“Understood,” Ash said, slightly disheartened with the news. He knew that he could order them to continue the training today, but just like with Allice and his other slaves it wouldn’t feel right to do so. Sighing, Ash was left with no other choice than to wait.
The meal for the day was fish, just as it was the day before. Ash didn’t hate fish, but he wasn’t a big fan of it either. If given the choice, he would have chosen meat over it without hesitation, but sadly he wasn’t given a choice in the menu. Other than fish, there was a salty soup and rice. It was a good meal, but not one that was fit for his tastes. After eating, Ash returned to his room where he found the three kids from the day before along with two new ones.
“Ash play with us,” the young girl said her eyes wide and playful.
“What shall we play?” Ash asked without hesitation. After spending all day following others and watching them fight without being able to do anything himself, a little bit of fun sounded like just the right thing to get his spirts up.
“We can play hide and seek,” the girl said after thinking for a bit. “Johnna can seek this time.”
“Uhhhh,” one of the slightly older boys said in a whiney tone.
Though he complained, it seemed that the boy quickly lost out to the young girl in the argument. Deedra took Ash by the hand and led him into the garden while giggling. “He will never find us.”
Ash was taken to the far edge of the garden near the wall when Deedra sat on the ground and motioned for him to do the same. Her small round face scrunched up in concentration and then a large wall of dirt rose in front of them.
“Isn’t that cheating?” Ash asked as he looked at the young girl’s exhausted expression.
“Nope, this is how we always play,” Deedra exclaimed proudly. “One time Saare hid in the middle of a bone fire for more than two hours before we found her.”
“Do you always use magic when you are playing?” Ash asked slightly intrigued.
“Yep…All the teachers say it is the best way to learn. So we get to play lots every day, though it is tiring,” Deedra punctuated her words with a cute yawn before lying down next to Ash. “Tell me a story please?” the young girl asked her large eyes pleading.
Laughing to himself, Ash started to tell Deedra of some of the stories of the heroes that he had read about. When she didn’t look pleased, Ash chanced it to some of the better known fairy tales from his previous world. The young girl seemed to like the idea of a white knight riding to save the princess and eagerly asked him to tell her more. Soon Ash heard the young girl’s soft breathing as she drifted off to sleep. Lifting her up in his arms, he was about to bring down the dirt wall with it started to dissipate. “Found you,” the young boy declared, but upon seeing the sleeping girl he covered his mouth and just nodded his head as Ash walked by.
Ash took the young girl to Celina’s room again. When Celina saw Deedra sleeping in Ash’s arms, she just let out a heavy sigh and bowed to Ash. “Thank you for watching over my sister,” Celina said as she carefully took the young girl from Ash’s arms.
“My pleasure,” Ash replied as he looked down at the almost angelic sleeping face. “She is quite the energetic one.”
“She is always causing trouble,” Celina agreed with a small laugh. “You better get some sleep tomorrow will be very busy.
Ash returned to his room and before sleeping just as suggested he turned his 1300 MP into 13 soul MP. Once he was finished, he looked at the ability again and noticed that he had already earned 6% of the experience needed for the first level, though thinking about it 100 MP was not a small number and even more 1300 for only 6% was an even larger amount. He knew that the head had said it was a useful skill, but it still seemed a little too pricey just to have a little extra MP.
Demon's Legacy #9-4
The next morning after waking, Ash checked his MP. In a little over eight hours of sleep he only recovered 743MP. Less than a hundred an hour. It was the first time Ash had completely drained his MP, though it did help him to fall asleep since it completely exhausted his energy.
Ash had figured that he would be taken directly to the labyrinth to fight, but his expectations were destroyed when he was led outside the main wall and led in the opposite direction of the labyrinth. When they arrived, Ash was placed at one end of a large circle while Celina was placed at the other.
“Celina will attack while Ash defends while only using the Earth Shield. The goal is to last until the end without taking any damage,” the sage said before handing Ash five deep blue potions. “Here are some MP recovery potions. They should increase your recover rate by 500% for two hours. Each day you will receive five of them. How and when you use them are up to you.”
Ash didn’t hesitate and quickly drank the first potion down. If he had five, that was ten hours of increased MP recovery and he didn’t see the need to not use them when he was below 50% of his MP capacity.
“Start,” the clan head said as he and the other spectators took seats on the ground to watch as the two fought.
Celina didn’t hesitate and quickly furrowed her brow as a blade of wind shot toward Ash. Responding quickly, Ash called forth the Earth Shield and a three foot long shield appeared on his left arm. When the wind blade struck the shield, it dissipated but it left behind a thin cut on the stone shield. Celina didn’t give up and she quickly moved into her next attack as a stream of fire shot forward. Ash moved the shield to block it, but just as the two were about to meet, the fire shot down and went under the shield hitting Ash in the right leg.
With a light yelp, Ash danced back and readied himself again. This time Celina didn’t use fire or wind, but shot forth a stone spear. Ash was able to block the spear but a large chuck of his shield broke and other parts of it started to splinter. Before Ash could think much about it, Celina attacked with two more wind blades. Ash blocked the first, but the remaining parts of his shield turned to dust and the second wind blade hit him directly in the chest cutting deep and sending blood flowing down his chest to drip into small pools on the ground.
