“Ebony, walk with me.” The mother and daughter finished their game which took hours.

  ‘I should’ve asked what that game was and where do I get one.’ Ebony watched Shi Qiang scurry away with the board before her angry mother destroyed the board for losing the game.

  “Where to?”

  “Shi Wu’s house, she didn’t use it for long since Xiaoya wasn’t born for long at the time. Your father lived here for a short period before they were always on adventures. It’s yours now. Also, if the Nings are preparing their descendants for marriage then I have to prepare you too. I can’t have you lose face for the Shis. And…your mother left you a gift.” They exited the garden and walked to the back of the temple.

  “Auntie, I find that hard to believe.” His mother doesn't do ‘gifts’. Gestures of care were one thing.

  “Well…she never said it was a gift but. Let’s just say it’s her legacy for you. She never said anything like that to me but I know her. She prepared this for you long before she attempted to get pregnant. Fathom a guess?”

  “Training equipment.” He didn’t hesitate.

  “Damnit, you’re no fun. You’re making me see her face more in the past two days than in the past century.”

  “Don’t complain Auntie, you’re making me see her face for real. Multiplied by your children.”

  “Hahahaha. We aren’t that similar.”

  Ebony strongly disagreed. If his perception and observational skills weren't as high as it was, he would easily mistake them for identical twins. Her daughters were a bit easier to tell apart due to their father’s features mixed in.

  But charm and appearance were also a baseline trait, and so were genetic appearances. Needless to say, having charm and good appearances was an advantage even in terms of the law of the jungle. Beautiful flowers and animals out in the wild were often the most lethal.

  “None of my children are allowed in here so it’s your private property from now on. Don’t worry about privacy, I don't have a habit of peeking at any of my children.”

  They had to walk quite a distance from the temple before they reached a valley. At the base of two mountains was a sizable terrace house.

  He didn’t let Shi Tao guide him and entered the door after knocking on it twice.

  The materials were different, the decor was different but the layout of the house was the same.

  His parents' room was cold and empty.

  The room in the location that was his was a guest room.

  “It’s clean.”

  “I come by every few decades. You know the place well.”

  “We had the same layout.”

  “That’s quite like them.”

  “This granite countertop is the exact same though.”

  “It’s her favourite.”

  There was no television, computer or other electronics. The stove was wood-fired. The lights were replaced with lamps, probably requiring glowing gemstones or magic. They might not even need light being able to see in the dark and all.

  It was a different home, and it wasn’t his.

  “Where’s this gift?” Ebony didn’t linger for long.

  “In the mountains. But before that, I really should’ve brought you here first.” Shi Tao led him to the backyard.

  Here Lies the Unerring Spear, Shi Wu.

  Ebony sat down on his buttocks on the moist grass and gave the rough stone a caress. He did not expect a tombstone or grave to be honest.

  A spear was standing behind the tombstone, with its butt stabbed into the ground. It had a sleek elongated spearhead with a dark purple glint, tapering to a razor-sharp point. Unadorned, like a short Xeng-style blade on a stick. The shaft is wrapped in a spiral of dark, woven fibres that pulse with a pure matt-black hue. It was slightly over 3 metres long.

  He might have sat in silence longer than expected but he was given that silence.

  “Is her body buried here, for real?” He just had to make sure.

  “It is. As unblemished as we could retrieve.”

  “I see. What about my father’s?”

  Ebony ignored the physical quake that spread from behind and under him. Other than his instincts telling him not to turn back as a life-preservation reaction, he just couldn’t be bothered.

  “I don’t know. Didn’t manage to snatch that back, I had priorities.”

  “I see.”

  “I’m sorry, we weren’t strong enough then. And we haven’t found them now.”

  “You have no reason to be sorry. They just weren’t strong enough either.” Ebony gave the plain tombstone another wipe before he stood up. "What about her mask?"

  "...destroyed. The ones we made weren't that sturdy in the past. They might be remnant pieces but mostly reduce to nothing. Your father might have those pieces but...I doubt it's still around."

