Ebony tried not to worry about the time. He gave Ning Xin time to chat with Kong Jing. Mark woke up after their meal and Mallory disappeared to do her job as a healer.
“Are you okay?” He asked Mark who remained with his face glued to the floor.
“Can’t move, can you put me somewhere more comfortable.”
“Finding an empty bed might be a struggle, If you’re feeling fine we could move to a training barracks we rented.”
“...staying near the healers sounds better, can't I take this bed beside me?”
“The spot is free but the bed is not.” Ebony stole the bed and Ning Xin’s bag before stuffing it into her bag. “So how’s your research going? Any results for me?”
“The second dive was just putting my life on the line! There was no research going on. Fortunately, Master Jing said she was planning to go to Clatter Rattle City for the foreseeable future. Safe and plenty of time to study exactly what I need.” Mark complained. It made sense that the craftswoman liked to go back to a city that had plenty of odd materials being gathered. He helped Mark sit up against the wall.
“Don’t forget to train your body and mana control, all your equipment runes will be useless if you can’t move well in them.” He was a bit worried for the research-filled mind that dabbles in combat. He should transition to a full-time scholar and researcher but getting stronger in this savage world wasn’t a bad idea.
“Of course, I’m gonna make a trip back home and show my father I haven’t been lazing around.” Mark flexed his biceps. He seemed happier than Ebony ever saw him.
“Well, send me your results after you consolidate and compile them.” He remembered that he hired Mark for the rune analysis and further improvements. He realised that he was brushing away the fact that Mark seemed to be the only one who had a stable and healthy relationship with his parents.
“I think I can swap out the requirement for ice mana for pure mana.”
“Nice, I can cast it for others.” It was great to know he could strengthen Xin’s defences. The speed and power buff was secondary in his opinion. They had that in spades.
“I still need to work on making it smaller to fit a woman’s body. Not just the size, but the frame and structure have to be changed too. Besides, I think I can double the effectiveness and maybe triple the energy efficiency!” Mark knew exactly what he wanted the edited Stalwart Endowment for. The efficiency and effectiveness were an added bonus perhaps thanks to their adventures underground.
“How long do you think you need?”
“A few years.”
“Focus on something for yourself, don’t worry about effectiveness and try to get a draft version that works on our human body types that doesn’t require elemental mana. Under 2 years, 1 and a half to be safe. I have a bad feeling so just strengthen yourself first.” The opportunity that almighty divination grandma was talking about was something bigger than a Troll invasion. The message about the time seemed to be referring to this opportunity.
“Aigh--” Mark snored. Ebony had wanted to continue the conversation but Mark must have been dragged around without much sleep if he fell asleep while they were talking. The scholar was an uptight and cautious man, for him to fall asleep so easily showed the trust he had in the people surrounding him now. Of course, he still had his spear gripped tight and resting against the wall.
“Everyone’s asleep…oh right, shouldn’t there be another person back at Arcta as their protector, how come Milly was the only one with the older crafters defending?” Ebony just thought about it. The Frost Elves didn’t seem like they would leave the village without at least one person of Korben or even the senior Christy’s power. Maybe that person went to Christy and the others to finish things faster.
“Any loose ends?” Ning Xin asked.
“Not that I can think of.”
“Then let’s go.”
“You wanna come along? There are a few King Classed crafters in Arcta.” He turned to Kong Jing.
“Sure. Gotta toss this guy somewhere first, you two can go ahead.” She picked up Mark onto her shoulder and walked into the wall. He was quite sure that she was going to buy a plot of land in Cattle Rattle to place her house again.
He knew where the Crown Princess was so they walked up there to say their farewells. “Mallory, we’ll be on our way. Say hi to Hector for us.”
“Where do you suppose you would be in 2 years or so?” Ning Xin questioned.
“Back in Tidal, there’s plenty of dungeons suited for us back home. As long as there’s no impending invasion. The two or three of us would probably be in Fourth Tide or the actual battle in First during this period. I don’t feel all that comfortable seeing some family members but I suppose it's worse for Hect.”
