Well, the last chapter was smaller, I know. But from now on, the size of chapters should go back to around the 8k words that I usually try to go for. With one or other being smaller. Thanks for understanding! A lot happens here. And you'll soon find out, thanks once again to Allen for the suggestions and tips! First 10K chapter as well, hehehehehe~
Oh yeah, one last thing. When presenting shields, I'll use expressions like: Skill, and Unique skill. Skill being something someone can unlock and use even if the shield isn't equipped, like Air strike shield, the Crafting bonuses… Unique skills are things that can only be used while that particular shield is equipped. Like the Dog bite for the Orthus dog shield. Allen suggested for me to explain the difference.
Now, I won't hold you for too long with more talking. Without further ado… Roll chapter!
Kieran never felt this terrified since he had arrived into this world. Not when confronted against all the nobles in the throne room, not when the first princess tried to get into his party… Probably to screw him over.
No, that moment, when confronted with the mysterious figure was the peak terror. How could they have entered the house? Elhart was cleaning the room not too long ago probably, and even then, he wasn't too far away. The window was locked, so how did they get in?
"Who are you?" He asked, his eyes narrowing, his hand never left the handle, at the minor sign of attack, he was ready to bolt out of the door and scream for the blacksmith for help.
"Ah, excuse my lack of politeness… I'm the pope of the church of the three heroes. Biscas T. Balmus. The glorious religion that worships the true gods." Balmus spoke, opening his arms into his preacher voice. The shadow holding the magical globe looked down. Kieran was having a hard time reading that person's body language.
And seeing that made him even more anxious.
"I see… So three heroes, huh? If I use all the information I've gathered with my observations so far, that doesn't include me." Kieran commented, his body didn't move an inch. Still ready to act at any sudden moves.
"You are as smart as our reports showed. Impressive! You might be the smartest shield devil that has been summoned, both from being able to understand your situation, read the environment and to spoil our original plan. And you also know your place." The pope spoke with a soft voice, sounding almost proud. His false smile was quite frightening.
"So I wasn't paranoid… That banshee really was coming for my ass, wasn't her?" The blacksmith asked, all the dots were connecting.
"Indeed! The first princess is an easy pawn to order around. But she couldn't put her plan into practice. As such, we were forced to talk to you more directly. If you allow, let me speak clearly…" He made a pause, and his entire demeanor changed. Even if he wasn't present, the entire room's aura changed. "You will continue helping the heroes get stronger. We will allow you to benefit them and make them become the gods they truly are. You won't steal their glory, you'll know your place. Do all of this, and I won't need to force my hand against you…"
The mysterious shadowy figure looked straight into him, with his eyes more used to the darkness. Kieran could see more of their body.
He had no idea if the shadow was male or female. They had a very slim body, quite lightweight. But they still gave off a threatening aura that made him know to not underestimate them. Their clothing was almost all black, with a very hard to discern dark purple color, that he had to squint his eyes a bit to notice. But their clothes had a lot of detail, engravings, black feathers, the insignia of the church in the middle of the chest… Their faces were hidden behind a mask, and a metal ring fixed the cloth over the face in place. Where two small yellow pinpricks appeared.
Daggers were sheathed in their thighs.
Kieran let out a soft laugh. Not only did he have a world-ending event to take care of. But now he had to deal with yet another group of religious nutjobs. He reminded himself of the fall of the angel's reckoning. And shook his head in annoyance, he didn't earn enough for this.
"Well, I don't want to do more than that. I really hope I can isolate myself in a cabin in the woods or something in the future. And let those three do all the work. So I can go back to my world and see my daughter again." He said, truthful to those words. "I know how you operate. Feel free to delete my existence from the records, if you don't get in my way, I hopefully will be able to shape those three idiots up into fine holy heroes or whatever."
Biscas seemed pleased, shaking his head.
"Very well shield hero. We'll remain vigilant. Be a good assistant, and maybe you'll get to see your daughter again. Sorry for the intrusion, don't blame our Archangel here. I'll allow you to come to the church to register yourself for the waves." He offered, like he was doing him a huge favor. "You might just be the first true shield hero that has stepped foot into Melromarc."
"Please, we both know you don't really believe that." He saw Archangel moving one of his hands to his blade, but Balmus made them stop. "But to appeal more to that idea, how about I make some devil killing weapons for the heroes?"
"Oh?" The Pope seemed quite interested in the idea. "And why would you do that?"
"Well, first and foremost. Because they'll never use them against me." He replied simply, Balmus said nothing of that. "Second, I don't know what kind of monsters will pour from those waves. But I could see them being weak to holy attacks. In my world, that happens to undead creatures, demons and shadow monsters for example."
"So, there are demons in your world too? Fascinating… And what would you need to make those weapons?"
"Silver, and Holy water." He said simply, the glasses in Balmus face got that glint, as a smirk appeared in his lips. "If you're from a church, then you surely have lots of holy water laying around. Don't you? Even poor quality ones. I'm sure I could put some of that stock to use."
After hearing that, the pope couldn't help but laugh heartily. This shield demon was very interesting.
"Very well, I'll inform my nuns to allow you to buy a bulk of our excess holy water for a fair price." The Pope said. "The silver… You'll have to get it yourself. I can't be seen helping you after all. And that's quite expensive."
"Fine by me. I'll get them tomorrow." He replied, closing his eyes. Then opened them. "Oh, and one last thing… Never get inside Elhart's house ever again. You try this again, even if it gets my throat slitted, I'll scream for him. Do like any other evil church leader, and drag me into a dark alleyway. I know you want to intimidate me, but you don't mess with innocent people who have done nothing against you."
Balmus smile died when he said that, his expression becoming more neutral. To be honest, he didn't want to mess up with the blacksmith, seeing how overleveled he was compared to most of his followers.
