A minute or two passed.
The loud noise from the cottage stopped but the soft vibrations from the ground didn't. The squeaky door hinges opened to reveal who was behind it.
A woman, about as tall as Ebony, perhaps a tiny bit taller. That was pretty tall if she was human.
Ebony blinked twice seeing a thick white mask that covered the upper portion of her face. The bottom showed her thin, pink lips with a black smudge of soot or something similar on her jaws reaching her lip. Rather than a red feather on the mask like Scarlet's, her mask had a black line horizontally across with a small circle in the middle, the horizontal line not cutting through it. She had asphalt grey hair that was loosened from a similar bun to that of the old lady before whipping her head side to side to let her shoulder-blade length hair fall.
She put on a pair of boots that were on her porch by sliding her feet in. Wearing a thick brown leather apron over her shirt that she rolled the sleeves up. She had long legs and a figure good enough that the leather apron or dirty sooty clothing wasn't enough to cover her completely.
[Grand Craftswoman Lvl ???]
'Craftswoman?' That was new. Ebony usually Identifies, blacksmith, tailor and whatnot. Blacksmith's actual Class may be a weapon or armour smith, a tailor may be a dress tailor or an under armour tailor for all he knew since Identify doesn't tell much. It was the first time he had Identified a 'craftswoman' and he had never even heard of it.
Her level or rather, Grandmaster status didn't really scare him anymore after seeing quite a few older Frost Elves.
The overflowing Vitality from her on the other hand far surpassed any magically inclined Frost Elves. As if his robes were not heavy enough, he felt a phantom pressure pushing him down into the ground just standing in her presence. Unlike the old lady who he couldn't feel or even sense her presence with his Perception or magic.
The craftswomen first ruffled her hair before looking towards the old lady and was about to call out after her hands raised up for a wave before she stopped and Ebony felt himself getting pulled forward. She had grabbed the collar of his robes and was really close, her face got close enough to touch. She smelled burnt.
The craftswoman didn't bother with him but just appraised the robe he was wearing and before he knew it he was flung out of his own robe like a ragdoll. Fortunately, she didn't use much strength and it wasn't that hard for him to land safely. Ebony couldn't even stop her from stripping him out of his robe. The old lady only chuckled at his plight.
The pure physical stats were enough to overpower any skill or spell he had even though the craftswoman wasn't a combat-focused class.
"...Interesting. Oh, so that's how. Impressive. Hmm, it's a little familiar… ohh, Thoya. Mana Tailor. I see." The craftswoman whispered to herself.
It was loud enough that he could hear. He didn't expect the lady to know about Roya or mana tailoring. But he wasn't all that surprised, based on common sense a Grandmaster Class like her may be hundreds of years old as a human. Roya was a very young Frost Elf not even 200 years old. She worked in the Capital before so it might not be weird for craftsmen to recognise other craftsmen.
She then picked up the block of wood he brought like a twig and swung it all the way up to eye level before giving it the same inspection. She was silent this time so he couldn't tell if she knew what it was.
"Aii～little Jing can't even serve some tea to this old lady that came all the way here." The old lady complained.
"Hey grand aunt, take a seat. I'll bring out whatever I have, I should have some tea somewhere around." The craftswoman snapped out of it and tossed the block onto the ground.
"So? What brought grand aunt here? I didn't tell anyone where I went. I guess if anyone knew where I was it would be you." she continued.
Taking a table and 3 chairs out of nowhere, inviting her own 'grand aunt' into her house was not within her considerations it seems. Ebony couldn't help but be a little envious of taking things out of nowhere. There was no bag in sight and he didn't see a ring or necklace so he suspected it was the myriad bracelet again. The myriad bracelet was like an all-purpose tool where you could add all sorts of different functions in, similar to a phone. Convenient.
"Of course, I'm just here to see my cute little niece. Pass that over, your tea tastes horrible." The old lady snatched the teapot and started making tea herself.
"I won't be fooled anymore. You must be here for some scheme or prank of yours. Spit it out." The craftswoman plopped down on her seat with her arms crossed.
"How rude! I brought you a student here. Sit down and introduce yourself, boy." Ebony was finally brought into the conversation. His robe was already nicely placed onto the backrest of the remaining seat so at least she didn't treat him as invisible or anything like that.
