~~~Lee~~~

Lee stepped off the railing of the third-floor balcony and plummeted toward the courtyard below.

Then he tapped the runes in his shoes with Mana Mind, more specifically, the runes on the small metal plates inside his shoes.

His feet stopped, as if landing on solid ground. Lee stood in midair... for all of a single second. Then he tried to take a step and flipped upside down. Again. "Damn it!"

"I don't get what the big deal is," Mar said invisibly from beside him. She hopped closer and pulled him back upright, before jogging across the open air...

"How are you so good at this?" Lee yelled while flailing his arms to stay upright.

"It's literally walking! How are you so bad at walking?"

It wasn't just walking. Lee triggered the rune under his right foot, and it abruptly stopped sticking to thin air. He stepped forward and triggered it again to hold his weight, then unstuck his left foot and repeated the process. It was a slow and clumsy process, and he flipped over more than once.

The worst part was when his shoe fell off and he landed in the courtyard while the shoe continued to hover overhead. That got a lot of laughs from their audience... Kids could be so mean.

Mar's invisibility broke every time she took a step, which only made her look cooler as she ran through the air in strobing flickers. Totally unfair.

At least Lee wasn't the only one having trouble...

"I'm going to stick with my armored boots," Alejandro said while swapping his shoes back out. It was a valid excuse. Since Lee couldn't make these runes work with the armor he'd made for Alejandro. Not without some serious modification that he didn't think he could pull off... not yet. Besides, Alejandro already had a movement ability...

So did Maria. Which didn't stop her from also making Lee look bad as she strolled through the air. "I like."

"I want to try again!" Gabriel squealed, along with a chorus of other young voices. Lee had let the kids try, but to a one, they'd failed to use their mana. The suspected reason being that none of them had any skills, so they had no idea what it should even feel like.

It had taken some trial and error for the adults to channel their mana without an actual skill, and then to target it directly into the runes. Lee couldn't help either, since he didn't dare try the same tactic. He'd done that before, and it was called Liquid Mana Blast...

His Mana Mind worked as an alternative method, and now he just had to get the timing down.

The rune he'd created was probably not the ideal way to do this, but it was the best he could do for now. Rather than his original magnet idea, which only worked inside Three with its extremely mana-dense structure, this one worked by grabbing a large swath of... stuff.

Technically, that made the rune extremely heavy, but in all directions. It resisted motion and allowed them to step off the air. You just had to get the timing right... and you got a double jump ability. More than double. Especially inside Three.

The runes drained fast, like all of them did if he pushed an effect outside the physical material, and Lee could only cram so much power into the small plates.

Fortunately, Three had figured out how to recharge runes. Or Lee had figured out how to make Three do it. He wasn't sure how that worked... but it worked, and that was what mattered. The best part was that Lee didn't have to worry about recharging any of his runes anymore, everyone could just walk through the building after every hunt.

It also meant he could experiment freely with new runes like he was currently doing. As long as Mar didn't jump too high, her runes would recharge even in the open air of the courtyard. Though the recharge rate was slower the further she got from the actual physical building.

Lee jumped straight up into the air, after tying his shoe extra tight, and activated both runes. There was the slightest of give, noticeable only if he stood still, and he ever so slowly sank toward the ground. It was very cool to stand in midair...

Then play time was over, and Lee went back to work.

He let Mar and Maria keep the runes. They could show it off around the fort and see if anyone else wanted to try it. Lee had spread word about skeletal enchanting and gotten a few interested parties. The interest died once they realized it would involve someone slicing them open repeatedly...

It turned out the armor was good enough.

Lee was still trying to tweak the kinetic absorption rune. It worked great when something hit the armor, but it also absorbed energy when the person inside was moving... The effect was far less on weaker impacts, like walking, but E-grade humans could really jump. Alejandro was the only one who could use the full armor enchant, and only because of his movement ability, which let him move quickly without generating kinetic energy.

Aside from that, the armor made him a literal juggernaut. Just a slow one. Other people were making do with only the kinetic absorbing shields rather than full armor.

The elf invasion should have been a massive boon of new skills, and it was... just nothing very good. They all dropped skill shards when they died, but it was a lot of common sword and shield skills. Most of the other magic skills ended up being more utility, including a few Lee had only heard about well after the fact.

Myriad Tongues (Common)

Translates all outgoing or incoming forms of verbal communication for the user.

It turned out it wasn't a popular choice. No one wanted to waste their limited non-class skills on something like that. Lee could relate, and his own capped skills were the main driving force for reaching E-grade sooner rather than later. He just didn't like the idea of taking so many cores for himself... dozens of people could get to E-grade with the cores he alone would require.

Bradley entered his Mana Mind, coming Lee's way. Maybe he'd finished with the... Lee saw one of his runes twitch. Then flex. Shi...

