Ebony's Fable

Ebony surfaced and didn’t sense anything out of place. No deathly essence, no overpowering auras. However, he could hear footsteps.

‘Four pairs of footsteps, my hearing is impressive.’ He hadn’t even depended on vibrations to tell. He wasn’t too far away from the footsteps and he could already see where Ning Xin was.

In a cage.

She was trapped in a thick metal cage that could keep a large dog.

‘No signs of heat, was caught off guard or was she taken out instantly? Which one’s the dangerous one…that middle-aged man. Four humans? Appraise might catch their attention and I’m not sure how well Entity Evanescence works. But they’re not looking at me despite being ten kilometres away, so it must be doing something.’

Ebony felt oddly calm.

He overheard them speaking.

The gibberish went over his head. Just as he assumed, they weren’t speaking a language he knew.

Hearing that there was an Emperor Classed person already made him guess as much. These people weren’t residents of this world. They caged up Ning Xin instead of killing her. Objectives unknown, he wasn’t able to ask them questions.

‘I’ll see how well this Entity Evanescence works first.’ Ebony closed in on their march.

Three men wore furred clothing to fend off the cold. One youthful man who carried a sword and was equipped like a warrior took the lead. The other two, also middle-aged with bushy beards, were carrying Ning Xin’s cage as they trailed onwards.

He didn’t know what they were talking about but he could tell from the young man’s gaze that it was nothing good.

As for the last middle-aged man, he felt like a normal person. Ebony could see but not sense the man. Like Navin.

He walked up to them at a casual pace but there was no reaction from them. The young man was shouting in anger while they marched in the forest.

‘Hmm…what’s that weird feeling coming from her? Right, if Entity Evanescence is working on me, does that mean the same or similar skill is being cast on or by her? No wonder her mana pool is empty. Wait, did it activate when these people came over and the large drain ripped her energy? So she was unconscious from the get-go, and these people just nabbed her?’ Ebony guessed the situation.

In any case, they put her in a cage. They must not have kind intentions like helping an unconscious, masked lady with torn clothes.

Ebony was a kilometre away when he stopped getting closer. The middle-aged man was clothed in steampunk fashion. All of them were but this man had thinner fur clothing on. He started to glance around but Ebony quickly found out that he wasn’t the one that caught the man’s attention.

‘She didn’t get Entity Evanescence like me, so they can see her. This skill is draining all my regeneration away. How expensive…is the caster choosing how much mana he’s taking?’

Ever since he got the skill, he thought it was good fortune. It was a skill of an unknown tier that was just sitting within his skill set.

However, a similar foreign skill might have been what knocked Ning Xin out. Her version wasn’t strong enough to hide her from these people.

‘If this skill is activated, will those misty silhouettes know our location?’

Ebony saw what the middle-aged man was staring at.

The Berg Mammoths.

He spoke to the young man with respect and pointed to the unmoving mountains. Probably to inform the others that those mountains were actually monsters.

‘The young man’s the leader? Are my senses off and he’s the strongest one?’ The middle-aged man even bowed to the young man.

While they were distracted, he walked up even closer. Without any fear or hesitation, he found himself standing right beside the cage that the two men were carrying.

He didn’t even have to refract light to make himself invisible. These people were outright ignoring him!

‘This Entity Evanescence is crazy. I’m leaving tracks and they aren’t noticing me. I can’t just take her cage away without them realising right?’ Ebony didn’t want to try. That was too stupid even for him.

They treated him as air but he didn’t think it would extend to anything he touched. He might try if the stakes weren’t so high. Ful was watching, the tree spirit must be surprised at how far he had come without any repercussions.

The young man chatted with the respectful middle-aged man who was clean-shaven with sharp jawlines unlike the men carrying Ning Xin around. They put the cage down and watched the young man run off into the distance. Towards the Berg Mammoths.

‘Are they bodyguards? And that guy’s some kind of rich or protected person. That means he’s one of those who can travel between worlds and is using Elcra as a training ground. If they chose a Berg Mammoth, he’s either like us, a Master or a Grandmaster. Bodyguards would either be at the same rank or higher. Let’s assume higher. I doubt they are all Emperors, so two Kings, one Emperor and potentially one Grandmaster.’

Ebony didn’t consider fighting but he had to gauge what he was up against.

At the very least, their focus on the metal cage was getting weaker. The young man got into a stance to attack a mountain and the rest were watching closely.

‘Can I just wait till they completely forget about her? Did those misty silhouettes continue to share a stronger stealth for her? I hope so but she’s out of mana, although…ambient mana is being absorbed around her. Fascinating stealth skill, there should be mental magic at play to make those around us ignore us.’

Ebony decided to wait it out and watch what the young man could do.

‘Something’s tugging my body? Ah, the mandate guy is trying to pull me away from these people.’ Ebony saw Ning Xin’s body twitch.

To be honest, he hoped she stayed unconscious and quiet for now.

Ebony felt a tingle on his skin.

Someone was watching him.

