Lev tuned out the rest of the world and focused on the formation on his armor. Mana seeped into it in a slow stream, gradually powering up the entire thing.

  "Try to empower your armor now."

  He did as Drakys suggested, taking a step forward with his armor and willing the enchantment to empower the movement.

  Lev was not prepared for the world to lurch forward. His gait accelerated instantly, throwing him forward for several meters while a chunk of his mana vanished. That would've been fine if it wasn't for the massive mental strain. His brain felt like it had been violently jerked out of its stationary position, giving him a horrifying headache as well.

  Lev collapsed into a heap, vision swimming. Breathing steadily became a herculean effort but a chuckle still escaped his lips.

  This whole experience reminds me of something.

  "Let me guess, it's much harder to forget if I experience it firsthand?"

  Drakys grinned. "Precisely."

  Perhaps it was because his mind felt like mush, but Lev laughed. Alec had let him experience mana overuse to teach the same lesson a long time ago, which was funny.

  When he tried to get up, his world started distorting violently, so Lev remained on the ground for several long minutes. The headache gradually lessened, and he forced himself to sit upright.

  "The enchantment used way too much willpower. Either I did something wrong, or I wasn't supposed to use all of the formation at once."

  "The latter," Drakys confirmed. "The formation is simplified to a large degree so you can only empower parts of a motion. Using it for the entire armor is something you can only do after years of honing your willpower at the minimum. That is after taking your title into account. Or you can become a Master to avoid the problem entirely."

  Lev hummed. "Surely there are downsides of bypassing willpower training like that."

  "There aren't, at least none we have observed. Before Master, willpower does not grow, it only becomes more precise and efficient. Training it before or after evolving will let you eventually reach the same heights with it."

  "Why is that?"

  "Guess," Drakys said.

  "The information is censored by The System?"

  "Yep. We just know things change at Master rank, nothing more."

  Lev laid back down with a sigh. It seemed like everything useful was hidden, but there could be endless reasons for hiding information about the soul. Irritating as it was, he could at least understand why the censorship existed in the first place.

  The worst of humanity always boggled the imagination.

  "Should I try again? Or does that risk some form of mind damage?"

  Drakys got up to leave while replying. "Focus on empowering the movement of a finger to get a feel for it. Don't overdo it, I'll be back soon."

  Lev tried not to think about whatever abomination had come for him this time around. Drakys kept the details to himself, so Lev was left curious about the type of monsters below.

  Pushing the matter out of his head, he focused on the enchantment on his armor. Going by Drakys' advice, Lev only powered it with a small amount of mana and focused on empowering his flick.

  His finger hit the air with a loud whoosh, the movement grabbed by the enchantment and empowered in a straight line. Lev was already starting to see a lot of overlap in willpower and mana manipulation. Without a doubt, his training with intricate mana manipulation would be a great boon in utilizing willpower because of all the mental gymnastics involved.

  In just that small enhancement, several things had stood out to him. The direction, the overall force, the spread of the force through his finger, and the amount of mana stored in the enchantment to be utilized for that particular use, all of them had to be adjusted manually.

  The same enhancement also showed how willpower affected the formation. Instead of all those things being truly manual, Lev instructed, "my finger will move in a straight line, empower it" to the formation. Just from that, it knew what to do.

  It's not hard to guess why this becomes so important after Master. With the amount of things possible with an average class and general skills, the delegation of tasks is the only thing that will allow a Master to utilize everything at once.

  For several minutes, Lev flicked the air. Such a small-scale use of the formation took a little mana, yet the usage still outpaced his regeneration by a little.

  His mind gradually got used to the feedback from the formation as well, but he couldn't feel any immediate improvements in his handling of willpower. Lev would have to ask Drakys about the methods for efficient training.

  Deciding that was enough practice, he raised the bar a little. Standing up, he balled his right hand into a fist before throwing a punch. The formation came alive with only a small amount of mana channeled into it, increasing the speed and force of the punch more than Lev expected.

