Ebony's Fable

3 days.

For 3 days, they moved towards the shadow in the distance at a more leisure pace. Actively looking for fights, stopping and resting after a fight because all of them were hitting above their weight class. They used a lot of mana and stamina in every battle. Even Ebony uses most of his mana pool.

Especially when they were attacked by a mixed group of monsters while they were resting.

Ryley adjusted his aim according to the gravity levels in the meantime and gave better fire support without being a burden to guard. Hector recovered faster than Tuffock said it would take and was back at punching the daylights out of monsters. Tuffock 2 didn’t come and give orders any more.

Now, they had a semblance of teamwork. Or not getting in each other’s way. Every battle was an improvement where they took less effort if the numbers of monsters were constant.

The three vanguards’ constant training together let them understand each other’s attack patterns, timing and mid battle decision making.

Ebony and Scarlet were especially in tandem. They could now fight the same target without getting in each other’s way. Despite both being swordsmen. Well, it was actually him doing the work of predicting who would move where and how they would move but now it doesn’t take any brain effort.

There was also the fact that the two of them ran out to hunt by themselves as well.

He hasn’t slept a wink for the 5 days they had been in Ordina.

He only felt that he was slightly pushing it.

His stamina was no longer unmoving. Not just battles and training but, even just travelling and traversing the mountain range was enough for it to cause a slight drop in his stamina. There was the fact that he was getting more and more tired without actual sleep and rest. There was also the fact that his Agility was rising.

Ebony was not unsatisfied with it. Not feeling tired was not always a good thing. It was harder for him to feel the effects of training if he never got tired. He had been testing how much it took to get him tired and feel alive. Feel like he was actually working his body and mind out.

Another method he thought of to gain resistance to heat was his ice magic itself.

After constantly trying to keep his ice bathtub from melting he realised it was possible to make his ice mana more resistant to heat too. There were so many possibilities with magic.

So, he picked up fallen branches and started a fire then roasted his Ice Sword over fire whenever Scarlet was asleep so that he didn’t have to disturb her sleep.

During these 3 days, he talked less and less even though he never talked much to begin with. Perhaps, due to his growing exhaustion.

He was looking at the fire his Ice Sword was placed over but he was absent-minded. Just feeling the mana within the fire. Observing how fire melted his conjured ice mana. He constantly changed the structure of his ice mana and observed how it reacted to the heat of the fire.

Constantly reminded of how ice mana was like when it combusted. Ebony should have enough mana to use them reasonably often now. It was a different concept than how to make ice mana more resistant to heat.

From ice melting into a constant flow of water onto the firewood, to dripping on it was amazing progress for Ebony. He couldn’t transfer that over to Icebody Enhancement yet but progress was progress.

“-ony..-bony. I said hey! Ebony! Can you hear me!?” Hector waved and called out beside him.

“Hmm? Mmm.”

“Are you okay? You’ve been getting more distracted or rather, less aware. You look tired, you have been getting enough sleep right?”

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

“...are you cooking ice? How is that fine?”

“...just experimenting with something.”

Hector then whispered something too soft for him to hear even with their higher Perception.

“Guys. I think it’s time we continue on to the next floor. Apologies for the crankiness, the mana got to me. I believe we have all gotten accustomed to the environment in the dungeon already. You guys have also gotten the levels you sorely needed. I say we get to the towering mammoth of a mountain by tomorrow instead of a dedicated hunt. Agreed?”

“...I guess we’re good to go.” Hector pondered.

“O..okay.” Tuffock didn’t argue.

“Mmm.” Both Ebony and Scarlet replied succinctly.

They didn’t need many battles to get used to the monsters fighting patterns so both had gotten a little bored of repetitive fights.

The ‘shadow’ was just a sky high mountain that had fewer mountains near it as it spans across gors and gors both vertically and horizontally.

Morning came.

They sped up and got to the foot of the towering mountain that they couldn’t see the end of whether left, right or up within 6 hours. Only interrupted by monsters once.

They did encounter a party that had the average level of 95 once, 2 days ago but with how large the dungeon was, even with many parties here it wouldn't be weird if they never saw anyone for a day or two. Both parties ignored each other.

