Even though he hadn't gone to sleep until after midnight, Shirou was still the first of the heroes to wake up, and as such he took the time to do a morning workout routine involving a bit of running in place, stretches and lifted some weights that he projected.
As he started his third set of reps for his left hand with the 35-pound dumbbell, he wondered about the plausibility of bludgeoning something with them. This immediately earned him a minor shock from the Legendary Holy Sword. He could practically fell its disapproval. It was like a jealous girlfriend. No, not that. A girlfriend would imply that he was a willing participant in this relationship. It was more like one of those psychotic stalker girls. What were they called again? Yanderes?
That thought was met with a much more painful shock than before, which nearly made Shirou drop the dumbbell on his foot.
His reinforced hearing picked up sounds of movement coming towards his room, so he dismissed the training weights and got up, prepared to face the world.
"Hero of the Sword-sama, the King has requested your presence." A maid said through the door. "You and the other heroes are to eat breakfast in the guest's common room and then come down to the castles front gate to meet your chosen companions."
"Right, chosen companions." Shirou said with a sigh as he stood up from his bed and went for the door. "Let's see the damage."
It was just about as bad as Shirou expected it to be.
Shirou looked over the group of twelve men and women who they had gathered. Each was dressed in the kind of clothes one sees adventurers wearing in children's television shows, some dressed in the armor of knights. All of it made to look very fancy, though Shirou's expert eye could only look on in disgust at the number of weak points left in the defenses in the name of artistry. Even the room available for enchantments was wasted on things like perspiration guards, self polishing, and making it so that blood doesn't stick. The swords at the men and women's sides were no better, having barely been used by the people holding them and many of them not weighted right for the wielder's size.
Each and every person standing in front of them was likely the second or third son of some noble, or a daughter hoping to catch the eye of a potential hero, each looking to boost their social standing and not knowing much about combat. Shirou didn't doubt that they were picked more for their loyalty to some kind of political group rather than their personal achievements in combat.
Every last one of them was a spy.
"As promised, we have gathered companions to follow you on your journey. They are all eager to make your acquaintance." The King announced waving his hand towards the twelve hopefuls. "Now, future heroes of this country. Choose the one you wish to serve unde…"
"Excuse me, Your Highness." Shirou said, interrupting the king, who stopped and looked down at him with a puzzled expression. "Forgive me, but for personal reasons, I'm afraid I must decline the offers of assistance from these adventurers."
The adventurers themselves staggered slightly from their stern postures at Shirou's declaration. The King himself frowned. "I do not know the personal matters that you speak of. However, as the fate of our entire world rest on the shoulders of you heroes, I cannot in good conscious send you out into the world without assistance."
"Don't tell me your planning on playing this whole thing solo just because of your stupid paranoia." Motoyasu said, giving Shirou an amused look. Shirou nearly spat a curse at the man as the King noticed the word 'paranoia'. If Shirou wasn't careful, the kingdom would realize just how little he trusted it, and that would lead to all kinds of problems for him.
Shirou let out a long sigh as he quickly made a change of plans. "When I said it was because of personal reasons, I only said so because I wanted to avoid any unnecessary insult, but if you insist, I will be blunt. The adventurers you have gathered here are far too weak to be of any use to me. They would only weigh me down."
"What!?" One of the men who was dressed in particularly shiny full body armor shouted in indignation. He was a big guy with a large mustache and seemed to have more of a presence than the others.
He would make a good example.
"I see a demonstration is in order. With His Highness's permission, I would like to fight these three individuals." Shirou said, pointing to three of the 'adventurers' including the armored man, a less armored spearman and a woman with a staff.
"…Very well, if you truly are as skilled as you say, then there should be no problems. However, if you lose, then I expect you to accept their assistance graciously." The King said calmly. He was probably sure that Shirou would not be able to win. According to their weapons, the three he had picked were each level 10 or 11, and their physical strength was roughly 50% higher than that of a normal person their size. Even so, Shirou wouldn't need to use his magecraft in order to handle them.
"Thank you, Your Highness." Shirou said with a confident smirk as he lifted his sword and started to walk forward. "Then let us begin."
The attacks were uncoordinated, since these people were not used to fighting together, making the three on one advantage they had absolutely pointless. The armored man rushed forward with reckless abandon, as if he was used to only fighting creatures that weren't capable of putting up much of a fight. Something that Shirou knew to be true from the history of his weapon. As the large man swung down at Shirou with a two-handed swing, Shirou struck the blade with his pummel, changing its path so it moved straight past him, carried forward by momentum. The man had no defense at all. Shirou struck his outstretched arms hard, causing him to drop his sword and then performed a follow up strike into the man's chest.
If it wasn't for the bluntness of the Legendary Holy Sword's base form, then man would have had his arm chopped off and his stomach cut open.
"Dead." Shirou pronounced as he moved on to the next target.
The spear was no better. He thrust forward at Shirou the moment he was in range of the spear, but he wielded the spear like a grunt who had been trained only how to fight as part of a line. Shirou easily deflected the spear with a free hand, grabbing it below the head and pulling the man forward when he pushed his weigh into the attack. As the spearman stumbled, Shirou thrusted at him, getting the man in his legs and knocking him to the ground.
He stabbed down at the fallen man as he passed, resting the point of his sword over the man's heart. "Dead."
