'Home' Ebony pondered.
He sat on the bed and meditated.
'Ting' 'You have met the requirements to obtain the class: Mana Meister - Requirements: 2 types of mana manipulation skills Lvl 25'
'Ting' 'A Class is bound. Choose Mana Meister as your Sub-Class?'
No.
'Ting' 'A Class is bound. Choose Mana Meister as your Profession?'
Yes.
'Ting' 'A Chosen Profession will be bound to you and can never be changed. Choose 'Mana Meister' as your Profession?'
Yes.
As with Classing, getting a Sub-Class or Profession will knock one out but usually for a shorter duration.
Perhaps he wasn't in his best state but for once Ebony dreamt. Dreamt of the place he once called home, unknown to him from when did he no longer consider that that house was not his home. Probably when it emptied out and he was the only one returning there.
It felt weird.
Ebony knew that even this place didn't completely feel like home. As rude as that may be to Roya and Halvis. Perhaps he just hasn't been here long enough. Or he just wasn't fully attached to this house yet.
Waking up six hours later, he didn't feel any obvious changes like when he took his Class.
'Ting' 'Mana Meister Fortification Completed."
'Ting' 'Profession changed to Mana Meister'
'Mana Meister Fortification:
Mana Compressibility increased by 100%
Mana Resilience increased by 100%
Generic Skills Converted to Profession Skills:
Mana Moulding
Mana Compression
Stemmed Profession Skills:
Mana Perception (Passive) - Ability to perceive mana improves by 1.0% per level.
Profession Skill Evolved:
Mana Compression evolved into Sheer Mana Compression
Sheer Mana Compression - Compressing mana to increase its density. Mana is compressed by 2.5% per level.
Name: Ebony Rime
Core Skill: Deep Persistent Meditation Lvl 81
Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 33
Class Skills:
Treading Step Lvl 49
Ice Mana Manipulation Lvl 48
Icebody Enhancement Lvl 50
Single-handed Greatsword Mastery Lvl 46
Frost Injection Lvl 17
Ice Spike Lvl 22
Two-handed Power Stab Lvl 23
Layered Ice Carapace Lvl 3
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Sub-Class: N/A
Profession: Mana Meister - Lvl 0
Profession Skills:
Mana Moulding Lvl 28
Sheer Mana Compression Lvl 34
Mana Perception Lvl 1
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Health: 226/250
Stamina: 333/500
Mana: 8/1150
Unallocated stat points: 0
Strength: 20
Vitality: 25
Constitution: 70
Endurance: 50
Agility: 35
Intelligence: 46
Wisdom: 115
Perception: 25
Generic Skills:
Stealth Lvl 6
Identify Lvl 12
Sheer Cold Resistance Lvl 26
Running Lvl 29
Humming Lvl 22
Mental Mapping Lvl 5
Kicking Mastery Lvl 31
English Lvl 8
Elcrian Lvl 6
Mental Arithmetic Lvl 7
Dish Washing Lvl 7
Physical Conditioning Lvl 3
Magical Conditioning Lvl 3
Peak Performance Lvl 28
Tracking Lvl 3
Game Processing Lvl 7
His Core skill levelled like no tomorrow, not slowing down much even now.
He levelled 15 times, hunting at the same spot, the higher level he got, the slower he levelled. He once tried going a little further in but when decapitated eagles started falling out of the sky and a few cut and toppled trees here and there got him to skedaddle.
He couldn't cut down a single thin tree without a heck lot of effort. And headless birds of unknown levels dropping down on him was more than enough for him to know that whatever was there was beyond him for now.
Ebony had been fighting with his left hand wielding his sword as his right elbow only healed after 5 days. Even with his mega enhanced regeneration, it took a long time. A broken bone takes more to heal than a cracked bone. There was still a white mark where his elbow popped out from but it seemed like it would heal and not leave a scar soon enough.
The good thing was that his greatsword mastery levelled quickly and he even changed his style up a little when he could switch his sword arm from left to right mid swings. It made transitions between his attacks smoother.
Frost Coating mutated into Frost Injection after he tried the same thing with the reindeer a couple more times.
Frost Injection - Imbued Ice Elemental Mana into your body or weapon to inject into an entity, freezing it internally. Has the effect of 70% + 1.0% Intelligence.
