Lev was back in his armor, waiting for the caravan to stop. The suns had set an hour ago, and they would stop near the road for the night.

Weak roaming monsters had started showing up a few hours ago. Stray goblins and orcs were the norm, with an occasional brown bear. The bears were first-threshold monsters, past level 100 evolution. They were mindless just like any other, and were considered one of the weakest first-threshold monsters.

Lev and Alec didn't need to do anything. The silver team handled the stray monsters from afar, not willing to slow down for something so minor.

They stepped out of their cart when everyone stopped. The horses were trained to stop with the other horses it seemed, as their cart didn't even have a driver.

The carts were parked in a circle, letting four people keep watch from atop throughout the night. Lev wasn't expected to do so, for everyone knew he was the weakest person present. Even the merchants were mostly Adepts.

"No fireplace?" Lev asked.

"Don't need it. The nights are always bright enough to see around with even a modest perception attribute, and light will attract attention,"

Everyone was stretching their legs. Staying cooped up in a cart for the entire day was boring and tiring, so Lev started circling the carts as well.

Lev was lost in thought when he felt like someone was watching him.

Looking around, he found Lucy's eyes staring at him from atop one of the distant carts. Or more precisely, his mask.

Seeing that Lev had noticed her, she pointed at her face. Lev took the hint and understood she was pointing to his mask instead. She then mimed sparkles with both hands, and it took a bit for him to decipher the meaning.

… It's shining?

"Hey, can you summon the mirror?" Lev asked Alec after returning to where he was sitting atop their cart. His mentor just tossed the full-body mirror to him, which he caught deftly.

The reflection proved Lucy's message. Lev's mask was even more prominent in the dark, somehow absorbing light under the hood.

Now, his mask was pitch black except for the blue parts, making it seem downright sinister. To anyone looking, there was no face, just a floating blue illusion, and a void behind it.

Lev gave a thumbs-up to his mentor for such fine detail, which Alec just brushed off. The mask kept exceeding his expectations.

Soon enough, he found himself a few dozen meters away from the carts. He had held off on checking his limits before because the caravan departed early in the morning. Now, he had the time and space to comfortably do so.

The most intriguing part is how the increased Constitution is affecting me. I am not tired at all, neither am I sore from sitting on my ass all day. Not even a hint of sleepiness thus far.

The attribute was sitting at 65, 35 higher than the day before yesterday. The effects, while nothing miraculous, were significant. Lev knew his sleep time would be reduced by an hour or two as well despite staying up for longer.

The first and pretty much the only thing he wanted to check was how fast he could move, and if his body would allow him to run at full speed. His armor was far tougher than the fleshy body beneath, so Lev had to be careful not to tear muscles and tendons in a rush.

Crouching slightly, he took a deep breath and started jogging. The barrier armor and his passive movement skill came together seamlessly, and he jogged in a large circle around the camp leisurely.

Slowly ramping up the pace over a few minutes, Lev ran faster than he should've been able to with just his body. It was exhilarating, and he was still far from his top speed.

Here goes nothing.

Gradually, he accelerated beyond that. What would've been a stumbling end instead became an even faster run.

Oblivious to several people, including his mentor, observing him, Lev kept going faster and faster. He was going beyond what a physical fighter of his level could've managed, but no one knew of his level. To them, he was a bronze rank somewhere around level 50. It wasn't outside the realm of possibilities for him to move so fast.

His head was throbbing at this point, due to both low Intelligence and skill level. It took an unexpected amount of effort to slow down without tripping.

It took several minutes to calm his ragged breathing while he inspected his body. Pain was the most glaring, permeating his entire body. His muscles had been utilized beyond reasonable limits, and they were making their displeasure known.

Tiredness was a close second. The secondary goal of the run was to push his body along with his mind. People could still gain attributes after getting a class but it became much harder. Especially if they put some points in each physical attribute.

Lev had a unique advantage in that regard. Not only was his Strength and Dexterity not getting any points, but he would also always be trying to match a pace faster than what his Constitution would allow.

Consequently, all three would see gradual growth, letting him earn points where most others wouldn't bother putting in the effort. He wouldn't either if it wasn't for such a convenient exercise. All he had to do was push himself along his armor.

[

Nimble has reached Level 3

]

****

The next week passed without incident. Monsters attacked and were swiftly dealt with by Lucy. The small groups were usually all destroyed with a single oversized fireball from her, allowing them to travel without any pause.