Shirou walked towards the magic user who was still in the process of finishing their spell. Shirou wasn't worried, the amount of magic power they had managed to gather wasn't anything impressive. "Faust Fire Strike!" The woman shouted at the end of her chant. The ball of fire flew from her staff and came for Shirou. Shirou batted it out of the air with his sword, not slowing in his walk as he moved towards the caster. "I… I surrender." The woman said, as she backed away from the Sword Hero.
Shirou stopped his advance and nodded. "I accept your surrender." He said before turning to the King. "Have I made my point understood? Or should I fight the rest of them as well?"
"That is unnecessary. You have already proven yourself." The King said with a nod, and perhaps a smile. "I had known that these adventurers that we had brought before you were not the highest of level, instead choosing individuals we believed to have potential. Our intentions being that they not leave you heroes with no need to fight for themselves, but I didn't expect you to be able the defeat them so effortlessly. You heroes are skilled beyond your levels. I see now that you are not the sort of man who would sit back and allow others to fight your battles for you. As agreed I will not force you to take any of these adventurers with you. However, you will need to find individuals who can fight alongside you yourself. I will provide you with some extra funds to help with the hiring of persons to assist you."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Shirou said with a bow before returning to the other three heroes. The Spear and Bow heroes looked rather annoyed with Shirou while the Shield looked surprised by the whole display. They were probably disappointed that Shirou got away with that stunt without having to show them any of what he could really do.
The Legendary Holy Sword however felt giddy with excitement. Happy that its wielder was able to show off in front of its rivals.
"Would any of the rest of you wish to prove yourself against our chosen adventurers?"The King asked, gesturing towards the group.
"Ah, no thanks." Naofumi said immediately. "Kind of hard to fight when you only have a shield."
The other two seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking their heads. "Nah, I'm more than happy to accept these guys' help. It would be a pain to have to make a party from scratch and we can always change party members later on if it turns out that some people can't keep up." Motoyasu said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Agreed." Itsuki said with a nod of his head.
It seemed like these three didn't feel like it was worth revealing their skills just to not seem weak. Pity, Shirou would have liked to see what they could really do, since if things turned sour, they might become enemies, but it didn't look like he would have much of a chance to outside of the Waves.
They probably thought the same of him.
"Very well then. Adventurers, choose which hero you wish to follow!" The King ordered.
What happened next was bizarre, as the false adventurers all split up to follow their chosen hero. With Shirou out of the running it should have been a simple matter of each having four followers. Instead seven people lined up in front of Motoyasu, while the other five choose Itsuki, leaving Naofumi all alone.
Shirou frowned at the sight of it, expecting foul play. While they claimed that the reason no one wished to be in his party was because the people listing in on the conversations spread the rumors that the Shield Hero was the least knowledgeable about the world and thus the least reliable, Shirou didn't buy it. The King had very clearly not liked the Shield Hero from the very start, even though he was downright polite when compared to Motoyasu and Itsuki. Shirou hadn't been able to figure out what about the Shield Hero had gained him such a treatment. Regardless, Naofumi was left panicking as he tried to convince Motoyasu and Itsuki to give him one of their adventurers, the two other heroes blowing him off.
In the end, a woman from Motoyasu group ended up volunteering to join Naofumi's party. The girl was around twenty, with shoulder length red hair that was tied up in the back and a slim figure. Shirou supposed that she would be considered rather pretty when compared to some of the other girls in the group, but when compared to people like Sakura, Rin, Rider and Saber, Shirou would label her a 6 out of 10.
As she didn't have any weapon on her person at the moment, she was either a spellcaster or had simply left her weapon somewhere else. Either way, she was the person Shirou knew the least about.
If forced to take a guess, Shirou would say that she noticed that Motoyasu's party already had four other girls in it, decreasing her chances of nailing a hero for a husband and decided to go where there was less competition. She was already starting to shamelessly flirt with Naofumi, putting her arms behind her back and pushing out her chest as much as she could. Even so, Naofumi seemed extremely grateful to at least have someone to help him.
Shirou wasn't sure why, he'd already proven that these people were just incompetent spies.
The King called it to a close and distributed funds amongst the heroes. Motoyasu and Itsuki both got 600 silver while Shirou and Naofumi got 800 silver a piece, in order to help with hiring more adventurers.
Shirou had no intention to hire anyone though. He new from experience how mercenaries were, being a mercenary himself. He couldn't trust the castles adventurers, or mercenaries, and anyone else would be too inexperienced to be of any use. Shirou had already decided to go it alone. For now at least.
As Shirou left the castle, he immediately noticed that he was being trailed. The 'Shadows' might have been able to disguise themselves as normal individuals and blend into the crowd, but the Kingdom's specialized spies were still holding weapons, and the concealed daggers told Shirou who, or more precisely, what these people really were. Didn't matter though, he already assumed that he would be followed and had planned accordingly.
His first destination on his journey was the Hourglass of the Dragon's Era. Supposedly, the Legends about the heroes said that he would have to synchronize his weapon with the Hourglass, and that after he did that, he would be teleported to wherever the Wave was once the battle started. Though he would need to resync himself with it after each Wave.
Shirou took the scenic route to get there, making sure that Motoyasu and Itsuki would arrive there before him, but keeping close enough so that he would be able to listen in on their conversations. The two of them seemed to have more in depth knowledge of the world when compared to him and Naofumi, but they were reluctant to share. It was one of the reasons Shirou still suspected that they might be magi even though they acted so ordinary.
