Ebony's Fable

It didn’t take too much trouble for Ebony to get back but all the blood on him shocked the village guards a little.

He sneaked back into the Thoya household without any of the Thoyas finding out and quickly washed up and changed out of his ripped up clothes.

He had already unfroze all his wounds and they mostly started scabbing up already with the exception of his elbow. It stopped bleeding for a while now but quite a bit of flesh was still showing and thankfully, the cold water made it sting less.

A little crack here and there was one thing, his elbow popping out was another. Unsure if it would help, he put point after point into Vitality stopping after 5. His max health did increase but he didn’t magically heal up. The remaining 25 unspent stat points were distributed, 5 into Intelligence and 20 into Wisdom.

At this point he was healing more from Wisdom than Vitality anyway. He got into a new set of clothes after cleaning himself up.

Luckily, all the shirts were long sleeved and he could easily cover his wounds. With his deadpan face, pain resistance and Peak Performance no one should be able to find out he had gotten heavily injured.

The lingering smell of blood in the air could be blamed on the game he brought back. Too bad the fur and antlers for them weren't really that in demand or he could have sold them too. They could be sold to the merchants coming here but well, he roughed up the fur too much anyway.

It was a little past the 16th hour and his mana had recovered almost fully during his trip back to Arcta.

One thing he noticed earlier was how damn hungry he was. It didn’t make sense to him, his physique was supposed to decrease that need and Constitution which he now had in spades at 40, supposedly makes the body more energy efficient getting more out of less from his food.

Too tired and hungry from the battle to continue his training directly. He went to get some snacks before getting to his mana weaving. Spending half of his 750 mana pool on making threads and finally beginning to weave a glove together.

He made his threads as thin as possible as Roya suggested.

Dispersing the 2 mana spheres he kept up to speed up the process. Coiling and twisting three threads into one and three of that into another one. Taking a full hour to turn them all into strings.

The wonderful thing about mana weaving was that he was able to connect the threads together perfectly. With how fine he managed to make his mana when two ends of a string came in contact he could untangle the strings to threads and merge them together better. No loose ends this way.

4 strings floated and weaved in and out, crisscrossing around his left wrist with a gap in the centre. Releasing control of one and pulling another string to connect to the strings around his wrist going into the gap left behind. Giving him a full ring the size of his wrist of long strings hanging off them.

Whatever frostsilk cotton was, it was tough. Even the ones he was using, which were inferior ranked. He could tear the strings apart easily with his new strength but possibly not if they were made into something like a piece of cloth. Obviously cutting them was a different thing altogether. Less likely with the right skills improving the end product, like Roya’s.

Low on mana again and not exactly sure how to continue, he picked up the book again.

He completely misjudged how much material was needed. This was no yarn and he was not knitting though pretty close, he was using strings. He needed more than the 100+ metres of yarn needed to knit a pair of gloves.Thankfully he was only making 1 glove and his mana pool and regeneration was much larger now.

With mana weaving it was also a lot simpler, he didn’t have to worry about corners or thumbs and fingers or ending it off when he could just connect the two strings together.

He continued working on his loop of strings, making the wrist part about ⅖ gers then he had to add another layer to it. Layering such that the crisscrosses don’t align and then another layer after that.

With the 3 layer base he moved up to the palms then thumb before running out of strings and threads.

It was time for dinner before he knew it.

“What on Elcra did you do?” Roya asked with her jaws wide open after they sat at the table and she appraised Ebony to be at lvl 18.

“What do you mean?” Ebony replied, confused by the question.

“How did you get to lvl 18 already?” Halvis continued for Roya.

“By hunting. How else? I made 2 trips and came back too late to sell that batch to Mr Herrid, I’ll take it to him tomorrow morning before my hunt.”

“What did you… actually nevermind. Make sure you don’t go past anywhere you start seeing bird type monsters like arctic terns okay?” Halvis warned.

“Yes, I won’t.” Ebony replied honestly.

He knew that past there weren't many monsters above lvl 40 in the direction he went. There was a large gap full of flying monsters in between that ranged above lvl 60. It was another reason for the lagging in the Frost Elves levelling from 30 to 80. There weren’t many monsters in the 40 - 60 range any place close to their village.

