Lev almost wiped away tears before realizing that wasn't possible inside the illusion armor. He took some more deep breaths. They were starting to lose effectiveness for some reason.

  "Right, so they can just throw stuff for thousands of kilometers. There, I accepted it. What am I supposed to do?"

  Sherron eyes shone with mischief. "Go to one of the shelters, like the classer you are."

  "Har har," Lev rolled his eyes. "So I can't watch it?"

  "Lev-" She began.

  "I'm kidding, jeez. If you think I want to be anywhere near a fucking giant as a Classer, we should spend more time together."

  Lev turned away after that, waiting for his mana to regenerate above half. He frowned, something didn't feel right.

  Oh shit.

  "I mean, you don't know me well enough then," Lev corrected, ignoring the raised brow. Everyone enjoyed teasing him for some reason.

  He turned to his mentor instead. "Can I make use of the support squad too before I have to leave? Actually, when do I leave for the shelters?"

  "Two hours at most, and sure."

  "Err…" Lev looked at the aura mage. "Can you use the skill on me for some time please?"

  She giggled, seemingly enjoying his discomfort. "You don't have to be so formal."

  Lev instantly felt the change as the skill enveloped him. It felt like his soul was squeezed tighter, neither uncomfortable nor painful, but it was a new sensation.

  He couldn't help but get up and move around, trying to understand the feeling better. The feeling was muted, permeating his entire being without a noticeable beginning or end. Try as he might, he could not find a single thing about how it may have come to be.

  Why does the system censor everything related to the soul?

  That was a question for the ages. Nobody knew, and The System never answered either. Lev decided to ignore it the same, no point in pondering over puzzles that nobody else could solve.

  He instead observed his regeneration. Where there was a small stream, now a slightly larger stream was flowing into his being. The difference was more profound than that though. The analogy didn't do the comparison justice.

  Despite having a lot of mana for a Classer, it wasn't that much overall. Every evolution increased the effectiveness of attributes, around 70% for the first evolution, which meant every mage had far more mana than before.

  His mana pool was more like a small tub, so even that difference to the stream was extraordinary. It reduced the time needed to completely fill his pool by a third, which was a world of difference at higher levels.

  Down below, the monsters seemed to have no end. Lev's contribution was minimal but he still kept firing. Trolls and now raider orcs fell in droves. His mana dwindled much slower than before, and he had to stop after another ten minutes of shooting.

  The aura mage was still using her skill on him. "How long can you keep that up for if you don't mind me asking?"

  She looked at Alec as if asking for permission. "I can keep it up for two more hours at most."

  Lev nodded, filing away the information. "You can stop now. These two need it more than me," He said, waving toward Sherron and Alec.

  So started the waiting game. Lev was starting to see why everyone waited till high Adept before participating in waves. He killed a lot of monsters, sure, but they amounted to a drop in the ocean.

  At least his skills leveled nicely.

  The wave progressed the same, with the Masters down below conserving their strength as much as possible. It seemed like the wave would be a long one but Lev knew the truth. Hell would break loose when the giant came up.

  That was why they were holding back, so when the Exalted fought the giant they would deal with the huge horde that came alongside it.

  Lev wouldn't be there to see it, and neither did he want to. The battlefield would be infinitely scarier during the clash. He would be killed by a single stray spell or debris.

  Shrugging off that line of thought, he focused on the horde below to look for ways to level his Perception passive skill. It seemed to be stuck on the last level, and Lev knew how to go past it.

  He was slowly shooting arrows when too many monsters gathered in one place and the first spell originated from the wave.

  Finally.

  His passive was good for keeping tabs on the battlefield, which was mainly keeping track of enemies and their attacks. Now, he could form shields to block such attacks, which would level the passive nicely.

  However, the defenders on the ground didn't feel the same. Instantly, the Adept mages reacted. The ground opened up and swallowed a swath of monsters. The troll caster was revealed amidst the monsters and was swiftly decimated by a barrage of boulders and lightning bolts.

  Man, active skills are unfair. I will need to do so much work to replicate the same effect. Also, how am I supposed to catch projectiles up here?

  The answer became obvious rather quickly when casters appeared by the dozens. Normally, only a few of them would've focused on the wall. But with Sherron and Alec up there? Lev suddenly found himself facing far more attacks than he wanted.

