by Aneko Yusagi
In hindsight, I should have known that the other heroes wouldn’t take it seriously. By the end of the first day, they were loudly complaining about every aspect of the training. Soon enough, their complaints morphed into straight-up sabotage, and before long they stopped coming all together. They were just about to leave the country for distant, less-troublesome lands when the queen suddenly appeared with a request. If the heroes were able to accomplish the task set before them, then she would permit them to pass through her country’s borders and leave the kingdom for good. That was enough to convince them to accept the mission.
I suppose I don’t need to tell you that this simple mission turned out to be the start of an incredible sequence of events.
The mission sounded simple enough: mysterious monsters were appearing throughout the country—no, the world. We needed to get rid of them.
It turned out that these monsters were really all servants of something much larger called the Spirit Tortoise, though no one knew that at first, because we weren’t able to read the full names of the monsters like we normally could in battle.
The first monsters we came across were giant bats that had tortoise-like shells on their backs. I shared all the information I had about them with the queen and the other heroes, but the other heroes kept their own information to themselves. They acted on their own, in secret.
I suppose it doesn’t matter now. We found out the truth anyway.
Because the monsters were servants, they had to be serving something. That something turned out to be a monster called the Spirit Tortoise.
The other heroes went after the Spirit Tortoise without telling anyone, and the Spirit Tortoise started to advance and invade country after country, possibly in response.
The Spirit Tortoise was so enormous it defied belief. It was larger than a mountain itself, and actually had a mountain range covering its back.
The other heroes had attempted to attack the monster from the front, but that was the last report we received about them before they went missing.
The good news was that, with Raphtalia, my other friends, and the support of the coalition army behind us, we were able to defeat the monster. And yet the blue hourglass that appeared in my field of view, when the Tortoise first awoke, never disappeared when we defeated it. So I felt like we might not be out of trouble.
“Looks like we aren’t going to find the heroes until we get to the place where the Spirit Tortoise was first sealed away.”
“Master!”
I was muttering to myself when Filo shouted and took off running, dragging the carriage behind her at a breakneck speed.
“What is it?”
“I can hear someone screaming off in the distance!”
“Take us there!”
“Yup!” she shouted and kept on barreling down the road.
Sure enough, there was no doubt about it. This wasn’t over yet.
Chapter One: Helping Others
“AHHHH!”
Filo carried us to the source of the screams. There we found a horde of monsters attacking a group of people.
The monsters were Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type). That’s right—even though we’d defeated their master, the servant monsters were still marauding across the countryside.
They were the same type of monsters that we’d first encountered after accepting the mission from the queen. Since then we’d run into plenty of other types, but the bat-like monsters appeared to be the most plentiful.
“Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
“Hyaaa!”
I jumped out of the carriage and ran to shield the people from the attacks of the Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type). I pushed the people back and readied my shield just in time to block a laser-like heat beam a monster shot at them. The monsters had a tendency to focus their attacks on the weakest member of a group, which made it difficult to effectively protect everyone.
“Hate Reaction!” I shouted. It was the name of a special ability my shield had, a skill that would draw the attention of any enemies in the area.
Being a human, I wasn’t able to see how it worked. But Filo was a monster, and she immediately turned to face me, her attention captured by some invisible force.
“Who are you?” one of the people shouted.
“We’ll talk later. If you don’t want to die, you all better bunch up in one place! I can’t protect you if you’re scattered all over the road!”
“Okay!”
The panicking group of people ran to line up behind my shield.
“Perfect. Shield Prison!”
That was another skill of mine. This one produced a cage of defensive shields to surround the cowering crowd.
“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!”
I used three additional skills in succession, placing a few more lines of defense between the people and the monsters. The shields produced by the skills wouldn’t last very long, but it was better than nothing.
“Raphtalia! Filo! Think you can take care of those monsters before these skills run out of time?!”
“No problem!”
“Easy!”
Raphtalia steadied her grip on the hilt of her sword and was in the thick of it in a flash. Her blade caught the light as she furiously beat the Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type) back. Filo quickly transformed into her filolial queen form and slipped her feet into a pair of claw weapons before quickly following Raphtalia’s sword with a flurry of fast kicks.
Both of them were very high-level fighters and had considerable power behind their attacks. If they didn’t hold back, both of them could make mincemeat of a monster with one hit. They didn’t hold back—dozens of the monsters fell with each swing of sword or claw.
The bats were obnoxious because of their chaotic flapping. But they weren’t very intelligent, and they didn’t try to escape or avoid our attacks.
“Hey, big sis!”
“I’m on it!” Raphtalia shouted. A second later and she was spring boarding from Filo’s back to knock a number of the monsters out of the air.
Heh. It was pretty impressive to see.
By the time the Shield Prison skill ran out of time, the majority of the monsters had already been defeated.
