One day ago.
Scarlet Rhael Ning Xin pulled the women away to tell them her problems with body gear. Despite the privacy they had and knowing she was talking to women she couldn’t help but get embarrassed at what she wanted to say.
“Sister, the body suit is too thin.”
“You wanted mobility.”
“The suit chafes against my chest and uh, doesn’t hide them when it irritates them…”
“They are big. Perfect, I just spent half a year working on space magic so I think I can do something about that.”
“How’s space magic going to help?” Roya asked, just as confused as Scarlet was.
“The material of that suit isn’t good enough to hide your body in another dimension but I think I might be able to hide your assets.”
The conversation on the ‘hows’ flew over her head as she had no idea what the craftwomen were chatting about. She took off the suit for her sister to work on immediately. They guaranteed that the changes wouldn’t harm her but the material was lower quality than her sister imagined. The plan was to make her flat-chested when she wore the suit.
‘That wasn’t what I asked for…’ She would be lying if she said her assets never got in the way so she didn’t really have anything against the planned change.
She had her measurements taken for a new mantle, shirt and pants. It would be nice to have clothes that didn’t burn, freeze or tear that left her with just a bodysuit and mantle. A mantle would be less than useful so she proposed to make it a coat with a split at the back so she could make her conjured wings with the coat. She stressed that she just wanted it to increase her speed and mobility instead of stacking on durability. There was no need for that if she didn't get hit.
Roya had better fabric and textiles than Sister Jing had laid eyes on. Arcta actually receives materials from their second village and the elder craftsman had sent her some to experiment with. Not everything was from monsters or dungeons deep within Hoarfrost Glade, they were supposedly bought and transported from their ancestral home.
There was a sample of Ancient quality fabric but neither Roya nor Sister Jing could make use of it. It was just there for them to study. She had to make her own mana ores with Sister Jing’s mana compressor for the new equipment and that would take days to weeks of her mana regeneration. They were going to infuse the threads and runes with her mana so she couldn’t complain about not being able to train magic for some time.
Even Ebony would need to take days because the mana compressor could only work so fast. Otherwise, he might not even need a few hours to make mana ores at the same purity a Purple had. He needed way more since his robe was going to be a few times thicker than all the clothes she was going to have made. He was also going to make an additional one to change the one in her mask. His vitality-filled mana helped keep her alive after the stab that almost pierced her heart. Her mask had been changing rapidly over the past few months and it wasn’t slowing down.
“So the Death Tailor’s your mentor?” Sister Jing’s words caught her attention.
“You can say that, I only picked up the basics of tailoring from her as I don’t have the elemental affinity for Death.” Roya shrugged.
“It’s a fascinating element. If it can even be considered an element.” Sister Jing closed her eyes in contemplation.
“What’s a death tailor?” She asked to clarify her ignorance.
“It’s The Death Tailor, I’ve heard the title even when I was still a child with my family.” Sister Jing corrected.
“Oh my, she’s talked about amongst the Xeng?” Roya covered her mouth in surprise.
“Of course, she makes armour and robes that kill both the wielder and the opponent; in fact, everyone within a certain radius is dead once her craft is worn. Someone with a grudge against one of the Xengs got their hands on her craft and managed to kill that family with an ambush.”
“Really!? I’ve never heard of that story.” Roya exclaimed.
“I think it was 7 or 8 centuries ago but that story is famous amongst the Xeng crafters and artisans.” Obviously, Kong Jing wasn’t blaming anyone, it was a story that didn’t involve her or Roya.
“She doesn’t sell them anymore and those loaned out are retrieved personally, so she’s still at First Tide.” The tailor clarified.
Chatter aside, they got her to choose her preferred colour and material texture and worked on the design. She was made to stand, pose and move almost naked for them. Left a little sceptical at the need to do so since Ebony wasn’t subjected to such tests.
