Ebony's Fable

Ebony didn't even have to call out. The Ning Saintess showed herself at his doorstep.

Polite enough not to appear inside his house.

Ebony looked around. He wasn't even in his house, and neither was Xin.

They were on Sky's Edge, the Ning estates.

Or so it seemed, but his mind told him that he wasn't stepping on solid ground.

'She pulled both of us into her mindspace or the mental illusion she created.' With that in mind, he didn't have to worry about his physical body. Time was probably hardly moving for his physical body; he had experienced this before.

Time was however fast or slow in their minds as the Ning Saintess wanted it to be.

She could easily inject whatever she wanted to say into them, but she invited them for a conversation.

"There are a few things we want you to be aware of. One, we have your evolution potion ready. I'll fill your tub with it, just sleep in it before you evolve. The ingredients two of you got are in the potion along with everything we prepared. Including our wedding gifts, we opened the boxes and took the ingredients out. There are still a few more that can't be used in the potion, I'll tell you what to do with those later."

"Mmm." The couple listened attentively.

"Now I believe both of you have carved your path but I have to let you know that you shouldn't toss aside your genetic advantages. While you evolve, some traits that seem strong may seem a lot 'cheaper' than weaker traits. That's simply because your predecessors are great at those, it's genetically more efficient for you to be good at what your ancestors are good at. While we do not encourage you to copy the footsteps of your ancestors, it would be foolish to toss aside the advantage for the prideful notion of thinking you know what's best for your path."

"Why shouldn't we follow the same footsteps?" Xin asked on his behalf.

"The exact question I knew you'd ask. To answer that question, I would have to sidetrack and talk about Tier 7 skills and—give her a minute."

The Ning Saintess held a finger up in pause.

She probably sped up perceived time as she put her finger down the next second, then she laughed out loud. Uncontrollably.

Holding her stomach and wiping beads of tears from her closed eyes.

"What's so funny, ancestor?" Xin didn't like getting forgotten.

"I-I was just laughing at his aunt. She tried to burn a book and activated a trap. Hahahaha, now she's getting chased by Knowledge of Mischief's Demi-Gods." Then she continued to laugh and decided to help with a wave of her hand due to "Ah Tao's spirit isn't exactly her forte, and I'd hate to implicate her daughter."

The Ning Saintess wiped the laugh and smile off like putting a mask on, it happened jarringly fast. "Alright, we have half a second. I'll have to tell you about Laws and concepts."

"Is that the advanced version of Will usage? Like the rules of a Domain, the rules that Will can put forward, just like what a Legendary Worldcore can do?" Ebony cut her short.

The word 'Law' was spoken alien but their ears heard it in multiple languages overlapped. Ebony heard it in all the languages he was fluent in.

"Hmm? I'm referring to something different, but that is a close comparison. We don't have much time, so don't interrupt me again." Ning Saintess frowned as the mindspace they were in turned a bit darker from the edges of his perceivable sight.

"The difference between a Tier 6 and 7 Skill, is the presence of a Concept supporting a Skill. A Law can be broadly defined as some form of concept brought to its extremes. I'll use a simple example of Mastery-type Skills. To evolve a Tier 6 Mastery into a Tier 7, you need to have control over any amount of its corresponding Law. Sword for example, Sword Law and Concept. Simple enough. The same is applied to every Skill type. Elemental, mana, soul. Any Skill in existence requires a pinch of Law in your control to strengthen a Tier 6 Skill into a Tier 7."

The Ning Saintess' black hair sparked white for a moment before settling down back to black.

"Any concept has its Law. All Laws have a finite volume of Concept, but their volume differs from Law to Law. Ebony here loves his numbers, so I'll give you numbers. War is abundant throughout the universe. Hence, there is volumetrically more Law of War than, say, the Sword Law. The more people in the universe who have Tier 7 or higher skills of a certain type, the less Concept of a particular Law there is to go around. For example, the Sword God controls more than half of all the Sword Concept that exists in the universe, and there is only one God of Swords. However, there are numerous War Gods and Goddesses with nearly equivalent volume of Concept in each of their control of Law, excluding Tetramyth who stands on top due to how abundant that Law is. You understand where I'm going with this?"

