Ebony's Fable

Name: Ebony Rime

Core Skill: Everlasting Tranquillity Lvl 202

Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 100

Class Skills:

Treading Step Lvl 132

Ice Mana Control Lvl 146

Icebody Enhancement Lvl 135

Flowing Greatsword Mastery Lvl 127

Frost Injection Lvl 130

Ice Sword Lvl 129

Ceaseless Onslaught Lvl 117

Layered Ice Carapace Lvl 137

Frost Mist Perception Sphere Lvl 137

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Sub-Class: Orchestral Gravity Conductor Lvl 100

Sub-Class Skills:

Battle Song Lvl 129

Mana Vibration Lvl 126

Gravity Mana Manipulation Lvl 143

Magnified Gravity Field Lvl 131

Chaotic Repulsive Membrane Lvl 136

Vibrational Gravity Sense Lvl 134

Sonic Overlay - Lvl 132

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Profession: Mana Meister - Lvl 100

Profession Skills:

Mana Moulding Lvl 141

Sheer Mana Compression Lvl 150

Mana Perception Lvl 145

Reinforced Mana Chassis Lvl 101

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Health: 500/500

Stamina: 500/500

Mana: 5300/5300

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 50

Vitality: 50

Constitution: 250 [629]

Endurance: 50

Agility: 250

Intelligence: 376

Wisdom: 530

Perception: 100 [302]

Generic Skills:

Stealth Lvl 14

Identify Lvl 15

Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 54

Running Lvl 34

Mental Mapping Lvl 19

Kicking Mastery Lvl 48

English Lvl 8

Elcrian Lvl 10

Mental Arithmetic Lvl 19

Dish Washing Lvl 28

Physical Conditioning Lvl 19

Magical Conditioning Lvl 19

Sustained Optimum Condition Lvl 52

Tracking Lvl 12

Game Processing Lvl 10

Heat Resistance Lvl 38

Sheer Divination Resistance Lvl 12

Gardening Lvl 35

Cooking Lvl 14

Integrated Trance Speed Reading Lvl 47

Korun Lvl 7

Inscription Lvl 14

Ebony already received evolution prompts for his Class, Sub-Class and Profession. Even the prompt to undergo all 3 evolution at once which according to Hector and Scarlet has benefits. Based on the skill requirements and their levels, he would mostly get the 50% Fortification except for the one skill that exceeds all, Everlasting Tranquillity.

Treading Steps didn’t level much since he didn’t move around much.

Ice Mana Control levelled normally. He didn’t feel it stop yet so he should be able to reach level 150 with it shortly.

Icebody Enhancement levelled very slowly because he was putting his mana to use elsewhere.

Flowing Greatsword Mastery gained 11 levels since his own practice with his ice sculptures was pretty useful. He had gained some pretty good insights by making puppets move like himself and watching it. Even light sparring with it. He thought he could even tell the ice sculpture what to do. Like saying ‘raise your right hand’ and the ice sculpture would twitch. That was the sign of getting closer to being a 3rd order mage. Scarlet was already at this stage with fire magic more than a year ago when he was still partying with her.

With him not fighting anything at all, Frost Injection stagnated. Master Jing didn't want him to break her armour dolls from the constant injection of ice mana. She couldn't be bothered to make dolls that could resist ice mana either.

Ice Sword had some good gains due to all the research Ebony put in. Layered Ice Carapace was the same but he didn’t change the internal structure much since it was pretty much solid already.

Ceaseless Onslaught only levelled 8 times as he didn’t spend all that much time and effort to push the skill.

Frost Mist Perception Sphere was the same with no mana to spare to train it.

Battle Song was useful since it was like bgm to help him relax even more. Ebony could fall into a trance pretty damn easily and this made it even easier. The mana regeneration buff from it was also better than nothing.

Mana Vibration was practised in the back of his mind. He silenced out whatever vibrations were coming from the industrial mana compressor from underground as practice and it also helped him focus.

He never stopped training his control with Gravity Mana Manipulation either, Magnified Gravity Field as the main spell he trained.

Chaotic Repulsive Membrane had no chance to shine but it gained some levels by protecting him a little from a high level craftswoman and space mage. She was very intrigued by the spell, same with Sonic Overlay. It wasn’t like Ebony ever turned Vibration Gravity Sense off anymore. He was more and more sensitive with it.

His Profession skills obviously grew quite a bit with his current focus on Reinforced Mana Chassis and crafting lessons.

Identify was always known to be hard to level up. Kicking Mastery was from his defence against the beatings he received. Elcrian obviously levelled up from all the reading he had done. Dish Washing and Cooking were from his chores. Physical and Magical Conditioning still hasn’t merged, their slow levelling was only natural as well.