“Take care, since this supremacy duel doesn’t lock top fighters in a ring they will likely run to other Tides. The Old Hag or whatever her name was would probably fight best with their best warriors around her. I can bet you, the Frost Elves won’t chase her. Actually, you might want to be careful of any Trolls dashing from other Tides. I believe the Frost Elves are capable of forcing the battle to remain where they are.” Ebony spoke at length about his guesses. As an ice mage, he knew the great advantage the ice element had in keeping something or someone in place.
“You might also want to move the field hospital further away from the cliff and evacuate the non-combatants even further. The temperature is slowly dropping. The guards on the wall would need greater protection against the cold.” Ning Xin added.
Ebony hadn’t noticed. His perception of temperature was nowhere as sensitive and all the resistances and constitution made his body temperature regulation work against sensitivity. Recalling Korta’s large spell, it was very possible that the entire City was within their range.
“I’ll portion some of the city’s mana to resist cold and set it to full coverage.” Mallory was probably the best barrier operator they could find in the area. Since the city wasn’t on the offensive, they didn’t need to leave magical and physical gaps to allow ranged projectiles to pass through.
Ebony gave them the majority of his Glacial Models that worked as physical labour, he didn’t input much Will to fight in them. They would melt away sooner or later without him so he saved some for himself. It would’ve been nice if he had more during their escape. They might have been a good distraction but ultimately, he didn’t see a difference. Those models would melt in an instant against the Jetfins.
“Let’s make a stop at Plainston. We need to restock fresh food.”
“Mmm”
They didn’t waste any more time and left for Plainston. Disturbing the barrier operators and possibly the safety of the city while they were at it.
They might have ration that could last a year or more but a large portion of it weren’t fresh fruits or meat. Unlike the time right after their evolution when they ate what they hunted on the move. The time spent at Fifth Tide didn’t give them a steady supply of ingredients. Preservation magic and a working refrigerator helped but it was always a good idea to restock supplies. Not to mention, they were going to spend quite some time underground.
“I kinda want to go back to Xienor to get some rice but that’s too far even if Sister Jing helped to deliver it.”
“We’re out of rice?”
“Not yet, we’re fine for…half a year if we eat like we usually do but I can fit in more riceless dishes in our diet.”
“That’s a pity, rice is life. Can we just have less each meal instead?” Ebony was not sure if he could go on a riceless diet for an extended period of time. He rather eat less rice every dinner than have no rice for some days.
“Indeed. Okay, we won’t be exerting as much energy so we’ll be eating less.”
They were right on time for the gates to open and the markets were always open early. Ning Xin already knew where they sold ingredients wholesale. The prices for turkey and most wild meats around Trailane Plains at least tripled. Wild vegetables dropped in price and locally grown vegetables and fruits rose slightly, enough for the chef who wasn’t great with numbers to notice. Seasonings, herbs, spices and even Plainston’s signature cheese crashed in price, the border cities didn’t need much. Ebony didn’t know what the cows were fed but the cheese made in Plainston was actually really good. ‘Is it even cow milk?’ He didn’t bother confirming.
They spent quite a few hours here, the chef was eyeing and checking every cut of meat, every leaf and every fruit. Even going so far as to smell every batch of herbs and spices. He paid for it, she was actually close to broke when it came to mana ores. They did have plenty of wild monster and animal leather, fur and scales to sell from time to time but they unloaded that whenever they stopped by a town. That period of dungeon hunting and travelling was pretty short in retrospect.
“They don’t sell mushrooms wholesale, I think we’re good to go.”
Ebony wondered if he should make a stop to visit Na but decided against it. Instead, he went to exchange a couple of hundred Blues for empty ones. It took some time because they don’t really handle that volume of blues but it was obvious the city was in need of mana so they didn’t put a limit and they had more empty mana ores than ever. He asked the Quest Hall reception if he knew anywhere that sold lightning mana ores and alchemists or potion merchants. He gave clear directions and Ebony was able to find them quickly.
Road speed limits didn’t matter much if he didn’t cause public disturbance and nobody could chase him anyway. Actually, he didn’t even think anyone noticed him. There were only Uncommon lightning mana ores for sale and the only place that had that was the Z&Z along with a smaller speciality shop. As for potions, alchemists sold better and more unique stuff. He cleared out their stock, from potions for common diseases and sickness to ailments and poisons. Despite the advancement in the city, there was nothing special enough to catch his attention but he didn’t want to be potion-less again.