Roya had the latest catalogue of dresses and robes but she quickly figured that neither masked ladies cared much for the dresses. The catalogue was something published by the Z&Z company and was made to advertise the latest trends and their products. She had older booklets that were from Tidal decades ago that were made by specialised clothes and armour companies. When it came to functionality, there was no such thing as going out of fashion so they served as a decent reference.
Sister Jing showed off her own collection but hers didn’t have an image of an end product and were only hand-drawn blueprints.
The swordswoman got a headache putting a stop to all the excessive cloth that was purely ascetic and also complaining about the lack of fabric in certain areas. She was convinced she was getting played a fool by the extreme suggestions. She ran out with an excuse that she had to get dinner started. There were some things that she had to take note of when cooking for a baby and an entirely different race. It was always interesting to dive into new cuisines so she took her time flipping through Roya’s recipes. The nice Frost Elven lady wrote it down just for her.
After dinner, she was dragged to try on prototypes. Halfway through, her Intuition that kept getting sharper without any sort of dedicated training caused her to look out the window to see Ebony with an ice sculpture of his frozen cold expression mother. The usual feedback of his aura which was as calm as a lake rippled. The sculpture usually moved with flexibility but the current one’s movements seemed forced. She just didn’t expect the hand of the sculpture to blow up the way it did.
She constantly glanced at his training while the women folk discussed craft. He kept her awake despite her sleepiness after filling her belly. She only went to sleep after breakfast when he left with Kiva on his shoulders.
Ning Xin woke up with blood on her sheets. It was that time again. She was unfamiliar with her own cycle since it went haywire after her evolution and the rapid changes in her stats. She suppressed it with blood magic a few weeks ago and it finally burst when she fell asleep.
Ebony invited her to visit Fifth Tide the next day and she thought it was a good idea to ask Mallory about how other female combatants dealt with this problem. The physiology of her body wasn’t completely within her control.
Flying was fun and loosened her up after 2 days without Conditioning. Ebony found the pair of cousins with relative ease and she had more to say to Mallory than with Hector so she gave the boys some time of their own.
Seeing how Mallory was both a healer and a woman, it wasn’t hard to approach the topic. “Do you need some painkillers?”
“That’s not the point. Isn’t there a way to stop it from happening?” She was just annoyed that she had to face such irritation and men don’t have to.
“Stop it? Have you and Ebony already reached that stage?” Mallory didn’t have much of a reaction but Ning Xin could sense her surprise.
“What stage?” She was confused by the lady’s words.
“Don’t put on that Scarlet, you want to push your relationship further but are not ready for pregnancy right?”
Ning Xin had never been as confused, how did the conversation from her occasional bleeding turn into a relationship talk?
“You’re joking?” Mallory’s expression finally changed from her usual composure. “Surely you know about procreation.”
“Of course, animals and monsters mate to breed.” She said as a matter of course, it was thanks to that that she had food to eat.
“Thank goodness I don’t have to start there. Humans do the same. Isn’t that why you want to stop your cycles? So you can do what couples do.”
“What do couples do?”
“They copulate, like animals but for fun.”
“Copulate? Fun?”
What came next was the healer’s increasingly graphic descriptions of mammal biology that got her face redder and hotter as time passed.
“Hect would explain the actual process better, he used to fool around and pick up women at bars. Fortunately, he knew how to control himself.” Mallory sipped her coffee. She had no shame getting into the details but she only knew these things from a medical point of view and all her knowledge on it was taught in class and books. She could tell that the healer was afraid she explained intercourse in a bad light so she explained things seriously.
“So…uh, married couples to--touch each other th--that intimately?” She finally understood what men who looked at her weirdly wanted. All this time, she simply sensed that they didn’t have good intentions that rubbed her the wrong way.
“They don’t have to be married. You’ve seen those types of buildings in cities, haven’t you? Those women do it as a job, although some places I’ve been to have a lot of injured women in their line of work.”
