As soon as Harvey turned the corner, he began triggering charges one by one. There was no booming explosion, but shouts and screams in the distance told him the buried charges were working.

  “Go,” he whispered, flooding Booster with essence as flames burst from his feet. He infused so much essence that dirt sprayed all around him, painting the alley wall as he soared into the air. Julian didn’t waste any time grabbing Buttercup and leaping over the wall using Vanguard’s Entrance.

  “Hey!” Marcus shouted, moving to run after them just as lightning burst through the ground under his feet. Harvey had made sure to bury a large cache filled with 3 arc charges and 9 essence crystals in the alleyway since he knew it was the furthest point where he could still reach his traps. With everything going according to plan, he’d managed to lead the Prophet straight over his deadliest cache.

  Angry shouts turned to pained screams as lightning and the insidious light of cracked essence crystals assaulted his body.

  The second Julian landed, he dropped Buttercup and moved to catch Harvey, like a football sailing deep toward the end zone. Harvey’s mind was busy focusing on Modular Array as he scrambled to activate every node, but he managed to slow his descent just enough not to bowl his friend over.

  “Hannah!” Julian shouted. Buttercup strode alongside him, and Julian threw Harvey onto the deer’s back. Even burdened with both riders, Buttercup was much faster than Harvey on the ground. After his last long flight had left him utterly drained, they’d decided to only use Booster as a last resort if the army somehow caught up to them.

  “Did it work?” Hannah asked.

  “Yep, all charges are live,” Harvey responded. “I doubt it’s enough to kill him, but he’s hurting.”

  Harvey risked a glance back and was blessed to see the fruits of his labor. Far behind them, Veils End had become a roiling sea of fire, lightning, and untamed essence. It shone like a fallen star, burning bright despite the heavy rain still falling overhead. Through his aura, he could feel the hunger of his Wildfire ravenously consuming every ounce of fuel it could find. The magical flames seemed utterly unconcerned with the soggy wood, consuming it all the same as the inferno continued to spread.

  Seeing the flames take hold eased the tension in his chest. If nothing else, they would slow the army down as they trudged through the mud after them. It made the heavy rain nothing but a boon as it spread his lightning over the entire outpost, leaving few Ossari unharmed.

  His heartbeat thumped to the rhythm of the hoof beats below as the trio raced through the forest. Leaves dangling from low-hanging branches occasionally whipped across his face, but he barely noticed them as he struggled to process the sea of notifications entering his mind.

  You have slain Level 26 - Ossari. Essence Gained. 2891 Merit Earned.

  You have slain Level 27 - Ossari. Essence Gained. 2998 Merit Earned.

  You have slain Level…

  They just kept flooding in. Harvey had to actively suppress the sensation of new notifications as all the deaths he had caused grew overwhelming.

  What he couldn’t suppress were the levels. Even without reading the notifications, the dazzling radiance leaking from his weave confirmed the System wanted to reward his efforts.

  “Holy shit,” Hannah gasped. “Holy shit, we actually did it!”

  “Keep running!” Julian panted, desperately trying to keep up with Buttercup. He was too heavy to join them on the deer’s back, but had the stats to barely keep pace with the help of an occasional leap.

  Harvey thought he’d grown accustomed to the searing pain of his weave being strengthened each time he leveled, but the fire raging inside him felt never-ending. For a moment, he worried he was about to injure his weave again, like he had when fighting the first F Grade elemental. The pain was certainly close to the same level, but instead of breaking him down, it was building him up.

  “AHHHH!” Harvey finally screamed, every muscle going tight as he clung to Hannah’s back.

  “Just hold on!” Julian shouted.

  “It hurts!” Harvey groaned. His muscles burned as his Strength skyrocketed, fibers being rapidly destroyed and remade fast enough for him to feel the change. A headache like a nail being driven into his brain appeared as his growing Wisdom forcibly changed the gray matter within. His weave throbbed as a flood of Endurance rapidly reinforced the walls of his inky essence conduits, and his soul ignited as a cascade of new Willpower washed over it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Every time he felt the pain begin to fade, a new level brought it all roaring back. Even worse, when the bulk of his weave finally faded back out of view, a small section at the back of his neck began to glow even brighter.

  Harvey remembered it was the spot containing his Born Innovator Mark, but he felt his consciousness slipping away before he could do anything about it. The trees flying by all around him went fuzzy until all he could see was Hannah’s white hair, and then the world went dark.

  He had no idea how long it had been when he finally woke up, but when he tried leaning away from Hannah, he found that a rope had been tied around his chest to secure him to her back.

