"Heroes of the divine weapons, please save our world!" Those were the first words the Shield hero heard after he regained consciousness.
'Have I left the TV turned on for the night? No wait, where the fuck am I?' When he stood up and turned around to take a quick look at his surroundings he noticed he was in a dim room slightly brightened by torches. There were some weird people in cloaks with deep hoods standing under the wall and 3 teenagers laying on the floor near him. 'Holy shit, I was kidnapped. Who are they? Common thugs, terrorists, organized crime groups that will slaughter us to get organs for transplants?' Dark thoughts immediately started crowding through the head of the Shield Hero. 'At least they are not hostile for now.'
Other heroes started to come to their senses with questioning looks on their faces and started to look around as well. As the situation looked safe for the moment, the Shield Hero decided to take action. For their benefit and also to make sure that he heard right, what was previously stated he asked: "Could you repeat what you just said? I'm not sure I was awake enough to understand it."
One of the hooded figures made one step forward and bowed deeply. "Our kingdom is in dire need of your help, revered heroes. The waves of the catastrophe have started, and without you, our fate would be sealed."
After hearing this, other heroes reacted in a way, which made the shield hero stunned with a slightly opened mouth. "You have the nerve to ask for our help after you forcefully summoned us to this world? Who do you think we are, some random slaves that can be ordered around?"
To quickly add to what was said by the Sword hero, the other teenager with a long spear in his hand said: "Yeah, don't even think about having us work for free…" Before he was able to take a breath, the last hero jumped with a statement of his own to add insult to injury: "I'm the wielder of justice itself, I won't help you, if I find you nefarious."
The hooded man started to explain the situation further to the summoned heroes, but the shield hero heard nothing of it. Locked in astonishment for the pure absurdity of the whole situation, his brain took his time to comprehend this ordeal. 'Ok, so what do we know? I'm in an unknown location with people in weird clothes that ask for help and 3 teenagers with zero level of self-preservation instincts and the attitude of spoiled celebrities.' Some memories started to get back to him. 'But hell, how did I get here? Last thing I remember – I was flying for the meeting with a client to present our new product.' A quick look at his clothes confirmed that he was still wearing a dark business suit and black shirt. Right beside his right leg was his business case with an open laptop still lying on top of it. 'Oh, right I fell asleep during the flight after reading this fun-fiction…' At this moment his look landed on the shield on his right arm.
The calm and analytical train of thought was no more. In its place appeared a Bugatti Veyron, which tried to overcome its technical limitations and reach first cosmic velocity. 'I'm a fucking shield hero!' This shut his gaping mouth immediately and made him get back to reality.
It would seem some consensus has been achieved as the hooded weirdos followed by the other heroes left the room. The last of them turned around with a hand on the pommel of his sword and asked: "Are you coming or what?" That finally shook the shield hero out of his shock and made him answer: "Sure, right behind you".
Introductions'Looks like a castle of sorts.' After putting his laptop back in his shoulder bag, Shield hero caught up to the rest of the party and followed them through corridors and staircases. Leaving the summoning room allowed him to observe and contemplate interior decoration of the other chambers. What he initially classified as some basement in a ruined building turned out to be part of a medieval castle.
'So far so good. It seems that everything is in accordance with the fun-fiction I read.' Immediately after verbalizing this conclusion, another thought struck him quick and hard: 'Oh shit, if this is going to be just like in the novel, then they are going to start roasting my precious bottom the day after tomorrow.' The suddenly stressed shield hero was quick to conclude, that if he wanted not only to survive in this world but also prosper on a similar level as in his original, then he will have to take care of himself and do it fast.
"Behind this door is the throne room. Please don't keep the king waiting". After that the speaking hood, as the shield bearer called him in his thoughts, opened the door and moved aside.
The throne room was decorated with two clear purposes in mind – wealth and power. Various armaments on the walls, sculptures and paintings, big windows brightening the chamber with expensive curtains on each side and jewelry which sparkled in rays of the late afternoon sun. To top it off the whole room was drowning in the heavy smell of burned wax, which appeared to be coming from the big chandeliers.
The king was seated in a large throne at the end of the room and tried to radiate nothing but a regal and noble constitution of his position.
In the shield hero's mind however only one thought prevailed: 'What a fake. If I was supposed to sign a contract with him I would start looking for another job… Hold on, and why wouldn't I do just that?'
"Bingo!" To his surprise he said it out loud. To not let that paint himself in a negative light he proceeds: "I'm sorry your majesty, I just thought that you look exactly as the embodiment of your title." With a fake smile and even faker respect in his bow the Shield hero turned his verbal slip up to his advantage. At least he thought he did.
With the full ignore mode activated, the king addressed the newcomers. "Welcome to the kingdom of Melromarc my noble heroes. I am king Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, ruler of this lands and the only person you will answer to." After that he proceeded with his explanation of the reason, which caused summoning of the heroes. To make a long story short - they had a legend, which described waves of catastrophe and the heroes, which were summoned to fight whatever came out of them. As the waves happened again, they decided to follow the line of the least resistance and summon otherworldly mercenaries to handle the waves for them.
'So much for setting the stage for mutual understanding and friendship.' The shield hero thought with a small smirk on his face.
After introductions of the other 3 heroes and some back and forth between them and the king they settled to work for him for a promise of an appropriate payment and prestige.
The shield hero was not addressed even once by either side, but he wouldn't mind – it was working to his advantage after all.
The big plan - moneyWhen they were led to their bedrooms, finally Bow hero reflected himself and acknowledged the presence of the Shield hero. "You are the quiet one, aren't you?" Before the other heroes managed to add something to this small talk, the shield hero responded quickly. "Sorry, it's just a lot to take in for my brain – summoning, the waves and the fighting – all of it… I think I'll skip the supper and take a walk outside to process it." Without an ounce of hesitance and a shred of truth in his words the shield hero said it with an innocent smile on his face and hand of his head, which was supposed to simulate embarrassment. After that turned to the side and walked in the other direction to put some distance between them.
He had no idea where he walked, so after the first turn he had to slow down and ask for directions by the nearest guard. To his relief the guard made no problem for him and provided simple guidance.
By the time he left the castle's gate behind his back, the main points of his plan started to line up. 'No matter what I do, in two days' time they all are going to hate and despise me. Staying here, if nothing else will just get me PTSD. My first priority is to get as far from here as quickly as possible. To do that I will need to secure some finance, clothing, food, weapons and bodyguards - exactly in that order'. He already verified his stats, so there was no reason to even dream about being able to respond with force to any trouble makers. With an attack stat equal to 1, he doubted he would be even able to hammer a nail into a candle.
Thanks to some random bystanders he was able to find his first target – an apothecary. After entering the shop he was welcomed by the smell of herbs and medicine. Behind the counter a man in his early forties decided to address the sole customer: "Welcome to the best pharmacy in the capitol. What can I do for you, adventurer?" How did he figure out that a man in a dark business suit and with a bag strapped to his shoulder was an adventurer beyond the shield hero, but that was a minor issue, so he decided to put his plan into motion.
"Hello, I was looking for some herbs and medicine to protect myself in my travels. Could you show me what you have in the price range from 50 up to 100 silver?"
"Of course, just give me a minute." After that he started to put different herbs, ingredients and processed medicine on the counter.
