Rebirth of the Sword Saint: A Reincarnation Epic Fantasy Saga

by DB King

  Jin could only nod in response as Hamada hummed and walked away.

  Well, the test was certainly an interesting one. Unlike the last tests where Hamada progressively brought to bear more and more of his sword skills, this one would require Jin to use all that he’d learned from all of his martial arts teachers: the grace and fluidity of the Water-Flowing Sword, the stealth and silence of the Feather-Moon Blade, and the explosive power of the Murasaki Style Kenjutsu. The whole thing sounded incredibly difficult and mildly convoluted, and any lesser man would’ve whined and eventually failed, but he was Murasaki Jin, the future Kensei.

  There was no way he could possibly fail, unless something extremely unfortunate happened to just fall right on top of their heads without anyone noticing. But the chances of that ever happening were slim to none.

  Jin smiled as he closed the book he was reading. In it, he’d found details on the harvesting, purifying, and consuming of Magical Beast Cores for the purpose of amplifying one’s magical prowess. Two days in the woodlands around the Murasaki castle was more than enough time to find a suitably large Magical Beast, harvest its core, purify said core, and then consume it—all in time to return home and steal his father’s heirloom.

  It was a long shot, considering there were no books in the library that detailed the type of creatures that lived specifically around the Murasaki Castle, but he would just have to make do. Though, he did find it rather strange that there were no local bestiaries, considering how quite a lot of the southern forests had already mostly been mapped by mages.

  Jin stood up from his study and leisurely walked around the castle, studying every wall, every crevice, every crack, every tower, and every brick—keeping everything in the detailed pages of his mindscape. The guard rotations and patrols were far easier to keep track of, but it would be foolish to assume they’d follow the same patterns when the time came for him to infiltrate the castle.

  Dinner was a quiet affair. Jin simply had the servants deliver his meal to his room as he reviewed the layout of the woods around Castle Murasaki. Journeying to the eastern forests would serve him little, since it was far too close to a nearby village for it to be a home for powerful Magical Beasts. The southern woods were off the table as well, since the animals there were mostly just wild game—a few Magical Beasts here and there, but most of them were of the harmless variety that wouldn’t serve his purposes. His only options were the northern and western forests that had remained untouched and untamed since the founding of the castle some few thousand years ago.

  Most sightings of Magical Beasts and dark creatures came from those woods. Though, without an accurate bestiary that detailed which creature lived where, it’ll be a difficult task. But two days should be more than enough time for me to stalk, catch, and kill a particularly powerful Magical Beast. Harvesting and purifying its core would be a little more complicated in the woods, but I think I can do it.

  Morning came soon after. Jin was quickly awakened by a servant, who simply gave him a fresh kimono and hakama.

  “The lord requests your presence in the courtyard, young master,” the servant declared with a reverent bow, before turning and walking out the door.

  Stifling a yawn, Jin practically leapt out of his bed, dressed, and grabbed his sword, fastening it to his waist, before rushing out of his room. In a strange way, Jin almost missed his wooden practice wakizashi. It was a lot lighter than Agito, and a lot shorter too—or was that just because he was also a lot shorter? Whatever the case, Agito was perfect for his height, just long enough for it to be an actual katana in his hands.

  Alas, the servants did not bring food with them. It seems I’ll have to make my own breakfast in the woods. Ah, I was hoping for some tea before leaving, but I guess I’ll just have to make do with this.

  Despite the lack of food, however, Jin couldn’t help but grin wildly. His hands shook with barely-contained excitement and his strides went further and faster than normal. The servants dispersed around him, bowing and greeting him as he passed. Jin greeted back, just as his father taught him.

  When Jin reached the courtyard, he was greeted to the sight of his father and his two swordmasters, standing side by side, waiting for him.

  Jin bowed at the sight of them. “Shall we begin my test, father?”

  Hamada strode forward and nodded, smiling. “You will have your breakfast in the wilderness, my son. Survive, return, defeat the castle’s defenses, and take the heirloom that is rightfully yours.”

