Chapter 5

After lunch, Lyn and Raphtalia headed off into the forest.

Raphtalia was humming cheerfully.

However, upon seeing the forest, she began to tremble with fear lingering in her eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll defend and you focus on attacking."

She tilted her head upon hearing those words.

"These guys don't damage me at all. And I can give my companions extra defense. So you won't be in any danger. Though try to dodge the attacks just in case. I won't always be around to buff your defense."

Raphtalia was dumbfounded, but nodded, coughing.

Lyn looked into his shield and select the crafting option. After selecting the necessary herbs from his inventory, he made the shield compound medicine for him. It would be ready in a bit.

Then Lyn looked at his level. With a heavy sigh, he scrolled down to the rebirth menu and clicked on it. With this he turned 30 levels into a stat growth bonus. 30% stat increase and 30% exp gain was added to him and Raphtalia.

He could use Rebirth every week and turn each level into a bonus. And the effect stacks each time. So the next time he rebirthed, he would gain 30 more percent with his other 30.

"[Return]," Lyn said, with his stats returning to their normal shield form. Raphtalia looked a bit confused, but didn't comment.

Three Red Balloons came flying out from a bush inside the forest.

"[Omega guard]"

Lyn surrounded Raphtalia in a glowing green aura. It increased her defense tremendously. A balloon flew at her. She closed her eyes, but a few seconds later she reopened them, noticing that the balloon wasn't hurting her at all. Not wanting to risk the spell failing, Lyn grabbed the other two balloons before they got to Raphtalia.

"Alright, just do it like we had done it awhile ago."

"... Yes!"

A motivated Raphtalia vigorously charged and stabbed the Red Balloons.

POP!* POP!* POP!*

With this, Raphtalia raised her Level to 2. With the slave shield bonus and the rebirth bonus, she got a few extra stats.

Lyn transformed his shield into a random shield to add the equip bonus to his passive.

Raphtalia's eyes popped out when she saw the shield transform.

"Master... just who are you?"

"The Hero of the Shield."

"The legendary hero?"

"Yep. You know who we are?"

Raphtalia timidly nodded.

"Good. Well there are 3 more like me, but I'm the only one without companions. I got framed for rape by a woman I don't even know, and now I'm stuck on my own. I found a way to attack but in turn I loose most of my defense. And if I keep my defense, I loose my attack. So that makes it really hard for me to fight and defend the people around me." Lyn looked at Raphtalia.

"Which is why I got you. I need someone to cover for my weaknesses."

Lyn started to look through his stats.

"For the time being, today's task will be hunting monsters in this forest. I'll tank them and you'll pierce them."

"Yes..."

After a few minutes of grinding, Raphtalia encountered something other than a balloon. Lyn was already used to this forest so he knew what to expect. But for Raphtalia, this was an entirely new experience.

A white, moving mushroom. It had sharp slanted eyes, and was roughly the size of a human head.

Lyn absorbed their drops but he already had all of their bonuses. There were no stat bonuses. All of them were skills to help him identify plans and compound medicine.

By the end of the day, Raphtalia's Level increased by five, so in total she was now at Level 8.

Meanwhile Lyn had set the exp ratio 1:1, but he didn't receive the slave shields bonus. so his level was only 7. And most of his shield's abilities were now working constantly.

They walked through the forest and camped around the riverbed in the evening.

"*cough*"

Lyn looked down at his shield and pulled out some simple cold medicine.

"This will be really bitter, but it should help with the cold," Lyn said, passing over two cups with medicine in them.

"... So bitter, dislike it... guh..."

Raphtalia trembled as she swallowed the rest of the medicine.

"There there, good girl."

Raphtalia gave Lyn a perplexed stare when he patted her head. He pulled out a towel from his shield and handed it over to Raphtalia.

"Go wash yourself for now. After you're done, come back here and warm up. I'm going to start a fire."

"Ok."

Raphtalia removed her clothes and dove into the river, where she then began cleansing herself.

Meanwhile Lyn lit a fire, set up two tents he bought on his second day, and started to cook some of the meat inside his Food Storage Shield. It was a shield that prolonged raw food life longer, depending on the level. So with a level 6 Food Storage Shield he could keep meat from spoiling for 12 hours instead of 2. It wasn't too useful, but he would need to absorb some ice to increase the effect.

