“Exactly! Those lazy bastards didn’t want to come out because winter was about to end. They must be playing with Willow right about now!” Korta woke up not long after they arrived at the training barracks that he rented.
4 Frost Elves left their second village, Tuctra but they stayed to protect Arcta. Koawe already told Ebony and Ning Xin the truth before Korta woke up. None of the 4 wanted to come out, the other 3 were all older than Korta and he lost a game that they bet on. Korta, being the lowest level, would gain the most out of it but even if he killed a million Trolls it was hard to say if he would gain more than 2 levels. After all, at above 500 most Trolls were far below his level.
According to the centuries-old men, the battle couldn’t really be called a war now that the big shots came out to play. No soldier would be able to get anywhere close and the battlefield would be split into a few fights that spanned across a region. They were disadvantaged due to how close the Trolls had gotten but there was nothing to worry about. In all likelihood, a large majority of the army would retreat back to the city and the barrier would be operated at full power. Isolating themselves from the battle that would ensue.
Just like how the Empire uses their soldiers’ mana to power the barrier, normal Troll warriors would also retreat and serve as Vitality packs for their chosen warriors.
At some point in time of their history, wars just turned out this way. The initial push was for the young to expedite their levels for both sides and the deaths were seen as a price to pay to strengthen the talented. When the strong come out, casualties skyrocket. Numbers didn’t really matter unless the power gap wasn’t that large, in that sense, the Trolls still came out on top. Perhaps after a few wars, both sides understood how pointless it was to waste lives that way. The King-ranked wouldn’t even benefit much from going on a massacre.
Ebony could see how the Trolls could annihilate the Imperial if it wasn’t for the Barrier that seemed unbreakable. They can just toss a strong Troll over, cause panic and start the slaughter. It would take a strong Commander or General to hold them back and they had the numbers to drive the city down. It almost seemed like setting the corrosion cloud actually helped them more as this tactic was not overused anymore. But it was a good course of action for them as it sealed the Empire’s greater aerial forces to some extent. The barriers made it harder to toss someone over and hope it caused destruction.
‘So they never considered it to be war, but a slightly riskier training ground for both sides? What a farce…’ He was aware that there was much more to it such as the Troll’s inherent desire to physically eat them but things have changed a lot since the enmity first started. At the very least, he could tell that the majority of the Trolls understood the language they used on Elva to a certain degree. They were also intelligent enough to listen to their Shamans and retreat. According to the history he knew of, the Trolls used to be more brutal and not too different from monsters in terms of bloodthirst. Their bloodthirst didn’t disappear, Ebony had already seen enough people being eaten and the Trolls enjoyed it but they had better control over it compared to their predecessors.
Ebony lamented the lives lost so far. For both the Empire and the Trolls. They have used each other and he played a big part in reaping lives. He didn’t regret it and would do the same even if he got the chance to redo the past few months but he was not sure if he could continue slaughtering them in the same manner. He just hoped they would back off and return to their own continent so that he didn’t have to think so hard about what is right and what is wrong. Everlasting Tranquillity was destabilised because of his internal struggle. He chuckled, ‘I should’ve thought about these things long ago. This can only be the worst time to have a moral struggle. Or is it the best?’ Ebony had a mental introspection of himself every night that he didn’t sleep the past few months. Thankfully, he wasn’t really badly affected after going through all his memories and past actions. There are always better decisions to make but even if he felt bad about some choices, he didn’t feel like he wanted to change anything he ever did.
It made him think deeper about any choice he made from then on but that was beneficial in some ways. However, he wasn’t always ‘Tranquil’ during such times. Ripples form and his Core Skill will not work at full capacity during these times. It even showed concrete effects based on skill refinement. It was stronger but also came at the cost of being easier to destabilise. The last thing he wanted was for the skill to destabilise during a fight but he needed it to temporarily destabilise and allow himself to grow in other aspects. Furthermore, his introspection let him realise that although he kept working on his skills in every aspect he never really thought to improve Everlasting Tranquillity further. From Meditation to Persistent Meditation to Deep Persistent Meditation and finally Everlasting Tranquillity all he did was do the same thing he had always done with a bit of extra oomph once the existence of skills was made known to him. He came to the conclusion that the only way to improve a skill that makes his state of mind hard to break was to break it down so that it can recover just like a muscle.
