Felix got back to work and spent the rest of the next few days working on his final project, a couple of massive bombs.

Grim spent the days making sure everything was in place and running battle simulations, mentally, to try and position everything exactly where it needed to be. He made sure to have portable walls near the front walls as well as some logs and explosive barrels for rolling down the enemy ramps. They had to be close enough to use, but not close enough to accidentally explode on his own people. He made sure they had answers to the Mole-Ants ready and spaced out where they would be needed. They would mostly be handled by the squads on the ground and the ones that were resting if necessary. Atop the walls, the arrows were ready and the canon balls prepared. The ammunition for the trebuchets was piled up and moved nearby.

The entire city was tense. The war would begin in just a few days now and the city was different in the last few days of preparation. People were outside of their homes and shopping less, the gates were completely inactive, people were beginning to stash away their belongings and some had moved into the bunkers ahead of time. The once lively nature of the city was dampened by the door mood of the upcoming battle. A few people had placed their things in Felix's tower, mostly odd projects and expensive furniture. Not nearly enough to fill it though. It seemed like people were a little scared of Felix and only those with something very precious to them that didn't fit in their inventory would dare try and take him up on the offer.

Felix spent the time oblivious to the general mood of the city. In his lab he tinkered away and created multiple weapons of mass destruction. They were not efficient and he knew that if what Grim suspected was true, they would end up being a waste of time. He was also so giddy when he made them, he didn't even care. What Grim had said about the Kraken, just made Felix more excited for the battle.

If he needed twenty times the mana pool, he had enough batteries for that. If he had to hit it 50,000 times, he calculated that would be about 30 minutes of standing still and casting with all 5 of his spells at once. In a battle where he had no hope of just standing still like an artillery cannon, it would more realistically be many hours, but Felix was ecstatic to try anyways. That was how long he wanted the world boss fights to go, but instead they were all dead in less than 40 spells, some less than 20. He wanted experience and honestly, he loved the fight. It was exhilarating and challenging all at once.

I'm a battle junky aren't I?

Felix finished up some finishing touches on his bombs then carefully stowed them. He still had a day or so until the last scouting mission so he spent the time creating as many batteries as he could. Once the time came, he and Grim flew out of the tower and to the east. They descended from above the low hanging, dark grey clouds only to find The Grove completely empty. The lumber mill was dead and the colossal structure in the middle was silent. There was no one in sight.

Felix flew with Grim back towards Tri-Peak, below the cloud cover this time and spotted them about half way between the two towns, still in the forest. There were a handful of new siege weapons, notably a fifth tower, but otherwise the layout and formation was largely similar to how it had been before. The Mole-Ants were completely hidden, likely in one of the wheeled structures or galleries. They were on the move through the forest with the fur tents all attached forming a bunch of trains that were pulled by bears.

"This is it." Felix wrote to Grim.

"Sure you don't want to fight them, then try the Kraken afterwards?"

"I'm sure. I've got my enemy, the city had it's."

"Yeah, I knew you'd say something like that. It's also just more fun, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. I have no inclination to go on a massacre. I don't care if it is a war."

"I don't fully understand that sentiment, but I can respect it I guess."

"You know how I feel about this. I also want the city to gain experience and I want the people to fight for themselves, be self sufficient."

"That's a nice sentiment but you're also basically dooming a large number of people to die."

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"Yeah, sort of. I genuinely believe you, and the city, will be fine. You've prepared for just about everything. This will also be good experience for everyone. Also, I just want to fight the Kraken, the prospect of… it excites me." Felix's eyes lit up as he spoke.

"Good luck. Mind giving something a shot though?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"I want to scare them a little, maybe make them second guess the entire siege…"

They headed back to the tower and Felix spent the next 24 hours making mana batteries and storing them in his inventory. By the end, he had stocked up over 20 batteries of 250k mana each, not including the ones already embedded in his weapons or the ones he had already fed to Grim. When their were just 4 hours left in the tenth remaining day of the tutorial, Felix and Grim headed out to try Grim's idea.

Together, they flew out over the city towards the front gates. The siege engines were being set up half a kilometer away and the army was just finishing pitching their tents. Felix flew up above the field and glided over in front of the army. The sky was dark from the clouds alone, an ominous omen of an incoming storm. Now though, it was just barely drizzling.

Felix used his old method of flying without the surfboard because it was more intimidating. He held Grim in his left hand and flew with his hood down, so people would recognize him. While Grim had taught him how to avoid attention with soul magic, Felix had intentionally reversed the effect in this instance, making himself stand out among the soul matter as much as possible. He made his soul radiate his conviction, indomitability. Now when people looked at him, they would have a hard time not noticing him, a harder time pulling their eyes off of him and they would feel like he could not be defeated.

Two people came to meet him, one familiar, the other new to Felix. Felix approached wearing no mask, displaying his full level. The two men approached, one on a bear, the other an elk.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 57)

[E - Common] Bear (Lvl 42)

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 61)

[E - Common] Elk (Lvl 46)

"Good evening gentlemen."

"Hey, you're that kid who couldn't keep up with our hunt."

Felix had mostly been ignoring his earrings as they usually didn't provide him with any new information, but here, he decided to give them a listen to make himself feel better.

Lying. Slight fear. Disbelief.

"That's me."

"I never did get your name back then, I take it you're Felix though?"

"I am."

"I'm Scott, leader of The Grove." The other man interjected.

Arrogance.

Felix simply nodded in acknowledgement.

I wonder if they can finally see my level or not. It's gotta be based on their level or perception, right? Would they back off if they could? Would they even believe it?

"Look, if you thought the hunt was too much, you should probably just surrender now. I'll be honest, this isn't looking great for you."

Lying. Hope. Exaggeration.

"Yeah, that's not happening."

"I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Lying.

"I mean, it doesn't? You could just not attack?"

"It was always coming to this, you must have known that when you upgraded to a Major City?" Scott said.

Arrogance.

Honestly, no cause The System didn't explain any of this shit to me.

"If this is how it will be, I will defend the city." Felix lifted himself into the air and spoke loud enough for everyone in the army to hear, with a little sound magic Grim had helped him with, "My name is Felix Kade. I am the leader of Tri-Peak, the Keeper of Secrets. I have single handedly slain all nine world bosses. I am the protector of this city and I will defend it to my last breath, and I… will not… be defeated." Felix punctuated the end of his sentence with a massive burst of lightning coming from his body using up half of his entire mana pool.

The lightning arced off of him in a dozen different directions and danced through the rain around him and struck the ground below him. His entire body glowed and caused shadows to flicker over the army from the only solid light source below the clouds. Felix rose into the air and flew off just as the light show finished, reversing the soul magic right at the end to make it look like he had disappeared. Broxus, Scott and the entire army looked around and scoured the sky, but through a combination of the soul magic, low lighting, and his black cloak none were able to find him.

Felix flew back to the tower and descended into the lobby. He hadn't opened Grim up outside due to the rain, once inside, he wrote, "Think it worked?"

"It was definitely flashy. The soul magic was a nice touch."

"Thanks, I hope it did what I hope it did."

"Made you very noticeable and definitely made you feel undefeatable."

"Yeah, that was kind of a side effect of my conviction."

"Let's hope it at least lowered their morale, that is a large part of war after all."

"Yeah. You don't need anything else from me, right?"

"Just try to be stealthy when you leave."

"Of course. Good luck."

"Likewise."

"That is a great word."

"Yes it is."

There was nothing more to be said from either side so Felix ascended to the top of the tower and began focusing on his soul to make himself as hard to notice as possible. . . . . .