Chapter 5 of Spear and Shield.
I have no clue on how the weapons searching for their wielders work I just know that Naofumi and I guess in this case, Kane were the first candidates when it came to to picking, while the other heroes weren't the weapons first choices, so I decided to make it so that the first choices get three passive skills.
Someone asked why did the nuns give the holy water to Kane despite the Church trying to kill him. A good question something I've got a few reasons for so instead of messaging that person back I'll answer it here for everyone.
1. They don't want to show hostility to someone they failed to kill, that same person also has no idea the Church was trying to kill him so by playing nice they make it easier to attempt another assassination if they want but keep in mind the Queen's Shadows are pretty much fighting against the Church's Shadows, originally the Shadows protected pretty much all the Heroes but they mostly focused on the Shield Hero since well he's pretty much enemy number one in the Church's eyes.
2. These are nuns not the actual Pope himself, so they don't have a god complex and genuinely believe in the three Heroes so they're not going to be so malicious.
3. Kane supporting Naofumi hasn't been spread at all since if one of the Heroes believes the person you framed others may follow and once the Spear Hero gets famous enough people will mostly likely starting to take him for his word and so when they hear him about defending the Shield Hero they may reconsider Naofumi's guilt or at least put some doubt in their minds so really no one knows outside of the court apart from the higher ups in the Church but random nuns will most likely not know about it so in the eyes of the public and the nuns he's the Legendary Spear Hero, not the defender of a "rapist".
I don't own anything, all rights go to their respective owners.
Talking: "My heart's a stereo."
Thinking: 'It beats for you so listen close.'
"We all got our own strengths and weakness, don't feel bad if someone else is better at doing something that you find hard, I'm sure they have something they find hard while you find it extremely easy."-Kane Stone Spear Hero.
The rooms is almost completely silent all one could hear is the soft breathing of the three slaves, one of them wakes up and shakes the other two, they begin to stir in their beds all of them slowly waking up to the empty room with the Spear Hero missing. One of the slaves with dog ears asks the others a question.
"Where do you think he is?"
Before any of the slaves can answer, Kane enters the room and finds the slaves staring at him. "Oh good you guys are awake, I bet you're all hungry." He moves to the table and pulls out two sets of food from his inventory and places them on the table. "Alright go ahead and eat, you." He points at the small slave girl who gulps in fear "Stay in bed, I've got some medicine for you that you'll need to take before eating."
The children look at each other thinking about what to do before they get interrupted again by Kane. "Well if you guys aren't gonna eat it then I guess you wouldn't mind if I eat it then." The slave with dog ears gains a small bit of confidence and gets out of bed slowly moving to the table followed by the other slave with what looks like cat ears. The two slaves sit at the table alternating looks between the food and the Spear Hero who responds with a hand motion to continue. The dog slave begins eating, shovelling food down their throat as if there was no tomorrow, the cat slave begins to follow and eats just as quickly if slightly slowly.
Kane looks at the two eating like rabid animals. "Jesus Christ, calm down you two, keep this up and you'll choke. Food doesn't even taste good when you devour like that." The two look at him and slow down a bit but continue on eating, Kane just responds with a shake of his head and sit on foot of the bed to give the girl the medicine before letting her eat.
He pulls out a potion that he made earlier that cures basic illnesses, he also pulls out a jar of honey with a wooden spoon in it. "Alright this medicine is really bitter, trust me I know from experience." he finishes off with a chuckle. "So we gonna let you drink this potion, when it gets too bitter tell me and I'll give you some honey to help with the bitterness." He uncorks the potion and hands it to the little girl who takes it with both hands and stares at him, he gives her a nod which makes her look at the potion, she slowly puts it to her lips "If you do it slowly it'll make it taste worse so try and do it quickly." Taking his words into consideration she tries to down the potion quickly, she stops due to the bitterness and pulls the potion from her lips, she puts one of her hands to her throat. She struggles to swallow the medicine but after doing so begins to groan at the horrible taste.
