Ebony's Fable

With Master Jing’s permission, Ebony took some books out to read either on the front yard or porch at night so that he was bathed under the ever-changing hue of moonlight even if he was too absorbed by the contents of the books to moon gaze. The city also sold tea and he never relaxed so much ever since he came to Elcra. He was enjoying his time here.

Master Jing was the reliable type when it came to what she does best but she was hopeless at self-care. She didn’t know when to stop to eat. When to clean herself up. She hardly even changed her clothes even after they were caked up with dirt and soot. When to rest and sleep. Well, Ebony wasn’t really one to say since the first incident but he took care of her like a mother would her child. She never laxed on her beatings on him though.

He thought the house was too bland and the front yard was empty so he asked what flowers Master Jing liked. It stunned her silent for a bit before she beat him up a little. Until he explained that he wanted to plant some flowers.

She hesitated to say 'grey dahlia', giving him permission to only plant along the sides of the cottage itself and not make a full garden.

It took a few weeks before he managed to get his hands on some of the seeds of grey dahlias. He had to look around the city for florists, herbalists and more.

Ebony wondered if Master Jing liked them because of the colour so he made sure to ask them to procure seeds that were as similar to her hair colour as possible. They were pretty cheap because they didn't have any magical properties.

❅❅❅

Another half a year which was 7 months had passed after the 1 and a half month Ebony had taken to learn Master Jing’s version of rune language, Korun or so it was called and shown on his status and many other things he learned.

The other rune languages were picked up very quickly since Master Jing’s Korun was based on them, his Korun language levelled up instead of getting many other rune languages as skills. He wondered if the language was named after Master Jing.

Ebony then tried his hand on drawing them till he got the Doodling skill. He didn’t have good artistic skills. It had taken till a month back that it finally mutated and refined into Inscription.

Yet that was not the end product he wanted it to be. He wanted it to be a type of engraving skill rather than plain old inscription. Ebony finally found out that Roya’s robe was actually threaded in rune formations and it didn’t even sacrifice the integrity of the robe.

The difference was that it was a little different from all the rune languages he picked up. Likely a rendition of her own like Master Jing's but it was still somewhat readable after he learnt so many languages. Master Jing was confident enough to say that it was difficult to find another rune language that she didn’t already have here unless someone was genius enough to make a completely different one.

There were multiple runes inside each layer of his robe. It basically did what he wanted it too, purely for durability and toughness. That made things slightly simpler for Roya since there was only so much space on it and she even had to use threads as the medium.

Inscribing was done with a pen that liquified mana ores into liquid mana. Using 100 mana to inscribe with an Inferior or ‘Black’ mana ore would produce an effect weaker than using 100 mana of a Common or ‘Grey’ mana ore. It was more about the purity than the density of mana but that affects the power behind the inscription as well.

Master Jing had special inscription pens that could let him input his own mana to inscribe. There were some fun experiments he did to test the strength of 2 identical runic scrolls, one with mana ore and one with his own mana. As an attack spell, there was a tiny difference, as a defence spell his was easily triumphant against a Grey but still less durable than one drawn with a Green.

Ebony learned how to make a spell scroll of all the 4 basic elements, earth, water, air, fire plus ice, stone, wood and light.

The few things he was able to make were making them all into a ball like a fireball and even controlling the speed, the trajectory, the range and how small or big the spell was. He also learned how to make them form some other simple shapes though not every element is suitable for everything.

Ebony was so intrigued with runes because one didn’t need any sort of magical affinity or talent to cast magic of any kind. Knowledge really was power.

Most commonly used in daily life were the support runes like cooling, heating, anti-dust, or the line of preservation runes.

Preservation was surprisingly well studied based on how many basic rune books started with it. There were many types of preservation runes. They had to be really specific about all the minor symbols and how the entire end product meshed together. Preservation for food was completely different from a preservation rune for books or maybe weapons and armour or even antiques.

Unsure if it was because he was an ice mage the ice runes felt most natural. When he sent a ball of ice flying out of a special paper which was the scroll he could sense that the process was not too different from when he converted mana to ice mana, conjuring it. If he could sense other types of magic like that could he break down the spell and convert them back into rune language?

That was probably how Roya broke down his Layered Ice Carapace and converted them into a similar spell that fit more to the shape of his robe.

