Ebony's Fable

“I’m here boys!” The scent of alcohol came with the old man with a metal club. He had a large pack on him, perhaps he didn’t want to change for a better spatial bag or that was the best type commercially available.

“Welcome Commander Wil, come on in. We’re waiting for Hector.” Ebony successfully had the job of checking rations stolen from him but he’ll do a final check once it’s in his bag.

“Wilson’s fine boy.”

“Then Ebony for me, Wilson.” He felt like he had this conversation before.

“Sure thing boy! You said you needed me for something?” Wilson stood by and stared at Dusk without entering.

“I need your help carrying my tree,”

“This tree right here?”

“Mmm. She’s too heavy for me.”

“Heeh~ if you’re bringing this along, I assume it's some combat spell.”

“Something like that. You can say it’s my spare mana pool a few times larger than my own. Like my personal magic tower.”

“Ho, that’s interesting. I know some mages who have a portable magic hmm pillar, those Dwarves make interesting things. I guess this is no different but it’s fully made of your magic instead of an actual construct. Is it rooted to the ground?”

“I’ll get her to dislodge herself now. Dusk, you can stand up now. Oh and close the door.” Ebony asked politely. He didn’t want the cushions to drop out in transport.

Sadly, all it could do was unroot itself. When the roots tried to push themselves off they simply dug the earth around them.

Even fully enhanced, he could no longer lift the tree. It contained too much dense mana, weeks' worth of his regeneration. There would be more if it wasn’t losing mana and Will every day. Dusk already reached maximum saturation. He could put more scales on her for mana but it was losing Will that couldn’t be recovered.

He was unable to quantify how much Will remnants remained or stuck on Dusk but he had to charge it every few days to make sure it could still function the same way. He hypothesised that Dusk would die in under half a year if he didn’t charge it with Will. Die, as in losing all its functions and capabilities. However, if he kept going and tending to it, he might reach a point where his remnant Will compiles till it is capable of functioning forever or at least as long as the remnant Will can remain.

He was unwilling to let Dusk’s Will dissipate all the way to remnant Will to check what capabilities were left behind. He would be happy if it even had 1% of the original information and programs he input.

“Go get the academy's recording and pass the information back to me. Charge the recorders up and place them back.” Ebony recalled and told one of his Models parked at the side. It changed from the bully to his form and Flickered to complete its task.

“Impressive. Anyway, make some handles or grip for me.”

Ebony gave Dusk a pat on the trunk and it gradually formed holes for hands instead of handles. It understands that handles would simply break off with her weight.

Wilson ignored one set and only inserted one of his hands to grab the handle after his arm went all the way down to his elbows. His biceps bulged and the veins in his arms and neck pulsed. The scrawny old man’s feet sunk into the soft fertile earth and in one motion, he raised his arm with a 15-metre-tall tree above his head. “Hnghnununuu! WRAA! Doable, but tiresome…hey, would you mind if I ever use this baby as a club.”

“Yes. I would mind.”

‘That’s some crazy strength, I don’t feel any surge of mana. Passives and Fortifications then. Maybe 400%...doesn’t sound enough, 750% to 1000% Strength stat buff? That’s not enough, a few more compounding Fortifications are needed if he has greater physical strength than my augmented state. I wonder if he maxed out every evolution.’ Ebony roughly gauged Wilson’s physical strength and put him aside in his list of strong people and creatures.

Physical strength alone wasn’t enough for him to decide how dangerous Wilson was.

The ground shook when Dusk was placed down.

“It's full. I can stab a few metal poles with load-reducing runes on them.” Kong Jing walked out of the house after slipping her feet into a pair of slippers. She was referring to how Dusk’s scaled bark was fully rune moulded with toughness, mana absorption and capacity runes.

Ebony’s personal runic formula for them. The current base effect of the formula itself was about an additional 20% toughness, 20% mana capacity and Kong Jing’s ‘low-tier’ absorption rune with a focus in range. Inscripted Mana Moulding at level 571 gave an additional 1505% in effectiveness, after a few tests the boosts calculated were confirmed to be 321% so his skill was a multiplier to rune formula’s effectiveness. In the same regard, the mana capacity of a single scale was increased by 321%. Taking his entire tree into account, it was a magical wonder of mana.

These peaceful days of experimentation also let him understand how enchantments were supposed to be stronger and how runes could be boosted to unreasonable degrees depending on the mage or crafter. He didn’t even have a Fortification specifically for runes, all he had was a high-level tier 2 skill for it. Putting aside how the properties of his mana affected Inscripted Mana Moulding because the effects were not obvious enough for him.

“Ai, that would be helpful for these old bones.”

“Sister Jing, don’t say stab. We can just line my room inside with metal rods or even plates which are easier for rune placement. I want it to be deactivatable though, mass is power.”

“Oh, rods are better. I have a hyper-specialised formula for rod-shaped objects. It’s good for arrows, lances and long throwable projectiles. I forgot about the inner room…good, I think I can whip something up. Can I mess with it?”

“Details please.”

“I’ll place a board the size and shape of the inner room on the floor, it can be the control circuit. Then connect and surround the circumference with the load-reducing rods, it’ll be your walls. You can cover it back up with ice, it wouldn’t affect the functions but it's a very compact formula so don’t count on it for additional defence.”