~~~Bradley~~~

Bradley flinched right along with everyone else when the explosion shook the building. Then he continued to the elevator room, where Lee had holed up.

It was not a pretty sight inside the small room... but one of the anubi sprinted past him with a healing potion a moment later. Bradley had to turn away before he got sick. Behind him, he heard Lee's slurred voice coming through what was left of his face... "Shun't wasst thoss. I 'ould 'eal."

"Please drink, my lord!" Bradley glanced back in and gagged at the sight of Lee's cheek growing back over his teeth.

"Son of a bitch!" Lee yelled, followed by the anubi fleeing. "That should have fucking worked!"

"I..." Bradley swallowed back his nausea. "I finished all the buildings. They're ready for you. I'm going out with... Saira and Alejandro. They found another E-grade lair."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That's... thanks. Maybe I'll go do that now..."

"Why don't you come with us?" Alejandro said, stepping past Bradley into the doorway, seemingly unbothered by the pieces of Lee now sprinkled over the walls. "Tina can swing through here with her cleaning spell while we're gone... again."

So maybe not that unbothered.

Lee shook his head. "I told you it's a waste..."

"You've been in here for days," Alejandro said, pulling Lee to his feet. "A change of scenery might help clear your head."

"I need to enchant the rest of the buildings."

"Then let's do that on the way out."

"What if we get an invasion here while we're gone?"

"It will be weaker if we are not here..."

Alejandro was obviously going to win the argument, so Bradley left him to it and went back outside. It would be a bit until they left now, and he wasn't sure if he was happy or not about the delay.

Getting to E-grade was something he wanted more than ever after seeing the way Alejandro could move now. But it meant fighting E-grades... He could probably beg off the fighting and ask for the cores instead. Alejandro or Wilson would give them to him... but that just felt... wrong. He wasn't a coward anymore. He was strong. He wouldn't let other people fight his battles. He couldn't let them.

Outside, he found the others on his team for today waiting. Bradley told them what Alejandro was doing and about the expected delay, but only with half his attention.

The rest of his mind was focused on the ground beneath his bare feet. He felt out the ground beneath everyone else's feet. Counting. There were two extra feet touching the ground that didn't match up with any visible person.

She's here!

"Bradley," Lee said, coming out of the building behind him. "What happened to your boots?"

"I..." Bradley ducked his head. "I can sense the earth a lot better without them..." He didn't look toward Mar.

She'd started hanging out invisibly nearby him after they'd both almost died, and he'd been too scared about what to say. But then she had said nothing, either.

It only got more awkward when they both continued to say nothing... until he realized she didn't know he knew she was there—a fact he discovered after finally working up the courage to say something.

"H... how did you know I was here?" she'd stammered.

"I felt your footsteps on... the... ground."

Her face had been an alarming shade of red when she appeared to scream, "Why didn't you say anything!?" Then she'd vanished and sprinted away.

She never came back after that day, and he'd realized she'd been spying on him. He was upset—not about the spying, but that he had said nothing for so long. He'd enjoyed having her company, even if she was invisible and silent. Now she hated him.

Or did she? She'd joined this trip. She must have known he'd be here...

Saira was smiling when Bradley met her gaze, and he felt his face warm. It was a knowing smile... What does she know?

Bradley followed the group with barely a glance or thought spared for the wide, open sky above. Ever since the acid, he'd been equal parts terrified and hopeful about the future. Only this time, his fear had nothing to do with monsters trying to eat him.

Mar hated him.

Saira didn't seem mad at him... if anything, she was way too friendly now, and it made him uncomfortable. Hell, it was terrifying.

