The Replacement of the Sword Hero

Chapter Nine: Journey to Zeltoble

The next morning, after waking up later than usual due to a late night storytelling, I sat on the edge of my bunk making further adjustments to the swords in my weapon tree. Since I was planning to train frequently with the Blunt Iron Longsword to increase both my mastery level energy points and my competence with a sword, I decided to invest monster materials in boosting my stamina so I could train for longer periods. While fiddling around, I also looked through the simple compounding recipes I had unlocked from one of those egg monster variants. Of the basic recipes, I had only made healing salve and simple medicine, the latter of which had unlocked the Medicine Sword. I passed the time compounding until I had made one of each recipe. I then absorbed them into the legendary sword to see what happened.

Poison Short Sword conditions met.
Calorie Sword conditions met.
Energy Sword conditions met.
Potential Energy Sword conditions met.

Poison Short Sword C: ability locked:
equip bonus: poison resistance small
equip effect: poison attribute
mastery level: 0
Calorie Sword C: ability locked:
equip bonus: stamina up (small)
mastery level: 0
Energy Sword C: ability locked:
equip bonus: SP increase (small)
mastery level: 0
Potential Energy Sword C: ability locked:
equip bonus: stamina consumption down (small)
mastery level: 0

I got excited for a moment when the words 'Energy Sword' flashed up. In my mind I pictured a glowing futuristic blade made of pure energy, but the reality was rather disappointing and the stats were poor. I guess I have to equip these swords for a little while to unlock their abilities, and then again, it might even be worth upgrading these weak swords to increase their bonuses. From the fight with Ren last night I learned that summoning both the skeletal warrior and the soul wraith drained almost all of my SP. If I wasn't going to get the chance to level up any time soon, then stacking up small bonuses would make for a temporary solution. After investing Eggug materials into the Blunt Iron Longsword I achieved the results I was hoping for.

Blunt Iron Longsword C: ability unlocked:
equip bonus: agility up (medium)
mastery level: 0
status enchantment: stamina consumption down (large)

At that moment, a long veil of strawberry blonde hair dangled in front of my face. Eclair had woken up and was now leaning over the edge of her bunk above me.
"So, where did we get to last night... You said the first volume ended with Raphtalia comforting Naofumi right? I can't believe he beat the Spear Hero using balloons..."
She was immediately asking me rapid-fire questions.
"Good morning to you too, Eclair." I said. "I made some useful discoveries last night, check this out."
I stretched out my hand and spoke. "Summon Undead." I made sure to equip the Energy Sword to make the most of its equip bonus until the abilities unlocked and could be spread across my other weapons. The increase to my SP was small so it barely made a difference to how much it dropped.

Skeletal Warrior: Level 26
Soul Wraith: Level 52

Hmm? The soul wraith had levelled up. It must have been from killing Ren last night... Strange, I never got any EXP from him. Was that technically suicide? Anyhow, my two undead minions stood before us in the middle of our cabin.
"Yikes!" Shouted Eclair, reaching for her sword.
"Whoa, calm down, they aren't dangerous. I have complete control over them."
"But can't you see? It's huge!" She said. "It's so big it doesn't even fit in the cabin!"
She was right, the skeletal warrior was stooped over with its shoulders tightly pressed to the ceiling and its knees were slightly bent.
"Yes, actually. I supposed it is." I conceded, ordering the skeleton to kneel. It did so and was now eye level with me.
"They are level 26 and 52." I said proudly.
"Wait, what do you mean they?" Eclair asked.
"The skeleton and the wraith." I said, pointing to each of them.
"There's nothing there."
She was squinting hard at where I was directing her but she simply couldn't see it. I dismissed the skeletal warrior and then extinguished the lantern. In the darkness, the wraith was even clearer to me. Its ghostly outline became more defined and Ren's features stared back at me. Its sword was held loosely in its grip.
"Wait, I think I can see something." Said Eclair, peering into the gloom of our now darkened cabin. "It's like a swirling blue light. It's very faint."