Ebony questioned the large box, hoping whoever was outside could hear him as Shi Tao could. "Is everything okay." and "Where did Aunt Tao go."

Facing absolute silence twice in a row didn't cause him to falter. "Thank you for taking care of me," He said in advance of the upcoming period.

Getting to toss his spells onto Dusk and having a greater magical tree fight back. Adjusting and understanding how he can make use of his advantage with a proper Domain.

He was always busy thinking and experimenting with all the spell ideas and refinements he came up with but once in a while, he reminded himself to take a break. Every time, he would try to think of a question to ask the person outside.

Meeting silence every attempt till the thirtieth.

"You don't have to act curious. You don't care about anything. Your Aunt Tao's whereabouts. That spear. Anything happening around you. None of it matters to you. Anything that happens is merely news. You don't lie but you fake, to appear--normal. There's no need to ask me how I'm doing when all you can think about is how to be better, more efficient, stronger. And that's perfectly fine. You have my descendant in your mind, that's enough. Save the effort 'caring' and don't let my descendant die."

With that being said Ebony understood the person outside a little better. She was the Saint of the Nings, that, he could've guessed from how she talked to Shi Tao.

Unlike the more talkative and proactive Saint, Ning Xin's ancestor was more like him.

He did wonder if she could read his mind. All the questions about her well-being or what's happening outside were questions he had to think hard to come up with.

He didn't truly concern himself with that without consciously thinking of them. The only exception was when asked about how Xin was doing and the silence after he asked that made him the most unsettled.

The Second Generation Ning's words placed him at ease. He could work on himself in peace.

"My curiosity was forced out but my gratitude for this opportunity is real," Ebony said no more and returned to the state that fit him best, perfecting his skills.

Before he knew it, the crates of potions he had were becoming ineffective. But he didn't bother saying anything.

He'd gotten familiar with the energy hurting him and the pressure only helped improve his sealing capabilities. It couldn't keep the energy out, but it could keep his essence in.

The training was going swell until his quiet protector and future in-law of his marked the end of his trip with a word that he could stay no longer without permanently damaging himself.

"I'm feeling completely fine," he argued. He was in such good health even his chassis was back to full capacity.

"You'll be crippled when you get out if you stay any longer. Brace for the feeling of loss, it's not quite bearable for most."

Ebony's cage wasn't affected by inertia but he was aware that he was being transported extremely fast. When her last words were still echoing, he felt what Shi Tao meant.

He didn't get any skill improvement notifications the entire time but he always felt himself improving. The instant the energy hurting him no longer touched his body and mind, his chassis shrunk. His memories slipping but not disappearing.

The control over the seal he was trapping himself in faltered and degenerated.

His flames flickered from an unsteady mental control.

Dusk losing the Will he'd so painstakingly charged.

Gone.

The progress he'd made was gone.

Released from his training cell, he was placed near the Shi Clan without anyone in sight. "It's been about two weeks. Rest, you've lost almost a century in moments, but your soul remembers. It shouldn't take more than a year to get back where you were. Tao shouldn't take long. The First would be with her if she went to the Netherworld, that should speed things up."

Ebony didn't feel any intense surrealness.

Compared to spending thousands of years in his mindspace and only minutes passed, to hear that only 2 weeks have passed wasn't a shock. Not being able to depend on his Bioclock did make it feel more time had passed than it did.

'Rules of a Dungeon. Rules, restriction, ironclad…law. It's like a Domain restriction by Will, as long as I'm not above it, I'm affected by it.'

Ebony visited his mother's grave where Dusk was planted not far away. He made fried rice with canned spam that he ordered a box full of some time back. Egg-covered rice grains, shrimp, spam and garlic fried rice were offered but he ate it himself since wasting food wasn't something he would do.

He managed to get a wink of sleep before he got back to training. Undisturbed when he gained a skill level to his Unique Skill just minutes into having Dusk overcharge him.

Once more an hour in.

Another level three hours in.

A full day passed when Ebony realized how valuable of a training spot the Xeng exclusive Dungeon was.

Even without Lunar Bioclock, he was relatively certain he spent many standard decades inside the Dungeon. Although in reality only 2 weeks had passed and none of his growth remained, and even memories fogging up, the chasing up in effect was ridiculous.

Other than the energy inside being able to kill him if he wasn't kept in a box, he didn't know what other price one would have to pay to compress training time by so much.

Life span wasn't even one of the trade-offs, his body and mind only lived 2 weeks more so he truly wasn't older than Ning Xin yet.

But the Ning Saint hinted to him that perhaps his soul grew, and these speedy levels were his body and mind chasing up to the memories of his soul. He did question himself why his memories weren't deleted, foggy as they may be but he attributed it to his Physique or Core Skill.

