The first two weeks after Gen fell asleep in his shell and snow igloo went by peacefully. Ning Xin patrolled the forest above every day. Her scent skill helped in finding any monster that intruded. The intruder count so far was zero.
He forced her to accept the fact that she had to beat him up for him to get used to his new state quickly. He wasn’t a genius like her and his body learned from pain far better. The micro-adjustments were moving along but not quite there yet. His openings and slip-ups were targeted and sped up the process.
The rest of the time, he was either doing some physical conditioning, reading, practising other weapons just for fun or actually trying to gain the martial arts style that he should have had. Cooking was also part of his schedule but gardening was out of the picture down here.
He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the urge to refine some of his Sub-Class skills. He only got more and more ideas but the ones that were already planned out needed actual practice before the results would show.
At the moment, Ful is being fed mana from his robes that were filling up at the same time. It required his manual input to save more of the tree spirit’s effort. He splurged a little and created an Olympic-sized pool but twice as deep before filling it up with snow by hand. It took some time but the repetitive shovelling felt calming.
‘This is normal but thick snow, it should melt easily. Some heating runes on the walls should work well enough.’ He was well aware that the dome didn’t fear heating up much but that was when Gen was awake. Tuning it down, he melted a pool of snow slowly since he was in no rush.
‘I should be able to get the swimming skill with ease but what kind of combat skills are there for underwater battles?’ Ebony knew how to swim he was just out of practice. Although his movement skills worked underwater, it wasn’t an excuse not to make it any easier or make himself faster.
‘I have to think of some way to convince her too. Food. Is there anything else I haven’t introduced to her? Maybe something sweet and with the ingredients at hand…cheesecake? I’ll have to experiment.’
Low-power heat runes were simple to mould on and he just had to wait. The swordswoman had a 14-hour shift patrolling the forest above and Sei was with her. The only ones left were Ton, the three turtlings, Gen and the tree spirit. They usually minded their own business however, Ebony was wrong about their laziness since they were all training their magic within their shells.
‘To think that the biggest change that affected me isn’t the Physique but the vast increase in Perception. Better now than during a battle I guess…’ Ebony was disorientated when Everlasting Tranquillity slowly revved back up to its full potential after his brain had a break. The explosion of senses caught him off guard and he was glad it came back slowly.
His range of control over mana and mana perception was similarly bursting through the roof, befitting of his Wisdom and Perception stat. It was already past a kilometre radius and was still rising. His goal was to see when it would become difficult to continue increasing this range. Maybe he could find the limit or soft capacity and write a personal thesis about the relation of range with stats for Clovis. At the very least, he would have gotten a skill to increase the limit once he reached it but Ebony never got so far.
The artillery mages told him that it was a common skill that they all had but it only showed itself once they hit their limit and differed from person to person. These mages didn’t have a high Wisdom, surprisingly. They just had a good mana capacity increasing skill, a meditation skill or something along those lines and the rest of their focus goes to increasing effective spell power, range, effect and maybe control. It depends from person to person but that was the general trend for the Imperial artillery mages. They were not willing to share their stat value or the range limit so he had to find out himself.
It was too bad the artillery mages didn’t care about absolute control all that much. Their spells could fire out of their range of control for all they care. It just had to fly further, faster and hit the target. On the other hand, Ebony was not satisfied with that. He needed complete control and to be able to adjust the spell at any point in time. How could he settle for less?
He didn’t even like letting his spells go outside this range because there was always the chance of interruption that he wasn't able to react to. ‘Maybe I’m imagining a hostage situation too often. What did you need for cheesecakes again?’
“Ebony, there’s an attack. You might want to go help. Ton can bring you up.” Ful’s voice echoed throughout the dome. The tree spirit was getting better with mana vibrations.
“I’ll leave this out here, you can absorb it right?” Ebony has already prepared to take out his trailer’s power source under the flooring from day one. There was always the chance he had to step away and it seemed to have come.
He slid on his boots and jumped onto Ton’s back when he parked beside the trailer. The dome was weird. The walls were solid when he touched and tried to go past but the turtles dove into it without impediment.
Ton moved with urgency only to slow down for a moment, they both sensed Sei diving back down. The invaders must be quite dangerous but the turtles were mostly safe the moment they dived into the special snow within their forest.
“Spit me out.” He vibrated the mana to inform Ton not to surface. The turtle obliged and he was shot up like a cannonball.
‘Thirty-two presences within a kilometre radius. Humanoids. Familiar mana signatures.’ He quickly scanned the area and found the invaders to look very familiar.
