Ebony's Fable

Ebony didn’t play around with multicasting and practising this time. He didn’t have the spare mana for it. Battle Song consumes 30 MP/Min and Repulsive Body consumes 100. Even with 100% mana efficiency for both of them it would be 15 and 50 mana per minute.

Mana cost stipulated by skill definition wasn’t absolute, he knew this long ago. He can manually try to be more efficient with it. Using less or even more mana to bring down or up the effects of the skill was also possible and this was not considering Mana Compression.

Skills like Frost Mist Perception Sphere and Battle Song also took into account range. He once casted Battle Song with Scarlet in range and tried to buff her too. It worked and also doubled his mana consumption. The mana consumption numbers given in the skill summary was likely using a gir's range or 5 metres range or so his experiments told him.

Skills like Ice Sword or Layered Ice Carapace were more accurate on mana cost. Using less mana might make a failed, incomplete version or maybe not even being able to cast the spell if you’re emptied out on mana.

For example, his mana regeneration was currently around 47.1 mana per minute. If he were to cast Repulsive Body till his mana pool runs dry he could actually still cast a weaker Repulsive Body as long as Deep Persistent Meditation was still running. The skill wouldn’t have the effect stated by the level of the skill, 37% of intelligence would likely scale down to whatever percentage of mana was used to cast the skill.

It wasn’t ideal though. Not pushing the skill to the limit means that it won’t be pushed to the limit like it should and would not level at an optimal or faster rate.

Ebony only casted Battle Song as he ran towards the hills, he believed in the potential of Battle Song. The thing about sound magic was how low mana cost its skills were. Bringing the range of Battle Song down to cover only himself made the skill cost next to nothing. He observed that his body absorbs the mana that was spent to cast battle songs or perhaps the mana diffused into his body, same thing.

Of course, the skill does next to nothing together with the mana cost at the moment.

This time, not following the same route he took here. Ebony would map out the other areas of Bubble Hill.

He almost fell after he took a few steps, he quickly stopped and regulated his breathing and stabilised his Core Skill.

‘Vibrational Gravity Sense…can normal people even fight properly with this?’ Ebony was hit with a whole lot of information.

The amount of mana he passed by, moving bodies, static bodies. It wasn’t so bad when he walked slowly but it did catch him off guard when he sped up. The Intelligence stat improved his mental processing speed and probably what stopped him from vomiting right now since he invested quite a bit into it by now.

Ebony moved off again, starting slow and speeding up from there. His normal sight and senses together with his new senses was overloading his mind. He was hit with an epiphany when he thought of a mainstream training method. Blindfolding himself with a clean cloth he bought to wipe blood, fat and bone bits from his greatsword.

Calming was not the word Ebony would use to describe the sensation of moving fast with your senses of ‘sight’ pushed down to under 10 metres. Worse was when a single step of his surpasses his range of ‘sight’. Who knew if there was a cliff or wall right beyond where he could sense? This may even be better training for his meditation. The unknown was a fearful thing.

The good thing was the 3 dimensional sight, he could ‘see’ behind and above him as clearly as it was right in front of him. 'Clearly' meant blurry. Vibrational Gravity Sense and Mana Perception levels were not high enough.

Novels, manga and anime truly didn't betray expectations. This training method was perfect for getting used to his new senses. He already gained a level in Vibrational Gravity Sense. Only opening his eyes and bringing the blindfold down to check if he was in the right direction. He was beginning to think the blindfold was redundant.

Ebony was only running normally in the beginning, forcing himself not to use Treading Steps until his mind could sort out the information properly. He slowly increased his speed but it still took him much longer to reach the edge of Bubble Hills from the plains.

Even the ground or earth had pure mana outside of earth mana. That was how Ebony could vaguely feel a little bit through the ground and under him. It was also how his senses could slip through wooden doors and walls just that it was too weak to actually sense through solid objects if they covered his entire range as the gravitational sense would block it.

Moving without his sense of sight was not working so well in the hill range, unlike the plains he just passed. He was previously moving through flat land with nothing blocking him but now a misstep can send him smashing into a tree or hill.

He ditched the blindfolding for now and started to mix and merge his normal senses with his new one at higher speeds.

He stepped on a muddy puddle where a few clawed arms tried to grab him. Ebony already noticed before they reached him and a single step was enough to push himself away. A few mud marmots were attacking him. Ebony closed his eyes, he was going to do this his old fashion way.

‘It's been quite awhile.’

Ebony only picked up the sword because it was a personal hobby and also because he thought it was cool. The monsters that he had seen when he just arrived here were also all huge like the boar and Sen, Ton and the other turtles. He didn’t imagine himself punching and kicking such large monsters into a bloody pulp, it may have been just as cool but he was experienced enough to get annoyed with all the blood on him.

