《Ashes of Hell》Chapter 10 - A new beginning - Part 3
Advertisement
The weapon in question was a curved sword. It started up straight from the handle but after about twenty centimeters it started curving up, resembling the iconic figure of a sickle.
The sword was also particularly long, reaching almost 1.5 meters, yet such swords weren't usually this big. As if the weapon itself wasn't to be handled by normal humans.
Despite the aura of antiquity that the weapon emanated, which in mysticism usually represented power, its general condition was telling the complete opposite. From the hilt to the sharpened edge of the sword, everything seemed to be covered up in a strange kind of rust. Red dots of rust and thick clusters of a dark red substance covered the entire weapon. Almost as if it had previously been corrupted.
'Why am I so attracted to this, this weapon is in such a bad shape. I could pick one at random from this armory and it would certainly look better than this sword.
It's in such a bad status that from the sharp, deadly weapon that it was, now it has become a blunt weapon. It's ridiculous.'
However, the more Nestor looked at it and pondered about how foolish it would be to choose it, the more he felt attracted to it.
'How can I even be so sure that under this red matter, or whatever it is, there is still a fine blade?.
Would I be corrupted and become like the sword the moment that I touch it, or maybe I would slowly be corrupted?'
Apparently, Nestor's constant worryings didnìt matter, as he impulsively approached the curved sword and picked it up.
'This is much lighter than I expected, it feels a bit unpleasant to the touch, I donìt like this 'thing'. At a first glance, it might have seemed rust, but it's too dark, having even some black dots here and there.
Advertisement
However I have made my decision, something keeps telling me to choose this sword. I felt it before, the call was coming from my very soul.'
Soon after Nestor hurried toward the only desk present in the armory, in the center of the room there was Lenard just sitting behind it. He had already finished tweaking with Nestor's tablet for at least ten whole minutes.
'I must have become engrossed in that feeling, I seem to have lost track of time.'
Carrying the sword in his right hand, Nestor placed it on the desk, while taking out his left palm, waiting to receive his soul tablet.
"Here you go, I promoted it from a level of authority zero to that of one. Now with the strong thought of it, you can store objects inside the tablet, so to be clear it doesn't work with living organisms.
You can also notice a few lines that confirm your identity, along with a picture of your face. If you by any chase lose it, you have to tell me immediately as this tablet is linked to your soul.
I trust that you won't use this information in reverse, do not harm the damned people of this city. We are already suffering enough on our own."
Mestor was quite happy, this tablet truly had an ability that seemed too good to be true.
The tablet was basically a backpack the size of a modern credit card. For a man coming from the medieval epoch, it was absurd.
Yet for all the miraculous happenings that Nestor witnessed during his short second life, this was to be considered exciting at best.
" You surely chose a peculiar weapon, a very bold decision you made. However maybe it was a match decided by fate, it usually is the case for weapons such as this.
They are weapons that are said to be able to grow along with their user, yet there are no studies proving such claims. I haven't ever witnessed such a scene either.
Advertisement
Yet, Here in Ceres, for every legend, as absurd as it might seem, there is always a kernel of truth.
Perhaps someday I'll be the one to learn something new from you."
While Lenard was lost in his speech, Nestor had already understood that the sword had become his own property. Thus he started to concentrate, staring at the blade while imagining it be able to magically enter the tablet.
"Oh my..."
A baffled expression plagued his face once the sword suddenly disappeared, sucked inside the soul tablet. As soon as the process was finished, Nestor had the thought that somehow a good portion of the 'backpack' was now occupied by the sword.
Also, a small 'icon' appeared near his picture on the tablet, it was a miniaturized picture of the sword. Right under it, there was something close to a description, only it consisted of just a few words.
Khopesh of Anguish:
A cursed blade still holding the strong resentment of their previous owner. This type of curved sword is praised for its gruesome slashing ability in close-quarters combat.
'Its dullness is the biggest problem. Yet if it can really grow, or at least be brought back to its peak condition, it will reveal itself as a precious asset of mine.
As the teacher said, this is a gamble, but as of now the entirety of my new life is one, to begin with.'
With this Nestor felt that he just accomplished an important step in his new life.
"Now we better hurry up, there are still a lot more young souls that are waiting for my guidance. Obviously, other teachers have been assigned for your group too, I can't handle as many as thirty students by myself. Oh Oh Oh."
The duo then walked their way out of the armory and went all the way back to the inside garden. Looks of anticipation scrutinized Nestor, all the newbies wanted to make sure to notice any kind of anomaly he portrayed after signing the said contract.
However, Nestor didn't change much from the moment he entered the study room.
On his face had a relaxed yet fatigued expression. His posture was slightly hunched however not as much as to express either sadness or distress.
However, this wasn't very surprising, even if he rested a couple of hours as soon as he got out of the portal, Nestor urgently needed some rest. He needed to sleep and wash away the fresh memories of his former death, as long as to digest all the strange happenings he experienced the last two days.
Many of them were in a similar state, even before signing the contract. Thus the group was slightly disappointed, as until now nobody had come out visibly shocked either in a positive or negative way.
"Nestor is it? Now that you have chosen your weapon I'll help you choose a pair of combat manuals. You'll utilize them as a base for your next six months worth of training.
Follow me, it won't take much, as soon as we're done you'll be free to go. I advise you to go find a room at the lodgings of the damned, I can tell both your body and mind need some real rest."
The world 'rest' at this point almost hypnotized Nestor. The poor soul had remained dazed from the spot until a strong disciplinary voice echoed in his ears.
"Do not make me call for you again, or you'll regret making me waste one more second!"
Advertisement
- In Serial6 Chapters
My goal in Life
No goal, No motivation... Life is full of depression. Eagerness seems like a fleeting cloud... I think I was born in a wrong era.