'Here goes nothing, it better work the same as in that novel'. Without a word of explanation Shield hero took the first one of the herbs and put it close to the gem in his shield.
To his relief, after a short bright blink of the gem, the herb disappeared and in his HUD a new message was displayed.
Conditions for Leaf Shield met. Leaf Shield level 1 unlocked.
'Thanks god.' With a sigh of relief, the shield hero proceeded with his plan and spoke to the astonished apothecary. "How would you like to make a significant profit without moving a finger?"
"What are you talking about, and what have you done with this herb? It disappeared…"
"As you can see, I'm the shield hero." He gave the apothecary a few seconds to let that information sink in. "Whenever I feed my shield with some objects a specific shield is unlocked. In this case I have unlocked the leaf shield, which beside some other minor things, is able to upgrade the quality of the herbs and medicine." After this brief explanation the apothecary eyes shined with understanding.
"So you are saying that in exchange for this herb you can upgrade one of the medicines I placed on the counter?" Tried to get some clarification from the shop owner.
"I could do that, but it would be negligible, in terms of your or my wealth. What I'm proposing is as follows: in return for 50 gold, I'll upgrade all the medicines that you currently have in your store. As a sample look at that." Shield hero took one of the processed medicines and let the shield absorb it. After one or two seconds in place of the previous item, he holds a different one.
"Take a look yourself."
The apothecary took into his hand the item and used appraisal magic to verify what exactly changed in the given medicament.
"This is amazing!" He explained after a brief moment. "Do you have any idea how much the power of this specific has increased? Normally I would sell it for 50 silver, but this…" He was struggling with himself, afraid that his shielded benefactor may change the conditions of the initial proposal, if he learns about the true value of the upgraded item. After a brief period his honest nature prevailed. "5 gold. You just increased its value tenfold."
With a reverent look in his eyes he finally looked away from the item to the hero before him.
"So I guess we have a deal, don't we?"
The apothecary clearly couldn't make up his mind. On one hand the value of his supplies would increase tenfold, but on the other his clients would still only buy so much as they could afford to.
Sensing this dilemma in the apothecary's head, the Shield hero suggested a solution.
"Look at it this way. You will have a lot of high end medicine at the times, when heroes, nobles and even the royalty will have to face the waves of catastrophe, and no doubt will be in a great need of your ware."
Seeing a change showing in the eyes of the apothecary he continued. "So, do we have a deal?"
"Yes we have, just give me a moment, I'll bring the money."
The last part of his sentence was carried from the back of the shop, as the apothecary turned around after initial confirmation and ran to get his coins out of a metal box that had some intricate lock.
"Time is money." Said the hero and picked another item from the counter and let the shield consume it. Before the apothecary came back with a large bag of gold coins, the shield hero was already taking medicaments from the shelves, upgrading them and leaving them at the same place that they were before.
After a little over an hour the shield hero with the help of his extremely excited support, managed to upgrade over 250 different medicaments. At this point the shield hero wanted to close the deal and proceed to the next point in his plan, but suddenly a new thought struck him. "Hmm, I wonder… Could you give me one of the medicaments that you consider the most potent?"
The level of endorphins in the bloodstream of the apothecary practically made him high. He would grant any request from the man in front of him. If he didn't get himself together, he might willingly give the hero half of his wares and be thankful for it. "Here you go." He said, handling the medicaments with both his hands.
"Thanks, now let's see if my assumption is correct." A short blink of the gem in his shield later, and a new item was present in his hand. Shield hero handed it over to his new friend with a question: "what do you think about it?"
The apothecary started to be seriously afraid for his heart condition, if this goes any longer, he will be in need of some of his upgraded medications very soon. After he casted his appraisal magic again, he decided to sit down for a moment and drink one of his tonics to calm down before speaking.
"If I did not put all my gold coins in that bag before, I would definitely do it now. Before you upgraded the liquid in this vial, it was able to treat a common cold, not fully cure it, but remove the symptoms for some time. The upgraded version was able to not only fully cure the symptoms but also remove some of the negative statuses like fatigue and so on."
Before speaking further he needed to take another sip of his tonic. "This however, is the nectar of the gods. There is no point in speaking about curing some minor illnesses, THIS can restore all stats to their default state, remove all negative statuses and even regrow limbs." At this moment he went quiet and started to wonder, if he needed to drink something from the opposite spectrum, like a nice glass of wine or something stronger.
The shield hero however didn't let him slip away with this and questioned further. "So what can you tell me about its monetary value?"
The answer came without a single second of delay: "It's priceless."
'Hmm, that's quite the difference. I was expecting the quality to increase, but not so much.' At the beginning, when he made the initial test, the rarity for the first medicament went up from Common to Uncommon. So he expected the last upgrade to bring it at most to the level of Rare. He took the item from the counter and apprised it himself with his shield.
Nectar of the gods. Rarity: Legendary
'This is 4 levels of rarity in one upgrade, this is insane!' Shield hero was puzzled, not less than the apothecary. 'Wait a minute, let's take a look at this leaf shield.'
Shield of the eternal leaf (mastered) 15/15: Level progress: Max, Boost +15
Energy level 10 000/10 000
Rarity: Artifact
Enchantments: Medical specimens rarity upgrade: +4
Status Rating:
Defense: 1000
Attack: 20
Agility: 100
HP: 200
MP: 150
SP: 150
Passive skills:
All primary skills + 100 %
Potency of herbs and medicine * 5
Equip skills:
Time needed for processing ingredients into medicine reduced by 99 %
SP needed for upgrading medicine reduced by 99 %
HP regeneration: 5 % of missing HP / 1 sec, when no new damage was inflicted for 10 min
'First – it's totally broken. Second, how am I able to use a shield with the Legendary rarity, when I'm still level one?' He took a second look at the shield statistics and scrolled down the provided information to see additional row.
Equip special ability: Experience gained from creating and upgrading medicine + 10 000 %
"Do you have more of those tonics? I think I might need one." Apothecary without a single word handed over the mentioned bottle.
Shield hero decided to drink it first, and after that opened the long list of notifications, that he successfully ignored during the last hour. Normally this tonic would decrease anxiety to manageable levels, but the shield that caused this whole situation was still on his arm, so the effect was somewhat different.
Shield hero senses became extremely sharp, his mind like a diamond, perception and cognitive abilities sky high.
'Note to myself – I just found a replacement for cocaine.' With this initial assessment out of the way, it was high time to analyze the root cause of his predicament.
'I thought those messages were only showing confirmation of the successfully completed upgrade process. But it seems I let my assumptions lead me astray.'
He was not entirely wrong. The confirmations were there, but almost equal number of notifications considered the experience gained from this process and the new levels he gained. Currently his level was 25.
The apothecary, emotionally tired was close to falling asleep. He didn't even move his sight, when he heard: "Thank you for this opportunity, I'll be taking my leave now. Also, if you don't mind, I'll take a couple of these medications with me – after all it was my main goal in coming here". The shield hero grabbed the bag and several medicaments, which he immediately stored in his shield.
Initially he wanted to do the same with the newly acquired money, but he was hesitant to test it. If the shield didn't double as a wallet, he would lose the gold coins he just acquired. In the end he decided to take out his own wallet with the money from his original world.
