Ren Amaki/Chronology

Volume 1
Ren is the Sword Hero one of the Four Legendary Heroes summoned from another world. He was summoned along with the three other Legendary Heroes in Melromarc. Like two of the other heroes, Ren also pretends that he doesn't care about being summoned to another world and thinks that he is better than the rest of the Heroes.

When Naofumi was falsely accused of a crime he never committed, like the rest of the heroes, he believed that Naofumi was guilty and even used the situation to make himself look better in the eyes of others.

Later, Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki fought the second Wave's boss, the Chimera, and took one of its heads for his weapon. Later, when Naofumi lost the duel against Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki were the ones to call out Malty for her illegal interference in the duel and announced that Motoyasu was the loser.

Volume 2
Ren and his party was hired to kill a Dragon living in the mountain next to the Mirso Village and then left the corpse as a tourist attraction and source of economy for the village that hired him.

Volume 3
Though he wasn't aware of it at first, Ren later learned that the dragon's rotting corpse mutated a hoard of monsters into poison types, created a plague that afflicted the village that hired him, and eventually turning into a Zombie Dragon that severely injured Raphtalia in the process of putting it down. A guilty Ren runs off to the village to confirm Naofumi's story.

During the Third Wave, Ren jumped onto the Ghostship and, still following his game knowledge, fought the Skull captain trying to make it spawn the Soul Eater. Fighting the undead for three hours straight Naofumi arrives on the ship and uses Raphtalia's magic to force the Soul Eater out of hiding. Ren soon discovers that his attacks are too weak to hurt the Soul Eater and can only watch as Naofumi defeats the boss using the Iron Maiden.

Following the Soul Eater's defeat, the group is almost attacked by another of the monsters, only for it to be one-hit killed by Glass who similarly takes Ren down. The only reason Ren survives the encounter is that Glass was only interested in killing 'actual heroes' and not someone who was clearly too weak to call themselves one.

Later on, after he has recovered Ren is informed by the Church of the Three Heroes that Naofumi has kidnapped Melty and killed her escorts and naturally goes off to confront Naofumi. Although at first reasonable with Naofumi and the rest of his associates Malty walks in with the claim that Naofumi's recent surge in popularity is due to unlocking a brainwashing shield, with a fearful Melty refusing to return with them seeming to confirm her claims.

With negotiations having broken down Ren attempts to incapacitate Naofumi, though the use of his Iron Maiden buys enough time to escape with his party.

Volume 4
Ren's party, along with Itsuki's party, are nearly killed by the Church of the Three Heroes for their incompetence but are saved by the Shadows. They join with Naofumi's and Motoyasu's parties as they were under attack by the High Priest and the Church of the Three Heroes, using powerful skills in a sneak attack that initially broke through the High Priest's sanctuary power. The Other three heroes and their companions combine all their power in a single attack that fails to break through the enemy, not even triggering the Wrath Shield's cursed flames in the middle of the enemy formation managed to break the enemy.

Finally, Naofumi calls everyone close to him, remembering and focusing on how much he hated the other heroes and Malty and evolved Wrath Shield into its next stage and unlocked a new attack with it. Ren and the others create an opening through the Priest's sanctuary, allowing Naofumi to use the new attack, Blutopher, and kills the High Priest with a brutal attack that leaves him comatose for three days.

Ren and the other heroes and companions stayed with the queen until Naofumi was safe to transport again, at which point in time the queen takes them back to the castle where she humiliates and beats down the king re-establishing her authority in the process. She then explains that Malty's and the King's actions have left her country in a precarious situation with their fellow countries and thus are receiving punishment.

Onto business, the Queen asks Naofumi to marry her youngest Daughter Melty. Basically Naofumi, as the Shield Hero, is worshiped as a god by Melromarc's enemy Siltvelt, if he were to marry into their family it would pacify the people of Siltvelt who are up in arms about how Naofumi has been treated. Had Malty made an effort to put Naofumi under her thumb the throne would have been as good as hers, as it stands now the Queen must now force a Slave Seal on her just to wrestle the truth out of her.

Though Ren and the others try to stop them, Naofumi and the soldiers stop them as a confession is forcibly wrung out of Malty, and shortly thereafter confirmed further when Motoyasu takes Malty as a slave as well. After a while, Ren and Itsuki came to understand the truth about Malty and that he was wrong about Naofumi. Ren also received some satisfaction as while he and Itsuki weren't treated badly, Motoyasu did receive a lot of preferential treatment over them.

That said they were shocked to witness the interactions between Naofumi and the Queen as they calmly discussed torture methods to use on the recently disowned King and Princess ranging from execution to training them to become domestic servants. Eventually, Naofumi settles on renaming Aultcray to Trash and Malty to Bitch and her alias of Mein to Whore, Ren and Itsuki eventually agree that though it's somewhat offensive to their tastes the punishments are somewhat appropriate before they go off to their rooms for the night.

Volume 5
The day after the Queen's return, Ren and Itsuki joined Naofumi at a banquet in Naofumi's honor. The Queen made an announcement to the gathered guests that the Cal Mira Archipelago had become active making Ren excited in the process. It is explained that the islands have a once in a decade activation period that causes the experience gained from killing monsters to double.

Because of this the heroes and their companions should be able to use this opportunity to reach level eighty with a measure of ease getting Ren all excited. However before that, the Queen pulls aside the heroes for a meeting: basically, in order to increase their fighting power, it is important that the four agree on a plan of attack in advance of the waves, making the army a part of their parties like what Naofumi did during the last wave for example.

As a start, while waiting for Motoyasu to show up Ren, Naofumi, and Itsuki introduce themselves to each other's parties. Ren and Naofumi develop a low opinion of Itsuki's party who talk down to them, treat the newest member of their party, Rishia Ivyred, like a common servant or slave, and gives an overall arrogant atmosphere. They're also insulted by the implication that Itsuki has been doing more work than the other heroes.

