I'd stomped out of the castle without much of a purpose in mind. Still in my underclothes, I couldn't even be embarrassed, I was so mad. How dare those imbeciles accuse me of something I clearly didn't do?

Something I'd never have even considered doing, at that. I'd always considered defiling someone's body against their will one of the most heinous crimes you could commit. I knew some people from college who'd been through things like that. It left scars on you that could totally ruin your life for years to come. I wouldn't have wished something like that on my worst enemy, much less a party member. So why? Why would they believe that I'd have done something like that? Could they really have believed their own ideas about my class so much, to the point that they'd thought they applied to me?
I had a hard time believing anyone could take a video game so seriously. Then again, I didn't really think this place was a video game, so it was hard to understand their perspective either way.

Shivering as a cold breeze blew past me, I made up my mind to head to the weapons shop first. Hopefully, he'd have my custom order completed already, so I could have something to wear, at least. On the other hand, though, the King had said the citizenry already knew of my 'crimes.' What if the blacksmith had heard about the accusations? He could have canceled my order on moral grounds. Worse, he could have tampered with it, in hopes of acting out some vigilante justice on me.

I knew I probably shouldn't trust him. Going to pick up the order would be putting myself in unnecessary danger. But… well, at the very least, I had to recoup my losses. If he'd cancelled the order, I could try to get my money back from him. I had to try, at the very least.

I made up my mind, and decided to head to the weapons shop. I made my way down the streets of the town, ignoring the dirty looks and murmurs I was getting. After all, the king had told me I'd face no punishment, due to my status as a hero. These people couldn't actually do anything to me other than murmur, and yelling at them to shut up would have only made me look worse. Once I proved the false accusations against me wrong, their opinions would surely change. I couldn't really blame them for hating me, though. If they genuinely believed I was a rapist, of course they would. I had to put it out of my mind.

I came to a stop in front of the weapons shop. Somehow, that stout little building seemed extremely intimidating to me as I gathered my nerve to enter. Still, I couldn't keep standing there, staring at the shabby wooden door. I had to go in. With a deep breath, I pushed the door open and stepped into the weapons shop.

"Oh, wel-" The shopkeeper took a moment to realize who had just entered his shop. Once he saw my face, his face fell. "Oh. It's you." He crossed his arms and gave me a stern look. "Did you really do it? You make me sick, you know that? That poor young lady trusted you. I'm not going to serve you here anymore. I've got morals, you know."

I pursed my lips, trying not to lash out. "I didn't do it," I said, "It was a lie. I'm not that type of guy." It wasn't his fault. As angry as I was, as much as I wanted to let that feeling out, he had no part in what happened. "Look, I can't prove it to you. I understand if you don't want to serve me. But I paid you good money, and I've got more here to give you, to finish our transaction. Either give me my armor or my money back, and I'll be on my way, okay?"

He paused, staring at me with an inscrutable expression. I had no way of knowing what he was thinking, of course, but I got the feeling he might have believed what I said, at least somewhat. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if I believe that," He admitted, "But you're right. You paid me your money, and you get what you paid for. One second.

He stepped into the back of the shop, and came back out with my armor. The first thing about it I noticed was the cloak. A black coat that looked like it would reach down to about my mid-calf with forest green trim, and a thicker band of forest green at the bottom. It had a high collar, with a hood attached. Under that was a chestplate, made of shiny iron. Then, under that layer, was the undershirt. A light green color, it had a balaclava attached to it that could be pulled up over my face. Then, a pair of darker green canvas pants, with sturdy leather boots. To finish it off, metal guards for my lower legs that went up to the knee, my upper arms, and metal bracers for my wrists.

I required a bit of help to get it on. He helped me get on the metal armor over my clothes, and I pulled on the cloak. I put my hood and balaclava up. I was apprehensive about the idea of wearing a cloak, but this was already growing on me. With my ofuda on my back, and my face covered, I might be able to totally hide my identity as the hated Ofuda Hero. Not only that, but the cloak was lined with pockets on the inside, which was a nice touch even though I had an inventory. The stats were impressive as well.

Rogue's Armor

Rarity: R

Equipment Bonus

Defense Up (Medium)

Stealth Up

Forest Camouflage

Elemental Resistance (Minor)

"Well?" The shopkeep asked. Despite how he felt about me, he was clearly proud of his work. I nodded, my arms crossed over my chest.

"It's good," I said, "Very good. Thank you." With the hood and balaclava, I felt more comfortable, somehow. Given I was a hero, I was probably well known enough to be recognized regardless, but somehow, it felt safe.

