Three bubbles landed a few kilometers away from Windkeep, both invisible and soundless. Lev stepped out first, greatly enjoying the feeling of solid ground under his feet again. His team stepped out next with big smiles, their previous boredom entirely forgotten as they gazed at the towering walls of the great city in the distance.

Four days, he thought while looking around, finding the surrounding grassland clean of any monsters or dangers. So much better than the month and a half it would've taken with a caravan. Couldn't fly at full speed either, so the travel time will be less than half the next time I have to move with my teammates.

It was a cause worthy of celebration. Each great city was almost equally distant from the other, and the time it took to reach them was a major detriment to defensive measures. Lev slowly being able to travel to different cities in the span of hours was going to change a lot of things, and most of them for the better.

"Can we walk now?" Kayla pleaded, looking at him with puppy eyes. He just motioned for her to take the lead, and she happily did so after taking Jack's hand in hers.

Amelia and Lev shared a glance and then followed the couple. Jack was fine, but Kayla skipped forward as if freed from prison.

"What are the plans for today?" Lev asked, seeing the city was still a while away at their jogging speed.

"Hug a bed."

He ignored Kayla's comment and looked at Jack, who just shrugged.

"I'd be lying if I said we were tired," he said, not looking back to answer. "For today, I still want to take the day off and explore a portion of the city. Maybe visit the merchants guild for some shopping."

"And you?" Lev looked at Amelia.

"Same as him," she answered without pause. "It's our first time entering a new city."

Reaching the gate took nearly an hour. Lev flew ahead first, explained to the guard about why they were arriving on foot as opposed to carts. The excuse of his Classer team wanting to stretch their limbs after days of boring flight worked without issue, doubly so when it came from a Master.

Inside, he waited for the others to catch up. Their heads remained on a swivel, never lingering in one place longer than necessary as they scanned the distant populated area.

"You know," Lev voiced to catch their attention. "When I first came here, it was Drakys who just dropped me at the gates and vanished. It took some explaining for the Master guard to believe that I could somewhat safely arrive here and wasn't just plain suicidal."

"And why did he do that?" Jack asked, amused.

Lev shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he just wanted the guards to remember me, since I was going to leave the city quite frequently."

"Or maybe he just wanted you to show your face to humanity for once instead of immediately vanishing into a dungeon," Kayla quipped, grinning back at him. She was much more comfortable around him than before, and the same went for the other two.

During the long ride, Lev had explained to them about his past and the titles he was born with. They accepted it surprisingly easily. If anything, they were expecting something unique like that, since their teammate happened to break their world views frequently.

He didn't tell them about his insane attributes, though. They were still in the dark about things like Youngest Prodigy and Titan Slayer, and he wanted to reveal that when the time was right. Instead of just dumping that information on them, he wanted it to be shaped as a goal, one to reach and surpass, and not one to long for.

"Perhaps," Lev allowed, not outright disagreeing. Then he thought about it for a moment, his expression becoming weirder by the second. "Now that I think about it, I did jump into the slime dungeon the next day. That one was fun."

Amelia was obviously interested in that, so he formed a small barrier plate. Invisibility formation appeared on it first, and then he slowly carved out an adjustable sound ward, preventing their conversation from being heard by others.

"Normally, the final slime boss is a large red or green slime, around level 170. My luck is incredibly bad, however, and I had to face a slime commander by myself. That was a glorious battle."

"Weren't you around level 150 by then?" the swordswoman questioned.

"Yeah," Lev nodded. "The slime dungeon was supposed to be a practice run to get used to fighting with Stargazer. She had been upgraded not long ago."

"Wait," Jack interjected, confusion audible in his voice. "Dungeon monsters can change?"

"Yep," Lev answered casually. He debated hiding the effects of his presence, though the thought was summarily ignored. Their lives were at stake. "Actually, no. It's just limited to me. We will continue this talk later."

They clearly wanted to know more, only holding themselves back because they were in the open. A myriad of colors passed by, the edges of the city only harboring residential buildings, as well as different inns and restaurants.

Lev didn't stop for any of them. His team was already aware of the destination, and they had their own large rooms in Golden Basilisk in less than an hour.

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"Right," he joined everyone in Kayla's room again, shaking his head slightly. "Didn't expect you guys to be so impatient."

"You talked about something that shouldn't have been possible," Jack said, still struggling to accept what he had heard.

"It doesn't make sense, either," Amelia added, frowning. "Everyone knows dungeon monsters are always the same. Even Orianna taught us the same."

Lev looked at the remaining girl, who gave him an apologetic shrug.

"As I said, it's limited to me. Orianna probably never experienced something like it, so she obviously didn't teach you anything different either," Lev explained, giving them a look. "The first time I experienced it was in the pit. Alec noticed that my presence caused waves to form sooner than usual, though the actual difference wasn't that big."

"Waves?" Jack repeated, making sure he had heard correctly.

"Waves," Lev confirmed. "You know the phenomenon where thousands of monsters gather to throw themselves at the walls-"

"I know what waves are," Jack interrupted, Lev's jovial tone doing nothing to calm his whirring mind. "How is that even possible? Why you, of all people?"

