“I was enjoying a meal with a nice old lady,” Ash replied honestly.
“Did you even think of letting someone know or did you forget that people are after you? Seriously, you are going to give me grey hair,” Emelia said with a strained smile.
“I think a few grey hairs would make you even more beautiful,” Ash said as he continued to pat Yuki’s head. Ever since he had come to this world, he had gotten good at flattering women. Well, not all of it was due to this world. In the other world he had learned that if he gave out complements, his foster parents would be less likely to torment him. It didn’t work as well on girls his own age, as he didn’t have time to play sports or the money to go out often.
“Mou…” Emelia pouted her lips as her face took on a light pink tint. “From now on I will have someone watch you.” She said, before storming back toward her room.
After peeling Yuki off him, he quickly took a bath and headed to his room to sleep where he found Yuki oiling her new armor diligently. “Yuki, I met someone today that will be in your class,” Ash said. “She is a nice young girl named Tina and I want you to get along with her.”
“If master says so,” Yuki said looking up at Ash, her tail moving slightly from side to side.
“Good girl,” Ash said patting the top of her head. Yuki closed her eyes, “Hehe.”
2-9
The next day after Yuki left to go to her first training session at the school, Ash headed to the labyrinth. Today was the day he would challenge the boss of the sixth floor and then try the seventh floor. The first ten levels were not hard to pass, but after that it got harder as the experience needed rose greatly, while the experience earned didn’t. He had already done well since he had progressed so far alone. Most people fought in groups of four to six people, but that reduced the amount of experience received greatly, yet it increased survivability.
In truth, there were a lot of people who fought until they reached level fifteen alone, but a large percentage that tried it died in an unexpected way. It was a risk vs rewards gamble and one Ash wouldn’t have tried if he knew the odds of success.
Able to sense the monsters around him, Ash quickly moved through the floor only having to fight two spiders before he reached the boss’s room. Touching the plaque, Ash walked through the door without a second thought.
When the darkness cleared, a large spider the size of a wagon looked down on him with its many eyes. Slightly stunned, Ash was a heartbeat too slow and received a small hit from one of the spider’s long hairy legs for 20 damage. Even though it was only a small attack it had still taken away 20% of his HP. As Ash thought about his other boss fights they were all the same. It only took one attack for him to lose a lot of HP. Each time he fought a boss he had noticed the need for more party members, but had forgotten it shortly after moving onto the next floor.
As he was thinking, the spider sent another attack. This time Ash was able to dodge to the side. The spider was large and its eight legs were like long spears, but it was bulky and slow, letting Ash move around in the room with relative freedom as long as he paid attention.
Moving in, Ash struck at the spider’s bulbous back then retreated before the spider could attack. After five strikes, Ash used analyze on the spider.
[Queen Forest Spider: level 8 boss. HP 432/500.]
“500 HP,” Ash said cursing, but without any other choice he continued his attacks. Everything seemed to be going well until he had stuck it three more time. The spider scurried to the other end of the room and turned around and five spiders the size of a small dog appeared.
Unlike the larger spider, the smaller ones were fast and lunged at him at once. Ash was able to strike two down, but one of the five got through and bit him on the leg.
[You have been poisoned your movements will be slowed for two minutes. Thanks to poison resistance the effects and duration will be reduced by 10%.]
“Crap,” Ash said as he stabbed the spider that had bitten him. Before the other two smaller spiders had a chance to attack, Ash moved back. His body still moved, but he felt sluggish as if he was moving with weights hanging from his body.
As he moved back, the small spiders pursued him. The first one was taken with his sword, but with the reduced speed of his sword swing it took two strikes to bring it down. As the first one died and the second one bit him, restarting the counter on the poison running through his body.
After the five small spiders died the larger spider moved back from its corner and bared down on ash. Before it was easy to doge the spider’s clumsy attacks, but now with his slowed movement the spider struck him twice causing his HP to reduce to 40/100. Seeing his HP drop so quickly, Ash pulled one of the clear vials from his inventory and quickly drank it, restoring 50HP instantly.
