Ebony's Fable

Ebony passed over the invitation slip to an employee when he figured that the menu probably wouldn’t matter since the food for the party would’ve long been decided. It was a bigger party than he assumed and expected.

‘Uh oh, they are all probing my Model…I hope I didn’t embarrass myself.’ Ebony sensed the waves of dozens of different mana signatures washing past his porter that should’ve been hidden from sight. From the number of unique signatures, all but one person he sensed sitting together at the pavilion he was being led to had swiped their senses past his Model. And he only knew that after he was guided close enough to his destination, long after their mana already washed past him.

That one missing mana signature was from Madam Wilcox whose mana he was already familiar with. So every single invitee present could see through his lousy mana-hiding skills. The only 3 people who could do that in the Piercing Tempest Academy were Madam Wilcox, Laika and Rauffeq.

The surprising thing was seeing two more people at the table than he sensed.

‘Did they send mana to probe me out and I couldn’t even catch a whiff of their mana? Or did they not bother scanning me? Wait, there’s already twenty-eight of them here. Am I late? Did I make a bad impression already?’ Ebony nodded to the people at the table when he arrived while feeling more grateful for Madam Wilcox. It was hard to find such people and she could gather so many of them so easily.

“Hello Ebony, you’re early.”

“I was beginning to think I was late.”

“Haha, these old friends of mine are just too early to catch up with each other. Come, let me introduce you while we wait for the others.”

‘There’s more…’

Ebony listened to Madam Wilcox’s introduction, “Everyone, this is Ebony who I talked about. An ice mage. Ebony this is…”

He took note of everyone’s names and their introduction which is generally followed up by their Order, and elements. Some were introduced with just one element while others two, with some being introduced as a person from some department of the Mage Association.

There was nothing special as every single one of them were Third-Order mages. There was another ice mage at the table. There were even four arcane mages, two of which used vibrations and sound. The ice mage was another old lady who was the most excited about his presence. She was the one that Ebony was least interested in talking to but it wouldn’t be so bad to learn something from a human ice mage.

There were 2 Elves at the table. The two people he didn’t sense.

Thanks to the lengthy introductions some people had, the rest of the participants arrived during the introduction phase and didn’t have to do any reintroductions. There were a total of 37 people including him present.

The pavilion had a large round table placed in the centre that had just the right number of seats prepared but they weren't seated there. There was no food on the largest table. They were seated at a smaller side table with snacks and drinks present but it was still more than capable of seating all of them in a circle.

Ebony didn’t know if it was some form of entry test to check if he was suitable or qualified for the high-level gathering but they were all ramping up how much mana they were releasing so he did what the brain-dead thing to do. Monkey see, monkey do.

He was well aware of what he could do now, so he made sure to match each individual and returned the same amount to each of them separately.

A few of them gave up early, perhaps trying to be nice when they breathed out heavily and took a sip of their drink.

‘This feels odd, they obviously know each other but they’re all so patient with the introductions. What a nice group of academics! Unfortunately, none of them are introduced as fourth order…’

About 15 of them were persistent and didn’t stop ramping up their efforts throughout the hour-long introductions. The rest seemed a little despondent after they stopped testing him and Ebony didn’t understand why. Not even Madam Wilcox spared him from the test and was one of the 15 that continued to pressure him.

‘I guess this shouldn’t be some simple test, they are testing each other too. A type of mage sport perhaps.’

After the introductions, Madam Wilcox was brought back to the topic they were discussing before Ebony arrived by one of the two arcane mages. He was a pure support mage and arcane mages basically had the biggest say at the table when it came to pure mana manipulation techniques.

They were talking about tier 2 range mana compression techniques. More specifically, the issues Journeymen faced when trying to evolve tier 1 mana compression to tier 2.

According to the snippets of context he got, it seemed like many teachers or instructors had faced similar issues with their Journeymen students. They seem to determine that without a minimum of 600 combined stat points in Intelligence and Wisdom, it was impossible to get a tier 2 mana compression.

‘Since when…’ Ebony was not as well studied when it came to the relation between tiers of skill with stat points required. However, the more he listened the more confused he got as the numbers didn’t match his knowledge. He took a mental step back because they were all aware that there were a lot of factors at play when it came to acquiring skills.

Throughout the conversation where he simply listened silently along with over twenty people who had nothing to say on the subject, the 15 people who persistently ramped up their release of mana continued the mana warfare. Ebony obviously continued since he wanted to continue listening to the party. He didn’t want to embarrass himself any further and get himself kicked out of the party after every one of them sensed his pathetic spell, the Glacial Model which was supposed to be hidden with Frigid Distorted Refraction.

