Ebony's Fable

“Since we’re almost there it’s time for an after expedition review. It's not an expedition per se but you get it.” Rowent said.

“Ebony, you should join us. We basically talk about what we did right, wrong and what could be done better. Then we talk about each other’s strengths and weaknesses in combat.” Fergus explained.

“Okay.”

“We were underprepared for hail even though we travelled to Hoarfrost Glade. Summer or not it was a possibility. It was my oversight.” Andel got the ball rolling.

“One escort party may be insufficient now. I think Lure has suspicions on what we obtained from Arcta already. With their usual tactics of getting monsters to distract us while their lackeys go after the boss and the caravan. We were lucky Ebony was here to help us too, your help was crucial Ebony. Thank you.” Fergus thanked. They followed up showing their gratitude in Top’s place as well.

They went on talking about not splitting up and letting 1 of them follow the caravan into the cave. Safer route or not they were not prepared enough for the trip to and fro Arcta which was a little surprising to Ebony. Haven’t they completed the trip and transaction with Arcta multiple times already? According to them, hardly any of the things that happened this time occurred in their previous trip while Chris and Dina were a relatively new addition.

“Chris needs some ranged options. Dina… your throwing knives and wires have limited use depending on the terrain but other than that I don’t see any issue. Rowent, you lack defensive or evasive measures like Fergus and Dina who are quick on their feet. Fergus, I’m not too sure what an archer really needs but maybe your offensive capabilities are on the weaker side.” Ebony gave his honest opinions.

“Aren't my flare steps an evasive measure? Or my ring of fire? And a fire mage’s advantage is in offensive capability.” Rowent defended.

“Most warriors, rogues or archers can chase after you. You have less stamina than them as well. Your ring of fire is stationary, you’ll run out of mana sooner or later.” Ebony pushed on. They continued back and forth on each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Sadly, all they had for Ebony was that he just needed more practice with his swordsmanship and magic in terms of control. All in all, the escort party’s skills are such that they have their party members to support them and hide each other's weaknesses and show each other's strength. Like how Fergus could make wooden root holds for Dina’s wires. Or Top and Chris were the vanguard with support from Dina and Fergus while Rowent was the damage dealer.

Ebony’s array of skills that covers many fronts are more suitable for solo yet he could fight in a party as well. The minus was that the larger array of skills made him have less focus on each of them and their skill levels were relatively lower.

“Halt! Oh, you’re back Mr. Andel.” They reached the gate and were stopped by the guard.

The town walls were made of dull grey stone and were at least 15 metres tall and almost 5 metres thick. Ebony wondered what these walls could even do against monsters but well there were supposedly barriers and they do get the height advantage. The wall may or may not be made using magic as well so perhaps they were much tougher than they look.

“Yeah. It took longer than usual. Here, we caught Boom from Lure. Can you get the captain?” Andel replied. He was kinda famous in the small town, a merchant as high level as him doesn't usually stay in a small place like Plainston but go for greener pastures.

“From Lure?! Sure, I'll go now.” One of the apprentice warriors left running. Ebony was a little surprised that people took apprentice classes when they knew about the strength difference in Classes. What more, there were town guards.

“Here’s 20 Blacks for the 10 of us.” Andel pulled his pouch out. He had long known the cheap 2 Black entrance fee.

“Sorry Mr.Andel, the entrance fee is now 2 Greys per person per entry.”

“WHAT?! Who are you trying to rob?” Andel was enraged by the 10 times difference.

“Woah woah, please calm down Mr.Andel. Have your people not informed you? A dungeon tower is forming close to Plainston, the increase in price is accepted by the higher nobles already. Where’s Boom? We’ll take him over from here. His bounty was 3 Greys and 8 Blacks but as he now has connections to Lure the bounty would be 1 Green. Would you like to deduct the fee from the bounty?” a bearded [Warrior Lvl 78] showed himself. He was the guard captain.

