The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 (14 page)

Chapter Eight: Karma

The next morning, we left to go leveling once the sun had climbed over the horizon.

We’d agreed to go out hunting with L’Arc and Therese the day after that.

It’s not like I felt like we needed to be prepared for leveling with them, just that I wanted to work on leveling anyway—while we had the time.

Besides, leveling was fun.

Oh yeah, that’s right. When I’d been trying out the weapon copy system at the old guy’s shop, I’d learned a pretty neat skill.

It was called Hate Reaction.

“Hate Reaction!”

Nothing seemed to happen. I turned my head in confusion. Filo blinked.

“Master! There’s some kind of nastiness coming from you. It’s flying out in all directions.”

That was Filo’s assessment. At first I hadn’t understood what was happening, but now I was starting to get it.

All the monsters in the area had turned their eyes on me and were creeping in my direction.

Even the ones that other adventurers had been battling with.

The skill seemed to affect an area extending about 15 meters in all directions.

Even the monsters that had learned to stay away from us on the previous day were now creeping in my direction.

It was the sort of skill that would be a burden on everyone if I used it in a populated area. But what if we were deeper inland . . . ?

If we went into an area that was off-limits to all but the most advanced adventurers, I could probably put the skill to better use.

I doubt that any normal adventurers would bother to brave the interior of the island.

Normal people had their level capped at 40. Unless you were a hero, areas like that were likely to be too dangerous.

It wasn’t like we were sure we could be alone there, but I think that the further inland we went, the less likely we were to run into anyone else.

I came across something like . . . like skin stretched taught over bones, dried till it was stiff. The further inland we went, the more it felt like a Darwinian battle to survive. I wondered how many adventurers had met their ends there.

To think that L’Arc and Therese had come looking for us in an environment like this. That must have been a real risk for a normal adventurer.

So we went on cutting our way through the forest, until we were very deep in the center of the island, when we ran into a new monster, the Karma Dog Familia. It was a very large, black dog.

It reminded me of the large, two-headed black dog that Raphtalia and I had fought a while back. The dog looked like a Doberman.

This one only had one head, but its fur was rough and kind of intimidating. As you might expect, Raphtalia looked a little uncomfortable.

“You alright?”

“Yes. There’s no problem.”

She arranged her fingers and gripped her sword tightly, readying it for battle.

Slowly, inch by inch, Filo moved in closer to the Karma Dog Familia.

There was nothing left to do but fight.

I stood at the front of the group, readied my shield, and dashed at the dog.

“Gah!”

The dog opened its mouth wide and clamped its jaws down on my shoulder.

But I’d powered up recently, and my stats were too high for the dog to deal any damage.

I ducked my head down and threw my weight forward, pushing the dog back.

“Ha!”

“Take that!”

Raphtalia and Filo didn’t miss the opportunity. They rushed in and attacked.

“This thing is tough!”

Raphtalia sunk her sword deep into the dog’s belly, and Filo delivered a brutal kick, tearing the dog’s hind leg clean off.

“ . . . ?!”

The dog let out an ear-splitting squeal.

But it didn’t give up. It kept coming at us—at me. Screaming until its last breath, it bit at me.

I had to admire its tenacity. It was fighting as if it didn’t care for its own life at all.

It was strong, but it probably had to be to survive deep in the island’s interior.

“That was one persistent dog.”

“Yes, it was.”

“And its bite was really something to contend with.”

Filo tottered over to the corpse and started snacking on it.

“Stop that.”

“Fiiiine.”

Stupid bird . . . . I knelt down by the dog and absorbed it into my shield.

Karma Dog Familia Shield conditions met.

Karma Dog Familia Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: sense of smell up (low): inult status adjustment (small)

There were a number of other items that appeared in the menu, but I was most drawn to the unlock conditions and the equip bonus.

Sense of smell up seemed self-explanatory enough.

