"I'm an idiot!" Lee thought with despair. "Why did I ever try to help that Demon?"

A flying disc slammed into his knee and it buckled, sending him tumbling across the ground.

"I got him!" A child exclaimed excitedly as Lee pulled himself up and kept running. "They are all evil monsters!"

Another disc barely missed his head and a chorus of children screamed for his blood. Lee reached the end of the courtyard and jumped straight up as another disc skipped off the concrete where his feet had been a moment before. He slapped a hand against the wall nearly twenty feet up and a glowing symbol flashed into existence where he struck. As he dropped back towards the ground, a disc identical to the ones before appeared between his hands in a flash of light. He landed, leaned aside from another projectile, and threw the disc in his hands towards the monsters surrounding him.

Or more precisely towards another symbol at the other end of the courtyard. The disc flew true and stopped a hair's breadth from the wall. It hung there until a small hand reached through the metal bars and pulled it away. "My turn!" The symbol vanished as the disc was removed.

Lee was already sprinting back the way he had come before that and managed to dodge the bloodthirsty assault. His legs burned as he ran, thanks in no small part to the Runes that were encircling the open area and increasing the effect of gravity to an inhumane level. "I never should have opened my mouth!"

He failed to dodge the next and took another hit to his back but managed to catch himself before face planting and reached the other end of the courtyard. There he leapt once again and left a newly refreshed symbol with another wall slap.

Lee landed on his feet, a new disc conjured and in hand, but this time his throw sailed wide of the glowing mark that was the target. "I'm going to die!" He thought as cheers erupted from the balcony overhead and a veritable rain of missiles descended upon him. "There is only one way out!" Lee focused on [Mana Mind] and within the Skill he could feel the weapons approaching from every direction.

He ducked, bobbed, weaved, hopped and skipped his way across the courtyard. At one point as he jumped above a flying disc, two more swooped in from either side and Lee thrust his hands out to catch them. He succeeded, partaily. One smacked against his palm with only a slight sting, but the other caught a finger and Lee yelped in tune with the crack of the impact. He had no time to nurse his wound and ran on.

Back and forth, back and forth, until it was all a blur.

A voice suddenly yelled out. "Fire at will!" Wicked screams of delight echoed from all sides and the barrage took Lee down to the ground. He tumbled to a halt flat on his back and saw a healer looking down at him from the balcony. "Maria!" He yelled, hands outstretched. "Save me!"

The woman smiled at him as her hand extended and Lee felt a moment of hope. Then her hand turned and a thumb extended down towards the ground. "Why!" The gleeful screams promised a cruel and painful end. Then they delivered on their promise with a barrage of death.

Lee slapped both hands down at his sides and struck the concrete at his back. Pain shot from his finger but he persevered. A glowing ring sprang into existence around him and he was saved from his untimely demise by a shimmering bubble that caught the rain of flying discs and shattered them into pieces. "Why did I ever agree to this?"

You have Completed [Martin Pruitt's Training Session] +1 All Base Attributes

"Oh right… that's why." Lee lay on the ground and tried to catch his breath while the air resounded with disappointed 'awwws' and 'boos'. A ten minute trial of hell and he gained free stats. Well, mostly free… they only cost blood, sweat, and a tear or two.

Martin was… something else. He'd had Lee do a few random moves and asked a few questions about his Skills and then came up with a specific 'workout' for him. He had also recruited a horde of bloodthirsty goblins to help.

A chorus of voices roused him from his rest and Lee opened his eyes. The goblins had found him, helpless and alone, he was at their mercy.

"I got you so I get one!" One of them squealed. "I got him before you so me first." Another cried. More of the same followed until Lee sat up.

"You know the drill." He said and the children loudly and chaoticly formed up into something resembling a line. Lee summoned a plate and smacked a few Runes onto it. The first Rune forced the plate to remain horizontal and the second forced it to repel against any extra strong source of Mana. The third just kept the first two from violently atomizing the plate.

He had barely finished before the child in front of him snatched it out from under his hands and threw herself on top of the disc which slid smoothly above the ground until it reached a wall. Whereupon it was repelled onto a new trajectory, nearly throwing the squealing child off at the sudden course change.

Lee worked quickly until the courtyard was a mess of screaming children careening off of walls as well as each other. Yes, some would get hurt, but magic healing was a thing now and either the Attributes or the fact that they would get healed quickly let them handle the bumps and bruises surprisingly well.

He made it back to his apartment and had a quick lukewarm shower. Lukewarm because it was tricky to make the water hot but not scalding, a lesson that had given Lee a good idea of how well his Regeneration worked. Plus the new water tank on the roof, while quite large, wasn't big enough to run the tap while he adjusted Runes looking for the sweet spot. And there were a lot of other people in the building that needed water…

While he got dressed, Lee checked over his Status.

