Lev watched with burning interest as the hunters went limp. All of them initiated the evolution within a few seconds of each other, and slowly, all the mana coursing through their bodies ceased to exist.

  Wait, he blinked. What?

  Leaning forward, he streamed even more mana into the dome as a precaution and peered deeper into their bodies, bringing all his Perception and associated skills to bear.

  There wasn't even a lick of mana in them.

  How does that make sense? Even the faint traces of mana from their passives are gone- oh.

  The whole process had been hidden by The System. It was the most fitting answer, and the moment he realized that, Lev leaned back into his chair and made sure that nothing interrupted the evolution.

  Seconds ticked over, not a single monster noticing the carts in the meantime, let alone the hidden construct. As expected, nothing could be gleaned from the comatose hunters, and even when they woke up after a few minutes, they did so without any prior signs. It was as if they had simply closed their eyes and opened them again after a few minutes.

  Only when their auras rolled out could Lev tell that they had evolved successfully. He paid close attention to the auras, noticing how they seemed a fair bit stronger than what he assumed was the average. Granted, he hadn't ever seen the aura of a newly minted Master, but the team in front of him was almost certainly above average.

  "Whoa," the archer looked at her notifications with wide eyes, the first to try to manipulate her aura. "This is so…"

  "Weird," Jared completed for her, nodding dumbly. "Holy shit. I just got an additional 100% boost to Mana Capacity."

  That made even Lev's brows rise. Given the nature of the class, a boost to capacity wasn't that surprising, but the number sure was. He assumed that it had gone from 50% to 150%, or maybe 25% to 125%. Either way, that was a lot more mana than before.

  "I got a 50% boost to all bonuses from body enhancements," the warrior said with a gulp. "All enhancements, which I have three of. That can't be right."

  No one replied to her, too busy with their own notifications. The last member of the team didn't say anything, and he rarely talked as far as Lev had observed.

  A surprisingly strong team has emerged, but then again, it's not really surprising since they fought so many second-threshold monsters and also saw way bigger battles from up close. Not many can boast the same.

  The numbers were looking promising, at least. He supposed they were going to want to spar soon, something both Lev and Melvine had taken into account.

  Sunlight suddenly fell on top of the new Masters as the dome surrounding them vanished. They turned to Lev questioningly, so he explained.

  "I know there's a lot to go through, but you guys can reread the skills later when the carts are moving again. For now, check out all the new additions and tell me whenever you're ready for testing."

  "Testing?" Jared asked. "Against who?"

  "Me, of course."

  Safe to say, they didn't dally and quickly went over all the notifications. Getting to train against a barrier mage was possibly the best way they could get used to their evolution, and no one wanted to miss out on that.

  Ten relaxed minutes later, they were stepping away from the carts, setting the ground rules for what was to follow.

  "Keep mana usage to half your pool," Lev said thoughtfully. "It's fine if you dip lower, but try not to. Who's first?"

  The archer stepped up, already laying claim to the air around her with wind mana. He took a look at her and formed several shields and arrayed them in a straight line, their durability ranging from lowest to highest from left to right.

  "I don't need to explain," Lev waved towards the constructs. "All yours."

  Lorene stepped up without another prompt, too focused on her skills and mana to speak. Ambient air swirled around her, condensing in a sphere nearly ten meters in radius. Inside it, Lev assumed that all of her air manipulation was heightened to an extreme degree, similar to how his Perception was vastly better for mana types inside his barriers.

  Arrows took form first, forming way faster than before. The number swelled from five to ten, and then to twenty, before she started firing. One of them landed on his unenchanted, regular shield with a smack, leaving a deep scratch.

  She raised a brow, perhaps not expecting them to be so durable. Without stopping to think, she fired another two, and this time, the effect was more noticeable. Both of her arrows accurately landed on the same spot and cracked the shield slightly.