He cooked the meat and put it on a plate next to the fire to keep it warm.

Lyn needed some bottles to keep medicine in a container. So he grabbed a burning stick and shoved it into his shield, unlocking the Charcoal Sword/Shield. Then Lyn walked over to where Raphtalia was, and grabbed some sand. It unlocked the Glass Sword/Shield, but Lyn ignored it and continued to shove sand into his shield. After several handfuls he looked over at his shield. As of right now, he could made 29 glass vials. They also came with corks thanks to the wood he absorbed. Lyn shoved more sand in, until he had enough for 100 vials, and then he walked back to camp. Raphtalia was already there, drying off.

"Are you warm yet?"

"Yes."

"Here, this is your dinner."

Lyn handed the meat over to Raphtalia, and then returned to compounding medicine.

While he could let his shield do it for him, and with the runes and upgrades the quality would be excellent, but Lyn liked doing some by hand because it kept his mind and hands occupied and helped him relieve stress.

The sun set completely yet Lyn was still compounding.

"Go to sleep."

Upon hearing the order, Raphtalia nodded and went inside a tent.

It was a few minutes before a new sound was heard.

"No... help me..."

Raphtalia let out a strange voice.

The sleeping Raphtalia seemed to be having a nightmare.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Balloons were starting to run over, attracted by Raphtalia's screaming.

Lyn picked Raphtalia up, wrapping her in a blanket. He held her in one hand, and held his shield, transformed into a sword, in the other.

"Noo...a-san...o-san."

While he was comforting her, a few balloons came at them. Lyn slashed each and every single one with his simple large sword.

Must be nightmares from the wave's. Perhaps she lost her parents?

"It's fine... it's alright, you're safe now."

Lyn held her closer.

"Don't cry. Be strong."

"Huhu..."

"You are stronger than you were before. You can fight back."

She quieted down a bit, but still continued to sob into his shoulder.

Another balloon jumped at them, only to be slashed in half.

This pattern continued the whole night. Lyn covered Raphtalia in a protective aura so that any monsters he missed wouldn't hurt her. He went deeper and deeper into the forest, and by the time the sun popped up, his level has risen to 9 while Raphtalia was at level 10.

"Nn..."

"Good morning," Lyn said, turning his sword back into his shield.

"Hiii!?"

Raphtalia widely opened her eyes in surprise at being held.

"You alight? You had a nightmare. Was it the waves?"

Raphtalia looked down and nodded.

"Alight. Eat the leftover food in the pot." Lyn said, packing up everything.

"Are we going to the castle town? *cough*"

"Yep."

Lyn handed her some Excellent Cold Medicine. After everything was packed, he led her to the pharmacy to do some business.

"Fumu... this is excellent quality medicine! You are no amateur, young man."

"How much will the medicine sell for?"

Lyn was selling some excellent Healing Medicine. It heals minor wounds and cures some diseases.

"The price of medicine has skyrocketed recently due to the prophecy, so demand for them is very high right now."

Out of the 73 healing medicines, 46 of which were made by hand, Lyn sold 59.

Lyn left the shop and started to look for the balloon skin buyer.

While on his way, he noticed some kids playing with rubber balls, very similar to the ones he and Raphtalia were fighting. Raphtalia was looking at those kids with envy.

"Naa, what's that?"

"Yes?"

Lyn pointed at the ball those children were playing with and asked.

"Well, that's one of the practical applications of what we do with the Balloon skins."

"I see, then can you make another using the goods we're about to sell?"

"Eh, well... if you really want one."

Lyn dropped a giant pile of balloon scrap onto the counter.

"How much will these sell for?"

The buyer looked over the giant pile.

"How does 1 copper per 10 sound?" The man replied. Lyn knew he was ripping him off.

"Raphtalia, turn around and cover your ears ok? And don't turn around until I tell you to," Lyn said with a smile. Raphtalia nodded and turned around. The old man looked at him in confusion. But that confusion quickly turned to fear when Lyn grabbed the man by the front of the shirt and pulled out a small dagger. It started to spark and shake.

"As the shield hero, I am unable to use weapons. The weapons fly out of my hands. However, the longer I hold a weapon, the faster it flies. I wonder how much damage a dagger flying at 300 miles per hour would do to your skull? Shall we find out?"

