It hadn’t been easy to get used to his slightly longer arms and legs. The change in reach and overall balance had to be perfected before he was comfortable fighting for real. His Fortification for balance helped.
Ning Xin got an injury on her forearm. One that was still in the midst of being wrapped up in a large leaf with blue paste.
They had been here for almost 3 weeks after he woke up from his evolution. The quiet village stayed that way in the meantime. They felt like it was a good chance to get some real action more than a week ago. Her being her, she asked what delicious hunts there were in the area and he led the way.
They were…unlucky to say the least. They didn’t even know what hit them at first.
They were a week away from Arcta but with their jog’s speed merely took 3 days to get there; he didn't rush the journey. On the way back from a successful hunt of a [Slap Seal Lvl 133]. Since they were pretty deep in and the snow hadn't really melted much, it had been a pretty tough fight with the group of 6 seals. They could swim in the snow while Ning Xin melted the entire area after she got sick of stabbing into the thick snow and missing, they were a slippery bunch.
It hadn’t been enough to kill them and they escaped. They were regarded as a delicacy and it took them 2 days before Ebony felt the vibrations from the snow and guessed they were seals from their rough shape he managed to sense.
Once again, he was actually ignored by the monsters and they went about doing their own things. Sometimes even walking not far from them. They didn’t see any lower-level monsters where they were and these ones either avoided him or ignored him altogether. As for those that thought they were prey, they were usually turned into their dinner that night.
The seals had large hind flippers that they used to both swim and slap attacks aside. They were surprisingly agile but after their home-ground advantage was removed, they were easy pickings. The good thing was that Ning Xin managed to dissect and clean up the hunt. The bad thing was the heat had woken up something they shouldn’t have disturbed.
It had come too fast, too sudden.
He knew many monsters in Hoarfrost Glade were hibernating underground after winter left but he didn’t think they were unlucky enough to be right above one such monstrosity. The only thing they ‘fought’ against were tentacles thicker than most surrounding trees and long enough that he would have to fully tilt his neck back to see the top when it shot up into the sky.
The initial pop-up instantly sliced right across Ning Xin’s forearms, she had already moved back reflexively but still wasn’t fast enough. Ebony didn’t even have the time to react and didn’t manage to protect her from the sudden attack.
Whatever the tentacle was part of, it had sliced through her sleeves with ease even though it was a smooth rounded tentacle. With just that, he decided to retreat.
She hadn’t exactly been happy about getting sneaked up on and burst off to slash at the tentacles that were reaching out for snow from further away to cover the ice above where its limbs were coming out from. Their attacker probably didn’t even know they were there and just thought it got warm all of a sudden because it didn’t try to attack them.
Ning Xin got her heated revenge by slicing a quarter way through a single tentacle in exchange for both her training blades to melt back to molten form. He barely managed to get her out of the way of the angered trashing of the tentacles.
Thanks to his increased movement speed, he got her out of its range pretty quickly but the cut on her arm was a poisonous attack. They were lucky it didn’t seem to follow or even notice their presence so he quickly brought her back to Arcta within hours. She stopped her heartbeat or slowed it a lot before conjuring fire mana in herself, casting her fire enhancement magic.
It worked pretty well in response to the poison that attempted to freeze her.
She got treatment quickly and was supposed to be fully healed in time. The Lasil family prided themselves in their ability to cure most things Hoarfrost Glades could dish out. With her mask, she wasn’t even worried about scarring.
They shared their hunt.
The seal meat had been pretty tasty but its fat content seemed to be really high. It might have been a trait of many monsters or animals that hibernate for a long time. Ning Xin liked the flavour of the fat and turned a large part of it into cooking oil or just used its fat to cook.
Six seals that were twice the size of large cows gave her enough fat and oil to use for a long time even after sharing quite some with the Thoyas and Lasils.
That was her pet project. While he had his own pet project.
He brewed frost plum wine.
He had twenty large jars of different recipes of wine, mostly just tweaking the amounts of yeast, sugar and plums. It was still fermenting and he wouldn’t know which he would like best. He would’ve made more if Mrs Calhy let him buy more but her farm didn’t have a very good harvest.
Although he made it with Ning Xin and she had some knowledge of brewing wine, she hadn’t made any herself so it was a combined effort.
He had gotten some of the most beautiful plum flowers with permission. Seeing her eyes light up made him happy he got her some.
