A/N: SegomoGwydion, you're right, I got the floors mixed up. I'll fix that, the Ninth Floor is where Suzuki lives and the Eighth Floor is Nazarick's main defensive room.

Regarding Jhonnatan's question if Motoyasu could copy Shalltear's Spuit Lance theoretically, but if I'm not wrong weapons in Shield Hero also have requirements- so if the Spuit Lance has requirements such as being at a certain level which he can't meet, he wouldn't be able to use it per se. Even if he could use it, it wouldn't be as powerful with him as it would be with Shalltear. This is all said regardless of the fact that Shalltear would never hand him her lance in the first place, but you get the point I think.

"Agh!" Suzuki shouted as he got up.

Once he left Lurolona Village, he had taken some detours while backtracking to gain some more XP. Since he now had a Hanzo with him, he was able to fight more monsters and could walk into areas he was otherwise reluctant to go into.

He still sort of regretted spending all that gold on the Hanzo- while yes, it was useful to him, the fact remained that he was now poorer because of it. Not to mention a Hanzo was good at one specific thing- a time might've arrived in the future where he might need a mercenary NPC with slightly different skills. He wasn't even entirely sure he could contact Nazarick again during the next Wave- so he was berating himself several times for 'wasting' resources.

His mood probably would not have been so sour if he had chosen to summon it out of his own volition, but the thing was that he had brought it out because he was going to take a hostage- in other words, the original use for which he had summoned it was no longer valid.

If he had just wanted to summon something to grind for XP and the like, he could've done so days earlier. And now that he had used his gold, he couldn't help but think he might've as well done it on his first day arriving here.

There were two ways to gain lots of XP- one was to destroy a large number of monsters, and the other was to destroy powerful monsters. The Hanzo, though it did not have any strong area-of-effect attacks, was extremely fast and could detect and kill enemies which Suzuki couldn't- though that was only to be expected. The Hanzo was a level 80 monster from Yggdrasil after all. From what Suzuki had seen, there was nothing which could even remotely stand up to it.

The Hanzo was so good at grinding as a matter of fact, that Suzuki's own contributions while fighting monsters was nearly zero when compared to its. Thanks to the Hanzo, Suzuki was now level 25 of this world's levels along with 18 Yggdrasil levels. This had all happened in the short span of a single afternoon.

His Filolial had remarkably grown to level 13 in the same time, even though she had not fought a single battle, though this was to be expected, he thought, since levelling up was much easier at lower levels. It had been so in Yggdrasil as well.

Interestingly, Suzuki found that the animal did not gain any Yggdrasil levels like he could. In addition, the Hanzo's Yggdrasil level was capped at 80, but it was still able to gain levels of this world.

That was a mystery in and of itself, but Suzuki had to note that this rapid growth was likely because there were only three of them. Earlier, XP had to be split among several hundred members of Ainz Ooal Gown, though the Guildmaster Shield made sure there was a minimum that went around. Here, with fewer party members, he was able to grow rapidly.

But, as he thought about it some more, he reached the conclusion that the earlier system was still better. In the end, it was more important for stronger people like Demiurge and Albedo to be able to gain levels than it was for someone like him.

Finally, there was yet another interesting fact which had come up now that he had a Hanzo alongside him.

"Master," the monster said. "There have been people watching us from afar."

"Hmm?" Suzuki asked. "Who are they?"

"They all appear to be humans," the monster said. "Dressed up all in black. They appear to possess certain Thief and Rogue-type abilities, though they are far below my own."

"Oh..." Suzuki said.

"If you wish, I can eliminate them," the monster said. "At most- they seem to around level 30 from what we would see in Yggdrasil at maximum- though to be frank I would put them at closer to level 20 or even 15."

Suzuki felt creeped out knowing he was being watched, and was tempted to give the go-ahead for beheading these people. However, the words of Punnito Moe, the strategist of Ainz Ooal Gown resonated in his head.

'All warfare based on deception,' he could imagine his old guildmate saying to him. 'If they are following you and collecting intelligence on you, is it not better to have them around? How else will you feed false information to your enemies?'

"No, not yet," Suzuki said. "What are they up to?"

