Ebony's Fable

Ebony left Mireloom Chassis Engine in operation, he didn’t need the mental capacity now and needed the skill to level fast. The current percentage increase in mana regeneration it provided was only 101%, doubling his regeneration. That wasn’t enough but he understood the limitation was that the source of energy wasn’t an energy-rich source to begin with. With how much trial and error he underwent, he knew why his design failed.

There was only so much mana he could extract from himself. His mana was not able to give him more, no matter how efficient his design was.

He boiled it down to a few possible factors.

One, his mana purity wasn’t high enough to do what he wanted to do with it.

Two, his mental strength was too weak to carry out the extreme operations that a combustion engine required. So he had to stick with a steam turbine type of engine that was redesigned too many times throughout skill refinement. This might be reasonable and he subconsciously might not want to distribute any more than 30% of his mental capacity.

Three, he just exhausted himself and his self-preservation stopped him short of hurting himself beyond recovery. To check this, he just had to go back to trying to evolve the skill again now that he recovered

“Good morning sleepyhead.” The black-haired lady sat up with her arms still hugging the tiger plushie tightly.

“You look like the sleepy one.” Ebony combed her hair to the side.

“Okay now?” She laid her head against the tigers head and slumped onto the cushions weakly.

“Mmm,” She probably knew by gut feeling but he answered all the same.

“Fight?”

“Mmm,” He didn't lose any conditioning levels but it was only a matter of time so he wanted to get moving as soon as possible.

Her mind sharpened immediately as she got excited enough to slowly change states.

Needless to say, her swordsmanship improved again.

While his proficiency with Ethereal Form Arts had mostly peaked, she was still improving. When she had a full head of red hair, without any mana enhancement she was more than two times faster than him so it was hard to get a lead on her with purely sword technique.

Thanks to being a good example and the pressure she put on him, his swordsmanship was seeing steady improvements.

He wasn’t able to fully hide the openings that he leaves during wide swings which highlights greatswords’ advantages of hitting hard and heavy but he could almost knock Xin back with a swing. Considering his lower physical stats and the lower strength scaling a tier 3 technique has over a tier 4 art, he could call himself a proper swordsman now that he could display the strengths of a greatsword.

After all, her twin swords were held single-handedly and were a speed and agility-focused Art. The strength behind her strikes needed to be built up over combos that layered over each other.

Both at the base version, he would lose every spar when he held Icicle. Without it, he won 8 out of 10 unless she cheats and pulses herself with a bit of vitality. The 2 losses out of 10 were because she was changing her stat ratios mid-battle with her two-state change ability. As they battled, she improved faster than he did and if he was forced into a poor position unable to break her combos past a certain number, her sword art completely trashed him within the next minute.

But her win rate hasn’t increased after she found a more suitable stat distribution.

Taking this into mind, he predicted that with magic he should have the upper hand. It was too bad that most of his spells didn’t do much to her when she went super fire mode and melted even the air around them. Sound magic was useless if sound moved slower than her, even with the backing of his mental prowess. Sometimes, in cooperative times he couldn’t keep his buff on her stable because she moved so much faster than his sound magic.

Gravity at its current strength should help more than before and bring her down to a speed he could at least see and react to. Torrent Path and direct control over her body parts would be impossible. Not to the extent of Oplot who has an unbelievably wide and tough magic body but he could conjure mana or spells anywhere within 20 metres of her body. It was proof that she had a constitution skill with strong magic properties.

Ice, although could withstand heat to a great degree did not exceed her 750% Fortification for fire magic’s heat. He could combat it with mana compression, but ranged projectiles couldn’t be recharged with mana if he was close to her and the spell was not in physical contact with him. So in practice, only augmentation and maintaining his weapon and clothes with ice was the best use of his mana. Any more would be wasteful.

While her fire would burn out his mana reserves if he was determined to use ice magic, it would do the same to her because her spells weren’t exactly mana-friendly either.

‘So the question is how big her current reserves are. That would defeat the purpose. I don’t need to outlast her. Can my Domain buff exceed her ridiculous physical enhancements? After seeing her slay the Necrochitins…the answer is probably no, although she can’t kill me.’ Ebony greatly needed the mental acceleration because his spells had been conjuring into existence too slowly.

