Surprisingly, nothing attacked them for the first eight hours. The day turned into night, and it was dark outside when Lev descended, landing on top of the front cart.

"Hmm," the driver turned to look at him, not saying anything else. Lev gave her a nod and used a hatch to enter the first cart instead, one filled with non-combatants.

They had already felt him land atop their cart and were not surprised by his appearance.

"Pardon the intrusion. I wanted to ask if you guys wanted to fight the weaker monsters to gain some levels," Lev voiced, looking at the five gathered in front of him.

The youngest of them was close to his age, whereas the oldest was a man with graying hair.

"Young man," the latter began with a smile. "As you can see, we're no fighters. These old bones barely have the strength to swing a sword."

"Which is why I came with a solution in mind," Lev answered and summoned a chair for himself. Seeing that he had the undivided attention of the folks, he summoned a Galeshot revolver, one of the two dozen he had already prepared. "First, I need to know if relying on external tools hurts your evolution."

"That is assuming that we ever evolve," answered a middle-aged woman. "Unless we go out and fight monsters, the second gap will be our limit."

"Meaning there is no downside," Lev finished for her and nodded. "I saw a few hordes of goblins and orcs a few minutes away. With these firearms, you can all take them down rather easily."

"Why?" questioned the youngest one. "Don't get me wrong, I would love to gain some levels out of this."

"Why not?" Lev shrugged. "I can very easily help everyone present, and it also costs me nothing."

That was enough for them, and a minute later, all five of the non-combatants had revolvers in their hands. Explaining its functions, especially for competent workers who were chosen for an important task, was trivial. It took moments for them to hold the firearms properly, waiting for the monsters to show up.

When the small horde of goblins was within a hundred meters, revolvers were fired. Four of the bullets missed, and by sheer luck, the last one brained one of the leading goblins.

"Keep going," Lev said loudly, seeing the workers falter for a moment. His timely reminder made them quickly reload and shape the bullet again, before another wave was fired.

Given the low speed of the carts that hadn't stopped moving, the goblins struggled to climb on top of them even when they reached the humans. If anything, that only made them an easier target, and within a few more waves, all of the two dozen goblins were dead.

"I got a level," the eldest said, voice low. "Haven't seen this particular notification in a while."

[Laborer - Level 113]

"You should get used to it," Lev smirked lightly. "While you guys are here, I'm going to leave all of the dormant and weaker first-threshold monsters to the non-combatants."

****

"Repeat after me," Lev intoned slowly, guiding the youngest laborer. "Let the mana flow until it's full, help the enchantments shape the bullet, and activate the firing part of the artillery once it's done."

"I get it," the boy snapped distractedly. "It won't blow up, right?"

"For the fifth time, no, it won't. I'm right here if something goes wrong."

"Okay, okay," the non-combatant took some deep breaths, then exhaled. His eyes turned hard, focused as if it were a life or death situation. Lev didn't disturb him, observing along with the rest of the crew. All of the hunters and workers were on top of the slowed carts, enjoying the show.

Just in case, Lev had a veritable flood of invisible constructs hovering above the carts. Anything could happen, and he didn't want to take any chances.

The artillery in front of him was the latest prototype, meant not for him but for non-combatants specifically. Almost all of the inner workings were automated, requiring just a small input from the user for convenience and a reliable level of control to ensure everything progressed smoothly.

After a few seconds, the boy found the courage to put some mana into the first input. The core slotted inside the artillery was immediately tapped into, shaping a barrier bullet by utilizing the Arcane Barrier rune.

Lev still couldn't find a way to enchant the bullet on the spot, though he had an inkling that the single class rune would eventually allow that.

The rest of the artillery came alive without further input, priming the bullet to be launched. A bit of mental gymnastics from the user powered up all of the acceleration formations to regulate the potency of the shot, chosen to be the highest in this instance.

A sound ward negated most of the boom as the bullet shot forward, accurately braining the troll that Lev's barriers were keeping in place. Given the sheer speed of the projectile, it didn't even get to hear the sound of the shot before it died.

The boy's knees almost buckled as he slowly realized what he had done. A cheer rose, both from Lev and the rest of the spectators. Even the platinum hunters were watching with undisguised interest, impressed by the unassuming construct.

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"Well done," Lev said, looking at the boy expectantly. "So?"

"I…" he gulped. "Two levels. That troll was level 168? I couldn't even Identify it from so far away!"

Your Perception must be really low, then, Lev mused and nodded. "Most trolls I've seen were around that level. Alright, who wants to go next?"

"May I?" came from one of the archers in Jared's team.

"Sure," Lev took a step back, letting her take the lead.

She hung the bow on her back and gracefully stepped up, peering at the artillery, trying and failing to look at the concealed enchantments. Grabbing the handles, she aimed the barrel at another distant troll, this one beyond Lev's range.

A bit ambitious, but I suppose she wouldn't be doing this without reason.

The bullet took a single second to form, and with an Adept's Perception, she fired it in the next second. Almost silently, the projectile shot forward, landing on top of the troll's head. Compensating for the bullet drop was nearly unnecessary due to the power behind the shot, though the archer had still managed to shear off the top of the monster's brain.

"Interesting," she stepped back, giving the artillery a final, calculating look. Bowing her head to Lev, she took her leave without another word.

"You're next," Lev looked at the eldest laborer.

