“Good to see you back.” Gen was as awake as they last met.
“Anxious to evolve are we?” Ebony joked. The turtle was the furthest creature away from anxiousness in his opinion.
“Yes, I am. However, I don’t think you regenerate enough mana to support ancestor.”
Silence pervaded the underground dome. The only one who thought the comment was funny was the masked swordswoman.
“What tier and level is your meditation?”
“Tier 4, it’s my latest core skill and not my most talented area so only level 1087. Total effective increase of 12,370% on top of my base regeneration. My Wisdom is at 11,000 and taking my racial trait or Physique as you would call, my base regeneration is about 33,000 mana per hour. So…” Even with the mask, Ebony could see the red-haired lady’s jaw drop.
On the other hand, he wasn’t that surprised. Gen partially had the stats of a monster as he only had a Class but the base increment of his tier 4 skill was 1500% really surprised him. The numbers were a good reference though. It appeared that Gen’s Physique or race had a 30% of max mana per hour for mana regeneration rate. At least, not considering mana pool expansion skills. That was 3 times more than humans. The lack of a mention for a Fortification said a lot though.
“Four million, one hundred fifteen thousand and one hundred per hour when you’re meditating at maximum focus.” Ebony did the calculations for the turtle. That was over a thousand points of mana every second.
“How fast do you regenerate mana?” The dual blade user nudged him.
“...Less than 10% of what Gen regenerates.” A tier advantage was a difference of doubling and the skill level was also double of his own. The base 1500% was even more ridiculous, the skill was so refined that it was more than half of his entire Core Skills effect even if Gen had the skill at level 1. He had the advantage in terms of base regeneration thanks to his 500% Fortifications but he did not have the racial or Physique perk. Neither did he have even a fifth of the Wisdom stat of the turtle in front of him.
The other advantage he had was that Gen would be immobilised to a great degree during his meditation but that wasn’t the topic right now. It was all about quantity and quality, not the combat implications.
“Let me have a taste of your flames.” Ful interjected.
The tree and old turtle already roughly guessed his regeneration just from his overflowing mana but the tree spirit had long argued that Ebony’s ability to directly conjure frostblaze completely changes things. It was far more suitable for the tree than Gen’s mana that was modified through multiple Fortifications for snow magic.
And it seems that they were right, it was far more efficient for the tree to absorb his mana rather than Gen’s. It just wasn’t enough. The forest above actually converts ambient mana to sap that’s also fed to Ful which was something new he learned. Yet, it wasn’t enough. The trees above just didn’t produce mana at the purity that the ancient tree spirit required. Or rather, the amount that the sword was absorbing through it.
“I’ve stocked up quite a lot of mana in my robes and trailer but, I don’t think it’s enough to last. How long?”
“A month at the very least. Probably longer.”
Ebony felt like he was doing mathematics homework. He spent a half a day feeding Ful his mana to calculate how much mana it would take to sustain the tree for over a month. He even calculated a safety factor of 3 months instead of one or two. Thankfully, by converting and compressing the flames it was more than 5 times more efficient compared to Gen’s.
“I think I need to charge up mana for two more months before we have enough to support Ful for 3 months.” They must have underestimated just how much mana he already charged within his robe and the power source in his trailer.
“Are you fine with that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You won’t be able to train your magic during this period of time.”
“Ah, don’t worry. That’s the least I could do to pay back the Physique I got from Ful. And…” Ebony scratched his cheek at the end of his sentence.
“And?”
“I left a bit of leeway to train a little everyday. Don’t want to get rusty you see.”
“...Got it. You want to continue practising sealing magic?”
“Not yet. It’s time to rebuild our bodies.” Ebony went back into the parked trailer and tossed his bag in his room. He felt safe enough here but the robe had to be on to continue absorbing his excess mana.
“I understand Scarlet, but how are you going to do that?” Gen looked at the lady who crawled out from Ful with a huge red crystal.
“With a bit of self experimentation. I might need more than two months but that just gives us more mana as backup.” He didn’t waste the past three weeks and did some groundwork and a lot of discussions with Kong Jing. Mostly asking about how she reforged her brain and the viability of changing his own body.
“Well, I can wait.”
