Chapter Three: Filo
We slept in the next day since Raphtalia had stayed up pretty late the night before. She’d held the magic book in one hand and muttered to herself until the wee hours of the night. Me? I spent the night roasting herbs to make medicines.
I wanted to make up for lost time, so I was hurrying through my morning preparations. I wanted to get out on the road.
“Oh! It looks like it’s going to hatch!”
I’d set the egg we’d bought by the window for the night, and Raphtalia had noticed a fine crack down the side.
You could just see something through the crack, something soft, like feathers or fur.
“Is it…?”
I was interested to see what hatched so I went over to have a look.
The cracks spread and opened with an audible crackle, and a baby monster’s face popped through the hole.
“Cheep!”
It was like a small pink chick. It was covered in soft feathers, and there was a piece of eggshell still sitting on its head, like a hat. It looked at me.
“Cheep!”
It chirped and suddenly flew up at me, bouncing into my face. It didn’t hurt at all, but I was surprised the thing was so energetic, having just been born and all.
“What is this monster called? It looks like a bird, is it a PikyuPikyu?”
PikyuPikyu were liked deformed little condors that couldn’t fly very well. The monster looked like it could have been a baby PikyuPikyu. It did have a sharp beak though, so I could expect better attacks from it than I could have from a balloon or something.
“Oh… you know I don’t really know all that much about monsters…”
Raphtalia looked just as confused as I did.
“Fine then, let’s go ask the villagers if they know what it is.”
If it was a monster that was approved for sale at a shop, it couldn’t have been very dangerous. If I asked, I could probably get an answer out of someone. I reached out my hand for the little bird, and it hopped onto my palm, then flew to my shoulder, and finally jumped up on my head.
“Cheeeeeeep!”
It kept cheeping and rubbing its face against mine. It was kind of cute.
“Oh look! It thinks you are its parent, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Must be some kind of imprinting.”
I’d already registered it on my status screen, and I was the first thing it saw after it was born. I suppose it was only natural that it thought I was its father.
I decided to clean up the shards of eggshell, and when I did my shield began to react to them. Come to think of it, if I let the shield absorb them, it might tell me what kind of monster I was dealing with. So I held up a piece of eggshell and let the shield absorb it.
Monster User Shield: conditions met
Monster Egg Shield: conditions met
Monster User Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: monster maturation adjustment (small)
Monster Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: cooking skill 2
It wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. But it still looked like it would be useful, so I switched my shield from Slave User Shield II (which I’d been using to unlock its ability) to the Monster User Shield.
“Did you figure it out?”
“No, it unlocked something else.”
I still didn’t know what kind of monster this chick was. I sure hoped the villagers could tell me something about it.
We set out walking around the half-ruined village, and I started thinking about where a good place to level up might be.
The most efficient place, considering our levels, was probably the swamp area to the west of the village. The last time we had been in the area we went to the mountains in the north, so I was hoping to find another place to go. I spotted some passing villagers, and they called out to me.
“Hello there, Shield Hero.”
“Morning.”
“Good morning!”
All in all, I’d spent about a week there, and after I protected them all during the wave, I guess most of them had come to recognize me.
One of them bowed very deeply to me, which I found awkward.
“Cheep!”
The little chick on my head chirped out a greeting of its own.
“What’s that?”
The villagers all looked at the bird on my head.
“What happened?”
They pointed their fingers at the bird and asked in unison.
“I bought an egg from a monster trainer.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“Do you know what kind of monster this is?”
They leaned in to get a better look.
“Hmm… Yes… I think it looks like a Filolial. Don’t you think so?”
“The big birds that pull the carriages?”
If they were right, that meant that I had still made a little return on my investment—considering how much it would cost to buy a Filolial. If they were right…
“Well I’m not completely sure, but there is a small ranch at the edge of town. You might want to stop by and ask over there.”
“Good idea. Let’s go.”
Raphtalia and I found out where the manger of the ranch lived, and decided to stop by his house.
Apparently the ranch had been hit pretty hard during the wave, and he had lost more than half of the monsters he had been raising.
“Okay, but is this little thing actually a Filolial?”
I asked the man there, and he nodded.
“Yes, it certainly does look like a baby Filolial.”
He held the chick in his hand, and only answered after he carefully looked it over.
“Yes, it is a very common variety of Filolial, but they have trouble staying calm without a cart to pull.”
“What kind of a way to raise a monster is that?
“Why, does it sound strange?”
Hmmm… I guess if you had been born and raised here, you wouldn’t find things like this mysterious.
Come to think of it, it might have been that the monster had a natural desire to protect its nest or its eggs, and that the monster trainers had just taught the monsters to fix their protective desire on carts instead.
“Well I guess it’s not a loss then. Kind of a win, really.”
If adults sold for 200 pieces of silver, and I was able to buy a baby for 100 pieces of silver, then it wasn’t really a bad deal at all.
“Cheep!”