  He gestured for Shi Tao to carry on with their agenda.

  “We made the mountains to contain this. Custom ordered from the Space Dwarves I told you about, our crafters just couldn’t make anything that could withstand or push Shi Wu’s training.” Without mana and elemental perception, he was pretty much blind in terms of advanced scouting capabilities.

  Ebony was curious, all he knew about his mother’s fighting ability was that she used a spear and was very likely a gravity magic user. Shi Tao told him about some of their battles but never how they achieved their victories specifically.

  “Is mother’s conditioning called Monolithic something? I know tier 5 is Neutronic Frame, Tier 4 Constricted Titan.” When it comes to training, conditioning was the one that popped up in his mind first. From his experience with Ning Xin, the Xengs focused on conditioning quite a bit.

  “You know that?”

  “I saw her notebook on accident, only remembered after I gained some levels, stats and my meditation skill improved.”

  “Monolithic Chassis. That requires a different set of training equipment or just a good mage, I’m bringing you to something unrelated to conditioning skill. You can find a copy of that book in their study. I've never read it and you shouldn’t depend on it either since we all have our body type.”

  The scenic walk was nice and all and the soil here was extremely dense to support his compressed mass so he wasn’t leaving any footprints till they reached an area with gravel-only path. Entering a cave that wasn’t 5 metres deep before it fully widened.

  The mountain was hollowed out and might be more accurate to say earth was used to cover the massive structure underneath it. A metallic sphere with studs like that of a soccer shoe all over it. The metallic structure was a few kilometres in diameter and their cave entrance led them to the middle of the sphere, half of it was sitting deeper than their entrance.

  “Ah how could I forget there’s no way you know what your mother can do because she can’t use her power on Earth.”

  “This is her training room, very different from the open space I showed you our clan skill in. Instead of a training room, this is a recording room. How do I explain this…your mother can pierce anywhere, any time with her spear.”

  “Sounds about right.”

  “I mean her gravity magic allows her attacks to be sent to the past or delayed into the future.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Ebony let the words sink in but he blanked out for a moment, “could you elaborate.”

  “You remember when I said she was feared by every one of her opponents, didn't you. Let’s say she’s standing where I am and you are her target. In this space, she thrusts her spear but you dodged to the right. There are two possibilities, during your battle, you stood where she pierced. If that was the case, you will have a hole open up in your body despite ‘dodging’ her strike, because the attack was sent a few seconds, minutes, hours into the past. The second possibility is that she sent it into the future, meaning her enemies or target might get hit in future if they walk back to that spot. Unless the target has a gravity perception as impressive as hers or time affinity and perception, they won’t know how far into the past or future she sent the attack.”

  “I see. And this recording device recorded her training sessions. So inside, her attacks are being repeated till this day.” A couple of things in his head clicked in place.

  “It’s more complicated than that but yes.”

  “Mother doesn’t replicate the same attack twice. Every thrust and sweep might look the same but it's off by a miniscule angle. She once told me she calculated a total of 63 billion attacks she had done till date that she considers a different way of attacking with the spear. That is not many, not at our speeds. A few weeks of recording and I can learn all of it. But that is considering when she stands still and takes 1 step at most. In a wider space, one that is a few kilometres wide. With different ways, she can hold her spear. A different spear length. And now adding the dimension of time…”

  “You understand quickly. You’re only wrong about the numbers. This recording room, it shifts and rotates everything inside including gravity and time. Only the Space Dwarves could make something like this. It changes her attack on her, she trains with her attacks targeting her. It helps increase her sensitivity to gravity and understand her delayed strikes. I didn’t memorise what the creator said but there is an order of uhh some number of digits to the number of patterns this sphere shifts and rotates. Your mother recorded every moment of her training after she had this delivered, 29 years of her training was done in this room. She recorded and filled up the room with every single one of her attacks before she left but has never completed her training by using every shift, every rotation possible.”

