Ebony's Fable

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Deep Persistent Meditation level up 52 → 53’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Treading Step level up 29 → 30’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 26 → 27’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 25 → 26’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Ice Spike level up 1 → 2’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Two-handed Power Stab level up 1 → 8’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Peak Performance level up 1 → 10’

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level 0 → 1, 10 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level 1 → 2, 10 stat points gained.’

‘That was fun.’ If he wasn’t so limited by his mana he would have focused more on magic. With his stamina regeneration he didn’t stop for a break the entire 4 hours, pushing Peak Performance through the roof.

He had stat points now but he hasn’t spent any of them. He had more calculations to do.

Mana efficiency was so damn good.

100% increase in mana efficiency halved his cost for magic. Ice Spike said to cost 30 MP, only took 15.

He could only cast an incomplete Frost Coating since it cost 300 MP or 150 in his case. But he wondered how it worked, it said to coat an object but it wasn’t like the size of said object was stated. Ebony didn't try to practise it yet, with his small mana pool. With ice mana efficiency, he could make more ice with less mana.

Icebody Enhancement was quite the winner, it was classified as both Ice Magic and Body Enhancement Magic and Ebony found it to consume 12.5 MP/min which means it was halved once for both his 100% increase in mana efficiency for Ice Magic and Body Enhancement Magic.

With a full mana pool, he could keep the buff running for 8 minutes, more if you count his regeneration during this period of time.

Balance and fluidity when wielding a greatsword with one hand increase by 100%. This was a controversial topic between warriors and swordsmen. Warriors and martial artists.

This kind of buff was extremely dependent on the weapon you carry. Warriors are more generalized and the known buffs for them apply to many weapons or no weapon at all.

According to Halvis, there were many more warriors than swordsmen. If your weapon broke in a battle and you had no backup, that’s it for swordsmen or weapon related Fortifications.

Ebony didn’t think it was so bad that he didn’t get those stat buff types like increasing Strength or Agility. He had always been a technique over pure power type anyway.

He was very satisfied with the buff he got. He didn’t feel like he was going to trip by holding the heavy sword upright. Transitions between stabs, slashes and all his turning and twisting was a lot smoother and he felt less bad about his flawed swordsmanship.

Movement Speed was simple. Simply awesome.

He could control it pretty well after some time. Similar to his earlier tests with Running and Treading Step, it didn’t raise his Agility and only movement. He could walk, run, jump and even crawl faster.

Twice as fast. And that’s with Running active only. The Fortification said Movement Speed but Ebony believed ‘base’ movement speed was more accurate. He felt like he was stepping on air when he tried Treading Steps.

Treading Step (Passive) - Unhindered by uneven terrain, move across the lands with speed, grace and stability. Treading Step allows one to travel through most terrains with more ease, slightly increasing in grace and stability in movement with each level. Movement speed increases by 1.0% [30%] per level.

Using his old 7.407m/s calculations again, it doubled to 14.814m/s x (106/80) x (130/100) = 25.517m/s. Rounding down to 25.5 for easier calculations and most likely inconsistent speed. Of course, that was just when he was travelling, he might not be able to fight while Running and would just have Treading Steps active at roughly 19.26m/s.

Ebony sprained his ankle in his run, it seemed like it was possible for his skill level to exceed his body's tolerance limit. He had to be careful of this and put points into Constitution to prevent his physical ability from hurting himself.

With Peak Performance and Deep Persistent Meditation, a sprain was no issue and he could still run as usual with a sprained ankle. Pain never bothered him anyway.

It was not easy to figure out, the Running skill specifically said ‘Agility’ while Treading Step separated that and increased movement speed.

Through his tests, Ebony decided that under Agility or any other stat, there are sub categories and movement speed was one under Agility and it was what increased by 100% by the Class Fortification. The numb feeling from his legs and body was likely due to these changes.

Ebony continued his mental calculations while in the bath. Gaining a level in Mental Arithmetic.

At the dinner table, Ebony noticed Halvis wasn’t here. They started eating without him and he returned soon enough and joined them.

“You can go out and hunt after you learn Tracking from Clovis and hit lvl 10.” Halvis was the one who spoke up. Ebony didn’t think they would be so against him going out. Roya didn’t seem to be happy about it after all.

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Sure! We can start with the basic footprint identification and differentiation later.”

