After grinding out some levels and going to a Mechants tent, where he purchased a Slave the Shield Hero finds himself looking at a abused young girl.
"It's nice to meet you Raphtalia." Midoriya says with a gentle smile on his face, trying to put her at ease.
Midoriya gets up looking at the man who sold him the girl.
"I guess it's time to pay you know." He says, with a stern expression.
He pulls out a pouch, quickly adjusts the amount of money before handing it to the man. He then spots the Ink that was used to bound Raphtalia to him and asks "How much for a bit of the ink?"
"You want the ink?" the slave merchant asks.
Midoriya nods.
"It's on the house." The merchant says "As a tribute to our future partnership."
Midoriya feeds the ink to his shield, unlocking the slave user's shield.
He walks back to Raphtalia and with a gentle tone says "Come on let's get you out of here."
Still a bit reserved Raphtalia hesitates to move, but does so after a moment.
He moves out of the tent with Raphtalia close behind him, he moves slowly so as to not lose her.
After they get out of that shady area Midoriya turns to her and with a gentle smile asks "Do you want anything to eat?"
Not knowing how he'll react Raphtalia lies saying "No, of course I don't."
"You sure?" Midoriya asks. He then hears Raphtalia's stomach grumble and continues "I'm pretty hungry myself, let's go get a bite to eat anyways."
They both then walk to a nearby pub, with Midoriya hearing Raphtalia cough every few minutes. They reach the pub and Midoriya enters.
Raphtalia looks at a sign that prohibits Demihumans from entering, being a bit hesitant.
Midoriya asks "What's the matter?"
"It's... it's nothing." Raphtalia says entering the establishment.
They sit down and Midoriya quickly opens his menu, setting his Shield to Autocraft some medicine. He then calls the waiter ordering a kids meal and a cheapish meal for himself.
When the food arrives Raphtalia is hesitant to eat it.
"What are you waiting for? It's going to get cold." Midoriya says, while taking a bite of his own food.
"Is... is this all for me?" Raphtalia asks, looking at her meal with a desire in her eyes.
"Yeah, so dig in." Midoriya says.
Raphtalia then starts eating with her hands. Overstuffing herself, Midoriya hands her a glass of water to wash the food down.
As they eat a small ding is heard coming from Midoriya's shield. He pulls something out of the Shield's inventory and hands it to Raphtalia.
"What's this?" She asks, with a full mouth.
"It's some medicine, it should help you with your cold." Midoriya says.
She takes the medicine, spitting it out immediately after taking it.
"It's so bitter!" She complains.
Midoriya lets out a small chuckle and says "Good Medicine usually is. You'll see you'll feel a lot better after you take it."
They step out of the pub, MIdoriya starts walking, before he can get far Raphtalia asks "Can... can I ask you a question."
Midoriya responds "Sure go ahead."
"Why are you being so kind to me?" she asks.
He looks at her for a moment and asks "Why wouldn't I be?"
"It's just demihumans are usually treated badly in Melromarc." She answers.
Midoriya says "I've seen it, but don't really agree with it. I think you should treat others, no matter where they came from or any other genetic component. You were sick, so I helped. Easy as that."
She smiles and says "You really are the shield hero!"
Midoriya lifts his shield and says "I am." he then turns to Raphtalia and asks "What do you want to do now?"
"What do you mean?" Raphtalia asks.
"Well I only bought you because you looked like you were in pain and needed help. You are free to go and do whatever you want. Although if you want to stick around you can, but be warned things can get a bit dangerous." Midoriya answers. "So what do you want to do?"
"I want to stay with you and help in any way I can." she says with a smile on her face.
"Are you sure? It's going to get pretty dangerous, you'll probably have to fight." Midoriya says.
"I'm sure." Raphtalia reiterates "After all you are here to save the world right?"
Midoriya nods, he sends her a party invitation, which she accepts and says "Then let's go get you some equipment, so you can at least defend yourself."
They head to the weapons shop. After entering Erhard comes to the counter saying "What can I do you for? Oh it's you kid. So what can I do for you?"
"I kind of need some equipment... a sword maybe." Midoriya says.
"A sword huh, I thought you couldn't use any weapons aside from the shield though." The weaponsmith says.
"It's not for me." Midoriya says, moving out of the way to reveal Raphtalia. "It's for her."
"Oh, I didn't see you there little Lass." Erhard says a smile on his face.
"So you went and bought yourself a slave huh?" Erhard asks Midoriya. "Honestly didn't peg you for the type."
Midoriya explains himself, with the Old man understanding pretty well.
After hearing the story he looks at the girl, who's holding onto Midoriya's cloak.
"So what's your budget anyway?" He asks, turning back to Midoriya.
Midoriya looks at his money pouch, he opens it to check how much he has.
