Author's Note: Not a hell of a lot to say right now, Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and none of you get sick in the next week, I'm a few days away from being vaccinated.
Chapter 50: Before the Third Wave
"You bring me some strange stuff sometimes kid." Rifana had given Setsuna's tooth sword to Raphtalia, who together with Naofumi was having Erhard examine it. The Black Smith thought Naofumi was joking when he said that Setsuna made the damned thing by having her spear convert one of her teeth into loot, but examining it closer he realised there was no trace of metal here, only enamel, calcium and other minerals which in turn led him to the horrified realisation that no he wasn't joking. "What the hell did the King summon?" Erhard started looking at Naofumi like he was the monster whose tooth this blade was made out of.
"Think you can do anything with it?" Naofumi asked uncaring of the fact that Erhard was looking at him like he was some kind of monster.
"I'd rather not. Reusing the same material over and over again is just going to lower it's quality, I can add the blood clean coating but not much else." Erhard took out a bottle of oil as he prepared the coating. "That said if you brought me one of the little doggy missus's teeth for me to work with later I wouldn't be opposed."
"A lot later. She said it takes three days for them to grow back and some how I don't think she's gonna be all that quick to part with them. That said there is something I wanted to test out anyway." Naofumi took out one of the accessories he made and put it on the floor before stepping away. "Do it."
The accessory was one for firing off fire magic, useless for him, expensive to create, but if it does what he thinks it does, totally worth it. Raphtalia brought her sword down and stabbed it through the accessory, a moment later a notification flashed through her H.U.D. and she tapped it with her eye. The sword in her hands erupted into flame.
"Holy flying crap!" Erhard snapped seeing the fire of the blade and understanding what it meant. The thing just ate a accessory! "The hell did you do!"
"Well now this has potential." If the Inugami shield has the same power well... that would be something now wouldn't it? "Alright the next wave should be hitting us soon, what can you do to upgrade my armour?"
Erhard's mental processes screaming to a halt he calmed himself down as he got down to business. Naofumi brought him the bones from the monsters he collected in the mountains, chief among them the ones from what his shield told him was the boss, Erhard would grind them to dust and electroplate them to his armour. Raphtalia got a new breast plate too, steel replacing leather, Filo received a pair of gloves to wear underneath a new set of claws, apparently jealous that Yuki got a new weapon and not her the gloves would dramatically enhance strength, because her stats weren't high enough before, while the claws would mount sharp pointy things onto the end of those dramatically enhanced muscles.
"These bones smell awful, where'd you get them from?"
"Best not to know." Naofumi's next stop was the forest, he intended to grind with Fohl and Atla and then come back to the castle town to pick up his armour.
"I said no!" Fohl snapped looming over the younger girl he was currently trying to keep out of the forest.
"Brother, Master Naofumi told us that we're going into the woods to grind together with him." Atla stated making it very clear this was not a negotiation.
"No means no!"
"Oi Fohl, what seems to be the problem?" Naofumi walked up to the over protective elder brother glaring at him for causing him problems.
"Tell Atla she can't go grinding with us!" Fohl's seal activated, Naofumi does not appreciate getting smack talk from his slaves.
"Fohl, what you fail to realise is that grinding is what's best for Atla's continued improvements to her health. Her blindness, not to mention whatever complications her body is going through that keeps her from rapid maturing, stems from her human blood." Naofumi stated though he seemed to have offended the little tiger cub all over again.
"Don't you dare talk about our mother that way!" And Fohl received another zap as punishment for his blatant back talk.
"Fohl, do you want Atla to spend the rest of her life blinded, to never witness the sun rise? To never step into a field of Sun Flowers and admire their beauty? The disease you didn't inherit did that. A class up can fix that, but she needs levels to do that." Naofumi explained in clear and certain terms.
"That doesn't mean that she should be putting herself in danger!" Fohl snapped again.
"You say that, but she's stronger than you are." Naofumi stated simply with a shrug of his shoulders as if his statement made all the sense in the world.
"Bull! You said yourself that my stats are higher than hers." Fohl snapped again.
"Yes on paper you have the higher ability, and yet..." Naofumi removed one of the commands he had placed on Atla, this one telling her not to attack her brother.
"Understood." Atla grabbed hold of Fohl by his wrist and proceeded to toss him around like a rag-doll.
"Her natural talent with manipulating Ki means that she can take those higher stats and use them against you, she legitimately wants to become stronger, to do that she will be levelling, if you want to protect her make sure she does it within smelling distance as opposed to sneaking out on her own to do it by herself." Naofumi took out a potion bottle and dumped it's contents on Fohl's body healing him up.
"Ugh." The still very cub like Fohl jumped to his feet as the wandered through the woods with Naofumi.