“Are you not going to get your Meditation to 1250? That’s the requirement for the strongest Fortification right?”
“I’ve long reached my limit, it had been at level 1085 for three hundred years until you came and I got a bit of inspiration.”
The masked lady hauled the heavy orb over with difficulty.
She stared at them, and they stared back at her. “How am I supposed to eat this? Can I cut it into pieces?”
“You can try. If you think you can cut a Saint’s strongest body part.” Ful goaded.
“...” She did try.
All that happened was the temperature rising and her arms hurting.
“Any ideas?” He asked the tree spirit.
“Do I look like I have a mouth? I wasn’t even born when I was your size.” The majestic giant tree didn’t give any useful advice. Ful must have been referring to it's spirit not being born when it's physical body was the same size.
“You said you had a special healing rune the previous time you ate a fragment. What are you going to do about that now?” Ebony confirmed with the masked lady.
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“Nothing.” She was confident of her current regeneration and heat resistance.
“I’m still here, I don’t want this place to burn down either.” Gen weighed in. Ebony completely forgot about the convenient healing seal.
He asked the old folks about the Mandate, it was great that they were able to notice the vast difference about him the moment they arrived. Gen never heard of such magic but Ful did.
“To put it simply, Mandate is the compulsion of all things. Natural or not. It doesn’t matter if it's a physical or mental reaction. Ghosts and spirits are not spared but are more resistant to Mandates. But it has an obvious flaw, a great one. They work in a way that’s similar to curses. If you had a vial of poison and you pour it into a bucket of water, what do you get?”
“A bucketful of poison.”
“Yes, the same vial poor into a lake would get you a slightly poisonous lake. Yet, if it goes into the ocean, the ocean might not even notice that something changed. That’s basically how you resisted it. As long as one has a vast essence pool, Mandates simply don’t work. The same for your spells, it’s so dense that their Mandates just dissolved in a sense. From what we experienced, Mandates are pretty weak against creatures of the same level unless their skill tiers are at least one rank higher. So a Grandmaster would need a tier 4 version for their Mandates to work slightly on other Grandmasters. Mind you, that’s with multiple Fortifications. However, if it does work, then resistance is pretty much futile.”
“So, they’re either overbearingly powerful or completely helpless if they don’t have other combat skills.”
“A weaker Mandate faces far less resistance so they won’t be as helpless as you imagine.”
‘Right, they kept changing their words for the same effect. So they just settle for the next best spell if the strongest version doesn’t work. That’s inefficient, they should’ve cast their mandates backwards from weakest to strongest to save time and bring forth any kind of effect first.’ Ebony was not angry at those misty silhouettes. In his opinion, the favour and gift they presented him was immense.
When or how else would he ever have the opportunity to personally experience a skill of unknown power with his own body. Since it changed Waning Presence, it meant the skill was at least similar enough for him to work towards and copy. The first step to learning martial arts and many skills is imitation. He should give them advice the next time he sees them.
No matter how he saw it, other than the fact that they were probably marked or had their locations constantly exposed to those people the skill was actually beneficial. In fact, it would be even better if Ning Xin had the same skill. Alas, she didn’t. The Sovereign Mandate was a bit stingy for only casting it on him. The lack of knowledge about the skill did make him guarded but there weren't any drawbacks as far as he could tell for now.
Ebony told the ancient tree spirit about what was cast on him, just in case his current presence here was not welcomed but neither the tree nor the turtle reacted. They had complete confidence in their location. Maybe it wasn’t that they were afraid their location was leaked but who it was leaked to. To another group of people that wanted to stay as hidden as possible, there was no one that the misty silhouettes can leak their location with.
Gen quickly retreated into his shell when he found out that he wasn’t about to evolve for at least 2 more months. Ful was tired and went silent soon after. Ning Xin was busy playing with the large red orb and thinking about how to eat it.
And Ebony, he sat down and meditated. Calm and silence pervaded the underground dome.
❅❅❅
“AAH! I’m just going to bite it!” The shout woke him up. He didn’t go into a trance yet but he didn’t know how much time passed.
The impatient one moved her lower mask and directly smashed her teeth into the red orb. He could hear the loud smack and it sounded like her teeth cracked but it was likely just the orb smashing into her mask. She suddenly ran into the trailer to get a water mana ore. She washed the orb and…licked it.
