“Huh?” Mamoru raised an eyebrow. “It has that effect for you? It’s called ‘single shot’ for me.” It sounded like the same shield could have different equip effects, depending on the user. That seemed worth investigating. I imbued some magic into the shield—this was a “magic” bullet we were talking about—and pulled the trigger again. It made the same clicking sound, but nothing else happened. It didn’t look like simply providing some magic was enough to make fresh ammo. My first shot hadn’t consumed anything either. Maybe I needed to add some actual magic. I decided to try with some simple magic . . . and at that thought, the Demon Dragon infesting my mind popped up.
“My time to shine!” she quipped. “First Heal!” That was minor enough that the effect wouldn’t really change whether I incanted or not. I felt the sensation of the magic being transmitted into the center of the shield. I decided to give it a try and found myself pointing the shield at Fohl. The resulting sound was far more promising this time and my magic bullet was fired off toward Fohl. I thought I heard a very quiet voice say, “Experiment time!”
Fohl gave a shout as magical light scattered over him. The shot was fired too close for him to avoid it. He didn’t seem to have suffered any damage, but that was probably a given since the “attack” had come from me. It seemed more likely that he had been hit by First Heal.
“It looks like a shield that can turn magic into bullets and then fire them off,” I surmised.
“You didn’t hesitate to shoot me, did you, Brother?!” Fohl complained.
“I actually didn’t pull the trigger,” I replied.
“Maybe it was Atla playing a prank,” Raphtalia suggested.
“I think . . . I’d quite like that,” Fohl said. His feelings were definitely complex when it came to Atla! I couldn’t say outright that it hadn’t been her. I even heard that unexpected voice. I had to wonder about a sister who would just shoot her brother without any hesitation at all.
“Turning magic into bullets and firing them around. That’s pretty impressive,” Mamoru said.
“The issue there is that I can only use healing and support or buff magic,” I said.
“I can’t see much need to turn those into bullets and shoot them—at least not in this little old time period,” Holn said, providing analysis already. Healing magic in this world could be activated by selecting a target and incanting; so long as they were within range, you didn’t have to be able to see them for the magic to still work. It wasn’t like attack magic, which you needed to actually aim with.
“I guess not. There might be ways to use it, but I doubt situations quite so specific will ever come up,” I said. I recalled working with the Demon Dragon to turn some support magic into a ball that we bounced off my mirrors before activation. There might be some applications like that, but they would also be a pain to set up. Ren provided more powerful support magic than me. My own enhancements weren’t reflected in my magic at the moment. It wasn’t even really a candidate for weapon fusion—too finicky to use.
“Can you have someone else charge it with magic and then use it yourself when you need it?” Mamoru suggested.
“Let me give that a try,” Ren said. He reached toward my shield with one hand and incanted some magic. It didn’t feel like it loaded into the chamber like before.
“Doesn’t look like it,” I said.
“It’s never been the easiest shield to use,” Mamoru replied, exasperated. I wondered if we could make a few modifications to it ourselves. When I saw the Shield Spirit again, I was definitely going to complain about Mamoru being able to attack when I couldn’t.
“Best just not to worry about it, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia suggested.
“I guess. Let’s check the next shield,” I said. I unwrapped the second shield that Mamoru had got R’yne to bring over. I could tell this was a big one even when it was still covered up. But once revealed, it really demonstrated Mamoru’s hard work. The big shield had three swords attached to the top and bottom, a weapon known as a “sword shield.” It was used by swinging it around and mashing it into enemies. It could be used defensively too, of course, but it was mainly about bashing stuff. Filolia picked it up in both hands and started swinging it around.
“This should count as a shield,” Mamoru commented.
“I think I saw one like it in Siltvelt,” I replied. I hadn’t copied it—to be more precise, it had been so decorative that I hadn’t been able to. The one in Siltvelt had been used more as a kind of riff on the idea of a national flag. I picked up this new one and checked it out.
Conditions for the Iron Sword Shield have been unlocked.
Iron Sword Shield
<abilities locked> equip bonus: defense + 2, strength + 2
equip effects: enhance Shield Bash, Wild Swing, reduce impact
The equip effects seemed good, but I wasn’t sold overall. It might give the shields the old guy had on display in his store a run for their money, but that was about it. No matter the enhancements, it wouldn’t be worthy of any of my current shields. Equipping it didn’t even change my attack, meaning I could swing it around all I liked but I wouldn’t be doing any damage other than to my pride. Just to make sure, I used some iron ore to enhance it via the bow power-up method. It had an upper limit but couldn’t fail. And as expected, that increased defense but not attack power. That was to be my lot in life.
“My attack power isn’t increasing,” I reported. I changed to the shield and swung it around a bit. I focused on Wild Swing and it did feel like a skill with the motion appearing in my head. I gave it a try, but my pathetic attempt to attack just sliced through the air. It was so big I needed to hold it with both hands, which was a pain. Also, Wild Swing—as the name suggested—left the user completely exposed. I liked the enhancement to Shield Bash, but when I used that skill, I could only stun for a brief moment. It might be worth using if it boosted the length of that stun. Some weapon fusing might eventually make it useable, but I doubted the effect would be that great even then. Yeah, I didn’t need this either. It was going to just bolster my stats and that was it. “Based on the shape, I might make use of it as a surfboard or canoe,” I joked sardonically.