Ebony's Fable

The first thing he saw when he entered his class during a lesson transition was his model being surrounded. The ever-mischievous Bilal drew on his sculpture’s robe with some form of paint. Bilal was the one who called him out for skipping the test.

“B-big bro-ha. Haha. Didn’t see you there.” The kids who joined him jumped off the ice sculpture and scrambled to wipe away all evidence and tools on the desk.

“Is that a bear. Kmm, is that a bear?” Ebony cleared his throat and repeated himself.

“Yeah! What do you think?” Bilal cheered up when he didn’t receive a scolding.

“You’re a good painter. Have you seen a bear?” If he was able to tell what an eight-year-old boy scribbled on a cold and slippery surface, the boy was indeed a good painter.

“I have a bear cub at home, Shelly’s her name. She’s going to be my partner in future. I love drawing, I’m going to be a painter for my Profession.”

“Right, your father is a tamer and your mother is a lightning mage. Treat your partner well, you’ll be watching each other’s backs.”

Ebony imagined a lightning mage with a bear protector or maybe a grown-up Bilal riding a bear while flinging lightning or calling upon thunderstorms.

‘Painter…interesting, could he paint lightning and spawn it into existence? Maybe I’ll subtly give them tips to incorporate everything as a form of combat.’

“Bilal, let me show you how to paint without tools. As a mage, mana and mental control are all you need to influence the world.” Ebony sent a stream of mana to collect dirt and grass from the field right outside.

He ground them together and drew the same bear on the blackboard with dirt mixed with liquefied grass to give the ‘paint’ a green dye.

He would have told them about ‘Will’ but he was barely a beginner and couldn’t teach them something he didn’t know how to use properly.

To prove his point and to set little notions and imagination in their heads, he conjured a tiny bit of electricity and controlled its path to spark and draw over the same bear.

‘This is harder than I thought.’ Ebony didn’t just draw slowly for the children’s benefit. Lightning mana was almost as chaotic as gravity mana but in a completely different way. Unlike gravity which naturally flows in a certain path, lightning mana was far more frenzied and disorderly. Forcing it to follow an accurate and precise path down to the centimetre was the best he could do.

The door slid open to reveal their next lesson’s instructor. It was an old lady, one of the Grandmasters in the Academy. He had listened to her share some insights when he visited the faculty office. She taught basic mana manipulation exercises, what use they had and what the dos and don’ts were.

Also teaching the Journeymen and Master classes, she was in charge of teaching a tier 3 mana capacity skill together with a lot of practical mana manipulation. Her classes had the highest failure rate.

Journeymen could graduate from their course as long as they got the skill to tier 2 and 250% base and completed her test. Her test changed all the time, she tested a mage’s usage of mana in its base form. The tier 3 variant was interesting, it was no longer a pure mana capacity-increasing skill but a lightning elemental one.

The older lady took a moment to observe the class. “Mr. Ebony. That blackboard’s damaged now.”

“...Sorry ma'am.” From his general instinct, this old lady, Madam Wilcox was the strongest person in the Academy but that wasn’t the reason for his politeness. It was only natural to be respectful to his elders and not to mention, he was a student and she was a teacher. He did vandalise school equipment.

“Fascinating sculpture, can you move it?” Ebony didn’t let her curiosity down and manually controlled his model to jump out of the room and do a little shadowboxing outside.

“What delicate control…now back to your seats everyone.” She clapped her hands twice after the bell rang. She wasn’t one to get distracted by a simple spell.

The class was the least rowdy during Madam Wilcox’s lessons. She must have a couple of tier 3 teaching or education skills. It was strong enough to influence him and made him more receptive to every single word she spoke. It was hard to tell since his Intelligence stat wasn’t that low but he was sure her skills made it such that people would retain the information she shared more accurately and longer.

‘Using a stream of mana to complete miniature mazes, that’s a good exercise. They’re only starting this exercise next year. Guess I'll take a look at these miniature maze equipment later.’

Ebony recalled his model to the window and reabsorbed his imbued Will.

