"I'm sorry for keeping her out so late, but I wanted her to have dinner with the rest of the party. A way of showing our gratitude." Shirou explained to Leila, despite having arrived at the Guild thirty minutes before the final call. "I hope I didn't cause you any worry."
"...I can't say I wasn't worried, but I'm even more worried having seen her." Leila said as she checked Theresa's condition and found that she had leveled up, despite having only recently become a level 3. "Just how much did you hunt?"
"We had a very good haul today. Theresa's tracking skills were invaluable. We can't thank her enough." Shirou said, seeming to direct this more towards Theresa than Leila. "I hope that we can work together again tomorrow, if you feel up to it."
Leila was shocked when after a moment's pause, Theresa started to nod her head indicating yes, despite Shirou having already turned over the Slave Mark that would allow him to control the Demihuman Mercenary.
It was small, barely noticeable, but it was a genuine expression of the girl's own will. "...Well, the Mercenary Guild works on a first come first served policy and we don't do reservations. If you want to make sure to hire her again, you'll need to come early tomorrow." Leila explained.
"When do you open?" Shirou asked.
"7 in the morning." Leila replied.
"I'll be here." Shirou said with a nod of understanding. "See you tomorrow, and thanks again." Shirou was about to leave when Theresa reached out and grabbed his shirt, as if she didn't want him to go. Shirou looked at her in surprise before his dull expression, which had seemed so much like a Demihuman's, turned into a soft, genuine smile. "Don't worry. I promise that I will be back."
Theresa held on for a moment longer before nodding and letting go of his shirt, before turning around and leaving to go and check her equipment back in for maintenance.
"How?" Leila said in surprise as she watched Theresa go, before turning back to Shirou only to find the spark of life that had entered his eyes slowly dimming back down.
"Ms. Leila… My party is likely going to advance into the 7th district soon. Is it possible to continue to travel with Theresa after that?" Shirou asked.
"...Normally, we don't handle requests like that. However, there is a method for permanently recruiting a Mercenary." Leila said after a moment's thought. "We don't usually tell people about it, but if you want to recruit Theresa into your party for good, you can do so by buying 100 of those Copper Mercenary Tickets."
"...I see. I understand." Shirou said with a nod, a slight crease in his brow.
100 tickets at 3 silver each means a total of 30 gold coins.
While the party as a whole had earned 50 gold coins, most of that had already been spent on the various expenses for daily needs and on equipment and other resources.
After setting aside some in a party fund for any additional expenses that could come up and dividing what remains between all of its members, Shirou found himself with only a single gold coin after the day's adventures. And 50 gold was supposed to be a really good haul.
Each Named monster would only appear once every one-to-three months, and they had been a majority of the party's earnings.
He also didn't think that he could count on the others to help him with this. They didn't seem to understand Theresa, her need to have an anchor in her world, something to give her life meaning. So he would need to raise the money on his own.
"I'll figure something out. Thank you for telling me." Shirou said with a bow before turning and leaving the Mercenary Guild, the Guild Master watching him as he went with a look of puzzled wonder.
If Shirou wanted to make the money, he would need another source of income, on top of the money he made from fighting alongside everyone in the Dungeon.
Looking over the skills he had available to learn, the choice became obvious.
[Available Skills]
[Level 1]
+ Equipment Maintenance I: Repair or modify equipment.
+ Training I: Increase effects of training.
+ Cooking I: Add magical effects to your cooking.
+ Dimensional Armory I: Gain a 10000 cubic meters dimensional storage space that can store weapons.
+ Equipment Manufacturing I: Gain the skills necessary for manufacturing equipment.
+ Mystic Forge I: Use Magic Power to replace the need for tools used in manufacturing. Requires Equipment Manufacturing I.
+ Ironwill I: Decrease the effects of mental damage and fatigue.
[Skill Points remaining: 4]
So Shirou spent all 4 of his Skill Points to buy the skills he thought he needed now and that were important to get early.
Training I. Equipment Manufacturing I. Mystic Forge I, Ironwill I.
Shirou purchased these skills, and the knowledge of how to use them appeared within his mind.
He knew that he would be able to forge any weapon or armor piece that he understood how to make without the need for buying any specialized tools.
The blueprints of every weapon he had seen that day came to mind, as well as hundreds of other basic designs, and Shirou understood that he could make any of them, and that he would be able to make adjustments, mixing and matching things, in order to make them better. Oddly enough, he understood how to do the modifications and repairs described by Equipment Maintenance I. So what was that skill for? An easier method for doing the same thing? Cheaper or maybe more time efficient?
