Author's Note: Just a quick note, the arm idea I wasn't thinking that he would cut his own arm off, but lose it in battle or through torture. As for the replacement, I was thinking of something along the lines of the arm of Yang from RWBY, or something like Hajime's arm from Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest.

Now I would like to thank Prometheus-777 for their review, as I was planning to make Renka the same as canon Ren. But they pointed out something so simple that I didn't think about it, seeing how I set things up, I can do much more with her than canon Ren. So I can change things so that she can become much stronger than her cannon counterpart.

One last thing, some of you seem to be worried that by having Naofumi use alchemy to alter himself I'll be altering his class from tank to something else, but you would be wrong. Yes I'm using it to make him stronger, but when it comes to attack power, he'll be the weakest of the Heroes. But unlike before, he'll have some attack power that'll allow him to defend himself when alone, but it'll take time to defeat a monster/demon. He'll be a tank like demon… so you know, even as a tank, tank characters do have some attack power, not much sure but some.

Chapter Sixteen…

Kingdom of Melromarc, Village of Lute, 20th of January 740:

Time to the next Wave: D10 H20 M30.

We begin our next chapter the following morning of Naofumi getting to the village, the following night was thankfully a quiet one. No one was foolish enough to try and kidnap the slaves that he had. He wasn't sure if it was because people thought he was the Demon of the Shield, or they didn't have the men nor the skills to do the job. Whatever the reason, Naofumi didn't need to worry about anyone kidding them nor the Bow Hero coming to the village.

Now the problem that he should be worried about was meeting the Mayor. It would seem that he wasn't all that happy about paying him, seeing how he believed the stories that came to the village about the Shield Hero raping and beating the First Princess. Naofumi couldn't believe it, here was a man who was BUYING slaves from a Black Market Slaver and he was upset who was delivering them to him?

Now the Mayor tried to say that he wasn't going to pay Naofumi for delivering the slaves, but still wanted them off him. But the Shield Hero wasn't having any of that, he told the Mayor that if he wasn't going to pay, he would be keeping the slaves himself. As the Slave Trader told him the day before that should the Mayor not willing to pay, he could keep the slaves as payment. Not only that, but the Slave Trader wanted Naofumi to inform the Mayor that if he didn't hold up his end of the deal and tried something because of who delivered the slaves, then the Mayor would lose the slaves and would have to pay double for them.

Realizing the trouble he was in, the Mayor knew that he had no other option but to pay. As paying for slaves from the legal Slave Auction House was more expensive, seeing how they were mainly for the nobles to buy. As long as you didn't mind where they came from, it was cheaper to get them from the black market. So if he didn't pay the Shield Demon now, he would have to pay double the next time he buys some. So loathly, he paid the damn Shield Hero.

Once Naofumi got paid, he got a notification that he completed the job and that he earned 1000 EXP:

Slave Delivery Job Completed…

Rewards:

Slaver's Signet Ring (Claimed)

1000 EXP (Claimed)

15 Gold Coins (Claimed)

Naofumi was happy for this, as he and his slaves levelled up. Raphtalia and Kumiho were shocked that they levelled up seeing how they didn't defeat a monster, but on the way back to the stable, Naofumi explained the best that he could about what happened. The girls were somewhat shocked about this, it was useful seeing how they didn't have to fight so much to level up. Kumiho asked if he could do this often, Naofumi admitted he didn't know as he wasn't sure how this system worked fully yet, so only time would tell.

Now once they were back at the stable, Naofumi said to them, "Okay you two, I think we should move. As you can see, the villagers don't really want me here, so we have to decide where to go next."

"But where?" asked Kumiho.

"That I don't know," admitted Naofumi, "seeing how the next wave is just over ten days, we can't go far. So I was hoping that one of you might have an idea where we could go. If possible, it could be a place where we can set up base."

"Hmm, Master Naofumi, I think I know of a place." Raphtalia informed her Master slyly, as the two slaves thought about it for a few moments but nothing was said. That's when she had an idea, a place where she knew would be useful to her Master. She hoped that this would help her become more useful to him, as she believed that right now Kumiho was more useful than her. Raphtalia feared that if something wasn't done soon, prove to her Master that she was useful, she would be sent back to the Slave Trader. So she was hoping that if she was able to help here, it would make her useful to her Master. "You could use my old village as your base Master."

"Hmm, does anyone live there now?" Naofumi asked in interest, "Anyone who would be against the idea?"

"No Master, the village was destroyed by the Waves," Raphtalia informed her Master sadly, then with a tear in her eyes she said, "then as we were trying to rebuild the place, we were taken from our village. So there is no one there to make a fuss. Even if there was someone there Master, as the Shield Hero, they would be more than happy to create your bass for you."

