(L) Reincarnated as a Sword

[Spica]

LN Volume 3 is out in Japan I think.

[kari-no-sugata II]

I started reading through the WN. Finally caught up to the latest chapter. Phew, that took a while and I was kind skipping through many things quickly. Seems we're finally on a new story arc - the last one sure was long, even if it only covered 2 days or so in-world. Looks like the latest one will start to reveal much more substantial info on Shisho - we've just found out what material the blade is made out of.

The story goes in some interesting directions sometimes. But wow the effect on Fran's life from her achieving evolution is huge - beastkin can reliably tell when another beastkin has evolved so nobody doubts her (except humans). Since evolved beastkin are treated specially and respectfully as part of beastkin culture, and since she's the only known evolved Black Cat currently alive, she's pretty much the most easily recognisable person around (to other beastkin only though). So apart from the occasional fool or humans, she's treated very well. Which makes a change though it is amusing seeing her cleaning up trash.

[GodTurtleOm]

Yeah, I hadn't expected the evolution to happen as quickly as it did. It was also difficult for me to tell from the MTL what the conditions were for a Black Cat's evolution to unlock after the God's Punishment. (I figured it out eventually, defeating on their own 1000 "evil beings", a subset of monsters, or 1 A ranked Evil being on their own, or if an S ranked monster is defeated entirely by Black Cats the punishment will be considered over.)

But am I correct in thinking that Shisho now has that Berserker skill on him and can't actually unequip it? So in addition to his currently weakened state, he'll be a liability in future battles unless they get that skill removed.

It's probably for the best that Shisho's Evolution points are usually spent on midbattle spur-of-the-moment things with the hope it will give them an advantage over a powerful opponent. Because some of those choices don't seem nearly as good outside of battle.

I'm still confused on what degree he can grow skills beyond Level 1 just by absorbing Magic Stones. It certainly seems like the better choice for the first 3 or 4 levels of a skill instead of spending points, but it almost never comes up.

I wish Kiara had stayed in the story a bit longer though, mentor characters never seem to stick around for long.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by GodTurtleOm

Yeah, I hadn't expected the evolution to happen as quickly as it did. It was also difficult for me to tell from the MTL what the conditions were for a Black Cat's evolution to unlock after the God's Punishment. (I figured it out eventually, defeating on their own 1000 "evil beings", a subset of monsters, or 1 A ranked Evil being on their own, or if an S ranked monster is defeated entirely by Black Cats the punishment will be considered over.)

Well, 200 chapters to unlock evolution isn't that quick, perhaps. I think it was better this way since the effects can be explored properly, which wouldn't happen if it happened really late in the series. Also, if evolution hadn't have been achieved then Fran would have been stuck at level 45. Instead, what we'll probably see happen late in the series is a S rank "邪人" being killed by Fran, which would remove the extra restriction for all the Black Cats. It's a shame that 邪人 doesn't seem defined anywhere. It seems goblins and other humanoid monsters count as well as humans who have fallen to evil but I'd guess that "evil beasts" would not be included. If too many types were included then it would have been likely to see other Black Cats achieve evolution already.

But am I correct in thinking that Shisho now has that Berserker skill on him and can't actually unequip it? So in addition to his currently weakened state, he'll be a liability in future battles unless they get that skill removed.

Dunno but there's probably ways to either limit the danger or get rid of the skill or something.

It's probably for the best that Shisho's Evolution points are usually spent on midbattle spur-of-the-moment things with the hope it will give them an advantage over a powerful opponent. Because some of those choices don't seem nearly as good outside of battle.

Yeah, keeping some in reserve for emergencies is certainly not a bad idea but on the other hand, it's probably good to develop anti-evil skills in general in advance as well. For example, Light Magic (which is already at LV1 IIRC). On the other hand, Shisho really needs to improve his own durability more, now that Fran has uber sword skills.

I'm still confused on what degree he can grow skills beyond Level 1 just by absorbing Magic Stones. It certainly seems like the better choice for the first 3 or 4 levels of a skill instead of spending points, but it almost never comes up.

Maybe the magic stone auction will come in handy. If they bid for stones with skills that'll specifically help them then that would be a lot more efficient than hoping the right skills just happen to "drop" in battle.

I wish Kiara had stayed in the story a bit longer though, mentor characters never seem to stick around for long.

Yeah. Though unusually for a character of this type, she was pretty much a mentor to everyone except Fran.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Ah, I notice there's a bit of a description of 邪人 in the manga. The evil god was split into many pieces and those pieces were absorbed by various creatures creating 邪人. I guess this is mentioned somewhere in the WN/LN.

Anyway, WN chapter 357 is out and provides some real hints as to Shisho's background...