Status

Name: Lee Cascade

Race: [Mana Driven Source-Touched Human](E Rank)

Titles:

[First Time?]

Traits:

[Adaptable] [Source-Touched] [Magic OverReach VI] [This Is The Way] [Ruthless Soul]

Class: [Runic(Apprentice IX)](Legendary)

Class Skills:

[Rune Creation(Apprentice VIII)](Rare)

[RuneScape Creation(Apprentice VIII)](Rare)

[Rune Storage(Initiate IX)](Epic)

Attributes:

Strength: 25

Vitality: 24

Dexterity 26

Perception 25

Intelligence 40

Willpower 30

Twin-Soul 200

Non Class Skills:

[Soul Awareness(Initiate IX)](Rare)

[Create Plate(Apprentice VIII)](Rare)

[Source Regeneration](Passive)

[Venom Resistance I](Passive)

[Liquid Mana Blast(Initiate I)](UnCommon)

[Mana Mind(Initiate IX)](Passive)(Epic)

Buffs:

[Three]

[Sentient Lair]

Debuffs:

[Hungry]

[Deadly Soul Wound(Patched)(Shielded)]

"Today is the day." He would get his Class past Apprentice and try to get his Skills as well.

He really wanted to get [Mana Mind] up, but the damn Skill had stopped at nine… and he was still not sure why.

Lee glanced at the Twin-Soul and felt the faint presence of Stanley in the distance. He tried to send positive vibes through the bond but didn't know whether it helped or not. He knew that Stanley was still trapped and there had been some volatile moments at times. But since there was nothing he could do, Lee could only try to be strong and hope his twin would be comforted and at the least, not have to worry about him. "I believe in you, Stan. I know you can do it."

Lee stopped at one of the first floor apartments on his way to the garage and walked in the open front door. The inside had been significantly remodeled with help from Three and others. Now the living room was blocked by a long counter that left a small area in front of the door. Beyond the counter was a kitchen.

It wasn't a normal kitchen, not anymore, now there was a large stone oven, a sheet of metal over stone, with glowing Runes spaced out over the top, and an industrial sized metal refrigerator. Lee hadn't seen the fridge come in and still had no idea how they had managed it but he had provided freezing Runes after the fact.

Lee tapped the bell on the counter and a voice called from somewhere in the back rooms. "Coming!" There was also a small metal bucket on the counter that had the words 'Tips Welcome' on the side. A few glowing Core Chips were inside. Lee looked up when Jamaal walked into the room.

"Lee!" He exclaimed. "My favorite customer!"

"You say that to everyone." Lee countered with a smile.

Jamaal chuckled. "But none of them create such wonderful Magic for me. So what would you like to eat on this fine day?"

"Still no cheese?" Lee asked with only a faint hope.

"Alas, though I have been talking with some of the other cooks in the Fort and no promises here, but maybe soon."

Lee felt a glimmer of hope that the world might not be as truly dark and terrible as he had thought. "Surprise me then. But not too spicy!" He warned. "That last one caused my Regeneration to activate!"

Jamaal laughed and got to work. "Not 'too' spicy then."

Lee glanced at the bucket. "I don't have any Cores. Sorry."

"Nonsense!" Jamaal exclaimed. "You will always eat free here! But while you're here…"

"Sure." Lee smiled and walked around the counter. "What do you need tweaked this time?"

A short time later Lee walked out with a plate piled with mystery meat, beans, some kind of spicy peppers and underneath of it all were glorious, delicious, crunchy, French fries.

"Giving Saira Mana Access was the best decision I ever made!" The only thing that could make it better would be cheese… but small victories.

He carried his breakfast downstairs and to the area of the garage that he'd claimed for himself. Most of it was taken up by stacks of plates with a few weapons and armor pieces here and there. Lee settled down and ate in his enchanting workspace. While he ate he watched the other people around the garage. Wilson had spread the word and Lee had spent a day almost exclusively meeting and granting Mana Access to everyone. But it turned out that the Mana wasn't as useful for some people, either they didn't need a lot for their Skills or didn't use it at all. But for the ones who could use a lot… They all set up shop either outside but nearby, like Saira, or here in the garage.

May was hard at work as usual, hammering something under the dome of silence. Another woman, Taylor, was doing something with a hairy pelt from an animal that Lee didn't recognize. He could, however, see the Mana that she was using and watched with interest as she worked. It looked like she was using Mana to pull the hair from the pelt and then binding and stringing it together into a long thread. The completed thread still held Mana but it was slightly off from what Lee was used to. "Must be an element or attuned or whatever it's called." He didn't ask since she looked to be concentrating rather deeply.

