Ebony's Fable

Ebony was only able to survive early in the battle, due to his, possibly over 2500 Intelligence powered Layered Ice Carapace. He was not sure how 100% Mana Resilience worked even if it doesn’t just multiply like that it was still over a thousand Intelligence. It was much stronger now that his stats increased.

Scarlet however, didn’t have any defensive skills or spells as far as he was aware. It may be because he never managed to make her use it but he doubted it. Scarlet’s fighting style is on the extremely aggressive end of the spectrum.

Any attacks that she couldn’t counter she would evade with ease. The lumbering giant probably got played around without landing a single hit which Scarlet wouldn’t survive if it did. Though she was agile and had skilful evasive measures she probably didn’t need it with her pure speed being more than enough.

5 levels in his Class gave him 50 stat points. 30 levels in his Sub-Class gave him 150 stat points. The 4 from Profession was automatically added to Wisdom.

Strength: 30

Vitality: 30

Constitution: 100

Endurance: 50

Agility: 70

Intelligence: 161

Wisdom: 301

Perception: 60

20 in Constitution, 10 in Agility, 60 in Intelligence, 100 in Wisdom and 10 in Perception. His stats steadily skewed towards the magical side but he didn’t want to let his physical side fall behind too much.

Strength and Endurance was buffed by enhancement magic and thereby Intelligence so Ebony hasn’t seen the need for these stats for now. He didn’t even need an Endurance buff to sustain himself.

He wanted some more Vitality, especially after the grievous injuries he sustained. Regeneration through mana was not complete. Ebony just couldn’t bring himself to add the stat for now, stat points don’t come by easily after all.

Constitution was still his favourite stat. More so than Wisdom if it didn’t give him more mana and mana regeneration. He just felt like his physical body was getting more perfect with every stat added into Constitution. It lets him withstand Icebody Enhancement even as it gets stronger as well.

Agility was the way to go but it was sadly debuffed by Icebody Enhancement.

Intelligence was the stat for intellects like himself.

Wisdom was for a dumb fool like himself, he needed as much as he could get to prevent his death.

Perception was the alarm for danger, his thick skull may need more of it.

Ebony’s Layered Ice Carapace should be freaking indestructible by anyone his level or higher now. Even melting it should take some time. Naive.

His mana regeneration hitting around 74.2 a minute, roughly 1.24 mana per second.

He took the remaining shield in his room together with a newly formed one to compare. Scarlet helped him prove the new one was much stronger. The mana used was him of a higher Intelligence stat. The old one melted a little but the difference was too staggering to matter.

Ebony could tell Scarlet was so exhausted her movements and judgements were off base. He stopped and told her to go back and rest. She only glared at Ebony before nodding and walking off. Ebony followed her, walking side by side. He was not fully rested and healed either.

Both of them noticed many things about each other’s fighting style and pattern but never told each other anything.

They improved and refined what they needed to by themselves. Ebony thought it would have been rude to someone of her ability. As did Scarlet.

Ebony was going towards the cafeteria in the inn but Scarlet pulled on the collar of his robe and said, “I’ll cook. Wait.”

“...I’m very hungry.” Ebony added, his body needed the energy and nutrients to recover. Scarlet was already going towards the kitchen in the back without acknowledging his words. No one stopped Scarlet as if she was an employee.

Ebony was actually very happy, her food and the food the inn offered were on a whole nother scale. Actually, the cooks in the inn have been improving a lot since the first time he ate here. He suspected the cooks were learning from Scarlet either by watching her or being tutored by her. He doubted she would personally teach them though.

Scarlet evidently heard what Ebony said when he saw the serving size almost tripled, and the amount she usually gave him was already huge. It was a very fulfilling and nutritious meal.

Ebony still ate alone in his room, never having eaten with Scarlet or saw her face. He was curious but that was all.

The next day was the huge gathering event at the Quest Hall and duelling grounds both having expanded many times over.

Ebony continued his practice and experimentation. Undisturbed.

After he didn't feel as bloated from dinner, he slept for longer than usual. Waking up fully energised and stretching a little, he was probably just a day away before complete recovery.

His Blue was not fully filled but he transferred 5000 to his robe to fully charge again. They were white marks of scratches on the front and side where he got pummelled but they were not too obvious. He didn’t dare to compress the mana in the robe or even attempt to do so for now. Roya did say it depended on his mana and he shouldn’t put the materials under too much stress.

He stood outside his room and waited for Scarlet, planning to go with her since they were supposedly in the same party.