The baby Filolial was chirping from its perch on my head.
“What does this thing eat?”
“You should start her on cooked beans, mushed into a puree. Something soft. Once she grows up they aren’t picky. They’ll pretty much eat anything once they are adults.
“Gotcha. Thanks.”
I even surprised myself at how quick and sincere my thanks were because, honestly, up until now I’d sort of considered everyone in this world to be my enemy. I was feeling better these days though. I wonder if it was because of what Raphtalia did for me back at the castle.
Anyway, they were selling boiled beans back at the village, so I might as well pick some up.
“What should we name it?”
Raphtalia was petting the little chick when she asked.
“Why do we have to give it a name? We might end up selling it, you know?”
If we went around naming things, we might get attached. That would only make it harder to sell the thing if that was what we decided to do in the future.
“Are you just going to call it ‘chick’ and ‘Filolial?’”
“Hm…”
She was right, that would make things harder than they needed to be.
“You’re right. Why don’t we call it “Filo?”
“Very creative.”
“Oh give me a break.”
“Cheep!”
The little bird let out a loud and satisfied chirp, as if it understood that we had given it a name.
We thanked the rancher and left. Then we bought some boiled beans, had lunch for ourselves, and set out on the road.
“Where are we off to today?”
“Cheep?”
“Right, well, I don’t really know anywhere around here that is good for leveling up, so I guess we will just have to search for ourselves. Let’s just do what we’ve done the whole time.”
“Okay.”
Now that I knew I could depend on Raphtalia, I felt like the battles would be easier than they had been.
Filo was chirping from where it sat on my head. It was loud, but I kind of liked it.
“It’s huge! That frog is huge!”
We’d gone to the swamplands to the west of Riyute to hunt monsters, but I wasn’t able to hide my surprise at the first one I saw.
But let’s be fair here. You might run into giant toads or something when you play an RPG, but if you saw one in real life, you’d be pretty surprised too.
So when this giant frog, “Big Frog” they’re called, hopped over to me, and I saw that it was as tall as my waist, I screamed.
“I’m going!”
“Wait! Raphtalia!”
Before I could restrain the Big Frog, Raphtalia jumped ahead of me.
When it came time to battle, we had agreed that I was to take the lead. If this was an MMORPG, it only made sense to do so because it was dangerous to approach a new monster when you didn’t know its stats. What if the thing was stronger than we were?
If it was, we might not get out with just scrapes and bruises. It might be a mistake we’d have to pay for with our lives.
“Hiya!”
Raphtalia ignored my cry and dashed at the Big Frog with her sword.
The Big Frog let out a deafening screech, as if her attack had surprised it.
Dammit! What was she thinking? What happened to our plan? I was supposed to go in first and hold the monster down for her!
The Big Frog puffed up its cheeks, and then sent its razor sharp tongue flying at Raphtalia.
“Watch out!”
I ran forward and caught the brunt of the attack with my shield.
I couldn’t allow Raphtalia to be injured.
“Cheep!”
Filo was excited on my head. It felt like the thing was running in circles,
shadow boxing.
“I’ll hold it down, so you just calm down!”
“But I…”
“Quiet!”
What was going on? It was like Raphtalia and I were not on the same page. I’d never felt that way prior to the wave. What could it mean?
If Raphtalia were to end up hurt, I’d feel terrible. I’d feel like we weren’t honoring the memory of her parents. I’d made up my mind to protect her, to serve as her new father.
The Big Frog turned to me and sent its razor-sharp tongue flying in my direction.
Yes! I reached out and grabbed the tongue from the air. It made a sound like metal clanging against my first.
“Go!”
“Okay!”
Raphtalia lunged at the frog with her sword drawn, her eyes flashing, like she’d just been waiting for my signal.
The Big Frog fell quickly and easily, and we both received experience points.
Nice. It was worth more than the porcupines had been.
“Huff.”
Raphtalia was looking me over, and she seemed disappointed. Her tenacity was starting to get the better of her, and I’d have to say something about it. If she didn’t learn to hold herself back a little, then we might both end up dead.
“Raphtalia, let’s be a little more cautious… okay?”
“But we don’t have much time until the next wave comes. Shouldn’t we defeat as many enemies as we can? Shouldn’t we level up as much as we possibly can?”
“We have a month and a half. That’s plenty of time. Let’s take it slow. You don’t want to overdo it and end up bedridden, do you?”
“You’re right. But I… I want to be stronger!”
At least she agreed with me… Wait, did she?
I didn’t know where all the good monsters were, like the other heroes did. So we didn’t have any other options for efficient leveling up.
“Gugeeeeeeh!”
What the? I turned at the sudden sound and saw something twice the size of the Big Frog. It was a purple Big Frog, and there was a Gray Salamander with it—and they were running straight for us.
“Pii!”
Filo was running circles around my head, apparently ready for a fight.
