3 CHAPTER 3 (The church and the crime)

Lyn walked up to a building that had the hourglass inside. It was a big marble church with 3 weapons on the top.

(The sword, the spear, and the bow. Yep. One of those worlds.) Lyn thought as he went inside, putting on a mask. He changed his sword into a simple sword to copy Ren.

One of the nuns greeted him.

"Hello! I would like some sand from the dragon hourglass," Lyn said, lifting his sword and slightly altering his voice.

"Of course Sword Hero. Right this way," the nun led him towards the hourglass and another nun gave him a bag of sand. He put all of the sand into his sword and lifted it to the hourglass. A beam came out of the gem and a timer popped up in his vision. While no one was looking, Lyn used the sword to take a tiny piece out of the hourglass frame and put it into his sword for extra material. That and he felt like damaging property.

[DRAGON HOURGLASS SAND SHIELD UNLOCKED]

[Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield] {Locked 50} {1/?} (Unawakened) Lv. 1 SR N

Abilities Unmastered:

Equip Bonus: [Portal Shield]

…

Despite the church b*llshit, Lyn would have to put up with later, this shield was actually really good. It would help him store up energy and HP points quickly as soon as he evolved it. It could also be upgraded by connecting to several hourglasses, the more, the better.

He quickly left the church, thanking everyone, and before anyone was any wiser, Lyn walked into an alleyway and took off his new armor, shoving it into his backpack which he quickly threw into his gem.

Switching back to his shield, Lyn ran back to the blacksmith shop. Luckily it seems the other heroes weren't there yet. But the old man seemed to be in the back. Lyn ran around and copied every single shield he saw, gaining a small metal shield of every color, a round shield, and every other shield under the sun.

"Hey! Erhard!" Lyn called out to the blacksmith.

"Ah! Shield lad. What else can I do for you?"

"I just remembered something. So the legendary weapons have an ability that lets them copy the same type of weapons just by touching them. So the other heroes will probably pretend to look around and touch every bow, sword, and spear in your shop."

"WHAT!? You're telling me that the heroes can just copy my work without paying?"

"Pretty much. It's a quick and easy way to get strong fast, but it just feels wrong."

"But you're also a Cardinal Hero. You can easily copy every shield in my shop without telling me."

"I feel like you will be a good ally and I don't want the others ripping you off. Now take care," Lyn answered, running out of the shop towards the beginner farming area.

Lyn arrived at the spot, but the view that would take away the breaths of many people didn't bother him at all. To him, it all looked bland. A balloon jumped at him and tried to eat Lyn. But no matter how much it nibbled at his clothes, the aura from his shield kept him protected. Lyn equipped a random shield he got from Erhard and smashed the balloon with it, popping it and gaining one exp. While his attack stat won't grow, it's currently at 20 so he could easily one-shot these monsters. Several more balloons appeared and bit into Lyn, but he continued to pummel one after another after another, going deeper into the forest, where more and more dangerous monsters were. While he didn't have any armor, his small shield defense was the same as his base defense, so none of the balloons hurt him. It only took a few more balloons for Lyn to level up, his shield sucking up all the drops as he went.

With the new level up almost all his stats increased. His regeneration and speed to defense ratio were still the same, but as expected, his attack didn't rise at all. Not that Lyn cared.

[RUBBER SHIELD UNLOCKED.]

Lyn equipped the new shield and continued. Once he was finally away from prying eyes, he switched to his sword form and ran deeper into the forest, slashing down any and every monster he could find.

[15 exp]

[27 exp]

[19 exp]

[27 exp]

The further he went, the more exp he got and the more rare loot he got. Lyn also picked up every material and plant he could, unlocking plenty of different shields and swords.

He slashed down some rabbit monsters, porcupine monsters, deers, wolves, random balloons, and many more.

[Lvl 3]

[Lvl 4]

[Lvl 5]

Just within the hour, Lyn has already leveled up to level 5. By absorbing some rope he got from monster loot, the airstrike shield and airstrike sword was unlocked.