  Having seen enough, she shattered the construct with four arrows that landed on the center at once. The force behind their combined assault was too much, blowing the shield to pieces.

  Decent starts, especially because my shields are good against sharp attacks. The arrows will be more effective against monsters and their skin.

  Lev kept the deductions to himself and watched as she fired ten of the arrows at the next shield. This one was enchanted with the lone durability rune and running only on enough mana to double its durability, by his estimates.

  Needless to say, it was swiftly decimated before she moved on. The next shield was enchanted to the brim with a normal durability formation, one amplifying its durability by nearly three times.

  For this one, she created and fired twenty arrows at once, and Lev watched with curiosity as they landed. Despite the number of projectiles, they slammed into his shield in the same instant, the uncomfortable feedback in his head telling him just how good her control already was.

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

  The shield itself was riddled with holes and cracks, somehow still whole but also not quite. Its enchantments were ruined, and so was its structure. A single arrow would shatter it to bits.

  Lorene nodded in satisfaction, able to feel how tough that shield was. She moved onto the first wall, this one possessing a Fortress of Resilience formation running at half its strength. The durability of this construct was obvious at first glance for a Master, and she didn't even try to fire arrows at it.

  Instead, a large amount of air gathered inside her sphere before it was shaped into a slash. It exploded forward with enough power to make him raise a brow and pause in surprise when it exploded on impact. The wall was decimated by the explosion, accurately showing how much power the wind slash packed.

  … I'm gonna refrain from mentioning just how many of those walls I can form in a second.

  That was a wise thought if he had ever had one. Lorene was beaming with undisguised pride, having accomplished something she couldn't have hoped to before evolving. Lev was pretty happy too, for there was suddenly a lot less for him to worry about with another competent Master team onboard.

  Granted, they couldn't quite face third-threshold monsters, but he was going to work towards fixing that.

  The last two walls were simple. One had his best durability enchantments at full strength, and the other was going to be overloaded to the limit. Both the base materials and the enchantments were going to be pushed past their limits, and that would ultimately decide if Lorene could ever break through his defenses. His armor was the more durable construct in his arsenal, after all.

  Lorene took it for the challenge that it was. Lev leaned into his Perception to observe it all, smiling when she formed a lance. The inspiration was obvious, for both Sherron and he constantly used lances. Lorene had met both of them on their admittedly lengthy trip.

  It was packed with enough air for the construct to be fully visible. The lance spun rapidly and was overloaded with wind mana before it was launched. Shooting forward with an ear-shattering boom, it landed on the non-overloaded wall with a big blast, forcing everyone to stabilize themselves to not be thrown away.

  Due to the element's nature, there was no fire or electricity, letting them see the result of the attack immediately.

  Lev's shield had been thrown back several meters despite his attempts to keep it in place. There was a crack where the lance had landed, running deep but not enough to threaten the enchantments, let alone the whole construct.

  "Are you serious?" Lorene pouted, still just as excited as before. "I was sure it wouldn't survive."

  "You came pretty close," Lev remarked, impressed. "If the lance had dug a little deeper, it would've either shattered a portion of the wall or all of it."

  "I see," she nodded a few times, hand on her chin to ponder whatever was going on in her head. "Thanks, by the way."

  Lev just shrugged and took a step back. "The domain next?"

  "Sure."

  With silent agreement, they flew back, creating distance. Lev didn't fail to notice that Lorene could suddenly fly through her sphere, though it wasn't that surprising. Wind mana was good at flight skills, and a Master evolution was the best time to earn such a skill.

  When they were far enough, she waited for his move. Lev took out a few lances from his bubble and powered up their enchantments. Streaming only enough mana to run them at a quarter of their potency.

  Taking a deep breath, he fired the lance at the edge of her sphere, keeping a close eye on it to stop it if need be. The projectile produced a loud whistle in its passing, only for the sound to halt the moment it entered the sphere.

