Ebony's Fable

Ebony didn’t add to his training hours despite being slower in the levelling department. He kept his routine constant but cooking was left to him now. He still had dinner with Kong Jing every evening.

The fisherman Uncle Wu, stopped by and left a tuna-looking fish by the doorway on the day after Ning Xin started her evolution. He was the only one who came by.

The man didn’t say anything. He didn’t even call out to them.

Ebony just knew that Uncle Wu walked passed and left the live fish in a tub by the doorway. He bowed to the fisherman’s back when he walked out. Whether or not the fisherman sensed it, he didn’t know but he had a feeling the fisherman saw his gesture.

At night, he would try to simulate a mental battle again.

After his Core Skill evolved or his Core developed, he had better results. The mental simulations got more realistic. Although subtle, he could even feel his Skills improving infinitesimally after the repeated simulations. There was a good chance he could get a skill out of this practice but it didn’t feel like he’ll find out what’s missing yet.

The realism of his simulations had already reached a very high degree. However, he wasn’t exactly living within his mental simulations like how he accidentally did the first time around after duelling with Lucas.

It was hard to believe that was a fluke that he couldn’t recreate.

Without strong opponents.

Without danger.

Ebony’s remaining skills under his target level continued to grow at an alarming pace.

Once every three to four days, multiple skills would level.

It felt normal but his skills weren’t levelling from 30s to 40s, they were levelling from 440s to 450s or 580s to 600s.

‘Wow, that is a lot of Natural Potential. This thing called Core development, we need to focus on it instead of killing monsters. The question still stands, is there a degree of development? It’s suffocating not knowing these things…’

Ebony still had no idea what degree of Natural Potential he received but he didn’t care anymore. It felt like his skills wouldn’t stop at 449 or 599 anticlimactically. He felt bad for those who faced these issues and hoped he wouldn’t face it any time soon.

‘Hurray for genes I guess.’ He wasn’t about to let genes determine his strength but he wasn’t going to deny how much it helped.

“Haaa, what killed both of you…” Ebony unknowingly let his voice slip.

He didn’t even register his own words.

❅❅❅

Ebony recalled their previous evolution from Journeyman to Master taking 10 to 11 days.

Gen’s evolution from Grandmaster to King took 49 days.

It was not hard to make an educated guess that Master to Grandmaster was somewhere in between. Assuming races didn’t differ much in terms of evolutionary time.

He was almost proven wrong.

Ning Xin took 45 days.

That was an uncomfortably long time of vulnerability.

However, they weren’t in any form of existential threat.

Xienor was as quiet as any other day throughout the 45 days. No monster craving their flesh or mana dared to come or even sense anything.

Ebony reevaluated the need for a good room or location for evolution. It should hide all leaks of any kind of overflowing essence.

The moment she woke up, he and Kong Jing knew as they could sense mana shifting within the house.

Instead of disturbing her right after she woke up, he went to prepare the fish that Uncle Wu left. He had left a single fish by the doorway every single day. Today, the day that she woke up, he had left the biggest fish that was as big as a Jetfin. As if he knew she was going to wake up.

With 44 fishes, the feast was not easy for him to prepare. He had to think of many dishes that had fish and he wasn’t an expert as to what fish suited which method of cooking.

He didn’t stumble and just got started with simpler recipes that he knew. The starving one would come down to help him once she reorientated herself with her new self.

She ultimately came down in record time.

He just didn’t expect to look up when she stood beside him.

‘She’s about 1.92 metres tall. I’m not going to be shorter than her, am I?’ Ebony had good measurements by eye. To a certain extent, stats affected their evolution and the body they would grow into. A greater physical proportion required a larger or stronger frame.

With his disproportionate physical to mental-stats, it was quite likely that his physical growth wouldn’t be as prominent as hers.

To begin with, he heard that they weren’t supposed to get any significant changes in body size anymore. The biggest change should’ve been when they evolved from Journeyman to Master. The rest of the evolutions should have very small, gradual changes because the first evolution already made their body more suited for their class.

Her height and overall frame had grown pretty significantly in his opinion. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he could beat her in a fight but he bet he could take a lot of lucky shots. Unless she was so attuned to her new body despite the change in reach. But he doubted that.

Ning Xin had silky black hair running down her head. Down to the back of her knees. She put on shorts and a random shirt that was lying around. Standing a few centimetres taller than him. Her shoulder width was still slightly smaller than his but it was wider than she used to be.

Her limbs had the most obvious growth proportion-wise. Her arms and legs were noticeably longer compared to the growth in her torso. It was not obvious to anyone else but to warriors like them, even a tenth of a centimetre was a massive change.

She was more muscular but still as toned. Be it her arms, legs or abdominal muscles she gained a little more girth. Slight chubbiness was gone but he knew that was just because she hadn't eaten in 45 days. The feast before her evolution was quite an intimidating meal.

