The journey to the mountain took a long time--so long that Mary, Lucas, Belinda, and Harry considered several times whether or not to forego a bit of [Stealth] in exchange for expediting that journey. Ultimately, they decided that it wouldn't matter if they went faster, if they were also noticed along the way.

Each second they took, however, was a second Lucas spent growing stronger. Practicing his Skills, pushing them to new heights. He made each second well worth it.

[*ding [Shock] has reached level 44-50!]

Constant channeling of Lucas's single-activation attack Skill saw it gain several levels astonishingly quickly. They didn't come all at once, and neither did they come as quickly as one another, but that method alone saw his Skill rise four entire levels over the first leg of their journey.

Once he grew impatient with the increasing time it was taking after each level, he switched to a different method. [Shock] was a Skill designed to be used through physical contact, so, Lucas figured, what better way to push it than forcing it to act at range?

This new method required him to practically abuse his abilities in manipulating mana, and the drain on his MP was probably much higher than he should've allowed, but with it, he was able to get those last four levels before they even made it halfway to the mountain. In total, it only took Lucas around three or four hours to get eight Skill levels.

He...might have been going about this the wrong way ever since his unlock and first Class evolution. He felt like an idiot for not realizing the potential for leveling his blank Skill imparted on him much earlier, but there was nothing for it. All he could do was abuse this strategy as much as possible in the time available to him, so Lucas moved his efforts onto [Arclight Renewal].

[*ding [Arclight Renewal] has reached level 47-50!]

If Lucas's actions hadn't held some measure of the others' attention before, then the moment he started channeling his healing Skill at range in radiant, arcing streams, he garnered a great deal of it from his mother.

"Lu? How are you doing that?" she asked insistently as she dropped from the head of their small procession and joined his side. "Your Skill shouldn't be able to act at range yet..."

She trailed off, as if captivated by the small spectacle he was putting on, before she finally turned to him. "...Is this your blank Skill, again?"

Lucas nodded, slightly confused that this seemed so significant to her, after all he had done with [----------].

"Yeah, it is."

Mary looked down at him for a minute, and Lucas could almost see the thoughts flitting through her eyes. Then she let out a long sigh, and smiled at him warmly as she said, "I didn't get the ability to heal at range till my last evolution. It's one of the most notable weaknesses for our affinity, that it only starts to act at range at higher levels."

She pulled him close and wrapped her arm around his side for a moment, hugging without halting the groups movement. "You're going to do great things one day, I know it. I'll make sure that we come back from this and make it home--whatever it takes."

Lucas furrowed his brow as he looked up into his mom's eyes. "We'll be just fine, mom. Those goblins won't know what hit them."

"Of course," she smiled at him and squeezed his side once more, before moving rejoining Belinda ahead once again.

He continued to stare at her back for some time, before he shook his head and returned to his leveling efforts.

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After maxing out both [Shock] and [Arclight Renewal], all Lucas had left in his Class was [Quick Step]. Unfortunately, the levels were coming much slower for that one, and he couldn't think of a way to cheat with mana manipulation. He was forced to grind it out one activation at a time with each step he took. The only plus side was that it gave his MP pool some opportunity to recover.

When he could no longer think of a way to expedite his advancement, he turned to help Harry with his own leveling.

"I think you're going about this wrong," Lucas told the older boy.

"How so?" Harry asked with neither impatience or annoyance, but with complete sincerity.

"You shouldn't try to fight like a [Warrior]," Lucas told him, gesturing at the spear he carried, "because you're not one. You could probably still learn and level from the kind of spearmanship some of the guards practice, but it doesn't perfectly fit with your Class."

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"Well, all the other [Hunter]s that do any amount of fighting use a bow or something," Harry shrugged. "I can't learn to use a spear from them, and I'm trash with a bow." The [Hunter] shook his head in frustration and muttered, "Maybe I shouldn't have switched out those Skills, and just stuck with using traps."

"You can still level from a [Warrior]'s spearmanship," Lucas hurriedly repeated to interrupt Harry's doubts. "You're just going to have to figure out what works best for your Class as well. I don't know, maybe lean on your [Stealth] variant? Pretend you're a predator, spearing toward his prey?"

Harry looked over at Lucas, his gaze flat. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Lucas opened his mouth to defend his suggestion, but Harry held up a hand and gestured for him to pause.

"But...maybe it could work? A predator, huh?"

He seemed to be really considering the thought, so Lucas just shook his head and left him to it. Sometimes, Harry could be a bit too blunt, even if he wasn't trying to be rude. The other boy was making progress, but Lucas recalled the time he had tried to ambush and beat him.