Ebony sat down thinking about how impressive the chair was to withstand the weight of his robe. Ebony himself had gained a noticeable amount of mass. He had noticed when he sank deeper and deeper into the snow after Reinforced Mana Chassis levelled up a couple dozen times. It wasn't a big issue really, mass helped one hit harder anyway.
"I don't know who this lady is, I was just dragged here. Oh, I am Ebony." Ebony answered after giving the old lady a glance when he was referring to her.
"You kidnapped someone again? Little Xin's going to get mad again." He was somewhat ignored.
"OH! That's the thing!" The old lady placed a palm on his chest and pushed him all the way out the fence gate, rolling onto the street.
They were chatting and he could see the excited grin on the old lady's face while the other lady went from confused to stunned to smashing the table. Then she spread her arms wide open and was probably shouting before sitting back down in anger.
The old lady who caught the teapot still had the same grin and it appeared to him that she was attempting to convince or persuade the craftswoman in some fashion since the woman didn't look as angry as time passed.
Ebony couldn't hear what they were saying but he was dragged by the collar back past the fence line before he knew it. He was alarmed again when he felt a hand pop out right in front of him, he couldn't tell if it was some illusion, materialisation of mana in the form of a hand or just space magic. The next thing he knew was that the old lady was no longer in the corner of his vision. Obviously nowhere in his range of senses either.
The craftswoman brought her face really close to his, they stared at each other silently for what felt like hours before she let him go. She pulled a thin stick to her lips before it lit up. She was smoking. They called it a strain reliever but he just called it a cigarette.
"What can you do?"
"...Not much. A little ice, gravity and sound magic. Oh, I can clean too." Ebony added the end after looking around at the state of the house. He didn't need to have a good imagination to know that it would be worse inside.
Ebony was taking the situation pretty lightly. He wanted to travel far anyway, this was probably further than anywhere he could reach in months. The old lady who kidnapped him was already nowhere to be found and she probably wouldn't tell him much.
From what she said, she brought him to this craftswomen to be her student. Honestly, Ebony wasn't looking to further his research or studies into crafts any time in the near future since he was made aware of his weakness once again in Hoarfrost Glade. But this was a craftswoman above level 300, a Grandmaster. Furthermore, that mask of hers told him that she was a Xeng or highly likely to be one.
This was an opportunity that fell right onto his laps for all he knew.
Who knows? Just because she was a craftswoman didn't mean she didn't know how to fight. Like they all told him, he had time. There was no real rush other than the constant sense of weakness and helplessness building up in his mind.
What if while he was dilly-dallying with playing around without training something happened that would require his power and he wasn't strong enough because he didn't focus on his combat ability. He just got kidnapped for no reason and didn't have an ounce of resistance worth mentioning. Paranoia.
Ebony crushed the paranoia with his usual calm and clarity.
Not everything was out trying to kill or harm him. Sure, he spent 7 months learning how to make all sorts of clothes but did he not get stronger and tougher to kill too? His Class and Sub-Class skills have slowed down in levelling but that was only natural as their levels grew and he wasn't exactly risking his life on a daily basis to fight much stronger enemies to force their growth.
"Calling my house dirty!?" Ebony thought he saw her almost smile, though her words don't match her expression.
"And messy." He added.
"A punk huh…I don't believe it…"
She raised the leg she crossed but he sensed a leg slowly materialising above his head, this time he saw that part of her leg was no longer connected to her. Definitely space magic or something similar. Ebony slightly moved aside in time since he noticed in advance and she didn't use some nonsensical speed.
He didn't overestimate himself but his dodging irritated the craftswoman who changed the axe kick from above to a turning kick that 'teleported' and appeared too close for him to dodge. Luckily, compressed Icebody Enhancement was already running so it didn't really hurt him.
Reinforced Mana Chassis's passive increase of Constitution only applied when he was full on mana and the mana in his body was compressed. Ebony always left it that way to train the skill nowadays. Compressed Icebody Enhancement only took whatever still leaked out because his mana chassis still wasn't able to hold so much.
