Chapter 11: Accomplishnts of a Slave
After our lunch inside the restaurant, we headed off into the adow.
Raphtalia was humming cheerfully by the way.
However, upon seeing the adow, she began to tremble with fear lingering in her eyes.
"It may be scary but I will definitely protect you from the monsters."
She tilted her head upon hearing my words.
"C'mon, these small fries can only make itchy when they bite, I don't even feel any pain."
Raphtalia was dumbfounded when I showed her the gallery of Balloons hidden under my mantle.
"That's not, painful?"
"Nope."
"Then..."
"I'll tank."[1]
"Yes... *Koho*..."
I was a bit concerned over her coughing, but she seed to be fine.
We picked up dicinal herbs along the way while heading towards the forest.
Oh, here they co again.
Three Red Balloons ca flying out from a bush inside the forest.
I sacrificed myself to make sure that none of them bit Raphtalia.
"Alright, just do it like we had done it awhile ago."
"... Hai!"[2]
A motivated Raphtalia vigorously charged and backstabbed the Red Balloons.
POP!* POP!* POP!*
With this, Raphtalia raised her Level to 2.
The requirent for Red Small Shield has been unsealed.
Red Small Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt Bonus: 4 Defensive Power
I imdiately changed my shield.
Raphtalia's eyes popped out when she saw my shield transform.
"Goshujin-sama[3]... just who are you?"
She didn't seem to know that I was the one and only Shield Hero. Well up until now, she was nothing but a demi-human slave after all.
"I'm a Hero. The Hero of the Shield."
"The legendary hero?"
"So you know?"
Raphtalia timidly nodded.
"That's right, I'm a summoned Hero. There are 3 more people like ... but I'm the weakest of them all!"
I began biting my fingernails, trying to contain this sudden outburst of rage.
My head was filled with nothing but bloodlust when the face of that fucker popped up.
Raphtalia was frightened by my eyes, instinctively knowing that she shouldn't dig any deeper into this.
"For the ti being, today's task will be hunting monsters in this forest. I'll seize them and you'll pierce them."
"Hai..."
She had beco sowhat accustod to this as Raphtalia nodded obediently.
And then, whenever we encountered enemies inside the forest, we'd always use the common tactic where I aggro'ed and disabled them while Raphtalia went in for the kill.
Midway through, we encountered an enemy other than Balloons for the first ti.
Roux Mush[4]
A white, moving mushroom. It had sharp slanted eyes, and was roughly the size of a human head.
I tested my attacks on the Roux Mush and it gave off a response identical to a Red Balloon's.
Raphtalia then knocked this one down too.
There were Roux Mush of other colors such as Blue Mushes and Green Mushes
Requirent for Mush Shield has been unsealed.
Requirent for Blue Mush Shield has been unsealed.
Requirent for Green Mush Shield has been unsealed.
Mush Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt bonus: Plant Identification 1
Blue Mush Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt bonus: Simple Compounding Recipes 1
Green Mush Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt bonus: Apprentice's Compounding
There were no status bonus; all of them gave level-based skill[5] bonuses.
Compounding... Mass producing dicine will be very valuable.
By the end of the day, Raphtalia's Level increased by three, so in total she was now at Level 5.
We walked through the adow and camped around the riverbed in the evening.
"*Koho*..."
Raphtalia arrived at my side without voicing any complaints.
I suppose it would do her so good if she learned to appreciate money by experiencing the difficulty of making so.
After we lit a campfire with so firewood by the river, I took out a towel from inside my bag and gave it to Raphtalia.
"Go wash yourself for now. When you're done, co back here and warm your cold body with the fire."
'... Hai."
Raphtalia removed her clothes and dove into the river, where she then began cleansing herself.
During that ti I began fishing in order to prepare our dinner.
I properly kept an eye out for Raphtalia while doing so.
There should only be weak Balloons lurking around this area, but it would be wise to never let my guard down.
I took a look over today's harvest.
An abundant amount of 'adow's Wild dical Herb'.
A splendid amount of 'dical Herbs that don't usually grow in the adow'.
A reasonable amount of 'Balloon's Balloon'.
A reasonable amount of 'Assorted Mush'.
Number of shields unsealed: 4 types.
Mhm. An obvious difference in efficiency.
Buying a slave was the right choice.
That's right. I should try to challenge compounding.
I called forth so simple recipes.
A window popped up, showing combination formulas that can be made with the dical herbs which I collected.
As for equipnt... I suppose I can only make a limited amount using the rocks and pebbles on the riverside. So let's try the recipes that can be made from a mortar.[6]
However, the simple recipes didn't have any record of mixing techniques within it.
Gori gori gori*...[7]
I tried imitating how the pharmacy owner mixed his dicine in order to witness the results.
Heal Pill has been made!
Heal Pill Quality: Bad -> A Bit Bad. A pill that hastens a wound's recovery, needs to be applied on the wound to receive effects.
This type of Icon [8] floated in front of my eyes.
Nice, it was a success.
The shield was reacting, but I decided not to let the shield absorb the dicine for now.
