Ebony's Fable

Ning Xin opened the door to their house which had turned into a sleeping location for the past week or two. Her burning and aching muscles were allowed to rest and heal naturally. It never got old, no matter how often the physical training impaired her so.

There was self-inflicted pain and injury so bad that even Convalescence state would take her a few hours to heal. Unlike Ebony who can recover his physical body to their perfect state any time he wants within seconds, the only difference being his temporary loss of strength in regenerated flesh and bones. Her muscles still needed time to rejoin, rest and regrow.

She was peeved, even in her convalescence state.

Something was up and she couldn’t pinpoint the issue. She just knew that something felt wrong. Strongly related to Ebony but at the same time, it was mixed with some strong feeling that something was creeping up to her very slowly. And oddly, she felt that it was a separate matter.

She hated the weak glimpse of foresight that she got from her grandmother. At this point, she felt like it was just a tease and she might as well not have it and stress her out daily without knowing what was going to happen. It was likely the source of her accurate and precise intuition so she shouldn’t be complaining.

Today was a special day.

They returned home for more than just sleep, rest or food.

Ebony was going to watch his classmates compete in an Academy tournament.

She was uninterested, even at the prospect of spending some alone time with Ebony.

She had her own match to deal with. It was convenient that they returned every so often for her to continue rising the ranks of the coliseum. It was still boring, of course. Even with an undefeated record, her official rank rose slowly. However, the number of matches she had been able to take had been increasing ever since her win streak had gone over 50.

She hadn’t even drawn her blade.

It was insulting not to her opponents but to her. Her opponents were low-level Masters, it was no surprise that they would not require her to knock them out with just her concentrated Vitality. She liked the format since duelling strength didn’t depend on level or evolutionary stage but it still stung to be on the receiving side of the fair system.

In her 51st match, she finally had a level 302 Grandmaster as an opponent. She didn’t remember Appraising the man or woman since the fight ended in the exact same way the past 50 matches did but it was a start. She couldn’t even recall if her opponent was a human or beastmen.

It was hard to level up.

Despite the weeks they’ve spent, she was barely level 310 right now. And Ning Xin was a little more convinced of Ebony's theory. Experience gained from kills was not the same for them, even if the level difference between them and the monsters they’ve killed was taken into consideration. It was all about accumulation and the amount of effort.

He hypothesised that they would get less experience for killing something ten levels above them compared to another Grandmaster of the same level killing the same creature.

Ning Xin did not learn any advanced arithmetics but it sounded like a load of nonsense to her. But now, she was inclined to believe it. Largely thanks to the Frost Elves or Elves in general. Their combatants traditionally levelled all the way up to 100 without killing a large amount of creatures, maybe just an occasional hunt here and there. They also took far longer to reach said levels but they could technically reach level 100 without killing a single creature even with a combat Class.

With the same logic, it shouldn’t be any different at any other levels including from 300 to 301.

There were a few occasions when Ning Xin and Ebony levelled in the middle of sparring. Not their skill levels but their Class, Sub-Class and Profession.

In his words, ‘killing is easier for us, so it gives us less. How levels are gained can be generally classified under a few ways such as. effort, difficulty, actual improvement to logic and basis of a technique and so on. Killing a King-ranked Tetramyth of any subspecies is easier for us than it is for someone higher level than us, and the difference in effort required is proportional to the amount of experienced gain.’

When Ning Xin saw some of her repeat customers or ingredient providers level up over the course of a week, she was forced to believe that there was some truth to Ebony’s hypothesis or it was just a coincidence. But there were no coincidences, few people killed more than her. Few people killed faster than her.

But Ebony proved himself, one day he said he killed a measly 4 Tetramyths but he gained two levels. It was still not a number she thought possible. She had more than a thousand times that number that day with 0 Class levels to show for.

Putting aside his unfair advantage of Dusk training skills for him around the clock. Especially his Sealing magic that Ning Xin managed to get a look at with the spy girl.

It was obvious to her, a Vitality user that his sealing magic sealed Vitality. This made her extremely excited at what kind of measures Ebony had come up to prevent her from using Vitality-based enhancement. Could it stop her skills from working?

Ning Xin cleaned up and left for the colosseum while Ebony continued to repair his garden before his classmate’s tournament.

She had 3 whole matches lined up for today but her expectations were kept low.

And as she thought, all matches ended instantly without drawing her blade or casting any magic. She simply knocked their lights out with hyper-concentrated Vitality and killing intent. Without going into Atrophy state. Her vitality was stronger in the convalescent state but this technique is a lot less threatening without the intensity of killing intent that she could pull off in the Atrophy stage.

With a small test, she knew she made people’s muscles spasm this way while also stopping their hearts from beating and their blood from flowing. But if she did the same in her Atrophy state, she could burn the target’s muscles and internals without using any mana and just sheer intensity of Intent and Vitality. And instead of stopping their blood flow or heartbeat, it sped them up.

