The atmosphere in the trailer was gloomy despite having escaped the blanket of mist and the weird village.
Ning Xin mourned for her babies as they did not return to normal. The twin swords were as flimsy as rubber whips and lost their sharp edge. Ebony unsheathed Icicle but it was perfectly fine.
“Come on, don’t cry. Let’s call Sister Jing.” His meditation skill was not working, at a loss when tears pooled up and streamed down from under her mask. He had never seen her like that. She didn’t even respond to him.
He was not exactly good at comforting people hence, his attempts at snapping her out of it with gentle words stopped quickly.
“Is that how you’re going to react when your blades break in battle.” Ebony forgot to use a questioning tone and sounded cold to himself for once. The twin blades spit red hot flames in his face and Icicle froze his butt. He was unaffected by them but it got him thinking.
‘Why didn’t Icicle become the same way? Magic resistance maybe?’
“Here, I’ll try feeding them some of my mana and see if it helps.”
The pair of longswords were cool to touch, a rare state for them. They didn’t reject his mana as he gently imbue them. Immediately, their edge sharpened but they remained flimsy.
‘So mana isn’t the only reason. Maybe blood?’ It was a nice coincidence that the edge sharpened again. They would not be drawn out by him so the red eyed swordswoman had to do the honours. He spent much of his compressed mana to drown the villagers in liquid mana, although he retrieved every drop it was stored in his new robe. Staying soft made it easy for him to bleed.
The twins got some of their rigidity back but they did not return to normal.
“Thank you…sorry for being so pathetic earlier.” She hugged her knees close to her chest and laid sideways on the sofa. He swapped out the memory light for one of those she recently bought.
Surprisingly, it was an educational film about survival in the wild for beginners. It was boring and didn’t contain anything they didn’t already know. A lot of the information wasn’t applicable for them as well. Camp location, tent pitching, night watch, starting a fire in a forest and its dangers.
“Leave them with me, I think we don’t have to trouble Sister Jing.” He assumed she wouldn’t let him take her swords away from her since they never left her side. Even when she slept or showered, her swords are never far away. Then again, they were close together within the trailer.
He exited the trailer and took the reins again. Getting past Bubble Hills was uneventful and as safe as ever. The Mud Golems, Marmots and Cysaru didn’t notice them like the misty silhouettes did. So he was reassured that the illusion should be working. Perhaps that village were the real experts when it came to illusions.
There was only a patch of empty snow and some snow covered trees where Arcta should have been. He continued driving at the pace of a race car. It was slow but there was no need to go any faster and risk ramming into a tree. He couldn’t control the trailer as adeptly as his body after all.
“I’m going to drive into that Grey dungeon.” He warned his passenger.
It was the weakest dungeon at the outskirts of Hoarfrost Glades that the growing Frost Elves used as a training ground. He just entered to see what it was like inside.
‘The environment’s exactly the same as outside, including temperature and mana densities. Gravity is about 10% stronger than Earth’s.’ There were no monsters near the entrance. A short drive allowed him to see that the monster population was far lower than most dungeons he had been to.
There were monsters fighting each other as well. Since the dungeon in Hoarfrost Glade wasn’t guarded, wild monsters could enter as they wished and the dungeon wasn’t going to overfill in just 5 short years if there were no outsiders entering to feed the dungeon their essence.
The trailer worked as advertised even when he drove right past a weird ball of white fur and he received no attacks. A large urchin-like monster that shot its fur like needles. The needles were about as long as his arm and as thick as an arrow.
However, he kept speeding up the vehicle when he realised how barren the place was. Not to mention, the dungeon only had 5 floors but each floor was extremely wide. Expanding horizontally was more common and Ordina also took up that approach instead of making more floors. If people got lost inside, they would be trapped and continue to feed the dungeon. Hence, the existence of maze dungeons.
They had avoided these dungeons since there usually weren’t many monsters to hunt but it was common knowledge that maze dungeons give far better rewards in terms of materials and equipment.
