"So Hector might be in danger?" Ning Xin asked.
"Well, I get a feeling he'll be fine. He's a prince, he probably has a lot of life-saving potions and barriers to protect him. He's strong too. Navin might not have been serious about inviting us."
"I think he was. We are a force to be reckoned with. As long as we are sent on a battlefield with similar levelled opponents there really are few Trolls that can rival us and numbers don't matter against you. Fire and ice are very effective against them since it would hinder their regeneration."
It wasn't as if Ebony wouldn't follow the Imperials commands and he didn't mind being a soldier but what for?
Ning Xin was of the same mind.
At most, they would save the Imperial army there but they could do that by themselves. Hence Ebony's plan.
"You want to follow the fleet to Tova?" Ning Xin asked again to confirm her hearing.
"Our trailer can drive on water, I can just freeze the surface of the sea too. I am worried though."
"Yes I don't think we should go. We are not ready for the sea." Ning Xin was afraid of water because she couldn't swim. The sea was the worst, it was without doubt, the scariest place to be in any world.
"The eldritch horrors of the deep, I am scared too."
It seems like both of them were very wary of the sea and when they talked it out it was apparent both had been told scary stories about the sea as children. It was a fact that if they were to fall into the ocean, a lot of their strengths would be stripped from them.
"Too bad we won't be able to fly all the way there. And we would waste too much time. Travel by ship to Tova would take anywhere from 1 to 2 years and heavily depends on the weather and conditions of the sea." Ning Xin was interested in fighting Trolls too.
He was glad that it didn't sound like she was interested in complete slaughter because he wasn't sure how he would feel about that. Would he even feel anything?
When he heard that it took years to reach Tova, Ebony got more questions about Navin inviting them. There was zero chance of a 'rescue force' that took 1 to 2 years just to arrive at the destination actually being useful. Not to mention the fleet wouldn't be setting off any time soon.
It was the Thoya's turn to formally introduce themselves to the Guardian beast and they tagged along.
The bear appeared very friendly to the villagers, she made a bear paw out of snow to pat everyone who was queuing to greet her. They were talking to the bear through a link of mana.
Ebony sensed a mana link connecting to him and also Ning Xin to the bear.
"Human children. Greetings, I am Milly. I have heard you are an ally of the Frost Elves?" The mental voice was neither young nor old, not too soft and not too loud but it was clearly feminine.
"Mmm. Hello Milly, my name is Ebony."
"I'm Scarlet."
"I can smell an old friend on you. Please continue to be allied with the Frost Elves."
"Mmm."
The simple response was good enough for Milly. Both of them got a paw pat on the head too. Ning Xin was a little nervous when the paw touched her head. It was expected with Milly's aura on the paw, the entire village would be flattened should it wish to do so.
Navin was here to introduce himself as well but he didn't stay for long and left after he strengthened the barrier around Arcta. He didn't even bat an eye at Milly's level.
Ebony spent time with Na himself as Ning Xin was not ready yet.
"Are you trying something new? You keep making that roaring noise." Na questioned. His golem body was back up on the top floor and this was just a spare level 1 body.
"Yeah, can you let me hear one of your Sonorous Canyon Lion's roar?"
"Sure."
It didn't take too long because they made the hidden room around a spawn node. The lion roared at him with everything it had, the mana it shot out from the mouth sped towards him in a cone shape that managed to tear the ground.
He was about to send back a roar of his own when he suddenly stopped and got hit by the sound wave. Although he was hit by the sound wave he didn't really feel anything from it. But he still held his head and fell to his knees with blood swelling up at the back of his throat. Another sound cut through to him that wasn't from the lion, it came from memory.
'What was that? That was in Ordina right? Why don't I remember hearing something like that?'
The lion was dismissed by Na.
"Since when can something like that hurt you?" Na joked.
"Na, do you remember hearing a roar when I was here in the past. A very different roar."
"Like humans screaming before they die kinda roar?"
"Never mind. I'll try to replicate it and you tell me."
He copied the sound but when it hit his ear, it was different and he didn't understand why. Hence, his experiments with it increased.
❅❅❅
'Ting' 'Profession Skill Stalwart Endowment learned.'