"After the wave is done you and me are going to do some sparring Atla." Naofumi stated prompting a beaming smile to appear on Atla's face. "I need to learn-"
"Are you trying to hurt Atla!?" Fohl shouted once again prompting a eye roll from Naofumi. Without a word Naofumi spun around and slammed his fist into Fohl's face, he instinctively blocked the punch, visibly confused by how weak it was.
"I need to learn some of what you can do. Any thing to make up for the pitiful attack power this thing gives me." Naofumi made his point clear to Fohl, can't hurt them by fighting, he could use the slave seal to kill them though. But sparring with a guy who can't throw a punch to save his life was better then monster hunting.
"I will see it done Master. But... how?" Atla asked again not entirely understanding how what she did what she did.
"Punch me. A lot." Naofumi stated as they found their first target, Balloons. Why is it always balloons?
Ikki was currently sparring with a woman the Queen had released from the dungeon, one of the noble women the King has put under house arrest ostentatiously for their own protection. The daughter of the Seatto House hold apparently, which also made her the daughter of the lord who use to run Raphtalia's village.
"You're good." Ikki slammed the butt of his Iron sword into his opponent's, Eclair's, stomach knocking her to the ground.
"I'm better." Eclair had apparently come in fourth place in the most recent sword fighting tournament in Melromarc. Which while admittedly impressive, Ikki already beat and absorbed the techniques of the top three.
"I suppose I should be happy that the wielder of the legendary sword at least knows how to use it." Eclair stated, a rather bitter look on her features.
"While this is nice and all your majesty, is there any point to it?" Ikki asked as he helped Eclair to her feet.
"I was hoping one of the four of you would be willing to take Miss Seatto into your parties." The Queen stated, noting that Eclair's failure to impress Ikki was within her expectations.
"A odd request to make. Should I assume that it has political implications?" Ikki asked looking at the queen suspiciously.
"It's good that you understand. Eclair's father was one of the biggest supporters of Demi-human rights in this country. If it looks like we're trying to improve relations by setting up his daughter with one of you then things might progress more smoothly with our Demi-human neighbours." Queen stated prompting a open mouthed look of outrage on Eclair's face.
"You do realise my party is already full right? More than full when you take into account the old lady and my Kirin." Ikki asked looking at the queen suspiciously.
"In comparison to the Shield Hero, you are still somewhat lacking in terms of party members." 8 compared to 40. It wasn't even a fair comparison, still had more then what Setsuna and Tatsuya had.
"Why not ask one of them?" Ikki asked scratching his head in confusion.
"I intend to, Tatsuya mentioned that he was looking for someone who can use support and water magic to help him in his C.A.D. development for the four of you." The Queen explained smirking knowingly.
"I have water and support type magic. Apologies for interrupting you majesty." Eclair stated adding the apology on the end out of formality after a pause.
"My point being. That said given her own natural talent for the blade I thought you would like to give miss Eclair a few pointers to help improve herself." The Queen explained apparently not remotely upset she was interrupted.
"She wasn't taught by someone who knows how women fight." Ikki noted bluntly. "Though skilled her movements used more brute strength in her upper body and less flexibility in her lower body. It's a common mistake I'm afraid."
"And this other style of fighting is better suited to her than the one she is currently using?" The Queen asked curiously.
"There are a few other openings as well, but yes." Ikki stated bluntly leaving Eclair with the feeling that she was being insulted.
"And you've been learning the Hengen Musou style too?" The Queen asked watching Eclair's eyes light up.
"I've learned the basics yes, but now that I have I think I have more to learn from Setsuna then the old lady." Point and Drain, these were the techniques Granny had shown him, one to bounce around the insides of her enemies to deal massive damage and one which could grab hold of the Ki still in a enemies body and drain it from them.
Ikki was Naofumi's opposite, lots of offensive power, but weak in defence, techniques like Backlash wave was a good start for making up for his appalling defensive power.
"Hengen musou!" Eclair was in shock. "You couldn't be in this world for more than two months! You've mastered that legendary fighting in such a short period of time!?"
"Mastered isn't the right word I would use. Setsuna has been doing something like this her entire life, and she has already outlived me as a old man." Ikki stated prompting a look of shock from Eclair. "Is Setsuna's species not yet common knowledge?"
"Species?" Eclair asked, if the sword hero had made friends with a Demi-human she didn't see what the big deal was. The Queen was just talking a moment ago about trying to mend relationships between Melromarc and the Demi-human nations.
"At this point most people still think her name is Kagome." The Queen stated amused at the face screw Eclair had made.
"Kagome? As in the Hero of the Spear Kagome?" Oh Eclair did not like that one bit. "But I thought all there Heroes were suppose to be human?"
