Goodbyes took little time, like they always did. Orianna and Alec were waiting for him early in the morning, already geared up to return to WhiteFall and the lab. Lev still had no idea where his mentor worked.

His team was currently on the western wall, staring at the Dreadwoods in the distance. They sat on summoned chairs and enjoyed one last cup of chocolate milk together in silence, not knowing when they would see each other again.

"Why so quiet?" Lev broke the silence and hid a grin. Kayla gave him a flat stare, one speaking volumes about the words she wanted to say.

"Too gloomy," Jack agreed, putting down his empty cup. "It's not like we're parting forever. A few months or a year will pass in no time."

"Do you think we would've been allowed?" Amelia piped up and continued after his questioning look. "To accompany you, I mean, if you asked."

"Easily," Lev replied. "If I weren't working for Drakys directly, I would've taken you guys with me. As it stands, though…"

"Yes, yes, too dangerous and all that. You're also going to be spending all that time with a princess," she lamented with a mock sigh. "How unfair is that?"

"I seriously don't understand your obsession," Lev shook his head with a smile. "Just don't scare her off if you meet her one day, okay? I won't be able to cover for you at that point."

"Me? Scare her off?" she repeated, this time genuinely frowning. "I'm no brute. If anything, you should be more worried about that. Who the hell fights third-threshold monsters in front of Classers?"

"You would think so," he laughed, remembering the battle with the Flamebreather Gecko. The earned runes still remained in his skill. "But the princess is extremely strong. With her current team, she might just be even stronger than me. She would appreciate such a show greatly."

Kayla took a moment to process that, her gaze immediately turning calculating. Lev gave her a stern look, warning her not to spread any stupid rumors or ideas, only for it to slide right off. She wasn't even looking at him any longer.

"Anyways," he exhaled, putting the matter out of his mind. "Sherron's waiting for me at the main gates."

Jack shuddered lightly. "Lady Sherron visited us yesterday while you were gone somewhere."

Lev's interest was piqued. "Go on."

"The words weren't meant for you, Hunter Lev," Amelia quipped, mimicking Hakim's tone. "We have it under control."

"Wow," he raised both his hands. "What the hell? I thought we were all closer than that."

That quickly made things awkward. Lev debated saying something, but only ended up laughing it off.

"I'll miss you guys," he said softly. Evidently, they were not expecting to hear that, if the shock on their face was any indication. "You know, while we're at it, I'm not leaving without a hug either. So far, I've refrained from being touchy, but I think I've deserved that much now."

Jack moved first, shaking his head a little as he put an arm over Lev's shoulders in a side hug. Kayla clicked her tongue and hugged him from the front, which finally made Amelia push past her hesitation.

She timidly wrapped a single arm around his back, still not coming too close. The hug could barely even be considered a hug, yet it was all Lev could've ever asked for. Be it the way she refused to meet their eyes or the color tinting her cheeks, her team greatly enjoyed seeing her stepping out of her comfort zone like that.

"Don't die."

The whisper froze all three of them. Lev stared at the swordswoman with wide eyes, the words still echoing in his brain. A lot of responses came to mind, but he discarded them all and settled for the best one. Giving her a kind, honest smile, he whispered back.

"I'll do my best."

****

Sherron was waiting above the main gates, gazing at the sky and lost in thought. Lev's landing made her turn to him, and a raised brow asked all the questions.

"Yeah, I've said my goodbyes and am ready to go," he replied with an eyeroll.

She merely tossed him a ring, this one denser than the one they had used before. Putting it on could wait. For now, he looked down at his simple garb consisting of white trousers and a t-shirt. It was comfortable and thin, perfectly suitable for the Epic equipment that appeared over it.

Lev looked over himself from different angles as Sherron did the same. There were no wrinkles, the crystals were smoothly absorbing and providing mana, and the enchantments were fully operational. To top it off, it looked good, which was a nice addition.

Immediately, he could feel a light weight settle on his body. The suit had scanned his body and covered it in an invisible mana shield, one ready to support his movements and absorb impacts.

"Fancy," he commented, satisfied with the suit despite donning it for the first time. Then he put on the ring and looked at the Exalted.

"Put some mana into it," she said expectantly. "This one will conceal your mana and aura both and also cover you in a denser material. With your new suit, we should be able to travel at my maximum speed."

… Why does that sound terrifying?

He quickly channeled mana into the ring. A thick black barrier sprang around him, smoothly pushing him a bit higher by slithering under his feet. Since they were going to travel at an extremely high speed, Lev triple-checked it all. There were no deformities or faults, further confirmed by Sherron's double tap.

Before long, he felt himself starting to move. Slowly at first, the speed picked up sharply, until he could feel that the velocity was beyond his mind. Oddly enough, the speed barely had any effect on him, though that could be explained by the two layers of protection covering him.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I guess it's time to wait? He wondered. The urge to crank up his Mana Perception was tempting, except that might be even worse than seeing the world pass by with his eyes. Such rapid information transmitted to his brain might just make him pass out or vomit over himself, neither of which was desirable.

Time lost meaning as he closed his eyes. Against his better judgment, he let Mana Perception scan a few inches around him, and immediately, he could feel just how much mana Sherron was using at every moment. Her capacity and regeneration were mind-boggling if she planned to keep flying for hours straight.

More interesting was the flavor of her lightning. It was solid, somehow giving off sturdy vibes despite the base being so volatile. There were a few more impressions, though he didn't have the experience to decipher those.

Curious, he created a small barrier pebble in his hand. Despite the packed space, he brought it in front of his eyes easily enough. Peering into its structure, Lev was pleasantly surprised when he felt two distinct, faint impressions.

Durability and Malleability.

He tried to dive deeper and glimpse more. The attempts were rebuffed, not because he was lacking experience this time, but because that was all there was. He needed to add more to his barriers and take them higher.

