"Nn. Tidy." Fran said as she followed Motoyasu through the front doors of the Weapons Shop.
That pretty much summarized Shishou's first impressions of the place as well.
Where Gallus and the other dwarfs who they had frequented had housed their wears in what could generously be called a disaster zone, with pieces of armor and weaponry scattered across every surface, as well as uncleaned dinner plates and blueprints, this place was actually clean. Armor was on armor racks and the swords were carefully displayed, rather than just sitting in barrels.
In other words, while Gallus had been a blacksmith at heart who only grudgingly owned and operated a weapons and armor shop, whoever owned this place put more pride in his establishment.
Made sense, since Gallus was a drifter himself, hating the notoriety he gained for his art and always searching for a place to work in peace.
As they entered, a tall buff man with dark skin and a scar on his bald head glanced over at them. Considering his heavy leathers, he was clearly a blacksmith, but he also held himself like a fighter.
"Strong." Fran said as she saw the man.
A quick appraisal showed that the man was level 87.
[Holy hell! This guy is a higher level than the Beast Lord!] Shishou said in shock. Though, his stats weren't quite as high as he was lacking many of the OP skills and titles of the Beast Lord, but matching an S-rank Adventurer's level was frankly insane.
Looking closer, 'Erhard's Skill page didn't make much sense. He had a descent level in many forms of combat, but nothing at the Divine level, and he had both [Blacksmithing] and [Magic Blacksmithing] but lacked the [Smithing Magic] utility skill that all Magic Blacksmiths have.
He was as strong as an A-ranker, though his lack of high quality Skills would drag him down into the B-rank range.
"I'll be with you all in a minute. Just let me take care of these two first." Erhard said, gesturing with his head at Naofumi and a beautiful red headed woman, who had gone unnoticed by Fran and Shishou, as their attention had immediately been grabbed by the strongest person in the room.
Naofumi seemed to be trying on some chainmail. Basic equipment for a basic noob. Not like he had the cash to afford real equipment.
"Oh, you managed to find her?" Naofumi said as he spotted Fran with Motoyasu, walking over to greet them.
"Yeah, I ran into her at the Adventurer's Guild hall this morning." Motoyasu replied.
"I'm glad she hadn't gotten herself into trouble or anything. Why'd you wander off anyways? You had everyone worried." Naofumi said, bending down a bit, like an adult talking to a child.
His [Friend of Animals] skill was going full blast, only to slam into Fran's [Thought Isolation] skill, stopping it from having any effect. The Shield Hero failed his charisma check, and Fran remained Fran.
"...Who are you again?" Fran asked, tilting her head.
"Ah…" Naofumi's face fell a little.
Motoyasu gave off a snort of laughter. "Don't take it personally. She didn't remember me either. I think she is just the type who doesn't really open up to people very quickly."
Shishou wouldn't say that Fran didn't open up to people quickly. She was actually very charismatic. She would make friends very quickly and would be willing to put her life on the line for those friends just minutes after making them. She just didn't bother to remember anyone who wasn't her friend. Even major villains kind of faded into the background within a week if they didn't get more than thirty minutes of screen time.
"Now I'm even more worried about the future." Naofumi said with a sigh as Fran lost interest and started to look around. "Is she going to be okay?"
"I know what you mean, but there isn't much we can do. I'm helping her out as much as I can, but she refuses to get party members and if we try to babysit her ourselves, it will cripple our growth." Motoyasu said with a sigh.
"She refuses to get a party?" Naofumi said, more than a little surprise.
"Yeah, and she might not even be wrong not to party with these people." Motoyasu mumbled, trying not to be heard by Fran, though he might as well not have bothered. "People around here act strangely towards her. When we visited the church, they tried to deny her entrance and everyone there looked at her with these horrible glares. I'm starting to think that there might be factions in this country who are prejudiced against Demihumans."
"Ah… Hero-sama, you are reading too much into it!" One of Motoyasu's party members said frantically. "It was the girl's own disrespectful nature that gained her such ridicule, and children are not supposed to visit the Grand Cathedral!"
Motoyasu seemed unconvinced, until Naofumi's party member also spoke up. "It's true that normally people aren't allowed inside of the sacred grounds where the Dragon's Hourglass is held. Even nobles are not granted access for no reason. I imagine that having a child playing about in such a holy place wouldn't be received well."
"Is that so? Well that's a relief." Motoyasu said, instantly believing the woman... for some reason.
Shishou didn't believe her for a second. Even without using [Principle of Falsehood], he could have smell this lie a mile away. Which was good, because when he tried activating the [Principle of Falsehood], the skill went absolutely nuts, as if lies were being fired at him with a machine gun. Even when no one was talking, the skill was still reacting to something.
The red haired girl turned towards them and smiled.
(Grr...) From within Fran's shadow, Urushi began to growl, sending a telepathic message to Fran and Shishou. It was a wordless message, but they understood it all the same.
Evil.
The wolf's [Evil Detection] skill was triggering.
The latches holding Shishou's scabbard closed clicked unlocked as Fran changed her footing into a battle ready position, her eyes locking onto the red haired woman. Anyone who gave off the energy of the Evil God was an automatic enemy.
