The first two patrol routes went smoothly, not requiring any more effort than simple afterthoughts. Lev killed monsters while Beatrice both kept watch and his mana pool topped up.
Orcs, trolls, damned harpies, bears, wolves, a few random treants, and more types of enemies came across the stray barrier mage. None of them survived.
Unfortunately for the duo, the third route made them both pause. A yawning chasm in the ground marked the start of an uneven ravine, the only part of their routes that required a full master team.
Lev pursed his lips, staring at the end of the ravine. It was only a few kilometers long, and on the other side was a wide tunnel, a meat grinder, using smaller tunnels in obvious, easy-to-deal-with locations.
By baiting out monsters through the smaller tunnels present inside the bigger, main tunnel, Master level teams could grind out a decent bunch of levels with repeated patrols.
His mind, however, was stuck replaying their recent time spent underground. The initial escape from the champion ant, the mind monster, running from the Stormfury, then the claustrophobic experience of flying in a straight line for hours upon hours to reach the fort.
Leaning back on his seat, Lev sighed and considered his mental state.
The last thing I want is to panic and bury ourselves, he thought to himself, scanning the small ravine. There’s also a surprising number of monsters for a regularly patrolled place. Why is that?
“Ready?” Lev asked the aura mage, just in case.
“As ready as I can be,” she answered tiredly. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m just being moody.”
Lev merely nodded. He didn’t need to remind her that returning to the fort or even the Haven was always an option for her. No one would bat an eye, and he would make sure that she reached her destination safely.
Preparing himself for constant battle, he lowered the bubble and powered up the planned constructs. Willpower infused his armor, specifically the runes, and just stayed there.
Kinetic Energy was an elusive force. It existed due to motion, in harmony with motion, and to empower motion. Consequently, it wasn’t even remotely similar to mana when it came to most applications. Hell, Lev still had to actually use the force manually and without the help of runes.
The solution to that was simple in theory. With Augmented Carving’s heightened clarity for runes, he just had to observe how kinetic energy actually worked beyond just “feeling” it.
Preparations were in order. All absorption formations on his armor were modified, and the Controlled Enhancement formation was also primed to accept kinetic energy. With his planning over the past month, it was only a matter of time, which also passed quickly with the upgraded skill aiding him.
At the end, however, he paused. Lev had always known that the runes Drakys had given him were top-notch, and while the noted formations didn’t feel numerous now, they still outperformed every other formation at his disposal.
It was only now that he realized just by how much. With the casual addition of kinetic handling to the secondary Controlled Enhancement Formation, which was more focused on elemental buffs, a new passive enchantment was almost in his grasp. That usually happened within strong Epic items, so for it to be possible in his armor with just a minor addition spoke volumes about the quality of the runes.
Rest depended on his testing, so moving the bubble a bit further above the ravine, he jumped out, wordlessly buffed by Beatrice.
Any attempts at absorbing his own kinetic energy failed as usual. Like a meteor, he accelerated instead, impacting a poor mole’s forehead when it made the mistake of looking up.
[
Your Group has slain [Terrashaper - Level 332]
]
A nearby rattlesnake, except twenty times the usual size, immediately tried to bite him. Fangs dripping with venom sped past, dodged in the nick of time. Lev’s eyes were on the rattling tail, one that became increasingly brighter to his senses while vibrating rapidly.
Right before it exploded into motion, Arcane Intuition picked up on the intent behind the move. It was faint, barely present, but it was there. A new sense of danger brushed his mind, warning him of the attack directed towards him.
The usefulness of that was questionable. Against a monster trying to eat him whole, the tail wasn’t going to be used for anything else, but the low level of the skill could be blamed for now.
Instead of evading, Lev let the attack hit him head-on. He shot backwards like a cannonball, marveling at the large amount of kinetic energy absorbed from that hit. Even better, a unique combination of vibrating mana-based skills tried to disrupt his armor, failing to even cause a ripple.
