Chapter Text
"We should have interrogated Naofumi."
Natsuki Subaru sighed as he leaned back in his chair, his right arm equipped with the Legendary Shield. The Legendary Shield that should have been on his Schoolmate's Arm but wasn't.
"Well, it's not like we expected a Third Isekai Event to happen to us." The Giant Skeleton known simply as Ainz Ooal Gown countered his classmate.
Said Giant Skeleton also had the Legendary Sword hung off his left hip, which the four of them didn't know existed until they were summoned.
"I ignored my internal nagging to set up a firing range at School." Major Tanya Von Degurechaff shook her head. The Legendary Spear strapped to her back. "But I doubt gun expertise will translate that well to spear expertise."
"Yeah. But guns in that world fired wine bottle corks, not actual bullets." Satou Kazuma replied. The Legendary Bow strung over his back, with the string crossing from his left shoulder to his right hip across his chest.
Subaru rubbed his face before leaning back upright and looking at the map of the Melromarc Nation in the center of their little meeting/poker table. "This is far too much for just us four, no matter how overpowered our resident Lich and War Cleric are."
"I am not a Cleric!" Tanya protested.
Ainz turned to face his fellow former Salaryman. "You pray to a god and receive power. If that is not the basic definition of a Cleric/Paladin, then I don't know what is."
"Besides." Tanya continued. "Any good kingdom has a decent military unless you want to get conquered and/or enslaved. Because this isn't the first time these "Waves of Calamity" have struck this world, then it's a fair assumption that all nations current or otherwise have a strong military."
"So that just leaves the Wave Bosses (or whatever they call their Demon King Generals) up to us," Kazuma said. "No Pressure at all then."
"Tomorrow let's all go to the blacksmiths and I'll get us some gear, I do have an entire pocket dimension worth of gold after all," Ainz stated.
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"Welcome to my shop, the name’s Erhard. How may I be of assistance?" said the man behind the counter.
The only reason why Erhard didn't break his composure, was to be polite about it when a roughly seven-foot-tall Skeleton clad in Archmage-like robes bent over to get into his store. Was the simple fact of how long he was a blacksmith and before that a Level 87 Adventurer. Though this was definitely in the top 10 oddest moments of his life, only topped by the Waves of Calamity myth coming true.
Judging by the Sword on the skeleton's hip, the two young men with a Bow and Shield respectively, and the little girl with a Spear. Erhard reckoned these were the 'Legendary Heroes' here to defeat and/or fix the Waves.
"We require equipment, our gear was left in our previous world." Lord Sword said.
Lord Shield went over to the closet sword rack to the door and picked up a decent-quality sword. Before sparks flew, a crack sounded, and the sword flew out of Lord Shield's hand embedding itself into the wall.
[Legendary Weapon Violation] flashed across every Hero's vision.
"Ah." Lord Shield merely said with a depressing tone.
Lady Spear raised her eyebrow and ...literally floated (using the Spear as a proxy Orb, Tanya wanted her free will after all. And thus was uncharacteristically slow) over to the spears before picking up one. And the Spear on her back transformed into a copy of the one in her hands.
[Weapon Copy Online]
"What," Erhard asked in disbelief.
"Sorry Mr. Erhard, but the Status magic said violation and not using the Legendary Weapons. But it's stupid if we couldn't use other weapons of the same type." Lady Spear Apologized before turning to her fellow heroes. "If you touch another item of the same type as the Legendary Weapon, then you'll copy it."
Lords Bow and Shield bolted to their respective item racks.
Heat engulfed Subaru's body, spreading from his torso and his spilled innards. Subaru’s arm was violently torn off after an agonizing climb up the stairwell before his head got stabbed and crushed by Rem’s Morningstar. The shock of razor wind shearing off his leg before the Morningstar undid the healing. Waking up to the torturous twins once more and refusing to eat their potentially poisoned meals-
All of that pain and suffering would/could have been prevented with this promised durability.
"SUCK IT MITSU-PRICK! MY BOW'S BETTER THAN ANYTHING IN AQUA'S ARSENAL!" Lord Bow yelled in glee, unknowingly jolting Lord Shield out of his memories.
"OI! Stop stealing my wares!" Erhard vaulted his counter.
Lord Shield blushed as he withdrew from the item rack and glanced at the transparent Status screen.
