"Good, don't let go of your weapon." The strings of ice wrapped around Icicle without getting sliced and Ebony swung his arm.
Clovis held onto his hoe firmly and was swung around in the air but he didn't panic. It seed like he underwent good training compared to the ti both of them were going through the ritual.
Halvis or Roya might be better teachers than he imagined. Not unexpectedly, compared to the passive villagers who knew peace. The two of them had left the village and travelled the continent. They must have so level of strength to protect themselves.
Ebony didn't use his repulsion mbrane since that would make it too difficult for Clovis who didn't have a Sub-Class. Surprisingly, during his airti, Clovis managed to react with a counter and shot shards of ice at him one after the other. Forming a shard didn't even take him a tenth of a second and he could do it repeatedly. Human mages would be jealous of that skill. Most couldn't even conjure elents or multicast at such a speed only at level 98. Actually, even Ebony took half a second or so to conjure an ice shard of the sa size in the past.
With a slight adjustnt to Icicle, he blocked each and every shard. That gave Clovis the chance to land and it also blocked Ebony's own sight by using the greatswords' body to block. 'What an impressive improvent in batte sense, he didn't forget his physical stats either.'
Ebony limited himself to 50 for all his stats and it should be lower than a level 98 Scholar. Icicle rested on the ground and he swept at the ice strings to pull with his bare hands but Clovis decided to snap off the connection.
"Now!" Halvis shouted from the side.
Clovis ploughed at the ground and a layer of snow spiked up towards his outstretched arm. Ebony kicked the snowy ground and easily disrupted the wave of sharp snow. Clovis got caught off guard as the snow he sent blocked his own sight and Ebony kicked towards his direction causing him to close his eyes and guard his face with his arms.
A fist smashed into his belly causing him to scream out in pain. He was on all fours with stomach acid rising in his throat. "CLO! It's not over!" Halvis warned but he didn't stop Ebony.
Clovis barely dropped and rolled away in ti to dodge his kick that was aid at the head. "Your pain won't affect your opponents."
Ebony's kick wouldn't stop there, it snapped outwards but Clovis got his bearings back quick enough to deal with a kick of 50 Strength and Agility. He brought his hoe up in ti and allowed Ebony to see his woven tricks. Flexible, woven ice blocked his leg but it didn't stop it from reaching the wooden handle of Clovis's tool.
The young Frost Elf used the impact to get back on his feet but his eyes widened when a black flash ca from above him.
His hair blew back as the giant blade stopped right above his head, he couldn't react as his shaking arms weren't able to move like he intended.
"You improved a lot, training must have been hard the past months."
"Once more!"
Ebony welcod the desire to get stronger. Halvis smiled from the side. They had been worried at Clovis's lack of desire for a combat class. It would not be good if he were completely defenceless should he travel to study outside the village.
They were only interrupted when it was ti for dinner.
None of the won were happy with how dirty Clovis was and he was sent to the shower. He was pretty roughed up despite the low strength and speed Ebony limited himself to.
Ebony was quite the expert when it ca to giving wounds that weren't visible. He didn't consider a couple of bruises to be a wound anyway. In any case, he was a bit surprised that Clovis's Strength was around 90 to 100 and Agility about 120 to 130. At level 98, he would have 980 stat points to distribute since he hasn't gotten a Sub-Class or Profession. For a Scholar, he already split more of his stats from Intelligence and Wisdom than he should.
Clovis chatted about his day at the playground which was actually advised by the village elders. They could gather all the children and watch them together. He still lost a spar against those slightly older than him despite his advantage in level. Tiha and Qane, whom Ebony played with in the past, were only about level 40. They took a few years to get to level 30 through playing and training within the village and had only just gotten to one of the weakest dungeons around before they got called back and were grounded in the village.
Apparently, their skills were all tier 2 and had at least a 200% base for active combat stat incrent and at about level 80 to 100. Hunting was probably a breeze for them but their experience gain was low because there was always an elder following them. Pampered.
Even without all that skill refinent, these couple of children who had combat classes and Fortifications can easily handle Clovis who wasn't all that experienced in combat.
Also, learning from Kong Jing that he could actually choose Fortifications to strengthen in future made him understand why Clovis didn't know about 250% Fortifications. These long-lived races probably didn't care enough for the first few evolutions because it would be 'cheaper' to upgrade more unique Fortifications in future. All the years of skill training were also to get more currency to spend when they were finally able to control their evolutionary path.
Kiva was able to eat solid foods by herself and didn't require feeding anymore. She sat on a tall baby chair and was using Clovis old baby utensils. When her tiny cup of blue juice was emptied she eyed the red juice in Ning Xin's cup.
The masked lady hurriedly snatched the cup of Jetfin's blood away. There was no remaining essence in the blood except lifeforce but that seed too strong for a baby. Kiva cried. It was rare to hear her cry and complain. Tomato juice was given to trick her and she only took a sip before cutely washing her tongue off with soup. Nobody at the table liked tomato juice so Ebony was blessed with the rest.
"Let's hear so requests," Roya questioned.
