Hector took out a metal board with a transparent gem in the middle and injected some of his mana into it. It activated the same domic barrier that protected them while they slept. He kept it in Mallory’s bag when he was done. The board didn’t have to be placed down or anything, that seemed convenient.
Ebony was a little worried because feeling never came back to his lower body. Mallory had a constant frown and was breathing heavily. The mental feedback from defending against the waterfall must have been stronger than they expected.
He hid in his tent and took out the remaining general healing potion he had that he never used. He drank it but wasn’t sure if it was working. Calming down and meditating and focused on searching where or what was broken.
‘Hot damn.’
Ebony found a small crack along part of his spine. Some mana was leaking out and it was not recovering. His overall regeneration was throughout his whole body so he wasn’t really affected in that sense.
When he tried to manually regenerate the broken parts by focusing on the mana chassis in that area, his mana just couldn’t latch back to the mana chassis easily. He remained still and calm. He could regenerate a hand, he should be able to heal with time if it was just a normal crack in his spine.
He started to think, asking Mallory to heal him was a certainty. It was best that he was fully healed. As for keeping it from Scarlet…she clearly wouldn’t like it and he thought about how he would not like to keep secrets or for her to keep secrets from him. He decided to tell her about it anyway. He would rather tell her and have her worry than have her find out when she least liked and get angry.
It would be dangerous for his party to assume he was able to fight at full capacity anyway. Scarlet was still the first he wanted to tell. Without walking out to get her, he just manipulated a string of mana to transmit his voice to her tent.
Scarlet was in the middle of wiping the mud off her body, she screamed when she heard Ebony’s voice beside her ear before shutting herself up the next moment.
“It’s okay I already soundproof your tent so no one heard that.” Ebony could ‘hear’ pretty well just by feeling the vibrations in the air. It had been a very useful skill he picked up after being blind for more than a year during his training with Gen.
As for reassuring her, he just felt like she probably wouldn’t like anyone to hear her scream and told her that no one heard her.
“I’m not in your tent or looking inside either so you don’t have to look around so much. Just a little sound magic.” He wasn’t focusing on her tent earlier so he only just realised that she was covering herself for some reason.
‘Oh.’ He wasn’t dense enough not to notice that she was currently half naked, hence her surprise. He slapped himself at the next thought that came to mind. He had thought that it was a pity Vibrational Gravity Sense couldn’t see as his eyes could.
“Wh..what’s wrong?” Scarlet, who heard that it was just sound magic, calmed down and lowered her arms. Continuing with cleaning herself.
She was glad that Mallory was here to give her more ease at mind with her barrier magic. She had very complicated thoughts at the moment but it was just blood rushing to her head and face. She wouldn’t have been able to think properly if she didn’t spend the last month or so building resistance to Ebony.
“I…have something to tell you.”
“...Can it wait?”
“Mmm. I’ll wait till you call out to me”
Ebony had never told anyone about the specifics of Vibrational Gravity Sense. Even Sister Jing only guessed that he had some kind of perception skill that can sense all around him. Scarlet should not even know that he had a skill like that. She thought that it was just sound magic that was transmitted to her and didn’t know that there was practically an eye on her right now.
The unexpected wait of over half an hour flew by before they noticed.
“Ebony? Can you hear me?”
“Yes. I just wanted to say I injured my back and can’t walk for a while.”
Ebony couldn’t react to his tent’s flap just opening as the intruder burst in along with a sweet scent. She just stared at him lying down. His mind short-circuited.
“I’m fine, I’m partially mana. All physical injuries can be completely healed without any remnant injury.”
“Nonsense. You’re only partially mana, can you be sure there aren’t any long lasting effects?”
“...” Ebony never thought about it since even limbs could be regenerated. He also couldn’t sense the difference between his regenerated hand and other parts of his body. He could sense the mana portions of his body pretty clearly but not his physical parts.
“I’ll get Mallory.” Scarlet approved of the healer’s skills.
He grabbed her wrist before she could leave. This time, she didn’t shake him off or hit him. Only looking back at him.
