Maxwell was expecting me to be an Authority 5 in five months, the end of the school year.

The three-layer advancement formation was difficult to even start. Like any puzzle, I had to look for patterns, accumulate information, before realizing how things fit together. But once I finished preparations, it was just a matter of time before the first layer was completed.

The second layer essentially restarted the process with a whole new set of patterns and the added difficulty of needing to couple and anchor the formations to the first layer. It would be more difficult, but the experience gained from constructing the first layer made me pretty good at recognizing patterns; I was pretty confident in the speed of my progress.

After analyzing over the break, I was making good progress with the second layer. Some pieces I had connected and laid aside; others I had attached to the first layer as foundations. In the process, I realized I could still utilize the first part of the advancement formation to help me with cultivation.

The advancement to the 5th Authority was all about preparing my mind to accept a second Spark. I needed to make my mind stronger and faster to properly fit the second Spark. It was like upgrading a computer. My hardware had to get better to accommodate another component.

Advancement formations were sets of instructions for how to move magical energies. Some steps were obscured until the entire formation was complete, but they still existed. Most couldn’t take them early; they were obscured, after all. But since I was a damn genius, I was able to make them out and take some of the steps early.

This acted as a sort of positive feedback loop. My initial efforts kickstarted the ocean of stars in my mind. They now moved along a current that, despite being slow, was significantly beneficial. And each speedup in my thought process from that moving current meant I could comprehend the next steps faster, which would thereby result in even faster thinking. After rinsing and repeating that cycle a few times, my progress exponentially accelerated.

So I utilized my newfound free time, courtesy of the Puppet Master, to buckle down and train.

The siege petered out by the next day, and the Puppet Master hadn’t yet received missions to send my squad out on yet. We were all just stuck indoors while everyone else got sent out.

I used that time to train almost relentlessly. Or, in all honesty, it was more like studying than anything.

“You know, you’re pretty relaxed about all of this.”

Umara sidled up to me on my bunk. Getting targeted by Royals was no different from being targeted by the entire Scourge. It wasn’t something to take lightly, as the Puppet Master’s rant had made quite clear.

“It’s because I’ve got to focus on my advancement. But I’m well aware of just how large the target on my back is getting. In fact, it’s getting quite suffocating. There are enemies I need to face that are at a level I can’t handle, and my ability to hide is rapidly decreasing.”

I needed time to grow, and there were just so many things that cut into that time. The balancing act was delicate. I couldn’t seem to do anything that wouldn’t end with a blade in my face.

I could only redouble my efforts in the time I had. My Aura was sensitive to danger, but it also reinforced my own sense of urgency.

Every gaze that landed on me, every hostile thought, every threat, was yet another level of stress that stuck with me throughout the entire day.

My Aura reminded me relentlessly that I needed to get better. It amplified my subconscious worries and incessantly reminded me of my inadequacies. Refusing to train was nearly impossible now. My subconscious screamed at me, my mind wouldn’t let me, reality dictated against my wishes. My only source of comfort in these trials was Umara, and even then I couldn’t tell her everything. Her normalcy was my rock.

After that day, the Puppet Master didn’t send us on any missions. We sat within the base and trained for two entire weeks. After a while, I felt like he was being paranoid with how safe he was trying to keep us.

But at some point, he finally came to us with a mission.

……

We were called to the briefing room and arrived early, eager to see what he had in store for us.

“You’re here. Good. Are you sharp?”

The Puppet Master asked me as I took a seat at a table with my squad.

“Yea. It’s been nothing but training these last two weeks.”

“At least you’re not lazy. I guess that’s the only reason you’re not dead. Anyway, I’ve got a special task for you and your squad.”

He lifted his hand and pat the board he was standing beside. On it was a map, as well as a few images of some Scouts.

“From some patrols and scouting operations, we’ve received reports on Scout activity along this ridge. I have a feeling it has to do with you and the interest the Royals have taken. They’ve been trying to find both you and Ponteck. But it doesn’t seem like they’re planning anything big. They aren’t willing to invest too much to kill you yet. Headquarters wants to use your specialty to run a counter-operation against them. You’re good at killing Scouts, and that’s what you’re going to do.

