Shadow mana was elusive beyond compare. Lev's eyes were constantly wide as he tried and repeatedly failed to control it in any meaningful manner, and within seconds, the converted amount dispersed into thin air.

Naturally, he tried again, this time with ten times more mana. Much of the input was wasted before the output was spat out again. This time, he attached a small barrier plate to the bottom and captured the mana inside it. The shadow mana, contrary to expectations, remained tranquil once inside, as if happy within its new container.

… What an odd type of mana.

Another three sets of inputs later, Lev was holding a barrier plate with a decent amount of shadow mana. Seconds trickled by, and after a few minutes of nothing happening, he knew that infusion of shadow mana was either pointless or his barriers just lacked something that could make use of it.

With great difficulty, he made the converted mana imbue the plate instead. The effects were immediate, turning the pale blue construct dark grey, a color that absorbed the light shining upon it.

Not all of it, though, he noted and peered closer. No signs of stealth or concealment were present in the plate currently, and neither did the imbued mana accomplish anything else beyond slowly dissipating.

What now? Lev scratched his head. Shadow mana was known for its potent stealth capabilities, but nothing of the sort could be observed so far. Guess I need to use the matching rune?

Waning Presence and Predator's Guise both worked on pure mana, which demanded some quick revisions to his armor's enchantments. Letting out an annoyed breath, he sat down on top of the wall and started redoing the formations on the first layer.

Waning Presence was pushed to the side to make space for Shroud of Darkness, the rune replacing Predator's Guise. Both of the formations were theoretically supposed to accomplish the same purpose, allowing him to replace the previous one without much consideration. If his knowledge about mana types was correct, however, Shroud of Darkness was going to be much stronger.

Carving and adjusting the new formation took nearly ten minutes before he was ready to test it. Streaming a large amount of mana into the converter, he teleported all of the converted mana inside his armor, right on top of the Shroud of Darkness rune.

Despite the small distance, Lev still struggled to channel all of the shadow mana inside. Slightly breathless, he shoved it all inside with a huge push and watched the effects take place.

The first and most important impression was one that should've been obvious. Scanning the affected body, which was his armor, the formation affected the light in contact with the barrier construct. The armor's form became blurry for a small moment before it soundlessly vanished from sight, even his own. Looking down, Lev couldn't see the rest of his body, even if it was all there.

What the hell? He chuckled and moved around. All of his other senses worked just fine; only his eyesight was affected, and the effect was extraordinary. Even better, his steps produced no sounds, and even the wind was disturbed less by his passing.

A few hops and jumps later, Lev began converting a large stream of his mana. The formation was greedily eating up all of the fuel, to the point that he would have to give up a lot of his arsenal to maintain the potent invisibility at all times.

Regardless, it was a blessing he wasn't going to rely too much on. Receiving the shadow mana converter so easily was unexpected, providing him with new avenues of training and an additional layer of safety. Granted, he was going to be abusing the new advantage in some way before long, but he was fine with just remaining hidden for now.

Once there was a large amount of shadow mana stored in his armor, Lev shot up at high speed, ascending hundreds of meters quickly while noting how the mana behaved.

No effects of the mana's infusion on speed, nor is it showing any reaction to the speedy movement, remaining stably contained on the armor.

A single command turned his armor dark gray, wisps of the shadow mana leaving its structure the moment it became active. Lev's manipulation struggled to hold it all at bay, and even the bonuses to his high Perception eventually failed as the imbued mana fizzled out, dispersing into the surroundings after escaping his control.

… Very difficult to control. Drakys really didn't underplay that side of things.

Converting another smaller chunk, he imbued it in lesser amounts and flew in a straight line. Contrary to his expectations, there was a difference in speed. Similar to lightning, it directly affected the acceleration, except with a completely different approach.

The shadow mana reacted to the surroundings, negating air resistance and making his movement… smoother, for lack of a better term. It was as if his armor suddenly belonged more to the sky, adapting to the air flow better.

What the hell is going on, even? Lev stopped and just took a few seconds to digest the output. It was the first time he had felt mana react so fluidly to things other than his class and barriers. Was that how all high-level mana types operated, or was shadow mana just unique in that aspect? It wouldn't be far-fetched for light mana also to behave similarly, so maybe it was the pair that was special?

Either way, there was plenty to observe. To begin with, the mana acted upon willpower and also utilized it easily. Lev simply wanted to fly faster, and the shadow mana reacted to that desire by negating a portion of the resisting forces.

Another thing that stood out was the smoothness of imbuing. Shadow mana and pure mana seemed to mesh well, which led to almost no loss of mana during the process.

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So, very good at concealment and borderline useless for me otherwise. Sounds about right.

Perhaps there were more uses for him to discover. Lev wasn't going to put much hope in that, for his arsenal was already spread too wide. He wanted to bring it back to being simple and as effective as possible. Regardless, looking into more mana types was a necessity, and theorizing about their potential uses was a fun activity. He already knew how to utilize water, earth, and wind with his existing tools.

Powering up Arcane Supremacy was probably going to be the largest boost in power he would ever find. Making progress towards that was going to be a major focus going forward, even if it contradicted his earlier goal. A middle ground was required, something he didn't have enough experience for. Exploring the limits of his evolved class was hopefully going to provide him with more insights.

The converter vanished into his ring as he made he flew back down. Landing on the wall, Lev looked around for a moment. Drakys was nowhere to be seen, so he took a deep breath and let his armor fade into its passive state.

Giving his epic suit a once-over, he found it completely clean and free of wrinkles before sitting down. It was so easy to forget that he was wearing something so valuable because of how comfortable it was.

