Ebony's Fable

Mana conservation was the name of the game?

No.

Of course not.

Mana was there to be used.

And so Ebony did.

Frost Mist Perception Sphere was at maximum output. Its ability to slow, hinder and freeze his opponent’s movement and sight is stronger than ever. It was a thick bluish mist instead of white now, normal humans could hardly see their hands put in front of their eyes.

The beginning was the toughest. The first step, always the hardest to take.

All the monsters were in tip top shape while Ebony was the direct opposite.

The number of monsters didn’t really matter to him. He was small compared to the bears and even leopards. How many could attack him at the same time? They couldn’t even put a dent in his shields anymore. Nay, they barely even scrape a layer to lick off. The bears could knock them around with their strength but not cause much damage to them.

Ebony danced.

Like how he travelled from Plainston to the woods with Rhoats. His greatsword never stopped as he moved. Slicing multiple heads off as he jumped around. His entire body groaned in pain to his ignorance. The executor moved across the mountain, a head drops wherever his sword passes through. Unstoppable.

His shields were useless. He didn’t need to use them.

The gale leopards who got close slowed down, their entire body covered in a thick layer of ice. They shook it off. Again and again. The chill drove further into their bodies every time they managed to shake it off.

Only the earthen-hide bears could withstand the chill. As long as they were unharmed, the cold and frost stopped digging into their body where their thick hide and fur was.

They couldn’t stay unharmed for long. His greatsword rang. It sliced into their hide like a hot knife through butter. Except it wasn’t hot. Their bones reverberated but they didn’t feel pain for long. Only the chilling pain persisted but even that didn’t last long before their view rotated as they saw their own body while their eyes were on the ground.

Ebony didn’t know how many hours had passed.

One would think he would weaken and tire over such a long period of time in his taut and exhausted state. Yet, there has been no noticeable change in his demeanour. Physical or otherwise. Machine. Could easily be used to describe him.

Ebony barely felt a thing. Not his numb arms. Not his shaking feet. Not his aching and screaming lungs or body. Not the extreme pulsing in his head. Not his sword. Not his magic. Not his killings. Not the notifications.

He felt the need to keep moving. The need to break himself down so that he could build himself up again. He felt himself squeezing every drop of mana and stamina in his body.

Then finally, he felt the intense heat in his body and mind he had been looking for.

How far had he gone on the mountain? He wasn’t sure. At first he went up, up and up. Till the point where there were no monsters up but the mountain peak still extended. Then he moved to the right and down, down and down. Then back up and around. There was a seemingly endless stream of monsters for him to hack down. And this was when the monsters were actively charging at him.

Ebony misunderstood when the heat rose much higher and faster. Coming from the side was Scarlet. Severing multiple large bodies left and right. Twin longswords ablaze. Electricity coursing through her body. Fluttering hair and mantle.

They saw and gazed at each other. Neither said a word as they culled the monster population.

On and on did they go. Scarlet’s breathing quickly got rough but under control as she pushed even harder and more fiercely. She was the greater menace of the two.

Ebony had long reached his breaking point. His broken body moved without input. There was no input possible when his mind was not working well either. His spells phasing out. Enhancements turning on and off. Stumbled steps. Missed blows. Trips. Knocked back. Slightly fractured left arm again. Nothing registered much.

The both of them continued their slaughter for hours on end into the night. Neither standing straight. Up against each other’s back.

Scarlet was no longer flawless and untouched. Blood all over her yet none remained on her swords. Ebony didn’t know how she was still standing with her heart pounding like that and how ragged she was but he was not one to say.

They were on their last legs. Yet still surrounded by a bear, 2 high kobolds and a limping gale leopard. Ebony knew the monsters were being spawned as they killed them. It wouldn’t make sense where they were coming from otherwise. Dungeons were pretty ridiculous after all.

