by Aneko Yusagi
“Nooooooooooooo!”
Her shrill cry cut through the cave and rang in my ears.
“Grrrooar!”
The dog howled and jumped back for a moment.
It then turned to Raphtalia and began to dash in her direction.
As if I would let it.
I quickly knocked her out of the way with my shield. She fell over by the waterfall.
“Ah! H…Help!”
Even if she fell, she shouldn’t die. But she looked like she was about to fall over the edge.
“No! No! Dad! Mom!”
Damn… This wasn’t good. Better pull back.
It was a risk, but it was our only chance.
I ran over to her, wrapped her in my arms, and gave myself over to the waterfall.
You fall over waterfalls in games all the time, but to do it in real life was different. Everything was swirling, and I had no idea where I was.
We were suddenly free from the water but were falling through the air. We fell into a small lake at the bottom.
The current wasn’t strong, so we swam to the shore.
Cough… Cough…
“What was that?! You can’t just freak out on me.”
“Dad?”
“No! What are you talking about?”
I looked up as we talked. The dog ran to the edge of the cliff, looked down at us, then turned and ran off.
It had to be thinking of a way to get to us.
“Are you okay? Are you conscious?”
“I… I…”
“What was that?”
“It…”
“Tell me!”
“I… okay.”
She started talking, slowly and deliberately.
“I’m from a little village of demi-humans, mostly farmers. It’s a little ways from here, by the ocean… It’s still part of this country though, so life wasn’t easy.”
Both of her parents were kind-hearted, and the village was peaceful.
But one day, skeleton warriors flooded the town. They had come from a wave of destruction.
There were a lot of skeleton warriors, but the adventurers in town were able to hold them at bay. But soon enough other beasts, giant insects, fell on the battlefield, and the adventurers were unable to hold the line.
Finally, a giant, three-headed dog appeared, some kind of monster. The people weren’t able to stand up to it at all, and they were trampled.
The village couldn’t fight anymore, so they ran from the monsters.
But the monsters wouldn’t let them flee. Acting like it was a sport, they hunted down the remaining people and killed them. Raphtalia’s family, like the rest of the villagers, ran from the monsters. Soon enough, they came to a cliff overlooking the ocean and found themselves trapped there by the wave of monsters. Realizing they could not escape, her parents looked into each other’s eyes and then turned to Raphtalia and smiled.
Raphtalia was shaking in fear, but they patted her head and comforted her. She was too young to realize that they were planning on sacrificing themselves to save her.
“No! Father! Mother!”
Slam!
The two of them, wishing for Raphtalia’s safety, pushed her from the lip of the cliff. As she was falling to the ocean, she saw the monsters attack her parents.
As she told me the story, her face was pale. I think it was a difficult memory to talk about.
“I fell into the water and luckily washed up on a nearby shore.”
After she woke up, she went searching for her parents. She climbed back up the cliff.
The monsters had finally been defeated by the knights and adventurers of the kingdom. She walked through fields littered with bones and finally found her way back to the cliff.
… And she found pools of blood, and strips of flesh.
When she finally understood that her parents were dead, something inside of Raphtalia snapped.
“Nooooooooooooooo!”
From that point on Raphtalia resolved to live a full life.
Looking at her now, it was hard to picture. But apparently she used to be quite the over-achiever.
When she became a slave, it must have slowly worn her down.
Until she met me, apparently she’d been living a pretty heroic life. She’d been fighting to reestablish her village but unfortunately ran into a slave dealer, was captured, and was even tortured.
Finally, she ended up in the slave trader’s tent, just where I’d found her.
“That black dog is back! We need to run!”
She was starting to panic again.
I suppose that was the source of her trauma.
“Calm down!”
“But… But!!”
“That is not the dog that killed your parents. It has two heads, right? Besides… just who do you think I am?”
“Um…”
“I’m the Shield Hero. Up until now, I’ve been protecting you, haven’t I? But even if I can protect you, I can’t defeat the enemies myself.”
Raphtalia put her head in her hands.
“Your parents are not coming back. But you can help other kids. You can help keep the same thing from happening to them!”
It wasn’t a very good argument. I just wanted to survive. That’s why I needed to get stronger. But the waves were clearly a source of terror for Raphtalia.
Even still, if she WANTED more kids to end up like she had, then there was nothing I could do about that.
“All I can do is give you the best environment for you to use your fighting skills. If that’s not cool with you, well, we already discussed your options.”
“R…Right.
“Gaah!”
The dog had managed to find us somehow.
“If you’re not going to fight, then get the hell out of here.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll draw its attention. You run!”
“But!”
“That’s all we can do. I can’t fight. All I can do is protect you.”
