"Ebony. There will come a day you meet someone who can break your mental state of calm. You will know just by looking at that person."
"Dad, is that really possible? Looking at someone can stop my meditation? It didn't even stop when mum broke my leg." Ebony recollected.
"I know you won't believe it. But if one day you really meet such a person there are 2 things you should... no, you must do."
"..."
"That person will be your achilles heel. One, you run. As far as you can. Don't even interact with this person. You can never win. Never. Two, if your escape fails. Then good luck, you better keep this person on your good side and never let her out of your sight."
"You are kidding right?"
"Of course not. Just look at me and your mother."
'...'
❅❅❅
'Holy crap. Is it those eyes? Or is it those assets? Had I always been such a simp? I need to get away from her as soon as possible.' Ebony felt his life of getting beaten and broken down by his mother flash past his mind as he almost fell into panic again as he calmed himself down. Deep Persistent Meditation slowly kicking back on.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm sorry for attacking you. I thought you were trying to harm the little boy." The woman reached out to rub the kid's head but he hid behind Ebony.
"Mmm. It's okay, I could tell you weren't trying to harm me. Hey there, come here. Thank the lady, she was trying to help you as well." Ebony replied and tried to get the boy from hiding.
"Ah. Ermm th..thank you mister. Thank you, miss." he seemed confused at first but managed to get a hold of the situation.
"My name is Ivan. What's about you, mister and miss. Ehm, please come to my house! I think we have some leftover russell stew." Ivan introduced and asked.
"Hello Ivan, I'm Ebony." Ebony replied and tetted.
"Ebony Rime. You are?" 'Why did I reintroduce myself? Why did I ask for her name? I need to scram. No, it's okay I need her name so I can avoid her if I ever hear it.' Ebony's thoughts and words didn't match as he politely greeted as the lower level one. She was identified as [Fire Swordswoman Lvl 40] and Ebony didn't forget their culture that the lower level one should use their right hand.
Ebony once again found himself staring. At her hands this time, they were so slender and so fair it looked almost fragile. That was not what got his attention but the thick callus on her extremely slender and fair hands, her fingers, palms they were covered in calluses.
Rivalling Ebony's calluses in fact, it was not easy to have calluses with enhanced stats like Constitution. With Ebony's regeneration they heal pretty quickly but constantly wearing them down allowed them to stay there for some time. That would mean the woman also constantly trains, and it would only make sense with her impeccable swordsmanship.
"Scarlet Rhael." 'Scarlet…the name fits her well.'
"I have never seen such beautiful swordsmanship, Scarlet." 'Hot damn. What am I saying? At least I didn't say that her hands look beautiful or her eyes. Crap. I'm like a middle schooler in love. It's okay. Chill. I am just praising her and meant it, I am always honest this is no different. I should leave now.'
"Halt! What's going on here?" 'Damn it the guards are here, if they're anything like the police I would need to follow them to give a statement or something.' Ebony was right, after a quick explanation the 2 guards got him to remove the ice cuffs while they used their own.
The guards seemed surprised when they looked at Ebony like when he just entered the town as well. Did he look that much different from the people here? That shouldn't be the case, then maybe a hybrid class is just surprising here. Ebony also noticed the weird reactions they have when they saw Scarlet confirming that a hybrid class was not something they saw every day.
Everyone who saw Ebony for the first time after arriving in Plainston gave him weird looks so far, except Ivan and Scarlet. Ivan probably because he couldn't use Identify, Scarlet perhaps hid it behind her mask but it didn't feel like it. She was a hybrid class herself so no surprise there.
They started walking towards the gate again where their office was when Ebony got an unexpected ring in his head.
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Divination Resistance gained'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Divination Resistance level up 1 → 2'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Divination Resistance level up 2 → 3'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Divination Resistance level up 3 → 4'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Divination Resistance evolved into Sheer Divination Resistance'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Sheer Divination Resistance level up 4→ 5'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Sheer Divination Resistance level up 5 → 6'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Sheer Divination Resistance level up 6 → 7'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Sheer Divination Resistance level up 7 → 8'
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Sheer Divination Resistance level up 8 → 9'
'Hmm? Divination? Like seeing the future? Who's divining me and what for? Is she a diviner or something?' Ebony thought it was getting creepy as he just got to Plainston not long ago and he was starting not to like the place already. He didn't bother looking around to see who was divining him as he didn't think it would help since he couldn't stop it anyway.
