Ebony's Fable

Breakfast was fruit salad including apples, melons and a grape like fruit more on the sour side. Fresh toast with sausages, beans and pan-fried mushrooms. A thick warm beverage that was a little milky. Ebony pondered why he bothered bringing all the lousy jerky or stupid souper bread. Disappointed with the lack of eggs again.

“Did ya see the two-tailed fox yesterday? Damn was she hot. Why did you just leave? We could have chatted them up a little.” Hector said to the guys at the table before gulping his drink down.

““...””

“Have you guys heard of the tale behind the number of fox tails they have?” Hector changed the subject when no one replied to him.

“No.” Ebony answered. He didn’t see many fox beastmen yet, the other party which he didn’t help first and had 3 of their party members die had a fox tailed female mage who survived.

“They grow a tail after every evolution don’t they?” Ryley added on.

“Yeah, they said that as long as one has at least half or even a quarter of the bloodline of the fox people they would be born with a single fox tail. They would grow a tail when they classed up and also after every evolution. According to their lore, one would become a god when they have nine tails.”

‘Nine tailed fox? God? I thought they didn’t believe in gods. It would be pretty cool to see a nine tailed fox though.’

“Th..the archduke and archduchess of beastmen are currently fox people ri..right?”

“That’s right. The archduchess Medina Fyre has been a five tailed fox since she rose up to the ranks of an archduchess. Archduke Fyre himself only gained or grew a fifth tail 70 to 80 years ago.” Ryley received basic education as a noble and it was expected of him to study such things. Obviously, he had never seen the archduke and archduchess before.

“It makes it hard to believe if there really is a nine tailed fox. At the levels of power of the archdukes, they could hardly advance anymore. They are the only 2 five-tailed foxes after all. Well it’s hard to say. The fox and wolf beastmen are said to have the greatest and longest lineage of the beastmen. Fox people are said to inhabit many worlds outside of Elcra too. They claimed the lore of a nine tailed fox to be true till this day.”

“Many worlds?” Ebony couldn’t help but pick out.

“Uhmm… Ah forget it, it's not a secret or anything. It is unsure when exactly in the past, but Elcra has people starting to claim they came from another world using space magic. It had long been proven true and there should be quite some otherworlders on Elcra even now. Fortunately, most of them couldn’t be bothered with the ongoings of the Empire.” Hector looked a little troubled before telling Ebony.

‘Space magic. That’s right, I came here out of nowhere. It wasn’t like I was summoned here by someone, seeing no one came and said they summoned me. Teleported here? By who? My parents would be the most suspicious honestly. I knew they raised me funny. In the 5 to 6 years they were gone it wasn’t like any of the skills they taught me were useful in daily life.

Meditation. Fighting. Hunting. 15 year old trial?

Coincidence? I think not.’

The more Ebony thought about it the more suspicious he was of his parents. None of the skills he thought were useless on Earth was useless here. Much of what he was taught was turned into actual ‘Skills’ here. Were they preparing him for this? Were they the ones who sent him here? Why? He didn’t know. However, he didn’t think it was just sheer coincidence.

There was once, well not really once but he was really close to dying on Earth yet, he woke up not knowing what happened. Or how his broken body, bones and tendons can fully recover after his mother crushed them. Multiple times. They fed and applied medicine and he’ll be back in full health with his body tougher than it ever was.

It wasn’t like Ebony wasn’t suspicious. Especially after learning about Elcra. Skills. Stats. Magic.

He didn’t find anything weird when he was young but he knew that his body shouldn’t have been able to recover so completely with Earth’s technology and medical advancement.

Hector telling him about other worlds didn’t really mean much to Ebony.

Other than his family, there wasn’t anything he was looking forward to seeing back on Earth anymore. There was so much more to explore here. But with his new suspicions, he wondered if his family was right here all along. They didn’t contact him much after leaving him when he finished their so called trial.

The guys continued chatting, Hector was the one talking and coming up with topics while the other 3 commented from time to time.

They cleaned and packed up, getting ready to move on.

Ebony didn’t waste the ice mana from the chairs and table. He converted them into Ice Swords. Sticking them behind his shields. This way he can carry them mentally without another cast.

They continued exploring along the walls, choosing to go in the same direction this time. Their pace was more leisure compared to the day before since Scarlet and Ryley were conserving stamina. Ryley had a better complexion after a night’s sleep.

The lucky or unlucky thing was that Ryley said to have found the stairs after just half an hour.

