Ebony's Fable

“Ebony, I’m glad you’re fine,” Navin said but his movements were to hug Hector and Mallory before checking for injuries.

Yvette was occasionally here, mainly taking care of the surface but was currently present to take care of Navin’s curse.

“We’re fine too, great-grandfather, great-grandmother.” Mallory replied while Hector just silently took the hug.

The young looking Royal couple was around 2 centuries old and had been a couple for a long time. Their youthfulness was not a lie since a Human King-ranked individual had a lifespan ranging from 750 to 1000 years. It was still very odd to hear them being called great-grandparents.

“Where’s Scarlet?”

“Asleep.” He pointed to his sad, shrunken tree. It wasn’t see-through but these people didn’t ask about it.

He would’ve asked the best healer on the planet to take a look at her if it wasn’t for the fact that Ning Xin fully recovered and refused to get a check-up.

They didn’t exchange many words before the Royal couple left, every second they were away from their post were possible lives lost.

The Lord family had many strong barrier mages, each situated at an outpost and maintaining a domic barrier. Thanks to them, the introduction of the Necrochitins and Venom Legion wasn’t able to push their defensive line back but it did stop their expansion.

“Ebony, we’re going to rest…I assume you won’t accept the offer at the same residence?” Mallory pushed Hector’s leaning face away while covering herself with a barrier, staying clean. Her barrier was fading on and off, clearly out of mana and her mind was scrambled from stress and exhaustion.

Ebony patted Dusk behind him. It wasn’t the first time he had received the offer but he had the safest and comfiest resting spot.

Wisdom acted as the Endurance stat for the mind but even he felt like falling asleep after the intense exertion and use of Domain.

‘Luckily the Iron Wagon parks nearby,’ He was placed in one of the open fields within the Empire’s Fortress. Tamed beasts and the like usually stayed here and Dusk was placed here a few times too.

Although he felt bad for people who saw him and came over, he didn’t share any healing or regenerative effects. No Battle Hymn for recovery except for himself and Ning Xin either.

Taking out a blanket, he laid down on the cushions beside the sleeping woman without creating more space.

Unbeknownst to him patrols around the area reported his presence the moment Dusk was placed down mages and the like received the news and quickly gathered around him with a sleeping bag or just a bundle of cloth to lie on. Even without Battle Hymn, just the leakage of his mana was enough to increase their mana and stamina regeneration.

They were disappointed that no mana leaked out but remained, too lazy to move in case mana started leaking out after some time.

❅❅❅

Ebony woke up before his partner could otherwise, he might find himself getting teased again. She had been using her semi-combat mode denoted by her hair colour change to gain the courage to make advances and he was no longer as blind to them.

Ignoring the mess of tents and sleeping bags, he found an empty spot and began his conditioning. Melding his body with woven flames, he had 4 clones combat him. They were all users of Ethereal Form Arts and were branching off thanks to the ability to bend and stretch their limbs.

4 of them were more than enough to hit and push him. It required that many because he was mainly a defence, evasion and counter specialist. His proficiency with offence was not nearly as refined.

They all yanked at different points in his body with needle-like Torrent Paths, pulling at times and pushing at others.

After an hour, all 5 of them gripped onto a copy of Icicle and clashed hard but not a single sound could be heard from their spar. Most people could only see his body when they parried and stopped for a brief moment. The rest of the time was 5 figures blinking all over the place.

Another 2 hours later, 2 of the clones retreated, joining up with the last 2 standing by. The 4 worked together to weave the gravity mana in the area to accurately oppose every one of his main body’s move. If he wanted to raise his hand, they would force it down. When he wanted to swing his arm down, they would force his hands up.

This was one of the methods he came up with to make use of gravity for a higher tier Conditioning but it still felt slightly lacking until recently when his gravity magic improved. It might shy of the methods and intensity of a tier 5 but he had confidence it should at least refine his Conditioning.

‘I’ll stop here. I’m glad the clones can use ambient conversion. I hope those back home have optimised more efficient runic formulas.’ Ebony wiped the glistening sweat off his forehead at the 6-hour mark. He couldn’t afford to waste too much mana.

Dusk didn’t grow during his sleep, he was regenerating his pool and hadn’t recharged fully. Ambient mana was mostly sucked up by the enchantment on the Fortress and fueled the barrier. His tree didn’t have that worry since it had Will to stick itself together.

He sat on his piano seat after the tree spit the instrument back out and tried to link up with Dusk to see what had been lost.

‘Seems like a success, now the loss of Will is linear to the loss of ability. Nothing would be prioritised and its overall ability in general would drop accordingly.’

Since its birth, he had been monitoring Will the most. Dusk contains 32 days of Will generation, after that day 1’s incorporated Will would degrade or dissipate over two weeks. It would leave about 0.03 to 0.05% that is permanently ingrained. Basically, almost everything would wash away. But it was just a matter of accumulation. Just like the Elves did but with multiple people.

