How To Basic,,,ally mess things up.

We learnt the basics pretty quickly; the others seemed to be fast learners too. We were off to a great start, or I should say, the summoned ones were off to a great start. Hana, Aoyama, the female twin, of the quiet summoned guy, and the female friend(?), sister(?)-I don’t even really know, Kell brought along were having a hard time understanding some rules.

“Five and Six, my question is, what is wrong with us? We the summoned ones all agree with the rules and laws of this world completely, which I’m assuming isn’t normal since the others have mixed feelings about killing.”

“Masayuki, right…? Well…simply put, there are lots of disputes in this world. Every race adapted to the ‘kill or be killed’ mentality, which is absent from your world, and… that’s the reason.”

“So we all got the bloodlust from our individual races?”

“Don’t worry Six, I’ve got this one…Masayuki, the answer to your question is no. You all got it from your human parts. Human morals are often passed on through the blood so you all have your human parents to thank.”

“Umu…”Came Kell’s girl, “…So what is going to happen to us? Will we have to kill others? Also, if this is an RPG, that means they are soon to receive new skills, powers or other abilities when they get stronger. Do we, the tag-alongs, get some powers too or do we have to depend on the ‘summoned ones’ to survive or will we be given starting money to go our separate ways.”

“Obviously you will have to live by this world’s rules as well. Gain strength for yourselves or support them, I don’t really care though.”

“Interesting…”

“Alright enough questions, shall we begin then? Five is done with the barrier. Summoned ones, go to him for your trial weapons which should be indicated on your status panels.”

“Before that, I have a few more questions.”

“Feel free, but keep in mind that your opponents will get more information on the upcoming fights you’ll be partaking in… do you still want to stay Masayuki?”

Hmm…seems I’ll not be getting anymore information out of her anytime soon. I’ll have to gather up as much battle information as I can.

“Alright then, guess I’ll be heading off to Five…” I said as I glanced in the corner of the chapel where Five and the others had gathered.

“Hey! What about us Masayuki? Should we just sit here and wait for you to go fight to the death with some other nut in this place?!”

“Calm down Aoyama, I know Masayuki won’t die. He won’t leave us behind.”

“Huh?! Hana why the hell are you so calm right now?!”

I know the answer, but… I don’t know whether I should tell him or not. He still never listens.

“…Sigh, weren’t you listening when I said I cast [Unmovable] on you all? It keeps your mind at peace for a day…? Makes explaining this stuff easier…? I clearly remember saying all that.”

“Huh? Whatever… are we still going to have to sit here and ”

“Yeah… I’m off now, before I fall behind. Seeya!”

“Masa… hey! That bastard… still acting indifferent in this situation.”

Leaving that behind, I went to join the others. When I arrived, Five was teaching them to create armor with their ‘Auras’.

“Oh you’re here now…don’t really care though…”

As rude as he’s being, I don’t feel the slightest bit of anger. Six’s spell must be really good cause I feel like I would be pretty angry by now.

“…Anyway, as I was saying, the basic principle is to reinforce your armor with as much mana as you can. The thicker the mana, the more protection you get. Most summoned ones often overload their armor with mana straight off the bat, leaving them with none for the trial battles. Keep in mind though, any clothes you wear get loaded with your mana automatically (unless of course you choose to stop the mana transfer), so the longer you wear any piece of clothing, armor or equipment the stronger they become.”

As he spoke, we listened and picked up on armor creation, well…most of us did. Kell ignored him from the start and created a heavy set of armor from the start which must have depleted his mana. Following him, the others and I also created our own unique sets of armor. Thinking of ‘the perfect armor’ would get me nowhere so I just focused on my own unique set. As a close combat specialist, I used to prioritize agility over defense so heavy plate armor would never be my thing. I created a basic enough attire and filled it with half my mana (which I would have done with or without the heads up). I thought I looked pretty good in my blue shirt, crimson jacket with gold shoulder plates and (stuff).

But… I still felt like something was missing… something I needed, then it hit me—most RPGs have negative status effects like [Poison], [Silence] and others of that sort, which limit spell casters. Since I had my mind set on being a sword-wielding spell caster--I should ask Five for some help in making a mask which prevents negative effects or at the very least, [Silence].

“Five, I need some help creating something specific.”

“Pathetic, you need help with something so basic? How weak are you?”

“Sure, ask away.” Five answered, completely ignoring Kell’s comment.

“Umu…” I turned toward the other summoned ones in a suggestive manner.

“Oh… you don’t want the others to copy your equipment, got it. I’ll just make a sound barrier now… and… there! Feel free to speak your mind.”

I explained the basic idea of what I wanted to him and he gave me an easy explanation in response. All I needed to do was mix some mana with some aura while focusing on what I wanted to block out. Eventually, I could be able to negate many negative status effects with any equipment I had but for now, I’m only able to negate one per equipment piece. I looked something like this in the end:

The others, with the exception of Kell, wore normal looking armor. Yume wore a spandex-looking full body suit with kunais on the side of each leg, I guess she liked ninjas or something. The twin, Pekra, wore light armor with chainmail and heavy boots. Kell wore a full set of silver armor with no helmet, I think his ego is over inflated.

“Great, now that we’re done with that we can move on to weapon creation. The weapons are always created by us for various reasons. Obviously, the first is to help those idiots who expend all their mana on their defense and give them a fighting chance. Hmm… that’s enough of that, if I were to name all the reasons, your time would be wasted so let’s just get into it.”

Hmph… I wanted to get more information but getting on with it seems to be the quickest way to leave this place and get more information on this world.

“Come to me one at a time after you verify your designated weapons. Evaluate yourselves.”