If the stimulation rite area where he was in was southwest of the village, then the area with monsters ranging from lvl 40 - 60 was northwest but the known area for them was very far away. From what he knew it was not a distance he could cover in a day or two. This means that the spot that he was at earlier today was already the best spot for him to level and it was a little disappointing.

“Ebony I have news from the village chief that the Z&Z company merchant has started making their way here and is expected to arrive in about a week.” Halvis announced.

“...I see.” Ebony had less time than he thought.

“What!! Already?! Aren’t they too early? Why are they so early this time?” Clovis bombarded with questions, unhappy about the news.

Clovis was sensible and was just shocked by the sudden news but understood it was going to happen sooner or later.

Ebony asked Roya and Halvis to share about their time outside the village. The structure of society. The customs. Any dos and don’ts that he had to be aware of. Dinner time was storytelling time for them and was enough to distract Clovis.

❅❅❅

“What kind of monster have you had me guarding, Chief?”

“Don’t call him that, Enya. I’m sure even with your thick skull you understand why I got you to do it.”

“That’s not what I mean, I understand the reason and I’m all for it. I was just saying that kid... human, is not normal. Are all humans that… crazy?”

“Explain.”

“I just don’t know what he is. He is a hybrid warrior. It seems like he is heavily agility focused yet his body is strong enough to take hits from a monster 20 levels above it. His ridiculous stamina and mana pool can’t even be explained by his meditative class. He’s too low levelled to have so much stat in agility, constitution, endurance and wisdom. But that’s not the craziest part. He took an enemy 10 levels above him for breakfast and 20 for an after snack. Dozens of them. Are all...mana slaves that emotionless? That fearless? I thought it was just human arrogance like the ones we’d seen in the towers but it was composure like that of old Kor’s.”

“...you’re sure you were following the right person?”

“...are you joking chief? Of course I’m sure.”

“Dozens of monsters 20 levels above him? As a level 10? With low skill levels? Composure like Korben’s, he’s only a little more than 10 years old and you compare him to old Korben? A guardian from Arcin? Is it really that surprising? It's not a very incredible feat, any of us could do that too, just maybe not when we were so young. Those youngins like you from Arcin could do worse. You didn’t let him die right?”

“You don’t believe me do you? I’m being serious here!”

“Fine. It doesn’t matter. Just continue protecting him for now, he should be leaving for Plainston in a week. You just have to escort them to the edge of the glades’ and your job is done. For now, I need you to scout a gurs’ radius from the village for any remnants or hidden mana production facilities.”

“...you’re the slave driver here.”

❅❅❅

Giving his body a well deserved break, Ebony practised his magic instead.

Without mana compression. An ice spike formed above his hand in about 3 secs. Another formed about his head in about 5 secs. Each is almost 2 gers or 10 cm long but only about a tenth as thick.

Testing to find out that it was a little faster to compress mana then convert them to ice mana than it was to compress ice mana. There was no difference in their quality from both ways. His range of control over it was about 3 fifths a gir or 3 metres away from him.

Imagining a bow and placing the spike on its string to fire worked better than he thought but the projectile speed was considerably slow. Only like that of a normal arrow from a normal bow, not the magically or stat enhanced speed that this world had.

The effective range was only about 2 girs, his accuracy needed a little work but he wasn’t too bad. He was using the thick block of ice Halvis made in the yard as a target.

After about 25 shots he was down to half his mana pool at 375/750. He tried not to use his hands and then tried shooting the maximum 4 shots he could at a time. His accuracy suffers but not too drastically. With practice, he believed he could perfect it, sooner or later.

He thought of what kind of defence type skill he wanted to be able to do. Definitely not the type Qane used. Prepared in advance, stuck in the ground. No, Ebony was more mobile unlike the complete mage types, he needed to be able to call up a shield fast and the shield should be able to follow him unlike a wall.

There were many types of shields but, if he ever needed a shield he obviously wanted it to cover his entire body. What if there were laser beams like spells that he couldn’t dodge. So something large.

