Dawn and Reincarnation Part 38 (Patreon)

AN: So... yeah, it's not dead, it was merely resting, for a dragon's nap.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/dawn-and-part-37-32164176

Is the previous chapter... They'd just gotten done with Worm and ended up in Diablo. 

~~

Oz stared in disbelief as Dawn danced through the group of skeletons charging towards them, her sword moving in a blur as she cut down each of the skeletons without any obvious trouble and with more skill than he'd ever seen. "What the hell!"

Kendra ignored the question as she hacked at the annoyingly durable skeleton she was fighting, trying to keep it from stashing her. She reached up and grabbed the skeleton's arm and yanked it away from the rest of the skeleton then kicked the head off the body, causing the rest of the skeleton to collapse. "Knock their heads off!"

Willow frowned as her firebolt washed over a skeleton fighting Xander without doing any damage. "This is starting to get annoying."

"No shit," Xander replied as he cleaved one of the skeletons in half with his axe, glad that it hadn't just ignored the hit unlike the last skeleton, it had taken him three solid hits before it had fallen apart. "This is so much easier with a decent weapon."

"I could get used to it," Faith replied as she hacked through another skeleton's spine with her copy of Kendra's sword.

"Don't get," Xander tossed himself at Kendra as he saw a skeleton wearing robes step around the corner in front of them and gesture at the slayer.

Faith grabbed one of the skeletons and tossed it at the fireball coming their way causing it to explode early, washing over her.

"Shit!" Willow cursed when the fireball obliterated Faith and burned Xander's left side badly enough that he wasn't moving. "Die!"

Oz tossed his hands up in front of his eyes as the other end of the hallway was filled with white hot fire that reduced everything to ash and melted part of the stone walls. "What the fuck was that?!" he demanded, staring as Xander's black and crispy skin flaked off, revealing new healthy looking skin under it. "How are you alive?"

"I'm immune to magic and nearly immune to everything else or at least I should be, that fucking hurt," Xander grumbled as he got to his feet. "This is going to be a problem."

"Faith…" Oz trailed off, not sure what else to say.

"Oh, right," Xander said, resummoning Faith. "We're going to have to work on your resistances."

"It's on the list," Faith grumbled as she helped Kendra up, ignoring the fact that her outfit was mostly gone and the rest little more than charred fragments. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, right, projection," Oz muttered, pulling his attention off Faith's body.

"Xander knocked me out of the way," Kendra said, glad that she hadn't gotten killed. "They must have been an impressive warlock while they lived."

"Or the magic improved them," Willow said as Dawn walked back over carrying a book, looking none the worse from her fight with the skeletons. "Having fun?"

Dawn grinned at the group, eyes glancing at Faith's butt when she bent over to pick up her sword. "What's not to like? They're decent practice and they drop an obscene amount of gold and loot for almost no effort."

"No effort?" Oz turned to look at Xander. "When did she get better than Buffy with a sword?"

"I grew up with a blademaster the first time I reincarnated." Dawn reached down and grabbed a couple bone fragments then started duplicating the book she'd found. "This should help."

"What does it do?" Xander asked as he accepted a copy of the book she'd found, wishing it was actually labeled.

"It reflects twenty percent of incoming physical damage back at the source which should help with some of the damage," Dawn explained as she handed out the rest of the copies, looking forward to testing her new spell.

Faith opened her copy of the book and sighed when nothing happened. "Rats, I don't have the right type of magic."

Oz opened his book, slightly annoyed that he didn't have enough magic to use it. "Same."

Xander opened his copy of the book, causing it to vanish as the book's magic inscribed the spell in his mind. "You probably need to be a magic user."

Willow used her book. "No trouble here."

"Were you expecting any?" Dawn asked, having already used her own copy of the book.

"Not really," Willow admitted. "We can probably get by with a couple magic boosting items for some of the lower end spells but the higher end spells would probably take something like Dawn's hacked armor or an entire collection of the best magic boosting items we can get."

"Or we cheat," Faith said smugly.

"What are you thinking? Projections?" Xander asked, keeping his attention on the end of the hallway in case more skeletons showed up.

"That or the fact that the more creatures I kill, the more powerful I'll get, same with anyone borrowing my ability." Faith gestured towards Dawn. "Dawn and Joyce can grant powers, it shouldn't be all that hard to just walk through with a stranger ability and a decent blaster rating and destroy everything. If we shared the ability around, we could boost the rest of the girls and everyone else."

