Chapter 5

He and I basically turned his nice shop upside down looking for stuff my size. Since I'd arrived without anything close to my usual gear from home, I had to settle for what we could find. My limit on 'weapons' didn't really matter, since I was used to it. But, I could still use tools.

So in the end, I got a little backpack (a leather sack he hastily added straps to, but would carry bulky things). A tough cloth cape for bad weather, or to be used as a blanket if needed (this went into the new backpack). This world's version of an 'all purpose knife' (a little longer than my hand with a single edge and a curved tip for skinning, carving and cutting just about everything). A little hammer, so that I could use my all purpose knife to split wood, or any number of things you might need a little extra blunt force for. A belt to hang those two things from (since he had extra leather left over when he made straps for my pack).

"Not too heavy?" He asked as I looked at myself in a big polished sheet of steel.

"Everything's just right." I nodded, "Hmm, suppose I'll have to go back into town for a brush later." I did a little side to side 'is there any dirt on me' look at myself, "I suppose the nearby fields are reasonably safe?"

"What makes you think I know?" He asked, giving me a raised eyebrow.

"You don't get scars like that at a forge." I said, "Speaking of, would you accept payment for a custom order?"

"What about your current order hmm?" He asked, crossing his arms and trying to pull 'the topic change' on me.

"Well. Child sized Magic iron knife, bunch of leather scraps made into something useful, a toy hammer that just happens to be made of metal..." I looked up at him.

"Cheeky brat! A hundred silver!"

"Half price cause I'm half the size."

He was about to retort, but lost his composure and started laughing. After a moment of thumping his fist on the counter, he caught his breath, "You've been waiting to say that since you got here, haven't you?"

"Well yeah." I admitted, "I've also been looking at the prices on everything else. I can't read your language, but numbers seem to be the same in every world." I started fishing about in my pouches for coin, standing on the stool again so I could stack them up neatly on the counter, "Hundred silver. But do you have a bit of paper? Something to write with?"

"You're serious about a custom order then?"

"Yeah. Here's what I need..."

A bit later, after I set down the charcoal stick and handed him the paper, he looked at it, then at me, "You're a mysterious kid, you know that? It's like you know what you're doing."

"I've been getting that a lot." I nodded, "How long do you think?"

He looked at the design. Due to my size, 'full' armour would be too heavy. So what I'd drawn out were a pair of plated leather bracers. Small enough, light enough, and wide enough to protect my arm if I had to stuff it into a monster's mouth to keep it from biting my head off or something. But then I added something I couldn't, back home. Spikes. Things tended to let you go when biting something brought pain. It's why herbivores had things like quills or tough hides.

And maybe, just maybe, having things like that on my equipment might give my attack stat a boost. If the 'system' was so clearly number based, then I would play the system for every advantage I could get. Heck, if this worked, I'd get spiked gauntlets made. Kinda wondered how that would feel actually... But even if all I got was a +1 to my attack, it would literally be doubling what I had now.

"Couple days." He nodded, finally taking the money I'd put on the counter. "You going to be okay alone? The monsters around town aren't bad, but..."

"I'm a good runner, if nothing else." I assured him, "Two days then."

I walked out of the Castle City of Melromarc and into a wide open field filled with rolling hills, the occasional tree, and large patches of knee high grass.

While I'd been on my way out of town though, I took a closer look at those icons from before. Status, was one I'd already seen. My sad stats had gone up just a tiny bit with my new belt (+1 PDEF! ... yay?) but that wasn't important.

I focused on the (Item) icon, and to my surprise, a little window popped up with three items in it. My potion pills, and the little metal book mark.

So surprised was I, that I got a few strange looks from the people I was walking by when I exclaimed, "You're a dimensional storage? Why do other worlds have it and not mine?!"

