Chapter I

"Hey dude, wake up at once, we don't have all day."

A voice I didn't recognize called me as I regained consciousness. Thinking it was just my imagination I decided to ignore it to continue enjoying the sweet dream I remembered having.

"Seriously dude, don't make me wake you up."

Yes, ignoring the voice was the best thing to do, why would anyone come to disturb someone in the middle of their sleep?

Well, the sudden hit I got was the only thing I got out of it. It was a red haired woman holding a spear that I saw as I looked up in pain, but thankfully that cleared my thoughts.

Where the hell was I, did I manage to escape the invaders? I had many more questions but the only thing I got as an immediate answer was....

[Equipment: Small Axe (Legendary Weapon), A"$/%%@/(]

That explained a few things, though my doubts kept growing.

"Do you want me to hit you again?" The woman asked irritably.

Right, I should be grateful to have contact so soon to better understand my situation.

"Don't worry, I'm getting up." And as I said, I got up, shaking out my armor as I did so. Or what was left of it.

"Alright, we need to get moving." Throwing me a small bag she said, starting to walk without waiting for me. "You already took part of the morning to wake up, we need to get to the city today."

I followed her quickly taking and checking the bag. Some dried meat and coins that appeared to be copper. I began to eat following her, keeping silent as I walked, leaving me to return to my own doubts. This could not be the same weapon, it seemed to be a little bigger than I remembered, and I had already lost it to begin with. This was also confirmed by the fact that the inventory seemed to be empty.

But I could check the menu later, now that I finished eating and put the money in the weapon, what I needed was to get information about where i was... Now I felt ashamed with myself for eating the meat without suspecting something.

"And tell me... What's your name"

"Jeanne. And no, I don't know how you got here, I just found you right there last night." She even answered me what I was planning to ask, and it seemed to amuse here "It's written all over your face that that's what you'd ask."

Not even an hour awake and I was already being read like an open book, that's not very comforting, but I might as well keep going.

"Ok. You had said you wanted to get to the city today, are we close enough to get there on foot?" Seeing her nod I continued. "And seeing the coins I can guess that this will help me to find an... inn or something. May I ask why so much kindness?"

Not counting that punch to wake up. I'd better keep that to myself.

"Well, I can understand why you ask that, and partly it's just to help someone just starting out at level 1."

"Partly you say, what kind of goal would you have for doing it if you accept it so easily."

"It's not such a big one," She said turning to look at me with a smile that was somewhere between beautiful and sinister. "helping a new seven star hero will give me a lot of benefits in the future."

Hero, so she recognize the weapon but seven stars? I can only assume she's talking about the vassals, I doubt I'll end up in a forest with a holy one after all.

"Seven-star hero? How can you be sure I can be something like that." I asked trying to sound truly confused.

"That axe you have is like the seven star axe described in stories, plus the distinguishable gem that all the other weapons seem to share."

More than stories she seems to have information that no common adventurer would have to be so sure of it, though it could also be that she learned it recently and wants to brag about it.

"Can you tell me a bit about that? It's already obvious that I would ask."

And so she began to tell me what she knew about these heroes, confirming that it was a vassal weapon I had with me, and a possible reason why I ended up in this world. The waves are happening and four holy heroes were summoned, with a wave happening just a couple of days ago in these parts.

But before I could say something the sound of the grass made me look around, seeing a....

"Is that... a balloon with a mouth?"

"That's right," Jeanne answered as she watched two other balloons of different color appear "they are the weakest monsters you can find. Go ahead and kill them, I want to see how your weapon works now that we have time."

"For someone who looks serious you are quite childish." I muttered approaching the balloons.

There wasn't much to notice, they just launched themselves at me leaving me free to kill them in one hit one by one, giving me the always needed experience. Besides an interesting sound as they exploded what relieved me was seeing how each of their pieces granted me a different axe with attack upgrades as I absorbed them, I thought such a strange monster wouldn't unlock anything.

