Light Novel Volume 2/Synopsis

Prologue - Shared Pain
Naofumi and Raphtalia wake up in the storage room they had spent the night in and decided to get breakfast in the castle kitchen, but are turned away by the guards saying the other heroes aren't done with their meals yet. Later when all four heroes are summoned before the king to receive their rewards and support funds. Raphtalia asks the king why the other heroes got 4,000 and 3,800 silver coins while Naofumi only received 500. The king explains it is because they completed quests from the guild as well as stopping the wave. When she asks why Naofumi didn't get any quest the king mockingly says "what can the shield do?" causing Raphtalia to tighten her fist in anger. When they leave Raphtalia immediately says they should go to the slave trader to have the crest put back on since Naofumi wouldn't be able to fully trust her otherwise, Naofumi tries to dissuade her from getting it since he feels he could trust her because of the simple fact she stayed with him despite his bad reputation. Raphtalia says she wants it anyway to have proof that she trusts him and that she will always be his sword.

Chapter 1 - Egg Machine
At the slave trader's tent, the slave dealer expressed his shock at how beautiful Raphtalia had grown and said he could buy her back for 20 gold coins on looks alone if she's not a virgin. When Raphtalia says she's still a virgin he raises the price to 30 gold coins causing Naofumi to express his shock as well. Raphtalia got mad because Naofumi wasn't defending her even though she was being evaluated to be sold, Naofumi tried to play it off saying he was just surprised she was worth that much causing Raphtalia to be embarrassed. Raphtalia then has the slave crest reapplied on her chest. On the way out, the two notice a box of eggs and the slave dealer says that it's their cover business of dealing monsters. They pay 100 silver coins for a random monster egg from the lottery game and leave the tent.

Chapter 2 - Gratitude for Life
Naofumi and Raphtalia visit the apothecary to sell medicine and the owner greets them with a smile saying he wanted to thank them for saving a relative of his during the wave. He gives Naofumi a novice recipe book for medicines which he accepts and gives his thanks even though he is unable to read it. The apothecary then tells them the magic shop owner also wishes to meet them. Afterwards, they head to the magic shop and the owner also wants to thank them for saving her granddaughter during the wave and decides to give them a magic reading. She tells Naofumi that he specializes in healing and support magic while Raphtalia specializes in light and dark(shadow) magic meaning she's good at illusions. They receive more novice level books from the shop owner as thanks and make their way to Riyute village. When they arrive at the village they find the remains of the wave boss and Naofumi absorb some of its remains to unlock some new shields, they book a room in an inn and start studying the language to learn how to read before going to sleep.

Chapter 3 - Filo
The egg that Naofumi brought from the slave trader hatched and, after asking one of the villagers, they found out it was a baby Filolial. After naming the chick Filo they went out to hunt and level up. Raphtalia kept charging the monsters ignoring Naofumi's calls to let him go first. He tells her to be more careful and Raphtalia responds saying she wants to quickly get stronger to fight the wave and be a better fighter for him, Naofumi says they have plenty of time so she needs to calm down before she hurts herself. At the end of the day, Filo grows three times bigger and they head back to the inn to study more before going to sleep.

Chapter 4 - Growth
The next day, when Naofumi entered the stable where Filo was he noticed she grew more and resembled an ostrich now, so they all decided to go level up after breakfast. After leveling, Filo was big enough to be ridden and motioned for Naofumi to get on its back then took off running at a speed much greater than an average Filolial and quickly made a lap around the village. At the end of the day, they stayed in the stable with Filo studying until she fell asleep because she was lonely and didn't want them to leave.

