Chapter 4 "Mysterious Mine"

I woke up pretty early, so I'll let Raphtalia sleep just a tiny bit longer. After all, I don't want to overwork a child. After a while I decided to wake her up. As I grabbed her by her frail shoulders, she immediately bursted forward saying "DAD!?"

As I said "Not even." I lighty hit her forehead with a flick of my index finger.

"Since it's morning... Get up." I said to her as I stretched myself up. This time it went pretty smoothly... I'm thankful for that. Since we were camping close to the Village, I decided to try and sell the loot from monsters we've defeated.

When I was bargaining for the price of the fur of one of the rabbits we killed earlier, I noticed that Raphtalia is strangely interested in a ball. She must have seen some kids play with it in town.

"Hey mister? Do you know of any place here where I can make a quick profit?" I asked the trader. He thought about it for a second before answering.

"Hmm... There should be an abandoned mine near here. Even though it was abandoned, the ore is still there."

"Why it was abandoned?" I asked him.

"First, a monster from Calamity has recently taken residence there. Secondly, we discovered a weird shrine, one unlike any we've seen before."

'Wait. Could this be one of Outsider's Shrines? Interesting.'

"If those heroes weren't sitting about doing nothing the monster would be killed days ago." He complained about other three heroes. Not that I can disagree with him. He's right to the core.

"I appreciate you telling me this. If there's one thing, I'd like to purchase this ball." I said as I reached out to grab one.

"uhhh...uh..." I heard Raphtalia trying to object, but I quickly countered her attempt.

"You looked like you wanted it, right? I noticed you being interested in it back in town." I said as I handed the payment to trader, and threw the ball to her. As she catched it I added:

"Playing comes after work. And think of it as a reward for everything you've done." As I turned away I heard growling. 'Her appetite isn't decreasing.'

"Even though you just had breakfast..." I said slightly annoyed.

"I- I'm sorry!" She answered and flinched under my sight.

I rubbed my forehead, and then patted her head.

"It's alright. I'm hungry too." And with that, we set off to the nearby Inn.

After a while, we were standing in one of the buildings by the entrance to the mine. I decided to search it for supplies. As I did that, Raphtalia was guarding the entrance to the shack.

"So far we've found a pickaxe, some rope and a map... We can use all of this." I decided to check the status of the "Rope shield". 'Hmm... The stats aren't amazing, but it has a useful ability called "Air Strike Shield"...' I decided to test it. I brought my right hand up and shouted "Air Strike Shield!". As I did that, a large green shield with engraved wings appeared some distance away from me. I noticed Raphtalia witnessing the test.

"I just got a pretty nifty ability. Let's go." I left the shack and moved inside the Mine corridor.

"Our goal is to find that mining site and that shrine." I said loudly to her.

After a minute of walking she let out a surprised shriek.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"My lord, look at this." She said pointing at the tracks. I could barely see a track... An animal track, a dog one. After studying it a while I said

"Hmm... This is weird... It looks like a dog, maybe a wolf track. Judging by the size, the owner isn't that massive." I thought about for a while, but then noticed the scared expression on Raphtalia's face.

"Listen. If it gets too dangerous, we're getting out of here. Stay close to me. And this way." I said to her, at what she replied shortly with "Yes sir..."

Before we entered the mining site, I decided to use one of Outsider's gifts. I casted "Void Gaze" and the second I used it my whole vision got a strange haze of blue... Then I noticed that my Mark was glowing strongly. 'So this is were the Shrine was on map... But why is it glowing? It is supposed to glow when there's a rune in that direction. Wait...'

I gasped. So there was a good reason to come here besides to mine minerals. I entered the site, and immediately noticed it. Raphtalia did too.

"My lord... What is it?" She asked me in a confused voice. But I didn't listen or answer. I only approached the shrine. It base consisted of three crudely made legs. They were supporting a slightly tilted desk. Then, there are two V-shaped "wings" that add to the grotesque of it all... But it was adorned in dark blue cloth with floral pattern. As soon as I grabbed the rune, a strange humanoid figure appeared. It was him. The Black-eyed God. The Outsider.

"Be careful, Naofumi. First Wave of Calamity is coming... And after that something will be attempted to be taken from you. What you will do, I wonder? Now your choice interest me. Even though you were loathed by the last female you met, you still have enough compassion to take a lowly and sickly slave girl under your wing... You truly are an interesting man." And with that he disappeared into nothingness. But the Rune was still clenched by my hand. I quickly opened my interface in order to learn "Devouring Swarm".

"Devouring Swarm"

Summon a swarm of vicious rats that will devour alive any lifeform they'll encounter. Horde will disperse after a while.

'Hmm... Purely offensive ability. If the time comes, I'll be sure to use it.' Then a voice called out to me. It had a desperate undertone.

"My Lord, is everything alright?!" In order to calm her down I patted her on the head.

"Yes, I'm alright. I just spaced out for a moment." I answered her. Then I looked around and saw the other objective of this trip. The Ore.