Without any choice Ash used gambler’s gambit.
“Tring.”
[You have activated gambler’s gambit and all stats have been increased by 15 for one minute.]
As soon as he heard the “Tring,” Ash’s body felt light as a feather. Even with the poisoning effect he still felt much stronger than he had before. This was the third time Ash had used the gambit skill and he noticed that the amount boosted was random. He wasn’t sure, but he suspected that there was even the possibility that it could be a negative number, but given that he wouldn’t use it unless it was a dire situation there was nothing to do but leave it to chance.
Knowing that he had a limited amount of time until gambler’s gambit expired, Ash pushed forward maneuvering around the large spider striking at every opportunity. After Ash had landed ten solid hits, the queen spider moved back into the corner, but this time Ash didn’t give it a chance to spawn the smaller spiders. He continued to attack.
When the timer in his head reached 10 seconds for the gambit the spiders poison still had 28 seconds left on it. Knowing time was running out, Ash activated analyze.
[Queen Forest Spider: level 8 boss. HP 64/500.]
“Almost there,” Ash said as he rushed in and struck the spider for another 13 damage. Just as the attack hit his boost ran out and suddenly Ash felt sluggish and received a hard hit from the spider taking half his HP. Pulling another vial from his inventory Ash quickly drank it as he moved back to wait to the poison effect to wear off. He tried to activate gambler’s gambit again but a loud “Tring,” sounded.
[This skill cannot be used again for another hour.]
So not all skills could be used continuously. As if sensing what Ash was trying to do, the large spider rushed him. Ash struck out with his sword hitting the spider’s leg as he rolled to the side. Ash was surprised that the sword cut through the leg cleanly, causing the spider to crash to the ground.
Just as the spider fell, the poison effect wore off. With the large spider in a weakened position and his power back, Ash didn’t hesitate and jumped up burying his sword into the spider head as it tried to get off the ground. As the sword struck a black -80 appeared and the spider shuddered as it died.
Slumping to the ground Ash let out a heavy breath. He could kill the spiders in the forest easily enough, but if he had to fight the queen spider again there was a chance he might not come out of it alive. That left him with two choices kill over 300 forest spiders for his next level or find the plaque for the boss of the next floor and hunt there until he was sure that he could win the next boss battle.
He tried to absorb the queen spider but wasn’t surprised when nothing happened. After picking up twenty copper coins and a stack of five (good quality) spider silks, he moved toward the exit to the next floor.
As he entered the seventh floor, it was a large cave and looked much like the earlier floor with the kobolds. About thirty feet in, Ash noticed a small mining point glowing and quickly pulled out a pickaxe, while at the same time he checked his inventory to see how much more room he had. At the moment, Ash only had fifteen spots in his inventory. Eleven spots were taken by items he had gotten from monsters. One spot was taken by the HP potions. The last three spots w
ere taken by honey cakes, bread, and juice. He still had his travel pack with him, but that severely limited him on what he could carry.
After striking the mining point a few times, a red stone about the size of an egg fell to the ground. As he picked up the stones, the mining point faded.
[Fire stone (average quality): Stone infused with the fire element often used in magical tools.]
Having only one stone Ash, placed it in his pack and continued deeper into the cave. As he rounded a corner in one of the tunnels, Ash came face to face with a large red lizard. As soon as it saw him, the lizard opened its mouth and a ball of fire erupted, scorching Ash’s face.
Jumping back, Ash was slightly surprised. Not only did the fire cause damage, it left burns that continued to hurt. Luckily Ash had been far enough back that he had only been slightly singed by the lizard’s attack. As he faced one lizard, Ash sensed another one not far away and it was moving toward him. Cursing and with little choice, Ash moved forward. As soon as he was within range, the lizard let out another ball of fire. Ash quickly jumped to the side dodging the attack.