Scarlet's Class was a [Fire Swordswoman Lvl 40], even if her Sub-Class or Profession was a diviner it shouldn't be possible to get his resistance to the second tier like that so he thought it shouldn't be her.
His mental state stabilised shortly, instead of turning on and off repeatedly. Now that his mana regeneration is at 25.9575 per min, just using Icebody Enhancement at 12.5MP/Min doesn't cut it anymore. Casting a shield in town seems out of place too. Normally, 6 mana per minute would require someone to have 360 points in Wisdom. It didn't feel too ridiculous but Ebony still tried casting compressed Icebody Enhancement.
Ebony got the idea of using compressed Icebody Enhancement a while back. He still has not gotten the hang of it though.
Casting Icebody Enhancement was quite natural for him, almost like breathing. He would have to make it a two-step process if he wanted to compress the mana first then circulate it. If only he could directly produce compressed mana or have his mana compress itself by will.
Rowent and Fergus told him that the mage association had libraries open to all mages but the good stuff were for higher order mages or those that contributed to the association enough. Such as publishing their own books which many don't like to do, they want to keep some secrets to themselves after all. Ebony would make a trip there when he can.
The process was drab but the guards were familiar with the process, looks like thugs are common here. The guard captain Ebony saw earlier was the only one who had a metal chest piece, the rest of them hardly had metal pieces in their standard armour. There were still quite some normal warriors in the office that did deskwork instead, the apprentice warriors were their grunts who did most guard duty and patrols.
Town or city guard was supposedly a profession and they have many different fortifications as well. Those that make patrolling or spotting trouble easier, or making them have some kind of buff when protecting the town or city.
Ebony walked Ivan to shop for groceries with Scarlet and was planning to walk him home since he was in no rush. He was glad the phrase 'out of sight out of mind' didn't lie to him as his Core Skill was working normally again.
It didn't take long before they arrived at Ivan's home where he ran in calling his mother but not before telling the both of them not to go away. The awkward wait outside the door didn't seem to bother either Ebony or Scarlet.
A middle aged gentle looking [Apprentice Tailor Lvl ???] arrived at the door. She greeted and bowed, thanking them politely for helping her son before she stuttered so badly Ebony thought she was lagging out.
Ebony couldn't tell whether she was more shocked by looking at Scarlet or himself, perhaps fear was more accurate. She quickly excused herself and closed the door on them, Ebony could still hear Ivan complaining and asking his mother why she shut the door on them.
"Sorry about that, now you can't have any russell stew. She probably didn't let us in because of me." Scarlet broke the awkward silence. The russell stew was the least of his worries; he just didn't want to be rude or disappoint Ivan. Ebony couldn't be more glad at the chance to escape.
"Mmm. I should get going. Farewell." Ebony succinctly said, not bothering to argue who's fault it was that she shut the door on them. Ebony attempted to flee.
"Wait where are you going? I want to apologise for attacking you and damaging your robe. And causing you not to be able to eat." Scarlet hindered his attempt to flee.
"It's alright. I'm going to the Quest Hall to register." Ebony tried to flee again.
"I was on my way there too. Let's go." Ebony has failed to escape.
'Is it too late to say I was going to find an inn?' Ebony thought as Scarlet led the way to the Quest Hall. At least she was quiet and Ebony didn't have to listen to her deep, clear and honestly sexy voice. 'And that was under her mask, how is she breathing through it?'
The Quest Hall was even larger than the Z&Z Company store, the large double doors were left wide open. It was close to what Ebony imagined those guild halls look like but the 'quest board' was a screen instead of an actual board. The place was segregated into different segments for freelancers there for jobs and the town administrative stuff.
There were many round tables at the side where parties were having a drink and just chatting. Seeing Dwarves for the first time was interesting, they were about half his height and jam packed full of muscles making them almost as wide as they were tall. When taking into account their armour they were almost a round ball of muscle and metal. Their weapons of choice were either huge war axes and hammer, or smaller ones with a shield.
Ebony hasn't seen a single fully metal armoured human like those medieval knights, as much as he thought it was impractical it would have been cool to see. With stats and skills, it might not be as impractical as he thinks either. He made his way to line up at the counters, Scarlet took a different line.