Not that it mattered now. He'd already made his choices.
He'd be able to create things, and with Madoka's help, he could hopefully sell them to get the money he needed to hire Theresa to join their party permanently.
And if he made good equipment that would keep people safe, all the better.
This was his new short term goal.
"Shirou? What in the world are you doing here?" A familiar voice said, catching the occupied Shirou off guard.
He looked up to see Shinji, with several of the girls from their school standing around him. "Nice to see you." Shirou said with a smile and nod.
"Don't give me that stupid. What are you doing here? I know for a fact you were on the other bus." Shinji said, giving Shirou a piercing look.
"Ah, I guess I died trying to rescue some of the survivors from the explosion." Shirou admitted, scratching his head.
"...You idiot. You're supposed to leave stuff like that to the professionals who are equipped for the job." Shinji said with a sigh. "Well, whatever. What's done is done. Come on. I'll put you up for the night."
"Huh?" Shirou said in surprise.
"Several of the students for our class banded together in order to make an Alliance, so we earned quite a few contribution points and have managed to get rooms for all of us. You'll have to sleep on the couch, but it's better than sleeping in a barn." Shinji explained. "You don't need to feel guilty about it. A lot of people weren't able to get combat related Jobs, or were too shaken to participate in our first attempt, but everyone is working together to make sure no one is left behind. It'll be tough, but we'll all pull through."
Shinji seemed to think that Shirou was out there alone because he failed to find a party and hadn't managed to accomplish anything that day.
"Thanks for the offer, but I actually ran into Issei earlier, along with Ayako and Tohsaka." Shirou admitted. "We did pretty well today."
"...Is that so." Shinji said, seeming a bit disappointed and maybe even concerned. "Girls, could you all go ahead? I'll like to have a few words with Shirou here."
After getting the girl's squad to leave them be, he turned back to Shirou. "So Issei and Ayako are doing alright then? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I'm glad." Shinji said.
While he had butt heads with the two often because of his arrogant personality, he didn't hate either of them. Despite what people thought, Shinji really did consider Shirou a friend and got angry whenever people other than himself treated him poorly, so Issei and Ayako, who at least cared about Shirou, had his grudging approval.
"Yeah, though Issei seems a little shaken up." Shirou admitted. "Did people really throw him out?"
"It wasn't like that." Shinji said with a shake of the head. "I mean, yes that happened, but you have to understand. Everyone was freaking out about having just died and when he tried to calm everyone down, he became a target of a panicking mob. People didn't really mean what they said, they were just scared. Of course, Ayako, being the person she is, shouted at everyone, made everything a lot worse as everyone became defensive and doubled down, and then she stormed off, dragging Issei behind her."
"...I see." Shirou nodded his head in understanding.
"Look Shirou, I'd be grateful if you could talk to the two of them and explain what happened. It would be safer for everyone if we all stayed as a group." Shinji said before pausing. "And as for Tohsaka… I'd suggest getting out of her party as fast as you can."
"Huh? Why?" Shirou asked, surprised.
"Trust me when I say she is bad news. I know her type. They are monsters who would sell out their own children to the devil in order to get what they want, and I mean that literally." Shinji said seriously. "While Issei and Ayako left behind they felt forced out, Tohsaka left because she saw us all as dead weight. If you stick with her, she will just use you and use you until she has no more use for you and then she will toss you aside."
"...Is that so?" Shirou said, thinking about what he had seen of Rin. Of how she had stepped out in front of Issei and Ayako when Issei was injured, prepared to fight to defend them rather than running away to save herself. It didn't match up with what Shinji was saying. "Thanks for being concerned. I'll keep my eyes open."
"...You idiot. You have absolutely no idea what monsters like her are capable of." Shinji said with a shake of his head. "I envy your ignorance."
"...Thanks?"
"That wasn't a compliment." Shinji said with a tired sigh. "Just take care of yourself. I don't want to hear about you dying again out there."
"You too. And I'll talk to the others." Shirou said. "See you around."
"Yeah. See you." Shinji said, waving Shirou off, though he watched him go with a look of disappointment. "Damn idiot."
Shirou didn't understand. He didn't know that Tohsaka Rin was a magus. A real magus, not a half baked one like Shirou himself. Nor did he understand what that meant. He didn't know what kind of creatures magi were, not like how Shinji knew.
