Ebony's Fable

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Treading Step level up 16 → 20’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 45 → 46’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Running level up 13 → 15’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 4 → 7’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery learned’

Single-handed Greatsword Mastery - Mastery of a two-handed greatsword with a single-arm through balance and deftness. Strength decreases by 30%, Agility increases by 15% while wielding a greatsword single-handedly. Very slightly improves balance, stability, deftness and dexterity per level.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 1 → 5’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Kicking Mastery learned’

Kicking Mastery - Mastery of using one’s legs to attack and defend. Kicking has the effect of up to 80% + 1.0% Strength and Agility.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Kicking Mastery level up 1 → 10’

‘Ting’ ‘You have met the requirements to obtain the class: Apprentice Warrior - Requirement: Any close-range fighting Mastery Lvl 10’

‘Ting’ ‘A Chosen Class will be bound to you and can never be changed. Choose ‘Apprentice Warrior’ as your Class?’

‘Ting’ ‘You have met the requirements to obtain the class: Apprentice Martial Artist - Requirement: Any weaponless close-range fighting Mastery Lvl 10’

‘Ting’ ‘A Chosen Class will be bound to you and can never be changed. Choose ‘Apprentice Martial Artist’ as your Class?’

‘Hmm, a single skill for two classes? What would be the difference?’ Putting the thought aside as he wasn’t planning to take either of them.

Sei stopped and walked off after hours of playing with Ebony either giving him a break, was tired herself or both. His MP recovered fully twice and he managed to get used to the buff and debuff of Icebody Enhancement. Treading Step had impressive gains from all the running and dodging. Best of yet, he managed to get the hang of swinging the leaf. Adding Kicking Mastery to his repertoire was a great idea since he had always been great at kicking, punching not so much. But that was just relative, he was better than most anyway when it came to fighting. He had long noticed that skills that he actually trained before levelled extremely quickly.

Ebony had no idea how skills were determined when the leaf was actually classified as a greatsword but he’s not complaining so he’ll take it.

All the jumping around and projectile deflection helped as it was quite like sword dancing to use the momentum of a slash to dance around and follow the flow and weight of the leaf.

His wrist was in pain and body sore all over as he laid in his igloo eating his diminished stock of crabapples. During the spar, Ebony already noted that his mana regeneration fortunately did not decrease by a quarter. While his health, which he took damage from the training, was at about 6 per hour. It either also recovers at 10% of his maximum per hour like mana which was highly unlikely or according to what the notification said about 25% of his mana regen also healing his health.

Lvl 46 Deep Persistent Meditation [(46 x 2.5% = 115%) + 100%] 100 = 2.15. He had a 2.15 times multiplier to his base regen of 10MP/hour, equaling to 21.5MP/hour. A quarter of that would be… eh roughly 5.3. If physique wasn’t trolling him, Ebony would take it as health regen was at 1% of maximum per hour with his HP at 60 it would be 0.6 roughly adding up.

Healing up to 52 HP again since he took some light hits, Ebony was a little concerned his arm was never gonna heal but didn’t let what he couldn’t do anything about bother him. Having increased health regen based on mana regen but no drop in mana regen was a little too good to be true to Ebony and he believed there were other unseen negative implications of having your physical body partially made of mana.

Taking a nap since he didn’t have much mana left, his body was too sore and there wasn’t anything else to do.

Bursting out of his snow burial about 2 hours later, he found Ton by the side this time. Ton was slightly bigger and had a jagged edged shell like Gen, likely the difference between male and females. At least Ton turned the snow back to its loose state before collapsing his igloo on him as it was originally rock solid.

Rising up from the ground, a clone Ton formed but bigger than original and made of snow instead of ice. Seems like they each have their own speciality. Ton returned back into its shell, not even looking as snow clone Ton advanced. Ebony dashed for his weapon not far from him and also tossed his back full of crabapples far away so that they don't get squashed in the battle.

At his fastest speed he’d moved, Ebony darted and aimed for snow clone Ton’s neck going on the offensive before it could, decapitating it easily. Ebony didn’t feel much resistance from it so no rock hard snow here. Its head instantly regrew and Ebony training began again.

Ebony was doing much better against a single bulky opponent this time round. After getting some deep cuts in, clone Ton hardened and he could no longer directly split it apart. Two long tendrils of snow came out of its back and started whipping at Ebony.

