Ebony hammered his chest with his feet on top of an Apex Ape before putting his hands in the air. A stance that he wouldn’t usually take as it left himself wide open to attacks.
He learned their patterns. This was the pose to take when one gorilla bested another in a duel.
The older gorilla came over and grabbed his arm and raised it over their head. They were tall so his whole body was lifted instead.
“OOO OO AA AH!” The elder announced the reigning champion of the Master bracket.
The rest of the gorillas looked at him in anticipation.
‘...not again.’ They were waiting for his warcry.
He obliged and gave them a soul attack in the form of a roar.
These crazy apes had a kick from taking his roar. He even believed they were gaining some kind of soul resistance. Because Ebony got a related skill himself.
The level 300 Apex Apes came and gave him a pat on his back before they split up to their homes.
Their pats hurt him but he took it without complaints.
‘I’m out of pants. And fabric.’ Ebony only wore pants and underwear. He had been going barefoot and shirtless the entire duration of his training.
It took a year before his life wasn’t threatened and they were on friendly terms. That was a painful year.
The Apex Apes were…truly respectable.
Honestly, they were ridiculously strong.
They had nothing special to counter his magic.
Nothing special to break his defence.
Nothing special to defend against his array of techniques.
They just have primal instincts and the fighting capacity to beat him down.
He couldn’t predict their movements. Even to this day, he was not confident of dodging all their blows or predicting what they would do.
That might be the most shocking thing since he could observe their musculature and positioning. It felt like he was fighting a martial arts expert back when he was still new to close combat.
These Apes had a very clear hierarchy. They couldn’t Identify each other but Ebony knew that the social ladder was very steep despite all of them being level 300.
Amongst tens of thousands of level 300 Apex Apes, he managed to observe how different one can be from another.
It was not unlike humans. However, these Apes were a far better research subject. All of their growth was the same, their combat style, their strength, and intelligence were all linear in a sense. This ruled out many factors and variables and made it simple for Ebony to classify them.
The youngest level 300 Apex Ape’s physical prowess was around the same as him with tier 3, level 500 mana compression and two types of body enhancement all running simultaneously.
No doubt, Ebony couldn’t even keep up with them at the beginning since he didn’t have those skills at level 500.
That was considering them in a resting state.
When they got into combat or an enraged state, their physical capabilities would easily double. Their weakest point would probably be their stamina. They were exhausted within half an hour tops. That was impressive for how much power they could draw out but a weak point that Ebony would exploit any day.
Unfortunately for Ebony, the known strongest level 300 Ape evolved before he could challenge it a few months ago.
Ebony couldn’t even remain as the weekly champion despite beating the current strongest a few times. He had even more defeats. He would usually pride himself on not losing to someone he beat before and knew the patterns of. But these Apes could still beat him.
The Apex Apes were brutish but not completely dumb.
His fighting style didn’t match them but they were learning all the same.
In short, these gorillas were also combat geniuses who were growing as fast as if not faster than he was.
Only the top 3 gorillas were a good sparring partner nowadays.
In their resting state, they can rival an enraged young gorilla. ‘Rival’ wasn’t accurate, they could completely suppress the younger gorillas by sitting on them. With that in mind, Ebony was sure they were what Kong Jing would call Grade 4 Masters.
And if these guys were enraged, it was not a pretty sight.
Maybe their strength didn’t quite double but it was like they enhanced themselves with another skill. He estimated that it was like they were running four tier 4 level 500 enhancements instead of three.
That was merely using his skills as an example since they didn’t exactly use body enhancement magic. If he were to be more precise, they didn’t have full body empowerment. It felt oddly like an active skill was activating when they attacked. But their body was equally tough so he thought it was close enough to a full body enhancement rather than a powerful attack.
He wanted to call their slow healing a weakness but was it a weakness if they couldn’t get hurt that easily?
Ebony walked towards his own home.
A flat rock.
All they had as a home was a bed.
Ebony sat on the smooth and flat rock and allowed time to pass.
‘One year, four months, three days, six hours. I need Natural Potential.’
Gen was completely right.
A single year of daily existential threat was sufficient for exponential skill growth. The other four months were far less rewarding but the nature of training was dull repetition.
