"Why do you think he's not asking you to come with him?" Isabella asked, looking down the wall as the non-combatants were assembled.

"Because he wants me to learn and suffer for a morbidly good reason," Lev answered, in a strangely down mood. "Casualties aren't just likely; they are expected. Drakys wants me to understand the weight of taking responsibility for the lives of others."

"That's not okay," Isabella turned to him, a deep frown marring her face. "Why would he do that? It's not like you plan to become a leader or general in the future."

"It's also unlikely that I will have a choice," Lev shrugged. "I'm here already. Who's to say if I won't be even more intertwined with humanity's forces in the future?"

"But… that's even worse!? How can you just accept that?" She paced around, way more stressed than Lev himself. "He's basically forcing these horrible lessons and responsibility on you. I'll go talk to him."

"No, you won't," Lev chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder. Giving it a gentle squeeze, he moved a step away and summoned his armor in its active state. "Letting me roam freely to do whatever the hell I want will be such a waste. Even if the methods are extreme, I agree with the end result. It would do me well to realize just how much my presence can achieve and what I should be doing with all this power."

Without waiting for the reply that probably wasn't coming, he jumped off. Instead of falling, he smoothly glided towards the nearest Master, one overlooking the distribution of resources and personnel.

Lev also didn't fail to notice the sheer amount of stone that was currently being transported to the wall. Whatever the management wanted to build in the strongholds, it was not going to be small.

"Hunter Lev," the woman greeted, eyeing his bulky armor. All of the enchantments were active at the minimum intensity, illuminating the armor slightly with a light glow.

Lev nodded back. "Any messages for me?"

"The Warlord wants you to oversee the first march to the end," she replied, taking in the gathered crowd. "Do you see that cart chain at the front?"

A few hundred meters away, a long chain of linked carts was being fortified. Plates of metal were attached to their already massive exteriors, and even from so far away, Lev could feel that they were enchanted.

Those things are going to attract monsters from literally everywhere, he mused. "I do."

"You will be accompanied by four platinum teams, one of which is less than ten levels away from the evolution. Do you think it would be possible to have them evolve before reaching the first stronghold?"

It took an effort of will not to smirk in her face. "They likely will, since I doubt the Exalted took out most of the weaker hordes. We will have to face a lot of monsters."

"That is good," the Master woman said and took out a notepad. "Under your direct protection are three groups of non-combatants…"

Ten minutes later, Lev knew many more names that he wasn't sure if he was going to remember for that long. A few of them stood out, though his interest was piqued by one of the hunters in the second gap.

Gravity, huh?

The element was as rare as it was strong, and Jared's case was particularly unique as well. As a child, he had survived an encounter with the giant troll after their caravan was caught in the open, away from the safety of the walls.

Too fascinated by its abilities, the hunter had managed to evolve his class to utilize gravity mana after reaching Adept, an enormous feat by all metrics. In the current batch of hunters accompanying Lev, he was the most impressive by a large margin.

Then there's Lorin, he remembered with a tilted head. Barrier user focused solely on defense. I also need to compare the durability of my barriers.

There was going to be plenty of data to gather. All twelve of them were competent, so he was also not too worried going forward. Lev's job was mostly to deal with the stronger and trickier monsters, both susceptible to large amounts of fire and lightning.

Soundlessly gliding forward, he kept his concealments running at low intensity and landed on the frontmost cart in the chain. Jared was there, merrily chatting away with his team until Lev suddenly revealed himself.

"Uh, greetings, sir," the thin hunter greeted, confusion audible in his voice. "Are we needed somewhere?"

"No. Are you free right now, though?"

"Yeah," the hunter said and stood up. "I'm assuming this is related to my class?"

"Correct," Lev answered and landed on the ground. "I've only ever faced a giant troll by myself once, and that was enough to decide vibrations are not something I want to take lightly. Can your element produce any similar effects?"

"Vibrations are my primary method of attack because of how mana-intensive gravity manipulation is. Before we do anything though, are you sure the management will ignore us testing things like this in the open?"

Lev just waved a hand. "Nobody will say anything, and it's not like we're going to attack each other. The suit I'm wearing currently is enchanted to protect against vibrations, so I simply need to see its effectiveness."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Jared's gaze immediately locked onto the jacket and pants, eyeing the crystals spread throughout. "That's gotta be an Epic piece."

"It is."

"Well damn," the hunter laughed. "You should've started with that! I thought you just wanted to see gravity mana in action, not test it against an epic item."

"I also want you to use it on my class armor, which is probably way stronger overall," Lev added as they both moved away. Jared called out to his team that he would be back soon before falling in line with Lev.

"Say," the hunter began, glancing at him. "Can I ask questions, or would that be too much?"

"Depends on the questions, I suppose."

"Nothing personal. I've just been wondering why we've been assigned a single Master, while other chains will have a full team. No offense, but the Warlord also ensured that we would have a lot of opportunities to level rapidly. Your aura, even held back, might just scare away the monsters."

"It won't," Lev replied, smiling to himself. "You don't have to worry about monsters running away. I'm no Exalted. And it is also because of an Exalted's order that I have some of my aura out. As for why I'm the only one, you will see in time."

Jared gave him an amused glance as they stopped a few dozen meters away from their carts, far enough that their testing wouldn't affect anyone else.

"A man of few words, then?" the hunter mused, not disapproving. "How do we begin?"

Moving a dozen or so meters away, Lev positioned himself in a way that there was only grassland behind him.

