Having learnt the clans and their common elements, he guessed that Veronica was the child of a Ning and a Zhao. The Zhao were the seers or those good with location and tracking. Not a battle-focused clan but the treasure seekers along with the Yu who were the wealthiest and were known to be the smarter and more logical Xengs. The Zhao was always helping the Xengs look for opportunities to grow.
Based on his understanding, he had a list of the outward hierarchy of the Xeng Clans based on power. It was mostly backed by the Shi Clan’s obstacle course but he readjusted it according to the stories he was told by Shi Ling since not every clan was physically focused but were still seen as superior.
- Shi - Tortoise
- Ning - Crane
- Wen - Owl
- Yang - Lion
- Yin - Wolf
- Kong - Spider
- Huo - Phoenix
- Xu - Beaver
- Lei - Hawk
- Qin - Peacock
- Shui - Dolphin
- Shang - Eagle
- Zhen - Elephant
- Zhao - Dragonfly
- Fang - Stag
- Guo - Bear
- Ma - Horse.
- Zhang - Chameleon
- Yu - Serpentdragon
- Peng - Falcon
- An - Ox
Ebony was surprised that the gorilla wasn’t the animal emblem of the Shi Clan. There were a few more people with different surnames. Or used to have.
The second generation of more than a couple of clans had more than just one person alive. The Shi and Ning were one of the few that only had one survivor but other clans had multiple people in the second generation. Some of the women who married and were absorbed into these 21 clans had a different surname.
Other than the Shi, the Yin was also a family that only produced females while the Yangs only produced males. There were three couples between the Yin and Yang family, all of which had not succeeded in conceiving a child. They have since prevented or put a hard pause on any marriages between both clans because of the grief that these couples had been going through. They were some of the few patients that a person from the Ning Clan had to meet for mental help.
Ebony couldn’t pry anything because Shi Ling was always told not to ask or meddle in other families’ affairs. The others did not talk with him much, the age and generation gap was an issue but he knew they just didn’t gossip or find interest in knowing things that happened around them if it didn’t concern them individually.
The Yins also followed the tradition of those who married them and took on their clan name. As for the couples of Yin and Yang, they took the name of Yang either as a show of respect to the strongest male fighters or they simply didn’t care.
There wasn’t a single couple from the Shi and the Yang. The Shi Clan women seem to have a natural disposition to dislike men of the Yang family. They didn’t hate them, but the Yang Clan men didn’t have…guts or strength and most Shi ladies couldn’t stand how ‘pathetic’ their infamous showboating was.
There was, however, a couple between the Shi and the Ning. The ladies of Shi wanted this couple to come lecture him but since the Ning was a man, not a woman, they weren’t sure if he was going to be of any help to know about the likes and dislikes of a Ning woman in bed.
Ebony left a Will Relay Buffer at his parents' home on Xiaoya but they quickly got out of range. The trip through space was boring because it was instantaneous. The Kong Clan already opened a path for the rest of the Xengs to go to their home on Elva. Xienor.
Kong Jing’s proficiency with space magic had improved leaps and bounds and two jumps were all it took her to bring them to Tidal where their home was.
None of the Xengs on this trip had any attachment to Xienor, at least not enough to visit other people. Most of the people on Xienor weren't Emperor ranked, so Ebony wondered what generation they were part of. Xin did look around but the fisherman Uncle Wu wasn’t around.
Ebony was still out of range with Dusk but he felt refreshed to be back on Elva. The familiar mana. The familiar air. The normal temperature and gravitational waves.
The continent of Elva didn’t change.
Ten years didn’t affect the environment. No mass destruction occurred. No Tetramyths overrunning the surface. No Trolls in sight or mana sense.
But he changed.
He could see further, smell better and feel clearer.
