The Rising of the Fisticuffs Hero

Chapter 9: Lullaby at Dawn (Part 1)

The first thing that he registered was the pounding headache he had. Then, a swirling sound he couldn't recognise was sent into an already messed up brain. It was weird, like hearing several hours of sound all at once. He managed to weakly open his eyes to find himself in a roofed bed somewhere he didn't recognise. He expected to be wrapped in bandages, or have a drip in his arm or something, anything. But no, apparently he had blacked out simply from exhaustion.

He sat up and rubbed the grit from his eyes. He could now see porperly, and the first thing he noticed was that he no longer had his gauntlets on. He turned his hands over in front of them and on his wrists he found a pare of arm guards with his signature silver stone imbedded in them. Somebody had forcefully changed them into a form he didn't previously have.

He looked around the room quietly. His personal belongings, various nick-nacks he had picked up along the way, we're on a chair in the corner. There was a note on the desk across the room from his bed, but to read it he had to go over and he couldn't quite manage that yet.

He opened his stats to find that he was now level 25. He also had a debuff applied to him, Fatigue. His help menu informed him that since he had used up his entire SP reserve he would struggle to move around properly for a while. It would disappear in a couple of hours, so the best thing he could do was wait it out and hope somebody came to inform him on what he had missed.

The first people he interacted with was a nurse. She had just come in to check on him, but could him awake and struggling to stand up. She hurried over and laid him back down, telling him she will get someone who could ease his struggle, but he had to stay in bed to make a full recovery.

So, alone again, he gazed up at the ceiling, contemplating what would happen next. They had defeated one wave, but it was clear that they had only just managed to do it. If he was to be useful in the next one he would have to level up, upgrade his limited gear and get more gauntlets.

He also needed to find out what the hell was up with his menu, which was incredibly full with screens he hadn't even looked at yet. Forging, enchanting, upgrading, job level, the list went on and on.

However, it was obvious what he needed to do in order to increase his overall strength. He either had to talk Naofumi into taking them to different places or he had to go it alone and farm all by himself. The former was possible, but the latter was probably the best option. He had already expressed his desire to find a better farming location for him before the wave had started.

His mind began to wander. Back during the wave he hadn't paid much attention to certain things. First, someone had used magic to prevent him falling to his death after he had killed the Chimera. Second, the two demi-humans he saw in the forest. While he didn't see the two figures well, it still stuck in his mind that they had been observing and not assisting. One was clearly an adventurer with all their gear, yet she had just watched the town be destroyed without lifting a finger to help anyone.

Before he knew it, the majority of the day had gone by and he was finally allowed to leave the building. With his rucksack and badly damaged cloak on his back, he made his way towards the royal castle, where nobles and the heroes had been rumoured to be gathering for a large celebration.

Well, that rumour was definitely true. There was indeed a celebration of some kind going on. Round tables ladened with food, guests in fancy clothing happily conversing among themselves and with the Cardinal heroes. He glanced around the room and zeroed in on the only Demi-human in the party, Raphtalia, as she made her way towards the far wall of the banquet space. There sat a discontent lump who was called the Shield Hero.

He pushed his way through the crowd, most ignoring him completely. Only one noble woman seems to recognise him and tried to strike up a conversation. With a quick answer of "I'm sorry, I'm a bit busy right now." he left her behind, before finally reached the conversing members of the shield heroes party.