Shortly after Yuki and Tina appeared, Helen and Susan walked up behind the two young girls. “Master Ash, nice to see you again,” Susan said with a warm smile.
“Boy, I was hoping my daughter could rope you in, but it seems the duchess already has her claws in tight. Still for a second wife you could do worse than my lil girl,” Helen said in her normal bawdy manor.
“Helen, I see you are still the same,” Ash said laughing despite himself. “Though you should really not say such things when my wife is standing right beside me.
“Meh…If that lady can’t take a bit of a challenge, she don’t deserve you,” Helen said throwing Emelia a wink. “If not, this old bat has lived long enough. Even if she wants to put my head to the block, I doubt the axe could cut through this old hide.”
“Mother,” Susan exclaimed, her face turning slightly white as she began bowing over and over to Emelia. “I am sorry your grace. My mother’s mind seems to falter a little with old age.”
“Bah. My mind is a clear as it ever was,” Helen said while sticking out her chest. “My tongue on the other hand has grown a bit loose with age. Too old to worry about something as silly and certain as death.”
“That is fine,” Emelia said with a hint of laughter. “I have to deal with enough people who use flowery words to cover up what they truly want to say. Talking to someone who speaks there mind in such a straightforward way is refreshing. If half the nobles did the same, then it wouldn’t take a week to get anything across.”
“Seems like the duchess is a smart and feisty one,” Helen said laughing. “Only a lady with a bit of gumption can put some of those dim-witted dandies in their place. Bout time they learned a woman can do their job twice as good with half the effort.”
“How would you like a job?” Emelia asked her tone suddenly turning serious. “I could use someone like you to put a few of those dandies in their place. I think you would make a great judge.”
“Judge. I think I need to take back what I just said. I don’t know a lick about all the laws.” Helen said scratching her head.
“I mean as a judge for the new slavery laws. Too many nobles are using crooked judges to get around the new laws. Not even I can release a judge from his duty without proof, but I can add a new group to rule over certain laws and I think you would be a great at keeping track of them.”
“Would get me out of the house and I would enjoy putting some of those young punks in their place. I just need to know if it is common to hire someone you just met?”
“My father always said when you meet the right person for a job, don’t let them get away. Most the people applying for the new jobs come from noble or merchant backgrounds. It is hard to find someone I can trust to do what I want done. You seem like you would be a good addition. The hiring and firing of the new judges will be left up to you. As long as they can read and write and you think they will follow the law, then hire them. I don’t care if they are nobles or commoners.”
“Let me think about it a bit,” Helen said seriously.
While Emelia and Helen talked, the rest were left speechless. Even Ash who thought he was used to Emelia’s strange actions was surprised by her actions. The only one who seemed to think nothing was strange was Tina, who just beamed as if saying it was natural for her family.
Their discussion was interrupted by the head teacher as he stood in the middle of the training field and raised his voice. “For those of you who were here for the first advancement test, you will understand. If this is your first time, then you need to listen well. We will be going to the labyrinth to fight on the fifth floor. Students may form in groups up to six or fight alone if they wish. Their task this time is for each student to kill ten zombies. For the safety of the students, they will be accompanied by a minimum of one teacher. If you are at least level fifteen, you can apply to watch your child, but if you are found to be cheating then your child will instantly be expelled from the school. For the parents who are not fighters, they can wait outside the labyrinth for their children to finish. Now any parents that wish to be chaperones, please come forward now.”
Emelia, only being level ten, was a little disheartened when Ash asked her to stay behind. She insisted that she would be fine with Ash guarding her, but when he pointed out that it would only make her guards nervous she consented to stay behind. Just like before, Yuki and Tina were in a group by themselves and Ash and Susan had been allowed to be their chaperons.
