Ebony's Fable

“You’re really fast…We classed together but while you are evolving to Grandmaster, I’m still a Journeyman who hasn’t even picked up a Profession.” Clovis commented during dinner.

“Haha, don’t worry about it young scholar. You didn’t have anyone to follow but I've started towards the direction I had been brought up. Right, I have a ton of theories and hypotheses about evolution and natural potential. I’ll tell you all about them later.” Scholars simply needed knowledge to level up during the Journeyman to Grandmaster stage, maybe even further.

Clovis already levelled faster than other crafters and combatants in the village. Neither of his parents went down that route and it was surprising that he did so. He was a rare case amongst the Frost Elves for not following in his parents' footsteps. It made his progression harder as he had little to no guidance. Although it was true that Ebony had almost no guidance in terms of many of his magic spells it was hard to deny that he followed the path that his parents put him on.

No matter how much he denied using his bare fists and insisting on the sword. He was born an unpolished weapon and grew up being ground against the toughest rock around. His mother.

‘Well…I don’t deny using my fists.’

“Really!? You have to tell me everything!”

“Of course, I even wrote it down.” Ebony realised that Clovis’s ignorance of the system of power wasn’t because he wasn’t taught such knowledge.

It was because neither of his parents knew about it either. Furthermore, the crafters might not even think it was any special knowledge. They crafted items, good ones that developed their core. They might not know that it was different from the Natural Potential gained from killing monsters. It might be the ‘correct’ way that one gained Potential.

Now it made sense to him. Why they could just take their time and why their ritual for Classing was so slack. It might be hard or even impossible for an Unclassed to ‘develop their core’ hence, there was no need for them to wait years on end after turning fifteen.

That changed once they were a Journeyman. As a crafting or support class-filled village, they only knew about their method of improving. The young ones who took on combat classes would all be guided by their parents and direct family members before one day moving on to their second village.

Even then, the villagers weren't exactly as open as he imagined. They kept things to themselves. Especially skills and spells. Knowledge on how to get stronger or better at what they do must be information that they protect tightly.

Both Roya and Halvis lost their family before they turned into an adult. They partially lost their lineage.

‘Doesn’t that mean I’ve been giving a very bad impression of myself by asking around?’ Ebony started to feel embarrassed. They still treated him cordially, more than that, they welcomed him.

Ebony thought differently, he didn’t stand to lose anything by sharing information. A different perspective might help him formulate more ideas. It wasn’t like he figured anything groundbreaking either. As a meditator, he should’ve stuck with it. Instead of going on to learn all sorts of battling, spells and interesting ideas that popped into his mind.

Ning Xin’s body had to be remeasured with the ladies and baby while he spent the night talking with Clovis. Halvis hadn’t even returned as he spent the night drinking with Mrs. Calhy’s husband according to Clovis.

As far as he was concerned this was a rare occasion since the villagers rarely touched any alcohol. They treated it as poison other than certain herbal concoctions that contained alcohol.

Xin's body temperature wasn’t a problem for the baby. It was lower than his own by a great degree. If he had to guess, it should roughly be under ten degrees celsius. Her blood’s capacity for energy must have increased.

‘The specific heat capacity of her blood must have risen. I wonder if this world’s science and engineering know about specific heat capacity. Maybe in a different technical term, they know quite a lot about energy.’ Ebony thought about how convenient and perfectly suited that Fortification would be for her.

All she had to do was eat, digest and her stamina expenditure was no longer as dire of an issue. Her second Core Skill also made it possible for her to convert mana into stamina. It had been a long time since she depended on his blood for energy as well. She had gotten over her phase of addiction to his blood.

He needed to spar with her seriously to know if her second Core Skill changed. They might have fought each other after their training in the Glades but it had mostly been to gauge each other's improvements.

Maybe she was like him during his evolution from Journeyman to Master and got her third Core Skill immediately instead of spending over a year before deciding on her second.

Sharing knowledge or helping someone else train to get stronger felt pretty nice. Maybe he liked to teach more than he assumed.

‘We’ll be going to Tidal sooner or later. I want to check out the academies. I can fill up on common sense.’

Clovis fell asleep deep into the night and he had to get the baby out of the ladies' hair as well.

He cracked open one of his jars of plum wine on the porch and poured himself a glass. Taking in its scent before raising it to his lips. Long fingers descended right in front of his face and snatched his glass.

“I got a dwarven book on fermenting alcohol, let’s make some tomorrow.” She sat down on air but he conjured a seat for her.

She definitely expected him to do that. The icy cold seat didn’t bother her. She wore the loungewear he made. They were made larger for comfort so she could still fit in them. The sleeves couldn’t reach her wrist and her ankles weren’t covered but she was properly covered this time.

“We can let plums soak in sugar while I evolve. Since when did you get a book?” He found himself disappointed that he saw no eyes through the mask.

