Ebony's Fable

Standing in front of Gen's snow lump, Ebony was wondering how to go around calling it and decided to knock on it like any other polite person would. He thought it was a rock with how hard it was when he knocked, stepping back after knocking Ebony waited. Knocking again when there was no response from Gen after a while. Ebony tried calling, shouting and kicking the snow lump only leaving him in pain with how hard it was.

Giving up, he went to look for mama or papa turtles instead or Sei and Ton as Gen called them. Remembering where they were, Ebony went up to their dome and got a response this time. Sei or mama turtle came out of its shell and if Ebony had to guess turtle expressions, she looked somewhat annoyed that she was disturbed. Gesturing towards Gen, Ebony hoped it understood what he wanted.

Hissing towards Gen a few times, Sei got back into its shell and covered itself. Disregarding Ebony and going back to whatever turtles do in their homes. A familiar wave of mental pressure hammered into his head again before receding, it was unpleasant and if not for how Ebony was always in meditation it would have affected him even more.

“Hey Gen, sorry to disturb you but I had some things to ask of you.” Ebony spoke out loud before it clicked that he just had to think and hope Gen could hear his mental signal.

“...Ebony… go ahead.” Gen pried his eyes open.

“Is there any food here? Food for humans.” Ebony wanted to try his luck asking. If there was, then he was in no real rush to get out of here.

“If humans eat leaves and drink sap, yes.” Gen replied seriously.

“...Unfortunately not. You mentioned Frost Elves being close, are they hostile to humans and could you get me out of here in 2 or 3 days?" It would have been okay if the leaves and sap didn’t threaten to freeze him.

“...I am unaware of the relation between races apart from my own. We are hidden most of the time and do not interact with others. The Frost Elves haven’t ventured deep into our forests for a long time. Ton will bring you up when you decide to do so.” Gen answered honestly. The pauses in his speech didn't seem deliberate.

“Thank you, Gen. Could you get Ton to lead me to the Frost Elves settlement if possible? Oh, and do you have anything that I can use to fend for myself, unawakened and all, I’m not sure of the dangers there are up there either.” Ebony pushed his luck a little.

“Ton will only bring you to the edge of our forest… I will get him to direct you towards their settlement… if I remember correctly it's only a day away from the edge of our forest… as I’d mentioned the only thing useful for you would be the sap of the progenitor Frostblaze Amur and the only weapon present is the one stuck up there.” Gen said while looking towards the progeniturtle.

“Then could I get the sap and also some of the dried leaves of your progenitor Frostblaze Amur?” Ebony asked, remembering the dried leaves he saw laying around mount turtle he thought he could use them as wipes. As for the sap, he only asked on a whim.

“...Fresh ones taste better…the dried ones are crispy but bitter. But you’ll have to try the other trees’ leaves instead, your jaws and teeth will shatter before a mark can be made on the progenitor Frostblaze Amur leaves even though the tree has weakened it is not something an unawakened can eat… Now that you mentioned, they should serve you well as a weapon.” Gen gave his critique about leaf flavours and texture.

“I wasn’t planning on eating them but dried leaves as a weapon? How am I supposed to use it?” Ebony asked. It was kinda ridiculous to him that Gen said his jaws and teeth would shatter if he tried eating it.

‘Just how tough was this thing? Should I be swinging and smashing monsters with it since it's so tough, oh wait, don’t tell me the blades of the leaves are sharp. Naturally growing leaf blades sounds awesome enough, good thing I haven’t used them to wipe my ass.’

“They should be of a minimal toughness and I could just make them sharp enough to cut into monsters around the parts where you are headed... Of course, they’re not very durable with how old they are and would break from repeated impact after a while. It's about time to eat so let’s go get them now.” Gen replied as the snow under Ebony rose and encased him up till his waist faster than he could react to.

Moving faster than when he was riding Sei, they arrived before mount turtle in seconds and Ebony knew Gen was moving ‘slowly’. Ebony rose into the air and onto Gen as the snow under Gen rippled like a wave and launched both of them upwards, landing onto progeniturtle without impact.

‘That was fun, I have to learn how to do that. Magic is awesome.’