"Yu-YOU BASTARD!" The man screamed, but he couldn't break free from Lyn's hold.

"Here is the deal. I don't want to steal your money, I just want a fair price. Give me a fair price, and we won't have any beef. Capishe?"

The man nodded. "Ok ok! 1 copper per 2 pieces! Just put me down."

Lyn set the guy on the ground and put his dagger back into his shield.

The man counted up the rubber and gave Lyn 5 silver and 62 copper coins, as well as one ball.

"Raphtalia," Lyn said. She turned around just in time to catch a big rubber ball.

With wide eyes, Raphtalia alternated between the ball and Lyn's face several times.

"What? You don't want it?"

"M-, Mhm."

Raphtalia laughed merrily, waving her head around.

She laughed for the first time.

"Once we're done with today's work, you can go play around with it."

"Yay!"

She is very energetic. Good.

After that they returned to the forest, exterminating monsters and collecting herbs just like yesterday.

This time, Lyn decided to let Raphtalia go deeper.

Raphtalia encountered a new enemy. An egg.

"Same strategy as always."

"Ok!"

Lyn ran up to it and grabbed it. Next Raphtalia ran up to it and stabbed it.

Eggy crumbled into pieces with egg yolk splattering everywhere when it died.

"B-ue, this is nasty!"

Lyn equipped this new shield and he and Raphtalia went further into the forest.

At the end of the day Raphtalia was at level 14 while Lyn was at Level 13.

grumble*

"My stomach's empty..."

Raphtalia made a troubled expression as she said this to me.

"Same. Lets get something to eat."

Lyn sold the egg shells and everything else they got that day, earning them more than enough for some food.

While Lyn looked through his stats, he noticed Raphtalia drooling all over the food stalls.

"Let's drop by, just for today."

"Eh? Is it okay?"

"You've done pretty well so far. So lets."

Raphtalia nodded fiercely.

Lyn asked Raphtalia what she wanted and she pointed to something that looked like hardened mashed potatoes on a skewer.

Raphtalia happily accepted the skewer Lyn held out and stuffed her face with it.

"Thank you!"

"No prob."

Lyn pulled out Raphtalia's ball from his shield.

Raphtalia's eyes sparkled while looking at the ball.

"I'll be back in a bit. Stay as close to the inn as possible."

"Yaaay!"

Lyn smiled, tossing her the ball.

He didn't go far, he just sat down at a random bench and began to look through his automated production options.

About 20 minutes later Lyn heard a yell.

"Why is a Demi-human playing in our turf!"

Lyn looked in Raphtalia's direction.

Some kids were harassing Raphtalia.

"This brat. You have a nice toy, so hand it over."

"Eh-, a-, that's..."

Lyn stood up and walked over to the kids.

"I told you to hand it over."

"N-, no..."

These little sh*ts are already getting ready to beat up a helpless girl in a 5v1. Just how rotten is the country?

"Is there a problem here?"

"What do you want, old geezer."

I may be over three centuries old, but I am still in a body of a 20 year old you little sh*t!

"What reason do you have for demanding other people's belongings?"

"Hah? That isn't your ball, is it?"

"It's mine. I'm lending it to this girl. If you stole it from her then that means you stole it from me."

"Just what are you saying, damn geezer."

Lyn put his shield behind his back, switching to the balloon queen shield, and pulling out an orange balloon.

Kid or not, karma hits everyone the same.

"I see I see, then I'll give you a fresh new ball."

Hearing this, Raphtalia squeezed out her voice, telling the startled children.

"Run away!"

However, the kids were being overconfident.

Lyn smiled at the kids as he gave them a ball. The closest one reached his hand out, only for eyes and a mouth to appear on the ball and bite his hand.

Chomp*

"MY AAAAARM!"

"Well I can't be playing favorites. You guys get one EACH!" Lyn yelled, pulling out more balls from his shield and throwing them at the children.

"Ouuchhhhh!"

"Learn your place brats!"

"Ack"

"Ow!"

Lyn led Raphtalia out to the front gates and back to the camping ground.

"Er, umm..."

Raphtalia grabbed my mantle.

"Thank you."

While stroking Raphtalia's head, they started to settle in for the night.