Born Anew Chapter 5 (Original chapter Chapter 92)

Several Days Later

Bakuda's Lab, Base of the Bombers, Outer Ring of the City of Hvergelmir, Niflheim, Yggdrasil

Bakuda scowled as she mixed ingredients in her lab. She had been fucking killed by Lung in the Birdcage and then reborn in this shithole. No power except all of this 'magic' bullshit. Tch.

She did not believe in magic. It was the manipulation of extra-dimensional energy through specific waveforms that were actualized by the bio-energy of the user and the words of the user. Magic her pretty ass.

Still, superstitious gobbledygook or not, her [Alchemist] Job Class had its advantages. First off, she had the ability to identify most herbs, metals and liquids at a glance. Second, she, strictly speaking, didn't have any spell slots filled. The absolute limit for most people was 300 spells at Level 100, but she hadn't filled even one. Instead, all of the 'spells' she had were 'Alchemic Reactions' that used basic [Prima Materia] as the catalyst to create effects that looked and acted like spells. The number of reactions she had access to depended greatly on how pure her [Prima Materia] was. At the moment, it was 40% pure, so she had 50 reactions available.

Of course, she still had to buy the reaction recipes in order to use the spells, and the limits there were just as solid as with spells, but it did mean that she could grab another class when she maxed out her current Job Class; maybe actually take [Explosion Mage] as a class in order to make the rumours about her Class true?

Still, she had only had to worry about that pissant Regent here in Niflheim. The rest would fall before her at some point, but Regent had been one of those brats that had been responsible for sending her to the Birdcage in the first place, making him someone she had to kill in order to prover her supremacy.

Now though, Skitter had shown up. Skitter! She had heard that the bug bitch had become one of the Warlords of Brockton Bay along with the other Undersiders. Someone she had met in another realm before she had been sent to the shithole that was Niflheim had said that she had unlocked some kind of super-version of her power and used it to kill Scion. She didn't believe them. At all.

It should be noted that while being reincarnated into Yggdrasil had removed all of Bakuda's Trigger-related trauma and mental issues, it did nothing for the superiority complex and arrogance that had been present beforehand, which had been stimulated indirectly by her Shard.

'Fucking little bitch. If that is Skitter, she's had her powers swapped out for something like Grue's power set.' The bomber thought as she carefully poured the aqua-coloured [Prima Materia] that she had just synthesized into hollow metal orbs. 'How the hell is that possible? Both me and the ren-faire reject have Job Classes that are at least superficially similar to our original parahuman powers. She had bug control, and now she has shadow magic. How the hell are those related? Not only that, I'm human and I'm certain Regent is too, so how does Skitter get to be a fucking Shadow Elf?!'

After fleeing (oh how she hated that word) from the situation against the Regency and Skitter, she had done some research on Shadow Elves. Rarest fucking elven race on Yggdrasil, anti-social, aloof and with the ability to use Shadow Magic, Illusion Magic and Earth Magic. That was all very good, but it was the weaknesses of the bastards that had interested Bakuda. Physically weaker than an average human and with eyes sensitive to light above the level of twilight? Say hello to the [Solar Flare] reaction recipe, bitch.

It sounded impressive, but it was just a big explosion of light that did no damage…but it would blind someone who had eyes that were sensitive to light for upwards of a minute, and stun them for about as long. More than enough time for Bakuda to toss several of her bomb-spell reactions at the bitch and watch her immolate.

The shadow spells used against her and her gang previously were so-so, definitely only 1st Tier ones, but Skitter had used them, and metamagic enhancements, well. That thrice-bedamned strangling spell had taken out over half of her Health Points! Not only that, at least three of her men had been beaten down by Skitter, with one killed from having his skull caved in.

'No one fucks with me.' Bakuda thought viciously as she sealed the orbs shut with a useful little skill that the [Alchemist] class possessed called [Minor Transmutation], which allowed her to manipulate materials that she was touching, including sealing little plugs of metal to their containers. 'Not Regent, not Lung…and not fucking Skitter either!'

That was the last thought she had before a shadowy noose dropped over her head and tightened around her neck, slowly pulling her up into the rafters of her lab. She hadn't bothered securing the place properly because this was only a temporary hideout, the seventh in the last two months. She had been planning to leave as soon as she had finished up with her anti-Skitter weapons, but this…!

