I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero
Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for SPAG editing this chapter. Also, special thanks for Angel Wrath for reading my rough draft and provide some feedbacks.
More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.
Harvest Valley, an old name given to the mountain range near modern day Melromarc Castle since the old kingdom of Hibernia.
The ore unearthed beneath the rolling hills were rich, leading to the kingdom becoming wealthy and well-supplied for a very long time.
Of course, those were the old days. While small deposits of precious ores and gems could still be found from time to time, the biggest veins have all but dried up, leaving only a deep and interconnected of largely abandoned mining tunnels to become a naturally formed dungeon for wandering monsters to nest.
It's a popular spot for novice adventurers around the capital who start out their careers to test their mettle against monsters living inside. The ores and gems here and there are helpful for adventuring greenhorns even if they aren't worthy of large scale mining operations.
At least that's what Mein read from her geography textbook regarding glorious Melromarc's famous landmarks.
The small size of their core party, combined with both Kyubey and Lautrec's acute sense of hearing and smell, proves to be a great boon to their exploration of Harvest Valley. The rabbit and lizard demi-humans easily direct their party away from the bigger cluster of wandering and nesting monsters, while getting the jump on smaller group of monsters for their EXP and loot.
That's not to say there haven't been any surprises in their misadventure. Ironically, the one little incident they haven't prepared for came from within.
When attacking a small group of Dragon Bees, Lautrec lets his bloodlust overwhelm him as his swing goes right through the last monster's body towards his master.
Naofumi, reacted like any sensible person in his situation would in his situation - letting out a surprised yell and bashing the lizard's bloody shotel away with his shield.
"DAMN!" The curved sword flies right out of the demi-human's claw, spins through the air till it digs into a tree with a loud thud. The lizard man returns the dagger back into his belt and massages his right clawed hand. His milky eyes turn towards Naofumi with a scowl on his face. "Watch where you swing that thing!"
Mein isn't a stranger at wielding a false accusations like a weapon, but the lizard man certainly takes it to a different level. He's completely ignoring the fact of how HE is
the one who almost take off his master's head. The damn reptile should be grateful that Naofumi isn't using his slave seal for a punishment right this second.
"Right back at you. Don't swing your shotel at me again." Naofumi lets out a few deep breaths. The young man is obviously recovering from the shock of seeing something very sharp traveling very fast towards his face. He turns around to look at the weapon that's halfway imbued into the trunk of a tree.
Kyubey is having some difficulty trying to pull it out. The rabbit man eventually succeeds after stomping onto the tree with one of his leg and using it as a level. He ends up falling onto his behind for the trouble.
Naofumi simply blinks at the display. The young hero scratches his head with his free hand while Kyubey gets up and walks back to them. "Did I hit you that hard? I thought my punches felt like pillows."
"It's your high DEF rating. You can't do damage with your shit ATK, but a counter move like parry uses your DEF. My hand is still numb, damn!" The reptile snatches his sword out of Kyubey's hand. He stomps away while wringing his temporarily paralyzed hand, presumably to sulk in some dark corner.
"Is that so..." Naofumi brushes a finger around his chin. What the Shield Hero is thinking is anyone's guess.
Chapter 16: Big Trouble in Little Lute
Despite the little incident with Lautrec earlier, the young hero from another world seemed to have regained back some of his sense of wonder from the first few days. The sordid encounter with Siltvelt 'envoys', and the whole debacle with learning of slavery and the ambush in the back alley was a major blow to not just his spirit alone.
The way he quips back whenever Lautrec throws his snarky comment is a good sign. But the most telling is the way how he experiments with his Legendary Weapon.
Mein gives a sideway glance towards Naofumi's location. It's over a week after she became his official companion when she decided to go against father's plan. There have been both ups and downs to their adventure, but the hero's optimistic attitude manages to survive some of the more turbulent times. Such as his quick tutorial course on slavery, and the slaughter in the back alley shortly after.
Maybe the heroes from other worlds are all thick-skinned and unbreakable nerves, and they can easily bounce back from distress? That would certainly make them ideal
candidates as saviors of the world in spite of their quirkiness. The incognito princess hasn't spent enough time with the other heroes to fall head over heels on how their minds collectively work yet.
After they put the plan of training the Lute militia into practice, Shield Hero Naofumi also begins to both figuratively and literally dig three feet under the earth to find materials to unlock his shield.
Picking up a bunch of fallen leaves? Absorb into the Legendary Shield to unlock Deciduous Leaf Shield. As expected, the defense rating for it is laughable because it's made of a bunch of presumably decaying leaves. That's how Naofumi unlocked the [Leaf Shield] he put to use earlier.
Unearthing a new kind of rock? Into the Legendary Shield it goes. At least different kinds of rock shields has slightly better stats than those leaf shields, even if they are heavy. But the Shield Hero happily jogs along with them on his arm, claiming they'll help build up his stamina just like his turtle shell like backpack.
Picking up a piece of raw gem? Feeding it into the Legendary Shield... wait a minute, a raw gem?
"Master Naofumi!" The young hero's head bobs up like a startled ferret monster, he looks curiously at Mein running towards him. "Are you going to feed that piece of gem into your shield too?!"
"Gem? Where?" Naofumi quickly turns his head left and right, completely ignoring the beautiful stone in his hand.
"It's right in your hand." Mein points her finger at the rock. It seems to shine like a mosaic of different colored precious stone under the sun.
Naofumi cocks his head sideways and narrows his eyes. He turns the piece of raw gem front and back in his hand before looking at Mein once again.
"I don't think it's a gemstone, Mein. [Rock appraisal]!" The Shield Hero activates one of his many useless appraisal type of skills he unlocked throughout their journey.
Mein wonders what the point of trying to understand the specific properties of rocks. After all, a rock is a rock, you can't turn it into gold and make money out of them.
Naofumi turns back to stare into the piece of rock in his hand. "Granite? I thought so. This is another type of stone, not a piece of gem, Mein."
The undercover princess deflates at this announcement. She was hoping to have a taste of luxury in her life once again.
Being the first princess of Melromarc, She's no stranger to well-crafted jewelry with precious gems embedded into them. But she had to leave her entire stash back home when she became Mein the adventurer.
Sure, they can simply buy some jewelry from a store once they return to the Capital. But with their resources being limited... even Mein knows buying luxury goods is not a good investment for their coin purse.