His senses and perception good enough to tell that she hasn’t left her room. It was a little creepy honestly, being able to sense a person’s ‘presence’ so clearly. It wasn’t his Vibration Gravity Sense since he couldn’t perceive through walls.

Ebony didn’t wait long before she walked out. They nodded to each other without a word and left.

The city was bustling, even more so today near the Quest Hall. The government personnel handled them pretty well, leading those who were here for partying up to the duelling grounds. Their operations continued as per normal.

Ebony Identified quite a few earth and stone mages, likely those that stayed after the wall building. The government or nobles probably didn’t have enough of such mages. The mages probably took the quest of wall building as a nice paying side job that trains their skills as well and then just staying in Plainston. Waiting for the dungeon.

The quality of equipment was slightly higher than before. The lower levels Ebony was seeing was at least 70, many 80s and a few low 90s.

Plainston’s original freelancers were either forced to find work at other towns temporarily or those slightly better off managed to make a foothold and complete some leftover jobs.

Ebony heard there were quite a number of reported deaths recently. Younger freelancers that tried to power level, mostly. They likely wanted to join in on the opportunity.

People were openly avoiding Scarlet and him.

Once again Ebony’s heightened sense hearing whispers loud and soft like;

“Hey, that’s a meditator, keep your distance!”

“Freaking ell! Is that a Xeng?! For real? I’ve never seen one man. That body of hers though…”

“Woah! SHH! Are you crazy!?”

“Oh ell. We won’t get in trouble being caught beside him will we?”

“They really do wear full face masks. Creepy shit, how does she breathe through that mask?”

He found out the weird looks he was getting was due to being a meditative class. He just didn’t know why people didn’t even dare associate with him or a meditator/meditative classes.

He didn’t bring up the topic to Scarlet since the way she was treated seemed worse. She was treated like some kind of legendary creature that they didn’t want to poke around.

Well, neither of them even gave these people a glance.

The new duelling cum training grounds were truly expansive. There was a clear separation between multiple fields.

It was quite a wonder that they managed to make a place like this with just magic.

There were lines of people queuing up getting their numbers of which spot to go to which would be where the party would meet up and introduce each other. And fight. Naturally.

Ebony and Scarlet were set to go to one of the corner ‘rooms’ of the second field from the right. Each field was basically what he saw the first time he came before it expanded. Now having 5 fields instead of 1.

The personal training rooms were actual rooms with earthen walls so that people can’t see each other and there were different sizes and quality ones available for rent. These rooms were deeper underground, below the duelling grounds.

Someone was already there when they got there.

A [Stone Mage Lvl 85]. Scrawny, a full head shorter than Ebony. Short light greyish hair. Wearing what was likely a black magician’s robe, those that cover the whole body with a hoodie.

Carrying a staff that wasn’t wooden or twisted, one made of rock or stone. There was a shard about the same size as Rowent’s staff but also stone grey in colour instead of red. It wasn’t orb shaped like Rowent’s though.

Ebony guessed it was a Stone Mana Ore or something similar, with crafted effects to strengthen the type of magic they use.

For non-conjurors that don't have the type of mana naturally in different environments, they needed a source of the mana so it was not rare for any mage to carry around their elemental type mana ore just in case.

Only the currency was made into standardised shapes fit into the myriad bracelets. It wasn’t like the ores come in the same size or shapes naturally.

The stone mage looked like the shy kid type. Childish facial features and a little fidgety with nervousness. He looked at them before looking back on the ground and back to them again.

“Er. erhm. I.I mm” the boy bit his tongue.

“Let’s wait for the others before we introduce each other.” Ebony didn’t want to repeat himself. They might as well wait for 2 more to arrive. They didn’t need to wait long before someone else made their way towards them. Rather, the new guy landed with force, shaking the ground..

“Yo yo yo! You’re in the presence of the great Hector! Wait, I'm not the last one here? Damn, dramatic lateness failed.” The man landed by punching a small crater into the ground. He stood and spread his arms open as if expecting applause. His claims of being great wasn’t too far off as his class surprised the 3 of them. Only the stone mage reacted visibly though.

[Quadra Elemental Mage Lvl 72]

‘Woah, 4 elements? How many of them are fortified? There was no official recorded limit for how many fortifications there can be for a Class unlike Sub-Class.’ Ebony thought. He guessed 5 was the limit for the first Classing though. The amount naturally rose as they underwent evolutions.

His reaction was more in tune with Scarlet’s. Itching to spar and see what the man calling himself Hector can do. It was already rare to see a normal mage much less one that could use 4 elements. It was the most impressive sounding class Ebony had Identified.