"You really are a complacent one, Bakuda." A familiar voice said softly as the former-Tinker tried to claw at her throat to no avail. Behind her, Skitter stood on a rafter as she steadily choked the life out of Bakuda using a long length of shadows.

"No traps…no guard…no precautions…" the Shadow Elf listed calmly. "It's almost as if you believed that no one knew about this place. As if you never expected Regent's men to be able to infiltrate this place. He's known about this safe house of yours ever since he was released from prison after you framed him; his men are very efficient. All of your 'safe houses' are being raided at this very moment; your gang is finished."

"B-Bitch…!" Bakuda rasped out. "I-If I ha-had my catalysts…!"

"Tough…you don't have any on you or you'd have used them by now." Skitter stated calmly. "As I said, you've gotten sloppy…Bakuda. Not keeping an emergency backup catalyst on you is something that you would have done on Earth Bet as a matter of course."

This was the greatest flaw for the [Alchemist] Class; without a catalyst to use, they couldn't cast spells, at all, unless they had a separate spellcasting class to rely on aside from [Alchemist]. As the rope being used to strangle her was made of shadows, it wasn't something that her [Lesser Transmutation] skill could affect and even if it was a mere 1st Tier Spell, she had no skills or equipment that could destroy it.

'A-Again…? This little bitch…is going to kill me…again?!' the former Tinker thought in a fury. Her mind rebelled against the idea and she scrabbled, thrashed and flailed, trying to get the rope off of her, uselessly. It burned like acid!

"I don't know why you, Regent and I have come to this world, and I don't know how many others are here from Earth Bet, but I can say that of all people, you should never have come here." The former Warlord stated coldly. "You are a mad dog who delights in the suffering of others and in proving your superiority by hurting people. You were never deserving of a reincarnation. Return to nothing, where you belong."

With a final rasping gasp of air, Bakuda's HP reached zero and her thrashing ceased. A silent scream of fury was all her mind was capable of as it fled into the void.

With Taylor

I had to grimace. That had been an appallingly slow way to kill someone. Not as bad perhaps as when my original had literally suffocated Alexandria to death by forcing bugs down her throat and up her nose, but bad enough for all that.

Releasing my hold on the [Shadow Rope] spell that I had cast with the [Silent], [Boost] and [Maximise] metamagic additions, I watched as Bakuda's corpse fell to the ground with a meaty thud. I had gone back to purchase the Tier 1 spell after Karen the Fairy was only able to source me two other spells. Seriously, of all the damned places, I had to land in the one Realm in Yggdrasil that had almost no Shadow aligned spells or equipment in it!

Fortunately, I was used to working with less resources and equipment than I would otherwise prefer to have.

Bakuda's death had been relatively swift because of one of the two spells Karen had gotten me. [Lesser Shadow Vitality Drain] was a Tier 3 spell that could be used in close contact or by using any shadow or Shadow Spell connecting me and my target as a medium. Case in point, my [Shadow Rope] spell. It was quite powerful when used on someone under Level 40, as it drained an amount of HP from my target equal to their Total Level multiplied by five per thirty seconds. As a Magic Caster generally had lower health than, say, a warrior, this was a very effective strategy. Bakuda, being Level 7, had been inflicted with a base amount of damage of 35 every thirty seconds. Add in the damage amplification from my equipment, including the [Belt of Transient Twilight] and that was 94 damage every 30 seconds, not including the strangulation damage and the damage from me channeling my [Shadow Aura] with [Burning Shadows] active through the shadowy rope as well.

"You done, dork?" Regent said as he sauntered through the door he just flung open and looked at Bakuda's corpse. "Nice. You only need the head as proof of the kill, FYI."

"I am not cutting her head off." I stated flatly. "The blood would go everywhere."

Before Regent could say anything, a white crystal the size of a European Cantaloupe Melon appeared above Bakuda's body and floated over to somehow enter my inventory.

[Congratulations!]

By slaying a killer of the innocent, the gods have bestowed some of their bounty upon you!

Prize: Reward Crystal (Medium) X1

Reward Crystals are unique gifts of the gods that are rarer than hen's teeth (yes, those exist here too). They are the basis of every magic item above High-Rank, allowing such powerful items to be made without collapsing in on themselves from the sheer weight of magic. Due to the numerous people Bakuda had killed, both on Earth Bet and in Yggdrasil, the usual Reward Crystal (Small) was upgraded to a Reward Crystal (Medium).

