Ebony's Fable

A quiet, uneventful night passed.

Scarlet once again let Ebony help with the dishes. She didn’t let him do anything to help with the cooking. She didn’t say a single word to him, even during their spar. Ebony was certain she was not herself as she missed a few opportunities to attack. Absent-minded, she still didn’t look at his face even once throughout the battle. Ebony somewhat understood it was a little too embarrassing so he was okay with that too. It didn’t look likely that she’ll kill him in his sleep at least.

The next day.

Ryley was amazed that he could raise his arm over his shoulder. He tried drawing his bow’s bowstring. He couldn’t pull off multiple shots in a row without feeling pain but it was possible for them to continue. The miraculous pill was something even a noble like him never heard of.

He was even more confused about Hector’s identity, a quadra elemental mage was concerning enough. But having pills that could heal damage that could put a fighter out of their career? This party was only getting weirder. He really was in luck, he had to get as far as he could with them. Build a connection. He gave a deep bow to thank Hector who laughed it off.

Hector’s wound also mostly closed up. Ryley was more and more sure, Hector was someone big. The wound may not have been too deep but it was not something humans could just heal naturally. Not at that speed. Even with medicine and potions. Vitality stat was no magic, it hardly increases a human’s regenerative properties.

Ryley couldn’t tell the state of Ebony’s injuries. No one could. The man himself assured them he could fight like he was in tip top shape.

So Ryley pushed on. Taking the first day slightly easier to heal up. The levelling speed was faster than anyone he knew. The level difference between his party and the monsters was greater than he thought possible to hunt with.

The next day they pushed even harder.

The third day they took Ebony’s suggestion and actively hunted anything they found, taking initiative against the desert wolves instead of getting ambushed.

By the fourth night. Everyone was at level 100. Stronger than ever.

They were having a small feast by their camp. The dire situation and outlook Ryley had when he reached this floor changed. The monsters were less of a threat if they were careful and planned properly. Fights only got easier with time. They improved while the monsters didn’t. At least not as fast as they did.

The whole floor wasn’t that large and was fully explored by the third day. They were planning to continue to the next floor the next day.

“Congrats on hitting a hundred!” Hector rammed his mug into theirs, even Scarlet joined. Though she hid in her tent to drink her juice.

“What are your plans after this? I know we came in to clear it but I highly doubt we could clear Ordina if we’re on the 5th floor and there are at least 15 to go. To think that Ordina was formed on the cusps of an Uncommon ranked dungeon.” Ryley asked. He was long aware of the impossibility of clearing Ordina and just wanted some information about their movement in case the contact ever turned out to be useful.

“We.. we can see the next floor looks just like this floor. Go..going as far as we can is..is good right. The 30 level gap is..is amazing for our natural potential. I ne..never thought I would get the chance to have my natural potential raised 3 times. Even a level 140 sounds possible, right?” Tuffock sounded really happy. No average joe could kill something 30 levels above them and have the experience converted to natural potential.

“Yes! I have had many skills stop in levelling for a year or two now. It was great to see them finally level.” Ryley said. Sure, the 2 of them were rear support and most likely got less natural potential out of the kill than the other 3 who could take on a level 130 or higher monster by themselves but Ryley would have gotten nothing if he didn’t have their help.

“I..I’ll study and broaden my knowledge. I still have a Sub-Class to take before I want to evolve so it might be many years before I become Master class. Maybe find a stone mage academy somewhere.” Tuffock shared his plans. His levelling had been even faster than Ebony's because he didn’t have a Sub-Class. It wouldn’t even be hard to level his Sub-Class since he could take on stronger targets now.

“I’ll go back and train up all my skills with my master I guess. I have most of the skills I want already and just have to polish all of them including some new ones. I want to see if they can be added into my Class after evolution.” Hector took a bite out of a large drumlet. Ebony didn’t know what meat it was, it was savoury and roasted well with simple seasoning.

