CHAPTER 5.

Adrian had no monster parts so he could not test out the status enchantments but the fact that he had the option was incredibly reassuring. Adrian thought for a moment while focusing on the screen and moved the gem of the sword near all the wax pieces, it slowly absorbed all of it and then gave a notification.

Wax Absorbed.

He focused on this Wax that was available in the items menu and then tried to think about the Wax Sword…...it took a moment but the option popped up, he allowed the assimilation to occur and then noted the Wax sword again.

Wax Sword (unmastered)(1/10) : Lv 1 0.00% +1

Energy Level 5/100

Rarity: Very Common

Enchantments: None

Status Enchantments: None

Equip Boosts : Attack +2;Speed +1

Equip Skills: Moulding 1

Special Ability: None

The change caught him off guard a little. He had expected a small result but this was quite impressive, the stat boost of the attack and speed had gone up by one. The amount of wax was quite large compared to the original amount but it seemed that simply absorbing more of given materials was enough to upgrade something.

Adrian quickly shattered a few more candles and then offered the wax to the sword. A moment of manipulating his menus and then he saw the results.

It was honestly stunning.

Wax Sword (Mastered) (3/10) : Lv 1 0.00% +2

Energy Level 28/100

Rarity: Common

Enchantments: None

Status Enchantments: None

Equip Boosts : Attack +3; Speed +2

Equip Skills: Moulding 2

Special Ability: None

Conditions Met: Wax Sword II Unlocked (Level Locked. Required Level: 4)

5 candles worth of wax was enough to both provide a new Sword as well as upgrade the old one. The only problem, the level requirement for the Wax Sword II was high enough that he couldn't even open it up. Level 4 was a trivial thing however, what mattered was this, Adrian had a method to almost casually master weapons as well as gain stat boosts. Certainly, +3 attack and +2 speed was nothing game-breaking but imagine a hundred swords with even just a +1 in attack, that was more than enough to multiply his current attack by 20!

Considering that he could unlock new swords quite casually, this was an amazing method, combined with status enchantments, and the boosts from levelling, it was quite likely that stats would not be a problem as long as he could keep on unlocking and upgrading new swords. That was one less thing to worry about. But the problem was skills. Adrian had no way to know if a given sword would provide him with good skill, his only chance was to just keep trying, and such a random method was honestly irritating, he needed a more secure and accurate method than trial and error. Unfortunately, he saw no such method, all he could do was try and see if there was a pattern in which swords gave him skills once he had a decent collection of them.

He let out a sigh and then headed towards the bed, he sat down on the surface after removing all the accessories he had carried with him all day, nothing much, just his wallet, keys, and his phones.

Adrian took a long look at them. They were all reminders of so many events. He could see the small tear in his wallet which his sister had inflicted trying such a cool design on it and failed, he could see a small crack on his older phone when his brother had dropped it while playing a game, Adrian could remember how scared Ethan had been, the child had tried to hide the phone from him. At that time he had been frustrated and a little angry, but now, further away from them than ever before all he felt was despair. He had no idea what was going on there, was time effectively frozen? Did time pass faster there, or would he be able to return home with them not even realizing it? Or would they find him gone and try to find him only to fail because he was in another bloody dimension!

Adrian's despair gave in to rage, it was a slow-burning one, he had felt scared and worried from the moment he had realized what had occurred, he had tried to focus on his next task, on his survival, on the story he had read so that he could keep thinking. But looking at these objects, at just how alien they were to this world it reminded him again that these bastards had kidnapped him just to throw him at a horde of monsters and then the fucking summoner had the gall to look guilty when telling him that they didn't have a way to send him back.

He was going to make them suffer. Maybe he would throw them into an arena with some monsters, then if they won, put them in a cage and then make fight another, and keep this up until they die. Would the bloody King regret summoning them if he did this to the man and his family? Adrian didn't know but he suspected that he would have fun trying.

Adrian felt like laughing when he realized just how pointless his thoughts were. Right now he was nothing. He had no contacts, limited information from a light novel whose validity he was uncertain off, surrounded by people who would take his head off at the first command and weaker than even a child of this world. Revenge fantasies were worthless, what he needed was power.

