Ebony's Fable

In the morning.

Scarlet couldn’t stand seeing Panic Attack mutilate and waste food anymore. Using their ingredients, she made breakfast for them too and they all ate together on a larger table Ebony made. They never had such luxury when they were out on the field. One of them actually cried as he ate. They thanked and even wanted to pay Scarlet for the meal but she rejected it.

Packing up and ready to climb to the supposed 11th floor. During breakfast, they learned about the floors they missed. Ebony wasn’t disappointed at missing some of the more interesting floors. They could explore it when they went back out anyway.

They didn’t have too much trouble scaling the sandy slope and arriving on the 11th floor in about an hour or so.

“...Another desert floor? WHEN WILL THIS END!” The one who cried at breakfast screamed. The 2 parties separated as they didn’t want to gain unwanted attention from the dungeon or share prey.

“Hmm? This floor is small. Look up and far.” Ryley said.

“Walls. Finally.” Hector saw what Ryley was referring to.

“Le..let’s go.”

They sped up forward towards the walls. The walls were the same colour as the sand and most of the desert. They got closer and closer before Ryley saw that they should turn more than 90 degrees right. Something on the walls was different from where they were headed.

Half a day passed with the dungeon sun high up in the ‘sky’.

“No monsters.” Ebony commented. Half a day was a long time for them to not encounter any monsters. He could see the half pyramid that stretched into the sky sticking out of the wall. There was an entrance right at the bottom.

“Hmm, this isn’t a trap floor or maze floor or anything weird either.” Hector guessed. Not all dungeons or dungeon floors were about monsters. Dungeons have many more methods that they could use to attract, then kill and absorb a person’s essence.

“Th…then let’s keep going. No..no traps. No monsters.” Tuffock said.

“This is mighty suspicious to me. Who knows if there were traps in the triangular sand dune.” Hector gave his opinions. They didn’t seem to know what a pyramid was.

“Mike did say that there were a few parties he saw that were ahead of them. Maybe they just passed by and cleared this area.” Ryley hypothesised.

“I guess that's possible…but I’m worried. We were having trouble with level 140s already, no reason to go any further since we’re not planning to explore for treasure. We don’t even gain experience anymore. I say we just end our dungeon expedition here.” Hector spoke softly before glancing at Scarlet. Scarlet shrugged her shoulders.

Ebony noticed that the 2 of them were talking to each other more often. After Hector showed his ability to mega punch and use lightning enhancement. Scarlet has been talking to Hector about fire and lightning enhancement magic. Hector, being open with his knowledge, shared his experiences and whatever he knew. Every time he came closer to listen to their talk since it was always good to learn more about magic, they would stop their conversation and split up. Ebony didn’t like that.

“...I guess we really don’t have much to gain by endangering ourselves.” Ryley said. As much as he liked to clear the dungeon it just seemed unlikely even though they were higher up in the dungeon than he originally thought.

“Do..don’t you think we can take down a level 150 together? Th...that’s another natural potential increase.” Tuffock asked.

“I know you want to take this chance to get more natural potential to increase your generic skills even more for a better Sub-Class but we’re already at risk where we are, Tuff. We don’t know if we could kill a monster at level 150 and even if we can, your stone magic already couldn’t harm a level 140 much. The natural potential split to you would be irrelevant even if we could kill a level 150 monster.” Hector discouraged Tuffock. He was hoping Tuffock would back down.

“...Al…alright. You’re right. I’m okay with stopping here. Let’s go.” Tuffock’s head looked further to the ground, evidently disappointed as he gripped his fist tight. He was also a little hurt but he knew he didn’t do much unless he expended a lot of time and mana to strengthen a single spell.

Hector was ecstatic at Tuffock giving up. He was already feeling really bad about doubting one of his new friends that he liked quite a bit.

“Ebony? Scarlet? Are the two of you okay with stopping here? You’re the strongest here, you might even have a chance at taking down a level 150 alone. Your gains would do your future good.” Ryley redirected the question to them. The only known way of getting Natural Potential to rise was when one reached ‘max level’ and killed a monster 10 levels above them and every 10 levels above that gave another sum of Natural Potential. While crafters had more unknown ways, the commonly known ones are to either use higher rarity materials or craft a higher rarity item with lower rarity materials and/or ingredients.

A loud swish sound that Ebony had gotten familiar with resounded through the air before the 2 of them could reply. Scarlet reacted first, kicking Ryley out of the way. It was an arrow. Then more arrows followed. Tuffock got a deep cut on his upper arm as his flimsy robes tore, it was merely from the sharp wind pressure of a glancing arrow.

