Ebony's Fable

“Thank you for everything, Master Jing.” Ebony wasn’t all that good at expressing his thanks. There was so much he wanted and needed to thank her for but the words that came out were simple. He bowed deeply to the woman who housed him for 25 months or 1 year and 11 months.

A single slap across his face sent him sprawling.

“Who are you calling Master!? Do I look that old to you!?” Master Jing didn’t beat him up any further which was a little surprising since a couple of punches and kicks which he had gotten much better at anticipating and evading, was the usual.

“...” Speechless at her sudden change of tune. She was the one who asked him to call her Master Jing and he had already gotten accustomed to it. ‘She seems actually pissed this time. Not unlike that ti… oh.’

Master just continued staring at him, unhappily tapping her fingers on her crossed arms. Impatient.

“...Sister Jing.” Ebony hesitated spouting the words.

Master Jing's expression changed so quickly, he thought that women were really fickle, volatile and inconsistent creatures. Ebony found his neck under a choke hold and his hair getting ruffled again. Her wide smile warmed his heart once more.

“Remember. You are Kong Jing’s little brother. No one is allowed to bully or insult you.” Sister Jing said seriously.

“I will. Sister Jing…” Ebony kept in mind. She had stood up for him when they just arrived at Fourth Tide, he never forgot. It might be a small matter to her but not to him. Based on that, he had been thinking that he might have been a little too passive in attitude that people weren't taking him seriously.

Ebony didn’t have any siblings. Not even anyone around his age is close enough with him to call a best friend. Today he got a sister. Maybe to Sister Jing, he was her little brother more than 18 months ago but it really hit home now that he was taken and treated as a brother. He would return the sentiment. He might not know how to treat a sister but he knew how to treat family.

“Yes? Sister is really starting to stick, should’ve made you call me that long ago.” Sister Jing’s smile was still there as she hummed a tiny bit. His background music must have stuck with her.

“In future, I won’t let anyone harm or hurt you either.” It wasn’t a promise or anything but he would do his best to keep his word. It was a minor self encouragement to hurry it up and get strong enough that he wasn’t a ‘puny’ person that people didn’t even chase. Though that was because Sister Jing was their main target and she didn’t let a single person pass her.

She was stunned for a second before her hair ruffling got even rougher and the choke hold tighter. “Cheeky punk. I won’t forget what you said, okay?”

“Mmm. Sister Jing, I will leave tomorrow.”

“Can’t wait to leave your sister alone? Okay okay, just get lost. I don’t care.”

“...”

“Hahahaha! I’m just kidding, don’t look at me so seriously. Here, present from me. They were done long ago.”

A pitch-black greatsword appeared in her hand.

“I don’t need to tell you that it’s made with what you gave me. I know your preferences already. Toughness and ability to take on and utilise huge quantities of ice mana.”

Sister Jing let him hold the greatsword before she explained what she did and what it can do. Weak arms Ebony cannot carry it without Icebody Enhancement, like wearing his robe.

The dimensions of the block of wood he had gotten were about 185 by 20 by 5 centimetres. It had been reduced to 1.75 metres or so in terms of length. About the same as his old one. The width was pushed down to 15cm. Meaning the blade’s body was huge. It was a tiny bit thicker and bulkier than he was used to. That didn’t mean its edge wasn’t razor sharp.

In terms of design, it was actually pretty similar to the one he used to use. Xeng design. A straight flat blade that most other weaponsmiths didn’t understand. He had once asked how they made it cut so well, to his knowledge curved blades cut better.

"In the past, long before the Empire was formed, it was supposedly a handicap for our people since the people back then just weren't much of a challenge. Our craftsmen got a lot of orders for weaker weapons so that the combatants can improve on their technique instead. To my knowledge, a lot of our ancestor's skills such as weapon mastery actually got refined a couple of times. There was a high demand for structurally unsound equipment for a time. In time, our craftsman just got so good at making these 'inferior' weapons that they were better than normal ones. Hence, the odd designs for many of our creations." The Xengs were so desperate for a challenge but found themselves widening the gap and improving themselves unintentionally.

