Chapter 2 - Summoning Jutsu

"Ooh..."

A voice filled with nothing, but pure admiration and awe brought him back to his senses.

The first thing he saw was an arch-shaped ceiling like-dome made of pure white marble. Looking to his left, then to his right, Kenzo realized that he was lying down on his back, inside of a dark room, instead of the white fluorescent lights of his bedroom, candles dimly lit the room from the lanterns that hung on the walls—they barely illuminated the interior.

As he got up, Kenzo noticed the complicated array of geometric symbols and shapes drawn onto the floor, circling around him and glowed blue in the darkness. The pattern suspiciously looked something straight out of Fullmetal Alchemist.

'That surely isn't good,' Kenzo thought to himself.

He looked around and found an exist to the dark room. It was blocked by a group of men—dressed in robes like priests—cultists would be a more accurate description in Kenzo's opinion.

They were looking at him the same way his little sister of three looked at him when he did that one magic trick with the disappearing thumb.

Clunk—!

Immediately his attention was snapped to his left, where he heard something slip out of his grasp and fall on the ground.

It was a sword.

A sharp and pointy metal blade, sword-like in length and appearance.

Kenzo picked it up and examined it closely. Touching the ornate cross-guard that curved around the base of the blade, with a blue jewel embedded in its centre. He ran his fingers across the ever-so-slightly visible runes and patterns carved into the metal of the blade.

He gripped it tightly.

The balance of the weapon was impeccable. The metal of the curved guard, the leather-bound hilt, balanced the blade very efficiently.

Wait, how did he know all of this? It was the first time he touched a real sword.

He gave it a few swings, it felt familiar—safe almost. As though he had used it a million times before. With every moment, the blade felt more comfortable in his hand, as if it was accustoming itself to its new master.

It felt like something straight out of a fantasy novel.

"We...We, did it? Success!" The same voice from before shouted, in what appeared to be both equal measures of delight, and excitement.

After blinking a few times, Kenzo realized that there was something very wrong with what he was seeing.

The owner of the voice was the cultist that stood in front of the group, he continued to shout, "Oh! The summoning was a success!" The group of men, wore long, green robes with gold trimmings, their hands were clasped into a praying position.

'What?' Was honestly the only thing Kenzo could think of.

"Where am I?" Another voice questioned, and this one, was behind him.

Kenzo spun around to look at the person in question. Male, late teens probably and Japanese by the looks of it. He was rather short—no, rather it felt as though Kenzo was unnaturally tall.

The teen wore a green tracksuit with a brand he had never seen, but the most peculiar thing, however, would be what he had attached to his arm, a pentagon made of metal, with a round and shining green jewel in the middle.

'That—that looks oddly familiar... where have I seen it before?' Kenzo questioned but before he could take a closer look, one of the cultists began to speak again. "Ooh brave heroes, please save our world!" He clapped his hands twice and brought them back into a prayer-like position and bowed low.

"What the hell?" Another voice asked to his side. This time, it was a young man, a head or so shorter than himself, with blond hair tied into a ponytail. He wore a red shirt, and his face was scrunched up in confusion.

And in his grasp, was a spear with a gem, just as the other had a shield, and he, a sword.

'Wait a minute...'

"I know this must be very confusing, but please heroes, listen to our story." Kenzo turned back to the robed men and listened. "We used an ancient ritual to summon you, the four legendary heroes to this world!" The head cultist explained.

"Our world lies on the brink of destruction, please we beg of you, save our world!" They shouted in unison and bowed.

It sounded like an RPG introduction, oh wait—it was one.

"I refuse," a new voice spoke up—looking to his other side now, Kenzo found a very short boy, with light brown hair and wore a green school blazer—he looked like of those private school types that played the piano.

The boy in question was playing with the string on his bow. Again, with a shiny jewel.

"We can go back to our world, right? We can talk after you send us back," the spear wielder said.

'Going back to our world? Yeah, right. He's gone mad.' Kenzo lifted his free hand up and tried to pinch his cheek—he once read that if you felt pain, it meant you were not in a dream. But instead of feeling the skin of his cheek, Kenzo felt leather.

Puzzled, Kenzo looked down to his arm, then to his chest.

'I was wearing my pjs when I fell asleep,' he thought quietly.

He was wearing some sort of hooded black leather armor with a black cape attached to his shoulders, it felt quite comfortable, warm and safe even. It was then that Kenzo saw the Nightingale crest from Skyrim embedded on his chest like a fucking Batman emblem.

He continued to examine his apparel until he noticed an icon in the corner of his vision. With a bit of mental gymnastics, he managed to focus on it and a black window popped up in front of him with white text.

=================

▷ Name: Kenzo Tenma

▷ Class: Sword Hero Lv. 1, Dragonborn (Hidden Class) Lv. 272

▷ Equipment: Small Sword (Legendary Weapon), Nightingale Armor (Legendary), Nightingale Boots (Legendary), Nightingale Gloves (Legendary), Nightingale Hood (Legendary), Silver Ring, Enchanted Amulet

▷ HP: 1010 (+200)

▷ MP: 1000

▷ SP: 1000 (+200)

▷ ATK: 1982 (+717)

▷ DEF: 578 (+520)

▷ Skills: Alchemy Lv. 100, Archery Lv.100, Block Lv.100, Heavy Armor Lv.100, Light Armor Lv.100, Lockpicking Lv.100, One-Handed Lv.100, Pickpocket Lv.100, Smithing Lv.100, Sneak Lv.100, Speech Lv.100, Two-Handed Lv.100

▷ Magic: Alteration Lv.100, Conjuration Lv.100, Destruction Lv.100, Enchanting Lv.100, Illusion Lv.100, Restoration Lv.100

=================

It took a moment to process what in front of him—he also tuned out the conversation of the other weapon wielders and cultists.

This... this was the stats of his first Skyrim character he made. Shit, he even had his real name since he created the character when he was ten and didn't know what else to call his character.

It also explained why he felt so tall—and so much healthier.

This changed a lot of things.

He didn't know if it was because of this seemingly new body, he acquired or simply because he's gone mad—but he felt strangely calm instead of the expected panic and fear, and it didn't take very long for the fact that he was in a fictional world to settle in.

Kenzo knew all too well where he was summoned to—The Rising of the Shield Hero, it was quite popular back in his world. It was made into an anime and the light novel was good as well, though, he never thought he'd be in it—even less with his Skyrim character instead of his real body.

Kenzo interrupted his train of thoughts and focused back on the current conversation.

"We would like for you heroes, to meet his highness, the king of our kingdom, Melromarc..."

Kenzo ignored the cultists and turned to the shield wielder.

"Hey, you, what's your name?" He asked, his voice was unexpectedly much deeper than he intended—and it had a northern accent to it. The fact really made him realize that he was now Kenzo the Nordic Dragonborn and not Kenzo the lazy software engineer.

"Me?" The shield wielder pointed at himself, "euh—I'm Iwantani Naofumi, w-what about you?" Naofumi responded shakily. As yes, the Nightingale armor tended to have that effect on people.

"Tenma Kenzo, a pleasure meeting you, Naofumi."