'Does the soul have a lifespan?

For such an effective training dungeon, the Xengs don't use it as much as I imagine.' Less thinking and more moving got him back into the groove.

He received updates by dropping Will relay Buffers down the floating island, using gravity magic in between them to maintain a long line of them down to Elcra.

His clones sent him the updated information they had.

Fortunately, they were still alive with Dusk gone. Their lifespans were slightly longer now and the Will Relay Buffers could technically act as a small Will storage as well which increases their lifespans even without Dusk.

Dusk handed him some information that confused him.

Some time back, Hector and Mark's mana signature was found near Tidal.

Since his home was there, the Will Relay Buffer there was set to constantly scan gravitational and vibrational data, and he got frequent updates on the safety and integrity of his would-be home.

Low-density mana pulses would be periodically sent outwards to read mana signatures so Ebony was receiving a live update of the people in Tidal.

Hector and Mark's signature had been blinking from one place to another, they were moving too fast.

Kong Jing was probably with them then; he just couldn't sense her since she cut herself out from the space she was in. The two of them moving without leaving any mana traces just served as more evidence that they were getting spatial support.

"What were they doing…' Ebony didn't think about that any longer. They were too near Sky's Edge for any of them to be in real danger.

During his shut-in period, he received a letter from the Nings.

Reading the letter of stiffly polite and flowery language, it seemed like his wedding date was confirmed to be within the next 3 years

'Ting' 'Class Skill Frostweave Vital Bolster merged with Generic Skill Electroshock into Class Skill Ice-Lightning Respite'

Ice-Lightning Respite - A fusion of arcane ice and lightning, weaving a seal of vitality with an electrified numbing edge. Frostwoven targets have all activity almost completely ceased, while Will can be consumed to guide life force toward regions leaking vitality. The inherent vitality of Ice mana immobilizes and numbs life force and mana, preventing its escape with an effect of 1500% + 10.0% Intelligence. The frostwoven structure gains additional resilience: 1500% + 10.0% Intelligence against internal force and 1000% + 10.0% Intelligence against external force. Residual lightning mana with the effect of 500% + 10.0% Intelligence per level lingers across the frozen seal, reacting violently with numbing properties upon sensing any movement.

Consumes Mana

Classification: Sealing Magic - Ice Magic - Lightning Magic

Even lightning magic was brought up to a better standard now and the skill didn't have a Tier 3 effect of 5.0% increment for the lightning portion of the spell.

There was no longer a difference between sealing vitality and mana, both equally strong.

This was a very flexible skill, being a mixture of many types of magic. It also consumes more than mana, Will could be used as well. Ebony didn't bother questioning why the description never mentioned the consumption of Will, as with his Clone and Domain skill.

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Ice-Lightning Respite didn't require his targets to be locked in a large block of ice but just a slightly thick layer of ice over their skins and clothes. Ebony frequently uses it on himself whenever he is forced to take undodgeable attacks.

While it was a good healing and defensive spell, not even he as the caster could move once sealed. Moving would break the mana formation and unseals himself so it was not a permanent augmentation. However, as the caster, he didn't have to have lightning mana numb himself if he tried to move.

The only unfortunate part was that it was a mana-intensive spell if cast on himself as the only reason he would do it on himself would be to take destructive and dangerous attacks. Otherwise, the mana cost of the spell was a variable according to how strong his target was. Still, it shouldn't take more than 500,000 mana per minute even with compressed mana of more than 100 times taken into account for any target that he could seal.

This spell required him to touch or stab his opponent unless his opponent was a few evolutions weaker than him or had a naturally weak magic body and even with a good stabbing, it may take minutes for the full seal to be formed. Even longer if not outright impossible if his opponent was capable of resisting with their internal mana control. Which was just about any warrior or mage.

Not very realistic to cast against most targets he would call opponents but that didn't mean he couldn't try. He would pretty much always try from now on. Freezing his target solid was about all that was good for an ice mage. Once the spell forms, it would keep whatever's inside better sealed than any normal freezing good give. The skill description was lacking, the spell had a rather complex runic formula embedded that made it harder to break free besides just the ice mana or the numbing feedback.

Ebony aimed for his Lightning magic to take on numbing properties, if he had the spare Fortification it would be a bad idea as it worked very well with ice magic's natural slowing properties.

The seal worked best on people with naturally high life force and mana regeneration. While it did speed up body healing, that was misleading. The spell only redirects overflowing life force to more damaged areas.

When it came to mana, it wouldn't heal anything so all it did was trap them within the body or mana chassis. To Ebony, this was a great way to help hide his mana. Since his overflowing Wisdom was troublesome in some capacities it was also a little useless since he couldn't use it on the move. Still, it was a good stealth assistance if he was ever forced to hide.

