‘Hmm, it's not the best but I think I can call this a cheesecake. Using dried souper bread as the crust was the worst idea but it’s filling.’ Ebony had a bite of his fourth attempt at baking a cheesecake.
The black-haired woman regained some red in her hair and eyes but it wasn’t enough to call it red. She returned atop Sei, the turtles couldn’t care less about the Overflowing Vitality she leaked. They got along surprisingly well. It seems the thought that the turtles were food didn’t pop up because Gen could speak and the turtles were intelligent. Perhaps it was the phoenix blood in her telling her the friendly and closeness she felt with the turtles.
They were right to assume that the reason her Intuition was levelling easily was due to her Physique as she had recently got refinement after refinement for her Intuition skill or so she claimed. It was a phoenix’s natural beastly instincts.
Ebony did not account for the fact that cheesecakes exist here and he just never ate the version they had. He fought to protect the cake from getting stolen. “Wait, you can’t eat this.”
“Why not? My kitchen, my ingredients.” She was almost as tall as him and it was not easy keeping food out of her reach.
“Bought with my money-mana.” He did not expect that to stop her but she actually did.
“What do you want?”
“Look outside.”
“What is that large container for?” She must have seen the pool as she didn’t so much as look away from the cake he was carrying.
“Swimming. You’ll be learning how to swim.”
“Nghh.”
“You never know when you’ll get tossed or dragged into the water. Once the dungeon, second the Troll.”
“I don’t like the water…”
“With our physical ability, you can just think of it as very thick air. But no, you’ll be learning from scratch.”
“You’ll let me have that if I learn?”
“After the lesson.”
“One lesson.”
“That’s not going to cut it. Minimum tier 1 level 50 generic swimming skill.”
“What!? That will take weeks of daily training. Untiered!”
“I’ll try making something called sauerbraten. It’s pot roast, I’ll marinate it with plum wine and vinegar. Although normal wine might be better, we don't have any.”
“I make marinated pot roast all the time. Who needs your experimental dishes that you don’t know the recipe for?”
“Plov, a meaty rice dish. We don’t have any fish left but neither of us is too fond of fish.”
“Let me guess, you don’t know the recipe for that either. Just random spices you can recall.”
Ebony gulped. He wasn’t a good chef in either world and looking up recipes wasn’t part of his hobbies. “It’ll be another day of coming up with new recipes and eating. A lot of eating.”
“...Every week.”
“What was that?”
“You heard me! We’ll have those days once a week!”
“Alright, three hours of swimming lessons a day. And we’re not stopping just because you hit the target level. I’ll search for better swimming skills in future.” Ebony was only familiar with freestyle and the breaststroke. He wasn’t sure about any skills that actively consumed a greater amount of stamina to increase their speed but there were no such skill books in Plainston’s Z&Z.. ‘Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something once we get into the water.
“Then…can I eat now.”
“One slice. I personally recommend and prefer them chilled but you can try them hot first and I’ll keep the rest in the ice box.”
“Chilled? This can be eaten cold?”
“Yes. Now that you mention, I should’ve made the Thoyas some.”
The review of his cheesecake was quite cruel but she threw out many ideas for their cooking and feasting day.
“Let’s get this over with…” A single slice didn’t take long to be demolished.
“You’ll sink with the mantle and heavy clothing. You’ll have to learn how to swim before swimming in armour.” Ebony learned the hard way that he was denser than water if he had compressed mana in him. He had yet to find out if he was currently denser. Expelling all his mana out was part of the plan and wasn’t too big of an issue. If something really attacks, it's not as if his mana has gone anywhere.
“So…just my body suit?”
“I left the water freezing cold, you can train your cold resistance.”
“What are you implying…”
“I made proper swimwear. You can choose whichever one you like. I’ll go warm up and check if I remember how to swim.” Ebony didn’t know many types so he just made whatever he recalled women wearing when he was brought to a beach and tossed into the sea. He made a pair of trunks for himself which he quickly changed.