[Lvl 6]

[Lvl 7]

[Lvl 8]

[Lvl 9]

[Lvl 10]

[Lvl 11]

It was starting to get dark so Lyn transformed his sword into a shield, pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket, and drew a rune. Instead of feeding his own energy into the rune, Lyn began to chant.

"(I call out to the ground and the sky, direct your energy and give this rune power)."

The rune began to glow brighter and brighter until the whole paper started to glow. Lyn absorbed it into his shield.

New Skill Acquired. [Faker]

This skill allowed him to change how others saw his status and level. He set his level to six, and walked out of the forest, only to be met by Ren and his group.

"Yo Ren!"

Lyn called out to the sword hero.

"Oh, hey. How did your grind go?"

"Good. What level are you?"

"7. You?"

"6."

Lyn lied, looking at Ren's companions. They looked at him with either distrust or hatred. "So anyway, I was thinking you and I could exchange information. Talk about some upgrades, strengthening methods, and wave preparations over dinner. How bout it?"

"Information is something you should acquire yourself. Why should I share it?"

"I never said I want some information from you. Quite the opposite. I have the information I want to give you."

"And why would you do that?"

"I'm a defensive hero. All I do is protect. I need at least one of the heroes with great attack power, and you seem the most reasonable of the bunch. Plus, don't you want a leg up on Motoyasu and Itsuki?"

Ren thought about Lyn's words for a second, before nodding.

"Alright, let us meet up later at the tavern closest to the blacksmith."

Ren replied.

Lyn nodded and walked back to the capital, selling all of his rubber and any other monster loot he had. He visited the magic shop and bought a grimoire and a recording ball. Then Lyn went to the medicine shop and bought tools needed to compound medicine. And lastly, he bought a map of Melromarc, the capital, and the world map. When he finished and spent about 50% of his daily profit, he went back to the blacksmith shop to look for the nearest tavern.

"So you're telling me, you have a 200-page help manual with every enhancement method and tip, while we barely have 10 pages combined?"

Ren was at a tavern, sipping tea while staring at Lyn.

"Pretty much. So want me to share a few pages?"

"And what will you take in return?" Rem asked, taking another sip of tea.

"In return I want you to be prepared for the third wave. The second one will be easy, but the third one is where you have to think outside the box just to summon the boss, and then you need serious firepower in order to beat it.

"You are talking and acting like you already know what's going to happen."

"Well..."

"Explain."

"*sigh* ok. I'm not only a summoned hero, I'm a resummoned hero. I get summoned from one world to the next as soon as I help save the world. I couldn't return to my world so I just travel the multiverse, getting summoned from world to world with no place to call my own. And most of the people I meet are predictable and most of the events play out the same. This world is no exception."

"So you replayed this game over and over? How many times did you rebirth?"

"Ren. I'll say this one time and one time only. This. World. Is. Not. A. Game. If you die, you die. You don't respawn, you don't have divine protection, and we aren't surrounded by NPCs."

"What are you talking about? This world is based on a game, it has in-game mechanics, it's literally a game."

"Ren, the multiverse is a vast place, anything is possible if you get far enough. Who's to say that a world where time flows backward doesn't exist? Or a world where gravity is reversed, or a world built on superpowers or game mechanics? Please treat people here like you would treat a real person."

Ren stayed silent for a bit, trying to process the information.

"Ok let's say, just theoretically, that this world isn't a game and that the people here are real. And let's say if we die, we die. Why are you talking only to me?"

"You give off an aura, similar to one of my old friends. I feel like you will go a long way. Motoyasu seems to only think about girls, and I'm not too sure about Itsuki."

"What do you mean at least one? What about you?"

"I'ma get blamed for either murder, arson, or rape."

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"I walked around a bit. Everyone seems to glare at me, the church is calling me a devil, and the king ignores me."

"But a girl tried to join you this morning!"

"She is the king's daughter in a Matriarchy Country. I can bet you 50 silvers she is the one who's gonna frame me. I'll tell you more, the king was only supposed to summon one hero for one country. So every other country is pretty pissed as well as f*cked."

