When I come to, an extremely attractive woman greets me. I'm speechless, and my mind draws a blank. My mouth is opening and closing like a fish out of water.
The mysterious woman has a symmetrical and well-featured face as if Gods sculpted it, a fair and healthy-colored skin, a long hair that looks like flowing gold threads, and a pair of bewitching amber eyes.
She's naked and is sitting on my stomach, straddling me with her full, enticing thighs. The softness of her body, her stimulating fragrance, and her position rouse my excitement. I'm tempted to flip our position and do her right here, right now. TPO be damned.
"W-Who?"
"I'm the Spirit of the Legendary Bow. Your partner." She introduces herself monotonously.
Despite the lack of inflection in her tone, her voice sounds lovely, producing a unique charm that can only be produced by the contrast of a monotone yet melodious voice.
"How…could you transform? I mean, the Legendary Weapons start weak and must be strengthened by the heroes, right?"
"I'm different from other Legendary Weapons," there's a hint of distaste when she mentions other Legendary Weapons, and pride when she boasts her advantages over her…siblings, "The World places fewer restrictions on me. They favor you more than the other summoned heroes."
"Oh? The World has really done it, has it?"
Despite I shoulder the expectation of the World's Spirit, I feel confident with my chance.
"So, what can you do? Wait, you haven't told me how you're transforming to this form!"
"Let's answer your second question first. I have a Human Transformation ability that consumes a point of SP per minute. You have 50 SP with a 2% Recovery Rate per minute. Excluding the recovered SP, I can maintain this form for 50 minutes."
I nod, accepting her answer.
She continues, "To answer your first question. The other Legendary Weapons' power-up methods have been unlocked. You can transfer to the location hit by Waves without registering to the Red-Sand Hourglass of the Dragon Era. Unlike the other Legendary Weapons, my Transformation Tree is already unlocked, meaning that you can see the Transformation's detail, requirements, bonuses, and material to unlock. You and your Party Members obtain the world's favor, meaning that the EXP gain bonus is 10x of the other heroes and their party members. It means that you and your party member have 100x gain compared to normal residents of the world. When you're within the hunting range of other heroes, the world will favor us, meaning that we will still gain EXP despite other Legendary Weapons' attempts to hinder us. However, the 100x EXP gain will lower to the regular 10x gain…"
She continues to explain the privileges we've gotten. It's a massive amount of information, but I force myself to take everything in. I feel excited about the privileges we have. It feels like I have plot armor.
"That's all." She ends her report and silently waits for me to finish processing the info dump.
"I guess I, no, we need to meet the World's expectations, huh?"
"Indeed," she replies curtly.
Then, I open my status screen to satiate my curiosity.
———————————————
Name: Roland Quinto - Race: Human - Gender: Male - Age: 19
Class: Bow Hero - Level: 1 - EXP: 0/20
HP: 150/150 - Recovery: 2%/Minute
MP: 50/50 - Recovery: 2%/Minute
SP: 50/50 - Recovery: 2%/Minute
- Battle Stats:
Attack: ? (+5)
Defense: ? (+1)
Magic Attack: ?
Magic Defense: ?
Agility: ?
- Hidden Stats:
Strength: ?
Dexterity: ?
Stamina: ?
Intelligence: ?
Skills: ?
Magic: ?
Equipment: Other-world Clothes (Defense +1), Legendary Bow (Attack +1)
————————————————————
"Hey. Why question marks filled my stats?"
"It's due to the World's inability to quantify your parameter, hero."
"I see… Anyway, do you have a name?" I change the topic.
"I don't. Would you like to grant me a name?"
I fall silent and contemplate a name for her. A while later, I find a name for her. "Artemis, after the goddess of hunt and archery. What do you think?"
"'Artemis'. Very well, then. Although it's not the most imaginative name, I shall bear the name 'Artemis' proudly."
Silence falls, filling the room. I feel a little awkward because I don't know what to do. I choose to inspect my surrounding to push away my awkwardness. I find that we are in an infirmary-like room. Granted, it looks less advanced than the normal infirmary in my original world.
When I look at the window, I find that it's already nighttime.
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"I don't know," Artemis replies monotonously. "How about asking the human behind that wall."
Frowning, I turn in the direction that Artemis points at. "Come out! Whoever you're, I demand hour presence in front of me!"
Soon, the low cabinet slides to the side. A masked, black-clad person comes out of the hidden place. I immediately realize what they are…
"A shadow, huh? From the pendant you proudly displayed, you belong to the church."
If the Shadow operative is surprised by my knowledge, they don't show it. "We are. It's an honor to meet you directly, Bow Hero, Lady Artemis."
The Shadow didn't even try to hide the fact that they've eavesdropped our talk. Their voice also holds delight and fervor. It's clear that she's a fanatic of the Faith of Three Heroes.
I feel annoyed by her audacity in eavesdropping my talk with Artemis, but I push my annoyance aside.
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Tonight is the third night since the day of the summoning. You've been unconscious for three days and three nights, Bow Hero."
"Three days?! What happened in the past three days?"
And so, the Shadow starts talking about the events transpired when I was…indisposed. However, I need to translate her biased reports into more neutral and unbiased data. In short—what happened on the first day is as follows:
When I fell unconscious, it caused a sensation. The reason for my unconscious state rumored to be the evil curse cast by the Devil of the Shield—I inwardly roll my eyes at that. I want to ask why Naofumi is openly called Shield Devil, but I hold that desire and continue listening.
The other heroes met the king and received an explanation about the Wave of Destruction. This went according to the source materials. After Heroes' introduction, Shield Devil bewitched Spear Hero to accuse the King of intentionally despising him.
"Wait for a minute! What did you mean by that?" I interrupt the Shadow.
"Shield Devil has bewitched the Spear Hero who unreasonably accused the king of disgracing the Shield Devil and called his Majesty 'Trash'."
I facepalm after listening to that. (So, I'm assuming that I'm in the Reprise timeline. But, which loop? Certainly not the second or the third loop. In the second loop, Motoyasu killed Itsuki. It's impossible for the second loop to happen because of me. Because Motoyasu didn't kill Ren, this isn't the third loop. I need more information.)
I'll think everything through after the Shadow finished their report.