“GAH! My head’s gonna split if you keep poking me!”
“Your reforged brain isn’t that impressive, it does nothing to enhance your intelligence.” Ebony gibed, it didn’t take too long to wake the space mage up.
“Of course not, I didn’t add organic materials, only reformatted it for crafting.” She answered. He did not expect a technical reply.
“So what happened?”
“I was checking out the gravestone. It was connected to a mana source from deeper underground and I went to check it out. Didn’t think there would be grade 5 Grandmasters and Kings there, those are just the guards.”
“Grades again, is that one of your personal methods of classifying monster strength?”
“Personal? No? It is the most common method used. I’m pretty sure the Empire already has the knowledge, I guess it doesn’t matter to most people.”
“...anyway, can you fix yourself?” He would ask once she dealt with the ongoing problem
“Yeah, I’ll just move the topaz out of my body.”
“How about Mark?”
“No problem, he’s not hurt, only grazed after I cast my spell on him. Thanks to his non-existent magic body he doesn’t have much resistance to space magic so I can remove it faster.”
“We were in danger.” He childishly complained.
“Aren’t you always?” Sister Jing rebutted.
“The bodysuit you made for her can’t even stop a stab and just stretched.”
“...And you let her get stabbed?” Sister Jing was easy to read, she was conflicted with the news she received.
“...” Ebony already knew that Sister Jing wasn’t at fault but the rebuttal hurt.
“...is she okay?” She stopped herself from patting his head because of the topaz on her that cracked and fought back against her removal. Mallory was watching intently, more so with her mana sense.
“Mmm.” He didn’t think there was a need to go into detail.
“Sorry, I couldn’t be there…” She breathed a sigh of relief when she looked at the sleeping figure beside him. Ebony had shifted the entire bed and made sure no vibrations reached her so she slept in peace.
“The callstones aren’t good enough. I imagine the ones on your mask had a better connection.”
“Only Uncommon Mental Mana Ores, there aren’t any high-quality ones on the whole continent. As for her bodysuit, there’s nothing so flexible yet strong past Rare and I got it from someone in Xienor who got it from some other world’s dungeon. In my defence, I made her something better but she doesn’t want to wear it.”
“What?” He was befuddled.
“Except for that mantle, she insisted that she didn’t need something new. She must be slower than I imagine if she’s getting hit…well, it’s only been around a year since your evolution so it’s no surprise. I made that when I just evolved so I should get it back to remake it.”
“Can you remove any traces of that topaz that spread on the floor, this is a hospital.” Mallory interrupted before going back to her job. She ran off before Mark was released.
It was taking more time than he assumed. Ebony already put more distance between them because the purple crystals were popping right out of their bodies while being teleported away.
According to the craftswoman, she made the best defensive and evasive armour for the swordswoman out of Epic-ranked materials. Ancient ranked materials weren’t something she could work with at that time and it wouldn’t matter in terms of defensive properties since the wearer would just take damage despite the armour being fine. It would be different if either of them wore metal or stiff armour but soft textile that’s flexible doesn’t give that kind of protective effect no matter how durable they were.
“That’s why there should be something like this.” Ebony showed off his robe that had the option to summon scales that were stronger against impact and cuts.
“She just wants effects that make her faster or stronger.”
“I don’t see her using any sort of equipment effects.”
“All passive, so that she doesn’t get distracted. I’m sure you noticed what they are.”
“General resistance to many types of magic for the bodysuit, probably against the area of effect type of magic that speed will find hard to counter. The mantle regulates temperature and can contain mana, it’s more physically durable than the bodysuit. Oh, can you give me some tips on making temperature runes on clothes? My clothes keep freezing and shattering while the ones I make for her ignite.”
“Let me guess, the fabric is too thin and you can’t mould anything too complicated or even three-dimensional. What you know should usually be more than enough for most environments but your elemental enhancements change things. You either made the fabric thicker, made your mana finer and just depended on your skill to continue increasing in level.”
“I also compounded small versions within a large rune. There’s about a 12% improvement if I layer it once, and 6% if I put 2 smaller versions in one. 1% more if there are four layers.”
“What do you mean by compounding them?”
“I mould a large version of a rune, make it hollow, mould another thinner layer inside. So on and so forth.”
“Huh? I didn’t teach you that yet.”
“Oh, I just experimented and imagined it was like compressing mana.”
“Let me see, I want to see how you made the rune work when it’s hollow.”
“Not exactly hollow, I fill it up with the thinner versions. The innermost layer is filled with mana.” He passed a random shirt he made to her unharmed arm.
“Pretty smart. Have you picked up Gia?”
“No.” He didn’t have the time to learn a new language.
“Too bad, I’m not gonna translate everything for you.”