"Bet. Is this you just guessing or did you already come to a similar world as this?"

"A little of both. Anyways, let's get back to making you stronger," Lyn pulled up his status and started to teach Ren a few methods. First was using money to cancel out the chance of failure of other upgrade methods.

"I don't see it. Are you sure we can all use the same methods?"

"The weapon adapts to your knowledge and beliefs. If you believe in this method that I'm teaching you, you will be able to use it. I need you to trust me on this Ren. What do you have to lose anyway?"

Ren looked at Lyn for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking back at his status screen. A few seconds later his eyes went wide in surprise.

"Holy sh*t it's so expensive!"

Ren almost yelled, attracting a bit of unwanted attention. A few people looked at Ren weirdly before turning around the second they saw his sword. Luckily Lyn hid his shield to avoid any rumors of him manipulating the sword hero.

"Shall we go onto the next method?" Lyn asked, smiling a bit.

Around five methods, including Rarity Power, Item Enchant, Ore Equip, and Job Level later Lyn turned off his status. He was careful to give Ren the power-up methods that seemed to be compatible with this world since they worked better than any of his other methods and Ren would get nothing from trying to use the methods of the multiverse.

"Well, that should be it for now. If I teach you too much too fast your arms could explode. I'ma get a room and call it a day. See ya in the next wave."

"What about tomorrow?"

"Can't. I'll either be exiled or busy. And you hanging out with me will give you a bad rep." Lyn replied, getting up from the table. "Oh and at tomorrow's trial'... don't bother helping. I need you to be close to the king. Plus, I wanna see how the others react."

"If you're sure. So what will you do now?"

"Sleep."

With this, Lyn rented a room and went inside.

Upon arrival, Lyn dropped his jacket and shirt into his inventory shield. Then anything and everything in the room followed. [Paper Shield], [Wood Shield], [Ink Shield]. Nothing too important, but a few extra passive bonuses won't hurt when he would master all of them. As soon as he was done, he felt an aura approach his room. Lyn put 1000 copper coins into the bag he got from the king and added a few silver on top. Then he put the bag on his table and quickly lay back into his bed and equipped his [Crystal Ball Shield], with the skill [Record].

The door opened and Lyn heard light footsteps. By her aura, it was the same woman that offered to be his companion. The bag of coins was picked up.

"Wow, he seems to have made a profit. Shame it would have all been for nothing. Now, where is his armor."

She muttered to herself.

A few doors opened and closed, the drawers and closets were opened and closed until finally the girl cursed under her breath and left the room. Lyn turned around and looked at the place where his money bag used to be.

(Well, there go my 22 silver coins I'm never getting back.)

Lyn turned on a light and pulled out his grimoire, scanning the pages quickly, barely giving them a second glance. After a few seconds and a scanned book, Lyn stood up and put his book away.

"Liberation guard" Lyn muttered and watched as his defense stat increased.

"It's the same spell as [Omega Guard] but with a longer chant. What a shame."

He took out a small notebook from the jacket in his shield and looked through it. Lyn added another tally mark next to the word 'world', and then looked through the 'runes' section.

Here Lyn kept the runes he could use for his weapon. Some special weapons need materials that can't be found in some worlds. So for this, Lyn found a workaround. Each weapon could be drawn as a rune and forcefully unlock a shield. Unfortunately, you can't use this method for some upgrades that require the same material but it still unlocks some good combos and abilities.

Lyn pulled out his status magic, lowered his stats on his [Faker] profile and after a few minutes of work and a lowered status, he finally jumped back into bed and fell asleep, mentally getting ready for another framing.

Lyn woke up to a loud banging on the door.

"Shield Hero!"

He stood up, put on his shirt, and opened the door.

Several nights were staring him down. It was clear they had hostile intentions.

(And so the show begins.)

"You've been ordered to appear before the king. Come with us."

"Ok. Lead the way."

The nights, surprised by Lyn's compliance, led him to the castle inside their carriage.

