Reborn: Demon Core (8 page)

Roaring out in pain, the ogre swung its right
arm clipping Ash on the side and sending him tumbling to the other
end of the room. As he came to a stop, Ash shook his head to clear
it from spinning. Though it wasn’t accompanied by a weapon, the
strike had still done a good deal of damage and sent him across the
room. Looking down, Ash noticed that his arm was hanging loosely at
his side. He tried to move it but he was only greeted with
pain.

As he was sitting on the ground, Jacob hit
the same spot in the neck he had been attacking and finally broke
through the ogre’s defense severing the spinal cord. Ash stumbled
over and absorbed the ogre then retrieved his sword.

“Master your arm,” Shina gasped as she
noticed it hanging down at his side.

Lillanis pushed past Shina and pulled off
Ash’s armor to inspect the wound. When she saw the large purplish
bruise on his shoulder she let out a sigh of relief. “It has just
been dislocated. Halon come here and give me a hand.”

For the first time in two days, Ash saw a
smile spread across Halon’s face as he took hold of Ash’s wrist and
upper arm. When Halon pulled on his arm while lifting up, a spasm
of pain surged through Ask, nearly causing him to black out. After
a few seconds, his vision cleared and he could once again move his
arm though not without pain.

As soon as his arm was back in place,
Lillanis started to heal his shoulder. The feel of her soft hands
on his Skin brought a slight red tinge to Ash’s face but he endured
it. When she was finished, Lillanis let her fingers linger on his
skin as she traced the outline of his exposed collarbone.

“Does it feel better master?” Shina asked,
steeping between Lillanis and Ash.

“As good as new,” Ash said trying not to
smile.

“Then if you are feeling better, should we
get moving?” Halon said, walking toward the door to the next floor.
“I thought you wanted to fight some special monster on the lower
floors.”

Just as Ash had figured, the next floor was
bussing with plants and trees. The whole forest was brimming with
magical energy, making it hard for him to see well with his Dragon
Eyes. Due to the intense glare caused by the eyes, he was forced to
inactivate the ability like he had done when training with
Zelan.

Even without his Dragon Eyes, Ash focused on
his Spider Sense but that seemed useless as well. The whole area
felt as if it was an enemy, as if the forest itself was one large
monster. Zelan had told him no matter how strong the ability, there
would be times that it was useless or a hindrance so it was best to
learn not to rely on them, but see them only as tools to be used
when and only when they are useful.

Thanks to his training, Ash wasn’t bothered
by the fact that he had lost the use of a few of his abilities. He
was slightly more on guard and only hoped that it wasn’t another
monster like the clematis that’s main body was hidden.

Ash got his first glimpse of their new foes
shortly after entering the floor. A small green man seemed to rise
out of the ground. It turned its small head and its body morphed
until it looked like Halon, though with a green body. “Gross,”
Shina said as she watched the green monster.

“It doesn’t look anything like magnificent
me,” Halon said as he drew his sword.

“It looks just like you…That’s what makes it
look so gross,” Shina said with a disgusted look on her face. “Why
couldn’t it take master’s appearance, Then it would have been
cute.”

Jacob laughed at Shina’s response, and when
Halon protested, even Lillanis gives a light chuckle. Halon’s
shoulders dropped slightly as he muttered to himself.

Before Halon could think of a retort, the
green version of himself attacked. The hand of the creature formed
into a sword just like the one Halon used. Just as Ash was starting
to move to help Halon, he felt something behind him and dodged to
the side and found himself facing a green version of himself.
Looking at himself Ash, remembered fighting something similar in
the past though not one nearly as strong. “Everyone watch out,” Ash
yelled. “There are more than one.”

In all of their fights so far, they had
worked as a team fighting against a known number of opponents. This
time though, the enemies appeared out of the ground without
warning. Ash and the others quickly gathered together with Lillanis
at the center since she had the lowest HP and weakest defense.

Within moments, the group of five was
surrounded by more than twenty plant creatures, each one wearing
one of their faces. The monsters were strong and seemed to mimic
not only the appearance, but the skills of their opponents. The
only real difference that Ash could see was that the strength of
the monsters was based on their level, not on who they
mimicked.

