Chapter 10, And We Set Out Once More

"You didn't think to tell us about that earlier!?" Luna yelled at me. We had just left the slave traders tent and I was in the middle of explaining a very important part of my plan.

"Look, I only found out about it as we were heading back to Melromarc for the wave. I needed to make sure Raph was completely focused for the fight. I was going to tell her after the duel but I hadn't anticipated getting put in a coma for three days after the fight."

Luna looked away annoyed but seemed to accept my answer regardless. I was going to add more but decided not to.

"How good will she be?" Luna asked. "Our new fighter."

"Really good. She'll be able to transform like you and your brothers a few days after hatching, and without needing the Tamer Shield. Can take some of the weight off Phobos too, given how filolials have this thing for pulling carriages."

We walked back in silence. I thought over the things I know will happen.

'Let's see, we'll be passing by Riyute on our way out. We would've had to do a race for the village but with Motoyasu out for now and the letter from the queen in my possession, I should be able to leave it with the townspeople to shut down Malty… Right, cause after reading the scroll, she stopped demanding and instead challenged Naofumi.

'After that, it'll be the fight with the plant monster attacking some village. Can probably snag the seed before Motoyasu and give the people a tamed version of the plant. Itsuki should be fulfilling that plan I set for him so we're good on that front, and Ren will be meeting up with me to fight the dragon and dispose of it properly. And somewhere between all that, we'll need to get to one of the vaults.'

I brought up my map in the status menu and began to look it over. There were two potential vaults we could visit. The first some ways out from Riyute. Close enough to be possible to travel to, but too far to still make it in time for the seed.

'Might be able to get the coordinates from the witch while we're here and pick it up on our way out. Might as well anyway should it come to that. But the second…' The second vault was in the mountains, not too far from some villages.

'But I don't know which it'll be. There's a chance we'll be too far out.' I paused in thought, realizing that at some point I would have to break the news to the other heroes. 'I can't tell Itsuki because God knows what he'll end up doing with it, and I sure as hell am not giving any to Motoyasu… And that leaves Ren. He's not irrational and I doubt he believes in the accusations. But if he decides to Lone wolf it, he may end up leaving a bunch of vaults open for everyone to come and loot… What to do…?'

I continued to think over the risk and benefits. If I simply tell everyone about this, it'll be a total shit show, but if I have some backing from even one other hero, my chances of keeping an outbreak between the other three heroes will be greatly reduced.

"The mountains it is.'' I said out loud, not realizing who had heard me.

"Carter?"

I turned around and was met by Ren. 'What's he doing over here?'

"Well howdy there," I said in a joking tone. "feels like I just saw you this morning."

Ren didn't go along with the joking tone, instead, staying focused on my armor. Behind him where his party members. A few looked at me with caution while the rest seemed surprised but overall indifferent.

"Where'd you get that armor? Is it new or…?" Ren asked with genuine surprise.

"You remember that blacksmith from… That? Well, I made good friends with him over the past month. Turns out he's pretty good at his job. Throw in the fact that myself and two others in my party are damn good at blacksmithing, we ended getting all the armor in our party upgraded in one fail swoop."

I moved my arm to put my cloak behind me while I held my arms out, my shield strapped to my hip.

"I give you the Militia General armor II. Now with high-grade magic steel and a heat dispersing cloak." I said with a grin.

"Heat dispersing?"

"Mate, do you have any idea how hot this much armor can get when I'm just standing out in the sun?" I said with a flat tone while pointing at my chest piece. "You want one too don't you."

He didn't respond.

"Ah come on buddy. I know you want one. I'll make it custom for you. Hero special service as Erhard likes to call it."

"… Where are you headed?" He said, somewhat annoyed, though I could see him looking at my cloak with slight jealousy.

"Heading back over to Erhard's shop. Just got a new addition to the party that I'm praying Motoyasu never finds out about but I know he will anyway." I said with feigned exhaustion.

"Why?"

I shuddered at the thought. "... You'll find out."

"But anyway, I'm trying to figure out our travel plan. Not having to worry about you Itsuki screwing up is a weight off my shoulders but now I basically have to baby proof everything so Motoyasu doesn't end up killing civilians on accident."

"It's two months, what could you be planning to do?"

"It's not as really how much but where it all is. It'll be multiple days travel between everywhere. And the fact that I'll have to leave, do some stuff, then come back only to leave again is the real headache."

"Can't you use the teleport?"

'Teleport…? Oh, son of a bitch!'

