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 11
Abandoned Mine
5/23/0000: 1300
Third Person: Omni
"Alright, Raphitalia, is it the same monster that killed your village?" Naofumi made sure to keep an eye on the most emanate threat… though he had to wonder, what did dog meat taste like and what was the best way to prepare it?
"No." She was still pressing her face into his armor. The dog that looked like a merger of two Dobermans was slowly getting closer to them. Naofumi quickly used the rope to climb onto a flat plane.
"Listen… Killing this monster here and now will allow us to grow stronger… strong enough to fend off the Waves and prevent a similar tragedy from happening to another family. Your parents are dead, hoping you stay alive… but right now, you can start on the path of keeping other children from experiencing the same thing.
"And right now… all I am able to do is help you fight to your fullest ability. Naofumi jumped on the small outcrop and onto the more stable flat. The dog stared at the young man for a few moments before charging in to take a bite of him.
"No…" He could only block the left head with the rope shield. Allowing the other head to bite him, eliciting the illusion of the same event that happened to her parents.
"Raphitalia… Slay it! Stab it with your sword!. Hurry!" Naofumi gritted his teeth as blood started pouring out… it seemed that his defense was not up to the level 15 monster's attack.
"No…" Raphitalia sat on the ground with her traumatized eyes staring at the startling familiar scene. The switching of the reality infront of her and the memory of her parents' death freezing her in place.
"I know if you are unable to do it now… run away then. I can last a few more minutes until I have to switch shields." He knew the Shield Of Blessings would be able to strengthen his defense far more than the Rope Shield that he had equipped right now. He could see the Mastery progress rising at a fast rate only a few more seconds of blocking before he could switch.
"Thad be just like then…" Raphitalia felt that scene from the nightmare creeping into her vision, she stood up, holding her sword in her hands, though it was in a grip far too firm to be effective.
"Hurry and run, I will catch up to you later. Get the other two together and we can fight it together." Naofumi stated as the monster bit into him once more, eliciting a grunt of pain. Thankfully he had unlocked and mastered a bunch of shields otherwise he would have been in far worse of a condition.
"Don't go… Don't Die!" Raphitalia felt the illusion of first her parents walking into the void… then Naofumi after that. She picked up her body, loosened her grip a bit before jumping at the dog monster. Stabbing it into the head that was occupied by the shield, but it trashed her away.
"Air Strike Shield" Naofumi waited for the best moment before deploying the disembodied shield. The monster crashed heads first into the wall, stunning it for another attack.
"Raphitalia!" Naofumi yelled, the silent order already understood, she stabbed the heart of the beast, the force of the blood pushing her back with the sword still lodged into the body. It quickly died due to blood loss.
"Naofumi-Sama!" She rushed into his arms, not caring about the wound in her relief at them both being alive. Naofumi was just glad that her trauma was mostly healed now despite the pain.
"Not so tight, despite the shield, I am still injured," Naofumi stated with a good-natured smile while patting her head. Keeping the pain out of his voice for the most part.
"Don't die, please don't die." She cried into his chest as he patted her head in order for her to let the release of her emotions happen naturally.
"That is why You attack, I defend. Don't hesitate or one of us will live to regret for a few moments longer till we embrace death." Naofumi said with a calming tone, making sure to grab bandages and some distilled water to clean his wound.
_(DUNGEON FIGHTER ONLINE)_
"So… what took you two so long to get over here?" Naofumi asked while dissecting the Dog into pieces so that the shield can absorb it better. He looked at the heads and felt that both of them were needed to unlock a new shield. Senka saw the state her master was in and already started changing the bandages he put on earlier.
"Sorry bout that, we got caught up fighting some monsters There was a whole lot of them but we were able to kill them all," Melina said with a grin while bringing two bags in, one filled with the monster parts and the other with ores.
"Oh yeah, Melina, read through this ritual. We need to do it in order to share exp." Naofumi quickly gave her a paper when remembering the smith's explanation on why he got experience from Raphitalia in the shop.
"Cool, I request to be your companion on your journey." She read it out without even thinking about it.
"I accept you into my party as the companion I shall fight beside," Naofumi responded off the top of his head. It was not like it was really structured or needed a set string of words.
"So, let this pact be kept." They both said at the end, Naofumi immediately got an alert from the shield as a new companion was shown. There was now an icon beside her quick status in the corner of his vision. One shared by the other two, but the slaves also had an extra symbol denoting their status as slaves.
"So, how much did you get?" Naofumi asked them while putting the two dog heads into the shield, unlocking the Two-Headed Dog Head Shield with it. He tried out some meat and skin, but neither elicited a real reaction from the shield, leading him to conclude that was all he would get from the monster.
