"So, should I stay here?" Lev asked, not sure about his future plans anymore. "Or do I stay on the move? Doing escort quests and only staying a few days at a place."
Some levity entered Alec's eyes at that random line of thought. "Do you want to rouse the entirety of the plains instead?"
Lev opened his mouth to reply, not finding any words and clicked it shut. "I didn't think of that."
His teacher smiled a bit. "I'm kidding, though we don't know if you're the reason for sure. It's just… possible."
Lev shrugged. He'd known the reincarnation would have a hefty price. It was impossible for it not to. Stronger and faster waves would certainly fit that criteria.
"We can deal with that later. What happens now?"
Alec looked behind them as if looking for someone. "Now, we wait for a specialized support squad. There is one coming for me."
Lev made a face under his armor. "What on Monarch is that?"
His mentor looked somewhat smug all of a sudden. "Specialized support squads are squads that empower a single combatant. They cover multiple aspects depending on the combatant, such as Mana regeneration, Intelligence and Perception boost, and basically filling up my constructs in my case."
"So… they're like spoon-feeders."
Alec just gave him a flat stare at the horrific simplification. Lev avoided looking at him, trying his best to not laugh.
"No," Alec sighed. "They're not spoon-feeders. I do all the work, and they just help me do it better."
Further conversation was cut off by the removal of the Bubble. Lev turned around noticing, several people marching toward them. In front was a woman with light leather armor, no doubt focused on speed.
Behind her were four mages, two female and two male. They seemed nervous, and Identify revealed why.
[Ranger - ???]
[Mage - ??]
[Mage - ??]
[Mage - ??]
[Mage - ??]
One of the Adept mages had a class that seemed to empower everyone around her. Lev felt his mana regeneration increase significantly when she came close, with a much lower effect for his other attributes. No changes were made to his mana capacity. That was only affected by a Wisdom Boost, no class skills.
"Is this the spot you will cover?" The ranger asked, only glancing at Lev once.
"If you think this is fine, then sure," His mentor replied calmly, letting the ranger take the lead.
She nodded, "You will be in the middle of the defenders stationed on the wall. There will be no shortage of monsters to target."
Left unsaid was that he was in the perfect position to support everyone, which was a given.
Seeing that there was nothing else, the ranger left with a respectful nod to Alec.
Out of the four mages left behind, a tall and lean man stepped up. "What are our orders, sir?"
Lev got to see his mentor act with complete seriousness for the first time as he pointed out their tasks. The aura mage, who empowered everyone around her, was tasked to increase the mana regeneration for him or Lev when asked.
It was a costly active spell, which she couldn't use for long. Two of the other mages specialized in empowering constructs, fortifying them, and filling them up.
The last mage who had stepped up was another buff mage, except his buffs were much more targeted.
"Intelligence for both of us," was all Lev's mentor ordered him. The mage nodded, going back to his spot to wait for the monsters to show up.
They lapsed in silence after that, observing the horizon for any movements. Nearly an hour passed before Alec got ready to act. Whatever he had seen was too far for Lev, but he prepared himself all the same.
He took out his new bow and admired how it shone on his mana perception. The enchantments were cloaked, undecipherable to all his senses yet so stable. They went from end-to-end, completely enveloping the bow in a gentle glow.
His mentor sent a simple glance at the mage responsible constructs who nodded his readiness. Several metal crates thumped on the wide road atop the wall, only taking up little space despite their size.
The metal cover of one of the crates floated up, unlocked through some invisible means, revealing the recipe for destruction. It was filled to the brim with shells, not the kind Lev remembered from Earth.
These shells were compact and long, more like very thick arrows without the arrow parts. Every single bit of the shells was covered in cloaked enchantments, packed far more densely than Lev's new bow. He couldn't even begin to guess how many total enchantments there were. From one glance, he knew it was far beyond his understanding.
The crate slid in front of the mages responsible for constructs, and they each picked up a shell without question.