“Gen, I will freeze to death if I’m up here too long.” Ebony informed that he was taking damage from the close proximity he was to the tree. Still as unfazed by the situation as if it was any other day.

Right after he said that, he no longer felt the freezing chill, stunned that he could no longer feel ice mana around him. Originally, he could feel ice mana a little beyond 3 metres away from himself. Guessing that Perception stat was affecting the range. It was still cold but not to the point of taking damage.

Ebony only manipulates ice mana up to half a metre away from himself to save MP which obviously wasn’t a concern for Gen here. Remembering what he wanted to ask since he’s no longer at risk “Gen how do you manipulate snow? I don’t feel any ice mana in them and can’t manipulate it to move like you do.”

“Snow magic is a different magic from ice magic altogether. If you can’t sense snow mana you can’t manipulate them as with any other types of magic... Born as an Ice Crystal Turtle, being able to use both ice and snow magic comes to us naturally as a racial trait so to say. Rare amongst… monsters… we are born with sufficient sentience, to gain sapience is to willingly reject the world’s ambient essence. In exchange we do not level to our natural limits with time but gain the potential to go further in the form of a ‘Class’. All sapient creatures have the capacity to take a class, my race is an Ice Crystal Turtle but I was better at snow magic thus my class.”

“So Sei, Ton and the others are not sapient and are unawakened as well?”

“Well, they do have some ability to think but they have not yet taken up a class and are unconsciously taking in some ambient essence, they can be considered partially sapient… There are 2 other sapient amongst our kind, currently venturing deeper west to train and eventually take my place. After you leave, do not venture further west past our forest… you will not survive.”

“Good to know, I assume there are a lot of strong monsters in there.”

“It would not take a monster to kill you, the mana density and environment alone is enough for that.”

“...How reassuring.”

“Follow me.” Gen said, releasing Ebony from its snow grip. They walked towards where Ebony went earlier, below the tiny needle protruding from the trunk. Tiny from where he saw it anyway, with the distance he was away from it Ebony couldn’t see it clearly.

Removing the surrounding ice mana did not remove the cold completely but it did help a lot, the temperature still dropped the closer he got to the tree. When he got near the base of the tree he could see a big bowl made of what he assumed was ice and all he could see was the burning white flame just like the trees’ burning fire.

‘Don’t tell me even its sap burns…’ Ebony thought.

“How’s your mana looking?” Gen asked.

“Hmm? Low, I was practising manipulation before looking for you.” The random question brought Ebony back to the present.

“Do you have the Meditation skill? Use it. I’ll be preparing my spell in the meantime.” Gen said, staring at Ebony sending chills down his back.

“I have been using it all along, I have Persistent Meditation. Why do I need mana? What spell?” Ebony asked with suspicion, getting a really bad feeling from where this is going.

“...Persistent Meditation?” Gen questioned, ignoring Ebony’s questions

“Yeah, it has the same effects as Meditation but I can use it on the move and it doesn't have the reduction in perception. You haven’t answered my questions.” Ebony badgered, his gut feeling was that he may not exactly like what was going to happen.

“Meditation while moving...wonderful...wonderful… Oh yes, I am preparing a spell to assist you to temper your body with the progenitor’s sap…” Gen murmured while going back into its shell, still repelling the ice mana in the surroundings for Ebony.

‘I guess worrying is pointless when I have nowhere to run even if I can’t shake off the bad feeling I’m getting. But it sounds like good stuff.’ Ebony thought sitting down and closing his eyes he meditated.

The Meditation skill didn’t really make sense to Ebony, it says ‘calm and clear state of mind’ but his mind was occupied by way more questions than he usually had since coming here. Well many things don’t make sense to him now so there really wasn’t a point worrying about it. Other than the skill description being inaccurate compared to what he can actually do, he had no issues with the skill effects.

A few cold silent hours with the exception of 2 level up notifications for Persistent Meditation later, when Ebony realised what a damn mistake it was to keep running like a fool making himself both thirsty and hungry in a place where he couldn’t get either though he could always stuff some snow in his mouth for water in the worst case. Gen’s voice reverberated in Ebony's head “Are you ready?” sounding both lazy and serious.