A tower shield was too bulky to move. He decided to make one like that of a heater shield. The type with two engrailed top, why? Because he thought it would be cool of course.

Mental imaging seemed to be very important when casting magic and it really had solid results to back the logic so Ebony tried to think of the strongest, toughest thing that could be used as an image for his shield.

Surprisingly, the image he saw when he first arrived in the underground dome appeared in his mind.

The progeniturtle. Its titan shell, carrying the entirety of the majestic Frostblaze Amur Maple Tree. The thing was no joke if a single leaf was so damn heavy.

Creating a plate of ice and forming its shape into a single scale of their shell, copying their curvatures and all. Each one bigger than his hands, fingers stretched out. Remembering how Roya’s tailoring books all had similarities in layering them, he did the same with his ice scales. Once he stuck one on to another he could control them as a singular object anyway so it wasn’t too hard.

He would have ran out of mana if not for his regeneration. The final product was the heater shield he imagined but, in the design of turtle scales. 1.8 metres long, almost a metre wide and only 2cm thick each ‘scale’ or plate being 1cm. He didn’t have mana to make it thicker for now. It was curved or rounded outwards like that of a convex mirror and turtle shell.

He didn’t get a skill for it yet but he was betting on it. He needed to be able to form the whole thing in one go instead of making it like crafting something. This could be said to be a prototype.

He had one week. He’ll go hunting around that spot in the morning and early afternoon. Hunting was physical training plus levelling.

Sell his game, save some travel fees to buy the necessary things when he got to Plainston. Like the Myriad Bracelet.

Mana Weaving till dinner.

Magic training at night. He had tried lighting a flame again but felt that it was pointless to train that at this point. Even with a full 750 mana he could hardly keep combusting ice flame for more than two seconds.

He needed even less sleep now before he woke up naturally.

He found out the reason for his constant hunger from Clovis. It was really obvious, it wasn’t like he was not spending stamina but rather recovering them too quickly.

Stamina had to come from somewhere and it was the energy he got from food. With how fast and how much stamina he was consuming his body was constantly burning energy. Of course he would get hungry, he only ate more and more everyday.

Thinking about it, the merchants were moving very slowly. 2 gurs was 10,000km and a week would mean they only traveled 1400ish km a day. Even if they only moved in the day which is 14 hours that would mean they were only moving at 140km/h.

Well, the road was not straight, they were carrying a whole village's worth of wares and monster attacks were more common than not so maybe that wasn’t too slow.

❅❅❅

8 days later. At the dinner table.

“Ebony, they are expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon. Don’t go hunting anymore.” Halvis said. The atmosphere at the dining table had been getting heavier as the days passed.

“Mmm.” Ebony acknowledged.

“Clovis. Aren’t you forgetting something?” Ebony continued, quickly changing the subject.

He liked it more when they were cheerful, they were a warm family. He was deeply indebted to them.

“Huh? O...ooh. Yes. ermm. Father. Mother. I have something to tell you.” Clovis caught on.

“Sure, go ahead.” Roya answered for them. They seem to know what was going on.

“That is err… the thing is I… I want to be the Royal Librarian. I want to travel to the Capital one day. There’s so much more I don’t know, so much more I want to know. And I can’t do that here… I just wanted to let you guys know.” Clovis forced every drop of courage he had to speak his mind

““...”” The silence at the table was deafening in Clovis’s ears.

“We know. Of course we would. Since the day you aimed to be a scholar, travelling out of this small village was only natural. Working up the courage to tell us mustn't have been easy. That’s my boy.” Halvis broke the silence.

“We won’t stop you but! We have conditions. One, you need to have some way to protect yourself. A sub-class or a profession, we don’t care. Shh. don’t interrupt me. Two, you will only go after you either reach lvl 200 or you turn 100 and become an adult. Lastly, we will be going with you. We still have a house in the Capital after all.” Roya stated.

She didn’t want this conversation to come up so early when Clovis was still so young but expected this day to come ages ago. Ebony’s presence might have spurred his growth a little, and their little deal with each other.

“...only a profession, okay? I have no problem with number 2 but how come you never told me we had a house in the Capital?” Clovis backed down on not having a combat related class.

