The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 06 Page 18
“Keel, please choose your words carefully. You’ll hurt Rishia’s feelings.”
Raphtalia chastised him. But Rishia didn’t seem to be upset at all.
And there I was, expecting a weak “fehhh” from her.
Whatever. If Rishia liked it then she could wear it. No harm, no foul.
“That’s the thing. It’s horrible to look at, but the effects are pretty great. If you want to get stronger—beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Master! Reeeeealy?”
Filo was going to throw a fit. I didn’t care.
“Well, that’s what I’ve got for you now. I’ll get to work on the lass’s armor next.”
“What about me?”
“If you leave your armor, I’ll work on it. But I can’t promise you that it will be ready in time.”
“Right. Well, we’re on our way out of town right now, so we’ll have to do it later.”
“Sure thing. I was thinking of making a little small sword for the kigurumi girl over there, but I haven’t had the time.”
“Oh, well, we still have some time before the wave. Think you can make it before then?”
“I can try.”
I was still powering up my shield, so I would just have to depend on that. The armor could wait.
“Okay then, see you later. Thanks for everything.”
“By the way, kid...”
“What?”
“I can make shields, too.”
That was a good point. I could always have him make me shields that I didn’t have the materials to unlock yet.
I could unlock shields by absorbing materials into it, but then I would lose the materials. If they were rare, then that might be a waste of good resources. If the old guy made me a shield, I could copy it using the weapon copy system.
I decided to see what he could do with the materials from the next wave boss.
“If I find anything good, I’ll bring it over and you can try your hand at it. See you then.”
“I’ll be here, kid.”
We left the weapon shop, climbed into the carriage, and went on our way.
Eclair was very impressed by Raphtalia’s new sword. She let out a yelp when she saw it.
The carriage was pretty full—and noisy.
But I kind of liked it that way.
“So where are we off to, Shield Hero?” asked Keel.
“We’re off to find this mysterious monster that is causing trouble all over the country. It shouldn’t be very strong, so this should be good experience for you.”
“Yeah!”
Keel tightened his grip on the sword hilt at his waist. He was ready for battle.
I looked him in the eyes and thumped my shield with my knuckles.
“I’m glad you’re excited, but don’t go rushing into trouble, okay?”
“I know that!”
“A long time ago, I said the same thing to Raphtalia, but she didn’t listen. You’re a lot like how she was then. That’s why I’m telling you this.”
“Really? Raphtalia?”
He looked over at her to confirm. She nodded.
“It’s true. I nearly got myself killed. So please be careful, Keel.”
“Oh . . . Okay.”
I directed the carriage to the village in the southwest.
Chapter Eleven: ——’s Familiar
Filo was a fast runner, so it only took us a day and a half.
We arrived at the village to find it mostly overgrown.
“This was my fault.”
“You don’t think...”
We cut back the shrubs as we made our way through the overgrowth.
Keel was shocked when he found out that I was the reason the village was so overgrown.
I’d given the villagers an improved version of the bioplant seed. But had it sent them back to square one?
If so, then I couldn’t complain about Motoyasu. Was this because of the mysterious monsters? Was it really my fault?”
I was thinking it over when we came across a group of adventurers. I could hear them talking.
“You know the monsters around here have great materials.”
“Is that so?”
“Why don’t you believe me? Anyway we should probably head somewhere with stronger monsters.”
“But won’t it take a while to level up that way? I don’t think we have the time to waste.”
“It will be alright. We’ll help you, so just keep working until the next wave.”
“Okay...”
So the other adventurers on the path were also leveling up for the wave.
The adventurers we’d met up until then hadn’t seemed to know much about the waves.
That, I think, was the other heroes’ fault for not using support troops.
Granted, the queen had mentioned that she would put out word to the adventurer guilds in Melromarc to try and recruit volunteers to help in the battles to come. Maybe these adventurers were part of that effort.
“Hm?”
Filo was looking around for the adventurers.
“What is it?”
“I, um . . . I think that was the scythe guy and the see-through person. Oh! And the sparkly girl, too!”
She had an odd way of putting things, but the only people I could think of that met that description were . . . L’Arc, Glass, and Therese?!
What were they doing in this world again?
But how did they . . . Whatever. If this was going to be a fight, then we needed to hurry and finish it.
“Are you sure?”
“Um... no. Maybe just someone similar?”
She seemed to have found something.
“What?”
I jumped down from the carriage and tried to look through the overgrowth.
Hey, I thought I caught sight of someone’s backside.
It wasn’t them. The hair color and clothes weren’t right.
From what I could tell the person who looked like Glass from the back had red hair parted over her neck. And she was wearing armor, not a kimono.