"Then I ask you to not mention this conversation to anyone else." He conceded that small victory to him. "Archangel, we are done. Return to the church immediately."
"Understood." The voice was very muffled. And Kieran still could tell that person's gender. Balmus image disappeared from the room, and the shadow's attention turned towards the shield hero. "Disrespect our holiness again, and you'll drown in your own blood."
One second, Archangel was there. Then he blinked, and the figure had disappeared.
Kieran let go of the door handle. Changed his shield to the pillow shield then he fell face first into the bed. He screamed into the pillow in frustration. His voice was muffled heavily by the object. His nails dug into the plushy object, and if it wasn't a legendary weapon pretending to be a shield, it was certain he would've ripped it off.
His mind was clouded by worries. Traveling through all the options, but he couldn't see himself getting out easily from that situation. He looked at the green gemstone, tears running down his face.
"Why did you choose me?" He didn't get any response back. "I'm tired of fighting. I don't want to protect a world that I've just been dragged into. I just want to make weapons, bake, help my neighbors sometimes and take care of small stuff. But you take me from my perfect life, put me into such an unfavorable position…"
The shield's gemstone seemed to glow faintly in sympathy.
"If I had my powers… If I could just launch a barrage of spells and rip that pope's head from his shoulders…" His thoughts were becoming dark. His mind was getting clouder. He sat down into the bed, not even noticing the shield's gemstone turning yellow. "I need power… I need to save this world… I need to go back… Alicia… Alicia… Alicia… If I can't see you again… If I can't have you in my arms… Then I'm going to take what they love most from them… Everyone in my path… I'll dev…"
A knock on the door took him out of his thoughts.
It was Elhart, with a glass of warmed milk.
"I… Thought you would have trouble sleeping tonight. So I brought you something to help you sleep." The blacksmith said, seeing how the whitehead looked.
Kieran looked at him with a lost look. But his face slowly turned one of gratitude, he smiled and picked up the glass of milk, gulping it down slowly.
It helped with his worries. The fog in his head disappeared. He emptied the glass rather quickly.
"Thanks… This helped. I began to remember my daughter… I began to remember my old world, and I guess I spiraled a bit…" He said, laughing nervously, looking down at the empty glass.
"You'll see her again kiddo, I promise. Tomorrow morning, we can work on that shield of yours, alright? Maybe that will give you more attack power." He rubbed his hand on his back.
"I appreciate it. I'm going to learn the language with the other heroes too. So I can learn magic from this world." He spoke, a bit more optimistic.
"That's better. Now go rest, tomorrow is going to be a hectic day." The retired adventurer said, getting up and going for the door, once out. His expression soured. "Something happened here… I can tell by the way he was acting. I need to be more careful. There's something wrong here…"
The power of the service industry blessed all blacksmiths. No matter the world they lived in.
Kieran placed the shield under his arms, hugging him. The gemstone was back to the usual green color. He began to remember when he had to sleep with Alicia because she was too scared. The comfort that memory brought was enough to carry him to sleep.
Kieran woke up feeling great! He opened his status magic and saw the symbol of a buff that the pillow shield had granted. He got up quickly, he had mastered that shield enough to get that passive ability without needing to equip that shield…
But the shield was so warm and comfy that he couldn't help but want to sleep all night with it…
But sleeping with other shields equipped would be a must to unlock their passive abilities.
He took a moment to take a bath. The previous day sweat and grime did a number on him, as such, being able to clean himself was a godsend. After going down, he met the blacksmith serving breakfast for them.
"Oh, I was actually planning to cook something for us myself." He said, sitting down at the table, only to be given some more milk. He happily accepted, and began to eat his toast with eggs.
"Well, I woke up before you. But I can leave lunch to you." He said, smirking a bit. Sitting down to eat his share himself.
"I'll try to come by then. I'm not bad at cooking myself." He said rather proudly, then took another bite on his bread.
"I want to see what the holy cooking hero can do." He joked casually, and they both laughed. Then Kieran asked Elhart about the church of the three heroes. What followed was a history lesson about Melromarc and their war with Siltvelt. But basically, the shield hero took the side of the demi-humans, while the other three, the side of the humans. As such, the original religion of the four heroes was divided into the church of the shield, and the church of the three heroes.
Kieran wondered how things were in Siltvelt…
After that, Kieran exited the blacksmithing store. Today he had taken off his apron and gloves. Going for a more casual version of his outfit while the rest was stored in his shield. He didn't want to buy armor yet, preferring to buy something better he could wear once he had enough level. Something his fellow blacksmith told him about.
Certain pieces of equipment had a minimum level to be equipped. That explained the shield he wasn't able to equip. But it was also true for armor.
He had enough defense, so he was sure he was going to be fine.
The first stop for today was the church. He felt uneasy being there. His face contorted a bit, the guards at the entrance looked at him with judgment, but they didn't deny him passage. The place was just what he expected of some megalomaniac church. Lots of golden, white and religious symbolism. He didn't see anything ever close to resembling a shield, as it was expected.
A nun approached him, being forcefully cordial.
"Shield hero? We were expecting you."
"Yes, I'm here to register myself for the waves… And also to buy some holy water." He replied, she shook her head.
"Yes, the holy water is being brought as we speak. Please, follow me." She made a gesture, guiding him through the corridor to a large room.
The dragon hourglass was huge, and quite gorgeous. It also looked… Very mysterious. And very outworldly.
He walked closer, until a beam of light shot from his shield to the hourglass, and a counter appeared on his screen.
He had less than a month until the wave… But still a good amount of days. He had to make due with what he had. He walked closer again, seeing the sand slowly falling down. He turned back to the nun, a church knight placed a small crate next to her.
