The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 Read Online Free Page A

wait… Wasn’t I kind of an outlier in this situation?
    “Uh… do we really all have to talk about how we got here?”
    “Well, we all already have.”
    “I guess. Well… Sorry everyone. I was at the library, flipping through a book I’d never seen before. Before I knew it, I woke up here.”
    Again, silence.
    They were staring at me, cold as ice.
    What was that supposed to mean. Did I have to come here under miserable circumstances to be part of their group?
    The three of them started whispering among themselves so that I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
    “Yeah… but he… he has a Shield.”
    “I knew it… Motoyasu, you too?”
    “Yeah…”
    I started to feel like they were making fun of me. It was time for a change of subject.
    “All right, so is it fair to assume that we all have a pretty good idea about how the system in this world works?”
    “Sure.”
    “Done it a thousand times.”
    “I think I get it well enough.”
    Well, there you have it… but wait! Am I the only amateur here?! This sucks.
    “W…Well…. Maybe you guys could teach me what I need to know to fight in this world? There were no games like this where I’m from.”
    Ren narrowed his eyes and glared at me. Again, ice-cold. For whatever reason, Motoyasu and Itsuki were looking at me with kindness.
    “All right then, your big brother Motoyasu will, as best he can, teach you the basics.” He sounded fake, with that big smile on his face. Soon his hand was on my shoulder, and he was talking away.
    “First of all, and I’m only talking about the game I know, Emerald Online … but you’re a ‘Shielder.’ Basically, your job is to use the Shield and protect people.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “In the beginning, your defense is super high, which is great and all, but as you go up in levels, the damage you start to take gets a little unbalanced.”
    “Uh huh…”
    “There are no high-level Shielders. At higher levels, it’s a useless class.”
    “Noooooooooooooo!”
    That was not what I wanted to hear. What was with the death report? All they wanted to say was that I was doomed? Hey, no thanks!
    “What about updates? Were there no updates?”
    Like… to balance out my class?!
    “Nope. Because of the game’s system, and because of the game’s population, the class was abandoned pretty early on. It’s really not good for much. I think they had even planned to delete the class altogether…”
    “And I guess I can’t change jobs?!”
    “Well the associated jobs are all… how to put it? Dead.”
    “And I can’t change?”
    “Nah, the game never let you switch to another job tree.”
    WHAT?! Was I really stuck with the worst job in the game? I was staring at the shield in my hands and thinking. Was my future really so gloomy?
    “What do you guys think?” I asked, turning to Ren and Itsuki, but they both turned away from me.
    “Sorry…”
    “I feel the same…”
    No! So I really was stuck with the short straw? I was dwelling on this, absentmindedly, when I saw the three of them in the corner of my eye. They were all deep in conversation about the game.
    “What about the geography?”
    “The names are different, but the map seems to be the same. If the map is the same, there’s a high probability that the division of efficient monsters is the same also.”
    “The best hunting grounds will be different for each weapon. Probably best to make sure we go to different places.”
    “True. We need to focus on efficiency.”
    Did they all know enough about the game to figure out how to cheat? It started to look that way. Hey, there’s a thought. If my class was so weak, I could just depend on them to support me.
    There were plenty of ways to do it. Even if I were weak, fighting with the party would get me experience to level up. What is another world, if not an opportunity to fight with your brothers, to deepen your bonds? That’s how it was supposed to work, right?
    Now, if only there were a girl or two in the party.