“How’s it going over there?” Ebony’s callstone reconnected. He stared at his worn and brittle Myriad Bracelet. Plainston didn’t have anything stronger. Even brand-new ones would be more fragile than his current worn bracelet.
‘Berg Mammoth’s tusk should be durable and resistant to ice. I should keep some and ask a bracelet smith if incorporating it would help.’ He knew it was not necessary since the Myriad Bracelets were made to be highly resistant to most forms of magic or mana itself to be specific. Mana could only travel through the crafted paths within that linked to the slots for callstones, mana ores or other special crystals with embedded functions like the obfuscation jewel.
In any case, they had two tusks that extended to the skies and were thicker than most trees. He doubted the gluttonous one could grind it all down or take much of it to be ingredients.
“The Kobolds that watched the duel earlier are mostly wiped out. The remaining survivors and camps are busy nursing their wounds. The Elks ate their fill and left. I got injured. Unbelievable, they are also Master ranked. I can see how just a pair of them could cause Arcta so much trouble. They stole part of the Mammoth’s corpse. Those weasels, they took a whole drumlet! Right up to the thigh!”
Ebony quietly listened to her report. The Elks might be even more of a menace than the Berg Mammoths. He could somewhat guess the Elks came because of the Mammoth corpse. He only wondered if they cut the ‘drumlet’ off or if it was after she processed the colossus. He leaned towards them cutting it off. There wasn’t enough time for her to drain the Mammoth dry and she must have been in the process of cutting it apart. Maybe she cut the drumlets already, making it easy for the Elks to walk away with one.
“How’s your injury?” She didn’t sound in pain and he didn’t think to ask what kind of injury she sustained.
“Healing. Please sew up my shirt for me later, there’s a hole in it.”
“Alright. I should arrive around noon tomorrow. Take care and eat up,” rather than rest, it was obvious eating would do her more good.
“Hurry up, I’ll wait for you before trying out elk meat.” She hinted that the Elks didn’t walk away without trouble. She either killed one or sliced off enough to taste. Ebony heard that Elks travelled in pairs and they also saw another pair before. However, the Mammoth corpse may have attracted more than a few couples. Ning Xin might have scored a complete Elk.
“Yes ma’am.”
“I don’t like you calling me that.”
“I’ll be back soon, Xin.”
“That’s better.”
They stopped chatting even though their callstone were still linked up and consuming mana.
‘How do I edit gravity magic further…I’m at my wit's end with sound and gravity. Talent huh…’ Ebony knew he had an easy time with ice magic and most physical skills. People of this world would attribute it to natural talent and what was simply inherited through genes.
He had guessed that his proficiency with ice magic came from his father and his physical abilities from his mother. With just a tiny twist and practice, he ‘created’ skills that easily evolved and mutated from tier 1 to 3. Even 4.
What about gravity and sound?
He picked up sound just because he wanted to experiment with non-elemental mana. As for gravity, it was the element that he had the next highest affinity with. After that, it was lightning affinity. The rest of the elements didn’t allow his mana to control them and stopped him from picking up the lowest tier of manipulation from them.
As for gravity, it was much easier than sound magic to him. This led him to believe one of his parents also used gravity magic and he had a hunch it was his mother from the conditioning skill book he got a sneak peek at.
Regardless, both seemed to be limited to tier 2 skills. He ran out of the ideas and capabilities to make both magic do what they do but better. Except for the latest sound spell, Pseudo-imitation roar. The redundancy in naming was rubbing it in that it could hardly be called a copy of the unknown roar.
His head throbbed once again when he tried to recall the situation where he heard the roar. The vague figure of a tall masked man kept slipping away from his mind as the roar that came after disrupted his mental state. No matter, he was able to remember what he needed to. The roar which was supposed to cause soul damage resurfaced.
‘I must have overused it against those misty silhouettes. They didn’t seem badly affected. Is the soul damage I did really weak or do they have strong souls? Can souls be trained?’ Ebony liked to think they had strong souls and that souls could be trained but he thought it was more likely that his attack was weak. Since he didn’t feel any pain after casting it so many times and it was supposed to hurt himself.
To begin with, the skill scales of Vitality, Endurance and Wisdom. None of which were power-based like Strength and Intelligence. Even with a high base percentage, he doubted they had a strong effect when it came to dealing damage.
He didn’t have enough tests to determine the skill scales of his base stats or his resource pool. The difference it made was that his resource pools had skills to strengthen or expand them. Sadly, he had no free stat points to mess around with.
The route back was peaceful. The fresh path flattened out by a walking mountain range helped to dissuade other monsters from getting near.
He hoped his Glacial Models hadn't been destroyed yet. If they were functioning as he hoped they should be leading the Mammoths on a wild goose chase.
Every minute counted and he still needed almost a full day of travelling at his top speed to get back to the maple forest. He was fully planning on going on the same bait trip if they came back. It depended on how much energy they wanted to conserve and also how desperately they wanted to take a bite of Ful.
