Ebony's Fable

Ebony didn’t know how long he was asleep for but he woke up as if he had starved for a week. He felt weak. His resources were full so he was out for quite some time. Or not.

He knew that his full health came with this weakness of his since his vitality hadn't filled up. He was probably going to add some Vitality. The health regenerated from mana doesn’t fully heal Ebony. Something just feels missing in his body as if energy was drained out of him.

Ryley’s concern was misplaced. The dungeon stopped spawning monsters to go after them. It either didn’t want to stop them anymore because it wasn’t worth it, didn’t have the resources which was unlikely or just didn’t have to block the way anymore.

It would have continued sending them after Ebony and Scarlet if that was not the case. It knew where they last were and all.

Even if they didn’t take the chance to move onward, they can always clear them out again. Having come out stronger, it would be a piece of cake to mow them down again. If all they wanted was to climb the mountain it wasn’t necessary to kill every single monster either.

He dried himself off and got dressed up. His skin did not wrinkle even after soaking in there for hours. At least it felt like hours.

Ebony walked out to find Hector just doing his handstand push ups with stone weighted feet. Tuffock had stones floating around him, eyes closed. Ryley wasn’t around.

Scarlet’s tent was by the side of the cave.

He could feel her gravitational waves, her not so steady breathing that caused the mana to vibrate. She hasn’t recovered from the intense battle. Ebony was quite concerned as her breathing was quite erratic. He felt weird, touched might be the word but he wasn’t sure. It was a feeling he was unfamiliar with but he couldn’t get the warm feeling and image of Scarlet joining him in his slaughter out of his mind. Gorgeous.

She was tossing around in her tent before waking up when she felt Ebony’s heat signature get close.

He sat around on his makeshift ice stool and had his robe in hand. Scarlet was clambering around to get her mask in her tent. He took the time to try to mend the claw and bite marks. The bite marks weren’t obvious but the claw marks couldn’t be hidden.

Ebony only followed Roya’s advice and weaved the outer layer thread ends into the middle layer so that there weren't any loose threads. The second layer was supposedly snakeskin or hide, it was lighter blue in colour than the dark blue of the outermost layer.

The first thing Scarlet did after emerging from her tent was cook. Perfect.

She looked as immaculate as always. Her mask, mantle and boots no longer had blood on them. Her hair was tied up in her usual ponytail.

The others ran over when they noticed food was ready. Ryley popped up from somewhere too.

“Chow time! I've been waiting so long.”

“Ca..can’t go back to the flavourless soup the parties I'd been..been in before. Err…Sc..Scarlet. ”

“What?”

“Is..isn’t this a lot less than usual?”

“Yes. I didn’t cook any for Ebony.”

“What?” Ebony couldn’t help but exclaim, stunned.

‘I knew my core skill description was a lie.’ Was what Ebony was thinking but his skill was still working fine of course.

“May I know what I’ve done to anger you?” Ebony reached out to grab a plate as he asked. He only saw a shadow flash before he felt a stinging burn on the back of his palm. It felt like a slap with a burning piece of metal, he didn’t even see her move or carry any weapon though?

“Go ahead. Eat up.” Scarlet had ignored Ebony since she punched him. She went back to her tent with a huge tray of food, as if tempting Ebony. The smell of food kept tickling his nose.

The other 3 didn’t know what’s up but started chowing down on the late breakfast.

“Psh. Here. You can have this. Just what happened between the two of you?” Hector slid a bowl of salad to Ebony as he whispered. Ebony knew that Hector just didn’t like vegetables or even fruits.

Ebony’s fork was about to stab into the bowl when Scarlet’s deep but cold voice rang.

“I won’t cook for those that give him any of my food anymore.”

Hector betrayed Ebony without hesitation, pulling his salad back into his arms. Ebony’s fork stabbed onto his ice table.

Ebony took his own dried jerky, souper bread and biscuits out. He drank lots of water to appease his stomach but his tongue wasn’t appeased.

He wasn’t going to ask Scarlet anything anymore. If she didn’t want to say what he did to anger her, he wouldn’t apologise. It was one thing if he knew what he did wrong, another if he didn’t do anything.