[How come you didn't sense it sooner?] Shishou asked the pup, only to receive a whine in return.
The energy wasn't exactly like the Evil God's energy, but it was really really close. It was also kind of weak.
(Shishou: engage?) Fran asked, ready to take the woman's head, regardless of what people thought.
[Unless we can prove she is a servant of the Evil God, I'm thinking that killing her is a no go. We don't really want to be labeled as murderers.]
(What do then?)
[Hm...] Shishou was considering how to proceed when Motoyasu shouted something that shocked them.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, you pervert!?"
Fran followed the Spear Hero's eyes, as well as the confused or disgusted eyes of the rest of the room and found that Erhard had moved up right next to her, and was bent down, looking at her with wide eyes.
"Oy. Little Ms., where did you get that armor?" The man asked, not even seeming to register that he had just been called out.
"Blacksmith named Gallus made it for me." Fran replied simply, already used to this kind of reaction from blacksmiths.
"Gallus… never heard of him." Erhard mumbled, wondering how he could have never heard of such an outstanding blacksmith. "I've never seen armor like this before. I thought that armor that had a Divine Blessing was nothing more than a myth."
"Nn. Black Cat Set: top-tier armor. The Black Cat's Divine Protection." Fran boasted proudly, the evil woman disappearing from her mind.
"Blessed armor?" Naofumi said, hearing about what sounded like real late game equipment. It really didn't look like it would protect against much, but he supposed that video game logic was in play here.
"Man, I would give anything to be able to take a closer look at it." Erhard said with pleading eyes.
"Sorry. No time." Fran replied.
"Oh." Erhard sulked before picking himself back up a bit. "Well, what can I do for you? You don't seem to need any armor and your accessories also look like top quality stuff. Your weapon looks pretty good too. So what do you need?"
"Look to copy your swords. Also sell junk." Fran replied curtly.
"Copy my swords?" Erhard repeated, not understanding what Fran meant.
"I'll explain that." Motoyasu broke in. He explained to the blacksmith about the Legendary Weapons copying functions and asked if they could please copy his weapons. Naofumi was surprised to hear about this, to which Motoyasu just told him to read the help menu more carefully in the future, to the shield user's annoyance.
"I see. Legendary weapons sure are something." Erhard hummed as he looked over Shishou. "Sure. I'll let you copy my weapons for a small fee."
"Thank you." Motoyasu said, a little annoyed that he had to pay a fee when the blacksmith got to keep the originals. If Fran hadn't mentioned the copy function, he probably would have just let sleeping dogs lie, instead of using his limited funds.
"So what about the stuff you wanted to sell me?" Erhard asked.
"This." Fran said before pulling out a set of shiny silver armor out of their [Dimensional Storage], only somewhat covered in blood. It was large, too large for a human body, because it had once belonged to a Minotaur. "Have around 3,000 sets of these. Hoping I can sell some of them."
"3…3,000!" Naofumi shouted in shock. "Why!? How!?"
"Fran, why do you have 3,000 sets of armor!?" Motoyasu shouted as well.
Their voices were loud enough for Fran to fold her ears down and give them looks of frustration before responding. "Before I was summoned, fought against Monster Stampede. Dungeon North of the Beastkin Nation attacked with an army of Evil Beings."
"Evil Beings?" Naofumi said, wondering what that meant.
"Goblins. Orcs. Ogres. Minotaurs. Monsters who serve the Evil God. Evil Beings." Fran explained. "There was an army of over 30,000, but I didn't collect all of it. Most was destroyed in the fighting."
"Why? Why does such a young girl have to fight against something like that?" Motoyasu asked, horrified. Fran was only 12. In what kind of fucked up world did a 12 year old have to stand against the Armies of Evil?
"The Beastkin army had been lured to the South, so I had to fight them by myself to protect my tribe. I was the only one who could." Fran replied, her voice monotone, giving her words a tragic feel to them… despite the fact that Fran was just telling the facts. "Lucky, reinforcements arrived before I was overrun."
Motoyasu felt numb as he remembered the state that Fran was in when they had first been summoned, looking as if she had just stepped off of the battlefield, drenched in blood and her clothes covered in cuts.
Was she like him and Itsuki? Had she died fighting against that army? Did this child have to give her life for the sake of her people? He wondered what kind of life the girl had had in order to be able to make such a sacrifice.
While Motoyasu lamented the tragic life and death of this young girl, and Naofumi simply stared in shock, their party members exchanged very worried looks, frightened of the little beast girl.
Erhard looked over the armor closely. "I don't think anyone could actually wear this, but I'll buy some of it for raw materials." The blacksmith offered.
It didn't take long for their transaction to be complete, with Fran just accepting whatever the old man offered her, much to Naofumi's objections, with the Shield Hero saying that she should have at least tried to barter. She simply didn't care enough to. The armor was taking up space and she wanted to get rid of it.
After their dealings with the blacksmith, they continued to talk with Motoyasu until their shopping was done, before Fran rushed off out of the city to finally see what the world had to offer.
It was time for the hunt to begin.
"Boring." Fran said after having finished cutting down a two hundred giant fanged deer.
