How much energy and mana would they use every hunt?
How much time do they need to spend hiding from bigger groups or time to find smaller groups?
Ebony predicted that they would only really hunt 2 or 3 groups of monsters a day. That was just sad.
He reformed his Layered Ice Carapaces. He had 3 and a half left. That was more mana used than he expected. The Arrowtail Scorpion could break layers of scales at a time, but they were not too dangerous an opponent. More dangerous than the Mud Golems due to their speed and piercing ability but less than the Earthen-Topaz Core Golem due to their ability to fight.
They didn’t seem to have magic as well so he was more convinced that there really was a big difference between monsters and of course people as well despite level gaps.
Scarlet’s target was once again butchered and served by the time he was done. It had been a while since she didn’t dismember golems. She always seems to find a different way to cook the same type of monsters. Likely tested different cooking or cutting methods while she slew them. Even when she couldn’t eat them it didn’t stop Ebony from catching her looking at her cooked targets. She probably wanted to eat them so badly.
Tuffock seemed a little disappointed that they couldn’t collect any monster parts from their hunt. Ebony’s frozen and shattered while Scarlet’s completely cooked. Ebony could defrost it but it didn’t feel like it was worth the effort. They could get the non bulky tails that looked the shiniest and hardiest next time onwards.
“We should hunt the desert wolves instead.” He stated his honest opinion if they wanted a faster and also easier hunting strategy.
“...Why?” Ryley asked. There was a “what?” from Hector and a “hu..huh?” from Tuffock while Scarlet only looked at him without so much as a raised brow. At least that’s what he thought by seeing her unamused eyes. They were fiery as always.
“More efficient.” Ebony summarised.
“Wolves are generally always in packs. There could be dozens, hundreds, thousands or more.” Ryley argued with common sense.
“My point.”
“...My arrows will run out quickly. How many spells can Tuffock cast? Can Hector last with multiple enhancements on for long enough for a hundred wolves at at least level 115…I guess you might last but we wouldn’t even be able to run when we need to.” Ryley used their names properly for once.
Ryley was hesitant to say but he didn’t believe Scarlet had Ebony's limitless stamina and mana. She was so exhausted when the two of them were trapped with the 2 Eathern-Topaz Core Golems, she couldn’t swing her swords straight or have enough mana to blast them away. Ryley didn’t think he would see the mighty Xeng in such a pathetic state. The more pathetic thing was that she still managed to protect him in that pathetic state.
“...Okay. Let’s move on.” Ebony was a little embarrassed about his oversight. He was in no rush anyway. Relax, he told himself.
They explore the sandy dunes. Some minor discovery was that this floor was smaller than they assumed. A lot smaller. Before even reaching the edge of the desert they saw the slope up high. All of them are able to see beyond that, leading to another desert at a higher elevation. They stalled on scaling up. Understanding their weakness and not being hasty.
They explored along the slope as they hunted specific groups of monsters. Ambushed by a Teen Giant Sandworm once. It was on its own. And fortunately for the party, aimed for Ebony first. It was the largest creature less the progeniturtle that Ebony had seen thus far. At least a dozen metres long, 2 metres tall, and wide. It had sand coloured leathery-looking skin.
Ebony managed to sense the not really subtle vibrations from the ground and got the party to scatter just before it popped up from the ground, mouth open wide enough to swallow 2 or 3 of them.
They fought it together. A punch landed on its left, causing it to scream in annoyance rather than rage. Dozens upon dozens of cuts drawing blood found their way across its right when a thick grey stick took the chance to enter its mouth and a few smaller sticks stabbed into its back. Its large size only gave them a bigger target and its leathery skin was surprisingly soft and easy to cut into.
Ebony didn’t expect the Giant Sandworm to ignore all the other attacks. It contracted its long body like a spring and then let go. He had another one of his silly moments to encase himself in his own orb with the 2 closest shields instead of dodging. He suddenly had a thought, ‘what would my Vibrational Gravity Sense feel if I was inside another body?’. This was exactly why he should stay thoughtless in battle.
Ebony’s orb was bigger than the worm’s girth. It managed to swallow the ice ball in but its belly was protruding out.
‘How silly of me. I can hardly even sense gravitational waves outside of my orb.’ There was a rough sense that gravitational waves were being drawn inwards but that was the same for every body of mass. He focused and got Ice Swords to form from the outside of his ice orb. He could sense his ice pierce and slice through the Giant Sandworm’s internal organs pretty easily. Too easily in fact. Nothing stunning as most if not all creatures would have much weaker internals than externals and the worm wasn’t even very tough despite being level 128.
