A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners. Such as Neopeople for Dungeon Fighter Online(Also known as Dungeon & Fighter) and Aneko Yusga for The Rising Of The Shield Hero
Note 2:
("Human/Speech")
("Thoughts")
(Attacks/Weapon names)
(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Book/Scroll)
(Actions/POV)
(Titles/Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)
(Narration & Everything else)
('Demonic Speech')
("Demonic Thoughts")
Hero And Fighter Chapter 7
Mercent District: Castle Town
5/20/0000: 0900
Third Person: Omni
"1 Copper for 2 pieces." The particular merchant that Naofumi focused on stated with a grin. The shield hero was not the constant point of attention due to the cloak hiding the source of his recent troubles. They quickly concluded their deal, allowing Naofumi to be the next seller.
"Here, 200 pieces." Naofumi took out a ball of 200 pieces, deliberately allowing the merchant to see the shield to see any strange actions that the man would take.
"20 coppers in all." The merchant was quick to hop on a chance to show their greed. A smile on his face stained with an unmasked crafty thought process.
"I would recommend never giving an unfair deal to someone. But live specimens must sell higher right?" Naofumi remarked with a sarcastic grin as he pulled the merchant under his cape… right in front of the balloons that were gnawing on his body.
"Alright 1 silver coin." The merchant states while wiping his face down with a rag, he was in quite the fright after seeing the murderous eyes of the balloon monster. The merchants' world is cut through, and when nothing would enforce on his behalf, he had to take matters into his own hands.
"Be sure to tell your merchant friends about it." Naofumi states after getting his money… tired of keeping up the villainous actions to draw out a slave merchant. He glances toward a young woman talking to a merchant… remembering her face as one often around him.
"Can you keep an eye on Bow Hero for me… it is better to have half of the heroes competent than only a fourth," Naofumi spoke in an unhurried manner, he already guessed who, or at least what organization she is from. From the read that he got from Itsuki's personality, it was easy to manipulate her… Thankfully he had made it harder for others to do so. She looked at him searchingly before nodding.
"Well, that is another end tied… I have a few hundred silvers… I have to figure out preserved foods don't I." Naofumi thought through everything that he would need on a journey, besides the standard camping set up or a carriage if he could somehow get a steed, it would be enough food for a certain amount of party members. Hunting and cooking monsters is an option, but he would like some emergency food.
"Looking for a seamstress after a bit would be a good idea." When he thought about his backpack, it would be good to replicate it, or even a duffle bag if possible. Carrying capacity is critical, as well as efficient packing. Even if he isn't a packrat, he still picked up some tricks of the trade.
He spotted a pharmacy as he was returning to outside the city. Noting in his mind about medicine that would be needed in battle and on a long trip, he kept in mind the plant that was growing in one of the boxes. As it was a medical store, it would make sense that it would have some medical property.
"So, what else do you need me to do?" Melina happened to show up just as he was thinking about what to try and do with his shield. She observed his movements with a careful eye, something ingrained into her habits when dealing with anyone.
"Besides grinding even more materials, information. You will be dealing with higher class establishments. Though you are probably the more powerful of the two of us." Naofumi gave her the silver to get five copper coins in order to repay the smith.
"Well, what are we waiting on? Let's go to the meadow to try and find those red balloons you were looking for." She says while flexing her bicep, grinning at the young man with a carefree smile of her own. She was always a battle maniac, that is the reason why she is a battlemage, to get close and have contact with her targets.
_(DUNGEON FIGHTER ONLINE)_
Balloon Meadows/Forest Edge
5/20/0000: 1300
"So, we searching for medical plants?" After some lunch on the meadows, they went searching for something besides the yellow balloons that they kept on encountering.
"Yeah, I want to see if my shield can unlock something when I get a medical plant in it." He looked around another tree while keeping the plant in his mind, it might be a fool's errand, but the chance it has grown here was still there, and it was imperative that he take it.
"I know that it is important… but I really want to hit something." It was something that she didn't even have to voice for him to know, it is something that he knew far too much about her.
"Then go and collect some balloons, I wonder how many you can chain." It was not like she was patient enough to look at trees all day. If anyone were to do it with him, it would be Nix, his shadow dancer. If he was right, she took up gardening as a hobby.
"Right then, you gave me the go-ahead, party leader!" She cheered before running off and sweeping her spear, several chasers appeared for each contact of a monster. The explosive orbs were created bigger than the last, maxing out at a certain point.
"That girl…" Naofumi sighed while looking for another tree to find whatever growth was settled at the base of it. He then started to hear the signature explosions of chasers being used to decimate enemies. Hopefully, she remembers to clear up the battlefield after she is done.