If it was only for an instant, she could convert most of her stats to Vitality and pump it out with a glare mixed with her intent. She could even turn her maximum health from the Vitality stat itself to further increase her health regeneration of Vitality. It was quite an intriguing ability and also a very odd feeling in her body and mind.

On the bright side, her Duelling rank increased to 21. It was a large jump from the initial rank of 1 with Journeymen in their ranks. From now on, she should be facing proper Grandmasters.

Since didn’t even spend an hour, she decided to hunt Ebony down by scent. Although she was pretty sure he knew where she was and was within reach.

Certain aspects of their capabilities have been increasing at a terrifying rate since they’ve evolved. For her, she could control Vitality and her consolidation of Intent. For Ebony, she suspected it was his mental reach. His mana’s range so to speak.

There were two obvious points where Ebony lagged behind every traditional Imperial mage. One was his maximum range, even a Great Mage might have greater range than him, a Grand Mage. However, that was to be expected. It was common knowledge that a mage’s mental reach is ‘hard capped’ by their Wisdom stat. That could be vastly increased with a skill or two. The basic training to expand their reach is something every mage knows how to do. It was slow, gruesome work.

Not even decades would be enough to reach the hard cap of their Wisdom stat. And that was for the common mage who tend to have more Intelligence than Wisdom.

It was also normal for a Grand Mage to have a far greater range than a Great Mage, even without an increase in the Wisdom stat. Even so, Ebony’s current growth in this aspect was slightly abnormal. He said a few fragmented sentences about a monolith and the effects of pouring liquid something on the main monolith. Whatever he was talking about, he seemed confused at how hard it was to say those words.

Ning Xin hummed a song Ebony implanted into her head while hopping unassumingly towards his scent. Fully aware that he was watching her and could get to her within seconds.

Ebony’s other disadvantage was the size of his mana pool.

Ning Xin was utterly confused at his absolute incompetence when it came to mana capacity-increasing skills. He even had the damn book in his hands. Multiple of them!

But the odd man made every mana capacity-increasing skill into a refinement for his mana compression skill. Unaware of how his brain worked, Ning Xin could not comprehend why he said that all the mana capacity skills he saw, heard or even bought, tier 1 or 2 simply gave him more ideas on mana compression. He couldn’t even see those skills as capacity skills, they apparently sound like compression skills to his skewed understanding of mana.

If he were to decompress his mana to its base state, he technically wasn’t at a disadvantage when it came to mana pool size to someone at the same level. Maybe not the best yet but he likely wasn’t far from it.

She found the place, it was a different coliseum. A smaller one that was not run by anyone, likely just a random arena for such events. Someone was wearing Tidal Academy’s uniform that didn’t feel weak. It made her turn her head to take a look at a bored-looking man with extremely deep eye-bags and slouched back. A fire mage.

Unassuming like she was, the fire mage didn’t look at her and only nodded to Ebony who waved at him to gesture that she was with him. The old lady, Wilcox also helped to make her unaccounted entry smooth.

“Who’s fighting who now?” Ning Xin knew the names of some of Ebony’s young classmates. Only those that he told her about.

“Atticus, the dual sword-wielder. Remember him?”

“Oh, yes. I see they are not restricted to what is taught in their academies.”

“Mm, just an actual duel with everything at their disposal excluding potions or weapons like bombs or burst bows.”

Ning Xin saw them use wooden swords but the boy Atticus had a wand gripped with one of his sword-wielding hands. He needed the wand to help him cast. It was a bit pathetic and she didn’t like the multitasking that affected the sword grip but it is what it is. Children of Masters or Grandmasters and a first or second-generation mage of his bloodline only meant his elemental affinity and natural-born talent with mana was on the lower end of the spectrum.

Their opponents were the Arcane Warrior Academy. An Academy even Ning Xin heard of and seen a few of their students before. By the looks of Atticus’s opponent, she understood that even the Unclassed were not haphazardly taught and had the basics down. Nothing flashy, but they had stable movements and more importantly, weren't scared numb in a fight for their age.

Atticus was the only one in Ebony’s class except the beastman who had an acceptable level of physical fitness since he descended from warriors. She only said ‘acceptable’ after comparing him with the rest of the lightning mage children but it was honestly disappointing.

The Arcane Warrior student was defeated after 3 long minutes. He was not a talent. After weeks of Ebony’s training, he should’ve crushed the opponent way faster. But the Arcane Warriors had an overwhelming advantage over a few physically weak and scrawny lightning mages that zapped out tiny streams of electricity or fired a ball of lightning that was actually frighteningly stable and precise. That was definitely Ebony’s work, stability and precision.

The rest of the matches went in a way that reminded her of who taught these lightning mages-to-be. The scrawny children fought tooth and nail. Barely dodging attacks that should’ve been too fast for them to avoid or knowing when to take a glancing blow to get a lightning-filled slap to the arm or leg. A good stun was enough for them to land a few good blows on their opponents.

