Ebony's Fable

'That went well.' Ebony thought.

Hoping he did reasonably well on his interview, Ebony was on the way back home from his job interview for the summer holidays. It was a hot midsummer afternoon and Ebony had always hated the heat. Shielding his eyes from the blinding rays, Ebony blinked, opening his eyes to see white. Absolute white from every angle, slightly stunning Ebony, “Is the heat getting to me?”.

Another blink or two revealed more white but of different shades, Ebony began to make out outlines of trees, and white dots in the air, ’snow’, he thought. That’s when it hit him, the chilling cold. But Ebony was no stranger to the cold, he loved the cold.

Before he managed to take in his surroundings, he heard a grunt, soft as it was. A snow white-furred boar unlike he’s ever seen. A metre tall and twice as long preparing for a charge, it huffed out a white breath and began its charge with a snort, aiming right at Ebony. There was slightly less than 10 metres between them, ‘more than enough time to get out of its way’, or so he thought but the boar covered more than half that distance in a single kick, surprising Ebony even though it wasn’t shown on his face.

Ebony leapt out of the way when he saw it prepare its charge saving his hide but he underestimated its speed and was knocked away by its passing flank on his left. Tumbling through the deep snow for metres. It felt like a truck had rammed into his left arm and side, his left arm was broken and his shoulders and the area around his ribs were aching badly.

Despite the intense pain and sudden situation, he was placed in, Ebony was shockingly calm. He mustered what strength he could and ran for cover behind a tree thick enough to get out of sight of the still charging boar. It either didn’t realise that it hit its target or couldn’t stop mid-charge to change direction. Whichever it was, it was a blessing for Ebony as he was moving much slower than he’d like to due to the snow that was halfway up his calves, the pain wrecking his side and the slowly seeping cold. He calmly inhaled and exhaled to get his breathing under control as to avoid catching the massive boar’s attention. Not bleeding was another windfall for Ebony, hoping that the boar’s senses weren’t that sharp he silently waited.

He was quite a distance away by now, having been flung off to the side and the relentless charge of the boar. The trees blocked his view of the boar but he knew it’d stopped its charge and was looking around for its prey and meal while snorting. Making its way towards his direction, Ebony slowly adjusted his position to keep out of its sight. Only when he was sure the boar lost his tracks did he relax his nerves, tightening them again when he heard a bell tinkle.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Meditation learned’

Meditation - Maintaining a calm and clear state of mind in a stationary position to increase mana and stamina regeneration rate by 1.0% per level. Reduced Perception and slight increase of pain resistance when in the state of meditation.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Lesser Stealth learned’

Lesser Stealth - Moving silently out of sight, very slightly increases the ability to move around lightly, reducing the sound of footsteps and presence per level.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Meditation level up 1 → 2’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Meditation level up 2 → 3’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Lesser Stealth level up 1 → 2’

…

‘???’

‘Have I been reading too many web novels or light novels?’ Being a fan of the litrpg genre there was only one word that came to mind, ‘Status.’ he thought, surprisingly ecstatic when it worked.

Name: Ebony Rime

Class: N/A

Subclass: N/A

Profession: N/A

Health: 47/60

Stamina: 41/60

Mana: 100/100

Strength: 5

Vitality: 6

Constitution: 9

Endurance: 6

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 6

Wisdom: 10

Perception: 7

Generic Skills:

Meditation Lvl 3

Lesser Stealth Lvl 2

‘A lucid dream?’ Ebony deliberated, the pain wrecking his arm answering his question.

Ebony Rime, age 20. The only living relatives he had seen were his parents. Standing at 178cm tall, he had a fit and toned body from the physical training he was taught by his mother. Personal hobbies include reading fantasy, with swords and magic being the theme. He inherited a resting bitch face from his mother and calmness from his father.

Making his way back home from an interview wearing a bleached white shirt, black formal pants, dress shoes, and a travel watch which was a gift from his parents when he turned 15. Only belongings on him being a backpack with his resume, his steel thermos flask that he carries around for his hot green tea, a sandwich for lunch, his wallet and his phone? ‘Where’s my phone?’ Ebony tried to recall to no avail. His sandwich was squished from rolling through the snow but still edible.

High rise buildings turned to towering forestation, at least most trees were familiar to him such as the pine, oak, birch, evergreens, and map…

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Identify learned’

Identify - Identify the world around you, allowing one to glimpse basic information of the target.

‘Well…can’t say that was unexpected.’ Though having spawned, teleported, summoned or whatever nonsense that transported him right in front of a buff boar in an awfully cold maybe magical forest was truly beyond his wildest dreams.