“I’ll make tea from it for you.” She had clearly been very happy at obtaining a new ingredient. Although it hadn’t been his aim, tea from it was just as heavenly as its fruits.
Clovis usually faced his books all day long. They only met when they ate together from time to time or when they bumped into each other while he was watching Kiva sleep. Ebony could sense the stress coming from Clovis.
He was rereading the same books over and over again. There was a limit to what he could study and research. He didn’t have a focus of study as of yet and was just reading to expand his knowledge.
“I…feel like I’m just letting time pass me by,” Clovis told him a few days ago. The talk had been more serious than he expected.
‘I imagined the elves didn’t have as much urgency. Was it from seeing me and how fast I levelled?’ He might have affected Clovis’s thinking a little.
“You know how Plainston has become a city? Maybe you can ask to go walk around.”
“They wouldn’t let me…I can’t withstand the heat as well.”
“Then it’s time to work on your magic capabilities don’t you think? Once you can constantly keep yourself cool, or at least long enough for a trip to Plainston and back you can propose to them. They travelled out of Arcta and even resided outside for a long time. I’m sure they wouldn’t be so adamant about not letting you go.”
“...Kiva is still young and they wouldn’t part from her either. I also don’t want that.”
“You should think about that after you get good enough to protect yourself and keep yourself cool. She might have grown up before you manage. You haven’t even got a Sub-Class or Profession. I wondered why you guys didn’t get a complete or perfect classing?”
“The small benefit isn't worth it for us. We got plenty of time to prepare for a better Sub-Class and Profession. Our evolution has to be taken more seriously though.”
“Then time isn’t passing you, you’re letting it pass. You are a Frost Elf. Surely you need to be able to use ice and or snow magic to a certain degree. Even if you can’t protect yourself, you have to protect your sister and your parents.” Hopefully, he had given Clovis enough motivation or a wake-up call.
Clovis was cheerful again and went to their playground again, staying for a longer time every day.
Today, they got a call from sister Jing saying Ning Xin’s swords were ready. She was too excitable and the short trip to Plainston wasn’t going to let a light injury stop her from making the trip. They were pretty much used to their bodies already.
“Bada.” Kiva clung onto Ebony.
Babies were smarter than they led on. As if she knew that they were leaving, she didn’t want to let him go. After she recovered in two days, he was able to see what was going on. It wasn’t like Kiva had endless stamina, every time she woke up, whoever was watching her would try to catch her attention and play with her, tickling her to get her to giggle was one of the things they did.
Kiva somehow understood that staying with him had her the least tired out and started to cling to him more. Though he did pinch her cheeks once or twice himself. They were irresistible.
She even remembered and called him ‘bada’. She could already say ‘yaya’ for Roya and ‘haha’ for Halvis, Clovis had a noise only Clovis recognised while ‘zasa’ was referring to Ning Xin.
He had made a sub-par pair of boots for himself. He already had the know-how from his time reading in sister Jing’s library. After over 10 pairs of ruined materials, he managed to get a pair of Common rarity boots. It would keep him grounded even with his gravity membrane and lightens him a tiny bit. The tiny speed boost was better than just a random pair of durable boots.
“Can you fashion me a pair of longswords? I don’t feel right without them on me.” Ning Xin asked as they waved the Thoyas goodbye.
“Sure, they would melt if you heat them up though.”
“It’s only till Plainston, just for the weight.”
As she had said, the trip was short since they rushed.
Sister Jing led them to a weapon and robe stand. Two identical sheathed longswords were resting, decorated with a simple red zigzag and not so simple electricity zapping from within.
An innerwear made of some kind of tough leather that was worn around her belly and waist. The clothing was pretty thick and she would have to tuck in her shirt or there would be a gap in her armour when she moves around. Pierce, slash, heat and just magical resistance, in general, were obviously not something sister jing would forget. She had boots that would reach just below her knees and leggings or tights of some kind. Pants that for some reason had holes around the inner thighs. Finally, a coat not too dissimilar to his own but shorter. Everything was bright red.
It emphasised on her mobility and resistance to heat so that she wouldn’t burn it herself.
Ning Xin only focused on the pair of swords though.
