Chapter 6

It was staring to get dark by the time Lyn and Raphtalia finished setting up the tent. Lyn didn't bother setting up a second one since he would sleep with Raphtalia to calm her down. Raphtalia's stomach made a grumbling noice again. He noticed that Raphtalia looked a bit taller than before.

Ah, right. Demi-humans age when they level up in some worlds.

Lyn pulled out a few snacks that he bought beforehand and handed him to Raphtalia.

"Eat up."

"Ok."

Raphtalia began stuffing food into her mouth with her bare hands. Lyn looked at her again. When she was done, Lyn pulled out a pair of scissors.

"Your hair is a mess, let's trim it a bit."

"Ok."

He trimmed it a bit to make sure it wouldn't get in the way when she fought so just above shoulder length should be good. Suddenly he remembered something. He gathered some hair and shoved it into his shield.

"Done."

It wasn't much but at least she looked a bit more presentable.

Raphtalia began twirling around, her face swelling with confidence.

"Now then, you should hurry up and go to bed."

"Okay!"

For the next hour Lyn made some nutritional pills and some medicine to relieve fatigue, as well as many other random medicines he could need. Absorbing some of them also gave him a few boost. He also utilized some of the glass vials he purchased from the pharmacist, because the shield couldn't keep up with the production of medicine.

"Nn~..."

Raphtalia started to stir in her sleep.

"Kya!"

Lyn picked her up again and started to walk into the forest with his sword out.

Raphtalia: Level 15

Lyn: Level 14

The night continued the same way the last one did. But in the middle of it he heard some hissing noise and felt his arm get wet.

"[Furnace Shield, [Dry]" Lyn muttered, using his shield to dry off quickly. Seven seconds later he turned his [Furnace Shield] back to a normal sword. But there were still yellow stains on both the jacked and Raphtalia's clothes. She tried to apologize when she woke up but Lyn just told her to wash her clothes while he washed the jacket.

"Sorry."

"I told you to stop worrying about it. This jacket has been through hell and back. Thank god for the [Self Repair] function,"

Lyn sighed.

"We will go further today, maybe even camp out there."

After a few hours they exited the meadow and arrived along the forest land between the mountain and the forest.

Raphtalia's fighting style had greatly improved thanks to her experience, and her movements were more skillful too.

Our herb collecting was going well. Monsters steadily kept on coming and provided us with exp, while our luggage was being overstuffed with all the item drops.

But then 'it' happened.

Up until now they were fighting fable-like monsters. And now came time for Raphatia to face a real one.

A rabbit called a Usapiru.

"Pyo!?"

The Usapiru spotted them and leaped at Lyn, who grabbed it before it got Raphtalia.

"A... Aah..."

"What's wrong?"

"A, a living thing, will, will have blood, right..?"

Oh right. She never killed a 'living' thing before.

"Yep. Just like everything else. I know it will be hard at first, but you gotta get used to it if you want to survive in this world."

"B-but."

Chomp! Chomp!

Usapiru repeatedly bit Lyn and tried to weasel out of his grasp.

"If you can't fight something like this, then you become dead weight to those around you, and you will get abandoned."

Sorry that I have to play the abandonment card Raphtalia. You will thank me for this when you are older.

"N-, no!"

Frightened with her eyes shut tight, Raphtalia stabbed the Usapiru multiple times with her knife.

Blood began spewing after she pulled her weapon out.

"Ah..."

The Usapiru died with a thud and laid motionless on the ground.

Raphtalia stared at her own knife while trembling, the scene thoroughly burnt into her eyes.

Her complexion pale, she looked as if she wanted to escape from all of this.

Lyn looked plainly on the outside, but on the inside, no matter how many times he saw scenes like this, it still hurt him a little to bring this much trauma to a person. But it must be done.

"Pyo!"

Another Usapiru appeared out of a bush and it leaped at Raphtalia, trying to bite her.

Lyn grabbed the second one as well. He punched this one with his hand, but it was just barely damaged.

"... Sorry. I hate to have to do this, but I need someone who can help me fight for the sake of this world. And I can't attack and defend. So I need someone to help me."

Lyn continued to pummel the rabbit while he talked.

"If I go in alone, I won't have enough power to help anyone else, and a lot more people will go through the same thing as you. A lot more will suffer."

Another punch.

"Soon, another wave will spawn."

"Eh!?"

