Ebony tried to call Roya after they had their meal but the mental link got cut off partway, it barely left the city. Their trailer was sitting at the side of the training square. They took a bath, separately. Ning Xin went to sleep in her comfy bed. He continued to birth Glacial Models right outside.
'23. That's my limit. Any more and I can't even maintain my domain.'
The training square was large and he let the models run out of his range before casting his domain. Some of them just fell flat on the ground. In normal cases, if they were out of his manual control range they would move according to whatever 'instincts' his will had imbued but it clearly had a limit. From his own understanding, Will was also an energy resource like mana, stamina or even life force. It might be slightly different and it wasn't quantified but it definitely had to do with his base Wisdom stat. It was closest to stamina, it ate mental strength instead of physical strength. Instead of lowered physical output, his spell power would probably drop if he overused Will to a certain point.
Once he was done preparing dozens of extra models without Will, he placed them into his bag and went to sleep. He hasn't slept for days. He did have pockets of time to sleep but he found that he wasn't able to fall asleep. He felt relieved that Fifth Tide was still standing strong and fell asleep as he hit the sack.
❅❅❅
Ebony shot up from his reinforced bed in a cold sweat.
"...This is the fourth time."
'So it was a dream? A nightmare? All I hear is a roar and I wake up. Where did I hear that?' He stared at his trembling hands. They didn't stop trembling for a few minutes.
He was woken up by a roar in his dreams and the exact same thing happened since he evolved. The first time was a few nights after his evolution. The second was underground in Golem city and the third was recent. The roar was awesome to be able to induce fear in him but the memory of it fades quickly. He only recalled that this happened since it happened again but he slowly forgot about it the moment his hands stopped trembling.
'I slept for 4 hours? That's a lot. I guess it's time for dinner. A trip to Fifth shouldn't take more than an hour.' It was not the first time that he would have to move from Fourth to Fifth Tide so he knew the way.
'Why am I feeling sticky? I'll just take a shower.' Ebony got his towel and clothes before leaving his room.
"You're up. Give me an hour, dinner will be ready then." The red-haired chef had her hair bunned up. She could sense him exiting him leaving his room from the first floor.
"Morning. Did you get a good sleep?" The trailer wasn't exactly huge and they could hear each other if the soundproof walls weren't closed. The first and second floor wasn't obstructed by a door either.
"It's evening and yes I did." She had regained the slight perkiness in her voice now that she was rested and had somewhat filled her belly earlier.
"I didn't." He voiced out before getting weirded out by his own words.
"You didn't? Were you training again?" She was similarly confused.
"No. I'm not sure why I said that. I woke up sticky for some reason, going to take a quick shower."
"Okay?"
❅❅❅
Ning Xin got back to cooking. She rolled her sleeves and washed her hands again before she took the flour out. This woollen 'sweater' or something was very comfortable but not really fit for the kitchen. She was just too lazy to change out and all her clothes were fire retardant anyway. She had gotten around to wearing the clothes her housemate makes within the mobile house.
'He's been acting odd. I should make his favourite sweet and sour pork.'
When she was almost done kneading flour-turned dough, she realised that she left her laundry in the bathroom.
'Ahh. Deep breaths deep breaths. We have a partition and…it's not like he never saw it before. He wouldn't'
Ebony made a large metal box that produces water and spins and all they had to do was pour some detergent in and activate it. She was too lazy to put her clothes and battle wear to wash as she needed to scrub mud and grime off before using that 'washing machine'. The first thing she did after waking up was getting to the kitchen and laundry slipped her mind. She was also insistent on splitting their laundry and he was using it before her so she completely overlooked it.
She knew that he wouldn't look through the laundry basket but she couldn't help but feel nervous.
"Need any help?"
"Huh? Er, no. That was quick…just watch memory lights or something."
She peeked at him to see his reaction but her Intuition told her of his confusion and that got an internal sigh of relief.
"Alright."
It was a chance to eat as much as she'd liked, she wasn't going to let it go. Going on a near-empty stomach and eating 'normal' quantities of food had been a harsh exercise for her. She burned through energy and stamina so fast that she had gotten much better and used just the right amount of strength. Intuition gave her a pretty good gauge of how strong an opponent was and she had grown comfortable adjusting her power output accordingly.
"Let's drive there, I haven't washed my gear. Could you plate it while I put it to wash?" She unfolded her sleeves and dashed to check if the laundry basket had any heat residues. Seeing it untouched made her feel relieved and disappointed at the same time.
'What am I thinking!?'
"Sure."
They had dinner while talking about their usual training regimes. They hiked the difficulty up so much and referenced each other's methods. It wasn't that surprising to learn that he had memories of higher-tiered training methods. They gauged that their conditioning should easily be considered tier 4 but both of them still had tier 2 conditioning. At least, her Burstflare Witch's Conditioning was refined to a complete tier 2.
