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Ebony's Fable
Chapter 191: The Indestructible

Chapter 191: The Indestructible

Name: Oplot Qoriq

Core Skill:

Transcendent Kinetic Damage Bank Lvl 1188 (Ⅵ)

Transcendent Mana Damage Bank Lvl 1153 (Ⅵ)

Ascended Elemental Damage Bank Lvl 997 (Ⅴ)

Extreme Soul Damage Bank Lvl 802 (Ⅳ)

Class: Indestructible Bulwark Lvl 702

Class Skills:

Mobile Fort Shield Supreme Lvl 1103 (Ⅳ)

Unstoppable Shield Stampede Lvl 895 (Ⅳ)

Ascended Physical Resistance Lvl 1092 (Ⅴ)

Extreme Directed Kinetic Release Lvl 1150 (Ⅳ)

Extreme Cluster Kinetic Release Lvl 1123 (Ⅳ)

Quake Shield Bash Lvl 908 (Ⅳ)

Bulwark's Essence Conscript Lvl 952 (Ⅳ)

Ascended Magical Resistance Lvl 1085 (Ⅴ)

Extreme Directed Mana Release Lvl 1088 (Ⅳ)

Extreme Cluster Mana Release Lvl 1090 (Ⅳ)

Immense Elemental Directed Release Lvl 824 (Ⅲ)

Immense Elemental Cluster Release Lvl 883 (Ⅲ)

Sheer Directed Soul Release Lvl 790 (Ⅱ)

Sheer Cluster Soul Release 758 (Ⅱ)

Chaotic Energy Retention Lvl 303 (Ⅲ)

Sub-Class: Pious Pugilist Lvl 700

Sub-Class Skills:

Meteoric Alloy Monk’s Body Lvl 821 (Ⅴ)

Meteoric Alloy Monk’s Mind Lvl 815 (Ⅴ)

Meteoric Alloy Monk’s Spirit Lvl 813 (Ⅴ)

Meteoric Alloy Monk’s Soul Lvl 775 (Ⅴ)

Alloy Monk Snap Punch Lvl 879 (Ⅳ)

Prayers of the Alloy Monk Lvl 905 (Ⅳ)

Accelerated Brooding Lvl 888 (Ⅲ)

Impact Staff Style Lvl 790 (Ⅲ)

Spiritual Quake Eruption Lvl 855 (Ⅲ)

Devout Preaching Lvl 766 (Ⅲ)

Profession: Nature’s Artist Lvl 700

Profession Skills:

Corpse Planting Lvl 780 (Ⅲ)

Vegetation Nurture Lvl 782 (Ⅲ)

Nutrient Guidance Lvl 761 (Ⅲ)

Knowledge Cultivation Lvl 820 (Ⅲ)

Fragmentary Enlightenment Bestowal Lvl 752 (Ⅱ)

Health: 10,714,050/10,714,050

Stamina: 20,000/20,000

Mana: 6,112,500/6,112,500

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 3300

Vitality: 5220

Constitution: 4500

Endurance: 2000

Agility: 2500

Intelligence: 2200

Wisdom: 3000

Perception: 3600

Oplot dismissed the lengthy generic skills he had amassed over his lifetime that were filled with over a dozen tier 4 elemental resistance, almost 30 tier 3 and 2 resistances for rarer elements. Obviously, he had other skills like Analyse, a couple of language skills, movement, perception and many more.

His stats were far from accurate due to his Alloy passives. As tier 5 passives over level 800, he has various parts of him enhanced by a multiplier of slightly more than 205. Hence, his base Vitality of 5220, with a max Health of 52,200 shows over 10 million. Although Endurance wasn’t increased, his stamina consumption doesn’t befit his supposed stats either as Meteoric Alloy Monk’s Body, Mind and Spirit all contributed to reducing the consumption of energy. Most of his other base stats were much higher than his levels would suggest as well.