"What's so interesting about a piece of rock, Master Naofumi?" Mein tries to not sound dismissive or flat out derisive, but the undercover princess still cringes a little as the words leave her mouth.
"If I remembered my high school science correctly, granite are cooled off lava." The Shield Hero moves his free hand around like he's peddling water from the side of a row boat. "I wonder if there's a dormant volcano nearby, or if the lava is still flowing under us."
"Lava?" Mein tilts her head at the word. It sounds familiar like an itchy tingle in the back of her mind, but Mein can't recall where she heard it before. "Like baby insect monsters?"
"What? Baby insects...? No, not larva. Lava is... very hot molten rock that glows red and flows around like an underground river. They can destroy towns and cities if there's a very bad eruption." Naofumi shudders a little. His eyes turn up as if search through his memories. "I saw some documentaries, the most famous one from my world is the volcano eruption that destroyed the city of Pompeii."
"Oh! They are mostly known as Dragon's Blood here in Melromarc and Siltvelt. I think Shiltfreeden and Faubley does call them lava, those two countries take more influence of their culture from the Legendary Heroes like Master Naofumi. Siltvelt worships Shield Hero as their god king, but they are also very traditional like us." Mein scratches her chin, trying her best to match her study materials with what Naofumi is saying.
So this kind of rock called granite is actually Dragon's Blood when it eventually loses all its magical properties? Now that the princess in disguise thinks about it, she manages to remember why the name sounds familiar. It was in one of the applied magical theory classes from uncle Aldrecht she attended with her sister and playmates.
Granite is the type of stone that's used most often for castle walls and fortifications, and it's not only because they are pretty. It is well known that out of all types of stones, granite has the best magical affinity, making it most efficient for magical enchantments. Of course, it's toughness and beauty doesn't hurt either.
The information the Shield Hero revealed from his world is indeed interesting! Mein won't be surprised if all the stuffy mages in their high towers collectively lose control of their bowels if the Shield Hero can prove that theory.
"I don't think there's any Dragon's Vein here near Lute. It's been here for a long time as a small farming and mining village. If there's really a Dragon's Vein here, it should draw in a lots of adventurers. A skilled mage can draw a lot of power from a Dragon's Vein, so adventurer's guild or mage's guild would claim a site and build a guild house around the area even if there's nothing else."
"Truly? Interesting, I never played a game or read a novel where mage draw magical power from lava flow. Guess that's how real fantasy world differ from our imagination. Although come to think of it... didn't the Alchemist from Fullmetal Alchemist do draw their transmutation magic from the lava flow or something...? At least they believe so... Well, it's not important!" Naofumi finally manages to catch his run away monologue when Raphtalia almost tips over on his leg. He holds the obviously bored looking demi-human girl upright. "Maybe this is the magical equivalent to my world's geothermal energy power plant?"
Mein can't understand what the young Shield Hero is rambling about. She falls back to her default response of simply smile and nods at Naofumi to fain her interest.
"What is a Geoth... Geothe... The thing you just mentioned, Master Naofumi? Is it some kind of tree?" The raccoon girl doesn't seem to have learned the need to hold back her tongue.
Mein does not need to have otherworldly wisdom to realize Raphtalia just made a fool of herself. Her Naofumi is most definitely not talking about trees.
"A 'geothermal energy power plant' is a big building making electricity by extracting energy from heat under earth." Naofumi smiles like a kind father as he kneels down to run his hand through Raphtalia's hair. The puzzled expression on the raccoon girl's face does not go away. "Hmm... think of it like catching lightening inside a container. You can use it to run something like a stove afterwards."
What Naofumi is describing... sounds awfully like an invention called 'mana battery' from Faubley about some twenty years ago near the end of the Great War. Mein digs through her memory for that part of her history lesson but mostly comes up empty.
What little she recalls about those dirty backstabbers is a supposed shadow war amongst the nobility, which supposedly stopped them from aiding Melromarc in the war against those dirty Siltvelt savages.
It sounds like an excuse for the pig king to let Melromarc and Siltvelt tearing each other's throat out, while he sits on the sideline and harvest all the fruit of victory.
The Shield Hero sets down the piece of stone to take a small square tablet out of his Legendary Shield. He holds it in front of Raphtalia with a sad smile. "This is a smart phone, it runs on battery with stored electricity and it can run all sorts of interesting programs... but my phone ran out of battery charge a few days ago."
"Battery, Master Naofumi? Faubley has this invention called a 'mana battery'. Perhaps I can charge it with my magical power?" Mein doesn't know why she chooses to speak up rather than staying silent. All she knows is Naofumi's sad face makes her stomach feel like it's twisting into a knot.
"Really? It'll be nice to see the photos of my family and friends again." Naofumi looks up at Mein for a few seconds. He looks right back down at his 'smart phone' again before he slowly stands right back up. The young hero stays still for a moment before slowly extend his arm to Mein with the tablet in his hand. His eyes twinkling a little with cautious hope.
"This 'smart phone', what is it made of? No matter, let's see if I can charge it with my mana." Mein turns the interesting contraption over and over in her hand to have a good look over.
It's much thinner than most books, or stone tablets people used to curve words or magical runes into. One side has what appears to be glass on, while the rest is covered in what she assumes to be some protective shell. The material looks strange to her, not wood, stone or metal. Why does this thing need a glass window to essentially nowhere?
The incognito princess decides to give up on figuring the contraption out. She's not really interested to know how it's supposed to work anyway. Mein closes her eyes and begin to feel inward to touch her mana reserve.
Uncle Aldrecht once said it's usually blue like the color of Aether, but every person's mana feels different because of the different magical affinity people are born with. The first princess doesn't know if it's true or not, all she knows is her own mana reminds herself of a pile of burning bonfire like those from Liberation Day celebrations.
Mein doesn't know how she's supposed to 'charge' this piece of contraption from Naofumi's world. So she begins to will her mana to climb up her arm, to her hands and into the strange item itself. The undercover princess isn't prepared to suddenly find her mana begin to pour out of her and into the item like water going into a hole in the ground.
She nearly drops face first into the ground when a strong arm catches her on the shoulder. Sounds begin to echo in her head making her head feel even more dizzy than one brought forth by the sudden and unprepared mana drain. The novice adventurer blinks her eyes multiple times to slowly get rid of the black spots in her vision. She turns right to see Naofumi's worried face. "Mein! Are you okay!?"