"Hmm, I see," Naofumi hummed thoughtfully, "how long is it from here to your village? I would like to check it out when we can."

"I don't know Master," admitted Raphtalia, happy that she was finally being a bit more useful to her Master, "my father told me once that it took about half a day to get to Castle Town from our village."

"Hmm…" Naofumi hummed to himself, as he thought to himself, 'If her father took some sort of transportation to the town, it would mean from Castle Town it would take about a day or so to get her village.'

"Would you be able to take me to your village Raphtalia?" asked Naofumi.

"Sorry Master, no, until I was taken as a slave, I never left the village." Raphtalia admitted sadly, feeling useless once again.

"Don't worry, I never left my hometown back in my world until I came here." Naofumi informed the young girl as he patted her head, trying to reassure her. Sure he wasn't as trusting or caring as he used to be and he didn't care what happened to people anymore, but something deep within him felt sorry for her and so wanted to comfort her a bit. "Do you know of the name of your village? We could look it up on a map that way."

"My father told me that our village was called Lurolona Village." Raphtalia smiled as she said this, happy that she wasn't as useless as she first thought.

"Hmm, let's see…" Naofumi hummed as he summoned his Cartographer's Shield to see if the village was on his map. Sure enough, it was, from here it was about six hours. As long as they didn't face any problems, they could get to Raphtalia's village by evening and come back sometime in the afternoon the next day. This would give them enough time to look around the village to see how it is and what needs to be fixed and what to do to fix it up to their needs.

"Master, what is that shield?" Raphtalia asked in shock. She nor Kumiho have ever seen a map like this before, the trees, hills and the like, they were like miniature versions of them that some people do to create a basic idea of what an area looks like. Some do it for fun, some do it to help with planning fights and the like.

"You could say it's my map shield." explained Naofumi as he thought carefully how to word what the map is able to do, "It has the ability to see the basic idea of what an area I want to see is like. But as you can see, unlike this village where it is in great detail, your village has only got your name and a few buildings to show that it's a village. For the shield to get a better detail of the village, I'll have to go there myself. It's why some areas are better detailed than others, as I have been there."

"That's a very useful shield Master Naofumi," admitted Kumiho, "do you have, say, Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden on it?"

"No, for me to have those areas I would have to have the maps of the area and feed them to my shield, and to have a greater detail of the area, I'll have to visit the area myself." explained Naofumi.

"Hmm, interesting Master, can it reveal hidden areas that you don't know about?" asked Kumiho, wondering how much detail can give her Master.

"Honestly I don't know, but with the powers this shield seems to have, I wouldn't put it past it having such a skill." Naofumi informed her thoughtfully, this shield was out of this world, even in his standards, knowing sci-fi and magic from comics, manga, tv shows and the like, he couldn't guess what this shield could and couldn't do at the end of the day. From what he can gather so far, the only limitation it seems to have is his belief in what he knows and not allowing him to use most weapons. And the one set of weapons he could use, the attack was lower than he would have liked.

Whilst Kumiho was thinking about the possibilities of what this one shield could do for her Master, Raphtalia wasn't sure how to react. So instead, she asked, "Master, when do you want to leave to visit my village?"

"Unless there's something you two think I should do before we leave this area, I say as soon as possible." Naofumi informed them.

Here Kumiho stopped her thoughts about the Cartographer's Shield and said, "Actually Master, there is one thing that I believe you should do if you're willing to. There's a mine not far from here, so I was thinking that you could visit it and gain some ore for your shield to see if you can get some new shields."

Naofumi looked thoughtful at this, he did need more shields, hoping to get more attack and defence stats to make him stronger. So going to the mine and getting some ores could help him to get such shields. "That's a good idea, but what about the villagers? Will I be bothered by these villagers if I go down this mine?" asked Noafumi, not really in the mood to be bothered by people who hate him for no reason when mining.

"No Master, you won't," Kumiho informed her Master, "as they are unable to get into the mine seeing how some of the monsters from the last Wave has set up a nest in there."

"Ah, that's good to hear," Naofumi said with a sigh, "I really don't want to deal with these people today. So let's get something to eat and we go to the mine and see what we can get."

Just then a notice screen appeared in front of him:

Mining Ore Job: Collect 5 different Ores!

Rewards:

500 EXP (Unclaimed)

New Shields (Unclaimed)

Naofumi was shocked to see this, it would seem that doing something like a basic job seemed to become like a quest event like he did back in his world. So if this happened for something as basic as this, then he should expect this for most of the things that he did, like fighting Waves and possible other simple things. Not that he was going to complain about this, as it meant he would be getting extra free EXP for things he would already be doing. It would mean that he could get stronger much easier and faster then he first expected.