"This crate has 10 of our cheaper holy water. That will cost you 50 silver." She informed him.
"That's fine. Here's the money, I'll be needing some sand from the dragon hourglass." He asked, handling her the money."
"I'm sorry, but we have already taken sand for the other heroes. And I didn't get permission to give you any." She said, not hiding her pleasure.
Kieran's face soured a bit, but he shook his head. Of course they weren't going to allow him to teleport.
He could escape from their clutches more easily.
"Alright. That's understandable." He shrugged, opening up the crate and appraising the box. It was all very poor quality holy water. What he expected.
Being the petty bastard that he is, he picked one up and dropped it right inside his shield. Unlocking a shield from that.
-Paladin Shield-
+1 Def +1HP
Resistance to shadow magic. Small curse resistance.
Skill: Undead's Bane (Undead monsters that attack you have their defense decreased for a short while.)
Of course, he couldn't use it yet. Being level locked. He closed the lid, and left an angry nun behind. His devilish smirk never left his face, the box was then placed on his inventory. And he walked out of the church to meet with the others in the magic shop.
"I also got a recipe to craft holy water myself… Guess that has nothing to do with god here, huh?" He thought to himself, wondering if gods even existed here. He looked at the shield, as if expecting a response. But it was met with silence once again.
Kieran could see Ren and Tersia waiting for them in front of the shop. The mage greeted him cordially, and the two began to have a casual conversation about magic. Tersia wanted to know what kinds of spells existed in his world. And he was more than happy to share all his knowledge in magic. She looked fascinating, but pointed out some spells from this world did similar things.
Ren was right next to them, pretending to be cool. But he was happy seeing the two nerding out like that.
Itsuki was the next one to arrive alongside Welst. Apparently, he was convinced to come after the mage had told him how much magic would benefit his quest to bring justice to the world. That rubbed his pride the right way. So he relented despite hating the idea of studying.
Motoyasu came running not too long after, by that point, both mages were nerding out alongside the shield hero. Having a wonderful time, Welst even forgot that was the shield hero, the supposed demon who brought destruction to humanity.
"Huff… Huff… Sorry… That I'm late." Motoyasu said, his hands resting on his knees.
"Glad you could make it here." Kieran said, smiling at the spear hero. Finally, everyone entered the shop.
It was what you expected, lots of books lining the walls. Strange looking objects and magical artifacts were also shown. The shop owner, a woman in her 50's was at the counter, talking with an older man.
"So yeah… I won't fire him, but he surely got an earful for messing up with the herb gathering…" The older man, who was probably in his 60's, with a very naturalist vibe. "Now my next batch of medicine is going to be delayed… I'm losing a good amount of coin."
Motoyasu heard what he said, and that statement left him a bit curious.
"Hmmm? Oh, customers! Hello, so many people here! What can I do for you?" She said, turning her attention towards the newcomers.
"We're here to get some books. We need to learn this world's language." Kieran said, the man looked at all of them.
"The cardinal heroes? What a surprise…" He said, then turned towards the witch. "I'll talk to you another time."
"Right, it was nice catching up to you." She said, before he began to walk towards his door.
"If any of you heroes need something from me, I'm the owner of the apothecary down the street." He mentioned before walking out of the store.
The two mages began to chat with the witch, who happily began to gather some books. Seeing an opportunity to get on the good side of the heroes, and make more businesses in the future, she decided to lend them a hand when she wasn't attending other clients.
They sat down into a corner of the store. Welst and Tersia then proceeded to spend the next hours teaching the four heroes about the language, starting with the basics, everyone was having some problems with it, since it differed from their own languages. Kieran really missed when he could cheat this sort of thing, but right now, he had to power through it.
At least he wasn't alone in that. Even the other three heroes had problems grasping the language. And they were students before being dragged into this, while Kieran was working for years without sitting in a classroom. Some were growing frustrated, but Kieran and Motoyasu helped to calm the other two down a bit.
They kept at it for three hours. Then the group disbanded, with Kieran being left with some "homework" to do to help him memorize the alphabet.
He returned to Elhart to cook lunch for them, the blacksmith was very grateful for that, as he was working on the shield hero's order. Kieran went to give a couple hammerings to the shield to boost its quality from the effects of his forge hammer shield… He really should start absorbing more smithing related stuff.
After exiting the magic shop, Motoyasu made his way to the apothecary. He was kinda curious when he heard that the man was having trouble with his medicine being delayed. And having no medicine meant that the loving ladies of Castletown could get hurt, and have no means to soothe their pain.
A gentleman couldn't allow that.
When he walked inside, he saw the store being filled with strange plants, containers with different liquids, powders and pills. It was what you would expect from that sort of shop.
The owner was sitting down behind the counter, smoking something on his smoking pipe, but his relaxed expression turned to surprise, seeing the Spear hero there.
"Oh? Spear hero. What can I do for you?" The old man asked, straightening his back, and moving into a more appropriate position.
"Well. I heard that you can't make medicine currently because something went wrong? Your assistant or something, right?" The blonde asked, looking around.
"That is right. He went to gather the herbs for me, but when he brought them to me, they had been eaten by insects he didn't remove. If I tried using them, the medicine quality was going to end up very poor." He summarized, taking a deep inhale from his smoke, then letting it go. It didn't smell like cigarettes, that was the smell Motoyasu expected to feel.
Was that some sort of weed?
"I see… So you need herbs? I think I could gather some when I go out to train…" Motoyasu considered, thinking for a moment.
"If you do, I can buy them from you for a fair price. Because of the wave, we're having a shortage of medicine. There's people stocking up on them for the next one." He spoke simply, and the news worried Motoyasu.