Ebony already got all of them behind his shields. He had 5 Layered Ice Carapace as usual. He saw a total of 7 people, some may be hiding but he didn’t see more. Too far for him to Identify, they were multiple sand dunes away.

“Move back. My shield is shattering.” He had received the brunt of mental feedback from the constant arrow barrage. At least 3 of them were powerful archers. They were definitely Master Archers, none of their spells would reach and Ryley probably couldn’t match them himself. Each shot wasn’t that strong but they had quite a rapid firing rate going on. They didn’t even try to conserve arrows as hundreds already shot towards them

Layer by layer, scale by scale, his Layered Ice Carapace came apart. He wondered how they carried around so many arrows. It didn’t take them long to back up but behind them was the pyramid’s entrance. They entered.

“They're coming after us!” Ryley called out.

Hector and Scarlet shared a glance. Tuffock, who started chanting as soon as they backed up, slammed the butt of his staff down. 2 stone walls rose and blocked the entrance.

“Co..come on. This won’t last for long.”

“No need.” Scarlet said.

“Just a few of them, we can handle them. They couldn’t break Ebony’s shield immediately, even the Arrowtails did more damage.” Hector added.

“Alright then! We’ll give them a good one when they smash through the walls.” Tuffock smiled. It was likely Tuffock 2 talking.

Just as he said that his stone walls broke apart.

“Come on down! All of you! We’ll tear apart everything you throw at us!” Tuffock 2 screamed as he tightened his fist and punched into the air. The stone fist that formed from the broken walls punched out together with his motion. It knocked away whoever was standing behind his walls. Ebony saw them using the flat side of their axe to block.

“Get them out of there! We can’t get a good shot with them in the entrance!” A voice echoed through the tunnel of the pyramid entrance.

Ryley reported a total of 10 people or 2 parties. 3 Master Warriors, 4 Master Archers, 2 Master Rogues and 1 Master Swordsman. Their swordsman was the highest level at 126. An assortment of level 120s and 110s for the rest.

Scarlet was already in battle with a rogue and the excited swordsman who rushed to her. That dumb idiot.

The axe-wielding warrior with a spear-wielding one fought Ebony while the remaining rogue and warrior engaged Hector. Ebony was excellent at seeing the weak points in the spear-wielding one since it was like his mother using the long rod or wooden staff of hers. He was not so familiar with the axe though.

He noted they were nothing special. Mike was more than ten times more experienced and better at fighting. He just pushed more mana into Frost Injection and they couldn’t deal with the increasing chill in their arms after their weapons were completely frozen and their hands frozen to it.

Seems like Ebony was still soft and only trapped both of them in an ice orb made from 2 Layered Ice Carapace. When a body flew towards him from behind, burned, he took the head and slammed it into his ice orb before the man’s body slowly sank into his orb that could probably fit more people.

There was a lack of fanfare. They handled the melee warriors and rogues without much effort or harm and he locked all of them in his orb. They were squeezed into uncomfortable positions and stuck close together but he didn’t care. Of the 6 warriors, rogues and swordsmen, 5 were inside his orb already. The warrior Hector fought died when Hector accidentally broke his neck with a jab too swift and sharp for the man.

There was a lot of shouting from inside his orb but they fell on deaf ears. The archers didn’t do shit, they ran when they saw that things went south.

“What to do with them?” Ebony asked. He did want to know why they attacked them out of the blue but honestly, he was too lazy to do that. After Hector killed the warrior, Ebony realised that he genuinely didn’t care why they wanted to attack them. They attacked with the intention to kill, that’s all he needed.

“Just kill them. They probably just want to take whatever loot they can from us, seeing that we’re just Journeymen.” Tuffock said as if it was the obvious and simplest method.

“Why not just ask one of them what they want from us?” Hector suggested.

Ebony got an ice hand inside to push the swordsman’s face against the ice orb and slowly pushed only his head to stick out of the ice orb.

“Who are you and why have you people attacked us?” Ryley took the lead in the questioning. He was almost killed by the first arrow shot and was not happy at all. The archers have escaped but it barely mattered now.

“Who we are is none of your goddamn business! Now let us out and fight us like warriors!” The swordsman shouted.

“Do any of us look like warriors to you?” Ebony asked. Even his own party was stunned silent at the comeback. They were technically warriors but also not really warriors.

“...hahaha! You’re in trouble now. Our boss is on the w...” The swordsman’s head was smashed into bits onto the ground with a floating stone mace.