I set down my money pouch. "We agreed I'd pay half on pickup. Here." I grabbed the 200 silver from the pouch with a sigh. "And, for what it's worth, I didn't do it."

The shopkeeper nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Now get out of here." I did as I was told with a solemn nod, leaving the weapons shop. Now, it was time to grind. I wasn't necessarily low on cash, but I wanted to get a reliable stream of income going as soon as possible. My main concern, however, was my level. I'd need to get it up quickly, before the upcoming wave. If my goal really was to earn the respect of people as a hero, and I felt it still was, then I'd need to put up a good performance in the waves. I headed out into the meadow where me and Myne had been yesterday, intent on grinding a bit.

I created a copy of my Orange Balloon Ofuda, pressing it to the ground and setting the condition for when something passed over it. Then, experimentally, I tried making another copy. Sure enough, another one formed in my hand. So I could make more than one copy at a time? That seemed like a pretty impressive ability. I wondered absentmindedly if there was some hidden cost to that. If I could just make as many copies as I wanted, with no consequences, it would be overpowered, right?

Well, the best way to find out was through practical experience, right? I set up three copies in front of me, all with the same conditions. Then, I started shouting my lungs out, to draw the balloons' attention towards me.

It took a moment of shouting, but I had a few Balloons aggroed onto me. They turned to glare at me with their sharp-toothed countenances, and leaped at me. Two of them went right over my tags, and got blasted up into the air by my traps. I had to point my main ofuda at the third and blast it away myself, as it hadn't gone over the third tag. Sure enough, the main ofuda had definitely made a more powerful blast than the tags. Each of the tags had been less powerful than when I just had one tag, as well. It seemed like the power would be divided up among the copies, so it wouldn't necessarily be feasible to just cover an entire plot of land in traps.

Still, the air bursts had been powerful enough to kill the two balloons regardless. These things really were weak. I picked up their scraps, stowing them away in my inventory, and decided to move further into the meadow. These Orange Balloons weren't giving me any challenge anymore. Still, those last Balloons had given me the final XP points I'd needed to reach level two. I opened my status menu, and found that all my stats had increased by some. Still, none of them were staggeringly high, other than my magic points. I'd noticed magic points being drained whenever my ofuda were used, though the effect was so small it almost immediately regenerated. Creating copies had a bigger drain, but the effect was still pretty weak. I went to put a point into my air blast skill, but found that the Orange Balloon Ofuda hadn't gotten enough XP to level up. So, they only got XP when being directly used?

I'd have to focus on leveling this ofuda, before trying to level up others, if I wanted it to be really powerful. I moved deeper into the meadow, looking for some stronger monsters.

I spotted a red balloon, with its back turned to me. It was still a balloon, just a different color. Did that mean it was a more difficult monster? I made a copy of my air blast ofuda in my hand, but an idea came to mind. Rather than setting it onto the ground, I set the condition to have the ofuda go off after five seconds. Then, I threw the ofuda. It sailed through the air unnaturally well, given it was just a piece of paper, and landed right behind the Red Balloon. It turned to roar at me, but just then, the ofuda went off and the Balloon was blasted up into the air.

While it was falling, I quickly set another ofuda onto the ground before me and jumped back. The Red Balloon had survived the First Air Burst skill, so the battle wasn't over. When the Balloon finally landed, it bounced towards me. The secondary ofuda, which had the condition of something passing over it, went off as soon as the Balloon did so. The second air burst still wasn't enough to pop it, and it continued towards me. Who knew changing the color of a balloon would increase its durability so much?

I stepped back, gripping my main ofuda as the Red Balloon finally managed to jump towards me. "First Air Burst!" I called, sending a bullet of air from the front of my ofuda and knocking the Red Balloon back. In the end, it took five total air bursts to take that one balloon out. I went over and picked up the red balloon scraps.

Damn, and it still only gave me one XP. Even with the strength difference being so big? So it didn't matter what type of balloon I was killing, they'd only give me one XP regardless.

I absorbed the Balloon skins into the ofuda. A Red Balloon Ofuda was unlocked, but I couldn't access it. It looked like there was a step between Orange and Red that I hadn't gotten, and without that I wouldn't be able to use the Red Balloon Ofuda. I glanced around the meadow. There must have been another color of balloon I hadn't killed yet, that would act as that missing link.

It didn't take long to find it. A yellow balloon, rolling through the brush. Not red, and not orange. I used much the same process as I had for the other balloons, and the yellow one was just as easily dispatched. It seemed odd, to me, that it would be yellow between red and orange. If you looked at a color gradient, yellow would be first, not orange, right? Well, it's not like it mattered to me either way. Obviously these monsters' power was based on some kind of magic, so who knew where the logic even came from.