"25 ore clusters." It was Senka that said the number… to him Melina would not really count things like this so it would make sense for Senka to keep track. It was mostly insect monsters that came after them it would seem.
"That is good, could only get two, one already in the shield, before the Orthrus ambushed us," Naofumi responded quite easily, it looked like Senka grew quite a bit, and looked a lot healthier than before. Not quite a healthy weight yet.
"So what did you get from the dog?" Naofumi didn't want to deal with other monsters right now, especially when they could be attacked.
"The Two-Headed Dog Shield, it had two skills, the Mastery skill was Alert Shield, alerts me when an enemy is within 20 meters. Dog Bite is a counter-attack Signature skill." Naofumi stated while switching from the Shield Of Blessings I to the newly gained shield. It really helped with the fight.
"I got the mastery of the Pickaxe Shield and the Rope Shield," Naofumi stated as the assassin finished up her work on his wound, tightening up the knot more than needed. He just winced at it, this would be her way of telling him that she was displeased with his actions. Though how she got this affectionate was something he wondered. It had only been a few days before that and she was slightly hostile to him before he even bought her.
"Alright, I think everyone is hungry from fighting so much… I'll make some dog kababs." Both of the slaves look interested in the prospect of Naofumi's cooking. Senka immediately started a fire so that he could actually cook. Raphilatia went into Naofumi's bag to grab the camping setup… or more specifically the cooking implements.
"What has got you two into a rush?" Due to never having Naofumi's cooking, Melina just stared at the two who were rushing to prepare for the meal in confusion. The sight was kinda strange with an adult man and a child just staring at another adult and a small girl set up a pot on a tripod.
They just looked at her as if she said something scaraligous. They had bought the implements with their hard-earned allowance and did not trouble Naofumi about it… despite him having the tools farther down on the list of items he would buy later.
"Alright then… stew it is. Honestly, you two eat quite a bit. Raphitalia has become quite big as well." Due to the sudden amount of leveling, Raphitalia matured quite quickly due to being a Demi-Human who grew up as she leveled.
"Don't make it sound like I got fat Naofumi-Sama." She pouted as the man started observing the pot, it would be several hours of being in the cave.
"By the way… should I reveal that it was me who cleared out the cave?" Naofumi asked with a pondering tone, keeping the contents of the pot from burning with consistent stirring.
"That would be a good idea… it would seem that bad rumors of you doing harm have been surfacing," Senka said with a calm tone. How she knew about that with very limited time away from him was a question that Naofumi decided not to ask.
_(RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO)_
Fields Of Castle Town
5/30/0000: 0900
Naofumi just clicked his tongue while pulling a porcupine spike out of his arm and absorbing it into the shield. It somehow got past his defense stat. And he knew that the porcupine monster couldn't bite through the stat.
"You should have known that there would be a monster with Armour penetration you know… those cotton sleeves won't do much to physically block stuff after all," Melina said while observing the two other party members running around and attacking.
"I know… just didn't expect it to be a porcupine…" Naofumi looked at the shield he gained after getting all the needles into the shield, with the one in his arm acting as the last one. Animal Needle Shield had a mastery of 1 attack and a Signature skill called Needle Shield (Small) which was basically thorns, when an attack hit the shield, it would do damage to the attacker.
"Milord." Senka quickly spoke up.
"Shield Prison" Naofumi quickly used a skill he gained from absorbing some piping. The Pipe Shield had the mastery skill Shield Prison a skill that had a cage of shields surround the target. Good for defense and trapping enemies. The porcupine was trapped within the ball of shields.
Raphitalia quickly cut the monster in two, the meat probably tasted horrible anyway.
"You two leveled up again…" Naofumi muttered while absorbing the rest of the porcupine-like monster, not even bothering to dissect it now. Raphitalia smiled at him as he poured some medicine into the wound to clean it before bandaging it.
"Hai…" Raphitalia was now about chest height rather than the waist height when they were in the cave, looking far more like an adult than when Naofumi did when they came to the world. She looked like a human woman in her twenties. Though Naofumi himself looked older than his actual age as well.
"Well, your daggers are done Senka." Naofumi brought out the two knives in his shield, giving them back to their scout… though to him it was probably unnecessary as they were going to get new equipment today.
"Right…" She flicked both daggers into the air, having them spin a few times before catching them. She quickly did a few slashes in both back and forward grips to get used to the new feeling.
"I am thinking of getting you a new pair of daggers and a bow…" Naofumi stated, they were in extreme need of a backline at the moment. Too many of them were front line fighters. Melina worked great at the middle and back lines but got annoyed when going into the back lines. She liked to get up close and personal after all. And the situation of their cheap equipment was dragging on them.