Once everything was settled, the teachers lead the students and parents to the labyrinth. As they walked, Ash caught Emelia and Helen talking. With nothing else to do, Ash thought about Shina and felt slightly bad. Shina had wanted to come along, but knowing her personality Ash and Yuki had both strongly suggested that she stay behind. Shina had looked down when her own daughter had asked her stay behind, but Ash was left agreeing with her. When they reached the black door to the labyrinth, the groups separated out and went through the gate one at a time. When it was their turn, the teacher gave both Yuki and Tina a small red ball to use in case they ran into trouble. Ash used analyze on the ball before Yuki put her away to see what it was.
[Escape Ball- escape item that can be used in a labyrinth or dungeons to escape any room but the boss rooms.]
Ash was surprised to find that there were items that could allow someone to escape a labyrinth as long as one was not in a boss room. Seeing them, Ash had the urge to ask the teacher where he might get some of them, but he didn’t get a chance as here were plenty of other groups waiting behind them. Placing his hand on the plaque, Ash warped them all to the seventh floor.
Since this time the area was open, Yuki pulled out her bow, though her sword still hung at her side. Tina still used a long spear that was longer than she was tall, but it was no longer as pronounced as it was the last time he had seen her using the spear. Both girls were now over fifteen and had grown a lot of the past year. Tina had also lost a lot of her gruffness toward Ash as well, though it had been replaced with her pushing Ash toward Susan. Ever since she had got the idea into her head that Yuki could become her sister, she had become a little forceful, thankfully though this time she was absorbed in her test.
“Thank you for taking care of Yuki so much lately,” Ash said as he and Susan walked behind the two young girls. At first Yuki had felt odd about visiting Tina at her home after school. Since she was Ash’s slave, he had to order her to go the first few times, but now she would go over there for a few hours every few days. Tina though had still not came over to his house even though Yuki had asked and Ash had given his permission.
“It was our pleasure,” Susan replied with a smile. “She is a very helpful child.”
Just as they were starting to talk, the first wave of zombies started to appear. Ash kept his hand on his sword while he watched the two girls fight. As soon as the zombies appeared, Yuki pulled back and started firing arrow after arrow with three out of four hitting the zombie in the head. While Yuki was sniping the zombies, Tina kept them back with sweeping spear strikes. Because she was dealing with a large number of opponents, Tina didn’t have the luxury of killing one at a time, otherwise Yuki would be overrun. After shooting off twenty arrows and killing more than her allotted share, Yuki placed her bow back on her shoulder and unsheathed her sword and joined Tina. With Yuki at her side Tina started to target individual zombies, one after another while Yuki worked to keep them from surrounding them.
In less than a quarter of an hour Yuki and Tina had cleared up the large number of zombies that had flocked them. Due to the long fight time, the ones that they had killed at first had already disappeared, but even with that, more than thirty zombies still littered the ground. With their test finished, the group of four walked back though right when they reached the plaque to transport Yuki pulled on Ash’s arm to ask him to hold back.
“What is it Yuki?” Ash asked slightly bewildered.
“The spear…We passed. I was wondering if Master brought it with him?” Yuki asked with a s
lightly blushing face.
Laughing, Ash pulled the spear out of his inventory and handed it to Yuki. “You both passed, so I will keep up my part of the bargain,” Ash replied laughing.
Yuki proudly held onto the spear while walking forward and warping back outside. Ash quickly followed, his heartbeat slightly increasing as he thought about what kind of face Tina would make while receiving the gift.
Ash arrived outside just behind Yuki and saw Susan talking with the instructor while Tina was happily telling Helen that she had passed. Ash had already told Emelia about the spear and the deal with Yuki, so when she saw the spear, a faint smile spread across her face and just as Tina was about to turn around she distracted the young girl with a question.
Almost like a skilled thief, Yuki snuck up behind Tina and held the staff in front of her. Ash couldn’t see Yuki’s face, but from the way she was bouncing on her heels he could tell that she was excited. Just as Ash was moving to get a better view, Tina turned around and Yuki held out the spear to her.