Cutting it off with his leaf tired him out too much as they’ll just extend from clone Ton’s back again so he dodged them instead but it was by no means easy as they were fully under Ton’s control as the whips could change direction in mid air.

Snowball projectiles, pitfall traps, snow rising up to his ankle and hardening preventing him from dodging was all present as well. This was Ton’s home turf and he still wasn’t taking Ebony seriously with him hiding in its shell, Ebony had no idea how it was watching him move to make such accurate attacks and traps at just the right time and place.

Ton hardened the whips smacking him, giving him many bruises across his whole body. Letting Ebony rest before round 2 but aware of how fast Ebony got tired and recovered. The number of whips increased to 5 which absolutely manhandled Ebony so badly, Ton had to remove 1 so that Ebony even had a chance.

He had to come up with a way to deal with the whips as he had the most trouble with them. Suddenly remembering when ice clone Seis bit his leaf it froze a little, Ebony wondered if he could do the same. While he couldn’t exactly freeze snow it was sure to be useful against other monsters. He wanted to try injecting ice mana with every hit his sword lands. It would be pretty cool if he could inject ice mana and freeze a monster inside out.

Pulling in ice mana from the surroundings got him a look from Ton but was ignored when he layered it on his leaf instead. It seemed like both Sei and Ton were stopping him from using Icebody Enhancement with the ambient ice mana for some reason.

Just covering the entire leaf in a thin layer of ice took more than 30 MP, his plan failed before it even began since he hadn’t fully recovered his mana. At least he had an ice sword to play around with. Ah, leaf.

Ebony passed out during round 5, his stamina might have recovered fully over and over again but his body couldn’t take any more. It was already quite a miracle fighting clone Sei for more than 10 hours with only a few minutes in between each round of beatings.

❅❅❅

“Ebony”

“...”

“Wake up Ebony” Gen called out again.

“...mm. I’m awake. What’s up Gen.” Ebony replied as if he was never asleep, his deep and gruff voice gave him out though. He forgot he didn’t have to speak out loud since Gen wouldn’t understand him anyway.

“...Are you okay?” Gen asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” confused by the question he questioned back, mentally this time.

“...Nevermind… Did you get the Ice Crystal Physique?” Gen shut his eyes and asked.

“No, Frostblaze Physique. Is Ice Crystal Physique the physique that the one that succeeded got? Was I supposed to get an Ice Crystal Physique?”

“...What physique you end up with is beyond me. The one that I helped with was Allumi, a level 100 Ice Mage no, the last she visited before venturing further west she was… level 283 Great Glacial Mage. Reckless... with her strength.”

“Sounds powerful and all, she still couldn’t pull Excalibur out?”

“Excalibur? No, that would be getting way ahead of herself. I wondered why she bothered trying at her level. According to Allumi the Ice Crystal Physique attuned her body and mana to ice mana. Increasing her cold resistance by 30% and 10% of mana regenerated is ice mana, increasing her casting speed for ice magic but decreasing her resistance to heat by 20%. It was even a trigger for her Class Evolution. Could you tell me about your… Frostblaze Physique…”

Ebony read out the notification to Gen word for word seeing no reason to hide anything. Frostblaze Physique had given him a higher increase in cold resistance but also a decrease in heat resistance. The Ice Crystal Physique also has no mention of the partial mana body or reduced need for sustenance and sleep but regenerating ice mana and increased cast speed was pretty cool too. No clue about Class Evolution but it was probably something good.

“By the way, is there any difference between increasing natural resistance and the cold resistance that the skill gives us?”

“Natural resistance refers to your base resistance, the resistance skills increase your resistance based on your natural resistance.”

‘There's no number for cold resistance so it should be like a hidden stat if there was such a thing but this should mean it’ll stack with the skill.’ Ebony thought.

“Melding your mana into your body… should be due to soaking your body in your own mana for long enough. Fascinating… the fact that you are unawakened was a boon as well. An awakened has much higher stats and would find it difficult to improve their physique with such means so it was already surprising Allumi actually succeeded when she did this at level 100. Even when her physical stats were low as a mage… Although there aren’t any obvious demerits other than the decrease in heat resistance there will likely be other implications.”

“Implications like?”

“In Allumi’s case, by regenerating ice mana, part of the mana pool couldn’t be used for anything other than ice magic. Though it’s not so much a demerit for an ice mage, my point being that not everything is explained in your ‘notification’ as you call it. You will have to find out the specifics yourself.”