“Oh..oh man. Looks. Tiring.” Tuffock stared upwards.

They started the climb.

All of them were pretty acclimatised to heights already so they had no issue climbing high at a decent speed.

They took a break every 3 hours. Ebony was eating snacks as usual. The more stamina he consumed, the more food as well. Scarlet even made buns again for his snack time. Hector called it a Xeng delicacy and wanted to take one but Ebony slapped his attempts away. These meaty buns were his.

The mountain was not the steepest one around but one thing that was different was that there were more monsters. High kobolds hiding behind rocks, trees or mounds of earth were one thing. Bears coming out of small holes and caves were another.

Ebony’s shield moved much faster now. He protected Tuffock from a sneak attack from a gale leopard before a flaming hot spear pierced it, half dispersing on impact. The noise of battle siphoned out of his ears. He didn’t hear anything, see anything, feel anything. He actually did. But nothing registered in his mind as he slew everything in their path with utmost efficiency.

His breath was a chilling mist as Icebody Enhancement was fully active. The pressure on his body and mind kept getting heavier. It felt so good.

The party watched as Ebony disappeared in their midst every time a monster was close by. The silent and gentle way he moved was just like how he mowed down any approaching monster. The monsters always died unable to cry out as they froze.

Ebony kept pushing Treading Step in a similar fashion to Hector’s burst of speed but it retained its lightness. Allowing him to instantly take the very first step to max speed. Ebony’s ability to lightly change directions at any point in time also didn’t die out from the intense acceleration. As graceful as ever, flat ground or not it didn’t change his speed or agility at all. The mountains were no different from flat ground to him.

It was actually him applying the Chaotic Repulsive Membrane under his foot at the instant he wanted his feet to push off the ground. He had managed to time it so that he manipulated it to push him off instantly after he got enough friction and grip.

Scarlet thought it was a challenge or made it into a challenge herself. She was still faster but he was no slouch either.

The two of them cleared the way for the party.

They stopped when night came and cleared a cave used by the bears to use as shelter and camp. It was much easier to guard.

Ebony didn’t see the need to stay. He traversed the mountain to continue his hunt. With the 3D Mental Map he has, he didn't think he would get lost.

He didn’t think of anything but he knew in his heart.

Almost there.

He was back to the cave in time for dinner.

Once again, he fell back into routine.

Practice magic, conditioning and spar, hide in his tent and practice magic, meditate, spar, bathe and soak in hot water, cook a stick of ice over fire, spar and hunt. Breakfast. Move out.

The mountain didn’t seem to have a peak or end. They climbed and climbed, their progress slower and slower. The dungeon either didn’t want them up there or there were multiple spawning nodes here. The progress halted. Too many monsters were in the way.

They took a break. They were really high up now, at least 4 or 5 gors which was 20-25 kilometres high up. Still no end in sight.

Scarlet automatically took fresh, steaming hot buns out of a container from her bag.

Unlike his other party members who started asking if he was alright, Scarlet never said a word. She didn’t actively avoid Ebony again which made him think she really was at that time of the month a few days back. Her quiet support and constant challenge was encouraging.

Even in his mind numbing weariness and fatigue, Ebony did not forget to praise her food. He even imagined her smiling under her mask but he knew it was just his fatigue talking. His Vibrational Gravity Sense wasn’t able to sense facial expression or sense past her mask anyway. It would be the same even if she wasn't wearing the mask since his Vibrational Gravity Sense was not so precise.

Another interesting point to note was when Scarlet was cleaning and maintaining her swords 2 days back she unscrewed or uncapped where the pommel should be if it had a pommel and pulled a black stick out before filling it with a grey one that was the same size and shape. Ebony sensed it. Her twin swords were now not reflecting as much gravity mana.

She made her swords heavier by a good margin. Her attacks got heavier and stronger.

He did think his own greatsword was unworthy of the ‘great’ now with it being as light as a piece of paper in his enhanced state. Having said that, he hasn’t figured out nor has he tried to figure out how to copy what her mask and swords do.

