Special Extra Chapter One:
The Spear Hero’s Buffoonery
My name is Motoyasu Kitamura.
I’m a university student, and one day I found myself transported to another world—one that bore a striking resemblance to a game I used to play.
I was summoned here to be one of the four Heroes that were destined to save the world, and I was the Spear Hero.
I think I have pretty good luck. The world was so much like a game I had known that I already had all the knowledge I needed to save it, and in the process of doing so, I found myself surrounded by a gaggle of lovely ladies.
“Hey, you over there! You free? Want to go on a date?”
The country had given me a task, and to accomplish it I had gone to a place called the Guild.
Had this been a game this would be the place where the player received quests, or partic.i.p.ated in events and various episodes. In this world, however, it was also where different adventurers gathered to make money.
“I don’t know… Do I? I wonder…”
The cute girl’s eyes wandered to the huge Spear I held flung over my shoulder.
“Do you know how to use that?”
I held it out and caused it to change forms right before her eyes. That was the power granted to us Heroes!
Showing off the power should be enough to prove who I am.
“OOOOH! You really ARE the Spear Hero! Neat!”
She was excited and started squealing in that high-pitched girly voice.
Heh, heh, it was going to be a good day.
“Mr. Motoyasu, the Guild has a request!”
A cute girl with red hair pushed the other girl (the one I was. .h.i.tting on) out of the way and slipped me a scroll.
“Sorry lady, but Mr. Motoyasu has an important job, so you’d better just be on your way.”
“Bu…But!”
The girl that had come over with the scroll was named Myne.
Her real name was Malty S. Melromarc. She had actually, originally sympathized with the s.h.i.+eld Hero, but he had betrayed her, so she decided to stick with me instead.
I swear, that guy was the worst.
He had been transported to another dimension, but all he thought about was what was in his pants.
“What? You want to be in Mr. Motoyasu’s party too?”
The new speaker’s name was Lesty. Apparently she had been school-friends with Myne. A couple days after Myne teamed up with me, she’d decided she wanted to come with us.
Her face was a little sharper than Myne’s. If Myne was a nine, she was probably an eight.
“Mr. Motoyasu’s journey is a difficult one. Do you really think you can keep up?”
That was Elena. She teamed up with me about a week after all this had started. She’d been traveling with me nearly as long as Myne and Lesty.
The other members kept coming and going with relative frequency.
I’d only been here for three weeks or so, but the remaining party slots seemed to always be filled with different people.
But hey, that’s what online games were like too. If I let it bother me, I’d never get anywhere.
When I first got here, I’d asked a bunch of people to travel with me, but they always left shortly after we teamed up. I didn’t care so much if the guys left, but I always tried to be extra nice to the girls—and they were leaving too. I can’t even remember how many of them I went through. They always just said that they didn’t feel like they fit the group—and that’s the only answer I ever got.
Whatever—I didn’t like clingy girls anyway.
Anyway, it had been three weeks since my arrival.
I should celebrate with the girls that had stuck with me. Of course, that’s what we would do.
“You want to come with us?”
“Yes!”
“Cool, let’s go then. What’s your name?”
“R…Rino.”
“All right, Rino, let’s go.”
I took her hand and sent her a party invite.
She accepted the invite and became part of my party.
“…”
I thought I saw Myne glaring at Rino, so I turned to look, only to find out that she wasn’t. She was smiling kindly.
“So what’s the next job, Myne?”
“A famine has struck a village in the Southwest. We are to protect the carriage that is delivering food to them.”
What’s this? I was pretty sure I’d heard of that job before.
The same quest was available at the Guild in the game I’d played.
The order was placed, and our levels fit the task.
“Got it. Where and when do we meet the carriage?”
“It leaves tomorrow morning, from right here at the Guild’s storehouse.”
“Got it. I guess that means we are free for now. Let’s spend some time leveling up, and then treat ourselves tonight.”
“Yayyyyy!”
The girls all squealed in delight.
I guess the girls in this world liked to have a good time.
Besides, I’d been wanting to blow off some steam anyway.
“All right, girls, let’s get to it!”
“Yayyyyy!”