“Yeah, well when I cast enhancement magic it did feel smoother and I could activate it pretty fast though I couldn’t really compare to how it was previously. Oh by the way, when Sei and Ton were playing around with me they kept stopping me from drawing ice mana to strengthen myself and Sei was trying to tell me something as well, any idea why?”

“Of course… It is one thing to use ambient mana to cast spells. Another to use it for enhancement magic. Like how monsters can gain complete sapience from denying ambient essence, sapient creatures who take in too much of it can turn into a fiend, losing their class, rationality and sense of self in exchange for an explosive increase in stats. Though not much essence will be introduced into your body there is still a minuscule amount of essence that is... attached to ambient mana.”

“I see…” Ebony murmured, “Gen… Thanks for the hospitality so far but I think I’ll get going soon, maybe after another session of beatings with Sei and Ton. I will come back to visit when I can and if this Allumi hasn’t returned and removed the weapon for you, I will.”

“...No, thank you. Ton and Sei should be going up to feed as well, I have instructed them where to let you off. Just go straight where they’ll point you and you should get to the Frost Elves’ village in a day or two. As for Allumi...”

“... I see.” Ebony stopped prodding, if Gen didn’t want to tell him then there was no reason to dig into it. Perhaps it was a long time ago and she died long ago but who knows.

❅❅❅

Sitting on Ton’s back after saying his goodbyes to Gen they started sliding towards where they came from. Gen’s goodbye “You’re not allowed to die.” “Get stronger soon.” “You are welcome to come back any time.” were more like orders. Orders that Ebony was glad to follow.

Passing by all the other doorless igloos, at some point Ebony realised those were probably graves. He’d seen Sei, Ton and even the hatchlings moving about and leaving for the surface probably to eat but none of the other domes moved at all. They could be hibernating or were like Gen but Ebony doubted that. He did say there were 2 others but no 4th generation to take over him.

Gen encased the leaf in ice and when Ebony Identified it, it only showed ‘Ice’. Not frozen leaf or frozen dried leaf and there was no rarity tag either. The Frost Elves knew about their forest but perhaps even some of the oldest Frost Elf wouldn’t know about this underground dome and Gen wanted to keep this place known to as few as possible. They seem to have some sort of deal between them.

Something about not wanting some guy to find out their ‘legacy’ still lives. Ebony obliged and promised to keep this location and frostblaze maples secret. He was apparently lucky beyond belief he even stumbled upon this place, possibly another reason Sei and Ton took him in. A snowstorm should apparently always be surrounding their maple tree territory and beyond. A spell.

Gen wouldn’t tell him why it was down now but it was obviously a problem for them. More surprising was the fact that he would shift the surface forest from time to time. He would’ve never came so far out if the spell wasn’t down. Like what? If Ebony wanted to come back he would need some luck and to be strong enough. It's a whole portion of a forest covered in a constant blizzard. How hard could it be to find?

The leaf couldn’t be seen through the ice and the edges were smoothen out, looking more like a sword. It would break once the mana in it ran out but it’ll last about three or four weeks by Gen’s estimation not considering damage done to it.

Ebony gained another level in Treading Step, Icebody Enhancement, Humming, 2 in Single-handed Greatsword Mastery and Kicking Mastery after a 3-4 hour grind. He started humming halfway through and found it helped him get into the groove. Hopefully he could find some food soon, he only had 46 crabapples left and he had enough of it already. A proper meal, bed, toilet and bath would be perfect now. And clothes, though he doesn’t feel cold anymore with his cold resistance increasing so much his clothes were a mess from beatings he took.

Ebony asked Gen what level clone Seis or Tons exhibited was compared to other monsters, discounting all the projectiles, traps and what not since low level monsters mostly wouldn't have such versatility with magic or even any magic at all. Just based on their physical stats alone they were apparently only about level 5 - 6 in terms of toughness but the power or speed shown was apparently level 2 - 3…

At the same level monsters had overwhelming stat advantages, when Ebony told him about almost outrunning a level 4 wolf pup. Gen response was that if monsters had enough intelligence to teach their pup to learn how to hunt they were more like the Ice Crystal Turtles who lost their part monster stat advantage. There was a low chance they were like Gen and the turtles though. Actual monsters were more like the first boar or the snow gale strix attacking most creatures on sight. Less tactic more chomping.