‘Could have been worse’. Going back to his status, a very game-like panel in his head he felt like he could physically see a light blue screen in front of him but at the same time couldn’t as the information was all in his mind. The information on it basically doesn’t differ much from the litrpg novels or manga that he had read.

The statistics were pretty self-explanatory, but it was all guesswork based on his reading experience so far. Simple maths tells him 1 point in Vitality equates to 10 health points and the same goes for Endurance for Stamina and Wisdom for Mana.

Mana screams magic to Ebony and he can’t say he isn’t excited though it’s not showing on his face with his dead facial expressions. Although he has no reference to compare his stats to, his relatively low health is concerning. A single graze from that boar has taken 13 points of health. He would probably have died if he was a split second late in his decision to leap to the side, taking it head on would’ve mutilated him.

His stats average out at 7 with Wisdom and Constitution above average and strength being his lowest stat. ‘All that training was for naught’ he thought.

Discovering what each stat does exactly might be helpful but not seeing a level indicator with no class, sub-class or profession Ebony doesn’t see how he’ll be able to gain stats to confirm his speculation on what each stat does.

Watching his status panel stamina gauge jump to 42/60 he started timing a minute on his still working travel watch to check how fast he recovers. Ending up at 48/60 by the end of the minute. 6 per minute or perhaps 10% of his maximum stamina per minute it unsurprisingly didn’t apply to his health as it stayed at 47/60. Not being able to see, feel or use any mana he left that aside for now.

Going to his skills it seems like he can gain skills just by doing stuff but the limitations of the skills are questionable as of yet. Ebony’s pretty damn sure that he could meditate any time whether he’s stationary or on the move even when he was running and rolling about earlier.

Keeping Meditation up, Ebony started moving away from where he saw the boar going towards. He needed to find shelter, some tea and sandwiches wouldn't last him for long either. He could hardly raise his arm but he could still make a weak grip if he really needed to.

[Hoarfrost Pine Tree]

[Snow]

[Hoarfrost Pine Tree]

[Snow]

[Hoarfrost Maple Shrub]

[Snow]

[Hoarfrost Maple Tree]

Identifying his surroundings to get any helpful information, snow, trees and shrubs were all he could see. Interestingly all the trees were of the hoarfrost variety, perhaps he was in a hoarfrost forest of sorts. The scenery was unchanged for another half an hour or so of trudging through the snow until he identified something new in a small clearing of about 10 metres in diameter with a lone tree in the centre.

[Vital Hoarfrost Crabapple Tree (Inferior) - The Vital Hoarfrost Crabapple Tree absorbs vitality from its vicinity]

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Identify level up 1 → 2’

Ignoring the skill level he gained Ebony scrambled towards it, sighting a tree full of bright red crabapples. They were the brightest crabapples he'd seen, they were bigger than a cherry and he could fit about 6 to 7 of them in his hands. He identified the fruit not expecting more than ‘Vital Hoarfrost Crabapple’ but was pleasantly surprised by the results.

[Vital Hoarfrost Crabapple (Inferior) - The overflowing vitality absorbed by the Vital Hoarfrost Crabapple Tree fills its fruit. Restores 10 HP when consumed]

“...How convenient.” He wondered if it was a stroke of good luck or if these trees were common here. The tree was pretty short and the fruits were hanging just slightly above his head. Ebony immediately plucked one off and took a bite, it was seedless so he just popped the other half in. It was juicy for a fruit in this cold weather and too sweet for his liking. Ebony watched his health recover and felt a warm flow in his body right after he consumed it going from 47/60 to 50/60, stopping there.

‘...what happened to ‘Restores 10 HP when consumed?’ His side and shoulder still hurt and his broken arm didn’t heal.

Munching on another crabapple he observed his health until an intense shock ran through his left arm leaving him in a cold sweat. His health went up by 1 but Ebony wasn’t going to try that again anytime soon since he was starting to shiver from the cold despite having always been strong against it, the sweat was not helping either.

‘Seems like numbers shown aren’t absolute and perhaps differing levels of damage to the body such as damaged or broken bones requires a stronger healing.’

Ebony started picking off as many of the ripe crabapples as he could fit in his backpack, tossing the useless resume out while he was at it. Who needed a resume when he now has a mental resume in the form of a status page?

