Ning Xin was embarrassed. They were level 280s doing target practice with 130 to 170s. There were many here that could even hit the Trolls already. They might not do damage at all but with thousands of them, it added up to irritate and maybe even hinder the advancement of their giant enemies. Other than soldiers, it seemed that there were more freelancers who took the opportunity to join the ranged units. Most of them were far weaker and had tier 1 skills at best. Their duties also include donating their mana to the defensive towers. They weren’t hired since all they did was get in the way but the city needed all the resources they could get.
The city had decent mana-draining capabilities, people were not allowed to wear mana ores here but not many people had excess mana due to all the spell casting. It had to be quite efficient at draining the wisps of mana and converting it to mana pure enough for their use. She would be impressed if the drain could turn 10% of the overflowing mana into useful energy. Myriad Bracelets were far more efficient but they didn’t have the same technology for something on such a large scale. Not to mention the numerous different qualities of each individual’s mana.
She spent 5 days getting used to constant spell-casting. It was true that it had been a huge weakness of hers. Her shame of firing into the corrosion cloud when she was at such a high level funnelled her anger but the constant reminder that she had to start somewhere calmed her down. Both of these worked together in a cycle to keep Incensed Meditation’s gear running.
She knew that her level and class were hidden from most people now but it didn’t decrease the shame she felt. Incensed Meditation used to be a partial tier 2 as the stamina regeneration rate only increased by 1.0% per level but she managed to refine it when she fought an extended battle in her exhausted state. It was one of her best decision to prop the skill to a Class Skill as her blood rush from her physical enhancement doesn’t reduce her Perception as much as it used to.
Wind, lightning, blood or fire, it didn’t matter what she threw into the corrosion cloud or how potent she made her spells, everything was consumed almost instantaneously. What pissed her off further was that she spent most of her time doing nothing. Her mana pool might have gotten far larger than it used to be but she didn’t even need 2 minutes to empty it and leave her dizzy for a couple of seconds. In mage’s terms, she could dish out an entire pool with each spell while the majority only used a bucket or pot to scoop out mana for use.
It was the same with her physical powers, as her stamina grew it only pushed her to hit harder. Her ‘peak’ powers were high enough to contest Ebony in his considerably strengthened domain and completely overpower him in terms of stats but no amount of stockpiled energy would sustain her for long enough.
Just standing around and wasting time when the giant Trolls were advancing had further ignited the endless impatience in her and fueled Incensed Meditation even more. At level 220, she had a 550% increase in mana regeneration. Mental Supersaturation at level 105 meant that her mana pool was slightly more than twice as big as her Wisdom stat suggested. If she just recovered normally, it would take over 20 hours without using any mana to get to full capacity. If she could fuel her anger and rush blood flow to her head for the entire duration without magic, it would only take less than 4 hours.
On the battlefield, it wasn’t that difficult but on this relatively safe wall and distance, it was almost impossible. There was no cheating with blood magic since she wouldn’t be able to recover mana that way. Just a blood rush wasn’t enough as she needed anger or irritation as well.
Her mask didn’t store her mana in ores, it was probably stored within the fragment of her soul inside. It actually stored essence and not pure mana. At her current evolutionary rank, her mask should be indestructible by most King-Classed fighters.
‘They use life force outside their bodies. I’ll try making a spell using life force.’ Fighting these muscle heads had shown her the different applications they use their abundant life force for. Their life force enhancement was similar to hers but crude. It was their form of ‘magic body’ and it was a show of power to the mages that they didn’t need mana to increase their elemental resistance.
Although they mostly encountered rock tossers as the Troll’s ranged forces before, it was far from their only method. Ebony told her the stories that he overheard from the militia that the stronger Trolls should be able to use ‘spells’ with life force. Nothing fancy but most of these ‘spells’ acted as if they were physical matter. The warriors that applied their life force used them to increase their size and the Benumbed leader she fought with the others used it to overlap a red figure over itself. It was as if a red giant possessed them and the physical manifestation of life force had been the one wielding his weapon.
Cap Dwarf was the one that tore the red figure away so Ebony didn’t see it. It definitely took a lot of energy as the leader didn’t cast or summon the greater giant again.
Her ‘magic’ body was definitely going to be imbued with life force just like the Trolls. It was something that she had loads of and the effects were proven to be strong. They could avoid being completely frozen by Ebony or burned to a crisp by her even though both fire and ice worked well on them. It might only work well in the sense that it hinders their regeneration but it doesn't change the fact that these giants show decent individual strength. If the Imperial army didn’t have such good equipment, it was obvious they would lose in a one-on-one.