“I guess that’ll be the same for me. Polishing my lineage skill should be the bulk of what my family would enforce.” Ryley shrugged. Ebony heard that some noble families made it a point that their descendants must learn certain skills and even forced them not to learn certain skills that would affect the chances of them taking a Class or skill and whatnot.

“Going back home in Xienor.” Needless to say, Scarlet was going back for training.

“What about you Ebony?” Hector asked since Ebony didn’t share even after Scarlet did.

“Probably travel a bit to broaden my horizons. Polish my skills for a year or two then evolve. Come back here and finish what we’ve started.” Ebony thought for a bit before replying.

“A year or two? What are you in a rush for?” Ryley was visibly surprised. Evolutions weren’t reversible. There was so much they could do to increase the chances for a better, stronger evolution. Furthermore, none of them were old or that they didn’t have the talent to meet the base requirement for the weakest evolution. Who would rush and turn out less than they could be?

“That’s too short?” Ebony asked. He did think there was a lot he could improve on but was unsure of the standards of Elcra.

“Well, I was planning to train really really hard but I never thought to rush my evolution. If all goes well I will evolve in 7 to 8 years?” Ryley said.

“I…I was thinking about a decade or two.” Tuffock added. It was no surprise that mages took a damn long time. He also had another class to pick and train all the way up to level 100.

“Don’t rush.” Hector commented. Receiving affirmative nods from the party.

“Alright. Thanks.”

“I’m all up for coming back to clear Ordina though.”

“Same here!”

“Me…me too.”

Ebony was pretty happy with his party. Ryley was not so hard to get along with once Ebony got to know him. His arrogant tone died down over time.

Tuffock might have murdered but who was Ebony to complain? He was no different.

Hector was hard not to get along with. His upbeat, energetic and cheerful nature might be tiresome at times but a fun guy to be with and play pranks on of course. Tuffock even told Ebony that Hector’s belly injury was gotten when he attempted to protect Scarlet. A plus point to him.

Ebony was going to miss eating Scarlet’s food.

They ended their small feast when it attracted some Arrowtails. Ryley shot them down and went for an after dinner jog to get his arrows back. They were a few gors away. Meaning to say many km away.

Ebony called up his status. It hasn’t been long but he has come a pretty long way.

Name: Ebony Rime

Core Skill: Everlasting Tranquillity Lvl 162

Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 100

Class Skills:

Treading Step Lvl 104

Ice Mana Control Lvl 112

Icebody Enhancement Lvl 122

Flowing Greatsword Mastery Lvl 111

Frost Injection Lvl 120

Ice Sword Lvl 102

Ceaseless Onslaught Lvl 97

Layered Ice Carapace Lvl 106

Frost Mist Perception Sphere Lvl 102

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Sub-Class: Orchestral Gravity Conductor Lvl 100

Sub-Class Skills:

Battle Song Lvl 99

Mana Vibration Lvl 91

Gravity Mana Manipulation Lvl 107

Magnified Gravity Field Lvl 49

Chaotic Repulsive Membrane Lvl 113

Vibrational Gravity Sense Lvl 93

Sonic Overlay - Lvl 79

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Profession: Mana Meister - Lvl 100

Profession Skills:

Mana Moulding Lvl 65

Sheer Mana Compression Lvl 110

Mana Perception Lvl 85

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Health: 500/500

Stamina: 500/500

Mana: 2341/5300

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 50

Vitality: 50

Constitution: 250

Endurance: 50

Agility: 250

Intelligence: 376

Wisdom: 530

Perception: 100 [262]

Generic Skills:

Stealth Lvl 14

Identify Lvl 13

Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 37

Running Lvl 29

Mental Mapping Lvl 15

Kicking Mastery Lvl 36

English Lvl 8

Elcrian Lvl 7

Mental Arithmetic Lvl 15

Dish Washing Lvl 13

Physical Conditioning Lvl 11

Magical Conditioning Lvl 11

Sustained Optimum Condition Lvl 41

Tracking Lvl 12

Game Processing Lvl 10

Heat Resistance Lvl 30

Sheer Divination Resistance Lvl 12

Some of Ebony’s skills, for example, Sheer Mana Compression, completely stopped in levelling even before he hit level 100. After he hit level 100, he was considered ‘max level’ again and sufficient potential experience was accumulated when he killed the first level 132 Arrowtail again and was converted to Natural Potential. They should be able to continue levelling again.