'Time to feed my legendary friend.' After switching his shield to its main form, he let the shield consume all the coins and banknotes from 11 different countries (this is what happens, when you collect change from airport cafes in different airports over a couple of months), credit cards, his ID and some membership cards and finally the wallet itself.
As expected the HUD spammed him with several notifications.
After a moment he found the one that he was looking for.
Conditions for the Currency Shield met. Currency Shield level 1 unlocked.
Followed by 11 similar notifications with next levels up to level 12.
After verifying that the money was still in the shield and he could take them out if needed, he took entire bag of gold and let the shield consume it as well,
Conditions for the Linen Shield level 1 met. Linen Shield level 1 unlocked.
Conditions for the Currency Shield level 13 met. Currency Shield level 13 unlocked.
Conditions for the Currency Shield level 14 met. Currency Shield level 14 unlocked.
'Linen shield can wait for now, but the other one might prove useful.'
A quick look at the top part of the shield's statistics provided information:
Currency Shield (mastered) 14/15: Level progress 46%, Boost + 14
'Hmm, it would seem I need just a little more cash or precious metals to get to the max level. Let's see what I have here.' Thought the hero as he started to look through his shoulder bag. The list of items was typical for a man of his profession: pens, notepad, some business cards, anti-allergic drugs, phone + accessories, company laptop, and what he considered his personal weapon of choice for particularly hard negotiations – extra-large box of nootropic pills [500 * 250 mg]. To prevent problems during check in at the airport, he had it hidden in a large metal power bank casing. He already used a few of the pills, but there were still over 480 of them inside the casing.
'Ok, so the only things in here that might contain some precious metals, would be the phone and the laptop. It would suck, if I had to suddenly get back to my world and attend the meeting without them, but I guess we are far behind that point.'
With renewed resolve he proceeded to feed the shield with both items.
The number of notifications frightened him for a second, as it looked like something had broken, when the stream of notifications in his HUD was spamming for a couple of seconds.
'I just hope I didn't overfed it or something'. Ignoring the long list of notifications the Shield hero equipped the currency shield, and took a look at its statistics directly.
Shield of the master merchant (mastered) 15/15: Level progress Max, Boost + 15
Energy level 10 000/10 000
Rarity: Artifact
Enchantments:
Interest – any amount of money stored in the shield for an uninterrupted period of 10 days is increased by 5 %
'Neat!' Exclaimed the Shield hero in his mind. 'Free money here I come!' Looking further in his HUD he saw:
Status Rating:
Defense: 700
Attack: 12
Agility: 80
HP: 300
MP: 100
SP: 200
Passive skills: Valuation – the user can estimate the value of an object without the in-depth knowledge about its properties
Equip skills: Charisma +50 during financial transaction negotiations
Special ability: Currency exchange
'Charisma +50? But there is no such stat in the character sheet.' Quick look at the character sheet confirmed there were no new stats. Shield hero was still standing in the shop, so he could verify the new skill in practice by trying to buy something from the apothecary, but given the mental condition of his new friend, decided that such a test at this moment would not meet his business standards.
After saying his goodbyes, he left the shop and walked to his next target on the list. The walk took him several minutes, so he decided it would be as good an opportunity as any other to check up the special ability of his new shield. Quietly invoking "Currency exchange" made no visible changes, but the shield hero didn't expect any either. Instead of that he opened his inventory and took a look at the current state of his finances. What he saw there brought an honest grin on his face.
"If this day gets any better, I'll have to seriously consider it the best day ever!" The amount of 72 gold coins obtained from the apothecary has now increased to 12 136. 'It would seem that the shield treated both cash and the limits on my credit cards as hard coin'. Usually when preparing for a business trip he always made sure to have enough cash to cover the taxi, hotel and expenses plus a little extra in case he needed to invite business partners to a dinner or buy small gifts for participants of a workshop. In any usual case he could cover that, and multiple times at that, with a company credit card, but more than once there were some problems with processing the electronic payment. After the first time it happened the embarrassment made him always remember to be prepared in this area, and given the current situation he couldn't be more happy about it.
Still with a wide smile on his face and the currency shield on his arm he entered the shop, which by his guess had to be the one belonging to a smithy. At least it was hard for him to imagine it being anything else, with a large sword and shield hanging over the door.
The big plan - weapons"Welcome to the best smithy in the capitol, what can I do for you Shield hero?" With the welcoming greetings out of the way, the Blacksmith was ready to get right to business.
'Interesting, he recognized me instantly, although I was summoned to this world less than 3 hours ago. Well, my suit might be some indication, but somehow I doubt that was it. He must have some knowledge about the legendary weapons… It would be a shame to just buy what I need and leave him here.'
Thanks to the consumed tonic, another thought with a more sarcastic tone has also reached his head. 'Best apothecary, best smithy. I wonder how much of it is only the affirmation, and how much a reality.'
With a slight modification to his plans and grin on his face the Shield hero started his negotiations.
"You may say that I have a rather particular set of needs."
"And what would they be?" Already with a wide smile on his face, and the words 'SUPER EXPENSIVE CUSTOM ORDER!' In his mind, the blacksmith was excited like a kid on the brink of Christmas Eve.
"You see, I'm planning to cooperate with a large party of different skills and different tastes for their armament. Also given that we are going to operate far from the capital and fight the waves of catastrophe, we will need the support of someone who would be able to maintain and fix both weapons and armor."
That made the face expression of the bold man to change quite a bit into a more serious direction. "I can't believe this, you want to recruit me to your party?" That was something entirely different to what he expected from his customer.
"Even, and let me emphasize that word, EVEN, if I would agree to that, how do you imagine moving my smithy alongside your party?"
Trick question for others, but not for someone, who sold different integrating solutions and whole multi module systems for a living.
"We'll get to that. First I would like to buy your smithy and everything in it – the tools, finished products and any materials or ingredients." The blacksmith has no other answer beside catching his bald head with both hands.
"Could you give me a rough estimation? I need to plan my next requirements based on the value of this initial purchase."
The currency shield seemed to work overtime and made miracles of persuasion for its wielder.
'Well, I was not looking to get back to my adventuring days, but this might be a turning point in my life. Maybe after that I could retire in some remote village far away from the capitol and its constant plotting and intrigues.'
With renewed excitement the blacksmith decided to see where this conversation will lead him.
"This shop and the items I've been crafting for years are part of my soul, in some cases they contain not less of my sweat and blood than the metal itself. You must understand that the incentive has to be appropriate." After a moment to gather his thoughts he decided to go as bold as his head: "Nothing less than 7000 gold would be enough." Proud of himself and with a bit of anxiousness in his heart, he waited for the negotiations to start.
"That's not a problem." Said the shield hero, who already started to take the coins out of his shield.
Before the Shield hero's compliance had a chance to be registered by the Blacksmith's brain, he was hit with another question.
"Although I think I should ask: perhaps instead of a full amount in cash upfront you would prefer a written contract and a percentage down payment each month?" The blacksmith showed knowledge and understanding for POC contracts and split payment transactions typical among people from the middle ages.
"Huh?"
"Ok, maybe I should slow down a bit and start from the basics." Shield hero was about to put 400 years of economic thought into the next sentence.
