For the next few days, Lev only practiced fighting moves with Stargazer, tested the limits of his barrier movements and enhancement formation, and watched his mana regenerate in all its tranquil glory.

  He had a truly absurd pool now, and Master rank was still way off.

  Sherron came to visit him twice during that time. She brought sweets with her, which Lev appreciated. The foods in his ring were mostly soups and different types of meats.

  Currently, he was waiting for Dennis to arrive. The merchant had acquired all his requested items and runes and was on his way. Sherron had left some time ago in a hurry, though not before reassuring Lev that everything was fine.

  "There you are," Dennis' voice reached him. The merchant was standing in the door of the practice room, observing Lev meditate. "Pool gazing?"

  "There's a term for this?" Lev remarked and motioned for the man to follow him.

  "Of course?" Dennis raised a brow.

  "I see. I discovered it by myself."

  "Right," Dennis said as he sat down on one of the sofas in the bedroom. "The runes you wanted turned out to be easier to obtain than expected, so there are a lot of formations. For the under-armor, a skinsuit fits your request perfectly. It is an excellent piece, made for Masters in mind."

  Dennis finished by bringing out the said piece, and it was a sight to behold. Weaved out of sea blue threads, a single glance told Lev that the skinsuit was utterly drenched in enchantments. Yet those did nothing to diminish its simplistic grace.

  [

  Last Line of Defense - Rare

  The skinsuit is extremely resistant to slashing and cutting and possesses high resistance to all temperature-based attacks and phenomena.

  Enchantments: Air Moderation, Passive Durability, Mana Conductivity, Self-cleaning, Size Adjustment, Lightning Converter, Fire Converter, Minor Restoration Converter.

  ]

  Woah… That is a lot of enchantments.

  "Pretty good, right?" Dennis grinned. "You just happened to make me look for it at the right time. The enchantments should be self-explanatory. The air moderation enchantment also filters out all harmful gases to the best of its ability. Mana conductivity for it not to interfere with the usage of your converters."

  "Pretty good, indeed," Lev agreed. "How does the size adjustment work?"

  "By itself. You just need to wear it."

  Lev did just that. Taking it with him, he entered the restroom and quickly donned the skinsuit. It had a zip in the back to open it, and Lev was wearing it in seconds. The moment he zipped it, the suit morphed.

  Threads shrunk into themselves as the skinsuit became smaller, fitting Lev's still-growing frame snugly. It hugged him like a second skin and was comfortable enough that he didn't even notice it when moving around in the restroom.

  The enchantments were unnoticeable except for the converters. The restoration mana was present just above his heart. Lightning was in his right hand and fire in his left.

  Marvelous. When can I start creating things like this?

  The answer was not anytime soon. Lev quickly put on his normal black shirt and pants before returning.

  Dennis took in how the skinsuit looked to fit him perfectly and nodded in satisfaction. "There is another piece that I commissioned at Sherron's request."

  He summoned a face mask that covered the entire head. There were no holes for eyes to see through, and it also matched the skinsuit in color.

  "This balaclava is an extension of the skinsuit. It will be invisible once worn and share all the enchantments. The main purpose of this piece is to vastly increase the air moderation around your head."

  "I was worried about that too," Lev commented as he put it on. It became invisible as advertised and was just as comfortable as the skinsuit. "Harmful gases need to be filtered out completely, or one may slowly lose consciousness. This will ensure that."

  "Correct. Now, for runes, I have four stealth formations. They are compatible with each other but are also incredibly complex for your level."

  Dennis handed Lev a small notebook, which had all the aforementioned formations.

  Mana Concealing

  Sound Dampening

  Camouflage

  Illusionist's Invisibility

  "The camouflage is most useful when you need to remain stationary," Dennis explained. "The last one is similar, except it allows slow movement. Too fast, and you will stand out immediately. The first two should be obvious."

