Ren Amaki (Web Novel)

Ren Amaki (天木錬) is a major supporting character in the web novel series The Rising of the Shield Hero.

He was summoned to another world as the Sword Hero (剣の勇者) to fight against the Waves of Calamity.

Appearance
Ren has light brown hair with a pretty handsome face and being described by Naofumi to be really suited as a protagonist of dimensional-cross stories from manga or anime bishōnen. He always dresses in black or dark colors.

Two years later, when Naofumi picked him from his world, he grew up to be taller and has a sturdy body due to a result of a never miss training every day. He also has a mature-handsome appearance which perfectly labeled as a biseinen.

Personality
Ren is a person who acts cool and tries very hard to portray a loner's image. He runs his party like a guild, only working with the other members when the prey he seeks to kill is too strong for him alone. His particular attitude to this is that weaker members should work to individually increase their powers to catch up to the stronger ones.

Like the other heroes, Naofumi excluded, he is initially under the impression that the world they've come into is a game, and he stubbornly refuses to think otherwise. Unlike Motoyasu and Itsuki, Ren also seems to actually recognize to some extent the consequences of his actions, as he understood it was his fault the Zombie Dragon caused a plague. He is also more reasonable than Itsuki or Motoyasu, as he believed in the possibility that Naofumi was telling the truth when he claimed that Princess Melty was under his protection and not his hostage, and gave a proposal to help resolve the situation peacefully. He, alongside Itsuki, also stood up for Naofumi after Malty and Motoyasu tried to take Raphtalia from him via cheating, and called Motoyasu out for believing Raphtalia was brainwashed even when they saw her comforting an obviously crying Naofumi.

After his party was slaughtered by his, Itsuki, and Motoyasu's act of releasing the Spirit Turtle, his personality ends up taking a significant blow. His confidence has noticeably declined, and he has begun to realize that the world isn't a game and that his comrades are in fact dead and not coming back. To escape his guilt over this, Ren tries to blame them, stating they were too weak and got killed, something Naofumi and Eclair both believe is a sign of his selfishness. He breaks further when Naofumi calls him out on this and also blocks his attack, he winds up calling it a cheat that the Shield is so powerful and runs off in anger. Later, due to his distraught state, he was easily manipulated by Malty, who gave him false words of comfort that he desperately needed to hear. He ended up stripped of his belongings by her, abandoned, and finally snapped completely, succumbing to the Curses of Greed and later Gluttony.

While possessed by greed, Ren becomes a bandit leader and organizes them to amass wealth, he also defeats people on the road and steals their stuff, but fortunately doesn't kill them. He becomes obsessed with increasing his power. After succumbing to Gluttony this gets much worse, and he is willing to kill people to absorb EXP from them and grow stronger. His obsession with power is however either hollow or just an attempt to escape from reality, as when asked the reason for it he can only express the purpose given to him by others: saving the world. When he is finally defeated, he reverts to a broken, but otherwise normal, Ren.

After being freed from his curses, Ren officially becomes an ally and friend to Naofumi and his party, he decides to learn under Eclair and tries to save the world his late comrades loved so much. He also becomes steadily more open, though he is still rather timid compared to before and no longer puts up any elements of false confidence or a cool façade, he even notes outright that he wants to get to know the other heroes and get along with them from now on. He is no longer obsessed with power and diligently began studying under Naofumi to learn the world's language. He has also resolved to help out the village any way he can and asked Naofumi to be given a job there. Finally, he has expressed regret over his past actions, especially when learning that the dragon he killed was acting as an adoptive father to one of the girls in Naofumi's village, Wyndia, who became a slave as a result of said dragon's death. After apologizing to Wyndia, and being slapped and told off for his trouble, he has begun to interact with her roughly as frequently as Eclair and is implied to have feelings for both of them.

After he joined Naofumi, Ren more or less became the most motivated out of the heroes and is the one Naofumi appears to get along best with, considering Motoyasu is now broken and insane while Itsuki is broken and emotionless. He acts with enthusiasm towards saving the world and repaying his debts to his former comrades in doing so, as well as repaying Naofumi. Finally, while he himself was enraged enough when Atla was murdered to awaken a Wrath Series weapon, he managed to talk Naofumi into calming down instead of pursuing his own perfectly justified anger.

Following his initial defeat at Medea's hands, Ren spends two years in a different world training in the hopes of returning one day, his wish is granted when Naofumi, who underwent an even more massive "time skip" and became a god inside the void, appears and takes him back. Although he is somewhat upset that his two years of effort which turned him into a master swordsman proved minor compared to Naofumi's eons of effort that made him a god, he nonetheless chooses to retain them because the current him is more powerful than the former one. He also shows a completely new level of faith in Naofumi when he is told that it's safe to just lower his guard and attack the enemy without considering defense (because Naofumi used a skill to ensure all damage is transferred from his comrades to himself) and leaps into the battle without hesitation.

He is now also much bolder, proposing, albeit with the aid of alcohol, to both Eclaire and Windia during the celebration after the waves, the former of whom is much less stern in the face of his now more mature appearance (dropping the Japanese terminology for a moment, he basically is said to go from being a pretty boy to a manly man). much later, with Naofumi's subtle help, he even manages to marry both of them.