We did some leveling up nearby at a spot I’d found.
We looked for a place that the monsters appeared in crowds and started hunting.
A monster quickly appeared.
It was a birdlike monster called a Sky Blue Wing.
Its flight ability was low, and it wasn’t a fast runner like the Filolial. But it still gave good EXP points.
It was a very efficient way to level up when you were between levels 30 and 40.
“You girls back down.”
“Okay! Good luck!”
“Huh?”
Apparently Rino wasn’t used to fighting in my party, so she was looking around in confusion.
“You cute girls aren’t suited to these b.l.o.o.d.y battles. So just hang back and cheer me on.”
“Oh… I…”
Yes! I sent an Air Strike Javelin flying at the Sky Blue Wing, and it fell easily.
“Woooow! You’re so cool, Motoyasu!”
There cheers really revved me up.
“Mr. Motoyasu! There’s another one!”
“Argh!”
“And another one!”
“Argh!”
“Mr. Motoyasu, I’m thirsty.”
“Argh!”
“Mr. Motoyasu, can I have a snack?”
“Argh!”
“Mr. Motoyasu, we’re going to take a rest.”
“Argh!”
We spent the rest of the day that way, and I leveled up.
I’d reached level 43, and Myne was at level 39.
Lesty reached level 38, and Elena reached level 35.
The new girl, Rino, was still at level 20.
“That should be enough for today. Let’s head back.”
I’d had enough sweat for the day, so we finished up before sunset and went back to town.
“That was a tough day.”
“Sure was. If you hadn’t been there cheering me on, I might not have made it.”
“…?”
Rino looked confused again. What was her problem?
Certainly she didn’t want to wallow in the mud and level up? No way! Girls didn’t like that kind of thing.
“Once it’s dark, let’s all meet back at the inn.”
“Okay. We will be at the spa until then.”
“Cool. Have fun.”
“Till then.”
“Um…”
Rino didn’t seem to understand what was going on. It was just a way for the girls to bond.
I wasn’t so tacky as to try and jump in and wedge myself into their friends.h.i.+p.
All right, well, it was a day for training. I had to get to the market and buy some food.
I went to the market and bought a bunch of food then went to the kitchen and got to work. By the time the preparations were done the sun had fallen, and it was night.
“Oh, Mr. Motoyasu, we’re baaaack!”
I’d told the innkeeper to tell the girls to come back to the kitchen when they arrived.
“Um… What are you doing in the kitchen?”
“Oh, I was just working on a surprise for… Hey, where’s Rino?”
“She said that as we were hunting today she realized that she just didn’t fit into the party. She decided to leave, but she said, ‘Thank you for everything, and I hope we meet again.’”
“Oh…”
Again? It was like no one fit in the party.
Was it because Myne and her friend were part of the n.o.bility? You’d think that they’d still be able to get along, and yet… Besides, everyone was equal in my party! I loved them all equally.
“So what are we doing tonight?”
“Right, well, today marks three weeks since I was first summoned to this world. I wanted to celebrate with everyone, so I decided to cook for us.”
“Wooow!”
They all glanced over at my food.
It was food prepared the way we do in my world, so I wasn’t sure if they would like it. Just to make sure, I tasted it.
I’d been cooking for a while, and I had never received a single complaint.
Besides, I was a genius in the kitchen. I could make anything, and the girls loved it.
“I didn’t know you could cook! You can do anything Mr. Motoyasu! You’re amazing!”
“Yes, you are so very talented. A true Hero!”
“They’re right! My stomach is growling just looking at it!”
“I know, right? Dig in, girls!”
Everyone said it was delicious, and they ate a lot.
But I guess I made too much because it seemed like there were a lot of leftovers.
“Good night.”
After we finished dinner, and we had taken our baths, we chatted for a little while before the girls went off to their own room.
But my night wasn’t over just yet.
I guess the girls didn’t have enough energy to hang out through the night, but I did. I decided to head down to the bar.
I left the inn and walked down a dark back ally. That took me through a seedy area behind the pleasure quarters.
“Ah… I… No…”
I could hear some people deep in role-playing. Their voices echoed inside a small building. They seemed to be having quite the night.
