The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 15 Read online

  Offering Points.

  What was all this? I tried moving the cursor that had appeared. It seemed I was able to select different buildings. If I could select them, did that mean I could move them? I gave it a quick try, but a warning message appeared: there are people inside the building. The “remove” command sounded dangerous too. And I was sure the same warning would appear.

  In that case, I selected the command “place.”

  Then a separate option appeared, but there was nothing I could select.

  Hmmm. This was all very much like a game I’d played a bit in the past.

  I tried selecting “create.”

  That opened up a list of the possible buildings that I could create from the materials I possessed—the materials in my shield. It looked like creating stuff also consumed something called “offering points.” Meanwhile, “combine” looked like it was linked to building modification. I could also confirm links to skills.

  Just what I thought.

  I used some of the materials I had obtained to create and place a wooden bench in front of the monster stable. With a puff of smoke, the bench appeared.

  “W-what’s going on now? A bench suddenly appeared!” Raphtalia squawked.

  “It seems this is a skill that allows buildings and objects to be placed in villages within your territory,” I explained. It couldn’t have come at a better time either. We’d wanted to expand the monster stable, and this allowed for a more detailed setting than one simply produced by the bioplant. You could also make detailed adjustments, shifting things around after an initial placement, and even set an intended placement area.

  What I needed to build was a generic building for filolial use—the kind a horse might use—like you’d see on a ranch. You could even set the room layout and indicate the number of them. I’d left the camping plant settings up to Rat, but this was super convenient.

  Huh? There was even some flavor text.

  Medium-sized terrestrial monster stable (bioplant produced).

  A building used for raising monsters—may have to be adapted to suit specific types but can cover the basics for most surface-dwelling monsters.

  With that, then, I placed a camping plant seed into my shield, and after selecting “create,” I created a monster stable. After that, I slapped it down next to me.

  Huh? With a rumbling sound, the monster stable grew up from the ground. Okay. It was exactly where I placed it. Without getting too carried away, I put another one down too.

  “I-it feels like you’re doing something pretty incredible here,” Raphtalia commented.

  “I don’t think this shield can ever surprise me again,” I replied. After all, we were talking about a shield that could take bioplants and use plant manipulation to transform them, completely harmlessly, into completely beneficial things!

  That said, placing too many things or moving too much stuff around was quickly going to use up all the offering points. I didn’t know how to get more of those yet either, so I had to be careful.

  Thinking that, I checked the “combine” item to saw that plant manipulation and other skills were linked. The sakura lumina branch I had quietly placed inside the shield and the bioplant could be combined together. Rat had said that trying to plant them just caused them to wither right away. Combining them with bioplants, however, applied a growth modifier. Why not give it a try?

  Modified sakura lumina (unbranded)

  Sakura lumina with a boost in vitality provided by bioplant elements—can access the Dragon Vein, heighten the power of the Earth Vein, and create a defensive wall.

  That was more like it! It looked like it had some really beneficial abilities. I indicated a place in the village for it to grow.

  Warning: it cannot be placed there.

  But just as I started to think it was a plant restricted to Q’ten Lo after all, the warning text scrolled down.

  When creating a Dragon Vein defensive wall, please place multiple trees at the same time around the desired perimeter.

  A defensive wall?

  “Mr. Naofumi, what are you thinking? You placed the monster stable here, didn’t you?” Raphtalia, obviously, couldn’t see what I was doing.

  “Yeah, now I’m trying to plant some sakura lumina,” I explained distractedly.

  “They did have beautiful flowers. I wanted to bring some back myself, but you talked about it with Rat earlier, didn’t you? She said it failed,” Raphtalia continued.

  Yeah, it was a good bet that this wasn’t going to work.

  Still, I tried placing multiple trees surrounding the village, including near the graves for Raphtalia’s parents. Then light started to spill from the shield, and with a gentle glow, sakura lumina slowly started to appear.

  “What’s going on? What is it?!” Keel and the other villagers emerged from the buildings with gasps of surprise.

  “Don’t worry,” I calmed them. “I’m just testing some new powers.”

  “Raph!” Raph-chan touched one of the growing trees. When she did that, light passed along the ground between Raph-chan and Raphtalia and the sakura lumina, which burst into blossom.

  “So beautiful!”

  “They’re shining!”

  “Amazing!”

  These and similar calls rose from among the villagers. Yeah. This had really brightened up the village.

  I took a moment to check the sakura lumina that had grown.

  Perhaps it was thanks to the bioplant influence. I’d only just planted them and yet they were already fully grown trees. It looked like I’d smoothed over the problem of getting them to grow. They were also emitting a barrier that seemed to protect the entire village.

  “Count!” Rat dashed over amid the hubbub. “What’s going on now?”

  “Well, I used a new ability,” I explained. “It looks like placing the sakura lumina to encircle a specific area allows them to grow like this.”

  “Is that so?” Rat looked around. “You’ve made some pretty big changes in a single day.”

  I couldn’t disagree. Now we had a monster stable full of Raph species and sakura lumina growing around the village. “These are all so significant. I’m not sure I can keep up,” Rat said with a sigh and then scurried back to her research.

