Ebony woke up to the ringing of metal. He rose and walked out of the cave to see a red and blue flash. The wings of flames were dragged across the skies. The owner of the wings got whipped around and her struggles to resist were all but futile.
He didn’t see any panic and assumed that Gen held back on his snow’s pain property. As for watching her smash into the artificially hardened ground, he let it be. It was rare for her to be injured and she could learn a thing or two with this method.
It felt uncomfortable but he was already aware that he just didn’t like seeing her hurt. He brushed it off with his common sense. Pain was how the body learned.
Everlasting Tranquillity - Achieving a state of everlasting tranquillity, breaking your state of mind is extremely difficult regardless of consciousness, increasing Mana and Stamina regeneration rate by 500% + 5.0% per level, Perception by 200% + 5.0% per level.
The refinement of his Core Skill had been a great help as its base went from 350% to 500%. That was equivalent to a 30-level increase. Skill levels were hard to come by but as his Core Skill, it progressed at an impressive speed. Currently, at level 590, he was just ten levels away from the doubling requirement.
Everlasting Tranquility must have been burning all his recent stress of letting Ful die to grow.
Ebony didn’t feel a block. It felt as if the skill would ram through 600 without stopping. He couldn’t deny that talent and genes were overbearing. Interacting with the soldiers and knights of the Imperial army allowed him to form a better grasp of what an average person’s skill set and growth speed were like.
Those Captains and Commanders who were younger than the men under their command all had a common difference. It was that one had parents and maybe grandparents who were Grandmaster ranked and the others had Master parents.
The number of Grandmasters in the Capital was increasing by the day and the proportion was going out of whack within the past century.
He wasn’t able to get their max level out of them but it wasn’t hard to guess who had skills that have a greater level of soft capacity. For those underprivileged to catch up requires hard work, opportunity and possibly luck. They could get more Natural Potential but still have a lower maximum skill level than him.
Ebony, the Xeng, the Prince and the Princess were all genetically privileged.
The ‘common’ man couldn’t easily achieve something many times their level to get Natural Potential and would die at a roadblock. It was another reason why people in the Capital were generally more skilled than the countryside.
Navin’s invitation to centralise the Empire in one city would probably push the average level up. It might not even take another century before the average person could reach Grandmaster instead of Master.
The dungeons in Tidal had been undergoing controlled growth to a certain extent and they weren’t lacking in spawned creatures.
If they made education compulsory it wasn’t impossible to have high-level teachers, educators or researchers to speed up their students' growth in some areas. Combat instructors could also pick up the relevant teaching skills be it a profession or even a generic skill.
Now that he had mana to spare again, Ebony started his sealing magic practice again.
He multitasked and experimented with gravity, sound and lightning at the same time.
To test his sealing mana to ice mana ratios, he simply poked his hand into the compressed liquid sphere and compared them with each other.
‘Seal. So I have to imagine my mana stopping all movement within. I’m…kinda lazy. Can I just cheat and heavily infuse Will.’ Ebony didn’t know if he wanted to waste time on sealing magic but having Gen’s ability seemed really convenient. The ability to stop damage and hasten natural healing was something he desired.
He had one last empty Class Skill slot, if he were to incorporate ice it was possible to push it into a Class skill instead of a generic skill. It also felt fitting for a cryopreservation kind of skill to be part of an ice mage’s repertoire.
He hoped his evolution wouldn’t automatically decide on a Core Skill for him this time. At the same time, he wasn’t sure if he wanted any of his current skills to be his next Core Skill. Maybe he could get a new skill like before.
Ultimately, Ebony didn’t know how to make his domain more complete. Even if the Frost Elves or Gen were willing to tell him, it was different for everyone and he was a few evolutions too early to supposedly be a wielder of a domain. Hence, he didn’t spend too much dedicated effort on it other than incorporating all the recent changes as he updated and refined his spells.
He did as he imagined and forced an image of Gen’s seal over his own spell.
