Rising of the Shield Demon - Part 1

by The Dark Dragen

AU Story: A young man named Naofumi is unwillingly summoned to another world to become one of the four Cardinal Heroes, the problem was the hero he became was hated by the kingdom that summoned him and was considered weak. Read as he overcomes this and the events surrounding this, where he slowly become a darker version of himself. This is a slow and dark story, not for children.

9. Chapter 8

Warning: Information dump, I know that many don't like these kinds of chapters, but this one is important. As this chapter is going to explain about Naofumi's personal Strengthening Method, skill and attribute points. IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, PLEASE READ WHEN YOU GET TO IT.

Author's Note: Now before I start this chapter I want to apologise for how long it's taking for me to get to Raphtalia, while there has been only a handful of complaints about it, I know some of you want to see her sooner than this. The truth is, I'm one of them, I too wanted her in the story by now. But the thing is, each of these chapters has been taking a life of their own. Ideas, plot and such came alive as I write the chapters, making it so that I change the direction of the chapter. Like the last chapter, the plan was to level Naofumi up and in this chapter set things up where he'll either get Raphtalia at the end of the chapter or the start of the next chapter.

Instead, though, I talked about Naofumi's Affinities and some stuff on alchemy and delay Naofumi levelling up until this chapter. I would like to say that it won't happen again, but I can't, as whilst I might have a rough idea of what I want to happen in the next update, I'm the type of person who doesn't really know what will happen in a chapter until I write it. So when I started to write the last chapter, things can change and stuff I want to happen was pushed back to this chapter. I just hope you can understand and bear with me.

Either way, onto the next chapter:

Chapter Eight…

Levelling Up!

Crusch led Naofumi up a set of stone stairs where he came to a shop with armour and weapons, Naofumi noticed that the doors and the rooms were huge, most likely to allow Ulthane to move about with ease. Then Crusch led Naofumi up two more sets of stairs, this time made of wood, where Naofumi was in a huge room. It had three bookshelves, a few chests of drawers, a few wardrobes and a king-size poster bed with drips. There was also a dining table and chairs. All of the furniture was medieval in style. Naofumi had to admit the room was better than he was expecting he would be staying in for the night.

As he set down at the dining table, Crusch bowed as she said, "I'll be back in a short while My Lord, if there's anything you want, please just ask. If it's within my power to do so, I'll do what I can to get it for you."

"Thanks," thanked Naofumi, "but all I want right now is something to eat and drink."

"Of course Lord Naofumi," replied Crusch, "is there anything you would like to eat?"

"Anything will do." Naofumi told her simply, the matter of fact was, he didn't know what kind of food there was in this world. Other than the feast back in the castle and the food at the tavern, he wasn't sure of the food or the names for them.

"I'll be back soon as I'm done, My Lord." Crusch said with a bow as she left the room.

Once she was gone, Naofumi opened his Status Bar and checked his stats once again. He wasn't suspecting much change from the last time he checked, but he wanted to see if his Magic Affinity was added to it yet. To be honest, he found it strange that certain details were added automatically to his stats without his knowledge. Like his Status, before it was just Adventurer, but since this morning after he got framed, his Status had Criminal added. He had to wonder how was that possible, was it part of the magic of this world or was there a way for the Kings and Queens to add such details somehow?

Either way, as he looked at his stats, sure enough, he saw his Magic Affinity was indeed added to his stats, which kind of threw out that last thought about the King and Queen being able to add details to his status menu and figured it was a combined knowledge of the world and his own knowledge. Either that, or it was a mixture of both. Meaning the world already knew it but unless he acknowledges it it wouldn't show up on his status screen, that was an annoying thought. Because that means there's hidden stats and abilities that he doesn't know about himself that he could help him out if he only knew the knowledge of what it was.

Name: Naofumi Iwatani. Race: Human Class: Legendary Shield Hero. Guild: None.

Level: 2 EXP: 93/240 Skill Points: 5 Attribute Points: 3

Status: Adventurer/Criminal.

Special Abilities: Four.

Perfect Balance.

Drunkenness Null.

Animal Charisma.

Clairvoyance (Small.)

Magic Affinity:

Healing.

Support.

Alchemy.

Health Points: 160 Mana Points: 40 Spirit Points: 40

Physical Attack: 1 Magic Attack: 20

Physical Defence: 50 + 5 Magic Defence: 25

Stamina: 100 Carry Weight: 175 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Thermal Resistance: 30

Then as he remembered that he needed to go to his profile page, for the first time that day, he saw a flashing head at the bottom of the Status Bar. He was about to push the head to open it like he had been doing for a while that day, when he remembered how he opened the Status Bar: focusing on it. He felt foolish, other than opening the Status Bar, he had been using it as he was playing a real game, pushing the buttons to open the page. He didn't think that he could focus on the symbol to open it. Feeling foolish for not realizing this sooner, he focused on the image head where the image changed.

Now, he saw a picture of himself where like in the games he played before, it showed what he was wearing and had boxes to show what items he was wearing. In fact, where his hands were, there were five extra boxes for each hand, with a question mark above it, just like the other boxes.

Rings:

As long as not wearing gloves, the user can wear up to five rings per finger!

Next his picture was a bar for his health, SP, mana and EXP, it also had his name, race, class, level, guild, status and finally skill points and attribute points. Underneath all that, there were three bars. The first one had the word Character in it, the second one had the word Inventory and the last one had Skills and Magic.

When he focused on the Character Bar, it had two categories, Attribute and Stats. Under Attribute, it had six attributes, Strength, Constitution, Defence, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom. He was half expecting to see Charisma in the list too, but as he thought about it, it would be too easy for him god forbid he had that. Having problems dealing with someone or making a deal, just add a few points into Charisma, bang the problem would be solved. No, this damn world didn't want to make things easy for him, so it wouldn't give him Charisma.

Now each of the Attributes had a question mark and the number one next to them, and as he looked at each of them, it said more or less said the same thing. The only difference was that the Attribute name changed, for example, one help menu would say Strength whilst another would say Defence and so on.

Strength:

HELP!

To see your strength skills, open strength. Skills can't go above your strength points, so if your strength is at level 5, your skills can't go above level 5.

