Reborn: Demon's Legacy (2 page)

Celina looked down at Deedra who layed limply in Ash’s arms. Her eyes quickly softened as she pulled the child From Ash’s arm. “Thank you,” Celina said before she quickly closed the door leaving Ash standing alone and more than a little surprised at the whole encounter. With a short laugh, Ash turned and headed back to find his own quarters.

9-3

The next day Ash, Celina, and four other demons headed for the labyrinth. The other four warriors were each over level eighty and one of them had a level of a hundred and eight. Ash had always silently wondered what the highest level one could become was. He had read a number of stories while in Emelia’s study about great heroes that were above the level of two hundred, but to him they were just stories. Now though, he had witnessed someone over level one hundred himself.

Today they would be fighting on the nineteenth and sixty-second floor of the labyrinth. The goal was to gain three abilities. Two were passive and one was active. He wasn’t told much other than they would gain the abilities in one day and spend the rest of the week training them so that he had a better understanding of how they were to be used. Normally this would take a year, but Ash was on a short schedule so he was only getting a small dose of the true training and hoped to pick up the rest when things had settled down.

The labyrinth didn’t have a metal plate, but a stone sculpture of a large flaming dog in front of it that the head guard placed his hand on. The six people were instantly transported to the nineteenth floor.

Ash was excited to once again be fighting in a labyrinth, but that was short lived. The monster were earth spirits and before Ash had a chance to kill a single one, the four large guards threw up their hands and bombarded the spirts with their magic. Watching, Ash had to admit that they were indeed skilled at the use of magic attacks, but it left him feeling more than a little useless as he moved from one corpse to the next only absorbing them.

Seeing his face, Celina who had stuck close by Ash patted him on the shoulder as he stood from absorbing one of the spirits. “You will get all the fighting that you want tomorrow. I promise,” Celina said with a teasing voice.

Ash smiled back and prayed that she was right as he continued to absorb the dead monsters one after another. Ash had quickly lost track of the number as he went from one to the next so when he heard the welcome “Tring,” Sound in his ears he let out a cry of happiness.

[You have reached the absorption rate for lesser Earth Spirit. Abilities available: Earth Shield (active), and Heart of Stone (passive).]

“Tring.”

[You have been randomly awarded the ability Heart of Stone.]

[Heart of Stone: slowly absorbs the essence of the earth into your blood strengthening the body over time. Level max.]

Ash read the description of the skill a number of times, but was still unsure of how it worked. He wanted to ask either the clan head or the sage, but since neither were present all he could do was wait.

Once again Ash followed behind the four guards while they easily cut through the weak earth spirits so that he could absorb them. Time passed by slowly for Ash and he walked from one body to the next until he heard the welcomed sound once again.

“Tring.”

[You have reached the absorption rate for lesser Earth Spirit. Abilities available: Earth shield (active).]

“Tring.”

[You have been randomly awarded the ability Earth Shield.]

[Earth Shield: Cost 40MP- create a stone shield made of condensed earth. Level 1-0%.]

Seeing the ability Ash knew that he could do the same thing without the ability but it would take him longer and most likely use up a bit more MP as he would have to use two abilities at once to do the same thing. At first Ash thought that his luck made him prefect to be a gambler and in some ways that was true. Without his Gambler’s Boost, Ash wouldn’t be nearly as strong as he was but at the same time it limited him. If he had chosen to be a mage or wizard Ash could make any number of spells using his different abilities. If he had chosen a swordsman he could do the same thing. As a gambler it limited him since very few abilities used luck as their main source.

Ash was lost in thought as they continued to the labyrinth door and flashed to the sixty second floor. As soon as his vision cleared, Ash could feel the deadly aura of the place. Unlike the floors he had been to before, Ash could almost taste the danger that hung in the air. Looking around, it was almost as if they were in some sort of jewel cave as the ground and roof both were made of clear diamonds.

“My Lord, stay close,” one of the guards said as he looked around. Unlike before when the guards quickly moved out, killing everything in their path with but a few blows, this time they stuck close to Ash, never moving more than a few feet from his side. It didn’t take long for Ash to get his first glimpse of the new enemy. It was a slender creature made of pure diamond. As soon as it appeared, the guards started to use their magic to bring it down. The diamond monster gave out a piercing scream and charged as three diamond spears flew from its hands.

The guards each threw up their hands and three stone walls jutted from the ground. The diamond spears flew through the first wall as if passing through paper, and then the second. At the third wall, Ash could see cracks starting to appear, but the spears were stopped. Before Ash could say anything, the guards were already at work and loud bangs made Ash’s ears ring and strikes of lighting bombarded the diamond being.

Seeing that the spears didn’t work, the diamond creature continued to approach the six people. Three of the guards focused on attack while one of the guards started using his magic to try and slow down the diamond monster.

At the beginning of the battle, Ash was more than a little startled and when the diamond spears were shot toward him, more than a little afraid. Now he was still slightly amazed, not with the monster, but how the guards fought seamlessly as if they were a single entity. Looking to his side, he noticed that Celina was watching the fight as if it were a show made just for her amusement. Shaking his head, Ash suppressed a laugh and turned back to watch the battle.

In the end, the battle took less than ten minutes though when it was happening it felt like hours to Ash. Once the diamond monster died, Ash quickly absorbed it while the others guarded him.

After watching the battle, Ash was glad that he had so many high level guards around him. He was a lot of things, but Ash was not an utter fool. He knew that if he was forced to fight the monster alone, there would only be one outcome and that would be his death.

The guards continued to fight while guarding Ash until once again he heard the welcomed sound in his ears.

“Tring.”

[You have reached the absorption rate for greater Earth Spirit. Abilities available: Diamond Soul (passive).]

“Tring.”

