"Congratulations again, I felt like I couldn't say that properly during your wedding." Mallory stood up and poured them both tea with practised motions.

The Crown Princess understood their preference for quaint places and didn't get a fancy restaurant booked but one on a quieter side of the city.

"I know you're not here to listen to small talk so I'll be direct before you may go on your way Ebony."

"Sure. And I'm staying?" Xin replied for him

"I've invited Athena too, we can go shopping after."

Ebony busied himself with the cake with a thin layer of candy with air folded in and sculpted into some fancy decoration.

"Anyway, would you like to join Tidal Academy?" Mallory dropped her question.

"School? Sure, I'll send a Number."

"Great! I'm sure to send you the best students."

"What? I'm the student right?"

"...Who are you expecting we send to teach you? I can't name anyone with better mana manipulation than you other than possibly the Elven Archducal family and the Matriarch herself. And when it comes to combat...No, I was hoping you'd teach a class."

'I supposed I am a Grandmaster, just like Sister Jing who took me as a student when she was a Grandmaster. I can learn a thing or two from teaching, I even learned somethings from Kiva. It's worth a Number's time.' He reached a decision as fast as the relevation that he was getting hired not being offered a student's role.

"I am interested, I accept. May I decided what or who to teach?"

"I'll make what you want happen. It's your choice what or who to teach." Her words seemed to got her a harsh glare from his wife who's eyes turned crimson for a moment.

"I'll teach combat. I'll take in anyone who wants to be strong and pass a simple test of mine."

"Word shall be spread through my academy whenever you are ready."

"My husband is always ready." Xin set her cup down loudly.

Thanks to that, he had to compile, forge and send complicated Will instructions to his Numbers immediately.

Mallory's growing discomfort was her problem, especially after she gave him one. He was trying to discover how to eat this dessert in peace here. His body was unable to move properly, his mana unable to coagulate or shift normally and his Will was still in shambles from the gift.

❅❅❅

"Where are we going?" Packed and dressed up, Xin plopped herself down on the passenger seat of their revamped trailer.

Both of them were bedridden for over two weeks and they got used to resting without getting their hands on each other, besides the embrace. Going to the tea party with Mallory really took a toll on them.

"The first thing I have planned is kayaking down the Ondrift River in Vermin Paradise." He double-checked everything by habit. Checking out his wife in a loosely fitted one-piece dress that covered almost all exposable skin to see if it was suitable.

He took her mask on her belt and placed it against her face but she puffed up her cheeks while rejecting it. "Am I too ugly to show?"

"You'll attract too much, would you give me the honour of being one of few and not many."

"Always sweet talking," She smiled, "if you charge me up." He gave her the kiss she wanted before the mask was placed.

Before long, they were out on the road. Just the drive out of Tidal took three hours.

Sky's Edge was scheduled to leave the vicinity and return to their previous journey today. They couldn't stay and give Ebony and Xin too much safety. In the same way Gen's presence would affect their gains, so did the Xengs' presence.

No matter their Intent, their mere presence pretty much made it so that Ebony and Xin's safety was not a concern. In some manner, it affected skill experience gain but the benefits outweighed the disadvantages over the past few years since there was too much that the two of them could learn.

The two Saints could come over any time with just a call through Eidolon and they wouldn't go out of range for the Kongs to send them over for at least another decade.

Two leisure days over where the newlywed couples had difficulty learning to cool things off with physical contact out in the open. While Ebony was in full control of himself, his wife's Intent always shifted after some time with the cuddling that she desired. And when her Intent shifted, he had no reason to reject.

Arriving at the scene with the Numbers having checked the area, he placed a sealing jewel on their Myriad Bracelet and activated it for both of them.

With both of them getting used to large volumes of life force and mana to control, they didn't need help from the Bracelet to hide their overflowing essences.

However, they received a special box to keep their bracelet or just the portable module of Eidolon if they were at home as part of their wedding gifts as well. They were assured that the box keeps Eidolon completely cut off, giving them more privacy from the group of spirits and the God of Knowledge.

The Bracelets were technically also 'Bonded' with them but Ebony didn't see that on his status page. However, he didn't like being so dependent on it that it felt like a chain so he preferred to take it off instead of just taking the portable module of Eidolon out. Now that he was outdoors and away from Dusk, he wasn't so willful anymore and obediently had the convenient item on him.

Ondrift River was Elva's biggest river and was in a valley within Vermin Paradise. Since his partner liked the thrill and new experiences were always welcomed, this was what he had on mind for the first activity on their honeymoon.

The thrill factor had to come from having normal strength.

The Numbers already scouted the entire valley so there wasn't anyone to peak on them.

Wearing just swim trunks he ushered Xin onto a kayak boat he bought. She took her mask off and was in one of the swimwear he made for her in the past, altered for her new size of course.

For once, they managed to keep their gaze off each other once they hit the waters. The raging current pushed their normal human limbs to struggle to control their vehicle.