“Maybe you should put on more clothes first,” he told the lady in a red lacy camisole that was supposedly women’s underwear.
He could feel her hand’s temperature rise as she mentally processed his words and flashed out of his tent and back to hers.
She didn’t delay despite her embarrassment and got the healer who still had a headache here in no time.
“Don’t hide your injuries from the healer.”
“That’s why I’m telling you. You just seem tired just now. Still do.”
“...That is for me to worry about. Where? What?” Mallory actually liked to heal Ebony. She can learn more about the composition of a mana being. It was a challenge which was good for her healing skills. His awareness of what the problem was and where exactly in his body made the diagnosis and directed treatment a lot easier.
“Lower spine. Cracks. I already realigned what was dislocated. It’s not easy to stick them back together. Is there a better method?”
“Realigned…convenient. Do I look like I’m made of mana? Turn around and lie on your belly.” Mallory mumbled at first before asking rhetorically and ordering him.
His tent was basically opened up and he was like a patient exposed to nurses and doctors. Mark was worried about how it was going to turn out. A back injury was basically the end of a warrior’s career and he didn’t know about Ebony’s regenerative ability.
Hector wasn’t as worried about Ebony as he was about the possible presence of their ex-party member. Still scanning the area. They weren’t very far away from where they were attacked, they weren’t exactly hidden either. A couple of broken trees around wasn’t enough coverage.
Ebony who turned around felt a warmth on his back moments later. It wasn’t the first time that he wondered about Mallory’s mana regeneration or capacity. Although it likely wasn’t as high as his, it was probably very high. There was no way she could fly almost all day with magic or still have enough to heal him right now.
He tried to sense what her healing magic was doing in hopes of being able to replicate it in future. Unsure of the nature of her healing magic. There wasn’t much that was known about healing magic. Publicly at least.
The warmth disappeared within minutes. Mallory stated that she’ll have to treat him over a few days. Asking him not to move as much as possible. She also couldn’t answer Scarlet if he would have lasting effects from such injuries.
On the other hand, Mark was amazed by Mallory’s skill. A career-ending injury could be perfectly healed in days?
Ebony had his meal brought into his tent and ate together with Scarlet. He was a little shy to get fed by her when he could move his upper body.
Mark and Hector busied themselves with gathering branches and leaves to pile up on their barrier which they reduced in size.
Mark taught Hector the basics of camouflaging. Adding odd sticks out of place to break the shape of their barrier, colouring and whatnot.
Not even Ebony knew about runes that could hide them like an illusion or light-bending ones. He could draw a rune that creates a ball of light but that was all. Mark didn’t even know the runes for any light elemental mana.
They left to explore and hunt during the day. Mark gained a level in two days. Other than more unknown plants there wasn’t much treasure or good loot. Relatively.
Mark was looting as much of the earthen topaz he could get. He could only carry so much and he stopped when his bag was almost 80% full. He saw it to contain both high value and research potential. Maybe even a power source for certain runic spells. Discussing with Ebony if they could make a topaz production and manufacture topaz from the pieces he got.
The answer was simply no, there was only so much and it wasn’t a core that could produce or convert mana to topaz mana. They did not encounter the core golem which was a relief. The interesting thing was that there were [Sand-Topaz Golem]s as well, using heated sand that sliced into Mark’s shoulder pads.
He was already getting treatment and staying inside the barrier with Ebony.
Scarlet didn’t go out at all and constantly nursed Ebony despite not needing any nursing. She didn’t even let him get up unless it was to stretch which he said made him feel better.
Ebony could stand by day three and walk by nightfall on the same day. They were ready to move out on the sixth day. Mark’s shallow cut was also healed already and he made do with Ebony’s lousy mending. It was in one piece but he wasn’t able to put the runes back on as the integrity of his shoulder pad was not fully restored.
The eighteenth floor was a little more special than Ebony imagined. It had rained a couple of times over the past five days.
