The rhythmic sound
of the crashing waves was soothing as I gazed at the blue ocean and sky.
“The beach is so
peaceful. It’s hard to believe that the ocean is so rough out there.”
“Mr. Naofumi, isn’t
there still a storm raging off shore?”
We were at a resort
island called Cal Mira, but we weren’t there to relax. The island was in the
middle of an activation phenomenon, so we’d come to reap its benefits.
The activation
event was something similar to what happens in scheduled MMORPG events. It was
a set period of time where the amount of experience points received by players
was dramatically increased. So while the phenomenon was occurring, we would
receive much more experience than usual for the same amount of battling.
Experience points
seemed like such a strange idea, but I’d gotten used to it. This was a
completely different world, after all.
“See? If you squint
way out at the horizon, you can just make out some black clouds.”
“Hm . . .”
I strained to see
them, but it was so far away that I couldn’t be sure. I guess I did see a dark
line over the ocean.
The waves looked
higher out there too. The breeze was wet.
“Raphtalia, you
seem to know a lot about the ocean.”
“Well, I am from a
fishing village. I have a sense for these things, I guess.”
“Oh yeah.”
Why were we
relaxing and watching the waves roll by? Well, we did have a fair amount of
time to kill until we could act on the next phase of our plans.
To explain what I
was doing in a completely new world, I should explain from the beginning.
My name is Naofumi
Iwatani. I used to live in Japan as a member of a normal, modern society. I
used to be a university student with otaku tendencies.
One day I stumbled
into the local library to kill time and found an old-looking book called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. I started flipping
through it and before I knew what was happening I lost consciousness and woke
back up in a new world, apparently summoned there to serve the role of one of
the characters that had been described in the book: the Shield Hero.
The book had told
the story of a disastrous phenomenon called “the waves of destruction.” These
waves were threatening to destroy the world. Standing against it were four
heroes, each summoned from another world, each wielding a legendary weapon.
The weapons were
the sword, spear, bow, and of course the shield.
Sure, the shield
doesn’t really count as a weapon per se. Nevertheless,
that’s the role I was summoned to play.
But the book wasn’t
complete. The text continued just until the section detailing the Shield Hero,
and from that point on all the subsequent pages were blank.
And that’s pretty
much how I ended up here.
Anyway, this world
was very different from my own. People here accrued levels and experience
points, as if it were a game.
Whenever you battled
and defeated monsters, you were awarded a certain amount of experience points,
which would raise your abilities and level.
They called this
system “status magic.” Whenever I concentrated on it, I could see my various
status attributes and their values spelled out before me in mid-air.
It was an
interesting world. It rewarded you in direct proportion to your efforts.
But the Shield Hero
was really a defense specialist. I was only able to defeat monsters indirectly.
If I didn’t have
party members to battle with, I was severely limited in what I could achieve.
It was essentially impossible for me to defeat a monster on my own.
But it wasn’t all
bad. The Legendary Shield had a whole host of abilities and skills that I could
use.
The Legendary
Shield itself grew more powerful by absorbing monsters and various materials,
and it could transform into other powerful shields.
So the plan was to
level up and grow as powerful as I could before the waves came.
Unfortunately, it
didn’t really work out that way. The country that summoned us, Melromarc, clung
to a historical vendetta against the Shield Hero.
Because of the
persecution I experienced, I was unable to recruit party members of my own.
Eventually I was able to recruit someone, but just when I thought I’d earned
her trust and appreciation, she betrayed me. I was framed for a crime and sent
out into the streets penniless and alone.
It was a very dark
time, but I eventually found a party member—actually I purchased one. She was a
slave when I bought her, so she didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Nevertheless, together we were able to face the first wave of destruction and
come out of the ordeal alive.
That doesn’t sound
very good, and it wasn’t. But it is the truth.
The slave’s name
was Raphtalia, and she was only a young girl. I purchased her for a paltry sum
and forced her to fight monsters on my behalf.
“What should we do
next?”
“We can’t go out
into the open ocean until the storm blows over, so I guess we’ll just kill time
here on the island.”
The girl next to me
on the beach, the one who now cared for me sincerely, was Raphtalia.