"Here it is," Naofumi mumbled after looking behind a particular tree, it was a bit deeper in the forest, fairly close to the middle of it. Deciding to pick only one of the leaves of the plant, he was able to get enough of it to test with his shield.
"Huh… a mastery system." In the UI that only he could witness, several shields appeared, along with a help blurb. To put it simply, it outlined that all shields have something to be gained from mastery and skills that can be kept even after switching shields. You gain mastery after using the shield for a while.
"Leaf Shield" The original small shield on his arm changed into another one in light. The shield on his arm was modeled after a green leaf, almost exactly like the leaf that he used to unlock it. He was able to look at what the shield offered, a simple skill called Harvest, a skill to increase the quality of items that he picks up.
"Let's try this out…" Naofumi stated while looking around the general vicinity in order to find more herbs to sell, and hopefully get a recipe and equipment to make potions so they don't have to depend on supplies from stores.
"So it works." He remarks while picking one of them from the stem, something that his instincts, or the skill itself, told him to do in order to harvest it properly. When he picked the medicinal plant, he noted a green glow that lasted for a second after removing it from the ground.
"So you found it after all. Oh did you get a new shield?" Melina returned with a rucksack filled to the brim with materials, though Naofumi couldn't tell what was inside.
"Yep, found out how to unlock shields, it is a bit like the tutorial ended. So do you have anything else besides balloons in there? Like red balloon pieces or other monster parts?" Naofumi asked while eyeing the rucksack of materials. He quickly puts the medical ingredients in their own bag for him to carry tonight.
"Yep, and what I am guessing are mushrooms. They just came from the forest while you were harvesting things." She takes out the first layer of materials. The signature balloon remains and chunks of mushrooms. Green, blue, and the standard grey mushroom chunks.
"Thank you, did you get everything out of your system?" Naofumi asked while grabbing the new materials to place into his shield. Noting that all the materials gave new shields. The Red balloon shield, Mush Shield, Green Mush Shield, and the Blue Mush Shield. They gave a +4 in defense, the skills Plant Appraisal I, Simple Recipe I, and Apprentice Compounding in order.
"Yep, haven't been this relaxed in a while. Preparing for you guyses summon took a lot out of us mages, and it was all stuffy when we were doing our own research. Those mages are all too uniform for my tastes." She remarked with a grin.
"What shields did you get from the mats?" She asked as he closed up the bag after taking some of the other balloon pieces out. It would seem that he is going to split the party up again tonight… this time she would be investigating the church.
"None of them are duds… and the names of them are what you would expect from the materials that unlocked them." He remarked while looking through the equipment skills. He was remembering several MMOs that had weapons that had tied skills… none that would give them skills even after the unequipping of them though. Besides skill books of course.
"How nice. Do they do anything special?" She remembered some of the weapons she had that gave her bonuses to certain skills, even some for the other members. She wondered if the equipment in this world had the same mechanic.
"I am guessing a majority of the time, stat bonuses. The shield I have on me increases drop quality though. And I even get to use the skill outside of equipping it when I use it enough." He states with some cheer in his voice, this is something quite helpful to him later on.
"Little numbers make big numbers after all." Even if she had large stats, she remembered the times where she had to repeat attacks in order to kill an enemy. The smallest things when added up make a big difference… even if she could not be like him with equipment. Buffs on the other hand are useful in that regard.
"Alright then, tonight's agenda, selling materials through me, getting information through you, buying a slave, and in the end if possible, buying medical crafting equipment." Processed things are generally more profitable to sell than raw materials.
"Righto boss. Hopefully, it goes well for you." She states with a grin while picking up the sack of materials.
"Oh yeah, Athena says that you will be able to sleep at the inn whenever you want now, the unrest and misjudgment about you have died down quite a bit." She remarked while having the spear settle itself back in the sack, bringing out her glass pole before turning back into her Teana transformation.
"Give her my thanks. After tonight I think we will be able to sleep with the entire party in tow." After a second of thought, he regained his phone from the backpack before returning the container to her.
_(RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO)_
Seedy Bar: Castle Town
5/20/0000: 1900
"Oh Great shield hero, you could let us be your party members." A trio of Naofumi's soon to be victims decide to say, they were definitely the horrid sort, blind robbers seeing a defenseless sheep… that was not so defenseless in reality.
"Let's discuss terms outside then…" Naofumi remarked after placing down his cup of water. The three surrounded behind him, acting like vultures… no vultures were too kind of a word for them.