Consumes MP
Classification: Ice Magic
He could charge any amount of mana he wants into his greatsword and every time it gets into contact with an opponent it would leave a mark of ice.
If it manages to enter the bloodstream it would only stay around the affected area which may not be the best move as it stops any bleeding too. Cutting deep enough to freeze some important organs was incredibly effective though.
Snowskins and Terns had become his target practice for Ice Spike, hitting a target was one thing, hitting a moving target was another and a flying target with three dimensional movement another.
With good enough prediction ability, he was starting to be able to hit snowskins where he wanted to hit them but flying targets had to be caught off guard. Catching them off guard was almost impossible with his current skill set though.
He didn't use Two-handed Power Stab for the first two days to let his flesh and muscle heal some more first. After that he slowly eased it back into his fights while pushing Peak Performance.
He got Layered Ice Carapace quite recently and it cost too much mana to freely train for now. The good thing was he could cast it then put some effort and a tiny bit of mana to maintain it. It left him able to cast 3 uncompressed Ice Spike at a time but carrying a huge ass shield without too much mobility issue was more than beneficial.
The further away it was the weaker his control over it. The shield wouldn't disappear without his mana but he needed a little mana to hold and move it around. Casting Icebody Enhancement didn't seem to take any effort at all and doesn't disrupt or take up one of his possible casts.
The basic train of thought for evolving skills to a higher tier was simple. Using less to do more.
Your level or stats don't matter.
For example, even if you trained the skill for years or decades, if you are not able to use the same amount of strength to exert more force then the skill would merely level and not evolve.
Ebony could now sustain three mana spheres above him and compress two at the same time, pulsing between the three. Getting the Profession was just enough to tip him over to get a skill evolution.
Mana Perception was vague as balls. He heard of the Skill and it was a Skill almost every mage would want to get sooner or later. He currently couldn't feel any difference with its current level.
For stats, he realised after trying to bait a large number of monsters to fight a large group melee that the intense battle really eats into his concentration and stamina. This likely also helped push his Core Skill to the limit.
Watching the battle clearly, knowing when to strike, how to strike, when to dodge, when to block, when to counter and counter in what way. The works.
Ebony was slowly getting back his into his groove. It had been years since he fought wild beasts and he was using unfamiliar weapons such as ice magic.
5 point to Strength for a little extra edge, now he would need to add a little more to handle the weighted coat better.
Leaving Vitality alone for now. Monsters below level 10 have a hard time giving him injuries with Icebody Enhancement now with Constitution at 70 and Intelligence getting a sweet buff to 46. 65% of 46 was a 29.9 buff to his Constitution and 27.6 buff to his Strength and Endurance.
The bigger problem was all the knockback from the sheer strength of the monsters.
For some reasons the increase in Endurance does not show any increase in max stamina in his status. He could feel the increase in regeneration though, instinctually? He didn't know how.
A 15 increase in Agility for the increase in speed, he needed to react faster rather than move faster now. He was probably wrong about his movement speed calculations as the faster he went the more he was affected by air resistance and all other nonsense at work.
Intelligence getting some love got 30 points in. Wisdom got 40 while Perception got 10.
Stamina regen at 529.375/min while mana regens at 1,217.5625/hr or 20.29/min.
Yes. Ebony could run Icebody Enhancement for as long as he liked now.
The rest of his generic skills only got a few levels here and there.
Mana Compressibility increased by 100%. He formed a mana sphere and mentally pushed. The resistance he felt from his own mana pushing back indeed decreased by a lot. He added more mana in, keeping its size the same as 1 point of mana while compressing it.
If he didn't try forcing more than his skill level suggests, which was training the skill, it was quite effortless to compress it by 170%. If compressing a 15MP Ice Spike by 1% makes it cost 15.15MP he can now compress it all the way till it costs 40.5MP. According to Roya, it will gain a directly proportional Intelligence buff.
The effect of Intelligence on his Ice Spike spell was generally increasing the Ice Spike hardness, lowering its temperature a little somehow and raising the upper limit of his projectile speed. There were other minor effects he hadn't found out yet.