She appeared to be
around 18 years old, but in truth she was younger than that.
She was a
demi-human, a type of person that existed in this world. There were different
races of demi-human, among which she was a tanuki-type.
If you think of her
as a girl with tanuki ears and a puffy tanuki tail, you’ll be pretty close to
what she looks like.
She had a
symmetrical face framed with smooth red hair. Her skin was white and fine like
porcelain.
Ten out of ten
people would call her beautiful.
Demi-humans grew
differently from normal humans. Even if they were young children, their bodies
grew in proportion to their level, not their age. Because Raphtalia started
battling with me when she was only a small girl, her body grew into a young
woman nearly before my eyes. This unique way that demi-humans grew up meant
that she was actually younger than she appeared to be.
When the first wave
of destruction washed over the world, it took Raphtalia’s village and family
with it. In the ensuing chaos, she was captured by slave traders and forced
into servitude, leading to an extended period of darkness in her life.
In the end I bought
her as a slave, and the rest is history.
After I was
betrayed, framed, and persecuted, I lost the ability to trust others.
But I was
eventually able to put my trust in a slave, knowing that she had no option but
to tell me the truth and could never betray me.
It may seem
ridiculous, but Raphtalia was eventually set free from her life as a slave—then
she voluntarily became a slave again to earn my trust. I might have lost faith
in humanity, but I wasn’t so far gone that I could witness such sincere
devotion and remain unmoved.
Now she is my most
trusted ally.
She was a very
serious person.
Her sense of
purpose was her highest priority—one that she never forgets. When my temper
gets out of control and my language gets rough, she’s always there to reel me
back in.
Because of the loss
and suffering she experienced during the first wave, she was extremely
dedicated to fighting them.
She didn’t want
anyone else to endure the hardships that she’d been forced to suffer through.
To put it plainly,
I respected her very much.
“Filo.”
“Whaaaat?”
I called out to
Filo. She was just down the beach, swimming and playing in the water.
“We’re going to
head over to the market. What do you want to do?”
“I wanna keep
swimming!”
“Fine. Swim all you
want.”
“Okaaaay!”
Filo was the second
friend I’d made, after Raphtalia. She was a monster and a young girl at the
same time.
We received a
stipend from the crown after surviving the wave of destruction, and I used the
money to participate in a lottery game where you choose a monster egg from a
crate for a set price without knowing what kind of egg you are going to get.
Filo was the monster that hatched out of the egg, but for some reason she
eventually acquired the ability to transform into a young human girl with small
angel-like wings on her back.
When she was in human
form she looked like a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of ten.
Her hair was glossy
and smooth. Her eyes were clear and blue like the sea, her skin white like
snow. She looked like a foreign pop idol who ran around barefoot, a snapshot of
carefree youth.
One look at her
face and you knew that she was as naïve and carefree as they come.
Her innocent face
and expressions and her absurd, playful antics always cheered me up.
Sometimes she took
things a little too far and could be irritating, but even that could be
endearing.
Her real form was a
filolial queen. Filolials were giant bird-like monsters with a penchant for
pulling heavy objects (like carriages), and when raised under certain
mysterious conditions they can mature into filolial queens.
She was much bigger
than I was when in her filolial queen form, and she looked something like a mix
between an owl and a penguin.
Filolials were
giant birds, but for all the power they held in their legs, they were unable to
fly. It might help to think of them as this world’s equivalent of ostriches.
Her feathers were
mostly white, though there were patches of pink here and there.
There was one other
thing immediately noticeable about her that differentiated her from other
filolials: she had a giant feather crest that rose vertically from the top of
her head.
When she was in
human form it manifested as a huge cowlick in her hair. It was very distinctive
and memorable. It was her trademark.
She looked like she
was around ten years old, but if you didn’t take her seriously you’d end up in
a lot of pain.
She was very quick
on her feet and much stronger than she looked. I’d grown to trust her with my
life.
As for our levels,
I was at level 73, Raphtalia at 75, and Filo at 76.
Those two were my
only party members, and my only real friends.
To be honest, I was
starting to think that I needed to recruit someone else.