[You have randomly been awarded the ability Diamond Soul.]

“Tring.”

[The new stat Soul MP has been created.]

[Diamond Soul: Ability to convert MP into Soul MP. Ratio 100/1. Level 1-0%]

“That is all of them,” Ash said as he read through the description of Diamond Soul again.”

“Then we should retire for the day my Lord,” the lead guard said as he began to lead Ash back toward the labyrinth exit.

Once they left the labyrinth, they were met by the clan head along with the sage and a number of other people Ash had seen the day before. “I see that everything has went well,” the clan head said happily. “Let us head back to my manor so that I can explain why these three abilities are important and why we are the clan in charge of their training.”

Ash was once again taken to the room with the long table and forced to sit on the ground. After a whole day of nothing but following behind others as they fought, Ash was already feeling restless. Being forced it sit on the ground while calmly drinking tea just made him want to scream in anguish.

“First let me explain a bit about my clan and our blood ability and normal abilities. Just like the Maoh, each clan head has a blood ability. Though unlike the Maoh, it is possible to pass it along to more than one person in each generation, though less than one person out of five will receive the blood ability. Our blood ability is ‘Affinity of Heaven.’ It makes it possible for us to use all four major elements with a reduced cost. The other ability that our clan often has is Diamond Soul. Which is the same one that you gained today. I know from the description it sounds like a useless skill, but it is honestly better than our blood ability. However, it isn’t unique since many of the other clans have it as well. The reason it is so useful is you can condense your normal MP into Soul MP. Now Soul MP has the same use as normal MP, the only difference is that there isn’t a limit to how much soul MP that you can gather and save. It allows our best warriors to have an almost limitless amount of MP to use for emergencies. My advice is that each night before sleeping, you condense all the MP you have left from the day.”

“I see,” Ash said nodding his head. It was true that at first he didn’t see much use in the ability, but now that he had head the head’s explanation it made sense. The main problem back at the fort was his lack of MP. If he had spent months or even better years condensing MP, he could have used his strongest magic over and over, devastating the enemy’s forces.

“The other abilities are slightly different than Diamond Soul. Heart of Stone is useful, but it will take years for it to truly show its potential. It creates a small Earth Stone in your heart and circulates earth essence through your veins slowly strengthening your bones and muscles. Earth Shield is easily enough to understand though it is much harder to know when to use it and how to use it flawlessly than you might think. That is what we will be doing over the next few days. First, what do you know about earth’s strength and weaknesses.”

“Earth is the strongest of the four elements in defense. Other than that I am not really sure,” Ash admitted.

“You are right, in physical defense Earth is the strongest. It has its weaknesses though. When faced against fire and wind, earth has the advantage but a skilled mage can find ways around earth since it is inflexible. Against water, earth is still strong but water can cut through earth better than the other elements, but it is still much easier for a mage to go around your defense then go through it. This is the reason that earth shield is one of the first abilities that a Maoh obtains. Unlike Earth Wall, Earth Shield can be formed in the air and can be called and recalled at will as long as you have enough MP. Over the next few days, you will learn how to do this, or at least that is mine and the sages hope.”

“Why not start today?” Ash asked, feeling more than a little impatient.

“It is already getting dark and I think it would be best if we didn’t push things too fast. For tonight I would suggest that you take the time to absorb what you have learned. Pushing too far too fast only leads to trouble.”

“Understood,” Ash said, slightly disheartened with the news. He knew that he could order them to continue the training today, but just like with Allice and his other slaves it wouldn’t feel right to do so. Sighing, Ash was left with no other choice than to wait.

The meal for the day was fish, just as it was the day before. Ash didn’t hate fish, but he wasn’t a big fan of it either. If given the choice, he would have chosen meat over it without hesitation, but sadly he wasn’t given a choice in the menu. Other than fish, there was a salty soup and rice. It was a good meal, but not one that was fit for his tastes. After eating, Ash returned to his room where he found the three kids from the day before along with two new ones.

“Ash play with us,” the young girl said her eyes wide and playful.

“What shall we play?” Ash asked without hesitation. After spending all day following others and watching them fight without being able to do anything himself, a little bit of fun sounded like just the right thing to get his spirts up.

“We can play hide and seek,” the girl said after thinking for a bit. “Johnna can seek this time.”

“Uhhhh,” one of the slightly older boys said in a whiney tone.

Though he complained, it seemed that the boy quickly lost out to the young girl in the argument. Deedra took Ash by the hand and led him into the garden while giggling. “He will never find us.”

Ash was taken to the far edge of the garden near the wall when Deedra sat on the ground and motioned for him to do the same. Her small round face scrunched up in concentration and then a large wall of dirt rose in front of them.

“Isn’t that cheating?” Ash asked as he looked at the young girl’s exhausted expression.

“Nope, this is how we always play,” Deedra exclaimed proudly. “One time Saare hid in the middle of a bone fire for more than two hours before we found her.”

“Do you always use magic when you are playing?” Ash asked slightly intrigued.

“Yep…All the teachers say it is the best way to learn. So we get to play lots every day, though it is tiring,” Deedra punctuated her words with a cute yawn before lying down next to Ash. “Tell me a story please?” the young girl asked her large eyes pleading.

Laughing to himself, Ash started to tell Deedra of some of the stories of the heroes that he had read about. When she didn’t look pleased, Ash chanced it to some of the better known fairy tales from his previous world. The young girl seemed to like the idea of a white knight riding to save the princess and eagerly asked him to tell her more. Soon Ash heard the young girl’s soft breathing as she drifted off to sleep. Lifting her up in his arms, he was about to bring down the dirt wall with it started to dissipate. “Found you,” the young boy declared, but upon seeing the sleeping girl he covered his mouth and just nodded his head as Ash walked by.