The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 01 (10 page)

Chapter Fifteen: Demi-Humans

We switched off sleep-shifts, and before long morning had come.

By noon, there were already new problems.

We were out hunting Usapils.

“Ah…”

The knife I’d given Raphtalia snapped with an audible crack.

“Here, take it.”

I didn’t really have a choice, so I held out my work knife to her. She took it and killed the Usapil that was biting me.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Nothing lasts forever. It just broke. It’s no big deal.”

It was just a cheap thing, and we’d never even had it sharpened.

“Let’s just head back to town.”

“Okay.”

We’d accrued a sizable amount of luggage. Dividing it between the two of us, we set off for town.

Also, I was now at level 11, and so was Raphtalia.

On the way back to town we ran into a few monsters, but Raphtalia was able to dispatch them with the little utility knife.

Back in town, we sold all our loot and medicine and ended up making 70 pieces of silver.

“I wonder what happened.”

“The knife?”

Raphtalia and I were eating at a food stall.

It looked like we were making enough money to survive. If I could cook Usapil meat, we could eat for free. That took a little pressure off.

I didn’t know where to go, but I knew we needed to get good equipment and keep leveling up.

“Hey, Let’s go to the weapon shop.”

“Okay.”

Rumble…

I heard a stomach rumbling behind me.

“I’m hungry.”

“Didn’t you just eat??”

What was this, puberty?! How many times did she need to eat every day?

“Ha…”

Engel’s coefficient was about to jump through the roof. If we didn’t go hunting, she’d eat me out of house and home.

“What I’m saying, man, is this: give us the best equipment you can for 65 pieces of silver. Throw in a work knife, too.”

The weapon shop owner slapped his palm to his forehead.

“I guess I’m at fault too, giving you such a cheap one… but you still need to take care of your weapons.”

“Sorry. I was using it like it had a Blood Clean coating. Bad idea, huh?”

Right, the balloons, Mush, and Eggugs were all basically inanimate. Sure, the Eggug had some liquid inside that you had to watch out for. But the Usapils bled, and that must have affected the knife. On top of that, we never cleaned or sharpened it, so that just made it break quicker.

“But you know, it’s only been three days since I saw you guys last. You’re looking much healthier.”

“You think?”

Raphtalia shot him a professional smile. What did he want to say?

“Hm? And you look so happy too.”

“I am!”

This was the perfect place to haggle.

“Hey, put most of that 65 pieces of silver into the weapon.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Really?”

Raphtalia looked up at me, confused.

“Do I look like I need something? Geez…”

In all the fighting we’d done so far, I hadn’t been hurt even once. But the other heroes had warned me. The Shielders were strong in the beginning but fall behind as the game goes on.

So I wasn’t going to waste resources on myself until we got far enough that the enemy’s attacks started to hurt me.

“Hmm…”

Raphtalia was acting like she didn’t get what I meant. She was hugging the ball I’d given her.

“Well this is fate, isn’t it? I’ll give you a deal.”

“Just knock some of the price off.”

“I’m already giving you pretty much the lowest price I can. If I don’t, you’ll sick your balloons on me, won’t you?”

So people really were gossiping about me. Not that it bothered me—this particular gossip was good for me.

“I just repay absurdity in kind.”

“… No skin off my back, though I bet you’d think of some other way to get what you want.”

“You know me so well.”

“I can tell just by looking at you. You’re far more business-minded than those other Heroes.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Now then…”

The old guy was rubbing his chin as he looked Raphtalia over.

“Maybe it’s about time you moved on from a knife. You think you’re ready for a sword?”

“You think I can handle it?”

“You seem up for it! Maybe a short sword to start off with.”

He went off to a corner of the shop and started rummaging through a box of things.

“Huh.”

“I’m gonna use a sword?”

“I guess so.”

“I’ll look up the instructions on how to use them.”

The old guy came back, and he was carrying a beat-up leather breastplate.

“Here we’ve got an iron short sword, and a leather breastplate.”

He handed her the sword and pulled the breastplate down over her clothes.

At the same time, a loud grumble came from Raphtalia’s stomach.

“Not again!”

