Ebony's Fable

"Not even creating Mireloom felt this long." Ebony checked his cracked 'body' and crystal monolith to see it finally start to piece back together.

It hasn't necessarily been a long time, but it certainly felt like an eternity had passed compared to the millions of years that he could perceive while meditating in a trance and simulating experiments and fights.

After all, Ebony had never felt as mentally exhausted as he was feeling now.

He hadn't been completely helpless in digesting the Willshard Ember Crystal; the crystal monolith's Will portion received the greatest benefit, followed by his Priming and Mireloom. Knowing that, he realised that if he tried to train those skills and improve them while he was in here, they could absorb the energy from Willshard Ember Crystal marginally faster. He built on his experimental skill, the three Will programme for the coreflames he had in mind.

Now that he was recovering, his thoughts came back online as he didn't need to conserve strength to endure further.

Skills worked vaguely when he was here.

Lunar Bioclock told him barely a day had passed for his body.

The first thing he noticed was that his liquid Potential Vat also had cracks that were being repaired. More importantly, the material it was made of seemed to have changed in appearance and his instincts.

"It didn't expand, but it got tougher." It was a useless observation.

If Potential only cared about quantity, like the Xengs told him. Then there was no difference as long as his total Potential didn't change.

"It's heavier." Ebony lifted the vat and moved it. There were no leaks as far as he could tell, so the cracks also didn't mean anything to him.

The next thing he noticed was that his Physique was changing, and the known enhancement he got from Physique refinement was being edited at an extreme pace within this space while his instincts were being informed of the changes.

He couldn't get any concrete details at the moment as it was still changing, so he got back to more important things.

He didn't have forever here.

He could tell he was beginning to get dragged out.

His evolution was about to begin properly.

He didn't want to evolve by instinct, he wanted to evolve by ideal.

Hence, the choice of manual evolution was preferred.

His mental exhaustion had him taking time to recall his priority list and allocation he set for himself.

Physique/Baseline Traits/stats: 65%

Fortifications: 20%

Classes: 10%

Skills: 5%

That was how he planned to spend his evolutionary potential before he started evolving.

Since the crystal monolith was recovering, he went down his priority list once more.

He saw Fortifications again and instantly noticed a change from before. He couldn't upgrade everything to 400% if he wanted to stay on budget, but that seemed to have changed.

Flames of Frost's Synergy and Intensity with Will increased by 250%: 4.8%

It dropped from 28% and there was no chance he was skipping over it when Willshard Ember Crystal was meant for relevant genetic upgrades.

Base Mana and Stamina regeneration increased by 750% ➡ 1000%

Mana efficiency with Ice Magic increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Mana efficiency with Body Enhancement Magic increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Balance and fluidity when wielding a greatsword increase by 300% ➡ 400%

Movement speed increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Ice Magic is 750% more resistant to heat ➡ 1000%

Flames of Frost are 750% more fluent in seeping. ➡ 1000%

Ice Magic is 200% colder ➡ 400%

Ice Magic has an increased effect of 100% Intelligence ➡ 400%

Sealing Magic is 100% more efficacious at sealing essence ➡ 400%

Will is 100% more compelling ➡ 400%

Flames of Frost's Synergy and Intensity with Will increased by 250% ➡ 500%

Base Will capacity increased by 100% ➡ 400%

That left him with one more new choice, and he ended up with two choices calling out to him.

Aura Layering Condensation increased by 100%

Mana Traces Materialisation increased by 100%

Mana traces would directly link to his Phantasmal Shade Sovereign Arts. His Shades were left behind by mana traces and strengthened by mana traces.

Aura Layering was a well-known technique. It was famous for many warriors and mages alike. Just not those from Elcra.

Most commonly seen from anyone above the ranks of a King, and more common amongst combatants.

Hachiken, the martial arts bodyguard team member from his space trip, used Aura offensively and showed Ebony a thing or two about Aura.

Having an abundance of overflowing essence was a huge boon for aura users.

His instincts told him this was the choice if he wanted more power. It was convenient that his instincts matched his ideal. He might even consider changing ice magic's heat resistance 250% to one of his newer choices, but he didn't have the spare Potential to even fully push synergy to 1000%. Anti-heat ice was not that important anymore, not when an abundance of mana was his forte.

As for mana traces, Ebony could train that himself. Perhaps create a support skill for it or edit his Arts.

