Chapter 47.

Adrian kept a polite smile on his face but winced internally. He had been enjoying himself a little too much it seemed. He had paid attention to whether or not his party was injured, he hadn't been concerned about much else. He quickly looked into Isis and Trystan and felt a burst of relief that they were alright, hell, Isis looked pristine. Much like himself she simply looked like she had gone for a run, rather than having fought a massive horde of monsters.

He geared himself up for an annoying conversation. It would not be easy to convince someone who had lost everything to the Waves that it was wise to keep it open for some experience.

Still, he found himself rather happy, he couldn't imagine the Raphtalia of last week openly challenging him about anything. Perhaps this day would be good for more reasons than one.

The most annoying part of dealing with the Wave had been the cleanup and harvesting process. Adrian had thought he had been freed from the burden of butchering monsters for hours after fighting them for minutes and he was. But it turns out absorbing the corpses of over 60,000 monsters takes a hell of a lot of time.

In the end, Fitoria's filolials ended up eating a lot of it, though he made sure to ensure that he got enough samples to master a form, and it still took him nearly eight hours to fully absorb everything, kill some rare survivors that showed up and then put out all the fires and absorb the trees, soils and such that had been damaged by his attack.

Looking at the situation now, after the combat high had passed, he realized that he had been way too destructive. If the Wave opened up above a city or a town most of his attacks would have left horrific amounts of collateral damage. Essentially, he was ready to fight a Wave if it ended up in a relatively remote region but in any populated region, he'd up ruining the place without even trying.

The small celebration they had held afterwards had been nice. He'd made enough food for Fitoria and her filolials and it had been rather entertaining watching everyone relax. Even Rifana had participated though he was pretty sure it was just because she was so relieved overseeing her friend return to her unharmed.

"Sword Hero," said Fitoria, while he cleaned up the place, absorbing the mess that had been left behind. He'd reuse it later for something else, "there is something...odd I have to speak to you about."

He frowned at her serious tone. It was a contrast from her happy expressions earlier on this day.

"Of course," he said, turning his full attention towards her, "What is it about?"

"It's the Bow," she said, her face scrunching up a little, "it is behaving weirdly. It's not helping the barrier properly."

"The Legendary Bow and not the Bow Hero?" he asked, finding it a little odd that the two were treated separately.

She nodded rapidly and he found himself frowning as he realized that she was genuinely worried about this. He really didn't want to think about what could worry her.

"I see. Can you track him down?" he asked, "I can speak to him if you don't want to bother and we can see if there's something wrong."

He wasn't sure how accommodating Itsuki would be or even if the boy would realize that there was something wrong but it was worth a try...and it would reveal just how Fitoria had tracked him down if he was lucky.

She shook her head, "I can't find him. I tracked down the other heroes, and they're fine, but I can't find the Bow Hero."

"Is he dead?" asked Adrian, feeling a chill run down his spine as he realized that Fitoria might just have a better reason to kill him than before but she just shook her head again before pausing.

"I'm not sure," she admitted, "the Bow is helping but it's not consistent. It stops and starts."

"Is that why you can't track him?" he asked, wondering how he should go about finding Itsuki. The easiest option might be the Adventurer's Guild. He had noticed that there were a bunch of adventurers in the man's party and if his memory served him right, it was the Guild that had given him missions to do.

Then again, he didn't even know if they even knew about his disappearance. He sighed as he realized that he would have to get back to civilization again and deal with politics. Adrian choosing to abandon his party was going to bite him back right about now.

"Yes," she said, "Sword Hero, please find the Bow Hero and bring him to me, if he is not dead, I can check the Legendary Bow to ensure its' function. If he is captured please free him."

Adrian nodded. A little annoyed at the situation but more worried. He felt a surge of guilt come into play as well. He had basically ditched the other three heroes. He hadn't even bothered looking back while leaving them in the lion's den and now it seemed that Itsuki had suffered for it. Motoyasu was probably fine but Naofumi was likely to be in a great deal of trouble. He needed to check on them and fast. Fitoria may have said that they were okay but he doubted she'd give a damn about them unless they were dead or in Itsuki's case not fueling the barrier around the world.

Then felt surprised at his thoughts and how different they were from before. It was odd to realize just how warped his thinking had been after he had been summoned here. Even if Itsuki, Motoyasu and Naofumi were annoying it didn't justify him leaving them there without even trying to help. His actions had served him well and he could say that Rifana and Raphtalia had received a few benefits from it but it was important that he acknowledged that it had hurt others as well.

"Alright," he said, accepting the job, "but I'll need your help for the start. Can you tell me where the Shield and Spear Heroes are? I can check in on their situations and see if they have any information about the Bow Hero."

Fitoria was quite apathetic and merely shrugged before saying "Okay. Please resolve this quickly and make sure that they'll fight the Waves as well."

He nodded and she quickly gave him the locations after he pulled out his Cartographers Sword. Adrian decided that he'd have to check in on Naofumi first soon, just to make sure that he was alright, then go to the Capital and hit two birds with one stone. The Slave Trader would be a useful source of information and allies. All he needed was a place to house them and the resources to keep them alive and equip them. And now he had all of those things.

It would be satisfying to have that man dead and his slaves freed. They might not agree to help him but the Trader did have monsters. Adrian could be certain that he'd at least receive some allies even if none of the Demi-humans agreed to help him. Plus, he could get some information on the people from Raphtalia's village.