There was a hole in the wall with the stairs that curved along the inside or rather outside of the walls upwards. It wasn’t all that dark but where the light came from was unknown.

They regrouped and climbed together, seeing no reason to stay on this floor. Ebony did want to fully complete the Mental Map he had of the dungeon, but there was no reason to slow the party down for it. He could always come back when he had time.

“Haa. ha. Ho..how far do these stairs go?” Tuffock panted.

“Sit on one of my shields. The stairway is wide enough for it.” Ebony said.

They had been climbing up for 15 mins at a normal human’s max running speed. Well, it was a slow walk for Ebony but that was thanks to his Treading Step.

They sped up with Hector hopping on as well. He was heavy.

Arriving when they saw it brightening up.

It was a forest. Normal looking forest.

Ebony was a little bored with the dungeon. It was less than he expected. First a normal grassland and now a forest. What next? Mountains?

A quick scout by Ryley told them that there were kobolds again. A spider-like monster that hides atop trees called [Forest Weavers]. And also something he called [Gale Leopard]s. Their levels were high 80s to mid 90s. Monster density was much lower but other than the gale leopards the other 2 stayed in at least groups of 8.

It wasn’t exactly like a normal forest in that it was noticeably hotter than it was on the first floor. Enough to make Ebony sweat under his clothes. Curses.

He should get Scarlet to help raise his heat resistance more directly.

The party was still moving somewhat separately. They weren’t much of a party in a sense. Scarlet, Ebony and Ryley moved on their own with Hector and Tuffock staying together. This way Ebony could have Icebody Enhancement on all the time as well. He had been getting mana to compress instantly more and more to his max. It is around 35% now.

One thing was they knew there was not much treasure to be found in a fresh dungeon so they were not much on in-depth exploration. The second was that Scarlet and also Ebony wanted higher level opponents. Ryley seems to be more focused on clearing the dungeon as fast as possible.

The second floor was smaller or less wide than the first. Ryley already reported seeing a pillar rising up to the sky or ceiling. He guessed it was in the centre of the whole floor.

Ebony saw a cluster of trees that were connected by humongous brown webs. It appeared like the tree trunks were connected since they had the same colour.

He quickly stepped back, dodging a webshot that could cover his whole body.

[Forest Weaver Lvl 88]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 86]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 89]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 90]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 88]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 87]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 87]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 86]

[Forest Weaver Lvl 88]

Ebony spotted 9 of them showing themselves. Whether a few more were being camouflaged up in the trees? He couldn’t tell. They were furry brown and leaf green in colour and he could see them changing colour here and there, either a racial ability like a chameleon or a skill.

They were the size of a large dog, their height reaching Ebony’s knees. Unlike normal insects with 3 part bodies, head, thorax and abdomen, they only had a roundish head and abdomen. 6 legs sprouting out from its abdomen. More eyes than Ebony had time to count on its face with a large toothy mouth. It was disgusting.

Ebony didn’t like insects, they were just creepy. Arcta’s forest hardly had any. The dungeon didn’t recreate small insects either so it was always silent on the first and second floor minus the sound of combat, screeching and screaming of dying monsters. And people.

They started chasing Ebony. Some moved through the trees, a couple on the ground. Those with high ground shot their webs with surprising accuracy, right ahead of where Ebony was moving towards. Thankfully, Ebony had trained his Treading Steps in a forest. Easily changing directions light footedly just as the tip of his boots touched the ground.

They were only slightly faster than Ebony.

The ones that shot webs needed to stop where they were to take a shot. Ebony didn’t. He took the chance when they stopped and unleashed an Ice Sword up 2 of their asses, pointing towards Ebony.

Seeing no reason to run back to Hector or the others, Ebony stopped. There didn’t seem to be anymore spiders.

He released compressed frost mist into the air, unworried about hindering his allies. Though his senses only reach 10 metres, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t let the icy mist flow beyond his range of perception.

It worked better than he thought. The weavers stopped shooting webs. The single forest weaver’s jumping charge coming for a bite was easily dodged. They relied on sight quite a little.

Ebony didn’t stop freezing the air, it ate into his mana pool a little but the effects it came with were worth it. They were a little blinded but Ebony could ‘see’ as well as if his eyes were uncovered. Sensing their every move as the mana in the surrounding vibrate, the ice mana shifting and their gravity signature moving.

Ebony slashed down hard. It sliced through the head of the forest weaver without much resistance. Their furry bodies were softer than the Geoats by a large margin. It wasn’t dead but it froze up, both its head and movements. It was jerking and shivering.