The entire time that he had been on Elcra, he rarely experienced rain. The few times that rained were when he was in Fourth Tide, near the sea and another occasion or two in the Plains. It might have been just the region that he was in that didn’t rain much since much of his time was spent in Hoarfrost Glade where it hailed instead of rained.
Downpours were frequent on this floor and their poor camouflage had been washed away a few times. It was the morning of the sixth day when they were packing up but the heavy rain was putting some of them in a bad mood. The ladies didn’t want to get wet in the rain and Mark was concerned about the dangers of battles in a wet marshy forest.
According to Mark’s hypothesis, it was the dungeon resetting all the ponds created by the Falls Issiles. The area where they were attacked had the pool of water dry up after the rain. If the same spell was being cast all over the dungeon floor, the environment may not be what the dungeon envisioned it to be. Hence, redistributing the water across the floor, likely to other floors as well.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Mark even went so far as to say the presence of a different golem like the sand and earth golems were to repair the holes around the place so that the eighteenth’s floor environment was kept consistent or at least, consistently reset.
Theories aside, it was quite a downer that they were just about to leave being cooped up all day when it started raining.
Ebony had been fine despite being the most cooped up. He liked watching the rain. It was a pity the barrier blocked the rain from landing on him. Their most recent mish-mash of branches and leaves slid down in time, allowing him to watch Ordina’s dark sky.
It was then, he saw the tiny shadow high within the clouds. It was just a grey dot moving at high speeds. No one else noticed, they wouldn’t have been able to see it as well since it was at the edge of his sight. With the highest Perception stat here, unless the others had some kind of skill that improved their sight they wouldn't be able to spot it.
Mark and Hector already found the way upwards. Towards the centre of the floor was another massive stairway made of ice. Cutting the eighteenth floor in half and stairs that lead both south and northwards. The stairway was also a complete wall that separates the eighteenth floor in half but the other half was exactly the same as this side.
It was quite a long way from the corner where they were on the other’s feet but with their transportation Ebony and Mallory, they could reach it within the day.
Between both directions of stairs and wall was a small camp of a few dozen people. There was no wall or defensive outpost in place except a few fallen trees used as a fence. The ‘main base’ of this floor served as a resting spot where people could look out for each other as it was easier to defend against any night attacks there.
The grey dot was just flying through the downpour and towards the top. The blue ‘sky’ beyond the dark clouds was actually just a ceiling of ice. Passing through the clouds and entering the next floor by flight. Ebony guessed it was Tuffock and his other personas.
As for why he guessed it was them despite not seeing clearly, it was just instinct.
‘Is clashing inevitable?’
❅❅❅
“Did you see?”
“Yeah. They’re back. What a coincidence, we just completed our evolution not long ago and returned for quick levels.”
“What do you guys think? Try to poach them again? Huh, Tuffock?”
“...D..do you think..th..they’ll agree after we tried to kill them?”
“Well, I bet the almighty is out to kill us. Hector, your friend seems to trust you but unfortunately, he’s probably a high noble of the Empire. As for Ebony, it’s hard to say. I can’t get a read on him. If he doesn’t care for the Xeng as much as we thought, perhaps he is open to the thought.”
“Damnit, just hurry up. We already increased our numbers across regions, we still need our personal strength to increase or there would be no point.”
“Yeah, we’ll leave the fighting to you Hardock. Tuffock can take care of the healing, meditation and talking. As usual, you can leave the strengthening of our body and mind to me for the time being. Call me if there’s anything you can’t handle.”
“Course! Shut up already, Tuffock! Just Meditate as usual and Pettock start preparing your spells. Ditching and coming up here ourselves is difficult enough already. We’ll swap out in another 2 hours, I’m dead tired already.”
The man snickered at his own words.
“We still have a long way to go before we can finally rest.”
He replied himself.
❅❅❅
“Guys over there, get away!”
“Save us!”
“Look! Isn’t that a barrier?”
“Let us in! Please! We’ll pay ya!”
A group of 4 ran towards them and warned them about what was chasing them. One of them was carrying someone with long yellow hair so there were 5 of them in total. They were drenched and covered in mud, even though the rain stopped not too long ago.