Xander turned to look at Dawn. "I wouldn't mind checking to see how many cow demons are running around the pocket dimension you can summon, if they're half as nasty I'm expecting, they should be perfect for making sure all of the girls have beyond human strength and endurance."

"It's worth a look," Dawn agreed, figuring it was worth taking a few minutes to check on a potential source of easy loot and power.

"We probably shouldn't assume everything matches the game," Oz pointed out as he headed over to start collecting coins and loot.

"I'm not assuming, I'm just hoping," Xander replied as he wove a wall of air across the end of the hallway and tied the threads so it would stay. "Okay, I tossed up a wall that should keep everything from attacking us while we finish looting."

"Good idea," Dawn replied as she headed over to start picking up the small piles of gold coins that she hadn't bothered picking up.

0o0o0

Tara absently tapped the heels of her boots against the edge of the fountain as she listened to Giles and Deckard Cain's discussion about the demons under the old monastery and used her portal power to glance over the various monster filled levels, looking for interesting loot to add to her growing collection of treasure.

"If the adventurers can't contain Diablo, we're going to lose the town and possibly the country," Deckard argued.

"I have faith that we'll find a way to contain him." Giles frowned slightly as a portal appeared in front of Tara and a goblin-like creature's head tumbled through along with a strange jester's cap. "We're going to need to look into ways to prevent scrying."

"I'm aware," Tara replied as she closed her portal and levitated the hat over to her pile of loot then went back to looking for more treasure. She smiled when she noticed a skeleton sitting on a throne with an ornate crown resting on its skull. 'Yoink.' She used a doorway to cut the skeleton's head off and drop the crown on to her pile of loot then closed the portal and continued searching the king's chambers for useful trinkets.

Deckard stared at the familiar crown in disbelief. "Is that King Leoric's crown?"

"It might be, the skeleton was sitting on a throne," Tara replied as she opened a portal next to a bookshelf filled with ancient tomes. "I didn't bother asking, I just put him out of his misery."

"We're going to have to build a library," Giles said thoughtfully.

"It's on the list." Tara levitated the various books through the portal and carefully set them on the old table she'd 'borrowed' from one of the abandoned houses.

Giles frowned when he used his 'new' ability to sense the contents of books and realized some of the books were more than a little disturbing. "We should probably avoid reading some of these without the proper rituals."

"Dangerous?" Tara glanced over at Buffy and Joyce as they walked out of the portal to the island that Dawn had set up in the doorway to the smithy.

"Some of the books were deemed too dangerous for public use by the Horadric Order and were cursed to keep them out of the hands of the unworthy," Deckard Cain explained as he carefully looked over the books.

"In other words, we're going to have to decurse everything if we want to use it," Elizabeth said as she walked over with her mom.

Deckard turned to look at the young woman wearing strange clothes. "The information was protected for a reason."

"How are you doing?" Giles asked, cutting in before Buffy started an argument with the closest thing they had to a local expert when it came to magic items.

"I'm dealing," Elizabeth admitted, choosing to ignore the local 'sage' as she didn't see a point in arguing. "I'd be a lot happier if I had a way to charge my gear but I haven't unpacked everything and the island doesn't have electricity."

Joyce smiled at her daughter. "You're lucky that Xander and Fred have been working on making sure it has running water and waste treatment."

"Fair point," Elizabeth agreed as she walked over and sat down next to Tara on the edge of the fountain. "Is there anything in the pile of loot we can use to destroy Diablo?"

"Probably, most of it is extraordinarily unstable and powerful," Tara replied as she opened a portal through a skeletal mage's wrist and another one on the ground that dropped its hand and staff on her pile of treasure. She closed the portals before the skeletal mage finished casting its fireball and continuing her search for magical items.

"What do you mean unstable?" Elizabeth asked warily.

"It's like a cosmic force decided to push a bunch of magic into everything, most of the items feel unstable and I doubt they'll remain solid for any length of time once we leave the area," Tara explained what she'd felt when she looked at the various magical items she'd collected. "I'm working on learning as many tricks as I can before the magic fades."

"Do you need any help?" Elizabeth asked.

"Are you any good at identifying magical items?" Tara asked, fairly sure she wasn't as she hadn't been reborn in the world and she hadn't been particularly gifted with magic as a Slayer or a Tinker on a world without magic.

"No but I can take notes and we have a Giles," Elizabeth pointed out.

Giles shook his head. "I'm afraid that Deckard is better at separating myth from fact when it comes to magical items."

"How's your penmanship?" Deckard Cain asked, studying the young woman with strange clothes.

