Chapter Ten: Kigurumi
Before we set to work on what we’d been tasked with, I decided to stop by the weapon shop to see what sort of progress the old guy was making.
I asked Eclair and the old lady to wait for me in the carriage. The old lady’s son kept watch outside.
“Oh hey, kid.”
“How are things looking?”
“Good, good. You know your bird friend came over to play the other day with a friend of hers.”
That must have been Melty.
She was the princess! And she was first in line for the throne, considering how unfit to rule Bitch was.
Besides, if he’d ever seen the wanted posters they’d put up about us, he should have recognized the girl.
I was surprised that, after all she’d been through, Melty would sneak out playing with Filo. She must have been feeling a lot better.
“That’s great. I don’t care about it though.”
“I know, I know. But it has to do with why you came. Look.”
He vanished into the back room before reappearing with weapons.
The first was Raphtalia’s sword.
It looked a lot like the Karma Rabbit Sword. Except, while that sword had been all black, the blade of this one was white.
“That thing had some fierce power in it, didn’t it? I used the black rabbit materials you brought me to level this thing up, but it ended up turning white.”
“Huh...”
“And I went ahead and applied a blood clean ‘rinse’ to it as well. It’s not quite as good as the ‘coating,’ but it will definitely help keep the blade in good condition.”
A blood clean rinse? I guess that was a weaker version of the coating.
“It feels better than it used to, Mr. Naofumi.”
“It’s sharper too. And there are better equip effects. I have to say, I think this job went pretty well.”
“I’m very impressed, sir.”
“I did most of the same stuff to the little bird-lass’s claws, and those came out well too. Are these from a black dog?”
“Yeeeeah!”
Filo’s claws had turned white, just like Raphtalia’s sword.
I wonder what it meant? Had the curse been broken? I slowly regarded the two new weapons.
Usauni Sword: quality: high: imbued effects: agility up, magic up, swordsmanship up, blood clean rinse Inult Claw: quality: high: imbued effects: agility up, magic up, claw skill up, blood clean rinse
The negative effects had been removed, leaving the weapons with only good effects. That looked pretty impressive to me.
In games, I remember always having a pretty hard time removing negative equip effects from equipment.
If this world was anything like the games I’d played, then these weapons must have been a lot of work.
I’d run into the issue when working on accessories in the past. Whenever I finished a piece and found that it had a negative equip effect, I was always upset that they seemed impossible to remove.
“Nice job.”
“No sweat.”
If they were easier to use than they had been, then that was something to look forward to. And come to think of it, they had official names too, which was different from what we got when the old guy had worked on improving my barbarian armor.
Usauni. Inult. Those were the names of the legendary monsters of Cal Mira.
The Pekkul Kigurumi was in that category too, but I have to say that the boss monsters of the islands certainly dropped strange pieces of equipment.
“Is that your sword?”
Keel was looking at the sword in her hands when he asked.
“Yes.”
“Hey, who’s that? I’ve never seen you around these parts. You one of the kid’s new pals?”
“Yeah. I’m Keel! I grew up with Raphtalia. Nice to meet ya!”
“Sure is!”
Keel and the old guy greeted one another warmly.
“So what are you going to do about the new guy’s weapon?”
“I don’t know yet. What do you think? He’s started to work on swordplay a little.”
“This kid? Hm... I would think claws, or maybe jamadhars?”
“Should we go with that?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
“Well, why don’t we come back to it later then. For now he can just stick with a sword.”
“Sure.”
“Listen kid, of course I’ll sell you whatever you want. But I have to say that the sword he’s already using is pretty damn good.”
That’s right, we’d grabbed a sword for him out of the castle storeroom.
It wasn’t anything very expensive, but it was probably perfect for him at his current level.
“That’s what I like about you, old man: your honesty.”
“I just thought it would be a shame to waste a good weapon on someone that can’t use it.”
It was that kind of behavior—that honesty of his—that kept customers coming back to his shop.
I might be biased because of how much we had worked together, but he certainly seemed more talented than the castle blacksmiths. I wouldn’t hesitate to say so.
“The only thing I’m having trouble with is that kigurumi you left with me.”
He sighed, sounding disappointed. Then he rummaged in the back room before reappearing with what used to be the Pekkul Kigurumi.
“Hey now, why would you keep it as a kigurumi if you were going to improve it?”
He was carrying something that looked like a kigurumi, but it was all white.
“I was hoping to do something about it, too. But then when the bird girl and her friend came by the other night, I figured it all out. It was a lot of work, you know.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Don’t you dare unfold that thing.”
