Ebony used up every drop of mana in that single fight. He didn’t just use ice magic, he fought with everything in his disposal. He was following the advice to try to merge and utilise everything he had at the same time. It was apparently beneficial and he believed both Hector and Scarlet. Gen and Ful didn’t say anything about not using other magic either.
Perhaps Gen understood that or because he needed time to make those ice monsters, there wasn’t another one sent. Ebony knew it was likely the first reason. They could gauge his recovery or mana regeneration speed and would send another whenever he was full again.
Now he knew it wasn’t all that hard to gauge, if he didn’t put on mana ores in his myriad bracelet his mana would escape from his body once it was full and it was very easy to sense if one was as sensitive to mana as he was.
Gen should probably be able to directly sense how much mana he had left in him as well. The overflowing portion was just making it obvious for everyone but mages or anyone with the right mana perception skills at a high level should be able to tell.
Ebony himself wasn’t so proficient with that yet. He fought with few mages to begin with and sensing how much mana they have left was really not on top of his priority list in most battles.
2 days later.
Ebony was troubled.
He had tried using frostflames to substitute normal ice mana in Icebody Enhancement. It didn’t work when he tried to completely combust all the ice mana he circulated. Causing him to lose the enhancement buff and got him injured but he was fast enough to make the injury light. He was already fully healed.
It was getting easier and easier to use Frost Injection after he played around with Icicle. Well, he was also bursting his ice mana apart so it wasn’t exactly Frost Injection anymore. His repulsive membrane made spreading and blowing flames around a lot more effortless.
Ice Sword and Layered Ice Carapace was mostly left alone other than adding a layer of flames to them. He still wanted the solid properties of these skills.
So it was actually mainly boiled down to his ability to use and manipulate flames of frost, Icebody Enhancement and Frost Injection.
There was no progress in his scale orb prison and burning Frost Mist Perception Sphere inside a trapped target. To begin with, no amount of mana he tried expending was enough to ‘freeze’ ice. His task was essentially to overcome the strength of 'Intelligence' with technique or the fundamental change of the properties of his conjured ice, just like how he made his ice more resistant to melting from the heat.
As for making his ice mana colder, he had no real progress there either.
Unlike making it more heat resistant where he could just stuff ice into fire and attempt to change its structure such that it didn’t melt that easily, he just didn’t know how to adapt or change it to make it colder.
He tried sensing and observing both Gen’s ice and the ambient ones as reference but something so fundamental in mana was hard to even perceive with his current abilities and senses. Gen’s clone was constantly trying to kill him and would run out of mana in time so he couldn’t even observe that for long enough.
Losing his sight was not that bad of a deal. He was forced to depend on his hearing and magical senses. They were improving noticeably fast.
The frequency of different-shaped animals made of ice was about 1 every hour or so on the first day. Then 1 every half an hour the next day. Today, 3 were sent after him every hour.
The turtle shaped ones were the hardest to handle, clearly, the one Gen was most familiar with.
The bear had the most strength.
The tiger was balanced and quite a strong opponent but seemed a little awkward with some motions.
Avian types had many variations of both size and shape. Some were weirdly shaped and the more time passed the more monster shape Ebony had never seen showed up.
They were copies of monsters in Hoarfrost Glade so those he had never seen were probably monsters from deeper in. Even though he didn’t know how deep they were now since they apparently moved deeper than where he had been.
The first week passed like that.
With just the frequency and number constantly increasing but their power levels are roughly the same. The gradual increase in pressure and constant battle both day and night with no long breaks or rest pushed him. All of his combat related skills have already reached their limit and haven't levelled. It was still hard to say since they could probably level once or twice in the months to come. Then maybe a third and fourth time in years. Even Everlasting Tranquillity stopped at 210 before this week even started.
Even so, he was getting stronger with every passing day. Taking 4 or 5 ice robots at the same time was all too easy, regardless of the type of monster it was copied after.
Icebody Enhancement was circulating ice mana inside him. Changing it to a more gaseous state of mana to circulate brought up problems.
Ebony hasn’t mutated or refined the skill in any fashion but he could feel progress. Feeling the enhancement working while he converted more and more of the solid ice mana used to the smaller and gaseous-like combusted ice mana.