Chapter 5 - Kick and Run
As the party is deciding on what to do for the day, Motoyasu, along with Myne and the rest of his group, shows up in the village announcing that he has become the new lord. When Myne announced that a new tax of 50 silver coins was going to be issued for entering and leaving the village to help pay for the cost of repairs, the villagers started getting upset before a group of ninja-like people appeared and handed Myne a parchment. After reading it she became angry and challenged Naofumi to a race between him and his Filolial and Motoyasu and his dragon to determine the new lord. Naofumi was against it saying he had no reason to race in for them. The current lord then promises compensation if he saves the village. The race was three laps around the village, Myne and the knights that were following Motoyasu tried various cheats to win but still lost and was escorted out of the village by the ninjas and the lord of the village got to keep his job. To reward Naofumi for saving them he offered to build him a carriage and give him a commercial bill of passage suggesting he tries his hand as a traveling merchant since he makes and sells medicine and has a fast Filolial. After agreeing to it, they help the village out with the reconstruction by transporting lumber and realize Raphtalia gets motion sickness because Filo runs too fast.

Chapter 6 - Wings
After transporting the lumber, the group continued leveling for the rest of the day before retiring to bed. The next day Naofumi and Raphtalia noticed that Filo has grown much larger than a normal Filolial and decide to go to a slave trader to find out why. By the time they reached the slave trader's tent Filo's appearance changed once again to resemble a fat owl and Naofumi questions whether he was really sold a Filolial egg. The slave trader assures him he did sell him the correct egg and suggest leaving Filo with him to research why she changed so much, to which he agreed. A few hours later a messenger from the slave trader meets up with Naofumi and asks him to come back to the tent when he does the slave trader says Filo keeps rampaging and broke three cages and sent five people to the hospital to which Naofumi says he's not paying for that. The Slave trader says Filo might be a Filolial queen, going based on legends and rumors of wild Filolial who gains leader status in a pack, but when everyone turns to the cage Filo was in they see a young naked girl with wings inside yelling out "Master."

Chapter 7 - Transformation
Panicking with this new, surprise addition to his party, Naofumi rushes to the slave trader and then to the weapons shop owner for help. Filo keeps on transforming between her filolial and human form and destroys her clothing in the process. The weapon's shop owner does not have anything that would survive the transformation and recommends Naofumi to go to a clothes store instead. Raphtalia enters the weapon shop to say that the slave trader has information on Filo. After Naofumi arrives, the slave trader explains that Filo is indeed the rare Filolial queen. Looking for more Filolial queens to sell, he asks Naofumi to raise more which is quickly refused. The next morning, after Filo had taken up the whole room, Naofumi attempted to force Filo to turn into her human form but the slave crest had no effect.

Chapter 8 - Carrot and Stick
Angry that the slave crest has failed, Naofumi returned to the slave trader for an explanation. It turns out that very powerful monsters cannot be controlled by a normal monster seal. It just happens that Filo will require a special seal at the expensive cost of 200 silvers. Immediately, the seal-placing process begun. The slave trader was surprised that Filo was able to struggle as much as she had during the ritual which indicated that Filo was very powerful. Naofumi tested out the new seal and found it worked properly. After using the seal and threatening to sell Filo to the slave trader, he was able to train Filo.

Chapter 9 - Rewards
After placing the seal on Filo, Naofumi took her back to the weapons shop. The old man was able to forward Naofumi's group to the Magic Shop Owner who knew how to magic clothes for transformation. Unfortunately, the machine used to create thread from Filo's magic power broke halfway through using it. Naofumi decided to try to mine the replacement jewel along with the Magic Shop Owner. Along the way, they came across the Alchemist's Cave with the out of control magic seed recklessly stolen. Continuing down the tunnel, Naofumi unlocks the Voice Gengar Shield with the megaphone effect from monsters that pretend to be Raphtalia and Filo. At the end of the tunnel, they finally find a cave that has the needed ore to fix the thread-machine. However, this cave is the home of a strong Nue. Naofumi uses the newly unlocked shield to defeat the Nue and collects the needed ore. Back at Castle Town, Filo was able to finally create the necessary thread at no cost. The tailor enthusiastically agreed to create transformation clothing. At the end of the day, Naofumi cooks for his party of the weapons shop owner. He checks out the description of the curse series which says 'should not be touched.'

Chapter 10 - Traveling Merchant
The next day, Naofumi and Filo return to the tailor who has finished Filo's clothes. Both Filo and Naofumi are happy with the design. Naofumi decides to travel to Riyute Village and become a traveling merchant. First, they will start with transport around the village. During the travel, Raphtalia trains to get rid of motion sickness and Naofumi studies the writing system, recipes, and magic.