The other heroes had at least four heroes in their groups, which meant they would get at least four times as much EXP. But for him he would be getting half of the EXP than they would be getting, so getting this extra EXP would make things so much easier.

When he told his slaves about this, whilst they were unsure how it worked, they too found it useful, seeing how they would be getting stronger much easier. In fact, they began to think of other ways that would allow their Master to get these so called Quests.

Naofumi told them that they could do this another day, for now they had to get breakfast before going to the mine.

o0OoO0o

It was an hour later and the three of them had breakfast, although it was more expensive than it should have been normally, and they were now at the entrance of the mine which was inside a mountain. The road to this place was overgrown with weeds and shrubbery. Although people stopped using the mine a few weeks ago, it seemed that the place was abandoned much longer than a few weeks.

Next to the mine was a mining rest station, this place looked run down even though it wasn't long since people were here. Naofumi had to wonder if the place and the surrounding area was like this because of whatever monsters were staying here, whatever the case, as long as they didn't run into the monsters, he wasn't going to be looking for them nor bother them.

Next to the rest station was a shed with a few pickaxes laying outside, they were old and ratty, but they didn't seem unusable.

The doors for the shed and the building were locked. Seeing how this place was abandoned because of the monsters, Naofumi didn't see any reason why he couldn't let himself in the buildings. But seeing how the rest station could be full of sleeping humanoid monsters, Naofumi decided not to risk entering the place, instead he decided to check the shed to see what he could find in it. The door of the shed was locked with chains, but Naofumi was able to break it open with the blades from his Predator's Guard shield.

Here he found a few useful items, a few lanterns, loads of decent looking pickaxes, hammers and shovels. There was also a map of the mine in here too. The first thing that he did was to feed the map into his Cartographer's Shield, which gave him the outline of the mine and thanks to whatever power his shield had shown an estimated area of where the monsters were but not what they were. This meant that he hadn't faced whatever these monsters were. Not that it mattered to Naofumi, thanks to this map he could stay clear of these monsters and as long as they don't do anything to attract them, he wouldn't have to fight them.

Now as for the tools in the shed, he allowed his shield to absorb them, that give him the following shields:

Pickaxe Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Mining Skill +1 (Unmastered)

Mineral Identification (Unmastered)

Special Effect:

With every mineral added to the shield, the Cartographer's Shield will update to show where to find that mineral.

Hammer Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Mining Speed Up (small) (Unmastered)

Earth Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

Shovel Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Digging Speed Up (small) (Unmastered)

Special Bonus:

Burrowing.

Special Effect:

Digging

Lantern Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Light Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

Special Effect:

Light Spell

Naofumi was surprised at the shields, whilst they didn't have any stats to them, they were useful for mining. He should be able to get some decent ore from the mine. And thanks to the shields he could mine faster and get better ore then he first got. Not only that, but the skill Burrowing, allowed him to create holes, so he could create traps and pathways. He wasn't going to complain about these shields seeing how they were going to help him out.

"Err, Master Naofumi, are we going?" asked Raphtalia, feeling a bit braver by the day and it was thanks to her new Master. Over the last week, he was giving her potions that he created to help her heal, and with the help of Kumiho, he trained her to become stronger. But that didn't mean she wasn't scared, no, she still had fears and worried about disappointing her Master.

Picking up a spare lantern from the table, he said as they walked to the mine, "Yeah, sooner I get some new shields, sooner we can get to your village and see how it is." Then as they got to the mine's entrance, the young Shielder said, "Remember, there are monsters in here, most likely dangerous, so keep an eye out whilst in here. Should you see any and they haven't detected you, do what you can to sneak by. We're not going in there to fight monsters today, we're going in to get some ore and to get me some new shields."

"Understood Master!" the two slaves said together.

Here Naofumi took the lead as Raphtalia and Kumiho followed behind, wanting to make sure that if they did get attacked, they wouldn't get hurt by surprise and be able to fight anything that might attack him.

o0OoO0o

As they entered the mine, at first the tunnels were supported by wooden beams, but as they went deeper, the cave was just formed from natural stone walls. They could hear the soft sound of a distant waterfall and river, as they travelled deeper through the mine, there was a soft light coming from the ceiling. The light was coming from the glowing stones, there were different coloured stones. Every so often they would come across small holes in the ceiling, that blow out dusty air.