He liked the long grip and handle as well, it gave him the flexibility to have both hands on it or exchange between control and power just by adjusting his grip. She was probably watching him train when she designed the blade like that.

There was no pommel, just a horizontal line with a circle in the middle on the flat surface where the pommel should have been. Her mask’s design.

She didn’t add or mix any other material into the weapon. So it really was just a wooden sword, minus however she polished it. It had a dull shine as if it had hardly been polished but that was due to how dark the colour of the wood was. She had condensed all the material even further instead of just sanding and shaping the greatsword. He didn’t know how but she apparently shifted the grains of the wood such that the internal structure was fit to how a greatsword was supposed to be made without damaging the wood itself like Ebony would have.

“It's as tough vertically as it is horizontally.” Sister Jing proudly said using the wide body of the blade to block an attack will not be a problem but he knew he should refrain from over-relying on blocking with his blade.

Down to the actual capabilities of the greatsword itself. Other than the huge quantity of ice mana it can not just store but withstand, and toughness, hardness and durability. It had middling fire-resistant runic enchantment that Sister Jing found crucial to incorporate into a wooden sword. She called it middling but he didn’t understand a single symbol that was on the body of the blade.There were clearly many things he hadn't read up on as there was a limit to the books he had access to. He never once tried opening the door at the back of the underground library.

He didn’t even finish half of all the books she had allowed him access to, no surprise with the number she had. He had so many things to practise as well, cutting into his reading time. Reading was one thing and understanding was another. Especially with the limitless possibilities there were with runes.

She called it ‘middling’ but showed off saying it wouldn’t even burn after chucking in her forge for a day. It was the best she could make on the weak material without sacrificing the material’s integrity. Inside the sword was the ice mana capacity rune and the durability one slightly higher quality than the fire resistant one.

Sister Jing then introduced her favourite part and called her latest, greatest step forward in her runic research.

The deepest part of the internal structure of the sword had what she called a minor nature regrowth rune. Something about encompassing the entire wooden material in another compounded rune that can read and copy the complete state of the weapon and allow the minor nature rune to heal or regrow the greatsword back to the exact same state. Runes included. She explained but it was extremely complicated.

The effect was weak, perhaps it was only able to regrow or repair scratches and small chips. All in all, maintenance was limited to basic cleaning as it would even ‘grow’ back into the same sharpness. She apparently needed some other ingredient that maybe only Elves might have, to improve on this auto repair or regrowth function. It wouldn’t be worth it to use on the material Ebony’s sword was made of so it was just a passing comment of hers.

There was no internal power source. It could sustain itself at the lowest output with ambient mana itself which made it more amazing, incredibly so. Especially considering how each rune was pretty powerful. Unprecedented.

Of course, the best way was when he was gripping his weapon and supplying it with his own mana directly to power the durability and minor nature rune. The properties of his mana would affect their functions like how using a Black or a Grey would have different results. To a certain extent, the stronger his mana, the tougher the greatsword would be.

"How much mana do I have to supply it with to reach its maximum toughness?" He asked the most important question for him.

"That's for you to find out!" She smiled cheekily.

The grip was carved along the handle with no added leather, bone or horn grip which was the common type of materials used for it. Wooden grips were just as common anyway.

As for the original properties of the material like how it naturally absorbed ice mana, she said that was his own problem. He was the ice mage, he should figure something like that himself. She clearly knew and understood the material better.

She made a sheath and finally one that made sense. It had a slit halfway through on one side so that he could draw and sheath it with ease. It was made of some other type of wood also known for toughness and durability, she painted it black as well. The straps on the back of his robes finally had some use, Ebony could carry the thing somewhat vertically with the sheath the way it was now. He would still need to practise drawing and sheathing his greatsword a lot.

