Ebony's Fable

“This…platform, who made it?” The masked craftswoman questioned the golden decked-out Guardian Knight who escorted their group. A squad of ten of them were scheduled to go down so Ebony’s group came at an opportune time.

The Guardian Knights were impressively stalwart and unwavering. None of their group members were hiding their essence anymore, except Ebony who knew better not to appear threatening.

The Xeng craftswoman had the strongest and vastest aura of Vitality even compared to Wilson. No one else present was even close, including the vitality-based fighter Ning Xin. It was almost akin to half his generation with mana. Truly piqued his curiosity about her stats and physique.

‘It might be an equipment effect, I shouldn’t forget she crafts and not fights.’

For Masters, the Guardian Knights were not showing or acting nervous around them. Like him and his pet tree, they simply stood ramrod straight without speaking unless they had to or had permission from their leader.

The elevator shaft and platform were large enough for over a hundred people. This further led him to believe that it was just one small entrance of many.

“Lord Deepforge from the Granite Halls Dukal family.” The leader of the squad was also only a level 300 Master. Their build were all large be they man or woman, at least 2.1 metres tall and very broad shoulders. There was no distinction between the gold-coloured armour but it was obvious to Ebony from their gait.

“Never heard of a Deepforge but I know the Granite Halls. Their specialisation in structures both mundane and magical is not just baloney. It’s just so slow, can’t believe we have to sit in this capsule for a day.” Kong Jing complained with some appreciation.

“It’s more mana efficient, we’re facing terrible mana shortage down there. If you’re impatient, we’re more than willing to get down quicker.”

Ebony poked his mana around the platform they were standing on right after ‘if you’re imp-’.

No one commented when the platform lurched down at thrice the speed. He made sure to dilute his mana back to base density, fully aware from his lessons with Kong Jing that most craftsmen did not make objects or enchantments to handle liquid or particularly dense mana.

“Is this full speed? I feel a film stopping my mana.” I asked the moment I felt a weak bubble.

“Pushing mana through that ‘film’ will overcharge it, but that’ll damage the enchantment.”

“Esteemed freelancer, it is not my place to say but we need you down for battle. Haste is good but your ability to contribute as a mage would be more valuable.” The squad leader was rather polite in Ebony’s opinion but the others seemed to act as if they were mocking him.

“Do you have mana sense?” He asked the polite man who was thinking for the better of the Empire.

“I do.”

“Then just observe and wait.” The swordswoman’s mask turned to the squad leader and stared him down without any eyes showing past her fully opaque mask. Her hair already turned red halfway up to her head. It tended to change from the tips instead of the stems of her hair.

‘About 600 mana per second to operate at full speed. Considering how large it is and how much weight it can carry, that sounds very efficient.’ Ebony wiped a figurative sweat off his back for being able to show off and sustain the platform without dipping into his mana pool. It would have been embarrassing if he wasn’t up to her brag. 600 mana per second was already close to two-thirds of his regeneration.

The Guardian Knights must have noticed at some point that his mana didn’t bottom out or even change in fill percentage. Since it was common sense that one doesn’t regenerate while manipulating mana, they must have thought he had a mana pool so vast that they didn’t even sense a dip into a single percentage of his pool. Unless their mana sense was better than he expects from Knights they shouldn’t suspect the oddity. Not that Ebony cared, there were likely many mages who found out during the Magus Consortium party.

Ebony didn’t think he was all that special in this regard. Of the two Elves present in the Magus Consortium tea party, one of them was just like him and had the overflowing Wisdom during the mana flexing but weaker. It felt like half of his mana pool was inactive, like a still lake while he gathered and manipulated mana using the other half. It was interesting to sense, a skill of some sort to split one's mind in two. Technically, that would make the Elf capable of regenerating mana while casting if he could split his mental capabilities in two.

If Ebony could sense it, so could the others but it must not be an easy skill to figure out just from a look. He wasn't interested in the skill since it would mean using half of his mind for any spell cast and he could already regenerate while casting.

The twenty-six-hour journey turned into a nine-hour journey. Ebony didn’t feel any strain from such a short duration of easy mana manipulation. It was just a flat platform and was made easier for anyone with mana manipulation to boost.

‘No dark earthy tunnels but a brightly lit corridor inlaid with glowing red gems.’

“These gems ward monsters. Follow me.” The squad leader escort took the lead and broke into a jog. The platform landed on an open area and there were other identical platforms around the wide underground area.

“In range. You’re welcome.” Kong Jing didn’t even turn her head and moved all of them against their wills.

Thanks to their combined efforts, the Guardian Knights could get to work a full day in advance. They would’ve been faster if it wasn’t for the shaft being so well protected against space magic. They still had to walk over 30km when space magic was restricted again but that was such a short distance it might as well have been nothing.

“Amazing sound insulation. I couldn’t hear anything past this gate,” I commented after the 30-minute wait for the metal door a hundred metres wide to open. The noise that blasted through the corridor was enough to permanently deafen humans and ghosts alike the moment the seamless giant door cracked open.

