Chapter Three: Power Up
“Hmmm . . . .”
The hall was quiet now, and I was thinking over all they’d said. I’d already sent Raphtalia and Filo back to the room.
Thinking over it all with some silence, I realized I would just have to treat the heroes with suspicion.
I think I had already gotten all the information out of them that I could realistically hope for.
But I didn’t know how to figure out what was actually true and what was just another elaborate lie.
There was one thing on which they had all agreed: when you absorbed a defeated monster, the monster released a drop item.
They had also all agreed on the weapon copy system.
The rest must have been differences between the games that they had all played back in their home worlds.
They said that if you held a weapon then you could make a copy of it, and that once you met the requirements you could equip it normally.
They’d also said that they weapon you used could perform certain tasks for you, like crafting.
Yeah, they’d all agreed on at least those points.
But they’d disagreed on how you were supposed to power up your items. I decided to try and figure out what their positions had been.
Let’s say that everyone’s weapons behaved differently—that’s fine, except that I didn’t know how my shield worked. Everyone else had experience with a game that reflected the way their weapons seemed to behave, but I didn’t. Sure, I’d read a book about the heroes back in my world, but the section that was supposed to describe my own weapon was blank!
I took out a memo pad and tried to sum up what they’d all said about the power-up system.
★ Ren
Strength is basically determined by your level.
Mastery: using the same weapon would improve your proficiency with it.
Energy transfer: when you finished using a weapon, you could reset its mastery level and release the amount of energy you had invested in it. Finally, any items that you had absorbed into the weapon could also be turned into energy.
Increasing rarity: by imbuing a weapon with energy, you can increase its rarity level. This tends to increase the weapon’s abilities.
★ Motoyasu
Everything is based on your weapon. The most important thing is spirit enchantment, and the original stats of your weapon are not very important. All you need is enough strength and experience to use the weapon.
Smelting: you can power up a piece of equipment using ores. There is a chance of failure.
Spirit enchantment: pieces of monsters’ souls, or items, that have been absorbed into a weapon can be used to imbue the weapon with special powers. This has no chance of failure—maybe.
Status enchantment: stats can also be increased in the same way.
★ Itsuki
A weapon’s rarity is the most important thing. The enchantments are just an extra boost. When you have something rare, it makes more sense to call it a rare weapon.
Power up: the power of a weapon can be raised by equipping it with certain ores. This never fails.
Item enchantment: items that have been absorbed into a weapon can be turned into energy, and that can be used to raise the percentage of various stats. The success is based on probability, and therefore there is a chance of failure.
Job level: you can increase your stats by using the energy contained in absorbed monsters or items.
That should be it.
They really had nothing to do with one another at all.
They all sort of involved energy power-ups, smelting, and rarity of some kind.
If I translated it into words I understood, it sounded like Itsuki was talking about unique weapons and rare weapons dropped by bosses.
Ren was talking about the rarity inherent in the actual weapon. Like a rare example of an iron sword or something.
As for enchanting, there were apparently three different versions.
The three of them were all familiar with this world from games that they had played, but those games must have been different from one another.
They’d called them VRMMO, then a normal MMO, and the last one was a console game.
I’d never heard of VRMMO, and MMO and console games certainly didn’t sound like they were referring to the same system. If they had anything to do with one another, the console game might have been a fan-produced copy of an MMO.
Back in my own world, I’d played different games that had exhibited qualities similar to the systems the other three had all described.
It sort of made sense in a way. If they were all playing different games, then their descriptions wouldn’t match up, and of course they’d think the others were lying.
They’d all said that there was no such thing as the curse series.
When I’d first looked at my growth tree, I didn’t see it either. In fact, that whole branch of the tree hadn’t appeared until I thought Filo had died and I got really upset. This was just another instance of us all having different opinions on how the world worked.
But . . . what did it really mean?
I looked down at the shield on my arm.
Could it be that the legendary weapons somehow reflected the heart of its user?
The heart? What did that even mean?
Refusal . . . right. Somewhere deep inside, I was refusing.
Fitoria had warned me that the heroes had to work together. That must mean something.
Weapon copy . . . . The three of them had all agreed on it, so it couldn’t have been a lie.
The drop items too.
But I hadn’t known about those things, and they hadn’t been listed in my help menu either.
I opened my weapon icon and looked through the options. Sure enough, those things weren’t listed.
But now that I think about it, I think my menus had included more options before I was framed and cast out of the castle. I wasn’t imagining it. I was sure of it.
Alright! I had to try something.
There MUST be a section on item drops! There MUST be a section on weapon copying!