Kane takes a spoonful of honey and feeds it to her, the girl quickly swallows the honey to try and get rid of taste of the potion but there's still a lingering taste of it making her cringe, Kane gives another spoonful of honey to the girl's relief. After a few more spoonfuls of honey the revolting taste in the girl's mouth is gone to her relief but is quickly horrified by what the Spear Hero said.
"You're gonna need to finish off that potion, I know it tastes awful but it's for your own good." She shudders at having to drink more of the potions but puts the potion to her lips taking another gulp of the potion stopping again due to the taste to which Kane quickly feeds her with honey to offset the bitterness of the potion.
This continues for a few minutes the girl almost throwing up at how horrible but quickly eating honey given to her by Kane which rids the urge to throw up the disgusting potion, she gives one last shudder at the thought of the "medicine" and looks at the Spear Hero who looks back with a smile on his face. "Good job! I would probably start bawling like a baby at how bitter it is." she smiles to which he stands up, he pulls one of the end tables closer, moving all the objects onto the foot of the bed. After clearing the table he places another set of food from his inventory onto the table to let the girl eat. "Alright kid go ahead and eat, do go slow though I don't want you choking and aggravating your throat okay?" She concentrates entirely on the food with a bit of drool at the side of her mouth, she quickly shakes her head to focus on Kane and gives him multiple nods, he chuckles and gives her a ruffle on her hair letting her eat.
Kane walks to the other two, checking up on how their doing and finds rubbing their bellies. He snorts at this "Alright you two show me your slave crests and I'll remove em." The two stare at Kane unsure how to proceed but again the dog slave gains the confidence to go first and slightly pull down their shirt to show the crest, Kane walks forward taking out one of the holy waters and pouring it on the slave crest making it begin to flash and slowly fade away. The child touches their chest at the sight of losing their slave crests.
Kane begins to move to the other child who shyly shows their slave crest to which Kane finishes off the rest of the already used holy water. "Alright well that's both of your crests gone. So what's your names?" the cat demi-human looks down while the dog demi-human looks at him, in a soft voice they speak telling their name.
"My name is Keel."
"Nice to meet you Keel, my name's Kane. What about you kid?" He looks at the other demi-human who is still looking at the ground
"I-I don't have an n-name."
Kane stares at the child with a shocked look that turns into one of sympathy. "A-Alright how about I come up a name for you?" The child looks at him and slowly nod. "Okay you're a cat right?" The child nods but specifies what kind of cat he is.
"I-I'm a lion demi-human."
Kane nods his heads and put a hand to his chin, after a few minutes of thought he snaps his fingers. "Okay I got one, how about Leonidas or Leo for short?"
The lion demi-human slowly nods his head at the name. Kane smiles at this "Alright you guys still hungry?" they both nod their heads to which Kane pulls out some more food from his inventory "It's not as much as last time but if you're still hungry after all that then we'll go get some more food." the two demi-humans begin to eat again with the food given to them by Kane.
Kane goes to the girl in bed and sits on the foot of the bed, the girl stops eating and looks at him "Do you mind if I interrupt to remove that slave crest?" She shyly shakes her head and shows the slave crest to which Kane pours some holy water on it to remove the curse. He pulls away the bottle and asks the girl a question "So what's your name?"
The girl stares at him "R-Rifana."
Kane smiles "Well it's nice to meet you too Rifana, my name is Kane. So what kind of demi-human are you?"
"I'm a w-weasel demi-human."
"That's pretty cool, I'm just an average human who can only do average human things."
Rifana smiles and look down at her hands. "Well I let you get back to eating." He stands up and walks to the table with Keel and Leo, he pulls out a chair and takes a seat going through his routine of checking his status and such.
Stat Potion Sickness (02:47:38): Drinking potions that increase stats have a cool-down once the potion effect has worn off the cool-down will need to be completed before drinking another Stat Potion. The amount of time required to recover from Stat Potion Sickness varies depending on how long the potion lasts for.