No matter where you went, there were always businesses that profited on exhibiting the obscene. Oh well. It’s not like I could bust in there and save the girl or anything. It was her job after all.
But she sounded a lot like Rino. I’m sure it was just a coincidence. Rino was an adventurer, and she seemed like she’d had a good head on her shoulders. She wouldn’t be working in a place like that.
“Ah! Oh! Someone! Help me!”
I guess there was some real acting going on for the clients. I let those thoughts wander as I walked through town. Finally, I found a nice-looking bar.
“Haaaaaah!”
“Uoooah!”
“He… He’s too strong. And look at that Spear!”
“You don’t think… Is it the Spear Hero?!”
“I don’t give my name out to sc.u.m like you!”
We were in the middle of a quest to protect the carriage and its cargo.
We were a good way down the road when we ran into some bandits. I took them down.
“You’re amazing, Mr. Motoyasu! Wow!”
“It’s true! You just laid waste to them so easily! I think I’m in love!”
“Go Motoyasu!”
“Oh, you girls… Come on now…”
I tied up the bandits and dropped them off at the guard station of the closest village. I think it was called Riyute.
“Hm?”
I thought that I saw Naofumi heading for the mountains with some dirty little girl.
Maybe I was just imagining it?
Anyway, the girl looked like a country b.u.mpkin. She wasn’t that cute.
Whatever, back to work.
Before long we arrived at the village in the midst of a famine.
“Oh, food! Thank you, Spear Hero.”
“Oh, it’s really nothing. Make sure you share the food equally.”
The villagers formed a big crowd around the carriage and its cargo.
Among them were skinny, starving children.
It hurt just to look at them. I had to finish the quest.
But before that…
“You’re cute! Want to get some tea?”
“I…”
Really, no matter what world you were in, girls were just so cute. I was pretty tired by that point, so we decided to get a room in town.
The next morning I woke up and went over to the room where the girls were sleeping.
“N… Muuu…”
I watched Myne’s sleeping face. She was murmuring some weird stuff.
I decided to scribble on her face. She’d be so surprised when she woke up!
“Spear Hero… Where are you off to now?”
My face was red from where Myne had slapped me, a fitting payment for my graffiti. I was speaking with the village chief.
“Just a little to… You know, fight the famine.”
“Mr. Motoyasu, where are we going today?”
“To a nearby dungeon. There is an item there that will help the village.”
“Oh, you just know everything, don’t you, Mr. Motoyasu?”
“Don’t embarra.s.s me. Let’s get going.
Yes, there was a dungeon nearby. There was something there, in the ruins, that would fix it all.
In truth, I really should have done some research back at the castle library. But I had gotten some second-hand information, and so it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Besides, the sooner we fixed the famine, the less people would have to suffer.
That was the goal anyway. We soon arrived at the ruins.
The dungeon had three levels. They said you could solo it at level 30. It was a pretty early quest.
Now, had this been a game, you could probably set the difficulty level of the “instant dungeon” to match your own level. It was an instant dungeon, and they were instantly generated for you and your party only. There would be a map, and you wouldn’t meet any other players inside. You could take it on with just your party. Honestly, at our current levels, clearing it should be simple.
The dungeon was built of stone, and was an hour’s walk from the village. It was set into a slightly weathered cliff of red earth… just like in that game.
We entered the musty ruins and lit the candle-stands there. I remembered that the dungeon was b.o.o.by-trapped.
“We shouldn’t run into many monsters in here, and we should be just fine at our levels.”
“Okay!”
Now then, I think the b.o.o.by traps had something to do with the candles we lit on our way in. Our success or failure would depend on them.
And if we failed, we’d have to start all over from the beginning.
The b.o.o.by trap was this: before the candles burned out, you had to defeat the golem at the very back of the dungeon.
In the game, the time limit had been thirty minutes. To be successful, you had to make it to the very bottom floor. It might have been set up like a maze, but I already knew my way.
There were a few different versions, but I had them all memorized, so we should be just fine.
Or so I thought. We kept running into dead ends.
