The meetings were brief, and I was smiling as I watched a number appear at the edge of my vision, one that went up fairly high after a while, the EXP from the wave being dumped on me all at once, I assumed. Oddly it seemed to…glitch. For just a moment, like it was having trouble displaying, and I was hopeful that meant we'd earned so much it was having difficulty showing it all.
In truth, it was significant but still, only about twice what I'd gotten over the entire time, despite the party taking out at least two orders of magnitude more foes over the course of our battle here, let alone whatever Fast and Lucia had done in theirs. I had to wonder about the distortion, but the others were coming close to us, and standing in their groups around us, so I tabled the thought for now.
"Well now, that wasn't so bad," said Motoyasu as his 'cheersquad' came up to him, and they seemed to nod in agreement, while Ren did the same.
"I hope they're all that easy," he added, and looking up to the mid morning sky, as it was still a bit till noon, I had to concur.
"I had pictured it being much harder myself, given how it was described, and how it looked, but with what we've been given, that was a fairly simple battle," I admitted. Exhausted as I felt, from the emptiness of my meters, we'd still come through that battle with barely a scratch on our bodies. I hadn't even had to use any of the potions I'd spent money on, though that only meant they could be saved for later.
"So, does anyone know where Naofumi is? He arrived with the rest of us, right?" asked Motoyasu, and before he could say anything, Myne was rubbing a hand on his chest and leaning towards him.
"I'm glad he wasn't here. He would have held us back, and we wouldn't have had nearly as much fun," she said in a rather chipper voice, and Motoyasu laughed.
"For sure," he told her, like some surfer dude, and I rolled my eyes, but before I could mention the village, another voice came over the ridgeline, as three armored figures finally crested it.
"Heroes!" shouted the leading one, with the plume on his head marking him as the Captain, waving his arms as he ran towards us with the two at his side. They were breathing hard by the time they were up to us, but he was smiling, as he caught his breath, and then looked us in the eye.
"A job well done," he said, looking at us, and Ren scoffed.
"The knights, huh?" he said, disdainfully, and Motoyasu, still with a bit of mirth in his voice, added in.
"Isn't it a bit late to show up?" he chided.
"We still have some cleanup to do, but we'd be happy with some help," I said, motioning towards the corpse of the chimera…which meant it was only now that I noticed the other monsters from the Wave hadn't left those behind. The weapons, armor, and corpses had all seemingly turned to dust, from those killed, and of course, the remaining horde was already running, those stable enough to do so.
"Now, now, don't be that way. His highness will have rewards for each one of you, back at the palace," he declared, trying to sound in control, and he then bowed to us, motioning for us to come with him.
"Shall we go?" he asked, but before we started off, Ren noticed the corpse as well, and pointed to it.
"Before that, I suppose we need to divy up these spoils then? Who gets what head?" he asked, and I…was not quite sure what to say, as I'd never directly absorbed a corpse before, but he and Motoyasu seemed used to it.
"I want the lion. It was the big center one, and I got the killing blow, so I get the big head, right?" Motoyasu opined, and looking between myself and Ren, we just shrugged.
"Okay, then I want the dragon, if that's alright with you, Bard?" he asked, and I didn't even have to think, nodding as the three of us stood in front of the body. I then held up my weapon, the same as they did, mimicking their motions, and then being shocked as the gem on the front of my Bow literally 'vacuumed' up my chosen head, with the sound of tearing meat and breaking bone, before it came loose, and then vanished into my weapon.
Instantly, I had some light ups on my menu. Several transformations unlocked, related to both the beast's own nature, which was apparently Wind, while also giving me some boss related ones, including a (Stage 2) form that looked quite nice in stats, including a multi-shot feature that was just begging for me to play with it. I held off, however, as the others walked back to their parties, with me seeing that, while we'd pretty much destroyed the front of the creature, its rear was still sitting there.
"So, we leave the snake for Naofumi then?" I asked, pointing to it, as the other two walked away.
"Sure, if he wasn't here, he gets the ass. Makes sense to me," commented Motoyasu, as I walked up to the others.