“Wo-work!? I just thought they dress scantily and put on that strong scent. I heard that the bunny or rabbit folk eat men of any level of strength so I got him to avoid those areas…”
Mallory chuckled.
Ning Xin had been told and taught that rabbit beastwomen ate males of any race and that strength and power didn’t matter so she didn’t know why the healer laughed. The first thing her grandma taught her when she was brought out of Xienor and entered the very first Imperial town was to avoid the rabbit beast women and how to spot their habitats. Her grandma said that even their people had some who fallen to those ladies so she took note to avoid strongly scented streets.
She was warned that even women were in danger and that something that required her grandma to warn must be exceedingly dangerous. Luckily, she was told that there were few of these rabbit beastmen.
“That’s right, rabbit beastmen. All of them moved to Tidal so I’m sure you haven’t seen any of them. They are a small community and run a large portion of the nightlife. Their techniques are rumoured to be hundreds of tier 2 and dozens of tier 3 skills working at the same time. It is indeed true that those who have fallen for their skills are pretty much…dead so to speak. My great-grandmother had a headache setting laws just for them.”
“Hundreds of compounding skills!?” She couldn’t control her volume thanks to the explosive information. ‘No wonder grandma warned me!’ Mallory would’ve been at a loss if she could read minds. It was as if her biology lessons weren’t sufficient.
“I wouldn’t call it compounding, they are all separate and small tricks but they work together…I don’t know how to explain it either.”
“An-anyway, you didn’t answer my question.” She got back on track.
She picked up Ebony’s scent and sat up straight with a burn on her face that came too suddenly. She flushed harder when she recalled what they were talking about before calming down when she recalled that they silenced their talk. In her momentary lag, Mallory shooed him away with confusing words. “We’re having women talk, it’s going to take a while. You’ll thank me in future.”
She relaxed when Ebony left and questioned, “What do you mean by that?”
“It’s nothing. To answer your question, yes. Normal couples touch each other intimately. The two of you must not be very close if you’ve not done so after years.” Mallory smiled cheekily but Ning Xin was looking down at the ground. “In fact, I heard that you have to have intimate contact often to be in a healthy relationship. I heard of more accounts of men cheating because the husband couldn’t be satisfied than not.”
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“Wha--?”
Mallory continued to sip her hata drink silently while she was in shock.
“Ho-how often?” She pulled herself together.
“It depends. From what I know, the more physically active a person is, the stronger their desires for intimation.”
‘!!!’ Her brows shot up.
“Do you have a more specific frequency?”
“I believe daily is a healthy amount. But…” Mallory paused for a long time which led to Ning Xin looking back at her after she manually forced the blood rush to her face to slow down.
“But?”
“You understand how physically active the two of you are better than I do.”
“What do I do? Please teach me how to satisfy him, Mallory!”
Mallory choked on her drink, abashed for the first time, “ev-even if you ask me that, I’m not in a relationship and I already told you what I know. Anyway, you’ve not reached that stage of intimacy and he didn’t make such advances so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“What advances?”
“I don’t know! Staring uncomfortably long at your body or putting his hands on you?” Mallory got loud and seemingly angry for the first time but Ning Xin didn’t notice the raised voice.
‘He does!’ She screamed mentally, especially the stares. She had long noticed that he kept staring at her legs but she had the impression that he was learning her footwork. Although he didn’t get touchy with her, memories of him nearly holding her hands while they were taking a walk suddenly flashed through her mind. ‘Was that him making advances? In public!?’ Mallory’s words were causing her to come to random conclusions.
She grabbed Mallory’s arm and stared into her because she didn’t know what to do. “Let’s ask the married ladies.”
“Do you know any?” There were no married women that were in the warzone that was in the Princess’s social circle.
