"Where did you come from?" Terrence asks after I punch in the face of a large boar.

+31% Experience! You have gained a Level!

"Over there," I tell him. "My Mana's just about out, so I have to wait a bit before casting again unless it's just a single spell every ten or twenty seconds."

"Try this," he tosses me something a I roundhouse kick another large boar.

I catch the item, finding a one-ounce vial of a violet liquid. I pop off the cap and down it in one gulp.

Mana Regeneration has increased by 200% for 300 seconds

Now I can cast bolt spells every few seconds. Terrence jumps up and lands on the head of another boar, flipping over it. I'll let him focus on the boars for now, they seem interested in him even though I killed one.

There are more of those shelled rabbits, and judging by some of the attacks I saw Terrence do on my way over, he can't breach their shells. I also count two more of those quake-makers and quite a few other monsters of three different varieties, maybe four.

"Why are they all attacking you?" I ask as I slam a heel into the shell of one of the rabbits as it tries to escape me.

"Kill a few more of them!" Terrence calls out as he throws an [Air Spear] at one of the boars, whipping it around to slash through a few of them before the spear drops to the ground. "Dammit!"

He must have run out of Mana and wasn't able to support it anymore, and he'd only killed one of them while wounding a few others.

"Help should be coming!" He tells me as I kill another of the rabbits. "That screamer was a signal of trouble! The guards will have looked out here and should be getting stronger people!"

Then he mutters something that sounds like "but seeing as you're crushing those shells like they're nothing, they might not be necessary". I just snort and fire off an [Air Bolt] at one of the charging quake-makers. My spell doesn't kill it, but it does create a bleeding hole in its side.

"Tch!"

I guess I'll need to kill a few more beasts and gain a couple of more Levels before I can really do stuff to these things, but at least its attention is off of Terrence now.

Letting out a sharp whistle, I draw the attention of a few more monsters, including a boar that tries to ram me. I kick it in the head as I grab a hopping shelled rabbit by its horn and throw it. Thank goodness Nick insisted on all of us taking at least a few lessons in martial arts. I'm nowhere near as good as him, but it's enough to help me keep track of the fight.

A large, cat-like monster tries to bite my arm, its teeth tearing through the sleeves of my tunic but not piercing my arm.

"I can only handle the boars right now!" Terrence calls out as I punch the kitty in the face.

+32% Experience! You have gained a Level!

That's three Levels from this fight so far. For someone as strong as I am already, that really speaks to how overpowered these monsters are for this area. Terrence's comment about how I gain Levels makes that clear.

Where did they all come from?

"See if you can distract other stuff until I can start helping!" Terrence yells. "I only need a few more!"

"Got it!" I respond. "Give me a few to make them realize I'm the bigger threat!"

"How long is a few?"

"[Fireball] or an air bomb?"

"[Air Bomb]! Definitely [Air Bomb]!"

I'll take that as the spell's actual name. [Fireball] cost me about 10 Mana when I cast it before, and Terrence said that it's the fire version of the bomb spells, so I'll assume the others take that much as well. While I wait to recover that much Mana, I punch a few more monsters and kick one of the hoppers out of the way.

That was supposed to be a lethal blow, but I guess I didn't put enough force into it because I don't get an Experience notice from it. It's barely moving now, though, so that's at least a bonus.

Quakes shake the ground before something slams into me from behind, narrow and small, and it throws me a few dozen yards. As I land on my feet, I find another quake-maker. It wasn't able to pierce my back with its horn thanks to my Level now, but there was still enough force to send me flying.

Taking a few steps forward, I hold out my right hand and visualize compressed air forming above my palm, more air generating before compressing down. The violet-tinted wind complies with my will, quickly turning almost glass-like in appearance.

[Air Bomb] Learned!

"Here goes the wind!"

"What?" Terrence calls out.

I throw the [Air Bomb], hoping that Terrence isn't in the blast range. If he is, he's either going to die or end up severely wounded, but I threw it over fifty feet away from him and tried toning down the actual range.

The bomb impacts against the side of one of the quake-makers and explodes, a wave of violet wind blasting outwards. It's not just violet wind, but compressed violet wind, the solidity of it acting almost like battering rams against everything it impacts. Thankfully, it only expands to a radius of forty feet, though the sheer force of it throws some stuff at Terrence.

+232% Experience! You have gained 3 Levels!

Jeez, I'm raking it in! That was definitely a condensed notice, too, since it only showed a single amount rather than several amounts in a single notice.

"Sorry!" I call out to Terrence.

"'Sokay!" He responds. "At least it worked!"

It did – most of the monsters have now turned their attention to me. I can probably tank the attacks, but I'd rather not get hit that much. Just how much longer will it be before others show up to help us? There seem to be more monsters than there were before.

