As I looked at the giant wall three miles away, glowing in the dark of the night with endless magical fires, blue and red clashing, I felt a pang of nostalgia.
I was about to return to where it all had started.
Was my move risky? Certainly. But with the combination of my overwhelming stats, I should be able to take down the summoned monsters rapidly. The only other possible source that could match their output was the Lord Beasts, but finding them took too much time.
"Now, to sneak in," I said to myself, fixed my dark cloak, and tightened my grip around my spear, which was my main weapon, with half a dozen daggers that could be used against the enemies. Then, I jumped, summoning a platform under my feet.
[-1 Mana]
Then another … and another, until I was above the clouds, Concealment once again around me. Once I reached above the clouds, I stopped creating platforms. Occasional mana flares miles away from the wall could be ignored, but I couldn't replicate the same trick against the wall.
So, I unfurled my glider, small enough for me to extend my Concealment, and started flying, with the wind on my face.
It was a nice feeling. In my previous life, I had never been a big fan of extreme sports — I had enough excitement in my day job, thank you very much — but the knowledge that a fall wouldn't do any damage helped me feel comfortable.
Ironic, considering such a fall could end with a desperate chase with an army behind me, but that risk, I was able to ignore. That threat, I could fight against, unlike the effects of a terminal fall.
Without using Speed, it took me almost ten minutes to cover the distance of five miles, still above the clouds, as the occasional flying cart passed close by but they all ignored my presence — I doubted anyone with perception was desperately searching for an Assassin flying without mana.
The mana barrier, I passed easily, as it was designed not to keep infiltrators with no presence out, but to stop giant monsters from escaping. And, just like that, I was on the other side.
And was met with a thin cloud of red mist, sticking against my skin, creating a sensation of dirtiness. It wasn't enough to cause any harm, but it was still annoying.
I started absorbing the amount right around my skin, and soon, a notification popped.
[Archery of Destruction (1\X)]
Meaning, I had to discharge it regularly for it not to be a problem.
I turned my attention to the environment. Even with the clouds cutting my view, the way things had changed was obvious. The skies were filled with larger corrupted beasts covering the skies, moving with a sense of rage even when they didn't have a target in sight, aggressively attacking the flying castles that floated around.
I wasn't exactly a military expert, but the movement patterns of the castles seemed interesting, looking more like a hunting pattern than a defensive one. I couldn't help but wonder whether it was the spies forcing the military to be less efficient…
Or if I wasn't the only one who hoped to use this opportunity to collect some Authority.
Their hunting operation worked to my benefit, distracting the corrupted monsters — the Concealment might not work against them, but giant floating rocks radiating mana were a better target than a black shadow emanating nothing.
Only after I moved away three miles, I folded my glider back, and started falling down at a great speed.
Landing right in the middle of a small group of corrupted beasts.
[Invader Slain]
[+71,551 Experience]
[+1 Authority]
…
[Invader Slain]
[+56,925 Experience]
[+1 Authority]
"Not a bad start," I murmured even as I ran, killing anything in my way. Soon, I came across the larger variety, reminding me of a cross between a bear and an octopus, surrounded by a thin red cloud, twice the size of an elephant, moving steadily toward the walls.
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I circled around it, and it noticed my presence only when I was above its head, right before my glowing spear ended up in its head, destroying its structure.
[-14 Mana]
[Invader Slain]
[+2,946,004 Experience]
[+25 Authority]
"Yes, excellent start," I celebrated as I rushed deeper into the forest, not willing to get noticed by the military. I had expected the plants to have died due to the red mist, but, interestingly, the forest was still alive… just different.
Somehow, a tree with scales, with blood dripping down its branches, was more unsettling than the monsters I had been fighting against. I ignored the horror movie around me and continued to rush forward, while the red fog around me got thicker and thicker.
[Archery of Destruction (3\X)]
I raised my hand, ready to discharge the energy. I had experimented with it a few times until I learned to discharge the energy through my hand. It wasted the destruction mana, and required a thin layer of ordinary mana to keep my hand undamaged, but it was better than damaging my weapon with repeated discharges.
