Ebony's Fable

“I only met her a few weeks ago, here in Plainston.”

“Nah wayyy. That kent beh all. She ain’t ass cold ta ya as ta uss.”

“Ye. yes. You protected. he.her from the metal fragments and. And she didn’t... didn’t look annoyed.”

“Really? The Xengs are all proud. Very proud. I heard getting protected by someone not part of their family, relatives or close friends irritates and displeases them greatly. They think they are being looked down on for needing you to protect them against something they are more than capable of defending themselves from.”

‘...really? She didn’t seem angry though.’ Ebony tried to recall but then all he remembered was her mask in the way.

“We fought. She’s a good training partner. Partied together for a strong party.”

“Ya can beat herr?” Hector was probably one of those that’s not so good at holding their liquor. He was thinking that his earlier guess that the Xengs taught Ebony how to fight, was wrong since a few weeks wasn’t enough to train him to this level of skill.

Since he was saved before he classed it should have been long even if he was lying about knowing her for a few weeks or lying about his age of 16.

“No.” Not even close was what Ebony wanted to reply. Her fire magic could counter him almost perfectly if he depended on ice magic. Enhancement actually makes him even weaker to fire than he already was.

She could easily melt his ice shield with a little effort and Ebony wasn’t sure frost flames would make a difference. Her blades enhanced with fire magic were insanely hot, much hotter than Rowent’s fire spear.

Even his strongest Layered Ice Carapace melts halfway through with a single slash. That was before he levelled and strengthened them even further with higher Intelligence but still scary hot.

The only way he could imagine ‘beating’ her would be to outlast and tire her out. That would be easier but only if she doesn’t use her speed to take him down from the start.

Ebony was confident in his defensive and evasion abilities so he could probably outlast her if she couldn’t use the heart thumping buff at full power and take him out with a surprise attack. The other problem will likely be her getting stronger as time passes but it comes at high stamina costs.

“Whathe bout me? Do you think you can beat me at full power? I can only run all 4 elemental enhancements for less than 3 seconds before my body can’t take it. My super panch was at… 70% power? And I have stronger punches.”

“I would win.”

‘Hands down.’ he mentally added.

Hector stopped drinking and didn’t look as drunk anymore.

“Oh wanna try and find out?”

“There’s nothing to find out. I would beat you with absolute ease. You don’t even have much mana left now do you?”

“Tomorrow, when you guys meet for the mana density training.”

“Sure.”

❅❅❅

“Ell! This is not fair, let’s go again.”

“You said that a few times now.”

“...How did you lock my arms around my head with your legs?”

“You saw how.”

“You spar with Scarlet in the public square don’t you? I will be there tonight as well. Rematch.”

“Sure, I haven’t practised locks with my arms in a while.”

“ARRHHH!”

…

Hector screamed but didn’t sound too disheartened to Ebony.

He had another punching skill that was just punching a whole lot leaving afterimages to try making Ebony misjudge where his fist was so that Ebony couldn’t counter.

It was all too easy to predict but the speed did make it hard for his Vibrational Gravity sense to follow. Ebony almost got dizzy if he didn’t sieve out the mental information he received.

Like Hector said he couldn’t run all elemental enhancements at the same time. It takes a huge toll on both his body and mind. The mana consumption of running 4 enhancements was pretty damn high too.

He ran out of mana a while after attempting a good full power blow which Ebony blocked with his now full powered shield he brought in advance to test if Hector’s super panch could break it.

Ebony was impressed that he actually made a deep spider web like crack where his fist landed. This was his strongest shield he could prepare now. It was multiple times stronger than the one Ryley shot at.

“Oh not bad. I actually needed to use a whopping 300 mana to repair that.”

Ebony kinda liked fooling around with Hector. He actually needed way more mana than that if he were to fully repair it with compressed ice mana.

“Grrh gahh!” His screams and complaints echoed through the duelling grounds. Ebony's monotonous tone served to piss him off further, even though Ebony actually meant it as a compliment.

Hector was crazy pushy about his shield being a cheat, Ebony didn’t hide that he didn’t have enough mana to fully compress the shield he haphazardly conjured for the arrow.