As he came to his feet, Ash struck with his sword hitting the side of the lizard but only doing 11 damage. With Ash in close, the lizard quit trying to burn him and instead turned to using its razor sharp teeth to attack. While trying to dodge the lizard’s attacks, Ash continued to strike whenever he could. After his fifth strike, the other lizard appeared behind him and launched a fire ball hitting him and causing 10 damage along with 2 fire damage every second for ten seconds.
The force of the fireball caused Ash to stumble and fall to the ground beside the other lizard that immediately lunged at him. Ash frantically brought his sword in front of him and it speared through the soft underbelly of the lizard instantly killing it. “So, they do have a weak spot,” Ash said, rolling out of the way of another fireball. Knowing a monsters weak point made fighting it much easier, but it only helped slightly when it was something hard to reach. In the end, Ash was forced to face the lizard head on, forcing it to expose its weak spot.
After the two lizards were dealt with, Ash was only left with 30HP so he quickly drank a health potion, just in case he met with another lizard. Checking his status, he found that the lizards only gave 40 experience, but it was still better than the 30 he received from the spiders on the floor below.
Other than the experience, the lizards also gave 10 copper coins each as well they both dropped a low quality fire lizard skin. The lizard skins were about one foot by one foot so he took out the three remaining health potions and put the lizard skin in its place.
After fighting five more Lizards Ash found two more mining points. One mining point gave a low quality fire stone, while the other gave an average quality zinc ore. There were a lot more mining points on this floor than the one with the kobolds, but they gave only one thing each while the ones below gave two or three.
It took seven more fights and four more mining points before he found the boss room plaque. He had used two more health potions due to the fights and was down to his last one. After taking out the bread, juice, and eating his last honey cake, Ash put what he could in his inventory. With that he had room for everything but the zinc ore and the low quality fire stones.
After reaching the plaque, Ash thought about continuing to fight. Given the difficulty of the enemies, he decided it would be best to leave and empty his inventory. Touching the plaque, he warped himself back outside where the sun was still hanging just past its zenith in the sky. Just as before, Ash went to the adventures guild to sell his items. Due to the sheer amount of items, the lady behind the counter eyes widened. After counting everything out, she went through what he had earned. It was a little tedious to listen to the price of each item, but it let him know that he wasn’t being cheated.
“33 low quality rose silk at 5 coppers a piece, 4 average quality rose silk at 7 copper a piece, 1 low quality magic branch at 12 coppers, 298 zombie teeth at 25 iron pennies a piece, 231 low quality soul gems at 1 copper a piece, 134 average quality at 2 coppers a piece, 5 good quality soul gems at 10 coppers a piece, 1 average quality dead essence at 30 coppers, 83 low quality spider silk at 10 copper a piece, 46 average quality spider silk at 15 coppers a piece, 21 good quality spider silk at 50 copper a piece, 7 low quality fire lizard skin at 20 coppers a piece, 2 average quality fire lizard skins at 35 coppers a piece, 1 good quality at 1 silver a piece, 3 low quality fire stones at 25 copper coins a piece, 2 average quality fire stones at 50 coppers a piece, 1 low quality zinc ore at 18 iron pennies, and finally 1 average quality zinc ore at 24 iron pennies. That comes to a total of 38 silver, 13 copper, and 92 iron pennies,” the lady said handing over a decent sized coin pouch.
Leaving the shop, he had more money than he had ever had before. After spending the day before shopping and his time living in the village Ash figured that to live a decent life it cost about 2 silver a day. Right now what he earned didn’t seem to be enough, but at the moment with what he had, he could live comfortably about 20 days. That only really covered basic living expenses at a decent inn. If he wanted to go cheap, even in the city he could get a room for about 10 copper, 15 with a meal. All in all he could reduce his living expenses to about 50 coppers a day, but that would be him and Yuki eating the bare minimum. Before that might have been ok with Ash, but now he didn’t want to go back to that kind of life.