"Why the bow?" Her unemotional tone was far better at expressing herself than a week earlier. Though he knew that she could revert to unemotional cold tones when any matter needed him to.
"Being backline in a pinch while harassing attackers while on the outskirts of the formation," Naofumi replied it seemed that people usually were set into a role and didn't tend to shift. Though he would like Melina to learn dagger skills or Raphitalia to learn spear skills, both of them would refuse.
"I see." She stated while playing with her daggers a bit more before sheathing them. She had only been using them for a week and it already felt like she had a lifetime with them.
_(DUNGEON FIGHTER ONLINE)_
Erhard's Smithy
5/30/0000: 1200
"Haven't seen you all in a week… and my you have become a sight." The smith said while looking at the young women besides the hero… specifically the two slaves. One was but a child and the other was so malnourished that she could have dropped dead from starvation any second. Now two beautiful women with extremely healthy figures were standing before him
"So… what have you been up to the past week?" The smith asked as Naofumi took the chance to seriously observe the two. Both of them were grown-ups, but the stark difference from what they once were was hard to connect.
"I have been learning table manners to keep up with everyone," Raphitalia spoke as Naofumi changed his focus to the shop once more. Of course, there were new weapons and armor on the shelves, but a new addition of a dark blue cloak was sitting on one of the stands.
"You grew up so much… not like the pipsqueak that you were before." The smith gave a good-natured laugh that caused the youngest of them chronologically to pout.
"I am shocked that this country is full of lolicons…" Naofumi said while looking at Melina and Raphitalia. While he could understand getting free stuff in adult forms… the amount of stuff they got while in their child forms was far more than that.
"Hey, kid… don't you know how demi-humans mature?" The man asked while leaning on the counter.
"Boss! We aren't here for that. We need to get armor for Naofumi-Sama." Raphitalia put an end to that conversation as Melina tried extremely hard not to laugh at the absurd situation.
"Do you have any recommendations?" Senka was also nodding along to the thought that Naofumi needed better armor. The last fight was particular in that regard.
"What are you talking about? We are here for your girls' equipment." Naofumi stated with a slightly exasperated tone.
"I understand your thoughts about that… but think about yourself first. Think about that time in the plains." Raphitalia just pointed at his face as she said so. Naofumi just took a glance at the still nodding brunette.
"But we really need to get you a weapon…" Naofumi trailed off at her gaze.
"Naofumi-Sama… you need to stop messing around… Otherwise, you will die." She finished pointing at him and supported her last statement by grabbing a sword that was behind her. The others couldn't help but think that she was doing it on purpose and had staged the entire thing.
"Boss this looks pretty sharp!" She observed the sword in her grasp, shining the lights of the day around as she moved it.
"Magic iron tends to be like that… that reminds me. Girl, how is your spear?" The smith remembers the spear that was given to Melina before. She brought over the floating spear that she used as a magical focus. It was still in good condition due to Naofumi's regular use of the Sharpening Shield.
"Hmm… it is still good to use… what is your level?" The smith asked while keeping in mind the recommended level of the spear.
"I am level 20 right now." She said with a smile, she was the highest out of the group level wise.
"I recommend upgrading to a Magic Steel Spear sooner or later. Or just find some ore to allow me to make one for you." Naofumi thought for a moment… The spear is still good to use for her level and the condition is good. Though it might be a good idea to get a backup to switch to. The main issue was space.
Word Count: ~2800
Date Completed: 12/19/20
Note: Thank you all for enjoying… and sorry for the sudden time skip.
Review Cove:
FFN:
Arraia: Perfect and update soon please
will naofumi buy multiple monster eggs instead of the canon in which he only buys one?
Reply: I can only upload once a day for a limited amount of time sadly… and I don't know when it will stop being feasible.
As for the monster eggs, there will be more after Filo. Just not in the set that the Slave Seller first showed to Naofumi. He does have a bit of min-max thought patterns, so after getting the shields in the Monster User and Slave User series, he will be getting more.
RedBurningDragon: I thought people cap at 40 (baring the hero) before class up
Reply: That was me forgetting to change the number… though I should have done research more thoroughly and put it in my notes. But 100 was just the standard placeholder that I used. I will be using chunks of level 40 per class.
AO3:
Scorpionalpha: Perfect and update soon please
Will naofumi has pets?
Reply: Very much the same question as Arraia. And the same answers as well. I won't be able to consistently do daily chapters, look at all my other works' dates completed if you want to get an idea about that.
And yes, Naofumi will have pets.
Robbie2413: Well, another good chapter. Guess I missed you mentioning that. Whoops.
Next up Raphtalia kills the dog monster, right?
Reply: Well, if you aren't reading my replies, then yes, yes it might be a surprise. As for Raphitalia… well she is now over the truma… mostly.