If this were just a
game, then we should have been able to overcome any difficulty just by leveling
up enough to overpower the enemy. But this was reality, albeit a different one
than I was accustomed to. No matter how high our levels got, we were eventually
going to need another pair of hands.
“How should we
prepare for the next wave?”
“I think we need to
find another party member.”
“What about
Melty-chan? She proved herself powerful during the time we spent together.”
“Melty? Sure, she’s
powerful enough. But I don’t think we can just commandeer her for our own
purposes.”
Melty was Filo’s
friend and also the princess of Melromarc.
A lot had happened
and we’d ended up fighting with her for a time, during which she had
demonstrated what a powerful fighter she could be. But the waves were
dangerous, and it didn’t make sense to put the heir to the throne in the line
of fire.
Oh, that reminds
me. I mentioned that I had been framed for a crime. Melty actually had a lot to
do with that.
But to explain I
need to back up and tell you a bit more about the country that summoned me to
this world: Melromarc.
Melromarc had a
religious vendetta against the Shield Hero.
The national
religion was called the Church of the Three Heroes, and they worshiped all the
heroes aside from the Shield Hero. So the citizenry had always equated the
Shield Hero with villainy and deceit.
Now you might be
wondering why a religion like that would even exist.
The roots lie in
Melromarc’s widespread human supremacy and the oppression of the demi-humans
that accompanied it.
As you might
expect, there were countries that embraced the opposite of that philosophy.
There were demi-human supremacist countries out there too, places where humans
faced unjust discrimination.
Melromarc had a
long history of war with one of those countries, where the demi-human
population had long worshiped the Shield Hero among the other gods of their
pantheon.
When I was summoned
to Melromarc, the king who was serving at the time immediately discriminated
against me, then saw to it that I was framed, prosecuted, and sent out into the
streets penniless and alone.
But a royal
conspiracy alone isn’t enough to explain everything that happened next.
The world was
currently under the existential threat of the impending waves of
destruction—there was no time to spend dilly-dallying over how to treat the
Shield Hero.
The true ruler of
Melromarc was not the king, but the queen. The queen sent Melty as an
intermediary between myself, the Shield Hero, and her father, the king.
Melromarc was
traditionally a matrilineal country—all the true power lay with the queen.
When all this
happened, the queen was traveling around on diplomatic missions to try and
rally the disparate nations of the world against the threat of the waves.
It was a
particularly perilous time for diplomacy. Realizing the threat of the waves and
the need to call on the heroes, an international agreement had been reached.
The heroes would be summoned by a mutually agreed upon country. But in the
queen’s absence, the king had teamed up with the Church of the Three Heroes and
summoned the heroes to Melromarc without conferring with the international
body. Understandably, this act of defiance angered the rest of the world, and
the queen had her hands full simply trying to prevent the outbreak of war,
which seemed imminent.
Were it not for the
efforts of the queen in those dark days, Melromarc would probably no longer
exist as a sovereign nation.
At the time,
Raphtalia and I had no way to know what was really going on. After surviving
the first wave we slowly saved money by selling various trinkets. That was the
only way to secure the funds necessary to update our equipment from what we’d
started with, which wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough to ensure our
survival.
Our traveling
merchant life was boring but had plenty of advantages. Of course, I hid my
identity as the Shield Hero and instead called myself the saint of the bird
god, because Filo was pulling my carriage and she really stood out in a crowd.
Citizens actually started to respect the saint of the bird god.
We were eventually
able to secure better tools, materials, and equipment through my mercantile efforts.
In the end, we managed to become at least as powerful as the other heroes.
But the Church of
the Three Heroes didn’t like the idea that I was traveling free under a
pseudonym.
The other three
heroes had caused some trouble on their travels, and it was starting to foment
doubt among the populace. Realizing that its status as the national faith might
soon be shaken, the church decided to become an active player in the events
unfolding in Melromarc.
They concocted an
elaborate plan to tarnish my reputation further. I was accused of kidnapping
the very princess that the queen had sent to repair the strained relationship
between the king and I: the heiress of the throne, Melty.