It was pretty depressing that he wouldn’t even be able to cut into a level 5 monster much less match their strength or speed but sooner or later he’ll close the gap when his skill levels rise.

It was dark when they reached the surface, the whole family came up to the surface but after Ton nudged the hatchling as a show of affection they separated. Ebony waved back at Sei and the hatchlings not sure if they understood the gesture.

Unsure if they were where they entered, Ebony continued his mental map assuming they were for now. Holding onto the edges of Ton’s shell as he sped off with impatience. Moving much faster now that the hatchlings weren’t following. His arm threatened to tear off just by holding on to Ton’s shell.

The frostblaze amur maples were always a sight to behold, they slowly thickened as Ton moved. As the trees of lower rarity increased and the colour of flames deepened in blue as they left the turtles’ territory.

It wasn’t long before the maples thinned out again and a more normal variety of trees appeared within sight again. Not long later, Ton let Ebony down and a snowball shot out of its mouth into the distance. He didn’t want to get too close to the Frost Elves to be spotted.

“Thanks Ton.” Ebony said, patting his shell, getting a nod in return before it literally burst with such speed the snow knocked Ebony a couple metres back. Evidently holding back with Ebony atop.

‘Next time you won’t need such concerns.’ Ebony convinced himself.

It was a nice coincidence that the sun was beginning to rise so Ebony started walking towards where Ton shot the snowball. Holding onto his leafblade as he doesn’t have sheath or belt for it and he was thinking of trying to make one out of ice when he takes a break.

Finally having his journey be more normal, he saw squirrels with acorns and nuts. They were Identified as [Squirrel] without a level so he could only assume there were still normal animals out and about. He picked the nuts that he could find, they were walnuts but Ebony was glad to have a change in flavour.

They weren’t too difficult to crack and had a lot of flesh but were more bitter than any walnuts he's had. Food was food so he picked them as he tried to stay on course. Ebony was taking it slow; he continued forming the ice threads or thin rods as he hummed along. Stopping whenever his MP drops to 70, saving some in case he needed to use body enhancement magic.

Half a day passed uneventfully as Ebony had a bag full of walnuts, crabapples and flask of backup rare ice mana potion which still freezes his tongue off if he doesn’t use Icebody Enhancement immediately. According to Gen, the Frostblaze Amur Maple removes the ambient essence and is safe to consume.

So were dead monsters, as long as they weren’t poisonous or anything. Their essence would mostly be gone since their lifeforce or health would be emptied out when they died. Mana would escape their body once dead. He doesn’t have to worry about the essence in monster meat.

Gen was stunned silent when Ebony asked about how to convert his own mana into ice elemental mana to use ice magic without using ambient ice mana. He gave a look that said “How the hell have you been using Ice Enhancement Magic all this time?” to which Ebony replied with the truth that he was somewhat forced by Sei.

He didn’t have any idea on how to teach Ebony something so… instinctual to his race. It was the biggest reason monsters or races reside in areas with mana that they are more accustomed to using. Even a fire mage would be at a disadvantage against an ice mage if they were fighting in this environment, though it doesn’t necessarily mean the ice mage would win.

The crunching of snow caught Ebony’s attention, a rabbit with oversized fangs popped out of its burrow not far from him.

[Frostfang Rabbit Lvl 5]

It hopped high towards Ebony with its fangs wide open, it was fast but jumping so high gave Ebony lots of time to dodge it. Side stepping and slashing at where he was going to land his fangs, the rabbit bit onto his leaf. While it supposedly had high stats it still weighed the same as a normal rabbit, sending it flying into a tree.

Not letting up, Ebony dashed at full speed aiming a stab through its face, landing on its neck only to draw a little blood. The heavy blade really messed with his aim.

‘Damn stats.’ Ebony complained, with such a heavy weapon striking at his full power and he still couldn’t damage it much.

The rabbit knocked the blade aside and hopped for another bite at Ebony. Repeating the same thing over and over again, It was dumb. Really dumb. Jumping high and aiming for his neck was its only attack, Ebony could draw blood so it was only a matter of time despite its tough body. Ebony tried aiming for its mouth and eyes but it always managed to bite onto his leaf where Ebony had to start swinging and stabbing it against a tree before it let go.

