abcnovels
Chapter 5 - ...I Reincarnated As A Living Armor?
Chapter 5 - ...I Reincarnated As A Living Armor?
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In an eerie underground dungeon, with blue and mossy paved walls, where the only light visible were small torches attached to them, a secret room hide a group of humanoid figures. ??
They were standing still without moving an itch, they resembled western full body armor sets, perfectly put together and arranged in a row. In the center of the secret room, there was a small throne, where a larger and more intimidating armor sat down, motionless while holding a large Halberd.
Suddenly, from within the row of arranged armor mannequins, a strange yellowish essence entered one that was holding a small, and rusty short sword.
Flash!
Veronica's mind finally gained back its five senses. The first thing she saw was two rows of motionless armor sets inside what seemed to be a room without any way out.
Confused, she quickly inspected her new body to find out that she was not breathing, neither had a beating heart. Even more, she lacked a brain and felt her head as empty, she didn't have bones either, or the feeling of her muscles had disappeared as well. There wasn't any naturally generated warmness of her blood vessels rushing through her body, she didn't have a stomach nor genitals.
She moved her head as she glanced at her hands… dark blue armored gloves… with barely any feeling of touch, her sight was normal, but she didn't have eyes and didn't need to blink, it was a weird feeling.
It seems that she was able to see through a small crevice… in her head, a helmet.
Veronica couldn't deny the truth anymore, as much as she inspected her body, she couldn't find any flesh at all, there was only… a cold set of armor, and her soul itself, which had suddenly become covered in a white semi-transparent cold mist.
She remembered that this mist was attributed to ghosts in Kritias, it was an external cape that protected the ghost's souls, which were like their nucleus. Of course, living beings lacked this as they had a flesh body to envelop their souls.
However, this was a new world to her, Kritia's rules may not apply here… but as of now, it was the only knowledge she had, so she holds onto it and believed that this was such a case.
She had 'reincarnated' as a ghost that possessed a set of armor, a Living Armor!
In Kritia's bestiary, Living Armors were monsters that only appeared within the depths of dungeons, they were low-level Undead Monsters, of the Ethereal and Material type.
Novice explorers would have a hard time beating them as they felt no pain and had great defenses with seemingly no weak points.
However, a more experienced explorer would quickly realize that their movements were dull and predictable and that hitting them beneath their joints would make them crumble into pieces, taking some time to rearrange themselves, allowing the explorers to either escape or kill them with purification spells targeting its ghost body.
Some of the more brute and stronger warriors or mages would choose to crush them into pieces of scrap or melt them with hellish flames.
Veronica feared that the rest of the armors that were surrounding her silently were her brethren and that they may find it rare that one of them would begin to move strangely all out of a sudden, so she remained motionless for the time being, barely moving her globes or helmet, without making noises.
"I really am a Living Armor! What kind of horrible third 'life' this is? I am not even alive, to begin with! I am an Undead-type Monster… I feel like 'fate' is just shitting on me" shouted Veronica inside of her mind.
She remembered how weak Living Armors were, and that moving with the heavy body of a full set of armor while having her soul as her only support would be a hell of a new experience.
"There isn't much time to think… I cannot remain forever in this dungeon, I won't waste this third life, I'm going to make sure to make it worthwhile, even if I am a Living Armor. First of all, I must check my status and see if there are any changes and the current skills that I can use… I wonder if I inherited anything from my second life" thought Veronica as she mentally said 'status'. A holographic screen that only she could see appeared ahead of her sight.
Veronica was able to see other reincarnated soul's status screens, but the indigenous people of the worlds she visited weren't able to see the reincarnated soul's status screens.
In Kritias there was a System, which was made by the God of Inventions, Alchemy, and Magic.
The God of Inventions, Alchemy, and Magic created the System to boost the strength of humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, and demons. So they could protect themselves from monsters, who multiplied incredibly fast and populated the world almost entirely.