“A load of bull. They never intended to tell us anything. Just kill them already, they are all attacking to kill us anyway.” Tuffock scoffed and crossed his arm. Looking unkindly towards any who tried to kill him or them.

Ebony looked around but there really was no disagreement from anyone. Human lives sure mattered little to the people here. No. It was just that their own lives mattered more. Who knew if they would return to kill them if he let them go.

He waited not a second more and lightly squeezed his left hand's fingers into a grip. The death or kill notifications rung in their heads for the partial experience that they didn’t gain due to max levels.

‘Hmm. Not any different.’ Ebony thought. His first 4 kills of living breathing people didn’t feel any different from when he killed monsters or the animals he hunted. He heard that people’s hearts would race and adrenaline would kick in but apparently not.

The orb unravelled back into Layered Ice Carapaces. Body pieces fell but their blood was already frozen. Ryley felt the urge to puke when he saw that. The others didn’t look or stare too much. Ebony took his shovel and buried them. It was the least he could do, though it likely didn’t mean anything. He didn’t bury any monsters in the dungeon since the dungeon just absorbs the monsters back. It was just sand so it didn’t take much time.

Then, he felt the vibrations in the ground, being extra sensitive to vibration was getting more useful. Yet, none needed his extra sensitive senses to vibrations when the entire ground and pyramid was shaking and sand was coming down on them.

They escaped out through the entrance again since it was so close to them anyway.

“Don’t stop running!” Ryley screamed. He saw what they didn’t, deeper into the triangular sand dune’s tunnel.

The tunnel was jammed packed.

Ebony grabbed the scruff of Tuffock’s robes as he made his dash. Trusting Ryley’s orders. He didn’t like the large and strong vibrations either.

It didn’t take long before the pyramid ‘exploded’ outwards near the entrance. In front were hundreds upon hundreds of Teen Giant Sandworms, they dug out from the pyramid and were the main culprits of the pyramid exploding. Thousands of Arrowtail Scorpions burst out along with the sandworms. Many clung onto the large and long bodies of the Sandworms and many more scattered in between the worms.

“HOLY CRAP!! WHAT THE ELL!?” Hector pushed his feet even faster along with all of them.

They didn’t stop coming out of the destroyed pyramid but the vibrations from the ground only got worse.

The horde was missing something. The most numerous of the desert’s monsters.

Desert Wolves.

They didn’t disappoint their reputation of being pack animals. Almost pouring out like a tidal sea wave.

A random scan gave him a wide range of numbers all the way from 125 to 150. The sandworms only reached about 140 or a little higher, just like the wolves. The scorpions were generally higher from 135 to 150.

Ryley didn’t even bother looking back and taking aim. With countless monsters there’s really no point taking a few down. He couldn’t even take one down with a single shot unless he used that shot of his. He would just lose the distance that he bought by escaping in advance.

Ebony was now faster than Ryley was in terms of movement speed. Scarlet far ahead, she could escape without much problem as long as she doesn’t slow down and tire out. It was difficult since monsters had a large advantage in terms of physical stats.

Hector enhanced himself with wind and water enhancement to speed ahead of Ebony.

“What do we do now?! They are catching up!” He called from not far ahead.

“What can we do but run.” Ebony plainly said. If he was alone, he would just stay there really. He just needed to optimise a slow burn of mana and stamina most efficiently and he’ll slaughter them all in time. The higher level ones were more troublesome because he would have difficulty even dealing damage to them. Their weakness to ice mana was a fantastic add-on.

He better not try. His output will most definitely be higher than his regeneration to take even a single one of them. Even if he turned the whole area into a frozen wasteland and weakened the large group of them over time, they could steamroll him down with their numbers. They could crush him by stepping on him.

“Helpless once again?”

“What did you say!?”

“I said catch. Don’t stop. Tuffock chant.” Ebony pulled back and threw Tuffock to Hector. Hector caught the stone mage but almost tripped, turning back to complain to see Ebony stop in his tracks. The crazy fool.

A freezing blast of air hit Hector’s back. Tuffock was already mumbling. The screams of rage and pain could be heard from within the mist. The area that Ebony had under control was only directly behind them. Hardly a dent from those that went from the side?

None of them skipped across Ebony and some wolves even made a sliding stop to turn back to him.

Hector, no, actually all of them already observed this happening many times throughout their time in Ordina. The monsters loved Ebony, it wasn’t a coincidence or something that happened once or twice. They seemed to be unable to control their urge to go after him.

Hector didn’t stop running alongside Ryley while he tried to carry Tuffock steadily. He saw Scarlet similarly stopping a few gors (5km) ahead of him and he almost wet his pants when he saw what was above her. Hector’s gonna guess it was her spherical heating spell. But having bright red flames manifest and not just a gust of hot air. 3 to 4 girs in diameter, it was getting a little smaller but not much.