They didn’t have to spawn monsters. All of their energy goes into traps, expanding into more complicated systems and habitats, creating more lucrative rewards to entice people and creatures to enter. According to Ordina, killing people gave it higher quality energy in a sense and it wasn’t something just living inside a dungeon can give hence, the deadly traps. It would be the same even if he brought wild monsters into the dungeon for Ordina to reap but the Empire monopolized most dungeons.
The internals of the trailer didn’t shake as violently as it used to as the new wooden frame absorbed the vibrations better than the old version. He quickly revved up to his top speed and Mental Mapped the dungeon. The growth of the dungeon barely changed because there were so few villagers and wild monsters entering or feeding it. In fact, the dungeon would’ve been dead or gone into hibernation if they didn’t let wild monsters in or over-hunted.
It took some time to find the way up. Surprisingly, it was another portal unlike Ordina where they had to physically climb up. The highest level creature was level 100 and evolved but they were very strong. The dungeon didn’t have a guardian room but the strongest creatures made a portal on the last floor their home. Actually, a spawn node sat right beside the exit. He disturbed one of the urchin’s as he walked up to the highest level one he found and plucked out one of its needles. It squealed and reacted as fast as it could but he kicked it into the distance. Its allies continued to sleep or act dead.
Camouflage was one of their specialities just like many of the wild creatures in Hoarfrost Glades. It was odd that they just sat there without moving though. Maybe the dungeon can tell who not to disturb since the kids were always accompanied by some elder that could wreck havoc. Poor dungeon.
Ebony tried to snap the needle only to find out that even with his effective Strength of over 700, he couldn’t break it in two. He broke them with a raise of his knee though. It was considered a kick and buffed by Kicking Mastery that got refined but completely ignored. Kicking Mastery was now at level 177 and gave all his kicks a base of 150% Strength and Agility.
He saw a untiered kicking mastery skill book in Z&Z, according to the short description kneeing or even stomping wasn’t considered a kick and wasn’t buffed but that was it was untiered. Why was his so low tier when kicking was literally his old and main form of attacking? He could actually come up with a few guesses but he didn’t care for it. He actually wanted it gone and all the thinking out of Meditation let him face why he rejected it.
Forming a clone of his mother to train with was his act of taking a step and not rejecting her teachings anymore. After all, he put aside all her teachings a year after they left him. Ebony put his bag down and took out the case with the spear he bought from Z&Z company. It was one of their blacksmiths best crafts yet. Made of Uncommon steel. It was a bland, rigid spear with a hardened tip. He slowly opened the case to see it again. After what felt like forever, he reached out for it.
Holding it up, he thought, ‘that’s not so bad…maybe I’ve gotten over it long ago.’
Just as he thought that he heard that damn voice again. “You don’t have the talent to hold a spear.”
“Nonsense…” He didn’t notice his shaking arms but he performed a spear thrust all the same. It was exactly the same as how he tried to thrust a greatsword when he just arrived. The difference was that the thrust with the greatsword never poked a deep hole in a dungeon wall dozens of metres away.
“You don’t have the talent to hold a spear.”
He didn’t know when but in his hands were a broken spear, each holding half. It snapped from the freeze. Ice that he unintentionally imbued. ‘Unintentionally imbued? So I’m still extremely bothered by that.’
“What? Weren’t you watching a show?” He tossed the broken spear aside and turned back to get back aboard the trailer only to see a masked face leaning out the front door where they driver's seat was.
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“...Nothing.”
“You can just say what’s on your mind.” He was proud of himself for being able to catch that she had something to say which contradicted what she said.
“You’re better with the spear.”
“Of course. I’ve been beaten by it for years.”
“Why in the world are you a swordsman?”
“...To rebel, I guess.” He no longer cared if she laughed. It was a childish and arrogant wish of his. A giant leaf had been one of his first weapons on Elcra. So he imagined that it was fate.
After sparring with Top and Chris when he just re-picked up weapons, he thought that if that was the level to be considered an elite, there was no reason why he couldn’t excel. After all, even to this day he was able to beat the majority of the knights at the same level who were wielding a sword with his ‘poor’ talent in terms of swordsmanship
“Against what?”
