Reborn 1-5

by D. W. Jackson

  Devil’s Luck: 500% bonus to luck.

  Fleet foot: +7 to agility. Level 3-76%

  Wolf eyes: See in the dark. Level Max

  Mining: Ability to use a pick to extract ore from hidden locations. Able to tell where mining locations are located. Level 2: 23%

  Poison resistance: level 1-15%: 5% poison resistance.

  Active:

  Demon Absorption: Cost 10MP: Absorb defeated enemies to obtain skills. Level 1: 52%

  Bash: Cost 1SP - Slam into enemies with your body to do X10 damage. Level 1: 17%

  Rabbit Punch: Cost 1Sp- Using feet or hands quickly lash out with a lighting quick attack. Level 1:32%

  Stab: Cost 1 SP- Thrust forward with weapon (sword, spear.) level 1-21%

  Poison spit: Cost 5MP. Level 1-8%: Spit a corrosive poison that sticks to enemy doing 5 damage a second for ten seconds.

  Skills:

  None

  Equipment:

  Sword of the Hawk: Sword belonging to a great hero of the Hawkwing family. Durability 50/50 attack 20-32 strength +10 stamina +5.

  Mithra armor: Armor blessed by the god of light. Durability 40/40 defense + 20 Endurance +10 spirit +10 agility +5.

  Plat 0

  Gold 0

  Silver 2

  Copper 534

  Iron P 914

  Inventory

  Rose silk (LQ): 33

  Rose silk (AQ): 4

  Magic branch (LQ): 1

  Zombie tooth: 298

  Soul gem (LQ): 212

  Soul gem (AQ): 127

  Soul gem (GQ): 5

  Hello, this is a new series I am writing and I will be doing it in a new way… At least, a new way for me. On the first and fifteenth of each month, I will publish what I will be calling chapters. Though in all honestly, they are simply parts of an ongoing story line that will be roughly the size of a novelette. They will be priced at 2.99, the lowest amount I can make them while receiving a fair percentage of the sale price. You might complain that this is too expensive for what you are receiving, but honestly it’s cheaper than a lunch at a fast food joint for something I will be putting, at the minimum of 80 hours into. If that is still too much, then every five chapters, or two and a half months, there will be a compilation volume that will be sold for 9.99

  2-1

  As Ash’s eyes open, he notices that the covers have been tossed off the bed and that Emelia is clinging to him tightly, reminding him of the first morning with Yuki. The only real difference is that Emelia is still wearing her clothes, though as close as she is holding him, he thinks he could see more if he were to just look.

  Shaking away the stray thoughts, Ash lightly shake Emelia as he tries to free himself from her grasp. As her eyes flutter open, she notices how close the two are and immediately pushes Ash away. Her face turning a crimson red all the way to her ears.

  “Moring,” Ash said as he quickly hid behind the curtain so that he could change.

  “Morning,” Emelia replied, her voice sounding a little stressed. “Are you prepared for today? Make sure that you keep one of the medallions ready at all times. There is no telling what they have planned.”

  “I am ready,” Ash said smiling. It seemed as if she was really worried about him. Though he knew that she was more worried about the continued advances if he died. In the end, everyone was the same and only cared about their own circumstances. “I can always pretend,” Ash said to himself to force away the gloomy mood that had overtaken him.

  The two walked out of the room arm in arm. Emelia was sticking close this morning, though Ash couldn’t complain. They found their two guests up as the younger one was preparing for his first day in the labyrinth. Julien wore a long sword that almost glowed with power at his waist and his armor looked to be very strong. The equipment the man wore had to at least be on par with his, if not better.

  “This is Leo and Lenny, they will be joining us in the labyrinth. Leo is a highly skilled warrior, while Lenny is a healer from the Amarith Temple,” Julien said as he introduced a man who looked like a bodybuilder who carried a large two handed sword, and a thin feminine man with a white robe and staff.