Gen was taken out of the picture. He wouldn’t rely on an unknown variable as he wasn’t sure how long the turtle would take to wake up.
The burning forest entered his sights again but there was one big difference.
The trees weren’t just combusting ice on their leaves.
Dark red flames circled the maple forest.
“What’s the fire burning on?” He didn’t panic since the trees were unharmed. The hot flames were a distance away from the maple trees. There was no way Ning Xin had enough mana to sustain a ring of flames that were taller than the trees and circled the whole forest.
Ebony Flickered through the flames without any trouble.
“I’m back.” He greeted the chef who was making kebabs.
“Here!” A plate full of kebabs was shoved into his hands.
“How is that fire burning?”
“Ful’s dried leaves. Dipped in mammoth fat. It just keeps burning, I didn’t think the leaves would last so long.”
“Ha! I rode on a Phoenix that ate suns for breakfast, do you think my leaves can be burned so easily?” The tree spirit had some spunk in its voice.
“It helped to get rid of the smellier fat and nothing attacked us since I started the fire..” Ning Xin commented.
The good thing about fire magic was that it didn’t require a fire mage to keep it going. Traditional fuel or anything flammable would work to feed the fire.
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“Ah.” Ebony muttered.
Ning Xin seemed to have caught onto the change in his calm and stopped chowing down for a second. She looked like a hamster with its cheeks full of sunflower seeds.
“Why don’t you try to change your fire to be able to burn without oxygen?” He wasn’t sure what she had in plan for her next fortifications but they were already preparing for their evolutions.
She swallowed the mammoth kebab loudly but stayed silent.
“I’m not sure how that would work.”
“I made ice more resistant to heat. Besides, oxygen isn’t needed for all fires. My flames burn fine, with or without oxygen.”
“You feed them with mana.”
“Point is, if they caught onto something and I stopped supplying mana it would still burn even if one took away oxygen. But normal fires don’t. Your extra hot flames can still be sniffed out by a wind mage. I knew an air and fire mage that could rip oxygen or air away and snuff out flames. If your flames can support themselves without oxygen, that's one less weakness.”
“I can use wind magic.”
“At a cost. Mana and magic isn’t your strong point. A superior wind mage could suppress that ability and with one move, stop both your wind and fire magic.” He did not doubt that even in the same level range, there were better wind mages.
She barely even uses wind magic other than to reduce wind resistance, sharpen her blade, and speed herself up. Maybe a few fire stabs are propelled by wind and empowered by lightning but she rarely used that on him because she knows it will miss and be a waste of her mana.
“That sounds feasible. I’ll try, but how will I know if it can burn without oxygen? I can’t pull out oxygen from the air.”
“I know. One of the first few runes I learned is to generate air and even just oxygen. I’ll create a few vacuum containers for you.” When he first learned how flexible runes were, he immediately aimed to create water and air. To be specific, converting mana to water and air with the help of a runic formula.
In the same fashion, he also knew how to absorb water and air out of a container. He could have recreated his lungs with a runic formula moulded on as well but he decided against it since it was not worth it. Changing his Physique took too much energy and he wasn’t sure he could find something strong enough when he wanted to change his weak and inefficient rune formula.
Like Kong Jing warned, he would limit himself. It also came with a cost of consistent mana consumption. He didn’t need much air to begin with. Casting a random sphere of ice within his lungs with the runes moulded on would solve the problem. Trapping air bubbles within his lungs was just an additional precaution in case mana was syphoned out of him.
‘Syphoned? Consumed… got it. My flames are good at digging and seeping, can I make them burn on the target's mana instead?’ Ebony didn’t know why he had these fun ideas all of a sudden.
The topaz golems and homunculi had topaz mana that broke down other mana. The corrosion cloud the Trolls employed consumed all matter that came into contact. Flames burned on fuel. Couldn’t he make his flames burn on his target’s mana instead of his own?
‘Then again, that would only work if my target is enveloped in mana or is a mana being like myself…wait, it should work as long as they enhance themselves with mana. At a higher level, warriors and mages all enhance their bodies with mana. It could work, I have a direction now.’
Ebony helped with making more refrigerators for the mountain of flesh that’s been packed and wrapped in special paper. Even their expanded bag space wasn’t enough so they would be eating mammoth meat for the next few months. Only bones and tusks were kept in their bags. The rest was packed up and stored underground.
To carry the weight of their bodies, the Berg Mammoth bones were extremely durable. Ebony made Ning Xin slice a few fragments the shape of the scales on her clothes. He wasn’t exactly given spare materials to mend her clothes. Since she had multiple sets, having one that was not in the best condition wouldn’t hurt.
She had been stabbed by a tiny shard of ice on her waist near her belly. The hole was bullet-sized. The ice melted almost immediately but the damage had been done. Her clothes and bodysuit really couldn’t withstand damage and mostly helped to increase her evasion capabilities instead. That, and magical resistance.