Shirou arrived at the tower that housed the Hourglass and stepped inside, pretending to marvel in wonder at the large ornately carved item as the Heroes talked to one of the sisters in charge of the area, asking her to bring them a small amount of the sand from the hourglass. Apparently, it was a very important ingredient for the Legendary Holy Weapons.
Only after they had left did Shirou approach the woman himself. "Excuse me." He said, gaining her attention.
"Ah, Hero of the Sword-sama, how can this one be of serves to your lordship?" The nun asked, bowing deeply towards Shirou in the same manner she had done for the spear and bow.
"I was wondering if you wouldn't might giving me a small bag of the sand from the hourglass. It's important in unlocking the power of the Legendary Holy Sword." Shirou said.
"Of course, give me one moment." The sister said, bowing again and running off to fulfill Shirou's request. She was not gone for long and returned with a small bag of magically charged sand.
"Thank you very much." Shirou said, taking some of the sand from the pouch and putting it onto the jewel in the center of the sword, watching as the jewel sucked everything into it.
Requirements met: [Dragon's Passage Sword (0/10) Unlocked – Quality: Normal – base power: 1 – Unique Ability: [Transport Sword]]
Transport Sword: Teleport yourself and up to 3 + (your level/20) party members to a location you have already visited. Cooldown 1 hour.
Shirou's eyes almost boggled out of his head. Teleportation!
Teleportation was one of those forms of magecraft that pushed up on the boundary of a True Magic. While not impossible, it was powerful stuff, and it had been lost for centuries. It was something that could only be done with either a massive amount of power, such as with a command seal, or by Caster class servants who possessed long forgotten knowledge.
The weapon itself was just as unusable in combat as his base weapon had been, but it was no wonder that Motoyasu and Itsuki had made acquiring it their number one priority.
Shirou put the rest of the sand away in his backpack, incase he had a use for it later. Perhaps he would run into Naofumi and would be able to provide him with some. As the guy didn't seem to know any more about this world than Shirou himself did, it wouldn't be unlikely for him to not find out about the Hourglass's sand.
"Is there anything else I can help you with, Hero-sama?" The nun asked him as he put the sand away.
"Actually, yes." Shirou admitted. "Is there a back door out of here?"
The moment Shirou was out of sight, he dismissed the projected copy of his original clothes, which he had left underneath the bed in his room at the castle. He then projected his black combat gear and a copy of his Holy Shroud. On top of that he projected a wig of long white hair, similar to the one Illya had made him where when he took her to that one anime convention, only this one lacking dog ears. He would have preferred something less attention grabbing, like black, but that would have required him to dye his eyebrows if he wanted it to hold up to scrutiny.
He also changed the Legendary Holy Sword into a pair of iron twin-blades and projected sheaths in order to carry them in. As people would be looking for a man openly carrying a large very odd looking sword, the plain blades that now rested at his belt wouldn't draw any attention.
Shirou left that cathedral a changed man, and no one was the wiser. He managed to ditch his pursuers and was free to do as he pleased. Though as he pleased simply meant shopping for whatever food he would need for his journey and getting on his way.
At the market, he picked up basic foods that would last him a while. They weren't going to be tasty, but Shirou understood when taste had to take a back seat to efficiency, and he managed to get a good two weeks' worth of rations for just 2 silver. Though he also bought a tent incase it rained while he was out on the road for another 30 coppers. Still at this rate he could survive on the 800 silver coins until he was finished with his duties in this world. He had no need for buying weapons or armor, and didn't have any intention of hiring mercenaries… what would he spend him money on?
The answer came to him as he was walking towards the city gate with his partly full backpack. It was barely reaching noon and he only wanted to be half way to the next town before he pitched camp that night, so he wasn't in much of a rush, when he passed by a large tent and saw a man leading out what looked like an oversize purple ostrich like creature cheerfully pulling a cart.
They were called Filolial. Shirou remembered Illya making him get her a giant stuffed toy of one. Illya had always like birds of all kinds. He remembered that she had named the toy Firo, because it had sparked a round of teasing from Rin as to how unimaginative and childish the name was. The two of them had fought for hours over it until Sakura teamed up with Illya to tease Rin into submission. The memory of it weighed heavy on Shirou's heart.
Shirou looked over at the sign next to the tent. Rather than any kind of name for the establishment, the sign merely stated, 'We Sell Monsters'.
This gave Shirou pause. These Filolial seemed to be this world's equivalent of a horse, so it might not have been a bad idea to get one to help him get around the country faster. And if he managed to keep the thing alive until the very end and found a way to bring it home with him, a real Filolial would make a good apology gift for Illya. It would be difficult to find a place to keep it, and keeping Rin front trying to study it, but that would be a worry for later.
"Well hello, Adventurer-san. How may I be of service to you today?" A rather fat man in a trench coat and top hat said as Shirou entered the tent. His appearance didn't seem to fit the cultural setting of the rest of the castle town, but it would take something much weirder than out of place clothes to get Shirou to raise an eyebrow, no matter how shady the man looked.
"I'm not an adventurer, just a traveling mercenary." Shirou said as he glanced around the shop. Adventurers by definition were people who were registered with the Adventurers' Guild, an organization to regulates the work and priorities of the adventurers.
While Shirou hadn't yet dealt with the Guild, he could take a stab as to how things worked. That is to say that money talks and those who can't pay don't get any protection. To join the Adventurers' Guild, Shirou would basically have to swear that he would never work for free.
That wasn't going to happen.