They packed up and set off.

There were still many frozen heads around, their bodies mostly gone for some reason. Maybe those parts affected by his mana took longer for the dungeon to digest.

“What the heck happened here?” Silence replied Hector.

Ebony was looking up towards the sky or where they were moving towards. He blinked. Then he rubbed his eyes.

Ebony couldn’t see past a certain area but the sky anymore. It was as if half the mountain disappeared in his eyes. Before he cleared the path there was clearly a further path up the mountain. No point pondering since he was already going upwards.

The journey was eerily quiet compared to any other time.

Nothing stood in their way as they went higher and higher up the mountain.

“There’s a thick fog up ahead.”

“Thick fog? Ah, I see it. Can you see anything inside?”

“Not from here. It’s too thick.”

Ebony could see the white fog too. It was past that that he couldn’t see. There was a shadow as if the mountain continued but not anymore. He didn’t find it necessary to bring it up. The others weren’t blind and Ryley had a better eyesight.

They continued without a single monster or other parties in sight.

Reaching where the fog was steps away from them.

“That’s one thick ass fog. I can’t see shit. It’s all white.”

“Get ready. Turtle up. I can’t see much either.”

Turtling up was just the 3 vanguards taking a triangular position with Ryley and Tuffock in the middle. Moving relatively close to each other. Ebony’s new shield was protecting Tuffock’s back as he walked at the very front. He was the toughest if you didn’t count Hector being in a double elemental enhanced state or more.

Ebony just remembered he had stats to allocate.

First of all, Vitality. The feeling of weakness hasn't fully left him. Now he knew not to depend on purely regeneration from his mana.

There was always the small chance that he was in the state where he can’t use enhancement magic again as well so he didn’t want to fully ignore Strength either.

He was mixed on Constitution. He wanted to focus more on it but it would increase a whole lot more if he were to place his focus on Intelligence. The problem was that he could hear his joints creak when compressed ice mana was being sent through. The power of his Intelligence was put against the toughness of his body.

Ebony wasn’t going to touch Endurance. His stamina regeneration practically doubled. He also didn’t want to go through the inability to feel growth without exhaustion again. Still, Ebony would monitor his stamina levels. A single one-on-one with a monster 10 or more levels above him should at least take up 1 or 2 stamina, was the benchmark Ebony put on himself.

Ebony’s movement speed was pretty fast, especially with his fortification but with no buff from enhancement for it, he'll likely put some in Agility again.

Intelligence was obviously getting a large portion.

Wisdom doesn’t have to be said.

Perception was always (not) helpful.

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 50

Vitality: 50

Constitution: 150

Endurance: 50

Agility: 200

Intelligence: 376

Wisdom: 470

Perception: 80 [201]

The final verdict was as such. Strength and Vitality 20. Constitution 50. Agility 50. Intelligence 100. The others untouched. He’ll get more Wisdom from his Profession levels and his current amount is already nothing to laugh at.

His Perception kept rising with skill levels as well so it was staying there for now.

The nonsensical Core Skill of his raises Perception as well. That may be why he saw the fogginess so early on. It was increased by 152%. Did Ebony even need to add Perception anymore if his Core Skill can continue levelling?

Looking at Hector, who needed Constitution for his body to handle multiple enhancement spells, was enough to tell that Ebony needed it too. It would be a shame if he constantly increased his enhancement magic for his body to be unable to withstand casting it.

Ebony was currently casting Chaotic Repulsive Membrane, Battle Song, 2 Layered Ice Carapace that hasn’t been fully compressed and Magnified Gravity Field. He had lost his previous fully compressed Layered Ice Carapaces in the slaughter.

Magnified Gravity Field consumes 250 MP/Min. Half that with his mana efficiency to 125. So far all the spells' mana consumption for area of effect skills were using 1 gir or 5 metres to calculate. Using it within a metre radius reduced the cost by a significant amount.

Furthermore, mana consumption numbers were never accurate since he could still manually get more mana efficient through manipulation. It wouldn’t train the skill much without an opponent for the effect to work on but it was low level so no issues there for now.

