Ebony's Fable

'Awww ell, only a short month back to spend with my cute little sister and I have to babysit someone. A human child. Why do I need to protect a human child? What the heck is a human child doing here anyway? It may be particularly hot this summer but young humans seem to be especially weak to the cold.

Chief said I’ll understand once I see him, understand what?

In the short time that I was out my little cutie seemed to have improved a lot. They grow up so fast. I want to be there in her younger years more so we don’t grow apart as she ages. So many other siblings grow apart due to the elves' usual difference in age being so far apart.'

She kept going on about this ‘little Eb’ that was younger and apparently she couldn’t defeat him in their spars despite being younger than her. This was shocking, their family hasn’t been beaten in close combat by any their age in their village and her younger sister was even more talented than her by a little. How proud she was of her.

There weren't any younger Frost Elves that she recalled had Eb in their name. Her sister can’t seem to remember his full name either. ‘His’, Enya will have to find this boy for a talk one day.

The young human was apparently under Roya’s and Halvis’s care in his stay. So at least there was one good thing about babysitting him. The previous time she got her robes completely destroyed by testing a new skill on it and pissed off Roya so badly she didn’t make a new one for her before the dungeon clears. That was a real close shave.

She was the only close combatant on the party so in her defence it was obvious she was going to take damage more often.

She noted the additional weak essence and mana signature from the Thoya house and put some effort into recognising it so that she’ll know when he moves.

'Ugh he woke up and is leaving so early and I was planning to relax a little since we just came back. Let’s see what all the fuss is about the human child.'

[Meditative Ice Swordsman Lvl 10]

'Meditative?! Not even Elves that young would have levelled meditation to 25. Those elling trash should have been weeded out years ago. So that’s what the chief meant.

And he’s human...that’s pretty rare for them to be...No matter, we treat any meditative Class holder as a treasured guest regardless of race anyway.

He’s been in Arcta for a while now, If I'm not wrong. Chief didn’t mention any attacks so I should just be a precaution for him.

Wait, he's a hybrid Class holder? Those aren’t exactly popular amongst humans. Did they teach him ice magic? Double cast? Not yet, he’s only compressing one at a time but he’ll get there sooner or later, could other Meditators no, humans do that at that age?

He left.

This direction leads to the rite procession area. Suitable for a lvl 10.

Oh? He is pretty fast for his level, Agility focused swordsman? No, that sword is too large, unlikely. But he should still have put quite some points in Agility.

A movement type skill, interesting one too, he leaves shallow prints in the snow. It’s like he’s moving off the ground before his feet fully land. Different from ours, so none of us taught him that.

He’s not getting out of breath either so Endurance too.

Expected of a physical Class but that would mean lower on the mental end. I guess that’s why hybrid Classes aren’t popular, unlike us with a natural affinity with ice magic. Physically weaker than other warriors and magically weaker than other mages.

Maybe not in his case. Meditator would likely mean he doubled his mana and stamina pool. I heard there were some who got regeneration rate increased when meditating or even some who got 50% each but who knows and it is essentially the same anyway.

He’s not stopping? Does he not know he’s arrived? He’s going too deep for his level for an inexperienced child. Should I stop him? I was told not to interfere with whatever he was doing though, just protect his life if he was in danger. I’ll just watch for now.

At least he didn’t engage that deer twice his level... Oh. He picked one even higher level, is he overconfident?

No fear in his eyes, unchanging expression as he stood still against its charge.

Is he crazy or dumb, why is he standing still?

Enhancement Magic, ice elemental. But that’s not enough to close the gap between them should I stop it? Why do I feel like he’s going to be fine? He reminds me of old Kor, like nothing that happens can phase them. Irritating.

I should be able to make it in time to stop it anyway so I’ll just see what he’s up to.

…

He wasn’t at full speed earlier. Impressive counter. Now he should understand the difference in strength, what will he do now?

Is he planning to face it head on again? It’s swinging its antlers so wildly to counter what he did before though.

Wow, did he time that blow or was it a coincidence? The force from the deer’s charge helped to stab it in deeper, he just had to hold his ground and he did.

He let go of his weapon?! Really? Oh he still had magic, average cast speed for one of us that age. Power...extremely weak. He probably didn’t have much stat for Intelligence and seems like he hasn't trained the skill much.