"But then… The other people will be left without any… Alright. I'll grab some of those herbs. Can you show me which ones I need to pick up? And where to find them?" Motoyasu asked, leaning into the counter.
The apothecary then picked up something from under the counter, it was a big, heavy book. He went through some pages, and found a drawing of the herb in question.
"You can find those in the forest outside of the walls. They're not too hard to find, but getting good quality ones is usually a problem. But in the state we're in, I guess those will have to do…"
The blonde did his best to remember the image.
"Alright. Thanks for this. I'll come back at the end of the day to deliver the herbs." He smiled, feeling happy that he could make a side quest to help the lovingle women of the town.
"Good luck then, Spear hero." The man closed his book and relaxed into his chair, smoking his herbs without a care in the world.
"That is totally weed…" The blonde couldn't help but think that, before he walked out of the store.
After lunch, Kieran helped Elhart finish his shield. Elhart had modified one of the existing shields he had, alongside one of his defective swords that he recycled to make this rather cheap monstrosity. It wasn't anything too impressive, but it didn't need to be. After all, Kieran needed something he could use in low levels.
Sadly, it was still level locked. But the information popped up.
-Bladed shield-
+1 Def +1 Agi
Slashing damage resistance.
Kieran cursed under his breath for his luck. But thanked the man anyways, and paid his fair share for his work. He got a good discount for the help he gave in making it. He decided to go out and try to grind alone. Elhart even offered to come with him, but Kieran feared that the church could decide to target him. He said that he was going to be alright.
He exited the gates and found himself in a large field. Needing to blow out some anger, he switched to his Toolbox shield. He remembered getting zapped for thinking about beating the summoners with that toolbox, but now that it was a shield… It worked really nice.
A Orange ball monster sprang from the tall grass and lunged at him, Kieran didn't even think twice, and slammed the toolbox right against his face. The monster didn't seem too affected, and soon was jumping right at him. Kieran kept that repetitive attack until the monster popped. Awarding him 1 exp.
The whitehead was a bit frustrated, grunting in annoyance, but kept going. Slamming balloon after balloon with his toolbox while he walked through the plains. Surprisingly, he found himself fine even after one of them latched against his side and kept gnawing at him.
There was a moment he had 6 of them nibbling on different parts of his body. From the remains of the balloons he got a couple shields from the balloon series. The Small Orange shield, Small yellow shield, and after going a bit deeper into the forest, he got the Small red shield from some random scraps that were probably left by one of the other heroes. All those shields had different buffs to his defenses after mastered. So he kept them in mind.
Halfway through, he changed to his starter shield when he noticed it had another defense buff, and was very close to being mastered. Since he basically did 1, or two damage sometimes no matter the shield he had, he took advantage to use the time to get other buffs.
Kieran also gathered random stuff he found on his way. Unlocking the Small stone shield, Leaf shield, Wood shield, Fish shield and Butterfly shield.
The butterfly shield was easy, even with his minimal attack stat, taking out an unsuspecting butterfly wasn't too hard, and it gave him some paralysis resistance. The Fish was a bit more complicated, but after having the idea to throw the small creature out of the water using his small shield like a spade, he watched as the little aquatic creature suffocated to death.
That taught him two things, if he didn't cause the last damage, he wasn't going to be awarded XP. And that environmental damage could take out enemies if he really needed it.
Also, he learned that not everything gave him a shield. The butterfly gave something, but when he squashed a couple other bugs, he wasn't awarded anything new…
Those shields mainly gave utility skills, like getting better at cutting wood, fishing, or being a stonemason. But the Leaf shield had a gathering skill that he could use to gather stuff… When he was able to equip it.
He kept absorbing random things and defeating balloons, when he found a bush full of berries. He took advantage of that to grab a good amount of those. He did get a shield from absorbing one of those berries. But when the name of the shield popped up, he knew it wasn't safe to eat.
-Poison berry shield-
+1HP
Skill: Poison resistance I (Poisons are a bit less effective on you.)
So, he kept going, beating up balloons, and not going too deep for today. The small balls were painful enough to deal with. He was annoyed. But there was no reason to give up. He had to get stronger. If he reached the level to unlock his Bladed shield, maybe things would get easier on him.
He really hoped that would happen.
Motoyasu was having a better time than his shielder counterpart. Every monster from the surroundings of Melromarc was easily dispatched by his spear. He wasn't the least bit worried about venturing deeper into the forest. Similarly to Kieran, he also unlocked a counterpart to the Leaf shield. The Leaf Spear had a gathering skill that made all the herbs he was collecting into good quality ones. Every one he collected made him feel better and better, but it made Malty more annoyed.
"Excuse me Sir Motoyasu. But why are you grabbing so much grass?" She asked, puffing a bit. Her hand resting on her hip.
"Oh, these are medicinal herbs I'm gathering for the Apothecary." He replied with a proud smile. "From what I heard, there's a shortage of medicine. So in the name of helping the fair maidens of Melromarc, I'll do this job!" He said, raising his spear into the air. "Besides, I have a spear that is raising the quality of the herbs I'm picking up."
Hearing that, Elena scurried closer to him.
"Oh? That's great Sir Motoyasu! You should totally do something like that. You should try to see if you can have a spear that raises the quality of the medicine you make! Why not start making medicine?" She eagerly suggested, seeing big bucks in front of her. She was a capitalist after all.
"Huh? Making medicine?" He gave a thought to the idea. It didn't sound so bad. That way he could help lots of women suffering from illness. "Maybe I should ask the Aphoteguy for that…"
"Sir Motoyasu, that is peasant work. You should leave those things to them, you're a hero! You're supposed to get stronger to protect the world!" Malty said, grunting and puffing.
"Malty's right Moto. Who cares? We have the money to buy all the medicine we need~" Lesty said, agreeing with Malty.