Another man, Mack, was also using pelts. Though he was creating leather armor and various other items. Lee spotted weapon sheaths, belts, every kind of clothing in leather, and other smaller pieces of armor that he didn't know what they were for. All had Mana in them, of various flavors.

There were a few others that Lee couldn't see directly from his spot, but he could 'see' them with his [Mana Mind]. One of them claimed to be a chemist and was trying to create potions. Lee had enlisted Bradley to create some very small tunnels that led outside the walls and some walls inside the garage with some very important and specific Runes. It all culminated in a positive pressure room that funneled its air well outside the walls of the fort, a precaution that had been necessary after the first explosion forced an evacuation of the garage and required healers to remove some strange growths from the evacuees. The first explosion.

But if the man could create healing potions or the like, that would be worth more than a little trouble.

As for the others, Lee didn't know what they did.

And then they had a mostly walled-off and silenced room where people could practice and train Skills that required Mana. It helped the combatants especially to get used to using their Skills for the first time while not in a life and death situation. Or for when people came back with new Skill Shards.

Lee thought back to the tip jar on Jamaal's counter. At the moment everyone was contributing their time and effort for survival. The hunters brought back food and materials for the crafter's and the crafter's made more weapons and armor. People were working on food crops as well, while others were Leveling cooking Classes. For now they were living in basically a communist utopia, at least if you didn't count the monsters everywhere…

But eventually people would want to be rewarded beyond simply survival. Especially if something like the Fort could grow into a city… would there be rent, taxes? Could they still have a government or would the strong rule the weak? Or would the invaders make all of that a moot point…

But that was a problem for the future, hopefully a not too distant future… if it meant a safer place to live.

Lee finished his food and tossed the plate towards the ground inside a few multilayered Rune circles. The plate didn't break on impact, only clanged oddly as it struck the ground and then went silent when it entered the circles. Lee left it there, it would be gone soon enough.

Instead he created a new one. It formed as a black, flat disc, not quite ceramic but not exactly metal yet either. Lee hadn't figured out how to make them into a metal that May could use, much to her disappointment, but they were capable of holding Runes now.

Lee dumped his latest bomb Runes onto it and tossed it into the circles as well, taking extra care with his aim this time.

It hit the ground and vanished behind a perfect dome of silent fire. Lee felt the tiny bits of his Soul flow back to him while the fire raged for a good bit before fading and revealing that the bomb plate as well as the dirty plate had vanished.

"Lots of fire but not much explosive damage." Lee thought while studying the innermost circle for power loss. He created another black plate and tried again.

Some amount of time later, Lee felt someone approaching him and stopped before creating another bomb. He set the black plate onto a stack of identical ones and waited for Bradley to walk around the corner.

Lee ignored the invisible Mar sneaking in behind the man. He'd spotted her following or watching Bradley more than once and assumed she was either standing guard or had a crush on him. Either way it wasn't Lee's problem.

Bradley walked into mundane sight and Lee immediately noticed what was in his hands. It looked like a stone staff… both with his eyes and his [Mana Mind]. "Guess he finished it."

"Lee, I got it!" He held up the 'Staff'. "This is as dense and strong of a stone as I can make." He started to hand it to Lee and then they both pulled back.

"It's very heavy." Bradley admitted sheepishly and set it flat on the ground.

Lee nodded at the confirmation of what he'd expected and tried to pick it up from the ground. "Oof. Damn that is heavy! How can you carry it?"

"I am partially carrying it with my [Earth Shape] ability." Bradley admitted with a grin.

Lee spent a few moments examining it with his own Skill, analyzing it for potential as well as comparing the Mana in the staff to the Mana inside Bradley. It was nearly identical. Now for the hard part.

Lee looked back up at Bradley. "Remember, no promises. This might destroy it."

The man nodded his understanding and Lee began. After of course, he put another circle of Shielding Runes around the staff. If it exploded… well, it would be much worse than his plates.

Lee infused a new RuneScape into the stone, carefully and with great focus. Everyday he got better at this and this would be a new test. He had also learned that he did not actually need to touch something to place a Rune or RuneScape on it, that just made it a lot easier. But when creating something new that could kill or even just seriously injure him, it was worth the extra effort to avoid the risk.

The process went smoothly and Lee slumped back against the wall as he finished. "Let it sit a moment, just in case."

"Did it work?" Bradley asked, excited.

"I think so… but we'll have to test it." Lee was watching the Mana inside the staff and when everything still looked stable, he removed the shield and gestured for Bradley to take the weapon.

"How does it work?" Bradley asked as he hefted it and looked over the glowing symbols that spiraled up and down its length.