So it would seem that each of these Attributes had its own skill set to go with it. He had to wonder, did the number next to the name of the Attribute was the level of the Attribute?

Attributes:

HELP!

Attributes can be levelled up by either using Attributes Points, doing certain jobs or unlocking and mastering new shields. As you level the Attributes, the skills within each Attribute and gain new Shields, you may unlock new abilities.

Naofumi already knew that he would need to use Attributes Points to level up his Attributes, but it was nice to know that by doing certain jobs or unlocking and mastering new shields, he could raise his Attributes Points that way. This was something he would need to look into, if he was able to level his Attributes up by doing certain things, he would have to find out what they were so he could level them up as fast as possible. Wanting to see what his Strength Attribute, he opened it.

Carry Weight(?): 0.

Attack Points(?): 0.

Might(?): 0.

"Yes!" whooped Naofumi, seeing that he had a way to level up his attack. But that happiness didn't last for long though, as he read the help, his heart broke.

Attack Points:

HELP!

For each skill point that you place into Attack Points, you get one point into it. You can only have 10% of your physical defence as attack points. So for 30 points of defence, you can only have up to 3 attack points. The only way to gain more is from unlocking new shields.

Naofumi wanted to cry at this, for the first time in this damn world, he thought he had finally found some luck, that he found a way to fight easier. But no, that dream popped like a Balloon Monster. Unless he found new shields that would give him more attack points, he couldn't raise his attack points more than 10% his physical defence. Not for the first time he was wondering why this world seemed to hate so much. At the moment, it seemed that the world was out to get him, to keep him weak. He just hoped that whoever Ulthane knew would be willing to help him learn alchemy, otherwise he wasn't sure if he would survive this world. All he could do was hope for the best.

Either way, back to the other skills, whilst his base carry weight was 175 lbs, he could raise it to 25 lbs by using Skill Points.

Naofumi thought to himself how useful this skill was and how useless it was at the same time. But as he thought about it, he wouldn't become over encumbered if he was in a dungeon because he found lots of great importance and didn't want to leave them behind. If that happens, he could place a few points to allow him to take them with him.

The next skill in the Strength category Naofumi wasn't too sure about, it was Might. By adding Skill Points into it and doing certain things, he would be able to left, pull, push even punch things such as Rocks, Boulders and the like. Apart from the odd times where things might get in his way, he couldn't see how this skill could be useful in his everyday life. He would have to test it out, but he couldn't see himself adding too many Points into it.

The next Attribute he looked at was Constitution, in this one it had the following:

Health Points(?): 0.

Health Recovery(?): 0.

Stamina(?): 0.

Stamina Recovery(?): 0.

From the help menu, basically, it stated that depending on how many Skill Points that he put into them, would stat how much Health and Stamina he would have have and how fast they would recover.

The next Attribute he looked at was Defence, this on Naofumi was suspecting to have quite a few skills connected to this Attribute seeing how it was his main power thanks to the fact he was the Shield Hero. But to his shock, there were only four skills:

Physical Defence(?): 0.

Reflect(?): 0.

Shield Bash(?): 0.

Magical Defence(?): 0.

Although, as he looked at these skills, he wasn't able to think of any more skills that could be added to the category. As he thought about it, the most pointless skill there was Physical Defence. As he mastered new shields, he would gain the defence from any of the shields that had bonus defence. He didn't see himself too many, if any points into this skill. Not unless he wanted to become an unstoppable tank character, which he wasn't sure if that's what he wanted. If he was able to attack instead of just defending himself, but without being able to attack or having companions, he didn't see the point of becoming a tank. As he couldn't level up like that.

Now the rest of the skills seemed okay, with Reflect, the more points that he put into it, the better chance that he would have to reflect the attacks. That would mean that half of the attack would be sent back to the attacker. The good news was that if he took into account his attack points, Reflect would have a bonus. So if he had ten attack points and the attacker's attack was a hundred, instead of sending only half of the attack back, he would send sixty points of it back. At least this gave him a reason to add points into the Attack Points.

Next was Shield Bash, this skill would allow him to stun and knock his enemy back, unlike Reflect where it required for his opponent to attack him first. This was actually an offensive ability of sorts, to allow him to have the ability of Stun and/or Knockback his targets. When he was going to dismiss this idea too, a thought occurred to him. Once he was able to create better traps, he could use Shield Bash to knock his enemies that afforded the traps back into them if they were in front of them. And if that wasn't possible stun them and allow his companions to take advantage of them, should he get any, otherwise it would give him some time to come up with a better solution. So he might actually think about putting some points into this skill, as it might be able to help him in the upcoming battles.

Lastly in the Defence category was Magical Defence, this skill allowed him to defend against magical attacks other than elemental attacks.

The next Attribute he looked at was Agility, when he opened the category up, he saw it only had five skills in it:

Accuracy(?): 0.

Evading(?): 0.

Speed(?): 0.

Leap(?): 0.

Dexterity(?): 0.

It would seem that these skills were meant to help him to evade attacks, aim certain attacks better and allow him to move, run and attack faster. At first the only skill that didn't make too much sense for someone who was specialized in shields, as they were meant to be able to block the attacks. But as he thought about it, he realized that whilst most attacks can be blocked, but then he realized that not all attacks can be blocked.

He remembered in a few games back in his world where some attacks could be bypass shields and defences, it was rare but when you faced such characters, it was better to have high HP or high evade skills. So it might not be a bad idea to place a few points in this skill just incase he faced such attacks.

The next Attribute he looked at was Intelligence, when he opened the category up, which had five skills to it:

Bonus EXP(?): 0.

Bonus Skill Points(?): 0.

Bonus Attribute Points(?): 0.

Magic Attack(?): 0.

Bullet Time(?): 0.

Now Bonus EXP, Skill Points, Attribute Points and Magic Attack was skills that he expected to see, as he had seen them in a few games back in his world. But the skill called Bullet Time was something he wasn't expecting.

This Bullet Time skill, from what he could understand from the help menu, as he levels the skill up, his mind and senses process information at such speeds that time appears to have slowed down, allowing them to perceive what would normally be moving too fast to see and respond accordingly. Some might call this a cheat, but he didn't care, he would take whatever he could get from this unforgiving world. All he knew the other heroes had better Strengthening Methods, so they can't really complain. And if not, fuck them, with the way they treated him, he was happy to have a one up on them, maybe he can find another Strengthening Method or Methods that can make him stronger then those fools.