  Lightning formed of mana was far slower and weaker than natural lightning. The latter was a force of nature, not meant for humans to wield, which was the only reason why his four summoned shields could block it.

  The attack was still very fast for him but Opportunity let him bring up a shield in the nick of time, catching the projectile. That also seemed to be enough to break past the final hurdle as the attack no doubt came from a first-threshold monster.

  His shield cracked and shattered from the attack. The second shield met the same fate before the lightning fizzled out on the third, only scorching it.

  [

  Opportunity - Passive:

  Perception during combat is increased by 85%. Finding weak points and predicting the trajectory of moving objects/targets is considerably easier.

  2nd Rank: Whenever you are about to be hit by a blow that would kill or incapacitate you, your perception will spike massively for one second. The strain of handling the increased perception will be lessened significantly.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  ]

  Lev was pretty happy with the new effect. Nobody wanted to die due to an unnoticeable attack or creature. The skill would at least give him a chance to react, which was nice.

  He hurriedly formed more shields before him, not wanting to level his barrier armor this way. Five seemed to be his limit while staying stationary, and even that was pushing it. Controlling that many at once was like doing a constant mental puzzle, and he made it easier for himself by keeping them still unless necessary to move.

  His mentor blocked the next fireball that Lev didn't even see coming, and the resulting explosion had him grateful for the intervention. The spell no doubt came from a second-threshold monster.

  That set the tone for the rest of his time on the wall. Stronger and stronger monsters started showing up, most too powerful for him to do anything about. Not like he could do anything against the weaker ones, as all of them seemed to have a personal vendetta against Sherron and Alec.

  Lev just focused on making four big shields in front of him, each over a meter wide. That was more than double his usual disks. By arranging them in front of him, his mentor let the weaker spells hit them to level Lev's skills.

  [

  Arcane Barrier Manipulation has reached 2nd Level 2

  Mana Manipulation has reached 2nd Level 2

  ]

  Good enough for doing absolutely nothing. Lev thought while shielding his eyes with his hands. The wave had turned far too chaotic, and he had to stay near the opposite border of the wide wall to prevent any accidents.

  The Masters were not holding back anymore, or so it seemed to Lev. The wall shook hard enough that it took some effort on his part to stay upright. Observation was impossible, his Perception was too low to filter the explosions and dust from different attacks.

  Sherron and Alec were launching projectiles left and right, which was the only reason Lev knew things were under control. If they weren't, Lev would've been inside a shelter already.

  "It's time," Sherron suddenly spoke up, giving Alec a look.

  Lev didn't need to ask what was happening as he was scooped up by the Bubble.

  "Dismiss your armor skill and store the illusion armor," His mentor said. Lev did as he was told. The flight took a few seconds before Lev was deposited in the middle of the main road, suddenly appearing from an invisible Bubble.

  Some heads turned at his unexpected arrival but they ignored him the same as everyone else. Lev looked around, noticing how almost no combatants were moving to the shelters. He wondered what the people had been told, the reason to take to the shelters. Or was it just a precaution because of an eight-rated wave?

  I sincerely doubt the populace would be moving this calmly if they knew a Giant was coming.

  He certainly had no plans to disclose that information. Lev followed the people hopefully heading to the shelters, because he had no idea where they were.

  His worry turned out to be for naught as several guards were dividing people into three different groups, each going in a different direction. Lev was directed to the leftmost line of people, where he followed quietly.

  Why is everyone so calm? I would've expected some more fear from an imminent wave. Or are the shelters so safe?

  Perhaps the people knew there would be two Exalted fighting today. Lev corrected himself, that would definitely cause mass panic. They most likely didn't.

  The shelter turned out to be well-hidden, an underground staircase that he couldn't even see till he was almost on top of it. That shouldn't have surprised Lev but it did. There was definitely some magic going on otherwise he would've never missed it with his Perception.

  Descending the staircase made it obvious that it was enchanted to the brim. The enchantments themselves were weird, to say the least. Lev had to repeatedly remind himself to watch his steps. His mind seemed to want to ignore them, to forget there was even a passage here in the first place.

  The stairs went far deeper than anything he expected. Lev descended for nearly twenty minutes on the circular stairway, staying calm because the others seemed to be used to coming down here.

  He followed their lead, occasionally listening to the conversations going on.

  "Man, you should've seen her today. Somehow she keeps looking better despite the simple waitress garb."

  The colleague of the man tsked. "Dude, that's just her skills leveling. Don't fall for those."