  Emelia had said that Julien would most likely have other helpers, so it wasn’t outside the prediction, but the man called Leo looked dangerous. “Then shall we have a quick meal before you leave,” Emelia said with a forlorn expression as she pouted looking at Ash.

  The meal was once again extravagant, with so many different types of food. Ash knew he would be sick if he tried to take a single bite of each type of dish. Once the meal was finished, Emelia stopped him before he left the dining room as one of the maids brought a small bag. “I made these for you yesterday,” Emelia said blushing lightly. “I know you said you didn’t care much for sweets, but these honey cakes are supposed to help greatly with MP recovery.”

  Looking in the bag, Ash saw ten small squares that looked a light golden color. Unlike the dishes the chefs made, the cakes were slightly irregular. “Did you make these yourself?” Ash asked in a surprised voice.

  “Y…yes, though the cook helped,” Emelia said nervously.

  Ash remembered the small talk they had a few days before where he had mentioned a food to help with MP. Bread was ok, but it worked on HP and MP and only slightly. Meaning he had to rest a lot between fights if he wanted to use his absorb ability. “Thank you,” Ash said, placing the bag in his small pack. As he stood back up, he found his neck being wrapped by Emelia’s arms as her lips were pressed against him for a deep kiss. Ash didn’t fight against the kiss, instead he wrapped his own arms around her waist and pulled her close to his chest. He himself didn’t know why he had acted in such a manner, but it felt normal even if it left him slightly lightheaded.

  As Emelia pulled back, the look on her face was excited. “Stay safe,” Emelia said, her voice soft and alluring.

  When Ash turned back to his companions, he noticed a small glint in Julien’s eyes. Having never spent much time with other people, he didn’t notice it for the jealousy that it was.

  The walk to the labyrinth took about ten minutes. When Ash walked alone the time was filled with silence, but today Julien seemed to want to use the time to converse. “You seem to get along well with the duchess,” he said, his voice sounding slightly condemning.

  “I never thought I would meet a person like her in my life,” Ash answered honestly.

  “Did you truly save her from an ogre?”

  “I wouldn’t really call it saving,” Ash said, shaking his head. “I was traveling with a small merchant group headed to the city when we came across an ogre assaulting a coach. At first I watched as the adventures from our group fought, but they quickly got in a bad position and I rushed in and jumped on the ogre’s back stabbing wildly. My actions cost me more than a few broken bones, but it gave the knights a chance to take the beast down.”

  Julien looked at him with contempt again. “That is all you did. Are you sure you did not trick the naive duchess?”

  “I assure you that I explained it many times to Emelia, but she refused to listen to me,” Ash said with a light smile. “She wouldn’t even let me talk for the first few days since my injures were so bad. At that time, I didn’t even know who she was. By the time I learned, it was too late as we were already close.” As Ash spoke, he found that most of it wasn’t a lie though he was overplaying their true relationship. For the first time, he started to think about what their relationship really was. Slightly bothered by the thoughts crossing his mind, Ash was determined that once he returned to the manor to talk with Emelia about it.

  “I see,” Julien said, his eyes once again holding a dangerous glint. “You must have great luck to capture the heart of such a beauty.”

  “Luck is one thing I have a great amount of,” Ash responded lightly.

  Given that his companion’s level was only one below his, Ash had expected them to move to the fifth floor, but to his surprise Julien wanted to fight from the first floor and move until they sta
rted to have trouble. In a lot of ways, it was the same way he had moved through the floors except that Ash always killed fifty monsters in order to gain a skill.

  As they moved through the first floor, Julien did most the fighting. His strength was good, but the way he moved was odd. It was as if he had hardly ever used the sword in real combat before. He had decent form, but it looked more like fighting one would witness in practice than in real combat. Ash offered to help, but Leo held him back. “While the monsters are weak, let the young master get used to the feel of combat. Otherwise, it will become dangerous for him later on.”

