"Hey, Ren! You're leveling around here too?" Chuan Wenwu stopped what he was doing and casually waved to Ren Amaki on the hill in greeting.
After yesterday's conversations and small talk, the heroes got along fairly well, and Chuan Wenwu could strike up a conversation with any of them.
"Yes. I was just heading deeper in to hunt monsters when I heard what sounded like a huge commotion over here, so I came to take a look. I never imagined it would be you leveling... This is unbelievable... Or should I say, just what I'd expect from you?" Ren Amaki spoke with a cool expression, but a closer look would have revealed the twitch at the corner of his eye.
After all, looking down from where he stood, Chuan Wenwu practically seemed to be bathing in a sea of monsters!
Even though he could instantly kill three balloon monsters like these with a single swing, he wouldn't dare ignore their attacks outright the way Chuan Wenwu did and throw himself into a swarm. He had to keep running, moving, and looking for opportunities to pick them off one by one.
He was just a swordsman. He didn't have a Shield Warrior's toughness.
Watching the monsters surrounding Chuan Wenwu, he suddenly wondered how efficient grinding would be if he could team up with the shield hero.
He couldn't even imagine it, because the Hero System prohibited heroes from fighting side by side.
"Hahaha, just luck. Or rather, luring monsters, gathering them up, then mowing them down all at once is how a Shield Warrior is supposed to play. In a real world like this, anything's possible if you use your imagination, right?" Chuan Wenwu laughed, waved an arm, and invited him over. "Since you're here, want to help me kill a few? There are so many I'm having trouble keeping up. I'll share some experience with you."
Ren Amaki was certainly tempted, but he shook his head. "I'd better not. The Holy Weapons repel one another. If I helped, neither of us would gain anything."
"But don't get complacent. Even with your technique for grinding huge groups of monsters, my level won't fall behind yours. I'm heading to a higher-level area right now to hunt stronger monsters. Each one will give me more experience."
A little surprised, Chuan Wenwu cautioned him, "You're going to a high-level area on your first day? Watch out for danger. Don't treat this world like a game."
"Heh, don't underestimate me. Anyway, see you!"
Ren Amaki merely gave a cool smile. He didn't take Chuan Wenwu's well-meant warning to heart, turning and walking straight away until he soon vanished from sight.
"That guy..." Chuan Wenwu shook his head, then put the matter aside and went back to executing balloon monsters.
Out of his sight, however, Ren Amaki broke into an urgent run as soon as he was no longer visible. He needed to reach the high-level grinding area as quickly as possible. He didn't want to fall too far behind!
Elsewhere out of his sight, Myne's formerly lively, sunny expression had turned utterly grim. She muttered darkly to herself, "Damn it, how can the shield have a way to level like this?! Why does he get along so well with the other heroes? That bastard... Just you wait..."
Chuan Wenwu kept feeling as though someone behind him was staring at him, their gaze prickling against his back. He whipped his head around, but all he saw besides Bruce diligently grinding monsters was Myne, smiling as she cheered him on. "You're amazing, Sir Hero! Go, go, go!!"
"Hmm... Was I imagining it?"
Rubbing his chin, Chuan Wenwu didn't dwell on it and continued his great leveling endeavor.
Although each balloon monster gave very little experience, there were simply so many of them on the grassland. A single trip could lure dozens or even a hundred back with him. Then he just plucked and pressed, gaining almost one experience point per second! Most of his time was spent gathering monsters.
An entire day passed like that.
Looking around, he saw that a broad stretch of grassland had been cleared out. Almost none of those friendly-looking balloon monsters remained.
His level had risen all the way to Lv. 9, and both his defenses had passed one hundred.
He had also discovered that these seemingly worthless balloon monsters didn't just give a single experience point when they died. They dropped loot too-a trash material called [Orange Balloon Fragments], or "balloon hide" for short.