Ebony got the swords to start rotating and cut himself free by slicing the worm in half. He didn’t expect a hole to open up in his Layered Ice Carapace and the temperature to rise so sharply just when his orb was free. Quickly parrying the incoming burning blade.
Scarlet was panting pretty hard, she likely exerted a lot of force and energy. But why? The worm was so weak even a normal her could injure it. The large size and its strong vitality could easily be worn down. The worm’s vitality was really something as it wasn’t immediately dead after being sawed into halves.
“Ha..ha.. You…Hmph!” Scarlet panted, she quickly pulled away when she realised it was him.
Ebony really didn’t get the woman. She wanted him dead so badly she was grumpy to find out he was still alive and kicking? Just why was she so mad with him? Maybe she would tell him now that she was cooking for him again.
Travelling along the slope that likely led to the next floor, they didn’t find much. Following the curve, Ebony’s Mental Map told him that if the slope was in a circle, which it likely was since his map currently showed that they almost travelled along a full semicircle already.
It was nightfall and they found the tallest dune to camp upon. It would make them easy to sight but also easier to sight monsters. A sneak attack or ambush, while they were asleep, would be deadly.
There was a bright moon with a couple of stars as well. Perhaps they were not actually fake. The temperature dropped quite a lot. It was his lucky day. The first time that he wasn't baking or roasting under the heat in Ordina.
Ebony was pretty happy. Scarlet sparred with him again. She was extra fierce, extra aggressive and extra angry but he took it as her venting anger. He didn’t think getting ignored would hurt more than getting stabbed or having one's bones broken.
It was time for dinner again and he was looking forward to it.
“What is this…concoction?” Ryley looked at the black liquid in his bowl. Tuffock was just staring at the spoonful he scooped up, then gulping saliva down. Hector started eating the other dishes, carefully watching Ebony. He was protecting his food but didn’t touch his soup yet.
It wasn’t really a soup. It was somewhat familiar, a black or really dark coloured soup base with a bird. Tasted like soy sauce. The more surprising food on the table was rice. Ebony knew there was rice here since he learnt the word from Clovis. Roya and Halvis have had some in their time when they travelled as well. It was not so popular in the Empire so he thought it would be a long time before he found any. A pleasant surprise.
Ebony put the sauce over the rice before eating. Chicken was another surprise. His tongue definitely tasted chicken.
‘This girl had rice and chicken and she never took it out till now. I don’t believe she doesn’t have eggs.’ Eggs were just so staple for breakfast that Ebony missed having them. Like rice was his staple choice of grains.
Today was his best day in a long while.
Seeing that Ebony wasn’t stealing food, Hector relaxed and started talking again. Most meal times, he was sharing stories. He had all sorts of stories, from the nine tail foxes to his young exploits of pranks to rumours of notable strong people making a name for themselves.
“I heard that Xeng women don a mask not unlike Scarlet’s when they turn 15. They have a long standing tradition, I wonder if what I’ve heard is true?” Hector poked. Ebony didn’t like the look on his face. He was planning something again.
Hector continued when Scarlet didn’t reply from her tent.
“If I’m not wrong they call it the Bridal Battle. A couple hundred to thousand years after the Empire formed, the Xeng started to open up, and more of them could be seen around the continent although not anymore. They informed the Royals to spread the word about the Bridal Battles. Roughly put, the Xeng had a decreasing population and decided to allow new blood.” Hector paused but Scarlet never interrupted.
He took it as an okay sign to continue and that he was right in his history lessons. Hector checked his party members’ reactions, it seemed like none of them knew the story. Even the noble, Ryley. Well, it wasn’t an essential part of history and was easily dismissed.
“But they obviously didn’t want just anyone. Always the prideful bunch, and not without reason. They said that any man could challenge a Xeng with a mask at the same level and the lady would marry the challenger if they were victorious without doubt. Age and even race didn’t matter. Men flocked to challenge them, Xeng women having always been known for their strength and beauty. Regardless, not a single challenger succeeded for decades.” Hector stopped to drink some water.
The strength of Xengs really didn’t wane throughout Elcra’s history based on what Ebony had heard.