“Hey, she’s a demi-human after all, right? She’s a kid, and you should expect this as she levels up.”

What was that supposed to mean? I didn’t really understand it, but apparently the demi-humans lived by different rules.

“Huh, really? Well you just stay put and listen to the lecture. I’ll go get you some food, okay?”

“Okay!”

The old guy at the counter burst into laughter at our conversation.

“All right, get out of here. I’ll teach her the basics while you are gone.”

I left the weapon shop and ran to the market.

Was he saying that demi-humans had to pay for their levels by eating extra food? What an odd type of creature.

But her stats were getting higher, and she was getting stronger. That’s good.

Still though, I couldn’t afford to spend all my money on food.

I bought some food and ran back to the weapon shop. The owner was in the middle of teaching Raphtalia how to use her new sword.

“See?”

“Thanks!”

Raphtalia kept stuffing food into her mouth, and the shop owner kept talking about how to swing the sword, and how to dodge attacks.

It seemed like they were making progress.

“You up for this too?”

“I’ll just watch. Thanks.”

“Yeah, your defense is so high it doesn’t matter anyway. But if you lose your balance, you’ll be in serious trouble.”

… Said the owner, and finished his lecture. We settled the bill. Then the guy passed me a lump of white rock.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a whetstone. The new sword isn’t coated either. If you don’t do some periodic maintenance on it, it’s going to break just like the last one.”

“You don’t say…”

The shield started to react, so I let it absorb the stone.

“H…Hey!”

Sharpening Shield: conditions met

Huh? That was a funny name.

I guess it was still a shield though.

There were so many iron ore derivatives… but I guess the idea was not to be derivative but to use it in combination with the Sky Egg Shield and the UsaMeat Shield in compounding.

I guess because you needed a sharp knife to cook.

The defense level was pretty much indistinguishable from an Egg Shield. Apparently, letting the shield absorb a dead Usapil before it was butchered would result in an Usapil Shield, which had a higher defense value.

Sharpening Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus: sharpening level 1

Special Effect:

automatic sharpening (8 hours): consumption (large)

Special effect?

I checked the help screen.

Special Effect:

Special effects are effects that appear only when the specified weapon is equipped for the first time. Unlike equip effects, these effects cannot be learned for later use, so be careful and only use them when you are sure they will be useful.

Just like those other games with their effects.

So, like, if it was a dragon-type, you could expect a really spectacular effect when it was equipped. I think it was supposed to be something like that.

I hurried to change my shield.

“Woah! What was that?!”

The Sharpening Shield was a little larger than the Small Shield. It consisted of a large, white stone.

But it was covered in etched grooves. Some of them were small. Some of them were big. Some of them looked like you could slip a sheet of paper through them.

“Hey, you idiot! Listen to me!”

Whatever… “automatic sharpening (8 hours): consumption (large).” I wonder what that meant?

If it was like the name, I guess it meant that the ability would be useful for a certain amount of time…

“Hey!”

“What is it, old dude?”

“What’s with that Shield?’

“You saw it before! It’s the Legendary Shield.”

“I never heard of it, and I never saw it.”

“Yes you did. It was a Small Shield back then.”

“Then why is it a giant whetstone now?”

“Because I let it absorb the whetstone you gave me. Come on, man.”

“…”

He looked at me like I was a lost cause, like he couldn’t follow anything I was saying.

“I’d heard that the Legendary Weapons were imbued with a mysterious power. Is this what they meant?”

“Didn’t the other heroes tell you?”

“I haven’t seen them in a while. And you’re the only one that I’ve seen do something like that.”

We probably should have talked all this out in advance, but who had the time to deal with pleasantries when a terrible fate would be upon us in just over a week? Apparently the other heroes were planning on keeping secrets to give themselves an advantage.

Well, they had earned my distrust.

… But in their defense, there really was no need to go around showing your abilities off. I suppose they were being efficient.

“What are you all worried about?”

“Well, it says automatic sharpening for eight hours, with large consumption. It sounds like it will automatically keep your sword sharp.

I didn’t know what it was going to consume though.

“Hmmm…”

The owner took an old, rusty sword out from behind the counter and thrust it through one of the grooves on my shield.