Best to not have his appearance and name connected with the Adventurers' Guild, even if his appearance was currently a lie and he had no obligation to give his real name to anyone. Adventurers were actually told to adventure under fake names, in order to avoid enemies/stalkers in the future.
"I'm looking to buy a Filolial, do you have any?" Shirou asked the man.
"Yessir we do. Would Mercenary-san prefer an adult or an egg? Either way it will be 200 silver coins." Monster Merchant said as he twirled his mustache.
"If it is 200 silver either way, then why would someone want an egg?" Shirou asked the man.
"Well, that would be because Filolial's imprint themselves on whoever is closest to the egg whenever it hatches, so while the Monster Seal that they are branded with will insure obedience, they will be far more loyal and willing to fight for you if you were the one that hatched the egg. That is why most knights, adventurers, and mercenaries like yourself, would choose to hatch the Filolial they plan to have in their parties, rather than buying a full grown one." Monster Merchant explained.
"Really? Are Filolials good in a fight?" Shirou asked.
The man began to laugh. "Are Filolials good in a fight, he asks!? Sir, Filolials are considered to share the position of top of the food chain in the wilds alongside the dragon races. Legends say that the Filolial Queens are a match for even the most powerful of pureblooded dragon. Though no one has seen a Filolial Queen for hundreds of years. So yes, Filolials are very good in a fight. And as they reach maturity by level 20, it doesn't take long for them to become combat ready."
"Interesting. Alright, you've sold me on it. I'll take an egg." Shirou said, trying to maintain his calm as he digested what the fat man had said. Either the guy was bullshitting him, or those birds were a lot more dangerous than he had original thought… now that he was paying more attention, he could sense an abnormally large amount of mana coming from the one in a nearby cage. Around a low E-rank… on the scale used to measure servants… Was that strong or just average for their race? It couldn't have been weak, right? What in the world were these things doing pulling carts!?
The man took Shirou to were he kept the eggs and showed him the Beast Seals that were attached to the eggs themselves. In order to register Shirou with the seal so that he would become the proper owner, the man had to mix Shirou's blood with a little bottle of strange ink and trace over the Seal with it. Shirou bought the bottle of ink once the man was done with it, for another 1 silver. Partly because he was interested in the ink, and partly because he didn't want to leave anything containing his blood with the fat man.
Can't be too careful around a guy who knows subjugation magic.
After he left, he fed the ink into his sword and immediately became glad that he didn't leave it behind.
Requirement met: [Beastmaster's Sword (0/20) Unlocked – Base Power: 5 – Equip Bonus: Monster Growth Up (small) (unmastered) – Proficiency: (0%)]
Requirement met: [Slaver's Sword (0/20) Unlocked – Base Power: 5 – Equip Bonus: Slave Growth Up (small) (unmastered) – Proficiency: (0%)]
It seemed the magic ink used to bind beasts was also used to bind slaves. Shirou could have probably used Rule Breaker to free himself from the slave contract, but there was always the chance he would have been ordered to kill himself because he could remove it.
On the bright side, he seemed to have gotten something that would increase the effectiveness of raising his new sidekick.
Shirou was given the egg in an incubator like contraption that had magic to protect against damage to the egg from movement. He also had to buy a few bags of seed paste, which would be what he would have to feed the Filolial after it had hatched, until it was old enough to start eating more solid foods. Apparently an adult Filolial was capable of eating just about anything, though their favorite food was said to be the flesh of freshly killed dragons… neat.
With a backpack full of supplies, a monster egg, and a book of history, Shirou left the city gates and headed out into the world.
Time to see just how this leveling thing went.
This is getting ridiculous." Shirou grumbled to himself as he narrowly evaded a large black dog, that was nearly the size of a horse, that had pounced at him. In a simple counter attack, Shirou slid the iron katar in his left-hand across its middle. In his previous world, such an attack would have been instantly lethal, but because of the 'defense' that existed in this world, the blade left nothing more than a flesh wound. Reinforcing his right arm, he stabbed into the monster's heart with the steel rapier, pushing through the monster's defense with brut force.
[+222 EXP | Steel Rapier Sword: Mastered: +1 attack, +2 speed]
Shirou immediately changed the weapon in his right hand from a steel rapier to a bronze gladius. Turning around to face the last two hounds of this pack. Seeming to have not noticed out their companions had just been killed, the two changed forward together, jumping at him with their open jaws.
Shirou plunged both his weapons into their mouths, killing them both instantly, their own momentum doing most of the work.
[+222 EXP | +222 EXP | Level Up: Lv. 14]
"Cancel [Dual Wielder]." Shirou said as the battle finished. The blade in his left hand disappeared without any fanfare leaving him with just the bronze gladius.
After mastering the iron twin-blades, Shirou gained the ability [Dual Wielder], allowing him to dual wield any two onehanded swords, rather than just swords that possess a shared identity as dual weapons. He found it useful as he could work towards 'mastering' two forms at the same time. However, using [Dual Wielder] caused him to rather rapidly drawn his 'SP'.
What was SP? Shirou didn't have a clue. It wasn't Od or Mana, and it wasn't Lifeforce. His best guess was that it was somehow spiritrons, the soul material that makes up one's magic circuits and could best be described as 'sort-of-kind-of' existing within the physical world. Though Shirou felt this was unlikely, since if he was being drained of his spiritrons his magic circuits would have likely dissolved and his soul would have probably collapsed on itself. It was entire possible that SP simply didn't have any equivalent within his own world.