The 100 years old or lvl 200 requirement seemed a little too long for Ebony but time was relative to the two races. Ebony wasn’t surprised they had a house somewhere else, they had many stories of their travels.

“Hahaha. Clovis, we were living there for a time until your mother started expecting you. We didn’t want you to grow up without any friends so we came back here. There were hardly any frost elves there after all. Your mother and I ran our own store and were pretty well to do. Why do you think the biggest merchant company on the entire continent even bother coming here to trade with us? They didn’t even have a branch in Plainston before we moved back here.” Halvis explained.

It made sense to Ebony, Roya and Halvis no longer had a family in Arcta and when they turned of age they left the village as there wasn’t much left for them here. It was not a happy place for them since both of them lost 3-4 generations of their family here.

Ebony didn't know how old they were now but, if they were adults before they left it would mean they are at least in the hundreds and Clovis was 16 already. They settled down back here for their child… It really brings up some pleasant memories of his own parents who did the same. At least till he was 15.

Dinner went on as per usual, Ebony’s side tracking succeeded as the mood improved.

In these 8 days, he made 3 left gloves, each better than the last. All failing to meet Roya’s bottom line. He was about to complete the 4th and last glove.

Roya never taught or gave any tips or tricks nor did she say what was wrong about his craft so Ebony could only depend on himself and the book.

Joining the last strings together he brought it to Roya. He didn’t have time to make another after this final attempt.

“Ah Ebony, perfect timing.” Roya said when Ebony walked in, Halvis was in her work room as well for reasons unknown to him.

“I have brought my latest glove here.” Ebony said. She took the glove and was appraising it before speaking out.

“...you’re really born to be a Mana Meister. Okay, you pass. What kind of casting glove do you want it to be? Since this is purely made of frostsilk cotton the choices are quite limited and the material quality only allows it to hold one type of runic enchantment. The general increased mana gathering speed, automatic mana compression are both possible. Mana to ice mana conversion speed increase and ice mana compression is possible too. If you were going to be using it in a place like here I would have recommended the ice mana absorption option, it’ll absorb ambient ice mana and enhance your spells a little. But it’ll be useless if there isn’t much ice mana in the air.”

‘So her Sub-Class had something to do with runes.’

“Is it possible for it to be a spell acclimatization casting glove?” Ebony thought and asked different things.

“Hmm? You sure read up a lot. Hmm…it might be possible for an Ice spell but only one. Are you sure you want a spell acclimatization casting glove? Those are limited in usage, especially for one that can only acclimate to a single spell.” Roya answered.

“Yes, if it's possible then, that’s the one I want.” Ebony was pretty happy about it being possible.

A Spell Acclimatization enchantment or rune allows the staff/wand/casting glove to acclimate or memorise a spell. The formation of the spell to be specific. It’ll slowly memorise the movement of mana and the more the spell is used through that weapon the more it helps to form the spell faster. The mana for the spell moves more smoothly through them with use.

“Alright, you can watch. What type of spell is it? Can you cast it here without damaging my workstation?” Roya asked. She needed Ebony to wear the glove and cast the spell for her to specify the mana pathways needed for the spell.

“Defensive. Yes, it's a shield.” Ebony answered.

This was the first time he’ll be seeing her make anything magical.

“That’s a good choice. You can cast it faster and faster, it will be handy in saving your life. A pity for the low quality material used…” Roya clapped with understanding.

“...did you know? My family used to be a family of crafters, mana crafters. I only had talent for tailoring and mana weaving but that’s not even a fraction of what mana can do. What I taught you for weaving can be applied to many materials and elements, of course not everything is compatible but, you get the gist.” Roya spoke out again.

Ebony kept quiet as Roya continued. Halvis hadn’t said anything as of yet and was just standing there.

She raised her palms towards the table when the corner of the wooden table suddenly moved, bent, reshaped like a fork was pointed out of the table. Connected.

“That was not wood manipulation. You know how Mana Weaving is to push mana into cotton till you can move it? Well the same can be done for many raw materials but like I said about compatibility this portion of the table is now brittle. Everything boils down to mana. I merely used mana to punch the wood mana out of shape, or into shape in this case. I don’t even have the right skill for it.” Roya explained as she flicked the protruding wood with her finger, breaking it into fragments.

