CHAPTER 7.

"I highly doubt that I will be able to live up to such a lofty vision Bellamy," Adrian said, feeling very, very odd as the older man in front of him looked at him with utter reverence,"I am many things but I very much doubt that I am the avatar of a God."

"Your humility is truly a pleasure to behold Sir, but the Sword you wield is a sign of divine power, as you unseal more and more of your divine power through the Sword, I believe that you shall realize the truth for yourself. You are an avatar of the Lord. There is no doubt of the fact!" he proclaimed.

At this point, even Malty and the blonde girl were looking a little bit disquieted, and all of them had stopped walking.

Adrian started moving again and quickly moved the conversation along, he would think about the fact that he had a fanatic devoted to the idea of his being an avatar of a God later," Miss, I apologize for the delay, please continue."

For once he wanted to have this psychopath speak, what an insane world he was in. He had to get the hell out of here.

"Thank you Sir Black, My name is Myne Sophia, or at least that is my adventurer name," she said, a truly beautiful smile on her face," my true name is Princess Malty Melromarc. It is an honour to stand by your side as you defend my country. And I am an expert fire mage and a skilled swordswoman.."

"That is a surprise Princess," he said, trying to frame his argument, he needed to see how she reacted to him "but is it wise to allow the next ruler to the nation risk herself on the front lines? I do not doubt your ability to fight if you have chosen to join me, but surely the risks of the waves cannot be fully eliminated?"

"I am certain that you can protect me Sir Hero, indeed there is no doubt in my mind that you can ensure that both the waves are defeated and that we are all kept safe," she said, coming a little closer and holding his hand in both of her own while they continued walking.

Adrian suppressed the urge to pull his hand out of her grasp, and instead gave it a little squeeze and pushed it away after that, he was starting to realize just how much of a burden dealing with this nightmare was going to be, "Thank you for the compliment but I am merely an amateur at combat, and while I would love to say that your protection is certain I can guarantee no such thing. Are you certain that you still wish to risk your life against the Waves?"

"Sir Hero, please do not doubt my courage any further," she said firmly, a poor attempt to get me to feel guilty about insulting her. But an attempt that would have worked if I didn't have information that no one in this world should have had.

"My apologies Princess. Thank you for your support." Adrian said, deciding right there that she would have to die or be removed as soon as possible, a dragon eating her, or her falling down a mountain after being pushed by a monster sounded perfect, and destroying her corpse would be easy, his Sword would be able to absorb it.

"I am Andrea, Sir Black. Skilled defender, healer and at boosting other party members." the last girl said, her voice was quiet and she went silent after her short introduction. Then she started again, " I choose to join you because you were the Hero with the least number of people in your party."

Adrian had to wonder about the three people he had gotten in his party, had Ren's party members been this….quirky. A religious fanatic, a seductive psychopath and a girl who was far too blunt. He was starting to rethink his idea of using them for the first month. If these guys were bad at combat he was going to have to risk kicking them out and going for other options.

However, both of them had given him some pretty valuable information almost inadvertently. After all both Bellamy and Andrea had made it pretty clear that neither of them gave the Shield Hero any importance at all. That was something he could exploit later.

Adrian smiled here and hoped it didn't look as false as it was,

"Excellent, my name as you all know is Adrian Black, and I would be grateful if you all called me by name. After all, you all are willing to risk your lives against an apocalypse at my side, it would be rather pathetic to insist on formality after that."

Adrian was starting to feel happy that he had gone into retail hell in high school, he hadn't had to lie this much in years.

"Of course Adrian," said Malty, a sultry smile on her lips, "Please address me as Malty or Myne, whichever you prefer."

The other two were far more direct.

"Yes, Sir Hero!"

"Understood."

No two guesses as to who said what. This was going to be a nightmare.

Preparation for the hunting took nearly two hours and 150 silver but it was time and money well spent.

Adrian hummed a little tune under his breath as he changed his sword form to an Iron Sword. It was nothing exceptional, just a common iron sword made by a blacksmith, the only special part was that he was the same blacksmith who had supported Naofumi. So why was he so very happy? Simple he had just tested out his weapon copy more than 50 times in the past two hours. In some cases, he didn't get anything new, turns out that using it on two Iron Swords simply doesn't do anything but he did get a huge increase in his arsenal even if he could only use the Iron Sword at level one.