  “You awake back there?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Harvey groaned. The constant jostling of hoof beats beneath him did nothing to stop his pounding headache, but he was grateful to find Buttercup still carrying them away. Looking around, he didn’t see any residual glow from the wildfire he caused, suggesting they’d traveled far from Veils End by now. “What happened?”

  “You passed out,” she answered. “Fell right into the mud. Had to tie you up so we could keep running.”

  “I did?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but I don’t blame you after seeing how long that level up took. How many did you end up getting?” Julian asked while jogging alongside them. The sedate pace suggested they hadn’t been followed and wouldn’t be leading an Undead army straight towards their friends.

  “Let me check,” Harvey answered.

  Normally, he’d only ever have a handful of System messages waiting at the edge of his conscience, but this time he felt hundreds. Most were kill notifications, and after tallying them all up, he gathered that his traps had managed to kill close to 300 Ossari, along with dozens of Graveweavers and Hollowmaws. He hadn’t known the name of the undead wolves before, but it seemed fitting considering the distinct lack of internal organs.

  That many? I killed more than most serial killers? Combined!

  His heart sank. He didn’t know what he expected to feel, but it wasn’t this. He’d been preparing traps for weeks that were specifically designed to kill as many undead as possible, but actually sending that many souls to the afterlife didn’t feel as glorious as he thought it would.

  They had to die. It was us or them.

  “Harvey?” Julian asked.

  “Huh,” he muttered, still lost in thought.

  “How many levels did you get?” Julian repeated.

  “Oh.”

  It took some time, but he finally found the notifications he was searching for.

  Your class, Forgefire Arsenalist, has reached Level 41. +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, +16 Wisdom, +6 Willpower, +6 Free Points

  Your profession, Runeforged Artificer, has reached Level 40. +8 Endurance, +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +12 Willpower, +8 Free Points

  Your race, Veilstrider, has reached Level 40. +2 to all stats

  “Damn,” he yelped.

  “What? Just tell us already!” Hannah urged.

  “7 Class, 2 Profession, and 4 Race levels,” he stammered.

  “You’re kidding!” Julian hollered. “How many did you kill?”

  “Close to 300 Ossari, but mostly the weaker ones,” he admitted. Very few had been under level 30, and he assumed they’d been those tending to the massive thanum spewing machines instead of actual fighters. The rest were all in the mid-30s, with only one matching the missionary Sarah’s Level 41, having died in the chaos. It seemed like a massive number of casualties, but all he’d really done was trim the fat from their army.

  “That many? 9 levels sounded like a lot, but now it sounds like you deserve more,” Julian laughed.

  “Julian,” Harvey muttered. “I didn’t think it would feel like this. I know killing them was the goal, but I feel terrible.”

  Julian didn’t slow. “That’s because you’re still human. Nobody’s ever going to take that away from you. Not Marcus. Not the System. Nobody. You’re allowed to mourn the lives lost, but you can’t let them stop you from doing what has to be done.”

  “Thanks… you’re right,” Harvey winced as Julian gave him a reassuring pat on the leg.

  He’d gained 384 stat points in a matter of minutes, including 58 free points that were still waiting to be applied. He nearly dumped them all into Dexterity, but stayed his hand when he remembered that would start the strain all over again.

  Still, the gains seemed low compared to the number of Ossari he'd killed. Killing just a handful alongside Hannah and Julian had already netted him 2 Class levels over the past few days. He expected part of the reason was that most of the ones he killed were lower level than he was, and another factor was likely that he killed them with traps instead of fighting them face to face.

  The System likely had checks and balances in place to ensure massive factions like the necrolords couldn’t just give their promising young commanders a bomb and let them power level by detonating it in the middle of a city. It rewarded essence to those who followed their path, and as a Forgefire Arsenalist and Runeforged Artificer, killing people with traps of his own creation only partially fit his path.

  “You’re a legend, Harvey. I can’t wait to see the look on Marcus’s face the next time we see the bastard,” Julian celebrated. “I wanted to rip my own tongue out, agreeing to let him turn me into an undead traitor like him.”

  “Thanks, but that wasn’t all,” Harvey smiled.

  Julian looked up at him with a knowing smile, his eyes darting between Harvey and Hannah.

  “What?” she asked.

  Neither of them responded, letting the tension build as she weaved through the forest.

  “What?” she pressed.

  “I got my imprint,” Harvey cheered.

  It was the last notification he’d seen, confirming that the final burst of power had come from his legacy taking a huge step forward.

  “Are you KIDDING ME!” Hannah screamed.