Hector, who figured mana compression to be one of Ebony’s specialties, wasn't too surprised that with preparation, Ebony’s spells and magic would be much stronger. It was the same for any mage.

With a bit of calculation, the numbers were a little crazy but Ebony’s strong shield came at the price of insane mana cost. A cost that Ebony could pay. Hector was aware that those artillery mages in the army could charge a spell for literal days for freakishly impressive power.

But it was not possible to regenerate mana as they casted so not all types of mages can charge a spell like that if their mana pool didn’t allow it. That or it was a combined spell of multiple mages. Fire magic for example will just disperse over time too quickly compared to earth, stone, ice or other solid elements.

Other than beating up Hector without really beating him up, Ebony filled a private training room with his compressed mana for Ryley and Tuffock. He didn’t think Scarlet needed it so he did not invite her.

Hector was surprisingly very well learned, perhaps that’s how he was a mage controlling 4 elements.

Ebony got a lot to experiment with and he got a few ideas that might work.

Firstly, sound magic. His original idea of making a vibro blade or something similar should be workable.

Ebony continued trying to make a core mana vibrate and letting the mana over his blade vibrate. Increasing the frequency as much as possible.

Next, gravity magic.

Ebony shared a problem he had that was the limited amount of gravity mana there was that he could control in every object.

According to the unexpectedly knowledgeable quadra elemental mage, it was a problem discussed by many gravity mages.

There were some books written about it in the mage tower of the mage association. Were such books really open for the public? Ebony didn’t bother asking.

Hector said that most gravity mages like Ebony had it for their Sub-Class, no surprise there with the mana requirements. But there are Elves and Dwarves who Classed as gravity mages.

Rare or higher elements like gravity are apparently extremely hard even for Elves to copy their properties with pure mana to conjure it.

The standard manipulation practice for it was basically speeding up and slowing down gravity mana that draws towards the ground. Basically Magnified Gravity Field.

Another was to reduce the effects of gravity on themselves. Like how it was extremely difficult to manipulate someone’s blood or air in their lungs it also extends to their gravity. Not exactly sure how that worked but that’s what was tested and verified.

One of the harder basic practices was to pull gravity mana away from an object or the planet itself and to form a ball with it. This completely cuts off an extremely small portion of the total gravity mana of the planet or whatever object used. Obviously it was no easy feat and requires a strong control over gravity mana.

Ebony was unable to do it yet. He could slow it down, maybe even stop a small amount for a short while. But that was the best he could do. He couldn’t make it form shapes much less ball it up and compress it to form black hole or anything like that.

Hector never heard of a spell like Ebony’s. Ebony explained that he just reversed the flow of gravity mana on his body.

The people here understood physics better than he thought. Perhaps only because magic allowed them to play around with the natural elements. Ebony probably didn’t understand it as well as they do. Of course, it was probably not physics as he knows it.

Hector said different areas on the continent had different strengths of gravity and it was not uniformed throughout the continent much less the planet. This obviously made no sense to Ebony. But it matters not, Ebony had decided not to think too much about the different rules and laws of the world. There just wasn’t any point in getting confused about how things work here.

A question of Hector’s bought Ebony attention.

“Reverse the flow of gravity? Fascinating. Then where does gravity mana start or where does it go?”

“To the body's centre of mass. Oh.”

“Oh what?”

“Oh thanks. I got a good idea that can strengthen my spell even further.”

“...Bastard.”

Ebony has confirmed with his new senses that if gravity moved normally in his body it moved and went into his body. It doesn’t exactly move to the centre of mass but throughout his body, towards the general directions of his centre of mass. Below his belly button.

As if trying to collapse his own body mass on itself but obviously too weak to do so.

Now that his natural flow was reversed it instead moved out of his body to right above his skin and whatever he extends the spell too, including his clothes and even weapon.

Why let it travel in or out from his body?

There was a whole lot of mana that was moving across his body if he thought about it that way. He could just make his gravity mana not seep back into his body.

Ebony wanted to make all the mana flow in a similar reverse fashion but only on the layer right above his skin. Bringing every bit of gravity mana out of his body.

