Adrin was waving the empty air as she approached, probably checking his status. Everyone had a unique status, and she would love to see what his [System Status] looked like.

However, she didn’t think he would be willing to share it with her, no, not even if she flaunted her beauty at him. He wasn’t like most men she had met. Adrin didn’t put her on a pedestal and that was what made him very different. All youth at their age were awakened, but he still acted strangely, as if he wanted to avoid everyone, especially girls.

“So what’s the plan?” Ana asked the young man. His eyes opened wide for a moment when she asked him before he got up on his feet.

His reaction made her wonder if he had any plan, to begin with. Adrin had done nothing but relax on his back while they busted their asses practicing. Ally was able to be consistent with her new [Water bolt] while Ana herself was able to get a skill from the deceptively simple exercises.

The difference was noticeable when it was still at the first level. It made sense because the ability had increased two attributes instead of only one, and such abilities were uncommon.

Adrin could have easily asked anything as a reward but all he wanted was anonymity. She wouldn’t stoop that low, but another young man would have definitely used this as leverage to get whatever they wanted. A few female slaves were nothing compared to what he had accomplished.

“The plan is simple, I’ll provide protection while you all level up,” Adrin said as he weaved a glyph. “Let’s do this at record time.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Ally, her long-time friend asked.

The blue-haired girl was the only one she could see as an equal, but after his intervention, Ana couldn’t say for sure already. The girl’s new [Water Bolt] had proved to be as deadly as any other element. She didn’t have to resort to the basic [Mana Bolt] which would have cost more mana and wouldn’t contribute to increasing her affinity.

“Places to go?” he shrugged.

“Are you going solo-diving again?” Mary asked. “That’s reckless.”

“To you, yes,” Adrin stated, “and since this dungeon doesn't offer loot, then why even bother?”

The young man ignored the girl’s advice as he spread his hands. The blurred glyphs expanded in an instant, and mana began to fill them quickly until it was full within a few seconds.

Normally, the blurred glyphs would cause an alarm, but a mage could easily tell if it was an offensive spell or not. Hiding the spell glyph and filling them as fast was also a feat an apprentice mage could never have accomplished.

Ana didn’t think that he was being reckless at all. He was proving to them right before their eyes how good he really was, and to think he did all this without an ounce of private tutoring. She wondered what kinds of things she would be able to witness if he was born into a magi family.

“[Shell],” he cast, and then a huge dome of the mana built itself up. Ana had never seen anything like it before.

“You really think this [Shell] would do anything against the hounds?” June scoffed and crossed her arms.

The girl was still unaware of the actual length of what the young man had just shown. Her pride was blinding her, but Ana couldn’t blame her. The girl might come from a branch family but still far above the common people.

Adrin chuckled, “then give your best shot, all of you, if you want,” he offered himself as a target and shrunk the dome in an instant. “Use your best skills on me and I won’t complain about it.”

Unlike others, Ana could see the difference. She had seen many other [Shells] but never this solid but clear mana construct. It felt like she was surrounded by a see-through wall, as safe as she could ever be.

“You asked for it,” June smiled before she formed the [Bolt] glyph.

“[Bolt],” she cast and withheld the spell for a few seconds. Stones floated up from the ground and changed shape as June used [Stone Meld] prepared for rapid firing.

Spiky rocks shot towards Adrin. Five sharp hardened rocks raced towards the man but he just smiled, amused by June’s seriousness.

Every projectile hit almost at the same time, but as she had suspected, the [Shell] didn’t even crack, let alone break apart. Ana had seen the girl make short work out of other mages, but Adrin made the girl look like she was a nobody.

June was looking at her hands in disbelief as it made the girl doubt herself. The girl had been trained ever since she was young to be Ally’s protector.

The other’s collective gasps said it all, Adrin’s [Shell] was something else. A [Stone Shell] might be as sturdy but it also blocked the view. On the other hand, any mage inside Adrin’s unique [Shell] could retaliate safely and easily with her spells.

Ana wondered what modification he had made to the glyph? Would he be willing to share it with others? She doubted it because this [Shell] would be as valuable as the blue flame if not more.

An improved [Water Bolt] hit the [Shell] followed by [Lightning Bolt], but the popular combination did almost nothing. The [Lightning] lasted longer but Adrin was unharmed. Mary's other hand was still cracking with [Lightning Flux] as her other hand closed her mouth.

Both Ally and Mary were speechless, and they couldn’t tell anyone about this! There was no Oath involved, but what would he say about them if they told anyone?

“Anyone else?” Adrin chuckled and expanded the dome again, “Now, just don’t stray too far from me, and let’s hunt.”

The march towards the end of the dungeon went on according to the new expectation. Five apprentice mages walked with leisure as their respective [Bolt]s took the enemy out.

The shadow wolves were literally clawing on the [Shell] and it did nothing to the solid layer of pure mana. The huge monsters had tried to pounce and ram the dome to no avail. The creature stood as tall as humans on its four legs and it couldn’t do anything to them.

Adrin didn’t even use his [Crystal] affinity yet and it was already this tough. There was no challenge at all. They reached the end like walking in a park.

It was just a level 1 dungeon, but still, they were expecting a few days before they could reach the finish line. The whole short journey should be a significant challenge because there were no front liners to hold the line for them.

The group assignment was supposed to teach them the importance of non-mage. They should have died enough times before they reached the end. Dying in this dungeon wouldn’t leave any mark on their physical body but the pain would still be as real.

Some even might get traumatized by it and this would decide the mage’s future. Not all of them were cut to be in the forward position or in the battlefield altogether. This exercise would sort them out earlier so they could decide what their future would be.