"Try pushing your Mana into it." Lee suggested and watched the Mana flow out of Bradley's Core when the man took his advice. He could see it flowing into the staff and building up inside. At the same time he could see the Mana from [Three] flowing up mostly from the man's feet but also from the air all around him. It flowed through his Channels and into his Core. As it moved closer to the Core, the Mana lost its normal neutral state and shifted closer to Bradley's Earth Mana. By the time it sank into his Core, it was identical to the Mana that he was pushing into the staff.

More and more Mana flowed into the staff until the interior glowed blindingly bright to Lee's [Mana Mind], then it slowed and stopped when Bradley grunted. "I think that's it."

"How much did you get in there?" Lee asked curiously.

Bradley grinned widely. "A lot! This is going to be a great help, Lee. Thanks!"

Lee waved him off. "Go test it. Let me know how it goes."

Bradley ran off to test his new Mana battery and Lee sighed. He'd figured out the Runes that he needed to create that effect. The problem was the material. Everything apparently had its own variation of Mana, even if it was minute, and Lee hadn't found anything that could store the pure [Liquid Mana] that he used for everything. He still had some hope for the plates but so far the amount he could store in one was less than the Runes that he needed to create the battery in the first place.

Lee noticed that Mar was still lurking in the garage, though at some distance away. Maybe she thought that was outside his range? Lee grinned as an idea came to him and he focused his [Mana Mind] on the girl. He was pretty sure that she was looking at him, at least from the way her head was facing, and he focused in on the shell around her that made her invisible to the naked eye.

"Could I…" His Skill said that he was 'intrinsically linked' to the Mana around him and Lee had noticed that sometimes the Mana in the air around him would move and shift as he struggled or worked on something. He'd assumed that it could just be the fact that he regularly used a lot of Mana but now he had another theory. The shell around her was a powerful effect that hid her extremely well and used almost no Mana in an ongoing manner. But the fact that it was so cheap made it brittle, or at least that was his theory when he struck at the shell with a mental hammer of Mana and Will.

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It shattered and he met the eyes of a startled looking Mar.

Skill [Mana Mind] Level Up.

No Evolutions Available.

Upgrade to Apprentice Available. Proceed? Yes/No

Lee smiled as he read over the Notification. "Sweet! Finally!" He blinked and looked up at an angry looking Mar standing in front of him. She was opening her mouth, likely to be angry at him, but when Lee met her eyes, she vanished. He watched her start turning away to leave but she paused halfway.

"How did you do that?" Her voice was quiet.

"Sorry!" Lee quickly exclaimed. "I was testing a theory with my Skill [Mana Mind]. I didn't think it would actually break your invisibility!"

She stood there, seemingly torn between fleeing and asking more questions.

"What can you actually see with your Mana… Mind?" She finally asked.

"I can 'see'..." He made air quotes. "...the Mana inside you and whatever Mana you send out or put into a spell. Your invisibility looks like a shell around you."

She sat down nearby, being sure to avoid the black plates.

Lee had spent a lot of time telling everyone to never touch the black plates, seeing as those were the ones he was making into bombs. He didn't leave any lying around with Runes on them but still, better safe than sorry.

"How did you break it?" Mar asked, still invisible.

"Honestly…" Lee started. "I just kind of tapped it." She was looking at him, at least he thought she was, and he continued. "I could tell that it was a mostly static effect and figured it would be brittle as a result… not sure why I thought that…"

"How about now?" Mar asked and Lee saw that she could actually channel the Skill as well. He gave it another mental hammer and Mar almost appeared as the shell flickered partially, but it held.

"Much stronger!" Lee told her, then added, "You know if you want to practice I'll help. That first tap helped me raise my [Mana Mind] to Apprentice. I was stuck in Initiate for days now and I appreciate the help. I'll even try to help if you want to figure out how to hide from Mana as well. Though I don't know how that would work at the moment…"

Mar kind of nodded and mumbled something noncommittal but remained where she was. Lee left her to think about it while he got back to work and put his latest idea for bomb Runes onto a black plate and started to toss it. He stopped.

"My Skill Upgrade!" He couldn't believe he forgot and quickly tossed the plate into the bomb testing ring and pulled up the upgrade notice. "Yes!"

Skill [Mana Mind(Apprentice I)](Passive)(Epic)

Effect:

Your mind becomes intrinsically linked to Mana granting you greatly increased Mana Awareness and Mana Manipulation within 30 Meter Radius.

Your mind consumes Mana granting you +25% Effective Intelligence while Mana is full.

All Mana Manipulation +25% while Mana is full.

All Effects null at 50% Mana.

All Effects grant full negative Value at 0% Mana.

Permanent loss of Intelligence Attribute points will occur if 0% Mana is maintained.

"It got slightly better and now it says 'Manipulation' as well as Awareness… was I supposed to figure that bit out on my own?" Whatever the case, it was better. Lee smiled and got back to work.

