This here is my team. We are all Silver-ranked and the main defenders of this caravan. Or well, we were, but I'm sure we will still see a lot of action." Peter introduced his team. There were four other members of his team, just chatting away while sitting on the ground. Lev identified them all.

[Warrior - ??]

[Warrior - ??]

[Mage - ??]

[Mage - ??]

Lev inspected the man who had brought them here.

[Warrior - ??]

"The smaller mage is Lucy and the other is Maureen. The warriors are Hadi and Dan."

Lucy was truly small, nearly two heads shorter than Lev with his armor. Maureen was of average height, and both of them had short black hair. Hadi was a sleek yet tall figure with brown hair, in contrast to the bulky warrior that was Dan. They both had a shield and sword strapped to their back and waist.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Lev, a barrier mage on his first quest."

"That's a fine mask. I hope you have a face under that?" Lucy overrode everyone with a grin. Lev realized they were all looking at the high-quality illusion.

"I do," Lev replied simply. "Do you guys not have a healer?"

Peter grimaced. "Healers are… rare. Barely anyone wants to be a support when there's always room for more combatants. I'm sure one of the four Iron teams will have one." He wanted to ask something before Maureen overrode him.

"Barrier Mage? Combatant? Well, forgive me if I find that hard to believe but can you show us how you managed that?" Maureen asked. She didn't look hostile but the challenge was clear. It seemed to be what Peter wanted to ask, as did his team. They looked curious too, a more amiable sort of curious.

Lev was prepared for that question. His element was notoriously hard to utilize offensively at the earlier stages, especially arcane barriers.

Lev took off the bow strung to his back and summoned an arrow. With practice and increasing familiarity, aided by his general skill, the arrow formed in the blink of an eye.

Nocking it, Lev aimed at forty-five degrees before closing his eyes. His trained focus sharpened on the arrow, infusing it as soon as Lev released the string. The already fast shot accelerated even further, flying out of sight within moments with a sharp whistle.

Lev looked back to see the others were suitably impressed. He then summoned a disk with edges as sharp as he could manage before shooting it in a straight line slightly above the ground.

It cut a smooth path through the ankle-high grass at high speed, not encountering any resistance before it lost momentum and fell.

"Interesting… concept. Rather cowardly." Dan commented with a sagely nod, making his team groan in unison.

"Not everyone wants to be a melee fighter, Dan," Maureen commented with a scrunched-up nose, though her eyes were smiling.

Lev chuckled. "It is rather cowardly. Regardless of how much I want to get close to the monsters and tear their face off, I'll be much more useful alive."

"See? He gets it."

Dan looked at Lev with a grin, which Lev returned under his mask. Even if it wasn't visible, Dan could feel the expression.

"Besides, I'm not completely useless in close quarters," Lev said.

"Oh really?"

"Mhm, want to spar a little?"

"A man after my own heart," Dan commented, eagerly getting up.

Lev would be lying if he said he wasn't excited. Sparring with his mentor or his friends was, ultimately, an effortless beatdown for him. Now, he could see how he compared to an early Adept physical fighter. He didn't harbor any delusions, though. Lev was prepared for another beatdown.

His brawling general skill guided his limbs as he got into a stance, waiting for his opponent. Dan just stood there leisurely, waiting for Lev to make the first move.

Obliging, Lev sprinted forward and aimed a punch at Dan's nose to probe his reaction. The warrior's hand shot up as a blur, effortlessly catching Lev's barrier gauntlet and stopping it in its tracks.

"Not bad," Dan nodded. "But this isn't enough for close combat."

"I know."

Lev took a few steps back before getting ready again. The punch had used only about half of his mental strength, and that was excluding overloading his skills.

This time, Lev didn't hold back and started raining punches at full power. Dan's eyes widened slightly at the physical might displayed by the mage but it was far from catching him off-guard.

The ensuing strikes were deflected and dodged with minimal movements. To an inexperienced outsider, it would look like Lev was being toyed with, but Dan's team could recognize what he was doing.

Dan repeatedly dodged in the same pattern, letting Lev see what he was doing wrong. How he sometimes over-extended and left himself wide open, albeit briefly, and how his punches were rather predictable.

Lev eagerly accepted the teachings, marginally improving with every passing minute. He added kicks into the mix when he got comfortable with the added weight of the illusion armor. Despite that, he was no closer to landing a hit on Dan.

But that was fine by him. The warrior had over 100 levels on him. His skills were surely also past the boundary of the second rank too, into the auxiliary ranks. The sheer attribute advantage made him even more an overwhelming opponent.

Lev was happy to take advantage of the free training. He wasn't even close to tiring out so far, both physically and mentally, and his mana was comfortably above 95% still. Maybe he could land a surprise hit by overloading his armor with mana.

