Just gonna answer a couple of things since I've been bothered by this over and over again: As Itsuki's slave, Rishia is still affected by the Bow Hero's weapons (meaning yes, her stat growth is still THAT bad even with the Slave Series helping her out). Same with Raphtalia, and those registered to the two Heroes as 'slaves' back in their world. The method Fitoria knows would help. It scales with how many levels you reset and can be done repeatedly (with obvious diminishing returns between each use). Still, these things won't do much overall as 0.01 x 100 (an example of just how bad Rishia's stat growth is even with a high multiplier) is NOT going to be as helpful as it would for 1 x 100 (an example of other character's more normal stat growth with a high multiplier).
I'll put this here since I said it in the last chapter: Rishia IS a LATE BLOOMER character. Her stat growth sucks between levels 1-68. Growth multipliers won't help her much, if at all, to match the stat growth of her peers since her personal base stat growth between those levels is COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE!
For those who can't recall, at Cal Mira, Rishia hit a wall in leveling once she hit level 68 and needed a lot of experience to hit the next level after that. That is an experience Wall she must overcome. Even by the end of the Spirit Tortoise Arc, she hasn't hit level 69, so no one in the story knows this yet. You will have to wait patiently for this to occur, but after Rishia overcomes that wall and hits level 69: she'll need a normal amount of experience for levels again. But as well as that, Rishia's stat growth EXPLODES. As in, she goes from single-digit increases in stats per level to TRIPLE-DIGIT increases per level, and that isn't factoring in growth multipliers or anything.
This is not a joke. I'm not joking when I say Rishia has a LATE BLOOMER stat build. If you truly want to help the girl turn into a Gyarados as I put it last chapter, then put in the damn effort to have her hit level 69. Then, you can watch the stat growth multipliers TRULY work their magic on what'll become a god-tier base stat growth. In the meantime, she is just fine the way she is. Hengen Musou is OP when one can use it properly.
Chapter Fifty-Four: Escaping the Inescapable Labyrinth
Kizuna was understandably confused, so Naofumi had to explain the Bio-Plant Seed to her. Giving its background and what it was capable of.
It'd been created by an unknown alchemist sometime in the past to combat famine. But while it had grown lots of food, the plants also had the unintended side effect of mutating into monsters. According to Ren, after a few weeks of growth, it was very hard to kill by normal means, so it was no wonder that the seed had been locked away in the past.
Fortunately, by adjusting the seed's stats using a skill known as Plant Reform, Naofumi managed to get the plants to produce one type of fruit without mutating, though he'd also… 'accidentally' created several monsters that devoured everything in their path before achieving that feat.
It definitely hadn't been on purpose.
Anyway, Naofumi had quickly checked after his realization earlier. None of the seed's stats were glitched out or anything. And it looked like his Plant Reform ability could still be used on it. Meaning he could still use it despite being in another world and create a monster large enough for them to escape. And this was some of what he explained to Kizuna in a rushed, frenzied, and excited tone.
"Would you slow down? I'm hardly understanding a word you're saying!" Kizuna complained.
Had Naofumi been talking that fast? He hadn't realized it. "Right, sorry, but, the thing is, these monsters grow big. And they grow fast. Like, within minutes fast!" Naofumi said more slowly. "If what this failed pocket dimension needs to boot us out is a monster to grow too big for it to contain, then this thing will definitely grow big enough to escape, guaranteed. And if it doesn't kill too many monsters in the process, it won't be strong enough to hurt us after we escape. It'll be a simple matter of killing it and moving on."
…
"Well?" Naofumi asked the other hero after a moment when she didn't respond.
Kizuna, however, was just staring openly at him. Her eyes were slowly widening, and she wasn't saying anything.
After another minute, she leaned back against a wall. She actually looked to be in a state of shock.
"Kizuna? What's wrong?" Naofumi asked in confusion.
"I…" Tears began to fall from her eyes. "I almost thought I would be trapped in this place forever." While she still continued to cry, her smile started to grow bigger.
This was already a big deal to Naofumi. But for Kizuna who had been trapped down here for literal 'years.'
Naofumi thought he'd been excited to discover a potential way out. But… Kizuna looked genuinely happy. It was probably the happiest he'd seen her since they'd appeared in this Labyrinth without him finding it annoying.
"I almost can't believe it. This isn't you trying to mess with me, right?! I have a good sense of humor, but I wouldn't be able to take it if this was all a joke!" The girl pouted at him.
"No! I'm not joking! I'm one hundred percent serious about this!" Naofumi replied confidently.
"Y-You're sure?" Kizuna asked hesitantly.
"Yes. This will become our ticket out of here." Naofumi reaffirmed again.
…
"Alright." Kizuna wiped the tears from her face. "I know where we could have this thing grow."
"I still need to adjust its stats with that skill though," Naofumi said with a frown. It really sucked that his level was so low. Adjusting the seed's stats required M… 'magic power', using this world's terminology, to do it. And he didn't have enough at his current level to do that right now.
"You got that weapon form by absorbing one of these seeds into your weapon, right? Do you have more of them? Let me try it too, please!" Kizuna suggested.
Well, he had plenty of these seeds, so why not?
Kizuna absorbed the seed into her weapon's gemstone and her smile became even bigger.
Conditions Met! Bio-Plant Hunting Knife Unlocked!
Equip Bonus (locked): "Plant Reform"
"I have it! I can use Plant Reform too!" She exclaimed victoriously as she switched to the new weapon form.
Great. Naofumi wouldn't have to level up a few more times and waste Magic Healing Waters in between uses to do it after all. Meaning they could get out of this place all the more quickly.
"Alright, let's get started-" Naofumi started to say.
"After breakfast!" Kizuna quickly interrupted.
…
"What?" She looked at him weirdly. "If this works, we'll be escaping into the country that threw me in here in the first place! Who knows when we'll be able to have a safe warm meal after that? I also need to pack up all my stuff and everything I've collected in my years down here! You can't just expect me to be ready like that!" She defended herself.
"..." Naofumi said nothing, only rubbing his temples in a vain attempt to push away the headache forming right now.
"At least let us have some breakfast before we go out into the world!" Kizuna yelled at him. "I'll even save discussing plans for what we'll do next until after we get out!"
…
"Fine. I'll cook so you can pack. You're going to have to set the stats of that seed to what I'll tell you while I do that." Naofumi relented.
"Alright! I'll do that! And I'll also practice what I'm going to say to L'Arc and the others when I get back! Oh man, I can't wait to see my friends again! It's going to be so great when I'll finally get out of here! Should I wear this outfit?! I think I should! Glass made it for me and I think she'd appreciate seeing that I kept it from getting too beat up after all these years!" Kizuna continued to bubble with excitement as she skipped happily down the hallway.
This time, Naofumi chuckled, keeping his tired morning thoughts to himself.
He hadn't been sure how long they'd be trapped here. At best, he'd expected they'd be there a week. At worst… he could have probably turned into another Kizuna in that period of time.
Compared to that, escaping after breakfast was pretty ok.
"Fue? What's going on?" Rishia asked as she walked up to Naofumi. Her hair was wet, but she was already dressed in her gear. "Are we going grinding already?"
"Nope." Naofumi smiled at her, surprising the girl. "You're helping me with breakfast. And after that, we're escaping this so-called Endless Labyrinth together with Kizuna."
"Fue…" It took a few seconds, but then, Rishia 's eyes widened as the weight of Naofumi's words hit her.
"Fuehhhhhhh?!"
"Feh…"
"Careful. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves." Naofumi said cautiously.
Rishia weakly nodded, a layer of sweat on her face. A layer of sweat was also covering Naofumi's features and for good reason.
They were currently in another part of the labyrinth, following behind Kizuna as she scouted out the area ahead. Sometimes slaying a monster or two as they appeared.