His eyes could pick up her shadows thanks to Perception but his mind was too slow to react with a spell, not even Will was fast enough and that included the defences that Dusk could conjure for him. The only thing that could barely react would be his body through reflex but she could trick his predictive reflexes so it wasn't reliable.

It should be better now but Accelerated Corporeal-Illusory Battleforge was a Generic Skill that was comparatively lower in level.

‘Reaction speed is my biggest issue. She has a reaction speed fortification, mental acceleration skill, lightning elemental reaction increase maybe more than I’m unaware of. Vitality, fire, blood and lightning for internal augmentation and wind for external. Her limit was greatly raised, highly likely due to her third core skill which should be something that raises her constitution or reduces the burden of enhancement. For now, her enhancements are all under tier 4. Let’s test out Battleforge.’ Ebony thought that he should put all the information he knew together with gut feeling to run some realistic simulations but he quickly stopped when his foot fell forward to catch his fall.

‘No way, did it just suck up all my mental resources. Okay, so I can’t run intense simulations without shutting the Mireloom Chassis Engine off.’ Ebony did a test with Knights around him against some freelancers that he remembered but he could easily run dozens of simulations in parallel and it wouldn’t even strain his mind.

He must have too much information about Ning Xin and himself compared to other people. If he ran one simulation at a time, did it in 3 times slow motion and took away variables such as ambient conditions, he should be able to get an initial result soon. Since he was free and wasn’t in combat, he dedicated 20% of his mental capacity to simulations. Some against Hector, Mallory, Wilson, Korben and a few others.

He would’ve simulated more against Frost Elves but Korben the village guardian was the one who duel Ning Xin, and he didn’t have much information on the older King-ranked Frost Elves except maybe Korta who spammed huge ice bombardments on the Trolls.

Oplot and Vent, the strongest Frost Elf were out of his league and he also had too little information on them. Simulations with them would produce worthless and inaccurate results.

‘I can’t forget the steampunk young master person. And maybe the mandate users too, can I simulate using those guys I fought but ramp up their powers? Better than nothing, at least I have some combat data on them.’

The less information he had the lower the accuracy of his simulations but they also take little mental effort to process.

“I’ll get the rations and cook. Be back in 2 hours.” After exercise was obvious meal time, the two of them were left with emergency rations in their bags. It would last them a few months and they wouldn’t touch it as long as they had other sources of food. Maybe a few weeks depending on their immense consumption.

She was telling him to free up his schedule. First of all, he really needed the bathroom.

With hygiene taken care of, he found Hector talking to one of his clones at the edges of the fortress. He was eating dry souper bread-like crackers with some freelance buddies of his. Along with clone number Nine.

Ebony showed up with his real body, and his clone seemed to feel that coming with his real body had its significance even if they could connect in real-time. The clone turned itself transparent and Flickered away.

Naturally, he didn’t ask for a fight. He just caught up with one of his very few friends while attempting conversation with new people. The topic of conversation was on the best mount rider. Ebony didn’t know anything about the racing scene which was one of the most popular entertainment amongst men besides duelling. But hearing about the many types of mounts that people domesticated was intriguing nonetheless.

He found out about Oplot’s success with the Venom Legion’s Powerhouse destruction and their retreat. The man was currently beyond the Arcanite Cortex’s portal together with an expedition party of high nobles including some of the Lord family members.

Navin was back at Tidal, he had barriers and duties to take care of on the surface.

In his place, Yvette the Life Queen was done here but Tetramyth’s had increased their fervour in dealing the fortress some damage rather than passively waiting for experience to go their way. Likely due to the Venom Legion retreating, the risk must have begun to outweigh the rewards.

Oplot’s team might have trouble with the Arcanite Cortex as the Necrochitins and Silversonic were rushing through their portal to send support. At the same time, more Arcanite Cortexes were found on the battlefield because they could fend off magic attacks and lead the charge against portions of the fortress with allochromes. Without Navin present, the fortress was taking a beating that exceeded what help Ebony provided to the resident's recovery.