So, I spent the rest of the walk out of town putting all but a few coins into the shield's storage. It was easy too! I just had to hold it over the glowing gem while I was 'looking' at the (Item) icon. And with the same 'pulled from my hand' feeling, the coins vanished. And yes, I tried to remove the first few coins, just in case it was just eating them without being able to get them back again.

Now feeling just under seven hundred silver coins lighter, I had a much easier time jogging out of town and into the field.

Game logic, for it seemed this world ran on it, dictated the monsters around here would be easy for anyone with a sharp weapon and an idea how to use it. That didn't mean I was going to just jump at the first monster I saw... Even here I would follow the rules of the Dungeon. Treat every monster as if it could kill you.

My first encounter in this lush grassland savanna was with something... odd. Starting with a rustling in the long grass, I thought it would be about the size of a small dog. Seeing three such rustling lines converging in my direction, I backed up to the top of a small hill that had a single gnarled tree atop it. Shade from the tree had kept the grass from growing too tall, so if nothing else, I wouldn't trip on a hidden rock or something (yes, I'd done that twice so far, stupid short legs).

Instead of dogs, or even something with legs, an orange ball about the size of my head, with a pair of eyes and a wide mouth, jumped at me from out of the grass. Like some kind of evil rabid Pacman. It even growled ominously as it bounced up from the ground and tried to bite me.

So with a simple sidestep, I slammed it sideways with the flat of my shield, my inferior strength compensated with velocity, making it bounce off my shield like a ball back into the grass.

The second one tried for my knee, and this time I kicked it, my shin catching it under the... was it even a 'chin' if all it was, was a ball? That attack sent it upwards into the tree, bouncing it off a low branch and back into the field.

The third one jumped up at me, and on reflex I did what I usually did with monsters back home that tried to bite me, and shoved my forearm into its mouth. Except, I wasn't wearing a metal bracer, and lacked the strength to break teeth. So of course, the thing latched onto me, and I braced myself for what I expected to be my first injury.

Except, it didn't hurt. My shield was emitting a faint green glow, matching the gem at its centre, that covered my entire body.

Aha! Unlike Orario, where an adventurer's toughness started just under the skin, in this world, it started over the skin. At least... It did for me? No excuse to let it keep biting me however, so I pulled it off my arm and threw it back into the grass. Opening up my Status screen, I looked at my HP. Yeah... My defence was high enough that I didn't even take damage from getting bitten.

Well, if that was how it was going to be... It was time to experiment...

Sometime around sunset, the little icon at the bottom corner of my vision flashed. 'Two or more Legendary weapons in close proximity will halt EXP gain!'

So, I stopped what I was doing, stood up, then stood on the rock I'd been sitting on, so I could see over the tall grass. Coming over the hill I'd first encountered the 'orange balloons' (I knew this was their name, since their drop item was, surprise surprise, 'orange balloon skin'), I spotted Ren and his other five party members.

No surprise, Ren and that guy in the plate armour were easily popping the Balloons, while his other party members were drawing them out from the grass, 'pulling aggro' as it were. Sadly, Ren was just swinging his blade around like an amateur, jumping and slashing, half losing his balance as he cut apart another one, catching his balance and then swinging his sword more like a baseball bat to kill another...

It hurt to see. Both that he was so clumsy yet killing so effectively.

He paused, backed away from another couple of Balloons, "Take them!" He said, looking around.

"Over here!" I called out, figuring he was getting the same message I was. Once he spotted me, I hopped off my rock to wade through the grass towards him.

"Still only this far?" He asked, the other party members spreading out and keeping watch. "Oh? Your shield has changed?"

Yes, I was currently wearing what my status called 'Orange Shield'. And aside from a minor colour swap, and a mastery bonus of 2 PDEF, it was exactly the same looking shield. "Well, my lack of attack power has limited my options." I shrugged, "Still the same sword?"

"There was no difference in stats with what I unlocked." He shrugged, "These are just trash mobs anyhow, hardly worth killing." He paused, "Did you hurt your hands?"

