It was in the midst of a raging battle that Morten, the captain of the city guard appeared and he looked truly enraged at the carnage he was seeing. Skull had noticed him, but he still didn't stop his rampage across the enemy army. The mob's boss had no weapon, and yet he weaved through the [Guards] without any effort, killing them by droves. It truly disturbed Hannah. She had never really thought about how... unfair the concept of levels was. The city guard couldn't even hold a candle to Skull's speed and skills just because he was high leveled. Someone could train for years– no, for their entire life and they would still not be able to defend themselves from a high leveled individual if that person suddenly decided to attack them. Captain Morten had had enough of this.

"All men, retreat! Retreat!"

In all the chaos, people barely heard him, but most of them noticed and ran from the Mob's leader. Skull suddenly stopped and Morten glared at him.

"Skull! You have festered in Winsor for too long! Prepare to meet your end, you vile creature!"

Skull did not answer. He just looked at him with no expression, no emotion. Not even Gregory could have known what was going through his head. The city guard captain tensed his whole body.

"[Steel Hide], [Strenght Boost]. Your time is over now, Skull."

Morten dashed towards Skull, as the soldiers from both sides subconsciously formed a circle around the two. He tried grabbing Skull's head with his huge hands but by the time he arrived, which was faster than Hannah could see, the Mob's leader was already gone. Morten was hit at the back of the head by Skull's first and groaned in pain, but he knew he could take many of these hits thanks to his [Steel Hide] skill.

Morten instantly turned and finally struck Skull for the first time with his sword. He bled from his chest, and he instinctively tried to grab a healing potion from his pouch but then Skull remembered they were out. He'd have to do this without a fail-safe.

This instantly made his strategy change and even Hannah could tell he was fighting safer now. He took his time to approach Morten, and every time the guard captain approached him he jumped back. To Esme, it looked like Skull was just bidding his time until Morten's skills ran out, or maybe he was just waiting for a proper opening. It was hard to analyze his expressionless face.

"[Valiant Slash]!"

Another skill. Morten's blade lit up in white and his sword's length grew two-fold. It didn't even phase Skull, and it was another missed hit. Morten couldn't hit Skull at all. Hannah knew he was too fast... so why was he not doing anything? It had been twenty minutes at least. Morten's men were waiting for an order– any order. A retreat or a final all-out attack... anything would have been better than this. This duel wasn't going anywhere. Their captain was now panting and slowing each attack. Skull could have already killed him more than once! Esme could tell his form was getting sloppy from her lessons with Kayden.

What was happening?

For the first time since they saw him, Skull talked.

"Morten."

Morten was enraged and just glared. He continued to attack fruitlessly.

"Morten. Listen to me."

"Shut– hah– your mouth! [Valiant Slash]!"

Skull just ducked to avoid the horizontal strike. He kept going.

"You cannot beat me. Surrender."

"Never! You son of a bitch! You dare look down on me!"

He gathered his last bit of strength and tried to strike at his enemy's neck. Unfortunately for him, somehow, Skull deflected it with his bare hands. He did not bleed.

"Join me, Morten. Draele is rotten to its very core. If we keep treading this path we–"

The captain of the city guard tried again and again. Skull, still expressionless just grabbed his blade and simply broke it in two. Hannah let out a surprised gasp as she watched Skull drop the blade on the ground.

"I ask again. Join me. Humanity is doomed if we keep listening to this destructive leadership! Don't you see it? Refuse and you will die. You are weak. Far too weak. While you stagnated for seven years, I grew and surpassed my limits. I leveled. How many times have you leveled since I came to Winsor? Once? Twice at most. Join the Mob. Save your species from doom."

Morten didn't answer, he only glared and spit in Skull's face.

"I'd rather turn into a Demon than join you, Skull."

"Very well. You have made your choice."

And just like that, Skull broke his neck.

-------------------------------

Hours later, the Mob had finally captured or killed the last [Guards]. Most of them had fled when they saw their captain die. Some of them even cried. They had created pockets of resistance in buildings, or in small alleys in the city. All the [Mayors] had fled, including the one that was supposed to be on the Mob's side.

A few [Guards] also flipped to Skull's side, who was happy to accept new members after all the casualties they'd taken to take the city. Of course, he made them sign the magical contract to ensure there wouldn't be any... complications. At least it was better than getting killed.

