Saitama's eyes sparkled as he mushed around a bunch of random stuff together. He may be having too much fun with the skills his shield gives him. He lifted his finger and examined the thin line of dust he had just created. As he stared at it, his eyes started to water. He flung the dust away as he tried to rub his eye. The dust flew straight back at him.

Each dark grain climbed into his nostrils as they began to burn. Saitama sneezed loudly, putting out the fire in front of him. "Oh. Guess I should go to sleep now then." As Saitama put his head on the ground he noticed Raphtalia's head shaking and her eyes quivering.

'A nightmare?' Saitama thought as he saw the water seep out of her eyes. Saitama was about to try and wake her up when she shot upward, crying and reaching for something in front of her.

"No!" Saitama got to his feet and kneeled beside her. "Dad! Mom!" Saitama paused when he heard that before putting her arms down and trying to calm her down. Her sobbing got quieter, "No... Help..." Saitama heard her cry as she hugged him for comfort.

"No! Dad, Mom!" Saitama didn't know how to deal with this and just resorted to patting her back and rubbing her head. He remembers his parents doing that to him whenever he got nightmares.

When she finally cried herself to sleep, Saitama was left with his thoughts. When she cried out about her parents, it struck something within him. He's saved a lot of kids during monster attacks. He remembers escorting them to safety one after another. Though he was never able to find out if they all were reunited with their parents.

Thoughts about them being orphaned only came later on during the training. Just another reason to get stronger. After he stopped training, it seemed like he could stop the monster before anyone could get hurt. Still, he couldn't help but ponder on the few kids he saved. The ones where it looked like they were the last person to evacuate. What did that mean? Were they abandoned? Perhaps orphaned.

That was the over-analyzed version of what Saitama thought. He glanced back down to Raphtalia. He decided to stay awake that night. Just in case she had any more nightmares.

After those deep thoughts about him being a hero, one last thing lingered in his mind. 'How valuable would this medicine be?'

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To say Saitama was happy would be an understatement. He just sold all the medicine he's made for four silvers. "This skill was definitely worth having versus just selling that leaf." He spoke to no one in particular.

"Hey, Raphtalia..." He called out to her when he saw her staring at two kids playing with a ball. He thought of how young she was and that kids should play with toys. "Do you want a ball?" Saitama offered the girl.

Raphtalia's ear twitched when she heard Saitama. "N-Not at all! I don't want it at all!" Saitama tilted his head a little. Raphtalia's tail wagged wildly, but not a one-person noticed.

Saitama was confused. 'I thought kids love toys?' Saitama rubbed his chin. "Are you sure?" He asked one last time.

Raphtalia became somewhat nervous. "W-Well..." She held herself uncomfortably. Saitama snapped with a small grin of victory. He was right.

Saitama bought an orange ball for Raphtalia to play with. Her smile made it evident how happy she was. As they walked she would occasionally throw the ball into the air and catch, despite how simple it was, she was still joyed to do it.

As the sun began to set, Saitama and Raphtalia walked into an Inn. The innkeeper greeted them kindly before actually noticing who they were. He shook as he watched Saitama walk towards the counter. He had heard from other vendors that this isn't the kind of person he should mess with.

"A room for two." Saitama waited for the innkeeper's reply.

"O-Of course. I'll go prepare a room." The innkeeper stiffly walked away. Saitama stared at the back of his head wondering why he was so scared.

'Or is it being cold that makes you shiver like that?' Saitama rubbed his chin before disregarding the thoughts. The two walked to their room when the innkeeper gestured for them to continue.

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The next morning, the two walked through the marketplace. They browsed for fruits and vegetables while Raphtalia gazed at everything in amazement. Of course, being in the public eye, the Shield Hero was getting a lot of stares.

'I guess people still don't like the shield hero.' Saitama saw the stares and leers he was getting. What he didn't notice, was that some stares were of a strange kind of amazement.

'Bald! So very bald!' One random bystander grimaced at the back of Saitama's head. 'My eyes!' Another citizen held his eye as Saitama's head used sunlight as a deadly weapon.

Throughout the day, nothing important really happened. Saitama bought some groceries, Raphtalia got a pastry, Saitama took a gamble and cut Raphtalia's hair. He accidentally lodged the scissors into the wall when he was done. The innkeeper was heard shrieking when a random pair of small blades nearly got his ear.

The night ended with a warm meal and a good sleep. Saitama opted to stay up and toy around with his skills. more medicine was made, and Saitama accidentally snorted some weird dust he made. He'll fix the table later.

The next day was more of the same. They woke up, Raphtalia wet the bed. Where she expected a slap, she was instead greeted by Saitama nervously scratching his head. He was more concerned about how he would clean it up. He ended up sneaking into an adjacent room and changing the sheets.

