Chapter 370 - My CO Stash #70 - Rise of the Four Heroes by readerdreamer5625 (RiseofTheShieldHeroXSwordArtOnline)

-From wood cutter to thot princess slayer! I still cannot get over the fact that they killed off Eugeo and let Alice live like come on, he's legit the best side character I've ever seen from SAO... I guess I'm just living in Spain but the s is silent/

Synopsis: First impressions are amazing. If you view someone positively on the first meeting, chances are it would stay like that for a very long time. First impressions are insidious. In a new environment, in a new culture, your first judgment often colors the rest of your experience. First impressions are terrifying. If you view someone as your enemy on the first glance, then most likely they will never become your ally. In that world, in that timeline, first impressions lead the Heroes to split apart (though the conspiracy doesn't help). What if, due to a different Sword Hero, a man isn't vilified on his arrival and the Heroes' eyes are opened to reality that much faster?

The system might try to pull us apart, but we will fight together. This is the oath of the Four Heroes.

Rated: ???

Words: 53K

Posted on: forums.spacebattles.com/threads/rise-of-the-four-heroes-rise-of-the-shield-hero-sword-art-online-crossover-eugeo-as-sword-hero.872674/ (readerdreamer5625)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

Naofumi

Naofumi couldn't believe it.

Wasn't being summoned into another world supposed to be just limited to cliche light novels? Yet here he was, subject to said scenario! Really, Naofumi wanted to complain about the entire situation (and preferably, sent home immediately after with at least an apology for being so rudely summoned while he was reading a book) but two of those summoned with him already did most of that for him. Not that he would ever thank them for that though.

Still, the exposition from the condescending King aside, part of Naofumi found some form of excitement over the scenario. After all, true to his core, Naofumi was an Otaku and like any other Otaku before him, to be given one of the leading roles to a(n admittedly cliche) story such as had his heart pumping. The game-like scenario didn't help, easily appealing to Naofumi's past as an online gamer and guild master of a high-ranked guild in an MMORPG.

His attention was then taken away though, when the Spear and Bow Heroes introduced themselves and the rest of the room turned for the Sword Hero to speak. Part of Naofumi wondered why they turned first to the guy who had been quiet the entire time, as opposed to Naofumi who had already contributed to the conversation several times already.

"Sword Hero?" The King rests his head on his right hand as he leans sideways on his chair. Seriously, if you're going to ask for help, at least have better demeanor! "You've been quiet for a while now. What's your name?"

Naofumi turned his attention on the Sword Hero, only to frown.

The man was clearly someone around Naofumi's own age, but unlike him, his features were that much more appealing. Actually, what was with this group that was summoned with him? Was the summoning spell coded to summon handsome men, only for it to make a mistake with picking Naofumi and go "Oops, okay, it's too late but we summoned you now~" once it got him? Because seriously, with blond hair, green eyes, and a pretty face like that one couldn't mistake the Sword Hero for a normal person at all!

Still... Was it normal to look that pale? Naofumi's irritation and envy disappeared as a sense of basic concern grew in his chest. Now, Naofumi wasn't a saint, but he at least had some compassion. And considering they were all basically abducted by those that summoned them here, it wasn't too far off to think that someone from their group wouldn't take things as easily as the rest of them had. After all, Naofumi himself was barely buoyed by excitement from the entire situation.

"Are you alright, man?" Naofumi placed a hand on the shoulder of the Sword Hero beside him. "You don't look so good."

His words snapped the Sword Hero out of his trance, and soon the blond had one hand placed over his face, teeth slightly chattering as he answered. "I-I'm fine. Thank you."

It took the Sword Hero a full minute to formulate a proper introduction after, but his answer did shock everyone in the room. "M-my name is Eugeo. No last name, 19 years old. I was... a student of the Sword Mastery Academy before I had to leave due to... extenuating circ.u.mstances."

There were gasps from the audience around them.

The King's brows were raised in his surprise. "You were a swordsman already in the world you came from?"

