[Steel Blade Shield +5 (0/10) Awakened – Quality: High-Quality++ – Base Attack Power: 18 – Base Defense Power: 26 – Equip Bonus: +8 defense +6 attack (mastered) – Enhancement Lv: 3: +6% Damage-Reduction-From-Humanlike – Proficiency: (0%) – Level Requirement: 16]
Damn, what a shield.
Having slept with the shield equip, he had it mastered by morning and ready to awaken and upgrade, and once Naofumi had upgraded it to the best of his abilities, it had five times as much defense as his other shields, as well as a generous amount of attack. He wasn't exactly sure how the cutting edge compared to other weapons, but he was more than ready to test it out.
And the shield could get even better if he could fine the right kind of jewels to reinforce it with.
That said, after Shirou had spotted Naofumi trying to swing the blade about and give him a sharp hit to the head and a lesson on how to use the shield properly, he realized that the Blade Shield was suited more to counter attacking enemies than for offensive slashes.
By parrying a blow and having the opponent's weapon, or claw or whatever, act as something to slide off if, it would naturally put the blade into the optimum position to strike in. Acting as more of a sneak attack rather than a swingable blade, since the shield part made balancing difficult. So in order to use it properly, Naofumi would have to still face the enemy attack. But this was still far more offensive power than he had before. His personal damage output had increased a hundred-fold…
Alright so maybe he still wasn't an insane damage dealer, but it was still something. He wasn't getting the no damage indicators anymore.
"You sure you got enough sleep?" Shirou asked Naofumi, breaking him out of his trance and causing him to look up from his status menu.
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Naofumi said, watching as Shirou continued to cook breakfast. He just noticed that he had no idea where the man got the food from. He hadn't seen any sort of ingredients while they were in the carriage. The bird had eaten absolutely everything in there. Was the food itself just another magical construct or something?
"After the kids wake up, we'll all have one final meal together and be on our separate ways." Shirou said.
Naofumi grunted slightly at the mention of Shirou and his party leaving. While he didn't trust Shirou as far as he could throw the irresponsibly overpowered warlock, or whatever he was, him and his party were damn useful. His distrust for the man was nothing personal, he was just far too convenient to be real.
He glanced over to where the 'kids' were sleeping.
Apparently, when Demihumans and Monsters are younger, they aged as they leveled up. It had taken Naofumi by surprise when this was pointed out to him and he noticed that Raphtalia had put on two or three years since he had first bought her four days ago. Supposedly, Rita was actually fifteen, and Azu, the dragon girl, was only eight. Though both those seemed reasonable when compared with Firo being less than a year old.
The Filolial had returned to her giant bird form in her sleep, while still wearing the pajamas, causing it to look like an overstuffed lion with a fat bird's head sticking out of its mouth. Apparently, the mascot-like costume could change sizes to fit the wear. Magic clothes like that must be pricey, and yet the kids were using them as just colorful sleepwear. Naofumi couldn't help but wonder what the man's rates were like.
"Out of curiosity, how much would it cost me to get you to kill the King before you left?" Naofumi asked.
"Sorry, I don't take assassination jobs. Or jobs that would result in a war." Shirou said with a shake of the head. "I don't like death. And would rather avoid it whenever possible."
"Strange profession to be in then." Naofumi commented, mildly disappointed that he wouldn't even be given a number. "Don't mercenaries kill people for money?"
"I didn't become a mercenary for the money. I became one so that I could help people." Shirou said with a shake of the head.
"…You're going to have to run that one by me." Naofumi said, giving the man a look of disbelief.
"If I was a knight, then I would fight for the behest of my Lord. As such, politics would rule my sword and I would be forced to ignore any cry for help that didn't serve my Lord's purposes. I might even have to kill a man I do not believe deserves death because I was ordered to. If I had become an Adventurer, I would be at the beck and call of the Guild and would only help people who had the money to afford to buy the Adventurers' Guild's attention. Meanwhile, a mercenary is a free sword, and I can choose whatever battle I want, and only fight when I see fit." Shirou explained. "While the pay is nice, it is the feeling you get when you do the right thing that I really work for."