The permanently ingrained Will was the true core of a Domain.

Technically, Dusk was running on 50 days worth of Will at any one point in time because his Will usage was split between Dusk, Veritable Ice Clone creation and his personal use of Arsenal of Will.

Dusk was almost 2 years old. It permanently had the abilities of roughly 30% of 1 day’s worth of Will regeneration. As long as a small amount of ice mana survived as its core, it wouldn’t ‘die’. It would not fade or dissipate for a long time.

‘I’ll stop clone production until Dusk heals back to full capacity, then readjust my usage to 60% of generation to Dusk.’

“Come eat.”

“Breakfast or dinner?”

“I don’t know. Food is food.”

“THANKS LASSIE!” A voice they recognised hollered over. It was from a one-armed human mage, but he was a burly man taller than both of them and had more muscles than both of them combined. The loudest mouth on these campgrounds.

The one-armed mage waved his staff with mana while holding a bowl of stew in his hand and scooping the stew down with mana holding his spoon.

He was the most flexible with mana manipulation out of all the mages Ebony had seen among humans.

Ebony felt that it was quite a shame that normal humans, Grandmaster or not, could not regenerate flesh to a great degree. Regardless of their Vitality stat. Small cuts wouldn’t leave permanent scars and certain warriors could even heal bone-deep cuts. But healing and regenerating were two different matters. Losing a slab of flesh was permanent weakening unless specialised healing magic was employed.

This ‘specialised’ healing magic was something that less than 10% of the Empire’s healers could use. It required flesh magic. Possibly bone magic.

Yvette was supposedly a blood, bone, flesh, mind, spirit and arcane mage. She was even more diverse than himself but not as much as Hector. It was surprising to hear from Hector’s mouth that Yvette wasn’t originally a noble or even from the Capital. She was an orphan from the mountains. The wilds brought her up, from the age of 1. Alone.

She only learnt the human language at the age of 8 when people found her living by herself.

Ebony nodded his head and saw the Life Queen in a different light, that was an impressive feat. This world had far stronger creatures than just the common bears and tigers.

When a wound is too deep, even timely healing would leave a person inflicted with life-long ailments or ailments appearing after they age.

But Ebony did not understand that.

He had been frequently heavily injured since he was young. Bone fractures or even snapping in half were not a fresh memory. Muscles torn only to regrow and rejoin was something he was familiar with ever since he was young.

‘It’s been many years since I’ve played hunt or be hunted…’ Ebony reminisced memories of when he was 4 and deemed too young to begin proper physical conditioning. He already had life-threatening injuries on a weekly basis back then but never had he ever had injuries that left a permanent mark on him.

If he hadn’t seen so many injured people, he would never have questioned himself. Thinking it was a Xeng or heritage problem, he had asked Ning Xin but she didn’t have a similar experience. Her parents were always careful about her growth and worried about any injuries that could impede her growth. She wasn’t even confident she could perfectly heal all physical injuries now. Nerve damage for one wasn’t easy to heal from.

Unable to relate, he shook it off and credited it to his genetic make-up.

“How long is Sister Jing going to take?” Ebony probed. If only space mages were more common.

“It’s only been a month since she went on her evolution and I don’t even know where she’s going.” From Xin’s reply, there might be a chance Kong Jing hasn’t even started her evolution.

“Space? Where would a crafter or smith go for their evolution? Her workshop…her own mask’s space?” All he had were guesses.

They had a surprise burrito buffet as part of their meal. It was easy to hold in case they had to rush away. He knew it was test subject day, she was gauging his emotional reactions to different taste profiles and every burrito had different fillings.

“Well, wherever she feels the safest and most beneficial. Did she tell you what she made before she was ready?”

“A magic tome connected to her brain but she said it turned out differently since she kept changing what she wanted from the book.” He started with the pork bone and cream stew. It was warm and delicious. Truly hard to come by after losing access to the surface and the markets.

“Hmmh…” The black-hair chef hummed without much interest, she wasn’t curious about her cousin’s crafting at all if it wasn’t about swords or kitchen utensils. “So what did you do to me…why do I smell you on me.”

“Bolster.”

“I-I see.”

A straightforward answer was still the best way to deal with her teasing. He picked up the mountain of burritos that could outweigh an adult pig and walked away from the table after patting her head with his free hand.

It was the titled Emperor. He didn’t require his entourage of earth mages to fix the floor he stepped on as underground and the floor was protected by the Manifestation of Natural Preservation.

“You must be the Rejuvenator.” The half-naked bald man with bright eyes had small black marks of Tetramyth carapace dust on him that he hadn’t clean off well.

The Imperial Army referred to him as the Rejuvenator because he didn’t share his name but the effects he had on people around him was greatly treasured. Mages and warriors both benefited from his aura and overflowing essence.

The freelancers called him Owner. As in, the owner of an inn or tavern since he provided a safe camp and occasionally food. They similarly did not know his name, and he didn’t know most people’s names either.

