"Do you have to make it so big?" Ning Xin looked at the orb taller than them.
"This is about five thousand worth of ice mana, I can't mould runes in for durability or heat resistance since they would break or not function if I were to compress it into a small ball. The scales are actually not very compressed since they just have to withstand pressure for a short time, we want it to break open after all."
Ebony really meant all out when he said so. The remainder of his mana was put into preventing it from bursting or melting as Ning Xin charged it up with fire mana. He got her to stuff some of her wind mana inside as well, sealing the entrance he opened for her. Her mana pool exceeded 4000 due to her Mental Supersaturation getting some nice levels after multiple Natural Potential increases.
It was fortunate that he could still regenerate mana as he was maintaining the orb around 2.5 metres in diameter but it was still nice of her to coat the inner layer with wind. This was similar to her Sphere of Immolation but with actual effort and should be the same spell she threw at the horde of worms years back.
She fell on her butt the moment she was done, he immediately closed the opening and did his routine squashing of a sphere of mana as fast as he could. Perhaps due to the larger volume or maybe, the wind and fire mana inside, it was harder than usual. The ice got thicker and its size got smaller making it easier to withstand the internal pressure. He made it seem easy but even he could feel the intense resistance and feedback to his mind. It only became the size of basketball before he couldn't keep it up anymore.
Ning Xin was getting more used to emptying her mana pool but it still left her with a couple seconds of dizziness right after. She felt like she was getting the hang of meditation recently but it might have been her imagination.
Seeing the glowing ball fly into the distance of icy trees, Ebony got an excess shield out in front of them just in case. Na was hoping the damage done wouldn't be as costly as the amount of sustenance he was going to get out of that spell.
They should've gone further away.
The wind pressure blew the three of them behind his shield back but he stood his ground. Unfortunately, the blast of wind was beyond the melting temperatures of most Common ranked metals. Layered Ice Carapace wasn't vapourised but it didn't matter since heat wasn't stopped by a mere shield. His body caught on fire and he quickly conjured a little of his own to fight back. Fortunately, there was plenty of ice mana in his robe.
Ning Xin's body and hair went ablaze but that was it, she stood there with a head of burning hair. Running her fingers through her hair, the flames clung onto her hands and she flicked it off like droplets of water. Just like him, she could control fire mana but not the heat.
Na was prepared this time and was glowing green from the topaz mana and blue icy skin it had. The ambient ice mana around had been becoming more and more similar to Ebony's conjured ice, giving it the 'harder to melt' property.
"It's not the strongest attack either of us could dish out but in terms of area of effect, this seems pretty good. I can make it such that the shards of ice that aren't completely melted to burst into a mist of ice mana wherever they end up."
"We're not going to practice this too much, it takes a lot of my mana. Maybe once a day." Ning Xin could only recover a full mana pool in 10 hours.
Although she had her magical pearl Sister Jing made, her larger mana pool didn't count in the '10% per hour' so a full charge for her on a normal basis actually takes longer. It apparently isn't uncommon among higher level mages. They could take more than a day or two to fully recover their mana because of these skills that increase the size of their mana pool. At the same time, those mages usually have at least a tier 2 meditation-type skill to speed things up. Despite them being a generic skill for non-meditators, it would still help massively.
Seeing how he was planning to be with her for life, it would be impressive if they managed to have skills that work well together. Combination spells were nice.
Ebony had finally decided on the best method to try to help Ning Xin get a type of meditation. He chanted into her head with sound magic throughout the day. "Breathe in, Breathe out." a little hypnotic but she found it calming. She personally couldn't 'hear' anything while she fought and had her Core Skill kicked up high after a week of fighting with the chant in her head. She didn't need outside help anymore as her mind repeated the words itself.
The rhythmic chant that her mind was coming up with whenever blood rushed to her head even matched up with her movements.
Incensed Meditation - Maintaining rhythmic flow of slaughter and clear state of mind with an intense blood rush to the brain to increase Mana regeneration rate by 2.5% per level and Stamina regeneration rate by 1.0% per level. Reduced Perception from blood rush reduced by 2.5% per level.