They'd had breakfast earlier, hand-cooked by the Shield Hero himself. The two girls had gorged on his food like it was the last crumbs on the planet. Kizuna had even said that she'd never thought that anything could ever taste better than seafood.
Honestly, Naofumi wondered at times if people were just trying to be nice to make his subpar cooking skills look better. He still couldn't believe that the simple things he did made everything taste so good.
Anyway, he was regretting breakfast, as the nervousness of this situation almost made him want to vomit. After using Kizuna's portal device, they'd ended up in a part of the Labyrinth she called "The Ruins". It felt like a series of long, tall hallways, with rooms branching off here or there. Only, they were… weird.
One room they passed by was like the inside of a football stadium despite the small entrance. Another room had a small forest with a creek going through it. One was a barren desert with large scorpion monsters patrolling its sands.
There was no rhyme or reason to any of it. Even the sizes of the rooms were varied. Kizuna had to be traveling through here based on memory alone.
It was nerve-wracking for Naofumi, as Kizuna had mentioned the monsters here were far too powerful for the two of them. The only thing keeping him firm right now was the fact that she was taking them to the smallest room she knew of in the labyrinth. Where they'd be able to grow their Bio-Plant seed and escape for good.
"You two still okay back there?" Kizuna asked from up ahead.
"Yeah, just waiting on you," Naofumi replied, doing his best to hide his anxiety.
"I don't think there are any more monsters between us and our destination, but I'm going to double-check just to make sure. Remember, sit tight and don't draw any attention to yourselves here." Kizuna warned them.
"Noted." Naofumi dully replied.
The girl rolled her shoulders before racing off ahead. Naofumi and Rishia stayed next to the wall, looking both ways to keep watch for any monsters.
"Feh…"
"I know. I don't want to get attacked here either. But that constant whimpering isn't going to help us." Naofumi said dryly to her.
"I-It's not that Sir Naofumi." Rishia defended herself.
"Then what has you whimpering now?" He asked in annoyance.
"C-Can I help that it's a force of habit for me whenever I'm feeling nervous?" Rishia's nostrils flared in anger at him.
"Does that mean you're nervous all the time or something?" Naofumi quirked an eyebrow at the girl.
"N-No- feh, well, maybe. Since Itsuki…" Rishia shook her head. "Anyway, I was just wondering…"
"If this works and we do get out… what's going to stop Kizuna from ditching us?" The girl finally spoke out.
…
Naofumi frowned thoughtfully in response while Rishia continued to speak frantically. "I-I mean… we've only known her for less than a day. She doesn't believe us about Kyo, and she obviously has her friends to get back to. So what's stopping her from racing off without us if we do manage to escape from here?"
… The Shield Hero eventually shrugged after another moment. "I don't know. Maybe she'll stay, maybe she won't. But at the very least, we'd be out of this death trap. That's the important part for us."
Rishia still didn't look convinced, so Naofumi added some more to his statement. "If she stays with us, great, we'll be able to have her help with powerful monsters. If she doesn't, then at least we can pass ourselves off as normal adventurers since the country in charge of this labyrinth hates her and not us."
It wasn't like they were the ones that'd thrown Naofumi and Rishia in there, after all.
For Kizuna, this was a prison break. But Naofumi and Rishia? Nobody except Kyo knew they were there. So nobody would care if they walked out of the labyrinth or not.
At least, he hoped that was the case.
Man, how much would it suck if the country outside hated shielders just as much as it hated the Hunting Tools Hero? That was so unlikely though that Naofumi shook his head to rid himself of the thought. Just because one country in his world hated his guts, didn't mean that everyone in every other world hated him too.
"This isn't really something to worry about though. Something tells me that Kizuna isn't the kind of person that'd leave others behind." Naofumi finished to Rishia.
Seconds later, Kizuna rounded a corner and ran towards them. "Ok, there's only one monster in the room. But everything around it is clear for the moment."
Naofumi nodded. "Lead on then."
Rishia opened her mouth to speak, or to whimper. But, instead, she closed it and kept a tight lip as she followed behind Kizuna and Naofumi again.
She… really did hope that she was worrying over nothing. And that they'd have Kizuna's help finding Itsuki and the others. Even if she didn't end up helping them deal with Kyo.
Rishia really wanted to find Itsuki soon. She'd worry a lot less and be more confident if she could be certain that he was ok.
…
After a few minutes, the trio arrived outside the entrance to a room.
The inside of it was small, just like Kizuna said. There were a few seats around an altar and black stained-glass windows that looked like they led outside to a forested area. But that didn't make sense since the ruins were underground and-
Right. Things worked differently in this Labyrinth. God, Naofumi couldn't wait to escape from this place where nothing made sense. He swore if Glass's world was the same, he was going to have a stroke.
Besides that… Naofumi spotted the monster that Kizuna had mentioned. A suit of armor was patrolling around the room.
"Won't that thing try to attack us?" The Shield Hero asked.
"Not as long as we stand outside of the archway. Monsters that appear inside these rooms aren't allowed to go past them." Kizuna pointed at the top of the entrance to the room.
There was an archway up above with a white stone set in the center of it. Naofumi simply stared at it.
"And yet monsters and people outside can just go in and out?" Naofumi asked dryly.
"Yep. It's really unfair to these monsters, huh?" The Hunting Hero pondered out loud.
Yeah, Naofumi definitely couldn't wait to escape from the illogic and double standards of this stupid place. Things were a lot simpler in the real world.
Looking down at the floor, it was layered over in stone tiles. There weren't any good spots where the seed could take root by the entrance.
Looking further back, however, there appeared to be a spot in front of the altar where the stone tiles were cracked, revealing the dirt underneath. Naofumi nodded as soon as he saw it, and pointed it out to Kizuna. He thought she'd go up to it and plant it like a normal person.
He forgot that this girl was anything but normal. "Heh, nothing my trusty fishing rod can't handle." Kizuna grabbed her legendary weapon, which was currently in the form of a fishing rod, off her side and attached the seed to the hook at the end.
"Can't you just rush in and kill that monster?" Naofumi narrowed his eyes in bewilderment at her roundabout way of doing such a simple task.
"Sure I can. But where's the fun in that?!" She winked playfully.
Naofumi's eyebrow twitched, but Kizuna jumped into the center of the entrance and flicked her line forward.
In all honesty, it was a truly beautiful cast. The seed sailed right past the patrolling set of armor and landed smack in the middle of the dirt like Kizuna had hit a bullseye. With a single tug, she got her line to release the seed and reeled it back in, smirking in satisfaction all the while.
"See, now that was fun." She jumped back behind cover with Naofumi and Rishia. The suit of armor, while it'd looked in Kizuna's direction at first, just simply marched on as the seed settled itself into the dirt.
Naofumi breathed in deeply. At least she'd planted the seed. And it wasn't like he didn't have several dozen more stored in his shield in case she'd missed and destroyed the first one against the stone tiles.
"So, how long will it take from here? Hours? Minutes?" Kizuna asked curiously.
"It shouldn't take more than a few seconds for it to start growing out of the ground," Naofumi answered. And indeed, seconds later, the plant sprouted. And then, it began to grow further and further from there.
"Huh… I was going to ask if it was like a shikigami before, but I'm not sure if that's normal or not." Kizuna said, looking oddly creeped out by how fast the plant was growing.
"Shikigami?" Naofumi asked confusedly.
"You know, a sort of familiar that starts out soulless but still helps you on your adventures as it slowly gains a soul of its own." Kizuna looked back at him. "Don't you have those in your world?"
"Rishia?" Naofumi looked back at her since she'd know better than him.
"I-I have no idea!" She said quickly. "And besides, look!"
The girl focused their attention in front of them again, and it was a good thing she had.