"... Alright. I have a confession. Most of my knowledge of the future is based idle reading material and a series that still had episodes coming out, some of which I missed because my little brother kept messing with my computer and closing the tab."

"You didn't know about the teleport."

"I didn't know about the teleport." I said. Ren looked down and began to laugh lightly.

"Shut up." I said, all humor in voice having left, but Ren only seemed to laugh harder. "Hey, I knew about weapon copy and the weapons crafting ability, that's two for three!"

"I don't think sixty-six percent knowledge of the menu is a preferable amount." Ren said.

"You have officially lost that offer for me to make you that cloak." I said with a flat voice. I smiled, however, relieved to have learned this new little trick.

"Well, that'll be helpful either way. Thanks, Ren. Where are heading?" I asked.

"Picking up some medical supplies from the local apothecary and trying to find his party members."

'As noble as that sounds...' "I don't recall those warranting the use of a Hero."

"It's complicated. Word about his spear got around and wasn't very…"

"... I see. Well, just make sure to be at the mountains. There's a little something I'll need your help with after that but I'll explain in better detail when we get there." I said walking past him before he could respond. "See you around Ren."

"See you around Carter." He said with a monotone voice.

'Let's hope I made the right choice.'

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring the Sword Hero into this secret?" Erhard asked. We had returned to his shop after I had dropped by the local witch who was rather happy to see me and after some talking, I convinced her to give me the coordinates for the dungeon with the seed. I promised to get her a new crystal for herspinning wheel as well since hers had recently broke for a little extra support in my favor. Once we got back, I had told Erhard and my party both about the egg and what I planned to do over the next two months.

'But I need to get good with the trader in order to get the deed to it... I'll have to figure out a way to get in contact with him while we're out.'

"Absolutely. Ren is the most cool-headed out of all the heroes. I could tell from his visit and voice that he doesn't see me as hostile. Might not even believe the accusation, given how he saw the grounds my confession was done on. Besides, if there is a guarding force in that vault, I want as much firepower as we can get going in."

Erhard brought his hand up to his chin in thought before responding. "Alright. I won't argue with you. But I do have to ask, what's with the egg."

I opened my mouth and pointed. "I haven't explained that to y'all yet." I said to myself.

"Alright, so here's how it is." I started. "Within this egg is a filolial queen. She'll be able to transform between human and filolial form without the need of my Beast Tamer shield. She'll catch the eye of Fitoria, the current filolial queen, which, depending on how we go about our business after the upcoming wave, may or may not save our hides at some point.

"She will have the personality and physique of a small child however, so outside of combat and pulling a carriage in her filolial form, she won't be too much help for a while. She'll also have the appetite of full-grown filolial too so we'll have to hunt a lot more food than we would if it were just a new party member."

"You're gonna have her pull a carriage?" Phobos asked.

"Yes, however, my guess is her still technically being a filolial, she loves to pull a lot of weight. Like, a lot of weight. But moving on, we should probably jump over to Riyute to check on how things are."

"Kid, it's a day's journey out and it's already getting late. You won't get there until late nightfall." Erhard said. I smiled in delight.

"You see Erhard, I would normally agree with you." I said leaning against the counter.

"What did you do?" Erhard asked with slight worry and exhaustion.

"Well, after a quick conversation with the Sword Hero, I have learned of a new ability we Heroes are able to perform that I totally just forgot about and didn't not know about before coming here… Moving on."

Erhard and the others began to chuckle at my lackluster attempt to conceal my gap in foreknowledge.

"We heroes are able to fast travel between places we have already been, bring our party with us. Do you know what fast travel is Erhard?" I asked but didn't let him answer. "It means I get to teleport!"

Everyone was laughing at my excitement at the prospect.

'Now how does this work?' I thought as I went through my menu.

"How's that teleporting coming along?" Erhard jokingly asked. My party was currently grouped together outside of Erhards shop waiting for me to figure out how to teleport us all. They all wore their new armors. The only real visual change to the wolves was a darker color palette for the metal plates while Raphtalia sported her new, darker armor set as well. The sun was beginning to set on the city so everyone was rather eager to move now.

"Shut up, I'm figuring it out." I said back. I was looking through the menu trying to find the option that let me fast travel but was having limited success.

'Please tell me I'm just bad at finding things.'

Bring up my map, I was given an alert that said I unlocked the teleport ability and given a quick description. Looking at the icon for Riyute village, I was given the option to fast travel there.

'Of course.'