“You can already get Mana Meister as your Sub-Class or Profession can’t you? I can tell your Mana Weaving and Mana Compression already hit the natural block. You were going to take it tonight weren’t you? Try copying what I did and see if your Mana Weaving skill can mutate or evolve into Mana Smithing, Mana Crafting, Mana Fashioning, Mana Architect or the like.” it seemed like it pained Roya when she said this.

Memories of her family plaguing her, even so, she advised Ebony. Showed more paths to Ebony.

“...Okay.” Roya already went so far in helping him, it would be rude to reject at this point. His Mana Weaving and Mana Compression had indeed not levelled for 2-3 days.

He touched the table, his mana stopped on the surface of the wooden table. A foreign body, foreign mana to Ebony. Wood mana, but they were gaps in between them. He forced his mana in, Roya did say all she did was punch the mana out of shape. It didn’t feel right and she didn’t have the skills anyway so he tried something different. He couldn’t assert control over the foreign mana unlike ice mana which was to say he couldn’t use wood magic.

He filled as much of the gap as he could with his mana. The mana in the table was tough, unmoving.

He knew all the furniture was made by wood mage cum woodworkers so it was obviously not a normal wooden table.

Instead of ‘punching’ he tried to push them, making the foreign mana closer together while the gaps expanded.

Slowly but surely a protrusion on the table appeared, like that of a bubble on bubble wrap. Rising up and expanding into an orb on a stick like an arcade game control stick. Taking a full 25 minutes. It was awkward in the room.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic skill Mana Weaving evolved into Mana Moulding’

Mana Moulding - Inject mana into raw materials and alter their arrangement of mana through mana manipulation alone, moulding and reshaping it as desired with sufficient mental force. Increases fine control over mana by 2.5% per level.

‘Ooo tier 2. Nice.’

“Mmm. It evolved into Mana Moulding.” Ebony announced. He could find out more about the skill if she knew about it after all.

“...I’ve not heard of that one but since it evolved, it should be tier 2 instead of 1 now. That should give you a better fortification unlike with skill mutation where it would stay at the same tier. Come, put on your glove and cast your defensive spell as accurately and smoothly as you can.” Roya seemed a little disappointed that Ebony didn’t get a familiar skill to her. Perhaps, she wanted her family’s skills to carry on in some way.

The glove fit his hand perfectly, the material was smooth and cooling. White in colour, a simple glove without design reaching a little beyond his wrist. It was thin enough such that it didn’t hinder his movement in any way and his sense of touch was only a tinge bit affected.

A shield looking like his prototype slowly formed in front of his palms. 8 secs.

For such a large creation, it was his current limit. He felt a different mana in his glove despite having run his own mana through it so many times throughout its creation. Roya’s mana was like a tiger watching its pup, his mana, as he cast his spell. It followed his own and forged a pathway along where his mana moved.

Layered Ice Carapace - Conjure a shield made of Ice, designed after a turtle’s shell to let nothing through. Layered to increase its defences, it is possible to increase the number of layers of shell with mana. One-layered Ice Carapace has the effect of 80% + 2.5% Intelligence, second, third, fourth and fifth layer adds a static 30%, 20%, 10% & 5% Intelligence.

Consumes 750 MP/Layer

Classification: Ice Magic

He only made it two layers since he used some mana with the table but with his current mana pool after levelling some, his limit was 3. His glove lit up in a cool blue light as Roya told him to hold his spell and move it around. He manipulated it to move forwards, backwards, up and down, left and right.

His magic or mental range increased to 4 fifths a gir or 4 metres over the week. Symbols and circles Ebony was unfamiliar with appeared on the back of his gloves before settling into it and disappearing from sight.

Halvis knocked on his shield a little before flicking his finger at it, breaking it into pieces with ease. Ebony received the mental feedback of the broken carapace like a light knock on his mind. Halvis didn’t say anything about it.