The monsters were around E-rank threats and not worth an insubstantial amount of experience, but they were weak. They didn't scratch Fran's battle junky itch. The monster's might have had E-rank stats, and there might have been a lot of them, but they were pretty bad when it came to actual combat.
The hunting ground was one not far from the capital, just a day by horseback, or two hours on the back of their trusted Dire Wolf. It had been the place suggested by Motoyasu as a good place for Fran to grow some easy and safe levels.
[Even so, they were enough to let you level up. 10x experience is no joke.] Shishou commented, checking Fran's stats to find she had grown from level 50 to level 51.
They had rushed off to fight in order to confirm what Motoyasu had said about Weapon Forms being masterable by using them to kill monsters in battle. Which had turned out to be true, so they quickly hunted until they Mastered the Beast Tamer weapons, in order to boost Urushi's stats even further. Now their companion was reserving almost a 25% boost to all of his stats, on top of all of the increases to future stat gains, which was frankly absurd.
"What now?" Fran asked as she pocketed away the fanged deer and dismantled it using Shishou's new functions. They had already maxed out the new forms granted by the fanged deer through repeated absorption, and were now just storing the parts for later.
…Strangely enough though, when Shishou and Fran put new monsters into their storage, random items kept appearing in there with the corpses. Things like potions, small quantities of coins, or novelty hats and clothes. It was weird.
[How about we try out the other new functions?] Shishou suggested.
They had already tested 'Absorb' and 'Dismantle' but they still had 'Convert' and 'Infuse' that they had no idea what they did.
Fran nodded her agreement. "Infuse first."
Infused had been mentioned by Motoyasu as a method for strengthening individual weapon forms. You could take a large quantity of materials of the same type and 'infuse' it into the weapon form, giving it an additional passive for when that form was equipped.
They didn't know what kind of results they would get, so Fran took a hundred of the fangs from the fanged deer and infused them all into Shishou's new 'Deer Fang Sword' form.
Name: Deer Fang Sword
ATK: 213
MP: 30/30
Durability: 50/50
Magical Conductivity: F+
Self Evolution – Rank 1
Core Points: 0/253
Equipment Bonus: +1 DEX. (Mastered)
Enchantment Bonus: +20 DEX (100 Giant Fanged Deer Fangs)
[+20!? Wow, that's a sizable bonus!] Shishou said, more than a little impressed.
It had been a relatively low grade material, and one that they could have gotten a lot more of.
If you could get 20 points for what was effectively 50 kills, what could you get for 1000?
Sadly, you could only get a single Enchantment Bonus for each weapon form, as any new enchantment would overwrite the old one, so they would need to make sure that the bonus fit the form.
"Nn. Have to find best materials." Fran nodded her agreement. "Now 'Conversion."
She selected a not yet dismantled creature and hit the 'Conversion' button.
1 Giant Fanged Deer → 20 CP
[...YES!] Shishou cheered along with Fran and Urushi as he received Magic Stone Points for the first time since getting to this new world. [Thank the Gods, I was afraid I was locked out of my Self-Evolution path entirely.]
"Where should we put it?" Fran asked, as the points had yet to be assigned to any form yet.
[Let's go with my base form, since it is the cheapest to upgrade and has a good amount of MP.] Shishou suggested.
"Nn. Need more first." Fran said before converting their remaining 5 deer monster corpses into CP, getting another 100 CP.
They dumped all of it into Shishou's base form, causing it to grow to the next Rank.
Name: Shishou
Wielder: Fran (Bound)
Race: Intelligent Weapon
ATK: 212
MP: 400/400
Durability: 200/200
Magical Conductivity: A
Self Evolution – Rank 2
Core Points: 120/300
Memory: 15
400 MP. Not great, but not bad.
Sadly, rather than getting his usual amount of Self-Evolution Points, that being 5 times his new Rank, he only received 2 points.
[Looks like we are going to have to work a lot harder for our Evolution Points.] Shishou said with mild disappointment.
"That's okay. Just have to hunt more." Fran said.
[It's too bad we already dismantled so many of those monsters. It would have been nice to get more po…ints.] Shishou said as Fran hit a button on her menu.
364 human-like → 2395 CP
"Finally found a use for them." Fran said happily as she converted all of the pirate, thief, bandit and assassin corpses they had been carrying about into CP.
[I… suppose so.] Shishou said as he quickly came to terms with what the girl had just done.
It seemed like the human-likes weren't worth a set amount. They probably differed based on their individual levels.
Either way, Fran dumped all of the points into Shishou's base sword form and leveled it up to Rank 7.
Name: Shishou
Wielder: Fran (Bound)
Race: Intelligent Weapon
ATK: 392
MP: 1650/1650
Durability: 1450/1450
Magical Conductivity: A
Self Evolution – Rank 7
Core Points: 2515/2800
Memory: 68
The ranks netted them an additional 25 Self-Evolution Points, putting their total up to 72. 68 memory also meant that Shishou could more comfortably equipped their usual skills, and 1650 MP was double the amount a normal court wizard would have.
These were the stats that Shishou had had back when he had first met Fran.
[We are back in business!]
"Nn!" "Woof!"