He sensed 4 marmots showing themselves. Ebony was resolved on not using a single Class skill for them with the exception of Treading Step, his shield standing by on the side. He quickly removed his casting glove and kept it within his robes.

Battle Song and Repulsive Body going on strong.

One of the marmots already jumped and clawed at his neck. Ebony cross blocked with his hand and grabbed onto its wrist. Slamming it onto the ground, stabbing his other hand out to where its eyes were. He failed to crush its eye so he dug his fingers in, grabbed and pulled hard. Deaf to its screams.

The other marmots only just reacted to its fellow’s shriek. One of them came for a bite as the other 2 manipulated the mud below Ebony’s feet to sink him in.

Ebony changed his grip on the poor marmot onto the back of its neck and turned to the marmot aiming to bite him. Placing the marmot’s neck in his grip in the attacker’s path. The attacker couldn’t stop itself mid air and neither did it stop its bite in time with its speed. Chomping down hard on its kind.

It quickly let go as Ebony kicked it off into the bushes. The marmot’s were not huge or heavy but they still had a monster’s strength and toughness. Ebony took the chance using his fingers to dig into its freshly opened wound. It didn’t stay still and let Ebony do what he wanted and struggled to bite Ebony despite holes in its neck.

Ebony jammed his free hand right into its throat as hard and far down as he could, keeping its mouth wide open and without strength to bite down. He moved his hand around to find whatever it could grab.

Both marmots manipulating mud stopped what they were doing when Ebony was knee deep in mud. He stood still without struggling against it.

One swiped out its claws at his thigh and the other his chest.

Ebony swung the marmot in his hands, knocking the one aiming at his thighs away. Though only a few metres away. The marmot which had an arm stuffed in its mouth struggled, it bit down with whatever strength it could manifest. Unable to pierce Ebony’s sleeves.

He poised the marmot's belly to the claw going for his chest. It cut deep but the marmot couldn’t even cry out in pain. Only stopping its attempts at chomping Ebony’s arm off.

Ebony gave a knee to the attacking marmot, axe kicked it into the mud before kicking it away all with the same leg.

The belly wound was perfect, once again he dug his fingers and hand into the largest cut. Managing to get a good grip, he pulled his disgusting saliva and gut fluid covered hand out from its mouth to grip into the same wound. Trying to tear it apart proved difficult with his strength, he didn’t have Icebody Enhancement on either.

Even so, it didn’t take long before the notification of a kill, levels and skill levels came up.

Ebony went on to take the other 3 marmots down in a similarly swift and brutal manner, no hesitations or lagging in any of his moves. When it was down to 2 of them he had to switch things up a bit to get them to injure each other so that it was easier to tear them apart.

The marmots were around mid 30s. His notification categorised them as 10 or more levels lower than him which was to say his main class was used as the benchmark. He still gained a few levels for his Sub-Class since it was under level 10 before the fight.

He decided to take the hunt leisurely, only waiting for monsters to attack him. It usually doesn’t take long as long as there are monsters nearby. Ebony left the icky blood and gut on him as it is, even after burying the marmots. It was actually sliding or dripping off him smoothly. Perhaps from Repulsive Body. He didn’t want to eat the marmots, it was a pity but they attacked him. Then again, he was the one who delivered himself here. He was at fault but he didn’t feel guilty.

His stat points were mostly distributed between Wisdom and Intelligence for now. Constitution and Perception were the second choices that he debated on.

Like Battle Song where compressing mana doesn’t bring up its effects, Repulsive Body was the same. Not because the effect doesn’t increase but because he doesn’t have more gravity mana to compress. He could conjure ice mana which was how he compresses his ice spell.

He could likely compress Magnified Gravity Field once his manipulation over it was good enough. He could pull the surrounding gravity mana of the planet to strengthen and compress around a certain area.

Single instrumental bgms or anime osts usually gave him a single stat buff. Strength was the most common, Agility and Endurance came after. In his current repertoire, the best ones he played were fast paced and what he thought to be epic that gave him both Strength and Agility.

The surprising thing was that relaxing meditative music or jazz and classical music could buff Intelligence or Wisdom. Ebony couldn’t tell if there was an increase in maximum mana but even if it was minuscule he was pretty sure his mana regeneration speed did increase. He was getting sensitive to how much mana he regenerates.

Battle Song at level 35 now, gave a buff of 0.35% scaled with Intelligence. A stat buff of under 1 or under half a single stat point does absolutely nothing. He also didn’t have a fortification for it but since it doesn’t require much mana or even effort to cast he could just keep it going.