“It’s bright. And it looks like a facility, not an underground dirt floor.” Ning Xin blocked her eyes as if they were affected by light. Ebony took note of this weakness, the mask did not block bright lights.

“Another one of the Granite Hall’s achievements. While we were fighting, they rebuilt the underground space amid the battle.” The squad leader praised.

“The floor, walls and ceiling lights included. Wow.” Ebony couldn’t see the ends of the underground space but the wall below and around him appeared to be concrete and lights installed high above them. The door that cracked open was roughly three kilometres above the fighting and spell explosions below.

There was a semblance of a path from where they stood to a fortified building but he was more confused as to why the entrance wasn’t directly within the fortress. thinking again, it might be to prevent an immediate breach to the surface in case the fortress fell.

‘Those are the pests? Poor thing, I have no motivation. A German shepherd-sized ant is a King? That thing in the distance is only Apex Ape size. So not giant opponents, they are swarming 20, 30 to 1 or more. 20 Kings biting on you does sound bad.’

“Tetramyths! Ebony, catch that one for me! The shiny silver one!” Kong Jing slapped his back and sent him past the door.

He Flickered in the air towards the direction that she pointed at, looking back he asked, “which one, I can’t see as far as you can.”

“Just go straight till you see it, don’t damage their carapace!” Kong Jing spatially conveyed her voice.

“What are we waiting for?” Ning Xin’s voice phased out in the distance as he went out of range to siphon the vibrations out.

Ebony saw the mess of the pest control happening, he zipped into the close-ranged fighters that were about to get their necks chomped by mandibles and kicked the poor and surprisingly cute ants away. Accidentally dislodging the heads from their thorax. Their bodies consisted of 3 sections instead of 4, it was their head, thorax and abdomen. They were normal, six-legged ants but there was quite a lot of individuality going on with their carapace colours and mandible shapes.

[Dimunitive Allochrome Devorants Lvl 510]

‘Haha devorants. So three general subspecies. The allochrome is the smallest, but its strength varies the most. They also vary in appearance the most. They all have different properties, probably depending on what they ate from other planets. If they devoured entire planets' worth of materials, it's not odd that there are so many of the same type. The other is Silversonic Munchers, the fastest of the bunch and most numerous of the three main types but extremely weak bodies. Relatively. And the last one, the Arcanite Cortex Formicidae has an exoskeleton that can absorb mana in any elemental form I can see for now.’

Ebony did not kill everything in sight, he barely killed any ants as he helped prevent deaths in his sight.

Hector did not lie, it was free for all here. The army did coordinate but they cared not about other factors. Everyone was just…exterminating pests.

‘Hunger. They are just hungry. Nothing wrong with that, except the fact that people are part of what they are hungering for. I see nothing wrong from both sides. But…it has nothing to do with me. I see, it’s not Tranquility Spring’s fault. I just don’t want to involve myself. I feel uncomfortable seeing people die but killing the ants for their hunger feels uncomfortable too. Oh, the duality. I have to make the most of it, the ant corpses can feed the earth and even people so it makes perfect sense.’

Ebony continued onwards while searching for a silver-coloured ant. He decided that he was more human than ant and helped the humanoids instead. It wasn’t about right or wrong here, it was just the cycle of life and he wasn’t outside the cycle.

‘Odd, they are rather ravenous all things considered. But they aren’t directly hostile to me even if I stand in one spot for half a second. I know they are not that mentally slow so why?’ This was the first field test he had after evolving excluding the tests of his presence on children. He ignored all the little buggers that ignored him and wasn’t immediately about to end a life.

‘I hope they helped me carry Dusk down. It's a good thing I asked Dusk to stay on standby, I need to place it somewhere without people.’ Ebony threaded through the literal sea of dog-sized ants with ease. Not all of them ignored him but they were bound to the ground and couldn’t do much when he was afloat.

‘I see, so this is how my body reacts with absorbing and padding out vibrations. It doesn’t double my defence or my body’s toughness but all hard impacts are weakened and they have a harder time passing through the layers of my body from skin to muscle and bone.’ Ebony let one of the Silversonic Munchers chomp on his wrists. It was a small Grandmaster the size of a large puppy.

The little one gave up after its futile attempts and leapt for his eyeballs in the next moment. The instant it changed its target, his hand faded away as the ant’s platform and appeared to grab its charging face. A pulse of mana destroyed its brain. Ebony wanted to bury it but the floor was stone, concrete or whatever material the tile was made of instead of earth.

With little choice, he crushed the body into a small cube the size of a souper bread and sealed it before keeping it in a conjured ice box.

‘They are so fragile. Too many generations away from their God or Goddess I suppose. It’s an entirely different race with how many changes they went through. They should have intelligence but they follow their hunger more faithfully. And…it’s not dead yet. Vitality is truly amazing. This is not good, it's not fair for me to put them through pain when it didn’t hurt me. All it did was try to eat me. I should seal their pain receptors or kill them faster if they don’t have pain receptors.’ Ebony pondered and quickly put the mashed creature out of its misery in the cube form.