  “What do you mean by every single one of her attacks?”

  “Every possible combination of how far back and forward she can throw a single strike, down to a millisecond difference. Her limit was a 20-year delay, so the same attack was delivered into the past by 20 years but repeated once every millisecond.”

  “I understand.”

  “The creator of this structure made it around Shi Wu’s martial ability and he called it a silly name like Infinite Variation but your mother doesn’t believe in infinity. It's too bad she never got the chance to find a definitive answer to how many ways a spear can be thrust.”

  “Can I really use this? Knowing Xengs, there’s no way I can survive a single second from an Emperor version of my mother as I am now.”

  “The power can be dialled down all the way to Shi Wu’s unclassed state. This Infinite Variation is something even the best of Xu and Kong cannot make, it’s a secret from them. The only people who know this exist is the creator, The First, your father, Shi Wu and I.”

  “Thank you, Auntie.”

  “...still not Aunt Tao? You feel it don’t you, kinship. Blood ties and kinship are also a baseline trait, we are protective of our own.”

  “So that’s what’s giving me this weird feeling. Genetics are scary. Fire it up Aunt Tao, there’s no better time to train.” It was almost cumbersome, unknowingly feeling a vague sense of kinship with strangers.

  “You don’t have much time with it. The only energy source for this is something your father made. Those crates, one could last a few days at the top output your mother uses. Get in, we’ll test how long one can last at low output. I’ve never used this myself since these energy packs are limited.”

  There was a storage shed without a door with visible sleek metallic shipping containers. He was curious about the energy packs his father made, it had got to be mana.

  “Woah stop there, you cannot touch that. Leave the charging to me.” Shi Tao cut in front of him. “Stand there and watch, don’t you dare open this without me present. Just ask when you need batteries replaced.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll die of severe mana poisoning. I know you’re his blood but your body is nothing like his original. What’s the word…yes, you can consider those extremely radioactive. Other than my descendants and the my fellow second generation, just about anyone else would die within minutes so you’re not the only fragile one around.”

  “Hmm.” Ebony considered what came after the solidification or crystallisation of mana. He never considered it would be potent enough that it radiated intense mana fluctuation. Shi Tao didn’t even need to open the container, all she needed to do was pull a cable taller than both of them to connect to one of the metallic crates.

  “Go inside, if you’re her son the door will open for you.”

  Ebony stepped in front of the door that beeped and shot light at him. It opened without delay.

  There was a lack of flat flooring, clear transparent inner walls and well-lit. He slid down the inner walls of the sphere to the bottom.

  ‘One two three, this is a twelve gimbal gyroscope and I’m in an orb within it.’ Ebony’s mana perception was not cut off and he could see through the translucent walls.

  He heard the door close on him high up above where he stood.

  “I won’t use those variations until you’re done with her original. Where’s your spear?” There wasn’t any visible speakers but her voice could be heard loud and clear from the outside.

  “Aunt Tao, I don’t use a spear.”

  “What!”

  “So how does this work?” He let Shi Tao come to her own conclusions.

  “You fight her spear. For now, just watch her complete dance. Unclassed power.” The transparent walls turned opaque white from floor to ceiling while she spoke.

  A spear teleported into view, just an arm's length away from him. It was the same spear that had been sitting by his mother’s grave just moments ago. It intimidated him just by appearing.

  He kicked the spearhead to the side but his body was pushed to the side instead.

  Ebony felt his bones reflect vibrations, “how is this unclassed?”

  “Hey I reduced the power but that is her personal spear and technique is basically her at her peak. Do you know how hard it is to find a weapon that a Shi can use without breaking?”

  He fell into the flurry of familiar sweeps and thrusts. ‘So it knows the target, and it has a limited number of patterns it can go through without repetition.’

  After a minute, dozens of pokes were felt all across his body. The clinks and clanks were from the spearhead clashing with his skin. His new garment had precise, needle-sized holes.

