Ebony's Fable

Turning the clock back, hours ago. It was pitch black, dark and cold. Silent till a pinging sound echoed in the enclosed darkness.

“Tewa. Report.”

“Boss Hard! You’re in Ordina?” Tewa spoke into his myriad bracelet.

“...”

“Ye..yes boss Hard. Ordina is a lot stronger than we originally thought it was. Of 26 parties, 9 of them are uncontactable, 8 confirmed wiped out, the last is presumed dead. All 45 of them were under level 100. Throughout the other parties, we have another 8 deaths for a total of 53 dead. 16 full parties remain…” Tewa gave the latest count of their members.

“The dungeon layout.”

Tewa went on to give a detailed rundown of the areas they have explored.

Ordina should take a short 10 or 20 years before it grows into a complete Uncommon-ranked dungeon. Already beyond the majority’s expectations.

The first floor is just a wide open grassland. Monsters in the 80s range. Tewa already has multiple confirmed routes to the second floor.

All those low level parties in the 60s and above level range would have little chance of exploring deep into the dungeon but the first floor was an excellent place to start for them. As long as their party composition, teamwork and whatnot was decent it was possible to hunt sustainably.

Natural, wild monsters weren’t unlimited. It also took more time to find a monster outside compared to in a dungeon. The dungeon practically confirms the level range of the monster one expects to fight, unlike the wild as well.

Dungeons didn’t just spawn monsters. They spawned experience for people. People wouldn’t have been so crazy about it otherwise.

The second is a plain old forest. High 80s to low 90s. So far, the pillar in the centre is the only known route to the third floor.

The third floor is a considerably rough and steep range of mountains. The first death was reported on this floor. 90s to 100. Unevolved. Multiple mountains have caves in which have stairs that lead to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor is a cavernous river… the dungeon’s wacky floors started here according to Tewa’s report. The river had a rapid and violent flow. It flows down a slight slope. In the river were numerous square white platforms that moved against the river flow, upstream. It would sink after a certain amount of weight, 2 moderately armoured humans could fit without causing it to sink.

Riding the platforms would bring them to the end of the river. The end or perhaps, start of the river was water flowing from a hole in the wall. The platforms would start floating into the sky, all the way to the fifth floor. The white platforms were actually perfect cubes.

Anyone who fell into the river got flushed down. Quite a few of their members died falling in. There were monsters in the river as well but getting flushed down to what Tewa said to be empty space gave those that survived the monsters little chance of survival.

Level 100. Unevolved.

The fifth floor was weirder. They floated on the white cubes into a pure white space, the only other colour being the river below them. And, when they got close enough to the top they could see the next floor. In this space, there were hundreds of thousands of the exact same white cubes. Many continued floating upwards, some stayed so still it could carry 5 people without even shaking. On the sides were those cubes that floated down. Perhaps to go back to the fourth floor’s river to float upwards.

Some white cubes had monsters popping out after stepping on them. Some were monsters themselves. Some had weapons, armour or obviously other parties’ bags and belongings. 2 of their parties got some pretty valuable materials by luck.

It was easy to fall off. All the way down to the gushing, turbulent river below. The cubes were only ⅕ of a gir by ⅕ of a gir after all, so no one was silly enough to really try fitting 5 people in one. One of their few mages slipped and fell and no one could catch him in time. Pity.

The Cube Mimics were the first evolved level 100 monsters spotted.

Jumping off the cubes when they reached near the top brought them to the sixth floor. It was walled around them so there was only one way forward after hopping onto the sixth floor.

Moving a short distance allowed them to see a waterfall that fell into the ground without making a puddle or splash, much less a lake. They guessed it somehow connected to the river on the fourth fall. Perhaps flowing behind the white space which was the fifth floor.

The waterfall was in the centre of a rocky cliff. The rocky cliff was impossible to climb for any of them. Even Tewa and his party. Rockscale Ogres didn't just have scales of rocks but they scaled the cliff on all fours like flatland. They even camouflaged on the cliff by staying still and keeping their body close to the cliff.