It made travel and battle less bland too.

‘Compressing mana should work though. The mana is absorbed by the body to buff it isn’t it?’ Ebony reconsidered the possibility of increasing its effect with Mana Compression. There was a bardic amplifier class, no way such a weak buff was all he could come up with.

Compressing mana to vibrate may or may not affect the sound produced but if it was going to buff the body or mind compressed mana should still equally strengthen his magic. Logically anyway.

He needed to read up more on sound magic and gravity magic. His current spells for them were likely flawed here and there since he made them up himself. Either by imagination or from stories he read.

There were actually a few goats around. They had levels but didn’t attack him on sight so he left them alone.

Ebony was now in unfamiliar parts of the hill. He jogged around at lower speeds.

He came across a level 63 Cysaru after a few random minor monster attacks in a few hours which may be lucky or unlucky.

Luckily it was probably still very young and hence, its low level. Unlucky because fighting it without his Class skills may very well be impossible. He was mostly fighting supportively the previous time he took it on with Rowent and the others.

The beast was too fast and strong for him, he wasn’t too stubborn and Icebody Enhancement came on. His skin and muscle took a translucent glint of blue, turning into ice. His Constitution increased by over a hundred while Strength and Endurance increased over 90 stat points.

A few steps took him right beside the scythed reaper, Ebony kicked out with explosive strength. The loud blow didn’t even cause the Cysaru to stumble.

It slightly turned and cut down with its sharp pointy arms. Ebony shifted his upper body to the side to dodge it by the skin of his teeth. It was a reflexive movement and he was as calm as ever.

He punched, poked, strangled, locked, kicked, swept and thrust whenever and wherever was suitable. Dancing with death, with the reaper. Any strike could cut through him regardless of the more than double Constitution. His robes may protect him but he doubted it can stop a good stab from the Cysaru. Even fully infused with 5000 mana in it, he never tested it before though.

He only used his shields when he knew he couldn't dodge or avoid a blow in time. Ebony didn’t dare put his arms inside the Cysaru’s throat either. It had jaws large enough to swallow his whole arm. They were in a stalemate where neither was harming each other.

His blows without a greatsword wasn’t doing much but slowly got the Cysaru more agitated. Ebony started imbuing ice mana into his hands and legs. He didn’t have much mana with him running both Repulsive Body and Icebody Enhancement but he just lowered the output to Repulsive Body when needed.

Every strike and blow drove ice mana into the Cysaru’s body. Ebony observed that the sword was a better method of driving ice mana into his enemy’s body. Some of the ice mana from kicking and punching stuck onto its skin instead of getting deep into its body. Normal Cysarus had skin instead of scales like Obsius.

‘Hmm why didn’t I think of that?’ Ebony remembered some story about increasing the weight of the opponent with every blow or something. He also started the microvibration of the mana in his strikes.

He didn’t know where to start but the point was to increase the effect of gravity on the opponent where he hits. Ebony tried manipulating gravity mana in all sorts of ways.

Right now he wanted to see Scarlet’s mask and observe it again. He wanted to make gravity do the opposite of what the mask does. All his current attempts were not that different from what Magnified Gravity Field does and increase the pull of gravity over the whole area instead of a certain part.

Ebony concentrated his attacks on the Cysaru’s neck and arms where the ‘handle’ or non-bladed part was.

In time, these parts were covered in ice. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands of blows landed on them by now. The fight went on for literal hours. The Cysaru kept getting slower and stiffer, its breath getting misty over time.

A good hard kick broke its arm off where he focused his ice mana into. The Cysaru not even noticing any pain since it was completely numbed out long ago. The same happened to its other arm after a couple more kicks. It was lying on the ground gasping and shivering for a while now.

Its neck was a lot thicker than its arms so it took some effort, a final axe kick separated the Cysaru’s head from its body.

It was more than 10 levels higher than him and his Sub-Class gained a full 8 levels for it despite the little it did, perhaps the level difference being much larger.

‘I should’ve done this from the start. Less blood and grime.’ Ebony felt a little dejected for not dealing with the previous monsters this cleaner way. It would’ve been more efficient against the weaker monster than tearing their bodies apart too.

Ebony kept the 2 scythe arms in his bag and got to processing the Cysaru but the flesh was ruined or unprocessable in its frozen state. It was too big to keep in his bag whole and sadly, removing the ice mana in it wouldn’t completely thaw the thing properly. At least the scythe was intact since he didn’t touch it much other than the scrawny ‘handle’ part.

His 3D Mental Map was expanding well.

Night was approaching after a small hunt or 2.

Ebony quickly skedaddled and changed directions when he saw one of the hills collapse or cave in. He unknowingly got to one of the more dangerous areas.

