Awakening!

Asuki yawned as she stretched out on the bed like a goddamn cat, the [Pillow Shield] still laying where her head had been. She found that as long as the Shield remained close to her, it wouldn't teleport and reappear on her body, which could potentially be useful in the future.

Checking her Status Menu, she was pleased to have unlocked most of her Shield Forms, with the only exception being the [Blanket Shield] due to it's long Unlock Timer. And Naofumi was right, Equip Bonuses do stack up fast since she was already at over 120 DEF.

She also discovered something interesting, she could convert her EP into Mastery Energy, letting her Awaken Shields without even needing to use them. And thus, she utilised her EP in Awakening her [Nutrition Series] Shields. Although she also found out that draining EP also drained her stamina and made her tired faster.

In hindsight, she could've just repeatedly slapped her Shield or converted the stuff in her inventory for the Mastery Energy, but hindsight was both 20-20 and a huge bitch.

Fortunately though, the Awakened [Nutrient Shield] increased her EP amount by 10, giving her a 10% increase. It was small, but if she could gain an EP boost from a Shield Form once it can happen again.

But enough recounting! It's time for progress! And by progress I mean absorbing the bed, the balcony door, the balcony, some more of the walls and floor, and the door into her Shield, by chance unlocking two more Shield Forms.

[Door Shield] (UC) (0/20)
Mastery Energy - 0/50

Equip Bonuses(Unlocked)
[+12 DEF]

[Glass Shield] (UC) (0/10)
Mastery Energy - 0/25

Equip Bonuses(Locked)
[+1 ATK] [+2 DEF] [+3 M. ATK]
Unlock Timer - 00:12:00

Wait... What? How could the [Door Shield] be unlocked already? She hasn't even equipped it!

Wait a minute, every time she unlocks a Shield Form the Unlock Timers for the other Shield Forms lowers by two minutes. But what if that decrease exceeds the original timer? Would that mean the Shield Form... Unlocks automatically?

Damn! That was fucking broken! And also incredibly convenient as that means she doesn't have to explain how she unlocked the [Door Shield] in the first place.

Regardless, how funny would it be if she fought Glass with the [Glass Shield]? Because Asuki thought it would be at least a bit amusing.

Asuki equipped her new Shield, since that 1 ATK could be useful in the future, and made her way back to the dining room for breakfast, passing by a yawning Itsuki while she was at it.

Using her impeccable sense of direction she retraced her steps back to the dining room, where the maids and butlers were just setting up breakfast.

"Ah! Miss Shield Hero, I'm afraid breakfast isn't ready yet." One of them said with a bow.

"It's cool, I still have leftovers." Asuki replied before taking a seat and pulling out some asparagus-looking food that tasted like apples and began to eat it.

While doing that, she pulled up her Weapon Tree and poured some EP into her [Glass Shield] to both Awaken it and upgrade it's Rarity.

[Glass Shield(Awakened)] (R) (0/15)
Mastery Energy - 0/25

Equip Bonuses(Locked)
[+5 MP] [+3 ATK] [+5 DEF] [+8 M. ATK]
Unlock Timer - 00:09:23

It wasn't much of an upgrade, but at least it would bring her up to 8 ATK. Who knows? Maybe she'll be able to one shot a Balloon.

Hmm... She should really look into ways of obtaining large amounts of ore to use for [Smelting] and [Ore Equip], along with money to spend on GP for [Hero Supermarket] and the Vassal Projectile's [Pay to Win] Strengthening Method.

She would be set for a while via the initial funding which, if she does indeed receive 800 Silver Coins, would give her 80,000 GP, which is a lot, but it would only last for so long, especially since Asuki is probably going to be spending a lot with both non-Strengthening Method related expenses, buying Raphtalia, and raising a Filolial. Although the latter could probably be mitigated by letting the Filolial eat monster corpses. But then that would also hurt her since it wouldn't let her take advantage of the Carriage's [Monster Encyclopaedia] Strengthening Method.

"Yo Asu-chan!" Motoyasu called out to her, knocking her out of her thoughts.

"Ah, Kitamura-san, good morning." Asuki replied while suppressing her Rage because only Hito-chan gets to call her that you perverted fuck-!

"Please, call me Motoyasu. Or simply Moto if that's what you prefer." He said, taking a seat at the now-stocked table before digging into his food.

Seeing that fresh food arrived, Asuki also took some for herself, while also shoving an entire plate of food into her Shield.

[Plate Shield] (C) (0/6)
Mastery Energy - 0/15

Equip Bonuses(Unlocked)
[+20 HP] [+3 DEF]

Nice! Another stat boost for her! Also she was officially at 140 DEF, so she was even harder to kill. At this point she doubted someone at Level 10 would be able to hurt her unless they had a really good weapon to balance the scales.