After a few dozen more plates, Lee decided that he needed to test them outside, preferably at long range. "Maybe throw em off the wall?" He got up and was surprised to see Mar had stuck around. He'd been so focused on the task at hand that he hadn't noticed. "Want to go blow some stuff up outside?" He asked with a grin.

Mar stood up quickly and followed him towards the outside. Lee stopped at the edge of [Three] and created a new bomb. He started to hand it to Mar and froze before jerking the plate back from her reaching hand.

"Hold on." He told her. "Holy shit I almost blew us both up!"

He had set the trigger to go off when it touched a strong Mana source after leaving his hand. Like say [Three] or something weaker like a monster or… another human… Lee quickly came up with a few alternatives. Breaking the plate could be one, but they were pretty tough now. A much stronger Mana source would rule out humans but also any weaker monsters… He settled on a delay before the Mana source detection would activate and it became primed.

Lee made a few of the plates, holding them himself, as they might still blow up if Mar held them long enough. Then they both climbed up on the wall and looked over. Lee felt slightly dulled as his Mana quickly drained to half and stayed there, but it was nice to feel the sun on his skin and look out over the rapidly changing world.

"Woah." Lee whispered. The greens and browns of his old view had changed. It was still green and brown but there was so much more of it. The houses and other buildings that used to dominate a large portion of the view had been almost completely blotted out by towering trees and vegetation. The valley to the north that used to be only brown weeds was now looking like a jungle. "I wonder if there is a Lair in there?"

"I thought we were going to blow stuff up?" Mar broke him out of his stupor.

"Oh right." Lee handed her a plate. "Don't hold it too long and throw it as far as you can."

She sent it sailing away from the wall like a Frisbee and it vanished into the bushes and trees. Nothing happened. Then nothing continued to happen. "Where's the kaboom? There is supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom." Lee realized the problem. "Damn it." The ground wasn't a strong enough Mana source to trigger it. There was Mana there but it tended to be more diffuse and spread out.

He could feel Mar looking at him expectantly while he tried to think of another way to trigger them. "They could be used as landmines… maybe well marked, with warning signs before an invasion?" Thoughts of his own people setting them off by accident didn't sit well with him but Lee would mention it to Alejandro. "Are landmines a war crime?" He thought he'd heard that somewhere.

"I gotta redo it." Lee told Mar. "Lets…" Something exploded in the distance and he spun around to see a fireball rising into the sky. "I hope that wasn't a human…" Lee thought with a sinking feeling.

"Looks like it works to me." Mar said beside him before a loud screaming squeal echoed from the direction of the explosion.

Something emerged from the fire and stopped, still burning. It looked like a giant pig… or boar and it was looking right at them! It squealed louder and charged.

Other voices shouted from along the wall to either side as Lee handed another plate to Mar. "Hit it!"

She threw it and her aim was good, though it didn't have to be with the size of the thing. The plate collided with the semi truck-sized boar and bounced off into the dirt. "The delay!"

The boar crashed into the wall and Mar and Lee were both thrown off their feet as the wall shuddered beneath them.

"Drag me inside if I go down!" Lee shouted as he created another plate. The wall had held but not unscathed and the boar was backing up for another charge. Lee poured Mana into the plate and Runes formed.

"What do we do?" One of the wall guards yelled as he approached along the top of the wall. Another arrived from the other side. "Our spears won't stop that!"

"Whoever's the best shot…" Lee said while his Mana dipped lower and lower. "...throw… at… pig… fast."

Someone snatched it from his hand and sent it sailing towards the charging boar. Lee's mind felt thick as he struggled to track the flying bomb and the boar. But he held on until the plate and boar overlapped.

He reached out with his newly discovered Mana Manipulation and pulled the trigger on his bomb. Mana drained out of him with a deafening boom and then things got confusing for awhile.

He came back quickly when someone dragged him inside [Three] and his Mana refilled. A ringing in his ears abruptly turned into the sound of someone laughing.

"That was great!" Mar yelled.

"Are you kidding!" Another voice. "That almost killed us!"

[Source Regeneration] Deactivated.

"I'm okay." Lee called out and someone let go of his arms as he flopped to the ground. "Ow."

"I want some of those, Lee." Mar said and Lee opened his eyes to smile up at her.

"I missed the end there." Lee said quietly. "How'd it work."

Mar grinned out from a very red and singed looking face. "Huge pillar of fire!" She exclaimed. "Burned a hole right through the pig!"

"It burned us too!" Lee turned to see one of the guys from the wall, all of his exposed skin a bright red as well.

"Sorry." Lee told him. "And uh… there is a black plate out there… could you tell people not to touch it? It will explode if they do…"

The man glared angrily and then Mar vanished.