Unlike what other races believed, being one of the ‘higher races’ or a child of two Demi-Gods didn’t give him unnaturally high stats from birth. His stats when he came of age was only:

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Constitution: 10

Endurance: 9

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 8

Perception: 8

It was much better than normal children of all races on Elcra but nothing groundbreaking. One of the true benefits of having both parents as existences above Saints was that Physiques are not diluted that much and are almost guaranteed to be inherited in some form. It was far easier to pick up the skills of either one of their parents and getting them to the same tier wasn’t as difficult compared to those who weren’t of a higher race. It even lasted for a couple more generations, even if one were to walk a different path the strongest ancestral heritage’s genetics would be passed down in some fashion more often than not.

Skills were extremely hard to improve. The majority of his Skills were tier 4 and 3 even at his current level and had been that way for a long time. It would likely be that way for the decades to come, there was little that could challenge him enough to improve. Oplot was born here and entrusted to protect this place, he also saw Elva as his homeland so he didn’t dare leave before the Empire could protect itself.

The most obvious reason to show a higher race’s superiority from birth outside of Physiques that aren’t always apparent from birth is that they were usually born with Conditioning Skills even if they couldn’t see its level. A person with a high tiered Identify can check a baby’s state. Oplot was born with Iron Alloy Monk’s Body, Mind, Spirit and Soul, the tier 3 version of his current Sub-Class Skills. By the time he came of age, even without any training they were level 17. So most of his stats were naturally buffed by 85%. Before he came of age, his training only consisted of playing rough, a bit of exercise and prayers. He was more of an active child and needed to move around so his body developed faster.

Oplot the Indestructible scratched his bald head with one hand and plucked the weird fish-wolf monster who was biting him off. After his previous evolution, his energy retention skills combined and lost both tiers and a ton of levels. This fish-wolf didn’t damage him enough and the loss of energy exceeded the rate at which it could harm him. It made his damage banks useless.

Physical resistance was extremely rare, none of his ancestors had it. Mana resistance was rare as well, it made him resistant to most forms of magic, element resistance was very common on Elcra and soul resistance just required some soul magic. Whatever the case, his uniqueness came from the fact that he could store damage. It wasn’t his Spirit-based Physique, not even his parents understand why or how he could store damage.

The hulk of a man sat up from his grassy bed, watching a pair of Grandmasters fight for their lives. In this place, Elva Continent’s World Dungeon Lacuna Expanse, there were an immense variety of monsters, vegetation, material and people. Since Elcra had an Ancient rank Worldcore, the highest dungeon rarity it could withstand was an Ancient-ranked dungeon. As a World Dungeon, it was connected with other Worlds but Elva’s gate was still unknown by other worlds and vice versa. The Dungeon was vast and didn’t have floors, it was simply a world in and of itself.

An immediate difference was that World Dungeons had stricter laws and weren’t as malleable as newborn dungeons. The monsters and materials within weren’t spawned and grew up from their weakest state at a relatively speedy pace but not immediately at their peak like normal spawned monsters. Hence, the power of monsters within may not necessarily kill even Masters. There were regions with strong monsters and regions with weak ones. The monsters had more autonomy and many were territorial or had preferred hunting grounds.

The pair of Grandmasters each wielded a large shield with a golden lion as its ‘face’. The human woman wields a trident in her other hand while the lizardman carries a spear.

Their opponents consist of 6 [Carcharias Canis] around level 500 to 515. Ebony would have called them wolf-sharks if he had been present.

The Empire wasn’t that advanced when it came to grading monsters and had a bunch of misconceptions about them. Especially about what they called ‘Aberrant’ monsters. Most of these ‘aberrants’ they referred to were just monsters turning fiendish or even into demons. These were monsters that figured out how to draw more of the world’s or any other living creature’s essence into them. The smarter ones did the opposite and expelled all foreign essence that makes them a ‘monster’ and if they were able to remove every single bit, they could slowly gain the ability to gain a Class or more.

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Most people don’t require a better grading for monsters other than level but that was just foolishness. Even on Elva, there were plenty of monsters far stronger than an elite Imperial soldier of the same level. Navin the Barrier King and other higher nobles were already aware of the simple grading that other advanced societies used.

Grades start from 0 and were clear. Anyone with untiered attack skills of an equal level to the monster could kill it. The average monster on Elva was around Grade 1.5, it required a person to have 2 or 3 tier 2 skills at the corresponding level to comfortably take down without being on the losing end. Of course, it was just a wide generalisation so it wasn’t as if it had to be made into common knowledge. Most people have skills much higher level than their personal level so even freelancers with a couple of tier 1 and untiered skills can handle themselves if their skills work well with each other.