Mein slowly holds her hand up and gives a light wave. "I'm fine, Master Naofumi. I wasn't prepared for how much mana I lost... did it work?"
"Yes, Mein, it worked." Naofumi rises his other hand where the contraption is resting.
Mein belatedly realizes she must dropped the blasted thing when she's keeling over. To her complete surprise, what she thought was a glass window has now lit up, and the blasted thing has a lots of colorful symbols resting in the most vibrant blue she has ever seen.
"I can show you some of the photos from my world. Look, this is the one I took with my friend Yugo, back in our school festival." Naofumi's finger begin to press and swipe the window with quick movement. Sure enough, a lifelike painting of two people fills the small window.
One of them is obviously Naofumi himself, although he's dressed in what appears to be a helmet and a black overcoat. He's scowling while holding an obvious fake spear and a shield. The other person looks much more relaxed as he smiles at Mein behind his twin spectacles.
"Why do you look... not amused, Master Naofumi?" Mein looks back at Naofumi, the young hero quickly looks away from her gaze.
"My class put on a 'Super Sentai' play for our school's culture festival. They got me to play the bad guy." Naofumi's words make Mein blink a couple times more. This word, Sentai is obviously in Naofumi's native tongue. Why doesn't the legendary weapon translate it like other words? Unless it's a very specific word with meaning without any equivalent in her language?
Hmm... could it somehow be linked to the Heroes of Naofumi's world? The heroes did talk about something about 'Super Hero' the night back before they split up to start their own adventures. Both words did have super in it after all.
"You want to look at it too, Raphtalia?" Naofumi turns to the raccoon girl while Mein is pondering over his words. Raphtalia first shakes her head before giving Naofumi a tentative nod. The Shield Hero passes his smart phone to her. "Here you go. I'll teach you how to play Candy Crush when we get back to Lute."
While the raccoon girl is occupied with his smart phone, Naofumi bends down to pick up the piece of granite again. His hand flicks the piece of granite a couple of times before dropping it to his shield.
The gem on his shield glows and turns into a big slab of shiny stones on his arm. He fiddles with the shield for a little while, and it changes form once more.
This time the Legendary Shield changes into a stone shield with various different colors and textures that layer on top of one another. Mein doesn't understand what's happening, though luckily the young hero begins musing out loud at this new discovery. "A Combination Shield? Is it like that multicolored balloon shield?"
"What shield is this, Master Naofumi?" Mein walks up to his new shield and gives it a light knock. The shield gives off a very dull sound, indicating it's completely solid rather than hollow on the inside. The undercover princess raises her eyebrow at how the young man can still hold it up. Perhaps his 'Turtle School training' is actually paying off?
"This is [Geo Shield], special ability [Terrain Prospect]? I wonder if this is like a deep scanner... huh..." Naofumi narrows his eyes a little to adopt his 'thinking position' once again with his free hand under his chin. He gives a shrug after a short moment of deliberation. "Why not, I'm going to try it out. [Terrain Prospect]!"
A barely visible green light suddenly expand out from where Naofumi stands. The little raccoon girl, who stays quietly but close to the Shield Hero lets out a surprised yelp and jumps on her feet. Mein and Naofumi's slave companions turn towards him, and they see a glowing blue chunk of... something floating in front of the Shield Hero.
The thing's surface reminds Mein of the sandbox in father's war room. It's top has what looks like mountain range, plain and forest like the map of the surrounding area. But it's also as tall as it is wide, unlike a typical sandbox model.
"It looks like the area around us, like a sandbox." Kyubey edges closer to the floating chunk to make one of his usual obvious observations. He bends down to take a closer look and points his good hand to an inclination on the side. "This is definitely Harvest Ridge."
"Can I turn it around and zoom it?" Naofumi asks rhetorically to himself. His waves his hand around to touch the floating model glowing with an ethereal blue light. To the Shield Hero's obvious delight, the floating chunk of terrain does both twist around, and zoom in and out as his hand command. "I guess I can, that's pretty cool."
"This ability would have been very useful for making battle plans. Normal maps can't compare with its details." Mein extends her hand out and her hand passes right through the glowing terrain model without any change. "Looks like only Master Naofumi can move it around, even if we all see it together."
"I guess that's just as well. It'll be headache inducing if anyone can spin it around. Although it'll be even better if I can understand what I'm looking at." Naofumi hums along while nodding his head. He points at the middle of the 3D map and moves his finger alone to the side. "Guess we are here, what is this ant-farm like tunnel over there?"
"I think that's the abandoned mineshaft the villagers was talking about." Kyubey traces his good hand from the center to a collection of little boxes near the edge of the magical sandbox. "That's the village of Lute, and here we are, right in the center. So whatever this 'ant farm' Master Shield Hero speaking of should be the mineshaft Georg mentioned before he left."
Naofumi nods his head along while making some random grunting noise. He suddenly points his finger to a smudge of white. Now Mein realizes it's there, the thing is very hard to ignore amongst the rest of ethereal blue. "Do you guys see that?"
"Master Shield Hero, can you zoom it even bigger?" Kyubey leans closer to the white shade all three of them are puzzling over.
Naofumi nods his head and slashes his hand near the area to expand the illusion even bigger. The tunnels which are thin as a thread before is now the size of their legs, and
the white glow expanded from a smudge to something that can completely encase Naofumi's bulky frame.
Kyubey once again points at the model with his good hand. "Just as I thought, it's not just that one big chunk, look."
Sure enough, now they imagine is much larger the three of them can see much smaller white dots litter around the tunnel like stars adorning the night sky. The bunny man continues his guess. "Those white dots must be the ore still left scattered around the mineshaft of Lute. And that big chunk must be a large ore vein haven't been discovered by the prospectors or miners before it's abandoned."
Mein puts a hand over her mouth at this discovery. She doesn't have a lots of knowledge on how much those ores are worth. But a huge chunk of precious metals simply sitting in one place? One doesn't need to be a prospector to know that's a lot of money and resources waiting to be dig out.
"I think even the King would station a regular garrison here in Lute once this information becomes public knowledge. The ore of Lute is good enough to make weapons and armors, they'll help a lot against the Wave." Kyubey stands up straight after his thorough inspection. His small red eyes locks together with Naofumi. "What should we do, Master Shield Hero? Try to clear out the mine ourselves, or report it to the courts?"