‘How’s the Nebulian doing?’ Ebony did not think the Mandate users were as troublesome as Ezekiel because they didn’t have the power to transport him by force. At least, not distances equal to worlds and sectors. Ezekiel sent him from Elcra to Cinderash in an instant, a Worldcore in a different sector. Although still within Hex. Excluding the time he was locked down, the travel time using relatively up-to-date space shuttles within Hex would take months. He was extremely lucky that Mr Guru and Gearhart made Ezekiel forget about him.
The Nebulians were also not interested in anything else but him or rather, the money he could produce because they were apparently in massive debt.
Ebony was able to find quite a bit about the Nebulian on the net. They were famous and weren’t even from the Hex region. An unknown number of years ago, the Nebulian had a handful of Saints. They were powerful and few if not no races could naturally defend themselves against mandates. Once again, this example of strength was natural evolution and selection which could be reasoned with baseline traits. That’s why their physical strength was weak and they could be caught off guard and killed rather easily.
These Nebulians controlled entire regions larger than Hex until they very, unfortunately, cast a mandate to rob a merchant group. The merchant group was bigger and stronger than the Nebulians ever imagined. After all, this merchant group dealt with matters between the higher beings and many merchants within were higher beings themselves.
They were punished by having their entire race enslaved or imprisoned depending on how some people saw it for a long time. They weren’t the easiest to imprison when they could simply order their prison cell or guards to open up with their mandates and managed to slip some of their members away. Amused, the merchant group never chased them down and put a price on every member of the Nebulians that the escapees could pay to redeem.
Ebony underestimated the power of money although he still didn’t fully understand the allure of money, he could see why money was still useful even for higher beings. The fact that the God of Knowledge sold library passes and books should be enough for him to understand the value of money.
Why would a God need money or mana?
That wasn’t a question he needed answered at the moment but it was easier to think of it as a form of power.
One Nebulian Saint was said to have escaped and they reclaimed another. These two Saints got into debt to have their captors seal their entire race so that their race didn’t die waiting. However, doing this increased the price per head. They had some pull to have persuaded the merchant group to permanently stop their race’s ageing.
The two Saints did not play according to the rules the merchant group placed and followed. They attempted to steal their members back with their Mandates.
From then, they were hunted down. However, the merchant group either didn’t think it was worth the effort or thought it was funny to put a bounty on them and the descendants of the small group that escaped. To them, the mandate users were a high-quality workforce. Saints weren’t exactly easy for a merchant group to hold down without hiring the right personnel to begin with.
And somehow, the Nebulians were found here on Elcra. Using generations to change their direction into stealth traits, their mist and ability with it. Hiding very well since few or perhaps none within the sector could find and catch them easily.
At least until the countryside Elves grew up and prospered. Once again, he learned some more common sense about the Elves. Not just anyone could live on Yggdrasil. The lowest social class amongst them never steps foot on Yggdrasil.
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As for those on Yggdrasil, Elves are given the chance or choice to choose to venture out to new Worldcores. Living there, building up their fame, population and bringing home anything of value. If they were lucky the descendants born on these planets show better or superior traits and talents compared to descendants born elsewhere. Usually, this job of spreading their race elsewhere falls to lower social class members who want to improve their standings but have no talent or advantage over their Elven kin. This is a form of seeking improvement for them.
Elcra was chosen by the older members for them to sink roots in. Doing this, they would not receive any support or keep any contact with their homeworld unless they were led by people who were slightly better off. Middle-class families might send a few people to lead the people who decided to venture forth. These people tend to have the capability to contact Yggdrasil. Elves who meet a certain standard would be able to go to their ancestral home. However, it was said to be quite rare for these Elves to prosper.
The Elves who chose Elcra were very lucky. They were probably from the lowest caste and couldn’t afford to be sent in a group to a higher rank worldcore. Of course, Ebony had no idea what the rank of Elcra’s Worldcore was when the first group of Elves landed. He also had no idea how long it took for them to develop to their current state.
In any case, Ebony didn’t go looking for the Nebulian or visit the Frost Elves first. He had home in mind.
