"Next up… the armor," Lev announced and thought for a few seconds. "Yeah, that's about it, beyond working on creating permanent items and weapons. Can you keep an eye out for me?"

Sherron nodded and flew out of the bubble before ascending high into the air. Lev could still observe her form that instantly traveled several kilometers with slight difficulties, though it still gave him great peace of mind to see her up there. The windstrider warg encounter was still fresh on his mind, and Monarch knew what could jump out of the Dreadwoods.

Sighing quietly, Lev refocused on his armor. The enhancement formation was running on full, it's effectiveness improved by the overloaded state. Keeping it like that was costly, but he now had a lot of mana to spare.

Putting the effects of Arcane Passage to the test, a small amount of lightning streamed into his armor, affecting its connection to his mind in an entirely new way. Lev had to blink several times when he felt the armor becoming faster, somehow. He couldn't explain the sensation even if he wanted to.

"This is so cool," he spoke out loud. "I don't even need to move, the imbuement takes effect immediately."

His hands twitched at the thought of his glaive that he couldn't hold any longer. Shaking his head, Lev looked around to where Alec had parked the bubble. Below them, another group of treants was gradually gliding towards the city.

Stepping out of an opening in the bubble, Lev landed a few dozen meters away. Roots and wood bolts immediately sought to impale him as the monsters picked up speed, but none of the attacks even came close to landing.

Lev marveled as his armor responded far more fluidly than ever before. With a slight nudge of his mind, it ducked smoothly under the first projectiles while kicking the air to jump sideways. Dodging the rest was as easy as simply moving out of the way, for his much improved perception made the task trivial.

Upping the amount of lightning imbuing his armor, he prepared himself before rushing ahead. Each treant was much larger than he and possessed several thick branches for arms, but none of them mattered as Lev weaved between all of their attacks with contemptuous ease, reaching their main bodies without breaking a sweat.

Blue, crackling mana gathered in his right leg as he spun mid-air, kicking one of the treant's trunks with all his might. Bark and wood had yet to be shattered fully when lightning joined in, explosively announcing its presence by digging deep into the monster's body and easily killing it on the spot as its branches were set alight from the inside.

Lev had a huge grin on his face as he darted out of the way of stray attacks, never letting the other monsters out of sight. The moment his feet touched the ground again, it exploded in dirt and pebbles from his abrupt movement as he launched himself at the second monster.

A small but noticeable trail of lightning was left in his wake as even more lightning streamed into his armor, Lev unable to control all of it for now. The sheer speed he moved at was too much for the monsters to handle, and six more explosive impacts sounded the end of the treant horde.

[

You have slain [Treant - Level 219]

…

You have slain [Treant - Level 221]

]

Small cracks spread in his armor's limbs as the total amount of lightning mana became too much and overwhelmed its conductivity. Lev winced and stopped the channel while observing the consequences.

Minor structural damage, but it was ramping up too quickly, he frowned and dove deeper into the mental feedback. The conductivity is definitely quite a bit higher than before, and using the high-quality infused sap will likely make it good enough for my purposes. Let's see after I'm done.

Half an hour of wanton monster slaughter later, he was back in the bubble with Orianna, Sherron, and Alec.

"Enchantments?" Alec questioned as they tried to predict the extent of the upgrades brought by the evolution.

"The armor sees the best effects in that regard," Lev answered, lost in thought. "Both the enhancement formation and the raw mana control are way more fluid, and the runes themselves felt more responsive as compared to the cannon I made. Of course, it also requires me to keep the armor overloaded at all times, which is thankfully cheap enough to cost less than my regeneration."

"And durability?"

"Much better," he smiled. "Direct attacks from treants and panthers barely stressed the armor. Normal shields should have seen similar improvements, and now I can even use better durability formations to empower them."

Alec nodded. "While I can't be certain, the next step in your enhancement formation probably revolves around durability as well."

"You think so?" Lev tilted his head slightly. "Is it likely to cover my arms or legs?"

"No," came the quick response. "If it gets too big, you can both reduce its size and take it to the back of your torso. Your limbs will probably remain untouched."

"Perfect," Lev remarked and created a barrier mold around himself. A small container of sap appeared in his hand, one that had cost two whole platinum. Granted, he had way more money now after selling all the cores from the waves and dungeon clears, but it still stung.

"Can we park somewhere?" he voiced and created a simple mechanism to loop the sap. "I want to treat the armor before moving further with the testing."

