Ebony's Fable

The wooden log in the ground took another quarter of Ebony’s consolidated Will. He did his best to keep it the same as the first quarter.

The tree began to grow in width more so than height. It hit five metres in height and 3 metres in width before stopping again.

Ebony gathered the rest of his Will and imbued it into the tree. Since it only utilised fully compressed mana to expand it was quite a drain on his mana pool. Freshly regenerated mana was extremely thin in comparison and his mana pool wasn’t exceptional in terms of capacity.

One probably couldn’t find another Grand mage with a mana pool as small as his. Even if their Wisdom stat was lower than his. Every other mage would have at least a tier 2 mana capacity increasing skill as a Class, Sub-Class or Profession skill at a reasonable level. But all he had was a tier 1 generic version.

With all his Will and mana fed, the tree got to a height and width of seven metres. It was just a squarish cylinder sitting in the middle of his garden.

While he could feed it more mana in real time, it took a lot longer to recover Will.

Ebony went back into the house to take a bath. When morning came, he wanted to check if the Will dissipated and if the tree was still present. Technically, the tree should remain. It was made of his ice mana and that huge chunk wouldn’t melt for days under direct sunlight.

He didn’t need to run the test since he knew that his Glacial Models could move for three to five days as long as they had mana. After the three-day mark, they would start to lose function even if they had reserves of mana.

According to the one that shall not be named, his base Will can remain for quite long. Even his recovery only takes two full days from an empty husk to a filled one. He didn’t tell the Frost Elves that but they could roughly gauge it even when he only used a little at a time.

Although they didn’t share with him their standards, he was going to assume Will normally dissipates fast and recovers slower than his current state. However, he wasn’t happy with the recovery speed.

Sadly, there was nothing he could do about it other than continue to practise and use it every chance he got. Hopefully, there were skills related to it.

‘She’s busy in the kitchen so..no movie night. I’m not sleepy and I'm out of books to read…right, the basement. I’ll put the portable forge there.’ Ebony got permission to convert the unused basement into his forge.

It was supposed to be a storage zone for ingredients so she had him wall off half of it and reinforce the basement with his mana for his forge. They didn’t want heat to spoil the ingredients after all.

In terms of forging or runic crafting, he had been slacking off. But it was a hobby and a good time to pick it back up.

To warm up, he made the standard rings he was most familiar with but didn’t have a lot of metal on him so he melted them down and reforged them over and over again. There probably weren’t many places that sold raw metal ores in the middle of the night.

Whenever his mana refilled, he would go out and feed his ice tree. By breakfast, it no longer grew and needed more Will which he hasn’t recovered. It was still just a huge stick without leaves sticking out of the ground.

With that, he continued his school enrolment process.

❅❅❅

The day to visit the Life Queen’s house rolled by.

Ebony did not have any other success in finding a school willing to accept him as a student. Not even a course on Greatsword wielding or general technique.

Ning Xin similarly found no purchase in creating a dish she was satisfied with.

His pet project grew to the height of twelve metres when he recovered Will and fed it, its width stopped increasing at 8 metres.

It was now an obvious landmark for the neighbourhood, extending past the stone walls that surrounded their little mansion.

They had a neighbour two units down. It was a retired old lady who used to be an inn owner but she passed that down to her children and now lives with her husband who was still an active riding instructor at the race course. They greeted their neighbour and exchanged meeting gifts which was just a fruit basket in exchange for some tea leaves.

Both parties were happy with the gifts but didn’t bother each other after the initial greeting

“Hey you badie!” A short girl had a hand on her hip and the other pointing at him.

Standing right by the gate as if she was expecting them.

“I’m glad to see you awake, Muse. Sorry about the fainting and thanks for your kind intentions.”

“You’re not healed! But that aside, how could you leave me!? I said I’ll follow you until I remove that taint.”

“You were unconscious. When did you wake up?”

“Three months after you disappeared on me. Cookie!” Muse put out her hand and demanded.

“I’m still not healed?” Ebony wasn’t bothered since he didn’t have any adverse effect on him

“You’re better, but it’s faintly present. Almost illusory, I’m not good enough yet.” She nibbled the cookie that Ning Xin presented to her from her snack pouch. The 1.63 metre-tall girl with childlike facial features got a head rub from the 1.92 metre-tall female warrior.

‘How envious.’

Muse led them into the Royal couple's house as if it was her own. Ebony caught the glance that Xin gave him but he didn’t think anything of it.

“Muse, you’re not human are you?” Ebony had come a long way. Muse looked like a young human girl but her mana signature was vastly different from the average human.

“Nopedy nope.” She skipped right in the house but there was no one around.

“Is Navin and Yvette not around?” Ning Xin sniffed the air twice.

Unlike their mansion, the privacy settings of the Royal couple were not inferior to the Frost Elves.

“Muuu~ sometimes. They said they’re busy but won’t tell me anything! I have to play alone every day!”

“Don’t you teach at Tidal Academy?”

“Classes halted. I don’t have many students either. I wanted to go look for you but those stupid Eclipse guards keep stopping me! Hmph!”

‘Eclipse. If I’m not wrong those are the secret royal bodyguards.’

“What were you doing outside, did you know we’re coming?” Xin fed the creature another cookie.

“...I stand there waiting for someone to come every day.”