The truly magical part about Master Jing's Korun was that it was simplified a lot.

The standard, cheapest spell scroll or runic circle to be specific can be split into a few portions.

One, power source.

Common power sources are the ambient mana absorption rune or if it is a weapon or armour then an embedded mana ore is commonly used.

Two, conversion runic symbols.

This step might be skipped if whatever spell they inscribed was arcane and pure mana or if the power source itself was already an elemental source. But, in terms of spell scrolls, they are usually converted into other elements to perform some spell.

Three, function.

The power source will be converted and then powered into the function to do whatever is inscribed.

Sounds simple enough. It was anything but.

All those had to be seamlessly connected or the inscription wouldn't work or even backfire. Depending on what power source was used it may be dangerous too.

Master Jing's Korun had segregated the power source and function into the different elements and a single complete rune was enough for all 3 steps. It meant that there were a lot more symbols to learn and remember but that wasn't all that troublesome. It was just that instead of learning one thing for one spell, he had to learn all the categories for all the elements.

He didn't have to worry about connecting multiple runic symbols until he was going to do the more complicated stuff which was the multifunctional types or the type that connects many different runes.

Ebony had felt that it was such a pity that Clovis had to stay in Arcta. The Thoyas had many books and they had the money or mana ores to obtain whatever he needed but he couldn’t help but feel that Clovis’s talent was buried. Even if it was temporary. With all the right skills, Clovis could probably learn whatever Ebony did in 8 and a half months in 3 or less.

Master Jing’s house was likely completely covered in some kind of illusion, mirage or light and sound rune. It was on a completely different scale from what he can do or even comprehend. At least, she had just certified that he had reached beginner standards in terms of the study of runes. As for application, he wasn't even worth mentioning.

While she had books on runes about space, gravity and many more it was too difficult for him at the moment. Because those were three-dimensional and although she said it was possible to make some simple two-dimensional ones, she hasn't found the motivation to make lower-quality stuff.

In these 7 months, Master Jing only went out twice. Or that’s the number of times he noticed or that she bothered to tell him. She went out to get new materials. For the smaller, less important stuff, she trusted him enough to send him to get it. Also for Ebony to get a change of pace and walk around the city. A week back, Master Jing left for the 3rd time. Coming back today, bloody.

“Master Jing. Are you okay? Any injuries? You should visit the healer if you have any injuries.” Ebony was worried since he had never seen Master Jing in this state. She was a high level space mage that could waltz almost anywhere she wanted after all. Master Jing fell onto fours and kept coughing when she teleported in.

“Aaarh! That smells!”

“...”

“Hahaha! I can’t tell from your face but I can feel your concern, little punk. Don’t worry, this isn’t my blood. It's not even blood.” Master Jing pinched Ebony’s cheeks with her bloody or thick red pungent liquid fingers. The contact of red liquid burned and stung his cheeks, Master Jing quickly stopped and wiped it off for him. A little panicky because she forgot what she had gotten on her.

“I’ll go prepare the bath for you.” Ebony said considerately. Unfazed by his burning face. He knew that Master Jing had been getting concerned about his ‘deadness’ or expressionless state and had tried to address that more than a few times. Though her methods might have been more violent than not. She didn’t realise that her violent methods were actually the right way as it was the way he was the most familiar with.

“I’ll do it myself, it's faster that way.” Master Jing disappeared along with all the red fluid. The heat in the air didn’t dissipate so he chilled it back down with some ice magic.

Runes weren’t the only thing he had been learning about.

Ebony was mostly done with all the basic and slightly more advanced stuff and watched as Master Jing forged weapons and accessories being his main focus. He didn’t like bulky armour and his ‘robe’ which was a coat and mana tailor was what he was happy with already.

The weapons Master Jing made were also varied, they were never exactly what was written in books. Ebony had already gotten the chance to see her swords and they really were more similar to his old ones than what the books taught.

Just like Ebony who wanted to imitate monsters or nature's natural evolutionary path. Master Jing said their craft was also based on natural materials, live or not.

There was no skill evolution but his Ice Sword was refined.

Ice Sword - Conjure a sword of Ice, dealing 100% + 1.0% Intelligence. Ice Sword designed to be 1.0% more resistant to shattering by slashing or piercing motions.