Her excitable laugh was endlessly pleasant on his ears no matter how loud they got.

3 full hours passed before they reached a gentle part of the stream, slowly paddling downstream. It gave her the chance to pull out her picnic basket that survived the trip so far and feed him skewered quail eggs while he paddled.

She suddenly looked towards the right.

Following her gaze he listened but only heard something a full minute later.

[Lance Worm Lvl 397]

Having the aura of an unclassed human he wasn't surprised that something with weak essence signatures would come for him.

'The Numbers aren't working hard enough.' He considered how not to break the mood. The jewel in their bracelet was fully optional, it didn't take much to deactivate the enchantment. But it would defeat the purpose of having some thrill.

The 8 meter long and 2-meter-wide worm was scaled like a snake and had a sharp point on its head, it was ever ready to shoot forward into the suspiciously quiet river at the only 2 targets.

The couple's minds weren't reduced to the same capabilities of an unclassed human so they had plenty of time to watch the worm moving like a slug.

"Hmm, how about some fun together?" He decided to stop the Numbers or have Dusk cast any spells through the Will Relay Buffers situated across the riverbank and valleys.

With the mana and life force of an unclassed, her wife gently smiled while her other half surfaced.

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It was hard to cast a tier 4 or 5 skill with his mana suppressed so he cycled back to their older versions. His wife similarly pulsed her heart like old times instead of her constant power up.

Leaping off at the same time, the specially made kayak with high buoyancy to hold his mass dipped and pushed a dent into the river water.

The two of them leaned left and right as the faster creature spearheaded in between them. Icicle and the fiery twins sliced across the Lance Worm.

The couple were both sent onto the riverbed but they managed to hold their weapons firm.

"Tough skin." With the stats of an unclassed, even an extremely refined tier 3 skill enhancement they weren't nearly strong enough. Even with their Physique being unimpeded by the weakening effect, the Lance Worm had tougher skin than expected.

Splashing into the river water, the Lance Worm furiously flipped and flopped in an attempt to wash away the light blue and blackish-red flames.

Its blood began to dirty the waters as his ice magic didn't interfere with his wife's bleeding effect.

A blood halo formed above his wife's head but the halo faced forward. An ice shard formed within the encirclement and the blood halo seeped itself into the shard before he fired the spell.

However, the Lance Worm saw or felt it coming. No matter how far ahead Ebony could predict it was rather pointless in this case so he never planned for the shard to hit the target directly.

Splashing into the water, the shard explosively froze the river water around till it latched onto the Lance Worm. The ice shard was compressed 30 times over and had enough mana inside to achieve the feet. The experience of freezing large bodies of water helped a lot.

The Lance Worm had the ability to swim and it couldn't be directly frozen so it shattered the frozen waterbody and leapt out onto the frozen river. But Xin's halo already infected its bloodstream.

With a raised brow, her Intent exploded along with the Lance Worm's head.

While he watched the Worm's head explode into bloody pieces, his wife moved first to chase the espacing tail.

By the time his body could catch up with his mind's reaction and his calves snapped forward with his Clan Skill slightly changing Flicker, the Worm's previous tail end grew another sharp lance. As if it swapped its head's placement.

Even if both of them had all their magic to boost each other's speed it didn't appear likely they would catch up so he needed to slow the Lance Worm down instead.

However, just when he was going to manually fight the Worm's magic body with the ice mana stuck on the creature he had his Will Relay Buffer help and cheat the self-imposed rules for a moment for him to race after Xin.

Wrapping her up with a reflective armour, he figured he needed to make more resilient swimwear. He didn't snap her out of it but she stopped her chase after almost exposing her body completely.

Their flames finished the creature off in the distance. Since her blood halo infected it, the amount of fire mana charged inside the creature was pretty much inexhaustible for the low level monster.

"N-nobody saw right?"

"The area is locked down and my Will Relay Buffers constantly hide our form and figures." With a flick, they were seated back down on the kayak.

They stayed sealed even after the entire river trip which took 4 days in their states. Back on their trailer, they were able to fall asleep in each other's embrace without greater intimacy that they'd been getting into the habit of.

The next time was a culinary trip, from the Three Great Farms to the Dwarven Collective Village deep underground.

It was supposedly a secret city but one of his Numbers found them and was welcomed when they asked to study the Number's body in exchange for unrestricted access. They were quite hospitable to strangers.

Their defence system didn't even activate and questioned his presence nicely. They were aware of who he was before he even got there. Ebony was only able to find out that they were in contact with some Noble Dwarf in Tidal.

They cut the trip in that village short because the place wasn't made for 'giants' like them and he didn't want to destroy their home to widen the place.

After the culinary trip and hot spots they visited when they were Masters they intruded on Arcta but lived in the home they had there for two weeks.