Oddly enough, it was Ash’s clones that were
the easiest to fight. Other than his luck shield, Ash didn’t have a
lot of fighting skills and the cones could not mimic abilities it
seemed so they were easy to deal with when compared to the others.
Ash felt slightly sad that even Lillanis’s clone was harder to deal
with than his. While neither had any combat related skills, the
Lillanis’s clone could heal the others and itself.

With a tight formation, Ash and the others
fought hard keeping the monsters away from Lillanis. With nearly
every strike, Ash killed one of the clones, but more and more
seemed to appear. If he was fighting alone it wouldn’t be much
trouble, but the others were having a harder time dealing with the
large numbers of enemies than he was.

Shina and Jacob who had speed, but less HP
and defense were trapped and forced to fight while limiting their
movements. Ash and Halon tried to move around when they could to
help out, but there was little they could do without opening up
their formation and putting Lillanis at risk.

When the last clone fell, Shina and the
others collapsed on the ground breathing hard. Ash pulled out some
water from his inventory and passed it around. While the others
rested, Ash absorbed the clones and his MP quickly began to
drain.

“Tring.”

[You have reached the max absorption rate for
Spore Mimic. Abilities available: Copy (cannot be learned).]

“Tring.’

[No abilities from target can be learned. You
will be granted a +1 stat point.]

“What did you get this time?” Lillanis asked
looking up at Ash’s face.

“Nothing,” Ash replied. A +1 stat wasn’t even
enough to get surprised about anymore. Since the others were
resting, Ash picked up the monster drops. The item looked like a
large seed about the size of Ash’s thumb.

[Spoor Seed (low quality).]

There was a total of 37 spoor seeds and one
monster core. It had a total of nine points in stat increase
meaning it was worth ninety gold. Ash showed the orb to the others
and their eyes widened. It was not the first time they had found an
orb, but each time they showed the same expression. “It is worth
ninety gold. I will buy it and you can split the gold,” Ash said
hopefully.

“You are going to use it for the country
right?” Lillanis asked.

“Yes,” Ash replied honestly. “I will give it
to Emelia so that she can use it to have a small reduction in taxes
and use the saved coin on the fort.”

“Then how does ten gold each sound,” Halon
suggested.

“It is worth a lot more than ten gold,” Ash
said shaking his head.

“There are five of us fighting,” Halon said.
“That means it would be…” Halon puts on a concentrated look as he
thinks. “Eighteen gold a piece normally. If we count the fact that
you are the only reason that an orb would drop, I don’t think the
slight reduction in price really matters. I mean if you pay us what
it is worth, then you will never get the coin you are trying to
get. In fact, instead of paying us for the monster orbs, why don’t
we just change the normal drop split.”

“That is a good idea,” Lillanis replied
quickly.

“Right now we are spitting it 2 for us and
one for Ash. We could increase it to four to one and let Ash have
any orbs that drop.”

“Are you sure?” Ash asked, feeling as if he
was taking advantage of his friends.

“I think it would work out fine,” Jacob
interjected. “Orbs don’t drop that often, so as long as it is good
with you, I think we will come out ahead.”

“Thank you,” Ash said bowing deeply to the
three.

With the new terms of their partnership
defined, Ash handed out the spore seeds that the monsters dropped.
Out of the thirty-seven seeds Ash received seven. Out of the seven,
he gave three to Shina. She tried to refuse, but Ash insisted that
she had fought and deserved a portion of the rewards from the fight
as well.

Even though Ash couldn’t gain anything more
from the monsters on this level, they were still forced to fight
three more times before they reached the boss room. The number of
monsters they had to fight each time was outrageous and reminded
Ash of the zombies on the earlier floor.

Even with the potions, everyone, including
Ash was exhausted when they reached the boss room and didn’t feel
like fighting. Even though there were four more floors until he
reached the gnomes he wanted to fight, Ash was forced to head
back.

Even though they had fought a lot of battles,
it was still only slightly passed noon. With time to spare, Ash
headed outside the gate. When he reached the area that was planned
to be used for the fort, he found a number of people carrying axes
and dragging downed trees to stack in large piles near the edge of
the forest.