The crown sent the
other three heroes to bring us back in while we fled from them in an attempt to
prove our innocence.
Along the way we
ran into all sorts of trouble. We battled the very same nobleman that had once
imprisoned and tortured Raphtalia. And we had to take down a massive monster
that he had released from its magically sealed prison.
There’s more. We
ended up running into the queen of the filolials after that fight, and finally,
after the smoke had cleared, the church decided to dispense with its shadowy
operations and came after us directly. They called it a holy war, and they were
out for blood.
In the end I was
forced to use my last resort. The cursed, dark side of my shield contained an
unbelievable power, and I used it to destroy the head of the church itself: the
high priest. At last, my innocence was proven to the people.
The queen returned
to the country and heavily punished her husband, the king, and Melty’s bitch of
an older sister—the one who had originally framed me. She had their names
officially changed to Trash and Bitch.
At long last,
things were as they should have been from the very start. I was considered
equal to the other three heroes, and my actions were officially supported and
sanctioned by the crown. Finally, we were free to dedicate our efforts to
fighting the waves.
Or so I thought. It
wasn’t long before new problems started showing up.
“Why did they have
to be our enemy? I wanted to invite them to join our party.”
“I know how you
feel. They were very powerful and kind. They were the kind of people we could
have depended on.”
“. . . Yeah.”
On the ocean voyage
to the Cal Mira islands we had coincidently shared a room with two other
adventurers: L’Arc Berg and Therese.
L’Arc seemed really
nice, like a dependable older brother type of guy.
He was very
experienced in battle, he was considerate, and he was fun to be around. To be
honest, I didn’t hate him.
Therese was very
skilled with magic, and because my party didn’t have a lot of back-row support,
she was a very valuable asset during the time we spent together.
Both of them had
been extremely powerful in comparison to other adventurers I’d met.
But in the end they
turned out to be compatriots of the enemy we’d met at the end of the third wave
of destruction: a mysterious woman named Glass.
During our
exploration of the islands we found an underwater temple. Venturing inside, we
found a dragon hourglass, which was a mysterious object that counted down the
time until the next wave of destruction appeared. The wave came, and after a
large battle, we fought an Inter-Dimensional Whale, which was the wave’s boss
monster. Immediately after the monster fell, L’Arc and Therese turned on us.
The battle was one
of attrition and ended with their retreat. I don’t know who would have won if
we had continued to fight.
So we survived
another wave, but the mystery at the core of the phenomenon had only grown
deeper.
When L’Arc and
Therese retreated, they disappeared into the dimensional rifts that occurred
during the wave. I tried to follow them, but we were too late.
What were the waves?
When I first arrived
in this world, I thought they were a phenomenon where endless waves of monsters
poured from dimensional rifts. But after listening to the things L’Arc and
Glass had said, I wasn’t so sure they were a natural phenomenon anymore.
They had to be
something else. L’Arc and the others had made it clear that their end goal was
specifically to kill the heroes.
“There’s no point
in worrying about it. Let’s go kill some time at the market.”
“Good idea.”
We were stuck on
Cal Mira for the time being.
The storm at sea
would calm down eventually.
The massive monster
boss we’d defeated out at sea had already been hauled back to the island.
The monster was an
Inter-Dimensional Whale.
The thing was so
massive that I wasn’t going to be able to use any of it for materials until the
villagers on the island managed to break it down a bit—and apparently that was
going to take a while.
“Look, Mr. Naofumi,
they’re selling accessories.”
“Oh yeah?”
I looked over at
the shop she was indicating and could hardly believe my eyes.
“What the hell?!”
The prices were
absurd. I get that merchants want to get what they can from their customers,
but there have to be some standards! I glared at the
shopkeeper.
Had he set the
prices up to say . . . double the market value, I could have overlooked that.
You have to expect that sort of thing in tourist areas. But did he really think
he was going to get away with charging four times the
market value?
“Hey.”
“Yes, yes! Step
right up! What can I do for you?”
“Don’t you think
your prices are a little high?”
I pointed to a
necklace hanging from a rack behind him.