"There we go. Alright, everyone ready?" I said. Everyone confirmed they were and confirmed the teleport. A magic circle appeared beneath us and engulfed us in light, similar to the one that brought us the wave.

"See you soon Erhard!" I said before we were teleported.

The light around us glowed brighter until we weren't able to see anything past it. When the light died down, we were greeted with a view of the Riyute's town square.

"Hey, it worked." I thought out loud.

"Who goes the-oh, Shield Hero sir!"

Looking up, I could see a night walking up to my party. I recognized him immediately, but not as a Militia soldier.

"That you Ake? What are you doing here?" I said with surprise.

"Yes, sir-wait, how do you know my name?" He asked.

"Foreknowledge-hero-stuff now what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I joined the Militia you had built in Riyute." He said with pride and embarrassment.

"Obviously. What I'm asking is why are you here and not with the Melromarc soldiers. You didn't stay back and fight with us during the wave so I doubt you were expelled from the military?"

"... I left." He said looking down in embarrassment. "After the wave, I… yelled at my commander for almost torching the village and all the soldiers in it… After that, I took my crest and through it on the ground. Left with my party right after since they all largely agreed with me."

"...Well." I said with slight surprise. "I always took you to be more of the 'puppy in soldiers armor' type than as a knight with the balls of a marine. Props to you Ake."

Ake laughed nervously, not quite if he should take my words as compliment or insult.

"Anyway, you have any idea where Jax is? I gotta talk with him about the next two months." I asked.

"Yes sir, he should be in his tent overlooking defense plans." Ake said pointing at a group of tents that had been set up near the edge of town. They were more long than wide, no doubt housing open cots and supplies. At the back was a slightly taller tent, though it wasn't nearly as wide or long as the others.

"Thanks, Ake." I said before turning around to my party. "We'll be spending the night here but we're moving out in the morning. Go ahead and start getting some stuff together. Luna, with me."

While the rest of my party went around collecting whatever supplies they would need, Luna followed me to the tents where Ajax would be. As I walked past, multiple soldiers stood to the side and salute before returning to their task. We approached the tent and I opened up the flap. I was greeted with the sight of Jax with the other two division heads standing around a map.

"Jax, Eran, Morello." I said, bringing their attention to me.

"Sir, your back!" Said Morello. He had short blonde hair and was by far the youngest of the three heads with a pair of green eyes and a triangular face. He was however quite intelligent for his age and took a liking to military tactics, specifically defensive tactics. During the wave, he had been tasked with leading the Cain division in defending civilians while they moved away from the village. His armor was the same Jax, however instead of a green cloth hanging from his right shoulder, it was wrapped around his left bicep.

"Good to see you back after that injury." Eran said. He was the largest of the three heads, matching Phobos in terms of height and physique. His hair and eyes were both a lighter shade of brown than mine, and his face was a bit more aged with hard labor, though he was still quite young. While his talent in strategy was rather lackluster, his ability to rally troops was vital in keeping them at their best throughout the fighting. The cloth on his armor was hung from his hip over his coat.

"Eran. Morello. Good to see you two. How has the village been these last few days?" I asked.

"All green so far sir." Jax Said. Outside of the wave, he had acted as head coordinator of Militia activity. "Soldiers are currently working on construction for an armory and forge while civilians are focussing on infrastructure, including that steel mill. Designated adventurers are helping pull in the gold we need for resources."

"Has construction for the Bessemer Cauldron began?" Before the wave, we had drawn up plans for expanding the village using resources pulled from the mine and woods nearby. Each building was a mix of Melromarc magic, Union industrial layout, and old machine patterns. One such pattern was the old Bessemer process for creating steel. The cauldron had transformed steel production, one of the great inventions of the industrial revolution.

It was modified to incorporate Melromarc magic, greatly increasing its yield and efficiency. However, at almost two stories tall and with thick magic steel metal built with heat resistant spells to withstand the immense heat that would otherwise melt any other metal, it was not only a beast of machinery but a bottomless pit of resources until it was producing metals of its own.

Smaller ones had been built that were only about four feet tall and acted as a short term solution but would be nowhere near as efficient as the Cauldron we had in the works.

"Yessir." Eran said. During the months, he oversaw and coordinated civilian-Militia activity. Though the Steel mill would be under control for the village elder, it would be owned by the militia, and pact as a means of industrial backing for the Militia. "Blacksmiths, architects and some local mages have already begun building the struts and scaffolding for moving the pieces. But if I'm being honest sir, I don't even think Faubley has tried building a machine this big."