“I don’t want to run away!”
“Then what will you do? Just die here?”
“… No!”
She fixed her grip on the sword, swung around the side of the dog, and stabbed it.
“Yipe!”
The dog whelped.
“I don’t want you to die!”
“… I won’t die. If I die, that means that I didn’t protect you.”
I had to get stronger to keep from dying. Like I would die in a place like this? Yeah right!
The dog was charging at Raphtalia.
I quickly changed to the Rope Shield.
“Air Strike Shield!”
The shield changed again, and I quickly turned to the dog.
“Argh?!”
The dog turned from Raphtalia and came rushing at me, howling.
One of the heads bit deep into my shoulder.
It hurt, and a spray of blood followed the pain.
“Master?!”
“Calm down! I’m fine!”
If it could overcome my defense rating, it must have been pretty strong. Its fangs were huge and sharp. I hope it wasn’t going to do any permanent damage.
This must be thanks to the shield too. It hurt, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
“Yes!”
Raphtalia threw all of her strength into the thrust. She’d found the heart of the beast and stuck her sword into it.
“Rooooaaaaarrrrrrrrr!”
It shouted in pain, and Raphtalia pushed the sword in deeper.
“Arrrrrhhhhhhh!”
The dog was stronger than I thought. It still wriggled in pain. Raphtalia stabbed the heart again and again.
Finally, the dog stopped moving and collapsed.
EXP 340
Raphtalia EXP 430
We were rewarded for the battle with a hefty amount of EXP points. We both leveled up.
Huff… Huff…
“You did it. Good work.”
Both of us were covered in bl
ood.
I rubbed her head.
“Master… Don’t die, please… My… My place…”
She was having trouble saying what she meant. But I think she wanted to keep things as they were.
Life as a slave must have been tough. Of course she didn’t want to return to that cage.
The situation was not bad at all. Is that why she wanted me to praise her?
Well I wasn’t planning on selling her off anytime soon. And all I wanted from her was her attack ability.
“Master… I don’t think I know your name yet…”
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s Naofumi Iwatani.”
“Nao… Fumi? Pleasure to… meet you.”
She looked sheepishly at the floor.
My… name?
Well it was better than being called “Master” or “Hero” all the time.
Time to absorb that monster.
We butchered the beast….
It wasn’t a fun experience… at all.
But we managed to do it.
Two-headed Black Dog Shield: conditions met
Two-headed Black Dog Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: alert shield
Special Effect: Dog Bite
The shield looked like a two-headed dog. It was made from leather, and so realistic that the heads almost looked alive.
They seemed like pretty good abilities. Not bad.
I wondered what the Alert Shield did.
I also wondered what the special effect, Dog Bite, was all about.
I’d look it up later
I brushed some of the healing medicine over the bite on my shoulder. It stung a little, but I could feel the wound healing instantly.
After we got back to the inn, I’d see if I could find a magic user to heal it for me. I figured I could pay them.
That reminded me, this was the first time I’d felt pain since I arrived in this world. Of course there was pain here.
It’s not like we couldn’t fight… But still… I didn’t like being hurt.
The different parts of the dog didn’t cause the shield to react. Either that, or there wasn’t enough, or my level was too low.
“Well, we defeated the monster. Now let’s try to find some of that ore.”
“Okay!”
She seemed chipper all of a sudden.
I changed to the Pickax Shield for its collection ability 1, and made for the place on the map marked with an X. I swung the pickax, and when I did so a small X appeared on the wall, glowing. What was it? Was I supposed to look there?
“Yah!”
I swung the pickax as hard as I could.
The wall cracked. The cracks spiderwebbed out, and the wall collapsed.
“Woah!”
The thing crumbled so quickly.
I kept an eye on the fragile surroundings and started digging around for ore.
… But it wasn’t very easy.
I kept on swinging though, and eventually I unearthed a piece of shining ore.
“Light Metal?”
A type of ore called Light Metal, apparently.
Would it sell for a lot of money? It looked very pure.
There wasn’t very much, but we kept digging until early evening and eventually ended up with around ten pieces.
It wasn’t very efficient.
I let the shield absorb one.
It said that it needed more. I offered it another.
Light Metal Shield: conditions met
Light Metal Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: defense 1
Special Effect: Magic Defense up
The defense rating was the highest one yet.
If I was going to fight strong monsters, this was the shield to use.
“What do you think?”
“Not much.”
“Right. Okay then, let’s head back, Mr. Naofumi.”
Raphtalia took my hand in hers and started walking.
“We have to stay alive.”
“Yeah.”
I thought that much was obvious. I need to survive and get back to my own world. I didn’t want to die in a world as shitty as this one.
