Chapter 106: Rebirth by Fire

Jasmine: “Watch-out!

Ash: “I got it!”

Ash turned around just as a giant bird bared its talons in his direction. With pin-point accuracy, he evaded the attacks and with extremely fast movements, severed the talons from the rest of the monster’s body.

*Screaaaack**Thwick*

The giant bird screeched in pain at the loss of its limb and slammed into the ground. The screeching continued until an arrow pierced its chest thus silencing it.

Ash: “Nice shot.”

Jasmine: “I know.”

Jasmine quickly got to work pulling the feathers from the bird’s body and dismantling it.

Ash: “You’re really good at this.”

Jasmine: “Not really, but after a while you learn which parts are useful and which aren’t. The feathers of a ‘Giant Vulture’ help in making light armor, while the talons aren’t particularly good for weapons, but when grinded down it can be used in lots of monster-warding concoctions.

Jasmine finished her work and no sooner she finished, the remains of the ‘Giant vulture’ turned into light and faded into the sky. She stuffed everything into her bag that she had brought with her, before turning back to Ash, who was patiently waiting for her to be done.

Jasmine: “Are you sure you don’t want any, that’s the fourth one we took down?”

Ash: “Its fine, I’m sure Nathan’s gotten plenty. You hear that?”

Jasmine didn’t have to listen too hard; it was the sound of the Giant Vultures screaming in pain not too far off. Ash grabbed the bag up for Jasmine, who relunctantly relinquished the bag. After a short walk they came across an amazing sight.

Jasmine: “Ah, I see.”

‘Giant Hawks’ were being shot out of the sky, one after another, by several large flowers. The flowers fired at them constantly, disrupting any sort of countermeasure they could make. Aiming for their wings, the Uzy made it impossible for them to fly in any direction or evade. Also, when the birds could take no more and thus fell to the ground, they were quickly ensnared with vines. The vine would then proceed to strangle and/or snap the necks of the birds before ripping away the talons and feathers from each one. A nice little pile had been made; one for feathers, the other for talons respectively. Like a disassembly-line the plants did their work methodically.

Sitting in the middle of all this commotion was Nathan, not even paying attention to the monster-parts gathering machine he’d just randomly created. His head only raising, whenever the tone signaling a level up went off, only to immediate turn attention back to what he was holding.

Ash: “Nathan.”

Ash called out to Nathan who turned and saw them coming. He quickly and carefully tucked something out of sight, before turning to welcome them.

Nathan: “Everything good?”

Jasmine: “Ugh, yeah……. looks like you didn’t need my help at all.”

Nathan: “Of course we did, I don’t know which parts of any of these things were important, I’m just glad you decided to come with us.”

After returning to Zan’s camp, Nathan and Ash wanted to quickly head off, but since they were so off-course from their original path, Jasmine volunteered to show them the way. Zane was reluctant to allow her to go, but after a little persuading on Nathan’s part and a promise not to separate, she was allowed to accompany them for a while.

Jasmine: “Yeah I guess, but how did you attract so many? They, don’t usually group together like this; for a living prey.”

Nathan: “I use this:”

Nathan showed the, two bottles of purple liquid.

Ash: “What’s that?”

Nathan: “A concoction I made from that flower you said attracted them, just added them to some boiling water.”

Jasmine: “You made this from the ‘Carra’?”

Nathan: “Yup, I rubbed it on my skin.”

Jasmine: “What!?”

Nathan: “Yeah, I grew some myself and strengthened the scent a bit, to attract them all here. Then I took them out. Also, it turns out this Carra plant extracts is good for the skin, keeps it moisturized and the scent is pleasant as well. I think I might get Ramol to try and sell it.”

Jasmine: “Oh, really!?”

*Snatch*

Nathan: “Hey, hey, hey.”

Jasmine began applying Carra extract to her skin, with extreme enthusiasm, leaving Nathan sitting in a huff.

Nathan: “She seems really lively for a dead person.”

Ash: “Nathan.”

Nathan: “Yeah, yeah. I won’t let her hear me talking about it.”

Ash: “Please don’t, I promised not to tell and there is no way to explain how you found out.”

Nathan: “I get it; Sheesh. I won’t let her find out I know.”

After returning to camp and resting for the night, much to Ash’s dismay, she told him what she had seen when they arrived at Jasmine’s location.

_

_

Yesterday evening……:

Ash: “Oh my gawd, Jasmine!?

Iris: “Oh no, are we too late.”

Arriving on scene, Ash and Iris had come across the worst-case scenario. Lying in a pool of blood; was the body of Jasmine. She had been struck multiple times with arrows, with a large wound on her side as if something had been ripped out of her. However, the crux of the matter was the dagger that was plunged deep in her chest.