The archway up above was sparkling like crazy. Inside the room, the plant had grown to a tremendous size within a short span of time. The suit of armor that'd been patrolling around now had plants sticking out of its joints, though its movements were stiff and twitchy like it was still trying to resist getting infested.
"Ewwwww, what is that plant doing to that monster?" Kizuna said in disgust.
"Making it into one of its own I guess. It's a little parasitic when it comes to other monsters." Naofumi shrugged.
Either way, the sparks coming off the archway were growing by the second. Their plan was a success. "Quick, before it gets away now!" Naofumi charged around the corner to rush in.
Kizuna was a step ahead of him, mainly because of the suit of armor. "Ha!" The line of her fishing pole wrapped around it, and she reeled herself in, rapidly closing the distance.
Just before impact, she changed her weapon into a large tuna knife, and her blade slashed the monster from shoulder joint to hip.
Naofumi honestly would have commented on how amazing that'd looked. But upon him and Rishia rushing under the archway, the look of the room changed.
They could see it now. The small church room was bursting at the seams with the rapidly growing bioplant trapped inside of it. The whole space itself was shaking violently like an earthquake, and tiles were beginning to crumble away around them as vines from the monster destroyed the altar and chairs around it.
"I-I don't like the look of this Sir Naofumi! This is pretty crazy!" Rishia screamed, looking very much afraid. Before he could say anything though, she slapped herself and set her face. "No! If this helps us get out so we can find Itsuki and the others, then so be it!"
Hey. They were actually on the same wavelength for once. The bio-plant was spinning and swirling like a vortex in front of them now as if it was being sucked into another place.
That was likely what was happening actually. Black clouds started to suck in the walls of the room around them, further destroying the area they were in. "No turning back here." Naofumi rushed forward, raising his shield in time to block one of the Bio-Plant's vines that swung down at him.
They left no more than a dull Clang upon impact.
"I see it! There's a hole around that thing!" Kizuna shouted in amazement as she appeared in front of Naofumi and Rishia and slashed the vines in their way over and over again. "This crazy plan might actually work!"
"Of course! It's Sir Naofumi's crazy plan after all!" Rishia proclaimed.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Naofumi stink eyed her.
"Don't you come up with crazy plans all the time? Itsuki told me so at least." Rishia looked at him in embarrassment.
"It's not crazy if it works!" The Shield Hero snarled.
"I'd beg to differ on that opinion!" Rishia screamed fearfully in reply.
"Eyes on the prize, people! We're going in!" Kizuna whooped.
The group of three jumped onto a vine together. Using it to propel themselves forward at the Bio-Plant as the space around them disappeared, and-
Naofumi felt like a hook pulled at his gut, just like when he used Portal Shield. There was a split second when he could see the church room crumbling far off in the distance. And then, he found himself freefalling through the air, next to Rishia and Kizuna.
"Wha-" His eyes bugged out. They were freefalling from very high up in the air.
"What the hell! I thought you said we'd pop out in front of the entrance!?" Naofumi yelled at Kizuna.
"I thought that was what happened too! I didn't think we'd come out this high!" Kizuna replied, sounding just as afraid as him.
Was this because of Kyo?! It was impossible actually, but Naofumi still felt it proper to blame the bitch for the fact that they were plummeting to their deaths right now.
"FUEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rishia was screaming already. And Naofumi joined in screaming with her.
He didn't have a shield with enough defense for him to survive a fall from this height! They were so screwed! He tried to run through the list of skills in his mind, but they were already falling too fast, and-
Kizuna suddenly grabbed the two of them and forced them to grab on to her. "No matter what happens, don't let go of me!" She shouted.
The two continued to scream as the ground beneath them came up rapidly. There was what looked like a Shinto Shrine with walls around it, but Naofumi and Rishia closed their eyes before they could see any more, and continued to scream as they threw their trust into the Hunting Tools Hero.
"It's been so long since I felt so alivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve!" With a flick of her wrist, Kizuna cast her line once again. Despite their freefall, it traveled down faster than them, wrapping around the top of a massive Torii gate outside the entrance before they flew past it, heading towards a facefirst landing with the ground below, and…
Naofumi and Rishia were nearly thrown from Kizuna as their downward fall became a rapidly spinning loop. "Ack!" Both barely managed to keep themselves from being thrown off as they looped again and again.
After a few seconds though, the loop became a back and forth. And then, they came to a complete stop.
…
"Hey, you two can open your eyes now. The fun's over." Kizuna teased.
Naofumi slowly opened one eye first. Even with what he'd just gone through, he didn't feel motion sick in the slightest. But it still came as a major shock when he found the ground only a few feet below them.
"We… we're alive." He let go of Kizuna, falling onto his hands and knees.
He'd been sure there was no surviving that freefall. How the hell…
"Urgh…" Rishia fell next to Naofumi. But unlike him, she had very much been impacted by what'd happened. She rushed off, hiding behind a tree where she proceeded to be sick, out of sight of everyone.
"Oof, sorry about that Rishia. I promise something like that won't happen again anytime soon!" Kizuna apologized as she dropped lithely on her feet next to Naofumi and attached her fishing pole to her side again.
The green-haired girl didn't respond, likely due to the retching sounds she was making.
"What…" Naofumi looked up. "How the hell did you cancel out our fall?"
"Oh, I looked for something solid to wrap my line around that was a bit high off the ground and in front of us. Then when I had it, I quickly reeled in enough line so instead of hitting the ground, our downward momentum would be canceled out by us going into a loop de loop. You know, kind of like with a roller coaster. Pretty smart, huh?" Kizuna smiled brightly as she proudly put her hands on her hips and stood as tall as she could.
…
"That actually was pretty smart of you. And talk about one hell of a cast too." Naofumi actually chuckled at how ridiculous she looked.
"Hey! I've pulled off far harder than that, believe it or not! Do you know how hard it is to hook a flying dragon that uses all sorts of magic while you're rocking around in a flying boat?!" Kizuna replied haughtily.
Naofumi's chuckles turned into laughs. "Thank goodness we had the world's best fisherman on hand then. Otherwise, who knows how we would have survived that exit."
"Why thank you! Feel free to pile the compliments on while you're at it!" Kizuna replied while putting the palm of her hand over her chest, trying to look humble but absolutely failing at it.
Naofumi ignored her and walked up to the Bio-Plant monster, which had fallen in the center of the courtyard they were in.
It definitely was a Shinto Shrine. From the gate and four-meter tall stone walls around the courtyard to the building with the large ornate doors in front of them, it was unmistakable. If it wasn't for the characters on the doors not being in Japanese kanji or another variant, Naofumi wouldn't have been able to tell that he was in another world.
What was a building that looked cut straight out of Japan doing here though?
The Shield Hero didn't have much time to ponder on it though, as the Bio-Plant was still alive and rapidly growing. Taking some Weed Killer from his weapon, Naofumi quickly poured it on one of the plant monster's branches.
The large bundle of vines and branches that'd been surrounding a rapidly growing main trunk immediately shriveled up and died on the spot.
Ha. If they were ever thrown into that Labyrinth again, they had a very cheesy "get out of jail free card" they could easily rely on to bust themselves out. It was so easy to kill too, thanks to Kizuna adjusting its stats so that while it'd grow rapidly, it had no immunity whatsoever.
Though seeing all the seeds that sprouted from all of its undergrowth, Naofumi sighed as he began the task of collecting them all and absorbing them into his shield. "Oi, Rishia, when you're done being miserable back there, help me out with this! If any seeds are left behind, it'll just sprout another monster for us to deal with later!"
"Fueeee…" A weak moan came as the only response.
Looks like he wouldn't be able to count on her anytime soon.
"You sure you don't want to leave some behind?" Kizuna surprised him with the question and caused him to stand up in the middle of the mess he was wading through.
"You remember what I told you before, right?" Naofumi asked.
