It was a bit awkward.
Ebony and Ning Xin reached a stalemate and didn’t talk to each other. Moments ago, he felt that she must have been fast enough to dodge and not receive a stab through her heart and probed her about it.
Her defence was, “I shifted my heart aside in time but that tamer’s spear was too large so half of my heart got sliced open, why would I take damage on purpose, I’m not you!”
He argued back that he only does that to experiment or test new skills and that he had Calculated Hunch to tell if he would get really hurt or not.
“Calculated? You just let your body and magic run by themselves. Your ‘calculations’ are how to get yourself hurt! Like charging in to jam a bomb in a Troll's mouth or diving into a cloud that melts everything.”
“Hey, that helped both of our skills to level.”
“What about the fight with Gao’larg? You took his hits on purpose.”
“Not all of them…” Ebony’s arguments were starting to lose strength. He was not as much of a fighting genius as she was. Because his body and mind can fight on auto, it meant he didn’t learn much from fights if his body and mind didn’t get hurt. It was just the way he was brought up.
No pain, no gain.
By allowing his mind to wander, he would take hits and in time, his body would learn to react to new dangers. It wasn’t as if he was weaker if he put some thought into his actions, he subconsciously wanted his body to be able to keep up with new movements without input.
“I could Will up some defences in time, what happened to your bullet time and fortified reflexes?”
“Hmph! Sorry, I wasn’t as fast or strong as you imagined me to be!” She stormed off to a corner and stuffed herself with food. Facing away from him she left a little of every dish for him. She mumbled about how hard it was to cook in a heavy atmosphere and cold temperatures that prevented water from boiling. ‘How could she! She took all the gravy…’ He stared at his plate.
“No wonder she was accepted by Scarlet, they are alike.” Ful’s voice entered his mind.
Ebony exhaled hard enough to notice his unrest. A moment of thought let him understand why he was stubborn. He shook his head and found Gen for a chat to distract himself.
“What happened recently, you’re really energetic.”
“Something nice happened. And your mana regeneration seems good. It’s not enough but ancestor mentioned that your ability to conjure flames makes you more compatible and you don’t need to spend as much mana as I do.”
“Ahh, that’s right. How long do you think you’ll take?”
“I’m not sure, I don’t even remember how long my previous evolution took.”
“At least a month and a half,” Ful answered for Gen.
“...I’m sorry, I’m quite worried about the ongoing situation above. I don’t think I can stay here that long at the moment.” Ebony would like to know how Koawe and the others were doing. Hector and Mallory were still out there as well. Hector had been in a terrible state despite his outward appearance, his time on Tova must have been pretty rough.
“I see…I’m in no hurry, I already waited for so long.” A slight exhaustion returned to Gen’s voice. He must have been quite excited.
“Can you seal my arm now?” Ebony asked. Not much time has passed since their little spar but he recovered. Although he already eaten, he had space for what she made for him.
“Xin, we’re leaving that blood essence here. So you know how to return later.” He just remembered that he wouldn’t have found Gen so quickly if not for her.
“Mmm.” Her mask bobbed forward as her cheeks were full.
“How’s your body feeling?” Gen blew on his left arm. He could vaguely sense his life force being redirected and contained.
“I can fight.”
Apparently, her acknowledgement meant after a long shower. She probably wanted to check her on herself. He needed to have a word with Kong Jing. What a useless body suit. ‘Now that I think about it, the suit tore against Mr. Kidnapper’s attacks but it just stretched against that tamer?’ He knew the Troll was higher level but maybe she was less of a warrior and didn’t put much into strength.
He froze his cuboid-sealed arm to his body so that it wouldn’t move around. Trying his best to sense the movement of his life force and figure out what was so special about this arcane form of magic.
“E--Ebony.” A soft whisper reached him when he was just resting on the sofa.
‘I thought she didn’t want to talk to me,’
“What’s wrong?” He received no reply from the bathroom. “Are you in there?”
“Please pass me my bag, I left it on the sofa.”
He got it and stood outside for a whole minute, “you have to open the door to get it.”
“Yo-you have to blind yourself. If I sense any mana coming in I’ll get angry!” She didn’t sound convincing.
