Author's Note: Okay then, Another Chapter up, and as soon as Katarina and Kuro extricate themselves we're going to be fighting Melromarc's wave. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 15: The Ancient Alchemists Mistake
The by now familiar caravan of the Maple Leaf trading company stopped outside of the village, being pulled by it's famous Heavenly fowl. The upper back door of the carriage opened up and it's charismatic Tanuki clerk in a maid's uniform emerged to conduct their business. Even eating out in the woods all day the group still had expenses to incur in their day to day lives, even Maple unlocking all of the equip bonuses for crafts and potions didn't change that. So here they were. Sometimes it was potions, others stat boosting accessories, occasionally it was the food Maple would make using whatever manner of creature she had put down in the woods. Their most oft service however was killing monsters. The six of them had hit the cap a while ago, so it didn't matter as much as gathering materials for Maple's weapon or accumulating funds to try and buy a class up. Fifty gold per person! Maple was considering robbing a bank.
"Master! The food smells yummy today!" It was a surprise, to put it mildly, when Filo suddenly turned from a vaguely ostritch like creature to one that more so resembled a cross between a giant chicken and owl. Even more so, when said chicken owl then turned into a cute little girl with angel wings. A naked cute little girl with angel wings. After wracking their brains for a solution Maple got the idea to try and make something using the materials inside of her shield and in doing so created a Usapil Kigurumi. Filo rejected it immediately, so they had to spend a few days gathering her feathers and using the shield to further remake the thing into a Filolial Kigurumi for her to wear instead. It was highly convenient as it propagated the rumour that rather than a Filolial who had taken a Demi-human like form everyone assumed instead that Filo was a Demi-human who could assume a Filolial form using the Kigurumi.
"You say that every day." Maple stated as she worked the stew pot full of Curry.
Wasn't a lie either, or so Maple was reasonably confident, she was taught by her dad after all, and was a decent cook in NWO Dexterity be damned.
"There's still some time before the food's ready if you want to do some hunting." More dead monsters equals more food for Filo, so yes she went hunting.
The girls weren't sure what they found more disturbing, that Maple had the idea to dress everyone up in maid uniforms for when they do business or how much everyone laps it up with rapt attention. She even hears that there are some villages who group together in advance for when they were stated to arrive.
"Boss, another one wants to take some home with them." Keel in his butler's uniform stated standing in front of another family who looked like they haven't been eating much lately.
"Again?" Maple asked as she looked over the village from behind the couch man's seat. There weren't any signs of farms here, or at least ones in a fit state to function. "That's the third one in a row."
And even with the Legendary shield to keep all the meats and vegetables that they pick up fresh there was only so much that the stocks would accomplish. Especially when you start having to clear out the same area's over again.
"Bad year." Keel shrugged his shoulders while indicating the sky with his finger.
"Tell me about it." Maple stated letting out a sigh.
The six of them had been working towards a old abandoned mine. The rumour mill stated that it was the base of operations of a alchemist who was experimenting with trying to create a way of making plants grow at a absurdly high rate to prevent this exact scenario. The leader of their little band of mansion staff rejects looked over her employees who in turn were beautifully masking their despair concerning the blatant leering they were experiencing, Rifana and Raphtalia were mentally too young to process it which saved them the worst of it, Eclair on the other hand had to be kept from breaking emotionally on more than one occasion from her shattered pride. Well looking at the distance the group would be on the road again soon. The group arrived at the mining camp where the Alchemist's lair was stated to be located, and so made use of the relative privacy of the bush.
"Keel's still too embarrassed to change with us?" Raphtalia asked securing leather armour around her body.
The group learned Keel's gender in the worst possible way when she learned the hard way was a period was. Maple dismissed the issue after cobbling together a pad for him simply stating that where she comes if someone says they're a guy then that's what they are. Approaching the camp the group of heavily armoured warriors saw that most of the miners were looking at one of the tunnels, the one that they needed to be more specific.
"What's wrong?" Maple asked approaching the opening of the cave where the people had gathered.
"Ore's starting to run low. That's the last cave around here." The boss of the miners stated leading to a awkward pause that Maple eventually broke.
"Do we want to know what's in there?" Maple asked looking at the cave.
"Old Alchemist's lab. Bred all sorts of horrors. Everyone we sent in there dies." The boss said, Maple turned to look at a group of Demi-humans and human slaves who had been gathered in the lot behind them, the implications clear.
