Ebony's Fable

Today is the day Halvis is bringing Clovis out for his stimulation rite and Ebony was going along.

Admittedly not a fighter, his high stats alone could let him walk unhindered in their immediate surroundings. ‘Immediate’ was around a hundred gors or so radius from Arcta. That was 500 km or more…

“Going out Mr. Thoya?” One of the two guards at the gate asked.

“Ah, is it that day already? Good luck out there Clovis.” The other young guard smiled at Clovis.

Ebony recognized them from the playground but wasn’t well acquainted with them. Both guards being [Ice Archer Lvl 33] and [Ice Archer Lvl 37] respectively still frequent the playground to practice or level their skills before or after their shift.

Most frost elves that Ebony saw had 3 ? and was identified green, only the youths in the playground were grey and within Ebony’s Identify level range. Arcta was relatively safe and didn’t really get any monster attacks. Young frost elves were just stationed here as part of their duties. It was a summer time job for them, only during this period of time was it safe for them to stand guard.

“I’ll take a monster down all by myself!” Clovis harrumph, crossing his arms.

“Hahahaha” the 2 guards cracked up with Halvis unable to hold back a chuckle too. Ebony somewhat understood the difficulty of the task. Even harming a level 5 monster was tough, trying to kill a monster 10 levels above you was no easy feat, even more so as an unclassed.

The only armour he’d seen any elf guard wear was standard leather armour. Archers and rogues had the version where the leather armour only covered one side of the shoulder or didn’t have sleeves, most likely so the armour doesn’t affect their archery or movement. Mages had the full leather armour, the Thoya brand robes for mages were not handed out to the village guards after all. Their robes which Halvis and Clovis were wearing were made of the frostsilk cotton Halvis grew, limited in supply. Halvis wasn’t the only one growing it but he was the highest level one and his frostsilk cotton was of the highest quality in Arcta making a great match with Roya’s mana tailoring.

Ebony couldn’t Identify an armour or clothing that someone was wearing and would only receive the person's class and level. But Halvis’s robe was in a word impressive, they called it robes but it looked very similar to a duffel in design that reached his knees while Clovis’s was closer to a trench coat. Halvis’ was faint blue while Clovis’ was white like the cotton he weaved. Roya had shown Ebony some of her works and all were light blue like Halvis’ but Clovis wouldn’t be able to move properly if Roya made one from the same quality of frostsilk cotton for him.

Being extremely unscientific, even the ones sized for humans weighed 6 to 10 tivs the higher the quality of frostsilk cotton used the heavier. That was about 30 - 50 kilos, Ebony wasn’t sure how much medieval armour on Earth weighed but he was pretty frickin sure even a full set of plate armour wouldn’t weigh as much and unlike other armours which spreads the weight of the armour evenly across the body, these ‘robes’ lay fully on one’s shoulders.

Roya’s robes were all plain and unadorned, simple but wonderful designs. Ebony really liked the designs, but all he is currently wearing was Halvis’ old long-sleeved shirt and pants which Roya refitted for him and they bought a pair of brown leather boots with thick soles and reached above his ankles. They borrowed one of the sleeveless [Leather Armour(Common)]s that he could fit in from the guard house so he had some modicum of protection. He didn’t like the armour all together as it was a little restrictive.

Honestly the best piece of equipment he has so far was this pair of [Leather Boots(Inferior)]. A good pair of boots are really important when travelling, especially with this terrain. Carrying his bag with his juice-filled thermos, wallet and 12 remaining healing crabapples. He finished up the sap by experimenting with it. They apparently go bad pretty quickly and lower in effectiveness over time after they’ve been plucked off their tree.

The Frost Elves knew about them of course, but there can only be one of them in a wide area since they absorb vitality so they couldn’t plant it and they don’t pick inferior ones as it was useless for them. The inferior ones were left to grow till at least common before getting picked. The village herbalist family would then buy them to make salves and pills. They didn’t make potions for some reason, perhaps freezing and not convenient to carry around.

He was still wearing his travel watch, although he didn’t want it to break he didn’t want to leave it away from himself. They didn’t bring any food since the plan was to be back by dinner and they just had breakfast.

