I rolled my eye lights as the three humans bickered. When I had Kris tell them to explain the so-called "strengthening" system of these weapons... Well, all three came up with different answers.
Which, with thinking about Kris and I being technically the same being, but so different... Makes sense as we have confirmed all four of us Legendary Heroes come from different Japans, or worlds to be exact.
So why are they saying the other is lying?
"HEY, HEY! CALM DOWN! WE SHOULDN'T FIGHT!" Sansy floated over with Papy, both brothers pulling at the souls of Ren and Motoyasu to seperate the trio.
"yeah. we are kind of up a shit creek without... oh, wrong saying," Papy flinched as he corrected himself.
Huh? Why was... Oh, yeah. My job as the taxi of the River Maze. I wonder if I can still access that place with our current situation. At least if we can get back to the Void, we can vacate any other Gasters who have ended up in there to this world.
Not a fix, but should be way safer than the constant threat of Anomalies trying to eat whatever code they find. Plus, I rather put my trust in other versions of myself than whatever so-called "help" that lousy excuse of a king was gathering. At least if there are other scientists and doctors like Kris and me, we could look into these Waves of Catastrophe properly instead of the half-assed way these humans been doing with summoning who-knows-what and throwing the poor souls into what sounds an all out slaughter.
Which, oddly, looking at my fellow heroes, they are all so young. Sure, techinically I was once human, but I was at least around Kris's age of about 200 years or so, off a few decades since comparing his now Darkner appearance to what he properly is as a magic skeleton. These three never seen the horrors of war. Hell, with the methods they told me... It almost sounds like they never been in a real...
I clapped my hands together and everyone jumped.
"Huh? What?" I yanked on Kris's sleeve to get his attention to my hands
-I think I figured it out.- I signed and opened up the menus.
Each of the humans said they played a game with similar settings to this world. I, myself, love to play MMORPGs and even got pretty well set up in a guild that got pretty good.
Yet, if I use that as a reference, what if the enhancement methods the trio talked about was not of the games they played... But instead it was the best way of enhancement overall for how the world's operating systems worked.
I noticed glitching and a prompt came up with the question if I wanted to adjust my current and only shield: Small Shield
I confirmed and took in a calming breathe.
I was never really good at this, but I've always done it to myself to keep my LOVe at 1. Plus, I currently have a little EXP to spend from the Anomalies I took out before this mess, so it is worth a shot. All I'll lost is EXP which is a win for me either way.
I touched the gem on my shield and felt myself submerged within the depths of its inner being. A huge web of symbols and lines, almost all dulled out. I went to the one that was dimmly glowed more than the others.
I held out my hand with a spark and pushed into the light. The symbol went ablazed and the flames flickered down the lines to other symbols... And branched into new lines and new symbols. I felt a flood of warmth before my senses returned to reality.
"You okay, Iwatani-san?" Itsuki asked.
Ah, right. I always took much longer than Coordinators. A big reason I never did it to others for payment.
Yet, looking through the menus and manual...
Adjustments and transfering of EXP and LOVe to improve stats and such. As well as new branches that demand... Oh, skulls.
Just what is going on with this weird ass world.
Well, let's focus first on my discovery as Adjustments weren't the only thing added to my menu and manual.
"📖⏺" I let the text boxes float up from my mouth.
"Wha?" Motoyasu voiced the confusion on all three humans' faces. Though, even Kris had a high brow arced.
Seriously? We both speak Wingdings and he never spoke shorthand?
"n says the book records?" Papy translated. "o-kay?" The twin skulls looked at each other with worried looks.
Itsuki and Ren, however, had their eyes widened. Itsuki motioned the air and narrowed his eyes. He nearly fell when something happened on the interface only visible to himself and me.
"Oh! The manual records new stuff as we learn it!" Itsuki grinned. "None of us are wrong, but instead all right!"
"But how?" Ren grimanced at his own menus. "I don't get your methods would work to make our weapons stronger." I motioned to Kris.