The Hanzo drew a circle in the dirt with his finger. "This clearing, Suzuki-sama is where we are camped out. The forest is over here, and they are all stationed over here, here, and here." He made three crosses on the rough map.

"Do they know that they've been found out?" Suzuki asked.

"I doubt it," the Hanzo said. "Unless there is one among them who is extraordinarily skilled in stealth- a level 100 rogue or thief, for example."

"Got it," Suzuki said. "Let's just monitor their movements for now. Who are they reporting to?"

"This one could find that out, but it would involve leaving you unguarded for many hours," the Hanzo replied.

Suzuki was about to retort that he had done fine without any bodyguards up till now, but the thought that he was surrounded right now by three potential enemies made that reply die in his throat. He could summon another mercenary monster, but once again, he didn't want to play all of his cards right away.

"Ah, then, let's leave it at that then," Suzuki said. He took the Filolial and wrapped it around a coat and put it down so it could sleep while he worked on making new potions. The Hanzo would occasionally detect a nocturnal monster lurking on in the fringe and would promptly kill it and return with another part for Suzuki's shield.

Since Suzuki was so busy dealing with his own work, he didn't notice that something about his Filolial was changing until the sun came up and he figured it was time to get a move on.

The Filolial had climbed out of his coat- which was a good thing because it was now about as massive as he was.

"Wait- how'd you get that big?" Suzuki asked. He turned his head to the Hanzo. "Did-did you replace the Filolial with another one?"

"No," the Hanzo replied. "This one is as surprised as you are- at some point in the night, it grew to that size automatically."

Suzuki thought about it- the people he had met had said nothing about Filorials growing this fast. Granted, if it was a video game, it would make sense for livestock to mature in a day- because no player would ever wait a realistic amount of time to see an animal they were breeding grow. But, he had been told that it still took months for Filolials to grow to maturity, and he highly doubted that both the person who sold him the egg and the demi-human who had worked with Filolials had both told the same lie simultaneously and independently of one another.

Come to think of it- he had gotten the Monster User Shield and the Monster Egg Shield by adding the Filolial's egg shards to his shield. Was this a result of that?

The Filolial let out a happy noise and then Suzuki heard its stomach growl.

"Ugh... okay, hunt something for it, would you?" he said to the Hanzo, who bowed and disappeared. If Suzuki's stats were a bit higher, he would've seen the monster move while leaving behind multiple afterimages, but at his given level, all he saw was a flash as the monster vanished.

"You do look like one of the fully grown Filolial though," Suzuki said. He plucked a feather and added it to his shield. "Well, maybe I don't need to keep walking around then."

The Hanzo returned after having snapped the neck of a deer-like creature that had not even cocked its head when the Hanzo approached it. The Filolial devoured it in a matter of minutes.

"Geez," Suzuki said. Overall, it seemed it would be better to give it his Ring of Sustenance and just feed himself when necessary to conserve resources. It might not be possible for him to keep hunting like that.

Once it was done with the corpse, the Filolial began eating the grass. Well, if it ate grass, it would make rearing it far easier.

"So, up ahead there was this swamp," Suzuki told the Hanzo. "Earlier, I had wanted to explore it, but didn't think I was levelled enough to do so. I think now though, it would be worth taking a slight detour to see what's there before we head towards the border."

"Understood," the Hanzo said and bowed.

"And, what about the people spying on us?" Suzuki asked.

"They seem to take shifts- with fewer of them being around in the night. However, they always try to keep their distance- though they are unable to keep up with my speed at all," the Hanzo said.

"Right, let's ignore them for now- or, do you think there's a way that we could lose them?" Suzuki asked.

"If we were to wander onto a large open area, such as a desert or plain, they would be unable to find any reliable cover, and with their low stealth abilities would not be able to spy on us," the Hanzo said.

"Okay," Suzuki said as he got on top of the Filolial. It got up and nearly threw him off in a single motion. "Dumb bird! Watch it!" He went to smack it on the head- and though it couldn't have hurt too much given his stats it still looked quite sad about that. "Let's take off then."