Well, that was weird. In the game this had definitely been the right way.
Even still, we made it to the end of the dungeon within the time allotted. The room was filled with cool air. The walls were built of stone but were blue and transparent as if they were made from ice. The place felt mystical and dreamy.
“Wow…”
Myne and the others were amazed as they looked around.
“All right, so there should be a treasure chest, over there.”
I pointed to a large, ornate box way at the back of the room.
“But what’s inside?”
“There’s a Miracle Seed in there that will save the villagers. But first we have to defeat whoever is guarding it.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you get close to it, the bricks fall down from above and turn into a golem. Don’t worry. He’s not that strong. If you all back me up with magic, we’ll be just fine.”
“Yes sir!”
“We’re rooting for you!”
“You can do it, Mr. Motoyasu! It’s like you know everything about everything!”
“I know, I know. Stop embarra.s.sing me.”
We walked closer to the treasure chest. Naturally, I took the lead and let the girls follow.
And just as I expected, the golem fell from above.
“Groowl…”
The stone golem raised his heavy arm to attack me.
“I’ll protect you! Wing Blow!”
“First Aqua Shot!”
“You can do it!”
Under attack from the girls’ magic and my skills, the golem quickly collapsed. From the collapsed stones, the core of the golem floated in the air.
“Haah!”
Before the golem could revive, I quickly cleaved the core in two.
“Ha! Take that!”
“You’re so strong, Mr. Motoyasu!”
“Yes! You really took care of that big golem!”
“You’re amazing!”
They all kept cheering for me.
“Oh well, it really isn’t much… Just kidding! It was pretty amazing! Hahaha!”
Now then, time to open the box and get that seed.
Or so I thought. But then…
There was a sudden and powerful rumble. The floor was shaking.
“Wh… What is this?!”
“An earthquake?!”
“It… It’s…”
I had a very bad feeling.
“This is weird. We didn’t fail…”
“What is it?!”
“When you mess up, the ruins collapse. Of course there is a way out, but then you have to start all over again. And to get out, there is a penalty dungeon.”
There was an item that we could only get at that dungeon, but it wasn’t like we really NEEDED it. Back when I was playing the beta version of the MMORPG, there was a very strong piece of equipment you could get from one of the monsters that appeared during this penalty dungeon event. But right now we needed to focus on lower-level projects.
“What?”
I didn’t understand. We should have had more than ten minutes remaining.
“What makes you fail the test?”
“Remember the candles we lit when we first came in? We just needed to defeat the golem before they burned out. And of course, if they had gone out during the allotted time, we were permitted to go back and relight them. Depending on the difficulty level you set, you could be forced to do so because the fights would take longer.”
“Huh…?”
Myne sounded confused.
“What is it?”
“Well I thought we didn’t need them, so I blew them out.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!”
Just as I screamed, the floor split open, and we all fell through the crack.
“Wooooaaaaahhhh!”
“Yaaaaaaaahhhh””
We’d fallen onto some sort of giant stone slide, and all of us were slipping and sliding down it quickly.
“M…Myne!”
“Mr. Motoyasu!”
I reached out my hand, but before we could find one another we all were split into different directions and part.i.tioned from each other by walls.
“Where is this?”
The slide ended. I lit a torch and investigated my surroundings.
If this was anything like the game, then our paths would meet up…
I pictured the map in my head and started running.
There shouldn’t be any monsters in the dungeon that Myne and the others wouldn’t be able to take care of on their own. Even still, I’d feel better if we were all together.
“You know?”
I heard someone talking.
“That stupid guy needs to explain himself. You know?”
“He only looks at our b.o.o.bs and b.u.t.ts. It gives me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s.”
“He drew on my face when I was sleeping! He needs to learn his place.”
“But he’s easy to use because he’s stupid. He’s got money, and he’s a Hero, so we can do whatever we want.”
“I know!”
“Even still, that thing yesterday? No way!”
“My poor tongue. That terrible food from his world was disgusting.”
“I know!”
“How about that girl that tried to team up with us the other day? She was something else!”