They looked just like the Prime Verglas Kobold on the last few floors of Ordina. Except, the ones here were slightly bigger and more of a menace. Their skinny limbs didn’t fool him. They wielded sharp bones as weapons and wore armour made out of ice. [Hoarfrost Kobold] were their real titles.
‘I’ll have to use mana to get it over quickly or buy a few seconds for her.’ He didn’t get arrogant just because the opponents were only level 390 to 400. Obviously not, just three of them were enough to keep Ning Xin busy and the rest started tearing into the Frostblaze Amur Maples. She wasn’t able to use fire magic so that the trees didn’t burn down and that limited her until she had time to gather energy for her Core Skill.
Fortunately, they weren’t destroying the place because they were more keen on drinking what was within. Otherwise, the relatively weak tree wouldn’t survive a few minutes.
A few seconds were pretty long when they were all moving at superhuman speeds. He didn’t create his complicated domain and just got the fastest one he could make first. He hoped to slow them down but it only worked as a surprise weight on their shoulders and legs. Every kobold stood strong without buckling or missing a single step.
Ebony already parked Glacial Models throughout the forest and they began to drag the Kobolds outside his range towards him the moment he appeared.
‘A domain’s too costly for such a large area, I’ll have to swap it out with a normal magnified gravity. Ice doesn’t work well anyway.’ The split second he had to realise the expenditure of mana was too high was almost enough for his Augmentation to wrap himself but it wasn’t fast enough as a giant bone sword was speeding towards his neck and another sped towards the back of his knees at the same time.
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The insane reaction speed and accurate counter was praiseworthy but he caught the blade between his chin and collarbone and his feet kicked forward to push the front attack while the other thrust back. The flimsy attempt to disarm the one that aimed for his neck didn’t work. The back thrust was also predictable so both Kobolds were unharmed.
They wish they were.
Their feet were caught in a rope that whipped them around. ‘The floor should be tougher than I imagine, it should hold.’ Ebony got the whips to slam the Kobolds down. He wasn’t able to swing them fast enough to make them helpless as they struggled to cut the ropes binding their ankles.
He ignored them and rushed to the trees that were about to get cut. He decided to save those that hadn’t gotten damaged instead of stopping those in the midst of getting cut down. He trusted his Glacial Models were on the way for those.
He gained a sudden boost in speed as the split second that he needed to cast Augmentation was over. Finally deciding not to save mana, he lit every tree on fire as he directly conjured his flames over them all. Giving priority to those that had a Kobold nearby. The Kobolds merely backed off the moment light blue flames ignited but they coated themselves with mana and vitality in response. Something he hadn’t seen other monsters doing often.
Like a conductor in the sky, he swung his hand and 6 more arm thick ropes burst from the ground but only 5 Kobolds got caught and had an appointment to be rag dolled momentarily. As for the last, he Flickered over to it and hammered its head with a fist that caused an explosion that sent the Kobold flying into a hastily conjured ice wall behind.
‘It repelled Sonic Intrusion? I need to get sound and gravity to tier 3 standard.’ Ebony was once again forced to recognise that creatures in Hoarfrost Glades were no joke. Sonic Intrusion should’ve penetrated most defences but the Kobold's film of mana and vitality blocked it out completely and caused the vibrations to backfire and an explosion occurred. His control wasn’t so weak as to allow the vibrations to reflect and injure himself.
The Kobold showed off its physical strength by ripping the ice wall out and tossing it towards him. His Intelligence wasn’t high enough and his mental strength didn’t manage to stop his own ice wall from flying at him. The Kobold must have hoped that that was enough to distract him but he was in for a treat as a knee smashed the Kobold's face inwards after he Flickered out of the way.
He realised the impact resistance and vibration-proof quality of their enhancement and didn’t expect the kick to do much.
In the meantime, more Kobolds surrounded him. It was more accurate to say they were baited and knocked towards him by his Models but the small details didn’t matter.
The ropes couldn’t keep the Kobolds down for long as the initial two broke free and leapt towards him from a distance away. Four Glacial Models appeared beside them with a greatsword raised high. Each of the charging Kobold had two Stalactite Sunders crossing from over their necks. There was no bloodshed but the Models pinned the Kobolds to the ground. The intense struggle was contested by the Models by melting half of their bodies and freezing the Kobolds to the ground. The upper half continued to pin the Kobolds’ neck down.