Hector had bright hot pink slightly messy hair, a colour Ebony hasn’t seen on anyone’s head. He was similar to Chris in a way that had a charismatic feeling. He was at least half a head taller than Ebony and a little bulkier too.

Ebony had to admit the man was much more handsome than anyone he had seen though. The elves were more beautiful than handsome, including the males.

Hector was garbed in a white long sleeved shirt with brown trousers or pants and leather boots. Decked in scale armour, a type of scale that Ebony doesn’t recognise. Each scale was dark blue in colour and quite small in size, there were numerous scales that fit seamlessly over his body without discomfort or restriction in movement.

The armour set didn’t have any shoulder pads but he had vambraces on both arms along with a pair of gauntlets. They looked really sleek and his entire set of armour was made of the same type of scales. That was his upper body armour and he had greaves and upper leg pieces of scale armour as well. A helmet hung on his side, hooked onto a latch around his hip perhaps.

It was not armour that Ebony expected a mage to wear.

Hector wasn’t simple. That was Ebony’s first impression especially when he got close enough within his senses.

The armour was heavy shit, much heavier than his robes. That was to be expected but the thing was it didn’t have anything like Scarlet’s longswords or mask to make it lighter. The man was walking around as if he wasn’t wearing armour when it probably weighed over a hundred kilograms.

He was not just any mage.

Scarlet on the other hand was not surprised about the armour. Her Appraisal results gave her [Quadra Elemental Enhancement Mage Lvl 72] and [Martial Artist Lvl 71]. As for what kind of martial artist, she’ll find out when they start fighting. She was looking at the stone mage more, she couldn’t appraise his Sub-Class. It was not blank, it only showed ???. An item, perhaps.

As Scarlet and Ebony were inspecting the other 2, they were being inspected by them too. The fidgety boy never looked at them for long before looking away somewhere.

Ebony was pleasantly surprised the 2 of them were partied with such high level members. Well, the Quest Hall obviously knew the party was going to be dungeoning and not many as low level as them applied.

The Quest Hall probably also took into account their expected progress or potential before partying them up.

“Hey! We don’t really have to wait for the last guy, let's just start checking what we are capable of. The introductions can be done when the last one arrives. Little guy, you can pick someone you want to have a go at first!” Hector suggested and offered the stone mage a choice.

They agreed that the 1 on 1 can begin first without the last person. The stone mage picked Ebony, while Hector gave him a thumbs up. Ebony was honestly more interested in fighting the quadra elemental mage, the man seemed like the rowdy or hyperactive type which he didn’t really prefer over the quiet and shy type though.

They didn’t bother getting the barriers up, the 4 of them roughly took half of the area each.

Ebony faced the boy, he was no longer looking away. They were 10 girs or 50 metres away from each other. Somewhat a handicap for mages. It was a pathetically short distance to anyone with a decent movement skill or Agility.

The boy raised and pointed his staff at Ebony, a sharp rock like his former Ice Shard formed in a split second. The boy quickly slammed the butt of his staff on the ground without firing the rock as Ebony was no longer standing there.

The stone mage slid to the left without taking a single step, dodging a turning kick to his head. Getting this close, Ebony realised that the mage was covered in something heavy under the robe. A suit made of stone he guessed. Pretty smart way to utilise magic to move himself.

Just as Ebony thought, the boy had stone cover his entire head leaving eye and nose holes. He didn’t make it very thick though.

Ebony shifted his upper body slightly, letting the stone projectile pass him. Stone mass was coming out from under the large wavy sleeves forming a large spiked mace from one hand and a tower shield from the other. The scrawny boy who was beefed up with stone didn’t carry it. Manipulating it like Ebony instead.

The shield was kept close to himself while his mace lashed out at Ebony. His range of control was wider than Ebony too but it didn’t seem it was by much more, 12-13 metres or so Ebony estimated. The boy also had to let his tower shield down before he could cast a projectile or trap. Double casting.

Ebony tested the opponent’s shield with his own Ice Sword, his spell almost completely shattering itself on impact.

The mace was not even controlled well enough to be considered a nuisance. Ebony got Icebody Enhancement running as he decided it was enough. He took a single step to cross the short distance again and got beside the boy, surprising him.

The boy tried to manipulate the stone suit on his body to move away but he wasn’t quick enough. He stopped shooting projectiles which had been missing and got the tower shield or stone wall to cover himself.

Ebony gave a normal turning kick with all his force and bodyweight, producing a loud snapping sound. The stone mage was at least good and fast enough with his defence to move around Ebony’s agile kicks that kept coming from different directions.