“I can still sense through gravitational and vibrational surroundings. Don’t panic, these doors stop my senses.”
“Put my bag on the floor and leave the trailer…Close the door too!”
He did as asked, too busy worrying to think about what he was missing out on.
Outside, he was of the mind to get Gen to keep her here and let him leave. Maybe the turtle could warm up his old bones before his evolution. With Ning Xin awake, he was more at ease with leaving her with the turtles. Of course, he was slightly worried they would be turned to turtle soup but Gen should be able to suppress her with relative ease. Her fire magic only complicated things, Gen had been caught off guard by the heat she produced. His snow and ice had no resistance to heat like Ebony’s.
On second thoughts, if he died out there she might be trapped here for years. He wouldn’t like it if she left him trapped and went straight into danger so he didn’t have the right to do the same to her. Ful would likely support keeping her safe so he was sure Gen would agree to seal her be it in his spell or in the dome.
As long as he didn’t act stupid and she didn’t act reckless, it would be safer for them to have each other watch their backs.
He didn’t notice her shy act, he just changed out of his set of clothes before putting on his torn-up robe again.
“Gen, where are we?”
“I’ll send you out and point where you came from, we’re pretty deep so it might take you some to get back. Well, if your top speed is consistent and you can keep that up long enough, it might take just more than half a day to get back to the Frost Elves’ village.
‘Half a day of Phantom’s Flicker? My legs would be sore, I won’t be able to use it much in battle if that happens…so this is what having limited stamina is like.’
They didn’t have much time to waste and were released from the dome and blizzard. He didn’t want Ning Xin to waste her energy so he forced her to get carried by him. Despite what he thought, he still experimented with Phantom’s Flicker at full force. To begin with, he wanted to feel exhausted so that he could improve so he didn’t truly regret having a low Endurance stat. ‘Sustained Optimum Condition better evolve or at least refine.’
The little critters were released along with them and he waved goodbye to them.
“Let me down, I finally understand what my book says after watching your footwork!” She could push herself off but they might get injured at such high speeds without enhancement.
Her feet touched the ground and she sank in. She got bathed in steam like a sauna.
“Looks like you need a countermeasure for icy environments.” It would be terrible if she couldn't run at full speed because the floor was made of ice or snow.
“I can fly, just not at the same speed yet.”
“Don’t fly here, there are some strong creatures here. Okay, we don’t have time to waste. You can practise after, come on.” He rather she save her energy than enhance herself just to run. She begrudgingly hopped on. Ebony was stunned a little when a roar echoed in his head. ‘Did the effect strengthen after I learned the skill? Or is my skill working on myself? Nah, at least my movements aren’t affected.’
Fortunately, his mind and body connection was weird. It could connect and disconnect instinctively and there was practically no lag. It did mean that one of them might get stunned for a fraction of a second but it wasn’t too deadly as long as he had Will power.
“You haven’t told me why your arm isn’t healing.”
“Overdraft. Chassis rupture. This should speed up healing, I’ll be depending on you to protect me.”
“...where are we going?”
“Arcta first, then we check on the tide. Hmm, I have no interest in fighting the Trolls anymore. We aren’t that capable. You?”
“I know how to improve my skills already, I just need time.”
They didn’t even need high-level opponents to level their skills. Ning Xin just needed to edit her skills, she knew the requirements for high-tier skills. Ebony also felt that a few of his Class Skills should be evolving. They needed time. Hours of daily training weren’t enough, they couldn’t beat the accumulation oldies have in a short duration. At least the Troll invasion taught him something.
All his health and part of his mana regeneration were sent to his arm. It was lucky his mana and vitality weren’t fully linked and the seal shouldn’t affect mana regeneration. Masking his presence was actually easier with the seal on his arm.
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The awkward braking of his footwork meant that a certain soft body part kept pushing against his body. Ebony believed that he hit puberty for the first time or that Everlasting Tranquillity just didn’t work when it came to her. It was better after she hugged tight enough that nothing bounced. Her mantle was not even wearable anymore and his robe was worn down so it was much thinner. His Perception didn’t make things easier.