The opportunity to destabilise his mental state in a relatively safe position as an artillery mage had been incredible. He also had to thank Muse, he didn’t know why but he felt that it was thanks to her that he realised his own stationary mental and emotional state. It made daily life a bit more interesting and he appreciated his time with Ning Xin even more. He knew that he loved her but he was at a loss as to why he did. Thankfully, his interaction with her didn’t change in the meantime and he was sure she also noticed the slight change in him.
It was probably because she was also changing a bit. For her, it should be her interactions with the chefs and also the Thoyas. She was only ever close to her grandmother and cousin and until she left Xienor a bit before they met, she didn’t have anyone close to her age as friends. Although most chefs here weren’t close to her age, they were already friends.
She was almost 17 years old when she left Xienor. Travelling with her grandma for 3 months or so before she was left alone and asked to walk around herself. During those 3 months, she was similarly shunned by the Imperials like how the Xengs ignore her. Ebony could sense that they didn’t simply ‘ignore’ her but that was how she explained it.
He was a few months younger if he calculated time like they did and he was 16 years old when he arrived. He was duller and didn’t really react to events much. Both of their youth were spent training with or without their parents. Ebony had no choice but to interact with people. To gain knowledge to help him survive or simply learn about his new environment. It wasn’t as if he hated interaction, it was just that barely anyone interacted with him on Earth. He was not used to it but he didn’t mind, he just acted as naturally as he could after all.
He never felt like there was anything wrong with the way he acted before and he didn’t know exactly when this changed.
❅❅❅
Ebony wouldn’t know that he was the first person who wasn’t Ning Xin’s grandma or cousin that looked straight into her eyes without any sort of derision, fear, surprise or any emotion at all. She had grown up to be sensitive to the looks in people’s eyes. At first, she thought she could finally talk to someone that didn’t care about her mask or ‘tainted’ bloodline as his eyes were so dark but clear. Then, he started to avoid her in an oblivious manner that irked her the wrong way.
She was a bit embarrassed at her strength to team up with a group of strangers but she encouraged herself. She was just a teenage Journeyman like the others, it shouldn’t be surprising that she didn’t have some legendary power. To be fair, she was pretty much living up to the legend because of how weak Plainston’s crowd were.
She killed her first person in Ordina but was long prepared to do so. It might be thanks to her grandma teaching her about the evils of the world ever since she was a child. No one in the party noticed but she was quite shaken at that time, she only acted tough so that they didn’t look down on her. Seeing Ebony crush a few people in his orb of ice without a single fluctuation of emotion steeled her heart further. Tuffock’s betrayal hardened her heart further. Her grandmother had been right, one cannot be soft or they would be killed. She was infuriated at Ebony that he made a deal to owe the stone mage a favour but there was nothing she could say when their lives were saved.
She spent time away from Ebony when the party disbanded. She made her way back to Xienor on foot but she didn’t interact with people much. Only doing escort jobs that were on the way for mana ores. But people ignored and stayed away from her and she did the same. Staying at Xienor meant that she was back to being alone unless her grandmother was home. Then she was teleported near Plainston but was sent to a bloody cave where she was alone again.
Being on the losing end against Ordina’s Guardian even after her time in the bloody cave increased her focus on training.
An explosion of emotions washed over her when Ebony was taken away but the time she was recuperating hurt more than her Core Skill working against her. Things finally calmed down after they evolved and she met the Thoyas. She didn’t think she could feel at peace with strangers and even feel a stronger sense of belonging there than in Xienor in just months or even weeks.
Then she came to Fifth Tide only because of Arcta and made friends with chefs. Besides Hector or maybe Mallory, these chefs were her first friends that didn’t really care about her mask or power. They just shared a passion towards cooking. There were also Athena and Ayla that made her stay in the same building and attempted to chat with her time and time again. She thought that both women were actually not that bad to be around. ‘If only they didn’t tease me that much…’ They were a bit older than her as well but the age gap wasn’t obvious from the way they acted.
With the war going on at the same time, her aura naturally sharpened but also softened. It was just hidden far better now. Hence, most people won’t be as frightened unless they have a good perception.
Ning Xin poured them a cup of frost plum tea. Korta’s skin colour was slightly deeper blue compared to all the Frost Elves she had seen but his face deepened in colour as he got burnt and blew on the tea to chill it. He continued to talk about losing the card game.
