A Core Skill.
Any of his skills can be bound as a Core Skill regardless of whether it is a Class, Sub-Class, Profession or Generic Skill. The bound skill will explosively increase in natural potential which was to say faster levelling speed and easier to evolve and/or mutate.
Once again, it has something to do with his soul and he would be placed to sleep or a comatose state but it shouldn’t take nearly as long.
He wanted to train with Tiha in the morning and quickly hit level 10 so he was going to start early tonight to prevent wasting too much time.
He dispersed the mana sphere and meditated in silence. After half an hour, he brought his status up and placed his attention to the empty Core Skill slot.
‘Ting’ ‘Bind Class Skill ‘Deep Persistent Meditation’ as your Core Skill?’
‘Yes.’ Ebony mentally replied.
He was already lying down comfortably and once again felt himself slowly fall unconscious.
An unknown amount of time passed when Ebony woke up again, no different from any day. He didn’t feel any change as obvious as when he got his Class.
‘Ting’ ‘Deep Persistent Meditation has been bound as your Core Skill.’
‘Hmm? That’s all? No skill evolution? That’s too bad I guess.’ Ebony thought.
It was less special than he imagined.
Looking out of the window it was still dark out, the sun hadn't risen so it was still not the 6th hour and time for training. He had no idea what time it was but his natural clock which had gotten pretty accurate in his time on Elcra was saying it shouldn’t be too long before the sun rose.
Why didn’t he use his watch?
He obviously forgot to check what time he fell asleep and his watch was a 12 hour one he hadn’t relied on for a long time other than counting seconds for his calculations for skill training.
Since he was already awake and he didn’t feel like sleeping, he got up, washed up and started his training again.
No time to lose.
The merchant would be reaching in 2-6 weeks, a wide range but nonetheless, he got limited time to get as strong as he could before his journey in this world actually started.
The day passed as time flowed.
It must have been pretty early when Ebony woke up as he reached lvl 7 before the sun rose and went to spar with Tiha.
Some of those young working village guards had been noticing how Ebony being lower level, slower and weaker had been coping with the spar against Tiha.
Tiha seemed pretty famous amongst them but then again there weren’t many young and while the Village was relatively large, the population wasn't.
Too bad they didn’t want to spar with such someone too low levelled. Ebony reached lvl 9 at the end of the intense spar, cuts and bruises sustained early on were fully healed at the end of the 4 hour session. Mana body was awesome.
He didn’t get a level in the next 4 hour session but since his recovery speed increased so much, he trained after dinner too instead of just chilling and watching Clovis.
Finally, he hit the much desired level 10 before his reading at night.
Clovis was only still level 5 but elves in general never rushed with levelling, they had a long lifespan after all.
Tomorrow, Ebony would allocate his stats and then the day after that will be the day.
The next day came as quickly as the previous day went.
The 4th hour.
Ebony did his conditioning but something was different today.
Every few minutes Ebony added a stat point. Not randomly, of course. He was blasting Mental Arithmetic at full force again.
Running, Treading Steps, kicking, sword swinging, stabbing, jumping and dancing around. Ebony didn’t stop trying all kinds of weird movements together with activating all many of his skills as he calculated. Watching his stamina especially closely.
Ebony didn't exactly plan his stats to be allocated how they did by the end and when he added his last 100th point. It was not exactly how he wanted his build to be but that was because he decided to focus on his physical portion for now.
Perhaps he wasn’t doing this right, Ebony thought but it was only the first 10 levels he would find out if he should change his stat allocation after actually monster hunting. Putting food on the table.