Naofumi looks around at his companions. Lautrec is still mumbling about his goddess, everyone else look right back at him expectedly. He settles his gaze on Mein. "Should we give it a try, Mein? I... after what happened in the court I don't think I can trust the king to do the right thing."
Mein once again lets her brain spin faster than the wheel on a Filorial carriage. On the one hand, manipulate Naofumi into telling this news to father can help sell the idea she is still work as a double agent for father and the Church. It'll hopefully puts her back in their good graces, and let her use more resources.
On the other hand... telling father this undiscovered ore vein will surely make him assign one of his men to govern over Lute village for this newly discovered resource cache. And knowing who makes up most of his trusted inner circle currently... it'll likely be another double agent, or a sympathizer of the Three Heroes Church.
Both the Shield Hero and herself are much stronger than when they first started out, but the two of them are still woefully underpowered. Especially compared to the vast resources father and the Pope has at their disposal.
Unless Mein wants to throw away everything she worked so far, helping out her potential enemy should be the last thing she does. "While our wise king will assign a regular troop garrison here in Lute, he'll also no doubt assign a new governor here to make sure this resource goes directly back to himself. I don't think that'll be a good thing to the people living in Lute, Master Naofumi. And I'm not sure a garrison will help protect Lute in the next wave more than their militia we are help building. Let's try to clear the mine out ourselves first, or maybe scout it out first. We can tell the village elder about the undiscovered vein. They'll use the money and resource to help themselves. If that doesn't work... we can still go report it later."
"Sounds like a plan." Naofumi runs his finger along his chin while chewing the inside of his mouth. He nods his head along and looks over his companions once again. "Alright, let's go back to Lute village to make our preparations. And we'll go clear out the mine for the people of Lute."
"I feel lighter on my feet already. Turtle School training really works!" Naofumi hops on his feet for a few steps. The giant sized woodman's bag made of monster fur is no longer there. He is also using a much lighter shield compared to the completely solid stone [Geo Shield].
The young hero lets out a breath he seems to be holding the whole time and turns to look at everyone. "Alright, guys. We don't know what's inside the mine. Stay close to me. Don't fan out like our farming run - I can't protect you at a moment's notice if you guys are too far away."
"You don't have to worry about me, Master Naofumi." Mein nods her head along Naofumi's command. She will most definitely be staying as close to the Shield Hero as possible. Having people who can serve as her meat shield in addition to the Shield Hero's protection is the main reason she suggested Naofumi to get slaves.
"Right, stay close to me, Raphtalia." Naofumi gives one final look at the little raccoon girl. She nods her head, and scoot close to Naofumi's legs like she's trying to merge into the young man. Mein grits her teeth a little at the display. Oh, how she wishes that could be her, but she needs to play her part of a new but reliable adventurer. "Shouldn't we bring some torches inside with us?"
"Torches mess up my smell and my third eye. Might as well leave me guard the entrance if we do that." Lautrec puts his hands on his waist with an angry huff. He picks up his dagger from his leg, and begins to carefully clean his fingernails with it.
"Let's go raid the foreman's office around the entrance, Master Shield Hero. There should be things like ropes, pickaxes, maps and lanterns we can use. Lanterns are better for Lautrec's nose than torches... but let's make some torches just in case. They are useful to toss into a side cave to see if there's poison gas, or baiting out monsters in the dark." Kyubey unsheathes his rapier from his belt, the Shield Hero gives a long and distant look to the bunny man. "I had plenty of friends working in the mines back when I was running the store. They are all gone now..."
"Right, sorry about that. Let's do as you said." Naofumi gives the bunny man's shoulder a light pat. Kyubey's drooped ears slowly raise back up.
The Shield Hero leads the party into the mine and begins to raid the place for valuable tools for their little expedition. Before long, they uncovers all sorts of 'treasure' Mein usually pass for trash. For their journey to the depth of Lute mineshaft, a good strong rope is infinitely more valuable than any jeweled necklace.
The little raccoon girl brings out one such tool with it tightly wrapped around her body like some kind of live snake monster. Naofumi chuckles a little at her form, but quickly kneels down to catch her when the little girl trips over herself.
"Hmm... I wonder if I can unlock some useful shields out of the spares." Naofumi thinks out loud while looking at the things spread on the floor in front of himself. He holds his shield close to Raphtalia, and surely the gem on his Legendary Weapon absorbs the rope. The shield quickly transforms into a coil of ropes around his forearm. "Wow! A roll of rope!? Should be useful, and what's this ability...? [Air Strike Shield]? I wonder if it's compressed air like the name suggests?"
"Let's try it outside before we start our exploration, Master Naofumi. It could be useful." Mein suggests to the young hero. She definitely won't complain if he has some ability that can better protect her for her very first dungeon raid.
"Good idea. Let's do that." Naofumi nods his head along Mein's suggestion. They make their way out of the entrance again, with Lautrec guarding in front of the cave in case some monsters decide to ambush them. "[Air Strike Shield]!"
With a loud cry from Naofumi, a green ethereal looking shield forms in front of their small group. Naofumi slowly walks to the little barrier and touches it, he then runs his full hand on the surface. "This doesn't feel like compressed air at all. At least I don't think so. Don't know how compressed air feels to the touch."
"I think it's a magical barrier, Master Naofumi." Mein walks closer to take a look at the shield shaped barrier herself. She takes her long sword out of its sheath and slashes at the Air Strike Shield, her long sword promptly bounceing back up. It feels like she's hitting a solid stone wall, her hand becoming numb from the attempt. The undercover princess walks back for a few seconds, making some distance between herself and the magic barrier. "Let me test if it stops magic. You should probably stand back, Master Naofumi. I don't know if my fireball will pass right through it, or splat all over."
"Alright. Everyone, step back." Naofumi nods his head, he takes Raphtalia's hand into his own and guides her back. Kyubey quickly follows their example.
Mein takes a deep breath and ignores the anxious feeling of her Naofumi holding another girl's hand. The little raccoon is only a very young girl, but she should take her adult form very soon with her already at level 10. The incognito princess closes her eyes, and feels the magic sleeping deep within her. "As the source of thy power, I order thee."
"Decipher the laws of nature and burn thy enemies!" Her magic power awakens again to pour through her arm into her hand with each uttered syllable. She can feel a ball of light and heat beginning to form in front of her open palm.