The last Attribute that he opened was Wisdom, it had six skills to it:

Magical Resistance: 0.

Mana Points(?): 0.

Mana Recovery(?): 0.

Awareness(?): 0.

Spirit Points(?): 0.

Spirit Recovery(?): 0.

Like with Constitution, Wisdom basically give him the chance to gain more points in certain skills and recover them faster. The only skills that he didn't get recovery or more points to be able to use abilities and magic for longer was abilities Magic Resistance and Awareness.

Magical Resistance allowed him the chance to resist against magical attacks like, sleep, confusion, fear and attacks like that. So higher the level of this skill, the less likely he would fall for magical traps and attacks that would him and his party into danger.

Lastly, the last skill in the Wisdom category and the very last skill in Attributes was Awareness. It seemed that this skill gave him the ability to let him know about his surroundings, an early warning system of sorts. At low levels, the skill could only tell him if people were around him and only in a small radius, but at higher levels, the radius would become bigger and it would let him know if people were armed and later on, if they were hostile towards him.

Naofumi could only sigh after seeing this, he had hoped that the skills under Attributes, they would help him become stronger, give him abilities to help fight. But other than the ability to raise his Magical Attacks, none of the skills would help him to defeat monsters. Oh, don't get him wrong, he knew that as a Shield Hero, the skills were what he would have expected, they helped with defence and getting out of fights, but not for fighting. How was he meant to raise in levels if he wasn't able to fight back?

Sure he would be able to learn magic, but the problem there is that he couldn't read this world's language. Sure Ulthane was looking into someone to learn magic, but that wasn't a sure thing. Not only that, but to get stronger, he would have to travel the lands and whoever was meant to teach him might not be able to follow him, which meant that he had to rely on books to learn magic, something he couldn't read. This pissed him off. He wished that one of these skills were something that would allow him to learn to read, but then again, that would make things all to easy for him. And if that's one thing Naofumi was quickly learning, this damn world didn't want to make things easy for him. By this rate, unless he got lucky, he would not survive his first Wave.

'No, I can't keep thinking like that,' Naofumi thought to himself, 'I can't allow myself to think that I'll die, not without trying to fight against the odds. Sure the odds are stuck against me, but I'll fight these odds and do what I must to survive in this world.'

So with that thought in mind he relooked over his Attributes and skills underneath them and thought about where to place. He knew that he just couldn't place them wherever he wanted, as he couldn't reset them at a later date like some of the games he played before would allow him to. At least he didn't think he could reset them. But as he thought about it, he realized that for the first few levels, he should place his points into Bonus Skill Points and Bonus Attribute Points.

The extra Attribute Points was so that he could get more skills from its category, seeing levelling up the skills under each category was limited to what level his Attributes were. So without getting some decent levels for his Attributes, he wouldn't be able to get stronger any time soon. Although he wouldn't raise the skill to high, as he didn't know if it would be like the games back home where after raising a few levels you would then gain more Attribute Points that way. Not only that, but he could gain extra Attribute Points by getting new shields if he was lucky, and if he wasn't, he would do certain training to try and get them that way.

As for extra Skill Points, if they worked like the games back in his world, each skill would need certain amount of Skill Points, so unless mentioned otherwise, and each new level would need more Skill Points than the previous level. So getting Bonus Skill Points was key at the moment. Especially if to level up his shields it would mean that he had to use Skill Points too, so the more Points he could get the better.

The first thing that Naofumi did was place all three Attribute Points into Intelligence, making it level four. His idea was for the next few levels, he would place his points into Intelligence and the Bonus Skill and Attribute Points. This is so that he would have enough points to level up his shields and other abilities with ease for a while.

After raising his Intelligence, he placed his first Skill Point into Bonus Skill Points, which gave two extra Skill Points for the next time he levelled up. Which wasn't too bad, he wished it was a bit more, but for a level one it wasn't anything to scoff at, it could have been easily one point. As he looked to see how much it was going to cost him to level up, as expected, it was a bit high, but not as much as he feared. To raise the skill again, he needed three points, he feared it could have been much higher. Now raising Bonus Skill Points to level two, he gained another three points. So when he levelled up next, he would gain ten Skill Points instead of five, which wasn't too bad.

It wasn't as much as he had hoped for, but from a few games that he played back in his world, it was much better than those games. The down side to this though was that to level the skill up again he would need six Skill Points, which meant that he could only level it up once when he levelled up. He just hoped that when he did, it was a higher amount of Skill Points awarded. But with how his luck was in this world so far, he wasn't going to put much hope in it.

Now with his last Skill Point, he put it into Bonus Attribute Points as planned. In doing so, he found that he gained one extra point to use when he levelled up next. Once again he hoped that he would gain more, but as he thought about it, seeing how it was possible to gain more Attribute Points by doing certain things and gaining new shields, he should have expected this. As if he could have more, it would make him too powerful and that was something this world didn't want him to be or at the very least, make it very hard for him to do so. But four Attribute Points when he levelled up next was better than three.

Now that he had dealt with his Skill and Attribute Points, Naofumi setback for a moment and thought about what to do next. If he was going to survive this damn world, he has to think about how he can get stronger. Sure learning Alchemy and gaining new shields will help, but that's only one step in getting stronger, he would need money to help him get stronger.

As he needed the money to buy equipment and supplies, but because of the damn king and his bitch of a daughter, the store owners in this kingdom wouldn't serve him. Sure he was partly to blame for acting foolish, acting like some thug, but he was at a breaking point and had enough of people walking over him. But because of his actions, it allowed the king to interfere in his life even more. Without money it would be hard for him, which means he could only hope someone would take pity on him and buy and sell things with him, or find something like a black market where they didn't care who he was.

Then he remembered something, the skills that the bitch Renka mentioned, weapon drop and item creation system. The problem was that there was a part of him that had a hard time trusting and believing in Renka, He still couldn't believe that she would take the other bitch's side over his after spending the night together, where he was nothing but nice to her. Part of him knew that from the world she came from, a story like that and the so called prove, she would believe it. But he still hoped that she knew that he couldn't get drunk.