"When you make a large transaction, that involves tons of cash, you can decide to receive payments in installments for an agreed period of time. And after the payment for the last instalment is completed the transaction is considered to be valid and the subject of the transaction changes its owner."
Not sure if the small steps were small enough, the Shield hero kept explaining the new concept to the smithy's owner.
"I proposed that, because such an amount will no doubt get you some unwanted attention from people, who might want to lighten your burden and possibly detach your head from the rest of your body in the process. Do you have any means to safely deposit this amount or buy something of similar value, that would be hard to be robbed from your possession?"
The soon to be previous smithy's owner decided to play along, as the Shielder still kept the Currency shield on his arm.
"Well, I have some plans, but I would rather think about them after I completed the work that you need me to do. This way I'll be able to find a place I was dreaming about and settle there."
As the statement was not final enough for the taste of this shielded business shark, he uttered the next question.
"There is one more thing, I know we agreed upon 7000 gold, but if I'm going to hold onto that money for the time being, then I think it will only be fair to grant you some additional coin as long as you work for me. How about 10 gold coins every 10 days? Does it sound good enough for you? "
It was still 340 gold coins shorter than what the shield would provide with its Interest enchantment for this amount, so he could easily make more money and look generous in the eyes of his new employee.
This time there was no hesitation.
"At this point I would have to be mad to decline." Said the blacksmith with his hand extended for a handshake. With the hand of the Shield hero in his own, his fate has been sealed.
For the next 2 hours every single item, no matter, if it was sword, bow, staff or spear, has found its place in the inventory of the shield hero. The process would go smoother, but whenever he wanted to store a shield in his inventory, his legendary shield copied it and automatically equipped it. So each time the shield hero had to switch back to his legendary shield and continue with the next item.
With 100 gold in his pockets and a list of errands that were asked of him, the blacksmith was sent packing.
With no point in staying alone in an empty now room any longer (yes, Shield hero took even shelves, hangers and racks), the hero swiftly moved to the 3rd point on his list.
The big plan – partyOn his way to the next meeting, the Shield hero has been struck with the most ridiculous idea ever, at least for the standards of this world.
Business man or not, in this era, at one point or another, he would have to decide what type of armor would be best suited for his needs. Given his background and last 7 years of experience, the answer could be only one – armored business suit.
Although it was not uncommon for executives and other highly placed officials from his world to use such suits, he didn't reach a high enough position in the corporate ladder to ever acquire one. Though in this world, there should be nothing that could stop him from creating one.
As the walk would still take him at least 15 more minutes, he opened his HUD and checked how his stats have changed after all those new shields have been added to his collection.
"I am a fucking tank!" He couldn't keep that not vocalized, as his defense (courtesy of his 2 artifact shields) was now over 50 times larger than 5 hours ago, when he was summoned.
Shield hero level 25
Base statistics:
Defense: 4340
Attack: 148
Agility: 714
HP: 1400
MP: 932
SP: 1116
Given the late hour and less frequent streets that he took, there was no one around, who could notice this statement. At least… no one in sight.
Finally getting to the desired location Hero went inside a large circus tent. Taking a quick look at what was inside, made him alter the chosen description. 'Not much of a circus atmosphere here, more like a tent of suffering and misery.'
"Welcome to my little enterprise my dear customer, tell me how Beloukas can serve you today?"
'Finally, a pro trader! This is going to be fun.'
Although he was keen to begin his negotiations with the slave trader, he was not going to handicap his chances for a good deal. Hero reached into his shoulder bag and took one of his special pills. A new message appeared in his HUD:
Temporary intelligence boost +100, permanent intelligence boost +10.
With a smile that he didn't even need to fake he started, what he came here for.
"Sorry for that, the hour is quite late so I needed to take something to keep me awake enough."
As the slave trader gave his name at the beginning, it was only expected of him to return the favor and introduce himself as well. Although no one said that the name should be his real one.
"My name is Naofumi, it's nice to make your acquaintance dear sir." He decided to use the name of the Shield hero from the fan-fiction as an inside joke. Although he was the only one on the inside himself.
"Tell me, is it too late to conduct some business in this fine establishment?"
"Of course not, master Naofumi, we are always open for business."
'So much flattery in one simple confirmation. But this is a game that two can play.' Thought Shield hero.
"That's wonderful. Tell me, is there a place for us to discuss it without unneeded attention."
The fishing rod was cast. 'Let's see, if he is the kind of man I think he is.'
"By all means, my customers can always rely on my service. Please follow me"
Going through the tent between tens of cages, Naofumi noticed that quite a lot of them have been empty. When they reached one of them – a quite large one covered in some dark cloth, the Slave trader opened it and walked inside. Giving a sign with his hand to follow he soon disappeared in the darkness. Shield hero expected something similar to happen, so he decided to follow without slowing his pace. The cage they entered, was not really a cage per se, but rather a covered entry to a secret room.
Inside it the slave trader took a shielded lamp and used it to brighten the surroundings.
"This room has been prepared to prevent physical and magical eavesdropping, so we can conduct our business without any outside interference." Beloukas reassured his client.
"I was hoping that you will be a professional, and so far I have not been proven otherwise. It's always comforting to do business with people on my level."
"Please don't take it as an offense, as I'm asking only in the capacity of my curiosity, but what level is that?"
The bait was taken.
"As you can see from my clothing I'm not local. You might even say I'm otherworldly."
Checking if he can start pulling, Naofumi waited for the flash of understanding in the eyes of his companion. To his credit, he didn't make him wait for long.
"Am I correct to assume that you are the Shield hero?"
Pulling in progress.
"Oh, yes off course, but this is not what I meant. What I was indicating is that I'm a master merchant, and when I say master, I mean I'm one of the top 10 traders in the world I come from."
'Going overboard on the first meeting with a shady character, check.'
"And if I may say so myself, you give the vibe of not being anything less."
The Slave trader reaction for the last sentence, although brief, was unmistakable – hook and catch.
"You flatter me master Naofumi."
'You are good, really good, but no matter, you are mine now.' Shield hero was ready to get straight to business.
"Not at all, I always call the things by their name – it's easier this way." Ambiguity of this statement was not lost on the slave trader. But he kept quiet as he hoped it would encourage his client to get to the point.
"You see, given the history of this nation and their particular bias against the legendary weapon on my arm, I find this country to be lacking the means that would allow me to prosper as well as I'd expect. Therefore I need to secure the means myself with the help of some willing and competent business partners."
The slave trader didn't disappoint.
"From what you had kindly explained, I infer that the partnership you require, extends beyond my main corner of business, is that right?"
'Time to eat the fish' – decided Naofumi.
"Yes, I think it's only fair to provide you master Beloukas with the details of my requirement. Although the common knowledge indicates that the four legendary heroes are summoned to fight the waves of catastrophe, it is my belief that this notion is a false one."
"Is that so?" The slave trader was all ears.
Shield hero couldn't stall any longer, if he didn't want to make the Blacksmith waiting.
"Off course. Fighting monsters from the waves requires strength and skill, the legendary weapons are only the means to obtain them by specific individuals in a short amount of time. If someone asked me about such a strategy, I would call it extremely passive and lazy. After all, having hundreds of years and not using that time to prepare seems a bit odd."
Not giving any opportunity to his companion to comment, he continued.
