Author's Note: Not a lot to say today, haven't been able to write as much right now as I would like but it shant be a problem down the line though I can assure you. Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and please stay safe.
Chapter 38: Boss Rush Mode
Arriving in Zeltoble Naofumi ran into a bare minimal amount of trouble: Raphtalia and Filo had managed to attract a very specific form of unwanted attention from the local slavers who in turn had to be informed that their advances/blatant attempts at Kidnapping were not welcomed. Violently. By the time Naofumi returned from the round trip from Melromarc via portal shield the first group of would be kidnappers were being tied up. With lack of a central authority to turn them in to, or rather a lack of recognition that a crime had been committed in the first place, Naofumi simply had them take him to their hideout, or rather his new base of operations, turn over everything they owned and sent them on their way.
"We're robbing bandits. Again?" Raphtalia could only let out a exhausted sigh at this latest act of blatant banditry Naofumi had committed.
"Can't call it thieving if they didn't own what we were taking." Naofumi stated as he gave his neck a crack.
"Once again sir Hero your logic proves infallible!" Speaking of barely legal criminals, the slave merchant picked then to make his presence known.
"Shove the brown nosing. You mentioned a arena? Show me." Once again Naofumi proved that he had a nose for money.
Arena equalled to fighting which equalled to betting. With his slaves stats they would be the strongest there, the fact that some of them were apparently well established losers pushed the odds further in his favour. Time to make a killing.
"A rather popular even is planned for today Sir Hero. Boss Rush day." The Merchant stated a happy grin on his face though the concept filled Naofumi with a sense of dread.
"Explain." Naofumi stated though the sounds of multiple roars from within the arena, some familiar, said it all. Cerberus, Chimera, A giant Lion, a huge Vulture, A Kirin, A over grown Minotaur, A giant spider, A saw wielding horse headed giant, a huge elephant man, and the latest addition a Basilisk. Zeltoble clearly preferred to treat the waves as if they were money falling down from the sky as opposed to death, and others had the same idea, he recognised a couple of the wave bosses, having killed one, chopped the tail off of another for his shield and dragged a third here behind Filo's wagon, others he could vaguely make out from the weapons Setsuna had gotten for him, that meant that the last of the bunch were either from Zeltoble's or other countries waves.
"They're making a sporting event out of the massacre of my village!?" The sheer fury of the audacity of what Raphtalia was seeing was visible by the way that her tail had puffed up, the same way it does when she's getting ready to use magic.
"How does this work?" Naofumi questioned noting that his slaves looked quite eager to join in on what he could only foresee as a massacre just waiting to happen. Which made sense considering some of them probably had prior experience with these creatures.
"The monsters are released into the ring one at a time, the audience bets on how long the contests will last against them. Both Sign up and betting happens before the match begins, if too many people enter then they use buffing magic on the bosses to toughen them up a little." The Slave Merchant stated indicating a nearby booth for people sign up at.
"What do they do with the monster corpses?" Naofumi asked cocking a suspicious brow at the merchant.
"Sold after the event. They are after all a source of rare materials ready for the taking, they can be quite valuable, if you have the coin to buy them." The Merchant stated knowing full well what Naofumi was thinking of and how to sell it to him.
"Raphtalia, go sign everyone in, use these aliases." Naofumi hand Raphtalia a list of names he had apparently sunk some thought into. "I have a bet to make." Naofumi stated as he and Raphtalia went their separate ways.
The conclusion? Naofumi bet all the money they currently had on them, approximately 3000 gold as reward from the waves and thanks to Naofumi's blatant banditry of the bandits and his skill as a merchant, on everyone, roughly a hundred people, making it through all ten of the arena battles. One in one thousand odds, if they won this it would push their cash fund all the way into the millions, and most likely bankrupt the arena, which is the reason why he was expecting sabotage, luckily though he had his own way of doing things. He had asked about and confirmed a potion from the slave trader that could neutralise slave contracts, he had seen it brought up when the subject of Rishia being freed of her bondage was explained. The conclusion?
'Contract Nulification Shield. Main Bonus Slave Seal Cancellation Field.'
There wouldn't be any death by remote controlled pain buttons today. And for the first round of the fight, there was the Cerberus. The conclusion?
"Yakitori."