Saitama sold more medicine, they ate once more, and soon. The time for adventure came forth. They ventured into the wilds, the nearby forest to be precise.

Saitama was surprised how well Raphtalia was taking to slashing the monster apart. They may still be mushrooms, but to Saitama, they were still considered alive. Raphtalia stared at Saitama as he gave her a thumbs up and four more mushrooms attacked his hip. He swats at what he thought was a mosquito, the mushroom slammed into two more and all three of them collapsed into a mushy puddle.

"Huh?" Saitama glanced down to find out what he smacked. After seeing nothing at his side he looked back at Raphtalia. "C'mon, let's go deeper into the forest." Saitama gestured for her to follow.

Before continuing forward, Saitama heard a small squeak as he stepped on something. He looked down at his boot to see some kind of round, ball-shaped rabbit struggling under the iron hold of his footwear. Saitama lightly raised his foot in confusion, which allowed it to leap forward straight into Raphtalia.

Raphtalia was in a panic. Some small, ball-shaped rabbit was coming straight for her. She threw her hands up to stab it in a panic when it was blocked.

Saitama intervened, taking the full force of the rabbit and a small stab on his back. "Woah, that was close. Anyway, let's go!" Raphtalia stared at Saitama's barely scratched clothing in minor fear. After putting together that Saitama hadn't noticed, she followed after him.

They encountered a thick group of Mush's. The giant mushrooms charged them in no time. But when I say "them" I really mean, they went straight for Saitama. Saitama was busy staring at his shield when he heard the air parting for a Mush as it flew straight for Saitama's bowling ball of a head. He looked up, accidentally hitting the Mush and sending it away.

He stared into the clouds at the rapidly shrinking figure of the Mush. As the other Mush's went at him, he quickly dispersed them with a series of backhands and slaps that cut through the air and blurred at unviewable speeds. The ones that didn't die on impact died when they hit a surface, and those that survived both were stabbed through by Raphtalia.

As Raphtalia finished off the last one, Saitama noticed all the chips adorning the blade. "Maybe we should go back now."

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"What can this get her?" Saitama placed a small pouch of coin on Erhard's counter.

Erhard gave a small grin and looked at Raphtalia, who could barely see over the counter. "Time to get the little miss a sword, then." Erhard walked away and pulled out a short sword. "One on the short side would be good to start. How about this?" He pulled out a pathetically sized short sword, but because of Raphtalia's small figure, it would be perfect. "It's a short sword made of iron."

Saitama wasn't really listening while Raphtalia tested out the short sword. 'I should probably be going around nearby areas to help people. This place seems pretty safe anyway.' Saitama rubbed his chin and shrugged. "Are there any other nearby places?"

Erhard tilted his head a little before pulling out a map. "Well, yeah. Here's a pretty close place that should fit you two." He pointed to a small town The Village of Lute.

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The Village of Lute is a rather small place. Only a few buildings surrounded by fields and hills. Saitama walked through the town, examining everything. The differences between this place and the capital were hard not to point out. Saitama also saw worried and fearful faces now and then. Mainly the older ones, 'Probably just geezers worrying about nothing' He thought and shrugged it off.

Though, as they kept walking through the village, people looked more and more scared. Saitama decided that he should probably just ask someone.

Saitama tapped on one of the geezer's shoulders. "Hey, why is everyone look so constipated?" Saitama definitely had a different view of people's expressions compared to anyone else. The geezer raised a brow before resting his face in his hand.

"Young man, they aren't constipated. They're worried, scared even. Myself included." The geezer made sure his point got across. This young man was a strange one to be sure. Not very smart either. The geezer looked at his peculiar clothes and continued, "The old coal pit became infested with dangerous monsters after the First Wave. They're so close to town, we're afraid."

Saitama rubbed his chin in thought. He snapped his fingers with a small grin. "Okay. Let's go clear out that place." Saitama started to walk away.

The geezer choked on his saliva and tried to stop him. "Wait! We've already called for people to help! If you go in there you'll die like the others!" But by the time he turned around completely to stop Saitama, he was already goofily walking down the street.

The geezer felt his weight shift as he nearly fell to his knees. "What have I done?" He muttered as he could only imagine the suffering he had just sentenced to that poor bald man.

The geezer had to stop his mourning to squint his eyes. 'Damn that head shines...'

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Right outside the entrance to the coal pit, Saitama was messing around with his shield. After cramming some rope he found into the green gemstone in the middle, he watched it display a status tab for his new shield. The rope Shield.

