Hiding.
Ebony hid and hid. Burying himself in snow or burying his scale orb in snow. He fought when he had to. His defences didn't mean much to the monsters here. His tough body, his enhancement, his Layered Ice Carapace and his Chaotic Repulsive Membrane merely served to keep him barely alive. He had to thank his evasive capabilities, perception skills and prediction of attacks. Most importantly, regenerative capabilities that let him heal from most injuries.
There were not many monsters but once he fought one, more would get attracted by the fight. It didn't matter if they were level 120 or beyond his Identify range. He couldn't beat them with ease. Every battle put his neck around a noose. He gave up trying to fight anything higher than 130. Meaning he hid from anything he saw since hardly anything was lower than 150 for a few days already.
At least the rise in strength of monsters was pretty consistent and there were likely clear distinctions in their territories. Ebony avoided where the wolves were like he was often advised to. There were the most numerous and least hidden.
He almost got bit by a [Toxic Frost Toad Lvl 162] that was hiding under the snow. Deep enough that he couldn't sense it as its tiny gravitational wave pull was covered by the snow and the planet's gravitational waves. It was what Clovis used to make his poison from. Although, Clovis likely used a weaker version.
Ebony didn't have poison resistance from the 3 headed snake since Palom gave him such quick treatment that his body couldn't develop resistance. He didn't want to risk dying just to get resistance if his regeneration couldn't overcome the poison.
He was fast, but the creatures here were faster. He fought when he could and hid when he needed to.
Most of his skills reached his limit already as none levelled any further.
The snowing didn't persist every day. He took those opportunities to look for areas that had snow storms or blizzards. Monsters don't come out as often during these times as well. Luck was on his side as these days of clear sky happened more and more frequently.
It had been a month and a half. Based on the moon he had a clear view of, he was already a full month into summer. The Glades was massive. It didn't seem to have an end in any direction. There were many places he didn't dare go even when the creatures didn't seem active. Both gut feeling and the Frost Elves' warnings prevented him from delving into many areas.
He mapped out a huge portion of the Glades already yet the Frostblaze Amur Maple forest still eludes him.
His generic skill, Stealth has mutated into Camouflage.
Camouflage - Blending yourself into your surroundings to stay out of sight. Perceive and utilise the target's blindspot to hide in the shadows. Presence reduced by 1.0% per level. Ability to stay out of plain sight while stationary increases by 1.0% per level.
His robe and hair are already white and covered with snow. His robe was deliberately whitened by deactivating Chaotic Repulsive Membrane and then getting it back on to include his makeshift camouflage. The sheer amount of rolling or burying himself in the snow got his hair covered in it. With his skin and flesh looking somewhat like ice, he was as camouflaged as any other creature here. Even his black Icicle blended in with the trees.
Ebony's reduced sound of footsteps was gone but his footsteps had always been light so it didn't mean much. The ability to stay out of plain sight was weird but he somewhat understood it. He could predict attacks well because of all the micromovements of anyone or any monster that he registers in his subconscious. Allowing him to dodge or move according to his instincts without much thought. One of the numerous things he observes in real time are the eyes of his opponent and where their blindspots would be.
He could just stand there and they wouldn't be able to see him unless he moved. Though that's thanks to his camouflaging as well, the skill helped to improve this ability of his. No idea how presence is reduced. Is that even something he was actually doing or purely the skill helping him? It couldn't just be the skill since he had to be able to do that for the skill to have such an effect.
The gradual rise of heat due to the season was combated by his dive further into Hoarfrost Glade. There was less and less snow, more and more ice. The ground, trees and leaves were beginning to have a thick layer of ice instead of snow. The concentration of ice mana in the ambient air was rising as he delved deeper.
Sheer Cold Resistance hasn't levelled from 57 for a month. He decided he had enough of freezing his ass off and pasted the heating papers under his robe. Just freezing the corners on, placing one around each knee and elbow.
Renewed with energy, he carried on his slower march through the icy forest with less and less snow for him to hide under. The trees had sleeping owls and unknown birds or monkeys and apes. He didn't want to jump around, make noise and wake them up.
There were huge deers 3 times larger than those he hunted in his early days that he didn't want to disturb either. They actually ignored him when they peaked from under their curled-up rest. Maybe it was his low level or small size that was unsatisfying for the beast. Convenient.
They were beyond his range of Identify anyway. Most were still Master ranked so they had to be below 300.