"What happened?" Saira came running down the ramp into the garage. "Oh my!" She saw the burns and gestured the men back outside. "Come. I will heal you."

"I'm fine." Lee told her as she bent to grab him. "But Mar needs some healing too."

The woman gasped and jerked upright. She said something in another language as she looked around angrily, but then Lee saw her take a deep breath while closing her eyes and say more calmly. "Mar… please let me heal you."

"Traitor." Mar whispered in Lee's ear. Then she walked past her mother and appeared near the exit. "I'm over here."

Saira followed with the other two wounded and when she looked back, Lee waved her off as he stood up. He groaned and went back to his spot. "I need a better way to trigger the bombs…" He looked at his Notifications.

-1 Intelligence(Mana Mind Starvation)

"And I need a damn Mana battery." He now understood why a Runic would choose the larger Mana Pool Skill. Granted he'd started at half Mana, but that had only been one little RuneScape and it drained him nearly dry. Triggering the Runes had taken the rest. Lee rubbed his head as he tried to figure out how long it had taken them to drag him inside. "Do I have no Mana regen outside? It stops draining at half but…" He decided to test it later.

"I could put a bunch of bombs on the roof… set a priming delay of a few seconds once they leave [Three]… people could throw from up there. Better get some people practicing." With that in mind, Lee started making a large number of gray plates, for training. Alejandro would probably stop by at some point and it was still early. They still had time until the next attack came, in… fourteen hours.

May had started making swords after the last battle and as people decided to switch they left the spears behind. Lee had some ideas for what to do with them and he started experimenting once he had a large stash of practice plates, enchanted with a small bang and flash of light, enough to help encourage people to be careful and to see where they hit at a distance.

"Uncle Lee…" A child's voice interrupted him and Lee set aside the spear, glad for an excuse to take a break.

"Hi Gabe. Did you have fun?" He asked the kid who was carrying his riding plate.

"It broke…" Gabriel held out the plate with a downcast face.

Lee took it from him and immediately saw where some scratches had damaged one of the Runes. Luckily, or rather skillfully, Lee had designed the kid's toys to drain power overtime or more quickly if any of the Runes started failing. A sort of pressure valve. He looked more closely.

"Gabe… did someone do this on purpose?" Lee pointed at the scratches.

Gabriel ducked his head. "I wanted it to go faster…" He said in a very small voice. "I'm sorry."

Lee stared at the kid and then at the Rune that was damaged. It was the one that repelled… theoretically if he altered it correctly it would increase the repulsion and go faster… the scratches looked similar to the correct alteration.

"Gabe, do you understand the Runes?" Lee asked in disbelief.

"Not all of them…" Gabriel said quietly.

"Did you get a Class?" Lee asked, it was the only explanation he could think of.

Young children didn't get Classes, something about unsettled affinity or some such. No one had been able to nail down at what age they could get a Class yet, the few that had aged out, so to speak, had all been different ages. It was a range around puberty but not a set point that anyone had figured out. And Gabriel was too young, at least as far as Lee knew.

"No Class…" Gabriel said and pointed at the plate. "Can you teach me?"

Gabriel Morales has requested to be your Apprentice. You must reach at least Adept Rank to take an Apprentice.

Gabriel must have seen something similar because he was practically bouncing. "Yes! I wanna be Apprentice!"

Lee couldn't help but smile at the kid. He was growing up so fast. Too fast. That Lair buff was definitely working, everyday the kid looked a little bigger.

"Gabe. You need to ask your parents first." That put an immediate damper on the boy's attitude. "And I need to Rank up to Adept… and get another Skill!" He was really looking forward to that.

Gabriel looked like he was struggling to think of a way out of the parent predicament while Lee made him a new hover plate. "Go play." Lee handed him the plate with a smile. "And no trying to change it!" The boy left and Lee got back to work.

A few people dropped in and out, some bringing new gear to be improved and others bringing gear that was damaged enough that the Runes had failed. Lee did not want to meet whatever they were fighting that could manage that.

"Everything is getting stronger fast." Is what he was told when he asked.

Lee did his best to step up every repair, increasing the power and defense of everyone that was willingly facing off with such threats. He'd gotten better in the last week and had worked his way through all the gear to upgrade it to the level of Alejandro's. Now everyone wielding swords and shields should be able to fight as tirelessly as he did.

Class [Runic] Level Up. No Evolutions Available. Upgrade to Journeyman Available.

Upgrade? Yes/No

"Damn, I was hoping it would go to Adept… but fine. Yes."

Class Rank Up.

[Runic(Journeyman I)](Legendary)

Journeyman Ranked Rune Library Available.

Once again, the knowledge felt mostly familiar.

New Class Skills Available. Proceed? Yes/No

"Yes!"