“Ignite and Flare is part of them. I incorporated that dungeon metal and blood elemental rock you got me. Now, they are a true pair. I found that you have managed to bud their spirit. Rather than pair, this is the first time I saw a twin spirit so they are one and the same instead of a pair. They are called ‘Scorching Gleam of Bloodlust’.” Sister Jing then went on to talk about the blood elemental rock that Ning Xin mentioned to him.
In short, sister Jing almost got her blood sucked out in the forging process. She didn’t tell them her disappointment that she wasn’t able to push up the rarity of her twin swords from Rare to Epic.
“You’re going to snatch blood with me?” Ning Xin put her hands on her hips and told off her companion. The spark of electricity came at an opportune time as if responding to her.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Ebony had confirmed that he could sense lightning mana less foggily now. They didn’t listen to him yet but it seemed fully possible to get lightning mana manipulation as a generic skill. Of course, if he wanted it to get into his Class, Sub-Class or Profession he now had to get it to a minimum of level 100. After his evolution, he could sense all his generic skills that were ‘locked down’ loosened and he could level them further so 100 wasn’t unachievable. Especially since he could still get Natural Potential once he reached level 300.
He sort of assumed that since he could use ice so well, water would be more intuitive to him but he actually failed to even lift water mana up with his mana. His mana just didn’t latch on to water mana, much less directly manipulate it. At least, lightning mana didn’t ignore his mana.
Nothing much changed with earth or wood, he didn’t even sense them any better. If there was something weird it would be that the air or his surroundings seem ‘thicker’ but he could never tell why it felt that way. He didn’t think it was air or wind mana that he was picking up but it eluded him so far.
The elemental sensitivity potion he drank once was much more troublesome to obtain than he thought. He assumed he could just buy it but apparently, Koawe had to ask a friend to get him one. The one he got wasn’t ‘ultra’ expensive but hard to obtain. He personally thinks that the mages or the Empire was controlling the number of mages for whatever reasons or perhaps, rather than how many, they wanted control of who these mages were.
Another reason he had to thank Koawe, and he did. He seemed to be the person to go to for the happenings or connections with anything out of Arcta.
“Now for your real armour.” Kong Jing pulled their attention to a black lump.
The craftswoman picked it up and whipped it down like a towel, it unravelled into a small baby-sized body suit. The only gap was from the neck up.
“Don’t worry, you won’t even feel like you’re wearing it. It’ll not melt so you won’t be naked even if your clothes and armour burn, it doesn’t affect your mobility or flexibility and it’ll hold your ample chest down!”
“Sister!”
“I bought the material from one of my uncles so there’s no replacement, it self-repairs as well.”
Ebony understood that whatever material it was, it didn’t come from Elcra or any dungeon on the planet. The numerous defensive properties only meant that the body suit didn’t have any offensive abilities thrown into the mix. Kong Jing was also a ‘beginner’ with the self-repair function. It was still a great piece of equipment, with her current fire magic she would burn all her clothes and armour. The pants with the thigh area cut out were meant to give her further mobility.
“Let’s go!” Ning Xin dragged him out by the wrist.
He didn’t even notice that she was already fully dressed up in her new gear and looking more epic than ever.
“Time to power level.” He waved goodbye to sister Jing while Mark wasn’t around. Probably buried in his experiments.
“First, a spar!”
This time. They waltz into Ordina with 3 of his Glacial Models, the guards didn’t bother chatting them up this time. They were different guards.
They ran straight to the closest wall, he pushed ice mana deep into the wall. It took more than ten minutes before a level 93 Kobold climbed out of the wall. It looked around them to make sure no one was watching before the two of them walked into a small opening.
The kobold didn’t follow them. This was a secret elevator that Na or Ordina made. Ebony took out all the Blues he placed in his bracelet to feed his excess mana as payment.
It took hours before they were back in a familiar ‘room’ that they made home for some time. Na was practising shield handling against some Prime Verglas Kobolds.
“Hey Na, ho..”
“Talk later, let us out first. We’ll spar first.”
“...Sure.” They haven’t had a no-holds-barred spar after they evolved.
Everlasting Tranquillity was back to levelling again, reaching 227 for a 12.35 multiplier on his regeneration. 500% increase in base regeneration made 10% per hour of max mana pool increase to 60% per hour. His Wisdom stat was still 530 and he was regenerating 39,273 mana per hour or 654.55 per minute.