Ash instinctively covered his ears with his hands as the air was filled with a piercing shrill yell that would put a banshee to shame. After a few seconds of excited yelling, Tina took the spear and made a few practice stabs with it then wrapped Yuki in a tight hug. Seeing the two girls, Ash couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face.
“Thank you,” A light voice said from Ash’s side. Turning his head he noticed a warmly smiling Susan watching her young daughter happily jump around while hugging Yuki.
“It was Yuki that wanted to get her a gift,” Ash said dismissively. “I only helped out a little.”
With the test done and Yuki moving to the second class, there was nothing else to do and even if they had taken the morning off there was still plenty more to be done before the day was over. After giving their congratulations to the two young girls, Emelia gave a few words to the other students then she took Ash by the arm and headed back toward the mansion. Half way to the manor, Ash gave Emelia a light kiss on the cheek and moved off as he had his own business to take care of while she went over the many reports that were piling up in her study.
Knight's Code #7-10
The next morning Ash woke early, slightly excited. Today was the first day in weeks since he had a free day. As Ash rushed down the stairs, he found that breakfast had already been prepared and was currently being placed on the table. “Did I sleep in?” Ash asked as he looked at the maids with a confused look on his face.
“No, master has not woke up early,” one of the maids said bowings. “Miss Gilda just informed us that master would most likely wish for an early breakfast today.”
“Gilda,” Ash said under his breath with a smile. She was the head maid and that position was well earned. No matter what Ash tried to do, Gilda always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Nothing he did seemed to surprise her.
As soon as he sat down, little Milly crawled up into his lap. She was no longer the small little child she had been. Over the past few months she had grown quickly. Even though she was only six she was still close to the size Yuki was when Ash first met her.
“Master,” Milly said after Ash had looked at her in silence for a good long while. “Does your tummy hurt?” She asked with a worried look on her childish face. Milly was really shy and rarely spoke at first, but now she was getting much better at talking to people. Ash felt she was getting slightly too big to sit in his lap, but it was hard to explain things to such a little child.
“Master is fine Milly I was just thinking how much you have grown lately,” Ash said with a warm smile.
“Milly is getting big and strong,” Milly said with a gap toothed smile.
Ash lightly patted Milly’s head and she gave off a delighted laugh. The food today was bread and soup along with cheese. As he ate, every now and then Milly would steal a bite from his fork with a mischievous laugh. Gilda would often scold her, but Milly would just look up at Ash with her large eyes and Ash couldn’t find the words to get onto her.
After the meal, Ash and Shina headed straight for the labyrinth. Yuki had a day off school and wanted to join them, but with her level, one hit from one of the monsters would mean her death. She pouted a bit, but when Ash thought of the danger he was easily able to turn her away.
Ash was so excited to have a full day to fight in the labyrinth that the walk to the labyrinth seemed to pass by almost instantly. In the next moment Ash seemed to be on the twenty-seventh floor of the labyrinth. The whole area was hot and the air smelled vaguely like rotten eggs. The smell didn’t bother Ash much, but Shina’s face instantly turned pale and it looked as if she was having trouble holding in her breakfast.
The flame spirits looked a lot like humans. They were about seven feet tall and as soon as they attacked, a sword made of flames would appear in their hands. The spirits didn’t have physical bodies so if he attacked with his sword alone, it would simply pass through them. Even if he added a blessing to his weapon, it did very little damage. The best way to kill them was with water magic, but the closest he had was ice magic and that only weakened them moderately. His best choice was using the ice spear ability that worked much like the flame sword, but coated his weapon in ice. It lasted longer and used up less MP though it still took a while for him to kill the flame spirits with it.
Ash gave a broad smile when he found the first flame spirit. After invoking ice spear, Ash charged forward, hitting the flame spirit in the chest. His sword passed through the body of the flame spirit, but it left behind a trail of smoke as the spirit’s HP dropped by eight percent.