"Keep a stockpile of twenty charged shells at all times," Alec said without looking back.
The mages nodded anyway. Lev observed them fill up the shells one by one, each shell taking about what he estimated to be a tenth of his total mana. That was saying something about the potency of the shells, considering Lev had both a capacity boost and a Wisdom boost.
When the first shell was filled up, the enchantments layered on it thrummed to life. They shone once before settling on a constant glow, now visible to his naked eyes.
[
Mana Perception has reached Level 2
]
… I see why he needed a support squad for this.
Lev wouldn't admit that though. It still felt wrong to have people dedicated to you. He wasn't even sure why, it just did.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Done observing, Lev turned around and stared with his mouth ajar. Where there was only empty air, now stood two towering … cannons? Artillery pieces?
Made out of arcane barriers, they each had long barrels designed for maximum precision and speed. Lev assumed the shells were enchanted to counteract the effects of gravity and air friction as well.
Two shells flew up under Alec's control, slotting themselves into the artillery pieces without the crafter even turning around. Alec's eyes were still glued to the distant horizons, observing only he knew what.
The first artillery piece hummed to life. The process of firing the shells was too convoluted for Lev to understand, except for one fact. The enchantments of the artillery piece and the shell connected for an instant, and then it was off.
It didn't leave a trail of fire, nor did it create a sonic boom. The shell was completely silent in its passage, only a distant explosion announcing a hit.
"Did it hit?" Lev asked, with excitement befitting the situation. He was seeing a magical bombardment with his own eyes. It was almost a cause for celebration.
"It did. Killed a [Shade Brute - Level 239]."
Lev choked on air. That was enough to kill a peak first-threshold monster? The shell must've been far stronger than he expected. He was about to ask why it exploded when the first horn blared.
The horns were just as well known as the monster bell. The first signified the start of the wave. Immediately, Lev moved to the edge of the five-foot-high wall border and looked at the Adepts and Masters descending to the grassland.
Several Carriers were with them, the mages responsible for lifting people up and down the wall. They were dressed in prominent white robes, both to stand out and to be defended in dire situations. They were far from weak, however, with at least two deadly wind spells ready to intervene at any moment.
Their job was no less dangerous than the combatants, as monsters loved to target obvious displays of magical strength. Carriers more than qualified for those, sometimes resulting in getting bombarded. For that reason, their classes focused on agile flight, carrying others, and spells to attack.
The artillery pieces behind him fired again, the shells entirely too fast for him to track. Over the next few minutes, the rate of fire kept increasing. Several times, the aura mage used her skill on the mages filling up the constructs, keeping them topped up in case of an emergency.
It took some time before the first monster came close to the wall, no doubt left alone by the Masters for the Adepts and the rare few Classers to deal with. Lev summoned his converter backpack first and strapped it around his back. Four arrows formed in the lightning converter slots, fully charged in a few seconds.
The aura mage looked at him with an enlightened smile, no doubt curious about why a Classer was standing next to Alec, even talking to him casually.
The mages powering the shells gave him a questioning glance. Lev shook his head, his arrows didn't need to be empowered. The last mage just glanced at his arrows once, noting the element, before stoically returning to his horizon-gazing.
Squinting his eyes, Lev tracked the troll warriors making their way to the wall. They were focused on the Adept teams below, waiting to engage the monsters in melee.
Lev decided to test his new bow before the monsters reached the humans. Taking aim while with a lightning arrow, the difference became obvious instantly. Focus and Empower were both common enchantments, which Lev had read in the notes given by Alec.
The former let him aim better, sort of zooming in when he pulled back the string. The latter was more interesting, consuming a bit of mana to further enhance the flight of the arrows. Lev didn't hold back, utilizing the enchantment to its limit without overloading it.
Lev loosed, watching as the arrow hit the head of one of the trolls faster than he could track. The head popped like a balloon, bringing him no small amount of satisfaction when a notification popped up.