Chapter 11 - Travel by Carriage
After a few days, the villagers of Riyute Village give Naofumi a new carriage as a present. Everyone but Raphtalia seem thankful at the gesture. The governor also gives Naofumi a commercial bill of passage which will prevent any tariffs in other villages. Finally, Naofumi officially leaves and becomes a traveling merchant. He decides to specialize in medicines which compliments the shield's powers.

Chapter 12 - Rumors of the Heroes
While traveling to the next village, they run into a villager trying to get to his sick parents. After helping this villager and his parents, they proceeded to the village they were initially heading for. During the journey, Naofumi continues studying medicinal recipes. They continued moving from village to village and selling medicine to people for two weeks, building a reputation for themselves. According to gossips, Motoyasu was to the southwest of the castle, where he broke the seal of a legendary crop saving a starving village. Ren went to the Southeast of the castle and had apparently defeated a violent dragon in the east. Itsuki's whereabouts were unknown however he had gone to a country in the north with a few other adventurers to overthrow a corrupted government. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo had also leveled up a lot and had reached levels 34, 37, and 32 respectively. Over this entire period, Naofumi has successfully translated 10 new recipes, 2 of which were already known to him. He unlocked even more shields by absorbing monsters they ran into during their traveling. Raphtalia had made some progress in her magic studies and is able to produce a floating orb of light for a few seconds. Naofumi, on the other hand, has not made any progress on his magic studies

Chapter 13 - Take Everything but Life
There is a small skip ahead to a point where Naofumi is on a carriage with a merchant. This merchant then told Naofumi that it was an honor to ride the carriage pulled by a bird-god and that he is quite famous. The people speak of Filo as a 'bird-god that showers people with miracles everywhere it goes' and also speak of Naofumi as a 'holy man who arrives in a carriage and blesses the sick with special medicine'. Naofumi then learns about the merchant being a jeweler expecting him to sell expensive bracelets. However, he actually sells broaches, necklaces, and bracelets made of bronze and iron with jewels embedded in them which go for 30 silver coins. Magic can also be imbued into the bracelets increasing the price from 30 silver coins to 100 silver coins. This was when Filo spots a group of people carrying weapons who turns out to be bandits. The jeweler had kept an item in his pocket that was worth more than the jewelry he had shown Naofumi. Naofumi prepares for battle while telling the merchant that he expects payment for helping him out. After clearing out some of the underlings, they run into a bodyguard who is basically the boss of the group of bandits. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo have a tough time fighting the bandit. Raphtalia and Filo still had tricks up their sleeves and uses shadow and wind magic respectively leading to their victory. After that, Naofumi threatens the bandits to release information on their hideout. Naofumi then loots all the bandits and threw them into his carriage and heads for their hideouts. He steals all the loot from the bandits and the hideout and dumps the bandits he had defeated beside the hideout. The merchant from before decides to give Naofumi a bracelet with magic imbued on it and share business routes with him.

Chapter 14 - Magic Practice
The accessory dealer continued traveling with Naofumi for a bit, he taught Naofumi how to procure the materials one required to imbue jewels and things with power. One of his acquaintances helped out with this. Afterwards, the accessory dealer spoke about how to form precious metals into accessories. Naofumi was able to get the tools necessary for the process at a low price. The accessory dealer then proceeded on with imbuing magic into the accessories which Naofumi had some troubles with as he could not use magic yet. The merchant handed Naofumi a translucent object and asked him to feel the magic power that worked out and the object began to glow. Words then appeared in Naofumi's vision he then casts a spell called "Fast Guard" on himself which greatly increased his defense rating. Naofumi then attempted to imbue the stones which he managed to do at a basic level. He headed to a mine to grab some ores which he did for free as he offered to do it himself. He was able to break the stone walls in just one hit and grabbed the ores. He then made a ruby bracelet of excellent quality, after imbuing it the quality dropped to normal. He allowed the shield to absorb the ores and the bracelets. He then unlocked the metalworking skill and some defensive stat boosts. He then hurried to the southwest.