This grading system doesn’t care about how much essence a monster has taken into their bodies and just the general strength they show. Some maniacs further classify them into decimal points such as 1.6563 but that was just crazy talk that didn’t mean much. Especially when there were many other factors to consider in a battle such as a particular monster’s weakness be they elemental or physical.

Oplot brought his two greatest hopes into Lacuna Expanse to train but they were still a bit lacking. It hadn’t been easy to find a spot with Grade 4 King-ranked monsters. The two of them were struggling against 6 Grade 4 Kings when they were already level 340. With their skill tiers, levels and equipment they shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

“Haa…If only they were on Navin, Yvette or the Xeng’s calibre. Still, they are the best I found after close to a century.” He sighed while forcing the remaining Carcharias Canis in his lap and caressing its smooth shark head. It was pretty ferocious as it didn’t stop attempting to chomp his arm off.

“That’s bad, I sighed again.” Oplot patted his head as a reminder.

“Teacher! We’re done.” The eager lizardman ran over with the Carcharias Canis over his shoulders. They would serve well as dinner.

“...I pampered you too much. Defeat this guy in 2 minutes or we’ll continue onto a tougher regime.” Oplot released the alpha of the small pack for the lizardman to fight.

The human girl was smarter and took her time to train and learn about her new enemy so he wasn’t actually that upset that she took so long. To be fair to both of them, he didn’t teach them any offensive techniques. Most of his offensive techniques required unleashing damage from his damage bank. Even his Generic movement skill was fast only if he released stored kinetic energy from physical attacks.

Most might imagine he would have an outrageous Constitution stat but that was just silly. He wanted to put so much less stat point into Constitution if it wasn’t for the fact that his body wouldn’t be able to contain his power. He only needed more Vitality to increase his damage bank’s storage even further. With his current durability and immense amount of resistance to every type of attack, how was he supposed to take damage to store?

The combination, drop in tier and drastic drop in the level of his damage retention skills also meant he was slowly losing the capability to dish out damage beyond his supposed strength. Essentially, there was a leak in his damage banks. He might have a tier 6 physical damage bank that allowed him to store 594 times more damage than his max health or a completely separate magical damage bank that is 576.5 times larger than his max health pool but they were useless if they weren’t even 1% filled. That didn't even take into the Fortifications that increased his damage banks' sizes into account. Well…that was enough to kill many creatures.

Lacuna Expanse leaned towards space and void elemental creatures as the dominant forces but even the highest grade, highest level creature here might not damage him. As for teleporting him away, they already lost the ability to do that years ago. Unless they got much stronger with their control over space or he shut his space resistance down.

Lucas Lucero, a lizardman that he picked up from an abandoned village in Vermin Paradise. It had surprised him that there were still such villages in the depths of Vermin Paradise. He was a rare one, having shock and cut resistance that now evolved to impact and shear resistance. His regeneration ability was higher than the average lizardman, probably due to a physique.

Demi Barlow, many of her family’s strongest people died in war and fell from nobility almost a century ago. She joined his Guardian Knight by her own power. She had a physique unlike any of her predecessors, another unusual case. She kept the details a secret but Oplot could see that magic doesn’t affect her. It had its limits but he hadn’t seen these supposed limits too. Her skills with the shield put her at the top of all his Guardian Knights and her Trident techniques were worthy of being matched with her shield wielding. She didn’t use any magic and not even he could sense her magic signature.

‘As expected, Demi is a hidden gem. If only she was more talkative.’ Oplot knew that Lucas was obedient as the child saw him as a father figure but Demi was a quiet girl ever since her family toppled. It wasn’t as if her parents were dead so she shouldn’t be vengeful. The previous war had been before she was even born after all. Her parents weren’t even fighters so it was a bit shocking that she had such abilities. He just hoped that she would be loyal or faithful to the Empire.

“Teacher. Shall I process that?” Demi had all three of her opponents stabbed through her trident over her shoulders. She stood a distance away so that her neck wouldn’t feel sore looking up his eye level.