"However odd it might be, this is not my concern. From my perspective, what I should deliver to those who seek my help in these trying times, are the means to defeat the waves and get back to their lives and families." A single pause for both - the effect and taking a breath later, he continued.
"I plan to do that in twofold: first I need to create, train and equip an elite force, that will be able to crush the waves with little effort, and as for the second – I need to provide the relief to those whose lives have been impacted by the waves nonetheless."
After making a short break to let the information sink in he followed.
"This is where my dear partner, you come in. First I'd like to buy all your slaves."
That briefly stunned the slave trader, but didn't prevent him from showing a large grin on his face.
"As good as this single transaction can be in terms of your income, I believe that the other one you will find much more profitable." Beloukas was a seasoned and experienced merchant for whom no deal was too good, but even his imagination fell short, when confronted with a deal much better than selling all his merchandise.
"I don't doubt the words uttered by such a magnificent mind as yours, master Naofumi, but I'm afraid that my vision doesn't let me see as far as yours."
'It's a rare pleasure to find such a diplomat in a country ruled by a complete fake.' Hero couldn't stop himself from a mental sigh.
"The enterprise that I have in mind is like none other in this world, so you are not responsible for not being able to see it, but rather the shortages of this world. I want to set up a pharmacy network that would reach all countries in this world and have enough large presence in them to be able to supply everyone in need with the necessary and reasonably priced medicines." Quickly taking one of the lesser medications from his shield he presented it to his partner.
"Take a look at this item. Its potency is limited and its price is low, but see what happens when I take a moment to improve it." After saying that he switched to his Shield of the eternal leaf and invoked the upgrade skill.
Beloukas' eyes were coming out of their sockets, when he tried to comprehend what he saw.
"To make things more interesting – this medication was upgraded twice and its initial cost equaled 50 silver. I believe you now understand the potential of this enterprise and its scale." Naofumi finished his exposition, and waited for the response, which at this point could be only one.
"When would you like to start master?" The approach of the slave trader had flipped by 180 degrees, the Shield hero might treat him like an equal, but there was no mistake. Beloukas was sitting at the table with a god.
More than satisfied with his negotiations, the Shield hero responded in a manner fitting their new relation: "NOW..."
Resetting levels and putting a slave crest for 47 slaves took almost 90 minutes. The process was initially hindered because Beloukas was not able to pierce Naofumi's skin to get his blood for the crest.
When Naofumi shared with him the information about the level of his defense, Beloukas abandoned this path as they would need someone with an attack stat at least as high as 3000 and that was unheard of.
They've been able to solve this problem only after Naofumi was taught, how the ink was created and let his shield consume both ingredients, brush and the finished ink. Beside obtaining some pretty useful shields in this situation, he also obtained the skill that allowed him to enslave low level beings directly with his shield. After that, the work went quick. There were also a couple more minutes needed for upgrading the medicine and distributing it to the slaves with the help of direct subordinates of the slave trader. After taking samples of their hair, fur and blood for the shield to absorb, they were seated in the carts provided by the blacksmith.
After giving his instructions to the former slave trader, Naofumi selected carters among the slaves for the 8 carts and took a seat next to the blacksmith in the ninth to lead the caravan out of the capitol.
A late night start of a new beginningWith the moon high in the night sky, Naofumi and Erhard, followed by 8 carts full of beast men and demi-humans set off with their expedition. Before they reached the walls and the south-west gate, Naofumi was engaged in a discussion with the Blacksmith, which allowed him to finally learn his name and some useful information about the surrounding area.
From what the Hero understood, this continent consisted mostly of a few large cities, which usually doubled as capitals of given countries and a lot of small villages dispersed almost randomly in the land. Based on that information and the tidbits he remembered from fan-fiction he read, the first location on his route was selected.
Although the late hour made their trip through the capital uneventful, it also made the gate guards highly suspicious and hostile.
"Good evening officer, could you open the gates? We'd like to have our expedition started." Said Naofumi in a neutral voice.
"It's quite late to leave the city. Why the rush?" The guard closer to the first cart decided to play the suspicious officer card.
"Have you ever heard the saying: time is money?" Retorted the Hero ambiguously.
"Sure I did, but it's your time and your money, why would I care? The gate is closed for the night, so turn around and get back in the morning."
'This is how you want to play it? Not very subtle, but he is just a guard after all, not like they would recruit deep thinkers for this post.'
"Well, if you could just come here and take a look at the pass that we were given, I'm sure we can make it work." Naofumi procured a page from the notepad in his bag and held it close to himself.
Following this the first guard came closer to the Shield hero wanting to see the pass.
The sheet of paper was entirely empty, if one didn't count the gold coin resting on it.
The other guard was on the other side of the cart, so he was not currently able to see what happened on the side that Naofumi was seated.
"Well the pass seems to be all right, but I should still check the carts…" With a brazen look on his face he was looking straight at Naofumi, but not moving a step aside. Quickly provided the next gold coin let him finish the sentence: "although this is a pass signed by his majesty, it would be insolent on my part to delay this expedition any further." With a fake bow he got back to the gate and ordered the other guard to open it.
"Thank you." Responded the hero adding in his thoughts: 'I'm sure his majesty will thank you for your service, you greedy asshole.'
Traveling at night with multiple carts had its own set of setbacks. The filolials, which were used as cart pullers, were calm and kept steady pace. This helped the caravan to go forward with appropriate space between the carts, but at the same time made the travel extremely boring for the carters. That and the late hour – it was getting close to 4 in the morning – made keeping their eyes open quite a challenge.
Naofumi decided to order a full stop and get out of his cart. Starting from the cart at the end of the caravan he allowed each of the carters to take a sip of the special tonic. Its effects, boosted by Shield of the eternal leaf, helped the carters to catch a second wind and retain their focus.
'That amount will not keep them straight for long, but we are almost there.'
After the next 30 minutes they finally arrived at their destination – Lute Village.
Shield hero ordered him to leave the carts near the inn and went inside to find the owner.
It took him 8 minutes of constant knocking at the door to finally get the innkeeper to come outside.
"Sorry for that sir, myself and my party have just arrived. We need to rent your inn for a couple of days."
"How many rooms do you need?" The innkeeper decided not to allow the late or at this point rather early hour, to stop him from making some coin. It's not like he had any guests anyway.
"As I said - all rooms. Also don't know if this is a problem for you, but almost all of my party consists of beast men and demi-humans."
"Not in the least dear sir. All the rooms are open, so you and your party can make yourself at home.
Behind Naofumi, Erhard followed by nearly 50 people came into his view.
Although there are only 14 rooms here…" Started the innkeeper.
"We will manage." Said the hero as he handed him 4 gold coins. "I have 9 filolials outside, could you take them to the stables, while we set up here?"
As always the golden metal answered all questions and calmed all doubts. With the innkeeper out of the way Naofumi addressed his party.
"Carters come closer. Each of you do as follows: take your passengers and supplies from the cart and choose a room you will occupy. If any of you are hungry than eat at your rooms. There are not enough beds, so you need to take your blankets and sleeping mats with you as well. You can sleep till noon, that's all - move on." Turning to Erhard he added: "Please do the same for the passengers from our cart, when you are done, take another room for yourself." The Blacksmith acknowledged his orders and moved aside.