I looked at my hands, which were covered in dirt and bits of rubbery orange 'skin' from the monsters, "No, just had to get creative."

From one of his party, my ears caught the words, "Playing in the dirt, just like a dog." Followed by a muffled chuckle.

"Why did you refuse help?" Ren asked, either not hearing, or pretending not to hear the comment.

I looked at his party, and motioned to the tall man in full plate, "See him?" The man frowned at me, but I didn't care. When Ren nodded, I continued, "Slightly worn armour that is still in good shape, a sword hilt that's worn with practice, helmet with a claw mark he couldn't quite buff out. Those are signs of experience."

Ren considered that, "And Myne's equipment was all new..."

I smiled, "Even if this world is so... weird... monsters don't care how shiny your equipment is." I looked at myself, "Hmm, suppose I'll head to that stream over there..."

"You're taking this pretty serious, aren't you?" Ren asked.

"Of course I am." I shrugged, "Wish I had a compass... Anyhow, losing daylight. And if you hurry, I heard that the meat vendor in the market square sells things at a discount just before sun down."

Ren seemed to understand the clear dismissal, but didn't reply to me. He did hear me though, "You heard him. No excuse to overspend on dinner."

"Sir!"

I waded back to my spot in the tall grass and collected my things. Near the rock I'd been sitting on was my 'all purpose knife' standing point up in the ground and braced between a couple of rocks. Also nearby, pointing upwards, were several sharpened wood stakes.

The 'rules' prevented me from using weapons other than my shield. I'd tried throwing rocks and sharpened sticks, and even my little hammer, but they just bounced off harmlessly. However, once I created a 'hazard' and stopped touching it, there was nothing stopping me from pulling the Balloon off me when it tried to bite me, and just smashing it onto the sharp object.

All I had to do was move the grass around a bit to draw attention. And now, I was level three. I'd gathered enough 'orange balloon skin' to unlock an upgrade, get 'hints' on a couple further upgrades, and was almost done mastering this 'Orange Shield'. Sadly, though predictable, my attack power had only gone up one point per level. And yes, I'd experimented on that too. An Orange Balloon still took five minutes to kill. And by that time, I had a half dozen more trying to chew through my overbalanced PDEF stat.

The sun was starting to fade from the sky when I finished up by the little stream. I'd washed up, of course (even in another world, or in any world, I'd keep clean if I could), but also done a bit of fishing, and more experimentation. I was too low levelled to unlock it, but catching the fish 'notified' me of 'Fish Shield'.

One of the things I figured out, were some of the local plants. Using my knife and some reeds, I'd made a simple net and pulled up a couple of fish. Looking around the bushes near the water, I'd found some edible plants, but also medicinal ones. How did I know? Yup, you guessed it, the 'auto appraisal' of the Shield told me so.

I was still too low a level however, to unlock the Leaf Shield when it popped up on that weird (?) field in my status. Then I had to stop fishing and drag some more Balloons over to my spike traps. One of them was a 'Yellow Balloon' and yes, its skin unlocked a (surprise!) Yellow Shield. By then I'd mastered the Orange shield, so I switched over. Sadly, the Yellow Shield was the exact colour of yellow you'd expect on say, fresh snow. Thankfully, if this bizarre rule system held true, it would only take a couple of hours to 'master' and get its bonus.

Now with a full belly, a bunch of weird stuff in the dimensional 'inventory' in my shield, and wishing I had bought rope or something, I climbed a tree (what child doesn't want to climb trees?) took out the blanket/cloak I'd gotten from Erhard, and settled down for a nap.

I'd have to get right back to hunting things tomorrow, if I wanted to grow as quickly as possible...

I wasn't sure what woke me, but what ever it was nearly made me fall out of the tree. A moment later, as my eyes adjusted to the dim sunrise, and my ears filtered out the sound of water, my nose picked up something other than the smell of water and grass.