Enhanced, Ebony had as much as if not more Strength than any warrior or martial artist his level. 173 Strength was not nearly enough to break a skill level and Intelligence stat enhanced stone shield. Ebony started compressing his Icebody Enhancement but he knew it wouldn’t be enough so he imbued ice mana into his kicks as well.

Ice mana couldn’t dig deep inside stone that well and Ebony wasn’t using his sword to inject it more efficiently either but it didn’t matter. Ebony continuously hammered kicks into the boy’s stone defence as the layer of ice on it got thicker and thicker before the whole front was covered in ice.

With Ebony's speed, hundreds of kicks rained down on the stone shield before breaking and crumbling. The boy tried his best to manipulate his mace to get Ebony off him but he was not too fluent with it. Ebony being so close to him made him fear hitting himself and it wasn’t like Ebony was going to let a clumsy controlled mace hit him.

The stone mage admitted his loss but they both knew neither was doing their absolute best. The mage likely didn’t even have more than 10 or 20 stat points put into any of his physical stat except maybe Vitality and Constitution.

His offensive, defensive and even evasive measures were all magical. He was probably saving mana to spar and duel with the others. Ebony also didn’t see him use any other type of skills or magic. He doubted the boy didn’t have a Sub-Class but taking his stat distribution into account it was on the magical side of things.

They looked towards Hector’s and Scarlet’s duel.

‘Did he just punch Scarlet’s sword aside.’ Ebony thought as he saw Hector punching the flat edge of Scarlet’s sword mid swing.

Ebony had long noticed the peculiarity of Scarlet’s swordsmanship. Her attacks get faster and stronger as she attacks. It was to the point that Ebony wondered if there was a limit to how much faster or stronger they can get.

Seeing her attacks he can tell it was her at her slowest. Hector was disrupting her flow, each deflection broke her combo and she had to restart her strikes.

Scarlet’s swords sparked with electricity. Hector ye-ouched and pulled back his fist, slamming them into each other before smiling and continuing his skillful defection. The lightning magic or electricity seemingly not affecting him anymore. This time his movements looked stiffer than before and he failed to deflect a few strikes which he didn’t manage to fully dodge.

Hector’s scale armour screeched when he got numerous slashes on him. He had over 10 levels over Scarlet but was still not nearly as fast as her despite his skill. Scarlet had turned the electricity down when she saw it didn’t have an effect.

Hector slammed his fist into each other again and his movements seemed a whole lot more fluid again. Inwardly, Hector was getting a bad feeling as the woman he was duelling started getting faster and stronger again. Not just by a little. He was hearing a certain sound in the air as the atmosphere seemed to thicken.

He smiled and knocked his knuckles and fist together again. Ebony could feel the wind together with mana blowing against him. Moving away from Hector. Ebony hasn’t seen the quadra elemental mage use a single spell but like Scarlet, Hector got a whole lot faster and their exchange of blows were giving off louder sounds and stronger wind pressure.

Hector’s scale armour was getting a lot of scratches as Scarlet’s swings got too fast for his punches to catch up. He kept his arms close whenever possible to block his armpits which weren’t covered by armour. Scarlet had been aiming stabs and thrust at this weak point of his. Sadistic.

“I give up! I give up! Enough enough! my poor armour can’t take it anymore.” Hector called out but laughed it off at the end, patting himself down to dust off the shavings of his scale armour.

“Oh hey you guys are done too? Who won? Let me guess, the swordsman over there. Mr stone mage will need to save mana for 3 more fights after all.” Hector, who looked over to see them watching, asked.

“Ye..yes.” The stone mage replied softly.

“...” Ebony stayed silent, not sure what to reply.

Hector chose to duel with Ebony next which no one had an issue with.

Ebony immediately got compressed Icebody Enhancement on. He wouldn’t be able to keep up otherwise. Ebony would be slower than Hector a whole lot but it shouldn’t change the situation much. He was much slower than Scarlet but can still keep her attacks off him after all.

Besides, fighting a martial artist? It was his specialty. He even got the chance to see the quadra elemental mage’s fighting style. It was like boxing but also a mix with karate. 100% punching with a damn decent footwork.

“Holy… chill man how much mana are you pumping into that enhancement spell?” Hector said when he saw Ebony turn translucent light blue. As an elemental enhancement mage himself he knew that it would take a lot of mana before physical changes of the element will show.

They stood a lot closer as if they both knew it was going to be close combat. Ebony felt it this time. One of the blue mana he tried to manipulate was in Hector’s body. Rather than circulating it was more like lubricating and flowing over his muscles and tendons. It was just a foggy sense of it since it was already hard enough to perceive with his current level of Mana Perception.