"Kagome is human, part human anyway or so she says." Ikki explained though Eclair's face didn't go back to normal yet. "She also has a bad habit of turning into a forty foot long wolf and eating people she doesn't like." Eclair's face warped in horror.
A loud howling sound echoed as a magic spell was fired from the weapon that Tatsuya had Erhard build for him, fired by Rishia in this case. After he copied it he had no further use for it so Tatsuya re-tuned it to work with Rishia's magic, leaving her mouth wide open in mortal terror at what she was shooting off.
"...Is this a normal weapon of your world?" Rishia asked as she struggled to process this situation.
"They're usually smaller and a lot easier to use." Tatsuya explained as he held up the Silver Horn for reference. "In any case, the kick on that last one looked like it dealt some damage. I'll need to reprogram it again." Tatsuya noted scratching his chin. "Let's head back to the castle for now."
The room Rishia and Tatsuya shared in the castle was mostly converted into a C.A.D. Lab for Tatsuya to work with. In place of a door Tatsuya had a giant slab of stone in front of the door, when he wants to get in he vaporises everything but the bottom few inches, then once inside of the room proper he'd use regrowth. The windows had long since been nailed shut, along with any secret passages that someone had long since installed here. Once he was confident that no one would attempt to sneak in here and steal his stuff Tatsuya set up a satellite laboratory in the castle. Mounting the rifle C.A.D. on a stand Tatsuya plugged it into the slab of enchanted stone that passed for a computer in this world and began typing on a set of key's to correct it's programming, movement magic to redirect the force of the kick forward to propel the shot, any number of magic projectiles such as earth, water, wind, fire, lightning, light and darkness. Combined with the spear for mid range combat, the shield for defence, and the sword for close quarters combat and Rishia should be able to take any position on the battlefield. Speaking of which he should probably check on how Setsuna is doing with the spear.
The answer as it turned out was not at all, the half demon was currently trying, and failing, to figure out how to work the car that Naofumi had brought back with him from Shieldfreeden, evidently it had peaked her curiosity. That said, she was getting a little bit frustrated.
"Ugh!"
"I can show you how to work that." Setsuna turned her attention to Tatsuya as he walked over to the frustrated spear hero sitting in the driver's seat, by the looks of things she hasn't figure out how to turn the car on yet.
"That would be appreciated, based on what Naofumi had said this technology is still a few hundred years ahead of me." Setsuna stated looking at the car suspiciously.
"But first, I would like to know that your Spear C.A.D. functions the way I intend it to." Tatsuya stated making his intentions clear.
If there is a problem with the spear he intended to figure out what it was before the wave hit. The half demon and the weapons manufacturer drove the car out to the fields outside of Melromarc, the one full of Balloons. Setsuna switched her legendary spear over to the Spear C.A.D. Tatsuya had built for her. Letting her magic flow into it the familiar balls of fire formed in a cube around the spear before Setsuna eyed a target in the distance.
"Fire Flare! Air Strike Throw! Second Throw!" The Spear howled as it split in two and flew over the field and Setuna added more skills. "Chaos Thrust! Brionac!" The spears went berserk as they started jerking off randomly spitting out blasts of holy power all over the field in addition to the raging fire balls. As long as she didn't hit anything with it it wouldn't return to her, or so she had observed, and thank's to Tatsuya's little project it could be remote controlled as it flew through the air dumping violence on everything in sight. One slight problem though. "I can't see what it's doing, I have to rely on keeping it within visual range." Setsuna stated making her displeasure with her observation quite clear.
"Yes I could see how that can be a issue." Tatsuya held his chin as he thought about how to fix the issue. "Do I modify the spear? No take too much time." Then as if having a eureka moment he snapped his fingers. "We make a video crystal accessory and attach it to the spear! But I don't have the capabilities to do that..."
"Wasn't Naofumi going around being a merchant selling shit like that?" Setsuna questioned cocking a suspicious look at Tatsuya.
"Yes that could work." Only if they didn't manage to kill Naofumi first.
Setsuna's spear was flying over the forest unleashing fire blasts and skills every where. Naofumi's eye twitched as he glared hatefully at the spear in question.
"Air Strike shield." The Green floating Shield appeared directly in front of the rampaging spears and they both blew up.
Setsuna's spear reappeared in her hand as she looked at Tatsuya suspiciously.
"Anything else?" The Hanyo would like to give driving that car a try now.
"Rishia could fly around riding on that thing." Tatsuya commented leaving Setsuna legitimately stunned.
"...sure why not?" As a start Setsuna held the weapon out in front of her. "Fire Flare!" The familiar skill activated again, this time hovering in place on the fire orb that had appeared on the bottom corner of the spear. Setsuna climbed onto the C.A.D. weapon broom stick style before taking off through the air propelled along by the fire jets.