As they travelled through the mine, they didn't find any ore yet. So Naofumi used his Cartographer's Shield to see if there was anything from the original map that showed where the ore was. Thankfully there were places that were marked with an 'X' around the mine. Sadly most of the 'X's' were close to monsters, there was only one that wasn't, it was near to the waterfall that they could hear.

But as they got to the area though, Raphtalia tugged on his sleeve, and fearfully she said, "M, Master…"

"What is it?" Naofumi asked simply, wanting to get some ore and leave the place before monsters got near them.

"Um… err, look." she said as she pointed down.

Naofumi and Kumiho followed her gaze. There were large footprints there, and they appeared to be from something like a dog. So it would seem that the monsters were dog-like, not any normal dogs either, it looked like the paw came from a huge beast of some kind. Naofumi hoped that he didn't have to face such a beast just yet.

"It looks like it is a few hours old, Master." Kumiho said as she checked the paw print herself.

Checking his Cartographer's Shield and finding that there were no monsters nearby, Naofumi said, "There aren't any monsters nearby, but we should keep an eye out just in case and be ready to fight if needed."

Naofumi knew that if they always tried to avoid danger, they would never get anywhere. So it was better to be prepared than run from every challenge. Naofumi didn't think that a monster the size of a great dane would be a great danger to them, he knew all they had to do was defeat it. If it was only the size of a great dane, he was sure they could handle it.

"Don't worry, if we run into whatever that monster is, we can beat it up." Naofumi reinsured the young girl.

"I'll try." Raphtalia said, not wanting to let her master down.

"That's the attitude." Naofumi said with a smile.

It wasn't long before they got to the area where the waterfall was, in fact, they arrived at the top of the waterfall. The area was wonderful, in fact, Naofumi could say it was magical. The Shielder could see that for the first time since shit hit the fan for him, he truly felt at peace happy. The glow from the stones on the ceiling, the sound of the waterful, the plant life around the waterful and the river below, it made the area peaceful.

Searching the area, Naofumi found a few places where he could mine the ore, the ore he could find in the area was Amethyst, Emerald and Light Metal. Naofumi decided to mine as much ore as he could from the area, believing that he might use some for them at a later date. He gained three new shields from these ores:

Light Metal Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Physical Defence: +2 (Unmastered)

Special Effect:

Magic Defense (Medium)

Amethyst Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Physical Defence: +8 (Unmastered)

Emerald Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Poison Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

These three shields were somewhat decent, but the Light Metal Shield was the best of them all. Sure it only gave him plus two in Equip Bonus, but for the base stats, it was the strongest that he had so far, so until he found a stronger shield, this would be his go to shield. The only time he would use the others would be to master the Equip Bonus skills, or to use the Special Effect of one of the shields.

As the three of them were finishing up in the area to go to another to find some more ore, they suddenly heard a few sounds, "Grrrrrrrr…"

Looking around, Naofumi and his two slaves saw a big black dog, it was a big, black dog with two heads, its eyes were like flames from hell. Looking at it's paws, it would seem that they were much smaller than the paw paints that they saw earlier, could it be a puppy or smaller version of it? What shocked Naofumi was that even if it was a puppy, it was taller than he was.

If things weren't as bad, four smaller dogs appeared behind the two headed dog. They looked the same as the two headed dog, but these ones only had one.

As they howled, Naofumi knew that they had no option but to fight, as the dogs ran right at them. Making the three of them scatter so not to get attacked by them.

Noafumi wasn't sure how this fight was going to pan out, up 'til now he hadn't taken damage from an enemy, but he wasn't sure about this two headed dog. He had to wonder if he could come out of this fight unscathed.

Naofumi shook his head from these thoughts, he couldn't think like this. He promised himself he wouldn't be killed in this damn world, not only that but he had a few decent shields to help him fight. He didn't think he would be killed by a few hits from them. Not only that but he had Kumiho and Raphtalia, so he would be fine. He transformed his shield from the Pickaxe Shield to the Appraisal Shield, so that he could Appraise the monsters.

Either way though, when the two headed dog landed an attack on Naofumi he was able to block it, but it was so heavy.

"Gahhhh!" the dog growled at him, its thick nails were scratching at the Shield Hero's shield, and both of its heads were trying to bite him.

As if Naofumi would allow that to happen!

To avoid its teeth, the Shielder threw his weight into the shield, pushed the beast back, and jumped away to get some distance. Thankfully it would seem that Naofumi was able to withstand these attacks for now.

Just as he was about to use the skill of his shield to appraise the monsters, he quickly checked on his two slaves. He saw Kumiho in front of Raphtalia who was on her knees, close to the waterfall, protecting her from the one headed dogs. Raphtalia was shaking in fear, and her eyes were locked at some random point in space.

