Ebony's Fable

Ebony broke out of the lull only 5 days later when his wife was exhausted. 'The amount of energy in her blood has increased a lot even though she hasn't fully stocked up.'

He had to fatten her up before any danger came along.

The session was good even for his Priming. She read him the best compared to the other Xengs. While not showing him any faults in his movements she showed him more efficient paths.

Xin was better suited for close to mid-range compared to ultra close range which he was more confident with. By that, he meant within the range of his elbows. Mid-range would be able the reach of an average spear. The greater the effective stat the wider the definition for range would be stretched.

With the physical prowess she had, a knife hand thrust would have effective force even without physical contact.

To Vent, anywhere on the planet may be close range and the moon may be mid-range. Ebony didn't know for sure.

'Her musculature is more suited for Shi Clan skill than mine. I'll teach her that next time.' Understandably, the Shi Clan was pretty much all women with extremely high physical baseline. His wife being more suited to it, fell in line with the development of their Clan Skill over the generations. Not to mention, he also changed his musculature even further from a normal human male.

After he tossed his wife into molten slag advertised to have beautification properties, he went back to the training field. Rather, his main body stepped in.

Raising his forearm, the muscles under his tough skin rippled and his skin vibrated. He slowly pushed his fingertip into a thick metal plate.

'Still can't phase through solid objects.'

'Should I Brand myself before Gearhart's men come or not…' He developed Stalwart Brand for some time already but this was going to be semi-permanent on his very Chassis. To make it, he would have to use Will, with Dusk's help for his own stock would not be sufficient for the entire surgery. That would make his mana chassis unable to heal the runic engravings away.

By design, it should not weaken his mana chassis despite the deep carving throughout his entirety. It would draw on his stamina and mana by default, increasing his resting energy consumption further.

He'd tried carving a few factory cells. It would require a large burst of 'Will-removing-Will' to erase his first setting of Will, then it would require almost a week to heal back to normal. This was due to the leftover curse.

His little knowledge about them was that the longer he kept using this Curse Brand, the longer and harder it would be for his mana chassis to heal. At the very least, before his next evolution, he would remove the Brand and heal back to normal condition. Holding a less-than-optimal carving within him before evolving would be unwise. If he took too long, would he take years to heal?

During which, if this were replicated across his body it would basically destroy his mana generation for that period. His Unique Skill cannot run, the damage done to the factories would be too deep to run any processes and his natural regeneration and capacity would be compromised greatly.

'I'm not going to make drastic improvements to my design any time soon.' While he could still improve the design's efficiency, potency by 0. whatever percent it might not be worth the risk waiting. He estimated that with Dusk's help the procedure of carving it onto his Mana Chassis would take 9 days, 10 if he was being extra careful.

As if a rock hit his head, he forgot that he didn't have to think so hard about decisions such as this. He could just ask his wife to make a divination on whether the next 10 days were safe to hide inside Spine to conduct self-surgery and if it was worth the future healing period.

After Xin's lava bath, she was doing her outdoor preparation work. She used up their entire front yard with enough tables that there was only space for one to walk. She marinated, seasoned, tenderised all sorts of monsters Ebony had procured.

Ebony could almost hear her salivate and gulp every so often from within the training field. She spent more time staring holes into herbs and spices due to the variety. Eventually, she picked her coin up and started using divination to make new recipes.

There was something about her writing on her notebook that made him look over more. Maybe it was the infrequent sight of her with a pen and book. Or it was the charm concept in effect….probably not.

'Lost connection with Seven.' Ebony should tell Xin that her student should be safe right before the connection cut off.

'Should I just claim a piece of land and make Dusk permanent somewhere?' At this rate of Elcra's expansion, it wasn't like everywhere was Empire lands.

Elcra was also going to be a Legendary Worldcore. Not to mention….Hoarfrost Glades was his evolutionary spot. There was no reason not to claim some land for himself, a more permanent claim.

"Xin, where do you want to live? Hoarfrost Glades, near Xienor or somewhere else?" Honestly, the distinction may not matter any more with how the planet has changed so drastically.

Outside Dusk's reach, the gravity of the planet was already causing animals, birds and even trees some problems.

The scale of expansion has already gone beyond expectations. Some of the Xengs thought that Elcra would take on a dense approach, a small landmass, high-energy planet. So to have expanded so much that Tidal had been cut from his network showed that Elcra's evolution did not follow their expectations.

This week, the world turned quiet as monsters either died or hibernated. The deeper the connection between a monster and the Worldcore, the higher the likelihood of them being affected by this change.

The situation made it clear that Elcrian designated monsters of 'Aberrant' or 'Noble' monsters who ate people and tried not to rely on ambient essence was the ones that continued to roam the surface as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Dusk even recorded the sighting of Obsius, the 'Aberrant' that learnt to talk. It was moving with a couple of its kin.

Ebony guessed that the monster somehow learnt to purify essence and even taught its kin that method to some success. In the near future, Obsius would be a creature akin to Apa. Monsters that 'civilised' themselves and became a proper race.