"Yeah, but I mean, would it really be that bad if this entrance became unusable because of a monster forest growing around it?" Kizuna pointed out while spreading her arms out to gesture at the area around them.
…
Naofumi looked at the ornate doors again. Suddenly realizing why he felt a foreboding feeling when he looked at them. "You mean that's the…"
Kizuna nodded grimly. "Yea, this is the place where those jerks threw me into the Labyrinth several years ago." She confirmed.
Naofumi could suddenly see why she'd be tempted to leave a seed behind. "Sorry, but no can do. If the Bio-Plant only stayed in this place, then sure, there'd be no problems with leaving some of these seeds behind." Naofumi shook his head. "However, there doesn't appear to be a limit to how far this thing would grow. So it'd eventually affect people besides those that don't like you."
"Ugh, finnnnnne." Kizuna groaned, but then perked up and began helping Naofumi clean up the Bio-Plant mess.
In the end, they made sure they grabbed and absorbed all the seeds into their weapons. And finally, with the mess cleaned up, Naofumi looked at the gate set in the stone walls. "I'm guessing they wouldn't leave it unlocked for us?"
"And you think they'd want it to be easy for any monster that escaped to get out of here?" Kizuna asked with a smirk.
"Just a thought." Naofumi shrugged as he looked over at Rishia. The girl was walking out from her hiding spot. Besides looking a little greener than usual and holding her arms to her stomach, she looked alright enough.
"Zweite Heal." The Shield Hero still used a healing spell on her that did help her feel somewhat better.
"T-Thanks, Sir Naofumi." Rishia looked grateful for that.
"Don't thank me yet. I used that spell since you need to be in good enough condition for us to climb out of this place." Naofumi said.
"Uh, fueee…" Rishia really could use another moment before even thinking about scaling the walls.
"Don't worry, I have you two covered!" Naofumi, again, didn't get a chance to ask what the Hunting Hero meant, as Kizuna suddenly grabbed him by the wrist and cast her line with the other hand. Wrapping it around a stone on the back top of the wall.
"What-" The line reeled in all on its own, sending her and Naofumi flying through the air. Naofumi nearly dropped a cuss word at the sudden burst of velocity, and the follow-up sudden stop as he and Kizuna landed on top of the wall.
"Will you stop doing that?!" Naofumi complained.
"What? I'm trying to be helpful." Kizuna cocked her head to the side in confusion.
Well… it'd worked. He'd thought they'd be scaling the wall, but Kizuna's fishing rod had once again helped them out.
Naofumi was starting to realize that Kizuna's fishing rod was probably the most useful weapon he'd seen in either world thus far. It seemed to be capable of feats that should have been downright impossible.
Who would have known? The world's most powerful weapon was actually a fishing pole.
Ganondorf, eat your heart out.
"F-Fue?" Rishia whimpered down in the courtyard below.
"Don't worry, you're next Rishia!" Kizuna brought her rod back and a weird sparkle appeared in her eyes.
"FUE! I'M FINE! I CAN SCALE THE WALL BY MYSEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rishia's complaint turned into a scream as Kizuna's cast line hooked the girl by the back of her armor as she tried to run away, and was then subsequently reeled onto the wall next to Naofumi.
The Shield Hero couldn't hide the slight smile on his face from the show.
Crap, he really needed to stop taking pleasure in others' suffering. Raphtalia wouldn't approve of it at all. But could he help it that he'd found it funny?
"Please, don't ever do that to me again!" Rishia complained to Kizuna as soon as she had her footing again.
"Aw come on, surely it wasn't that bad? L'Arc would always laugh when I pulled him out of trouble like this!" Kizuna winked again.
"Yeah, it looked fun to me…" A thought came to Naofumi's mind, and his grin grew a little bigger as he faced Kizuna. "Congratulations, you have just caught a RISHIA! Would you like to give a nickname to your new RISHIA?"
"Fueh?" Rishia turned in surprise at Naofumi's outburst.
"Oooh, oooh! Yes, I have the perfect nickname for her!" Kizuna caught his reference and immediately went along with it. "Since this is the biggest RISHIA I've ever caught, I think I'll call her Squishy!" Kizuna hugged the other girl close. "Me and Squishy are going to be the best of friends, I can already tell!"
"Fuehhhhhhhhhh?!" Poor girl. She looked so lost thanks to the two otakus having a moment of fun.
"Anyway, we should probably get going before anyone realizes that I've escaped!" The Hunting Hero pointed out.
The group of three then jumped down onto the other side of the wall. Fortunately, four meters was a much more bearable fall for their stats compared to earlier. And it wasn't long until they were running away from the Shinto Shrine, leaving it and the Endless Labyrinth it contained behind for good.
They fled for a good long while, encountering nobody as they fled across the open plains and the occasional small forest with a few dirt paths here and there that were overgrown and unused by person or monster.
At that time, they were all quiet, besides the sound of their breathing, and the sounds of their feet hitting the ground.
They came across no monsters or soldiers or adventurers or anyone. Naofumi didn't have to think long to guess why.
The Endless Labyrinth and its dangers were so well known that nobody would want to live within a dozen miles of it. Probably not even monsters.
With that line of logic, it also made sense why there'd been no soldiers there to guard it when they broke out. They'd probably be just as scared of accidentally being sucked into that place as Kizuna was. And would only go there whenever they needed to throw someone away, or whenever a monster escaped from the Labyrinth.
Which was the main reason Kizuna wasn't stopping. As they had to make sure that the soldiers assumed it was only a monster that'd broken out and not Kizuna.
Oh, if only his daughter was there to carry them on her back. They'd make incredible time with her help. As it was, it wasn't until the sun was high up in the sky and Naofumi felt like he couldn't go another mile that they came across a road and Kizuna finally stopped, hardly looking winded.
"Okay, I think that should be far enough. I don't think they'd send any soldiers this far to investigate." She said happily.
Naofumi didn't speak. Instead, he leaned against the side of a tree and began to take deep breaths. He figured it was a level thing, but Rishia didn't look even nearly as exhausted as him!
Was this payback for earlier?! Why the hell was he the only one getting punished and not Kizuna?!
"How… how are you not tired?" He asked Rishia.
"Fue? I just used life force to enhance my stamina and endurance." Rishia answered matter-of-factly.
Oh, come on. Was there anything that bull crap power couldn't do?!
"A-Again, I could at least train you in the basics. You'd be able to do these things too then." Rishia quickly added after seeing a dark look settle over Naofumi's face.
"And again, I'll consider it." Naofumi stood back up, feeling ok with walking again. "So Kizuna, what are you going to do now?"
Rishia weakly whimpered as the subject of her pride and joy was not so subtly dropped once again.
"What am I going to do?" The brunette asked curiously with an eyebrow raised.
"I mean yeah. You were kind of trapped in that place for years. And you've only known us for what? A day?" Naofumi pointed out. He had to at least say it since Rishia had mentioned it earlier. "We can't exactly stop you from doing what you want. Even if that meant leaving us behind…"
Rishia weakly whimpered again. This time though, she was staring at the Hunting Tools Hero.
Would she stay with them? Would she help them find their friends? Or now that she was free, would she race off without them, and-
"Pbthhhhhhh! What's with those faces you're giving me?!" Kizuna began laughing. "Of course, I'm not leaving you two! Why the hell would I do that?! Have you two forgotten that I'm useless in a fight around people?! And I'm still kind of in the middle of a country that hates my guts right now!"
At her outburst, Naofumi's shoulders sank in relief. He didn't allow his face to show it though. "You still have only known us for a day, you know?"
"And one day's enough to tell me that you two are decent folks, at least when you're not all down and sour." Kizuna grinned as she elbowed the shielder's side.
Naofumi's indifferent gaze had been mastered just so this moment could happen. In the face of Kizuna's bright cheeriness, he was just a mass of cold unfeeling stone. It was like a battle of wills to see which side would win out.