For Shinji, his death and rebirth had been the most liberating thing he had ever experienced, to the point he almost cried tears of joy.
Finally, he was free of his grandfather, free of that horrifying monster who had scared him down to his bones since the day he had been born. That thing which had looked down on him and controlled him like a puppet on strings, that had done things to his body and mind that left him unable to sleep at nights.
To him, Labyrinth City was heaven.
And not only was he free of his grandfather, he was also free of his disabilities.
Finally, after all of this time, he had magic energy of his very own. He was a 'Magus'.
The Job system seemed to be a fickle one. People couldn't just choose anything. You had to either have some experience with the job yourself, have natural talent, or have it as part of your family history. The strength of your job depended on how in tone you were with it. So a lot of students from their school had been left absolutely screwed, as they didn't have any practical skills, and their parents had been things like plumbers or salesmen.
36 students and only 20 of them had any abilities to fight at all. Most of them couldn't fight very well, but there were a few in the archery, judo and kendo clubs who could. Though none of them were very good.
That's why it was a shame to have Issei, Ayako and Shirou not being a part of their group.
Issei was from a long line of superior martial artists and spiritual sensitive monks, he had also trained hard and earned recognition as top martial artist in Japan at the high school level.
Ayako's family history was full of Samurai and she had been trained to fight with just about every weapon there was. She was also a good shot with a bow. Not as good as Shinji, Sakura or Shirou, but still good. She would also doubtless have a strong Job for combat.
As for Shirou… Shinji honestly won't put it past the guy to have put down something like Cook, Janitor or Electrician on his application. Jobs that he had actually had. But he was a handy guy to have around anyways, right?
…Alright, so he didn't think that Shirou would be anything special on the battlefield, but the guy was still his friend. He wouldn't abandon him for no reason. They had all already decided to not abandon people just because they didn't have any useful combat skills.
With twenty people working together, they managed to hunt down the first floor monsters with no difficulty at all. The rules with the Guild was that 8 people was the max for a party, but 3 parties could work together as an Alliance. If another party in your alliance gets a kill, and your party was in range, you get half the normal value of contribution points for that kill, while the party that killed it gets full value.
There was also a bonus for how many contribution points you get for the day based on the total size of the Alliance, 5 points-per-person.
So after a day of hunting and 30 monsters killed, Shinji was sitting at 222 points, with the subparty members having around 180, since his party had managed to kill the most.
Shinji had acquired two very useful Skills for hunting because of his Job.
The first was Firebolt, which was your standard magical attack that dealt fire damage and burned a target. His second skill was Siphon Spirit, which let him drain dead enemies for more MP. Because of these two, he had been dishing out more damage than most by using his skills multiple times.
So the Alliance got plenty of contribution points, and each of them got a room, with people who hunted putting up someone who couldn't.
That was fine, and the hunt had been safe since they outnumbered every encounter 10-to-1… but there was a problem.
Money.
That entire day had earned them a total of 32 coppers, not even enough to feed half of the students for a day. So they didn't increase their total over the course of the day.
They were given a little money to start out with, but that wouldn't last long. The situation wasn't helped when three of the students who stayed behind got scammed out of their few pennies, becoming even more of dead weight than they already were.
Stress was high, and people weren't happy, but that was fine, they would figure something out. People managed to survive in this world all the time, and Shinji would find a way to do so as well. That's what he told everyone. That all they needed was to keep up the good work until they hit a lucky break. After all, it was just bad luck that none of the monsters they had hunted had possessed a Magic Stone.
With Shirou gone, Shinji started to head back towards where he would be spending the night, pulling out his ID as he walked in order to check the map.
The ID was something that was stupid useful, and he couldn't even begin to imagine the magical chops on the guy who invented them. It blew a lot of the magic items he had seen out of the water in complexity, even if most of the Grimoires his grandfather had were more powerful.
He saw that he was on the right track and was going to put the ID away, when he noticed an icon he hadn't noticed before.
=Leaderboard=
It was a leaderboard, something to tell you who the top 100 people were in each district. Interesting.
Shinji opened it on a whim and glanced down the list of names for the top people in general, whistling to himself as he saw the number of digits on their contribution points. Of course, monsters from high dungeons would be worth more. The higher you get, the faster the number goes up. The only people he could properly compare himself to were the people in District 8. That would tell him how long he could expect to take to climb out of this particular district.