They were on their way to Arcta when he managed to sense someone familiar. “Don’t attack, friendly.” He gave the predator beside him a heads-up.
[Transforming Cysaru Lvl 300]
‘From Nascent Cysaru to Transforming? Is she able to transform?’ The previous time he came across Obsius was right before they joined the war but he only caught a glimpse of the cysaru jumping across the skies at extreme speed. This time, the obsidian-scaled raptor noticed him and he waved to catch her attention.
Obsius’s shiny scales glinted in his eyes and they closed the distance with each other. The closer he got, the more changes he saw. No changes from her previous self, she was changing as she dashed. Her two legs that bent backwards like birds shifted to the front like humans and her short body straightened up. By the time they stood in front of each other, Obsius was standing with her back slanted forward. Her arms which used to be intimidating scythes were in the middle of shapeshifting but she couldn’t form hands. The scythe he shook hands with had a white mark permanently tattooed on it.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Her reptilian face also withdrew and her skull structure looked more human than Top the Lizardman. Not exactly a pretty sight, the scales remained and she was bald. However, if overflowing essence was to be trusted she exceeded some level 350 Trolls when it came to Vitality while her mana was about twice that of Ning Xin's.
Not all that impressive if one considers that Obsius was a monster that had far higher stats. This told Ebony that the Cysaru had been relatively successful at removing the world’s essence and becoming closer and closer to a similar state that Gen was in. It would remove their stats but the ability to gain and improve skills and maybe even a Class was more than worth it in his opinion.
“It’s been a long time.” He started the conversation.
“Indeeed.”
“Oh, your vocals got a lot better.”
“The last time was in Ordinaa.”
“What? I didn’t see you.” Ebony was confused.
“I saw your companions and assumed you were in there tooo. Right after that dungeon opened.” Obsius clarified but it was not helping.
“You were there? How did you enter? I don’t remember you having transformation abilities and there are guards right outside”
“Yess…It was easy to slip in back then. I won’t be able to slip in now that the guards are not inattentive. I don’t know why I have these transformation abilities. I think it's because I wanted to interact with humans? I kept imagining what it would be like and one day, my mana just moved and reshaped my body.”
‘Imagine…perks of a monster?’ Ebony didn’t put too much thought into it. “You didn’t look for me?”
“I asked your companions, I believe our entry times made contact difficult,” Obsius commented. The only ‘companions’ that Obsius could be referring to was the Z&Z escort party that met Obsius with him.
“I see.”
“I didn’t know what a dungeon was, but the monsters there didn’t fill my belly no matter how much I killed and hunted. So I did not expect intense lightning to rain down on meee.”
“Lightning? In Ordina? You mean a mana storm?” Pieces were falling into place within his mind. Even Ning Xin who hasn’t been introduced seemed to notice the implications.
“Is that what it’s referred to as? I believe so. I almost perished and had to escape with my tail tucked under. You were right, the world is big. I can’t even conquer these Hills to this day. That black curtain and lands where light does not reach scares me.”
“Obsius…years ago, you caused a mana storm around the time when Ordina just opened?” Ebony had to confirm.
“That’s what I just saaid.” Obsius shook her head and a shiver went down her back. She transformed back to her intimidating raptor form. It was clear she was not comfortable with the half-transformation. She was not much bigger than he remembered, just shiner and…sharper?
“I guess you are our saviours then. That mana storm helped us escape a troublesome fellow that you just reminded me I have to get back at…” Ebony knew that he placed Tuffock and their personas at the back of his mind. He actually didn’t think about them even once. Now that he was reminded, he felt that it was such a shame he owed that man a favour. He was unsure why, when it came to what he thought about Tuffock and his personas, it was that he couldn’t beat them.
“Xin, I’m asking your Intuition. Do you think we can beat Tuffock?” He wanted to make full use of her skill and also test the limits of her illogical skill. He was not sure if it was lucky or unlucky that she replied with, “I don’t know.”
One, her Intuition needed at least a tiny bit of information to work. Two, there was actually a range limit to her Intuition. Three, she needed to be the one in question. Neither of them was sure about the details of how Intuition worked.