At 470 Wisdom, 4700 Mana pool. A natural regeneration of 1645 mana per hour. Level 152 Everlasting Tranquillity x 5.0% = 760%. (760% + 100%) / 100 = 8.6 times. 1645 x 8.6 = 14,1475 MP/Hr or 235.783 MP/Min or 3.93 MP/Sec.

Using the same multiplier for stamina, his stamina regeneration rate was 1505/min or 25.08/s.

The party walked but kept closing in and getting closer together.

“I can’t even see the ground under my feet anymore. Or even my feet.” Hector commented.

The fog wasn’t made of ice mana like his frost mist so Ebony was relying on his Vibrational Gravity Sense to ‘see’ around him.

The fog was very dense. Even Ryley couldn’t see much further than the others.

“Hey where did you guys go? Hellooo! Guys?!” Hector started shouting beside Ebony.

Ebony thought he was fooling around as usual however, he started hearing Tuffock whimper and call their names behind him.

“Where did they go? How did they disappear?” Ryley was mumbling to himself as well, Tuffock was right beside him.

Scarlet just kept walking forward.

“Stop.”

Ebony tapped Hector’s shoulder.

“Who’s there!” Hector punched Ebony’s face. Ebony shifted his head, dodging the quick jab.

“It’s Ebony.”

“Wel? What are you doing in Ordina? Aren’t you too old for this? Or are ya here to fetch me?”

“...”

‘Who’s Wel?’

“Eh, you’re really here to fetch me? Is it anything urgent? My party’s pretty interesting. I'm not going back yet. Oh yeah, help me look for them as well. They were right beside me earlier, I didn’t see how they disappeared all of a sudden.”

“...”

“Fa..father? No no no. I wasn’t fooling around. I’m now in a party with a Xeng woman. Nonono. I was polite, I.I didn’t offend them. She was travelling around with an ex-mana slave. Yes. Yes. I will use the best of this chance.” the stuttering voice was Ryley’s instead of Tuffock.

‘Father? Xeng woman? Still calling Scarlet that? Ex-mana slave? There was such a thing? He’s referring to me right? She didn’t travel with Hector or Tuffock for all I know. Well, she wasn’t ‘travelling’ with me either.’

Hector and Ryley were talking to themselves. Tuffock had his hands up to his head, he was kneeling down. Face scrunched up in pain. Scarlet stood still, looking upwards, staring into space.

From the looks of it, they were all seeing different things or people. An illusion, hallucination or some kind of mental magic was what Ebony could come up with. Was he under the effects now? It didn’t seem like it.

Hector started doubting the situation or the man he called Wel and started punching around. It was dangerous when he started using skills and enhancing his body with magic.

Ryley still saying yes and no while bowing or looking down on the ground.

Tuffock was slamming his head into the ground repeatedly.

Scarlet stopped staring into space as she looked towards Tuffock. Then she slowly, almost dramatically started drawing her twin longswords.

Ebony bent and dashed. He grabbed Tuffock and ran off with the propulsion from Chaotic Repulsive Membrane under his feet, pushing him to his maximum speed. He felt the sharp wind pressure pass his back as he didn’t stop running off down the mountain away from where the fog filled.

Ebony could easily tell that Scarlet was really about to kill Tuffock. He also grabbed Tuffock since it looked like he was the only one that was fighting against the mental intrusion of some kind.

“Put him down, Ebony. He needs to die or you’ll be the one to die.”

‘She can recognise me… she wants to kill Tuffock so bad she’ll kill me too? Maybe, because the two of us are capable of withstanding the mental attack. If that’s the case she shouldn’t kill the other 2 as long as they don’t go against the illusion. There’s Hector but…forget it. Retreat first.’

Ebony thought that Hector was beginning to break free from the illusion but it didn’t seem like Scarlet’s target was Hector anyway. Ebony didn’t stop running, he had a head start but he didn’t think it was enough. Scarlet quickly closed in on them. The increase in Agility or insane burst of speed that his repulsion gives him didn’t seem to matter.

“You can’t outrun me.”

“I know.”

Scarlet had pure speed but the sloped and rugged terrain was in Ebony’s favour. Ebony knocked the back of Tuffock’s head hard, he was struggling around too much.

