Part 5: Off to Adventure
After winning his Duel and receiving compensation for his work in the wave, the Shield Hero, Izuku Midoriya, along with his Companion head to the slave merchant's tent.
"Welcome, welcome!" Says the Slave merchant when the pair enters the tent. "What can I do for you today?"
"You seem to be in a good mood..." Says Midoriya, upon seeing him.
"Well things have been going well for my business, so what can I do for you today, my good sir?" Beloukas responds.
"We're here to remove the slave seal." Izuku states.
"Huh? Why would you want to do such a thing?" The Merchant asks with a very confused expression.
"Do you not offer such a service?" Asks Raphtalia.
"No, no, my dear girl, we certainly do. I just don't see why anybody would want to do such a thing." The merchant states. "By the way, you've certainly grown into a fine specimen."
Beloucas turns to Midoriya and states "I'll give you 25 gold pieces for the girl."
"She's not for sale." Midoriya comments, with slight anger in his tone. "Now are you going to help us or not?"
"Most certainly sir, follow me. This way." The Merchant says while leaving the entrance.
Midoriya turns to Raphtalia, noticing that she seems a bit hesitant to go.
"Everything alright?" He asks.
Raphtalia steals herself and answers "Just Fine."
They both follow the merchant passing by his collection of slaves in cages, heading towards the main tent. While walking by Midoriya can't help but feel disgust.
"I hate being here, it upsets my stomach, so much suffering in one place. And I can't do much about it." He thinks while walking.
They reach the main tent, where Bellucas orders his minions to prepare the ceremony. They have it ready pretty quickly.
"Are you sure, you want to do this, Sir Hero?" Asks the Merchant.
Midoriya nods and they start the ceremony.
As it goes on Midoriya sees Raphtalia's stats and info disappear from his field of vision.
The ceremony ends and the slave seal disappears from Raphtalia's chest.
"Are you alright?" Midoriya asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it didn't hurt nearly as much as applying the salve seal or linking it to a master," Raphtalia states answering her friend.
Midoriya sends Raphtalia a party invitation, which is promptly accepted by her.
"Can I interest you in anything else? A new slave perhaps?" Asks the Slave Merchant.
Midoriya thinks for a moment and answers "No, thanks. That'll be all."
"Are you sure, if not a slave, we can also offer from the conventional side of the business."
The merchant states wanting to make a sale.
"What exactly are you offering?" Asks Raphtalia.
"I'm offering you monsters. We have many different types, but if you don't have a preference we also have an Egg lottery. The entry is only 100 Silvers." The merchant looks at the two, seeing that he piqued some curiosity, he continues. "With the Lottery, you are guaranteed at least a Filolial with the grand prize being a dragon, which is worth 20 Gold Pieces. Of course, the odds aren't that high to get it, but you still have a chance."
Midoriya thinks on it for a moment and says "I suppose having a monster that can move us around would be a good thing. Sure I'll take an egg from the lottery."
"Excellent, yes sir." The merchant says while ordering one of his subordinates to go fetch the lottery.
Midoriya then selects an Egg. The egg registered to him and he is then handed an incubator, where he places the egg. When he does a Timer appears in his field of vision.
They pay the man his dues and leave the tent.
"Now what should we do Midoriya?" Asks Raphtalia.
"I'm not totally sure myself. I think we should level a bit more, using the info that Itsuki told me yesterday. Does that sound good?" Midoriya asks while pondering the plan a bit.
"Yeah. Sounds great." Raphtalia responds with a confident tone.
They head to a nearby shop, where they buy a map.
They check the map, seeing exactly what the best root is to get to where they want to go, while they check they head to the Pharmacy in order to sell some excess medicines that Midoriya made in order to be better prepared for the wave.
They quickly sell the medicine and also get a recipe book for medicines as thanks for helping out the Pharmacists family during the wave.
They leave the Pharmacy and head to a nearby magic shop, having been told to go there by the pharmacist. There the owner uses her crystal ball to read their affinities.
Raphtalia's affinities are Light and Dark Magic and Midoriya's healing and support Magic.
They are also given a book of spells to study.