Spoiler for 357:

It seems likely that Shisho was originally a God Sword that got "scrapped". There's 3 known examples and one of them looks almost exactly like Shisho - the Sword of Wisdom, Cherubim. That sword could not only access information from "god's domain" but edit it too. Yeah, just a bit OP

It looks like Cherubim was reforged, and the ability to host a soul was made by someone else. Not clear when Fenrir comes into it...

[kari-no-sugata II]

The WN translations have gotten as far as Fran's first torture session. As in, Fran torturing scum, not her being tortured. She's fine with assassination too. Bad guys have no rights

Meanwhile, in the latest raws, there's been some reveals about Shisho the sword but still lots more to come:

Spoiler for summary of recent raws:

Shisho is probably based on a Divine Sword called Cherubim, the sword of wisdom. However, it was too OP and supposedly scrapped. But it seems a modified or alternative version was created by someone other than the original swordsmith. The ability to store souls is considered impossible for mortals so perhaps there was some kind of divine intervention?

Shisho actually has multiple souls in the sword: himself, "announcer" and some kind of beast soul (possibly Fenrir and Shisho suggested this). When the sword absorbs magic stones, the skills are actually absorbed by the beast soul and then shared with Shisho, which is why they operate differently. Actually, too many skills have been absorbed and this is causing damage and while Shisho is repaired the skills are forcibly consolidated and so on - it's a mix of upgrades and downgrades and they'll have to do a bunch of testing to verify the new skill set and get used to it.

[GodTurtleOm]

Spoiler for More comments on the newest chapters.:

I got the impression he wasn't so much based of Cherubim, as the remains of Cherubim were used to forge him? Announcer-san was basically the remains of the Cherubim's operating system, which were mostly used up with the first latent potential release. Which is why Shishou needed to be improved/reforged, even though the framework still existed to acquire, use, and share Skills, actually using that framework overtaxed him to the degree that he was destroying himself. Since he has the Blessings of both the Goddesses of Wisdom and Chaos, maybe one or both of them were responsible for inserting his soul into the sword? His guess of Fenrir being the beast soul is the only real choice we've been given in the story, and it goes a long way towards explaing the wolf head symbol on the hilt and Urushi.

Thankfully Earth Lars' Oni Berserker skill was lost in that process, so he doesn't have to worry about that incidentally activating in a battle.

It looks like the other soul and framework have been restructured so that they're contributing more to the storage and usage of Skills, so he should be fine for the foreseeable future. And the trade off is that his future stat growth will be diminished on a per rank basis, but with the overall boost from the reforging I can't see that being much of an issue.

One thing I'm uncertain about, he can use his own mana for magical power conductivity, right? Shouldn't that alone make him approach the same level as the other Divine Swords in pure combat ability, since they're limited by what the user can actually infuse into them?

Also, I can understand why 剣王技 and 剣王術 are listed under "Unique Skills" because it makes sense for them to be an intrinsic part of him, but why don't they have levels anymore?

While he still comes short in raw combat power compared the other Divine Swords, I'd say he more than makes up for that in sheer versatility. Regardless of Fran's natural combat talents, no other sword would have raised her up to this level in a few months.

And because it's easier to post this here than go looking for it each time:

Attack Power: 314 Magical Power: 1000/1000 Durability Value: 800/800
self evolution <rank 5 · manastone value 1366/1500 · memory · 34 · point 23>

Attack Power: 352 Magical Power: 1300/1300 Durability Value: 1100/1100
self evolution <Rank 6 · Manastone value 1516/2100 · Memory · 40 · Point 53>

Attack power: 392 Magical power: 1650/1650 Durability value: 1450/1450
self evolution <Rank 7 · Manastone value 2599/2800 · Memory · 62 · Point 0>

Attack power: 434 magical power: 2050/2050 durability value: 1850/1850
Magical power conductivity · A
self evolution <Rank 8 · Manastone value 3146/3600 · Memory · 70 · Point 2>

Attack Power: 478 Magical Power: 2500/2500 Durability Value: 2300/2300
Magical power conductivity · A
Skill self evolution <Rank 9 · Manastone value 3630/4500 · Memory · 79 · Point 47>

Attack Power: 524 Magical Power: 3000/3000 Durability Value: 2800/2800
Magical power conductivity · A +
Skill self evolution <Rank 10 · Manastone value 4511/5500 · Memory · 89 · Point 51>

Attack Power: 572 Magical Power: 3550/3550 Durability Value: 3350/3350
Magical power conductivity: A +
self evolution <rank 11 · magic stone value 2417/6600 · memory · 100 · point 18>

Attack Power: 622 Magical Power: 4150/4150 Durability Value: 3950/3950
Magical power conductivity: A +
self evolution <rank 12 · magic stone value 6689/7800 · memory 112 · point 62>

Attack Power: 672 Magical Power: 4800/4800 Endurance Value: 4600/4600
Magical power conductivity: A +
self evolution <Rank 13 · Manastone value 8378/9100 · memory · 124 · point 0>