On Naofumi's command Filo in full bird jumped through the air and slammed her foot into this monster's middle head so hard it splattered in a mass of brain matter and blood, before using her claws to chop the heads off of the other two bosses. Once this thing had struck fear into Naofumi's heart. Now though? It was just another baggie of XP that he could burst and reap the benefits of. The buffing magic on it, if there was any, was subpar but that's only to be expected, no way were they using up their good stuff on the first round, and besides they didn't know who they were up against. They were signed up as the Rock Valley militia, a simple play on his last name in case one of the other heroes decided to drop in on him, but there was no benefit in letting the people who run this place know who they are, they would be up against dozens of Driefach class buffs every round if they understood that was the case, a simple great sword and a stone mask was all that he needed to keep people from figuring out he was the Shield Hero, and he meant to keep it that way. The Arena hadn't made any money yet, no one had bet that there would be casualties on the first round after all, the comparative weakness of the three headed dog was well documented. The Chimera on the other hand was a slightly more formidable threat in the eyes of the public. Setsuna was the one who killed the thing so Naofumi had little idea what it was capable of beyond the description of the four heads weapons he and the others unlocked.
"Lion head intimidates, Dragon head Breathes fire, Goat head knocks back and snake poisons." Naofumi briefly reciting the characteristics of the Chimera weapons as he got ready to fight. The Chimera didn't look to be as big as the one they fought against during the wave, it was probably lower levelled. Small miracles.
"RRROOOAAARRR!" The sound of the Chimera's roar reverberated deep within their very souls, the various people in the arena shook and swayed as the status effect left them shaken up. All except for one that is.
"Shad-dup!" Naofumi slammed his shield into the Chimera's face with enough force to leave it stunned, Naofumi's party got over their stun effect first and quickly moved in to surround the Chimera on all sides. Naofumi kept the lion head locked down with the shield, Zenberu at some point in time cast a water shield on himself blocking the fire of the dragon head, Filo used a single foot to stomp down on and hold the snake tail in place finally Kiyubi had blinded the Goat head using fire magic. As for Raphtalia, she jumped up using Naofumi as a springboard and ran her blade through the back of the Chimera, swishing it around it's insides until it was thoroughly dead before pulling back out again. Naofumi noted someone scrambling in the stands, quietly giving orders to mages who were now casting buffs on the next monster, a lion, this time around, probably the one that Setsuna fought that gave her the Lion spear she showed him. Naofumi let the lion attack him and soon grabbed hold of it, the rainbow of multiple buffing magics biting into him along with it's teeth.
"Oh they definitely know that I'm the Shield Hero." Kind of obvious when you realise that all that he's been doing is beating it with his shield, even in spite of the sword he had strapped to him. Unfortunately for these people they've under estimated him, under estimated him severely. Raphtalia followed up by bringing her sword down on it's neck in order to chop it off, resulting in her sword comically bouncing off it's hide.
"It's skin is too thick!" Raphtalia shouted leading to the lion to try and take a swing at her. "How exactly did Setsuna beat this thing?" Naofumi stated recalling the sight of the last wave and remembering how Setsuna was fighting the enemy, more specifically the constant explosions she used to tear apart everything in her way. "Explosive magic go!"
"""We call upon the origin of power! Gather the heat in the air and Blast our target with a wave of destructive power: Driefach Fire Blast!""" Kiyubi led two of his fellow party members in firing off explosive fire magic, sending shock waves through the lion's body and rupturing several of it's organs in the process.
Blood started coming out of the lion's mouth before ultimately falling over, still not a single casualty among the forces up against the boss monsters much to the increasing surprise of the audience. On the plus side these things were good for XP, and they'd be really good for his weapon once the fighting was over with. The staff was now quietly trying to cast debuffing magic on them now, trying to create a power a power gap between them and the monsters in the monsters favour. Course what they didn't realise was that Naofumi's group also had people who could cast debuff magic, and by extension cast magic to nulify that as well, they were good, but he was better, use to dealing with sabotage at every turn. Naofumi's response was a dozen preparations made in shadows and a come hither look to the enemy before him. Still the latest monster released into the arena would be more difficult, if for no other reason than it was flying out of reach of most melee attacks. Filo immediately seemed to develop a grudge of some sort against this vulture flying high in the sky, maybe it was a bird thing. If that's how she feels about it then she can go deal with it.
"Naruto! Melt the ice attacks!" To Naofumi's shout Kiyubi used his fire power to eliminate the incoming hail storm that was about to land on their heads. "Yakitori." On Naofumi's command Filo jumped onto his shield and he in turn jumped into the air with Filo on top of him, from which she then jumped off of him even higher into the air until she was eye level with the Vulture at which point in time.