"What for?" Orianna finally spoke. Lev turned to her with a wide smile.

"I'm glad you asked! You see, everywhere I go, people casually sling spells as if they don't cost anything, whereas I have to work for every little bit of magic. Sooo, I came up with a solution, for which I need the improved conductivity."

Setting up the treatment station didn't take long. With a bit of air pressure conjured by Alec, a loop was set up for the costly sap to empower his armor with no wastage. Every iteration was going to consume a small amount of it, which was a price Lev was willing to pay. In time, he was going to find second-threshold treants by himself to create more of the sap.

Gently, Lev grabbed the glass sap container with a barrier hand and tilted it on top of his head, letting it slide down the small opening on top of the armor mold. The thick, viscous liquid slowly moved down his armor's bulk, demanding small amounts of mana as it went. He supplied it without holding back and settled in to wait as the sap did its thing.

One major change after Master was that Lev didn't have to worry about the treatment being temporary. Turning his armor intangible was going to keep the effects, and as long as the armor didn't shatter, he wouldn't need to improve it again.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Minutes passed as he focused on the changes taking place, once again failing because only Monarch knew how the hell the sap worked. Somehow, none of it made sense despite the straightforwardness.

Half an hour later, his armor possessed considerably better conductivity. Lev cycled lightning mana through its entirety, nodding at the clear difference. The expensive infused sap was far more effective than the one Lev had used before, and it showed.

"Moment of truth," Lev mumbled under his breath and started carving his armor. Runes started forming from the elbows over several minutes, reaching his palms by the time the formation was finished.

Alec laughed once he realized what the formation was intended for. Lev grinned at him, knowing his mentor would understand.

A small surge of lightning entered his armor's right hand, where it was grabbed and molded into a bolt of waiting potential. Lev didn't let willpower take over and manually consumed a bunch of the mana, with the help of several shaping runes, and fired it at the other end of the bubble.

With a loud crackle, a lightning bolt burst out of his palm and impacted the bubble's wall, dispersing into erratic static after failing to damage it. Lev wasn't deterred and glanced at his mentor, who didn't need to be told twice. Seconds later, Lev flew out of the bubble and aimed his right palm at the panther in the distance, hidden by several trunks.

Okay, first, input the mana, Lev mentally tracked as he followed his own instructions. Then, take full control of it. Now, power the runes responsible for shaping it into a bolt and renew your control aaaaand….

He had to close his eyes as a massive streak of lightning shot out of his arm, searing the air in its passing as it tore through the air. The panther flinched when the attack missed by a large margin, blowing a hole through a black trunk behind it, yet instead of running, it charged Lev.

A second overloaded lightning bolt disintegrated most of its front, proving that the test was way more than just a mere success. High on the accomplishment, he flew around and looked for a new monster. It turned out to be a flock of harpies, which might as well be a gift from Monarch.

Fire and lightning streamed into his armor's arms as the responsible formations came alive, taking hold of both of them. Lev aimed his palms at the approaching group while flying back to keep distance, never cutting off the channel into his enhancement formation.

Like one, a super-compressed fireball and a huge lightning bolt came out of his hands and flew forward as a blur and landed on the leading monster, destroying most of its body in a large blast. Lev's grin widened when he felt the explosion empowered by his class skill, raising the power of the enchantments even further.

Quick like the wind, he never stopped darting between the trees, always maintaining a safe distance to avoid getting overwhelmed by their numbers. Not like they could at this point, but Lev was more interested in testing ranged attacks.

Death rained down on the harpies without pause, taking them down one by one. Some of the fireballs, the slower of the two attacks, missed the nimble monsters, but each hit killed one of them without fail.

Lightning bolts didn't spare them a quarter. Dodging them was nigh impossible, and Lev was experienced enough to predict their straightforward evasion patterns. Every bolt landed with the power of an antipersonnel tank shell, blowing a hole through their tough bodies before either piercing through or blowing up on the spot, depending on the angle and point of impact.

When there were only three of the monsters left, Lev slowed down. The harpies didn't miss a beat in pouncing right into his testing. His armor shone brightly as a torrent of lightning mana imbued it, amplifying his speed manifold as he lunged. Right arm outstretched, it took less than a blink for his palm to hit the first harpy's chest.

A point-blank lightning bolt blew out of its back, destroying both its torso and the core but Lev was already moving ahead. Deflecting a wing with his arm, he turned to the second monster that was moments away from biting his shoulder.