"I am, yes. Circ.u.mstances led me to being taught sword skills by my best friend and mentor, and while I hesitate to call myself his equal, I at least know a few things about fighting monsters already." The admission of his past as a swordsman seemed to steel Eugeo some as the rest of his response was far more even and polite. Did he have past experience dealing with nobility? "However, despite all that, I am at a loss over this entire situation, Sir. The last I remember, I was bleeding out to death in my friend's arms after a difficult battle."

That killed the atmosphere for a short while. Not even the King seemed to have anything to say about such a blunt admission of one's close encounter with, if not outright, death.

Still, Motoyasu the Spear Hero somehow managed to salvage the situation by cracking a morbid joke. "Wow, that's... worse than mine, Eugeo. Getting stabbed by girls is nowhere near the same level as a warrior's death like that."

Naofumi turned to him in shock. "You also died!?"

"I guess I just messed with the wrong girls," Motoyasu's smile became brittle, and though part of Naofumi wanted to hear more about what sounds like a Bad End straight out of a galgame, he then asked, "What, did you die too?"

"No, I didn't!" Unless Naofumi suddenly suffered a stroke or heart attack while he was reading and just couldn't remember. "I was just reading a book!"

"I think I died as well." Itsuki spoke up from behind Motoyasu, making it his turn to have all the attention. "I was just heading to school when I heard a truck coming in from my side and..."

The scenario of all (but one) of the summoned Heroes having died before they got summoned had everyone quiet for a while. The priests and the King seemed to find the entire discussion out of their control, while the Heroes in question quietly mulled over the circ.u.mstances that led to their summoning. Was this some kind of afterlife then, or did their soul get taken from the hands of death and were revived to become Heroes here? Still, what did that mean for Naofumi who didn't die?

"...I guess, I'm the odd one out then." Naofumi finally said, not noticing the strange gleam of satisfaction within the eyes of the King before them. "I don't think I've ever felt so out of place for not dying."

It was then his turn to be comforted, as Eugeo mimicked his earlier action by putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's nothing we'll judge you for, plus I assure you, you didn't miss out on anything. If anything, I'm glad that at least one of us didn't have to suffer to get here."

...Naofumi began to think that he had been too hasty to judge this guy just by his appearance. Sure, he looked like a Hero more than Naofumi, but at least he acted and had the credentials for it as well. Evidently, Eugeo was from a far more dangerous world than Naofumi's, yet this guy didn't hold that against him, remaining humble. Turning towards Motoyasu and Itsuki, the other two seemed to disagree for a moment before they shook their heads.

"Yeah, Eugeo's right. It sucked, but at least you didn't suffer... errr..."

Naofumi blinked as he realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet. Giving the King a nod, he fixed that, "My name is Naofumi Iwatani, 20 years old, college student."

"Right then, Naofumi!" Motoyasu grinned at finally getting his name.

Admittedly, that got Naofumi to chuckle a little. The guy's smile practically dispelled the weird atmosphere brought about by the subject of their deaths (and Naofumi's not-death).

With the conversation back on track, the King went through the rest of his exposition. The subject of Status Magic both surprised Naofumi as well as led him to feel a bit concerned over Eugeo who probably didn't have the easy cultural references the rest of the Heroes had to fall back on, but to his surprise Eugeo easily copied what the rest of them did. Then came the subject of their weapons, and the limitations of said weapons - Naofumi's "weapon" was a shield for crying out loud - and soon with the promise of them gaining party members on the next day, the King sends them towards their room where they could rest.

Still, Naofumi wondered as to why Motoyasu and Itsuki looked so excited as the four of them went to their room.

Chapter 2

Motoyasu

Motoyasu was practically shaking in giddiness as soon as the doors to their room closed behind them.

Sure, it sucked to die at the hands of his female friends. Momiji, Ikuyo... Part of Motoyasu still couldn't believe that Momoiji, the shy girl he had befriended and flirted with would change so much because she loved him. And Ikuyo too, the girl had been judgmental and bossy sometimes, but she only did that only when it was for the best. She wasn't the kind to stab people with a knife. Neither of them were.