If I kept increasing my sense stats like this, I wondered if I would turn into a feral creature like Filo.

Inult . . . . Wasn’t that the name of the monster that had pioneered civilization in the islands? Where was I going to find one of those?!

The drop item was actually bad luck. There wasn’t one.

If we met another one I would break it down a bit before absorbing its parts.

As for experience points, we’d gotten quite a lot when we won. I think it had been worth about 800 points.

The monsters on the perimeter of the island had been giving us around 90, so this was a big step up.

“Gah!”

Huh? Another one appeared. We defeated it, then came across another. And on and on we moved deeper into the island’s interior.

“Is this the end of the line?”

“Who knows?”

We kept on going in the same direction, and the monster’s strength, as well as the points they were worth, continued to rise.

But our own levels were rising rapidly too.

I’d reached level 57, Raphtalia was at 59, and Filo was at level 61.

We were leveling so fast that all our time up until then felt like it had been a waste. Raphtalia and Filo’s stats were also rising quickly.

“Ugh . . . .”

Raphtalia was closely inspecting her sword. Then she started moaning.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It feels like my sword has lost its core . . . .”

Raphtalia forcefully swung her sword a few times to check. I couldn’t really tell, but it looked like the blade was bending. The sword itself wasn’t very old. What did it mean?

“You’ve probably outgrown it.”

If she kept using it like she was, it looked like it might bend or break.

I looked over to Filo, only to find that her metal claws were chipped too—the points had nearly broken off completely.

“What’s happening master?”

“I don’t know.”

I had a hunch that Raphtalia and Filo’s power levels had outgrown the durability of their equipment.

If we were preparing for the next wave, I’d have to give priority to their weapons. If I didn’t we might end up in real trouble.

For the time being, I had a couple iron swords that had been item drops, so we could use those if there was an emergency—not that they would really be much help.

It was probably time for us to start relying on custom equipment. We were going to need powerful weapons from this point on.

“Should I switch to the magic sword?”

Raphtalia sheathed her sword and switched to the magic sword.

The sword worked against disembodied enemies, but against normal enemies it only cut through their magic power. It couldn't actually kill a normal enemy, but it could cause them to lose consciousness.

And there was little chance of it breaking. Raphtalia summoned the magic blade, and it appeared there now, extending from the hilt.

It seemed to be outputting more power than it had before. It was a large blade, and it was crackling with energy.

“Ah . . . .”

Raphtalia hurried to switch it off.

“What happened?”

“I can’t use it. There’s too much power. The hilt gets too hot to hold.

“If you’re not careful, you might break it.”

“Understood.”

We moved on, deeper into the woods. When we finally arrived at what seemed to be the center, we found a large structure there, a temple of some kind. It reminded me of Stonehenge. It appeared to be ruins.

In the center of the circle was some kind of sphere. It was like a magic lens.

“What is this thing?”

“Who knows?”

It reminded me of the rifts that appeared in the sky during the waves. I could tell that it wasn’t quite the same thing though.

“Filo, will you try attacking it for me?”

“Sure!”

She jumped forward and kicked the black sphere.

For a moment, it looked like the whole object warped and bent—but a second later it was back to its original shape.

What could it mean? If it functioned anything like objects in the games that I had played, it would probably only become functional if certain conditions were met.

Suddenly, a very large dog appeared—and it was covered in black feathers. It was huge, probably five meters from head to tail.

It was shaped something like a golden retriever. It was large and clumsy looking, but it was still a vicious monster.

I checked the beast’s name in the menu. It was called a Karma Dog.

Was it the boss monster of the island?

It seemed like a reasonable assumption. The Karma Dog Familias that we’d met up until now were probably its underlings.

“Raphtalia, Filo, let’s go! First Aura!”

I cast the support magic on them and the battle began in earnest.

The huge dog lunged at me, its fangs bared.

“Hya!”

It opened its mouth wider to bite me, but I threw out my arm and grabbed it by the teeth, pushing the beast back.