Ren's party treats the other two heroes with more respect, in particular, they apologize to Naofumi for how they treated him when they first met: with the king the way he was they all had reason to fear what the king would do to them had they joined his party. However, Ren receives criticism from both Naofumi and Itsuki for treating them like members of a guild, having them level independently of him, and collect bits and pieces of monsters for him.

Finally, the time comes to introduce Filo and Raphtalia. Ren openly insults the pair suggesting that they would hold him back in a fight, though he ultimately recants his statement perhaps remembering the fight during the third wave. That said they show Naofumi an awkward glance for not treating them as NPCs or slaves. That said they do take the opportunity to confirm that they're not being forced to fight for Naofumi. That said they do apologize for mistaking their relationship prior to the duel with Motoyasu.

Motoyasu eventually arrives at the meeting after a confession has been wrung out of Bitch for trying to poison Naofumi. Onto business Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki have knowledge about their weapons that Naofumi doesn't have access to. Likewise, based on the power he demonstrated while fighting the Soul Eater, Glass, and the High Priest, Naofumi has somehow acquired fighting power that the others can't compare to. In fact, Ren and the others are so weak compared to Naofumi that the Queen and the other country representatives are afraid for their lives if they keep fighting in the waves.

Therefore, the Queen is holding the meeting for the purpose of exchanging information on how to make one another stronger. Ren and the others initially want to hear from Naofumi first, specifically what he fed to his shield to unlock the Wrath Series believing that they would be unstoppable if they had that much offensive power, and they also want to know how he was able to give Filo and Raphtalia so much brute strength.

Naofumi, however, has one condition for giving up such valuable information: he wants to hear from the others first. When they first came to this world they all had advanced knowledge on both it and their weapons, they also sat Naofumi down and called him a weakling to his face. Then they refused to help him in any way after his rape accusation while they received the full support of the kingdom.

From Naofumi's standpoint wanting to be on equal footing with the others is only natural. Sadly it soon becomes apparent that the others still believe that they're in a game, they've already dismissed the last wave as being an event battle: one that they were supposed to lose for story purposes, and that Naofumi's success in defeating Glass and the Soul Eater can simply be chalked up to the game-breaking power he unlocked.

Increasing the concern for them they also believe that they're immortal: even if they are beaten down until they are an inch from death they will simply be revived at the nearest hospital no worst for wear, the reason why they seriously tried to kill Naofumi is because they thought that only heroes can kill other heroes. An exasperated Naofumi states it's a miracle they're still alive, a fact they somewhat agree with as they believe they have "divine protection."

Before moving onto actually useful information, Naofumi employs psychological warfare to make sure they don't lie to him. Aside from information that Naofumi already knew, Ren and the others reveal that the legendary weapons have the ability to copy other weapons that they pick up that belongs to the same class as their legendary weapons, a fact they discovered when they, like Naofumi, tried to buy better weapons in Melromarc's weapon shops, the difference being that they had picked up weapons that were the same as their Legendary weapons.

They also reveal that the legendary weapons have the ability to transform the monsters they kill into drops: weapons, armors, and tools for them and their companions to use. Also, if the necessary ingredients are fed to their weapons they can be set to automatically produce potions and other items for them. They also offer to make up a chart where Naofumi can get good exp. and materials for his weapon. However, they disagree on the method for strengthening each individual weapon that their Legendary weapons can transform into.

Itsuki maintains that a weapon's power is tied to its rarity, it's power can be increased by feeding it specific ores. Ren maintains that proficiency is what's important in a weapon, the longer you use it the stronger it gets until it's reached it's maxed level, and if you have no intention to use it again then you can safely transfer that mastery to a more useful weapon to increase its proficiency. Motoyasu states that you can draw magical power out of objects and use it to give unique effects to weapons through refinement.

As their information doesn't line up the trio accuses one another of lying, even worst they then direct the frustration that they've built up by accusing one another of lying at Naofumi accusing him of gaining a god's favor to increase his and his companions' power. Naofumi maintains that it's not someone else's power: he unlocked Slave, Beast, and Filolial user shields that give a bonus stat growth with every level up for his companions.

He also explains the effect that Filo's cowlick feather that they got from Fitoria during the class up. When Naofumi mentioned Fitoria's ability to transport to the others mentioned that they unlocked a transport weapon from feeding sand from the Red Dragon Hourglass to their weapons. Back to the topic of Fitoria, Naofumi also warns them that Fitoria would hunt down and kill them if they don't start cooperating with one another to fight the waves.

Once again dismissing Naofumi's warning the others accuse him of getting help from a god again to unlock the Wrath Shield. Naofumi once again states that he has not met this world's god, and even if he did he would not have this amicable relationship the others have imagined. To clarify, Naofumi believes that he unlocked the Shield of Wrath from his deep, festering hatred of this world and the other heroes, furthermore his help menu has informed him that the Wrath Shield is a cursed weapon and that he should not use it in spite of the power it has.

Sadly a quick glance through his own help menu reveals nothing to Ren which in turn causes the group to revert back to accusing one another of lying and Naofumi of cheating with vulgar insults being thrown in. The meeting is called short as a group of soldiers barge in informing them that the Heroes companions have gotten into an argument with one another.

The Heroes go to calm their associates down as the meeting and the party is officially called to an end with the understanding that another meeting would be held in the near future. Ren and the other heroes receive a message from the Queen detailing the fruits of Naofumi's experiments: All the heroes reinforcement methods work, using them all in combination will dramatically increase their fighting power, they just have to believe in one another.

Instead, a frustrated Ren orders his party to shop for items for the trip while he loads himself onto the ship for Cal Mira and along with the other Heroes, they forcibly take the captain's quarters and the Luxury room reserved for Naofumi but are forced to wait for the Queen to let them go. Their greed backfires on them however when the extremely rough waters on their way to the island and the large open space cause them to become both seasick and injured.