‘He’s worth less than a deer?’ Ebony thought but remembered that food was a lot more expensive in Arcta. Elves also value mana ores less.

Lure was an organisation that has been spreading in this region and had been reaching out more and more. Their standard strategy of luring monsters to attack merchant caravans and then swooping down when they were unaware to first kill either the monster pulling the wagons or the coachman. After that was easy pickings for them as long as the merchant’s escort party was distracted for them.

It was not known how they lured monsters but they have been making more and more enemies. Becoming a regional threat, any associated with them had higher bounties due to this.

Andel gave all 8 Greys to Ebony as he paid for Ebony’s fee, they were splitting it 8-2 as discussed.

Ebony watched as they took a wooden handcuff, basically a wooden plank with 2 holes for hands. It was inlaid with metal and there was what looked like a mana ore but yellow in colour. The confusing thing about mana ores was that they were all naturally transparent, even though they were called Black, Greys, Greens and so on.

They used to colour it somehow but there were too many scams so it was just natural to Identify them now. If they were rich enough or had nothing better to do they could crush the mana ores too. Each rarity got harder and harder than the previous one.

They quickly paid up and got on their way, Ebony followed them on their caravan to visit their shop to get the things he would need.

“Can a wooden board really hold warriors down?” Ebony asked, curious.

“Hahaha. Of course not. Did you see the yellow crystal on it? The handlocks are specially made, unlike the myriad bracelet that just takes overflowing mana the handlock forcefully drains stuff. The yellow ones drain stamina, there are blue ones that drain mana but usually used on mages. There are hardly any mages here so stamina ones are more useful for them. Bigger cities and towns would have stronger ones that drain both, leaving them helpless.” Rowent explained.

“It's also used in prisons so escape is unlikely. The mana is used to power barriers and how much they produce is kinda part of their sentence as well.” Fergus continued.

That was kinda interesting, a warrior without stamina and a mage without mana is no different from a normal person if you don’t count their stronger body and mind.

“What about stamina? Can they do anything with it?” Ebony asked about the yellow crystal.

“I heard they tried making some sort of stamina regeneration potion or stimulants with it in the past but it had horrible side effects as they aren’t compatible with people. They are essentially other’s stamina and mana signatures and others can’t just use it willy nilly.” Rowent said.

“Our phantom big boss is irregularly commissioned by the royals and nobles to make stuff and I think they found a way to convert stamina to mana or other power sources. No idea if it's true though, never been in a prison and I hope I never will.” Fergus shrugged.

“The Empire seems to know about his location better than our own company.” Dina commented.

Their ‘big boss’ should be the inventor, Zenin the half golem if he’s not wrong. The Empire sure has their ways if they can find someone their own company rarely gets ahold of.

The caravan continued strolling through the streets as Ebony saw that it really wasn’t what he expected. There were more glass windows than he thought, for one. And some stores even had something like a tv screen, displaying their wares like a powerpoint slide.

Buildings were mostly stone and wood, all the houses were bigger than he was used to, like in Arcata. It was reasonable though, the size of some of the races like Lizardmen and the height of the Elves had to be taken into account. Doors and ceilings of a single floor were at least 3 fifths a gir or 3 metres tall.

Sure Roya and Halvis already told him but it was another thing seeing for himself. He should see higher tech stuff as he got closer to the Capital too.

They travelled past many houses and shophouses as they went further into the town. Stopping before a building almost 3 times larger than the other stores he saw, about the size of a small mall. Ebony and Andel alighted as Larry, Wattel and Grey brought the rams and goods to the back.

The others have long either gone back to their home or stayed with Top after bringing him to see the town doctor. Healers were so rare that small towns like this didn’t have any, they would either have to go to a city or a larger town if they needed a healer.

“LACY!” Andel shouted in his impossibly loud voice. Ebony was getting more and more certain it was a merchant skill with how loud he was. Sounds of clambering came from within as they entered the store. The inside was like a departmental general store and had all sorts of things Ebony had not seen before.

