Someone knocked at the door, rousing Lev from his brief nap. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he got up and opened it. Beatrice stood there empty-handed, observing his messed up hair with amusement.

"You should get a haircut," she said.

Lev lazily made a noise of agreement and stepped aside. While she made herself comfortable, he washed his face and fixed his hair in the restroom.

"Did everything go well on your end?" he asked after he was done. Beatrice was sitting on a wooden chair, so Lev made himself comfortable on the bed.

"Yep," she replied, more casual than ever. It seemed that getting out of there had taken a burden off her shoulders. "Noah knew there was no reliable way for me to advance quickly, and getting to Master would've taken decades. I am already very high-level for an aura mage."

"Hmm, one would think that they would prioritize someone so useful."

"They do," she snorted. "If you have the background or money."

Lev chuckled at that. Even if he had found great company in this life, his past was something he would never forget. Her words were relatable.

"Are you going to stay in this inn?" Lev asked and summoned some light snacks. Beatrice's gaze instantly locked onto them. "We still have today and tomorrow before the earliest escort quest to Windkeep."

"Yes," she replied, smiling when Lev threw the bag of fries at her. "Next room."

Lev nodded and summoned another bag for himself. He was going to enjoy the final bit of free time by lazing around before they were on their own again, far away from the safety of the walls.

****

Seven of them.

They weren't hard to count. Lev leaned against a tree just outside the gates of Runespires, taking in the people they were supposed to escort. Two families were relocating to Windkeep, where their relatives were already hunters, making a name for themselves. Or so those families said.

The problem was, Lev had never been directly responsible for the safety of kids before. Both classless and defenseless, even the smallest of mistakes would prove the last for them, and that worried him. A lot.

To an outsider, he was probably just waiting away from the caravan for everyone to arrive, but Beatrice could clearly see his hair standing on end. She had recently been a victim of his unfortunate presence, and now children were traveling with him.

Huge wings covered in black feathers kept resurfacing in his mind. It was a weak monster, as far as third-threshold ones went, but that wouldn't have saved Lev. It almost cost the aura mage next to him her life.

Now, not that long after, he was escorting children and humble non-combatants on a journey that was going to take months. Months of time where anything could go wrong at any moment, and he was going to be the one responsible. It didn't help that the routes were mapped and monsters were cleared regularly by patrolling Masters; Lev attracted bad luck all the same.

"Hey, you okay?" Beatrice put a hand on his shoulder, concern evident. "You're pale."

Lev took a deep breath. "Who else is joining us?"

"A silver team and a group of researchers."

"Any scouts?"

She nodded. "The researchers have skills that can detect life, and the silver team also has an identifier."

An identifier… Lev jogged his memory, recalling all he knew about that class. It focused on Perception, more so than any other. The entire job of the class was to empower all the senses to the maximum, letting the user identify all resources in as much detail as they could.

Consequently, they were probably pretty good at scanning their surroundings with the improved eyesight. Lev just had to convince them to do so as often as they could.

"That's good," he breathed out. "Make sure to keep an eye out at all times."

Beatrice grimaced. "That bad?"

"No," Lev shook his head a little. "Just tense. Never had to escort kids before."

She nodded slowly, able to sympathize. "I'll do my best."

Half an hour later, everyone had arrived and the carts were prepared to move. Lev and Beatrice joined them after that.

"Thank you for joining us today," a man that looked to be in his mid-thirties held out his hand for Lev to shake. "Usually, gold or platinum hunters don't take jobs with such a low reward."

The reward was fifty silver, fairly low for an escort quest. Fortunately for them, Lev couldn't have cared less about money.

He shook the proffered hand. "It didn't sit right with me to send you all off with just silver teams. Besides, I happened to have the same destination in mind."

The man nodded along, all smiles. "Come on, then. Let me introduce everyone."

Lev was dragged along to meet all the kids and the other family. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they were closely related, and he now had many new names and faces to remember for the duration of the trip.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He briefly introduced himself and Beatrice to the silver team. They wanted to keep their distance, which suited Lev just fine. He only repeatedly told them to always keep an eye out. Using warnings about remnant monsters from the storm turned out to be a good way to spook the identifier into doing so, but it also revealed another reason for Lev himself to worry. He had no idea if those existed.

Beatrice, who had skipped all the talking, was sitting at the edge of the cart, legs dangling and a smile on her face.

"You seem beat," she grinned. "Too many people?"

"Why don't you go see for yourself?" Lev rolled his eyes. Beatrice was even less of a social person than him.

"Absolutely not."

"Thought so," he commented and boarded the huge and spacious cart. The two of them were given one whole, which left far too much unutilized space. Beatrice also hopped inside and laid claim to one of the corners. Lev sat at the furthest one from hers.

"Well," Lev made himself comfortable. "Time to wait again?"

Beatrice shuffled closer to the front of the cart, whereas Lev moved closer to the back.

"Yep," she replied, already scanning the road for any potential surprises. "Love me some traveling."

If only Lev could relate. His travels usually ended up being disastrous.

****

The first few days predictably passed in peace. No monsters spawned so close to the city, and any that did were swiftly taken out by constant patrols.

"Trolls," Beatrice warned him. Lev merely nodded, having seen them a while ago.