[
Your group has slain [Troll - Level 121]
]
The arrow was enhanced by so many things that it would put pretty much all Classer archers to shame. It was formed by his manipulation skill, making it more durable, and was infused with lightning mana that increased its speed and damage. The spinning arrowhead got a penetration boost while the arrow itself got even more speed from the General Skill. The bow further empowered the flight, and his mind empowered the flight speed even further like a cherry on top.
The arrow was too fast for him to empower much with his mind. Lev could only act in one instant when he released the string. Still, that was significant enough that Lev wouldn't give up on it, despite the relatively small boost. He didn't even feel the demanding draw strength of the new bow, his attributes too high for it to matter. The strain was handled by his Barrier armor anyway.
[
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 91
Arcane Archery has reached 2nd Level 2
5 Free attribute points
]
Lev looked at the class level with a sour face.
I'm too bloody OP or what. The First Gap was supposed to take weeks or months.
The contribution from the aura mage didn't seem to reduce the essence gain by much. Still, he couldn't do anything about it. He ignored the impressed glance from the aura mage and aimed again.
He could only fire one more shot before the monsters reached the melee frontline. That suited him just fine, as now each arrow took almost 1% of his mana to shoot. The downtime would let him regenerate more mana without asking the mage to actively boost his regeneration.
He turned his attention to what was happening on the battlefield. Up ahead, too far for him to observe clearly, the horizon was turning yellow and blue with the explosions of different elements.
As he watched, a gigantic boulder formed above a distant Master team before flying ahead, out of his observation range. Lev was more distraught by how fast the boulder moved.
One moment, it was hovering above the Masters, and the next, it was a blurry streak of brown. He couldn't even track its movement, which terrified him.
Monsters gradually got stronger than humans above the second threshold, especially at the late Master stage. Perception was regarded as the most important attribute for any combatant because of that. Monsters became too fast to track with low Perception.
That wouldn't matter for someone like Lev. If a second threshold monster found him, he wouldn't even know how he died. Either some magical attack would tear him apart before he could react, or his life would be squeezed out of him, giving him only an instant to notice the fist or hand coming for him.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to dally. The next rank will go by just as fast as the first, only with an additional downtime to learn enchanting.
****
The first hour of the wave passed without incident. Brutes, prowlers, trolls, thornlings, crawlers, and new variations joined the battlefield, slowly forcing the Masters back.
They weren't actually losing or being pushed back, just reducing the distance between different teams to minimize the chances of any accidents. If one team was somehow overwhelmed, others would have a larger timeframe to aid them.
The increasing number of monsters heralded the true start of the wave. What they had been dealing with was just a prelude to the actual hordes, ones that would cover the grassland entirely.
Lev shot monsters here and there, providing support wherever he thought there were too many monsters. In general, he aimed for any group of monsters that had less than half the number of combatants facing them. It seemed like a reasonable estimation that they could handle twice the number of monsters.
The first real sign of an eight-rated wave made itself known when the grassland came alive. From afar, he could see thousands upon thousands of monsters charging the wall, ready to tear down everyone and everything in their path.
"Use the boost on me for twenty minutes. Keep them active on both of them until you reach half your mana," Alec ordered the aura mage, pointing at the two mages filling up the shells.
She wordlessly did as she was told, immediately using the skill of his mentor and the two mages.
Lev only paid them half a mind, more busy observing the new lumbering monsters in the distance. He could see cave trolls, a common variant that reached almost double Lev's height. They were much slower and proportionately harder to kill.
Different spiders with their limbs covered in metal or stone were also visible, the monsters much faster than everything else on the battlefield. Their limbs moved in a blur but Lev could at least see their bodies move at a trackable speed. Still extremely fast, but not impossibly so.
He was about to aim when the battlefield paused. The humans paused, the monsters paused, and all the fighting paused. It only lasted for a moment before all hell broke loose again but Lev was secretly relieved.
A familiar aura approached. A vast aura filled to the brim with lighting and destruction, promising a relentless pursuit regardless of distance.
