Ebony's Fable

“So you’re the one…” Ning Xin stood a head taller than Raika who was secretly following his classmates as the overseer today. She had practically teleported towards the ‘hidden’ instructor the moment she smelled her.

Raika’s hair sparked with electricity and she stepped back only to have her elbow caught by Ning Xin and her entire body jerked back to her original spot.

‘Her reaction is pretty quick, I guess speed is a lightning mage’s forte.’ Ebony saw Raika’s response and he already gauged that his Models might not be good enough as a training partner if the instructors were at her standard.

“Wh-who are you? What do you want?”

Ebony felt like he had to diffuse the situation when he saw the edges of her hair turn red.

“Good morning Raika. She doesn’t mean any harm.”

“Oh, good morning Ebony.” Raika calmed down when she saw him but Ning Xin didn’t let her go so he patted her shoulder hoping she’d let the poor girl go. It was unlike her to get physical with a stranger. Outside of combat.

“Oww…uhm, Ebony, who might this be?” Raika looked extremely uncomfortable with her elbows getting gripped tightly.

“Yeah Ebony, who might I be?”

“She’s my partner.”

His answer seemed to satisfy Ning Xin as Raika was released from the vice grip.

“O-oh. I see. Of-of course, he had one.” Raika whispered the second half to herself but the hubbub around the Quest Hall wasn’t enough to wash out the words from someone who had good hearing.

Ning Xin arrogantly tetted with Raika to show her superiority.

After scaring his classmates, she left to do her routine. “Swordplay exchange later?”

“Mmm.”

Not having a sparring partner made skill practice rather dry. If they limit their speed it’ll be a good show for the kids. It was better to ingrain good performance into their minds compared to bad ones and hope they picked something up.

Ebony never taught his classmates anything special but they were beginning to learn how to dodge. Not effectively or efficiently but it was better than locking up and waiting to get hit. A couple were fighting back and Faelk was against a full-strength and speed bully.

The best fighter was Atticus who had a more physically inclined upbringing compared to the others. He was a defensive type, perhaps taught by a tank or shield wielder. Sadly, his size and frame weren’t suitable for such styles. The evasion practice benefited him a lot more and he was capable of timing and landing counter blows.

The rest now had permission to use their mana every two days. However, their improvements when it came to being able to focus, gather lightning mana and then maintain it while dodging was almost nil. He didn’t want them to fire a spell, it would save them more mana and increase their practice duration as long as all they did was gather and maintain while dodging and observing their surroundings in case a second or third bully came in for an attack.

Although the competition didn’t have a battle royale, Ebony didn’t see a reason not to increase their awareness and alertness while training the most important ability for a mage, the ability to focus and cast magic in any situation. He’d seen their concentration waver and mana spheres run out of control too many times.

It was not a problem Ebony personally came across so he didn’t have any tips for them. Ever since he wielded mana, he could hold multiple casts and points of focus by splitting his focus. It was no different from playing chess and sudoku in his mind at the same time. Rather simple.

So he didn’t understand their struggles.

His classmates were extremely intimidated in front of Ning Xin and their swordplay performance was not well understood by the children. He thought it was because they were going too fast and slowed down but he had no choice but to conclude that most of them simply didn’t see it as a learning chance.

Ebony’s kick swiped at Ning Xin’s mask and caught her off guard. It landed fully and swung her head to the ground where she did a breakdance sort of manoeuvre to spin herself back onto her feet. It was not a move he would ever suggest but she did it so smoothly and her movements were sharp enough with her blades in hand that it wasn’t an opening.

‘Right, she doesn’t know I got a tier 4 art like her…’ he might have exposed his new skill earlier than he’d like. That wasn’t ideal, the less she knew the higher his chance of success at proposing.

His Arts was too low level at the moment so she might just be thinking he caught her off guard with the slow pace they were going. She probably didn’t even know that he wouldn’t be Identified or Appraised as a swordsman anymore. There was a far higher chance people with Identify would see that he was a Martial Artist or some variant of it if he removed his obfuscation jewel.

He was a little salty that years of effort with the sword were just written over with a simple word called talent and that he was weak-willed enough to take it up. However, he had come to peace with it and just no longer denied where his strong suits were. Not to mention, it wasn’t as if his ability and growth with wielding a sword disappeared.

‘I was right, I have the upper hand in the first few minutes as long as her strength hasn’t built up. It’s getting harder to break her combos though.’ They didn’t ramp up the spar too much but it was enough for him to gauge where they both stood.

Even without magic, he had a slight upper hand in close combat. The changes in her sword style were minimal. It was a lot more polished but the style itself didn’t change. Meaning he could pretty much predict and react to any kind of impromptu change mid-battle. Although their base stats didn’t change and he was still a lot slower thanks to Fortifications, he could foresee himself catching up with Ethereal Form Arts.