Large mana pool as expected, he hasn’t even stopped running his enhancement skill. He’s won this from his first attack really, just had to let it bleed out.

He’s really fearless, butchering it right here. Aww, what a waste. Does he even have a related skill for it?

A few snowskins have been watching him for a while. Doesn’t seem like he noticed. This child… eating right where he dissected his prey. I’m getting a headache from watching.

The snowskins are cautious as usual, do they think they're being baited? At this point, I’m thinking the same damn thing as them. He’s got to be doing this on purpose.

He was baiting them after all… he finished them off pretty easily. We have more trouble against snowskins than deers since they are agile, small and can move around the trees. Young archers and mages tend to miss, only chosen for the rite due to their weak defence. The elders can easily hold them down to prevent missing.

He’s...treating this as a picnic. Sitting amongst the bodies, drinking and eating plums… is he humming?

He’s too lazy to track them down so he left the deer organs as bait.

What on ell is wrong with this human child?

❅❅❅

Seems like this was monkey territory. That or monkeys love deer meat. Or monkey meat.

Another two groups of monkeys came attacking him, 4 and 5 in each. He didn’t even have to wait ten minutes before an attack.

None higher than lvl 17.

Ebony got to level 15 and then some for his skills.

Finally seeing another deer in the distance Ebony picked up all his stuff and chased it.

Well, it also seemed to have noticed Ebony and was already moving his way so ‘chase’ might not have been accurate. It was level 25.

‘This was disappointing, I was playing it safe for Roya and Halvis but I should go deeper next time.’

Ebony took it down in almost the exact same way but with more ease and less damage to himself.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Game Processing learned.’

Game Processing - Ability to butcher, bleed out, remove skin, fur, scale of hunted game, remove its organs, cut its meat into different parts with the barest of tools improves by 1.0% per level.

A useful skill and about the same amount of meat later. 24 tivs was heavy and weighed him down quite a bit even with higher strength.

His pack was full as the deer legs were bulky so he was ready to return.

He had directly tossed 20 points into Constitution and 30 into Wisdom.

Having his body break down from his own strength and speed was silly.

If his skill level keeps rising, when he is capped out on levels and have no more stat points to add he wouldn’t have a strong enough body to perform his best. He wanted to train his magic more so more mana was obviously good.

With him able to go at full speed without injuring himself he got back to the village quickly.

It was only about the 9th hour and Mr Herrid’s stall was open. Ebony decided to keep 2 tivs and a single leg, the rest sold for 90 Blacks or 9 Greys. He took 50 Blacks and 4 Greys.

The lowered price was due to his poor handling, damaged cuts and even pieces of bones in some cuts.

Too lazy to bargain and he did only just get a skill to improve on it so he took what he could.

“You’re a little earlier today Ebony!” Mrs Calhy called out.

“Yes, I started hunting today and just got back. I wanted to buy your plums with the first earnings I made.” Ebony replied.

“Oh you sweet boy of course, as usual?”

“Mmm.”

“A little extras as a congratulatory gift for your first hunt.”

“Thank you. I might patronise you more often in the days to come. I will only be here till the Z&Z merchants arrive, then hopefully join them on their journey to Plainston.”

“Oh my. That’s fast, you’ve only been here for a short while, why not stay on a little longer?”

“I want to travel and see all that this world has to offer.”

“But you’re still so young! And travelling alone is dangerous.”

“Never too early to start. Danger is everywhere.”

“...don’t forget to visit. I'd hate to lose a good customer. Oh! Please come in winter, you’ll be able to see the plums blossom. They’re the greatest sight that the whole hoarfrost glade has to offer. When your cold resistance is high enough of course.”

“I will.” Ebony would love to see the flowers.

It was not exactly a very manly taste but he loved flowers and floral decorations are always present in his house.

He returned and left the meat and plums in their ‘refrigerator’ which was a large rectangular box perhaps chest was a better word for it and inlaid completely in ice.

It was segmented into 4 for fruits, vegetables, meat and a small section for some bottles, juices and whatnot.

He didn’t see any of the Thoyas since they were all busy at this hour.

Washing the cloth bags, cloths and his icky hands that he used to dig into the deer. Literally.

He left the blood on his clothes alone.

It was time for another hunt.

