"How bad is it?" Kong Jing asked. She brought Ning Xin to the closest healer. The one in Plainston was clearly new on the job so she didn't count. Opting to risk bringing her to Teld instead, the old female healer was a little incentive.
"Her ribs seemed like they were broken recently but she received treatment so quickly I would assume this was a lighter injury instead but whatever healing she is under, she seems to be recovering just fine. Rather than just fine, she seems to be recovering to the point that I wouldn't be able to tell she got them broken before." The older lady didn't fear Kong Jing's presence which made things simpler.
She wasn't relieved by her words because Ning Xin hasn't woken up since she found her.
"I don't know what could cause so much of her veins to rupture but just like her ribs, they are recovering very well."
"Why isn't she waking up if she's recovering as well as you say?" Kong Jing was doing her best not to be impolite to the healer.
"...With her veins like that, I assume her blood has something to do with it. Her heart being as weak as it is now, and her ribs like that. I can imagine what she did although I'm having trouble believing what I imagined. Not waking up…this is just an educated guess, okay? The blood rush to her head ruptured the vein there too. I don't have to tell you what that means do I?"
"But you said her veins or whatever were healing just fine!" Kong Jing couldn't help but let some of her essence leak, scaring the surrounding doctors who were assistants to the old lady.
"That doesn't mean whatever damage had been done was reversed." The healer wasn't fazed. It wasn't the first time she met with angry families or friends.
"...When will she wake up? Will she wake up?" There was little strength in Kong Jing's voice.
"I don't know. It depends on her and whatever healing she's receiving now. This is beyond my capabilities."
"....Useless." She carried her little sister up from the mattress.
Kong Jing left with Ning Xin sleeping soundly in her arms. Her outward appearance was as the old lady had said, healing pretty quickly.
Even with her body healed up, Kong Jing was extremely careful with her. The healing that the old lady referred to was just their mask's doing.
Although she had healing potions, she was very careful with them. There were many stories of how drinking a potion could cause irreparable harm if the effects were too strong and wasn't the right potion for whatever symptoms a person had. Also, her 'healing' potions had never been tested on a monster much less a person. With their history of being trash in healing, there was a good chance there were technical problems with her potions.
Taking a deep breath, she protected the sleeping girl in her arms with her own mana as best as she could before making a very short distance space compression. Relieved that the girl didn't seem harmed by it, Kong Jing slowly tested her limits.
The Life Queen was said to never have turned away an injured or sick person.
Even if she did, Kong Jing would dare her to turn them away.
❅❅❅
"A very good afternoon to you. Miss Jing, I presume?" The pink-haired Queen smiled and greeted Kong Jing with Ning Xin in her arms.
"Why do you know my name?" Kong Jing found herself at the doorsteps of the Royal's mansion. She couldn't teleport in with Ning Xin in her arms and only resorted to space compression to cover the travel distance. Going through walls was different from compressing space but that wasn't the reason she didn't directly enter their family mansion.
She couldn't even directly enter Tidal with her space magic.
'The current king's barriers are really that good?' She had doubts at first, she had heard that the current king was such a great barrier mage he was beginning to gain fame even from outside Elcra.
If the unknown number of barriers around Tidal were strong then the ones around their mansion or other important areas and buildings must be practically indestructible.
The real issue right now was that this pink-haired lady whose statue was all over the continent was standing outside their gates and seemingly waiting for her.
"Madam Veronica had informed me of your arrival. You're her grandniece and she's her granddaughter right? Come right in. Oh, please call me Yvette or just Yve if you'd like." Yvette Lord was a sweet lady. Not youthful but not old, the cute and pretty middle-aged look.
"DAMN HER!! SHE KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN AND DIDN'T STOP IT!" Her outrage could be heard through the surroundings, people further away were shocked by the overflowing essence despite them being used to strong presence. They waved it off as nothing, sensing it coming from this direction.
The guards in the mansion not far away didn't move and weren't affected, just giving her an eyeful. They were already informed not to make a rashful move.
"Now now, she had requested me to take care of her grandchild and I would treat her like my own. 'It's for her own good.' is what she wanted me to tell you." Yvette tried to pacify her as she led the way through the surprisingly normal sized mansion.
"Yvette was it, Queen? Tell me what she really told you to tell me." Kong Jing wouldn't buy that crap.
"..." Her silence only confirmed it.
"Tell me."