“Back at clatter rattle. Don’t you remember?” She waited for him to pour another glass and their cups tapped.

Ebony remembered that she placed a stack of thin books on the counter when they scrolled through bookshops but he only saw the title of one. ‘Tidal’s Top 1000 Restaurants and Taverns’ was written by a food reviewer of sorts. It was even the fourth edition of the book. Updated every century and the current edition was published just five years ago. He didn’t exactly look through everything she bought.

“I thought dwarven brewing techniques are all kept secret?” He was a little worried she got cheated. It may just be a book and he didn’t care about the price but it would not be good if she was too naive.

“Cooking secrets are never kept long. As long as others eat or drink what they make. And this doesn’t include any ingredients or recipes. Only basics dos and don’ts. The writer had enough of drinking terrible ale and saw it as his duty to raise the standards of alcohol in the Empire. The rant on the first page says so.”

The plum wine they made was normal alcohol. No matter how concentrated, it wouldn’t affect her body. Her poison resistance was relatively strong. Neither of them took poison resistance training very seriously. Not by choice, there were not many natural poisons strong enough to harm them.

It was hard for them to raise poison resistance. He believed if poison resistance was some kind of hidden stat, then both of their base resistance was just extremely high to begin with. Another perk of genetics and non-pickiness with food.

They would have to find a specialist poison maker or alchemist if they wanted to train their poison resistance. Unless they were lucky enough to find a wild ingredient that was potent enough.

She brought out the book to read together. The chairs joined into a hard sofa to facilitate reading. The basic alcohol brewing techniques weren't new to either of them but the method to increase alcoholic content was new.

They had to grow yeast in a specific mana-rich environment. Just because the yeast was surrounded by mana doesn’t mean they’ll take up its properties either. It wasn’t as if yeast absorbed ambient essence to become monsters after all. It was not as simple as it sounded and the book didn’t go into detail.

He expected Ning Xin to tear or burn the book on the spot. The information within was almost completely useless.

Instead, she fell asleep against his shoulders.

“Really, it's not much stronger than the cooking alcohol you use.” Ebony stayed there and continued appreciating the plum wine.

‘Ting’ ‘Generic skill Lunar Bio Clock learnt’

‘Lunar Bio Clock - You have grasped the lunar cycle and celestial bodies' movements to an extent. If a moon or celestial body of sufficient size is within sight, you are able to estimate the time relative to you by 200% + 2.5% more accurately.’

“How unusual. No matter. Remember, since you can now perceive us, so can we.” A myriad of voices surrounded him and flooded his mind. There was a cacophony of…noise but he was able to make out a sentence. It felt like when he first talked to Gen, they weren’t speaking a language but he could understand them.

Ebony remained seated so as not to disrupt Ning Xin but his mana was already sent throughout his range to find where the voice came from. It was pointless as he expected. There was no chance an uncountable number of people were just standing around them.

“You haven’t gone insane? Now this will be fun.” The myriad of voices continued its attempts to fill his head.

Ebony sipped his plum wine and let a chilly breath escape. He didn’t bother addressing the numerous voices because he felt the weight on his mind disappear.

‘That was noisy, like a crowded rock concert with amplifiers. Lots of shouting and whispering all at the same time. Perceive them, the moon? Celestial bodies? Or spirits? Great…more beings just watching me and I can’t even pinpoint them. They noticed the moment I got the skill. Am I able to sense something new? A type of energy or mana maybe…nope, nothing feels new. Hmm, knowing the current time more accurately? This is a little silly when I already know the time. It’s now the twenty-third hour, seventh minute and twelfth second and counting. Ooo, I know the time down to the millisecond. With some deviation but that’s pretty nifty.’

The sun rose before he knew it and he put an end to his drinking session.

He folded the blanket that a groggy chef kicked aside and went to stretch. Helping Clovis while he was at it. Kiva woke up early and joined in on the stretching exercise. He was extra careful with her, it would be detrimental to injure or overexert young muscles.

Going about the day in the village like usual, he observed that no one noticed anything about the myriad of voices or acts spooked.

The playground was filled in the morning, causing the small exchange market to be quiet. Ebony didn’t join in, he strolled the market and listened to the Frost Elves conversing. Sending a nod and greetings when he walked passed the stall owners. They were all just relaxing and chatting with each other.

He gifted everyone one of them a large crate of mammoth meat. They had so much that they had to leave the majority with Gen. Now, it was just taking up bag space. Since their larger bags didn’t increase in weight reduction capability, Ning Xin had difficulty carrying so much. He carried the heavier bones but there were easily hundreds of thousands of tons of meat. They wouldn’t be able to carry it if it wasn’t for the weight reduction that was still in place.

By noon, he was back home and helping to prepare his feast tonight. Roya was helping too, a lot of prep work had to be done when cooking not just huge volumes but a variety of dishes.