Ask at the temple of your god for details on how to use the Reward Crystal!

I felt like punching someone. Again, the temple to which I had no idea as to its location was the source of information about these things! Gah!

"Man, sucks to be you." Regent was amused when I told him. "I don't think anyone has ever gotten a Reward Crystal here. No one here has been stupid enough to break the Realm Lord's rules in years, and only the really bad types get that kind of bounty put on them by the gods. I can't help with how it works though. Sorry."

"It's ok. I'll just have to get to the damned temple, wherever it is, and get all of the information I need." I sighed as I knelt down and threw Bakuda over my shoulder before standing backup. The bitch was surprisingly light, but that's because in this incarnation, she had been shorter and slimmer than she had been on the last time I had seen her on Earth Bet.

I followed Regent out of Bakuda's lab after the former Master-class Parahuman had swept all of Bakuda's expensive equipment and supplies into his Item Box. For those in this world who weren't Transmigrated by a devious usurped Goddess, they could upgrade their Item Boxes by completing quests at their god's temple or at the local town hall for those who had no god or goddess selected.

Lucky bastard.

Nodding to the members of the Regency who were cleaning up after cleaning out Bakuda's gang from this 'safe house' that she had set up. Regent hadn't taken long to find them all when he had gotten out of prison after proving that he hadn't had anything to do with the bombings. The main problem had been discovering which one the ever paranoid Bakuda was holed up in. My stealth skills, even although I wasn't a rogue, were quite a bit better than Regent's best men (and women), mostly because he's had them focus of the thievery part of their skillset rather than the stealth part.

Apparently that was a thing. Whichever skills you used more often were the ones that leveled up first; and it was the skills that you had that occasionally influenced what new Job Classes and Racial Classes you could select once your current ones were maxed out. After your first Job Class was maxed out, you could apparently select what Job Class you wanted to level up every time you reached the next level, but most preferred to level one class at a time, a rather sensible outlook.

"So? Where are we taking her?" I asked with an eye roll at the jaunty waves Regent was giving the passing people. Evidently a Shadow Elf carrying a dead human over her shoulders isn't something remarkable in this place. Such is Niflheim, I suppose.

"There are two ways to claim a bounty in Hvergelmir. First is to take the body to the Bounty Office if it's a regular one." Regent informed me casually. "Bakuda is no ordinary Bounty Head, so we have to use the second one."

"Which is?" I huffed as I adjusted the corpse.

"We go to one of the plazas, drop the bitch's body in the center and you claim the reward given by Lord Megalo by right of completing his quest." The masked man stated. "Only Council of Twelve Bounties or Realm Lord Bounties are claimed this way, and it's been over a decade since the last one was issued and claimed, so you'll have an audience."

Lovely.

Carrying a dead body wasn't my idea of a good time, not the least reason of which was that the term 'dead weight' was a very good term for why corpses are awkward to carry. I would have tried to put Bakuda's corpse in my Item Box were it not for the fact that one of the few things that could not be placed in them, according to both Regent and Karen, were corpses. No idea why that was, but no matter how large the Item Box, no corpses, not matter how large, small or light, could be placed in them.

Eventually, we made it to a plaza and I groaned. Dotted around the 'outer' portion of the city were thirteen plazas, one for each of the Council of Twelve and one for the Realm Lord. Regent being Regent, of course we were at the Realm Lord's plaza, which was half-again as big as the others. Talk about an ego.

"I hate being stared at." I grumbled. It was one thing when I had worn a costume, but now I wasn't. Well, technically I was if you wanted to call an entirely new body a 'costume.'

"Tough shit." My ever sympathetic ex-teammate told me bluntly. As always, the guy was as uncaring about things like this when it wasn't him in the spotlight.

Throwing Regent a dirty look, I started forward, ignoring the looks that I was getting, as well as the whispered conversations that started.

"Isn't that the leader of the Bombers, Bakuda?"

"She's dead! Is the one carrying her corpse the one who killed her?"

"A Shadow Elf? Please, they don't generally get involved in things like this outside of Svartálfaheimr."