He was keeping an eye on all four men present but they weren’t looking at him. Other than the young man, the other three were keeping their overflowing essence concealed.

‘The person who shared this skill with us must have found us…I’m gonna assume he won’t try to kill us if he wants to stay hidden. For now. He might even help us, they seem desperate to stay hidden.’ Ebony wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t find the person watching them even with his vastly improved Perception.

This was a person who shared a skill of an unknown tier that made him invisible to Ful and these otherworldly visitors. They were so good at hiding, he had a feeling he would’ve forgotten about them if it wasn’t for the fact that he had a skill from them.

Ebony gained the courage to touch the metal cage when the Mammoths woke up and the bodyguards were watching the young man with all their attention. He Appraised the cage, blinking twice when he found out that the cage was made of Ancient ranked steel alloy enchanted with magic that he didn’t know.

The cage was simple. Two flat metal plates held together by multiple rods. It had a gate that was locked but no hinges.

He saw no reaction from the bodyguards and started to pull the steel rods apart to no avail.

‘What tough bars…can I enhance myself without them noticing? I’ll ramp it up slowly, it's cold all around. They look like warriors, hopefully without a good temperature sensitivity skill.’ Ebony continued to strain his arms in futility.

The cage didn’t ring an alarm or anything. It appeared to be a durable cage and that was it. The convenience was perfect but it didn’t help that he couldn’t break it. The cage was telling him it didn’t need special magical effects to do its job of keeping its contents sealed.

Ebony chose not to use vibrations since it would be too obvious for warriors but that made his options limited. It wasn’t just the noise, good warriors would be able to notice something out of place even if he was completely silent.

‘Should I just hack at it? No, I have to assume that outrunning them is impossible.’

“Ful, Gen? Are you around? Can’t you just drag us down?” Ebony sent a thin stream of mana deep underground before he made a sound that could only be heard kilometres underground. He was banking on Entity Evanescence hiding every part of him, including mana and sound.

The strongest looking middle-aged man didn’t dress like a warrior and had a monocle completing their steampunk look. He didn’t carry any sword under his robe like the two warriors either. Most importantly, he was just floating in the sky. Staying, really, really far away.

‘Oh, he’s getting busy. Papa and mama mammoth…they should buy their attention. Nice.’ Ebony silently covered the cage in ice when he tested that it didn’t do anything against foreign mana touching it.

Hopefully, no bright lights were shining on them at the moment.

‘I was too hopeful.’ Ebony’s didn’t slow down his cast but he felt eyes on him.

However, the moment the floating man looked over Ebony felt something odd caress his body. He shivered, it felt like a cold gas molested him.

‘Huh? He looked away? Those mandate guys are stronger than I imagined. One after another, how do I get away from those mandate users…’ Ebony turned the cage invisible and Flickered away with the cage over his shoulders.

It was surprisingly light, not even half of Icicle’s current weight. Whatever that weight may be.

‘Feels like we’re jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.’ Ebony scanned the area for misty silhouettes but there was no one in sight.

“Haha, of course, I won’t be able to see them.”

“Ebony, to the right,” Gen called him out. That must mean he already ran far enough to be out of the random steampunk quartet. If they gauged their perception’s reach correctly.

Sadly, he wasn’t able to turn before he felt something grabbing his wrist and two pairs of hands pushing him to the ground. The cage with Ning Xin rolled to the side and crashed into a tree.

“Petr-”

A gigantic turtle rose from the ground as light snow fell.

Ebony managed to free himself to see three figures white as snow.

‘White as snow, I’m such a funny person. They are covered in snow. Are any one of them the one who shared Entity Evanescence with me? Doesn’t look like it. Ful doesn’t think Gen could match the steampunk person, but they can handle these silhouettes. Very conveniently, these guys didn’t chase after me the past year.’

“Thanks, Gen. You saved me there.”

“Only her, I doubt you’ll be in trouble. I remember now. I think I saw those people before. Ancestor called it a mandate? It doesn’t work well on creatures highly attuned with mana or have intense will, like us. So they shouldn’t be a large threat.”

“You didn’t kill them did you?”

“Why would I? They’re helping us hide. Although, they might be in a bit of pain.

“Alright, harden the dome, I'm gonna break this cage. She’s still asleep after getting tossed around, this sleepyhead. Ah, nice, the drain on my mana disappeared. Have you been stopping them from coming after us for the duration of our training?”

“Those that made you forgettable? I didn’t do anything, It’s just not easy to find something in the Glades. Especially where the two of you were training.”

“Oh, right. The mana here disrupts even mental links with our callstones. Are all places with dense mana like that?”

“Actually, yes. Criminals and people on the run love to run to places like this other than dungeons. Anyway, we’re lucky a fight was avoided. Even better, they probably don’t even remember or know about this incident. Keep your distance from that group. That man’s a space magic user. Travelling through worlds with spatial travel is one of the most forceful methods and he seems to be working for someone.” Ful chipped in.

“Why did you say magic user? Is he not a mage?” Ebony pointed out the odd wording Ful used.