Faubley, one of the other kingdoms, and the most industrial and technologically advanced. While the other kingdoms were primarily medieval in terms of technology, Faubley was entering the stages of the early industrial revolution. Many of their soldiers had been outfitted with muskets. Though not very effective, it was still quite an advancement, and not very far from advancing into rifles.

It surprised me how many vaults were located within that kingdom's borders. I theorized Faubley was built over the remains the previous Shield Hero arrived in. If even a few early journals or binders had survived, it would be a technological boon for any kingdom that found them. And what better place would there be to find them then the kingdom he was summoned to. I had plans in the work to go straight there following the next wave, but it would require making a B-line straight there, possibly causing us to miss stuff on our way.

'That's gonna be… Interesting.'

"No need to worry. If they followed the blueprints as I told them too, construction should go smooth. It'll take some time but that thing will be pouring out steel once it's complete. From there, we can start paying off the used expenses with steel exportation. We'll need to be clever about it though so we don't draw unnecessary attention.

"I'm more curious about how you came up with that design." Luna said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't explain that the design wasn't really mine? All I added was the enchantments to the metal to increase the heat resistance and smelting power. The base design is some three centuries old. Also…"

I brought out the scroll I had received and handed it to Jax. "If you see the village Elder, tell him the village has been granted to me by the queen but he is to remain the primary overseer, and we'll just figure out what'll happen after the deal is finished later. If a certain redhead shows up demanding some unGodly tax, just show her this and tell her to piss off."

"Well…" Jax said, looking at the scroll and nodding his head. "Looks like the queen ain't half bad."

"No. She didn't buy into the rape accusation at all. She should have already sent the crown princess back to try and sort it out. Though… That's going to bring a slew of new problems." I said rubbing one of my temples, thinking of the headache it will be to try and keep this problem from affecting Riyute.

'I'm gonna have to prevent an attempted murder, go on the run, kill a fanatical priest, and then decide if Aultcray and Malty are really worth the trouble of keeping alive… I'll figure that out when I get there. But for now...'

I walked over to the map and began examining it. We had marked down areas where suspected vaults where, but I hadn't updated it since then. Talk about the actual locations had come up while we were taking care of wounded but we never got to marking them.

I summoned my Prisma shield and let the prism float above the table, shining the holo-map down on the written one. After looking through some of the journals, it was discovered that not all vaults were the same. They were divided by level of importance, marked by 'Minor', 'Intermediate', 'Major', and 'Absolute'. Of the upper ranks, there were only six Major's, each named Aspida, Spathi, Toxo, Dory, Viomichania, and Dimiourgia, with The Well being marked as the only Absolute. Some of our guesses as to their locations were close, though many were way off from where the vaults were actually located. The division heads, though surprised, had become used to me breaking out new surprises and quickly recovered. They each came up to the side of the rectangular table, taking in the new information.

"Eran, start marking down this new information on the map, it'll make planning in the future a hell of a lot easier." I said.

Eran nodded and went to work tracing out the light on the map.

"What's are plan until the next wave?" Asked Jax.

"Right now, I need you to focus on improving the village industry and defense. See if you can get recruit some people, maybe even expand into some of the surrounding villages. My party is gonna work on keeping some of the villages North West of here from being destroyed. If we're lucky, we'll even get to a vault and see just what's inside. Depending on what it is, we may be able to start outfitting our troops with advanced weaponry."

"That'll be a load off our backs. But, I have to ask. What is this?" Jax asked, pointing at The Well. I brought up a cylinder from the prism and opened it for everyone present to see. Scrolling over the many items, we looked specifically for information concerning the superstructure.

"Well… Well… Ah-here it is." I said finally finding The Well. Much of the information was condensed behind the large red the word 'RESTRICTED'. What wasn't provided a good description, however.

"Alright, so it's a power complex that... does something to spread energy to the structures throughout the continent by creating a small... Dimensional Breach? What? To funnel for energy from the Warp into a liquid state-What?"

"What's the Warp?" Asked Morello.

"I… Don't know." I said.

'I received that shield called the Warp Shield, and thought it would grant me the ability to teleport in combat, but now…' Focussing on the word, I brought up a page that explained what The Warp was.

Or was supposed to anyway.

The journal was completely restricted. Every word, no matter how small or insignificant, was covered behind long rows of 'RESTRICTED'. Panels that should have held images were blacked out and marked in red as Classified. What's worse was the information, even in its long rows, seemed to be missing pieces. Large gaps and spaces that seemed out of place existed throughout the entirety of the data.