Iris: “Wait, did she stab herself?”

Ash: “It looks like it. Dammit, if only we were sure she wasn’t being targeted by that monster.”

Iris: “Ash, we can’t blame ourselves for this. She was the one who chose to stay despite the danger. We all knew the dangers, even if she didn’t survive it; it was her choosing choice to face it.”

Ash: “I know, but it doesn’t really make me feel any better. I’ll have to relay this to Zane. For now, we should burn the body.”

Iris: “Not bury it?”

Ash: “Absolutely not, corpses tend to spring back to life in the dungeons.”

Iris: “They come back to life?”

Ash: “I know what it sounds like, but it’s not what you think it is. Let me get a fire going, we need to hurry, so we can help Nathan.”

Ash went to gather some stuff to start a fire but stopped when he heard Iris gasp in surprise. Turning back around, he pulled out his weapons and took a battle stance. Jasmine’s body had sprung up and then Ash was ready to cut it down when suddenly white flames covered her body. The flames burned at her clothes, but not her body. The flames burst from her wombs, throwing the knife off to the side as they covered her body. They both watched in amazement as the wounds on her body began to fade, as if being healed by the flames. The blank stare in her eyes as she looked all around began to fill with life as she came back to her senses.

Seeing Ash standing over her, she had a look of sheer fright, as she noticed the flames surrounding her had yet to vanish. The outside might have healed, but the inside was still very much in need of repair, as so evident by the pain she felt from her broken ribs that have yet to mend.

Ash pulled out a cloth from his pack and tossed it over Jasmine to cover herself with. For caution’s sake, Ash held tight to the dagger in his hand ready to move if she attacked.

Jasmine didn’t lift her head, but instead have just reached for the blanket and wrapped it around herself.

Ash: “…………. Jasmine………your still ‘you’ right ? Not, one of those ‘things’ ?”

She said nothing and just nodded her head. That was enough for Ash to realize she hadn’t turned and was still in her right-mind. However, the confirmation lead to the inevitable next question.

Ash: “What the hell was-”

Jasmine: “Please……don’t tell anyone.”

Ash: “Don’t tell anyone? What am I supposed to tell? You just came back from the dead, not as one of those things, but honestly back to life. And that white flame, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jasmine: “Please.”

Ash thought were going a mile a minute, the same went for Iris, as they had many questions, but quickly changed their tune looking down at the naked girl. Jasmine was shivering, not from the cold, but from fear of her secret becoming public knowledge. Ash scratched the back of his head and looked over to Iris, she left the decision up to him to what he would do, as she couldn’t be seen, so the choice fell on him alone.

Ash: “*Sigh*

_

_

Nathan: “Healing white flames that bring you back from the dead. If it’s like that; I really didn’t need to fight the Mimic or lose my sword.”

Ash: “…………”

Nathan: “Kidding.”

Ash shook his head at Nathans tasteless joke. After they told him, Nathan immediately used Pry on her to see what could find. However he found something strange about her stat screen.

Name: Jasmine ????? Level: 28

HP: ???/??? MP: ????/????

Race: ???????

Legacy: (????? ????)

Ability: ?????????, Flames of Regeneration Ability: ?????, ??????, ?????

Stats:

STH ??

DEF ??

INT ???

AGI ??

LUCK ??

Nathan was surprise to see this for two reasons. One, the Magic ability seem similar to what he’d seen before with Sari; except for a few words being different, they were almost identical. However as far as Nathan could tell, Jasmine was human, well at least he thinks thought she was. Jasmine’s race was hidden so he couldn’t be sure, but she doesn’t have the distinct characteristics of a fox-like Therian Sari had, so why would they have similar sounding abilities?

Which brought him to the second reason. Jasmine was a lower level than him, which meant his thoughts about someone being a lower level in that it would be easier to read their stats. However, he couldn’t de-bunk that completely, he couldn’t see Sari’s stats and he was sure he could take her if they got into a fight. Otherwise, it would be no reason for her to be captured by Gideon.

Nathan: “(Maybe there is a rule when reading certain people that I can’t read without a certain privilege. No, that wouldn’t make sense; Pry was made to invade someone’s privacy without consent or knowledge to a certain degree. Some will react badly to my magic if I pry too deep, it’s basically like looking into your soul, at least that’s how Anais and others put it. So there must be another reason why I can’t see their stats. Maybe something to do with those flames? White flames…sound’s very holy if you think about it. What exactly are white flames and who's preventing me from seeing their stats?)”