All of them were stumped here for a few days. Unlike their early rush up the previous few levels to get to the point where monsters were 30 levels above their own. Which in all honesty, Tewa thought to be an impossible mark to start hunting. But he didn’t dare say that. Still, he didn’t push his men to their deaths just because his bosses made an unreasonable request. He kept that a little secret from his bosses, not expecting his bosses to actually come into Ordina. There was no other way they could have contacted him otherwise.

The Rockscale Ogres went up to level 115 while the Climber Glaivefin Anabas went up to 110. Tewa ordered most of the remaining parties to remain and hunt on this floor.

The elite teams, basically all those who evolved to Master class. His party which was the strongest, the 5 people in the 110s, and another 2 parties with the freshly evolved, the remaining one being the unevolved level 100.

The seventh floor was a canyon. The monsters’ level range widened up here, from 105 to 135. Tewa left the 3 weaker parties to explore here while his own party moved on to the eighth floor. There was nothing too special on this floor from what he could tell. It was just a load of dangerous monsters.

Tewa’s party had only just arrived on the eighth floor, which was a desert, when his bosses contacted him.

“Eighth floor and the monsters have reached 140 or so. 53 dead, 80 remain. Tewa, you went easy on them. Forget it, I expected too much from a bunch without much proper training. How goes the behaviour of Ordina?”

“I say we’re about 70 to 80% confident of bending it to our usual plans.”

“Did you not clean up your tracks on the third floor?”

“No! Of course we did. What are you talking about boss Hard?”

“The immense number of monsters on the largest mountain.”

“?? Wasn’t that just an illusion? Some of us went there but aren’t there multiple caves on that mountain that lead to the fourth floor?”

“...”

“We didn’t do anything that would attract such attention from the dungeon on the third floor. Or any floor as of yet. When we arrived on the third floor on the first few days we didn’t encounter a large group of monsters.”

“How many others are there where you are?”

“Our party should be the only few if not only party on the eighth floor. We rushed all the way here in a few days. I don’t think there are any other parties in our level range here anyway. The previous few floors had a couple more active parties in the region, I even saw Panic Attack on the seventh floor but we stayed hidden. Oh, one of our men also saw one of Plainston’s escort teams. There was one party ahead of us in the beginning. They had a really strong water mage but I have never seen or heard of him or their party. They disappeared as well.”

“...alright. Don’t touch anyone else, we need to lay low. Stay on the eighth floor, get the men to slowly convene on that floor but spread out. A week, maybe 2. I’ll contact you when they get close.”

“Boss Hard, we’re doing that on this floor?”

“Yes, those monster levels should be enough. Prepare a thr…no, at least five hundred.”

“FIVE HUNDRED!?”

“...no less than five hundred.”

“ELL! He hung up! Ged, Lalt, contact the guys! Get them to come up, we got work to do. Boss's orders.”

❅❅❅

“Th..Thanks for the food.” Tuffock looked towards his feet as he gave a light bow to Scarlet.

“Appreciated.” Ryley didn’t mention it but he meant both saving his ass as well as preparing their meals.

“Let’s rest for the day. I’m tired. He’s still out cold too.” Scarlet pointed to Hector.

Ebony was still fighting it out with the core golem. He was having fun. Sadly, the golem began to slow down and frost covered its body. His greatsword digging deep. The golem’s yellow glow non-existent. He snapped out a front thrust with his feet. The core golem smashed into the corridor wall, its frost covered chest shattered. The ice didn’t manage to sink deep into it.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Earthen-Topaz Core Golem Lvl 100], enemy 10 levels or more above your own. Partial experience is gained. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.’

The moment of truth. He walked over the broken debris towards his scale orb. It slowly unravelled and reformed into his Layered Ice Carapace albeit smaller, revealing the ice sculpture within. It still had its dim yellow glow.

This orb imprison could work. His shields had more than enough mana in them. It could hide his flames of frost. Something like a golem may not die so easily from cold but it wasn’t true for all monsters. Besides, there were many other things he could do to the trapped target.