Celina ran toward him, her face lined in worry. “If you are going to worry about it, don’t try to cut me in half,” Ash said to himself, but didn’t let the bitter words leave his lips.
“Are you ok?” Celina asked, her hands fidgeting slightly.
“He is fine,” the sage said before placing his hands on Ash’s wound. The wound instantly closed, leaving behind only a slight silver scar and a little pain.
“The earth shield is strong and can block most attacks but its strength will wain the more attacks it is subject to. When on defense, if you can outlast your opponent’s MP supply, you win but if you are not careful, all it takes is one attack to end your life, though that won’t happen with us around. When you think your shield is about to break, release the ability and recast it. There is no reason to hold onto it until it turns to dust and leaves you open for attack. Also, why did you attack it to your arm?”
“It just seemed like the right place to have the shield,” Ash replied meekly.
“If you attach it to your hand, then you will have greater range of movement and it will also be more fluid. This isn’t a metal shield that is strapped to you, it is made of earth essence so it is not limited in the same ways as a manmade shield is. Don’t think of it as the same, otherwise you will only be limiting yourself.”
Ash and Celina continued to fight though it was hard to call it such since Celina was the only one attacking. Celina lasted for the better part of an hour before she ran short on MP and was forced to rest. Ash himself had only had to cast the shield spell six times and still had plenty of MP to spare since his recover was increased greatly. Normally when one sleeps recovery is at 200%. His regular MP recover rate was 46 an hour. Meaning he could cast the spell once an hour and still gain slightly, but with the potions effect, using it six time only resulted in a slight loss of overall MP.
Ash had thought that once Celina had ran dry he would get to rest, but that w
as only half true. Celina would need most the day if not all of it to recover, but it seemed that they were ready for this to happen and another fighter was brought forward. In the end, Ash was only given half an hour to rest before he was once again bombarded with spells. This pattern continued until late in the day. In the end, Ash would fight for an hour then rest for half an hour. The only long break Ash had was when they stopped for lunch. Throughout the entire day, Ash didn’t go more than a quarter of an hour without receiving an attack. The sage had also had to heal him a number of times during the fights. Before, Ash had thought that he had gained some level of skill, but that was only with the sword. When it came to skills, he still seemed to be sorely lacking.
By the end of the day, Ash had recovered more of his MP thanks to the potions, but it was still only at 982. He also had one potion left, but decided he would gain the best benefits if he drank it right before sleeping since he would once again be turning his MP into Soul MP.
When they returned to the manor, the sun was still up but Ash had no urge to go to the labyrinth. He had received numerous beatings throughout the day and his body was not only sore, but his pride had been completely destroyed. Thankfully no one seemed to really care that he had been beaten over and over without once being able to completely block the attacks. Instead after each fight, they would simply point out errors and tell him when he had done something good. In a way it reminded him of how teachers treat young school children, which didn’t help his self-esteem much.
Once again Ash found the young children waiting on him, but unlike before this time Ash didn’t have the energy to play. When Ash told them this, they all looked down and Ash felt a pain in his chest but Deedra quickly asked him to tell them a story. Though tired, he had more than enough energy to tell a story or two so they gathered around his room. Today there were two more kids added into the bunch, but his room was large so it didn’t seem too crowded.
After the first story was finished, he was asked for another and by the third story he noticed that all the children were laying on the ground soundly sleeping. Ash went to the closet and pulled the blankets that were placed on the top shelf and started covering the kids, having no clue what else to do with them. After they were all situated, Ash took his own place in bed and converted his remaining MP to Soul MP before closing his eyes and falling to sleep.
The next two days Ash went through the same training. Once he was able to block the attacks completely against three opponents, Ash was met with a new challenge. Now the attackers were allowed to use mixed magic such as lightning, ice, and others. After another day, Ash had done well enough that the Sage and clan head decided it was time for him to enter the labyrinth and use his new ability against monsters. That said, there were still a number of rules, the main one being was that he wasn’t allowed to use anything other than the Earth Shield. Celina on the other hand would provide support while he defended. His new task was not only to keep himself from being injured, but to work with his guard so that neither of them received damage while they were fighting.
Having fought in the labyrinth before, Ash knew how hard it was to go through a number of battles without receiving any damage. He had been trained ruthlessly for that effect, but at the time he had been allowed the use of a sword and while there were some similarities with sword defense and shield defense, there were also a number of differences as well. The main one was the limited movement. Even though the shield was magical and didn’t weigh enough to cause him trouble, it still made it much harder to perform some movements. Ash could always cancel the ability and recast it, but that would waste precious MP. The night before he entered the labyrinth for the first time in his new training, Ash felt his stomach clench in anticipation and along with a slight bit of worry.