It wasn’t going to be much good in a fight yet, and it would be dangerous to hang out on my head, so I stuffed the little thing into my armor.
“Pii!”
“I’m going!”
“No! Let me go first!”
“What if you get hurt, Mr. Naofumi?! Didn’t you buy me so that I could fight for you?!”
“If the thing is strong enough to hurt me, just think about what it could
do to you. I didn’t buy you to get you hurt! It might have been different back
then… but now you need to take care of yourself!”
“Mr. Naofumi…”
I turned my gaze to the monsters, the Amethyst Big Frog and the Gray Salamander, raised my shield, and rushed them. Unfortunately my attack rating wasn’t high enough to do any damage. They spit a viscous, poisonous-looking liquid at me, and I blocked it with my shield.
“Go!”
“Okay!”
She ran at them and quickly cut them with her sword. They fell easily. I wonder if her new weapon was that strong? The armor was better than I had been expecting. I had to hand it to the old guy at the weapon shop.
I butchered the monsters and let the shield absorb the parts.
The frog meat looked gross, and was probably poisonous. I decided not to bother trying to sell it.
“Pii!”
Filo crawled out from my armor, walked over to the defeated monsters, and struck a defiant pose over their bodies, as if it had just killed them itself.
I wanted to ask what the thing was doing, but it was kind of cute, so I just let it go.
We walked around the area for a while longer, defeating monsters all the time. We were leveling up relatively efficiently.
By the time evening fell, I could tell that I had grown, and Filo had too.
The results were:
Naofumi: LV 23
Raphtalia: LV 27
Filo: LV 12
Filo hadn’t contributed to the battles at all, but had still received enough experience points to level up quickly. It looked like it had grown too.
That was good. I’d heard that young demi-humans matured along with their rising levels, so I guess it was only natural to expect monsters to level up in a similar way.
That must have been it…
The little chick was not so large and heavy that it was hard to hold in both hands. It was also, how to put it, rounder? It was like a giant steamed bun. Its feathers were larger, and covered its body now, and the whole guy had changed from a light pink to a darker pink.
Monster User Shield II: conditions met
Monster User Shield II: ability locked:
equip bonus: monster status adjustment (small)
I hadn’t noticed when Raphtalia grew before my eyes, but even I couldn’t help but notice the dramatic transformation the little bird had undergone.
“Piyo.”
It even chirped differently. It was heavy, so I put it down, and it walked around authoritatively.
Grumble…
I’d heard its stomach grumbling for a little while. Then it was louder than both myself and Raphtalia. I’d made sure to buy a lot of food for it, but apparently the bird had already run out. The rancher said that they could eat anything, so I kept feeding it anything that looked like food, like piles of hay we’d found on the road. It ate all of it, and still seemed hungry. That must have been proof of how quickly it was growing.
“Um… Mr. Naofumi?”
“I know… Monsters sure are amazing.”
To think that it had grown this much in the course of a single day… It wouldn’t be long before it could carry us!
It was great, and something to look forward to. If it grew to be really big but was still as immature as a baby, then it could spell trouble down the line. I went to the status screen and set its settings to strict.
We went back to the inn, and I asked the innkeeper where we could keep Filo. He led us to the horse stables, which were lined with hay for Filo to make itself a bed.
“Huh? Why are the Chimera bones and meat in here??”
The meat hadn’t started to rot at all, so it must have been good for keeping. Or maybe it didn’t rot because the monster was from another dimension.
“We decided to hang it up here and wait for it to soften a bit. That should make further processing easier.”
“Huh…”
But they weren’t going to use it for food… And they wanted to process it.
“Then we will smoke it or make jerky. Once it’s done we can look for buyers. There have already been some people who stopped buy and asked for some.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The Chimera had been very large, so they needed to use a lot of space to store the remains. It was probably the size of two full-grown cows. It probably wasn’t going to make for very good food, but it seemed like there was too much there to dedicate to researchers only.
“Piyo.”
Grumble…
Was it already hungry again? I’d bought new food on our way back to the village, and had already fed it. But I guess it had already gone through our stores. Geez, where was it fitting all that food?
Pikee, Pikee, Pikee…
Was that its bones creaking? Was it already growing?
“I can’t believe how much this grew over the day. You might be in over your head, eh?”
The innkeeper looked concerned.
“It’s only at level 12.”
“Huh? Level 12?”
The innkeeper shot a surprised glance at Filo.
“To grow this much in only a few days after its birth! Well, I’d swear it was at level 20! You’re very impressive, Hero.”
Yeah, well… I was using maturation adjustment, so its quick maturation was probably due to that. Every time I checked its status, the numbers were different. So I guess it really was growing very quickly.
“Piyo!”
Filo was chirping happily. It would grow up quickly.
I rubbed the bird’s head until I was sure it was sleeping. Once it was snoring, Raphtalia and I went back to our room. Then I went back to studying the writing system of this world. There was so much to do. I was getting tired.
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