“If this prototype goes well, we’ll make one for you too, Ruft,” I said.
“What? What is it? I can’t wait!” Ruft said, excited by the prospect of anything Raph species-related. The Raph Shadow opened up the package and confirmed the contents. It was armor based on the teakettle design I had come up with.
Prototype Raph Species Teakettle: Raph Species Exclusive
Defense up, slash resistance (medium), thrust resistance (medium), fire resistance (high), wind resistance (high), water resistance (high), earth resistance (high), magic defense processing, enhanced illusion magic (medium), magic/heat conversion, exhaust floatation, enhanced mobility, Spirit Tortoise power, tortoise shell
“Okay, what is that?” Raphtalia asked.
“I guess you don’t know Mt. Kachikachi. It’s based on the tanuki that appears in that fairy tale. I made it for the Raph species,” I told her.
“I remember when you had the idea,” Raphtalia said. “What I mean is, when did you get the time to make it?”
“I ordered Ren to do it. What do you think?” I replied. “Paws up, Raph Shadow! We need to get this on you.”
“Raph?” said Raph Shadow cautiously with a worried expression about putting it on. It did look a little heavy for a Raph species that normally went around dressed as a ninja.
“Don’t worry. The metal originates with Spirit Tortoise materials. You won’t lose any mobility, but one of those nasty new weapons won’t hurt you either,” I explained. I pushed the teakettle down over the head of Raph Shadow. The ninja gear Raph Shadow was already wearing was the same as the clothing Filo wore. It was made from magic turned into thread. It might be fun to have Raph-chan dress up in something like this. The miko priestess outfit I’d made once might be a good place to start. Raphtalia had got angry and confiscated it.
The head, arms, and legs of Raph Shadow all popped out of the teakettle, making it almost look like a tortoise’s shell.
“Raph!” said Raph Shadow, frowning at this change in appearance.
“Wow. Were you going for the turtle look?” Keel asked, sounding unimpressed. I couldn’t see the problem myself.
“Oh wow! That’s amazing!” Ruft’s eyes were sparkling. He almost looked jealous!
“No, it isn’t, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said, taking a very different tone.
“I made an accessory for you too, Raphtalia. Let me have my fun,” I said.
“If I’d known it would become a bargaining chip, I might not have accepted it,” Raphtalia replied.
“If this works out, I’m going to consider giving them to all the Raph-chans. It could be a boost for both defense and magic,” I continued. I made sure everything was in place, then pushed Raph Shadow to walk. I’d been worried that walking might be difficult, but Raph Shadow jumped easily back onto Shadow’s shoulder. “You can vent magic and float for a short period too,” I explained.
“Raph?” said Raph Shadow, leaping off Shadow’s shoulder again. Heat started to be expelled from the skirt section of the teakettle, allowing Raph Shadow to float for a limited time in the air.
“All the basic principles look sound,” I commented. Rat and Holn had also been involved in putting it together. Holn had been particularly interested after she saw my designs.
“Raph!” Raph Shadow pulled a shortsword out from inside the teakettle, once again displaying the ease of movement even with this new armor equipped. Floating in the air was a big boost to mobility too.
“It doezn’t impede movement at all!” Shadow exclaimed. “How did you make thiz work?”
“This is the power of exclusive equipment,” I replied.
“I don’t think the name ‘ninja’ can be applied to thiz though,” Shadow continued.
“Either change the moniker from ‘ninja’ to ‘fairy-tale creature’ or use magic to hide the armor,” I replied.
“An interesting conceit,” Raphtalia said, quick on the uptake. “How about I make my miko outfit look like my old armor?”
“That’s not allowed,” I said quickly. I needed Raphtalia’s miko getup to stick around—it was just so easy on the eyes.
“I don’t understand your basis for these decisions,” Raphtalia replied.
“It’s so cool,” Ruft said. “I might use magic to make my armor more like that.”
“Please don’t waste your magic on anything of the sort,” Raphtalia told him. She had just talked about making her own miko outfit look like armor but now cautioned Ruft against the same thing. That sounded like a double standard to me.
“Shall I make an exclusive miko outfit?” S’yne asked. She was the Sewing Kit Hero. She would be perfectly suited to such a task.
“Can you do it?” I asked.
“Leave it to me,” S’yne replied confidently.
“Why don’t you ask about the outfits your ancestors wore and make something for yourself too?” I asked.
“That would look a lot like what I already wear,” S’yne revealed. Fair enough. R’yne did wear something similar, but Filolia wore a very different one-piece.
