“You really need a reforge Icicle.” Ebony was on the offence with his partner sword but it was in tatters after every few hits. They were getting banged up quickly against the rock-hard but flexible spear. He tried his best not to tackle the spearhead but the body of the spear already crushed his bones more than a couple of times.

  It was great that Icicle could regrow using his mana but there was a limit to it. It took less than half a day before they swept through the entirety of the spherical room, so he was forced to guess where a delayed strike would explode on him. He attempted to freeze and stop the spear from moving but that was a futile move, it was unfreezable for him. Domain or not.

  Assuming his father used ice magic, it shouldn’t have come off as a surprise to him.

  He attempted gravitation stabilisation through the room but so far, he couldn’t tell if he was affecting the delayed strike by any margin. Fortunately, his spatial awareness was up there with his perception but he was making little headway in terms of knowing or perceiving when a delayed strike would appear. As time passed, he was getting the feeling the spear could activate, or push forward a delayed strike as it wished.

  So the entire training field was a trap. The longer the fight went on, the more traps it had. At the moment, there seemed to be no limit to how many traps could be overlaid. It was intimidating when it stacked delayed strikes at slightly different angles.

  Ebony hasn't changed Infinite Variation’s settings after level 350 but he knew he could make it so that there was repetition. He could also change the combination of strikes. And currently, the spear wasn’t poking any gravity spells around. That was because his mother only used gravity magic from King ranked onwards. Before that, she was completely physically focused with a bit of gravity support. Her high strength was at the cost of limited magical ability in her earlier evolutions.

  The faster they went, the faster he ran through the limited recorded moves. The biggest problem after the pure power behind the attacks and the delay was the spear itself. It was honestly a scary spear. There were a lot of emotions behind its targeted attacks.

  “Phew…” Ebony considered increasing the intensity after his second attempt at a full recording. The first attempt took almost 2 months before the spear stopped moving and ran out of moves. The second increased speed so it took less than 1 and a half months.

  “Come out and eat!” Unaware when Shi Tao stopped by and watched him from outside, he was forced to stop his tireless training. He had been sneaking bites in between so energy wasn’t an issue for him.

  It was a good chance to rest his mind and muscles.

  The white opaque walls turned transparent and the door opened for him to fly out.

  “How much of the energy did I use?” He bent down to pick up the garment he left outside after the first attempt.

  “At these low settings, not even one of the containers. I’ll disconnect one now.”

  “Go on ahead, I’ll wash up first.” Patting the clothes down, he swung them over his sweaty back.

  The bathroom in his parents' house had a runic rainshower. He took a look and had the mind of making something similar for himself in future.

  When he made his way to the temple’s dining room that he had been to, there were a lot fewer of them. His supposed cousin, nephews and nieces.

  “I’m sorry, were you waiting for me?” The food was covered up and the people were chatting about people he didn’t know.

  “We eat together, that’s family.” Shi Qiang answered.

  “...Let’s eat.” He didn’t expect an entire roasted alligator monster to be on the table. “Where are the others?” His Aunt Shi Tao, his Cousin Shi Qiang, Shi Han and their husbands were the only ones present. The ‘younger’ generation was not around.

  “Since we’re nearby, they went to Elcra. They heard from some of the sixth-generation Xu that Elva is getting attacked by Tetramyth.” Shui Feng replied.

  Shi Han added, “Almost all of us and our descendants grew up on Elcra so we have some friends there. As for us, other than some dwarves, people we know all died of old age or some battle. Very few leave Elcra and find ways to extend their lives.”

  “I’m reminded of a question I always wanted to ask, what about the Elves? Why do Xengs have a bad relationship with them?” He noticed the lack of mention of the long-life species on Elcra.

  “Hahahaha…we don’t have an issue with them, they have an issue with us.” Shi Qiang rubbed the back of her head.

  “Not with us, with The First.” Shi Tao didn’t share the same hesitation about talking about this ‘First’ person.

  “What happened?”

