questions I want to ask about my weapon and I don't want to bore you," Owen said to the guards who simply nodded.
So putting his Bo Staff (he went back to the basic weapon form), to his other hand, he would slide open the door and be greeted with the sight of numerous weapons you could see being in ancient China. Though there were a lot of Bo Staffs, Jo Staffs, and what appeared to be Rope-Darts? That was cool.
Owen would reach his hand out and grab one of the Rope-Darts hanging off the wall before a sharp electric shock zapped his hand.
ZAP*
"Ow fu-"
[Weapon Restriction Violated! Heros can only wield similar weapons to their Cardinal Weapon!]
'Damn that freaking hurt…but alright, I'll just need to get used to using this Bo Staff.Though if I find a different version than I can use that instead.'
A concerned voice would call out to Owen, "You good? I didn't think those imported Rope-Darts would shock people…weird…"
He was a tall man wearing a plain set of clothes, he had a slicked set of black hair with a few gray lines while also having a small goatee. He seemed to be in his mid thirties.
Rubbing his now sore hand, Owen turned to talk to the blacksmith.
"My name's Owen Jenkins, I'm the current Shaolin Tools Hero, and what happened was that my weapon did not want me to wield anything except for it. It kinda stung though…"
Giving out his title would cause the blacksmith to eye his weapon before greeting him, "I didn't know the royal family had summoned the Holy Hero. It's a pleasure to meet you, your holiness. My name is Fāng Zhou, how can I help?"
"You don't need to call me 'your holiness', you can just call me Owen. I hope to work with you on my journey," Owen would give out his hand and proceed to shake hands with the blacksmith.
"Well then you can just call me Zhou, so is there any way I can help?"
Owen would think about a question before explaining about one of his power up method, [Skill Cultivaton]
He would go on to describe weapon forms befoe explaning that his power up method worked by adding materials with a similar effect to a Skill, he could cultivate that skill effect to become better.
Owen was interested in what type of forms could be made and cultivated with that power up method.
The blacksmith theorized about a potiental weapon form with a monster known as a Mogwai. While there were normal ones with no element, some versions had elemental types. Which Fire Mogwai being common in Pan Bo.
'Ah so if I absorb that mogwai, I'll need to kill more of those and get a material releated to fire.'
With that, Owen was free to theorize.
"Thank you for explaining, Zhou. Now I was also wondering if you had any armor for me to wear? I'm level 1 and I plan on going outside the city to level up," Owen asked.
"I think I got something you can purchase, follow me to the armor stands," Zhou motioned for Owen to follow him as they both made their way to the sets of equipment."
Owen watched as Zhou shuffled through a basket of chest plates before pulling a leather chest plate from the bottom of the pile.
[Leather Chest Plate]
The stats it improved were quite weak but it was honestly better than nothing. Putting his weapon behind him, Owen reached out for his bag of money while asking Zhou for the price.
"How much will it cost to purchase it? I'm also going to assume that's the only set that you have?"
Zhou scratched the back of head with an apologetic expression on his face, "Yeah sorry about that. When the first Wave came to the capital and was stopped, many villagers came in and bought most of my weaker sets. If we're talking prices, I'll just say 1 Mon-Fif. Though if you want I can lower the price just because-"
"No it's fine, here," Owen pulled out a single Mon-Fif before closing the bag and tying the strings around his robe's sash.
"Hey do you have any type of gauntlet or shin guards, or light armor? Could you perhaps save them for me until I'm a higher level?"
Owen asked politely. He had to make sure he had assured equipment he could buy before someone else got it. It sounded greedy, but it needed to be done.
Zhou nodded as he went to the other side of the shop and grabbed a set of armor before playing them on his counter.
"This is a set of Lamellar armor, it's made of Iron and it comes with shins and vambraces. You can start wearing it once you reach lvl 10. It's good until you reach level 20. I'll save it for you so you don't need to worry. I have an idea as to why you're asking me to do this, and I understand. Though do know there isn't any enchantments on it," Zhou would give a small smile to the Shaolin Hero who stepped back in astonishment.
'Wow, this guy is really generous, I kinda expected I would have to beg him since I would be stopping the purchase of that armor set. In fact, almost everyone I have met has been very helpful…it's kinda nice when I don't have people constantly breathing down my neck…'
Sporting a small smile on his face, he thanked the blacksmith and went to the changing room to equip his armor.
Stepping out of the blacksmiths shop, Owen had to admit he looked kinda goofy. He was given a bag for him to put his palace robes in, so he was wearing his original clothes before he was summoned here.
So a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a gray hoodie that was now overlapped with the leather chest plate he'd just purchased.
Looking over, the two palace guards were patiently waiting for him.
"Sorry for making you two wait so long," Owen apologized, before revealing the rest of his plan for the day.
"So I plan on exiting the city to go find monsters or animals to hunt so I can start leveling up. Are you guys okay with joining me?"