Stalwart Endowment - Endow a specific set of mana pathways into one's very one body. Source the runic endowment with 1200 ice mana per minute to increase base Constitution by 150% + 2.5%. Impact, shear and elemental resistance is increased by 25% + 0.025%.
Consumes 500 MP/Min
"It doesn't classify as any elemental magic. The stat increase is not based on Intelligence because it is the power of the runes and the ice mana consumed is only used as an energy source that gets broken down. But Impact and shear resistance…Does that mean I'm harder to cut and more shock resistant? That'll be pretty awesome."
He was impressed with the effects even though he already knew what the runes do. It was a shame that the runes required ice mana to power. Even his ice mana would be broken down by the runes to convert into the only type that it required. Sister Jing was working on it whenever she had time so that it could be powered by any type of mana.
He was working on the project through calls so that the runes can fit a woman's body. It would be great if he could cast the spell on Ning Xin. It was pointless right now since she couldn't power it.
The spell took 500 mana every minute to keep the mana pathway in the body which he didn't have any Fortification for. Once the pathways were set, he needed to fill it with conjured ice mana to keep it going. He was mana efficient with ice mana so it wasn't actually that hard to keep up the spell. A total of 900 MP per minute was possible for him and he could still cast Frostblaze Augmentation with no issue either but he would run out of highly compressed mana as a battle drags.
He tried it on himself immediately and fought with his Models.
"Great! The mana is broken down to fuel runes which directly strengthen my body." Ebony was in glee that his original problem was solved so quickly. As long as he had Stalwart Endowment cast, his physical body would strengthen against the intelligence-based Frostblaze Augmentation.
Today had been the day Ning Xin had completely digested all of Gorpede's blood and joined him on the daily training. He recalled the other skill he managed to get just yesterday, Preservation Bubble.
Preservation Bubble - Extension of your vitality a small distance outside your body to contain additional mana. Stability of vitality bubble is increased by 1.0% per level. Size of mana pool is increased by 1.0% per level.
He had been going about the skill wrong the entire time, thinking he had to contain mana in a sphere. He made it easier for himself with tips from Ning Xin. Extending his life force just over his skin like his repulsion membrane and enforcing them to not let any mana slip through. It was much easier to do compared to containing it within a distance of 5 metres.
The problem was that the skill was a generic skill and that it was not a passive. His control might slip and release all the extra mana. He focused so much on the new energy he could slightly manipulate that he forgot that he needed to make it a mana base skill to consider as his Profession Skill. It was difficult to use mana to stop mana but he was already trying to mutate the skill.
Whatever the case, the increase in the size of his mana pool was desirable.
He faced his opponent once again pulling every bit of gravity mana to pour onto her.
'Ting' 'Sub-Class Skill Gravity Mana Manipulation evolved into Gravity Mana Control'
He didn't need to see the description to know that there was no significant change. But he was wrong, he could feel the difference immediately. He forgot that with his skills over level 200, when they evolve, a significant change would occur since he didn't lose skill levels.
It needed noticeably less effort to bend the same amount of gravity mana to his will.
With her spare set of equipment that was completely identical, her mantle actually couldn't repel his magic completely. Kong Jing was being unfair and made it so that he couldn't 'bully' her when it was usually the other way around.
Her attempts to control his blood were so weak that he wasn't even able to tell she was trying to do so until she asked if she was affecting him. Seems like all the mana he was made up of protected him even further.
He acted as her live target for shooting lightning and wind blades with just a shirt made of ice so that he wouldn't wear out his robe for no reason.
"I can't think of a way to utilise it better than simply tossing elemental mana."
"Hmm. How about trying to change your conjured wind and lightning fundamentally? If it is somewhat unique, then simply tossing them onto something isn't that bland."
"Like how your ice is harder to melt or how your flames can dig through armour and scales? What do you suggest I do with wind and lightning?"
Ebony got to thinking, it was extremely difficult to control elements inside another person so controlling the electrical signals was out for now. If it was him, he would make part of his domain so that it's harder for others to control but that was also the same thing and fell under the capabilities of manipulation.