I had a lot of mana stones, but not enough weapons.
However, just as I created a ball of destruction mana in my hand, I noticed an interesting change around me. The monsters around me had stopped attacking me desperately. The ones that were near me still did, but their determination was much lower.
It was similar to the difference between the normal beasts reacting to my presence under ordinary circumstances and during leveling.
More interestingly, it didn't actually trick their equivalents of the Lord Beasts, just the smaller varieties.
"Certainly useful," I said to myself as I moved deeper into the forest, hunting recklessly, relying on my Speed and Concealment to stay undetected by any potential cultist agents that might be observing the wild from a secret base.
Wondering if their main forces were on flying castles, hidden underground … or somewhere completely different only accessible by magic.
A problem to be handled in the future.
My hunt was aggressive and fruitful. In less than three hours, I had collected over eight hundred million Experience, which was enough to level up — especially since the required experience dropped by another eight percent once the Authority I had collected passed the ten thousand mark — which, when combined with the leftover Experience from Limenta's level up, was probably enough to bring me to level sixty, with enough Experience to actually push me for the next stage.
However, I continued to hunt, reversing the connection to channel most of the Experience I collected to Limenta.
If the System worked as usual, a billion excess Experience points would not be as valuable — though, seeing Experience Points getting devalued faster than the currency of a collapsing banana republic was a weird feeling — and pushing Authority higher seemed to be more useful.
Pushing Limenta to his Level fifties was the utilitarian choice.
I used our connection to explain that change to Zolast as I continued to hunt…
And decided to ponder on an important question.
Why were the beasts constantly attacking the military? Looking from the outside, I had thought that it was an attempt to weaken it, but watching the same attack from the inside showed a different picture.
The attacks, apart from that one determined rush that threatened to break the walls, were too regular, and too careless, empowering the military in the process.
Along with their Divine Patrons.
Maybe it was just a bribe, somehow keeping the military complacent while the god of destruction searched for me. Or maybe, the number of cultist agents among the military was less accidental than I had expected.
Probably a combination, considering the way Toross had rebelled.
Dumping yet another immediate problem on my lap before I could handle the previous one.
I considered somehow heating up the battle further, but I decided against it. Instead, I fought for five more hours, using most of the Health pellets and the mana stones I had brought along, my spear about to break.
As a reward, not only had I received enough Experience to push Limenta to level sixty — with a confirmation from Zolast that they had completed it, and he was currently busy curing the after-effects of rapid leveling, which seemingly had a much more limited impact thanks to Limenta's new Elevated Life status — but I also collected enough to handle my own Abilities to completion.
Also, my Authority had passed another milestone by reaching over thirty thousand, but with no improvement in the required Experience.
Considering the pattern, I expected that to come once I reached above a hundred thousand, I decided not to work for that particular achievement for the moment.
Now, it was time to go back.
"Let's create a distraction," I murmured as I suddenly flared my mana in a directional manner, triggering the aggression of every corrupted beast at range, and started running toward the walls.
Such a horde immediately earned a military reaction, and several flying castles dipped down, using huge mana blasts to clean up the horde — weapons that they were reluctant to use before, probably because it didn't grant Experience like ballistas, the System not registering the attack as a personal kill.
The blasts were enough to scare me, making me glad that they were slow enough to dodge even without my speed.
More importantly, their attacks created just enough of a dust cloud for me to use my platform trick to climb to the sky once more, and the mana explosions made it impossible for any mage to notice my presence.
This time, I didn't climb up to the sky, but targeted one of the flying carts that looked like they were moving away from the battle, and landed on top as silently as possible, trusting my concealment to keep me hidden as I laid there.
And stayed silent until the wards parted open, allowing the flying cart to leave the perimeter and climb back to the cloud level … and used my glider to depart.
Another successful mission.
However, rather than returning to the base immediately, I chose to dive down, finding another spot nearer to the walls to go through my Promotion. A place that I had already prepared by leaving a cart full of mana stones in place to fuel my Promotion, amounting to hundreds of thousands of Mana points, hoping it to be useful.
It was time to step into the next stage of my power.