He couldn’t even see the slashing claw going towards his face. He had neither the strength to lift his arm nor the mana to even form a spell. His shields were tied down by numerous bears a couple hours back, just lying down and keeping it away from him. They were slain but they were too far away now and it wasn’t like he had the mental strength to pull it away from them. He could hardly raise his shield up by itself.

Somehow, Scarlet still had strength and got right in front of Ebony. The frost-covered bear's paw dropped on the ground before it could reach either of them.

Ebony’s Vibrational Gravity Sense sensed every movement around them. He thought he couldn’t move anymore. He was calmer than ever. He still didn’t think he was going to die here. They were sluggish but so were the monsters around him.

Two high kobolds were preparing to slash down at his neck, aiming to decapitate him like he did to all their breathens. A gale leopard in mid-leap towards Scarlet who fell to the ground together with her downward slash to remove the bear’s paw. The bear lifted its other paw with a rage filled expression. All the roars and screaming started to register in Ebony’s ears and head.

Everything was moving in slow motion. Ebony was only staring at the bear’s smashing paw and gale leopard about to take Scarlet’s head off with a bite.

He was renewed with energy from who knows where. Did he think he could reach them in time even with renewed energy? His body was still broken and over exhausted either way. No, he didn’t think that. His body moved before he could think. Not that he was thinking.

He ducked the scythes that closed in on his neck. His broken left arm pulled Scarlet closer. His right arm still tightly gripping on his greatsword swung out. All at the same time. It happened almost instantly.

The gale leopard’s separated into two front legs, a head and the rest of its body. Ebony, who ducked and pulled Scarlet, hugged her and rolled away, Chaotic Repulsive Membrane flipping back on, he had enough skill to prevent any harm to land on Scarlet with his gravity manipulation.

Gently placing her down. He pushed himself back and took care of the bear and kobold like the thousand before them.

Then he fell forward. Laying on the chilly but burnt ground in peace. Manipulating mana to play a famous piece by Yiruma.

At least he wanted to. Scarlet wasn’t actually unconscious or anything. She wobbly stood up, using her sheathed sword as a walking cane. Poking Ebony on his face, which was flat on the ground.

“...Why did you come?”

“It was time for dinner. You were late.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t actually want to miss your food over anything.”

“Yet here you are.”

“...How did you find me?”

“Just by following the frozen corpses. You were not exactly subtle.”

“Hahaha... You’re right” Ebony laughed.

Scarlet never thought she would ever hear the man laugh. But the smile on his face was what she would not be able to erase from her mind. What she would do to see this look on his face more often. He probably didn’t even know the lightest smile he had on his face. Nor did Scarlet realise her own.

“Come on. Dinner’s getting cold.”

“...Could you help me up? I can’t move.”

“No. You liar, you were moving just fine.”

“I would never lie to you. Then, could I just lie here for a few minutes?”

“...Okay.”

Ebony didn’t know why she paused for so long.

Scarlet sat beside him amidst the numerous bloody dead bodies. Both of them soaked in blood.

Ebony’s robes were murky dark red. Chaotic Repulsive Membrane has been turned off multiple times. Turning it back on didn’t push the blood out from his robes, obviously but it did remove whatever was on his skin. His robes had bite marks around the right shoulder and claw marks on his back. It didn’t pierce through but that was a close one. His robe’s mana dried up as well. The bite took the bulk of it, even leaving marks on them. The back was a little worse with bear claws that dug partially into the second layer of his robes.

Scarlet was already decked out in red and now it was even deeper red. Her pure white mask with a red feather was not unblemished with blood either. Her mantle had small cuts, her sleeves had 3 rips as claw marks showing her impossibly milky white and fair skin. The streaks of blood already dried up ages ago. She got rammed pretty hard by one of the bear’s charges as well. It would be no surprise if she had a few broken ribs or a crushed organ, though it didn’t look like it.

