2 women and a round man sat on opposing ends of a square table.
"Humans and Beastmen sure are lazy and undisciplined." The man said.
"Care to specify, Gerot?"
"Ay, your highness the Queen. Don't think any of us doesn't know what I'm talking about. The moment we found out we have even more time on our hands, your little nobles and the beastmen just didn't bother with training anymore. My hardworking dwarfs never stopped with their crafts with the extra time while my front liners and dungeon clearers aren't seeing much of your nobles." Gerot snorted.
"Good point I guess. Alright, 10% of a decade's worth of the Royal funding from both the Humans and Beastmen's share would go to the Dwarves starting this year. I doubt you have any complaints, Lucretius." The pink-haired lady, Yvette, said decisively.
"Ay! That's what I'm talking about! You know me best, Yve." The bearded Dwarf grinned.
"It's the best period of time to build up the skills and treasury. You're right that many of our young nobles are just squandering the resources they have. Any news on Medy and Kye?" The other woman, tallest in the room, shook her head. She appeared to have no issue with the decree.
""...""
"None huh… has Chlothar cleared the groups of scouting Trolls already?" Yvette took the news of no contact from the archdukes lightly.
"Yes… they were pretty large numbers to be considered groups. Mostly around the seas of the Second and Third Tide. There are a particular few that were oddly adaptive to sea and water battles. They may have adapted and built skills around that." The Elven lady, Lucretius reported.
"Where's Navin anyway?" Gerot managed to speak without his short tongue messing with him.
"Same old. Strengthening the Tides' barriers and going around doing the same for cities. The roads prote..."
The three of them got off their seats at the same time.
A staff appeared in both the ladies' hands while Gerot held a massive shield big enough to cover all of them. Their mana surged through their weapons and body.
Facing the door that was suddenly creaking open dramatically slowly.
The door was supposed to be locked both physically and magically.
They watched and identified the short intruder.
[Sexy Old Lady Lvl 5]
They saw the striped rainbow coloured mask tied to the intruder's hip and relaxed a little but not unequipping themselves.
"Madam. We have prepared the Reds if that's what you're here for." Yvette spoke up.
"...keep it. Get little Nav to go to Xienor."
'''???''' Confusion spread.
"Build a barrier for Xienor." The old lady turned around and walked away.
The minds of the three were in a disarray.
Why on Elva would Xienor want or need a barrier?
They chased after the walking old lady that was clearly teasing them by waltzing in and out of one of the most secure rooms you could find on the entire continent.
"Gyahahaha! You should've seen the look on your faces!" The old lady held her stomach from her uncontrollable laughter.
Gerot had to hold himself back from hitting the old lady that was clearly teasing them.
❅❅❅
Scarlet was so persistent in trying to run away that Sister Jing just let her do so after teleporting her into the direction where Ailbury was.
Following her, they found themselves against archers and one or two mages spotted that were atop the town walls. Clearly ready for whatever was coming.
Ebony was dumb enough to look back but there was nothing there.
'Oh wait… is accidental mass destruction a crime? At least there's no wildfire right?' Ebony defended.
Were they so close to the town? No.
The waves of heat were enough to alert some sensitive people as it was winter currently and not all the archers were slacking off. With the vantage point of height and Perception stat, it was not hard for them to notice the bright lights, loud clashes and the very ground vibrating from time to time.
Alarmed. The guard in charge deemed the unknown beasts in battle were enough to warrant the town barriers to be halfway up.
Ebony could sense the thick layer of mana right over the walls. The top was uncovered, perhaps for the archers and mages to attack back. At the same time, it could probably cover the whole town if needed.
Some of the archers didn't just drop their arrows, they even dropped their bows and fell on their asses when they saw Sister Jing. Maybe also Scarlet.
It wasn't much trouble to get back into town. There was some shouting and delay but their entry wasn't blocked. There was some bearded middle-aged man bowing and saying a bunch of words that flew over Ebony's head.
It was the generic apology that he heard multiple times. Honestly, just about the same thing that happened in Fourth Tide.
They really just wasted so much mana just for the 2 of them sparring. The guy in charge's probably getting demoted or maybe the ones who decided it was a good idea to be hostile to non-hostiles.
Scarlet who had no choice but to be stopped already sprinted into the distance once they were let through.
Ebony ignored her, no, he let the woman have her privacy and went back to his own studies.
Dinner that night was with Hector and Mallory at another restaurant that served fish in wine, lamb chops, small roasted birds and a dish of grass. Tasteless.
The princess probably booked this fake classy restaurant. It was not a satisfying dinner for any of them. Despite the unsatisfactory meal, the three of them left nothing untouched. The prince and princess were brought up well to not waste any food.