After finishing all they had to do in the Castletown they set out to the mountains while fighting some monsters on the way. Night falls and they decide to spend the night at an Inn in Loot Village. The townspeople thank him again for his help during the wave, giving him the remains of the Chimera Boss that was killed in the wave. Midoriya feeds the remains to his Shield, unlocking a few new Shields.
After having dinner at the Inn, they go to the room and get ready for bed.
"Man, this book's impossible to read," Midoriya states, moving the book from one angle to another, seeing if that'll make it clearer. "I hope there's some skill I can unlock that'll translate it for me."
"If not we can probably ask the Villagers for some help or buy something to help and learn it all together," Raphtalia says with a smile on her face.
"I guess you're right, we'll learn it in no time." He says, smiling back at her. "We should probably head to bed, we have a lot to do in the morning."
They both go to bed. The next morning Midoriya wakes up bright and early. He stretches a bit and notices that the timer of the egg is about to expire.
He looks at the egg, seeing that small cracks are starting to appear on the egg, he wakes Raphtalia up for her to witness it too.
"What is it?" She asks, while waking up.
"The egg, it's about to hatch!" Midoriya states.
Raphtalia gets up and walks towards the egg, seeing it hatch. They hear a small crack and a small yellow filolial breaks through the shells presenting itself to the world.
"Pio, Pio!" The little bird shouts while moving around, jumping onto Midoriya's head.
"Hey there little guy," Midoriya says, caressing him a bit.
"He's so cute Midoriya," Raphtalia comments while looking at the little guy.
Midoriya carefully grabs him, setting him on the table and says "He really is. I guess he needs a name now... Any ideas?"
The little filolial starts moving around playfully, Midoriya and Raphtalia look at him with a smile on their faces.
"A name... I don't know... How about Kiiro?" Rapthalia asks.
The little filolial shakes his head as in disapproval of the name.
"He doesn't seem to like it. What if we call him Denki?" Midoriya asks
The little Filolial looks excited at the name.
"Denki it is then!" Midoriya states. The group then head to the tavern to eat some breakfast, after buying a chart to more easily learn the language and heading to the mountains in order to do some leveling.
They arrive at the optimal area to level that Itsuki had told them about.
"This should be the place." Midoriya states.
"But I don't see any monsters here." Raphtalia mentions.
Just then a big spider monster, that's about 3 meters in length and 1.5m in height jumps out of a nearby cave, lunging at the 2 travelers and their pet.
"Air Strike Shield." Shouts Midoriya, pointing his hand at where the spider is jumping from.
A shield Materializes in front of the spider stopping it in its tracks. Raphtalia pulls her Sword from her scabbard and slashes at the monster killing it with one slice.
"Nice Job." StatesMidoriya as he walks to the monster, feeding it to the shield.
Upon feeding the Spider-like Monster to the Shield, Midoriya unlocks 2 new shields, one that comes with a new skill and one equip ability.
"That's pretty useful." He says while checking his stats.
"What is it?" Asks Raphtalia. "Did you unlock something new?"
"A couple of things actually." He answers "One has a web ability, the other a spider vision, but that's only an equip effect."
He changes the shield to the new one, to test out the ability.
"This is so weird!" he shouts, a bit confused.
"What's going on?" Raphtalia asks, confused.
"I can see all around me... It's just very strange." Midoriya answers.
He changes his shield back to the chimera Viper Shield and states "We should probably go into the caves, I think that's what Itsuki was referring too."
"Right!" Answers Raphtalia as both head into the caves to level up a bit more.
Two hours later heading in they emerge from a tunnel in another part of the mountain, this cave entrance is near a forest, further away from the village than the other entrance they used.
"Well, that was though." States Midoriya, a bit tired of fending off monsters.
"Yeah, but we got a ton of materials and did get a lot of levels." Says Raphtalia.
Midoriya opens up his stat window to look at the haul and says "I guess you're right. We did gather quite a lot of stuff, not to mention the level increase. Denki didn't do much and he's already level 19. I do wonder what that star next to your name means though."
"We can always ask someone at a Village, or Erhard. I'm sure they'll tell us." Raphtalia says.