She did not expect to get a semi tier 2 meditation type skill. It wasn't too useful. Unlike Ebony, she couldn't recover mana as she was casting. But it did mean that if she ran out of mana, with all her body enhancement stopped, she could still fight in her Core skill enhanced state which would slowly regain some of her mana back.
It also only worked when her Core skill was in use so it wasn't all that bad since it might save her one day. The fact that it improves her Core Skill by letting her keep her Perception and possibly ability to think properly made it even better.
The only thing she had a problem with was all the 'slaughter' themes in her skills.
❅❅❅
Name: Ebony Rime
Core Skill: Everlasting Tranquillity Lvl 222
Class: Meditative Swordsman of Frostblaze - Lvl 100
Class Skills:
Treading Stride Lvl 168
Ice Mana Control Lvl 205
Frostblaze Augmentation Lvl 195
Blazing Flow Greatsword Mastery Lvl 176
Frostblaze Cladding Lvl 170
Ice Sword Lvl 158
Ceaseless Onslaught Lvl 171
Layered Ice Carapace Lvl 178
Frost Mist Perception Sphere Lvl 189
Serene Swordsman of Frost Conditioning Lvl 88
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Sub-Class: Orchestral Gravity Conductor Lvl 100
Sub-Class Skills:
Battle Song Lvl 158
Mana Vibration Lvl 168
Gravity Mana Manipulation Lvl 173
Magnified Gravity Field Lvl 173
Chaotic Repulsive Membrane Lvl 173
Vibrational Gravity Sense Lvl 173
Sonic Overlay - Lvl 168
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Profession: Mana Meister - Lvl 100
Profession Skills:
Mana Moulding Lvl 170
Sheer Mana Compression Lvl 172
Mana Perception Lvl 189
Reinforced Mana Chassis Lvl 188
Empty Skill Slot
Health: 500/500
Stamina: 500/500 [510/510]
Mana: 5300/5300 [5416/6416]
Unallocated stat points: 0
Strength: 50 [51]
Vitality: 50
Constitution: 250 [961]
Endurance: 50 [51]
Agility: 250 [255]
Intelligence: 376 [384]
Wisdom: 530 [541]
Perception: 100 [322]
Generic Skills:
Camouflage Lvl 38
Identify Lvl 15
Immense Cold Resistance Lvl 69
Running Lvl 39
Mental Mapping Lvl 27
Kicking Mastery Lvl 55
English Lvl 8
Elcrian Lvl 10
Mental Arithmetic Lvl 28
Dish Washing Lvl 37
Sustained Optimum Condition Lvl 67
Tracking Lvl 14
Game Processing Lvl 27
Immense Heat Resistance Lvl 55
Sheer Divination Resistance Lvl 12
Gardening Lvl 45
Cooking Lvl 32
Integrated Trance Speed Reading Lvl 55
Korun Lvl 12
Inscription Lvl 65
Slumber Survival Instinct Lvl 15
Immense Hunger Resistance Lvl 41
Sheer Exhaustion Resistance Lvl 25
Lightning Resistance Lvl 18
Blood Resistance Lvl 18
Wind Resistance lvl 16
Every single one of his skills had reached a hard cap, and so was Ning Xin's. Except maybe some of their generic skills that had little use in this place and conditioning which was only capped at their Class level. It wasn't an imagination or gut feeling, people should be able to 'feel' once they reach the absolute limits that are incredibly hard to break without more Natural Potential.
The fact that he could get resistance to blood and wind magic was proof that his Reinforced Mana Chassis was indeed considered his magic body.
It had been very hard to convince her to throw her strongest fire spell at him without enhancement. So in one of their spars, he waited till they reached the peak of climax of the battle before shutting off all his enhancements. He never wore his robe against her since he didn't didn't want it to get pointlessly damaged. For some odd reason, he was forbidden from fighting her shirtless and had no choice but to make a shirt of ice that was good control training to make it move with his body.