"He was busy, to be fair. He spotted a village in the encounter zone and went to protect it. It's where my other two companions are as well. I sent them to help him," I explained, and that seemed to surprise the pair of them.
"Really? Did you send them to keep an eye on him and that girl, or just to help out?" asked Motoyasu.
"A little from column A, but mostly the second one. We do have a duty to protect everyone we can, do we not?" I countered, and that actually got through. The Knight Captain, meanwhile, coughed, and pointed.
"Yes, well, I left a small group of my men in the village along with the Shield Hero and what I can now say was your two, Bow. The fastest route back to the Castle bypasses the village, but if you want, you can swing by and pick your companions up," he tells me, and I wonder why a route back would avoid such a place…but not being a native perhaps it's a geography thing, so I shrug.
"I'll do that, Captain," I responded.
"Good, while you're there, if you see my men, please tell them to report back to the castle for…debriefing," he seemed to search for that last word, but it was no skin off my nose. I tell the others we'll meet them there, as Shadow, Strong, and I make our way back through the woods, cutting a straight path, and even encountering a few stray enemies along the way, allowing us to deal with them.
I notice, periodically, as we do, that I get EXP pop-ups from time to time, the 'glitchy-ness' not present any longer, and I can only guess they're coming from Fast and Lucia back in the village, dealing with their own foes. I do get another pop up as well, informing me that party members(it says several, but given there's four of them, it really means all of them), had hit level cap.
As I let the other two clobber a few skeletal knights, who's gear does NOT disappear anymore, I look over the tooltip associated with the pop up, and find that, while at max level, they do continue to gain EXP, which will be used to instantly level somewhat when we get their classes up, but otherwise, they can grow no stronger from 'leveling', which does alleviate a concern of mine that we'd have to rush to the Cathedral to take care of that right away.
Better, I gain a few new abilities as we go, using the equipment of the zombies and wasps(the tool tip called them locusts of all things, but they were clearly wasps. A translation error perhaps?), including five new bow types, and I was on my way to even more, making me quite pleased with myself as we finally neared the town, and found Lucia and Fast in the town square, along with Shi-Naofumi and his ward.
The sun was just past its noon height, leaving us at about one in the afternoon, as we walked around. The town itself was…not devastated, but it certainly wasn't in the best of shapes either. Despite this, the people were laughing, and seemed quite joyful, as we passed into the square, finding Lucia and Fast doing some of the tricks they'd done back in the Capital to raise their spirits, the two stopping the show as we came into view.
"Master/Sir Bard!" They shouted together, and then rushed to see us, the fox taking a moment to hand the fruits he'd been juggling to some of the children, before coming to a stop in front of me, and bowing their heads.
"We did as you instructed, and aided the Hero of the Shield in defense of this, Lute Village," said Fast, and Lucia raised her face to look me in the eyes.
"There were twenty-three casualties, mostly broken bones and a few small wounds, but nothing major. No fatalities, however, thanks to the Shield Hero's bravery and knowledge of the area," she said, gesturing to said Hero, who was currently looking like he was utterly exhausted, as he leaned back against a wall. On being referenced, he rose from his lean, and walked to me.
"She…er that is, your companion is really downplaying her part in this. Her and that fox, Fast was your name, right?" he asked the last, turning to the fox, and Fast nodded, the name obviously confusing Naofumi with how simple and direct it was.
"Yeah, anyway, they were a big help. If it had just been me and Raphtalia, we'd have lost a lot of people, despite our best efforts. But thanks to these guys, and the Knights, we did really well in keeping the people safe," he said, and mumbled 'if not the town' in a voice low enough he probably didn't think I heard it. Before I could respond, someone came up to us…several someones in fact, the people of the village.
"You do yourself a disservice as well, Hero of the Shield. It was only by the efforts of you four and the knights that this village lost no one to the horde. We cannot thank you enough, any of you," said the oldest guy in the group, bowing deeply to us, followed by everyone else.