Everyone seems to have an opinion, don't they?

Dumping the body of Bakuda in the center of the plaza and stood straight. "I am Rose, a lone Shadow Elf!" I declared. "I have slain Bakuda, leader of the Bombers and claim the reward offered for her life, presenting her corpse as proof of my deed!"

That was such a ham-style speech that it made me want to slap my face in exasperation, but according to Regent it was considered the norm here. Geez, the place was like out of a badly written fantasy novel.

With a flash of light, Bakuda's corpse vanished, replaced with a golden apple the size of a large grapefruit. An Apple of Idun.

Picking it up carefully, I placed it in my Item Box. When I did, I also got a notification that my Classes had Leveled Up again, putting me at Level 11 in total. Just four more levels until I could offer the Apple at the Temple of Týr in exchange for a World Pass and get out of this unholy little hell of cold and Undeath.

"Let's jam, dork." Regent said with a nod.

"'Let's jam'? What are you, my grandad?" I scoffed as I turned and walked back to him. "Since when did you start using such old fashioned terms, Regent?"

"Shut up." The former Master snapped back easily.

As we walked out of the plaza, I thought I caught sight of someone standing atop a building nearby, but when I turned to look, there was no one there.

"Probably Lord Gojulas himself." Regent opined. "He was probably getting irritated with Bakuda, so he wanted to see who killed her. Congrats, dork; you now have the attention of a Realm Lord."

"You do realise this guy probably makes Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon look like weaklings?" I said flatly as I unconsciously tugged my hood higher. "The last thing we need is to get the attention of someone that powerful."

"He doesn't involve himself in people who aren't at least Level 50." Regent disagreed. "Ditto with the Council of Twelve, unless someone pulls a Bakuda, and that's strictly as a last resort. Don't break the rules and you'll be fine."

"That's a bit trusting considering what that bastard Coil pulled in the Bay." I commented.

"Binding magical oaths would be the reason." Regent shrugged. "All 'Inner' gang leaders and the Realm Lord have to swear one to uphold the laws as of when they take up their positions, with the Realm Lord having to re-swear it when a new law is passed."

"You mean like that Cape from Florida…Oathkeeper?" I asked skeptically. During my time with the Philly Wards, I'd heard about this villain, Binder, who had a Master-class power that allowed him to force people to act on their words. By using verbal trickery, he'd made one man 'take a flying leap' out of a window, a woman 'get lost' and lose all sense of direction and another man 'give a shit' and soil his pants. He could also force someone to make a promise and they'd keep it. He got captured, forced into the Protectorate and made to rebrand as Oathkeeper.

"Way less malicious. You have to sign the contract willingly and to do that, you have to first read it through fully." the leader of the Regency informed me. "And this world hasn't invented the concept of small print yet."

Good to know.

A few hours later, I was nursing a faux-coffee and was talking with Regent in his main hideout. We were mainly talking about who might have been reincarnated in Yggdrasil from our world. The one he was most worried about was his father, Nikos Vasil, heartbreaker, after I told him that Imp had killed the bastard.

Other worrying people included Alexandria, Eidolon, Coil and several members of the Empire 88 and other criminal groups. Some that might be not so bad included Gallant, Aegis and a fair few others that I'd met over the years. Some I had no idea about whether they'd lived or died during the event my memories referred to as the Golden Morning, such as Lung and Marquis.

"My bastard old man's going to be a pain if he has a power set similar to his Master power." Regent was saying with a frown. "I mean, he'd have to start fairly low power, but any kind of mental domination magic will be a total pain unless you're Undead; they're completely immune to mind magic. So are Golems, now that I think about it."

"Yes, but like Imp proved, if he doesn't see a threat that needs to be mind-fucked, he is not invincible." I pointed out calmly. "And we don't even know who and how many people from Earth Bet are even here; we may have dodged a bullet and Heartbreaker isn't here."

"I am not that lucky." Regent said flatly. "I'm just gonna work on the assumption that my old man's in Yggdrasil and buy a fuckton of anti-mind magic gear. Jeez, that old bastard still keeps messing things up for me, even after he got killed!"

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news." I smiled ruefully.

"Nah, I figured that me and the bomber bitch weren't the only ones from Bet here." The former Master shook his head with a shrug. "She said that someone sent her here from Midgard, and I she'd hinted that it was someone from Earth Bet."