Due to her Fortification that increases the heat of her fire magic by 250%, and the fact that he was almost melted to death, staying bedridden for three whole weeks (because she didn't allow him to continue to train even after he recovered outwardly). He could actually walk since he blocked his face with his arms, his arms and chest were the most affected.
She got more teary than angry. It didn't help that his ribs were a little melted and his internals could be seen. The chef wasn't freaked out but the burns and the gore. She helped cut out the affected areas so that he could regenerate easier. Her level up in Live Ingredient Processing didn't calm her down.
It was 100% his fault and the lesson was learnt at her expense. She might have been a little traumatised by that and didn't spar with him for a long time. When they did, she copied him and shut down her enhancement. Fortunately, he was alert and managed to control his cold flames to separate from her instead of digging in and her Core Skill couldn't be turned off instantly like his could.
It was from his ranged swing where some of his flames were sent slashing at her, she had pulled her collar down and let the freezing flames run down her neck and shoulder. His quick reaction and her heated body made it such that his flames only grazed her. Unlike him, she wouldn't fully heal physical injury and even now, a thin red mark not even a finger's length decorated her. It stood out like a sore thumb on her extremely fair and porcelain like skin.
In his defence, he told her beforehand and he warned her right before he got hit. She had even agreed from his persuasion that it wouldn't kill but make him stronger. He didn't think she would be able to raise his resistance straight to Immense which was tier 3 though, his trust in his body might have been a little higher than he imagined. Since her lightning and wind weren't even able to push his resistance to tier 2, he didn't expect her fire magic to be stronger by such an extent. Those were just excuses, the message she sent was extremely clear.
They won't be doing anything that dangerous anymore. She herself only got tier 2 cold resistance from their normal training where she didn't warm herself up.
Since the light was controlled by Na, it was dark most of the day to help both of them acclimate to it but seeing how both of them weren't really affected by darkness, he made it bright out all day except when they went to sleep, which was a short period of 4 hours.
Ebony only slept close to 3 hours so he had a little more free time to study his old memories. He did what he remembered and ran into Ning Xin's spells without flinching already but all it did was give him resistance and tension in their relationship. The refresher was nice, it gave him additions to his regime but his conditioning did not exactly turn out the way it was written in his memory.
The same happened to Ning Xin, a large majority of their daily regime was just diving into a group of increasingly skilled Kobolds that was also increasing in variety of weapons and abilities.
His conditioning evolved to tier 2 with absolutely no change in their description other than the sweet increase in Strength. Chances were, his style already deviated a lot from what his mother had planned. At level 88, the related stats were increased by 2.2% and it was beginning to show in his status. The odd numbers were quite an eyesore for him.
Serene Swordsman of Frostblaze Conditioning (Passive) - Developing your body and mind through rigorous combat as a Serene Swordsman of Frostblaze increasing Strength, Constitution, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom by 0.025% per level.
His greatsword mastery didn't evolve, it mutated and was still a tier 1 skill.
Blazing Flow Greatsword Mastery - Having incorporated your magic into your greatsword style birthed this unique skill with the greatsword. Strength decreases by 15%, Agility increases by 15% while wielding a greatsword single-handedly. Strength increases by 20%, Agility decreases by 5% while wielding a greatsword with both hands. Fluidity, balance, stability and deftness increases by 1.0% per level. Flames attached to the Greatsword deal an additional 0.10% intelligence per level.
It must have been his greater focus on magic than on his physical technique with the greatsword but it was still more refined as well. With the strength and agility buffs and debuffs being larger and smaller respectively. He didn't know the workings of how mastery affected the Intelligence or power of magic but he would take it. He hypothesised it to be similar to conditioning, of how repetition and familiarity increased its effectiveness.
In the gentlest way possible, he was told that his talent with the greatsword was only slightly above average and nothing spectacular. Even so, that was only taking technique with the greatsword into account. He could take on any greater swordsman with his evasive, defensive, magical, predictive abilities and pure reflex.
All the spells of his Sub-Class were limited by the manipulation's level except Battle Song which just doesn't level no matter what he does.