‘One, it needs to keep its interior completely still. Absolute zero. There would still be some molecular motion but that would do temporarily.
Two, it needs to contain life force perfectly. Hmm, that’s easier than I imagined although not perfectly at the moment. Is it thanks to the nature of dense mana?
Three, it needs to be indestructible externally…that’s not possible. How about being ten times tougher against external force compared to internal. Too difficult. Five times? Twice? 50%...seems doable.’
Ebony slowly ironed out the details and imbued his Will into the sphere of mana he wrapped his hand in. He was surprised he got feedback on what he couldn’t do. Calculated Hunch must be working hard in the background. Calculated Hunch was a bit weird, it was doing things he didn’t know he could do. Like the skill name, many conclusions he came to seem to be a hunch.
It served him well and like Ning Xin’s Intuition, the skill was improving itself.
He didn’t get disappointed at the lack of a new skill despite having cast the new spell on his arm. He was experienced enough to know how to create a new skill. It wasn’t just repetition but also intent. He could always swim but it took the intent to obtain the skill before he got it.
He had no idea if this theory was correct but it was his hypothesis. He could jump, climb, crawl and more but none of which were actual skills. Those skills existed and he doubted he hadn’t repeated those motions enough.
The best reason he could come up against his hypothesis was that all of that was parked under another skill like Conditioning or was just his general physical ability. Just like how his breathing ability was probably parked under Sustained Optimum Condition.
During his fourth attempt at sealing his arm, a spark of lightning burst against his face. He rubbed his face in confusion.
‘I was merely vibrating mana here, why the sudden discharge?’ Ebony segregated the space around him for different magics so that they didn’t interrupt each other. The lightning mana ores he tossed on the ground and his manipulation of its sparks shouldn’t have reached his face.
‘I’m so stupid. Static electricity. Playing with rubbing mana against each other generated lightning mana. Wait, is that how lightning mana is conjured?’ When it came to mana, Ebony had uncanny sharpness.
Ning Xin wasn’t able to conjure lightning for a long time and used ambient lightning mana and learning how to conjure blood took her a lot more time and effort.
Ebony’s affinity with lightning didn’t appear terrible as lightning mana filled his fist by the next hour. He punched and shot it out in a controlled manner. It landed right where he aimed.
‘One step closer. What level does a new generic skill have to be to be incorporated into a Sub-Class at my current level again? 100?’
From an Unclassed to a Journeyman, a generic skill simply needed to be level 10 to be viable as a Class, Sub-Class or Profession Skill as long as it was compatible and considered part of the Class. At level 25 and 50, the Fortification increases in percentage.
From a Journeyman to a Master, a generic skill had to be at least level 50 before one would receive a notification about a new Class that incorporated that skill. Even in those cases, a notification wouldn’t necessarily pop up if the said skill wasn’t compatible at all.
Once again, Ebony thought it was just a matter of intent. Classes could be so unique, why were they limited by compatibility?
The bar to force a generic skill up to a Class, Sub-Class or Profession should be raised along with his rank. After every evolution, his Generic Skill level cap would also rise so it wasn’t hard to wrap his head around. The stronger his Classes got, the harder they would be to alter.
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It would take more…energy or maybe something like Potential, to force an old Class to accept a new skill. In some sense, they were mutating one’s Class
Ebony believed his guess wasn’t far off the mark but he was no scholar.
“Ebony! Stop playing there and help me.” Ning Xin’s red flash swung above him in an arc before she cut herself loose and tumbled in the air while reorienting.
“Come, you’ll refine your skills faster in combat.” Gen’s voice had changed. It got deeper but sounded younger.
He Flickered into the skies and grabbed the snow tentacle that shot at the flaming winged one. The repulsion and vibration from his hand scattered the tip of the tentacle. The remaining volume of snow exploded out and covered his body while sending him crashing into the ceiling above.
The sheer force behind the snow knocked the air out of his lungs. He didn’t expect the turtle to harden the ceiling on impact. The turtle didn’t wait for him to react before he sent him diving upwards and surfacing to daylight.