"I'm just throwing out whatever comes to mind so you don't have to take it too seriously okay?" He probably didn't need to give a warning but he did so anyway.
"Mmm."
"How about temporarily removing or weakening the stunning capabilities of lightning mana, make them extremely stable or sticky? Lightning mana is naturally very penetrative and practically spreads to the entire body just by touching it anyway, I don't see a need to improve how deep you stab lightning into someone. You make a ton of lightning mana stick inside a target while they assume it wasn't effective and once you build up like a thousand slashes or projectiles on them, reignite the lightning mana?"
"...I don't have as much mana to spare as you but…that sounds fun."
"Oh right. Ah, I should give that a try. I think I will pick up lightning magic. Better start as early as possible."
"Hey!"
"Okay okay. How about electromagnetics?"
"Nothing complicated! Just more speed or power!"
"Uhm uhm…make your lightning mana better at burning?"
"Wind generates lightning and lightning is already hot, I might as well mash all of them together into a ball of blood and stuff it into someone's mouth!"
"Is..is it that time of the month? Year..?"
"...mmm. I think I'll stop here for today. Sorry for losing my temper."
"It's alright. Ice cream?"
"Yes please!"
"Why don't you do just that? A wind blade that can't be seen turns into a lightning strike but lands as a blast of fire. Never mind, too complicated and you need to be able to be at the state where you can inflict your will onto your elemental mana. Might as well just pack fragmented fire mana into lightning and make them explode on impact at this point."
Both of them were able to put their will into their main element but he was far from doing the same with gravity and not even his pure mana, so sound magic is out for now too.
"You're the best! Try to dodge, I want to practise aiming too!"
"Ice cream?" He pointed to the door of the hidden room.
"That can wait so don't move!"
'So do I dodge or do I stay put?' Ebony was confused and made a decision that he was better off with meditation on rather than off.
She had the habit of putting her hands forward or pointing one of her blades which made it really easy to predict. He warned her about it and instead of stopping, she made it such that her zap of lightning zig zagged more violently irregularly. It was extremely effective and once she fired it, he was rarely able to dodge it. It was practically impossible and her casting speed was fast enough that she could unleash a shot before her arm or blade was even fully raised and directed.
At this stage, her casting speed has shown an obvious difference between the two of them. If she were to cast any magic at him and he didn't have a scale or model around, it was impossible to cast it before her spell hits him. Though he can physically dodge it was a clear advantage she had. Even in his domain, his mana or perhaps 'Will' to be more accurate, barely moves in time to protect himself.
He was so aware of her fighting style that his Glacial Model of her could imitate her techniques. Although he still didn't know how to 'imbue will' he was fascinated that a Model after him was very slightly slower than a Model of her even when they were both cast by him with the same amount of mana. Since neither could hurt the other, he wasn't sure if the version copying him was any tougher.
Ning Xin was doing the same kind of training with controlling fire without manipulating it.
After she managed to pick up making lightning mana explode surprisingly quickly they returned to play with Milly's baby, Willow that was born just a day after Milly arrived. That was because Kiva was hugging Willow and neither wanted to separate from each other.
Kiva could already understand speech and even talk fluently enough. It was rare that she demanded to play with Willow and Milly saw that her baby bear enjoyed the company of a similarly sized creature. Willow was much chubbier and like its mother, a pure white short-fur bear. It was the most adorable thing he had ever seen and he managed to be on its list of people to cling onto whenever he came.
Willow was a female baby bear that clung to his leg like a koala because he fed her his conjured ice before. She didn't appear to be very monster-like, there was no extreme physical growth speed and she remained a baby bear even after a week. The only difference was getting fattened up into a ball.
His callstone rang and he picked it up without excusing himself.
"Ebony, the exploration in Bubble Hills reached a good point. They finally managed to set a base almost 3 gors deep underground. There's a vast underground tomb-like place with an unbelievable amount of topaz golems, the exploration teams are really starting to rush down to get first pick. We got wind of the runic-filled rocks, hurry here!" Mark could be heard fumbling about and talking to Kong Jing in the background.
"Master Jing?" He picked up on how he address Kong Jing
"I'm her apprentice now."