[Weapon Copy engaged:
Light Metal Shield.
Wood Shield.
Light Metal Shield.
Abilities Locked.
Equip Bonus: Defense +1
Special Equip Effect: Magic Defense +1]
Thinking quickly, Lord Sword reached into a dark purple disc and withdrew a piece of gold. As Lord Shield pulled Lord Bow away from the items.
"How much is this worth in your currency?" Lord Sword asked. Successfully distracting Erhard from his warpath.
Erhard blinked before walking over and grabbing the Tree engraved Gold Coin casting Appraisal Magic. There wasn't even a single Atomos of another element in this coin. If there were (at least 100) other coins in the purple disc and they were like this one, then Lord Sword would have enough gold for Erhard to start his retirement nest egg.
"This is worth 3 Melmaroc Gold," Erhard said.
"How much would it cost to copy every weapon in your store, Mr. Erhard?" Lord Sword followed up.
Erhard rubbed his chin before reaching to the sword rack and inspecting one of the copied swords. Miraculously there was no degradation from the copy process, so Erhard cut the cost of depreciation from his mental calculations.
"6 Melmarocian gold in total, since the copy process does no damage," Erhard answered as he put the sword back onto its rack. "If you start a commission now for custom weapons and/or armor, then your total will be a modest 12 Melmarocian Gold. Just think about it while I get my non-display stock." Erhard proposed while he vaulted over his counter again and left to his store room.
Subaru and Kazuma went back to mass copying everything in the shop. Erhard made several trips to the back and laid the contents on the counter.
"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown (just call me Ainz) and these are my friends, Major Tanya von Degurechaff as the Spear Hero, Satou Kazuma as the Bow Hero, and I guess Natsuki Subaru got the spare Shield." Erhard nodded at Ainz's introductions. "On the topic of armor, while I do have several Level-Damage Caps, my friends do not." Lord Ainz answered.
Erhard tilted his head at Level-Damage Caps. Lord Kazuma saw his confusion and did a high kick to his comrade. It was blocked by something like a Magical Shield around Lord Ainz. Lord Kazuma then spun into a roundhouse kick aimed at Lord Ainz's head but again Lord Kazuma's kick was blocked. Lord Kazuma then did a backflip over Lord Ainz's head and at the top of his arc, Lord Kazuma unleashed Fire Magic. Which too was blocked by the 'Level-Damage Cap'.
"So yes that would be appreciated." Lord Ainz finished while ignoring his friend's antics.
"Thaaaats a bit ...unfair." Erhard shrugged. "But hey, I can't complain if the unfairness is on my side."
Lady Tanya was busy making unsettling sounds while her Spear rapidly changed into new configurations.
Lord Subaru wasn't making any noises but did have an equally unsettling expression. "On one hand, I won't be using Return by Death as much. But on the other hand, I won't be using Return by Death as much. Yay for Stat Stacking! I should brush up on investigation skills to compensate. Can't be useless."
Both of them ignored the various status screens that appeared in their visions. There was a better place to collectively ponder/brainstorm over what each Stat did in reality.
"Lady Tanya, would you like a resized armor set or a customized set with Arcane boosters?" Erhard proposed.
Lady Tanya shook herself out of noise-making kleptomania and pondered Erhard's proposal. "So long as the armor won't go over 10 kilos (no wait, I don't have to carry ammo now), make it 20 kilos, I'm fine with whatever you choose. You are the professional at this, after all." Lady Tanya tilted her head. "What do you mean by Arcane boosters?"
"Assuming that the wind you command to fly centers on your feet, I can lace mithril into the Greeves so that the wind spell can be more efficient mana-wise" Erhard replied. "I can also lace the gauntlets with an alloy that boosts the potency of any spells"
"Ah." Lady Tanya nodded in understanding. "If mana efficiency and potency can be manipulated then I assume stuff like movement speed and flexibility are malleable as well? If so I would prefer those alloys over than magic enhancers, I have enough of a magic booster in my Type 95." Lady Tanya tapped her red and gold necklace.
“Yes, that is what the Agility Stat modifies., Erhard noted down Lady Tanya's order and turned to Lord Kazuma.
"I'm planning on being an Archery/Artillery Mage, so put me down for that Magic Boost armor please." Lord Kazuma answered the unheard question.