She remained on the cliff wall and tried her hand at manipulating life force. She could move it with ease, it was how she charged her Core Skill to enhance herself after all. As for manifestation, she hasn't achieved that yet. The moment it leaves her body it would dissipate into the surroundings. It was like learning magic all over again. She just has to grasp onto the life force and mould it into shape as any mage would with mana.
Ning Xin was able to move it around her body after just hours of practice. Compared to her lacking magical talent when compared to Ebony, her talent for control over the life force was far greater. In one day, she could shoot a ball of life force strong enough to break a wooden plank five steps away from her.
‘This has potential.’ She left the wall only after confirming that the ice mage would not run off or she would chase him. She also asked the surrounding soldiers to scream if he got kidnapped or something. It was nice to sense embarrassment from him when she did so.
Sadly, the army’s cook here didn’t know the method of cooking food that gave temporary buffs. Apparently, there were very few of them and most of them were at First and maybe Second Tide. The technique also wasn’t the Empire’s technique. It was a personal skill of those chefs so it wasn’t taught to every chef. She understood how chefs kept many of their personal recipes a secret so she gave up trying to learn from them. These people didn’t even share recipes, there wasn’t a chance they would share their valuable techniques.
Cooking for thousands of people was a great way to hone her skills as a chef. The lack of variety of ingredients increased the challenge of making food good enough to stand out from other chefs as well. Although 6 whole days had passed since they started target practice, the Empire’s invaders didn’t advance that much. The closer they got, the heavier the retaliation from the Empire.
❅❅❅
Ebony rarely stepped away since he reached the site for target practice.
There wasn’t a huge risk of overdrafting his mana so he did so as often as he could. Reduced regeneration rate was his meal time but he had food brought to him so he continued to do side steps on the raised ledges or merlons of the city walls to alter his footwork according to his memory that was the next tier. Of course, he had enough respect for food to stop moving about as he ate.
They didn’t throw a bomb because it would explode the moment it escapes his range, even if he used Guided Path and his domain it would be extremely unstable. The explosion would harm the city more than it would the Trolls. He also didn’t cast Blazing Deep Freeze Petals either as the spell couldn’t exactly propel forward. It only floats down or glides along with the wind; gravity didn’t really have a strong pull on them.
He continuously sent icicles that produced tremors through the ground and gravity mana inside would unravel after pushing all the ice mana apart and into the cracks in the ground. This required him to use ‘Will’ since gravity mana wouldn’t be in his control and they would just return to the planet. It was an amazing opportunity to test how his spells would be affected if he ran out of ‘Will’.
Unfortunately, the ground would fix itself so fast that the ice mana wouldn’t have the time to combust by ‘Will’. He didn’t care about the weak effects though. The ground might recover itself like the corrosive cloud above them but he didn’t believe that it erased the ice mana. After a week, it was clear to him that one area that he focussed on had mist rising from the ground. The fire mages didn’t attack where he attacked since he remained in his area for 7 days straight. This led him to believe that the ice mana he sent was trapped in the earthen battlefield.
He was completely unable to control his spells to explode without ‘Will’ so all his spells did have a similar physical force to the other artillery mages. No vibrations to cause tremors, no gravity to push his ice mana into the ground and no combustion of ice mana. He could do all of that manually if it was within his mental reach.
This mental reach of his had reached over 300 metres. The massive rise in Wisdom since he was a Journeyman played the biggest part. He hasn’t reached his maximum range by a long shot. That radiance guy or light magic user could control the movement of light within a radius of 2.2 kilometres with him at the centre. He was an older man but it was very impressive.
With his base Wisdom, 300 metres shouldn’t be his limit.
That Radiance Envoy almost caused as much destruction as a magic tower that alternates between pure mana blasts, massive fireballs to high-pressure water. Mostly mana beams and explosive blasts. They had a limited stock of elemental mana ores that were large enough to power such a large spell.
Ebony didn’t know that he was becoming the biggest subject of rumours. The archers and mages rotated dozens of times a day throughout the day but whether night fell or day rose he would be found dishing out as many spells as a couple of artillery mages. The Radiance Envoy might cause greater destruction or hinder more Shaman but he only stood there for half a day tops and he didn’t even get on duty every day.
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Since he found out the effects when his ‘will’ emptied out, he took the chance to rest exactly ten days after he took his spot. He spent 3 days constantly squeezing out any ‘will’ he could. Other than the loss of control and the drop in power he also got so mentally exhausted that the drop in his mana regeneration was further increased on top of the drop from over-drafting his mana occasionally.
During these ten days, the Trolls managed to advance to the 5 km mark on the eighth day. They reached the range of many other cannons and their advance was completely stopped. Their Shamans must be exhausted by now. The warriors were using meat shield tactics with a far smaller amount of magic support. They were holding the fort and allowing their Shamans to recover. They saw some structures being built but all the towers would target structures so they successfully stopped a fort from being built for the time being.