“You’ll be working with a squad of soldiers. There are 3 of them and they’re going to take you out there and bring you back. One of them is an Authority 8 knight, so you’ll be protected if anything goes sideways. The other two are warlocks, Authority 6’s, there to provide some extra firepower if you need it. Still, if all goes as planned, you’ll be the only one killing anything.”

“Are there any Royals over there? Plus, these Scouts are quite literally designed to pick things out. How am I supposed to kill them without fighting everything nearby?”

“We haven’t seen the Royals recently, though it isn’t guaranteed that they will be absent, so that’s why you have the Authority 8. As for how you go about keeping yourself hidden, that’s entirely up to you. Killing even just one Scout is still considered a mission success, so do what you need to do to stay alive. You’ll get more of these missions depending on how well you perform, so do as much as you can, but don’t be foolhardy. You’ll get plenty of other chances, so just do what you’re good at, and make this worth it.”

“Hm, alright.”

I nodded at him. He was giving me autonomy, which spoke to how much he trusted my abilities.

Well, it seemed I had earned that trust among several people. I seemed to be getting sent on these kinds of missions more and more. First Tavera, then the Key Master, now the Puppet Master and the military.

Well, I couldn't be surprised. I happened to be pretty good at what I did.

“You leave in an hour from the western gate. The target location isn’t very far away. Backup will be on standby. Any questions?”

It was a pretty straightforward mission, but I still had one concern.

“The soldiers. Will they defer to my decisions?”

“Yes. But they’re ranked higher, so don’t expect them to bend over backwards. I’ve already discussed all of this with them and the Commander agreed to trust me and let you be the centerpiece of this operation. If it fails, don’t expect to get called up for it again.”

“It won’t. So long as the situation is reasonable.”

“I’ll trust you’ll make it so. I’ve heard what you’ve done over in the markets. You seem to have a knack for this. Anything else?”

Heads shook around the room.

“Good. Go forth and prove me right.”

With my concern rectified, the briefing ended, and we were dismissed to prepare for the mission.

…

I wasn’t surprised the Puppet Master had heard of my exploits in the market.

It meant that my name was getting out there, or at least my infamy. Big names, like my targets, going down the way they did, would no doubt cause a ruckus.

I didn’t feel much pride in the task itself considering it was almost too easy for me, but that didn’t mean others could see that. I made a note to myself to prepare for more of these missions in the future.

The others were just there for support, but we all still had to prepare for a worst-case scenario. To do anything less would be stupid.

We trickled our way to the western gate over the next hour, each of us grabbing whatever specialty-specific gear we needed from Acquisitions. I was the first to arrive, needing nothing other than my summons and some rations. Waiting for me was a group of three soldiers and two trucks.

The Authority 8 approached me.

“I’m First Commander Karlson. Just call me Commander Karlson. You’re John?”

“I am. I look forward to working with you guys.”

“Likewise.”

We shook hands, my impression of this man rapidly growing positive. He was an officer, but wasn’t immediately an asshole, even to a cadet. From my experience in this world, people tended that way when facing anyone of lesser stature.

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“We’ll be in charge of transportation and protection. We’ve been ordered to leave any offensive combat to you. A simple in and out is what they said.”

“If all goes well, it’ll be just that. They might not even know we were ever there.”

“Well, that makes me curious. Let’s go. You all will be with me. The warlocks will take the backup Hummer.”

With his word we boarded the hummers. We were gone within minutes.

By now, evening was arriving. The sun would set not long from now. Dusk would give me enough light to see by, but also some darkness for concealment.

From the western gate we rolled across the relatively flat terrain around the base. The dead Scourge that once covered the immediate area had been vaporized, buried, or removed by the numerous garrisoned warlocks. A few hills here and there were the only other outstanding features. There weren’t even forests.

After about half an hour, trees started encroaching on clear landscapes. We eventually entered a forested ridge, forced to slow down to better navigate it.

Thankfully we didn’t have to go in deep. Just 10 minutes of driving through the ridge was enough to put us on top of a ledge overlooking the land below.

“We’re approaching the target area. We’ll disembark here. John, tell us where we need to go to best support you.”

“Will do.”

I nodded, leaving the hummer and stepping out onto the rocky ledge.