Both his hands shot forward and grabbed its beak, keeping it from closing down on his shoulder blade and neck. A strained smile formed on his face when he found himself on the losing end in terms of strength, and he put an end to the fight by lighting up both of the formations on his arms.

The world turned bright orange and blue when fire and lightning roared out of his hands, eviscerating the monster's upper half as the blast continued to uproot and destroy resilient trees in its wake, leaving a deep groove for dozens of meters in the ground. His armor was considerably damaged from the channel and exertion, and he hastily fixed it while repairing the slightly messed-up runes in the responsible formations.

For the last monster, Lev had different plans. Enhancement formation had remained overloaded throughout, yet only now was he going to properly test its recently expanded limits.

Darting into the monster's range, Lev was smacked away by one of its wings. The strength in that attack told him that the monster was significantly stronger than the rest of its dead group, which was amazing as far as he was concerned.

The armor showed only the barest signs of strain from the monster's raw power as he flew back with a loud shockwave of air, one borne of the impressive impact. A grin remained on his face all the while, only growing wider as the extent of the evolution kept proving far better than he had initially suspected.

Controlling his flight, Lev flew in a straight line, eyeing the monster's wings that twitched for a brief instant. Knowing what was coming, he abruptly halted just outside of its range as its left wing moved, missing him by a hair's breadth. Lev didn't just let it pass by, and grabbed it with both his hands.

A screech escaped the monster as his grin turned feral. With a grunt of exertion, Lev pulled the giant monster overhead. Unable to contend with the sheer strength brought about by his mind and the enhancement formation, the harpy was dragged overhead, at which point he smashed it to the ground with all his might.

Dust and wood rose amidst a large crater, but the monster was barely fazed. Lev wasn't done either and hadn't let go of its wing. Again and again, he brought it up and smashed it into the ground, only minorly damaging it each time but accurately testing his strength as the harpy thrashed amongst loud, warbling cries.

When it almost freed itself from his hold, Lev turned its own momentum against it. Instead of throwing it downward, he spun in a circle, swinging the monster double his size along with it.

Trunk after trunk shattered as Lev never released his unrelenting grip. When it started to flag for the first time, he decided to finally end it. Flying up, the monster put up one last titanic struggle, but he wasn't having any of it.

Talons scratched against his armor, leaving minor gouges without accomplishing much else. Its beak sought to impale or bite him several times, but the harpy's bulk worked against it. When they were high enough, Lev started streaming fire and lightning into his arms.

The monster failed to right itself in time when he abruptly let go of it. Not giving it any chances, he immediately grabbed one of its talons instead. With a gulp, he tried one final test and started rotating on the spot. His strength once again overwhelmed the harpy's discordant resistance as it followed along, spinning around him.

Faster and faster, he increased his rotation speed until a classless human would only see a round blur. When dizziness started to set in, Lev made use of all the gathered centripetal force and threw it at the ground.

The harpy landed with the force of a meteor, blowing up a huge cloud of dust that nearly reached the human floating above, both of his palms facing downward. A mere second of the impact later, a super condensed fireball and an overloaded lightning bolt followed, directly hitting the downed monster.

Dust and wood were washed away as the titanic blast expanded rapidly. Lev didn't move, trusting his armor to protect him as he took it all in with wide eyes. In just an instant, he was enveloped by the explosion of his own efforts. The very air he breathed became extremely hot, yet it failed to damage his much stronger physique.

The evolution hadn't just increased his Constitution attribute significantly, but its effectiveness was also quite a bit higher. Consequently, the temperature barely hurt his body despite standing above a mushroom of crackling flames.

Even more importantly, all the mana he had used barely affected his body, telling him in no uncertain terms that he could use far more of it in quick succession. On the other side of that coin, Lev's grin turned nervous when he noticed his pool.

During the entire fight and his previous testing, the armor was constantly overloaded, and the enhancement formation was always running at full throttle. The new attack formations also ate a lot of it, and the speed he flew at also demanded significantly more mana. Yet, his pool was still hovering near full, a side-effect of his insane regeneration and, most importantly, the ridiculous capacity.

Throughout all of that, Lev hadn't even used a twentieth of his total mana.

[

You have slain [Forest Harpy - Level 298]

You have slain [Forest Harpy - Level 291]

…

You have slain [Forest Harpy - Level 338]

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 252

]

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