"And besides," Kizuna looked down wistfully with her hands crossed behind her back and began to draw small circles in the dirt with the tip of her boot. "You two helped me to escape that horrible place. As much as part of me wants to run off and find L'Arc and Glass and the others… I can't exactly let a debt like that go unpaid, can I? I'd be a horrible friend in that case." She raised her head and smiled sincerely.
…
"Yeah, you would be." Naofumi returned her smile, just a little. "Welp, guess I was going to have to do this sooner or later." He sent a party friend request to Kizuna, who whooped for joy as she accepted it.
"Welcome aboard, Kizuna," Naofumi smirked while extending his hand forward. "Try not to hold us back too much, alright?"
"Heh! Right back at you mister grumpy bear!" The Hunting Hero grinned as she shook Naofumi's hand.
Rishia sagged with relief. Her worries before had been unfounded after all. They were going to have Kizuna with them for quite a while, apparently.
Though it was weird for that happiness to be mixed with dread. She really hoped Kizuna didn't try zipping her around with that fishing pole again anytime soon.
"Hey, since this means we're officially friends, does that mean we can sleep in the same bed together?!" Kizuna asked Rishia excitedly.
"NO! OF COURSE NOT! WHERE'D YOU GET THAT FROM!?" Rishia jumped away from the overenthusiastic girl.
"Huh, weird. Glassy always said that was a sign of close friendship between girls. Does that mean Rishia isn't a girl?" Kizuna pondered out loud.
Rishia blushed a fierce red. 'ITSUKI, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?'
With the issue of Kizuna staying with the Shield Hero's group finally being addressed and laid to rest for good, the group of three began to travel down the road towards civilization.
Naofumi took a moment to pull up the appropriate menus and select the tracking options after some time had passed.
Outside of Slave Observation Range
Outside of Monster Observation Range
…
Even though they'd escaped the endless labyrinth, Naofumi still couldn't find where Filo, Raphtalia, or Dou-Lon were… did that possibly mean that they were trapped in some untraceable place of their own?
Seeing his frown, Kizuna spoke up. "There's a town with a guild hall up ahead if I remember correctly. It'd be a good source of information for us to try and find our friends."
"A-Aren't you afraid of being identified though?" Rishia asked. And Naofumi agreed because, honestly, she really looked like she'd stand out in her gothic dress of hers.
Not that Naofumi and Rishia wouldn't stand out in their gear either. It honestly made Naofumi feel like he was some second-rate samurai cosplayer.
"If I see some higher-up official, yeah. But…" Kizuna pulled out several packs from her weapon, handing one to Naofumi and one to Rishia before slinging her own over her shoulders. At the same time, she turned her weapon into a very small hunting knife which she stuck in a sheathe under the side of her dress, hiding it from sight.
"There, now no one will recognize that I'm the Hunting Tools Hero! I'll be just another plain boring adventurer to them, just like you two!" She said happily.
…
The two blinked at her. Wouldn't her dress still stand out?
…
They eventually came to the town as the sun was lowering in the evening sky, and Naofumi realized, it had actually been pretty stupid of him to assume that they'd stand out. In fact, it was probably hard for them to stand out in a place like this.
He should have realized it earlier because of the Shrine. But it appeared that this country had a lot to share with Japan.
For one. The way the buildings were structured was straight from the Edo Period. Naofumi could tell because of the clear lines running through the architecture of the buildings around them. Even the residential buildings looked like they'd been ripped straight out of that time period.
As for the people living here? Talk about a melting pot.
Besides normal humans like himself and Rishia, there were also gem people like Therese with different gemstones embedded in their foreheads and pale transparent people like Glass. There were also short people like dwarves and people with long ears that Naofumi immediately wanted to call elves.
Most were dressed in kimonos with a few girls also dressed in gothic style dresses. One little girl was wearing one that looked almost exactly like the one that Kizuna was wearing.
She ran up to her, actually, and began to happily compliment the Hunting Tools Hero's outfit, waylaying Kizuna for a little bit as they both gushed over each other's outfits until the girl's mom came and quickly apologized for her daughter.
"It's fine! She's really sweet! You made her an amazing outfit!" Kizuna's smile and sincere compliments made her almost an instant friend with the mom. The shield hero had to admit that, despite being overbearing at times, Kizuna definitely possessed the charisma befitting of her title.
When L' Arc had first told him about her, Naofumi was skeptical, but now it wasn't strange at all to imagine this spunky girl managing to inspire and unite the whole world against a common threat with that almost nauseatingly positive and hardheaded vibe she projected around her wherever she went. Just being together with her made you feel... safe and secure for a lack of a better word.
He recalled Raphtalia mentioning something similar in regards to him once, but he didn't get it. He was not out there to make friends. He considered his task as a hero a job. One that he was determined to do well, yes. But he would hardly go out of his way to sugarcoat things and worry about the people's feelings like Kizuna seemed to do, preferring to keep things straight and to the point instead.
...
But maybe it was something worth considering, after seeing the kind of undying loyalty that she inspired from her friends and the ease with which she could communicate with other people and get them on her side.
Naofumi eventually decided to store these thoughts for later and instead focused on the flowing kimonos that the local elves were wearing. They flowed with the movements of their bodies with the grace of water going down a gentle stream.
It was almost too much of a shock for Naofumi, having gone all this time without seeing anything that reminded him of Japan. To suddenly be thrust into a fantasy version of it.
But… seeing the elves particularly and how well their kimonos fit them, Naofumi couldn't help but picture Raphtalia in one as well. He'd never pictured her in a Japanese outfit before…
…
He felt something drip down onto his lip. And yep, he put a hand to his nose and found that it was bleeding. As he pulled some cloth from his pack while gripping his nose to stop the flow of blood, he realized that these were dangerous waters for his mind to travel.
But oh, had she looked so beautiful in his mind. He had to get her to wear a kimono before they left Glass's world, he'd never be able to sleep at night until he was able to see that with his own eyes…
Crap, he really needed to find her.
"Fue." Rishia whimpered, sticking close to Naofumi.
"What is it?" He asked dismissively while stuffing the blood-soaked cloth into a pocket of his armor.
"I can't understand what anyone's saying here. I-It's been a while since I was in a situation like this." The girl said in a small, scared voice.
She couldn't- right, she didn't have auto-translation. Naofumi frowned at that. "You're going to need to be quiet while we're here then. People will find it pretty weird if you speak and they can't understand you."
"O-Ok. I'll try." Rishia nodded. She went back to focusing on the people around them, and Naofumi didn't think he'd have to worry about her for now.
They eventually left Kizuna's new friends behind, but not before getting precise and accurate directions to the guild building. Naofumi passed by all sorts of shops and places after that, all of which screamed JAPAN in his face.
Was it a thing only for this town? Or was the whole country based on a version of Japan? Was the entire world based on Japan?
Naofumi realized he probably should have asked Kizuna about this before they left the Labyrinth.
Eventually, near the center of town, they found the right building. It was bigger than the other buildings around it and actually looked like an adventurer's guild building.
When they entered, Kizuna rushed to the job boards to look over the wanted posters and everything hanging off them. While she did that, Naofumi's attention was grabbed by something in the back. A giant machine with some sort of crystal enshrined in the top center of it that made it look like a shaved ice maker.
Other adventurers that entered the building approached with pendants held in their hands. They set the pendant on something that looked like a scanner and operated it like a computer pressing a series of buttons. Then, a puff of smoke would appear out of the machine, and when it dissipated, an item would be next to the pendant.
"Ok, good, just checked around, they know a monster broke out of the Labyrinth today. But they don't suspect a thing outside of that. Good job you two." Kizuna gave them both thumbs-ups.
