"There were two hundred of them?" the strategist asked again, still struggling to believe the report. "Two hundred trolls, including four second-threshold shamans and an even stronger commander. Why did you not retreat, Hunter Lev?"

Lev suppressed his smile as best as he could. "Because I didn't need to? You will hear from your scouts soon enough."

"I will," the strategist nodded. "As a matter of fact, I would like to know right now."

One of the scouts gulped before speaking up. "All four of the shamans died in a single hit. They tried to defend themselves with ice walls but the lightning bolts overwhelmed them. The commander also died in two hits from Hunter Lev's glaive."

"… Is that correct?" the strategist looked at the second scout.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Why are you worried?" Lev asked bluntly. "I made sure that no monster got past me while fighting that horde."

"Please, just try to consider my point of view too," she exhaled, almost pleading. "Nearly five hours ago, we started feeling tremors from your scouting route. The diviners didn't sense any trouble, and since you didn't retreat or ask for backup, we assumed you had it under control. Now you're telling me that you've been battling trolls close to level 300 all that time? Not only that, they are also monsters much stronger than average. Just… how? We know for a fact that new Master teams can't fight troll hordes with multiple shamans and a commander of such level for nearly as long."

"Well," Lev scratched his head. "When you put it like that, the whole thing does sound somewhat insane. However, the truth is exactly what you see. I am capable of fighting such foes for hours straight. Not sure what else I can tell you. Arcane classes excel at prolonged combat."

"I see," she sighed. "I will also report the whole thing as is. Do you mind?"

"No. Whoever needs to know is already aware of me."

Ten minutes of ironing out some details later, Lev was flying back to the city, surprisingly tired. The suns had finished rising not long ago, meaning there was still some time until he had to take his team to white grove.

Since he had time, Lev took a cold shower and jumped into bed for the next few hours.

Someone knocked on his door after just two hours, which was enough sleep for him. Stretching, Lev quickly washed his face and did his hair before opening the door.

Kayla stood there, more nervous than usual. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yep," Lev smiled. "But I was going to wake up soon anyway. What's up?"

"I… um. Maybe you should hear it from the other two," she quickly said and turned on her heel, swiftly marching to Amelia's room. The rest of his team was waiting inside, subdued like Kayla.

"Hmm," Lev's gaze roamed over them, feeling oddly excited. "Out with it already. I can tell it's nothing bad."

He sat down on an empty chair next to the dining table, whereas his team sat together on the large bed's edge, sharing meaningful glances.

"Can you take us on one of your patrols?" Amelia blurted out, then immediately dropped her gaze to the ground. "Well, you talked about how you're abnormally strong and all the Exalted are also expecting great things from you…"

"So you want to see me fight?" Lev questioned back, keeping his tone gentle and amused. Internally however, he was trying his best to keep down the bubbling panic. He was already attracting more than usual monsters despite his concealed presence, and if his team was to join him?

That sounded like tempting fate. If anything was meant to go wrong, it was going to go wrong during that patrol.

Then rational thinking took over after a second. There was no reason to reject their request outright, either. Taking three Classers close to the forest was too dangerous, more so than anything Lev was comfortable doing. But it was still manageable, especially because he could request Orianna or Sherron to keep an eye on them from afar. That would minimize the dangers and also allow Lev to let loose in front of his teammates a little.

"Yes," she finished meekly.

"Hmm," Lev pretended to think for a moment. "Sure, why not? I will have to make sure that nothing comes up till tonight, then you guys can accompany me in the bubble."

That would give him enough time to contact the two women and ask if one of them was willing to look over them. If not, Lev would have to come up with an excuse to refuse.

****

"I'm free for a few days," Sherron commented after Lev inquired about her schedule. They were both sitting in Orianna's office, though the fire mage herself was absent. "What happened?"

"Nothing serious," Lev smiled. "My team made their first ever request, and I couldn't exactly refuse them. I just want you to keep an eye on us during tonight's patrol. There's no way it will be a peaceful one."

"And you already agreed?"