Name: Ebony Rime
Core Skill: Deep Persistent Meditation Lvl 58
Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 10
Class Skills:
Treading Step Lvl 35
Ice Mana Manipulation Lvl 32
Icebody Enhancement Lvl 34
Single-handed Greatsword Mastery Lvl 33
Frost Coating Lvl 1
Ice Spike Lvl 3
Two-handed Power Stab Lvl 14
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Sub-Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 200/200
Stamina: 298/300
Mana: 104/250
Unallocated stat points: 0
Strength: 15
Vitality: 20
Constitution: 20
Endurance: 30
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 25
Perception: 15
Generic Skills:
Stealth Lvl 6
Identify Lvl 12
Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 26
Running Lvl 28
Humming Lvl 19
Mental Mapping Lvl 2
Kicking Mastery Lvl 29
Mana Weaving Lvl 20
English Lvl 8
Elcrian Lvl 6
Mental Arithmetic Lvl 5
Dish Washing Lvl 5
Mana Compression Lvl 21
Physical Conditioning Lvl 2
Magical Conditioning Lvl 2
Peak Performance Lvl 21
Tracking Lvl 1
His skills levelled considerably. Mana Compression benefitted the most from his almost ceaseless practice, exceeding even Mana Weaving.
Strength. He wanted to at least be able to swing his sword with more ease and be able to carry it around for long periods of time before his arms got sore. He didn’t want to put too much into it either as he doesn't depend on strength as much as the other stats to begin with.
Vitality. A little more generous with this since it was basically his life.
Constitution. Ebony wanted to put more into Constitution but settled for 20. To Ebony, Constitution had so many benefits.
Endurance. The first stat he even placed. The reason he was calculating so damn much. The higher the Strength the higher the consumption of stamina if one exerts that much strength, energy or power. Same with Agility.
So Ebony did all his running around and every physical skill while staring and calculating his stamina loss. Adding point after point into Endurance.
Endurance didn’t just increase his max stamina, it increased his stamina regeneration. Slowly, Ebony’s stamina stopped dropping as he physically exerted himself as hard as he could. This was no secret but no damn one would throw so many stats into Endurance and not be able to harm a single monster of the same level.
Even Ebony’s 250% increase wasn’t enough. His absolutely broken Core Skill made him take this route. Unlike the known Meditation skills which require people to be stationary, his Persistent version circumvents this problem.
Only when his stamina stopped budging did he add point after point to both Agility and Strength, adding to Endurance when he sees it drop. The other reason was that he wanted to feel the changes in his body as he added these stat points, to get used to it.
Agility. He preferred speed over power because, speed. No other reason. Speed was obviously superior to strength. At least to Ebony.
Ebony thinks he almost got the ratio of Strength, Agility and Endurance down to fit his needs.
He wasn’t too happy about his Perception stat but it was too important not to add any into it so he begrudgingly pushed it to 15. Feeling the changes in his 5 senses. His sight was noticeably clearer, hearing sharper, smell of the cotton croft, taste of the chilly air and feeling the groves of his sword handle a little more clearly.
After all that, he was only left with 20 stat points. He wanted to just toss all of that into Wisdom obviously to take advantage of the 250% fortification and his Core Skill. But he felt bad for Intelligence and his body enhancement was dependent on it after all. He would treat these 2 stats better soon enough, he promised himself.
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It wasn’t known why the first 10 levels were so easy to gain but the next level onward slows down considerably.
Ebony went on the day as usual but Halvis and Roya obviously knew he was ready to go out the next day. He was making a few preparations after all.
He absolutely destroyed Tiha at the playground with his newfound speed and power, absolutely stunning her when he moved.
The rest of the training in the day was used to familiarise himself with his new stats.
With Endurance at 30, his natural regeneration at 105 SP per minute and Deep Persistent Meditation at level 58. Ebony was regenerating 257.25 stamina in a minute.
For mana, 214.375 per hour or 3.57 per minute. Still a distance away from his goal when he saw the bonus he got from Classing. Running Icebody Enhancement perpetually.
“Please remember not to go too deep. You know the parts where you absolutely cannot go right?” Roya reminded.
“Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. What do you want for dinner tomorrow?” Ebony asked as nonchalantly flat toned as always.
“Haa..we are fine with anything you catch, just don’t be too reckless and run if a higher level monster wanders into where you are.” Roya nagged.
Ebony nodded but didn’t reply. Clovis was quiet for once, he was pretty sad about not being able to spend as much time with Ebony but understood anyway. He had his own levelling to do in his research and study anyway.
❅❅❅
Ebony changed his schedule to waking up at the 4th hour and leaving immediately going in the direction they went for the stimulation rite but he was going to go deeper because of course he would.
