Ebony's Fable

Two days later.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Mana Compression level up 5 → 8’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Ice Mana Manipulation level up 28 → 29’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Mental Arithmetic level up 1 → 2’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Dish Washing level up 3 → 4’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Physical Conditioning learned’

Physical Conditioning (Passive) - Strengthening your body through deliberate taxation of the body increasing Endurance, Constitution and Agility by 0.01% per level.

‘Mum… You liar. There’s no way this is normal training for a child that hardly learnt to walk…’

Missing just Strength stat for all the physical stats, not including Perception.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 23 → 24’

‘Almost there.’

Three days later.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Mana Compression level up 8 → 10’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Ice Mana Manipulation level up 29 → 30’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 25 → 26’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Kicking Mastery level up 26 → 27’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Mana Weaving level up 14 → 16’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Magical Conditioning learned’

Magical Conditioning (Passive) - Deliberate taxation of mana of increasing number of cast and speed of gathering mana. Increasing ability to multicast and casting speed by 0.01% per level.

‘Hot damn. Too bad there’s no stat buff but I’ll take it.’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 24 → 25’

‘Ting’ ‘You have met the requirements to obtain the class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Requirements: Tempering your body into one of the Frostblaze Physique and stepping on the path of the blazing frost. Deep Persistent Meditation Lvl 50, Ice Mana Manipulation Lvl 25, Any Ice Enhancement Magic Lvl 25, Treading Step Lvl 25 & Any type of Sword Mastery Lvl 25

‘Finally, I really doubt any other skill will hit 50 in a reasonable time frame or whether it’ll ever reach 50. This is it.’ was what Ebony thought, but he didn’t stop his training for it continued his routine as if nothing happened. Peaceful days.

Ebony knew it wouldn’t last, he was all good for peaceful days but there’s a whole new world to explore. Battles to fight, monsters to hunt, skills to learn, levels to gain, people to meet.

Ice Mana Manipulation started levelling again after he started to combust it but his entire mana pool could not even maintain a flame for a single second. He had been doing all kinds of mental calculations to see if it was worth waiting and training, gaining a level in Mental Arithmetic 3 days ago.

It was evening and almost time for dinner again. Ebony walked out of the bath hearing Clovis shouting, it was nothing new but the content of his shout certainly was.

“MOTHER! FATHER! I GOT IT! I GOT KNOWLEDGE CONNECTION TO LEVEL 25!” the excitable child exclaimed.

His excitement and happiness were returned with the same from his parents. Ebony himself would be shocked if he noticed the extremely small curl and hint of smile on his face. His facial muscles weren’t dead after all!

Roya was cooking up an extra dish and seemed to be cooking more than usual. A lot more. It was either a tradition to eat up and stock up on sustenance before getting a Class or Class Evolution or there was an actual reason behind it. It was also recommended to be full on all resources, HP, SP and MP.

No backed reason for whether it affects the process but Ebony wasn’t going to risk it. He’ll be in peak condition as always when he is going through the process. He was already fully healed by now and his HP was back to 60.

“I am going to get my Class tonight as well.” Ebony stated when things quietened down as if it was the most natural thing.

They showed the same amount of joy and excitement with the news and Clovis looked like he was going to pop. Frost elves. No, Thoya family. Warm people, a nice home.

Ebony made it a goal, if there’s one thing he won’t learn from his parents it would be to leave his child when after he turned 15, putting him through their ‘Trial’ and the yearly messages dwindled to no contact for the past few years. He shivered remembering the ‘Trial’.

Ebony was so stuffed after the meal, he could feel food at the back of his throat. He took a walk with Clovis, not doing any training at all this time. To keep their resources full for the long awaited time. Except stamina but that’ll recover quickly anyway.

For the first time, Clovis didn’t say anything for record breaking time. Outside of the time he’s reading of course.

For the first time, Ebony was the one to break the silence. Saying whatever came to mind.

“Clovis, wanna see who wakes up first? The first to wake losses.”

“Okay! If I win… if I win you owe me any 1 book that I don’t already have.” Clovis didn’t sound cheerful for once, aware that Ebony wasn’t going to stay here forever.