A quick mental check of myself, then yet another wish I'd at least kept 'The Good Sleep' ability from my adventurer status, I looked around for the source of the weird smell. Didn't take long, and while it wasn't in the tree with me, it was down at the base of the tree, surrounding it. Once spotted, little grey triangles appeared over their heads, marking them as 'hostile monsters'. Yes, yet another weird quirk of the world. I'd have been willing to bet those grey triangles were red though...

Looking much like the two balloon types I'd encountered all day yesterday, they were just a pair of eyes, a mouth, and round like a ball. Unlike the Balloons though, they had tongues, and occasionally, one would look up at me and drool, licking its lips at the prospect of an easy meal.

"Nothing unusual here... Nope. Gotta work before I eat." I sighed, waving a hand over my shield for the wooden spikes I'd made and pulling them from storage, "Let's hope you're not tougher than whatever passes for hard wood in this world..." My stomach growled, "And maybe edible."

After a nice breakfast of more fish and bits of cut up 'White Mush' monsters, I considered what to do next. I wasn't going to get very far with what I was doing. Too much setup, too many points of failure. Case in point, the wood I'd used to impale the Mush monsters was now being used to cook them. There was also my limit on physical strength. They weren't too heavy for me, but I was sure if things got much bigger, I'd need to spend a day setting traps, and hope what ever I lured into them died.

To be fair, the environment could be used further. For example, I had tried to drown one of the little buggers, and yes, it worked. Even got experience for it! But again, the thing didn't even have arms to fight me with. Just ridges of hardened... whatever it used for skin... and a tongue that made my skin numb for a little while. Herbivores with a carnivore attitude.

On the bright side, I'd hit level five. This unlocked the Fish Shield (claiming it gave me a bonus to fishing, and made my shield look like a wide, fish shaped animal cracker), the Mush shield (it looked like a mushroom cap and gave me the 'plant appraisal' skill... That I had figured some of out on my own with my own survival skills... sigh...), and let me master the godawful looking Yellow Shield.

But while wandered around the fields on my way back to town, my 'plant appraisal' allowed me to know for certain about some of the plants. This got me two more shields, the Leaf Shield (that yes, looked like a giant leaf, had a nice green colour and pleasant smell) and its 'absorption ability (level 1)'. The help menu was (ironically) little help explaining that, telling me it allowed me to 'absorb minor amounts of energy'. Solar powered shield? I'd need to experiment later... The second shield was 'Small medicine shield'. This one looked a bit weird, changing the edge of the basic Small Shield into something with a cutting edge that seemed just perfect for cutting plants.

There were still a bunch of shields I could see on my grid of (?) marks, but I was too low levelled and didn't have the right materials. But still...

If everyone in this world had 'status magic' and could literally get stronger by going out into a field and kicking around monsters... Why did it need me? When anyone with a pointy stick could kill monsters... When magic was reasonably accessible... When healing medicine existed! Why the hell would 'the four heroes' be needed at all?

"I'm not talking to myself." I mumbled, "Just conversing with the smartest person in the room..." I sighed, "And now I'm hungry again... Stupid body..."

"Kid." Erhard greeted me when I got to town. "You're a day early. Your order isn't ready yet."

I nodded, walking up to the counter, then taking a step back so I could look up at him. "Have a few questions, and you're the only one who will talk to me who doesn't think I'm some kind of simpleton, freak, or some kid playing dress up."

His easy smile faded, "Yeah... I can see how that would be a problem. But if you don't mind the delay in your order, I've got no problem chatting." The smile returned, "How are you doing out there?"

"Well enough that I have monster bits to sell, and a few things I'd like to buy." I replied with a little smile of my own, "Now that I've got a bit of a handle on some of this world's brand of weirdness... It's time to enforce my will on the world."

He frowned thoughtfully, "You make it sound like you've done this kind of thing before." Then laughed as if he'd made a joke.

