Light Novel Volume 5/Synopsis

Prologue - Class Up
Naofumi and his party arrived at Melromarc's dragon hourglass in order to conduct the class-up ceremony. When Filo and Raphtalia tried to class-up, the cowlick that Fitoria gave Filo had interfered. It automatically selected a growth path that had greatly increased their stats. Now Filo and Raphtalia can level up past level 40. Despite not liking that the choice was made for them, Naofumi decided to keep these class-ups.

Chapter One - The Heroes' Teammates
Back at the castle, preparations were being made to celebrate the victory over The Church of the Three Heroes. Malty tried to poison Naofumi's food but was caught. At the feast, Queen Melromarc informed the heroes that Cal Mira Archipelago has an event where all experience is doubled. She has prepared for their trip to the islands. First, she wants to heroes to meet and exchange information. Itsuki introduces his teammates, or 'bodyguards', including Mald and Rishia. Ren introduces his party. Then Naofumi introduces Raphtalia and Filo.

Chapter Two - Meeting of the Heroes
The four heroes, including Motoyasu, meet to share information with the Queen moderating. First, the Queen mentions that they believe that the three attack heroes are not strong enough. It became clear that those three heroes believed that they were in a game-like world with no real death or consequences. They smugly taught Naofumi about the weapon-copy system, dropped items, and automatic crafting. However, once they starting talking about Legendary Weapon power-up methods, they started fighting and disagreeing. Afterward, Naofumi mentions the slave and monster adjustment abilities that he's been using to power-up Filo and Raphtalia, the training with Fitoria, and the Curse Series. The other heroes call him a cheater for using those abilities. Just as the heroes were about the fight again, they were interrupted by a fight among the parties downstairs. The heroes split up to calm everyone down.

Chapter Three - Power Up
Naofumi took notes down about the power-up abilities the other heroes talked about. He tried to believe in the monster drop system and suddenly, all the drops for the monsters he killed appeared in his shield's inventory. He then tried all the other power-up methods that he could. They all worked as long as he believed in them. The next morning he tried to talk to the other heroes about the power-up methods but they had already left to the docks. He requested materials from the queen to further power-up his shield and then went to the docks himself.

Chapter Four - Weapon Copy
On the way to the docks, Naofumi stops by the Old Man's shop. He thanks the Old Man and asks to use his new Weapon Copy skill on everything in the shop. Reluctantly the Old Man agrees and Naofumi unlocks many different types of shields. The Old Man pulls out a shield that unlocks the Shooting Star Shield ability and Naofumi tries it out in the shop. The new skill creates a bubble that only allows party members through. Naofumi promises to keep on shopping at the Old Man's shop and then heads back out to the docks.

Chapter Five - Gravestones
On the way to the harbor town, Raphtalia asked for a detour. They stopped by the remains of Raphtalia's old village. She stopped by her parent's grave and dug another for Rifana. She grieved for a time and then they went to the harbor town. They boarded the boat and shared rooms with two adventurers named L'Arc and Therese. The two apparently hated the Shield Hero but thought Naofumi was too good to be him.

Chapter Six - Cal Mira
Naofumi went to meet the staff of the boat with the other heroes but they ended up with serious seasickness. L'Arc offered to party up with Naofumi which was accepted. The next day they arrived at Car Mira and were greeted by the Earl of Habenburg who gave them a tour of the area. They were led to a magic inscription which taught Naofumi how to use the magic spell Aura. The next day they went to level up. Naofumi focused on upgrading his shields and leveling up. Itsuki started to steal other adventurers' kills for experiences. Naofumi also noticed that Itsuki's party did not treat Rishia well. Naofumi's party traveled back and met up with L'Arc and Therese. They caught up and Therese commissioned Naofumi to create a jeweled bracelet since she heard that he was an accomplished craftsman. Naofumi and his party decided to level up at night so that they wouldn't get interference from the other heroes. After successfully leveling, they went back to the main island since people were worried about them.

Chapter Seven - The Tavern
They travel back to the main island with L'Arc and Therese who were sent out to look for them. They then went to a tavern to relax. Naofumi and Raphtalia bonded with L'Arc and Therese while Filo had fun singing with the musicians. When the two adventurers left, Naofumi started eating rucolu fruits to the shock of the bartender. To a normal person, they are so strong that they can kill a person. Motoyasu tried one and was immediately knocked out.

Chapter Eight - Karma
The next day Naofumi tried a new skill called Hate Reaction which lured all the monsters towards him. It worked great so the party kept on fighting towards the island's interior. However, with their rapid growth, Raphtalia and Filo started getting too strong for their weapons. They defeated the difficult Karma Dog boss on the island which dropped claws for Filo. They meet up with L'Arc and Therese and head back. They still wouldn't believe that Naofumi was the Shield Hero. The next day, they team up with L'Arc and Therese as they promised on the ship. Naofumi had finished the bracelet Therese had commissioned which she absolutely loved. She was willing to give all of her and L'Arc's money for it. L'Arc pointed out Mald who he believed was the Shield Hero. During their leveling up, L'Arc was revealed to have a weapon similar to the Legendary Weapons and Therese used strange magic. They were both very competent fighters. They defeated the Karma Rabbit boss which dropped a sword Raphtalia could use at her level. L'Arc and Therese acted strangely but they all returned to the main island at the end of the day.