“Sure, if I win you will tell your parents that you want to travel to the Imperial Capital when you grow old enough and that you dream to be the Royal Librarian.” Ebony remembered the apparent secret that he was keeping from Roya and Halvis. He was more surprised that Clovis could even keep a secret

“Wha. No no no. I…”

“Clovis, be more confident. Not just in yourself but your parents, I’m sure they’ll listen to what you have to say. You‘re doing well for now but you’re limiting yourself as a scholar when you have mostly finished with your study’s pool of knowledge”

“...You’re on! But if you lose you owe me 10 books instead, each a different subject.” Clovis quickly agreed. He knew the limits of what he could achieve as a scholar in a small village like Arcta.

“Deal.” Ebony was confident as he always was.

Classing would put one in a sleeping or comatose state. It is not completely accurate but it was generally proven true that the longer one stayed in that state the greater the change that the body, mind and soul underwent.

Based on what he’d learnt about it, this process is to allow one to acclimatise to the stats that one will be gaining as they level.

Not to adjust to the upper limits of their power but their lower limits. If someone had a 1000 points in strength they would easily kill and harm their own baby or child if they had one and couldn’t control their strength to an extremely low output.

Knowledge was power.

Ebony thought back to all the light novels he’d read. Why did the protagonists’ always have to suffer some kind of extremely unlucky, bad painful start before they can grow stronger. ‘Wait. Was my beginning here considered unlucky or painful in any way? Nah no way.’

Ebony couldn’t have been any luckier, so lucky it was a little unbelievable. If he didn’t run from the first boar the direction that he did, nor the wolf and enter the Frostblaze Amur territory. If he didn’t feel like further freezing himself and going deeper, he wouldn’t have met Sei and the other turtles nor would he be forced fed a liquid that would turn him into a popsicle.

If he didn’t learn how to manipulate ice mana before that he wouldn’t have been able to learn Icebody Enhancement. Wouldn’t have been brought to their home. Wouldn’t have been given so much by Gen. Wouldn’t know where the Frost Elves were. Wouldn’t have met Clovis. Wouldn’t have saved him. Wouldn’t have been able to learn so much. Wouldn’t have been able to be given so much by the Thoya family.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But Ebony wouldn’t bet on it. His actions was what got him here, except being isekai’ed out of nowhere. He was not given favour, he had taken from them.

Enough.

Clovis and Ebony returned directly to their rooms, not even going to the study for their nightly read.

Ebony sat down on the bed and did as he always does. Meditate. Not being full on MP wasn’t the reason. Just simple meditation to keep his mind clear and unclouded.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 51 → 52’

‘I guess that’s my cue.’

‘Ting’ ‘You have met the requirements to obtain the class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Requirements: Tempering your body into one of the Frostblaze Physique and stepping on the path of the blazing frost. Deep Persistent Meditation Lvl 50, Ice Mana Manipulation Lvl 25, Any Ice Enhancement Magic Lvl 25, Treading Step Lvl 25 & Any type of Sword Mastery Lvl 25

‘Ting’ ‘A Chosen Class will be bound to you and can never be changed. Choose ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze’ as your Class?’

Ebony lay down on the bed comfortably. Unbothered, unhurried. Calmly.

“Yes.”

❅❅❅

Ebony hardly ever dreamed, almost completely never.

Every time he sleeps, it is a complete blank in his head till he wakes up as if he never went to sleep. He slowly began to be unable to feel the difference between sleep and meditation.

Closing his eyes and opening them to find the hours passed.

This time was not so different in that he didn’t dream and he woke up not knowing the time. It was bright out though, so he at least took the whole night for the process.

Everything else was different.

He felt as if the space in his head widened so much that he felt like he was floating. It felt almost imaginary and suddenly felt so natural as if it was always that way.

He stood up feeling his legs go a little numb, spreading through his body though weaker than how his legs felt. It quickly went away too and he tried moving his body a little feeling the changes in them.

It was intoxicating. Is this the feeling of evolution? He could get addicted to this.

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze Fortification Completed.”

‘Ting’ ‘Class changed to Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze’

‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze Fortification:

Base Mana and Stamina regeneration increased by 250%

Mana efficiency with Ice Magic increased by 100%

Mana efficiency with Body Enhancement Magic increased by 100%

Balance and fluidity when wielding a greatsword with one hand increase by 100%

Movement speed increased by 100%

1 Core Skill Slot gained

Generic Skills Converted to Class Skills:

Deep Persistent Meditation

Treading Step

Ice Mana Manipulation

Icebody Enhancement

Single-handed Greatsword Mastery

Stemmed Class Skills:

Frost Coating - Coating an object with ice elemental mana to deal ice elemental damage or increase ice elemental resistance. Coating has the effect of 20% + 1.0% Intelligence. Consumes 300 MP

Classification: Ice Magic

Ice spike - Conjure a spike of ice to fling, has the effect of 30% + 1.0% Intelligence. Consumes 30 MP/Spike.