“I was told I don’t have talent with a spear, and later on, other weapons. When I was younger, that hurt more than any training. So I played and stuck with a sword in my free time which I was and am untalented with. To show that I can use it better than she expects.” At one point in time, his parents thought that he had trauma due to the constant breaking of his bones or body and mind in general but if there was anything he had a trauma about it was the sight of his mother giving up on teaching him how to use a spear.
The disappointment in her eyes was something that continued to haunt him. Letting Everlasting Tranquillity off so often, watching Mark, sparring with Lucas. It resurfaced.
“Will you pick up spearmanship?”
“Never.”
“Scared?”
“...I will use what I’m worse at and defeat her. This nonsensical style had been crafted just for that.”
“Your progress on a greatsword sword dance has been improving lately.”
“Yes, the duel with Gao’larg helped. I kept trying to use a greatsword just like any other sword and didn’t make use of its advantages. Weight, power, frame.”
“Will you steer away from fluidity?”
“Definitely not, I’m only going to add power to my fluidity.”
“We’ve clashed thousands of times. You should know that to increase power and ferociousness of your attacks, you have to give up the flexibility of changing the path of your blade midswing. Although, superstrength does help.”
“I will make it work.”
“That’s why your sword mastery mutated so many times but is still stuck at tier 1. I’m already finished mutating my mother’s style into my own and about to evolve it to tier 4 soon.”
“You’re absolutely right, genius swordswoman.”
“Bah, and I can’t overcome your tempo in battle. Combat genius.”
“That aside, is your skill level accelerating? Mine is. Even though our training slowed recently I had a level gain here and there.” It wasn’t exactly accelerating since he didn’t fight much over the past few weeks but he gained a level in some of his combat skills almost on a daily basis which is unbelievable for their current levels.
“Yes. The feedback is just slow but we were facing Kings, weak ones but Kings all the same. Too bad the Frost Elves didn’t want to spar with us seriously.”
“Yeah, Korben should’ve entertained us since he’s a Grandmaster. What do you think?”
“Korben? I think we’ll both be defeated. Together, maybe we can trouble him.”
She must have thought highly of the Grandmaster to think that working together could only 'trouble' the Arcta’s village guardian himself.
“Only thanks to your fire magic?”
“Mostly.”
“Looks like we have our work cut out for us.”
He boarded the trailer and drove out of the dungeon. They took over 20 hours to explore or rather, for him to Mental Map the dungeon. He didn’t look for hidden rooms or anything of the sort though. He didn’t think he would come back. It was past midnight and the sun was going to rise in a few hours. Shockingly, the swordswomen fell asleep on the sofa without dinner!
‘What in the world is happening? No dinner!?’ It was a mundane issue to others to skip a meal but to Ebony, it was horrendously unnerving. She might not have exercised and sat on the sofa all day but it was alarming. With her Constitution, if she moved around like a normal human being and used the amount of strength that an unclassed did then less than half a meal a day would suffice.
Not the serving sizes she had, but normal human serving sizes. The issue was their strength and hence, energy output had extreme ranges. But no matter what, he couldn’t believe she just skipped dinner.
He drove around the forest and Chilly region of the glades and continued his Mental Mapping with pins and needles poking from under his seat.
Thinking that the sleeping beast would be grumpy, waking up hungry. He stopped the trailer and started making breakfast. A large feast. It was an open kitchen so she would probably wake up once she smelled the food.
All of a sudden she shot up, just like he expected but she was reaching out for her swords.
“They are still with me.”
“I-I got a new generic skill and it woke me up.”
“What? Some kind of sleeping skill?”
“No. uh…” She tried to rub her eyes but the thick mask stopped her from doing so. “It's a…stealth skill?”
“What?” Ebony was confused, since when did sleeping get one a stealth skill?
“Let me see…huh?” Her grogginess disappeared all of a sudden but before she could continue, Ebony heard a bell of his own.