  “Long ago, when she realised how we have weak souls in exchange for our clear advantage in physical and magical power, she found this living stone for us. The older versions weren’t that good, the material was good but Xu’s first edition of the mask was lacklustre compared to the current ones. It holds a part of our soul and nourishes it, during evolution, this portion is cycled with a different portion from our existing soul. Strengthening our soul, and adding a new portion for it to strengthen for the next cycle. But The First wasn’t satisfied,”

  Ebony felt like he knew where the story was going.

  “She learnt about Yggdrasil and went to the Elves to ask for a piece of it. They did not take kindly to that request so she cut a root of Yggdrasil and had it incorporated into her mask. Do I need to say more?”

  “So they have generational and racial hate towards the Xengs because of that.”

  “A bunch of them are still adamant in killing her but their strong Gods had to keep Yggdrasil alive or had something else to do. She never told us how she escaped but I believe they couldn’t kill her anymore after the root of Yggdrasil made her mask home. Like humans, the Elves are made of many sub-species and they are divided by status or lineage and power. The only thing they have in common is that Yggdrasil is their ancestor, their faith, their God.”

  The questions turned to him and he was questioned about his recent happenings. So he just told them how he got off Elcra, how he sat in jail that was on his wrist for about 6 years. How he went to pick Xin up. How they were on their way back.

  “Who. Tell us who.”

  “Some Saint called Gearhart from Cinderash.”

  “Who?” Absolutely confused, Shi Han’s husband, Huo Tianyu said the thing on everyone’s mind.

  “I’ll search him up…ah, someone from a sector down Hex region. Never heard of him, his reputation doesn’t go out of Hex.” Shui Feng likely had a portable module of Eidolon too. Maybe not even one of Hex but a different portion of the spirit.

  “...since it’s just some nobody, we’ll let you deal with him yourself.” Shi Tao got back to eating with some held-back anger.

  “Mmm, that’s what I thought.” Ebony was interested in how they searched the person up more so than their dismissal of Gearhart. He felt a bit weird by how strongly they reacted. Despite his oddly quick acceptance, he was still unsure how to feel about this ‘family’ of his.

  He found out from Shui Feng that instead of asking Hex about an individual or group they can search the net for work or high-level exploration job postings. Searching up the Worldcore could make it easy to find public information on who was in charge or owned which Worldcore. The information obtained this way is less reliable since it was determined by things other people say but it was a start and one could still find out a lot even without Eidolon leaking personal information.

  Ebony wasn’t able to check higher access information but there was apparently a different section for Saints, some of which post their basic information to look for exploration opportunities. It could be dungeon exploration, an unexplored and newly discovered natural Worldcore or even space itself.

  They then dumbfounded him by telling him that they were preparing for his wedding as if it was a done deal.

  “It is a done deal. They saw you touching a maiden’s belly.” Shi Han stressed with a frown.

  “Bandaging a wound.”

  “Doesn't matter. Enough people know that she can’t find another husband and they surely would not agree to her finding an outsider when that child’s mother and grandmother have already proven that they did not make a good choice for a husband when it comes to childbirth. If I have to put it ugly, you two are also the best match since she would already have an impossible time trying to find another Xeng who wants a quarter blood as a partner. In a sense, she has no one else but you.”

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  They place immense weight on birthing better and stronger children. It was close to the only thing they cared about when looking for potential partners.

  ‘That timing, did the Nings leave to gather medicine after how badly they beat her up and her grandmother planned the timing knowing I was going to visit…so she got the others to leave and got the timing down that they clashed with my visit.’ Ebony had a sudden guess pop up in his mind that the divination mage played a part in the immense coincidence and farce. Since he didn’t understand their culture or outlook, he wouldn’t have known that he needed to send word of his visit beforehand. Especially since he was a young unmarried man visiting the home of a young unmarried lady. They might accidentally kill him if they found out he did more than just see and touch her belly in the past.

  Ebony squeezed a bite of the alligator that he failed to chew through down his throat when he regurgitated and vomited blood on his plate and clothes.

  ‘I couldn’t even sense the gravity mana inside me until it changed in an instant and the delayed strike hit. How many more delayed strikes are hidden inside my body now? Ugh, did Mother learn a new skill around level 350…the gravity implosion inside ate up my mana chassis too, can’t heal fast.’ Ebony was lucky only one of his lungs was affected, he could still bear it.