'We should be safe in here, at least for the next day, but better to be prepared.'
With a new plan in his head, the shield hero claimed a room for himself and took some items from the shield. Deciding to go through the next day with no sleep and supporting himself with a sip of tonic every 3 hours he started to work.
A brand new dayFor the past 8 hours Shield hero has been learning about his insanely large amount of unlocked shields, their stats, and special effects. Mostly responsible for that was the laptop he absorbed, when he needed some more precious metal for upgrading the currency shield to its final level. Although it produced 27 shields based on the materials and components that have been absorbed, most of the shields were not material based at all. It would seem as if the shield recognized built-in functionality of each of the applications that were installed and for most of them created new shields. Equipping them did actually nothing (the shield looked exactly the same) and there were no boosts to statistics neither equipped nor passive. However they were very far from useless. The most important improvement was the upgrade of the system which was responsible for the HUD itself. With HUD 2.0 tens of new options have been added to the main interface and detailed menu. With that the hero has been finally able to see where, among other things, his charisma stat was present.
Besides those improvements and being able to launch in his HUD any of the applications from his laptop, there was one skill that topped it all – the possibility to change his shield based on a predefined schedule.
On its own it might sound as a useless feature, but when one added to that the fact that each shield needed to be equipped for a given amount of time to master it and also raise its energy level, it became equivalent to a personal assistant. And one at that, which could work 24/7.
Right now he was using a mind mapping tool to organize information about his slaves (he already used spreadsheets to gather all statistics for them in one place), what were their magical affinities, attack methods, suggested paths of development and so on. The whole analysis was harder than he initially expected it to be, because thanks to the passive skill of his platinum shield, each of his slaves received a bonus to statistics equal to 7% of his own respectively. In the end all of them had high defense and HP, so he decided to wait with this work till they will reach at least level 15. At that point their personal growth should make it easier to see their highs and lows.
'Time's up.' Noon was announced by the reminder application and a scheduled task reminded him, what he was planning for today.
After making sure his party had breakfast and was in general well and ready to start the day, he gathered them all outside of the village.
"I know yesterday we didn't have time for it, so let me tell you why you are here. As some of you may know the waves of catastrophe have started. In response to that, the kingdom of Melromarc has summoned all 4 legendary heroes in order to secure their help. By doing that, they have violated international agreements, and are basically on the brink of war with other major powers on this continent. I'm one of those heroes." At this moment he raised his right arm and switched his shield to Slave tycoon shield. It was another one of his artifact rarity shields, which reached its final form thanks to the quick development skill - courtesy of his application based shields - combined - with all the samples from the slaves and branding them with the slave crest.
"Although most of you would expect that a Shield hero would rather help the beast men and the demi-human instead of enslaving them, there is a reason why I did the exact opposite. The shield I have currently equipped has a special ability to increase your base stats, when you are leveling up and also provide you with more experience for each killed monster. If you take a look at your current statistics, you will also notice the workings of my other shield, which is responsible for donating some of my statistics as bonus to your own. Due to the special limitations of those shields I need to keep you as slaves instead of regular party members. Do you have any questions about what I said so far?"
Only the werewolf raised his hand and asked. "So this is why you reset our levels?"
"Exactly, although you had level 75, your statistics were basically garbage. With all the bonuses my shields provide, you will have the same statistics again, when you reach level 10."
That made the gathered people utter different versions of OHs and AH's, as the full understanding of what was said, finally reached them.
"I plan to raise your levels as fast as possible, provide you with weapons, armor, magic grimoires and trainers to hone your skills. When you will be ready you will walk through the waves of catastrophe like lightning through the flesh."
"Now pick the weapons you like from the tables behind me and follow."
After taking them to hunt some balloons and other low level monsters, they could quickly verify his previous words to be nothing but the truth. In two hours they killed 141 balloons, 16 horned rabbits and several wild animals, as the source of meat for their army.
Every single one of them reached level 18th. For the next level Shield hero needed twice as much experience points, so the hunt made almost no impact on his leveling progress.
'Although they've been only 3 hours on their feet, most of them look like they are going to starve any minute now. It seems this is the consequence of leveling up to quickly – especially for those under age. We'll have to call it a day for now.'
Naofumi decided to break the hunting efforts of his forces and take them back to Lute for early dinner and some R&R, which they desperately needed.
Left with his own thoughts, he used the time to gather some local news and further the studies of his shields. Also, as he expected earlier some trends in the statistics of his slaves started to form out.
'I need to develop a system that will help them hone their skills. At least something that will push them in the most suitable direction and not work myself to death in the process.'
The next few days were looking to be extremely busy for Naofumi.
How to train your Dragon Demi-humanAny goal worth achieving requires 4 steps to be completed.
First you need to know what you want to achieve. Naofumi has seen countless times, when a new and grand initiative managed to waste piles of money and time of multiple people, when the goal was set as: something like this or that, more or less.
'So what is my goal? I need to have a highly skilled, trained and equipped unit of specialized warriors and / or mages, who will be able to kill their way through any enemies and get out alive.'
The next step is to know how to achieve said goal. There is nothing worse, than a new employee, who combines two features: a lot of enthusiasm and total lack of understanding how things should be done. Any other combination is much safer. If you end up with an unskilled and lazy employee, at least the damage they cause to your business will be minimal.
'Do I know how to train, hone their skills and equip my units? No bloody idea. Ok, so we have some progress. I need a person or some people, who could do that. I guess I have Erhard as the head of weapons and armor department. I need someone, who can evaluate them, and train them. I should also get someone to teach written language, and if possible also magic. With my compounding and crafting skills I should be able to take care about supporting items, so I also need time to master it.'
The plan was starting to take shape.
The third step requires taking the actions from the previous point or making someone else do it, if necessary. The old saying from his company sounded: You got a plan, follow it. It was always used, when someone proposed a so-called solution to a problem, which was limited to the single person, who reported it, and tried to force someone else into doing something instead of fixing it by themselves.
As the first thing, he spent some time with the village governor, and tried to identify people who could help him with the tasks he was not feeling proficient in. He got out of it two contacts – one was an old lady – ex adventurer, who was suitable for training unarmed and armed combat, and the other was another old lady - the owner of a magic shop in the capitol.
Naofumi didn't want to get back to the capitol this early, so he did his usual – paid the governor to go to the capitol and make the offer in his place. He also lent him a cart and a filolial, so he could bring her with everything she needed for the job.
During the conversation with the governor he also learned that the village had two hunters, who regularly hunted and sold both wild animals and monster parts. The shield hero quickly decided to hire them as well. While his forces could take care of providing the meat and sharing some of it with the village, he needed someone, who could teach them how to track, sneak and all the skills that they had, and he had no idea about. The closest thing to hunting he ever did was motorboat fishing with his boss and one of his clients, so he didn't even try to imagine what kind of skills those hunters would have.
With the governor on his way, hunters recruited and the martial arts specialist hired, he could get to another point of his list. He needed someone, who could help organize and make sure the schedule was followed without delay. And for that he preferred to choose someone among his slaves, who could take the job and not suck at it.
When he made his errands, and acquired help for his plan, his slaves were sleeping in their rooms, so when he got back to them in the early evening, they were in much better condition than just after leveling up.