“Must have been lonely.” The chef had her arms hooked by the little girl.

“Are you staying in Tidal this time around?” Muse pouted.

“Yes. We moved in a while back.”

“A while…and you never came to look for me. Badie!”

“Muse, will you teach me sound magic.”

“No! I don’t teach sound magic. I teach music.”

“Will you teach me music?”

“Certainly my dear boy.” Muse bowed and put on a deeper and more serious tone.

“If you want, you can come over and have dinner with us.” The chef didn’t think there was a need to extend their stay in a house without their owners.

“Yay! Can I stay there?”

“...come here.” Ning Xin picked up the girl by the armpit and whispered for the greater sound mage to silence their conversation.

Ebony wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop even if he wanted to.

The cheerful girl nodded in glee at whatever the tall, intimidating woman was saying. With a bag of snacks swapping hands.

‘What did I just witness?’ It was easy to tell that all Muse mouthed was ‘okay’ but the masked woman had her lips hidden. The bubble of silence was removed and the youthful girl ran up to her room. There had to be some reason she was living with the Royal couple.

The butlers and maids stood at the side with barely any presence. Ready to assist the guests at any time. They exchanged greetings since they knew each other.

Ebony also recognised the guards. Although they were not young, their aura felt about as strong as the Minor Generals back in Fifth Tide. For normal warriors without lineage skills and whatnot, they should be relatively accomplished to earn a spot as a guard for the King and Queen.

“Let’s gooo!” Muse dragged Ning Xin out by the elbow. On her shoulders was a small bag of clothes and a wooden instrument that stuck out of the unpacked bag.

The female warrior allowed the little girl to pull her along. Having a carriage stop not far away made hailing a ride extremely easy.

Just like that, he snagged a music teacher home after visiting the King and Queen’s private residence.

“Student, let’s stop by my favourite shop. I get you an instrument as a gift.” Muse gave the carriage driver a destination before he could.

“Is that necessary. We can produce whatever sound we’d like with manipulation.” Ebony helped the girl get on board the tall step.

“Lesson one. Where’s your emotion when you talk? At least you bothered to act in the past.” She got herself seated and popped a candy in her mouth while swinging her legs.

“I don’t see a need to anymore. Ask Xin, I’m full of emotions.” He sat across the two women and closed the door of the fancy carriage.

“How dare you talk back? You think I can’t tell? Music is a form of expression. Every waking moment can be your practice.”

“Yes, you’re right. I’m practising it right now.” Ebony liked what Muse was saying. However, she should be able to tell that he was indeed putting that into practice if she had a similar skill as Ning Xin.

“You…don’t care. Are you sure that’s the kind of music you want to play?” Muse stopped swinging short legs back and forth.

“I am who I am. Shouldn’t the music I play express that instead of an act I’m putting up.”

Muse harrumphed and looked out of the window, “You’re boring.”

“Been a while since I’ve heard that.” Ebony looked out the window and had a rare smile as he reminisced.

He didn’t know why Xin pinched both of Muse’s cheeks all of a sudden.

‘She’s happy all of a sudden.’ Ebony didn’t know what happened but seeing how Muse was getting her cheeks pinched, it was probably thanks to her. That made his awkward smile widen ever so slightly.

There were not many stores that sold musical instruments and he hadn’t entered or even spotted a single one after their small week-long exploration around their neighbourhood.

“I’m just going to ask but do you know how to play any instruments?”

“A few, I'm fluent with a piano and tried guitar and drums before but never really got into them.”

“Never heard of those. Can you describe it? We can place a custom order.”

Ebony conjured tiny copies made of ice for his new teacher who hasn’t given up on teaching him. He produced the exact same sounds that these instruments would for her.

“Ah, it's slightly different but we have those. A custom order shouldn’t be too difficult for them. Pittaw, is that what you’re most familiar with?” Muse took the ice piano in hand.

“You can say that but it’s been at least a decade since I’ve played a physical piano.” He didn’t forget that she hadn't answered him why a physical instrument was necessary.

He wasn’t planning to strengthen his sound magic with the help of a sonic weapon. Muse also didn’t think sound magic was supposed to be used the way he did so he was confused.

‘Hold on a minute. It wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. It’s not like I have to move when my domain gets stronger in the future. I don’t use a staff or casting glove and fights with stiff and unmoving opponents would get rather bland.’ Ebony decided to be positive.

They alighted and had the carriage driver wait for them.

The music store was a small store large enough for a few tables at best. Muse did all the talking, ordering the Pittaw with the small changes that Ebony showed her. It was a lot easier for the craftsman, a dwarf, to visualise when there was a conjurer with high precision present.

Ebony had never seen such a lithe dwarf. The craftsman was almost as wide as a buff bodybuilder which was extremely skinny for a dwarf that usually had width that almost challenged their height. The skinny fingers might have been for the more precise and gentle work that instruments required compared to weapons and armour.

‘Maybe his body evolved that way thanks to how specialised his Classes are. But wow his essence pool is vast.’

There was not much interaction despite Muse being a regular at the shop and they returned home in time for him to water his tree with his liquid mana.

The majestic…sharp log growing out of the ground did its job of surprising Muse who ran circles around it in awe.

It was noon, there was plenty of time for more enrollment attempts.