“Master! I think there’s a BIG one!” Filo shouted, pointing frantically. I turned to see what she meant, only to see a Spirit Tortoise familiar (yeti type) running towards us. It was another one of the Spirit Tortoise’s underlings, but this kind was much larger and more powerful. It was a giant yeti-like creature, but its back was covered with a large tortoise shell. It stood at least as tall as Filo in her filolial queen form, and its considerable strength was evident by its prominent bulging muscles.
The bat-like creatures were weak enough that an average adventurer would be able to handle a couple of them without too much trouble. But these larger yeti types were a powerful enemy to face. I’d seen very strong adventurers fail to defeat them many times. Anyone at level 25 or so could have handled the bat types, but I don’t think anyone under level 55 would survive a fight with one of those yetis.
Although, come to think of it, the bats always attacked in large groups. Anyone at level 25 would be in real trouble facing down a crowd of them.
That reminds me of another thing I’ve learned since I was summoned to this world. Normal adventurers were only able to get to level 40 here, unless they performed some specific task. If you wanted to level up past 40, you had to procure the permission and support of the crown. Once you had those things, you could participate in a class-up ceremony, which utilized the dragon hourglasses to raise your level limit to 100.
So basically, to survive a one-on-one encounter with a yeti type, you would have to have already been through the class-up ceremony—a relatively rare thing, accessible to only the most experienced adventurers.
Still, weaker soldiers and adventurers might be able to defeat one if they had an organized formation and a solid battle plan, but it would take a long tim
e.
“Think you can take him?”
“Leave it to me!”
“Alright!”
Raphtalia climbed onto Filo’s back and prepared to use one of her killing blows while Filo took off sprinting for the monster, prepared to follow up with furious kicks if necessary.
“Ying-Yang Sword!”
“Hyaaaaaaa!”
Raphtalia’s sword cleaved the beast in two, and Filo’s follow-up attack blasted the monster’s remains far into the distance.
“Whew . . . That should just about do it, right?” Raphtalia said as she jumped down from Filo, slid her sword into its sheath, and began to survey the damage.
She looked unfazed by the battle, which I probably should have expected considering how powerful Filo and her actually were. They weren’t just high-level warriors either—they were skilled fighters.
“Yeah! I don’t think there are any more of those monsters around here!”
“Great. Good job,” I said while walking over to the people that the monsters had been terrorizing. “Are you guys alright?”
“That shield . . . That mysterious power you used to protect us . . . Could it be? Might you be the Shield Hero?”
“I am. So what?”
“Thank you very much! I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come along when you did!”
The people all stepped forward individually to express their gratitude.
“This is a dangerous place. Why are you guys still here?”
“Actually, we were starting a new village here.”
“Ah, I get it.”
We were looking for the other heroes, but in doing so, we were retracing the path the Spirit Tortoise had taken on its rampage. Naturally, we ended up meeting a lot of distressed people along the way, so we’d been taking the time to stop and help whenever we could.
But to tell the truth—and this is pretty common after natural disasters—I couldn’t bring myself to really trust the people we’d been running into. With all the chaos enveloping the countryside, there were definitely robbers and highwaymen out there to make a killing while they had the chance. Many of the ruined towns contained abandoned treasures that attracted thieves and other nefarious types.
“I have to check, just in case. You all, lay out all of your belongings before me.”
“. . . ?!”
The group of people suddenly looked less happy to see me. But I had to be sure. Since I arrived in this world, I’d found myself surrounded by some of the worst, most despicable people I’d ever met—and I didn’t have the time to waste helping a rag-tag team of bandits plunder the countryside.
“We found all of these things ourselves!”
I sighed. I should have expected as much. It was a good thing I decided to act on my suspicions. I mean, who knows what would have happened if I’d turned my back on them? It was a common tactic that these types liked to use. You’d get them out of danger and take them somewhere safe, only to realize they were waiting for a chance to put a knife in you and escape with all your valuables.
It’s easy to imagine that a new fantasy world would be amazing and chock-full of dreams. But this wasn’t that kind of place. It was a rough dog-eat-dog kind of place. Anyone arriving from modern Japan would have a hard time protecting themselves from all the real dangers out there.
Maybe it was the only way that these people had to survive. Even in the modern world I came from, there were countries and places where citizens really had to look out for themselves. I guess I couldn’t blame them.
“Ah, and I guess you think you have looters’ rights to this stuff? Whatever, I don’t want your stuff. We’re going to move on now. So try not to get yourself killed by all the Spirit Tortoise’s monsters.”
One by one, the people unsheathed their weapons and leveled them at me. I summoned all my apathy and turned to leave. The whole region had been thrown into chaos recently. What good did it do us to try and save people if those people all turned out to be lawless bandits?
“W . . . Wait!”
“You’re just going to leave us here?!”