"Well I was saving for armour but I guess getting her a weapon is more important. I have about 45 silvers, so let's say 30 as a budget." Midoriya answers.
"I can give you something a bit decent then. It's a small sword that can help her in the beginning, it even has a blood coating that'll help in the beginning." Erhard says.
Raphtalia receives the weapon and the two head out two the woods.
Before heading into the forest however Midoriya gives Raphtalia a last warning and tells her that if she needs help he'll be there.
Just like that they start leveling, at first Raphtalia is very hesitant to fight the monsters, mainly because of her fear of blood, but seeing Midoriya do it, she pushes past her trauma and keeps going.
At the end of the first day Midoriya reaches level 20, now having unlocked a bunch more shields and Raphtalia is now level 7.
As Raphtalia takes some Medicine, Midoriya prepares dinner, cutting an Usapil apart to only get the meat, he then cooks it.
Night falls and Raphtalia goes to sleep with Midoriya keeping watch for Monsters. Midoriya notices her
The next 2 days the cycle repeats, with them selling the materials from the previous day, then going back to level up.
On the third day, having fully explored the whole forest they head to a nearby mountain, where they easily defeat all the monsters.
At this point Midoriya reached level 27 and Raphtalia is 25. She even grew up.
On the third day, night starts to fall and both head back to the castle town.
"That was a pretty productive day." Says Raphtalia.
"Yeah and with the money we've been getting we might be able to get farther away from the castle and go on an actual adventure. But first we need some better equipment for you. Not to mention remove the slave crest." Midoriya says.
"You shouldn't think about that, focus on your own equipment. Your own life is no joke Midoriya." Raphtalia says.
They reach the castle town quickly sell their wares before the stores close for the day and head to the Weapons shop.
"Hello?" Midoriya asks, entering the shop.
"It's a little late, don't you think kid." Erhard says, while stepping out of the back. "I was just about to close for the day."
"That's too bad, we can come back tomorrow." Midoriya says.
"Don't worry about it. What can I do for you today. Hope it's not just information." The weaponsmith says.
"We come for some new equipment." Raphtalia says while pulling out a beaten sword. "While it did last quite a bit, it doesn't seem like it'll last much longer."
"Uh, I see. So the Lass needs a new sword." Erhard says Analyzing the sword. "I got just the sword you can use, what else do you need?"
"Well, some armour would be nice." Midoriya says "We have about 500 Silvers we can use."
"That much huh? Well I got a lot of stuff you can try on." Erhard says.
"Actually..." Midoriya says, pulling out a piece of paper he ripped from his notebook. "Any chance you can make something like this? I would like an armour that can offer up extra defense and increase my stats if possible."
Erhard looks at the piece of paper and says "A custom order huh? Well I can do it but am going to need you to go gather some materials."
Midoriya pulls out another piece of paper listing all the things that he has in his shield that can be used.
"You got all this stuff?" Erhard asks, surprised "Where do you keep it?"
"The Shield can store stuff... Pretty convenient actually. We've been selling a lot of materials but that's what we decided to keep." Midoriya says.
"All this stuff can fetch you a pretty penny." Erhard comments.
"So can you make me some armour with that?" He asks.
"I'll need you to pick up some ore, but aside from that. I have everything I need." Erhard says.
"Where can we get the Ore?" Midoriya asks.
"There are many places. You can buy it although, with the amount of money you have you won't get that much. Otherwise you can mine it. There are a couple of small Mining towns around. You could go to Loot Village. It's not that far away. You can get all the ore you need there and even sell the excess for a profit. If you get me the ore I'll make you the Finest Armour you've ever seen." Erhard answers.
"Thanks!" Midoriya says.
"Great, how much do you think it'll be?" Raphtalia asks.
"For you guys. I'd say 250 Silvers." Erhard answers.
Both of them smile at each other.
Then Midoriya says "So we have 250 Silver left over for your Equipment Raphtalia."
"So what are you looking for little lass... Although I guess I can't call you little anymore... You really grew up."
The interaction goes on for a bit more, with Erhard and Midoriya complimenting Raphtalia on how she grew up and then they buy her some armour and a new sword. After that they Pay Erhard 210 Silvers for the equipment and go to a nearby Inn to stay the night.
The next day they set out early in the morning for Loot Village, arriving there in the early afternoon after fighting a bunch of monsters on the way.
Once there they sell a couple excess materials that they collected along the way.
"How much can you give us then?" Raphtalia asks after the merchant examines the materials.
"I can give you 10 Silvers for all of it. Give or take 5 coppers" he says.
They exchange the money for the goods, but before leaving Midoriya asks "Where is the mineshaft around here? I heard this was a mining town."