So, if he really compressed his Ice Spike to that degree would his 46 Intelligence Ice Spike have the effect of a 124.2 Intelligence Ice Spike? He'll have to find out.
Mana Resilience increased by 100%. This was more questionable.
What the heck was Mana Resilience?
Ebony hasn't seen this term in any book he had read. There weren't many books on magic and mana in the Thoya's family study to begin with, it was understandable that he hasn't seen the term. Roya should be more familiar with the subject.
Just from the name itself it was pretty self explanatory that his mana would be more resilient?
What did that mean?
His spells would be harder?
An Ice Spike formed in front of Ebony in about 3 seconds and he tried to break it. Thanks to all his experiments he knew his spells well enough.
It really did get harder to break, but he was unsure if it really was twice as hard or was tough the right word? It didn't mean a lot when ice was an element that wasn't exactly the toughest to begin with but this was extremely good news for his Layered Ice Carapace.
'Wait…does that mean what I think it means?' Ebony moved for the wooden knife he used for skinning and game processing.
It didn't lose much sharpness since the day he started using it. He tried to poke himself with it, pushing with more and more strength to find that he couldn't even pierce his own skin. He did get a bruise and scratch after putting enough force in. those healed up quickly enough for it to seem like the injury was imaginary.
Ice mana flowed in him, with Icebody Enhancement on he couldn't even scratch himself anymore. Even with his greatsword. He wasn't that mad to hack at himself with all his strength.
Ebony's body was partially made of mana, when he got his Class he could feel it more clearly but it was just a foggy picture of his body and it still was. That was how he felt his mana leaking when his bones got damaged or when he bled, he couldn't stop it or control the leak so he was forced to freeze his wounds when he received cuts.
'Hot damn. This resilience buff couldn't fit me any better.' Ebony was betting that a quarter or 25% of his body was made of mana, mostly just because 25% of his mana regeneration regenerated his health too. Even so, it was like a buff to his Constitution.
It was still in the middle of the night so Ebony just meditated and trained his Mana Compression skill. 3 much larger spheres were above him, no point using just 1 point of mana when he had loads to spare now.
It wasn't like he was going to leave Arcta today, the merchant came here to trade after all.
Ebony followed Clovis to the playground today, spending more time with him.
He sparred with Tiha for the first time in a while. They were shocked by his level but not jealous, they believed that it was much more important to improve their skills first which wasn't wrong.
Ebony's ability with the greatsword was much better now and he was able to deftly block both of Tiha's dagger with a timely sweep, spin and ending with a counter.
Ebony never chatted while he was in the middle of sparring but he always stopped his blows just in time, always going for any openings. Somehow, Tiha would show an ah-ha expression and she rarely made the same mistake and showed the same opening again. She was a fast learner.
She was sad to hear that Ebony was going to leave but happy for him too. Qane on the other hand seemed ecstatic at Ebony's news.
Shopping together with Clovis afterwards, Ebony bought as many frost plums as he could as he said his farewells to Mrs Calhy and Mr Herrid. Promising to visit to see the plum blossoms one winter.
8 days worth of hunts got him almost 2000 Blacks worth of mana ores.
If he managed to get 12 tivs a deer or reindeer which was his main selling monster meat. Transporting 4 a day, around 48 tivs of meat was sold a day. Ebony got talked down to selling each tiv for 5 Blacks because Mr Herrid didn't need so much and Ebony was not his only supplier. 1920 Blacks in total. He spent over a hundred over the 8 days on frost plums and even more just now.
It got slightly harder to find hunts over time but the population of wildlife didn't seem to decrease too much.
Now his assets are a total of 150 Greys and 215 Blacks. He amassed it and left most of it in his room, not having a pouch or anything for it. The coat Roya made for him had 2 large pockets on the inside so he could keep it there.
In the study, reading the book Clovis used to teach him vocabulary. Ebony heard snow crunching outside the window.
Looking out he saw 3 truck sized covered wooden wagons or caravans about a gir long, 3 fifths as wide and more than 2 fifths as tall by the side of the road. The wheels were wide and thick like car tyres, made to traverse the snowy region. They were each pulled by a single massive ram looking animal, half the size of the covered wagon.
The occupants started to alight and look around. The man who sat at the front wagon with the person driving the wagon walked up to the cabin hiding out of sight from where Ebony was. Ebony continued reading like nothing happened.