"It'll go over allocation, but I'll have Aura Layering Condensation." Ebony doesn't hesitate with his desires. The total cost for his Class Fortification would be 11.4%

Mana Traces would make more sense to his style and very being. The logic he had was based on his Priming that worked with Aura. If there was a hint to go by, it was that Priming was superior to Classes shown here.

It was too bad Core Skills and Unique Skills did not have specific Fortifications for them. Technically, many Class Fortifications work on them.

There was no change to his decisions for his Sub-Class Fortifications except increasing all of them to 400% because they became even cheaper. Simple was good, the total cost added up to 5.2%.

His physical body and soul must have digested the effects of his evolutionary potion.

Mana efficiency with Sound Magic increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Mana efficiency with Gravity Magic increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Body's natural gravitational flow reversed and increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Body naturally reflects physical vibrations with mana vibrations at 200% frequency. ➡ 400%

Gravity Magic has an increased effect of 200% Intelligence. ➡ 400%

Body natural ability to absorb and pad out vibration increased by 100% ➡ 400%

Sound Magic has an increased effect of 100% Intelligence ➡ 400%

Gravity infusion delays on your body increased by 100% ➡ 400%

Vibrational Echoes' impact retention increased by 100% ➡ 400%

As for his Profession, he chose to remove Mana soothing. He did not need his mana to calm people down that much. His mana already had that ability and making it any stronger wouldn't help compared to many other Fortifications.

Mana Compressibility increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Mana Resilience increased by 300% ➡ 400%

Mana Density increased by 200% ➡ 400%

Mana Radiative potency increased by 100%

Mana Radiation - Physical Warping potency increased by 100%

Mental and mana dissonance was what his instincts would have chosen. It would make his Domain less prone to magical destruction or interference.

However, he was more intrigued with physical warping. A large part of his fighting capabilities were close-range.

That aside, there were properties of physical warping that he wanted to test in regards to one of his Class Skill. Curiosity, that's all.

His Profession Fortification cost tallied up to 5.4% and upgrading the radiative effect was too expensive.

That brought his Fortifications up to 21.8% of his vat's volume.

His Class title, which was being modified earlier, had stopped changing.

"Something 'Sage'? Or 'Sage' something. I'm too young to be a Sage." The title of a Class was not irrelevant. Ebony knew that it was quite important as a clue when it comes to developing one's Core for Natural Potential. However, it didn't look like he'll get the full title until after his evolution.

His instincts told him that the word 'sage' only came when he didn't panic, even when his soul was torn and his baseline monolith was about to split apart.

There were a few choices for him when it came to upgrading his Classes.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He could pour Potential over the entire monolith, and that would somehow raise his Potential overall for the specific monolith.

It would be easier to level up. Gaining Class/Sub-Class/Profession experience faster.

The less obvious benefit was supposedly being more tuned for the next evolution. This time, his instincts were slightly unsure if that was true or not.

He could use it on specific skills. Increasing their potential would make them easier to level, easier to refine and evolve.

As for mutation, it would depend on what direction he wanted to mutate the skill into.

Mixing new elements, new techniques into an existing Skill wasn't always a plus. In this regard, the raising of Potential would make it easier for him to incorporate more types of techniques or energies.

This would raise the 'maximum' level of the skill and more accurately be seen as the 'soft cap' of skill levels.

Another option was to add or remove skill slots.

Removing a skill slot frees up Potential to be reallocated.

It was the most costly to add a Skill slot to his Profession, then Sub-Class, followed by his Class. But they were all costly; a 16th Class Skill slot would cost him 3% of his total spendable Potential, while the 6th Profession Skill slot would cost 3.3%.

He didn't need any more skill slots, nor did he want to remove any.

Ebony didn't have any complaints with his Classes, and he didn't want to change any of his skills since he had already trained them for decades.

Hence he further sub-allocated the 10% for his Classes.

He split them completely equally. Each of the monoliths got 3% while their corresponding skills had to share the 0.33%.

"Hmm, that means my Class Skills would receive the most diluted amount." Ebony was about to change the split to equally share 1% between all his Class, Sub-Class and Profession Skills but decided otherwise.

He'd reached the limits of mana compression. That hit a sore spot.

So he didn't mind if his Profession skills received a slightly bigger boost to each skill.

Not to mention, the significantly impactful runic skill needed a bigger boost. Next time, he would have to consider Runic-Mana Fortifications.