That, plus the thought of working up enough courage to talk to Mar, left him feeling sick to his stomach... but he still wanted to...

Bradley tried to maneuver himself closer to Mar as they walked back and forth across the fort. Lee would enchant a building, then walk back to Three to recharge, then do it all again for the next one.

Mar moved away every time Bradley got close... She definitely hates me.

Greenfield Fort has gained effect: [Enchanted Defense]

"Hell yeah. I'm awesome!" Lee shouted, thrusting both hands into the air. Bradley barely noticed as he pulled up the effect, his thoughts busy on... other issues.

[Enchanted Defense]

+25% Effective Attributes

+1% Resistance to all damage

He didn't even know the anubi were along for the hunt until they were jumping off the walls, and he stared at them for too long. Why were they here?

"They wished to hunt for herbs and... other ingredients." Bradley flinched at Saira's voice suddenly beside him.

"They..." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Can they fight?" They were so small...

She shrugged.

"We will not slow you down, my lord," one anubi barked. Only at Lee. "We have prepared for this day and will guard you with our lives!"

Lee winced. "Don't you dare! I'm practically immortal, and I'll be pissed as fuck if you die for no reason! I only brought you along for gathering..."

"Yes, my lord!" the anubi exclaimed and bowed again.

Bradley was glad to see Lee as uncomfortable as he felt. The whole lord thing was just weird... and it scared the shit out of him. He'd heard the anubi's story and come to the only obvious conclusion available.

It was only a matter of time until that same thing played out here on earth? If someone powerful showed up and demanded an oath from them... If they said swear or die...

Lee could already do that if he wanted to... he probably wouldn't. But he could, and he didn't even need to threaten people. He could just demand an oath to use his magic building... but he probably wouldn't. Would he?

It was terrifying. If someone tried to enslave Mar... I won't let it happen. I will be strong enough to protect her!

To that end, Bradley practiced his magic constantly while they walked. Not enough to leave him low on mana, but he also couldn't afford to sit on a full mana pool. This was life and death. He wouldn't let anything happen to Mar or Saira.

Always protect the healer!

Alejandro's mantra was all well and good, but Bradley would protect them even without it. He was strong. He would be strong enough for whatever came his way!

The lair wasn't what he expected. Instead of a building or hole in the ground, it was a gap in a hedge—a big hedge.

You have entered a Lair: [Stakshiak Meadow]

Through the hedge, or trees—it was hard to tell what the plants were other than thick—it was a meadow. A serene and quite beautiful one, with a pretty little grove of colorful plants smack in the center.

A herd of deer or antelope was roaming on the far side. Presumably, those were the stakshiaks? They didn't look very threatening... but this place was supposed to be E-grade.

Bradley pushed his mana into the ground and pulled up some dirt to enclose his legs and arms. Once he had enough, he compacted it into little more than bracelets around each limb. Combined with his stone staff... it should be enough.

Alejandro got everyone into formation around Saira, taking the vanguard position for himself. "We don't know what all they can do yet, so do nothing until I say so."

"How do we know they're E-grade?" Bradley asked. The deer had clearly noticed them, but they looked... afraid?

"Angelo came through with his team earlier," Alejandro said, tilting his head toward the man carrying a huge axe. "They caught one of them alone right past the entrance."

The man nodded. "Took it down in one hit, but didn't want to chance the rest once we saw the core."

Bradley nodded, topping off his mana from the staff and eyeing the little grove suspiciously. The anubi stared that way as well; only they looked excited at whatever they saw. "Good herbs! Mistress Druid, do you sense them?"

Saira had her hand stretched out as they moved slowly across the grassy field, and she nodded. "There is something strong..."

None of the deer were coming their way yet. They were instead crowding against the tree line, as far away as they could get...

"Something's not right," Bradley said, despite the way it made him sound. It wasn't always cowardice to be worried. Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.

Alejandro stopped advancing. "They look almost... scared."

Bradley felt something then. Something... familiar. It took him a long moment to realize what it felt like... It felt like his magic... coming from...

"Underground!" Lee yelled.

Bradley dumped mana into the earth beneath their feet, solidifying and pulling them away... and he felt it coming. Fast.

Mar!