"I recorded it so that I didn't have to say it." Yvette was an experienced lady. She took out a crystal from under the sleeves of her dress and passed it to Kong Jing.
"Tell her, 'what'cha going to do about it? Come after me if you can!" Her grandaunt's irritating voice came from the crystal she attached to her bracelet. The messages didn't end there as her grandma laughed and a spanking sounded reverberated. She could even imagine her pushing her butt out towards her and spanking it.
Kong Jing felt her veins pop even without whatever skill her little sister used. Yvette wasn't wrong, this was indeed her saying 'it's for her own good.' so her anger dissipated quickly.
"So she can really be healed?"
"There is life. There is breath. She will wake up in time."
"...Thank you."
"She is a lucky girl to have such a caring family."
"Right…"
"Alright, make yourself at home. We prepared two rooms for both of you in the south wing."
"We'll be using one room."
"Sure you will, I actually only prepared one room."
Kong Jing had a feeling that the Queen wasn't too different from her grandaunt. Does every woman become like that as they grow older? While her grandaunt was outright playful and mischievous, Yvette seems to be more on the shrewd side.
❅❅❅
Together with another lightning user, Ebony was visited by two people that came to train his lightning resistance for him in rotations. They were so nice to spend time with him every single day even though he ignored them completely.
His caretaker brought him a pair of cloth pants and shirt. His shirt tore from the beating though. His trainers never really took note of how much or fast he recovered because of how dark it was and his caretaker said that his cover-up was that he used some magical ointment on him. It was inevitable that the caretaker noticed his fast recovery even when he didn't wipe away the black scorches.
Because they had to be really careful not to hurt him too much, his resistance sadly didn't evolve and only levelled.
He had the same problem for Sheer Exhaustion Resistance, due to his regeneration the drain was barely just strong enough to level it twice so far. He wasn't feeling as weak with zero stamina which most likely meant that the resistance may not level anymore with this level of drain.
He was almost about to speak up to his trainers and teach them where to punch to make it hurt more in exchange for the free resistance but remembered he wasn't there for training and they were the ones who kidnapped him or at least, part of the reason he was caught. So his mentality was 'hmph I'm not going to talk to you.'
With no moonlight and him falling into trances more often, he actually did not notice his two trainers presence or their beatings. The caretaker was worried the first few times it happened because he wasn't eating or even drinking. So the food quality had been rising but Ebony made sure to tell him that he was just deeper in meditation and wasn't really hungry.
He was a bit shocked today when his Conditioning dropped by 2 levels in a single go.
From that day on, he quietly tried to move his body and magic as much as he could without anyone finding out. He was left alone most of the time anyway. With the cuff and chains, he was limited in many ways.
❅❅❅
'Ting' 'Generic Skill Camouflage mutated and evolved into Waning Presence'
Waning Presence - Blending yourself into your surroundings to stay out of sight. Ability to withdraw and match surrounding essence to remove your presence increases by 50% + 2.5% per level. Ability to stay out of plain sight while stationary increases by 2.5% per level.
He didn't want to let anyone know he still had excess mana so he tried his best to withdraw any excess mana and push it into the ground to disperse it. Thinking that he wouldn't be found out if he had the same density of mana over his skin that was leaking with the surroundings. He had little to no control over vital energy or life force which Ning Xin was an expert at but with his mana containing vitality, it seemed to have the same effect when he balanced his leakage of mana. With no excess stamina, he wasn't sure if he doing anything with that but it was apparently extremely hard to sense anyway.
"How long has it been?" Ebony opened his eyes when the caretaker brought some food.
"More than 2 weeks this time." He didn't withhold the information, Ebony didn't doubt the information for some reason.
"Not how long I've been in a trance. How long has it been since I was locked here?" Ebony wasn't able to keep track of time well.
"...More than 3 months. Are you-" Mason answered honestly, he had a bad feeling about the question but he knew what was coming.
"No." Ebony started eating with a pair of ice arms after his caretaker left.
'Why don't I feel like escaping? The lightning guys don't come by as much anymore. I don't gain exhaustion resistance. My perception skill maxed out again. Everlasting Tranquillity is capped again at 225 and my conditioning already dropped to level 80. The only thing that's really moving is a level or two in hunger resistance after I fall into a trance and Reinforced Mana Chassis.'