‘Nice, it has the whole recording down. The quality is a little lower than if I were present myself but I can understand it. I’ll start mass producing these.’ Ebony had used and understood Will wrongly as a Master.

Thinking he could only control the limit of his capacity which used to be over twenty Models at the same time. They would usually break before his Will recovered to build more. The number of Models he could control at the same time still didn’t increase much but the amount of Will he used for each could vary greatly.

His pet tree experiment taught him quite a lot. The amount of Will he could imbue depended on the vessel he was imbuing it into. So far, he mostly experimented with the amount and density of his personal mana but he wanted to try imbuing his Will onto other objects.

The greater the amount of Will, the more of his actual abilities he could programme the vessel to do. Not at the same strength but at the same precision and accuracy. The more strict he was with the instructions, the less he could instruct them to do. The complexity of instructions was what consumed or tied down Will the most.

‘Consume’ was as inaccurate as it could get. He currently classified Will as processing power, it could be in use but it doesn’t get consumed. However, it does dissipate or ‘degrade’ a lot faster than the hardware’s processing speed.

“Big bro! Come play with us!” Fabian the playful jumped from his seat and tugged on Ebony’s sleeves. He was good buddies with Bilal.

“My apologies, I’ll be spending some time in the library today.”

“Aww bummer. Books are boring.”

“Books are dangerous. If they’re empty, anyone can write anything on them. If they’re filled, anyone can absorb what’s written within.” Ebony recalled one of his father’s sentences but on second thoughts, he might have used it at the wrong time. He stopped himself from explaining and going into full lecture mode. He didn’t want to bore his classmates.

‘I’m not good at this encouragement thing.’ He wanted to give them a better impression of books and how important knowledge is but telling a bunch of eight-year-olds that knowledge is power didn’t feel right.

The Piercing Tempest Academy’s library was small, about the size of a small bookshop. Barely a thousand books in total from a glance. No secret spell books or anything like that obviously, just the general collection of necessary information for the entire course of studies in the Academy.

The actual spells taught weren’t recorded, only passed down through verbal methods. Although, they probably had a written version somewhere if Laika the headmistress was the third generation.

About a quarter of them were famous, general books about magic and history that he had already read before in Clovis’s collection. A good dozen were encyclopaedias on dungeons, monsters and plants. 'Common Sense - Dungeons' was quite a good read.

‘If I read three hours a day, hmm..about two weeks to finish all the books here if I take my time.’

He trained his reading skill seriously for the first time in years. However, trances didn’t knock him out and he was able to keep track of time.

Ebony closed the book with a satisfying thud, the pages rustling as they settled, and stood up, the chair creaking beneath him and his footsteps creating a faint patter on the floor.

“Oh, you’re still here.” Raika, the practical instructor disturbed the empty library when he opened the door.

“I’m just about to leave.” He pushed in the chair he used. It was a sturdy chair, he barely had to reduce his weight for it.

“Where to? I have to run an errand outside.” Raika sped in and slid in a few borrowed books back where she had taken them from.

“Getting shoes that match, something I can wear daily.”

“Oo, you’re new to the district right? Shall I introduce you to a good place? My errands are on the way so I can walk you there.”

“If it's not too far, I have about two hours to spare.” Ebony gestured with his hands to the exit for her to lead the way.

“Let me put my robe back in my office, wait for me at the front gate!” Raika sped away. Perhaps it was a trait of lightning mages to do everything with haste. Patience didn’t seem to be their strong suit.

Ebony thought nothing of the friendly gesture of introducing a reputable store to someone new in the neighbourhood.

“I’ll hail a carriage, it’s an hour away on an average ride.”

Ebony nodded to the woman who wore her Academy’s garb. A white blouse with yellow streaks with a ribbon around the collar and dark blue pants with the same yellow streaks. The bunch of buttons and accessories were all practical tools that contained lightning mana. The robe they wore matched the pants in colour but she took that off.

