Lev exited the meeting room while mentally saluting Isabella. She had been asked to stay behind, and he could empathize with her. Drakys was kind and understanding, but he was also The Runic Warlord. One didn't earn that title by being soft.

Next up, Discipline.

What was discipline? The word had too many meanings to be simply bundled up. For Lev though, only a few mattered. He trained against monsters often and fought tooth and nail, but that wasn't quite enough. Before now, the excuse of rushing to Master could've worked.

That mindset wasn't going to cut it any longer. Throughout the plains, he had rarely seen any Masters, and most of them were non-combatants. It was an open secret that they were always busy with one horror after another, constantly risking their lives and training to improve.

Lev's progress was nothing short of astounding in comparison. He just wasn't pushing himself nearly as hard as he could. Some of that could be attributed to a lack of proper training tools and space for large-scale strenuous manipulation while not fighting monsters, as such tasks required a safe place without risking innocent lives.

Now, he had the latter. Since his duty was to guard the people as they slowly progressed into the plains, staying high up for a better view would not only be better but also crucial. That would also leave him with a lot of free time during downtime to train his skills in some way.

How do I do that, though?

That was the crux of the problem. Lev had never shied away from hard work when his skills were concerned. Only now, he needed worthwhile ways to accomplish that.

Let's take stock of the possibilities. The first thing I need to work on is orbs. They act as good battery buffers, but their shape can be enchanted with a lot of layers.

The first idea was to enchant them with some sensitive runes. With some mental gymnastics, he could create volatile formations that required constant input to keep them under control. It would be good training for his Willpower as well.

Secondly, he could handicap himself against weaker monsters. By limiting his arsenal, shoring up all manner of weaknesses was possible. He just had to be careful about not risking any innocent lives. Given his class, going from 0 to 100 was relatively easy, as there were no true restrictions enforced by the System, only by him.

And lastly, the idea he wanted to focus on the most was manipulating the terrain. His barriers were durable, sharp, highly enchantable, and could be formed anywhere within his manipulation range. Lev always knew that his class had absurd potential. It was about time he started to test those capabilities as well.

What now? He wondered and looked around. The suns were high in the sky, letting him see far and wide. No monsters could be seen anywhere near him, and the wall was also pretty much vacant. Some combatants were either fixing the tents down below, so he looked away. It was Isabella's doing, anyway.

Since nobody needed him to be present, Lev started walking. For as far as he could see, the stone wall extended like a stalwart protector, and before long, he summoned his armor in its active state to fly near its base.

Repairs were done often, evident from the different colored patches of stone present at the base. A few scars were still present, and he had to land on the ground to observe one particularly deep gouge in the wall.

That's… a claw? He wondered incredulously, awed by the sheer scale of the creature. Standing against that wound in the stone construct, he felt small, merely a human.

"Scared?" said someone from behind him. "I sure was."

"You faced the creature?" Lev asked Drakys without turning back.

"A few of us did as Masters back when the wall was still being erected. Not even three years had passed since we landed, and well, this was close to our starting point for building the whole thing. The monster was similar to a thornling but way bigger and stronger, and had additional arms and legs instead of just limbs."

"What was it called?"

"Greater Kalir. Fourth-threshold too. The best we could do was fend it off with extreme losses."

"I see," Lev nodded, dropping that topic. "Why hasn't this been fixed yet?"

"It's a momento," Drakys answered, nostalgic. "We know for a fact that our walls can survive attacks from fourth-threshold monsters, though it only became a fact after that exact battle. Many remember it still, the day when even Hakim's might did not pull through."

"Really?" Lev looked at Drakys, who was lost in thought. "What about now? Do you think the outcome would be different?"

"That's hard to say," the Exalted mused. "Hakim and every other Exalted have come a long way since then, given nearly seven hundred years have passed. If we grouped, we would win without too much trouble. Individually, only he may still stand a chance. Of course, that is assuming that we forced out all of its strength at one point to plan around that."

"Hmm," Lev thoughtfully mumbled and went silent. Hakim's strength was the greatest anomaly on the plains, something even Drakys agreed with. Even then, he seemed not to be able to fight above his threshold consistently, something Lev could still manage with some difficulties. That was bound to change.

It was a good lesson to not get careless, regardless. The plains were still mostly unexplored and completely untamed. Whatever the Exalted had missed in their earlier extermination, Lev's presence was sure to attract.

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"What are we waiting for now?" he asked instead. "Wasn't I the last to arrive?"

"Mel and a few other Masters are still scouting," came the reply. "They will arrive in a few hours at the minimum, or a few days at most. Take your time to devise some training devices in the meantime. Your control is not great for a Master."

No need to be so direct, old man.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Lev summoned his armor into its active state and flew up. There wasn't any point in returning to the camp, so he landed on top of the clawed section of the wall and formed a barrier orb. As big as his head, he wondered how to go about creating a training device out of the simple construct.

One step at a time, I suppose, he mused, and filled out the hollow interior of the orb with five layers. Eyesight provided him little feedback, so he closed his eyes and started enchanting.

Let's see, what element do I want to do this with? Lightning is the best candidate because of its volatile nature, and it also requires more finesse to control intricately.