He was glad he trusted his urgency when they reached Arcta. The village was defending against more of those fishes. With self-firing bows that stayed back to separate parts of the school that chased after them. There was a barrier up. Dozens or so bows were forcefully held down, Milly the guardian beast was overwhelmed by numbers.
As expected, Milly wasn’t a strong ancient ranked beast. She used mostly physical means, little magic. The Jetfins crowded the barrier and the bear couldn’t attack the barrier in fear of either destroying or weakening it.
All the able Frost Elves were shooting their arrows but only the King Classed crafters were hurting the Jetfins. Ebony was wondering who remained in Arcta other than Milly. There should at least be one or two combatants protecting the village.
‘Korben? Koawe? Anyone?’
The village chief and his party were doing their best under siege. They only did slightly better than the high-level crafters and their bows and arrows. The levels of these older Frost Elves gave them a nice advantage.
He got into the sky to check the situation further back. Koawe was handling some weird-looking Trolls, probably Shamans. Korben had been injured but was doing well against a few tamers with some other unknown monsters. The Trolls couldn’t pass the city, not even the tamed monsters. The Jetfins weren’t tamed, only the leader that Gen ate was tamed.
But the Tamer that chased them could get past so the supremacy duel nonsense didn’t physically stop the Trolls.
“Time for some payback.”
Showing off aside, the Jetfins were highly temperature resistant. Shock resistant. Impact Resistant and resist change in direction from gravity with ease. They were very used to sudden changes in strong underwater currents or so the chef explained another one of their amazing capabilities.
Both of them went all out. Ebony with more emotion than usual, noticed his own rage. It was a new experience to feel such rage when these weren’t the fishes that hunted him down.
He was not sure if the village barrier blocked soul attacks so he didn’t use it. Blue and red flames showered the village. They unpacked all the mana they could and facilitated the Jetfins to Milly. At least, the bear was capable one hitting the Jetfins and chewing them up. Milly was trying not to destroy the ground that the village rested on and damage the barrier. It limited the bear’s movements.
Ning Xin’s blades screeched against their scales annoyingly. She couldn’t even descale them like her usual fish. These Jetfins had access to earth and water mana but they were all personally low on mana as well. Before they arrived, he already spotted hundreds of Jetfins corpses around. It seems that the village would have been fine as long as the barrier held.
‘That’s a lot of King-ranked monsters.’ He was not exactly shocked since he just witnessed monsters levelling up within days. But even monsters took more time to go from one evolution to the next. Milly had to spit out the Jetfins because of the thick earthen scales they dragged up from the ground under the snow.
Ebony searched for Willow the baby bear. The fact that the ‘monster’ was still a baby meant that Milly tried to expel the world’s essence. It might not have a Class but there might be a good chance Willow wasn’t just a monster but just a ‘normal’ bear that doesn’t naturally absorb atmospheric essence.
Jetfins were the only type of monsters attacking Arcta. A species of eagle was weaving about Korben into the distance, right above Fifth Tide. Ning Xin probably couldn’t see so far since they were the size of ants in his sight.
“Damn fishes, won’t burn, won’t freeze, won’t suffocate, faster than my current state! You better be delicious!” The chef continued to speed up and the power behind her attacks increased almost exponentially. The aggressiveness aside, both of them were only able to be unharmed thanks to Milly’s support. The bear was able to take the Jetfins down when the Jetfins got distracted by 2 more targets.
Even without a leader, the Jetfins were using their usual hunting tactics. They knew how to force Ebony to expend more mana if he had his domain up so that he couldn’t effectively slow down a large number of them. It might have been one of the rare occasions that he actually felt like he was the prey, not the predator.
With Orren and his party members' help, he conjured ice walls to pack the Jetfins tight so that Milly could deal with them. The bear couldn’t fly and had trouble catching the speedy fish. Of course, when it came to strength none was a match for Milly.
On his personal list of strong creatures these Jetfins already parked themselves near the top. They wouldn’t stand a chance if they were any nearer to a body of water.