The young Shield Hero patted the foreman on his back and proceeded to walk forward, stopping outside of the cave itself.
"So this is part where we ask if we're going to go inside there and get into a life or death struggle with what ever's inside and then you come up with a strategy that involves no fighting at all." Raphtalia asked looking at Maple suspiciously.
"Are you complaining?" Maple asked looking at Raphtalia curiously.
"No you're just getting predictable." That said Raphtalia was starting to get tired of the feeling of having her common sense so blatantly violated that she was getting use to it. "What's the plan?"
"We're going to block off the cave." Maple's second mile stone skill was the shield prison, a ball made out of shields that she can wrap around either herself or a enemy. In this case it was being used to block off the front of the cave. After that was the mining explosives of the mining company that were set up inside of the cave.
"Provoke!" Maple shouted the name of the skill from inside of the barrier which in turn prompted... something on the other side to appear.
"Murderer." A eerie voice on the other side of the shield bubble stated, vicious and blood thirsty.
"Killer."
"Monster."
"Why did you eat us?"
"Damn you!"
"Repent! REPENT!" Like that the voices of the damned continuously echoed out from the other side of the shield prison.
Ignorant to the voices of the damned on the other side of the ball of shields The group was simply looking at a crude Minute glass that Maple had made for them as the sand ran out.
"Time's up." Raphtalia stated and Rifana nodded her head. Rifana took that as her cue and proceeded to loose lightning magic into the length of cable approximately in the same location as the as where the voices of the damned Maple was hearing was coming from. The explosion was was directed back inwards through the cave by virtue of the cork like mass of shields blocking off the entrance to the cave, wiping out the source of the voices in the process. A trap had been triggered, and so the cave began to collapse and fall into itself, Maple though was still inside of the ball of shields, and besides the point she was at the entrance to begin with.
"She's not deactivating the skill." Rifana noted which they decided to interpret as a bad sign.
"I got it." Keel took his two axes and proceeded to use them to pry open the prison where two shields met to have a look inside. With Raphtalia's help they were able to pull a catatonic Maple out of the ball of shields.
"This might explain why no one's come out of there alive before." Raphtalia stated while Keel attempted to snap her out of her catatonia.
"YYYEEEOOOUUUCCCHHH!" Sadly they'd have to try something different other than the old standby of repeatedly slapping her in the face until she's able to regain self awareness. Instead Raphtalia picked her up by her breast plate and shook her awake.
"WAhahaha! Ha ha..." Maple looked exhausted.
"What happened?" Raphtalia asked holding Maple her her shoulders.
"I heard them, on the other side of the shield Prison." Maple stated looking like she just got off a 40 hour shift. "I heard them." Maple stated the words extremely telling, leading to Raphtalia to pull her into a hug, Maple was grateful for the armour, for no one could hear her sob.
Eclair in the mean time dug out the rubble from around the shield prison and scraped off several pieces of splattered flesh.
"Maybe these can tell us what we are dealing with." Eclair stated indicating for Maple to feed the pieces of flesh to her shield. Maple nodded and took the material into her shield.
'Conditions met. Voice Gengar Shield Unlocked. Main Bonus: Megaphone.'
"They're called Voice Gengars." Maple stated as she opened the monster book next. "'Voice Gengar: a bat like monster whose cry affects the minds of those that hear it leading them to hear what they least want to hear in the voice that they least want to hear it.'" Maple stated as she started breathing heavily as Raphtalia rubbed circles into her back trying to get her to calm down.
While Raphtalia worked to get Maple to calm down the rubble from around where the cave use to be was cleared out. Aside from the other Voice Gengar corpses there were also various remains of broken men, their flesh hadn't rotten away, it was eaten. More telling though was the pick axe lodged in someone's head.
"The Gengar's tricked them into killing each other." Rifana concluded looking at the morbid curiosity.
"There's something else in here that's worst than a bunch of gengars." Raphtalia stated looking at the remains. "If they all killed each other then what happened to last one standing?"
With a Sniffle the last of Maple's tears dried up and the Hero stood up to face the day.
"Let's find out." Maple soon proceeded to absorb the rubble from the cave into her shield clearing a way deeper inside as well. "Raphtalia."
"Right. First Light!" Raphtalia released light into the cave and revealed the presence of a monster inside, head of a baboon, body of a tiger and a snake for a tail.