As there was no way around it, he went from one room to another and interviewed all of his slaves one by one. With the sheer number of them, when he finished it was already past 3 am, so he needed to catch some sleep before he could do anything else. For some reason the Slave tycoon shield decided that thanks to his work he earned another passive skill, which granted a bonus to comprehension and learning for his slaves. He was too tired to think about it, and fell asleep as soon as he hit his sack.
In the morning he was greeted by several new notifications. His build-in assistant was switching his shields during the night, allowing him to get the mastered status for 12 of them. He still needed to check the details for the new skill he obtained last night, and decide whom to choose for his assistant /officer. Among the 47 slaves there were several, who could fit the bill. But in the end he decided to give that job to Tagar. He was the 75 level Werewolf, who after the reset was like the rest of them level 18. Although his stats already doubled, what he had before. With high attack and HP he was the natural melee damage dealer, who could take a hit, and definitely give one too. He was also one of the oldest of them and the most mature. His intelligence wasn't too high, but Naofumi needed a sergeant, who would not take shit from anyone, not a strategist.
'Although, when I think about it, a strategist would be needed too.' Naofumi opened his mind mapping tool and scanned through his notes.
'Hmm, that looks promising.' The Spirit naga boy named Roka, was already a teenager on level one, so now he was practically an adult. Basic statistics were nothing to write home about, but his true value was hidden in his secondary stats: wisdom (159), intelligence (160), and charisma (160). With such equal distribution of these key variables and on a decent level too, he was a perfect candidate.
Naofumi invited both of them to his room to get them familiar with the job he envisioned for them.
"Tagar, Roka take a seat. I wanted to entrust you two with 2 roles, but I need to hear what you think about it first."
Half an hour later he was sure that Tagar was the man for the job, and Roka was a pure jackpot. He needed only a few minutes after Naofumi told him about his expectations and he already provided him with the list of positions that also would need to be filled in order to create a versatile unit capable of operating in various conditions. Following a sudden thought, he selected Shield of eternal Leaf and upgraded two of his nootropic pills to the maximum level and asked both slaves to swallow them. When he checked their advanced stats, his idea was proven to be correct. He just found a way to temporarily change a not to bright man (or werewolf in this case) into the sharpest knife in a drawer (INT: 60-610), and a smart boy (try to judge the sex of a snake yourself without his character sheet) into a fucking genius (INT: 208 -758). Sure after 8 hours they will be left with only +50 bonus to their intelligence but before that time…
He decided to upgrade 10 more pills and give them to his new strategist, so he could provide them to those he selects for the jobs they talked about.
When both of them left him alone in the room, he took one more pill, upgraded it to maximum level and swallowed.
'Holy shit, I was so stupid (INT: 437-987).' The sudden realization struck him down hard. He needed the knowledge about advanced medicine, and ways to make it. Anything that allows a stacking bonus to raise base and secondary statistics permanently. Leveling up gave him small additions, but even the highest one of them (for the defense stat) was only giving him measly 9 points per level. The sky high stats he had, were the results of different bonuses from his shields. If he ever lost access to them, like if his level was restarted forcibly by someone or something, he would be practically as harmless as a baby.
With a new goal at hand he sent the governor back to the capitol with two new tasks and a few more gold coins. He needed to get in contact with the apothecary and Beloukas. He was willing to include apothecary in his enterprise, if he could provide the information that the Shield hero just found himself in the need of.
As for himself, he further contemplated his options for rising stats. He remembered from the fan-fiction he read, that he should be able to learn how to craft and magically enhance items.
'I know the basics, got a huge bonus from a couple of shields for crafting and compounding, but what I lack right now are the tools and end materials.' The lack of tools was covered by a quick order sent to Erhard (he had nothing to do anyway at this point), but the materials required Naofumi to put his own hands to the job.
With the shield on his arm there was practically nothing for him to do in terms of preparation, so he went as he stood to the mine, which was 20 minutes from the village. However before he got out of the inn, he remembered about the trauma that Raphtalia suffered in the past.
"Well, I could treat it as a bonding experience."
Finding and taking Raphtalia for the ride delayed him only by a few minutes, so there was no problem. He was planning to send her back to the village, after they killed the Cerberus so she would not lose too much time during the day and could continue her training.
After making sure to consume any tools he found in the shed outside the mine (well, there was only rope, lamp and a pickax), and explaining their objective to Raphtalia, he went inside.
Remembering how the scene followed in the fan-fiction, he decided to use Meteoric Shield (level 2) as his weapon of choice. Raphtalia was equipped with one-handed sword and light armor. From Naofumi's perspective those two were more of a good charm items rather than necessary weapons. With her current stats (attack: 1057, Agility: 1144 and defense: 1073) he was sure she could rip the Cerberus apart with her bare hands and not even sweat.
"Here doggie, doggie." Naofumi was taunting the Cerberus to face him.
There was no way for the 3 headed dog to actually break through Shield hero's defense (4362), so there would be no incentive for Raphtalia to get out of her shock, if she faces one.
To facilitate the needs of this therapeutic experience, he let her take two sips of his tonic boosted by the shield of the eternal leaf.
It took them a while, but finally they found what they were looking for.
"Well, that was anticlimactic…" Murmured the Shield hero to himself.
The moment the Cerberus showed himself, Raphtalia jumped in its direction and cut it diagonally from top right to low left. Using the momentum she followed with a horizontal slash from left to right. As expected, at the place occupied by a single Cerberus, now were laying four bloody parts of their previous owner.
Understanding his part in the process, Naofumi asked.
"How do you feel as the slayer of the first wave boss?"
"I'm not sure." Raphtalia tried to find herself in this sudden outcome that she created.
"I was afraid of it for so long, and now it feels as if I was afraid of a shadow."
"When all is said and done, each fear is a shadow. A shadow of the thought that something will change or take your life. Find something more valuable than your life, and nothing will be able to cast that shadow on you again."
'Psychology 101 completed.' Though Naofumi – not sure himself, if basic psychology from his world makes sense for demi-humans.
"I will find it master!" The determination in her voice felt so strong, that he wondered if she could use it instead of her sword.
"I know you will!" Said the Shield hero to cement her determination.
Originally he planned to send her back to the village to continue her training, but right now it didn't feel right.
"Raphtalia, has Roka spoken with you about the positions I need to fill?
"He did, although I was not certain if I could really be of use."
"And how do you feel about it now? Do you want to become my sword and leader of the death dealers?"
The initial surprise at her face and in her posture was quickly replaced with almost fanatical devotion.
"I will be honored to serve you master!"
"I accept your pledge. Now go back to Lute and continue your training, so you could fulfill your role and make me proud."
With her hand on her heart Raphtalia accepted her new fate. "Yes master!"
Left alone in the mine, Naofumi was more than glad with this development. Death dealers' squad name was a moment's thought. Although he briefly discussed the idea of such a unit with Roka, he didn't come up with a name for it before. Raphtalia's determined posture and Cerberus' remains lying under her feet spawned the name into existence.
Burn the candle…Three weeks passed before Naofumi even noticed. His time was divided into mastering his abilities, training, grinding levels, learning magic and crafting enchanted items.
The fourth step is to have a positive approach to what was done so far, and what still needed to be done.
Naofumi had a problem with this point.
With practically no time for himself he was on the verge of getting mad.