"Oh? That's good I guess but um, can you explain what this is back there?" Naofumi asked while pointing with his index finger at the strange machine.
"Oh?" She looked at where he was pointing and then smiled. "Oh, that's one of the cool inventions from the gem people. It allows adventurers to use those pendants you see to utilize the item drop function that's normally limited to world weapon holders."
…
Naofumi was almost sent reeling by that comment.
This world had made a device that allowed even NORMAL people to get drop items from monsters?!
"Though, the quality isn't as high as it is with a Hero. And they can't get the drop items from the monsters they killed unless they use those machines. But on the bright side, it also allows them to choose what item they want and will make it for you once you have enough monsters saved up. The device is pretty popular especially among Gem people since they receive special powers from gems in the first place." Kizuna continued with her lecture. "Still, some people prefer traveling to Dragon Hourglasses since they'll provide overall better quality and service than these things out in the country."
Naofumi, however, was now noting how something like this would be beyond useful in his world. If everyone could have access to drop items from monsters, there'd be more reason for them to go out and level up by fighting them.
"Does it mean that there are pawn shops here for the various drops that the local adventurers get?" Naofumi realized.
"Yup! It also means that a drop item will be worth far more than regular materials for the most part." Kizuna explained.
"Noted." The Shield Hero nodded stiffly. Whether it wasn't as good or not, the fact that it even gave people the option was staggering!
Perhaps he could take advantage of this later… he definitely needed to bring one of the pendants back to his world at least to see if it'd be possible to replicate it. Though he'd need to give it to someone who was better at accessories than him because just from one look at it, he could tell that the craftsmanship and the amount of work that'd gone into developing it was beyond anything he'd managed to accomplish so far.
It was definitely not something he could reverse engineer. Perhaps he could finally call in that favor from that accessory guild master for a potentially staggering investment opportunity?...
"Feh…" Rishia whimpered as the group finally found a table to sit down at.
"Stay here, Rishia. Me and Kizuna are going to see if we can find some info on the others." Naofumi instructed her.
The girl nodded, and Naofumia and Kizuna went off together to the various boards and listened to the latest rumors.
At one point, since Rishia couldn't talk to anybody around her, she shakily went and grabbed a book off a shelf and brought it back to the table to read. But she couldn't understand any of the markings inside.
None of the languages she'd learned in her world had prepared her for this. She couldn't understand a word that others said. She could only barely recognize some of the symbols in the text beneath her being related to the Holy Hero's kanji language but without a solid grasp of it, she was at a loss.
"Feh…" It was the only thing to keep her distracted from her worries though, so she tried very hard to understand how the language before her worked.
…
By the time the two heroes came back, she hadn't been able to get even past the first page. "K-Kizuna, can you read this?" Rishia asked almost in defeat.
"Yea, but only a little." Naofumi looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. "Glass taught me the basics. I can teach Rishia what I know tonight if she wants it?"
"Fue, I-I'd really appreciate it." She still couldn't understand anyone outside the two of them. And unless she made an effort to learn, she was going to be at a disadvantage for a while.
So at last, Rishia closed the book and listened as the other two Heroes went over what they'd found out.
There weren't any wanted posters for any of their friends. Though, Kizuna had joked that one she found for a badly drawn stab at a yokai girl could have been Glass since it reminded her of the times when she'd been angry.
Rumor wise, the next country over had seen their regression prison be absolutely demolished. It was unknown who'd done it though, and it wasn't certain if the rumor was true or if it was just nations spreading lies to make their neighbors look weak.
There was also something about some group of idiots that'd somehow snuck inside the Ancient Library Labyrinth only to get thrown out after breaking its rules and getting imprisoned by the librarian rabbit tribe that made their home there. But there hadn't been more info besides that. It really was a mystery what'd happened to them or who they were.
Naofumi frowned. "I feel like we wasted our time here."
"Yea, I won't lie. I'd rather be fishing right now." Kizuna admitted with a bored sigh.
"Anyway, I guess we should plan our next move." Naofumi put the conversation back on track.
"Right. What do you think, Rishia?" Kizuna asked while turning to the green-haired girl.
"Fue?" Rishia lifted up her head at being addressed.
"Just want your opinion. You look sad just sitting there listening to us." Kizuna continued, looking somewhat concerned.
"Oh, I'm not sad. I just feel useless is all…" Rishia rubbed at her arm. "But um… maybe if we found somewhere safe for us. Where we could ask others for support, we'd have better luck than just listening to rumors?" She suggested, after thinking about it for a moment. "After all, wouldn't we be wasting time if we chased after unsubstantiated leads by ourselves?"
"That's a good point," Naofumi admitted, surprising her with his agreement. "Kizuna, is there a country that doesn't hate you?"
"Naofumi, you say that as if I'm some kind of pariah." The Hunting Hero pouted and crossed her arms on her non-existent chest.
"Are you?" Naofumi asked curiously.
"..." The fact that she refused to meet his gaze and kept shuffling in place all but confirmed it.
He almost pitied her. She'd saved her world, but the Hunting Tools Hero still wasn't liked by other governments. The people here must have had the memory of goldfishes or something to be this stupid. No wonder L'Arc and his friends had been so hopeless.
"Well, if I had to pick, then it would be... Sickle, obviously. Since it's the country that summoned me. The people there love me." Kizuna smiled happily, acting as if her world didn't hate her guts. "If we go there, we'd definitely have their help with anything we need. And I guess now that I've escaped, they'd like to know where I've been for all this time."
"Um, Kizuna, I just realized." Rishia suddenly felt to ask. "If we're outside of the dungeon now, why haven't you tried portaling us back to your country yet?"
"..." Naofumi looked at Kizuna again, having not thought of that question before Rishia asked it. Checking his shield, he found that Portal Shield was usable again, but his list of saved locations was empty.
Since, you know, he was in another world, and hadn't saved any locations in this world yet.
"I don't know how portaling works in your world, but here, heroes have a skill called "Return Transcript." But it only works if they use a Dragon Hourglass." Kizuna explained. "It allows us to travel to any Hourglass we've been to. But I can't use it to get to Sickle unless we find the Hourglass here."
"So it's kind of like a town portal, but for Heroes." Naofumi commented idly.
"Huh? Yea, that is one way to put it." Kizuna put a hand to her chin as she thought about Naofumi's comparison.
"I did overhear a couple people here talking about some genius that's trying to invent something that'd allow normal people to travel using the dragon hourglasses." Naofumi broke the silence this time. "I wondered if that was possible. But if this world can replicate the drop item function, I guess anything's possible."
"Anyway, it sounds like we should go to a dragon hourglass if we want to escape. Where's the closest one from here?" Rishia asked.
"That would be the Capital." Kizuna answered hesitantly. "Where… there is a much higher chance I'd be recognized."
Naofumi grimaced in thought. "How about if we tried leaving the country by foot?"
"Sure, we can do that, but the country officials have toll booths set up at checkpoints. To leave the country requires a lot more money than the amount it takes to get in. It's kind of like Edo Japan in that regard." Kizuna shrugged.
Naofumi understood what she meant. It was cheap for people to get in. And it was most likely cheaper to get into the Capital. But it'd cost a lot more money for people to leave those places than it did to get in. Meaning that if they wanted to leave on foot, it'd most likely cost them a fortune just to exit the country.
"If we were to leave this country and tried to find a different dragon hourglass to use, how long would that take?" Naofumi asked.
"I don't know. I'm not too familiar with this part of the world." Kizuna admitted as she made some mental calculations. "Maybe a few weeks?"
…
"... Sir Naofumi, we don't have a few weeks." Rishia said fearfully.
"You don't need to tell me that." Besides reuniting with their friends as soon as possible, they needed time to prepare for Kyo. They couldn't afford to leave him alone for too long, even if he was missing an arm.
"So, I guess you'll want to risk the Capital then?" The Hunting Hero figured out.