"Or really? If you get off on doing the right thing, then why did you help me?" Naofumi asked. "For all you know, I'm a criminal rapist."
Shirou just shrugged. "Even if you were, I would still have helped you. It never really mattered to me whether you are innocent or guilty. Rape is a horrible crime, but not one I would deem punishable by a forced march to one's death. Though I suppose I might not have been as willing to leave you alone with my kids if you really were a rapist. Not that you are strong enough to take advantage of them."
Naofumi blinked at the man in shock. "You would help me even if I was guilty?"
Shirou looked at Naofumi and smiled. "Whether they are a saint or a sinner, at the end of the day, everyone prays for salvation. Who am I to judge who is worthy enough to receive it?"
"…You're an idiot." Naofumi said.
"Yes. I know."
'Tell his Holiness he doesn't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself.'
The Pope sat on the bench in the room of prayer, staring up at the statue of God, wondering what to make of the Sword Hero.
On the one hand, he was an extremely capable individual. He had already grown twenty more levels than the other two heroes, even without assistance or accesses to the country's best training grounds. He was intelligent, powerful, unbelievably skilled, and knew how to navigate a political battlefield without getting involved. If you wanted an all-around capable individual, then he was your man.
However, at the same time, he was by far the least heroic person of the bunch. His didn't go out of his way to inspire people, make a habit of displaying his might, or even try to act like he cared about justice or righteousness. Nor did he care about the conflicts between the races. His only concern was his duty to stop the Waves of Calamity. He was pragmatic to a fault. Perfectly willing to let a rapist walk free so long as the man was useful. And while these would be admirable qualities in a normal person, they weren't what you wanted to see in a hero.
The simple truth was, while the Spear and Bow Heroes had been rather ordinary heroes, openly flaunting their power and connections or yammering on about justice, the Sword Hero had been anything but. The Pope would struggle to call him a hero at all. He almost gave the impression of an antihero, a man with no heroic traits whatsoever who only played the part of a hero because they literally had no other options.
'I'm a repairman.'
He might as well have just said, 'I am a person that solves problems.' The young man was an assassin, and a skilled one at that. Skilled enough to make all the Church's Shadows look like jokes, and the Shadows practically worshipped him as if he was God himself because of it. Seeing their eyes shining in admiration behind their masks was rather unnerving.
Somehow the man's clothes ended up underneath his bed at the castle, even though he walked out of it wearing them. Almost as if he had snuck back into the castle to plant them there, just to show that he could. When the Shadows found out about this, they had the clothes enshrined in their secret quarters.
The Pope supposed it is understandable. The Sword Hero is one of the three individuals closest to God, besides himself. It must have been comforting for the Shadows on a spiritual level to find out that he was someone like them.
But the million-gold question remained, was this all a good thing or a bad thing? Yes, he didn't hang around showing off for the populace, but that just meant he was spending more time growing to be a higher level, and that whenever he did do something public the news of it spread like wildfire. Because of how flamboyant the Spear Hero was, many had already gotten bored of talking about his attempts to show off, and it hadn't even been three weeks since he had been summoned. The Pope supposed that too much water drowns the seeds.
However, without any of their adventure and noble spies planted inside of his inner circle, the Church had no way of controlling the information flow around him, and the man was already very much aware of the Church's existence. While he didn't seem to care about them or their doctrine either way, it was still unnerving to have someone like him knowing that you had tried to manipulate them. The best that could be said about that situation was that the Sword Hero merely found their attempts to track and control him amusing rather than anything else, and hadn't retaliated save to show up the Shadows.
The only thing that might have been considered enemy action was the way he politically attacked the Knight Commander and placed him under investigation. Though even this was not really a problem. Even though the Knight Commander was one of their sheep, they had more ready to take the man's place. And the man truly had been an incompetent. Incapable of properly playing the cloak and dagger game of court by disguising your intentions. It seemed much more like he honestly just wanted a more capable man in charge of the army, rather than it being an attack on the church.