He could only shrug. "Beats me. All I know is that the world really wants me dead, and that I can't leave you guys alone until you at least evolve once and can start clearing all the dungeons around Windkeep with ease. That way, by the time the mapping is done in a few years, we will be able to move together as Masters when I return."

"But… what?" Amelia absently ran a hand through her silver hair, too lost in thought. "How? Does reincarnation put that big of a mark on you? Why would it, to begin with?"

Lev breathed out, not ready to broach this topic. There were some things he hadn't revealed to even Orianna, and his team was far from prepared for such truths. They deserved to know, but it was still too soon.

"Let's hope we find out eventually," he smiled, not nearly as worried as his team. Kayla was completely silent, unable to even form words about the whole bizarre situation.

"What kind of monsters did you find in the changed dungeons?" Amelia changed the topic, looking for distractions.

"Hmm," he thought about it for a moment. "The first time things went very wrong was in the gold golem dungeon. It had these golems that were supposed to be only half as large and much weaker…"

A barrier construct depicting the monsters formed between them, giving more depth to his retelling.

****

Lev and company found themselves browsing another branch of the Celestial Emporium. No matter how horrible his experience with the senior manager was in the past, the whole business lived up to its tacky name.

He had left them to browse Classer and Adept equipment to gather ideas for their own classes and future shopping. Lev himself was looking at the more mundane things, specifically crafting equipment.

In his hands was a simple blue bowl, enchanted not to let even a single drop of liquid stick to its surface. The runes were handy, and Lev also wanted to start gathering such formations from now on. No longer was he limited by patrols and training his team. Delving dungeons was a time-consuming affair, and beyond being present next to them under layers of concealment, he had all the time in the world to himself now.

"Is the bowl to your liking, sir?" asked a female attendant, constantly following a few steps behind him and explaining everything he touched. It was slightly annoying, but he mostly felt bad for the poor nervous girl.

"It is. What about the runes? They're free for anyone to look at."

She nodded. "Indeed, sir. The runes are accounted for in the cost, which is why a simple bowl will cost you several silver."

Oh? That makes things easier for me.

"I'll take five of them," Lev handed her the bowl and moved on. She quickly motioned for one of the other workers to get five of the bowls before following after him.

"Are you looking for anything specific, sir?"

He debated asking her to drop the sir, though that was only going to make her tenser.

"Mostly similar basic stuff. Can you get someone to gather two of each? The price doesn't matter as long as it doesn't cost more than one gold per."

"Give me a moment."

Finally, without a shadow, Lev smiled to himself faintly as she left his side for once, recognizing that such treatment was only going to become more prevalent as time went on. Best get used to it early.

Now then, several more things have been confirmed. I can't just steal runes willy-nilly. Neither can I just buy them from here, though that might change once I offer well over the rune's worth. Not today, though.

It was only their first day in Windkeep. He could wait before looking into the more time-intensive projects for the three months that they still had together. During that time, Lev wanted to create the basic equipment for his team, though armor was probably going to remain beyond him. That was a skill that would take years to master.

Moreover, he wanted to actually start developing his own formations. Drakys had given him a treasure trove of runes, and he still hadn't utilized all of them, especially the second enhancement formation that hid so many features. The plan was to start combining runes from different formations and match them to his needs, creating new formations from scratch.

No doubt, Drakys and others had better versions of them, but these were going to belong solely to Lev. Even better was the rune he had missed all this time, having sneakily entered his repository skill during the fight with the flameforged tiger. Deceptively simple in name, Lev had no doubts that it was going to be the most powerful rune after Arcane Supremacy.

Arcane Barriers.

At first glance, Lev couldn't quite glean the sheer usefulness of the rune. After all, he could form a barrier with a thought. The rune was almost useless for him, until he actually tried it.

And well, he now couldn't stop thinking about it. The rune, as it turned out, formed his barriers and allowed the user to manipulate them. They had properties of his barriers, even some of the class benefits and skill effects, and could be used without needing the class itself.

There was a term for such runes— Class Runes. Lev wasn't expecting to receive one, not now, not ever. After all, they were found in Crafting classes, and his was very far from that.

Regardless, they weren't quite as good as his own barriers. Overloading them wasn't just possible but also an integral part of their structure, yet they didn't come with any bonuses that were tied to Lev's being or attributes. Mana types inside the barriers formed by runes were definitely easier to manipulate, and enchantments also saw bonuses to conductivity when overloaded, but that was about all. Destructive mana types couldn't be teleported from one barrier to another, and neither were the improved Perception effects present.

The effects of his other combat passives were also absent, most importantly, the explosion potency one. That was his class's most powerful tool after the armor.

It's not like I had any plans to use them with the rune, anyway, he mused, glancing around at anything that seemed interesting while waiting for the attendant, he let his mind wander in slowed Perception. The main use comes from being able to utilize the base material, the barrier, to craft equipment, and Kayla can make good use of the products. I can also use various metals or other materials as a base and carve the rune on them.

He exhaled lightly, keeping half an eye on his team's auras that were present on the previous floor. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

As if Crafting wasn't too limitless already, Lev smiled gently at the attendant, who took the lead after catching his attention. More possibilities never hurt anyone, right?

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