Three fractured ribs healed within moments as he freed himself once he surfaced.
A moment later, Ning Xin was also sent up to the surface.
“It’s more spacious here. Let’s warm these old but rejuvenated bones up.”
They entertained the turtle for two straight days by supporting each other. Before the battle, Ning Xin had plenty of time to stockpile energy and managed to explode with power for an extended period of time.
They even made a few of the strongest bombs but Gen simply spit snow at it and they wouldn’t even see light coming out of the sphere as the turtle contained every bit of explosive power. The snow spit had so much control and mana over it that it didn’t even quiver from the continual destructive forces of their combined flames and all the other elemental effects.
Gen left their limp bodies facing the night skies and yawned before going to play with his great grand kids.
‘What’s the date…’ Ebony gazed at the moon's position when he came to a sudden realisation.
Their timing had been perfect.
It was around the middle twelfth month when they were still at Fifth Tide. Smack dab in the middle of Winter when the Frost Elves arrived to support the border. They might have been delayed because Winter started around the tenth month.
After that, they spent time running from the Jetfins. Healing from the aftermath took more than a week. They relaxed in Arcta, and caught up with Hector and Mallory. Got new robes and clothes. Refurbished the trailer and spent days searching for the Amur forest.
Then he spent slightly more than a month refining his skills.
That was the end of Winter, the fourteenth month or the start of a new year.
Then, he spent an unknown amount of time refining his Physique and stuck to Ful’s trunk.
After healing from the aftermath, he spent another month charging up mana and getting used to his new body.
They were a month past Winter before Gen started evolving.
On one hand, it was good because many monsters just started their hibernation. On the other hand, ice mana densities were subsiding and they had to go deeper to allow the forest to generate more mana as Ebony couldn’t support the tree by himself.
Gen had to find a perfect spot that was at just the right danger levels.
If they were to face those monsters that forced them to tuck their tails underground from day one, the tree spirit would’ve dried out on day 3.
However, ice mana densities weren’t at an all-time low as they were still months away from Summer. This may or may not have affected Gen’s evolution.
It seemed that even a Saint’s creation, Ful, didn’t know if ambient and surroundings really affected evolution. The tree spirit once had a conversation about it but the Saint himself wasn’t sure if mana densities mattered. According to the Life Grafter, if they asked anyone above a certain rank, every single one would say that rather than mana densities it was location and ratio of the ambient energies.
Despite preparing three months' worth of mana, Ebony did not take into account how much he had to fight and be away from the forest. Hence, Ful struggled to stay alive despite Gen taking nearly 50 days.
From the colour and hue of the moon, it was approximately the start of Summer. They spent their spring in a bloody battle with greedy creatures day in and out. The moon's changing colour and tone made it relatively easy to tell.
‘As I expected, skill levelling is slow.’ Despite sparring at high intensities with Gen, his skills barely got more than one or two levels. Barring low-level skills like Frigid Refraction and Stalactite Sunder.
Ebony did not want to rush but if he could reach his goal, he didn’t care how long or short of a time he spent at a certain stage.
He set a tough goal for himself in this evolution.
Partially because he felt like he had to make up for his rushed Classing.
Ebony’s lofty goal was to have every single one of his Class Skills reach the 2.0 times requirement. Outside of Conditioning that had a maximum level of his actual level.
Was it possible?
With time, definitely.
However, with his current accumulated Natural Potential it felt impossible for some of his skills. Namely, his second Core Skill, sword mastery and the frostblaze line of skills that had a general trend of staying lower level than normal ice magic like Imperishable Frost Shell and Entwined Ice Armament.
Ebony needed to gain Natural Potential some way or another. Outside of killing high-level monsters, he wasn’t sure how a combat-focused Class would gain a significant volume of that questionable energy.