Ebony also heard the news that Necrochitins could last as long as they wanted because they were concurrently invading multiple planets. They did not lack numbers nor did they lack fighters. But the mood around the freelancers and Imperial Army was bright.

The fact that they didn’t fall after this long and even repelled one of the subspecies off was good. Even better, the average levels of the entire army were raised a lot. Maybe their skills still stagnated around tier 3, maybe a couple of 4s but adding 20 or 30 levels along with much more skill levels surely made a difference. Not to mention, Yvette raised the survival rate a few times.

The number of freelancers present hadn’t increased but didn’t decrease either. Freelancers weren’t losing good jobs on the surface. Because the Royal family was attempting to centralise the continent which was quite a dream, they had plenty of delivery or collection requests for materials from other dungeons and the wilds.

Wildlife was considerably dangerous after some cities were deserted and the creatures grew by themselves in an upward trend but it didn’t grow that fast compared to the imperial citizens at the moment. Excluding places such as Hoarfrost Glades, Vermin Paradise and Fragadal’s Sea.

Hector was promoting some job opportunities. A huge project had been made public three months ago. The Empire was building railways. Staying in one place was deemed impossible since there were too many dungeons that provided goods, experiences and materials. They also made public the existence of other worlds but the general education and awareness of that was lacking. The railway design was actually bought from one of these other worlds.

‘Trains, somehow I’m connecting it to the steampunk guys. Maybe it's from their homeworld. And, Sister Jing hasn’t contacted us.’ Ebony did not expect such advancement from the Empire in the short time that he zoned out.

“So what are those allies like?” A fire mage that wore scaled armour questioned the Prince. The public announcement came with knowledge of diplomatic relationships with 3 other powers closest to Elcra.

“Eh…I know one of them is Nymph-dominant, Oreads controls the lands and Nereids the sea. They are a race of nature spirits and are allies thanks to the Elves. They are the strongest of the three allies we have. I think the average citizen is King-ranked around level 580.”

“What?! Average citizen? They can crush us,”

“Their numbers are small, less than a hundred thousand. And they are afraid of the Elves. I’m not very sure, but they might be a subordinate force of the Elves.” The young Prince was hesitant to share.

“Are the Elves really that amazing? They couldn’t take over the Empire.”

“More like don’t care to.”

Although the conversation got slightly political and Hector was avoiding topics, Ebony listened carefully. The Nymphs were allies in name. They were not technologically or magically advanced but they did have plenty of natural resources to trade in exchange for new species of plants and animals for them to farm and diversify their planet. As proof of their subordination, it appears that there was an Elven village on that planet that dealt with spatial travel and was the central of their planet.

‘If there is an elven village, there is a domain. Hmm, they should have an elder Frost Elf build one around Arcta.’ Ebony pondered.

The other two allies were human societies and Hector hemmed and hawed a lot more often which says a lot about the current relations with them. His excuse was that these allies were a lot further and he was just a small time prince who wasn’t told much. He was a few generations down the line and not the best at keeping his mouth shut.

‘So the freelancers and soldiers are estimating this war to end in less than 5 years unless the Tetramyth persists and gets other sisters here. The presence of the Elves is the reason why no more Tetramyth sisters are joining. Hence the Elves' overbearing arrogance in recent times. It seems like their connection with their home world has strengthened and the Tetramyth isn’t pushing as hard.’ Ebony wasn’t concerned with the politics of the world but understood the necessity of learning about his immediate surroundings for safety reasons.

Ebony quickly went back for meal time before the stipulated time. It was no feast but she managed to get meat other than ant flesh.

When he tried to tell her about unique skills, she almost crashed the table and put her hands over his mouth in time. “Whatever you were about to say, will put me and probably us in danger, sound magic or not.”

Seeing how serious she was, he didn’t try any further. He knew how useless sound magic was if good or perceptive mages were around. It wasn’t that important or urgent but he’d like to have her come up with something before their next evolution.

“Ebony, I had a very bad premonition. I don’t know what will happen, probably soon. But I can’t stop it. That’s what it feels like.”