“Speaking of Identification, what do I Identify as?” The question seemed to spark interest. Seemed like none of them Identified Ebony yet. Or Appraise which Roya had, the tier 2 version of Identify.

“OH! I forgot to Identify you.” Clovis exclaimed.

“...”

“You Identify as a [Meditative Ice Swordsman]. That’s cool, what’s that I never heard of a meditative Class. Is it the Meditation skill? You have the Meditation skill!? And it even reached lvl 25? Can you teach me? I have tried before but the explanation for the skill is vague. Keeping your mind calm and clear? How do you think of nothing?” Clovis obviously didn’t notice Ebony’s mana regeneration speed.

“The first step is to not be so excited about each and everything. Meditation is not just about keeping your mind calm and clear but also your heart, or mental state would be more accurate. Undisturbed mind. Neither is it keeping your mind clear of thought, just to sieve out the white noise of life. The mental distractions. Quite the opposite, constant practice can allow one to be more focused, more aware, rather than a mind that is clear of thought. I think you won’t be getting it any time soon, with how easily distracted you are. ” Ebony shot Clovis down. He was more intrigued by Roya’s reaction. ‘Could she see my actual Class name?’ Ebony thought but Roya didn’t reveal anything while they continued having a joyous dinner.

❅❅❅

“Why?”

“He’s not wrong. He won’t be staying here forever, that was clear from the start. He needs to grow and get strong enough to protect himself.”

“What did the chief say? Didn’t he say those bastards were looking for Ebony and would take any chances they have when Ebony leaves the village.”

“He was actually doubtful if there was anyone looking for Ebony anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“What are the odds a Classless can escape? Practically zero. Since releasing him is also not possible. Perhaps someone already found them, killed them and then released the mana slaves. A plausible reason for Ebony being so close to the village was someone was passing by, found their hideout destroyed but didn't want to be bothered to take care of them. What are the odds Ebony knew where our village was if he doesn’t have any memories? He was led here by someone.”

“That’s all hypothetically speaking and why would Ebony be the only one if that was the case.”

“All our assumptions have been hypothetical so far. The truth is no one has tried coming after Ebony at all. Don’t worry, the chief wouldn’t take the risk either. He’s sending Enya to follow Ebony in secret.”

“Hmmph! That’s the least she should do for not taking care of the robe that I made.”

“So what did Appraisal tell you? I got [Meditative Ice Swordsman] as well.”

“...Same here. You know my Appraisal skill leans towards appraising tailored items.”

“Yeah but there are times you can Identify differently than us.”

“I was just worried the ‘Meditative’ will bring him trouble. I know there are others with it in the Empire but none are as young as him.”

“He’ll be even safer in the Empire. Few would dare associating themselves with him, fearing trouble.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. The poor boy won’t be able to make friends or join a party easily.”

“Haha. That’s where I disagree. I think he’ll attract them like how my cotton attracts frost maggots.”

“What makes you think so?”

“He’s too good.”

“?? You’re not making any sense.”

“You haven’t seen him train. Or fight.” Halvis felt a certain body part in his lower body tighten.

❅❅❅

Just reading books wasn’t enough to learn the Tracking skill so Clovis and Ebony were going to go out of the village the next day.

Only in the surroundings, still within sight of the village though. Safe enough that the 2 worrywarts aren’t worried. There aren’t even any monsters above lvl 5 in the area.

The night passed quickly.

4 levels were gained in Mana Compression, 1 in Mental Arithmetic. His speed of progress increased. He had been doing quite a lot of calculations and found that even his meditation was not active when he focused on calculations but it didn’t stop him.

Why hadn’t he stopped his calculations?

What in the world was Ebony calculating that caused him to level Mental Arithmetic twice already?

It was kinda obvious. What else could he be counting but stats and stat placement?

Ebony woke up at the 4th hour again and went about his conditioning as per usual.

The 6th hour came and this time Roya already made breakfast for today. Clovis and Ebony went out early, Ebony was going in the same set of clothes he did during the rite but without the leather armour as with Clovis.

They left after the repetitive warnings not to go too far by Roya.

Coincidentally the same 2 guards were at the gate. Ebony hasn’t seen the guard that brought Clovis and him back again but he didn’t ask either.

“Hey! Congratulations [Scholar] and… [Meditative Ice Swordsman]? A hybrid Class like us? You won’t regret it!” one of them said.