"I prefer to be mobile rather than an indestructible and (relatively) immobile wall, so chainmail and another instance of that Agility boost please." Lord Subaru politely asked.
Erhard nodded and pointed over to the chainmail sections.
"Say, mister, before you go off to do your blacksmith things. Could you tell us the average citizen's perspective of us?" Asked Lord Kazuma. "Our greeting-"
"Oh is that what we're calling that fiasco now?" Lord Subaru interrupted his compatriot.
"-interrupted the summoner info dump on how everyone views us." Lord Kazuma finished.
"Well, worshipping anyone of the Heroes is a staple of every nation on the continent, if not the world. But Melromarc specifically worships the Spear as an example of Everlasting Loyalty, the Bow of Fair Justice and Judgement, and the Sword of Unyielding Bravery as our State Religion." Erhard glanced away from the gathered Heroes and rubbed the back of his head. "And the Shield is despised as the Shield Devil."
Lord Subaru chuckled. "Shield Devil, Witch's Scent." Lord Subaru moved his hands like he was weighing the two concepts before shrugging. "Been there, done that. Made the T-shirt and lost it to Time. Literally."
“In comparison, Silveit claims that they were founded by the Shield Hero. I always thought that was propaganda to justify their World Domination attempt some odd 20 years ago. But…” Erhard waved his hand at the collected Heroes. “Thus the demihumans of Silveit despise the Spear, Bow, and Sword Heroes with the same if not greater intensity than our State Religion hates the Shield Devil.”
“Is there any reason why I shouldn’t hightail it over to Silveit and then come back for the Waves?” Lord Subaru asked.
“Do you want to be hidden away in the deepest parts of the Silveit nation, unable to affect anything because your (according to legend) stupidly large harem pampers you into sloth before you get assassinated in political infighting?” Erhard asked in reply.
“You had me until Get assassinated .” Lord Kazuma answered.
Erhard laughed. “Sorry Lord Kazuma but you will be stopped by our border guards. If you are desperate for demi-human companionship there are always Shieldfreeden Mercenaries, I think a couple of their companies have outposts here in Melromarc.”
“Nice to know that option exists.” Lord Subaru commented. “And even though segregation does exist, outright slavery of either species is not a thing.”
Erhard looked down at his counter and fiddled with the bits and bobs.
Ainz remembered the sheer amount of time his fellow guild member Herohero spent in the game Yggdrasil nearly asleep. The hassle of getting into a hazmat suit and gas mask to merely go outside, knowing that he would need to start saving up for artificial lung surgery shortly. Remembering Ulbert’s story of how his parent’s factory didn’t stop the line to extract his parents’ corpses thus forcing Ulbert to start working at an age even younger than Ainz had to.
“Slavery isn’t a thing-” Lord Ainz leaned closer to Erhard. “Right?”
“Demihuman slavery is perfectly legal under the Church and Queen’s laws,” Erhard replied. “While Queen Mirellia has removed the more archaic laws, she is more focused on Diplomatic concerns.”
“Well at the very least there aren’t any slave merchants in the Capitol.” Lady Tanya tried to look on the bright side. “It would be a major faux pas with any Silveit and Shieldfreeden delegations.”
Erhard only had silence to give.
Lord Ainz swirled and swooped out of the shop causing his compatriots to leave as well.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't cast my Pathfinding to Desire spells, find the slavers, rip out their hearts, and crush their still-beating hearts in my hands before their very eyes, and then free the slaves?" Ainz intoned.
"We have no space to house them and no food to feed them. Let alone loyal manpower to defend them when we are fighting the waves." Tanya countered.
Ainz unleashed a dark purple mist from his hands that should have manifested a temporary Death Knight. But the mist evaporated under the Sun's wrath. "It seems I need actual corpses to do any necromancy in this reality." Ainz crossed his arms. "But fine, the first village/town/whatever that needs my help is getting overtaken as the First Extra-Dimensional Colony of the Sorcerous Kingdom."
"Oh good, I was wondering where I could crash if the locals wouldn't let me stay." Kazuma put his hands behind his head.
"Great Heroes! The King summons you to his Throne Room, your Adventuring Parties have assembled!" said the Messenger who spotted them after turning the corner.