  “That was from training.” Shi Tao covered up for him.

  The worries were cut off instantly, with no reaction or questions asked about his sudden injury.

  Ebony asked more about their culture and what he should be mindful of.

  “I stopped by, I believe the girl is close to mastering the Ning Clan skill.” Shi Han commented.

  “Is it the swap in mental states?” He did not expect that this was the Ning Clan skill and Ning Xin herself probably didn’t know. In the same way, he didn’t know why he knew how to use basic gravity magic without a teacher.

  “It is, Ning men and women make the most gentlemanly and demure husbands and wives. And when they have to, they are the most explosive and fierce fighters. Other than the Yin Clan, they make the best choice for a wife of choice. Not stronger than us of course. At least you don’t have to worry about mind magic, out of all things, she didn’t inherit their strongest abilities.”

  ‘So the Nings are mind-focused while the Shi are physical. Perhaps divination is a form or subset of mind magic. That is probably why Xin’s mind can support her and keep up with her physical speed. Her bullet time and near foresight should all be baseline traits that express after a couple of evolutions.’

  “I can’t tell you much since you probably know her better but the Nings are expert self-magic augmentors. Using most of their capacity to boost their mental capabilities for their magic.”

  “Mmm.” There was not much else they had to share about Xin and he didn’t want to know either. They hadn’t had a real duel for a decade for a reason.

  After dinner, he went to the God of Knowledge’s library and checked on ‘Will, Ice, and clones’ as the keywords. Books on the ice element were the cheapest but they were also the least relevant to his current skills and direction.

  He was very surprised that ‘clones’ had fewer search results than baseline traits. There weren't even 5 books on it. As for the usage of Will, he couldn’t afford a single book but the books exist and he had access to them.

  They say knowledge is power and so is money.

  He went back to his parent's house but used the living room’s sofa instead of the guest room that was in his old room’s spot. The sleep session was surprisingly warm and restful.

  Throwing some of his caution to the wind, he ramped the difficulty up. His mother might have the advantage where 1 point in strength stat was equivalent to 400 for another person but that was honestly only better than some monsters that can’t use magic. Physical strength was cheap, he had more than enough magic and elemental augmentations to close the gap.

  Her recorded patterns don’t change and if Ebony doesn’t get hit, then it doesn't matter how strong she was. The settings also include how strong her augmentation increased at the time she was a certain level so it wasn’t a one-to-one increase but he was a level 500 grandmaster and he didn’t want to take his own sweet time. The more dangerous it was for him, the faster he’d learn how to perceive these delayed strikes.

  ???

  Thanks to his urgency, it didn’t even take him 3 more full recorded runs before he ramped the power up to the time when his mother was level 500. On the spear’s account, he was just fighting a recording and a seemingly indestructible spear and the attacks it had were something he had seen over and over again. At that level, each recording took 1 to 4 days to run out of moves and he practised here for 3 months.

  Like him, the power at the ‘maxed’ level was varied and could still be scaled up. It wasn’t an accurate depiction of his mother’s strength or abilities since she couldn’t do these delayed strikes until Emperor ranked. It was merely power that was reduced from the recording so it was hard to say how strong she was back then.

  With his Domain, he managed to pull out delayed strikes within his body and even slow down those that were supposed to activate at a certain time. He knew how to perceive it but only the instant before it activated. He still had no idea how it activated or how to gauge the strength or length of time one strike had before it reached its timer.

  Two latest clones, Thirty-One and Thirty-Two set off traps or take the hits for him. Half of his mental capacity was on his Domain but he couldn’t depend on it throughout his training because his Will couldn’t be sustained long-term. Since he never use to have enough mana to sustain his Domain over a long period, he never realised that Will is usually the limiting factor and why having Dusk or a core was an advantage.

  Instead of running his core skill at full output which would take quite a bit of mental capacity, he left the rest to Accelerated Corporeal-Illusory Battleforge to speed up his learning.

  ‘Stats are sometimes a limiting factor to skills tiers and such. My mental range shouldn’t lose to another mage of the same level on Elcra right now. My mana capacity might still be slightly behind but it’s not an issue with my regeneration. Veritable Ice Clone and Arsenal of Will Domain are locked by my Will, it’s either too weak or too low in quantity. Can’t do much about that when I’m already ahead in terms of Will.’

