Chapter 11: Plants, Hot Springs, and Razorbacks
Sometime has passed since Arthur and his party got a new dress for Filo that allows her to shapeshift without tearing it up. Hickwaal has him to deliver a large order of herbicide to the village to the south west. Arthur knows exactly what has happened and knows what to do.
While on the wagon with Filo pulling it in her Filolial form, Arthur thinks to himself, 'Of course.' He has a sarcastic smug look on his face, 'Looks like Motoyasu got brainwashed again. Or he just overlooked the obvious legend about the seed. In any case, looks like I got some clean-up for me to do. Which also means I have to clean-up after Ren after the trip to the hot springs. Just hope he actually did clean that thing up when I told him it this is not a game. If not, then I'm gonna deck him.'
"Arthur, look!" Filo says as they are passing by a mess of vines and roots. "These plants are amazing!"
The whole area is completely covered in extremely large roots and a huge mess of vines that are all over the place. Not to mention the roads also have a few sprouting from the ground, the smell of fresh oxygen in the air, and the whole place is starting to look like a jungle.
Raphtalia pokes her head out to see what is going on. "Now I understand the request for a large supply of herbicide. There are vines everywhere!"
Arthur holds on to his hat, "That means we have to double-time it! Come on, Filo!"
"Right!" Filo then starts running as fast as she can until they entered into some sort of makeshift camp with wooden walls.
Arthur and his party have delivered the herbicide as requested from the villagers.
"I don't know how to thank you enough." says the Village Chief. "This place was about ready to fall to the vines, too."
Raphtalia asks, "How about burning them? Or did you already tried that?"
"Certainly. We tried everything we can think of. We even resorted to summoning adventurers. But the situation is worse than before. Our village was already overrun by the vines. Much worse, the plants turned into monsters and started to attack us."
Then they started to hear the scream of a man not too far from the wooden walls that scared everyone.
"Some adventurers came here to level-up. But when they departed, they had no idea what was waiting for them and I begged them to stay."
Arthur whistles to Filo. "Filo! Find the adventurers and bring them back to us!"
Filo was munching on some fruit as she turns around to say, "Okay." Then eats the two fruits in her wings and runs out to rescue the adventurers.
A few minutes later, she brought back three men. One wearing a green shirt, one yellow, and one red. And she just drops them.
"There were plant monsters all over the place." Filo tells what she saw. "Some of them even spit poison or acid or something at me." Then she starts to act a little arrogant, "Why would these guys go when they are so weak? These guys must be stupid, you know what I mean?"
Raphtalia then scolds Filo along with Gwen, "You really didn't have to say that last part." The two of them spoke in perfect unison as if they're twins. But one is imaginary, so moving on.
"Uhh?"
"Don't 'uhh' me/us."
While the three are busy, they noticed that Filo is talking. When they hear her, they put two and two together and realized that Arthur is the Shield Hero and the Savior of the Heavenly Foul.
The chief walks towards Arthur, who is sitting down, "Please good sir, tell us? Are you really the savior that travels in a carriage driven by the heavenly foul?"
"That, and the Shield Hero." Arthur says as he gets up from his box. "Don't worry, I'll solve this problem. But first, take me to the people that are infected with vines."
The old man's jaw just dropped after hearing that. But he shakes it off as he says, "Yes! Of course! Follow me, please!"
He takes them over to a tent where there are beds full of people that have vines growing out of their bodies. Mostly children. Filo is too busy snacking.
"I'll do what I can." Arthur approaches one of the children with a potion in one hand while using the |Potion Enhancement| skill with his shield being a [Book Shield] to have the child drink it and then pour it over his body.
The people are in total awe when Arthur cured the children.
Arthur then looks at the people, "I think I have a good idea on what is going on. This was caused by the Spear Hero who brought the seed here yet there is a terrible legend about it. Correct?"
The village chief is taken by surprise again, "How did you know that?!"
"Just a hunch. I get it, you guys were desperate and hungry and willing to accept anything. Even if it is from a hero and even knew about the legend." Arthur walks out of the tent, "I will take care of that idiot's mess. Keep your money in order to help with the repairs once my party and I are done."