"Sir Motoyasu!" A male voice spoke. Stephen, the only other male member of the party called out to the spear hero. "I found a bunch of those plants you were looking for!"
"Sweet! I'm going there!" Motoyasu quickly ran behind him, ignoring Malty's plea. And leaving her red faced. Elena followed him closely behind. Already imagining how valuable the Spear hero's medicine could make if it was branded with his name. You could almost see her eyes turning into Golden coins.
Motoyasu took all the plants from his inventory, filling the Apothecary's counter with them, scaring the guy at the huge amount he was presented with. After appraising it, he was even more flabbergasted that those were all good quality or higher.
"S-sir spear hero… How did you find those?" He managed to ask, looking up at him.
"Oh, I have a spear that raises the quality of the herbs I gathered." He explained, changing to it to show it to the person in question. Elena was right behind him, rubbing her hands together, she walked forward.
"Yes! Now imagine what would happen if he could unlock a spear that makes better medicine from those good materials?" The woman suggested, using her suggestion tactics. "I could imagine that could do both of us a lot of good, right?"
"Well… Indeed. I have an extra set of beginner tools I could sell to him if he wants to start making his own medicine. That would make him more money too…" He replied, scratching his chin.
"I have no idea how to make medicine…" He confessed, rubbing the back of his head.
"I can teach you… In exchange for some of these herbs." He said, a smile on his lips.
"That would be amazing! Give your best Sir Motoyasu! All the women in this country are counting on you!" The noble woman said, to give him more gas to work towards that goal.
Motoyasu gripped his spear more tightly, then turned towards the old man.
"Please, teach me everything you know!" He asked, pumped up to help all the ladies.
Elena smirked playfully to herself, he was so easy to manipulate. But her intentions weren't as bad as Malty's.
That would benefit lots of people in the long run.
It wasn't her fault she would benefit from it as well~
It was dark, and Kieran was going to return home, when three hooded figures approached him outside the walls. He was expecting them to be the church's shadows. But was relieved when they pulled the hoods, and he saw that they were demi-humans.
"Lord shield, we got news of your summoning. We are envoys from Siltvelt." The first man spoke, he had white hair and feline ears on top of his head. Kieran watched for a moment, wondering what kind of feline he was? He seemed to be a white tiger. Looked older than he probably was, with tired eyes and wrinkles close to them.
"The demi human country?" Kieran asked, surprised that they came from so far away to find him. It made him feel flattered.
"That is true, Lord shield. We came here to bring you to our wonderful country." He spoke again, saying his objective.
The moment he mentioned that, Kieran felt a chill on his spine. Like the grim reaper was breathing down on his neck. He managed to keep his composure.
"I see… I… I can't leave with you. Sorry." Kieran replied, and the chilling sensation seemed to get lighter. But it didn't go away completely.
"Why not lord shield? Have you not felt discrimination? They see you as the devil! The wise king hates us with a passion!" The man pleaded. "If you come, we'll make sure you are safe! That you won't have to worry about the heresy that sputters from their mouths!"
"I haven't felt that much here… I mean. There's a couple people who don't like the shield hero. But I've met lots of wonderful people who are willing to help me!" He said, to the admiration of the demi humans there. "Even the king sympathizes with me. He's a father like I am. When I mentioned my daughter, he was very sympathetic."
"You have a daughter, Lord Shield?" One of the other two asked, in a feminine voice.
"I do, she's back in my world. Me and the king are similar, were both fathers who want nothing but to see our families live happily. As long as I don't do anything to his family, he won't do anything." He told them, they were surprised.
"But still, my Lord… You're alone. Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" The white haired man asked again.
"I'll get party members soon, it's only my second day here. Besides, I think that quality is better than quantity." He replied to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I have something to do here, me and the other heroes are helping each other."
Those news flabbergasted the envoys.
"M-my lord? How? The bow, spear and sword always fought against you! They want to drag you down!" He argued, quite worried.
"They were a bit rough at first… But they warmed up to me after I helped them. We're learning the language together, so we can know magic! I might not be earning multiple levels yet, but I'm getting stronger in other ways." He said it in response, the envoys sighed.
"Very well my Lord… If it's your wish to remain here for the time being, then we won't drag you back with us by force. But remember that Siltvelt will always welcome you with open arms!" He said, smiling at him.
"It comforts me to know that. Now rise, I wish you a safe return." He gave each of the envoys a kiss on the forehead. That left all of them almost crying from joy.
"I'm never going to wash my forehead ever again…" The third envoy that was silent during the entire ordeal, thought that. His heart beating fast in happiness.
"T-thank you… Thank you for your blessing my lord. We will return to our glorious country at once. If you ever need anything from these servants, look for us. We will join you anytime you wish!" After that, the three hooded figures ran back into the forest, before they could be spotted.
Kieran waited until they had disappeared. Letting his expression sour again. He walked back into the city, getting some help from the guards to kill the balloons from his body. He didn't earn any EXP from that. But at least, he managed to reach level 2 with a lot of effort. He could now equip a couple of his new shields, like the ones from the balloon series.
He kept walking through the streets… But stopped abruptly, and entered a very dark alleyway. As if materializing out of nowhere, a familiar figure appeared.
"You did well turning down their offer." Archangel spoke, his tone neutral as it was the most common.
"I knew I had no choice. I could feel you observing us, even if I tried to say yes… They were going to die before we left the outskirts of Melromarc." He said, leaning against the wall.
"You are indeed very smart. Keep it up, and you'll be left alone." Archangel replied, giving a compliment. But their neutral voice didn't do it proper justice. "The Pope also said for you to decline any strong adventurer that tries to join you."
"Of course… No need to try to sugarcoat it. I know you guys want me either too weak to fight, or dead when the wave hits." He said in annoyance.