This reminded Naofumi how she acted when she was getting ready to cry in the night, in the last week.

"Nooooooooooooo!" Her shrill cry cut through the cave, which rang in Naofumi's and Kumiho's ears.

"Grrrooar!"

The dog howled and jumped back for a moment. Looking at the young girl, snarling at her, it began to dash in her direction.

Naofumi couldn't allow it to get her nor Kumiho, he needed them to fight for him. So rushing over to them, he pushed them over the waterfall. Kumiho took this in her stride and moved to land within the river with ease. Raphtalia on the other hand screamed out for help, so seeing that he was close to her he reached out and pulled her close as they fell into the water.

You fall over waterfalls in games all the time, but to do it in real life Naofumi found it was different. Everything was swirling and he had no idea where he was.

The current wasn't strong, so Naofumi and Kumiho were able to swim to the shore with Raphtalia, as they did Naofumi started to cough and catch his breath.

"No! No! Dad! Mom!"

"What was that?!" Naofumi told her with concern and anger, seeing how her freaking out like that almost put him and Kumiho in danger, "You can't just freak out on me."

"Dad?" Raphtalia asked in confusion as she hugged her Master, seeing how she was getting herself together.

"No! What are you talking about?" Naofumi asked her, confused by this. At the same time, he looked up to see what the dog was doing, hoping that he stayed up there.

The dog ran to the edge of the cliff, looked down at them, then turned and ran off. Naofumi hoped that it stayed up there and didn't find a way down.

"Are you okay? Are you conscious?" asked Kumiho, concerned about the young girl

"I… I…" Raphtalia tried to say something but unable to.

"What was that?" asked Nafoumi.

"It…" Raphtalia tried once again to tell her Master what was wrong.

"Tell us, Raphtalia." Kumiho said softly.

"I… okay." Raphtalia said softly, as she started to tell her story. She told them about her village, demi-humans, mostly farmers. Where one day the Waves of Catastrophe appeared above their village, sending out loads of skeleton warriors, where thankfully adventurers in town were able to hold them at bay. But soon enough other beasts, giant insects, fell on the battlefield, and the adventurers were unable to hold the line.

But over time a giant, three-headed dog appeared. The people weren't able to stand up to it at all, and they were trampled. The village couldn't fight anymore, so they ran from the monsters. But the monsters wouldn't let them flee. Acting like it was a sport, they hunted down the remaining people and killed them. Raphtalia told them how her family, like the rest of the villagers, ran from the monsters. Soon enough, they came to a cliff overlooking the ocean and found themselves trapped there by the wave of monsters.

Realizing they could not escape, her parents looked into each other's eyes and then turned to Raphtalia and smiled. Raphtalia told her Master that they were shaking in fear, but they patted her head and comforted her. She told her Master and Kumiho that she didn't know that they were planning on sacrificing themselves to save her. She told them that she remembered her parents wishing for her safety, before they pushed her from the lip of the cliff. As she fell into the ocean, she saw the monsters attack her parents.

As she told the story, her face was pale. It was a difficult memory for her to talk about.

"I fell into the water and luckily washed up on a nearby shore." Raphtalia said before continuing with her story.

Raphtalia went on to tell them about waking up and went searching for her parents. As she climbed back up the cliff, she found that the monsters had finally been defeated by the knights and adventurers of the kingdom. She walked through fields littered with bones and finally found her way back to the cliff.

She went on to explain how she found pools of blood, and strips of flesh. She first thought that both of her parents were dead, but found out that only her father was dead and her mother was unconscious in their home.

When she finally understood that her father was dead, something inside of Raphtalia snapped. "Nooooooooooooooo!"

Here Kumiho held the young girl and comforted her, whispering warm comforting words to Raphtalia. After a few minutes, Raphtalia continued her story, where she told her master that from that point on Raphtalia resolved to live a full life. Keeping her word to her father that she would always smile, be happy and live.

Looking at her now, it was hard to picture. But apparently she used to be quite the over-achiever.

But not long after her father died, some soldiers came to her village where they killed many of them and took the young to make into slaves. Raphtalia didn't say much about her time as a slave before he became her master, only saying that her mother was a slave too, not like Naofumi cared one way or another. But from the little that Beloukas told him, she didn't have a good time, especially with her last master. Whatever happened during her time as a slave, it slowly wore her down and broke her. Now she was slowly getting fixed, doing what she could to be a good slave for him.

"That black dog is back! We need to run!" Raphtalia started to panic again.