Either way though, her suggestions would help him, allowing him to create things and get things from the monsters and in the hopes of selling them if they were any good. If the items that he got from the monsters were rare and and better than normal, the store owners would forget what he did and buy his stuff and sell him things.

Either way, he wasn't sure how Renka's idea would work, with Motoyasu, all he had to do was hold a shield and it would be copied. With Renka's idea though, he wasn't able to see a symbol that might make it work, nor was he able to find anything in the help menu to explain how the skill was able to work.

"Maybe this is a skill that wasn't allowed in this world," Naofumi said with a sigh after five minutes of trying to figure out the skill, "I believe that Renka said she wasn't sure if the skill would work or not."

Naofumi only sighed, he wished that he was able to use Renka's idea, as it would have helped him a lot out in the world. Able to create armour and other things giving him an edge, along with getting extra potions and other items so he wouldn't have to spend the little money that he had Just then Crusch, the humanoid lizardwoman, entered the room with a tray of food and drink. As she placed the tray onto the table, Naofumi thanked her, "Thanks for this Crusch."

"No problem My Lord," Crusch said with a bow, "is there anything else that you need?"

As Naofumi thought about it, but right now all he wanted was to have something to eat and then get some sleep. But more than anything, he wanted to forget this day, but he knew that it wouldn't be possible so decided that sleep would have to do.

"No thanks, there's nothing else that I need that I can think of." Naofumi informed Crusch.

"Okay My Lord, but if you need anything, my room is just down the hall, so just call out and I'll come straight away." the lizardwoman informed the Shield Hero.

"Thank you Crusch and goodnight?" Naofumi thanked the young woman.

"Goodnight My Lord." Crusch bowed as she bid Naofumi goodnight and left the room.

Once Crusch left the room, Naofumi began to eat the food that the young demi-human give him, the problem was as he took a few bites of the food, he realized that he couldn't taste a thing, he couldn't taste his drink. It was as if he was eating/drinking. At first he thought that Crusch might have pulled a prank on for some reason, but he realized at once that was ridiculous. She was treating him like the second coming or something, if Ulthane's story about the last Shield Hero was true, that might be very true. So that meant that the problem laid with him somehow.

That's when he remembered Ulthane's words, about how if he didn't control his anger, he might lose his sense of taste. At first Naofumi wasn't sure if this was true or not, but seeing how he had eaten for the first time that day, he realized that the blacksmith might be right. But there was a part of him was hoping he couldn't taste anything because he was tried and not because he was so angry.

So after having his dinner, Naofumi decided that it was time to go to bed. Sure it was early, but with the day that he had, he needed some rest and even if he couldn't sleep right away, he would lay there and try and think of what to do next. He can't stay weak as he was now, he needed to find a way to get stronger other than using traps.

o0OoO0o

Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Castle:

Myne Sophia, or as she really was known as, Malty S Melromarc, the Princess of Melromarc, was in her room in the castle having a fit. Kicking a male dog demi-human servant. She had hoped that by framing the Shield Hero of rape, her father would have had him killed or at the very least imprisoned. In fact, because of her knowledge that like her, he thought the Shield Hero was some kind of demon and so would have dealt with in some from for raping his own daughter, but he didn't.

When she asked about this later on, her father informed her that he couldn't unless he wanted to go to war with the other kingdoms. It was bad enough that he summoned them all in one place, but if he killed or imprisoned the Shield Hero, they would for sure go to war with them. And with the Wave of Catastrophe here, they needed all the kingdoms on one side until it was over. She tried to pull the card that the Shield Hero scarred her, but that didn't work either, in fact, her father's words shocked her.

"Oh please daughter, do you really think I would be fooled by this foolish actions of yours? Do you really think I would be fooled more your lies?"

Malty was shocked, it would seem that her father knew her actions better than she expected. That day her father told her that he knew about her actions, how she used the boys at her school in Faubley, how whilst many thought her a virgin, he knew otherwise. He knew much of her actions, but as her father and he loved her so much that he allowed her to do as she pleased. However, going to war for her actions wasn't something he was willing to allow, at least over one person at least. But it was thanks to her that he was able to make sure that the Shield Hero stayed weak as long as possible. He was also thankful that the Shield Hero reacted the way he did, he was able to prevent the Shield Hero getting stronger even more. This way, keeping him low level, it would mean that during the next Wave of Catastrophe, he should get himself killed without getting their hands dirty, which means no war and no one to blame other than the Shield Hero.

Malty was pissed, she had gotten beaten up and scarred for no reason, she had hoped that the Shield Hero would have been killed for the so called crime that he meant to have done to her, but no. Her father didn't want to start a war against the other kingdoms over the Shield Hero. Because of this, she felt that her father had become weak, unwilling to do what was needed to get rid of the Shield Demon before he could gain the power to take over their kingdom. If it were her, she would have had the bastard killed.

Because of this, she was kicking her personal servant that she had, someone who would take care of her needs. She hated this thing, but her mother wanted someone to look after her and her younger sister for when her mother and father was away, so she and her sister had a dog demi-human servant, one each, to take care and protect them. As they had enhanced senses and abilities to help to protect them. Whilst Malty didn't mind having a personal servant, what she did mind was that the servant was a damn demi-human.

Like her father, she hated demi-humans, she couldn't trust them, they believed that humans were the higher beings and demi-humans and demons were there to be used as the humans want them. Many humans keep demi-humans and demons as slaves, to be used as menaul and sexuals tools.

So unknown to her mother, her father had her servant enslaved with a high class Slave Seal, one that unless the master wants to be shown, will be invisible. This way she could treat the damn thing as she wanted and it wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it. Because of this, she often mistreat and use the demi-human for her sick needs, beating them when she was angry or force them to fuck her if she had no one else to fuck. What no one knew about her was that she had huge sexual needs and she would get them wherever she could, the good thing about her having a slave was that unless she permit it, the slave couldn't impregnate her, so she couldn't have the damn thing's child. So other than beating them, she would rape them too for her sick needs.

Either way, she wasn't happy with how things were dealt with the Shield Demon, she wanted something more done. Something that would make it worth her face being scarred, if her father wasn't going to do something, she would talk with The Church of the Three Heroes. She knew that they would find a way to deal with the Shielder. She would go and see them tomorrow with the Spear Hero as they visit the Dragon Hourglass so that the Spear Hero and her can find out how long they had before the next Wave would appear.