“I’ll give you some of my trashed equipment. You can try it on this.”

“Right. Thanks.”

An icon appeared in my field of view. It said, “Now sharpening.”

It felt heavy, and my shoulders felt burdened.

I looked at my status screen, and there was an SP rating listed there. It had not changed yet, but now it was slowly decreasing.

I had figured it was probably related to skill points, but I was surprised that it was used up on activities like this.

“All right, let’s get going.”

“We’re going?”

“Yes.”

I put my hand on Raphtalia’s head and headed for the door.

We needed to focus on leveling up, and then on getting enough food to settle Raphtalia’s belly.

“Hey, old man.”

“What? Did you forget something?

He was leaning on the counter like he couldn’t stand to be bothered by any more questions.

“There is a dungeon in the town on the other side of the forest. Do you know anywhere populated by monsters of a similar strength?”

I unrolled my cheap map and pointed to the dungeon that
the woman
had told me about.

I figured it would be better to ask. I didn’t have to believe what he said though.

“The town itself, and the road leading to it, has monsters more similar to the dungeon than to the forest.”

“Okay, cool. I’m going to visit.”

We needed to focus on leveling up, and on making money, before the prophesied day arrived.

Chapter Sixteen: The Two-Headed, Black Dog

We headed to the town that the weapon shop owner had told us about.

The village was called Riyute. It seemed like a good place to base our operations. There was only one inn there though, and a room went for one piece of silver. A travelling merchant visited once every other day, and he would buy loot from us if he needed it.

There was no apothecary, but the townsfolk wanted medicine, so I could sell my wares there, but at a lower price than in Castle Town.

If the quality wasn’t good they were sure to complain.

My reputation had preceded me. Even still, if the townsfolk seemed ready to do something stupid, I’d have to introduce them to my balloons.

Anyway, I went to the shop to sell some loot that we’d earned in the area around town.

“So… That’s what I got.”

“That’s it?”

He paid me a few pieces of silver, and I begrudgingly accepted them.

He bought them for a good enough price, but it still wasn’t enough.

“Isn’t there a faster way to get money?”

“Why, you need something?”

Didn’t he know that I was the Shield Hero? Either that, or he already knew but was pretending not to. That would give him some sort of advantage over me.

“Well then, there is a coal mine on the outskirts of town. If you got some ore from there, you could probably sell it for a good price.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. If you can figure out how to get it out of there, you’ll make a good chunk of change.”

“… Why don’t other people do it then?”

If it was so easy, the place should have been crawling with prospectors.

“Before the waves of destruction came, it was pretty popular. But now the place is filled with dangerous monsters.”

“I see.”

“I don’t know what our adventurers, knights, or the summoned Heroes are doing. But hey… I guess that’s what you should expect from an abandoned mine.”

This story was getting good. A coal mine, huh? If I could score some ore there, I’d get a good amount of money for it.

“There are some rare types of ore there, if you can find them. They will sell for a good price.”

“Really? Thanks for the heads up.”

In truth, I didn’t believe him entirely, but I still wanted to check out the mine.

“… Where are we going today?”

Raphtalia was shivering in fear as she asked.

“We’re going to a nearby mine.”

“Okay…”

“Apparently there are dangerous monsters in there. You better stay close, in case we have to run away.”

“Okay!”

I opened the map and found the coal mine.

It was near the mountains, and the road was overgrown with weeds and shrubbery. It had been abandoned long ago. Near the entrance we came upon a number of pickaxes that had been dropped. They were old and ratty, but they didn’t seem unusable.

Very near by, we found an old rest station.

The door was locked. But it wasn’t being used, so I couldn’t think of a reason not to let myself in.

“Raphtalia, I’m going to break the lock.”

“What? Oh… Okay.”

She picked up a rock and started to slam it against the lock. It was pretty much rusted through, so it only took a few good hits to break it.

Inside, we found some rope, and a couple of other things. But they had all been abandoned and were not in very good condition. We did find a map of the mine though, which was good.

My shield absorbed the other items we found.