But his laughter died when I didn't reply and continued to look at him seriously. "Since my Shield can only translate what I hear and speak, but not the words on things, and with the people here treating me like some kind of over dressed debris... I know I'm going to have trouble with selling, and buying stuff."

"Well... There's one guy who buys the lower end stuff from the monsters around here." He nodded, "But, he's a jerk, and would rip you off if he thought he could get away with it. Sadly, he's about the only one who will buy that kinda stuff..."

I waved a hand over the gem on my shield, and pulled out a scrap of Balloon skin, "What do you even do with this stuff anyhow?" I paused, "Well... Except maybe... no, would get slippery with sweat..."

He raised an eyebrow, but replied with "Balls. Kids love the things, but they wear out fast, so there's always a market for them."

"Huh... How about a tailor? Or Apothecary?" I made the Balloon skin vanish, and pulled out an 'medicine herb' (can be eaten raw to treat minor illnesses, but is extremely bitter. Can be processed into effective medicine, but it is still very bitter! (said my appraisal skill)).

"Oh, let me... where... aha!" He pulled up a bit of leather, and drew on it with a bit of charcoal. "Look for these two signs."

"Book seller?"

"This sign here."

"Glass maker?"

"Looks like this. Though I can make reasonably tough glass myself, if all you needed were bottles."

"I need stuff on par with your windows. And unless I get to a nice white sand beach someplace, I'll have to rely on someone to make it for me." I made note of all the signs, "Oh." I reached back and held up my tail, "Need a brush too."

"Tailor will have one for your kinda hair." He laughed, "Need anything else?"

His tone wasn't impatient... no, more expectant. "Got a chisel you'd be willing to part with?" After all the information he'd given me, I'd have felt bad not buying something.

"Lemme find one your size."

"Just snap one in half then." I sighed as he went through the heavy door behind the counter.

I spent a bit of my coin on food before looking for the shop signs. As usual, unless I was actively buying something, no one wanted to talk to the 'strange fox child'. Even the few other animal folk I'd seen would avert their eyes.

But, money talked. And while I avoided the shady looking guy at the end of the street who was buying stuff from people, I found all the other shops.

The glass maker was a kind old man, who had all kinds of fancy bottles, little ornaments, and even nice looking candle holders. But as soon as I asked where he got the sand for the glass he made, he gave me a glare and shooed me away like a pest. Even after I offered to pay for the information! He all but tossed me out of his shop and closed the door behind me.

The book seller was surprised to see me. Though, it was probably because I was a demi-human, not because I was the Shield Hero. However, the nice lady did sell me a book. One with lots of pictures and some easy words. This world's equivalent of a Dr. Seuss hero story. As a side note, when my shield took the book into its storage, one of the (?) changed with a potential new form, but said my level was too low and not enough material.

Then there was the Tailor, and the Apothecary...

The tailor was... interesting. She looked more like a bookworm than a tailor. Mousy brown hair, glasses, excitable when you got on to a topic she liked...

Add this to being the second person to show me actual kindness, and we really got along.

"Ohhhh that shield is really handy!" She exclaimed as my newly bought tailoring kit vanished into it. Yes, this also added another (!) to the vast field of (?) icons in my shield book, but again, too low level. "Say... that outfit you're wearing..."

"Wait!" I held up a hand as she started to get into my personal space, "Do you have a brush? Something for fur?"

She paused, her hands dropping to her sides before they reached full 'Issei grabby hands', "Oh... Well I do have something for wool. Buuuuuut..."

"I'll tell you, after I buy it from you."

"Yay!" And she vanished into her back storage room while emitting some happy sparkles.

Yes, as soon as I entered the shop, she had been giving my outfit 'the eye'. But, she'd held her professional cheer just long enough to do some business first. This told me a couple of things about her that so far, only Erhard had shown. She was in fact, professional. And She treated her customers like guests.

"Here we are!" She said, offering me a simple wood backed brush with thin wire tines. "This helps me straighten out tough fur before I try and spin it into yarn. So unless your fur is made of steel, it will be perfect!"