Frostblaze Augmentation was at quite an irksome level, it just needed 5 more levels but the not so imaginary wall was telling him that he could continue training for dozens of years and it might not even level once.
He was pretty good with Perception type skills but they similarly hit a limit. Reinforced Mana Chassis was iffy, it would take some time but 1 or two more levels seems reachable.
Ning Xin's ability with blood magic showed the greatest improvement. They were all past level 60 even as a generic skill and she was going to evolve to merge blood magic into her Class. It was interesting to note that a Master that wanted to evolve to Grandmaster and bring a generic skill into his/her Class needed it to be at least level 100 while it was 50 for Journeyman to Master.
She had experimented a lot with her wind and lightning magic but just like Ebony wasn't able to change their Sub-Class skills much. They had much better control and could do more than what their skills say yet there was no change. In her words, their Sub-Class was already saturated and that it was nothing surprising that it was a lot more limited compared to their Class and that they shouldn't be too worried about it.
Ebony finally got the hang of flight with mana manipulation together with gravity manipulation. Because he never understood why flight was difficult even though Mallory said it was simple done by wrapping oneself with mana and manipulating it to lift off or move he had constantly manually put effort into doing so. Relaxing was still the way to go.
He was a little embarrassed about how long it took him because Ning Xin could levitate with her blood halo and even glide through the air slowly. There was still some sort of link between her blood halo and her body which she used to drag herself up.
Neither of them could glide faster than a normal human's jogging speed so they didn't really use it other than trying to assist themselves in dodging or moving in a way their physical body doesn't allow. But since it was moving them so slow, it couldn't be used in their spars as it couldn't keep up with their bodies. They needed more work on it to be of much use.
"How long has it been?" Ning Xin asked as they packed up their makeshift living arrangement that was purely for sleeping, studying, cooking and eating. She could've roughly guessed by how much they ate but their serving sizes increased and they took meals whenever she got really hungry instead of following a schedule. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that their expenditure of energy was extremely high.
Roughly two months ago, Ning Xin fought Na to the death. She couldn't even come close to destroying it for good but she managed to destroy two of its layers. She was still left with a bitter feeling about taking his head but the level 225 Na which took quite a lot of Ordina's resources gave her sweet sweet Natural Potential.
Today, Ebony stood before the fresh 225 Na. With both of them supplying it with both a ton of energy and teaching it, it was way stronger than before even if it was back to level 210.
"Around 8 months I think." Ebony was pretty accurate.
In this period of time, Na was challenged and defeated by other parties 4 times. The other parties were certainly strong enough and now that the supply route to the 18th floor was more stable these strong parties were more than prepared enough to travel the icy plains of the 19th to 21st floor. It was worth noting that one of the parties was the same one that defeated it once already. The group of youths.
There was no climax, nothing special and no unexpected victory. Having fought numerous times, each other's tactics were nothing new. Despite all the improvement he had, Na's speed and power could overwhelm him and the real issue was how tough he was even without enhancing its runic body with topaz mana.
When asked how he knew runes, he simply said that he sort of knew it not long after it was born. Ning Xin deduced that it was likely something it absorbed when it was being formed and was absorbing everything in its surroundings. The topaz and the golem theme should be from Bubble Hills and with Bubble Hills that were apparently more than meets the eye underground, her greatest guess was that it was from there.
It wasn't even common knowledge that there was topaz under Bubble Hills so it could only mean that it was absorbed from much deeper than explored.
Gravity pulled Icicle towards Na. His shield was immovable but was hammered into, the vibrations cracked into it with ice mana repelled into the cracks. After a long time, he burst the accumulated mana into flames but how could the ice golem be afraid of ice?
The guardian wasn't trying to kill him, so it allowed him to keep dishing all his skills and mana to shatter it into pieces.
"Thanks Na." Ebony brought the final Sonic Overlayed slash over Na's head.
'Ting' 'You have killed [Frost-Topaz Cardinal Golem Lvl 225]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Enemy 125 levels or more above your own, sufficient potential experience accumulated. Experience converted to Natural Potential.''