Naofumi supposed that was the source of her trauma. He knew that she had to face it, to deal with her fears, otherwise she could be no good to him. What if they faced another dog like that and she gets a panic attack? Now she had to deal with it here and now.

"Calm down!" Naofumi told her.

"But… But!" Raphtalia said fearfully, not wanting to be near the dog. It brought too many bad memories back, memories she wanted to forget.

"That is not the dog that killed your father. It has two heads, right? Besides… just who do you think I am?" asked the Shielder.

"Um…" Raphtalia looked confused at this, not sure how to answer this question.

"I'm the Shield Hero. Up until now, I've been protecting you and Kumiho, haven't I? But even if I can protect you, I won't be able to defeat a lot of the enemies that we'll face by myself."

Raphtalia put her head in her hands.

"Your parents are not coming back." Naofumi told her simply, not bothering to sugarcoat, "So you have two options, you can either stay the way you are now or you can get stronger, making sure that you don't lose me or any master you might have ever again."

It wasn't a very good argument, Naofumi knew that, he just wanted to survive. That's why he needed them to get stronger. But the waves were clearly a source of terror for Raphtalia.

He could only guess what to say to make her get over her fear, right now it's not to be weak or lose those close to her.

"All I can do is give you the best environment for you to use your fighting skills." Naofumi told her softly, "If that's not cool with you, well, we already discussed your options."

"R…Right." stuttered Raphtalia

"Gaah!"

The two headed dog had managed to find them somehow. He suspected that there were tunnels that lead them to here.

Here Kumiho went on the attack, to give her master time to deal with Raphtalia to hopefully get her to help in the attack.

"Listen, if you're not going to fight, then get the hell out of here." Naofumi told the young girl, as he cast an Air Strike Shield, to protect Kumiho from two dogs who lunged at her. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Raphtalia right now. There was at least one powerful monster that they had to deal with and he was with four other monsters.

"What about you and Kumiho?" Raphtalia asked fearfully.

"We'll draw its attention. You run!" Naofumi told her, as he cast another Air Strike Shield to protect Kumiho from another attack, this time from the two headed dog.

"But!"

"But nothing, unless I have you and Kumiho, I can't fight all that well. My main job is to be a tank, to protect you two." Naofumi informed the young girl, "So if you can't fight, run and never come looking for us again, I can't deal with those who can't fight for me." Naofumi knew this was a harsh thing to say, but if he wanted to survive in this world, he needed people who could fight for him. If they can't fight, they can get the hell out of here.

"I don't want to run away!"

"Then take that two headed dog out here and now," Naofumi told her, as she was shaking in fear, "if you don't you'll always be running. You need to face your fear. I know you can do it. Whilst I can't fight as well as you and Kumiho, I can make sure that you two have the skills to fight for me as best as you two can."

Before he could say another word, he saw that the two headed dog was going after Kumiho. He could do another Air Strike Shield, but he knew that he had to limit how many times he used it as he might not have enough SP to use other skills that might help in the battle. So he ran towards the dog and stuck the shield into one of the dogs faces, as the other head bit into Naofumi's shoulder. Naofumi moaned in pain as a spray of blood followed.

This was the first time since he got to this world that he felt any pain, as the shield had blocked all the pain up till now. Thankfully, whilst he felt some pain, he suspected that thanks to the shield, he didn't feel the full amount of pain others might feel. This meant that this monster was a higher level monster than he was, so quickly using his Appraisal Shield he appraised the monster:

Orthrus…

Level:

15

HP:

7500/7400

Attack:

300

Defence:

150

This was the first time that Naofumi faced a monster that could get past his defences, this meant he would have to work on his defences more. Sure he would like to work on his attack, but being hurt wasn't that fun and he had to admit whilst he didn't like that he couldn't fight, he hated getting hurt too. Not only that, but it would take a long time to get the attack points to be able to deal any significance to fight alone, so it was better to raise his defence more and hope to find shields that can raise his attack points.

Shaking his head for the moment, Naofumi called out, "Raphtalia, you've got to kill it, grab your sword and kill this thing. Do it now!"

"I, I can't." Raphtalia said in fear.

"If I die, you and Kumiho are going to die as well." Naofumi warned the young girl as he tried to keep the Orthrus monster in place.

"Please, no." cried Raphtalia.

"Then hurry up and kill it. That's an order! Do it now!" Naofumi ordered the young girl, as he was having problems with the damn monster. Thankfully the monster was keeping its teeth in his shoulder, trying to weaken him before taking a few more bites out of him and killing him.

Because she didn't do as she was ordered to at once, the Slave Crest actervited, causing the young girl great pain. During this, she had a flashback of the day of the first Wave. Whilst in pain, she stood stepped back, not knowing what to do, fight or flight.