There was a loud, clanging sound, but I’d managed to stop the monster in its tracks.

Slowly, the fangs sunk into my skin, and peels of pain shot up my arm.

This beast was clearly much stronger than the other dogs had been. If it could get through my defenses then it must have been pretty damn powerful.

Granted, I hadn’t finished powering up. Still, I thought that my stats had really improved—and they had—but it still wasn’t enough.

“Hya!”

“Whoop!”

Raphtalia’s sword and Filo’s claws bit into the underbelly of the beast. But it wasn’t enough to stop the monster. I couldn’t control its claws, and it turned them on the girls.

“You won’t get me that easily!”

“Ha!”

I hadn’t been able to stop the monster, but I’d apparently slowed it down enough. They dodged its attack easily.

“WAOOOOOOOOO!”

The dog howled. As the beast’s voice died down, two Karma Dog Famlilas suddenly appeared from the mysterious sphere!

Damn. This wasn’t looking good.

“Raphtalia, Filo! Can you keep this up?!”

“Yeah!”

“Not a problem!”

“Great! Let’s use a combination skill. Filo, watch me!”

“Okay!”

I’d seen Motoyasu and the others use combination skills before. It was when you combined magic and a skill to form a stronger attack.

They normally had better secondary effects than other skills.

“Filo, are you watching? I’m going to use air strike shield, so you need to use some wind attack magic at the same time!”

“Okay!”

Filo closed her eyes and started to concentrate.

“I’m the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them! Wrap them in a fierce tornado!”

“Zweite Tornado!”

As she cast the spell, a list of compatible skills appeared before me.

“Tornado Shield!”

A Karma Dog Familia was rushing to attack us, but before it could a massive shield formed of wind appeared in the air before the beast.

The dog slammed into the shield and was forced to stop. When it did, a huge tornado, one bigger than Filo’s magic could normally produce, shot from the center of the shield and carried the two Karma Dog Familias up into the air.

Hey now, that was a pretty useful combination! If we could coordinate our attacks like this, we were even stronger than I had thought.

As for Raphtalia, her magic was normally illusion-based, so it wouldn't work so well as an attack medium.

We wouldn’t be able to do the same thing, but we might be able to trick the monsters. It would depend on how the combination skill worked.

“Raphtalia!”

“I’m on it!”

“I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them! Confuse the enemy!”

“First Mirage!”

“Mirage Shield!”

I used second shield and was able to use another skill while the first was still deployed.

The tornado disappeared, and the two dogs plummeted to the ground. Before they hit though, another shield appeared beneath them, and they slammed into that shield instead.

This shield was flexible though. The minute they connected with it, it expanded in a quick puff, completely enclosing them.

“Kyan!”

The shield disappeared, and the two dogs fell to the ground again, but this time they were upside down, and they landed on their backs. They tottered around, unable to regain their bearings.

And then . . . .

“Gah!”

The two of them barked and growled and started to fight one another!

Both of them had probably become confused as to who the enemy was, so they just attacked whatever creature was nearest to them.

It looked like the Mirage Shield had an interesting effect on the enemy.

“Great! Now’s our chance! Finish them!”

“I’m on it!”

We tightened our grip on our weapons and turned to face the Karma Dog.

“Whew.”

We defeated the monster. It kept calling for reinforcements, which caused the fight to drag on a little.

Luckily we were always able to get the reinforcements to fight among themselves. Raphtalia and Filo had become really powerful in the last few days as well, so eventually we were able to win the battle without too much trouble.

When the main beast was gone, we took out the remaining reinforcements. Once I was sure that the coast was clear, I absorbed the Karma Dog into the shield and received its drop item.

I used to be a pretty avid gamer, and those gamer instincts were still alive and kicking inside me. I figured that the Karma Dog had been a boss monster, and boss monsters were sure to leave behind really good drop items.