Absorbed in similar thoughts and little experiment, several hours passed. The sheer extent of Sherron's flight speed was made obvious when she stopped after just six hours, having already reached their destination.

Lev's opaque bubble was unceremoniously dropped on the outer wall before it vanished. The suns shone directly into his eyes, close to setting now. He blinked repeatedly to adjust to the new light level and looked ahead.

Grassland.

He really wasn't sure what he was expecting.

"Where are we?" he asked and gazed to the sides. Far to his left were several tents, enchanted with mana concealment and invisibility on one side. Lev could only see half of each, for the rest was covered by the enchantment to keep them hidden from monsters beyond the walls.

"Middle of the northern wall," Sherron replied. "Right between Runespires and Windkeep."

"Uhuh…" he mused, too absorbed in the scenery. Even if there was barely anything different, just knowing how far he was from any population center made the experience quite surreal. "What's next?"

"Waiting."

"For?"

"Drakys and Isabella, and maybe Mel."

"I… see. Where are they right now?" Lev questioned and summoned a chair for himself. Might as well get comfortable before they arrive.

Sherron followed his example and sat down in her own chair. "They are doing rounds near the wall for now and keeping an eye on any alerts. It shouldn't take longer than sundown for them to return."

"Anything I should be doing in the meantime?" he asked, just in case.

"Look at the new runes."

That was already the plan, so he called forth the new runes in his mind. Stealth runes were rare and valuable, and he had been given a compatible pair for free.

Predator's Guise.

Vanishing Presence.

Predator's guise was a strong invisibility rune, whereas the Vanishing Presence rune merely concealed his mana and aura better. While the functions were effectively the same as his current formations, the new runes were much more potent overall and operated on higher quantities of mana.

Lev knew how to make the best use of their high quality. Standing up, he summoned his armor. It was still devoid of all his usual enchantments, a perfect blank slate to build up on.

First things first, he carved the new stealth runes on his back, between his shoulders. The process took a few minutes because of their size and complexity, at which point he erased them and started over again, keeping in mind the previous inefficiencies.

Advanced Barrier Carving's second rank kept him informed about any mistakes. The more he repeated the exercise, the more his speed rose, and new flaws were pointed out each time. That was fine. He had the time to spare.

After half an hour, he felt satisfied with the iteration. The effects of both runes were spread to the whole armor with the help of connector runes, but he held off from anything else. Instead, his usual plating formed over the armor, bulkier and larger than average. Lev had already learned that brute force was more useful than a little flexibility in most situations, at least when his absurd mana expenditure was concerned.

To that end, his armor was suddenly a fifth larger than before. Be it the helmet, the chest, the legs, or the back, everything was covered in another dense defensive layer, attached with the help of adhesive runes.

Only after moving around for a bit and confirming that there were no movement impairments from the additions did he start enchanting again. On his back, next to the stealth runes, Flameforged Constitution slowly took shape. The rune was massive, almost larger than both of the stealth runes combined.

By now, it was obvious that imbuing blue fire was severely stressful for his armor. The rune was served to ease the burden by increasing receptivity to fire and flames in general, and to some extent, the same also helped with lightning's passive effects.

Once those three runes were done, he finalized the first 'layer' of enchantments. The formations were designed to affect the base material and shape of his armor, showing no signs of incompatibility from initial uses.

With a nod, he moved on to the next one. Enhancement formation was the sole formation in that layer, and carving that didn't take long. Unlike the previous times, he ensured that the runes were spread throughout his armor and away from the platings, leaving openings for the second and third layer to be joined together.

The final layer consisted of all of his kinetic absorption enchantments. Each plating was enchanted with Fortress of Resilience and Porous Constitution, both of the runes requiring an incredibly intricate formation.

His mind barely even registered the passage of time as he stood in place. Sherron vacated her seat to go meet someone else after the first hour, leaving him to his devices.

It took nearly three hours of tinkering until he finalized the enchantments. Channeling a large amount of mana, he first overloaded the armor itself, increasing its receptivity to enchantments.

After that, a puff of mana established a connection to the first layer. Flameforged Constitution was powered up next, further increasing the receptiveness. Holding off from using the stealth runes, he instead formed a connection with the second layer next.

Enhancement formation worked exactly as advertised, and it was the final layer that was worrying. Taking a deep breath, he channeled a bit of mana into each plate individually. Their enchantments were slowly roused, stressing the structure of the overloaded barriers precariously.

Thankfully, the external defenses held. Stabilized, the durability and absorption formations were seamlessly integrated with the enhancement formation's durability portion. Lev didn't bother with converting the absorbed mana into a different type. Pure mana was required for enhancing the armor's toughness, and that was what mattered the most. He had enough lightning and fire mana to spare.

Alright, he breathed out, seeing no clashes or faults in the dense web of runes. Moment of truth.

While his armor was overloaded and affected by flameforged constitution, he slowly powered up the enhancement formation. The process went without a hitch, so he manually increased the durability of his plating, too.

Already, the combined draw was considerably higher than his regeneration alone, which made him leery. Leaning into his Perception for all it was worth, he channeled mana into the Vanishing Presence formation.

His mana was slowly transformed into a concealment effect, and it was gratifying to see it absorb all of his enchantments without a hiccup. Relieved, he powered up the Predator's Guise formation, finding it working without a problem as well.

Wooh, he exhaled and sat back down, his mind protesting from such a long period of intense focus. Kind of surprising that everything came together like that. Drakys really didn't skim when giving me the runes.

As he felt his mana slowly dwindle to keep his armor powered to the maximum, Lev looked around. Sherron and Drakys were present in one of the distant tents, theirs larger than the rest. More people had arrived at some point, so he decided to go greet them and take stock of the situation.

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