Burstflare Witch's Conditioning (Passive) - Essence Conditioning of the Burstflare Witch. Agility, Strength, Intelligence, Endurance and Perception increased by 0.025% per level.
The previous 0.01% for Strength and so on increased to 0.025%. They had peeked at the Imperial soldiers' supposedly tier 3 conditioning. It was nothing special but the warrior's and knights' training probably increased Strength, Agility, Endurance and Constitution. Their methods were far more strenuous than the soldiers but they haven't been able to get any more information from the soldiers but the Dwarf that sparred with Ebony did divulge more.
The soldiers might undergo the same training but most of them had the tier 1 and 2 versions. It took the body decades to 'refine' to the limits that it was pushed to by the person undergoing the training. It was common knowledge that during 'peace' times, the army guaranteed the tier 3 version to be obtained after 50 to 60 years of repeating the same training every day.
The moment it evolved, the soldier would be 'full-fledged'. Since the skill took so many years, most of the time the conditioning was closed to maxed out at about 280 to 300 depending on how persistent with training each individual was. So the physical stat buff of 300 x 0.025% of 7.5% will one day turn to a 300 x 0.05% of 15% buff. These full-fledged soldiers might be at the same level but they would have a very obvious advantage over others.
During times of war, the average time it took for these skills to get to tier 3 was around 15 to 20 years. Whether the war lasted so long was another matter altogether. There was a bigger chance that some soldiers had mutated skills that they could offer back to the army for different sorts of rewards but they weren't so interested in this.
"I can compress the blood in my body now." She decided to bring up her new discovery.
"That's great. How about conjuring blood mana?" He brought up the problem she had constantly complained about.
"A single drop with all my mental effort."
It was where she put most of her magic training efforts recently. She finally conjured a drop but it required her to stand still and focus extremely hard. The first drop was the first step. She wasn't planning on making armour of blood but something more internal like Ebony's Stock Mana Compressive Chassis rather than external. After all, she wasn't planning on taking hits if she could dodge. The area of effect spells was more concerning since she hasn't gotten her magic body. Her current elemental resistances don't really count for much.
If anyone had a mind-bending elemental resistance, it was that extremely displeasing halberd wielder. She had fire magic supposedly 5 times hotter but the man could touch her heated blades with his bare hands and let her spells burn on his body without feeling a thing. It brought her tier 4 Extreme Heat Resistance to shame. She believed the man had heat resistance as a Class or Sub-Class skill and fortification against heat. Perhaps his body enhancement gave heat resistance as well.
Ning Xin ate the rest of dinner in silence.
'He can defeat me now but he doesn't…does he not want me? No no.' She shook her head aggressively at the depressing thought.
She could catch Ebony off guard but that was it. In his domain, she wasn't able to melt the effects off, the increased gravity was working on her and her equipment wasn't deflecting everything off anymore. Without a magic body, she wasn't gaining Gravity resistance either. The vibrations couldn't catch up with her so it didn't matter that much. Every one of his attacks and elemental spells was enhanced to an unreasonable degree in there. Her tier 3 enhancement together with Blood Boil and Pulsing Gale Enhancement could only bring her speed and strength above his compressed augmentation. The degree of his mana compression was so high that he recently formed liquid mana to scare her. She did not want to be near liquid mana.
Her far superior physical stats did mean that she could still injure him but she couldn't reach him in his domain. Thanks to her sword style, she could still increase her speed and power over time even though her Core Skill doesn't supply her with an unending increase anymore. Regulated breath and the general increase in stats also increased her sustainability by a large margin. Even so, she had better chances of ending a battle as fast as possible compared to going into a battle of attrition with him.
Cascade Dual Longsword Style - Mastery of cascading dual longsword style. Strike after strike, Strength and Agility increases by a static 0.025%. Strength decreases by 10%, Attack speed increases by 25% while dual-wielding longswords. Fluidity, balance, stability and deftness increases by 2.5% per level.
With this, she just had to link a thousand strikes to increase her power and speed by 25% of her enhanced state. A thousand strikes were nothing, she could dish that out in less than 5 seconds depending on the situation. Sadly, his gravity magic was so strong within his domain that her swordplay was rendered moot and she wouldn't be able to get more than two to three hundred strikes before he caught her blades or shifted their path.
The only real advantage she currently had was that if he didn't have a domain cast, she could activate her spells and enhancement so fast that his Will can't even react and his domain would come much too late. Needless to say, he was far weaker without his domain but that wasn't a problem when he can maintain it as much as he wanted. The range he could maintain was slowly increasing and she could feel that she wasn't draining his mana as much as she used to. So the recent 'draws' were not because she depleted all of his mana like they used to. She argued that it was because she had been eating far less and stopped thinking about whether he was holding back from defeating her because she wasn't at full power.