Skills that were used more levelled more while those used less levelled less. There was not much to say about his Class and Sub-Class skills. Mana Moulding had no real chance to be practised.

Generic skills did see some slight change. Identify finally levelling once more. Cold and Heat Resistance gained about 2 levels. Scarlet has been directly throwing fire spells at him, maybe she thought that he could take it after their most serious fight. The burns were painful but more so his robe getting damaged. Mental Mapping obviously worked hard due to the size and multi-floor dungeon. Conditioning was a slow grind, it didn’t do much either.

Scarlet still didn’t say much to Ebony. She made food for him, a snack for the middle of the day was prepared for him daily too. They sparred as per normal too. Neither mentioned what happened again.

As for his stats…

Ebony didn’t exactly know what to think about it. Was it good? Was it bad? Hard to say.

So many theories, so many builds, so many possibilities. He went with instinct and some planning for himself.

It was really dependent on skill set, honestly.

There were many things he wanted to change to his main Class’s skills but even before he changed them his body could hardly handle his Icebody Enhancement when compressed. He also had to take into account him wanting to increase his Agility.

The increase in speed would burden his body even more. Then, his Treading Steps would still level, increasing his speed even more. Icebody Enhancement would get stronger too, he could compress even more mana with training.

100 points went to Constitution. 50 to Agility. 45 outside of his Profession points went to Wisdom and 20 more for Perception.

His body already unable to withstand his magic, Ebony made a slightly painful decision not to increase Intelligence further. He was originally contemplating between Wisdom and Intelligence but decided on Wisdom just because he still felt lacking in mana.

Ebony did have more detailed plans than to just travel and broaden his horizons then evolve. One of them is to return to look for Gen. The other was to return to visit the Thoya family, just to show his face and whatnot. If possible, learn a little more about mana and perhaps tailoring from Roya but that was not the main point.

He wanted to see if he could visit a mage tower or two to read the books he was allowed to read. Ebony thought that it would be fine even if he had to pay since he could regenerate income. Ice, sound and especially gravity. Ebony didn’t think he wanted to pick up another type of magic even if he could for now. He had many things on his plate for now.

Well, when put that way, 1 or 2 years really was insufficient.

Evolution to Master Class.

There were many differences to Classing. Classing could have been said to be handicapped. Generous.

The handicapped part was Apprentice Classes. The level 10 requirement would come back and bite them in the ass when they reached level 100. No such thing as an Apprentice Warrior evolving into a Master Warrior.

Breaking things down for Classing.

Apprentice, level 10 skill requirement. 50% buff for Fortification

Normal Classes, generally known as Journeymen which everyone in Ebony’s party falls into.

Level 25 skill requirement which practically everyone got gave 100% buff for Fortification.

Ebony knew for a fact that there was a level 50 one which gave a 250% buff.

Evolution to Master Class and higher was known to be the same and unlike the generous Classing. The general rule of thumb for the skill level requirement was 1.1 times, 1.25 times and 1.5 times their max level. The buff to Fortification is 25%, 50% and 100% for each mark reached.

So every skill that Ebony got to get his Class would need to be level 110 to meet the minimum requirement to evolve and the current Fortifications he has would increase by 25%. Hitting the level 125 mark would increase the buffs by 50% and reaching level 150 would get him the ‘normal’ 100% buff like when he Classed.

