Lev darted through the slim trees, never letting the stone hounds out of sight. A whole herd was hot on his tail, growling and howling as their earth bullets and crude spikes were easily blocked by multiple shields. The dim lighting in the middle of the night was of no consequence to his Perception.

He wasn't in a hurry to kill them either. The main objective of the current exercise was to practice his aim on distant and moving targets. Sherron hovered somewhere far above, which was the only reason he was flying around so casually in the dreadwoods.

Eyes squinted, it took considerable effort to keep them all in his vision, but the focus remained on the two furthest away from the rest of the monsters. Lev slowly brought up Galeshots, one in each hand, and took aim. Actual barrier grips were present underneath their barrels, each several inches in height and as thick as two of his fingers.

Mentally grabbing them to negate the recoil, Lev waited until the most obstacles were present between him and the chosen hound.

Steady…

He fired. The air bullets tore out of the revolver with dual shockwaves, loudly parting the air as they passed through narrow gaps between trees and stone hounds, precisely reaching the singled out target nearly three hundred meters away.

One of the bullets was deflected by a stray stone spike that formed at the last moment, but the other landed just below the hound's ear, blowing up its head in a spray of gore and brain bits.

[

You have slain [Stone hound - Level 220]

]

Without breaking his stride, Lev continued to backtrack with his overwhelming speed advantage. None of the hounds even noticed the difference in might between them and continued to mindlessly pursue him.

One by one, by his design, the most isolated of the monsters fell to shots that seemingly weaved between trees, accurately finding their targets despite the obstacles.

Ten minutes later, all of the monsters were dead, with their corpses scattered around. He debated harvesting their cores, but that seemed like a waste. A single second-threshold monster's core would be worth much more anyway.

"It's time," Sherron said once Lev reached her. Two days had passed quickly in their practice. He was now vastly more proficient in handling the dual revolvers, primarily because of one reason.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his Arcane Archery skill was learning to accept the bullets as compatible projectiles. It was still far from the full effect, but now he knew what he needed to do to evolve the general skill. That had truly taken a long time to figure out.

"Let's go," Lev stretched and yawned, his body reminding him that it had been several days since he last slept. "Time to attend a meeting solely with Exalted folks. Lovely."

"You say that like you're meeting them for the first time," Sherron said and summoned herself a comfortable chair when Lev's bubble formed around them.

"Might as well be true for one of them," he muttered.

"Jimmy doesn't bite."

Lev blinked. "Is that the crafter Exalted's actual name?"

"Yeah, but don't address him using that."

"Of course," he replied flatly. "I don't have a death wish."

They touched the ground in front of the large mansion, one that felt more menacing than anything Lev had ever stepped foot in. Three Exalted auras were present inside, two of which belonged to Drakys and Hakim.

Taking a few deep breaths while walking slowly, Lev centered himself before entering the hall. It was a massive place devoid of almost all furniture. The waiting company was seated around the single large table in the room.

Lev bowed at the waist, unwilling to not go through the custom with so many of humanity's strongest in the same room as him. "I greet the Exalted."

He didn't straighten until Hakim waved him to take a seat. Doing so, Lev scanned the present company's reaction. All of them were slightly more serious than usual, though that didn't seem to be because of the crafter Exalted, who happened to be the most relaxed of them all.

"We're short on time," Hakim took the lead. "Already, the matter of your weapon has delayed us by a day. Make it quick."

Lev nodded and summoned the core on the table. Five pairs of eyes tracked as it rolled forward slightly before coming to a stop.

"Quite lucky," the crafter commented. "In terms of strength, the core isn't anything special compared to the best ones we have. How it got the regenerative property, I can't tell."

Lev stayed quiet as the man continued. "As the description says, forging a low-superior or mid-superior item will be difficult but manageable, but anything beyond that might as well be impossible. Tell me, what do you plan to do with this core?"

"Rebuild Stargazer."

"Are you sure?" the crafter peered into his eyes intently.

Lev didn't miss a beat. "Absolutely."

