I was surprised, but thinking on it for a minute, I realized that even in my own world people spoke of knives losing their edge after cutting through meat. I suppose he meant that these swords would stay sharp for a long time. I stared at the swords for a short time. They were much higher quality than any of the replica swords I’d seen before. They looked like serious weapons.
“Those are, in order, iron, magic iron, magic steel, and silver iron. They get more expensive as they go, but the increase in quality is tremendous.”
Were they hardened to different degrees based on the ore used in their production? It seemed they were all made from iron.
“There are also weapons of higher quality, but in the 250 range, this is really what you’ve got to pick from.”
I’d heard of things like this before. In console games, the weapon shop in the first town would never have very good weapons available. This shop, however, seemed to have a really wide variety. That made it more like an online game. But then again, this WASN’T a game. In the real world, in any real world, the weapon shops in the capital were sure to have good materials available, right?
“An iron sword . . . Hmmm . . .”
I took one of them in hand, and sure enough, it was very heavy. The shield I carried was so light that I took little notice of it, but these weapons had significant heft. I’d have to use them to fight any monsters we encountered . . .
“Whoa!”
Suddenly, as if receiving an electric shock, the iron sword I was holding flew out of my hand.
“Huh?”
The shop owner and Myne were both looking at me and then at the sword where it lay. I reached for the sword again, assuming I’d dropped it. It sat in my hand as if nothing strange had happened at all. Just what was that?
I was wondering what had happened when the pain came shooting back up my arm.
“Ouch!”
What was going on? I glared at the owner, thinking he must have been up to something, but he shook his head. I didn’t think that Myne would want to interfere with me, but just to be safe, I looked over at her as well.
“It looked like it just flew out of your hand.”
But it couldn’t be . . . It just couldn’t. I stared at my own palm for a moment. As I did, words began to appear in my periphery.
Legendary weapon specification: a weapon besides the assigned equipment was held, violating the rule.
What the hell?
I rushed to bring up the help screen and read quickly through the articles there.
I found it!
The heroes may not hold a weapon aside from their assigned legendary weapon with the intent to fight with it.
What?! Was that supposed to mean I couldn’t use anything other than a shield in battle? What kind of crappy game only let you fight with a shield?
“Well,” I said, wincing and raising my face to the others. “It looks like I’m only allowed to use a shield . . .”
“But why? Can you let me see that?”
I held my shield arm out to the shop owner, but that was all I could do, as I was still unable to put the shield down.
The old guy whispered something to himself, and a small ball of light shot toward my shield, only to bounce off harmlessly. “Well,” he said. “It certainly looks like a normal Small Shield . . . but it behaves . . .”
“Oh, do you know it?” I asked.
The shield was also called a Small Shield on my status screen with “legendary weapon” added in parentheses to the side.
“You see this jewel lodged in the center of the shield? I feel a great amount of energy emanating from it. I tried looking into it with my appraisal magic but was unable to glean any information. If it was somehow cursed, I should have known that instantly.” He sighed and looked at me, stroking his trademark beard. “Well, you’ve certainly shown me something interesting. I guess you’ll be wanting some defensive goods?”
“Yes, please.”
“I’d like to give you what I can for 250, which probably means a suit of armor.”
Considering I already had a shield, I had to agree with him.
The owner pointed to a variety of armor suits that he had around the shop.
“Full plate armor tends to inhibit your movement, so it’s not well suited to adventuring. Regardless, chainmail is better for a beginner anyway.”
I reached for a suit of chainmail. It rattled and clinked in my hands. It was a whole shirt made from chains! I guess that was it, though. Was that all he had to offer?
An icon was flashing at me, and I quickly opened it.
Chainmail: defense up, slice resistance (small)
Ah hah! No information came up when I touched the swords because I was unable to equip them.
“How much does this cost?” Myne asked the owner.
“I’ll give you a discount. You can have it for 120.”
“What could we get for it?”
“Hm . . . I suppose you could get 100 or so.”
“Why’s that?”
“I was asking because if the Shield Hero outgrows it, we could probably sell it back.”
I was starting to understand. I was still at level 1, so as I leveled up, I would be able to equip better things, meaning this chainmail wouldn’t necessarily be useful for all that long. It looked like the shop had better armor available, but that was about the best I could do at my current level.
“All right then, we’ll take it.”
“Thank you very much! I’ll throw in some inner-wear to show my gratitude.”
We said our thanks, passed 120 silver pieces over to him, and received the chainmail.
“Will you change into that here?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, right over here.”
He led me to a changing room where I changed into the undershirt and chainmail. He then took my original clothing and packed it away into a sack for me.
“Hey now! You’re starting to look the part, lad!”
“Thank you.”
I guess he was trying to say something nice.
“All right then, hero. Shall we be off to battle?”
“Right on!”
I was starting to feel like a real adventurer when Myne and I left the shop.
We made our way back to the castle and entered through the main gate. On our way through, a knight bowed his head to me, so I waved back in response. I was feeling good.
How exciting! My adventure was finally beginning.