‘Or a few Flickers away. Never mind, I’ll practise hiding my mana on the way. I should ask Madam Wilcox how her mana is completely undetectable one day or maybe just training tips and direction.’

He did not know how Raika could go on about the stores in their district for the entire hour. All he did was nod or acknowledge that he was listening from time to time. Barely saying more than two sentences throughout the ride.

Ebony already scanned the neighbourhood but he had no idea what shops had good reputations or what specialities there were.

Before he knew it, he had two pairs of casual shoes boxed up in a paper bag. One of them was similar to leather chukka boots and the other was closer to oxford boots. Raika ran off for her errands the moment she decided on the boots for him.

As someone who made clothes, he was not good at telling what was in fashion so he just took the employee and Raika’s advice.

‘There was an armour shop around the corner, time to get actual boots.’ Ebony was far more perceptive when it came to combat boots.

He found the biggest store and hoped it was the most reliable thanks to how well it seemed to be doing. There were plenty of customers and the store was at least three stories tall. Although it held inventory, smiths like these had bigger business in the custom order section.

There was a catalogue of armours, including boots that the two armour smiths running the business made. Customers even had to pay a fee if they wanted some time from the smith to give a more detailed custom order. The smiths were too busy to give every single person who visited their store a personal talk or interview.

‘Should I just disturb Sister Jing for boots again…I guess why not, I’ll get her to splurge this time.’ Ebony turned back, he didn’t want to join the 2 week queue for a short ten-minute talk with smiths he didn’t know.

He could make his own but anything he could make would wear out in weeks of training at best. Especially the sole of the boot, all of his feet’s power was concentrated there. It was no different from shooting a shotgun amplified a few hundred times through the sole of every Flicker he took. Yet the ground would be unaffected.

He had a double take when he sniffed something familiar.

‘Fish sandwiches. So fish are in stock again, the borders’ fishing industry must have resumed. The battle with the Trolls should have lulled down.’ Ebony didn’t hesitate to walk over to the restaurant with open doors. It was a cafe-styled restaurant with seats outside under canopies.

‘Is this called a craving? Guess I’ve been spending too much time with a foodie.’

“Smells great, she’ll love it.” Ebony carried two large paper bags full of piping hot fish sandwiches of every flavour on the menu. It was more for himself, sadly he didn’t bring his bag or any preservation boxes. Keeping it in a conjured ice with moulded preservation wouldn’t work perfectly as the sandwiches would cool down.

Just as he was walking back, he picked up his classmate’s voice frequencies and zoomed in on their speech a kilometre away from him.

“Let her go!” Bilal yelled in rage.

“What’cha gonna do about it scrawny mage? You mage students are so weak, can’t do anything without a warrior protecting you can ya?” A young voice he didn’t recognise held Yusqly by her hair and yanked her entire body off the ground. It was another girl, albeit taller and larger than his classmates.

Ebony found himself on the nearest roof with the kids in an alley.

Bilal, Fabian, Faelk, Tia, Umar, Tristan and Esme were all present. Almost all of them have bruises on them, the only exceptions were Tia, Esme and Yusqly. Seeing how the opponent was a pair of boys together with the girl holding up Yusqly by the hair with one hand, he assumed the boys did well protecting the girls. Until now.

Ebony hung his legs off the ledge of the roof, took a fish sandwich out and started chomping on it, watching what his classmates were going to do in this situation.

‘Their bullies are larger but smaller in numbers. I think they’re the same age though. Warrior children, their bodies are far more fit and toned. Muscles are…not great but not bad. Mass-wise, they’re almost a full ten kilograms heavier. Still, they lost eight against three?’

The sardine-sized fish were roasted whole with fresh chillis. The soft buns soaked up all the flavour and it spread across his tastebuds evenly as he watched Faelk charge with his hands wide open, trying to attempt a chokehold.

‘Ooo. Beastmen sure are naturally superior with physical combat.’

One of the boys standing behind the dark red-haired girl shifted and swung his wooden sword at Faelk’s stretched-out hand.

