Chapter 3: CHAPTER 3.
"Ok, my turn, I am Itsuki Kawasumi, I'm 17 and still in High School."
The bow hero was young. To be honest, Adrian had always imagined them as slightly older and yet here was a brat, if his memory served him correctly then the Sword Hero had been, in fact, younger than this kid and yet they were given the keys to immense power. No wonder they had screwed up so often. Despite their incredible potential for power, they were still young. Hell, Adrian was older than Itsuki and he still felt that he was too unprepared for such power. Then again, what could prepare you for something like this?
Adrian took his turn here, "I am Adrian Black, 22 years of age and a software engineer."
Adrian noted a look of puzzlement on the King's face when he mentioned his education. Interesting, the translation method of the Sword was not perfect. It could not interpret something so out of context for a medieval society easily.
"I guess I'm last. My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I'm a twenty-year-old college student."
The King looked down at us cooly. Nothing more than a hint of arrogance in his face. Adrian felt his annoyance rise again at this man who likely viewed them as nothing more than pawns on his board.
"Now then, Motoyasu, Itsuki and Adrian was it?" he started, ignoring Naofumi.
"Uh, Your Grace, you've forgotten me," said Naofumi feeling awkward.
"Ah yes, my apologies, Mr Naofumi." he said, not changing his expression in the slightest, "Now then, Heroes. Please check your status so you have an objective evaluation of yourselves."
Interesting, was this meant to be a test? Or a display of his disdain for the Shield Hero?
To his surprise, while it confused Motoyasu and Itsuki, Naofumi was already looking around in thin air in front of him.
"Whoa, this is weird," Naofumi said.
"What are you talking about man?" said Motoyasu, "You're just staring at nothing."
"He is looking at his Status Page." Adrian explained, "I think you should be able to see a small icon in the corner of your vision. Focus on it for a moment and the screen should flare-up. It should have some fairly detailed information about yourself."
Itsuki made a surprised sound a moment later and Motoyasu turned to look at him before looking around for a moment and then squinted before he flinched backwards and said, "Hey, you're right. It is a Status Page."
Then for the first time since Adrian had seen he saw a trace of nervousness enter the faces of Motoyasu and Itsuki. Realizing that they were level 1 was quite a wake-up call.
"Can we even fight at all with these numbers?"
"Yeah, this is too low."
"What is all this?" asked Naofumi, a bit of awe seeping into his tone.
"This is Status Magic Heroes. Everyone in this world has it." the King stated, "And as for the low numbers, it is something that you can enhance on your journey to strengthen the Legendary Weapons you possess."
"You mean these weapons don't start off strong. We gotta get them to a useful stage." said Motoyasu, "That's a drag, we should at least use other better weapons until then."
Adrian felt like laughing as the moment he considered that he got a warning. His Sword had no intention of allowing him to even consider wielding another weapon.
A Legendary Hero may only wield the Legendary Weapon assigned to them.
Adrian cut in here, however. These fools were putting on quite the show for the nobles, they more of their weaknesses they showed the greater the disadvantage they would be in later, no doubt they were being tested even now.
"Let us leave that for later. Our priority should be to boost our weapons as much as is practical like his Majesty has requested," said Adrian.
The other three were excited, and it was showing in their behaviour. Adrian felt the start of a headache. He had known that the other three heroes had looked ridiculous in canon but he had not been certain how much of that had been Naofumi's bias against them. Watching them all now, genuinely excited when they should be nervous as all hell, he felt a little confidence in his own assessment of them.
They were immature or perhaps naïve. One way or another Adrian was certain that they would not be useful allies.
"So are we going to make a party," said Naofumi.
Adrian frowned at that as his weapon flared up with another notification.
The Legendary Weapons have adverse effects on the growth of the weapon and wielder if in proximity to other weapons.
These weapons were a lot more active than he had assumed. Were they observing the world through his senses or did they have some sort of esoteric senses of their own, perhaps through the gem or something?
Adrian shook it off. Now in the middle of the throne was not the time to wonder about the intricacies of the Legendary weapons. He frowned when he heard the King said, "Heroes I shall send out a message to the nearby town. We shall find you the companions needed for your journey."
At this, all four of them bowed, and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
But Adrian's thoughts did not match his words or actions, he had a terrible feeling about these party members; he had no memory of whom had joined the Heroes in the story he had read, but he could probably assume that these party members were probably informants at best and assassins at worst.
They would probably not harm him right now directly, but filtering information to him and informing others about information regarding him would probably be something that he would have to live with until he gained enough strength to escape Melromarc's grasp.
