Bracelet Hero Part 3 (Patreon)

Fifteen minutes later found the pair outside of the city killing balloon monsters, mostly Anna but he'd killed his fair share by kicking them as he dusted off his martial arts skills, which left him wondering how anyone could be scared of the little monsters. "We're getting next to nothing for experience, how do you feel about looking for something more impressive?" he asked Anna in a whisper as he looked at the other heroes that were gleefully slaughtering the little bastards in waves.

"Sounds good," Anna agreed as she started walking towards the forest. "Any idea how we're supposed to make enough money for more books?"

"Yep," Myst replied with a grin. "I'm going to find somewhere comfortable to sit and you're going to kill balloons while I try to figure out how to cast some combat spells."

"Then you'll blast a bunch of monsters while I sit and read?" Anna asked hopefully.

"I've got enchanting books to read," Myst teased her.

Anna pouted. "This sounds like you want me to do all of the work."

"To be fair, I did supply the armor and weapons and will be enchanting your gear as soon as I can figure out how," Myst explained.

"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound so bad," Anna admitted then frowned. "How did you make doing all of the work sound tolerable?"

"It's a gift," Myst teased. "Honestly, if I can figure out enchanting, I can make a lot more money than we can get off a lifetime of hunting balloons. I don't particularly like being poor and I don't want to be in the city right now."

"Are you nervous about something?" Anna asked.

"When you try to summon three heroes and you get five, I have issues with trusting their skill. Not to mention I don't trust the church of three heroes as far as I can throw their building," Myst replied as Anna slashed through two balloons as they were walking.

Anna snickered. "I'm not sure you could even throw some of the priests, they're rather fat."

"True," Myst agreed as he pulled out the book on alchemy and started reading, trying to pick up the skill or at least figure out which plants he was supposed to harvest while Anna circled around killing the balloons heading their way. 'Don't worry, once we get everything running like clockwork, you'll be swimming in experience and power,' he promised, feeling slightly guilty about having her do all of the work while he tried to learn skills.

Thankfully, the book was easy enough to read with his translation bracelet and he had a lot of practice walking and reading over the years. Of course, it was mostly walking on pavement, but the ground was decently flat. He wasn't sure if he should be annoyed or happy when they reached the forest and he received a new bracelet and alchemy skill from absorbing one of the various herbs, rendering the last ten minutes of trying to memorize the book pointless or at least less useful.

He looked at his new bracelet. "Medicine Bracelet: Equipment Bonus: Medicine efficacy up, alchemy skill acquired."

"That's complete bullshit boss," Anna said as she studied the large green ball with a strange almost tomatto like top that bounced out of the woods.

"Pretty much," Myst agreed. "I should be able to get something from the bouncing thing."

"Did you try to absorb the balloons?" Anna asked as she moved towards the bouncing monster.

"Not yet," Myst admitted as he pulled a handful of balloon fragments out of his inventory and fed them to his bracelet. He stared at the description of the strange bracelet they unlocked. "Bouncing bracelet: Equipment bonus: 30% less fall damage and an extra two feet on my jumps and it looks like I can improve it with use."

Anna lunged forward and slashed the green ball-like monster in half, netting herself enough experience to hit level 3. "That would be more useful if it was on something else."

"At least I'll keep it once I master it," Myst said as he walked over and picked up the remains of the mush and touched his bracelet. "Green Mush Bracelet: Equipment bonus: apprenticeship compounding."

"Does that mean you can start making medicine?" Anna asked as she scanned the surrounding area.

"I could probably bash the plants between two rocks and pour water on them in a cup but it would be a lot easier to get something reasonable with some basic alchemy tools," Myst admitted.

"Does that mean we're heading back to town?" Anna asked.

Myst shook his head. "Nope, we're going to wander around collecting plants for a bit then I'm going to read the healing book so I can figure out some type of attack spell."

"Okay," Anna replied with a grin as they went deeper into the forest.

Myst spun and kicked a blue mush out of the air as it jumped for him, sending it towards Anna.

Anna slashed the ball-like monster with a large tongue in half. "You're supposed to shout incoming."

"Sorry," Myst offered as he walked over and picked up the remains of the strange creature and fed it to his bracelet. "I might need a couple more of these before I get anything useful."