Thinking about the Spear Hero, she was glad to have him as a companion. He seemed to be attracted to cute to sexy women, who'll do anything for them. He reminded her of the men that she dealt with in the past, easy to control as long as the female keep the men interested in them, listen to their stories, flirt with them, tell them that they were doing a good job and such, and lastly, make sure that they do almost anything for you, allow the men to fuck you. This'll get the men to do 98% of the things that you want them to do. So she'll have an easy time of controlling the fool, and if she was lucky she was worth it, she could have him marry her.

If she could make that happen, that would show those back at Faubley Kingdom that they won't all that. As in the past, should the Three Heroes decided to stay in this world, it would be the Faubley Kingdom who keeps them and marry their norble off to them. That's how they got their power in the last six hundred years or so, but this time though, she was planning to get one of the Heroes for the Melromarc Kingdom, so that they for once have the power of the Cardinal Heroes.

If Motoyasu didn't work out as Malty hoped it would, she would always try and get Itsuki to marry her. She would do whatever she could to get one of the Cardinal Heroes, so up the other kingdoms and show that hers is just as powerful as the rest of them. It was a shame that Renka was a female or she would try getting her to marry her.

Thinking about Renka, she remembered the small talk that the two had just after the Shield Demon left the castle when Renka wanted to make sure that she was right. It would seem that the damn Shield Demon had the ability to hold his drink, so that he couldn't get drunk. She realized that this was the reason that the Demon didn't drink with her, he wasn't able to get drunk. Oh she really hated Ability Holders at times, as they would have abilities that would make things so much harder to plan to frame them or use them somehow.

Either way though, she was able to come up with a light lie, where she told the Sword Heroin that there was a skill to be able to fake his Status Card. So it was possible that he was able to find someone to fake the card so that he could show people that he wasn't as useless as he really was. So the Drunkenness Null and his other abilities were fake, to try and make him look better than he really was. Thankfully Renka fail for it too, the ability was out there, but it was rare and only certain people could use the ability. So the Shield Demon couldn't have gotten it as soon as she made it out that he did.

Malty was glad Renka fail for her lie, as that meant one less person who believed in the damn Shield Demon. She just hope that other than this Maker she heard that the Shield Demon found, no one else would believe him and help him. But then again these damn Makers are one race that are hard to gain leverage over. They don't care if the person is good or evil, as long as the person didn't insult their race in some from, or try to destroy this balance that they talk about, they'll help anyone they see fit.

It didn't help that the Maker in this town was one of the few people who could work with Monster Core, whilst the other blacksmith works with Magical Stones, both to make their weapons and armour stronger. So she wouldn't be able to force the Maker to stop helping the Shield Demon, as if she did, her kingdom would be weakened and her father would surely be angry at her. So she would have to find another way to keep the Shield Demon from becoming stronger if possible.

For now though, she had to deal with her anger with unable to deal with the Shield Demon, as she couldn't show the public her darker side of herself. She knew that if that were to happen, her mother would have her head. So she had one of the Shadows loyal to her to keep an eye out for her mother's Shadows so that they wouldn't report back to her mother about her actions.

With a dark smirk she looked down at the demi-human that she had her foot on its face and as she raised her foot of its face, she said darkly, "Well demi-human, after tonight we won't be seeing each other for some time, so tonight well be special. I'll be giving you something to remind you of me by and remind you who you belong to."

And with that she undressed, where she picked up a rod. Seeing the rod, the male demi-human shivered in fear as he realized what was about to happen. Revealing her true face, someone who loves to cause pain and suffering, she said, "Now, let's have some fun."

Whilst the room was full of screams that night, thanks to the magic that was around the room, no one heard anything within the room. During that time, a single Shadow who was keeping watch on the First Princess wanting to find prove of her crimes against the Shield Hero was caught and imprisoned.

o0OoO0o

Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Ulthane's Store, 8th of January 740

Naofumi awoke from two strange dreams, the first was where he was in a village of some kind, the sky was an ominous red, and the sky was literally being torn apart by some mysterious force, an ominous aura emanating from the fractures, the fractures were an ominous purple in colour. From the fractures in reality, dropping like hell spawn, came demonic beasts of destruction; zombies and skeletons armed with rusty armor and swords, interdimensional wasps and many plague related insects poured in and started rampaging remembered seeing himself defending the village by some kind of rope shield, as he summoned a green like shields and a metal casings to protect the villagers.

He had no idea where the village was, but he knew that it was real and the monsters were going to attack soon. If it wasn't for the past dreams which came true, he would have thought he was having a crazy messed up dream, but now he knew that this dream was a warning of what to come. He realized that this must be his Clairvoyance power that he meant to have, something that until a few months ago he never had or so he thought. As until he decided to do his comic, he wasn't remember his dreams that well, but now he was getting somewhat better in doing so.

Now if it wasn't for the next dream, he might be able to draw the village to the tee, as he could see it very clearly. Which was the first time he was able to do so. But his next dream scared him that all thoughts of the village vanished. The next dream was of him and an army facing off a HUGE turtle. Huge was putting it kindly, it was monstrous, if it wasn't for the head and legs and it moving about, you would have thought it was a huge mountain. It had a small village, rope bridges, caves and other things you would expect to see on a mountain with a village.

Now he and the army was facing huge bats, as well as many others including those that resemble gorillas, yetis, floating eyeballs, caterpillar-like familiars and even zombies. Many people were killed in the dream, as people fought on and on, but not making a dent in the huge turtle. Naofumi had to admit, if it wasn't for these things trying to kill him in the dream, he would have thought this would be an ideal place to live.

Either way, the dream went on until they got to a strange room where he found the other three heroes captured in some sort of dome. There was a man with white hair that fought him and a few others with gravity and lightning magic, the dream ended with him and the other stuck to the ground thanks to the gravity magic, as a lightning spell was going to hit them.

As he started to draw what he could remember, mainly the turtle and the monsters, from the paper that he found in one of the draws, he realized one thing - he needed to get much stronger than he ever hoped he had to. If he wanted to prove himself that he wasn't the person that he was made out to be, he would need to save those who fought against the turtle. But to do so, he had to become much stronger, learn raise his attack magic to levels higher than anything thing else. He had to gain power. But as he drew the turtle, he felt he had at least a few months, the dream was to show him that he had to become more powerful than he thought he would have to.