"We want you weak or dead by the end of the wave." Archangel confirmed, their voice never changing.
"Can I go now? Or do you plan to fuck me literally after fucking me in a non-literal way?" The blacksmith asked, but got no reply. Archangel was gone the moment he blinked. He laughed sourly, then he left the alleway to make his way back to the smith shop.
A couple days went by, Kieran's routine was basically the same through those days. Studying with the other heroes, then going back to help Elhart, then grind alone until it gets dark. That repeated for about five days, then something changed.
"Sir Kieran! Sir Kieran!" The Shield hero was about to exit through the gate, when he saw Stephen, Motoyasu's party member running towards him. He was a bit surprised.
"Oh, Stephen, right? What is it? Did Motoyasu send you here to call me?" The whitehead asked, thinking it was probably something like that. Seeing his struggle, the blonde had given him a couple materials he had, allowing him to unlock the Mush series of shields. As well as a couple medicine related shields that helped him a bit with stamina reduction, a boost to his SP… Things like that. Minor, but welcomed buffs he appreciated.
"No… No he didn't. I came here on my own accord." The swordsman then explained to him that Malty was pressuring him for days for him to leave the party, then today, she had outright kicked him out. He tried to talk to Motoyasu about it, but he didn't believe it, saying he was going to talk to Malty about it, but that talk only made her worse. "So, I had no other choice than to leave… She said she was going to accuse me of rape. The king would've killed me if she even said something like that! So I decided to join you."
"Wait, I understood that Malty was being a jerk. But why join me?" Kieran was a bit flabbergasted, but his heart was filled with hope. With someone to attack the monsters for him… He had a chance of leveling up fast enough!
"Because she hates you with a passion, and if i join you, then i can piss her off a lot." He said with an evil smirk.
Kieran began to ponder, he was worried about the church coming to him… No, Archangel said strong adventurers. Stephen wasn't anything too huge, from what he knew he was a guard at a village called Lerno. But when the heroes were summoned, he abandoned his position to join the heroes.
Maybe he was safe from the church.
"Alright. I could use some help with grinding. Thanks Stephen." Kieran gladly accepted him, although a bit nervous.
One party invitation later, and the two were good to go.
The first balloon that popped out of the grass, Kieran jumped right into them, taking their aggro. Stephen got worried when he saw so many jumping at once, but the shield hero wasn't affected by the slightest bit.
"You're… Not hurt?" The man asked with a bit of uncertainty, branding his sword, and calmly popping one after another.
"Not at all! My defense is so high that they can't do anything. Some days I ask for the help of the gate guards in popping them up. So I don't wander into the town with them all in me.
"Sir Motoyasu had some trouble with the little shits. One of them tried biting him in the crotch, but he instinctively raised his leg to have him chew on that instead. It still hurt, but at least he didn't get his dick chewed off." The brown haired man joked a bit, taking a laugh from both of them.
What followed in the rest of the day was the two men going deeper into the forest. Stephen's sword dispatched of the weak starter monsters quite fast. With one, or two swings at max. Kieran took all the monster scraps into his shield. Saving them up to use them in Itsuki's Job method. Maybe that way, he could raise his attack stat enough that he could grind alone…
But maybe that wasn't needed. If he protected Stephen, then the guard could focus on being offensive and slashing any obstacle they faced. The EXP notifications kept popping up faster than Kieran had considered. It didn't take too long for him to go from level 2, to level 3. Then after a couple hours, he was already level 4.
They managed to defeat a couple egg-shaped monsters that gave him abilities related to making his cooking better. He wasn't going to comply. Elhart already loved his food, if they became even better, he was sure he could get more discounts from him.
They were considering going back, when a bunny type monster jumped from the bushes and tried to bite the swordsman, but Kieran quickly got in the way, holding the bunny in place.
"Got him!" Kieran said, pushing the little creature away, making it squeal at them before going again for an attack.
"Coming right up!" The guard said while running into the creature's direction, the first swing hit, making the bunny hiss in pain, but he managed to evade the second one. Jumping on top of the blade, and attempting to bite Stephen's face.
"Oh no you won't!" The blacksmith said, changing to his toolbox shield and using it as an improvised hammer to launch the hare back against a tree, making it shake, but as expected, it only dealt one damage.
"I'll finish him off!" Stephen said, taking advantage that the monster was a bit dizzy from the blood loss to stab it right in the head.
They didn't have a lot of time, as another two bunnies jumped at them from behind. Baring their teeth, ready to chew on them if the opportunity arises."
Kieran quickly ran forward, letting the two of them attack his shield while Stephen attacked them from behind. They changed targets, going for Stephen again one of them bit into the leather of his armor, and managed to sink his teeth on it, making him hiss in pain.
Kieran kicked the second bunny away from them, then pulled the Usapil from his partner, giving him an opportunity to stab it right through his stomach. The second one ran into them again, bloodied, and full of rage, the stress from the last few days took the best of him, and Kieran grabbed him by the ears and swung him right to Stephen who gave it a clean cut, finishing it off.
"Thanks for having my back there, Kieran." Having grown comfortable enough with one another, the guard had relented into dropping the honorifics. He proceeded to help Kieran dismantle the monster to get some shields from the Usapil series. They gave him extra agility, and a boost to his dissection skill. He wished he had brought a knife with him. But one of the shields caught his attention.
-Usapil Foot shield-
+2 Agi
Skill: Lucky charm I (Boost slightly the chance of drops from monsters.)
"No worries man, I'm the shield hero. If I don't take the hits for you, what else am I good for?" He joked around, laughing a bit, and getting up, he turned around, seeing the sky getting darker. "Hey, do you want to come eat with us? I'm sure Elhart is going to be happy that I have a… Friend?"