So why was Apprentice Class handicapped? They do not meet the requirements to evolve until their required skills reach level 125 and get the 50% buff. They didn’t have a level 110 option. Even so, after Evolution their total Fortification buff would only equal another Journeyman that hasn’t evolved. Those who even picked Apprentice Class were likely not so talented in whatever skill or Class they picked which made it even harder to reach the higher requirements.

Then the fact that their Fortification buff was only 50% obviously made them weaker if they were combat classers. This would make it even harder for them to hunt a monster 10 or 20 levels above them to raise their natural potential. A vicious cycle. The weak would stay weak while the strong get stronger.

Noticing how Hector was really knowledgeable and how Ebony wanted to know the general strength and levels of the people on Elcra, Ebony just asked Hector once after they sparred. Hector answered all of Ebony’s questions. How did he know some of these things? Ebony didn’t know and didn’t ask, it might be general knowledge for all he knows.

About 10% of the entire continent’s population were Apprentices, practically all humans. Give or take. Plainston and other edges of the Empire were more undeveloped and hence, more of them were concentrated here. Many Apprentices die of old age without reaching the level 125 requirement. If they even survive till old age which is 150 to 200 years old for humans.

Of all Journeymen, only those who were so untalented and about to die of old age took the level 110 evolution. Sometimes, a person’s general ability can be seen by comparing their age to their levels. This was less than 10% of all the Journeymen. The cause of death was rarely old age for combat classes and a large majority were combatants. The chances of these people becoming Grandmaster Class was next to 0.

More than 50 to 60% of the Journeyman took the level 125 requirement evolution. They have less than a 15% chance of meeting the lowest requirement for becoming a Grandmaster. If they ever reach level 300 of course. From what is known, the general rule of 1.1, 1.25 and 1.5 times the level for skill level requirement was the same for the further evolutions as well. This meant the skill level requirement for Grandmaster was level 330, 375 and 450 for the same Fortification buff of 25%, 50% and 100%.

Power difference between people of the same type of Class only widened as they levelled and evolved.

The rest of the Journeymen meet the level 150 requirement. As long as they didn’t die young or have any injuries that prevent them from improving, they had the highest chance of evolving into Grandmaster.

Currently, 3-7% of the Empire’s population was unclassed and under 15 years old. 25% or so of the Empire’s population was Apprentices and Journeymen between level 0 and 100, unevolved. Over 60% was evolved and between level 100 and 300, Master Classes were the majority. Remaining percentages were Grandmasters. King Classed were few.

Ebony really wonders where Hector came up with these numbers and percentages and how accurate they were.

The trends were painfully obvious to Ebony. 1.1 times, 1.25 times, 1.5 times. 25%, 50% and 100%.

Skills had the same trend. 1.0%. 2.5%. 5.0%. Finally, tier 4 skills were 10.0% per level.

Ebony was willing to bet everything he had that there was a 2.0 times skill level requirement for a 250% Fortification buff. He would definitely not evolve before he at least tried hitting that level for his Core Skill. He was even willing to bet that tier 5 skills, which Hector said definitely existed, gave 25.0% per level for whatever the skill does.

The numbers were outrageously nonsensical as power rose exponentially.

Numbers were nice and all but there were more than just skill levels for requirements. There were still special requirements like Ebony’s. New Generic skills can be learned and brought up to suitable levels and if compatible, a new Class could be branched into. The higher they go the harder for this to be done, so if he wanted to continue to diversify his skill set it was better to do so now.

Ebony hadn't heard anyone else bring up Physique into the conversation and he didn’t exactly want to bring attention to himself so he was planning to ask Gen more and if not then just browse through libraries and check if Physique was decent for a conversation topic.

Well. That was that. It would still be a long time before he evolves so what better to do than come back to the present and continue their climb of the dungeon? Ebony wanted to see just how high level a monster he could slay to get as much Natural Potential as he could.

There was no better and more convenient place than up, up and above.