“There should have been other parties who’ve already passed through here right?” Hector asked. The party halted where they were.

“Yeah. The parties over a hundred should have long passed through already. Still, it shouldn't have been long enough for those numbers to get that high. There’s like… close to 300 of them and only counting those just right ahead of us, they’re surrounding the area on both sides too. No party, even those who have fully evolved can get past that tight line.”

“300!? It's gotta be the dungeon actively preventing us from continuing then.” Hector yelled in shock.

“Ca..can’t we lure small gr..groups away and thin them out.” Tuffock suggested.

“Impossible. They're too close together, if it really is the dungeon actively working against us then all of them will likely attack once one of them is alerted.” Ryley said realistically. He was not as unbearable since he wasn’t all cranky anymore.

“Can’t we get around them?” Hector asked. The mountain was so large there had to be areas without monsters.

“There’s nowhere to get around. They’re actually patrolling the area. We can still try to pick a direction but I believe they got it covered all round." The scout shot down the plan.

“Ma..maybe we just need to break through the defensive line. Dun..dungeon monsters can’t move out of the area designated for them under normal cir..circumstances.” Tuffock positively put forward.

“Yeah! As long as the dungeon isn’t overloaded, it shouldn’t be possible for a new dungeon. Dungeon monsters can’t get too far from their spawning nodes.” Hector smashed his fist together.

“Ebony was lucky enough to spot a spawning node previously but that was because the dungeon didn’t hide them. Now we don’t know where the nodes are or how far they can move away from their nodes.” Ryley wasn’t looking well at their chances.

They went back and forth but didn’t come up with any solution.

To start things off they picked the direction which Ryley said had less of them. Towards the right. They continued on and on. Only a few monsters strayed downhill. At first.

The party started running back downhill instead of going up. More than 10 earthen-hide bears are on their chase with 30 gale leopards, half of them with scythe wielding high kobolds riding them.

“Crap! The few that strayed down were only to find where we are.” Hector exclaimed.

“I don’t think there are any more than the ones we can see, move over there! We don’t have anywhere to hide going down hill anyway. We’ll take em on there.” Ryley pointed them towards a relatively flatter spot that isn’t easily seen from above.

Tuffock slipped and slid but Hector, who was close, managed to catch his fall. Going downhill was always harder than going up.

Staying behind the party, Ebony ran sideways with Frost Mist Perception Sphere on, freezing the grass and ground hoping it would slow them down or even cause them to slip.

Being carried on Hector’s back for the umpteenth time, Tuffock held his staff high and chanted. Casting walls and stone shards to delay the gale leopards who were their greatest chasers. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to worry about projectiles seeing none of the high kobolds being archers or carrying bows.

Buying enough time, they reached the area Ryley got them to be. He left to get a vantage spot.

It was not that intense of a battle at this point. Hector reached level 81, Scarlet had gotten to level 78 while Ebony had reached 74. It was not extremely fast but it was practically breakneck speed already. Even Tuffock had levelled thrice, reaching 88. Ryley levelled once to reach 95.

Scarlet no longer had trouble hurting and even cooking bear paws, along with its entire body. She didn’t though, saving her mana.

Hector was sending the tough and heavy bear flying backwards, causing the bear to knock into another bear and 3 of the high kobolds along with their mount. Ebony now had 4 shields working in tandem and 2 Ice Swords floating around as well. One of them wobbly. He forcefully pushed 3 bears towards the same area where they fell.

Just in time for Tuffock’s stone barrage to come raining down, as if it wasn’t enough, Scarlet bombarded the area with an extra large spear of fire coming straight down from the sky. The wave of heat exploding outwards.

In the background was the noise of shockwaves while a strong gust of wind fanned the flames. Ryley had his charged shots coming down on the more annoying and tough earthen-hide bears. He was using his metal arrows charged with mana. The monsters here are good enough for him to use them.

Scarlet went to take care of the leopards like she usually does because of their speed while Hector and Ebony faced and held the bears back. Not so much hold back as pummel and decapitate them with stone and arrow support. The ranged support was more to keep the remaining gale leopards back since Scarlet was only one person and the number of leopards was the highest in their group.