The forest got quieter than it already was. Most creatures ignored him and acted like they were all asleep during the day. It was his greatest chance and opportunity to explore. He was greatly slowed down by all the hiding. His target was using his senses to search for the combusting ice mana and searching for a snowstorm when there wasn't one in the area.
He would be at wit's end if Gen's spell had illusion magic or something similar as well.
Ebony had Treading Stride pushing him further and further. Looking for high ground whenever he could. He had little rest over this period of time. Usually sleeping only when he had to, inside the thickest orb he could make. There was so much ice mana around but he only used his own mana so far. Because he wasn't as worried about his speed as he was his survivability he didn't worry about making too much Layered Ice Carapace that it slowed him down.
He thought he was lucky when another 2 days of travel let him spot a tall mountain. Or an iceberg. It was just a mountain of ice in his perception.
Scaling it was no issue for him who could run up a tilted cliff without climbing using his hands. It was even colder up the mountain and the piercing cold was giving him frostbites despite his body warmer rune pieces of paper. The mountain of ice couldn't be considered tall using their standards but it was taller than the tallest mountain on Earth.
Ebony's Perception stat of 100 enhanced by his Core Skill to over 300 let him see far. The relatively clear day was a blessing as he blinked. He saw it. The blizzard. It was awkward to have such a strong blizzard when it was clear around it but letting the spell down would show the forest either way. It was far but anywhere within sight could easily be reached in a short time with his current movement speed.
He dashed, flipping himself off to the side when a rain of icicles came showering on him. He didn't see what attacked him and he didn't bother finding out. Just continuing to propel himself away. The icicle rain caused a disturbance that woke some angry apes and something else under the ground of ice. He had hoped it was none of his business anymore.
The roars and yells were getting softer so that was a good sign he wasn't being chased. The bad sign was the screech from the sky ahead of him. Another good sign was a huge deer with ice antlers jumped right into the air and bit the eagle right out of the air. Only to land where a couple of apes were sleeping.
A stroke of bad luck for the Glades to wake up at this time. Ebony might look similar to any creatures here of white and blue here but he still stood out. To many monsters, he was just a small snack and they were more busy fighting each other than caring about him. He just needed to hide his mana so that he didn't seem strong enough to be a threat, not many monsters were afraid of his mana, they were attracted by it instead. He used the chaos to stay out of the battle and kept running.
The very ground trembled and he heard the loud sound of something breaking behind him before a shattering roar forced him to cover his ears reflexively. He wasn't far away from the dark veil of the blizzard and didn't look back. The added pressure of overflowing Vitality was not helping but Sustained Optimum Condition and Everlasting Tranquillity helped him push through.
Something entered his Vibrational Gravity Sense so fast he couldn't even react to it as it smashed right in his shoulder and back. It catapulted him forward, his back and shoulder fractured on impact. He rolled and picked himself up before continuing without care for the pain. It had been a stray blob of snow that hadn't been aimed at him. Maybe it was a side effect of a spell or maybe it was just the monsters swinging around with so much physical strength the snow that flew around hit him.
In any case, he wouldn't survive a direct hit from any monster here. Even with how far he ran he could still feel the ground shake, the thinning of ice mana in the air and the sharp decrease in temperature.
He couldn't tell from afar but standing right before the blizzard spell let him notice how strong the blizzard was. It wasn't just strong winds with heavy snow, shards of ice were raging and flying around everywhere beyond a certain point. Shards were inaccurate as there were some bigger than he was. At the speeds they were zooming around, he didn't think well of his chances.
The winds were too erratic, there was nothing for him to predict. The trajectory of the flight path of the snow and pieces of ice were changing constantly. He quickly disassembled his shields and covered himself up. Once done, he rolled himself into the blizzard. He couldn't fly but he could still move his orb. Maybe lifting himself up for a few seconds if needed.
To speed up his movement he had tried running inside his orb like a hamster on a wheel. It actually worked with a little leg mind coordination but not since the moment his scale orb entered the dark veil of a blizzard. Not even 2 minutes in and he felt pushed against his own orb. His vibrational sense told him he was lifted off the ground already but that was a no brainer with all the inertia he was under and getting flipped around inside his self made prison.
The peppering on the outside of his orb could be felt but he had more than enough mana and ice mana to spare to continuously repair and thicken his prison. That was what he imagined. Something invaded his orb, all around. They were fiercely digging into his ice orb and tearing it apart from within. Ejecting the layer that was 'infected' only bought him some time. Fortunately, he had tons of mana in his robe that he utilised to refresh the ice orb as much as possible.