"Legible," Elizabeth replied as she pulled a pocket sized spiral notebook out of her pocket and grabbed the pen she'd clipped to the metal rings.

Giles glanced at Joyce and relaxed when she nodded. "In that case, let's see what we have, with any luck we might have something useful we can use against Diablo."

"Dawn can probably reproduce some of it using weaves," Tara added, opening another portal and cutting off a demon's ankles so she could steal his boots. 'This is certainly easier than fighting fair,' she mused as most of the demon fell through the air and dropped into a pool of lava. She closed the first portal then opened another and floated the boots through then closed the portal and continued searching.

Elizabeth stared at the severed feet sticking out of the boots for a couple of seconds then shook her head and flipped her notebook to a blank page. "Ready when you are."

Deckard walked over and picked up King Leoric's crown. "It has been corrupted and twisted by dark magic, magic designed to draw in the life force of the living."

'I'm not sure if I should be impressed that you got that from touching it or laugh, everything in that dungeon is probably touched by dark magic. I should have just waited for Dawn to come back, she could probably give me exact numbers,' Elizabeth complained to herself as she started making notes, figuring they could always add the exact effects later.

"I don't suppose you want to trade some gear?" a young woman in leather armor asked as she walked over to the group.

"That depends, what do you have?" Joyce asked, not seeing a problem trading copies of most of their stuff.

"A book that teaches a mana shield and a copy of the Windforce's older and nastier sister," the woman offered smugly as she pulled out an ornate bow.

"What do you want in trade?" Tara asked, trying not to sound too eager.

"How about a copy of Leoric's crown and help getting the Apocalypse skill book from the crypt?" the woman asked hopefully.

Joyce shook her head. "Try again."

"Why do you want that?" Giles asked warily, thinking about the forbidden spell he'd heard whispers of while he was training to be a sorcerer.

"Because it's useful and most demons aren't immune to it unlike the more common elements," she replied with a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "So, can you help me?"

"I don't have a problem with giving you a copy of Leoric's crown but I'm not sure how much help I'd be helping you get the book," Tara said, already scrying for the final boss in the crypt.

"Considering how dangerous the basic skeletons are, that sounds like a quick way to get yourself killed," Joyce pointed out.

"It should be easy, we just sneak in and grab something of value then sneak out," the woman argued.

"Yeah, because that always works," Elizabeth muttered, fairly sure the rogue was going to get herself killed and possibly anyone that went with her.

Tara frowned slightly when she 'spotted' half a dozen adventurers in the crypt sneaking past bright yellow zombies on their way towards the entrance to the last level, having bypassed everything nasty save a couple of demons they'd hacked apart. She looked past the ancient bindings designed to keep the demonic sorcerer imprisoned in the crypt and looked at his collection of books and magical items. 'Not a bad collection considering the time period.'

Giles shook his head. "Those spells are forbidden for a reason and far too dangerous for us to use, let alone hand out to someone without the proper training, what else do you want?"

"Fine," the woman grumbled. "I'll trade a copy of the crown and two magical items from your pile in exchange for copies of a mana shield book and my bow," the woman offered.

"Provided none of the items cause corruption or help release an ancient evil, I don't have an objection to making some trades," Giles said, hoping they weren't making a mistake.

"Cool, let me know when you have everything identified, I'm grabbing a drink," the woman said, heading for the tavern.

"Sounds good." Tara felt slightly guilty as she opened a portal and used the doorway's razor sharp edge to decapitate the demonic sorcerer trapped in the crypt, mostly because the group of adventurers had worked hard to get there and weren't going to find anything. Of course, they weren't going to have to fight a dangerous demonic sorcerer either so it sort of evened out. 'I really need to figure out a way to avoid unwanted portals opening near us.' She cut the demon apart with a series of portals and dropped the pieces in various parts of his crypt just to make sure he wasn't going to get up and stab them in the back before they finished looting his vault.

"You have the same look on your face Dawn gets when she's up to mischief, what are you planning?" Joyce asked.

"I figure we have about five minutes before a group of adventurers ransacks the demon sorcerer's library, care to beat them to it?" Tara asked, opening a door to the demon's vault, revealing shelves filled with ancient knowledge.

"The proper term is liberate and I'd be delighted provided you've dealt with the demon?" Giles asked, not particularly enthusiastic about fighting a greater demon without better gear and a lot of help.

"I cut it apart with portals and scattered the remains, we should have plenty of time before it can put itself back together," Tara replied as she walked into the vault, eager to start looting. "Assuming it can."

Deckard stared at Tara for a couple of seconds then followed her through the portal, wanting to make sure they didn't break anything.