It may seem like an insignificant amount, but 0.33% split between 4 skills was a huge volume. This was already equivalent to how much it would cost to receive many types of 100% Fortifications. That was to say, a single skill was being fed as much Potential as it would have taken to get a 100% Fortification. No wonder they evolved so much faster with their skill levels having this much potential, their levelling speed must be superior compared to someone born between a pair of Grandmasters or lower.

After his monoliths, it was time to view the rest of the shelves, books, slates and tables of Skills, both those that he had, and those that he could have.

Picking Aura Layering Condensation pushed him over the Potential volume he allocated for Fortifications. He was planning to have it come from the Skill Potential allocation, but his crystal monolith needed a bit more time to go back to normal, and it wasn't like he didn't have any ideas for his Generic Skills.

Even if he didn't have potential with a certain skill, he could always train, practice and study to obtain it. Hence, he always felt that it was a waste to spend on Skill Potential. This was everything that was summarised as 'talent' right in front of him.

If he didn't want to depend on talent, he would be ignoring this.

Ebony was just a man.

The Ning Saintess was right; it would be foolish not to make use of his genetic advantage.

But even after 'looking' through numerous possible skills he could have and considering what Generic Skill was exceptionally useful for him that could use a good boost, he didn't feel like this was his path.

He went through the memories that the Ning Saintess stuffed him with.

"What ability that I cannot achieve would fit and heighten my battle style?" He went through numerous races, numerous elements, techniques and powers that weren't native to Elcra and completely out of scope for him to even copy.

"I guess there are no fortifications that can reinforce my Mireloom, because a Unique skill is out of my Class's scope."

There were many.

He had some ideas from races and species that used shadows or are shadows themselves, and used mana to manifest physicality to enhance their attacks to attack the mana chassis and physical body.

Ebony could see how that would help strengthen the effect his Shades had.

Mana beings were a rare breed. The Ning Saintess had quite an array of encounters with them, but they were quite similar to what Ebony's father could do, though less extreme.

Many of these weren't out of the question with his genetics, but they weren't that useful for a quarter like him. He might as well work on cold mana.

With the current viable choices that wouldn't eat into his Potential, it was best to add 1% to each of his 3 Core Skill, 1% into his future fourth Core Skill slot and 1% to split amongst his current generic skills or, split into the potential of getting new generic skills with more ease.

The white space he was in 'fell' all of a sudden.

It felt like a lift got jammed.

The evolutionary space stabilised right after, and Ebony felt the constant pain throughout him die down.

This body of his regurgitated and puked all over the floor. Greyish black puke dirtied the floor for a moment before it sank and disappeared as if he didn't just puke from a non-physical body.

He wiped his mouth by instinct from the moist lips, but there was no fluid to wipe by the time his hands moved on reflex.

The evolutionary space seemed to have bathed in light, and his instincts felt a significant change.

"I suppose I've digested the Willshard Ember Crystal successfully."

The first thing he noted was that his Potential vat was refilled by a significant amount. It was now 87.6% full, even though he had already distributed volume into his Fortifications and base stats.

It didn't pop out of nowhere; he was refunded Potential. He was able to tell how everything he could evolve towards got cheaper after the puking and the space quaking.

Ebony didn't feel any joy or excitement.

Since he's been in here, no matter the prospects of his evolution and the power he would gain. All of it felt…within expectations. Nothing to be happy about, nor disappointed about.

"No colour without her."

Newer Fortifications had lower buffs as they were obtained later; however, they weren't too expensive to raise to the same stage as the soft cap.

The next thing he found out was that his Sub-Class Skill **** ******** Pseudo-Imitation Roar was no longer censored and was revealed to be Soul Basilisk Pseudo-Imitation Roar. The information he got from the Xengs was correct. He might never figure out why the skill name was censored.

Entity Evanesce was gone, replaced by his old skill, Waning Presence. The only tier 2 skill within his Class repertoire now. He wasn't too worried; he had years of experience with Entity Evanesce and had the confidence to evolve his old stealth skill into something else.

Before he got to the juicy bits, he needed to know what happened to his Physique first. With the stabilisation of this space, his instincts answered him rather quickly, confirming his digestion of the Willshard Ember Crystal and how the manual editing he was doing in here was not unlike using Will to make changes to himself.

Will of Frostblaze Frame (Passive) -

Endlessly purged in your flames of frost, your Will carries the embers of your flames. Clarity and force of Will increased by 300%. Will potency is increased by 1400% when expressed through frost flames.

Transforming your body by the assimilation of freezing flames and the crystallised Willshard Ember, embedding frostfire deep into your body, mind and soul, attuning them to flames of frost by 300%. Frost Flames burn within your Chassis. Purity of conjured flames of frost is increased by 500%.

