Lev woke up ready to tackle some formations. The sleeping session was enough to keep him fresh for the next few days. He still couldn't get over how little sleep he needed, something that was going to be reduced even further as he put more points into Constitution.

"That was pretty quick," Beatrice's voice reached him. They were both in the same cart, one he had chosen for her to wake him up immediately if something went wrong.

"I'm a Master now," Lev lazily replied and yawned. Stretching the lethargy out of his limbs, he recreated and enchanted the bubble outside the moving cart. "How long has it been?"

"Like… three hours?"

"Did anything come up?"

"Nope," she casually replied. "No monsters or anything so far. The gold and silver teams are also keeping an eye out."

"I see," Lev jumped out of the cart and into the waiting bubble. "Form a barrier if you need me."

He closed the entrance hole after seeing her nod and rose, going several hundred meters higher than the carts. Once he was sufficiently far away, Lev started carving.

Both the rapid acceleration and the driving formations went hand in hand, meant to be used as a pair instead of solo. To make things easier for himself however, he started with the acceleration formation.

Kinetic energy was… odd, to say the least. Whenever something was imbued with it, that thing needed to move. Unless using a very specific method of controlling that potent energy, it usually ended in a disaster.

That was the main reason why the formation was so incredibly complex. Every little bit of his bubble was scanned, analyzed, and empowered methodically, and even then, the result was messy. He was going to need a lot of safe room to practice accelerating his bubble without ramming into walls or people, which he solved by doing it above ground.

The carving itself didn't take that long. Be it his skill improving the overall speed or the practice from last night, the whole process was done in less than three minutes. Sending a small amount of pure mana into it, the connection was safely established, signifying it as ready to go.

Lev was in no hurry to use it. Controlling that raw Kinetic energy was a must, which was made possible by a formation centered around a Minor Kinetic Control rune. The Driving formation was similarly carved in a few minutes and was readied, completing his preparations.

For several long minutes, he just silently observed the finished product. Every rune was scanned, and Lev jogged his memory for if something was missing. When nothing stood out, he mentally prepared himself for a wild ride and sent mana into the acceleration formation.

The enchantments powered up as one, connected to a small switch that detected Kinetic Energy. It wasn't utilized immediately but instead was stored in the barrier construct, stressing its structure greatly. Lev didn't dally and took over the driving formation, directing the kinetic energy to move the bubble forward at half throttle.

Lev forgot that he wasn't a part of the bubble, only remembering so when his back slammed into its edge at extreme speed. The air was pushed out of his lungs as the construct pulled him along until the fuel ran out. Given the small amount of mana he had used, that only took a few seconds.

… Ouch, that frigging hurt, He sat up with a groan while channeling healing mana into his body. The low efficiency of the healing converter reminded him of the poor state of his skinsuit again, which was entirely missing past the elbows and below the thighs. Gonna have to see Dennis again whenever I can trade something wondrous with him. That core really was extraordinary.

It didn't take long for the aching impact to vanish, at which point he tried again while creating a large seat for himself in the middle. Forming a simple seatbelt without a buckling mechanism, he wrapped it around him by melding it with the other end of the seat.

Commencing test number two… hopefully with less embarrassing results, Lev sighed mentally before powering up the formations again. Things went much the same as last time, and the bubble shot forward far faster than anything he could manage with his mind alone.

The group of carts traversing the road was immediately left behind as the bubble accelerated to extreme speeds, only increasing even further as Lev upped the mana fueling the formations. Within seconds, the world was nothing but a blur, but a new issue rose up not long after.

Cracks spread through his bubble as the enchantments fizzled out, utterly overwhelmed by both the intensity of the formations and the amount of mana being channeled into them.

That was quite the success, Lev mused with a smile, liking the results quite a bit. His flight speed was nothing compared to the pace he had just managed, and it made him curious about how fast he could go from city to city now. By his crude estimates, flying to the haven was only going to take a few days or less.

Fixing the damage took little time before the enchantments were operational again. Controlling himself this time, Lev changed direction to instead move in circles around the intended travel route for the group on the ground, not wanting to lose them in his testing.

Let's start with… half, Lev acted upon that thought and took steadying breaths to deepen his focus. Time to see how hard it is to actually drive this thing.

Gradually accelerating, the bubble's speed reached impressive levels over the next few seconds. Feeling that it was fast enough, he proceeded with the next step and tried to veer it to the right.

Instantly, his mind felt like it was pushing a stationary boulder to the side. He had to shove the 'wall' to the right to change the bubble's direction, something he had more than enough strength for.