“Okay, thank you. It would be easier for me to move it by myself like that.”

“Yeah, come. I’ll show you the control method, with mana obviously. If I understand correctly, once you fully understand how to do something, you can imbue that ability into Dusk?”

“With time. I need to be able to do that ‘something’ almost instinctively like breathing or it wouldn’t translate properly.”

“Good enough, in future Dusk should be able to control its weight more.”

“It can already do that with gravity manipulation, it’s just not enough at the moment.”

“Even better, then you should be able to pick it up quickly.”

“How long do you need?”

“I have plenty lying around, I just need to refresh them and that wouldn’t even take a minute.”

“Great. You’re going with us right?”

“Yes, I want to see if these are the same ants I think they are.”

“What would it matter?”

“Materials.”

“Of course it is.” The two of them rarely had long conversations and they would usually be straightforward. ‘Cycle of life, they’re not going to waste.’

They got to work emptying his bomb shelter and lining it up with the metal rods before sealing them with ice. As he was told, the control method was simple.

The weight reduction had limits. The heavier an object, the less efficient they were and it couldn’t make anything weightless to prevent objects from floating about. It was designed for weapons and the limit was making something 5% of its original weight. When the load placed on it exceeds a certain point, this limit is raised. This was the trade-off to keep them mana efficient. Above a certain mass, the rods can’t do anything and functions become redundant.

A quick test with the world’s strongest scrawny man present helped confirm that Dusk was within the limit for the most efficient setting. Dusk can’t use it by herself until he inputs new Will with updated information but this would do. He could carry Dusk himself.

“Now the biggest question remains. Can she fit where we’re going? I heard we’re going under.” Wilson commented.

“She can become a little smaller, with my help I believe we can split its transport as a trail of scales but it needs to retain a core tree shape.” Ebony already tested breaking Dusk’s scales apart and moving them by flight but he felt the restriction and knew Dusk’s Will would fall apart if she didn’t retain a core tree shape. It was an odd spell and creature.

Hector finally showed up when it was late noon.

Ning Xin was finally done with reorganising their rations and he did a final check to make sure they both carried enough food to last. How long that may be depended on conditions they faced but 2 to 3 years was a good estimate. He didn’t even plan to stay for long. He was hoping he could make it a job, just coming and going every so often.

“Sorry for the wait, I was getting my ears chewed off. I’ll show you the way and get you acquainted with some people.”

‘More army logistics? Hopefully not,’

“You can do the talking,” Ebony told their contact in advance.

“Relax, there won’t be any stiff regulations. It’s free for all for anyone not in the Imperial Army. Just no friendly fire and they won’t stop a coordinated attack if you’re in the way so you have to watch yourself and not be ahead of a large group of Imperial knights or mages. They published their schedule and location for barrages so just take note.”

“Schedule?” Ning Xin voiced her confusion.

“It’s a wide area, sure but they take turns for different spells at different locations. They’re posting the general effects and expected areas that would have, for example, extreme heat. They need to get a water and wind barrage to cool the place down or everyone will suffocate. The mages need to cycle amongst themselves as well.”

“Sounds like a 9 to 5 job.” He nodded to Hector’s explanation. The freedom of movement was very enticing and made the situation less of a drag.

“What’s that?”

“Just a saying.”

“Let’s go.”

Ebony made sure to lock his doors. He left his Models here to watch after the house. They would train his classmates on time and now that Madam Wilcox was taking her job more seriously, his presence wasn’t necessary for the older students.

“Where?” Kong Jing questioned, she wasn’t very close with Hector but they were on speaking terms.

“Follow me.” Hector was dressed up but he didn’t carry much on him. He likely had logistic support as part of the Empire’s forces.

“Just tell me the address and I’ll get us there.” The space mage demanded more forcefully.

“Come on, we don’t have all day.”

“Great gr- The Barrier King’s Spatial Preservation Barrier is cast over the entire city at the moment,” Hector explained

“Oh yeah? I wasn’t informed.” Kong Jing compressed space and stepped behind Hector to show her confusion.

“It’s not fully activated throughout, it's much stronger at certain locations.” The Prince kept his bearings and answered with a subtle pride in his voice.”

Kong Jing’s tendency to punch people was just Ebony’s misconception but Hector got the message with a blink and change on her mask. They were all falling from the sky until Hector pointed them in a direction. Wilson simply laughed while they fell and let the breeze tickle him.

Hector was decked out in scale armour, including the helmet which was rare for him.

Wilson was wearing standard leather boots, thick linen pants and a loose shirt with a v-neck that had a string tied across. It was the rare short-sleeved fashion that Ebony seldom sees on Elcra. The old man’s club acted as a walking stick he didn’t need.

Reminded of the time they went underground and stood upon the underground tomb’s barrier, they were standing above one yet again.

‘This is the Guardian Knight’s headquarters. Did they dig down here or it is coincidentally used as the entrance? Probably only one of many entrances. The Emperor’s not here.’ Ebony scanned the location they stopped at.

“It is much stronger, now lead the way.” Kong Jing stated before she pulled them through the barrier and into the compounds.

Swallowing his saliva, Hector started dashing to explain the intrusion before they got attacked by friendlies.