“Why do you even need to use a spell for?”

“Did you really think you could consume the progenitor’s sap as it is? An unawakened like you would have been frozen before even getting this close to it if not for me… Originally, I would have let you have a drop of it and let you circulate and seep it in your body as best you could before you ran out of mana before freezing you in a non-damaging spell and removing the excess essence from you before you actually freeze yourself to death... We would have repeated that up to 3 times, if your physique was compatible with the progenitor sap it would be improved which will be greatly beneficial for you...in many ways.” Gen explained.

“Gen I’m not drinking that if I can’t even stay close to it without turning into a popsicle much less do that repeatedly.”

“...It is less risky than you think… I have done it thrice and none has died with my control, though, only one was compatible enough to slightly improve her physique. It is not necessary to do it multiple times as long as you can assimilate enough essence into your body. Any more than a certain amount would damage your body instead of strengthening your physique.”

“...Let’s say I accept that explanation but what did you mean by ‘Originally’? Are we not doing that anymore?” Ebony asked.

“Yes, the situation has changed with your Persistent Meditation skill. Normally I would leave you in a half sealed state where I can control the amount of sap you are exposed to to a non-lethal dosage and you would still be able to manipulate your own mana within your body. When you run out of mana I would completely seal you in ice and remove what you couldn’t take in before letting you out to recover both health and mana.”

“How would Persistent Meditation help? Even with it it would take many hours to recover my mana.” Ebony was sceptical, even with Persistent Meditation at level 39 his mana regenerated at 13.9 per hour. It would take more than 3 hours to even use Icebody Enhancement for even a minute, outrageously inefficient to Ebony.

“Is it not about how much mana you regenerate, I am aware of your pitiful mana pool and regeneration as an unawakened. Am I wrong to say that you can use Persistent Meditation even when you are casting?” Gen said without a hint of contempt of how ‘pitiful’ Ebony’s mana pool was.

“Nope, I can feel it running even when I was practising enhancement magic.” Ebony replied.

“Haha… How wondrous! Yes, the fact that you can regenerate mana when casting is what changes the plan.” Gen exclaimed, it was the first that he sounded so excited and for a second Ebony thought Gen’s lazy glare at him changed though it could’ve been his imagination.

“Ebony, when one is casting a spell their mana stops regenerating during the casting duration including channelled skills and enhancement magic, for me, or any other races that I know of or have helped with this process. Sealing to protect you from harm and unsealing to allow you to recover, truly a waste of our progenitor’s sap. The duration that the previous 3 were exposed to the sap was too short for any sort of proper strengthening. Since you are able to regenerate mana when casting I will instead leave you in a half sealed state throughout the process... My plan was to attempt to find a balance where you can assimilate an extremely low dosage of essence over an extended period of time.”

“Sounds simple enough, I think. If you’re telling me I won’t be in danger and this will make me stronger, then by all means let’s do it. I am slightly confused on what I am supposed to do though, you mentioned assimilating essence and manipulating my mana in my own body but how do I assimilate essence? What is essence?” Ebony answered, a boost in strength and no risk of dying was obviously welcomed. As for being careful and suspicious? Bah, too much brain power needed for that. They could kill or harm him any time even without some plot. All Gen had to do was stop protecting him from the cold and he would be dead in minutes or seconds even.

The thought that almost anything here can control his life and death sucked. Almost getting rammed to death by a boar sucked. Being used to train a wolf pup how to hunt sucked. Pushed around by some turtles sucked. Being called pitiful sucked even harder.

‘They may expect something in return from me but I’ll take what I can now. Gen has no reason to lie to me and has given me some helpful information so far. It was also thanks to Sei that I was brought here, despite not being so gentle and kind of forced him to, but still.’

“The danger is minimal as long as you don’t freeze to death instantly, essence is essentially the combination of a living being’s lifeforce and mana. All you have to do is manipulate the ice elemental mana to seep into your entire body as evenly as possible, bones and organs included of course and leave the rest to me. My seal will prevent the lifeforce portion from escaping as well. The catch here is to lower the output to an absurdly small degree where your mana regeneration can keep up to your usage.” Gen clarified. Somehow, the 'absurdly' sounded emphasised.