Ning Xin was present when he decided to rest but just as he stopped side stepping within the small area that the others designated for him, he literally fell asleep only for her to catch his falling body in her arms.
“Hey! Get some people to cover this spot!” She yelled at one of the military leaders overseeing this section of the wall. She didn’t care about the frown the man had but she did put Ebony aside for her to finish her own practice.
❅❅❅
Ning Xin carried the considerably light body away once she was done. She could cope with going from a full to an empty mana pool much better now. She carried him to a large building where all artillery mages slept. The building was attached to a defence tower and was more efficient in absorbing mana compared to the city-wide one. The towers increased in output daily as their enemies got closer and they were starting to go in the red.
There were a few Meditators around, all below level 100. They were the ex-mana slaves hired by the Empire. Since they were all Journeymen and had a shorter lifespan, they were all dying old men. Mana slaves were abolished more than 80 years ago after all. All of them were drugged as kids to get the Meditation skill as fast as possible and it wasn’t as if they had the talent for it so their evolutionary path was cut off.
Sub Classes cannot be evolved if one’s main class hasn’t and there wasn’t a known method of meditators to get Natural Potential. Even if they were fed Natural Potential it was not easy for them to advance any further. She grew some resentment towards the people of the past when she learnt about this. What gave those people the right to cut off another’s path to longevity and their calling?
The more she thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed that mana slavery was completely abolished. Perhaps on Elcra where the Empire grew powerful enough but elsewhere? Unlikely.
She didn’t know these people as well as she knew Ebony so even her Intuition didn’t pick up much from them. Only one strong feeling remained. Obedience.
Incensed Meditated was fired up to its limits every time she saw these ‘old’ men. The Empire might act as if they were treating them nicely but here they were, getting exploited due to the strong sense of obedience they had. She was very pissed that there was nothing she could do. She conversed with them, and they all said they were here willingly and the Empire had treated them well. Her senses were sharp and she could tell that they were telling the truth.
“We are happy that we got to live.”
That was the greatest and only lie that they told almost caused a vein to pop. Fervent Intuition wasn’t always so nice to have.
It was supposedly true that they weren’t forced to stay in such a dangerous city. They were free to move around and free to leave the city albeit without any escorts so she couldn’t even come up with any complaints for them.
She set Ebony on a random bed near the corner and dragged a chair over. Getting his bulky greatsword had been relatively easy but she had no choice but to set it on the ground, resting it against furniture would only break them. She sat up straight and crossed her legs before staring down at each and every other person in the room. Most of them were asleep but those awake could feel their knees bending or someone pushing them down as if they had sleep paralysis. Then her eyelids fell and she took a light nap, one where she could react in time for any emergency.
With greatly reduced mana regeneration, Ebony wouldn’t be bringing an impending sense of doom onto anyone even if he slept for half a day.
Her sleep schedule hasn’t adjusted as her body hasn’t gotten to the stage where she slept for a longer period of time but stayed awake for longer as well. Sooner or later, it would be natural to be awake for 2 or 3 days straight and sleep for 5 - 6 hours. They can’t rest well by sleeping an hour or two every day and she still needed at least 4 every day.
She only took a shut-eye of over 2 hours before she was woken up by a chill down her back. Her eyes snapped wide open to stare at the sleeping figure. He was starting to glow blue. With how fast her mind was working her surroundings always appeared moving slowly if she had a spike in concentration.
“Get out if you don’t want to die! As far as you can!” She roared at the other sleeping figures.
Ning Xin dashed to grab the old Journeymen as gently as she could as they were amazingly fragile. There were only 4 of them in this building. Once she put their unmoving figures into the closest magic tower which took 2 trips of 7 seconds, she no longer cared about gentleness and threw the rest of the sleepyheads that saw her words as a threat. The building wasn’t so flimsy that it would break even if she moved at high speeds within, the furniture and tiles broke though.
‘I made it in time. I should pull that away from him. Sorry about this Icicle.’ She quickly took Icicle away from Ebony’s side and stuffed it into her bag for now. She put it halfway in when it resisted her push. She didn’t turn back and let her charged heart pulse before stuffing the greatsword and sealing it completely.
That delay allowed the only other person present to attack her with a kick so sharp and swift it put some blade users to shame. Her arm moved up to guard her head reflexively and she couldn’t help but twitch in pain when her wrist bone cracked. Her body suit partially protected her against the vibrations.