"Yea, I don't see any better options. If you know where the Dragon Hourglass is there, me and Rishia will do our best to help sneak you in." Naofumi said.
"Alright. That'll be our plan starting tomorrow then. Though we'll still need one kinhan in order to get a travel voucher from the guild here so we can enter." Kizuna nodded in affirmation.
"A kinhan. This place is really straight out of Edo Japan, isn't it? Let me guess, the other currencies are doumon and tamagin?" Naofumi asked sarcastically.
"Eh?! Yes! That's exactly correct!" Kizuna raised her voice, surprising Naofumi. "That's the currency we use in this world. 100 doumon for a tamagin. And a hundred tamagin for a kinhan!"
…
Okay. That did it. It was possible not only this country, but this whole world was based on a fantasy version of Japan. And it was no doubt because of past summoned Heroes.
"Rishia, why isn't our world more like Japan when this world is?" Naofumi asked while rubbing one of his temples to stave off the oncoming migraine..
"Well, in our world, heroes are treated as objects of religious worship. To try and replicate anything from them or their worlds would be considered blasphemy by many people." Rishia took an educated guess.
Was that why no one had ever attempted duplicating the item drop function or all that for normal people!? Ugh, religious nuts could be so stupid sometimes!
Naofumi turned his head to look outside through a nearby window. He was thinking of hitting those shops to sell the drop items he'd gotten from monsters, but it was already getting dark out, and as he realized, some of the drop items from Raphtalia's world might not work out in this world since some were weapons and equipment. He'd need to sort out his stock first before going to these vendors and unleashing his inner merchant.
"Let's find somewhere to stay for tonight. I think we've gotten all we can from here." Naofumi finally stood up.
"Sounds good! I think I spotted an inn on the way here." Kizuna and Rishia stood up as well.
The three walked out the door, back into the streets as night began to descend upon the town.
They eventually found the inn that Kizuna had spotted earlier, and that night, Kizuna helped Rishia learn the basics of the written language Glass had taught her years ago while Naofumi organized various drop items on a small, low-height table in front of him.
This was getting ridiculous. Even the furniture here was straight out of Edo period Japan. And as much as he enjoyed the general aesthetics, sitting on yours knees hurt like hell, even when sitting on a mat, when you weren't used to it.
But anyway, regarding his belongings, they were all either one time use consumables like medicines and potions or rare monster materials. Those were the only things he'd found who's stats had transferred over wholly intact.
When Kizuna was done and left Rishia to look over the basics she'd been given over and over again, she looked over what Naofumi had left out and moved the rare monster material drops out of the way.
"Those won't sell for a lot. They do look nice though." She commented. "Especially that fang."
"What about these?" Naofumi asked, pointing out the potions and medicines he had lined up.
"The medicines look a little different, but the effects are similar enough." Kizuna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "With the Waves, there's bound to be a high demand for them, so you should be able to sell them no problem."
"Got it." Naofumi would have to make more medicine later.
"What are those for by the way?" Kizuna asked, indicating the Health Potions and Magic Healing Waters he had set out.
"These restore magic and health in my world. Do they not exist here?" Naofumi asked, sounding surprised. If so, they could be rare, and they'd sell for more than the medicine.
"No, but we have these instead." Kizuna pulled out an item from her weapon.
Earth Crystal
There wasn't much to say with a name like that. It was brown, shaped like a rectangular prism, and smooth to the touch.
Naofumi cocked his head. "Are you supposed to eat that or something?"
Kizuna laughed at his question. "Whaaa? Goodness, no! No, you just need to hold it. This version restores your magic power." The well-dressed girl continued. "There's also ones to restore health too. But I rarely found those in the Labyrinth."
Naofumi frowned. "And you just hold it? That sounds like such a weird way to restore health and magic power."
"Hey, to the people of this world, it'd sound odd to drink from a bottle to restore their magic power and health." Kizuna protested. "We've both had to grow used to the way things work in our worlds. Of course we'll find each other's methods strange."
True. Maybe he'd just grown too used to it. And there'd definitely been moments where it would have been much easier for them to restore their magic power by simply holding a crystal instead of drinking down an endless batch of potions.
Kizuna handed the Earth Crystal to him to examine. He was in the middle of looking it over when it suddenly shattered in his hand with a burst of light.
Dragon Vein Unlocked! 3000 EXP Acquired!
Naofumi blinked as did Kizuna. Had... had he just gotten as much exp as he had from the island bosses at Cal Mira?
"Were you low on magic power or something?" She asked. "What were you using magic for that I wasn't aware of?"
"I didn't use it. It just gave me a lot of experience!" Naofumi exclaimed.
"Wha- no way! I've never heard of that happening before!" Kizuna's eyes widened in surprise.
"It's the honest truth! I swear!" Naofumi defended himself.
"... Huh?... Then maybe…" Kizuna hesitantly grabbed one of the Magic Healing Waters off the table and slowly took a sip of it.
"Huh. Tastes like blueberry." She smacked her lips thoughtfully before getting back on track. "No, wait! More importantly, you were right! I just got exp from this to upgrade my weapons! I thought Heroes were supposed to cancel out each other's exp gains when they were close to one another?!" Kizuna asked in surprise.
"I… I don't know, this has never happened before." He'd only ever gotten exp from killing monsters… to get exp from a consumable item from another world… "Upgrade your weapons?" Naofumi then asked. "You mean like Glass and L'Arc?"
"Oh yeah! I shared that strengthening method with them, actually!" She said happily. She then gasped. "Oooooooh! Maybe I could share it with you too since you're a hero! That'd help us grow a lot stronger, and-"
"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to stop you right there." Naofumi raised his hand in front of him. "It doesn't work. We already discussed this with L' Arc and Glass the night before we fought the Spirit Tortoise for the third time."
"Ehhhh? Are you sure? It didn't work for us at first either until we-" The hunting hero began to protest.
"Until you believed the other person about the method, yea, been there, done that." The Shield Hero waved his raised hand dismissively. "It wasn't a matter of that, trust me. We all got big fat warning messages that we're not allowed to use the strengthening methods of Heroes from other worlds. Which really sucks, since we would have easily curb stomped the guardian beast otherwise, I'm sure."
…
"Awwww… we could have gotten stronger so much more quickly though." Kizuna sighed sadly.
"How many methods do you have anyways?" Naofumi asked out of curiosity. Even if he couldn't use them himself, it was still an interesting topic to discuss.
"Well, besides mine, I have Glass and L'Arc's power-up methods. It wasn't something we learned about until sometime after we'd defeated the Demon Dragon, so I never really got the chance to ask some of my other friends what their methods were before I…" Kizuna suddenly looked down as she thought back on a distant memory.
Only six strengthening methods? And Kizuna had managed to defeat a world threat without the other Hero's!? That was actually pretty amazing, considering Naofumi, Ren, and Itsuki had eight a piece and they'd still struggled to take down a weakened version of the Spirit Tortoise without Fitoria's help.
"Well, hey, at least you'll be able to do it now, right? Better late than never. And you'll be able to meet your friends again all the sooner, now that we figured out a way to cut some corners here. We just need to buy a lot of those crystals and we'll be set." Naofumi grinned as he forced a change in subject.
It worked, Kizuna immediately perked up again. "Or, hear me out, you could make me a lot of these healing waters so I can get a lot of extra Exp too?"
"And waste my precious materials on you? Fat chance." Naofumi drawled.
"Hey, that's no fair! Why can you be the only one to benefit from this and not me?!" The girl complained heatedly.
"Because we're in your world right now, where there are plenty of these crystals! So unless you have the herbs I need here to make more of these potions, then you're out of luck!" Naofumi rebutted.
"Finnnnnnne." Kizuna rolled her eyes. "I'll just hunt monsters like everyone else then."
