“Understood.”

I left the queen and headed to the grounds in front of the castle storeroom. When I got there, I started going through the mountain of Spirit Tortoise materials that literally did cover the entire training grounds.

“Oh, come on!”

Eyeballs and brains came tumbling out of the pile, startling me. I mean, this had basically been a friend of mine, so . . . it just felt wrong. And then, all of a sudden . . .

“Wh . . . what?!”

A pale light emanated from the Spirit Tortoise materials before they were absorbed into my shield, seemingly of their own accord.

Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Skin Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Flesh Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Bone Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Blood Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Body Fluid Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Immune Cell Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Muscle Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Cardiac Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Myocardium Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Blood Vessel Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Eye Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Pupil Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Sacred Tree Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Familiar (Bat Type) Shield conditions met!

Spirit Tortoise Familiar (Yeti Type) Shield conditions met!

Etc. . . .

Merging with Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield!

Forcibly unlocked!

An absurd number of shields scrolled by—probably enough to complete the Spirit Tortoise series. They all had high defense ratings. Wait a second . . . The Spirit Tortoise shields had all unlocked on their own . . . That Spirit Tortoise Heart shield was really something. An image of the Spirit Tortoise appeared as a backdrop to the Spirit Tortoise series listing on the status screen floating in my field of vision.

Now to check their stats . . . Oh? I noticed a shield that had been unlocked had a usable skill.

Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield 0/40 C

<abilities unlocked> equip bonus: skill “E Float Shield”

equip effects: gravity field, C soul recovery, magic defense up (large)

mastery level: 0

E Float Shield, huh? Was that related to the Air Strike Shield? What kind of skill was it? I tried changing to the new shield and called out the skill.

“E Float Shield!”

The letters “ON” showed up in my field of vision and a shield appeared in mid-air. So it was something like Air Strike Shield, after all? Thinking so, I walked toward the shield, but it moved away the same distance that I had walked.

Huh? Was it a shield that appeared with me as its axis? Distance-wise, the skill seemed to place somewhere between Air Strike Shield and Shooting Star Shield. I was timing how long the skill lasted while I analyzed it, and it still hadn’t disappeared. It lasted a long time.

Hmm . . . As I stood there, deep in thought, the E Float Shield started to spin around right in front of my face. What was going on? And why was it in my face? Get away!