Reborn 1-5

by D. W. Jackson

  “Why didn’t it attack me?” Ash asked, not knowing the answer himself.

  “Boy you don’t know yourself…Pechs are a type of lower elemental. Demons are a type of darkness elemental. For the most part they won’t attack each other unless provoked.”

  When Ash heard the word demon he jumped and started to look around nervously. “Don’t worry kid, I have been around you long enough not to care about it. Not to mention the Seven Swords Guild trains any race they think will be strong. We only put stock in skill and action, not in race,” Zelan said waving in hand in nonchalant fashion, then smiled when he noticed Ash look toward Shina. “Boy, I am sure the little lady already knew as well.”

  “Master’s wings are really soft,” Shina said with a giggle. “I was disappointed when he didn’t have a tail.”

  “When did you look to see if I had a tail?” Ash asked shocked at her statement.

  “It’s not like I snuck into masters room to see his sleeping face, or that I and some of the maids snuck into watch master take a bath,” Shina said while looking away.

  “You and the maids,” Ash said wide-eyed.

  “Isn’t it frustrating to be popular,” Zelan said patting ash on the shoulder. “If you ever find more women than you can handle, just call me and I will take a few of them off your hands.”

  “Mou…Don’t try to make Master like you,” Shina said, pushing Zelan away from Ash. “He is cute because he isn’t like that. Women enjoy the innocence of a young man.”

  “Wait, doesn’t that mean the maids have seen my wings?” Ash asked fearfully.

  “Huh. Haven’t they helped you wash before?” Shina asked, tilting her head. “Everyone seems to know. Most ask what they feel like or wonder if master can fly. You can try to hide things from women, but in the end we always learn what we want to know…Muhaha.”

  Listening to Shina, Ash once again believed that women were dangerous creatures. Most likely more dangerous than a dragon. To clear his mind Ash had Zelan and Shina stand back a little father while he went to find another Pech to fight.

  Just as before, the Pech didn’t fight back until Ash struck a harsh blow to it. The only real difference in the fight this time compared to the last one was that Ash went straight after the same place and the battle quickly ended. After picking up another average quality stone, Ash sighed. The Pechs fought in a straight forward manner and were not that dangerous since they didn’t fight back until they were already weakened.

  As the Pech died Ash heard a welcomed but unexpected “Tring.”

  Checking his status he found that his absorption ability had reached level 2.

  “Not what I was hoping for, we should head to the next floor,” Zelan said, coming up beside Ash. “My goal was to get you used to fighting against magic users, but it doesn’t work when they don’t try to fight back until you have them half dead.”

  “Can we wait until I have killed at least fifty Pechs?” Ash asked.

  “I guess that wouldn’t be too bad, but don’t take too long,” Zelan said shrugging his shoulders.

  Without much of a challenge, Ash killed Pech after Pech. With nothing to watch, Zelan moved to find the door to the next boss while Shina killed some Pechs of her own with the hopes of getting one of the stones. As soon as Shina neared one of the Pechs it would start casting, forcing her to move erratically to keep from getting hit while trying to get closer to the Pech. The first time she fought, Ash was worried and watched to make sure she would be ok. His fears were unfounded. Shina was fast and agile and quickly closed the distance with the Pech and using her dangers quickly broke through their defense, killing the Pech in the space of a few minutes.

  With a good deal of the day already lost, Ash fought as fast as he could. He would fight as long as there were no more than three Pechs in a group. He did find that once one Pech started to attack him, the others would join in making the fight a little more interesting, but their attacks were slow and not very focused.

  “Tring.”

  [You have absorbed enough lower Pechs. Abilities available; Earth Guard (Active), Earth Spike (Active), Natural Armor (passive).]

  “Tring.”

  [You have been randomly received Natural Armor.]

  Ash checked his abilities to see what he had received.

  [Natural Armor (small). When fighting, your skin acts as a natural armor blocking 10% of any physical damage received.]

  “Not bad,” Ash said though he was slightly disappointed. He was a normal man and the thought of magic intrigued him and made his blood boil. He had wanted Earth Spike to go with his Fire Ball but you don’t always get what you want. He could always kill more Pechs but he doubted that Zelan would allow him to do that.

  Looking around he noticed that Zelan wasn’t paying much attention to him so he decided to continue to fight more Pechs. After killing another eight, Zelan finally approached him. “It is starting to get late and I would like to eat something sometime this week.”

  “Understood, lets head back,” Ash said then called out to Shina who walked toward him with her head hung down.

  “What’s wrong?” Ash asked seeing her forlorn expression.

  “I didn’t get a stone.”

  After holding back a laugh, Ash acted like he was searching through his pack and pulled out a good quality stone and handed it to Shina. “You can have this one.”

  “Really?” She asked with wide eyes.

  “Really,” Ash replied smiling.

  “Thank you Master,” Shina shouted, taking the stone and dancing around. “Thank you, thank you,” Shina continued saying over and over.

  “If you want another one let me know and I will get one for you,” Zelan said with a thoughtful look on his face.

  “I don’t need one from you,” Shina said sticking out her tongue.

  “No love…No love at all,” Zelan said, hanging his head but Ash could see the smile on his face.