"Is that a Nue?" Maple asked through it seemed to be far from being on her friends minds given the rampant enthusiasm they were showing as they all collectively charge the monster.
Rifana whipped out twin cross bows and shouting 'First Lightning' coating them with electricity turning them into miniature rail guns. Raphtalia cast illusion magic producing several copies of herself to surround the monster. Keel pulled out steel twin hooks and assumed his Therianthrope form turning into a werewolf in the process while Filo immediately turned into her Filolial form with Eclair riding on her back. They were well prepared, strong, their formation tight and all of it was soon rendered utterly meaningless.
"Rawr!" The monster released a short pulse of electricity in all directions which hit the members of Maple's party causing them to convulse before falling over. Maple too would be on the ground uselessly stuck if she didn't immediately switch to the red Balloon shield with it's Lightning resistance.
"Huu. Well this is a fine mess." Maple stated while she already figured out how she was going to save her party members from ending up a snack. "Air Strike Shield." Maple stated sending over the green glowing shield above the monster while it moved to try and finish off Raphtalia. "Change Shield: Rope shield." Said pounce was interrupted by a rope coming down and tying a noose around the Nue's neck before hoisting it off into the air. Maple walked over shortly thereafter glaring in disappoint at her party members as they slowly roused themselves. "What's our motto?" Maple asked as she held her shield above her head.
"""""Fight Smarter Not Harder.""""" Five equally monotone voices let out repentantly.
With a mew and a crunch the Nue was lowered into Maple's shield netting her XP in the process and filling her screen with new notifications for the various weapons she just got.
"Spread out and try and find what we came for." Maple instructed while she went to figure out what they were dealing with in terms of new equip bonuses. "I thought that attack he just used looked familiar." And if Maple was reading this skill correctly, it wasn't a counter attack, thus she switched over to the Nue Shield to find out. "Paralysing Shout!" For the second time in ten minutes the members of Maple's party found themselves hitting the floor from a shock-wave of electricity. Once everyone was able to stand again they were able to find what they had been looking for, along with a warning specifically not to plant it.
"This is a bad idea Maple." Eclair stated watching as Maple planted the seed in a field outside of the mine.
"The only other way to figure out what it does is to feed it to my shield, and we can't do that if we want to use it because that means that we will end up destroying it instead." That said Maple did have everyone pull their weapons out so that they could cut it down and turn it into materials as soon as possible. The seed sprouted within moments of planting, years of growth flew by in seconds as a great oak was born, it's branches soon filled with bright red fruit. "...Okay." Maple used the rope shield to reach up and pull down a branch so that she and the members of her party could sample the fruit.
"Yum!"
"Deliciious!"
"Om nom nom!"
"What kind of flavour is this!?"
"Don't mind if I take a second helping."
"Well... I guess you'd have that sort of reaction if you've never had Coca Cola before." Maple stated smiling at the nostalgic flavour.
But she didn't forget why they were there and so fed the seed from the fruit into the shield.
'Conditions Met. Bio-Plant Seed Shield Unlocked. Equip Bonus, Plant Modification.'
Something about that skill had her extremely worried.
'Bio-Plant: A failed attempt to create the ultimate crop by a once famous Alchemist, instead created a plant prone to spontaneous random mutations which more often then not spawned horrors on the world.'
"Aw damnit!" Suddenly a eye appeared from a flower bloom while the entire thing suddenly vibrated and creaked, the entire thing rescinded into the ground not because it was somehow ungrowing but because it was tearing through the earth like a hot knife through butter trying to get away from Maple. Which was rather difficult, when you take into consideration the fact that she was still tied down to it.
"MAPLE!" Everyone moved to grab Maple before she could be pulled into the ground while stubbornly trying to drag the damned thing back out. Unfortunately Maple lost that tug of war and so was shortly thereafter pulled underground.