The huge cyclops at the end smashed the [Shell] with its huge wooden club until the ground cracked, but the pure mana construct still didn’t break apart. Adrin finished the huge monster with [Crystal Bolt] through the chest to the helpless monster.

Not even a drop of blood had smeared any of them. Ana couldn’t even think anymore while watching it happen right before her eyes.

It felt like she would disservice the whole mage society if she kept it a secret. If nothing else, everyone needed to know how great he was with the [Shell] spell. Something was telling her that Adrin was still holding back as ridiculous as it sounded.

The girls ended up asking the adept mage in charge if he had messed with any of the Mirage dungeon settings. The answer was as Ana had expected, but it was still hard to believe. Their setting was higher than every other group because of their higher average level.

She went to look for him but the man was already gone. There was no trace of him in the assigned room or anywhere else.

And then she remembered something. The Mirage dungeon’s guarded secret even among the established mages as not even these adepts knew about it.

The Mirage dungeon had a recording to avoid people using it for less than honest things. She knew because each great family had a miniature version of it.

---

Use aspiration points to learn new skills? (2 points remaining)

Deluge - 1 point

Lightning Flux - 1 point

Should he use the aspiration point or not? It was a hard decision. Adrin swiped the notification aside for the time being as he made his way toward the exit.

He had tried to use static electricity by dragging his socked feet on the carpet, but the System didn’t even respond to it. He had to admit that he knew less about electricity than metal but it should have worked right?

And it hurt like hell, goddammit. It should have worked because static electricity was the closest to natural occurring lighting. Should he crank it up to a dangerous level?

Adrin sighed. He also had no idea how to make a machine generate enough static electricity to make his hair stand up on its end. That might trigger something but he couldn’t remember anything but the metal dome.

Maybe he was right about its triggering nature. The key to getting affinity skills was to use mana to generate electricity and he had no idea how to do so.

He had to stop before the lift because of the mean-looking magic guards.

The next logical step was to make an electrical motor. This was also the key to any type of robot or mecha. Actuators powered by electric motors were the most basic muscle for machines. Well, unless he was trying to make soft robots.

To actually build himself an electric motor, he had to gather the material first and learn how to [Enchant] somehow. He could easily introduce rotational force to his spells, but he had no idea how to make something physical spin using the glyph. It would take some time before he could build it but even that wasn’t guaranteed.

But the actual electricity generation didn’t involve mana directly.

All his hard work might be a total waste.

The last option was braving a real-life lightning strike. He didn’t want to take that gamble even with [Shell]. How could he be sure it would end in his favor?

It felt like a huge waste, but he couldn’t see any other timely way to earn the skill and affinity himself. He was sure the noble had kept the way to get the affinity tight around their belt.

An idea hit him as Adrin was about to use the point. The answer was already right before him all along and it met the condition of creating electricity or lightning with mana.

‘God, I’m soo stupid!’ he cursed himself.

His chance to escape came when three adept mages had come to use the lift. He slipped past the ever so serious magically stacked guardsmen in his improved [Camo Shell] with ease. It took him a while to notice it, but their armor literally sucked mana empty more than one meter around them. It was damn scary.

Regardless, he was delighted that he would never need to use a shovel anymore. Unburying his metal scraps only took a wave of his hand and mana would take care of the rest. Finally freed from his academy obligation, he decided to spend the rest of his unofficial off days’ improving his odds against the world.

But this time he would need to buy a [Storage] bag or something. A small enchanted bag would cost him at least fifteen gold coins and he had an idea how to get it.

This time he was going to sell a sword. He had gone around enough smithy in the towns and none of them had used the folding technique on their swords. There were no beautiful patterns on the blades which was the real selling point other than its natural toughness. He wasn’t sure if no one had invented the method or it was simply lost in the fold of history.

Adrin got home before began to work, and a few hours later, he had two swords with different patterns on their blades. Add a heat treatment to the blade and some good old polishing, the swords turned out to be gorgeous.

These were what was called in the old world the modern Damascus blade. No one really knew the original method but it was pretty enough to be accepted by general people.

Regardless, [Metallurgy] definitely was a cheat skill. He didn’t even need to grind the blade to make it perfectly sharp. The blade ended up so beautiful until he wanted to keep one, but on second thought, he could have easily made another if he wanted to. He was just being silly about it. He left a note to the absent maidservant and the girls before he left.

Adrin wrapped the weapons in his cloak and covered the lower half of his face to make his features less prominent than they needed to. The last thing he needed was announcing his best affinity to the world. It would be his ruin.

Traveling through the towns, he still couldn’t believe how huge the place was. He could see the tall walls from the edge of the town, but they were so far off, it felt unreal. The person who had planned the whole thing should be a genius in his or her own right. Adrin would love to hear their thoughts about it and how they arrived at the idea of a tiered economy.

At this point, he was already too lazy to hide his [Roller-Shell] as he traveled to the furthest town where the first dungeon was located. No one could identify him speeding along the road and no noble or rich people would use these dirt roads. His existence would only exist as rumors between the common people and there were already plenty of those going around.

The furthest dungeon was the most popular among the three, so, he had to be careful in the area. It was a Ruin type of dungeon and its bowls promised all kinds of loot and probably endless adventure.

His first stop, however, was the biggest smithy in town. He could have sold his swords to the inner city shops but he didn’t want to risk it.

Unlike other smith-shops, the one here looked rather classy with its glass showcase and pretty salesgirls. It looked promising enough to get him enough gold for a [Storage] bag of some kind. He presented the two long swords with a few thousand folds to the shopkeeper.

Adrin should have known by the look on the man’s face. The price offered to him almost made him fall onto his butt. Two hundred gold coins. Each.

He tried to pull away but he was stopped at the door by a lady.

[Willpower] successfully resist [Charm]