Anna shrugged. "I'm sure we'll find more."

"Probably," Myst agreed, then swapped his bracelet to the Bouncing Bracelet and started jumping, knowing he had to use it to master it so he could keep the resistance to falling damage.

Anna watched her boss bounce along the trail like a demented bouncing ball for a few seconds before shaking her head and following him. 'At least he doesn't take himself too seriously.'

0o0o0

"Yes!" Myst exclaimed enthusiastically when he fed a dead rabbit to his bracelet and got a rabbit leather bracelet that gave him the dissection ability. "Now I just need to find one of the stupid egg monsters and we'll be in business."

"Why do you need the egg monsters?" Anna asked.

"Because they gave the shield hero the cooking skill, I'd rather not pay for a bunch of meals at the inn if we can just cook things," Myst replied.

"So you're saying, if I find one, don't tell you," Anna joked.

"I'm not saying we won't go to the inn, I'm just saying being able to cook would stretch our funds and let us afford more books," Myst replied.

"When you put it like that, more books," Anna replied as she quickened her pace, trying to keep up with his demented jumping skill. "How much vitality do you have?"

"Twenty but I'm not actually putting that much effort into jumping, just enough to trigger the boost with the occasional sprint and long jump for fun," Myst replied with a grin.

"Bullshit weapons," Anna muttered as she charged the large rabbit that jumped out of the bushes at her.

Myst grinned as he swapped to his new leather bracelet and pulled out his knife, happy that using tools wasn't the same as using weapons. He made short work of skinning the rabbit while Anna circled around the area looking for more monsters to kill. "Hmm, a couple of strips of leather make decent bracelets, I really need to work on my enchanting."

He glanced down at his blood covered hands. "And cleaning spells." He stuck the pelt and meat in his inventory then wiped his hands on the grass and continued walking, trying not to twitch at every sound that he didn't recognize while keeping an eye out for plants that he could harvest.

Luckily for his cooking ambitions, they ran into a group of the bouncing egg monsters that looked like cracked eggs with jagged mouths and holes for eyes after about fifteen minutes of walking down the trail picking flowers and plants of various types. He wasn't terribly surprised that Anna was able to hack through them without any real trouble as her base stats were decent enough and her magic iron sword was basically overkill for anything they were going to find in the forest.

"Here," Anna said as she handed him a handful of the egg shards. "See if you get anything useful."

Myst touched the handful of Eggug shards to his bracelet and grinned when he got the Egg Bracelet and a Blue Egg Bracelet. "Cooking and Vision Up," he muttered as he read the description. "Huh, it's basically like scan or libra."

"Libra?" Anna asked.

"It's a spell from a game back home, it basically gives me information about a monster," Myst explained as he glanced up at the sky. "We've got a couple of hours before we have to start wandering back, let's find a nice rock or a fallen tree where I can do some reading."

"Or at least a clearing where I can keep watch," Anna mused as she continued walking.

Myst swapped his Medicine bracelet with his Bouncing bracelet and skipped along behind her, trying to max the bracelet out so he could forget about it. 'You've played games for years, what's the best way to leverage the system to break it? Secret techniques and ancient relics or a combination of items if you're playing the Elder Scrolls. Of course, that's ignoring the various cheat options I get from my bracelet. I'm going to need a decent amount of gold if I'm going to pay for the various 'pay-to-win' cheats, which means robbing nobles, crafting or hunting monsters.'

'Considering the general greed and stupidity of the various nobles in the series, they probably deserve it,' Myst mused. 'I'm not sure the people deserve to have their taxes raised so the nobles can recoup their losses. Besides, if they couldn't stop thieves from robbing them blind, they wouldn't have their gold.'

"Can you get experience for crafting?" Myst asked, wondering how crafters leveled up.

"No, you generally just get better at crafting with time," Anna replied, not taking her gaze off the group of rabbits coming from under a bush.

"That's annoying," Myst complained as a group of rabbits jumped out of the forest near Anna.

"You get used to it," Anna replied as she slashed the first rabbit to jump at her then squealed as one of the rabbits went for her tail. "Die!"

Myst winced and took a step back when Anna started swinging her sword around like a crazy girl, trying to kill the rabbits. 'Yeah, we're going to have to work on that.' He punched the rabbit she sent flying in his direction, stunning it long enough for him to kick it into a tree. He lunged forward and kicked the rabbit twice while Anna finished off the rest of the rabbits. "At least we'll have plenty to eat."

