Chapter Two: Claws and Hammer Power-Up Methods
“Back in our time, the claw seven star weapon has fallen into the hands of the enemy, so we don’t know what its power-up method is. Can you explain it to us?” I asked.
“What?” Mamoru said in surprise. “You’re that strong . . . without the claw power-up method?”
“What’s wrong with that?” I said defensively. “The claws won’t play ball.”
“No, it’s just . . . you told me you could use the power-up methods from the world of the sword holy weapon, after the fusing, so I was kind of taking the others for granted,” Mamoru admitted.
“Didn’t I explain that?” I asked. “We can’t use those since coming to this time.” The reasons were still unclear, but we had lost about half our power-up methods since our arrival. Ren and I worked out a rough idea of how through our many discussions. From the power-ups from the four holy weapons, I could only use the shield and bow, and Ren could only use the sword and spear. We’d been working together to cover this gap in battle, using life force along with our attacks and applying buffs. It had worked out so far because the whip power-up method was so powerful. I could also apply the mirror power-up method, which provided me with some boosts. That was why we needed to know the claw and hammer power-up methods as quickly as possible.
We really should have asked Mamoru about this sooner.
“I can’t believe you’re that strong without even using it . . . That’s terrifying,” Mamoru breathed. Filolia gave an evil chuckle as she looked over at me intently. Then she twitched and straightened.
“The claw power-up method provides a mastery level for skills. Using the same skill over and over increases its level and enhances the abilities of that skill,” Filolia explained. “It can reduce the required SP, change the effects of the skill, increase its damage, or reduce the cooldown time.”
I looked at the skills I could use, and now—holding a firm awareness of the claw power-up method—I saw gauges appear on each one. It seemed to make sense. The more you used a skill, the easier it became to use. Even better, the mastery levels I had theoretically earned so far were now reflected. The Air Strike Shield branch and Shooting Star Shield master were high because I used them so often, but all my skills had received a boost in some fashion from this. It would be worth going through them all and seeing what had changed. I always popped off things like Float Shield when something kicked off, so those kinds of skills had earned a lot of experience.
The issue was, among the heroes we had here in this world, I was probably the only one for whom these changes had been reflected. The power-up method Ren needed to learn was the axe, maybe.
“Do you know the hammer power-up method?” I asked.
“Legend says it is the fusing of weapons,” Mamoru replied. We certainly didn’t have “legends” about power-up methods back in our time, but if that provided the details, then so be it. I took a moment to think about weapon fusing. I had an idea what it would mean. “You can take the most characteristic equip effect from one weapon tree and apply it to another weapon,” Mamoru continued. I decided to try it with the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield, which had been enhanced a lot already.
Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield 100/100
<abilities locked> equip bonus: skills: S Float Shield, Reflect Shield
special effects: gravity field, C soul recovery, C magic snatch, C gravity shot, vitality boost, magic defense (large), lightning resistance, nullify SP drain, magic assistance, spell support, growth power
special equip effect: Shooting Star Shield (Spirit Tortoise)
Item enchant level 10, defense 15% up
There were some new circular icons down at the bottom too. Those had to indicate the hammer power-up method. Then I looked at using the Shield of Compassion from the Bless Series, just to make sure its effects were a different category of power-up from weapon fusion. The Bless Series couldn’t be directly enhanced. It worked by being mixed with a normal shield. It didn’t matter how weak the other shield was; it would get a real boost from the Shield of Compassion.
I decided to try adding the Soul Eater Shield to the Spirit Tortoise one. I recalled that the Shield of Compassion also had the equip effect “spell support,” which acted in the same way as Trash’s staff to make casting magic easier. Combined with the support of the copy of the Demon Dragon, I could cast Liberation in half the time it took anyone else.
I was getting off track, anyway. Soul Eater Shield weapon fusion!
Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield 100/100
<abilities locked> equip bonus: skills: S Float Shield, Reflect Shield
special effects: gravity field, C soul recovery, C magic snatch, C gravity shot, vitality boost, magic defense (large), lightning resistance, nullify SP drain, magic assistance, spell support, growth power
special equip effect: Shooting Star Shield (Spirit Tortoise)
Item enchant level 10, defense 15% up
Soul Eat
I immediately noticed that all enhancements to the Soul Eater Shield had been reset. I tried further fusion with other enhanced shields, but it seemed there was an upper limit for increases, depending on the strength of the weapon. So this system wasn’t going to be a walk in the park either. I took a look at the Reflect Shield . . . to see I hadn’t used it at all. It allowed the counterattack effect from any shield to be temporarily added to a shield that didn’t have one of its own. There just weren’t many chances to use it, with the Spirit Tortoise Carapace and True Demon Dragon Shield already having their own powerful counters. I had been using the Shield of Wrath recently, but that caused quite a drop in my defense. Basically, reflect was becoming a dead skill that I couldn’t use. It couldn’t even be applied at the same time as other skills.
In any case, my counterattacks were weaker than those from Raphtalia and Ren. Maybe they could be used when trying to cause status effects, but pretty much anything of any significance that we fought was ready for it. Taking attacks on Shooting Star Shield didn’t trigger it either.
I wondered if the mirror vassal weapon was still attached to me and providing support for the shield. The mirror did keep popping up on its own. It wasn’t completely clear, but the enhancements I had performed with the mirror still seemed to be working and were reflected in my stats. It was higher than the stats that Ren, Raphtalia, and Fohl had told me about. If Itsuki was here, maybe we could have verified all of this.
Raphtalia had access to the power-up methods from the hunting tool, jewels, katana, mirror, harpoon, and book. She couldn’t use the ofuda power-up method, which was similar to the whip. Luckily, all her training and the whip playing along—for the time being—allowed her access to that, although Raphtalia had complained to me about the enhancement ratio.
I’d need to give the hammer power-up method some thought. It looked like the enhancements could be removed afterward. The Soul Eater Shield was also displaying a remainder. It looked like three was the maximum. I wondered what would happen when they were all used up.
“Mamoru, I’ve got some kind of remaining number displayed?” I asked him.
“That’s right. Once you use all of those up, you can’t make any more changes. Obtaining those materials again will replenish the number,” Mamoru explained. That was pretty much what I’d been expecting. “There are also weapons you can only obtain through fusing. It’s a pretty deep system.” It reminded me of a weapon from that famous Roguelike game that could be obtained by giving a fully enhanced katana to the blacksmith. Maybe using a specific, special fusion method could create the ultimate sword. If I could use this method at the moment, though, it meant Ren probably couldn’t.
“Maybe if you fill in the weight category, you’ll stop getting hungry?” I pondered.
“What are you talking about now?” Mamoru asked. “Some game thing again?”
I ignored the minus effect of equipping any other shield that would make your stomach super small.
“Yeah, something like that,” I said. This provided the potential for something other than using grow up—like the bow power-up method. You could use materials to enhance a weapon to the maximum and evolve it into a new one. Filolia looked pretty pleased with herself, for some reason, and switched her claws to weapons that looked like dragon heads.
“I mixed in some claws that were effective against dragons with my regular claws and obtained new, more powerful claws.” Filolia chuckled maniacally. “Further power only increases the darkness inside me!”
“Sure, whatever,” I said. Being able to combine some shields together and create something totally new did sound promising.
“That’s all you’ve got to say?” Filolia replied, a little disappointed.
“Filolia, you can’t expect to get a reaction from Naofumi. His ultimate ability is to ignore other people trying to make a joke,” Mamoru told her. Raphtalia was the one who responded to attempts at comedy. If Filolia wanted a reaction, she should direct her comments at Raphtalia. With that thought, I glanced over at her.
“Mr. Naofumi, please don’t look at me,” Raphtalia said quickly. This whole thing was such a pain, but at least it had also provided some fresh information. I’d just collect what we could and move on.
The hammer was a vassal weapon with forging elements. At least that was easy to understand. The issue was which combination of shields to use. I tried combining wrath and mercy together, but no dice there. I couldn’t combine the 0 series either. Special shields clearly couldn’t be fused. For the foreseeable future, I’d work with fusing the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield and True Demon Dragon Shield. I’d use the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield as the base. It still annoyed me that combining materials from the four benevolent animals was likely to create the ultimate shield. The only way to get the dragon ones would be having Gaelion turn into it, and that would also mean having to fight him. I wondered if maybe we could use one of his scales instead. I remembered the Demon Dragon saying he had a seal similar to one of the benevolent animals. It sounded like there was something there to explore.