"[Faust Fire Shot]!" The novice adventurer pushes her hand forward, letting the ball of fire glide through the air towards the green magic shield in front of her. It's a beginner level fire magic, but Mein is still proud of her achievement for able to cast it without any catalyst like a wand, a staff, or even an enchanted piece of jewelry to act as a focus.
Mein's fire spell hits the Air Strike Shield and splatters right on it. The green barrier barely waves even as the attack spell dissolves into nothing. Small embers fall on the grass, threatening to start out a fire before Naofumi quickly stamps them out. "It protects from both physical and magical attacks. That's a pretty cool ability."
"Master Shield Hero." Kyubey's emotionless voice draws Naofumi's attention to the bunny man. "You should try and see how far you can use this ability."
"Good idea, let's see if I can project it to the edge of the clearing... [Air Strike Shield]!" Naofumi aims his shield at the outer edge where the clearing begin to slowly join with the forest. Sure enough, an ornamented looking knight shield with a green glow appears at where he's aiming. It must be at least one hundred paces away from Naofumi, by Mein's estimation. "It has nice range too. That's cool."
The sound of someone leaping up makes everyone look back towards the mine entrance again. They sees Lautrec landing with his back towards the first Air Strike Shield on a three point crouch. "Shield Hero. See if you can change the angle a bit. If that skill block a physical attack, I can use it as a step platform to get to higher places."
"Alright... Hmm, how do I do that ... Do I have to tilt my actual shield, or do I just visualize it in my head..." The young hero begin to scratch his face with his free hand while fiddle around his shield. He shrugs his shoulder after a short while and simply aim his shield towards the cave entrance. "Here goes nothing. [Air Strike Shield]!"
The green shield made of magic appears again, this time tilting at a roughly forty five degrees angle instead of upright. Lautrec smirks and runs toward his makeshift platform. He makes a somersault leap and lands perfectly on the shield to kick off, easily jumps right over the three men tall cave entrance and attach himself to the side of the mountain like a lizard monster. Lautrec looks back at them before letting go of his hands to drop back down on the ground again. "This will be handy in the cave."
"I think that's enough testing of my new ability. Let's make our back up torches and start spelunking." Kyubey gives an affirmative nods to Naofumi. The rabbit man takes the woodman's axe from Naofumi to go chop off some branches.
Naofumi sits down on the ground and begins to take items from his shield. He begin to mix some oil with certain plant extracts into a wooden bucket scavenged from the foreman's office. Mein joins him on the other side of the bucket as she takes over some long linen cloth from Naofumi and soak them inside the bucket of herbed oil.
The three rubber terrors rolls off Naofumi's body. They rolls around the ground, often into each other as they look at their master with curious beady eyes.
Kyubey returns shortly afterwards with some good long branches. Raphtalia runs to the branch and begin wrapping the herb-based, oil-soaked linen around the end like Naofumi and Mein. Not long after, they each has about three makeshift torches tied on their body, Naofumi puts the rest into his shield's storage.
"This should be good enough, Mein, Raphtalia. We don't know what's in that mineshaft, and it'll be hard for us to make a quick getaway in the tunnels. Be very careful." Naofumi picks up one of the balloons. The terrible thing licks Naofumi's face with its surprisingly long tongue. "Hehe, good boy, Yuzusan."
"Master Naofumi, you can... tell them apart?" Mein takes one step away from the Shield Hero and his balloons. For the life of her, the incognito princess can't tell how he could tell these abominations apart.
"Of course. Yuzuichi is always curious. He always chase after new things. Yuzuni sticks close behind to Yuzuichi. And Yuzusan likes to keep to himself. Aren't I right, guys?" The balloons make some unintelligent screeching noise as they bounces around Naofumi's feet. The one in his hand licks him again. Naofumi stuffs the Yuzu back into his cloak. He suddenly turns his head and look at the little raccoon girl. "Raphtalia, maybe you want to stay in the village? This might be too dangerous."
The little girl simply look up at Naofumi's face. She stays perfectly still for a few moment before shaking her head like some kind of children's toy. "...NO!"
"Okay, okay. Just stick with us, then." The Shield Hero looks resigned for a moment. He walks to the little girl and holds her hand. "Stay close with me. We don't know what's in the mine."
"Okay." Raphtalia shakes her head at Naofumi's insistence. She leans into the Shield Hero's leg, making Mein bites down her finger yet again.
"Are we going or not? The sun's already past the midway." Lautrec's impatient scoff makes everyone look at the lizard man. He seems to be unimpressed with the attention he's getting. "What? We still want to return to Lute Village. We don't want the inn keeper throwing our things onto the street if he thinks we aren't coming back."
"Alright, everyone checked your weapons? Let's keep our guard up and move." Naofumi lights up the lantern on his waist. He holds his shield in front of himself and leads them into their dark descent.
Uneven beat of boots on the ground create an exotic drum song from some long forgotten civilization. The dim light from each of the lanterns on their waist only illuminates a short distance. It's just enough for the party to not fall into a crevice. But the shadow on the mineshaft waves around as they descend deeper into the darkness, populating each corner of Lute Mine with imaginary monster of its own even if they haven't encountered any real monster yet.
Mein takes a quick peek at the little raccoon girl. She is now shivering like she is still suffering from the cold back when she was still under the 'care' of Beloukas the slave merchant. She is leaning so close to the Shield Hero it makes one wonder if the demi-human is physically assaulting him. This makes the undercover princess grits her teeth together once again.
How she wish that can be her! This would have been a perfect opportunity to rekindle his protective instincts on her. Now it's wasted on the little demi-human upstart!
It's not like she's so afraid, she can feel her heart climbing its way right out of her mouth at this moment. Nope, definitely not...
"Stop." Kyubey's word almost makes the incognito princess jump out of her own skin. The rest of the party, even the scared little raccoon girl turn their attention onto Mein.
"Did you find anything strange, Mein?" After a few moment of silence, Naofumi manages make some words come out of his mouth. It sound rather obvious to Mein that the Shield Hero is simply trying to give her some excuse for her jumpy behavior.
"Sorry to startle you, Master Naofumi." Mein runs a hand down her chest while looking left and right behind her. "I think I saw something hiding in the shadow."
"Must be your imagination. I didn't hear anything." Kyubey shakes his head with derision, the damn bunny dares to patronize her when his sudden voice in the darkness caused her to freak out in the first place!