The nights were similarly peaceful. They rested, slept, and then moved on. It took over a week for them to enter a more dangerous region.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"We're a fifth of the way to Windkeep now," Alec explained. "The human cities and outposts are all now far enough that monsters spawn by the thousands in the upcoming regions. There is one such area on each side of The Haven. This one is called "The Roaming Wilds" because goblins, orcs, trolls, thornlings, wolves, bears, and several other monsters are always on the move."

"So we should expect waves?" Lev asked, mentally preparing for the strenuous path ahead. He did not doubt that they were completely safe with Alec amongst them, but he still wanted to get as much experience under his belt as he could.

"Nope. Just hordes. Waves are used to describe a horde that can threaten outposts and cities. Even I would struggle to stand my ground against a low-ranked wave."

"How far is The Pit then?"

"The Pit is in the middle of The Haven and Windkeep so it will take more than a week still."

Lev groaned and flopped back in the cart. The past week had been extremely boring. Enchanting had been a good companion but it didn't take long for him to notice just how much mana it ate.

The durability rune was apparently hyper-efficient and could empower something for a long time at little cost. Relatively little, at least when Lev considered his mana pool.

Sharpness runes were similar except they had to trail at most an inch away from the edge of his barriers. The importance of monster cores and mana crystals made sense when he powered the rune. It would render him dry in half an hour to just power one of them. Even worse, it was just a single rune. Formations would devour his pool in seconds.

Makes me wonder just how big of an increase in effectiveness Wisdom will get after evolving.

Enchantments were a staple after reaching Adept rank. Everyone used them, which meant that everyone needed enough mana to power them. Monster cores shouldered most of the burden, so maybe they could be charged? Lev wasn't sure.

"How do physical warriors power enchantments?" Lev decided to ask anyway.

"Mana Crystals can be enchanted to gather mana, which can be stored in both a core and the crystal," Alec replied.

Interesting. I wonder how fast the rate of absorption of ambient mana is.

Lev's thoughts revolved around enchanting materials for the next hour. He was belatedly realizing another advantage he had over a normal crafter. If he was missing cores, monster parts, metals, natural treasures, or other such resources… he could just go out and get them.

He would have the strength for it.

The thought of mining was dubious with his current capabilities but constructs allowed him the freedom to make any tool he wanted. Mining metals deep under the earth was certainly possible.

"You should don your armor now."

Hmm?

Lev did as he was asked, not voicing his confusion.

Did he scout something? Surely he has his ways.

It took half an hour for trouble to arrive. The suns were reaching their zenith when Peter's magically enhanced voice rang out.

"ORCS! RANGED ATTACKERS, PREPARE!"

Lev was already ready with his bow in hand, courtesy of Alec's early warning. The carts all spaced out further, letting the ranged combatants see the horde without obstruction.

Merely a blip on the horizon for him was an orc raiding party. They spawned with armor and weapons naturally, which disintegrated just as fast as the corpses. Nobody harvested them, however, for the metal was riddled with impurities and tailored to the monsters. Monarch's mines regenerated anyway, which made the prospect redundant.

That was another phenomenon Lev had trouble wrapping his head around. People created fire and water from thin air, sure, but to create metals endlessly? That was mind-blowing.

I suppose if something can achieve that, then it's Monarch.

Grabbing the conveniently placed handles at the border of the cart's roof, Lev went up. The orcs were steadily growing larger, rapidly closing onto their carts.

The horses weren't for show as slowly, the orcs had to adjust their trajectory to stay aligned toward them. The monsters were only slightly faster with their huge strides.

When the horde was just a few hundred meters away, Lucy's usual huge fireball was launched. It screamed toward the monsters, reaching them faster than the deceptively slow pace implied.

The explosion explained why it seemed slow. Only when it was close to the first orc did Lev realize the fireball was nearly 4 feet in height and half that in width, more than half as tall as the hulking 7-foot-tall orcs.

He had to shield his eyes from the bright aftermath, and his face fell slightly when most of the orcs continued chasing. Out of the 70 or so monsters, only ten had fallen. Two of them were getting up still, albeit wounded. They would pose a much lower threat.

Lev nocked the first arrow when there was less than a hundred meters of distance. His and Alec's cart was at the tail end of the caravan, to deal with any surprises from their flank. That provided Lev the chance to attack before everyone else.

