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 mixed 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.
Ash didn’t fear that he would be killed by the Jinn. With his strength and speed unless the Jinn had an unexpected and deadly ability, he was relatively safe as long as he stayed on his guard. What really bothered Ash was that he was so close to his goal and the only thing standing in his way was beating the Jinn.
If the Jinn was pure essence, Ash had an idea. Ash invoked Dark eyes while looking at the Jinn’s eyes. The Jinn let out a loud piercing scream and the weapons in its hands started to flicker, but after a few seconds it regained its strength though its body did seem slightly weaker in color. It was too faint to tell for sure so Ash quickly used Dark eyes again and once again the weapons in the Jinn’s hands flickered but this time Ash could clearly see that the Jinn’s color had become weaker.
Ash quickly used analyze on the Jinn and it was clear that the Jinn’s Max HP had been reduced. This had made Ash look closer at the Jinn and not only had it gotten slightly weaker in color it had only lost a bit of its size. Ash continue to watch the Jinn’s stats and noticed that its max HP was slowly recovering, but not at a rapid pace. Ash wasn’t sure but since the Jinn was a being made up completely by essence, then the soul attack effected it to a much larger degree then it would other creatures. When he thought of this, Ash used Shadow Whip and just like he expected the whip did not pass through the Jinn, but stuck it hard forcing it to move back about five feet while leaving behind a dark red wound on its chest that seemed to leak out a fine red mist that slightly resembled steam.
After Ash had attacked with the Dark Eyes and Shadow Whip the look on the Jinn’s face changed. It no longer had a look of indifference about fighting, now it looked as if it were not outranged but slightly worried. Ash had fought many monsters but most of them didn’t have enough inelegance to feel complex feelings but higher level spirts were different. Even if they were born within the labyrinth which limited their growth, unlike wild monsters they still closely resembled those that you would find in the darker parts of the world.
Since Ash had been forced to spend much more time working lately so when he did have a few spare moments, he had spent it studying about the different monsters. Ash had expected to find something like a game manual book with pictures and descriptions, but they were more like dictionaries. They were full of information, but Ash had tr
ied to keep from reading about monsters he had yet to fight in the labyrinth since he enjoyed the challenge.
Ash used his Dark Eyes then quickly followed it by using his Shadow Whip making it impossible for the Jinn to dodge. Ash could see the hate radiating from the Jinn’s eyes, but that only made the smile widen on his face as he knew that the fight would soon be over. When the Jinn’s whole body began to flicker like a flame in a strong wind, Ash jumped forward using Shadow Whip one more time and the Jinn disappeared in a flash of smoke, leaving behind a large and small red gem.
[Jinn’s Heart- heart filled with the fire essence of a dead Jinn.]
[Jinn Core: +10 spirit, +5 Intelligence.]
Ash’s first thought was to sell the core, but with the current tension between the duchy and the kingdom, Ash didn’t see the benefit of selling a core that would end up strengthening what may become a future enemy. Shina mainly needed to focus on agility and stamina. Yuki also focused on agility, but her second focus was strength. Since neither of the stats were of use to them, Ash pushed the core to his own chest. He knew that he really didn’t need it but after researching the top fighters in the kingdom, Ash knew he was still lacking in many areas. The kingdom itself could not match any guild for the top in one field, but overall they had the most balanced strength. For instance knight mages at the highest ranks were about level seventy while guilds had a number of level eighty fighters the only difference was that the kingdom had far more level seventy mages then any one guild had level seventy and eighty mages put together. The level seventy kingdom mages had an average of four hundred point in intelligence and two hundred in spirit while the guild mages had an average of four-hundred and fifty points in intelligence and two-hundred and fifty points in spirit. It was not just limited to mages either, each area had about the same differences. Yet while the guilds focused on one area the kingdom had a large amount of occupations.
Ash had sat a goal in mind to reach the point where he had five hundred points in each attribute. At first it seemed daunting, but thanks to the boost his high luck gave him, it no longer seemed out of reach. High level stats mixed with his numerous abilities could make him comparable to any one of the top ranked members of any guild.
After absorbing the dead Jinn, Ash sat in the corner of the room and pulled out a large book and a few pieces of parchment. It would take a bit to recover the stamina and MP he had used and while he could still continue fighting without much worry he still preferred to be fully recovered before attempting a new floor.
The book was one of the few he had bought on his own since neither his nor Emelia’s library contained what he had wanted. He had thought the book would be easy to find, but in the end he had to search high and low for it before finding it and paying a hefty sum of two platinum coins for it. The book was simple enough as it detailed different abilities and families and occupations that they were mostly found in.
From what had learned before, everyone was born with at least one ability though most were born with two or more. The most a single person was born with was six abilities and that was considered extremely rare. Abilities were passed down from parents to children. Just like anything else inherited, most the time it was the strongest abilities that were passed along. The ability Ash had gotten while hunting the bandits called mana manipulation was not that rare, but it was one of the abilities that was highly sought after in the mage guild. It alone could only do so much, but it was essential to make it possible for people to learn certain skills or make use of other abilities to their fullest. Lore had stated that the abilities were originally handed down by the gods but the writer of this book believed that they had come from the first adventurers who had gained abilities from scrolls from defeated monsters. If that was true, then all abilities that people had could also be gained from monsters.