In many scholars' academic work on the births of new races, these monsters who led their kin onto this path were Progenitors of a race. And, they were often much stronger than the rest of their kin. The most well-received hypothesis was that the act of creating a race gives these Progenitors more Potential.

It was also less a hypothesis and more a fact because Emperor-ranked Progenitors had been identified with high Tier Identify to have 'Progenitor' in their title. If these races learn human speech, Gia, then it makes it even easier and believable that being a Progenitor was similar to a person creating a Unique Skill. Ebony saw it as the Ubiquitous Providence recognising that the individual was the creator of a new race.

Obsius seem to have an affinity with the Darkness element and was hidden from his network's senses most of the time. The Darkness element was crucial and something that Ebony and all Domain Mages have to be wary of.

Unlike most elements, darkness can shield from mana perception. The most common Fortifications beloved by Darkness magic users are mental shielding as well. This allows their darkness spells to rip away traditional senses, mana perception, and even mental perception. Meaning, even mind mages cannot sense the mental waves of another creature.

The most common tactic to breach Domains was to use Darkness element items or people. This requires quite an advanced user of the darkness element or item.

Not all Domains have perception-focused Will. If they do, like Ebony's, then the Darkness item or user needed to have Will-infused Darkness for perception removal.

A bomb of darkness mana was the simplest technology that had been the bane of Domain Mages throughout history.

It might sound obvious, if a Domain Mage suddenly felt a blank in their perception and mental senses, it was clear where the attack was coming from. But this wasn't even a problem. If the purpose was full stealth, the attackers usually brought enough bombs or mana to completely bring darkness to a Mage's entire Domain. Effectively blinding anyone but themselves.

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Hence, pretty much every Domain Mage tried to stock up on Light elemental protection to prevent themselves from being susceptible to such tactics.

The lack of Light elemental materials and items was pretty much due to stronger Domain mages who clean the market of any such items. These items were basically only traded privately for thousands and thousands of years.

Light Mages would never be out of a cushy job.

Higher Beings would hire them any day. For Higher Beings, they did not need a high level of trust to allow these Light Mages to act their mana within their Domains since they could squash the Light Mage rather easily. If they had a team of Light Mages, one or two were disposable.

Not that a Light Mage would even think of sabotage, but it was within the realm of possibilities. It was said that a Light Mage's Domain can overlap other Domains, as Light – the element allows piercing through and coexisting between Wills. One of the uncommon instances that 2 Domains can take effect at the same time, at the same place.

Due to the nature of the big-shots consuming the entirety of the rare materials, Ebony had to either socialise and find a trading partner, find his own source of Light elemental materials and items or depend on Sophia to get a steady supply from the correct merchants or individual traders.

As for hiring Light Mages, that wasn't going to happen. His Domain was far from absolute right now. He was no Saint and could not guarantee his own safety from a good Light Mage, which was one of the most common and effective magic-piercing elements. He also simply preferred having privacy.

Anyway, fire can push Darkness element back, too. Not nearly as effective or efficient but it was enough.

With Perception being one of his Will's specialities, unless it was a specialised Dark magic user, it was going to be hard to hide from him with just dark elemental mana. It would take Will, a very strong Mandate, aether-based soccery he wasn't familiar with or an Aspect. There were obviously more methods, but darkness mana remained the simplest and most straightforward method within the Hex Region. This was still a Region that was mostly mana-based in development and advancement.

Regarding the matter of weapons, it wasn't like there weren't weapons for sale, and it wasn't like there were none that could compete with Kong Jing's weapons but they didn't really need it.

Xin had more than just her twin swords. They had plenty from their wedding gifts, but she just didn't want to use them as they didn't feel right in her hands.

He also had options for a heavier greatsword.

Ebony no longer cared about whether it was a greatsword or not. He wanted something heavy, something flexible. Something that helps him punch through defences that his fists and feet couldn't while also being capable of using with his Art. There were not many swords among the wedding gifts for him since most knew him either as a Shi or a Mage.

When his sword art merged with his martial art, he felt like he'd proved his point and that talent wasn't everything. He could reach the same heights with a weapon he wasn't talented with.

Amongst the Shi, a couple used swords, but only one person was known to be a Swordsman, and that was Shi Jian, Shi Tao's eldest daughter. Sword was literally in her name by translation. As the sword of the Shi Clan, she was one of the strongest people amongst the Xeng and was praised to be stronger than most, if not all of the second generation.

Shi Jian was the one who helped with gathering one of the materials for Dusk's current body. The Core of a Demi-God Golem-type creature.

Ebony still has not met the person, but he won't forget that he owes them for Dusk's current core. It would still be long in the future before he could pay them back.

He was more than up to reforging Icicle, maybe even using a Gravity cube as the material once it was delivered. Yet, he had no confidence due to the presence of a budding Spirit. He'll probably kill the spirit if he reforges it without Kong Jing.

Ebony begun to suspect that Icicle never grew as fast as Xin's twins because he kept breaking it, letting it repair only to break or burn it down again. His current mana was also too potent, too voluminous for the sword to grow in response. It would more likely get damaged from radiation than grow to resist or give off the same radiative effect.