Be that as it may, 5300 was all he had that was going to be the most useful against Ning Xin. He could still compress his regenerated mana with no problem but his power output wouldn’t nearly be as high.
The sheer power of his spell theoretically doubled even without any compression with his new Fortification. He could compress mana way more now with his mana’s compressibility increasing. What did that do for his mana chassis skill?
His Intelligence of 376 had an effectiveness of 752 while he had ease of compressing even more mana into his chassis even when his skill hasn’t levelled yet. At least, he had another finding which was that his Sheer Mana Compression was really limiting his Reinforced Mana Chassis. It could only surpass Sheer Mana Compression in level due to it being tier one and only a 1.0% instead of 2.5%.
Previously, he got roughly 752 worth of Constitution on a fully condensed mana pool. Now he estimated to have 3008 worth of constitution, confirmed by his Status.
What did his Mana Resilience increasing do for him?
He doubted it was a direct increase like mana density that’s more closely related to the Intelligence stat but one thing was for sure.
His body couldn’t withstand his mana. His skin tore, bones ‘burst’, muscles constantly reconnecting only to tear again. He had to actively purge his mana into Icicle who consumed his ice mana with glee. Sister Jing said there was a limit but he knew that even if there was, Icicle consumed most of his ice mana, not containing or storing any at all.
The runes of Icicle were starting to glow a little brighter by the day but it could go completely off as well. He didn’t know how to control it or if it was Icicle eating ice mana away.
Whatever the case, he probably wouldn’t be able to cast his enhancement anywhere near full capability without his body breaking but he was betting the same could be said for Ning Xin.
That’s why he didn’t share the same excitement as her about the spar.
“Be careful, our Constitutions are holding us back.” The cold water poured didn’t completely kill her momentum.
They were both left unsatisfied by the 30-second exchange.
They exchanged hundreds of blows, even more were dodged and blocked by him. His Glacial Models couldn’t get close to her with her blood whip that could extend quite a lot and couldn’t be frozen easily.
He didn’t attempt many ranged spells since they would all be avoided without even distracting her, she was too familiar with his moves but the same could be said for him. He had to conjure a few Glacial arms with Imperishable Frost Scales on them, her attacks were too fierce and fast. No amount of twisting his body could help escape every stab so his extra hands could fend off a couple of strikes before either evaporating or needing his input of mana.
He took full advantage of her insane build up of speed and power that also skyrocketed. He let her push him back and used the momentum to build his own speed and power, he couldn’t let Icicle stop and had to keep moving but it wasn’t an issue against the barrage of attacks.
Electricity was running up his arms but their numbing capability didn’t work well on him with Sustained Optimum Condition and the fact that his magic could move his body by manipulating the mana in his mana chassis as if he was controlling a Glacial Model.
Sister Jing treated Ning Xin too well, her twin longswords seemed to be extremely impact resistant as his Sonic Intrusion wasn’t doing anything. At least, she didn’t even appear affected.
Even two more arms weren’t enough for him to block her attacks but both of them grew bored of the exchange after these 15 seconds that had been plenty. Their eye contact didn’t break and they both understood they would have more fun if they weren’t as affected by their evolution. Although she had gotten more rounded with her heart being strengthened, her Core Skill was one that almost killed her.
For the next 5 seconds, her heart stopped. She was going to try to build up a smaller amount of vital energy in her heart, it was hardly the first time she had to control her Core Skill to a lower output. Ebony was wondering how his new Core Skill was supposed to be cast. When he recalled which skills were merged, he tried to imagine casting all of them at the same time. It didn’t really require imagination since he did it many times before but he instinctively knew that there was more to that.
The mana pathways of his ice mist, gravity field and overall mana placement sort of rearranged themselves as he attempted to make the skill come alive.
They both stared at each other as a figurative horn restarted their clash. The frozen ice ground beneath his feet dented a little but not before a booming flash came at him. The moment she reached his domain he felt the mana around where she charged in, in an attempt to tear and injure the moving body. His mana was drained even faster as ice mana was conjuring itself to combat the heat where steam was building up in the area.
They didn’t stand very far before their clash so he couldn’t tell if her explosive flash step was slowed down by his gravity but she was brimming with so much power with an equally heavy aura of Vitality that she could probably withstand the gravity even without the initial burst of speed.