Suzuki had to try really hard to learn how to ride the Filolial. It was not something that was very intuitive, and Suzuki had never even ridden a horse before. He was thrown off the thing twice, but by mid-day, was a bit more comfortable with riding atop it. Soon enough, they reached the swamp in question.

Several important medicinal herbs grew around the swamplands, though the villagers only dared approach the fringes. Deeper inside, monsters lurked, and there were many stories of travelers and merchants wandering through the place never to be seen again.

Of course, this meant that there was probably quite a bit of treasure that could be harvested from the place- so long as one was willing to risk death while fighting the monsters there. However, it had become more deadly than usual as a rather strong monster seemed to have appeared in the area a while back.

Suzuki had avoided the place when he first came upon it- he wasn't fully confident that he could've handled everything that lay inside, and the swamp also restricted one's movement. It would be hard for him to get out if it was necessary to flee. However, with the Hanzo by his side, and the fact that he could use his Amulet of the Desert Prince again now, he felt that it was the right time to venture forth.

As it was, there had been several similar locations on his journey where he could've gone to fight stronger foes, but had decided against it because it was too dangerous. Now though, he could revisit many of those places- though based on the optimal route to the border he would probably only stop by a few of them.

"Right, so let's go in then," Suzuki said. "Hanzo, can you move through the swamp?"

"Indeed, I have an item that removes terrain restrictions on movement," the Hanzo said.

"Good, just do a quick survey and tell me if there's anything strong in the area," Suzuki said.

"As you wish," the Hanzo said and disappeared in a flash.

Twenty minutes later, it returned.

"I did not encounter anything that could be considered to be particularly powerful," the Hanzo said. "However, there was a monster which seemed to scare even the other monsters away. It resembled a large lizard, but it could not have been stronger than a level 30 Yggdrasil monster."

"Level thirty, huh?" Suzuki said. Based on his own level, that was probably still going to be too much for him, especially given his Yggdrasil classes were not the kind which specialized in dealing damage. It had clearly been a correct decision to go the long way around this area when he first came upon it. "Alright, let's go in."

His Filolial took a few steps before it sidetracked. He was about to berate it when it pushed its beak into the water to take out something shiny.

"Oh... a bracelet!" Suzuki said as he examined the item. It seemed to be made of some alloy mixed with gold- and didn't have any special magical properties imbibed into it. However, it might be possible to sell it for a good amount- provided one washed the grime off of it first. "Good job!"

The Filolial flapped its wings happily. This was not a one-off thing either, his Filolial was able to find coins and other things where he wouldn't normally think to look.

"Hmm... maybe it's because birds like shiny things?" Suzuki thought. Then again, it wasn't just shiny stuff that one could find that was of value. He found a journal which was partially damaged but still had a good number of pages in it which were legible- unfortunately he couldn't read what it said. This still went into his inventory, however. It appeared that old habits died hard, and his old nature as a hoarder was beginning to resurface.

The monsters they encountered were nothing too special- there were giant frogs and slimes which his Filolial was able to take down by itself. His Hanzo would oftentimes dash quickly to the side to kill something before presenting its remains to Suzuki.

All in all, they made very good progress when they finally saw the giant lizard the Hanzo had been talking about. It had numerous rainbow-colored scales adorning its body with beady yellow eyes. It was about as tall as a horse, and a frill was present around its neck which expanded as it saw Suzuki and his party.

"Be careful," Suzuki said. "It could have venom or some sort of other poisonous or paralytic ability." A shield he had gotten from a slime in this swamp granted him some minor poison resistance, but he wasn't sure how effective that was, and it probably wouldn't help shield his Filolial.

"Please, stand back then," the Hanzo said while drawing a knife.

Before the lizard could do more than take a step forward, the knife had found its way deep into its neck, nearly decapitating it. A second one landed between its eyes as it collapsed to the ground.

"Bring me its parts," Suzuki ordered, and the Hanzo obliged.

He unlocked the Swamp Lizard Shield as well as the Venom Spit Shield. They granted higher forms of poison and paralysis resistance- it appeared as if the lizard had some basilisk-like abilities.