The Models weren’t a match for the Kobolds and ice couldn’t hold them down long. The Kobolds rampaged and broke free. They weren’t blind and could see that Ebony had the same figure and face as the Models and they might be used to seeing magic casters standing around without doing much. Hence, they pulled off a combined attack after some odd calls and yells.
Their hands stopped right before their blades reached him when a sudden shockwave reverberated.
Ebony was intrigued at the reaction to a single heartbeat. Albeit, a heartbeat strong enough to shake the very atmosphere.
“Times up for you. Sadly, you guys don’t taste good so…well, I’ll give you a proper burial so the planet can recycle.” He almost felt bad for them.
The Kobolds actually turned around and dashed. Going so far as to split up when one of the louder members screamed. They were quite smart. He was restraining himself from damaging the forest so it was perfect that they retreated.
Those within ten metres of him didn’t manage to escape but he left the rest to the predator. The shock and fear in their eyes were palpable and he couldn’t blame them. Even he felt the phantom weight pushing him down. It felt like a knife was on his neck and something was grounding his feet.
‘How much energy did she use…’ He shook his head, she must have gotten a bit excited at the first opponents in two weeks. Opponents that could cause her trouble.
He cast his stunning roar at them and decapitated them one by one as they poised their necks out for him. Taking the extra step of staying put for him. He counted and the seven Kobolds only died four minutes after beheading. It was faster than the Trolls which goes to show how resilient the Trolls were.
“Ful, you can hear me right? Want me to bury them here?”
“No thanks, get that filthy corpse away. It’ll taint the mana in the area.”
Ebony didn’t put his augmentation down, a little disappointed he could run wild to test his new capabilities. He lifted the corpses with some ice and chased after the tracks of the others. Picking up dismembered body parts and organs on the way. He had a close look at the skinny limbs to see where all the strength was coming from. Their arms were almost bony.
He had to circle around as the predator hunted down the Kobolds that ran in different directions.
‘A grand total of 48 wasted lives…’ He shook his head. He saw the act of killing in a different light after his experience with the Trolls. It was one thing if they ate their kills but they didn’t. The Kobolds didn’t even have valuable parts that could be used by people. He saw it as a waste of value. Returning it to the earth and planet seemed to be the most appropriate step when no experience, natural potential, flesh, materials or energy in any form were taken by them. He buried them quite a distance away. There was no blood since the blood mage and her swords took that away.
“You got hit?” He didn’t need to see her injury to sense the odd weight placement when she walked.
“The first three I fought were stronger and I didn’t expect them to be fast and work so well together. I got hit in the hip, almost fully healed. It's good to know I can heal from bone fractures now.”
“I’m-”
“Oh please, I also know that getting hit will make me learn faster. Just a little injury, it doesn’t even come close to getting bitten by dozens of spiders alive or melting myself. I was just a little surprised they fought as well as some of the Hunter Trolls that were sent after me.”
“Yeah… you’re right. Do you think we’re still marked by them? I can’t sense anything.”
“Maybe. Maybe the stealth skill helps hide us. Or the fact we melted and rebuilt our bodies.”
“Mmm.” Ebony had attempted to probe at the stealth skill but he was clueless at how it was hiding him or if it was even in effect.
“Go back down, I’ll stay up here just in case they have a bigger family coming for them,” she shooed him away. It was obvious that she was hoping for a few more fights. Preferably more delicious fights. She must have enjoyed an actual challenge for once but the Kobolds were not quite there considering their levels. They were not the best the Glades had to offer.
“Alright, I’ll try to come up faster next time.” Ton surfaced in another minute or so to ferry him down.
‘Time to make this cheesecake.’
“Just inform me when a threat comes close Ful.”
“Sure, this mana orb is quite a high-quality storage if I do say so myself.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen my fair share of mana storage items back in the day. Father would buy from a wide array of sources and we get to play with the leftovers after he’s done using them. This one can store relatively dense mana and even keep its purity constant for a long time. I bet it wouldn’t deteriorate for at least a thousand years.”
“I’ll make sure to pass your compliments to the craftswoman.” Ebony looked over to Gen’s igloo after his comment. It should’ve been there but all he saw was Gen’s shell starting to poke out of a collapsed igloo.
‘Is he growing in size?’ He swapped back to feeding Ful from his robe. The power source was a backup for emergencies.
It was back to cake-making while chatting with an ancient tree. He went to check the pool once and found the snow half-melted. Shovelling more snow into it and changing the heating runes to temperature regulation runes took another hour.
‘What do you know, this feels like an extended vacation. Not testing out new magic is quite suffocating but I conveniently needed to learn how to move my body again.’