After a grouchy Ren entered the room and began eating, Asuki addressed them.

"So guys," She began, catching their attention. "I was thinking we should leave through different gates out of the capital. You know, to ensure we don't accidentally trigger the EXP drop by proximity." She explained, causing the three Heroes to agree and begin planning which routes they would be taking.

After breakfast the four of them were taken to the throne room where the adventurers were waiting, and Asuki couldn't wait to hear the excuse the king came up with to justify no one picking her.

After Aultcray overdramatically told the adventurers to choose their Hero, Asuki predictably ended up with not one adventurer behind her.

"Well, this sucks." Asuki commented without any actual disappointment in her voice.

"Hm... I must admit I didn't expect this outcome." Oh she so wanted to call bullshit on that! But unfortunately she couldn't due to all of her verbal ammunition being meta-knowledge.

"Well, if no one wishes to join the Shield Hero, then I shall simply have to provide extra initial funding for her." Aultcray stated, surprising Asuki.

No justification? No trying to demean her? He's just going to skip right to paying her extra? That's... unusual. And likely another nail from her being the Shield Hero.

Granted, all of her actions up until this point were pretty tame and couldn't be used as justification without making the adventurers look incredibly petty and judgemental over minor things, which might in-turn cause the Heroes to reject them due to their apparent nature.

As the maids came forth with their bounties, Asuki thanked the king. If he wasn't going to be antagonistic to her then she would exchange the same courtesy. After all, if the Wise King came back to his former glory then she'd have a powerful ally.

She then promptly dumped the coin bag into her Shield.

[Silver Coin Shield] (UC) (0/25)
Mastery Energy - 0/30

Equip Bonuses(Unlocked)
[+20 SP] [+15 DEF] [+5 M. DEF] [Item Drop Chance Up(Medium)]

Aw yeah! And the [Glass Shield] also just unlocked, giving her even more bonuses!

"Uh... Asuki? Why did you...?" Motoyasu and the other Heroes looked at her oddly.

"Unlock your Silver Coin Weapon Forms and you'll see." She said smugly.

Motoyasu, being the massive SIMP he was, shrugged and dumped his pay into the Legendary Spear and read it's stats.

"Holy shit!" He yelled, immediately switching to the [Silver Coin Spear] to start unlocking it's bonuses.

Curious as to what caused that sort of reaction, Ren and Itsuki followed suit.

"Oh wow!" Itsuki exclaimed, his eyes wide at the Bow Form he just received.

"I can't believe I didn't know about something this good, thank you for the information." Ren said with a nod to the sole female Hero in the room, who merely gave him a thumbs up in return.

The adventurers were confused, but the Heroes ignored them since they were just side-characters/NPCs(Depending on the Hero you ask).

After they were done with that, they were sent off, TO ADVENTURE!!!

"So, Asuki, got any game plan at the moment or are you just gonna wing it?" Motoyasu asked her as they left the castle.

"Right now? Well, I was planning on going to the local Dragon Hourglass to sync up with it, just to make sure I don't forget it later." She explained while switching to the [Blanket Shield], the only Shield Form she hasn't unlocked yet. "Oh! And to get early access to [Portal Shield] since, you know." She shrugged, the answer obvious.

"Good idea! Hey, can you girls take us there?" He asked his companions, with one(Rino, Asuki believes) enthusiastically agreeing before leading the way for the two Heroes.

Meanwhile, Ren and Itsuki went their own ways, believing they can just check in on it later and would prefer to Level grind in the meantime.

After a few minutes of walking(06:39 if her Shield's timer was to be believed), they arrived at the majestic Dragon Hourglass. And boy was it a sight.

As the two Heroes approached the DH the gems on their weapons lit up before shining beams of light into the ancient structure, causing them to be synced up with the Melromarc Waves.

Asuki left the requesting of Dragon Hourglass Sand to Motoyasu, as these prejudiced bitches would likely rather be tortured to **** than give her a single grain.

After a few minutes, she received her prize, and HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!

She immediately converted her Silver Coins into GP and spent the 50,000 GP needed to bust open the Level Limit because it was worth it goddammit!

[Dragon Hourglass Shield] (SR) (0/100)
Mastery Energy - 0/500

Equip Bonuses(Locked)
[+500 HP] [+100 MP] [+250 SP] [+100 EP] [+200 DEF] [+50 MAG] [+150 M. DEF] [Skill - Portal Shield]
Unlock Timer 23:36:00

Special Effects(10/10)
[+500 DEF] [+350 M. DEF]

(If you're wondering why it's so good, it's because the Bow's "Rarity Power" Strengthening Method is being boosted by the Shield's "Sharing" Strengthening Method, and since I have all 24 Strengthening Methods it's getting one hell of a boost)

Yeah, she can already tell she's going to be sinking some time and resources into this one.