“You must be the emperor.”

The giant of a human stood over 2.5 metres tall and had shoulders just as wide. Thick, bulging muscles decorated his frame. His golden bronze skin seems to shine. His arms alone were thicker than Ebony’s entire body but it was his huge upper torso that gave him the triangular upper body that dwarves everyone present.

The bald man scoffed and waved his hands in front of his face. “Stupid title, I’m just a King. The Elven Matriarch is a real Emperor. Oplot’s the name.” He reached out for a handshake.

“Ebony.” Ebony returned the handshake without thinking until he realised…no one shook hands here. Oh, and Oplot’s hands were so big he barely held onto three fingers. The grip was surprisingly weak.

Then they stared at each other for an unknown amount of time, the strongest man on the planet muttering his name a few times.

Ebony raised the mountain of burritos on his other hand, “would you like some?”

“Food? Thanks, I won’t hold back on the offer.”

Each of Ning Xin’s burritos was jam packed with meat, rice, an assortment of ingredients she was testing out, cheese and one of her hot sauces. She made the wraps herself and they were extra large. A burrito could be a two kilogram or thrice as heavy, depending on the type and quality of meat she used. But one couldn’t even fill up Oplot’s hand.

“Oh! A delicacy! I’m glad I’m not abstaining from meat anymore.”

‘Dietary restrictions?’

“I heard a lot about you Mr Rejuvenator. Navin’s descendant mentioned you use a similar technique to my Guardian Knights…oops, I don’t have time to talk about that and it's not important. I hear you’re an ice mage of immense proportions.”

“That is an exaggeration. My range can’t compare to the Artillery mages or the Elves.”

“But you hit harder, faster and continue doing so for much longer. The young lady behind you, Xeng? Fire magic, I have plenty but more is always welcomed.”

“And? What brought you over to me, you’ve been out on the field for as long as years without coming back into the fortress.” Ebony assumed that Oplot, after staying outside the fortress and active on the field for months, decided to return to rest and possibly use his meditative aura to speed up healing. But this man wasn’t exhausted and neither did it feel like he was low on mana.

He found it pointless to argue that he doesn’t have spells that are faster or stronger than the Elves. He only had harder and heavier spells. It was a surprise that it was not his mana regeneration but his ice magic that dragged this man over. Not to mention, confusing.

‘What does he mean by having plenty of fire magic but more is welcomed?’

“I am planning to walk into one of the portals. I won’t hide it, my skill set requires me to take damage to deal damage. Grade 3 or 4 Emperor equivalents are not hurting me much but I have plenty of physical power. I have been storing that for the past year but it is insufficient to deal with Saints. Elements are more useful but not many can hurt me so I can’t get any elemental magic.”

“You are rather open with your skills.” They were strangers, Oplot was one of the rare breed that shared information about their skill set on a first meeting.

“It’s not a huge secret. I am useless without any stored damage except being a shield.” Oplot had a rather gentle and Ebony might be crazy, but the voice somehow sounded broad and encompassing.

“Interesting. So if I manage to hurt you with ice magic, you can then use ice magic?”

“Something like that, it’s more like returning the attack.”

“Delayed repulsion after storage…I see that’s why people say you can use all types of elemental magic but you also can’t do much about the Tetramyths in your previous state. But now, you’ve stored enough damage. So that means you can’t use magic that doesn’t deal damage, like healing…or can you store arcane magic, and reuse it differently?”

“You catch on quick, yes. I shall keep some secrets about what I can do. It’s a pity that my growth had stagnated because my defensive skill set got too powerful. Since few things can hurt me, I can’t store damage. And in turn, I can’t deal any damage. At least, in comparison to my defensive ability. I can still make use of my physical stats.”

“Then it is a pity, I am in a similar situation. Other than mana compression, the power behind my spells themself is weak. Xin can help you there.”

It seems like Oplot wasn’t that open.

“That is the beauty behind ice magic, I don’t need it to hit me at supersonic speeds. You can try to freeze me normally, mana compression works wonders.

“Oh, I can do that.” A standing target that wanted to be frozen? That was a simple task.

“If you need a torching, I can do that too.” Ning Xin wiped her mouth with the napkin on her thighs and placed it on the table before walking over, slowly getting in the grove and getting combative.

“Oh! Regardless of damage, much thanks! Ebony and?”

“Scarlet.”

“Righty, benefactor Scarlet. Benefactor Ebony…Ebony.”

‘Benefactor? He speaks weird.’ Ebony squinted slightly when Oplot begun to mutter his name again.

“How are you swapping mode so fast today?” He looked to the side and noticed a full head of red.

“Those were made for you.” Her voice seethed with controlled rage.

He gulped, thankful that she pointed that rage to Oplot despite being the one who offered the burritos.

“Ebony!?” Oplot suddenly looked at him with wide eyes.

…

“You speak English.”

Without a single twitch or change in expression, Ebony stated the obvious in the now foreign language.