"Can't smell anything either." Lautrec cross his arm in front of his chest again to adopt his usual cocky looking stance. The lizard man makes two dramatic loud sniffs like he's trying to emphasis his point. "See? Can't smell anything."
Damn those demi-humans! They must be getting a kick out of embarrassing their betters!
"Let's not be too hard on Mein. It's a good thing a monster hasn't snuckk up on us, but going down this Mine makes me uneasy. This is like my first time going down the catacombs in Dark Souls all over again..." The Shield Hero obviously wants to make an excuse for Mein, but he soon trails off in his own reminiscent musing with a shudder.
"I saw a small ore deposit." Kyubey points his finger at one part of the wall with a slightly different color from the rest. "Let's take the ore out first. Master Shield Hero may unlock another Shield from it"
The little raccoon girl quickly opens her arm up to give Naofumi a full embrace as the rabbit man goes to work. She buries her head to the side of the Shield Hero's waist. Naofumi smiles, and scratches her hair with loving care of a father. "Thanks, Raphtalia."
That place used to belong to me... How many times will my place be taken by some young chit?!
DAMNATIONS!
For not the first time, Mein of Samphor wonders if she made an apocalyptic levelled miscalculation in pushing the Shield Hero to try and clear Lute Mine by themselves. It seemed to be a good idea at the time when she is weighing pro and con under the grossly incandescent sun. But her resolve has pretty much crumbled into dust after barely walking around in the mine for ten minutes.
How naive of her! She doesn't know how nerve wracking it is to delve into the depth of a dungeon! She should have reported ore vein to father and have him deal with it! Or at least offer to guard the entrance while the Shield Hero take care of whatever is terrorizing this mine with the demi-human slaves and his monster pet!
It's not like she's going to get much EXP anyways... especially with them not encountering another soul in this hero's damned place...
"This is definitely not normal." Kyubey's tastelessly bland voice echoes in the background once again. The lack of emotion makes him sounds extra sinister within the dancing shimmer of the lantern and waving tendrils of shadow. This time Mein manages to only give a small shudder, rather than jumping and screaming on her feet.
The Shield Hero stops at the front of the party halting their progress after the young otherworlder. He narrows his eyes to stare at the deadpan bunny man for a moment. "What isn't normal, Kyubey?"
"My miner friends told me even active mines often have infestation problems with cave dwelling monsters like batong and pols' voices. At least for the side tunnels without any activities. An abandoned one should have them crawling all over the place." The bunny demi-human closes his eyes and put his hands beside his ears. He stays perfectly still for a few moment with a look of deep concentration. "We been inside this mine for at least half an hour now. Can't pick up the fluttering wings of batong, or the shuffling of pols. It's like there's not a single one of them in here."
"Same for their smell. Something stinks in this mineshaft, and it bothers me it's not the monsters." Lautrec makes a growling like noise as he grinds his teeth together like nail through glass. Kyubey and Raphtalia end up covering their big floppy ears, while Naofumi and Mein both take a few steps away from the disgruntled lizard man.
Naofumi looks all around him for a short while. He seems as uneasy with the environment as Malty herself. Probably due to him being a human, and lacks some kind of super senses the demi-humans have. "Could they be hiding in deeper part of the mine?"
Kyubey quickly meets his eyes with Lautrec. The bunny men shakes his head at Naofumi's suggestion. "Not likely. They still need to feed on something's life energy. Staying near the entrance is the easiest way to catch prey."
The Shield Hero chews the inside of his mouth with a glum expression like he swallowed something deeply unpleasant. "...Maybe one of the other heroes already been here and cleared the place for us? I mean, we did plan to take one direction each from Melromarc Castle. But maybe one of them got lost, or decided to ignore the plan?"
"If that's the case, wouldn't it make sense for them to mention the mine's already cleared to the villagers in Lute, Master Naofumi? Nobody mentioned anything like that back in the village. And even if they don't know about that ore vein we found with your skill, this mine still has enough scattered deposits for the miners to come back to work." Mein quickly gathers what's left of her wits to rebuke Naofumi's suggestion.
"I doubt even a hero's party can clear the entire mine, Master Shield Hero. From my friends' word, they multiply fast even if you left a few behind. That's why infestations of those monsters are hard to get rid of for miners. The state this mine is in... something is staying in here to constantly kill the batong and pols." Kyubey takes his rapier out and begin to trace it alongside the rocky wall.
They group turns their head down when they hear some kind of rattling sound. They find the little raccoon girl unable to control her shivering even as she holds her drawn dagger with a vice grip. The Shield Hero quickly kneels down and holds his hands down on Raphtalia's shoulder to steady her. "Would you like to go back to Lute Village, Raphtalia? You don't look well. We can drop you off and come back."
"NO! Don't, don't leave me..." The little raccoon girl buries her face into Naofumi's waist once again. "Mommy, daddy... everyone's gone..."
Mein takes a deep breath to calm herself back down, she leans back into the rocky wall to observe the others in the party. The lizard man has a scowl on his face while mumbling about how displeased his goddess is. Kyubey's ear is drooping down his face once again at halfway point, the bunny man is probably reminded of their destroyed home by the little raccoon once again. Naofumi runs his hand through the little girl's hair in an attempt to comfort her.
The damn little animal really is more trouble than she was worth, just like Mein thought at the start. She starts to seriously remind the incognito princess of a very sticky booger, disgusting yet hard to get rid of.
"We might as well give up." Mein looks at Lautrec, the lizard man's scowl only seem to grow larger between the dim glow of his lantern and total darkness. The rude lizard man points his finger first at Raphtalia, and then at Mein. "Those two are scared useless."
How rude! She is totally not scared useless. She is only a little concerned about this dark environment... Yes, she is worried because she doesn't have some kind of super sense like a demi-human.
Is it so unreasonable that she is a little jumpy?
The lizard man seems to be oblivious to Mein's inner turmoil. His finger is pointing to the Shield Hero now. "You have next to no attack rating, so you can't help out in battle other than defense. If we encounter a high level monster, do you expect me and the damn vegan to take it on by the two of us?"
The undercover princess quickly look at the young hero. His eyes are downcast, but not looking at the whimpering little raccoon girl. His mouth looks slightly pouted, like his teeth is chewing his inner lips. Even after almost a week in Melromarc, the fact he can't fight by himself is still an obvious sour point for the Shield Hero.