As usual, he was getting weird looks but this was something he was already used to since he was on Earth. He didn't care then and he didn't care now.
"Hello sir, how may I help you?" the counter lady receptionist asked. Brownish hair was likely the most common colour hair amongst humans here.
"Registering as a freelancer."
"No problem, could you help fill up this form please?"
"Of course." Ebony didn't think he would do paperwork again. It didn't take long to fill up the form, the thing was quite a few spots were optional to fill up. He put down his name and age, the Class, Sub-Class and Profession was optional since many don't like to share but they still needed to give some information like if they were a close range combatant, warrior, knight, rogue etc.
Ebony just put down himself as a hybrid Ice swordsman. The other questions asked if he had certain skills like first aid or healing type skills. He submitted the form which the receptionist lady took and got him to wait.
"Okay sir, here's your quester crystal. Please try not to lose it as it will cost you to replace it and all unupdated quest points will not be refunded so please remember to update at the closest Quest Hall as often as you can." The receptionist handed over another one of those crystals that can fit in his myriad bracelet. Ebony slotted it into one of the empty slots as she explained how things worked around here.
Anyone could post a quest in the Quest Hall for all sorts of nonsense like finding a lost bird or ring as long as they put a reward up for it and it would also cost them a tiny bit to keep a quest posted so that people don't flood them with nonsensical quests.
Monster hunting quests which are usually put up by the town or city themselves require a certain level of quest points held so that weak and new freelancers don't bite more than they can chew. Other than that, they do not stop level 50 people from hunting level 100 monsters for example.
Requests for rare or hard to find items, ingredients and materials are also the norm. The Quest Hall is actually all connected throughout the Empire and it is possible to see other quests from other places or post quests at other places for materials that can't be found where they are. Of course it would cost the poster even more ores since contacting further places requires more mana as well.
Someone new like Ebony would only be able to take on the sillier chore kind of quests or picking some grass grown in the forest or something that doesn't have a quest point requirement. Ebony already knew these which was why he kept the tynite bison materials.
Material types quest didn't really have to be picked up and could just be handed in as long as he had those materials so it was a quick and easy way of raking quest points up he learnt from Halvis. The Thoya couple used to be freelancers when they just started their journey, though it was more of a pastime for them and they didn't go through with it, not being fighters and all.
The standard party size like the escort party was 5 members. Ebony noticed the trend of having a single Dwarf or Beastman like Lizard and Wolfmen as the heavily armoured and most likely tank of the team. Humans tended to be the warriors or rogues while Elves were their ranged archers or mages but Ebony didn't see any Elves or mages here.
Freelancers didn't have to be in a party but to enter a dungeon tower it was required to be in a party of 5.
Dungeons or dungeon towers were called as such as in basically every dungeon, there would either be a way up or a way down. How many levels they have can change as they can expand.
Why 5? Ebony tried asking before. It was the average number of apprentice Classers required to safely kill a monster of the same level. That was to say it took 5 level 30 people to kill a single level 30 monster relatively safely. That was more shocking than surprising even if they were an apprentice class, a 50% buff to anything should be pretty significant. Did they not have the stimulation rite the Frost Elves did? Even the unclassed can kill a monster at least 10 levels above them albeit with help.
Dungeons were believed to be a living organism due to their ability to grow and adapt. Though they can be born or formed at different strengths. Much has been discovered about dungeons yet little is known. Every dungeon is unique in their own way but there are many similarities between them too.
For example, dungeons try to attract people to go in and try to kill them to absorb them. Most dungeons leave the equipment alone and put them in chests to attract more people. Unlike natural monsters, dungeons spawn them as they wish, using their own energy or as theorised, essence. When the dungeon senses too many of its monsters being killed by a certain party they would either make monsters avoid the party or bring down everything they have to kill whatever's harming the dungeon.
Another point to note on dungeons is that how they evolve and grow also depends on who or what is invading it. A fire type dungeon that continually kills and absorbs water mages either gains a lot of resistance against them, becomes partly or fully water dungeon after long enough or both. If a ton of warriors died in the same dungeon over many years the dungeon monsters also tended to have more physically inclined monsters.