Kane sighs at the cool-down. 'Well shit looks like there is a drawback especially considering how long this cool-down, I mean that potion wore out yesterday and the fucker is still taking pretty much three hours to wear off.' He starts to make potions to try and increase his Buff Potion skill, letting the group of children eat in peace.
Sometime later
All the children finish eating, Kane helps Rifana out of bed and pushes back the end table to it's original spot, also placing all the items that were on the end table back onto it. "Alright you lot let's get you guys some clothes and then you can all take a bath. We'll figure how to move on after that." The children all nod at this and follow him apart from Rifana who was still rather weak from her illness as such Kane lets her ride on his shoulders to the tailor shop.
The group stand outside of the what they believe is the tailor shop.
#ail#r Sh#p
Kane stares at the sign his mind going blank for a moment forgetting a few letters in the language. He continues staring at it so much so that the children with him become concerned. Keel speaks out about it. "Ummm Sir Stone are you okay?"
Kane's concentration is broken and he looks at Keel. "What… oh yeah just trying to remember the letters I'm guessing it says Tailor Shop but still I wanna remember the letters or else it's gonna bug me all day. Also you guys can just call me Kane and you don't need to call me 'Sir' just sounds wrong in my head." He sighs "Welp let's get inside then." The group enter the shop
The shop owner speaks "Welcome to my shop come in!" The shop owner's smile weakens a bit at the sight of the children.
"I'm here to buy some new clothes for these kids, something comfortable and affordable."
The shop owner nods and takes the children measurements, Kane puts Rifana down so she can get measured by the tailor, she proceeds to go get clothing for them. After a while she comes back and gives the children the clothing and shows them the changing rooms, after the children leave the Tailor looks at Kane.
"So do you mind telling me why the Spear Hero has a group of malnourished demi-human children?"
Kane crosses his arms "...would you believe me if I said I found them?"
The Tailor shakes her head. "Not really, you just found a group of demi-human children in Melromarc? I really doubt it."
"Fine let's just say there's one less slaver in the world and leave it at that."
Tailor nods and moves on from the subject. "I won't say anything as long as you treat them well, speaking of the children what is your plan with them?"
He sighs "I was planning on trying to find an orphanage or something for them but the way demi-humans seemed to be treated in this country makes it seem like a bad idea."
Tailor nods "While slavery is legal and demi-humans are discriminated, there are some parts that aren't so racist against demi-humans but leaving the children alone at unknown orphanage could result in them being turned into slaves… again especially during these times with the Waves, I think it would be best if they stay with you for the time being."
"Right kind of a problem considering I'm the Spear Hero so I can't exactly always be watching them."
"You could invite them to your party Hero."
Kane shakes his head "I rather avoid making children fight in an actual life or death situation."
"Do you not know how demi-humans work Hero?"
Kane gains a look of confusion "I imagine just normal humans but with animals parts."
The Tailor sighs. "Well yes but not only that but demi-humans can age very quickly if their levels are increased."
Kane puts a hand to his chin. "Their still a bunch of kids though, I don't know I'll let them decide what they want, either they can stick with me until we find them a good home or I can add them to my party… I would prefer if they chose the first one."
Tailor nods "Well I gave them slightly bigger clothes so they can grow into it."
Kane nods back "Thanks for that how much would it be?"
The Tailor puts a hand to her chin "I'll take 15 silvers for all the clothes altogether."
Kane proceeds to pull out the coins and pays the tailor giving a few extra coins as a tip. The children all come out wearing fresh clothes, they walk up to Kane ready to leave. "Right well thank you for the clothes, see you later." The Tailor waves goodbye, the group leave Kane gives Rifana a piggyback ride they proceed to go back to the room.
Kane shows them to a bathing room to let the children clean themselves. "Alright go ahead and take a bath, I'll wait out here for you guys." The children enter the room and Kane stands outside, he decides to go through his status.
Sometime later.
After a while the group leave the room, their hair still rather damp but other then they were dry and clean. "Alright well lets ge-" He's interrupted by Keel stomach rumbling who proceeds to look embarrassed with his ears lowering. Kane chuckles and ruffles Keel's hair "Heh let's go get something to eat then, we'll decide what to do after we getting back to the room."