  I mostly needed mana concealing and invisibility, Lev thought, grateful for the other options. Since they were compatible, he could put them all on his armor. He doubted they would mess with his enhancement formation because of the different aspects they targeted.

  Using them together however, would likely be impossible. The enhancement formation would defeat the purpose of slow movements and might disrupt the stealth formations.

  "Good enough."

  Dennis took that as his prompt to go on. "The other formations, there are 27 of them. You can check these out in your free time. Because of your need for converters, I added a basic fire and lightning conversion formation in there."

  Lev gave the merchant a searching look. Conversion formations were expensive, mostly because of their sheer usefulness. Dennis was just handing him not one, but two of them out of the 'goodness of his heart.' Sherron had already predicted this.

  Lev thanked him regardless. "I appreciate it. What is the efficiency like?"

  "Should be above 60% for starters. With practice, carving improvements, and familiarity, it will settle at nearly 85%."

  This is definitely an investment on his part.

  "Thank you," this time Lev said that genuinely. That was an expensive gift if he had ever seen one.

  "It's of no consequence," Dennis leaned back with a smile. "Will there be anything else?"

  Lev just shook his head.

  ****

  Hours passed as Lev studied the formations in the notebook given to him by Dennis. Most of them were not immediately useful, but they still gave him plenty of ideas about how to utilize them in the future.

  No closer to firing lasers, though.

  Lev was a little sad about the lack of runes that allowed him to fire beams at monsters. His childish goal was to come true one day, surely.

  Let's see. The most useful ones are similar to coalesce runes. Formations to fire basic fireballs or lightning bolts. That's four of them already. The second most useful is a durability formation that incorporates earth mana. The rest are nice, especially the wind formation to improve projectile speed, but my projectiles are not strong enough to enhance to such a degree right now. The supportive runes, such as acceleration and enhance, will do nicely as well.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  One could debate that the durability formation was the most useful, but the firing formations would allow him to build a foundation for his future constructs and equipment. Lev already had a bunch of rifles and grenades planned that he couldn't hope to create before Master.

  The remaining formations were also far from useless. Once he evolved, he would be able to create equipment for his future team. The formations would be helpful in that.

  ****

  [

  Barrier Carving has reached Level 7

  Barrier Carving has reached Level 8

  Wanderer's Repository has reached Level 3

  ]

  Lev squinted at the overloaded shield floating in front of his face. It thrummed with a large amount of mana packed inside it, the magical fuel slowly being consumed by the mana concealment formation carved on its surface.

  The effects were… odd. Lev was used to feeling the condition of his barriers through his mental feedback, visual feedback, and mana perception. The sudden removal of the last was doing weird things to his brain.

  It is working, I think, Lev thought, frowning slightly. The amount of mana I can feel is definitely lower, but this combined feedback is distracting.

  Closing his eyes, he tried his best to separate them. He didn't make much progress, but the results were there. The amount of mana he could feel through mana perception was vastly reduced.

  Whether it works against dungeon monsters or not remains to be seen.

  That was the main reason he wanted stealth runes. That, and his plans to eventually explore the pit. From what little he knew, that place had the strongest monsters, but they rarely came out.

  Lev had no doubts that his presence would change that.

  Dismissing the shield, he sat down and spent the next five minutes patiently carving the invisibility formation on his armor. With his Perception stretched to the limit, those were some long five minutes.

  Finishing the last stroke, Lev estimated the formation to have an efficiency of 65%. Moving to the bedroom, he stood in front of the large mirror of a dressing table and channeled mana into the formation.

  The fuel was greedily absorbed as Lev's armor shimmered and then vanished. He watched in fascination as both he and his armor had become almost completely invisible in a single second. Slowly moving around, he could just barely notice the edges of his invisibility, and only because of the movement.

  He could also feel the functions of the formation better. It had something to do with light, bending it to create an illusion of invisibility. Sound and mana were completely unaffected, though, which made him realize why Dennis had given him the four matching formations.