The next morning Ash’s group consisted of Celina, Ash, the sage, the clan head, and two of the guards who helped Ash gain the abilities. When they arrived at the labyrinth door, Ash expected them to warp to one of the floors on the tenth level or lower but the clan head just shook his head. “You have three days before you have to leave and head to the next labyrinth. As I explained, most the time each clan would get a year to train, you but sadly this time other matters have pressed in and limited out time together. There are a number of abilities that you could gain if you could stay here longer, but we have focused on those that would help you the best. For now you will have to pass through each level of the labyrinth, only moving on to the next floor when you can fight five battles in a row without taking a single hit. We will skip fighting the bosses since it would only be a waste of time. I hope that in the next three days, you can at least get to the thirtieth floor, but that might be asking a little too much given the time limit.”
Ash had learned that not long ago that the labyrinths were in a way alive and fed off the beings that lived around it. The life energy from those it gathered its life from were what help construct its floors. Since the clan that lived around them were born from spirit type monsters, most the floors contained spirit or fairy type monsters though there were some exceptions since there was also five lesser clans that married into the main clan and also lived nearby. Celina said it was so that the bloodlines didn’t stagnate and they could gain a little diversity in ability, but from what the sage said it also allowed for new and unique abilities to arise from time to time.
The first floor of the labyrinth enemy was the pixie. It used earth and water magic though it wasn’t very strong. Ash had always thought that nature, lighting and other magic were all separate but he learned that there were only seven true elements; earth, fire, wind, water, dark, light, and null. Other magic while seeming to be their own were called mixed magic and while there were skills and abilities that used them they could be made using a mix of others as well. Nature magic for example was a mix of earth and water. Lighting was a mix of earth and wind.
There were numerous ways to mix the different elements together, but one had to have both knowledge and talent to do so. That was the main difference between mages and wizards. A mage specialized in one element while wizards had two or more elements and specialized in mixed magic. One might think this made the wizards stronger, but it also came at the price of higher MP costs. Mages were seen as more useful in single combat and small operations while wizards were best used in battles with a large number of people. Once again Ash was reminded that every person had their place and he shouldn’t just jump to rash decisions based on his limited perspective. The Sage had said that most people were like frogs living in a well. They could only see a portion of the sky but believed that was everything there was to the world.
The pixies were small creatures, not even six inches tall, but they were fast. Ash had thought that the first floor would be easy and while the pixies attacks did little real damage and they were easily killed, it was much harder to react to their blinding speed. It wasn’t until their fourth fight that Ash was able to fight without a single strike hitting them. The pixies were indeed fast, but they moved in the same pattern. It was one of the first things he had learned to watch for when fighting. Most monsters were not that intelligent and moved in a set pattern based on their instincts. If you learned that, then fighting them became incomparably easier.
While Ash defended, Celina attacked. At first she was a little reckless, but after a few scolding’s from the head of the clan, she started sticking closer to Ash, making it much easier for him to block the attacks from hitting her. Ash quickly began to understand why they had been paired up the way they were. This wasn’t just his training, but Celina’s as well. She was to be not only one of his wives, but a member of his guard. She had to learn to work with him as well as for him and that meant getting used to working together.
At the end of the first day they were able to get to the seventh floor, though Ash was more than a little tired by the time he returned to the room. The crowd of children had grown a lot over the past few days and now as he sat on the bed with Deedra to his left and a young boy on h
is right, telling stories more than twenty children had gathered on the floor.
The first night, the children had fallen asleep in Ash’s room it had caused a big commotion and the parents of the kids begged forgiveness for the children’s rudeness, but Ash had laughed it off. Seeing that they wouldn’t get in trouble, the children had kept multiplying day after day. Ash had also gotten used to it as telling them stories each night was a way to relax a bit after fighting all day. The only downside was he was staring to run out of stories he knew well enough to tell and had started to mix them a little with the movies he had watched before.
Once the children fell asleep, Ash would quickly follow them after condensing his MP into soul MP. Even with a full day of fighting in the labyrinth, none of the monsters strikes had been hard enough to do much damage to his Earth Shield so he had only had to cast the spell four times throughout the day so he still had a full reserve of MP. He had also absorbed a number of monsters, but sadly with the speed they were moving through the labyrinth he was unable to gain any new abilities which bothered him more than he would have liked to admit.
Three days quickly passed with Ash and Celina making it to the twenty second floor. The last night, Ash was called to the head’s room alone.
“You called for me?” Ash asked as he entered the room and sat across from the older demon.
“Just requested,” the man said with a thin smile. “You are the Maoh so it is not like you have to obey my summons.”
“It would be impolite of me not to do so after everything you have done for me over the past week,” Ash said as he took a small cup of the bitter green tea that was offered to him. “Was there something that you wished to talk to me about?”
“Yes,” the head said without hesitation. “It is about the marriage. I wish to know if you will take Celina to be your wife and guard. I have talked to the sage at great length about this during your stay and he was unsure about your decision on this matter. Before you say anything first let me say that I understand your feelings. I myself have five wives from each of the smaller clans under my control and a sixth wife I chose myself whom I love dearly. Love is not something that can be forced and I don’t think it can even be built. It just either is or is not present between two people, but there can be fondness.”
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