"Every Xeng was nurtured to be as unique as they are, so they are not fighting each other for the same finite resource. So they can each be the best in their fields." Ebony confirmed.

"Correct. I gave a lousy and broad example, glad you understand. The finite volume of any concept is variable. With more war, more Concept for the Law of War are available. More sword users, more swords, and greater understanding of sword skills, then the total volume of Sword Law will increase. The broader a concept, the higher the chance it is voluminous but less direct in effect when translated into a Skill. Highly specific Concepts, highly targeted Laws are smaller in volume, less or even no competitors snatching the same Law.

In fact, through combinations of your skills, techniques and elements, there is a good chance of conceptualising something entirely new, and it's not that hard. There would be no competitors, as you will be the creator. That is what we Xengs aim for. Starting from zero, birthing our own source of power. A new concept. While also incorporating parts of other concepts. After all, we can't avoid existing concepts. The only caveat would be how it would likely be extremely weak, 100% of 1 is less than 0.0000001% of a quadrillion, hence you steal and incorporate other existing Concept."

"I see." Some questions Ebony had started to fall in place.

"Law is not an energy. It is a concept. Putting it into a Skill is conceptualising and manifesting a Law into reality. 99% of all life forms in the universe have their evolutionary limit at Emperor due to this limit. Even if they are at the peak of their Skill, they need to wrestle control over a Concept from all other users of a specific Law. Only with a Tier 7 Skill is one able to undergo evolution into a Saint. Will and Intent is the easiest and most direct method of manifesting your thoughts into reality; creatures that can't do that are merely mortal. With these alone, we are already ahead of the curve. My descendant is even further ahead, but I digress." She eyed Xin with a bit more pride than before.

"Time's up, take this."

The illusion faded away, but two shining light orbs were shot into their foreheads.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

It contained information on what to do with the ingredients in the two Saintesses' wedding gift boxes to make use of them and their general information and risk. Ning Xin would require the Saintesses presence for her evolutionary solution, but he already had his prepared for him.

'The ingredients and materials are too high in energy and would make or break us. As usual.' Ebony didn't bat an eye at the associated risk.

Using Mythical-Quality materials was not something they typically did, evolving from Grandmaster but the two of them were said to be disadvantaged in their baseline traits of their main stats compared to pure-blooded Xeng.

Ebony was greedy; he was aware of it. Knowing there was more to gain, he couldn't turn away from it.

'Power…not really.' He posed a question about what he was greedy for, but it wasn't power.

It was perfection of self; he already had the answer. He wanted to know what's beyond his limits.

"Rest up, give me 5 days." Xin rolled her sleeves back and passed him her hair tie.

"Don't overwork yourself."

She wasn't listening.

Ebony listened, but he rested on the living room sofa so that he could feel her presence and fell deep asleep, shutting all mental processes off at the cost of his mana regeneration. He would need all the strength he could muster for his evolution. And also, the strength to eat 5 days' worth of cooking.

It had been a long time since his meditation, and Unique Skill was completely shut off, allowing his brain to close off 'resting' activities as well.

He woke up to the soft sensation of his wife resting on top of him, taking a micronap. She already moved his hands around her waist for him.

The intense smell of food trapped in his house came after.

He didn't immediately go back to being a mana generator and continued to lie there.

'What is better than a life like this?' Ebony didn't want another answer; this was the best answer.

He tightened his embrace when the thought of Ezekiel transporting her away with the pull of a trigger returned. Helplessness was what he had always feared.

She woke up groggily, pecked him and was urged to eat.

Unknowingly, Hector was already waiting outside with the Thoyas and Apa.

'….' Ebony looked at the setting sun. 'I slept for a week straight?'

Tapping himself, he was pretty sure he didn't start his evolution.

Did running his Unique Skill that constantly took mental processing power tire his mind out that much?

The next question he had was for Apa, he was exuding mana purity and essence at the ranks of a King, but…it shouldn't have been long enough for his evolution. Perhaps his racial evolutionary period was shorter due to not having sub-classes and profession. He wasn't even sure if Apa had a Class.

'It feels way lighter than Gen's aura, but it's a lot more intense.' Ebony recalled guarding Gen during the Turtle's evolution and quickly made a comparison.