He partners up with Gaelion, Windia, and Eclair most frequently.

Background
Ren was a high school student before he failed to save his childhood friend in his old world and was instead killed in the process of her rescue. He is the youngest hero initially at 16.

The Rising of the Shield Hero
Ren initially mistook the world he was summoned to be exactly like the VRMMO game from his world "Brave Star Online" where Level came first and Status Boosts second in priority making his strengthening method extremely inefficient also leading to the collapse of his party. He acts like a cool loner but he really does care for his comrades. However, he doesn't get close to them because he is terrible at team play. He carelessly killed a dragon which caused a plague as well as other problems.

Ren and his comrades successfully cleared the Wave of another country and then headed to the town the Spirit Turtle was sleeping in to search for greater strength.

Thinking of his game, and what happened in Update: Episode 7, The Assault of the Spirit Turtle. According to Ren, the Spirit Turtle was going to be the mastermind behind an even greater calamity, so it was best to kill him off early. In the near future, a plague would have struck that land. The people would fall one after the other, and the cause of that would be the Spirit Turtle. He would manipulate their corpses and create an undead army with his powers of mind control. Apparently, in the games Ren played, if he didn't act fast, a large calamity would befall this land. This event was big enough in scale to cause the fall of nations and the formation of several counter-measure organizations. That’s why Ren's main goal was the prevention of this disaster. The boss was supposed to be beatable at level 60. Since Ren was over 80, he thought it wouldn't be difficult.

The reason he acted without the country’s consent was that in the game he played, the Turtle’s mind control was affecting the actions of the leaders of countries as well. It seems that it was being treated as a sort of quest. And that’s why negotiations were pointless.

Ren infiltrated a temple slightly outside of the village. Ren's actions were questioned by his party. He explained to them the monster sleeping there had already infiltrated the upper echelon of government and sitting around and waiting for negotiations to finish is pointless. A monk then asked who they were, as he was about to destroy the statue that would awaken the turtle, a group of monks surrounded him. Because they had appeared in the basement of an abandoned temple, Ren was able to conclude that they were under the Turtle’s influence. And destroyed the statue. Ren’s comrades assisted in the destruction of the statue. The monks shouted and raised their weapons. The monks then realized that Ren was the Hero of the Sword. Ren then explained that he was there to vanquish the darkness that sleeps beneath these lands. As they were saying that, the ground begins to rumble beneath them. Ren carefully knocked the monks out and ran in the direction of the rumbling sound.

With confidence, Ren rushed towards the Turtle. While closing in, he thought he saw someone use a skill on the head, but he just assumed it was one of the adventurers fighting it. Thinking that this world’s adventurers wouldn't be enough, Ren raised his sword towards the Turtle. He used Handlet Sword!, however, it’s a skill that takes a while to activate. So he stacked on another attack, Thunder Blade!. But, the Spirit Turtle was largely unaffected. Ren felt something was off, but he kept fighting. Without giving up, he fought for the people in danger of the beast.

After being defeated, when he was aware of his situation, The Spirit Turtle was already walking away without paying him any mind. Ren was surrounded by the corpses of his comrades. They were cruelly mangled bodies. Destroyed so badly even Ren couldn't identify them. The only thing he could understand was that his party members were all dead.

Ren’s brain could not comprehend the events that had just happened. And Ren’s mind shut down for a period of time. He prayed for the slight chance that, like a game, he would be able to revive them. But no gods would hear his wish, and Ren understood that from the beginning.

After that, Ren rushed through the swarm of Spirit Turtle Familiars and tried to save as many people as he could, but he eventually lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, the Spirit Turtle’s reign of terror had already ended.

After Medea kills him, he was saved by the Spirit of the Sword and returned to his original world. He spends two years there before being retrieved by Naofumi and Raphtalia. According to Naofumi, his appearance became more rugged than before.

The Reprise of the Spear Hero
Information to be added later on.

Legacy
As the Hero of the Sword, he saved the world. After that, in a separate organization than the Hero of the Shield, he resolved various problems around the world. After pursuing affection for a single woman for many years, they finally married. And to make up the sin for killing a girl’s father, in the form of a dragon, it’s said that he also married that girl.

Legendary Sword Skills

 * Meteor Sword (流星剣):
 * Hundred Sword
 * Flashing Sword
 * Transfer Sword
 * Assassin Sword
 * Hide Sword
 * Rakshasa Meteor Sword
 * Chain Bind
 * Chain Needle (Poison)
 * Gravity Blade
 * Flame Edge, Meteor Sword X: The blade's edge is basked in red light. A dark crimson shockwave shoots towards his opponent.
 * Instant Dragon Slaying: A fighting spirit in the form of a dragon.
 * Gravity Sword: Ren’s sword changes to a dark, transparent material as he slashes his enemy. And the enemy collapses as if a force were pushing them towards the ground. It uses Gravity to obstruct an enemy’s movement.
 * Soul Steal: A blue light flies out of his target, and assimilates into him. Ren’s blade robs targets of their ability to move, and he follows up with this skill.
 * Phoenix Gale Sword: Ren’s sword shines red and a tempest of flames passes by, together with a phoenix of fire made from energy.