He was either more talented at Gardening than he thought or had all the Natural Potential he got that let Gardening level to 35.

Heat Resistance was gained by watching and learning how Master Jing forged. Ebony didn’t forget that he wanted to shore up all his weaknesses including and especially his weakness to heat. He always put an Ice Sword, an ice sculpture and even himself into the fire and continued his practice of making his ice mana in a form that was more heat resistant.

Integrated Trance Speed Reading stopped at level 47 for more than a month already. It might gain a level or 2 more with time but it probably reached its natural limit already. Even if it reached level 50 Ebony doubted it would merge with any of his classes.

Korun was the rune language. Inscription was only gained not too long back so there was still room for improvement.

5 or rather 4 days now, was not enough to gain a decent amount of strength. Unless he went hunting monsters much higher level than him.

Ebony didn’t bother with all that. He continued his studies and learned from Master Jing while doing his daily exercises.

Time flowed like water and the day of the tournament came quickly.

“Master Jing, I’ll be going now.” Ebony reported before he left for the city’s coliseum. He had gone to register and scout where it was already so that he wouldn’t be late. It would start at the 10th hour and today was just the journeymen portion.

“Alright, I’ll watch the matches tomorrow just get today done quickly and come back and make me dinner.” Master Jing waved Ebony off.

The so called tournament will be in a 1 on 1 format. There were about two thousand participants for Journeymen. The coliseum was massive and many battles would be carried out at the same time. He was a little excited to see a large number of figther Journeymen.

Although Master Jing said there wouldn’t really be many people watching a low level tournament there should still be a sizable audience as the prize was pretty good. For example, the low level blacksmiths or crafters that contracted with the participants. Companies that did the same with their employees. Family members or friends of the participants. The numbers would easily go over 10,000. A small number considering the arena could fit about half a million viewers.

They would screen the multiple battles on the live version of a memory light so that people with lower Perception could watch the fight they were more interested in.

Ebony needed to win about 11 - 15 fights depending on how many last minute participants there were. The top 3 would be given the chance to fight in the main tournament the next day. One reason was that levels weren’t a good gauge for strength. Another reason was that it was always good entertainment for the viewers to watch an underdog or dark horse win against the odds.

Precast spells like Layered Ice Carapace weren't allowed so he didn’t bring any.

Like the duelling grounds, the coliseum had barriers so that spectators wouldn’t be harmed and other matches wouldn’t be interrupted. That meant there were no out-of-bounds or out-of-the-ring rules. It was just battling till one side was incapacitated or admitted defeat. Making them faint was good enough if they didn’t admit defeat.

Ebony reached the coliseum early, avoiding any crowd or line but he wasn’t the only one who thought that way so there were quite a few people already. The people in charge brought him to the waiting area for contestants based on his group number 6. Now he just needed to wait for his group’s turn and for his registered name to be called out.

There was someone earlier than him in his group’s waiting area.

[Swordsman Lvl 100]

It was pretty rare to see another swordsman when the majority were warriors instead. He was sitting down on the stone bench wiping his unsheathed long sword. He had pretty long hair for a man, untied, it touched his shoulders. Ebony wouldn’t say he was a large man but he was about as tall as Ebony but more buff around the chest and arms. His face is more on the squarish side with a chiselled jawline and a small scar from his lower left cheek to the neck.

The man only glanced up when Ebony walked in and sat on the bench beside him.

The waiting area was silent for about 5 minutes without anyone else arriving yet before the man spoke up.

“Swordsman. The name’s Zach Hartmon. Singular Cut Style of the Domination Blade Academy.” Zach Hartmon addressed Ebony as a swordsman. He had a rough voice and presented himself with pride, he probably only spoke up because it was not every day one met another swordsman.

“Ebony Rime. I’m not part of any academy or style.” Ebony wasn’t familiar with this type of introduction.

“Self-taught?” Zach stopped cleaning his long sword in surprise. Swordsmen were uncommon enough because it was hard to advance without a good lineage of sword style. He didn’t think anyone had the guts to travel an untrodden path in this day and age. Sword Mastery like that may remain as an untier or tier one skill their entire life if they didn’t know what they were doing.

“...Something like that.” While Ebony picked up the Mastery himself it was honed by all his battles and spars with Scarlet.

“Where’s your blade?” Zach asked after noticing what was missing. He had no real hopes that Ebony would be a strong contestant but he had unending respect for the man to walk the hard path.

“It broke.” Ebony replied. He hadn’t gotten a replacement, nor did he think it was all that important currently.