Ebony didn’t understand the reason for the particular comment but wasn’t bothered by it. He wasn’t regretting anything.

“Going out to test your new skills? Don’t go too far out okay. We are the ones that have to go after you if you don’t return in time.” the other guard asked, understanding everyone who just Classed was excited to go test their new skills.

“Thanks! We won’t, we’ll be back soon.” Clovis replied. Ebony just bowed a little.

He didn’t bring the lousy back sling and was just carrying his sword with his left hand. They made their way to the foliage and Clovis began his lecture.

If Educate was a skill requirement for Clovis's Class, Ebony was willing to bet he got a related buff to teaching.

He was talking less, explaining more. It didn’t take long to find a few rabbit and fox tracks.

Ebony recognised many prints already but was still learning about how to track their stride, direction, weight and even their condition. Clovis let Ebony trace the tracks himself.

[Frostfang Rabbit Lvl 4]

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Tracking learned’

Tracking - Identify traces left by animals, monsters and people and track them to their source. Ability to trace and track fresh tracks increase by 1.0% per level.

‘That was easy. Clovis’s skill likely helped accelerate the process, maybe he can be a teacher instead.’

“I got the skill. We can go back now.”

“You’re not going to kill it?”

“It isn’t trying to kill me. It is still young and doesn't have much meat on it. It is low level and hence little experience. I have no reason to kill it. I also promised not to hunt until I’m lvl 10”

“Oh I see. That makes sense, leave it for a few days and if it survives it would be higher level, bigger with more meat and more valuable, either as food or experience. It also isn’t a threat to us or the village.”

“That’s right.”

❅❅❅

Ebony did want the Tracking skill but it was not his point of focus. If he couldn’t find a monster the monster will find him, if not then all's well.

As for why he didn’t kill the rabbit, all the points Clovis pointed out were right and was how he used to think about hunting. However, his main reason changed after his stimulation rite.

The fight would be too boring, he was not even satisfied with the lvl 15 boar. Sure, he could have died in that single kick received but he never really felt like his life was in danger throughout the short battle.

There was no thrill in killing for experience or food. Okay fine maybe there was, rabbit tasted pretty good and he hasn’t tasted the feeling of adding stats after levelling.

The first 10 levels were extremely easy to gain, Clovis got to lvl 4 in hours after all.

Ebony estimated he needed 2 to 3 days to get to level 10. Since he needed to train his new skills and test how stats will affect his movements anyway, a 2-3 days delay was acceptable.

They directly went to the playground since it was still early and split up going their own way.

Qane was sparring with Tiha, he was getting a little better at moving his body but still nowhere close to Tiha. Tiha was pretty good after all, Ebony might even give her a passing mark for her age. No, her size, she was older than him, damn. And who was he to judge?

“Hey! Little Eb, come play with me! Why are you so late today? And why didn’t you come yesterday?” Tiha called as she knocked Qane aside like a doll.

She levelled to 14 in the meantime while Qane reached 17, they don’t go hunting which explains their slow levelling. Reaching lvl 30 in this manner took a very long time but their skill levels and technical capability would be leagues above others.

“OOOH! You Classed, no wonder you weren’t here. Yay! Now we can finally play normally. I see you have a new weapon.” Tiha concluded by herself.

'Normally' probably meant not holding back. She had never ‘won’ against Ebony even once without overpowering him with pure strength and speed after all, it didn’t break her confidence as she continued sparring against Ebony whenever they could.

“Yeah, I haven’t added any stats but don’t think you can overpower me with them anymore.” Ebony replied with flat confidence.

“Wait! Ebony, I challenge you to a duel!” Qane cut in.

Now that Ebony had a Class it was no longer considered bullying if anyone used the advantage of stats and levels. Duels or spars were the same thing to Ebony.

Qane was probably waiting for Ebony to get a Class before he proposed this challenge. He was still 15 levels ahead of Ebony with even higher level skills. He also didn’t have to fight in close combat but more like the mage he was.

“Sure.” Time for Ebony to see if Qane was a better mage than he was a fighter.

The playground was pretty large so they had plenty of space. Standing 2 girs apart with Tiha being the referee or judge. Qane was already mumbling, should be his chant.

Chanting was no Skill and magic didn’t require chants, it only served to help people visualise the spell better. Either helpful in easing the formation of the skill or the casting speed of the spell.

No idea if it was considered cheating to start his chant before the fight began but Ebony didn’t care, he needed to give him the mage a chance anyway.