Arriving on the island, the heroes and their companions are roped into a tour around the main island, in the process, they learn that Cal Mira is apparently sacred training ground for the Heroes, and as such their predecessors have left behind monuments for them detailing magic for them to use. However, Ren and the others dismiss the information on the plaque because they can't read what it says. However, they're surprised when Naofumi is able to read the plaque and shocked when he used a powerful stat boost spell to increase Filo's stats. None the less they decide to get weapons that allow them to learn the magic written on the plaque-like they believe Naofumi has done already. The next day Ren and the others proceed to rampage through the explosion of monsters that have been born as a result of the increase in exp. though he did struggle quite a bit.

After a couple of days at the Archipegalo, Ren and the other heroes break in the main island's hot springs where they end up being dragged into Motoyasu's perversion as they discuss among the various female members of their parties who their preferred type was, and on peeking on the girls in the next bath over. Eventually, after five or six days on the Island, Naofumi comes to the other Heroes with a bit of bad news. Filo has discovered a Dragon Hour Glass in a temple at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Cal Mira, worst yet it's almost empty meaning that a wave is about to happen at Cal Mira. While they are dubious about Naofumi's story, Itsuki and Motoyasu are chomping at the bit to put their new high-level parties to use only Ren is unwilling to fight the wave. Eventually, the other Heroes figure out that Ren is Aquaphobic and test their theory by chucking Ren into the water at the beach. He nearly drowns in waist-deep water.

Naofumi offers the other Heroes the use of the Pekkle Kigurumi that will allow them to transform into giant Karma Penguins and swim down to the temple with ease though they politely decline instead of using scuba diving type magic prepared by the resort. On their way back from the temple, Ren ends up using the costume to swim back to shore and is quite overjoyed to be able to swim at long last. With little time before the wave, Naofumi sits the others down and talks to them about what they are planning to do during the wave. Specifically, Naofumi wants to recruit Melromarc's army into their parties, aside from the troops they will also get Melromarc's navy on their side as well, providing boats and platforms they can fight on he also wants to recruit a large number of adventurers as well. The logic is that most of the people there are using the activation event to farm for exp. between that, the powerful monsters guaranteed to come with a wave, and the exp. bonus from the Heroes weapons they should get a lot of volunteers.

Thus while Naofumi goes back to the castle to recruit the Queen and the soldiers, the other three heroes run around the island collecting as many adventurers as possible. When the Wave does come Ren isn't very useful, only able to take shots at the wave's boss the Inter-Dimensional Whale when it surfaces to attack the ships. He is stunned to witness L'Arc Berg and Therese Alexanderite take out the boss almost single-handedly, shortly before the otherworldly hero knocks all of them out.

Volume 6
By the time Ren had regained consciousness, the wave was already over. To his disappointment, he learned that Naofumi had sent the three other worlders that had beaten him and the other two heroes to a pulp packing which only makes his frustration against Naofumi grow even more. Mirella begins the discussion, though the rest of the Heroes claim that there is very little to discuss as Naofumi, who by this point in time even they cannot argue isn't the strongest among them, is the only one who has not been forthcoming.

As Naofumi once again reiterates, all they have to do is believe the methods will work and try using he slave magic he told them about. More to the point, he has no reason to stifle the others strength by holding back information. He has few methods of attack and the ones he does have access to, the Shield of Wrath, are exceedingly difficult.

Ren has already realized that the Iron Maiden has an excessively long activation time, and Blood Sacrifice would have killed Naofumi the last time he used it were it not for the Queen's medical assistance. Aside from them, the only other attacks Naofumi has is counter-attacks, which demands that he first receives an attack from the enemy, he cannot and never will be able to attack his own.

Accused of lying by Motoyasu again, Naofumi walks up to him and punches him in his face, leaving no damage in his wake, before sitting down again, firmly demonstrating that he has no attack ability and thus gains nothing from being stronger than the other three. Itsuki, however, claims that Naofumi is just a glory hog trying to claim the title of the one and only hero, a claim that seems to be backed up by Naofumi's claims that the otherworld invaders only regard him as a hero.

Tired of being accused of being a liar, Naofumi simply decides to remain silent. He has shared all the information he's had to share at this time and the others have chosen to ignore him. The Queen uses magic to forcibly bring the meeting to order with a giant ball of ice and puts aside the issue of the reinforcement methods. As the heroes seem to have had some advanced knowledge of the waves, she wonders if they know about the other world invaders.

Ren and the others do not recall ever meeting other world invaders in their games, nor do they know anything about the Waves beyond the fact that they're natural disasters that dump hoards of monsters on the world. Instead, they once again push the conversation towards Naofumi as he seems to have already met the two of them before the wave. Thus Naofumi recounts the tale of how he met the two back when the three heroes stole his room on the boat ride over to Cal Mira.

He also leveled with the two of them while on the islands, where he observed L'Arc uses his scythe to absorb monster bits in the same vein as the legendary weapons. Though Naofumi didn't think about it at the time they acted like it wasn't a big deal, likewise even when Naofumi absorbed the monster materials into his weapon they didn't show much of a reaction, in spite of the fact that they were looking for someone with a Legendary Shield, which leads to the disturbing and terrifying possibility that the people of the other world have mass-produced legendary weapons.

The Queen, however, reveals the existence of the Seven Star Weapons, weaker subordinate type weapons to the Four Legendary weapons: the Seven Star Projectile, Hammer, Gauntlets, Claw, Cane and Whip. Unlike the legendary Weapons which are used by individuals summoned from other worlds, the Seven Star heroes can be both summoned and can be promoted from existing citizens of the world.