"Nope. Said that if nothing comes up, they can accompany me."

"But in reality, you just wanted someone to watch over you," Sherron finished for him, nodding approvingly. "I'll tail you from out of sight. You can stop hiding completely if you wish to show off. Knowing you, though…"

Lev grinned sheepishly. "That was the plan."

****

[Warrior - Level 60]

[Warrior - Level 60]

[Mage - Level 59]

The three tired hunters stepped into his bubble, immediately slumping into their comfortable seats. Lev didn't fly away immediately, waiting for the usual report from his teammates.

"Nothing new today," Kayla, the least worn out of them all, spoke up. "A few skill levels across the board. Same for class levels. Going at this rate, we will need a few months to just reach level 100."

"That is if we keep fighting monsters of the same level," Lev casually added, making all three stiffen for a moment. "Windkeep has a lot of silver dungeons. You guys can handle them rather easily."

Nobody spoke after that, already aware of what Lev had planned for them. The bubble silently rose from its position, ascending for several hundred meters before flying towards Windkeep at high speed. He didn't even need to ask everyone to close their eyes, they were already used to it.

Dusk was mere minutes away, but they had already enjoyed the natural scenery plenty of times. Lev's patrol was still a few hours away, so they first went to their rooms to freshen up.

The Gathering quest starts at noon, Lev recalled, making mental notes of his plans. It will last for two weeks at most, which is far too much time for something to go wrong. Guess I can't put off the constructs any longer.

Showering took all of two minutes before he was back in his bubble, hovering far above Whitefall. All of the stealth formations were running at maximum as he formed two more bubbles. Silently, they finished taking form over a few minutes, their creation slowed to swiftly enchant them as well, both of them significantly smaller than his main bubble.

Only when they were fully invisible did Lev start carving in earnest. The first thing he did was form another three galecannons atop the bubbles, bringing the total to nine. Secondly, he created new ones on the sides of each spherical construct.

Now that he was comfortable with his improved mental faculties, Lev went with a new turret design. If before they were completely fixed, requiring the bubble to turn to aim them, now there was a simple locking mechanism.

Similar to how large military vehicles had large turrets that could only swing in a wide arc, Lev's turrets were also locked in horizontal movements. It was the reason why the new bubbles were also smaller. Where his galecannons needed his mental strength to counter the recoil for the most part, these ones would be too rigid to worry about it.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The force would spread into his bubble, which was going to be under his tight control. Since he already held them in place firmly, the added recoil wasn't going to matter much. Hopefully.

Other than that, he was going to aim by spinning the bubble in the desired direction. It was largely a test and another method of training his mind, something he was doing quite often now that he thought about it.

I mean, he argued with himself, more mental power never hurt anyone, right?

It was that simple. Lev went ahead with enchanting them, which was the next big step in crafting a lethal arsenal that followed him around. Air bullets were nice and all, but they lacked one lethal component that made Lev's class truly deadly.

Explosions.

As it stood, wind bullets only received bonuses to their speed and penetration power. Something like a fireball however, also blew up with vengeance. Each of his explosive attacks was empowered by up to 75%, an absolutely insane limit when one considered that it applied to the entire thing. That left a single option that benefited the most from all three bonuses.

Lightning bolts. They were fast, they naturally dug through flesh, and they exploded with enough fuel behind them. It was the perfect attack, really.

Therein lay the greatest issue, the one he was still the most uncertain about. Beatrice had once asked why he didn't go ahead with using fire or lightning cannons in his bubble, and the answer back then was simple. He lacked the training and mental power to shape them.

Now, his Mana Manipulation had evolved once more, which meant that it was inherently stronger even when ignoring its unique 'flavor.' Lev was wary of lightning formations before because no skills took over their workings. It was entirely his mind responsible for shaping the mana and controlling the runes, which needed to be strong enough before even considering the element.

The whole issue existed solely because of the amount of mana he needed to use. A single mishap would be the end of his bubbles, which was obviously not desirable.