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Waning Presence level 399 → 444’
‘Hot damn, what is happening?’
“It's tier 2 and already level 200. Existential Concealment, by the will of twelve Mandates you are 500% + 2.5% harder to find through all forms of scrying and divinations. Your physical presence is 200% + 2.5% harder to focus on and your mana is 350% + 2.5% harder to detect. After detection by designated essence signatures, mana will be forcefully syphoned to cast [Befuddle] until the lifeform that detected you has forgotten you.”
“...It was those mist people. But I didn’t get that skill, just 45 levels to my current stealth skill.” Ebony quickly zoomed in on the reason. He didn’t think it was possible for them to just order and give a skill. Much less such a highly refined skill. Could they just order their enemies to die?
“Why did they force such a skill on us?”
“Probably to stay hidden. Maybe, just looking at or entering their village makes it such that their aura is stuck on us and people can find them through the aura stuck on us.”
“That’s not good, I don’t know what kind of magic they use. And it's working. At least on me.”
“I’m guessing my resistance to it is due to my Wisdom stat and Core Skill. Even with my mana, these girls aren’t back to normal yet but they're slowly getting there.” He patted the pair of twins near him. Although the skill description says nothing about it, it was common knowledge that Meditation skill generally increases resistance to mental magic.
That was something he was confused about, the misty silhouettes magic wasn’t simply a mental attack. It had physical effects and was extremely potent to be able to make metal swords into a rubber like substance.
He initially assumed that being a creature of mana affected it but on second thoughts it didn’t appear likely. All creatures had mana and he didn’t see how a body filled with mana chassis would differ. He didn’t rule it out since it might play a part but he was leaning towards the mixture of what he was made of. Fortifications, stats, skills and Physique.
“All things considered, the skill is good to have but the forceful syphon of your mana is worrisome.” He was an optimist as usual. It was a pity all he got were skill levels and not a mutation or evolution. He bet it was because of his resistance to their magic that he didn’t have all the special effects she obtained.
“Aren’t they going to chase us? They can probably find us even with the trailer, and maybe through the skill.”
“The skill was delayed till we exited the dungeon. Do you think they have a mark on us?” He asked not the masked swordswoman, but her Intuition.
“There’s no mark but I don’t believe they can’t find us.”
“Welp, time to hurry I guess. I can’t kill the strong ones. I could barely knock them out.” Initially, he gave them a way out since they asked if he wanted to submit and not just outright kill him. But when he tried to attack back, the twelve that could fly barely reacted to his attacks and his weird roar that stunned the Jetfins had to be recast so many times that he hurt himself before they were affected.
Calculated Hunch estimated more houses than the amount of people he subdued and the glass building, he couldn’t destroy it. From the mana densities in the area, the twelve he fought didn’t have the same aura that the village was producing. Or rather, the aura that was stuck around the village was stronger than any of the villagers present.
However, they didn’t make a physical move on him unlike the weaker silhouettes. They were obviously over reliant on their magic but it didn’t make him feel much better knowing that there were one, two or even more of them that were stronger. Although to a small degree, some of it worked. Like the last, Existence Perplexion which seemed to be the strongest and the strengthening against freezing.
“Hurry, to Gen?”
“Yeah, he can hide an entire forest. He should be able to hide us. I just didn’t think we got so unlucky and picked up enemies just because I travelled slowly.” Ebony was a bit peeved. He was just thinking how he was in no real rush to get stronger and wanted to enjoy the sights. Just like his initial plan to travel. Alas, he was cruelly reminded to end his vacation.
“I can’t wait to eat.”
“I’m still worried about that. That crystallised blood is larger than our heads and you said a tiny fragment melted and reforged your body.”
“Just worry about yourself. You said you have an idea but 3 weeks passed without any changes to your Physique.”
“You’re being mean.” Ebony noticed the shade he was being thrown. He took out more ingredients but was further shocked to see the masked lady take out fruits and vegetables instead.
‘This is more serious than some deadly unknown magic users chasing us down.’