“Where are we going?” Ebony asked the group of villagers, mostly male adults with the exception of Ning Xin and Palom, who were following for some reason.
‘Picking up some herbs? Is it somewhere dangerous? They shouldn’t be sending Palom again if it’s dangerous enough to require so many people. None are fighters though?’ He was thinking that maybe he and Ning Xin were the guards this time. Halvis was coming along with 5 others, one of which, the man who bought game from him, Mr Herrid and another was Palom’s grandfather who was pretty old compared to the others. Mr Calhy, the frost plum lady’s husband was the only other one he recognised.
Needless to say, the Frost Elves weren’t exactly defenceless in these parts when it wasn’t winter.
“Fishing.” The glint in Ning Xin’s eyes turned fiery. He just didn’t expect the villagers to match her spirit, pulling out their fishing rods from a large box Mr Herrid brought along. Ning Xin couldn’t help but glance over. She didn’t have a fishing rod but she was familiar with the Fisher King uncle who always fished at the pond near her house. She got into a conversation with these fishing enthusiasts who quickly ignored her uncomfortable burning presence.
‘...I need to be careful about getting anyone who baits her with food or ingredients in general. She would definitely fall for the bait.’
“Are you feeling better?” Palom took the chance to shift over.
“Mmm. Thanks for the frost plums, they were delicious.”
“Yes. They were alright.” He found Ning Xin slotting herself in between them. He was glad to be able to share the awesomeness of plums with her.
Ebony woke up near dinner time last night so he hasn’t found the chance to familiarise himself with his evolved body. As much as he wanted to spar with Ning Xin, there wasn’t anywhere suitable in Hoarfrost Glade. Arcta was small and if she was to use fire magic, it wouldn’t turn out nicely for the village. If there were to leave the village there was a good chance something dangerous would come out since winter just ended not long ago. He was still a little spooked by the mid-winter night attacks.
He remembered his after-evolution feast last night. Even he could sense the awkwardness when he reintroduced Ning Xin to Palom.
“I…I forgot to water my plants. I’ll be taking my leave.” Palom bowed and ran off. The village walls were still in sight and her grandfather watched her safe return before shaking his head with a soft sigh.
‘Is he disappointed that she forgot to water her herbs?’ That was what Ebony assumed.
“Let’s get going, the sun’s about to rise.” Mr Herrid was only interested in some fishing.
They were going at a low-level Master warrior jog’s speed and he was surprisingly not falling onto his face with his increase in movement speed. The Frost Elves used some kind of snow magic movement skill that all of them seemed to be capable of using, gliding instead of running.
He knew where the frozen pond was since he searched nearby and even followed their young on trips. They got there in half an hour. Lasil’s grandfather just swept his hand, pushing aside mounds of snow. Mr Herrid touched the floor with a single palm and raised a cylinder of ice not shorter than any of them, putting it aside. They did that so smoothly and quick, he wondered if he could pull out a block of ice that smoothly.
He didn’t have to wonder for long since they all made their personal fishing hole. Spreading out so that they would cluster. Halvis joined Palom’s grandfather, while the other’s paired up too so they were left to themselves.
“Give me a moment.” The frozen layer was thick and he took a moment longer to disconnect a portion of the ice mana to make a hole.
“Here. They loaned it to us.” Ning Xin passed a fishing rod made by one of their wood mages/workers. It had really tough and long fishing threads. They didn’t use a hook and only frozen rabbit meat as bait.
“They said they would thread ice mana through the fishing line and freeze their catch.” Ning Xin explained the gist of their fishing technique. Telling him some tips like using only just enough ice mana so that they didn’t harm the flesh of the fish but too little and the fish would just eat the bait and swim away.
She made a makeshift wooden hook from the branches of trees not far away while he was waiting for fish to bite on. She lost patience after not catching anything for 3 hours, making him some hot tea while they waited. She had stocked up on plenty of tea when she returned to Xienor.
He got 2 fishes so far, both being a little skinny so they left them go after he thawed them. He heard Mr Herrid complain about how the fishes should have already fattened back up since it had been weeks since winter passed.
He huddled closer to his chef when he saw her wrap her mantle tighter.
When they finally got a nice catch, they left it out in the open, freezing it pretty quickly and she sliced it up and seasoned it.
“Ahh.” She held a slice to his mouth.
It was delicious.
This lifestyle was pretty good. He could see himself spending time like this, not the constant talks about skills, magic or fighting. Just chilling.
Perhaps the fishes were still inactive in the morning as they got a pretty good catch in the afternoon. He woke up the adorable sleepy head resting on his shoulder and they returned to the village before night fell.
❅❅❅
“Pfft!” Ning Xin spit out the water she was drinking as they ate in his room.
“Yo..you got a domain skill as your core skill already?”
“Mmm. Is it so surprising? I lost 4 of my skills and it even dropped to level 37.”
“Can you even maintain it for long?”