“You said you were named after a tree known for its black colour, toughness and durability? I call this Wumu’s Titan Ice Pick or Ebony Icicle.”

“...How about just Black Icicle?” He felt a spike of pain in his head, it came and went so fast he thought it was because of how it was a little cringe to have his name on his weapon. He didn’t have a good naming sense but Sister Jing likely wasn’t much better.

“Ebony Icicle it is!”

He told himself to just call it Icicle.

Sister Jing threw something at his face before saying she was going out to buy some good drinks.

It was leathery but soft. A familiar looking, thin and flat bag. It was dark blue in colour, the bottom half was circled around as a different shade of blue, a darker hue. For some reason, he thought it depicted a lake at night. As for the shape and why it felt familiar it was the same as Scarlet’s.

‘Maybe Xeng bags all had the same design.’ The bag was thin and easy to carry even under his robe or coat. He really thought it was more of a coat than a robe. Needless to say, it was huge inside compared to how small or thin the bag looks.

It was hard to say how big it was with just a small box and the forge he had been using inside. His senses didn’t help either, it was like his gravity or mana sense couldn’t enter, unlike his hand which had no issue.

A rough estimate purely based on guesswork was that it was 10 to 12 metre cube in volume at the very least. It was actually much smaller near the top where the opening and drawstring were as the space inside copied the dimensions of the bag itself and was expanded directly proportionally. So it wasn’t like a room-like space inside the bag, just a really big version of the same shaped bag.

There seemed to be a small trick involved to stuff things that were bigger than the outlet or opening of the bag. Another magical or runic shenanigan that he didn’t understand yet.

In the small rectangular wooden box inside was some of the metal that he obtained from the competition, both a little Rare and Epic. Pebble sized, he could hold both in a single hand. Together with a metal chain with 2 rings of different sizes looped through.

Under it was a note. “Wear it. It’s just a plain old necklace. You’ll know what it’s for sooner or later.” It was a simple silver chain that she called a necklace, the 2 rings in it definitely didn’t do nothing with all the runes on them. She also put down the properties of the metal which she called Titanic Mithril.

They had hit the jackpot, it was a substrain of mithril known for its magic properties. Highly attuned to mana. High level warriors or swordsmen loved anything made with it. The weapons or armour could take both high quality and quantity of mana of most types. Its physical properties are also much better than many other metals that can be found on the market.

This substrain only had less than half of the normal mithril’s strength and durability of the same rarity but its capacity for mana was almost 3 times as much as mithril. It was an amazing material for accessories like rings and necklaces which he suspected the present he received was made from. He put the necklace with 2 rings on, under his shirt and robe.

She didn’t understand his slight obsession with spatial rings but he really liked the gift anyway. The bag version was already more than he could hope for. It was small and fitted closely to his body so that it wouldn't get in the way and can be carried under his robe without discomfort.

Ebony had some boxes that had his Blues and the chest with his belongings inside. He packed them all up.

Sister Jing probably won’t be back anytime soon so he went shopping for rations that can last him. Enough for a year for a single person even if he was stranded somewhere. With the shelf life of the rations properly stored in a preservation box, he didn’t have to worry about them spoiling.

He also bought a couple of Rare water mana ores even though he knew how to inscribe or mould a bottle with the ambient water mana absorbing rune for survival purposes it wouldn’t hurt to have more water. They were pretty cheap around these parts, near the sea.

Too bad he didn’t know how or where Sister Jing’s supply of raw materials came from or he would get some for his own practice, hobby or pastime. Still, normal paper was not that expensive and he bought enough to fill a wardrobe together with dozens of empty books and a small supply of their version of a pencil together with a surprisingly easy to obtain inscription pen that he could supply with his own mana. So it wasn’t as unique or special as he thought it was.

He had run around the city a couple of times to complete some errands so he knew what store or shop had what he wanted. Unsurprisingly, Fourth Tide had a branch of Z&Z too but the First and Second which were further off to the east apparently didn’t have a branch. That was where he got all his foodstuff and daily necessities for personal hygiene. He basically bought out the limit that they let him buy for a single person.