The few problems include; cast speed. He had to control his shields to separate and even change their shape to fit into an orb, which was the simplest to do from the already curved scales. The monsters wouldn’t stay still unless he interrupted them either. Then there was the size of the target to take into account. It didn’t seem like a big problem from most of what he had encountered but it was a reasonable concern.

Trying to familiarise himself till it became a skill might be worth it.

Ebony stared at the deep and clean cut it had on its shoulders. Incredible. He lightly swung to remove its head. Crushing it part by part till he received the kill notification. He didn’t gain a single level but his skill levels did rise a bit.

The one completely frozen deep throughout its body didn’t have anything left to salvage but the first one he killed still had a pretty intact yellow gem the size of a baby’s fist. It was just Identified as [Earthen Topaz] and nothing more.

The scent of deliciousness had wafted towards him a short while back. It might have something to do with how he sped up his fight. Scarlet sure was relaxed to cook right where she was.

He returned to see Tuffock and Ryley eating. Scarlet in her tent that she bothered setting up. Hector was still lying unconscious. His complexion much better and his breathing controlled. He looked fine already.

The biggest problem was that there was no food for Ebony. Tuffock and Ryley shifted their bodies to hide their food as they gobbled them up faster. Neither was willing to let him have any food after Scarlet’s threat.

Having no choice, he chewed on dried jerky and biscuits. Bread was only there to stuff himself full. At least the biscuits had more flavour from the dried fruits. The jerky was not that bad either. But comparatively…

Ebony and Scarlet ended their previous conversation awkwardly. He didn’t know how to break the ice either but he didn’t bother with that much. She acted weirdly and didn’t let him eat her food even before they fought so seriously. Right after they had each other’s back against the horde of monsters. Just what went wrong?

They discussed their hours for taking watch. In groups of 2s due to their location, golems could just pop up from anywhere. Taking 6 hour shifts instead of 2. Scarlet was within listening distance in her tent. The others couldn’t see but Ebony could feel that she was eating throughout their talk. She was rubbing salt on his wounds without her knowledge.

Ryley would be with Ebony while Scarlet with Tuffock.

Ebony and Ryley stayed up first. They set up camp right in the centre of the dark cave-like corridor. Each took one side with the camp behind them. Having to stay alert if anything pops ahead, behind or beside them. They had to stay close since it would be pretty bad if anything came out from the walls.

For some reason, Ebony felt sleepy. He didn’t mind. It felt more natural, he didn’t want to go days on end without sleeping just to try and tire himself out. Maybe it had to do with his mindset. He felt the changes to himself from the latest evolution of his Core Skill.

He went and took a short walk till Scarlet’s tent was out of his sense’s range after his pathetic meal. Ebony couldn’t really turn down his Vibrational Gravity Sense as well anymore. He probably still could if he really tried. Scarlet was once again stripping down, to wipe herself down. He couldn’t help but feel like he would be peeking if he stayed. She did look at his bathtub with weird eyes whenever she helped with his Heat Resistance training. Jealous, there was absolutely no way she could take a bath here in the dungeon.

Ebony returned to sense her lying down, unmoving except for the rise and fall of her chest. Since the first day, he had noticed that she had a lump of ice mana inside her tent. She hugged it to sleep, likely a bolster or something. Whatever or wherever that came from, he didn’t know but she sure was living comfortably in a dungeon.

Ebony sat crossed legged with his eyes closed and meditated. Still incredibly perceptive of his surroundings but in a state of rest. His mana takes less than half an hour to fully regenerate. Channelling mana to his robe till it couldn’t take in anymore. Repairing and refilling his Layered Ice Carapace, even casting another. More backup ice mana to use at any time was getting more essential as the monster’s level rose. It didn’t take nearly as much mana to manipulate or control them than to actually conjure it. No wonder the environmental mana affects the strength or output of a mage.

Each 5 layered shields which could be compressed by 275% with his Mana Compression or 550% with his Mana Compressibility contained 12187.5 mana. Every scale it was made of had hundreds of mana in them. He wasn’t sure how Ice Mana Efficiency played a part in the calculations here. Was it actually over 24000 ice mana if he really took it into account? Ebony needed to study more to be sure.