****

Dan ducked another high kick, mentally tsking at the wide move. The boy had stopped making such mistakes a few minutes ago so he was interested in seeing what happened next.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Mana seeped out of the mage in a stream, making him worry about the usage. He had to put those thoughts out of his mind when Lev's other leg came flying at him, both earlier and faster than he expected.

Dan blocked it easily enough with his left arm but the physical force made him take half a step back. He could've stopped it without moving but he didn't want to accidentally hurt the boy.

"Now that is what I'm talking about!" Dan exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. Where had all that power come from?

His opponent growled lightly, slowly moving his leg around. Years of experience had taught him that just raw attributes were far from enough to be resilient, so Dan could guess that the rebound from the kick was painful on the mage.

"I'll stick to punches," Lev said, getting back into position again.

"Did you overload your skill?" Dan asked as he dodged another punch. He was constantly distracted by the very lifelike depiction of a blue galaxy under the boy's hood, as he had come to learn from various artworks.

Damn, that looks good.

"Yeah."

"I can see why you went this route if your class can afford you the mana required for that," Dan nodded as it all clicked together. "Let's stop here. We don't want you to run out of mana."

Lev looked hesitant before the boy shrugged. Dan wondered why he hesitated.

Was he enjoying it too much or what?

He could guess that the boy was a bronze-rank hunter from his budding aura, which was difficult to perceive. Definitely below level 50. It made him excited to think about the class. It was passable in melee combat but the arrow and weird… disks were far deadlier.

Maybe we will hear about Lev's exploits in the future. With that mask, there's little chance he will go unnoticed.

****

I couldn't even go all out because of my low constitution. Lev sighed in his head. My mana is still almost full but I can't exactly tell them that.

"So you have a hybrid class?" Lucy questioned him as she returned Lev's bow she was holding onto for the spar.

"Nope, mage class," Lev held up a hand to forestall her questions. "I have a barrier armor which I can manipulate with my mind, which is boosted by my passive skills."

"Huh…"

Maureen spoke up first. "Wait, so you have your active skills and that armor? That sounds so strong."

Lev shook his head. "How many active spells do you have?"

"Four?" She replied, confused. Lev looked at the rest of the team with a silent question, to which none refuted Maureen's claim.

"I only have barrier creation and barrier armor."

The entire team winced or grimaced at that. Most of a mage's power was stored in the active skills. Some had large-scale spells, and others had simple manipulation like Lev. But unlike him, they had at least two high-damage active spells to compensate for the manipulation skill. Lev had none of that.

"That sounds so… difficult."

"Mhm."

"You have balls of titanium, dude," The comment obviously came from Dan. "Makes sense why the arrows and disks were so strong but to do it all manually? Must be one hell of a class with extreme requirements."

"So you were able to push this brute back with just that?" Hadi asked, speaking for the first time.

"Hey, who're you calling a brute?"

Lev chuckled. "Nearly broke my leg on impact but yeah."

The conversation getting dangerously close to all he was willing to reveal. Telling them his name was already risky, but Alec had reassured him that nobody would recognize him out there. They wouldn't know who he was, especially with how little interaction he had with anyone. Which meant that one of his two greatest secrets, his little age, was safe with the illusion armor.

Now, he had asserted that his class was strong, but that was all he wanted to show. So far, no one had given him any reason to believe that he would get into trouble for being too strong, but Lev wasn't going to take any chances.

They don't know that I can comfortably launch hundreds of arrows or manipulate the disks for hours before even getting close to low mana.

The Silver team was good company, so he didn't mind to continue chatting with them.

"I know three of you are warriors, but what do your classes specialize in?"

Dan and Hadi were frontline warriors focused on resilience, durability, and endurance. A long sword was ideal with a shield with increased attributes, so they both picked that up.

Peter was a full offensive warrior, focused on strength and dexterity. His greatsword was double-edged, designed to kill quickly.

"I'm a fire mage, and I'll be the next big sniper," Lucy commented with stars in her eyes. "I have only seen The Galvanic Sniper fight once, and that was enough to convince me." Her entire team smiled, either out of exasperation or at her antics. Lev smiled too, but it was strained. Thankfully, nobody noticed it under the mask.

Oh boy. I wonder if she will faint if I tell her about Sherron and how much time I spent with her.

Maureen good-naturedly shook her head. "While she is good at being a long-rage mage, she's still far from a proper sniper. Fire doesn't really allow for much sniping, so she's pretty much a bomber." Lucy huffed at being called a bomber but didn't refute her.

Doesn't an element need speed to be a sniper? How fast can fire travel compared to lightning?