It was night time now, and the Mob was celebrating as one. They were finally done, and it felt almost surreal to Hannah. This was supposed to be their first goal out of multiple, but still... taking over an entire city, just like that? Why did Skull wait so long to do so if he was this strong? He probably could have taken it over by himself, although with more difficulty. What level was he even at? Hannah had never seen someone really high leveled before, although she knew they existed.

[Grand Mages], although less numerous than centuries ago, were said to be over level 70 according to Edali, although this was just gossip and speculation. Their true level remained a mystery to everyone but themselves and their closest allies. In fact Draemary, the best Draelish magical school was run by one of these [Grand Mages]. Hannah had forgotten to ask Edali for their name though.

Hannah had to keep her mind busy. It was hard to celebrate after seeing hundreds of corpses on the floor, enemy or not. She liked to imagine her life at Draemary, and she also wanted to improve as a [Mage]. Although Hannah was also a [Thief], the young girl wondered if it was time to relinquish that class for good. Stealing from innocent people wasn't her thing.

Someone called out to her.

"Hey, you! Hannah right?"

He was a younger man who looked in like he was in his twenties with dirty blond hair. Hannah wondered what he could possibly want from her. They didn't know each other after all.

"Yeah. What's up?"

"I just wanted to let you know that Edali wanted to see you. I don't know why though."

"Oh. Do you know where she is?"

"Well, not really... she was here a moment ago but she went that way."

The man pointed towards a street packed with people. Hannah groaned but she nodded.

"Thank you."

"No problem! If anything I should thank you."

"What? Why?"

"You don't know? You saved me with a spell earlier. The purple light one, 'dunno the name."

"You mean [Mana Bolt]? Edali said it was one of the most known spells though..."

"Well, I'm no good with magic. Never was. Thanks anyway."

Hannah nodded and went along to look for her mentor. The [Thief] noticed that the common folk were slowly coming out of their houses now. It was a good thing to see. Maybe their life would finally return to normal now, at least until the Draelish armies arrived. That wasn't much time but at least it was something.

After around fifteen minutes of searching, Hannah finally saw noticed Edali through the crowd. She pushed her way through and made called out to her.

"Edali! Edali!"

Her teacher snapped her head towards the noise and smiled once she saw it was Hannah calling. They met next to a worn-out building.

"A guy said you were looking for me?"

"Yes, I was! Follow me, it's about your magic."

Hannah's heart sunk. Was it still no good? Was she going to need to learn to control her mana even more? Any more of that and she would go completely crazy.

They made their way to an emptier part of the neighborhood and even though Hannah wanted to ask Edali a million questions, she kept her mouth shut.

"Listen, Hannah."

The [Thief] fidgeted in place and tried to avoid her teacher's gaze. This reminded her of when her parents were about to ground her or punish her for something she did.

"You are exceptional."

"I'm sor– wait, what?"

"Your [Mana Bolt]. It was the best one I've ever seen! It's the most amazing– no, the most beautiful [Mana Bolt] I've ever seen in my entire life for someone of your level!"

"Oh god! I thought I was going to get scolded! Is it really that good?"

"It is! You have real potential. You have talent. Something I never had! Have you even gained the skill yet?"

"Not yet, but I'll level tonight. At least I think so."

"Of course you will! I'm so excited for you!"

Hannah was blushing and smiling from ear to ear. She wasn't used to getting complimented this much. Was she really that special?

"I am too! But I don't understand, why did you need to take me here to say this."

"To practice more, silly! What else? Although I'll be teaching you a new spell this time."

"Really? Which one?"

"Well, you have a few choices. Of course, you know about the different mage classes. You could start specializing in a specific element... the earlier you specialize the better it is."

"Why?"

"Think! Find the answer yourself."

"Hm... because... huh..."

"Yes? Because?"

"I don't know. Tell me already!"

"Ugh... come on. Ok, listen carefully, when you start specializing into one element earlier, you don't waste levels into getting skills that you won't use in the future. Essentially, your levels are valuable, very valuable, and I don't understand how you were raised since this is common knowledge."

Hannah jumped at the mentioning of how she was raised, but she nodded.

"I see, that makes sense. So this applies to all the classes then?"

"Of course. If you want to be a [Soldier], don't waste your levels into a [Cleaner] class or vice-versa."

"Damn, I wonder if Esme figured this out already, this sounds like something she'd be dying to know."

"Knowing her, she already knew this at five years old, bahaha!"