Ash: “Nathan.”

Nathan: “…………….”

Ash: “Ay, Nathan did you hear me!”

Nathan: “Huh, ah, sorry…you said something?”

Ash: “How many did you kill?”

Nathan: “Huh, oh, I wasn’t really paying attention, I just gathered a bunch of that Carra, and they just kept coming. I just hope I don’t mess the dungeons eco-system or something. Got four levels out it though.”

Ash: “Don’t worry, the monsters of the dungeon return back to the dungeons as mana, but they respawn over time.”

Nathan: “Ah, good to know.”

Jasmine having applied the Carra plant extract to her skin took a whiff of the scent.

Jasmine: “So that what it was.”

Nathan: “What?”

Jasmine: “I thought you smelled nice today.”

Nathan: “I’m being insulted?”

Jasmine: “No not at all, I was just saying the scent of flowers is stronger than usual.”

Nathan cocked his head to the side in confusion. He sniffed at himself but didn’t smell anything but the Carra plant extract.

Nathan: “I smell like flowers?”

Jasmine: “You didn’t know?”

Ash: “Yeah, all the time.”

Nathan: “No, no one told me.”

Ash: “I thought it was intentional.”

Nathan: “Why would I intentionally make myself smell like flowers?”

Ash: “Because it fits your image so well.”

Nathan: “What does that mean?”

Ash: “You’re oh-so alluring feminine persona.”

Nathan: “For the sake of our friendship, I gonna forget you just said that.”

Veins popped on Nathan’s forehead, after being angered by Ash’s remark. Then taking a few steps back, but laughing about it anyway.

Jasmine: “Okay, okay, enough of that. Let’s just get back to our goal. I’ll scout ahead.”

Nathan: “That’s fine, but stay close to my plants while searching, they will protect against any surprises.”

Jasmine walked off, weaving through Nathan’s plants. When she was far enough away, Ash turned to Nathan.

Ash: “Any better?”

Nathan nodded and turned to move the blanket. Iris was asleep, her face flushed red once again.

Ash: “Well her heavy breathing stopped at least.”

Nathan: “I don’t get it, she was doing so well, why the relapse?”

Ash: “You think it was because of the Origin? She seemed really upset about it.”

Nathan: “Upset does not even come close to how she acted.”

Once they had gotten to Zane’s camp and could rest for a bit, Nathan told Ash and Iris about Origin. Iris’ reaction startled both of them as she reacted like a madman. Nathan had to actually chase her, after she took off into the forest and physically stopped her from heading down into that abyss by herself. Despite Nathan’s pleas to tell her the reason why she acted in such a panic, she just kept repeating that ‘it’ had to be with him at all times. That wasn’t really an answer and Nathan became a little frustrated about not getting a straight answer and about something that involved him. Usually he wouldn’t worry about it, but seeing Iris act so out-of-character, he wanted to know why. This led to an argument in which Iris suddenly fainted, returning to her original state before they entered the forest.

Ash: “I’ve never seen you two argue before.”

Nathan: “We weren’t arguing, just a heated debate.”

Ash: “I get that it’s the Hero sword, but it’s not like you constantly use it? And you can’t really if you plan to stay incognito. Do you think it has something to do with the effect it has on Fae?”

Nathan: “Maybe. (It’s probably has something to do with Amelia?).”

Back at the study where he met both Anais and Iris, said there was something Amelia didn’t want them to tell him in the message she left them. That’s one of the only possible things he could think of that Iris wouldn’t tell him. However, Nathan didn’t like the fact that she was willing to keep a secret to the point of becoming sick.

Nathan: “Iris.”

Ash: “Ay, Nathan you okay?”

Nathan: “Huh, oh yeah, just thinking.”

Ash: “Yeah you’ve been doing a lot of that recently.”

Nathan: “Sorry, sorry.”

Nathan carefully placed Iris in the hood of his cloak, before rising to his feet.

Nathan placed most of the material he’d collected and the rest into Ash’s bag, to keep up appearances. Ash and he then went to catch up with Jasmine, who was waiting patiently for them to finish their business. When she noticed them coming, she made a quick glance between the two of them before, smiling.

Jasmine: “Your both ready?”

Nathan: “Yep Ready, and thanks again for coming with us.”

Jasmine: “Its’s fine, things have been a little strained between me and the other girls since the other day, more so then usual anyway. I really needed to get away from there.”

Jasmine swung her bags’ strap over her head, before affixing it to her side. Then the three headed off, with the goblin nest so close, they were closer than ever to completing the trial, unaware that a ways off, a certain group pf people watched their every move.