Classification: Ice Magic

Two-handed Power Stab - Using 2 hands, footwork and one’s full body weight to stab with all your power. Has the effect of 100% + 1.0% Strength.

Generic Skills Evolved:

Lesser Stealth evolved into Stealth

Stealth - Moving silently out of sight, slightly increases the ability to move around lightly and unnoticed, reducing the sound of footsteps and presence by 1.0% per level.’

Stemmed Generic Skills:

Peak Performance - Ability to perform at your peak regardless of stamina levels, body or mental conditions at all times improves by 1.0% per level.

‘Hot damn…am I mentally seeing things right?’ Ebony thought.

Name: Ebony Rime

Core Skill: Empty Skill Slot

Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 0

Class Skills:

Deep Persistent Meditation Lvl 52

Treading Step Lvl 29

Ice Mana Manipulation Lvl 30

Icebody Enhancement Lvl 26

Single-handed Greatsword Mastery Lvl 25

Frost Coating Lvl 1

Ice Spike Lvl 1

Two-handed Power Stab Lvl 1

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Empty Skill Slot

Sub-Class: N/A

Profession: N/A

Generic Skills:

Stealth Lvl 6

Identify Lvl 12

Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 26

Running Lvl 26

Humming Lvl 18

Mental Mapping Lvl 2

Kicking Mastery Lvl 27

Mana Weaving Lvl 16

English Lvl 8

Elcrian Lvl 5

Mental Arithmetic Lvl 2

Dish Washing Lvl 4

Mana Compression Lvl 10

Physical Conditioning Lvl 1

Magical Conditioning Lvl 1

Peak Performance Lvl 1

Health: 37/60

Stamina: 38/60

Mana: 4/100

Strength: 5

Vitality: 6

Constitution: 9

Endurance: 6

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 6

Wisdom: 10

Perception: 7

There was a lot of change in his status.

First was the Core Skill slot, placed even above Class. Any skill can be chosen to be ones’ Core Skill. It will bind it to one’s soul and the natural potential of the skill will increase almost explosively. Usually the best or most talented skill of a person is chosen.

His Class and Class skill was next. The first 5 skills were his old skills so nothing new there except that they should now be able to level at ‘normal’ speeds again. Once again due to natural potential. The next 3 were new skills. Stemmed from his actions or so they say, so they believed.

Frost Coating should be from when he tried to cover or inject ice mana into his swings when he trained with Sei and Ton. He only ended up coating the leaf in ice.

Ice Spike should be from his training of forming needles, shards of ice not too different from the shape of the mana ores and mentally tossing them. It was just too weak and he was a little too slow in forming them to use in battle.

Two-handed Power Stab should be from when he stabbed the boar up his. And also his normal training of course. He had to try if it would count the Single-handed Greatsword Mastery decrease in 30% Strength. As obvious as it sounded that it shouldn’t, he still had to test it himself.

7 Empty Class Skill slots, a total of 15. No issues there. Sub-Class and Profession stayed unchanged. Generic Skills evolution wise, a little disappointing. Only Lesser Stealth, which Ebony hardly relies on, evolved. Probably also due to it being untiered and them having a good chance to evolve during Classing.

Ebony liked the stemmed generic skill even more than the 3 new Class skills. Peak Performance, true to its name. When stamina drops, the body gets tired, breathing and heart rate accelerates. The mind gets tired too as both mana and stamina drops, usage of magic worsens it. Ebony was trained to move his body with muscle ache, body and mental fatigue in mind so he was doing this pretty well already. The skill only serves to heighten his ability, as with all skills.

The rest was the same old same old.

His resources moved down together with his stats. Unchanged stats but to think he actually lost health, stamina and mana. No wonder it was recommended to be full. His stamina probably dropped much further; it just recovered too quickly.

Finally, the most obvious boon of Classing. Not shown on his status but it came up in a thought after focusing on his Class.

‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze Fortification:

Base Mana and Stamina regeneration increased by 250%

Mana efficiency with Ice Magic increased by 100%

Mana efficiency with Body Enhancement Magic increased by 100%

Balance and fluidity when wielding a greatsword with one hand increase by 100%

Movement speed increased by 100%’

A good chance for Ebony. He stared at his 3 resources, Deep Persistent Meditation running as usual. This time with his watch ready and Mental Arithmetic ready.

A minute. His stamina was actually already almost full before the minute started.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

Ten Minutes

One hour.

Two hours. All of them were full for awhile now but Ebony didn't even twitch a single muscle. Unmoving, calculations were running in his head at full speed. He did notice he was much faster at calculating, perhaps it was just his imagination or due to the Classing somehow. Or he was just overwhelmed by his own calculations.

Whew. Ebony breathed out. ‘This is insane.’

Firstly, he didn’t get 5 kinds of bonuses, he got 6. Mana and stamina regeneration was a 2-in-1. Thanks to meditation type skills. Base regeneration. Stamina recovers at 10% per minute and mana 10% per hour. It was the same for most races as unclassed. Of course, Ebony wouldn’t be the only one to increase it in his Classing. At least, he shouldn’t be.

After waiting it out, he was sure it was now 35% per minute and 35% per hour respectively for stamina and mana. At this moment, Ebony understood how completely broken Deep Persistent Meditation was.

Deep Persistent Meditation - Maintaining a state of mind of intense serenity, calmness and clarity every waking moment increasing Mana and Stamina regeneration rate by 2.5% [130%] per level. Slightly increased perception when in the state of Mediation. Increased pain resistance.

Using his past formula that still holds true, he has a 2.3 times multiplier to that. Stamina was (6/min x 3.5 = 21/min) x 2.3 = 48.3 stamina per minute. Topped up in less than 2 minutes. For mana, (10/hour x 3.5 = 35/hour) x 2.3 = 80.5 mana per hour or 1.342 MP/min.

As if not enough, a quarter of 80.5 was 20.125. His health recovers at 20.125 + 0.6 = 20.725 per hour. He just had to find out how it affected his ability to heal from broken bones or other internal damage. He also bled mana so he had to watch out for that.

Gen’s surprise at his skill was not unwarranted. It wasn’t just about his recovery speed, it was about how it was almost always running. His talk about mana applied to stamina too, like how running, jumping or exercise in general causes stamina to drop or be consumed. You couldn’t recover stamina while running after all, but, what if you were walking or if the exertion of energy was not enough to cause stamina to drop. Output < input.

Casting magic requires one to manipulate their mana and mental muscles which causes one to stop recovering mana in a sense not so different from stamina. Deep Persistent Meditation circumvented this, directly letting Ebony regenerate stamina and mana whether he was fighting, running or casting magic.

Ebony felt his stomach grumble loudly, seems like stuffing himself was the right move after all.

He left the room to look for anyone to find out how long he was out cold.

Taking a frost plum from the basket on the dining table and digging right into it. He walked around, Clovis wasn’t in his room. Ebony won. He didn’t doubt that he would have won anyway. He checked the study but he wasn’t there either. Playground perhaps?

Taking another 2 more frost plums as he passed the dining table. Walking out to see all of the Thoya family members out in the field. The adults watching Clovis with his eyes closed and hands placed in front of him, Ebony could tell that he was casting Ice Vines.

This time, Ebony could feel the so-called phantom pressure on his body, overflowing Vitality from both Roya and Halvis. It was as if someone was trying to push him into the ground making his body feel slightly heavier.

The feeling was extremely faint either due to his weak ability to perceive it or them having lower Vitality then their level suggest. They weren’t warriors after all. People usually didn’t have to worry about overflowing Wisdom since most would have a myriad bracelet and mana ore absorbing the excess.

Roya and Halvis already noticed Ebony walking out and the look of joy wouldn’t have escaped anyone's eyes. All of them watched on as vines a metre wide in diameter formed in front of Clovis. He was much faster than he used to be and the range or rather, the size of the vines increased a lot.

[Scholar Lvl 4]

‘What? Already?’ Ebony knew Identify doesn’t inform him of the full Class. Roya was a Master Mana Tailor and Halvis was a Master Frostsilk Cotton Crofter. Similarly, Clovis shouldn't just be a simple Scholar. He was more surprised Clovis already reached level 4.