He also somewhat figured out his greatsword, Icicle. It didn’t just absorb and contain ice mana. He couldn’t draw out ice mana because a large portion of it actually disappears. If his Mana Perception and Mana Moulding hadn’t been trained to be sensitive and fine enough he might never have found out. The ice mana actually dissolved into a foreign mana he could only sense because it was in the way. No doubt it was the wood mana and the material of Icicle itself.
Without charging any ice mana into it, Icicle had been getting colder and colder to the touch. Frost Injection was disrupted but the cladding of flames wasn’t really affected much since ice mana spreads quickly and when he wanted it to, it would be propelled away with Chaotic Repulsive Membrane. Both ice control and gravity mana manipulation at work.
The absorption of ice mana didn’t seem to harm or break Icicle in any way and it was the natural doing of his greatsword itself so he didn’t try to stop it from absorbing ice mana by force. It was as sharp as ever and in tip-top shape even after hacking at solid ice tens and hundreds of thousands of times.
Just as he was getting bored of the ice robots. They got more powerful. He was guessing they had the stats of a level 140ish monster from Hoarfrost Glade now. Previously they were about 130 but they were weaker due to the lower variety in spells and attacks.
Ebony didn’t back down.
Their mana pool was likely increased too from how they could fight longer if he couldn’t break them into pieces before they dry themselves out. They were as aggressive as usual and always just used whatever mana they had to kill him as fast as possible.
It got a little dangerous because their frequency didn’t slow down. He has gotten better at taking them down as fast and efficiently as possible but it had already gone past the point where he could regenerate mana till his mana pool was full before the next batch.
❅❅❅
A month passed.
The ring cloud moved twice, and it moved fast.
Ebony was in the middle of multiple large ice beasts when Gen gave him a warning before it started moving and he had to break himself free as he ran.
Gen probably considered his speed and endurance because it was moving at his fastest pace and didn’t stop for days.
Gen clearly didn’t care what other creatures it passed by, Ebony would step past spasming corpses. He would actually drag what he could get and picked any nuts or fruits he could get his hand on as he ran.
He didn’t really look well upon his chances of freezing one of these conjured ice robots with only instincts moving them any time soon. So he considered obtaining any sort of sustenance he could get his hands on.
Ebony was tired.
After 3 weeks, all he had was power naps that were minutes long at best. He had dark bags under his eyes now and his body was burning up even without his heating runic papers.
It wasn’t as intense as it had been in Ordina since he had breaks and he was stronger now than he was before. With Everlasting Tranquillity, he was holding up pretty well mentally but his body was not. Constantly moving and breaking himself down together with the experimentation of frostblaze enhancement.
As for burning up, it wasn’t a figure of speech or anything. He was having a pretty high fever. He was not surprised but it was pretty interesting that even with increasing Constitution and physical stats, normal sickness like fevers was still applicable. Well, there were plenty of doctors here as well so no surprise.
The fever did nothing to reduce his fighting capabilities. Everlasting Tranquillity alone prevents or lowers the chance of missteps. He didn’t really use too much of his brain other than magic when fighting. Sustained Optimum Condition really kept his body going even in its tattered state.
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He had this fever for days already. It only got worse.
That was great for his skills so he just ignored it since both his mind and body could still handle it.
Yet, no skill mutations have been made.
Ebony has gotten a hang of making ice mana colder or so he assumed since he had started to get numb to the feeling long ago. He couldn’t really tell but he saw a greater slowing effect.
His sense of taste was completely gone this time. Food was only eaten to fill his nutritional and energy needs. The increasing chill in his heart was another indicator that he thought was his ice mana getting the lower temperature property.
The amount of stamina and energy he consumed was great, he was going through his supplies faster than he liked but it was not a choice he liked to make either.
He tried to ration himself and go hungry for a few days but his base stamina regeneration actually dropped drastically due to hunger and the lack of sustenance in his body. He still had a lot of food but was also looking to pick up more monster carcasses whenever they moved.
He would process it as fast as possible in his breaks and he even made a makeshift oven. It was an empty chest that he inscribed stronger heating runes that used mana ores as a power source.
Perhaps a stroke of good luck that he didn’t need much trial and error before getting a workable one. He would toss meat that he cleaned and processed in and then hurry up with his fight.