No wonder then that it was hard to take it down- in a swamp like this where one's movement was already restricted to have such statuses inflicted on you was a death sentence if you didn't have countermeasures for it.

"Alright then, let's look for some more loot and we'll stop by the village up ahead," Suzuki said.

"Huh... tough crowd, I guess?" Suzuki said to no one in particular.

Once he reached the village in question, he had set up a makeshift stall where he displayed some of the things he had found, in addition to the medicines he had concocted. Quite a lot of people seemed to gather around the stall, if not to buy some of his stuff, but to take a glance at his Filolial. And yet...

"...why have I not made a single sale up till now?" Suzuki muttered to himself. It might make some sense if they thought he was the Shield Hero and knew of what he was accused of, but as far as he could tell, they thought he was just some peddler. His shield was still in its book form as well.

Just as he was about to pack up and leave, an old man wandered up to him.

"Ah, it is nice to see a merchant after so much time," he said.

"Uh, yeah, good evening," Suzuki said.

"Good evening to you too, sir," the man said. "My, what a fine bird you have! You don't see many Filolials around this area anymore."

"Right, yeah," Suzuki said, unsure what it was the man was getting at. Did he intend to buy something or just gawk like everyone else?

"Ah, forgive me, I am the village chief here," the man said. "I just was curious when word went around that a merchant had finally visited us- how did you get here?"

"Hmm? Through the swamp," Suzuki answered.

The man's eyes went wide and he took a step back. "Surely you jest?"

"Well, it is a bit dangerous to go straight through there, yes," Suzuki said. "But I have my trusty bird and my bodyguard," he said, pointing to the Hanzo lurking behind him. "So I just went straight through. There was a slightly powerful monster in our way, but we took care of it"

"...Few people would have the courage to do what you did, sir," the man said. "If it is safer to move through the swamp, we might start seeing some business again."

"Hey, wait a moment," Suzuki said. "From what I remember about this area, there's a narrow path around the swamp that's perfectly safe, right? It takes longer to get through, but I think even normal people could transverse it."

"Ah, indeed," the man said. "But, ah, there is a problem with that usual path that we take. You see, there is a fortress near the path which was abandoned many decades ago. It is just a ruin now, but for a few months there have been some... apparitions at night which appear there."

"Apparitions?" Suzuki asked. "You mean, like ghosts?"

"Ah, that is what they say," the man said. "At least, those who survive and come back to tell us of what they encountered. Everyone's too scared to go through that pass now, and no one will cross through the swamp so..." He trailed off. "I was hoping the strange going-ons had stopped when someone had visited, but it appears the swamp is actually safer right now."

"Hmm..." Suzuki said. "And what... would you give me if I could see what's going on in the fortress for you?"

The man gave him a confused look. "I beg your pardon- but are you an adventurer or mercenary of some sort?"

"After a fashion," Suzuki said. "Look, I'm not even saying that I'll definitely take care of it- but I will try to investigate what's going on. Of course, if I think it's above my paygrade, I'm going to turn tail and run."

"Even that offer is generous enough given no one will go near the ruin but..." the old man trailed off. "I'm afraid we don't have the money to compensate you adequately. Since trade here has stopped, so has the flow of goods and the profits we'd normally get from the swamp herbs."

So that's why no one was buying what he was selling, Suzuki realized. "Payment doesn't have to be in cash. I was actually hoping if you could make me a carriage."

"A carriage?"

"Indeed. For my Filolial," Suzuki said, jerking his chin to indicate the bird. He had learned that the adults enjoyed pulling carriages around- and more to the point, although he could carry everything inside of his inventory, it was a fact that if he wanted to pass himself off as a merchant he would need to show people that he had some actual goods on him which he was carrying.

"I-I believe there is an old one which we could refurnish," the man said. "It won't be a masterpiece or anything but..."

"That's fine," Suzuki said. "I'll do it for that and forty silvers."

"Forty?" the man looked pained at the sum but sighed. "Alright then. We might need some time to gather that kind of money though-"

"That's fine," Suzuki said. "When trade will open up, so will money, right? You can pay me the coins then, just give me the carriage now."