"What are you going to make out of the hides?" Anna asked as she looked at the dead rabbits scattered around the area.

"I was thinking about leather bracelets but that's going to have to wait until I pick up some tools," Myst admitted as he pulled his knife out of his inventory and walked over to start skinning the hacked apart rabbits. 'At least we're not hunting for pelts.'

0o0o0

"That should do it," Myst mused as he finished tying the strands of his hastily woven grass bracelet together.

Anna pulled her attention off the glittering bits of light on the stream and looked at the pathetic looking grass bracelet that Myst was holding. "Is that even poor quality?"

"Technically," Myst replied with a grin as he selected the mana boosting enchantment from his enchanting menu. "One hundred mana gets me a bracelet that should increase my mana while I'm wearing it by 1 point."

Anna nodded. "In other words, you probably couldn't wear enough gear to start a loop."

"Not unless I start boosting things to an unreasonable extent," Myst replied as he hit the button and started the enchanting process. He watched and felt the streams of sparkling multicolored light flow out of his right hand and settle on the hastily woven bracelet.

[Fragile Bracelet: Mana Capacity up (lowest grade) created.]

Myst smiled as he looked at the item's stats. "Increases max mana by 1 while equipped, easy to break."

"You probably should have enchanted something more impressive so you could have kept it as a souvenir," Anna pointed out.

"Probably," Myst replied as he fed the grass band to his bracelet. "But I wasn't really expecting it to work. Besides, I don't need to keep a crappy grass bracelet around for the rest of my life."

Anna snickered. "Probably for the best. Are you going to make another one?"

"Yeah, I don't have anything else to spend my mana on," Myst replied as he grabbed one of the vines he'd cut with his knife and tied it together to make a bracelet.

Anna glanced between the bracelet and Myst. "Are you trying to get the worst quality bracelets possible?"

"Pretty much," Myst replied as he reached into his inventory and pulled out a couple of the alcohol berries and crushed them on the bracelet, letting the juices stain the vine. "I'm trying to see if the material changes the cost or quality of the resulting enchantment." He set everything up on his menu then hit the button, watching and trying to get a sense of how to enchant things without the system helping or at least without the menu helping him.

He wasn't particularly surprised that the sparkles seemed to gravitate towards the mana rich fluid though it didn't change the result an appreciable amount. He checked the lowest grade bracelet then fed it to his shield. "As much as I'd like to stick around…" he trailed off as he heard a familiar voice coming from the direction of the trail, "Hey, why didn't I get any experience for the rabbit?"

"Because you're too close to another hero," Myst called out as he stood up and headed back up the game trail.

"Myst?" Naofumi called out.

"Yeah," Myst replied as he walked around a tree and spotted Raphtalia and Naofumi standing in the middle of the game trail with a dead rabbit-like monster. "How's your leveling going?"

Naofumi smiled at Raphtalia then looked at Myst and Anna. "We're getting close to level four, we wasted a bit too much time with the balloons."

"Nice, have you absorbed the mush balls yet?" Myst asked, curious about his progress as Raphtalia seemed to be in good spirits.

"Yeah, I picked up plant appraisal, apprentice compounding and a shield that gives me recipes as I master it, you?" Naofumi asked, curious what Myst had picked up.

"I picked up compounding and plant appraisal," Myst replied with a shrug. "I also picked up cooking from the egg-like monster and a medicine bracelet that improves the quality of medicine I make or use."

Naofumi grinned. "Same."

"Sounds like you're leveling up and getting into the swing of things," Myst said as he studied Naofumi and Raphtalia, glad that they seemed in good spirits.

Raphtalia nodded. "We're doing great."

"Are you heading back tonight?" Naofumi asked.

"I need to sell some of my loot so I can buy some tools." Myst glanced at Anna. "Do you want to stick around a bit longer or call it a day and get something to eat at the inn?"

Anna's stomach rumbled. "I could eat."

"In that case, let's get back." He gave Naofumi a half hearted wave to Naofumi and Raphtalia. "Best of luck."

"Thanks," Naofumi replied, wishing the other heroes were as reasonable.