The group goes to the inn they're staying at and get something to eat. They sit down at the table and wait for the orders to taken, after a while a woman comes up "What can I get for you Spear Hero?" Kane looks around the table "Uhhhh do you have kids meals?" The woman nods, Kane continues with his order "Okay sooo three kids meals and I dunno something with meat for me I guess." The woman nods again and goes to go make the food.
After a while of waiting the food arrives and the children begin to eat quickly, wolfing down the food to the woman and Kane's shock "Jesus calm down you three at least eat with a fork, rather you kids don't choke or get dirty again." The three stop, look at Kane and begin to go back to eat but slower still not using the cutlery. He shakes his head, thanking the woman for the service and proceeding to eat his own meal.
The group after sometime finish their food although the children faces are rather greasy and messy from eating with their hands. The woman comes back with the total cost of the food to which Kane pays and again leaves a small tip. The group leave, Kane takes them to the bathroom to wash their faces, after he takes them back to his room to ask them what they want to do.
Everyone is seated around the table, the children all staring at Kane waiting for him to do something to which he opens his mouth. "So we need to decide what to do with you guys, you're just kids but I rather ask what you want over what some stranger asks so." He pauses for a moment "We have two options; option one, you stay with me until we find a good place to look after you guys, it might take a while considering the whole racism thing but I'm sure we can find someone to take you in: Option two, you join my party and fight in dangerous fights that could result in you guys being harmed."
The three look at each other, surprisingly Leo is the first to speak "I-I wish t-to join your party S-Sir Stone I mean S-Sir Kane." Kane frowns at responses to this "I wish to b-become strong like you." Keel nods and follows up
"Me too I want to make sure I won't ever be taken as a slave again, I want to become just as strong as you too Sir Kane!"
Kane huffs and looks at Rifana "I'm guessing you feel the same way."
Rifana nods her head "Yes I wish to join your party too Sir Kane!" She coughs after speaking still recovering from the cold.
Kane crosses his arms and leans back into the chair "Well I said I'll let you lot decide but you guys know this is really dangerous right? Don't you think trying to find a new home would be better?"
Keel replies, surprising Kane with how well spoken they are. "Nobody will accept us. We are a bunch of demi-humans in a country that enslaves us. It's safer with you and we can become strong with you." The other two nod at this.
Kane scratches his cheek. "Ugh fine I rather find you guys a good home but if you want to come join me then alright I guess, also you don't need to call me Sir especially now that we're gonna be in the same party."
The three smile at this before they're surprised by a notification that pops up
Kane Stone has invited you to a party! Accept or Decline?
Keel and Rifana press accept quickly while Leo hesitates a bit before finally pressing the yes option.
Kane Stone-LVL 37 Spear Hero
Rifana-LVL 1 Demi-Human
Keel-LVL 1 Demi-Human
Leondias-LVL 1 Demi-Human
Companion Spear unlocked! + Party member stat growth.
Guardian Spear unlocked!
Kane looks outside to see the sun starting to set, he sighs at the window and turns to look at the children. "Well let's get to bed early today, let you guys gain your strength for tomorrow I guess."
The three nod and proceed to get into bed, Kane gets into a chair and tries to fall asleep to which somehow does despite being in a rather uncomfortable chair.
The next day
The party wake up and get ready, Kane brings up breakfast, while Keel and Leo eat Kane feeds Rifana more medicine for her illness to her disgust. They leave the inn after that going towards the blacksmith shop to equip the children for the day.
They enter the shop to which the Erhard welcomes them in "Hey Spear Kid, what with the kids behind you?"
Kane looks back and then turns looks at Erhard "Freed them from a bunch of slavers, they're with me now." Kane looks at the children and then back to Erhard. "They wanted to stick with me and fight so here I am equipping them." He finishes with a sigh.
Erhard nods "Well I get some daggers they can use and some small pieces of armour I'm sure we can adapt to fit them." He goes in the back to pull out the goods, after pulling them out he shows the children the changing rooms to which they take the equipment handed to them and go into the changing rooms. Erhard looks at Kane "Soooo Kid you wanna talk about the child yesterday?"