Chapter Nine - Island Days
The next day Naofumi and his party defeated the Karma Pengu which dropped a strong penguin pajama armor. Naofumi reluctantly wore it while Raphtalia wore Naofumi's barbarian armor. The group leveled up but started to notice that they aren't going up as fast as before.

Chapter Ten - The Water Temple
The next day, Naofumi and his party decided to relax. Filo was swimming when she noticed an underwater island. Three decided to swim underwater toward the "island." They reached a temple with air inside and explored around. In the center of one of the rooms was a giant dragon hourglass. Naofumi realized that a wave will approach Cal Mira in just 2 days. He called an emergency meeting with the heroes to prepare. They all immediately agree except for Ren, who couldn't swim. They gathered all of the adventurers and requested reinforcements to defend against the wave. While requesting reinforcements in Melromarc, Naofumi also upgraded his Soul Eater Shield and Wrath Shield with the materials he requested. Finally, while on the water, Naofumi's third wave had started.

Chapter Eleven - Inter-dimensional Whale
The wave has started and Naofumi with the rest of the heroes were teleported to the center of it. The soldiers and adventurers attacked the smaller creatures while the heroes fought the large monsters. The massive Inter-Dimensional Whale started to wreck havoc. Naofumi pushed Motoyasu off board so that he can attack the whale directly. When the whale was about the charge, Naofumi took the brunt of the force to prevent the whale from piercing through the ship. He then grabbed on the whale's horn and kept it incapacitated so that the other heroes can attack. L'Arc then stepped in and one-shot the whale boss. After praising Naofumi for his power, he prepares to fight Naofumi.

Chapter Twelve - L'Arc Berg
L'Arc explains it isn't personal, but Naofumi must die since he is the Shield Hero. They are doing what they must to save their own world. L'Arc attacks. The Queen tries to use ceremonial magic to attack L'Arc and Therese but Therese sinks the ships they are on. However, she tries to minimize the casualties. Thankfully, they don't believe that Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu are heroes because they are so weak.

L'Arc officially challenges Naofumi and his party to fight. Naofumi is surprised by how honorable he is. The two sides fight equally. L'Arc used a defense-ignoring and defense-rating attacks while Naofumi was able to temporarily immobilize him and deal damage. Suddenly, Glass arrives - chastising L'Arc for being slow.

Chapter Thirteen - Soul-Healing Water
Glass attacked Naofumi. As she did so, Naofumi realized that she was weak to SP-draining attacks. He ordered Raphtalia to hit Glass with her magic sword. Once she did so, Glass received massive damage and was knocked down. Cornered, L'Arc uses his trump card and gives Glass Soul-Healing Water. Strangely, with this potion, Glass recovers health and powers-up.

Glass tells L'Arc and Therese that she will confront Naofumi by herself. Naofumi switches to his wrath shield and used the cursed flames but to no effect. Rishia suddenly launched a barrel of rucolu fruit and the Queen used magic to ignite it. A countdown appeared, signaling that there is only a minute left in the wave. Glass started to get intoxicated from the vaporized fruit. Naofumi could not use Iron Maiden since Glass could destroy the spell while it was being set up. The three other-worlders escaped through the rift of the wave.

Epilogue - The Problem We Face
After the battle, Naofumi debriefs with the queen as the other heroes recover. He debates whether they really are bad guys and what their purpose was. With clear evidence that the other heroes are weak, they plan another conference to share information to power-up.

Extra Chapter - The Cal Mira Hot Springs
This chapter was set the day before the underwater temple was found. Naofumi relaxes in the hot springs until Motoyasu and the other heroes arrive to also relax. Filo, in her Filolial Queen form also jumps in, to Naofumi's annoyance. Motoyasu starts a conversation about which girls of all 4 parties are the cutest and then goes to peak over the partition to see the women's side of the baths. L'Arc arrives and then excitedly works with Motoyasu to try to peek. With the mental damage from Malty's betrayal, Naofumi feels no interest in women but Motoyasu and L'Arc have asked if he and Raphtalia had taken any advances.

Reluctantly, Naofumi recounts how he applied medicine to her body and she was embarrassed about it. She asks about how her body looks and Naofumi only mentioned her scars. Raphtalia was upset and disappointed at his response. Filo runs into the room and upon seeing Raphtalia naked, takes off her clothes and charges Naofumi.

Motoyasu and L'Arc got upset at Naofumi for not taking advantage but Naofumi replies that he sees her as a child. They call Naofumi gay. Annoyed, Naofumi leaves. When he left, Motoyasu and L'Arc had involved other male adventurers in their scheme to peek to the other side and got caught. When Naofumi got back to his place with Raphtalia and Filo, Raphtalia asked how it was. After recounting the other guys' effort to peeping and his non-involvement, Raphtalia sadly noticed that he hadn't mentally healed yet from his betrayal. She then suggests that all three of them go to a private bath the heal his curse. Raphtalia and Filo both respect Naofumi's platonic interest in the two of them and they watch the sky together.