Motoyasu thought he knew them. But now, he wasn't so sure. Was that how much 'love' could change a girl?

Maybe, that was why when Motoyasu had been summoned here, he had jumped straight into acting into the role of a video game hero. After all, when he had played Emerald Online at home, it had been for escapism as much as it had been for excitement. And he had loved Emerald Online, he was one of the highest leveled players in the server, and he had been summoned as a spearman like his favorite character!

Games were safe. They were familiar. It would be easier to think about those than about the circ.u.mstances that brought him here.

But when Eugeo sat across the room with the color falling away from his face again, his thoughts about Emerald Online are derailed.

"Eugeo, you don't look so good again. Are you just processing things now?"

Motoyasu turned to Naofumi, who had been the one to say that. Blunt the attempt at support that might have been, Motoyasu couldn't forget that it had also been him who noticed about Eugeo's state first between all of them. In all seriousness, Motoyasu honestly felt bad that he hadn't noticed until the Shield Hero pointed it out. He had been so focused on the King's words that he hadn't even realized that one of their member hadn't even spoken once until that moment, and even then, it was Naofumi who stepped forward first to help.

The four of them might have been summoned to be Heroes, but clearly Naofumi was the one who had the instincts for it the most.

"Y-Yeah. I think I was just hit with the idea that I was ripped away from my friends again, right as we were finally all united."

All of the other three in the room, Motoyasu included, flinched at those words. Right, that was the case, right?

Setting aside the circ.u.mstances of their states immediately before being summoned, all of them were ripped away from their past lives without any warning. Nothing would change that fact. And while Motoyasu doesn't know what to feel about the two girls that he thought he knew, he still had family. Other friends. All of whom he had now left behind.

Motoyasu doesn't make a wheezing noise, but it is a close thing.

"...yeah, I know the feeling." Naofumi clearly tried for a smile, but it was an anemic thing. "I had parents and a younger brother back in my world. Honestly, it's all I can do to not think about it."

Behind Naofumi, Motoyasu saw Itsuki nodding along. So it wasn't just Motoyasu who was trying to run away from the thoughts, huh?

(Maybe it would have been easier to pretend that this was all just a game if Eugeo knew to play along.)

"I can't. I can't stop thinking of them." Eugeo's face grew worse, the Sword Hero holding his face in his hands as he began hyperventilating. "For the longest time, we fought to get Alice back, I wanted that to the point that I was willing to sacrifice my life for it so I was fine with dying, but... I'm not by their side now. I'm here, in another world that I can't understand, summoned in a way that reminds me all too well of Integrity Knights, and now I'm being told that I'm supposed to be a Hero! How am I supposed to not think about this!"

(But in the end, he was just voicing what all of them really thought.)

"...I can't really say that I can understand how your life was like." Naofumi sat down beside Eugeo, his voice in a soothing baritone. "In comparison, my life was just boring. I had two parents who were more interested in my younger brother than with me. As for said younger brother, the best thing I could really say about my place in his life was that I helped motivate him by teaching him the ways of the Otaku when he was at his worst, and not much else. But boring or not, it was my life too... So I suppose, like you, I can understand being forced to leave them behind."

It was Itsuki who spoke next, sitting on Eugeo's opposite side. "...I had a family too."

As Itsuki described a fairly normal life of a model student in his past world, Motoyasu followed suit behind the rest of them into sitting on Eugeo's bed, their backs leaning on the wall behind them with their shoulders all brushing with one another. And as he did so, Motoyasu threw away the thoughts of treating this world as a game. How could he, after so many cold doses of reality back to back?

This world wasn't a game. It was reality, fantastic in how it was filled with fantasy, terrific with how it filled them with existential terror.