I absorbed the yellow balloon skins, and sure enough, the Yellow Balloon Ofuda was unlocked, and subsequently, the Red Balloon Ofuda as well. Both of them required level 2 to be used, but I had already reached that, so that obviously wasn't an issue. I opened the Yellow Balloon Ofuda's stats menu.

Yellow Balloon Ofuda

XP: 0/50

Level 1

Rarity C

Skills:
Basic Attack (0/5)

First Air Blast (0/5)

All First Cyclone (0/5)

Interesting. Rather than making the basic spells that the orange one had better, it gained a new spell. All First Cyclone sounded rather powerful to me. Still, if the yellow balloon ofuda was better than orange, surely the red one would be better than both of them. I switched to check the stats of that one as well.

Red Balloon Ofuda

XP: 0/50

Level 1
Rarity UC

Skills:
Basic Attack (0/5)

Zweit Air Blast (0/5)
All Zweit Cyclone (0/5)

Aha. So this one was a direct upgrade from the yellow, then. I didn't know what Zweit was, but I assumed it had to be a step up from first. First was probably beginner level magic, and Zweit would be more advanced. Oddly, there was another step in the Balloon branch of my weapons tree. Even after looking around the meadow for a while, I only saw orange, red, and yellow balloons. Maybe that meant there was a more powerful species of this monster elsewhere?

I disregarded that. At level two, I wasn't sure I wanted to go out looking for trouble with more powerful monsters. It was a better idea to spend my time grinding for levels and collecting monster drops. I checked my inventory. I'd collected a good number of orange, yellow, and red balloon skins. Would these things sell? Surely there must be someone out there buying monster parts. I decided to worry about that later on in the day. For now, I set my mind to grind mode, and decided to kill as many balloons as I could. Wanting to test out its power, I switched to the Red Balloon Ofuda.

When I tried to create a copy, I immediately noticed something. I felt a drain on my body, like a moment of severe fatigue. It slowly began to fade away as I stood there for a moment. I glanced at my status bars. Just creating one clone of the All Zweit Cyclone spell had taken about a quarter of my magic power! That worried me a bit, as my magic power was basically my most remarkable stat right now. This must have really been a step up from the air blasts I'd been cloning before. Presumably, it wouldn't drain so much at higher levels, but for now, it was a bit costly for my tastes. Still, the good thing was that it didn't take any more magic to actually activate the tags once they were created. All the magic the spell needed was pumped into it right when I cloned it, so it could go unused for as long as I wanted and it would still work.

I put the All Zweit Cyclone tag on a ten second activation timer, and tossed it into the midst of a small group of yellow balloons, wanting to see how effective it was. Once the ten second timer ran down, a cyclone erupted from the tag and swept around in a circle. The powerful winds buffeted the balloons, sending them flying into the air. I managed to pop three or four, just with that one spell! Sure, it might take more mana to actually copy this red ofuda, but it would be worth it since I'd be killing more enemies at once.

I spent the rest of the day exterminating the meadow's population of balloons. I managed to level up to level four by the time the sun went down, and my Red Balloon Ofuda had reached level 3.

Red Balloon Ofuda

XP: 22/200

Level 3
Rarity: UC

Skills:

Basic Attack(0/5)

Zweit Air Burst (0/5)

All Zweit Cyclone(2/5)

Reset: (2/10)

Oddly, after I had put my two skill points into All Zweit Cyclone, a new thing had popped up. Reset, eh? It was probably like the prestige system from a gacha game. Once I'd put 10 skill points into the red balloon ofuda's skills, I'd be able to reset it, and give it better stats or new skills. It was a pretty simple system that was seen in a lot of mobile games, and while I didn't really play them a lot, even I knew of things like it. Still, I'd have to level it up ten times before I'd be able to reset it, which would definitely take a while.

Still, the sun was going down. I decided to postpone any more grinding for the next day, and headed back into town. My first order of business was to find a merchant that would buy my balloon skins off me. I had plenty of them stored up in my inventory, and I wanted to offload them for cash as soon as I possibly could. I hated having my inventory clogged up with useless items, and as far as I could tell, these balloon skins were definitely useless.

I spotted an adventurer, holding up some balloon skins in front of a wooden stall. Perfect. Exactly what I had been looking for.

"C'mon, how much for all these?" The adventurer asked. The man behind the stall studied the balloon skin for a moment. "How does 2 pieces for one copper sound?" The adventurer grins. "Sounds good!" That was a pretty good rate, in my opinion, for a monster that was so easy to kill. I had a bit more than two hundred balloon skins in my inventory, so I'd be getting at least two silver pieces at that rate. Not a terrible deal. Still, the real money is never in selling raw materials, nor is it in just dumping all your items to the first shopkeeper you see. I'd need to learn some crafting recipes, and sell them to the right people, if I wanted to have an actual income.