“Alright, let’s go.” Halvis said, picking up both Clovis and Ebony under his arms. It was like a steel bar was holding him in place. Halvis pushed off the ground covering the 2 guards in snow as he sped off. Faster than Ton and Sei but he was still checking if Clovis and Ebony were fine and adjusted his speed accordingly. He couldn’t tell shit from Ebony's expressions but Clovis was obviously not feeling very good.

Moving in a little towards the right of the Frostblaze Amur forest where Ebony came from. Halvis wanted to quickly go deep enough where lvl 10 monsters start showing up. Ebony didn’t forget to try mapping the area the best he could.

Slowing down to a stop and putting the both of them down after 15 mins. He covered more distance than Ebony did in 2 days. It was much less comfortable than riding Sei and Ton but Ebony had no complaints. Clovis was on the ground rubbing his sides and complaining.

“Okay we’re here, there shouldn’t be many of them in these parts and I’ll intervene if another monster comes up while you’re fighting one. Clovis, I understand your enthusiasm of wanting to complete the stimulation rite by yourself but just your Ice Vines alone would hardly be enough… I’ll let you try but don’t be stubborn and ask me for help if you need it okay?” Halvis squatted down and told Clovis firmly. All elves in general were tall and slender, both Roya and Halvis were a head taller than Ebony hitting 2 metres in height and they were only of average height among elves. Possibly another reason Ebony was treated as a young child.

“Mhmm. I know, father.” Clovis acknowledged.

“Good. Ebony, I don’t remember seeing you practice any skills to trap or slow an enemy. Do you need me to hold down a monster for you?” Halvis asked, it seemed to Ebony that he was slowly opening up to him and not being as guarded over the 2 weeks he had been with them.

“No, Mr. Thoya. I want to try completing the rite by myself as well.” Ebony answered monotonously.

Halvis frowned. “Halvis is fine, don’t be so stiff. Alright, I’ll be watching you two and don’t go too far out and don’t separate from each other. Clovis stay focused and don’t be distracted by any plants you see growing around. Ebony don’t be shy and call me to step in if you’re in danger, you too Clovis! I wouldn’t get the end of it from Roya if either of you got injured.” he nagged in Roya’s place but obviously worried as well.

“Yes father.” Clovis replied but was already too excited to start, while Ebony just nodded. Halvis jumped and hid in the trees. The less involvement he had the more they could gain, or so they believed.

“Let’s do it like we discussed Ebony! I’ll track any monster tracks we find and if it's a Frostfang Rabbit or Hoarfrost Boar it's your target and if it's an Arctic Fox or Snowskin Monkey then it’s mine. Any birds, Strix we ignore and any wolf, bear or err elk and we run for our lives.” Clovis repeated, whispering ‘elk’ it was kinda cute seeing him act scared.

Clovis had briefly explained the nearby wildlife to Ebony, normal animal populations like squirrels and deer were usually hunted by the monsters. There were monster versions for them too though. Ebony has never seen a Snowskin Monkey but it was described as a furless white monkey. They shouldn’t see any wolves, bears or elks in these parts but if there was a single trace of them they would get away at first sight.

[Frost Bear]s were commonly found to be at least level 60 and were a lot stronger and tougher than other monsters of the same level. [Snowdrift Wolf] didn’t have a reliable level range, it was not rare for them to find a level 8 Snowdrift wolf to be chased by hundreds if not thousands of Snowdrift wolves of an extremely wide level range. What’s worse was how good they were at camouflaging in this environment. Wolves were smart, pack hunters in any world, stat buffed monster or not.

It was a different type of wolf than the Hoarfrost Wolves he’d seen and Clovis never even heard of the Hoarfrost Wolf. Probably like Gen said they gained sapience and got classes and were Identified differently, not that Ebony told Clovis. Since Gen didn’t seem to want to spread the fact that he was there, Ebony would reveal as little as he knew about it.

Last of all, the absolute big boss of the area of Hoarfrost Glade that majority of the Frost Elves venture to. The [Glacial Tungsten Antler Elk], if the name wasn’t awesome enough the stories of its strength surely were. Fully grown elks were spotted to be level 200 - 250 or higher. The chances of meeting an elk here were close to zero but they still needed to be wary, just in case the elks wandered out further than they usually do.