Limitations of fabric and light armour such as robes were the same no matter how high quality the materials were. A thick metal armour of the same quality would still have the advantage in the amount of protection provided. Assuming they had the same level of craftsmanship and enchantment.
Scales were slightly tougher and didn’t take away much mobility or add as much weight. Highly dependent on what kind of scale, just like metal. According to Roya, scales were more suitable for them because the material usually took upon its creature's properties and chances are, they can contain mana better. It was also more receptive to rune engraving. Some metals could do the same but the Frost Elf wasn’t familiar with metals.
‘She cut a projectile but didn’t expect it to break apart while still under the Elk’s control. Then it slipped under her guard? Sounds about right.’ Ebony casually reasoned.
Her fighting style was so aggressive it was almost a stretch to say that she had a ‘guard.’ The projectiles were probably extremely fast if she couldn’t evade in time after parrying.
Ebony won the bet.
After a full day, no titanic shadows surrounded them. If they started chasing him while he was running back, they would have arrived hours after he came back.
Ning Xin didn’t sleep for the past few days since he wasn’t around so he took over patrol. She looked energetic enough thanks to how much she had been drinking and eating.
Massive creatures were the best for her. Without enough blood, she wouldn’t get any stats because the blood portion of her Physique was quite weak in comparison. Even the Jetfins didn’t give her much. The Gorpede was the only one that gave her a small sum of stats so far.
He chowed on kebab after kebab. Once his mana was refilled, he continued feeding the tree spirit. It was more mana-efficient than filling up his power source for the spirit to absorb.
“How do the trees grow to a higher quality? Do they level?” Ebony asked. The entire forest was within range of the tree spirit who could also talk by vibrating mana.
“Time and environment. The Worldcore has grown and the potential of my half-descendants should allow them to reach Ancient with enough time. But they’ll take far longer than we took. The mana and ice mana density and purity here is much lower than our home world.”
“Purity?”
“Just like mana ores. The highest rank an Ancient Worldcore can produce is Ancient mana ore. It's not just a matter of compression or density. The difference is similar to that of a Journeyman’s mana and a Master. Take your own as an example. Even at the same density and Intelligence stat, your spells after you evolved could overpower the same spell produced before you evolved. The difference might be miniscule from Journeyman to Master but it's there all the same.”
Ebony was already aware since he experimented with runic spells that draw energy from a different rarity of mana ores. He actually wanted more information about Ful’s homeworld. A Saint’s personal world.
It wasn’t winter and many of Hoarfrost Glade’s horrors should be hibernating but they decided to hunt a treasure now that its guardian was asleep.
The Berg Mammoths were the closest with the worst perception.
The Elks were satisfied with Mammoth meat. Either vegetables and tree bark weren’t part of their diet or they didn’t want to offend Gen. Or they simply didn’t know the trees here were so valuable. The forest should have been hidden year round so the low-level Elks might not even have known about this tiny little maple forest.
“That’s rare.” Ful voiced out.
A floating blob went through the burning flames while turning its head left and right to scan the maple forest.
[Ghost of Unending Chill Lvl ???]
“Don’t move, Ebony. I’ll deal with that.”
The floating ghost was light blue in colour and looked like a mass of gas with a round head and two short limbs where arms were supposed to be. It didn’t have any legs or facial features. Its body occasionally sparked with light as if it had veins and energy pulsing through itself.
White flames burst from under its floating body and it screeched like a banshee. As if it could feel pain. The ghost panicked and enlarged while flailing its two arms around to get rid of the flames.
Ebony quickly Flickered to the other end of the forest. The ghost’s flailing was blindingly fast and it was already translucent to begin with. He didn’t feel safe as the ghost ballooned in size and swallowed a portion of the forest.
It flew away the next minute after its futile struggle.
The frozen trees had the white flames reabsorbed by Ful.
“That was good. I managed to eat half of its accumulated energy. It’s too bad that it's less effective than Gen’s but at least we recouped the losses of the past few days.”
“Are ghosts considered spirits? Do spirits just absorb each other?”
“They are one of the numerous types of spirits. This particular species has a history with us. A Grandmaster of its species can’t travel between the Netherrealm and ours so it’s pretty much stuck here. Its ancestor or perhaps the main body came here in the past and saw us thinking we were good prey. After Rue chewed three-quarters of its ‘body’ it ran back home. Its spirit body scattered into small fragments. After a few centuries, these descendants began popping up here and there.”
“Right.” Ebony pondered on how ghosts propagated.
“Yeah, a Saint’s essence is quite delectable.” Ful casually added on.
“...Right.” He was surprised by how similar the comment was to what Ning Xin would say.
“Are you guys talking about food? Leave me some!” Ning Xin’s voice came out from his callstone. Ful personally made it possible for the mental link to be uninterrupted from the underground dome.