“We’re entering the Icy region.”
The temperature drop didn’t bother them but they were only near the border of the region. When they were being chased, they were enhanced and protected against the cold. Now, she was within the trailer and minor temperature regulations were at work. She did put on her gear since it was more dangerous around these parts.
There were no flying overlords scaring monsters away for them this time. After the misty village with weird verbal magic, he also didn’t put too much trust into the trailer’s illusion and mirage runes. The improvement after the frame change was going to get another chance to prove their worth.
Prove they did.
A day and night of driving around in absolute peace showed off that no creature found them. As for those that did, they didn’t care enough to attack. The icy region has large areas that were abandoned by monsters and was mostly barren. Something that he learned first hand in their escape. At the moment, he hasn’t came across the reason that the place was so feared.
The temperature, bearable. Even a well equipped Journeyman can survive the cold. Their lungs might not be able to handle the cold breath for long but it wasn’t temperature that caused instant death. Not counting the conditions in winter.
Unlike the Chilly region, many areas were solid ice ground and not covered in snow which actually made travel easier. Going deeper, he knew there was earthen ground as well but there was a long stretch of just ice. Perhaps it was a frozen river or pool of water.
Food might be a problem with the lack of fruit trees and monsters to hunt. One might have to carry weeks of food to traverse and that required a caravan or spatial equipment so that was one additional hurdle. The lack of monsters might just be because they weren’t on their radar.
Water should not be a problem for most or anyone as long as they carried and took care of their water skin and had sufficient water ores. Better yet, have those mana to water type so that they could charge and convert as much water as they need.
Gravity only increased slightly as he got deeper and he only noticed it since he was a gravity mage. It shouldn’t hinder Masters.
Ambient mana was likely the biggest problem if you excluded the deadly creatures. The ambient mana was so thick, casting got noticeably harder. It was as if nature was resisting the conjuring of elements and even the escape of pure mana out of their bodies. There was a constant pressure that acts as padding to overflowing essence and not just mana.
After another peaceful day of Mental Mapping, he saw the frozen earthen ground and it wasn’t barren anymore as another forest came into view.
Finally, he sighted monsters and he was more relieved. He appraised a nest of pigeon sized birds to be around level 290 to 300. They were called Blue Sparrows and the simple name didn’t make him drop his guard. Clearly, hundreds of beastly corpses from giant reindeers to frogs and snakes around the tree told him more.
‘Lower than I expected.’
Testing the limits of their trailer’s illusion he drove as close to the trees as he could after warning Ning Xin. She was sitting beside him, ready to get off. The forest ahead of them was too dense to drive through with their vehicle.
The twin blades were back to normal and he leaned towards the fact that it was his essence and aura, not mana that helped it. So a combination of his vitality, mana and maybe stamina resisted and reversed the vocal magic.
“It sensed us.” When they were about 200 metres away, the masked lady warned.
The pigeon sized sparrows snapped their necks and beaks over so he didn’t need the warning but he would’ve done the same if he was faster. He kept the trailer and they should be visible to all but the nest of 4 Blue Sparrows didn’t attack.
Two of them continued their meal around the tree and the other two just stared at them. He spoke through the thread of mana he linked with her.
“They’re not looking at us but at our position.”
“That damn Existence Concealment is stronger than I imagined.”
“You said it levelled to 215?”
“It’s already 220.”
“Be careful then, these Blue Sparrows are not normal.”
“I can tell, we are in danger.”
“How lethal?”
“Less than half a Jetfin but I’m not sure.”
Ebony was already used to comparing strength against a Jetfin. That species of fish was too memorable to forget and they were literally fighting against a fish out of water. ‘Running, not fighting.’
“You want to hunt them?”
“Sure.” She shrugged.
“Wait, let me do it.” He forbade her from using mana to charge her mask up, just in case Existential Concealment acted up and forcefully took all her mana away. Mana storage was not her mask’s main purpose but it could store plenty. She didn’t know exactly how much mana since they use up their pool almost every day. They were uncertain if the skill could drain the mana stored in her mask but it was better to have a back up.
“I don’t have to use mana, other than flight.”
“Fine, which ones do you want?” It wouldn’t take too much mana with her new mantle and she could start getting used to them.
“Both on the tree, you can have the ones eating.”
“Stew?”
“I feel like having pie but there’s enough for both.”
She exploded forth and he disappeared from the spot. She took off into the skies when the Blue Sparrows did the same. The Blue Sparrows only noticed her when she was right in front of them but still managed to take off and respond in time.
The pair on the ground weren’t so alert. They were eating and the warning from their watching pair was too late. Ebony patted both sparrows and slid his hands down their heads and across their backs. They tried flapping their wings but their feets were frozen and the pull of gravity made their flaps ineffective.