They were quite a sore spot for the Frost Elves in ‘recent’ years. A little over a 150 years ago, a group of young village guards were out on a hunting trip and killed a baby glacial tungsten antler elk out of greed for their extremely valuable antlers when the parent went to hunt. They went back and celebrated their successful hunt thinking that the parent elks were unaware of the culprits. Though they should’ve long been warned against doing so.

Obviously they were wrong and the village was attacked by just 2 elks just that night, ramming through their walls like paper. Their charge didn’t stop till they reached the house where the group of elves were celebrating, tearing them apart and taking their child’s antlers back. Their path of destruction were unhindered by all the other houses and elves. They went on a rampage killing any Frost Elf they saw, many lives were lost that night including Clovis’s grandparents.

They were only fortunate their village chief just returned from their scheduled dungeon clearing to prevent dungeon breaks. The village chief and his party just returned tired and low on stamina and mana, they only managed to kill one of the elks while the other escaped. The elks were only level 210, lower than any of the village chief’s party members.

Other older stories of them solo hunting a pack of thousand wolves 30 even 50 levels above their own felt a little exaggerated with Clovis’s storytelling skills but Ebony got the point.

The monsters the 2 of them were going after were mostly in the lvl 5 - 20 range, all monsters were born level 0 and quickly level up to their racial limits as time passed. Those Ebony had seen were probably all new born as it only takes days to a week for them to level to their natural limits. For example the hoarfrost boar was said to reach lvl 25 fully grown and no longer able to absorb ambient essence at the same rate. Any monster that broke the norms of their racial limits likely killed and eaten a lot of people. Being able to level past their limits by consuming other sources of essence was why most monsters take a kill on sight approach.

Ebony chose the rabbits due to how repetitive their attacks were, even if they were faster, stronger and tougher at a higher level Ebony believed he wouldn’t have much trouble with them as long as they don’t have any other attack patterns and he was able to hurt them.

The boars, no longer identified as boarlet once reaching lvl 10 were also another choice. Easy to dodge if he could see them charging from a mile away. Horrible sight, inability to turn swiftly and easy target for his unnaturally huge blade. Definitely not for something as petty as revenge. Yes, definitely not.

Foxes were small enough for Clovis’s self concocted drugs to work quickly and Ice Vines to capture completely. As long as his drugs worked well enough to weaken it so that it can’t break itself free. Snowskin Monkeys had weak bodies and were not as fast as foxes, though they were more agile and tended to stay up on the tree they were not too hard to bait with drugged food. It was rare to find a low level one though.

Picking a random direction, Clovis focused on looking for fresh tracks while Ebony kept a lookout. Movement under the snow, predators coming down from the trees was where his focus was on, they were fragile compared to monsters and a sneak attack was all it took to kill them. Only depend on yourself to save your own life.

It didn’t take long before Clovis found fox and rabbit prints with some blood around, probably a fight happened not too long ago. Following the tracks they saw a [Arctic Fox Lvl 14] with the head of a rabbit in its mouth. They backed off before it noticed them and went on to look for another target. Lvl 14 was more the Clovis bargained for and having already eaten it would be harder to bait it with drugged deer meat.

Slightly impressed by Clovis’s tracking skill, he seemed to have found their burrow by following faint tracks from where the fox came from. Watching him set his trap a couple girs away while he stays further back so that he wouldn’t be considered as help or interference. Ebony felt the tree he laid against shake a little, looking up to see Halvis sitting on one of the thicker branches. Ebony wasn’t much of a tree climber and he preferred to have his feet on the ground so he stayed where he was.

Closing his eyes, Clovis focused and put both his hands forward, mumbling. A patch of vines started forming near his feet after about 10 seconds, unfeasible in a fight but considered pretty fast even for an elf. Chanting is not necessary for any magic but many mages try to do so, making their own chant can help them visualise their spell and cast a little faster or stronger. Even so, there was said to be no Chanting skill so the effects are psychological at best.

Covering the vines in the snow he took out half a leg of deer, fur and all still present. Its blood was drying up but it should still work. Placing it to look as inconspicuous as he could, he hid behind the closest tree away from the burrow, drew a small bow fit for his size and nocked an arrow. He was no better than average with it using elven standards but it was his only other form of attack if he doesn’t have enough mana to deal damage.