Kane sighs "She was a part of the group of slaves that I freed… She was dead before I arrived unfortunately."
Erhard crosses his arms and his face frowns "What happened to the slavers? Should you be worried they'll come back to take the kids?"
Kane shrugs "Well there's one less slaver in the world, one of them ran off deeper into the forest while I knocked out the other one and left him."
Erhard hums at this "Well watch out just in case you might have scared them off permanently but it doesn't hurt to be a bit cautious, especially if you're looking after kids now.
Kane nods at this logic, he decides to change the subject pulling out the monster materials he got yesterday. "You mind giving these parts to Shieldy?"
Erhard huffs "My shop isn't a place for you to leave stuff behind Spear Brat." Kane gives an impish grin in response to which Erhard grumbles "Fine pass it here I'll give to her next time I see her." Kane starts to hand the monster materials to Erhard to which he collect but he inspects one of the monster materials
Alpha Dire Wolf Fur.
Erhard whistles at the sight of it. "Damn kid this is some good stuff you know if you can get me some more good materials I would be able to make some really good custom armour."
Kane nods "Yeah getting new armour doesn't sound too bad but honestly right now I rather focus on getting these kids to a certain level of strength."
Erhard nods his head "I understand but it doesn't hurt to level them up and also collect some goods while you're doing it." The children exit the changing room with daggers and pieces of leather that's been resized to fit their small frames. "Anyway Spear Kid that will be 43 silvers." Kane pulls out the silvers and pays Erhard.
Kane looks at the children and sighs "Well let's go get some levels then I guess." They start to leave the shop "See you later Erhard."
"Look after them Spear Brat!" Erhard waves at the backs of the group. The group leave the shop and stand the three children staring up at Kane to which he shrugs. "Well time to venture out into the wild I guess." He begins to walk to the town entrance to which they all follow after him quickly.
After sometime walking they find themselves in a grassland not too far from town, the area is perfect for beginners as Kane remembers due to this being where he first began killing monsters. He turns and looks at the group. "We're gonna be killing some weak monsters to level you guys up, Rifana I want you to not try and push yourself too much, if you guys need a break tell me and we'll stop for a bit and let you guys recover." The party hear bouncing and to everyone's but Kane who groans at the annoyance. An Orange Balloon pops out of the grass hopping towards the party trying to attack them.
Orange Balloon LVL 1
Kane slices the balloon with ease killing it instantly, after slicing it three more pop out of the tall grass, the three children react and each stab one of the three balloons, the balloon Keel stabs pops but Rifana and Leo rebound off causing the balloons to hop back into the tall grass, they try to attack again but Kane kills both of them with a swipe he ruffles Keel's hair to which they stiffen at before beaming at the affection.
12 XP gained!
He walks to the two children and helps them up, they're both ashamed; Rifana ashamed of her weakness while Leo is ashamed of his lack of confidence. Kane speaks to the two to try and lift their spirits. "Hey there's no shame in losing at the start, you don't just become a strong fighter overnight it takes time and practise."
The two look up at him, Rifana looks at Keel and then down at the floor. "I'm not strong like Keel, I'm not strong like you, how can I become strong if I can't even kill a balloon." Leo also lowers his head at realising that Keel killed the balloon completely fine with no issues unlike him.
Kane shakes his head "Everyone has their own strengths and weakness, don't compare yourselves to someone else, you never know maybe they find certain things difficult but you find it easy. Everyone is different."
The two look up to find Kane looking at them with a smile on his face. The two grips their weapons tightly and take his words to heart. They don't have to wait for very long since another group of balloons attack, this time although Rifana and Leo don't kill the balloons in one stab unlike Keel they do stab the balloons more then once which results in it popping, filling the two of them with confidence.