“The Xeng Empress at that time then told the Empire’s Royals to spread that the Bridal Battle’s agreement stretched to allow men not more than 5 levels above them to challenge a lady to a Bridal Battle. Not much had changed. Years past, they increased it to no more than 10 levels over the years. Yet, Xeng population still dropped. At this point, there were indeed a couple of men who wedded them but it didn’t change their overall situation. The Bridal Battle has practically been forgotten by the Imperials due to their abysmal success rate but it never faded and is still in effect am I right, Scarlet?” Hector questioned.
“...yes. It’s no more than 22 levels now, not including an evolution over. They do have other clauses I didn't really care to remember since no one really cared to tell me anyway.”
“So what? If any guy less than 22 levels higher than you challenges you to a Bridal Battle and wins, you have to marry them?” Ryley asked, he had never learned or even heard about this. It was such a ridiculous thing for the Xeng Empress to even suggest.
“Less than 10 have succeeded over thousands of years, non-combatants don't have to follow that as well.” Scarlet replied. It really defeated the purpose when so few people succeeded, no wonder it was forgotten. Scarlet was pretty surprised Hector knew so much about it.
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“Wh..why the masks though?” Tuffock curiously asked before stabbing a piece of meat into his mouth. He asked a question many were interested to know the answer to.
“I was told that the Empress didn’t want their people to be seen as products for lessers to choose from. Their masks were to hide their faces so that men would think twice before randomly challenging young women. The Xengs practised monogamy and they would have to be careful of losing their heads if they cheated so there were many who weren’t inclined to challenge them anyway.” Hector answered.
“...Tradition, from the First. The First wore one, the rest followed. All unmarried women who came of age wear one. She believed that women shouldn’t be judged by their looks but as a person like any other. If a man can fall in love without even seeing the face of his wife once before marriage then it would be a marriage that would last. The man had never loved his ‘wife’ if seeing her face was enough to divorce her, though I’ve never heard of that happening, that was the rationale behind the masks from what I was told. The masks were a thing way before the Bridal Battles were introduced...It's forgotten because our population actually dropped after it was implimented.” Scarlet inwardly scowled as she frowned a little at Hector’s interpretation.
Their masks were all specially made and given by their closest family member. Her parents have chosen the feather design for her or so her grandma told her. Scarlet didn’t know what type of feather but every design was carefully thought out and had meaning.
She really hopes to get stronger soon. She wanted to find them soon… she really missed them. She had so much to tell them. So much to ask them. She wanted to have a nice meal with them again. She practised cooking all their favourite dishes so many times she could do it with her eyes closed.
Ebony thought that that was a great idea. Personality mattered more if you were going to live with them for the rest of your life right? It sounded pretty romantic for a man to want to marry a woman when he didn’t even know what she looked like. Well… maybe not. He didn’t know much about romance but at least he felt that it was romantic.
But 22 levels and so few succeeded. They were really confident of their strength. The gap between levels only rose at higher levels yet they didn’t care about it at all. It was no surprise after fighting with Scarlet. Wait a minute… never mind he never really issued a challenge like that, right? He never defeated her anyway.
Of course, he didn't know the true reason for the low success rate. Neither did Scarlet.
Hector wrote down what Scarlet said. He was quite the studious note taker, his wide knowledge not unfounded. He apologised for the mix up but it wasn’t his fault for what he thought. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge why they wore a mask. He suddenly grinned when he finished writing his notes. Ebony didn’t like that grin, so he quickly took Hector's food away before he opened his mouth to speak.
It was the right move to play to distract him.
Their dinner was only interrupted once by monsters, easily spotting them from afar. Tuffock and Ryley went to work while they continued eating. Honestly, the monster density on this floor wasn’t as high as they thought.
After dinner was their own time for training and some spars if they were up for it as usual. Night watches were in twos, Ebony taking up more hours since he was perfectly fine with 3 hours of sleep.
Ebony hadn’t taken a ‘heated’ bath for a while now, he didn’t have the chance. He preferred to do that when he was alone or had cover. Its effectiveness in training Heat Resistance was pretty low anyway. It was nice to wash off sweat and grime though. He dusted the sand off himself. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any wind here so it was not so bad, fighting here was pretty challenging for the other vanguards of the party.
The loose ground was not easy to get accustomed to, even he only got dragged to a desert once during his younger years. His current Treading Steps really helped. Hector’s burst of speed actually failed and he almost slipped, he was practising movement at this moment.
Ebony and Hector took different sides of the sand dune. Playing things safe, Ebony pushed all his mana into making Layered Ice Carapace. The ice sculptures were made from the same mana and he was getting better and changing forms of ice from one to the other. It still takes quite a lot of time if it was a complicated or unfamiliar pattern like the sculpture. It only took a few minutes to transform a shield into a sculpture to play around with.