He was wearing a simple chainmail armour that increased his defence rating by about 2 dozen points effectively multiplying it and he was currently feeding his sword some of the items he had instructed his party members to buy while he had been running around copying swords.

Malty, Andrea and Bellamy had been quite obedient. It was a bit of a surprise to see the bitch so very willing to jump to his tune but he supposed she was still setting him up for the fall, best make as much use of her as possible before he was forced to murder her.

He had gotten the three of them to buy some used or damaged tools from around town, the main reason was to get a few new forms for his sword, after all, Naofumi had gotten forms from things like ropes, pipes and pickaxes, who knew what useful stuff was hiding behind mundane objects? But the secondary reason was the image of Malty going around asking for second hand and broken shit with the ten silvers that he had given her. It was hilarious, he was probably going to pay for it but watching her smile while she was probably seething? Surprisingly satisfying.

Nonetheless, these two hours had been wonderful with a great many weapon forms being unlocked as the bags his party members had was slowly emptied. He was getting some looks from the crowd as he fed his sword but frankly this particular ability was pretty much universal, he was giving away little to nothing by doing this in public.

Now, however, was the time to go to the most important location in the city, it was a place that Adrian had delayed going to because he honestly hadn't been sure if it was wise to enter at this point but now after unlocking nearly a hundred swords in total before he even got a single exp point he was feeling a little better about his chances with the wave, even if more than ninety per cent were sealed off, by the time he was level 25 he would have all of them unlocked. So he would be going to the Dragon Hourglass. A timer in his vision would be a wonderful motivator, nothing like the promise of death to push a person forward. Plus he wanted to unlock the teleportation Sword.

That particular sword was critical to a dozen of his plans, the moment he fully unlocked that sword and boosted it as much as possible, he was going to have his options multiply.

So the four of them walked towards the massive tower where the hourglass was kept, and truthfully just massive did not do the tower justice. That particular tower could be seen from anywhere in town and as they walked closer it simply seemed to loom over them like it was endless.

Adrian had to admit this was damn impressive for a medieval world, he assumed that magic made such construction easier and more practical, otherwise he couldn't even begin to imagine how they made this thing.

The inside was incredibly well lit and very well decorated, gentle music seemed to flood the room from every direction and the smell of incense was present subtly, the atmosphere was truly quite wonderful.

It was quite sad that the place was the headquarters of a cult.

A nun noticed them the moment they walked in, she walked up to them calmly at first and then with some haste once she noticed the sword.

"Saint Hero," she said with a bow, " Please be welcome here. We are honoured by your presence and that of your companions"

"Thank you," said Adrian," I was hoping to see the hourglass if it is possible and hopefully get some of the sand inside it."

"Of course Sir. I shall accompany you to the Dragon Hourglass right away, but you may have to wait a moment for the sand sir, we have some gathered but it is in a secure room, we shall have it for you in no time at all."

She was looking increasingly nervous as she finished her sentence as if making him wait for five minutes was the end of the world or something.

"It's no problem. Please take your time."

"Thank you. Now, please follow me, sir."

It took them about five minutes following a rather convoluted path to get to the hourglass, but when they did reach their goal, it honestly stunned Adrian.

He had known intellectually that he was in a world with magic, the Sword stuck to him that was capable of absorbing literal tons and transforming was pretty good proof but for the first time, he was looking at something that felt magical.

The hourglass was truly massive, but what was stunning was that he could feel something from it, it was like a blind man suddenly realizing he could see, Adrian had no way to describe what he was feeling but it left him in awe.

The thought struck by lightning,this had not been made by humans, he didn't know why he was so certain about that or where that thought had come from but it was true, he knew that for certain.

"...Adrian, Sir Adrian." he heard, it was distant however like he was hearing someone speak underwater, then he felt his shoulder shake and he looked to see who it was. Bellamy looked concerned, "Sir are you, all right? You...you just stopped moving sir."

Adrian shook his head, trying to clear it, but it didn't help, "I'm not sure what happened, it felt like...something just woke up or something. I don't know. Let's just get this done and get out of here, I need to think about this."

He lifted his sword and focused on it and the hourglass, feeling quite nervous about the massive structure now, but no problems emerged, his Sword took on a glow from its gem for a moment before a beam of light struck the Dragon hourglass lighting it up, then a time began to countdown on my status screen.

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