‘Can I train Ethereal Form Arts against Ants? It won’t be the most efficient but it should work since it's always in use as long as I fight.’ Ebony already estimated that higher-tier skills were harder to level but the difference was not that big at low levels.

“Please teach me how to dual wield big sis!” Atticus seemed entranced by Ning Xin’s swordplay and he was actually suitable for it.

“No. Why should I?”

Atticus was quickly shot down. It was rather rude of him as they weren’t related or even their instructors. A proper way was to ask for an official apprenticeship, even Ebony knew about this. Hence, he stopped directly asking people about their skills and abilities.

‘The reason is probably not because of his directness.’

He let them return to the Academy with a dazed Raika following them.

“Let’s eat out.”

They took an aerial ride to the western district to try the fowl they were recommended when they arrived in the Capital.

Not even their sensitive tongues could complain.

Ebony didn’t cast any more Models despite his wish to evolve it as soon as possible. He needed every drop of Will for his pet tree. The high usage of Will the past few weeks also made him aware that it was far more draining on him. Keeping himself dried out on Will could make him sleepy in half the time it usually did.

Although an intense use of a great amount in a short time could cause him short-term problems such as a splitting headache, his Core Skill seemed to counter that so it never lasted more than five minutes. The implications in battle were low but present so it was better for him to use it gradually like how he used his models and past Domain.

‘Will recovery is too slow, I can’t find any books on them either. The Elves…I would have to find old Kings and higher since they said King ranked is the earliest they would have a Domain skill.’ Ebony finally felt how suffocating it was for normal mages who had limited mana for training.

It was so sad, no wonder it took Ning Xin so much time and she was still lagging behind.

“Xin, I’ll enter the ruins to check out that magic tree. I’m supposed to train some Great Lightning Mages sometime in the next few weeks onwards. Can you take over if I’m stuck inside waiting for an exit hunt? I’ll be coming and going often to feed my pet tree so it's just in case I can’t leave for a day or two.

“Hmph, what do they need in particular?”

“Their opponents are the arcane warriors so just let them be more accustomed to sudden enhancements or bursts of power.”

“That should be simple enough.”

Ebony rushed to the dungeon. His Will took two days to fully recover from an empty state so that was his time limit per trip. Tossing that into a Model and retrieving it to feed his tree wasn’t something he wanted at the moment. There was potential loss and his mental state for both their instructions and programming was quite different.

His destination was only a specific ruin on the seventh floor. Without the distractions and the need to kill every single species of monster, he just focused on using his footwork and covering distance. His first course of action was to add his stat points from that 1 level to his Endurance because the muscle tearing wasn’t fun to heal from every single time he overused Phantom’s Flicker.

The reduction in stamina regeneration didn’t affect him much but his muscles wearing and tearing faster was a huge issue. It was still a worthwhile trade for the increase in mana regeneration and muscular strength and bone densities but he didn’t exactly like the feeling.

His Profession-focused stat for Mana Adjudicator had all 5 points per level going into Wisdom. A level for his Class as a Grandmaster got him 20 stat points and his Sub-Class got him 15.

‘The increase for each rank is not insignificant and combats diminishing returns but not completely. Base stats raise the limits that an individual can reach in terms of physical and mental capabilities. Maybe more than that.’

In any case, it was time to experiment and sense how every point of stats affected him. He needed more data on how long it took for a single stat point to fully incorporate into his body. More importantly, try to figure out where this energy or change came from.

He was pleasantly surprised to find out that it kicked in faster than before.

Ebony’s third floor was the seventh and he already mapped the area out so he knew which ruin to go to.

‘So many people…’ The ruins on the seventh floor were the largest but there were still people everywhere he went.

It took an hour to look for an empty room that contained a spawn node. He was unlucky as it was not the node that spawned the magical tree he was looking for so he was back to check on the different rooms in the palace-sized ruins.

Ebony swayed to the left and backhanded a stray earth bullet the size of a human that flew at him after being deflected by a boxing mushroom. He didn’t want to destroy someone else's spell and be blamed for it so he made sure to stabilise the mana around it for it to stay in the same shape. To prevent them from blaming him for causing their aim to fail, he made sure to slap it back at the two-armed mushroom.

He didn’t account for strength and sent it back flying harder than it flew towards him, pulverising the mushrooms into mush.

It was accidental and he didn’t want to be bothered by people so he quickly cast a transparent screen over himself and Flickered elsewhere. They shouldn’t disturb him for a few child-sized mushrooms out of the whole swarm they were busy with.