Ebony marvelled at how she could fight so aggressively with such intense stamina and energy wasteful combat style for so long. Even if the breathing technique she altered after he gave her some comment reduced her stamina consumption by 10 to 15% or so.

It was impressive, he knew that since his stamina had reached rock bottom. He had gotten the over exhaustion debuff with decreased Agility, Perception and Stamina recovery rate near the end, trusting that Scarlet had fought with as well.

The real surprising thing was that there was a mental over exhaustion that decreased ability to form coherent thought which made it harder to cast spells, reduce casting speed, Intelligence and also mana regeneration.

There were a ton of notifications.

Ebony dismissed all the level-ups since he could just see his status for them. He sieved out the important ones.

‘Ting’ ‘Core Skill Deep Persistent Meditation evolved into Everlasting Tranquillity’

Everlasting Tranquillity - Achieving a state of everlasting tranquillity, breaking your state of mind is extremely difficult regardless of consciousness, increasing Mana and Stamina regeneration rate by 5.0% per level, Perception by 1.0% per level. Greatly increased pain resistance.

‘What nonsense…doesn’t seem difficult at all.’ Ebony thought as he glanced at Scarlet from the corner of his eye. The skill description was all a lie.

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Ice Mana Manipulation evolved into Ice Mana Control.’

Ice Mana Control - Ability to move and shape Ice Elemental Mana at will using mana. Ability to control Ice Mana increases by 1.0% per level.

Classification: Ice magic

Simple but useful. Manipulation skills were considered tier 1 for some reason even though ‘Control’ increased ability by 1% per level and Manipulation did not. He didn’t know why the mages decided to consider ‘control’ tier 2.

Ebony didn’t really need to use any mental effort to move some ice mana anymore. He didn’t think he could ‘ask’ or ‘order’ ice mana to do anything like Scarlet saying ‘extinguish’ though. He hasn’t asked her about that yet.

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Two-handed Power Stab mutated and merged into Ceaseless Onslaught’

Ceaseless Onslaught - Sword dance birthed from Flowing Greatsword Mastery. Slashing, stabbing, charging pierce, decapitation. It matters not to the ceaseless onslaught. Every attack is a precursor for the next using momentum. Speed and power of ceaseless onslaught rises with momentum. Ability to build up and retain momentum increases by 2.5% per level.

‘Merged with what? I lost some skill levels there and power stab lost its strength buff from the levels but it's a tier 2 skill so it should be stronger right? It should be a similar skill like Scarlet’s increasingly stronger attacks.’

The great thing was that power and speed increase would be for any type of attack with his greatsword as long as momentum was built up and not just stabs. Ebony felt that the ‘decapitation’ part was unnecessary. Only about 80% of his kills were by decapitation.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Peak Performance evolved into Sustained Optimum Condition.’

Sustained Optimum Condition - Ability to perform at your peak regardless of stamina levels, body or mental conditions at all times improves by 2.5% per level.

‘...Peak Performance was a better name. That’s all? I really thought that Treading Step would evolve.’

Ebony sincerely thought Peak Performance to be a better fitting name for the skill and for what the skill does. He’s not complaining though.

Even without the mix of Chaotic Repulsive Membrane in his movements, he thought that he reached a breakthrough in his movement speed and footwork.

Name: Ebony Rime

Core Skill: Everlasting Tranquillity Lvl 152

Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 88

Class Skills:

Treading Step Lvl 97

Ice Mana Control Lvl 102

Icebody Enhancement Lvl 113

Flowing Greatsword Mastery Lvl 107

Frost Injection Lvl 111

Ice Sword Lvl 99

Ceaseless Onslaught Lvl 75

Layered Ice Carapace Lvl 92

Frost Mist Perception Sphere Lvl 96

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Sub-Class: Orchestral Gravity Conductor Lvl 81

Sub-Class Skills:

Battle Song Lvl 81

Mana Vibration Lvl 78

Gravity Mana Manipulation Lvl 87

Magnified Gravity Field Lvl 7

Chaotic Repulsive Membrane Lvl 95

Vibrational Gravity Sense Lvl 77

Sonic Overlay - Lvl 51

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Profession: Mana Meister - Lvl 85

Profession Skills:

Mana Moulding Lvl 62

Sheer Mana Compression Lvl 109

Mana Perception Lvl 80

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Health: 159/300

Stamina: 22/500

Mana: 8/4700

Unallocated stat points: 240

Strength: 30

Vitality: 30

Constitution: 100

Endurance: 50

Agility: 150

Intelligence: 276

Wisdom: 470

Perception: 80

Generic Skills:

Stealth Lvl 14

Identify Lvl 12

Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 35

Running Lvl 29

Mental Mapping Lvl 12

Kicking Mastery Lvl 36

English Lvl 8

Elcrian Lvl 6

Mental Arithmetic Lvl 13

Dish Washing Lvl 10

Physical Conditioning Lvl 9

Magical Conditioning Lvl 9

Sustained Optimum Condition Lvl 41

Tracking Lvl 10

Game Processing Lvl 10

Heat Resistance Lvl 28

Sheer Divination Resistance Lvl 12

Before he started, he was at level 74, 61 and 68 for his Class, Sub-Class and Profession.

The previous 11 levels in his Class, 14 in his Sub-Class and 12 in his Profession were 180 stat points plus 12 Wisdom stats. He had allocated 50 to Agility, 80 to Intelligence, 30 more to Wisdom and 20 to Perception.

Now, he gained a total of 14 Class levels, 20 Sub-Class levels and 17 Profession levels. 17 levels in Profession brought up his Wisdom to 470. Hence, his current stats and 240 unallocated stat points.

Two-Handed Power Stab or Ceaseless Onslaught was actually already over level 90 but dropped after the mutation and questionable merger. Did it merge with a skill that hasn’t become a skill? Maybe.

His skill slowed in levelling for quite a while, Ebony gained most of the levels within the past few hours..

It was nice that his Sub-Class and Profession were chasing up to his Class level. It really wasn’t easy to level. Towards the end, the level difference between him and the monsters were just about 10 or so.

He didn’t train Magnified Gravity Field much due to its high mana cost but that would change soon.

His current reduced regeneration rate for stamina and mana was only temporary.

Generic Skills were really tough to level. Heat and Cold Resistance barely increased even with the kind of exposure training he did for them. Sustained Optimum Condition gained a measly 1 level.

Ebony pushed himself off the floor.

“Let’s go.” He stood up and patted himself off. Tier 2 skills were really awesome, he could move his body as if his muscles weren’t pulled or worn out.

“Do you know where we came from?” Scarlet looked up at him.

“Yeah, Mental Map. It’s a little blurry in the middle but I remember.” Mental Mapping worked in the background. He never really consciously thought about mapping the area. His memories when he was at his mental tipping point were a little foggy but his head was clear.

“...Help me up.” Scarlet remained seated.

“Weren’t you walking just fine earlier?” Ebony responded in a similar fashion.

“My..my legs fell asleep after I sat down. It’s all your fault okay.” Scarlet raised her arm towards Ebony.

“Yes. Yes. It was my fault.”

Ultimate technique number 1: Agree with any unreasonable logic.

Ebony grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

If he had spider senses it would be tingling right now. Something wasn’t right but he didn’t know what.

Ebony didn’t expect to receive a heavy jab that could rival the earthen-hide bear’s strength to his stomach. He sensed and saw it coming but didn’t react in time. Tumbling away and shattering brittle, frosted grass.

‘What was that for? Women are really hard to figure out. I thought I was pretty good at reading people and their thoughts too…’

“Hmph!” she harrumphed loudly and stormed off.

“Wait. That’s the wrong way.” Ebony softly said, with their stats in Perception, she could easily hear him.