Melding your mana into your body, your physical body is now partially made of Mana, being inseparable, 25% of your Mana Regeneration also regenerates your Health. High intensity exposure to mana reworked and increased your mana and body compatibility by 300%. Natural resistance to cold is increased by 100%.

Condensing your skeletal structure while it regenerates with futility, your bones were forcefully forged 200% denser. Tearing and reweaving your musculature compactly while regrowing new flesh increases the base effect of Strength and Endurance by 20%. Reduced physical needs of sustenance and sleep.

An unabating Will formed an incessant swirl of excitement within your mana chassis, increasing base mana regeneration by 100% in exchange for a 50% decrease in stamina regeneration.

"Simple and direct. Burn within my chassis, was that how I was digesting the crystal?" Ebony had a strong hunch it was dependent on his Class Skill, Fabrication of Frostblaze Embodiment. It made his Class Skill semi-passive.

"That means my resting body requires me to burn mana now. Attunement…that means I don't damage myself with frost flames nearly as much, and I won't be glowing like a light bulb should I Domain augment myself. Hmm….Domain Augment myself with 15 times potency? I'll be a human torch, not a light bulb. Potency is different from effectiveness, so Will consumption will likely be higher. Hopefully not proportionally or exponentially."

It wouldn't be the first time he would become a human torch, one that burned cold or hot. His wife set him aflame on more than one occasion, and it was also part of their frequent resistance training.

On that note, Ebony noticed that the natural heat resistance decrease was gone. Removing one of his 'weak points'.

He also hoped the Will required to maintain a Domain state, and the Will required for this passive augmentation could overlap and wouldn't double down on his consumption. But it didn't seem likely from his understanding.

Will had purpose, the one for his Domain and the one for his spells may both be powered by Will as an energy, but they weren't the same in their purpose and were separate streams.

Clarity of Will needed to be tested, even the force of Will was something he didn't know the exact consequence of.

How was the force of Will different from potency or compellingness?

"Physique builds on baseline too..."

Ebony took note of his Physique refinement while his thoughts dived into the crystal monolith.

Will was tied to Wisdom stat, but the stat wasn't the only thing affecting it.

"I can't fill it up?"

The vessel for Will was transfixed on the monolith itself.

"It's not a trait. It's something every creature grows as they live."

He wasn't out of options; he could raise Wisdom overall and it would strengthen Will but it would only receive a minute percentage since Wisdom was broad and covered many aspects of the mind.

He imagined expanding the Will vessel directly, and it wasn't impossible. After all, there were races such as the Nebulians and himself that were genetically built towards their Will and Potential was said to be able to do close to anything in this place.

"All my remaining Potential for 3% raise in total Will potential vessel volume." He knew it was how traits get exponentially more expensive to strengthen and why, even though he supposedly had a vastly more Potential than the average human born by Grandmasters, he started with basically the same Stat-potential as a baseline human.

Ebony couldn't justify the expense, no matter how much he thought Will would be the focal point of his power.

In any case, Will can be strengthened, grown and expanded by training and experiencing life.

His stats didn't change from his previous addition. Getting cheaper was part of the refund that he got back into his vat. He followed his plans and poured more into the same allocation minus what was given to Fortifications.

He ended up with:

9 x Strength, Vitality, Constitution, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence

7 x Perception

5 x Wisdom

His Potential balance was now at 65% of his vat for his Baseline expenditure.

He didn't change any of their internal balance, even Wisdom. Even though he could technically rebalance and increase his base mana capacity and regeneration even higher by moving Potential from, say, Mental thought depth.

At most, he was disappointed he couldn't keep all stats at the same balance due to his Wisdom and Perception stat already containing more Potential than the others.

"Now I know why those Cinderashians are so strong when they use zero mana enhancement spells. They are already genetically built as warriors." They might have over fifty times greater Strength than him for all he knew, where a single stat point added into Strength would be equal to 50 stat points for pre-evolved Ebony.

Without any need for mana capacity, mana regeneration. Their mental abilities wouldn't be weak even with low Intelligence and Wisdom, since there would be fewer traits for the stats to split between. Everything to do with mana wasn't exactly genetically cheap either.

That meant one point in Wisdom might not give them any mana related properties, such as regeneration or base capacity but that single point would be focused towards magic body or base mental defences.

"Natural selection is wonderful." He was in awe at the natural specimen design.