“I want some exclusive gear too! It’ll make me stronger, right?” Keel cut in.
“Keel! A trading outfit?” I asked.
“You made me wear that to interact with customers!” Keel barked back, getting worked up. “I don’t want to get stronger wearing that!” I thought it was perfectly suited to her.
“A loincloth, then?” I asked.
“You want me to fight in my underwear?” she shot back. “I don’t care if it makes me stronger!”
“Keel, you couldn’t go out in public dressed like that,” Raphtalia chided her.
“I do it in the village all the time,” Keel retorted. She did still walk around in a loincloth sometimes when she wasn’t off trading. It suited her, so no one called her out on it, but it could become an issue.
“Enough chatter! Back into combat!” Shadow said. He pulled out a shortsword and quickly dashed at the kaiser rex, slashing into it. Then he took some of the blood from the blade onto his hand and incanted some magic. “Blood Drain!” He lifted his weapon into the air. Blood was sucked from the wounds, forming a red ball in the air that gradually turned black. “Into . . . Blood Rain!” Red rain started to splatter down, falling on the kaiser rex that Shadow had already attacked and the other dinosaurs too. Smoke started to rise from them. “Now!” shouted Shadow.
“Raph!” Raph Shadow said. She was throwing out iron skewers as she still floated in the air. They jabbed into the hide of the dinosaurs, making the creatures stagger in pain.
Raphtalia, Ruft, and S’yne didn’t miss a trick, launching a fresh assault. Their attacks seemed more effective than before.
“That seems to have lowered their defense,” I said.
“Wow! This is great!” Keel yapped.
“Correct. Thiz iz dark magic that lowerz defenze while alzo attacking,” Shadow explained. Making it rain blood was a pretty evil-looking attack, but I couldn’t deny how useful the effects were. Shadow had become stronger already and continued to try and keep up with the speed of Raphtalia and the others. He had mentioned wanting to be faster, so he was probably focusing on that.
“That’s a sharp weapon you’ve got there,” I commented.
“It’s a Zpirit Tortoize dagger made by the weapon maker you favor zo much, Zhield Hero,” Shadow explained. That would explain how strong it was.
“That’s enough for today,” I eventually said at the point Shadow and Raph Shadow could move faster than Ruft. “We’ve definitely reduced the surplus monster population.” I was comparing Shadow and Raph Shadow to Ruft because he was already fast enough. I’d asked Ruft to work on his attack power over his speed or magic. He was swinging the axe around pretty smoothly. I was pleased with his progress. The main remaining issue was that he was just using a regular old steel axe.
“I’ll have Ren make an axe for you, Ruft,” I said.
“I’m only using this at the moment because I love swinging it around,” Ruft replied. “Anything would be fine.”
“Ruft, are you sure you aren’t focusing too much on strength and techniques?” Raphtalia asked.
“I’m keeping an eye on my balance, don’t worry,” Ruft replied. “I only learned a little swordplay from Shildina and some life force techniques from the old lady before we came to this time.” We still needed to work on his technical aspects though.
The sword that Ren had made from Filo materials Melty now carried for her own protection. She was sharing it with Eclair as needed.
“Maybe I should be thinking about narrowing down my weapon choices too?” Keel pondered, looking at her sword.
“What do you want to use?” I asked her. She thought for a moment.
“Before we came here, I saw that guy . . . L’Arc, was it? He had a scythe. That was so cool!” Keel replied, swinging both arms around as though she were reaping some souls. “Filolia’s claws look like fun to use too. I’m not sure I could pick between them,” Keel said.
“You seem to get on well with Filolia,” I commented.
“Huh? Yeah, she’s funny! She wants to be cool too!” Keel exclaimed. As we chatted and prepared to head back, Shadow and Raph Shadow both suddenly looked over toward some bushes a little distance away. Raphtalia and the others looked over there too, noticing the same thing.
“I don’t think we’re finished here just yet,” Raphtalia commented.
“I’m guessing we’ve been infiltrated after all,” I said.
“I know you’re hiding there! Come out!” Shadow shouted, throwing a knife for good measure. Some figures promptly appeared from the underbrush.
“Bah! How did they spot us?” one of them said. There was a fox demi-human with two tails, a puma therianthrope, and an eagle-looking therianthrope with a scythe-like weapon. I presumed these bird types were also categorized as therianthropes in this world. Then two more appeared, one holding a staff and another holding a dagger.