It looked like it was reflecting the light. As I approached it, I switched my Shield to Pickaxe one. It had an equipment bonus of increasing the wearer's "Mining Skill" by one. I began mining the Ore, when Raphtalia stood guard while illuminating the light from the torch. After not so long, the hard work was proved to be rewarding. "Obtained Light Metal Ore." is what interfence was saying.

'I have to say, it looks expensive. I hope it will sell for a lot.' I thought as much. I noticed another dim shine in the distance.

"Okay, let's head over there. Raph-" t

This is when I turned my head to face her and I noticed that all of her body was trembling.

"What's wro-" I wanted to ask her but then I followed her gaze.

It was the twin-headed Demon Dog. The tracks were wrong about its size. It's larger than I thought.

"It's bigger than those tracks at the entrance. Be careful, Raphtalia." But she didn't answered.

"Raphtalia?!" I said, slightly louder than before. But she stayed motionless, her entire body trembling and face covered in sweat. After staring at it for a second, she released an ear-splitting scream. One of pure terror and fear. The Dog immediately pounced at her. I immediately casted "Blink" to get to her and save her from ending her life in this monster's belly. But I slightly misjudged the situation. After getting ahold of her I immediately dived left... Straight into underground lake.

Thankfully, as we landed in the water the Dog lost it's interest in us and walked away. I used the "Rope Shield" to attach me and Raphtalia to a rock so we wouldn't drown. She started coughing violently, trying to get the water out of her lungs.

"Geez... Of all the times to have a panic attack." I said to her, still wet from the time in the water. Then I used the Shield to lift us up where the rock. As we got up, she spoke kneeling and twitching

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I know I have to fight but my mind suddenly went blank."

"What happened?" I decided not to beat around the bush, and asked direct question. "You probably cry out at night for the same reason. Spit it out." I demanded from her.

She gripped her clothes tighter and answered in shaky voice.

"I'm from a place on the outskirts of this country, a place where you can see the ocean. It's a town full of demi-humans. This country isn't friendly to demi-humans, but everyone was friendly with eachother and lived peacefully... Until the Waves of Calamity struk. Demons we've never heard of began swarming in uncountable numbers. And during that, my Mom and Dad alongside me were cornered on the cliff. We had a three-headed Demon Dog in front of us, and an ocean behind us. They looked at me, said "Forgive us." and pushed me off the cliff into the ocean... While I watched them being devoured by that Monstrosity." She finished her tale, and immediately began trembling and crying once again.

"I get it now... So this is what traumatized you." I said.

"Raphtalia... Yo-" I was then cut off by that familiar roar. The Demon Dog has found us! Raphtalia immediately began screaming out of terror. I have to calm her down and steel her resolve.

"Raphtalia! That's not the thing that killed your parents!" I shouted to her.

"B- But.." she tried to answer weakly.

"Listen!" I shouted as I grabbed her by her wrist. "Raphtalia. You're going to take that thing down, right here and now. If you fight, and I get stronger as the Hero of the Shield and drive this calamity, then no kids will have to go through the same as you did. It won't do anything about your parents now... But what you'll do is safe all those kids!" I explained it to her, and just as I did, the Dog decided to attack. Raphtalia shrieked at that.

"Relax. I will protect you." I said as I blocked the bite from the dog that's as coming my way. "Now, Raphtalia!" I shouted to her. But she stood there, not moving.

"Hurry up!" I shouted once again but to no avail. As she stood there, the head that wasn't blocked by my shield lunges forward and bits me on the right shoulder. I screamed from the pain, and could barely see the face of pure terror on Raphtalia's face. I screamed to her

"Forget it! If you aren't going to fight... Then get out of here!" But before I could expect the worst I saw her jumping for an attack. And she stabbed one of the heads, but as she was pulling it out, the sword broke in half. Dog turned it's attention to her and tried to bit her but I shouted "Air Strike Shield" blocking the otherwise fatal attack. She then looked at me relived, and grabbed the shard of the sword and used it to pierce the second head's skull.

"Ow... Even with the Divine protections of the Shield and the Mark it does still hurt..." I said clenching my bitten shoulder.

"Thanks to it, I'm not bleeding as much as I'd otherwise..." As I finished this sentence, I was tackled by Raphtalia.

"Naofumi-sama, please don't die! Please, don't leave me alone..." She said weeping into my chest.

'So she chose my name, huh?'

"It's okay, it's okay... You do realise that I'm the Hero of the Shield, right? The day I die is the day that I couldn't protect anyone." I said patting her head. "You did good Raphtalia." I added.

"What now, Naofumi-sama?" She asked. I thought about it for a second and answered

"We will go and sell the Light Metal Ore that we've found. But first, I'll feed this Dog to my shield." As I said that, I approached the carcass and had it absorbed by my shield. Everything besides the meat of course.

As I turned to face Raphtalia, her stomach growled again.

"What, again?" I exclaimed angrily.

"I'm so sorry!" She immediately answered. I just waved my hand and said.

"Whatever. Let's go sell the materials and go eat something after that."

"Y-yes!" She answered eagerly.

After we made our way back to the village, I informed the trader that Monster was killed and sold that Light metal Ore. After that, we visited Inn to eat something.

That night Raphtalia didn't have a nightmare.