  “Right. As we first planned for today, we need to organize the materials we brought back from Q’ten Lo and Siltvelt,” I said.

  “With all these distractions, it’s already night!” Raphtalia opined.

  “Don’t be like that,” I said with a grin. And so, after preparing the evening meal, we set about sorting the materials.

  After that, prior to bed, I conducted some accessory-making research in my room.

  Thanks to the Raph species, our countermeasures for things like status effects were proceeding toward a resolution, but there was still a pile of other problems.

  The principle facing me right then was how to enhance the accessories for Raphtalia, Ren, Itsuki, and myself. As I was working on the issue, I heard Raphtalia and the others battling with Atla outside.

  “R-Raphtalia. Brother. I just want to go and see Master Naofumi! Move aside,” Atla stated.

  “No,” Raphtalia replied.

  “Never,” replied her brother.

  “Raph!” barked a horde of Raphs.

  “Raphtalia, what a cowardly move! Increasing the numbers of your race like that!” Atla was aghast.

  “I’m not party to this increasing. Trust me!” Raphtalia retorted. She didn’t sound too broken up about it now though. “All of you Raph species, you know what to do, right?”

  “Raph!” came a horde of Raph replies.

  Although I also caught myself thinking that it sounded like fun too, it really was getting noisy out there.

  As I had that thought, Raph-chan arrived in my room. Ruft was with her. Even among the large number of new Raph species, I knew this was the original Raph-chan right away.

  “Raph.”

  “Hey. What’s up?” I asked.

  “W
ell, Shield Hero, I was thinking . . .” Ruft trailed off.

  “Okay, I see what you want,” I said. It wasn’t hard. The kid was feeling lonely, and so he didn’t want to sleep alone. Also, he wanted to ask all sorts of questions about the Raph species. Heh, looked like my plan to draw Ruft into the Raph-chan alliance had achieved success.

  “Raph,” Raph-chan cried. She had been asserting herself since her arrival. Was she holding something—a ball?

  I cautiously took it from her, and she adopted a pose telling me to put it inside the shield. So I gave it a try.

  Conditions for the Raph Shield were unlocked!

  Conditions for the Tali Shield were unlocked!

  Conditions for the Lia Shield were unlocked!

  Conditions for the Attacking Raph Shield were unlocked!

  . . . etc.

  Just to see what it was like, I checked out the Raph Shield.

  Raph Shield 0/20 C

  equip bonus: Raph species growth adjustment (small), Raph species attack order 1 (limited period), Raphtalia and Raph species abilities adjustment (small)

  Mastery Level: 0

  I’m not even sure where to start with this. “Limited period?” What was that supposed to mean? Not to mention raising the abilities of specific individuals. This thing was crazy!

  Still, I relied on Raphtalia the most out of everyone, and so I was certainly not opposed to her getting stronger. It looked like unlocking them would be pretty quick too.

  “What’s this? I feel a slight boost in my strength . . . and that gives me a bad feeling about this!” Raphtalia was already reacting from outside the house.

  “Right. What do you want to talk about then?” I turned back to my visitor. “What do you want for Raph-chan?”

  “Well, Shield Hero, do you think she could get bigger like you said before? Like those others that started out as different monsters?” Ruft asked.

  “You’ve got a keen eye, kid. I like how you think. You’re right. We do want a massive Raph-chan, don’t we?” I’d requested S’yne make just such a thing, actually.

  “Raph!” As the two of us stroked Raph-chan, and as though making our every wish come true, she suddenly grew bigger!

  She was now around the size of Filo in her filolial form. About the same size as the former-caterpilland from earlier in the day. Then she relaxed on the floor, tapping happily on her chest to show off her new size.

  What was this? Was I hallucinating? I didn’t care if I was. I just wanted to touch her.

  “Uwah!” Ruft seemed to be in a similar position.

  “Right, let’s stroke her,” I said.

  “Yeah,” the kid agreed. As we proceeded to do so, I quickly began wanting to just snuggle up and sleep on her like a pillow.

  “Raph.” Raph-chan happily returned our affection. Ah, what a strange sensation. Such reassuring relaxation! “Raph!” Raph-chan seemed to be enjoying it too.

  “Mr. Naofumi! We’ve successfully captured Atla. The Raph species actually seems pretty useful! So I’m thinking—” The door clattered open and Raphtalia came in just as Ruft and I were hugging the now huge Raph-chan.

  “What the hell is going on in here?!” Raphtalia glared at me, eyes squinting closed. I felt something like a cold gust of air.

  “I was just talking about Raph-chan stuff with Ruft, and then Raph-chan went and turned into exactly what we asked for, so we were just enjoying the moment—” I explained.

  “Being honest about it doesn’t get you off the hook!” Raphtalia exclaimed.

  “Raph?” Raph-chan seemed puzzled.

  Hahaha! Wow, this massive Raph-chan really was the best. I wanted to use her like a bed, sleeping on top of her tummy.

  “When did you and Ruft become so friendly, anyway?” Raphtalia probed.

  “You saw it, didn’t you? We bonded over Raph-chan,” I replied.

  “The Shield Hero is nice to me and playing with Raph-chan is really fun,” Ruft added.