“...I see.” Zach ended the conversation there. A swordsman without his sword? The man’s impression of Ebony dropped a little.

Who was he kidding, a swordsman came to fight without his weapon. He was a hybrid so perhaps he made do with an elemental one but Zach could no longer find any words to speak. Zach had been going around cities and towns, joining every tournament to build his reputation together with his academy’s. Pushing his own technique and skill to the next tier and level with a strong opponent.

They waited as more and more people entered. There wasn’t a single Elf but there were more Dwarves than usual. Warrior was the most common, archers and rogues next. There wasn’t any other swordsman and he only saw 2 mages. Both fire mages.

Shortly, they could hear the loud echoing of the announcer or MC. He was kicking start the tournament, introducing some of the more noteworthy participants followed by the rewards and ‘without further ado’ before they started calling the participants out. Apparently, there were closer to 3000 participants so he would likely have to fight a couple more times than he thought.

Ebony heard it ‘Singular Cut Zach.’ being mentioned. He was the hottest betting target said to have won the championship of 12 official large scale tournaments like this one and many smaller scaled ones. That sounded impressive enough and Ebony did want to spar with him. He was in the same group so it would likely take till they were near the end.

Half an hour passed as Ebony sat still and meditated.

“Contestant Rimestone! Contestant Rimestone! You’re up next!” Ebony stood up at the call.

He used the opportunity to register his name as Rimestone. Just putting both his parents’ surnames together. He still suspected they had something to do with him coming here. This was a way of putting himself forward to let them find out he was here and was doing fine. He was too lazy to find them when they may not even be here, this way they could find him if they really were here on Elcra.

The clerk told him which ring or box he was supposed to go to once the previous fighter cleared the place. The MC just introduced both him and his opponent as first timers in these events. With so little information, he was a little impressed at how the MC was trying to increase the hype. Spouting information like how Ebony was only a 17 year old hybrid that already reached level 100. Or how his opponent was part of an established freelancer party wearing so and so’s equipment. Sponsors.

It was supposedly a randomised order but Ebony’s opponent was a warrior. Nothing surprising with their overall numbers. He was only level 97. It was a disappointing match. Ebony just straight up Treading Step right to his face and slamming kicked it all the way to the barrier behind without so much as using Icebody Enhancement and the man was knocked out already.

Ebony only had 50 stat in Strength but speed and mass was power too. The guy couldn’t even react and draw his blade fast enough.

It didn’t really draw attention as there were many fights going on at the same time and both of them were not noteworthy people. The MC obviously noticed with his skills to multitask and observe many fights at the same time. He announced the instant knockout loudly and got his men to show a replay on the large screen. It was a face slap to his party members as they were just introduced as an ‘established’ party.

Ebony just returned to wait in the waiting area that had more space now. The next rounds came faster and faster as the number of participants halved and halved quickly enough.

His second match was against a normal archer. The archer was the cautious type and managed to barely dodge the feet to his face but the feet changed directions from pushing to a literal slap that sent him flying across the arena without any resistance. He managed to roll himself back into a standing position with his arrows nocked and aimed but Ebony wasn’t there where he kicked him anymore.

The archer’s head slammed forward, down onto the ground as Ebony was already at his side with a turning back hook that came down on his neck hard. It was another easy victory for Ebony.

His third and fourth opponent was even worse than the archer and couldn’t even dodge the first blow, exactly like the first guy. Everyone was level 100 at this point. That was odd.

Ebony with mixed stats, 250 Agility shouldn’t be the fastest person around. His movement speed was 500 Agility worth but surely they could at least react to his slow kick like the archer. Of course, he, who didn’t have much common sense, didn’t know that most people only had Running, Dashing, Sprinting or similar skills as a generic skill and not a Class skill.

By the 10th match, Ebony realised that his paranoia was real.

Every match other than the archer ended the same way. A single pushing kick to the face was enough to knock them out cold. The Dwarven warrior was tougher and managed to bring his bulky shield up to cover his face but a few more kicks were all it took.

The 11th match was against someone more special so Ebony had his hopes up. [Darkness Rogue Lvl 100]. The moment the start signal went off, his vision went completely dark. Ebony calmly bent back like a bridge and his feet kicked up at the charging rogue that for some reason decided to go for a stab right from the front.

Ebony’s Vibrational Gravity Sense could sense him as if it was bright out. He was about as speedy as Ebony but nothing his senses couldn’t keep up with. He wasn’t as inexperienced as the previous fighters and could trade blows with Ebony. Ebony deflected both his daggers by deftly aiming for the wrists or pushing the rogue's shoulder or joints a little. Enough for him to miss by a good margin.