  Ash heeded Leo’s words and silently watched Julien as he fought, taking mental notes of each movement. It was a little stiff, but after about ten slimes, it slowly became more natural. This world was easy in a lot of ways, yet harder in others. Gaining strength and other stats didn’t require studying. All one had to do was level up, yet to put those stats into effect, one still had to be skilled. With all the agility in the world, if a person was a klutz, they were still a klutz.

  Once they moved to the third floor and the first kobold was killed, Ash moved and absorbed the downed creature. Seeing this, Julien and the others eyes went wide. “What was that?” Julien asked, openly staring at Ash.

  Ash cursed in his mind. He forgot that abilities were a rare thing in this world and he would be seen as extremely abnormal. “I can absorb monsters to gain a bit of extra experience,” Ash replied quickly.

  “So that is Ash’s inborn ability huh,” Julien said watching him. “How much experience do you get for absorption?”

  “Five percent of the normal amount of experience,” Ash responded after giving it thought.

  “Then why didn’t you use it earlier on the other monsters?” Leo asked skeptically.

  “It costs 10MP so unless it’s Kobolds or later, there is no reason to waste MP on absorbing them,” Ash explained, hoping that it sounded creditable.

  “Nice,” Jun said, popping out of nowhere.

  “Very well done,” Rachel added, appearing beside Jun. “Most people in this world are born with a single individual ability. Abilities tend to run in families as well, so people with unique or strong abilities are considered good to bring into noble families no matter linage. Then again, that wouldn’t count for sub-humans. Instead, you would be killed as a danger.”

  Ash wanted to say something to the two floating fairies, but with Julien and the others around he was forced to take their comments without complaint. He could have used the knowledge that most people were born with an ability. Why was it that they never seemed to mention anything until after he could have used the information? Not only that, they seemed to appear less and less then at first.

  “A very interesting ability. It will be very useful when you fight stronger monsters,” Julien said with a hint of jealousy.

  “What of your ability?” Ash asked nonchalantly.

  “Silence commoner,” Leo said angrily. “I have watched you act indifferently so far, but that level of rudeness cannot be accepted. “You call the duchess by name without the use of her title and now you call the young master as if he were some commoner.”

  “That is enough Leo,” Julien said though his voice sounded pleased. “It is true that Ash does not have any grace, but can we blame a nameless commoner for lacking grace?”

  Ash knew that there was proper ways to address nobles, but Emelia had demanded that he treat Julien and his father as he did her. She believed that if he treated them like they expected, they might try to buy him off or pressure him with their titles to make him leave. “I just don’t put much stock in titles. When you do something that makes me acknowledge you, then I will; otherwise, I will not.”

  “You,” Leo said, grabbing the handle of his sword.

  “Enough Leo,” Julien said, sneering at Ash. “Out of respect for Lady Hawkwing, we will leave it at that.”

  As they continued, the spent the rest of the day fighting kobolds. Ash was able to absorb almost forty more of the creatures. Since Ash didn’t kill the monsters himself, no coins dropped and only one out of ten would drop a low level ore. Julien had little care for the cheap items, so Ash picked them up while absorbing the creatures. Seeing the difference in drops, Ash was starting to appreciate his high luck level and the fact that coins dropped when he killed them.

  After fighting for several hours, they started their return to the manor. Unlike the way in, there was no discussion during the return journey. It seemed that everything that was planned to be said, was said, during the small exchange in the labyrinth.

  As soon as he stepped through the door to the manor, Emelia rushed toward Ash and jumped into his chest, kissing his cheek happily. “Welcome home.”

  “I’m back,” Ash said catching her.

  “I was worried,” Emelia whispered in his ear. “The Earl seemed a little too happy today, so I feared something might have already happened to you.”

  “I’m fine,” Ash said, unable to conceal a small smile.

  “How was your first day Julien,” the Earl asked, walking up to the trio.

  “Well enough,” Julien responded. “The monsters in the labyrinth don’t have great drop rates, but they are easy to kill. Even if they don’t give much in the way of experience.”

  “Well then, in celebration of a good day, why don’t we have a small feast,” Emelia said with a fake smile.

  “Great idea,” the Earl said with a loud booming voice.