“No pan-fried dumplings?” He scanned through the ingredients.

“Your favourite food is for the feast after you evolve.”

“Oh, you’re right. Turkey and ducks are your favourites. So the before meals are our second favourites.”

“Not only second, I make sure to include your top fifteen favourites based on what I’ve made for you so far.”

“And the rest are what you like.”

“You like them too.”

“I feel like I’m intruding.” Roya giggled.

The situation evolved into a cooking competition between two chefs with new recipes to show off. He was kicked out so that he didn’t know who cooked what but it was obvious to him. Ning Xin picked the Imperial Army’s mutton and peas with her take on it. Roya used seal meat, from the looks of it she was going to grill the meat.

The Frost Elves had a lot of recipes that didn't fully cook meat. They ate frozen raw fish slices and a lot of times, sashimi-style fish after thawing them. He expected the meat to be rare or medium rare but he was wrong. Maybe she learnt new cooking techniques that were better suited for the human stomach and tongue.

Ning Xin substituted some ingredients with herbs and wild vegetables that could be found in the glades while Roya used Ning Xin’s cooking techniques. They had been learning from each other.

The seal steak had melted and salted cheese on it which bode surprisingly well together but the mutton and peas were deeply flavourful and tender. The cheese cooled down fast and the vegetables from the glades were added into the pot too early. He didn’t know which he liked more.

Kong Jing gave Roya the point. Clovis and Kiva liked the peas specifically. Halvis also picked the mutton dish. They ate and judged without knowing which chef cooked which. In a surprising twist, he also picked the seal steak.

It was probably because he felt that the mutton and peas tasted quite different from the original recipe. She didn’t understand the glade’s vegetables well enough. Or she miscalculated the time it took to make mutton as tender as it got. The recipe wasn’t perfected yet.

The Frost Elves didn’t eat much so they were always shocked at the volumes of food that both combatants were consuming.

Kong Jing checked the integrity of the house with the wood mage that checked Icicle out in the past earlier in the day. There was no problem, he shouldn’t be waking up with a broken floor or a higher ceiling. The Xeng craftswoman got the chance to see high-quality ice elemental materials and mana ores.

Ice elemental materials and ingredients were pretty rare anywhere else in Elva.

Ebony asked for Ning Xin’s calming pearl. Now that he was reminded that ice magic wasn’t his core strength, he couldn’t help but recall the convenient pearl.

Kong Jing saw her old work and quickly took it away to reforge. It didn’t even take ten minutes since she just wanted to remould the runes within it.

The Frost Elves saw that and before night fell completely, representatives from different families came over to loan something similar.

The one that could not be named cast a mental calming spell said to increase mana regeneration around the house. Christy lent him her staff that had a Glacial Core of some monster embedded. Vent’s presence drew enough ice mana around the village. The Lasil’s placed pots of herbs that treated mental injuries.

The other villagers gave speciality snacks, fruits, fish and vegetables that they grew or caught.

The kids, those around his age or a few decades older were a little envious. Some were peeved that he was better at ice manipulation but they all admired his skill. It pushed those combat class holders to work even harder which he didn’t see anything wrong with. Even those who specifically ignored him whenever he went to the playground came and gave him a word of well wishes.

The village was pretty close-knit. Completely opposite Xienor.

“Don’t bully them while I’m evolving,” Ebony warned the fire swordswoman.

She might have lost to Korben once but she was still in the midst of getting used to her body. There were still Christy, Korta, the one that shall not be named, Vent and even Koawe who was still bedridden and was probably capable of being her sparring partner.

He was just worried her fire magic causing destruction in the situation where she got too heated up in a duel and lost the ability to hold back the heat she produced.

Then again, if Korben could do so well against her he didn’t worry for the purely combatant Frost Elves. The village guardian wasn’t young but all his seniors were present. Ebony wondered if Arcta was comparable to Xienor in combat capabilities at the moment. He shook his head at the unfair comparison.

“Hmph. Why aren’t you asking them not to bully me instead?” She crossed her arms at his biased comment. Her sparring partners for the next month or so were mostly Kings. She wasn’t wrong to feel aggrieved at his comment.

“I did when I went around the village in the morning. Be good, I’ll leave me to you.” He raised both his hands and slid his fingers between hers before pulling her forward. Giving her mask a peck, he turned and shut the door on her.

‘That was payback. An eye for an eye.’ Ebony recalled the peck he was given in the underground tomb city. They never spoke about it but he never forgot about it.

“Time for hibernation.” He lay comfortably on the bed in a pair of shorts and shirt he didn’t mind losing.

‘Ting’ ‘You have achieved the requirements to evolve. Evolve Class, Sub-Class, Profession, Partial or Complete?’

‘Don’t you think you should include some kind of sleep warning…Complete.’