The main thing he had to work on was to find a way to deal with the undead and the insects that he knew would come much sooner, he knew that the shields alone would only get him so far. He would have to learn healing magic to use against the undead and fire magic to use against the insects.

Although he had these dreams, he felt much better, less angry then he did the day before. So much that he was willing to think more clearly, whilst he wouldn't trust anyone for a long time, he was willing to show them that he wasn't like how the bitch and her father portrayed him.

Just as he finished his drawings, Crusch came into the room and with a bow, she said, "Lord Naofumi, my Master asked if you could join him for breakfast?"

"Sure, I have no problems with that." admitted Naofumi, in fact he had a few questions for her master. So asking her to leave for a few moments to get dressed, which she did, he got dressed and left the room where Crusch led him to the dining room.

o0OoO0o

The dining room was down near the forge, it was huge and looked medievil with two different sizes of tables, one to fit Ulthane's size and another to fit a normal human being. As he set down, Ulthane asked, "How are you feeling today?"

"Not too bad thank you, much better than I felt yesterday." Naofumi informed the Maker, as Crusch left to get the food.

"That's good to hear," Ulthane said with a smile, happy that Naofumi didn't seem to be as angry as he did the day before, "so what have you got planned today?"

"A few things, the first is to find someone other than you who's willing to help me." Naofumi informed the huge man, "I need money so I can get stronger and by things for the coming Waves. After that, I'm going to try and level up as much as possible. As I'll be facing some undead and insects at some point in the future. And I need to learn more about a huge turtle."

"How do you know that?" Ulthane asked with interest.

So Naofumi explained about his dream and how he thought that it was his Clairvoyance power warning him what is to come and have him get ready. He also showed the Maker the pictures of the things he meant to be up against.

As he gave the rough drawings to Ulthane, the dwarf like man paled as he saw the turtle. "Are, are you sure about this turtle?"

"Whilst I need to finish the drawing off, but I believe its best as I can get it right now." Naofumi told the blacksmith, "What's wrong?"

"These words? Early, extremely dangerous and such?" asked Ulthane, not answering Naofumi's question just yet, as Crusch returned with the food and stood near the doorway just in case they needed her.

"It's these feelings that I have when I have these visions," explained Naofumi, "just some clues to what to expect. What's going one here?"

"This picture reminds me of an old story that I was told when I was a child," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "the Great Four Beasts. I can't remember much about the story, but these beasts were meant to be the last resort. If at some point this world was unable to beat the Waves, these Calamity Beasts would appear and kill thousands upon thousands of people to gain souls so that they can seal the Waves of Calamity for at least another two hundred or so years. Either way, these beasts won't suppose to show up unless this world is on the brink of ruin by the Waves of Disaster, but you said you had to fight it?" asked the blacksmith, a bit worried as Naofumi nodded at this.

"That's not right," Ulthane told the young man, "my memory is foggy, but I don't believe it's the Cardinal Heroes job to fight them more the opposite actually." he said with a frustrated tone trying to figure out why Naofumi would need to fight one of the Guardian Beasts. "From what I can remember, the Heroes meant to let the beasts do their job, so that they can get the souls to seal the world from the Waves of Calamity and so protecting it for a few hundred years. So for it to appear earlier than it should, puts things out of balance. Something that could end the world instead of saving it." This worried Ulthane, he wished he could remember more about the story.

"Is there anything else you can remember about this story of yours?" asked Naofumi, hoping to learn more.

"Sadly no, I have to contact a few people to find out more, only a few people know about this story so it might take time for me to learn about it." explained Ulthane, "For now, you need to train and get stronger while leveling up as much as possible."

"That's the plan." admitted Naofumi.

"To help you, I'll lend you Crusch to help you level up." Ulthane informed Naofumi.

"And how would that help me?" asked the Shield Hero, remembering his time with the bitch and how nothing happened.

"When the First Princess was in your team, didn't you get any experience points when she defeated the monsters that you fought?" asked the Maker.

"No, I thought that I could only gain exp from the monsters that I defeated myself." Naofumi told Ulthane, as a dark aura began to form from the Shield Hero.

"Oh no, you can invite or recruit people or creatures into a group, any monsters that they defeat you too gain the exp, I thought the First Princess would have told you this." Ulthane informed the young man. He began to get worried as the aura began to get stronger, and had a hint of red in it.

"No, no, the damn bitch did not tell me about this." Naofumi admitted with a dark sneer, as he remembered all the hard work that he had done the last day to get to level two. He was angry, not only didn't the bitch tell him this, which would have made things so much easier, but by now the other heroes would be so much stronger than him, it would take him a while for him to catch up to them. As they had more companions than him and so they would have gotten more exp than him by now, so many levels ahead of him.

Ulthane was worried, it looked like that Naofumi was going to let his anger get away from him. Not that the Maker could blame him, but the Shield Hero's anger could awaken the Wrath Curse and cause more problems than needed right now, as the Shield Hero wouldn't be able to control the power. So with a sigh he said, "Lord Naofumi, please calm down, remember what I said, you need to control your anger. I understand why you're angry and rightly so, but you need to calm down. As if you don't, you could awaken the Wrath Curse and unless you can control it, it'll control you."

Naofumi knew the dwarf like man was right, but he couldn't help it, he was so angry at bitch and her father. It took everything that he had not to leave the shop and hunt down the two and kill the two, even if he didn't have the attack points to harm them. Taking a few deep breaths, Naofumi tried to calm himself, before he realized that Ulthane was right, he should try and control his anger. As if he didn't, bitch and her father would win, if his anger got the better of him and controlled him.

"You're right, but I'm unhappy because of the damn First Princess, the other heroes are levels ahead of me." said Naofumi with a sigh.

"Whilst I can't help you with gaining the lost time in levelling up, I can help you to catch up with the help of Crusch." explained the blacksmith, "For the next week or so, until you decide what you are going to do, I'll have Crusch train you and at the same time she'll help you try to catch up in levels."

