03 – The Power of the Legendary Weapons

The Legendary Weapons, also known as Four Holy Weapons, were weapons possessed by the chosen hero summoned from another world to combat the Wave of Calamity.

And for an unknown reason, I had woken up in the body as Ren Amaki, the backup candidate of the Sword Hero.

Each of the Legendary Weapons was from their respective worlds. These worlds were fused as one by the Waves of Calamity, the world of the Shield and Bow were fused and the world of the Sword and Spear were fused, later fusing as one, altogether the total fusions of the worlds to three times with a total of four Legendary Weapons.

The role of the weapons and their chosen heroes was to fight against their original enemy, the one pulling the strings behind the scenes, seeking to destroy the worlds by fusing them using the waves.

In the web novel, this malicious entity was known as Medea Pideth Machina—a mortal who had ascended into Godhood in her original world, but she desired more power. The Wave of Calamity was the result of her nefarious plan.

I recalled that Malty, also known as Bitch, was the fragment of this entity's soul. And this entity was also known as the World Eater.

All of those were according to the web novel. I was not certain about the light novel version because I had not read that far before I woke up here.

(Actually, which version this world follows?)

I ceased my thoughts and unintentionally heard Aultcray's words.

"...evening draws near. Heroes, you should rest for the night and prepare for departure on the morrow. In the meantime, I will find companions for you from the village below."

I stopped reading [Help] since this boring meeting was finally over.

※※※

We left the throne room and were guided by a maid to our respective rooms.

All the while, I was reading the information about the Power of the Legendary Weapons.

Anyway, the possessors were given the role of safely saving the world and overcoming the waves after which the user was given a choice of three rewards.

• Return to their original world; the reward includes three wishes there, for almost anything they could wish for. The spirits of the Legendary Weapons could exert some influence over their user's world they operated under. Heroes could bring back a few people with them. However, that would constitute leaving early.

• Remain in the world and live out their days there, worshiped as a hero. This was the one that many heroes from the past had chosen.

• Return once to their worlds but retain the right to come back here again.

(I wonder if I can request to go to another world based on anime and manga… Well, that is something to think about later.)

I silently mused and then continued reading [Help].

All Legendary Weapons were powerful, and the possessors received some boons and restrictions.

Holy Heroes had two restrictions imposed on them;

• They are unable to gain experience when close to each other. However, they still gain EXP from killing the monsters spammed by the Wave of Calamity.

• They may not equip weapons that are not of the same class as the Legendary Weapon itself. Additionally, they cannot remove the Legendary Weapon from their bodies.

The boons were―

• Bypass: No level cap and no class-up requirement. This also grants immunity to slave seals and other control-type curses.

• SP Energy: Possessors of the Legendary Weapon have access to hero-exclusive energy called 'SP.' It allows heroes to use skills unique to their weapons and is an independent system from magic and life energy. SP can either be regenerated over time or by consuming a special type of potion.

• Translate: Verbal language is translated to the user in their primary language while the user's primary language is heard by the recipient in their primary language.

• Wave Summon: Upon wave spawn, the Legendary Heroes and their respective parties are transported to the proximity of the Waves of Calamity. Heroes need to register to the Dragon Hourglass first before being able to use this function.

• Drop Items: Upon defeating an enemy, there is a chance that it may drop special items unavailable to non-Heroes. Drops may include weapons, armor, crafting materials, and coins.

• Technical Skill: If the hero has a recipe, they can place the ingredients in the weapon's inventory and use it to automatically craft the desired item with some time. However, only drop items and items processed by heroes can be used for crafting.

• Authority: Possessors of the Legendary Weapons have the authority to dismiss a possessor of the Vassal Weapon if they are neglecting their duty or using the weapon for malicious purposes.

Other than those basic powers, the Legendary Weapons had various strengthening methods that were selectively revealed to the user's interface. Other possessors could enable these systems only if they genuinely believed they existed. However, power-up methods from different worlds would not work.

There were two types of strengthening methods; Universal and Exclusive.

The Universal-type was strengthening methods that were available from the beginning. These strengthening methods were―

• Absorption: Weapons can absorb loot such as items and materials to unlock new variations of the Legendary Weapon and may equip said variation if they meet its prerequisites, which is mostly a certain level to reach. The list of unlocked variations can be found in [Catalogue].

• Weapon Transformation: Weapons can transform into different variations that grant new equip bonuses including stats, skills, and abilities.

• Weapon Copy: The user can copy weapons of a similar type to the Legendary Weapon that they encounter and store them for later access.

Regarding the exclusive strengthening methods, each Legendary Weapon had three exclusive methods in the beginning.

The strengthening methods of the Legendary Sword were―

• Mastery: Using the same weapon for a prolonged time will raise its mastery and be able to permanently retain its equip bonuses or unlock its special equip bonus upon full mastery. In the detail of the weapon's variants, (UM) indicates unmastered, while (M) indicates full mastery.

• Energy Transfer: When heroes gain mastery in using a weapon, they can reset the mastery to gain 'energy.' Any item that they put into the weapon's inventory can also be turned into energy.

• Increasing Rarity: By imbuing a weapon with energy gained from resetting mastery levels or converting items into energy, heroes can increase the rarity of weapon's variants, enhancing the weapon's bonuses or unlocking unique abilities. There are six grades, and from the lowest to the highest, they are common (C), uncommon (UC), rare (R), super-rare (SR), ultra-rare (UR), and lastly artifact (AR).

The next three methods belonged to the Legendary Spear:

• Smelting: Heroes can power up a piece of equipment using ores. However, there is a chance of failure.

• Spirit Enchantment: Pieces of monsters' souls that have been absorbed into a weapon can be used to imbue the weapon with special powers. This has no chance of failure. The result of this method is shown in the detail of the weapon's variations.

• Status Enchantment: Combat Stats can be increased by absorbing items dropped from monsters.

The next three methods belonged to the Legendary Bow:

• Power Up: The power of a weapon can be raised by equipping it with certain ores. No chance of failure. This is symbolized by (-/-) after the name of the weapon's variations.

• Item Enchantment: Items that have been absorbed into a weapon's inventory can be turned into energy, similar to the Energy Transfer of the Legendary Sword. Energy can be used to raise the percentage of various stats. Success is based on probability, decreasing with each successive enchantment. Upon failure, the item enchantment level is reset to 0. Symbolized by '+1/+2/+3' and so on after the name of the weapon's variations.

• Job: Upon filling the level gauge for the job, it can be upgraded or changed. Job will give bonuses for equipping it and raising its level.

The next three methods belonged to the Legendary Shield:

• Sharing: Share the power-up methods from other legendary weapons and vassal weapons. If the other heroes unlocked the new strengthening methods, I got 10% of the shared methods.

• Trust: Trusting and being trusted leads to increased abilities. When the trust value is maximized, heroes get a 2% bonus for their primary stats.

• Energy Point: Unlock energy called [EP]. Assigning this energy to skills will allow more powerful skills to be used. This energy is a combination of SP and HP and is required to cast Liberation-class magic.

The next strengthening method belonged to Vassal Weapons.

• Power-Up Points: Points are acquired based on my current level, and they can then be spent on magic (Staff version) or skills (Gauntlets version).

• Enhanced Customization via Money: Spends money for enchantment. It only works when combined with other strengthening methods. It also cancels out failure at refinement. This originally belonged to Vassal Projectile.

By the way, there were only three methods because I only knew those!