Chapter 21

What the hell? I know dragons can turn into humans but this is waaaaay too early for Kayda to start shapeshifting. The conditions that have to be met is the knowledge on how to shapeshift from the dragon emperor core fragment and high enough level or stats. In terms of stats, well she has a decently high level and a great stat boost. But she doesn't have a fragment. I mean sure, dragons can learn to shapeshift on their own, but it shouldn't be this fast! What the hell did I feed my shield?

Lyn furiously looked over his mastered bonuses while Rino was talking with Kayda and Raphtalia was consoling Firo. Sky sat on Kayda's head and looked around.

"Kayda, when did you learn to transform?" Rino asked.

"This morning!"

"How… how did you learn to transform?" Lyn questioned the girl.

"Sister Firo showed me how!" she responded, pointing to Firo. "She was talking about how she has the ability to transform, and began transforming back and forth. After about 10 times I understood how she did it and transformed!"

So she can learn things by just seeing others do it? I mean… that's one way to do it…. But that requires an insane talent.

Lyn pulled out a few magic crystals and walked over to Kayda.

"Well… we're gonna bother Erhard again with our teleporter. Let's get you some transforming clothes."

"Okay master!" Kayda said.

"[Portal Shield]"

[Teleportation Charges Left: 0/2 (22:13)]

[Teleportation Charges Left: 0/2 (22:12)]

[Teleportation Charges Left: 0/2 (22:11)]

"Dang it, I'm out of charge. Guess we need to wait for 50 minutes before we can get you clothes. Now go wash up, you look like a swamp monster with all the vines and mud."

"Okay!" Kayda exclaimed and ran off.

"I'm going to follow her and make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Rino said, running after her.

"And I'll help!" Wyndia said as she ran after them.

*Sigh* What the hell is this party turning into? I still need to sell the medicine to the dragon village and get materials from the recommended mine to make accessories for the team and to get the accessory I need for my shield.

Sky walked up to Lyn and hit his shield.

"Hm?"

She rubbed her head into his shoulder. Lyn began to pet her. Suddenly he felt two angry pairs of eyes glaring at him.

"Can you pet Firo too?" the little girl asked, running to his other side. Lyn smiled and began petting her with his other hand.

"Yay~!" she laughed and leaned closer to Lyn. He felt the glare getting stronger, but when he turned around Raphtalia was already looking the other way, practicing with her sword.

What the hell is this party anymore?

He opened the letter Erhard gave him in his status.

Shield Kiddo.

I'm going to keep this short. Don't take it personally, I think you're a great guy, however it would be best for both of us if you didn't try to bey shields at my shop for a while.

A few days ago the Spear Hero and the princess handed me some dragon materials and a dragon core shard and ordered me to make armor and the best spears that I could. He even mentioned how he would finally 'beat that cheating son of a b*tch' and dropped your name a few times. So watch out for that.

But the worst part is that the king passed a decree which banned anyone within Merlomark from making shields and confiscated them from every single blacksmith within the kingdom. So unfortunately I won't be able to give you any shields from now on. Consider those two shields my parting gift and stay safe ok? It would be a shame to lose such a valuable customer.

Damn it. So that's why he was acting so weird when I asked him about dragon shields. Well I can unlock weapon forms by copying a sword, bow, spear, whip, axe, crossbow, staff, or literally any projectile now so I suppose it isn't a big loss. But it's still annoying that the king of this world is willing to go out of his way to try to weaken me.

But what worries me the most is that the king now knows about the copying system. While limiting me access to shields, they are most likely gathering more spears for Motoyasu. I bet they are using the shields as materials. That gives Motoyasu a large arsenal of spears, some of which will have some pretty good skills. But at most he has 18 methods from me, Itsuki, Ren, and the king's Support Staff, while I have 24 fully functioning methods from this world and even more from the multiverse. However all the little passives from each spear soon add up. So even lacking upgrades, he could still be a threat if he gets his hands on several thousand different weapon forms and has an entire army supporting him with buffs and spells.

Lyn sighed and closed the status.

Damn it Motoyasu. What the hell are you up to?

Rino, Wyndia and Kayda returned with kayda now being wrapped up in a cloak.

"I'm ready, master!" she exclaimed.

"Change of plans, we're going to the dragon village and we'll get someone else to make clothes."

"Aw. But I wanted to meet this Erhard you were talking about."

"And you would, but there are people at the capital who aren't fond of me and anyone on my team," Lyn said as he drank a vial of medicine.

"Can't we just eat them?"

Lyn spit his drink out in surprise and dropped the vial.

"Kayda we do not eat other people!" Raphtalia quickly said, running over to everyone.

"Why not?"