"So I need to fight and to get stronger, but I cannot do it alone. And I can't bring myself to put my full trust into the other heroes."

Raphtalia was trembling as she listened to me.

"Are you... fighting against that disaster?"

"Sadly yes. This world summoned me to fight, so I don't have much of a choice"

"..."

"But I can't fight and protect. So I need your help," Lyn said, as he switched to his sword form, the rabbit bit him again, this time doing damage and drawing out blood. Lyn dropped it and slashed it in half with his wide longsword.

"I can attack," Lyn showed his bleeding hand. "But then I can't protect. And if I protect, then I can't attack. So please, help me fight for the sake of this world."

"... Understood. Master, I... will, fight."

Color gradually returned to her pale face. She slowly nodded her head and thrust her blood-stained knife at another approaching Usapiru.

At the sight of the Usapiru squirming and convulsing, Raphtalia silently closed her eyes.

Then a moment later, she changed her grip on the knife and began skinning the rabbit.

"Let me do that. I don't want you handling all the grunt work."

"Okay."

Lyn skinned the rabbit and put it's meat into his shield for later.

"Master. Please, don't abandon me."

Raphtalia begged him while raising her face.

Lyn hugged her and petted her head.

"You've done well, so I won't abandon you."

EXP 9.

EXP 9.

EXP 9.

"I want to... lend my strength... to master."

"Oh and just call me Lyn."

"Ok ma... Lyn." Raphtalia nodded and started to walk towards the rest of the rabbits that popped out of nowhere.

From then on, Raphtalia was unbelievably enthusiastic about charging in and skewering the monsters which appeared.

Someone who was always scared of everything was now being so aggressive without any inhibitions.

This was some good development, but it seemed like... she was motivated for the wrong reasons.

Well any progress is welcome at this point.

Lyn cooked a stew made out of the Usapiru's meat and edible herbs.

The leftover meat was grilled and eaten as well.

"Here, eat up."

Raphtalia then began devouring the cooked stew and grilled meat.

"This is so good!"

Her stomach grumbling in anticipation a little while ago, Raphtalia heartily ate with shining eyes.

After today's Lyn was at level 16 and Raphtalia was at level 17.

"Mas... Lyn. How did you get a sword?"

"Just an old thing from my old world."

"Why do you not use the sword more often?"

"I don't like using it too much. If I use it to attack, then I can't protect the people I care about."

They continued eating in silence when a small bottle popped out of the shield. Lyn picked it up and drank it in one swift gulp.

"I'll watch over the campfire, you go ahead and sleep. I'll wake you up after awhile."

"Understood."

"Go ahead and use the fur as a blanket."

Lyn passed Raphtalia the fur.

"Ok."

Raphtalia frowned a bit after sniffing the fur's scent.

"Is it smoky?"

"Yes. It's very smoky."

"I thought so."

"But, it looks very warm."

Raphtalia snuggled up to Lyn, leaned against his back, and closed her eyes.

One week Huh? Lyn though. Looking at the timer in his vision.

"Nn..."

Raphtalia gently rubbed her eyes and slowly got up.

"Are you awake?"

She didn't scream. This time it was because she fell asleep next to me.

grumble*

"... My stomach's empty."

Lyn gave Raphtalia the leftover of the meat.

"Watch the stuff. I'll be back in a bit," Lyn said, turning his shield into a sword.

"Ok!

Raphtalia nodded while munching her food.

Lyn went back into the forest and didn't come out till late afternoon when their levels have increased by 2.

A certain incident occurred.

While hunting some Usapiru...

"Ah..."

The bladed knife in Raphtalia's hands had snapped off completely.

"Show it to me."

It was completely broken. Lyn threw it into his shield and pulled out a small dagger.

"Use this for now."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine, we'll get another one."

Lyn's shield was filled with loot. Or at least it would have if it could. The shield's gem was like a black hole that could suck anything into it.

After selling off all the fur and some medicine, and whatever other loot we got, we got an extra 126 silver coins. Considering they rarely bought anything from town and got most of the stuff themselves, they had about 2 thousand silver coins now.

"I wonder which one we should get."

Raphtalia murmured while eating the cooked rabbit meat. Lyn had set his shield to automatically cook. He just needed to feed it wood from time to time and it would cook it for him.

"Well, guess we should go over to the Weapon Shop."

"Um."

grumble*

"My tummy's empty."