Tanya was in the middle of a unconventional logging operation, but her party needs XP and wood if they are to complete their reinforcement plans for whatever village gets hit in the wave, and so towards that end they were now chopping down treants. Still the wood was solid, they could make several walls out of this, in advance provided that Carriages can be taken with them during the wave like they think that they can. Using the principle of scaffolding and Earth magic they will manufacture easy to build walls to keep monsters outside of whatever village they come across, but what if they land inside of the village though? A web of Aranaya's spider silk to form a canopy over a village to be held up by a large central shaft which in theory will cause any creature that is supposed to land within to instead bounce off harmlessly and be dumped on the side of the village. Theoretically anyway. Provided that they can get enough material together anyway. Earth magic to reduce her weight, in the same way it lets stone be lightened in anticipation of being chucked at the enemy forces, and wind magic to move her around. That was the principle of behind the magic spell anyway. As such Tanya who could use both Wind and Earth proficiently was currently using the magic for a height advantage against the trees and all the other animals there in, the two headed dog bow allowing her to make two shots at a time which she was firing to take out the monsters in the area and using arrow rain to deal huge swath's of damage to them. Then something emerged from the ground in the middle of the forest tossing aside Treants with contemptuous levels of ease. Another tree monster, this one with vines instead of arms and a large central flower like an eye on top.
"What the hell is that?" Eli stated legitimate surprise in his voice.
"Some kind of super Treant maybe?" Otto suggested switching over to his Therianthrope form in anticipation of the fight to come.
"Unlikely." Viktoriya stated watching as the new plant monster stretched out a vine to the Treants it just bowled over, and several other plants took root inside of them grafting themselves into place as the now healed tree monsters got back up.
And while that was all well and good to remember for now the matter of much more immediate concern was the giant sink hole that suddenly appeared next to the plant monster which it seemed to react violently to swinging down with lashes of spiked vines until it understood it's futility and moved away.
"Hi Guys!" Maple shouted from the hole she just used her legendary shield to carve out of the earth. "We seem to have a problem here." The plant monster formed a grapple with one of it's arms and shot the claws hand like appendage directly towards Maple who crossed shielded arms to defend herself before Tanya pinned the arm down with several arrows.
"I'll be happy to see you again later." Tanya stated as she switched her bow over to something a little more fiery. "What's the situation?"
"Alchemist's mutated attempt at creating a super crop, it's fruit-" Then Maple noticed something was missing. "Where's it's fruit?" The rumbling ground indicated that several more things were about to emerge from underground. "Oh no!" In addition to the Bio-Treants that Tanya's group was already fighting they now had a one eyed mass of vines, a building sized pitcher plant and a sapling spitting Blood wart. "Oh that's where it's fruit went..."
"The big one's still the only one with fruit." Tanya stated eyeing the original bio-plant. "Containment demands that we deal with it first, it's mutant offspring later." Tanya loosed a bolt of fire from her bow only to discover that thanks to a shield of excessive moss fire attacks wouldn't be doing any good. One of the nearby vine monsters tried to strike at Tanya with a lash but Maple jumped in the way shield raised, the vine landed on the jewel and for it's trouble the monster was sucked up like spaghetti.
"So that's how it works." Tanya commented offering the sight no more than a glance from the corner of her eye. "I was wondering."
"It's too bad I can't just get over there and Devour that thing." Maple stated acting to cover Tanya's rear from the rest of the mutant plants. "But it won't let me get close enough to it."
"I, the Hero of the Bow, have read and understood the origin of power. Decipher the laws of nature and harden the earth beneath my target! First Foundation!" The soft earth that the Bio-plant was having such a easy time tunnelling through like some ground shark before suddenly hardened it would take a lot of effort to get through this. Effort it couldn't spare.
"WWWAAAHHH!" In the moment the after the bed rock had formed Maple had been loaded onto the Legendary bow in the form of a Catapult and fired directly at the Bio-plant. Maple instinctively raised her shield as the bio-plant moved to grab her, the mutant's attempts were stopped by Eli and Otto ripping through it's branches and vines with dual swords and claws while Aranaya's silk restrained it. Maple crashed into the eye shield first and began sucking inside the mutant plant even as it screamingly protested the blatant mistreatment. The other bio-plants suddenly withered and died with out the support of their parent.
"Everyone get to work!" Tanya shouted landing on the nearest dead plant and absorbing it into her bow. "I want every last one of these things found and accounted for!" Tanya snapped in a snarl. "Maple you can explain to us where this thing came from precisely. Now!"
While Tanya and Maple were busy gobbling the trail of dead plants and dried fruits into their weapons they eventually ran into the rest of Maple's party who had spotted the trail of plants and safely concluded where Maple had gone. Tanya noted they left a trail of carnage behind them: At least five of the plants had a scorched hole carved through them like some overwhelming force was fired through them simultaneously, several of the plants had been ripped or chopped in half, one of them had been flat out ripped out of the ground and tossed several yards away. What was Maple feeding these people?