"That'll be helpful," admitted Naofumi, "but I have two questions about Crusch. Why does she call you Master? Is it because she's your apprentice or some sort of slave? And what level is she?"

"Crusch is level thirty," explained Ulthane, "and yes, she is my slave, I bought her some time ago to help me around the shop and to gain monster parts and other things to help create my weapons."

"So there's slavery in this world?" Naofumi asked not liking the idea and feeling a bit disgusted at it, but he should have realized that seeing that this world was set in the old times, he shouldn't be too surprised by this fact. Sure in his world slavery was outlawed, but that didn't mean that it didn't still happen.

As an economics student, he studied this sort of thing where he found out that most slave labor just shifted titles, but not really much else. Sure people get paid now, but that's only to make it look like they were in fact normal workers, with family and meals and a house over their heads, but that's after doing hours upon hours of hard work. This made it harder for the police to find the slaves and their masters, normally, it would be the wife or husband who's the master and the other is the slave or it was possible that the married couple were both the masters and the children were the slaves.

"That it does," admitted Ulthane, "I know in your world they might have mabe slavery outlawed or no longer needed it or it could be common to you, but that is your old world and in this one here they still have it. It gives people free labor and a way to punish the guilty. Do people get kidnapped to be enslaved? Yes. But there's little people can do about that, as each kingdom has their own laws about this, mainly as long as you don't kidnap people from that kingdom, they got this don't ask don't care policy. Now, there are some like this kingdoms Queen who's trying to change the way things are done, but it is slow going and it's unsure if it'll make and difference. I can say I treat Crusch as part of my family."

"Hmm, so does that mean you by them off a blackmarket or something?" Naofumi asked the man.

"We do have a blackmarket, but people don't get slaves there, but from an auction house." the Maker informed young hero, "But you need a licence, which can be gotten from the slavery auction house. The slavery auction house in this town mainly deals with demi-humans, as they think they are lower race. They would only do human slaves if they committed a crime or certain people want to make other people disappear."

Naofumi nodded at this, unsure how to feel about this. Part of him felt disgusted at this, that people would use other people for their own needs or make people disappear. But another part of him, a darker part, thought how useful a slaves could be, being able to use them to fight. But the problem is that he didn't know how the slaves were kept in line, so that they wouldn't betray their Master. This reason give him pause about getting one. Whilst Crusch almost worshiped like a god, he wasn't sure if the other demi-humans would do the same. It all depends on how badly they were treated by humans since the last Shield Hero appeared, as he knew that strong resentment would alter one believes in gods and such. It was the same in his world.

He put that to the back of his mind for now, as when he heard that there was a blackmarket, he got an idea, one that should help him. So he asked the blacksmith, "About this blackmarket you mentioned, do you know where it is?"

"Yes I do, as I sometimes send Crusch there to get some rare or outlawed material to make weapons." explained Ulthane, he also realized why the Shield Hero asked him this and so went on to say, "I know what you might be thinking, if you are unable to find someone who is willing to buy and sell things to you by going to the blackmarket to do so, I'm sorry to say that won't be possible."

"Why is that?" Naofumi asked in interest, just as he finished his breakfast.

"Because you are too infamous and too much of a risk." said Ulthane, "You see, the blackmarket as you can guess has many shady characters and you can find many illegal going ons there. The kingdom knows about this, but let the blackmarkets be, because most of the blackmarket clients are the Nobles that the King has to keep in check. Well a lot of the people who work there are the criminal underbelly, they do shady things like robbery, kidnapping even assassinations, they have have a symbiotic relationship with the royal family. In return for keeping the place going, they would give information to the Shadows of the Queen. But you have two problems:

"First, you have to know your way around there or you could end up in worse shape than before, there's a lot of people who would kidnap you for slavery or just kill you outright." Ulthane warned the Shield Hero, "Second, with the blackmarket having a symbiotic relationship with the royal family, they'll try and not and upset them. With the fulse reports of you raping the First Princess and with the King in chagre and angry at you, he would be more than happy to shut down the blackmarket. In fact, he has problems with the market for some time and has been looking for a why to close it down, so if he found that they were helping you, he would close it down without a second thought."

"Damn it." sneered Naofumi, angry at this, once again the damn king was screwing him over, making it hard for him to get things.

"I can help you there for now though," explained the blacksmith, trying to stop Naofumi's anger before it got away from him, "anything you need to buy or sell I can do for you or have Crusch do it. At least until you find someone to buy and sell things to."

Naofumi calmed down a bit here, glad to hear that at least he had a way to get things should he unable to find someone to buy and sell things from. But he knew that in the long run he'll have to work something out himself, as he knew that there might be things he might want to get himself but wouldn't know it until he looked at the items himself.

"If there's nothing else and you don't need Crusch right now, I would like to train and level up now." Naofumi told the Maker, wanting to try and catch up with the other heroes, as he knew that the future was going to be hard and he needed to be stronger to survive these attacks.

"No, I don't need her this morning, but this afternoon I'll need her." Ulthane informed the young man. Then the Maker stood up to get ready to leave, when he suddenly said, "Whilst you are levelling up this week, I would like you to think about something. What are you willing to do to survive?"

"What do you mean?" Naofumi asked with a bit of confusion.

"Well, are you going to be a true hero and do whatever it takes to protect people?" asked Ulthane, "Or, are you going to be some sort of anti-hero, help if you are getting paid for it or fits your needs? Or, are you going to be a true villain, doing evil deeds, only doing helping when the Waves come along? I say the last two would make things easier for you, but it'll be down to you to decide."

"Err?" Naofumi said in confusion, "Are you saying that I should be a villain or something instead of a hero?"

"No, I'm trying to tell you that you should do what you think will help you get stronger." explained Ulthane, "There might be times where you'll have to do things that you wouldn't normally do to survive. So my question is what are you willing to do to survive in this world?"

"I -" Naofumi was stumped at this question, he wasn't sure what he was willing to do to survive in this world. A big part of him wanted to be the hero that he was summoned to be, to show everyone that he wasn't the type of guy that bitch and her father made him out to be. But at the same time though, another part of him didn't want to do a thing for this damn world and only help out in the Waves so that this world could survive so that he could be sent home. During that time he wasn't sure what he would do other than trying to get stronger, how? He wasn't sure. So he replied honestly, "I don't know."

