Lev sipped the cool orange juice in silent contemplation. They had just returned to Alec's cozy cottage slash lab not long ago.

The first thing they did was toss around feedback. Which was … practically nothing. Not only had he performed well, but he hadn't made any obvious mistakes either. His insane perception for a level 1 was apparently to blame, letting him observe everything clearly without missing a beat and react accordingly.

The second thing was how he was supposed to spend his attributes. He went with the standard distribution devised by Alec before he got the class.

The distribution followed a simple rule. Forget Strength and Dexterity. Every 10 levels, the attributes from two levels would go into Constitution, another two into Perception, and three into Intelligence and Wisdom each.

By that logic, he put 10 into Perception and Constitution and 15 into Intelligence and Wisdom before putting the rest into Perception for a total of 60 points.

The magical attributes were not a priority in the distribution as he had a lot of them already, and they would always be much further ahead compared to the other two. More often than not, Perception and Constitution would be the real lifesavers.

"So, what's left? One Extension General skill and then the last two slots?" Lev asked. Four of his slots were already taken by Mana Manipulation and Arcane Brawling, which left five open. One would be used for Mana Perception as a General Skill, three for an extension skill, and the last one was still undecided.

Lev didn't get a verbal answer as his mentor raised a hand. Getting the hint, Lev closed his eyes and focused on Alec's hand. Slowly, a bubble of pure mana formed atop his palm. It expanded, growing as big as a baseball before streams of different mana types escaped from it, circling the entire large room.

Lev lost himself in the display of might and unyielding control over such a large amount of mana as the streams morphed, circling over before they exploded into majestic fireworks around the entire cottage.

Lev opened his eyes and looked at his teacher in awe. That was so much better than anything he was expecting.

Orianna and Sherron also had small smiles on their faces, no doubt from his reaction and the actual display.

[

You have learned the General Skill: Mana Perception.

Feel the mana in your surroundings. Drastically reduced effectiveness outside your range of manipulation.

Scales with Perception.

]

The skill was simple enough to acquire. Lev had qualified for it long ago. Both during his training and what little he observed of his mentor's crafting, which frankly went over his head.

"Next up is the extension skill. Do you think it would be redundant now?" Alec asked him.

Lev shook his head. It would now be better than ever before.

"No. It would be my only method of striking past my manipulation range."

"What about the last skill?"

Lev scratched the back of his head. "I'll leave that one up to you guys. What do you think I need?"

"Well, realistically there are only two well-known options. Since General Skills are mostly intended for utility and very general class skills, you can only go for either General Body Enhancement or Mana Slash." Sherron piped up.

Lev considered that. "Body enhancement doesn't do anything for me though? It doesn't have a Constitution boost, right?" Sherron confirmed that. "So the only other option is Mana Slash. What does it require to work?"

"Just a bladed weapon, and no, the disks won't work without an extension skill."

Just like that, his hopes were dashed before they could even take hold. Still, he could use oversized slashes with a barrier dagger or sword.

"Let's get to it then." Lev got up with a sigh. Only he and his mentor moved for this one.

Outside the cottage, Alec summoned a target board for archery and a simple dark brown bow for Lev to use.

Archery. That was going to be Lev's final extension skill.

Unlike other mages, Lev couldn't just aim an attack higher and let it fly well past his manipulation range. They would both stop spinning and not possess enough speed, weight or explosive impact to really matter.

To that end, he wanted to get an archery skill. Before different mana types came into play but Lev still wanted a more efficient and precise option.

Not only would it synergize greatly with different mana types, which he would get in the second rank of his arcane manipulation skill, but it was also just neat.

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Lev enjoyed archery.

Focusing on his hand, Lev focused on forming an arrow out of his barriers. It took less than a second because of all his relentless practice. Different from when he had started out, this arrow looked much sturdier and deadlier.

Remembering all his lessons, he nocked the arrow and waited. He forgot to check the wind but it was fine. With his enhanced attributes, the bow packed enough of a punch for that to matter little. Despite the 15-meter distance, the arrow would barely be obstructed.

The arrow flew forward faster than Lev could track, hitting the board a few inches away from the center target. That was fine. He recalled the arrow, after going forward a few steps to get it inside his manipulation range, back into his hand before nocking it again.

The next few tries were more or less the same, the arrows landing just slightly further away than the intended target.

On the sixth try, he finally hit the target. He moved on to the next phase, the requirement for the extension skill.

With a deep breath, he nocked the arrow again. Just before releasing it, Lev's willpower concentrated, focused entirely on the arrow. The moment the arrow was released, barely trackable by the connection he had with the barrier the arrow was formed of, he tried to further enhance its speed by mentally pushing it forward.

Lev succeeded, but the arrow went wide, far past the target board. The additional burst of speed had altered its direction. Lev formed a new arrow, which took only a little bit of mana, before trying again.

It took more than ten minutes of constantly shooting before one finally landed on the big red dot, which signified the start of the final phase.