But more to the point none of the listed weapons is a scythe, so L'Arc isn't a Seven Star Hero, instead, Naofumi thinks he and Glass are heroes from the world on the other side of the Wave's rifts, explaining their power. The revelation of the weapons leads Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki to wonder why they even fight in the waves if all of these other heroes are running around.

The queen subsequently states that Melromarc effectively gave up the right to any of the Seven Stars when they made a play to hoard all of the legendary heroes for themselves. With the clear difference in power between the Heroes of this world and the next one over, the Queen has come to only one logical conclusion: the Heroes need to undergo combat training, immediately. Ren and the others are not happy about the idea preferring to simply have fun killing monsters and get praised for it.

Either way, until either the storms caused by the waves calm down or until the activation event is over, the Heroes are given permission to do as they please. Ren presumably absorbed some of the Inter-Dimensional Whale into his sword before he and the other heroes parties return to the castle. Ren apparently immediately went his separate ways from the other Heroes, likely focusing on increasing his level or collecting materials for his weapon.

When Ren does get back to the castle, the combat instructors the Queen hired, Eclair Seaetto and Elrasla Grilaroc, have already arrived at the castle. After receiving a short lecture from the old woman, Ren and the other heroes dismiss the idea of learning the Hengen Musou style all together based on the knowledge from their games which dictated that it was an ability that applied to unarmed combat, though in the process they admitted that the principles applied to the use of other weapons too.

Ren's arrogant personality also causes him to dismiss Eclair's swordsmanship due to his higher level which leads to them holding a sparring match. Eclair repeatedly humiliates Ren during the resulting fight eventually resulting in Ren forfeiting the match by violating its rules. While Ren still tries to maintain the superiority that his weapon gives him, the Queen counters that Eclair is capable of using magic with her weapon, and will now be studying under Elrasla to learn the Hengen Musou style who shortly proceeds to beat down the three uncooperative heroes.

To their credit, Ren and the others to give the style a shot, being taken out to the mountains to train. But, they quickly grow frustrated with the lack of progress they make and instead resort to dragon hunting to make themselves feel better. In spite of Naofumi's repeated efforts to improve upon the training methods, the other Heroes and their companions give up on it completely and make an effort to try and leave the mountains to go back to their normal routine.

The Queen, however, has made an effort to stymie their plans: she's already sent notice to the adventurer's guild not to give quests to the heroes and has reinforced the border with extra guards to keep them inside of the country. As it so happens she has a request for them if they want a break from the training, a hoard of unknown monsters are attacking villages to the Southwest of Melromarc and the Queen needs someone to deal with them.

After obtaining a basic amount of information about the monsters, Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki deduce the one responsible for these events to be the Spirit Tortoise and forces their way through the border in rush to confront it using dragons, horses, and Filolial's so that they can claim the glory of killing it and the lucrative materials for their weapons. Instead, Motoyasu's and Itsuki's parties abandon them while Ren leads a suicide attack against the turtle culminating in the death of his party.

All three heroes wind up the prisoners of Kyo Ethnina.

Volume 7
Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki are revealed to have been made into Kyo's experimental subjects. He has connected them to the Spirit Tortoise which is siphoning off their power to fuel itself and is studying them with the goal of duplicating approximations of their weapons to arm his freshly minted minions. After Kyo retreats to his world, the three of them are removed from their shackles and taken to the hospital where they wake up about a week later to a world that blames them for the Spirit Tortoise's rampage.

Volume 11
After escaping from the hospital he woke up in, Ren tried to make a living as a bounty hunter and selling drops from monsters since the guilds still weren't allowing him to take quests. However, when he was in the middle of turning in a group of criminals led by Roudy, he instead found himself as the one being turned in, the crown wanted him far more then what they wanted a random group of bandits after all.

However, Naofumi stumbled across Ren as he was in the middle of being taken in, after using Filo to threaten the bandits into confession he took Ren into his custody and brought him into a nearby tavern to get his story. After explaining the details of his failed attack on the Spirit Tortoise and the death of his comrades. A guilty Ren has entered a state of denial believing that the deaths of his comrades is their fault.

After forcing an insincere apology, Naofumi tells Ren that as long as he's still alive he can use the reinforcement methods he told him about, recruit new companions, and train to help them to defeat Houou. While in the middle of his pep talk, Naofumi spots another of his targets through the window: Motoyasu, who was in turn following Bitch and Lesty, who were, in turn, tracking down Ren.

Bitch feeds Ren lies about how Motoyasu used his companions as meat shields and sex slaves. A combination of deep depression and Bitch's charisma leads to Ren trusting her over Naofumi, Ren being fed a lie that it was Naofumi who woke up the Spirit Tortoise that killed his companions and then simply put it back to sleep to claim victory over it. Naofumi proceeds to no-sell Ren who is using the sword he unlocked from the Spirit Tortoise who instead flees with Motoyasu's former companions using the Transfer sword.

After leaving with the two women, Ren met their associate Mald who asked to spar with him for a bit. After confirming that Ren did not meet the requirements they were looking for, the group instead switched to plan B. When Ren awoke the next morning, all of his possessions aside from his legendary Sword, had been stolen with a note from Bitch stating that he was not her type so they were leaving him and taking all of his stuff with them.

Filled with rage, Ren was consumed with an overwhelming desire to reclaim what was stolen from him and in the process unlocked the Greed Series, a cursed weapon that grants huge attack power in exchange for valuables. The now mentally unstable Ren proceeds to attack caravans with bandits inside amassing a small army and having them steal wealth for him.

Ren made enough of a pest of himself that the Queen sent Naofumi, Eclair, Atla, Fohl, Raph-chan, and Raphtalia to deal with his group. While traveling alone with Raph-Chan, Naofumi is ambushed by Ren who is using a skill that has turned him invisible. Switching tactics, Ren reveals his own variant of Naofumi's Iron Maiden: Guillotine. Naofumi breaks through his restraints with brute strength and receives a small amount of damage from the falling blade. Raphtalia meanwhile has heard Raph-Chan's cries for help and runs up to them, now outnumbered Ren runs away with his Transfer sword. Returning to his base, Ren was confronted by Motoyasu, who was also under the influence of the Lust Series and had seriously followed Naofumi's instructions on weapon reinforcement.