Veronica pushed Xin’s back while she puked after the spatial travel, something he didn’t experience.
Ebony shook his head at the Xeng’s whimsical nature. A few days ago, he learnt that Xin’s weakness to alcohol had never been faked. The First of the Xengs was saddened that alcohol no longer affected her and during her evolution from King to Emperor, she purposely found a way to reduce her resistance to alcohol under the poison resistance section.
She taught the alcohol lovers amongst the second generation and when they found out that this allowed them to enjoy alcohol, get drunk and even get more natural potential to allocate elsewhere since they weakened a trait. The Ning couple were part of this group.
Still, her dizziness after spatial travel had little to do with her weak alcohol tolerance but was often linked together.
Ebony asked for permission before he planted another Will Relay Buffer deep underground in Xienor. He couldn’t have too many of them in operation but for the continent of Elva, he should be able to have his clones in operation anywhere. Excluding a few areas where monsters would remove anything producing foreign energy or aura in their territory but he could just place his buffer outside of their territory. With Will Relay Buffer’s current range, it should not be a problem unless someone was actively looking for visually transparent ice mana deep underground.
‘I’ll let some of them spread it out instead.’ He didn’t add stops to their travel and allowed Kong Jing to compress a tunnel to Tidal.
‘It’s still so ridiculously large.’ Tidal wasn’t overrun with dog and bear-sized ants so that was one relief. He once again noticed how enormous and populated the city was compared to the places he had just returned from. Cities in Cinderash were a blotch in comparison and Teheil’s Golden Fields except for the Altarbound’s final city might just be a speck if they were on Elva. But when the continent sizes were compared, Elva was a small percentage of either of those places.
“What are those?” Xin pointed down at the moving trail.
“A railway. Those are the trains I told you about.” Kong Jing answered for him.
‘They got a working rail system in ten years. They went with the monorail style. They might have changed the design after gaining access to Eidolon Hex.’ Ebony was quite impressed with the changes they were seeing right now.
It didn’t matter much to him but to many people who may never walk out of their district, this was a big change. Especially with Elva’s gradual increase in non-combatants, the population of artisans and craftsmen were overtaking the combatants since civilization and personal safety weren’t a dire issue.
Now that he put some thought into it, Navin or the Empire definitely had access to Eidolon long ago. Their World Dungeon already gave them access and encounters with other worlds and the Elves shouldn’t have been in the dark about it. Since olden day Elves teamed up with the other races in peace, it might have benefitted them to grow as a force altogether.
“Let’s take it someday,” Ebony suggested. It didn’t feel any special to him but it was going to be a new experience for Xin. ‘Who designed the monorail to be dirty brown throughout?’
It appeared to him like the evolved space mage no longer stopped for Tidal’s barrier, tearing or passing through its passive defences without pause. Before long, they were in front of their house.
“You live in the same house!? The last time I was around you still lived separately. And I even shouted back at your great-grandfather saying you at least knew how to protect yourself from wolves.” He might not be able to see any eyeballing but he felt the mirth from Veronica. Disguise or not, she was a short woman amongst all of the tall Xengs she stood in the midst of.
“Grandma…” The ‘demure’ Ning Xin did not have strong resistance to her grandmother’s teasing.
“Since when did you start wearing dresses? You’ve never worn them whenever I got one for you. You’ll wear one for a man but not for your grandma” By now, he was doubly sure that she was just messing with her granddaughter. Having charged into the house and pulling out dresses.
“Grandma!”
Ebony left the girl screaming at her grandmother’s endless teasing while he went to his garden. Surprisingly, it hadn't dried up and the plants and herbs were still alive.
Kneeling to the power source orb covered in vines of ice, he recharged Dusk’s Will. It was not dry, the Will that doesn’t fade easily was still around but it felt like Dusk was in some sort of hibernation or sleep state.