Once in a while, he would be smashed by something so hard half of his prison broke open to let the blizzard and extreme cold enter. He steadied himself by making it more squeezy for himself so he wouldn't knock around the orb. He would kick the ice 'shard' out as soon as possible and fix his prison.
He would soon know how lucky he was that he didn't touch the snow as they were repelled away from his skin.
Even he started to feel a little unwell in the stomach after what felt like hours of flipping and knocking around. He wasn't dizzy thanks to Everlasting Tranquillity but it didn't feel good to be flung around so violently. This continued for a long time but he couldn't tell how long. He didn't even move when he felt himself land and stop moving. The constant ejecting of 'infected' ice scales were the biggest drain on his reserve of ice mana which was slowly but surely running out.
Sensing no movement for long enough, he controlled a small opening to peek outside but it was dark and he couldn't see anything. Poking it to find snow dropping inside, he was probably completely buried. It was a good chance. He slowly let his orb rotate and dig through the snow. His perception of ice mana let him sense the violent ice mana flying around above so he should still be inside the blizzard instead of getting sent out.
He left the peeping hole there for his senses to seep through. It felt a lot calmer out there but he didn't let his guard down. Conjuring a sculpture of himself outside to test the waters. It didn't get ripped out of his range of control or get blown away by ridiculously strong winds. The sculpture walked around but nothing happened. Ebony rolled himself out of his snowy grave.
Boldly taking a look out his coffin, it wasn't even snowing and there was no wind either. He unravelled his scales to form 4 shields, 2 on each side staying within touching distance so that he could protect himself at any time. His robe was practically emptied on ice mana now. The burning maple trees were already not far from him. He looked around and behind him was the dark veil of the blizzard. It was probably like a barrier but he flew around long enough that he was accidentally flung inside instead of out.
He just leisurely walked ahead while he focused on mending his bones with a little manipulation before letting his body heal itself. His control over self-mending improved a lot because he knew about his mana chassis or where they are. Thereby increasing his accuracy and fine control over every single part of his body. His broken parts would regenerate starting from his mana chassis which would stay where they are even if his hand gets sliced off. The other parts would require him time for his actual Vitality to recover which would take a lot longer.
10 minutes of just watching the trees and frostblaze while he took a leisure walk later. He could see something coming towards him, it was a huge turtle shell. Ebony recognised it as Ton or papa turtle. Ton stopped before him and nodded as if acknowledging his arrival before glancing at his sculpture for a short while.
It 'sat' down and looked at him for a long time with him staring back.
'Oh.' Ebony realised it was planning to give him a ride. He patted Ton's shell before dashing off at full speed towards where Ton came from. He also tried controlling his sculpture to do the same, he wasn't completely fluent with it so it still can't copy him completely. Maybe his Intelligence needed to be higher.
Ton was only stunned for a second before he kept his head and limbs back into his shell and burst after Ebony. Its snow skiing skills were fully shown off to him.
'...' Ebony noticed that Ton actually wasn't much slower than him. The turtle was even slowly starting to close the distance. Impressed at the speed of turtles but it wasn't for long before they reached an empty open area. With his current speed, the maple forest could really be considered tiny. No wonder it was so hard to find.
Ebony looked at Ton who was beside him for another long stare.
'Should've looked for one of those mental thought translator transceiver gems.' He forgot about the language barrier.
It took a while before he thought he saw Ton smirk. He could even imagine hearing Ton say 'Heh so you still need help going underground.'.
Ton still brought him underground just like the first time he had came here. Perhaps because Ton didn't have to concern himself with protecting him as much, they reached where the underground dome was much faster than he remembered.
Unchanged.
Nothing has changed here. The massive progeniturtle and burning white flames on the magnificent tree were still there just like he remembered. The most significant change to him was how he was freezing down here. The ice mana here was so thick he was breathing in enough that his lungs were almost half filled with ice already. It hurt to even breathe here. How much did they protect him when he was still unclassed?
Ebony controlled the ice mana out of himself and made them stay away from his body but the temperature down here was still the same. He wondered how they controlled the temperature to not affect him that much. Was it because they were deeper into Hoarfrost Glade or because the spell barrier magic was back up?
He saw Sei tossing ice and snowballs at the hatchlings. They looked the same as ever, just a little higher level at 13. Sei and Ton were both 100 like him and haven't evolved yet.