They decided to leave for Teld city over the next few days.
Ebony wanted to just run there and reach in a day or two. The rest wanted to take it easy. Travel by carriage and do things the normal way.
His persuasion method was pointing out facts.
They would have to suffer days of butt pain because not many carriages or wagons here have good suspensions.
If they rush, they can reach a nice inn with warm baths every day.
They don't have to worry about the cold nights of the winter.
He didn't even need to say more before it was agreed they would just speed through. With him to carry the lazy prince around, it wasn't an issue.
The job of informing Scarlet fell to Ebony.
Returning to the inn, he stood outside her room and heard her pacing around. He knocked on her door and said his piece before going back into his room.
"We'll be leaving for Teld over the next few days. I lost again but I don't think I was as weak as you imagine. Let's spar again soon. Good night."
Since she didn't want to see him then he wasn't going to force anything. He didn't know what was in her head but that applied to everyone else.
He wanted to understand her more but, if she doesn't give him the chance. Whelp, he can only try again another time.
❅❅❅
Ebony was in the middle of his morning writing when he was starting to get hungry. He was gonna wander around and take a stroll but the scent of food came knocking on his door already.
Scarlet was found on the other side of the door, holding a filled tray in each hand. She had her head down while she took small steps in without any eye contact.
The faint scent of plums wafted into his nostrils as she walked past him.
Ebony quickly cleared his messy table to allow her to place breakfast down.
They ate in silence.
He already knew that she always took notice of how much he ate and only ate just as much if not a tiny bit more. She clearly wanted more so he made sure to put more food on her plate and bowl.
It was cute to see her in a dilemma when she wanted to reject food but could not pull her gaze away.
It was awkward but pleasant. Full of new experiences and emotions.
Ebony wondered if that was what a first date or love felt like.
"Do you want to drink some of my blood?" Ebony didn't know why he broke the silence. He didn't think the question was too weird at first since she seemed to like it a lot but it sounded weird after he said it out loud.
Scarlet was so surprised by the question she choked and coughed out the piece of bread in her mouth.
"..."
"I mean… if it's just a little. And if you don't go burning the town down." He wasn't really interested in asking if she got power ups from drinking blood because that was obvious enough already. He just thought that if the lady wants his blood she can have it.
'So she can already beat me without even being at the limits of her power.' There really didn't seem to be an upper limit at how strong one can get when he was constantly challenged by her imposing power.
"...I..I want it. I mean not now!" Scarlet stopped him from cutting himself right after she replied to his openness with honesty.
Ebony cocked his head.
Letting his wrist go, Scarlet started talking.
She was recounting her experiences in the other realm that seems to be a realm of blood. From creatures to plants to their magic.
Trapped in a small burrow, she relied on her own food as long as she could but admittedly consumed a lot.
Like Ebony, she didn't train. Only constant fighting.
The creatures she killed never seem to have an end. After clearing the monsters near the entrance their numbers would rise back in a couple of hours.
Exploration was difficult because it took a lot of effort even for her to slay a single one of them. She got the hang of hunting them after some time and her blood magic had improved heaps.
It was simply an underground tunnel.
Not even that large. At the end of the roughly straight tunnel was a puddle of blood which shot for her when she was less than 10 steps away.
Unable to resist, she was dragged in.
She was unconscious for an unknown amount of time but found herself in the same burrow she called home for months.
At least, she originally thought it was the same burrow.
Not noticing that her body felt different at that time due to her exhaustion and weakness.
It was the same thing.
She climbed out of the narrow tunnel of the burrow only to find different variants of spiders staring at her. Stronger than ever.
Ebony found out that she was quite the excited talker. Maybe all women were talkative after all. Instead of finding it noisy or annoying, he found himself intrigued by anything and everything she was saying and just looking at all her little body language was enough to entrance him.
Skipping through all her cute actions and depictions of slaying and cooking monsters.
She ran out of food and had no choice but to sustain her immense stamina consumption through their flesh and the moss called blood ichor.
When the creatures started turning into blood puddles after they were slain, the only thing left for her was the moss.
She would've had a mini trauma seeing red coloured moss if it wasn't for the fact that it actually didn't taste all that bad.
The end of the second tunnel was just another blood puddle but brighter. She just let herself be absorbed this time. Not seeing another way out.
The same thing happened but this time, her Physique changed.
She summarised that she gained the ability to absorb energy from blood. Mostly stamina, from the creatures she drank from.
Depending on the creature, she would also get a minuscule percentage of their stats. While the energy in the amount of blood she drank lasted.