  The attacking limb flew fast enough to drag Lev a step forward, pain blossoming in his arm due to the jerky motion.

  … Ouch, but also, what the hell? I only used a small puff of mana. That punch was much stronger than it should've been.

  Lev tried again, finding the result to be the same. His fist almost blurred forward, the force potent enough that he struggled to stop his punch in time.

  This is pretty damn good, Lev thought, pleasantly surprised. For such a complex formation, he was expecting to use a lot of mana for 'decent' empowerment. Instead, he was getting a vast boost in physical capabilities with only small chunks of mana.

  It took a lot of patience and self-restraint on his part not to jump to full body enhancement. That would surely see him tearing off a limb or two, and he didn't know when Drakys would return to fix him up.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  Instead, he formed a thick, large barrier shield in front of him. Carving a durability rune in it and powering the rune, Lev threw a punch while holding back considerably. His right arm whooshed forward and impacted with a loud thud. Going by the mental feedback, Lev estimated it was strong enough to shatter his Classer shields, ones without any runes.

  Since he was not nearly stupid enough to go beyond simple practice by himself, Lev empowered slow punches and kicks to get a feel for the empowered motions before stopping to regenerate his mana. Several hours passed before Drakys returned, this time visibly injured as compared to the proper state he always returned in.

  "Should I start running?" Lev questioned when Drakys suddenly appeared in front of him.

  "Maybe," Drakys commented. "Stay here for now. I need to see if your presence continues to attract such strong monsters or if it was just a lone wanderer."

  "Should I at least call a healer for you?"

  "Oh, I'm already healed. Don't worry, just forgot to clean myself."

  "… I see," Lev looked at the distant wall, spells still falling down constantly. "Should I start killing for levels now?"

  "You aren't even close to mastering the formation."

  "I know," Lev looked at Drakys. "But it should be easier to evolve my brawling skill like this, no? Mana always rewards honest effort above all."

  "Go ahead, just don't cross 170 too quickly. Find the rogue in charge and talk to her."

  Rogue?

  Lev quickly ascended as he felt the sphere powering off around him when Drakys vanished. The monsters charging the wall would've noticed him if he wasn't already a hundred meters in the air.

  Forming a platform, Lev first took a good look at his armor to memorize the formation before dismissing it. Then, he summoned the illusion armor and went inside before summoning the barrier armor again. It took a few minutes to carve the formation again. Just as the connection snapped into place, Lev flew towards the wall.

  Stopping a few dozen meters away midair, he waved to the mages on the wall to show he was not a monster. The shadow mana boy on the ground looked ready to attack.

  Should be safe to drop Drakys' name now that everyone saw me accompanying him above ground.

  Lev slowly glided forward and landed on the wall, getting varying looks left and right. He looked back, Identifying the defenders.

  [Mage - Level 110]

  [Mage - Level 71]

  [Mage - Level 89]

  [Archer - Level 91]

  [Mage - Level 102]

  Lev calmly stood there and observed the hunters who had returned to killing the monsters rushing down below. Their numbers truly never dwindled. In a few minutes of observation, nearly a hundred fell.

  "You, state your name and business."

  [Huntress - ???]

  "I'm Lev, a solo silver hunter. For the past two weeks, I was staying near the opposite wall with the Runic Warlord."

  The Master stared at him for a few seconds, trying to discern if he was joking or not. Not seeing any signs of levity, she gave him a slow nod, not believing him at all yet.

  "Why were you two there?"

  "He was training me. Coming here is also a part of that. Is there a rotation set up here, or can I claim a corner for myself down below?"

  "Not so quickly. Show me your badge," The huntress asked with a frown. "There is no rotation set up here but there are a few rules."

  Lev summoned his silver badge and handed it to her. "What do I need to do?"

  "It's simple. Just return to the wall if you hear a horn, and never willingly let another team be overwhelmed," she gravely answered, giving him a menacing stare. "Your status as a hunter will be revoked with a ten-year prison sentence. I will be watching."