The tailor hit it off with the Xeng craftswoman surprisingly well. Despite being a Master mana tailor, Kong Jing actually gave her the ti of her day. That said a lot. Ebony didn't feel that anything was out of place like Ning Xin did. No matter what, the robe he was wearing was made by Roya and not sothing Kong Jing made. The Xeng made too many different types of items and equipnt but Roya was extrely specialised.
Roya's lineage would end with her if Clovis or Kiva didn't pick up her skills. Hence, she was very open to sharing her techniques and the two craftswon seed to have co to an agreent to share and trade techniques. Both of them had a common reliance on runecraft but the Xeng's knowledge base on this aspect was so vast that probably no one on the planet could catch up to her.
"Sa as before, durability, toughness, flexibility and as much mana capacity as possible." He didn't see the need to talk about the design or how tight fitting the robe had to be since the current one was already good enough that it didn't affect his movents. "Oh, the heavier it is, the better."
"As light as possible for , fire and heat resistant. Can it make faster?" She had a bodysuit that was cold-resistant and could weaken gravity magic on her already. Although a mantle would've added to her drag, it wasn't sothing a wind mage was concerned with.
The suggestion was that she wasn't going to get any robe. Just a few pairs of good pants and shirts. Her bodysuit was going to get an upgrade and a new mantle was going to be made for her.
"No surprises this ti. No dresses either." Ning Xin said angrily.
"What dress?" Ebony was reminded that she supposedly had better combat wear made for her that she didn't wear.
"Before you get angry at why I didn't wear sothing stronger, it's because it doesn't cover the vitals."
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"In my defence, grandaunt got to make that, it's our traditional dress's design, not mine. The material was obtained by grandaunt and it's honestly the best fabric there is amongst Rare quality materials. She told it was material from an infant Astral Filant Demon. Oh, that race grows up to Devil naturally and most of the materials from an adult would be Epic at least or more commonly Ancient ranked. I'm not sure how grandaunt got the material from one of their infants." Epic and Ancient ranked materials weren't sothing that Kong Jing could make the most out of, so she had been staying away from using those unless it was a small experint.
Ebony was already aware that demons were just people who willingly monsterise themselves by absorbing a ton of ambient essence to get a lot of stats in exchange for losing a Profession and differing degrees of humanoid features. Devils lose their Sub-Class as well. It had to be worth it if they did that willingly. A few generations of them and a race of them were established. Of course, he never heard of any of these races. Apparently, demons from different worlds could be vastly different and so say, the worldcore shaped the demons it made.
Roya's attention was stolen away and she demanded to see the unknown fabric.
The n cleaned up the dining table with a baby cheering in the background. Ebony got the chance to see the dress. 'That's a qipao, yeah…can't bla her for not wearing that.' He noted the large hole in the chest area, she would've gotten stabbed through with or without that cleavage. The one-side split at the legs made it extrely impractical and obviously wasn't made to run in.
"Are you okay? You're getting warm." Clovis cocked his head.
"Odd…I'm fine, let's go for a walk."
"We can't, there's a curfew going on."The boy who was supposedly older below his chest level rubbed his bruises.
"I see. By the way, who was that man? The protector." Ebony could still feel the floor shaking. It was one scary bow and the archer, even more so.
"I heard he was Arcta's previous village chief but that's about all my parents know as well."
"I see."
"Have you changed your mmms to I sees?"
"...You ate a lot, we should work off dinner."
"Please go easy on ?"
"Why are you asking a question, I can bring a boar here. You can ask if it would go easy on you."
Not to disrespect the scholar's determination but Ebony had his eyes in the sky as he decreased his speed and strength further. The unknown Frost Elf was still shooting arrows into space.
The airspace of Elva wasn't too dangerous in most cases. They were strong flying creatures but it wasn't overpopulating the skies and he hadn't travelled by air long enough to know the occurrence rate. If the skies had creatures like this archer, people might want to make the underground their ho.
'I wanted to stay here till Koawe and the others co back but I think we should hole up sooner. So many crouching tiger hidden dragons just within our midst. How unsafe. Hahaha, so I've just been feeling insecure all this ti.' Ebony laughed at himself internally.
"Very fine threads of ice, almost invisible to the naked eye too. This should work against monsters and people who can't sense ice mana and aren't temperature sensitive." Hundreds of silky threads of ice wrapped and flowed around his arms. Those around his feet were destroyed since he moved a lot. 'This must be Roya's technique, he's not tugging at it and it's not linked to him. Just sticking onto , ah, so it's supposed to accumulate slowly so that the opponent only finds out when it's too late. Threads huh, reminds of the wire knife thrower Dina and the others. Chris seems to be doing fine, except the limbs.'
Ebony was reminded of the Z&Z escort party from years back, he didn't even know if they were still alive. Other than Top the lizardman who was killed in, perhaps, by Ordina. Now, he was friends with said dungeon.
"Nice set-up." He praised Clovis who set up webs from the walls of their house to the ground, all around them. As expected from people who had naturally high affinity to ice mana, the mana was practically moving themselves for Clovis. If sothing or soone got caught by a few hundred of these thin threads, they might have a hard ti breaking free if they didn't have at least 50 points in strength and the number of threads continues to increase over ti. It was a mana-friendly skill that wasn't too potent in terms of strength until enough ti had passed.