"Steel fur is a thing?" I asked, not really that surprised, since mine acted like steel back home...

"Well... Monsters are pretty weird in some places." She nodded, "Five silver please?"

I fished in my 'loose change' coin pouch and handed her five silver. I'd been drip feeding the money out of my shield's storage so I always had a little on hand. "So... The outfit is something from my world. Thankfully, the summoning ritual let me keep it."

She was doing a slow walk around me, "Why wouldn't it? I mean... well... huh... never thought about it?" She leaned in close, "Can I appraise this fabric?" She asked, taking something that looked like a monocle from a pouch.

"Sure. Though... Just so you don't have to bend down so far..." I kicked off my house slippers, glad they were part of the uniform, and stood on a stool. "We don't have anything like the magic here in my world. Well... Okay no, we kind of do. But its so distantly related..."

The glass of the monocle in her hand glowed a faint green and she peered through it, "Oh! This is... Oh my..." She was starting to sparkle. "This is incredible fabric! Hard to make, but very useful for those who can change shape!"

"Is that common? Shape changing I mean."

"Well... some of the beast races can do it. There isn't much call for it in Melromarc, but some of the richer folk use it so they always have a good fit for fancy parties. This outfit of yours... the style reminds me of something... But I can't think of it."

"Well, if I ever want a second outfit..."

"Actually, I can only make the clothing, not the thread. For that, you'd have to talk to the magic shop owner. She's an old Witch who sells magic books and other stuff like that."

"Literally, or figuratively?" I asked, starting to feel a little silly standing on the stool.

"Huh? Oh! Literally. She's a nice old lady. But she's also a retired sorceress. A Witch."

"I'll have to visit some time..." I nodded, my eyes looking down towards, but not directly at, the 'Magic' icon at the bottom of my field of view.

She examined a few other things, like my slippers and belt of pouches, "The stuff from your world is fascinating!"

"If I'd gotten a few minutes of warning, I could have brought more." I replied, stepping off the stool.

My seriousness seemed to grab her attention, "You have monsters and stuff where you're from too? What about the..." She paused to do a side to side look then lean down to whisper, "The Waves?"

"We have monsters, for sure." I nodded, looking up at her and suddenly unable to resist booping her nose. "Since I can't read yet... What's the magic lady's shop sign look like?"

She went cross eyed behind her glasses then stood up suddenly, "Lemme draw it real quick!"

The Apothecary on the other hand... Well...

His shop was almost as easy to spot, as smell. Even if I'd lost most of my additional Adventurer senses, the mix of fragrances and odours around his shop were pretty unique. The shop itself, a dimly lit affair with lots of shelves filled with herbs both fresh and dried, bottles both full and empty, and tools for the craft, was sparsely lit and kind of gloomy really... But to be fair, you didn't want candles in a shop full of super dried stuff.

The only place that was well lit, was the back counter. And there, looking every bit like 'the wise old man'. A bit gloomy looking like the rest of the shop, he was sitting next to a bubbling set of glass works, and thumbing through a well worn book, occasionally looking up to follow the progress of some liquid through the alchemy setup.

"Welc..." He paused as I stepped closer, "You must be the Shield Hero." Yes, he sounded a bit gloomy too. "Unless you're just another child dressing up. But even so, you wouldn't come here if you were."

I wasn't sure how to process that. Did others actually dress up as the shield hero?

"I am, Master Apothecary." I said respectfully, "Hopefully that doesn't spoil our relationship? I'll admit, I'm getting tired of almost everyone looking at me like some kind of cripple."

He set his book down, looked at his alchemy set, "If you can wait a moment, I can give you my full attention."

I nodded, "I'll just... aha. Don't mind me... Have to do this in every shop I've visited..."