“Is she your mate? What immense ferocity…greater than every past predator that treated me as prey.”
“...Thanks for the compliment. You can call me Scarlet.”
“And me, Obsius. Ebony gave me this name.”
As the two introduced themselves, Ebony stood there blankly. ‘What did she consider a compliment?
He wasn’t sure what happened but all of a sudden both of them clashed. He quickly took cover and checked the surroundings, if there were people around they were in danger.
“Leave that hill alone, there are freelancers hunting marmots in there.” He actually didn’t need to warn them as they were both aware of the low-level teenagers fumbling about with the low-level creatures. The monster population might have dropped but it wasn’t cleaned out.
Ebony actually never saw Obsius fight but it was similar to other Cysarus. High-speed attacks and strong jumps from those thick legs. He could never duke it out with Xin without extra arms or his domain to drag her down and buff himself. When it came to movement and evasion, it wasn’t a problem but he was too slow to land a strike unless he impeded her in some manner.
Obsius was clearly faster than her by a fair bit but the Cysaru quickly realised that swordswoman was speeding up at a pace that the dual-scythe user was slowly getting overwhelmed. Black crescents started to spawn out of her swings.
What Ebony was surprised about was that Obsius transformed the end of her scythe arm into elbows to bend and increase the range of motion and rotation that she could swing her arms. She turned her arms into more of a weapon than it already was and was no longer limited to downward and horizontal slashes like other Cysarus. This gave it the ability to parry strikes from greater angles.
Perhaps to copy her, Xin slashed out rings of blood that burned and clashed with these rotating black crescents. It stopped the crescent long enough for Ebony to see that it was oddly similar to the scales on Obsius. The blood haloes split in two and the half chakrams sliced into the earth, weakened enough that it didn’t deal much environmental damage.
He went over to take a look and examine the material. It was not even scratched or burned and obviously conjured. He tested the material with Sonic Intrusion and tried to freeze it. It took quite some effort to have his flames dig through the shiny, translucent material. It was shock-resistant to a good degree, if this was what covered Obsius’s body, it would take a lot of mana and hits before his Sonic Intrusion did real damage.
The young party chased after 2 Marmots that escaped their den and he escorted them.
‘So young. Level 22, marmots are a good choice then.’ He was glad that they stopped the Marmot from running much further despite being more than 10 levels lower than the Marmots.
“Don’t move if you don’t want to die. Ah, I wasn’t threatening you. You can watch them fight.” He internally praised himself for catching his own words.
The 3 boys and 2 girls panicked a little at his sudden appearance.
‘Hmm. A human ice mage, now that’s rare. I guess it's actually less rare since we’re close to the glades and there’s more ambient ice mana.’
Shards of obsidian-like materials splattered with conjured blood that sparked flames and lightning flew at them but these boys and girls couldn’t even see or react to them. He blocked the stray bullets with Imperishable Frost Scales and stabilised the mana, making sure it didn’t cause a shockwave on impact. He made the shield with mana thin enough that the ice was translucent so that they could see the battle.
“Just starting out?” He casually asked.
“Ye..yeah.” The warrior with the medium-sized round shield answered.
“You know each other well?” They had good teamwork and managed to clear out a small den.
“We’ve known each other since we were kids.” The spearman chipped in. The last boy was a rogue with a crossbow, daggers and knife. The short girl was the ice mage and the tall skinny girl was an archer. Their equipment was tattered and seemed like second-hand goods that got repaired and resold.
“That’s good, teamwork is crucial and it's quite an advantage to work with people you’re familiar with.” Ebony wasn’t sure why he got talkative with these strangers.
‘Obsius doesn’t have any sort of enhancement, like most monsters she just has really high stats but she’s throwing that advantage away. Does she have a class or at least a few skills yet or are these skills just something she can naturally do? Can she see her own status?’ Ultimately, Obsius couldn’t last long in the exchange.
At the same level and evolutionary stage, she was unable to keep up with Xin’s increasingly fast and powerful strikes. But, she was very balanced in terms of offence, defence and evasion with a focus on physical capabilities like her opponent and really good magical defence.