For whatever it was worth, Ebony had Frost Mist Perception Sphere leaking with him at the centre. He ran in zig zags filling the area with his ice mana. The area was already filled with thick fog but Scarlet moved directly towards Ebony. Neither the fog or mist did anything to prevent her view of Ebony, who was carrying Tuffock.

He stopped wasting mana and casted Ice Swords aiming to slow her down, one after the other. It didn’t. Not even a fraction of a second. Scarlet lightly swung to knock them aside or slice them in half.

He had 2 shields but they weren’t fully compressed and even if they were Scarlet could still melt them with some effort. Better than nothing he supposed. He used 1 of them, hoping that she wouldn’t chase him after they left the fog. The fog was the only thing that Ebony guessed was causing this to happen.

“Stop running or I will use force to stop you.”

“Scarlet. You’re under an illusion or a mental attack of some kind.”

“...I am not.”

“...”

Words weren’t getting through to either of them, was what both of them were thinking. Ebony could feel the heat rising from her direction. Scarlet sped up. No longer fooling around, her heart thumped harder and harder.

Unknowingly, Ebony stepped out of the fog like a speeding train. He didn’t look back and continued creating distance. Quickly looking around for somewhere to put Tuffock down.

It was not much but there was a large mound and rock which Ebony placed Tuffock down. Dissembling his shield into scales and casting and forming more ice scales to lock Tuffock in the orb that he made before. Lightly freezing it onto the ground so that he didn’t roll away.

Distancing himself from it into another direction. Just in time for Scarlet to appear too.

‘She is still under the illusion even outside the fog?’

“Where is he?” Scarlet coldly asked.

“He, who? I’m the only guy that you should be looking for” Ebony retorted, Scarlet flinched. The response was a good sign to Ebony. The effect may be weakened after they leave the fog. He could get Hector and Ryley out after Scarlet awakens.

“Get. Lost. Or I’ll make you.” Scarlet demanded.

‘Didn’t work huh?’

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Ebony replied.

‘She’s getting even more agitated, maybe talking is working after all.’

“Don’t want to? You’re unable to.” Scarlet pointed out.

“...As expected. Fighting is our language.” Ebony was never one for many words.

Compressed Icebody Enhancement ran, Ebony turned into a translucent ice sculpture. Chaotic Repulsive Membrane haven’t been decasted. Mist flowed down from Ebony, surrounding him in less than a second. His upgraded sword that was made to take in more ice mana frosted over. Ebony’s superhuman Perception lets him hear the buzzing of his greatsword from Sonic Overlay.

Violent pounding reverberated from Scarlet. Blood boiling, her hidden skin turned bright red. The wind around her settled, avoiding her, ready to boost her whenever she wanted. The very air and ground burned, it was her counter against Ebony’s bothersome mist that would freeze her clothing and skin. A ball of lightning mana inside her body near her navel is ready to pulsate, giving her a literal lightning burst of speed. Both her longswords were burning aflame, smothered by razorsharp, revolving wind, lightning crackled from them

As lengthy as that sounded, both of them could concurrently cast all of that at the same time. The ground cracked at their forceful charge. Their blades crossed. Over and over and over again.

It was not their first battle against each other. They’ve spar hundreds of times by now. As seriously as now though, it was the first.

Ebony was stronger, tougher and could definitely outlast her. Was what he previously thought.

As long as he didn't get instantly killed, Ebony believed he had enough defensive and evasive measures to outlast anyone. He was a bad match against Scarlet. Shields melt. Ice attacks and slowing her didn’t work. She was faster. Her swordsmanship is many times superior. Nonetheless, Ebony was steps ahead of her and continued to do so.

The problem was that she got stronger and faster every passing second while Ebony only maintained his peak performance. Another point was that she actually managed to keep up with Ebony when they slaughtered the whole mountain’s worth of monsters. Sure, Ebony had days of piled up exhaustion and hours more of fighting before she came but her endurance could barely be considered her weak point.

A rare occurrence as it may be, Ebony had to use the period of time where he still had the strength advantage to defeat or make her come to her senses.