'Ting' 'Profession Skill Runic Mana Shaping mutated into Arcane Rune Creation'

Arcane Rune Creation - Shape raw mana into runic structures that last as long as your mana, embedding them into entities, objects, or mana itself. Increases the effectiveness of structured mana pathways by 1200% + 10.0% per level. Increases fine control over mana by 1500% + 10.0% per level.

'This didn't change much but I no longer need to cast the same rune symbols a few thousand times to get their maximum effectiveness. For simple formulas, a single attempt is enough while Dusk's runic fortifications would still require us to run it through a few hundred times to achieve the runes' full effect. My Skill is no longer a limitation but my runic knowledge is. No matter how good I get at shaping them, the rune doesn't get better than its formula can support. Still, the Curse Brand development is taking longer than I'd like.' Ebony read through some of the other less obvious skill refinements.

Although the skill increased his base increment of Intelligence effect for many spells, nowadays even a 500% improvement wasn't enough to make a big difference in the battles he jumped into or jumped at him. If he really thought about it, that was merely 50 levels difference for a Tier 4 skill or 20 for a Tier 5 skill. With skill levels reaching the thousands, base improvement of a few hundred per cent was not making a big difference

❅❅❅

Ebony worked himself to all his natural potential limits.

He was already close so not even half a year had passed since he left the Dungeon. He was left with the feeling of pushing a steel wall for all his current skills except for his Core, Unique and some untouched Generic Skills.

Dusk had been returned to his home not long ago.

Sophia had started a company, recognized by the Empire. It would take more than money to be recognized by Hex as a proprietor, smaller than a merchant group but a recognized business.

Ebony now owned close to 10% of the farmland that the Empire has in Tidal.

Sophia looked through the machinery that Ebony was interested in but they were from another region. Transport would take another year or so before the first trial batch arrives.

In the meantime, she hired the services of some farmer guilds in the Three Great Farms to manage the soil profile and prepare the lands for agriculture.

He didn't know how she did it but some farmer guilds moved over to Tidal just for their farm. As much as he didn't like it, hiring a temporary service from them wasn't too bad. He did give her the freedom to do whatever she wanted.

Some of them are already growing soil fertility increasing crops to prepare the soil for more demanding crops and special plants.

The new businesswoman, having quit her day job permanently had been busy trying to buy land from the Three Great Farms but that was Empire-owned lands not for sale.

He was persuaded against buying soil since Elcra had a small amount of Ancient-quality soil. Imported soil had a deadline before they were infected by Worldcore's essence; it was not viable for large scale production.

Then, he wasn't even sure how. But they were now the proud owner of a 'nearby' Rare Worldcore. Sophia had initially given it to him but he made it a point that it was company or jointly owned.

It was owned by a group of explorer Emperors who didn't care for developing lands and just wanted quick cash.

There were no indigenous people like the Elcrians on this planet or the Altarbound Kin on Teheil.

It was small, less than 7000 km in diameter. The highest level of Grandmaster creatures found weren't above 400. With only 2 dungeons across the entire Worldcore and planet.

It was also cheaper than he'd imagine a planet was worth in monetary value. At merely 🜋143 billion, one could be the owner of an entire planet.

Ebony hadn't had the time to ask what Sophia planned to do with the Worldcore. The low-quality Worldcore was far less suitable for farming valuable crops compared to the land he'd already owned on Elcra.

It was too far away for him to send any Clones to mine the Dungeon of its resources. Too low quality for anyone capable of Worldcore travel to bother going so they won't exactly be earning any taxes or entry fees from people.

It was purely untapped assets and resources now.

At the moment, a pair of Emperors were living there. As part of the acquisition contract they would protect the Worldcore for ten years. In the meantime, all profits from the Dungeons were theirs.

That seemed like an even better deal to him but he wouldn't know. It might take hundreds of years to earn back the capital investment from a low-quality Worldcore. But Ebony didn't care, this was just a fun side project, and he had a feeling it wouldn't take that long.

He didn't have that kind of money but thanks to Sophia's research, he was now in debt to Hex's bank. He was given a very high credit score from Hex and could easily borrow more money. She seemed to have contracted a supplier for mana absorption power plants.

It was more common to siphon a Worldcore's mana than he'd imagined. Due to the small planet, the astronomical costs would be well under budget.

"If it's so simple with technology already developed, wouldn't every Worldcore already have been owned," Ebony asked Hex.

"Few have the money or power to do so. In this Sector, you're the one with the highest credit score. You borrowed 200 billion 🜋, do you know how much that is?"