The old man stepped up without a word, smiling to himself. "I have to say, lad, you're not what the rumors made you out to be."

"Rumors?"

"The two times I've seen you," a woman answered instead, "are with either The Runic Warlord, or The Galvanic Sniper. Both of whom are the distant Exalted of mankind. That is telling."

Jack's deductions are already proving true. He hid a grin, not disagreeing with the woman.

"Rumors aren't everything, though," Lev added and dropped it at that. It was up to them to deduce the rest.

Another few hours passed as more and more monsters fell to his artillery constructs. Once the non-combatants got the hang of it, he created two of the cannons on top of each cart, enough for the workers to reliably defend themselves if Lev was occupied with something else.

"Boss," Jared walked up to him on top of the first cart, looking fresh and relaxed. "What's the plan? Everything has been going a bit too smoothly so far."

"This close to the wall, we're unlikely to run into anything too strong. And don't call me boss."

"Sure, boss," the hunter grinned, summoning a chair for himself. "The team's curious, so I had to come ask. What's next on the agenda for us?"

Lev glanced at the Master driver, who returned his look but didn't move. Seeing that she had no interest, he created a table and put a copy of the plain's map on top of it.

"We have barely just left the wall," Lev said, pointing just a few inches ahead of the outer wall, the place he estimated they were currently. Slowly, he moved his finger in a straight line, reaching an uneven patch of terrain they were on track to cross.

"The hills here," he continued, "are known to house a colony of insectoid monsters. Wind blades and speed are their specialties, though, overall, they aren't that strong. Our job is to see how they react to the supplies and to help you guys level up. I'll personally oversee the battles and deal with any too strong."

And also observe how many monsters my aura lures out, he added in his head. The Master driver was no doubt aware, and it was nice to have her there.

"Our job is to… wait for now?"

"Yep."

"Well," Jared scratched his head. "That brings me to the second portion. Since we're barely doing anything except throwing a few spells around, is it possible to spar or train in some other way? You have barriers, and we're, frankly, bored."

"It hasn't even been three days yet," Lev chuckled, understanding their boredom all the same. "The horses can still keep going for a few days, or we can make them rest earlier and rush the rest of the way without pause. That will give us enough time for some long sparring sessions," he finished while looking at the woman below them, waiting for her input.

"You're the leader here," the Master shrugged, not saying anything else. Jared gave her an odd glance, unaware of how strong she was with the layers of concealment hiding her strength. Perhaps only Lev could see her threshold?

"Hmm," Lev pondered for a moment. "How about this? We will stop for an hour daily to let the horses and non-combatants relax, and I can also set up a stage for us to fight on. That should ensure that we wouldn't be slowed down much before the scheduled pause in five days."

"Great," Jared said and stood up. "I'll inform the rest of the folks. Also, for my own curiosity, will we get to use any of your weapons?"

"Nope," Lev immediately refused. "You're already close to the evolution, no need to rely on external tools."

[Mage - Level 239]

Only eleven levels. The team might just evolve during the patch of hills if things go the way I expect them to.

The man left after that, having already expected the answer. Lev stored the map and made the table disintegrate, then turned to the driver.

"I don't think we've been introduced yet," he began, noting her reaction. "I'm Lev, a temporarily solo hunter."

"Melvine," she answered, not offering anything else.

… I really don't like socializing, Lev lamented, unsure of what to say after that. "Just tell me if something comes up, okay?"

"Will do, boss."

Oh, for fucks sake.

Not paying the poke any mind, he hopped into his bubble and flew up again. The suns were still a few hours away from setting, so he settled in to wait while working on his latest cannon.

It was truly massive.

Lev had already realized that there was no point in any small attacks. His slashes, arrows, lances, and even orbs were enough to kill most second-threshold monsters that he could find in the plains. What he really lacked, were attacks that could fend off third-threshold monsters.

So far, all he had were his Crescent Decimation and overloaded lances. His class was supposed to be way more diverse than that, and he ignored the small voice telling him that he was already fighting an evolution higher than he should be.

To that end, the cannon in front of him was the closest he had ever gotten to a railgun. Now that he had faced several monsters with fire and also managed to evolve his own to the blue variant, there wasn't much else needed to activate the Flamebreath rune.

He couldn't hope to activate it with blue fire, though. His understanding, proficiency, and the durability of his barriers had just reached a point where he could charge that attack with normal fire without blowing up the cannon and the bubble.

The current version looked like a modern tank cannon. Wider at the start, it slowly became thinner into a barrel that extended for longer than he was tall.

In the base was the Dreadwolf's core, close to the edge of the wider end. The core was linked to several layers of runes, the broadest of which held the Flameforged Constitution rune. As usual, the formation affected the whole construct with its remarkable potency, allowing Lev to add more fire-resistant runes to the inner layers.

Finally, in the deepest layers, the Flamebreath rune was accompanied by a myriad of supportive runes. The formation was, in essence, straightforward. His job was to provide the fire mana and compress it to a semi-stable state as the rune worked its magic.

Once the beam was prepared, he could fire it at monsters from a theoretical kilometer or two away, though the actual results remained to be seen. Lev expected the attack to be able to seriously wound monsters like giant trolls, and also be fast enough to hit weaker third-threshold monsters reliably. It didn't sound like much, but given the sheer amount of power he could bring to bear, such an attack would be able to provide him with valuable opportunities and disengage.

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