The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09 Read online

  I’d never heard of anything like that, but the concept was intriguing. I felt the itch to start collecting and categorizing.

  “They’re mostly used to make various medicines. Medicines made with those powders fetch a good price because they have fantastic ability-enhancing properties.”

  “Hm . . .” I’d run into the concept before in older RPGs.

  Heroes like myself didn’t need to depend on such things, because every material we found unlocked more weapons and abilities.

  A trickle of water becomes a river—as insignificant as they may seem, adventurers that had reached their level cap would probably chase after materials like that, as they’d be the only way to continue raising their stats.

  That explained something that had been bothering me. There were a lot of adventurers in this world that were very powerful, even without holding a legendary or vassal weapon. These powders must have had something to do with it.

  “I’d rather use them than sell them.”

  “They become less effective the more you use them, so most people sell them once the efficiency starts to drop off.”

  I could understand that. That would explain how Trash #2’s friends had been able to break through my shooting star shield barrier. They looked like weak underlings, so I’d been surprised by how powerful they actually were.

  Ethnobalt spoke next, directing us toward his ship, “Then shall we get going? Perhaps Kizuna could use our travel time to get some rest.”

  I hadn’t realized that we were going to be traveling by his strange ship. I guess it made sense—ease of travel was probably the best part of having the ship vassal weapon. The ship was like a knock-off of my portal skills, and it worked by traveling over these things call “dragon veins,” which were currents of some kind. We’d used it once before, and it had been very fast.

  We were moving very fast now, fast enough to ignore them, but I couldn’t help but notice how many monsters there were flying around up in the sky.

  I guess flying monsters weren’t particularly rare, but I was surprised to see so many.

  “There are quite a lot of them up here today. It’s crowded.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yes. I think I’ll take a short detour.”

  If we had to be in a mid-air battle aboard the ship, people with ranged attacks would fare better than anyone else.

  Too bad our resident monster-hunting hero was busy taking a nap.

  “I’m so glad to get away from all that boring diplomacy! Time for some action!” L’Arc shouted. I ignored him. If you ask me, he wasn’t the kind of guy who should be put in a position of authority over anyone.

  We were flying through the air on Ethnobalt’s ship to go to an area with strong monsters. Ethnobalt may not be much use in battle, but his vassal weapon sure was convenient.

  “Hey Ethnobalt, you’re a monster, aren’t you? What’s your species called?”

  Was he a demi-human, like Raphtalia? He was a giant, talking rabbit, after all.

  “In L’Arc’s country we are known as library rabbits.”

  “There’s only one place they live naturally, and that’s in the labyrinth libraries,” L’Arc explained.

  “I wonder if they are like the beast men in the world that I was summoned to.”

  If they weren’t so different, then the definitions of human and monster were in need of an update.

  “We’ll be passing my hometown shortly. Shall we stop by and have a look?” Ethnobalt said, turning the ship around into a wide detour that brought us up to a large, shrine-like building. A tall rabbit was walking nearby, and Ethnobalt called him over to us.

  The rabbit came over and bowed to us before sniffing at the air in silence with its little nose.

  “So that’s a library rabbit?”

  “But when you’re in rabbit form, you must be twice as tall as this guy.”

  Was Ethnobalt some kind of boss version?

  “Yes, well. Do your best,” Ethnobalt said to the other rabbit, who just kept sniffing in response. Couldn’t the stupid thing talk?

  Filo interjected. “He said, ‘Yes, our great chief.’”

  Why did Filo understand him?

  If they spoke in monster language, then I guess it was safe to categorize them as monsters? I mean, were they really talking? It just looked like sniffing to me. I guess the rabbit was more intelligent than it appeared.

  “We are on our way to training grounds. I wish to become strong enough to help protect the world.”

  Many more rabbits came hopping over and they started clapping, though their paws didn’t make very much noise.

  It was a surreal sight to behold.

  “Ethnobalt is the leader of this tribe. His people are fond of him, which is a sign of a good leader,” L’Arc said. He was a king himself. But I’d keep calling him Boy.

  Kizuna had managed to surround herself with people in positions of authority.

  Had I managed the same thing back in Melromarc? The only friend I had in a position of power was Melty. She was the princess, so if the queen were to die, then she would become monarch of Melromarc, just like L’Arc. Heh—when that happened, I would go on calling her Princess. I could see it now: her face turning bright red with anger. She’d probably stomp her feet and yell at me.

  Anyway, ever since I met him, I felt that Ethnobalt had something in common with Fitoria—even if he was much weaker. I decided to act on my hunch and ask him directly.

  “How old are you, Ethnobalt?”

  “Me? I’m turning fifteen this year.”

  Hm . . . that wasn’t what I was I expecting. I didn’t know how old Fitoria was, but she’s been alive since there were other heroes, so probably generations old.

  So how could Ethnobalt be so young? Wasn’t he supposed to be the monster version of a hero?

  “What are library rabbits like? How do they live?”

  “Why do you care?”

  “It’s not important, but I’m wondering if they’re anything like these filolials back in the world I came from. Filo here is one of them, and . . .” I explained all I knew about the filolials to Glass and L’Arc.