He was just going to hold on to his sword without the belt. He took along a borrowed leather knapsack, much larger than his own bag to carry his game.
He knew how to process and prepare game but it has been a few years since he last did. Bringing along a sharp wooden knife, ropes to hang and let blood out and clean cloth and bags for the meat.
He didn’t forget his packed breakfast from Roya, it was dinner leftovers and packed in two large wooden boxes, just like bento boxes. Also a few frost plums and his bottle of water.
Ebony had two spheres of mana directly above him now, a little distraction is all it takes for them to get dispersed. He would only compress one at a time though. He would compress one to the limit he can, let them return to the original size and then compress the other. Rinse and repeat.
He greeted the 2 guards at the gate who were another pair of guards he didn’t recognise. They didn’t stop him as he exited the village. It was still dark out but he jogged a little away from the village before bursting into half his full speed.
Ridiculous was the only word he could use to describe it. How did high level people not already break the planet?
With his Agility increasing to 20 and his Running and Treading Steps gaining some levels his movement speed has increased by a lot.
Furthermore, just running wouldn’t even cost his stamina to drop. If the battle or his movements were intense enough he would still use a tiny bit of stamina.
What this meant was Ebony’s movement speed alone practically tripled.
More importantly, it meant that Ebony couldn’t even run at his top speed without tearing a muscle or spraining his ankle. Pathetic.
A calculated top speed of 75m/s or 270km/h the speed of a high speed train and he couldn’t even withstand his own speed.
At half speed, he was moving a little slower than Halvis was when carrying both him and Clovis. Moving with Treading Steps alone, every step pushed him girs forward. He should not take too long to reach the same area. Slowly increasing his speed to push Peak Performance.
He passed a few rabbits and foxes and ignored them all. Reaching the spot they had before, he passed the area without hesitation. His map could expand again.
Spending over an hour just travelling, the levels of monsters slowly climbed from tens to twenties. He was much further in but nowhere forbidden for him yet. He saw some of the monster monkeys already but didn’t want to eat monkey meat. He would deal with them when they come for him.
Starting to look for tracks, it was obvious that not only were the monster levels rising, the number of them too.
[Frost Fur Deer Lvl 22]
Ebony stayed out of sight and ignored it. His target would be a deer. Just not this particular one. They were large but still normal sized for a deer.
Like the name suggests it had bluish-white fur as if the tip of its furs had a layer of frost over it. Ebony estimated it to weigh over a hundred kilos, edible meat is usually about half of that. Even if monsters have stats and higher muscle and bone density it shouldn’t be too much more at such low levels according to what he’d learned.
Ebony himself felt his own body getting denser by a bit after adding Constitution. Nothing drastic, perhaps he gained a little weight, his size stayed the same and no changes can be seen from outside.
[Frost Fur Deer Lvl 27]
‘That’s more like it.’ Finding a different one not too long later. Perfect that he didn’t see any other monster near it. Perfect that it also noticed him and was already treating him as prey.
It didn’t bother waiting to come too close as it opened its mouth and an icicle formed in seconds and it released the icicle towards Ebony’s head. Barely dodging it only because of the current distance. A monster that uses magic. Good.
Ebony quickly drew his sword as he closed the distance, tossing the scabbard aside for now.
It already had another icicle ready and shot at Ebony again. Treading Step gave him a smooth burst of speed as he continued forward, the icicle missed completely.
The deer closed its mouth and got to its antler poised ram charge.
Icebody enhanced, Ebony skidded to a complete stop in front of its charge. Posing with his sword by his side, too lazy to hold a stance he waited till the last second before the deer arrived.
Casually turning back with his left leg, pivoting on his right, his sword came crashing into its antlers in a 360 backspin.
However, Ebony still didn’t fully understand when they said that monsters at the same level have a lot higher stats than people.
Numbing shock spread from his fingertips and palm to his whole arm as he felt like he just hit something rock hard. Thankfully, the spin and deflection didn’t push the deer away at all but it pushed himself to the side.
Backstepping to create some distance. This was no blind boar. The deer turned in its charge and started wildly swinging its head increasing the range of his attacks. Or perhaps to prevent Ebony from doing what he did again.