Managing to stuff a whopping 137 crabapples into his pack after eating his sandwich since he was hungry anyway. He shoved 5 more into each of his pockets. With how low his vitality was, every magical healing fruit counted, as his life depended on it.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Meditation mutated into Persistent Meditation’

Persistent Meditation - Maintaining a calm and clear state of mind even on the move increasing mana and stamina regeneration rate by 1.0% per level. Slight increase of pain resistance when in the state of meditation.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Persistent Meditation level up 3 → 4’

‘Good to know that I’m not limited by the skill rather skills are limited by what I can or cannot do’ Meditation has always come about as natural to Ebony as breathing since he has practised it for as long as he can remember. The skill didn’t change much after mutating just that he can use it while moving around and it no longer affects his perception, fortunately, the skill doesn’t reset in level either.

Despite being seemingly in no rush, Ebony was in quite a pickle here. He was getting colder and colder and he was not equipped for this weather. The sun, a darker shade of orange over wherever he was now, was slowly starting to set.

Moving in the dark would be less than ideal, not knowing what could be out there he was already lucky he hasn’t seen any wildlife or maybe, hasn’t been seen by any wildlife would be more accurate.

Preparing to continue his trek with his increasingly numb feet, he paused after his first step when he saw something coming out from behind cover on his right and staring at him with its dull grey eyes. Right after thinking, he was lucky not to see any wildlife.

[Hoarfrost wolf pup Lvl 4]

He Identified, looking not much different from an arctic wolf it was normal sized with greyish white fur. The sound of snow trudging broke his line of thought when another 2 wolves came into sight. This time larger, but not quite rivalling the boar in height or length. One of them lazily nudged the pup towards him, too disdainful to even glance at their prey.

[Hoarfrost Wolf Lvl ??]

[Hoarfrost Wolf Lvl ??]

‘...They’re using me to teach their pup how to hunt.’ Ebony’s heart started thumping but he wasn’t feeling fear of potentially being hunted. He was feeling shameful at being disdained by mere wolves, disrupting his Persistent Meditation for a second. Nonetheless, now's not the time for such pointless thoughts and the truth was that Ebony didn’t stand a chance against the wolves with even escape being questionable as they had levels and stat advantages.

‘Wolves again… How many years has it been?’

With Persistent Meditation running again Ebony started to analyse his situation as fast and calmly as he could, maintaining eye contact with the pup. A pack choke-full of magical healing fruits? Check. Pockets with said fruits? Check. Fractured arm? Check. Dense snow everywhere? Check. Direction with the densest shrub population? Check. The only silver lining being that the adult wolves will likely just keep an eye on him and not make a move unless their pup was in danger.

“Doable.” Ebony muttered with a hint of a smile that would’ve surprised himself if he saw himself in a mirror now. Ebony started moving slowly towards some of the thickest trees closest to him, managing to take one full step before the pup started leaping after him to close the distance. Ebony hurled a crabapple towards the pup without aiming before darting off into deeper woods keeping an eye on the pup and probable parents.

The pup dodged the unknown projectile reflexively, buying Ebony another metre or two but not enough to get away from the pup’s vision. It continued its chase excitedly, with a speed rivalling that of the boar’s, it was about to reach Ebony in seconds. Right before its final leap with its jaws wide open, Ebony made a swift 180 turn and mustered the strongest turning kick he could at neck level which was the pup’s favoured weak spot. His kick struck true onto the pup’s jaw but he almost sprained his ankle as the pup was like a block of wood.

Skidding to a stop, the pup was disoriented by the kick. Not missing this chance he dived for the sea of shrubs, getting partially buried in snow. Making sure he stays out of sight of the pup he went deeper and deeper as fast and quietly as he could. Ebony was making great progress away from the pup due to how wide and short maple shrubs around were, it provided incredible cover.

Until he heard a low growl that stunned him in place, it wasn’t from the direction of the pup. It was one of the parent wolves. They went to their pup’s side and were evidently unworried about it despite the kick Ebony landed on earlier, they were urging it towards Ebony’s direction.

‘At least the parents aren’t interested.’ Ebony mentally commented as he made a run for it. His location was found anyway and he was not risking laying still after putting so much distance between them.

The landscape in Ebony’s field of vision slowly started changing, the shrubs were beginning to thin out and he was spotting a different colour than white, grey and brown for once. ‘Red maple?’ he thought as he saw three-bladed dark red maple leaves under a layer of snow on them. The surrounding terrain quickly turned into one with only maple shrubs and trees that were quickly thinning out.

Ebony had been slowing down in his escape from the ever increasing numbness and stiffness in his feet and entire body. Devouring a crabapple, bracing for the shock through his left arm that didn’t come. He was hopeful that the warm stream through his body will drive some of the chills out which thankfully did.

The pup was already on Ebony’s tail who had less and less cover. His stamina was dropping and it was getting harder and harder to see with the creeping darkness that came with the setting of the sun. ‘If it’s just the pup there should be no issue. The adult pair is another problem altogether though.’