"The shares will be performance-based… as I am the leader I will get 40 percent of it." He remarks with a fairly standard condition for a party of 4 fairly new people. But he knew that they fully would not accept it.
"Yeah, no, give us your money." The lankier of them said with a grin now that they were in the night streets. He could already tell that they were pulling out whatever weapons they had… No guards were around this part of the city.
"Should have said that earlier…" Naofumi thought he did the brooding act fairly well… but when he got talking to people who actually brood often, it was nowhere close to authentic. Though the three stoges did not seem to think that way.
"Oh, what do we have here." The more portly of the trio tried to grab the hero's cape, only to quickly get a balloon to the hand… due to not having the inherent protection of the hero, they did feel the painful bite of the monster.
"Die." The middle of physics decided to attack with a knife to which Naofumi met with his shield. He was quickly forced into the ground from the massive gap between his offense and the green-eyed shielder's defense.
"Run for it!" The three were quick to leave the person they now thought as dangerous in mind… it will be a much more cautious dark underbelly of civilization that would now target him.
"Might I interest you in something that you are needing right now?" From the dark corner alley that Naofumi played this show for, a strange man in a suit and tophat appears.
"Offering me party members?" Naofumi asked in a hard to get manner… sometime soon he would be unable to use this style of acting when everyone knows of his innocence… reputation is an important factor.
"No, what I am offering you is a far more convenient service." The man fiddled with his top hat slightly, his unsettling grin unable to phase the shoulder who is in need of party members. The light on his glasses from the moonlight hid his eyes from the world, the stereotypical black market merchant in light novels.
"What would that be?" Naofumi asked as the man about as tall as his shoulders walked into the moonlight beside the young man. It created a sight of an info broker and the agent talking about a mission.
"Ho? Does my offer interest you? Then please, follow me. You really are like the rumors say you are." Naofumi felt a bit of satisfaction from the past two days of browbeating the merchant circle.
"So what exactly are you offering me?" Naofumi followed the man into the town's more seedy area, and into the place, they would do business. The place looked far more like a circus tent than anything. If it was a monster being offered, well it was second on his list of combative resources.
"Don't you see? Slaves of course!" The man raised his arms, his cane following his movements to showcase the many cages and crates of merchandise that would be offered to him. It would seem that the black-haired man caught the right attention for his purposes.
"What makes a slave any better than a regular companion?" Naofumi asked, already knowing the answer if any of the darker elements attributed to fantasy stories hold true.
The merchant of a black trade quickly explained that magic curses were used in order to keep them obedient… and even kill slaves if need be. Naofumi noted the monstrous beings alongside various humanoid beings. The merchant already knew what he was noticing about his trade, and decided to explain other races… generally named Demi-Humans.
"Alright then… I need slaves who are not broken just yet." Naofumi said to the slaver. The man in question just grinned before moving into the crates, gesturing the man to follow him, allowing Naofumi to smell the diseased beings.
"These two then." Naofumi witnessed several slaves, strong-looking ones sickly. Old, young, defiant, and subdued beings of both genders were shown to him. Only two caught his eyes, One demi-human, and the other human but it was not about gender, it was the mix of steel and despair in their eyes.
Word Count: ~2700 Words
Date Completed: 12/15/2020
Notes: New party members to be revealed in the next chapter. One you are already familiar with. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Comment Cove:
FFN:
darkstel: I won't be interested in shit where the author can't answer a primitive question.
Reply: You know… why would I not want to answer a question? It would be because of how utterly unimpressed I am at your insults and your blatant disregard of being at least civil. I can understand not wanting to waste time and resources… but you are wasting your own and mine like this. Especially when the answers to your questions are literally in the story if you were to actually be an intelligent person and read it along with understanding context clues.
(For others, I am just tired of dealing with this guy. You can leave or stay reading now that I have made my stance clear enough.)
RedBurningDragon: So this Naofumi is going to be a calmer one then canon also probably be more informed since Melina has a contact
Reply: Naofumi is calmer, and more optimistic than in canon. And as much as Melina has been a help… she aint all that much of an info gatherer. Especially when she can only really deal with the lighter parts of society, the reason why Naofumi is in the darker parts of the city rather than her.
AO3
Robbie2413: Well I guess Raphtalia will be with Naofumi next chapter hehehe
They are so screwed when Mirellia gets back for that trial. So Naofumi will likely become the devil of the shield regardless so I guess you are adhering to canon.
Reply: Mirellia is having a harder time in dealing with forign dignitaries… especially now that the king has shown a horrid leadership ability at the moment. Naofumi will not descend into the Shield Devil this time… especially with what I have planned.