Let's get to it, then, Lev thought and looked at the runes he had available. They were… basic, to say the least. A rune that took lightning as input, another that held the shaped lightning in place, and the last one was the same acceleration rune he used for the wind bullets. Unlike the lightning bolt formation on his armor, the one on his bubbles was designed to be spammable, firing short bursts of lightning reminiscent of bullets or darts.

Carving the runes took all of ten minutes before he had four prototypes ready, the cannons only present on the smaller secondary bubbles for the increased maneuverability and control due to their low weight.

Lev had a few more complex runes that worked with lightning, but the cannons hadn't even been fired once. He was going to test them thoroughly before advancing further, and it wasn't like he was comfortable with the current simple two-dimensional non-willpower runes. There was truly a long road ahead of him in the profession of crafting.

Half an hour of tinkering with the formations and planning future improvements later, he descended back to the roof of Golden Basilisk, leaving his bubbles parked above and checking up on his team.

They were already waiting for him, and so was Sherron, far above the city.

"Did you have to wait long?" Lev asked, staring at their getup. All of them were still in their armor, only cleaner after showers washed away the dirt and monster blood.

"Only a few minutes," Kayla replied as they stood up. "Where are we going?"

"To the roof."

Not long after, they were all present in his bubble. As usual, Lev walked through the gates, briefly exiting the bubble with his team, before flying straight to the scout castle. His shift was about to start, and reporting for duty was mandatory while his team waited on the wall.

"Alright, so," Lev began, thinking about what to say. "Chances are, most of the night will pass without anything remotely dangerous, so I'll risk it a little."

"… Why?" Jack asked, his expression matching the question.

"Why not?" Lev replied with a grin. "I'm not going to go rouse the whole forest, just gonna attract monsters from around us. Hopefully weak ones, that is."

"That's not wise," Kayla spoke up with a small scowl, not wanting to seem rude to Lev. His expression dimmed at that.

"Fine, fine," Lev snorted lightly. Predictably, Amelia looked disappointed, but she still didn't voice anything. The dangers were obvious.

Taking a deep breath, Lev slowly coaxed his always-hidden aura to reveal itself. When it had become the norm to keep it inside his body, he didn't know. It was always concealed now, shrouding his emotions from those too good at reading auras.

The tamed, clear aura slowly spread out, noticeable from the pale faces of his team. When around a tenth of it was hovering around him freely, he exhaled and looked at the other three.

"I know it feels horrible," he said, eyes soft and understanding. "But you guys need to bear with it. The quicker you get used to it, the faster I can start fighting with it at full output. Auras are necessary to keep away harmful influences, after all."

"W-we understand," Amelia wheezed, tightly clutched the armrest of her chair. Discreetly, Lev reduced the intensity of his aura at a negligible rate, unwilling to see his team shivering in their boots because of him. Even if the emotion wasn't rational, it still hurt to see them like that.

Training in his aura could come later. They had time.

Minutes passed as they slowly flew towards the starting point of his route. It was quite a way away from the scout castle when not moving at full speed, but monsters still found him first.

Curiously enough, the stray trolls on the ground could tell that Lev was hovering somewhere above. Yet, they couldn't pinpoint the aura's origin, their eyes fruitlessly roaming the skies.

"Focus," Lev clapped once loudly, startling his teams enough that they broke through the spell of his aura's influence. "Down below are our first adversaries— trolls. Let me show you clearly."

A small fireball burst out of his left palm, aimed at the ground. It fluidly passed through a small hole in the bubble, formed and closed in a blink, before landing a bit away from the four trolls, lighting up the dark plains more than the dim light of the two moons.

"What level are those?" Kayla asked, sweat flowing down the side of her head. A determined frown remained on her face, just as it did for the other two. They were unwilling to be cowed by an obviously partially revealed aura.

If only they knew what the full strength of it would do to them. Lev supposed they would in time.

[Troll Warrior - Level 198]

[Troll Warrior - Level 197]

…

"Nearly two hundred," Lev answered casually. "About my fighting style, it's pretty simple. Conserve mana, and do not hesitate to use it all at once."