Na smiled back like they taught him to in his last moments. At least, like Ning Xin taught him to. A hand burst out from the ground under them, bringing the two of them into a state of alertness.
"Come back soon." Na winked, he was level 1 again.
"That was fast." Ebony commented.
"You think I never learn? I made a spare body in advance, just didn't have the essence to strengthen it." Na had an attitude but not a bad one. He also spoke fluently now.
"I guess you did get destroyed a few times now." Ning Xin said to their new friend.
"Do you want to try leaving the dungeon? We can just disguise you with a thick blanket." Ebony suggested.
"No thanks, not after what Scarlet told me. At least not when I'm so deprived of essence." Although Ebony called her Ning Xin, she wasn't comfortable with others calling her that.
She merely informed Na that the dungeon's creatures would get their essence absorbed the moment they left the dungeon. Na also sneakily poked his hand through the exit in the guardian's room before so he already knew. With the limited essence Ordina had, it couldn't afford external exploration. A lot of its essence was already spent to train the two of them and the dungeon's overall population of monsters had decreased because of that.
Na walked them out of the exit in his 'office'.
Ebony could vaguely feel the 'doors' on some of his skills loosen. It was once again, night. From the almost light orange moon he could tell it was almost the end of summer. Probably the seventh month of the year and he was right.
Ning Xin stretched and took a deep breath of Elva's air.
"I'll go get some fresh ingredients for dinner, I'll cook up a feast!" Ning Xin was excited to cook again.
"I'll check if the inn we used to stay in has rooms." Ebony simply replied. He was still unaware that she could sense his emotions of similar glee.
He didn't control his body but it dived in for a hug which she didn't defend against.
"St-stop it, there are people watching." Ning Xin only managed to push him off after a stunned minute, also because she enjoyed the sudden hug. They were a show for the guards, fortunately, not many people were around since it was dark out already.
She ran off to find some ingredients even though it was dark out. There might still be stalls or shops open.
He headed towards the inn they used to stay at, wondering why he suddenly hugged her.
It suddenly turned completely black when he turned into the side road. Surprise was nowhere to be found on his face. Two figures descended from the rooftops not far away. All within his range of senses which already reached over 90 metres.
He dodged the bag the two of them were trying to cover him in. Not expecting to back up into a wall that was raised from the ground. He wanted to move away from the wall but the earthen walls already wrapped around his wrists and locked his arms behind his back at the same time, his feet already sunk into the ground. His whole body was swallowed up in an instant.
He guessed he was being dragged underground and wanted to explode with Frostblaze Augmentation but found all his mana drained out, it was regenerating but he didn't have enough to break out. His head received a very strong impact, strong enough to crack his skull. Putting him to sleep.
Putting him to sleep, that's where they messed up.
❅❅❅
"Hey! Those street rats actually took action! And they seemed to have succeeded!" The confident rogue that had been watching Ordina's portal already saw their target exiting and even separated with the risk without any effort from them.
"Ell! They act fast despite their lacking professionalism." The leader cursed.
"We never really found out their motive despite having the same target." The mage girl didn't like to work at night and wasn't in the best of mood to have work knocking.
"You can still track him right?" The crafter asked.
"Of course." The rogue was just as confident even though he was not able to find them in Ordina.
"Tell them it's time to work but the job description will change from kidnapping to taking back stolen goods." Their leader said to no one in particular.
"Alright, let's go." Their Dwarven member was already geared up.
"Kidnapping our target? We need to show those chumps who they're dealing with."
❅❅❅
Gors away from Ordina's settlement.
"HAHAHAHA! We got him! I told you the wait was worth it." A scrawny man equipped like an archer laughed.
The group of men dressed in black that he found to help didn't join him in his joy.
"How much he's worth has yet to be seen. We'll be taking 80% of his regenerated mana for 2 years."
"What! We agreed on a 60/40 split."
"We did all the work. We will return to 60/40 after 2 years. He blew up 2 of my mana draining ampules and those aren't cheap."