Ning Xin recalled the chef friends she made and ran off to get them with Mallory in tow. The elderly women were all married and their words just confirmed that Mallory wasn’t lying! Mallory herself was stunned that all she said was so quickly backed up by the eager chefs who badmouthed their husbands and talked about their activities with no embarrassment. The Princess was the most flustered from the talk because the conversation was nothing like learning about biology in class but she hid it well.
“Girlie, you have to keep things fresh to keep your man’s eyes on you.” The grey-haired, short chef who had the best soup and stew, Mrs Dustine, held her wrist and looked her straight in the eye.
“Ai, she’s still young. That’s for later.” The white-haired expert of pan and stir-fried foods, Mrs Eilish, whose husband was also a chef who worked in the same military kitchen barked and grabbed her other wrist. She was the oldest of the 3 ladies that were free to chat.
“You have the body, you just need to make full use of all your assets!” The youngest of the three, Mrs Poque, was a plumb 80-year-old lady who was on the shorter side. She only looked a little older than Athena and was obviously proud of her own looks and figure. She was the most creative and explorative chef in the kitchen that Ning Xin helped.
Mrs Poque was a talented chef at level 244 even though they had a lifespan of at least 350 years. She had the greatest potential of becoming a Grandmaster chef or even greater. The other 2 were maxed out at 300 but don’t have the potential as their skills are far from level 330 for even the weakest evolution.
“Ju-just like fighting?” She replied hesitantly. If it was body control, she was filled with confidence but she had no idea what the ladies were referring to.
“Yes! Just like fighting. Right! You wield a sword and knives, look, it’s the same. It's all about how you hold it. I’ll show you my secret trick.” Mrs Dustine got all excited.
“Hold on a damn minute! She’s a beginner and from the looks of it, so is the boy. Obviously, she has to use her best weapons. Look, you have to know how to grab and move your chest.” Mrs Poque crossed her arms under her bountiful chest to prop them up.
“Huh? What do you mean?” She did not understand why she needed to grab herself.
“Don’t listen to them, it's all about preference when it comes to first impressions. You mentioned he likes your legs, you should learn how to adapt to his likings!” Mrs. Eilish took control of the conversation as the most experienced one.
“I-I didn’t say he liked it…” Her voice got weak near the end.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Mallory weighed in, “I heard that the stronger, or perhaps higher level the individual the more painful their first time, is that true?”
“It hurts!?” Ning Xin exclaimed in shock.
“I’ve heard that too! Amongst the female knights back in Tidal. It was rumoured that there was a really muscular female Grand Knight that broke her partner’s you-know-what because he was too weak but forceful.”
“Really!? The story I heard was that the higher the physical stats that men have, the bigger they are and women get tighter. The female knight told me that it hurt so much and blood got everywhere like a slaughterhouse.”
“Don’t believe those baseless rumours, there’s no way physical stats affect that.”
“Oh, I fail to concur. Physical stats can change muscle and bone mass and density and evolution can easily increase one’s height and size, I don’t see the impossibility. As for women, it’s not just a gender problem. With more strength and trained muscle for warriors, of course, they would be…tighter.” Mallory corrected.
“Oh deary, then you’ll have to learn how to prepare yourself before anything else.”
Ning Xin slowly got overloaded with information as she was still stunned by the fact that pain and bleeding were part of the process. She was lightheaded before Ebony returned from wherever he went. She was glad she didn’t have to run or fly and fell flat onto her bed the moment he got the trailer out. She fell asleep from information overload or so she wanted but she wasn’t able to sleep. They arrived back at the village before she realised and she was quickly distracted by Kiva.
She traded tickles for giggles and that cleared her mind a little. She plucked the baby off her and passed the cute creature to her parents before asking Ebony for a spar. She must be feeling uncomfortable because they haven’t trained for two days!
Ebony went to look for one of the senior Frost Elf that could contain a small area for their spar. The one that couldn’t be named just so happened to be free and was supposedly better at defensive magic than Korta or the ghost-like lady. It was a tight space due to the village’s small size and they were currently setting up an illusion.