“Ye..yes! I’m here, boss.” a pretty face with long dirty blonde hair showed herself. She got a scolding about not ‘calling’ Andel and informing him about the dungeon forming. Dina and Chris seemed excited about the news but Fergus and Rowent didn’t, there was a chance they would be relocated before they could go dungeon exploring.

Ebony looked around while Andel was scolding his employee, especially the myriad bracelet section that he really needed. Too bad he had no idea what was good and what wasn’t.

“Hello, mister Ebony. How can I help you?” Lacy came and called out

“I am looking for a myriad bracelet. Could you introduce them to me?”

“Of course. The cheapest ones we have are made of treated leather with at least 60% mana efficiency and have 3 slots. The preferred option for warriors would be treated leather with compressed iron or steel edge to withstand strong impacts. They have at least 65% mana efficiency and up to 5 slots.

I personally recommend this one, it is made from a strong and mana conducive alloy with soft leather encasing it to make it more comfortable. They have at least 75% mana efficiency and up to 10 slots. It is an uncommon tagged bracelet and is a little more pricey though. But you won’t have to worry about it breaking or having your fitted slots drop out.”

“I’ll take this one, how much is it?” Ebony looked at the simple looking, wide, thick black bracelet. It was not decorated like some of them which were the more popular choices for fighters or freelancers.

“Thank you! Sir, one with 5 slots cost 2 Greens and 3 Greys. The one with 7 cost 3 Greens and the one with 10 cost 5 Greens.” that was roughly the price he expected after asking. His assets right now were 150 Greys, 215 Blacks from Arcta, 10 Greens from Roya and Halvis and 8 more Greys from the bounty.

“I’ll take the one with 7 slots, I need a callstone as well and is the Elemental Sensitivity Potion ordered by the Thoya family here yet?” Ebony still had other things to buy and 7 slots should be more than enough for now. Lacy brought Ebony to the callstones and let him look at them himself since Identify should be able to tell him enough.

Lacy went to check if the Elemental Sensitivity Potion was here. That was usually sold by the mage association but the Z&Z company had enough pull to get it for him too. There wasn’t a branch here in Plainston so Halvis had put in an order a while back when they decided Ebony would need it.

[Callstone (Inferior) - Send sound over to another linked callstone within 100km. Consumes 10MP/km/s. Linked to 0/3 callstones]

It was interesting that Identify shows him kilometres and others would apparently see the units they were familiar with. Girs, gors and so on. This callstone was another invention of Zenin who was also the boss of Z&Z which was Zenin and Zaya. Zaya was his wife and supposedly the greatest merchant known in history. Though both couldn’t be found most of the time the company still ran by itself.

How it works seemed to be a mix of sound and mind magic. The touching of callstones for a minute or so, creates a link with mind magic. Sending mana from a mana ore slotted in the myriad bracelet into it and mentally thinking of who to ‘call’. The other party would soon receive a signal and can decide to pick up or not. The one calling is the one who supplies the mana cost.

The signal wouldn’t go anywhere if the other party was out of range and of course people don’t call unless it was a matter of importance due to the mana cost. They were the same shapes as the mana ores as a standardisation so that all could fit in the myriad bracelet slots.

[Callstone (Common) - Send sound over to another linked callstone within 1000km. Consumes 8MP/km/s. Linked to 0/5 callstones]

Ebony was kinda glad that Elcra wasn’t so medieval, the myriad bracelet and callstone would be the closest thing to a phone for him.

[Callstone (Uncommon) - Send sound over to another linked callstone within 10000km. Consumes 5MP/km/s. Linked to 0/10 callstones]

Ebony was leaning towards the uncommon one because having just 5 contacts seemed pointless and the mana efficiency is better for the rarer one. The range also lost to the power of the internet, especially with the size of Elcra. Yet, Ebony didn’t have so many people to call here.