[Conditions met:

Small orange axe

Small red axe

Small green axe]

All gave a slight increase in attack. As I switched to one of them to unlock the equipment bonuses I heard a gasp too close to me.

"Oh! That's how weapons transform? It's not just the gem even the handle changed a bit!" Yes, childish.

And indeed, it took on a bright red color while the handle took on a darker one. A bit strange but nothing really useful to know.

"I'm glad you enjoy it," I said separating a little from her "but shouldn't we start moving? We're already at the edge of the forest."

"Ah, you're right, we should arrive shortly after noon so hold on until then."

Nodding I started to follow her, and to avoid some awkward silence I decided to ask more questions about this world. Fortunately Jeanne seems to be quite knowledgeable, she told me about everything from the biggest countries around to rumors about the sacred heroes, knowing now about the four weapons, mentioning as "stupid" the shield hero ones. Before contemplating how a shield would be a weapon she said:

"The strangest thing is why you showed up, after all an axe hero has been active for a while and you just come starting out to be him. Most likely some wave finished him off so be careful."

This left me in a bit of a delicate position with this former hero's allies, no matter if they are personal or some countries it will be best to avoid them, no way I'm going to deal with politics being so weak.

The rest of the way was pretty quiet, not counting some balloons or wild rabbits that out of nowhere appeared. Not to complain, I got enough experience to level up and a new axe. I tried to try magic but I barely managed to create a small stone stake before I ended up empty of magic power.

"Your magic is also unique, I guess weapons choose special people even if you're just a big guy." I decided to ignore that comment and move on.

Fortunately I could already see the city in the distance. It wasn't a capital city clearly but it was of a respectable size, they should have some specialization to thrive. I let Jeanne know my doubts about it.

"You see, Wyverik is a good trading point, it's halfway between the capital of this kingdom and Zeltoble's so whether adventurers, mercenaries or traders here they can find almost anything they need."

"And in theory it's the best place for a newbie to start his career... I'm already smelling trouble here."

Jeanne just laughed at my comment.

"Come on, we're a little later than I expected and I'm starving."

Sticking the axe to my back I followed her. Arriving at the entrance to the city I thought there would be conflict getting in but it didn't happen, mostly because of Jeanne's familiarity with the guards.

"Yeah, just look at him, his armor a mess and he was left alone with his weapon."

"And what were you doing in such a place to begin with, you want to die so badly? Rookies as usual doing stupid things." For some reason I was scolded by a guard, I hope it doesn't become recurrent.

After having to endure more teasing from Jeanne we smoothly entered the city. Despite its obvious medieval structure the city itself was quite lively, all kinds of stores with all kinds of customers everywhere, I was even surprised to see such a race here.

"Is that a beastman?" I asked incredulously, I was impressed to see one, I came to a rather interesting world.

"Yes, don't you know them? They tend to be pretty strong, don't pick a fight." I figured, getting hit by a huge bear would be no game. Jeanne then pointed to another side where there were a couple of girls with what appeared to be dog ears. "And those are demi-humans, to me they are the same but that's one way to tell them apart."

As I was thinking about this new breed we quickly arrived at the inn where we would be staying. A fairly normal two story place to be honest. Inside it was a bit as I expected, a good amount of tables with people eating and drinking, stairs leading to the second floor and a counter with a lady behind it.

"Jeanne! You're back, did you manage to finish your work?" Said the lady once she turned to see us enter.

"Yes, yes, I managed to finish it, but right now I'm dying, we're starving, throw us a nice steak."

"So your appointment is more important than work, of course, I'll bring you your food."

I decided to sit at the counter to wait and listen to what the other customers were chatting about. Their conversations were not that important, from what plans they would have the next day to how their weapons, which I noticed were either adventurers or mercenaries, needed repair.