It took some time to find where he put the clothes he made after the Ordina lake situation and he laid out about ten that he made. He understood that less fabric meant less water resistance but he also learnt that showing skin wasn’t the fashion over here so there were a bunch of one-piece swim dresses or tight-fitting long-sleeved one-piece swimwear.
He didn’t wait for her to choose and went out to check on the pool to see that it was perfect and ready. He kept a thread of mana with his robe and continued to supply it before jumping up the tall pool wall and into the water.
‘I can’t tell if this is freezing cold or not. Feels like room temperature water but it should be…damn it, I’m denser.’ He tried to conjure some ice to see if the water would freeze and it did. He kicked himself up to the surface and held onto the ice walls to prevent himself from sinking.
‘How can I get the swimming skill if I keep sinking?’ Ebony couldn’t come up with any solution and decided to cheat with gravity magic for now. He didn’t really care if he couldn’t get the swimming skill since he could move around with considerable ease with Phantom’s Flicker even underwater. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said to treat water as if it was thick air as it was what he did.
“I-I’m here…” A soft voice called out. He surfaced again and quickly looked down to find his student.
‘Weird, what is this feeling? It's similar to when I stare at hmm... I’m not just admiring her trained body this time but it’s hard to find somewhere to look. Interesting, what manner of magic makes it hard to look? Loss of control over heartbeat? Blood magic? It feels warm and I feel…ashamed to look her in the eye. Why ashamed? Is this an embarrassment? Why am I the one embarrassed? Very fascinating, this time Everlasting Tranquillity is still giving me maximum output so it seems like there’s no mental attack or problem…’
Ebony did not notice his extended silence after his eyes swept from the top down. Unlike his assumption, his student’s choice of swimwear wasn’t the long-sleeved one piece that covered more skin but something closer to a red shoulderless crop tube top and the matching bottom that had a skirt. She stood shyly with one of her hands futilely hiding her chest and the other rested in front of her.
Her fair and pale skin was beyond alabaster and porcelain and almost blindingly white. It was hard to believe that under that was dark red blood more viscous than honey but flowed with the strength of a torrent river if she so wished. Her flat belly was a mystery, it seemed to have gotten flatter after her physique refinement despite her appetite increasing to unreasonable degrees.
“He-hello? Why aren’t you saying anything? Uh, these were the only ones that fit...they are a bit tight but it was the easiest to move in.” Ning Xin was also a fighter who saw practicality in everything.
“Oh, sorry about that. I made those years ago while practising mana control. Should I adjust them now?” He felt warmer when he forced eye contact after he blatantly scanned her. He forgot that there was a slight size change after evolutions and a large stat gain.
“They fit. Let’s just get this over for today.”
“Yes, you look gorgeous in them. Hop in.”
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“Huh what did y-? Jus-just like that? I’ll drown!”
“How scared of the water are you?”
“...I fell in the lake in Xienor when I was younger. Never liked large pools of water after that.”
“Ah, you almost drowned. No wonder you’re so afraid of water. Jump in, I’ll catch you.”
Her toes dug into the snow but she didn’t jump.
“You have your mask now, you won’t drown but I’ll still get you to learn how to hold and control your breath just in case.” Ebony trusted that it was better to prepare for any scenario.
“Fine! Don’t drop me!” She leapt with too much speed and got the chance to scare herself further by staring at the large body of water for a few seconds before she fell into it.
It was pretty much impossible for him to fail to catch her in such a small pool. He made it deep so that she couldn’t get a foothold but that may not have been the best idea for a beginner. He didn’t make any changes.
“I caught you. Don’t panic. Don’t kick around…” Ebony quickly fixed the hole that she kicked in the pool walls. He was fast enough to conjure a container to catch the water that escaped. ‘I’m glad I used some concentrated mana to build this.’
It took a few seconds but she calmed down eventually after staying afloat.
“Show me your lips, we’ll start with learning how to hold your breath underwater.” It was not how he learnt to swim but he saw instructors starting off with this step.
“We’re going underwater already?”
“I’ll hold your hands. I won’t let you drown okay?”
She gulped, her fear of water must’ve been worse than he imagined.
“So this is what they meant by making moves?” She muttered under her breath but it didn’t sound like she was talking to him.