Scarlet harrumphed again, stomped the ground and glared at him before quickly looking away again. Ebony led the way as they slowly made their way back.

‘Incomprehensible.’

By the time they returned to the cave, daylight was about to come back out again. Seeing how he went before night came, it had been more than half a day, around 18 hours or so.

Coincidently, the fake cave entrance opened up when they were almost there.

❅❅❅

“Hey! We were just going to look…What the heck happened? Deranged bastards…You didn’t bother inviting me?”

Hector put his hands down from manipulating earth, saw the 2 of them with a constant change of expressions on his face. From surprise to confusion to bewildered to arms crossed pissed.

Hector had wanted to go and look for them throughout the night. At first, Scarlet left and he thought there would be no problem with her going. With both of their speed, they could run from any group of monsters here and being the training maniacs they were, he thought they were out training down the mountain.

Deep into the night, he assumed the two of them went to fool around together in secret but that felt unlikely. He was ready to leave and look for them but was stopped by Ryley saying they couldn’t afford to split up anymore and the two of them needed a vanguard. While Ryley had a chance to escape in case of an attack, Tuffock didn’t and Hector couldn’t just leave him.

Only the insane strength of the 2 missing could alleviate his worries. He had grown to like this party more than he thought. Never a boring day with them. Though he could make do without Ryley, he was still somewhat bearable. Hector knew it was only because the noble was acting minimally ‘submissive’ because of Scarlet’s presence in the team he could deal with it as long as Ryley didn’t actively rub him the wrong way.

When they didn’t return even when morning was about to come, he rushed out. Tuffock on his side removed the stone wall without much argument. Ryley complained in the back but he couldn’t stop the 2 mages. Coward.

Hector didn’t expect to see the 2 of them basically right outside the cave. It couldn’t be that he didn’t hear them calling them to open up, could it?

Then he saw some fresh, some dried, some frozen blood on both of them. Not all of them were theirs but they were in horrible shape compared to their usual spotlessness. He never saw either of them get hit a single time, discounting their training exercises.

Then he appraised their levels, both of them surpassing his own. Not by one or two levels either. Ebony rose to 88 while Scarlet rose to 89… absurd couldn’t begin to describe it. He would even believe it if they went up 10 floors in the dungeon and fought those a hundred levels higher than them or something.

It was weird that Scarlet was standing so far away from Ebony but Hector thought nothing of it.

“Just went to clear a path.” Ebony replied in his usual couldn’t sound more dead tone.

“Really?! Then what’re we waiting for? Let's go before the dungeon shuts us out or spawns more monsters again.” Ryley pushed Hector and Tuffock, who were blocking the cave entrance aside before looking up to the mountain summit. “There’s really a path open!”

“Sh..show me your wo..wounds,” Tuffock asked the two of them. Ebony said he didn’t have any open wounds, saying his robes protected him from sharp strikes. Tuffock still got him to eat a general healing pill, which sped up blood and muscle tissue regrowth.

Scarlet stretched out her arm and rolled up her sleeves. She washed it with water before Tuffock poured a colourless but viscous liquid on it. Then washed it away and applied the same paste he used before and bandaged it up. Tuffock couldn’t remove the feeling that someone was watching him very closely as he bandaged Scarlet’s wound.

Hector was asking them how the battle went and complaining about not inviting him, trying to one up him. He wouldn’t shut up until Ebony said he would invite him the next time.

“Come on, let’s go already! We shouldn’t let the opportunity that you’ve fought for, go.” The party had ignored Ryley earlier but he didn’t say shit because he couldn’t exactly cut in when the Xeng was getting treatment.

“I’m gonna take a nap.” Ebony said. He walked into the cave, getting to the end which wasn’t far. Casting Layered Ice Carapace with his recovered mana together with forming a bathtub and filling it with water. He stripped down, scrubbed the caked on dirt off and just slept in the tub with his shield as a partition after draining out and refilling the tub with clean water.