However, as he drained his SP to use the abilities of the Legendary Holy Sword, he felt himself tire. Even if it was the kind of tiredness that came from simply over exerting yourself, where you would recover from by just waiting a few minutes to regain your breath, it was a form of exhaustion, which meant that something was being taken from him. He just didn't know what.
Glancing around at the cut-up bodies of the monster dogs that had attacked him, Shirou gave a sigh and began to go around absorbing the corpses into the jewel on the Legendary Holy Sword, which he was starting to just call Jian, a Chinese word meaning sword, since even mentally saying the whole name each time was starting to get exhausting, and because it had violently protested when he called it Yan, short for Yandere.
He had long since realized that 'she' was both conscious and intelligent, even if she only ever communicated with him with the occasional textbox, or minor electrocution. He also realized that she didn't actually want to kill him and as such did the only thing he could do in a relationship like this one; teasing.
"You know you are going to get fat if you keep eating like this." Shirou said as he finished feeding the corpses to Jian. A text window came up in response to his remark.
[Mass stored inside of a legendary weapon has no effect on its weight.]
"Are you sure? My wrists are starting to feel a little tired." Shirou teased. Jian didn't respond to this taunt, instead choosing to show Shirou a little of the items that she had created by converting the monsters. Shirou glanced down the list of item drops.
It was rather disturbing, watching a horse sized dog being slowly pulled into a three-inch-wide hole as if it was being sucked through a drinking straw. Its bones cracking as the thing was pulled into an impossible shape, and its guts being squeezed out of the wounds… it was enough to freak out even Shirou, even after all the shit he had seen while dealing with the Dead Apostles. However, the results of doing so were worth it.
It was weird. He would feed Jian the monster's whole and then the sword would preform some kind of process that removed the monster's life energy from it to be stored away inside of the jewel for future use. The rest of the body would then be dealt with in the same way as a hunter preparing a kill. On the list of items obtained were entries about the monsters' meat and skins, as well as any teeth or bones they had which could be of use. Anything of any value was extracted and stored in some kind of subspace within the sword's jewel. That he pretty much understood. What Shirou didn't understand was where the potions, money, stones, and various other valuables, like tools and clothes, came from. They all certainly hadn't been present on the monster's body. Shirou was absolutely sure that none of those dogs had been wearing a bowler hat.
"Jian, can you move any meat below 'very high' quality into your cooking subroutine?" Shirou asked the sword. The items for meat in the range of 'low' quality to 'high' quality disappeared from the list and a progress bar appeared in the corner of Shirou's vision with a countdown timer. Shirou regretted buying all the food that he had back at the market, as it seemed that Jian had a built-in way of cooking the meat that he gained from monsters.
It was kind of strange, as regardless the quality of the meat, or what part of the animal it came from, the output quality was still the same, but it was edible, and while not great, it was still better than the military style rations he had bought before. Plus, as long as he kept it in the subspace, it wouldn't ever spoil. After that days hunting, he was already sitting on over 4000 pounds of cooked monster meat, enough to feed a thousand men and women for an entire day, and that wasn't even counting the higher quality meats that he was saving for his own use. He had enough food on him to feed a large village for a whole week.
What was strange was that Jian would only absorb monster corpses and other raw materials, like plants, metals and stones, even though other things were stored inside if they were generated from the corpses. So Shirou couldn't store his backpack inside of the subspace, and after Jian ate his map and turned it into a Paper Sword, he wasn't about to test and see what she would do with his history book or the monster egg. She did however willingly store his money. Which was nice, since the large bag of coins had caused him to be attacked by two groups of bandits that day alone.
Not knowing what to do with said bandits, Shirou just feed everything they owned to Jian, gave them a sound thrashing, and then called it a day. Wasn't like he could escort them all the way to town. It wouldn't be safe for them. Not when he was constantly being attacked almost every ten minutes. He had been attacked by four groups of giant centipedes, three packs of dogs, two groups of bandits, a twelve-foot-tall rabbit wielding a giant carrot, and several other smaller encounters. He had only been walking for around eight hours. How could anyone get around in a world where you couldn't go ten minutes on the road without being attacked by something? The incompetent adventurers from the castle would have been ripped to pieces by this point.
Maybe it was just Shirou's own bad luck and this wasn't normal. It would have been the same kind of bizarre luck that had gotten Shirou involved in the Holy Grail War in the first place. The young man took a moment to curse his E rank luck.
Luck, the inherent ability to defy fate, had to be the worst ability in existence to have. It sounds nice until you realize that fate usually means getting up in the morning and have a normal day without anything life threatening happening to you. So while Luck can help you survive disasters where most people would have died, people with unusual amounts of Luck tend to have unusual things happen to them; like say, being sucked into another world and forced to go on an adventure with a sword that acts like an extremely jealous girlfriend.
Naturally, heroes almost always had a considerable amount of Luck. Otherwise they would have likely never gotten themselves into the situations that made them heroes.
Even as he started to continue on his way down the road, Shirou eyes moved farther down the list of item drops, seeing if there was anything that might be usable, as Jian wouldn't try to use the item drops to unlock new forms without him telling her to. If the monster's body parts themselves were used for unlocking, then she would do it whenever she was absorbing the monster, but the random potions and other valuables would go untouched and remain in the drop space.