Her white skin was brighter. He couldn’t put it in words but she looked less unhealthy. Her paleness didn’t look as ghastly.

The rest of her body grew proportionally and she didn’t exactly look any different other than being larger.

He felt a little bashful for his senses just checking her out like that. He wasn’t sure if it was his fault that his senses let him gauge her abdominal muscles. For some reason, she still had a flat tummy instead of an athlete's six-pack or well-defined abdominal muscles like his.

That might be the greatest mystery of her body. Where in the world are her muscles? She had so much Strength stat, all female warriors would have well-defined muscles. It wasn’t like she didn’t train before she got a Class or added any stats either. Looking at her body, it was hard to tell she was a warrior or swordswoman unless one had a good eye.

To be it simply, she was gushing out charm that Ebony was not immune to.

Her mask changed as well.

It looked thinner than before and the bird feather on it was now dark red in colour. It was still in the midst of changing colours as if it was settling its mana down. Unless her mask now constantly bubbled with fire and blood which was within his expectations.

“Scoot over.” She bummed him to the side and washed her hands.

With her hair dripping wet, it was obvious she just run down after a bath. Evolution made one stink after all. But the Chef was a clean freak when it came to food so washing of hands was habitual.

“Put on some more clothes first. I’ll descale these fishes. Uncle Wu brought one over every day.” He bummed her back.

She tilted her head in confusion, letting her hair slide down to cover part of her mask and eyes…wait her mask didn’t have holes around the eyes anymore. It was a solid white mask with a feather. No holes for sight.

‘Can she see? Are those like one-sided mirror glass?’

“I am wearing clothes?” She stated questionably. Her body steamed as she raised her body temperature to dry her hair.

‘Is she acting? Why do I think she’s acting confused?’ Ebony was confident he could pick up a wider range of emotions but he was still a beginner.

“Hey, are you trying to cook the fish?” Ebony quickly protected the ingredients but the steam and even heat didn’t blow over.

“Come on, I’m not that careless even if I just woke up. Hurry up, I’m starving. Let's toss that, that, that and that into a pot and make fish soup” She blew the hot air out of the windows with a gentle breeze. She picked out a few fishes and determined their fate.

‘Perpetual Tranquillity Spring are you a meditation skill or not? Her voice changed too. It’s even deeper, no not deep, it's more sultry.’ For reasons that he was now half-aware, half-confused about he wasn’t able to concentrate as he helped her prepare a big meal.

She was starving so they made something quick and easy first while leaving soups and stews to cook. Most of it was for her but he accompanied her.

Her essence or aura started to climb while she ate. The weakness of lacking health and mana after evolution took much longer to recover from than he expected. A larger pool required a longer time to heal.

Perhaps this state of weakness right after evolution would last longer the stronger they got.

No invisible threat of misty silhouettes or steampunk Emperor-classed space users came over for them. Having Kong Jing over and being amid Xengs was pretty convenient.

“By the way, did you burn your room? I can’t help but notice the smell of burnt ash.” Ebony spoke up. He noticed for a while now but her house shouldn’t be that fragile.

“I'll clean up later.” She continued to put food into her belly.

He just didn’t think they would accompany her to cook and eat from one midday to the next. Kong Jing shut herself in the guest room right after a single plateful of food. She made sure Ning Xin was alright and they did share a hug. Leaving Ebony alone to entertain her gluttonous streak.

‘She ate for almost 28 hours straight! Is she trying to get back 45 days of food into her system?’ Ebony knew that she also spent half the time cooking but she always had something to snack on for the past day.

Although one didn’t consume any sustenance during evolution, they were also not using much energy in a state similar to hibernation. Discounting the vast amount of essence being funnelled into their evolutionary process. That energy remained in the body in some form.

She should not feel the need to eat as much as 45 days worth of food.

At the end of her feast, she burped in satisfaction and fell asleep on the dining table.

He shook his head and carried her to the sofa in the living room. Her room still had ash in the air. He covered her long legs with a blanket and left the house to exercise. He skipped a day of conditioning.

It was not so bad. After The Itch. It wasn’t that easy for him to lose Conditioning levels. It would likely take at least a month of inactivity before he started losing Conditioning levels.

He was very surprised that Ning Xin hadn’t gotten The Itch.

Throughout her entire training session that got her to all her evolutionary requirements and goals, she didn’t experience his phase of The Itch.

Before her evolution, her Conditioning Skill still sat at tier 2 although highly refined. Oddly enough.

After The Itch, his Conditioning Skill jumped to tier 4. Fighting the Apex Apes with The Itch had been difficult but it pushed him even faster.

He knew he had more hours of training than her but she shouldn’t have been so far back in this regard.