Saitama poked the gemstone and watched the small shield on his arm form into a round shield made of ropes. It looked a lot sturdier than one would imagine a weapon made exclusively out of rope would look like.

Raphtalia was confused by Saitama's stupid grin. That and why he would swap his shield, made of actual metals, for a round coil of rope. "Master?"

Saitama stifled his curiosity for his new shield and gestured Raphtalia to follow. "It's nothing. Let's go."

As they entered the coal pit, darkness quickly took over. Saitama was lucky to find a torch jabbed into the wall. Why it was lit or in the wall, he had no idea. The place was supposed to be abandoned. It seemed to just be his lucky day.

"That geezer said that there are dangerous monsters in here, so stay close." Saitama led the way deeper into the mine. Raphtalia nodded as the two kept going forward.

The two made it to the heart of the mine. It was beautiful. Aquamarine crystals illuminated the entire place, and water streamed from the ceiling. The walls glittered with a great many different-sized crystals.

Saitama went up to one and pulled it out of the wall the same way one would pluck a tomato. He examined it, wondered what it was, it's use to be more specific. All the while Raphtalia had her eyes fixed on something else.

Raphtalia followed a trail of footprints on the floor with her eyes. The footprints were that of paws, made of grime from the dirt outside of the coal pit. As Raphtalia sat near Saitama, they both looked at something in interest. It wasn't very long for Raphtalia to discover what the source of the footprints was.

"Hey, Raphtalia, what do you think this is?" Saitama asked her while looking at the small lake at the bottom of the cave. Saitama waited for an answer. "Hey, Raphtalia..." Saitama looked at Raphtalia as she huddled against a wall staring at something behind him. A look of fear plastered on her face, one that he should be familiar with. Does Saitama even bother examining the fear on the faces of people he's saved? Of course not.

Saitama finally turned around and saw what Raphtalia was looking at. A two-headed black dog stared at Raphtalia. It slowly stepped out of the shadows, its glowing red eyes being the most eye-catching.

It viciously snarled and charged towards Raphtalia. She hid her face behind her arms and quivered in fear. Its loud and quick approach was cut short when Saitama slammed his fist into the beast. Moving several feet before intercepting the mongrel.

"Bad boy." Saitama scolded the corpse with slightly furrowed brows. As Raphtaliaremoved her forearms from her face, she saw Saitama standing over the beast's disfigured corpse.

"Master!" Raphtalia shouted as more glowing eyes emerged from the darkness. As Saitama looked at Raphtalia in confusion, the hounds took this as a chance to attack. All of them charged forward, every single one of the 50 beasts that had followed their gored comrade.

As the first beast got close, its heads got turned into nothing but a puddle as the corpse slammed to the floor. More followed as they hit the floor from a force they would never see. Saitama was unleashing a flurry of punches. The spared no second when annihilating a great many beasts in front of him.

As the dwindling numbers of monsters began to strike fear in the final five beasts, one of them spotted the lack of attention Saitama gave to his back. Seeing no armor, it decided this was the victory move as it ran behind Saitama.

As Raphtalia saw the beast flanking Saitama, she let her fear take over her mind. Visions of the beast that killed her village. The same that slew her parents, and now, she thought, would claim the shield hero. Raphtalia let the fearful adrenaline take over her body as she reached for her sword.

"No!" She cried as she leaped forward to deliver a slash on the beast. As she felt the blade enter flesh and weave between ribs, she gained the courage to open her eyes. The beast that intended to attack Saitama was already missing its front quarter. All except one head that would've bitten her if she hadn't already stabbed it. It died to her hands in the end.

She had done it. At least, it had felt like she had done it. Her fear turned into disgust. Then she remembered that there were more beasts nearby. Her disgust turned into worry. She looked up to make sure Saitama was alright, only to see him sneering at the blood that was all around him.

Saitama saw Raphtalia's sword in one of the mongrels. He had a small expression of acknowledgment to her feat. Saitama pats her head. "Nice job. Let's get out of here, I'm kinda hungry."

Raphtalia stared at Saitama as he goofily walked away from the scene. She looked down at the beast she had slain and smiled only slightly. 'I did it.' She thought before running to follow Saitama out.

Many would talk about the mysterious man that had cleared out the coal pit. Not one person knew who had done the task, and the one person who could have, thought it impossible. The carnage that took place down there would be passed down to the generations of Lute to serve as a way to remember the unknown hero. Despite that hero currently trying to haggle a discount on two bowls of soup.

End-Chapter 5

This took a while because I had to spend more time on school. Both assignments and enrollment into High School were a pain. While I would like to say that I will become more linear with my updates, I fear that I have no ability to promise such.

I had some kind of announcement that I'll put here when I remember.