With a 10126.5 MP/hour regeneration rate, Ebony repaired the 2 half broken or used shields. Filled his 5000 mana robe. Casted 3 more fully compressed 5 Layered Ice Carapace and still had some mana to spare with his full mana pool in the six hours.

Ebony didn’t want to do anything too tiring so he only played around with his excess mana to try to form a bicycle made of ice. It was fun enough for a pastime. He tried to remember all the parts but he was no expert on bicycles.

Ice also stuck to ice. The wheels and chain would stick and couldn’t turn either. Some parts like the pedal made too thin would easily break if uncompressed as well. Unfeasible for others to use, but with Ice Mana Control he could still play around with it to move it. Just much slower than his own speed.

As a ‘relaxing’ pastime he made his human ice sculpture to ‘ride’ the bicycle. It was mind-crunching, like programming an AI with too many parts to move at the same time. Great training for Ice Mana Control.

Even though they didn’t move far away from where they killed the 2 core golems, there was no attack in his entire six hour shift. Surprisingly.

But more surprising was that he fell asleep for the full six hours he was supposed to rest. He massaged his sore muscles before he went to sleep and it did its magic. It was like he was so at ease now. Uncaring for the dangers of the dungeon.

Fortunately, he remembered to fit his Blue and Greens in his myriad bracelet. He didn’t fill up any of them till now since he kept emptying out his mana and didn’t sleep.

His shields didn’t melt much but he patched them up anyhow. Ebony decided to continue Magnified Gravity Field practice with his mana. The slightly increasing levels of gravity as they climbed the dungeon tower had been bearing down on their bodies. Another reason why it was more tiring fighting and moving around so why not increase that further and make his party think it was all the dungeon’s doing? Ebony’s current skill level was low and it should not be easily noticeable.

Ebony watched Scarlet cook and the others eat while he munched on his dry rations. They chatted on what happened the day before.

After the wall separated them, on Scarlet’s side. The floor also opened up immediately, Scarlet stabbed the wall too late to stop her fall. They didn’t panic seeing the ground below them so close but the floor or now ceiling closed up. A few golems attacked them but nothing unmanageable for them.

Similarly, they also thought there was only one way to move and that they did. They didn’t face any attacks other than the one with 2 core golems with multiple of the other types.

Scarlet knew she didn’t have much energy or mana left so she did it her usual way and wanted to take them down as fast as possible. She blasted off to meet both of them, only catching one of them off guard and slicing it shoulder. They didn’t say much about how the fight went so he could only guess.

The other riff-raff was likely handled by Ryley and he got attacked by one of the core golems which Scarlet protected him from.

All of them packed up and were ready to get on the move when Hector stirred awake.

“HAAAHH!” Hector shot right up and shouted at the top of his lungs. Looking around confused when his party looked at him annoyed.

“Keep quiet.” Ebony said.

“Ar..are you feeling al..alright?” Tuffock asked as he checked Hector’s body. His diagnostic measures weird. Tapping two fingers across Hector’s body, muscles and bones. Testing for his reactions while asking him how much he felt.

“Hahahahaha! So how was my punch? Strong right? Now you believe I can shatter that disgusting shield of yours don’t you, Ebony?” Hector seemed to ignore the fact that he was out cold. As hearty and energetic as usual.

Ebony replied by shifting all 5 of his shields into Hector’s sight. His expression made Ebony’s day already. It was hard to move so many of them around in this walkway. Ebony took the front as they set off again.

‘Wait. They didn’t mention passing by that party that chased us.’ Ebony thought. But he didn’t care enough to bring up dead men.

Neither Scarlet nor Ryley seem like the type to be concerned enough to say that they passed by some random party they didn’t know. And so, just like many bothersome things, Ebony chucked the thought aside. He was too lazy to ask why Tuffock did what he did. It wasn’t like they would revive because he found out his reason. There wasn’t even a need for Tuffock to have a reason. Dead means dead.