"Cheers!!" Xin raised the toast and had to clang cups with Kiva multiple times because the younger girl was amused by the sound of the glasses tapping each other.

The spread of food was almost as much as his entire wedding ceremony. Except there was a dish he didn't expect to see.

"Curry? You found curry plants?" He'd frozen a portion of the Elcrian sea and hadn't found the underwater curry plant. With no one near the coastal areas selling it, he thought it went extinct and only existed in culinary ingredient books.

"From another Sector." She explained her usage of Eidolon. "I asked my ancestor for the memories of food that stuck to your childhood…Sorry, I should've asked for your permission, but I wanted to surprise you."

"Nothing to worry about," Ebony was busy taking in the curry's scent.

Chicken curry, the way he liked it. But it was also very different. It wasn't made by his mother yet, it wasn't any worse.

Mana Digestion worked in overdrive, but his hands and mouth didn't slow down.

Many of the dishes were slow-cooked or needed a lot of preparatory time.

He ignored all but three of the notifications about the temporary buffs he received while eating.

'Ting' 'You have consumed the Desire of Power Cuisine – Desire for power increased by 200% for 3 days.'

'Ting' 'You have consumed the Desire of Companionship Cuisine – Emotional connection with targeted creature increased by 200% for 3 days.'

'Ting' 'You have consumed the Desire of Self-concern – Concern for your wellbeing increased by 200% for 3 days.'

Ebony didn't know what to say. She learned Cuisine Set Buffs within weeks, and she already created 3 more in the meantime.

"Are you saying I don't care enough?" Ebony smiled and pulled her closer by the waist. It looks like his habit of self-harm training and extreme tendencies had bothered her a lot more than he assumed. She had to design a cuisine to make him care more. That, or she was offsetting the desire for power cuisine.

"I told you I'll help you translate. Also, this is for me. Don't go overboard with your evolution, okay?"

Ebony burped uncontrollably in response. "No."

Who was she kidding?

The essence in the food was fighting back harder than he'd ever experienced.

Xin had to note down that it wasn't possible to endlessly stack cuisine buffs. She wasn't bothered by his outright disagreement to her request and looked more proud instead.

The Thoyas insist on staying over.

Ebony pondered and decided it was a good idea. His evolution would attract monsters for sure, but he was worried Xin would get overly frustrated if he took too long evolving. The ladies' presence would help distract her.

Apa could take care of the monsters, even if those from the Glacial Region. And Dusk had a sizable charge.

Not as plentiful as he would like, but he didn't want to spend months or years just to charge mana to delay his evolution more than he already has.

"If you're worried, I can make an Apparition to talk to you." Ebony thought of a solution to calm Xin's nerves if his evolution took too long.

"a-"

"Don't be silly. When you evolve, your Will would undergo evolution with you. All your clones would fall, including the one those arrogant Elves are trapping. Your Domain Core's remnant Will is the only one that wouldn't hibernate. After you evolve, it will be the only source of your Grandmaster stage Will that you will envelop with your evolved Will. It's an advantage, you will find out why in future." Ning Saintess's voice entered both their ears.

'Even Dusk will weaken to only Unfading Will?' This had honestly slipped his mind.

He had been observing his Apparition as separate constructs for so long that he forget he was their source. He didn't expect all Apparitions to go offline once he begun evolving.

Xin rubbed her face and neck against his like a cat.

"I'm not going anywhere." He said.

"I just need your scent to last on me a bit longer."

"…."

Leaving her by the doorstep, he stepped away without looking back anymore.

Awkwardly so, he was in the bathroom and not the bedroom.

His bathtub had been turned into a pool for his evolutionary potion made from ingredients such as Pyrothernite Source Stone from Cinderash, Crystal Fire and Enigma Rock from Teheil and many others they obtained.

The Mythic Willshard Ember Crystal was right beside the tub. It was a jagged and unpolished crystal radiating raw brilliance.

Ebony undressed down to his natural state. Casually picking the Willshard Ember Crystal and popping it into his mouth without swallowing, he slid into the tub and called up his notification. The sharp crystal cut the roof of his mouth and tongue.

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

"Complete."

Fortunately, he didn't need to say that out loud, so the crystal couldn't cut his mouth any more.