Not seconds later, Ebony saw the menace of an Issile flying low and reaching out to swallow them. Knocking aside any tree in its path. Clinging onto the winged Issile were multiple Fist Golems and Boomarrow Fangs. More than he could count from afar.
They watched another Issile appear from behind the group and fly up into the sky. It was chasing its own tail as it circled high in the sky.
“There’s not as much. With that damn fish, there’s no point for them to come over either.” Hector said.
“Then release the barrier, I need to warm back up.” Ebony commented. It would’ve been unbearable not to move his body much if Scarlet hadn’t been by his side for almost the entire time.
“Sure, this time I’ll deal with the one above with Scarlet.” Mallory had a grudge against those Falls Issiles. She was much better with flight anyway.
The barrier was removed and they burst towards the group that just asked them to let them get in. It was obvious that the area where they were in was completely dry which was how they noticed the barrier.
❅❅❅
The 4 strangers’ first shock was to see the people they were hoping to help them disappear.
Their second shock was a man with blue hair that was burning up in similarly coloured blue flames right amidst them before some of them could blink.
Followed by a shower of flaming arrows, a shockwave that tore apart the surroundings in a straight line. The temperature was constantly changing, burning and chilling them to their very bones.
They found themselves listening to the pink-haired armoured man’s “Stay still.”. It was fortunate their bodies followed what their instincts told it. They would’ve been caught in the crossfire of all the spells and either been turned to paste, burnt to ashes or frozen still like they currently were.
Within minutes, their entourage was dealt with.
“Tha.. Woah! What was that?” The other woman that wasn’t unconscious thought that the sounds of combat had already died down and got scared by another ground-shaking impact and the strong winds that blew her hair into her eyes.
“Ahh!” She fell onto her butt along with one of her party members when a giant Issile’s face stared at her with bloody whites, pupils rolling all the way up.
The scorching heat that came together with the Issile was quickly washed away with a blast of chill before their clothes, armour and hair caught fire.
Shocked time and time again.
The party was surrounded by their benefactors, giving them a final shock before they could recover their wits and thank them.
They Identified their saviours to be Journeymen and a masked one.
“Thank you for saving us! On the behalf of our party, I apologise if we have brought any trouble to you good sirs and ma’am! By no means did we mean to bring danger to you!” The woman was a loud one and Ebony’s ears did not take kindly to it. He always had sensitive ears but it just got worse after his training.
He didn’t expect her to kneel in fear though. Along with the entire party, minus the one that was unconscious.
It appears that many people treat nobles differently. Some hated them as a whole. Some liked them due to their strengths and being at the forefront of any dangers the Empire faced. Many feared them for their strengths.
It was common sense for people of Elcra that hair and eye colour were usually connected to one’s elemental affinity. The current king and queen were famous for their pink and purple shades of hair that Mallory and Hector didn’t hide. They were rare colours that seemed to be related to arcane magic. While Hector wasn’t Identified as a barrier mage or healer, the quadra elemental mage was enough to shock most.
There was nothing left to be said about Scarlet’s presence in the party.
“It was no trouble at all!” Hector said and meant it. That was pretty much what all of them were thinking. Mark wouldn’t have stepped in if he didn’t think he could handle it but a quick read on the situation was enough to tell him that there was no harm in sowing more goodwill. The risk was too low to matter.
Hearing Hector’s cheerful voice was enough to calm them down a little that they met one of the outwardly nicer nobles. They were unlucky enough to bring people of such status trouble, they weren’t going to stay for long and risk the mood changes of these nobles. They quickly picked themselves up and left but not before Mallory stopped them.
“Stop. Put that lady down. I’ll see what I can do. Tell me what happened.” Mallory wasn’t about to let someone die or have their injury worsen when she worked so hard to become a healer to prevent that.
Ebony was pretty interested by the unconscious lady’s class [Great Topaz Hunter Lvl 133]. If her combat capability was average, it was clear that she was being protected by her party members who were beyond Ebony’s Identify range.