Lightning surged into his armor and glaive, arresting his momentum and boosting his speed. Kinetic energy followed that movement as Lev stepped on a barrier platform, stopping himself completely and lunging towards the snake rapidly approaching to bite him.
A bladed chain swooped down and wrapped around the huge maw. Scales were cut asunder when the chains squeezed, snapping the maw shut.
For a split second, the snake was immobilized, taken by surprise. Lev accelerated, imbuing every single bit of lightning. Fire followed, rushing into his limbs for one explosive movement and augmented by kinetic energy.
The result was glorious. Quite literally faster than he could track, Stargazer’s giant blade bisected the monster’s head, not even needing any other skills.
[
Your Group has slain [Rattle Striker - Level 390]
Dance of the Elements has reached 2nd Level 4
]
And there’s the low-hanging fruit, he smiled to himself. Ever since he had achieved the first step of Spiritual Harmony, some of his skills had leveled faster. Dance of the Elements was also heavily reliant on his manipulation, and as such, the level-up didn’t require much beyond his improved control.
Though that was still quite something. For once, a body enhancement seems necessary to keep up with rapidly shifting elemental imbuements, if Kinetic Energy even counts as that.
Many more monsters were rushing him. Lev spent a second observing what the monsters were fighting over, pleasantly surprised.
[
Lesser Mana Crystal - Common
]
For a brief moment, he sent his senses outwards, noting the rising ambient mana density. It was negligible at the edge of the ravine, steadily increasing further in. Inside his manipulation range, he could also see how the mana clung to the crystals, seeping into them at a rate too slow for his Perception to track.
Shieldwalls dropped in front of him, digging a few feet into the ground to anchor themselves. A large tongue slapped the first, almost cracking it to the point of disabling the enchantments.
Kinetic Energy was absorbed once again, except without any motion to empower, it just fizzled out. Lev’s brows furrowed, more of his willpower streaming into the constructs to observe the process.
Wind blades from eagle monsters, huge tongues from toads, another rattlesnake, and a porcupine all attacked his shieldwalls.
With their enchantments, kinetic energy was siphoned in droves, but no matter how much he tried, the elusive energy escaped his senses. He could feel it imbued in his barrier constructs, nothing more.
When the first shieldwall fell, he deployed his traps. Flying backwards, he waited for the monsters to make their moves. The toad’s tongue extended in a blink, almost reaching him dozens of meters away. It collided with a lightning orb that exploded on impact.
Before it could pull back the stunned tongue, a Monster Cutter blade severed the appendage.
Invisible chains wrapped around the rattlesnake that almost escaped the constructs. Before it could, the monstrous porcupine made its move.
Quills the size of Lev’s arms and as wide as his fingers flew at him. Each was positively dripping with mana, telling him in no uncertain terms just how sharp they were.
Blasting them with a wave of lightning, he ducked under a barrage of wind blades. Atop his bubble, two cannons fired towards the eagles, downing five in the direct hits and subsequent explosions.
The toad monster’s damaged tongue, coated in blood and grime, shot towards his head. Shifting slightly, he let it impact his chest and strained his Perception to observe the result.
Runes worked in an instant, affected by the things on his status. Slight damage to his armor, accompanied by a large chunk of kinetic energy, empowered the armor skill.
This time, though, he finally noticed more. During battle, when his senses were at their finest, a small trickle of the absorbed energy escaped the formation’s control. No matter the quality of the runes, there was too much of it to handle in one instant.
That finally let him see what kinetic energy was… and it was literally just mana. Not exactly the same as the pure mana inside his pool, yet not very different either.
Too surprised to react in time, he instead let a dozen orbs materialize. Two under the toad, blowing half its body to bits. One in the yawning mouth of the rattlesnake about to shoot streams of venom, four surrounding the durable porcupine, and the remaining five for the other monsters.