  “We’re best buddies now, aren’t we?” I said.

  “Yeah!” he agreed.

  “You’re heading into this far too casually! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be friends with Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia scolded. What was her problem? It was almost as though she was suggesting he shouldn’t be my friend. We have the same interests. Of course we were going to be friends!

  Ruft might have been our enemy during the ridiculous Heavenly Emperor ruckus, but he was also Raphtalia’s cousin. By talking to him we’d come to an understanding, which was why we were here together now. His so-called allies had only been using him. He was quick on the uptake. Being related to Raphtalia had also created a good first impression. Then, after introducing him to Raph-chan, he’d agreed with me about how cute she was after everyone else wouldn’t listen, however hard I talked her up!

  People I could talk to about stuff like this, like a friend, rather than someone like Atla who worshipped me—these people were a precious commodity.

  “Ah, you two. I was just starting to think the Raph species could be useful, and then I have to walk in on this. Please, stop treating Raph-chan like a big pillow,” Raphtalia said.

  “If you’re willing to go that far, Raphtalia, very well,” I acquiesced. In the future we’d just have to cuddle with her when Raphtalia wasn’t around.

  “You too, Ruft,” Raphtalia admonished.

  “Yeah, okay.” He didn’t sound happy about it either. When Ruft and I moved away, Raph-chan turned back to her small size.

  “We’ve managed to get Atla under control anyway, so you’re safe for tonight,” Raphtalia reported.

  “Okay,” I replied. It seemed the Raph species had access to illusion magic. While illusions didn’t have much effect on Atla generally, it seemed that piling them on in numbers was enough to contain her. Was she now happily seeing illusions of being with me?

  I was going to start feeling sorry for her if we used this too much.

  “That said, it’s a scary thought that Atla may well soon learn to overcome the illusions,” Raphtalia commented.

  “It is Atla we’re talking about, after all,” I agreed. Not only was she a genius, but she quickly adapted if the same attack was used against her repeatedly. Constant adaptation was therefore required; the only advantage was that pitting oneself against her naturally increased one’s own skills.

  She would surely overcome the illusion attack, eventually.

  “I need to put further efforts into our current, biggest problem—learning magic,” Raphtalia said.

  “How about training the Raph species in magic at the same time? They seem to have the same magic qualities as you,” I suggested.

  “Uwah. I’m not keen on that idea, but I guess that’s what we need for the future,” Raphtalia admitted.

  “We could do with raising Ruft’s level a bit too,” I added.

  “I have to defeat monsters?” Ruft looked a little troubled by that.

  “Yeah. You were the Heavenly Emperor, so you understand this much, right? You can’t protect anyone without strength. So you need to learn what it means to fight,” I explained.

  “Uwah . . .” Ruft looked at Raph-chan. He definitely had some resistance to defeating monsters.

  “Monsters are living things too, but humans and monsters are in different groups. We’re part of the human group. I understand that you like monsters, but unfortunately we can’t prioritize them over humans,” I explained.

  “Okay,” Ruft finally managed. “I’ll try . . . my best.” When I thought about what it had been like when Raphtalia was smaller, I knew it might be hard for him. But I wanted him to learn those same lessons—the gravity, the weight of life. Experiencing fighting for his life against monsters would definitely help him to mature.

  “Once you reach level 40 I’ll perform a class-up on you too,” I promised.

  “Sure! I want to try a class-up!” Ruft said eagerly. Heh, that hooked him. I guess it was due to his age. Keel and the other younger ones
had been happy to hear about a possible class-up too.

  As I thought about the future, Ruft looked at Raph-chan.

  “Raph?”

  Ah! So that was it!

  “I want to do a Raph-chan class-up!” Ruft exclaimed.

  “Hmmm. That sounds wonderful,” I replied.

  “You’re planning something strange again, aren’t you?” Raphtalia interjected. “We don’t know what will happen if a human does that!”

  “What? If Raph-chan performs my class-up, I might become like Shildina, able to turn into a therianthrope. Or maybe I could turn into something like Raph-chan!” Ruft postulated excitedly.

  “That really does sound wonderful!” I exclaimed. Once we confirmed it worked with Ruft, then we could do the same thing with Raphtalia, although due to the katana vassal weapon, not only would a level reset be difficult, but it wasn’t clear if she could even class-up.

  In any case, I was rightly impressed with our former Heavenly Emperor. He had an eye for things that the common folk just couldn’t see.

  “No, it isn’t! Stop it at once!” Raphtalia still wasn’t having any of it.

  “Raphtalia,” I admonished. “I can’t condone you standing in the way of Ruft’s future.”

  “Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia shot back. “What will you do if Ruft ends up like a Raph-chan?”

  “I’d love him and cuddle him to bits,” I replied without hesitation. “And then I’d ask if you can’t do the same thing.”

  “I never should have asked, should I?” Raphtalia despaired. What was her problem, really?

  “Right!” I just decided to ignore her. “This means I really need to put some time into leveling you up, Ruft!” I wasn’t planning on actually having him take part in the Phoenix battle, but I still felt like throwing my full support behind leveling him up as much as possible before it happened.