Half a month into their new routine, Ful regained consciousness.
The tree spirit didn’t speak and its leaves regained some of their liveliness. Its flames burned brighter.
Gen believed he could remove the sword stuck in the tree but he wanted to give it to Ebony but had no method to store the sword safely. He also wasn’t sure if he could cover the hole if the tree spirit continued to spit out flames and sap. The turtle had a new body and mind, he needed time to get used to it and the two humanoids couldn’t help him there. They were barely warm-up for the turtle.
Another week passed before the tree was back to its previous state. It was no longer saying bleak and depressing words. Advising and checking if Gen managed to heighten affinity with frostflames was its main concern.
To their delight, Gen managed to shift the flames without foreign contact.
In this regard, Ebony was the turtle’s senior.
However, he seemed to forget that Gen was the one with the Amur Maple Tree and turtle mixed genes. Gen just needed time and practice before he picked up a related skill of his own. It was up to him if he wanted to split his focus onto a new magic but for a long-lived race, there was no reason not to.
In the following week, Ebony finally got the skill he was working on.
Frozen Lull - Envelope a target and freeze them in a state of stillness. Freezing of the trapped target slows down all activity by a static 70% + 0.01%. Vehement Will is consumed and imbued to guide the target's life force to condense towards regions leaking vitality. The spell is 100% + 1.0% of Intelligence more physically robust from internal force and 150% + 1.0% of Intelligence more physically robust from external force.
Consumes MP
Classification: Ice Magic - Sealing Magic
Despite being a tier 1 skill, its functions were wide-ranged. A base scaling of 100% of his Intelligence was proof that the spell was structurally sound and he was using the capacity of his stats. The only disappointing fact was slowing down all activity by only 70% and the level-up increment was a hundred times less.
It meant getting the skill up to level 100 would only slow down all activity by 71%. Ebony was assuming the skill meant all molecular activity including damage just like Gen’s skill. He wondered if it was possible to reach static 100% but not for long. He would find out when it was time.
The part about Vehement Will was more serious than he assumed. The skill was very draining because he wanted to copy the skill so badly without any instructions that he actually Willed the skill into existence.
If he wanted to cast the skill, he wouldn’t be able to use any Glacial Models. He wouldn’t be able to use his domain. He also wouldn’t be able to squeeze his mana chassis to overdraft them. Using the skill perfectly once would be enough to mentally crush him and all his Wisdom stat. He might have gone overboard with creating the near-perfect copy of a skill.
The unknown factor was how much the target would heal inside. From the looks of it, it would depend on the target’s regeneration and whatever injuries they were facing.
Without consulting Gen, he sneaked out with Ton and searched for monsters nearby.
Gen was going to refurbish the magic over the forest once he got used to his new skills and was busy internalising his spells while hiding in a small hill of snow.
Ning Xin was sleeping as it was the middle of the night.
Ton and Sei were more active as they were exposed to a hardworking grandfather and two humanoids.
Ebony hid his presence and quickly found a boar before showing himself. The boar was only level 80 and wasn’t smart enough to pick opponents.
Coming back to the Chilly region was Gen’s decision. He was too lazy to deal with some of the monsters that were troublesome for him at that time. Gen just woke up and needed to deal with treating his ancestor so he drove them towards the Chilly region.
The stronger monsters didn’t like the low ice mana densities and purities further away from the Glades and few chased. The fact that it was getting closer and closer to Summer back then didn’t help. Rather, it helped Gen.
The boar successfully rammed into Ebony who stood there and bounced off into a tree.
Watching the boar bounce off, he stepped towards the boar and found it with a broken nose and injured skull. The rest of its body was durable enough to withstand the reflected vibrations.
Ebony cast Frozen Lull on it and observed its effects.
It required all his focus and the cast time was a whole minute. It left a lot to be desired.
Gathering his Will was something he practised ever since he could use his domain and control his Models remotely. However, pooling everything together into one spell was a fresh experience. He found it closer to his new Mana Chassis Implosion skill.