Despite failing once, Ebony stood still again. Pulling his sword handle against his chest he watched the deer that looked like it was trying to shovel snow out of the way left and right.
Two handed Power Stab!
His strike landed right in its face, cutting through its whole eye together with brain bits as his sword exited through the back of its head. Ebony’s grip tightened as his palm's skin tore, wrist, elbows, shoulders and knees cracked. He planted his feet firmly as they dug through girs of snow.
The deer screamed as it tried to retreat, the bones were too hard for Ebony to drive the sword any deeper with a slash and he couldn’t pull it out either.
Not wanting to let it go, Ebony quickly grabbed onto its antlers and swung himself onto the deer, letting go of his sword. One of the mana spheres above his head which he didn’t stop maintaining was slowly converting and a spike of ice was forming as he fed them the mana they required.
The deer vehemently struggled to shake Ebony off by sprinting, hopping and kicking its hind legs but Ebony had an iron tight grip around its chest with his legs. He got low and hugged it tight so that he wouldn’t get flung off as well.
As Ebony was forming a compressed Ice Spike, he started to get the second mana sphere ready as he knew that one wouldn’t be enough with his low Intelligence and skill level.
The Ice Spike above him that was finally ready, shot for its remaining eye. At this distance it was harder to miss. Fortunately, the eye was still an easy weak spot and the deer was completely blinded now with both its eyes down for the count.
Ice Spike after Ice Spike struck the poor deer face since Ebony’s Ice Spike couldn’t pierce its body. It was too blind or stupid to try to ram against a tree.
Eventually running out of mana, the deer wasn’t dead yet but was not far from it as it collapsed on the ground. Face frozen, breathing cut. Ebony shouldn’t have frozen the bleeding but the deer’s face was only so large.
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Frost Fur Deer Lvl 27], enemy 10 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.’
‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level up 10 - 13, 30 stat points gained.’
‘Ting’ ‘Core Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 58 - 59’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Single-Handed Greatsword Mastery level up 33 - 34’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Two Handed Power Stab level up 14 - 16’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 34 - 35’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Ice Spike level up 3 - 7’
‘Ting’ Generic Skill Mana Compression level up 21 - 22’
‘This is a lot more rewarding than I thought. Clovis' experience pool concentration talk wasn’t baseless after all. Haven’t read any books on it though.’
Wiping the deer's blood off his face from when he stabbed the deer. He got the thick ropes and wooden knife out. The first step should be to drain the blood out of it.
Pulling his sword out with difficulty, he moved onto hacking at its neck to decapitate it. It took a lot of effort to get through bone and avoid being too bloodied. He didn’t forget to pick his scabbard back up.
Tying one of its hind legs and hanging it up a random tree branch before skinning it with the knife. It was tough and he wasn’t that skilful but he managed. Gutting it and removing its internal organs that he’s mostly not going to bother with, careful not to break into its stomach or intestines.
Got down with his hands to remove the bones and it required him to use Icebody Enhancement with the little mana he recovered. After that was just separating the cuts of meat, the 4 legs were left club-like and tied together while he wrapped the other meaty portions in clean cloth bags.
The good thing about hunting in the cold was that the game wouldn’t spoil easily from the heat.
Ebony wasted quite a little meat here and there due to his poor processing so, he estimated 60kg of product packed in his bag. Blood and fat on his clothes was annoying to say the least. He cleaned himself with a cloth but there was nothing he could do about the absorbed blood on his shirt.
Unworried about attracting any monsters from all the blood on the red patch of snow. Ebony rested against the tree where he hung the deer and started eating breakfast without a care in the world.
He was mostly healed by the time he finished processing the deer. Just his cracked bones taking more time but they didn’t sustain too much damage anyway and should be fully healed soon enough with his regeneration.
Obviously, despite him eating a lot more than usual they were not going to finish eating 12 tivs of venison in a night. His preparations included asking Mrs Calhy, the frost plum lady whom he was on surprisingly good terms with, to introduce him to someone from the market who was willing to buy his game from him to sell.