The Pope sighed.
Even if they wanted to do something about it, what could they do? The Hero of the Sword was too cautious and too wise to be controlled, he was too allusive to be tracked, and he was too powerful to be beaten. He uncovered and took down three of their level 50 Shadows before any of them could even react. Any attempt to do anything about him might simply risk angering him. And while the church as a whole would likely survive such an onslaught, it just wasn't worth it.
They would have to wait for the Waves of Calamity to come, and hope that the Sword didn't become a problem.
"Ah, Shield Boy, its good to see you again!" The Blacksmith said with a smile as Naofumi walked into his shop.
"Hey, Oyaji-san. We've got some business if you've got some time." Naofumi said to the old man who was one of his few allies in this world.
"Sure, sure, I'll always have time for my little hero. What you need?" Oyaji asked.
"For starters, I'd like to get a blood-clean coating on Raphtalia's sword, since it doesn't seem to have one." Naofumi said, gesturing for Raphtalia to bring it out.
"A sword? Oy, don't tell me you've been going to other weapons shops behind my back? You're so cruel." Oyaji said, making his best attempt at a pout as he took the weapon.
"You think we could have? No, we got this for free from a wandering mercenary band we met by the road." Naofumi said as Oyaji opened pulled the sword out and looked at the blade.
The old man's eyes widened. "Oy oy, you said that you got this for free! Someone must have taken a serious liking to you, Shield Boy! This sword is made of meteorite ore! And the quality of its smithing… It's… wow."
"Is it really that amazing?" Raphtalia asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"Amazing. That might be an understatement. Just give me a second." Oyaji said before going into the back of his shop and digging around. He came back moments later dragging along a large shield with a discolored black and gray face. Unlike everything else in the old man's shop, which had a beautiful elegance to it, the thing seemed thick, rough, and a little on the unwieldy side of heavy. "This is the shield prototype of the Meteorite Series of weapons, made from meteorite ore. Meteorite ore has a lot of natural anti-monster and magic properties that 'would' make for some incredible armor and weaponry, but it is legendarily difficult to work with. Even this piece here to nearly an entire year to make with extremely complicated experimental processes. It's thought to be worth at least five thousand gold coins. Now, compare this to what they just handed the young lady for free."
Naofumi did, looking from the rough discolored shield to the perfectly shaped, perfectly balanced, pure white short sword.
"This sword is beyond anything that I could make. I'd dare say that it is priceless." Oyaji said with a shake of his head. His eyes might have even been tearing up. Was it really that amazing of a weapon? "They didn't happen to tell you who the maker is, did they? It doesn't seem to have a blacksmith's seal on it."
"…I think it was probably that mercenary guy." Naofumi said as the wheels went around in his head. "The guy had some weird magic that allowed him to create objects out of pure magical energy. I'm betting that he created this sword using that."
"You mean it's a fake?" Oyaji said, bringing the weapon close to his face. "Looks pretty damn real to me. My appraisal status magic says that it is a sword made of meteorite ore and that is has a quality of Masterwork++. I didn't even know that the quality scale went that high."
"Well the fakes he made were good enough to fool even the Legendary Shield into accepting them as real." Naofumi said, a hand on the shield.
"What do you mean by that?" Oyaji asked, glancing at the shield.
"As it turns out, the Legendary Shield can copy any other shield and take on its form. The mercenary had me copy this." Naofumi said before turning his shield into the Blade Shield form and triggering the mechanism to cause the blade to extend outwards.
"…Do all of the Legendary Weapons have that ability?" Oyaji said a frown on his face.
"As far as I'm aware, yes. At least, one of the old Sword Heroes had the ability." Naofumi said.