The gap between tier three and four skills is large.
Phantom’s Flicker felt like a dud, he couldn’t replicate the manner he evolved that skill.
The most interesting point to Ebony was that his Core Skill, Meditation didn’t evolve but his Class skills did. It went against common knowledge that Core Skills were supposed to evolve and level more easily.
His own change felt unbelievable.
Even so, Ebony felt it.
A limit.
Not just skill levels, but he felt like all his skill evolutions and refinements had hit the ceiling. That ceiling was his own imagination and ability. He no longer knew how to make what he could do better, more efficient or more powerful. Be it physical or mental capacity, he felt like he was already making full use of every part of himself.
Other than the remaining skill levels, and Natural Potential, Ebony felt ready to evolve.
It might seem like rushing to most but he didn’t see it that way. He just reached the end point faster rather than willingly choosing to take second or third place in a race.
‘It’s not my fault that my run time is two, ten or even a hundred times shorter than second place. Mmm.’ Ebony monologued internally and even nodded to himself.
Ebony turned invisible to the naked eye while he sat on the rock. He didn’t turn invisible but he could refract light almost perfectly the way he wanted to now.
As long as there’s no movement, he could remain unseen. Once he moved, his location would be very obvious. It might even attract attention because of the glints of light that would reflect off.
The research into Entity Evanesce, a skill forcefully shared with him, was going slow. He couldn’t learn much about it. The skill probably wasn’t in effect.
Morning came quickly.
Ebony, who had long recovered his mana, stood up and Flickered around the Ape’s territory. They were no longer alarmed by his presence or ghostly entrance. He gave all of them his hardest smack on the back like they gave to him and waved to each of them.
“Thanks, I’m going to get going now. I’ll visit if I have time.” Ebony bowed towards the cliff with a couple of Grandmasters.
“Ooh?” They scratched their head and chests in confusion.
“I’ll bring some other types of wood for you to chew on next time.” Ebony vanished from his spot after saying so.
The Apex Apes liked to chew on wood.
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Icicle had been chewed on multiple occasions and he had been powerless to stop them in the past.
“Gen, are you there? I’m done.” Ebony ran around after leaving the Apex Ape’s territory but the maple forest wasn’t around.
There were no blizzards either.
He chose to wait instead of searching. Gen might have hidden himself a little too well.
The turtle was watching so it didn’t take long before his ride came.
Gen likely tried very hard to stay as far away as possible.
“Do you know how many times you’ve stressed me out?” Gen arrived with a random question.
“If you meant how many times I was about to die, then only forty-seven times.” Ebony counted.
About thirty of them were during the first three months and his health dropped below 10%. However, only on four occasions did he feel like his life flashed before his eyes.
“Only? It wasn’t easy deciding when to step in.”
“It was just like when I had to fight bears unclassed. Nostalgic. Thanks for watching after me.”
Although Gen ultimately didn’t even show up once, Ebony was grateful for the hidden safety net.
“I’m first?” Ebony found their trailer untouched in the underground dome. Ful had recovered. It even regrew some leaves and its flames were burning brighter. The sword hilt was still stuck there.
“Oh, no. She came back once. By force.”
Ebony cocked his head at that, waiting for Gen to give more information.
“I took away her swords like you suggested.”
“Oh. That must not have been a pretty sight.”
“She did panic a little but as the days went by, I noticed that she was more enraged than troubled.”
“And?”
“She attracted some trouble, melted this dome and snagged her swords away while I dealt with the trouble.”
Ebony would’ve been impressed but he was actually more worried. He knew how much she depended on her swords.
“How long ago was that?”
“Almost a year.”
“So she trained without blades for four to five months. Sounds good. How did she even find you? There’s no blizzard and the forest isn’t out.” There wasn’t any more heartblood essence to lead her back here.
“Probably her swords. Anyway, she’s still busy.”
“Mmm.”
Ebony stripped and soaked in the bath for a couple of hours. Gravity repulsion couldn’t keep him clean. The Apex Apes had a frozen lake where they cleaned themselves every so often but there was too much fur in there for comfort.
Completely refreshed, he was dressed in a tee shirt and shorts as he whipped up a meal. Thanks to the mountain of boxed lunch, it was only recently did he started eating rations.