The topic didn’t drag out and had no definitive conclusion after 15 minutes but the general consensus was that 600 combined Intelligence and Wisdom was required for their students before expecting them to have tier 2 mana compression. During this, 2 of the 15 testers passed him. Since he hadn’t passed everyone’s test, he thought it wasn’t his place to say anything about their current topic and just stayed silent.

Ebony would’ve kept it that way until he passed everyone’s unspoken test but he was called out by the only other ice mage at the table. One of his remaining 13 testers.

Thinking it was another test, he listened to her carefully.

“I heard from Wilcox that you are capable of independently controlling twenty humanoid ice figurines. Though she’s exaggerating there must be some truth to the matter, is it possible to demonstrate the reason for her embellishment?”

Since the examiner has spoken, he had to clear his and Madam Wilcox’s name. He took her question as permission to cast spells. It would otherwise be rude and even seen as a hostile provocation to conjure or strengthen his influence of mana in another mage’s range. And he was currently clashing with 13 of them.

It was a hassle to conjure twenty Models that had the same detail down to his eyelashes while keeping individual track of each of his testers' rise in mana release. But he would not choose to cast a dulled-down version if he had a choice and if it wasn’t an experiment. He used a similar technique of barrage spells and recreated multiple models in one ‘print’ despite his maximum number of separate, perfect controls being 9 at the moment.

He succeeded and completed his conjuration and Will imbuement in 3.2 seconds, having made too many Models it hadn’t been as hard as he expected but his cast speed wasn’t ideal. He shouldn’t have spent the time to decompress his mana.

It was convenient that he had Will because his pet tree, Dusk no longer grew regardless of the amount of Will being imbued. It was just being fed how much it losses daily and the rest was left for Ebony to continue storing up. He split them up to the bare minimum he required for all of them to do a different physical move set and kept his remainder in case there were further tests.

Seeing their surprise, he was glad he met expectations. His Models began to fight each other the moment they leapt out of the pavilion. The clashing of ice against ice wasn’t silenced by the sound mages and his Models were allowed to run free till one of the three employees standing by coughed. Their property’s green grass was getting ruined.

“May I?” The only Dwarf present, an earth mage, stood up with a raised hand. He had been one of the first few that passed Ebony.

A few others stood up to ask for permission and before he knew it, his Models were pelted with fire, earth, stone, water and soundwaves.

Each of his Models reacted differently depending on what attacks they were faced with. The ones facing fire and soundwaves simply stood there as they didn’t perceive any threat. The jets of water that were blasted were jetted down with a stream of ice mana. The earth and stone spells were either dodged or kicked away. Opening up a pitfall under them was the easiest to sense and also the easiest to avoid.

‘Oh, they didn’t believe the models are capable of independent moves.’ Ebony realised that they doubted each of his Models was individually controlled. He was certain none of them believed that he wasn’t even giving commands.

The Models were truly moving by themselves so he could somewhat understand their shock if they thought he was multicasting twenty mental holds perfectly because even he would be surprised if he saw someone capable of that. The best multicasting he’d seen from a human is quadra casts and even then, it pushed the mage significantly to perfectly control 4 casts to the best of their abilities.

The best he’d personally seen was probably from Christy or Korta who could both perfectly control 6 spells without strain and possibly control a seventh with difficulty.

Ning Xin could use all her enhancements, and two additional casts on top of that. Beyond that would trouble her but she usually never went so far or depended on spells that much. Without any body enhancement which takes the least amount of mental focus, she could quadra cast almost perfectly.

Ebony himself could only do 9 perfectly. Nothing else mattered to him as he wouldn’t force another cast that would potentially affect all his other cast’s performance unless it was his training to get another separate control.

During this test, another tester passed him but it wasn’t the ice mage who asked him to prove himself. The ice mage couldn’t close her mouth fully when one of the Elves pushed the party’s conversation forward with another academic posing their topic for the day.

The little test seemed to be pushed under the rug with the employees looking troubled by the damaged property. No one said a thing and listened to the Elf who called out the next person. They had a format for these meetings that he was not aware of.

A stone mage who is part of the Imperial’s Masonry shared about a problem he faced with the advancement of Tidal’s wall defences. Barely anyone showed any interest in the topic. Not when the barriers were far more effective for complete coverage. Physical walls were just the initial line of defences when the barrier wasn’t activated and also the last if the barrier was broken.

There were a few people who were enchantment specialists but they never spoke up about enchantments as it was not something everyone at the table could relate to or add on to. No one was introduced as rune enthusiasts so he might have to learn more about them to find out if there were any. Enchantments were just more popular for their obvious advantage in strength or power.

While the conversations were going on, the employees were going around getting name and number plates ready and setting up the table in the centre.