The large bearded man beside the archer was about to make a move on the speaking man but he stopped his good friend.
"We are the ones with the facilities. Half a year is the most you'll be getting. Where is he?"
"One and a half years. Relax, my men don't fail, they should be on the way. You better not mess up during transport to your secret little facility because that's not part of the contract."
"One year. You don't have to worry about that, once you hand them to these men your job is done and you can have this deposit of 3 Blues."
"Dea-" The man was interrupted with the ground shaking and a burst of chilly winds.
"What was that?" The large bearded warrior got his axe out.
The people present heard the callstone from the man who asked for a bigger paycheck.
"Boss! Send reinforcements!"
All the men dressed in black dashed away towards where the shaking came from except for the one in charge of talking.
"Are you going to help us or not!?" The man was enraged to see the other group staying still.
"Our job is transporting, it won't start till we get him into our hands. Don't blame us for not doing your part." The group behind the archer and bearded men were all huge warriors.
He had no arguments and quickly left to help his men.
'I sent two level 170 rogues and a well reputed level 180 earth mage, how can they have trouble with that Journeyman?' The man was very clear of the local standards, his men could easily take on anyone 20 or even 30 levels above themselves compared to the locals.
The battle wasn't far away, just behind 4 tall mounds of earth in these Plains. He felt the chill even before he reached.
He didn't expect to see his earth mage's head unattached and held by the hair in their target's hands. It was completely frozen together with the ground around them. A scream in the background made its way into his ear, he turned to see one of his men's arms had already been cut off. This man was the reinforcement he just sent! He came not even seconds later and their reinforcement lost an arm.
"Wait! We can talk this out!" He was glad that their target was standing in place without moving.
"Bo-boss! He-he-he's asleep…" Another one of his men who was on the floor with both his legs frozen. He recognised him as the one who called for reinforcements and one of the two rogues that was sent to capture the meditator.
"What on Elva are you saying?" He wasn't about to tear his eyes away from the meditator who dropped the head but was still standing there with a lightly glowing greatsword. The meditator was glowing in a similar colour.
"He. We knocked him out and brought him away from the outpost. After we surfaced here, Dan wanted to hit the meditator's head in anger because we wasted two ampules but the meditator suddenly moved. Enzel stabbed out at the meditator to free Dan but…" His men reported and pointed at another decapitated body.
Then he reported how Dan, the earth mage, wanted to avenge Enzel but ended up the same way. He himself was going to attack the meditator but when he saw how Dan wasn't even able to react to the meditator appearing before him, his knees went soft and he gave up all intentions of attacking. He only noticed his frozen legs when his knees gave in.
"You're saying he's only reacting to intentions of harm towards him." It wasn't as if it was completely unheard off but he was in disbelief at his underling's words. Of the 3 men sent to reinforce them, the one with a cut arm nodded to his glance. Confirming that he was indeed attacked because he attacked first.
"I..I don't know." The man with frozen legs was only able to tell him that the meditator caught the Enzel off guard and the earth mage was too slow to react which were within the possibilities of a Journeyman but how did his reinforcement lose his arm?
"Greetings gentlemen." All their heads snapped up to the quiet voice. The overflowing Vitality and Wisdom weighed heavily on them
'Flight!' The man quickly Identified the flying man, he could only make out a silhouette since the bright moon was directly behind.
'What the ell is a grandmaster doing in this corner of Elva?!'
All of them were shocked by the Grandmaster's presence while he personally noticed they were surrounded by people whose essence were all stronger than his own. He was actually more shocked that the Grandmaster was a 'Fire warrior', a warrior that can fly? This wasn't any old Grandmaster you can find in Tidal's street.
"We'll be taking him. Any objections?"
He gulped at the threat behind those words. One thing he knew was that it wasn't a question but a statement.
But the moment the Grandmaster finished his words, everyone present choked from a foreign presence. It was the ever-familiar overflowing Wisdom, but he never met anyone who had such oppressive mana. No, not oppressive.
Heavy.