All three of them had confirmed those items simultaneously, so they had to be listed in their menus.
I tried to imagine a screen that listed all the dropped items I’d acquired up until this point. What would it look like?
I opened up the shield menu. There was a soft beep as the window opened before me.
There it was, with a flash—a long list of all the items dropped by monsters I’d defeated up until that point.
“What the hell?!”
You had to believe in it for it to appear. By guarding myself from others to keep myself safe, I’d limited my options.
It looked like there was an item box, and it was filled with monsters. When I clicked on the monster, the item it dropped would show up.
Hey, there were some medicinal herbs that you needed to make magic water. And there were lots of materials for making soul-healing water too.
And there was a lot of . . . garbage. And there were plenty of monster organs and guts too.
I’d been so angry, but they’d had no reason to lie. If I just thought that and opened the shield menu, but nothing showed up.
That meant that I was refusing it somehow.
I’d really never thought that those liars could be telling the truth.
Did I just not believe enough? Ha! This was starting to sound like a kid’s show. But it was true. I believed it.
“Mr. Iwatani?”
The queen was calling for me. I decided that if I wanted to survive, I had to believe. I’d have to have a staring contest with the shield.
This is the legendary shield. What did it matter if they’d lied to me before?
Belief is another kind of power. What did I have to lose? I had to remember what I’d learned from my merchant life.
If you’re too afraid of being tricked, then you’ll miss your chance to really make a big deal.
I had to BELIEVE! Itsuki was right about powering up. There really WERE item enchantments.
If there weren’t, then we would be just like other adventurers.
I believed it, and I pushed the shield icon. ZizZap—for a second, the icon flickered.
A moment later there was a soft beep, and a new menu item appeared. “Power up.”
“Yes!”
I’d use the ore that was set in the shield, I just needed to find a shield that was compatible with it.
Bee Needle Shield 0/20: ability unlocked: equip bonus: attack 1: special effect: needle (small): bee poison (paralysis)
To try it out, I attempted to power up the Bee Needle Shield. There was a soft beep, and the displayed denominator changed to one.
I was starting to get it. It was easy enough to power up, and the numerator was 20. Back in my world, this power up system was used in a game where you hunted monsters.
While I was at it, I decided to try turning absorbed items into energy.
It looked like there were a whole bunch of different possible effects.
I found one that looked interesting. It would cut damage received from usapil-type monsters. I decided to give it a try. The probability of success appeared to be 100 percent for the first attempt.
Bee Needle Shield 1/20: ability unlocked: equip bonus: attack 1 special effect: needle (small): bee poison (paralysis) item enchantment level 1. usapil-type monster damage down 2%
I still had more energy to work with, so I decided to try again. Damn! I failed. And the number dropped to zero. I decided to try again. The counter moved up to two. I kept trying again and again, and eventually the number rose to seven.
The chance of success when moving up to level eight was very low.
Bee Needle Shield 1/20: ability unlocked: equip bonus: attack 1 special effect: needle (small): bee poison (paralysis) item enchantment level 7. usapil-type monster damage down 16%
I felt like I could take on usapil-type monsters by myself now, if I needed to. But there was another gauge that hadn’t moved. Itsuki had said something about a “job level.” I decided to try experimenting with that next.
Out of a large number of status, I decided to focus on my defense— considering my class, that only made sense.
defense job level 1 defense gauge 0/5
I’d apparently acquired a lot of monster bits and organs when I broke them down following battle, so I chose some of them and kept entering them in the available slots.
The gauge filled slowly though, and by the time it reached one, I’d used a number of different items.
defense gauge 5/5 gauge up! “defense +1” defense job level 2
Then the defense gauge changed to say 0/6. I was about to try adding more items, but a cool-down timer appeared. Apparently you could only raise the gauge a certain amount over as set period.
It wasn’t so impressive. But if you filled the gauge time and time again, it would probably end up being a force to reckon with. I wonder if I could learn skills this way too?
Regardless, I'd learned some important stuff here. I’d have to talk it over with the others.
I decided to try Ren’s system next. Just like I had with Itsuki’s system, I made sure that I really believed in the idea, and then opened the menu for my favorite weapon, the Chimera Viper Shield.
Chimera Viper Shield 0/30: ability unlocked: equip bonus: skill “change shield” antidote compounding up, poison resistance (medium) special effect “snake fang (medium),” “hook” mastery level: 100
Apparently the stats were already really high. Maybe they were 1.5 times higher than they had been?
The defense rating was particularly high. As for the mastery level, apparently 100 was the maximum value.