His voice trailed off when he looked behind him, seeing the person he was growing fond of, looking at him with blood coming out of his mouth. Their eyes met, Stephen's full of horror and fear, and the purple ones from a confused Kieran.
He fell to the grass, clutching his throat, choking on his own blood while Kieran saw the dark figure behind him.
Archangel.
The angel of death from the three heroes' church, had come to claim their latest victim. Coming out of nowhere, just like the stories told the grim reaper was able to do.
"STEPHEN!" Kieran screamed, running up to him, applying pressure on his throat. Trying to contain the bleeding. "No… No! NO! WHY?!"
"We warned you shield hero… You were to not recruit any strong adventurers into your party." Archangel said, wiping the blood from their blade in Stephen's clothes.
"B-but… He was a party member to us heroes! He was a couple levels higher than me… But… But…" He watched as life began to disappear from the guard's eyes. He noticed how utterly devastated the shield hero was. He gave him a comforting smile.
He knew that it wasn't his fault. He felt something was really wrong from the way Maly acted, he was a bit fearful because of the church, they had warned them all. The members that were supposed to join the Shield hero's party had vanished.
But he thought those were empty threats. But he was wrong. He wanted to speak, he wanted to assure Kieran he didn't have to blame himself. But the cut was deep, and the blood didn't let him speak, all that came out were gurgling noises of him choking, his own blood filling his lungs, while he was too weakened to cough it out.
His grip on life was vanishing… He wanted to adventure and help him fight the waves so badly. He wanted to make his childhood dream of being a hero a reality. But he wasn't able to. He closed his eyes. He hoped that man was able to find peace into this world that had wronged him.
He deserved better.
"Yes, we knew you wouldn't understand unless we gave you a harsh lesson… I suggest you dispose of the body. You might get accused of killing them." For the first time ever, their voice had a minimal change in tone. But Kieran could notice.
The situation was amusing to him.
That bastard… They found the situation… Amusing.
From all the feelings that bastard could've shown at any time, they decided to show amusement at an innocent's death.
Just as Stephen gave away his last breath, Kieran took his bloodied hand from his throat and got up.
"I s-see… I u-understand. T-this won't… H-happen ag-gain." The blacksmith replied, his hair hiding his tearful eyes, his fist clenched tightly.
"We hope so. This will be your last chance." After that, Archangel was gone from the field.
Kieran took Stephen's sword and carefully stashed it in his inventory. Then he looked at the lifeless body of his companion. He saw only one way of disposing of the body safely.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry. Please forgive me…" Kieran spoke, apologetic. He closed his eyes, rubbed his head and searched for anything precious he could have to give back to his family in case he ever found them. There was just a bit of money and his equipment. He separated those things, then absorbed Stephen's body into his shield.
He had unlocked a couple shields that gave EXP boosts to humans in his party, as well as maturation adjustments and boost to their stats. He left the bloodied terrain there, hoping that people thought of that being monster blood. It wasn't too hard to think about that, when they had dissected a rabbit monster there.
He placed all his equipment into his inventory. He wasn't going to absorb it, or sell it. Nor was he going to use the money himself. He made a mental note to give it back to his family, so he kept it separated from his own.
After gathering everything he made his way out of the clearing. Shambling weakly like a zombie. But he made a pause into the small river to wash his hands. He was clean now, but to him, it was if his hands were still soaked in human blood.
Alone once more… Kieran made his way back to Castletown. Wondering if this was the punishment for the things he did in his past.
The days kept passing in a haze. The other heroes noticed that Kieran wasn't as bubbly and happy as he had been when they met him. He still looked fine, but he wasn't as outspoken as he had been previously. Motoyasu had asked if he had seen Stephen, and to prevent himself from breaking down, he had to lie to Motoyasu. Saying he saw the man exiting the capital, looking angry.
The blonde was connecting the dots. He was going to need to talk to Malty later.
Talking about him, Kieran did praise him for taking an interest into making medicine. That was going to help everyone in the long run with the boosts that their weapons provided. He shared some of his latest batch of medicine with them. Including some nutritional pills that could give them an extra boost to their diets and keep them in top shape.
Kieran also gave all the other 3 heroes some of the Holy water he had brought. Since he was going to be able to make his own in the future after he had learned the right spell. They were thankful to him, and even Itsuki was starting to warm up to him.
The heroes were truly becoming comrades and friends. It was slow going, but when they were together, they all acted a bit more naturally. Although not completely. They shared stories from their respective worlds, Kieran learned a lot of the advancements from their words. Things like "Television", "Internet", "Videogames", "Microwaves" and even "Firearms."
Apparently they existed in this world, but were still really underdeveloped, and were mostly kept to Faubley. Kieran was a bit curious about the concepts, but he got annoyed when he learned production was made in factories, and that blacksmiths were really rare in their worlds, and mainly made weapons for collectors or to be used as decoration.
He also kept seeing a pattern of bad habits that the heroes had.
Motoyasu still wanted to sleep with all the ladies. And had a dream of building a harem around him.
Ren still didn't want to pick the bad dialogue options, so he still tried to talk less and acted like an edgelord to not make mistakes.
And Itsuki still believed he could do no wrong. His sense of justice was flawless, and he understood more about law than a scholar who studied that all his life.
And all of them still saw this as a game. They were going to need a wake up call sooner or later.
During the last few days, Kieran was putting a lot of effort into learning the language. And his efforts were paying off. He was able to write down his name, and read more simple phrases. So it was a step in the right direction. Sadly, the heroes were going further outward from the town so sometimes he didn't see them for one or two days. But Kieran kept studying with the help of the lovely shop owner, who always gave him homework and tips to help him learn faster.