"HIYAH!" Filo slammed her foot down on the Vulture's head cracking it open as it was sent careening off into the ground. Noting that the bird was still moving Naofumi had everyone attack it until it stopped. In the crowd one of the people running the event was frantically pressing down on the kill button for one of his slaves that was in the ring with Naofumi and to his horror noting that it wasn't working, this was what you would commonly call a worst case scenario. The Arena was on the verge of loosing millions of dollars, all of their boss monsters were dropping like flies! They needed to do something, any thing to salvage this situation before it goes completely out of hand.
"Attention ladies and gentlemen!" Luckily the referee/announcer was able to think on his feet in addition to entertain the crowd, they needed to remember to raise his pay later.
"Clearly these critters aren't enough for these compettitors? So what do yah'll say we throw the rest of them in as well!?" And on that note the remaining bosses were loosed into the the ring like yesterday's news to the cheer of the crowd.
"Not a single death has occurred yet? Interesting." A woman dressed in royal purple could be seen watching the match from the VIP section of the arena.
She finally managed to get a break from the peace conference and who else should waltz into the arena under a pseudonym than the Shield Hero. Oh sure he might have the crowd fooled, what with the ordinary looking shield he was using and mask to hide his scowl, but his bird gave him away. The story of Fitoria and the Legendary Heroes was her favourite book as a child, and down there in the ring beating the ever living snot out of a elephant monster was her spitting image.
"Ahh! She's like a little Fitoria!" The girl at her side also liked the story about Fitoria and the Legendary Heroes, to be fair the older woman did read it to her as a child, religiously. It certainly beat the garbage that the Three Heroes Church would like her to read to her daughters.
"Your majesty. The other countries are reconvening the meeting now." A voice from no where in particular explained to the queen prompting the Queen to stand up.
"Watch my daughter for me. And let me know when the Shield Hero goes to cash in on his winnings."
The battle was over, not a single casualty was had the efforts of the arena be damned and they were in the gold. The Arena spat out some poppy cock later about how Naofumi had entered under false pretences since he was the Shield Hero only for Rowdy to show up looking like Naofumi thanks to a disguise belt Ikki had taken off of one of the Shadows and given to him completing the disguise with the ever so useful demon lord shield the Church had 'given' them. That shut up this so-called judging committee in a hurry. When Naofumi met up with the trader again he was greeted by a round of applause. "Splendid Sir Hero! Absolutely Splendid!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Just show me my slaves." Naofumi maintained a bored look on his face while cleaning his ear. "Right away Sir Hero!" The Trader and his men led Naofumi through the rows of cages, Raphtalia was instructed to keep an eye out for anyone from her old village because they might as well. Anyone under the influence of Naofumi's growth bonuses and corrections would become among the most powerful in the entire world after hitting the cap, similarly the trader was instructed to keep an eye out for anyone from Raphtalia's village too. Of course he had other subjects which took priority too: hybrids for the extra growth bonuses, high spec combat focused Demi-human species and something that could help him level at sea because that was a all you can eat buffet of experience points and he was going to tap the living hell out of it.
"Some very promising merchandise has come into my possession recently Sir Hero. I hope it meets the high standards you've come to expect of my business." The Merchant stopped in front of one of the cages. "This is what's known as a ogre. Very physically strong, if it's brute force you're looking for you'd find few better." Naofumi observed the ogre and began jotting down notes in his mind. There was a surprisingly large amount of fat on her, most notably large breasts and wide hips but little of the muscle to show through. Since when does this guy keep them so well fed? The last batch he picked up looked ready to fall over just by blowing on them. And why does this cage look so clean? Every single one of the others were absolutely filthy. Not to mention the fact that she seemed a little too eager, if that look in her eyes when she saw him was any indication.
"No thank you." Unable to shake the feeling of something being wrong Naofumi simply had the trader take him to the next one.
"What am I not good enough?" Naofumi stopped in his tracks.
He knew there was something wrong with this stupid bimbo the moment he laid eyes on her and now he understood what that was. Turning back around Naofumi stormed over and grabbed the dumb bitch by her hair before yanking her over and slamming her face first into the front of the cage wiping his hand across her chest and removing the marker like ink there. Then he walked over to the trader and snatched his ascot off of his neck with a severe disappointed glower as he wiped his hands clean and threw the ink stained cloth in the trader's face.
"Are you done or are there more?"
"There are more. Quite a few people are hoping for their families to get close you Sir Hero, but I suspect I'm done anyway." The trader admitted, Naofumi noted to his mortal terror that there was a almost lustful look of admiration on the short little creep's face as he led him to the next area. "I do apologise for the ruse Sir Hero but you simply must understand it was simply a offer too good to refuse. I get paid to sell to you and I get paid from you buying from me. It's a win win scenario."