Yes... I dragged over a stool, one that was for reaching the top shelves (or the middle shelves if you were me...) and stood on it, watching what he was doing. Interestingly enough, it was almost exactly the same as my alchemy set up back home. The heat source was a little red crystal set into a rune-carved iron ring. But aside from that, all it lacked was the Alembic I used to make pills.

For another minute or two, I watched him work in silence, until a thin blue fluid started to drip into a cooling flask at the end of the apparatus. "There." He said, waving his hand over the red crystal, the glow fading to something I only saw as grey. "You seem to know what to look for."

"My world is similar to yours." I said with a smile, "Same methods, different material. Do you purchase wild herbs?"

"The poorer the quality, the harder to refine, so you'll forgive me if the price seems low." He replied, waving his hand at the crystal again to make the glow fade entirely.

"Well..." I started to pull things from my Shield's inventory.

"As expected, the quality is rather poor, but your handling of them while harvesting tells me you know what you're doing." He nodded, flicking his hands over a well worn abacus (four worlds out of four had these... more common than maid outfits!). "About this much." A pause, "Do you know your numbers?"

"Numbers yes, letters no." I said, nodding at the amount on the abacus, "You wouldn't happen to teach, would you? Sell a simple setup like this that I can use with a flat surface and some time?"

"I can, and do. But..." He flicked the beads of the abacus over, then over some more, putting me 'in the red', "It will cost this much."

"Let me show you something..."

Yes, I showed him my own potions. Not just that, but that they were in pill form. This completely shattered his gloomy exterior, and he started trying to figure out what I'd done, how I'd done it, and if he could do it too.

At the cost of one Mana pill, and one Potion pill, as well as showing him what equipment I used and how I used it, he taught me some of the basics of this world's alchemy based medicine making. He was delighted I knew what I was doing, and after proving that I knew my way around an alchemy set, we spent about an hour exchanging notes.

He also gave me a small reference book with a few simple recipes, along with a 'beginner's alchemist kit' (for alchemists on the go), and even a heat stone. The stone worked off a person's magic power, and after a couple tries I got it working too. It was... a little to the left of my usual 'push mana into item' from back home. But once I figured it out, and my MP started to slowly drain away, I knew I could do it any time.

This also fully unlocked (minus the level requirement) 'the Book shield', and partially revealed one other shield (small poison shield).

But it was around here my stomach told me once again that my body was an inefficient calorie burning furnace, and I left the shop, my new items safely stored in the shield.

It was time to find a place to eat, and maybe get a bed for the night.

Things were much different at night in this town. Before, when I'd gone through the open air market stalls for food, it was simply a matter of pointing at what ever my stomach was grumbling the loudest for, and exchanging a few bronze pieces. The open and public nature of the street, and the fact I waited until just after someone else had bought something, meant I was paying exactly what everyone else was. (though in double or triplicate... I was worse than my own children for being hungry all the time!)

The first place I tried seemed lively enough, but the instant I pushed open the door to enter, the entire room went silent. Like the Sheriff walking into a saloon full of outlaws.

So without even taking a full step in, I turned and left.

The next place was quieter, and I managed to step in without everyone going quiet and glaring at me. Except the guy taking orders behind the counter. He looked at me and said quite firmly, "Don't care if you're the 'Shield Hero'! We don't serve demi-humans here!"

That's when the people stopped to glare at me. So, I left that place too.

I briefly considered entering a church, but when I saw the emblem of the Sword Spear and Bow on the front, I turned away from that too. Why the hell would they summon me, if they hated me? Was it some kind of 'all or nothing' ritual? Was it yet another 'misfire'?

I started to feel angry, and my growing hunger wasn't helping. I was even thinking about walking out of town again to go fishing. Or maybe see if the canal between the 'merchant' and 'residential' districts had fish in it.

But then I spotted a little sign over an open doorway. A bowl of food resting on a bed. It looked like an actual house, not a bar/tavern/inn, and most importantly, the light was on and the door was open.