Only about 5 mins later did Halvis come to get Ebony.
"Ebony, they're here. Come out and greet them." Halvis called out. He was glad Ebony finally opened up a little last night.
"Okay." Ebony said, no hint of whatever happened last night or any anxious or excited feelings appeared on his face. But he was kinda excited to finally see another human or the other races. Not that he didn't treat the Frost Elves like any other human.
"There he is. Come Ebony, meet Andel. Manager of the Plainston branch of the Z&Z Company and an old acquaintance of ours." Roya said.
"Haha, you flatter me Mrs Thoya. Greetings young man, I'm Andel Yegg, small time mer.. merchant and manager." Andel reached out for a tet which Ebony politely returned with his right hand.
Ebony saw Andel's eyes comically widen as he tetted back and stuttered a little. 'Did I do it wrongly? Right hand for the lower level or younger right?' Ebony thought. While the two Frost Elves chuckled softly, unsurprised by the reaction.
[Great Merchant - Lvl ???]
At level 33 and Identify at level 12, Ebony could Identify up to level 98 but it didn't seem to help much.
Ebony felt bad that he imagined a manager or a merchant of a fantasy and medieval world to be fat and round.
Andel was as tall as him and one of the buffest man Ebony had seen. He was wearing a thick furred coat but Ebony could see his bulging muscles threatening to rip themselves of its constraints. Dark brown hair and clean, sharp facial features a bright salesman smile on his face. A human as far as Ebony could tell.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Ebony Rime." Ebony replied, ignoring his reaction for now since he didn't think he did anything wrong or come off as rude.
"My apologies, Ebony, I would like to have a word with Mr and Mrs Thoya in private real quick." Andel apologised for his rudeness and asked the three of them.
Ebony nodded and said that he'll be in the study if they needed him.
It didn't take long before he was called back, he didn't know what that was about but he didn't really care either.
"Sorry about that Ebony, I've heard the story. You're warmly welcomed on our caravan to Plainston!" Andel spoke out louder and more sounding more excited than necessary.
"Thank you. I am willing to pay for the trip and do any work you need me to. I can help move luggage, clean, wash and I am not too bad of a fighter." Ebony took it like an interview where he was trying to sell his skills.
It was only natural that he thought the caravan to required a fee was like a bus fare or plane ticket. If he didn't have enough, he could only try selling his abilities to work.
"Hahaha. There is no need for any of that, you will be a guest on our caravan. We were going to make the trip back anyway. What's another passenger?" Ebony thought he saw a hint of pity before Andel laughed it off. Probably his imagination, why would he be pitied? Ebony never cared about how others see him anyway.
"...I will do my part." Ebony ended off.
Halvis got Ebony to help him move some of the smaller filled crates from Roya's workshop out to the merchant's wagon. He passed by many more crates left outside the house by the merchant's porters, 2 humans and he spotted one with pointy furry ears, a beastman. But he didn't know which race amongst the beastmen.
The crates left there were filled with different materials for the next batch of Roya's orders. Every robe Roya made was ordered. Custom made. At least according to Halvis. Halvis and Ebony handed the crates probably with robes to the porters.
Andel came back after directing his porters where to place the crates and for them to handle them with care.
"That should be all the materials for this round. We'll set up at the village square for 2 days as usual. Ebony, we will leave on the 5th hour of the 3rd day. Meet us at the village gate, I'll introduce you to our escort team then. They ran off looking for an available house to rest as soon as we arrived."
"Okay, I'll be there on time."
After they left towards the village square, Andel shouted impossibly loud, announcing their arrival as they moved towards the square.
They sell all sorts of foodstuff especially vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices that couldn't be found or grown here. Phos was also sold by the barrels and other merchandise could be ordered in advance. Clovis's books were one example but they were not easy to obtain where they were.
"Did I mess up tetting?" Ebony asked Halvis about the weird reaction from Andel.
"Hmm? Ohh. Haha. No, you didn't. He was merely surprised. Scared shitless would be more accurate actually." Halvis caught on to what Ebony was curious about.