‘Natural Potential. Other than monsters, how else can I get it? Skills? Creating a skill far past my supposed limit? I can’t do that and that theory seems improbable. Seal…we’re not going to spend a century or two with our skill levels sealed. Maybe in the future, when we can’t find high-level monsters or when there are no weak creatures at a high level.’
Ebony was stumped. There was a reason why new dungeons were so well-liked. Weak but high-level creatures were natural treasures.
Going to Ordina would not work as Na, the guardian was barely a Grandmaster rank himself.
‘It’s not scientific. Level 1000 or higher? What would we require when we’re level 500? Even if there’s conveniently a relatively weak Emperor, are there really creatures that are weak at that level? I doubt so.’
Ebony was already doubting if they could kill a creature above level 750 which is yet another evolution above them. How in the world were they supposed to fight something or someone at 1000? Sure, they could land an ambush or lucky shot but did that really mean anything?
In his years with this system of power he knew that it rewarded work and effort.
Without any concrete answers, Ebony left the questions aside. It wasn’t a problem for him at the moment.
‘The floorboards are creaking…am I that heavy?’ Ebony spent the day taking apart the trailer and reworking the frame with his new mana and updating the runic pathways.
The runic formula was left alone since over-editing it would destroy it, he just made it smoother and slightly more efficient. The overall change was minuscule but the tiny details add up.
‘The second floor? I’ll leave it alone for now. What do I do now…oh right, I should take this time to write down all my skills and training methods. Maybe I can get new insights after penning them down.’ Ebony left the second floor alone since Ning Xin wasn’t around. He wouldn’t tear apart their rooms for no reason.
He already changed the trailer's frame not long ago, there was no rush even with his increased mass.
As he wrote his skill’s details down, he realised there were some things that he didn’t know how to word. Ebony was one of those who felt that he didn’t fully understand a topic if he couldn’t explain it to a child.
He gathered his wits and settled on drawing. But he wasn’t a good artist, so he settled on three-dimensional modelling which was far easier. From tiny little sculptures, he drew it out over and over again. Then he moved on to writing the steps, thoughts and reasons for why he made those skills the way they were.
He experimented so much that he forgot to record the process down. With so many skills, he had to break them all down into different books. He was glad he was such a hoarder and got plenty of empty books.
The entire book writing process didn’t help him improve his skills by even a skill percent but he felt more comfortable with them.
“That’s enough.” He told five of his copies to stop writing. Having a couple of extra hands made the process quick. As a mage who could handle multiple casts and manually control complicated movements, it was quite simple to write multiple books at the same time.
The writing and mental exercise didn’t even take three days despite taking breaks to do his routine conditioning.
‘Tidal has purple gates which are Epic-ranked dungeons but do they have Ancient ranked?’ Ebony knew that within the Apex Ape’s territory were two dungeons. One Rare, one Epic.
He didn’t enter the Epic one since the gorilla elders took complete control over it. The Rare one, on the other hand, was pretty small. Only three floors in total but it was extremely vast. The dungeon was mostly barren, thanks to the gorillas so there was not much to explore or fight.
The Apex Apes used the dungeon as some kind of storage space and farm. Ebony didn’t know how to tell them that eating dungeon-produced ingredients wasn’t ideal.
“Gen, how many times did you get Natural Potential inducements?”
“It’s not about quantity. It’s about quality.”
“I thought as much. How would you define quality for something as abstract as potential?”
“When you improve a skill, substantially. Do you always receive refinement?”
“No. Skills descriptions aren’t accurate.”
“Right. The same can be said for Natural Potential. You’re just not informed as the change was deemed gradual.”
“That’s very…whimsical. No wonder people stress out whether they are ready to evolve or not.”
“Let me give you an example. Do you need to kill to gain experience to level up?” The tree spirit interjected.
Ebony shook his head as if the tree had eyes.
It was true that killing a monster was the most straightforward way but he had gained levels during the middle of a fight on a few occasions. The Frost Elves level up just by training with each other, not taking a single life. At least until they were level 30 before their second hunt. Their first was their ritual for the unclassed to journeyman.