‘Damn, I forget he’s less dangerous with a sword…’ Ning Xin didn’t pester him for the reason he wields a sword. She smiled at first, thinking how foolish it was for an unconscious body to think it could beat her without recovering its mana regeneration capabilities or its ability to use Will. The body wasn’t burning compressed mana to augment itself either. She didn’t want to draw her swords and turning back only let her see that Ebony had backed off. The sight of his trembling hands made her frown.
She dipped deeper into Fervent Intuition, she had to know what was going on. She wasn’t worried about the building since it was connected to the magic tower. Even at full power, they wouldn’t be able to destroy it so easily. The resting quarters might not have anything remaining but the tower wouldn’t fall.
Ebony’s unconscious body reacted and moved according to instinct, it probably understood its own state and wasn’t a match for her. Just like how he is when he’s awake, he would just stand there and not make any rash moves if the world around him doesn’t move. Ning Xin stood still and focused on feeling the emotions around her. It was so strong she could sense the exhaustion from the mages operating the magic tower. The construction materials may stop her magical senses but not her supernatural senses.
She didn’t sense fear in the trembling body. Only helplessness.
‘That’s not it…I want to know what he’s helpless about.’ Sweat beads formed under her mask as she attempted to shift the focus of her Intuition onto a single target.
Ebony stood on the bed while she remained in her neutral stance for the next few minutes. The inhabitants that were tossed out were already coming back but she didn’t worry about that anymore. She probed him with her senses over and over again. Ultimately, her Intuition wasn’t mind magic and she wasn’t a mind reader.
Just before an angry artillery earth mage barged back in, something extended from Ebony through her constant probing attempts with her senses.
RAAAWWRR!
Ning Xin screamed internally, her voice wouldn’t leave her mouth as her body couldn’t move. Just like the time when she faced the Blood Saintess dread overcome her. A new sensation came from her mask, pain!
The seemingly endless roar reverberated through her mind nonstop for hours on end and she couldn’t even think straight. The artillery mage wasn’t aware and was still in the middle of opening the door outrageously slowly. The moment the roar ended, she regained control over her body and thoughts only to realise that not even a second had passed as the person behind the door hadn't even fully pushed the door handle down.
‘It still hurts! What was that roar? A soul attack? Is that what’s messing with his head? no…’ Fervent Intuition seemed to believe that the unknown roar had been completely unrelated to the ‘taint’ in his soul that Muse mentioned.
She wanted to move to stop the door only to find that she was trembling just like Ebony was. Her heart had stopped and it wasn’t under her control. Fortunately, it lasted for barely a fraction of a second and her mana could move. It did feel like her mana became more viscous than honey and was hard to move it but it was enough to manipulate her blood.
‘He’s not under the attack but he’s stuck listening to the roar.’ She noted that if he had been under such a strong attack he would long be dead. Her mask’s speciality wasn’t mental or physical defences but soul. The Xengs hated how vulnerable souls were and it was the hardest to protect against if one wasn’t a soul magic user. That’s how the mask even came about, all the other abilities were added because the craftsmen were bored. Every individual’s mask was vastly different but the base defensive capabilities were roughly the same.
They didn’t have any skills or resistance against such attacks to her knowledge. Ebony would long be dead if he was under the same attack as she did.
“Hey! Wh-” The earth mage finally completed the task of opening a door. His tinge of rage and hostility didn’t escape Ebony’s unconscious body and ice formed from within the man’s mouth before he was smashed into the wall as gravity rotated. The walls groaned in resistance before they buckled and the mage tunnelled through the less durable buildings outside.
‘Lucky guy, he didn’t have any killing intent. Okay, I have to wake him up.’ The trembling of her body only stopped after a whole minute.
“What happened? Are we under attack!?” The others who came back could see the large hole and the earth mage who got sent tumbling out.
They surrounded Ebony but as artillery mages, most of them recognised Ebony and only felt apprehensive and some had a tiny bit of fear. The unconscious man wouldn’t attack them as long as they didn’t have any hostile intentions.
She raised her feet to get closer but he was very guarded against her.
“He will hit you. Get out.”
Ning Xin was just embarrassed to show them what she was going to do. They slowly stepped back out and stopped other soldiers from checking the commotion.
She calmed down and made herself as unthreatening as possible, it wasn’t that difficult since the roar had completely erased the effect of her Core Skill in an instant. She knew she had to move fast and she didn’t hesitate to leap at him, pulling his head into her embrace.
“Relax, I’m still here.” She didn’t understand why she chose these words, it simply escaped her lips.
Instead of waking up, she put him back to sleep.
The bed was frozen along with some parts of the floor so she carried him to a lounge room with a sofa and put his head onto her lap. She ruffled his hair that hasn’t been washed for days but remained clean and smooth. Ning Xin stared for a short while before she bent forward and pecked her mask against his forehead. “Sweet dreams.”