"I understand." Loathe he was to admit it Naofumi might do something similar, that said the product was not suited to his needs so he avoided it like the poison that it was.
"Of all the...!" Raphtalia on the other hand looked exasperated. "If it was that easy I wouldn't be having such a hard time!" While Raphtalia cursed her lack of love life the trader led them to his real merchandise.
Naofumi spotted the white fur from a distance, the cage was cleaner than most too as he was about to voice his suspicions that he was being had again he spotted a small child with a couple of blankets on top of her sleeping with obvious discomfort.
"Hakuko. You recall my explanation of the top ten yes?"
"Top 10 demi-humans species in the world who have the best fighting power. Hakuko are supposed to be number one. Why?" Naofumi questioned seeing no reason why these two children were tougher than any other slave in here. On the contrary of the grand total of two Hakuko he's ever met one of them looked like she was in a coma.
"Levels my dear hero." The trader stated grinning ear to ear. "A Hakuko's first level cap can be as early as level 50 to as late as sixty, and their final cap at 120, on top of their stats already being naturally high. I trust I don't need to explain what such a asset could do under your guidance and nurturing correct?"
Naofumi shot a final glare at the little pain in the arse. He had become slightly less trust worthy after that last stunt but he had more money then what he would be able to carry back with him, even after buying the corpses of every boss that was in the arena. The cerberus was redundant, as was the vulture and the lion, but now he had a complete set of Chimera weapons and dozens of boss shields to sort through. The point here being: time to splurge a little.
"What's wrong with the girl?" Naofumi asked levelling a look down at the little girl who seemed to be stirring awake. The boy was about to snap at Naofumi but was unceremoniously stopped by a electrical discharge from his chest zapping him back down to his knees.
"Hybrid I'm afraid the both of them. Humans to be precise The boy is perfectly healthy if a little slow to grow, the girl on the other hand well..." This. Naofumi wouldn't be surprise to learn that her health bar was in the single digits. Her entire body was covered in blisters which had to be bandage and when she forced open her eyes he caught sight of her blindness.
"She should be in a hospital not a slave stall what are they doing here?" Naofumi concluded and took the Trader aside to discuss the matter with him.
"After the war with Melromarc many Hakuko have fallen on hard times: harder still when you take into consideration that the girl requires expensive medicine just to get by. It's quite the sob story actually, the audience seats are usually packed whenever the boy fights in the arena." The Trader stated taking a moment to bask in his own business acumen.
"Which is now going through financial hardships thanks to my long shot bet and you need to liquidate unnecessary assets before the market price drops." Naofumi stated having correctly deduced the reason why the trader was selling off this so-called money maker.
"You know me so well Sir Hero." The Trader shamelessly admitted to his trimming of the dead weight.
Cue wheeling and dealing Naofumi citing the fact that he would be resetting the older brother the first chance he got, the signs of his defiant personality and the little girl's obvious sickness. Now that he's saved some money Naofumi set to work, the Trader unceremoniously informing the pair that they had been bought by this individual before them and so worked to apply the Slave magic. It made little difference to Fohl, one master was as bad as the previous one, and the Colosseum had hit hard times, in part thanks to this guy, so he needed to secure a new supply line for his sister's medicine.
"Filo restrain him." Filo Grabbed the tiger cub by his neck and to Fohl's surprise picked him up and pinned him against the nearby cage.
"Hey what are you-agh!" The slave seal had not been adjusted yet so that he couldn't speak out of turn yet.
Naofumi ignored him as he mouth fed the little girl the Yggdrasil Tatsuya had gotten him, her body glowed as the majority of the welts on her body disappeared.
"What do you know, it really is medicine of the gods." Naofumi stood up and indicated for Filo to let the boy go. He went over and checked over his sister's body before picking her up, blanket's and all, and proceeding to follow Naofumi and his group out.
"Before you go Sir Hero." Naofumi looked down on the Slave trader wondering what he was scheming now. "In order to apologise for trying to deceive you earlier sir Hero I have a lead on someone who meets several of the criteria you were asking about before. Sadly though she is not among the merchandise here." Naofumi raised a interested brow for the trader to continue. "She's Sakamata, the tenth of the top ten making her both incredibly powerful and a aquatic type and I reasonably believe she's from your Tanuki's home town." Raphtalia seemed to immediately figure out who the Trader was talking about.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Griffin, I'm a cat person.
Amatsumi: We'll see. But yes, the curse Series is making her unimaginably pissed right now.
Dcraus: I do not now nor do I believe I will ever own a PS4.
Guest: You're welcome.
MarauderPrime12: Shouldn't be a problem I would think.