That was when the Empire made it an imperial law to be in a party of 5 that isn't like 5 mages or 5 warriors. There are some exceptions of course, you just need to be strong enough. They classify the dungeons as common, uncommon and rare according to the monster levels found on the first floor within.
A Master class like master warrior, archer or great mage can enter common dungeons in 3s. A Grandmaster class can enter a common dungeon solo.
A warrior after the lvl 100 Class Evolution would be a master warrior which after their level 300 Class Evolution would be a grandmaster warrior while a mage would become a great mage then grand mage. Swordsman would become sword master and sword grandmaster, pretty simple. After that was the ranks of kings but that seemed a little distant for now. Few actually go in with less than a full party of 5.
The dungeon entrance would almost definitely be guarded at all times and Ebony didn't have the stealth skills to sneak in. He also didn't want to bother sneaking around and was not completely against having a party though, he preferred fighting and hunting alone.
He exchanged every single one of his mana ores for empty ones, Blacks were 1 to 4, Greys 1 to 6 and Greens were 1 to 2. Those were some huge taxes but they apparently go to paying the imperial miners and mana ore shapers or gem, jewellery artisans who standardised the shape and quality to make sure all are exactly the same.
Anything higher in rarity was worth more than the sum of the mana inside since they were more rare too. Since mana ores of different rarity were basically more and more compressed mana there were many things that dense mana could do that low rarity mana ores couldn't.
Ebony just slotted every highest rarity one and let his mana overflow without issue for the first time. People usually don't put more than 2 since the overflowing mana splits among all of them evenly. He was planning to quickly exchange for more as soon as the next morning, he needed higher rarity mana ores and a whole lot of them.
Even at 75% mana efficiency, he fills them up at 19.49 mana per min. A Grey would only take a little less than an hour to fill while a Green that holds 10,000 mana would take just under 9 hours. At least he could fit quite a few in his bracelet and doesn't have to worry about falling asleep in town.
Imperial miners are considered a pretty 'high-class' job that many common people that don't want to fight, aspire to be. Since the whole continent was Empire lands and the Xengs don't give a shit, every mana ore quarry found was Empire property. Nobles or not, those who were found keeping a mine hidden and not reported didn't end up well.
He went to the line that Scarlet lined up earlier only to see Scarlet waiting at the side. He applied for a party that the Quest Hall could help do, if people don't already have one. The good thing about having the Quest Hall party people up was that they consider what a balanced party would need and put what they believe to be a good team together.
They would try to put at least one person with the minimal first aid skill or skills along the line. They sure were trying hard to keep people alive, first aid skills were pretty popular to learn since it tended to put you in a better team and people may try harder to keep them alive too.
Ebony followed the receptionist's advice and put himself up for a delayed partying. The dungeon would take weeks or maybe more to form and he could rake up more quest points and levels in the meantime to get partied with higher levelled people. There were also going to be a lot more people rushing into Plainston and even applying through their own town or city's Quest Hall.
Ebony almost got worried that Scarlet, who was looking over would come and disrupt his plans, luckily for him she didn't say anything. He went to look at the available quests but many were boring old quests so he just set his eyes on the materials and ingredients that were in demand and took note of them.
This way he could just go hunting and bring back things of value, he didn't really need the money or mana ores rewarded actually. He already produced more than what these quests could reward him anyway but if higher quest points gave him better credit rating which gives him a higher chance at getting better, stronger party members then it was worth the trouble.
He didn't want to kill monsters for nothing, if they were trying to kill him and their parts were useful then he would feel better as to not wasting their lives. He wanted to just leave the Quest Hall like that but Scarlet was obviously waiting for him as she was looking at the same part of the screen that he was looking at.
"New dungeons tend to have monsters at level 50 as the weakest lot on the first floor. I suggest rushed levelling for now, there is always time for skill levelling when you reach 100." Scarlet said.
"That was the plan. Any hunting spots you recommend?" Ebony had already calmed down and he was planning to do what Scarlet had suggested so he just asked since she seemed to know the area.
"Deeper into the woods towards southeast has a herd type purely physical monster, Rhoats, Ranges from 50 to 70. I heard the Bubble Hills has Mud Marmots that live in large groups as well, they have a larger level range. Younger dens of level 30s to mature dens of level 80s but they are harder to find as they hide underground and can use mud magic." The Rhoats sound like a good target for Ebony but hunting them would likely be less productive for his skills.