"Yeah, we could head back to ask him." Midoriya murmurs
Just then the Filolial, Denki, now being slightly bigger, starts moving around to get their attention.
"Pio, Pio!" He chirps.
"What is it, little guy?" Asks Midoriya.
Denki's stomach then growls and Raphtalia says "I think he's hungry."
"Again?" Midoriya asks "We already fed him all our rations while in the cave... Well I guess there's no avoiding it then, we'll have to go hunt something and cook it."
They head to the nearby forest, hunt some animals and quickly cook them.
"He's growing pretty quickly. Is that Normal?" Asks Midoriya.
Raphtalia shrugs not knowing the answer.
They go back into the caves to level up Denki a bit more and get some more materials from different monsters, after a long while they head back out and go to the forest. Midoriya prepares the camping grounds and Raphtalia goes to hunt some dinner. Since he finished early Midoriya opens his stat window and starts checking some of his new shields, while he mutters "Wow, I really unlocked a lot of shields, now there are a lot more possibilities in Battle. Let's see, there's the shooting Star Shield, the Chimera Viper Shield, that has a counter-attack, the Light Metal Shield... Wait, that reminds me. I should test what Itsuki told me about."
He keeps on going experimenting a bit, even using the powerup methods that Itsuki told him about, so he strengthens his weapons, at least those he can.
He ends up using Item Enchant to strengthen his most used and useful Shields and sorts them in terms of Rarity, so he knows which one's are stronger. He also checks his Job Levels, only to see that only the defense stat and a couple others have increased.
"Interesting, while I can use One for All, it seems that the Shield doesn't want to make it stronger in any way. Almost as if they were at odds." He mutters.
"Is everything okay?" Asks Raphtalia, walking back from hunting some more monsters, so that they can make dinner.
"Yeah, I was just checking my stats and testing out something Itsuki told me about to get stronger." Midoriya replies.
"Did it work? Is it useful?" Asks Raphtalia, curious.
Midoriya answers "Yeah, it actually made my defense stat a lot higher and even strengthened some skills. It seems pretty useful. I'm still curious why you have that Star next to your name when I don't, even though we're the same level."
"We can ask Erhard tomorrow. Regardless, I brought dinner, how about we cook it up?" She asks with a smile.
They have dinner and study a bit before going to sleep. The next day the resume little adventure, going through the mountain, collecting different materials, some ores, some monster drop,s and a couple of other things.
After they feel like they gathered enough materials, they head back to Lute Village, where Midoriya spends the rest of the day playing with Denki. At night they head to an Inn to spend the night, where they study until they fall asleep.
The next morning they wake up early, eat breakfast and set off to the Castle Town, they ride on Denki so they get there pretty quickly.
Once there they sell some materials and go to the Weapons shop.
Outside Midoriya says "Stay here for a moment Denki, we're just going inside for a couple of minutes, we'll be back in no time."
With a bit of a sad expression the filolial answers "Piii!"
"Hey Kid, what can I do for you today?" Asks Erhard as they enter the shop.
"Well, we kinda need 2 things..." Says Midoriya.
"Come on don't leave me hanging." states the shop owner.
Midoriya glances at Raphtalia, so she grabs her slightly beaten sword and says "I'm afraid it won't last much longer."
Erhard grabs the sword inspecting it and comments "Huh, you guys have been busy, what level did you reach?"
"Level 40, both of us. We also have our filolial outside that's now 27." Answers Midoriya.
"Level 40, huh, so you're ready for some class upgrades. You also got yourself a pet. Things are starting to go your way." Says the Weaponsmith.
"Class upgrades? Are those what the little star next to Raphtalia's name means." Asks Midoriya, curious as ever.
"You don't know about those either, well I guess it's to be expected." Erhard comments. "You can get them at the church, they only allow certain people to get them, but I'm sure it'll be fine since you're a Hero."
While Midoriya and Erhard talk, Rphtalia browses through the swords , browsing for a new one. She finds an interesting one.
She pulls the sword from its scabbard, a small "Plop" sound being made.
"It has no blade!" She exclaims surprised.
Erhard turns his attention to her and says "That's because it's a mana sword."
"A mana sword? What's that?" Asks Raphtalia.