“No. Wait, actually I need to test out how my 3 mana efficiencies will work. It should stack like with elemental body enhancement right?”
“It should. Can you tell me how much mana it requires?”
“Fifty-eight thousand.”
She blinked.
“Every minute for a gir’s range. Probably.”
“So it’s really not something a Master classed should be using. Three elements?”
“If sound counts, yes. That should mean I have 2700% efficiency if they stack, about 2148 mana per minute. Since area of effect skills’ mana cost increases exponentially with radius, I can pretty much forget about using it sustainably.”
“That’s actually a lower mana cost than I thought.” Ning Xin replied honestly.
“All about mana efficiency Fortifications, I guess.” If he were to evolve having met the 1.5 times skill level requirement again, he would have additional 100% efficiency which would mean he has 400% with a single type of magic and have 6400% total efficiency instead of 2700%. But that was for grandmasters or people who have the 250% mana efficiency Fortification like Ning Xin has with fire.
“It would be hard to level it without pushing it to maximum output and beyond. I had the same trouble with my core skill when my body couldn’t handle the stress.”
“Then it’ll be a long time before it’s of much use…I wasn’t planning on pushing my Intelligence or Wisdom for the time being, at least for the first couple of levels we would gain. I don’t want to be powerless without mana, there are many ways magic or mana can be sealed right?” To begin with, it was silly that he couldn’t even move properly wearing his robe or can’t even carry Icicle without enhancement.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“There are but I don’t think you have to be that worried. Unless they were aiming to get you and prepared the right stuff. I’m not sure there are many who have magic to seal magic.” She had thought he was so easily kidnapped because he was drained of his mana and she was right.
“There are traps. Like cities’ mana absorption, Sister Jing told me that some runes can actually actively drain everything in range. If something like that was engraved or inscribed in an area as large as a city, even running might be difficult. When I was locked up, I noticed their stamina draining technologies are much stronger than mana draining ones, probably because of the larger percentage of warriors. Exhaustion resistance does help though.”
“We can take this time to get used to the changes in our bodies, without using magic. Least we disrupt the peace in the village.”
“Mmm. Sounds good.”
❅❅❅
Back in Ebony’s room.
‘I never took apart my watch before.’
He fumbled around with a tiny screwdriver that he conjured, gently opening up its casing. Laying in a spot beside a battery that somehow lasted till now was a familiar crystal-shaped object that could be placed in any myriad bracelet.
He locked it in and supplied it with mana, it wasn’t a memory light since no screen popped up but there was noise. A recorded message it seemed. A voice he recognised as his father’s cleared his throat.
“I assume it’s Ebony listening to this. If you found this, and managed to get it playing, then I guess you now know. You’re not so normal and neither were we. You should have appeared somewhere not too far from a familiar essence signature to my…relatives. Stable travel requires the destination to have low mana densities so you shouldn’t be dead.”
‘First I’ve heard of dad talking about relatives. Well, mom only mentioned I had an aunt once and that was it. They were why or how I came here after all.’ He also wondered about the familiar essence signature his father mentioned.
“I guess, we should tell you some things. I, your father, was part of the Rime tribe. Hopefully, you managed to refine your physique into a mana being by now. Your mother was part of a clan who wears masks all day long, that’s all she let me tell you. Oh, you might not want to spread word that you are also part of the Rime tribe to too many people.”
The recorded voice stopped for long enough that he thought it ended there but it continued.
“We are sorry. We weren’t able to be by your side for any longer. I would’ve loved to stay and train you more, sadly, we ran out of time faster than we thought. The irony, me, out of time. I don’t know when you would find this, what situation you are in or where you are but I hope you’re doing well. Were you able to make friends?”
Ebony was surprised to hear his mothers voice too, not to mention how much she was speaking. They weren’t speaking like the parents he knew they were.
There was the sound of a loud scuffle, his father trying to stop his mother from saying something but he recognised the familiar sound of her mother kicking him out, breaking a door or wall in the process.
There was another long silence. He swore he could see his mother staring into this very voice recorder with her expressionless face.
“For your father’s sake, I’ll put it this way. If you’re strong enough, I hope you can reunite us.”
His mother was usually as direct and straight to the point as one could possibly be. The tone was flatter than a board and he wasn’t able to tell much.
““Take care.””
The short message took a long time to finish playing.
Ebony just unlatched the voice recorder after he was sure that was the end of the message and placed it back into his watch. Sealing it back up for good.
He sat in his chair, tapping his finger on his thighs all the way till morning came without noticing time pass.
“Ebony? Breakfast is ready.” Ning Xin knocked on the door.
“Thanks.” He opened the door.
“What’s wrong? Not feeling well, you’re up late and you didn’t come out for morning exercise.” Although she didn’t break a sweat due to the cold, she had just completed her morning set.
“I’m okay, I was just thinking about something.” He stepped out and followed her down. She already finished breakfast by herself and was just going to join the table.
“Care to share?” She tilted her head slightly.