"Without your strength and courage, we would have been done for, and for that, we are eternally grateful," said another man, and soon they were all saying thanks, before they rose, and began to get on with cleaning up the village, leaving us to our own devices.
"So, where are the knights? Their captain told us they were helping you out, but I don't see them anywhere," I asked, and Naofumi, along with Lucia, scoffed, but then Fast spoke up before either could explain.
"They took their leave of this place to head back to the palace. They said there was to be a banquet held in honor of our first victory over the Waves, should we desire to attend," he said, and Naofumi shook his head.
"Didn't sound like a choice to me, Fast. Sounded more like another demand from the King," he opined, and to be fair, I could see his point. His victory here was not going to be enough for others to see past his crime…a crime I was beginning to doubt myself. Myne was simply too happy, too…recovered from it, even if the physical effects were minor here. It felt less and less like she was a victim, and more someone who slipped between masks to use people. The fact that she was hanging off Motoyasu all the damn time didn't help.
Still, I kept that opinion to myself, merely gathering my party about me, and letting Raphtalia and Naofumi have a moment, while I took stock of their abilities and stats, marveling at what Level 40 looked like in terms of potential for all of them. Skills, abilities, and stats, all of them were flashing, poised to go farther, and on being pressed, the four of them chatted excitedly about what a class up would be like.
"I have to admit, I've never seen anyone get one. That's for old people and the like, it takes years to gain the levels, and not everyone is lucky enough to survive that long. But I've heard rumors of how it goes, and I'm really looking forward to expanding what I can do," she said, waving her staff in front of her, smiling. The other three, as it turned out, would be the first beastmen in a while, generations perhaps, to Class Up in Melromarc, so they too had no idea what it entailed, meaning this would be an experience for all of us.
When Naofumi joined us with Raphtalia, we set out to the castle. At first, it was quiet, after all, we didn't have much to talk about, but then we began to find pockets of smaller monsters, zombies or wasps/locusts, and we made them nothing but dust, with me handing off the bits and bobs to him, letting Naofumi upgrade his Shield with a new form or two, when he let slip how many more he'd unlocked over the days here.
"Wait, what?!" I shouted incredulously, as he laughed, and plucked a bit of herbs and some mushrooms from near the path, the things sparkling a little as he did so. Apparently one of his Shields had come with a buff that increased the quality of the things he found like that, from ore to plants. More importantly though was HOW he'd unlocked that shield, it coming from those self same plants.
"Seriously, did your menu not tell you about this?" he asked, with laughter as I started to find out all the wonderful things I'd missed because I'd been focused on the idea that my power came from the Wave and its remnants. That's how I'd thought this worked, but over the course of a half an hour, with Naofumi making cracks, I soon unlocked over a dozen new forms for my weapon, on top of the stuff I'd gotten from the battle.
"Okay, so Blue, Green, and Yellow mushrooms," I said, plopping them onto the yellow gem set into my Bow and watching them vanish. Each one disappeared with a pinging noise(to me, I'd confirmed not even the other heroes could hear those little chimes…though they had their own sets of them). When it was done, pop ups filled my vision, as my 'Form Tree' showed off all the things I'd unlocked.
"That's just cheating," I mention casually, as I look through, and Naofumi is laughing again.
"I mean, it probably helped the first guys who were doing this job, you know? If you've got no support, it's best to just find stuff in the wild," and remembering what he went through, I could only nod, as he showed off some of his Shield Forms, and I did the same, with him actually reciprocating the idea.
"So the rest of us have to get stronger on our own, but you can just shoot a person into godhood?" he countered, and I looked at my Bow, and then just kind of nodded.
"To be fair, I have to earn that, and it still works best with someone already strong, but yeah, pretty much," I said with a cheeky grin at him, and he shook his head at me, still smiling as we made our way through the woods. By the time we arrived at the castle, the sun was just about setting, but I was feeling even more powerful, with the number of forms my Bow had increasing by an order of magnitude…and then some. This had been, overall, a good day. Tiring though, and I was looking forward to a feast, and then to a good night's sleep.