“What?”
“Nothing, you better not let go.”
She got the hang of it surprisingly quickly for someone deathly afraid of water. “Open your eyes.” He used a little mana vibrations to talk. A little water wasn’t going to hurt a Master’s eyes. A few attempts were all it took before she blew bubbles and watched them float up.
He got her to hold onto the edge of the pool and tried to get her to float. She crushed the walls in her grip and panicked when she lost the support so he spent some more mana to toughen the walls.
“Too tense. Relax and try to float.” He checked her form but blinked and shook his head when the weird feeling came back.
The lesson was oddly hard to teach and he felt that something was definitely wrong with Everlasting Tranquillity and his body around the time when she started to float and practice kicking water.
For someone with absolute control over every muscle, it wasn’t long before she understood how to traverse the water. At the end of three hours, she could already do the breaststroke and swim a lap or two with near-perfect form at a normal, athletic speed. She was good enough that he doubted she ever feared water.
“How was it?”
“Honestly, that wasn’t so bad! It felt a bit like flying in some ways. I didn’t get any swimming skills though.”
Naturally, a few hours after picking up something new wasn’t enough for a skill to show up.
‘Is it me or is she more expressive than before? Probably me, I didn’t even know what expressive means.’
She didn’t notice the time so he continued when she asked how one stayed afloat and taught her how to tread water. It was easy to pick up when all she needed was to observe him and copy the movements.
“Your fingers are purple. Let’s stop here.” He only noticed when he held her hand again during water treading practice. He forgot that other than the water, they were somewhere cold enough that the water would freeze back up if not for his runes.
“Relax, just a little frostbite. I can h-”
“Don’t evaporate the water please.”
They jumped out and walked back to the trailer.
“Don’t you dare enter wet.” She boiled her blood to dry herself off. Hearing that, he copied her and burst into flames before manipulating the ice away. He was almost blown to the ground when a sudden shockwave came from her direction.
“What in the world? You almost broke the door.” The woman wasn’t around anymore and hid in her room.
Ebony who had thousands of points in Perception managed to catch a glimpse of white but he wasn’t sure what caused her to fire off like that.
“It turned to ashes! Start marinating what you said you’ll prepare. You can use two tivs of boar meat. I’ll take a bath first!” She yelled from the second floor.
‘Turned to ashes? Ah, the clothes aren’t heat resistant. Anyway, ten kilograms of boar meat. That’s about right for an experiment, she can iron the recipe out later.’ He hummed classical music for a Wisdom buff and searched the spatial refrigerator for the boar meat.
❅❅❅
Ebony started to get very sleepy after staying awake for 2 weeks. He was getting a better hang of his sleep schedule. ‘I should check the time to see how long I sleep naturally. Now that I think about it, if I don’t do any intense physical and mental activities meditation alone can probably keep me going without sleep for as long as I’d like. That probably won’t happen.’
He took his bath after dinner and went straight to bed. His robe stand was placed beside his bed and linked to his myriad bracelet. In his mind, he should be sitting upright after lying down and covering himself. However, he woke up feeling like time actually passed.
‘Did I sleep well or my sense of time is far better now?’ He pulled the covers aside and slid his feet onto the floor.
He felt something shift and looked down.
‘Huh? Did refining my physique make me hit puberty or what?’ Ebony was surprised at what was happening. He should have complete control over his faculties.
As someone who studied anatomy and had a background in biology, he understood what happened.
As someone who meditated and had full control over his body since he was a child, this was pretty much new to him.
He stood up and within the span of a single breath, got his blood settled. It was more obstructive than he imagined.
The new day went by peacefully. He ate breakfast and saw the ladies off to work after morning conditioning.
Continued with a few Glacial Models of Hector and some of the people that are more skilled in close combat to beat him up while he got back his balance. It might have been his Fortification but he felt that he was getting it back quickly. The weight increase wasn’t so bad but the mismatch of reflex and strength proportion was really messing with his tempo.
He was proud of his foresight for making these Models with Will beforehand so it didn’t take any mana upkeep as they don’t melt here.