Motoyasu is Joined by Naofumi whose party now includes the other world refuge S'yne Lokk as they attempt to restrain the two rampaging heroes. Ren rambles on how he will become the strongest hero, get the best weapons, all the money and most experience points and save the world before spitting out a Blutopher level attack: Golden Rebellion. Sacrificing the worth of his equipment, he summons a giant gold statue to crush his opponents. However, it's still not enough to beat Naofumi who deflects it with his shield and has Raphtalia cut it down. While Naofumi is debating the merits of chopping off all of Ren's limbs and keeping him alive in the castle's dungeon through magic, Eclair steps forward and proposes leaving him to her. Eclair proceeds to school Ren like their earlier battle, this time though she holds nothing back using both Magic in her blade and the newly learned Hengen Musou style.

Ren is pushed to his limits and unlocks another Curse, the Gluttony Series, and soon goes into another broken rant this time about devouring their experience points. However, Ren's attacks become even sloppier and Eclair is able to easily dodge all of his attacks, even after he spits another Blutopher class attack, Strong Decline, and turns the ground into a set of gaping jaws spewing out fly monsters. Worst, two other world reincarnators show up forcing the others to focus on them. Eclair proceeds to lecture Ren to acknowledge his mistakes and weaknesses eventually causing him to pass out. He wakes back up at Naofumi's village where he explains what happened after he left with Bitch. He also shows that he is suffering from curses of Greed and Gluttony that destroys anything of value and is reducing his Experience points. Ren decides to learn under Eclair and tries to save the world his late comrades loved so much.

Volume 12
Since his capture Ren has been doing hard training to make up for the lost time, sadly though he's still cursed with rotten luck, reduced EXP, and all the precious metals he picks up turns to dust in his hands which severely hampers his weapon reinforcement capabilities. Instead, he has been training with Eclair to learn the Hengen Musou style and advanced swordsmanship, a process that chiefly consists of continuously fighting Eclair and learning how to rid himself of the destructive energies she's pumping his body full of. He has also been learning to read and write magic letters which will allow him to use improved magic over what he has been using.

While Naofumi is away commissioning the creation of a Meteor Katana for Raphtalia to weapon copy a Faubian alchemist named Ratotille Anthreya, who had broken into the village wishing to see Naofumi. Rat as she calls herself is a disgraced Alchemist who was forced to leave Faubly by one of their Seven Star Heroes because of her experiments in monster strengthening were deemed heretical. When Naofumi does get back, he is introduced to the Alchemist and subjects her to a line of questioning before ultimately deeming her sufficiently trustworthy, and reinforcing that Trust with the use of a Slave Seal. As it so happens Naofumi requires the help of a monster expert anyway, as the slaves have been secretly collecting a mass of monster eggs from the nests they have been exterminating and has managed to hatch and raise a Caterpiland in secret.

Thus Rat is left in charge of dealing with the monster eggs and Bio Plants. Ren also joined Naofumi as he investigated a package that was redirected to his village from the castle town: a few crates full of weapons, armors and monster eggs included among them being a Dragon's egg. Ren joined in on sticking up for a newly introduced slave named Wyndia, who seems to hold some kind grudge against Ren, as she sticks up for keeping the dragon's egg.

Ultimately, the decision is made to raise the Dragon inside of the egg, though Naofumi somewhat disapproves of the fact that he is the one to raise it, a process that involves carrying around the egg with him until it hatches. Initially, Naofumi wants to push the task of raising the dragon off on Ren, who also being a hero should be able to unlock beast and dragon growth correction weapons to have it evolve into a superior dragon breed like what happened with Filo. Ren, however, fears that if he so much as touches the egg then it will instantly begin to rot away within his grasp. Later that night, Ren drops by Naofumi's room to turn in his 'homework' as part of his efforts to learn the language before turning in for the night.

A few days after the egg hatches into the dragon, Gaelion the dragon chick eats the Dragon Core from Naofumi's armor and suddenly mutates into a huge monster and Ren watches as Gaelion flies off towards the east. According to Sadeena Dragon cores retain the power and memories of the dragons they came from since the core that Gaelion ate originally came from the dragon that Ren slayed then the likelihood that Gaelion's commandeered body is going back to that dragon's lair is high.

Even worst, Filo's connection to the mutated Gaelion is draining her of her levels to facilitate the growth of Gaelion. With this, using a rather stubborn Filo to pull the carriage for the group a team is put together consisting of Naofumi, Raphtalia, Raph-chan, Rat, Atla, Fohl, Ren, Sadeena, Melty and Eclair to go out and knock some sense into Gaelion. Naofumi also takes the liberty of further scolding a depressed Ren.

The monsters he killed all have families too, likewise, the world that they live in is one where they can even receive exp points by killing other humans, so monsters and humans are not fundamentally different. At the same time, they are heroes, individuals whose job it is to become strong by massacring monsters and save the world. All things live by taking from others and if he cannot understand that then he has no business calling himself a hero.

On the way to Gaelion Ren and Naofumi receives a lecture about the magic that Gaelion uses: The dragon's vein is a form of magic that operates by borrowing power from other things, for example, it's possible to augment the power behind a fire spell by using the lingering curse in the environment as a fuel source. Naofumi has Filo, Atlas and Raph-Chan stay in the nearby village while the rest of the group go after the runaway dragon.

After fighting through a hoard of monsters the group arrives back to where Ren killed the original dragon where they find the transformed Gaelion sleeping in front of the original Dragon's cave. The group attempts to pin Gaelion between themselves and the cave, after which they can render him unconscious and forcibly extract the Dragon core that is the source of this chaos. Unfortunately, Filo, under the control of something else, arrives dragging along Raph-Chan and Atla who are trying to stop her.