"You are what you eat, so you shouldn't eat garbage," Lyn replied, picking up the dropped vial.

"Lyn-sama! Not everyone in Merlomarc..."

"Ok 99.999999 whatever nines percent of people in this country are garbage. They're greedy f… jerks that would do anything for a little extra coin, even 5v1 fistacuffs a demihuman girl for a ball. Erhard and Rino are rare exceptions. He's a great guy who has always treated me fairly and given me a great price," Lyn quickly replied.

"On another note, I will teleport to the plague village and sell medicine there," he began, equipping the healer outfit and the smallest shield. "Firo, you are coming with me as the heavenly bird or whatever people call you now, Sky will go with Kayda and continue leveling after I class her up.

"Gua?" Class-up?

"What about me?" Raphtalia asked, sheathing her sword. Lyn equipped the [Dragon Hourglass Shield] and quickly gave Sky a class up.

"People would recognize you because you protected me," Wyndia replied.

"Yep. Plus I need you to keep Kayda in check and stop her from eliminating the entire forest.

"Well… alright…" Raphtalia said, slightly disappointed.

"Well… we don't need a repeat of last time," Rino agreed, looking at Kayda. Kayda looked at everyone confused.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, I probably should hurry before everyone dies. [Portal Shield]!"

Firo and Lyn landed just outside the village and looked around. Firo transformed into her bird form and covered up her nose.

"It smells so bad!" she yelled.

The village looked a lot darker than it was last time. It was a lot less lively and a heavy tension was in the air. The air smelled of death and rot. The ground was black and cold.

"Well, we have no choice. Let's go," Lyn said as he hopped onto Firo's back. After a few minutes they finally saw some people coming back into the village.

"Any luck?" one of the villagers asked the arriving people.

"No *cough*. Nothing. They wouldn't *cough* let us in either," a man croaked out of the carriage.

"Hey everyone. What's with the mood?!" Lyn yelled as he jumped off of Firo.

"Leave while you can. This village has been hit by a plague. If you stay here you will die too."

"Yeah, no sh*t. That's why I'm here."

"Can we leave soon? This place smells horrible," Firo complained, her wing still covering her beak. Lyn tied a large cloth around her nose and mouth.

"Is that...?"

"The Heavenly Fowl and the Holy Healer!" screamed one of the villagers.

"We're saved! Get the doctor!" yelled another.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Lyn said, pulling several vials of medicine out of his pocket. He was soon led to a house with all of the sick people inside. A man in a white cloak was tending to them with several people by his side, however Lyn could tell that a few of them had hours left at best. A small boy with heavy eyebags and pale skin was standing over his mother with tears streaming down his face. In another corner a man was laying in bed and holding hands with his wife.

"[Magic Barrier]," Lyn muttered as a magic circle appeared beneath his feet. A few people looked at him in awe.

[Magic Barrier is in effect. All stats (Attack Excluded) are doubled]

"[All Omega Heal X]," Lyn muttered. Everyone in the room was engulfed in a bright green light as their HP bars refilled and their skin returned to a natural color.

"The rumors are true. The Holy Healers magic is amazing!" Several people chirped in and began thanking Lyn. He quickly walked out of the room, followed by the doctor and the nurse.

"Thank you so much Holy Healer! If it wasn't for you, I'm afraid we would have faced a bitter end. None of the surrounding villages would let us stay with them so we have nowhere to go."

"Never mind that. Tell me how this mess started," Lyn said, sitting down with his arms crossed.

"Well, you see… about three weeks ago the sword hero killed the evil dragon in the mountains. The corpse brought plenty of adventurers and helped us flourish… however a few days ago one of the adventurers collapsed, followed by many more. A day before that someone with a megaphone tried to warn us of the upcoming plague, however we didn't listen."

"I'm aware, I was there. And the man with the megaphone was me."

"A-ah. I see. Well you were right. Thank you for finding it in your heart to come back and heal us."

"I may have healed them, and boosted their immune system for a day or two at best. Unless you get rid of the dragon corpse, you will all die."

"We would… but unfortunately the monsters in the mountains are too strong for us, and no adventurers would go anywhere close to our village because of the plague."

"*sigh* Did you do anything at all?"

"We sent a request to the capital, however they said that the heroes are too busy to help us."

"Alright, here's what we're going to do. Cancel the request to the capital."

The doctor looked at him with hope in his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not doing it for free. 600 silver should cover it."

"S-six hundred silver?! There's no way we can pay that much!" the doctor complained.

"Holy Healer my ass. He's just a greedy bastard," the nurse muttered under her breath. The doctor tried to quiet her but unfortunately Lyn heard every word.

