Chapter 8

The first thing we did was finding an adequate tavern were we booked rooms. We sorted through all the loot that I had and split it into two parts, the parts we wanted to sell and that which would be used for equipment.

„Here is the plan, we will split up. Eclair please handle the adventure guild. Take Kiel and Lifana with you. Rishia, Wyndia, and Raphtalia you three will go to the weapons shop and look for good equipment for Rishia and Wyndia. Take the material with you, see what you can get for the ones we want to sell and let the old man look over the other stuff. You can also tell him that we want equipment from it. Also, take the equipment loot, let him look at it and see if he either can improve it or if he wants to buy some. I will sell the accessories and the medicines on the marked and later will come to you." (Naofumi)

Firo brought the carriage with all our materials into the yard of the weapon shop and then we left to sell the medicines. Over the next two hours, I tried to sell most of the goods that we had made while traveling. As it was the result of nearly two weeks work, I could sell a huge amount of it, and made nearly ten gold.

The next stop was the magic spell shop, I sold an additional crystal needle for 1 gold and let firo make an aptitude test. As expected she had gained an affinity for poison magic through her class up. I bought the necessary spellbook.

Next, I paid my debt to the slave owner and asked him to organize a meeting with the slave merchant in Zeltburg. I also inquired about slaves with crafting talent, making sure that Imia was already in his possession. Then Firo, Yu'lon and I made our way towards the shop of the old man. When we reached it we found out that he had closed for the day. The reason was simple, all over the shop lay the materials in different piles. When the blacksmith noticed me he spoke.

„Oi, what did you do to get this mountain of monster materials. Not only the amount, but the quality is extraordinary." (Old Man)

„One month of fighting monsters and a few rare monsters." (Naofumi)

„Yeah, the only thing that you don't have are metals. So what do you want me to do with it?" (Old Man)

I pointed towards what I could see of the good materials and the pieces of equipment.

„What you can improve of the equipment, I want you to do. Otherwise, use the materials to make equipment for my group and what you don't use from the normal stuff, I want to sell to you. The rare stuff I would like to store here, if something is left after you are finished, for later equipment." (Naofumi)

„Of the equipment only one or two pieces are of a good enough quality to reuse them. The others should at least be a source for good metal. A few I could sell to the more traditional adventures. Still, I will need to buy huge amounts of metals and most of the lower materials I would need to resell. Either way you will need to give me an amount of gold to begin my work. If and how much you have to pay afterwards we will see." (Old Man)

„Hm, I will need a bit money in the near future. I have heard of an interesting slave in Zeltburg that I want to buy. What is your estimated amount that you will need for the equipment and how much would I get for the pieces of equipment and the lower materials?" (Naofumi)

The Old Man twisted his mouth.

„I don't like that, but sure. I would need at least ten gold and probably up to thirty as start capital. Then you still would have to pay something later, but I could at least work to my best abilities. Under that perspective, if I access my reserves I could perhaps give you thirty gold right now, but it would result in longer production times, as I would need to sell material before I can begin." (Naofumi)

„Then please give me twenty gold for now. I will need probably thirty in Zeltburg. What if I would get you a good crafting assistant, would that help you." (Naofumi)

„Sure, but I don't intend to simply show every smith my techniques." (Old Man)

„If I find someone interesting in Zeltburg I will let you know." (Naofumi)

After we exchanged the gold I asked.

„Do you think it is better to make a new armor of the materials you have or improve the one I already have?" (Naofumi)

„For your personal equipment it doesn't matter really, improving would be faster still. The equipment for your companions should be made fresh, as they all wear standard equipment that is made from low-quality materials." (Old Man)

„How fast? To the next wave?" (Naofumi)

„No, more than that, five days perhaps if I want to get the best out of the materials." (Old Man)

I looked around for something that would still be useful after the five days and finally found a breastplate that should fit me and Fohl after he reached his first growth phase.

„Give me that armour. I will take it and use it for the wave and till you have finished my armor. Afterwards, I can give it to either a new companion or sell it again." (Naofumi)

„Your sure, it is a bit expensive for only a few days." (Old Man)

„How much?" (Naofumi)

„265 Silver." (Old Man)

„How about 200 Silver." (Naofumi)

„240, you can use it till level 60." (Old Man)

„210, I won't need it that long." (Naofumi)

„230, but your new companion." (Old Man)

„215, After class up, he won't be able to use it anymore." (Naofumi)

„No less than 220." (Old Man)

„Sure, take it from the amount for my materials." (Naofumi)

„Fine." (Old Man)

I equipped my new armor and gave the Barbarian Armor to the old man.