"So someone told you a legend about some mutant plant that even it's creator thought was a bad idea and so sealed away and you decided to go looking for it?" Tanya asked her tone of voice increasingly frustrated and incredulous.
"To be fair we decided that we would figure out why it was sealed away in the first place." Maple stated sheepishly.
Tanya's eyes swivelled around the path of destruction Maple's super crop inadvertently carved through the area and was about to say something scathing again. Then she got a good look at Maple now that she had her hood/face plate off. Dark circles had appeared under her eyes as if she hasn't been able to sleep since the castle town decided to try and kill her, her face had been sunken in some too though her companions were healthy looking well and well fed for the most part. Based on how protective their behaviour had been they haven't been mistreating her, so she's having a hard time eating too. Thus Tanya sucked in some air and breathed out slowly.
"How have you been feeling since the castle town?" Tanya asked after suppressing her rage for Maple's irresponsible actions.
"...I've been better." Maple admitted, though the wince that crossed her features indicated that she hadn't been worst either.
"Have you found some people to help support you?" Tanya asked eyes trailing over Maple's companions.
"Yeah they've been great." Maple stated a half forced smile crossing her features.
In. Out. In. Out.
"I've decided to be crossed with you tomorrow. Hopefully something about this situation can be salvaged then." Tanya informed in a manner that made her companions wince.
"How about you? Has the Kingdom been treating you well?" Maple asked now that Tanya had decided to sit next to her.
"Better then you anyway." Tanya held up a familiar rosary for Maple to see. "They hate you and want you dead. The only reason they haven't tried taking another swing at you is because they thought you were dead, and I can't guarantee they now know you're still alive now that you've appeared before me."
"...Why?" Maple asked a horrified look on her face, and Tanya indicated the jewelled gauntlet she was wearing. "It's just because I'm the Shield Hero?"
"Aye. As long as you've got that then you're their 'god.'" Tanya stated indicating the Demi-humans who had been following Maple all this time. "And they want them gone." Maple curled into a ball, it was cruel but it was necessary, if they catch her by surprise again then next time they might drop something bigger than a castle on top of her. Maple started to quietly sob and Tanya hesitatingly, awkwardly, reached over and pulled her into a hug, prompting a half surprised look from Maple as she suddenly raised her head. "...You look like you need a hug."
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: There are pros and cons. The whole incredible amounts of offensive power thing, especially for the shield hero, that's a pro. The whole eating chunks of your soul thing though, con. Removing artificially implanted defects in your personality, Pro. Berserker like madness and insanity, con.
RedBurningDragon: Near as I can tell that concept is 'make sharp pointy objects erupt all over the target's body.'
Xenvic: I know we were over this already but it bears repeating, I've seen no indication that the Seven Stars reset themselves between use and no mention of it anywhere.
Captain Imaginat: Perhaps, but I'm also the one writing the story. This is also true, but no one ever accused cockroaches of being smart. If Maple was there she'd be the last person to propose cutting out someone's tongue and throwing them into a slave camp. Part of me likes to think that they talked about it off screen, if memory serves Raphtalia suffered a lot nightmares and Naofumi had a lot of sleepless nights holding her through them. Illya and Shiro did try, but there's a limit that you can accomplish for humonculi, especially in only a year.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Not only are the main members aware of what Takt does but I humbly submit that they're his accomplices as well, the fox woman in particular apparently was directly responsible for brainwashing new girls to add to the harem.
Halo: Yes Chloe snapped, no her outfit isn't going to change into alter.
drmcgraw186: Without actually reading the report she likely just assumes that Kuro is masturbating, not unlike what most children who are starting to hit puberty do though Kuro is still only a little young for that. Maybe but if we also assume that Malty was in her mid twenties that would still make the Queen early tens when she had her, and even if she wasn't having a kid when you're a teenager still doesn't make for a decent level of emotional maturity. Well it wasn't like she could just stab the guy right then and there.
setokayba2n: Try the Type Moon Wiki.
Amatsumi: When most of your MC's are already dealing with crippling emotional issues such as existential dread, severe father issues and people mucking about with your soul then yes: you're gonna trip over cursed weapons.