“Here’s your Elemental Sensitivity Potion, Ebony. So, what do you think of our store? I'll give you a discount for all the help we received. Don’t reject me so fast, we may have lost a lot more if you weren’t with us so just take it.” Andel came back with a square wooden box. The item too precious for his clumsy clerk to handle

“Mmm. How much is this?” Ebony took the wooden box.

“Oh this. Mrs.Thoya already paid for it. Use it wisely. If you really want to know, let’s just say that the price of this thing is in the Blues range. Of course, if you were a higher order mage you could get some discounts from the mage association. It’s still really expensive though.”

Elemental Sensitivity Potion (Uncommon) - Temporarily increase sensitivity to numerous elemental mana found naturally by 100 to 1000% for 1 hour.

“If it’s your first time taking this it should have a very strong effect, probably close to the limit of 1000%. Okay now, you’re going to be freelancing right? Oh and with the new dungeon tower forming you should probably stay in Plainston for a while. It’s too big an opportunity to miss.” Andel went on to show the merchandise that Ebony would need.

He needed a better bag, there was no spatial storage, unfortunately. Those were rich people items that can hardly be found in these parts. Their bags are all made to withstand strong forces and some had different magic in place.

Ebony got the most popular one with something called preservation magic. It could keep his food fresh or the materials he got will stay in good condition for about 3 times as long. It was very large and had many straps and pouches for different uses.

He then got their version of a tent which was really such a great design. Like that of an umbrella with a thick metal ring as the handle, ropes coiled it up. The ropes were connected to 2 metal stakes hidden with the cloth and when uncoiled he just needed to stab one stake in the ground and pull the other. The tent would unfold and voila, it was cylindrical and the floor mat had two layers which was a built-in blanket attached to the corners.

Ebony got the fully black coloured one to stay hidden in the night. The bag had 2 straps at the bottom to hold the tent cum sleeping bag.

He then bought 3 packs of souper bread for a total of 450 cubes. All things considered, the souper bread was actually useful with how little space they took. Ebony ate a whole lot if he were to fight for a long time so he could eat more of them. It should last months.

He got one of the magical waterskins. There were a few types, one had the cap that was some kind of converter that after slotting a mana ore, will convert the mana to water mana and come out from the bottom.

The other required the use of water mana ores which were more rare but can produce more water and are more mana efficient. It could even absorb water mana from the environment and was the mana saving version. It was the most expensive and water mana ores were both pricy and hard to obtain.

There was also a dual converter that can make hot water which Ebony got. Making hot water cost more mana but mana was something Ebony wouldn’t have to worry about. The converter one made more sense to get, normal mana ores were much more obtainable than water mana ores.

He also got one of those phoslamps, there were ones made of some transparent crystal or those made by glass workers. The best ones were made by glass mages cum glass workers, Ebony just got a common one together with some common phos. It should give him a one to one ratio, leaving it in the sun for 1 hour should let it glow for 1 hour in the dark.

Ebony got rid of 200 Blacks, 120 Greys and 9 Greens after a discount. Leaving him with 15 Blacks, 30 Greys and 1 Green.

Andel gave Ebony directions of the Quest Hall which he will have to register for and also the location of a good inn he knows. He said his goodbyes and left with his new equipment, he still had the tynite materials which he could turn in at the Quest Hall for Quest points.

The bloody bag was gotten rid of but Ebony was a very sentimental and possessive person so he still had all the stuff from Earth. His watch retired from his wrist as he put on the myriad bracelet and played with the metal clips and locks that pushed up to open the slot and clamps back down to hold mana ores or any other crystals in place. He put the uncommon callstone into one of it but it was useless for now without any empty mana ores on hand. Nor anyone to call.

The Quest Hall was also where other administrative matters were handled and Ebony could exchange filled mana ores with empty ones’. There were different rates at different places but this town was pretty close to a common mana ore mining town and the rates for Greys were pretty good. They kinda control how rich people can get in this manner or at least how fast they can get richer.