The face of the Shield Hero isn't a resigned helplessness like back when no one joins his party, or a belated realization and anger at his trial. It is more of a quiet acceptance of knowing he will never be good enough.
It reminds the undercover princess of how the servants and nobles praising her younger sister able to memorize the history book of Melromarc at age 8, when she herself still falls asleep reading it when she's twice the age. Or when the guard captain remarking about Melty get pass level 15, when she herself stays perpetually at level 3 because mother doesn't allows her to kill monsters captured by the guards...
Mein finds herself walks to the opposite side where Raphtalia is holding Naofumi. She wraps her arm around the young hero's shoulder while glaring daggers at the intimidating demi-human.
"Please, stop saying such rude things to Master Naofumi the Shield Hero, Lautrec of Harp." Mein pushes herself out of the little brooding dark corner she hides in. She isn't rising her voice, but the undercover princess does her best to compose her own emotions and let her voice drip with icy warning. "We all have our unique abilities to contribute. You and Kyubey have such strong sense to stop whatever is lurking in this mine from sneaking up on us. I may not look much, but I can use some magic. Master Naofumi as the Shield Hero protects everyone from harm. Even if Raphtalia is too young to fight, we should be fine if we are careful and do our parts."
"She is right, Lautrec. You stepped out of line right here." Kyubey throws a quick glance aimed at Lautrec.
"Thank you, Mein." Naofumi quickly looks up to return a grateful smile to Mein.
"You deserve better, Master Naofumi." Mein squeezes his hand and smile back at the young man. She suppose her impulsive action worked out in the end when her action strengthens Naofumi's gratitude towards her.
His face become more serious when looking at his lizard man slave. "Let's be careful and keep our eyes and ears open. If there is something bad in here killing other monsters, we should at least find out more about them. There's nothing stopping it from leaving the mine and harm the people of Lute even if they don't come back here for work."
"Very well, I concur." Lautrec crosses his arms in front of his chest with a grunt. "He gives an intense glare at the little raccoon girl with his unseeing eyes."But you better take care of her, Shield Hero. I'm not worrying about the girl if I have to fight for my life."
The lizard man turns around and stomp away deeper into the mine. Naofumi quickly gives Mein another smile and nod as a thanks for her support. His lips quiver for a few seconds before leading Raphtalia's hand towards the incognito princess. "Mein, can you look after Raphtalia? Since you know magic ... I think it's better you stay further from the battle. I need to stand next to a monster if they attack us, Raphtalia is not safe with me."
"Of course, Master Naofumi. I will treat her like my own little sister." Mein feels like biting her finger once again, but she settles for twitching the corner of her mouth instead. Getting attached to the hip with the little raccoon girl is not part of her plan in any shape or form.
Sure, the little animal will serve nicely as a impromptu meat shield with how small and light (and therefore easy to carry) she is. But something tells Mein she doesn't want to do that unless she want to set all the trust and gratitude she gained from Naofumi on fire and toss it out the nearest window.
Which means she is going to get dragged down by a prone to panic deadweight that'll slow her down to a crawl if they are jumped by whatever thing that's lurking in this cave killing the batong and pols voice.
What would happen to her if turns out there is some kind of big monster lurking in this cave?
"Thank you very much, Mein. I knew I can count on you." The Shield Hero is completely unaware of Mein's scheme thanks to the dim light, and her long hood -shaped leather helm. He quickly picks up the pace to catch up to Lautrec. "Wait up, Lautrec. I don't want us get separated if there's some dangerous predator hiding in here."
The undercover princess curse her role of being the 'kind and helpful big sister' as she takes Raphtalia's hand from Naofumi. She squeezes down on the little pest a bit harder than needed and gives the raccoon dog a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "Come with me, little Raphtalia. You don't want to be a burden on Master Naofumi when he needs to protect everyone, right?"
"...No." The little girl's eyes become down cast. She begins to suck on her thumb at the implication.
"Have no fear, little one. Big sister Mein will take good care of you." The novice adventurer kneels down in front of Raphtalia and ruffles her hair a little. Mein stands up and begin to quickly follow the rest of the party by dragging the little girl alone. The incognito princess gives one last superstitious look behind her as she swallows hard when she sees the shadow of herself and Raphtalia growing tall and large on the wall like a monster ready to swallow them all.
The Shield Hero stood in front of the edge to a bottomless drop, where a dark fall of running water could be heard some distance away from them. Naofumi takes the lantern down from his waist and reach his arm in front of himself. He clicks his tongue to makes a hushed 'tsk' and shakes his head before stepping back to more solid ground. "I can hear it, but I can't see where the water come from."
"Let me try it, Master Naofumi." Mein passes the hand of Raphtalia to Naofumi. She clasp both of her hands together in front of her chest and closes her eyes like she's trying to utter her dinner prayer. "As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature and become my guiding light. Mage Light!"
A ball of yellow light rises up Mein's hands while Raphtalia tilts her head to look at the magic light with curiosity. The undercover princess pays the little raccoon no mind as she gently pushes her Mage Light spell forward with her right hand. The small fire of light and heat glides through the total darkness like a floating paper lantern used by the people of Shee Kok mountain.
"Can you teach me?" Mein turns her head to look at Naofumi's little pet. The raccoon dog is staring at Mein with eyes twinkling with admiration.
The irony of this little animal looking up to Mein isn't lost to her. Especially for the fact the novice adventurer can perform an entry level illusion magic, which the raccoon dog race is supposedly a natural.
"Sure thing, little one. I can teach you from the grimoire Miss Shena gave us. You have to learn how to read first." The incognito princess flashes the girl another one of her 'polite' smile that doesn't reach up to the eyes. She fondles the fluffy animal ear of Raphtalia, and as expected the girl recoils back a little with dimmed eyes.
"Oh... okay." Raphtalia quickly covers both of her ears with her hands and lowers her head.
"Beautiful..." The Shield Hero misses the exchange between his two female party members entirely. His attention seems to be completely draw at the cavern they found themselves in as he looks at the surrounding with wonders. His quiet exclamation makes both Mein and Raphtalia look at the direction the young hero is facing.