Naofumi saw this and seeing that he didn't want to see the young girl hurt herself more than she was already doing for not following his order, he said, "Alright then, just forget it." And just like that the Slave Crest stopped hurting the demi-human, "If you're not willing to fight get the fuck out of here."

"But what about you and Kumiho?" asked Raphtalia, worried about her master.

"We'll try and buy you time to escape." Naofumi told the young tanuki girl.

"What?" the demi-human cried in shock, "Then it would be just, just like my parents." The thought of losing someone close to her hurt her heart, she didn't want to lose someone else again.

"Hurry up and run god damn it." Naofumi told her, as the dog bit into his shoulder harder and drew more blood from it.

"Master I can't. I can't do it." Raphtalia told the Shield Hero, as he thought back on the time with him and Kumiho. Sure her master was rough and distrustful towards everyone, but he helped to heal her and treated her fairly, even after she tried to have sex with him when he wasn't interested in it. Seeing how she didn't want to lose anyone else in her life, even though he wasn't the Shield Hero she expected or thought of, he was her Shield Hero. So finally finding her resolve, she took up a strance and did a running jump to the dog, screaming no as she landed on one of the dog's heads and stabbed it

"Rooooaaaaarrrrrrrrr!" It howled in pain, and Raphtalia pushed the sword in deeper. Here Orthrus trashed about and threw the young girl off itself.

With Raphtalia now having the resolve to fight this dog, Naofumi took a few moments to appraise one of the one headed dogs that Kumiho was fighting:

Hellhound…

Level:

8

HP:

4500/1400

Attack:

75

Defence:

40

Seeing how he was able to appraise the monsters, he changed his shield to one of the new shields that he got that day: Shovel Shield. Doing this, he used the shields skill Burrowing, to create three holes where they fell into it. This helped Kumiho defeat the first Hellhound.

Upon the death of the Hellhound, he saw the EXP for him and his slaves.

For him he gained 200 EXP, where Raphtalia and Kumiho gained 210 EXP.

With the three of the Hellhounds in the holes trying to get out, Kumiho came to help the two of them. Naofumi would love to change his shield to the Rope Shield, but he had to wait for a few more minutes for the cool down to finish so that he could change them again. Whilst Naofumi protected Raphtalia and Kumiho, Raphtalia used her short-sword to slash the monster where Kumiho used her fire magic to light her sword up and burn the monster.

It took a while to defeat the monster, but they were able to defeat the Orthrus monster, at the time knocking the Hellhounds back into the holes. For defeating the monster, Naofumi gained 500 EXP, where Raphtalia and Kumiho gained 525 EXP.

Huff… Huff… that was the toughest battle that they had done so far, as Kumiho killed the other Hellhounds, Naofumi caught his breath. If this was what some of the higher level monsters were like, he knew that they had to get stronger, train harder. Especially if they want to fight the monsters from the Waves, from what he heard the monsters in the Waves were stronger than normal monsters of this world.

Either way, as he looked over to Raphtalia and saw like him, she was covered in blood trying to catch her breath. Naofumi had to admit that the young girl did a good job in overcoming her fears and able to fight Orthrus. He wasn't a total asshole and not to say something, but he wasn't one for words nowadays, so he simply said as he rubbed her head, "You did it. Good work."

"Master… don't die, please… don't leave… my… my place…" Raphtalia was having trouble saying what she meant.

Although Naofumi got the feeling that she was trying to tell him that she didn't want him to leave her, that she wanted to be at his side. Naofumi wanted that, seeing how he brought her because she could fight. But still, he wanted her to understand something, "Listen Raphtalia, as long as you do as I say and keep on fighting for me, neither you nor Kumiho will have to worry about me getting rid of either of you." Naofumi informed her softly, "But if you're unable to fight, I'll be forced to sell you again and buy someone who can fight. I don't want to do this, but I can't afford anyone not pulling their weight."

"I understand Master," said Raphtalia, "I'll be your sword, no matter what, I won't fail you again."

Before Naofumi could do anything, the three of them heard howling coming all around them, it would seem that the sound of the battle attracted whatever else was in here. Seeing how they had no time to cut the monsters down to get different shields, Naoumi absorbed all of them as they were:

Two-Headed Black Dog Shield…

Equip Bonus:

5 points in Awareness (Unmastered)

Special Effect:

Counter: Dog Bite

Hellhound Shield…

Equip Bonus:

Enhanced Hearing (small) (Unmastered)

Enhanced Smell (small) (Unmastered)

The shield looked like a two-headed dog. It was made from leather, and so realistic that the heads almost looked alive. The counter ability looked somewhat decent, he would have to try it out later. The Hellhound shield made more or less like the two-headed dog shield, but it only had one head. Hearing sounds of the dogs getting closer, the three of them ran to leave the mine before they were attacked again.