She pierced through the many Imperishable Frost Scale that his domain formed for him as the tip of her longsword was right in between his eyes. This happened so fast, he only noticed her attack when it was stopped right before it touched him. All Ebony knew was, when the ‘horn’ rang, she disappeared while his new Core Skill was cast and the blade almost touched him. Although his mind was slow, his body had rarely ever failed to react as if it had now.
He wasn’t discouraged.
Both knew that she didn’t stop because she knew she was going to hit. She was actually stopped by the scales and six ice arms gripping each of her arms and a dozen more dragging her mantle back and her feet held by two arms each that connected to the ground even as they were steaming. The good thing was the arms were only compressed a little but they were still mostly solid instead of instant evaporation.
He didn’t win either since all that extra expenditure of mana drained him dry and his domain was barely maintaining itself with his freshly regenerated mana. As for his opponent, her wrist fell limp after she was released from the hold of ice. Her forceful thrust from a stationary stance with an acceleration that shouldn’t be possible with a level 100’s Agility caused it to dislocate, only held in place by her blood manipulation and sheer control over the muscles in her body or any part of her body.
He had to back off even faster as his mana was getting burned off while the heat from her blade hadn't faded. There wasn’t any more ice mana in the surroundings as they all went to his Glacial arms. It was as if his domain reacted in place of his body.
Ning Xin screamed.
“That was more dissatisfying than if we didn’t fight.” He said the words that she voiced out in her frustrated yell.
He felt uncomfortable not being able to use his full-powered Frostblaze Augmentation because they were too compressed and he would kill himself. She felt the same way, her Core Skill wasn’t supposed to be some final attack but a constant empowerment.
They returned to the secret hideout after knocking to let Na know they were back. He should be able to hear it and didn’t need Ebony to send a large pulse of mana from the first floor. He opened up the wall.
“I know we just returned and all but we have a favour to ask, Na.” Ebony initiated conversation.
“Thanks for the burst of mana and even vitality.” Na turned to him then Ning Xin.
“Good good.” They nodded in tandem.
“Throw everything you have at us.” Ebony got straight to the point.
“Um.” Na looked at the state of his floor not too far away.
They looked at Na with anticipation.
“How about nah?” Na backed up and had his wall slowly close up
They put a hand on each side and stepped in before it closed.
“Haha. Wow. You even learned humour.” Ning Xin laughed, albeit a little sarcastically she really thought it had been funny.
“That was very funny,” Ebony commented with his usual dead tone. He was serious, it had been hilarious to him.
They put their arms around Na and Ning Xin brought out some food and tea, inviting Na to have some if it could absorb whatever little essence it could from dead and cooked food.
After they were recharged, they let themselves out of the hideout and charged for any prey they saw. There were apparently quite a few parties that have ‘cleared’ Na already. All of them could or were prepared for the cold and the lack of supplies.
Currently, only 2 parties were on the top floor which had been spotted by some of Na’s monsters.
They flashed through and annihilated any spawned monster they saw. Na could weaken them to save up on essence and absorb the spells and stamina they expended.
3 days later.
“GET OUT!”
A heavy mana storm bombarded them. It was quite scary when Na was consciously controlling and aiming at them. He also missed on purpose but the message was well received.
The reason was, they had killed too many too fast with too little effort. Na had lost more essence than it ever had in a single day throughout his entirety of 21 plus 1 floor with the last floor being a single room where he would defend. He learned from Scarlet that he should give parties some form of challenge and not just let them go through the exit portal for free. It would attract more people, it seems.
He needed to build a better reputation for giving rewards that appealed to people but would still profit him in essence. He ‘invested’ in increasing the rewards he left lying around or putting more topaz into his golems. He hadn’t started to see effects but some of his monsters overheard conversations of parties saying how he was more and more ‘bountiful’. He hasn’t even reaped the rewards of more people moving to him but Ebony and Scarlet came and raided him rudely.
They reentered to feed Na their overflowing essence for 2 days in exchange while hunting very sparingly. Two days weren’t really a lot and didn’t pay back what they took from him but they couldn’t stand the slow hunt.
“What now?” He asked Ning Xin.
“Let’s go to the next closest dungeon.”
They only gained 5 levels each even though they had a dedicated hunt of level 200s for 3 days since the monster density of the top floors was quite low. Na was already lacking in essence and concentrated most of his efforts and resources on the lower, especially middle floors. The top floor had fewer parties and the higher-level monster took more resources.