Kong Jing mentioned sacrificing skills in exchange for Natural Potential but that was under the premise that he had the choice of facilitating the direction of his evolution. To begin with, that would be during the process of his evolution and not before.
If he couldn’t meet his desired skill level then getting more Natural Potential wouldn’t matter currently.
It was a cycle.
The only difference was that most would frame it in decades and centuries to break through but he was framing the problem under two years.
The matter of Natural Potential was not urgent.
Firstly, their natural-born talent already allowed them to meet minimum requirements without much effort. They didn’t face the problem of having the skill level cap out at 1.1 or 1.25 times their Class level. For some skills, they might have trouble having them reach 1.5 times the requirement but that was quickly solved with the first few increments of Natural Potential.
Secondly, their current highest inducement was from the Ulstire-Boned Brawler at level 655. Both Ning Xin and he got the inducement as it was from their bomb he stuffed into the King ranked Troll.
‘At level 300 Master, every ten-level increment would induce one notification about an increase in Natural Potential. Up to ten times or a 100 level above. From there on, the increments increased to every 25 levels. The pattern similarly continued and it only applied ten times. Up to 250 levels on top of the 100 from the first…let’s call it a tier of increment.’
Being 355 levels above their level, the Ulstire-Boned Brawler was considered to be their 20th inducement.
They skipped an inducement or two as they killed a Troll far above their next supposed inducement but he honestly believed that was more beneficial than missing out. For a system of power that required effort and talent, Ebony didn’t believe that people were…punished for exceeding what should be possible.
From here on, information was said that the pattern continued with a 50-level gap for every inducement and up to a limit of ten times as well.
So once he reached the current skill level limit of all his skills, he needed to find a monster at level 700 to get his 21st inducement of Natural Potential.
With his current power, that seemed extremely unlikely.
Catching the King ranked Troll off guard and getting away without any damage had been thanks to a couple of the strongest Frost Elves supporting his escape.
His contribution to the kill in terms of execution might be high but in terms of direct damage dealt Ning Xin’s magic probably did more than 80% of the job.
One issue that made all scholars scratch their heads was how contribution worked when it came to partial experience gain. Those scholars likely didn’t have the chance to think about what it would mean for Natural Potential. Was it also shared and split? Or was it more of a qualitative energy compared to a quantitative one?
The ultimate problem was a unit of measurement. If only experience and Natural Potential was quantifiable, these theories wouldn’t remain as theories for long.
A vague calculation of the number of times he got Natural Potential didn’t even tell him if it was equal to another person who got the same amount. If the quality of his opponents mattered, they might be shooting themselves in the foot by looking for weak but high-level monsters.
However, there was no data on people who killed higher Grade monsters but had lesser inducements to get a better result from their evolution. Outside of how normal people were secretive of their Status, everyone was unique.
Ebony decided to stop pondering on useless theories and get to work on how to get all his Sub-Class Skills to tier 3 at minimum.
One good thing about spending a lot of their time balancing their combat style was using every skill at their disposal in most fights. This way, they didn’t have to worry about a lagging skill unless it was a new skill.
“Ebony,” Gen called him while they moon gazed.
He glanced to the side but saw that he was the only one moongazing as the swordswoman fell asleep.
“Yeah?” He took a deep breath while refreshing the air in the ice capsules in his lungs.
“Thank you.” Gen’s voice echoed deeply in his mind. It had a mesmerising trait that made every word feel full of depth. Very magical. Ebony caught hints of this quality amongst the strong people he met including the Barrier King and some of the Frost Elves.
“No problem.” Ebony felt bad for using Ful as if it were an ingredient. He was just like the monsters coming after the forest.
“...I’m glad you came. And I’m glad to have trusted you.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t strong enough to protect Ful completely.” Ful was now in a state similar to a coma.
“No, you did more than enough. You’ve changed our fate.” Snow conjured under him and raised him to the giant turtle’s eye level.
“Not more than you’ve changed mine.”
“...”
They left it at that.
A man and a turtle didn’t need more words to understand each other.