“What is it?”
“Rishia!”
Rishia hadn’t heard me. She unfolded the kigurumi to reveal . . .
“Hey, old man. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I know, I know. But I couldn’t help it!”
The old guy hid his face behind his hands.
That’s right, the old Pekkul Kigurumi was now a filolial kigurumi.
And no matter how you looked at it, it was obvious that it was based on Filo. It was shaped like Filo when she was in her filolial queen form.
So I decided to call it the Filo Kigurumi.
Filo Kigurumi: defense up, agility up (large), collision resistance (small), wind resistance (large), shadow resistance (small), HP recovery (weak), magic up (medium): automatic restoration ability, traction ability up, carrying capacity up, size adjustment, type change/type change unavailable when monster equipped
The old guy and I both turned our eyes away from the kigurumi.
“Wow! Is it Filo?”
“It’s a perfect copy.”
“It looks just like you, Filo!”
“What a lovely kigurumi.”
“Hey! I didn’t tell you to put that on!”
Rishia had already started to change into it.
“What do you think? Kweh Kweh!”
Now there was a filolial queen version of Filo standing next to Filo in human form. Granted, the kigurumi was smaller than her actual filolial queen form.
It was a depressing sight.
I hesitated and then decided to look at Rishia’s stats.
They were high! They were high because of the shield’s adjustment effect!
They had risen to be one-third of Raphtalia’s stats! Before now, her stats were like Keel’s when he was in the single digit levels. I was amazed.
To think that a piece of equipment could have such an effect, the type change must have made the monster maturation adjustment effect apply as well.
Well, I couldn’t argue with the effects, so I guess she could wear it for the time being.
“Yeah, it looks really stupid, but I guess it will have to do. Keel, you want one too?”
“What?!”
Keel looked at me. His eyes were filled with terror.
We still had the Pekkul Kigurumi that Rishia wasn’t using.
The effects were pretty good, so I was just thinking that it might work for Keel.
“No way! I hate that thing!”
“Heeeey!”
“Keel, please choose your words carefully. You’ll hurt Rishia’s feelings.”
Raphtalia chastised him. But Rishia didn’t seem to be upset at all.
And there I was, expecting a weak “fehhh” from her.
Whatever. If Rishia liked it then she could wear it. No harm, no foul.
“That’s the thing. It’s horrible to look at, but the effects are pretty great. If you want to get stronger—beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Master! Reeeeealy?”
Filo was going to throw a fit. I didn’t care.
“Well, that’s what I’ve got for you now. I’ll get to work on the lass’s armor next.”
“What about me?”
“If you leave your armor, I’ll work on it. But I can’t promise you that it will be ready in time.”
“Right. Well, we’re on our way out of town right now, so we’ll have to do it later.”
“Sure thing. I was thinking of making a little small sword for the kigurumi girl over there, but I haven’t had the time.”
“Oh, well, we still have some time before the wave. Think you can make it before then?”
“I can try.”
I was still powering up my shield, so I would just have to depend on that. The armor could wait.
“Okay then, see you later. Thanks for everything.”
“By the way, kid...”
“What?”
“I can make shields, too.”
That was a good point. I could always have him make me shields that I didn’t have the materials to unlock yet.
I could unlock shields by absorbing materials into it, but then I would lose the materials. If they were rare, then that might be a waste of good resources. If the old guy made me a shield, I could copy it using the weapon copy system.
I decided to see what he could do with the materials from the next wave boss.
“If I find anything good, I’ll bring it over and you can try your hand at it. See you then.”
“I’ll be here, kid.”
We left the weapon shop, climbed into the carriage, and went on our way.
Eclair was very impressed by Raphtalia’s new sword. She let out a yelp when she saw it.
The carriage was pretty full—and noisy.
But I kind of liked it that way.
“So where are we off to, Shield Hero?” asked Keel.
“We’re off to find this mysterious monster that is causing trouble all over the country. It shouldn’t be very strong, so this should be good experience for you.”
“Yeah!”
Keel tightened his grip on the sword hilt at his waist. He was ready for battle.
I looked him in the eyes and thumped my shield with my knuckles.
“I’m glad you’re excited, but don’t go rushing into trouble, okay?”
“I know that!”
“A long time ago, I said the same thing to Raphtalia, but she didn’t listen. You’re a lot like how she was then. That’s why I’m telling you this.”
“Really? Raphtalia?”
He looked over at her to confirm. She nodded.
“It’s true. I nearly got myself killed. So please be careful, Keel.” “Oh . . . Okay.” I directed the carriage to the village in the southwest.
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