Reborn: Demon's Legacy by D. W. Jackson Page A

Smiling, Ash informed the guards that he had gained all the abilities and was ready to move onto the next monster.
    When they left the blood titans behind, Ash had never been so happy to leave a floor of the labyrinth and he silently hoped never to meet the creatures or creatures like them again.
    None of the other monsters that they faced seemed to catch Ash’s attention after having seen the blood titan. There was only a simple ice giant and a terra beast. The ice giant only gave one ability while the terra beast gave him the remaining two.
    [Artic Shock- cost 45MP 15SP: send out a large wave of cold air with the fierceness of a tempest.]
    [Maul- cost 40SP: unleash a series of violent strikes with each one holding more power than the last.]
    [Devour- cost 200SP: completely devour certain monsters to gain 1 point in the hardness or endurance stat. Can only be used once per monster.]
    When Ash gained the last ability, he started to understand the ones he had gotten earlier. With this, he didn’t have to sacrifice any vitality to gain points in the hardness stat.
    By the time they exited the labyrinth, night had already fully claimed the sky. Tired and weary, Ash followed Tolarea to the large conference chamber where the others awaited him.
    After a large meal, or at least a large meal to Ash, though it seemed only a snack to the larger members of the group the sage started explain the abilities he had received.
    “Other than the fighting abilities, which I am sure you can see the use for yourself, the main abilities you came here for are the ones that deal with the hardness stat. The Icsorth and a few other clans have this when they are born and can put points into it as they gain in level, but for you the only way to do so is through using your gained abilities. First off, how much vitality do you have?”
    “I have seventy-seven points in vitality,” Ash said, not counting what his abilities gave him as a bonus.
    “That is all?” Belgan shouted. “Where have you been putting everything? Vitality is needed for everyone. Without it, you’re as good as dead. With your level, you should have at least put forty points into it and even with poor training, it should be near 100 points. Just what do humans do sit around all day watching the clouds pass?”
    Ash couldn’t help but flinch at the clan head’s words. It was true that he hadn’t put many points in anything besides luck lately. The only reason that his vitality was as high as it is was because of his training and the few monster cores he had used. “I put most everything into luck.”
    “I see,” the sage said then his eyes widened as he remembered Ash’s abilities and skills. “I see.”
    “Am I missing something here?” Belgan asked, his face still holding a hint of anger though a lot of it had been replaced by a look of confusion. When the sage explained how Ash’s abilities and skills worked, the large man quickly changed his tone but after a while he shook his head again. “It works well over all, but that means for every point he removes from vitality, his health will take a major drop.”
    “Is hardness really that useful?” Ash asked, not understanding why the large man was so agitated.
    “Cuts, even deep ones can be healed rather easily, but broken bones and destroyed limps can’t. If your arm is cut off, even the most skilled healer can’t do squat about it. Once hardness reaches one hundred, it would take a titans strength to break it and at two hundred even a dragon would have a hard time. Once you get it high enough, there are some other abilities that would make you almost indestructible, unless you faced off against some really nasty enemies.”
    Ash gave the clan head’s words a lot of thought and decided that it might be best to start putting some of his points into vitality. As long as his HP was at 1000 he didn’t really worry much about dying too easily, but he didn’t want it to go below that, even if it meant that his