It wasn’t easy and he was still a beginner utilising Will.
Just practising Frozen Lull might give him more benefits than just skill level.
The amount of mana the skill consumed depended on the size of his target and how much he wanted to decompress his mana. Not that he would choose to do that.
A fully compressed version of his mana made the seal extremely durable. At the moment, as a tier 1 Generic Skill, it was fragile compared to his defensive ice spells.
Ebony observed the boar blinking in slow motion. The internals of his spell were not frozen. It was filled with a viscous liquid mixture of pure mana and ice. It started to struggle but it couldn’t escape as long as he continued to hold his focus on his spell.
He let go of mental hold but kept the spell fed with mana. The boar violently struck the ground with its hoofs a couple dozen times before it rammed into the hardened surface.
‘Either I have to exert complete control or the target has to stay in there willingly.’ Although the boar didn’t escape, he knew it was thanks to the sheer stat and compressive difference he had with a level 80 boar.
After fifteen minutes, the boar’s nose seemed to have fully healed.
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Another hidden benefit of his skill was that he had an even better perception of the target’s condition. Being warped in his mana and Will gave him plenty of information. He could tell when the boar’s skull healed as well. Fifteen minutes to heal a relatively small injury was both good and bad.
Ebony couldn’t tell but he assumed it was faster than the boar’s normal healing.
He let the boar go, gave it a pat on the head and Flickered back onto Ton a distance away.
The half-blind boar searched for him the entire night.
Ebony worked on refining the skill and getting the casting time down together with reducing the amount of mental effort he needed to exert.
Another week went by.
About 18 hours a day was spent seriously trying to harm Gen. Within that period, all the skills they had to train were cycled through many times and they didn’t have to put aside extra time.
The remaining ten hours were spent on eating, experimentation, polishing their non-combat skills, a little sparring between themselves and rest.
“Ebony, what's wrong with your movements the past two days?” Ning Xin questioned harshly.
They were beaten down worse than usual. He fully integrated his new body and skills back into his combat style so their battle should’ve gotten smoother. Yet, that wasn’t the case for the past two days.
Gen was similarly curious.
“My body is acting up. I’m not sure if it’s some side effect of rebuilding my body unnaturally.” He spoke up. As much as he hoped it wasn’t the case, it was a possibility.
“Describe what you feel.” Ful chipped in.
“I feel itchy all over. Unbearable itch crawling all over me.” Ebony had been physically tortured for the past two days. He was fully convinced that itch had climbed up to being the most diabolical physical torture there was.
It wasn’t so bad at the start but the itch intensified and spread throughout his very being, going so far as to probe his mind. He was befuddled when he realised that brains could itch. Not just his brain, he felt like his mental state was itching.
On the first day, it distracted his spell formation but his body could ignore it. On the second day, it caused him enough trouble that spells took a fraction longer to form. The sudden intense itch would surface at different parts of his body as well.
“Ah. So you’re feeling the Itch. That’s fast.” Ful figuratively nodded without surprise.
“You know about this phenomenon?” Ebony looked between the Xeng and the giant turtle but both of them were just as clueless.
“It’s nothing special, haven’t you felt like you have been getting faster and stronger despite not levelling and increasing your stats?”
“A little but I attributed that to Fluid Blitz’s increase in level. Now that you mention, Calculated Hunch did feel that my increase in power is slightly disproportionate.”
“Scarlet, do you feel the Itch?” Ful continued to question instead of clarifying what the Itch was.
“I don’t think so?” She cocked her head, confused at the question.
“Is it something that would spread?” Gen asked.
“Right, your growth was balanced and slow so you don’t know,” Ful said in realisation about Gen's ignorance. “It’s nothing to be alarmed about. Your body’s just adjusting to your Conditioning Skill.”
“What do you mean? Both of our Conditioning have reached 300 for a while now.” Ebony was as calm as the tree spirit.
“But neither of you is training with tier 2 methods. You didn’t find it odd that it stayed that way despite the intensity of your routine?”