“I got it!”
“You’re telling me it melted after licking it?”
She didn’t reply as there was no need to. The magical orb actually dissolved. ‘How convenient…’
“Don’t rush and you should call Gen in advance. Didn’t Sister Jing give you a special mantle, go change.” With the reminder she dashed to her room to change to a white mantle that only had one purpose. It would not stick onto molten flesh or burn. That, and to cover her body. Under Gen’s magic, it might not be necessary but precautions were always good to have. She stood bare feet. Without anything else other than her white mantle and mask.
“Also, your body is different since your blood portion of the physique also changes it. Make the power yours, not the other way around.” Ebony was not shy about saying these in front of the majestic tree.
“Don’t worry, I will be the one that feasts. Besides, this isn’t the whole chunk. There are fragments all over the continent, maybe even on Tova because they used to be a singular continent.”
“Right, don’t die.”
“You too, I know what you’re about to do. You’re lacking something crucial to change your physique.”
“...Yes, my mana chassis just heals my physical state completely. No change to my body with mana is permanent as it would simply treat it as damage and heal myself. But, my Overdraft skill showed me that it’s possible for my chassis to be affected. With my Glacial Model, I simulated what my new Physique would and could be with Sister Jing’s help. Special ingredients or materials help a lot because of the energy they provide to jumpstart and force a permanent biological change. With that, I can use my control over my own chassis to slow or stop them from healing my physical body until it reshapes and settles.” Ebony could have edited his body as he wished since a while back.
It wasn’t that hard but at the same time, he couldn’t make the changes permanent. He could tell that he lost Ning Xin half way through his explanation.
“Are you going to try pulling that out?” She guessed what he was about to do with relative ease. He didn’t even talk to anyone about what he was about to attempt.
“That has thousands of years of Ful’s sap absorbed. I don’t believe that essence escaped anywhere. Gen might freeze to death and the previous person who tried lost their arm but none of them has Ful’s ability. I do. My flames are compatible with Ful, I don’t believe the reverse isn’t true. It’s where my power comes from anyway.” It was a bit hasty of him. He didn’t know exactly how tough Gen was but the turtle was definitely far tougher than Ebony could imagine.
“So we’re both going to undergo rebirth by flames huh…”
“Want to have an actual feast before that? We won’t be eating for some time.” Ever since she picked up the red orb, it was the first time she let it go. They had one of the largest meals he ever consumed. The Imperial mutton and peas were still a work in progress and didn’t taste all that similar to the one he had in Fifth Tide. It was saltier than it needed to be but it may have been intentional.
“Drink more water.”
“Relax, my mask has water.”
“Didn’t you have it off the previous time? Is it fine to have it on now?”
“It’ll strengthen us together. Don’t forget, this mask is actually a part of me.”
“I see.”
“Why…did you want to sneak a peek?”
“Nope.”
Ebony got ambushed by a kick that even he did not see or sense coming. He fell off the chair, glad that they already cleared the table.
“Why are you angry?”
“No reason! Go meditate for all I care!”
“I am. Let's digest a little and you can get started.”
A mana-less and skill-less spar was a good way to loosen up. He managed to go for her weakness, disarming her. It wasn’t easy but he wasn’t using Icicle and was warming back up to bare-handed combat.
“So you’re saying you don’t have a mastery skill for martial arts because you’re rejecting it subconsciously.”
“I believe so. The way that skills are obtained has always seemed odd to me. Repetition is a requirement but the desire and knowledge that one has about it plays a part. For example, you have a breathing skill but I don’t. Yet, I am capable of highly efficient breath control. I came to the conclusion that it was because you were consciously or subconsciously willing the creation of that skill when you practised repetition. I never thought there was a need for it, although I have Sustenance Regulation now. We can both read but I have a reading skill, probably because I wanted it. But ever since I came here, I rejected my own talents and used a greatsword. Partly for fun.”
“You’re so silly. Power is power. Why reject what you’re best at?”
“Oh, I didn’t know or care. Now I do.”
“Hmm…tell me why in future. I have a Physique to refine.”
“And a giant piece of candy-drug to eat.”