“Ebony, look out behind you. Old man’s gonna chuck your pet tree over.” A voice slammed into his ears from behind him.

“Tell him to be gent-” He understood that it was a spatially transported voice call without a beat.

“He already chucked her.”

Ebony’s hasty brake made him land harder than usual but the tiled floor remained undamaged. He turned back in a fluster and looked out for Dusk.

‘Too fast, don’t tell me he chucked it with enhancements.’ He Augmented himself warily but Dusk was about to shoot past him and he quickly jumped to catch it.

Wilson had nonsensical physical strength that allowed him to pound the Troll’s earthen battlefield till seawater erupted from under. Now that he evolved, his strength only increased.

Ebony was already a dozen or so Flickers away from the entrance but Dusk got to him right after the spatial voice call he got. He didn’t have to try to understand that callstones probably won’t work again.

Ebony had the breath knocked out of him when Dusk’s trunk smashed into his chest and sent him sprawling. Tumbling over an entire path of ants while he was hugging Dusk. The wide crown of the tree with hardy branches made him bounce up and across a wider distance. He didn’t know how many times he spun before his body stopped.

“Tell him I’m his junior of many centuries and not chuck a heavy weapon at me. And where is that ant you want?” Ebony complained without knowing if anyone heard him. He assumed the space mage was constantly watching him.

He placed Dusk down and scanned the area. It was still populated with Beastmen that half transformed into large wolves of mana construct tearing at the black Allochrome ants. ‘Thank the load reduction…oh crap, need to give her proper command of who’s an ally and who’s not.

The few light red ants crawled all over him and Dusk.

“Uh oh, get heavier you’re going to get carried away,” Ebony responded but Dusk could only manipulate gravity and not the load-bearing interiors at the moment.

He swatted them away as they clung onto him through his repulsion membrane. On a side note, they were getting hurt by his membrane even before they got hurt by his sonic repulsion.

‘That wolf beastmen is in trouble. But that explosive burst of energy makes it feel like he’s doing life-endangerment training. If I was doing that, I would hate to have that interrupted. I’ll have to ask.’

“Need help? Or having a good time and don’t want me bothering you?”

“BOTH! WRAH!” The steaming 3-metre long wolf crunched and swiped but its size only facilitated more attacks and injuries piling up.

The beastman was running out of either mana or vitality as its physical transformation started to revert. He became smaller. His legs morphed back with his knees popping the other way around. He only kept the claws and the head with powerful-looking fangs.

Ebony took a step towards him and lightly stomped the ground with mana. It burst up around the beastman and froze all the ants in a small radius.

‘I knew it, sealing magic gets a lot more experience on live targets. Unlike before, I should prioritise skill levelling and focus on doing more tests on what core development is. My best bet is that core refers to my essence, my soul and whatever links and binds my existence together. Whatever that may mean.’

“I-I thought it was hopeless seeing you carry a greatsword but…ell, you’re one of those optimised hybrids. Which house?”

“Freelancer. You caught your breath fast. Why are you out here alone?”

“...berserk state, I charged out and now I’m too exhausted to make my way back to the fortress.” For someone who ran on rage fuelled combat, he sounded rather calm and polite.

“Can’t transform again?”

“Can barely stand up.”

“Can you make a proper landing?”

“...Are you about to launch me back with magic? Don’t, I can’t dodge friendly’s spells in my current state and I can’t manoeuvre in air.”

“So no launching…three escorts should be enough.”

Ebony muttered to himself. In response, Dusk’s door opened and Ebony was able to realise the real function of the inner room.

‘It’s generating Models there. That’s indeed an Arsenal.’

“Dusk, try not to make too many. It consumes Will and you don’t have enough of that to split into Models. First priority, use it as a close-range defence for yourself. Second, people we care about. Third, friendly humanoids I registered. Fourth, neutral humanoids. Fifth, only if you have spare energy and Will, escort and nursing including sealing magic. I’ll refresh your Will with this update when I’m filled again.”

Dusk’s leaves rustled and the Models stopped walking out after the third conjuration.

‘Is there any difference with those I cast? Nope. That’s nice, and a single Model consumes about 0.4% of the Will she currently has. I need to input a limit, can’t have her create too much of these. The mana cost is fine but Models require Will.’

“Bring him back to the closest fort. Same as usual, bite for bite. Oh, you can barely walk so just get on one of their backs I won’t bother with their body temperature so just deal with the cold.”

Ebony ignored the confused face and continued freezing the Ants that charged into the small frozen lands. One of his Models tossed the weak beastman on its shoulders and Flickered away with two bodyguards. They were not that strong compared to his real body but they should be enough to make a trip. Their ability to make a return trip was questionable not because of the Ants since they could fly but because of the spells and physical shockwaves from people.

He lifted Dusk who was much lighter after the load-reduction renovations and shook her to get the frozen Ants off her bark before going deeper into the swarm. ‘The math is telling me my mana regeneration is pathetically insufficient.’