The conditions for the Rope Shield have been unlocked.
The conditions for the Pikyupikyu Shield have been unlocked.
The conditions for the Wood Shield have been unlocked.
The conditions for the Rock Shield have been unlocked.
The conditions for the Butterfly Shield have been unlocked.
The conditions for the Pipe Shield have been unlocked.
And so on…
Rope Shield
Unlocked… Equipment Bonus, Skill "Air Store Shield"
Pikyupikyu Shield
Unlocked… Equipment Bonus, Beginner Weapon Repair Proficiency 1
Wood Shield
Unlocked… Equipment Bonus, Logging Proficiency 1
Butterfly Shield
Unlocked… Equipment Bonus, Paralysis Resistance (Small)
Pipe Shield
Unlocked… Equipment Bonus, Skill "Shield Prison"
And so on…
One week and one day had passed since then.
We headed to the village just as the old man at the Weapon Shop had told us.
The village was called Ryuto Village. It seemed like a decent place to use as a base—there was only one inn, but the lodging fee was just one Silver Coin. A purchasing merchant also stayed there every other day, so the location was quite convenient.
There was no Potion Shop, but since the villagers wanted medicine, they'd sell at a slightly cheaper rate than the shops in the Castle Town. In exchange, I made sure to warn them that the quality was lower.
Incidentally, my bad reputation had preceded me. When I first arrived at the village, I'd punished a few idiots who tried to pull something by sentencing them to the Balloon penalty.
So anyway.
After absorbing all manner of things from the local monsters, herbs, ore, timber, and everything else into my shield, I'd picked up a variety of skills and proficiencies. The status enhancements were numerous too—too many to bother counting.
"Wait—!"
I chased after a porcupine-like monster covered head to toe in needles that tried to flee once it realized it was at a disadvantage. Raphtalia was right there with me.
Raphtalia had been leveling up steadily too. I was Lv 20, and Raphtalia had reached Lv 25.
Her growth was surprisingly fast.
…And here I was, still fighting in cloth armor.
At this point, being able to fight completely unscathed made me genuinely wonder if I was that weak.
That said, I had taken pain once before. I'd underestimated my defense, fought with a weak shield, and got hit—badly. It stung like hell.
This time, I'd taken a surprise attack from the Yamaara I was chasing and ended up with a small wound.
"Ow… that actually hurts. It's been a while since I felt this."
I smeared a Heal Pill on the bleeding gash while running. Needles hurt when they pierce you. Obviously. Since I'd come to this world, my shield had been protecting me so well that I'd completely forgotten.
"That's exactly what I've been saying. You really should be looking to buy proper equipment soon, Naofumi."
"No… it was because I was using a weak shield."
At some point, Raphtalia had stopped calling me "Master" and started using my name instead. Was the fact that she'd grown more comfortable around me a good thing or a bad thing?
Well, whatever.
It seemed like my shield functioned as a full-body equipment piece in the shape of a shield, so there wasn't really much need to hold it in a stance. The shield portion was supposedly the hardest part, but I'd never actually taken damage before. This was, you could say, my first experience taking a hit.
Now then—the Whetstone Shield's effect. As expected, it automatically polished itself. Incredibly convenient.
The polishing time was eight hours. If I withdrew it before then, the effect was lost.
The downside was that it constantly consumed SP during use and wouldn't recover. Not great.
Oh well—let me go over the other skills I'd learned.
"Air Store Shield!"
The first skill I'd learned. It generated a shield in roughly a five-meter range.
Yeah. On my own, it was pretty much useless. Best to write it off as a stalling tactic.
I focused my consciousness and imagined where I wanted it to appear, and it materialized. When the duration ran out, the shield simply vanished. A strange skill.
Having a battle cry made it feel more legit.
The Yamaara stumbled in surprise at the shield I spawned.
But it immediately recovered its footing and resumed fleeing.
Damn it… I thought I could catch up within five meters, but it was fast.
Fine then.
"Shield Prison!"
This created a cage of shields around the target in roughly a six-meter range.
This time, I targeted the Yamaara specifically when activating it.
It was apparently a skill meant to protect its target, but it also had the effect of restraining anyone who entered.
Yeah, both skills were defensive. Neither was any good for attacking.
"Keek!"
With nowhere left to run, the Yamaara thrashed around inside the Shield Prison.