A few wooden giants were protecting half of the village, the other half was left to both of them and Milly. The wooden giants were not adept at fighting, the King Classed folks must have conjured them hastily. He required Ning Xin to slap the Jetfins down after keeping them in place and Milly would take care of them once they were out of the sky. Thanks to Phantom’s Flicker, he could barely catch the Jetfins off guard and envelop them in his domain.
Dozens of Jetfins pooled their water mana above the village but the villagers sent their mana out of the barrier to freeze the large combined spells. One by one, Ebony stopped the individual monsters shooting water jets at the barrier. Thankfully, the elven village had more than enough mana to sustain a small barrier.
8 hours later, the fire swordswoman rested on top of the catch of the day. She could barely move a muscle, definitely hitting a new record for how much her sword style stacked the increment of power and speed. If only her body was more durable. He couldn’t tell that she had been fatally injured, her high vitality made her healing faster than his but regeneration slower. It was a bit odd but not surprising, he can regrow flesh and bones much faster but would have a temporary weakness till his vitality caught up. She did not have inhuman regrowth capabilities but she faced no weakness after healing.
Although she said she couldn’t regrow bones or even heal bones, it was just proven that she could.
‘Phantom’s Flicker still places too much of a strain but it's far more sustainable now. I need to evolve my frostblaze skills, they are still tier 2. Chaotic Repulsive Membrane is mostly redundant against those closer to level 500. Firm Path and Gravity Vortex are good but they are not enough to shake up even Cap Dwarf. I think I can gauge what a weak and a strong Grandmaster better now.’
Ebony gained more skill levels in these few hours than days against some Trolls.
‘Actually having a possibility of death increases experience gain a lot more…there were rumours that general experience gain in Tidal has dropped for combat classes but rose for support, crafting classes and even generic skills. Maybe Yvette and Navin’s healing barrier provided a high degree of safety and thus, reduced experience gain but the average level in the Capital is quite high and skill levels rise slowly to begin with so it's not obvious. However, the congregation of literally billions of people and still have a higher level average means that it’s actually more beneficial to stay in Tidal compared to smaller towns and cities.’
“Xin, do you need help?” He saw the chef using all her strength to pull at a single fish scale. Her kitchen knives and cleavers would probably break. She nodded in reply, still a little hesitant after their small talk underground.
Ebony had a hard time plucking off the Jetfin’s scale despite it being dead. She attempted to pan-sear a piece but the fish remained uncooked till one of her pans melted. An unbelievable waste but she swiped off the molten metal and ate the fish sashimi style. He tried a slice too.
It was sweet and shockingly tender.
He felt like a miner, mining away at the tough scales to get to the flesh. An hour-long feast took place because of how tightly the scales were stuck onto the Jetfins. At least the flesh under was not as tough after the Jetfins died.
‘The village really let a level 200 over creature destroy them so badly? The old crafters are strong enough…ahh, they must have moved out from the other village after the destruction. Korben must be an extra, he’s a grandmaster but completely combatant. Staying at the most dangerous location would expedite their skill levels. For those high-level people, it must be a speed obvious enough for them to desire to live there. Back then, the Barrier King hasn't come around either.’
‘These scales are great for armour, I should ask for some to experiment with.’ There was no issue, they allowed him to take as much as he wanted. They kept as many bodies in crates of preservation storage as they could, the blood would do Ning Xin good. His flames were still burning around the edge of the barrier so he went around dissipating them.
He was glad to see Halvis and Roya safe from outside the barrier. Orren was going to open the barrier to go back in and the two of them declined to enter. Now’s not the time to play with Willow or Kiva. The swordswoman was still radiating intense heat. There was no snow around the village which made the surroundings look naked. The villagers got to conjuring snow to camouflage themselves.
They didn’t give Orren or Milly the chance to thank them and left for Fifth Tide.
Hector had woken up. Cap Dwarf was fighting despite his previous serious injuries. Korben was the main fighter. To be precise, the fight had already ended and the fighters were lying on the city walls along with many others. They were receiving medical care. Apparently, they were fighting 3 on 3 in a ‘contained’ duel but they pushed the duel all the way here with the numerous tamed monsters. The monsters took the chance to attack the city and walls and the Saint spirit didn’t protect property. There were quite a number of casualties.