The village they had visited had once been a territory separate from Melromarc- and one could easily see why the fortress had been built. The swamp made access to the village very difficult, and the narrow, straight path that was formed aboveground was safer, but also far easier to defend.

Suzuki wasn't sure how magic and the like would change siege warfare in this world, but in a normal medieval setting it would be possible for a handful of soldiers to take on a far larger force so long as they could take control of the fortress. Indeed, just fifty men could probably completely take control over this path- and given its importance as the most reliable way in and out of the village, it was possible that bandits had seized the fortress in order to extort merchants who wanted to enter the village.

That was what Suzuki figured was happening at least, though the path was oddly quiet and didn't bear any signs of large groups travelling. Even if one were to run the place with a skeleton crew, they would still need at least a dozen men, so the serenity was kind of unnerving.

That was why he had sent the Hanzo to scout out the area beforehand. While he waited, he couldn't help but feel that the villagers might very well want to start fixing up the fortress and placing villagers there to guard it after once again declaring their sovereignty. As it was, this kingdom looked like it was going completely to ash- the Queen was away trying to deflect a war apparently, while the king and his daughter were ruining things, slavery and corruption were rampant, and that was all while completely disregarding the danger the Waves posed. Honestly, this place made the Re-Estize Kingdom look competent by comparison.

"I have returned, Master," the Hanzo said. "My scouting is done- I spot three individuals in the castle and the surrounding areas are barren."

"Three?" Suzuki said, incredulous. He was expecting a number closer to thirty. "Is it possible you just missed some of them?"

"Unless they are incredibly skilled in stealth, beyond the measures of anything I have seen in this world, then no it is not possible," the Hanzo said.

Suzuki scratched his chin. Based on the power level of whatever he had seen up till now, nothing that could've escaped the Hanzo's detection skill should have popped up. He couldn't completely disregard the possibility of something like that existing of course, but why would creatures that strong be holed up in a fortress like this?

"Well then, let's just take a look for now," Suzuki said. As he had told the chief earlier, if they ran into any problems, they would simply flee and report back.

His Filolial began flapping its wings as a tiger emerged from the bush, but to Suzuki the tiger looked odd. It was see-through, or rather, transparent in a way.

"It's an illusion, relax girl," Suzuki said soothingly as he kicked a rock which went right through it, confirming his suspicion.

There were several ways to see through illusions in Yggdrasil, and one of them was simply to be levelled far higher than your opponent, which was likely what was happening here.

They encountered more illusions on their way- sometimes it would be a plant, or a dragon, or some other monster.

"Up ahead is where the individuals are," the Hanzo said. "They do not appear to be very strong, perhaps less than level ten or so."

By now they had made their way to the actual fortress. The southern wall had completely collapsed, leaving it exposed, but if that was repaired the place could theoretically be used as a defensive base again. Next to the fortress was what had once likely been a garden, though it was now overgrown with weeds and shrubs.

Three figures dressed up in black and wearing masks were talking to each other while Suzuki and his party hid behind a grove of trees.

"So what should our move be?" Suzuki asked the Hanzo. "Can you take them out from here?"

"It should not be a difficult matter for me to jump them and strike them down in a single blow," the Hanzo replied.

"Wait, wait though," Suzuki said. Something about the whole situation didn't seem right- these three figures didn't look like bandits. They weren't even carrying weapons of any kind. Suzuki did see them wave their hands once to make an illusory peacock out of nowhere though.

Should he reveal himself? That would be bad if they were hostile...

"Alright, I'll go ahead and try to talk to them," Suzuki said. "Stay hidden, and strike them if you feel I'm in danger or if I signal that I need to get away."

"It would be better to let me reveal myself, Master," the Hanzo said.

"No, I want you to be stealthy so you can catch them by surprise," Suzuki said. "If you reveal yourself, that element is gone." Assassins in Yggdrasil had attacks which were very powerful and had high critical-hit ratios, but the downside to this was that only the first strike was powerful with subsequent attacks being much weaker. As such, it was important that the first strike hit true while fighting alongside a creature like a Hanzo.

"As you wish," the Hanzo said.