“It’s done. You should try not to use any other spell through the glove so that the acclimatization doesn’t get ruined. Okay, Hal could you go get it? Come Ebony, we got a gift for you. Don’t reject us so fast. I personally made it just for you. It is not safe out there so I made it in hopes that it can protect you.” Halvis didn't have to walk far before stopping.

Halvis returned with a folded robe in his hands. “Here, Ebony, try it on. It's made with 3 types of materials including my frostsilk cotton. I know you don’t like restrictive armor, and Roya had customised this according to how I saw your fight. Every robe she makes is custom made, this was made to be on the lighter side but it seemed like Roya went a little overboard with the thickness compared to what she planned.”

It was a duffle coat similar to that of Halvis’ but with a tall collar up to the back of his head. Very dark blue, almost black in colour. It didn’t have toggles because they may get cut loose so four large buttons replaced them, hidden under a flap like that of a jacket zipper.

The coat reached mid thigh above his knees, so that it wouldn’t hinder his movements. It stuck close and firmly to his body so it was less likely to get caught in claws or what not. Heavy even with his Strength now at 20, weighing almost 6 tivs.

[Robe of the Ice Swordsman (Uncommon) - Tailored for both an ice mage and a swordsman]

Ebony’s Identify doesn’t tell him much about items until he found out more about it himself but he was really surprised by the result.

“It is highly resistant to cuts, slashes and basically sharp things. Weaker monsters wouldn’t even be able to bite through it. It is almost completely useless against blunt physical force so be careful of that. This leaves your legs defenceless but we decided you would prefer mobility over that. This chain on the inside of the left wrist part can be attached to your myriad bracelet.

The innermost layer of frostsilk cotton can ward off both cold and heat a little and has some resistance against ice magic.

The middle layer is the skin of a type of snake monster that uses enhancement magic, it is receptive to mana and you can charge mana into it to increase the robes defences by quite a bit, mixing with the other 2 layers increases both ice and physical defence. I estimate it to be able to take up to 5000 mana but it also depends on the strength of your mana so take note.

The final outer layer is made from web a of spider type monster that uses metal magic, it is very tough and durable but stays flexible.

There is a hood hidden in the collar hence its thickness here. After you attach to your myriad bracelet you can use mana and manipulate it to cover your head. I’ll teach you some tricks later on.

They are all made of common rank materials so even though this piece was lucky enough to be considered as uncommon it should barely be able to match the abilities of one. This is the lightest it could get as with so many materials.” Roya introduced without stopping.

“You’re a growing boy, don't forget to eat more, keep yourself cool. I mean warm. There are many things other than training or levelling. Speak out a little more, make some friends out there… take good care of yourself.” Roya’s eyes moistened, worry apparent in her shaking voice. Halvis tried to comfort her but his silence was speaking lots as well

Ebony didn’t know what to say. He was touched.

The robe was made just for him, designed just for him. But that wasn’t why he was touched.

He didn’t think he would ever get treated like… family again. Their concern, their worries for him. Ebony felt it. It was too real. He didn’t expect to feel like this, especially not in a foreign world, from a foreign race. He was just a stranger to them weeks ago, clearly suspicious but they didn’t shun him. Instead they opened up to him, treated him like their own.

He did the one thing he thought was better than any word of thanks could and pulled both of them in for a hug. Something he hadn’t done for a long, long time. Yet, he was pulling himself in for the hug with his low strength. With how tall both of them were he could only reach for their waist or torsos.

“I will take care of myself. You guys take care of yourselves, Clovis as well. Thank you for taking care of me for so long, I will never forget it. I’ll make sure to visit. Thank you for the robe, it’ll surely keep me from harm. I love it.” words spewed out naturally as Ebony said his heartfelt thoughts.

He was taking from them again, yet he was too weak to push their care and concern away. He also didn’t want to push them aside anymore.

The Thoya’s were stunned by the sudden display of affection and gratitude from the usually stoic Ebony. They knew he was expressionless not emotionless but he never displayed so much of it before.

His mysteriously high capabilities were ignored now. He was just a child like Clovis, just wounded and lost without any memories in an unknown place. He just needed some love. A family.

They hugged back. Patting his head like they did for Clovis.

“Visit? This is already your home. You better not forget your way back.” Halvis told Ebony off.