He wasn't able to improve Reinforced Mana Chassis in any way other than making it more…reinforced. Ning Xin's words about how the Sub-Class was more limited should logically apply to Professions being even more limited.
He was a little disappointed his lightning resistance trainer seemed to give up coming already.
'It feels like it can still level but it's taking very long for a single level and I'm losing Conditioning levels faster and faster.'
Ebony ultimately followed what his gut feeling was telling him. For someone that loves to train so much, Conditioning levels could be regained over time and it wasn't as if their effects were very pronounced at the moment.
'It's level 196. Might as well go for 200 if I don't feel the Natural Potential block.'
He really hoped he would have enough Natural Potential for the skill to reach 200. If it reached 199 and he felt the block, he didn't think Ordina would have a level 250 Na anytime soon.
The level 225 Na already took almost the entire dungeon's available essence of 2 months. Causing Na to cut down on its other floors and hurt it because they killed 2 of Na, basically taking all of its resources twice. Every additional level for its guardian took an exponential increase and it was unlikely for Na to be able to reach 250 even with all of Ordina's resources for years. More importantly, Na already made it clear he wasn't going to do that unless they were able to pay up with either essence or anything it deemed worth it.
If he had to wait that long, he might have already broken through the bottleneck through dedicated training.
❅❅❅
A soft groan woke Kong Jing up from her stupor. She clambered to Ning Xin's side.
"Little Xin!" She was going to hug her but restrained herself in case she accidentally injured her. Although Yvette said she could heal Ning Xin, it still took three whole months before she woke up.
Admittedly, Yvette went for the gentle treatment. Veronica acted a little weird when she had asked to heal her granddaughter. She had always wondered why the mischievous Xeng changed her mind about wanting Yvette to go all out and heal her as fast as she could but she probably wouldn't ever find out. She also approved of this method because it allowed the body to heal more naturally.
A loud growl replied for Ning Xin.
"Hu…"
"Are you okay? Feeling hurt anywhere? I'll go get Yvette!"
"Hun..gry."
Kong Jing skidded to a stop, "Of course you are."
Kong Jing didn't want to leave her little sister alone with strangers so she only received reports from her callstone from the guys that attempted to kidnap Ebony but failed. After she was sure litte Xin was back in perfect health, it was time to find her little brother. She was pretty sure he wouldn't be killed but she was still worried day in and day out.
Those men were indeed incompetent but it had been better than nothing.
At least they found out the identity of the Grandmaster Fire Warrior. Someone who was supposedly pretty prominent in the last war with the Trolls but never really showed up after it ended. He had been a freelancer of sorts that had volunteered to fight the Trolls because of a grudge. His whole family apparently got eaten by Trolls.
He had always been an unnamed warrior even on the battlefield so they weren't able to get his name. As for his location, they clearly weren't able to find that out.
Ning Xin fell asleep again after she mumbled which got her to panic and ran to get Yvette. She actually couldn't travel with space magic in this mansion.
"Don't worry, she's just very weak after waking up. I'll get the chefs to make some food for when she wakes up again."
"Some? You would have to prepare a feast for 50." Kong Jing was exaggerating to get the point across but Ning Xin's belly grumbled even louder just after she said so.
Yvette giggled sweetly but it didn't seem out of place despite her age, she didn't look old and probably isn't very old either.
Ning Xin woke up again when she smelled food. She could barely force her eyelids up.
"I..I can't move." Her hoarse voice was heard but Kong Jing who brought the trolley of food and propped her up to feed her.
"You've been asleep for too long, Yvette, the healer queen said that although your body recovered you need to get used to practically new veins and you can't push your heart. The bigger problem might be up here." Kong Jing pointed to her head.
She was not planning to hide that Ning Xin needed to take it slow and there may be more ramifications of whatever she did to her body. According to Yvette, she needed to slowly warm the body back up and Kong Jing was surely going to watch her carefully this time. She didn't even doubt Yvette who was the best healer on the continent, but she didn't know that this was all her grandaunt's plan too. The Life Queen didn't even need a few minutes to fully heal Ning Xin but she always believed letting the body heal naturally was better so she had no problem helping Veronica in this manner.
❅❅❅
'Ting' 'Profession Skill Reinforced Mana Chassis level up 199 → 200'
Ebony opened his eyes. He had been standing up the entire time so his body didn't weaken as much. Conditioning had dropped to 52. From time to time, he would try to levitate with mana manipulation but with the constant drain of mana, it wasn't easy.