That reminded me of my own armor, it was completely shattered and, if the strange symbols were any clue, it was completely useless, I hoped to find something good soon. Another conversation immediately caught my attention, about the waves. A town was destroyed before this wave closed and a warning has been posted around it to avoid encounters with stray monsters from this wave.

"Okay, here you go." The lady's voice brought my attention from the conversation to the food she placed in front of me.

"Delicious as always Liz." Jeanne had already started eating with gusto and I wasn't about to be left behind.

After such a long time of not eating something well done this steak was a delight, I ate with vigor that I forgot I owned, drinking a mug that tasted like beer that I hadn't realized they had put there. As I finished eating I overheard Jeanne talking to the lady.

"As you can see even his armor is a mess, can you do him a favor? I'll see that she gets money to pay you." They seemed to be talking about my stay here, while I was mindlessly enjoying the food.

"All right" the lady answered with a sigh "but only because I know you will keep your word."

"Thank you very much." I commented catching her attention.

"Don't worry, stay in the last room on the right. And call me Liz, by the way."

Thanking Liz again and paying for the meal with the money Jeanne had given me, who had told me she would pick me up first thing in the morning, I decided to retire to the room. A simple room as I expected, a bed that was not too bad in quality with a night table with candles, not counting the window.

Sitting up in bed I began to reflect on what had happened. After I thought I had lost my weapon and escaped destruction by going through a wave I ended up in an unknown world. Even though it was a smooth ride to the city I felt everything happening too fast, just getting this strange feeling of weakness.

Level two, close to level three, was all I had now. Although I had heard that levels reset on other worlds it was still frustrating to have lost so much. And this new axe meant that I had also lost all my previous weapons.

This also brought me to the most important point, the axe. Taking it and changing it to its base form I could tell that yes it was slightly larger than the one I used but it should have the same versatility in weapon size, even the gem was where the blade and handle connected. And yes, the loss of weapons was confirmed by checking the menu for these. Although having color variations of the base axe will help me when I have mastered them.

With the help menu I managed to confirm, fortunately, that their functions were the same, at least I already had some experience to advance faster. What really caught my attention and showed how this was another weapon was the strengthening method.

It was something simple really, when it came to leveling up I gained points that could be placed around different stats, I already even had a couple of points from today's level up, and the changes were not permanent, I could remove the assigned points and rearrange them later. Although the latter seemed to have a cooldown time it didn't take away from the usefulness. It was best to save the points i had for another day, distributing them mindlessly would be stupid.

It was the sound of someone knocking on the door that distracted me, I quickly moved to open it and see Liz there.

"I came to give you some clothes," she said handing me some clothes "you are lucky that my husband is as stocky as you, my son's clothes wouldn't fit you."

"Thanks again, I hadn't thought of that, I completely forgot, I'll be sure to pay for it."

"I figured as much, you already seemed distracted while you were eating earlier. And you'd better pay for it, we don't usually take homeless people in." she said with a smile that I responded with an uncomfortable laugh.

When she left and I went back to bed I checked my armor. As I had noticed hours ago the name of my "Royal Armor" was pure scribbles, and not only because of the physical state of it, statistically it was completely useless.

I removed the armor keeping the underwear that had somehow survived. My first thought was to power the weapon with the armor, its metals should be rare, if not nonexistent, in this world, but for some reason no weapon was unlocked. Anyway some skilled blacksmith might be willing to work on it to either repair it in some way or use it as a base to create something new.

With the armor already in inventory I put away the clothes Liz gave me, changed the axe to the latest form I got today, and proceeded to lie down on the bed.

I was lost in my thoughts, searching for ideas on how to become stronger, get allies, and contact the holy heroes. It was kind of pointless at the time, besides Jeanne I had no one to actively help me in this world, but I couldn't help myself. I had already failed, I refused to fail a second time!

With those thoughts I let myself be carried away by the tiredness I didn't know I had and I ended up sleeping even though it was just getting dark.