The village chief claps his hands together and shed tears, "Thank you so much!"
The four head out to the village where the source of the ivy, vines and roots are. However, they encounter a few plant monsters. These monsters include Plantriwe, a type of plant that uses vines and spit poisonous pollen from the flower that it has for a head, and Mandoragora, an immobile pitcher-like plant that spews acid, which acts as extensions to the main plant called, the Bio Plant. Arthur has his shield up with Filo in her Filolial form and Raphtalia with her sword out.
"Raphtalia!" Arthur shouts.
"Right!" Raphtali knows what to do and charges in with her blade coated in herbicide and takes a swing at the Mandoragora.
"My turn!" Filo says and ready to attack. She disappear and reappears behind the Plantriwe as the creature gets sliced up.
"Good job, girls!" Arthur praise both Raphtalia and Filo. He pets both of them on the head. "Now we need to head to the source and kill it."
"Got it." both say in unison.
They travel further into the village where they see a tree of a sort that has a large flower with an eye at the center. The eye opens up as the Bio Plant unleashes a torrent of vines at Arthur's party. Arthur uses the [Glyphosate Shield] to shield Raphtalia and Filo from the attack which cause the vines to disintegrate on contact. The Bio Plant becomes in pain as its eye shows it and its vines and ivy started wriggling like crazy. It can even scream in agony somehow.
"Now you two!" Arthur ordered.
"Raphtalia!" Filo lowers to give Raphtalia a ride.
"On it!" Raphtalia jumps on and they both charge at the Bio Plant.
They both charge before the monstrous plant regains its composure as it tries to launch another torrent of vines at them. Raphtalia's blade, still coated in herbicide, slice through many of the vines that were aiming at her while Filo dodges by jumping and using her quick speed. She even manage to slice up a few with a new skill called, razor wind. The faster she runs, she leaves behind some concentrated blades of wind that can slice through whatever gets in her way.
"Toss me!" Raphtalia says as she uncorks a bottle of herbicide.
"Got it!" Filo tosses Raphtalia while giving her a boost of wind to increase Raphtalia's speed by flapping her wings.
Raphtalia uses her sword first to stab at the eye then dumps the herbicide on it. Below, Arthur spills herbicide on the roots at the trunk of the Bio Plant without it noticing. The flower started to wither as the leaves start to look like autumn leaves with its seeds ready. Raphtalia gets off the Bio Plant and onto Filo's back again as Arthur delivers a final blow by punching the tree down with his shield taking on some sort of gauntlet form that is red at the hand yet yellow under the fist. Then it changes back to the [Small Shield].
"Okay!" Arthur says to Filo and Raphtalia, "Time to collect some seeds before it grows back again."
Filo and Raphtalia have already started to collect some seeds while Arthur uses the [Madoragora Shield] to tweek the seeds.
"There are so many." Raphtalia says while collecting the seeds. As she is about to reach the next seed, Filo snatches it. "Hey! I had that one!"
"You're too slow!"
Before the argument can go any further, Arthur shouts, "Oi! What did I say about fighting!? And Filo, if you give Raphtalia a hard time, no snacks!"
Filo shudders when she hears that.
"Now be nice, alright!?"
"Okay!" both of the girls say. Then Raphtalia focus on one part of the destroyed Bio Plant while Filo focus on the other end.
"Hmm." Arthur says as he tries to use his |Plant Manipulation| skill to change the properties of the seed. He tries to change the properties to have it grow fast, produce more fruit, and doesn't try to take over with monsters. "I think that should work." Arthur says to his party, "How goes the seeds!?"
"Almost done!" Raphtalia says.
Gwen looked over Arthur's right shoulder to see how's the progress. "Are you sure you got it right?" Gwen asks.
Arthur looks back to see his progress on the little seed. "Only one way to find out. Just need to remember the settings if I got this right."
After that, everyone got all the seeds to ensure they won't have to put up with that again as they head back to the camp. Once there Arthur explained what happen.