And so, for the rest of the night, all of them just talked back and forth on how it was like in their previous world, careful to not touch sensitive subjects too much just yet. And while it soon became clear that Naofumi, Itsuki, and Motoyasu came from different versions of Japan, Eugeo's descriptions of his previous world had them all reeling in sympathy.

"Your world sounds like a dystopia, Eugeo!"

Itsuki, as it turned out, was someone who believed a lot in justice. And when Eugeo described how his childhood friend had been taken away years ago by an Integrity Knight, he had been incensed on Eugeo's behalf, to the surprise of the blond who was telling his tale.

"Uh, what's a dystopia?"

"Right, different world, probably different vocabulary." Naofumi places a hand on his forehead before explaining for Eugeo's sake, "Okay, so first there is its opposite, a utopia. A utopia is what we call a perfect society. No one breaks the law, no one is left hungry, the likes. Earlier on, when you described your world, it was almost like that to us... but it's not really perfect, isn't it? That's basically what a dystopia is, something that looks like a utopia, but isn't."

Eugeo nodded slowly, understanding what they were talking about. "Yeah. People still died of sickness, a lot of the nobles thought of themselves beyond most of the citizenry, and the Axiom Church..."

Motoyasu spoke up, "No, it's not just that. Eugeo, from how you described it, literally no one broke the laws, right? Other than your friend Alice?"

Eugeo seemed as though to say something else, only to hold back for now as he placed a hand over his right eye. "...Yes, at the time, that was what we thought. Nobody could break the Taboo Index."

The other three exchanged looks over that, recognizing a story behind it, but nodding along anyway as it was clearly a sensitive subject. Motoyasu continued, "Well, in our worlds we also had laws like that, telling what was right or wrong, but... a lot of people didn't follow it." The two girls that killed Motoyasu certainly didn't. "It was there, but it wasn't immutable. People still broke laws left and right, depending on what they felt. Even if everyone knew that the law was right, in the end it was still their choice. Heck, sometimes the law was just flat-out wrong."

Eugeo's eyes go wide at that. "...everyone in your worlds had a choice?"

"And then there's the subject of jobs in your world." Itsuki still looked incensed over the entire thing. "From how you've described it, literally everyone had no choice in what line of work they wanted to do right? It was all picked for them, and for you, it was to be a woodcutter for a tree that couldn't be felled?"

Motoyasu wanted to know the story behind that. If Eugeo was supposed to be a woodcutter, then how did he become a swordsman? Clearly, something happened there.

"Yeah, the Gigas Cedar." Eugeo nodded for the latest time. "It was the duty of generation after generation of woodcutters in Rulid Village to chop it down so we could progress and expand."

"You were a child!" Itsuki's fists were clenched and shaking as he pointed that out. "Not only were you a child, you weren't given a choice! Why did they think that leaving several children unattended was the right thing to do!? Why is it that when all of you got into trouble because of their negligence, you were the ones who suffered instead of the a.d.u.l.ts who were supposed to be responsible for you!?"

Eugeo just stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Itsuki, calm down." Naofumi told the other Hero, causing him to turn back at the Shield Hero. "Remember, different world, different culture and norms. Since he lived in a medieval society, it's normal for him that children worked. While it's strange how nobody in Eugeo's world could break the laws, it's not Eugeo's fault that it was like that and getting mad at him certainly won't help. If anything, since nobody could break the laws, then technically they were right in leaving Eugeo and his friends alone. After all, nobody was supposed to be capable of getting into trouble."

Motoyasu blinked. Huh, that made sense. If there were literally no bandits, no thieves, and all the children followed the rules, then Eugeo and his friend Alice shouldn't have gotten into trouble in the first place. In that case, how did Alice break the Taboo Index?

"...I still think that having a choice is better than none." Eugeo said, slowly. When the others turned to him, the blond made a small smile. "From how you guys described your worlds, while it sounds more chaotic than what I'm used to, the idea of that is more appealing to me. I've been talking about my past for a while now, how about you guys?"