Both Gaelion and Filo are consumed by black sludge and are fused together with power from Naofumi's shield and the lingering curse in the area into a new form best summarized as a Wrath Dragon. The new Dragon's personality is dominated by the Demon Dragon from the other world whose core Naofumi combined with the Zombie Dragon core and integrated into his armor, and further empowered by Naofumi's growth bonuses from the beast series, Filo's leeched experience and the high defensive and cursed power of the Wrath Shield.

As a result, not even Ren's dragon slayer type attacks are effective against the monster. Wyndia pleads with the dragon to calm down, as Wyndia reveals that the Dragon Ren killed was her adoptive father. Soon the Wrath Dragon's warring personalities settle down and reaches the point where the Demon Dragon personality is able to converse with Naofumi's group and thus negotiations begin.

The Demon Dragon reveals that Filo has been integrated into his body and has no intention of giving her back. Furthermore, the Demon Dragon has the ambition of taking over the world as well believing that humans have no right to rule, while it is a cliche line Naofumi admits that he has suffered a lot from the humans of this world selfishly summoned him here only to persecute him for crimes that he did not commit. The dragon also states that it intends to fight in the waves as well, after all of the world is to become his then it's only expected that he would defend his territory.

However, Naofumi draws the line at the dragon assimilating him and turning him into a source of power as well. With this, another round of fighting begins with the Demon Dragon raining magical attacks down on the group and everyone casting their attacks in response. Naofumi gets the idea to try and downgrade the shield of wrath to weaken the dragon but the dragon overrides Naofumi's control of the Legendary Shield and instead fully upgrades the Wrath shield and increasing his power massively.

Conversely, Ren's attempt to upgrade his dragon slayer weapon to deal increased damage fails to do to his curse, even worst the dragon's mastery of magic means that he can nullify the groups incoming magic attacks. Instead, Naofumi realizes that the use of Hengen Musou against the extremely powerful dragon would be highly effective and the group begins dealing huge amounts of damage to the Demon Dragon, who in turn tries to counteract them by using a debuff spell on himself.

With this, the group pounds on the Demon Dragon until Filo and Gaelion are freed from within the beast and with the creatures that make up its core the demon Dragon begins rotting away. Once the dragon is finally defeated Naofumi takes the liberty of scolding Ren again informing him not to try to claim that this whole mess was a quest he unlocked by leaving the dragon's corpse out to rot. Days later Naofumi was in Zeltbur when he spotted Itsuki in a crowd of competitors.

After arranging a trap for Itsuki Naofumi brought Ren along to help beat some sense into the bow Hero. At the arena Ren listens to Itsuki spout off a long series of 'crimes' Naofumi had committed, most of which consist of his refusing to sell medicines to people who couldn't afford them, selling to corrupt nobles thereby saving their lives, buying up numerous slaves and forcing them into hard labor without compensation and not using his 'miraculous' powers to resurrect the dead.

However Rishia and Ren take the liberty of countering their every point: Naofumi is a merchant first and foremost, he sells to those who can afford his products and in the process he gains what he needs to help more people, most of the slaves Naofumi has bought he has bought at absurd prices so he is quite in the red, and the one who works hardest for all of them is Naofumi who stays up late at night making food for them, if anything Naofumi is the villager's slave.

Though annoyed Naofumi evacuates the arena so that Rishia and Itsuki can fight one on one, and likewise Itsuki uses a skill to transform an armor around his body similar to what Naofumi does when he uses the wrath shield. Ren calmly watches the fight between Itsuki and Rishia, he nearly intervened when Rishia was locked inside of Itsuki's Phalaris Bull but was instead shocked to witness Rishia break out of the Phalaris bull by herself, with something in hand that resembles the Vassal Projectile Weapon.

After the fight has progressed to the point where Itsuki's cursed armor has been shattered Naofumi intervenes revealing that his associates have located the base of Itsuki's companions and offers them the chance to prove their innocence. Sadly for them the lot of them have already evacuated the area, leaving behind a mound of garbage from their extravagant lifestyle, a pile of bills and another letter from Witch explaining that they've sucked him dry for all he's worth and thus have decided to ditch him.

Ren reads the letter explaining the situation to Itsuki, he is given further evidence via the bills his so-called 'friends' have accumulated and the numerous angry debt collectors that followed Beloukas to the hideout. Itsuki, who had the last of his pride shattered, finally releases his cursed weapon and is taken into custody. A few days later Ren and Itsuki join the counter-attack made by the Shadows of Q'ten Lo and to their surprise discovered their weapons neutered by the specialized tools of the Shadows.

Volume 13
Once Q'ten Lo's Shadows are dead Sadina provides a brief summary of the country that has declared them their enemy. Basically, it is something like an extreme isolationist nation, one that Raphtalia's father was the rightful prince of before he eloped with her mother, a commoner, and fled to Melromark. In that country, a Miko outfit is something exclusively reserved for the empress.

For Raphtalia to put one on, let alone with the support of the Shield Hero who is considered a god outside of Q'ten Lo, can be interpreted as nothing short of declaring her intent for the throne. Q'ten Lo would be difficult to enter under normal circumstances, it's Water Dragon erected a protective barrier around the island nation and the oceans around it are extremely rocky, now with what has happened there, they will be on high alert.

With this in mind in order to enter that country, they must reluctantly call upon Q'ten Lo's one and only trading partner: Siltvelt. Ren and Itsuki are forced to stay behind while Naofumi leads a diplomatic envoy to Siltvelt: as hostile as Melromark was with it's Three Heroes Church was to Naofumi Siltvelt and it's Shield Faith will be equally hostile to them.