"The monsters are taken care of, but the other plants you may have to do yourselves." he says to the village chief.
"Thank you, Shield Hero!" the chief said with gratitude in his tone. "We owe you our lives!"
"Hold on." Arthur says, "I would like to try something." Arthur walks up to an empty area in the camp and plants the seed into the dirt.
Once the seed is planted, it started to grow up to four feet tall and has an abundance of fruit growing on it. Filo starts to like it as she is getting hungry by looking at the fruit.
"Guess that worked." Arthur says and he is a little surprised that actually worked.
Everyone in the camp are amazed by what Arthur just did.
"I made sure that these new crops will increase productivity, add nitrogen to the soil to rejuvenate it, accelerated their growth, only take a little bit of water and made sure no monsters will spawn from it. This should end famine for good so no one has to starve."
"That is amazing." Raphtalia says in disbelief.
"This is truly a miracle!" the village chief says. "We truly in your debt!"
"Actually, is it alright if I have some of the fruit and seeds with me?"
Arthur and his party are in the wagon as they head out.
"So what are we gonna do with all this fruit?" Raphtalia asks. "Because they will spoil along the road."
Arthur smiles, "Not to worry, I know who will help out."
They all arrive at an inn where Hickwaal is at as he examines the seed with an enchanted loupe to judge the quality of the seed. They are in the common area at a table with the fireplace lighting the room with a few candles. Filo started eating some of the fruits that Arthur had for her.
"This is quite the crop you have here." Hickwaal is interested in the newer and more friendlier version of the Bio Plant as he lowers his loupe and looks at Arthur. "You have a truly amazing crop here, my friend. I can sell these at a high price."
"Sure thing." Arthur gives the merchant a thumbs-up with his right hand.
"Oh and by the way."
"You have another job for me. Does it involve hot springs?"
Hickwaal chuckles, "My goodness. It's almost as if you can see the future. But yes, it does. Once you've finished with the delivery, make sure you enjoy them."
And so, Arthur and his party headed over to the hot springs town as they can tell by the steam coming from the place and all the hot spring water they have around. The girls are amazed by the sight and really want to bathe in it.
Arthur finishes his business as he walks up to the girls, "Okay girls. Our business is done. Guess what time it is?"
Filo and Raphtalia gasp in excitement with Raphtalia wagging her tail like crazy. Gwen is jumping up and down for joy like a little kid.
"That's right! Time to enjoy the hot springs!"
"YEAH!" the girls yelled out.
They later check-in at the inn where there are hot spring baths. Raphtalia walks in the water and enjoys the temperatures of the water with Gwen leaning on a rock where the statue is at.
"This feels good!" Raphtalia is in heaven while in the hot springs.
"I know, right?" Gwen says with a big grin on her face. "Better than those extremely boiled hot springs back in Colorado! That place is a mess!"
Raphtalia then notices the statue in the middle of the hot spring. "A statue?"
The statue appears to be a man and a woman with a man holding on to some sort of boar. There is even a plaque at the base.
Raphtalia reads it, "Let's see. 'This hot spring was founded by a man and a woman that have killed a silver boar on this sight and the hot springs appear. If a man and a woman were to bathe together, *face turning bright red* they will be in love for all of eternity!?'" Raphtalia covers her face with the thought of her and Arthur like that. "No wait! Arthur! I'm not ready for a kiss! What if I get pregnant!?"
"Eww!" Gwen is disgusted as she stands up. "You two are brother and sister now! You can't do that! Plus you are only ten-years-old! As a matter of fact, you can't get pregnant form a kiss!"
Raphtalia uncovers her face and goes, "Who said that!?" Raphtalia looks around to see where the voice was coming from. "Hello?"
"Wait a minute." Gwen notices that Raphtalia just heard her. "Did you...heard me? Can you hear me?"
From the bath above, everyone can hear, "Wow! This place is so huge!" Filo is excited to be in a hot spring.
"Now, Filo, you shouldn't shout like that." Arthur says to Filo, "You will interrupt the peace of everyone enjoying the springs."