"I'm greedy?" he asked, walking towards the nurse until he was just inches from her face. "Last time I checked, this whole incident happened because you people got too greedy. Did it not?"

The nurse tried to answer but Lyn continued.

"Also I never recall claiming to the some 'HoiLuy HeaLauR' or whatever idiotic title you made for me. I am not some god, some hero who helps you avoid consequences of your own actions. Frankly I have no reason to save you. I can just leave you to die. No village would let you in and risk spreading the plague and you can't remove the corpse. Give it a month and your entire village will no longer exist. All because you bastards got too greedy to take safety precautions. Too greedy to pay a few extra coins to disinfect the corpse. Too greedy to listen to someone who warned you of the danger you're about to face. Your village is full of nothing but greedy sadistic murderous bastards who lie to the heroes to get them to remove the slightest inconvenience, all so that you can get a few extra silver for robbing and selling a dragon and selling a girl he was protecting to get raped and tortured. Now look me in the eyes and tell me who is really the greedy one? Your village? Or someone who is trying to help you and is in need of materials to help more people?"

The nurse took a step back and looked away. Lyn sighed and turned to the doctor.

"I'm willing to knock off a few hundred if you gather some people who can butcher the corpse."

"B-but…"

"That way I'll only charge you 250 silver for bodyguarding. And I'll borrow the carriage outside," Lyn said as he walked out and closed the door behind him.

"Daddy, how much longer will we stay here?" Firo complained.

"We'll borrow that carriage and drive some people to the dragon corpse to dispose of it."

"But Firo doesn't want to pull a different carriage! Can't Firo pull her own? This one smells weird."

"Sadly I can't teleport carriages so we're going to have to go with this one," Lyn explained.

"But Firo wants her own carriage!" Firo yelled.

"How about this. You pull this carriage today and I'll cook an all you can eat buffet later?"

"Hmmmmm... Ok."

"Holy healer! We have gathered the people," the doctor said. Behind him was a small group of four people with a few tools and knives in their hands.

"Well… I suppose this will do. Load everything on this carriage and get me some rope," Lyn commanded and jumped into the carriage. A few minutes later everyone and everything was loaded in. Firo began to pull the carriage slowly at first, but she quickly picked up speed as they began riding up the mountain. They met a few monsters on the way, but Firo quickly dealt with them by either kicking them, blowing them away with magic, or eating them whole.

In about ten minutes they finally made it to the corpse.

"Alright everyone, here's the plan. Cut up the dragon and shove it into the shield. [Airstrike Shield], [Inventory Shield]," he said, summoning a shield next to the dragon. Then he walked to the side and summoned several more shields, turning them into a furnace, a table, a sink and a fridge as well as a meteorite barrier over the whole kitchen to disinfect the area.

"Are those…? Are you the shield hero?" one of the men asked.

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to cook something, you can join me after you're done."

"Can Firo eat the dragon?"

"Hmm…"

Technically she shouldn't get sick since monster stomachs are a lot stronger than humans.

"Knock yourself out."

"Yay!"

Firo ran past the men and began to chomp down on the dragon meat. The men walked around her and began to take apart the corpse. Lyn cast [Omega Aura X] over everyone and returned his attention to the kitchen.

As the last piece of the dragon disappeared inside the giant shield and Lyn's spell wore off, he invited everyone to the shield table.

"Took you guys long enough," Lyn said, picking up a plate.

"Food!" Firo yelled, picking up one of the pots Lyn set to the side.

"We would have been done sooner if you gave us a hand."

"Yeah, I could have. But this whole incident is your mess, not mine, I helped more than I should have."

The man that complained a second earlier looked back at the spot where the dragon used to lay.

"We're sorry for not taking your warning seriously. None of this would have happened if we weren't so blinded by greed."

"True. I would have even helped you get rid of the corpse. Honestly, we could have been done in like 10 to 20 minutes had you just taken action right away. I wonder why the sword hero didn't get rid of the corpse though. I'm pretty sure he can just tap it with his weapon and it will be absorbed instantly."

"Well… the thing is…" one of them began, however another interrupted.

"He tried to get rid of the corpse, however the villager elder said that he should leave it. Even when the sword hero warned him of the possible dangers just like you, the elder insisted on keeping the corpse to attract adventurers."

Ren actually tried to warn them? He actually understood the danger of a rotting corpse? Compared to the heroes I dealt with all the time, Ren looks like a f*cking saint. Maybe this world won't be so miserable.

"Damn. Well whatever happened happened. I hope everyone learned a valuable lesson and we can all celebrate the end of the plague. Cheers!" Lyn exclaimed, pulling out a metal flask from his jacket.

"Cheers!"