"Scared by what?" Ebony was confused, he didn't exactly think that he looked ugly enough to shock someone on sight. He only got better and better looking as his Constitution stat increased. Getting his physique also changed his looks like his hair and skin colour.
His skin clung tighter and tighter to his body, pores reduced in size making his skin smoother, tougher than ever yet, retaining its suppleness. His muscles and bones get denser and denser. If his body was toned before it was now chiselled as if he didn't have enough muscle mass to condense anymore.
"By your ridiculous mana of course. You need to get a Myriad Bracelet as soon as you get to Plainston or you'll be scaring those not used to it everywhere you go. You know you're producing more mana than an average lvl 100 mage right? We guessed that you got your meditation skill to at least lvl 50 before your Class by now, there's no other explanation. Though I don't know how much of a buff you got, try not to let people find out about your crazy mana regeneration, for now just keep using as much mana as you can on the move. Like you always do. Most wouldn't be able to tell exactly how much mana you're producing unless they're much higher level or have a high mana sensitivity."
"..."
"It won't be a problem once you're at a much higher level since it's not surprising for someone high level to regenerate a lot of mana. But lvl 33? And without a Sub-Class or Profession that regenerates more mana than a lvl 100 mage? The good thing is that even at that level of overflowing mana the range before it dissipates is small so it won't be detected easily unless people get close to you."
"I will take note." Ebony replied and got Icebody Enhancement going.
1,217.5625 MP/hr would require someone without the 250% buff to have 1217 stat points in Wisdom or 12175 MP. 100 levels in one's Class would be a 1000 stat points, no one in their right mind would put all that into Wisdom. 100 levels in one's Sub-Class would be 500 stat points and Profession would give 100 that depends on the Profession itself.
'Okay yeah, no.' Good thing overflowing mana could be easily hidden once he got a Myriad Bracelet and some empty mana ores.
Another way of hiding his mana was through manual mana manipulation but that was a pretty hard to learn technique apparently.
Two days passed in a flash.
Ebony only did his daily conditioning and practised on Layered Ice Carapace with his [Acclimatization Casting Glove (Common)] outside of his usual practices with mana.
Deep Persistent Meditation levelled once, Ice Spike twice, Layered Ice Carapace trice and Icebody Enhancement 5 times. Reaching level 10 in Mana Meister just a few hours ago.
Now only needing a little over 3 hours of sleep a day before waking up naturally. Mana Moulding gained 5 levels, Sheer Mana Compression gained 8 and Mana Perception gained 3.
Not surprising to find out that Mana Meister's Profession-focused stat was Wisdom, his Wisdom increased by 10 points reaching 125.
Wisdom seems to help in increasing his range of control over mana and a tiny bit in increasing his ability to form more mana spheres at once or multicasting in general. His range bordered 5 metres or 1 gir and he was on the cusp of casting 5 spells at the same time. Though that may be due to Magical Conditioning as well.
Over the roughly 3 - 4 weeks he'd been here, his hair had grown uncomfortably long. He didn't know how to cut his own hair and Halvis offered to trim it for him. The Frost Elves mostly had long hair, even the males. With the exception for the children like Clovis so it wasn't his first time trimming hair. Now Ebony had his short hair again.
He didn't want any sad farewells with Clovis so he just left a see you in a bit note and that he'll get him any interesting books he sees on his travels. Ambushed at the door by Roya and Halvis, a hug here and a head pat there later, Ebony left for the village gate.
The caravan was there by the side checking their wheels, equipment and inventory.
Andel waved when he saw Ebony.
Perhaps to see them off, the village chief, Orren Wit was here with an unfamiliar female Frost Elf by his side.
Introductions and greetings were in order.
The 3 porters he saw were also the drivers or handlers of the rams. The two humans were [Coachman Lvl 59] and [Coachman Lvl 62]. Looking not too old, perhaps approaching middle age.
The level 59 coachman was Larry Pot, average looking with a thick beard dark brown like his hair. The other only introduced himself as Wattel, a little bit older with a similar dark brown mustache and thick head of hair and attitude.
The final [Coachman Lvl 52], Greg Mace with his pointy ears and a tail, silverish in colour as with his hair was a wolfman. All other features were not unlike humans, Ebony read that each individual showed different amounts of wolf-like or beast-like traits; some had claws instead of nails or had fur over their entire body.