‘Looks like most people camp at the ruins for weeks at minimum to make the trip worthwhile. That makes it harder to find empty spots for monsters with good parts or areas that spawn harvestable raw materials and plants.’

Ebony was fortunate that his magical tree didn’t seem that popular and he found two just sitting at their spots without moving out to hunt. The dungeon might have gotten used to the fact that people would find its monsters so it didn’t necessarily need its monsters to patrol and find prey. With its size and number of monsters, this change might save it a ton of energy.

It also made the creatures less lively and feel less like living beings and more like programmed biological robots.

This particular magic tree was not in an enclosed room but was sitting there to block a path behind it. The previous time he was here, there was no tree present and the path behind it was an empty vault.

‘Some sort of treasure room or room with a material spawn node maybe.’

It had more surrounding underlings this time, likely thanks to the open area.

Ebony had all his Augmentations swell up to their maximum output and he did his best to cast Frostweave Vital Constriction on every other monster present from boxing mushrooms of different sizes to walking treants. He wasn’t trying to heal them, he just wanted them to be out of the picture.

The skills in his Class that were at the level 450 range were either the newest or those that he had not been able to get any better at. It was a pathetic and embarrassing sight so it was a good chance to raise them to the same standard as the rest of his skills now that their limit was raised after his evolution.

With his compression, even a tier 2 spell could lock these creatures down. The treants were still moving within his seal but they couldn't break free immediately.

It didn’t take more than two minutes before he was alone with the magical tree. It had protected its mobile companions with its roots and vines or it wouldn’t have taken him so long to freeze and seal its allies.

He played with the magical tree until he felt his Will recover to about 75% of his capacity. It was likely noon the day after he entered so he spent roughly 28 hours with the tree.

The root slapped at him again when he waved them goodbye and removed their seals. He had to reseal the treants every few minutes and the mushrooms every hour.

He could’ve added more ice to pure mana ratio to keep them frozen but that would change his spell if he overused that. He didn’t mind an evolution that did more but he didn’t want a mutation that changed its working principle. It would defeat the purpose of getting sealing magic since it was primarily his healing skill.

He might be imagining it, but it felt like they were less aggressive towards him during the last few hours. Perhaps his soothing mana worked to some degree but they were dungeon creatures so it wasn’t as effective as it should’ve been.

As he expected, he had to wait for the exit expedition to get ready for their scheduled hunt. Buying a ticket wasn’t that hard but the earliest one was a few hours later. He made sure to double-check their schedule for the next few days so he could plan his trips better. Make sure to avoid the timing where there was a multiple-day wait for spawning.

The previous expedition leader, Endersyn, wasn't here and Ebony didn’t know anyone else so he didn’t have anyone to talk to for the next few hours. The eighth floor also didn’t have many monsters for him to hunt since it was more of a lobby floor for exits and guardian battles.

‘I could take a nap but I’d rather sleep well on a bed…guess I’ll conjure some Imperishable Frost Armament to finish the battle faster. Let’s do bow and arrows, I can control them like a barrage spell so I can manually fire as many as I want instead of having Will automate it.’

Because he had too much free time, he might have overdid the production of arrows. Even the most compressed versions didn’t stop him from producing more than ten thousand. He figured he didn’t need bows if he was personally firing the arrows with mental strength.

He didn’t ask for permission this time.

The moment it was time to move in and the door opened, he unleashed the arrows and pelted the interior of the tower along with all the other power-focused mages. His projectiles lost in terms of velocity and impact strength but made up in terms of volume.

The serpent’s scale was too tough to pierce but the flood of ice and the sharp decrease in temperature slowed it down.

“I’ll keep the Fungalspire Gila busy.” Ebony left the serpent to the expedition party’s professionals.

He didn’t want to use his flames and freeze the others with him.

They were pleasantly surprised that all 4 Fungalspire Gila were frozen and sealed. It freed up whole parties to speed up the serpent hunt. The risk of killing the Fungalspire Gila was reduced and the Serpent wouldn’t get a burst of powers. The Fungalspire Gila was a lot stronger than the treants and he had to refresh his seal and physically punch them down constantly.

“Hahahahaha! Ice magic sure is convenient. What’s your name? Want to join our group?” The bald leader with a large axe and too many scars patted his back with all his strength when they walked out of the exit portal.

“Ebony, no thanks.” He was going to say he was going to be visiting frequently and exiting often for the next two weeks but he recalled their schedule took weeks to months so he probably won’t group up with them again.

He declined multiple offers for larger expedition groups and their callstone links. Parties of five that weren’t part of larger groups didn’t bother him since they had a full party already. They were getting noisy celebrating a zero-death count exit so he made his way home hopefully in time for dinner.