We went back to Riyute and sold the ore.
We got a good price for it. It should support our activities and equipment needs for a while.
Chapter Seventeen: Preparing for the Wave
PikyuPikyu Shield: conditions met
Wood Shield: conditions met
Butterfly Shield: conditions met
Pipe Shield: conditions met
etc…
PikyuPikyu Shield: abilities locked:
equip bonus: simple weapon restoration 1
Wood Shield: abilities locked:
equip bonus: collection skill 1
Butterfly Shield: abilities locked:
equip bonus: paralysis resistance 1 (small)
Pipe Shield: abilities locked:
equip bonus: skill: Shield Prison
etc…
It had been a week and a day.
I’d learned a great number of skills by hunting the monsters, collecting medicines and ore, and allowing the shield to absorb them all in turn. There were so many new things appearing on my status screen that it was hard to keep up with it all.
“Wait!”
Noticing us, a prickled, needle-covered thing, which looked like a porcupine of some kind, ran off. Raphtalia and I ran after it.
The both of us had been leveling up steadily. Raphtalia had reached level 25, and I was at level 20.
Raphtalia had grown up very quickly.
… And I was still fighting in tattered rags.
I was amazed that I was able to come this far without taking any damage. Was I that strong, or were they all that weak?
But I had been hurt.
I’d been overconfident in my abilities. I was fighting against the porcupine with a weak shield and suddenly felt a sharp pain. Due to my carelessness, he’d gotten a hit on me, and it had damaged me a little.
Even though I’d been using the Alert Shield, he still managed to stick me.
Oh, by the way, the Alert Shield would send out an alarm if an enemy came within twenty meters of me. So it would warn me if anything came near.
It was not actually all that useful.
It would tell you if there was a monster nearby, but it wouldn’t tell you where that monster was.
“Geez, that kind of hurt.”
I painted some medicine over the spurting wound.
Of course it would hurt to get stuck with a needle. That’s normal.
I’d gotten so used to not feeling any pain since I’d come to this place that I had started to forget what it was like.
“That’s what I was saying, Mr. Naofumi. It’s really about time you got some better equipment for yourself.”
“Nah, it’s because I was using a weak shield.”
Somehow, my shield managed to protect my entire body, despite appearing as a normal shield. So I didn’t really need to change the rest of my equipment. I mean, the center of the shield still seemed to be the strongest, but the rest of my body was protected too, so I hadn’t been hurt yet.
The Sharpening Shield really was proving useful. Just like we’d thought, it would keep Raphtalia’s weapon sharp automatically.
It would sharpen for eight hours. If you took the sword out beforehand, it wouldn’t do anything. But the major problem was that it ate up my SP the whole time.
Whatever. Time to practice some of the other skills I’d learned.
“Air Strike Shield!”
The skill formed a giant shield in the air, with a range of about five meters.
It was mostly good for getting some distance from your opponent. The longer you left it deployed, the weaker it got.
But it got stronger if you screamed for it.
The porcupine reacted with surprise to the Air Strike Shield. But it immediately jumped to its feet and kept running.
Damn… If it had stayed within five meters,
I could have chased it down, but the little bugger was fast.
Oh well.
“Shield Prison!”
The skill formed a large cage around the battlefield, with a diameter of about six meters.
This time, I called for it, keeping the porcupine set as my target.
The skill could be used to protect a target, or to restrain a target.
But they were both defensive, so it couldn’t be used to deal damage directly.
“Yipe!”
The porcupine had nowhere to run and started to spin in circles within the cage.
The cage would remain on the battlefield for fifteen seconds.
As we waited, Raphtalia ran over to the cage, and waited for it to disappear. When it did, she stabbed the porcupine.
“Yipe!”
“Got him!”
Raphtalia picked up the porcupine and came back over to where I was standing.
“Nice!”
EXP 48
Raphtalia EXP 48
Those numbers weren’t bad.
The monsters could be absorbed into the shield directly, and that would unlock new forms, but it was better to divide up the haul. I hadn’t known that before, but I figured it out during the last week. Balloons, Mush, and Eggugs could all be used as materials. I was lucky to figure it out as fast as I did.
We broke down the Porcupine into needles, meat, skin, and bones. Any of them could be used for materials, so it was pretty useful. I let the shield absorb them separately.
The bones could be used for all kinds of things. The skins gave you a status boost, but only if the skill tree and level were appropriate.
The meat was for cooking. Eventually, it all started to come naturally.
I was excited about the needles, because I already had a Porcupine Shield.
Animal Needle Shield: conditions met
Animal Needle Shield… A Needle Shield would probably have cool abilities.