Multiple topics of conversation were being brought up around the table and a few different groups were formed at the side table with drinks from alcoholic tea to herbal wine. Ebony already noticed the pattern, the people who broke off were those who passed him. Seeing that, he imagined he was supposed to stay seated and continue undergoing the casual test.

It wasn’t that hard to listen in on all groups at once and he was particularly interested in the chat between mind mages about the differences between races’ mental defences across age and level groups.

He didn’t know if they were trying to tell him something or if they were thinking he couldn’t hear them over the cacophony but they apparently probed his mind earlier, with hostile intent. Ebony didn’t know that, it was concerning that he didn’t manage to sense any hostility even after the fact so perhaps they were telling him to get his act together. He mentally thanked their reminder, a little surprised they passed him despite his failure to notice their efforts.

Before long, he passed more and more of these people’s little tests. Madam Wilcox had been the ninth last to pass him. The questions about properties of mana and how a mage’s elements affected their pure mana after long-term use were directed for everyone to add on so he had to chip in from time to time. He might not have done very well with his explanations as their reactions weren’t fully approving of what he had to say.

Even so, they didn’t shoot down anything he had to say and he was down to 5 remaining testers. Two Elves, a human lightning mage, a foxman bone mage who had five tails behind him and the quietest of the bunch, a human male who wasn’t introduced with any element.

If what he knew about fox beastmen was correct, the bone mage was King-ranked but his mana felt the second weakest amongst the remaining testers.

The human lightning mage had the weakest mana amongst the remaining testers but its natural effect of stunning other people’s mana was the most troublesome and useful in combat. The bone mage on the other hand had no noticeable special effects from his mana.

Of the two Elves, one was introduced as a Third-Order Wind and Wood Mage and a herbalist. The other was introduced as a Third Order Wood, Wind and Nature Mage Archer. Elves very rarely differed from each other when it came to their elements. If anything, there would be an addition like Koawe who used Curses and the Death Tailor with an affinity to the Death element. They would almost always be able to use all the other elements their kin could.

The other human at the table who was simply introduced as Third-Order Arch Mage had the most…blank mana. Ebony didn’t know how the man did it, but he removed what made mana feel like mana. It was almost like another type of essence altogether but that was just his imagination.

The Elves were both Grand Mages while the other three were all Arch Mages.

Ebony didn’t want to embarrass himself and needed to pass these senior mages’ tests. It was an interesting tea party and they even had a group name, Magus Consortium. He already thought he benefited from the gathering as he had new ideas for improving his sound magic. It might not be a bad idea to be part of their little gatherings when there were 3 Arch or King-ranked mages and so many different types of mages present.

“Gentlemen, let’s not waste any more of each other’s time. We know where we stand. Our new addition Ebony has already proven his qualifications for a seat, let’s get this over with.” The Elven mage archer who had a name longer than one’s breath changed the subject from fine mana control practice.

“Agreed.” His fellow kinsmen followed up. These two never even spared anyone else at the table a look and they only just spared him a glance. They were not the politest bunch and outright scoffed at some people’s replies or suggestions.

The quiet Arch Mage just nodded in agreement.

But the remaining pair of human and foxman agreed nervously. They stared down at each other and then at Ebony.

‘I knew it, this is not just a normal test for me. They’re challenging each other too. Some form of hierarchy in the group…the large table has seat numbers splayed out. Is the prize for being higher ranked some rare dish or tea? Being top 5 must mean something if they are somewhat hostile to each other, and I’m in the way. Well, the two of them have the weakest mana of the group and they don’t seem to be holding back much left.’

The five of them were watching him, he understood they didn’t want to spend more time ramping up their output when they could finish the exchange in seconds. There was no reason for him to decline when it came to making efficient use of their time so he nodded in agreement.

The silent Arch Mage pulled out a metal coin from his robe’s inner pocket, attracting all of their attention to it.

‘A coin?’ Ebony blinked, they didn’t even use coins or shiny metals as currency. At least, the last time coins were a currency was before the Myriad Bracelets came about. The motif was a lion head on one side and a wolf head on the other. No matter how he saw it, it didn’t seem like a coin the Empire used at any point in time as their motif was a wave or tides.

He flicked the coin into the air and the tea party turned silent as they watched the coin flip and rotate.

‘I guess we begin when it hits the table. How much should I use…I’ll sense their output and match it accordingly.’ Ebony decided to continue the same thing. Against these mages, he might appear slow since he was reacting rather than attacking but that would do. He didn’t know the average here and they didn’t seem to have much to show since he was still outputting so little that he almost forgot he was taking this test.

There were likely a few people around the party that had Fortifications for mana regeneration but they didn’t seem to meditate on the move.

‘They must be thinking about why I have the smallest mana pool.’ Ebony found out that they had a tea that aids digestion. He remembered the scent and shape of the tea leaves so to buy some for himself.