Taking a deep breath Ebony in his indifferent mental tone, “Ready whenever you are.”

“Good.” Gen breathed out, blasting a chilling mist at Ebony, encasing him completely in ice.

Ebony was completely sealed in a block of ice, the extreme cold hit his body but only for a moment before he stopped feeling the cold. Perhaps not feeling anything at all was more accurate, he couldn’t move or even breathe but he didn’t feel any discomfort or pain. ‘Is this similar to a state of cryopreservation? But if I can still think my brain should still need oxygen to function. Relax Ebony, this is magic, this is magic.’ Ebony convinced himself.

He could still think and his sense of sight was still working, the ice was so clear that there wasn’t much distortion in his vision. Ebony was facing up towards the massive tree and could still see the tree burning brightly.

‘If this is the tree in its dying moment I would love to see it when it's lifely.’ A passing thought hit Ebony as he appreciated its beauty at an inappropriate time.

“We’ll begin.” Gen sent, the connection apparently not affected by the seal.

The bowl of white with a hint of blue flames floated above Ebony while he watched as it slowly, ever so slightly tilted till a drop of sap still burning dripped onto his enclosure. Ebony was wrong when he thought he lost his sense of feeling or touch as a piercing cold engulfed him.

The seal wasn’t there just for Gen to control the amount that was exposed to Ebony but also to evenly spread the sap throughout his body alighting Ebony into a human torch.

Ebony used Icebody Enhancement for a second before regaining his calm, he had to conserve his mana and use only as much mana as he regenerated to manipulate the ice mana to seep into every corner of his body. Slightly stunned when he had difficulty ‘grabbing’ onto the ice mana, it was dissipating extremely quickly.

Falling deeper into focus, Ebony pushed aside the feeling of chilling pain, realising that the liquid sap actually hasn’t touched his body but just the ‘flames’ of the sap. He could only try to assert control over the ‘flames’ while he waits for the liquid sap to reach him but to no avail.

A long minute later, he was finally about to manipulate some ice mana, pulling it into his body. ‘Gen said to manipulate ice mana to seep into my entire body, basically every inch and cell of my body. This’ll be a long night.’ He thought.

Sensing his mana trickle down, Ebony sent a thought to Gen to slow down hoping the mental connection was still there. The decrease was almost unnoticeable and an unknown amount of time passed from numerous trial and error of adjusting the flow.

Succeeding in achieving equilibrium, Ebony slowly manipulated and mentally visualised having ice mana to enter his skin, fat, muscle, nerves, bones and organs, trying to get every single cell in his body to take a dip in ice elemental mana.

Not giving up on pulling in the ‘flames’ Ebony attempted it over and over again, failing every time, getting closer to succeeding every time. They were fundamentally still ice mana so he should logically be able to manipulate it with his skill.

Observing, perceiving every attempt Ebony believed the truth of the ‘flames’ to be ice mana that bursts into a gaseous like state. The Frostblaze Amur Maple was, according to Identify, combusting ice elemental mana. If manipulating mana into his body was akin to grabbing a handful of water and spreading onto himself then trying to control combusted mana was like grabbing a handful of air.

An undetermined amount of time passed until Ebony's first successful attempt and it was certainly not the last. Even Gen didn't sense Ebony's success with the minor control over the flames. The issue was his method of utilising mana as it was a brand new ‘organ’ to him, to put it into words a cup was better at holding water than a hand. Since this new organ of his had no defined form he merely had to meld it around the flames to manipulate. He took some time to get used to it but he managed and gradually got better and better. His usage of mana greatly increased in efficiency over time as he increased his intake of ice mana with the amount of mana used to manipulate it.

Ebony’s state of immense concentration gradually turned into an automated process without realising it himself. Gen releasing a tiny drop of sap every so often. The sap spreading throughout the ice encasement. Ebony pulling in every bit of ice mana he could into his body. His body burning both inside and out went unnoticed by himself. Requesting an increase in dosage from time to time, not even knocked out of his stupor when his mana regeneration spiked and the amount of sap he was taking in more than doubled. His mind was completely blank.