Oplot stood up, “I’ll do that, you can make a fire.”

“Okay.” Demi didn’t bother asking if she should help Lucas. It was clear to Oplot that she was happy that she didn't have to deal with deskinning and processing their dinner. The girl surprisingly hated to get bloody or sticky despite her fierce fighting form and style.

“We have some cabbage leftover right?” Oplot skinned their dinner with utmost efficiency, producing almost no waste.

“...” Demi chopped wood and acted as if she couldn’t hear him.

“You have to eat your veggies.” It wasn’t the first time he reminded her.

“...We do.” The blue haired woman had no choice but to take out some greens. ‘Even after hiding it…’ she pouted at her failure in controlling the food stocks.

“Demi, you’re turning 35 right? It's not good to be picky with your food.” Oplot chastised the young Grandmaster.

“Teacher, they taste bitter…” Demi hadn’t given up on forgoing greens on their plate.

“They are good for your body.” He didn’t worry that much about the girl being disloyal. He never would’ve taken the two as his disciples if he felt that they had poor natures.

“Yes, teacher…” Demi had no choice but to push her pickiness down.

“Lucas, you took 2 minutes and 7 seconds. We’ll be training through the night.” Oplot told the lizardman. Sadly, he wasn’t able to get him the best spear user as a teacher. After seeing the best, every other technique would appear subpar.

“Huh!? Damn it!” Lucas yelled out his frustration and stomped his feet,

“What did you say?” Oplot had repeated many times that one should always be calm but a young man having a temper was nothing new.

“YES TEACHER!” Lucas stood ramrod straight, just like how Oplot’s Guardian Knights reacted.

“Good. Clean yourself and help prepare dinner.” He nodded.

They cooked 2 whole fishy wolves, most of it for him.

“Oh?” Halfway through their delightful dinner, he looked to the side of the clearing they sat in.

Lucas and Demi got alerted and picked their weapons up immediately. They didn’t drop their food doing so since they didn’t know what the threat was.

“Keep eating. It’s not an enemy.” He continued to bite into the fish wolf on a stick. His disciples did the same but downed their soup with haste.

They waited for half an hour before they felt someone’s presence. Two presences to be specific.

“What brings…Medina, what happened?” Oplot greeted the Archduchess of the Empire. The Foxman on her shoulders was bleeding heavily.

“Sir, do you have any potions!?” Medina showed him an unusual sense of panic for the first time.

“Demi, hurry.” He didn’t have to rush since the picky eater already shoved the potion into the dishevelled fox woman's hands.

Fortunately, he had plenty of Yvette’s potions even after staying in the Lacuna expanse for years. Their training wasn’t about to end any time soon according to his plans.

“Thankfully, it seems like a flesh wound. You know your husband isn’t ready to be here.” Oplot knew that both of them weren’t complete fighters. It was odd that they were here alone but at the same time, they were both King-ranked and half a fighter. Even so, getting to where they were wasn’t an easy feat.

“Don’t talk about him like that! He…he protected me while I was looking for your location.”

“Oh, have you become closer than before? I see, it seems like you’ve grown as a man!” Oplot praised the Foxman who was quickly rousing from the potent potion. He gave the Foxman such a hard pat that he almost injured him again. They were so small compared to him and he was earnestly happy for the Archduke of beastmen that he forgot about his strength.

“Don’t talk, just sleep for now. You’ve stayed awake for a week now.” Medina had certainly never acted so gently with her husband as far as he recalled. They must have gotten much closer after the journey in Lacuna Expanse.

“Alright. What happened that required you to be sent after me?” Oplot would’ve started making his way back to the Empire’s gate if it wasn’t for Kye who fell right to sleep.

“The slimes worked too well. Trolls, all-out invasion. I think the battle started quite a while back but my divination is not accurate inside a dungeon so I’ve no idea how long it has been.” Medina caressed her husband’s head on her lap. She was stronger than him by a large margin but divinations took most of her attention and energy. The man had been very eager to improve his strength because of Gerot the Dwarven Archduke’s mocking. She thought it was quite cute and let him prove himself but his seriousness the past few years and how hard he fought to protect her had made her fall in love all over again.