Ash pulled out a second book that detailed known monster abilities and tried to cross reference not only their names, but how they worked. He had found a number of abilities that had different yet similar names but the descriptions of the abilities had the same effect.
The main reason that Ash was researching the abilities was because of the gnomes. From his research, they had two abilities that he could use. Ash already had Earth Affinity so that was out but the other was very enticing. The books he had read suggested that gnomes had the Earth Essence ability which was also a skill that master earth mages learned. It allowed them to turn MP directly into earth essence. He had a little trouble understanding the books description of the ability, but it sounded like it would be a great aid to him in his current endeavors with building the fort. The only real drawback was that while the book didn’t have the cost for using earth essence the skill had a high cost which is why it was only learned after one had reached the master level as an earth mage.
Even after having found out everything he could about Earth Essence Ash had continued his line of study as he looked for other abilities that could be useful for him.
7-11
Setting aside the two books, Ash rubbed his eyes and checked his status to see that 95% of his stats had recovered. Stretching his stiff muscles, Ash walked toward the large double doors and pushed them open.
As he walked through the doors Ash found himself in a large open area that looked like a never ending garden. The scent of the flowers floated in the air and was relaxing. The grass and flowers only reached to Ash’s ankles so it didn’t seem as if it would block his view. Thanks to the large open area, Ash didn’t have to go far before he spotted his first gnome.
Unlike the garden gnomes that people put in their yards in his previous world. The gnomes were about a foot tall and were nude with light grey skin. Their faces were somewhat humanoid, but they had a virile and rabid look.
When Ash got close enough that a Gnome spotted him, it gave an evil grin that showed off its pointed teeth. The gnome pointed his hand at Ash and suddenly, three spikes made of earth formed out of thin air and flew toward him. Ash acted quickly, rolling to his side but the gnomes attack was so unexpected and fast that one of the spikes grazed him but his luck shield flashed absorbing the damage and reducing his MP by seventy points.
“Dangerous little bastards,” Ash said to himself as he gripped his sword hard and rushed toward the gnome that was still almost fifty yards away. Before he had crossed half the distance the gnome had easily launched three more attacks each of which Ash had dodged, though each time he had to stop his charge toward the gnome.
When Ash got within ten feet of the gnome, it raised both its hands and a wall of dirt rose from the ground. Ash struck the dirt wall with his sword but it was as if the sword had struck lead as it only left a thin cut on the wall’s surface.
Before he had a chance to think of his next action, five spikes shot out from the wall forcing him to take a step back. Thankfully the spikes remained attached to the wall and didn’t fly toward him. Ash tried to rush to the side to find an opening, but as soon as the gnome saw him a second wall appeared and once again Ash’s approach was blocked. Slightly annoyed Ash let out a string of curses as more spikes appeared in the arm one of them clipping him on the arm though it did little damage.
“If I can’t come from the front or side, let’s try from the air,” Ash said under his breath as he jumped in the air as high as he could. Stretching out the wings on his back, Ash put all of his strength into raising higher into the air. The gnome’s walls were only about seven feet high so it was not hard for him to get over them. If it hadn’t been for the spikes he could have easily climbed over them but now he was only left with one choice.
It only took the time of a few heartbeats for Ash to clear the walls though to him it felt like it was much longer. As soon as he was over the walls Ash pulled in his wings and pointed his sword down and plunged down skewering the gnome with his sword. A purple 602 appeared in the air as the gnome died.
After absorbing the gnome Ash picked up the small bottle of black dirt that was left behind.
[Essence
Infused Earth (good quality): earth that has been infused with the purified essence of the earth.]
Ash quickly put the bottle away before continuing his search for his next target. Ash invoked Hide this time in hopes of sneaking up on the next gnome he saw but just like before when he came within fifty yards of it the gnome started to attack. Just as before Ash quickly drew close to the gnome but before he could strike it erected a stone wall to block any of his attacks. Not wasting time, Ash once again used him demon wings to clear the wall and kill the gnome, but his stamina was quickly being depleted. There was no real fear of running out of stamina, but due to his high amount in stamina yet his low endurance if he completely exhausted his stamina, it would take days for it to completely recover.
The next gnome he saw, Ash stayed further back and used Shadow Whip. After the second strike, the gnome caught on and quickly put up its stone wall even though Ash had been keeping his distance. The Shadow Whip had done a lot of damage but with it alone, it would take a minimal of five hits to kill the gnome so Ash was forced to attack from above once again.
Since Shadow Whip didn’t work, Ash tried a different approach. Paying close attention to his distance from the gnome, Ash advanced on his next target and when he was within fifteen feet he used cone of frost and then rushed in close before the gnome could recover aiming his sword at the creature’s thick neck. Almost without any resistance the sword passed through and the gnome died. After having found a way to kill the gnomes without any trouble, Ash mimicked his earlier tactic. Ash didn’t pay attention to the time, his only goal was to kill as many gnomes as he could so that he could gain their abilities, nothing else mattered. He didn’t know how long of a time passed but he nearly yelled when he heard the welcome ringing sound, “Tring.”
[You have reached the absorption level for gnome. Abilities available; Infuse Earth (active), Earth Essence (active).]
Reborn: Knight's Code Page 8