  Ebony had an urge to sigh. He didn’t have that habit and didn’t even remember if he ever did so but reading books on fire magic to improve his augmentation and usage of frostblaze might have been too hasty of him.

  Fabrication of Frostblaze Embodiment - Understanding the Frostblaze is that of fire as much as ice, fabricating its embodiment. Supercharging your body with Frostblaze and integrating into your very being, a living embodiment of Frostblaze. The Fabrication of Frostblaze Embodiment increases your Constitution and Agility by 1500% + 10.0% of your Intelligence. Strength and Endurance increases by 1200% + 10.0% of Intelligence.

  Consumes 12000 MP/Min

  Classification: Ice Magic - Body Enhancement Magic

  It was the evolution of Woven Frostblaze Augmentation and it was too powerful. He was proud that the mana cost of 8000 to 12000 was minuscule compared to the power increase. It was proof that even if he was compared to Elcrain humans, his mana usage and efficiency were only half as terrible. He was just so...talentless at the efficient usage of mana. He almost killed himself when his hands and mana chassis froze, combusted and burned to nothing. He had watched his own body, mana chassis included burn away. Stopping his training in the middle for two weeks to recover. Shi Tao force fed him more medicine than food but one of them gave him a heart attack. It was also the only one that managed to jumpstart his mana chassis to heal.

  Blossoms of Smouldering Frost - Highly condensed flames of frost take upon an increasingly solid form of blossoming plum petals. Spark and embers of all your freezing flames packed into petals have an effect of 1350% + 10.0% Intelligence. Blossoms are 1000% + 10.0% finer, facilitating the penetration through physical matter.

  Consumes MP

  Classification: Ice Magic

  Was a direct power evolution from Blossoms of Shimmering Chill. This type of skill evolution was the easiest to obtain, just pack more punch, mana, and efficiency into the same skill to evolve it. But there was a difference in the effect on his target. He could choose to enhance it with Will, any target frozen would spontaneously combust, saving him some mana if the target wasn’t freeze-resistant.

  Stalactite Sunder’s evolution was similar,

  Crystalline Avalanche - Ice and physical attacks have 1000% + 10.0% falling momentum when used in conjunction with gravity magic. Ice spell landings’ ability to slow down the release of momentum on impact increases by 1500% + 10.0% per level.

  This was great for both wielding his greatsword and Phantasmal Shade Sovereign Arts however, it hindered him a bit by locking him in ‘falling’ momentum swings and types of attacks. Without gravity magic, it was impossible to carry it out to full effect. If it wasn’t for that, this skill pretty much seems like a passive skill. It was not classified under any magic because this was a momentum control skill and not magic, it just so happens to include ice and gravity magic because of how he fought now.

  His stealth skill Frigid Distorted Refraction didn’t evolve since it wasn’t helping or being pressured as much by this training. And Frostweave Vital Bolster, his sealing spell wasn’t working or showing any sort of effect on his spear opponent that kept leaking emotions of sadness, anger and disappointment.

  Ebony did not appreciate it poking his butt whenever he left the training room for a break. He didn’t know if it could talk or not but it never did.

  As he long expected, his Sub-class and Profession were locked tight. It had little to do with effort or punching more power and mana into those actions, the skills just wouldn’t evolve. A refinement here and there was the best he could do in a short period.

  Phantasmal Shade Sovereign Arts, Phantom’s Flicker, Ethereal Arctic Rivertide Art and Ethereal Fluid Blitz still improved the most as was obvious with his mother’s physical focused recording.

  “Let’s just up it. Infinite Variation, level 500 King.” He was no longer surprised the spear was hurting him with all his augmentations and body enhancements even within a Domain.

  “Oh...is that an event horizon? Infinite Variation, shut down.” Ebony saw the spear perk up and spun in response before he gave his order. When he Flickered, the spear latched onto him with gravity.

  “Hey! Ow, stop poking my butt.” He ran out of the training room trying his best to slap the spear away from poking and slamming his butt.