Ash knew that he had to increase his saving for when he left the city, but that meant fighting in the labyrinth and at the current pace, it wouldn’t earn him much. He needed to get stronger while earning money, but he didn’t know how. “Maybe Emelia will have an idea,” Ash told himself as he headed back to the manor.
As soon as he entered the manor, he was surprised when he wasn’t greeted by Yuki then he remembered that she would be at the adventure’s school until the evening and he felt slightly lonely. Shaking the feeling away, Ash asked one of the maids where Emelia could be found and he wasn’t surprised when he was told she was in the study.
“Emelia are you busy?” Ash asked as he knocked on the door.
“Come in Ash,” she said in her soft musical voice. “Is something bothering you or did you come to read again?” She asked after he entered the study.
“Well, I had a problem,” Ash said. “I need to earn coin, but gain experience at the same time but I hit a roadblock in fighting in the labyrinth.”
“What level did you make it to?” She asked while folding her hands in her lap.
“I made it to the seventh floor, but the fire lizards are a real pain,” Ash said, showing a small burn mark on his shirt.
“You made it all the way to the seventh floor on your own?” Emelia asked in a surprised voice. “Why would you be so reckless? Never mind that, lets focus on your problem,” She said wrinkling her forehead. “You could take jobs at the adventure’s guild. You would have to start off low, but they pay decently at D rank.”
“Adventures guild. I did notice the job postings, but I didn’t give it much thought since I was going to the labyrinth,” Ash admitted.
“Well like I said, it starts out paying pretty lousy, but a guild card can come in useful in a lot of situations. First it can count as identification which I’m guessing you don’t have. It can also show your skill and help you get employed at numerous non guild related jobs. It starts at G rank then moves to F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and the top grade SSS. Right now I think there are only three SSS ranked adventures within the entire guild.”
“Thanks, it will at least be something to do until I level up a little,” Ash said.
“Anytime, though you still need to be careful. My people are still watching the Earl and he hasn’t made a move yet, but he will. I just wish I knew what he would do and when,” Emelia said with a pinched brow.
“I will be,” Ash said with a laugh as he left the room and headed back into the city proper.
Since it hadn’t been an hour since he had left the adventure’s guild, he got an odd look when he walked ba
ck up to the counter. “I would like to join the guild please,” Ash said confidently. He was handed a sheet of parchment along with ink and quill. “Do I have to fill out everything?” He asked nervously.
“Just name and occupation if you have one. The rest is advised since it will help in some requirements for jobs, but are not required for guild membership.”
Ash filled in everything making his home city Tellian which was the name of the city he was currently in. As he passed the paper back over the young lady looked it over then looked at him. “Do you have your certificate of citizenship?”
“No, but you can ask the duchess…I guess that you can’t can you. I’ll be right back,” Ash said as he ran out of the guild. Emelia laughed when he told her what he needed, but she quickly wrote out something on a fine piece of paper and poured wax on it and pressed the seal of her ring into the wax and handed it back to him. He quickly ran back to the guild and handed her the document and her eyes quickly widened.
“Ash…I didn’t know that you were that Lord Ash. I am sorry if I offended you,” She said bowing. After bringing out a large metal plate, Ash remembered what happened last time he had done this back in the village. At that time he only got a regular ID, but everyone had scorned him. Won’t it be the same this time? Just as his hand was about to touch the metal plate, someone reached out and grabbed it. Turning his head he saw one of the maids from Emelia’s breathing hard. “Lord Ash Milady has asked me to give this to you.”
Taking the parchment he quickly opened it. “Ash, I completely forgot about the reading stone. Please return to the manor and I will take care of the problem.”
Looking back at the lady he let out a deep sigh. “I am sorry, but something has come up I will return in the morning.”
“No problem my Lord,” the lady said bowing her head.
Retuning to the manor Ash found Emelia waiting for him at the door, “Did Sheria reach you in time?” She asked with a worried look.
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