“I’m sorry, I’m going to eat you even though you didn’t try to do the same with me.” With another rub on their smooth but bloody feathers, they bled from their ears as their brains melted.
‘Fast reactions, weak defence and soft organs.’ He watched the skies, unlike his fully enhanced burst that was silent and didn’t disturbed the surroundings; the other combatant didn’t use her fire enhancement magic, only her Core Skill.
Needless to say, she did not get the upper hand in flight compared to real avian creatures. Ebony added to their descriptions, ‘Almost as fast as me in terms of movement, afraid of fire, talons that don’t get damaged after a clash.’ The Blue Sparrows’ rating slowly climbed up in his personal list of strong creatures.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Sadly for the birds, both humanoids countered them almost completely. They weren’t even comfortable around her flaming wings. Ebony had his domain surround the entire area to keep the temperature down as he didn’t want to attract anything that felt threatened by the heat. He was very glad they didn’t move around much and the two sparrows were zapping back and forth thinking they could get a lucky hit in.
The Blue Sparrows flapped their wings inwards and protected themselves from an horizontal slash and actually came out unharmed. Their feathers were much tougher than Uncommon steel and not just the raw ores but tougher than those worked on by a smith. Either that, or they enhanced their wings with vitality. He didn’t sense them using much mana in their wings but their talons or claws had a bunch. Sharp winds tore across the skies and partially scattered the flames that her wings consisted of.
‘Still a way to go before beating an actual avian…’ The larger creature took the opportunity to get used to aerial combat and extended the battle. It relieved him because the more energy she used, the more likely she was going to be hungry. He was getting unnerved that she ate less.
‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Waning Presence temporarily mutated and evolved into Entity Evanesce under the order of the Sovereign Mandate. ’
Entity Evanesce (Shared) - Your existence is shrouded by the Sovereign Mandate.
‘I knew it! Eating less must have been the biggest omen. Sovereign Mandate? Shared Skill? Is that all the information I have on the skill? Is Waning Presence still there?’ Ebony was alarmed at the sudden change. He quickly checked his status to see that Waning presence Lvl 445 had become Entity Evanesce Lvl 1290. That was mind boggling.
‘Whoever this Sovereign Mandate is, I think I might not want to find out…’ Ebony did not like that the skill level almost tripled and the lack of information about the percentages and skill effect meant he didn’t even know the skill tier.
Ning Xin finished up and continued to tease him, “Let’s have one each, stew and pie.”
“...what about the other two?”
“We can eat them tomorrow.”
“Did something happen? What happened to your appetite?”
“Nothing! I already filled up my blood during the weeks of eating.” Her words did make a lot of sense, she had been eating without a care in the world with only a couple hours of Conditioning a day.
“Did you get a skill called Entity Evanesce…one that’s at level 1290?” Not one to ponder on topics, he put the subject away thinking there was no need to get superstitious about someone not eating as much.
“No? Did you?”
“Yeah, by someone or something called the Sovereign Mandate. It says that it’s a shared skill and the description simply says that my existence is hidden.”
“Let’s hurry along.”
No longer holding back the use of mana and stamina, they sped up their search. Actually, there was no need for a search as the masked lady knew where to go. They ran on the ground and he was in the lead by a long shot. Until a few minutes passed and she guided their path. There was a limit to how many steps of a maxed powered Flicker he could use unlike his old movement skill and that gave her the chance to overtake him. He would still take the crown when it came to travel and movement speed.
Having a guide was great. It was a pity he didn’t get the chance to expand his Mental Map to make searching easier in future but at least they were heading directly towards their destination.
It was eerie to say the least. The fire swordswoman caught the attention of some strange beast but after passing by, the monsters would just look away. As for him, he cast Frigid Refraction on himself but that didn’t even matter. He found a level 350 Lesser Lindworm that was a giant snake at least a hundred metres long that charged at him when they were slowed down by a region of thickets. After he dodged the charge, the Lindworm turned back and swam towards him. Then, it simply looked around and returned to its burrow.
‘Evanesce means to disappear or to be forgotten right? Am I going to be forgotten?’ He quickly chased the Xeng who was fighting a sludge of…something. It got immolated before he got there.
“Not eating that?”
“That wasn’t a creature, it was a conjured spell. This place is indeed dangerous.”
‘Good, she didn’t forget me.’ Although he thought that, Everlasting Tranquillity didn’t even shake and not a ripple was found to begin with.
It took 3 days to find Gen and his blizzard this time. Reason being, there was an actual hailstorm going on and he hid within the trailer once they were out of the thicket. It had been a good chance to take the time to eat as well. That was a disaster that unleashed the glutton’s unlimited fury. Their trailer was lifted off the ground despite his mental hold to keep it stuck on the ground.