❅❅❅

“Here are the robes for you and the chief.”

“Thank you dear, hold on while I’ll get your maintenance fee.”

“It’s our pleasure.”

“Okay here you go. Ah yes, Orren got a transmission that they have set off Plainston yesterday and should arrive in the coming week or so if no problems come up.”

“Thank you. They’re coming already?”

“Yes. They should be taking advantage of the weather. The heat and thin snow make their journey a lot easier and lower risk after all.”

“...Thank you for informing me. I’ll take my leave.”

❅❅❅

Back to his previous picnic spot before the 10th hour hit.

Ebony's strengthened body let him travel at his top speed only for him to realise that his low Intelligence and Perception was problematic.

Too fast to notice a thin branch as he passed and got a deep cut on his arm. Noticed it too late and reacted even later.

Stat balancing was troublesome.

It wasn’t a really big deal but Ebony wanted absolute control over his body and minds’ capabilities.

He went further and further.

The occasional attacks from monkeys and foxes were met with a swift death all around the same level as him. Ebony started feeling the levelling slow down as he hasn’t levelled after 10 of them, all a few levels above him.

The attacks got more and more frequent while their levels slowly climbed.

A [Snow Crawler Lvl 21] leaped for him from under the snow.

Landing on his arm, coiling itself up and tightening its grip on his arm as if trying to strangle it. Ebony grabbed its neck before it could go further up his body. He couldn’t squash it to death so he had no choice but to cut it down.

It looked like a snake but with 4 legs like that of a lizard, greyish white scales like most of the monsters he’d seen here so far.

It was the weakest monster in terms of Strength that Ebony had seen as he was able to pull it out from its grip on his arm.

With Icebody Enhancement on of course. It was the fastest magic that he could activate on the go.

Ebony thinks that it may be due to his body being part mana and the nature of Icebody Enhancement was circulating ice mana throughout his body.

It was a funny sight. Such a huge sword for such a small monster.

Elcra was large. Very large. Ebony didn’t want to look at any maps because he wanted to build his own but that didn’t mean he didn’t learn about the area and their approximate size.

Any attacks from monsters under lvl 25, Ebony got away without injury. Dodging all attacks.

Finally stopping after an hour of travelling at where he decided was a good spot.

There were the varieties of monsters he had seen before plus he finally started seeing birds. He spotted another one of the owls or Strix at lvl 28. But he stayed clear from it; he had no good way to fight an aerial monster.

[Frost Reindeer Lvl 35]

[Frost Reindeer Lvl 36]

They were about the same size as the deer, a little furrier and their antlers curved to form a c shape. Both had dagger sized ice shards that started forming between their antlers instead of the mouth of the deer when they saw Ebony moving towards them.

Still far away, Ebony kicked up Icebody Enhancement and beelined for them. They surprisingly didn’t fire at him as he closed the distance.

Cutting down from above on the Lvl 36 reindeer, stopping short on its antlers as it blocked. It fired its shot dangerously close to his head which he barely managed to avoid.

He was watching out for the shot after all. But a sharp impact knocked him across the snow from his left. Ebony saw part of the ice shard sticking out of his left arm. The reindeers timed and worked better together than he thought.

The pain quickly numbed out but his arm would not be much help in this fight. It felt cold but only like that of a cool drink, it was interesting to note that his blood didn’t freeze nor did he get frostbite or any discomfort from the low temperatures of the attack.

Well, the bleeding mana part did suck balls but there was little bleeding anyway.

Rolling to the side as another shard came at him. One after another he was moving to the side as the shots came at regular intervals, trying to keep him from getting close to them again.

With each of them only capable of dishing out one shot every 2 or so seconds it wasn’t too hard to dodge and move forward until he got real close. His Treading Step and movement speed buff made him move dozens of metres every step. Even with Icebody Enhancement lowering his Agility.

They seem to start getting closer to each other as Ebony closes in on them. They were not very good at moving sideways as Ebony went from their left to right and they could keep up turning and aiming.

Ebony shut Icebody Enhancement off as he dodged; he had limited mana and the Agility debuff was unnecessary. The reindeers target practice went on for quite a long time, always pushing Ebony back when he was too close for comfort. Using this chance to try to get the shard out of his arm.