Running away obviously didn’t come to its mind as Ebony hacked at it, using Icebody Enhancement for the 18% increase in strength to force the blade down its throat. 18% of 6 points in Intelligence was only about 1 more stat point but that was still better than nothing.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Frostfang Rabbit Lvl 5]. No experience is gained due to maxed level.’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 7 → 8’

‘Maxed level my ass, seems like staying classless for too long won’t be a plan.’ Ebony thought, taking a break to recover his stamina and eat a little before moving off again. Thankfully his sense of direction wasn’t that bad and with Mental Mapping he knew where he needed to be going.

He didn’t have the ability to make fire and wasn’t about to eat raw rabbit. Carrying it would slow him and might attract other predators so Ebony decided to leave it since he wasn’t starving or anything. He covered it in snow before moving off, not forgetting to get rid of the blood and fat on his blade as best as he could with snow. Fortunately not much got onto him.

Ebony kept going for hours and hours. The forest was silent and didn’t have many creatures moving about.

After another lvl 3 rabbit kill and no skill levels it was about to get dark so Ebony started to look for somewhere safe but everywhere he looked was the same forest. Not about to camp under a tree this time with rabbits ready to kill making their burrows so close to one.

‘Should I just move throughout the night too? Dying in my sleep would be pathetic. But there’s no burning trees to light the way this time and losing my only direction to civilization wouldn't even be funny.’ Ebony contemplated but ultimately decided not to move through the night; it was too easy to get lost and he would rather not risk it.

Not so much a clearing but finding the largest spot without trees or bush, Ebony sat and meditated. He was the type that could stay up a night or two without much issue even before coming here. Unsure if it was due to Deep Persistent Meditation or his Frostblaze physique but he hardly felt sleepy so he planned to train his Ice Mana Manipulation.

It was level 20, only 5 levels away from the cut-off point for class requirements. He also stopped himself from humming which’ll give his position away.

It was so dark he couldn’t see his hand placed in front of himself, a cloudy night indeed. Doing his ice thread thing, 4 at a time was still his limit but he got much better. They could actually be called threads now so he started to weave them to improve his control. Well and also cover the small holes or cuts in his shirt.

Ebony knew that Deep Persistent Meditation messed with his perception of time, even normal Meditation affected it but with the skill it seemed way worse as it hardly felt like minutes passed when daybreak arrived. He did hear disturbing sounds in the middle of the night but nothing that knocked him out of his grinding trance. Gaining a level in Deep Persistent Meditation and 2 in Ice Mana Manipulation.

He was aware of his surroundings though, Deep Persistent Meditation also supposedly increased his perception but it was too small for Ebony to notice any difference at its current level.

Ebony made a full shoulder belt out of ice, feeling somewhat proud of his creation. Since it was made of ice he didn’t really need any knowledge on how to weave as he could just freeze or join the threads together. He had to weave many layers together so it could withstand the weight of the leaf.

It wasn’t perfect but it fit. He mentally facepalmed when he realised it was just a belt and he didn’t make a holder for the leaf. He ended up directly freezing the body of the leaf onto the back of the belt as it was already daybreak. He wanted to get moving quickly and had no time to ‘weave’.

Leafblade and bag on back he started running no longer having to carry the leaf awkwardly due to its size and shape. It felt liberating to move faster than he's ever had with Running and Treading Step increasing his speed. It was slight but Ebony doesn’t sink as much into the snow where his feet lands either, most likely from the increase in level of Treading Step.

It wasn’t long before something jumped out of a bush attacking Ebony, barely able to dodge it he got a cut on his chest.

[Arctic Fox Lvl 4]

A name more familiar to him and it looked just like the one he knew too, it was snowy white like almost everything he’d been seeing since coming here. Swiping its claws at Ebony, it was easy to predict its intentions like with the Frostfang Rabbit but it was pointless as Ebony couldn’t move fast enough. Getting another cut around his shoulders while he rolled out of the way.

Unlike the rabbit, the Arctic Fox charged directly forward instead of jumping and leaving itself wide open. Quickly snapping his leaf out of its frozen lock, Ebony used its large body to cover his vitals as the fox seemed to aim for his chest and neck.

‘Just a bigger snowball.’ Ebony told himself as the fox leaped for his neck with its mouth wide open. Flaring with Icebody Enhancement it met Ebony’s leaf and its head went flying. While it was faster than the rabbit, it was certainly less sturdy. Ebony wondered if that single level difference was that large or if it was a difference between the 2 different animals.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Arctic Fox Lvl 4]. No experience is gained due to maxed level.’