“It’s believed that the same can be said for Natural Potential. For combatants, you can try fighting against someone or something that’s a certain degree stronger. The level difference for a single inducement is just a gauge. You know better that levels don’t mean much. Although I have no idea who or what decides the actual strength of a creature, it is possible to gain Natural Potential even against someone at the same level.”
“You’re telling me that now? Isn’t that solution even simpler? Why did no one talk about this?” Ebony was confused.
This method answered a lot of his questions. There was no need to find an unreasonably levelled creature. No need to kill. No need to waste centuries waiting with sealed skills.
“Simpler? Killing is easier. You’ve fought with Scarlet who can be said to be stronger than her levels suggest too, did you get any Potential?” The tree spirit scoffed.
“You said we won’t necessarily get a notification.”
“You will when it’s significant enough.
“So what’s the catch?”
“The uncertainty. We don’t know how far a battle has to be taken. How long a fight have to be. What you have to achieve to be considered to have surpassed your current potential. What opponents are considered just as competent to push your potential beyond how far you’ve already pushed your potential.” Ful explained the unreliability of the method.
The irony was that it was actually the most reliable and used method. Not on Elcra, but by Life Grafter’s creations and practically everyone that wasn’t a psychotic killer.
‘So I’m a psychotic killer? Sounds about right…wait if this is true-’
“I’ll get going now.” Ebony shot through the snow ceiling. Gen was considerate enough to soften it for him.
‘My next inducement supposedly requires a level 700 kill, sparring with the Apex Ape wasn’t enough. That means they weren’t considered strong enough or, I wasn’t accomplishing anything that exceeded that degree of improvement.
A crafter like Sister Jing made a single reforge of her brain but was deemed to make something far better than…I’ll call it a benchmark.
All I have to do as a combat class holder is to accomplish something that can be considered breaking through wherever my benchmark has already reached.
My training with Xin never gave us any natural potential inducements because we killed level 400 creatures before we even hit level 300 ourselves. We kept pushing that flimsy limit before we even settled into our skills. Technically, with my unrefined skills in the past, there was no way we should’ve achieved anything beyond what we got from killing something at level 400.
Maybe thanks to elemental compatibility or how good we are at killing, we surpassed what low-tier skills could do. Hence, we never got the chance to see a notification about natural potential increasing when we duelled. It was simply because we were not accomplishing anything that pushed us above this ‘benchmark.’ Now that my skills are pretty much at the limit be it refinements or level, if Ful was speaking the truth and what I think the system of power is like. Then just about anything could tip me over to gain potential…’
Ebony’s brain fixed a non-existent puzzle into place, hoping the pieces would fit.
Ebony returned to the Apex Ape’s territory and they greeted him. Not with tets, finger touches, but by slamming each other’s back with an open palm.
He didn’t oblige all of them and hurried to one of the Elder Cliffs. He just coined the term since it felt like an actual landmark.
“Elders.-oh, I’m sorry I forgot to bring the gifts I said I would.” They made noises of monkey confusion despite looking like gorillas. They definitely didn’t remember or even understand that he said he was bringing different types of wood.
“Anyway. May I request one of you to take my best hit? I want to see if my attack is worthy of pushing through the 700 benchmark…maybe I should call it the 21st benchmark instead of using levels. Right. That’s what I’ll call it.” Ebony did not realise how much he was talking out loud these days.
The Apes might not understand his words but they were extremely sensitive to intents or threats. They would never turn a battle down but they would if it was coming from some young ape.
Ebony drew Icicle from its sheath and had his domain spread out. His domain was no longer as pathetic but he didn’t set the air on fire or increase the gravity since he wasn’t about to fight. He just wanted to whack them. However, the changed spell took a second to extend a hundred metres away. No longer as fast as it used to be
The Apex Apes saw his attacks the same way they saw back pats. Currently, only these elders still see his attacks as greetings.
Light dimmed a kilometre radius from Icicle but the greatsword glowed dark purple. Flickering flames smothered underneath its wooden surface. The flames didn’t surface and they bubbled within the blade.
By sidestepping with Phantom’s Flicker, he quickly built up momentum.
Without additional flare, he chopped at the Elder Ape who raised its thick forearms in response.