„So what do you want for equipment and are your demi-human companions already fully grown?" (Old Man)

„Yes. First look at these." (Naofumi)

„What are they, never seen something like it." (Old Man)

„Modified Dragon Cores, they are meant for the equipment. They will increase the performance and abilities. I already enchanted them heavily. The enchantments are listed on this piece of paper." (Naofumi)

„What about interferences between different enchantment systems?" (Old Man)

„Lay the following enchantment grid into the sockets for the cores and they will merge without problems." (Naofumi)

„Ingenious, I would like to meet the person who thought that up." (Old Man)

It was funny, as it was the son of the old man who designed it to further strengthen the equipment that his old man had created. In his youth he was a disappointment for his father as he hadn't the simples talent for blacksmithing, but later became a legendary enchanter. He was two right now.

„Perhaps you will. Either way, the blue ones are meant for defense equipment, the red for offense and the white could be used for both." (Naofumi)

I put the eleven other sacks on the table. Thanks to the tyrano dragon rex we had enough cores for each of my companions.

„Each sack contains the cores for one of my companions or the people I have in mind for them. The one in your hand are meant for Eclair. The white one is for her shield. Her enchantments are meant to increase her survivability and her attack strength." (Naofumi)

I also showed him what I thought up for the equipment.

„Interesting. A good concept, but I'm not sure if it is possible. I have to inspect the parts of the material you have marked." (Old Man)

„They are also enchanted and should be useable for it. I have included the compatibility array." (Naofumi)

I became quite good thinking up equipment over the years, this was an advanced and already tested design that should be usable until the sevens wave. Afterwards we would have gained the materials from the bosses and could create more and better equipment. Sadly my thought up equipments needed refinement so I couldn't think up complete new equipment without experimenting, as I didn't new what enemies would spawn in future waves I needed to wait and inspect the materials.

„What about the other equipments." (Old Man)

I explained what I wanted for them. Raphtalia would get a light armour and a one handed sword, Rishia would get a combat mage robe, a studded leather armour and a staff / spear hybrid, similar to what the some Elementalists in the northern part of the world of guilds wore. Her clothing was mostly in orange and violet colors, that contrasted good with her hair.

Wyndia gained clothing and equipment similar to what a beast tamer in a flying castle wore while questing together with her friends from different fairy races after surviving a death game. The colors were a bit different mainly brown and matte yellow. For her whip, I took inspiration from the dragon corpse. The designed whip looked like it consists of multiple dragon scales with a claw of the dragon at its end.

Lifana's new armor was simply an improvement with the style she wore right now. The same was true for Eclair, both simply would have better equipment from higher quality materials. Next were Firo's and Yu'lon's equipment, as they would both need the transformable clothing it was only weapons for them. They got both metal claws to increase their combat powers. Firo's would be enchanted to support her close combat attacks and Yu'lon would be supported with enchantments to support a mage.

As I didn't want to show my knowledge about Fohl, Atlas, and Sadina I didn't order their equipment yet, but decided to wait until I had brought them. The last was Kiel. Her armor was simple enough only an improvement of what she already had, but for her weapon, I had designed something special.

„What is that?" (Old Man)

„A transformable weapon." (Naofumi)

„Really? I know the legends. At least once a hundred years there is someone that tries this. It isn't possible." (Old Man)

„Under normal circumstances, you would be right. Transformable Weapons create major structural issues. But it is possible." (Naofumi)

With that I put six ingots on the table, two were brown, two were blue, one was red and the last had violet color.

„This is a special metal that is created through the combination of different metals and a magic compound called DUST. You have two earth-dust-steel ingots, two water-dust-iron ingots and one fire-dust-copper and gravity-dust-silver ingots. If you inspect the construction sketches, you can see that the dust-ingots are used in specific positions. Earth will form the core of the transformation mechanism, water will make it flexible and allows for transformation, fire connects the parts with each other and gravity will hold them together. You should probably build one or two first to test the transformation process and then build the real one with the DUST-metals and the good materials." (Naofumi)

I didn't have true DUST, as such I had to create a material with similar characteristics based on my magic abilities. It isn't as effective as I want it to be, but for what I had designed it should be enough.