"Those thieving little bastards!" Oyaji growled, slamming his fist on the meteorite shield hard enough to make the entire room shake. Naofumi momentarily wondered how high of a level the old man was. "The Spear and the Bow Heroes both came into my shop, tried out every weapon I had of their type and then left without buying a single thing! Don't they care at all about an artist's suffering!?"
"Hmph, some heroes." Naofumi agreed. Honestly, he wouldn't have cared at all if it had happened to anyone other than Oyaji-san. He'd probably even have done it himself and only felt a little guilty about it. But he would have never considered doing it to the old man. Oyaji was too good for that.
Oyaji took a deep breath and sighed. "So, do you want to copy this meteorite shield or not?" The old man asked.
"Oyaji, you know I can't afford to pay you for something like that." Naofumi said with a sigh.
"For you, consider it a free service. Copy whatever you'd like from my shop." Oyaji said with a shake of the head.
"Oyaji… Thanks." Naofumi said with a smile.
"As for the blood-clean coat, I'll do it just to have the chance to take a closer look at this sword." Oyaji said with a smile, lifting up the piece.
"Thank you very much, Oyaji-san!" Raphtalia said, giving the man a bow.
"You're very welcome, little lady." Oyaji replied. "So, anything else you need? You've already got swords and shields sorted out, so that only leaves armor, am I right?"
Naofumi opened his mouth to talk, but Raphtalia beat him too it. "That's right! Please make some armor for Naofumi-sama!"
"Huh?"
[Weapon Copy – Complete: Iron Meteorite Shield (0/40) – Quality: Normal – Base Defense: 31 – Equip Bonus: [Meteor Shield] (unmastered) – Proficiency: (0%) – Level Requirement: 35]
"I just know Oyaji-san is going to do an amazing job with Naofumi-sama's armor." Raphtalia said cheerfully.
"In the future, don't go do things like that." Naofumi sighed. "We should be saving or money for your defense, not mine. Mine is covered by the shield."
"But its always Naofumi-sama that is the one taking the attacks." Raphtalia said before looking up at Naofumi with her large eyes. "I don't want you to get hurt and leave me alone."
…Dammit. Ever since she had willingly chosen to remain his slave, he had started to trust her for more reasons than just because the contract stopped her from betraying him. And he had started to care for her for more reasons than just his own survival. The little girl was starting to feel more like a daughter to him than an important tool.
Shirou had said that it was likely those feelings of closeness that had allowed him to grain the higher levels of the Slave User's Shield after absorbing Raphtalia's hair for the second time. He wasn't sure if it was true, or just that mercenary being a sap again. After the incident with that evil knife, Shirou's attitude changed drastically. He stopped acting so condescendingly towards Naofumi, save for when it came to how to properly wield a weapon. He often talked like an old man, rambling on about philosophy, the manning of life and the price of freedom.
The guy was weird and too convenient to be trusted... but Naofumi was actually sad to see him go.
"We should figure out the best way to invest the rest of our money." Naofumi said, after getting Raphtalia a temporary loose set of armor, since she was likely to outgrow it, and commissioning some armor for Naofumi himself, they had still had around 400 silver. Naofumi then sunk another 100 into convincing Oyaji to try to make some 'twin shields' as the Sword Hero of old had managed to get a [Dual Wielder] ability from a pair of swords that possessed a 'joint identity'. It was a gamble, because he had never heard of twin shields being a thing, but if it worked then it would be an incredible boon.
Normally such commissions would take weeks to complete, but Oyaji told them that he would make sure to get it all done in two days, just for Naofumi.
"Um… I don't know. Our needs seem to have been taken care of." Raphtalia admitted.
That was when Naofumi saw a carriage go by, pulled by a more normal Filolial. "Hm… a tamed monster might not be a bad idea." He did after all have a Beast-Tamer series to try out and having something for transport wouldn't be such a bad idea.
With his Shield's built it functions to deal with the storage and processing of foods, it wouldn't even be that hard to feed it, so long as they hunted enough monsters.
Sure, why not.
This is the last we will be seeing of Naofumi until right before the Wave.
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