When the leading monster was around fifty meters away, he took a good look at its face. Just like the goblins, it was thoroughly consumed by insanity as well. No thoughts of preserving energy or defending itself were present in its gait, just the raw desire to tear the humans and horses apart.

Lev's little hesitation about shooting a humanoid vanished then and there and he loosed the first arrow. The arrowhead spun at high speed as the arrow itself was accelerated even further by his skill and mind, yet all it did was lodge itself into the orc's thigh. It staggered only for a moment.

Lev was aiming at its chest but that was fine. The distance was still great for his nascent archery skills. Before he could shoot another, several fireballs, lightning bolts, and small boulders flew above him, into the horde. He looked behind and noticed that carts carrying ranged attackers were close to him now, closer to the horde.

Shrugging, he primed the next arrow and released it. This one flew above his intended target, at the forehead of the orc.

[

Your Group has slain [Orc - Level 62]

]

Lev stared at the notification in surprise. He had expected the arrow to pierce bone but it had drilled straight to the brain.

That penetration bonus is no joke.

Focusing on the feedback from his archery skill, Lev kept firing. Small, incremental improvements made themselves known as he shot at moving targets. He rarely missed the monsters themselves, but the arrows also rarely hit the intended target, the heart or the forehead.

The horde fell almost too fast, reminding Lev that the first evolution was no joke. Lucy had slain most of the monsters by her lonesome. Her attacks changed from overloaded fireballs to fast firebolts and spears, efficiently taking out the orcs one by one.

Still, the experience was an eye-opener about his capabilities, and so was the essence gain. In fact, the essence gain was too fast, it worried him.

[

Your Group has slain [Orc - Level 50]

Your Group has slain [Orc - Level 59]

Your Group has slain [Orc - Level 60]

….

Your Group has slain [Orc - Level 65]

Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 14

…

Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 26

Arcane Archery has reached Level 2

Arcane Archery has reached Level 3

Arcane Archery has reached Level 4

Needle precision has reached Level 3

Opportunity has reached Level 4

65 Free attribute points

]

I'm gonna have to wait at level 100 for a while to evolve, aren't I? Lev asked himself despite the answer being obvious already.

Evolutions depended on feats, how the class was utilized, and most importantly for everyone, how high were the skill levels. It was generally accepted that getting to the end of 2nd rank in every skill was the best for Classers. Skill levels would drastically slow down before that, but his essence gain wouldn't.

Many people spent months at the last level before an evolution to level their skills. It wasn't an issue for Lev either, he just wanted the skills and class levels to rise in unison. That felt right.

"You okay up there?" Alec's voice reached him. Lev realized the carts had all returned to their original position.

"Yeah, just looking at the notifications. These levels are pretty absurd."

"Better get used to it. Only the first gap will allow your skills to catch up before you stop leveling for a while."

The first and second gap referred to the last ten levels and twenty-five levels before the evolution for Classers and Adepts respectively. Essence gain was slowed down drastically for those levels, but they still went by fast enough to outpace skill levels.

Shrugging at the problem beyond his control, Lev distributed his points according to plan. The cycle of distribution for every ten levels had already seen Perception increase by 10 points. Next, he put 10 into Constitution and 15 into Intelligence and Wisdom.

He had to wait between applying the points because of the sheer rush. The energy coursing through him had him almost drooling inside the illusion armor. When it passed, he allotted the next batch of points.

With that done, he put 10 into Perception and Constitution again before dumping the last five into Intelligence. No point saving them when he couldn't get any emergency mana or healing from distributing them.

[

Name: Lev

Class: Arcane Sentinel - Level 26

Titles: Reinforced Mind, Vast Soul, Youngest Prodigy

Attributes:

Strength: 45

Dexterity: 45

Constitution: 85

Intelligence: 95

Wisdom: 90

Perception: 85

Class Skills:

Arcane Barrier Manipulation - Level 2

Incisive Edge - Level 2

Whirling Rim - Level 2

Barrier Armor - Level 2

Opportunity - Level 4

Nimble - Level 2

Heavy Lifting - Level 2

Needle Precision - Level 3

General Skills:

Mana Manipulation - Level 10

Identify

Arcane Brawling - Level 3

Mana Perception - Level 1

Arcane Archery - Level 4

]