Chapter 13 - Ashornic

A bunch of fireballs were headed in my direction, but I easily dodged them by jumping back, then I created a long whip and swiped it toward one of my opponents.

''Gro''

One of the lizards, who thought himself clever, decided to jump at me while I was distracted to bite me, but I simply put my arm directly in his jaw.

The monster was confused at first, but then tried to bite off my arm. However, the moment he did that, I deposited a torrent of ash directly into his stomach, making him burn from the inside. He quickly tried to run away, but I held him. In less than a second, he couldn't move anymore and transformed into ash.

I didn't take time to appreciate my victory and immediately used the ash of the lizard I killed to form a ball and throw it toward that army of baby one-eyed lizards, burning several of them.

But the monsters didn't retreat and advanced once again toward me.

How annoying. I was just trying to advance toward the volcano, but they just ambushed me during my walk. Climbing the volcano is an impossible task with lava falling from it each hour. So I have no other choice but to find one where the mountain is not too steep, so that I can simply walk to the top.

I also can't simply wait for the ash to fall on me after each eruption, or else it will simply fuse with the magma after falling down. It's just not worth it to control each grain of ash stuck in lava just to gain so little. I mean, killing these monsters is worth way more than filtering lava for its volcanic ash.

Now that I think about it, just calling them monsters or lizards starts to get boring. I should find a name for them!

Let's see, they're ugly, same thing for their fire, they are also annoying, and did I mention that their fire is ugly? Oh, I know the perfect name for them, Not Handsome! That's a perfect name for them!

…I think my family would disagree… Ugh. Why does nobody from the Ketzer family have a naming sense as good as me? I'm obliged to stoop to their poor level to satisfy them.

Alright, what about… Drooly? That's fine, right? They would be happy about this name? You know, what, let go with that, if there not happy with it, then they just have to tell it to my face!

…I hope they're doing fine…I'm worried about Zephyr…

…This is not the time for this…

''Come at me, bunch of drooly!''

''Gho?!''

''GRO!''

Hmm, weird. They seem to have understood what I said for once, and they don't like it. I sighed; I should have known that Not Handsome was a better name.

Welp, the harm is already done, so let's cause even more!

''Pff, I gave you a nice name, and you can't even entertain me? I should have called you Selfish Ugly.'' I complained while sitting on the ground surrounded by ash. I was currently looking at every inch of my body to be sure that I regenerated every part of my body.

In this fight, my hand got blasted off. Yes, I was able to heal it instantly, but that doesn't solve the issue!

My body is too fragile! Even the simple bite of a baby Drooly was able to cause me damage, and it doesn't even have teeth!

I can't go on like that! If I want to become the strongest, I need to also be the toughest! Nobody will respect someone that gets his arm blown off because a baby caught onto it! In fact, I have the same problem with my attack, the only way for me to harm my opponent is by either my whip, making them suffocate, or making them slowly burn!

My ashes are only good in regeneration and wide manipulation! But they are trash in defense and attack! The best thing that I can do with these is to grow bigger…

Why do I make myself bigger?

I looked at myself; I should presently measure at least 10 meters with all the ashes I absorbed from these little Droolys. This size was enough to crush all my enemies by my pure weight, but it's not enough to punch one to death. I mean, sometimes my fist breaks by simply punching my opponent; it's not a viable option! The only thing in my body that is hard is my horn!

…Wait a minute, why are my horns hard compared to the rest of my body? I can still manipulate them like the rest of my body, so it means that they are made of ash.

My horns were also still small-sized, no matter how big I get, they were staying the same.

I manipulated my horns to disintegrate into ash and to flow toward my eye, making me lose some height at the same time. When I looked at them, I couldn't help but notice that these ashes looked different than the rest of my body. They were not slightly red like some of my fire ash that I gained from my last encounter against the teenage Drooly; no, these ashes were way darker.

I tried them out and created some weapons out of them, a short sword to start. I held it and smashed it against a rock!

Bam

Contrary to my expectations, the sword didn't break. It didn't cut the rock or anything, but the fact that it was able to stay intact is already a big plus.

Oh? It actually works? Let's try a shield this time.

I created a shield with these ashes, threw it hard at the same rock.

Bam

Once again, the shield didn't break, proving that the ashes coming from my horns were truly harder than those of my body, and they are as flexible as before!

But now, the moment of truth, can I absorb it?

I looked with trepidation as the darker ash slowly made contact with my body before fusing with it.

I waited a moment before looking at myself, trying to see if they were in my body, and I saw them, little black ash was distributed among my body.

Finally, I tried to manipulate my horns again, to be sure they were still there, and they were, as durable and dark as before!

...cool.

Now I just need to repeat the process multiple times, and my whole body would become more resistant than before.

I dived myself into an hour-long process of transmuting all of my common ash into… let's call them ashornic, that seems great! Anyway, now all my body was made of ashornic!

I stood up with joy, but I realized something; everything, everything was suddenly smaller… did I grow smaller again? I also seem to tilt a little ahead.

Oh, I see, regenerating my horns takes a lot of common ash, and if I were to judge by my current height of 1 meter, the conservation rate is 1 normal ash makes 0.1 ashornic. Which means I need ten ashes to make one ashornic.

That's just one more reason why I need to find an accessible volcano, so that I can have an unlimited source of ash! Then, I will grow so big that I could crush everything in my path, which means I could find even more of these red jewels, which will transform me into complete fire!

This plan is perfect!