The village was no longer closed off but Vent's whereabouts were unknown or they didn't want to tell him. They were in the late discussion of moving the entire village and combining it with their original village. At least there, they had a Domain protecting them.

He went to a frozen lake fishing with her and some of the villagers. They learnt a couple of folk songs during the Frost Elves Winter Festival.

Xin liked the sealing a lot because Kiva didn't have to be afraid of her. They seemed to bond with each other rather easily.

From there, he brought her out to sea but in proper battle gear.

"No more sealing?"

"Nope, we're gonna need whatever we've got."

"I'm excited to see what you have in store."

"I'll just tell you, we're going for sashimi. I've found the Jetfins' home, rulers of the ocean indeed. My Turtle Forts found over a thousand level 1000 Emperor Jetfins."

"The ice turtle sculpture you made? Those were quite tough."

"The Jetfins destroyed two Turtle Forts permanently including the power source." Ebony reported casually. He was rather interested to get those Jetfins after they overwhelmed his Turtle Forts.

Full speed ahead, they arrived on the surface of the ocean without delay.

"Careful, they are ice, heat, lightning, fire resistant and their magic body is as dense as the water they are surrounded by. The Grandmasters we fought in the air were 15 times slower flying in the air than in water, but the Emperors have even greater discrepancies. Did I mention they have a Domain? The Jetfins are Will users so we'll be fighting within their Domain where we are weakened." Actually, just him. Xin would probably be unhindered with her Intent unless the Jetfins Domain was stronger than he'd expected.

"Enough talk. I'm drooling remembering their sweet flesh." Red hair took over after she nudged her body against his.

Ebony deployed all his magic shields and the surrounding Turtle Forts that had been camping around this region.

Xin was irritated after a few moments because underwater fighting wasn't exactly for her.

He wanted to freeze the ocean here but the Jetfins didn't allow that, a horde of them generated water mana to take the place of the frozen water.

Their Domain was sadly flimsy despite being Emperors and having thousands of them, unlike the Apex Apes the Jetfins did not actively reject the Worldcore's Essence. They were monsters through and through. Their usage of Will was crude and easy to break down with the influence of his Will.

Xin merely cut through with her Intent and no debilitating effects of the Domain could affect her.

Seeing her frustrations about the water's weight, he acted in tandem with her blood orb and had sound magic evaporate the ocean with her.

Even if it didn't do any damage to the Jetfins who made underwater volcanoes their beds, removing the water would remove their advantage.

There was nothing complicated about the Jetfins' fighting patterns but they had the pure speed, strength and numbers underwater while the two humans were affected by the water. Even with his Will spread out, the Will infused water in the surroundings was making it hard to conjure anything as fast as he'd like.

Xin's eyes widened when a trio of Jetfins spun around each other while she got rammed by the largest Jetfin. Although she blocked the Jetfin with her swords, she was stuck and pushed by the charge against the water.

Having seen the combined spell coming, he was already in the midst of Flickering in between the fishes and their target.

The two humans blasted lightning all over them when they were blasted by the invisible current of water pressure.

Resisting the water pressure with gravity magic, he found himself covered in heatwaves.

"We got blasted up into the air." He reoriented both of them while Xin's wings of flames flapped open and pushed all the water away.

"Silly fishes." The steam covered the skies.

Three blood haloes rotated around an ice plum.

They dropped the spells that were charging in the skies in the past hour.

Tidal waves followed the seas eaten up by their spells.

"Puhah!" His wife wrapped her arms around his neck and let her strength go while the red died down. "I don't feel so bloated anymore." She said in relief after spending vast amounts of her life force and mana.

"Alright, wait for me. I'll collect them."

"We didn't destroy them all did we?"

Shaking his head, "every single Emperor died in one piece, I made sure the ice sealed them in good condition without the vibrations tearing them apart. Hmm, twenty of them survived but they are sealed so they are the freshest."

How could he forget to keep their flesh in good condition?

"Where are we going next?" Xin swung her feet back and forth in the trailer, feeding herself with raw Jetfins dipped in one of her experimental sauces.

"Out."

"Hmm?"

"Let's go out of Elcra, I've got our tickets."

"Oh? I'm getting uncertain where are we going?"

"Mm, want to go to Cinderash with me?"

"Didn't you say they were in lockdown?"

"I know this is rather silly. Scarlet Rhael…Xin." Ebony figured he better not say the word without the Xeng's present. "I'll protect you but, are you willing to suffer with me?"

"Let's go. Don't say losing words like that again. We haven't even tried and you're already thinking of losing."

He felt her Intent rising, getting more excited than he ever was.

'Are all living creatures this weird or is it just me?' Despite all the wishes that he wanted safety for his family, himself included, he just couldn't help diving into danger. Despite his certainty that he wasn't strong enough, he was still bringing her to the source of danger.

"Don't need to think so hard, it's just in our blood. Just. Just don't leave me alone anymore."

He loved how she felt his emotions.

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