According to Myne's estimate, one piece of balloon hide would sell for one copper coin at the absolute most. Usually, it wouldn't even fetch that much.
Pure trash. The kind of trash that only took up inventory space if he picked it up.
But he also noticed that the core gem at the center of the Shield of the Hero on his arm reacted strangely to the balloon hide.
After he tried feeding it some balloon hide, a notification popped up in his system's Weapon Manual, informing him that the shield had unlocked a new form-
Orange Balloon Small Shield unlock requirements met! [Orange Balloon Small Shield] [Equipment bonus: defense +2 [Ability unlocked]]
In other words, his original shield had taken on the material of an Orange Balloon-at least his original shield had been metal! After turning into the Orange Balloon Small Shield, it was like he'd grabbed a balloon monster, forcibly flattened it, and fixed it into the shape of a shield to block damage for him!
Was it useful?
More or less.
Just look at the stats of his basic shield:
[Small Shield] [Equipment bonus: defense +3 [Ability unlocked]]
It was worth noting that the equipment bonus here didn't represent the actual stats of that shield form... After all, no matter how he looked at it, there was no way a metal Small Shield could have only one more point of defense than the gelatinous Orange Balloon Small Shield, right?
Although he had very few examples to work with, comparing the two had already helped him figure out a few things.
First, the other shields that the Shield of the Hero transformed into provided protection based on both the hardness of the shield form itself and his own defense. That protection applied only to the shield itself and didn't appear on his character panel.
What did that mean?
For example, suppose the Shield of the Hero turned into a Grass Shield with extremely poor protection, the kind an arrow could pierce in a single shot. Because his own defense was incredibly high, however, the Grass Shield he held would add his own "hardness" to its protection, allowing it to block the arrow.
Or suppose his defense was only on the level of iron, and an Iron Shield also provided only iron-level protection. In theory, neither could stop an attack stronger than iron. But after the Shield of the Hero transformed into an Iron Shield, it would add his body's protection to its own. Thus, even though his body still couldn't withstand the attack, the shield could successfully block the damage.
In short, this shield could provide extra defense over a limited area.
Meanwhile, the "equipment bonus" of each shield type represented the additional stats the wielder gained when the shield took that form, which were added to his own panel.
When Chuan Wenwu first obtained the Orange Balloon Small Shield, its effect had read:
[Equipment bonus: defense +2 [Ability locked]]
After he continued feeding it more fragments, however, it changed to "Ability unlocked."
The difference between "unlocked" and "locked" was that a locked shield required him to transform the Shield of the Hero into that particular shield for its equipment bonus to take effect. Once a shield was unlocked, its bonus became permanent!
What did that mean?
If he unlocked more shields and unlocked their abilities, his stats would receive enormous bonuses!!!
There seemed to be two ways to meet the unlocking requirements:
One: repeatedly absorb the materials used to unlock that shield.
Two: transform the shield into the form whose ability he wanted to unlock. Simply keeping it in that form for a while would automatically unlock it. His most basic Small Shield had finished unlocking that way without him even noticing.
Not everything could be absorbed by the Shield of the Hero to unlock new forms, though. At least, when he'd tried pulling up a weed, picking up a stone, and grabbing a handful of mud and sand, none of them had unlocked forms such as the Grass Shield, Stone Shield, or Mud and Sand Shield.
Did it require certain special items, or monster drops?
That was the rough conclusion Chuan Wenwu had drawn from what he knew so far. Still, he already had a general idea of how to make good use of the Book of Weapons' special "form-unlocking growth tree" mechanic...
He had intended to head deeper into the grassland to try it on other monsters, but Myne stopped him.
With a pitiful look, Myne pleaded, "Sir Hero, you've worked hard enough today. It's getting late, and staying outside the city any longer would be dangerous. Let's go back to the city and rest!"
Turning to look, Chuan Wenwu finally realized that, at some point, half of the crimson sun had already sunk below the horizon.
"All right, then. Let's head back."
Before you continue