8 141 - In Serial6 Chapters
The Curio Shoppe
Kellan Klein is an ordinary college student with an average, if traumatic and painful past. Everyone grows up grappling with depression and anxiety that seem to be genetic in a house with parents that, while loving, fight all the time and have weird ideas about what kids should and shouldn't do, right? Everyone deals with bullying, racism, judgement on their romantic inclinations and their family's economic status and just general shittiness, right? All of Kellan's friends sure did, and for all of them, entertaiment media were a welcome escape from their painful, dreary lives. After all, who wouldn't want to sail the seas with Monkey D. Luffy and the Strawhats, or help Meng Hao con increasingly powerful and influential people, or join Cecil Harvey and his friends on their weird journey to save the world, or make friends with Peter Parker while pretending to not know he was everyone's favorite wall-crawling superhero? Kellan certainly wanted to, and while he pursued college to seek out a career he saw himself enjoying, something felt inexplicably empty about his life. So when a decidely sinister force kidnaps him and the prettiest man he's ever seen saves his life and offers him his wildest dreams, Kellan becomes the shopkeeper of a mysterious, dimension hopping shop, complete with a system that helps him acquire items. abilities, materials, and other cool shit to stock it with, as well as some other neat perks. Will Kellan become a boring overpowered MC, like the kind from web fiction that he reads to sate his boredom? Will he keep his generally kind, sweet nature despite the shit he's gone through and will go through, or will he inexplicably become a scary, violent, irrational arrogant douchebag? Will he use his newfound abilities to explore the multiverse and improve the lives of himself and others, or will he become his own antithesis, a purely mercantile jerk obsessed with money and profit, with no concern for anything that doesn't help or hurt his business? Find out in The Curio Shoppe! Author's note: Please suggest possible setting he could visit in the comments. I'll gather ones i'm familiar with, and at the end of every arc, a poll will be held to decide the next location he visits. There will be polls for other purposes, and I might not always go with the poll winner if I feel one of the other options is more fun to read/write about. I will not use the settings of other RRL writers without their permission.Do not ask for that, unless the author in question gives permission. Most settings he visits will be slightly AU in some way or another, but please remind me if I drift too far from canon unintentionally or characterize a character wrongly. This work will eventually fit all tags I selected once he visits universes suited to those tags, so don't ask when or where a given tag is coming. I do not own the cover art, it belongs to Nicholas Belanger Thiel, and I will stop using it if he asks me to. Kellan doesn't look like the old man on the cover, though once he acquires a disguise-type ability he may occasionally use that appearance. The tapir, however, will be a thing, as despite looking like a failed attempt at an elephant, tapirs are cool and this dragon finds them to be kinda cute. The art, along with more of Nicholas's pieces, can be found at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/51bXz
8 196 - In Serial55 Chapters
How Zantheus Fell into the Sky
A knight climbs a mountain in search of enlightenment and when he reaches its peak he is thrown into the sky. He wakes up miles away from the mountain and must journey back to it in order to discover what happened to him. On the way he will meet a mute orphan boy, an escaped slave woman and an eccentric, enigmatic scribe. Join them as they travel over plains, through forests, down rivers and back to the mountain, confronting vagrants, arguing with philosophers and fighting bandits on the way, all in order to discover just HOW ZANTHEUS FELL INTO THE SKY. Now complete! Get it on Amazon Review it on Goodreads
8 172 - In Serial9 Chapters
Surface Tension
A mermaid, Ina, becomes intrigued by the curious actions of a human. In her growing fondness for him, Ina begins to question what she had been taught about human behavior and motives.
8 178 - In Serial14 Chapters
After being reincarnated as the strongest hero I decided to open a tavern and wait until I have to save the world!
I myself have been a fan of Light Novels for the past year as I've been reading more and more and personally I like Isekai. And so! I thought, why not try my hand at writing my own with most of tropes and cliches! Will it be trashy or great? Well, that's for you to decide! Welcome to "After being reincarnated as the strongest hero I decided to open a tavern and wait until I have to save the world!" In this story we will follow our main hero, Dantes who after being killed gets reincarnated, but with some mishaps during the process, things don't go as planned and after being sent to this new world, he decides to his use his past professions and opens a tavern with the help of a few others! OP hero MC? checkBadass Harem? CheckBBEG? CheckEcchi? Check But that is just a taste! If you are interested, then please give it a read.
8 104 - In Serial98 Chapters
Ancient God (Ancient Love Poetry)
[COMPLETED]When the ordinary human encounters difficulties and separation in his life, he can nevertheless resort to praying to the Gods and to Buddha - but what if one is a deity?She lost the memories she had of the three hundred years before the Disaster of Chaos occurred, causing her to forget the love which she had buried deep in her heart.But she will never forget how he quietly stayed by her side for sixty thousand years; she will never forget the thousands of years he spent in the Northern Sea, frozen in time; she will never forget how he stood upright on the Green Dragon Stage, enduring the pain of having his bones crushed and body burnt; she will never forget how he chose to shatter his spirit into a million pieces and turned into ash, just so she could live.Today, in the desolation of the Nine Provinces and the loneliness of the Three Realms, a solitary figure remains standing on the Gan Kun Stage.In this lifetime, she is able to stand upright in front of all the Immortals and Gods; she is able to stand upright in front of the innumerable people and spirits living in the Nine Provinces and Eight Wilderness; she is able to stand upright in front of her deceased Father God Qing Tian; but in front of him, she is unable to stand upright and declare that she is free of regrets.She owes him more than one hundred and thirty thousand years; she is indebted to him for more than three lifetimes.This time, she would be the one waiting for him to return. Even if millions of years pass, she would never, ever leave.Original Text: 上古Author: Xing Ling (星零)Chapters: 96
8 216