"Good," the Exalted nodded once. "What do you have in mind?"

Taking a deep breath, Lev hyped himself up and explained his ideas and the thought process behind them. "From what I've heard, a superior weapon will immediately be the strongest addition to my arsenal. That sounds pretty amazing but, um, I don't quite want that."

Sherron turned to him, a mix of approval and exasperation present in her eyes. Lev continued. "My glaive had no active enchantments except sharpness, which was necessary. I want the new version to follow the same trend by having enchantments similar to arcane focus, while not neglecting the core enchantments such as sharpness, durability, weight manipulation, etc.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Instead, if possible, I want it to have a direct enhancement for barrier manipulation, and a structure in which I can insert my own barriers to control it with the highest effectiveness."

"What about the blade?" the crafter asked, not batting an eye at the requirements.

"Also formed by my barriers. They now have bonuses to sharpness."

Silence reigned in the hall as Jimmy tapped his fingers on the table, lost in thought. Everything depended on his words and approval.

"The weapon will grow with your skills and familiarity, but will also remain a sizable boost on acquisition. Applaudable, if it wasn't for a glaring issue."

"Leveling?" Lev hazarded a guess.

"Correct," the crafter nodded. "No matter how much you shore up your weaknesses and hone your strengths, every level in the third gap will take years to bridge. Finding ways to reliably kill third-threshold monsters should take precedence, even with items."

Lev nodded along. It would've made sense if the crafter wasn't talking to him of all people. He spoke before Sherron could.

"I gave it a lot of thought too, of course. Out of thousands of Masters, no new Exalted has appeared in the past four centuries. It is no mystery just how daunting the task of evolving is. Except, I don't need external tools to kill third-threshold monsters. My class is more than enough for that."

"Show me," the Exalted demanded, and it was exactly what Lev was waiting for. With a deep inhale, he let his aura and mana loose in a wild torrent, blanketing the entire room with a suffocating presence. It proudly announced his nearly bottomless reserves of mana, as well as the raw destructive potential of his class.

"A Manawell?" the crafter tilted his head. "No wonder you wasted so much mana in the tournament recordings. Be as it may, do you honestly believe that a Wisdom Boost will be sufficient?"

"Yes?" Lev replied, confused. He pulled back his aura. "That core came from a third-threshold monster that I killed as an Adept. Is that not proof enough?"

The moment the words left his mouth, he knew he might've made a mistake. The Exalted might've been kept in the dark, but it was too late to worry about that now.

"I see," the crafter replied, more contemplative now. "A Manawell, an impressive class, and the desire to go beyond Exalted. Without a doubt, you're qualified to hold a superior weapon even as a new Master. However," he waved to the silent Exalted observing their conversation without interfering, "these people tell me that you're also preparing to be a crafter. What are your immediate plans on that front?"

"That's a broad question," Lev remarked respectfully before going quiet for a few seconds to think things over. "The priority is evolving my general skills, which involve Barrier Carving, Advanced Mana Manipulation, and Mana Perception. After that, I will look for both inspirations and new materials while theorizing the items I want to craft. I didn't focus on any crafting before evolving, so this is all pretty new to me."

"Have you created anything so far?"

Lev nodded and summoned Galeshot before handing it to him.

"That's an interesting shape," the crafter commented, taking in the extent of its capabilities in a single glance. "Any particular reason behind choosing it?"

"Not really. It could slot in the core and just felt right overall."

"Lengthen the barrel and make the bullets larger," he advised without powering up the enchantments even once. The Exalted just knew their end result from merely looking at them. "There's a lot of untapped potential that you can utilize without worsening the load time."

"… Thank you. I will look into it."

Since the matter of the core was over, Hakim interjected. "Do you have anything to report before we leave, boy? Anything unexpected or odd?"

"Nothing like that so far. I will leave for Timberhold in a few hours to escort a friend and stay there for a month or two. The crystal will always be on my person… so that's about it, I guess."

"With Harun?" the crafter questioned.