Ebony was still unaware that Mana Perception doesn't help increase his ability to sense other elemental mana.

Both pushed forward to meet each other. Hector gave a simple and straight forwards punch meeting Ebony’s simple turning kick. For some reasons Ebony himself was unaware, he felt like facing Hector in a more straightforward exchange rather than taking him down as fast as possible.

Fist met feet.

Hector called out in pain, pulling back his fist and laughing. He slammed his fists together again, a habit maybe? This time Ebony felt the brown mana he was familiar with creeping up from within him. It covered his skin and bones, nothing physically showed up on his body but it was clearly enhancement magic. He was running 2 types of enhancement magic at the same time.

Hector shook his hand off from punching himself before punching out at Ebony again, this time his fist was much tougher. The power behind his punch increased. Ebony was pushed back. Ebony didn’t just let that continue. The two of them were in a brawl of kicks meeting punches, Ebony kept trying to circulate more compressed ice mana but his power and more obviously speed was lacking.

Ebony took the body blows without so much as a flinch as Hector did the same with his kicks that landed. Technique and prediction brought him far to ignore the large gap in stats. Of course, Ebony wasn’t the only one who had trained almost all their life. Ebony could tell that Hector had plenty of experience fighting. He didn’t want to drag this out so he used the same tactic he had been using. Ice Injection.

Hector obviously noticed the chill and foreign mana in his body with every blow. He took measures and slammed his fist together yet again. A wave of warmth blew out from Hector. Ebony felt his ice mana melt in Hector’s body. Ebony guessed it was water magic, earth magic and now fire magic.

Ebony had no way of confirming without being able to perceive it but Hector had fire mana pumping from his heart. His blood was literally pumping fire mana through his body. Steam rising from his body from the melting ice.

He shut it off when all the ice melted but Ebony had more than enough mana to spare to keep knocking ice mana into his body. He hasn’t even eaten into his mana pool.

Hector switched to fire and earth enhancement, he got slower and less agile but stronger. It countered Ebony’s ice mana but Ebony’s counter was to pump even more ice mana in as if scoffing at his attempts.

Sizzling can be heard every time Ebony’s legs landed on Hector’s body.

“Stop stop stop! Chill man, you still have 2 more fights to go. You bully. Mana bully.” Hector stopped in almost the same way as before. He was kinda comical actually.

This was merely a practice, a chance for each member to roughly gauge each other’s strength. No one fought like they were trying to kill each other.

If there was a large gap in strength they would likely opt out of the party. No one wanted to be held back by weaker party members. Splitting experience in 5 though not equally was bad enough. Who wanted to fight monsters lower level than themselves because their party didn’t want to?

Scarlet and the stone mage were actually watching them fight. They either finished or wanted to watch first.

“Done? Let’s do a final swa…” Hector said before the 4 of them jumped back. Well, the stone mage looked like he flew back, his feet off the ground for a second.

Bang!

A loud impact sounded from the area where they stood. A stick was sticking out of the small crater on the ground.

“...what are those people thinking? How can they put 2 level 50s, a low 70 and mid 80 with me?” The person didn’t speak loud but all of them could hear him clearly.

He was standing on the edge of the seating above, they were at the corner of the duelling grounds and the barriers weren’t up. Holding a large bow, he was likely the one who shot the stick on the ground.

[Archer Lvl 94]

“This must be a mistake. There’s no way they’ll put together a party with such a large level gap. I’m gonna withdraw.” The archer turned to walk off after putting his bow away.

The stone mage swiped his staff which was pointing downwards up, towards the archer. A large stone spear like that of a mounted ballista bolt formed in less than a second and was released with enough force that it kicked up dust from the ground and made Ebony’s duffle robe ripple.

The speed of formation of the large spear surprised Ebony. It was almost enough such that the mage wouldn’t be at a disadvantage against a physically inclined warrior. Needless to say, only if he could keep the spell casting and control up for the duration of a battle.

The massive thing penetrated the wall right behind the archer right in front of his nose. The wall behind was also the second floor of seats, it crumbled down to the archer's feet. It blocked the archer’s path, his expression darkened. He frowned and looked back over as he dusted himself off from the debris.

“Why don’t you have a go at us before you decide who’s the one making a mistake?” The previously nervous and shy stone mage was no longer present. He was now confident and defiant for reasons unknown.

“The heck? That was hella cool! I gotta take down that line.” Hector actually took out a book and was penning it down.