Chapter Four: Quality Check of Heroes
It was the next day. After all our research into accessories, Ren, Imiya, and I were showing off our work, and with Raphtalia and Fohl joining the party, we were trying some of them out to test their effects. Mamoru, Filolia, and Holn were taking part too. The idea of including R’yne and S’yne had sounded too troublesome to Filolia, so they would be testing things later. S’yne had placed a pin on me, and R’yne the same on Mamoru; it was for the purpose of watching over us, but that also meant they heard everything we were saying.
This was a good chance for heroes from both sides to get better acquainted while trying out some items that might help us in our struggles ahead. Melty was still in Siltran Castle, while Ruft and that sheep therianthrope who worked with Mamoru were off acting as envoys to other nations. Mamoru had told me that not showing his face too easily was one method he used to place pressure on the opposite side when negotiating. Eclair had also gone along to keep them safe, but I was a little worried about whether they’d be okay.
“You guys make all sorts of accessories, don’t you, Naofumi?” Mamoru commented. He was doing the same thing I was—trying all sorts of different prototypes on his shield.
“I guess we do,” I agreed.
“Oh, this is a good one. It gives a massive boost to the power and range of Shield Boomerang.” Mamoru proceeded to throw his shield, which flew a long distance at considerable speed. I squinted as it went, noting that the shield was spinning in the air and surrounded by blades of light. It was going faster than before and looked more potent. I was jealous, I had to admit.
“That one’s really for Ren,” I told him. I’d designed it hoping to provide that auto-tracking effect to float skills. I didn’t even have the skill Shield Boomerang. Mamoru had told me that he’d learned it from the Frisbee Shield—a shield that I’d also copied; I didn’t learn any such skill. We were both the Shield Hero, so these differences between us were starting to piss me off.
He also had a skill called Shield Chain, which he could unleash as a follow-up to Shield Bash. I had Shield Bash, but I didn’t have Shield Chain. But I did have Chain Shield. With just a little swapping of the words, the effect was totally different. The fact he could attack at all made me so jealous. Even though we were both the Shield Hero, there were so many differences between us it offered almost no points of reference at all.
“I like this one!” Filolia exclaimed. “Imiya, was it? You have some real skill! You’ve caught the eye of the Maniacal Brave! Can I place a custom order?”
“I’m sorry, what?” Imiya asked, flustered and looking in our direction as Filolia closed in. She was holding the Cross Glawick Third Eye in her hands.
“That was made for Ren,” I told her. It was the one with the eyeball and magic circle motif. The special effect Ren had applied when he equipped it had been to increase the accuracy of his Hundred Swords. He had explained that the skill was the same as Motoyasu’s Aiming Lancer and Itsuki’s Arrow Rain. He said it also offered an effect predicting incoming magical arcs—the weapon allowed you to see, to some extent, the trajectory of incoming magic—and had also speeded up the activation of his magic a little. Maybe it was the eye motif that had created this focus on accuracy and eye-based effects. From the perspective of wanting to add a homing effect to float weapons, it was a failure. On the other hand, offering three effects at once was pretty incredible.
“The effect will probably change if you imbue some magic,” I said. This was one that Raphtalia, Fohl, and I had all tried first to be on the safe side.
“This is all very interesting,” Holn said. “Can I get involved?”
“I can see you making a load of half-animal accessories,” I commented. “Like those plants from before.” Holn had created the leaves for the Raph species. I would have preferred for her to research the accessories that could bind the holy or vassal weapons and find a way to break their hold more easily.
“In a certain light, those could maybe become accessories,” Holn pondered.
“I’m sure they could, but that’s a bit outside my expertise,” I replied. I worked with accessories by processing gemstones and metal; creating them using alchemy was something I had zero experience with. I was interested in finding out what would happen if you crushed a gemstone into powder and turned it into an accessory though, like when making medicine. “If that hammer you gave Natalia works out, maybe you can apply the same kind of techniques.”
“An interesting proposition,” Holn mused.
“Accessories, huh,” Fohl muttered, looking at the one in his hand.
“In your case, Fohl, I think some additional adornment might be better than something like a key holder,” I suggested. Something like metal spikes to wind around his gauntlets. His weapon was not dissimilar to the claws, but it involved more impact, after all. That said, there were some sharp gauntlets available, and the weapon operated differently from the claws Filolia used. “If you’d like to place a request, I’ll do my best to fill it,” I told him.
“I’m not sure how to respond to that . . . It’s clearly better to have something, but I’m not sure what. I haven’t learned float weapon skills like the Sword Hero yet, and the basic nature of the gauntlets means both of my hands are always full,” Fohl explained. It sounded like he didn’t really know what kind of effect would be useful for him. It wasn’t like he really had a go-to skill.
“What about if we connected the two gauntlets together by a chain or rope?” I suggested. It might make them look like handcuffs, at a glance, but I’d be interested to see what kind of effects they would have.