  “Ah, do you mean the giant monster that appeared to assist us during the battle with the Spirit Tortoise? That thing was the same type of monster as Filo?”

  “Yes. Apparently they gain unique abilities when they’re raised by heroes . That’s why Filo is such a strong fighter, but I don’t know if that’s how things work in this world.”

  Ethnobalt pulled out a book and began flipping through it.

  “There are tales of a legendary library rabbit . . . yes, here.” He showed us an illustration of a library rabbit wearing robes much like the clothes that Ethnobalt was wearing.

  “They say that all library rabbits are descended from this individual, and that this legendary ancestor was killed in an ancient battle.”

  So, this legendary rabbit had been killed. It looked very intellectual in the illustration.

  “I was named after this legendary library rabbit. But, I am not yet worthy of the name. There is so much I do not know, but I hope to become like him in time.”

  “Hm . . .”

  Kizuna finally woke up.

  “Wow! I guess all of worlds have these sorts of things in common.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far. But Ethnobalt, you say you want to get stronger . . .”

  He held a vassal weapon. I wonder if that would prevent me from putting a monster spell on him and putting him under my control. There were ofuda in this world that lent people control over monsters. I think they were called “control ofuda.”

  “Kizuna, why don’t you trying raising him with a control ofuda? It might change the way that he levels.”

  Ethnobalt frowned, “Then I would have even less to show for myself.”

  “Deal with it.”

  Filo could grow to be stronger than Fitoria. So, you never know how things will end up.

  “It’s long been said
that the library rabbits are not suited for battle.”

  Was that some kind of racial characteristic? Like a whole race, a whole species, of Rishia clones? How sad would that be?

  “If they mature differently, based on whether or not they are under the control of a hero, then they are probably like the filolials back in my world.”

  “I suppose we could try it,” Kizuna agreed.

  “I . . . I will do what I must!” Ethnobalt replied.

  Did he think that was impressive? As far as I could see, you couldn’t afford to slack off if you held a vassal weapon. He had a responsibility to the weapon.

  “For now, just do all that you can in battle, and don’t push it too far. We’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Alright.”

  We finished talking and took off again. When we arrived at our destination, we found ourselves surrounded by angry monsters. They bared their fangs and attacked.

  “Whoa!” I quickly used Shooting Star Shield to protect us.

  “Ha!” Raphtalia drew her sword from the fully charged sheath and flew through the crowd of monsters, faster than the eye could see.

  A few monsters fell to the ground defeated, but then even more appeared, drawn by all the sudden commotion.

  “Hya!” Glass shouted, slapping open her fan and swiping at an approaching monster.

  A bolt of light shot from it and slammed into the charging beast.

  “What was . . . ” Glass muttered, looking at me and then at the fan in her hand.

  “Was that a skill?”

  “Something like that, but I didn’t do anything to make it happen. And it didn’t use any of my energy reserves.”

  “I wonder if it’s an effect from the accessory that Naofumi made for your fan?”

  “It must be. I’ve never seen an accessory with such a noticeable effect. The craftsmanship must be truly excellent,” Glass said, smiling. It was always exciting to get your hands on a new weapon.

  She continued swiping left and right with her fan, sending out shockwaves through the waves of approaching monsters.

  “Now it’s my turn to show off!” L’Arc shouted, swinging his scythe. The blade glowed with energy and sliced a nearby monster in two. “Nice! My scythe is even stronger than it was! That accessory you made is really something!”

  I didn’t mind all the compliments. I even enjoyed them. But it did feel strange to think about how much I had done for these people, especially considering that we might end up having to fight them at the end of all this.

  They had all grown so powerful. I was honestly shocked at how effective my accessories were.

  But then, as L’Arc continued to swing his scythe, the accessory began to smoke.

  “L’Arc, it looks like it will break if you keep on using it without giving it a rest. Better keep an eye on it.”

  “Good idea. It must be the sort of thing that I should save. Only use it when I really need it.”

  “I think so. But man, just look at all these monsters.”

  Monsters had swarmed at us in endlessly since the moment we entered the labyrinth.

  And because Kizuna and I were in the same place, we weren’t getting any experience points out of it. Holders of the vassal weapons were subject to the same issue, so Glass and the others weren’t gaining experience either. Only Rishia, Filo, and Therese were actually leveling in these battles.

  “It’s quite strange,” Ethnobalt said, covering Rishia and the others from the back line.

  “I’ve been here before, and even I think it’s weird!” I shouted.

  L’Arc looked at the approaching hordes of monsters with confusion. He didn’t understand what was going on either.

  The monsters weren’t so powerful that we couldn’t handle them, but their numbers were unbelievable. We’d eventually get worn down by the sheer number of them , if we didn’t come up with a plan. Otherwise, we’d have to find a way to escape.

  “Ha!”

  Kizuna switched between fighting with her knife for close battles and her fishing rod for ranged attacks. She had access to other tools besides those two things, so I don’t know why she didn’t use them more.