15 mins in and the floor full of ice shards under the snow later. The reindeers noticeably slowed down in their shooting. Running out of mana, they also seemed to weaken or tire somehow.

While Ebony was still as good to go as if the fight had just begun. His arm healed enough to move and exert strength but still in pretty bad shape. Peak Performance probably helped, allowing him to move it so well.

The reindeers' lag allowed Ebony to get right up to them again as Icebody Enhancement flared back on. A power stab aimed at the lvl 36 reindeer’s chest from the side as it didn’t turn to block in time.

As if a hard rock, his blade tip dug into its chest. Stopped by pure muscle a ger in. Pulling it right out and unleashed as much slashes and stabs as he could before jumping back from another ice shard the lvl 35 unleashed.

Managing to give the reindeer a shallow wound and a haircut. But in his eyes it was just a matter of time before they were taken down. They were out of juice but not Ebony, he was almost fully topped up at 282/300 stamina.

They fended each other with their antlers as Ebony kept circling them. Literally.

Sword blows landed on them whenever there was an opening. A circle was slowly drawn on the snow as Ebony kept them within it.

Running was not in these monsters' instincts, this was what Ebony noticed so far and it held true for these reindeer.

Always trying to charge out and attack Ebony instead of running away which they should have been able to. But instead charge back into the circle trying to attack him only to be encircled by one man again.

Keeping them moving in circles prevented them from charging in a straight line a little. Eventually, blood stained the white forest and the reindeers were huffing, exhausted, out of breath. Easy target for a power stab through their mouth or eyes and brain. No ass strikes if he wanted their flesh for meat after all.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Frost Reindeer Lvl 36], enemy 20 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze level up 15 - 17, 20 stat points gained.’

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Frost Fur Deer Lvl 35], enemy 10 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.’

‘Should I have killed them the other way around?’

These monsters’ magical prowess are kind of a joke, just like Ebony’s. One simple elemental ball at a time.

Sei and Ton’s mastery of magic was on another level themselves. Clones, vines, projectiles all mixed with coordinated physical attacks.

It was the kind of fight he was looking forward to but he had been disappointed with the battles so far. Though they were obviously intelligent, unlike these monsters. Higher level monsters should be able to control their instinct to kill to some extent, learning to retreat or not pick fights at all.

Nothing to worry about since he himself was still at a low level.

Thinking of training his magic more now that his mana pool and recovery is decent. He needed to reach his limit for his casting speed and he was thinking of a defensive and binding skill like Qane. Being able to call up a shield would have prevented him from getting hit by that boar.

The reindeers had more injury on them but he tried his best to get all the cuts of meat he could. He needed to bring more water around, it got really messy and all the blood was getting really disgusting.

He turned into a magnet for monsters though. They seemed more interested in killing him than trying to steal his pack with the goodies. Seeing that, he just left the pack alone and dashed out.

1 group of monkeys turned to 2, then 3, deer and even a family of birds, [Arctic Terns Lvl 31] started chasing him. Fighting each other while they were at it.

The terns were a bird Ebony heard of but they were a lot bigger than what he remembered from seeing on the net. About the size of an owl. They were too fast and agile in the air for Ebony to have any chance of hitting them.

It would be a different story if they tried to attack him but it seemed like they had a grudge with the monkeys more than they do with him.

Ebony joined the mini melee, taking any chances that he could to land a power stab here, ice spike there. Ice spike worked on the snowskin monkeys, hurting them a little but not enough to cause them to bleed. Even with his speed and ability to dodge and tip toe around the monkeys with so many of them every time he stopped to land a blow he takes a few himself.

Mostly light blows from claws on his body, protecting his vitals. He was wary of another blow like the boar's kick, he had been lucky no bone fragments pierced his lungs. No amount of regeneration can save him from that, he would need to remove the foreign object.

The terns were able to pick off the deer with touch and go pecks while they avoided their icicles with ease.

The snowskins showed quite the ability to jump off trees and slapped them right out of the air. Light pecks from them were defended by having the snow on the skin move to the spot where they were getting hit.

A reindeer bit one monkey in its mouth while an icicle in between its antlers shot at another, penetrating their defences unlike Ebony’s magic spell.

Ebony dealt as much damage to the monkeys and terns on the ground before they started dying out. The deer and reindeers were left as they were the hardest to kill in terms of health and defence.