Chapter 15 - Why it Was Sealed
The village in the southwest had apparently required large amounts of weed killer. Filo then informs Raphtalia and Naofumi that there was a high amount of vegetation ahead, Naofumi notices how they were slowly moving and were slowly spreading out over the entire road. He notices a refugee camp and heads for it. He disguises himself by using a shield that looks like a book and heads to speak with the people at the camp. They explain to him that they were having a famine and Motoyasu had planted a miracle seed and recalls the ancient words written beside the seed when he ventured with the witch. The villager also explains that the crown had been informed but it would take time as the heroes were apparently too busy and that the situation was worse the deeper into the village they went. They tried many methods to get rid of the plant but the weed killer is the only one that has an effect on the plant so far. Naofumi hears a shriek who came for an adventurer that wanted to level up and ventured to the main village to farm monsters for levels. Naofumi then asks Filo to grab them and bring them back when Filo returns explaining the situation the villagers noticed her speaking and realizes Naofumi is the "Saint with the Bird-god." Naofumi then proceeds to feed the sick medicine and afterwards pour weed killer on the plants growing on their body. He then charges them a higher price in case of an interruption from the crown. The villagers then offer money if he would stay and completely rid the village of the plant. He then asks for up-front payment which they villagers crowd around him to make. He then agrees to wipe out the plants. He prepares for the upcoming fight by changing his shield which was still one that looks like a book to his chimera viper shield. It was then that the villagers realized he is the shield hero.

Chapter 16 - Invading Vines
As Naofumi and his party, Raphtalia and Filo, were heading for the source of the plant. Naofumi casts his defensive spell "Fast Guard" on Raphtalia and Filo. They run into many other plants that were being produced by the source. The plants could release clouds of poisonous pollen and shoot acid. These attacks had no effect on Naofumi and just annoyed him. Raphtalia whose respiratory system is still not in the best of health was coughing from the poisonous pollen. He tosses a bottle of weed killer to Raphtalia in case of an emergency. They approached the trunk which was just a spiral of vines in the middle and an eyeball appears on the trunk. Filo charges in using Naofumi's "Air Strike Shield" as support and kicks the eyeball causing it to explode into juices. However, it just regenerates instantly but the seed that allows the tree to grow was inside the eyeball. Naofumi then asks Raphtalia to get on Filo to pour the weed killer on the seed after the eyeball explodes. Filo charges in again, this time the vines attack more violently. Naofumi uses "Shield Prison" to protect them. When the timer runs out on the ability, Raphtalia cuts the vines surrounding them and Filo successfully strikes the eyeball. Raphtalia pours the weed killer on the seed and the plants stop moving for a while. The plant attacks again after recovering from the weed killer. Naofumi then thinks he may need to pour the weed killer himself due to the boost his shield gives him. He tries heading for the eye and gets blocked by multiple plants. He pours the weed killer on the plant to clear the path but this just ends up killing the "trunk" at the same time. Everything wilts and turns brown except for the fruits. The "trunk" explodes into seeds causing it to rain. Naofumi and Raphtalia proceed to clean it up and Filo goes to eat the fruits the "tree" produced.

Chapter 17 - Improving the Product Line
After Naofumi lets his shield absorb the wilted plants, he gained three new shields. One of the few abilities he got from the shield, was "Plant Reform" which he attempts to use on one of the seeds that exploded from the trunk. An interface then pops up to him, with propagation, production, vitality, immunity, intelligence, growth, and mutation. The original seed has the stats of 9, 9, 9, 4, 1, 9, 9 respectively. He did not understand what was going on yet and made everything except for growth a 1 making the growth stat to be 43. He drops the seed on the ground which instantaneously grew to 3 meters in height but dies instantly. Raphtalia notices this and reprimands him for experimenting so dangerously. He realized that in order to better use the "Plant Reform" ability, he would also require the "Plant Analysis" ability that came from another shield that he unlocked from absorbing the wilted plants. He decided to go to sleep that night with that shield active. When using the "Plant Analysis" ability, he realizes that the seed also has "Dried seed growth: mutation range expansion". He tries his hands on reforming the plant again. He then changes the stats to a much tamer and reasonable range. He also changed the ability on the seed to "Dried Seed Growth: quality improvement." He shows the villagers the seed and kills it again with the weed killer causing it to turn back into a seed. He then tells them they can use the seed at their own risk. Just as he was about to leave, he gets stopped by the governor saying they haven't expressed their gratitude and gave Naofumi 2 carriages full of fruits. Filo loves that she gets to pull more weight. They then head East where an infectious disease was spreading and requires tons of medical attention.