  The lure I’d made for her hung from her weapon, no matter what form it took. I remembered her freaking out about the lure. What had she said? “This lure is amazing! I just attached it to my fishing line and threw it in and the fish lined up to bite it! I catch something every time I cast it. I love it! Can we put off this trip until tomorrow?”

  “Kizuna, try removing that lure for a minute!”

  “Huh? Okay!” she said, taking the lure off of her weapon. The moment she did, the waves of monsters stopped coming.

  “I thought so.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “I think that lure is attracting the monsters.”

  I had a skill that did the same thing. It was called Hate Reaction. It looked like Kizuna’s lure did that as long as she had it attached to her weapon.

  “Looks like that thing I made had a really negative effect. I’ll get rid of it for you later.”

  “No. You. Won’t!” Kizuna barked, clutching the lure like a string of pearls. “Do you have any idea how many fish I can catch with this thing? Who cares if it attracts monsters too?”

  “Well, I guess as long as you choose when to use it there’s no problem.”

  “Yes there is! Kizuna, give me that lure!” Glass shouted, holding out her hand expectantly.

  Kizuna simply shook her head.

  I understood why Glass felt the way she did, but she was overreacting a bit. Maybe there was something I didn’t know about.

  “Kizuna. Listen to us. Give the accessory to Glass,” L’Arc said calmly. Everyone, including Therese and Ethnobalt, reacted the same way. They must have been aware of a risk that I wasn’t.

  “Rafu?”

  “What’s all this about?” Raphtalia and Rafu both looked as confused as I was.

  I looked around and saw that Filo and Rishia were confused too.

  “Kiddo, Kizuna’s a great girl, but she’s got some issues when it comes to fishing. She even tried to fish off of the ghost ship we were on that day,” L’Arc sighed heavily. “Of course we stopped her.”

  “You mean she thinks about fishing even in the middle of battle?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I do not!” Kizuna shouted.

  “Then will you give me that lure?”

  “I . . . Um . . .”

  “Let her have it. We’ll just keep an eye on her.”

  “You can’t. You’ll see. She’ll try fishing for mice the second she gets a break.”

  Fishing for mice? Would she really do that? Even if she knew it would attract other monsters? Kizuna had never seemed like a careless person to me.

  Ethnobalt nodded, as if he’d suddenly realized something, “That was why there were so many flying monsters today. We almost collided with some in the air.”

  I remembered that he had mentioned there were more monsters than usual.

  “Good point. Maybe you should hand it over to Glass. When you want to use it, Glass will let you,” I told her.

  “But then I might miss my chance to catch the big one! What if Glass isn’t around when I need it ?! ”

  “What do I care? Get over it already. I’m sure you can work this out amongst yourselves.”

  “Mr. Naofumi, don’t give up so easily. We have to convince her.”

  “I have a dream! I want to catch a fish bigger than anyone has ever seen!”

  “Then go catch a whale!”

  I regretted saying that. I didn’t want her leaving a wave battle to go fishing.

  “Kiddo, you get her from the right, I’ll take her from the left. Glass and Raphtalia—you two make sure she doesn’t get away.”

  “Fine.”

  Everyone sprang to it immediately, and soon we had Kizuna surrounded.

  “What are you doing? Leave me alone!”

  She could resist if she wanted, but we
were going to get that lure from her if we had to kill her to do it.

  She could play with her lure after we defeated Kyo and went back to our world.

  “Noooo! You stole it from me! My favorite accessory!” Kizuna whined. Her childish screams echoed in our ears.

  She finally sounded her age.

  “Alright then . . .” I turned to survey the area, ignoring Kizuna’s pouting and begging.

  The monsters were tough, but nothing that we couldn’t handle.

  We’d come out to this place to check the effects of the new accessories. All of them were more impressive than I had expected, and we weren’t having any trouble with the monsters. That wasn’t surprising, considering that most of our party was made up of people with vassal weapons, and the others were holy heroes from an assortment of worlds.

  “There are monsters coming. Let’s do this.”

  “Yes!”

  “Right on! Let’s get some nice materials from them and see what Naofumi can make for us next!”

  “Ask L’Arc or Romina to do it!” I snapped at Kizuna.

  As for the battle itself, it wasn’t even worth describing. We won easily.

  We pressed on, and the monsters we encountered slowly grew stronger.

  We hadn’t yet met any that were strong enough to break through my defenses, though we had met a few that could get through the Shooting Star Shield.

  Kizuna, L’Arc, and Glass were starting to get tired.

  “Let’s take a break,” I said, and everyone agreed.

  “It’ll be dark soon. Should we build a fire?”

  “We’ll take turns keeping watch.”

  “Sounds good, then I’ll . . .” Kizuna started.

  “No fishing.”

  “I wasn’t going to say that!”

  We sat down to rest, taking turns keeping watch.

  There would have been a time, long ago, when I’d found the idea of camping romantic. Now, the reality was less so. Someone had to stay awake and keep an eye out, and the whole thing was pretty exhausting. Still, I was used to it by now, and it wasn’t a problem.

  I had some free time, so I decided to see what I could craft from the materials I had stored in the shield. Kizuna and the others spent their time doing the same thing.