I walked to the edge of an outcrop, squatted down, and summoned my modified Springfield.

Through my scope I could clearly see what looked to be a small camp. There was a small river flowing through the area, and the Scourge beasts had set up a rudimentary camp around it.

There were some winged beasts, likely their transportation, and several Scouts. From a cursory count, I could see 6. It was possible that more were out there, just not home yet.

And around the scouts were some escorts, at least 40 of them.

“This shouldn’t be too bad. There are six of them. Best case scenario, I kill between three and five from the shadows before bailing. Worst case, I kill one or two before bailing.”

“You can guarantee at least one kill?”

“Certainly. That’s the easy part. The challenge will be killing more before exposing my position.”

“Hm, that’s the least of our worries. There are Scourge beasts not far from here. The issue with launching these attacks is the possibility of getting surrounded before withdrawing. At that point, I myself might even be overwhelmed, to say nothing of your squad. But we were told that you can kill them from a distance.”

“I can. Though not this far. Let’s see.”

I lifted my head, scanning the surrounding area before pointing at a closer cliff.

“Bring me there.”

“Very well. I’ll separate us into two groups. The others will hang by the other hummer, and I will accompany you to the outcrop. I was told you have a partner?”

“Yes. Umara will join us. The rest of you, mind waiting for us?”

“No problem.”

Vetsmon answered from the side. Commander Karlson nodded.

“Then let’s move out. No reason for us to be still out past chow.”

With those words, we all jumped on the hummers. Umara and I joined the Commander in his, while everyone else was in the other.

When we drove, they hung back a couple hundred meters from the outcropping, while we pulled up right behind it.

That was another benefit of these magic vehicles. They were completely silent aside from the tires rolling on the dirt. That made these stealth missions a lot easier.

We jumped out and approached the outcropping.

I laid down and crawled toward the edge of the rocky ledge. Springfield in hand, I scoped in.

I reckoned they were about 350 meters from our position. The Scouts were gathered in a group, chewing on the carcasses of some wildlife.

I smiled. Most of them were stationary. That made this a lot easier.

In a low tone, serious face on, I motioned to Karlson and explained the plan.

“The most I can kill in sequence is five, and that’s if all my shots are perfect. I’m not betting on more than three realistically. After the first shot, they’ll be alerted, so however many I get in five shots is probably going to be my limit.”

“Understood. If they find us though, we need to pull out quickly. They’ll give chase as soon as they spot us and after that, we’ll have all the Scourge beasts within 5 miles homing in on our location.”

“I’ll be prepared to bail. Just let me get off my five shots.”

“Sure.”

He nodded, and with that, I nudged Umara who lay right beside me.

“Ready? All I need is silence.”

“Of course.”

“Keep in mind though. My bullets will still make sound when they reach the Scouts. All this barrier is doing is keeping them from listening for our direction, to some extent.”

“Remind me to ask you about how that works again later.”

“Sure.”

Umara’s sound barrier materialized around us.

I felt like I had gone deaf. Every sound from outside was completely gone. I couldn’t even hear my own breathing.

I took some deep breaths, steadying my aim as I found my first victim.

There were six, and in my head I planned my sequence of attack. Target priority in mind, I twitched my reticle onto the first head.

I could only feel the trigger click, the recoil hitting only moments after, the suppressor and Umara’s air working in tandem to completely nullify any report.

Down range, one Scout dropped dead, its head sporting a brand new hole.

The others were still reacting as I found the next target looking curiously at the corpse of its buddy.

Although still careful, I took less time to squeeze off the next round, hitting center mass and dropping it to the ground. A quick look told me the Scout was heavily wounded, not dead, but would soon be. A silent scream tore through the air, the other Scouts finally getting past the shock to move.

I ignored it, taking aim at the slowest just as it started moving.

The beasts all around started scrambling moments later. .30-06 bullets were supersonic and thus broke the sound barrier, creating a shockwave that exploded in the ears of anything it passed. They had to pass the creature first before the shockwave was felt, but nonetheless, all of them were seeing their buddies drop to the floor before hearing an explosion. It was obvious that they were under attack.