Chapter 18 - Diseased Village
Later that day, as they have not arrived at the village yet. They camped out by the three carts that Filo now pulls. While heading to the village in the East, they heard rumors of another famine in the North and had taken a rendezvous to the southwest to pick up more food and empty some of the older ones they had with them. Filo has also been eating most of the fruits in the carts and pays for it by pulling them to the Eastern village briskly. Sometimes, she goes to fast and ends up destroying the wooden carriage. She also runs over all the dips and bumps in the road causing customers to puke from the bumpiness. Naofumi then considers upgrading the cart by exchanging wood for metal and adding springs to the wheels. Raphtalia and Filo then fight over Naofumi because they both subtly love him. Naofumi begins compounding more medicine when Raphtalia calls out to him to sleep beside her. Naofumi then asks Raphtalia to get Filo to turn into a girl so that she would not be lonely, Rapthalia then argues that she is not lonely then asks if Naofumi has anyone who likes him back in his own world and what he thought of her. Naofumi then replies no to the first question and to the second question that she was like his daughter. He asks her to get back to sleep. Their levels are now 37, 39, and 38 for Raphtalia, Naofumi, and Filo respectively.

Now Filo asks Naofumi if he was lonely being awake alone. To which Naofumi replies watching her sleep was enough for company. Filo then asks what Naofumi was feeling when he chose her egg, Naofumi replies that he felt he was lucky to have chosen hers. Naofumi then thinks about not letting Rapthalia and Filo fight since they were mentally kids. Filo then tells Naofumi the happenings when she was left with the slave trader. She asks Naofumi if he would ever leave her to which he promises to never do.

They wake up the next morning and arrived at the Eastern village that was really ominous. Naofumi passes Filo and Raphtalia a cloth for them to protect themselves from the sickly air. They meet a villager who tells them to leave while they still can. Naofumi explains he is here to sell medicine. Naofumi was brought to a building to administer medicine to the sick. The building reeked of death and he starts with the wife of the villager, who brought him there. He noticed that when he fed her medicine a sick boy beside her also recovered. He figures that it was due to the medicine efficacy range expansion (small) ability. He then asks the villagers to gather everyone in a circle. Naofumi then heals everyone in one go with his ability.

He then learns that a doctor was stationed here. The doctor suspects that the disease was caused by the dragon that Ren had slain nearby. He asks if the doctor has contacted the Crown which the doctor has. He asks the doctor if he could take care of the rotting dragon would the funds heading towards the crown be redirected to him instead. The doctor agrees and Naofumi was determined to help the village out.

Chapter 19 - Curse Series
As they head up the mountain, they met a lot of poisonous things as monsters. They were mostly Poison Trees, Poison Frogs, Poison Bees, and Poison Flies. They had originally wanted to head up the mountain without bringing along the carts but Filo threw a fit saying that her most treasured memories were with the cart even though she has only been alive for a month. They noticed that the number of monsters was endless. Thus, they gave up fighting the monsters and decided to rush towards the peak of the mountain. They arrived at the corpse of the dragon which reeked of rot and decay. Filo said she was hungry and went to eat some tomatoes from the cart. Filo comments that she had eaten too much and was feeling "yucky." When they were going to start butchering up the dragon corpse, Naofumi thought he saw the dragon moving. Initially, he thought the poison flies created an illusion which he later realizes was not. He thought of running as he knew zombie dragons were strong from his past gaming experiences. The dragon begins regenerating its wings, tail, internal organs, and soon even the fatal wound that it had received from Ren. Raphtalia points out that Filo has already rushed in to attack the dragon suggesting that the hatred between filolials and dragons was real.