The rest of them in the range of his mist slowly acted the same way. It was just a matter of hacking them down now.

The remaining 4 forest weavers in the trees heard the death cries of its allies and the 2 uninjured ones randomly unloaded their bodily fluids into the white misty area where they heard the cries coming from. The 2 whose asses were freezing from the ice swords jumped into the fray.

Ebony sensed the webs entering his perception but he couldn’t dodge it in time since he just completed a power stab, taking the life of the last creepy spider in his mist. Their blood slid right off Ebony, who had Chaotic Repulsive Membrane going strong. Convenient.

The web was shot with enough force to push through his membrane and landed on his right foot, a large volume pushed aside onto the ground. Ebony was pretty interested to observe the phenomena but now wasn’t the time.

The webs were slowly freezing and hardening up. It gave the opportunity for the 2 who just entered to go for a nice chomp of an ice sculptured human known as Ebony. Ebony easily blocked it with his greatsword since only his feet were tied down.

Ebony tried to move his feet. The web broke apart from his pants then shattered into many pieces, being frozen already.

The 2 weavers who entered only sent themselves to his doorsteps. It wasn’t hard to get to the remaining 2 web shooting ones too. It wasn’t as if they were running away.

Ebony stopped releasing ice mana into the air. Leaving the area and moving to where the party said to gather before moving towards the ‘pillar’ rising up to the sky.

Anyone who came here would see a thick layer of ice and frost covering the trees, grass, ground and dead corpses of the forest weavers. Well, as long as the dungeon hasn’t got to absorbing the ice mana and corpses. From Ebony’s observation, it already stopped doing that immediately after its monsters died.

Ebony saw Scarlet on the way. She was fighting. No, slaying. What looked like a pair of normal leopards, their fur brighter yellow and spots darker black than Ebony remembered it to be. Hector and Tuffock were also already standing aside and watching.

[Gale Leopard Lvl 95]

[Gale Leopard Lvl 95]

They were a lot faster than the forest weavers. Keeping up with Scarlet’s speed. Ebony hair and robes billowed from the strong winds.

‘She’s not as fast as usual.’

Scarlet was using wind magic to confront the gale leopards. She got bored of it relatively quickly and slaughtered them into piping hot cuts of roast meat.

Both of them were levelling quickly. Scarlet reached level 68 and Ebony 63 after the previous battle. His Sub-Class reached 47 and Profession 56. The 4 levels in Profession meant 4 Wisdom stats, 55 stat points from the 3 and 5 levels from his Class and Sub-Class.

Ebony allocated 30 points to Agility and 25 to Intelligence. Another thing he noticed was that Icebody Enhancement’s static decrease of Agility was not static at all when he used compressed ice mana. His joints and muscles would stiffen even more. If it wasn’t for his ‘Balance and fluidity when wielding a greatsword with one hand increased by 100%’ Class fortification it may have been difficult to move as fluidly as he does.

At least cold resistance levelled once. It had been awhile.

Seeing Scarlet process and cook monsters like that had him realised that the way her attacks when sparring with him were similar. ‘Was she planning to cut me up and cook me like that too?’

“How do you cut and slice up a moving opponent and cook them like that?” Ebony couldn’t help but ask as he closed their distance.

“Hmm? Oh uhm… My profession is called ‘Combat Chef’, I have a skill called ‘Live Ingredient Processing’ which helps increase my ability to prepare and process live ingredients.”

‘Combat Chef…kinda expected her to be a chef from how good her food and cooking was. But not a Profession I’ve heard of or read about.’

“...Just curious but, do people consider as ingredients?” Ebony asked just as Hector and Tuffock, who were slower, came. They were stunned by his question, with enhanced perception they might have heard Scarlet telling her profession too.

Scarlet started to look away and fiddle with her thumb and fingers.

“Y..yesh.” She sounded oddly embarrassed as she covered her mask with both hands. The action was a little redundant with her mask already in the way.

‘She bit her tongue. Cute.’ Ebony thought.

‘Holy shit! That’s scary as hell!’ Both Hector and Tuffock stepped back, keeping their distance. They already saw how Scarlet sliced apart monsters so brutally yet efficiently and imagined themselves on a plate.

Ebony on the other hand didn’t think it to be brutal. Compared to him tearing and breaking them apart with his bare hands, Scarlet only looked extremely graceful and elegant with her methods.