He spotted a medium remedy potion listed with the drops. He had already used lesser remedy potion on the sword in order to unlock a 'Petit Medicine Sword', which could increase the effectiveness of medicine. Perhaps the medium remedy potion would do the same. "Jian, can you use the medium remedy potion in order to unlock a new sword?"
The medium remedy potion was removed from the list of drop items and another progress bar appeared in Shirou's vision. It looked like it would take 30 minutes for Jian to process the potion into something usable. While copying swords happened instantly, using the random items to unlock sword forms wasn't always instantaneous. Shirou suspected that it was based on the complexity of the item and how far removed it was from the idea of a sword. Monster bones and teeth, as well as raw metals and stones were processed almost instantly, while meats, plants and medicines took a lot more time.
Shirou looked at the clock in his menu in order to figure out when the potion would finish being processed, only to see that it was already almost 8:00. The sun was setting and soon it would be dark out.
Originally, Shirou had planned on just sleeping outside in the forest that night, but after the sheer number of monster attacks he had gone through, that no long seemed like a good option. Perhaps he should just teleport back to town and sleep at an in, then teleport back to where he left off the next morning.
He was about to go back when Jian interrupted him.
[Without clear landmarks, transport to a location is not possible.]
"In other words, I either sleep out here tonight, or I am starting all over tomorrow morning." Shirou said with a sigh. "Well, I guess I should leave the road a little before I set up camp for the night."
Shirou returned Jian to the twin-blades form and sheathed the blades before raising his now free right hand. "Trace on." Angurvadal, the Stream of Anguish, appeared in Shirou's hand, light flowing from it in order to illuminate his path.
Shirou had found that so long as he was not using it in any sort of combat related sense, Jian didn't mind other weapons. Of course what counted as a weapon, and what counted as being used for combat was up to her to decide. A kitchen knife being used to attack vegetables was still attacking something with a weapon and therefore off limits. Even if the blade didn't touch his hand, and he just fired it like a bullet, Jian would still punish him for it. However, using a legendary weapon like a flashlight was perfectly okay.
Of course, Angurvadal was more than a simply light. Within its legend it would glow with fire and begin to sing when enemies were nearby. As such it would be his security during the night. If anything, man or monster, attempted to attack Shirou in the night, Angurvadal would let out a horrible noise and irrupt with light, both blinding and deafening the attacker momentarily. Hopefully Jian wouldn't see the impromptu trip-mine/flash-bang as an attack. But if she did, the mild electric shock she would give him would surely wake him up if he managed to sleep through Angurvadal's activation, as the sound and light from Angurvadal wouldn't affect Shirou the same way it affected anyone attempting to ambush him.
Shirou didn't bother setting up the tent. It didn't seem as if there was going to be any rain that night. He would just sleep on the ground, in a projected sleeping bag… Wait…"Why did I buy a tent again?" Shirou asked himself, scratching his head. If he needed a tent, he could just project one. It was such a novel concept, being able to project items other than weapon and armor, that Shirou had completely forgotten about it. Shrugging his shoulders, he took out the packed tent and just fed it to Jian.
[Requirements met: Tent Sword Unlocked – Equip Bonus: Rest Effectiveness Up (small) (unmastered)]
Shirou couldn't stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He was starting to wonder if there was literally a sword for everything. Maybe he should try feed her a house next.
Shoving Angurvadal into the ground, Shirou projected a sleeping bag and began to lay down for the night.
Weapon Copy
[The Legendary Weapons can copy weapons of the same category for the hero's use, so long as they meet level requirements.]
Jian none-to-subtly demanded to be fed.
Shirou could only groan.
"What do you mean you can't find him!? Have you checked all of the inns in the city!?" Princess Malty demanded of the Church's Shadows as she sat in her carriage after stealing everything that the Shield Hero owned in the fool's sleep.
"Forgive us Princess, however the Hero of the Sword disappear without a trace just after visiting the Hourglass of the Dragon's Era. We had our best watching him, but he still slipped straight through our fingers." One Shadow reported.
"We have checked every inn in the whole city, but there is not a single trace of the man. He is good, better than we are. As to be expected of a true Legendary Hero." A second Shadow added with something like awe in his voice.
Malty held in a curse. She had had her heart set on having the Hero of the Sword, but now it looked as though she would have to pick another.
Malty was the first Princess of the Kingdom of Melromarc, and she was long used to being able to use her status, intelligence, and beauty to get whatever she wanted. However, there was one thing that those qualities couldn't get her, and it was something that should have been hers by right of birth; the throne.
Even though she was the first Princess, and was adored by her father, her mother hated her and always had. And since her mother was the one who got to decide who was next in line for the throne, the crown was poised to go to her bratty little sister, Melty.
But Malty wasn't about to just give up on her birthright, so she made a deal with the Church of the Three Legendary Heroes. She would convince her father to summon the heroes to their country and help to set up the Shield Hero to be known throughout the land as a villain, and in exchange they would support her to become the next Queen.
Of course, while the Church was the national religion, her mother wasn't the kind of woman who would care about that. She would need more than just the Church if she wanted to get her crown. What she needed was a hero.
Melty was too young and bratty to win the heart of a hero. She didn't have the same kind of experience with controlling men that Malty had. So if Malty managed to get hitched with one of the three heroes that actually mattered, then not even her mother could deny her the throne.