‘Basically this world’s tax system, you want more mana ore? Pay more mana ore.’

Ebony tried to remember the directions he was given and it wasn’t too hard to find since the Quest Hall was one of the largest buildings. Another thing Ebony noticed as he walked the streets was how roughly less than half of the people he saw had apprentice classes. The low standards were a little surprising but the people here lived peacefully as far as he could tell.

Seeing the price of food in the market he passed by he was dumbfounded by the prices in Arcta. 2 or 3 Blacks was enough for a decent day’s worth of food here.

“Ahh! Please stop! I need those Blacks to get food.” a high pitched voice caught Ebony’s attention. He went towards the alley he heard it from. Seeing an [Apprentice Martial Artist Lvl 21] carrying a small boy by the hair as he was kicking him.

“Well, we need it to prepare some equipment for the dungeon that’s going to form soon.”

“Be honoured boy, your Blacks are going to help protect the town. No, when freelancers and dungeon clearers start to pour in, Plainston will expand into a city.”

‘That’s right boy, be honoured.’ Ebony thought.

Ebony moved in and grabbed onto the martial artist hand that was holding onto the boy faster than anyone present could react. He screamed in pain and let go of the boy as Ebony’s ice mana imbued hand started freezing his hand, he pulled the young martial artist into a lock and froze both of his hands together.

Ebony pushed him aside and took his greatsword to block an incoming knife that was a little cute, like a fruit knife. The rogue gave wild swings with the knife as a kick met his stomach and he flew against the alley wall. With no suspense, Ebony took the other 2 apprentice martial artists and rogue down as well.

Freezing their hands, legs and finally mouth shut too so that he doesn't have to listen to their screams and ‘do you know who i am’ nonsense.

‘Of course I don’t know.’ he thought as he proceeded to knock them out with his still sheathed greatsword.

“You alri…” Ebony was going to give the young boy a hand as he fell onto his butt and stayed there but a long, thin blade caused him to stop.

‘Another thug? I didn’t even see where he came from. Fast. I should back off.’ Treading Step barely pushed Ebony away as he dodged the dozens of stabs to his joints.

‘Woah. Such accuracy. Hmm. It’s a woman, did she think I was picking on the kid? Well, she was only aiming to disarm me so maybe. I’ll just try to dodge for now.’ Ebony calmly deduced as usual.

He took this chance to see that the person attacking was a woman. He couldn’t tell from the face since she was wearing a thick full white mask that covered everything but her eyes. She had long flowing bright red hair tied in a ponytail that reached her hips. Yet all of that wasn’t what told him it was a woman but, even when she was wearing mantle-like clothing also red in colour her curves couldn’t be completely hidden. They were honestly extremely eye catching and attention grabbing but Ebony wasn't distracted.

She drew her other thin longsword that seemed to be bathed in blood as they were both red in colour. Flat, straight double edged longsword not too dissimilar to his own.

What came next was her display of swordsmanship that encaptivated Ebony even more. It was graceful, fluid and violent. Ebony had nowhere to dodge in the small alleyway and could only try his best to not get hit somewhere important. He was overconfident as he couldn’t even see her blades as she landed slash after slash on him.

“STOP BULLYING MISTER!” he heard the boy shout and pull on the woman’s mantle.

“I’m afraid there is a misunderstanding,” Ebony said as he turned to her and kept his greatsword back on the straps of his coat. The woman started looking around before looking at Ebony for the first time.

Ebony looked into her eyes, the only thing not hidden by her thick white mask which he now noticed had a red and orange bird feather that decorated the left side of her mask.

Her eyes were once again burning red. Ebony found himself staring and it felt like those eyes could burn through him. Something else broke him out of stupor.

‘Did I just stop meditating? Impossible… No… now I remember. This is something dad warned me about. Crap. I thought he was talking nonsense at that time.’ Ebony was shocked that he got out of Deep Persistent Meditation without a strong stimulus of pain or emotional breakdown.