"Start with a small ranged attack," he said, and prepared himself. Legs tensed and slightly bent, Lev's focus sharpened when Jared formed a simple attack. It was unlike anything he had ever seen.

The gravity mana 'claimed' a small patch of… something, commanding it to vibrate rapidly. Willpower was also utilized, a rare phenomenon for an Adept mage. Lev also noted how fast the attack was as it flew at him, rapidly ballooning to target his entire body.

A moment before it made contact, the impact-resistant suit came alive. Enchantments solidified a thin layer of mana around him, one that absorbed the waves without any problem. The attack ended up splashing harmlessly on the suit, accomplishing absolutely nothing as a bit of the power was converted into mana.

"… Really?" Jared sighed, exasperated. "You didn't even twitch."

"It's Epic rarity for a reason," Lev shrugged a shoulder. "Come on. I know you can hit far harder."

The next waves were much more intense, and he finally felt the impact when the attack engulfed him. It was like something grabbed his entire being and tried to shake him violently. His suit interfered again, thwarting the attempt almost completely. Lev barely felt a few vibrations reach his body, negated easily by his high constitution.

Why can I see the waves so clearly, though?

He didn't have to think about that for long. Given his high Perception, the extra effects from his passive skill to track things, and the evolved Mana Sense, he supposed it made sense.

"Very effective against generalized attacks," Jared voiced, eyes glazed over. "Ate nearly a tenth of my mana like it's no problem."

"Let's move towards more condensed," Lev suggested, and formed a simple shield. "Fire one at this first."

Jared peered at it curiously, perhaps noting for the first time that the Master in front of him used barriers. Without asking questions, he shaped a small, long attack and fired it.

The gravity spear covered the distance in a blink, and Lev had to pause all other lines of thought to focus on the feedback. A part of his mind was always focused on his armor as usual, but everything else was observing the clash near him.

Drilling, punching, shaking, and corroding— those were the impressions Lev could relate the gravity spear's effects to. It was doing all of those things at once with alarming success, and within instants, a portion of his shield was drilled through completely, the spear leaving out through a hole on the other side.

Even if most of the attack had been used up for that, the shock of seeing an Adept mage's attack drill through his shield rendered him speechless all the same.

"HAH!" Jared cheered. "How's that?"

"Pretty damn good," Lev praised, beyond impressed. "I seriously wasn't expecting that much power from a simple spear."

"Gravity, baby," Jared grinned. "To be honest, I didn't think it would become this strong either. Now, only if it didn't cost a fifth of my mana for that 'simple spear…'"

Lev just grunted and formed a wall. Runes appeared on it over the next second before he motioned for the hunter to try again. Jared's brows rose as he prepared another spear, feeling the amount of mana in the wall's enchantments.

Once again, the projectile shot forward like a bullet, landing on the wall with a crisp bang. All of its momentum was halted, and the subsequent vibrational damage failed to take hold, leaving behind not even a scratch when the mana fizzled out.

"I'll be damned," Jared breathed out, jaw hanging slightly open. "Just how much mana did you use for that barrier?"

"It's less about the mana and more about the enchantment," Lev replied. "The current runes specialize in absorbing impacts. That pretty much counters your element."

"Okay, but that has to cost a lot of mana, no?"

"Nope," Lev casually refuted. "There's a reason I alone was assigned to the whole chain."

Jared had nothing to say to that, so Lev proceeded with the last thing he wanted to test. His armor appeared in its active state, all of the plating powered up to the maximum.

"How much mana do you have left?"

Jared took a step back, acutely feeling the sheer amount of mana coursing through the barrier armor. "Enough for a few more attacks."

"Alright, this is the last one. Use as much as you feasibly can in a single attack."

To the man's credit, he didn't hesitate in agreeing, too curious about the result himself. Lev tensed his mind, preparing himself to handle the large amounts of vibrations that were slowly taking form.

Sweat slid down Jared's forehead as he used as much fuel as he could to power a single burst. Gravity took the form of an orb, one almost visible to the naked eye. It pulsed with restrained might, almost crumbling at the seams as the caster sent it flying in a straight line.

Lev tracked it like a hawk. The orb smashed into his armor with enough force to be felt through the fully powered enchantments before it unfurled. Waves upon waves of raw force tried to rattle his construct, only for the enchantments to absorb a significant portion of it.

Too resilient and durable, gravity's onslaught died down after a few seconds, leaving the armor even stronger than before due to the absorbed mana. The ground underneath him wasn't as lucky, decimated for a few meters in a circle around him.

Lev let out the breath he had been holding and nodded at Jared, who looked back with a resigned smile.

"I figured this was going to happen," he sighed. "Nobody in their right mind just stands against such an attack without even trying to dodge. How close did I get?"

Lev considered lying or deflecting the question, then shook his head a little. "Not at all."

"Thought so," the man grunted. "I'm also out of mana now. Hopefully, nothing attacks us within the next few hours."

As if summoned by his words, Drakys landed next to them. Jared's face went pale as Lev tilted his head. The Exalted only stared ahead in the distance, so Lev looked in the same direction.

Ah… of course, he snorted, confusing Jared even further. Harpies, because the timing was just too perfect.

Shaking his head, a barrage of enchanted arrows killed the distant monsters. Lev didn't even need to look at them, for his mind was occupied by more morbid thoughts.

Was fate actually something he could tempt? The harpies might have just shown up randomly, and not because of Jared's words. He wasn't inclined to believe that though, which left a lot to consider on the table still.

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