  “Nobles do love their parties,” Emelia said smiling. “And it will give me a great chance to introduce you to the other nobles of the area.” As Emelia spoke, Ash felt a cold chill run down his spine.

  “Then I will send out an announcement to the nobles in the area. I am sure that we will get a great show, even with the short announcement. Thankfully there seems to be a great number of nobles in the area visiting since my return from the capital, though few of them have had a chance to make a formal greeting as of yet.”

  As soon as the Earl heard these words, his face turned white. He had to know that other nobles beside himself would try to gain a hold in the duchy by marriage. Right now, since she was entertaining a guest it would be considered rude to interrupt, but if she threw a party it would be the prefect chance to introduce themselves.

  It was still about four hours until nightfall and the manor was abuzz as riders left out to make an announcement throughout the city that there would be a celebration. It didn’t seem that it would be limited to the nobility either. Emelia was offering gold to merchants, vendors, and performers to entertain the entire city. Having already planned this out, there was little for Emelia to do but she begged off as she pulled Ash into the study.

  “What’s going on?” Ash asked, his mind having still not caught on to her plan.

  “It’s very simple, it’s the perfect chance to announce that you are my betrothed. With so many nobles gathered it will spread throughout the kingdom in a flash,” Emelia declared as if she had just solved world hunger.

  “Betrothed?” Ash said loudly, his eyes going wide.

  “Yes,” Emelia said while she started holding up different dresses to her chest while looking at herself in the mirror. “It will be the best way to get them to leave the duchy alone, and it will grant you a bit of safety.”

  “Then what happens when they learn they we won’t be getting married?” Ash asked, his eyes still wide in surprise.

  “By then, I will have a firm enough grasp on the duchy that even if I were to get married to a lessor noble, I won’t have to worry about them trying to take the duchy away from me. Why, is having me as a fiancé bothering you?”

  “No not at all,” Ash said quickly.

  “Then you should go get ready for the party,” Emelia said, dismissing Ash tactfully.

  2-2

  Ash tugged on the suffocating collar of the doublet that had been forced upon him. Looking at himself in a mirror, he thought he looked like a fool. Dressed in a black top and bottom with sil
ver and gold embroidery and far too much lace. If he could have gotten rid of the lace, then it might have been acceptable, but the maids had refused his suggestion before he could even finish speaking.

  Shortly after Ash was dressed, he was led to a small room near the center of the manor where Emelia waited for him.

  When the door opened, Ash was forcibly pushed inside and what he found left him speechless. Standing in the center of the room was Emelia, wearing a tight fitting black dress that had the same silver and gold patterns as his outfit. Unlike his gaudy outfit, she looked stunningly beautiful. “I take it you like it,” Emelia said with a slight girlish giggle that didn’t seem to match with the current womanly vibe she was giving off.

  “Milady, the guests are starting to arrive,” One of the maids said, snapping Ash out of his stupor.

  Emelia grabbed Ash’s arm and led him through the manor to a large terrace that overlooked the garden. From where he stood, Ash could see more than a dozen of people below in the manor gardens and hundreds more outside of the manor in the large open space between the manor and the surrounding city. Ash had always wondered why there was such a large open space surrounding the manor in the middle of the city. He had always thought that it was for safety, but seeing the large number of people gathered below he started to second guess his previous assumptions.

  Emelia pulled a small metal rod with glowing red lines running over it and said a few words that Ash didn’t catch. “My welcomed guests,” Emelia said, her voice booming loud so that Ash was sure that anyone within the city could hear it. “It has been a long time since my family or this city has had much to celebrate since the passing of my father nearly a year ago. I have heard about the dark cloud that has hung over us all since that time and I figured it was time that we start to live once again. Sadly, there was little chance for a celebration, but a friend of mine has come to visit and his son who has recently come of age entered the labyrinth for his first time and has emerged and truly entered his own path as a man.” As Emelia spoke rounds of applause could be heard as Julien and his father stood among the nobles beaming full of pride.