“Was it them?”
“No—not at all.”
Well, I hadn’t seen their faces, but it certainly wasn’t Glass.
“Really?
She chirped, cocking her head in confusion. She had me freaked out for a second there.
I guess she could have changed her hair color as a disguise, but I didn’t feel that sense of pressure I had when Glass showed up. It couldn’t have been her.
“Where are all the monsters?”
Filo whispered to herself while looking around.
“Huh.”
I hoped they hadn’t grown more powerful or virulent since I’d last been in the area.
What if the mysterious monsters we were looking for had actually come from the bioplant? Then we would be in real trouble.
“Isn’t it weird how quiet it is?”
“Isn’t it a good thing?”
Suddenly the bushes around us rustled, and someone who looked like a villager stepped out onto the path.
“Oh, Shield Hero!”
I thought about running away for a second.
If all this overgrowth was my fault, then it would be too awkward to face him.
“Thanks to you, Shield Hero, we’ve been working in peace.”
“What?”
I looked around at the state of the jungle.
“But look at this place!”
“Yes, it’s nearly ready for harvest.”
“It looks like an overgrown jungle to me.”
“We planted the seeds that you gave us and have been able to vastly expand our farming projects. We work on a scale like never before.”
He pointed a finger skyward.
There were large, red, tomato-like fruits hanging from the trees.
“The main problem is that we can really only harvest a lot of the same fruit. We’ve become famous for it though.”
“Well, that was fast.”
Only two months or so had pass
ed since I was last there. They must have really been working hard.
“So you haven’t run into any problems with these plants?”
“Not at all.”
“So . . . everything is good?”
The villager seemed to wince.
There used to be an alchemist in the area. He had originally made the bioplant.
He—or it could have been a she—probably would have loved to have seen the huge fruits that now surrounded us.
Honestly, it wasn’t very picturesque, if you ask me.
“May I ask what brings you this way?”
“I’ve heard reports of mysterious monsters appearing in the area.”
“Really! Well, it’s excellent that you have come. We’ve been worried!”
“Mind telling me what’s going on?”
The villager began to explain, but then...
Grumble.
“I’m huuuuungry!”
“Me too.”
Filo’s stomach grumbled loudly as she stood there staring at the red fruits.
I remembered how she had gobbled up a lot of those fruits the last time we came through.
“Go ahead.”
The villagers pointed to one of the fruits and indicated that Filo and Keel could eat it if they wanted.
“Yay!”
They both joyfully started eating a fruit. We all followed suit.
It tasted like a mix between a tomato and an orange.
I guess it was alright. I wouldn’t say that I loved it.
But Raphtalia and Eclair were both scarfing the fruit down and enjoying it. Was I different because I was from another world?
Lunch must have been over, because a bunch of villagers came over from the direction of the village. When they went by, they gave us some cooked dishes to eat.
“Thanks for everything.”
“Not at all!”
“But be careful.”
I tried to signal that those fruits could cause trouble like they had before.
“How did you make these, Shield Hero? They’re amazing.”
Eclair was stunned by how delicious the fruit was.
“It’s like we’re in a picture book.”
Rishia gasped as she surveyed the bioplant. I actually was in a world that I’d found in a book though.
“How wonderful, holy saint.”
The old lady seemed to be enjoying the fruits too. Anyway, we all finished eating and went to the village to find out what was going on.
“So what’s all this about mysterious monsters?”
“Well, we haven’t seen any yet today, but lately adventurers and some people from a nearby village have run into them and ended up hurt. Some have even died. Please, help us be rid of them.”
The villager brought over what appeared to be a corpse of a monster that they had saved.
What was it? I turned my head to the side—I’d never seen it before.
It was like a one-eyed bat, but it had a shell of some kind on its back.
It was one of the strangest monsters I’d ever seen.
And it only had one eye! I know I was in another world, but I don’t think I’d seen anything like that yet.
“Maybe it was some rich person’s pet or something?”
The nobility was in the habit of keeping strange monsters around.
“What could it be?”
Raphtalia examined the body.
Eclair stood next to her, deep in thought.
“Have any of you ever seen one?”
“No, not in person.”
“I’ve fought a lot of monsters in my day, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that. Certainly not in this country.”
“In this country? You mean you’ve seen one somewhere else?”
“In Faubrey I once saw a one-eyed balloon type monster called a winged float ball. But this is different.”
She indicated its bat-like body.
“What is it?”
Rishia was looking at the body too. She was wearing the kigurumi, which sort of sucked all the tension and seriousness out of the room.
“Do you have any idea of what it could be?
“I, um . . . I feel like I’ve seen it before, but I can’t remember where.”