Three pairs of flat eyes met his own, causing Lev to smile. "Basically, I have a fuck ton of mana. There's absolutely no doubt about that, and it's only complemented even further by Stargazer's massive storage. Now, let's consider me going out with Drakys and fighting the first wave of hordes waiting for the mappers. What should be my priority?"

"Save mana to last as long as possible?" Jack guessed based on the earlier comment.

"Correct," Lev nodded, slipping into a lecturing tone without even realizing it. "But what am I saving mana for, then?"

"For the greater threats," Amelia answered this time, sure of her answer.

"Correct once again. However, I am the bearer of Wisdom Boost. Do I really need to be saving mana at every corner? The galecannons on all my bubbles even have cores slotted into them, so I don't have to manually power them."

"Maybe?" she uncertainly answered.

"The answer is yes," Lev smiled. "Thing is, my class doesn't specialize in anything. Most of my current bonuses are ones that can be found even in strong Adept classes, so I need to compensate with the large amounts of mana. Sure, some of them are very high, but they're not directly useful. At the end of the day, I usually end up firing attacks like this one…"

Reeling in all of his aura, Lev left the bubble through a swiftly formed opening. The trolls immediately noticed him, roaring at the top of their lungs when the prey finally presented itself.

He took it all in with tired eyes, making sure not to let his team accidentally see them. Most of what he had just said was a lie, except it was also true. For weaker second-threshold monsters, Lev had no need to use anything more than mere puffs of mana. Just highly enchanted lances were going to be plenty, and the trend would continue up to mid-three hundreds, a level no one took lightly.

But he could, and yet, he had just lied to his team.

In fact, it was nothing short of subtle manipulation. Lev also needed to struggle to kill strong monsters, and had often faced situations where he couldn't do anything but flee and hope for the best.

Except, all of that was only true by his standards. If his abilities were public knowledge, nobody would call him anything other than abnormally strong. His team however, didn't know that. Lev could feel from their auras that they believed him, that even with a Wisdom Boost, he still struggled to put down actual threats sometimes. Only, the 'threats' were going to be the monsters that he was going to show them as dangerous, not what people commonly considered deadly.

It was sickening. He hoped they would see through the half-lies. Lev knew they were smart, especially Jack. The defender was the most level-headed of them all. He also hoped that, along with realizing just how much he was exaggerating the dangers and underplaying his abilities, they would also raise their 'weak monster' standards.

That was the end goal, towards which he was about to take the first step. After all, The System rewarded those who struggled towards their goals, and what better goal than being as strong as Lev, or even stronger?

No point in worrying about it, is there? He tried to rationalize his thought process, not succeeding whatsoever. Still better than them being too weak to survive whatever my presence attracts, at least.

Lev would just have to accept the aftermath.

Carefully keeping the bubbles behind him, he descended to the ground. Both of the trolls lunged at him, only to stop dead once two barrier ropes easily tied themselves around the monsters' waists.

Raising Stargazer in front of him, Lev dumped a large amount of lightning mana into its blade. The enchantments immediately noticed the input, taking out even more mana from the weapon's core and streamlining the process, amplifying the upcoming skill's lethality substantially.

Almost lazily, he flew back for nearly two hundred meters and swung the glaive in a horizontal arc. A storm of lightning roared out of it, shaped into a crescent by both his will and the skill.

Invisible shields and walls moved closer to the bubble with his team as the three-meter-wide lightning slash was fired, shearing through the trolls in a blink. Their charred corpses hadn't even begun dropping to the ground before the attack reached the ground several dozen meters behind them, aimed lower to impact the ground instead of flying straight for hundreds of meters.

Yet again, the collision proved insufficient to unravel the slash's form as it continued carving a large gouge through the dirt, leaving behind a trail of lightning. It continued on for dozens of meters before finally losing cohesion, erupting in a majestic and daunting tower of blue. The cloud of lightning blew up violently a second after, illuminating the dark night and attracting monsters from far and wide.

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