The Sword, Gem and Shield

Chapter Two: The Message

Btw I struggled with this chapter not the fourth one, this one! And I mean it you can tell that I struggled. Warning from this point on there will be mentions of blood, graphic imagery, swearing and etc. if you are not comfortable with any of those then this isn't the fanfiction you should read and if you have a problem, then you've ignored this warning.

After having their lunch in the diner, the shield hero and his slaves began to leave the Castle Town and into the fields, in order for them to level up. When entering the field, they noticed a swarm of Balloon monsters.

"Shirou!"

With a swipe of his knife Shirou popped the balloon monsters that was clinging onto Naofumi's body as if he was some unbreakable chew toy that they're constantly attracted to for some odd reason, then Naofumi blocks a few other balloons that tried to attack the male. Raphtalia charged in on Naofumi's command and sliced the balloons as if they were butter Grabbing the balloon that was charging towards him, Rin thrusted her dagger into the balloon. Then Naofumi parried with the attack of several balloons which the trio immediately killed.

After a few hours of fighting, the master of the slaves decided that they should take a small break in order for them to regain their energy. While resting Naofumi decided to look into his Slaves stats, reading the stats of Raphtalia, her attack prowess was quite low but concluded that is was due to her age and her level that was the main factor but her attack power has increased since leveling up. While Rin's attack power was slightly weaker than the Raphtalia's but her mana points was quite high but there was another gauge bar under her mana points; 'Od.' Raising an eyebrow in curiosity on what it is but concluded that it was something similar to the Mana points system. Just like Rin, Shirou also had the same unknown energy that Raphtalia nor himself had, neither the three stooges. His attack was quite high and was double of what the two girls had but the drawback of it was that his Od or his mana points weren't as high as Raphtalia's or Rin's. But his [Slave Users Shield] should be able to compensate for it.

Looking further into his parties abilities, which was accessible to him only as he was both the Party Leader and their master, he noticed that they have something called [Magecraft]. However, when trying to look into the ability all he received from his HUB:

Error! Error! Error!
Unidentifiable Ability!
Unidentifiable Magic!

Frowning at this and glancing at the two that were talking to Raphtalia, deciding that he will ask them what their abilities were in the near future but decided to hold it for now. Then after a few more minutes of resting he decided that they should continue to level up even further.

______________

After several hours of continuously grinding for experience, the group decided to head back to the town. When Naofumi approached a stall Naofumi handed the vendor monsters parts. All three of the slaves noticed the frightened faced of the man when he approached him, handing him the monster parts, he gives the Hero of the Shield a bag of mostly bronze coins but a few silvers were in he mix.

When walking further into the town, they enter an inn, when entering the inn, it was like in the middle of a party but everyone froze when that one person that no one likes came in. Everyone was dead silent when the group came in, walking to the counter of the inn, the manager came out of the back room and approached them.

"Welcome cust-ack its the Shield Hero..." the Inn keeper greeted rudely to the party.

"I want a room, two beds will suffice," Naofumi demanded to the inn keeper, however the Inn Keeper looked skeptical to give them a room, then Naofumi slams his hand onto the table "you will give us a room with all of our demands." Naofumi threatened the man as he lifts up his cap, revealing a balloon chewing onto his side.