  On the walk back to the manor Shina continued to hold and coo over the stone. It had a dark purple hue to most of it. “Master, do you think you could give me a few copper coins.” Shina asked when they were about half way back to the manor.

  “Sure, but what do you need it for?” Ash asked as he started to pull the coins from his inventory.

  “We have a tradition in the fox clan for when a lady becomes an adult and I wanted to have something made for Yuki,” Shina said with upturned eyes.

  Shina was an odd person and an even odder mother, though never having one himself it was hard for Ash to know what a parent was really like. Most the time Shina treated Yuki like a friend and only occasionally did she do anything that seemed motherly. Comparing Shina to Susan who seemed the typical mother left Ash shaking his head. “Here,” Ash said handing Shina five silver coins. She didn’t act like a typical mother most of the time, but Ash wanted to support her when she did. Since it would make life much more peaceful if the two didn’t seem like competing siblings all the time.

  “Master, this is too much,” Shina said though she still took the coins.

  When Ash had first come to this world he had found the currency confusing. That was because he was using the values of his world for the items. In his previous world food costs were pretty standard, but here even a small change in quality changed the cost greatly. Still after spending a little over a third of a year in this world he had a basic idea of how to view the coins. A copper was approximately ten cents while a silver was ten dollars, a gold was one thousand dollars, and a platinum coins was roughly one-hundred thousand dollars. It wasn’t a completely accurate description, but it was as close as he could come. He had tried to forget his previous world’s currency, but no matter how he tried it was always in the forefront of his mind when he was buying anything and this settled him mind a little.

  “I should start giving you and Yuki an allowance,” Ash said as he watched Shina put away the coins with a happy face.

  “Allowance, is that something good to eat?” Shina asked with a
cute expression on her face, making Ash laugh.

  “No it is where you are given a certain amount of money every month for personal expense you might have,” Ash explained.

  “Master we are slaves,” Shina said as if Ash had forgotten.

  “That doesn’t mean that there is nothing that you want,” Ash replied. “For now on I will give you and Yuki both five silvers a month.” It wasn’t much, but it was the most he could afford at the moment. Once he had a little more leeway with coin he planned to give them a little more.

  “Master is too nice,” Shina said with tears in her eyes.

  “Boy, you keep acting like that and I am going to start feeling bad for those girls,” Zelan said shaking his head.

  “What did I do?” Ash asked in a confused tone.

  “What did you do?” Zelan repeated. “Kids never understand…Those poor girls really like you and you keep driving it in yet you won’t even give them a peck on the cheek,” Zelan explained.

  “Well I don’t…It’s just that…” Ash mumbled as he was left completely without anything he could say.

  That night Yuki gave Ash a small piece of paper from the school. She would need some more common supplies such as ink and quills. The only thing that would really cost much was they suggested that they buy her what they called a second tier weapon such as a sword made of iron.

  “Yuki, I think it is time you started to learn how to handle your own expenses,” Ash said pulling out five silver coins from his inventory. “Each month I will give you five silver coins for you to spend however you want. If something you really need costs more than you have, then you can come ask me for help, but unless it’s really important I want you to learn how to use your own money…Understood.”

  Yuki looked at the five glittering coins as if they were priceless jewels. “Uhuh,” Yuki muttered as she walked away carrying the coins with her fist held so tightly Ash could see her fingers turning white.

  3-12

  First thing in the morning Shina came to Ash and asked for a personal day. Ash was quite happy to agree. Having a full day without Shina and Zelan going back and forth would be welcome. Shina on the other hand seemed sad even though she was the one who asked for the day off.

  Just as Zelan promised, the next morning Ash was forced back into practicing, though this time the katas he learned were far more difficult. Ash had thought that they would go over the old and new katas for a few hours at most, but Zelan didn’t let Ash rest until they rested for the midday meal.

  By the time Ash reached the labyrinth, he was already tired but he forced himself to go on. The only thing he was really looking forward to was that now he was able to use his Hawkwing sword and armor.

  Having his sword and armor in hand again made him feel great. It was like seeing friends again after a long time. Ash and Zelan warped to the eighth floor. The day before when they had left, Ash didn’t take a long look at the plaque outside the boss’s door, but this time he carefully read it before entering.

  [Warning boss ahead: Lesser rock golem: suggested party level 11.]

  Rock golem was a fairly common monster in games back home. It was one of the few monsters that didn’t change much from game to game. As he walked through the large doors he wondered if they looked the same as they did in the games.

  As the darkness cleared Ash almost cheered as he got his first look at the rock golem. It was about six feet tall and looked like it had been made from children building blocks. It was slightly different than the drawings he had seen back in the other world, but it was close. It was in a humanoid form, but it didn’t have joints. Each place that looked like a block moved slightly which allowed the golem to move. Each time the golem took a step toward him, Ash saw a light brown light shining between its parts and assumed that it was the magical bound that held the creature together.

  Ash was not a monster master, but even he knew that golems were magical constructs. They were not living like the other creatures he had fought and thus didn’t have blood, but were fueled by magical energy. Ash figured that if he could destroy the magic flowing through its body he could defeat it. The only problem was how to strike at the magical essence. As he watched the golem move, he figured the only way was to strike at its joins when it moved. He just hoped that his sword didn’t become trapped like an axe swung too hard allowing the weight of the tree to capture it.

