by Aneko Yusagi
The reading might be cheaper but if you considered the time investment it wouldn’t be. And it would entail getting new materials to experiment with also.
I still kept coming back to the idea of the translation skill, and every time I thought of it my desire to learn to read just shrunk even more.
“Let’s study up on that magic!”
Raphtalia said to me.
“But I don’t know how to read the writing here…”
“I know. That’s why we should do it together.”
“Yeah… I suppose that only makes sense.”
It did seem like a good idea to get some new recipes under my belt.
“That reminds me—how much time do we have until the next wave comes?”
“Huh? Oh, wait a second.”
I referenced the icon in the corner of my field of vision.
Apparently this whole system was called “status magic” and everyone in this world could use it.
As for me, my attack rating was as low as possible, but my defense rating was through the roof.
Among the other icons there, there was another one that only the heroes could see. I focused my energies on it, and a clock appeared that indicated the amount of time remaining until the next wave was to arrive.
It looked like forty-five days and fourteen hours.
“Looks like we have forty-five whole days!”
So they didn’t come every month?!
Well, it’s not like we had two months or anything, but that reminds me of something: we hadn’t been summoned here until after the first wave had already come. That meant that the frequency could be different than we had previously thought. If I thought about all the time I’d spent on my own before I teamed up with Raphtalia, it seemed to add up.
Over one month left some room for interpretation.
“Well, having extra time is a good thing.”
And if I thought about all the preparations we really should be making, it wasn’t exactly like we had time to spare.
“Anyway, are we done here, for now?”
“I think so. Let’s see. We reapplied the slave curse, sold our extra medicines, and got those books from the magic shop. That should be it.”
I went over it all with Raphtalia. If we forgot something and had to come back, we’d just lose that much time.
“Then let’s get some breakfast and go level up.”
“Okay.”
I was surprised with the meal. My sense of taste had finally returned.
I’d nearly forgotten how delicious food could be. It was invigorating.
Mortar Shield: conditions met
Beaker Shield: conditions met
Druggist’s Mortar Shield: conditions met
Mortar Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: new compounding
Beaker Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: liquid compounding bonus
Druggist’s Mortar shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: collection skill 2
We finished our meals and decided to leave the castle town and make our way to Riyute. There should be some monsters along the way that were perfect for leveling up at our current levels. Unlike the other heroes, I didn’t already know where the best leveling up and hunting spots were. So I either needed to find them myself or ask around and see what I could get other people to tell me.
I opened the map and gave it a quick look-over. There didn’t seem to be anywhere that was very convenient, but it seemed like there were a few spots that would work well enough for our purposes. Granted, it wasn’t a race—but even still, the idea of falling behind the other heroes grated on my nerves. And besides, fighting an unknown monster, and winning, would get me new skills and shields to work with. It didn’t seem like a bad idea.
I’ve neglected to explain myself fully. There are a bunch of different forms my shield can take, and they all have different abilities. Unfortunately, most of them were just status and ability boosts, so they weren’t a ton of help at the moment.
They were mostly defense boosts because I was working with a shield… at least that was my theory. Even still, aside from defense boosts, my agility, stamina, magic, and SP ratings, everything except for attack, were rising as well. That was how I was able to make it through the last wave unscathed.
We were walking down the road.
“You know, I wonder if I could absorb the enemies from the wave into my shield?”
We’d left in a big hurry, so I hadn’t even thought to try it. But I definitely wanted to try it now, as I needed to do whatever I could to make my shield stronger.
We were approaching the fields around Riyute, and there were dead enemies from the wave laying around here and there.
Inter-Dimensional Locust Shield: conditions met
Inter-Dimensional Lower Bee Shield: conditions met
Inter-Dimensional Zombie Shield: conditions met
Inter-dimensional Locust Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: defense 6
Inter-dimensional Lower Bee Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: agility 6
Inter-Dimensional Zombie Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: inventory rot resistance (small)
I butchered the enemies further to see if any of their parts would result in additional shields.
But apparently there wasn’t enough of the materials remaining for most of them, and I was only able to unlock one more.
Bee Needle Shield: conditions met
Bee Needle Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: attack 1
Special Effect: Needle Shield (small), Bee Poison (paralysis)
I figured that was pretty much what I’d expected, and we continued on to the village. On the way, we came across a group of villagers removing a chimera’s corpse.
“Hey.”
“Oh! The Shield Hero.”