“He doesn’t appear to be a mage as far as I could tell. He would’ve been more sensitive to your or our mana usage if that was the case. I can’t tell what world he’s from or what background he has.”

“Background? Sounds like some cultivation novel. Can you escort us out?” Ebony wasn’t shy about asking Gen to protect them. The tree spirit seemed chirpy, Gen could probably leave for a moment without an issue.

“You’re gonna leave straight away?”

“Not right now. But there’s some Emperor class space magic user that may or may not remember us, their cage is missing. Then there’s a group of people who can hide us from these otherworldly steampunk-dressed men who have both of us on their list. Well, I didn’t kill any of them so they might not be completely hostile but they almost caught me in an uncivilised manner. Not that they acted civilised, to begin with.”

Gen already crunched onto the cage which took away his opportunity to try breaking it.

‘I’ll take that.’ Ebony packed up the broken rods and dented metal plates. He could use it or give it to Kong Jing since the material didn’t look easy to come by.

As for the woman originally inside, she was snoring softly after she fell out of the gap Gen opened.

“Don’t tell me she had been sleeping from the start and her intuition didn’t wake her up.”

“No, she wasn’t. She interacted with the group that caught her for a moment before she suddenly lost consciousness. They were about to clash. So, you’re right. They might have some impression of her that a mandate might not keep hidden forever.” Ful replied.

The tree spirit and turtle had been watching their training so he wasn't surprised they knew about all their activities.

He tossed the woman onto their sofa in the trailer and made some grub. He kept them in the food preservation boxes they had. Then he left the trailer fully garbed.

“Gen, a spar.”

“Is now the time?”

“There’s always time for a spar.”

It didn’t take long before he was squashed between two flat, thin planks of snow. With his body contorted, he couldn’t even muster the strength to break free.

‘No difference…all the skill refinements and evolutions made no difference. Growing in battle sense didn’t help either. So to Gen, my improvements over the past two years made absolutely no difference to him. If he’s a thousand points, I'm a one-pointer. Doubling or tripling my power to a point of 2 or 3 would indeed be hard to tell.’ Ebony wasn’t disheartened.

His gravity magic was underpowered and weight or repulsion did little. Trying to flip Gen into the ceiling didn’t work since the turtle could easily ground himself. Sound magic was suppressed badly. Gen could keep his mana so still and stable that his vibrations simply faded the moment they came into contact.

The spar was even shorter than it used to be as Gen adjusted his strength. Seemingly to put Ebony back into place. There was no surprise, he couldn’t even injure a Grandmaster Apex Ape if they didn’t allow him to hit them.

He imagined his domain and multiple enhancements could easily breach the stat gap but that wasn’t the case. He was reminded that he wasn’t the owner of this space when Gen flooded the dome with his mana.

For the first time since he became a mage, Ebony knew what it felt like to be suffocated within another’s mana. Even conjuring or pulling mana out of his body was a few times tougher. It was similar to pushing a balloon underwater. He wanted to push air out but every gap for mana to escape was forcefully pushed back by some pressure. He felt like he couldn’t even fight a quarter as well as he should.

‘So this is how others feel when I suppress them with mana? Interesting, no wonder they tend to fight less effectively even discounting cold, vibrations and gravity.’

‘Sparring’ with Gen didn’t let him increase his skill levels. The turtle barely gave him a chance to utilise his skills. That was no way to improve.

‘A few levels short, should I find some other monster?’ Ebony already learned all that he could from fighting some gorillas.

The Elder Apes, like Gen, were too strong for him and he already knew their patterns too well by now. The Elders did use slightly different moves but he didn’t think they would be a threat the moment his stats increased.

“Ebony!!” A screech echoed throughout the dome.

“What’s wrong?” He scratched his head at the high-pitched scream.

“Why did you toss me here? Now the sofa’s dirty! You clean it! And the floor.”

“...You were almost snagged away.”

“And I’m here now. Don’t think I don’t know. You were the culprit for having Scorchie and Scorhy taken away from me.”

“Ah, but you’re not angry. You’re actually satisfied.” He raised an eyebrow when he had a sudden feeling.

“...What makes you say that?”

Ebony nodded in satisfaction. ‘Anger’s not all I can tell!’

“You-”

“I nothing, I made pasta. And a chickpea salad. There’s also a pot roast that’s still cooking.” He knew a surefire way to change the subject.

From what he could tell, she changed just as much as he did. If not more. The shock of losing her swords temporarily must have hit her pretty hard.

“I smelt that. Along with my stench. Watch the fire, how could you leave it unattended? I’m going to wash up. Clean up the mess you made.”

Ebony stared at the snow-covered sofa, patches of dried blood were stuck on them. The floor was fine, he carried her in after all.

The corners of his lips lifted slightly, he pinched them in surprise. That wasn’t a voluntary or deliberate muscular motion.

‘Funny, I don’t feel like I’m in a state of meditation anymore but the skill is in effect. Perpetual Tranquillity Spring? To think my Core Skill became something I understand the least.’ Ebony hummed.