"It's a type of sword meant for enemies without corporeal forms, it works by channeling the users magic power or mana into it." Explains the weaponsmith.
"Might prove useful, let's buy it." Adds Midoriya.
Raphtalia nods grabbing it as she keeps browsing for a new sword.
"So what's the next step in your adventure?" Asks Erhard, wanting to start a conversation while Raphtalia looks for a new sword.
"Just to level up I guess, get stronger before the next wave." Answers Midoriya.
"I get that but where are you going to go? What are you going to do?" The Weaponsmith asks.
"I don't know. Haven't really thought about it." Answers the boy.
Erhard thinks for a moment and says "You could join the Adventurers Guild."
"What's that exactly?" Asks Midoriya, having a rough idea.
"It's a sort of institution that many countries rely on. Adventurers sign up and get jobs, such as hunting monsters in certain areas or other such missions. They have tons of guides and stuff, for what people at certain levels can handle. I'm pretty sure the other heroes signed up the first day. Honestly I thought you'd have signed up by now." Says the weaponsmith.
"I heard about it but figured they wouldn't let me join." Comments Midoriya thinking back.
"Well it's an international group, you shouldn't have any problems, but you can always conceal your identity, use a fake name to enter." Suggests Erhard.
Midoriya is about to respond, but before he can Raphtalia chimes in "I think this one is the one for me."
She walks up to them holding a pretty expensive looking sword, one with some interesting markings.
"Good choice!" Comment the weaponsmith.
"How much do we owe you?" Asks Midoriya, while grabbing his money pouch.
"Let's see, that sword is pretty expensive, plus the mana sword. Usually, it'd be 23 Gold Pieces, but for you, I'd go down to 21." Answers the Shopowner.
"That's pretty pricey..." Comments Midoriya.
"If you can't afford it, you can pay me back later. I know you're good for it." Erhard answers with a smile.
"That's not it." explains Midoriya "It's just we won't have that much money left after this. Only 6 Gold Pieces."
"That's still quite a bit." Says the Weaponsmith.
"Yeah, I'm just not sure how long that money will last with Denki eating so much." Midoriya mutters.
"I can downgrade if we need to." Says Raphtalia, rethinking the situation.
Midoriya hands Erhard the money, saying to Raphtalia "No, you don't have to, I'm sure we can make some more money in no time. If needed we can always hunt our food."
Having finished their transaction, the two head outside.
The moment they step outside Denki jumps Midoriya caressing him, wanting to play.
"GWahh, Gwahh." He chirps.
"Hey, buddy." Says Midoriya, trying to get him off him. After a moment, he manages to wiggle out.
After that they head to the church, wanting to get their Class upgrades. While going there and thinking about how it works a help screen pops up on MIdoriya's field of vision, explaining that the heroes don't need to upgrade their class.
A few minutes after they arrive at the church, where they're told that they need to pay 20 Gold Pieces for a class upgrade. Midoriya tries to explain that he's a hero, but the sisters say "No exception.".
Not having enough money to pay for Raphtalia's class upgrade, they head to the Adventurers guild Building.
Once there Midoriya hides his shield making it the smallest form possible and hiding it on his back, behind his cloak, so others can't see.
He does this in order to conceal his identity as the Shield Hero.
They again leave Denki outside, much to his protest, and head inside the building.
They are greeted by an assistant who gets them settled in and Registered, explaining to them how everything works.
Midoriya registers himself as "Deku" and Raphtalia just uses her normal name.
They head to a bulletin board full of different jobs, read through a couple and take on a couple of quests.
After all that they head out of the building and set off, to adventure.
While the group did all this, Motoyasu set off on his own little quest.
He set off on an adventure to Zeltoble, in order to acquire stronger equipment. Before leaving however he is given lordship over a given domain, a domain that includes Lute Village.
He and Myne discuss a couple of different things about the territory and decide to put in place a tax.
Malty wants them to go personally to enforce this, but Motoyasu is hellbent on going to Zeltoble first. So she sends a couple of knights to announce and enforce this new law.
The Villagers however didn't take it very well, one went to the Castletown, to the adventurers guild to ask for help.