[Mana Lake(Initiate)](Rare)

"Oh, I can still pick from the previous options… where's the new stuff?"

[Mana Ocean(Initiate)](Rare)

Expand your Mana Pool and Mana Regeneration 600%

(Unavailable) Requires Prerequisite [Mana Lake]

"I see. Makes sense with how much Mana this class needs."

[Rune Awareness(Initiate)](Epic)

Gain Increased Awareness of your Runes and their current Conditions.

"What does that even mean?" Lee thought in confusion. "And why is it Epic?" He couldn't think of what the skill would be needed for. He could already sense his Runes because they were made with his Soul.

[Rune Compression(Initiate)](Rare)

Compress your Runes. Decreases the Material Requirements without losing Rune Strength. Compression limited by Skill Level, Soul and Intelligence.

"That could be useful… maybe." If it let him make batteries at least. It could also let him do more with weapons and armor… but he suspected that anything without a Strengthening Rune wouldn't last in combat, not anymore.

"Choices…" He was leaning towards either the compression or overcharge Skill from before but was also considering the increased Mana Pool. He didn't think 300% regen would overcome the drain of [Mana Mind] but it might slow it down and maybe even let him regen once he was below half. "Need more testing…"

Lee got to his feet and saw someone walking towards the Skill testing room. "Hey Raul!" Lee had another thing to test.

The man stopped at Lee's call and listened while Lee explained that he wanted to try and disrupt his spells to train his own Skill. "I just got a new spell." Raul told him. "Let me test it out a bit before you start messing with it. But once I have a handle on it…"

"Sure, sure." Lee told him. "Just let me know. I've got some other things to test."

Raul went into the silence bubble and started throwing magic at the wall, while Lee stepped outside. He watched his Mana drain to half and then stuck a small glowing Rune on the ground. His Mana sat at 48% and Lee watched it for awhile. 49%.

"It does regen! But so slow…" He wasn't sure how much a 300% increase would effect that. But it would also increase his pool… "Damn… it's a hard choice this time." The compression and overcharge seemed to be basically the same thing, just coming at the problem from different directions. Though at the moment materials were the bottleneck, more so than his Runes.

"What do I need." He tried to think about it logically. "I would like to be able to get outside, sure. But do I Need that? Would it help us all more if I could make stronger gear instead?" He was afraid that the greater good required him to stay trapped for now. "Next time maybe?"

His Mana ticked up to 50%.

Lee sighed. "So… which one of the two do I pick?"

New Class Skill Gained. [Rune Compression(Initiate I)](Rare)

The knowledge appeared in his head and Lee walked back inside. He picked up one of the older spears and took only a moment of thought before dumping Runes onto it. When the Runes flared and settled, Lee smiled while holding the spear somewhat gingerly. He had packed it as full as he dared, even with his new Skill. "This should work better than the plates… I hope."

He walked back out and up onto the wall. One of the men from earlier saw him, took one look at the spear in his hands, turned and moved quickly away further down the top of the wall.

The other man walked over to Lee with a resigned air about him. "Is this going to explode too?" He waved at the spear.

"Not… exactly?" Lee said and continued. "This here." He pointed at a visibly glowing symbol. "Once you touch this, the next time the spear leaves your hands it should accelerate in whatever direction it is currently moving." He held it out. "Wanna try it?"

The man seemed glad to hear that it wouldn't explode, but still declined to throw it himself. Lee shrugged and looked outside for a target. "Huh? Where'd the pig go?" The ground outside was slightly disturbed but there was no sign of the huge boar.

"Pork is back on the menu." The other man grinned and Lee couldn't help but match his smile with one of his own. "Bradley came by and helped the cooks harvest and bring it in." He added. "Fixed the wall too."

"Oh, right." Lee hadn't thought to check that. "Let's do this." He hefted the spear while the other man took a few steps back, touched the trigger Rune and threw the spear out into the brown fields.

There was a boom and a small puff of dirt where it vanished into the ground.

Lee stared. "That was… underwhelming."

"It flew pretty fast." The other man agreed. "But where is it?"

Lee concentrated and felt a small collection of Runes. "It's…" He stopped. "That's the plate I threw before…" He had a sudden thought and reached out for the Runes in the plate, calling the pieces of his Soul back. It worked! The Runes left the plate and flowed back to him, bringing with them most of the Mana that he'd used in their creation. His Mana jumped up to over 80% and then quickly started draining again. "This… this could be a Mana battery!" Lee couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before. "All that Intelligence and I'm still an idiot."

He could now no longer feel the plate and looked for the spear's Runes. He found it. Way, way, far down, deep. "That is really deep… maybe the spear could be useful after all." They could set up racks on the wall with the spears ready to go and since they weren't bombs… it should be safe enough.