“You sure do know a lot. Take the time to think about where you’ve seen it.”
Rishia rubbed her chin and thought about it.
“This isn’t the only one, is it? There are more?”
“Yes, there seem to be many of them. But they appear suddenly and at random, which makes it very hard to fight them off.”
“Do you mind if I let my shield absorb it? We might learn something about it.”
“Not at all.”
They agreed, so I absorbed the body into my shield.
——’s familiar (bat type) shield conditions met
What did that mean? It didn’t say what the monster was!
But it seemed to be a familiar, which meant that it belonged to a witch or something, right? Did that mean someone owned it, or made it? Or that it was a part of a larger creature?
“Apparently it’s a familiar of some kind.”
“A familiar? Does that mean that it has a master?”
“I guess so. Now we just need to find out who or what that is.”
I was curious about what the other heroes had discovered on their missions, but we had to focus on what we’d been charged with first.
I was trying to figure out the next step when a scream pierced the quiet room.
“Monsters!”
I ran outside and looked to see who was screaming.
There was a cloud of the bat-like monsters, probably 30 of them, flying in our direction.
And then their eyes started to glow before shooting heat beams at the fleeing villagers.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Ahhhh!”
What?! The monsters seemed to be aiming for the weakest villagers!
The adventurers that happened to be in town had their hands full just trying to protect themselves.
I ran over to the injured villagers and used a skill.
“Air strike shield!”
The shield appeared in midair to block a heat beam.
“Everyone! Get on the offense!”
“Okay!”
“Okaaay!”
“Understood.”
“Fehhh!”
“On it!”
All the people who were traveling with me ran to attack the monsters.
They were hard to attack because they were flying and very fast. It was very hard to get a hit in.
“Filo!”
“Whaat?”
“Use your wind magic! We have to get them down here to do any physical attacks.”
Raphtalia was doing her best to fight the bats one by one. There were too many people that needed my protection, so I couldn’t help her.
“Get everyone together in one place! That’s the only way I’ll be able to protect them!”
“You hear the Shield Hero! Everyone get together!”
“Okay!”
The terrified villagers all huddled together in one spot.
The monsters took notice and looked like they were about to attack. Perfect—that was the chance that we were waiting for.
“Air strike shield! Second shield! Dritte shield!”
Three shields appeared to protect the group.
“And then...”
I quickly added the group of villagers to my party as support troops.
“What’s this?”
“Just accept it! That’s the only way I can protect you.”
The leader of the villagers nodded and accepted the invitation.
Yes!
“Shooting star shield!”
A protective force field about two meters in diameter appeared around the group, protecting them further.
The only problem with that skill was that it wouldn’t let any non-party members pass through it.
Which meant that if I wanted
to protect someone with it, they had to be part of my party, at the very least they needed to be registered as support troops.
And after all the leveling up I’d done, the force field would block pretty much everything except for very strong attacks.
I protected the villagers from the monster’s heat beams as Filo prepared to cast her spell.
“Zweite Tornado!”
Filo’s magic ripped through the air and the turbulence affected the way the mysterious monsters were able to fly.
“Hyaa!”
“Ryaaaa!”
“Take that!”
Taking advantage of the turbulence, Raphtalia, Eclair, and the old lady jumped to attack the monsters.
Rishia and Keel stood there unsure of what they should do.
But at least Keel made an effort. He ran for the weakened monsters and slashed at them with his sword.
“Fehhhh!”
“Stop whining! We need you! Pretend you’re with Itsuki and help us fight these things!”
“Ok . . . Okay!”
She ran forward, swinging her sword.
She hadn’t dropped her center of gravity though. She’d done better back at the training grounds.
“Ahh!”
But her attack landed. The mystery monster fell to the ground, splashed open.
She dived forward to deliver a final blow, but in her excitement she forgot to account for the shell. Her sword hit it directly.
She was like one of those students who can get good grades, but when it comes time to take a test, they freeze up.
If she would only loosen up that anxiety of hers, she could probably be really useful, even if her stats were low.
“Hit the eye!”
“Okay!”
She did as I said and finally killed the monster.
Watching her flail about didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
Judging from the way the monsters moved, their speed, their attack power, and the way that they held their own against Keel, I guessed that they were around level 35. That was kind of strong.
Raphtalia, Filo, and the old lady were able to defeat them with a single hit, but Eclair and Rishia had to stab them in the eye a few times to take one down. Eclair had special attacks. When she used those she could kill the monsters with only one hit. Keel definitely was not strong enough. He could only manage to defeat monsters that were already weakened.
“I’m doing my best!”
Rishia was putting her weight behind her strikes. She must have been preparing to use one of the special attacks she’d pulled off once or twice during training.