She might have feared getting another permanent scar on her body. Ebony was very impressed by Obsius to have fought Xin for a few minutes before admitting defeat. Her scales remained unharmed, only slight scratches on her scythe hands. Soot marks were easily washed or wiped away, and her scales were still shiny under the burns.
Sadly for the Cysaru, a lot of chips were near the edges of each scale. The chef must have aimed to de-scale the creature but failed due to the durability and tightness of the scales. Now that he watched carefully, the number of scales increased and the size of each scale decreased. Turning more fish-like and more of a skin instead of scales.
“Run to that masked lady.” They eyed each other and he knew it was his turn. The young party was confused for a moment, too afraid to move towards the swordswoman. Obsius flashed them her scythes and prepared to move. The young party dashed like their lives depended on it.
Ebony flipped his domain on, grounding only himself and repelling everything upwards. It diminished Obsius's falling strike’s power considerably but he was able to tell that only part of his repulsion’s effect was working. ‘Is it just high base resistance or a generic skill?’
He didn’t want to face Obsius with Icicle after the showing with Ning Xin. He was a little embarrassed to show his swordsmanship after Obsius’s expectations rose. The scythe stabbed right through a floating turtle shell, stuck at the elbow he mentally yanked the creature aside. Without footing, the creature was just an unmoving target once caught. He yanked Obsius to the right and kicked the other way.
Obsius was not new to getting caught while she was in the air. Her other scythe came out to guard against his kick with reaction speeds worthy of clashing with Ning Xin. Ebony didn’t care to move his kick aside despite having predicted the counter. He strengthened his guard with some Imperishable Frost Scales on his feet and just went on with it.
Just playing around with the crescent blade and guessing that her body was tougher told him how much mana he had to put in his attacks. He had Frostblaze Augementation on but the Cysaru did not hesitate to come into contact with his flames. With Calculated Hunch, enough mana was sent through the scythe to make Obsius cough out a breath of red icy mist.
“I think we can push back a duel to a later date.” He said while trying his best to pull his shin out of her scythe. It really hurt.
“I imagined that I was improving fast. I guess I wasn’t fast enough.”
“How did you resist foreign mana so well?”
“There are these humanoids underground with persistent digging mana as well.”
“Topaz golems?”
“Yess and those other more colourful ones.”
“Homunculi. Have you learnt how to read?”
“Reead?”
“Written form of language. I can give you a dictionary and some encyclopaedias. You might be able to learn Identify in time.” He had copied all the knowledge he gained in this world and didn’t mind losing the handwritten copies. He took them out to show her.
“I have nowheree to keep them or hands to use them.”
“I’ll make you a bag. You can train the flexibility of your transformation as well.” Ebony didn’t hesitate to make a durable leather bag that could fit on Obsius. It was crude since he was rushing the job, he used the Slap Seal skin to make it. It was a high-level creature and he just had to weave some durability runes on it. He didn’t tan the leather at all but nothing he couldn’t overcome with some magic. Obsius didn’t burn, freeze or ooze corrosive elements and that made things simple.
“It was nicee meeting you but I really have to go now.”
“What’re you busying around for?”
“Something about the Hills is off. I went around the surrounding woods to inveestigatee and felt the same way. I will try to get my kind to gather.”
“I see, take care. By the way, the part of Bubble Hills where light does not reach is called the Garden of Deceased. That floating monster, a ghost, is supposedly extremely dangerous and most physical attacks don’t work so you shouldn’t step past that curtain.” He didn’t think Obsius had kept in contact with her race. The Cysaru usually moved in singular numbers and didn’t stick together.
“Alriight, thankkss. Seee you around!” Obsius hopped away in a rush.
He turned to the party while covering the cut in his pants with some good old mana weaving. ‘Why are they all looking down? They’re…scared? I wonder why she’s so feared but not me. It’s not like she’s leaking much essence now that her mask is able to act as storage for essence.
Her mask isn’t even the problem, people and monsters alike are on edge around her more often. Is it some kind of aura that I can’t sense since I’m with her so much? I wonder if I’m giving off any kind of aura outside of essence effects.’ Ebony thought of holding onto extra myriad bracelets and gallstones for the next time he met Obsius as he went to save those young freelancers.