Consumes 250MP/Sword

Classification: Ice Magic

Hitting it on the flat end still causes it to break pretty easily. There was little way around it, ice wasn’t really suited for sharp, thin weapons or so Master Jing had commented.

Master Jing had been studying his gravity magic too. The rareness of gravity mages or monsters made the study of it a hard opportunity to get. It has been helpful for both of them. She was obviously a lot more knowledgeable about all things magic but she wasn't a fighter.

Ebony had visited the much bigger mage tower in Clatter Rattle a few times. There were hardly any books on gravity magic. Even if there were, it would only be mere mentions here and there. Sound magic was also rare but not nearly as rare as gravity. It was weird to him that the applications other than transmitting sound like the callstone does were mostly for mental type attacks. More like, he didn’t see a single mention about using sound magic as a physical attack option.

Nothing much was found on the uncommon ice magic since ice mana doesn’t exist naturally in many places until maybe winter. Nothing that was in the books was anything better than what the Frost Elves had taught him anyway. And that was when the Frost Elves only gave him small tips, making him learn about it himself. Overall, the trips to the mage tower had been practically unfulfilling.

Master Jing wanted to facepalm. Saying it was only natural.

All schools of magic hid things to themselves except the most common of knowledge. If he really wanted a teacher for magic an academy or master-disciple relation was the way to go. It was for an equally beneficial relationship.

Academies for the benefit of social renown and money.

Master-disciple to hand down the legacy of their life’s work and research on magic in case it was lost to history.

Master Jing walked out in skimpy clothes like usual while drying her hair. She had slowly not bothered since Ebony also never bothered or gave her the luscious eye. She might have been wrong due to his constant deadpan face but she really didn’t care after a while.

“We’re moving.” Master Jing said.

“Where to?” Ebony asked.

“4 towns down. Crust Deposit City. Some Dwarven miner found a new metal deposit.” Master Jing explained.

“Okay.”

“I’ll need your help. The Empire already called dibs on it and the location had been hidden, I don’t have the time to spend months searching underground which is the Dwarf's home ground. I couldn’t even find where they kept the stock they already dug up. Probably in the hands of someone.”

“You want me to search for it in your place?”

“No you punk. That would take ages, it’s probably so deep underground I would take some time to get there with space magic. Usually, when something new comes out and the news is spread to people the Empire would dish out some samples to quench the public’s thirst or anger really. They don’t want the public against them monopolising all the resources. You’re a pretty smart one, why don’t you guess how they decide who to give it to?”

“If it’s not on sale yet and not a competition of mana ores then, a competition of power. A tournament of sorts?”

“I guess that was too easy. The tournament is in 5 days.”

“I’m only a journeyman.” Ebony asked since the standards in these parts were much higher.

“Of course, there are different categories. The winner of yours would get a tiv of the Rare rarity of that metal. The standard tournament rules for a huge number of people would allow you to fight Master ranked too so just beat as many as you can and we’ll get more of that metal. I want at least a tiv of the Epic rarity one so any more than that we can split 50/50.”

“Mmm.” Ebony easily agreed.

Master Jing already gave him so much. 5 kg or a newly found metal was the least he could give her. He could even give her everything else, it probably didn’t have much use to him.

Master Jing further explained that he would at least have to win 3 matches against Master Class people to get half a tiv of the Epic rarity ore. Ebony was a little doubtful if he could win but Master Jing assured him it was probably no trouble to him unless he was unlucky enough.

Apparently, the reason she didn’t join the tournament herself was that there was no category for Grandmaster ranked people. She also downplayed her own strength saying she was a craftswoman and any decent combatant Grandmaster could beat her in a straightforward fight. Almost all the contestants would be those that were in a contract with a blacksmith or company.

Ebony already asked Master Jing about the wooden block he had. She easily recognised it as dungeon material since she had never seen it before. They had studied it together for some time and she said it was a pretty good material in the Rare rarity range. Its hefty weight made it perfect for heavy weapons and with its dimensions, it was screaming to made into a greatsword.

It could absorb ice mana amazingly well and with effort, he could make use of it.

Ebony didn’t know how Master Jing calculated but it could easily contain 1.5 million or so ice mana. The natural pure type. Less than the 5 million his robes could handle. It was impressive for Rare materials but nothing less expected from a mana tailor of Roya’s standard. There were some other properties that the block of wood may take up depending on how it was made, what was mixed with it or even what shape it would take form.