The snowy landscape was usually silent if not for any monster fights or movement in the snow but the wait seemed to put more attention on the current silence. Ebony could only see how nervous and excited Clovis was, breathing uneven, hands trembling. He was not fit for hunting or fighting like he said, even animals would be able to notice him there much less monsters with levels and stats.

Bamm

Hearing a loud knocking sound to his right, Ebony saw a [Hoarfrost Boarlet] in the distance 2-3 hundred metres away. No, not a boarlet anymore it was the size of a minivan or SUV now. It rammed into a thick tree, probably what the noise was. The tree was sturdier than it looked and was still standing. Ebony saw that Halvis had long been looking at the boar but didn’t alert either of them, he smiled at Ebony when he looked at him.

Watching it shake itself off, Ebony noticed it was facing this direction and it wouldn't take long for it to discover Clovis if it wasn’t too blind. There was only one thing for Ebony to do. Intercept it before it could target Clovis. His target just delivered himself to his front door after all, it would be rude not to give it the cold welcome it deserved.

Dashing off with his fastest speed towards the boar before it starts preparing its charge. With Running and Treading Step at lvl 25 and 27 he can move at 105% of his pathetic 7 Agility plus an additional 27% movement speed.

Running - Run at 80% + 1.0% [25%] Agility per level

Treading Step (Passive) - Unhindered by uneven terrain, move across the lands with speed, grace and stability. Treading Step allows one to travel through most terrains with more ease, slightly increasing in grace and stability in movement with each level. Movement speed increases by 1.0% [27%] per level.

Ebony has never been much of a sprinter and more of a marathon runner type but his personal record for a 100m sprint was still about 13.5s. If that was 80% of his Agility, (100m/13.5s = 7.407m/s) x (105/80)x (127/100) = 12.3465m/s putting him atop Earth’s fastest human, he was also just running and not sprinting and could keep this speed up for as long as his stamina lasts. He was carrying a heavy blade so probably a little slower than he calculated.

Over the 2 weeks he had testing running normally, just moving with Treading Steps, with both and even checked his walking speed. Running was similar to an active skill where his speed of running increases while running, a walk, jog or even sprint wouldn’t trigger the speed buff. Treading Steps as it stated was a passive skill which Ebony could turn off if he tried to walk normally. Otherwise the movement speed buff from Trending Steps would increase his speed when walking, jogging, running, sprinting or even crawling although the effect was somewhat lowered when he tried to climb a tree, his movement indeed increased. His tests confirmed that his calculations were roughly right.

Ebony tried to hide from its line of sight while he ran towards it but he was overly cautious as the boar was still huffing and shaking itself off. The impact of hitting its head was likely stronger than it expected. Seeing how near it was to the tree, Ebony got an idea and quickly leaped for the closest low hanging branch, pulling himself up onto it. Moving from tree to tree wasn’t as hard as it sounded when the trees were close together. Landing on the tree the boar rammed into, it only took him about half a minute to get here and the boar was still sniffing around, its eyesight really was horrible with its beady eyes.

[Hoarfrost Boar Lvl 15]

Getting close enough to Identify its level, 5 levels above 10 wasn’t enough to stop Ebony from trying.

Drawing his blade, he aimed and let Icebody Enhancement run as he jumped off, stabbing right at its eye from above it when it looked up without hesitation. May as well completely blind it while he still could, even if its body was 10 or 20 times tougher than a normal boar Ebony doesn’t think its eye would be as tough as steel.

The boar noticed too late but reacted fast, jerking its head to the side at the last second but getting a deep cut on its right eye and across its face. It squealed in rage, completely losing it as it jumped and swung its head around haphazardly hoping to hit whatever hit him. Unfortunately only landing hits on air.

Ebony landed on the ground and spun together with his large blade aiming for its legs, he needed to remove its mobility after its perception. His blade scraped against the boar's leg with a disturbed screech, only giving its fur a trim. ‘As expected I guess.’ It seems like he could only go for its weak spots like its eyes, snout and maybe ears.

It seemed to stop rampaging as it kicked at Ebony after he slashed at its leg, landing on Ebony's torso as he was sent flying. Ebony managed to react and push himself half a step away but it wasn’t enough. Flying off high and fast, intense pain wrecking his stomach and ribs as he could not help but cough out blood. Hitting a few branches till he managed to grab onto one and fell, landing on a lower branch. Halvis was watching but Ebony didn’t see the need to call him.