I pressed my finger against the menu option, and then . . . .
Reset mastery level?
A system message popped up.
I hesitated for a moment before clicking “yes.” The stat values then all returned to what they had always been.
Received 2000 mastery level energy points.
I went ahead and assigned them to the chimera viper. Damn, there weren’t enough. I needed 4000 points.
I quickly went through the shields I don’t use as often and turned their mastery level into energy points.
I heard a chime indicating that something had happened.
Chimera Viper Shield (awakened) 0/30 C: ability unlocked: equip bonus: skill “change shield,” antidote compounding up, poison resistance (medium) special effect “snake fang (large),” “long hook” mastery level: 0
The basic ability had grown by quite a lot.
What the hell?!
What was left? Rarity? “C” probably meant common.
Of course I didn’t have enough energy to change it, so I went through my other shields, collected the energy, and tried again.
Success!
Chimera Viper Shield (awakened) 0/30 UC ability unlocked: equip bonus: skill “change shield,” antidote compounding up, poison resistance (medium) special effect “snake fang (large),” “long hook” mastery level: 0
“UC” must have meant “uncommon.” The abilities looked to be about
1.2 times higher than they had been. I tried a few more times until I’d raised the weapon to “R,” which stood for rare. By that point, the abilities had grown substantially. It had become . . . whoa, it had become way more powerful! If I added the stats from the mastery level then . . . WOW. I decided to try Motoyasu’s system next. I just had to throw my whole
being into believing—I had to be a holy fool!
Dammit! I didn’t have enough ore to try Motoyasu’s growth system.
I’d have to ask the queen for some help on that one. If all the other systems had been a success, then I could probably count on Motoyasu’s being true as well. But it would take time to procure the necessary materials. For the time being, I’d better just focused on what I could do now.
I wanted to try the spirit enchantments too, but I didn’t have those materials either. I could try the status enchantment though. I could do it with materials . . . . I guess the outcome was random anyway.
In the end, the magic power was increased.
Chimera Viper Shield (awakened) 0/30 R ability unlocked: equip bonus: skill “change shield,” antidote compounding up, poison resistance (medium) special effect “snake fang (large),” “long hook” mastery level: 0 status enchantment: magic power 20+
That was a serious boost!
Oh look, I can reset it. But I didn’t have many materials left, so I decided to leave it as it was for now.
The shield even looked more powerful to my eye. All the stats and systems were a little confusing, so I didn’t have it all worked out yet—but this was obviously something beneficial for me.
I read through the help menu one last time.
“ . . . .”
Everything they had told me about appeared in the menus now.
If the system responded to my beliefs then maybe I could use a growth system from a game I used to play back in my own world?
“Huh?”
No matter how deeply I believed or fiddled with the menus, nothing changed. Sure, the shield was already substantially powered up, but I couldn’t understand the mechanism at work.
“Queen . . . .”
“What is it?”
“Notify the other heroes. Everything they said was true. There wasn’t a liar in the room. Tell them you have to believe what the others say for it to work.”
I couldn’t believe the way this was turning out. It reminded me of something the queen had said.
She’s said that the replica weapon the high priest had been using was only one quarter as powerful as the real article.
With what I knew now, that made sense. Actually, I’d now pulled ahead of the others.
I could have been happy that I’d pulled ahead of the others, but if all this was true, then in the worst case . . . .
The next morning, after breakfast, I went to visit the queen in her audience chamber.
I’d expected Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki to be there, but there was no sign that they had showed up.
“Where are the others?”
“They left early in the morning.”
“What’s the rush? Did they take a boat?”
“Yes. And I have prepared a boat for you as well. It is waiting in the harbor. Please hurry.”
“Got it. Were you thinking of providing any funds for the journey?”
“I have provided for everything. If there is anything else you need, please just let me know.”
“Alright then . . . .”
I took out a sheet of paper and scribbled the ores and materials I would need to power up the shield further, then passed it to the queen.
“Will you have these things sent to me?”
“Very well. If the other heroes come to understand how powerful you really are, perhaps they will come around?”
That would certainly be nice.
I ran a quick estimation of how much the further enhancements would power up my shield—it was significant.
Filo’s stats had shot through the roof after her class-up ceremony, but it looked like I’d be in another league altogether after this.
“Alright. I’m off then.”
“Travel safely.”
“Here we goooooo! Mel-chan! We’ll see you later!!!!”
Filo waved to Mel enthusiastically as we filed out of the castle.
Oh, I forgot to mention that last night, Filo and Melty slept together. Those two sure were close.
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