Lev formed a new arrow, this one with an arrowhead as sharp as he could manage, and connected to the shaft with a small mechanism that would allow it to spin. He nocked it with practiced ease before letting it fly. It hit the red dot on the first try.

He got a notification at the same time.

[

You have learned the General Skill: Arcane Archery.

Time and time again, you missed the target without ever giving up. Now, you have achieved an adequate level of skill to qualify for this General Skill.

This skill makes your aim steadier, stance firmer, and bow deadlier. Extension of the class skills Arcane Barrier Manipulation, Incisive Edge, and Whirling Rim, this skill takes up 4 General Skill slots.

The arrows formed from this skill retain the resilience bonus from the class skill.

The arrows formed from this skill retain the speed bonus from the class skill and receive a static extra 25% speed.

The arrows formed from this skill retain the penetration bonus from the class skill.

The arrows formed from this skill may retain the spinning speed of their arrowheads for 3 seconds after firing for extra mana cost.

]

That is… quite the skill. Lev mused

Losing the last skill slot was unexpected, but the skill definitely made up for it. His main concern was the loss of penetration power if the arrowheads stopped spinning, but the skill smoothly solved that.

Concentrating, he tried forming an arrow in his free hand. It formed in a blink.

He tried again, this time to form three of them at once. In the time it took to form one before the skill, he could now form three.

Yeah, losing the last skill slot for this was more than worth it. Forming arrows so much quicker will be so good.

He read out the skill description to his mentor, who was more surprised than Lev.

"That is one of the strongest General Skills I have ever heard of but at the same time nobody can afford to use four of their seven general skill slots on a single skill," Alec explained.

Makes sense.

The student and teacher returned to the cottage to see Orianna and Sherron preparing to leave. Lev knew they had stayed with him for several days so he wouldn't be lonely during his classing. He was going to miss their company.

Orianna came up to him first and gave him a big hug. "Stay safe okay? Don't try to be a hero either. The Pit is a large place and there are too many ways for things to go wrong."

Lev just gave her a warm smile in return, promising to do his best to stay alive.

Sherron hugged him as well. She had no qualms about giving bad advice though.

"Show them hell." She said with a grin. "The Pit better sing your praises for an entire century straight."

She went on and on about how he had an absurd class so her expectations would be thoroughly unreasonable. Orianna eventually had to drag her away to shut her up. Lev and Alec shared a quiet laugh at her antics.

Lev followed them outside to see them off. In less time than it took to blink, both the women were surrounded by a ball of fire before they ascended rapidly. Once they were high enough, they shot off with an extremely loud boom. Towards WhiteFall, where duty called.

****

Lev didn't do much for the rest of the day. He relaxed and mentally prepared himself for the life that was to come.

A life filled with monster fighting, grinding levels, and trying to keep the walls as safe as possible.

His thoughts kept circling back to the goblins he had killed. Pretty much murdered in cold blood.

Why does it not bother me?

That thought in particular worried Lev. Taking a life was never supposed to be easy. Yet Lev hadn't just taken dozens, he had also done so without much hesitation.

Maybe it was the lack of sense of self-preservation in the monsters, or maybe it was the raw hatred and insanity in their eyes, Lev didn't know, and neither did it matter much. They were monsters that had to be slain.

What did matter was how casually he had done so.

Granted, he hadn't enjoyed the process, and he suspected that was due to the lack of challenge. Still…

Maybe I'm not over my past yet.

Unlike his current life, in which he was pretty much blessed by Lady Luck herself, his first life was… ugly for lack of a better term.

His starting point was the same, the lowest as an orphan. But there was no System to reward his efforts, or kind people to give him a hand. It was only him against everyone else who wanted to take everything he ever owned.

Some of the memories still kept him up at night. He wondered how he ever came to possess the willpower to not end it all back then. But he had endured and kept going until an opportunity presented itself.

Finally, his first and last kind manager had promised to introduce him to some people looking for capable assistants to hire during a social gathering.

Long story short, Lev had been invited to an interview believing his life was finally turning around, and followed some gentlemen into their office. The office was rather basic but Lev was too invested to care.

Lev was seated in a comfortable padded chair and told to wait for them to bring a colleague before conducting the interview.

Half an hour later, Lev tried to go look for them only to find himself locked in an office with steel doors.

Regardless of how cruel the move was, it was far from the worst he had gone through. But it signified something else for him, a low point that would have changed him forever if something good to balance it out didn't happen soon. Perhaps that was why the next day he woke up on Monarch.

It is all in the past now. Lev exhaled. These people are different. They are not greedy or spiteful. Things will be better now.

That wasn't a fantasy either. The people of Monarch were survivors, the remnants of humanity. Greed and Jealousy were drained out of them along with all the blood they spilled trying to survive.

The humans of Monarch were kind, not hesitating to give without asking anything in return. They were like an ideal neighborhood, a tight-lipped community that didn't back down from joining hands to face the challenge of one.

Lev wanted to be a part of that community and to fulfill his desired role to the best of his ability.

Things were looking up for humans after centuries of struggle. Lev wanted to be a part of that.