Health: 14/60

Stamina: 44/60

Mana: 73/100

Quickly deactivating Icebody Enhancement to conserve mana, Ebony almost regretted it as his bones creaked and he took another point of damage. With Icebody Enhancement at lvl 20 he gained a 35% Intelligence buff to his Constitution which was a 2.45 stat point increment, not a small number to his low stats. If all stats had the same value that would mean his body was (2.45/9) x 100% = 27.2% tougher.

‘Thanks leather armour common, I shouldn't have put you below leather boots Inferior.’ Ebony thought. Though how much it helped against a blunt strike like that was doubtful he would have been dead if not for Icebody Enhancement at its current level and the armour. While how effective the armour was in reducing impact was questionable, it was better than nothing.

Despite the broken ribs and damaged internals Ebony’s breathing was deep and steady while there was no change to his heart rate as if he was taking a stroll in the park. Of course, no one would be able to tell he was injured from his usual resting bitch face.

Quickly taking out a few crabapples and munching on them as he felt the pain relieve quickly. Health: 42/60. Each of the crabapple only healed 6HP due to the reduced effect or due to his damage to his bones. Eating another healed him to 44HP, he stopped since he already knew it would be a waste to eat anymore.

Another fact he found out when he got a cracked bone from Tiha was that he takes damage to his mana as well when his bones break. Bleeding also causes him to lose mana so he would have to be careful of that. The increased regeneration obviously came with a price.

Quickly jumping off from the flimsy looking tree he was on to a thicker more stable looking tree as the boar charged right into the tree he landed on. He underestimated mr. tree as it stood ramrod straight and unharmed, other than the loss of some bark despite being one of the thinner trees.

Ebony wanted to use the trees to his advantage seeing how the boar couldn’t climb or knock a tree down even with its unreasonable strength but he couldn’t get a good hit in with his large unbalanced sword and had to take the height of the branches into account.

‘How the heck did I not think of that first?’ Ebony thought of an obvious idea as the boar continued ramming into the tree.

Rodeo time. Leaping onto the boar again when it was squealing and shaking its head from tree ramming. With Icebody Enhancement running again he sat on the boar and held on as hard as he could with his legs around it and left hand gripping its fur tight. He gave his ice blade one good swing at its snout from above its head, giving it a tiny little cut.

It seemed unbothered by the attack as it tried to shake Ebony off its back. Ebony tried to stab at its neck but he couldn’t even get through its fur. Damn stats. He wasn’t in a good position to stab into its mouth either and it was swinging its head left and right so much it looked like it was spasming.

It was about to ram itself sideways onto the closest tree as Ebony let go and rolled into the snowy ground before he took another hit. Sitting on it wasn’t such a good idea after all. Quickly dashing and jumping for a nearby tree branch, he felt another shock from his ribs as he hung on with only his left hand grabbing the branch and right hand his leaf. He ignored it like a passing fart and flung himself up and onto the tree and stopped casting Icebody Enhancement again. He was down to 36MP and 35SP already.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Lesser Stealth level up 5 → 6’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 20 → 21’

‘It really does level faster in a real fight.’ Ebony thought as he hasn’t seen Icebody Enhancement level for days.

Not going well was a nice way to put it, he had no effective way of harming it while every movement of it could potentially kill him. Ebony never felt any real danger from it, the only thing it had was its strength and tough body. It was dumber than a rock, with hardly any attack patterns other than charging and ramming. Ebony didn’t feel the thrill of battle like with Ton and Sei. How unfortunate.

Ebony jumped back down, slashing towards its other eye with Icebody Enhancement on again. Reacting properly this time, the boar bit onto the tip of the ice blade hard, shattering more than a quarter of the blade. It was already beginning to weaken so Ebony wasn’t really surprised. The swing caused him to spin as he landed, he followed his momentum and continued his spin going around its side to its back.