Dummy Sapphire Necklace
(Magic +)
quality: poor
(concealment) normal
Had we been in
Melromarc, every one of his items would be considered terrible in their price
class.
The guy had even
used concealment magic on his items to hide their inferiority. If you didn’t
look closely, you would have thought they were pretty good.
But the prices were
set so high that he was charging prices higher than even the most expertly
crafted accessories could command. Four times higher.
I’m all for getting what you can out of customers, but there has to be a limit.
I looked over his
other accessories to make sure that his pricing was consistently crazy—it was.
He could scam
people if he really wanted to, but I wished he would do a better job of it.
“Please understand.
The prices are the result of our isolation. These islands are very far from the
main continent, so the prices need to be a little higher to pay for their
shipment.”
“A little higher? Is
that why you’ve used concealment magic on them?”
“Well, this is a
business. Importing the materials costs me quite a lot.”
I didn’t like the
look on his face. He was going to try and play innocent.
He thought I was
just another complaining customer, and he waved his hand to send me away.
I could have called
for the queen. Or I could have used my hero status to give him a lecture. But I
decided to talk to him as a fellow businessman instead.
“Have you ever
heard of this guy?”
I flashed the
accessory dealer certificate that I had.
It was a real
certificate. I’d received it through some connections I’d made when I was
pretending to be the holy saint of the bird god.
The guy that had
given it to me was very well established in the community—a famous man. His
seal of approval had an impressive effect on everyone I showed it to.
The dealer
immediately reacted to the paper. He twitched, a wince of sorts. Then he took
it and carefully read it, pouring over all the minute details. As he did, the
color drained from his face.
“I can think of
some people that might be interested in hearing about your business practices.
I’ll be sure to remember you.”
“W . . . Wait just
a second!
In a split second
he bounded over his table of wares and threw himself at my feet, petitioning
for mercy.
“What do you want?
I’m a busy man.”
“I took another
look at the prices and realized that I had accidentally attached the wrong
price tags! I’ll change the prices to what they were originally supposed to be,
so please wait just a moment!”
“Nah, don’t bother.
I’m not doing anything but having a chat with some of my friends back on the
continent.”
“W . . . Wait!
Please! I’m going to sell them at a 30 percent discount!”
“30 percent off
those prices? I don’t know about that ...”
“No, 30 percent off
of the proper price! Of course!”
“Thanks, but no
thanks.”
“Wait! 50, no . . .
60 percent off!”
“I wonder where my
friend is these days? I’ll have to look him up when I get back ...”
“S. . . 70
percent!”
“I’m pretty sure he
was part of the national merchant’s guild ... ”
“80! 80 percent
off!”
“I’ll tell him that
there was this guy who used concealment magic on terrible items and that he
sold them for 400 percent the market value. Can you believe it?”
“90 percent! I’ll
give you a 90 percent discount!”
That was probably
about as good as I could hope for.
“Sold.”
There was nothing
worse than building a business on intimidation and power. This guy would use
people’s mortal fear to try and turn a deal. I was pretty sure that if the
merchant guild found out about him they would shut him down.
That’s fine with
me. He deserved whatever he got.
“I’m not telling
you that you have to take slim margins and sell tons of stuff. You just have to
be reasonable. In the end you only harm the industry—you only harm yourself.”
I would have said
the same thing to a merchant who sold his products at substantially under
market value.
It might look like
what they were doing was good and nice, but in the end it only accelerated
deflation. Lower prices weren’t always the best option.
If there were
merchants that wanted to charge substantially over market value, they needed to
be in competition with another merchant. That was the only way to stabilize
prices.
Considering how far
Cal Mira was from the mainland, it was only natural that prices would be
somewhat higher.
From my time in the
market, it didn’t look like there was any other business that was really in
direct competition over accessory prices. Either this guy was chasing them out
of town or he was cornering the market in some other way.
If there were no
other shops offering competition for the same articles, then he could just
raise the prices to whatever he wanted, and customers would have no choice but
to buy from him.
And if that
happened, the association of merchants would lose the trust of the people.
“If you’re going to
turn a profit, at least make sure the customer is smiling when they hand over
the cash.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it.
We’re in the middle of an activation event, aren’t we?”