Too bad it was trying to kill Ebony, if not he wouldn’t have to kill it.

‘What a waste of food and experience.’ Ebony was not adverse to killing but he didn’t want to kill if he wasn’t going to eat them. Unless they were trying to eat him instead of course.

The cuts were shallow but his blood still stained his clothes red. Checking his HP to see how much he lost Ebony ended up more surprised by the fact that his MP dropped more than he calculated.

Before getting the Frostblaze physique Ebony could somewhat feel that his mana was regenerating and coming somewhere around his head. When he got the Frostblaze physique he could more accurately feel that every part of his body had mana, though it was still extremely faint and weak.

He was bleeding not just blood but mana as well. Glad to have noticed this early on, Ebony continued running towards his destination. His bleeding quickly stopped as well and after almost an hour it was completely healed without so much as a scab or mark. The only thing remaining was his own dried blood stuck to his skin.

The little bit of blood didn’t seem to attract any monsters as Ebony continued his run, resting before his stamina hit critical levels. Another half a day passed without any more attacks, though he did see Arctic Foxes hunting Frostfang Rabbit and them hunting squirrels he wasn’t on their radar.

‘Get there in a day or two… at Gen’s speed or mine?’ If Gen calculated the distance according to his speed Ebony wouldn’t be getting there in weeks, maybe months. Dismissing the idea as the area he was in was not considered deep in the forest and the monsters’ levels were low it shouldn’t be too far before he reaches.

Another nightfall was coming and Running has already reached lvl 19 gaining 4 full levels while Treading Step gained 2 reaching 23. Even Lesser Stealth gained a level reaching lvl 5. Covering as much distance as he could before it was completely dark again a high pitched scream echoed through the forest.

Ebony found himself running towards it before he knew it. First of all, it sounded human. Secondly, so far the only things that showed up were low level rabbits and foxes which he could somewhat handle. Finally, Ebony couldn’t come up with a reason not to go. If they were Frost Elves, they could lead him to their village. As long as they were friendly to humans of course. Hopefully.

It wasn’t far and Ebony got there in time to see a familiar looking boar preparing to charge at a small figure on the ground. It was getting dark so Ebony assumed it was a child. Sprinting, Ebony grabbed the figure out of the way right before the boar charged right into a thick pine tree, causing it to tremble slightly.

[Hoarfrost Boarlet Lvl 7]

Higher level than the rabbit or fox but even dumber than either of them. When he escaped from it the first time he couldn’t Identify it but Ebony still lost it with considerable ease. The ‘boarlet’ was huge but charging straight was all it seemed to do. It couldn’t change its direction mid charge and with those small beady eyes it had it easily lost him in the dark.

There was really no point trying to kill it, he wasn’t going to eat it and he wouldn’t gain experience anyway. He’ll come back for them soon.

“******* ******* **** ******** ****” The child in his hands was talking pretty fast but it would have been incomprehensible to Ebony even if she talked slowly.

Remembering he was carrying a child he let them down. There was still some light and Ebony could see it was a 12-13ish young girl. Light bluish skin with beautiful features, her ears were indeed pointed, just a little though.

[Frost Elf]

Identifying her, she doesn’t have a level and if what Gen said was to be believed, she was also unawakened.

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” Ebony said with his usual monotonous voice remembering a comedic gold line. He expected this to happen so he wasn’t disappointed he wouldn’t be able to communicate with them. At least she didn’t seem hostile after seeing him so that’s one good sign.

“***** *** ******* ******* *** ******* ****” The young girl was confused but she didn’t stop talking.

“...yeah, I’ve got no clue either but if you’re thanking me, you’re welcomed.” Ebony replied.

She was talking a lot to which Ebony could only try to signal to her that he had no idea what she was saying. Trying his best with hand signals, asking her if she could guide him to her village or settlement. Though it seemed like she was just as lost and it got too dark to move around anyway.

She squatted down against a tree and, not sure if he heard right but she was sobbing softly.

‘Oh man, I’m not good with crying kids.’ Ebony thought as he sat beside her, patting her head.

She eventually stopped crying and fell asleep. Ebony couldn’t sleep and at this point was impressed by himself that he stayed up for so long even after all the running and short fights. It was really uncomfortable with his clothes soaked in sweat and moist from snow that melted against his skin but another night of meditation and manipulation helped pass the night quickly.