Leo had made four levels in the ten days he had been doing the gifting quest—an absolutely insane amount of growth for the time frame. The last time he could remember leveling that quickly was his first trip through the ruins of Calasti, when he had made six in three days.

  He pulled up his status chart and checked, noting that he had gained an occult and two survival skills, but not athletics or combat skills, which surprised him. He supposed that they were very high already, but he was a bit disappointed regardless.

  Leo placed his eight leveling stats before picking skills—two each into Strength, Agility, Toughness, and Capacity to increase his damage, dodge, Health, and Essence.

  Then he picked his Level Eighteen ability—Mind affinity, rank III. He had been originally intending to pick inertial armor, rank II, but his recent solid increases in Health made Leo feel that another general quality and damage increase both would be preferred.

  For nineteen he took the Soul of Magic III to raise his magic to a twenty-eight. If he got it to a thirty, his maximum affinity would go up to five in Mind, and if he took another affinity rank, he would have a reduced mana cost of all telekinesis by forty percent, and increased damage also of forty percent—which would be fantastic. The very next level he could, theoretically, raise it to fifty percent for both.

  Then he watched Level Twenty propagate new abilities. He had Five abilities he could pick this level—one from any, one from any except his Metal magic, and then one each in the Being magics from his learner skills—Body, Mind, and Soul. He was really looking forward to some amazing abilities—new things like the inertial weapon skill had become available at ten—what would twenty bring?

  Right off the bat, he saw amazing abilities. It took him a few minutes, but he culled his huge list to powers he might seriously take.

  It was almost impossible for Leo to decide which he wanted, even after culling the list down. He had three separate aura powers. A ton of powers in Mind based around telekinesis and inertial powers he wanted. Base increases to useful stats… just a lot of things.

  What made him the most curious, however, were the “Mantle” powers—and what a mantle was.

  Leo needed to decide, however—so he broke it into smaller tasks.

  Only two powers in Body appeared interesting, besides basic stat increases. He quickly settled on Brutal Reaction—moving twice as fast and attacking twice as fast was too good to pass up.

  In Soul, increased magic stat, the wrapped in magic power, and the aura were his options. The Aura added the maximum affinity, as well as being an aura for his realm, so he took that.

  That left him with three that were harder to pick—because all could be used among the multiple telekinesis and inertial options, and all but one pick on auras as well.

  He had to decide, and he decided on an odder set of powers that would expand his capabilities and options—he would take the remaining auras and the upgrades over his next few levels. He took Telekinetic sight and flight and then took inertial will.

  The effects were immediate. Leo fell over, briefly stunned, as he gained a new sense, almost impossible for him to describe—neither English nor Middle Averian truly had the words for it. The vloest he could come was imagining bat sonar—he was constantly pushing out with his magic, and where it hit, he saw. But he didn’t just see edges, he also saw mass and movement. All the time, effortlessly, for almost two hundred feet around him.

  It was mind-blowing.

  “We ready?” Hugh asked, as Leo stood.

  Leo rose into the air like he was freaking Magneto. “Yes—let’s get back and see what we can do to stave off the end.”