The other shields turned into orb prisons of different sizes and turned back into shields, this was done much faster since he didn’t need to change the structure of the ice. Ebony wanted to get as familiar with the mental muscles used as he could.
Hector switched out with Scarlet when it was time.
She so kindly graced Ebony with another round of sparring. Perhaps tired, they didn’t continue for long. Sitting far from each other on the two sides of their camp, at the edge of Ebony’s Vibrational Gravity Sense’s perception.
Ebony has never stopped training his secondary abilities, such as the range of his mental and mana control. It was also the range of his perception-type skills. The speed at which he could fully push his mana into this sphere of control. The speed at which he could bring it all back into a small ball of compressed mana. How much mana he could compress almost instantly to cast.
Ebony’s range of control reached a solid 15 metres and it was still growing. He knew that Wisdom stat had a hard cap on this but the hard cap was pretty damn high. Rowent had already taught him that when he told Ebony some of the mana exercises. An average Master classed second order mage could still exert control of their spells within 30 metres while the really awesome, particularly talented in this area or oldies could easily change the direction of their spells within 150 metres. That was a huge difference.
Ebony couldn’t imagine how much information one would be overloaded with if their senses and perception can notice everything in a 150 metre radius from them. Absurd.
Icebody Enhancement was by far the easiest spell to cast. It was hard to improve any further than 35% of instant compression of ice mana in his body. The spell did not let him continuously compress the ice mana while it was circulating or he just wasn’t good enough at it yet.
For other spells like Layered Ice Carapace and Ice Sword, Ebony could cast a 40% compressed one in the same time he could cast a standard one as long as he had the mana for it. When you took into account how compressible his mana was, 35% or 40% was not little. Sheer Mana Compression had been stuck at level 110 for a pretty long time.
Ebony’s spell glove was a little redundant but found a new purpose. He usually cast his Layered Ice Carapace beforehand so its increase in speed was not all that useful. Using it to cast a single scale or swiping his left hand in a motion made it easier to control some of the shields/scales. It wasn’t so much trouble to let go of one hand when the greatsword in his hands was lighter than a toy in his enhanced state. It was like how Rowent or Tuffock had to swing their staff, kinda aiding the movement and manipulation of the spell’s mana.
Ebony felt Scarlet standing up and walking before speeding off into the distance. She probably spotted something nearby to hunt. Since she didn’t ask for help, he just remained and continued his magic practice.
‘Should I invite her to hunt a pack of wolves or two? I should probably ask Hector as well…maybe.’ Ebony was pretty sure Scarlet would be interested. He extended it to Hector because of his constant pestering and complaining when Ebony didn’t ask him the previous time. They already noted down some areas that had a wolf or two and he mentally marked it on his Mental Map so it would not be hard to find.
‘Weird. It's been almost 5 minutes but I don’t hear the sound of battle or smell anything cooking. Did she go further off than I thought?’ Ebony felt that something wasn’t right, 5 minutes was a long time for Scarlet. Worried, he took off in her direction. Perhaps there were more than she could handle alone. This floor had monsters faster or almost as fast as Scarlet so that was worrisome.
Looking down the dune from her direction, Ebony dashed off at full speed. He didn’t forget to go into Hector’s tent and step on his face before moving off. He remained calm but there was nothing in sight, no monsters or Scarlet. Just a couple other sand dunes big and small alike, the one they were on might have been the tallest but they were a few that were not much shorter either so he couldn’t see around or behind many of them.
Luckily it hadn’t been long and there was no wind, Scarlet’s tracks were still present. Every footstep was pretty far apart but not nearly as wide as Ebony’s. He wasn’t an expert but the tracks were pretty deep so she was in a rush or at least was going pretty fast.
Scarlet went pretty far for such a short time. Ebony turned a few corners and passed a few dunes, deeper into the centre instead of staying near the slope where they travelled along. Her footsteps gradually got closer and less forceful, likely slowing down. Still no signs of battle, no sound or smell of blood. There was a different smell in the air though, Ebony was wondering what it could be as he was looking down on the ground for footsteps.
He was close, just round this smaller dune. He heard a soft sound, Ebony thought it was the sound of water. Was there a river or other bodies of water in this desert? There shouldn’t be, the sound was too soft.