Is there anything else for me to do? He wondered, legs dangling over the wall. It was a hobby at that point, resting at the edge of massive walls. There was something oddly freeing about it, knowing that he could jump down at any moment and go wherever he wanted.

Of course, plenty of calamities would follow, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing either. His unique situation presented him with many opportunities, and now that he was ordered to let half of his aura hang out, there were going to be plenty of battles.

It was nice to have a chance to level constantly again, slow progress or not.

****

A day passed in relative peace. Lev decimated a small wave of first-threshold monsters with nothing but his arrows, finding the activity oddly relaxing. Night turned to day as barely anything happened, and only when the scouts returned did he get up and return to the camp.

With all of his concealments active, especially with the shadow mana coursing through the Shroud of Darkness formation, nobody noticed him. He walked through the suddenly crowded section undetected, waving his hands in front of the Adept non-combatants just to test the potency of his improved stealth.

The results were kind of terrifying. No one noticed him, not even the few Masters outside the tent. Lev enjoyed getting as close to people as possible until he was tapped lightly on the shoulder by a-

Is that a fucking mana slash?

It was. Drakys was manipulating an offensive skill to a point that it acted as a simple mana construct. The shape was there, so was the feeling of danger, except the taps hadn't even scratched his armor.

"Enough messing around," the Exalted said and started moving towards the meeting room. Lev followed soundlessly and let the stealth drop, taking note of the expenditure. Just for a few minutes, nearly a twentieth of his pool had been used.

That did not sound like much until one considered that he could need to stay hidden for hours or even days. Balancing potency and cost with two large mana pools, the second belonging to Stargazer, was going to be necessary.

Inside the large tent, there were a lot more Masters than before. Coincidentally, the free seat for him was right in front of Drakys, and also right beside Mel's.

It took a great deal of effort to sit down next to her without reacting. The previous experience was fresh on his mind, for he had never experienced anything like that before or after.

"Now that we're all here," said one of the Masters, causing everyone else to stop talking and look at him. "Are we ready to move, sir?"

[Master - Level ???]

Going by the concealed aura alone, I'd say somewhere around 400, Lev deduced and listened.

"We are," Drakys simply answered. "Let me introduce Lev. Some of you may have met him already, but for most of you guys, he's a new variable."

Nobody made a peep during the small pause.

"I'll be blunt. Lev here is very likely to attract third-threshold monsters or perhaps even worse. This is not public knowledge, and neither can it be allowed to be. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" the replies echoed in unison, surprising Lev by how coordinated they were.

"May we ask why, sir?" the same Master from earlier asked, glancing at him.

"That is for him to disclose," the Exalted deflected, leaving the ball in Lev's court.

"There isn't much to say," Lev said with a shrug. "I have always made waves form faster wherever I went and have been targeted relentlessly."

"Pardon my bluntness, but that sounds pretty difficult to believe," said the Master. "I'm Dar, by the way."

"A pleasure to meet you," Lev greeted. "I have a few advantages that I would rather keep to myself— otherwise, there's nothing that warrants such treatment from the world."

"We've heard about your Wisdom Boost," Dar nodded. "Still, you are the first to get it after a long, long time. Have you identified why?"

"I myself have not," Lev answered plainly, stating how it wasn't a matter he was qualified to talk about. Dar accepted that for an answer and went silent, letting the meeting progress again.

"Mel," Drakys said and looked at the Master. "Your team is to patrol Lev's vicinity. Stay at the very edges of the communication range and position the drones according to your routes. Make sure that nothing slips past unnoticed."

Mel nodded, as did the three other Masters next to her. Dar was not a part of her team, which was surprising. Lev expected him to be, considering his strength.

"Asher," Drakys continued. "Your team will scout the original route. Flee immediately if you see something, and avoid spectral monsters as much as possible. They rarely attack unprovoked."

"Yes, sir," answered a brown-haired scout. That team was halfway to level four hundred, an impressive amount of strength.

"As for myself, I will alternate between assisting all the Master teams. Expect me to appear in front of you at any moment. The Sniper has also been assigned to Lev's safety once every three weeks. You all know how to make use of such a strong ranged-combatant."

I actually don't… Lev lamented, not voicing the thought. There were only a few logical deductions.

"We've already discussed the rest at length. Complications will arise. Your communication crystals will usually be well within range of each other. I need reports from all of you within seconds of events. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

That seemed to be the cue for everyone to leave, this time with some urgency. Orders were barked left and right outside the tent, though Lev still stayed behind. To his misfortune, so did Mel.

"Hmm," she tilted her head as Lev refused to look directly at her. "You've grown up nicely."

Monarch help me…

"Thank you," he replied and coughed, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt. "It's nice to see you again."

"Is it?" Mel immediately asked, the slight teasing in her tone no longer present. "I had a very angry Sherron knocking on my door one day."

Yeaaahh… That sounds about right.

"She was pretty unhappy about our encounter," Lev slowly nodded, unsure of what to even say.

"And for that, I'm sorry. Lady Sherron did not go into any specifics, but if I got the gist of it right, I made a grave mistake. Will you forgive me?"

"Huh?" He blurted out, caught completely unprepared. "Yes, of course. I never held it against you because it's the secrecy around my person that caused it in the first place."

…

"How old are you, anyway?" Mel asked, visibly relieved.

Lev looked at Drakys, who merely shrugged.

"... I'm still quite a bit younger than eighteen," he replied, unable to look at Mel. It was difficult to pinpoint the source of embarrassment, but if the heavy silence was anything to go by, Mel's reaction was not going to help it at all.

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