Her blood got harder and harder to boil as they could contain more energy now that she compressed them but tonight, it boiled over with ease. The explosion of strength and speed surprised both of them. She didn’t manage to catch him off guard but it didn’t matter since not even his mind could react in time without his subpar domain set-up beforehand. Her blade hit his shoulder and sent him rolling in the snow, she accidentally stabbed him slightly. She didn’t think she was fast enough that even his body enhancement didn’t come on in time.
The surprise attack was over but it didn’t change that she had the lead in aggression and offence. The duel refreshed her mind and body more than ever. With light feet, she skipped back to play with Kiva if she wasn’t asleep. They had the trailer out and she preferred to use their own bath. Humming one of the rhymes she picked up from Ebony, she washed herself but her skin got oddly prickly by her own touch and she ran out of the bath in record time. Hiding her head under her pillow, she refused to believe the corruption. Tossing and turning, she had a sleepless night.
❅❅❅
It was a rare occurrence for Ebony to get woken up to help prepare breakfast. He didn’t think he slept that much and it was earlier than usual but he washed his face and brushed his teeth before helping out. The bed frames in the guest room were swapped out to high-quality, thick wooden frames just for him. Even the floorboards were changed or more likely, strengthened by a wood mage.
‘It would be nice to have a weighing machine, I’m kinda interested in how heavy I really am. I can figure out how dense and heavy my mana can get as well.’ He might have a good perception of gravitational waves but a human ‘produced’ a negligible amount and that barely changed from his change in mass. The only reason Chaotic Repulsive Membrane had any strength behind them was the work of the Fortification, Intelligence stat, speeding the movement up and compression. Not to mention, he also used abundant ambient gravity for the spell.
“Going vegetarian?” Ebony looked through the preparatory work. It was mostly salads and fruits.
“Frost Elves prefer vegetables and fruits. We don’t need to eat that much since we’re not training as much.”
“What’s wrong, you look exhausted.” He couldn’t believe she wasn’t planning to put meat on the table just because they exerted less energy recently. Especially after last night’s aggressive spar.
“It’s just that time of the year.”
“Ah, is that what you were talking to Mallory about?”
“...That's what it was supposed to be about but it turned into a lecture.”
“Is that bad?”
“I feel like they're misleading me but they’re also telling the truth.”
“Then just follow your gut like you’ve always had.” Ebony wasn’t sure what the context was and replied without much thought.
What would he know about the woman's body better than the woman themselves? He just assumed that she was confused since this world’s biology was so different for each individual depending on their physiques, stat, skills and all that. “Anyway, I’m going to the playground to pick up archery or bow mastery, wanna come along?”
“You want to pick up bow mastery?” The change of topic caught her attention.
“Didn’t you hear what Sister Jing said, we can sacrifice skills for natural potential but we won’t ever be able to pick up the skill again.”
“You’re assuming we even have the talent to pick up the skill.”
“Sure, why not. Even an untiered version would be better than nothing.”
“You have immense talent for martial arts but don’t have the Mastery skill for any sort of style.”
“Right, I wonder why.” He said without a hint of actual curiosity.
After breakfast, a crystal clear and crisp voice echoed to announce that the village was shut off and a warning was put for the children not to go past their gates or short walls. The voice didn’t address them, the outsiders, but they were already informed ahead of time.
Clovis came along, going for a rematch with Tiha. He actually beat Qane once or twice in the past few months according to him but Tiha completely crushed all his tactics with ease. Ebony wasn’t that surprised, that girl was quite talented and experienced.
He didn’t expect to be offered a spar with Orren’s party by Korta. The elders seemed to think that the Frost Elves should learn from them.
At least, to a certain extent, the speed and urgency they had towards growth was something the Frost Elves could learn from. They found a way to cope with his domain and their arrows were an actual threat but they couldn’t pin him down. Tiha’s sister, Enya was their vanguard but her techniques couldn’t trouble him any more.