  A struggle ensued, and Lev had to reevaluate Lorene's class when his lance stopped dead, this time not even with a big struggle. She had stopped it almost casually, showing how strong her little domain was.

  And if I'm not mistaken, it will also slow down any monster near her, Lev noted, now feeling like he was facing a proper Master instead of a hunter under his command.

  They both nodded, tacitly agreeing to up the output. Lev fired up the next lance's enchantments to full before overloading the barrier construct. It tore through the air, much louder than the previous one, and yet again, the sound stopped abruptly inside the sphere.

  Wind and speed battled for supremacy, and even if the lance passed through the whole sphere in the end, its momentum had been sapped enough to be dodged by even a dormant monster.

  That one is her victory, I'd say, he thought to himself. The lance was slowed enough by the middle for her to evade easily.

  For the next one, he imbued a small amount of lightning. Lorene's shoulders stiffened a little when she saw it, dumping even more mana into her sphere. It was shining to Lev's senses now, prepared for the lance.

  The clash this time went differently. Lightning and speed resisted the air sphere with all their might, barely slowing down in the first quarter of the domain. Wind asserted more power the deeper the lance went, finally slowing it down.

  Halfway, the lance was starting to lose speed rapidly, though it could still be considered a win for Lev because it retained most of its speed while going deep enough to reach Lorene.

  Things became weirder after that. The lance shuddered and cracked, and then stilled entirely before falling out of the sphere. Both Lorene and Lev watched it, confused as to why her sphere had acted strongly so late.

  Then her eyes widened as if a lightning bolt went off in her head. Her sphere shuddered before it was yanked forward, now extending half as much again in front of her. A few more mental nudges later, it was stretched even further, extending towards Lev twice as much as before.

  … That skill is a bit ridiculous, he chuckled to himself and floated down. Lorene was too distracted by the discovery to test anything else, and he left her and her team alone for a moment when they started asking questions.

  Meanwhile, he didn't let his brain feel smug about how little mana he had used. If anything, he technically hadn't used any of it, since the costs had been covered by Stargazer's pool, one that still comfortably hovered near full.

  The gap between him and the other hunter was obvious. No matter what she pulled off, Lev didn't think it possible for him to lose, not when her offensive power was that low. It would need a seriously potent combination of attacks to get through his armor.

  "Can I go next, sir?" the warrior, Rosy, asked. She was the most wary around him out of her team, something he couldn't identify the source of.

  He wasn't actually scary, was he?

  Lev banished those thoughts and replied, "Sure."

  Both of them squared off against each other a few hundred meters away from the cart. Rosy was a pure fighter with a big sword, a popular combination because of its effectiveness. Her body enhancements were pretty strong even as an Adept, and now, Lev expected to be pleasantly surprised.

  Stargazer primed, he nodded at her to start, and she didn't disappoint. The ground beneath her feet cracked as she held herself back, sprinting straight at him.

  Lev waited, knowing she was too experienced to start with something so straightforward. Her sword almost blurred, firing a pure mana slash at him. Powering up his enhancements at full strength, he smashed it aside with Stargazer and immediately had to jump aside.

  A crater was left in her wake as Rosy lunged, acclerating to full speed in a blink. Without a doubt, that was the result of an active skill, so he streamed lightning mana into his armor to match her.

  Another boom turned her into a blur as her sword landed on Stargazer's blade, chipping it slightly as it was deflected. She was expecting that, and Lev knew that she was expecting that too, so he turned things up a notch by kneeing her.

  It was far from an ideal move, one she easily avoided by taking a step back. Before she could retaliate, a blob of lightning burst out of the knee, almost landing on her face.

  She ducked under it and used her active skill to dash away, only to slam into a barrier wall. Disoriented, she brought up her sword after feeling Lev move, and had to pause when she felt a dulled barrier blade on her neck.

  "Let's take this more seriously next time, shall we?" Lev said, taking a step back to let her get up and assume her position again.