Motoyasu traded looks with Naofumi and Itsuki, and at once they nodded.

And so they described Japan. Both what made it good, and what made it bad. They spoke about its culture, its people, and its history. And the entire time, Eugeo was their engaged audience, asking questions here and there with the curiosity of a child. This went for hours, and once they started yawning, they promised to continue it another day and called it a night.

It was only as his bedsheets covered him and Motoyasu slowly fell to sleep that he realized that none of them had even talked about their weapons or their current roles as the Four Heroes.

Chapter 3

Itsuki

"Sir Bow Hero, what has you so distracted?"

One of his new party members, a girl whose name Itsuki couldn't honestly recall, called out to him. It did the trick of snapping him out of his thoughts. "It's nothing, miss. I was just wondering about how my fellow Heroes were faring with their fighting."

In a sense, Itsuki hadn't even lied. Part of what had him thinking so much had been about how the rest had been doing. But his concerns hadn't been for Motoyasu, who had all the signs being a capable fighter of his own despite how he was a massive flirt, or even Naofumi who didn't have a way of fighting on his own. Rather, Itsuki had been more concerned about the last member of their summoned group.

It had been for Eugeo, the Sword Hero and arguably the one with the most battle experience between all of them.

Naofumi is smart, so he can probably figure out a way to fight somehow. As for Motoyasu, that guy can probably wield his spear better than I ever would if I was in his place. But Eugeo, he might be a warrior, but unlike us he doesn't know how games work. And while this world is also a reality, that doesn't change the fact that it works like a game. He would probably have no idea how to use the Party System on his own or how to use his Holy Sword beyond as a weapon.

And while in another situation, Itsuki might have had no issues with leaving one of his fellow Heroes in the lurch if it meant that he looked much better in comparison, that... wouldn't be just, now wouldn't it? Like Naofumi pointed out last night, it wasn't Eugeo's fault that he came from a world different from Japan, so wouldn't the rest of them having an advantage just because of that be unfair?

"Sir Bow Hero?"

Itsuki looked at the corner of his vision. Level 3. It wasn't as high as he wished, but... sacrificing the rest of the day's training wouldn't hurt anyone, especially with them so low-leveled. Compared to doing the right thing, it would be nothing really. "We're taking a break. I want to talk to the Sword Hero about something. Do any of you know where he might be training?"

His party traded looks, before one of the males raised a hand. "My cousin's in his party, and she told me that he would be training to the west of the castle walls. I don't know if the Sword Hero would still be there, but it's all I know."

"That will have to do."

The girl from earlier asked, "Sir Bow Hero, would not it be rude to the Sword Hero if you approached him now? After all, your weapons would interfere with each other if you get too close."

That was the case, yes. Earlier, Motoyasu and his party had passed by to hunt more Balloons, but that had already been enough to turn all of Itsuki's EXP gains for a while to zero. Surely Eugeo would be displeased to be fighting only to find out that he gained no EXP afterwards just because Itsuka got closer... but then again, Eugeo might not even know how EXP worked, or what levels meant.

Also... "Eugeo isn't the kind of person to get mad over something like that, especially if we explained ourselves to him. Trust me on that."

His party nodded at once without showing a speck of doubt to his words. Itsuki reflected on that as they walked towards the west wing. Back in his world, Itsuki had been treated like a speck of trash, despite everything he did to prove himself. In this world, he was treated as a Hero just because, no questions asked.

Itsuki could get used to it.

When he gets closer to the west section, he is surprised at what he finds. After all, who would have thought that Motoyasu had thought the same as him, with the Spear Hero cheerfully flirting with his party members on their way to Eugeo's area? Walking up to his fellow Hero, Itsuki tugged at Motoyasu's sleeve to get themselves some measure of privacy.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was planning to help out our fellow Hero!" Motoyasu grins, before looking sheepish when Itsuki gave him a quiet look. "Alright, maybe part of it is because there's this girl on Eugeo's team that I wanted to talk to. But it is true that I do want to help Eugeo - the guy probably needs someone to guide him for a while at least."