No doubt thanks to what we’d been through during the wave, the villagers greeted me warmly.
“Was this guy the boss from the wave?”
I looked at the size of the body and felt sweat drip down my forehead.
I don’t know how to describe it. It was a chimera, but there was something about it that made it look different than the other monsters I’d encountered in this world. I don’t know if it was the coloring, or some other more biological characteristic. It was hard to describe in concrete terms.
“It’s a terrible thing.”
“It sure is.”
I agreed with what they were saying. It looked like the other heroes and knights had torn the thing apart for materials. The basic shape was still intact, but the skin and flesh were torn to shreds in places.
“Can I have a little of it?”
“Of course. We were just wondering what we should do with it. We were going to bring it back to the village and process it into equipment. Sound good?”
“Not a bad idea, but it doesn’t look like there is anything of use left.”
The skin was all ripped up, so they couldn’t make any good armor from it. Still, they might be able to find a use for the flesh and bones, and maybe the snake tail.
The head hadn’t been cut off. It looked like there were three heads, and yet…
Raphtalia and I set to work butchering the remains and letting the shield absorb whatever it could.
Chimera Meat Shield: conditions met
Chimera Bone Shield: conditions met
Chimera Leather Shield: conditions met
Chimera Viper Shield: conditions met
Chimera Meat Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: cooking quality improvement
Chimera Bone Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: shadow resistance (medium)
Chimera Leather Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: defense 10
Chimera Viper Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: skill: Change Shield,
Antidote Compounding up,
Poison Resistance (medium)
Special Effect: Snake Venom Fang (medium), Hook
The last one seemed to have a lot of good bonuses, and the defense rating was pretty high.
But to equip it, it looked like you needed to be at a pretty high level, and on top of that you needed to have a lot of other chimera shields unlocked. I wouldn’t be able to use it for a little while, but I got the feeling that it would be my main shield by the time the next wave arrived.
“What are you doing with the rest?”
“We were just going to bury it, so take whatever you like.”
“Hm…”
It felt like it was going to waste somehow, but still… it looked like there was only flesh and bones left. The bones should keep just fine, but the meat? I couldn’t think of anything to do with it but dry it out and make jerky. Not that it looked like it would taste good.
But hey, I bet they could be materials for some kind of magical potion, but even if they could be, who would buy them from me? I had no idea. They’d give me trouble if they started rotting, and what if I stored them improperly and it came back to life or something?
Sure, the same could be said about the bones, but I still felt better about them than I did about the meat. At the same time, what was I so worried about?
“All right, we’ll take what we can carry.”
“There’s quite a lot though, Hero.”
“You’ll let me store it in the village, won’t you?”
“Well, if that is your request, Hero…”
“You can hang up the meat to dry. If someone who wants it stops by, go ahead and sell it. But set aside a little for me. It might make you enough money to rebuild. If the meat and bones came from the wave of destruction, there must be some people who will want to study it. You could make some money that way.”
“I suppose you are right, Hero.”
The villagers wanted money to rebuild, so they followed my instructions.
I let the shield absorb the guts and anything that looked like it would rot quickly, then we set off for the village. When we arrived, dusk was already on us.
The village was half-destroyed, and the remaining villagers were all living in the relatively unaffected buildings. The village chief prepared a room for us in the inn, which seemed to be in relatively good shape, and so we were able to get a good rest that night.
“I’d like to stick around and help them rebuild, but I don’t think we have the time to spend worrying about all this.”
The villagers were doing all they could to take care of us. I could understand being grateful for my help in disposing of the chimera corpse, but I didn’t know how to feel about the free room and board.
“I know how you feel. I sure wish we could do something to help them all.”
Some of the literate villagers drafted me a table of characters so that I might learn how to read their language.
It was something like the A I U E O tables in Japanese, or the alphabet in English.
Later that night, I got Raphtalia’s help, as she could read a little. I had her pronounce each character so that I could compare it to my own language. Then I drafted the answers, in my own language, onto the chart.
I imagined that they combined characters to make words, so any translation work would be hard-going. Even though, it wouldn’t be impossible.
I sat down to work on some medicines, and while I was working, I struggled to memorize all their strange symbols.
Chapter Three: Filo
We slept in the next day since Raphtalia had stayed up pretty late the night before. She’d held the magic book in one hand and muttered to herself until the wee hours of the night. Me? I spent the night roasting herbs to make medicines.
I wanted to make up for lost time, so I was hurrying through my morning preparations. I wanted to get out on the road.