With the turn also came the tilt, one he was thankfully prepared for by strapping himself in. Still, riding something while being rotated was a new sensation that needed training. Getting used to it and overcoming the inevitable nausea was going to be vital in aerial battles.

Lev was also grateful that kinetic energy was focused in a singular direction. Like a car, he had to steer the bubble around. Omnidirectional movement would afford him way more freedom, no doubt, but that also sounded incredibly complex for his untrained Master mental power.

Slowing down, he took mental notes of the result and made his way back to the carts visible in the distance.

Speed is more than enough. If anything, I still couldn't get close to the actual maximum because of my lack of understanding and mana conductivity. The driving is also easy but rigid. Instead of that, I can just fly around in my armor when in danger. With lighting imbuement and enhancement running at full power, the speed might be higher than 60% of the acceleration formation's expected maximum. Can't be too sure about that, still.

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It was a good result, regardless. He now had a formation that could carry him around much quicker than anything he could manage before.

Getting closer to the carts, he lowered the bubble to the ground and addressed Beatrice.

"Hey," Lev spoke gently to not scare her.

"Hmm? What?"

"Can you form your barriers to the left or right at the edge of your range?"

" …Sure? Why?"

"Testing."

She didn't question beyond that and did as she was asked. Lev remained in his bubble and formed a small window to where her barrier hovered, nearly a hundred meters away.

Pulling out both of his best galeshots, he took aim. Due to her instructions, the square barriers were moving at the same speed as the carts, which added a minor layer of difficulty in targeting that Lev had already moved past.

Channeling mana into both the revolvers at once, he fired. Two wind bullets erupted out of the barrels with loud bangs, alerting the rest of the travelers when they impacted the barriers. It was gratifying to see them shatter the constructs in their path at the cost of their own structural integrity.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed a shocked aura mage, staring at his revolvers with wide eyes. "Can anyone use those?"

"Not exactly," Lev replied and remembered the crafter Exalted's words. He started working on the improvements immediately. "My class empowers the bullets, which is why they're so strong. Might be able to change that soon, though."

Destroying the Galeshots, he grabbed both of the slotted cores as the barriers surrounding them vanished. He started recreating them from scratch, but with a different shape this time.

From some internet videos, he remembered a gun called "Desert Eagle." The weapon was quite popular in video games, and he liked the overall look of the handcannon.

So began another round of experimenting with the shape and size of the new design. The final version he settled on was half again as big as the previous revolver, with the barrel receiving the most notable increase in proportions. It was almost as long as his arm now, requiring him to firmly grip the weapon with both hands to launch it manually.

He finished the barebones design by adding a grip for his mind to hold on to and negate the recoil. Once the physical aspect was done, he began with the magical one. Where the magazine was supposed to be inserted, he instead slotted the core and carved the enchantments. The only change in those was the bullet size, which he made much longer and significantly wider. It resembled something made to blow up tanks now, which suited the monster sizes he was going to face.

"Form them again," Lev requested and Identified the new item.

[Galecannon - Uncommon]

Sweet.

Beatrice gulped and created another square barrier close to the ground at the same distance. With a grin, Lev brought up the galecannon and took aim. His mind tightly held onto the barrier grip, knowing the recoil was going to be much higher, and fired.

The bullet exploded out of the barrel with a deafening shockwave, rattling Lev's mind with the recoil it produced. It reached the waiting construct in the same instant, leaving only shattered pieces in its wake. Continuing on regardless of the obstacle, it landed on the ground a few dozen meters behind the destroyed barrier, putting a large hole in the ground and raising a cloud of dust.

"Lev…" a timid voice asked. "Are you sure only you can use these? I can imagine a few dozen uses for these firearms already."

"Yeah," he answered, gawking at the result. "I've got two and a half skills empowering the projectiles. Trust me, it will take a fully dedicated class to reach this output."

"HEY!" one of the farmers in the caravan yelled at them. "THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO DOING BACK THERE!?"

Woops, Lev and Beatrice shared a grin before he went out of the bubble to pacify the offended person.

****

Days passed in peaceful boredom as the caravan progressed smoothly. They were attacked infrequently so close to the city, though the intensity was still increasing. Lev didn't interfere with the fights too much, but he still had several thousand enchanted arrows stacked up in his bubble to be fired at a moment's notice.

"I still think that's too many," Beatrice remarked again with a grin purely to annoy him. "Are you going to war with all of them?"