The flame spirit attacked back using its own sword, forcing Ash to dodge. He could try to block it with his sword, but the sword had no more substance than the spirit’s body and would simply pass through the sword to strike him. As soon as he regained his feet, Ash struck again this time aiming for the spirits head, but once again the sword passed through only doing seven percent damage to its HP.
Again the flame spirit attack but this time Ash was slightly off balance and didn’t regain his footing in time and was forced to take the strike head on but it only did twenty damage to his HP. Growling, Ash lashed out spiting the fire spirit down the middle when his sword hit something of substance and the flame spirit shuddered once then a small red gem fell to the ground as its essence disappeared.
It hadn’t been till Ash’s fifth fight against the flame spirit that he learned they had a core that when struck, would instantly kill them. The only downside was finding the core. It would be one thing if they were always in the same place or if his dragon eyes could see the core, but whenever he looked at the flame spirit it looked like one large lump of magical energy. All Ash could do was strike the flame spirits and hope to hit the core otherwise he had to wait until their HP was completely reduced to zero.
The flame spirits only dropped a flame gem so far which was the center of their gems leaving Ash with a hard choice. If he absorbed the dead flame spirit he lost the gem but if he didn’t he couldn’t get the abilities. Thankfully he didn’t need the coin so he always absorbed them, but it felt slightly wasteful whenever he got a moment to think about it.
After killing eight more flame spirits Ash got what he wanted when he heard the welcomed “Tring,” ring through his mind.
[You have reached the needed absorption level for Flame Spirit. Abilities available: Burn Out (active.)]
“Tring.”
[You have been awarded the ability Burn Out randomly.]
[Burn Out- Turn 10% of your HP into a white hot flame to attack your opponents.]
After having gotten the last ability from the flame spirit, Ash headed straight for the boss’s room. Shina followed behind Ash silently. She didn’t have to fight to get experience since she was carrying one of the party crystals. At first Shina tried helping with the fighting, but soon she found that Ash fought better when she was in the back since anytime she was about to be hit he would block for her even if he had to take the blow head on. Shina had mix
ed feeling about Ash protecting her. It both made her feel warm inside, but at the same time made her feel slightly ashamed at her own weakness.
Ash didn’t hesitate and quickly pushed open the door to the boss’s room. When the darkness cleared, a large red being floated in the air. From reading the plaque, Ash knew that it was a Fire Jinn but somewhere inside he had thought that it would look something like the genie from the movies but it looked far different. The Jinn was about nine feet tall and more than five feet wide. It floated in the air and while it didn’t have feet, its body did not end in a wispy smoke but instead seemed to simply cut off at the waist. The main difference that Ash saw was that the Jinn’s face didn’t look remotely human. Instead it looked like a mix between that of an alligator and a bull.
The Jinn didn’t attack, it just looked at Ash and Shina. The creature’s eyes didn’t seem hostile, just curious as if he were watching a play. An evil toothy smile spread across its face as a large sword appeared in its right hand while a whip appeared in its left.
Ash didn’t wait to see if the Jinn would attack first as he brought his own sword to the ready and used ice spear on it, coating his blade in a soft white frost.
As Ash closed the distance between him and the Jinn, he moved in a zig-zag pattern as the Jinn attacked with its whip. Each strike of the whip left deep black gouges on the ground. The sheer power behind the Jinn’s strikes left Ash slightly amazed, but it was not to the point of scaring him. What really amazed Ash, was that the Jinn never had to lift its arm to use the whip. It was almost like a snake moving around freely on its own.
Ash didn’t know it, but as he fought a thin smile spread across his face. When he got close enough, Ash struck with his sword but his sword simply slipped through the body of the Jinn only dealing thirty damage to its HP. The Jinn’s body was much large than that of the flame spirits and if the core was the same size then even with a hundred strikes Ash would be lucky to strike the Jinn’s heart.
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