  Unlike Pechs, the golem couldn’t use magic to attack. It had to rely on purely physical attacks so getting close was not hard.

  As Ash approached, he kept a careful eye on the golem waiting for an attack. When the first attack came, it was not fast, but neither was it slow. Ash moved to the side but then found himself flying back as the golem struck the ground with enough force to create a shockwave. Twenty of Ash’s HP disappeared in an instant. Jumping to his feet Ash wondered how much damage a head on attack would do. “Would it be an instant death?” Ash asked himself as he moved back in to continue his attack.

  Once again, as soon as Ash was close enough, the golem swung down but this time instead of simply dashing to the side Ash kicked off from the ground and dashed forward. As he arrived behind the golem, Ash heard the golems attack hit the ground and felt the earth shake beneath his feet.

  Noticing his prey was gone, the golem started to turn to face Ash. When it did so Ash saw a small opening at its waist and struck, putting all of his strength into his swing, not for more power, but so that even if only by a second it pass through faster.

  The blade of the sword passed through the gap in the stone just as if it were passing though air until it reached the glowing magical energies, then there was a slight resistance as if swung through water, but the blade didn’t slow. Ash could plainly see his plan had worked as a nice sized red -62 floated above the golem. Just before the blade passed through the other side, the stones pinched together and trapped his swords tip. Pulling hard Ash freed his sword, but put in too much force and became unbalanced and had to take a second step back to keep himself from falling backward.

  Though the step only took a fraction of a second, it gave the golem enough time to start its attack. Ash didn’t have the time to get in close so he did the only thing he could and dived to the side. The edge of the golem’s fist lightly struck Ash’s ankle sending a wave of pain through his body and doing eighty damage to his HP.

  Rolling on the ground Ash checked his foot to find that while hurting and slightly swollen, nothing seemed broken. Getting to his feet Ash found that he couldn’t put much weight on his left foot. Without much choice, Ash pulled the last health potion he had from his inventory and drank it down. It only replaced fifty HP but as soon as it entered his mouth Ash could feel the pain from his left foot start to lessen, though it didn’t completely disappear.

  While Ash stood waiting for the health potion to work, the golem moved toward him. Ash noticed a small shaking at its waist with each step. Then he saw that a small -1 appeared every few seconds above the golem’s head. “It must be like the bleed effect,” Ash muttered to himself as he prepared for the golem’s next attack.

  Just as before when the golem attacked, Ash took off with his left foot, but the pain rippling up his body forcing him to grimace and slow down his speed, only barely allowing him to pass by the golem’s side before the hit struck causing him to stumble slightly. To keep his balance and speed, Ash pushed off with his right foot and slid slightly to the left then rolled to come up behind the golem.

  The golem turned to face Ash once again, exposing the small gap in its midsection and once again Ash struck. As soon as the blade touched the magical flow Ash felt his sword vibrate hard in his hands and noticed that the body of the golem was shaking then like a tower of cards the lower half of the golem shuddered and fell.

  The dust from the falling stones caused Ash’s eyes to water and clouded his vision. Unable to see the golem, Ash moved back while keeping as much weight off his left foot as possible.

  As the dust cleared, Ash was surprised to f
ind the golem using its fists to crawl toward him. Instead of a -1 now a -5 was flashing in quick session above the golem. Moving back, Ash used analyze on the monster.

  [Lesser golem: level 10 boss. HP 95/800.]

  Seeing the golem with less than a hundred HP while losing five every second Ash moved back and watched as it crawled along the ground. In less than half a minute, the remaining upper body of the golem started to shake then it all fell apart, leaving behind only a mismatched pile of stones.

  Limping over to the pile of stones, Ash tried to absorb the golem and was surprised with the monster disappeared. Once the golem’s body was gone, all that was left was a small light brown orb as well as a small blue egg shaped blue stone. Ash first picked up the egg shaped stone.

  [Golem core (good quality).]

  Ash placed the golem core inside his inventory then picked up the orb.

  [Monster orb (golem orb): permanently +10 to strength.]

  “Boy that luck of yours is scary,” Zelan said, looking at the orb in Ash’s hand. “I have fought for years and I have only found two orbs in my life. Go ahead and use it. If any nobles find that you have it, they will demand that it be sent to the King.”

  “Are you sure?” Ash asked, looking at the orb in his hand a little fearfully. 10 stat points didn’t seem like much, but it was the equivalent to two and a half levels.

  “I can’t say that I don’t want it, but I am a firm believer in fate,” Zelan said laughing. “That is the reason I decided to teach you and that is the reason I believe that the orb is meant for you. Do with it as you will. If you sell it to the kingdom you will receive ten gold coins for every stat point it increases.”

  Hearing that the orb was worth a hundred gold Ash left out a heavy breath. He already got a huge boost in stat points thanks to the gambler’s game and he only had a little over ten silver coins left so it was enticing. “How do I use it?” Ash asked between clinched teeth as if fighting with himself.