The boar turned along with Ebony but Ebony stuck as close to the boar's body as possible and kept moving together with the boar. Trying to get to his back, the both of them were turning round and round and the boar looked like a puppy chasing its own tail. Ebony was spinning like a ballerina as he finally reached its back, he spun once more with the remaining broken blade poised and aimed right where its ass was. Pushing forward with all his strength he held the blade with both hands so that he wouldn’t get the 30% Strength debuff from Single-handed Greatsword Mastery. He didn’t manage to get the normal Greatsword Mastery even after his arm healed and he tried swinging the greatsword normally with both hands for hours to no avail.

Hitting true, the broken blade stabbed right into it with half of the blade still sticking out with the handle. The boar squealed with utmost rage again standing up on its hind legs from pain that it's never experienced. Taking the opportunity to give it another push while he still had mana for Icebody Enhancement, Ebony kicked with all his power at the blade handle. Driving the ice blade all the way in with only the tip of the handle still sticking out.

Flaring Treading Steps and Running to the max while he got up another tree before the boar unleashes its naked rage at Ebony. It rammed and rammed against the tree but all it did was cause the sturdy tree to shake and leaves drop. It started bleeding from its head and was slowing down after a few minutes.

Ebony knew that stabbing his blade up its ass wasn’t enough to kill it but he was sure he got some important internal organs. ‘Hmm? Something’s not right.’ The boar should be more than tough enough but it looked like it was death's door and its movement was getting very stiff. It suddenly stopped moving and fell onto its side.

Ebony didn’t hesitate to get down, the boar was too dumb to play dead, or so he thought. The boar wasn’t even looking at Ebony anymore, just huffing. It was freezing. How?

Walking around it to check what caused it, Ebony just noticed it’s anal injury didn’t bleed at all. There was a spreading layer of ice around its butt, slowly creeping up its body. Ebony watched on as it froze to death, turning into a sculpture of ice.

‘Seems like I owe Gen another.’ Ebony added to memory.

It wasn’t dead yet even as a sculpture as Ebony hadn't received any notifications of a kill. Ebony just kept a lookout while he waited.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Hoarfrost Boar Lvl 15]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Enemy 10 levels or more above your own, sufficient potential experience accumulated. Experience converted to Natural Potential.’

Seeing the message he expected, he started moving back to where Clovis was. Clovis already told him the message one would see and it was as he explained. If he had a class and could gain levels, this message wouldn’t appear even if he killed a monster 10 levels or more above him and he would just gain additional experience relative to his level.

He was quite a distance away from their original spot since he was sent flying away towards the other direction but he was in no rush.

“Very impressive. Are you still hurt from that kick?” Ebony heard Halvis’ voice somewhere above him as he ran back to where he was standing earlier.

“Thank you. I am fine.” Ebony replied succinctly. Ebony wasn’t proud of the achievement, he likely would have taken much longer to wear and bleed out the boar, maybe even fail to kill it if not for the ice blade Gen made for him freezing the boar. Ebony guessed that the blade broke in the boar's internals and the ice mana started freezing it to death when he got released inside the boar.

Finding the tree Halvis was sitting on, Ebony sat down on the ground and meditated while they watched as Clovis was still lying in wait.

Ebony didn’t think the excitable Clovis had this much patience as they waited more than half an hour before a pair of foxes came out of their burrow. Clovis panicked when he saw 2 foxes instead of one but managed to calm himself down as they waited for them to fall for his bait.

The deer leg had long been dried up and chilled but they seem to fall for the bait all too easily. The first one who saw the leg leaped towards it, bit it and leaped away from the spot back outside their burrow as the 2 foxes ate with glee. It was a [Arctic Fox Level 9] and [Arctic Fox Level 10].

Ebony wondered how this flawed plan even worked the first time Clovis tried it. Clovis was obviously disheartened; it wasn’t only one fox and they didn’t even stay on the spot that he cast his vines. At least he wasn’t hasty and continued observing, hopeful that the dosage of the drug was good enough to knock both of them out.

It worked pretty fast and both foxes actually started wobbling and fell to their sides, paralyzed or knocked out. Paralyzed, they were still somewhat aware of their surroundings. Clovis quickly dashed out towards them the poison he made wouldn’t last as long as he expected since the dosage was lowered so he acted quickly.

He stood still a short distance away from them and started casting his Ice Vines again, on the lvl 10 fox. He had enough mana for another cast. He manipulated the vines to wrap the fox up as much as he could but didn’t notice the other fox was already up and leaped with its claws aiming for Clovis' throat.