Though Ren wants to come with them because Wyndia and Gaelion are going him staying behind ultimately proves to be a wise decision: while Naofumi and his envoys were away in Siltvelt Ren and Itsuki along with the village slaves have to fight off several attacks by Q'Ten Lo and train with Elrasla Grilaroc to learn the Hengen Musou fighting style.

The now considerably stronger Ren is left behind in Rock Valley to fend off any more of Q'ten Lo's attacks while Naofumi spearheads their counter-attack.

Volume 14
When Naofumi started the counter-attack on Q'Ten Lo the enemy pulled their forces out of Melromark allowing Ren to train and recover in peace: for instance, Ren has managed to learn how to swim fifteen feet in the water thanks to Kiel's tutoring. Once Naofumi returns to Rock Valley he summarizes what has been happening to Ren.

Naofumi wants to bring Ren to a shrine they found giving a more detailed explanation on the Heroes reinforcement methods in order to boost his power, add to his arsenal of copied weapons, as well as make use of Cal Mira like hot springs to remove his curse as well as add him to their fighting power since they'll be away from water from here on out.

After arriving in Q'Ten Lo Ren is introduced to Erhard's old Master who in turn takes him on as a new apprentice on the condition that he help him escape later. After he destroy's one of the Master's swords Naofumi orders Ren to go to the anti-curse springs. After he's been allowed to recovered Ren joins Itsuki in rampaging against Q'Ten Lo's Eastern forces, but finds a enemy without the will to fight.

Ren and Itsuki end up joining Naofumi's group as they enter Q'Ten Lo's royal palace who explain that they're trying to track down Shildina, Sadeena's younger sister, who is currently possessed by a unknown force and is rampaging inside of the royal palace. Wading through the carnage the group bears witness as Shildina, possess by what is revealed to be a previous Empress of Q'Ten Lo and past Hero of the Seven Star Hammer: Raphtalia's ancestor.

Shildina/the former Empress is revealed to be fighting Makina, a adviser to the royal family since Raphtalia's grandfather's time who is already dead yet has risen from her corpse as a soul similar to Kyo and the other Reincarnators they've fought. Makina goes on to curse the former Empress and call her a thief for taking the body, Shildina's, that she has methodically prepared to serve as a vessel of her own soul once her body has worn out.

Naofumi and the other heroes simply respond by bringing out their Soul Eater weapons and turning the deceased treacherous adviser into food for their weapons. Moving on the group confronts Raphtalia's ancestor who still hasn't given up Shildeena's body. The former Empress explains that with the shoddy state her country has fallen into, and the inadequate empress who has inherited her position, she has no choice but to stick around and sort things out.

However if Raphtalia can defeat her in combat, her losing condition being Raphtalia planting the card containing the missing piece of Shildina's soul onto her body thereby exorcising the former empress, then she will concede Raphtalia as a worthy successor. Thus Ren bears witness to the 'battle' between Raphtalia and her ancestor which quickly devolves into a training spar in which the empress tutors Raphtalia in proper use of illusion magic in combat.

After Raphtalia's victory the group moves on to the royal chambers. True to the Master's description the emperor is little more than a boy, a naive child who was led astray by a group of treacherous advisers led by Makina and who happens to love animals a little too much. Thus Ren bears witness as Naofumi delivers punishment upon the foolish boy's head, tricking him into thinking that Filo was going to eat him so that he can understand the suffering of his people who were banned from killing wild Monsters, even to defend themselves.

The exchange is recorded on video crystal, used to fake the boy's execution, before the boy is officially stripped of his titles and taken into custody.

Volume 15
Once the matter with Q'Ten Lo is finally resolved Ren and the others return to the village where after a couple of days Ren drops by Naofumi in the kitchen playing messenger. Apparently while they were busy bandit activity has risen and now they want to know if Naofumi has any ideas on how to deal with them. Apparently the economic prosperity brought on the by Spirit Turtle's corpse, the increasing awareness to how close the world is to being destroyed and Naofumi's actions have attracted a huge horde of trouble makers.

Naofumi responds by going to the farm where criminals caught by the crown are being made to pay off their debt to society and where he has a meeting with Roudy. In short, Naofumi wants Roudy to put together a bandit troupe and have them target the other bandits and the Merchants and Nobles who have been supporting them. Thus Ren bears witness as Naofumi whittles Roudy down on a mental level through bribery, negotiations, outright threats and food.

A stunned Ren is left unable to do anything but call Naofumi black hearted as they return to the village via portal. Later on Ren offers his critique of the Crepes that Naofumi makes using the honey from a modified bio plant he made with Rat. While Ren has a normal reaction to the food praising Naofumi's cooking skill the over the top reactions of the slaves, to the point that Keel starts eating one of the Crepes off the floor after she drops it, leads to Naofumi concluding that the Honey must have a Narcotic element in it.

Luckily Ren is able to convince him not to ban it before he leaves to report the development of the 'Chivalrous Bandit Guild' to the crown. Later on Naofumi and Ren travel back to Q'Ten Lo in order to get a status report on Erhard's and his Master's progress with the Spirit Turtle weapons and de-cursing the Monster weapons. The Master has successfully made weapons for Ren, Raphtalia, S'yne, Filo, Rishia, and Atla out of the spirit turtle materials while Erhard has made a new shield for Naofumi.

Later on, while on his way to his morning training exercises, Ren saw that something had moved into the second monster stable that Naofumi had built and reported the issue to Naofumi, and thus soon bore witness to a terrified Naofumi running away as fast as he can as he is chased by Motoyasu's Filolial horde. As part of their regular de-cursing treatment, Naofumi, Ren and Itsuki are now joined by Motoyasu in bathing in Cal Mira's hot springs.