"It's in the mountain to the west outside the wall, but I'd be careful if you're going there, ever since the wave it's become a nesting ground for a bunch of monsters, nobody goes there these days." The merchant answers.
Midoriya thanks him and both him and Raphtalia go to the mine.
They make a quick stop in an abandoned mining shack. Grabbing three pickaxes, one for Midoriya, one for Raphtalia and another that Midoriya feeds to his Shield. He also puts some rope in unlocking the air strike shield.
Raphtalia asks "So what's the Plan Midoriya?"
"Well, the mine is full of monsters so I think we should clear it out first before we do anything rash. After that we can start mining the materials." He responds.
They then venture into the cave taking down small monsters as they go along.
"By the way that merchant was talking about it I thought the monsters here would pose more of a challenge." Raphtalia comments while striking a bat monster.
Midoriya kicks another against a wall killing it, while saying "I know what you mean."
Just then Midoriya hears the sound of a sword falling to the ground. He turns to where the sound came from and looks at Raphtalia on the floor, a bit pale, looking at a darker part of the cave.
"What's the matter?" He asks while rushing to her side.
"The... The... The..." She struggles to say. "The dog monster, it... it... killed all the villagers... even my parents."
A she says this the Two headed black dog steps out of the shadows. It then lunged at the both of them. Midoriya raises his shield blocking one of the heads from biting him. The other head however is left completely free and bites into Midoriya, but it doesn't penetrate his skin, due to his high level and defense.
Midoriya turns to Raphtalia and asks "Are you alright?"
Raphtalia just looks at the beast in shock, bringing out her trauma from when the wave hit. Seeing that Raphtalia is in shock Midoriya activates one for all, pushing the beast away. He then lunges at the beast himself, punching it, but it doesn't do much damage. He jumps in a couple more times, trying to get the beast away from Raphtalia, but it just keeps going after her, since it can't do much to Midoriya.
Realizing that he can't do much to the beast while sticking to his 8% limit, Midoriya decides to push his limits, activating more of one for all, let's say 15%, he jumps at the beast. He manages to do some damage, pushing the beast away a bit and making it bleed, but still not enough. The Two headed dog lunges at Raphtalia again, Midoriya jumps in the way to block the attack and the dog bites into him, this time however it penetrates, hurting Midoriya and making him bleed.
He screams out in pain while thinking "I thought...Agg...I thought he couldn't hurt me."
Hearing the scream and seeing the blood Raphtalia snaps out of it, she grabs her sword from the ground and with Midoriya keeping it in place, she slashes through the beast killing it.
"What happened?" Midoriya asks.
"I could ask the same thing." Raphtalia retorts.
"I'm not sure." Midoriya says while checking his stats, one for all still active. He realizes that his stats are different and exclaims "Where did my defense go!... My speed and strength have more than multiplied but at the same time the defense has been cut in half."
He deactivates one for all and with that his stats return to normal. He then starts mumbling theorizing what this could mean.
"I'm sorry" says Raphtalia, snapping him out of the mumbling. "I lost my composure... I just... That beast..."
"It reminded you of the one that killed your parents during the first wave." Midoriya completes. Raphtalia looks at him in surprise. "It's not too hard to deduce, plus you talk in your sleep. Don't worry about it. As long as you learn from the experience, it'll just make you stronger, just try to keep that in mind in the future. Because next time it may end up costing you your life."
Raphtalia looks at him and nods. Midoriya feeds the Two headed black dog to his shield and says "Great, now it's time to do some mining.", grabbing a pickaxe and swinging it on some ore.
Raphtalia grabs hers and they start mining.
The first piece Midoriya feeds to the shield unlocking the light metal shield, the rest they save up. After they have enough they head out of the mine to an Inn for the night.
The next day they mine a bit more ore and head back to the Castletown. Once there they head to the weapon shop handing him all the materials he'll need.
"So can you get it done before the wave?" Midoriya asks.
"Well seeing as the wave is in 4 days. I think I can manage. Come back in 3, I'll have it ready by then." Erhard answers.
They then leave the shop, leaving him to his own devices and head to the Pharmacy to sell some medicine.
On the way they meet an emissary from Shieldfreedon, who they dismiss, angering him a bit.
The next few days they keep leveling up in the surrounding areas of the castle.
A day left until the wave and Midoriya and Raphtalia go to pick up the armour at Erhards shop.
Erhard shows him the piece of Armour and asks "What do you think, Kid?"
Midoriya looks at him, very impressed and answers "It looks great, thank you so much."
He pulls out his pouch and hands him a bag with some money.
"No need to thank me, glad to help Kid." Erhard says while accepting the cash.
He goes to a changing area, where he puts on the new piece of Armour, which looks a lot like his own hero suit, but mixed a lot with a medieval armour esthetic and with some elements of Naoumi's armour. If all go as planned you should have it on screen.