Even with her superior speed, Ebony needed one move to block 2 of hers. As if a light of hope, Ebony's Ceaseless Onslaught assisted him in building momentum. His rise in speed and power slightly surprised Scarlet.

They moved around the terrain a lot as Ebony’s usual tactic. He had to use movement and create distance as he could never duke it out with her in a straight on exchange. His fortification only increased his movement speed and not his general speed and Agility.

They were hidden in steam every time they closed in as Scarlet’s Immolation met Ebony’s mist. Ebony’s sword crying out every time they cross blades. The numbing of Ebony’s hands didn’t seem to affect him. Ebony was once again impressed with whatever her swords were made of.

The hide and bone of the tough bears could barely withstand Ebony’s current level of Sonic Overlay together with his membrane. Ice was not doing much to it either, just melting off.

Just when things were not looking good for Ebony, Scarlet’s rate of power and speed increase was much higher than Ebony’s. With Ebony trying to get away from her, his momentum was constantly disrupted anyway.

“Where is he? If you don’t take me seriously you’ll never be able to hurt me.” They never spoke while sparring. Even the recent advising on each other’s training was done after sparring. Scarlet stopped, and so did Ebony. They were not far from each other.

Her build up in speed and power from her technique will be reset but the build up in her rise in stats wouldn’t be affected.

“...I take every one of our spars seriously.”

“Seriously? In none of them have your blade or kicks ever mean to touch or land on me. How much longer do you want to mock me?”

‘Did I pull back my blows? I did? Never. I didn’t even pull back when fighting Tiha. Furthermore, Scarlet had always been the more powerful one. But…did I? I did. I never realised, no wonder she was always so angry or annoyed when we spar. I didn’t think I would disrespect her like that, unknowingly or not. I really take all of them seriously though. I would get beaten if dad or mum were here.’

“...I never noticed. I apologise if it felt like I was mocking you but I really took every spar seriously.”

“Ah! Enough of this talk. There’s no time. Tell me where Tuffock is now!” Scarlet burst directly in front of Ebony. With lightning pulsing through her body, mostly her lower body.

‘And I thought chatting was going well…’

❅❅❅

With no leeway to continue chatting, Scarlet increased the pressure on Ebony. She didn’t use lightning magic anymore, having enough speed. She had limited mana and fire magic was her preferred magic. Even more effective against Ebony.

She was trying to force Ebony to tell her where Tuffock was but Ebony had been leading them away from him for a while now. Besides, she knew it was difficult to force Ebony to say or do anything against his wishes. But she didn’t have time to think of any other method but force.

She stabbed out, only to have their blades screech as Ebony shifted his body slightly with his greatsword slant and deflecting the perforation. Her eyes widened, she didn’t follow up with another attack but backed off. She was certain Ebony wouldn’t attack her. He never did. Always on the defensive.

Scarlet glanced at her sword, Ignite, for a split second. She knew Ebony wouldn’t take the chance to attack her. He was either too soft or always looking down on her. Never taking the initiative to actually land a blow, only stopping his blows to show her where her openings were.

Honestly, deep down she knew he wasn’t looking down on her. That made her annoyance worse since she didn’t know how to feel about it.

He didn’t have to, but sometimes his gaze would move and show her where her opening was. As if teaching her, no it was exactly like teaching her. She was angry and irritated but perhaps she shouldn’t have said that he was mocking her. Both of them were always teaching and helping each other improve.

The temperature in Scarlet’s Immolation dropped. It continued dropping but that didn’t even catch her attention despite sensing the change in temperature. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from his greatsword or rather, the blue flames it was spitting out.

The flames slowly died down to only a thin layer, under that ridiculous gravitation spell of his. He could control the flames under his gravitational spell but he couldn’t stop the chill it emitted.

“Challenging me with flames?”

Scarlet was enlivened, to think someone in her generation would challenge her with fire. Her spirit was stirred. She no longer diluted her fire mana with Mana Expansion. No longer using the pathetically thin fire mana in the dungeon’s atmosphere. Ebony wanted to play with fire? She would gladly play along. Conjuring her own fire mana. There was no need to keep things ‘safe’ anymore.