"Hmm. She's taken to the weapon better then I expected. Does the spear have some sort of auto tune function that automatically adjusts whatever program is in place to the wielder?" Setsuna began doing trick moves in the air, standing on the spear like it was a skateboard, flipping around through the air, doing spins, shooting straight up into the sky and overall looking like she was having a lot of fun. After an hour or so Setsuna's mana supply had been exhausted and she plummeted back to the ground, super human legs which could cover a mile a second easily preventing serious injury.
"Any more tests you wanna run?"
"Without any of your mana? No. We can work on the car now." Thus Tatsuya shared such wonders of the modern world with Setsuna such as the push button start, brake and gas pedals, steering, and automatic shift.
After some initial difficulty Setsuna had taken to the machine like a fish to water and enjoyed cruising along the roads of Melromarc. Once they were done Setsuna had stored the car inside of a warehouse Tatsuya had been using to store the various materials for his own research.
The five of them and their forces agreed to meet here before the wave hit, the Four Heroes and the Queen. She was dressed in plate mail armour over her chest area and a chain mail and plate skirt, the rest of her was covered in pleated carbon spider silk gambeson, every bit as strong as the material that made up Setsuna's new car. The Queen sat atop a war Filolial, sort of like a normal Filolial except taller with bigger leg muscles and covered in plate and chain-mail.
"Apologies for this Sir Heroes, but I've chosen to bring my youngest along as well." The nearby armour plated carriage opened up to reveal a familiar blue haired girl who was sitting with Trash.
"Oh wow!" Young Melty's eyes blew up wide as she looked at the royal Filolial form of Filo. "A Filolial!"
"Is she talking about Filo?" Filo asked as her head cutely tilted to the side.
"A talking Filolial!" The Queen's bird showed just a tiny amount of jealously as he watched the Queen's youngest run up to and slather attention on the other bird.
"You're bringing your kid along?" Naofumi asked giving the queen the stink eye.
"If my calculations are correct then Melty should actually be a bit older then Raphtalia. I know for a fact she's older then your Filolial." The Queen stated fully aware of the hypocrisy of that statement Naofumi had made and sniping him ruthlessly for it.
"I am not a child!" Raphtalia stated before she slammed her fist into the wall hard enough to leave a rather sizeable welt in it. "And I can more then handle myself!"
"Quite right you are. But if you will forgive a mother her paranoia..." The Queen snapped her fan shut, clearly all seriousness as she made her point. "The last line of defence for the royal family, is the royal family. Currently I have a mentally unhinged daughter, armed with one of the most powerful weapons this world has ever known and possessing stats that would allow her to take on a army of normal men, who doubtlessly believes that she can take the throne if she eliminates all other candidates to inherit as well as the current Queen. So yes, myself and my daughter are going to be taking advantage of the XP that is about to rain from the sky and use it to increase our stats to the point that she will not be able to easily kill us."
"You do realise that she has super high stats too, and a vassal weapon on top of that right? The four of our combined human growth bonuses might not be enough." Ikki pointed out having no idea what having this vassal weapon meant for Malty or the implications therein.
"Which is the reason why we will be employing more than the one growth bonus." A nearby Shadow came in, having already prepared a table and a bottle of slave ink for the branding ceremony.
"You want us to enslave your daughter?" Tatsuya asked scarcely believing what he was seeing. "Close I want you to enslave the both of us." The Queen stated as she handed Naofumi the knife for the ceremony.
"Mother!" Melty clearly was not informed ahead of time about this scheme.
Naofumi ran the numbers through his head. From Ikki and Tatsuya each she could get +50% growth bonus each, from himself and Setsuna she could nab +25% each, this totalled 153% growth for each level up. After a single level they would already exceed the strength of a forty, after four more they'd be on par with a 100, these two had the potential to be a couple of the most terrifying women in the world by the end of all this.
"I haven't unlocked any slave growth bonuses just so you guys know." Ikki stated as he fed slave ink to his sword. "Might as well max out their proficiency now and get it over with." And by doing so Ikki made a surprising revelation.
'Slave Ink Sword. Equip Bonus Slave Growth Bonus +10% Forced Unlock'
"...it seems that I can forcibly unlock equip bonuses by transferring proficiency into unused weapons." Geez that would have been nice to have known two months ago!
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Thank you for saying so. Takt programmed his weapon stealing accessories to bring his weapons to his allies in the event of his death, which in this case happens to include Malty.
drmcgraw186: Unless of course there was a very real concern that if she suddenly lost her stats from her level ups while thick in the depths of the effects of the curse she would've died. This is Malty we're talking about.
Guest: All good guesses.
Dcraus: Decent idea but it's like the... third place for ideas for a story I want to do now.
Dakota Bruder: Considering his animal friends ability I think it would be something like the 'King of Beasts' or the like.