He took a long look at the items strewn about in front of him while leaning against the headboard of the bed, his sword still in hand. They were reminders of his past, of his world, of his family but they were better suited to be used to gain power.

He kept one of the phones aside. The newest one, but fed the items to his Sword one by one, keeping his family in mind. He would keep his newer phone intact, it had some pictures of his family if he managed to figure out how to charge it, it would act as motivation. The rest of the objects were worth nothing. He saw a few notifications flared forth in the periphery of his vision.

Condition Met: Currency Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Currency Storage Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Leather Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Communication Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Key Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Ring Sword Unlocked

Condition Met: Silicon Sword Unlocked...

,

There were more than a dozen, most from the components of the phone but some from the bills and coins he had put in. Then he got off his bed and roamed around his room, absorbing various materials from the objects around him, a whole candle, some thread from the curtains, feathers from the pillows and fragments of the mattress, and even three types of wood that he scraped off using his sword from the furniture. He even took a bit of the wall.

It was rude and probably something that his observers found odd but frankly, he didn't care. Eccentricity was hard to model and he had no reason to bother with their opinion unless it would cause him trouble.

Right now what he needed was strength. He needed power or he would never be free of these bastards and he would never get back home. And as he saw his periphery fill up with notifications of more swords being unlocked, he felt a cold satisfaction rise up, he would not stay under the thumb of these fools for long.

.

.

.

.

Adrian felt like there was electricity running through his body, a nervous tension that did not seem to fade. He had done all that he could, planned to the best of his capability and unlocked as many Sword forms as possible. Even now he had unlocked five sword forms out of the ten which could be unlocked at level 1 and managed to get his attack stat nearly doubled from the initial value despite not levelling up even once but the feeling that this would not be enough did not fade.

He tried to control his breathing, carefully regulating it while they had breakfast, and waited for the summon. Today was an important day, depending on his growth today, and how well he performed, who his allies were and how much they could be trusted he could plan for the future. For now, the amount of confirmed information he had was pathetic and that limited the amount of planning he could do.

Soon enough, the call to assemble in the throne room came, and the four of us went forth, Adrian could see that the other three Heroes were eager, but Adrian's attention went to Naofumi, the boy was nearly skipping, a silly smile on his face.

His sheer joy was like a dagger in Adrian's heart, for the first time since he had arrived in this world he felt genuine pity for the boy who was about to have his dream shattered until it warped him into a cruel man due to simple necessity. Adrian had never really liked Naofumi as a character but now looking at a real person who was about to be falsely accused of rape and have his life ruined he felt an immense frustration build up. It was incredibly unfair what was going to happen to him, but Adrian saw no way around it.

Certainly, he could try something to prevent the rape accusation scenario, perhaps call the four heroes for a post hunting drink or something to have obvious witnesses that could not be easily bought or silenced. Hell if he was willing to take a risk, it was entirely possible that Adrian's presence alone could potentially short circuit the Princess's whole plot but that would not stop the basic fact that the reason why Naofumi had been treated so poorly and the accusation was believed so easily was due to the Church of Three Heroes and the widespread belief about the so-called Shield Demon. The whole rape accusation was just an excuse, perhaps the King believed it, perhaps he did not, but the fact of the matter was that the whole kingdom was predisposed to hate the Shield Hero. If he did manage to stop the whole rape accusation event, then what was he supposed to do if something else came up? He could hardly stay around Naofumi 24/7.

Though this whole situation was nearly impossible for Adrian to solve right now, if he let things be and Naofumi got accused of rape, then, in theory, the canon events should occur. In practice, however, there was no reason for such a thing to occur. Say the Blacksmith who helped him chooses not to, or the Slave trader decides not to visit Naofumi, or Naofumi decides to avoid the Slave trader, or perhaps if the Slave Trader decides that Naofumi should be enslaved as it could make him some money, or if Naofumi decides to take a different slave rather than Raphtalia and this slave is far less capable or not as loyal or something and thus Naofumi is not powerful enough during the Wave and dies, or something happens and he unlocks the Curse Series Earlier and goes on some sort of rampage without Raphtalia to stop him from giving into his anger.