“Oh! It looks like it’s going to hatch!”
I’d set the egg we’d bought by the window for the night, and Raphtalia had noticed a fine crack down the side.
You could just see something through the crack, something soft, like feathers or fur.
“Is it…?”
I was interested to see what hatched so I went over to have a look.
The cracks spread and opened with an audible crackle, and a baby monster’s face popped through the hole.
“Cheep!”
It was like a small pink chick. It was covered in soft feathers, and there was a piece of eggshell still sitting on its head, like a hat. It looked at me.
“Cheep!”
It chirped and suddenly flew up at me, bouncing into my face. It didn’t hurt at all, but I was surprised the thing was so energetic, having just been born and all.
“What is this monster called? It looks like a bird, is it a PikyuPikyu?”
PikyuPikyu were liked deformed little condors that couldn’t fly very well. The monster looked like it could have been a baby PikyuPikyu. It did have a sharp beak though, so I could expect better attacks from it than I could have from a balloon or something.
“Oh… you know I don’t really know all that much about monsters…”
Raphtalia looked just as confused as I did.
“Fine then, let’s go ask the villagers if they know what it is.”
If it was a monster that was approved for sale at a shop, it couldn’t have been very dangerous. If I asked, I could probably get an answer out of someone. I reached out my hand for the little bird, and it hopped onto my palm, then flew to my shoulder, and finally jumped up on my head.
“Cheeeeeeep!”
It kept cheeping and rubbing its face against mine. It was kind of cute.
“Oh look! It thinks you are its parent, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Must be some kind of imprinting.”
I’d already registered it on my status screen, and I was the first thing it saw after it was born. I suppose it was only natural that it thought I was its father.
I decided to clean up the shards of eggshell, and when I did my shield began to react to them. Come to think of it, if I let the shield absorb them, it might tell me what kind of monster I was dealing with. So I held up a piece of eggshell and let the shield absorb it.
Monster User Shield: conditions met
Monster Egg Shield: conditions met
Monster User Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: monster maturation adjustment (small)
Monster Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: cooking skill 2
It wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. But it still looked like it would be useful, so I switched my shield from Slave User Shield II (which I’d been using to unlock its ability) to the Monster User Shield.
“Did you figure it out?”
“No, it unlocked something else.”
I still didn’t know what kind of monster this chick was. I sure hoped the villagers could tell me something about it.
We set out walking around the half-ruined village, and I started thinking about where a good place to level up might be.
The most efficient place, considering our levels, was probably the swamp area to the west of the village. The last time we had been in the area we went to the mountains in the north, so I was hoping to find another place to go. I spotted some passing villagers, and they called out to me.
“Hello there, Shield Hero.”
“Morning.”
“Good morning!”
All in all, I’d spent about a week there, and after I protected them all during the wave, I guess most of them had come to recognize me.
One of them bowed very deeply to me, which I found awkward.
“Cheep!”
The little chick on my head chirped out a greeting of its own.
“What’s that?”
The villagers all looked at the bird on my head.
“What happened?”
They pointed their fingers at the bird and asked in unison.
“I bought an egg from a monster train
er.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“Do you know what kind of monster this is?”
They leaned in to get a better look.
“Hmm… Yes… I think it looks like a Filolial. Don’t you think so?”
“The big birds that pull the carriages?”
If they were right, that meant that I had still made a little return on my investment—considering how much it would cost to buy a Filolial. If they were right…
“Well I’m not completely sure, but there is a small ranch at the edge of town. You might want to stop by and ask over there.”
“Good idea. Let’s go.”
Raphtalia and I found out where the manger of the ranch lived, and decided to stop by his house.
Apparently the ranch had been hit pretty hard during the wave, and he had lost more than half of the monsters he had been raising.
“Okay, but is this little thing actually a Filolial?”
I asked the man there, and he nodded.
“Yes, it certainly does look like a baby Filolial.”
He held the chick in his hand, and only answered after he carefully looked it over.
“Yes, it is a very common variety of Filolial, but they have trouble staying calm without a cart to pull.”
“What kind of a way to raise a monster is that?
“Why, does it sound strange?”
Hmmm… I guess if you had been born and raised here, you wouldn’t find things like this mysterious.
Come to think of it, it might have been that the monster had a natural desire to protect its nest or its eggs, and that the monster trainers had just taught the monsters to fix their protective desire on carts instead.