  Jin bowed again. “I will not disappoint you father.”

  Without warning, Jin unsheathed his sword and swung at the air. His blade clanged as it collided against a shuriken that’d been aimed at his forehead. The shinobi weapon flew off course and sank into a nearby plant.

  Nobito No Yoritsumo clapped as he walked toward Jin, a line of shurikens dangling from his belt. “Keep your wits about you, my student. Use everything that I have taught you. The wilds are dangerous and unforgiving; there is no place for honor there. Kill what you must and eat what you must.”

  Keikuri Seijuro walked forward next. Jin’s master of the Water-Flowing sword was an effeminate man, whose skin was as pale as freshly fallen snow, crowned by shiny obsidian hair. Honestly, if it wasn’t for all the man’s rippling muscles, Jin might’ve actually thought Seijuro was a woman.

  “I do not know how my teachings will aid you in the wilderness, young master,” Seijuro said. “But I know you’re a sharp and intelligent boy. I do not doubt your success.”

  Jin bowed to the both of them, but did not sheathe his wakizashi in case Nobito tried something else. “Thank you, my teachers. And do not worry. I will return and succeed as I always have.”

  No further words were shared between them as Jin was escorted out of the castle grounds and into the surrounding countryside.

  A cold and ominous wind blew, bearing dark and heavy clouds over the high mountains.

  Jin turned and eyed his home. Something at the back of his head whispered terrible things. A darkness was coming….

  And he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it. Even his blade seemed on edge as the inaudible, foreboding whispers echoed. Jin shuddered. What is this feeling?

  It was neither fear nor excitement. It was as though he stood at the precipice—at the calm before the storm.

  He shook his head. What nonsense.

  Pushing away the dreary thoughts, Jin took his first step into the Northern Woodlands.

  Chapter 7

  One of the many things that often killed people as they frolicked about in the wilds was, surprisingly enough, not the terrifying wild creatures that dwelled amongst the trees. No, predators, even Magical Beasts as he’d read, had a tendency to shy away from humans as people generally didn’t have much meat on their bones for predators and were very much capable of fighting back if pushed to brink which meant hunting down humans really wasn’t an efficient way for predators to gain sustenance. No, the greatest enemy in the wilderness was disease, followed by hunger, followed by temperature.

  The last bit Jin could deal with by simply moving his Fire Salamander tattoo onto his chest. The warmth it gave was more than enough for him to survive a full winter, even if he was topless. Disease wouldn’t really be a problem, unless he was planning to spend more than a week in this place, but his father only gave him two days. Hunger might be a problem, but that would be a problem for later. Honestly, he wasn’t even hungry yet, despite the lack of breakfast.

  Magic did wonders for one’s body.

  For now, Jin’s only goal was to head into the deepest depths of the woods to try and locate a few Magical Beasts and harvest the cores in their chests. At least, that was the general idea. With only the books from the Murasaki Library to aid him, Jin’s analytical mind was less than trusting of whatever information he had at the moment. At best, the books were close enough to the real thing that it wouldn’t matter; at worst, Beast Cores were actually located in their brains and he’d have spent a good amount of
time carving open chest cavities.

  Whatever the case, the first thing he needed to do now was find an actual Magical Beast. Those creatures often stayed as far away from humans as possible, only ever coming close on accident or when humans actively hunted them for magical purposes. His Fire Salamander, now looking less and less like a salamander and more like a strange dragon-like creature, was an example of the former—just wandering blindly and somehow running into him. Tracking them was another problem. In both worlds, Jin had never really learned the skills of a hunter. He didn’t know how to track animals with their footprints or whatever it was hunters used.

  So, when he did find a Magical Beast, he’d have to keep his eyes on it, chase it across the woods and kill it.

  It was… a very crude plan, but it was the only plan he had at the moment. The bestiaries never mentioned anything about how to lure in Magical Beasts and entrap them; no, almost every encounter happened by chance or by sheer brutish hunting.