"Different operating systems, one unit?" Kris asked with decipering my signs. Oh, good. Was a bit worried as our sign lanuages were a bit different with some words.
However, seemed that got the idea across for Motoyasu and Ren.
"So our weapons act like hardware that can take on various software." Ren said as he gotten a glitchy interface. " Wait... Could this be why we can't work together? Our weapons' original systems conflicts with the others?"
"It would explain why we defaulted to different set ups." Motoyasu crossed his arms. "So to make up for not able to work together, we can share our enhancement methods with each other to increase our strength."
I snapped my fingers and did jazz hands with a grin.
"But, what's your method?" I felt the ice in the trio's glares at me.
"We shared ours, yet you haven't said... Oh, right..." They flinched at my double birdie.
"My method is called Adjustment." Kris translated. "It's a bit hard to explain, so it would be easier if you let me do it. I'm not that good, but it should allow the better users of this the means to do it."
"Wait, this isn't a video game mechanic?" Itsuki asked with a raised brow.
"AH! THAT!" Sansy jumped. "YOU REALLY SURE YOU WANNA TRY ADJUSTING THEIR WEAPONS? THEY AREN'T-"
I tapped my shield's gem and signed.
"They are similar enough. I got it to work." Kris crossed his arms. "But what is this Adjustment thing, dear brother." Kris gave me the "Dad Eyes." I felt my throat tightened into a gulp.
-Explain later. Just think of it as the simple version of what turned you from skeleton to human.- Kris's grimance deepened. -I just never thought I could go in reverse. Usually can get the advance method to work with turning human souls into monster kind.-
"I see. So it enhances the soul aspects of the weapons and users." Kris caught the hint and let it go. "It's magic, so it is a little hard to express it in... Human language?" Kris let out a sigh. "At least from our world, magic is usually more expressive than logically explained. Our kind... Our race of humans are the few able to express magic much like other magical races."
"So... You're mages." Ren said with a nod. "Like how VR is common in my world. In a way, it makes since considering Shields were bad in the game I played."
"Wait, the same for you, too?" Motoyasu asked in shock.
"My game also did Shields badly," Itsuki flinched. "Which makes it worse seeing you in a wheelchair, Iwatani-san. It's like you got no straw at all instead of the short straw."
What? I just raised an eyebrow with confusion.
How was being in a wheelchair bad? Hell, these were the best wheels I had in my life! Custom-made and foldable, perfect for someone like me who uses wheels for ease of life.
"ah, right. humans aren't used to n's type." Papy rolled his eyelight.
"I don't get it." Kris huffed. "Doesn't a wheelchair help increase my brother's abilities?"
"Ah, but we will be in combat." Motoyasu gave me a loot of pity. "How can a crippled person-"
Both twins burst into laughter while Kris glared daggers at the three humans. Ah, right, monster kind is used to having to adapt all sorts of ways to help each other living Underground... Especially after the pollution turned the River into the maze twisted with time and space itself.
"What... Oh," Ren went wide eyed. "Right, a mage. When I think how magic is used in the game... Of course a Legendary Hero specializing in magic would focus on defense."
"Huh?" Motoyasu cocked his head.
"Oh, yeah! Pure mages were always weak to close combat. So, instead of having a staff, you have a means of defense as you lob spells at the enemies."
"Wha? Don't cha mean bullets?" Kris snorted. "Spells are a human thing that lack any expression. Bullets are far faster and effect in combat than chanting stupid phrases." Kris snapped his fingers for a bone bullet to appear and he balanced it on the tip of one.
"B-Bullet?" All three asked before they went pale. "Like in... a bullet hell game?"
I guess one could call my magic akin to a magic bullet hell. I sure know the Eighth Fallen probably saw our fights as such.
"Bullet hell?" The skull twins and once skeleton asked with confused dazes.
I just gave a devish smile.
Trying to get out of the worldbuilding trap with writing linked short fics. This one came from the sketch above and just snowballed into this. Hope it is enjoyable as it was for me to write this.
PS - Correcting some mistakes.