'I need a break or I'm going to lose it.'
'But there is no time, the waves should come in about a week.'
Shield hero tried to power through his frustration and continue to struggle with the wind magic grimoire. He managed to concentrate for another 15 min, and then suddenly closed the book.
"I'm fucking done with this shit!"
He stormed out of the inn and went straight to the village governor's home.
Knocking twice and going inside, he was not even bothering with waiting for the invitation.
"Governor, I need a favor." Started Naofumi.
"What can I do for you Shield Hero?"
"What do the people of this village do for fun?"
"For fun?" Governor was not sure if he understood the question.
"You know, something to relax and recharge before they get back to work." Naofumi was afraid that the worst case scenario was the real one.
"Well, usually we…" Governor tried to be inventive.
"Please, don't tell me you just work, eat and sleep…" Naofumi was getting desperate.
"Well, play time ends when the kids become adults, so…"
"Shiiiiit." That was the only response he got for the hero, who was closing the door behind himself.
Walking back to the inn with his hand on his chin Naofumi was once again analyzing his options.
'Ok, so they don't have any entertainment here, but should I just leave it like that? Just the thought of getting back to that grimoire makes me sick.'
'I'm in the fucking middle ages, there is no technology here, people don't even comprehend the value of relaxation and the worst part is that there is basically nothing else to do. No mountains to climb, no sea to swim, no beaches to sunbathe…'
That made him stop his mental rumbling. "There is nothing of that sort for now, but who said I can't make something myself?"
With that thought he ran to Roka and told him that he is taking Raphtalia for the day and will be doing some exploration of the mine near the village.
Luckily for him Raphtalia's plan this day was limited to supporting some of the demi humans from his magic caster unit in mastering a new spell.
He didn't care if they mastered this spell one day later, so he took his most attractive and deadly commander with him. On the other hand, she didn't mind as well.
"So Raphtalia, tell me how your training is progressing?"
"Since last week, as you know master, my level stopped to increase as I reached the 40 level cap. I concentrated on learning new spells from light magic grimoire and mastering my new skill Air splitting strike."
"What are the effects of that skill?" Naofumi was intrigued, if the skill did, what the name suggested.
"On the current level (which was 2), I can use it to attack opponents in a distance of 15 meters with a wave that cuts through them in an instant." She told with a smile, that others normally would reserve for telling their friends that they just finished college with honors.
Not that Naofumi minded it.
"Show me." He demanded.
Deciding to target the nearest tree, Raphtalia drew her sword.
Stinger – made from composite of light metal and platinum: Attack +120, Strength + 50.
Enhancements:
All attacks ignore 30 % of the target's armor
Thrusting attacks have a 10 % chance to Ignore 100 % of the target's armor
Blood clean coating
'Did she miss?' Naofumi was speechless, but one look at her content face made him hazard a guess.
"Seismic blast." Naofumi used a skill of his meteoric shield on the same tree.
As expected the tree fell down and showed a clean cut about 110 cm above the ground.
"Most impressive!"
Seeing her attack stat increase (2833 with the sword bonus) and seeing the actual results that such a high attack power produced were two different things.
"I haven't noticed that you became so powerful." Clear pride in his voice made the raccoon-girl blush like a teenager she was just a few weeks ago.
"Thank you master." Was all she managed to say.
When they entered the mine, Naofumi remembered that he still didn't tell her why they came here, so decided to fix that.
"During the last weeks we explored this mine thoroughly, and if I remember correctly there is a chamber filled with water at the end of the second right branch of the tunnels, I'd like to get a closer look at it."
Thanks to the lamp shield they've able to finally get to the chamber without falling every second step, but it still took a while to get there.
"I'll have to make something to ease the access to this place." Naofumi was speaking to himself.
The chamber itself was filled in about 70 % with crystal clear water, while the rest of its space was covered in sharp uneven edges of the base rock and some minerals, which had not been mined yet.
"Raphtalia stay behind me, I want to test something." Said Naofumi, while searching through his vast tree of different shields. The one he was looking for has been unlocked just two days ago as a result of his progress with upgrading 3 particular shields: Glass, Plastic and Aluminum shields. Initially they granted him +6 bonus to his crafting skill, but the constant work that he put into creating and enchanting new support items for his slaves and himself every day, allowed him to upgrade each of these shields to level 11th. With that his crafting skill has received an insane bonus: +66.
In turn it allowed him to unlock a hidden shield called: transmutation shield. The few tests he did so far were only involving some minor changes in the surface of the minerals he was using for creating accessories for enchantment, so he could hardly count it as thorough tests.
Now was the time for a grander test. "Transmute surface." Uttered the shield hero.
The floor of the chamber started to glow with a green light, and as if made out of liquid started to even its surface. 'I'll be damned, it actually worked.'
The new floor of the chamber looked now like a primitive swimming pool. All the irregularities and sharp edges were now evened and rounded. He repeated the process for the part under the water to prevent any surprises later.
"So far so good. Let's check the water itself." To make sure that the water was not toxic or dangerous in some other way, the shield hero used a cup from his inventory, and poured the water on his shield for the appraisal. 'This is as clear as it gets. Anything more and it would be practically distilled. Although 6 degrees Celsius is hardly what I need.'
Luckily for him, he already had crafted several items that could solve this problem.
When he was considering different scenarios in which his forces might end up finding themselves, he of course didn't ignore the obvious situation, when they would have to survive in an extremely cold environment. One of the heaters he took from his inventory would be enough to warm up an area in 10 meters radius, so it should be enough to warm up the water in this pool.
'First middle ages Jacuzzi here I come.' With that thought in his mind Naofumi threw the item into the water and activated it from the HUD's menu. A few minutes later he had to turn down the heat emitted from the item, so the water wouldn't get too hot. When that part was completed he took out 4 more items from his inventory: 2 items for providing lighting for the chamber (using the lamp shield all the time was bothersome), one screen to grant some privacy and 2 sets of swimsuits – one for himself and one for Raphtalia (don't even ask, why he had one for her, just don't).
"Put that on." Said Naofumi as he handed Raphtalia her swimming suit and went behind the screen to change himself. Five minutes later he asked just in case, as he didn't want to embarrass the girl: "have you finished changing?"
"Y-yes master." Naofumi walked from behind the screen dressed only in his swimming shorts and stood dead. Raphtalia did change her clothing for the swimsuit, but for some reason she didn't tie the top part on her back, so by making any move she was risking exposing herself.
Naofumi decided to play the decency card and closed his eyes.
"If you have a problem with tying it, than turn your back to me and say, when you are ready."
One embarrassing minute later they both were ready.
Naofumi walked into his new swimming pool and sat down.
"This is exactly what I needed. Come sit down." He encouraged the racoon-girl.
After they both spent 10 minutes there , Raphtalia was finally able to cool down enough to take part in the small talk that Naofumi was trying to initiate.
For the next couple of days that became their way of spending every evening – sitting in the hot water and discussing what happened during the day and planning, what else they would need to do before the next wave hits them.
It quickly became clear that the returning problem was their level - without the class upgrade they were stacked at the level 40 with no chance to progress further.
'There is no point in delaying it any further.' Thought Naofumi, preparing himself for the announcement he had to make.
"Tomorrow we are going to Melromarc capitol."