„Your sure that it will function properly." (Old Man)

„Yes, it was developed over more than five-hundred years." (Naofumi)

I had much free time between the savings of the different worlds, and till the Grimm were defeated we had quite a few years to experiment.

„What will it do?" (Old Man)

„Change between three forms, a scythe, a war scythe and a rifle that shoots out a fire spell. Through shifting of metal pieces, it constructs a different spell in each mode. In rifle mode it fires a fireball with [First Fire Shoot], in scythe mode, it produces a small explosion for acceleration with [First Fire Explosion] and in war scythe mode it heats up the blade with [First Fire Heat Blade]. As it is the most complicated part of the weapon I already have prepared it. As you can see here on the plans, there is a holder for this part. You simply have to insert the magical converter afterwards." (Naofumi)

With that, I also gave him the magic converter that I had constructed. Sadly I hadn't had any materials suitable for a higher level converter, which could cast stronger spells. The converter was a tool that converted inserted magic energy into prearranged spells. It was the result that I got from combining different magical tools and computers to work with my kind of magic. I sadly had never managed to work around the problems of the limited numbers that a converter could cast. Three First, Two Zweit or one Dreifach was the limit. If I wanted more I had to use a different tool, and for that, I lacked the materials.

„I never heard of such a tool, something from your homeworld I presume?" (Old Man)

„My world has no free magic. We have tools to help with our lives. The DUST, Transformable Weapons and Magic Converter are just tools that I learned to create throughout my life." (Naofumi)

I didn't want to lie to the old man, but a little bit misdirection was allowed.

Ren and his party were at the guild headquarter in the capital inspecting the message board for possible quests.

„Oh! Hey, Ren! You farming some pocket money with your guild too?" (Motoyasu)

„Ah, Motoyasu. Yeah, something like that. ... Now that I look at it, your party's members have changed a lot since our last meeting?" (Ren)

„Ah, yeah ... My party has a high turnover. Many girls want to party up with me, but ... There's a lot of bloody gore and grinding so I decided to not force them to stay! It's so hard being popular." (Motoyasu)

„Someday, you're going to get stabbed." (Ren)

„Ah, well actually, that has already happened once. To the point that I even thought that I died at that time." (Motoyasu)

„You don't mean before coming to this world?" (Ren)

„What, you too? While it's not as nice as mine, you've got a pretty face too. With how many girls were you going out at the same time?" (Motoyasu)

„I'm not like you. I got unlucky and met with a murderer that was lurking the streets, and ... That criminal was about to catch me as I was trying to save my childhood friend, and ... The next thing I knew, I was in this world." (Ren)

„Ah, for me it was because I was hit full force by a dump truck turning right." (Itsuki)

„Is this heaven?" (Motoyasu)

„Eh, I don't know, but I don't think so." (Ren)

„What's certain is that it's really like we're in a dream. I mean this is a world inside a game after all!" (Itsuki)

„At least it's quite similar to it. I've become so acquainted with the enemies and the dungeons I could clear it eyes closed." (Ren)

„Yeah, it's so easy being `The great Heroes that will save the world`! Well I'm not popular because I'm a hero that much I know!" (Motoyasu)

„By the way, you guys heard the rumors about Naofumi?" (Motoyasu)

„Which ones? Not sure if I should believe all of them. Two dragon, a cerberus and a corrupt count." (Itsuki)

„Yeah, he had said that he didn't know much about the monsters, still he seems to find all the good spots. I actually planed to hunt a dragon myself as soon as the wave is over. Had to change my training strategies beforehand, as they didn't gave the necessary results. " (Ren)

„No, I mean first he assaults Mein, than he threatens the populace into giving him an alibi and now he has created himself a harem, most of them small girls." (Motoyasu)

„ ... „ (Ren)

„When you say it Motoyasu, it somehow has a different echo to it." (Itsuki)

„At least that part of his story was true. I have looked into that, the shield hero has quite a bad standing in this country. And after Mein simply left me after I didn't wanted to spent all my money on her equipment, she is not reliable." (Ren)