Suzuki stepped out of the grove and moved to approach the figures from a different direction, to make it look like he had come from the other side. Once this was done, he shouted, "Oi! Whatcha doing here?"

The three figures turned at once to look at him, took a few steps back, and then one of them stepped forward. He then bowed dramatically. "Ah! Our first spectator! Welcome, stranger, to the Dance of Darkness- the greatest show ever made!"

Suzuki blinked. "Wait- what?"

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," another one of them said. "We are the great Moriochi brothers, some of the greatest magicians in the world. And you, our guest, have the privilege of witnessing the greatest of our new acts!"

"...wait, so you've been making these illusions... as an act?" Suzuki asked. "Like this is some kid's magic show?"

"Sir, you insult us by calling our spectacular performance, the Dance of Darkness- our great work of art- a simple 'magic show!'" one of them said.

"But, essentially, yes, you are correct," another one said.

Suzuki face-palmed. "And here everyone thought that there were bandits or some monsters infesting this place."

"Monsters!" the three of them exclaimed. "Bandits? Us! Never!"

"Well, who gave you permission to host a show here anyway?" Suzuki asked. "Your illusions have been scaring people away from this place."

"B-But, the village chief gave us permission to use this place!" one of the Moriochi brothers protested. "Though, come to think of it, we were wondering why it was that no one was dropping by to check out our show..."

"...I just thought we were having bad luck," another one said. "I mean, we only came here after that gig over there failed. We never should've invested so much into that circus..."

"Oh, you just have to bring that up don't you? I already said I was sorry about that," the third one said.

"Okay, I don't care, but you all are coming with me and sorting this out at once," Suzuki said. If these guys had permission from the village chief, why had the man sent him on this quest in the first place?

Back in the village square, Suzuki was telling a group of villagers what was going on.

"Please, believe us," the Moriochi brothers kept saying. "We did not know that we were causing such trouble."

"I have never seen these people before," one of them said.

"Me neither."

"P-Please, believe us! We weren't just squatting there!"

After some commotion the village chief walked in. "Oh, hello there!" he said to one of the brothers. "How is your magic show doing?"

"It isn't a magic show, it is more of a spectacle of the-" one of them began before being cut off. "Yes, it is going good, but we didn't get any customers."

"Wait, if you knew these people, why'd you send me on that weird errand?" Suzuki asked.

The chief blinked a few times. "Hmm... do I know you? Have we met before?"

"Sorry about that," a woman said, walking into the crowd. "My grandfather's memory is getting a bit hazy now for a long time- I've been telling him he needs to retire from his post a long time but he just won't listen."

"So..." Suzuki said. "This whole thing was some giant misunderstanding?" He then sighed. "I want my afternoon back... whatever, I still want my payment which I was promised for this! Where's my carriage?"

"Oh, so you're why the chief asked for a carriage to be fixed earlier," a burly man said. "Yes, it's almost done and will be finished by morning."

"In addition," Suzuki said. "I was also promised eighty silvers!"

The Hanzo piped up. "Master, I do believe it was-" but was cut off when Suzuki glared at the monster. Unlike a summoned monster, the mercenary monster did not share some base knowledge with Suzuki, which was why it had made that kind of mistake.

"With that said," Suzuki said to the gasping villagers. "I realize that you cannot pay me that amount right now- but given that the trade route should now be open, I will expect payment eventually within the next year."

The villagers grumbled but ultimately agreed to Suzuki's proposal, and Suzuki spent the night in the village.

The next morning, he was going to hook up his Filolial to the newly built carriage when he did a double-take.

"How- how did you get to be like that?"

Previously, his Filolial looked just like a normal adult he had seen back in the Filolial Ranch. Now, however, it had changed in shape. It was much larger- and fatter, or rather, fluffier given the huge amount of feathers it had grown.

Her unnatural growth had of course surprised him, but that was just her growing to her mature form very fast. This, however, was something he had never heard of or seen before.

Suzuki asked around, and no one had seen a Filolial like this before. With nothing else to go on, Suzuki sighed and decided to go back to Lurolona Village and ask that demi-human who had worked on a Filolial farm what exactly was going on with this bird.

A/N: Well guys, thanks for reading!