Both skills lasted fifteen seconds.
During that time, Raphtalia closed the distance to the prison. The instant it dissolved, she drove her sword into the Yamaara.
"Kiik?!"
"We did it!"
She grabbed the Yamaara and ran back to me.
"Nice!"
EXP 48.
Not a bad haul.
When I absorbed a defeated monster into my shield, it changed, but I'd found that breaking the monster down into parts first yielded more. I hadn't known that until this past week. Balloons, Mushes, and Eggs were all made of a single material, so there'd been no reason to notice.
I immediately disassembled the Yamaara into needles, meat, skin, and bones.
Every part could be used as a material, so none of it was worthless.
I absorbed some of it into my shield.
Bone-type materials required bones from multiple monsters, and skin-type materials provided status-up equipment effects—assuming you met the level requirements and had progressed far enough down the skill tree.
Meat fell under the cooking category. I was starting to see a clear pattern in the system.
The needles had me curious. I already had the Yamaara Shield, so…
The conditions for the Animal Needle Shield have been unlocked.
A shield made from animal needles, huh? A needle shield… I was intrigued by the unlocking effects.
Animal Needle Shield
Locked… Equipment Bonus, Attack Power 1
Unique Effect: Needle Shield (Small)
Yes! An Attack Power increase!
Yeah. I know. It only goes up by one.
I had no idea what the unique effect—Needle Shield (Small)—actually did, but at the very least, I'd managed to find an offensive shield tree.
If I made this my starting point and focused on finding items that connected to that tree, I'd be able to fight offensively too.
The defense was a little lower than the ore-type shields, but it should be fine.
"How is it?"
"Yeah, looks like a shield that boosts Attack Power."
"Nice. By the way, what about your Defense?"
Raphtalia kept making this bewildered face whenever I got injured.
"About middle of the road."
"I see… Oh, um, I was hoping you could sharpen my sword…"
"Sure. Let's head back to the village soon and take a break from hunting."
"Okay!"
I shifted the shield into the Whetstone Shield and inserted Raphtalia's sword.
Polishing in progress…
Well now. Our levels had been climbing rapidly, and thanks to spending nearly a week diversifying our income streams, our savings had reached a whopping 230 Silver Coins.
The potions sold reasonably well, and thanks to the proficiency-based skills granted by my shield—logging, mining, and the like—we'd been doing business across a broad range.
The problem was that this "shallow but wide" approach was exactly the same tendency I'd had in online games.
Well, when you chase money without being picky, this is what happens. It was pointless if the goal was to get stronger, but staying alive came first.
"Alright, let's head back to the Castle Town soon and get Raphtalia fully kitted out."
"…Naofumi?"
Hm? Raphtalia was smiling at me with this terrifyingly frozen grin.
"It would be greatly appreciated if you bought me new equipment, but before that, I'd ask you to give some thought to your own appearance."
"Something wrong?"
"Besides the shield, you look almost exactly like a villager."
"Hmm… I don't really need anything though. A change of clothes should be enough, right?"
She grabbed my shoulder with a death grip, her smile beaming.
"Weren't you just injured moments ago?"
"I was unlocking shield trees with weak shields… It's still fine. More importantly, if we get you a new weapon, we can take on better areas—"
"Naofumi? I'd recommend cutting the jokes before you end up dead."
"Dead?!"
She was threatening me with what looked like the hilt of a spare sword. The slave seal should've prevented her from harming me, though…
"…It's high time you reconsidered your own equipment. The deadline is approaching, isn't it?"
"…Yeah."
Come to think of it, she was right. Now that I thought about it, the Calamity Wave could arrive in just a few days.
I needed to get stronger before then.
And looking at it that way, wearing clothes no different from the villagers' was definitely a cause for concern. My purpose and my methods had gotten swapped around.
"Sigh…"
I'd wanted to push my Attack Power a little higher first, though.
"For now, let's prioritize finding equipment for you, Naofumi."
"Fair enough. I'll buy my gear first, then use whatever's left on your weapon."
"Okay."
She said she'd "grown comfortable," but really, she'd just gotten brazen. At this rate, I really wanted to teach her her place, but she'd recently learned how to stubbornly skirt the rules I'd set without actually breaking them.
If I had to put it in words, she'd become a pain-in-the-neck slave.