Midoriya steps out of the changing room and asks "How do I look."
"You look so cool. It really suits you." Says Raphtalia admiring the new piece of armour.
"Plus it has a great defense stats and many other useful skills." Adds Midoriya.
"I call it the shielded Armour. Made specifically for you. You look like a true blue hero... or well green." Says Erhard.
Raphtalia says "You did a great job Erhard. Now we're ready for anything the wave can throw at us."
"If only we knew when and where it was going to be exactly." Midoriya comments "We could be more prepared."
"You mean no one told you?" Erhard asks.
"Tell me what?" Midoriya asks himself.
"About the dragon hourglass, if you register with it, it should tell you exactly when the wave is coming. It's in the church." Erhard answers.
After a bit more talking Midoriya and Raphtalia leave the shop, passing through the wave preparation march, while going to the three heroes church. While walking they note how the symbol has a piece of every legendary weapon excluding the shield.
Once they arrive at the church they wait for a moment and are allowed in by one of the Sisters.
Midoriya walks onto the Hourglasses platform. When he steps foot on it a light beam comes out of his shield hitting the hourglass, just like that the timer now appears in his field of vision.
The timer says: 20 hours and 12minutes until the wave.
"Well we got what we needed, time to go Raphtalia." Midoriya says while turning to leave.
As they walk out, they hear a voice "Oh is that Midoriya. Still wearing some awful equipment huh, where'd you even get that. I never saw anything like it."
Midoriya turns around to see Motoyasu and his party, upon seeing melty a bit of anger swells up, but he still answers politely "It's a custom order."
Motoyasu laughs and says "Custom order huh, those usually end up being pretty bad."
"What do you expect from the worthless shield." Adds Myne.
"Midoriya, who are these people? Do you know them?" Asks Raphtalia.
Midoriya answers "That's the spear hero and his party."
"Spear hero, as in the other cardinal heroes?" Asks Raphtalia again.
Midoriya nods.
"And who's this beauty." Says Motoyasu while walking to Raphtalia, to flirt with her.
"We should get goin, we still have some preparations to make before the wave starts." Says Midoriya.
"That's right, you should leave before you infect us with your incompetence!" Adds the first princes.
They go to the door, where they meet both Itsuki and Ren.
"Hello Midoriya, how's it going?" says Itsuki.
"Sup?" Adds Ren.
"Hi." says Midoriya "It's actually going pretty well, we managed to get some nice equipment for the wave and got some good grinding in thanks to your tips."
"Glad to be able to help." Says Itsuki.
Midoriya talks for a couple of minutes with the Bow and Sword heroes, catching up a bit, even thanking them for their help a couple of weeks ago, all while Motoyasu flirts with Raphtalia.
After they finish talking Midoriya says "See you in the wave then."
"Try not to get in our way." Responds Ren.
Just then, because he got a little too close, Raphtalia hits Motoyasu and pins him to the ground.
Myne launches a fire attack at her, screaming "How dare you touch him, you filthy Demi! Zweit Fire Shot!"
Before the fire ball can hit Raphtalia Midoriya rushes to her side. In the blink of an eye he's there to block the attack.
Myne gets ready to throw another attack, but before she can.
"You shouldn't be fighting in here!" Midoriya shouts. "This is a church, a sacred place. If you want to fight you should take it outside."
Myne's going to attack regardless, but Itsuki steps in to his aid, backing his point, so Myne backs off.
Midoriya looks at Raphtalia and she lets Motoyasu go.
He then apologizes for her behaviour and they leave the church.
Once they leave the church Midoriya scolds her a bit, he understands the situation, but tells her that if things in the country are as bad as he thinks, that she can't act so brashly.
They spend the next day preparing for the wave, making healing ointment and potions and such, aside from leveling as much as they can.
When night arrives they go to an Inn to get some rest and in the morning they make their final preparations.
A couple of Minutes left until the waves Raphtalia says "Thank you Midoriya."
Surprised, Midoriya asks "Thank you, for what?"
"For saving me." She answers. "For feeding me and for curing my illness, without you I doubt I would've survived much longer. And thank you for giving me a purpose. It's a true honor to have met you. I now understand that I am meant to help you in your quest against the waves. To aid you in whatever you need."
Midoriya is touched at that comment, just that moment something pops up on screen.
"Shield unlocked: Companion shield, growth maturation (small)"
The moment the shield is unlocked Raphtalia's stats increase a bit.
Midoriya ignores the new shield and says "It was the right thing to do. Thank you for all that you've helped me with. Thank you for fighting alongside me Raphtalia. Let's do our best in the wave."
Raphtalia nods in agreement, her tail wagging.
A loud gong is then heard as the pair along with the other heroes and their parties are enveloped in light sending them to the wave.