“[Evaluate Self].”

“[Evaluate Self].”

“Don’t tell me what to do dammit, [Evaluate Self].”

“[Evaluate Self].”

…Huh?! What the hell?! Why does my weapon slot say, ‘Locked’? Is it just me? A joke…? I don’t think so, I should just ask.

“Senazuki, right? I need some help with my wea--”

“—Sigh, can’t anyone here be competent on their own?”

Wow…! And I thought Five was rude, she’s on a whole other level.

“Well if you don’t want to…”

“You already wasted my time, ask your question already.”

I’m pretty sure I should be pissed but… that spell is really good. I should learn that as soon as possible…

“Hey you, you daydreaming now?”

“Oh… uh… just gathe--never mind. So anyway, I can’t unlock my weapon so I don’t know which weapon is perfect for me?”

“What the hell do you mean unlock, just check your weapon slot!”

“I have!”

“Huh? Let me see it.”

She moved to my left to check my stats screen, pressing her breasts against my arm. The latex-like clothing she wore gave me full access to her firm… umu… assets…?

Is she teasing me or is she just oblivious? No, she seems smart enough…, perhaps she is testing me? I’ll just pretend to have not noticed.

I always assumed any girl, woman or lady who came on to me was testing me so I never acted on it. I just pretended to be dense and wait it out--with Hana always nearby, the girls didn’t try anything too forward--but in this situation, she wasn’t anywhere near me.

“Hey! Pervert! Eyes on the screen! Ugh, men.”

“Huh? Oh, umu… yeah…”

Why does this girl make me feel strange? Is it anger? Sigh… never mind.

“Hmm, this is strange… it’s supposed to give you a weapon name and image. Look here, [Evaluate Self].”

She pressed her body closer to mine to show me her stats screen. In her weapon slot, was a bow icon with the text, ‘Bow and Arrows’. There was no locked or unlocked text anywhere on the screen.

“Well damn, I’ll just ask Five.”

“Why the hell did you even ask me?!”

“I asked to--”

She is also under the influence of [Unmovable] so why does she appear to be mad anyway? Is that her personality? Well damn.

“—Forget it.”

“Whatever, leave me alone.”

“Showing your stats to someone else is a bad idea… but hey, who am I to judge?”

“Oh! Umu… sorry.”

Hmph, how did I forget this basic—but important—rule in MMORPGs.

I felt Five’s eyes on me, seemingly waiting for an apology. They were narrowed to send a message, he--

“Hey idiot! I’m glaring at you…take the hint!”

“What? You want me to apologize too? Cause I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Hm? Okay then, I don’t really care either way.”

He put on a deep pout which gave away his true feelings. He looked quite adorable.

“Hey Five what the hell?! You mean to tell me that I apologized for nothing?”

“Well it’s not my fault you apologized.”

“Why you…!”

What unfolded before me was so childish, I couldn’t really believe it. Yume caught Five in a choke hold, which he reversed to an arm bar… then she reversed it… then he reversed it, all the while arguing with each other like siblings do. Their wrestling match was ended by an angry Six. She grabbed them both by the ear, gave them a quick scolding then turned toward us.

“I’m sorry for the disturbance, we haven’t had any ‘notorious’ summoned ones in eight millennia, please forgive this sad display.”

“You mean since Shizu right?”

“Hush, you! I hope you’re done with their weapons.”

“Oh… yeah… umu…”

“That’s what we were just discussing. My weapons slot says locked, so… what’s that about?”

“…What do you mean, ‘locked’?”

“I mean locked, as in not unlocked.”

“Well… there are different possibilities…”

“Six, what are you thinking? You want to let me in on it?”

“Don’t worry about it, you, Masayuki, are you proficient in hand-to-hand combat?”

“Yeah, I am but...”

“Great! Then you can fight with your hands.”

“…Okay… so my match is going to be hand-to-hand, sounds good.”

“What do you mean hand-to-hand? Pekra’s weapon is a spear so he’ll be using that—unless he wants to face you barehanded.”

“Wait… what?!”

“You heard her, you’ll be fighting barehanded.”

“What the hell were you both saying about making the trial fair?”

“We can only make the weapon shown in your slot, that means no slot weapon, no real weapon. When you die, you weapons dissipates into nothing.”

“Can’t you just make me a sword for the trial, or at the very least, teach me how to make a weapon?”

“The answer to the first is no, because the others only have the weapons we provided for the trial--after the trial, we disappear with anything we created on this planet. That’s part of the reason why we teach you to create your own defensive clothing, be it armor or a plain shirt.—so creating a random one for you is against the rules.”

“I’ll explain the second reason.”

“Haaaah…” She let out a tired sigh, “…sure, go ahead.”

“Right. The second question’s answer is simple, we don’t want to-”

Thwack—“I should have known you’d give a foolish answer. We can’t just give you everything, you must learn the rest by yourselves so the balance doesn’t shift too much.”

Sigh… I’ll have to rely on my hand-to-hand training, skills and mana reserves. I’ll need some time to formulate a good strategy and lucky for me, my match is the second one. I wonder if luck is also rated. Never mind that, now, I strategize.

“CRAP ! That’s a long spear.”

“Haahahaha did you really say that out loud?”

-! Did I say that out loud? Why does that girl rub me the wrong way? Sigh… that spear is so big though, but wait… this skill may be rather useful.

“Since he’s done making your weapons, we can get started. Follow me if your fight is later on and follow him if your fight is about to begin.”

“Finally!”

“Yeah, let’s get this over with already.”

“Your match is first, you’d better not lose after all that talk, ninja girl.”

“Shuddup mask boy..."