  And I only have two days to hunt one down and carve out a piece of solid magic from its chest cavity—joy. Everything would’ve been about a thousand times easier if he could lure them in.

  The further Jin strode into the forests, the thicker the foliage became. Natural dirt paths disappeared, giving way to overgrown undergrowth that shrouded much of the forest floor, alongside the myriad of tall trees that stood far too close to each other. Wild flowers, mushrooms, and likely poisonous berries grew in haphazard meadows and ragged shrubs. Up above, the canopy blocked much of the sunlight, making it seem as though night was nearing, despite the fact that it was still a few hours before noon. The air was thick with the smell of decay, animal feces, rotting plants, and damp soil, but amidst all that was the fragrant scent of all the wild flowers that bloomed so close to each other. It was almost like a perfume.

  Regardless, there was an odd sort of beauty to this place—not quite like the sort of beauty he’d grown accustomed to: the uniformity and the skillfulness of paintings and gardening. This beauty was wild, untamed, and untouched. A veritable wilderness that the sages and the shamans of his previous worlds would’ve appreciated.

  There was so much life here.

  About an hour into his search for a Magical Beast, Jin stopped and laid a hand on his stomach. The first annoying pang of hunger had finally reached him and ignoring it would be unwise. Jin’s eyes scanned his immediate surroundings. He wasn’t quite an expert on the edible herbs and mushrooms that existed in the forests, though Hamada had taught him a few species that they’d often picked together in the small hours when he wasn’t either training or studying in the library. Otherwise, much of what he knew came from the books in the Murasaki Library, which—to his disappointment—did not hold much knowledge and wisdom in the ways of foraging and surviving in the wilderness.

  Moyatani nobles, even his own clansmen, simply didn’t care enough about such lowly activities to compile a book about it, which was a shame since all knowledge was equally useful, in Jin’s view.

  I can create a fire easily enough. Roasted mushroom doesn’t sound too appetizing, but I’ve little choice in the matter.

  With Hamada’s brief lesson firmly in his mind, Jin searched for the nearest fallen log. Whenever they did go out to forage for mushrooms and herbs, which was more a way for them to kill time than it was a necessity, Hamada often led him to fallen logs or damp boulders, where the bulbous, white-head, growths often gathered. They tasted alright, as far as he recalled, but they wouldn’t be his first choice if he was asked to name his favorite ingredients.

  Jin rolled over a hollowed log and found the exact mushrooms he was looking for, though he couldn’t quite remember their names. He grabbed around ten of the white-head bulbous growths, and placed them in the folds of his kimono, before walking away.

  A few feet from the log itself was a small clearing, where the soil was neither damp nor dry; instead, a layer of dried leaves and twigs converged over the earth, creating a soft bed of rotting things. It wasn’t the best place to build a fire, but it’ll do. With that in mind, Jin gathered large sticks and branches, breaking them on his knees and tossing them into the center of the clearing and building a pile of dried wood. Once the pile was large enough, Jin moved his Fire Salamander tattoo onto his left hand—suddenly shivering at the sudden loss of heat—and blasted a powerful cone of flames over the dried sticks, twigs, and branches. They caught fire immediately.

  Huffing, Jin moved his Fire Salamander back onto his chest and sighed with relief as soon as heat flooded his body once more. Ah, that’s better.

  Once that was settled, Jin then grabbed a moderately thick stick, trimmed its excess edges and smoothed its surface with his sword, Agito, and sharpened its tip. He took his mushrooms and impaled them on the stick one by one.

  With a sigh, Jin plopped down on the forest floor and held out his roasting stick over the open flames, positioning it at just the right height to keep the mushrooms from burning. The fungi gave off a damp, earthy odor as they roasted. Neither appetizing nor fragrant, but food was food and he’d be damned if he’d let something as banal as hunger defeat him.