The threads pulled on him as he punched Clovis's belly, weakening the power behind his attack slightly.
"Clo Clo! Don't lose to bada! Gooo!" Kiva spawned at the side within Halvis's embrace. It was not her first ti watching her brother training. Her eyes were moistened, perhaps she was not used to seeing her brother actually getting hurt. Halvis wasn't exactly harsh during sparring.
Sadly for Clovis, Ebony didn't act as if he got defeated for the brother to show off. He would have to earn that himself. He let the Frost Elf rest soon enough.
"What's that drink?" He was bothered by the sll of the drink that Kiva was walking with. She hugged the cup with her short and tiny arms and took each step with great care.
"It's an herbal concoction that speeds up muscle repair and eases muscle aches made by the Lasil family," Halvis answered him.
The Lasil family ate for free in the village but they also provided these convenient supplies for free or for barter. Trading with mana ores was only convenient thanks to the Empire, they used to trade solely by barter in the past. The kids' bedti arrived quickly but the shaking of the village didn't pause.
'Let's try that again.' He sat down on the snowy ground and tried to simulate the ntal battles again. Hours passed to no avail. No amount of ditation or focus let him repeat how realistic the first ti was.
He attempted sothing else and created a Glacial Model of his mother. He recalled all the sparring sessions he had and placed all the abilities she had shown him as Will into the Model. Reentering the house to get a bath towel and soak it in water. He passed the towel to the Model which snapped her wrist and twisted the towel up, the cool air quickly hardened the towel and froze the water a little.
Ebony released his control over the Model and let the injected Will act. "What a fragile body." The model clenched her fist and spoke in his mother's voice. A phrase she hamred into his head many tis. The icy stare turned towards him and he leapt forward with a front kick.
'Not the floor again…' The crispy towel was wrapped around his ankle before he knew it and he was flung forward with his own montum. With inhuman reflexes, he bent his body inwards and had his other feet unravel the rope-like towel around his ankle before flipping and landing on his feet. Only to realise he was stepping on an open towel and the Model lightly tugged on it, causing him to fall onto his back.
The Model twisted the towel back into a cloth spear and rotated it around her hands as a habit. He launched an attack with actual speed and power that his body could pull off without enhancent. The Model shouldn't have the physical stats to counter him even though his Intelligence was higher and the Glacial Model skill had a decent level. The Model didn't have his Stock Mana Compressive Chassis buffing them, only highly compressed mana itself.
The Model reacted with a sweep of the cloth spear and a twist of her wrist but it exploded and his fist stopped short. Ebony took over manual control again and noticed the knots within the Model. The wrists were busted and so were the forearms, back and even the legs weren't in good condition. The exploded hand was the most concerning but the sa would probably have happened to the entire Model if it continued to copy the moveset.
A stiff ice sculpture couldn't move the way his mother did. There was a similar problem with his Phantom's Flicker but the Glacial Model skill was a better copy of himself and he didn't know the internals of soone else.
He continued with the attempts through the night. The ladies were actually up the entire night as well. Only Halvis and his children slept peacefully. The Frost Elves' houses were not made of normal wood either, perhaps due to all of them having a good sense for mana, the walls were very good at keeping things private. Back in Plainston, he could sense and hear conversation through little gaps in the walls or open windows. There was no magic protection for most buildings.
Other than optimising the Model for his mother, he also did the sa for Xin and even a copy of Hector. As for a Model of his father, he left that out. He didn't know how his father fought if at all. He had another sparring session with Clovis before breakfast. The swordswoman went to sleep right after since she didn't have any sleep last night and would've felt uncomfortable not being able to do any real training within the confines of the village.
Ebony had Kiva on his shoulders as he brought her to the Lasil's for a visit. He was going to buy whatever dical concoction they had. Kiva was going to et her only playmate, Willow the Guardian Beast's baby bear.
It was convenient for Halvis since the father wanted to talk business with Mrs Calhy and her husband about expanding farmland and letting him use so of it. It was troubleso since they needed to expand their illusion but it was a project at work for years and was interrupted thanks to the war with the Trolls. Halvis was growing Rare grade materials and the requirents for soil and environnt were not easy to fulfil.
For so reason, Willow always clung to him and he allowed the furball of softness. Just like that, he spent half a day chatting with the Lasils while looking after two babies. They had so good dicines but not many aid to treat heavy physical injuries.
Thankfully, treating illnesses and poisons was exactly what he was looking for. They ntioned so ingredients that he should look out for in future. Their best antidote against unknown infection of any sort was called Life Stasis which was capable of halting all body and ntal functions. Not killing one, but putting one's life on pause. It should also shut off any poison, plague and most magics from working.
They didn't have any in-store since it required a ti elental ingredient that couldn't really be found that easily. They had a weaker version substituted with ice elental ingredients but they weren't willing to trade it with him.
They would make it for him if he found the ingredients though, so he wrote down the ingredients that could only be found deeper in the Glades.
By nightfall, the tremors stopped.
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