Dusk had been keeping a wire in the sky to measure the rate of expansion of the atmosphere. More importantly, to help guide Five back since the planet was changing so fast.

How many people knew that he had satellite Scout Pigeons from land to space?

It was temporary since he was expending a lot of Will to hide them with a weakened Sequester. It was better not to attract spatial attention.

Five would've landed in the middle of the sea but Dusk had been there to catch their signature.

No spaceship.

Just a blob of red ice, with a storage bracelet inside.

It had such little Will left. The journey must have been a close shave.

This bracelet couldn't contain the dastardly gravity mana that the blob was giving off. That either helped ward off creatures or attracted unwanted attention. Five's current state pointed towards the second option.

Ebony had no idea how much gravity mana a planet has, since it was dependent on mass and every Worldcore was vastly different. The volume Five was holding was leagues above what volume he could gather even through his Will Relay Buffer.

He roughly guessed there were more than 20 gravity cubes inside.

With his current mental capacity, he could manipulate far more gravity mana and would not be a problem for him to utilise all of them at the same time. Their size and shape made it a problem since he wouldn't be able to use them properly while their inside a spatial storage, but it was a moot issue.

Dusk had a lot of Will right now, but still had lesser free mental processing ability than him. Ebony did throw the task of handling Buffers, Scout Pigeons, a few Turtle Forts and Numbers all to Dusk after all.

Kong Jing couldn't be contacted for the past year, ever since she appeared injured and then left again. Ebony hadn't seen her but his wife had. She recently divined that Kong Jing was in some trouble but they could not help since they had no idea where she was or what she was dealing with.

'Wizards that can trouble her…but there are no known Wizard societies in the entire Sector. A small Wizard group of nomads?' Mark's foundational runic knowledge came from Wizards, so it wasn't like they didn't exist throughout the Sector, but none were big and well-known enough. There were no Worldcores within the Sector that Wizards were known to make home.

Then again, this was Kong Jing they were talking about. She may not be within the Sector as she could cross space much more easily than any of them could.

They've left messages that she could ask for help anytime. As long as she can access Eidolon. At least Xin's coin flip had said that Kong Jing wasn't trapped and was roaming freely, so that was one relief. He'd promise to protect her back after her past protection. It would be against his equivalent exchange if the excuse was that he didn't know where or what trouble she was in.

Ebony looked at the distant moon. It's been over a week since he tossed his wife into a lava bath. Time passed quietly whenever he trained.

He prepared to leave their training field to receive Five only to see his wife frantically waving. He couldn't hear her with the training field's restriction still up but he could read lips, "Don't come out!"

Except he had already stepped out, it was rare for his wife to react so slowly. She must have been really focused on her cooking.

'Ting' 'You've been afflicted with Blood Witch's Acumen. Astral reading intuition increased by 4000%. Perception increased by 2000%. Intention Perception increased by 1000%. Danger awareness increased by 8000%. Life force consumption – 205,000 HP per minute.'

"Trying to murder your husband in your own home?" Ebony chuckled.

"I was trying to set up a new ritual but I don't know how to set it to friendly! Oh, no. Oh no. I haven't figured out how to dispel this."

"This relies on Numen?" The so-called faith energy that his wife had, he couldn't feel a lick of it in the past but now that he was subject to this 'enhancement', he felt the wave of warmth throughout his body, but mostly his mind and eyes.

Ebony tried to flush mana out. He tried to flush life force out.

The warm energy doesn't move out and his health continued to trickle away.

Putting aside how dastardly the effect of increased perception and what appeared to be future sight based on astral energy, the mental load on him had burst exponentially. His already high definition scan of every leaf within his home seem to give him a scan of their molecules for no reason at all. His wife's aura was more vibrant than ever but there was no feeling of danger or threat from her.

Intention Perception seemed to be the ability to gauge a person's emotions or their…intention, as advertised. It just made him feel her panic and worry since she didn't have strict control over this ritual that she was building around their home.

"This is quite perfect. We match amazingly." With this Acumen, anyone who steps into their home would very easily fall to his Aura Layering. Deterrence capabilities would be through the roof as hostiles would scare themselves more than he could scare them.

"Now's not the time to flirt!"

Ebony was carried into Spine and sealed up, trapping the life force within his body with maximum output of Coreflame of Preservation with Ice-Lightning Respite.

He was still bleeding out a little less than 2000 HP per minute, but this bought them a lot more time.

Will was the omnipotent answer he was relying on more and more. This time was no different.

Five just landed, returning Ebony's blood mana chassis, and his complexion turned slightly rosier from the influx of mana chassis. The blood itself could be dried up he didn't need a transfusion. It was the mana chassis returning that helped. The blood could be regenerated and filled up with his life force. Except he was not regenerating now, he was weakening.

"Impressive." He touched his wife's cheeks but she was too busy figuring out how to remove her ritual's effect to hear him.

'I'm more impressed Molstein survived with this, even if it was a weakened version before her evolution. He must have been able to remove it properly.'

Ebony did not hurry to gather Will targeted to remove this curse or enhancement.

He read through Five's memories first.