Lyn handed her another rabbit's foot. As they continued to walk towards the weapon shop.

"-And here we are Erhard. I'd like some weapons and protective gear within the range of 90 silver coins, plus a durable knife."

For some reason, Erhard groaned with his palm on his head.

"Well… it's none of my business, but please properly maintain your equipment at least."

"I did the best I could. But we were fighting for quite a while. And I have no tools to sharpen the weapons."

"But I'm amazed this girl's complexion is so much better after just three days. And haven't you gotten quite plump now?"

Raphtalia nodded at him with a proficient smile. Looking at Raphtalia, Lyn would say she is about 14 years old.

"Erhard, please show us what you can for Raphtalia."

"And how about you?"

"I don't need any."

"You don't want anything?"

Raphtalia looked up at Lyn and asked.

"Does it look like I'll be needing any gear?"

Lyn hasn't gotten any armor for several worlds now. He was always in his regular clothes. This was mostly because his physical defense was better than most staring armors.

"Um."

Raphtalia groaned, looking unconvinced. Her hands were preciously holding onto her ball.

Oyaji rubbed his chin while looking at Raphtalia.

"It looks like this girl will soon be assessing herself with a sword rather than a knife."

"Will it be alright?"

"Seems she's quite enthusiastic about it. A sword proves to be a rather fine weapon for a beginner, no?"

Erhard searched through a corner of his shop.

"You're right."

"Will I be using this sword?"

"Looks like it."

"I'll be tutoring her on how to use one."

Then a tanned hide breastplate was brought to us from the back of the store.

"An iron short sword and a hide breastplate. Although they're a bit old, please bear with it. The size fits you at least."

Oyaji handed Raphtalia the sword while the breastplate was worn on top of her casual clothes.

grumble*

Lyn pulled out a random food product and handed it to Raphtalia without looking.

"I'll go buy some more food. Please teach her well Erhard."

"Gotcha shield bro."

Since when were we bros? Lyn thought. But he didn't really mind.

"Okay!"

"Okay listen up, I'll now teach you all about the basics-"

Lyn left the Weapon Shop and hurried towards the market.

Lyn knew about the demi-humans so he already stocked up on food. But he needed to upgrade his food storage just in case. So he walked into a tavern and asked for some ice. After a few minutes and upgrades Lyn finally got a food storage that could keep food fresh for 4 days instead of 12 hours.

Lyn returned to find Erhard teaching Raphtalia how to grip and swing a sword.

"Here you go."

"Thank you!"

She then munched away as Erhard diligently taught her evasive maneuvers.

Even in such a situation, the mood didn't change at all.

"What about you?"

"I've got those evasive moves memorized."

"Well, you do seem like the blocking type. It would be rather dangerous for you to gawkily upset your balance."

That marked the end of Erhard'd crash course on sword handling, Lyn then paid the bill.

After that, Erhard passed him a small slab of white stone.

"Oh a whetstone."

"Yes. The 'coating' wasn't applied on the weapon this time. So it'll break in no time if you don't regularly maintain it."

"Hmm..."

Lyn dropped the whetstone onto his shield. The shield absorbed it.

"H-,Hey!?"

[Whetstone Shield] (Unawakened) Lv. 1 0/10 C

Abilities Mastered: Sharpening Level 1

Special Effect: Automatic Sharpening (8 Hours), Consumption (Large)

Lyn changed to the new shield.

"Huh!? What the, heck is that?"

Shield of Whetstone, it looks like the Small Shield but is a whole lot bigger. A huge shield made of whetstone.

But there's a pattern of slots on top of the shield, with the multiple holes varying in shapes and sizes. Some are fat while others are thin.

"Hey, you! Tell me what's going on."

"The legendary weapon can take on the properties of some of the things it unlocks."

"..."

"You must have heard that the Legendary Weapon hold mysterious powers. This is just one of its powers."

"..."

"... You didn't hear this from the other Heroes?"

"I hadn't seen them recently. You were the first one to transform your weapon right in front of me."

Figures.

"Ah right, Erhard." Lyn said, pulling up the map shield. "Do you know about the dungeon that's located near the forest village?"

Lyn asked while pointing at the spot he noticed a while ago.

"The monsters are different from the forest; I heard they're more similar to the ones which show up along that village's highway."

"I see, thanks."

Lyn put his map away and activated the unmastered [Whetstone Shield].