He instead kept up tracing the runes of the advanced enhancement formation on his barriers. Level 225 was where Drakys had advised Lev to start using it, but he was going to do so sooner. Powering and controlling his current formation had taught him a lot, and he also suspected that the Reinforced Mind title was doing far more than anyone expected. It wouldn't hurt to try to see if he could manage utilizing the advanced formation or not.

"Alright," he spoke after finishing cycling through every single rune. "How far are they?"

"Still a few kilometers away."

Good enough.

Barrier armor covered him in a blink before he flew out. Out in the distance, a troll commander was approaching them at speeds outstripping the horses. Lev welcomed it with five overloaded lances.

Half a minute later, the horde was mere splatterings and ashes. He caught up to the cart with a bit of effort and flew inside. The horse was level 89, and pretty fast because of that. Companies often rented such animals and a driver to oversee the travels. The driver was in the first cart.

"Did you have to waste that much mana?" Beatrice asked, more curious than anything.

Lev checked his pool, finding it above 90%. "Hmm, not really. I just happen to have an aura mage sharing a cart with me."

She rolled her eyes and practically threw her buff at him.

****

An aura of bloodlust suddenly spiked in intensity, to a degree that even Lev felt it from nearly a dozen kilometers away. He stored the collection of runes with a sigh and flew out of the cart in his armor.

I remember this, Lev looked at the tiny dots far into the distance. Each was a monster strong enough to challenge a silver team, but they all paled in comparison to the general leading them.

Times, however, had changed, and far too much.

Beatrice peeked out of the cart, looking at him for confirmation of what she was feeling.

"Don't worry," Lev grinned at her. "You have never seen what my class is truly capable of, have you?"

She slowly shook her head, wondering if she actually knew the answer. Seeing his confidence, she decided she didn't. Lev laughed at the reaction and flew to the carts ahead of theirs.

"Hey," Lev called out to one of the dads in the cart with the kids. "Can you put up a cover or something? Don't think these guys should be seeing this."

Instead of cowering or showing any signs of fear, the man got up with a resolute expression.

"Do you need help, hunter?"

The power of a father, Lev mused in his head, his respect for the man rising a few notches.

"Nothing of the sort," he reassured the worker. "I just think it will be quite destructive. My class is focused on being showy."

"Oh," the dad scratched his head. "Is it really an issue?"

Lev did a double-take. Most of the kids were close to awakening a class, and the youngest of them was seven. If anything, some of them were the same age as him. They were practically begging him to let them see with their eyes, though none of them spoke to the scary hunter who looked suspiciously young.

"Well… If you don't think it is, then I don't mind if you watch. It will be really bright though."

The children were vibrating at that point. Seeing their suppressed reaction, the man just gave him a shrug. "It will be fine. My wife can heal if needs be."

Lev simply nodded at him and informed the rest of the carts. Due to his title, or at least he believed it was the cause, his sensitivity to auras was far higher than anyone present. Everyone else except Beatrice had yet to take notice of the general approaching them. Aura mages were sensitive to their specialty, after all.

Okay then, he ascended at full speed, unable to hold back an excited grin. Let me prove a point once again.

Like all previous nuclear attacks, a long, thick, durable, and oddly beautiful lance took form next to him. Lightning and fire mana leisurely infused it, for the general was still over five minutes of sprinting away.

A tenth of his mana was channeled in a full minute, which necessitated healing to counter the mana poisoning spreading in his body. When everyone had noticed a dreadful aura approaching them a few kilometers away, Lev loosed an attack holding a fourth of his vast pool.

Light was oddly bent in the passing of the extremely bright lance, the sheer amount of mana in it distorting it slightly. It descended like a comet, making all the monsters pause in shock and fear. Nobody in the caravan was supposed to be higher leveled than the general, yet death reached them in the blink of an eye.

The projectile landed directly on top of the terrified general, reducing it to particles before a reaction could come through. Fire rushed out of the broken lance like a tsunami, immediately creating a blast dozens of meters wide and sending a huge shockwave bellowing outwards. Lightning followed, turning the already calamitous explosion into something far more lethal.

Oh boy, Lev immediately descended and formed large barrier walls in front of every cart's opening, blocking the drastically weakened shockwave due to the distance. Regardless, everyone had huddled together because of the wave of dust that went around his walls.

Once the side-effect of his attack passed, he quickly made his way to the cart with the kids. They were utterly gobsmacked, staring at him with wide-eyes that were blessedly devoid of fear.

"Everyone alright?" Lev called out, eyes peeled for any signs of injury.

The dad dumbly nodded his head, "Yeah…"

Lev nodded back and made rounds to all the remaining carts. Nobody was injured or even feeling uncomfortable. The reaction was largely the same, which meant he got simple nods in return. It also hurt to see the silver team be genuinely afraid of him, but that reaction wasn't unexpected. They were still new to being hunters, and displays like the one Lev had just shown were beyond extraordinary for them.

After confirming the safety of the people he was escorting, he landed in his own cart. Beatrice remained quiet, staring at him as he dismissed his armor and leaned back into the cushioned cart.

"What?" Lev asked with a smug grin.

She continued staring for a bit, then silently buffed his mana regeneration.

"Can I rephrase some of my request?" she eventually questioned.

Lev tilted his head a little. "In what way?"

"Instead of Master, how about Exa-"

"No."

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