Low level mages are known to be extremely disadvantages against warriors due to their slow casting and once out of mana, useless in battle.

Even Ebony takes about 5 to 6 seconds to form a single Ice Spike, the speed at which it gets thrown was lower than if he were to toss it by hand for now.

Currently, Ebony wouldn’t use it in battle, 5-6 seconds was way too long and that was when he was not doing anything else if he was moving about and fighting, even Ebony would slow down with his attention split. Fortunately, it seemed like he got lots of room for improvement and should be able to bring his casting speed up by a bit.

“Gooo!” Tiha exclaimed.

Ebony jumped to the side when a single rope of ice tried to hold his feet down, this overused trick was surprisingly popular. Qane was far enough from Ebony for him to sense the ice mana but he had long noticed the concentration of ice mana near his feet. But 2 girs was too short a distance for Ebony to cross.

Closing the distance almost instantly, Ebony aimed to grab Qane's hand or sleeve since they love putting their hands forward for casting. Qane, obviously panicked by how close Ebony got to him in absolutely no time but didn’t mess up his cast.

When Ebony was just about to reach Qane a thin wall of ice rose from the ground, separating the 2 duelists.

Another pre-prepared spell, Ebony thought. He somewhat underestimated the young Frost Elf, he was prepared.

The ice wall was only a little taller than Ebony and half as wide but Ebony decided to just jump over it. Qane was still standing pretty close to the wall but was looking at the sides of the wall, aiming his now complete spell. An arrow of ice.

Qane reacted and shifted his aim up but not fast enough as Ebony grabbed his left hand and easily pulled him onto the ground, locking both his hands facing himself, belly on the ground. The ice arrow fell as Qane's control over it was lost.

“I..I lost.” Qane declared.

“That was good. Against another user of ice magic you set the vines too close and can easily be noticed by the opponent. The ice wall was unexpected and your timing for it was just right. You should have distanced yourself as much as you could in that time, distance is your advantage as a mage against a close ranged warrior.” Ebony advised.

“Ye..yeah.” Qane was still a little shaken by his loss against Ebony who was much lower level even when he was using magic this time.

“Let’s train and get stronger together. I noticed you probably hardly added any stats into your physical side. Even mages need Agility and a little of the other stats and I thought you wanted a melee Sub-Class?” Ebony didn’t want to be bothered by childish grudges so was trying to smooth things out.

“I was, but I am still focusing on my mage Class to at least lvl 20 before I get my Sub-Class. I still have quite some time till I hit lvl 30 and join the village guards and skill levels are more important anyway.” Qane explained, still sounding a little salty.

“It's my turn! Little Eb you’re so much faster now you liar, you must have added Agility. I’m not going to hold back any longer.” Tiha said

Ebony held his sword, having frozen the small sword guard with the scabbard so that the scabbard wouldn’t come loose. He was hoping Qane wouldn’t bother him much anymore cause he wasn’t much of a training partner with his low physical stats and even lower ability at close ranged battle.

“Bring it on.”

Tiha seemed to have disappeared from where she was standing, moving a lot faster than she ever had against Ebony. She stabbed and slashed but Ebony seemed to always be steps ahead of her. Despite being much slower he was dodging many of her strikes, for those that he couldn’t dodge he managed to block.

The most irksome thing for Tiha was that Ebony was always positioned in a way that she had a hard time turning around dishing out attacks, always putting pressure on her from her blind spot. She had never fought against anyone like Ebony.

Her sister only taught her how to use dual daggers, how to move fast and how to attack aggressively.

It worked against the other Frost Elves and even those a few levels higher couldn’t beat her but she just couldn’t land a clean hit against Ebony.

Not counting breaking his wrists when he tried blocking her attack or when he just barely dodged and got cut by the wind pressure. He was so much more fun.

❅❅❅

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level 2 → 3, 10 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level 3 → 4, 10 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level 4 → 5, 10 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Treading Step level up 30 → 31’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Icebody Enhancement level up 27 → 28’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Single-handed Greatsword Mastery level up 26 → 27’

‘Ting’ ‘Class Skill Kicking Mastery level up 27 → 28’

‘I gained more in less time. Seems like actual combat is really the best way for combat Classes.’ Ebony was contemplating if he should get Clovis to spar with him but dismissed the idea.