The guards nodded their heads as one spoke, "we do not mind, your holiness. Though if we are to join you, then you should send a party invite."
"Ah so that's how parties work..."
Owen muttered to himself before following his temporary party members out of the city…
…
…
'
The land outside of Jingyi was mostly grassland and huge fields of wheat. Standing from outside the gate, Owen can barely make out the sight of houses owned by farmers.
Though the river entering the city had a bit of forest growing on both sides further away and his party members had told him that a good place to level up would be there.
As they walked on the dirt road, Owen would shift his chest plate uncomfortably.
"Is something wrong, your Holiness?" Asked one of the guards.
"Ah, no it's not much. Just feeling a bit hot that's all," Owen answered, leading to a familiar silence once again.
'I need to get to Level 10 so I can get out of this armor…'
Half an hour later, the party reached the edges of the forest they were going to level up in. Checking his party, he saw that the two guards were level 19 and 20.
'Thought they would be a bit higher in terms of level...maybe they're new?'
Pushing that though away and before they entered the forest, Owen would ask his members to let him get a feel for combat with his weapon and only step in if they thought there were too many enemies or if he was going to lose a battle.
The forest was just a typical one, not a jungle of any sorts. The party would continue to search for any monsters until they heard the sounds of shuffling in the trees overhead.
Awkwardly holding his weapon with both hands, Owen soon spotted the creature he would fight.
[Orange Monkey]
Lvl 3
Two levels above him, but he could win it. He watched as the monkey hissed at him as it crawled down the tree, obviously territorial to the newcomers in the forest.
Rushing forward, Owen charged for an attack. He raised his Bo Staff and pushed down towards the enemy.
"AAAAHH!"
The monkey dodged easily but would get slammed in its sides as Owen immediately lifted his staff up and swung it like a baseball bat.
The creature yelped in pain as it got flung into the ground, with a nasty bruise on its side.
'I think I might've caused internal bleeding with my attack?'
However, his sense of pride quickly shattered as he screamed at the monkey who had jumped onto his left arm and bit with its sharp teeth.
"FUUUCCKK! GET OFF ME!"
Owen quickly flung his arm to the left, getting the little creature off him. Ignoring his torn skin bleeding, he quickly rushed towards the down creature and pushed the tip of his Bo Staff against its chest. Leading to the gem on top of it to have a bit of its blood on its surface.
Though Owen was focused on whether or not the creature was killed until he got a xp and level notification.
[You are now Level 2]
[Towel Cloth Bo Staff Unlocked]
At least he had managed to unlock that cloth form and quickly equipped that form to gain the equip bonus.
Though now the pain was getting to him as Owen felt his nerves screaming at him. Thankfully it didn't last long as his other party members quickly approached him and lifted up his right sleeve.
Tattooed onto the skin, Owen saw what appeared to be some sort of inscription as the guard read it out loud.
[As an individual blessed with the element of Water magic, unleash the power of my tattoo and mana to heal my target! Apprentice Shuî Alleviation!]
Instantly, the wound on his arm disappeared almost completely, only leaving a faint scar. Amazed, Owen asked the guard how he did that.
"Your holiness. I am a practitioner of Tattoo Inscription Magic, specifically of the element of Water. It is how people in this world use magic," the guard informed.
'Magic…that's really cool, and interesting how it's channeled through a tattoo.'
"Well thank you. Um, let me see what weapon forms I can get from its body."
Walking over to the body of the dead monkey, Owen would press the surface of the reddish gold gem against its fur and watch as it turned into particles with the same color as it was sucked into it.
He would gain only one form that gave simple boosts in his stats, though very little. But it also intrigued him as it showed him his first skill.
[Orange Monkey Bo Staff] Tier 0
Tier Cultivation Requires: 2 Orange Monkey Bodies
[Ability Locked] Equip Bonus: Agility 2, Attack 1, Skill: Leap Attack
Because he was not level 5, he couldn't get the skill right away. But getting the skill was progress enough.
'The skill 'Leap Attack' sounds just like its namesake.'
So if he was to use [Leap Attack] with a decent attack, it had some good potential.
He could go fight more Orange Monkey's and upgrade their tier with [Tier Cultivation] to get a good stat buff. Though he won't be able to use that method until he unlocked that weapon form
Which meant he needed to increase his level. Because of that, the party would spend the rest of the day gaining XP and other weapon forms…
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I decided not to put an [Otherworld Index] since this chapter had the power up methods, and a hint of Tattoo Inscription magic.
Which is one of the magic systems of this world, and we had seen just one element of it, Water. A mostly healing oriented power with a few attacks.
Oh yeah, Owen does have the Weapon Copy System, Inventory, and Crafting System. But he doesn't know about them yet.
Next chapter, Owen will be heading off to register at the Dragon Hourglass because he forgot lol. I wonder how much time he has before the next wave? And soon starting his journey by himself.
See ya next time.