Once they arrived at the castle, the knights marched Lyn into the royal audience chamber. The king and minister were waiting with sullen looks on their faces.

Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki were also there, along with all of their followers, but so was the red-haired chick that offered to be in Lyn's party. However, when she saw Lyn she shrank back behind Motoyasu and glared at him.

"So what am I getting framed for?"

Everybody was looking at Lyn as if he was a villain. The same look of disgust he got used to a while ago. Though it was missing fear, as everyone in the room still wasn't aware of how dangerous Lyn could be, even as a shielder.

"You're saying you don't remember?"

Motoyasu questioned Lyn with a threat of menace in his voice.

"Provide context."

"I never thought you would stoop so low you... you fiend!"

Motoyasu yelled and pointed at Lyn.

"Hm?"

(Here we go again.)

"Yes, please state the charges against the Shield Hero."

"L-last night the Shield Hero got drunk, burst into my room, and... and... f-forced me down against my will! He... he told me that the night was still young, and then started r-ripping off my clothes..."

The red-haired woman clung to Motoyasu's back, crying and accusing Lyn through her sobs.

"It was so scary... I only barely managed to escape from the room, screaming. Thankfully Lord Motoyasu was there to help me."

(So it's rape. That's surprisingly tame. Then again, this country looks like a matriarchy so rape of a woman is probably the worst crime someone could commit.)

Instead of looking confused, angered, or afraid, Lyn just looked bored. Like he was just waiting for time to pass.

"You monster! How dare you do this to her!"

"One, I can't get drunk. Two, I already said I have no interest in women. And three Motoyasu, you're a simp."

"Silence, fiend!"

"What idiots," Lyn blurted out.

"I said silence! Or else...!" the king started.

"Or else what? You'll kill me?" Lyn replied with a smirk. "Can't. Kill me and you risk a war with some of the other countries. I already registered at the hourglass, so you can't imprison me either. Deny me any sales? I'll hunt for the essentials. Take my possessions? You already had your daughter take my money. I barely got to use any of it. I'm used to being accused of random sh*t and f*ck over in any and every way, but for now, all you can do is ruin my nonexistent reputation and send me on my way. Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

Lyn turned around and started walking away. But before he could get far, someone grabbed him from behind. It was of course none other than Motoyasu.

"You aren't going anywhere yet!" Motoyasu yelled at Lyn. He then turned to the king. "Can't we send him back and get another hero?"

However, the king merely folded his arms and frowned.

"I wish there was a way to send a Hero like this back to where he came from, I truly do. However, my researchers have informed me that another summoning is only possible after all four of the current Heroes have perished."

"...What?"

"That can't be..."

While Motoyasu finally shut up, Ren just continued to look away.

"Plus even if you could, you'd just frame the next shield hero, and then the next. Just to keep the shield weak, just because you can't take out your grudge on the previous shield, you decide to get your revenge on me. So until we beat the waves, you bastards are stuck with me!" Lyn yelled the last part with a sh*t eating grin, before starting to walk away once more.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Don't even try escaping!"

One of the nights punched Lyn.

thud*

(Hurt by his own punch. What an idiot.)

The knight that punched him was clutching at the arm he hit with and grimacing in pain.

"Unfortunately you are correct. You exist to fight the Wave of Calamity, so there will be no official punishment. However, your crime is already well-known amongst the citizens. That shall be your punishment. Do not expect to find any work in my kingdom."

"Not like I need it."

"You will return here in a month to fight. Even if you are a criminal, you are still the Shield Hero. Make no attempt to escape your duty."

"Oh I'll fight the waves, just not for your sake. Oh, and leave this here, do what you will."

Lyn pulled out a crystal ball from his shield and dropped it on the ground, letting it play yesterday's recording as he left the castle and the people behind.

Ann so the last hope for this world left Lyn's heart. He walked towards the exit of the capital with nothing but the things in his shield and his clothes.

(This world will burn on its own. Such a shame I keep my promises.)

As he thought of that, an image of a green-haired girl popped up in his mind.