‘Oh my.’ was all he could think of at this moment. Too many things to take in in that split second where he rounded the corner. The most important thing was the vibrations he was feeling from behind and under Scarlet, Ebony knew it was the Teen Giant Sandworms. It would take less than a second to pop up since he felt it extremely close to the edge of his Vibrational Gravity Sense. The gigantic worms were pretty good at not making the ground shake until they were really close, which was what their party found out.
Ebony’s senses were just in the range to sense them before their feet and body could feel the vibrations in the ground.
Yet, worry was the last thing in his head. He only felt one of them and he was confident that he could reach Scarlet who was so close before the worm emerged from the ground. The worm was soft and easy to kill with its size and little evasive or defensive measures.
Ebony only had the extremely fair, twin… full moons… that were getting covered up when he turned the corner, which he probably cannot erase from his mind right now. He wasn’t that easily distracted and the moment he felt the worm incoming, he sent his shields to trap Scarlet in an orb. The sudden shadow and incoming scales caught her off guard as she was doing her business.
Scarlet’s mind was in scrambles and didn’t manage to dodge or even draw her blades in time as she got imprisoned. Eaten whole right after being trapped. Ebony raised his left hand with his spell glove palms lazily and 2 Ice Swords pierced right out of the worm. It screeched in pain and agony and wanted to vomit what it ate out only to have the 2 Ice Swords holding the orb in place.
Ebony originally felt some of his ice mana inside the orb melt but settled quickly, Scarlet probably understood what happened after her initial surprise and shock so she stopped trying to break out. Ebony brought his hand down, like a lazy knife hand cutting motion.
He felt his ice mana groan and crack where the swords were the thinnest and threatened to shatter, quickly getting more ice mana from the scale orb itself to reinforce the area. Then, the large swords spun. Sawing off the worm’s body in half again. It had a really fragile body compared to the core golems and Arrowtail Scorpions.
Ebony sliced its head off in a few swings with Sonic Overlay and Chaotic Repulsive Membrane. It was huge but so was his greatsword. It had many sets of teeth that it couldn’t use properly as it struggled to wriggle around to defend itself against him. Ebony had second thoughts on what the best thing to hunt here was but the number of worms was not high so it was not feasible.
The thing was persistently clinging to life. Decapitating it was not enough to kill it. Nothing a few more slashes couldn’t change. A notification for its death arrived. Ebony gave a light sweep and the blood on his greatsword slid to the tip, coming into contact with the repulsive membrane and splashing into the ground with much greater force than he swept his blade.
Ebony had already considered the possibility of coming up with some kind of ranged swing attack with this. Flying blade attacks… he needed it sooner or later. It was too cool not to have. When slicing monsters of a certain toughness, his not-exactly sharp and less complete Chaotic Repulsive Membrane on his Greatsword would get pushed back inwards and then the greatsword would touch the target’s body. Sonic Overlay would grind into it and blood splatter everywhere due to the membrane if Frost Injection of ice mana wasn’t used to freeze the blood or if the ice mana used was ineffective or insufficient to freeze the monster’s blood.
At least the blood splatters were way too weak to get through the membrane on his body and he was out clean, free of all the mess and smell.
Knock knock
Ebony knocked on his ice orb like knocking on a door. A little unsure of what to say or how to say it. He vibrated some ice mana inside it to stimulate his own voice.
“Um… is it convenient to let you out now?” The white, milky fair moons resurfaced in his mind.
Ebony wasn’t good enough to perfectly ‘hear’ what she said through the vibrations alone. It was another point to note that he could try practising. It might overload him with more information if the vibrations in the air were good enough for him to know what one was saying from afar. It should not be an issue though, his ears were more than good enough to hear what one was saying from way further than 15 metres. Still, he would never know when a skill would be useful so he would remember to put some time and effort into training it.
It wasn’t too hard to tell that she was saying yes as she nodded despite not being able to see Ebony and vice versa. Did she know he could sense her nod her head? ‘I guess that’s not too ridiculous a motion since every mage probably has a similar perception skill either for pure mana or the elements they use.
Ebony couldn’t be more wrong about the last statement.
He let her out and slowly transformed the orb back into shields.
Scarlet stood there. For some reason, he thought she looked meek at this moment. Her feets close together, one hand holding the other infront of her, looking down to the ground like Tuffock.
“Err.. Thank you for ehm.. saving me.” Ebony never heard her tone so soft and nervous before.
“Di..did you see?” Scarlet hasn’t looked at him since she was out of his ice orb. She dropped a bomb of a question onto Ebony.
‘Hot. Damn.’