Using this tool made by the gods, the intelligent races managed to escape their inevitable fate and created safe areas, Kingdoms, Empires, Villages, and so on. While the monsters were pushed away, gathering in high mana density areas infested with dungeons, which were generated naturally.
The System of Kritias was similar to the one the reincarnated souls had, but it had a few differences, such as how only monsters had Ranks and could evolve, while humans only had Jobs to grow strong.
However, all the reincarnated souls had both Ranks and Jobs and were able to easily gain skills as well. Even if they were reborn as humans, they were able to evolve and grow incredibly strong.
In her second life, when Veronica was known as the Demon Queen Anastacia, she was the first demon capable of evolving and was once called a 'half-monster' due to the misconception of the people.
However, the ability to evolve gives her an edge necessary to grow stronger despite being 'talentless'. But even then, she only evolved a few times, and was not capable of growing strong enough to protect her life or that of her people…
"Even if I am a Monster, the System made by that useless idiot that reincarnated me should at least let me get a Job! If I can pick something useful… I may obtain an edge over the rest of the Living Armors and escape" she thought.
[Name: None (Veronica)
[Race: Copper Living Armor
[Age: 0
[Titles: None.
[Type: Undead/Ethereal/Material
[Rank: 1
[Level: 001/100
[Job: None.
[Job History: None.
[Level: 0/0
[Health Points: 50/50
[Mana Points: 130/130
[Strength: 40
[Defense: 95
[Magic: 42
[Resistance: 35
[Agility: 30
[Passive Skills]
[Memory Retention; Level 4]
[Special Five Senses; Level 6]
[Soul Form; Level 1 (Weakened!)]
[Mana Enlargement; Level 5]
[Magic Enlargement; Level 5]
[Abnormal Status Immunity]
[Strengthened Physical Power; Level 1]
[Physical Damage Resistance; Level 1]
[Armor Rearrangement; Level 1]
[Absorption Healing (Mineral, Materials, Armor); Level 1]
[Active Skills]
[Hardworking; Level 7]
[Appraisal; Level 6]
[Charge; Level 1]
[Coordination; Level 1]
The only skills she still had from her previous life were the ones she obtained from the start. For whatever reason, she was not able to transfer her second life's skills, the ones she worked so hard to obtain and raise in levels.
"It can't be… my mother's 'Spirit Magic'… or my Father's 'Super Mana Regeneration'… Even my 'No-Attribute Magic' or my 'Stealth'! Everything is gone…! I still have my enlargement skills, but my Mana and Magic stat are so low that it barely gives me any bonus! Living Armors have never been good at magic, to begin with…" she thought.
Veronica had thought that if she had inherited her previous life skills, she would be able to use 'Stealth' to slip off the monster's attention, 'Spirit Magic' to defend herself if they were to find her out, and 'Not-Attribute Magic' for utility purposes.
However, with the new 'body' of a Living Armor, new and odd Skills appeared instead. Veronica decided to use these as much as she could.
"Wait, if I still have 'Memory Retention' and at a level 4… then…"
Veronica then came up with a wonderful idea… but she didn't know that her split soul, Ervas, had already come out with it two years ago.
Veronica's reincarnation was delayed two years due to her soul wandering the dungeon's reincarnation cycle, which recycled the souls of the monsters to spawn new ones using them.
The dungeon took her as an external force and tried to eject her out several times, but it ultimately made her randomly reincarnate into a Living Armor.
Of course, Veronica wasn't even aware that the dungeon had a small consciousness.
As Veronica began to recall the incantations needed to call upon the spirits of the world, cracking noises began to fill her hearing senses.
The dozens of Living Armors surrounding her moved their helmets, 'glaring' at her…
"Ah…"
Veronica did not realize that the previously said words were made out loud. Even without a mouth, she was somehow able to speak, and it was certainly hard to separate thoughts from spoken words when the only thing that could do all those tasks was her soul now.
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