Internally, she was thinking about the disgruntled and even hateful emotions of some of the Commanders and Generals. They must have wanted to drag out the battle, seeing as they were in the low to mid-300s. For those with leader or tactic-type Sub-Class or Profession, the war must be causing their growth to spike. Those that looked relieved at the state of the situation were mostly pure combatants that have generic leadership skills instead of an entire class. From what she understood, these people were mostly the newer generations of their own noble house. The other Tides took the experts away but the situation changed a little because of the Emperor arriving.
In most noble’s eyes, the Fifth Tide wasn’t that important. Even if they lost it, what was behind was Bubble Hills, Trailane Plains and Hoarfrost Glades. It was as backwater as it can get for the Empire. The Glades were barely traversed by people and the Plains were already dropping in population as people slowly migrated to lands with more resources and larger dungeons. The Hills had some resources and mines but it wasn’t a big loss even if they didn’t have them. Ordina was a great new dungeon for beginners but that was it, there were other places for experience and resources.
If they really lost, they could retreat and hold up in Cities. Buying time for the Empire to come up with a countermeasure. It was just slightly inconvenient if the Trolls started making camps and worse, hiding in some mountain. That would be one of the worst situations for the public as few would dare to leave the cities to hunt, forage or trade. Those whose trade depended on moving in and out of the city would face a bit of trouble. Putting up the City barrier also meant the inhabitants were lawfully required to let their mana be syphoned if the situation called for it.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Regardless, those unhappy Commanders couldn’t do anything about the current situation. She would probably see them with a few elite teams when they were helping to fend off as many of the Troll Patriarchs' squad members and Shamans as possible. Korta would be facing Midnight Shepherd and both Tribal Patriarchs at the same time. There was a decent chance some other Tribe’s members would be taking part as well so the only difference was that the scale of battle was decreasing. She learnt enough in the past few months to guess that their unit would definitely be ‘allowed’ to fight. They wouldn’t really be causing any formations to break and these freelancers are much better at relatively smaller-scale battles.
More likely than not, the military doesn’t want to risk slightly more talented soldiers in an environment they had less control over.
‘I need to fight more aerial battles!’ She clenched her fist and recalled the fun and absolute freedom she had earlier. She enjoyed it far more than she imagined. These new wings fit really well but she needs to adjust their size, shape and how solid or fluid they are. Incensed Meditation kicked in even though she wasn’t angry or in battle, she can play around soon! She secretly shifted closer to Ebony to get the calming effect from him and speed up her regeneration.
She had a feeling Incensed Meditation was improving faster these days. With the obvious change in the conditions to start the skill it might be a mutation. Ebony’s calm during any situation might have grown on her.
“They’re here for the death count.” Ebony listened to the soldier that stood near their gates.
“Only about two hundred thousand, that guy must have protected them in time. Those at the rear should’ve been able to leap out of range too.” Korta took a moment before he replied. She wondered if that even gave the spellcaster a single level.
Korta’s spell looked a bit slow to her, she felt like it was possible for her to escape the range in time if nothing impeded her. It probably wasn’t a commonly used skill and was a bit impractical to use in a one-on-one battle as he seemed mostly defenceless while casting it. However, the spell was crafted well and she wanted a similar one with her lightning magic. She already started creating more spells but she didn’t put that much focus on them. Until she evolved into a Grandmaster or even higher, she would not go too deep into a spellcasting fighting style. She could barely support all her body enhancement magic for long. Especially since she continued to increase the power output of her enhancements. Unless she can somehow increase her mana regeneration greatly, she may never be much of a spellcaster.
When it came to lightning and wind mana she wasn’t capable of conjuring them yet. Everybody had lightning mana in them and she was quite good at making use of limited internal lightning mana. Actually, she can conjure lightning but it was only from time to time and she would fail most of the time. The surroundings had lightning mana as well but it was usually quite sparse so it was not easy to make use to cast any spells. There wasn’t really a need to conjure wind since there was an abundance of it and she could just wave her hand. Physical movement converted pure ambient mana into wind mana. With Ebony starting to manipulate lightning mana she was motivated to teach him so she was very close to perfecting the conversion of mana to lightning mana.
She sipped on her tea as well but choked a bit. ‘Didn’t I crush the leaves completely?’ She felt like some sediments of powdered petals tickled her throat. Then she got distracted and thought about other methods of preparing this tea.