Leo is fighting a balloon by himself to which it jumps on him, he responds by pure instinct and blocks the mouth of the balloon with his dagger. The Orange Balloon continuously chomps on the dagger either in hopes to destroy the dagger or just want to chew on something. Leo capitalizes on the balloon biting away at his dagger by slamming it to the ground and putting his foot and roughly pulling his dagger out of it's mouth, he quickly stabs it before the balloon can get loose. Kane standing a few feet away having foreseen the whole thing, was about to jump in thinking Leo needs his help but to Kane's joy Leo handled it by himself. "Good reflexes Leo and a smart way to deal with the monster, nice work." Leo's face heats up at the compliment and feels a surge of pride about it.
22 XP gained!
Kane sighs at the amount of XP they earned 'this is gonna take sometime.' a Green Slime shows up to which he slices, killing it instantly. "We're gonna be here for a while so get used to killing these guys you lot." the long grass becomes disturbed as if something is moving in it to which a Mush pops out. Rifana eager to prove herself throws her dagger at the Mush which hits it dead centre killing it in one hit surprisingly, Kane whistles at the rather impressive aim of the child. "...Good throw Riffy, we should get you a bow or something although throwing your dagger at monsters should really be a last resort since you know you would be left defenceless, still that was a good throw Riffy you should be proud of it." Rifana smiles at the compliment and also blushes, she quickly obtains her dagger and decides to not throw it again taking what Kane said to heart.
The group continue, killing hordes of Slimes, Balloons and even the occasional Usapil although Kane took care of the Usapils since the monsters were a bit much for the kids and since blood seems to still make them uncomfortable. He takes breaks to let the kids rest, despite being slaves not too long ago they're in Kane's opinion rather well. he goes through his status to look at the levels while letting the kids rest.
Kane Stone-LVL 37 Spear Hero
Rifana-LVL 5 Demi-Human
Keel-LVL 5 Demi-Human
Leondias-LVL 5 Demi-Human
Kane looks at the children but then focuses on Rifana and Leo. "Different strengths kids, different strengths." Rifana and Leo give a small smile and nod "You three recovered yet?" They all nod in response. "Well let's get back to it again for a bit longer before heading back.." They go back to killing monsters for a while resulting in the children gaining some more levels, Kane eventually decides that it's enough for today. "Good job all of you, you should all be proud about yourselves today." The three smiles bashfully to which Kane responds with a light chuckle "Okey-dokey let's head back now, get something to eat, take a bath then go to sleep sound good?" They all nod their heads "Then let's get going."
Sometime later
They enter the inn and order food, while the kids are eating, Kane goes to the innkeeper to get a new room with separate beds, he pays for the new room and goes back to the table, he finishes his food after he takes the kids to the new room, letting them rest while he goes and takes a bath.
Kane gets into the tub, bathing himself while also thinking about the situation he's found himself in. 'I rather find those kids a good home but I have no idea where to find one for them.' He sighs at this, he remembers a new Spear he unlocked that didn't give him anything.'I wonder what that Guardian Spear unlocked me?' He checks his perks to see if anything new has shown up.
Guardian Spear-Heroic Caretaker: You're pretty much the guardian of a group of children, how unlucky for them. Children who have you in their lives as a key figure have an increased stat growth and some may even gain unique skills.
Kane rolls his eyes at the Gungnir's jab, he moves on, his interest piqued by the Caretaker perk 'So the kids get stronger with me huh? What does a key figure mean exactly? Like a father figure or what?' Kane decides to forget about it and finish bathing.
He enters his room to see everyone looking at him. He speaks "Come on get to bed you three, it's been a long day." The three demi-human stand up and make their way to the beds. They get under the covers and find a comfortable spot to fall asleep to.
"Goodnight you three." Kane speaks while getting into his own separate bed distanced closer to the window as opposed to the children who are in a bed big enough to fit the three of them, closer to the door. The children all responds with a goodnight.
Kane tries to get comfortable for a bit, tossing and turning before finding a good spot to which he slowly begins to drift off to sleep.
Chapter 5 ends and so Keel and Rifana are alive and are now part of Kane's party alongside a new character I made.
Stay safe out there everybody.