Pickax Shield: conditions met

Rope Shield: conditions met

Pickax Shield: ability locked:

equip ability: mining 1

Rope Shield: ability locked:

equip bonus skill: Air Strike Shield

Special Effect: rope

Air Strike Shield? What was that?

And if it was a skill, how was I supposed to use it?

I decided to try out the Rope Shield.

It turned out to be a shield made from a coiled length of rope. Its defense rating was so low I thought it was a joke at first.

I didn’t want to try it out in an actual battle.

And what was this special effect “rope?” I’d better try it out.

Maybe it was some type of grappling hook?

I thought about the rope and the beams of the small shelter, and it flew from my shield and tied itself around them.

Wow! This would be useful.

As for the Air Strike Shield… I’d better check the help menu.

Found it.

Skill:

While in battle, a skill may be activated by shouting its title. There are also skills that may be activated by certain choreographed motions.

So it was like the abilities and skills from an RPG. Or like the skill set in an MMO.

All right, I think I got it. Time to try it out.

“Air Strike Shield!”

As I shouted the command, an icon appeared, saying that I should indicate the direction to send the attack. A circle indicating the attack range appeared on the ground.

I focused on the ground just before me. When I did, a large Air Strike Shield appeared there, hovering in the air.

It was a strange shape, something like an oversized shield. It was made from some strange, magical power.

I wonder what it does?

I reached out to touch it. It did not move from the space it was set. I guess all the skill did was summon a shield. If this was my first skill, then I suppose I really couldn’t expect to get strong attacks anytime soon.

“What is it?” Raphtalia asked me.

“It’s nothing. I just got some useful skills. That’s all.”

“Oh… So, are we going?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Raphtalia was acting more bravely than she had been, but I needed to watch out that she didn’t get too familiar. That could be a problem.

The Pickax Shield was certain to be of use considering the reason we’d come to the mine.

Now then, let’s get down to business. I held out a torch to the entrance, and we stepped inside.

“There are dangerous monsters in here, so keep an eye out.”

“Okay.”

I took the lead, and went in ahead of her.

For a little while, the tunnel was supported by wooden beams, but as we went deeper, the cave was just formed from natural stone walls. You could hear the soft sound of a distant waterfall and river, and there was a soft light coming from far above. There was a small hole above us, and the light filtered through the dusty air.

Now then, where to go? We started looking for ore.

I opened the map and took a quick look.

It wasn’t a maze. The map was marked with an “X” up near the source of the waterfall. That’s where we would go.

“Master…”

“Hm?”

Raphtalia was tugging at my sleeve.

“Um… Look.”

She was pointing down.

I followed her gaze. There were large footprints there, and they appeared to be from something like a dog.

So they weren’t lying about the monsters… They were big, but not abnormally so. I pictured a pretty large-sized dog.

“We need to keep going.”

If we always tried to avoid danger, we would never get anywhere.

If we ran into a monster, all we needed to do was defeat it. If it was only the size of a dog, I’m sure we could handle it.

“All right, let’s go.”

“Oh… Okay.”

“Don’t worry. We can beat it.”

“I’ll try.”

That’s the attitude.

So we kept on moving slowly through the cave. Until…

“Grrrrrrrr”

We ran into it right when we reached the top of the waterfall.

It was like a big, black dog. But it had two heads.

But the footprints were so much smaller… Maybe it was a puppy?

This dog was taller than I was!

We had no choice…

“Hawoooooooo!”

The dog let out a bellowing howl and turned towards us. It started running.

I hadn’t taken damage from an enemy yet, but could I take on a monster like this and come out unscathed?

Well, even if it landed an attack, one hit shouldn’t kill me.

I held up my shield, and waited for the attack.

Ugh…. It was so heavy.

“Gahhhh!”

Its thick nails were scratching at my shield, and both of its heads were trying to bite me.

… As if I would let it!

To avoid its teeth, I threw my weight into the shield, pushed the beast back, and jumped away to get some distance.

Apparently, I could stand up to its attacks for now.

“Yes! I got it!”

There was a chance for Raphtalia too… But that’s when I noticed it.

She was shaking in fear, and her eyes were locked at some random point in space.

No! This is just how she acted when she was getting ready to cry in the night.

“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.”