"Why aren't you defeating me…wait forget I asked!" Her mind moved fast enough but her vocal cords didn't. She clearly decided to stop thinking about it but her lips turned loose.
"Hmm? You haven't even got your second Core Skill. I have to beat you at your strongest state. Our skills are still low tier since we haven't even been Master ranked for a year."
"Oh…"
That was unexpected. She completely forgot about the fact that she hasn't chosen and assimilated a Core Skill. She encouraged herself to decide soon. Other than tiers or levels, their skills had to be refined further as well. Their evolved body or existence allowed for easier improvements to weaker skills. Only slightly more than half a year has passed since they evolved. If they continued dungeon diving perhaps they would've reached level 300 already but their skills would probably be around 240 to 270. The current opportunity with hard-to-kill opponents changed the situation where some of their skills already hit 350 while they were around 280.
"What happened to your sound magic?" The buffs he gave never really got that much stronger.
"Battle Song isn't levelling up much."
"Still? I wonder if that Muse woman has woken up. Hmph! I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind when she does."
"Well, it isn't without benefits. My disturbed mental state is doing wonders for Everlasting Tranquillity."
"That's true…but still." She has gotten very familiar with his mana so she wouldn't be affected even if she faced the full brunt of it but his regeneration reached insane heights.
It was only thanks to his constant usage of spare mana and the training in reducing his presence that others weren't affected. In the mobile house, the leaking mana would get absorbed so it doesn't affect her even if he fell asleep and lost control.
They washed the dishes together even though he could have his ice clone do it.
She burped with satisfaction without any shame. Then she lay on the couch and took another nap with the memory light screen turned on.
❅❅❅
Ebony started up the vehicle by manual control, he could test how fast he could control it now. He drove out of the barracks and onto the street, taking care not to crash into anyone. He drove leisurely so that he didn't cause any destruction. Once he reached the gate he was allowed to leave smoothly. Taking his own sweet time gave Kenley the time to pass orders down. Those patrols outside should know that he was going to pass by as well so he didn't expect any mishaps in the journey.
"Sir Rimestone! You can use this road, it's our supply route to Fifth Tide. Please be careful not to ram into the supplies we've sent." The soldier saluted and pointed to the road Ebony had never seen. It was probably freshly paved.
"Why do you call me Rimestone?" He always introduced himself by his name but for some odd reason, the soldiers called him Rimestone.
"Isn't that your name? That's what has been mentioned amongst the soldiers from this city?"
'Oh I came here after that tournament and they investigated the metal sister Jing wanted and probably that silly name. Is that why they call me that?'
"I see. Keep up the good work."
"Yes sir!"
"Er, you don't have to add 'sir' you know?"
He saluted instead of answering and for some reason, Ebony gave the soldier pat on his shoulder. It appeared that supplies were given as support although manpower couldn't be.
Ebony created a Guided Path large enough for his Trailer to fit into and drove into it. The vehicle shot forward and out of the reach of the spell. He extended it as fast as he could but the repulsion sent it faster than he could create a stable path. If he could conjure gravity mana, the spell would consider him as the centre and there would be no 'out of range' as he would be propelled along with the spell. Since he was only manipulating atmospheric gravity mana, it didn't work that way. Gravity was slightly different in that he couldn't bring along the mana like he could with atmospheric ice mana.
He revved the wheel when the trailer hit the ground and it didn't lose too much speed, even accelerating slightly. His increased Intelligence was helping. Then he cast his domain but only with the effects of ice and gravity. The ice control helped with the wheel rotation speed but not by as much as he hoped. He could cast Guided Path even on the move though, swapping out the gravity mana that gets out of his domain with fresh ones ahead of him.
The trailer's speed wasn't that bad, it was about half of his top speed if he ran. 'We should practise flight speed.'
They weren't a race born with wings, flight wasn't a natural skill and was far harder to accomplish and train compared to running better or faster.
He didn't sense or see Teacher Ka in the jungle but that kappa wouldn't stay in one spot for long.
They didn't pave a road all the way through the jungle but it wasn't a problem. He could lift the trailer off the ground anyway. There weren't any monsters in the air due to the border cities' defence being high on alert so it made things simple. He heard from within the vehicle when he was above the jungle.
"I'll get changed. Then we can hurry, I think a siege is happening now." She took her clothes and body suit out and dried them with a wave of her hands. Then she closed the door and his senses were cut off. These doors had maxed-out privacy settings that neither of them could sense through.
"Mmm."
'Is that Intuition or foresight?' Once again, her predictions were crazy assumptions that would probably turn out to be true. Her sixth sense was so sharp that distance wasn't really affecting it. They were so far that even if there were subtle vibrations from a fight he would still have to get at least within dozens or perhaps a hundred kilometres to notice. With the heavy spells and physical powers of the Trolls perhaps the shockwaves would go further but feeling tiny vibrations in the ground didn't mean there was a battle going on. The beast's instincts were far more credible.