Besides, once it was fully compressed to 68% everything still leaks out as excess. Ebony's current mana regeneration of almost 307.6MP/min or 5.13MP/s easily supported a single spell or two. Though, this way of casting didn't use mana that was as compressed as it could be and Icebody Enhancement was only at about 40% of his maximum compression limit. He couldn't increase it anymore despite all the time he had spent trying to increase it.
12.5MP/min was how much Icebody Enhancement consumed. Sheer Mana Compression and 100% Compressibility made Ebony's current limit 665%, 40% of that was 266%. 12.5 + 33.25 = 45.75MP/min.
The original 147% increase in Constitution based on Intelligence is increased to 538.02%.
2022.95 increase in Constitution on top of his 250 base and 255 from Reinforced Mana Chassis gave Ebony a Constitution equivalent to 2527. Strength and Endurance of 1967.
He was still a little surprised he was pierced through by a level 122 snake. Of course, his Reinforced Mana Chassis and other skill levels weren't as high at that time but that was not a big difference.
Ebony had to remember when fighting other people that he wasn't the only one with stat and skill levels buffing him. Not to mention Fortification and skill tiers make a big difference. He couldn't underestimate anyone no matter the level. He never did.
He had gotten more and more familiar with leaving his mana pool alone and just manipulating whatever overflowed before it dissolved into the surroundings. The Frost Elves also taught him some basic mage tactics with manipulating or keeping overflowing mana as a makeshift mana pool. Warriors had overflowing Vitality which, while few people could, was possible to control and force it to weigh down on their target.
The same could be done with mana. Instead of unintentionally letting it leak out and affect other people who have much lower Wisdom or Vitality. It was not easy and he had only really learned the concept and not how to do it. If he previously thought that overflowing Wisdom was some kind of aura of power then he wasn't wrong. He just needed to learn how to control it.
Of course, he didn't have to control anything yet since his mana was still so weak. At least, that was what the adult Frost Elves had hammered into his mindset.
Ebony didn't put any mana ores in his myriad bracelet, conjuring ice mana with all the excess and filling his robe up before it got stripped off him and disconnected.
"...another baby monster. Ebony, was it?"
"Yes."
"Start cleaning up. There's an empty room on the second floor you can use. I'm Kong Jing."
'That's a Chinese name alright. And with the types of food Scarlet cooks… Is Xeng's culture like that of the Chinese? But Scarlet's name is Scarlet Rhael.' he remembered the day they met and her introduction.
"Sure, Kong Jing." Ebony's head was smashed into the ground without fail this time.
"Who said you could call me that!" Kong Jing didn't make much sense after introducing herself. Ebony kinda got used to Scarlet's mood swings too so he wasn't all that dumbfounded
"Then what should I call you?" Unfazed by getting his head kicked in.
"You tell me." This time he was sure she was just having fun as her smile was unhidden.
"Landlady Kong?" Ebony got kicked again.
"That makes me sound old! And don't call me Kong. I don't like the sound of it."
"Mistress Jing?" the ground cracked and the weight on his shoulder increased.
'Hot damn. Overflowing Vitality is not too different from gravity magic, the 'phantom' weight isn't phantom at all and is even stronger than what I could dish out with gravity magic.' Ebony obviously angered Kong Jing this time but it wasn't even part of his mental concerns.
"Who the hell are you calling mistress!?"
"Boss Jing?" This one made her pause.
"Hmm… that's more like it."
"So, what am I here for? And who was that old lady?"
"...Tsk. Why are you asking so much? Start cleaning up."
Even though boss Jing said that, she started to give him a small tour.
She opened the front door to reveal a heap of mess and clutter. There were swords, hammers, armors, clothes, pots, knives, golem bodies, guns, windows, spilt coloured liquid. It was pretty warm inside the house, the shaking or vibrating from the ground was even more obvious from here.
The cottage was huge but there weren't many rooms. Walls were clearly destroyed to join them.
The entire first floor was her workspace with many tools and equipment. The second floor which he had to jump up to since she apparently removed the stairs for more space. It was a little weird to him that the kitchen was on the second floor and the dining table was also in the kitchen. Then, there was her room which she likely broke a few walls down to expand as well, a bathroom and a couple of empty rooms.