The city wasn’t exactly abundant in foodstuff and fresh fish and a small farm or two was where most of their food came from. He found out the surrounding forests didn’t have many monsters since it had long been cleared out by the army. Not forgetting to get some pots and pans, utensils and cooking tools. He had the leeway to carry such stuff now that he had a spatial bag.

After putting so much stuff inside he could not feel much difference in weight. More magical shenanigans that made life convenient.

Sister Jing got him to visit more specialised shops for most other stuff but nothing here impressed her enough to buy a second time. Mostly used for her experiments or research, she really just bought whatever interests her.

The only bookstore here called Tome’s Galore was where he got his paper and stationeries. He also bought all the paper the old man in charge had in stock since the town didn’t really have many people who needed such a large amount of paper.

He was planning to keep up his practice and study of runes in one way or another. The books were for him to either copy down the books or mental notes he had. He might have pretty much perfect memory that further improved with Wisdom but writing them down could give him a refresher or even a new perspective.

Ebony returned to see the whole place in a mess. Sister Jing tossed a lot of her stuff out onto her yard, there was even one of her empty armour dolls swinging around and destroying a weapon with a glass bottle. Peculiar.

“What are you doing Sister Jing?” Ebony stood expressionlessly but was a little surprised when she snapped her head towards him like she didn’t realise him standing right beside her.

‘Are…are the corners of her eyes redder than usual? Did she think I just left because my room was emptied out already? And…she cried?’ The Ebony of the past would never make such guesses. He never understood his own feelings very well, much less others. He still left his bed there since he was gonna sleep for another night even though he was interested to see how it was going to fit into the bag she gave him.

“Did you think I left without telling you? Were you crying?” Ebony still wasn’t all that sensitive as a person but he didn’t mistake it this time as he heard a single sniff from her before taking the worst beating she had given him along with a little yelling of frustration of some sort.

His bruises and fractures healed as he took a sip of the slightly sweet, fruity hard liquor that Sister Jing got. They were sitting out and moon gazing like how he had been doing so for quite some time now. It was a chilly night, near the end of winter with the moon looking to be purple in colour. Maybe one day he would be able to tell the date just from the hue of moonlight reflected.

“Hic!” Sister Jing hiccuped. She wasn’t really very good at holding her liquor despite her high level and stats. Well, the stuff she brought was the strongest thing he had drunk. Delicious too, it chilled the tongue and burned the throat immediately after.

She started to actually cry which he didn’t know how to react to. It seemed like she really thought that he just left without saying a word and was throwing a tantrum.

Trying to find him in her own house when she could easily search for him in a large forest was a little amusing honestly. That was just how distraught she was at that moment in time when she found out. His physical pain over getting beaten couldn’t even be felt because the thought that she had cared so much made him feel weird and he didn’t know how to describe it.

He stopped her from drinking and got her warm water to drink instead. Carrying her and tossing her into her room before going to tidy up all the mess she just made, sweeping and mopping up. Cooking a few dishes and keeping them in one of the cabinets that could keep food warm. Then he washed up and went to sleep without any training or magic practice done. Irregular.

This very night. Ebony had a dream for the very first time. Perhaps, that was not very accurate. He saw a picture. A scene. A vision. A massive, towering tree. It burned.

Ebony shot right up, the chill down his back didn’t disappear immediately.

‘Hot damn. Did someone use magic on me?’ He was beyond surprised. It had always been a blank whenever he slept, never was there a time he saw something when he was sleeping. Till last night. He didn’t know if it was magic or if someone had the ability to cast that on him while sleeping inside Sister Jing’s magical cottage but he was alarmed.

Ebony’s sense of urgency rose for the first time in a long while. It had been clear to him what he saw. He only knew one tree that massive. One tree that burned so majestically as it was dying out.

Was it calling out to him or was it his own mind playing games with him?