That made more sense than Motoyasu helping Eugeo entirely out of the goodness of his heart, so Itsuki let it go. Still, "I thought that it was because you flirted too much that you died in your previous world. Would you rather risk that happening again in this one?"

Motoyasu flinched. "That's... I wasn't..."

"I know it's hard to break a habit, but do so already for your own sake. For our sakes. For everyone's sakes. You know just as well as I do that this isn't a game."

Motoyasu seemed to recover with that, eyes openly studying Itsuki. "So... you too huh?"

Itsuki had a feeling like that that was the case. "In my world, it was Dimension Wave. But this world is not that game."

"In mine, it was Emerald Online." Motoyasu shrugged, trying to look casual and failing. "Dimensional differences, I suppose. But yes, as similar as it is, this is not a game. What made you think that too?"

Should Itsuki explain that this very scenario was literally the stuff of his dreams before he was summoned here? Of how, after years of bullying, he had repeatedly fantasized of being a Hero, of being someone important? But as much as he fantasized over this, in the end it was supposed to be just that - a fantasy. A world of perfection, where everything was about him and nothing else.

His fantasies never involved watching someone have a mental breakdown on the first night, and no game designer would've ever been so creative as to create something as wonderful, something as horrific as Eugeo's world. If this was a game, then where was the justice? Where was the quest series to bring things to right?

"I've had a wakeup call. I'm just glad that it happened this early and not before anything rode on my decisions."

Motoyasu laughed emptily. "I suppose I can say the same. Do you think our knowledge still applies though?"

"If the pattern holds, then it might." Itsuki responds, having been thinking about this for a while now as well. "Still, it's not anything that we should hold as canon just yet. This world is like the games we knew, but it's neither of them. After all, not only are games limited in complexity by virtue of design, we can't ignore the possibility that it can be just wrong. Still, we have to trade information at some point, between us and the other two. It wouldn't do to cross-reference, especially if Naofumi played a similar game before."

Motoyasu shook his head. "I doubt that last one. Naofumi's been treating this as reality since he arrived. Not like what we did when we were first summoned."

That was true, huh? Then Itsuki would just have to follow suit.

Still, with that thought in mind, perhaps Itsuki really shouldn't have been so surprised to find that when they arrived, Naofumi was already there, seemingly explaining how things worked for Eugeo. All of their party members congregated together gave each other weird looks, especially Naofumi's sole party member who looked stupefied at their arrival. Clearly, none of them expected the Heroes to congregate like this outside of rest periods.

Eugeo sees them coming first. "Ah, Motoyasu, Itsuki? Thank you for visiting to help me. I know the two of you sacrificed your training to come here."

Were they that obvious? Or did Naofumi already explain most of it? Still, being thanked like that despite having done anything was a salve to the irritation of coming here for nothing.

"Hey, guys." Naofumi waved at them. "I just explained to Eugeo how the status and levels worked. Apparently, there had been something similar back in his world."

Itsuki blinked. "Wait, your world also had game mechanics, Eugeo?"

"Naofumi called it that as well, but I don't really know what it means." Eugeo looked bemused. "It was just how things worked, though it's only now that I'm really appreciating what everything back then meant. We called it the Stacia Window, after the Goddess of Creation Stacia."

That was one more thing to prove Itsuki and Motoyasu's decision to treat all of this as real to be the correct course of action then. If Eugeo came from a world where game mechanics was the way of living, then that was one more piece of evidence that there were other worlds like this one out there. Behind Itsuki, Motoyasu heaved a sigh.

Their party members muttered over their Sword Hero mentioning an unknown goddess. Itsuki ignored them. "How about party mechanics and how our weapons worked, like the Weapon Copy System? Did Naofumi tell you about those too?"

Surprisingly, Naofumi looked just as confused as Eugeo from those words. "Wait, there's also a party system here!? And what's this about a Weapons Copy System!?"