As I prepare to punch one of the quake-makers approaching, a spear slams into it from above, and a moment later, a woman lands on top of it, driving it down further.

She looks to be in her thirties or forties, and she has dark grey hair and grey wolf's ears and a grey wolf's tail. She's dressed in black pants, dark brown leather boots, and a grey tunic with a dark brown belt filled with pouches, knives, and vials.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears," she tells me as she closes her eyes and covers her ears.

I do the same thing, and only a moment later, there's a massive boom and a bright light that almost blinds me even through my eyelids. The moment there's no longer a lot of light against my eyelids, I open them to find the wolfkin grinning.

"Let's kill some monsters," she jumps up, pulling the spear out as she goes.

Flames swirl around the tip of her spear as she begins attacking monsters, and I return to the fight.

Whoever this lady is, she's quite skilled with that spear seeing as monsters start falling left and right to her. Even with her aid, though, this takes us time. There are a couple hundred of these monsters, and with my Mana being almost nonexistence, I have to physically approach and hit every single one of them.

At least future battles should go easier since I probably won't jump into them pretty much empty on Mana. The potion Terrence tossed me is helping me out a lot, too, allowing me to cast spells pretty much every couple of seconds now. Even when it runs out, I'm regenerating my Mana at a pretty decent rate thanks to being Level 14.

I've only gained one more Level since the wolfkin lady showed up, and not because of her. I'm just strong enough now I'm getting only a small amount of Experience per kill.

"Jeez," Terrence collapses onto the ground about six feet away once we've finished killing everything. "What the ancient fuck is going on? None of these monsters should be here! The ones that should be are way stronger than they're supposed to be!"

Either none of them belong here or some of them do. It can't be both, Terrence.

"It's a Slip," the wolfkin walks over, the flames on the head of her spear fading.

"What?" Terrence sits up. "A Slip? It's early!"

"There's no schedule for those," the wolfkin snorts. "Just because they don't normally occur more than once every fifty years, doesn't mean it's impossible."

"Yeah, but this one is only twenty years after the last one!" Terrence stands.

"Not impossible," she says. "About eight hundred years ago, there were three Slips in a twenty-year time span."

"Wait, really?" Terrence asks, tail swishing a little. "How come I never heard about this?"

"You probably did," she says. "It's the origin of our current calendar. It's been seven hundred and ninety-three years since the third of those ended. It might be best if you avoid going out too much until it ends, Terrence."

Okay, so how do I ask about Slips without blowing my cover? Because I really want to know what's going on now and not whenever I can get Terrence in private.

"Why?" He asks. "The average slip lasts three months, and I want to get more training in before Silvia finally shows up. I gained quite a few Levels here, Sera. I'm pretty sure I can still handle hunts. This was actually pretty good, even if annoying and difficult. I'm Level 33 now."

"That's unfair," I say. "I'm only Level 14."

"You're unfair," Terrence snorts.

"[Archon]s always are," Sera rolls her eyes. "Terrence, your father will have my hide if he finds out you got killed during a Slip."

How does she know I'm an [Archon]?

"What does my father have to do with anything?" Terrence asks. "You've never met my family."

"Terrence," Sera says, tail flicking a little in her amusement. "I'm a Tier III mage and I manage the Adventurer's Guild for a town on the border of the Wilderness. I was present at your Status View party."

"The what?" I ask.

"Many people throw them," Sera tells me. "All nobles and royals do, even for illegitimate heirs. It's a celebration of the child making it to their fifth birthday, as well as for the first time they view their Status. Most schedule it to occur during the time they'll receive their first System notification. Little Terre's party wasn't much because most of the nobles only showed up to not offend the royal family, so it was quite amusing to see their faces when he revealed his Status and everyone saw those 7s."

"Ah," I say. "How did you know I'm an [Archon]?"

Sera pulls an amulet out from under her tunic and shows it to me. It consists of a metal ring with a metal eye set into it, the iris made of some sort of violet crystal, a flat circle that's not much thicker than the metal ring and eye frame.

"This amulet is an artifact passed down in my family," Sera tells me. "It was a Rank Advancement Trial reward for my great-great grandfather, and when Mana is put into it, I can view the name, age, species, sex, and active Title of whoever I'm looking at. I used it before I told you to protect yourself from the grenade."

So it's a magical artifact that let her know, not an actual ability to do so on her own.

"That was a nice landing," I tell her.

"Thanks," she smiles. "You two rest up, it took me so long to get over here because we had an issue on the northeastern side of town. There's quite a few more monsters over there. The others are holding it off until I return, but we'll need additional help. There's an elite."

"I'm still-"

"Terrence will tell you," she says, then takes off running.

Sera is fast, but my own high Agility and Perception allow me to make her out as she disappears around the wall of the town. I look at Terrence, who looks a bit awed.