The coachmans were also the porters since stats and skill made things easier, they probably had high Strength. All of them had a stocky build though not as impressive as Andel.
The escort party was exactly how Ebony imagined an adventurer party would look like.
Fergus Emer, Elven [Wind Archer lvl 58] about as tall as Ebony which means he was probably still considered a child elf. Handsome like any random Frost Elf he'd seen but with pale skin instead of light blue, otherwise not too dissimilar to the Frost Elves.
He was a little haughty when he introduced himself but toned it down after tetting with Ebony. Maybe due to their inherent ability with mana. Dressed in a similar robe-like dress of the Frost Elves, sleeveless leather armour with leather bracers, a wooden bow and quiver of arrows.
Chris Parle, human [Warrior Lvl 53] standing a little shorter than Ebony had beige colour hair. Armed with a broadsword on his hip and a knife or dagger peeked out from his back under his thick furred cape. His armour spotted metal pieces around his chest and shoulders over leather parts. He was polite and charismatic, the popular type Ebony usually shy away from.
Dina Fang, human [Rogue lvl 51] the only woman on the escort team or the entire caravan party. A full head shorter than Ebony, slim and her leather armour covered her assets if she had any. Shoulder length brown hair, clean facial features more cute than pretty.
After seeing beautiful lady elves for long enough it was an unfair comparison. She had both bows and daggers, throwing knives by her thighs. Dismissive of Ebony at best, disturbed by Ebony fingers after tetting. Another perceptive one.
Rowent Igor, human [Fire Mage Lvl 57] only a little taller than Dina. He had a skinny face with murky dark red eyes and hair. The first thing he said when tetting was "Why on ell would a human pick a hybrid Class?" before his eyes widened and he went "OHH! I see, interesting."
Perhaps it was a mage or scholar thing, but he had lots of questions. Good thing for Ebony too as he could ask questions of his own on the trip.
Like all the humans in the group, he was wearing a warm-looking furred jacket or coat. He was fully covered though so Ebony couldn't see what kind of armour he wore. Carrying an iconic looking wooden staff curled at the top, holding a smaller than fist sized red orb. Unfortunately, Ebony didn't see the famous tall cone like hat of wizards.
Top Thud, Lizardman [Warrior Lvl 60] introduced himself as the leader of the escort team. At least 2.2 metres or 0.44 gir tall(metric system was obviously superior), muscles thick and chest wide. He had scales over his entire body and his face was reptilian, a humanoid lizard was accurate enough to describe him. A thick tail protruded from his back and a metal tip like cone covered the end of his tail. Also wearing winter clothing, he spotted a thick metal buckler big enough to cover much of his wide chest and a sword by his hip.
"Enya here will escort you out of Hoarfrost Glade. Ebony, it was a pleasure having you here in Arcta, feel free to visit any time. We hardly have any visitors as it is." Orren said, addressing the merchants and Ebony.
"Enya Tu, Don't worry I won't take your prey, I will only intervene if necessary." Enya declared.
She was on the shorter side for an adult Frost Elf at about 1.9 metres. The only different thing was that she didn't have the usual long hair they had. She had the strongest presence Ebony didn't feel from the village chief or his wife.
She didn't do anything but stand there yet the air around her seemed so heavy, getting close enough to tet was enough for Ebony to feel like someone was forcing him down on the ground. Even raising his hands to tet seemed like weights tied his arms down.
[Master Snow Rogue Lvl ???]
This was the indicator that she was an adult despite her height or hair. Overflowing Vitality, a lot more obvious than he ever felt. The Thoyas weren't fighters so they didn't heavily emphasise on Vitality while Orren was a Mage and Ophelia an Archer. Why didn't he feel it when he was with Gen?
"So you're Ebony. I heard you've been playing with my sister, her skills improved quite a bit in a short time." Enya said.
'That just sounds wrong... Snow Rogue, so she's Tiha's sister.' Ebony thought.
"Yes, I'm Ebony. Sparring with Tiha was helpful for both of us."
Andel couldn't decline Orren's hospitality even when there shouldn't be anything dangerous enough to require someone like Enya with their escort team only in the 50s.
Everything was in order and all aboard the wagon.