“Can you tell me about grades?”
“Eh, it’s quite a useless method of classifying monsters but I guess it’s the best gauge we have when referring to a creature’s strength. Simply categorised by the equivalent tiers of skills needed to kill them, ah, I guess it's a bit more than that but that’s good enough.”
“No, it’s not, please tell me more.”
She lazily explained but put more focus on removing her affliction.
Grades are a very general classification of power, it states the creature's evolutionary stage and a number that corresponds to skill tier. It was better than nothing but he understood why it’s mostly useless. The majority of the monsters around Trailane Plains were considered grade 1, be they Journeyman or Master. It meant that a level 50 would require tier 1 skills at level 50 to harm. Most people had skills higher than their personal Class level hence, even those with untiered skills in the countryside had no real issue with hunting roaming monsters. There was even a base percentage for most skills.
According to Sister Jing, the average on Elcra was rising to grade 1.5 and quite a few forests and habitats rose to grade 2. On other worlds or planets, they go more into detail. Like grade 2 speed, power or stealth listing it down on requests so people without the required speed, power or perception wouldn’t take the job. For Elcra, it was a pointless classification. Almost every monster was around the same, they used ‘elite’ or ‘noble’ for stronger monsters at the same level and it was generally good enough as a gauge.
However, that was only for the average and skill tiers and power rose almost exponentially. At Ebony’s level, a level 300 tier 3 skill that evolved would double the percentage on top of the rise in base percentage. Skill evolutions usually don’t take away skill levels after all.
A grade 2 Grandmaster monster was similar to a Grandmaster with tier 1 skills at a relatively high refinement and average skill level. As for why the classification was useless, it was because no one else uses it here. If Ebony met an unfamiliar monster for the first time, what would this classification do for him? It’s not as if Analyse will tell him a grade. It's good for a rough mental image of how strong a monster was but that was it.
It let him imagine that the monsters that put Sister Jing in her current state were monsters around 500 with tier 5 skills at the same level or tier 4 skills at double the level. Even more useless was the fact that he couldn’t tell if that meant the creature had that tier of speed, magic, physical strength or just an overall power gauge. In the end, it was still better than just having a creature's level so he took note of it.
“There are some nerds that go further and list down every single detail of a monster’s stats and abilities but it's not like you won’t be able to tell once you face the monster that’s why I said it’s a stupid generalisation. For example, you can beat a grade 4 Grandmaster with multiple tier 2 skills that work well together with no problem. Why bother classifying and going into detail? Especially with magic, different elements can counter each other.”
“I think it’s good enough. No mage, no matter the elemental advantage with a tier 2 line up can beat a grade 4 creature that has the speed or power to kill them instantly. They can’t even cast fast enough, as far as I’m concerned there’s no enhancement that speeds up casting speed. Maybe if they had multiple body enhancement spells that they can maintain at the same time.” Ebony appreciated the information despite its little use.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Sister Jing, you have better Perception, can you see what’s going on out front?” Ebony brought up the topic.
“The tall blue ones are winning, the human water mage supports ice magic quite well. Almost impressive.”
“How about the Frost Elf fighting by himself?” Koawe had held back a lot when others were close by. It was probably the nature of his skills. Ebony didn’t know much about curses, but a mage would have plenty of spells that didn’t take into account whether one was an ally or an enemy.
“Ugh…looking at those hurts my eyes. He’s probably fine if looking at his battle hurts my eyes.”
“So the fight is ending?” Finally a good piece of news.
“Within the week.” Sister Jing reminded him of how persistent the Trolls were.
“...How far is your mental range?” He prodded curiously, Kong Jing didn’t really mind sharing about some of her abilities so he didn’t hold back as much.
“If you’re talking about my spatial awareness, around 8 gurs. If you’re talking about the reach of my mana control, a bit over 3 gors.”
‘Over 15 kilometres in absolute mana control? Even if she’s a space mage that’s amazing but spatial awareness over 40000 km? There’s no way she can sense every single leaf or ant within that range right? That’s 2666 times more than her control, she must have Fortifications for it. On top of that, at least tier 4 perception skills that stack. Or is it her reforged brain? Her physique? Or pure stat and training to increase the range? Her mask buff?’ There were too many variables for him to get a good estimate. He didn’t have enough information about space magic.
For Ebony, his range of mana control was his range of mana sense. It appeared that things were different for a space mage and an inhuman craftswoman. He somewhat understood the Xengs better, using Sister Jing as a standard since Xin didn’t have as strong a connection to them. All in all, other than her personal goal or desire, everything else was not a top priority. Not even her ‘sister’. Apparently, crafters cared even less about family but at least Kong Jing acted like she cared. To some degree.