However, the unclassed Arcane Warriors already knew how to defend a targeted spot with mana. Some of them were able to react and protect themselves in time. The slow cast speeds didn’t help the mage’s case. However, these Arcane Warriors had an even tinier mana pool and control compared to the mage students.

They ultimately came to a draw which shocked the other Academy a lot except for the last match which was about to happen between their two top students. It was a terrible score for them when they should’ve crushed the Piercing Tempest Academy with ease for the unclassed division.

“From the Piercing Tempest Academy, Umar.

From the Arcane Warrior Academy, Cerise.”

‘So that’s the girl whose face I keep seeing.’ Ning Xin finally saw the real girl in the flesh.

A person that Ebony analysed and had targeted training for all of his classmates wasn’t going to look good for the young girl. Honestly, if Umar did as well as he did in training. His loss was not a possibility.

The chances that Ebony didn’t know how a young unclassed girl that uses a tiny bit of mana enhancement with mostly Arcane Warrior fighting style was close to 0. The only thing he could have missed out was her family taught skills she’d never shown him or something new she learned in the past month. However, there was no way Ebony only taught his little friends a stagnant opponent.

To be honest, Ning Xin was falling asleep from how boring and slow the duels were going but she was paying attention.

Umar cooked her up. In a literal sense, he fried her with lightning so hard that it overrode her armour and fiery mana skin skill. She even wore armour with a weak lightning resistance. He was untouchable by the faster, stronger and bigger opponent as if he knew where every swing, punch or even feint was coming from.

But Ebony might have underestimated Cerise’s ability to use mana or the effect of her enhancement. Umar had cuts on his face. The girl could extend her mana out physically. Manifestation of mana in solid form while being Unclassed was something that exceeded even Ebony’s expectations. It wasn’t enough to catch Umar completely off guard but she landed a hit before Umar’s spell.

‘That speed cast is actually good? And the volume of his spell is great. Did he succeed at compressing lightning mana and even cast it stably? No wonder he’s Ebony’s favourite. Someone with actual potential to be strong.’

After that, even Ebony zoned out. It was the Journeymen's turn and the Arcane Warrior Academy returned the favour by winning 9 out of 10 matches. They should’ve had a better fighting chance but even the combat-focused lightning mage students did not have much experience facing a fast warrior charging at them with a real metal blade that could shrug off lightning spells just through their mana skin.

Only the Great Lightning Mages evened out the duel against the Master warriors. The only ‘unfair’ point was that the Great Lightning Mages were all a little older than the Master warriors. Mage Academy courses ran longer and took many more years on average compared to warriors.

Ning Xin wanted to see the instructors on both sides fight but that wasn’t happening so she was a little disappointed.

She was a little happy by something else entirely though, the children didn’t avoid her when they ran up to Ebony to get his praise and ramble on about their fight. Those that lost were extremely ashamed but the amount of time they had was too short to begin with so it was no surprise. Her confidence in not scaring Kiva away when she got too strong in the future rose with this skill of hers.

While watching Ebony break a few children’s confidence because of how cold and straightforward he was with his words, Ning Xin noticed the growing sense of unease resurface.

‘He’s getting away. What has he been thinking about? I know, he’s definitely making a new skill and is probably testing them out right now, maybe a few hundred alterations a day. Is this feeling…the feeling that I’m about to be left behind?’

Ning Xin’s unease gradually pushed her out of the convalescent state and deeper into the Atrophy state to heighten her Intuition.

‘Oh!! I know where this sense of dissonance is coming from!’ Ning Xin recalled something Ebony said a few days ago, when she was in a hungered and muddle-headed Atrophy state. They were having a meal together but she had been more engrossed with stuffing her mouth and stomach at that time.

“My data collection has been bearing fruit. I figured out my biggest, current problem that’s impeding my growth.”

“Nghm?” She remembered replying with her mouth full. A bit shameful of her but her hunger was getting harder to fight.

“I regenerate mana too slowly,” Ebony said with as much seriousness as always.

The joke flew over her head at that time, enough to stop her chowing down for a moment. He ignored her reaction and continued,

“Personally, I’ve come across 2 people who regenerate more mana than I do. One of them can regenerate while casting as I do or I strongly suspect he can, Vent. The other is another Elf I felt when we went for tea at the Aroma Alcove. Not just a little, they regenerate mana magnitudes faster than I do.”

“Are you not going to eat?” Had been her response at the time.

Ebony had that little smile of his that made her unable to focus on her food, “I’ll eat. I’m done diverging for now. It’s time to consolidate.”

That’s where this feeling is coming from. ‘How dare he think of leaving me behind. How dare he think he can get ahead.’

The Xengs didn’t care about many things but when it came to what held importance to them, the faintest slight was the greatest insult to them. Their motto to people who labelled them arrogant has always been the same, “we are merely confident as the arrogant amongst us are dead.”

The day a Xeng admits to arrogance is the day they are no longer able to back up their words and actions, for many, that was the day they perished.