It was the first time the man faced someone that could fight so well without vision but the man got more alert after his first strike failed. The rogue didn’t act overconfident anymore and took it seriously. The hybrid clearly didn’t have as much Agility as he did, he used his mana reinforcement for the short burst of speed and power.

The rogue smiled when he saw his opponent’s shin in the path of his dagger. His burst of speed worked! The timing of the hybrid’s kick messed up. He was going to slice a deep one into him.

Clang!

‘Clang?’ The rogue thought the sound was weird. He had been expecting a spray of blood and maybe the hitting and scraping of bone. His arm numbed the next moment before it flung all the way back, his body following along and smashing right into the barrier.

Out of his darkness dome spell that was only about 5 metres in diameter, he exploded darkness mana from his cloak for an instant before bringing it down to 5 metres to save mana but Ebony never planned on walking out anyway. Well, he also didn’t know that it was only such a small area that was dark since Vibrational Gravity Sense didn’t perceive light.

Ebony had activated Compressed Icebody Enhancement the instant the rogue sped up. His activation speed was much faster, his leg already kicked out and didn’t have time to get out of the way. He also didn’t expect the rogue’s dagger to chip off when it contacted his leg. Only his pants got a small cut, Ebony mended it with Mana Moulding on the spot.

Compressing Icebody Enhancement might have been overkill since he didn’t even take a single point of damage.

The spectators couldn’t see what happened as it turned dark immediately before the rogue flew right out and fainted with a damaged weapon, dislocated wrist, shoulder and cracked ribs from slamming into the barrier too hard it knocked his breath out.

“Contestant Rimestone does it again!”

“Instantaneous knockouts!”

“We might be watching the rise of an upcoming talent or perhaps a noble from the countryside! 11 flawless victories!”

“The Meditative Ice Swordsman that doesn’t use ice magic or a sword! Is there nobody who can make him use a single spell or draw his sword?!”

There were hardly any participants left and the remaining spectators who stayed to watch were all watching his match. The MC riled the audience up a bit but it only pissed the participants who lost and those that hadn’t fought Ebony.

Zach also won every round with ease. Whenever Ebony was not in a match and Zach was, he would watch it. Zach’s matches were just as instantaneous if not even more instantaneous than Ebony’s.

Like his sword style and title or nickname. Zach only had to draw his sword and slash it once to end every battle. Ebony didn’t see any flying blade or anything like that but the distance didn’t seem to matter as his opponents would receive a vertical slash on their chest before they realised and all was fatal if not tended to immediately so many of his opponents admitted defeat.

3 competitors didn’t even fight before conceding defeat. Ebony couldn’t see what happened just through a screen so he would have to take their battle more seriously.

Zach would be Ebony’s opponent after 2 more matches.

Ebony's next opponent was a fire mage but not the ones from his group. It was obviously a disappointing match when she couldn't react to him. They even put more distance between them to give the mage a fighting chance. The 'ring' expanded when there were less matches going on at the same time after all.

Ebony also wanted to see what other mages could do so he let the fire mage cast in peace. Getting Chaotic Repulsive Membrane on when he saw the orange hair lady gathering fire on her staff. It was a fire arrow. Her casting speed had much to be desired but the projectile speed seemed decent. It was too bad it just skewed to the side when it landed on him. Chaotic Repulsive Membrane could push air away as well, just not as efficiently. It didn’t even singe his robe.

The fire mage thought Ebony deflected it somehow and kept going.

‘Seriously? Not going to change things up?’ Ebony thought he saw enough and took a single step standing right in front of her past where she raised her staff.

“Admit defeat.” Ebony hoped she would understand the difference in their skills. In the end, he was not willing to hit a woman to the point they fainted. He had hoped that it didn't seem chauvinistic, hypocritical or arrogant. It did.

“I…I admit defeat.” Luckily she understood. Ebony thought her legs were shaking a bit too much. Was he that scary?

A short moment’s wait later was Ebony’s second last match before the championship match. It was a Dwarven [Axe Guardian Lvl 100], equipped in full plate armour, a huge war axe with a tower shield.

He was a much better opponent but all he could do was hunker down and take Ebony’s attacks while waiting for opportunities to bring that heavy weapon down on Ebony. He didn’t want to admit defeat after how far he had come and was confident he could take Zach down as long as he defended himself from his single slash.

Ebony met persistence with persistence. He Sonic Overlayed his legs and rained kicks onto the Dwarf’s shield. He could tell it was a pretty well made shield. A pity it would be broken if the wielder didn’t want to give up.

The Dwarf didn’t even have a chance to attack and just blocked himself as best he could. Hoping Ebony would tire from his fierce barrage and let an opening show. It worked every time. Just not this time.