"And that's why I asked you to think about it as you level up this week." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, "And so you know, no matter what path you take, as long as you save this world and keep the balance, we'll won't care what you do." And with that Ulthane left the room leaving a confused Naofumi behind as the hero thought about what was said.

After a few minutes of thinking about it, no answer came to Naofumi, so he decided he would think about it later on. For now he needed to get try and catch up with the other heroes, even stronger than them, so he could show them not to look down on him. So turning to Crusch, he asked her, "Is there anything you need before we go to the fields?"

"I just need to get my armour and my sword My Lord." Crusch informed him.

"In that case I'll meet you outside the store." Naofumi told the slave, before he got up and leave the room.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END: Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I'm hoping that in the next chapter we'll FINALLY get to meet Raphtalia, as I'm planning to do a time skip… so you know, the plan is to get Raphtalia much sooner than in the anime and novel.

Once again chapter would have been out sooner, but I had a problem with my laptop which forced me to take it into the shops to get sorted. Because of this, writing been slower and I had to use my phone to write some of the chapter, which is hard enough for me. Not only that, but the mood to write wasn't with me so that took longer than I hoped.

Now there's been a few people why wants a Brainwashing Shield, but I'm sorry to say that there'll be no such shield. For the simple reason that if he had such a shield, it would make things easier and that's something I don't want.

Now I have some people who don't want the Lust Shield whilst others do, so I'm putting up a poll for you to decide if the Shield happens or not:

Yes, give Naofumi the Lust Shield…

No, don't give Naofumi the Lust Shield…

Now before we get to the important not that I talked about at the start, I would like to inform you that I'm going to be working on an Omake for Dragon Overlord with the person who is helping me with my stories. So the next update for this story won't be happening until after the New Year unless things change. So, seeing how I don't know when I'll finish the Omake, I say this now just in case: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

IMPORTANT NOTE!

This is important, me and the person who is helping me write this story, Raven, are in a disagreement with Naofumi's Strengthening Method. I believe that with Naofumi using skill points to make his shields stronger and gaining new skills, along with absorbing Monster/Demon Cores to make him stronger and give him new abilities. To me that's two of three of the other Strengthening Method, leaving out the rarity Strengthening Method. To me, Naofumi's Strengthening Method, where he uses Skill and Attribute Points and gain new powers as he levels up and shields, makes him stronger. Especially with him becoming a True Alchemist

The thing is, Raven believes that each hero should only have one strengthening method what specialized to them, that their own strengthening method could strengthen the other heroes weapons. But I believe that my Strengthening Method for Naofumi uses some of the Strengthening Methods already used.

Motoyasu Kitamura: Spirit Enchantment is simply giving a weapon the fragment of a demon's soul to absorb (absorbing defeated monsters) through which special powers can be granted. Status Enchant Stats can be increased.

But I'm planning to use Monster and Demon Cores for this, to absorb the Cores into the shield which would help which not only would help with giving him new stats, but depending on the Monster and Demon give the shield new powers too. But Raven believes that if a common citizen could have an item that had multiple Cores in it, then he doesn't think it could be a strengthening method. But I don't see it like that, but I would like to hear your thoughts about this, as the citizens would be limited to how many Core they could use Naofumi would not.

Ren Amaki: Energy for Reinforcement is indicated as proficiency and displayed as a fraction which indicates the ability of the user with that weapon. If a weapon is used repeatedly the user gains proficiency and can later choose to turn proficiency into skill points using "Energy Grant" when the proficiency reaches the max. Energy Grant is a hidden power that can be unlocked by using energy granted from resetting the weapon's skill proficiency. Additionally, items absorbed into the weapon can be converted into energy.

Now I could be wrong about this, but I'm going to be using Skill Points to do what I think is the same thing, to make it stronger. And unlike Ren's way, depending on the shield, as they level up at certain points the shields gain extra powers. Now I'll admit I could be wrong about this, but it sounds about right.

Itsuki Kawasumi: Rarity By using energy, it is possible to increase the weapon's rarity. With an increased rarity the weapons overall ability will improve. Rarity levels include Common (C), Uncommon (UC), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), Super Rare+ (SR+), and Artifact (AF). Skill Points are points used to change the rarity of the item or to awaken the real power of weapon. Using the "Energy grant" some items can be turned into energy and skill points.

Tempering is the strengthening of equipment through reforging it using ore.

Now this is something I am having difficulty understanding, I can't how rarity can alter the weapons strength and powers. From the way Raven tried to explain it, it is like in Darksiders 2, where Death breaks down other weapons to change the rarity of his weapons. Even then I'm having problems understanding it and so not sure how to work it.

As for using ore to strengthen the hero's equipment, it reminds me of Motoyasu's Strengthening Methods where he uses monster's/demon's souls and absorb them into his weapon. Which case I see that the Core would do the same job. But I could be wrong about this.

The way I see it, with Naofumi's gaming like Strengthening Method, he has two of the Hero's Strengthening Methods, which over time would make him stronger than them already. But Raven believes that Itsuki who isn't using Cores but items and material, meaning he would pick up the core method and share it with the spear hero and bitch most likely told the sword hero, so it's a method that already the other Heroes could be using so calling it a strengthening method personally for Naofumi doesn't feel right, so that would make Naofumi only strengthening method that every time he leveled up he could put points into his weapon and stats to increase their value. But by doing this he would be no stronger than any other hero, which I disagree with, because every Hero has their own strengthening method and if he only had one just like the other three only had one then he should equal with them in strength. The only reason he was stronger in the anime and manga was because he used the Wrath Shield and his strengthening method during that time was his anger against everyone who kept on trying to take stuff from him. That was the only thing that was keeping him equal with the others he had nothing else, so he still would need to take the other three strengthening methods along with the vessel weapons strengthening methods if he's ever going to be the turtle and all the other enemies after the Pope.

But from what I remember from the WN, they didn't believe each other about their methods until Naofumi pointed it out, so I don't see the problem, Sure I could be wrong, but that's why I want your thoughts about this.

And if you do want Strengthening Methods, I would like new ones, as I'm trying to keep the heroes as far as apart as I can and mistrusting Naofumi. So I would like new Strengthening Methods that Naofumi use, ones that the past Heroes might have used and Naofumi could find them.