Alright, ti to challenge an unfamiliar recipe.
Sotis the compounding failed and the stuff turned into a jet black waste. This was more fun than I expected.
Pachi pachi pachi*...
The sound of fire crackling could be heard.
Raphtalia was done bathing and had gone to warm herself up by the campfire.
"Are you warm yet?"
"Yes. *Koho*..."
This looked very similar to a cold. The slave dealer did say that she was plagued with an illness.
Coincidentally... there was a cold dicine amongst the experintal redies.
Regular dicine Quality: Sowhat acceptable. This dicine is effective against a mild cold.
"Hey, drink this."
I was a bit anxious, but this was better than nothing.
"... So bitter, dislike it... guh..."
Raphtalia tried to say sothing selfish but held her chest in pain instead.
"Here."
"Y-, Yes."
Raphtalia trembled as she swallowed the dicine that I passed to her.
"Haa... Haa..."
"There there, good girl."
Raphtalia once again gave a perplexed stare when I patted her head.
Ah, these tanuki[9] ears sure were fluffy.
She hugged her tail while blushing, refusing to let feel it. Did she think that I would try touching her tail when I looked at it?
"Here, this is your dinner."
I handed a grilled fish over to Raphtalia, and then returned to compounding dicine.
I've always loved working on these kinds of delicate projects.
The sun had already set but I kept on compounding, using the campfire for light.
Fumu... This was fun in a lot of ways.
Having already finished eating her fish, Raphtalia drowsily stared at the campfire while letting out so subtle snoring sounds.
"Go to sleep."
Upon hearing my order, Raphtalia repeatedly shook her head.
Was she being shy? She was refusing to sleep like a spoiled child... Well, I guess she was one.
Anyways it seed like she would fall asleep eventually.
Co to think of it, was the dicine effective? I hadn't heard her cough since then.
Afterwards, I examined the redies which were made from my experints, and most of them had simple effects.
Those deed inferior were absorbed into the shield.
Requirent for Petit dicine Shield has been unsealed.
Requirent for Petit Poison Shield has been unsealed.
Petit dicine Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt bonus: Raises dicine's Effects.
Petit Poison Shield
True power sealed …… Equipnt bonus: Poison Resistance ( Small )
Both of them seed to be related to the Leaf Shield and Mush Shield. Though I had no idea how 'Raises dicine's Effects' works.
Does it increase the effect of the dicines that I use on myself, or the effect of the dicines which I create?
Well, whatever.
There was no mistake that today's harvest was a good one.
"No... help ..."
Raphtalia let out a strange voice.
The sleeping Raphtalia seed to be having a nightmare.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
I felt like my ears went deaf for a mont there.
This sucked. Balloons were coming our way; they probably got attracted by her screaming.
I quickly went over to Raphtalia and covered her mouth.
"H――――――――――――――――!"
However, a loud noise could still be heard, I then recalled the slave dealer's concern about this dilemma.
This certainly was problematic.
"Calm down, just settle down already."
I held the sobbing Raphtalia in my hands and cradled her.[10]
"Noo...a-san...o-san."[11]
Was she calling for her parents? Raphtalia could do nothing but cry and stretch out her hand, begging for help.
"It's fine... it's alright, you're safe now."
I patted her head and continued cradling her.
"Don't cry. Be strong."
"Huhu..."[12]
I continued to hug the weeping Raphtalia.
"Grah!"
A Balloon that was attracted by her cries appeared.
"Fu..."[13]
Really, even at a ti like this.
I held Raphtalia close to and charged at the Balloon.
"Uwoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"[14]
Chun... Chun!*[15]
"Is it morning?"
What a terrible night.
By the ti I finished with the horde of Balloons that appeared, Raphtalia's cries had also begun to quiet down. But when I tried to separate myself from her, if even a little, she would start wailing out loud again.
Then the Balloons would appear once more.
Which is why I was unable to get a wink of sleep.
"Nn..."
"You awake?"
"Hiii!?"[16]
Raphtalia widely opened her eyes in surprise since I was holding her up in front of .
"Ha... I'm tired."
There was still so ti before the town's gate opened. So I planned on taking a quick nap for now.
Today, I would be selling the dicine which I had made yesterday; this should yield more profit than the raw dical herbs.
If the herbs' value were higher than the dicine's, then there would be no point in people making them.
"I'll be sleeping for little while. As for breakfast... would the leftover fish from yesterday suit your taste?"
Raphtalia timidly nodded.
"Then good night. Call if any monsters appear."
It was painful just to keep my eyes open, so I was quickly lulled into a slumber full of dreams.
I still didn't know the reason behind Raphtalia's panic attacks. And I wasn't too interested in hearing about it either.
It's most likely due to the shock of being sold by her parents, or maybe from being kidnapped.
Even if it was the latter, I had no obligation to return her. This gentleman here had paid big bucks for this slave after all.
It was fine if she held a grudge over this. I needed to do all I could in order to survive.
I have to find a way to return to my old world, that's all there is to it.
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