  Somewhere behind him, a group of boys and girls were talking about more interesting things. They seemed to be fighters but too low-level to help with the wave. They also didn't seem to be hunters.

  Lev didn't know why exactly he felt that. Maybe because of how unburdened the group seemed, or maybe it was their casual bearing.

  "How long do waves usually last here?" asked a girl with a voice higher-pitched than normal.

  "One to three days, rarely beyond that," replied a boy. Both of them sounded like eighteen-year-olds but Lev couldn't be sure without turning to properly look at them.

  "Dude we still have three more silver quests to complete," a girl with a deeper voice said with a groan. "Three months no longer seems like a lot of time,"

  "Don't worry, the academy understands how emergencies work. The founders are literally three Mythril-ranked hunter teams," The same boy replied, seemingly unfazed.

  "Besides, we only need to pay fifty silver for each undone quest. Not that much money," another boy joined in, similarly uncaring as the other boy.

  Lev could hear the contempt at the idea in the deeper voice girl's reply. "I'm not paying my hard-earned money to skip quests."

  "Nobody's skipping anything," the first girl replied, probably rolling her eyes, "we just need to do one escort quest and two mining or gathering quests. Three months should be enough to prepare and finish them."

  Lev assumed the silver quests meant early adept quests. From levels 100 to 150. He tuned out the conversation after that. Mining and Gathering quests sounded like a nice vacation but he was more interested in getting to Master first.

  That way he could help with the most difficult quests and waves alike.

  The stairs finally ended after who knows how long. Lev had lost track a while ago. It wouldn't surprise him if they were a kilometer or two below ground.

  The shelter was… gigantic. It could easily house tens of thousands of people, much more than the amount currently present down there.

  It was a large hall with long tables, chairs, and even beds along the walls. The furniture was all made of stone, yet it looked smooth as if it had come out of a modern industry.

  The whole place was illuminated by lights fitted into the ceiling, just bright enough to not be a nuisance.

  There were a lot of people present in the hall, so Lev naturally looked for the least crowded place. That took several minutes of walking, but he found a table that had nobody near it for over ten meters in each direction.

  Perfect really.

  Lev sat down and summoned a water bottle when all sounds vanished.

  I am not even surprised at this point.

  He sighed and looked at the woman who had suddenly appeared before him. She was resting her head on the table, looking at him with a smile and curious eyes.

  She's definitely trying to look as unthreatening as possible because anyone would panic if an Exalted suddenly took interest in them.

  "Do I bow?" Lev asked, deadpan.

  Her reaction was so immensely satisfying. Her smile froze with her mouth parted halfway, about to say something.

  Lev wanted to laugh but this was an Exalted, so he settled for an apologetic smile and a sheepish, "sorry."

  "I, huh, it's okay. You don't seem to be nervous or scared?" She muttered, half asking herself and half looking for confirmation.

  "I've spent a few years with Orianna, Sherron, and my teacher. It's not really surprising to find someone strong suddenly appearing in front of me anymore."

  She nodded slowly, before chuckling. "Well, I'll be damned. This is the first time my predictions have been wrong to this degree, and all because of a kid."

  Lev chuckled with her and held out his hand. "I'm Lev."

  She peered at his hand, before gingerly clasping it with hers. "I'm Mara, the only non-combatant Exalted on Monarch."

  Lev waited for her to say something else, raising a brow when nothing came. Mara seemed to be lost in thought.

  The silence lasted for several seconds before Mara simply blurted out, "I don't understand."

  Lev's joviality slowly vanished too. This seems serious.

  "What do you not understand," Lev asked, trying to make sense of the woman.

  "I'm a diviner as you may have guessed. Alec said your presence will most likely cause waves but it seems to be true and false at the same time. It's not you that is causing waves."

  Her eyes started glowing purple, and a torrent of mana was channeled through one or more of her skills. Lev unknowingly held his breath at the display, the channel dwarfing his own mana pool by several orders of magnitudes.

  Curiously enough, nobody in the shelter seemed to see him or Mara, or even feel the ridiculous amount of mana being used.

  Mara stopped using mana after a few seconds, her wide eyes bloodshot. She tried to say something but no words came out, only her body started shaking uncontrollably. Lev backed away, terrified of whatever was happening.

  In the end, Mara only uttered one word before falling unconscious.

  "Challenger."