All the moss she ate also helped in refining it apparently. In Scarlet's words, there was less than a trillionth percent chance that a billionth of the creature's stats would be permanently gained by her. The amount of blood she drank mattered as well.
He didn't know how she came out with the numbers and percentages but both of them were clearly awed by her Physique's ability. It was a stat gaining ability at no apparent cost. Although absolutely useless with those percentages for now, he believes in the future potential of Scarlet. Both of them did.
Trial and error let her conclude that she could absorb essence from blood. She began to be worried about becoming a demon or fiend.
Asking about that, he gained new knowledge again.
According to Gen, any creature that was unknowingly absorbing ambient essence was a monster or turning into one. Knowingly doing so only empowers the creature even faster.
The 'monster' who denies ambient essence and manages to completely remove, purify or cleanse the ambient or world's essence would be able to gain a Class. Sapience.
With that logic, already sapient creatures like Humans who absorb other essences slowly lose their sapience in exchange for stats and raw power.
Fiends are absolute powerhouses whose monster equivalent were the aberrant. The sapient creature loses all sense of reason and logic and is just a shell of the person they were before. They would have lost all their skills and Classes.
There were multiple types of demons but generally, the person would still have some of their personality and ability to think and reason. They would also gain quite some stats. Depending on how much essence they acclimate to, they would start to lose skill levels. Then Profession and maybe even Sub-Class.
Some people willingly chose to demonise themselves but Elcra didn't have any on the surface. They were not outright banned but the entire continent didn't have many who practised it to begin with so no one saw any future in demonising themselves.
Same logic with lineages, if demons didn't have a predecessor it was not easy to carve a path for oneself.
A little mistake was all it took for the demon to lose control of themselves and get closer and closer to becoming a fiend.
Those that lose control of themselves and attack other people get put down sooner or later which makes becoming a demon even less appealing.
'So demons aren't the rage because there were no strong demons alive long enough to build a lineage.'
All the blood drinking had let Scarlet absorb more than just the energy of the creatures but also their instincts and personality. They didn't have a personality per se and that was exactly the problem.
That was why she had been a tiny bit weird since she returned.
Her underground adventures finally came to an end at her third tunnel. There was actually another wider room or cave in her case. With a reflective blood puddle where she could see the stall owner sell fish but not eat it.
She had to wait weeks before Ebony came and drop the sandwich that somehow created the link to let her escape.
So Scarlet really wanted to drink his blood because of other monsters' instinctive reaction to his energy filled body.
Her Physique definitely wasn't perfect.
The stat gains both temporary or permanent didn't come at no cost. Figures.
Scarlet had been focusing on removing the remnant essence or instincts from her body but she didn't know how to. Mostly fumbling around with her senses and using her mana to try to find foreign matter in her body to expel it.
She even doubted the Xengs had any information on this since they looked down on demons as well, although she did mention their strength was widely respected it was their choice of demonising that was looked down upon. They should have some knowledge on expelling essence since essence was also greatly studied by many.
She didn't even know if her Physique was right, that it removes the majority of vitality and only purifies and absorbs stamina and mana. 'Digest' was more accurate since it took time and it really required her to digest the purified energy.
Right after drinking blood, all the memories of killing and killing kicked in again and she lost control of herself.
Another bad sign.
But, Ebony's blood apparently countered the effects and her constant desire to kill and eat.
"So you want to see if my blood can help with your…sickness?"
"...something like that."
"You can have as much as you want."
Scarlet made a sound of acknowledgement like an 'uh-huh' or 'mmhmm' that he couldn't hear clearly.
She went back to the kitchen to work with the chef while he continued his own studies.
He would've wanted to plant something but carrying around a potted plant wasn't that nice. Neither was keeping a living plant inside his bag nice to the plant.
A portable home was definitely on his list of things to get. Probably one that can move so that it made travelling easier for the others around him. Yes, like one of those trailer houses.
Ebony could come up with some ideas already and he really wanted to dive back into Sister Jing's library to swim in knowledge.
As for going back to the dungeon. Like Scarlet was secretly feeling, he was not all that excited about it.
It was the survival of the fittest in that killing lets one grow faster but while fighting was fun and killing wasn't an issue, he didn't really revel in killing.
Dungeon monsters were still fine. He truly didn't sense any sort of capability of thought from those flesh bodies.
Wild creatures who decided he was prey were also fine. He could still eat them and not kill wantonly. If they were inedible or he just couldn't stomach it then taking their useful parts and selling them to others who can make use of their parts in crafts also gave value to their deaths.
More and more often, Ebony was less seen as prey and was avoided which helped.