"That was fast, alright we'll meet you in Plainston soon." It wasn't a second later that he hung up.
"Gently now." He plucked the paws off him one by one but Willow was persistent.
"See you, Milly."
"Topaz golems under Bubble Hills, are they still there? Take care not to get any of their topaz to touch you. Willow likes you." Milly was curled up and resting as she overheard the call.
"Come on Kiva, time to go home. Your brother is waiting to teach you the letters again." Ning Xin was excited to explore with her cousin or at least, that was what it seemed like.
Ebony didn't have much to pack up and neither did Ning Xin. They apologised for leaving so suddenly but the Thoyas expected this to happen. He gave each of them a hug so naturally, he didn't find it odd. Kiva was so happy, she might have thought it was just a hugging session.
Ning Xin looked so awkward when she got hugged by Roya and even Clovis. Halvis was smart enough to only give a shoulder pat. Ebony found her surprisingly comfortable with the Frost Elves.
When they left for Plainston without even staying for dinner they caught Mark embarrassed as he wasn't ready yet. He was busy preparing his equipment and supplies and didn't know that they were in the area. Not to mention, he didn't know the location or route.
It was perfect as Ning Xin wasn't feeling well so none of them blamed him. She went to make dinner so that she could rest early.
"Tell me more about the underground tomb."
"I don't know. They are hiding most information under wraps, the Quest Hall don't know much either. It was a large expedition party that sent people to resupply that leaked the information that they managed to get a foothold underground. Well, it was more of people eavesdropping on them but, same thing." Mark then remarked that Kong Jing was shadowing these people.
"Is it that hard? How many golems are we talking about?"
"Of course it's difficult. There are mostly natural tunnels and it is difficult to descend, with many dead ends and such. In those squeezy tunnels, meeting anything that's born and built to traverse the dark, cramped space is a nightmare. They managed to keep the information tight so we have no idea how strong or if there are other types of monsters as their main enemy. All we know is that from the number of supplies the resupply group is gathering, they are going for the long-term investment."
"I guess we should prepare the equipment for underground exploration," Ebony said as if he knew what those equipment were.
"I got them all earlier." Mark pointed to the huge box outside.
There were pickaxes, lamps, a few of those fragmented light ores, ropes, cloth bags and a bunch of other stuff. He helped Mark split them into 4, they were better off carrying their own equipment. He didn't see how any of these stuff except the lamps and light ores to be very useful for him and Kong Jing.
Mark had a bigger spatial bag now and had no trouble carrying a large stock of items.
"Don't go crazy and freeze or burn ourselves while we're underground okay, we need to breathe. Oh and you can't just hit so hard that you cause the tunnel to collapse on us. I'll die." Mark said at the dining table. Ning Xin was sitting here despite having finished eating already.
Mark carried on to list on what not to do rather than what the dos are.
Basically, the deeper they go the more durable and condensed the earth mana is. The deeper they go the lower their chance of survival if the ceiling collapses on them. Just like the sea, if they meet something they couldn't beat, chances are, they wouldn't have anywhere to run either. At least when it comes to underground there was still a possibility of hiding.
'3 gors is 15 km deep right? That's…deep.' Even Ebony was aware that going downwards in tunnels was extremely different from covering horizontal distance. There was just no method to speed up if there was no space to move.
They were not the only ones who were watching the expeditions' movement as Mark had seen other people getting the same stuff as him just today. Some parties even left for Bubble Hill already.
Most of them were moving down south, so it was probably where the initial entrance was.
Two days later, Kong Jing came to get them as the resupply party was moving off in the middle of the night. These people hid their supply outside the gate and bribed the guards to open the gates.
It was all too easy for Kong Jing to get them outside without any sneaking.
The resupply group of about 60 people exit on their carriages. It made him think that the tunnel must be wide enough that they wouldn't really have to worry much. They didn't go south or north along Bubble Hills. They went straight to the edge of Bubble Hills bordering Hoarfrost Glade and entered an unsuspecting hill whose entrance was camouflaged with earth magic. They were equally unsuspecting that they were being followed by 2 groups of people excluding Ebony's group.