___

Adrian

Adrian waved goodbye to Isis and Raphtalia in a location that was nearly 4000 kilometres from Melromarc about an hour after sunrise. An instant later he was in the middle of Lurolana village, the Sun was high in the sky, and he was standing in a ruined village whose only remarkable feature was a massive, colourful plant at a cliffside overlooking the sea.

He activated Blindsight, verified that distortions weren't in range, and then moved closer to the giant plant that was wrapped around the graveyard.

The plant showed up as Bio plant Alpha v5.67 a name he had granted it after his many, many experiments. It was a simple if massive looking plant that was quite harmless...unless you tried to harm one of the Gravestones or launched an attack at it. Then it tried it's best to poison and capture whatever poor bastard was in range. It wasn't intelligent but it was responsive enough to manage that and while Raphtalia wasn't aware of it the roots of the plant was spread out over the whole village and beyond.

It was good to see that it had not exceeded its' bonds and a pity that nothing had provoked it. Adrian had been almost certain that some monster or the other would have tested it out by now. He shrugged, used his appraisal on it one last time, and then moved away using Dash, he would like to spend a bit more time tinkering but he didn't have the time to waste.

Adrian smiled as he moved towards Ayrith, alternating between Dash and simply running, the last time he had done this on open ground for the sake of travel had been when he had been running away from the Castle Town. Fear and disgust had driven him from the city in an impulsive move that he was quite happy about, even if it had resulted in some negative consequences for Itsuki.

His guess was that it would take him about half an hour to make it to Ayrith, maybe a little more in the worst-case scenario, which was just enough for his Portal Skill to recharge again. Adrian did love his new skill, but that just made its flaws stand out starkly. Only ten locations could be saved for Quick Travel. Cooldown of 35 minutes was inescapable and worst of all, only 15 party members could be transported at any time.

It was still a broken technique whose utility was second to none but these limits persisted despite the fact that he had spent days worth of proficiency points upgrading it and had provided liberal amounts of Dragon Hourglass Sand. He would continue to upgrade it but he didn't have any hope of that providing any useful results any time soon unless he discovered an enhancement method that was particularly useful.

The good part was that he had unlocked the Dragon Hourglass Sword which let him boost people during their Class Up and delevel people, as long as he was near an hourglass and had their consent...which could be casually bypassed if he hit them with a slave seal. It was an amazing option which he would definitely be using in the future. The only problem was that upgrading the Hourglass Sword was insanely hard and so the boosts to those whom he classed up were pretty minor, nothing compared to Fitoria's boost, though it was more flexible.

Adrian felt a smile emerge as he neared Ayrith, the monsters had yet to return and it seemed that there were no traces of any people either, a quick stop and check once the town entered the range of his Blindsight allowed him to confirm his earlier observations. The town was safe, the trees he had positioned as food source, water gathering facility and security had not gone out of control, though he would have to get close and use Plant Appraisal to be certain.

He was likely to be welcome here, something he needed, given that he was planning to see if he could recruit some of them.

Adrian focused on his Portal Sword and marked his current position. It would be a useful place to appear. Close enough to be convenient and far enough to allow him to gauge the mood in town without risk.

Once he appeared before the Gate the two sentries, Nicol and the fox demi-human whose name he'd never learned, moved into action. Javelins were placed into position before they recognized him and relaxed slightly.

"Sir Adrian," said Nicol, a small smile on her face, while the other guard relaxed, "Welcome back!"

"It's good to be back Miss Nicol," he said formally, "may I enter?"

She snorted at that, "As if we could stop you!" she said, amused, before jumping off from her post and landing in front of him before giving him a deep bow.

The gate opened with a laborious creek and Adrian quickly check it with his Plant Appraisal, nodding to himself when he found that it was working perfectly. The Gate had been his best and most complex word. Adrian felt a weight lift off of him when he realized that it was all likely to be working fine.

She waved her hand and led the way in, "What brings you here Mr Adrian?" she asked, "You were going to be busy for at least a week."

"We had an unexpected windfall," he admitted, thinking of Fitoria, "so there was an opportunity to visit Ayrith. I have a secret to tell you and your father and an offer for your town."

Nicol lost most of her easy-going expression and looked to him seriously, "Have the slave hunters mustered their numbers up again?" she asked, "Or is it the monsters?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I would have dealt with either of those," he said, brushing it off, "No, this is a little personal. I promise your village isn't at risk at the moment."

She nodded, relaxing a little, "Father is in his office," she said and then led the way there, their time occupied by banal conversation about his other party members, while she updated him about Alvin and Razieh.

Adrian had known that Oldrin was relaxing in his office from the moment he had scouted the town so he was hardly surprised by the fact. It was a little jarring to realize just how little people were aware of normally. How little he must have seen before he gained the Sword. It spooked him that he didn't want to imagine a life without Blindsight or the ability to move faster than any vehicle.

"Mr Adrian," said the older wolf-demi-human, "It is an honour."

"Please relax Oldrin," he said, seating himself in the slightly uncomfortable chair, suppressing the temptation to draw on his more comfortable furniture, "we have a lot to talk about."

"Of course," he said, and sat down himself, Nicol stood at his side and then waited for him to continue, ceding control of their meeting to him. Adrian appreciated the gesture, it made him feel a little better about his decision.