Gen was right ahead, awake instead of sleeping or meditating in his snow dome. Getting closer let Ebony feel the abundant mana that was leaking from him. No, not leaking, it was pouring down to the ground. Something tells him there was some kind of magic at work that was either absorbing his mana or Gen was personally pouring his mana out.
To his naked eye, he saw clumps of snow and ice that Gen was 'sweating' out. To his mana perception, Gen was pouring out liquified mana. It was so thick and viscous that standing near enough was lagging his thought process or everything else was moving much faster than usual. He couldn't feel it when he was unclassed but Gen's mana was far beyond what even most Frost Elves he had seen exude. Furthermore, it kinda felt like he was getting a brain freeze from getting close to Gen's mana but all over his body. Specifically his mana chassis.
"...Reckless. You're lucky I was awake from moving our forest and found you inside the barrier." Greetings were not the first thing Gen said.
'He could talk after all. I guess I just didn't know the language before. I assume Ton and Sei aren't able to talk yet.' The voice he heard was the same as if Gen were speaking into his mind.
"...Hello, Gen. Thanks for picking me up." Ebony didn't need to think to know what Gen meant. He had probably somehow noticed Ebony's little sphere and maybe even knew it was Ebony inside. Then the reason he landed inside was not by accident but by Gen's direct involvement. Perhaps the reason he was even alive under the barrier spell was due to Gen's involvement.
Both parties talked with a slight pause as if they had many things on their mind, clearly, it was the opposite as neither was really thinking about anything in particular.
"How have you been doing?" Ebony broke the silence.
"...This time of the year is rough with the decrease in ambient ice mana. I was going to move deeper when you barged in." Gen seems to hold back a sigh. He sounded less tired than he did previously. If it was because of ambient ice mana then it made sense. Right beside Arcta had considerably thinner ice mana concentrations than where they were now.
"...I see, I guess I made it just on time."
"It hasn't been long I suppose, you've reached level 100 but are your foundations stable?"
"Almost 3 years. That's why I came, I am still weak."
Gen nodded and hissed at Ton who acted annoyed for interrupting his father - son/daughter time. He had kicked one of them over onto their back and was watching it flip itself over. Adorable.
Ton's mood improved again after another bout of hisses from Gen.
Ebony sensed the vibration coming from the ground below him, he dodged an extended tendril of snow that aimed for his belly. Ton obviously knew how fast he was already but it didn't expect the fast reaction from such a close ranged attack.
He was already used to attacks popping out right in front of his face at any time during his time with Sister Jing and in terms of movement, he was much faster than before. His reaction speed didn't increase much, but his body moved reflexively from Vibrational Gravity Sense's input.
Chaotic Repulsive Membrane, Battle Song, Sonic Overlay was fully up. Compressed Icebody Enhancement has been running all along. Ebony closed the distance in a single step and Icicle was right over Ton's head, slashing down in full force.
2 more snow tendrils formed from the snowy ground and cross-blocked Icicle but it was sliced through without effort from Repulsive Membrane, Sonic Overlay and sheer physical force behind his attack. Ton didn't panic and instead of defending, it attacked by stretching its neck forwards and ramming its head into Ebony.
Icicle landed on Ton's shell with a dull impact while Ton's head drove into his torso and he was pushed back. He didn't get injured due to his repulsion and tough body. A thin line could be seen on Ton's shell. No, Ton cast a layer of hardened snow onto his shell and he didn't manage to cut deep as he was knocked away.
He was the first to recover, a small range Magnified Gravity Field was slowly forming and hopefully doing whatever little it could to weigh the big guy down. Ton used up to 4 tendrils of snow that whipped, stabbed and hammered into Ebony. He was not beaten and played around like a rag doll anymore. He didn't even have to dodge anymore as he cut any tendril that came from all over with Icicle. 2 Layered Ice Carapace floated close behind him, perhaps he looked like a standing turtle from behind. At least just the shell.
Ton didn't have unnaturally hard snow tendrils but they easily reform after being sliced down. He noticed that this method didn't work on Ebony much anymore as Ebony was getting faster and faster. He was even pushing toward Ton already. Ton didn't only have a single trick.
A clone was forming as he distracted Ebony with actual projectiles of snow instead of playing around with him like they did their hatchlings. Ebony wasn't going to match Ton's clone with his own standing by the side since he doubted he was any bit as proficient with controlling it as Ton. Ton used snow clones while Sei used ice, they could use both but each had an element they preferred or was more proficient with.