Itsuki exchanged looks with Motoyasu, only to chuckle. Looks like their information would end up being useful after all.

And so, came the explanations. Itsuki tried to make things as detailed and concise as possible, and so did Motoyasu. To their surprise, despite the differences in the game mechanics they knew in terms of weapon enhancements, both situations seemed to apply with new things even added to Itsuki's menus as a result of Motoyasu explaining how smelting worked for the benefit of Naofumi and Eugeo.

Still... "I can get why you didn't know about everything else, Naofumi, but why didn't you know about the Party System? Did your party member not send you an invite or something?"

Naofumi glanced at his only party member. "Myne...?"

The girl in question could only smile in apology. Itsuki's eyes narrowed as he studied the obvious difference in her and Naofumi's equipment. How was it that she was wearing something so expensive when Naofumi was wearing almost nothing? "Sorry about that, Sir Shield Hero. I forgot about it as well. But I know that you could fight even without it!"

"This is your world, and how things worked for you. What are the chances that you've forgotten something that should've been as basic as breathing?" Itsuki pointed out, not buying her pretty words. "Plus, Naofumi's the Shield Hero. He's specialized in defense, so of all four of us, he's the one who needs a party the most!"

Itsuki thought that something was strange. If they were all trusted and respected Heroes, then why did no one want to go over to help Naofumi back when their party members got sent towards them? At the time, he had brushed it off after this girl went over to help Naofumi, but with this kind of behavior... It was fishy, it was unjust, and it was clearly not right.

"Itsuki, calm down." Naofumi raised his hands to defend Myne. "I'm sure it was just a mistake and something would've fixed itself on its own sooner or later. Isn't that right, Myne?"

"O-Of course, Sir Shield Hero!"

Motoyasu placed a hand on Itsuki's shoulder, and when he turned, he shook his head. Figures. Naofumi was grateful to this girl in the first place, so of course he would want to believe the best and not the worst. Still, that only meant that they had to watch over their Shield Hero until everything came to light. As for Eugeo, the blond's eyes were narrowed at the sight of Myne hovering behind Naofumi.

Clearly wanting to change the subject, Naofumi turned to the Sword Hero. "Eugeo, do you think some of the things from your world was brought here too?"

At that question, Eugeo's eyes went visibly dull and Itsuki winced at what was clearly more things ripped away from Eugeo's past. "Nothing so far at least. I tried using some of my sword skills and Sacred Arts, but none of them worked on this side. And while this weapon is good, it's nothing compared to the one I bonded with back home. All I have left is my ability to wield the sword outside my Aincrad Style."

A look of regret formed on Naofumi's face. "Sorry about that, man."

"No, it's fine." Eugeo shook his head, quiet for a moment and clearly thinking before he became more relaxed. "My best friend would've just told me to, in his words, suck it up and keep fighting if he were here. I'm still hurting, but it's nothing that will hold me back from doing what I have to do."

Itsuki couldn't help but admire the other Hero's tenacity. Clearly, that was the experience of a seasoned warrior in display.

He hoped he could become like that too.

"Still, if you guys want, we can engage more monsters while you guys are here. Practice makes perfect after all."

Motoyasu blinked at that. "But wouldn't we get no EXP out of that?"

Eugeo shook his head. "True, we may not get that EXP you've been speaking of, but we will get combat experience out of it. Plus, if we are meant to all work together, then at some point we would have to fight together right? Might as well get started on that now instead of during the Wave King Melromarc told us about."

Itsuki's inner gamer wanted to protest about such a wasteful way of using time better spent on efficient grinding. From the looks of it, so did Motoyasu's. But then again, that was the difference between a game and reality wasn't it? As far as Eugeo was concerned, actual combat experience and expertise mattered as much as having high levels. That was from the perspective of an actual warrior and not a video game player.

Itsuki was the latter, but he wouldn't say no to becoming the former for the sake of doing what was right.

"I'm in."

And just like that, the rest of the day was spent fighting together.