“Death?” Her intuition worked best when it came to her survival.

“I don’t know, but it feels different. I feel…sad instead of scared.” She didn’t hide her eyes behind her mask for the duration of their meal, and he now knew the reason.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m far harder to kill than you are. I’m more worried about you. Please make calm decisions as much as you can. Ration your supplies well.” Perhaps he had been infected with good instincts. Deep down, he sensed something abrew the moment she gave him that soft…piercing stare. Today he learnt that looking at someone’s eyes can hurt and make one feel warm at the same time.

The silence he felt as they stared at each other seemed as if aeons had passed. Felt longer than all his mental training to refine his unique skill but barely seconds had passed.

“Promise me.”

Ebony wanted to say that he avoided making promises he couldn’t keep. Promises were sacred to him. But he knew she felt the same way so he simply waited for her to gather her words.

“We will find each other.”

“You would have to promise the same for me to do that.”

“I promise. I’ll cut down anything that stands in the way. Sharpen my blade when I can’t and then cut it down.”

Instead of replying, Ebony stood up and Flickered away to search for something he prepared. Last year, he gave her a special whetstone for her birthday following the wok. It wasn’t as good in quality as the wok but she loved it all the same.

He also received his first birthday present from her in the form of a black gem that could fit in a myriad bracelet and other extractors. It was her crystallised blood that went through Kong Jing’s processing and could be eaten. It was a potent potion of sorts.

This year, her birthday already passed but he long prepared her present. A necklace with a ring looped on it. It reminded him of the one that Kong Jing put on him that had a pair of rings but he could never remember or even see on his neck. It was still there, but out of sight and touch. Weirdly enough, it doesn’t do anything and didn’t appear to be some form of protection or it would’ve activated so many times already.

The ring made this time was 100% done by himself. Since he could compress mana to solidification into a mana ore, he used it as the centre gem. Changed it into an ice mana ore, and charged it up. As for the body of the ring it was made with the highest rarity titanic mythril that he had leftover. Melted down and mixed with his pure mana ore. The ice mana ore gem was filled with his Will that he made to fall dormant.

It was a trick he picked up from his clones that were above the surface. When he took too long to return to them, they learnt how to fall dormant to keep Will from dissipating as fast as it did. This allows them to survive longer and wait for him to recharge them. All thanks to the experience Model 38889 underwent.

It wasn’t even a generic skill yet but that was a job for his clones and Dusk.

It wasn’t a complete success but could be called a mini or incomplete core of his domain. A second Dusk in seed form so to speak. However, it couldn’t cast a domain. It was a work in progress.

The ring itself had his personal runic formula embedded. The usual capacity, absorption and conversion that he worked on and refined for years. Along with his evolution and increased Intelligence, he was able to sculpt finer formulations. There was more space to work with, and his formulations have been getting far more complex. The current formula was more than twice as potent and efficient compared to the version he used to put on Dusk’s scales.

With his Will imbued, the ring didn’t require complex capabilities. Sadly, his runic knowledge lacked anything to do with Will or he would have started experimentation. His runic formulations were constantly updated and with his runic sculpting skill, Dusk’s sustainability without him had only been rising. His pet tree had a different formula in use. One that fits the form of a scale and had additional effects such as the range of absorption of ambient mana. It didn’t work within the fortress but he still had Dusk sculpt them every time it forms a new scale.

Instead of durability and toughness, the ring had heat resistance together with the necklace chain.

“It’s late, but happy birthday.” Ebony stood behind her and put on the necklace. Bending over he made a move and took advantage of her nonreactive state to land an attack. They were both conscious this time. She grabbed his hands that were holding her face after a second but didn’t pull away.

“Tastes like chicken.” Ebony licked the oil on his lips after letting her go.

She rubbed her lips with her sleeves before pushing her chair off and scrubbing her sleeves all over his lips before returning the attack. Poor chair shattered since he stood still and she didn’t let it off.

A deafening alarm rang outside but Ebony didn’t let the alarm into the house.

“Necrochitin Saintess sighted.”