“Sure. Apparently, I am likely part Xeng. And part of some tribe by my family name. Heard of it?” He decided not to hide anything from her if he didn’t have to.
“Rime? Never heard of it. I don’t think there’s any of the ones who married outsiders were married to a Rime? What’s your mother’s family name?” She somewhat guessed due to their similarities but out of the few Xengs that married outsiders, she didn’t recall any Rime. Then again, she only heard of two or three names. It wasn’t as if she took a history lesson on which Xeng married who.
“Stone.” He replied.
“We don’t have any clan with that name.”
“I thought so too.”
“There you are, could you please help me with Kiva while I eat? Pretty please! She had been crying since midnight and only just stopped a short while ago.” Roya saw them walking over to the dining table with dark eyebags. Their conversation was cut off there.
‘Taking care of a baby sure looks tough.’ He didn’t expect to see anyone who had much higher physical stats than a baby not older than 2 to grow dark circles in a single night.
He knew that Ning Xin was smiling under her mask when she took Kiva over. Kiva was a lot more energetic than he first saw. Kicking and flailing her little chubby limbs in protest as she struggled to get out of Roya’s arms. She continued her futile struggles even in Ning Xin’s arms.
“I don’t know what has gotten to her,” Roya stressed out even further seeing Kiva so desperate for the first time. None of them were baby whisperers.
Halvis apparently ran out to get one of the Lasil’s over.
“Carry her.” Ning Xin suddenly lifted Kiva to him.
Instead of asking why, he asked how to carry a baby so that he wouldn’t injure her. It wasn’t that complicated.
“She seemed like she was reaching out to you.” Ning Xin added after Kiva was passed over to him.
Kiva only flailed around a little more before pulling and grabbing his shirt as tightly as her tiny hands could. Falling asleep with ice-cold snot wiped onto his shirt after a minute or two. She was so small and fragile in his arms.
He ate with Clovis and Roya, eating with one hand as he cradled Kiva who rested against his chest. He had to be ultra careful with his strength. The elder who fished with them yesterday came and took a look at Kiva’s snot and instantly knew what to do. Passing the Thoya couple some herbs that he brought along. It was a common Frost Elf sickness amongst their young.
“Must be the sudden rise in temperature after winter. It doesn’t appear too serious so don’t worry about it. Grind this into her milk. She should be fine in a day.” The elder tried to assure them as best as he could but their worry couldn’t be erased. He brought along a box of common herbs and was glad it was nothing serious.
Ning Xin ran out. Leaving a ‘sorry’ before she disappeared.
“Here.” He stood up and let Roya take Kiva over.
“Sit. I’ll get her.” Roya didn’t take Kiva, opting to go after Ning Xin instead.
Even though Ning Xin was out of sight already, Roya could follow the remnant heat that was obvious to her. They were in the village and she couldn’t go fast or she would destroy some houses. Maybe not destroyed, with their houses being made by their strong wood mages. Point was, she had only walked fast and they caught up quickly.
The men were left with Kiva and he wondered how Roya would bring Ning Xin back. It was pretty clear to any of them, especially Ning Xin herself, that it was due to her ‘uncomfortable’ presence.
“It’s okay. Let the womenfolk talk it out. Just so you know, I don’t blame Scarlet. We should have been more careful as parents, we must have been complacent seeing how unaffected Kiva was. It’s not as if Scarlet’s presence is enough to hurt us.”
“Huh? Is that what that lass thought? I just said it was the rise in temperature didn’t I? The recent years have had greater temperature changes as the seasons pass, it’s not as if you guys didn’t know that.” Palom’s grandfather spoke out, finally understanding why the one blessed by fire left.
“Elder, couldn’t you have said that sooner?” Clovis stuffed took another bite of his breakfast as he said so. He said the exact words Ebony wanted to say.
He was a little surprised that Roya managed to convince Ning Xin to come back. She gingerly walked in, making sure Kiva wasn’t disturbed by her presence.
‘I was pretty sure she wouldn’t step back in here.’ During their fishing trip, she had gone on and on about how cute Kiva was and also complained a little about how she wouldn’t stop crawling around her. Her ‘complaints’ sounded too happy to be complaints. It had been surprising to hear that Kiva continued to play with Clovis, Roya and also spent a little time with Halvis after tiring her out.
Then again, all that playing around might be what caused Kiva to fall sick. Who knew Clovis was the one to speak up again?
“Don’t worry Scarlet. Kiva wanted to be carried by Ebony because he was the only one that didn’t try to play and tire her out. It must have been all of us trying to get a turn with her that caused her to fall sick.” Clovis already caught on and deduced the real reason.
That caused the Thoya couple to get a little embarrassed after they realised the truth in his words. They had envied how Kiva was playing with Scarlet and wanted to spend as much if not more time with their baby.
It was on all of them. Palom’s grandfather told all of them off except for him. Something like “this is why young couples shouldn’t give birth so soon” and the like.
He never thought he would have to babysit one day.