Naofumi ended up spending the night messing with the mutated plant seeds, much to Raphtalia and Hunters chagrin. Both Demi-humans agreed that the shield hero shouldn't be changing how the plant grows, the original seed had become a dangerous monster after being planted so who knows what the shield power would do to it. On the other hand, Yuxin enjoyed feeding Filo the fruit that they had collected from the giant tree, and the filolial didn't mind eating the vast majority of the mutant berries.
Cadverus had taken a step back since he had noticed something about his stats and level. Firstly, there was a star next to his name under the party section, which was cool and all but didn't seem to mean anything. The main concern was his level and EXP. His level was now 40 but the required EXP to advance was at zero. Since he hadn't levelled up past that, clearly there was something up with his stats.
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Attack: 74+29
Magic: 66 + 14
P. Defence: 78+ 40
M.Defence: 76 + 20
Dexterity: 88 + 36
Additional points: 35
Rank-up required
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Shaking his head, he closed his stats. He pulled himself into the carriage as Naofumi and the village elder bargained over the seeds the shield hero had made. It ended with Naofumi taking a percentage of either the crop or the sale from the crop each month, but only if the town starts selling the fruit.
They left on good terms. The trip to their next area of interest wasn't nearly as eventful as their last journey. No monster attacks, sun shining, cool breeze. Probably the best conditions for travelling.
Two days travel before they reached their target town, the original place they were taking medicine before the herbicide job, they came across two, dirt people with nothing but the clothes on their backs. There was one older woman, whom seemed to be the mother or grandmother to the second, who was a small boy.
Naofumi stopped the carriage and immediately got his party to set up camp. He offered both of them food if they gave him information of the town ahead. Once they smelt his cooking, they were more than happy to tell him.
The village up ahead was currently suffering from a dreadful plague, one which rotted the body from the inside out. On top of that, a constant stream of immigrants from a ruined lordship was causing it to spread across the countryside. Knights had managed to quarantine the worst of it, but it was still a difficult problem to counteract.
That is until Yuxin spoke up.
"You know, me and Hunter can create a small town for the immigrants. I am skilled in building settlements with magic and Hunter can help us get food. That way the immigrants are out of the way so Shield Hero can handle the plague."
What was shocking to both Raphtalia and Cadverus was that Naofumi agreed. He seemed completely on board with the plan, which made zero sense with his no trust attitude.
And so it was agreed. Naofumi would take Raphtalia, Filo and Cadver to the plague ridden town and deal with whatever was causing the epidemic, while their newest companions carried on to stem the number of peasants coming into the town where the illness originated.
Upon entering the town, it was eerily quiet. The nearby graveyard had multiple freshly dug graves, the dirt still drying from it being stamped down. The air was still, a thick musky smell permitted the air. Naofumi slowed down the carriage as they neared the church, the windows of which were boarded up and people carried bodies from inside to be taken to the gravesite.
"Stay here." Naofumi said to Cadverus, "Looks like I'll need to help with medicine before we can figure out what's causing the plague. Get those two ready with supplies, they can leave now if they wish."
Cadver noted that despite him willing to work with Yuxin and Hunter, he definitely didn't trust them. He kept quiet while he sorted out backpacks for the both of them, along with enough supplies to last a week. He made sure to cover a box of berries in a sheep skin while he made sure the wagon was properly packed and secured. Once he had done everything he could do, he opened his skills screen and went through a few things.
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Grappling Grip: Targets either a weapon or person. P. Defence is compared between target person (or wielder) and user. If users is higher, target is immobile and can be manipulated by user. If target person (or wielder) is higher, target is immobile for 2 seconds, then can freely move again.
Rising Uppercut: User swings an upwards fist strike to activate skill. If target is close, damage is doubled and target is sent into the air. Distance is calculated comparing Attack to M. Defence. If target is at a distance, an energy fist appears under target. This compares users P. Defence to the targets to calculate the distance launched.
Plummeting Slam: User leaps to the same vertical height of the target and uses two fists to slam into their head and/or back. This caused the target to fall to the ground and take damage dependant on the fall distance. Heavier enemies take additional damage.
Crazy Rush - Sprint: User dashes past an enemy and lands a punch on an enemy. The dash continues with each consecutive punch on an enemy which deals damage. Each punch speeds up the dash and consumes more SP (Plus 2 more SP consumed per consecutive punch)
Crazy Rush - Stance: User rapidly punches a nearby opponent while remaining rooted to one spot. M. Defence and P. Defence are considered together for incoming attacks. Stance lasts as long as a target is within the area, which is considered as the users weapon range. (2 SP consumed per punch)
Anti-Weapon - Aspect Mimicry: Copies the active effect or attack of a Hero. Cardinal Heroes must first attempt to attack the user before Mimicry is possible
Curse: [???]
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His eyes narrowed. Yes, he had been told of the curse he had, yet it was something else to see it for himself. More importantly, it wasn't a status effect, it was a skill. Something told him it wouldn't be a good one, for him or whatever he used it on. His full skill list was still somewhat disappointing, but he had realised there wasn't much complications with punching an enemy to bits, unlike Naofumi who had to use large skill combos to deal even negligible damage.
Yuxin and Hunter were both fully geared up, bags ready. He tried to dissolve the party he was in with them, but Yuxin advised not to, as if they didn't meet up before the next wave, the two of them will be teleported to it. He was surprised at this, as they hadn't taken part in the first wave, so he assumed they didn't care at all. Apparently they had sniped some of the larger monsters that came towards the village until the soldiers appeared, which was when they fled. He couldn't get any more details before they were waving goodbye, both travelling towards the boarders between earldoms.
Naofumi wasn't much longer inside, coming out with a serious stare as he approached, Raphtalia trying to mimic it but coming closer to a pout and Filo bounced around in human form without much care, humming to herself. "Let's get moving." Naofumi called, getting into the carriage while Filo shifted and get her harness on to pull the wagon. "We have a dragon corpse to deal with."
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Hi. Dunno which person has been reading so fervently recently, but thanks! Knowing someone cared about this seemed to give me the boost needed to finish this chapter, which I've slowly been doing over months. So enjoy, nameless reader, this is your fault after all. Next chapter is the dragon, where I get to have some fun descriptive fight scenes. I'll see you there, in who knows how long.
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The Rising of the Fisticuffs Hero
FanfictionCalled to another world against his will, Cadverus became the Fisticuffs hero, a special hero summoned when all four Cardinal hero's are summoned at once. Immediately it is clear that he will never belong with the other four, who seem to at least h...