“Slimes… those liquidy creatures I left at Tova worked? As I expected.” Oplot remembered the wonderful creatures he caught from an unknown region in Lacuna Expanse and left at Tova to propagate a decade or two ago.

“You forgot about them.” Medina addressed the point he hoped she let slip.

These ‘slimes’ aren't particularly strong so he quickly forgot about them. They were completely unaffected by physical attacks so he imagined they would be useful against the Trolls. The slimes wielded space magic and flesh was their favourite meal. Physical attacks only push their liquid body apart and they could reform themself and magical attacks are swallowed up by space magic. They were unintelligent for the most part, considering their level and they weren’t even very aggressive. Their very existence seemed to be sitting in place and waiting for time to pass before they got hungry and needed to eat. They had some odd spatial mouth and stomach that made physical resistance mostly futile and since they couldn’t be destroyed by physical means that easily they just had to latch onto their meal and removing them was impossible without certain means.

Anyone with mana imbuement up to standard could land a punch, if the slime wasn’t that high of a level some freelancers on Elva should be able to beat one. The slimes don’t have any offensive spatial magic other than their bite or latching onto their target so one just had to be careful. The bites cannot go through mana as easily either so one just had to enhance themselves with mana and getting rid of a slime was not a problem.

Then again, the slime he released on Tova had been Emperor ranked. They propagate faster than some insects if they have food. Oplot imagined that the Trolls Shamans would’ve done something about it already but it appears not.

“Can you divine the current situation?” He wasn’t that worried with Navin and his Guardian Knights around. Sadly, the number of his Guardian Knights wasn’t that big.

“We’re too far away and in a dungeon but I’ll try.” Medina laid her husband's head on torn, rolled-up sleeves before she focused and meditated.

“Pack up.” Oplot finished the last bite of dinner and stood up, Dwarfing the human and beastmen alike.

“Hmm…I seem to be forgetting something. Any ideas?” He asked his disciples. They were similarly confused by the odd question, how were they supposed to know what he was referring to?

“Ah…oh no. What’s the date today?” Oplot didn’t look shocked but he was mentally shaken. He forgot something huge!

“I’m not sure.” Although Demi knew her rough age they didn’t keep track of the date.

“Me neither.” Lucas was just as clueless.

“...It’s okay, we’ll get moving once Medina is done with her divination.”

“Did you have an appointment?” Demi asked curiously.

“No. But I expected an arrival, I don’t recall the exact date either. It’s not a big issue, it’s better this way.”

“What arrival?” Lucas stuffed his tent and belongings into his bag without packing them neatly. Oplot reprimanded him about the importance of keeping one’s belongings neat and that a ‘neat’ mental state will be built along with the habit.

“You two have to buck up, the Trolls' attack was much earlier than expected but we always anticipated them.”

“Most of them aren’t an issue!” Lucas pounded his chest with pride. He dared to fight an elite warrior of the Trolls any day.

In Oplot’s opinion, this kid underestimated the Trolls too much. “Your spear mastery would not even make the actual elites bat an eye. Don’t misjudge Elva’s enemies for the past thousands of years. Their warriors and their barbaric mastery of cold arms would still beat most of the Imperial soldiers.”

“I’m not one of those weaklings!” Lucas was as confident as ever, even these King Classed monsters weren't his match. What could a few Trolls do to him? Did they have as much physical prowess as monsters? He didn’t believe that.

“Good, good. I’ll see if you have the confidence to say that again. What do you think about Trolls, Demi?” He must have given them too much training with monsters that their ego grew bigger than their abilities.

“I will not fall like my forefathers. The Empire will not be stomped by them.”

“Indeed.” Oplot was right, Demi had a mindset that would bring her further than the way Lucas currently was.

Medina collapsed while hyperventilating.

“What did you see?” He gave the lady time to catch her breath.

“The entire race is migrating. They are desperate. They…they are uncountable. I couldn’t see an end.”

“The entire race, how troublesome. Hopefully, they won’t be stubborn and just start the supremacy duels early. Their top tribes working together must be keeping the Empire on the edges of their seat. Let’s hurry.”

Oplot used Space Cluster Release and dragged all of them away. He needed to find a strong space magic monster to charge his bank or they would take too much time to travel back.