Checking back on Ebony when the screaming of monsters lowered in volume. A shadow shot out of his mist at an accelerated speed. Spotting Ebony flashing past him. A drop of ice cold blood landed on his face.

Ebony had a hole in his upper left arm and shoulder all the way through. It was a small hole from the thin tails of the Arrowtail and was already freezing up to stop the bleeding. He had blasted himself out of the monster literally piling themselves on him with Chaotic Repulsive Membrane repelling him on the frozen sand which helped him to not trip.

“Ryley, hop on. Get charging.” Not a change in tone from Ebony. Hector now gave up on getting this man to have a change in tone or expression. Even the sky falling down won’t affect him will it?

Ebony started running backwards with the same steadiness and speed as if he was running forward. One of his 2 remaining shields out of his original 5 flipped horizontally for Ryley. It was thinner than his usual so that it could be faster. He used the excess mana to repair the other half-broken shield.

“Get behind!” Scarlet yelled.

She brought both her raised hands down like dropping a heavy load down from her shoulders. The 4 of them already arrived at her side and passed her as their clothes burned despite how high up she cast the ball of doom and how far they stood away from her.

Ebony received literally hundreds of partial experience notifications before the ball of flames even touched the ground. The blast of heat and burning air hit their backs with enough force to push them forward even more.

“Hector take him too.” Ebony slightly raised his voice just when Hector thought it would be impossible for him to do so. Ryley and his shield were ‘thrown’ to Hector who caught them and ran with the shield over his head. Damn it was heavy.

Ebony already turned back to grab the fallen Scarlet. She grabbed onto him tightly as they burst back beside Hector. Fortunately, a hole in their numbers was dented and he managed to get her without much trouble.

The large spell drained almost everything out of Scarlet, not her mana since she wasn't so dumb as to use everything at once. But the mental drain was heavier than any spell she had cast. The momentary mental spike of pain knocked her out for a split second. She caught on to the strong arms pulling her up and let herself get pulled along as he repelled from the ground.

He let go after she said she could run by herself. The charred and crisp remains of the group were quickly run over by the mostly burnt Giant Sandworms that were at the corner of the blast. There were survivors of the blast as well, mostly the Sandworms which had really high vitality while the Arrowtail and wolves that got the brunt of the hit died. Ebony was pretty sure he saw light reflect weirdly on the ground. Glass perhaps.

“We bought some time but hardly enough! The previous floor is hours away!” Hector complained. Even though he was only using 2 enhancements he would not be able to keep them on for half a day. He was also still slower than the monsters with only 2 enhancements.

“Look further behind. There are people who came out after the monsters. A lot of them.” Ebony, who stayed to slow the first batch down, said.

Like he had claimed, there were about 60 people in the fray with the monsters near the back of the horde.

They worked together in a tight formation. Warriors at the front, in a circle. Only a mage or 2 was spotted in the centre along with a circle of archers covering them and the rogues moved around to protect the ranged attackers from any that broke through the line of warriors.

Ebony didn’t have the time or attention to observe earlier but this group were slowly making their way to take down the tail end of the monster horde. They were not doing much, pretty weak from what he could see. Likely not anywhere as good as Panic Attack or even the people who he just killed.

“AHHRGGH!” Ryley screamed in pain before letting his bowstring go as the arrow flew. The large area of burning sand and burnt corpses was already run over and the quickly chasing wolves and worm-clinging scorpions saw a sliver flash before 2 glowing arrows stabbed into a Teen Giant Sandworm each.

The resulting explosion from Ryley’s shot blasted the entire worm’s huge body apart, along with every Arrowtail Scorpion that clung on. The desert wolves dashing ahead were affected but not much, the ones running along with the worms were blown into bloody bits just like the hunk of flesh. It took about a hundred or two of them who were tightly packed.

Ryley, who fainted on his shield from the over exhaustion of mana usage, woke up screaming and grabbing his shoulder. It seems his arm never completely healed from the bite, even with potions and the mending of his bones he needed more time to fully heal everything. It was fine when they fought like usual but he infused mana in his bow as well as the arrow to strengthen the shot. The strain was too heavy and his tendons tore, the mending of his bones was not perfect either and cracked along where the old injury was.

The monsters who were in a fevor didn’t seem to care to split up either. The only thing on their mind to chase them. It did help that Scarlet and Ryley took a large number down but it was hardly enough.

Ebony grossly overestimated himself.