It was harder than he thought it would be. The gravity mana just doesn’t want to leave where it’s supposed to move by. It constantly moved like waves into and out of his body. The method wasn’t working as he thought it would be. Reversing it was already unnatural.

Ebony tried to stop the gravity mana from moving entirely first. Easy success since he could reverse it easily.

Then he tried to push the gravity mana away from his body starting from the centre. It was like trying to blow up a plastic ball with air. Ebony was tested on his gravity mana manipulation and strength of his mind or Intelligence.

Millimetre by millimetre. Ebony succeeded.

The outermost layer of gravity mana was pushed further. Sensing that, Ebony mentally held it in place, not letting it move any further from his skin. Ebony was essentially removing the effects of gravity from his body.

Every little bit he pushed the gravity to not return to, the gravity mana pushed back even harder. Ebony slowly started Repulsive Body and made sure gravity mana doesn’t return to where he pushed it away from. Partial success.

He could run Repulsive Body like Icebody Enhancement, it doesn’t exactly take focus and didn’t take one of his cast away from him. Hector was the same, clearly some magic took less mental effort than others. Practice played a large part as well.

Forcefully refusing entry to parts of his body angered the nature of gravity mana. That took concentration.

The mana density training ended for Ryley and Tuffock but Ebony continued what he was doing as he returned to the inn. He has basically recovered from the golem’s attack by now.

Ebony didn’t stop forcing gravity mana out of the flow in his body but the flow was disrupted when he pushed a quarter of it out from the centre of his mass. They were forced to travel a shorter path and were moving faster and more violently. He was not sure how to fix it and neither did he know of a pathway that can make it flow more smoothly.

‘Forget it. This isn’t natural anyway, I’ll just force my way through.’

And so he did. Even with a normal human’s Constitution, the forces of their own gravitational pull were too weak to matter. Despite being strengthened by his skill level and Intelligence stat, Ebony didn’t even feel much physically. His Constitution was not like a normal human after all.

Mentally, on the other hand, was a different issue.

The pressure turned from blowing up a plastic balloon to a wooden one when he was half way through. He wasn’t actually blowing up a wooden ball, it was just an analogy for the pressure he was facing.

3 quarters there and it felt like he was pushing against steel. The space where the gravity mana was flowing was erratic. It didn’t follow the natural almost spherical cyclical flow anymore but the general direction of the gravitational wave was still from in to out.

⅞ and he was pushing against a reinforced concrete wall. His progress was so slow it seemed to have stopped.

9/10 and it was pushing back against Ebony’s control. Unwilling.

The many ‘tings’ were ignored as usual, Ebony pushed back and forth, playing along with his body mass’s forces.

Every wave of push brought the rampant gravity mana further out of his body, albeit practically unnoticeably so.

A moment.

Ten hours.

Ebony didn’t feel the difference from the passage of time.

Ebony’s eyelids opened.

‘I should get going, I’m late.’ Ebony thought as he checked the time.

He succeeded. Checking the many notifications as he got ready to go to the training square. It was slightly past the time he usually spars with Scarlet already. The number of notifications was pretty surprising for such a short time. He compiled skill level ups into a single one as usual so that they don’t repeat.

He stood up but slipped and fell face front, he put his hands forward to stop his fall but slipped again with his face slamming towards the ground. Yet, his face didn’t feel any impact nor did he feel contact of his hands to the ground.

Ebony was just shy of touching the ground. It could be said that he was floating but Repulsive Body’s layer was really close to his skin so it was hard to tell if one didn’t look closely.

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Body level up 41 → 43’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Gravity Mana Manipulation level up 38 → 42’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Body refined’

Repulsive Body - Reversing the flow of gravity of your body to repel matter. Has the effect of 30% + 1.0% Intelligence.

Consumes 100 MP/Min

Classification: Gravity Magic

‘Ting’ ‘Core Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 129 → 132’

‘Ting’ ‘Profession Skill Sheer Mana Compression level up 94 → 98’

‘Ting’ ‘Profession Skill Sheer Mana Perception level up 56 → 58’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Body level up 43 → 44’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Body mutated in Repulsive Membrane’

Repulsive Membrane - Expel gravity mana out of matter and envelope it as a thin membrane. The flow of gravity is reversed to repel matter. Has the effect of 50% + 1.0% Intelligence.