But, the previous dungeon run already made him kill a person. More than one.
He didn't like that he didn't feel much guilt or any guilt at all. He knew why.
He simply didn't care or tell the difference between them and monsters after his life.
He didn't like that. He should understand the value of life. At least he thought he did but, he didn't even have a single thought for a party member that died in his very arms. None till date.
Yet, he wasn't against killing people and he would've done the same was the clock to turn back.
Hopefully, there wouldn't come a time when he turned mindless murder of mindless monsters and predators alike to mindless murders of people.
'Mmm. Planting something and birthing life seems more agreeable.' Ebony dismissed the random thought and went back into his trance.
❅❅❅
The next day.
Sister Jing already left after spending time with Scarlet and sending kicks and punches as a farewell to Ebony.
It was also the day they were setting off.
Packing up was both easy and quick.
Trailane Plains stretched across Elva just like Bubble Hills
Teld and Plainston were quite a distance from Ailbury.
Even so, Ebony who was still just a puny Journeyman had found Elcra to have become so small.
The incredibly massive continent of Elva in his mind just kept getting smaller as he grew stronger. Mostly with the increase in his movement or more accurately, travelling speed.
Scarlet had hidden in her own room to stuff herself full. She also brought a jar of a type of bull's blood.
She kept up with him while Hector and Mallory were just chilling around on his thinner and lighter shield.
Still, she got tired partway through and climbed aboard another one of his shields.
Only using regenerated mana, uncompressed and all. It was a leisure trip.
Faster than many mounts in the low hundreds, he didn't take breaks either.
Sometimes there were dirt tracks but it was mostly just grass.
With just a general direction, Teld was within sight in a couple of days. Admittedly, some detours had been taken.
Pauses to cook wild turkey, bunnies, sheep and consume them. Or even just for the passengers to stretch and get rid of the cold chill on their butts and backs.
Ebony even made sure to shield them from the chilling winds at night so that they could sleep better.
Hector was pretty weak with all the clothing he had put on.
Scarlet seemed to sleep very comfortably with the cold. She even slept the longest.
Mallory consistently kept her bearings. Elegant and proud.
Gaining entry with ease after paying up.
They had already confirmed that Mark would take some time to get here.
Ebony was bored of staying at inns, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable of places to live.
He recalled that there were properties out for rent when he bought the land deed for Sister Jing. With more Blues than he could count, leasing a small cottage big enough for 4 wouldn't even make a noticeable dent in his wallet.
When he brought the idea up, Mallory had declined, saying that she wouldn't be staying in Teld for long.
Hector was all up for it but was dragged along with Mallory with a single 'you're coming with me.' an ear pinch and a glare.
They were going to be back before Mark was here. If not, they would just be in the area and could still be contacted with the callstone.
As for what she was going to do, Ebony didn't ask. She would've shared if she wanted to.
Mallory pulled Hector's ears down the street without care for the prince's dignity.
Left with Scarlet who quickly declined without hesitation.
Ebony had thought it was a good chance to grow closer as something like roommates or flatmates. The quick rejection had been a tiny bit hurtful.
Rejection in mind, he left for the Quest Hall which also worked as a town hall.
The red figure followed him unexpectedly.
She followed him all the way till he decided on a small cottage that seemed pretty clean and new. Nothing was worn out or falling apart and that was good enough.
It had 2 rooms, a living room, a kitchen doubling as a dining room and an indoor toilet. Already furnished, one of the terms of rent was that he was to pay for any damages or loss of furniture. It wouldn't even cost a Blue to rent for half a year or more.
It was fenced up like every house around and the yard was large enough for him to do his stretches, exercises and sword dance but not enough for any real physical training. He would still have to use the Quest Hall's underground private training grounds.
He doesn't practise frostblaze in town or city. Only during the spar with Hector and Scarlet did he use it.
Also a quiet street that was not really populated since it was pretty close to one of the city's trash facilities. Far enough that no smell, smoke or smog would reach.
He felt a tug on his sleeve.
"I want that one." Scarlet pointed to another empty house 2 cottages down.
"Why don't you stay with me? There's another room." Ebony would have used the other room as a mini workshop if there was no one but he didn't necessarily need it.
He preferred to have her company so he tried asking again.
"Th…that's inappropriate!" Scarlet stormed off to the house she pointed at.
'Hot damn…inappropriate this inappropriate that. What does she think I'll do to her?' Ebony paid for both houses and signed the documents required. Almost dejected as he entered his new house.
'Everlasting Tranquillity never seems to work fully when it comes to her.' That was just a thought as the skill was working perfectly fine.