The lightning mage and the bone mage clenched their teeth when the coin hit the table. It was a 1 against 5 for all of them. Like a tug of war but with a pushing motion instead of pulling, they had to decide who to put more of their output against in the ebbing of mana.

To sense all of their outputs to react to, Ebony diluted his mana and flooded the whole pavilion with his mana and like a hydraulic press, he adjusted the amount he was pushing down according to how much each of them was releasing. Three other mana tried to do something similar but he was a step ahead and they weren’t able to push his mana away.

Just like in a mana-dense location, his mana increased the difficulty for them to draw mana out of their bodies.

‘Are there rules to this sport?’ Ebony watched as 3 of them gave up fighting with each other and just defended passively. The two Elves joined up and tried to push back to overtake his spatial control with his mana but every single bit of power they increased was met with slightly higher resistance.

If the lightning mage was outputting 100 units, he was putting a pressure of 101 on him. The bone mage was outputting 108 while the silent Arch Mage simply built a mana barrier that protected him from the pressure that he was reinforcing with mana from his pool. Ebony slowly increased the amount on the cool barrier to see how much it could withstand.

The two Elves noticed that their natural output was insufficient and boldly dipped into their reserve for a counter push. Ebony gave them about half a centimetre of push before he did the same with them as the two other Arch Mages.

With just a slight increment when compared to them, they felt like they had a chance and continued to dip into their pools. Ebony tipped his cup to them and drank out of his cup. Only the Arch Mage that built a barrier returned the gesture and they enjoyed tea together.

He didn’t understand the frowns on the other’s faces. At the rate they were dipping into their mana reserves, this could take all week thanks to their extravagantly large reserves. Ebony saw that they weren’t giving up and remembered the whole point was to save time so he ramped it up, just making sure he didn’t hurt them.

The bone mage and lightning mage glared at each other, neither backed down as they tried to copy the coin flipper and build an arcane shield for their mind.

Since they were so resilient and the coin flipper could handle the pressure with ease, he believed that his natural regeneration should deal no harm to them and relaxed his control over suppressing and redirecting his mana to the ground.

The lightning mage had zapped out of the pavilion in an instant while panting. His movement was so fast that Ebony didn’t think he could have stopped or caught up to the man even if he was in his fully augmented state.

The bone mage face-planted onto the table but woke up right after impact with a stupefied expression of shock and an exoskeletal skull summoned reflexively.

‘Should I start compressing regenerated or use the compressed mana in my chassis?’ Ebony chose the second option since time was of the essence.

The Elves buckled first but their reaction was more hostile than Arch Mages who simply backed down. The last remaining Arch Mage didn’t mind the liquid mana and his shield kept up without a single crack.

“Shall we stop here?” The coin flipper asked.

“Mmm.” Ebony was already surrounding the barrier with maximum compressed mana. The coin flipper also started dipping into his reserves but they were at a standstill. He had no idea if the coin flipper chose to stay on the defence because he was lazy or because he wasn’t good at using it for offence.

‘Cool, he can also regenerate mana while casting…’ Ebony finally met a person who could do what he could. He already noticed that it was only a small portion of the coin flipper’s natural regeneration but it was still a first to see someone who could regenerate while actively using mana.

“How about sharing the first and second’s share between the two of us?”

“Share of what?”

“Ah, right…you.” The coin flipper pointed to the dizzy bone mage, “Explain.”

The foxman shivered his legs locked up under the table. “We, of the Magus Consortium jointly clears the dungeon Spectral Veil Stronghold annually. This party is held biannually to enjoy the fruits of our successful clear. We need new blood and newcomers are given the chance to partake even though they did not participate in the previous session as a newcomer benefit. How much we get depends on…well, you know.”

‘Spectral Veil Stronghold, that’s one of the two Epic dungeons in Tidal and requires special permission to enter. It’s a one-floor dungeon with special mechanics.’ Ebony recognised the name. It was a rather interesting dungeon that didn’t just restrict exit but also access inside.

Since that was the case, the Empire taxed the parties that successfully cleared it. But not just any freelancers were allowed. It only took in groups with more than 30 people and the Empire's permission to enter and join the raid wasn’t easy to get.

The Magus Consortium used to have more members, closer to 200 people but they’ve been losing members during dungeon clears and haven’t been filling their numbers back up as they raised the bar. Most members weren’t present today. Ebony was the first applicant or invitee in three years.

“So I get access to the Spectral Veil Stronghold if I join?” Ebony didn’t hear of this spectacular benefit from Madam Wilcox. Epic dungeons were heavily controlled. He might be able to sneak into ones that other Cities guard but not the two in Tidal.