Free Reborn: Demon Core by D.W. Jackson Page A

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