A loud howl broke his chain of thoughts, catching Ebony’s attention as the pup stopped chasing him just a dozen metres away. Slightly further away were the 2 parent wolves that added low growls that Ebony felt a sense of warning in. It elicited a whine out of the pup but withdrew to their side regardless of its complaints. Together, they wandered off into the distance completely dismissing Ebony.

‘Why would they give up the hunt all of a sudden?’

Ebony didn’t believe they gave up prey when they were so close to getting him just because it was getting dark. The only reason he could come up with was that he was no longer worth chasing after he ran into the territory of the red maple. ‘Is there something more dangerous here?’ Ebony thought back to wolves’ growling.

Ebony slumped down against a tree exhausted, he didn’t know what unseen dangers could be around this area but he wasn’t going to risk going back out to be hunted by the wolves that may still be in the vicinity, waiting for their prey to exit.

The interlude allowed Ebony to catch his breath and look at his notifications that have been ringing softly in his head during his entire escape.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Persistent Meditation level up 4 → 5’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Identify level up 2 → 3’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Persistent Meditation level up 5 → 6’

‘You have been inflicted with mild frostbite - Slightly affecting physical movement and increases stamina consumption’

It was quite a wonder that he only suffered mild frostbite with how he covered himself in snow and he didn’t even notice how it affected physical movement perhaps due to the increased pain resistance from Persistent Meditation running the entire time or maybe his higher Constitution stat.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Lesser Stealth level up 2 → 4’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Cold Resistance gained’

Cold Resistance (Passive) - Extended periods of exposure to the cold allowed your body to develop a general resistance to the cold. 1.0% more resistant to cold per level.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Running learned’

Running - Run at 80% + 1.0% Agility per level

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Treading Step learned’

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

‘Hmm..’ Ebony pondered, Cold Resistance was ‘gained’ instead of ‘learned’ which made some sense to Ebony. He had gotten 2 skills related to movement. Running was pretty basic and good to have but it doesn’t help much unless he’s able to get it to higher levels and Ebony is not even sure if there is a level cap on skills or whether there’s a limit to the number of generic skills.

Ebony noticed that most of the skills seem to operate on percentages and will increase with skill level placing quite some importance on skill level. Getting 1% better at what you do every level might sound pathetic but it reminded him of the continuous improvement thing he read somewhere. If he got 1% better everyday for a year he would end up 37 times better or something like that, just substituted with levels now.

Treading Step was more interesting, he probably got it due to being able to thread through the thick snow without even slipping and he wasn’t even wearing the right shoes for this environment. ‘travel through most terrains with more ease slightly increasing in grace and stability in movement with each level’ was vague but the main point of interest is how the skill increases movement speed and not just the Agility stat. Seeing how it was apparently a passive skill it should stack with the Running skill.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Persistent Meditation level up 6 → 7’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Cold Resistance level up 1 → 3’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Running level up 1 → 2’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Treading Step level up 1 → 2’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Persistent Meditation level up 7 → 8’

Persistent Meditation seems really easy to level seeing how it’s already at lvl 8. The increase in mana regeneration didn’t do crap for him right now but stamina regeneration on the other hand was doing its part despite the tiny increase with his current skill level.

Looking around to plan his next course of action, Ebony was shocked out of Persistent Meditation when the leaves on the maple tree he was laying against burst into flames and a wave of chilling air hit him. He scrambled away from the tree, turning around to see the tree in blue flames and noticing that the same was happening to all the trees and shrubs around him. Fortunately, they were spread out and Ebony wasn’t hiding in a shrub or he would have been set aflame too.

Kicking Persistent Meditation back on he calmed down, Ebony can feel the freezing cold that the bright blue flames were emitting. Ebony overlooked that he was in a world with magical healing fruits and only now recalled to Identify the damn unsuspecting tree.

[Frostblaze Amur Maple Tree (Uncommon) - The leaves of the Frostblaze Amur Maple Tree will spontaneously combust ice elemental mana into freezing flames of frostblaze to cool itself and its surroundings down. Utilising the cold to toughen itself and grow.]

‘Those wolves were probably aware of this and avoided the area, I need to get the habit of Identifying stuff, the description is literally a warning sign that says “Hey watch out I combust from time to time”.’ As if that wasn’t enough to give Ebony a wake up call, a light ringing of a system notification rang in his head.

‘Ting’ ‘You have been inflicted with severe frostbite - Affecting physical movement, increases stamina consumption and continuously takes damage until status is removed’

‘…when will my stream of bad luck end?’

‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Cold Resistance level up 3 → 4’

‘...’