“Oh, I know! Do you remember how we sold her off to that shop? I just told her we were going to a spa, and she walked in with handcuffs on and everything! It was so easy! It was so hard to keep from laughing!”
I remembered now. The theme of the dungeon had been betrayal.
There was a 30% chance of meeting a monster called the Voice Fighter, and it impersonated the voices of your party members. It was set up to say things that were too awful to believe.
Of course, in the game you couldn’t hear real voices, but your character would end up confused.
To my ear, it sounded like Myne and the others were saying awful things.
I turned the corner and found myself in a large, open s.p.a.ce.
And Myne and the others were there. They had just finished beating up a Voice Fighter that was in the form of a bat.
“Oh! Mr. Motoyasu!”
“Hey, are you girls okay? This place has dangerous monsters that play with your mind.”
“We’re fine!”
Right, they’d finished the monster off before I arrived. Good.
“What should we do now?”
“We’re fine. Follow me.”
I pointed to the hallway that would lead us out. We followed it and found ourselves outside.
We had only been in the dungeon for a short time, but the sun felt blinding.
“Ok, you girls stay in the entrance and guard the candles. I’ll run to the bottom.”
“Ok, Mr. Motoyasu!”
“Yes! We’ll protect the candles with our very lives!
“Leave it to us!”
“Right on!”
I ran back through the dungeon and got the Miracle Seed.
I also let the Spear absorb the golem core and some of the stones there. The Spear it unlocked was just a drop item and wasn’t very good.
The equip bonus was status up. That might come in handy later.
We went back to the village and gave the Miracle Seed to the village chief.
“What is this?”
“It’s a Miracle Seed that produces abundant food when you plant it. It will solve your famine problem, so I a.s.sume you want to buy it.”
“This… This Seed?”
“Yeah, it was hidden deep in a nearby dungeon. Take good care of it.”
“But those ruins were supposed to have been sealed by a powerful, evil alchemist.”
“What?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. If the Spear Hero says it, it must be true.”
He smiled, and planted the Seed in a field.
It instantly sprouted, grew, and produced fruit. The village cheered.
“Thank you so much, Spear Hero!”
“Ha, ha ha! That’s what I’m here for, to save the world!
It really did feel good to help people.
“Oh hey? Once you two reach level 40 we should go back to Castle Town to change your cla.s.s.”
The four Heroes couldn’t change their cla.s.ses, which was different from the game. But Myne and the others could.
Cla.s.s changing was a ceremony that you had to undergo to take the level cap off of your character and to improve your stats.
They held the ceremony at the Dragon Hourgla.s.s.
Myne was good with magic, so had this been a game she probably would have been a wizard. If so, then I would make her into a high level wizard.
Besides, I knew how the world worked, so my decisions were sure to turn out the best in the end.
“Yes!”
“Wow! It’s already time for rising in cla.s.s?!”
“Excellent! Now we can do even more things for you! We want to help you, Mr. Motoyasu!”
“Right on!”
I thrust my fist in the air and savored our victory.
Then I reached out for Myne’s b.u.t.t and gave it a squeeze.
“What was that?! Oh, Mr. Motoyasu, I sure wish you’d control yourself.”
“Ahahaha!”
Man, oh man, this world sure was fun.
I already knew everything I needed to know from the game, and all the girls loved me.
And besides, that vicious woman that killed me was nowhere near here.
It was so much fun! I just couldn’t stop laughing.
The wave would be here in six days. And I was starting to look forward to it.
That was how we spent our days: having fun and leveling up. We did so on the way back to Castle Town.
It was a great place for him, an ideal world full of excitement. He was proud to be there.
In the Records of the Four Holy Weapons it says that the Spear Hero thinks deeply of his friends.
If he continues on without understanding the difference between kindness and naivety, what sort of fate will he meet?
At the time, he was not the true Hero.
He was little more than a clown.
He only heard what he wanted, and ignored what upset him. His belief in his friends was unfounded and led him to great peril later on.
What happened to the town that he saved? The answer is not written as part of his story.
This story was inherited by a sage who delivered a sacred bird.
But even that is not enough to stop the large waves that were to come.
In the end, all is drowned by the waves of the destruction…