Master Jing promised to craft him a greatsword if he managed to get equivalent payment for it. As for what was an equivalent payment that was up to her to decide.

Ebony had been working with wooden materials to Mana Mould recently. He didn’t think he was a crafter for even a second just because he could make clothes or had the knowledge about crafting didn’t mean he had the skills for them. Actually making a weapon was a waste of materials with his skills.

“Alright, here are some Purples and Blues. I’ll send you there first, just buy an empty plot of land about the same size as this and give me a call when you’re ready. Preferably somewhere quieter nearer the centre but not too close to buildings like the Quest Hall or the Sovereign Temple.”

“What about the underground?” Ebony was not too surprised that the space mage was probably planning to move her entire house. It felt really impressive to so casually ‘move house’.

“Don’t worry about that. If there’s no space I’ll make space for it.”

“Ready anytime.”

“Alright, wrap yourself in mana. I’m not all that proficient with moving someone else.”

‘This nonsense again? Maybe I wasn’t affected since I am mana. There wasn’t a need to wrap myself in it if I was made of it right?’ Ebony was right, he didn’t get the nauseous feeling that people said they would.

Master Jing held Ebony’s upper arm and walked forward, he saw the sky and buildings underneath in front of him like a hole in space appeared where it looked different inside than it did left and right. She couldn’t just cross the distance of a few towns in a single cast of her skill or spell. Unless she didn’t even have a skill for it was just using pure manipulation.

They travelled in the air, likely so that they didn’t appear inside a tree or something. Well, he didn’t know the workings of space magic. It was probably very dangerous magic if they didn’t know where they popped out from.

Ebony was right and the trip wasn’t instantaneous. Master Jing had to bring Ebony through dozens of ‘jumps’ or teleports. She teleported them right into the city, skipping through the guards that didn’t know any better.

She brought him all the way to the Quest Hall which doubled as many things, including a town hall and also where real estate was handled. Ebony wondered how they took care of the administrative business of all the mess stuck in one place. They probably had people with the right skills for it.

At first, Ebony wondered why she stayed for so long but he later realised it was probably to show others that he wasn’t just a kid under Master Class fooling around and buying land but a Journeyman with the backings of a Grandmaster Craftswoman who practically anyone would want to sucker up to.

It was plain for him to see because Master Jing let her overflowing Vitality and Wisdom flow out without restraint and the people parted for her. The few young Journeymen very exaggeratedly fell and didn’t move, they fainted.

Ebony didn’t believe their reactions were real. It wasn’t so bad that someone could faint could they? He clearly didn’t understand what Everlasting Tranquillity and him being a mana being did for him. Still, not everyone was as affected since there were many high level Master Class and maybe a Grandmaster hidden somewhere in the building but they all cowered when they saw her mask.

“Don’t forget, somewhere quiet and away from the hustle and bustle.” Master Jing repeated herself, it was all that was heard in the suddenly silent Quest Hall.

“Let your mana loose to scare them a little too. It’ll speed things up.” Master Jing whispered into his ears before winking. Backing off and disappearing into thin air a moment later.

‘And she complained about her grand aunt being too mischievous.’ Ebony couldn’t say he wasn’t interested to see their reactions.

Everlasting Tranquillity charged passed level 200 without stopping unlike many of his other skills that clearly slowed down and even stopped in their progress.

At level 202, Everlasting Tranquillity gave him a 1010% increase in his mana and stamina regeneration rate. His base regeneration rate for mana was still (5300/100)x35 = 1855 MP/hr. Multiplied by 11.1 equates to 20,590.5MP/hr. That was the base regeneration of a human who had 20,590 stat points in Wisdom. That amount of stat points would reach Grandmaster levels but probably none of them, even mages would toss that many of their stats into Wisdom.

Obviously, mages of that magnitude have a very high chance of having meditation type skills which would put their regeneration far above his.

Anyone who didn’t train or were exposed to such mana often would easily faint or lag up so much that they would act dumber than a poorly programmed robot. At least that was what Master Jing told him, the first few times it even managed to break her out of focus when she was busy. He was beaten awake that night.