The cuffs that were long accustomed to his wrist froze and shattered. He stretched his stiff body as energy filled his muscles, his stamina recovering at extreme speeds.
He wondered if he should've planned the timing right because he sensed his caretaker for the duration of his stay walking towards his room.
He didn't even have time to hide the fact that his cuffs were broken.
Mason looked through the peephole to check if he was awake and saw the broken cuffs.
"...So it's time. Give me a minute." The caretaker was surprisingly calm when he saw his broken cuffs.
He squatted outside the metal door and felt around the walls beside his room, near the floor before he pushed it and the flooring opened.
Ebony's metal door creaked open, his masked caretaker stepped over his untouched food, which was two sunny side-ups, bacon, sausage, bread and water. His meals really improved.
"Here, I hid this and told my superiors you didn't have anything on you when you were passed to us. You didn't have a bracelet on you so I assume they took or broke it so that you couldn't be tracked." The man had his face wrapped. He passed him Ebony's robe, sheath and even his spatial bag.
"...My belongings. Thank you." Ebony managed to learn that this group of people only contained him but not capture.
"I don't deserve any thanks from you." The man turned around.
"This might be too much to ask but do you have my greatsword too?"
"This is all you came with, there was no greatsword, just this sheath."
"I see." He was a little affected that he lost Icicle.
Ebony wondered why the people who captured him did not take his robe and bag or even his sheath.
"We're under a shop. You'll walk past a few closed rooms, forges. You shouldn't look too suspicious if you just walk out. It's quite common for customers to be invited into the forges for discussing custom orders. The person in charge, the Grandmaster Burstbowman, is quite lazy. Oh, he should recognise your robe. I'm just going to assume that the alarm would wake him up that the mana ore is full when you broke the shackles. I don't think there's any sort of alarm for when it breaks."
"Mmm. That really helps."
"Can you knock me out? Maybe give me a few light injuries, I wanted to quit working for my boss for a long time now."
"Mmm." Ebony knocked out his caretaker, choosing to very lightly conjure ice on his clothes and a little of his skin.
'Oh…I should've asked him where I was. Wait, under a shop?' He messed up again but their security sounds horrible. There was barely any security at all if the caretaker's words were to be believed.
He could just ask others what town or city he was in after he escaped.
He stripped the rags he was wearing and wore a set of his own in his bag before putting his robe back on and slotting his sheath in place. It felt a little weird without Icicle but at least he didn't have to enhance himself and glow just to move around. He could still move around with his robe on without enhancement now.
Walking through the door for the first time. He saw that his cell was the only one here and this underground place was only one way. The stairs up weren't far, there were no other guards but he already knew that.
Up the flight of stairs of not more than 5 metres was a standard wooden trap door.
'I should focus on escape. Fighting a Grandmaster probably isn't feasible and I doubt I can stay in close range for long.'
He got plenty of scales prepared as ice mana that was ready to be formed or reformed at a moment's notice.
It was quiet, there were no vibrations from the trap door.
Ebony opened it and climbed out. He certainly did not expect to see bookshelves. Looking around, it appeared to be some kind of study or office without windows. He didn't block the trap door with the bookshelf that was out of place, he wanted to let people know he escaped, just not so soon.
He silenced all his footsteps and just left through the office door. A wide corridor and many other rooms were there. With his Vibrational Gravity Sense, he could roughly get the whole layout of the building he was in. He couldn't sense through the doors outright but the gap under the doors was enough for him to 'see' a little.
There were people in most rooms, he quietly made his way out of the corridor. He came out from a room at the end of the corridor.
'This is a mall. Okay, act natural, no grandmasters around, just customers looking at guns.'
This was a gun shop, some of the other rooms he walked past were the forges. But he was wrong about there not being a grandmaster around. The creaking of wood entered his ears. It came from the stairs on the other side of where he came out from. His senses were good, there was no doubt the man that was walking down was one of the ones that were training his lightning resistance.
He used the feature of his robe that he never used before and 'summoned' scales all over it. Taking a step out of the corridor and straight for the entrance/exit confidently.
Ebony actually succeeded as his trainer was yawning with his eyes closed as he climbed down the stairs and didn't seem to be very alert.
The moment he stepped out of the shop in the middle of the street, he disappeared from the spot. A little stiff with his Treading Stride.
'Now. Where the heck am I?'