Mein isn't ashamed to admit her breath stopped for a brief second as she stops to admire the view. Her little bundle of Mage Light is shining brightly on the far wall, casting a small rainbow arch over the spectacular waterfall running down into the abyss from the far wall. Countless stalactite draperies and columns could be seen on both the ceiling and walls, populating the mind of the undercover princess with the wildest imagination of fantastic beast and gallant heroes.
Moments like this make Mein of Samphor feel that this laborious journey of traveling together with the Shield Hero Naofumi is all worth it. Seeing a wondrous sight like this created by the gods above illuminated by her magic simply isn't the same as watching it from an image crystal.
"Looks like the miners tunneled into a nature cavern underneath Lute Mountain." Kyubey walks up to them to stand behind them, his eyes and ears begin to turn around trying to scan possible hidden enemies in various tunnels all over the far side wall. "That's why they didn't find that ore deposit. Large caverns like this are too dangerous for low level miners to explore. Any kind of dangerous monster could hide in here. You'll need a small army to stand guard if you don't have a legendary hero with you."
"This is incredible..." Naofumi's eyes begin to slowly travel from right to left as he takes in the scene. His gaze fixes on the waterfall for a moment as he draws in a deep breath. "Back home, people would pay money to see something like this. Lute village would have been set for life even if the mine runs dry."
Mein blinks her eyes at Naofumi's word. She briefly wonders if she simply heard the young hero wrong, or maybe he misspoke. Sure, the sight is beautiful, out of this world even. But people paying money simply to see it? And making enough to sustain a whole village? This isn't the Cal Mira village where the main attraction is adventurers. This cave may look nice, but aside from a bunch of pretty rocks it has nothing that'll attract adventurers to pay money for them.
"Master Naofumi, I don't think adventurers will just hand out their hard earned coins unless there's some hidden dungeon with unique loot inside." The incognito princess gives the Shield Hero a hard long stare.
Naofumi simply stare back at Mein with a blank look for a short while. He looks utterly flabbergasted on the direction this conversation turned for some reason. "No, not adventurers. In my world, beautiful caves like this attract tourists who want to see the natural wonders. And there will be plenty of business sprouting around attractions to cater to them."
While that sounds slightly more comprehensible... Mein has to wonder if building a village's entire economy around its nature beauty is feasible for long term. Sure, nobles would probably want to come here once in a while to look at the wondrous sight especially in the summer when it's hot outside. But there is only so many who has the coin to spend on such frivolous things in life. "...I don't think there will be enough noble men in this country, or our world to feed an entire village based on this cave."
"Ah! Right, this is a fantasy world, middle class doesn't exist yet." Naofumi seems to catch onto Mein's blank look this time, so he quickly explains while waving his hand around. "Middle class are... people who aren't rich as the social elites. But they still have enough spare money to spend on their hobbies. Tourist business in my world is mainly for them. And there are millions of middle class people in my world, so having a business revolved around a nature attraction and have a bunch of catering business can work. I guess it doesn't apply here."
Mein's head tilts around like a long necked Filorial at Naofumi's revelation. A world where even commoners have enough coin to throw away on useless things like paying to see a beautiful cave? It sounds like a world with unimaginable wealth to her. It makes the undercover princess curious and want to see what kind of world her Naofumi comes from. "A world where even commoner like me can live it up once in a while? It sounds wonderful, Master Naofumi. I wish I could see your world."
"It's not that great, honestly. We still have a lot of problems. But I guess it sounds wonderful to people who doesn't live in it." The Shield Hero scratches his head a little once again. He reaches out to take Mein's hand into his with a whimsical smile. "I'd like to take Mein back to my world to visit once this is all over. I think you'll love theme parks like Disney Land. It's known as the Magical Kingdom back home with a lots of attractions and actors dressing up as fairy tale characters."
The two of them stays still for a few moment. Naofumi looks down at his other side where the little raccoon girl is pulling his cloth with wide puppy dog like eyes. "...me too?"
"Raphtalia too." Naofumi gently runs his hand through Raphtalia's hair. Mein can't help but bite down on her lips once again. She turns her head away to not look at the sickeningly sweet display between her Naofumi and the upstart little animal.
That's when Mein notices the first sign of trouble. The lizard man Lautrec, who is being very quiet the whole time is sniffing very strongly at the air while rapidly turning his head. He wipes his head around to turn towards the edge of the cliff where the Shield Hero and his two female companions are standing. Both shotels snaps the leather straps on his waist as he grabs the hilts and tears them into the semblance of a fighting stance. "Back away from the edge!"
Kyubey seems to also realize something amiss as he pulls out the rapier with a muffled curse.
That's when the thing seemingly jumps out of the shadow on the far wall and darts towards them faster than an arrow escaping the bow string. Mein barely has the time to get her own sword out when it bears down its entire weight down on their party. All she manages to catch are two pair of eyes seem to glow a sinister blue shade at them as it knocks both Naofumi and Raphtalia off their feet. The Shield Hero hits the ground with an indistinguishable yell that might be a cry of pain, or an angry curse as the thing bolts for Kyubey right behind him.
The little raccoon girl isn't so lucky. She stumbles a few back towards the edge of the cliff and loses her balance. Her arms wildly flap around, trying to grab onto something but only sails through the void. Her eyes a mixture of grim fear and surprise, but also a hint of resigned acceptance as she looks back at the Shield Hero.
It's the same look of her little friend when she falls down that cliff more than ten years ago. Before Mein realizes it, her body sprints forward to grab onto Raphtalia's hand as she stares right down at the dark abyss below. Mein feels her body getting dragged down by a heavy burden, and then she lost all sense of weight as angry shouting echoes further and further.
No matter how much she wants to fly, she still has no wings.
End Note
So yeah, I think most of you probably saw the end of this chapter coming a mile away. Next chapter, we get to see a bit more on what Malty is like when she's no longer around Naofumi.
To Night:
Leaf Shield is most definitely a Rockman/Megaman reference, although it's not an offensive ability unlike its name sake.
As for the 'Ranger corp', it's actually supposed to be a reference to one of the starting character from Romancing SaGa 2, which can be roughly translated into Imperial Hunter or Imperial Ranger. I went with ranger since it sounds more professional than hunter.
To Guest Reviewer:
Thank you very much for your kind words! As you can probably guess, next chapter Malty will get to spend some 'quality time' along with Raphtalia, like it or not. Raphtalia is definitely one of the main character of this story, I just didn't list her as I didn't want to give away spoiler before she appears.
:P