„Mein, is the best of my companions and if you don't equip your companions, how will they be able to fight with you." (Motoyasu)

„She wanted to have equipment, that would have cost me three quarters of my whole money. I will by my companions better equipment, but the ratio has to be right." (Ren)

„Still, small children you said? I don't now." (Itsuki)

„I will ask him myself if I see him next." (Ren)

„He's a failure as a hero ... No, this guy has failed as a human being!" (Motoyasu)

„Whatever, do the adventures also harass you about joining your task force? I mean I have my group and it is quite big already. If I take more the leveling speed will drop." (Itsuki)

„That's actually not meant to be additions for your group, but an extra force that will protect the villages in the surrounding of the wave, while we fight the boss. There is a message on the board here. I found it a good idea, and enlisted a few good adventures that didn't match with my other companions." (Ren)

„Yeah, that's irritating. I had to send all those guys away. But I managed to meet a few cute girls." (Motoyasu)

„By the way what level are you guys now?" (Motoyasu)

„I don't have any obligation to tell you." (Ren)

„I can't wait for the wave to start!" (Itsuki)

It was two days later, we only had a few hours left until the beginning of the wave. I had given my companions a bit of money and let then relax before the wave. We planed to meet up again two hour before the wave. We would hold a small strategy meeting with my support group then.

Firo, Yu'lon and I were on our way to the meeting point. Firo was in her bird form right now, and while Yu'lon hadn't learned to take on human form yet, she had learned how to shrink her body. She was still quite big with one-fifth of her original size, 2m in length with a diameter of 0,25m. Luckily she has stopped growing after her class up.

She wasn't fully grown yet, but the rest would only come through age and not through the quickened growth of level ups. It seems it is similar for all monsters. They grew fast through level ups until level 40, reaching a fully matured body, and then grew slower through age. The Quetzalcoatl and dragons were both species that would grow until they died. The only difference between the two in that aspect was that the Quetzalcoatl could become older than most dragon species, as dragons specialized in an immortality of the soul and not the body.

„Ew, no!" (Bitch)

„If it isn't the great criminal the shield hero himself!" (Motoyasu)

I sighed and looked towards Motoyasus group. He had new equipment, near but not on the same level that he had last time for the first wave. I knew that he took both the roles of a tank and a major damage dealer in his group, but actually wasn't suitable for a tank position. Next was Bitch, she had her old equipment back. Her role was one of an attack mage using her fire spells. The next girl had long blonde hair that was twirled into two long tails that she had put in front of her body. She wore equipment of a priest and wasn't in his original group. She wore the insignia of the three heroes church.

The other girls had equipment that was quite a bit weaker than that of the other three. The first was a woman with short brown hair, she was woman 1, Elaine something I think. The last was a quiet and meek girl with blonde free falling hair. She probably was a support mage, as she had equipment that didn't support attack power and the group already had a healer.

At least his team had a good balance. But I knew that two of them wouldn't be with him in two months and as Elaine only stayed to get easy experience points and good equipment from the hero, the last she wouldn't get this time thanks to the dept of Bitch, she would probably be away too.

„Motoyasu, I proved my innocence. By the way, what does this criminal in your party? She is forbidden to receive help." (Naofumi)

„I already collected the 100 Gold." (Bitch)

„I hadn't thought that your father would be that biased. The Virtuous King of Wisdom has fallen quite low it seems, if he can't even understand the point of that punishment." (Naofumi)

„I don't mean that, I still don't know how you managed to cheat you out of that. No, how can you molest children! You Fiend." (Motoyasu)

„Haha. I can assure you that there isn't a single person on my team that you could describe as a child." (Naofumi)

„And how did you manage to get that type of equipment. You have to use weak children and beast. A creepy snake and a dumb bird. Plus, it has mixed colors. It's not even white ..." (Motoyasu)

„I'm no dump bird, spear guy!" (Firo)

I laughed as Motoyasu flew into the sky after receiving a kick from Firo. A small glowing showed that Yu'lon helped with wind magic.

„Good teamwork. If you meet Motoyasu again and he makes you angry or irritates you, I allow you to kick him again. Come on we have a meeting to attend." (Naofumi)

When we reached the tavern, the others were already there. The tavern owner, the parent of one of the adventurers that wanted to help us, had remodeled one of his big sleeping rooms into a meeting room for us. While a bed wasn't the perfect chair, it was sufficient for our purpose. There were additional seventeen people in the room.