"A war against Monarch," Lev wondered out loud. "Doesn't that sound grand?"

"Grand? More like a guaranteed defeat."

Lev shrugged a shoulder. "I get points for trying, at least. Not just anyone can claim to march against Monarch itself."

"Ok but seriously." Beatrice waved to the multiple tall stacks of arrows. "Just why?"

"Look at this," he showed her the alert crystal. "This thing will tell me whenever there's an emergency nearby-"

The crystal beeped as an alert came through. Lev and Beatrice both stared at it with their mouths ajar before the former stopped holding back his Perception. His bubble's enchantments came alive as the world slowed down considerably, and Lev didn't hesitate to follow the direction that was telepathically sent to his brain.

West, he considered as the bubble accelerated. Beatrice was already sitting in a seat similar to his own and was covered by a seatbelt. Close to the dreadwoods?

Only time would tell what the actual emergency was. Ascending while speeding westwards, Lev didn't push the acceleration formation too much. Despite his high Perception, observing the ground passing below became nearly impossible at one point. Even at the current speed, Beatrice seemed to be struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Don't look," Lev advised. "I'll tell you when we get there."

She nodded and snapped them shut with a small sigh of relief. Lev made a mental note to control his speed whenever someone below Master was in the bubble with him. Not everyone could handle even the subdued pace, it seemed.

Slowly, as he got more used to the visual feedback at such velocity, the bubble accelerated slightly further. There was still no signs of monsters or humans anywhere in sight even after ten minutes, and Lev didn't want to be late wherever the signal was sent from.

The anticipation of a difficult fight was running high when he finally spotted movement far into the distance.

"We're here," he announced, causing Beatrice's eyes to shoot open. She squinted at the horizon as her shoulders tensed, before they relaxed.

"Are those…"

"Yeah," Lev replied, face impassive and tone disappointed. "Just trolls."

****

"HOW THE FUCK DID WE RUN INTO A TROLL HORDE HERE OF ALL PLACES!?" Justin roared, carrying Yara in his arms while Tariq and Sven ran alongside him. "YOU SAID IT WAS SAFE!"

"It was supposed to be safe!" Sven shouted back, pumping his arms and legs for all they were worth to somehow outrun the troll commander. "Troll hordes never show up around these parts!"

"Stop arguing and focus on surviving first. Did the crystal work?" Tariq interjected with his deep voice.

"IT DID!" Justin answered, out of breath from carrying the girl mage. "I SENT THE SIGNAL TWENTY MINUTES AGO-"

"Look out!" Yara yelled and channeled even more mana from her dangerously empty pool. Blood dripped down her nose, yet she still fired a lightning bolt at the incoming boulder, the explosive impact veering it off track.

"Shit, shit, shit we're so gonna die today," Sven mumbled under his breath and tried to run even faster. Behind them, the ugly visage of the monsters was becoming even more discernible as they neared, and so did their death.

Tariq was about to suggest a last stand when a loud thump echoed throughout the area. All of them paused, hope reigniting in their chests as backup finally arrived. Except, nobody could be seen far and wide on the flat grassland, and neither had the trolls stopped pursuing them.

"What the hell is going on?" Yara yelled in frustration.

Tariq, noticing that she was looking at the monsters with wide eyes, also looked back. Another loud noise boomed, and one of the leading trolls suddenly burst into a spray of red and toppled to the ground, dead.

"Did someone notice our alert signal?" Sven questioned, also staring back at the monsters slowly closing the gap. One more invisible shot was fired, and another troll perished. Dozens remained still.

"It seems so," Tariq answered. "However, they probably cannot take out so many at once. We need to help them."

"Help?" Justin echoed. "How do you suggest we go about helping with a hundred trolls above our level?"

"Wait," Yara said and looked to the sky. Two thumps were heard a moment later, and a pair of trolls fell this time. "I don't think we need to do anything."

"What do you mean?" Sven asked but stopped when he followed her gaze. Up there, in the middle of nowhere, were dozens of small projectiles hovering in the air. Nobody could be seen controlling them, and mana perception also only returned a faint hint of mana originating from the arrows.

That changed in a blink as enchantments were powered up on every single arrow, brimming with mana. Before anyone could open their mouths and question what they were seeing, all of the arrows vanished with a shrill whistling sound. Only faint tremors in the ground announced where they had gone, and the silver team could only stare slack-jawed at the horde pinned to the ground, all of the monsters pierced through their heads with pinpoint precision.

Not even the troll commander was spared from instant death.

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