The party decided to stay together from now on after Ryley joined up. Ryley was panting pretty hard. The next level likely has monsters in the high 90s and maybe even 100. All of them were strong individually and could probably take most monsters of that level themselves but the monsters were getting larger in group size.

Ebony offered to carry Tuffock on his shield again but kicked the heavy Hector off when he tried to climb on. They continued on as they let Ebony, Scarlet and Hector take on the groups of monsters that attacked. They were the lowest level and would gain the most out of it anyway.

Only after 15 or so minutes of a slow jog did Ebony see the dark pillar rising up into the sky. What they didn’t expect was to hear the sound of combat and a voice giving commands. They were voices Ebony was familiar with.

“Ro! Need some help here.” Top called out as he struggled to get free from the webs on his feet.

“Already on it.” Rowent replied as he burned the webs off with a small controlled flame. All while slapping a forest weaver with a spear of fire. What was with mages and spears or lances?

A blast of wind blew away the webs that went after Rowent. Wooden arrows impaled weavers that had their limbs splayed open as they hung in the air as if caught by their own webs. They were tied up by Dina’s wires, helplessly watching themselves getting pierced by arrows that grew roots that wriggled into their bodies and crushed their organs.

“ARHH!” Chris yelled as he slashed down with his entire body weight behind it, chopping the head of the weaver about to bite Rowent.

“There was a team faster than us?” Ryley seemed dismayed by the fact. Ebony didn’t know why he was surprised or disappointed, there were many parties that were over level 100. There were surely parties faster than them, right? Even if they move unrealistically fast for an exploration, maybe other parties were lucky and found the entrance up to the second floor on the first day. There was also the chance that there were more than one entrance or stairs from the first floor to the second.

“They're pretty good. All in the 70s yet they’re fighting so many monsters practically in the 90s. Not as good as us of course.”

“Mu..much better teamwork. A solid team.”

“...not useless.”

“I know them. They’re one of Z&Z’s escort parties.”

“Ah. Zees company’s. No wonder they work so well together. Ebony, you know them?”

“Yeah, they helped me awhile back.” Ebony waved to Fergus who already noticed them.

“Hey guys, look over, it’s Ebony.” Fergus pointed in Ebony’s direction.

“Hello. You all move pretty fast.” Ebony walked up and tetted each of them. Dina was busy checking the webs out and sticking them into empty bottles though.

“Greetings to you too, Ebony.” Top replied.

“Fergus found the stairs relatively quickly even though we didn’t rush to be the first to enter Ordina.” Rowent explained.

“We had to move a little through the night as well to get here of course.” Top added. With their movement speed other than Fergus and Dina, it was unlikely they were ahead of Ebony if they didn’t spend as much time on the move.

“Pshh. pshh. Ebony come here.” Rowent beckoned Ebony and pulled him close.

“That’s your party? Is that the Xeng women the whole tow..ah, city was talking about?”

“Mmm. Scarlet, Hector, Tuffock and Ryley. My fellow party members. This is Top and his party, Fergus, Rowent, Chris and Dina.” Ebony took Rowent’s arm off his shoulders before introducing them to each other.

They tetted each other in order. Ebony noted that every one of them gave their respects to Scarlet even with their higher level. Scarlet also didn’t take her gloves off. No one did, in the dungeon. Ryley looked upon the interaction impatiently.

“Were you planning to go towards that pillar?” Top asked.

“It’s the most obvious place to go. Of course.” Ryley answered with annoyance.

“Haahaahaha! Wanna move together?” Hector brushed Ryley aside with a laugh.

“It’s okay, we were planning to hunt here for sometime for a few levels. The next floor might be a little too dangerous for us now.” Top answered for the team.

“We should continue. We can handle the monster here pretty well.” Chris pushed for advancement. Ebony has rarely talked to Chris for some time now. It was obvious that he was avoiding Ebony a little. Ebony didn’t know why but he didn’t care either. It was just a pity, Chris changed a little in his easygoing temperament. He heard how hard Chris has been pushing his training even after getting his Sub-Class.

“No. We’ve already pushed to the 2nd floor. Even if you don’t need to get accustomed to the gravity here, I do.” Top shot Chris down. Ordina’s environment wasn’t easy on warriors or anyone really.

“Heh! That’s right, listen to your leader. Your complexion is red and you were obviously tired from the battle. Come on, let’s move on.” Ryley urged. He left and marched on towards the pillar without looking back.

There were frowns from many of them.

“Sorry about that. We’ll be going ahead. See you guys around. Take care.” Ebony apologised for his party member’s rude behaviour before bidding goodbye.