Consumes 200 MP/Min

Classification: Gravity Magic

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane level up 44 → 46’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane refined’

Repulsive Membrane - Expel gravity mana out of matter and envelope it as a thin membrane. The flow of gravity is reversed to repel matter. Has the effect of 80% + 1.0% Intelligence.

Consumes 150 MP/Min

Classification: Gravity Magic

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane level up 46 → 47’

‘Ting’ ‘Orchestral Gravity Conductor level up 30 - 31, 5 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane refined’

Repulsive Membrane - Expel gravity mana out of matter and envelope it as a thin membrane. The flow of gravity is reversed to repel matter. Has the effect of 100% + 1.0% Intelligence.

Consumes 150 MP/Min

Classification: Gravity Magic

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane level up 47 → 50’

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Repulsive Membrane evolved into Chaotic Repulsive Membrane’

Chaotic Repulsive Membrane - Forcefully expel gravity mana out of matter and envelope it as a thin membrane. The flow of gravity is reversed to repel matter. The membranous film defies natural order, and the gravitational field of mass is greatly disrupted causing the gravitational waves of the membrane to be chaotic and disorderly. Has the effect of 120% + 2.5% Intelligence.

Consumes 150 MP/Min

Classification: Gravity Magic

‘Ting’ ‘Sub-Class Skill Gravity Mana Manipulation level up 42 → 59’

‘Ting’ ‘Orchestral Gravity Conductor level up 31 - 32, 5 stat points gained.’

‘...To begin with, to use magic is to defy nature isn’t it.’

Seems like defying natural order was the fastest way to improve magic skills.

Ebony knew he could level up through skill training alone as what many young Elves do but it rarely happened to him after level 10. This way of levelling was the slow accumulation of experience.

What he was doing was essentially Mana Compression since he didn’t let it escape further from him. The mana cost was increased because he needed to force the gravity from returning into his body. He didn’t need to reverse the flow since his body’s natural flow was already reversed but he needed to extend it to his clothing and stuff.

His robes wouldn’t touch his skin and would float up when he didn’t consciously extend the membrane to it. Even with how heavy it was. Fortunately, he made what the skill calls a membrane, thin. Otherwise his underwear, pants and boots would threaten to rip if he didn’t manipulate it properly.

He did a quick calculation, 120% + (50x2.5%) = 245%. Considering it was strengthened by his fortification it would be 490% of his Intelligence or about 789.

Ebony stopped running the skill so that he could walk properly. The gravity mana rushed back into his body. Ebony felt like he was tightly wrapped in cling wrap for a split second. The chaotic gravity mana quickly settled itself and was back to normal. Ebony wondered if his skill level gets too high would he crush himself with his own spell? It was unlikely, he could still manipulate gravity mana to return to him more gently.

He left for the training square and was out on the streets. He wanted to draw his greatsword and test on it as well but he was walking in the middle of a populated street and he could wait.

Ebony expected skill mutations and refinements at most since he kept feeling the increase in strength of repulsion. The spell also fundamentally changed which caused the mutation.

Now, Ebony needed to consciously prevent the chaotic gravity mana from going back to normal when casting the spell. That was the only place where his mana was spent. He didn’t speed up the flow to strengthen it like Repulsive body. Rather, he couldn’t.

He couldn’t even grab hold of the erratically moving gravity mana. Since it was already moving too fast by itself, there was no need for Ebony to slow it down. He just needed to shield his skin from letting the spell stop.

The problem was that it takes up a cast and needs practice before he can cast it as effortlessly as before.

Ebony reached the public square, going to their usual spot near a corner. Rarely did anyone else use the spot since many knew the particular timing that Scarlet and Ebony would be there.

Ebony saw Scarlet in sight, on the ground. His body moved before any other thought invaded his mind.

He lashed out with a kick on the face of the person pushing Scarlet down.

“Hey, Wha! Urrgh!” Hector saw Ebony coming in and called out but a boot expanded rapidly in his view.