That was in the past though, and he knew that the Harry walking beside him wasn't the one from that day, fresh out of Regan's influencing clutches. He could excuse a few snide remarks.

Lucas went back to thinking over his own plight, taking a moment to check his latest notifications.

[*ding [Quick Step] has reached level 49!]

One level to go, he thought. But a quick glance through the canopy showed that they were nearly to the mountain. The pass was quite a ways to their left, so he would probably still have time to work on his Skill before they got eyes on the Dungeon, and the goblins' camp, but he'd also want to give his MP time to recover without further exhaustion at some point.

As of now, it was unclear if he'd be ready for his evolution before that point. He needed to focus, so he left Harry to his own pursuits and fell back into the task of stepping quickly.

Contrary to the way it was named, Lucas's Skill didn't simply speed up his movements for a single step--it was more like it turned that step into a lightning-quick dash that covered far more ground than it otherwise should have. Recklessly dashing through the woods was not very conducive toward [Stealth], so Lucas had been limiting how much distance he allowed it to cover.

However, that sort of use might lead [Quick Step] to one poor evolution or another in the future, like [Tiny Step] or something, so he decided to change things up. Lucas gave the others a warning before testing out his latest idea, getting reluctant permission in turn, then eyed out his route.

And with a single step, he shot forward. Forward and up.

Ha! It worked! Oh, this is going to be so much better than [Tiny Step]!

He nearly fumbled his landing with a crash, but a moment after he stopped moving, Lucas turned around to look back at where he'd come from. From his roost up in the tree's branches, he looked down at his companions' reactions. Harry looked up at him with in astonishment and said.

"I didn't know your Skill could do that!"

Lucas grinned back at him, but a quick look at his status saw his smile wilting somewhat.

[MP: 786/1380]

"It can, but it takes a lot more mana, apparently," he replied.

Of course, that one activation hadn't depleted Lucas's mana all that much--it probably only used up around 150 MP--but it was much more expensive than a regular activation. Still, he had learned from this, and the ding that sounded in his head much earlier than he'd been expecting proved that.

[*ding [Quick Step] has reached level 50!]

Fundamentally, [Quick Step] didn't work by augmenting his legs or messing with distance like some sort of space magic--it took his momentum and made it multiply, in a way. The Skill wouldn't work if he was standing still, as it didn't create the movement or momentum itself. Before, he'd thought of that as a weakness, and it would certainly be something he would try to evolve the Skill to fix, but it also meant it wasn't as limited as Lucas previously believed.

It meant the Skill could be used to shoot him up into a tree, for example, and he wasn't as confined to the ground.

I wonder if multiple activations in a row would even allow me to fly...

"Lu! Are you listening?"

A voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked down to see Mary's cross expression.

"Are you trying to give us away?" she asked. "That was not nearly as quiet as you said it would be."

Lucas grimaced, because she was right. Though he predicted that his Skill would work in this way, he hadn't been as prepared for the landing as he'd thought and caused quite a bit of shaking in the tree's branches and canopy.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be that loud...I maxed out the last of my Class Skills, though!" he weakly replied.

His mom let out a long-suffering sigh before waving at him. "Just get down from there--and no using your Skill to do it!" she pointed at him and he was quick to nod in understanding.

Not a minute later, he was back on the ground by his mom's side, and the four of them started moving once again. Lucas was a bit embarrassed, and honestly sorry for holding everyone up like that when they were already in a hurry. His accomplishment mitigated that feeling slightly, but he still followed along quietly and without further disturbances.

Mary broke the silence first, though still only at a whisper. "So, that was the last one?" she asked rhetorically. "You're ready for your next evolution."

Lucas looked over at her, then looked back to where he was walking. "I am," he confirmed, "but I'm not going to get a chance to go through it, am I? I thought I might be able to, really quickly, while we make a plan to rescue Eugene from the goblins, but that probably isn't going to happen. There just isn't any time."

His mom didn't respond straight away, and he looked over, just barely catching the end of her troubled expression before she mastered it and glanced at him. "No, there isn't. But the plan won't be to fight our way through, anyway." She gave him her best smile. "You won't need to rush through your Class evolution and end up with something you'll regret later. You will have all the time you could need or want, when all this is over."

Lucas returned her smile, even if he thought her words were quite optimistic. He didn't doubt that they would make it through this--he didn't even allow that thought to form in his head. And it was true that he couldn't make time for his evolution right now. He just had a feeling that he wouldn't get the luxury of putting it off for the perfect moment, either.