"I'll be that fast soon," he tells me.

"Alright," I snort. "So what's a Slip? And what's an elite?"

"There's ambient Mana everywhere," Terrence explains. "When it's too much, it forms monsters. Normally, the monsters are based on the region and the power level of the other monsters of the area. That's why an area of mostly slimes stays mostly slimes. Monsters get stronger and gain Levels both by killing stuff and by absorbing more ambient Mana. Areas around towns are usually just fields of slimes because enough beginners are killing them that none of the slimes get too strong.

"If that didn't happen," he says. "The slimes would grow in power enough for other things to start spawning. There usually are one or two other things aside from slimes, but slimes are the main one."

"And in the forest?" I ask.

"That's why every town bordering the Wilderness has a branch of the Adventurer's Guild, which is managed by the kingdom," Terrence explains. "They monitor the levels and make sure anything near the borders is kept to a manageable one. If the kingdom decides to expand out, then the guild will send groups out to clear monsters not just from the area we're expanding into, but past it in order to lower that amount."

Which makes sense. They'd want to make sure that not just the new area has the lower amount, but the area past that, too. They probably also manage the monster levels in forests within the kingdom as well, at least well enough to ensure safe travel if there's a trail through it. If not, then they might keep it maintained so that it can be used as hunting or training grounds for soldiers.

"And a Slip?" I ask. "How does that relate to this?"

"A Slip," Terrence tells me. "Is when the balance changes and the ambient Mana becomes greater. At the same time, it also coalesces into fewer, but stronger, monsters."

"Hence the beasts that are out of place," I say.

"Yeah," he says. "The shell hunters are one that's normally in this area, though they normally hang out over by that river that passes by the eastern side of the town. The Slip has made them more powerful by a lot, and it's caused them to appear all over the area rather than just by the river. It empowered the boars, too, but not by as much as the shell hunters."

"Are the rabbits really called shell hunters?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "I'm not the one who named them, it's a habit of theirs. The quake unicorns are a known beast, too, though they're normally in the fields northeast of here. The Slip must have decided that they were worth placing here."

I can see that being their name, though I still like "quake-makers".

"And elites?" I ask. "Some sort of special, strong monster that forms during a Slip?"

"No, those are around all the time," he says. "It's a stronger, smarter monster, often with more abilities. Considering the nature of Slips and the fact that Sera implied she was getting held up by it, I'm going to assume it got amped-up, too."

Terrence looks at all of the monsters.

"Slips are actually a great way for people get stronger," he says. "They usually occur once every seventy to ninety years, but rarely more than once every fifty. Anyone hunting can get a significant boost in Level. Just from this battle, I gained twenty-four Levels. I can probably gain another five to ten from the monsters around here. Once it ends, Pa'll probably have us expand a little bit more into the forests. Higher power levels makes that easier."

"You called him 'Father' before."

"Using 'Pa' is more natural," Terrence tells me. "I hate using 'Father', that's a formal thing and most people don't use it. The common person uses 'Pa' instead, and it really does feel natural."

"Should we go help?" I ask.

"They'll manage while we recover," he says. "It's best if we wait until we're at full. If they succeed, they win, if they don't, well, we might get a few more Levels. But if we go in half-empty…"

This fight would have been faster if I'd come in at full Mana from half my Level than me coming in empty. I might be stronger now, physically, but there's a difference between charging in and punching and kicking, and casting spells from a distance and hitting several things at once. That [Air Bomb] by itself was more effective than several punches and kicks.

"Alright," I say. "And after this, you're going to have to teach me those flips you were doing. I know some martial arts because of a friend back home, but I've never done flips before."

"I can teach you," he snorts.

"So how did you end up with a horde while I fought just one?"

"Bad luck," he answers. "They all actually sort of formed while I was taking out a couple of boars. I should've realized something was up when I didn't see any slimes while I was on my way to the forest, but I was mostly distracted while thinking about dinner."

"We all make mistakes," I shrug. "And we are only sixteen, it's natural. So when you ran away from home, did you have a boyfriend?"

"That's a topic change," he says. "And no, I did not. Being interested in the same sex is a taboo. As much as I wanted to, too many eyes were on me for me to want to try even a secret one."

That must be why he ran away from home. Not the fact that he can't date who he wants, but the fact that he's always being watched. He did mention he's a bastard son, even being a Tier IV probably didn't remove all of the sting from that. Terrence must have gotten tired of stuff and fled to somewhere he wouldn't be recognized.

"Maybe on your world," I tell Terrence. "But on my world, my crush's girlfriend liked sending me pictures of him."

"That must have been expensive."

"While we wait for our Mana to recover, let me inform you of some of the things I'm going to miss while trying to find a way back home."