“Really!? Thank you! prin..” The woman seemed like the one in charge as she was the only one conversing with them. Mallory shut her up with a glare and she was quick enough to know what was better left unsaid. She might have been wrong about her being related to the Royals before but the glare was enough to tell her that she was right.
“Uh…she, she got stabbed by one of the head golem’s projectiles. The growth of topaz is stopped by her own magic and resistance but it's not enough to stop it completely.” The woman said after she asked her party member to put the hunter down.
Showing Mallory the hunter’s belly which was covered in yellow topaz creeping up her leather armour. The topaz has grown on the armour and stuck to her body. It couldn’t be removed due to the growth of topaz.
“Let me guess. You brought her here to counter the golem’s topaz magic but messed up and let her get hit.” Hector said curiously. It was hard to even see the wound if they couldn’t remove the armour without hurting the lady but with his cousin here it shouldn’t be a problem to cause a little pain.
“...yes.” The group of men were silent and ashamed of themselves.
“Couldn’t you let her level some more before you came up here? At least she would have better luck protecting herself if she had the stats you people have.” Mark asked. It was people like them that got innocent seedlings to die young.
“It wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t…” The lady raised her voiced in retaliation. She wasn’t as restrained when talking to the bodyguard who clearly wasn’t of noble birth when she compared the equipment they had. He was the only one that was carrying luggage as well.
“Shush.” Mallory needed to focus, she was unfamiliar with the necessary procedures required to heal a wound from topaz magic.
Although the most obvious step was to remove the foreign body that was harming the person she needed to decide on the best way around it that would be best for the patient.
Miss healer got all the men to scout the surroundings and protect them while she was at work. Needing Scarlet’s help with something. Basically telling them to get lost.
Other than helping her focus it was probably for the injured lady’s privacy which even Ebony was able to pick up.
They complied and gave them as much privacy as they possibly could within a short distance so that they could react to any dangers.
Hector was chatty as always and even managed to get the group of [Swordmaster], [Master Rogue] and [Master Guardian] to speak up.
The lady in charge was indeed the leader of the party and was the archer of the party.
She was the woman who watched over them as they grew up in a small orphanage but wasn’t much older than themselves. The caretaker’s adopted daughter who picked up archery since her weak arms couldn’t carry a large, heavy weapon. Deciding on a combat class so that she could bring in more income for the hungry babies that she had to wipe the asses of.
Personally started to take freelancing quests to provide for them and even earn enough to send them to academies of their choice. She was only level 10 when she started off.
The young boys that they had been always regretted answering her about their dream classes. Pushing her to dangers that she didn’t have to undertake. They graduated as fast as they could so that she didn’t have to secretly pay their fees for them.
They forced her to go to the best archery academy in their city and insisted that they would pay her fees.
The moment they did, they tried to force her to stop taking quests since she already closed down the orphanage after the old caretaker died of sickness. Most of the other kids either got somewhat close to their desired jobs already. The only other kid that wanted to be a combatant was the topaz hunter girl. She had been the youngest of the latest group of kids.
They weren’t able to talk the archer that grew fond of freelancing out of it but managed to force her to join their party instead. She had been hopping from party to party and gave in pretty easily. This way, she could keep an eye on them anyway.
They found out about the girl’s potential for magic and couldn’t let it go. Together, earning enough for her to go to some obscure magic academy when she was old enough. It was more expensive than all four of their academy fees combined. They doted on her the most and had no issue with working to the bone for her.
The three of them were practically the archer’s sons and the topaz hunter girl was all of their daughter. They were not a party. They have never been one. They were family.
Word about topaz magic-wielding golems got to their ears and she begged and begged to bring her here since it was hard to find inspiration for odd magic like hers. They couldn’t deny the girl they doted on the most and it was something helpful for her future. It was true that she was strong but she only just started out on the field with them and was inexperienced.
She was over-eager and a real talent, more than any of them. She could somewhat handle the monsters here but a moment of folly was all it took for everything to crash on them.
‘How in the world did Hector dig up so much information from them? They practically told him their life story.’ Ebony wondered even though he had been listening in on the whole conversation.