As they were leaving the mine, Naofumi got a status window pop-up with a message:

Mining Ore Job: Collect 5 different Ores! (FAILED)

Rewards:

500 EXP (Unclaimed)

New Shields (Claimed)

Not like Naofumi cared, sure the extra EXP would be great, but it wouldn't do well if they died in doing the mission. Once they left the mine, instead of going back to VIllage of Lute, they used the Trycera that the Slave Trader leant to them to get Raphtalia's village. As they only had ten days before the Wave hits the area, so going back to Lute would be a waste of time. It would be faster to go to Raphtalia's village, check it out and return and get ready for the Wave and see about what is needed to fix up Raphtalia's village. So deciding to take the first few hours of driving the Trycera, the three of them left for Lurolona Village.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note - PLEASE READ 'TIL THE END: Here ends another chapter, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and could leave some feedback to what you think of it. I hope you like the new shields and the change that happened in the mine. It was said that the mine was full of monsters, but we only saw one of them, so after some thought and an idea from a review, I decided to make it so that Naofumi and Co faced more monsters than the two headed dog.

Now I have been thinking about the lust shield for a bit now and how I could add it, then I realized there is another way for Naofumi to get the shield, from demons, be more precise, from the seven deadly sin demons. This way I don't have to deal with the other curses from the sin, but I can recreate the sin demons from Darksiders too. Let me know what you think.

Now I would like your thoughts, I need an idea for a sword, one that can cut through defences with ease. So if you know one from another game, anime or come up with an idea of your own. You see I have plans for Renka, see below for more information, but I was thinking that it would be Renka to cut part of Naofumi's arm off once he learned that he took two female slaves to their new owner. She would be angry at this and so she would face him face to face and out of anger they fight and she cuts his arm off.

For that I would need a sword that could do that, so if you got any ideas I would like to hear them, be it a new sword or a new power or something. But I would need it by the next chapter or so, as I got a few ideas and I need ideas ASAP or I might not be able to go with the idea. I'll need the ideas by the next chapter, as I'm planning to do another chapter explaining what the three heroes have done so far in this story. And I'm hoping to take Renka down a darker path, and for that I would like a sword that can cut Naofumi for her. As that'll make it so that he would think about how to deal with her differently.

For those of you who are interested to know where this story is going, keep reading: I'll be honest with you, when I first started this story, my plan was simple, to create a crossover story with Rising of the Shield Hero, where Naofumi slowly becomes evil and a demon. How I was going to get there I didn't know. As for Ren being Renka, that was the plan too, seeing how in the LN, I think it was, Naofumi said/thought he could mistake Ren as a female if he didn't know better. Seeing how I haven't seen a story about a female Ren, but I have seen a few female Naofumi stories I thought I would be the first. Yes, I was planning to put her with Naofumi in the story.

Now that's as far as I got planned plot wise, I didn't know what would happen until I wrote it. You see, other than having the basic plot idea, I normally don't have any idea what is going to happen until I write the chapter. As I'm the kind of writer that writes as he goes, never knowing what is going to happen unless an idea comes to mind or I listen to one or more of my reviewers and use one of their ideas. But I can tell you that I enjoy writing dark stories instead of the light that most like to read. I like to take the route of what if, so instead of redemption or doing the right thing, they take a darker route, become the opposite then they should be.

I enjoy stories where the actions of one or more people alters how the MC and those around them act, for better or worse, in this case worse. I like to try and write how these people would react if they got to their breaking point and do the opposite of what they meant to. So if you are expecting Naofumi to be forgiving in this story, willing to trust the royal family and treat them nice when he has no reason, then this story might not be for you.

Don't get me wrong, he won't be a total asshole where he rapes women and uses them for his own gain, okay he'll use them for his own gain but he'll never allow them to be raped. He won't be like Vult from the Hentai, Kuroinu Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru, like some of you fear he might be. This Naofumi will be someone who'll won't allow those to walk over him, he'll do what he has to and has he becomes a demon, his actions will be dark, but not raping woman.

As for Renka, I have a few ideas, well see be part of Naofumi's harem now, I don't know now, as things changed from what I was planning. I have a few things in mind for her, thanks to review/PMs, so it's still up in the air. But she'll be taking a darker path soon, so don't expect it to be nice. Now if you kept reading to this point, I would like to hear any ideas you might have knowing that she might be taking a dark path.