  ‘Are those the delayed strikes? I can barely feel a change in gravity right before they land, but I do sense something. I can use this low-power mode to learn how to perceive a delayed strike coming. I can use mental map for positioning, if it already happened once at this time and place I can assume it won’t happen again unless it’s from a different angle.’

  ‘Feel’s like a Master warrior’s unenhanced strength but only in the context of Elcrians.’

  “I didn’t tell you, your mother’s baseline physical strength including constitution is about 400 times that of a baseline human. Strength is a very cheap trait in terms of quantity of natural potential required.”

  Before long it was like spear strikes were playing drums with his body. The actual spear was hardy but it was easy to parry at these speeds no matter how complicated the attacks look. He didn’t even need augmentation for it. But the delayed strikes were close to impossible to dodge, he never knew how it came.

  “I gave you controls, you can control it by voice just say Infinite Variation followed by your command. I’ll be leaving since it’s time for dinner.”

  “Thank you Auntie.”

  “I can’t hear you.”

  “Thank you Auntie Tao.”

  “Better.”

  “Infinite Variation, raise power to level 300 master.” Ebony decided not to get ahead of himself but the previous settings were wasting his time. The instant he changed the settings the physical spear charged at him.

  He wasn’t that worried, according to Shi Tao the advantage of high baseline traits didn’t give them as huge of an advantage in terms of natural potential as he imagined. For one, even if they hunted a monster with levels far above their own, the natural potential they gained in return was close to none compared to if a creature with lower baseline traits were to do the same.

  After reaching Emperor, their advantage over another random person in terms of baseline traits wasn’t as high as their unclassed state since most people who could reach the ranks of an Emperor received a lot of natural potential over time. Unconscious evolution will have a large portion of this natural potential placed towards their baseline traits and the reason why even though they never added a single stat after their evolution, one could get and feel stronger. In the same sense, it was why mana purity increased after evolution despite not adding a single stat point anywhere.

  So Ebony’s last splash on the crystal monolith was him increasing his baseline traits but he spread it everywhere without a single point of focus.

  One of the books he read on baseline traits heavily discussed how natural potential was obtained and how it was the same or different for every individual. It seemed like natural potential was always gained. They could gain it from breathing, eating, drinking and simply staying alive was believed to let one’s natural potential grow. The quantity was unnoticeable in a short period but this claim was backed up by more than one or two authors, even the God of Knowledge himself for that is the only reason it would be in this library.

  So lifespan and age were both an advantage and reason why the Xengs were not considered to be a strong force overall. Other than their small numbers. However, Ebony had his doubts. Short life span? Every single generation of Xeng was present and few looked old. He was honestly quite happy learning that. Despite his nonchalance, he was ever so worried about Xin's short lifespan. But looking at her clan members, he shouldn't have to worry about her life span.

  Their diet of eating high-ranking and high-level creatures’ meat also adds to their natural potential more so than eating normal meat. The Elves' slow evolution rate made more sense but with a higher activity rate of training and eating, time and age weren’t everything.

  It wasn’t like natural potential could be lost and just living longer before evolving gave one’s evolution more worth. The numbers that never made sense to him like how Cinderashians had enough strength to match his compressed mana augmented self with multiple skills stacking with just mere dozens of levels above him were easily resolved with this knowledge. Since they couldn’t use aether well, their baseline traits were naturally skewing to their physical stats.

  ‘Is the spear screaming at me…’

  Ebony fully augmented himself but he didn’t need his Domain yet and he wasn’t getting injured. The intensity of gravity increased so he used this to learn the patterns and how to perceive the delayed strikes. Obviously, in this wide space he could just memorise where the spear has moved and avoid it altogether. Except, the spear knew when and how to push him towards its delayed and timed traps.

  “What am I doing…Infinite Variations, raise to level 300 Grandmaster.” He was swept up into the air by countering the bottom of the spear spin.

  A snap sounded when he parried the spearhead and his elbow bent the other way around.

  After 20 standard years, his mother was training him once again.

  It might be about to be his best day in a long time.