“Not really, I learned that even in active war the Imperials can take over a decade or two to evolve Conditioning-type skills.”
“Do they fight for twenty hours straight for months?”
“No.”
Soldiers would cycle amongst themselves and fights usually don’t last long. They would die or run out of stamina long before the third or fourth hour of intense combat.
Ebony had been skipping sleep and most of his serious combat used everything he had at his disposal. From the war till the present. While others rested, he continued to work at near-peak capacity.
“We call it the Itch. It's very common and almost always happens to children with conditioning skills that aren't suited for their rank.”
“You don’t know about this?” Ebony questioned the warrioress.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head, “I don’t think anyone cared enough to tell me about something inconsequential like itching.”
Usually, he would nod his head in agreement but experiencing this itch changed his views. Itching was much worse than pain. He could ignore pain but the annoyance of the itch had reached his psyche.
“At any rate, you were training with a tier 4 intensity but your conditioning skill remained tier 2 for years. The Itch is the start of the great change you’re undergoing. Often referred to as minor evolution or physique refinement but everyone we know calls it the Itch. Seeing as you’re children of Emperors or Kings and have their regime, it was only a matter of time as long as you followed it to some degree.”
“I see, and? What is happening, specifically.” Ebony pressed for details.
“Nothing, your Conditioning skill is in the midst of evolving. Conditioning types skills are very closely related to your entire existence. The change is just too great. A Master with tier 2 conditioning? Sure. A Master with tier 4? Yeah, your existence needs to undergo a massive undertaking. I would say your drastic method of…rebuilding your body might have sped it up but I’m no scholar.”
“The disadvantage?” Ebony was past asking how long it would take. He knew the answer would be something like, ‘It depends’ since everyone was unique.
“Like I said, nothing. You’ll just feel itchy. The itching intensity was said to range from a constant tickle to a numb, poisonous needle stabbing oneself. Some feel like numerous bugs are crawling under their skin and others feel like claws are ripping their muscles piece by piece. What does yours feel like?”
“Bugs, with millions of tiny feet stampeding around. They’re treading lightly but the numerous and constant itch is adding up. I’m beginning to feel like some have feet with electricity that tases me with every step, others have needles, claws, poison, heat, cold and all that.” His words caused Ning Xin to shiver.
She hated bugs and didn’t have good memories of creatures with many legs.
“Are you okay?” Ning Xin’s tone of worry wasn’t lost on him.
He grew objective enough to hear a tonal difference when she spoke with other people.
“My health’s topped up.” He didn’t take any damage hence, he wasn’t so worried.
Ful went back to sleep. The Itch was nothing to be concerned about. Gen didn’t have it since he grew up slowly and adjusted his training over centuries if not more. His Conditioning Skill evolved at a normal pace.
“We’re slowing down.” Ning Xin commented.
A full month of constant duelling with one of the strongest creatures present helped a lot of their newer skills but skills around level four to five hundred barely grew once every two or three days. It was already an unnatural pace but not a pace that either of them was familiar with under such intensities.
Ebony also expected more because they were fighting an actual King-Classed creature that did not hold back in hurting them.
“You’re fighting the same opponent over and over again. None of us has the intent of killing each other. No matter how close we get to that intent, tipping over into a battle to the death is a world of difference. I’m sure I didn’t have to tell you that to you.”
Both combatants stayed silent. They were more than aware, it was just hard to tell because of how fast their levels grew.
“Were you in a hurry?” Gen personally showed his grandchildren snow manipulation tricks and raised the query
“Actually, kinda.” Ning Xin replied.
“Ah, you should’ve told me sooner. How desperate are the two of you?”
“Not very, de-” Ebony got cut off.
“Danger? Show us your worst.”
“Leave it to me, I will make sure to stay as far away as possible. We don’t want my presence to give you a feeling of safety do we? I have just the right opponent for each of you.”
With that, they felt themselves being dragged away as the forest migrated.
Ning Xin caught on and quickly went to make food.
Ebony ran off to shower and fell right asleep.