With the thick cuts of meat, he just needed to poke some holes in them and they were usually well done after a 3 to 4 hour fight. Their flesh was all torn apart from Gen's snow magic, but for some reason, there wasn't any snow in their body when he processed them. All he used were simple salt and pepper since he really didn’t have the time to marinate or the ingredients to do so. He also started not to care about seasoning since he couldn’t taste anything.
In terms of his ability to inscribe stuff, he managed to draw the heating runic papers blind but that was before the attacks got so fierce. Though he didn't use them as much now, he was practising 'inscribing' directly into the paper with Mana Moulding. Like how he did with the rings he made.
He just had to get familiar with working on paper and then the wooden chest to have made the makeshift oven.
He had reached the point where he had no problem falling asleep at any time, regardless of whether anything was going to attack him. He reacted in time anyway. Even before they entered his range of senses he would wake up from the sound or vibrations on the ground they made.
Something was clearly up on this day as Ebony woke up refreshed. His body was not fully healed but it was far better rested. He must have slept at least an entire day without disturbance, he had gotten pretty good at estimating time based on the sun’s position.
Nothing felt broken in his body but he was still feeling a little weak. His Vitality was not catching up but at least his fever was mostly gone.
‘Gen let me rest?’ Ebony was doubtful. Perhaps Gen would let him rest but gut feeling told him Ful would not.
Ebony could set entire groups of ice beasts on fire with all his mana utilised but it never worked well. The only good signs were that the ice creatures Gen made were starting to go from ignoring it to patting or swiping the flames off with no urgency.
Their main goal was still to tear him apart and they haven’t succeeded even once. All the damage he got was self-inflicted.
He didn’t want to waste his time and tried to see if the area they stopped at had any more monster carcasses or any other edible plants, fruits and nuts included.
Another stroke of good luck that his makeshift oven actually ran out of mana before burning his food black inside his bag. He wasn't so free to figure out how to include a timer function.
Then he remembered that Gen was actually in great need of mana to keep Ful alive. Gen spent more and more mana on him, even he needed rest. The break was for both of them. It was quiet for the next 5 days with nothing disturbing his continued research and experimentation with the combustion of ice mana. Almost completely energised, his body was practically in tip top shape already.
His control over it improved greatly. With a thought, he could conjure a burning flame that could move around him and even within him. Compared to the solid and unmoving shapes he was used to, controlling flames was harder but doable. He could even write with flames even though they aren’t completely stable and nowhere close to Mark’s almost unmoving flames.
If he had his eyesight he would be able to see the outer layer of Icicle which used to be completely black now had its runic symbols very faintly glowing dark purple or blue. It was hard to tell as it was extremely faint but it was glowing dimly at all times.
He could study the runes that used to be hidden in plain sight when he had the time. Honestly, both the internal and external portion was just too complicated for him as of now. So not being able to see and read it was no loss.
To signal the end of his break time, the snow cloud above started moving instead of having some of Gen’s conjured army coming after him. Ebony quickly packed his bed that he took out to relax on in the middle of nowhere. Lightly stepping over snow, trees and rocks only left shallow prints in the snow.
Then they reached where there was no snow on the ground except what rained down from Gen’s snow cloud spell. The floor was just solid blue ice and even the trees looked like they were made of ice. No monsters, no edible plants in sight.
A round shell phased right out of the ground to reveal another Gen shaped clone. Only 3 of them. That was a bad sign. A smaller number usually always meant stronger opponents.
‘I guess this is the next stage.’
❅❅❅
Ebony's entire stockpile of food was consumed. It was a daily occurrence to fight hunger.
The skills he thought reached the limit had levelled around 1 to 3 more times. They really capped out hard considering how he used everything he had repeatedly in a highly stressful environment.
He could see why it takes years before people are satisfied or confident in undergoing their Evolution. Imagining a level 149 skill that stopped levelling for years and a step away from a substantial increase in Fortification was just painful.
No wonder people were so desperate for a new dungeon. With weaker than normal monsters, it was free Natural Potential sitting there. The allure could be said to be irresistible for anyone who reached their max level.
Ebony took a sip of water as he was touching his own notes with his fingertips before placing the cup back onto the table. Picking a small black nut from a plate of 4 remaining nuts and chewing it slowly.