He was greeted by the Ally of Justice himself who promised to help them out.
They headed out a couple minutes before Midoriya entered the Building.
Midoriya and friends leave the castle town, the moment they do they're approached by a group of people wearing cloaks and masks, they're approached by shadows.
"Pardon the interruption, Sir Shield Hero. I understand that you may be a bit ignorant of many things in this world, so allow me to introduce us. We are Shadows, members of an organization that does a variety of things. We represent the Queen of Melromarc herself and are here on her orders to give you this." The head Shadow says, handing him a scroll.
He opens it, inspecting it for a moment and says "I have no idea what this says."
"Our apologies. Then allow me to tell you what it contains. That scroll is an official letter from the queen, that grants you domain over the Village you defended during the wave. Her Majesty though you should be rewarded for your bravery and also wishes to apologize for the actions of the King." The Head Shadow explains.
Midoriya thanks them for giving him the Scroll and so they leave, disappearing into the Shadows.
"What are we going to do now?" Asks Raphtalia "Are we still going to go Boken?"
"I think we should go here first, after we can go on the quest to Boken." Answers Midoriya.
They get on Denki and head to Lute Village.
When they arrive they're stopped by a guard asking them for a 50 Silver toll.
"Well, that's new... That's going to ruin the Village." Says Midoriya, pulling out the scroll and showing it to the guard.
"Pardon me, sir." Says the guard bowing upon seeing the scroll. "Allow me to escort you."
They walk into town with the Guard shouting "Announcing the village's new lord."
The Villagers begin to mutter, saying things like.
"I thought the Spear hero was the one appointed."
A crowd starts gathering and out of nowhere an arrow comes flying at Midoriya, he quickly reacts, using his shield to deflect the arrow away from any civilians.
Denki gets mad and rushes at where the arrow came from, looking in combat with the shooters "Bodyguards.
As the crowd disperses from behind Midoriya and Raphtalia a man dressed in some flash armour comes out of nowhere swinging his sword at Midoriya.
Raphtalia jumps in parrying the attack and as a result Midoriya powers up One for All hitting Mald in the stomach, throwing him back and forcing him to drop his weapon.
"Everybody stand down!" Shouts Itsuki, now realising who his opponents really are.
"But Lord Itsuki, we must deliver justice to this criminal!" Says Mald, while getting back up and ready to fight.
Itsuki glares at him and he shuts up.
"Huh? Itsuki? What's going on?" Asks Midoriya.
"I could ask you the same question Midoriya." Says Itsuki "Why did you put that outrageous task on these people? It'll ruin them."
"I don't disagree. But I do think there's been some sort of misunderstanding." says Midoriya.
Midoriya explains the events leading up to now. With him getting the scroll and everything.
"That's weird, I got the call for help before you even found out you were the lord." Says Itsuki.
They ask around and settle the situation peacefully.
Midoriya, stays the lord, but the previous lord is the one who is in charge of making the decisions concerning the town.
With that situation taken care of, Itsuki leaves to continue his own travels.
Midoriya gives the Village 2 Gold coins in order to help with the reconstruction.
The Lord wants to refuse as he can't ask the Shield Hero for such a thing, but they agree on a small compromise. In which Midoriya is given an old broken carriage which they quickly fix-up.
With the Village in a good financial position, the group heads out in order to continue their adventure.
Before they can set off however Denki just transforms taking a bigger form than before. Midoriya is curious but not knowing much about Filolials just rolls with it.
They travel a bit, until Raphtalia gets Nauseated, at which point they stop the carriage and set up camp since night's starting to settle.
Raphtalia goes out to hunt some dinner while Midoriya makes some preparations for the dinner and plays with Denki a bit.
When Raphtalia gets back they cook the food and then go to sleep.
The next morning Raphtalia wakes up, screaming in surprise when she does.
The scream wakes Midoriya up, thinking they're under attack he jumps up ready to fight.
This brash movement causes Denki's head, which was resting on Midoriya's thigh, to hit the ground.
"Auu." He says, rubbing his head.
Both Raphtalia and Midoriya look at Denki surprised. The little blond Angel boy looks at them confused and asks "What's the Matter Master?"