Clovis opened his eyes triumphantly, seeing Ebony standing there his smile widened instead of getting sad over his loss.

“How long was I out?” Ebony couldn’t help asking after seeing Clovis’s level.

“Clovis woke up around the 18th hour yesterday. It's already the 12th hour today. You were out for one and a half days. Unbelievable.” Halvis answered his query with a little disbelief at the end.

As for what he meant by 'unbelievable' only he knew.

Ebony was a little surprised by it too. Apprentice Classes average out at 6-8 hours of coma. Normal classes with 3 skill requirements take about 15 hours. They went to Classing at around the 21st hour, a little later for Ebony since he meditated. Clovis took roughly 25 hours. Ebony counted from the 22nd hour, a full day would be 28 hours + 6 hours till midnight + 12 hours till the current time. 46 hours. He was out cold.

“I won, Clovis. Don’t forget okay. It doesn’t have to be any time soon.”

“...Oh…th..that’s right. I won’t forget.” Clovis was hit with realisation and got dejected quickly before showing a more determined look. It raised a few eyebrows but they didn’t ask.

“Alright. Let’s go back in, it’s really hot out here. I’ll make something for you real quick Ebony. You must be starving.” Roya cheered with complaints as she clapped her hands together. Their definition of 'hot' was obviously a little different, water would probably freeze if left out here for long enough.

Halvis went towards his croft after clasping hands with Roya. Considered an intimate act here and not to be done in public. Couples lock elbows in public instead. Bamboozling Ebony more than he thought possible when he first found out. How was that less than hand holding?

Though he was informed that the first few levels were easy to gain he didn’t think Clovis would have reached level 4 in a few hours. Without going out to fight. Oh wait. He’s a freaking scholar, he would gain more from studying.

“Roya, from today I’ll hunt for food for us. I have not been contributing for long enough.” Ebony stated. It was not much but he had to start giving back some day. Why not start now, as little as it was.

“What! No no. You don’t have to, you know we are not lacking in mana ores. It’s dangerous outside and you only just got a Class. We don’t need you to pay us back anything, we are the ones indebted to you.” Roya seemed more anxious about Ebony’s decision than her cooking as she dropped her ladle.

“No. You guys have done more for me than I can ever for you. Besides, I have to start somewhere. The merchant from Plainston would be coming in a few weeks, I would be travelling then and will have to rely on my own strength to protect myself. I would have gone out of Arcta to hunt anyways, bringing back food on the table is only natural.” Ebony explained, stunning Roya silent for a while seemingly in deep thought.

“...”

“I won’t go too far. I am already aware of the surrounding areas and their danger levels. Even young frost Elves, village guards to be, go out to hunt. I’ll be fine.” Ebony continued, considering her silence. Besides, with Ebony's feet and speed everywhere that he could reach and get back to Arcta on the same day was not really dangerous. Even if Ebony's movement speed was 10 times faster.

“They go out in teams, with at least one guard off duty to accompany them.” Roya fought back insistently.

“I’ll learn tracking from Clovis. I want to go alone, the only one I can depend on to protect myself is ultimately me myself.” Ebony planned to learn tracking from Clovis for quite some time, it was an important skill to track animals and monsters. Not just to hunt them down but also to hide from risks that one is not ready for, the second part not persuading Ebony himself. He wouldn’t back down on going out. Alone.

“...” Roya stopped with her objections and the conversation just ended after she told Ebony not to go out of the village for today at least. Ebony had no qualms with that.

He ate well.

This time of the day was usually the lecture with Clovis then self studying but seeing how focused Clovis was he didn’t want to disturb him. Probably had new skills and more levels and skill levels to gain so Ebony just continued with the book he was on about the various types of plants Elcra had. He wanted to know what was edible and what wasn’t for his travels. He was in no rush to test his new body and skills and kept to his routine.

The differences between Earth and Elcra were not too large in many aspects. The vegetables and animals that exist on Earth have many that exist here too. Elcra had a bigger variety though, the same could be said for elements, materials or metals.

He got to his thread making session again after reading but not completing the thick book. He managed to make quite some more threads than before and gained a level in Mana Weaving. Still not trying to make anything with it.

Once emptied, he went on to the tailoring books and did mental imagery for tailoring.

The 16th hour came and it was time to train again.