Rising of the Shield Hero Re-Rise

Raphtalia was at level 8 now and Rifana was at level 7. I was not helping them at all in leveling up. Orange balloons are very useful for reflex training. It was easy for Raphtalia to kill them as she was fighting them in close quarters. On the other hand, I told Rifana that she has to hit the orange balloons using only the bow. As a result, Raphtalia killed more orange balloons than Rifana. Once they learn to use their weapons well, I will increase their level very quickly. I trained them for one day. I don't know why but they like bathing with me very much. Anyway, I'm just bathing with them now, when both of them get bigger then I will stop doing this. Which will happen in about 1 week.

I wanted to keep my level low but because of that basement incident I had no other option but to raise my level.

Both Raphtalia and Rifana still had a cold. I made some medicines for them. Of course they did not like the taste of the medicine but I forcibly made them drink the medicine because I had wasted my time in making the medicine.

"Raphtalia... Rifana, get up now, it will be morning." I said

"Just a little longer master."

"Hmm."

She asked me what these two can call me. I said that they can call me whatever they want, I also said that I would like it if they called me papa or daddy but they clearly refused.

"If you say so, I will stay." She said

"Good girl."

"Don't talk me like I'm a child."

"Okay okay."

I don't know why children hate being called children.

"Alright. Are you ready Raphtalia?" I asked

"Yeah."

We headed to the town. The village was called Riyute. There was only one inn there though, and a room went for one piece of silver. A travelling merchant visited once every other day, and he would buy loot from us if he needed it.

My reputation had preceded me due to the last incident. Even still, if the townsfolk seemed ready to do something stupid, I'd have to introduce them to my balloons.

Anyway, I went to the shop to sell some loot that we'd earned in the area around town.

"So… That's what I got."

"That's it?"

He paid me a few pieces of silver, and I begrudgingly accepted them.

Lets hear about it once again. I know everything about that cave but mere samay me peeche aane ke baad bohot si cheezen badal gayi hain, isliye mujhe unka bhi dhyan dena hoga.

"Isn't there a faster way to get money?"

"Why, you need something?"

Didn't he know that I was the Shield Hero? Either that, or he already knew but was pretending not to. That would give him some sort of advantage over me.

"Well then, there is a coal mine on the outskirts of town. If you got some ore from there, you could probably sell it for a good price."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. If you can figure out how to get it out of there, you'll make a good chunk of change."

"… Why don't other people do it then?"

"Before the waves of destruction came, it was pretty popular. But now the place is filled with dangerous monsters."

"I see."

"I don't know what our adventurers, knights, or the summoned Heroes are doing. But hey… I guess that's what you should expect from an abandoned mine."

The story hasn't changed a bit.

"There are some rare types of ore there, if you can find them. They will sell for a good price."

"Really? Thanks for the heads up."

We started going towards the cave.

"Master, why did you asked the thing you already know?"

"I just wanted to make sure we aren't missing anything. Apparently there are dangerous monsters in there. You better stay close, in case we have to run away."

"Okay!"

Riyute village was near the mountains, and the road was overgrown with weeds and shrubbery. It had been abandoned long ago. Near the entrance we came upon a number of pickaxes that had been dropped. They were old and ratty, but they didn't seem unusable.

Very near by, we found an old rest station.

The door was locked. But it wasn't being used, so I couldn't think of a reason not to let myself in.

"Raphtalia, I'm going to break the lock."

"What? Oh… Okay."

She picked up a rock and started to slam it against the lock. It was pretty much rusted through, so it only took a few good hits to break it.

Inside, we found some rope, and a couple of other things. But they had all been abandoned and were not in very good condition. We did find a map of the mine though, which was good.

My shield absorbed the other items we found. I already had the rope shield which is why when I absorbed the rope, nothing happened.

Pickax Shield: conditions met

Rope Shield: conditions met

Pickax Shield: ability locked:

equip ability: mining 1

I had totally forgotten about the pickax shield.

"What is it?" Raphtalia asked me.

"It's nothing. I just got some useful skills. That's all."

"Oh… So, are we going?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Raphtalia was acting more bravely than she had been, but I needed to watch out that she didn't get too familiar. That could be a problem.

The Pickax Shield was certain to be of use considering the reason we'd come to the mine.

Now then, let's get down to business. I held out a torch to the entrance, and we stepped inside.

"There are dangerous monsters in here, so keep an eye out."

"Okay."

I took the lead, and went in ahead of her.

For a little while, the tunnel was supported by wooden beams, but as we went deeper, the cave was just formed from natural stone walls. You could hear the soft sound of a distant waterfall and river, and there was a soft light coming from far above. There was a small hole above us, and the light filtered through the dusty air.

Now then, where to go? We started looking for ore. I had forgotten about the layout of this cave.

I opened the map and took a quick look. The map was marked with an "X" up near the source of the waterfall. That's where we would go.

"Master…"

"Hm?"

Raphtalia was tugging at my sleeve.

"Um… Look."

She was pointing down.

I followed her gaze. There were large footprints there, and they appeared to be from something like a dog.

This isn't the one. The dog we killed was larger than this

"We need to keep going."

If we always tried to avoid danger, we would never get anywhere.

If we ran into a monster, all we needed to do was defeat it.

"All right, let's go."

"Oh… Okay."

"Don't worry. We can beat it."

"I'll try."

That's the attitude.

So we kept on moving slowly through the cave. Until…

"Grrrrrrrr"

We ran into it right when we reached the top of the waterfall.

It was like a big, black dog. But it had two heads.

But the footprints were so much smaller… Maybe it was a puppy?

This one is probably the same dog as last time.