But they didn’t know where the attacks were coming from. Some of them were already looking our way, probably inferring the direction from the way their buddies had fallen. It was impressively sharp for what was bound to be an instinctual reaction, but they still weren’t sure where exactly they were being shot from.

They couldn't see anything, for one, and vision was what Scouts relied on. They could gather all the information they wanted, but their eyes took precedence above all, and thus far they could find nothing.

That uncertainty was exactly what I needed.

Having started striding off in multiple directions, the Scouts made themselves too difficult to assuredly hit, so I held off for a little while. However, they couldn’t keep running, and one stopped and turned to communicate.

I fired at it, my body having steadied completely, my reticle resting right on top of its neck.

I watched as the bullet tore through its chest like the last. All the beasts around it turned, watching in morbid astonishment as its body crumpled in on itself.

Three bullets, two more to go.

The other three Scouts were now looking in our direction, doing everything they could to find us.

I could sense their gazes through my Aura. They weren’t locked on to us yet, but even the slightest movements would give our position away.

I ignored it and found another still Scout, firing.

(Shit.)

I cursed in my mind as the bullet landed off center. Instead of shooting through its chest, I tore off its arm at the shoulder instead.

That Scout fell to the floor, and its erratic movements made it too difficult to shoot accurately

So I instantly racked the bolt before settling in for my last shot.

That missed shot caused me to panic a bit, so I got a nice spike of adrenaline that helped me hyper fixate on my next target.

One of the two remaining Scouts looked back at their screaming friend. The other one, however, was looking at me.

I could feel its gaze. That shot had given me away. But that was alright.

It was focused on me, our Auras meeting. It was enraged and was already sending beasts to me. Several of the escort beasts started running in our direction.

But its focus was its downfall. I could almost feel our eyes meet through my scope in an eerie sort of connection. That’s when I realized that my intent could be easily read.

It was also when I figured out how to utilize the Aura technique I had theorized about.

Instead of making myself invisible, I could just create the illusion of me being invisible.

That also applied to my intent. If I focused on nothing but killing the Scout, it would realize that and try to evade. It would be able to sense what I wanted to do. It was almost like mind-reading.

But if I masked the intent coming from my mind, then it wouldn’t be able to read anything.

And that’s exactly what I did.

I created a veil around my mind, dividing it from the rest of my Aura that the Scout could see. It was as simple as making a barrier of power.

I could practically see the confusion on the Scout's face as it seemed to lose me.

A final trigger pull was muffled in the bubble.

The scout’s head fell as my bullet severed its neck. That was four kills and one casualty.

I spoke to Umara through my telepathy.

(That’s it. Release the barrier.)

(Got it.)

She responded, sounds of the world returning to my ears.

I spoke.

“That’s all. Let’s get out of here.”

“Hah, with pleasure.”

The First Commander seemed oddly happy as we backed out and boarded the hummer.

Like that, we drove away, the rest of our squad falling in as we went.

Before long, we had left the ridge and no Scourge beasts were in sight. In and out, not undetected, but without contest.

The Commander laughed.

“You know, I’ve never seen anything quite like that before. No wonder he wanted you to do this mission. That was damn near the easiest mission I’ve ever done! Just like that, four Scouts are dead, and not a single man was killed in the process. Nothing more than a bit of magic power for vehicles and your energy was spent.”

“Well, it certainly went well. I missed one, but they just kept standing still. They were almost asking to be shot.”

“How you did that from so far away is beyond me. Only the best archers I know of can pull off stunts like that. Which means that you, John, have earned yourself some more missions.”

“Hooray for me.”

I gave a sarcastic cheer, making him chuckle.

“Don’t be so down. These are the best ones to have. They’re fun, relatively safe, and don’t come very often. It may be another week before you get called again. So until then, you’re living the life.”

“That’s true.”

“Not only that, but your name is going to get passed around. Some might say otherwise, but I’m a firm believer in recognition being a most valuable resource. You’re still in the Magisterium, but if you want a good post once you enter the military, then you’ll need to have some connections. Make yourself desirable, and you’ll get desirable positions.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”

“Of course. You’re quite amazing, and not just for a summoner. Would hate for that talent to go to waste.”

I smiled. It seemed my initial assessment was right.

After that, I lounged back with Umara as we drove back to base.

He was right. This was rather fun.