"Okay." Then Filo starts to swim.
'So that's where Filo went.' Raphtalia has been wondering where Filo was, 'Darn it! I know she's a child, but she keeps on hogging Arthur all to herself.' Then she sneezes.
Raphtalia gets out of the bath as she wears her robes while carrying two bottles of milk. She thinks to herself while looking down. 'Just how am I supposed to get Arthur to give me some attention.'
While thinking about it, she over hears two girls talking down the hall coming from the opposite direction she is walking.
"Have you heard about latium?" one of the girls asks.
"No, what's that?" the other girl is curious. Raphtalia is also curious as she stops in her tracks.
"It is a special stone that is well-known in this town that if you give it to someone, then you are guarantee to have goof fortune in love between you and the person you give it too."
"Oh really? That sounds interesting."
"Yeah. Although it is a little easier if you get it from a gogoku. They love collecting them for some reason."
Raphtalia continues to head to her room as she hears Arthur and Filo talking.
"Hey, Big Bro?" Raphtalia can hears Filo's voice, "When are you gonna brush my hair?"
"As soon as Raphtalia gets back." Arthur says. "Once she gets back, she brushes your hair and I brush hers. To do a little bonding as a family."
Raphtalia's ears perk-up when she heard that. 'Family...bonding?' she thinks to herself as a thought of being a family again cross her mind.
"You can come in, Raphtalia." Arthur says from inside.
Raphtalia opens the door nervously as she sees Arthur greeting her with a smile along with Filo. "H-how did you know?"
"I heard you coming down the hallway." Arthur notices the bottles of milk Raphtalia is holding. "Oh, you got milk." he pulls out a bottle of milk that seems to be yellow in color (banana milk that he got from his shield), "I got myself a bottle. But you can let Filo drink the other one."
"Yay!" Filo cheers.
After the three have their milk, Raphtalia brushes Filo's hair while Arthur does Raphtalia's.
Gwen watches as she goes, "Aww, that's adorable!"
"Huh?" Raphtalia look over at the window in the same direction as Gwen as she stopped.
Filo looks in the same direction.
Gwen looks around before pointing at herself. "Can you hear me? For real? Both of you?"
Arthur stops as he looks at Gwen. 'Wait. Can they hear, Gwen?' He looks at the two girls, "Did you girls hear that?"
"I think so." Raphtalia says while still looking at Gwen's direction. "But that's the same voice I heard in the hot springs."
Arthur is surprise to hear that as he looks at Gwen and Gwen looks back at him. Something is very off. Gwen is supposed to be imaginary so how is it possible for Filo and Raphtalia to hear her?
Later at night, while everyone is asleep, Raphtalia is still awake as she still thinking about what to do. Should she stay as brother and sister with Arthur or try to go beyond that? Although Arthur still thinks of Raphtalia as his sister because of her actual age. Yet while in thought, Filo tosses in bed next to Raphtalia and accidentally smacks her face. That's when she made her decision.
She sit-up, 'Okay. I've made my decision.'
Raphtalia gets dress and heads out to find latium with Gwen following her. Filo then gets dress a few minutes later and heads out to find gogoku eggs. As for Arthur, he is a deep meditative state in order to find out what is going on. Inside Arthur's mind, he is back in the same place where he encountered Nephalem. You know, dark place with the only light shining down on him.
Arthur claps his hands together, "Okay! Let's see what the hell is going on."
With a flip of his right index finger, some strange text has appeared in front of him.
Unknown System Detected
Analyzing New System
Progress: 39%
"New system?" Arthur says after reading. "What the hell is this new system?"
"A little something that I found in one of your datapods." says a familiar voice.
Arthur looks behind him and sees the Spirit of Nephalem. "There you are! I've been trying to reach you for sometime!"
"Sorry about that." Nephalem rubs the back of its head with its right hand. "I've been trying to go over all the stuff that you had in your datapods to see what else I can use. Not to mention trying to make this place cozy."
"Okay." Arthur just accepts Nephalem's excuse. The guy is still scary to him. "I have a lot of questions for you. But first: the new system. What is it?"