Hector didn’t manage to defend or dodge with him on all fours down atop Scarlet, a disturbing crack sounded but he managed to get his body enhancements up. His body flew and tumbled, almost knocking into someone else before slamming onto the walls that were built after they expanded.

“HEY! That hurt like a bitch! What was that for!?” The kick apparently did less damage than it sounded.

‘Hmm? Am I irritated? Or is this anger? Why?’

Ebony didn’t notice that the slightest sign of a frown could be seen on his face.

Scarlet had already stood back up, patting dirt off herself, she was not new to Ebony's dead facial expressions and was quite surprised to feel that Ebony was frowning and felt angry. No, he was boiling with rage just under the surface.

Something else brought her attention away. Her skill Sublime Instinct doesn’t have the ability that allows her to feel someone’s emotions. She didn’t realise it the first time but she couldn’t pick up other people’s weak emotions or anything like that.

For strong emotions, it was so obvious that someone was visibly angry that one didn’t need to have a skill to tell. So why is she picking up Ebony’s subtle thoughts or feelings?

Perhaps, under his expressionless facade were really strong emotions. Or so Scarlet thought, it was not surprising when she thought about it this way. Only with such strong feelings does he grow in power at such speed. So she put the thought aside.

“Are you okay?” Ebony asked Scarlet, ignoring Hector who ran back.

“? Why wouldn’t I be? Oh… You... you misunderstood.” Scarlet tilted her head in confusion before piecing the puzzle together.

‘Why can’t I stop Violent Heart Acceleration?’ Scarlet turned away, unable to look at Ebony for some reason.

If Ebony ever found out what he missed, in future he would curse the mask that was in the way.

“What did…”

“Hey! Ebony, you bastard. How could you sneak attack me like that? Even if you think you couldn’t beat me, did you have to resort to sneak attacks?”

“Shouldn’t you know why?”

“Hah?! What kinda crap are you saying… hahahaha! I see, I see. I knew it!”

Hector seemed to have come to some realisation before laughing out loud like the mad man he was.

Scarlet was annoyed by the laugh and the ‘I knew it!’ sounded so familiar for some reason and she didn’t like it.

Hector went on to explain that someone behind Scarlet was using magic even though it was highly looked down upon for doing so in the public training square. A few stray earth balls were flying toward Scarlet when they were in the middle of an intense exchange.

Hector knocked Scarlet aside since he saw it coming. Scarlet who thought Hector was going in for a tackle kicked his feet because he got too close.

And well he fell forward, pushing Scarlet down with him. Scarlet saw the projectiles and understood before they apologised to each other and was about to stand up when Ebony smashed his nose in since he turned to face the kick.

“...Sorry.”

“Pssh. This is a public square no way anyone would be crazy enough to do that, besides it's not like I got the guts to go after her. Public square or not.” Hector came in close for a soft whisper. He didn’t seem that angry anymore. Ebony was getting more ashamed of himself reacting without thinking but it was how he always was in a sense.

Thinking he could test his evolved skill, Ebony asked Hector to give him a punch as pay back. It would make him feel better and wash off his embarrassment for overreacting. They were in public and would Hector even be able to force Scarlet to do something against her wishes?

‘I lost my calm? Again? Maybe dad wasn’t exaggerating after all. Damn…’

“You sure?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Here I go then. Eat this!”

Hector punched out, there was no skill used but it was still a properly thrown punch with some of his strength behind it. He didn’t hold back much, probably not exactly happy about getting a kick to the face. He aimed for Ebony's face too.

‘hmm?’

Ebony’s head was knocked backwards but he slid back like there was no friction. This time he managed to keep himself balanced and not fall. When Hector’s fist almost touched him, he could feel the membrane that separated his skin and Hector’s fist, caved in closer to his skin and pushed into him.

Knocking his head back and the force pushed him but he still didn’t feel contact with Hector’s fist.

Hector looked at his fist and then jabbed out multiple punches.

“...Why the heck did it feel so weird? That gravity skill of yours? Was it so damn tough?”

“...I was playing around with the spell earlier. It levelled 9 times, refined once, mutated once then refined twice again and then it evolved.”

Hector’s jaw dropped as his eye seemed to pop, blinking furiously as he scratched his ear.

“...Come again?”