They safely finished off every last one of them who chased them.

“Let’s move. If they were actually sent to chase us then, the dungeon likely knows where we are now and will send more of them after us.” Hector quickly chastised.

“...We’ve got no choice I guess. We’ll go further down then round back to the cave we camped last night. We’ll not engage in any fights if possible since the dungeon will find our location.”

“Ca..can we really hide from the dungeon? No..none of us are really much for stealth…”

“…”

No one replied. Trying to hide from the dungeon while they were in the dungeon and they were actively looking for them was as difficult as trying to hide an elephant in an open stadium.

As long as they were spotted by monsters, the dungeon would know their location anyway.

Not contemplating long, they quickly moved first. It would not be ideal to stay where they were regardless.

Going down faster than they did going up, they returned to the cave they were in the night before. Tuffock closed the entrance off with stone after Hector loosely manipulated some earth as some form of camouflage.

They still had their phoslamps for a lightsource.

They rested while no one spoke for a short while.

“Can we be really sure the dungeon is aiming for us? Even if this was an aggressive dungeon when it just opened it wasn’t the case the past few days.” Hector asked.

“I can’t think of a reason it’s specifically aiming for us. I think there’s a higher chance it’s just sealing the mountain peak or entrance to the next floor and sending off any party who tries to climb higher. Why do you assume it’s singling us out.” Ryley questioned Hector’s deduction.

“Ah. I forgot about that possibility. That makes sense. We are pretty strong but definitely not the strongest party down here. Dungeons aim to remove whatever is not beneficial to them. There should be many other parties that have taken away from it more than it thinks it can gain from killing them.” Hector second guessed himself.

“We..we haven’t even taken any monster materials or.. ea..eat any of them so the dungeon shouldn’t be at a net loss no matter how ma..many we kill. The… the mana and stamina we used should’ve been partially absorbed by the du..dungeon too. It should welcome us instead. Heh, I agree with the dumb archer for once. It just doesn’t want any party to advance further.” Tuffock and Tuffock 2 who came out in the second half said.

They didn’t take any materials since it would only add weight and bulk to them. If they really wanted anything they could collect it on their way back and not on their way deeper into the dungeon. Unless there were rare materials.

“Then what do you suggest we do? Even if there might be more than one entrance to the next floor, this is the most obvious way and wouldn’t other entrances also be defended?” Ryley finally learned not to shout back at the ‘dumb archer’ comment. It was a waste of energy. The only person Tuffock 2 seemed to talk respectfully to was Scarlet, who he added a ‘miss’ but even that was said with ridicule.

“Is there even anything we can do but wait it out? The dungeon wouldn’t waste its limited resources forever, it needs to let its monsters spread out and roam rather than concentrated in the same spot if it wants to get anything from us and the other parties.”

“There’s a flood of parties coming in, the dungeon probably got quite a fill from those wannabes. Do we have enough food to last?”

“2 months of food. Not including whatever you’ve brought.” Scarlet said. It was surprising her bag had held 2 more months of food. The party realised she had more than one or two chilled preserve boxes. Ebony just had to get a bag like that.

The food they had could be stretched into 3 months, maybe more if they didn’t feast all the time and spend less energy and stamina fighting. Ebony was starting to feel a little bad for eating so much.

The caves they were in were originally used by bears so it was not small or constrictive but it was inadequate for any training or sparring.

After a short meditative period, Ebony asked to be let out of the cave for a breather. They knew he was a training maniac by this point. Warning him not to get spotted they still let him out. The cave needed some fresh air anyway.

Ebony stretched out his arms. Then his whole body. They haven’t closed the entrance to the cave yet. Ebony got them to cover it just in case. Daylight was still up, they could be seen if they were not careful.

“Mmm. Thanks for gathering. I was just looking for you guys.” Ebony had already sprung up to where they were previously. Looking at hundreds upon hundreds of monsters sitting around. Taking into account where he couldn’t see, it was probably thousands.

Just the final push he needed to tip him over exhaustion.