She wasn't kidding when she said empty as there was nothing at all inside. He would have to get some stuff if he was really going to stay here. A bed, mattress and some furniture.
Boss Jing didn't bother with him anymore and he just started cleaning. At least the second floor was pretty much free of all the mess.
He first took everything out to arrange them separately. Glad that there was at least a broom around. It took him hours just to put everything outside, some things he couldn't even shift with enhanced strength.
Sweeping up all the dirt, mud, pieces of wood, shavings, soot and dust took the whole night. Boss Jing never returned to her room to rest. The constant noise of work didn't stop. He took a clean cloth to wet before using it to mop the whole house. It was really easy when the first floor was pretty much a wide open space except the area with the tools, equipment and the general workspace of boss Jing. She never turned back to look at him even once and her concentration was pretty admirable.
Morning came.
Ebony had thoroughly cleaned the interior, even giving the second floor a wipe-down. All her items were organised neatly according to what kind of object they were to their size and sometimes colour.
It was roughly time for breakfast so he went to the kitchen. A little self-exploration throughout the night was enough to familiarise himself. There was nothing much in her storage chests or cabinets, her 'refrigerator' only contained empty paper bags.
Ebony just slapped a few sandwiches together with the not-so-fresh bread and considerably fresh vegetables due to preservation magic with his dried meat jerky before…washing a few dishes so that he could plate it. He left it on the closest empty space beside boss Jing, who he had no idea what she was doing with a metal-like ball in her hands.
"I'm gonna go for a walk and buy some stuff." Ebony took the silence as an okay sign. He went out to explore the city and buy a few essential items and groceries. The city was huge and it took some time to get off the quiet street they were on.
Ebony visited any blacksmith, weapon store, armour store, alchemic store, tailor store and many more that he walked past.
The average level of people here was all above lvl 170 which meant he couldn't Identify anyone's level except maybe [Human] which were children and the few young teens he saw.
The quality of even the roads, buildings and of course products was much higher. As with the price tags on them. A few hundred Blues made him a pretty poor man, unable to afford much. He could still afford a decent weapon and living off it was no issue either.
Unfortunately, he was busy filling his robe's mana capacity recently and wouldn't be having much spare mana. Unless he really needed to.
Rather than asking for directions, he took his own sweet time exploring the bustling city's sights. Ebony would say that boss Jing's house and workspace was around the outskirts of the inner area.
Before long, he found himself in front of the Z&Z company store. Checking in and asking if Rowent, Fergus or Dina was here. They weren't.
The good news was that there were spatially expanded bags for sale. The bad news was they only accepted Purples for it. As for how to get a currency the Quest Hall doesn't trade in for? That was his business. There should be quests that offer Purples as rewards so that was one way but none of the quests that he was capable of completing paid a literal million mana of apparently much higher quality than a Blue.
Most quests for journeymen or those under level 100 barely paid a few Greens. At least in the old town of Plainston and not the City. Maybe if he paid a really outrageous exchange rate he could give away many Blues for a Purple.
Ebony splurged half his savings.
He bought a Rare rarity myriad bracelet that had 12 slots, 2 rows of 6 that went around the bracelet. It had 90% mana efficiency or conversion rate which was 15% better than his current one. It was way more tough and durable than his one that had cracks from freezing. He didn't even feel it on his wrist after he put it on, it was form-fitting, comfortable and practically defensive equipment with its toughness. There were even some that had spells embedded in them but he didn't bother with those.
The one he got already cost over a hundred Blues. It was a worthwhile investment. The myriad bracelet was essential to daily life and the mana conversion rate was too attractive not to get. 90% should be the best that they could make with the current technology. The loss in efficiency was said to be from converting and removing mana qualities till it was completely pure and absorbable by the natural ores.
Another common sense that the employees didn't tell him was that higher rated mana ores had lower conversion efficiency due to the increase in the required purity of mana. Now it made a little more sense to him why he needed three days to charge the Blues needed to get the tungsten rime back in Teld. He had thought his Mental Arithmetic failed him multiple times. The general consensus is that the conversion efficiency they were referring to was for a Green. Usually, only Grandmaster mages bothered to fit a Blue or higher in.