The situation here wasn’t that dire anymore.
“Don’t go, you’ll just distract them,” Korben warned. He was easily convinced since he already lost the intention to fight. The figures in the distance were too small for him to watch the fight. Koawe was the closest, he was fighting a few of those spirit Shamans that used elements like mages and a full squad of warriors. Despite being the only one, he seemed to have accepted the duel and was within the ray of light. This way, others won’t be able to interfere but the spirit Shamans also cannot escape or interfere with other battles too.
If he had gone closer, he would have been able to see the Trolls in agony.
“Where’s Mallory?” He asked after scanning for the largest-scale battle.
“In one of the field hospitable downst…” Hector was in a state of half-consciousness and fell asleep. The man might not even recognise Ebony at the moment.
The average soldier present was a bit too weak in comparison, he expected the Imperial Army to suffer losses but Mallory clearly kept deaths to a minimum. He wanted to ask her to check both of them up but she was too busy and he knew she was out of mana, likely using a skill similar to his overdraft to draw more mana.
“You’re swaying, just go to sleep. Just so you know, you haven’t told me how you got rid of the shamanic plague.” He told Ning Xin off.
“...”
Ebony passed by Lucas, the Emperor’s student and the one who made him suffer the recollections of getting his butt kicked. The lizardman was asleep but without any visible injury. Ebony made a spot near the field hospital for themselves. The swordswoman slept soundly.
Ebony propped one of his legs up to rest his arm on and stared into space. He didn’t know that he was intimidating every patient despite a screen of ice separating them. What he didn’t expect was for two figures to fall right beside him. It just appeared within his senses without moving, something he was familiar with. “You’re too late…” He complained to the space mage, he was angry but that anger didn’t last.
He only saw Mark as a purple statue and Sister Jing had half her body in the same state. “Don’t touch us!” The space mage yelled before fainting. He thought it was a good chance to a good chance to make use of Appraise.
[Budding Craftswoman of Conception Lvl 300 | Discarded Aptitude of Spatial Brilliance Lvl 300]
‘What in the world are these class names? The names are praising her! I can’t believe she actually took a class with ‘discarded aptitude.’ Wait a minute, Appraise shouldn’t be able to tell me a Sub-Class’s full title…’ Ebony knew that Kong Jing really didn't care to improve her space magic that much. At least not until recently. But he couldn’t believe she really just gave the bare minimum to undergo complete evolution with Class, Sub-Class and Profession. He did wonder about what her Profession was but not even Ning Xin knew.
The purple crystal grew across the stone floor. Ebony lifted Ning Xin and evacuated the patients nearby. He didn’t blame the space mage for teleporting into a hospital, she probably only sensed their presence and not the surroundings.
Without a choice, he disturbed Mallory.
‘Oh? I see.’ He noticed that Mallory was more distraught than normal after she saw Mark.
He Appraised Mark and got similar results to what he knew about the man. [Firm Flame Spear-wizard Lvl 238 | Runic Academic Lvl 288] Although he heard from Ning Xin that Mark was not a mage but a wizard which was odd, they didn’t question the man. His fighting style was a mishmash of spearmanship, mage tactics and his own runic incorporation. ‘Firm’ likely referred to how his flames could stay still and was probably one of his main Fortifications. The vast difference in his Class and Sub-Class level shows where he had been putting effort on.
Mallory’s frown was worrying. Minutes passed and her frozen expression only got stiffer.
She couldn’t do anything but she said Mark was still alive somehow. Looking at Sister Jing, she deduced that Sister Jing cast a spell on them. The purple crystal, likely some variant of topaz, continued to spread through the ground. Ebony evacuated the patients because he sensed the tiny particles floating through the air, he just breathed using the stored air in his lungs and he wasn’t worried about the masked women who breathed their own air. ‘Wait, she utilises scent heavily, maybe her own air supply doesn’t apply all the time. I’ll move her away just in case.’
Perhaps still pissed at her, he poked the space mage’s mask again and again. If the spell protecting them was cast by her and she was the only one that could do something about the purple topaz then she had to wake up before she died.