The kicks from Ebony felt extremely light at first but it kept getting faster and stronger.

It was Ebony’s Ceaseless Onslaught, even though the skill description mentioned that it was a sword dance he was pretty glad to find out he could apply it to kicking too, it was not so different as momentum was key. Kicking and pushing were similar to slashing and stabbing. He was pretty surprised that he felt the activation of Ceaseless Onslaught. It was a weak feeling but, for some reason, he felt that the skill effects were actually working. It might have weakened effects though.

The numbing shocks from his kicks didn’t feel right compared to the physical force the Dwarf was defending himself from.

2 to 3 minutes passed in this fashion but Ebony only got faster and fiercer with his kicks.

The Dwarf held on, he just felt his shield crack but he didn’t believe the young human could go on for much longer. The fool ended with a dented helmet and a shattered shield.

It was no wonder Master Jing was so cocksure that Ebony would have no issue with this ‘tournament’. Most of the participants probably only Classed with 2 or 3 Fortifications at best. Even though the majority would have 100% Fortification due to what people believe was a handicap or bonus for the first Classing.

The real problem was that few actually knew how to fight. That also didn’t sound right to Ebony. To reach level 100 required many years of hunting or even more years of training. Most of his opponents should be roughly around the age of 30 to 60. And that was because the standards here were much higher than Plainston. At this moment, Ebony cursed mentally 'where the hell are the 20 to 30% of Journeymen stronger than me? Did the two of them try to trick me to get me to take my evolution more seriously?'.

“I didn’t expect you to be this strong. I apologise for my disregard.” Zach said when they stood before each other. One of his hands was already on his weapon.

“Mmm.” Ebony didn’t know what disregard he was talking about but acknowledging was easier and faster. He was now pondering if he should try avoiding his strike or taking it head on.

“I follow the same rules every match. If you can take a single cut of mine it’s my loss.”

“Mmm.” Ebony nodded. ‘Taking it head on it is.’

The small crowd was silent. Other than Ebony's previous match, every one of the 2 finalist’s matches ended in an instant. They were watching intently, hoping not to miss anything.

The mana in Ebony’s body got themselves ready already, going into the worn casting glove that he declined to have remade.

Taking the attack with his own body was just reckless. If it was a normal slash it would definitely not even harm his robe but his body itself would probably be injured if Zach had more behind his attack than meets the eye. Ebony threw every bit of mana to compress into the almost instantaneous cast of a 5 Layered Ice Carapace.

Using mana that was already condensed in his Reinforced Mana Chassis made it pretty buffed with compressed mana already. Ebony didn’t have time to compress any more mana into the spell before he felt the mental feedback of the powerful impact on his shield. He felt the clean cut of ambient mana in front of him separate in his senses.

It was physical force with Zach's mana. The mana did one thing and one thing only. Cut!

It sliced through Ebony’s hasty shield with a delay of a fraction of a second. Ebony crossed blocked with his arms and reinforced himself with compressed Icebody Enhancement. Casting didn’t take any time at all but it was not as compressed as it could be since he had spent his condensed mana for his Layered Ice Carapace.

Ebony stood strong, not even pushed back a single step, his arms held and he flung it upwards. As if it was an actual physical object, the physical and mana imbued slash got redirected upwards toward the ceiling of the barrier. His arms were probably badly bruised but his robes were undamaged. He mentally estimated that the attack would probably not fully cut through his fully compressed Layered Ice Carapace but it would almost completely slice through. He saw it in Zach's eyes, the man was holding back and not just by a little. If it wasn't for his robe's sleeves, he would've suffered more than just bruises.

Zach stared at Ebony for another second.

“I admit defeat. I hope for an actual duel in future when you get your blade.”

“Mmm. Same here.”

The MC talked about all the usual nonsense. Calling Ebony names like dark horse or the upsetting victory. They sure loved naming people. Rimestone the swordless swordsman or face-kicking swordsman, something like that. Ebony hoped that didn’t stick. He got his 5kg of an unknown metal and went home.

The top 3 would be him, Zach and the Dwarven Axe Guardian that he defeated. The opponent Zach defeated that was supposed to contend with the Dwarf was out for the count and was receiving treatment.

The 5kg of unknown metal ore was only the size of a marble. Truly too little to do anything with it. Ebony checked that his next 2 battles against Master Classed people tomorrow would only get him more of the Rare version of this unknown metal ore. He had to win the 3rd one to get half a tiv or 2.5kg of the Epic rarity version. Winning the 4th match would get him another 5kg which was how much Master Jing wanted.