It was going to be the perfect story. She would extend the hand of kindness to the one that everyone believed to be the devil only to be heinously raped by him the moment they were alone. Then she would have run off to cry into the shoulder of the hero of her choosing and they would feel bound by honor to seek out justice for her and to protect her from then on, so long as the Shield Hero still walked free. But now, when she was already half way done with her little play, she finds out that the leading man is nowhere to be found.
Well, it was not like it really mattered. Any of the Heroes would do. But if she was going to be whoring herself off for the crown anyways, she had wished that she could have at least got the best man possible.
The Hero of the Sword hadn't been as unrefined and rude when he had first appeared as the others and had already managed to win her father's approval. He had also shown himself to be a fighter of the highest quality, easily taking down higher-level men even before obtaining the abilities and power associated with being a Legendary Saint Hero. And while the Bow and the Spear both had their charms, the Bow was too childish for her tastes, and if she went with the Spear Hero, then she would be having to constantly defend her claim on him from the various other women he would be trying to charm. Plus, the Hero of the Sword had just been better looking. He had the kind of stoic, regal appearance that was befit a future King and would have looked perfect standing by her side as she sat upon her throne.
Well, maybe it was for the best. The Sword seemed to be much smarter than any of the others were. He would have been much more difficult to control.
"What's done is done. Where is the Spear Hero?"
Alright, maybe Shirou was too quick to dismiss the Tent Sword.
After sleeping for just 4 hours, he already felt completely energized and ready to go. He actually slept much better than he had his previous night in the castle. Then again, he had half expected for people to try in infiltrate his room at night in order to place subjugation magic on him while he was in the castle, so it wasn't the most restful of places, despite having an actual bed. It really did surprise him that he hadn't been attacked in the night.
Shirou called up his status menu and glanced at the clock in order to check the time, finding it to be around 6:15. The sun would probably be rising soon.
Shirou reached over to his pack and brought back out the history book he had been given from the castle library. He had spent roughly 6 hours the night before struggling to read his history book in the light produced by Angurvadal, while at the same time having one hand extended over Jian at his side, trancing weapon after weapon from his Unlimited Blade Works for her to copy. The Legendary Holy Weapon equivalent of petting your cat.
Multitasking while reading a language you were unfamiliar with. Hard.
Even so, the book had been very enlightening, and Shirou had learned two very important things while reading the book. First was that the Legendary Heroes of old had a damn good editor, as there was not a single mention of a fuck up anywhere to be found.
Shirou knew a lot about mythologies, and he knew perfectly well what Gods and Heroes were really like. They weren't all knowing and benevolent beings who were completely perfect in every way, they did selfish and often times short sighted things, and people usually suffered from them. Even the ones that really were benevolent still made mistakes. So, whenever you find a holy text that doesn't mention any of these kinds of events, that is often because the holy texts had an editor who went through and removed all of the stories that were controversial.
Point was, every mention of the heroes having flaws had been erased from history… or at least it was for three of the four. The Shield Hero was strangely absent from the history book all together, hardly even mentioned as existing in footnotes. Maybe that was just how things were. If the Shield had the same kind of restrictions on it as the Sword, not letting you wield any other weapon, then Shirou could understand it being difficult for the Shield Hero to distinguish themselves without a means to deal blows to their enemies. Maybe that had been the real reason no one had wanted to follow Naofumi. Still won't explain why the King hated him on sight.
The second thing that jumped out at him was that these heroes always seemed to have prior knowledge of the world around them, meaning that they all probably played video games about the world before coming to it. Shirou wondered if any of the previous heroes came from the same timeline as he did. Actually, he hoped that they had. It would mean that time flowed differently between the two worlds.
The oldest mentions of the Legendary Heroes were around 1000 years old, but the game had only existed in Shirou's world for 3 years. So if the heroes were first brought to the world just a few months after the game came out in his world, that would mean that 1000 years here is around equal to about 3 years in his world. This translated into meaning that 3 days in his world was equal to 1000 days in this one, or about 2 years and 8 months.
If he could finish everything within 2 years' time, he could still make it back home in time to see Illya through her operation. Shirou had to believe that it was possible. He would do whatever it took to finish his task within those 2 years.
"Jian, you awake?" Shirou asked the sword.
[Holy Weapons do not require any recharge time for basic use.]
"I see. I was just wondering, you are able to copy any weapon that possesses the quality of being a sword, right?" Shirou said, seeking clarification of the sword's abilities.
Weapon Copy
[The Legendary Weapons can copy weapons of the same category for the hero's use, so long as they meet level requirements.]
"Well then, can you copy this?" Shirou said, tracing a normal iron sword. "Alteration."The sword began to twist in on itself as Shirou added the meaning of being an arrow to the sword's identity. Then he held it next to Jian's jewel for her to try to copy.
[Weapon Copy – Complete: Iron Sword Arrow? (0/10) – Quality: Normal→ Low (Degraded Copy) – Base Power: 2 – Proficiency: (0%)]
"Degraded huh." Shirou humbled. It seemed that while Jian had been able to copy the weapon over, the modifications to the sword's idea had caused the final product to be weaker than his trace, resulting in a level down in quality, similar to his own tracing. A degraded copy of a degraded copy. Still, it had worked.
Next was for part two of his master plan, something he had never tried before, making a bow that was a sword.
It took Shirou several tries before he managed alter a bow into a sword without it becoming unusable. Once he had something that he would be able to identify as 'being' a sword but could still be used as a bow, he tried copying it into Jian's own growing arsenal of weapons.