Ebony thought about it properly, even for him that would be around 2 to 4 decades of not spending any mana assuming he could increase his regeneration. That was 20 trillion points of universal standard mana, accounting for inefficiencies in conversion and the absorption loss, 25 trillion wouldn't be a far estimation.

"We anticipate that you won't die and will pay your debt back. Too many variables can cause one to lose profit, getting attacked and conquered is one. And there are more Worldcores out there than you would think, your proprietorship is clearly going into the real estate business. You are investing, and so are we. Hence, our willingness to lend this much." The interest rate Hex was charging was a mere 1.5% per standard year.

Ebony put the business side of things away since he wouldn't be seeing a profit soon. Since he had a confirmed date range, there was a good chance Veronica was back and divined their favourite and most suitable date.

Luck was real, if the master divination mage thought there was a difference between the date her granddaughter was to marry, Ebony was inclined to believe it.

He wrote a letter to request a spar with Ning Xun and had it sent by an ice pigeon with Will imbued.

There was only enough Will to deliver a message and he'd already mentally trained himself to embody the shape of a bird and a couple of other animals's forms. They were a lot easier than bending his mind to think of itself as a sphere.

He didn't have any permanent Will Relay Buffers on Sky's Edge so there was no way to charge the short-lived spell unless he let the pigeon drag a long line of buffers like a wired connection using gravity as its cable.

It was possible but there was no need to do that for a letter. Letting the pigeon disperse without gaining any 'experience' back was hardly a loss for a job that would take a few minutes.

This would be his new method of spreading Will Relay Buffers. It would be more stealthy but not necessarily faster than his Clones Flickering.

However, using his clones tends to have them attract monsters which may slow them down. His clones may also get distracted by interesting mana signatures, causing them to pause and investigate.

Temporary birds were so easy to cast and low maintenance he could conjure dozens, even hundreds to spread out in different directions. Actively pulsing mana to scan across all of them would only eat into his mental processing power. He could map out Elcra dozens of times faster with this over his Clones.

With Mana Discern, he would scan too many creatures for his brain to handle if the area was too wide and the creature density was high. It would decrease his accuracy rate as well if mana starts to mix with a large number of people or anything producing mana.

Currently, the Pigeon Scout, Wolf Explorer and Turtle Fort have specific runic formulas that enhance their individual purposes.

The Pigeon Scout was a speedy cartographer with flight and speed-related runes but was comparatively fragile due to its light body giving it a bigger speed advantage. Ebony also gave its runic formula some mana hiding capabilities but it was nothing grand for the small conjuration.

The Wolf Explorer was his combatant, with balanced speed and power. Ebony understood the structure and movements of a wolf well and it was suitable for travel and some combat wouldn't deter it.

The Turtle Fort was designed after Ful, it had a tree above its back just like Dusk.

A giant Will Relay Buffer so to speak. Ebony didn't have the resources to support another Domain Core. He played an obvious favourite and focused on creating the runic formulas for the Turtle Fort the most because he already had Dusk which was his masterpiece with runic development.

As for the turtle body itself, it could vary in whatever size he wanted just like the Pigeon or Wolf but it was the most dense.

Ebony had long looked through the net for more suitable materials for Will Relay Buffers.

Crystals seem to be the best type of materials when it came to Will but after testing them, he found that the difference was as little as 2% and it increased marginally with quality.

There was nothing in the markets that specifically advertised Will-enhancing crystals or anything of the sort so he could only order as many clear crystals as he could from a reputable crystal seller.

Ancient-ranked Worldcores were rarer than he'd like because the closest one with a sizable crystal deposit was three sectors away. He needed them in raw form to experiment so it was cheap enough that he could afford it without a loan.

The Turtle Fort could conjure Pigeons, Wolves and facilitate the transfer of multiple clones at the same time. Something that a simple Will Relay Buffer would struggle to accomplish without breaking.

It could handle greater transfer loads of mana thanks to each of them having an identical power source as Dusk but instead of being a metre in diameter, they were fist-sized.

A Turtle Fort the size of Gen would be a tenth-thousandth as indestructible as Dusk itself.

Just one of them might accomplish what Ebony could against the Tetramyths back then.

However, they were just like Dusk. Too heavy to move by the current strength of his Will. They were slow even with gravity magic because they didn't have a gravity cube of their own.

Ebony would have to exert his mental strength to manually control them if he wanted them to have speed equal to any other creation of his. They were made their current sizes because any bigger and he wouldn't be able to move them manually like with Dusk who had to be moved by space magic.

Imbuing Will seems to give an object the reluctance to be moved from the space they were imbued in.

He caressed the head of the fourth Turtle Fort he made before dropping it off the island to land on the sea between Elva and Tova on Elcra.

How could he leave an entire continent unexplored?

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