They left the throne room after receiving an invitation to dinner, but as a servant lead the three heroes to their waiting rooms and he followed Andre to his tower, he couldn't help but feel his fear rising as he realized once again just what a horrible world he was now trapped in.
Naofumi POV
Naofumi carefully scanned the massive amount of information present in his Status Menu, the whole thing still felt surreal, the fact that he had a numerical estimation of his physical self, the fact that he had an indestructible shield that could not undergo wear and tear and would only grow stronger as he levelled up. It was incredible, the whole thing was like a game, only a hell of a lot more detailed then one, which made sense, even if this world was gamelike, it was still pretty real.
He looked to the other two Heroes who were in the sitting room with him, they too were looking into their status screens, it looked a little odd, kind of like they were having a daydreaming contest or something that they were really into, but he suspected that he looked just as weird when he was concentrating on his Status Menu.
Naofumi took another look at his Menu, nothing that his Weapon Map had nothing unlocked at all beyond the Small Shield, but he could see literally thousands of options that could be unlocked, normally Naofumi was not the type of guy to obsess over unlocking everything but in this new world he couldn't help but feel incredibly tempted to unseal all the power in the shield.
Still, he was a little concerned about this whole thing and how gamelike it was, maybe he should ask the others, they were Heroes like him after all.
"Hey guys," said Naofumi," doesn't this whole thing seem like a game to you."
"Like a game," scoffed Motoyasu, "this is a game. This is almost exactly like Emerald Online. The Menu, the weapons, hell even the country is pretty much the same."
"Ah, excuse me Mr Motoyasu, I'm afraid that you are incorrect. This is indeed similar to a game but it is called Dimension Wave." interrupted Itsuki, while raising his hand slightly, like he was in class or something.
"Don't joke around Itsuki, this thing is a duplicate of the MMO, hell it's the most famous MMO on the planet there's no way any gamer wouldn't know about it."
And yet Naofumi didn't know about either game, the two of the other Heroes continued arguing for the moment, but Naofumi found it odd, he wasn't bragging but he was a pretty big Otaku, if this Dimension Wave and Emerald Online were truly famous games then there was no doubt that he would have heard about it.
"Hey Naofumi, you've heard of Emerald Online right?" asked Motoyasu.
"Sorry guys," said Naofumi, shrugging," I haven't heard of any video game like this world. I read a book that was kind of like it but I've never heard of either of the games you guys mentioned."
At this point both of them were quiet, and even Naofumi found it a bit odd, certainly they might have been simply not as well versed in games as each of them thought but it seemed unlikely that titles as famous as what the two of them seemed to imply would be unheard of by the other two.
At this point, the door opened and the last of the Heroes walked in.
Black was an anomaly in a lot of ways. He was European or American, he was taller than all of them and fairly well built and unlike them, he wasn't a student. He also didn't seem to be an Otaku and was the least excited about this whole thing.
"Good evening." said Adrian, "My apologies for coming in late, but Andre had some interesting things to say."
"It's cool." said Naofumi," Did you get the info you wanted?"
Naofumi had to admit he was kind of curious.
"No, I did not." he said, a cold expression on his face, " It would seem that there is no known method to return home and that the ceremony they used to summon us is not understood in the slightest. They pretty much summoned us after trying nearly ten times for the past month or so. They don't know much about the weapons or how we are selected or even what happen if the waves are stopped."
He took a deep breath, "As far as I can tell we are stuck here."
Naofumi had to wince at the anger in Black's last statement. Clearly, the man was not happy to be here, truthfully Naofumi didn't understand the man, this was a miracle, an opportunity that no one could have ever expected.
"Hey man, do you know anything about a game called dimension wave or Emerald online?" asked Motoyasu hopefully, ignoring the other man's mood.
Black walked towards one of the empty chairs and sat down before considering the questions for a moment, his answer was disappointing but expected, "No I have not. But I have to admit that I am hardly a gamer, the game may exist and I have simply not heard of it. Why do you ask?"
"Itsuki and Motoyasu said that those games were like this World." said Naofumi, "And I have read a book about this place."
"Interesting. I haven't had any exposure to anything similar to this place. I have read some novels with a similar concept, a Hero being summoned to another world but the worlds were quite different from these. The concept is popular, so I suppose I had simply not read something similar and missed the book or something." he replied, "Perhaps this knowledge is part of the reason for your summoning."
"Could be, but that doesn't explain why you guys haven't heard of the most famous online game in decades," said Motoyasu.
"It doesn't but I suspect it may be because we are from parallel earths," said Black.
"What?!" said the other three Heroes.
Weekly Power Status
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