The adventurer turned and left, happily clutching his newly earned money, and I stepped forward. I held out my hand, pulling out my balloon skins from the jewel at the top of my ofuda, and setting the pile down on the counter of the stall. "There's two hundred and six," I said, "Just give me one silver and three copper."

The merchant shot me a nasty look. "Actually," He said with a smirk, "The rate is one copper for ten balloon skins, now. I only owe you 20 copper." I gritted my teeth. Not only was he giving me a way worse rate than the guy before me, for no real reason, he even rounded it down when it should have rounded up. I should have left my hood and balaclava on, but for some reason, I had removed them when I came back into town.

"Look," I said, "I don't care what you think about me. I'm sure you have to make money, but I'm not just going to let you get away with scamming me. Give me the same rate as the guy from before. You bought them off him at a rate of one copper for two. It's only fair that I get the same."
The merchant scratched his chin, pretending to be confused. "Really? I don't remember doing anything like that…" I was pissed, to say the least. I reached behind the counter, grabbing an empty wooden bowl. I tossed it up in the air, turned my ofuda on it, and hit it with a Zweit Air Burst, shattering it into pieces.

"Listen, buddy." I glared at him as he watched, shocked, the wooden fragments of his bowl clattering onto the street. "If you don't want to lay down on your bed tonight and have that happen to your head, you'll give me the rate, and you'll be happy to do it. I can clone this ofuda and slip one under your pillow. It'll go off when you lay your swollen head on it, and paint the ceiling with your gray matter." The merchant was gaping at me, eyes filled with horror. "Give me a silver piece and I'll be on my way. You can keep the three copper to replace that bowl. I'm a fair guy like that."

He stared at me for a moment like that, probably trying to figure out if I was bluffing. His heart must have been racing. Even though I hadn't touched him, he was breathing heavily. Obviously, the mix of the imagery and the threat had sufficiently terrified him. After another moment, he relented. "Fine," He said, grabbing a piece of silver and slamming it onto the counter, dragging the balloon skins back. "Now leave."
I took the silver, slipping it into my money pouch. "Make sure the other merchants around town know what will happen if they try to scam me, okay?" He nodded, quiet. "A merchant's most important asset is having their customer's trust. It would be bad for your business if it got out you tried to scam a hero, right? Even this hero."

He didn't say anything, but I knew that must have hit home to some degree. After all, there was absolutely no way everyone around here hated me. Even the most controversial people always had some fans. Believing I'd gotten my message acrossed, I turned and headed over to the inn where I'd been staying. I rented a room for another night, ignoring the hateful looks I got from other patrons, and headed into my room.

Then, I properly secured the entire room. I cloned my Zweit Air Burst a few times. One was set on each windowsill, and another in front of the door. I also put one under my money bag, the same as the trap I had used on that first night. Finally feeling secure, I managed to get to sleep.

The next day, after dismantling all my traps and eating a cheap breakfast set, I headed out into the meadow once more. This time, I was intent on collecting some crafting materials. After all, I thought, that was definitely where the real money was. Crafting recipes would usually increase the value rather than just selling ingredients.

I headed out into the meadow, and began to collect things. Leaves, grasses, anything that looked like it could be useful to me. I stored them away in my weapon's inventory, and even unlocked a new ofuda.

Leaf Ofuda

XP: 0/50

Level: 1

Rarity: C

Skills:
Basic Attack(0/5)

Absorption 1 (Locked)

Odd. That Absorption skill didn't have a level next to it. Instead, it just said, 'locked.' What could that mean? I opened my help menu and scrolled for a bit, trying to find a tip that applied.

Equip Bonuses and Abilities: Abilities are special skills that can only be used with the weapon they are attached to equipped. These abilities can be leveled up using skill points, allowing them to become more powerful than before. Equip Bonuses are special abilities associated with a weapon. By leveling up the weapon they are associated with, the Equip Bonus can be unlocked, which allows it to be used with any weapon equipped.

Huh. So where I'd need to have the Red Balloon Ofuda equipped to use the Zweit Air Burst skill, if I could unlock the Absorption 1 thing, I'd have it on all my ofudas. Interesting. It seemed like a good way of incentivising using the ofuda outside of combat. That was probably why the Balloon ones hadn't had any equip bonuses- it would be too easy to level them up. Still, I didn't really know what Absorption 1 meant at all. Would it let me absorb energy, or something? I'd gotten this skill by gathering plants, maybe it had something to do with that?