"We appreciate your heroic and noble sacrifice in this regard." Naofumi stated dryly, but with a hint of teasing behind it.
"Whatever!" Kizuna pouted and crossed her arms again. But eventually, the two were able to go over the last item on the table together. Soul Healing Water.
"An item that restores SP?! That'd be beyond rare! Nothing like that exists as far as I know!" Kizuna said happily.
"Nothing like it exists…" Naofumi frowned. On the one hand, that'd make it very valuable, and if he played his cards right, it would bring in a lot of money.
On the other hand… "Selling something like this would draw too much attention to us then. The last thing we need is some hotheaded buyers trying to tail us on our way to the Capital."
"Awwww…" Kizuna looked somewhat disappointed realizing that.
"Oh, believe me, I'd LOVE to take advantage of this. The merchant in me would give up a limb or two to put this thing on a pedestal at an auction somewhere and shear the people for all they're worth. But it'd take too long for me to set that kind of auction up. And the longer we're here, the longer it'll be until we find our friends again.
"I'd rather we play it safe selling what we have tomorrow, and if we have some leftover money after getting the travel voucher, we can get Rishia and me better equipment and spend the rest on Earth Crystals before we go." Naofumi said as he put all the items he'd laid out back into his shield.
"Hmmm… yea, that's fair. I have hunted monsters in that Labyrinth for more than a few years. I could probably make more than enough for what we'd need for the travel voucher." Kizuna said.
"You'd really do that?" Naofumi asked.
"Of course! I already said it earlier, but I'm relying on you two to protect me!" Kizuna lit up happily with a bright smile. "Helping you two get stronger will help me out too!"
"You could be a little less honest, you know." Naofumi muttered quietly to himself.
"Eh? What was that?" Kizuna asked.
"Nothing." Naofumi yawned. "I'm going to bed. Good night."
"Good night, Naofumi!" Kizuna stayed up for a little while longer.
Eventually, she went to bed too. And the last person awake was Rishia, who still sat at the table, the book from the guild's library in one hand, and her other furiously scribbling notes on a pad of paper.
Kizuna had been able to give her a rough understanding of the basics. And had even, to the girl's surprise, showed her how to sound out words. She hadn't been aware that Heroes could do that because of the auto-translation feature of their weapons. But the Hunting Tools Hero had somehow done it.
'I need to learn this… no, I WILL learn this.'
The less useless she became, the better off their situation would be. And who knew? With how long they'd be in this world, it'd probably be to their advantage for her to pick up the language while she was here.
Author's Notes:
I could have ended halfway through this chapter. To be honest though, there's a lot of ground to cover this arc. And I suck at writing short chapters.
For those who read the omake a few chapters ago, this was the hidden surprise about consumable items that I mentioned. Heroes from other worlds gain exp when using magic restoring items and the like from other worlds. Depending on the quality of the consumable, they can gain A LOT of exp. As much as defeating a level 70 boss monster during an experience activation event. So if grinding monsters is too much work for you, just use this simple easy method to gain levels quickly when you're visiting another world!
Hero Clips!
What Happened In Canon (In A Nutshell)
"Hmph, what about that last one then?" She asked, pointing at the Soul Healing Water.
"That restores soul power," Naofumi said.
"... wait, you actually have an item that does that?!" Kizuna looked incredulous again.
"Yeah, is it rare or something?" Naofumi asked.
"Rare?! There's nothing like it that exists in my world!" Kizuna told him.
…
"Oh, so by rare, you mean rare." Naofumi's eyes suddenly glinted. It was barely noticeable, but the flash of gold coins resonated before his eyes.
"What… what did I just see?" Kizuna asked.
"Hmhmhmhmhm." Naofumi chuckled as he rubbed his hands together. "My my, this is a great discovery indeed, good sir."
"Rishia, what the hell is going on with Naofumi?!" Kizuna asked.
"I-I don't know! I've never seen him look like that before!" Rishia replied in a scared voice.
Naofumi stood up, still looking absolutely delighted. "I haven't felt like this in a long time! I can feel the desire to sell rising within me! This is perfect! The Nocturnal Doctor will finally be able to make his grand debut once more!"
"... you know, I think we should sleep on this and hope that he's back to normal tomorrow. He's really starting to remind me too much of some of my merchant friends." Kizuna said.
They went to bed after that. But the next day, Naofumi was still in the same mindset.
In fact, he'd had them dress up with masks of their own as he wore his favorite Mask Shield in front of a growing crowd of people.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I have here before your eyes the miracle of the century! The treasure beyond all treasures! A miracle item that will send spirits reeling with energy!"
"Feh?" Rishia whimpered as she tried too hard not to shake from fear.
"Yep, it's the miracle of the century folks! And there are only five bottles of it available for sale!" Kizuna loudly proclaimed, twirling with the bottle of Soul Healing Water held on a pillow she was holding. She didn't look the least bit embarrassed about what she was doing. Perfect for what Naofumi needed.
"Rubbing it into your skin is all you need to activate its wonderful effects! What a miracle indeed!"
"What is it anyway?" A random person asked.
"Nothing that'll help you, good sir! But you, yes you, the spirit next to him! What's your name?" Naofumi loudly proclaimed.
"Um, uh…" The pale spirit lady began to shake as attention was drawn to her.
"Oh, a little shy, aren't we?! Don't worry! I don't need your name! I just need to show you this medicine truly does work!" Naofumi urged her to come forward.
The crowd did the work for him, pushing up to the stall he and Kizuna, and Rishia had set up. "Assistant, if you wouldn't mind?" Naofumi said to Rishia.
The girl weakly fuehed to herself and poured a little of the soul healing water into a dish for Naofumi. He then took up a brush, dipping it into the liquid. "Now, it should only take a second!" He sprinkled the liquid over the spirit girl's chest. Kizuna had said that was where spirits gathered their energy, so it seemed logical that the closer the application of a small amount, the more immediate the effect.
"I… I um…" The girl still looked nervous for a few seconds, and Naofumi almost had the brief thought of panicking in case it wasn't enough. But then, the girl's eyes lit up. "I-It's true! I can feel it! Energy is coursing through me!"
"Indeed, truly a miracle is it not?! With this, you won't have to wait for your energy stores to replenish or borrow energy from another spirit person! Nay, you will not even have to gather the residual energy from monsters you kill! This will not only fill a spirit person up, but it will also leave them overflowing with power! It shall be an increase unlike anything else!"
The spirit people in the crowd began to clammer, wanting the miracle medicine meant for their race. The merchants began to clammer too, wanting the rare medicine so they could sell to the spirit people at a very steep price for immense profits. The nobles would soon join in, wanting to buy such a treasure at an exorbitant price.
And all the while, the original spirit girl made calls for the maker of the miracle medicine to be worshipped by the spirit people as such a gift could only clearly come from a god.
"Do you feel it too?" Dou-Lon asked curiously.
"Yes. Many people are joining the worship of the Master Craftsman as we speak." Therese said excitedly.
"I knew it! Our great Shield Lord shall open the eyes of all in the land!" Dou-Lon whooped excitedly. Therese cheered with him.
Raphtalia and the others were confused by their sudden behavior. But didn't question it as they continued on.
Overall, Naofumi made more than enough money in the auction that followed on the Soul Healing Water for them to get what they needed. And he hosed the nobles and merchants for all the money he could get in the process… and the spirit people still worshipped him despite that.
In short, if you wanted to make a quick buck, bring plenty of Soul Healing Waters from Raphtalia's world and sell them as if they were scarce. You'd make a fortune off of doing that if you played your cards right.
Just be ready to flee whatever places you sold your goods. Otherwise, it was likely that powerful people from the nobility to the local government would try to capture you to learn how you made the miracle medicine.
Have fun wrecking the economies of Glass's world!
Till Next Time
Allen