  "Naturally," Lev replied, tone emotionless. "Can I get your name?"

  "Kana," she said, still distrustful. "If your claim turns out to be incorrect, the punishment will not be light."

  Lev just sighed at the chance to let him come clean. "Please, you can just send a runner to the guild. The entirety of runespires saw him escorting me to dungeons."

  He didn't stop to hear her reply and jumped down the wall, slowing down a few meters above the ground. Lev saw the shadow user to his right, a few hundred meters away. Steering clear of that guy, he moved to the left.

  Sufficiently far away from the wall, Lev summoned Stargazer and filled her blade. Cracking his neck, he settled to wait for the first monsters to notice him.

  Or at least, he would've if half the cavern wasn't suddenly interested in him.

  Works for me, Lev grinned, letting a small and controlled stream of mana seep into the empowerment formation.

  Charging Stargazer with lightning mana, Lev burst forward, slashing at the kobold rushing him. Only the act of swinging was empowered. The glaive sliced through the kobold's torso cleanly while lightning mana cauterized it.

  Lev controlled the flow of lightning mana, only testing to see how it affected a cut. Now, he knew there was no explosive reaction if he released a tiny yet consistent flow.

  [

  You have slain [Kobold - Level 78]

  ]

  Halting the momentum of his swing was another new factor he had to account for. The formation was straightforward in its usage, leaving him to deal with the consequences. It was a tradeoff more than worth it.

  Two spiders and a troll reached him next. Lev shot a fire slash at the troll and followed it with empowered flight. Just as the explosion stunned the troll, he was already swinging Stargazer at its neck through the fire. Bones and flesh parted with only a hint of resistance, too weak to stand against his newly enhanced strength.

  [

  You have slain [Cave Troll - Level 120]

  ]

  The spiders were almost on him but two lances of lightning put them down in an instant.

  [

  You have slain [Cave Spider - Level 101]

  You have slain [Cave Spider - Level 103]

  ]

  Several more trolls reached him. An overcharged fire slash landed amongst them, Lev already high in the air. Choosing one at random, he flew down and landed in front of the troll to test his physical strength.

  Dashing back to avoid a kick, Lev ducked another punch before retaliating with one of his own to its gut. This time, he had used a small chunk of mana to empower the motion.

  The monster doubled over as blood gushed out its mouth but it straightened itself quickly. Regeneration was their strong suit, which Lev had accounted for.

  Jumping up, he spun in a full circle with his right leg stretched out. His foot crashed into its face with a thunderous crack as the monster passed out. Lev beheaded it with Stargazer, keeping an eye on the other monsters while shaking off the painful impact.

  They were outwardly charred but none of them were impeded by the light injuries. Skin and muscle grew at a rate visible to the naked eye as they charged. Lev happily met them in melee, giddy at his newfound physical might.

  Just like the trolls could do this all day, so could Lev.

  His mana was slowly diminishing because of the costly formation but it was so incredibly efficient. The haft of Stargazer blocked any backhands that Lev couldn't avoid, the weapon holding up admirably.

  One after another, monsters fell around him. Some part of his mind lamented that he couldn't harvest the cores but most of him was too invested in the constant and demanding combvt.

  For the second time, he was enjoying battle again to this degree. Only the fight with the spider matriarch came close.

  Ten minutes passed as Lev hacked and slashed without abandon. When his mana dropped below 60%, he started to hold back. Turns out, that was enough as well. Most of his lethality originated from the absurd enchantments on Stargazer, the blade sharp enough to cut through bones without struggling.

  Then, all of a sudden, there were no monsters rushing at him. Lev blinked and looked around, noting the cavern was suspiciously empty. Gazing at the wall, Drakys was keenly observing him and his battle. His aura was now unveiled, and Lev flew up to confirm a suspicion.

  No way…

  Out in the distance, there were rows of monsters too scared to come any closer. Just Drakys' presence alone had halted their endless mad tide.