He was quite sure her gains from her evolution were great. While eating and recovering her lost essence, he could feel her overwhelming Vitality just bearing down on him. It mostly burned rather than weighing him down. There was also a tingling sensation and moving felt…sticky.

His blood clotted and felt like it would clog up. It wasn’t very strong of a sensation but the effect would probably only mount up as she levelled up and got stronger from now on. He didn’t think about what this effect would be like on others.

‘This is even worse than the weight on one’s shoulders.’ She wasn’t aware of the effects of her overflowing essence and he didn’t tell her during her healing session. It was natural that she wasn’t in full control of it at the moment.

‘Ting’

‘Oh, what a coincidence. The last skill level I needed. Keeping some of my organs sealed worked. Let’s see…oh? No class name? Will I only find out after evolution?’

‘It nice that Sister Jing can enter Arcta as she wishes. I don’t have to wait years to get back.’ The thought of going back to Arcta for his evolution was natural. Other locations didn’t come to mind.

Be it mana densities or just a symbolic location, it just felt right.

‘I do want to eat plums too. Am I catching her gluttonous desire?’

Three days later, they left Xienor. Ning Xin didn’t have a strong attachment to Xienor and Kong Jing only had her crafts in mind.

She did extend her farewell greetings to Uncle Wu but that was about it.

He watched her train but it was mostly her getting used to her new reach.

According to her, most of her skills remained the same with barely any skill evolutions or mutations. Reason being, she already evolved those skills by herself before she evolved her classes. The biggest skill evolution was her Conditioning which jumped from tier 2 to 4. Hence, he was under the impression that she would face The Itch soon.

Not getting skill evolutions was likely going to be the case for him too. Their skills are already beyond a Masters, to begin with.

In fact, from his persistence, he managed to find out a few of the skills that Kong Jing and the older Frost Elves had. Despite all of Kong Jing’s genius, she mostly had tier 4 skills even as a Grandmaster and she even expected it to stay that way after evolving to King excluding her Core Skills. Ebony wasn’t surprised to find that Kong Jing reached level 500 all of a sudden. He was just interested in what she made that got her level to jump that way.

As for the King-Classed crafters in Arcta, they hinted that they weren’t far off either but he didn’t interact with them much. Ebony knew a little about the difference between tier 3 and 4 skills. He could see why tier 5 skills would be hard to learn or create.

Since Ning Xin hasn’t levelled, her stats also stayed constant.

Hence, her evolved self’s gain in power mostly came from Fortifications. They were playing a game where they had to guess each other's new Fortifications after he evolved and duelled with her.

If there was one good news, it was that she remembered her evolution process. The memory was quickly fading but she told him about it while feasting.

She opened her eyes to an endless horizon of blood. Standing naked with the blood reaching her ankles. In her hands was a pot. In her words, it was a soup pot filled with an unidentified red liquid.

When she blinked, wine glasses and goblets appeared. Floating eerily in front of her they extended forward, branching forward to more and more goblets.

The closest ones to where she…spawned were filled. Each goblet had different shapes, colours and even materials. Some were glass, others were gold or silver or at least that is what it appeared to her. These goblets represented her Fortifications, her physique and then leading down to her skills.

She could feel herself fading away from that evolutionary spot and instinctually knew what to do. Running forward, she poured her unknown pot of liquid into different goblets.

There were plenty of empty goblets and once she poured some fluid in, the fluid would flow down the goblet and leak to the floor, opening up a wider view where she could glance further. Otherwise, most of the path would just look like a bloody sea without any floating goblets.

After she told him about her experience, she could barely tell him the details again. The next day, all she knew was that she was able to guide her evolution in the direction she wanted. She didn’t know about the bloody sea, the pot of unknown fluid or the goblets.

That was quite fascinating for Ebony. Forgetting the evolutionary process was the entire reason why it was so hard to theorise or learn more before one evolved. Even with seniors who were multiple evolutions ahead of them, they can’t seem to learn much about the process from them.

Even though it was someone else’s evolution, Ebony also began to find it hard to repeat what she said in words. But he got the gist of it and even penned it down as she spoke so he had a physical record.

In her perceived time, she spent about half an hour pouring the red fluid and deciding where to pour it in before she lost consciousness. Kong Jing had long forgotten what her evolution was like and she hadn’t thought to pen anything down. Ebony had a feeling that she had written something down but lost the book or notes somewhere.

‘Half an hour seems great but she decides fast and her mind is one-tracked. That’s also using her mental acceleration’s speed which I don’t have so I might have to act fast. I don’t have another point of reference but let’s say I’m not too far off since we’re both Masters of roughly the same…quality.’

Ebony was optimistic. If she had a choice, he was confident enough to think that he would have the same opportunity to decide his growth.