"Who's that?" Lev asked back, confused.

"Trailblazer," Sherron supplied.

"Ah. Yeah, with him if he will have me."

"There's no way he won't," Drakys spoke for the first time with a light snort. "He's like a clean freak, except for auras. Your untamed presence will stick out like a sore thumb to him. Even if you don't want to go see him, he will drag you to the pond the moment his eyes land on you to get it under control."

"Don't let this opportunity go," the crafter advised. "Keeping your aura contained will help you in more ways than you can count. Already, a single burst of emotion will render Classer workers unconscious around you. Remedy that as quickly as possible."

Lev was aghast. He had no idea it was that bad. Actively doing it was one thing, but affecting people to that degree without meaning to was unacceptable.

"I will," he dipped his head, genuinely grateful.

****

Half an hour later, Lev was still seated on that table. The Exalted company had left, though not before he teased out a long hug from Sherron by keeping her back for another minute.

Next up… is just escorting Beatrice and keeping an eye on the alert crystal. Drakys isn't wrong in saying that I can deal with most everything that other new Master teams can't.

Beyond that, I'm gonna keep practicing the driving formations and work on the next step of the enhancement formation. Those two will likely take a lot of time to bring up to an acceptable level of familiarity for willpower to take over.

Surprisingly, his upcoming schedule was looking quite lax. There was nothing that needed his immediate attention, and his hands were also tied in how much he could explore freely.

In a few months, or a year at most, he was going to see his team. He didn't want to be late to their first meetup, as that would be simply disastrous. In the same vein, he didn't want to start any projects that would interfere with the ensuing team combat exercises and other similar things. Getting to know them and becoming comfortable was going to take a lot of time.

Guess I'll start working on the bubble formations sooner rather than later, Lev decided and left the mansion. The bubble covered him immediately before it was concealed, dropping him off at the gates. Jumping over the walls was bound to attract trouble, something he could do without.

No one tried to stop him, especially because he was no longer using the blocking stone. It took a single Identify to see that he was a Master. Entering and leaving the city was no longer something that needed to be recorded by guards.

Two moons still dotted the sky, several hours away from setting. Lev put all that time to good use by reforming the bubble around him. Invisibility and mana concealment were carved first, cloaking any hints of his presence as he ascended much higher than the wall to keep an eye out.

He took another good look at the two formations again after that. Sherron had mentioned that they used kinetic energy, and Lev needed to understand its functions to use it well. As was always the case with runes, if they were powered without the intention of utilizing their function, they didn't work. Similarly, if one didn't know what a rune was responsible for, it was nearly impossible to power them.

Basic runes, ones that didn't use willpower, weren't bound that tightly, but even they saw a massive loss in efficiency when powered by someone ignorant.

No choice but to dive deeper into it, I suppose.

Cracking his knuckles, Lev got to work. He started by copying the formations on the bubble while reading the rune descriptions in the collection notebook. Minutes passed as he erased the carved runes to redo them, and those turned into hours as his practice continued.

By the time the suns were rising, he could confidently say that he could use the formations reliably now. The matter of actually practicing them remained, but that was going to be the easier of the two tasks.

Dismissing the bubble, he landed behind his friend, who had detected him immediately.

"Did you have to wait long?" She asked after moving away from the Classer and Adept workers transferring to timberhold.

"Nah," Lev casually replied. "I was out for most of the night."

She blinked. "Why?"

"Just practicing enchanting," Lev shrugged. "How long till we move? I'm quite tired."

"Sleeping on the first day? You sure know how to form a favorable impression."

"I'm accompanying them for free," Lev drawled, rolling his eyes. "If anyone has a problem, they're free to bring it up to me."

"Yes, yes, O' great Master. I'll make sure to regale your exploits to the ignorant masses."

He turned up his nose. "You better do, peasant."

"Peasant?" she echoed. "The hell's a peasant doing in your majestic gathering?"

"Such inconsequential matters are beneath me," Lev announced grandly and flew back up into the sky, leaving Beatrice shaking her head.

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