“Who said anything about that? Didn’t I just save you from those monsters? I’m just saying that I’m not going to do any more for you.”
“Damn.”
The crowd all turned to look at the person who seemed to be their leader.
“I guess we better try to make it to safety before the sun goes down.”
There were still a lot of wild monsters roaming in the area. It looked safe for the moment, but they would be back—which reminds me of something I forgot to mention, a really nasty characteristic of these Spirit Tortoise familiars. When they died, their bodies would eventually spawn a lot more of whatever monster had fallen.
When the Spirit Tortoise awoke and rampaged across the world, it destroyed a lot of towns and villages along the way. All the dead things left in its path, including all the people, spawned vast numbers of more familiars.
The coalition army was doing all it could to deal with the remaining monsters, but it would be a while before it was able to get the monster numbers under control.
If anyone were to try and say that some pathetically weak crowd of looters could trek off into a dangerous region like this and get out alive, I’d have to shake my head. No one would say that if they had actually seen the conditions out here.
And there was nothing to be gained by death. Even worse, there was the risk that they might end up as a seedbed for new monsters while they were still alive. That had almost happened to a friend of mine named Keel—actually, he was from the same village as Raphtalia. While he was alive, he had been infected by one of the Spirit Tortoise familiars. Luckily, we were able to save him from death, but he was seriously hurt by the whole incident and was still convalescing.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a HERO? You really aren’t going to help us?”
“I never claimed to be a religious scholar. Besides, I don’t think anyone will mind if I don’t go out of my way to save a bunch of thieves.”
Raphtalia looked a little upset by my answer. Still, she understood that they were wrong, so she didn’t attempt to contradict me.
Filo was just staring up at the sky, completely oblivious.
The very fact that I wasn’t impressed or moved by all the extraordinary things happening around me spoke to how accustomed I was becoming to this world.
Sure, it sounds good to call it “rough and tumble,” but the truth was that this world was a stinking pile of garbage.
“You’d leave us here to die!? You . . . you murderer!”
“Whatever—I’m out of here. Filo! Time to get going.”
“W . . . Wait!”
And they took the bait. I smiled.
“What?”
“We’ll give you this. So please . . . please take us to safety.”
Each of the looters held out a valuable to me.
“I think I’ll take everything you’ve stolen.”
“Oh, um . . . very well.”
“Raphtalia, we better frisk them just to be sure.”
“Understood. You know, I knew it would end up this way.”
Raphtalia said softly as she patted down the looters to make sure they weren’t hiding anything else from us.
But of course they were. Lots of stuff.
“Damn! We risked our lives for that stuff—just to end up with nothing!”
“If you’re complaining, you must be alive, right? Here, climb on up. We’ll take you to safety,” I said, climbing up into the carriage. We left for the nearest village with fortified defenses.
“Have you guys run into any of the other four holy heroes?” I asked the crowd of looters in the back of the rattling carriage.
“Sure haven’t.”
That was the typical response. Sometimes we found someone who claimed to have seen them, but it always turned out to be a false rumor or a case of mistaken identity.
“Actually, I saw someone dressed all in black.
He looked like the Sword Hero. I saw him running to attack the Spirit Tortoise,” one of the looters muttered.
“Are you serious?”
“I was focused on escaping at the time, so I can’t say for sure, but . . .”
“That’s fine. Just tell me what you saw.”
“The guy I saw—and I think there was only one—was running at the Spirit Tortoise and swinging a sword. I saw him shouting and charging at the giant monster. I didn’t see anything after that, because I was focused on trying to run away.”
“Where was this?” I asked, unrolling a map.
“Here,” he said, pointing to a town.
It was very close to the last location where Ren had been seen. The looter’s story sounded reliable.
The other heroes had all gone missing in different places, so it wouldn’t be unexpected to have sightings scattered all over the map. Unfortunately, that was exactly what made it difficult to tease out the rumors from the truth.
This story, on the other hand, sounded like it might contain a kernel of truth.
“You didn’t see anyone else with him?”
“I remember the Spirit Tortoise stomping everything, and then . . . no—I don’t remember. I was so focused on trying to get away.”
I had heard a similar story before. They’d said the Sword Hero charged at the Spirit Tortoise from the front. He was bold, or so they said. They hadn’t really been sure, because no one had been able to stop and get a good look at what was happening.
Every time I heard a story like this, the circumstances were always the same. Each witness had been caught up in the chaos and running for their lives when they caught the briefest glimpse of the hero. People mentioned that they had felt a glimmer of hope, a hope that was inevitably proven mistaken when the Spirit Tortoise marched on, undeterred, to destroy their towns and villages.
“That’s just like him, to get people’s hopes up and then not follow through.”
We had to make a small diversion from our course to accommodate them, but we visited a town that had been unaffected by the disaster.