A shadow flew from above Ebony faster than anyone present could react too and shot through the lvl 9 fox’s head while it was in mid-air and through the tree behind it and into the snowy ground. The exploded fox head got blood all over Clovis while he screamed.

“Focus Clovis, your vines won’t hold any longer. They were only partially affected by your cold poison, they had some resistance against cold to begin with. It's only natural they aren’t that affected by it if the dosage was lowered, they feigned weakness to bait you out. Do you need my help?” Halvis patiently explained.

The fox struggled free from the ice vines as Clovis fought against it and tried to manipulate the vines to keep it down but to no avail as the fox was much stronger than a couple of vines made of ice. Nervous, he panicked and let go of his control over the vines as he drew his bow from his back again.

He was too slow as the fox broke free once Clovis let the control of his spell down and it let the opportunity go as it attacked Clovis before he even managed to nock an arrow. Clovis shut his eyes, fearing the incoming attack but it never came.

He slowly opened his eyes to see the fox yelping with its neck under Halvis’ vice grip. He brightened up at first but was quickly disappointed by himself.

“It’s alright Clovis, you did well. Don’t worry about it, you know that hardly anyone from our village has managed to complete the stimulation rite by themselves for hundreds of years. You aren’t even planning to be a fighter but a scholar. I am very proud that you have taken the rite seriously, making that cold poison, training your ice vines and taking up a little archery even though you don’t enjoy it.” Halvis told his son.

“Mhmm, I know.” Clovis sniffled. He clearly understood the difficulty of the task.

‘Hardly anyone managed to complete it themselves in hundreds of years?’ Ebony found this to be harder to believe. They had magic here, if all the young elves were at Clovis’ standard then it would make sense but they weren’t. Even if classless had a very limited mana pool and could only cast a spell or 2 before running out they still had archery. They can just hide up in the tree and shoot arrows till they kill one, it shouldn’t be impossible.

The biggest issue was doing damage to the monsters and avoiding damage. Without any body enhancement magic and with their considerably weaker bodies the Frost Elves probably can’t afford to take a single hit. That only limits their target choices to those that can’t climb up these sturdy trees like the boar. Then all they have to do is to repeatedly aim for its vitals right?

As Ebony was contemplating about the issue, Halvis went ahead and froze the fox with its 4 limbs spread wide apart onto a tree while it struggled in vain. It was really pitiful and Ebony couldn’t say he agrees with such a method but it was kill or be killed since it tried to kill Clovis it risked being killed itself.

Halvis stepped back while Clovis started drawing his arrow and shooting, that’s when Ebony found the problem. The arrow bounced right off the fox, it was almost comical. Bows here are similarly rated by tivs, the draw weight or strength required to fully draw the bow once. The Frost Elves were physically weak, it wasn’t so bad after they get a class and can put some stats there but as a classless they don’t have that advantage.

Clovis is using a 3 tiv training bow, their arrows are all fully wooden as they had no metal workers at all. That’s a 15kg draw weight bow, if Ebony’s not wrong that is a draw weight for human children or teenagers perhaps a little more. Which to be fair, Clovis was considered a child but even standing so close there was no way it could hurt the monsters much.

“Aim for its eyes or its mouth Clovis.” Halvis gave Ebony a side glance as he said this, having seen Ebony aim for other orifices. It's too good of a weakness to shy from though, most animals, humans included, don't defend that area much compared to their faces or body.

Clovis kept shooting and shooting, his aim wasn’t perfect but he stood so close it was almost impossible to miss with it stuck in place. The fox closed its eyes when he found that the arrows couldn’t pierce through its eyelid but it was only delaying its death. Reusing the arrows till they broke, the fox’s resistance gradually ceased and Clovis coated his final arrow’s head with a layer of ice. It looked at Clovis as he released the arrow going straight into its mouth, down its throat.

Clovis was panting and his arms were trembling so much Ebony didn’t think it was possible from such a lightweight bow. ‘It should just be elves with such a disadvantage for the stimulation rite, magic takes too much mana and is too weak at low skill levels. Beastmen who are physically strong should have a bigger advantage in the early levels since stamina recovers so much faster than mana.’

“Heheh… I got it.” Clovis happily announced.