  Very nice, Lev smiled to himself. But right now, I'm way more curious about how much deadlier I have become with all my increased Wisdom.

  There was still no wave in Windkeep, which was making him increasingly worried. He knew it would come soon, but the extent of the wave remained unknown. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't be a nine or ten-rated wave.

  With a deep breath, he prepared himself to go out again and left the mansion to make his way to the hunter's guild. Walking without the illusion armor was liberating, letting him feel the constant breeze of windkeep on his face, flowing through his hair with a gentle touch.

  The voices of people around him were also louder, but he didn't mind. With the amount of monstrous screeches and cries he had dealt with so far, the sounds of a crowd were downright pleasant to the ears.

  Now comes the hard part. I look like a kid still, one who might've just gotten his class.

  Lev's high Perception easily let him see the frown that flickered on the receptionist's face. Before she could say anything, he thrust his gold badge into her face.

  "I want to inquire about all gold dungeons," Lev said, barely stopping himself from cringing because of how young his voice sounded all of a sudden. He only ever talked to officials with his armor on.

  "I would need you to verify your capabilities first, please."

  Lev refrained from sighing. Despite the needless complication, she was only professionally skeptical. Things might've gotten… heated if she looked down on him.

  "Sure, let's move to one of the training rooms?"

  "Please give me a second," she said and vanished somewhere behind the counter through a door. Lev got out of line and waited for her to return. Most of him hoped that nobody would bother him, though a small part of him wished they would.

  "Hey, kid."

  Lev's armor appeared in a blink. The enhancement formation was carved in a single second as he turned around.

  "Yes?" he replied in a sweet, innocent tone. Stargazer's appearence might've undermined the act a little but he didn't care. Lev was content with holding her in his hands as mana streamed into her enchantments.

  "Nice toys," replied the same dipshit who had called out to him earlier. The boy couldn't even feel the amount of mana in Stargazer. Or maybe he could, and thought it came from cores or crystals. Because of the blocking stone on Lev's person, his level could not be deciphered.

  Lev tilted his head a little, unable to truly comprehend the situation. He had to hold back a smile when he Identified the boy. He was much stronger than expected for someone eighteen or nineteen years old.

  [Warrior - Level 151]

  "Thank you?" Lev replied. "Did you need something?"

  "Being a hunter is not a joke. Don't risk your neck like that for bits of fame or whatever it is you're after."

  Oh hell, he's serious. I would've happily escalated the situation if he wasn't actually concerned.

  Stargazer vanished in Lev's ring as he thought for a moment before a brilliant idea flashed into his mind.

  "Since you seemed to be worried about my safety, how about I prove myself?"

  "I can settle for that," the boy grinned. "The name's Ryan, by the way."

  "Lev. Since you're a warrior, will you be up for a match of arm wrestling?"

  The whole guild was spectating by now, and the challenge was met with whispers and cheers of approval. Ryan couldn't ignore such a blatant provocation either.

  Ryan's grin turned predatory as he responded. "You feel like a mage but I doubt you would put forth arm wrestling without a plan. I accept. Let's see if you can put your money where your mouth is."

  Five minutes later, both of them were sitting opposite each other. In front of them was a relatively professional-looking stone arm wrestling table with a hand peg on each side. The table was formed by a Master earth mage who happened to be present near the confrontation.

  "Clasp your hands," said the guild receptionist, who had returned after some time. She looked exasperated but didn't stop such a harmless competition.

  Lev adjusted his right arm, covered in barrier armor, and clasped his opponent's right hand. Neither planned to use any techniques or moves. They just wanted to judge each other's strength without tricks and decide if the other was strong or not.

  Lev had no plans to lose either.

  "3."

  "2."

  They both tightly grabbed the hand pegs.

  "Go."

  Neither did anything. Ryan observed him with an easy grin, letting him take the lead. Lev obliged, starting with his physical strength alone.