‘Wow. Body enhancement, a pathetic amount of mana but that’s a…seven to eight percent boost in strength. No wonder.’ Ebony couldn’t help but chew through his sandwich faster when the swordsman’s swing landed on Faelk’s wrist precisely and sent the wolf boy slamming into the building wall when he followed up with a turning kick immediately.

Faelk’s reaction wasn’t too shabby and he managed to block the kick with his free hand but had been in the middle of a charge and didn’t have much positional strength to withstand the enhanced kick. The wolf boy was the tallest and largest of the bunch so he was surprised he was overpowered in terms of physical strength.

Ebony could tell Faelk was indeed physically stronger but he lost balance thanks to the wrist strike. The opponent had better battle sense or was trained better.

As for the rest of his classmates, they were awkwardly standing around. Hiding behind their eldest and strongest classmate.

‘Their mana pools are mostly full, are they not fighting back because they have practicals tomorrow?’

Ebony watched as the two warrior boys ganged on Faelk who used his larger frame and better physique to tank hits and throw a well-timed counter from time to time. The other attacker was unarmed and used his bare fists.

“Your warrior is protecting you, you’re not going to do anything?” Ebony copied Targot’s voice and used mana vibration to whisper into each of their ears.

Yusqly’s struggles to hit the hand off her hair were yielding no result and her neck must have started to hurt.

His advice had been mostly useless. Bilal, Fabian and Tristan managed to gather their courage to fight back but their lightning streaks were easily avoided by the girl just by shifting one of her feet back. They were afraid of hitting Yusqly but that had been a pathetic attempt on their part.

They pointed their wands at their opponent for two whole seconds before shooting their little zaps of electricity. It didn’t take a genius to dodge it.

Bilal was the only one who aimed at the boys attacking Faelk and even managed to land a hit on the unarmed boy’s shoulder.

The boy who got hit smirked and gave Bilal a side-eye.

‘I guess that’s to be expected. Even Common rarity clothing made by a Journeymen has some levels of defence. A little streak of electricity wouldn’t do anything. Their spells don’t have a punch behind it either.’

Faelk had been unable to cast any magic or gather any lightning mana without the lee way to focus in peace or he would have done a lot better. Despite obviously having less physical training, Faelk managed to keep the two attackers busy by himself just by having a larger frame. However, he was barely able to land one hit in exchange for taking ten.

His classmates charged at the attacker boys only to be beaten aside.

The girl with dark red hair just chuckled at their attempts.

Umar, one of the quiet kids in class, slipped after receiving a punch from the unarmed boy and then he launched his attack.

‘Good kids.’ Ebony nodded at Umar’s sneak attack. Umar held a tiny sphere of his mana within his palms without a wand and was hiding it while collecting ambient lightning mana. While falling, he reached out and grabbed the red-haired girl’s leg with the ball of electricity in his palms. He was one with the largest mana pool and the stablest control over lightning. One of the top students so to speak.

The shock landed directly and caused the girl to yelp and let Yusqly go.

Tia and Esme rushed forward to catch their friend while waving their wands which had lightning streaking across the air as they waved it around. It succeeds in attempts to ward off any grubby hands.

Faelk might have received more punches and swings from a wooden sword but a single punch from him caused the opponents to baulk and bruises formed as the exchange of blows continued. While Faelk himself outwardly sustained about as many cuts and bruises as his opponent had. Racial traits were very advantageous for his current predicament.

When the opponent’s apparent leader moved, Ebony’s head ran through options. With a single look, he could already see Bilal and Tristan getting a broken arm and shoulder respectively in the next three seconds. As for Umar, he was going to receive a hard stomp on his spine while he was on the ground. Quite brutal for children.

‘They’re not going to be able to dodge, should I step in..there’s healing, guess I’ll slightly lower the impact for Umar and leave the rest.’ Ebony didn’t like to interrupt but even with the city-wide healing, children getting bones broken was only good when controlled. This little girl had none of that. As for the rest of them, he would leave their lesson uninterrupted.