Was he so upstrung about his weak strength that his mental state let him dream?

That was the last straw for him. He couldn’t stay like that, the timing was perfect either way. He still didn’t really think it was his own paranoia as Everlasting Tranquillity would’ve stopped or been affected if that was the case. At least he didn’t think he wouldn’t realise that his mind was no longer clear. But he couldn’t be sure, nothing was a guarantee.

He tried sticking one of the legs of the bed into his bag and it really worked. The opening of the bag could be stretched even more than he previously tried. It swallowed up the entire bed with the mattress pretty easily. Ebony stuffed his hand in to adjust the arrangement of his things.

It was morning already. The house was quiet and he didn’t hear any noise except the mana ore making machine at work. Sister Jing was likely still sleeping, out cold from alcohol. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened.

“Sister Jing.” he knocked on her door.

“I’m going to go now.” There was no reply but he somehow felt that she was awake and could easily hear him. There was no basis for that, he just thought that she was listening from behind the door.

“...I tidied up. There are some of your favourite dishes in the kitchen, mostly seafood though.” Ebony didn’t really know what to say.

“Try to keep the house clean.”

"The grey dahlias don't need much care, the shade I made for them would absorb just enough water from the wet ring I made that would self water the dahlias just enough. Maybe just get rid of weeds from time to time."

“Don’t forget to take a bath or shower from time to time.”

“Remember to eat at least once every 2 days.”

“I know you’re actually weak to the cold, you’ve sneezed more times than I could count. Winter is coming to an end but wear something thicker or at least put down your sleeves if you’re not in your forge underground. Oh yes, the dahlias are weak to cold like you. You can flip up the flap once winter is over, they trap warmth for the dahlias.”

“...” Ebony had been spouting out whatever came to mind without much thought. He didn’t know how much he sounded like a nagging mother. He ran out of things to say already and there was still no reply as he faced a door.

“Thanks for the sword. And the bag. And the forge. And the necklace. And taking the time and effort to teach me. Thanks for taking care of me, Sister Jing. Take care of yourself too…”

“See you.” With no reply for a solid 10 minutes, he turned around after saying his farewells. Hopefully, she wouldn’t throw another tantrum and flip the house around the instant he left.

Ebony didn’t turn back and dragged his feet away from the place where he started to get comfortable. Again.

There was only one destination in mind. Hoarfrost Glade.

❅❅❅

“He really left.” Kong Jing spoke to no one but herself.

“I wonder what he saw. He woke up too quickly, it should’ve kept even a Grandmaster dreaming for days though.”

“Grandaunt and her mischief again. I wonder what she saw this time?”

“Hmph! Leaving the instant he woke up, how badly did he want to leave?”

“I’m sick of fish already. Urghhh so spicy. His taste buds must be dead. The only edible things he makes are those spicy deep fried chicken bites or something, there’s no chicken raised here…” Kong Jing ate the steamed fish bite after bite. Complaining to herself after every bite.

“Do I stink? Must be the Infernal salamander’s spit. No, the swamp’s gunk and poison. Or the cerulean coal…I guess I should wash myself.” Kong Jing sniffed her arms and clothes.

“It’s chilly. The sea breeze is too strong today. I was lacking a set of self-heating clothes anyway.” Kong Jing made an ambient mana sufficient set of work clothes on the spot.

“The runes around have been getting outdated. I was planning to renovate and have a complete overhaul of this old cottage’s defences anyway.”

“I guess I should do that back home so I don’t have to worry about any Troll or sea monster hordes.”

“Maybe grandaunt is there for me to give a piece of my mind for tossing me such a troublesome problem.”

“Oh, little Xin might be home too! Okay, nothing interesting that I can get my hands on now anyway. It’ll be troublesome looking for Zenin to get another mana compressor so that I can tear down this one to see what’s inside. That can wait I guess.”

Kong Jing and her cottage removed themself from Fourth Tide like she was never there.