After removing his outer armor, Ash put it in
his inventory as he pulled an axe out. Ash picked a place near
where the others were working and started to cut down a tree. While
he worked, Ash watched the other workers. They worked in teams of
three. Two of the people would use ropes to guide how the tree fell
while the third cut it down. Sometimes Ash would see the workers
switch places but all around him they were all doing the same
thing. Once the tree was down, the three would pull it over to the
edge while a group of ten men used a set of pulleys to lift the
logs up and stack them.

Thanks to his strength, it only took three
strikes from his axe to nearly cut through the tree. When the tree
started to sway Ash pushed in a clear area. After the tree settled
on the ground, Ash heard a voice call out from behind him.

“Need a hand?” An older man looking to be in
his mid-forties asked.

“Sure,” Ash replied as he sat the axe
aside.

“I can help too master,” Shina said as she
grabbed a small hand axe and started to cut off the limbs of the
tree.

“Master eh,” the man said looking at Ash
again.

“Yea…I ended up with her somehow or another,”
Ash said laughing. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t feel like
drawing too much attention.

“Ah lad, don’t worry too much about it,” the
older man said with a knowing grin. “A lot of young men think of
getting a slave, then end up having to work off the cost.”

After they carted the fallen tree away, they
returned and continued clearing a small area. After they had cut
down five trees in quick succession, the old man who was named Huck
called for a break. “For such a young man with your strength, I am
surprised that you are out here working instead of fighting in the
labyrinth or working as an adventurer.”

“Is it that odd?” Ash asked as Shina handed
him a small sandwich that she had brought with her.

“Well even if they are scrubs, the youngins
always dream of being adventurers. Most don’t know that even people
with grade sS abilities have a hard time making it as adventurers.
They just look at the few who sit at the top and wish to be like
them.”

“I don’t think I have heard of a scrub
before,” Ash said as finished his food.

“Really…well they do have plenty of names for
it. A scrub is someone who has a useless inborn ability. It is true
that once you reach level ten you can get a job class, but even
then you have levels. People with low level abilities have it hard
finding a good master, though it does happen but it is rare.”

“But why are they called scrubs?” Ash
asked.

“Oh, that. It is because of an old story.
Would you like to hear it?” Huck asked with a withered smile.

“Is it a long story?” Ash asked as he sat
down his canteen. “We should get back to work.”

“Lad, no need to push yourself so hard,” Huck
said laughing. “We have already done as much in the past hour than
most will get done in half a day. It is not like you get paid more
for working harder. As long as you don’t seem to be slacking, the
taskmasters won’t say a word,” Huck said in a lecturing tone. “Long
ago there were two brothers. The older brother had three inborn
abilities. One was a sword skill while the other two helped
strengthen his body. The younger brother only had one inborn
ability called scrub that allowed him to clean anything.”

As Huck told the story, Ash sat and listened
patiently while Shina seemed to be completely absorbed in the
story.

“Growing up, the parents of the children
spent every dime they had to help the older brother train his
abilities. On the other hand, the younger brother was sent out to
work using his ability to earn money for his family. It wasn’t long
before the older brother was noticed by the knights and brought
into their order. With his new found fame, the older brother helped
his family, but he had contempt in his heart for his brother who
toiled every day. Thinking that his brother would bring shame to
him, he brought his family to the capital while banishing his
brother from the household. Without family or money, the young
brother continued to work. He did not look for fame, instead he got
a job at a large inn that quickly became known as the cleanest inn
within the kingdom. One day the king who was passing through the
town stopped at the famed inn and noticed the young man and hired
him to work in the palace. Over the years the boy continued to work
and one of the young princesses took to him and soon they were
married. On the day of his wedding, his brother attended the
ceremony, not knowing that it was for his younger brother. Upon
seeing his younger brother sitting beside the princess, the older
brother grew angry. ‘How dare his lowly brother try to rise above
him?’ The older brother challenged his brother to a duel. The
younger brother knew that he couldn’t win in a duel, but he had no
way to retreat.”