Ebony watched from afar, it was a battle.

Ebony spent about a month and a half in Arcta, including the 5 or so days he wandered around the underground frostflame territory and finding his way to Arcta. Travelling to Plainston in a week, fighting rhoats for 3 days, concentrating on magic for a week, another 3 days in Teld City, two more weeks of magic.

Ebony had been on Elcra for over 2 months, almost 3 months now. 77 or 78 days to be exact. When he arrived it was the beginning of Summer over here.

Midsummer was when the moonlight was the brightest and whitest. Now it was slowly darkening and had a tinge of orange in it. It’ll be autumn in a month or so, but the moonlight was still pretty bright and his Perception improved a lot from the time he was a normal human.

He couldn’t Identify the monsters from so far but he could see it was another Cysaru fighting something humanoid over 3 metres tall and wide. Ebony assumed it was a mud golem, its body consisted of uneven pieces of mud like a large rock and stuck together. Its limbs were like thick clubs as well.

The Cysaru was much more impressive than the one he fought earlier on. It might be the distance and the lack of light but it was a whole lot faster and the wind pressure from its attacks were more apparent.

Ebony heard of mud golems around Bubble hills; it should be over level 130 all the way to 200. Cysarus on the other hand doesn't seem to pass 100. From the looks of things though, it was owning the golem.

The golem used mud magic differently from the marmots. It was more direct and smashed around with hardened mud, using mud to slow the Cysaru down when it stabbed its scythe into the golem. It didn’t slow the Cysaru down. Its limbs were sliced out repeatedly but the golem reattached it like nothing happened over and over again.

The golem didn’t have a head, just a bulky torso with bulky limbs. The Cysaru deftly hopped to the side from an incoming punch before slicing the entire arm off again. The golem seemed to proactively soften the parts that were going to be attacked or cut off.

Its other scythe flew towards the thickest part of the golem’s torso but didn’t manage to cut through.

It was stuck. The golem took the chance, more mud from the torso moving to hold the Cysaru in place as it hammered at the Cysaru with its club-like arms. A mistake. It hammered the Cysaru out from its own hold, the Cysaru didn’t retreat and continued slicing and dicing.

The mud golem’s reattachment of limbs got slower and the amount of mud mass on it reduced over time. There was a limit to its regeneration, likely mana.

The Cysaru was victorious.

The mud golem had a darker shade of brown coloured orb in its torso. Its core. It was cut in half and the Cysaru gobbled both halfs up.

Ebony’s senses picked up all the mana above him violently shifted aside with his new magical senses. He quickly leaped and rolled aside.

The ground shook hard. Ebony’s shields quickly flew closer to his body, he turned and looked but only saw a thick log covering his sight and smashing towards him.

He instinctively brought both shields together as he tried to push himself back with a Treading Step. He didn’t leap off in time as a brutal impact landed on his 2 fully powered shields. The impact went straight to his mind as he couldn’t hold it in place.

The shields were pushed back violently smashing into Ebony who turned to let his left side take the blow. He already had Icebody Enhancement gushing forth, compressed to its limit of around 30% by now. Nonetheless, his left arm and legs numbed out from impact as his breath threatened to leave his lungs.

30% of his maximum compressibility and not compressing the spell by 30%. That was Ebony's current limit where he could instantly compress the mana without thought or conscious compressing.

Ebony was still knocked off his feet and sent tumbling into the distance. The outer Layered Ice Carapace had deep cracks in it and the second one wasn’t spared from damage either.

His Vibrational Gravity Sense already noted the attacker to be a golem similarly sized to the one the Cysaru was fighting.

He flipped himself back onto his feet and ran to the side at maximum speed, the pain in his legs was completely ignored. Repulsive Body simmered down a lot as he needed the mana.

The golem was already on to him as it jumped for another hulk smash like its first sneak attack on Ebony.

The golem was extremely slow for its level but it was by no means slow to Ebony.

Fortunately, it couldn’t adjust its landing in mid-air and Ebony saw it coming so he managed to avoid the ground shaking and fatal blow. Ebony looked back to Identify it.

[Mud Golem Lvl ???]

Identify at level 12 lets him identify people or monsters 60 levels higher than his class level. He could only Identify up to level 110 so it was no surprise he couldn’t get its level.

The golem was faster than Ebony but a lot less agile. It still caught up to Ebony who shut Icebody Enhancement off which took 20% of his Agility away.

He couldn’t take hits from it and neither could he dodge the lumbering giant for long. He couldn’t outrun it either.

Ebony feared death but he was not one bit anxious, he was calmer than ever instead. Maybe he wasn’t truly as calm as he thought, he was getting excited.