Eight were members of the guard, mostly the same people that helped us last time. Two were actual knights, though none that I knew. Three were local adventurers and the last four were beastmen from a mercenary group. One of the knights had used his own money to recruit them, at that time he thought that the group was too small and wanted to boost the numbers. Under them was a cute Pandaren beastwoman.

„Hello together. I am the Shield Hero, Naofumi Iwatani. I thank you for coming today." (Naofumi)

What followed was an introduction of the people. The knights were called Zeff and Claude, both were magic swordsmen of the knight order. Zeff specialized in attack magic and Claude was a defense-oriented knight that specialized in combat against spell users. The bestwoman was called Clair and her fellow mercenaries were Miria, Deneve, and Helen.

„Like everyone knows the first wave is in a few hours. I want to speak about our strategy now. The first thing we need to do when we reach the wave, is to identify where we are. Then we need to use our knowledge about the country to determine if and where areas are in the surroundings, that need protection. Mainly villages, but other important locations could be in need of help too. That will be one of your main tasks, as I don't know the land as good as its inhabitants.

Afterwards, we will split into groups and go to the different locations. As I don't know how many people the other heroes have recruited and what they will do, we will focus on the protection of the people and leave the wave to the other heroes. If they need help, I will go to them with a small group consisting of Raphtalia, Firo and myself." (Naofumi)

„Why those?" (Clair)

„Firo is the fastest member of our group and allows me to regroup the fastest with other groups. Raphtalia has the highest attack power and useful illusionary abilities. I can act as support and protection, and without more members, we don't need additional protection. The next who I would add to the team would be either Yu'lon or Rishia for there magic abilities." (Naofumi)

„How big do you want the groups to be?" (Claude)

„That will be depending based on the number of locations to protect. The basic tactic is the more the better. I will create a group of independent interceptors, for now, that's just Yu'lon, later it would be good if we could either recruit flying troops or more flying monster. She will do hit and run tactics and support where it is needed.

For later I will also try to find people who can help with communication over distances, so that we can give support if necessary." (Naofumi)

„There are a few monster species that could do that." (Wyndia)

„Wind magic or magic tools are also capable of that." (Zeff)

„The others will group together in teams of three people. If possible one tank, one damage dealer and one healer per group." (Naofumi)

„Tank, damage dealer, and healer? I'm not familiar with that terms." (Miria)

„They are role description for games from my world. They describe what the main task of a person is. In reality, each person can do multiple roles, but it is still a useful classification of tasks. Damage dealer is I think the easiest to understand. It is a person that main focus is the destruction of the enemy. Ether through sword, claw or magic. From my team that would be Firo, Yu'lon, Raphtalia, Rishia, Kiel, Eclair and Wyndia. A healer is a person that supports the group through buffs, positive magical spells, debuffs the enemy, reduces their abilities, and heals their group. In my group that would be Rishia, Lifana and me. Others also have a few buffs or debuffs, but not enough to actually work on that position, from them Yu'lon would be the most suited. The tanks are the main defense of a team. Their task is to attract the enemy and bind them to them. Here we have mostly two types. The traditional tank that uses heavy armor like me, or more agile types that dodge attacks. I, Eclair and perhaps Kiel could do that, but Kiel would need support, as her main strength is her speed and agility and that would be strongly limited through a tank role." (Naofumi)

We needed around half an hour to group the teams together. As we had crossovers between my companions and the support troops, I would need to think about how to strengthen them for the future waves. The teams were:

Team One: Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Firo. Fast interception and boss support.

Team Two: Yu'lon. Independent interception

Team Three: Eclair, Wyndia, Healer of the army. Village Defense. The healer is more support than a healer.

Team Four: Claude, Zeff, Lifana. Village Defense.

Team Five: Kiel, Clair, Rishia. Village Defense, meant as support team through heavy offensive potential.

Team Six: Miria, Helen, Deneve. Village Defense.

Team Seven: The three adventure. Village Defense.

Team Eight: Three of the army. Village Defense.

Team Nine: The last four. Village Defense.

We then proceeded to prepare our equipment. When the time was up, we were teleported towards a clearing in a forest. I looked around to make sure that all were there and properly equipped.