Lee pulled the Runes from the spear, now much more diminished after being thrown and went back inside.

He spent the rest of his time improving the spear RuneScape and infusing all the available spears. He also created more bomb plates, this time adding a trigger Rune identical to what he used on the spears. The obvious solution…

Skill [RuneScape Creation] Level Up.

Skill [Rune Creation] Level Up.

Raul never came back to help him test his [Mana Mind] and Lee didn't even notice.

Alejandro found him as night settled in and Lee took some time to explain the new weapons and helped Alejandro carry them outside. He explained the functions a few more times to small groups of fighters who would be manning those sections in the coming battle.

Practice plates were handed out as well, modified to also use the trigger Rune.

Then he went upstairs and sat down for dinner with his new family. Lee was popular with the kids now, thanks to his 'toys' and Maria had softened her opinion of him.

It came, Lee believed, in no small part because the Soul Tether had finally ticked down on everyone… and everyone but Lee had gained Soul rather than losing it. Well, they lost it first but then…

New Trait Gained: [Enduring Soul]

Your Soul has been in prolonged direct contact with a much Stronger Source-Touched Soul and Endured.

Effects:

+1 Soul per every five days of Continuous and Strenuous Contact with a Stronger Soul.

At least that was what Alejandro told Lee. As well as assuring him that the strenuous part wasn't that bad.

Regardless, after that Maria no longer looked like she was contemplating how to torture him for maximum satisfaction and volume of screaming. He still caught some looks from her but they didn't have the same deadly promise as before.

But that was just a perk to Lee, he was mostly just so very glad that he wasn't actively killing people who had risked their lives to save his.

Dinner was fantastic and the children were a delight, in small doses…

Lee did notice the looks that both parents had at times when they gazed at their babies. The Lair buff was noticeable on Gabriel but on Anita, it was obvious.

Lee felt the waring emotions coming from them. On the one hand the children would grow faster and be better able to protect themselves sooner, but on the other hand, they were growing up too fast, their childhoods slipping away. Lee never had children of his own and he still felt the loss.

Lee also mentioned the message that he and Gabriel had gotten, as well as what Gabriel had tried to do to the Rune. That earned Gabe one of those dreaded 'we'll talk about this later' looks, but he was all eagerness when they started discussing Apprenticeships.

There were some serious implications that both parents immediately picked up on and apparently no one else had seen the message before. But if children could gain Classes, even Apprentice Classes, as well as Skills… well, it could be a very good thing for them to get a headstart.

Unfortunately, no one was up to Adept yet, so they wouldn't be able to test it. But Alejandro said he would spread the word and look for volunteers.

As for Gabriel becoming a Runic Apprentice, they were both tentatively okay with it and Lee agreed to give the boy a chance to see the more boring and grueling aspects of the Class before any choices were made. They had plenty of time until he reached Adept after all.

Then the timer ticked lower and once again the children and non-combatants gathered in the courtyard of [Three].

Lee suggested that he could fight from the roof by creating and throwing bombs, or even just creating them and letting someone else throw, but Alejandro insisted that he should stay with the children.

Lee protested and Alejandro went as far as to ask the gathering families and parents to weigh in. It was nearly unanimous, they wanted every possible protection to stay right there, right next to the children. Or maybe they didn't want Lee throwing bombs over their heads when they were fighting on the walls…

Either way Lee accepted the duty and got to work improving on his last setup. Bigger shields, extra layers, more active defenses that could be used in the case of an incursion inside. He knew that [Three] could do a lot to protect him, but wasn't sure about whether it would protect everyone else. So rather than having to put himself directly in the path of any danger, Lee set up some failsafes. Nothing that could be triggered by accident, but things he could set in motion with [Mana Mind], if it came to that.

Despite all the work of the day, Lee wasn't nearly as exhausted as he had been the last time and so he was wide awake when the timer ticked down to zero.

He was wide awake when nothing else happened. He was still wide awake when nothing continued to happen.

He was getting sleepy when dawn rolled around and nothing still continued to happen.

Shields were opened for bathroom breaks and food to be prepared. Children slept and woke up full of far too much energy to be trapped in the bubble. Discussions were held and eventually everyone was forced to move on with their lives.

"This sucks." Lee told a tired Alejandro who only nodded. "I never thought I'd be upset that we didn't get attacked…"

"Wilson is setting up schedules." Alejandro finally said. "We will have to be ready at all times to face another attack…"

"This really fu… sucks." Lee aborted his foul language as a child skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Can we play now?" The small boy asked eagerly.

"I have to work out first…" Lee groaned.

"Yay!" The child screamed. "I'll get you for sure this time!"

Alejandro chuckled softly next to him while Lee buried his face in his hands.