There was nothing for us.

'That's… More than a little unsettling.' I looked down at my shield and brought up my shield tree. I moved it around, jumping from spot to spot, trying to find the Warp Shield, hoping to learn if I had a look at the shield, but I couldn't find it either.

"Well… That's displeasing. Might learn something once we get to the vault but until then, we got nothing." Is said, closing the journals. "What else do we have on the table?"

"Alpha, wake up." Luna said, shaking me awake. We had all elected to sleep at one of the inns nearby. With enough rooms open, we decided to buy three for the night. One for each partner set. Phobos, being ever reserved, said he would enjoy being able to sleep alone for the night.

I couldn't blame him, given my partner. There had been a few times she snuck into my sleeping bag during the night. The first time was a surprise but it had lost its shock value after about the third time. Luna was wearing a set of sleep wear she had asked me to make for her using the silk from my spider shield. It was a simple shirt and a pair of shorts but I had made sure the material was fairly comfy to wear. I made a pair for everyone in the party after that, including myself, but at the time I was too tired to put them.

'Guess that wound really did take a bit out of me.'

"What is it Luna?" I said, slowly waking up.

"Look." She said, gesturing to Filo's egg. We had set it down on one of the tables in the room and left it there for the night. Pieces had begun to fall off around the incubator as something began to push out of the egg.

I got up moved beside Luna to see Filo break out of her egg as a little filolial. She did some equivalent of a yawn before flying up and landing on my head.

"Aw, she must think you're her mother." Luna said gushing at the little bird.

"Yep." I said with a slight groan.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"Well, make no mistake, I'm happy to have another companion for the party. It's just… I'm starting to realize just what I signed up for." I said, trying to look up at the bird on my head.

"How we look?" I asked Phobos. He was strapping some gear onto his pack and checking over the others. My bag was on my back filled with everything I would need. Filo was currently sitting on my head. We had given her some food we bought from one of the farmers in the village and she had already gained a few pounds, causing my head to sink a bit.

"Good. Just getting together the last few items."

I nodded and moved over to where Morello was. He was talking with some of the blacksmiths putting together parts that would go into the Bessemer Cauldron.

"Morello, what's the state of the parts?"

"A work in progress but moving along just right. Should be down a few weeks before the wave, enough time to get some more steel for... infusion into... our... armors… " He said looking at the bird on my head.

"I'll explain later." I said waving off his reaction. I had already had to explain four times before this and I didn't feel like doing it a fifth. Though tired, I thought over what he had told me. Sure we were looking good, but it was unlikely that nothing would go wrong.

"Stockpile some metal and begin infusing armors anyway. If something happens, I want to make sure we're still fit for the next wave."

"Will do-" He was cut off by the sound of a rectangular crate falling down. The top came off and multiple hard foods, mainly potatoes and carrots, spilled out along with the cloth covering them. Civilians who were loading the crate quickly moved over and began picking up the food.

Morello and I walked over but before we could ask what happened, a familiar voice piped up.

"Careful with those! We need them in good condition!"

"Itsuki?" I asked. Sure enough, he came around from the other side of the crates and looked at me. "I thought you had already left. What happened?"

"I've never been to this village before Carter. I couldn't teleport here since I hadn't discovered it." He said, completely unfazed by Filo.

"Right, forgot about that." I looked over the two wagons he was loading. One was filled with goods while the other was relatively empty, no doubt for his party. "You get everything you need?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just about to head out. You?"

"Same here. Just going over last-minute checks." Just then Deimos walked up followed by the rest of the party.

"Hey, we're ready to go."

I turned around. "Oh, that was quick."

The triplets transformed into there wolf forms, leaving a surprised Itsuki and his party. I walked over to Luna and saddled up, making sure I was in line with where I normally ride.

"Your party members can transform!?" Itsuki yelled.

"Yep. It's awesome." I said moving out in front of my party. "Alright, you know how this goes. We make our way to the old mage's lab, get that seed and deliver a tamed version to a village entering a famine. While we're out, we get a name for ourselves and get in good with one of the tradesmen. We get some deeds, get our crystal, get back to the city, and get ourselves some gear for our new companion. Once we have what we need, we start back up to the mountains and meet up with Sword Hero to kill that dragon and make way over to point Alpha. Now let's move!" I said.

Luna turned around and started off him light sprint, followed by the others. We rushed past Itsuki and his party, leaving them a bit surprised at how fast we were moving.

'We'll have to work quickly to in good with the trader, but if we're lucky… It just might work.'