This way, Ebony could start making money both to repay the Thoya family and to get ready for his trip. Money was a necessity after all.
He could set up a stall himself like many young hunters but he didn’t want to waste so much time and it was too much trouble, he was no salesman.
Mr Herrid gave a rundown on the types of game he would buy and the price he would pay for them.
Boar was the cheapest due to how large and easy they were to hunt while rabbit had the highest price. Rabbit was pretty popular and their small size makes it all the more expensive.
Too bad that the frost fang rabbits are said to rarely exceed lvl 15. Either their natural limit or them getting hunted before getting higher. Same with the boar at around lvl 20.
Ebony would later realise it was because it was currently summer.
Mr Herrid sold deer meat at 11-13 blacks a tiv. Since he had to profit too his proposed price to buy from Ebony was 4 Blacks a tiv. Mrs Calhy was a tough negotiator and pushed the price up to 6 Blacks a tiv.
Ebony was very grateful for that and told himself to buy more frost plums from her.
Deer level ranges pretty wide so it was his main target for hunting and selling but that’s not the only reason. Another monster populating this area were the monkeys.
They were apparently a nuisance to the village. When their numbers get high enough there were occasions where they would come and throw magical snowballs both at and over the village walls. Basically pests that he was told to remove if he could.
Just as he was keeping his empty bento boxes he heard leaves rustling. Hearing 'ooos' and 'ahhs' as he calmly picked his sword up just in time to deflect 3 snowballs that felt harder than they were supposed too.
‘How polite of you to wait till I was finished eating.’ Ebony planned a swift death for them for their politeness but he might not have the capability to do so yet. As with the deer.
[Snowskin Monkey Lvl 16]
[Snowskin Monkey Lvl 16]
[Snowskin Monkey Lvl 17]
[Snowskin Monkey Lvl 17]
[Snowskin Monkey Lvl 19]
They really were furless as Ebony spotted 5 of them spread out around him on trees. The lvl 17s and 19 jumped off and came at Ebony with hands as claws while the lvl 16 continued their snowball assault.
With Treading Step and his observation and prediction, they were all too easy to dodge. They didn’t come anywhere close to the magical diversity that Sei and Ton had.
When Ebony blocked a claw with his sword he was a little surprised to see it cut into them easily but more of their skin reforming like a gathering of snow. Looks like he had to cut deep to injure them. Their weak defence made them a target for young Frost Elves undergoing their rite it seems.
He played them with movement speed alone. They couldn’t hit him at all as he gave a flying knee to the lvl 17 monkey's face as it flew back and hit the tree behind it. Landing on his foot and turning kicked the other to the same effect. Keeping up his spin as the lvl 19 screamed and claws for his neck.
His ankle muscles tore and joints in his leg creaked, the spin was too fast and the weight of his blade popped his shoulders out of place. His body was too weak to handle his movement speed and power. Unacceptable.
Peak Performance and his usual ignorance of pain caused him to move as if all was well. Though Deep Persistent Meditation’s increase in pain resistance helped, he never cared about the pain portion anyway, just that broken bones and torn muscles would affect his range of motion.
The blade went unhindered through its hands and neck. Decapitating and disarming. They had weak defences and bodies but higher regeneration is what Ebony assumed and he was right.
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Snowskin Monkey Lvl 19], experience is gained.’
The rest of the monkeys were easily dispatched, a single strike each. Monsters he fought so far didn’t know how to run. It was like a foreign concept to them.
The 2 lvl 16 who were acting as support actually came down for him when he finished up with the lvl 17s making his life easier. He just kicked and deflected their reasonably slow snow projectiles.
This particular breed of monkeys wasn’t eaten by Frost Elves. Ebony didn’t have to care about wasting food if they came attacking him for the deer organs he left in the open as bait.
Sadly due to their habits, they were also pests targets of the village.
‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level up 13 - 14, 10 stat points gained.’
‘Ting’ ‘Core Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 59 - 60’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Single-Handed Greatsword Mastery level up 34 - 35’
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Treading Step level up 35 - 36’
‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Peak Performance level up 21 - 22’
‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Kicking Mastery level up 29 - 30’