He should talk to some of them the next time he visits Xienor.
“What does spatial awareness mean?”
“Gauge of the spatial stability, the distance that I have full confidence of connecting to safely. I can go much further in a single leap by first compressing the space, then expanding my awareness through the compressed space to grab more space to compress.”
‘Yeah, I have no idea how that works.’ He didn’t question about space magic any further.
“Can you remove that?”
“I’m just unfamiliar with it. It’ll run out of mana soon. How about you, why’s your arm in a cast? That spell…impressive, I didn’t think you could cast something I can’t probe through.”
“I got someone to cast it on me, it accelerates healing.”
“Can’t you regenerate flesh wounds? What did you kids fight?”
“Uhh, this was a self-inflicted rupture of my mana vessel.” He touched his frozen arm.
“Hahahaha! Your mana capacity is so small after all!” Kong Jing tried to kick the awkward air away.
“Your masks are just a cheat item.” There were a limited number of people who could say that to him.
“There’s that too. I guess talking about capacity with a space mage is just unfair.” Kong Jing hinted that her mask wasn’t everything.
They chatted about their experiences so far as both of them healed up.
“Do you have time?” When the purple crystals were gone, he relaxed a little.
“I won’t be going back down immediately, those darn homunculi climbed up from deeper underground and took over the tomb city. They were repairing the facilities while kicking me out, should’ve torn down that space restriction before I left. Why?”
“Take care of Xin for a while.” Ebony looked straight at Kong Jing. He was far more comfortable leaving Ning Xin with Kong Jing than with Gen and Ful.
“Where are you going?” The space mage wasn’t that bothered by the request.
“Not far, just a small debt to repay. Only the instalments for now, if I can find him.” He added after recalling facts.
“Be back quick.” Kong Jing pulled out a book to read by Ning Xin’s side. Mark was left on the cold hard ground but he snored soundly.
Ebony gazed at the sleeping figure for another moment before leaving the hospital. Once he was out, he Flickered out of the city and ran towards Fourth Tide.
‘Fourth Tide should still be at war, they never initiated the supremacy duels. He should still be there but the battlefield is huge, can I find him? He should be near the frontlines, possibly with Commander Wil. I’ll look for club-wielding warriors, the Bludgeon Academy should be under his command.’
Ebony was able to see that the corrosion cloud had retreated noticeably. It gathered towards the Old Hag’s battle. That cloud was amazing, nothing he did for months and months affected it. He had quite the lead on spell skill levels compared to Ning Xin thanks to how fast he regenerated mana and tossed it into the cloud.
Getting to Fourth Tide didn’t take long, he hid his presence so no one spotted him tearing through the air. As expected, the Empire still had a rear base, second line and vanguard. Passing through each of them allowed him to see the large number and wider field compared to Fifth Tide.
In the next few hours, he scoured base to base. Some people noticed him, a few were high-level scouts and archers, a few were minor generals and even fewer mages. ‘If only I had that scry chart…I’ll sneak into one of the generals…nah, commander’s room.’
Ebony hesitated sneaking into a General’s tent, sadly he couldn’t find the scry chart in a Commander’s meeting room. The vanguard’s base had buildings, which clearly meant they had been here for a considerably long time or only tents would be set up.
He got lucky, the General’s room was empty and the scry chart was just lying on the table. He looked for a small congregation of allies that stayed a distance away from the Imperial Army. It took a few seconds to list out a few militia groups’ locations across multiple bases. ‘Oh, Commander Wil’s location is marked down. He’s just that strong huh…’
Ebony disappeared from the room through the window. He just had to go to the neighbouring base which shouldn’t take more than ten Flickers. To begin with, his movement skill was more suited to cover distance and not for battle. He had to adjust it for a short distance but that wasn’t too difficult. Just output control and braking strength, inertia was troublesome.
It wasn’t hard to find a large group of muscular men showing off their muscles and arm wrestling from above. Commander Wil’s aura was easily spotted and the old man also spotted him. ‘How convenient.’
Mr. Kidnapper was drinking with Commander Wil. The man had good instincts, his smile faded when Ebony looked straight at him. Ebony landed and greeted them with a tet. He knew his manners.
“What’cha here for? How’s the battle over your end going?” The scrawny old man appeared a little tipsy.
“Just here to pay instalments.” Ebony’s domain was summoned almost instantaneously since he covered the area with his mana as he landed.
He punched Mr. Kidnapper with all the strength and skills he could muster. He resorted to a surprise attack, the halberd user was a man that could outspeed Ning Xin. Ebony’s punch landed squarely in the man’s face, he never thought a successful punch would feel so good.