He also bought cleaning equipment, soap and his other daily necessities. Ebony had been using a new venture of his, frost plum-scented soap. He had given the idea to Mrs Calhy and she made it come true with a little help from Palom.
Ebony kept them in a small box made of ice so that it didn't melt, he just had to refreeze the container from time to time. They were also a gift he planned to give Scarlet. She did use fruit and/or flower scented towels to wipe herself.
He wanted to get an even better callstone that had both higher mana efficiency and much wider range but he decided to hold off on it since it didn't matter for now. He should exchange all his Blues for empty ones to stock up and build his wealth further first.
He did just that and found the even more massive Quest Hall to make an exchange. The exchange rate was pretty favourable to him. Blues have so much less value to higher level people. 1 full Blue gave him 3 empty ones. Ebony traded in 100, leaving him with 50 filled ones and 300 empty ones.
Plainston was really poor.
His translucent icy face only attracted a few second glances the whole time. It didn't catch all that much attention. Perhaps, to the high level people he was just a kid practising his skill or maybe they didn't think he was human at all. Truthfully, he wasn't anywhere as attention-grabbing as what the city had to offer.
There was all the generic stuff and then the more eccentric stuff. Selling monsters or butler golems was one. Spirit monsters in a glass bottle. A supposedly invisible whip that was placed within a glass container.
His Vibrational Gravity Sense has gotten much stronger but is still not completely sensitive enough to differentiate or pick out different gravitational waves from an item inside a box or pass through walls. Still, the small disturbance in gravitational waves told him that there really was something inside that he couldn't see.
A potion that can keep a person in complete stasis for a day. Spell scrolls. Enchanted equipment. Grimoires containing 'forbidden' knowledge are sold right in the open by a street stall. Clatter Rattle city was so much more interesting than the boring Plainston but Ebony only browsed and never got anything else.
He finally found a furniture store after half a day of aimless walking. Buying one of the tougher bed frames along with a mattress. A table, chair and chest that was pretty much a set. He didn't have many belongings so he found a wardrobe redundant. The chest was large enough to fit himself inside with space to spare, it could double as a wardrobe.
They would deliver it to where he stipulated. It was a problem that he didn't know the address but Mental Mapping helped him describe and an ice sculpture of the portion of the city that he had already visited made it clear enough. It was nice to surprise the clerk with his adeptness with ice manipulation.
Ebony had enough of exploring for the day so he just bought all the groceries he thought were needed for a week before making his way back. Food here was a bit more expensive than in Plainston even after the food prices rose there.
Boss Jing was still in the same position she was staring at the metal ball. The sandwich untouched.
Since she didn't bother with him, he didn't find the need to bother her.
He practised his own magic and trained in the spacious front yard. Flowing Greatsword Mastery and Ceaseless Onslaught lagged behind the most. Ice Sword didn't progress much despite him using it as his greatsword. His sound magic also needed more attention as he had always put more effort into gravity.
Ebony did find something new that he could do. When Sonic Overlay was cast over his hands and he clapped, the conflicting frequencies screeched really annoyingly and when he clapped right at a monster's ears it had been a mental attack good enough to distract them. He just didn't know if he wanted to repeat that so many times that it actually became a skill.
He felt that he had more than enough skills for his Sub-Class and Profession. He was spread thin enough now he just needed to refine whatever his Sub-Class and Profession did to do better. They were basically doing what he had envisioned them to do at this point.
As for his Class. Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze. Ebony was far from satisfied.
At the very least, Ebony had plans to do something about Icebody Enhancement, Frost Injection and Ice Sword. None of his skills were 'Frostblaze'. He had wanted to look for Gen for that very reason. His second choice was to look for somewhere private where he could train in secret. The duelling or training grounds in the Quest Hall? Frankly, he didn't really trust that they were private at all. Not one bit.
Ebony was only told to keep the existence or location of Gen and their forest together with the details of his physique secret. He could still tell that Gen didn't want him to go around promoting his progenitor's magic. Him being a mana being was too hard to hide and good mages could usually tell easily.
Ebony also trusted Scarlet wasn't the type to say anything about his skillset.
Another thing he missed out was that people with Appraise or higher tier versions could easily see his full Class name either. Completely hiding the fact was impossible for him from the get-go.