There Ren suggests they borrow the meeting room they used the last time they were there to host another Four Heroes council. Firstly they confirm that all four of them have been using the reinforcement methods unique to each of their weapons including Naofumi's that he was able to learn during the campaign in Q'Ten Lo. Secondly they discuss some of the weapons they've been able to unlock, Ren having learned a companion sword that increases the stats of those he has a close relationship with.

Motoyasu has unlocked a skill called Brionac from a harpoon he got in Q'Ten Lo, which the others observe is the name of one of the more powerful skills the High Priest was using back when he was trying to kill them. Secondly they've all learned how to use the techniques of the Hengen Musou style and thanks to a blessing from Gaelion they've also learned how to cast Dragon Vein magic, and are close to achieving Liberation. On the subject the others have all learned their own hero Magics from the plaque in Cal Mira and their respective magic affinities.

Motoyasu has learned a magic called Absorb which allows him to nullify magic and add it to his own mana pool and has affinities for fire and healing magic. Ren has learned a magic called enchant that allows him to cut down magic spells and apply their effects to his sword, and can even cast it on others weapons too as well as being able to use water and support. Itsuki has learned Down which in the same way that Naofumi's Aura can dramatically increase their stats Down can dramatically decrease a enemy's stats on top of being able to use wind and earth.

They also discuss strategies for the coming battle with the Phoenix, Naofumi wanting the others to use the Rucolu fruit to recover lost MP and SP during the battle but Ren insists that if they use it they'll just end up like Motoyasu did back during their first trip to the island. At this point in time Itsuki pipes up with his belief that Naofumi has what is referred to as an ability in his world.

Prodding more details out of Itsuki he explains that ability users are individuals who have semi-super natural abilities and claims to be among them having a ability called Accuracy that corrects his aim. Itsuki then goes onto explain how abilities are classified and why his is on the lower end of the spectrum, before stating his belief that Naofumi is a rare double ability user on the lower end of the spectrum, Stating that he has a ability that nullifies low end ailments such as alcohol poisoning and motion sickness and has a ability that lets him easily befriend animals.

Though Itsuki's description explains why he initially had such a troublesome personality the fact of the matter is that it does nothing to help with the phoenix so they move on. Motoyasu also takes the liberty of explaining, read brag, that he's been hunting Reincarnators, Three Hero Church agents and Q'Ten Lo soldiers that were trying to attack Naofumi's village. Rather than congratulating Motoyasu though both Ren and Itsuki are increasingly concerned about his mental health instead and wonders about the effects of the lust/envy spear.

Put bluntly, Motoyasu doesn't know, Naofumi suspects that he might have paid with his mental health but by that point Motoyasu's sanity was already long gone so it became irrelevant. Moving on Naofumi also wants to know what they'll have to deal with after the Phoenix, according to Ren it'll be Kirin first then Ouryuu the dragon. They've been on high alert but thus far nothing like Ost Horai or Kyo Ethnina have appeared to warn them/interfere with the coming battle.

Instead Ren proposes that they squeeze out more time to level grind and train by having one of them scout ahead and make a portal and Motoyasu volunteers. Ren also proposes putting Naofumi in charge of the coming battle, sighting his experience in leading groups of people during the waves and against the Spirit Turtle and their own short comings. Reluctantly agreeing to lead them Naofumi also demands to know whatever game information they have on Hou Hou.

Not able to provide much though the topic instead switches over to more pre-battle preparations. Naofumi wants them to unlock weapons with crafting corrections and help him manufacture accessories to increase their own and the allied armies fighting power. After that the discussion moves onto where they can grind efficiently for experience points as part of their pre-battle preparations. Ren proposes Q'Ten Lo due to the efficient ratio of easy to kill monsters vs experience points but Itsuki points out that ever since Naofumi set up the Sitera/bioplant trees the monsters around the village have given out more experience points, Ren also suggests the ocean with Sadeena providing locations for efficient hunting grounds.

Moving on from grinding the conversation goes to personnel to fight the Phoenix, put bluntly thanks to a deal he made with Fohl Naofumi doesn't want to put Atla on the front lines. However having faced her power themselves both Ren and Itsuki agree that Atla is the villages number one fighting asset and insist that she be put on the front lines. Atla herself over hears and forces her way into the meeting room because of this. Then she goes to find her brother to 'convince' him to change his mind. Back at the village the squabble between siblings breaks down into a Hengen Musou brawl, Fohl attacking with raw power while Atla counters with a advance combination of skill and technique.

In the end it turns into a double Knock out with Fohl being forced to agree to let her come along. At the town where the Phoenix has been sealed Naofumi has Ren and Itsuki take him to the sight of the Phoenix's seal, there they are able to learn much of the bird's attack patterns. Even though it's one creature it has two bodies, one bombard's them from up high and releases familiars while the other fights in close quarters with claws and fire, and if one of them dies the other will explode and spawn two new phoenix's.

To their horror Ren and Itsuki also spot a broken statue, which according to them is another layer on the phoenix's seal. In their games it basically serves as a check box saying 'Yes I would like to fight the Phoenix on Hard Mode.' During the battle itself Ren largely fights in close quarters with Naofumi against the Phoenix on the bottom and the ground forces while Motoyasu and Itsuki get into a shooting match with the bird on top along with the areal forces, the three of them eventually switch positions when they realize that the top one is weak against physical attacks while the one on bottom is weak against magic.

Slowly they make progress towards ending both birds at the same time when suddenly, another figure fires off a long distance attack that kills the top phoenix and detonates the one on bottom right in front of the allied army. Atla ultimately sacrifices herself to redirect the blast and is taken away by Naofumi as she dies. When Naofumi comes back he comes with vastly more powerful shields thanks to feeding Atla to the shield, flies up on Gaelion to the top phoenix, before grabbing it, pinning down on top of the bottom one, restraining them both and having everyone attack it until it dies.

After the battle Ren tells Naofumi to go mourn Atla while they go out and hunt down her killer, leaving him alone with Raphtalia to mourn.