The Bubble Hills were actually more dangerous than he thought as there were many monsters above 100 there; the route he took here really was the safest. The plains was a large expanse and might not be easy to spot many monsters.
"Thank you for the information. If that's all I will take my leave, a pleasure meeting you." Ebony said and attempted to flee again. He was sincere about thanking her but what he didn't know was that Scarlet could feel that he didn't fully mean the second half of his words. Ebony gave a courtesy bow of head before walking out towards the door.
'Am I so unpleasant he can't even say it was a pleasure meeting me without so much sarcasm?' Scarlet thought. She was low-key pissed for reasons she herself was unsure of, it's not like she ever cared what people thought of her. She had long been used to people being nervous or fearing being near her but this man, Ebony didn't only look down on her it felt to her as if he couldn't stand being anywhere near her for even a second more.
'Forget it' she thought. Scarlet was gonna go back to the inn and cook more food for herself to swallow her anger. She could almost taste the turkey on her tongue as she thought about what to make, she did catch a few more extras.
Ebony was walking towards where the Inn Andel recommended but it was not hard to notice Scarlet had been going the same direction as him for quite a while now. 'She's not following me is she?' Ebony sped up.
Once he saw the sign board, Espol's Inn, Ebony quickly entered the thick wooden doors. The person he talked to was a dwarven woman who was quite hard to tell apart from their men, muscular, bearded, round but she was wearing a dress or skirt.
There was only one room free for a single person on the third floor, it would cost him 8 Blacks for a night which was actually higher than what Andel said it would be. They were probably starting to increase the price as people swarmed in.
Ebony was thinking about how long he should rent the room for, he would be here for a while. He would hate it if he didn't manage to find somewhere to rest if he didn't rent it long enough or if the price skyrocketed after this. Even if he didn't really worry about money
Someone entered the inn at this point and Ebony turned to see it was Scarlet.
"Just one night ma'am." Ebony decisively said. He instantly decided to sleep in the forest or hills.
"That'll be 8 Blacks. Food is separately paid at the canteen on the first floor, right at the back over there." the bearded lady pointed.
"Alri.."Ebony checked his pockets before he facepalmed at exchanging all his ores for empty ones. 8 transparent crystals dropped onto the counter in his dilemma, it was a little awkward to stand there and wait for the ores to fill up.
"Take that as my apology for attacking you, you exchanged all your ores didn't you? Wait in your room, I'll cook something for you as an apology for the stew." Scarlet said before walking up the stairs.
"Here's your key, third floor room 304. Second room on the right. By the way, the Xeng lady that paid for you is in room 303 right across the hall." The dwarven lady rubbed it in. The room was already paid for and it was getting late to look for another inn. It would also be incredibly rude of Ebony to just walk off now after she said she'll cook for him, it just wasn't Ebony to walk off like that.
'Was that really necessary? So she's a Xeng, strong as they say. I can take Chris on without much effort now he just has higher stats and he's level 53.' Ebony thought the receptionist's comment to be really redundant but the fact that Scarlet was a Xeng was new. How she knew Scarlet was a Xeng was a mystery to Ebony but he didn't want to ask the nosy lady more.
Scarlet was only lvl 40, perhaps she had a Sub-Class about the same level but Ebony didn't think he could beat her even if he used everything at his disposal. With the speed she had shown, running may only be possible if she doesn't catch up fast enough so that he could just out run her with his stamina.
He would be dead even faster if she used fire magic. Ebony's weakness to fire and/or heat was getting concerning especially when fire mages were one of the more common mages according to the Z&Z escort party.
Ebony got to his room and put his things down. He had more things but the load had lightened on him without the tynite materials. He did get a few Greens for them which was yet again more than a single Boom from Lure but he exchanged them too…
He went to take a bath and relaxed on the bed while massaging himself from the soreness of wearing the heavy coat. He took the chance to wash his dirtied set of clothes and underwear.
If there was one thing Ebony thought was as good as his ability to meditate it was his ability to massage muscle and bodily pain away. He was constantly beaten and broken down and had long practice on how to give amazing massages for his parents and himself.
He was a little sad that he didn't have a skill for it yet but it might be because he couldn't massage himself properly as there were hard to reach places.
Knock knock knock
'Haa. Why does it sound like the devil is knocking on the door?'