It was unbelievable that all the damage he did was to get Mr. kidnapper to have a light nosebleed. With his deformed domain, Firm Path should’ve sent the man flying into the distance because humans were light but somehow, Mr. Kidnapper gripped onto the ground hard enough to skid across the training field. Even the durable and self-healing earth was dug into.
‘He’s really tough…and fast.’ Ebony looked at the bone-deep cut on his forearm. He barely saw the bulky halberd move and he was even cut where his robe was already damaged. An advantage in stats was really useful for people who knew how to capitalise them.
“That was for hurting Xin. Ah yes, thanks for helping her evolve her skill and not killing her. Don’t forget…I don’t recall how many months, but you better learn how to hide before it’s my turn to kidnap you. See you.” Ebony Flickered away before Mr. kidnapper looked as if he wanted to beat him up. He couldn’t immediately recall how many months he got locked up.
Before he forgot, he turned back to one of the tents set up and transmitted “Hi Chris, Glad to see you doing well. Let’s catch up next time.”
❅❅❅
“That cheeky rascal! That’s why I avoided him. Ell! His punch was normal but he ran so fast. Movement speed fortification?” Unnamed wiped the blood off his lips, checking his nose while he was at it. “Get out of there boy, your stealth can’t hide from mana sense.”
Wilson, tipsy as he was, laughed his butt off when Unnamed got sucker punched by a kid. Unnamed was lucky he enhanced himself in time or his neck would’ve been snapped off. It wouldn’t kill him but eating would be painful for a few days.
“You kidnapped that boy!? You really did join some shady organisation didn’t you?” Wilson poured another mug of ale for the unlucky fellow. As for the two-limbed kid who called himself Mongrel, he quite liked the kid. Poor talent, small and random assortment of skills expected of a warrior who didn’t descend from other fighters but the hidden passion to grow stronger was not lost to his old eyes.
“Gah, I needed a lucrative job. Luckily, that craftswoman didn’t seem to care to chase me down. Dungeon clearing is so boring and unrewarding since most of the dungeons are constantly cleared.” Unnamed pulled a rock over for the Mongrel to sit.
“What do you even need the mana ores for?” Wilson knew Unnamed as a war buddy, they never dug too deep into each other’s business. He knew the young man’s character, Unnamed had a bottom line so Wilson didn’t care enough to step into someone else’s business. However, Wilson knew that Unnamed was living for vengeance despite his outward personality. With Unnamed’s strength, mana ores weren’t an issue even if he lived in the Capital. Sure, there were plenty of Grandmasters there but the man was a cut above the majority. There must be more to joining some shady organisation than wealth.
“Better equipment? What kind of question is that? I’m not a rich old man with an Academy like you.”
Wilson continued to drink, no longer probing deeper into the topic. “What are you going to do about that kid?”
“Nothing. I might be dead before he gets strong enough to bully me.” Unnamed popped open another barrel of ale.
“...Then I guess we’re going to have to bully bigger Trolls,” Wilson replied.
“What about you old man, what are you waiting for? Aren’t you going to evolve to King?” Unnamed questioned him. Wilson sighed in response and chugged more alcohol.
“My wife and son already left me, how’s living longer or getting harder to kill supposed to help me.”
The surrounding men clamoured at that statement, calling themselves his grandchildren. “Shut up and go back to your training!!”
It turned into a drinking party but alcohol was limited out here so their stock dried up within hours.
‘I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if I could have more days like this…seems like this bag of bones still sees a purpose in life. Opening an academy was my worst mistake if I really wanted to die.’ Wilson took in the scent of stinky sweat and decided it wasn’t a bad idea to evolve and extend his life. It would be nice if his skills could help his students protect their loved ones.
“Brat, want to be my disciple?” He asked the two-limbed man.
“Don’t listen to this old fool! You are clearly building stealth skills, where better to get those than somewhere shady? Follow me after we had enough fun with the Trolls!” Unnamed tried to steal a potential student right in front of him. The audacity!
“Don’t listen to him, I’m stronger by a dozen magnitudes! Power rules!” Wilson argued.
“Hey! Dozens? At most ten times stronger, not any more! And how old are you to be comparing yourself with me? I’m not even level 500 yet and you’ve been at that level for what?! 200 years!?”
“I’m not that elling old! You cheeky brats! Kids really need whooping to learn how to respect their elders!” Wilson might have been drunk but he had enough presence of mind to keep everyone present alive.
As for their state at the end of his ass-kicking, it only meant more work for him to toss them back to safety and hold the line himself. ‘I guess I should stop starving myself and get some meat back on these old bones. Unnamed was a good warm-up to shake off the sluggishness from old age. Ah…I should get some fine wine for the missus and clean her tomb after this.’ Wilson took another swig and laughed like nobody’s business