Naofumi starts believing that he stood a chance after looking at Filo's strikes and was also determined that if they did not defeat it now the claws would regenerate and future adventurers were gonna have troubles. The dragon spits out a poisonous gas that Naofumi was affected by even though the shield's status boosts. Filo gets picked up by the dragon and placed into the dragon's mouth and red liquid oozes out. He swallows Filo after a few chews. Naofumi gets angry over losing Filo slowly activating the "Shield of Rage" which speaks to him asking if he wants greater power. The shield had its own description and instructions and was in Naofumi's hands before he even realized it. He recalls the last time he used this shield was from his battle with Motoyasu for Raphtalia's freedom.

Chapter 20 - The Shield of Rage
The dragon just appears as a shadow in Naofumi's vision. The shadow attacks Naofumi which he takes with his shield. It did not hurt him. He catches the shadow by the arm and flings it. The shadow just gets back up and charges at Naofumi. The dragon strikes with the tail which Naofumi blocks with the shield again. Unknowingly, Naofumi summons a large whirlwind of black fire causing the shadow's tail and arms to catch fire. The shadow backed off intimidated. Naofumi attempts to use the "Iron Maiden" ability which the conditions of use just appear instead. The shadow afraid begins wailing his hand all about which comes into contact with the shield causing it to catch fire and burning the meat and melting the bones. Naofumi realizes that the shield's power comes from his anger and begins thinking of those he hates. Starting with Malty then Trash then Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki. He then hears Raphtalia's voice fighting for Naofumi and saying he did nothing wrong and has always treated her well. Naofumi came to his senses and saw Raphtalia in a coughing fit and all burned up. Panicking, Naofumi tries to heal Raphtalia but his low-level healing spells are ineffective. Suddenly, the Zombie Dragon starts writhing in pain and falls to the ground. Bursting out of the dragon's stomach comes Filo - alive! The red liquid from before was not blood but instead, tomatoes regurgitated up. She ate the dragon core and left a sliver for Naofumi to upgrade his shield.

Epilogue - As a Shield...
With the Zombie Dragon dead for good, Naofumi brings the injured Raphtalia back to the village. The village doctor was able to confirm that Raphtalia had been cursed. To save face for Naofumi, Raphtalia lied and told the doctor that the dragon cursed her. The doctor can treat Raphtalia for now but he doesn't know how effective it would be - it would be best to get the holy water made by the church. Naofumi regrets using the shield but Raphtalia assures him that she has no regrets. Filo encourages Naofumi in her own way. Finally, Naofumi realizes that he has friends he can depend on and was able to smile genuinely for the first time in a long while.

Special Extra Chapter - Presents
Naofumi tells Raphtalia and Filo about a hot-spring as they come across a hot-spring village. After the return from the hot-spring bath, Raphtalia ask Naofumi to check her injury and tries to confess to Naofumi. But Naofumi responds with "I like you too ... like a daughter." The next day, Raphtalia remembers her mother saying that she fell in love with her father when he gave her a gift. To look for a gift, Raphtalia asked around town and found out that there are rare ores in the volcano under some monster nest. As she heads up the volcano, she runs into Filo who says she is looking for a gift (rare monster egg) used to confess to the master. They rushed up the volcano and found the monster nest they looking for. As they try to collect the ore and the egg, a silver boar appears attacking them. It charged at the nest and smashed both the ore and the egg, then it feels the murders intent of Filo and Raphtalia and tries to escape, lastly, after a scream, it's over. Raphtalia and Filo try to look around but can't find what they looking for and return sadly with the silver boar. As they return to the village, they found Naofumi waiting at the gate, they give the boar to Naofumi. As Naofumi thinks about cooking it, the villagers came wanting to buy the silver boar, since its tradition for the village to offer silver boar at the festival. Naofumi sold the boar and give Raphtalia and Filo each half the money from silver boar, telling them to get something they want with it. Raphtalia and Filo combine their money together and got Naofumi some materials for his accessory making and gives it to him as a present.