2 of his sculptures were dancing around an elephant sized mammoth with awesome tusks almost half as long as the mammoth itself.
The sculptures' movements were smooth and only a little worse than how he was moved he just learned sword mastery. Their features are a complete copy of him, down to his clothes and weapon.
The biggest difference should be their hair as Ebony’s hair had gotten so long he just grabbed a bundle and sliced it off when it got in the way. His own hair was really messily cut now while the clones had his old hairstyle.
When he Classed to Journeyman, his hair and nails grew noticeably slower. He found out that they actually grow even slower as one evolves. At a certain stage, it was not impossible to physically will them to stop growing or grow faster. That was both interesting and useless but good to know nonetheless.
The 2 clones’ greatswords were burning blue, riddling the mammoth with strikes that could only scratch some shavings off. The flames that came into contact with the mammoth latched on and slowly climbed up and spread a little over the mammoth.
Gen was damn impressive at being able to make the mammoth have empty internals and the contraction and expansion of ice let the ice mammoth ‘blow’ a gust of air from its trunk to attempt to extinguish his flames.
Unlike Gen, Ebony’s sculptures were actively controlled. He also only dared to relax since the mammoth was the last of the group. The frequency of attacks was reduced but each one sent was stronger and could last way longer.
He needed all the free time he could get to fully regenerate his mana. The compressed mana in his mana pool was incredibly useful. Reinforced Mana Chassis for the win.
The ice mammoth failed as frost fire enveloped it completely. A thin layer of ice formed over it, every movement of the mammoth shook off the ice that formed on it. The flames didn't die out or get blown out. It seeped into the slashes and gashes and dug as deep as it could.
Ebony couldn't forget the sight of Gen's snow touching the monsters. The way his snow crept into fur, skin, flesh and more to pierce and tear apart one from inside out was gruesome and very effective. He preferred this to Ful's spreading effect.
Although his flames were merely an attempt at replicating the effect, copying was step one. It didn't matter that it wasn't working so well for now.
Perhaps to make the training actually possible to complete, Gen’s creatures couldn’t or didn’t use ambient or even take over control of his ice magic.
If it was Gen himself, he could probably rip control over ice mana from him. Even if Gen couldn’t control combusting ice for whatever reason, he could still control the ice that it forms or when it sticks onto the target.
Ebony wouldn’t say he managed to ‘freeze’ ice but the mammoth was slowly completely encased in ice as it ran out of mana to keep struggling.
His massive gains in power and control over ice were the furthest thing he had in mind now. He stared at an empty page, unmoving. No idea when exactly this habit started. Usually, nothing came to mind as he daydreamed and meditated at the same time.
In a trance today, he didn’t realise his body moving. Putting the book in his hands down on the table. Picking up his inscription pen and doodling across the page.
Ebony could sense what he wrote if he wrote with mana so he couldn't really be considered blind anymore.
Only snapping out of his trance when the sound of ice meeting ice, signifying Gen’s lackeys walking towards him. The ground wasn't covered in snow here.
He looked at where his book should have been empty and he paused, stunned. There was a drawing of a feather. It was badly drawn but he was struck with realisation.
‘Oh.’
Ebony had plenty more memories of being alone. Not once did he feel lonely. He never knew what the growing chill and numbness was till the moment he saw or rather, sensed his own doodling.
‘So this is what loneliness feels like.’
He didn’t know what being lonely felt like because he had no one he wanted to be at his side.
The numbness, the empty hole can only be felt when it had been filled up once.
‘It really hurts.’
Ebony didn’t like the feeling.
It was okay when he didn’t know what it was but the sense of discomfort only grew when he found out. No amount of physical pain he had ever been under felt even close to a fraction of this pain.
‘I miss her.’
The ground shook again. Ebony stood up. Another giant turtle faced him. Different this time. A branch stuck out of the top of its shell. Twig might be more accurate with the massive size of the maple tree underground considered. There were 2 huge leaves burning in white flames on it.
It was no final test to Ebony.
It was an eyesore.
An obstacle in his path to get out of here, to rid of the pain. A wall preventing him from seeing her again.
He had to tear it down.
Burn it down.
Freeze it down.