So Shinji went to the related page and then stopped in his tracks, unable to believe his eyes. The small little devil of jealousy cried out inside of him as he saw the top names in the district.
=District 8 - Leaderboard=
1. Emiya Shirou - 4490
2. Tohsaka Rin - 4479
3. Shinonogi Madoka - 4445
4. Mitsuzuri Ayako - 4382
5. Ryuudou Issei - 4381
6. Georg K. Martin - 2112
…
…How? Just how?
"So they want us to come back to help the group?" Issei said after Shirou told him about his meeting with Shinji.
"I don't exactly like it. They all took things too far… but I suppose I would feel guilty if something bad happened to them." Ayako admitted with a sigh.
When Shirou had first returned, she had apologized to him… which left Shirou really confused, because he didn't understand what she was apologizing for. She said something about Issei telling them that he had been in the Fuyuki Fire, but he couldn't understand why she would be sorry about that.
Eventually, she just gave up trying to explain and said to forget about it… which was fine with him.
"I agree we should look into it, but in a week, we will all be moving on to the next District. After that, looking after them will be hard." Rin said with a frown. "If they are operating as a large group and covering for people who couldn't get combat related Jobs, then I don't think that contribution points should be a problem for them. We should contact them in order to find out their exact situation. I assume you got his contact information."
"...No. No I did not." Shirou said, feeling like an idiot.
"...Well that's not good. District 8 is huge. It is basically a small city. How are we supposed to find them?" Ayako said.
"Either in the Dungeon or through the Guild, I guess." Issei said. "I think that Tohsaka is right though. Our group already killed the only Named enemies for the first floor, so nothing dangerous should appear there for the next few months, and from what I can tell, earning contribution points as a large group is not hard. So that only leaves one problem."
"Money." Rin said flatly. "In the end, it always seems to come down to money, doesn't it?"
"If you don't count the bounties we got from the Named Monsters, we only made about 3 gold. Even assuming that their party made just as much, they wouldn't have had the funds necessary to buy new equipment for everyone." Issei said. "Luckily, basic food is pretty cheap, if you are willing to live on just bread, but even that is 2 copper coins a day and isn't healthy. Saving up money when hunting in a large group would be tough."
…
Shirou frowned as he thought about it.
What Rin and Issei were saying made sense. Money was probably a serious worry for Shinji and his group. But at the same time, it was the hardest thing for Shirou to just give away.
They needed the money in order to stabilize their lives. Theresa needed the money in order to keep traveling with them, so that maybe she too could find a reason for existence. Shirou was caught between the two, needing to decide who he was going to help.
…He would simply have to help both of them.
"Madoka, if I make some gear, do you think you can sell it for me?" Shirou asked the young merchant girl.
"Huh? Well sure. Though it would take me a little time to find buyers if you want the best prices." Madoka said, surprised by Shirou's sudden interest in selling things.
"Can you even make anything?" Ayako asked him.
"Don't know. Let's try." Shirou said. He walked over to the stack of materials he purchased before, grabbing a long log that was some type of birch wood and some of the wooly hair of a Hairball.
He then activated his 'Mystic Forge' skill.
A flaming sphere opened up in front of him, around one meter across, surprising the others, but Shirou didn't so much as blink as he pushed the materials into the fire.
He could see it in his mind, the materials, and the processes they would need to go through in order to create what it was he desired.
The heating and cooling of the wood in order to temper it and make it hard. Shaping it. Carving it into the perfect shape. Turning the wool into a bow string.
Usually wool would make a pretty poor bowstring, but this was wool from a magical creature, and Shirou could alter it in order to cause the separate stranges to merge together and compact into a dense string. Applying water and heat further condensed it and caused it to lose some of its stretchiness, making it a pretty good string.
It was a process that should have taken days, but after just five seconds, Shirou pulled back his hands in order to reveal the bow he had just created, letting the leftover materials fall to the ground.
Pulling out his ID, he checked the MP cost.
The creation of the bow had cost him exactly 1 MP.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Madoka said immediately, taking the bow and looking it over, testing the tension of the string. "It's perfect. I could definitely sell this."
"I have enough MP right now to do that 29 more times. More if Tohsaka lends me some of hers." Shirou said, glancing towards the girl, who was observing with interest.