“Well, yes ...”
“Then why don’t you
spread a rumor? You could say that accessories formed with ore from the islands
raise the level up rate for the wearer. Or something like that.”
“What?”
“Don’t you get it?
You just have to spread the rumor. You don’t have to actually improve the
efficacy of the item. You only need to spread the superstition. Think about it.
Everyone that has come here to level up is excited about leveling up. They
already want to buy something to help them.”
It was the same
concept behind local good luck charms and amulets.
Even if they didn’t
actually have an effect, the wearer felt like they
did.
“I think I see what
you mean!”
I’d used that
strategy in the past, and it had worked for me.
If I heard that a
village needed medicine, I went and sold it to them. If they need pesticides, I
went and sold it to them. I did the same with food. The price was higher than
it probably should have been, but the customers went away happy nonetheless.
In the end it isn’t
the price that matters—it’s the satisfaction that the customer feels when the
deal is done.
The merchant seemed
excited by the idea. He nodded and stood back up.
“You understand the
rest, right? You keep an eye on what the customer thinks they want to pay, and
then you try to get a little bit more. As long as you do that, the customer
will leave satisfied. Then they believe in the superstition that they are
leveling faster than they would have without it. They tell their friends all
about how well it works, and then more customers come to you.”
I didn’t know if he
could actually expect such a dramatic effect or how long the effect would last.
But it would probably work for a while.
During the
activation event, the experience points awarded for battle were higher than
usual. So the adventurers on Cal Mira would already be leveling up faster than
they were used to. Once they noticed the effect, they wouldn’t be able to tell
what was the result of the activation event and what was due to the accessory.
Then they would buy into the rumor that the island ore was somehow special—and
they’d be happy about it.
If that went on for
a while, then the number of people using the accessory would grow, and that in
turn would lead to wishful thinking, leading even more people to believe in the
power of the accessory.
“I’ll try your
suggestion right away!”
The merchant handed
me the necklace I had been looking at. Then he closed up shop and got to work.
“Whew.”
I did a great job
with that one. In the end, I’d gotten the necklace for free.
“Mr. Naofumi ...”
Raphtalia looked
disappointed. She sighed and slapped her palm to her forehead and moaned.
I guess it did kind
of look like I picked a fight just to cheat the guy.
“He deserved it. He
disrespected the very idea of business.”
“I understand that,
and yet I feel like we’ve just led him to shadier practices.”
“True, but that’s
just how people work. They love superstitions.”
The queen came
walking over and called out to me.
“What are you doing
in a place like this, Mr. Iwatani?”
“What’s the
matter?”
“The preparations
for the meeting are complete. The other heroes are waiting.”
“Okay.”
I guess I’d gotten
wrapped up in the conversation. Time had slipped by faster than I’d expected.
The queen led, and
we followed. We were heading for the castle-like inn that we’d been staying in
since we’d arrived in the islands.
We arrived at the
inn and followed the queen up a flight of stairs.
“The other heroes’
party members are waiting in another room. What would you like Ms. Raphtalia to
do?”
“Um ...”
The last time we’d
had a meeting of the heroes it had been back in Melromarc castle. During the
meeting, Raphtalia had gotten in a fight with some of the other heroes’ party
members.
It wasn’t really
her fault. A certain few of them were really selfish and cruel, and they were
prejudiced towards demi-humans.
Just because the
national ruler publicly declares something bad doesn’t mean that the racism
inherent in society just vanishes. People were mean to her just because she was
in league with the Shield Hero, never mind that she was a demi-human.
“At the moment, the
majority of the heroes’ compatriots are wandering around the island freely.
Still, I can have a room prepared for Ms. Raphtalia, if you would prefer that.”
The queen meant to
imply that the easiest solution would be for Raphtalia to take this as free
time and go somewhere else to avoid unnecessary conflict.
Raphtalia had
figured that out as well. She nodded.
“I understand. I’ll
just be off then.”
“I’ll call for you
if we need you. Just do whatever you like until then.”
“Alright.”
I parted ways with
Raphtalia, and the queen led me into the meeting room where the other heroes
were waiting.
Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
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