"Stay safe," Raphtalia added.

"That's the plan," Myst assured them as he continued walking along the trail, wishing he'd grabbed a map before he left the city so he could just head to Lute village or whatever they were calling it. 'Hopefully the princess doesn't screw things up. I just need to get through the first wave and get enough silver to start buying stats, then I can start trading levels to improve my stat growth and hopefully survive the mess.'

Myst took a breath then swapped his bracelet to his bouncing bracelet. "Do you feel like running back?"

Anna smirked and started sprinting down the path. "Wee!"

Myst laughed then chased her, pushing himself as much as he dared and ecstatic that his knees weren't protesting.

0o0o0

Ren looked up from his food when Myst walked over with a purple haired cat girl. "What level did you get?"

Myst glanced at the townsfolk scattered around the room then took a seat at the table. "Four, I spent a decent chunk of time exploring the forest looking for interesting monsters."

"Not bad," Ren admitted, having expected him to take longer. "Did you find any?"

"Nothing particularly impressive," Myst admitted. "I'll probably do the same tomorrow then make my way to the nearest village that needs help."

"What makes you think they need help?" Ren asked.

"You played the game, there's always quests," Myst pointed out as the innkeeper walked over. "I need a room for the night and food for myself and my companion, what do you have?"

"Forty coppers for the room and your food, I don't serve them," the man said as he scowled at Anna.

"I'll just take my money elsewhere, best of luck," Myst told Ren as he stood up. "Let's find someone that's more reasonable."

The innkeeper laughed. "You're not going to find anyone in this part of town, especially when you're not even a real hero."

Myst briefly considered mentioning something about setting annoying people on fire but figured he didn't need the negative attention. "Let's go, we'll spend our money elsewhere."

Anna sighed as she followed Myst outside. "Now what?"

"Now we find a street vendor and hunt down some tools, the less time I have to spend here the better," Myst complained as he headed towards the merchant district. He scowled when he saw a group of three people in rough looking clothes step out of an alley in front of him. 'So much for doing this the nice way, you people are lucky my buddy Charles isn't here, he'd have already killed the town.'

"Hey, if it isn't the fake hero," the man in front said.

"I'm pretty sure the legendary weapon on my arm says differently," Myst replied as he slowly moved his left hand behind his hip so he could use the bracelet without drawing attention to it's use. "Are you being an idiot or are you trying to mug me?"

"Just hand over your money and we won't have to thrash you," the man replied with a smirk.

"Do you have any idea what's going to happen to you when the court magic user finds out that you're harassing the heroes?" Myst asked as he changed his bracelet to his poison bracelet.

The man snorted. "They can't do that."

"Good to know," Myst replied when used his poison breath ability, spewing forth a cloud of green gas that caused them to start gasping for breath before they dropped to the ground. "Don't walk in that."

"No shit," Anna replied as she took a step back. "Technically you're probably supposed to wait for them to draw a weapon."

"They had weapons. I took them. It's not my fault they drank themselves stupid and attacked me," Myst replied as he started looting the comatose thugs.

"So they're not dead?" Anna asked.

"I doubt it, I'm only level four and it's an alcohol based attack," Myst replied, not particularly bothered either way, mostly because if they were willing to attack a hero that was trying to literally save the world, the world was better off without them. He grinned as he dropped the man's suspiciously full money pouch in his inventory. 'Probably shouldn't have taken that job, it's a bit too full to be the innkeeper, it's probably the princess or the church. When did I get so many enemies it was hard to identify which enemies are going to show up?' he asked himself rhetorically as he helped himself to the rest of their money and valuables.

"Have you done this before?" Anna asked, a touch surprised that he was quickly looting them to the ground.

"Nope but I know the theory, if I don't grab it someone else will," Myst replied with a malicious grin, ignoring the feeling of being watched as he honestly didn't care at this point, mostly because he was hungry and angry about being in a country filled with idiots.

Anna shrugged. "At least they have decent loot."

"Yep." Myst finished looting the bandits, including their boots, then headed down the street with an unhinged grin on his face that caused several thieves to think twice about mugging him or even being seen by the crazy hero. Thankfully for his patience, he was able to find a merchant selling food for a reasonable price that could also give him directions to a man that ran a general store that could provide him with a tent and the various crafting tools that he wanted.