"That won't be a problem. It would be good to get rid of my surplus before I rest for the night." Rin said before adding. "But only if you agree to just call me Rin. It feels wrong that I am the only one you are still being formal with."
She didn't have any stones prepared to store her magic energy for later, so giving it to Shirou was a good way of using it.
"If you could do this, you should have said something earlier." Ayako said, after taking the bow from Madoka and testing it. "This bow is a lot better than the one we purchased today. It was a waste of money."
"I didn't know how it would turn out until right now." Shirou said. "Madoka, could you retrieve the raw materials from your storage so I can get to work?"
"Sure thing!" The young girl said in excitement, taking out her key. "I am going to need to take tomorrow off from exploring though if I am going to sell everything."
"That's fine. You do what you can." Shirou said with a nod of his head. He'd feel better not bringing a twelve year old girl into a danger zone anyways.
"Speaking off, we should probably fill you in on tomorrow's plan." Rin said as Shirou accepted a massive supply of wood, wool, and metal from the young girl and got to work making a sword for himself. "Tomorrow we are planning on hitting up the same Dungeon, only moving on to the second floor. Our target is going to be another Named Monster called the Juggernaut. A monster with a 100 gold bounty on its head."
"Understood." Shirou said with a nod as he brought out his first sword, a flawless work that made Madoka squeal with excitement. He also made a scabbard for it.
He then moved on to gauntlets for Issei and a Spear for Ayako.
"The situation on the second floor is complicated. In fact, it is very unstable." Rin said, recalling the information she had received from Yumi. "Four months ago, an Alliance made up of the 24 strongest individuals in the 8th District all worked together to slaughter the Fanged Orcs on the second floor, triggering the Dungeon to retaliate the same way it did with us killing too many Giant Bees, spawning a Named variant of the Fanged Orcs called the Juggernaut. Juggernaut ended up wiping out the entire party."
Shirou frowned but continued his work as Rin talked about what was going on.
"Because of this, people haven't been able to go to the second floor at all without being attacked. So the monsters on the second floor have continued to multiply. Usually, when a Named Monster gets out of control like this, the Guild sends people to take it down before it triggers a 'Stamped', which is what they call it when a Named monster leads an attack on the city through the gate. But because Juggernaut is so large, it can't fit through the gate, so the Guild hasn't bothered to do anything about it." Rin explained. "If the number of monsters gets any higher, they will at the very least overflow onto the first floor, which could cause a lot of deaths."
"Then we should do something about it." Shirou said immediately.
"That's the plan, but there is a reason why no one has dealt with Juggernaut yet. It's because he has a special ability. Physical Damage Immunity. He literally can't be hurt from normal attacks." Rin said.
Shirou stopped and turned his head to look at her. "Are you serious?"
"Unfortunately, if my intel is correct, then yes. Of course, there are people with elemental based attacks which can affect the monster, but those attacks cost MP, which means you can't use them endlessly, and Juggernaut's HP pool is estimated to be around 3000, 6 times more than the Emerald Queen's. It's an upgraded type of Named enemy, meaning that it is a level 5 instead of a level 3. So it is as strong as a Named enemy from a 2 star Dungeon, despite being in a 1 star Dungeon. The kind of thing you shouldn't see until you yourself are a level 5 or 6, and even then, you shouldn't fight without an entire Alliance behind you.
"Even an Alliance from District 7 who came back down to handle the situation had to retreat because they simply couldn't find a way to hurt it enough before running out of MP. They tried poison, but it was immune."
"Then how are we planning on beating it?" Shirou asked, confused as to why Rin seemed so confident that they could handle the situation.
"That is where you come in." Rin said with a smile. "Your Skill can give our weapons +10 'conceptual damage' meaning they will be able to actually hurt Juggernaut. All we need to do is hit him about 300 times."
"You make it sound easy." Issei said with a sigh. "300 is a large number of times to hit a target. Especially a target that is going to be trying to kill us. Not to mention the fact that we are going to be getting swarmed by enemies while we are trying to fight it."
"The current strategy is going to be for you and me to be shooting arrows at him while Rin and Issei defend us from the basic mobs." Ayako explained. "The guy is supposed to be something like 10 meters tall and just as wide, so he isn't exactly going to be hard to hit. He's also not necessarily the fastest, since people have managed to outrun him. If we keep kiting him, we should be able to bring him down no problem."
"...Sounds good." Shirou said with a nod, annoyed that she hadn't mentioned Theresa. "I'll make the arrows."