[Weapon Copy – Complete: Steel Sword Bow? (0/10) – Quality: Normal → Low (Degraded Copy) – Base Power: 3 – Proficiency: (0%) – Level Requirement: 8]
"Alright, lets see if this works. Activate [Dual Wielder]." Shirou said, equipping the Steel Sword Bow in his left hand and the Iron Sword Arrow in his right. He pulled the arrow back and aimed it at a tree a good hundred feet away before letting the arrow fly.
…The arrow went around four feet away from Shirou before stopping in the air and falling to the ground. Then Shirou received a very painful shock.
Legendary Weapon Rule Violation: Hero Cannot Discard Legendary Weapon
Shirou scowled at the popup window. "You could have just told me that before I tried you know." Shirou sighed. "Cancel [Dual Wielder]." He said, letting the arrow disappear and turning the bow back into swords and storing them. Oh well, it wouldn't have been like he could have used a Caladbolg form anyways. He already checked and Caladbolg had a level requirement of 165, and as it seemed that the more levels he grew, the more EXP it took to gain those levels, it would probably be a whole year or more before he would be able to use a Noble Phantasm of that caliber. "I just can't catch a break with you, can I?"
Jian didn't respond to the question. Instead she informed him of something else.
[Incubation time complete. Monster egg is ready to hatch.]
Shirou went to the magic incubator and found that the seal holding it shut was now released and that the egg was starting to crack. He carefully opened up the incubator and held the egg out in front of him, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do. He'd never been involved in hatching eggs before.
Somehow he suspected that a normal hatching didn't go the same way as this though, as all of the sudden the egg shell burst into pieces with a small popping sound, leaving him with a bright red chick in his hands, one roughly twice the size of a normal baby chicken, a piece of the egg's shell balanced on its head. The puffy red creature looked up at him with eyes that were distinctly too large for its small body and gave out the most cheerful 'Gueee!' sound.
The word kawaii, came to mind.
With surprising strength for something with such a small body, the bird jumped from Shirou's hands and landed onto of his wig covered head, immediately grabbing it and rolling around in the fake hair like an energetic puppy. "Hey, stop that." Shirou chuckled as he reached up to try to dislodge the little one from his head, not that the little bird listened. His chuckles turned surprised concern when the bird let out a cry of pain and fell from his hand.
Shirou caught the little bird before it hit the ground and watched as the Filolial twitched in his hands, a magic seal visible on its chest. "What's going on?" Shirou asked no one in particular, but Jian still responded, and a menu filled is vision.
[Monster Slave Seal Controls]
In the menu was a little of actions classified as forbidden and the level of punishment associated with breaking the rules. And on the top of the list was 'disobeying orders'. Shirou quickly disabled the option and the punishment ended, leaving the poor chick in a confused state.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that would happen." Shirou said, trying to comfort the baby bird. Luckily, the little Filolial was quick to bounce back and was again chirping away. "Don't worry, I won't do that again, I promise. I'm not the kind of person that you shock someone for doing something as trivial as wielding a different weapon. *ouch*" Shirou hissed as Jian punished him for his comment. Apparently, she wasn't amused by his comment. "I'm I your slave?"
[A wielder of a Legendary Weapon cannot be subjugated by a slave seal.]
"Good to know, but that isn't what I asked." Shirou said with a sigh. The bird started making noise, trying to get his attention. "You're probably hungry. I'll get you some food." Shirou said getting and getting the seed paste he had brought with him. He projected out a dish for the bird feed and set it down for the young Filolial to eat. The little thing must have been hungry, because it wasted no time in eating it.
[Do you wish to add the Filolial to your party?]
"Yeah, that way he can get some EXP and start to level up. I'm a little curious to see just how the accelerated aging works." Shirou admitted as he pet the bird with one hand. A window opened up in front of his vision.
[Shirou: Lv 14]
[Filolial 1 (female): Lv 1]
"Oh, she's female." Shirou said, correcting his pronouns. "I guess I need to name her." Shirou said, looking down at the bright red creature as it stuffed its face with the seed paste, making a mess of itself. "How about Firo?" Shirou said, just sticking with the name that Illya had used for her stuffed animal. The bird stopped eating for a moment to give a 'Gueee' of approval before returning to its meal. "Firo it is then."
[Firo: Lv 1]
[Some items can help unlock new forms for the Legendary Weapons. Try to give your weapon a sample of everything.]
Shirou looked down to where the fragments of the egg lay and picked on of them up, feeding it to the sword.
Requirements met: [Beastmaster's Sword II (0/30) Unlocked – Base Power: 7 – Equip Bonus: Monster Status Up (small) (unmastered) – Proficiency: (0%)]
Requirements met: [Monster Egg Sword (0/25) Unlocked – Base Power: 4 – Equip Bonus: Cooking +2 (unmastered) – Proficiency: (0%)]
Glancing over the new weapon forms, Shirou was suddenly struck with an idea. He took the projected sleeping bag and tried to feed it to Jian.
[This is not a real object. It cannot be processed.]
"Oh well, guess that was to be expected." Shirou said with a small shrug of the shoulders. While 'traced' weapons were so close to being the real deal that even they themselves didn't realize they were not real, all basic projections were really just packs of prana given shape. He was still mildly disappointed. "Alright, the sun's up now. We should be hitting the road. Come on, Firo." Shirou said, lifting up the Filolial. The bird quickly ran up his arm and preached itself on his head, settling into his wig and giving out a cheerful cry as it claimed its perch.
It was time for another day.