During this time, Kieran took an opportunity to clean an old shack that Elhart had in his backyard that was filled with junk. The blacksmith was more than happy letting the whitehead absorb the stuff from there, and he unlocked a couple of interesting shields. Like the Rope shield, Chain shield, Anvil shield, Iron ore shield, Lead shield, Copper shield, Silver shield, Sawmill shield, Stone brick shield, and the Pipe shield.
Most of those shields just gave him simple stats, or buff to his crafting skills. But a couple of them had some useful skills that could help him in the future. Like the Air strike shield the Rope shield gave. The Ensnaring Chains from the Chain shield, the Shield Prison, from the Pipe shield, and of course, the Serrated slash that the Sawmill shield gave.
Now you might be wondering, at least that last one was a damaging skill, right?
Wrong. Kinda, the Serrated slash was a skill whose main utility was cutting wood. It could shred Leather armor, and decrease defense from enemies in some circumstances. But they were all dependent on multipliers. The base damage of that was pretty low from what he managed to read.
He couldn't use most of those skills yet. Equipping some of those shields wasn't an option since they were level locked, but all his grinding had put him at level 7. He was supposed to be lower, but Stephen's help had given him a couple extra levels.
He planned on making them count.
He had mastered all the shields he was able to equip. He kept saving up energy and resources. He didn't want to spend them on cheap shields. But multiple times, he thought of doing it anyway because he had nothing to lose.
Kieran was exhausted. His mind was in shambles. His grinding was usually followed by lashing out from anger, or sobbing. He was relieving the worst time of his life, but this time, he couldn't even attack. He was alone, and powerless… And he couldn't ask for help. He turned them down. He didn't want more blood on his hands.
His hate for the church only grew. He kept those thoughts to himself. Archangel's eyes followed him everywhere he went… Death kept breathing down his neck. And the only reason he was able to sleep at night, was that he exhausted himself during the afternoons and he basically passed out when falling into the bed.
Unknowingly, the church was poking the hornet's nest. And they were using their bare hands while doing it.
He walked through the dark streets of Melromarc. He stopped to catch his breath. He looked to his side and saw a tavern, full of people drinking. He wished getting him drunk was easy. But his natural Alcohol resistance was a bit high, and his Poison resistances were making it harder for him to get drunk.
"Still no party members, good Sir?" An older voice asked him, he slowly turned his head to see a very short man. With a predatory smile.
The man was dressed in rather fine clothes. Mostly purple, alongside a top hat and some jewelry. He had gloves on, and his eyes were hidden behind tiny, circular glasses.
Red flags. Huge red flags of someone who had something highly illegal going on.
"No… I don't need any…" Kieran lied. His fists clenching, he was tired of lying again and again. But he had to keep going. For Alicia, he had to keep going.
"But kind Sir… You're still so low leveled. I know the church is on your back…" The man spoke, and when he saw the face of terror the whitehair made, Beloukas couldn't hep but giggle gleefully. "Don't worry, they can't touch me. I have far too much influence for them to attempt to do anything… But what I can do is help you…"
"You want to join my party?" His eyes narrowed, that tiny dude gave off so many weird vibes that his aura was almost visible to him. Like a puddle of bubbly black goop, encrusted with gold and jewels. Like a Demon of greed.
"Oh, of course not! Hehehehehe… That's a good joke, yes Sir. No, I'm but a humble merchant. Like you, I sell goods, you see?" Beloukas said, turning around, guiding the confused shield hero through the alleway to a place that looked like a circus. Multiple crates, containing some exotic animals outside…
But the inside. The inside made his stomach sink.
Demi-humans of multiple ages, but lots of kids filled filthy cages, rotten with bodily waste, grime, blood and dirt. They wore nothing but rags, some were missing limbs, covered with dirty, bloodied bandages that were never changed. Probably hiding infected stumps that would reap their lives if they weren't treated.
It was one of his worst nightmares. He was glad Alicia wasn't here to see this. But even himself, had trouble to process what he saw, the kids recoiled deeper into their cages, fearful of him. Trembling, while the weaker ones observed him with broken stares… Probably too numb from their traumas to be able to react.
The purple eyes of the blacksmith almost became red. His eyes scanned their fearful looks, flashbacks of the same eyes he saw in Alicia all those years ago. The same fearful, broken eyes that only a kid, who had seen the worst in the world could have.
It broke his heart, a single tear shedding from his left eye. He felt even worse than when he found his precious daughter in that alleway. Because now, he saw multiple kids in a situation like her. He wanted to cry, he wanted to puke…
He wanted to kill.
Beloukas was lucky the shield limited his offensive capabilities. He was lucky he didn't have access to the spells he knew. He was very lucky he couldn't manage to use the worst curses in his arsenal. Or else he was going to suffer the effects from all five of them.
His eyes flashed for a second with the color yellow, but he calmed down. Gritting his teeth, he turned towards him. Wanting to slice his own tongue off for the thing he was about to say. He felt like the scum of the earth, a little bit of his self-respect lost with the air used to say those words.
"What do you have in stock?" Kieran's voice came out hollow, his mind going into a stupor, like he had consumed some sort of drug. Probably a defense mechanism for his abused psyche. He vaguely remembered feeling like that before he met Wattson.
Yeah… Kieran is really suffering right now. You thought he was going to be all happy and free? Sadly for him, no. The grip that the church has is even stronger on him, than it was on Naofumi. Archangel seems to always be behind him… Watching.
Maybe it's just his imagination, maybe it's another shadow from the church. But he never knows, and that dread is taking its toll on him. You can see he's growing desperate. And I ended the chapter right when I knew you guys wanted to keep going. Mwahahaha!
Look forward to the next one. Now the story is beginning to take off!
Signing off, until next time!