The veterans who had been into dungeons with higher mana density would have no problem with it since they already adapted but Ebony’s mana was mixed with Vitality too which made it weird for them too.

The people who were shocked at the arrogant Xeng suddenly disappearing in their midst relaxed for a second before they got mentally slammed with weight instead of physically. Ebony started feeling bad when he actually smelled pee so he stopped fooling around. The poor dark green-haired lady receptionist looked like she was about to cry but her professionalism didn’t let her.

[Administrator Lvl 145]

“Wh..what can I do for you sir?” The receptionist gathered her courage and asked as professionally as she could.

“Land. Somewhere quiet like my Master said.” Ebony replied. It was his usual tone but it chilled the receptionist’s spine even further.

He shouldn’t have listened to Master Jing and fooled around like that. What's more that she was right and their efficiency was through the roof. They showed him all the free plots of land which he had to reject those that were too big or small. Shortlisted to 2 places where he had to check the place out himself to decide if it was suitable.

❅❅❅

The dark green-haired lady was internally crying, her seniors pushed the job of bringing the scary man to see check the plots of land. No doubt, he was a little handsome but his pitch black eyes and expression was scaring her too much to care.

Fortunately, she was used to strong people showing off in the Quest Hall so she didn’t pee herself but she had never felt such a heavy overflowing Wisdom before. The young man was definitely hiding his level but posing as a Journeyman felt like he was going too far. No one would believe it.

“Sir, my name is Carine Nava. You can call me Carine or Carie is fine too! I’ll be guiding you to these places.” Carine stood straighter as if to motivate herself.

“Mmm. Thanks, I’ll be depending on you Carine.” The pretty handsome man that had a scary expression said.

‘Way to make things less stressful on me. I hope he's not the type who kills anyone who makes him unhappy like his face suggests…’ Carine wasn’t looking forward to bringing the man around but it was all part of the job.

Carine hailed a carriage since it was quite a distance away. Mentally complaining about how troublesome it would be to claim the fare. Luckily, the 2 plots of land were in the same area and she was planning to go to the further one before walking to the other one.

Carine started by promoting the area with memorised lines. Unfortunately, there was only so much she could say about an empty plot of land and the man only replied with ‘mmms' and ‘I sees’. The trip took more than half an hour and Carine, who had nothing left to say after half that time, was panicking because the awkward silence was killing her. She couldn’t tell if the man was satisfied or unhappy.

She was so glad they finally reached their destination and alighted the cramped space with him.

“How much is it sir?” The light blue hair man said, stunning Carine.

“Just 2 Greys and 3 Blacks, dear client!” The coachman was holding both his hands together with a grin. He wasn’t dumb enough to overcharge a person wearing the Quest Halls uniformed dress.

“Here you go, thanks.”

‘He paid for the ride? Why? Oh, a rich man doesn’t care for such a small sum huh.’ Carine thought. It was common sense that Quest Hall businesses like these were accommodated by themselves.

Carine went on to let the client survey the 2 plots of land. He swiftly decided on the first one which had an old couple that was retired as their neighbour instead of the one with one of the more posh inns about 10 minutes away.

The man just paid the full amount upfront and signed the necessary documents back at the Quest Hall. It was the quickest and smoothest transaction with no hassle or complaints from the client that Carine had handled.

She even levelled up!

Carine had a tiny smile. The man was just quieter but didn’t seem so bad now.

❅❅❅

Ebony called Master Jing with his callstone which had Roya, Halvis, Hector, Scarlet and Master Jing’s contact. Ryley’s contact was lost after a while. His callstone probably broke or was eaten up by Ordina. He obviously removed the connection to Tuffock’s so that it didn’t lead him to Ebony with the mental link.

Master Jing was also just done with selling the plot of land back in Clatter Rattle City. She stopped by the plot of land he bought before being satisfied and waved her hands around in concentration. Ebony watched as her cottage slowly appeared from the roof down. When Master Jing was done, even the underground was fully transported here.

The grey dahlia plantation project Ebony took up failed 4 times. He had to study and find out what was wrong many times.

He was sure he had followed all the required care they needed, apparently, the environment was not suited for it. Grey dahlias apparently needed less sun which wasn't hard to deal with. He just made some shade for them, now they were about to bloom.

Ebony wanted a mobile home one day too. Personal comfort and familiar belongings wherever he went.