‘Right. It’s long overdue to think about what to do about my next evolution and the fortifications. If, a very big if, I’m able to control the outcome or direction of growth then great. But if not, then…then nothing I guess.’
He started up the pool’s runes again to begin melting the ice that formed. He made it to absorb ambient mana and it had to be low intensity or it wouldn’t be worth it. It should melt before the patrol shift ends.
Before he knew it, half the day went by and the swordswoman came down for a snack and returned urgently to fight some woodpeckers that saw new trees. They were going to be tonight's dinner but their small size meant they were a side dish at best.
The more she hunted, the higher the chance they would have an offal buffet sooner rather than later. Those days were always pretty heavy as an organ dish usually had strong flavours. He ground up the bones if she deemed them inedible and kept them as material for some special runes or fertiliser as a gift. As much as he’d liked to create his personal garden, it wouldn’t fly as the trailer couldn’t keep plants alive if he stored it for too long.
High-level creatures have some energy within them that doesn’t dissipate after death but these are considered safe and clean to eat. However, even Grandmaster creatures don’t have a large amount and are safe even for the unclassed. The Jetfins were very special in this aspect as they were dangerously full of energy.
He suspected that if the Jetfins were stronger they might have ingredients or parts similar to Ful and her Phoenix sister. Maybe eating a large amount of them could strengthen someone’s physique. Sadly, it might be hard to find any Imperial who had access to a large amount of Jetfin flesh and blood.
‘Doesn’t that mean that at some point in time, we are also good ingredients? Wait, I guess I’ve always been a good meal for dungeons. That aside, we’ll be moving targets for strong monsters that feel that our essence is compatible with them.’ Ebony wasn’t bothered by it since it felt like common sense and it didn’t change that there are creatures that want to eat him.
It was time for another swimming session and he had already remade all the swimwear with the new batch of textile and fabric he traded with Roya. He didn’t get creative and just copied whatever past Ebony made. She chose the same piece.
She had more fun than the first session as she could tread water and swim laps at a good pace.
Ebony also got the swimming skill faster than he imagined.
Swimming - Swim at 70% + 1.0% Agility per level
Now that he was sure speed was based more on the strength stat, it made sense that the running skill which also scales on agility didn’t give him a direct 1% per level speed boost. When he just got the Running skill and calculated his speed, he knew he was wrong since it just didn’t make sense. However, it was wrong to say the Running skill didn’t give him any additional speed so Agility and strength were quite closely related.
He swam deeper underwater to give her time to swim and allow himself to swim at higher speeds without disrupting her too much. At least, he didn’t go fast enough to create currents that could pull a human away.
However, it appeared that she was acting tough as she panicked and called for him more than once right after he left her alone. So much that she would lose control and forget how to tread water. The fear of water wasn’t going away within a few days but he had assumed it was fine from how well she swam when he was right by her side.
The routine continued. They had dinner after swim class. Took a night walk and patrolled outside while casually sparring without any mana usage. He checked all the Glacial Models that he left as night guards and the first line of defence. Then returned underground. Play with the little ones as they try to manipulate snow under their feet or train their snow gliding skill.
Ning Xin also changed her sleep schedule and didn’t sleep every night so they watched television…memory lights. The sofa had to be remade to withstand his weight but he used a smarter solution and just made a weight reduction rune on the seat like those carriages had. Hence, he didn’t have to manipulate gravity or expel condensed mana to take a seat.
Their movie stockpile increased but he honestly felt that most were boring. It was the same hero story or war movie where a knight or unknown warrior would beat a large number of Trolls by themselves. The best and most realistic one they watched was when the knights actually worked together and struggled to beat the Trolls or outright lost.
What he didn’t expect was that the drama genre was present and popular here too. At first, these were the most nonsensical to him but now, he was asking questions and learning why and how people reacted the way they did.
He took it all with a pinch of salt since acting and drama tend to exaggerate emotions but it was this exaggeration that helped him learn. He also had to admit the actors here were impeccable. Unknown as to whether they were so good that he couldn’t tell that they were acting or because he was just terrible at reading expressions to begin with.
When they got bored and the morning was about to come, it was training all over again.