Attack Power: 726 Magical Power: 5500/5500 Endurance Value: 5300/5300
Magical power conductivity: A +
Self-evolution <Rank 14 · Manastone value 9133/10500 · Memory · 138 · Point 70>

Attack Power: 882 Magical Power: 6250/6250 Durability Value: 6050/6050
Magical power conductivity: S-
self evolution <rank 15 · manastone value 10569/12000 · memory · 151 · point 75>

Attack Power: 1182 Magical Power: 9500/9500 Durability Value: 9500/9500
Magical power conductivity: S +
self evolution <rank 15 · magic stone value 0/12000 · memory 50 · point 0>

Oh, he messed up his math in a couple places, rank 13 should have been 674 attack, 14 -> 728 attack and the first 15 -> 784, because I don't that extra 100 was intentional, since it didn't follow the pattern either.

[kari-no-sugata II]

new raw chapter out btw...

Spoiler for still more comments on latest chapters...:

I'd agree most likely scenario is that Shisho is directly based on the original Cherubim. Eg, Cherubim gets nerfed by having the OP parts removed... then someone else adds the new custom parts.

I think he can use his own mana for magical power conductivity. IIRC he did this before meeting Fran without realising it. Hard to say how it all works out in practice. Maybe they'll do some tests to see how things stack up against a real Divine Sword in practice.

Yeah, a versatile growing sword is probably better for a newbie like Fran. There's ups and downs though - a real Divine Sword would have been more useful in some circumstances. But certainly no known Divine Sword could have made Fran evolve, which is the most important thing.

Meanwhile, in latest chapter: Shisho's offensive power growth gets nerfed but can handle more skills than expected without issue.

[moneng85]

Thanks for the spoilers guys

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by moneng85

Thanks for the spoilers guys

You're welcome. Incidentally, LN4 and volume 2 of the manga will be released on 24th November.

Spoiler for A few more spoilers from recent chapters:

As discussed before, Shisho effectively has a repair/upgrade that consolidates his skills. They've done some training to get used to the changes.

Fran gets her armour repaired and upgraded at the same time.

Fran changes her job from Magic Swordsman to Sword King, which is an uber top-tier job. This does weaken her ability with magic but Shisho will take care of that, letting Fran focus on sword skills.

Fran's probably going to get an upgrade to her adventurer guild ranking.

[reinastar]

Is this good to read Onii-Sama and Onee-Sama any yandere characters here ?~

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by reinastar

Is this good to read Onii-Sama and Onee-Sama any yandere characters here ?~

No "real" yanderes. The MC (sword) is like a doting parent to Fran (his wielder) who is rather "kuudere" but is also rather bloodthirsty - Fran's favourite way of getting people to talk is the old "torture and heal them until they break" routine. They're both rather protective of each other and it's best not to piss them off this way but that doesn't happen too often.

I think that overall the story is rather enjoyable though it's also relatively straightforward apart from the MC being a sword. There is some deeper world-building stuff but it's not too significant. There is some character development but it's more in terms of relationships with others rather than internal.

[Kyureki]

^ To clarify, Fran only gets bloodthirsty when people talk crap/discriminate against her race. Most of the time she's rather unconcerned with most of the people around her.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Kyureki

^ To clarify, Fran only gets bloodthirsty when people talk crap/discriminate against her race. Most of the time she's rather unconcerned with most of the people around her.

Well, Shisho considers her to be a battle junkie. Her idea of "holding back" is "I didn't kill them".

But yes... for her to actually show bloodthirst it does require something significant and dissing her race is the most common one. Followed by slavers and dissing Shisho's food...

Generally, Fran is very casual and relaxed about everything else, and also very decisive.

[Spica]

Spoiler for Image:

I think this is volume 4 cover but who is the girl?

[Breimn]

Originally Posted by dithar

Spoiler for Image:

I think this is volume 4 cover but who is the girl?

Maybe the dancer miko? Vol 3 is the royal escort arc , while vol 4 should be the cooking arc. My guess is either dancer miko, the girl who takes care of the orphanage or a new characther.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Breimn

Maybe the dancer miko? Vol 3 is the royal escort arc , while vol 4 should be the cooking arc. My guess is either dancer miko, the girl who takes care of the orphanage or a new characther.

Feels more like the dancer / miko but she has little presence in the WN. Maybe that changes in the LN?

btw, the image url above didn't work for me. Try this:

Images

LN4 + bonus SD Fran

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Spica]

^ Cute chibi Fran.

Yeah, my fist thought also went to the dancer. This doesn't feel like orphanage girl though.

Speaking of changes, is there any in the Volume 2 & 3?

Also latest manga raw is out.

[Reim]

Volume 4 Illustration

Spoiler:

[kusabireika]

question uhm what happen to the one who steal the chimera to our protagonist I hope it is ok to ask. T_T