Under the rain of blood and gore blocked by a barrier roof, he focused on that sensation. A mana type that was so similar to pure mana. That explained why he had missed it so far.
The cue was in the workings of the formation. Kinetic Energy was imbued the moment it was absorbed, and not infused to be stored in the armor. It readily augmented the armor’s movements instead, at a speed faster than even his Perception.
Similarly, the mana type was clearly higher than expected. Lev was under the impression that it was another base type like lightning or fire, except it performed well beyond those, also telling him just how rare it possibly was.
He was somehow affecting it through runes alone. Something told him that shouldn’t have been possible, not without a lot of preparation.
While scanning his surroundings, he checked the notifications.
[
Your Group has slain [Ravine Toad - Level 387]
Your Group has slain [Rattlestriker - Level 366]
Your Group has slain [Quillshear - Level 399]
Your Group has slain [Juvenile Soaring Eagle - Level 298]
…
]
Juvenile?
As if summoned by his thoughts, the mama bird shot a wind blade at him. Very much unlike the usual wind blades, this one came from far beyond his Perception’s ability to track, reaching him in an instant.
Even more worryingly, the crescent attack was eerily silent. Not a single mote of air was disturbed in its passing.
Lev defended with a shieldwall, and some fear finally got a grip on him when the construct was cut in twain. A strong bird-like monster was trying to kill him, much like the Stormfury not that long ago.
He almost retreated to his bubble to go all-out when a pulse of mana from Beatrice demanded his attention. Looking above him, his eye met an Exalted’s.
Drakys casually sat in the driver’s seat, seemingly amused that Beatrice had revealed his location. The source of his entertainment wasn’t hard to guess. Even through her impressive control, some of Beatrice’s aura was slipping out, feeling distinctly constipated from being so near one of humanity’s strongest.
That alone was enough to break the nascent vice of fear, eliciting a grin matching the Exalted. All of the windblades were aimed directly at Lev, so he powered up his strongest skill. Stargazer’s blade vibrated from a large infusion of blue flames, struggling to hold it all in place.
Dumping mana into her enchantments, he waited. The kilometers between him and the monster afforded him a single second of charging, and it showed in the resulting Fracturing Wave.
Bright blue and incredibly hot, the mana slash roared out of Stargazer. Despite not being formed of lightning, it moved incredibly quickly, twisting air and setting it alight.
Windblades were consumed in droves. They tried and failed to douse the flames. The skill didn’t as much as waver at the edges.
Lev’s temporary triumph lasted all of a blink when a whole eagle tore its way through the Fracturing Wave. Terror didn’t even get the time to form before a giant beak was bearing down on him.
Time slowed to a crawl, and a glance at his bubble showed that Drakys, while now floating outside, had no intention to help.
Forcing down the panic, he allowed himself a moment to observe the enemy. Wind mana coated its entire being, displaying a body enhancement so potent that it rendered all thoughts of running away moot.
Its eyes were trained on his own, missing not a single hint of movement. Identify also went off, confirming what was already obvious.
[Elder Soaring Eagle - ????]
If his senses were anything to go by, it was well beyond his ability to handle. The monster’s sheer speed outran the exploding slash behind it, coming out completely unscathed.
Torrents of lightning and flames rushed out of Stargazer’s converters. The blue element imbued his armor as he yanked himself downwards, out of the eagle’s trajectory.
Except, it easily dove downwards, completely ignoring usual physics. Lev’s brows rose to his forehead, forcing him to teleport mana into the cannons atop the bubble.
Twin compressed beams were released at once. In that slowed moment, he could see in disturbing clarity how the eagle twisted sharply, one beam passing inches from his head, and the other missing it entirely.
Just as his Perception returned to normal, Lev fired a blue fireball from his left arm and a lightning bolt from the right. Both were aimed to give it as little room to dodge as possible, but the monster simply batted them aside with its grossly empowered wings.
Then began the true limit testing of his class.