He would get some experience as long as he contributed to the kill. The remaining two terns surprisingly flew off, leaving the battleground with a deer, a reindeer and 3 monkeys.

Supposedly, experience is gained even without killing. Since experience could be gained through training alone, it made little sense if he wouldn’t gain experience just because he didn’t kill.

The similar cervides was having a shootout with each other while Ebony fought with the snowskins.

The intense melee had even him in his highest concentration, deciding when to attack and when to receive an attack instead of dodging.

Less than half an hour in and his stamina was at 143/300 and mana at 173/550.

He sustained cuts on his arms and legs from blocking and kicking and another blow to the body that he couldn’t dodge leaving him with a broken rib or two at 98/200 HP.

His blood was the same red colour as always, mana or not. An on-the-spot fix to reduce his mana loss and blood loss was freezing a layer of ice over his cuts. It worked a lot better than he thought, his blood wasn’t frozen by his own ice and he was able to close the wounds. With his cold resistance, ice cold temperatures were merely cooling to his body.

Icebody Enhancement might have played a part there and he was used to the stiffness from ice on or in his body. He was able to see and feel that his muscles were stiffer from it, the higher level the skill got the more obviously he was feeling his body turn to ice.

Ebony stood atop the monkeys and the [Frost Reindeer Lvl 39] stood atop the deer. It screamed or shrilled in its victory while it made Ebony its final target.

It clearly hasn’t run out of mana as it charged up another shot while it moved for a tackle. Ebony met its charge with his own, gaining momentum for more power in his power stab. His only concern was the enemy's ice spike which it’ll likely fire right as they collided. It would be hard to dodge when he is exerting all his strength in an attack.

Changing his mind, he managed to spin once before they closed the distance and landed a single handed chop downwards in between its antlers where the icicle was. He managed to destroy it but not harm the reindeer, its charge unhindered rammed right into his right arm completely knocking him off.

Health: 37/200

Sadly, a tree was in the way and he slammed right into it as well, sword knocked off to the side. Right elbow popping right out, pain and shock caused Deep Persistent Meditation to flicker on and off.

Quickly rolling towards his sword and picking it up with his left. He heard the tree he knocked against had its bark breaking off from another ramming charge right as he rolled.

Ebony had trained both his arms to wield the sword. While it was not exactly perfect with his non-dominant arm, it was sufficient.

A deep breath or two stabilised his mental state again as he stabbed out at its ears while it was shaking its dizziness off. It struck both its ears and eyes with how close they were together, but not deep. With his right arm useless he couldn’t do a proper two handed power stab. Even with Peak Performance, he wouldn’t put his arm under any more stress. Or couldn’t.

Ebony knew there wasn’t much left at his disposal against it so he pushed all his mana into Frost Coating in a last ditch attempt. He initially wanted the skill to inject ice mana into an enemy instead of it just a coating anyway.

His sword was quickly covered in a layer of ice but he didn’t let it stop there as he manually manipulated it to enter the wound. Aiming to freeze its brain.

The good news was that it actually worked as the coating moved from sword handle to blade to its internals. The bad news was that he was already low on mana and approaching 0. It was almost impossible to manipulate your mana in another’s body so all he could do was push every bit of the ice mana in as hard as he could.

The reindeer wasn’t dead as it flung Ebony off in rage. Too weak to hold on to his blade he was flung off but was able to keep on his feet and Treading Steps helped create distance.

The blade stuck frozen in it as it wildly swung its head around, trying to remove it. He knew he managed to push lots of ice mana in but it obviously had high cold resistance as well.

Its shrilling and screaming weakened in time as it slowly collapsed onto its side, taking its last chilly breath.

‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Frost Reindeer Lvl 39], enemy 20 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.’

‘Oh man that hurt, but a melee a day keeps the doctors away.’ Ebony thought as he pushed his elbow back into place with his working arm as if he was used to it.

He didn’t seem to care about the infections that he might get from the act. He was more bothered by the smell in the air, all the blood and fat. Also how all that only got him to lvl 18.

Thinking that he needed to get out of here as soon as possible with his current condition Ebony gathered his things.

It was a waste but he couldn’t quite process his game with his right arm the way it was. The forest animals and monsters will eat them and his pack was full from the first 2 anyway.