  After quickly eating his food, Jin wandered off. As he moved deeper into the woodlands, the magic in the air thickened as well, albeit the rate at which that was happening was incredibly slow. Jin did know, however, that the woods around his home stretched out for hundreds of miles, and the Magical Beasts dwelled where the humans couldn’t be bothered to reach them anymore, which meant he was still quite a bit away from them.

  Undeterred by his general lack of success, Jin moved ever deeper.

  It was only after three hours of walking and avoiding bears and other measly predators that Jin finally came across a Magical Beast.

  Hovering over a patch of wild flowers was an Emerald-Winged Butterfly, one of the many Magical Beasts that were classified as supposedly “harmless”. It was a tiny creature, though still much larger than any normal butterfly. Its wings glowed and pulsed with a ghastly green color that really didn’t look anything like emeralds—probably much closer to jade. A constant trail of twinkling magical particles followed it and shimmered in the air, before falling down upon the flowers.

  According to the books he’d read that bothered mentioning these Magical Beasts, all they really did was fly over fruits, flowers, and beehives, which affected the sweetness of the fruits, nectar, and honey. Essentially, no one bothered capturing these things, since they were all but useless in combat, though they were highly prized by gardeners and farmers, who happened to be capable of magic, since just a tiny bit of their essence made even the humblest of apples taste heavenly, which allowed them to sell the products at a much higher price. Once, his father had brought home a pot of rice wine that had supposedly been imbued with the essence of an Emerald-Winged Butterfly and, true enough, it tasted divine—though Hamada never gave him more than a single sip.

  For a moment, Jin contemplated capturing the Magical Beast and just splitting it open, but decided against it. It’s too small for my purposes. I need to find something that’s about equal in size to a cat or larger.

  But he was curious. Jin looked over the Magical Beast’s surroundings and found a bushel of wild strawberries that twinkled softly under the creature’s magical influence. Smiling, Jin reached for a single one of its fruits and bit down. Luscious sweetness filled his mouth, coating his lips. It was, in simple terms, the most delicious fruit he’d ever had and his family had an orchard of very sweet apples, so that was saying something. “Amazing… I wonder how it’s affecting the sweetness of fruits.”

  No, it wasn’t just affecting the sweetness. It was actively making it more delicious, which needed a lot more than a simple increase in sugar content—some fruits simply didn’t taste good when they were made much sweeter. Wild strawberries, for instance, wouldn’t be appetizing if one were to dip them in sugar, but—somehow—the Emerald-Winged Butterfly had made it both sweeter and more flavorful.

  Fascinating.

&nb
sp; Smiling to himself, Jin grabbed another handful of wild strawberries and strode off.

  The air here had more magic, but it swirled and expanded at random, moving through the woodlands like a hurricane. Everything in this place was suffused with magical energies, from the highest leaves down to the lowest roots. Magic had firmly grasped the land itself, making everything just a tad bit more colorful and more vibrant than they otherwise should’ve been. Apples were redder and plumper. Flowers bore a stronger, but no less fragrant scent, and the leaves of every single tree was greener.

  The best part was that he probably wouldn’t run out of food anytime soon—

  Jin’s eyes widened as he leapt up high and latched onto one of the branches above. His eyes wandered down and glanced at a massive wild boar, whose gruesome tusks stretched out of its snout like curved polearms. Its limbs were stubby and thick, and its body was lean, but powerful, rippling with over-developed muscles underneath its thick hide. A large hump stuck out of its back, near its neck. Reddish-brown fur covered most of its body.

  And, most of all, its eyes glistened with an intelligence that simply did not exist in mundane beasts.

  Jin grinned. “Hello there.”

  This was obviously a Magical Beast—an Earth-Shaker Boar, if he wasn’t mistaken, capable of turning giant boulders into rubble with the strength of its tusks alone. It was said that, when enraged, they could shake the very foundations of the earth with their charge.

  The boar turned and glanced up at him. Their eyes locked and twin puffs of hot air steamed out of its gigantic nostrils. Still grinning, Jin released his grip over the branch and allowed himself to fall down, Agito drawn. Now, let’s see how we go about killing you, you hairy overgrown pig.