‘A new skill or technique that hasn’t turned into a skill to keep themselves intact for longer?’ He was touching Dusk but it still wasn’t awake. He might need a stronger jumpstart of Will and wait till Dusk thought it was fine to come back online.
He went into his mindspace core to knock on Dusk and it worked.
“You retained almost all of your memories,” Ebony stated a fact to all the Clones who woke up right after Dusk.
“Cool, don’t you think, we transferred everything to Dusk and it had just enough memory for all of us. We did have to throw out a lot of redundant information like a certain day’s weather. Just for your information, we weren’t even active for a full month before we first went inactive or the amount of unfading Will Dusk currently has wouldn’t have fit so many of our memories.”
“I don’t see Ten or Eleven…who are these, new numbers?” The clone asked.
“We have up to Thirty-Two now, not many. They are asleep?”
“Is that the same or similar state that we were in while we’re offline?”
“If we only have Thirty Two, does that mean not much time has passed?”
Ebony heard all of them talk at the same time. Unlike his time with his newer clones, these people were not familiar with how conversation was done in his mindspace.
Since they transmitted all the information and memories they collectively had at once, he was not too disappointed at the lack of the skill. They weren’t even active for a month and their focus was studying runes so it was pretty good that they developed a way to ‘hibernate’ and not fade away as fast by making use of Dusk as a core who had Will that was unfading.
“Where’s One?” Ebony asked for real. He received no memories regarding his first clone and as far as all of them could see, One was still around in his mindspace.
“We don’t know, he was out on some quest and never came back for us to teach him how we figured out how to hide inside Dusk. By the way, how are the new numbers keeping their individual memories?”
“I had time to receive all their memories, it’s currently categorised and packed individually. So I technically can’t use a portion of my Will or we’ll lose them.” Ebony answered. Only Aegis could copy Dusk and stay in a sleep state. “Your memories…ah, so you guys managed to receive my Will package.”
He went through the information they sent him and knew that every so often, a few of them would wake up and go about their business over the past decade. However, none of the clones received the Will. Dusk was the only one that could receive it and only a small portion of it. Dusk couldn’t reply to him either so it was a one-way trip somehow.
‘Their total active time in terms of manpower is closer to two years with all of them combined. A very small portion of Will was retrieved by Dusk and they used it. Too bad we couldn’t communicate properly through this method. But that means I can still send packets of information no matter the distance. How does Will travel? Through space? Through realms? Doesn’t seem right.’ He had a total of 14 clones on Elcra. One to Nine, Eighteen to Twenty-Two.
It was too bad, but throughout their active time, they still had to throw away a lot of information they deemed redundant or less important or they would fade away. Dusk was the one that determined and prioritised.
“Nine’s death. The Elves?” He asked about the little information he had about the missing Clone
“One of them. We don’t know why or how, but someone stopped Will from transferring and we couldn’t tell what they did to Nine but we do know, that torture and control he was placed under was worse than any other deaths.” They looked towards Thirteen and Sixteen’s spot, those who died in battle.
“We’re going to have to assume they know about us.” Ebony already had the experience of having a Telepath opponent who knew his every move before he made them. He didn’t know what another person who could stop Will could do but it was better to assume information was extracted from Nine by force.
“We should be fine, none of us faced anyone coming after us.”
Ebony warned them about overconfidence by telling them about Mr Guru. He didn’t give them his memories like they did to him.
Out of his mindspace, he confirmed that the maximum amount of Will he could use increased marginally and so did the rate it recovered.
Dusk got a burst of growth and replanted itself around the power source. It was furbished and back in full form within moments. It’ll take a few days to compress its mana and continue charging its Will but that wasn’t urgent.
“What are these underwear!? Where did you get this!? Oh no-I’ve failed your mother,”
He was going to go into the house but the shouting stopped his feet. The only clothing he knew that would receive that reaction were the swimsuits he made, it was completely unlike the type of clothing they were familiar with.
‘I can take a walk outside and meet some people.’ Some situations were not for him to diffuse.