Swords

 * Spirit Turtle Sword: Information to be added later on.
 * Spirit Turtle Katana: A leveled up version of the Spirit Turtle Sword.
 * Comrade Growth Adjustment (Small)
 * Comrade Sword: A strangely-shaped sword, which looks like a bundle of strings strung around each other countless times. Honestly, it doesn’t look strong at all. Ren’s trusted comrades are Ecliar and Wyndia. It's possible his comrade growth correction stacked with Noafumi's slave one.
 * Sword of Rage

Curse Series Skills

 * Guillotine: Chains come from the ground and bind this opponent's body, moreover, the thorns on the chains pierced into his opponent's skin. Then an enormous bladed execution tool appears above him.
 * Goldaufstand: Ren raises his sword to the heavens and out of nowhere, gold and silver treasures gather, forming a human shape in the air. Profoundly ominous, it is a gold statue made with extremely bad taste. The compensation is the caster's possessions.

Magic
Ren specializes in water and support magic. There are some water spells that can heal.
 * Magic Enchant: It’s a magic sword. After casting, it endows magic that has been received, and Ren can slash at enemies while it improves the strength of his magic for a little while.
 * Fast Resist Fire: Fire support magic, which increases fire resistance.
 * Revelation Magic Enchant X: Magic enchant is able to absorb magic attacks, and augment their abilities into the sword. Dragon breath is included in the attacks it works on.

Relationships
Information to be added later on.
 * -|Legendary Heroes=
 * Naofumi Iwatani

Ren and Motoyasu usually gets along with each other well. Despite this, Ren has called out Motoyasu for actually being a sore loser when someone has rigged the duel against Noafumi to the latter’s favor. After the Spirit Turtle incident, things has gone for the worse between Ren and Motoyasu; having to suffered the loss of all of his comrades, he was comforted by Malty S Melromarc, who took advantage of his emotional depression, by claiming that Motoyasu raped her and Lesty, and using them as shields to protect himself. After a short while, Ren confronts a shocked Motoyasu, who was looking for his female companions since the Turtle Spirit incident. Ren has berated for being bad, if not worse than Naofumi, going as far as calling him a disgrace for “betraying the trust of his party. Motoyasu pleaded Ren that Malty was lying, but he doesn’t believe him at this point.
 * Motoyasu Kitamura

Information to be added later on.
 * Itsuki Kawasumi

Information to be added later on.
 * -|Seven Star Heroes=
 * Trash Melromarc (Aultcray Melromarc)

Information to be added later on.
 * Fitoria

Information to be added later on.
 * Rishia Ivyred

Information to be added later on.
 * Fohl

Information to be added later on.
 * Raphtalia

Information to be added later on.
 * Filo

Information to be added later on.
 * Wynida

Information to be added later on.
 * Green

Information to be added later on.
 * -|Other Heroes=
 * Glass:

Information to be added later on.
 * Melty Q. Melromarc

Information to be added later on.
 * Keel

Information to be added later on.
 * Raph-chan

Information to be added later on.
 * Sadeena

Ren feels indebted to Eclair for stopping him when he was under the influence of the Curse Series, and is released into her custody soon after. He learns swordsmanship from her properly, becoming a far more defined "Sword Hero" as a result. Later on, when Eclair's sense of justice is challenged by reality and she starts to pick up Naofumi's bad habits, both of them start to worry about the dangerous path she's treading and the latter entrusts Ren to keep her morally in the right. Later on it is implied that his feelings for her are romantic in nature, and Naofumi, to some extent, supports him in this by leading her to go to his house for a Christmas dinner, rather than staying up all night to thank santa due to her never having been told the truth that he doesn't exist.
 * Eclair Seaetto

Information to be added later on.
 * Crimmy

Information to be added later on.
 * Marine

Nothing much is given about Ren's comrades. During the hero summoning, there were three and they choose Ren over Nafoumi and hides from the latter when he asked them to join him. Along the way, another adventure joined Ren's party making it to be four. It was clear that Ren kept his distance and dictated their move as if he was running a guild. He would only join them if there was a bigger threat. They followed Ren's word loyally (without question) till their death. They seems to be some what reasonable and decent in comparison to other hero parties (other than Naofumi's party) who were all had too much pride, arrogance, and looking down on others. According to Naofumi, they all are polite and proper. When the queen came back and cleared Nafoumi's name, they diligently apologized to Nafoumi for their action of not choosing him and explained their reasons. During the party exchange, they seems to be more comfortable with Nafoumi than any other hero (other than Elena). Nafoumi too felt chemistry and wished to have them as comrades along with his own, but didn't want to strain their relationship, so avoided it.
 * -|Companions=
 * Welt, Bakter, Terishia, Fauly

Ren seems to get along with Naofumi's pet dragon, little knowing that the spirit of the dragon he slew earlier also inhabits and shares its body. They make a remarkably good team in combat.
 * Gaelion