Nephalem shakes his head. "Not yet. But it does need some testing. Although it does link to your imaginary dead sister. Why Filo and Raphtalia can hear her right now."
Up in the mountains, Raphtalia is looking for latium to give to Arthur with Gwen behind her. While walking, Raphtalia talks to herself, "Mom and dad exchanged gifts and they fell in love. So, if I can get my hands on some latium, Arthur would surely-"
"What about, Big Bro?"
Raphtalia turned to her left and sees Filo sitting on some boulders.
"Oh, Filo. You startled me. What are you doing out here?" 'Wait, is she here for the latium too?'
Filo explains, "I'm actually here to look for some gogoku eggs. The lady in the inn says that they are a delicacy."
Raphtalia sighs in relief, 'Of course. Filo is always such a glutton.'
"When I find the eggs, I will give them to Big Bro and ask him to be my mate."
"Huh?!" Raphtalia is shock to hear that. 'Mate?! Is she really thinking that far ahead?!'
Gwen just facepalms at the two of them.
"So no eggs for you." Filo then jumps off the boulder and playfully walks while singing, "Eggs, eggs, yummy eggs! Eggs, eggs, yummy eggs!~"
Raphtalia tries to catch-up, "Wait! Filo!"
Filo then walks backwards, "You're too slow~!" But then, she lost her footing at the edge of a cliff.
"FILO!" Raphtalia runs up and tries to catch Filo before she falls.
"HANG ON!" Gwen follows Raphtalia to help.
Raphtalia grabs Filo's hand with Gwen trying to grab on. Yet surprisingly, Raphtalia can feel it but the three fell. Luckily, there are some branches and something soft at the bottom.
"Filo, are you alright?" Raphtalia asks to make sure Filo is okay.
"I'm fine." Filo is alright, "Thank you for trying to save me."
"You should be more careful!" Gwen scolds.
Filo and Raphtalia look behind them and sees the transparent figure of Gwen. Their eyes widen when they see her and think that she might be a ghost of someone that died in the mountains. Their faces start to go pale the more they look at her which is a surprise for Gwen. But her image disappear from their sight. Gwen looked at them and is confuse on what is going on. However, they have something else to worry about. They hear some angry oinking noises as they realize that they are sitting on top of a boar monster. A silver razorback to be precise. So the two scream as they try to runaway from the rampaging, angry monster. The two ran as fast as they could until they see another cliff in their path.
"Raphtalia!" Filo says as she transforms. "Hope on my back!"
"Right!" Raphtalia jumps on Filo.
"Wait for me!" Gwen hops on.
Filo jumps over the edge of the cliff as the silver razorback stops so it wouldn't fall. Raphtalia and Gwen fall off before Filo transform back while they are on the other side.
Filo tries to help Raphtalia up, "Are you okay, Raphtalia?"
Raphtalia grabs Filo's hand and is pulled up, "Yeah. We're even now."
"We should be a bit more careful." Gwen says as she gets up. To Filo and Raphtalia, she still seems transparent and give her some scared looks. "Can you girls actually see me?" she points at herself. "Can you girls...really see me?"
"Who...are you?" Raphtalia is scared of what she is seeing. Filo hides behind Raphtalia.
"So you can see me!" Gwen says and is relieved. But then comes the questions, "Wait, I'm imaginary! How the hell can you girls hear and see me?!" She looks at herself and sees that she is solid but a ghost to the others. "How can you see me if I am just an imaginary figure of Arthur's dead sister?! What the holy hell is going on?!"
Raphtalia calms down a bit, "Did you say Arthur's sister?"
Filo pokes her head out from behind. But then, Gwen disappears.
"What was that?" Filo asks.
"I...I don't know." Raphtalia replies. "But we have to hurry before anything weird happens again."
Both of the girls left as Gwen just stands there figuring out what happened.
"What just happened?"