I reached down to pick up a clump of grass with the Leaf Ofuda in my offhand, wanting to see if my theory was correct.

Absorption 1 - Aelo Quality Up

Aelo quality: fair upgraded to great

Aelo: A simple medicinal herb for treating wounds.

Sure enough. That seemed like a pretty good ability to have. I did wonder if it worked on all items, or just grass, though. For example, if I were to mine for ores, would it upgrade their quality as well, or would that be a different ability?

I began walking around, picking various grasses. It wasn't difficult work, but it was interesting. I began to get an eye for the plants that were naturally higher quality. They had a better color to them, or they stood taller than the plants around them. Even the smell of the higher quality ingredients was noticeably more pleasant. By only gathering the ingredients that were naturally good, I could make the best of the absorption ability.

After spending the whole day like that, I'd apparently gathered enough to unlock the ability. I swapped back to my Red Balloon Ofuda, but nothing in its stats screen had changed. I bent down to pick up some Aelo, and Absorption 1 activated, as expected. It must not have been showing just to reduce the clutter. If you unlocked a ton of equip bonuses, it would be hard to display them all.

Satisfied with the day's progress, I headed back into town. I'd find an apothecary to sell the high quality ingredients at. Hopefully, a potion crafter would see the quality and pay me properly. It didn't take long to find one, either. This was a town of adventurers, so there was obviously bound to be plenty of merchants selling potions and weapons.

I stepped inside a small apothecary, and walked straight towards the counter. I pulled out most of the herbs I'd collected from the day, setting them down on the counter. Large clumps of herbs and mushrooms, all of them of Great quality at the least. "I want to sell these. I can assure you, they're all high quality ingredients." The woman who runs the shop shot me a skeptical look at that, picking up some of the herbs to examine them.

Once she did, however, her attention was immediately drawn to them. "Where did you get these? I've never seen so many high quality ingredients brought in at once."

I chuckled. "Just in the meadow around here. What, you didn't know?" Of course, she had no way of getting ingredients this good out of the meadow, but I didn't want to lie and say I knew some secret place.

"Really?" She peers back down at them. "I didn't know there were ingredients this good out there. It's impressive. I'll definitely buy them off you."

We haggled over the price for a while, but in the end I managed to get two silvers and a handful of copper for the whole stash. Not bad, all things considered, and definitely more profitable than the balloon farming business. I headed back to the inn to have dinner, then.

When I sat down, a group of unsavory looking characters came up to me. "Hey, Ofuda!" Said the biggest, dumbest looking one of the bunch. "We're adventurers! We want to join up with your party! How about it?"

I shook my head. While it would be nice to have a party, and I'd definitely feel safer moving past the meadow if I did, I didn't like the looks of these guys. "If you were such great adventurers," I said, "You wouldn't be coming over here, begging to get into my party. Given that, I don't see what use you'd be to me."

They obviously weren't expecting that. The big guy looks pretty mad at my remark about his skills. "Oh, we're good adventurers, alright." He says. "Besides, you don't fight straight on, you need to set traps. You need someone to do the fighting for you, right?"

Again, I shook my head. The implication that I couldn't fight for myself really ticked me off. "No, I don't. Listen, I can fight on my own just fine, alright? Why don't you get lost, okay?"

The big guy slammed his hand down onto the table in front of me. "Listen, coward! Just give me your money before I have to take it from you!" I sighed, making a show of it. Surreptitiously, with my hands hidden beneath the table, I slipped an Air Burst Ofuda into my money pouch, on a 20 second timer.

"Fine," I said, setting the pouch down. "You can have it." With an eager grin on his face, he picked it up and pulled it open. Reaching in, he grabbed the ofuda and pulled it out, holding it up in front of him.

"Hey, what's th-" He's cut off by an air blast to the face. I, mercifully, didn't use my Zweit Air Burst, so his head isn't blown off. Still, it sent him tumbling backwards, and forced him to drop my money bag. I grabbed it off the floor, my face neutral, and turned to his partners. "What about you guys? Do you want my money too?" They quickly make themselves scarce.

I shot the leader a glance. His nose was definitely broken, and his face would be bruised to hell tomorrow, but he was fine otherwise. I stood, left my payment for dinner on the table, and exited the inn. The guy did have a point. While I could fight on my own just fine, having a party member or two would be a big help to me. Maybe I could find someone who'd want to join up with me at another bar?
As I made my way through the streets, I happened to pass through a seedier part of town. As I did, a rather sleazy looking man in a suit spotted and obviously recognized me. He called out, "Sir, you seem troubled. I believe I could be of some assistance."

I got a shiver down my spine.