Lev kept his thoughts to himself and smiled. "What about you?"

"I'm an earth mage, primarily a support mage. It's my job to erect walls and other obstructions to keep our flanks safe."

Maureen fulfilled the much-needed defender role in a way, which only left the lack of a healer. Otherwise, they made for a great team just by the composition.

"Why are you solo?" Peter asked, surprising Lev.

"Because I don't need a team yet."

"Need?" Peter repeated. "One can never have enough help."

Whoops.

"That came out wrong," Lev explained himself. "I mean I haven't found a proper team yet. Right now the plan is to train in The Pit before looking for one. To see what kind of role my skills will rank up into."

They nodded along, as people were recommended to wait till the second rank of their skills before trying to find a team if they didn't already have one. Near-perfect team compositions could be formed that way and several popular Master teams had formed like that.

"That makes more sense. Let's see if all others have arrived."

The team got up and moved in the middle of the carts. Lev could see one new Iron team that wasn't there before. All of the hunters were listening to Alec animatedly retelling his experiences.

He waved a hand and an illusion appeared in front of him. It showed some dark grey slimy substance splattering onto the ground.

"The three teams struggled to put down a handful of these slime monsters. Not to mention that the monsters were over level 300, much higher than the peak Adepts waiting to evolve.

"They had enough power to turn them to puddles, but the main damage dealers were lightning mages and earth mages. The physical warriors couldn't do anything about the bits and pieces of the slime, which were too numerous. So, it took them several hours to put down the first monster after it was cornered and thoroughly disintegrated by an overloaded lightning attack."

Lev and the arriving Silver team listened attentively as well. Free lectures from someone so experienced were hard to come by.

"I have seen several instances like this. General Skills, while they can evolve to great extents, are better off being used to fill up weaknesses. All it takes is a single monster that counters your team to be the last."

He glanced at Lev, and all the hunters turned to look too. Most of them stared at his mask, absent-mindedly taking in the Silver team's arrival.

Lev ignored them all and approached Alec. "How would the disks hold up against those?"

"Poorly," came the expected reply. "It is why the property to infuse your barriers with different mana types is so important. That, and you can just overload them to the point of exploding to deal with slimes."

"Everyone!" Peter clapped once. "My name is Peter and these are my team members. We are silver-ranked and have been active for more than a decade. I'll personally be leading all the defensive maneuvers. Further introductions can be done on the road so let's get it moving."

He guided everyone to pre-determined carts. Lev and Alec got an entire cart to themselves.

Lev patted the comfortably padded interior of the wooden carts. They were massive, easily able to seat two dozen people, and were pulled by two majestic black horses.

****

[Horse - Level 52]

[Horse - Level 55]

"I wasn't expecting something so comfortable but then again, we are gonna travel for weeks," Lev commented once they were seated. "Still, it feels lonely with so much free space."

"Even if I tried to refuse it, they would insist on giving me space," Alec shrugged. "Besides, it means you can come out of that armor."

Lev sighed. It would take some time to get used to the inability to move without his barrier armor. Already, it was becoming second nature but it was still uncomfortable.

At least the armor had a smooth airflow, always keeping the temperature moderate and the air clean.

Laying down with his back facing up, Lev put mana into the opening trigger and stepped out. It was strangely liberating to walk without a weight on, even if it was shouldered by his mind.

Turning around, Lev gazed at the tall walls of WhiteFall's third outpost. It was a strange moment, one filled with slight melancholy and mostly gratitude.

Melancholy because it was where he was born. There were no memories associated with the outpost itself except finding his mentor. Gratitude because it made all these opportunities possible for Lev. He and Alec might've never met if it weren't for him being in the outpost.

As the carts started moving, Lev shook himself out of the solemn mood and looked ahead. The wide white road stretched on for as far as he could see, slowly curving towards The Pit. The view was partially obstructed by the other carts, and thankfully the ones in front of him were filled with cargo, which meant that nobody could see him.

The weight of his decisions had firmly settled on his shoulders by now. The first step had just been taken, and now he would mostly be on his own. Alec would travel with him to prevent any mishaps or accidents but death was now a very real possibility.

The Pit, for all that its edges had been turned into training grounds, was still very much unpredictable. One moment of carelessness or extremely bad luck was all it would take. His armor would be breached and his life would be snuffed out, all in a single second.

There would be several Masters patrolling the outer edges and the first layers of The Pit to prevent unnecessary loss of life and deal with enemies beyond the trainees.

But Lev wasn't going to put his complete faith in them. His circumstances were beyond extraordinary, both his reincarnation and the potential in his class. It would be the height of foolishness to not prepare himself for matching levels of misfortune.

There was no such thing as a free meal, especially one so grand.