❅❅❅
“Drink slowly.” Ebony pat Ning Xin’s back when she coughed out her tea. It wasn’t that rare for her to eat or drink eagerly.
Korta only napped for about an hour but he could tell that the Elf’s mana pool was almost half full again. To hear that over 200,000 deaths were caused by a single spell had been a bit shocking. Especially because the man probably controlled the spell so that it didn’t accidentally kill Imperial Soldiers. He actually doubted the number due to the giant size of the Trolls and that some countermeasures should’ve been taken but there was no reason to doubt it so he didn’t think it was a lie.
After 2 hours of Korta’s storytelling, they finally got onto the topic of how the battle with the Trolls would likely turn out. Korta would have Korben and Koawe as support while some elite units of the army and Cap Dwarf’s unit would take on the squad members of the Midnight Shepherd and Tribe Patriarchs.
Even the Patriarchs and Shamans are part of a squad of 8 or less but their squad members probably aren’t nearly as strong. The bird monsters that showed up meant that there were some of the Tamers present that they didn’t know about before.
The Shaman’s abilities were something he had the least information on. They specialised in range so much that they rarely showed up anywhere near the front. But that was only for their Vitality linking magic and a few other support spells. According to what he heard, they had many kinds of weird magic that they could use if they were sent out to fight.
They also had to watch out for the Slingarm Tribe but that would be left to the archers and mages to handle.
Altogether, Koawe’s estimated they would be against at least ten thousand high 400s Grandmasters and a hundred King ranked. He gave it a higher estimate compared to the past. Ebony wondered how the Trolls had such a large population and still have a high-level average despite both Continents being roughly the same size. Daily life must be more brutal over on Tova. Their society respects strong warriors so they must be more pressured to train than a random citizen that has food, water and shelter practically guaranteed in the Empire.
‘Midnight Shepherd and their strongest warriors will come out sooner or later or Korta and other similarly strong people can just slaughter most Trolls. Forcing them out unless they want to waste lives or buy time with it. The Trolls can also use the same tactic but they didn’t…they must see this as a training more than the Empire.’ Even after General Impes was sent out on the battlefront, they only pushed the Trolls back a few kilometres in days. The King-ranked squads rarely showed up. It was quite obvious if Koawe’s estimate was right, Fifth Tide might have been abandoned long ago. There was not a single King combatant in Fifth Tide till Korta came. Minus the Archduke of Dwarf who left months ago.
“If they get desperate they might come in a flood while we fight. If they don’t care for their lives then we are in trouble.” Korta got a bit more serious. He might not get killed by a wave tactic but he might not be able to stop the giants from simply flooding and piling themselves on the city barrier. From how lax the past months have been, Ebony didn’t think they were that desperate yet. The fact that the Trolls were getting another bout of reinforcements was worrying but it didn’t take a seer to guess that the Trolls might want to take advantage of how weak Fifth Tide was. They could flank Fourth Tide if they took over so they were similarly getting good reinforcements if the meeting earlier was filled with accurate reports.
‘Should I fight?’ Ebony didn’t find it necessary. Capped at 300, killing would only gain him Natural Potential but there were plenty of other options like dungeon or even wild monsters. Arcta was likely safer than the city if they had multiple mages as strong or even stronger than Korta so he already didn’t have that much motivation to continue staying here. It wasn’t necessary to kill to refine or level skills. It wasn’t even necessary to kill to gain Class experience, it was just far faster.
“If that’s the case, we should also be able to gain Natural Potential through training. Sister Jing got both a ton of experience and potential through a single craft. Combatants can gain experience simply by sparring, is there a way to ‘accumulate’ training all the way till it becomes Natural Potential?” Ebony was a bit convinced that it was possible. He didn’t realise that he spoke out loud.
“Of course! Just seal all your skills from levelling. After a century or a few decades unseal it and you’ll get a burst of skill levels and Natural Potential. How else are you supposed to gain Natural Potential?” Korta lazily slumped onto the table and yawned.
From Ning Xin’s reaction, Ebony could tell that she had no idea what the Frost Elf said was possible.
“Is that how you gain potential?” The masked lady sounded a bit unsure.