Joyce glanced at the peg legged child peeking around one of the buildings then glanced at the door to the island. "Can you grab some of the girls for guard duty? I don't trust the adventurers or the kid."

"Sure, I'll be right back," Elizabeth said as she headed for the door to the island.

0o0o0

Xander was fairly sure that laughing maniacally wasn't the proper response to a small army of demonic cows with halberds that could cut through a waist thick tree with one swing but no one had ever accused his projection of sanity. "Yeah, she's having way too much fun."

"Let her," Dawn replied as Faith dropped another demonic cow with an arrow. "I'm just glad that they don't seem immune to damage or magic."

"No, just resistant," Xander said as he opened fire with the Blaster power that Joyce had granted him and swept the beam of blue 'fire' across the group of demonic cows chasing Faith through the old fashioned farm, causing the cows to explode where the beam touched them.

Dawn smiled as she scanned the field filled with loot. "Damn, I think I just found my favorite grinding spot."

"Belts, gloves, I see a gold potion, that has to be something good," Xander said cheerfully as Faith worked on killing one of the remaining cows. "Can I borrow your mental checklist?"

Dawn pulled her attention away from the loot and gave Xander part of her administration power so he could check his attribute growth. "Any luck?"

"Nice, I could probably toss a wagon," Xander said cheerfully, rather happy with the improvement to his strength, vitality and stamina. "Huh, I might even be better at hitting things with polearms."

"I'm not surprised considering they're all using polearms, now we just need to find a dungeon filled with blademasters so I'll have people to practice against," Dawn said as they started walking towards the loot. "Any boost in magic?"

"Doesn't look like it but I wasn't really expecting anything," Xander replied, blasting the demonic cow that was surrounded by cracking bolts of lightning. "Never mind, I got a point from the king or a sliver, it's hard to tell."

"In other words, we might as well let the girls farm the place for stats and copy their loot?" Dawn asked with amusement as she picked up a pair of boots that boosted her run speed.

"Pretty much," Xander agreed.

"Is it weird that we're getting stuff that wasn't in the original game?" Dawn asked thoughtfully as she put the boots in her inventory.

"With the exception of the people walking around with obviously hacked gear, it seems like a 'normal' fantasy world." Xander shrugged. "At least for a given value of normal."

"Except that we didn't find anything weird off the skeletons in the dungeon," Dawn pointed out as she worked on stuffing all of the magical items into her inventory.

"They're skeletons," Xander replied with a shrug. "Considering how dangerous the skeletons are, I wouldn't mind just using our projections to clear the last couple of levels of hell while letting them share Faith's power, if they can't rip Diablo apart, we're probably screwed."

"What happens if they can't?" Dawn asked, hoping he had some ideas.

"We grab a circle of channelers with sa'angreal and burn the entire area from existence or we have Tara drop him on the moon or something," Xander suggested. "As long as no one can reach him, we're probably good."

Dawn grabbed a belt off the ground. "Oh, plus one dex, someone was really trying with these."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Can you even make things that boost your agility?"

"Technically, I've managed to copy my version of the bloodknives, does that count?" Dawn asked.

"Considering the side effects on your last attempt, not so much," Xander replied as he started stuffing things into his inventory.

"No one lost a hand, just a little blood," Dawn complained as she cut the cows chasing Faith apart with razor sharp threads of air, netting half a dozen magical items from the two dozen cows chasing her. "That's not a bad return."

"How long are you going to wait until we deal with Diablo?" Xander asked.

Dawn shrugged. "I sort of want to loot the rest of the world but I'm not sure how stable everything is and how much trouble we'll have. If the starting skeletons are giving us trouble, we're probably going to need to get a lot better gear before we try to deal with him. If nothing else, I want to spend a couple of days learning to make the hacked items so we can keep them when we leave."

"I'm not sure you'll have all that much luck but it's probably worth sticking around a couple of days on the off chance you can get it to work," Xander said as he picked up the gold elixir. "Is this a magic elixir or something else?"

"Magic," Dawn replied with a grin as she picked up a bag of gem dust from one of the cows that she'd killed. "Nice, I can use this for alchemy."

"At least we'll have plenty of meat for the island," Xander joked, looking at the dead cows.

Dawn shook her head. "That sounds like a remarkably bad idea unless we can figure out a way to purify the meat."

"We can always ask Giles," Xander said with a grin, glad to have the group back together.

"Good point," Dawn agreed, suddenly feeling a lot better about everything now that she remembered she had people she could count on.