It is almost sunrise as Raphtalia and Filo made their way towards a small peak as they spot the gogoku lying on her nest. Raphtalia sees the latium poking out underneath the big bird. Filo and Raphtalia looked at each other as they smile and nod. The two carefully tip-toe towards the nest in order to get what they need and get back to Arthur. Yet when they are in arm's length, the gogoku woke up and started squawking.
"Sorry!" Raphtalia apologizes and pulls her hand back, "Didn't mean to wake you!"
But then they hear a noise coming from behind. The silver razorback is back and charges right at them. Everyone, including the gogoku bird, get out of the way as the thing charges wildly at the nest that cause the latium to be launch in the air and destroying the eggs.
Raphtalia reaches out the latium in vain as it is being flung far in the distance. "No! The latium!"
Filo looks at the destroyed eggs and cries, "Noo! The eggs! The eggs!"
Both girls start to get angry as Filo stops crying.
"Raphtalia." Filo looks at the silver razorback.
Raphtalia nods while also looking at the silver razorback. "Right."
The two girls slowly approach the silver razorback. But not fearing it. The silver razorback slowly backs away from them out of fear. There is one thing that creatures of any kind should never do: never get between a woman and her goals. Especially two of them since they manage to capture the nasty boar as it squeals for its life.
Back in town, two men are near a fountain with an identical statue on it that looks just like the one from the bath yet surrounded by flowers. As they were talking, they notice Raphtalia and Filo (in her Filolial form) carrying the silver razorback with them while also a little dirty. They are trying to figure out on what kind of gift they can give to Arthur as they both sigh.
"What are we gonna do?" Raphtalia asks. Then she looks at the boar, "I guess we could give this boar to Arthur."
One of the men runs up to them, "Excuse me!" then the other man follows. "Is that a silver razorback?"
The other man points at the statue, "This town is pretty famous for it. We use them as offerings and for special celebrations."
"Could you sell it to us?"
Raphtalia and Filo look at each other and think about it. Gwen runs off to the inn to report back.
Raphtalia and Filo bought some tools to give to Arthur then headed back to the inn. Both of them gave him a small little box that has a hammer in it.
"Is this for me?" Arthur asks.
Raphtalia blushes a little, "It is a gift. You have done so much for us that we decided to give you a gift."
"Do you like it?" Filo asks.
Arthur smiles and puts the box down then pet both of their heads. "I love it very much. Thank you."
'Oh well.' Raphtalia thinks to herself. 'He still thinks of me as his little sister. I guess that's alright. I guess.'
Too bad for Raphtalia. But at least she did a bit more bonding with Filo. To Arthur, Raphtalia is still a child and a sister so she can't get any closer unless she tries to get his attention somehow. But that can wait until later.
In the afternoon, Arthur is about ready to leave to deliver some medicine to a town struck with a plague.
One man he passes says, "Did you hear? The village in the east is hit by a plague."
Another man says, "Yeah, I heard. A lot of medicine from our town is being transported there."
Arthur is looking serious as he approach Filo and Raphtalia, who are preparing the last preparations for their next job.
Raphtalia notices as she asks, "Is there something wrong?"
"We're heading east." Arthur says. "To fix the idiot's mistake."
Over at where Arthur's destination is, there is a dragon carcass rotting on the side of the mountains with a few dead victims around it on the bloodstain ground. Flies can be seen flying around the dead as some maggots try to feast on the decaying flesh.
AN: Hey everybody! Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Just to give you guys a bit of info, that there is going to be some changes after New Years. Fist off, there will be approximately four stories coming in 2020. As you know, I could do two chapters per two weeks. So in one week I will write two chapters for two stories then in another week two chapters for two other stories. The reason being is because of work. Just to give you guys the heads-up. So there will be one chapter per two stories every...four weeks. But I could do three chapters for three stories if possible.
Marshman101: Thank you.
RedBurningDragon: Don't worry, you get to see the isekai anime powers soon.
By the way, is everyone excited about Isekai Quartet Season 2 coming in January? Because I am and *spoiler alert* it has Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo in it! WOO! Although not much of a spoiler because of the Isekai Quartet 2 PV on YouTube if you guys have seen it.