"Great, so we have to be on the alert when we're in Midgard." I muttered. "Is there any correlation between where someone is reincarnated to what kind of person they were in their previous life, do you think?"

"Well, not counting you, who was transmigrated rather than reincarnated, I was reincarnated here in the city and Bakuda was reincarnated somewhere in Midgard." Regent mused. "I don't think it has anything to do with what we did in our last lives. Humans, like me and Bakuda, are spread out among Midgard, Niflheim, Nidavellir, Svartálfaheimr and a small enclave in both Asgard and Vanaheimr. Muspelheim is way too hot for anything but the fire giants, Jötunheimr is hazardous to our health, Helheim is where the dead who die outside of battle go and Alfheim is for the Fae only. I think it's probably kinda random."

"Nidavellir…the land above Svartálfaheimr?" I said slowly. "The home of the dwarves?"

"The original homeland of the dwarves, yeah." The reincarnated Master agreed. "They live all over the place though; only two Realms that don't have dwarves of some description are Muspelheim and Helheim. Most races have their homelands, but live all over the place."

"So there might be old enemies lurking in every damned Realm." I sighed. "It's just like being a villain again!"

"Meh, we're used to it." Regent shrugged. "You'll have to worry about the servants of Myriad once you get to Svartálfaheimr as well. The home territory of the reigning God of Shadows is always the Realm of Shadows, and I'd bet a lot of the former worshipers of Lady Yliaster have gone over to Lord Myriad. You'll definitely be in enemy territory there."

"Unless he has a way of differentiating who worships him or not, I should be fine." I mused. "I might stopover in Midgard to do some leveling while I'm there, though. Grinding in Niflheim is too hard because my magic's not very effective against the Undead."

"Same here, although not to your extent." Regent agreed. "If there's a High-Level Undead Magic Caster nearby, there's a pretty high chance that my Puppet Magic won't work on the lower-level Undead. I'm pretty glad I only have two more Levels to go before I can select another Job Class; maybe get a direct-attacking Magic Class this time around."

"I might add in a Rogue class." I admitted. "Shadow Elves are just too damned good at being sneaky to ignore that side of them. I might also think about another support-type Magic Class, like [Enchanter]."

"Huh. You'll be in high demand from guilds then." My ex-teammate noted.

He then explained about the various levels of cooperative groups in this world. First, there were [Parties], which were six people at maximum. These were usually temporary affairs, but some people stayed in the same [Party], travelling the Realms together, for years at a time.

Next there were [Raid Groups], a conglomeration of [Parties]. These were always an ad-hoc arrangement or a short-term arrangement, coming together with the express purpose of conquering a dungeon or another similar objective.

The most common grouping after that was the [Gang]. It functioned as a slightly more formal version of a [Raid Group] but without many bonuses to having it. The [Gang Leader] could add and dismiss people as and when required.

The last group that Regent was aware of was that of a [Guild]. A [Gang] was a proto-version of this group. Not just anyone could make a [Guild]; there were requirements, both financial and material, before you could form one. You had to possess a certain amount of money, complete a quest to acquire a [Guild Membership Form] and possess a location to use as your [Guild Base] before you could found one.

Momonga, the Skeletal Mage that I had talked to the previous week, was a member of a Guild; there were only nine members in it in total. It boggled the mind to think that they had formed one with such a small amount of personnel.

"So do the people I take along with me via a [World Pass] have to be in the same party to be included in its effect?" I asked.

"Ding-dong! Correct!" Regent nodded. "I saw one idiot go to the Bifröst and accidentally leave his party behind because he forgot about that. Boy, were they pissed."

"I can imagine." I shook my head bemusedly. Hell, I'd be pissed in that situation.

"Anyway…let's get down to finding a good place to get us both up to Level 15." I said as I finished my coffee. "I have a temple to find and I'm not going to do it here."

OK, so just to make something clear; Taylor has been transmigrated as an inhabitant of Yggdrasil. She is neither Player, nor NPC, the same applying to anyone else from Earth Bet who has reincarnated there. They get unique quest opportunities not available to Players and can become stronger than most NPC's, who are typically stopped at Level 80 or so. This is my head-canon here, so feel free to ignore it if you want.