The innermost layer was going to be the simplest. It merely accepted lightning mana as input and let him manipulate it throughout the layer. When it reached the second layer, things became trickier.

To begin with, small, hair-thin channels were carved throughout the whole layer. Lev's task would be to manipulate lightning in such small amounts that the channels weren't stressed. Beyond that, runes would passively try to absorb the small amount of lightning, letting him train both his control and willpower at once.

Hold on, he opened his eyes and squinted at the orb. Can I even do this much properly right now?

Putting the thought to the test, he converted a bit of his mana into lightning. Sending it to his armor, the mana was teleported directly into the innermost layer of the orb, from which he gradually pulled it out into the second layer.

Similar to the manipulation course Drakys had created for him, dividing the lightning mana into tiny streams took little effort. If anything, it was far too easy. The raw might afforded by his high attributes and the subtle effects of his twice-evolved skill made the task effortless.

A bit of a challenge was presented when he started cycling the lightning mana. Chunks of it were absorbed, which threatened to dissolve the entire stream from the sudden loss. In seconds, he realized the trick to counter that, and that removed every last bit of exertion from the orb.

I guess I can, he scratched his armored cheek. Since when had his manipulation gotten that strong?

Either way, the orb worked as intended. There were multiple options to scale up the challenge, so he started working on the third layer. Where the previous one required intricate control, this one was all about damage control.

Taking a rune out of the armorbreaker formation, a small formation took the lightning mana and made it rapidly cycle throughout the entire layer. Given the nature of his barriers, something like that would end up passively empowering the arcane construct, slowly using up the mana.

Lev's task now was to keep a tight hold over the lightning mana and not allow it to be consumed at all.

Round 2.

Taking a deep breath to focus, he once again teleported some lightning mana into the base layer. It was easily accepted and channeled into the higher layer, at which point Lev had to divide it into small streams.

That done, the entry points into the third layer immediately pounced on the approaching mana. Some of it was dragged out of his control in a blink, though he quickly took hold of the rest.

Instead of progressing further, he keenly observed the loose mana spinning in the third layer. It seeped into the barrier, imbuing it with minor positive effects at the cost of rapidly depleting. Within seconds, the negligible buff ended as all the mana was used up.

How does it react with more mana, though?

In the name of science, he channeled a large stream of lightning into that layer. The orb immediately started shaking violently, too small and stationary for all the lightning imbuement. Lev hastily made it zip around in circles to use up the lightning mana faster, just barely keeping it from exploding in his face.

Some discipline training this is, he chuckled to himself. A few explosions never hurt anyone.

Since the layers were working properly, he began with the real testing. Lightning mana was teleported into the base layer again, and before long, small amounts were streaming into the third layer.

The first hurdle was not interfering with the cycling rune. Lev had to wait until the mana was accelerated before taking control of it again. Secondly, he had to keep it moving at the same speed without letting passive imbuement take place. While the tasks were few, they were difficult enough that he was already enjoying the exercise.

His fun continued for another few minutes before Lev turned to the final two layers. He still didn't know what would fit the fourth layer best, only that the final layer needed to teleport the remaining lightning mana back into the base layer. That would complete the whole circuit, a test of how to manipulate lightning with minimal loss.

And, obviously, the plan was to have multiple orbs running at once. In time and upgrades, they would only become more and more difficult to keep up with, and only then would the real training start.

For now, he simply formed five orbs and enchanted their first three layers. A bit of modification ensured that he could transfer the lightning mana back to the base layer through a large channel in the middle, and only after he went through the full challenge presented by the orb.

Working with five such orbs at once was far from easy, however. His mental faculties and mana manipulation were stressed to keep up despite the small usage, which was amazing as far as he was concerned. The skill was constantly pushed to higher highs without truly working on the base effect. His large mana capacity had pretty much forced its evolutions so far, which wasn't exactly a negative.

Regardless, he wanted his skill to be better at manipulating smaller amounts, too. His current version was more focused on consistent channeling, which was rightfully the primary focus. Pushing into other directions wouldn't hurt.

Shoving away the training orbs in his bubble, Lev had to pause in surprise when he noticed just how uniform his control was in his manipulation range. Other than the furthest edges, he could easily keep the lightning mana cycling through the simple exercises.

Now then, he breathed out and summoned the shadow converter cube in front of him. It was as big as his head, far too large to slot into his armor. What do I do with you?

Shadow mana, for all its potency, was extremely hard to use properly. Class skills were the best and most reliable tool for accomplishing that, but the reality was that Lev didn't have anything to help in this case.

Offense is out for now. Don't think any of my skills can use it for more than just splashing shadow mana on monsters.

That left stealth, and frankly, that was what he was most interested in. Without further ado, he channeled some of his mana into the converter input present on one of the sides.

Like a sponge, all of his mana vanished into the cube without a trace. Lev's brows rose when much of it was wasted, and only about 65% of the mana was processed before it exited the bottom in a dark, misty form.

Woah, he leaned closer, doing his damned best to pull the mana under control. It didn't even resist— Lev's control simply passed through the elusive mana. Good training material, indeed.

He could already feel manipulation skill progressing from the repeated failures.

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