Clovis was even worse than Qane in terms of fighting. At least Qane was taught well or learnt well that a mage needs to be prepared, remembering the 2 pre-cast spells. One to hold down the opponent and a defensive back up.

Tiha’s high speed and power was perfect to push him and feel pressure. It was unfortunate he got the hang of her attack patterns long ago and made it so easy for him to predict and anticipate her next step.

She has got technique but was stiff in her usage, not enough battle experience but she was improving fast, as was Ebony. She was a snow rogue but hasn’t used any snow magic against Ebony yet, saying that she hasn’t practised them much.

No longer taking any lectures as both Clovis and Ebony got down to their own reading and studying. Ebony even got Elcrian to lvl 6 part way through.

With his crazily increased mana regeneration rate, he had so much more mana to use for training so, while reading he had two mana spheres above his head, compressing.

He decided to keep that up at all times due to the little mana it required. It was training for compressing mana and multitasking.

One thing he noted was that it was harder for compressed mana to be converted to ice mana for the Ice Shard skill so he had to practice that too if he wanted to be able to throw compressed spells around.

Yes, above his head. Using his hands was pretty limiting and though he had always been able to do this 2 was the most he can manage for now if it wasn’t focussed from his hands. Doing this was training so that he could form or cast spells without his hands.

Down to Mana Weaving, his output of threads almost tripled and he gained another level in it, reaching lvl 18.

At this rate, he was planning to actually make the cloth Roya wanted him to make soon. He was rereading one of the tailoring books, the part on gloves.

Many Frost Elves who are both archers and mages wear something called casting gloves. They can use the bow and don't have to carry a staff or wand at the same time.

Casting gloves have roughly the same function of increasing mana gathering speed, have an auto mana compression function or elemental buffs. Well, there were all sorts of functions and would depend on the staff/wand/glove themselves.

Ebony would not be able to make one of course, he could make the glove but he doesn’t have the skills to make it have such functions. The book he was reading didn’t have information on casting gloves anyway, just a normal book on how to make gloves

Roya came to check his workstation as usual, observing the pile of threads and eying the page that Ebony was on. She clapped loudly, disrupting Ebony.

“I got an idea, I changed my mind, your first assignment will be a left glove, for yourself. If it’s satisfactory I will make it a casting glove for you.”

“Really?” Ebony asked.

“Oh it’s not going to be so easy okay. When it comes to my craft I have extremely high standards and I won’t work on crafts I don’t approve of. Think of it as a challenge.” Roya proudly claimed.

“Challenge accepted.” Ebony might not welcome being given more things and favours but a challenge? Always.

By the end of his time for tailoring training he gained a level in Mana Compression, reaching lvl 14. He still wasn’t able to form a stable third mana sphere above his head but he was getting there.

Instead of training his new Ice Spike, he focused more on keeping Icebody Enhancement up while he shadowswordswing, his version of shadowboxing.

He levelled once reaching 6 and gaining another 10 stat points.

Peak Performance levelled 4 times. Single-handed Greatsword Mastery, Icebody Enhancement and Two-handed Power Stab levelled twice each. Humming and Deep Persistent Meditation levelled once.

It was nice to see Deep Persistent Meditation level again.

“I won’t be joining you after dinner Clovis. I plan to bind my Core Skill tonight and still want to make it in time for tomorrow morning’s...playdate.” Ebony informed them, still uncomfortable with the term they use for the 2 of them going to train in the playground.

“Have you decided on the skill you want as your Core Skill already?” Halvis asked curiously.

“You should think carefully on what skill you choose as your Core Skill. You won’t be able to change it and in a way it is as important a choice as your Class. You can still wait and learn a better, higher-tiered skill before deciding. You’re still so young.” Roya hurriedly persuaded.

“I have decided. There’s no skill better suited for me. This skill has followed me for life and will continue to do so as my first Core Skill.” Ebony had no doubt.

“...Is...Is it your meditation type skill?” Roya's reaction was a little weird to Ebony but he couldn’t tell why.

“Yes.” Ebony saw no reason to hide. But the reaction from both Roya and Halvis was really not what he expected.

Roya actually cried, “Oh you poor boy…” while Halvis reached to pat his head and asked him not to worry about his past.

‘??? What the heck is going on?’ Ebony was absolutely confused by their reactions and they wouldn’t even answer him properly when asked what they were going on about.

He looked at Clovis for help but he showed even more confusion than Ebony.