Orren’s wife, Ophelia was a Great Wood Archer who was probably the most dangerous one in their party outside of Korben who was the village guardian.
Korben obviously didn’t join in to bully him so he only had 4 opponents. Ophelia’s wooden arrows split off mid-flight and every time he dodged it, they would split off to chase after him. Some were homing and others weren’t. When she saw that he dodged every arrow just barely, the arrows grew thorns right as they passed by him and drew blood since he was just wearing a shirt.
The last party member, Keiren, was a Master Ice Archer at level 276 who worked with Orren the full-time mage to prevent him from moving around. Their teamwork was practically impeccable but Enya and Keiren were clearly the weak points as neither were able to hold their positions as well as Orren and Ophelia who were both maxed out Masters for who knows how many years.
Ebony put pressure on Enya and Keiren at the same time as he focused all his gravity magic on Keiren to keep him close. Their resistance to magic made it impossible to conjure or latch onto with mana even within his domain and made gravity and sound magic less than half as effective as they should be.
He imagined that they were facing the same issue as him, other than the village chief couple who were manipulating their elements practically on his skin without an issue. His control over his elements was wobbly the closer he tried to manipulate them but it was far better than before.
They did have body enhancement magic but like Gen mentioned, they weren’t particularly good at it. So, it was extremely hard for them to keep up in terms of physical prowess.
Their casting speed, flexibility and power overshadow his own greatly to combat the disadvantage they have. Before long, he was pinned to the ground with ice and wood while the Frost Elves were facing the floor with 3 Glacial Models each pushing them down. He broke himself free which took an entire minute and let them go.
He won but it may not necessarily be true if they were trying to kill each other. They posed a certain level of threat and that didn’t sit well with him. Not when they were all Masters.
After a short chat and after battle review, they challenged Ning Xin too but Korta was hesitant to let Orren and his party duel with her. As both of them had shown their strengths to Korta, he knew enough about each of their skills.
First of all, the fire mage was someone the Frost Elves simply didn’t have much experience against. Next, she was just too fast. And finally, her fighting style was too aggressive compared to most.
Despite Ebony usually coming to a draw with her, she crushed them within seconds. There was no suspense, wood, ice and snow didn’t stand a chance and Enya couldn’t even react to the first strike much less parry and counter.
Orren and his party were then sent to undergo training with Korta. These elders would be here for the next few years so the combatants of Arcta were going to have a bad time compared to their usual relaxed days.
Ebony went to the archery range a distance away and picked a random training bow for both of them. They were all longbows but most of the villagers had a personal bow. He knew how to shoot an arrow and control his strength so that he didn’t snap the bowstrings.
After 3 successful shots that hit the target board from 20 metres away, every shot after hit the bullseye. It wasn’t hard when you had good muscle control and perception.
Ning Xin on the other hand, had never held a bow much less fired an arrow. He saw that the children who were finally allowed back out onto the playground were watching her with curious eyes. Most of them were older than the two of them but only stood at 1.3 to 1.5 metres tall. They were mostly Journeymen as well.
He knew she was embarrassed to ask for help so he walked up to her and taught her how to hold a bow. He simply imitated the archers he had seen.
“Loosen your grip, you’re going to break it.” He whispered softly as he stood behind her. Guiding her hands and shifting her feet to change her stance. He pushed his body against her, “You can align your sight with the arrow tip.” He grabbed both her hands and overlaid his own to show her, his fingers clasped onto her and pulled the bowstring but the wooden bow’s frame shattered. He froze the string so that it didn’t whip at them, not that it would harm them.
“Relax, let’s try again.” She must be too used to a tight grip on her swords so he wasn’t surprised. The bow grip turned to dust within her grasp.
“I-I’m going to follow my gut, you hear me! You better watch out!” He imagined a smile underneath the emotionless mask.
Ebony cocked his head in confusion at the declaration.