They were having dinner and all the food and items in the trailer flew around. Although the glutton reacted fast she didn’t manage to save all the food. What did they find when they left the trailer? The blizzard was an ongoing fight between 2 legendary Elk that Ebony had heard all about.
Honestly, they were slightly outmatched by the two level 300 Elks that haven't evolved, just like them. First of all, the blizzard raised covered a 5 kilometre radius that almost tore into their trailer. Secondly, he couldn’t even get close to the giant Elks that were fighting each other. When he tried to close in on them, the blizzard ripped him aside.
But that wasn’t enough to stop the flames of anger. With the contained energy in her blood, she tore through the blizzard and gave both Elks a slash to the head. Both Elks swung their bulky antlers to swat her back. They succeeded.
He blocked the gust of wind for her and they got back into range with the help of her mind magic but the same thing happened. She managed to slice off the tip of their antlers which Ebony pocketed because he remembered how valuable and strong the material was. He stepped forward and guarded the furious kick that broke through his shields and smashed into his chest but he stood firm and flipped the Elk onto its side with some help from Firm Path.
His body got flung into a massive tree all of a sudden but he already knew that it was a giant shard of ice that attempted to stab him but they didn’t expect his body to be so durable. He was lucky, their conjuration was so swift that his body couldn’t react in time. They were sneaky enough to make one of the small hail shards larger and more deadly. Hiding amongst tens of thousands of ice shards, he didn’t expect one of them to speed up near him.
Battle Song supported both of them to cover the extreme stat gap. The Elks didn’t have a large variety of spells or tactics. Making the battle easily predictable after a short while. While Ning Xin was struggling to wound the monsters, he was thinking about why the Elks had such high stats despite their level being the same as many dungeon creatures they’ve fought in the past.
It didn’t look like it but their spell broke his rib and that looked like it was just a casual attack. The kick that broke layers upon layers of his compressed scales sent intense shock across his body. It was like getting hit by Gao’larg again.
After ten minutes of back and forth, he actually couldn’t harm them. Actually, the Elks didn’t really attack them much, they were busy fighting each other. They got annoyed and their blizzard spell turned serious and pelted the humans out with a homing barrage of truck sized ice shards.
“I think they just said ‘we’re busy quarreling over here’ and kicked us out.” He commented to the pissed swordswoman.
The blizzard pelting didn’t harm her since the ice melted before it got close to her but he pulled her out along with him. The Elks simply didn’t care about them and he didn’t think it was necessary to kill them when the Elks didn’t spill their food on purpose.
“I know that!”
“Let’s clean up.” He knew how her Incensed Meditation works and didn’t think anything about her shouting.
“...okay.”
The Elks were interesting, he would’ve liked a serious battle with them if they weren’t so busy. He was sure that it wasn’t the new camouflage and the Elks simply had more important things to settle.
Thankfully, their furniture was grounded and they closed the closets tightly after use so nothing broke. All they had to do was wipe up the spillage on the walls, floor, ceiling, furniture and clear the air. The sofa was safe and nothing spilled on it which was a relief.
His room was pretty empty and only the book he placed on the table got sent under the bed. As for the swordswoman, her bedroom was a disaster as she did an inventory check for all the sets of clothes she got from the two craftswomen and left them lying around. Clothes meant for battle wouldn’t be torn from getting flung around but clean freaks had to rewash every article.
They weren’t in the mood to travel and had to rest so he drove at a cruising speed through the night. Although he didn’t force the glutton to eat, he might have been a bit aggressive with serving more food onto her plate and she wasn’t able to resist. Together with the fact that dinner wasn’t interrupted a second time, it was a relief.
The ongoing blizzard and the area where the Elks controlled it was easily detectable to his senses. The trailer didn’t have much trouble with the blizzard but the path wasn’t great. Flight didn’t look possible either so he finally decided to stop driving when his guide fell asleep.
Since it was dark and quiet, he spent the time sensing the change in Waning Presence. It was a temporary change which meant it was a good chance to learn what the difference was. Before, it was an active skill that he used so often he could do it in his sleep. As with many of the things he could do.
Now, he knew it was working without any input from him. Regardless of the intentions of the caster, Ebony only saw it as a win to be able to glimpse and personally be the wielder of such a high level skill.
He admitted that he might have been a bit peeved that they were so easily welcomed into the frostblaze forest because Ful could tell when Ning Xin was close by. He would’ve saved so much time if it was so easy when he came along. These feelings made him feel more alive than ever. To think that something so simple can stir his emotions. ‘Everlasting Tranquillity…I don’t know if I’m appreciating what you’ve taught me more or less. Dad.’