So I walked up to the door, looked inside, and was spotted by someone who could have been related to Mama Mia. Distantly, for I hadn't seen anyone nearly as tall and wide of shoulder as Mama. But she had the same matronly look, the same friendly face, and there was something cooking in the kitchen behind her...

"Well, don't clog the door." She said, "Oh! You must be..." She was also human. And it seemed I'd be turned away from here too, but then my stomach commented on the amazing scent of stew and bread coming from the room behind the lady. "Well, I suppose even heroes need to eat. Going to come in or not?"

"Thank you Ma'am." I replied, stepping in, "Pardon the intrusion, but does the sign over your door means what I think it does?"

She blinked at me, then nodded, "They say the Heroes are from another world. Does your world have a similar sign?"

"We do. But if you want a story, could it be over a meal?"

I put away an alarming amount of really good stew, an almost as much nice, crunchy on the outside fluffy on the inside bread, then paid her half again what she was asking if I could get a couple loaves of that bread in the morning.

She even gave me a headpat and a smile, just like Mama would. She looked incredibly embarrassed a moment later when she realized I was 'a legendary hero', but I told her (in my best just-over-eight-years -old magnanimous squeaky voice) that I would forgive her if she could give me a little lesson on letters. Also, that she didn't have to stop.

While I ate, or rather, between bowls and plates, I told her a little of where I'd come from. Just the 'big picture'. Stories, legends, that kind of 'innocent' stuff that every kid in every universe ever would know about their own world. Like talking about Santa or the Easter Bunny or something.

After I'd eaten, and said 'yes I was sure', I brought out the children's book. I surprised her when I took out a pencil as well, and as she sounded out words for me, I wrote the appropriate sound over the letters. Like writing 'A Oo E EH O' or 'CHuh, Kah'. My shield, in its infinite cheatyface easy mode, was actually making it harder in a way, 'speaking' into my head much like Loaner would when he talked to me. After a couple pages of that, and getting another headpat for being such a good student, she shooed me up to a room.

It wasn't much. Just a bed, a dresser with a mirror and wash basin, and a little table by the one window that had a small flowerpot on it (with no flower). The bed however was clean and the room didn't smell musty at all.

Something caught my eye though, something Haruhime and I had been doing with our children, and that almost any parent does with theirs. The inside of the door frame had tiny little cuts in it, starting from just a little over my hip, then up until over where I could reach.

The nice lady saw me take note, "I have a son you see. Left years ago. He's a merchant now, and he uses this room when he passes by every couple of seasons. Husband left long ago, and well, it's nice to have someone else in the house."

"I'll be sure to brush my tail before bed then, thank you." I replied sincerely.

"I'm surprised I didn't have to put you to bed myself! Surprised you're still awake with all you ate." She smiled, and yes, gave me one last headpat before turning, "I'll wake you for breakfast." And then closed the door behind her.

She was right though... Almost as soon as she shut the door, I felt this overwhelming urge to just... skip brushing my tail. My tail didn't even complain! But no, I was a guest, and without my unbreakable grip, my tail was shedding like any other super fluffy tail (who was a still a good tail).

Of course, though it shouldn't have surprised me, my Shield lit up with a new (!) on the... You know, I'm going to call it the Shield Almanac from now on. This new shield was quickly followed by two more, since I was sorting my three fur colours so they wouldn't bundle up and confuse the inventory system. First was 'Shield of the Black Hunter'. Second was 'Shield of the Golden Harvest'. And last was 'Shield of the Silver Guardian'.

All three were WAY out of my level range, and showed 'insufficient material'. But I was certainly not expecting my own fur to be part of this world's weird power up system... How about that? Actual motivation to brush my tail more...

But now that my tail wasn't going to leave (too much) fur all over the nice mattress, I got into bed, held my wedding ring a little while so I could see Haruhime's smile, then put it away and went to sleep.

NOTES!

Do you hear that? It sounds too quiet...

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.

And! I'm looking into getting some story themed merchandise made. Join the Discord to find out more!