Edali slapped her knees a few times and wiped a tear.

"So yeah, you need to choose. If you still can't, I guess you could try to learn another generalist spell. Utility wise for your level, there's [Levitate], or maybe [Silence]. Combat wise there's [Strenghten Core], or [Magical Burst]. I obviously recommend a combat one. Choose."

"What?! I can't just choose just like that. I need time! A lot of it!"

"We don't have that time. Must I remind you of the army that is making their way to us as we speak?"

That's true, there was no time. She had to commit to learning a spell so she'd know in time for the siege. Hannah didn't want to be useless anymore. The [Mage] wanted to be an asset, and a powerful one.

"Sorry. Just let me have five minutes to think."

"No problem."

These five minutes went by in the blink of an eye and Hannah was still stumped. She sighed.

"Can't [Levitate] be used as a combat spell? Wait, hold on. Does it make the caster levitate or an object levitate."

"It's mostly used for objects, and it could technically be used for fights if you control it well enough. I suppose if you had knives or arrows or any pointy object, you could make it work, Hannah. But it would take weeks, and we don't have that. It's never used for fighting anyway."

"I don't know. I feel like it's calling to me for some reason. Maybe I'm just delusional."

"No, no. Don't worry. If you want to learn it, I'll teach it to you."

Hannah grinned and hugged Edali.

"Thank you so much! Oh, sorry, I'm just excited."

"Don't worry about it."

"So how do I go about learning [Levitate], Edali?

"Wait! First, how's your mana doing?"

"I'm good, it regenerated a lot since the fight."

"Hm. Fine. This spell, well... it's complicated. Pay close attention."

Edali held out her hand and in an instant, a brick slowly rose from the ground. The air between the [Mage] and the brick was... fuzzy, like looking through a really hot desert. There was also purple light coming out of her hand.

"As you can see, I'm not very good at it. It actually sucks to learn and it made me almost fail my generalist magic class in my first year at Draemary."

"Oh. You need to tell me more stories about school. You know that right?"

"Not now! Later. Long story short, you need to slowly– very, very slowly let your mana seep about of your palm towards your target, and then you want to control that mana to lift the object of your choice. Let's start with something light–"

"Woah, wait, hold on! You want me to go slow this time?! Do you realize how hard it's going to be to go from super fast for [Mana Bolt] to super slow for [Levitate]?! And how the hell do I control mana that's outside of my body? This isn't making any sense."

"I told you it was hard! You wanted to learn it regardless! Are you with me or not?"

"Ugh. Fine."

"Like I was saying before I was interrupted, you want to start with something light. The lighter the object is the easier it is to levitate. Here, use this."

Edali ripped out a piece of tied parchment from her pouch and gave it to Hannah.

"Try."

And she did. The [Thief] took a deep breath and she focused on her mana pool. Slowly, she brought the mana out by her palm. Slowly... slowly...

"Wow, you're surprisingly good at this."

"Gah!"

A purple beam shot out of Hannah's hand, although it was weak and basically harmless because she caught herself in time. Edali gasped.

"Oh. Was that my fault? Sorry, carry on."

"Damn it, Edali! I was doing good! No more talking!"

So the young woman tried one more time. She let her mana leak out as slowly and delicately as she could. Hannah opened an eye and she saw the parchment shake a little bit but it wasn't moving yet, and that was because she still didn't know how to control her mana outside of her body. The [Mage] heard a clap.

"Excellent first attempt. It's better than what I did for the first week of studying the spell, you're a natural."

"Thank you, but I still don't know how to actually make the item move."

"That comes later, for now just focus on making your mana go slow. It needs to be slower still."

"If it's that slow, how can I possibly use it while fighting?"

"I never said it was convenient! You just need time to set up the initial mana bridge to the thing you're levitating, and then you're good to go."

"Oh, is that what the fuzzy purple thing between you and the item is called? A mana bridge?"

"Correct. I forgot to mention it, oops."

"I swear, you will be the death of me someday."

"Shouldn't I be saying that? You almost shot me with a [Mana Bolt] you know? I'm very hurt emotionally."

"Who's fault was that?"

"Yours! Only yours!"

"Right."

By the time Hannah was done practicing, the sun was already rising. She hadn't slept but Edali had left a long time ago. Life went on like this for a few days. Defenses were being set up, new recruits were being initiated and trained and the Mob was as ready as it could ever be for the siege.

And then the Draelish army arrived.