“After our initial Classing, that’s how every one of us gains Natural Potential. You can see that many of us who reached our max level wouldn’t show any improvements in terms of spell power or just any sort of improvement in general. It’s possible to..hmm, should I say sacrifice? Skills levels that you don’t want in this ‘pool’ that’s similar to experience. Ah, you didn’t learn this because the Thoya’s left the village when they were young, crafters and support classes don’t really have to resort to such methods either.”
“What do you mean by sealing your skills? How do you do that?” Ebony was more curious about how rather than why.
“Well, how long did you stay unevolved previously? After you felt like you reached the limits of your skills.” Instead of answering, Koawe probed.
“After we felt our limits, not long.” Ning Xin replied. They just killed another creature and got Natural Potential to raise the conceived limits but once they hit numbers they were satisfied with, they practically evolved as soon as possible.
“That is the simplest ‘seal’. You hit your limit but continue repeating the same or more complex actions and hope for different results. Based on our records, in a relatively safe environment such as Arcta, daily repetition gives the first or second Natural Potential inducement equivalent to 10-20 level gaps within 2 to 3 years for Master to Grandmaster. In Tuctra, that duration can be shortened 7 to 10 times. If it's a spell or active skill, the target also affects results.” Koawe explained as Korta got bored and fell asleep.
The Frost Elves ruled out ambient mana densities to be something that doesn’t affect their personal growth in terms of Natural Potential. Tuctra, their second village was under constant threat of destruction as they were basically within the habitats of King and even Emperor Class monsters. Milly, their guardian beast was also Emperor Class but she wasn’t really their strongest defence. Ebony thought that Milly’s aura wasn’t really much stronger than Korta but that may have been due to her recent pregnancy.
Ning Xin had a look of understanding and he was a bit curious about what she was thinking about.
“And the other method? If it’s not your race’s secret…” It clicked to Ebony that the methods of power growth might be racial secrets.
“Sadly, I’m not high up enough to learn a lot of our history. It’s passed down for a long time but it’s not a big secret. I can’t really tell you how to seal your skills because I have no idea how. Every one of us would get our Matriarch to seal it for us. She would conduct a ritual to pray to our ancestors to seal our skills. Those Elves can do the same. However, Navin and my Master could even seal herself without any ritual. She didn’t teach me since she said that I could just get my Matriarch to do it for me. I heard her method is extremely simple and it took Navin a week to learn.” Koawe reminisced about how it took him half a year to travel with his father to get to Tuctra to get an audience with their Matriarch.
It was a bit more convenient for them to ask Navin than to travel into highly dangerous lands to meet the leader of the Frost Elves that had no obligation to help them. He also didn’t know if he wanted to spend decades with their method. He needed to know more to decide.
“Can you tell me more about sacrificing skill levels?” From what he could tell, the Frost Elves were aware of the ability to choose their path during evolutions.
“I can answer that better but, show me that both of you require this knowledge. Especially you, I want to know why the Elves hate your people with a dying passion.” Korta shot up without any sleep in his eyes and pointed at Ning Xin. Koawe’s eyes glimmered a little, something Ebony learned to take notice of.
“The Elves hate the Xeng?” She cocked her head in confusion, it was definitely rubbed off from him.
“What?” Korta’s finger dropped unenthusiastically.
“I don’t know, I’m not pure and I never studied history.” All she knew about history was what her grandma told her.
“No problem! I don’t like reading either! Or the forest elves, they suck! I ran into one in the past and they hung me on a tree for no damn reason! Thankfully I escaped before they killed me on sight. Those stupid arrows of theirs are undodgeable. I’m telling you, they hate everyone and have grudges with any creature that stands in front of them.” Korta was very energetic for someone that just woke up.
“He’s exaggerating but I get the same feeling when I pass by one of them in Tidal,” Koawe added.
“I met an Elf but he didn’t seem that bad. He went to Arcta when I first arrived there.” Ebony was reminded of Fergus.
“I know that boy. Poor kid, I’m not sure if he rejected his own race or it was the other way around.” Koawe made a rare sigh.
“What kid? We allowed one of them into our village!?” It was news to Korta.
“He’s barely half a century old, we weren’t going to kick a child out.” Koawe seemed to like the tea.
“So young! And he’s out and about…wait! Don’t distract me! Come at me!” The training ground darkened as ice sealed the area. Except it wasn’t Ebony’s doing but Korta’s.