  It was countered easily. Lev was met with a single raised brow, but he too was only getting started.

  Mental manipulation joined in, slowly increasing in strength. Ryan's expression went from relaxed to mildly surprised before his brows shot up. He had to visibly put some effort into keeping Lev's arm in place now.

  Lev grinned, then opened the floodgates. Mana rushed into the enhancement formation, almost scoring him the victory immediately, but Ryan reasserted himself in the nick of time.

  To Lev's surprise, he was starting to get pushed back. Slowly, ever so slowly, it was his hand that inched closer to the table, not Ryan's.

  Heavier lifting's third tier joined in, at which point both of them were locked in place. Veins bulged in their necks as they both gave it their all, yet the clasped arms refused to move to either side.

  In the end, it was the property of Lev's class that allowed him to win. He basically cheated with his prodigious pool as mana rushed into all of his skills, overloading them to the limit.

  Time seemed to pass in agonizing slowness as Ryan's arm moved a single centimeter. Then his strength started to flag, and his side of the hand hit the stone table with a loud smack as cheers erupted around them.

  "FUCK!" Ryan yelled, smiling from ear to ear. Lev was the same, unable to suppress the grin on his face.

  "Hah! How does it feel to lose to a kid?"

  "I didn't lose to a kid, I lost to a ton of mana."

  "My mana," Lev corrected him. Ryan tsked but didn't argue further.

  "What level are you even? I was convinced that you were hiding your level because it was lower than your badge suggested," Ryan asked, massaging his arm.

  Right, I should return the blocking stone, Lev thought and stored the blocking stone in his ring. He would return it to his mentor whenever they met next. The stone had served its purpose admirably.

  "Identify me now."

  Ryan blinked, impressed. "Damn, no wonder. Still, that was a lot of mana for your level. Must be a pretty strong class."

  … I didn't even use 5% of my total.

  Lev wouldn't ever voice that, though. He looked at the receptionist instead. "Do I still need to prove myself?"

  She nodded, though a little hesitantly. "Your prowess as a mage has yet to be seen."

  Lev got up and motioned for her to take the lead. "Let's get this over with quickly, then."

  "Can we come?" Ryan asked out of nowhere.

  "Hmm? Sure, why not?"

  His team also followed them to the basement, where they descended several floors, each larger than the last. For nearly a minute, the group went down a large circular stairway before arriving in an extremely large hall.

  Without a word, the receptionist led them to a corner with a small pedestal brimming with mana. Some tinkering later, a large, circular floating red target popped into existence a hundred meters away.

  "Feel free to attack it however you see fit."

  Lev thought about holding back, but there was no point anymore. "Okay."

  Dozens of arrows formed in an instant before each of them was filled with a mix of lightning and fire mana. Lev took a moment to appreciate his new converters with 91% efficiency as mana rushed into the projectiles.

  With a mental nudge, they launched themselves at the target one by one. Explosion after explosion rocked the large hall as four lances formed around him. Each was filled with a large amount of lightning mana, and they too, impacted the large target just when the arrows had been fired.

  The shockwave from the final explosions forced Lev to counteract it not to be sent stumbling back. The wind mage from Ryan's team covered the receptionist and the rest of the team.

  Lev waited for the smoke and dust to clear. It did so after a few seconds, revealing a target that was… utterly unharmed. He frowned.

  Who the hell made that thing?

  His indignation lasted all of a few seconds before he realized the mana in the pedestal behind him was almost completely drained.

  … Woops.

  Turning back, he looked at the terrified receptionist. "Good enough?"

  She repeatedly nodded, too scared to talk. Lev identified her.

  [Worker - Level 98]

  Realizing why she was so scared, he just innocently looked at her to move on in hopes of making her relax, and ignored the awed and nervous looks from Ryan's team.

  Plebians. That was barely a tenth of my mana, Lev mused, holding back an evil grin.