Ton didn't take long to conjure his life sized clone. He used his clone to charge at Ebony while going back into its shell. Ebony didn't know why he hid back in its shell but he didn't ponder as Ceaseless Onslaught kept going. The snow clone could only get sliced apart, smaller and smaller. The snow struggled to reform as he split them apart too fast.
Then it gave up trying to reform as Ebony realised the ground or rather the snow around him trembled. Ton's main body was likely casting, making hiding in its shell both a method of focusing and a defensive manoeuvre. Ebony attempted to leap towards Ton but he didn't even manage to take a single step as he felt a pull back from his greatsword.
Ton's snow clone actually slithered onto his blade, breaking past his repulsive membrane and forcefully fighting against being shaken off by Sonic Overlay. He also realised how hard it was for his snow magic to cling onto Ebony's blade so Ebony's arms and feet were getting bound as well.
Sonic Overlay ran up his arms and legs as well. Ebony used the momentary dislodging to give a wide swing to break free. He actually had more than enough strength to break free even without his gravity or sound magic. But every second counted, sadly he still broke free a tad late. The split second was enough for Ton's spell to be ready.
A squarish area of snow tens of metres long and wide suddenly sunk and flattened. With Ebony in the centre, the snow split into two and rose up and snapped shut like a bear trap clamping down on him. He had his shield right behind him orb him up in time. He could mentally feel the pressure pushing his sphere inwards from every direction. His orb version was not nearly as strong as when his spell was in a shield shape, the structure of the scales was not created for this.
Ton didn't stop trying to break into Ebony's defensive prison as he knew Ebony managed to protect himself. Ebony formed 3 giant Ice Swords on the outer surface of his prison and started controlling them to rotate as fast as possible. It was a battle between magical prowess as Ton noticed the resistance and hardened and compressed the snow encapsulating him.
He felt his orb creak and cracks started appearing but he managed to break free as he felt his swords cutting out into resistance-less air. He quickly made an opening and ran out, his orientation was pretty good and he escaped close to where Ton was.
Ceaseless Onslaught had reset since all his previous momentum was gone but no matter, he reached Ton's shell with no time to spare. The opening where Ton's head and limbs should be were sealed up. Ebony didn't see a weak point so he just stabbed the closest spot.
Ton clearly didn't rely on his sight to perceive, the outer armour of snow he was clad in fought back like his previous clone but with much more resistance. His control over this armour is obviously much better than controlling a clone from a distance.
His 'head' suddenly extended while his snow tendril and armour were defending itself from Ebony's consistent attacks. Ebony seemed to see it coming and moved his upper body just enough for the bite from the fake snow head to miss. He turned on the spot and as if a golf swing, separating the head from Ton's body.
Ebony already sensed that Ton's snow armour was slowly thinning and weakening. His attacks dug deeper and deeper as his momentum, speed and power slowly rose. Ton also knew that it was not going to win the way their battle was going.
'...This copycat.' Ton's next move was an obvious attempt to copy Ebony's earlier rotating sword orb. The 4 tendrils trying to slap Ebony away stiffened instantly and thickened where Ebony assumed Ton's legs were and then they formed familiar looking greatswords.
Ebony didn't know if Ton himself was spinning or just his outer armour but it didn't matter as Ton's 4 rotating blades of doom sped up its rotation as if he was getting used to the mental motion of the effect.
Instead of getting pushed back, Ton used the chance to slide over the snow toward Ebony. Too bad he wasn't intimidated by the spinning blades toward him. Snow wasn't even an element known for being solid and he already knew it took Ton more effort to harden his snow than to use it flexibly like a whip.
Ebony just continued his dance and timed the next swing to meet the rotating turtle. There was surprising resistance but Ton's blade just split and scattered around. He kicked the main body of Ton as the snow blades were sliced off. Ton was massive and obviously heavy but he only slid back a little before Ton was sent repelled back. He took a step forward to close the distance he just made and Icicle stabbed out at almost full momentum.
A screen of white flashed past Ebony's eyes faster than he could blink, separating his greatsword from Ton just before it landed. He was stunned that the whole dome was split in half and covered by a snow wall from the ground to the ceiling, all the way left to right. His Vibrational Gravity Sense easily sensed through the snow wall as if it wasn't there. The wall was hair thin yet, it brought his full speed of repelled Treading Stride to a complete stop.
"That's enough." Gen's voice transmitted over together with a hiss. The thin wall fell apart as if it was never there. Ebony took that as his victory.