Levi returned to the beginning to verify their mana usage was within parameters - Frosty was watching from the ceiling and waved a leg at him in confirmation that they’d been playing by the rules. This time, Rachel took the lead early and stayed in the front the whole way through. She blazed past Laurence and the others, setting a new record with a triumphant grin, barely out of breath.

“I take it you figured out how to do it?”

“I did! Thank you!” She hopped in place a little, fists pumping in exhilaration. “Hah, take that!”

Laurence, now very out of breath, shook his head. “I don’t get it… should be… impossible,” he grumbled. “How can she be faster? I’m faster!”

“Because with this kind of distance, at your level you’ll burn out if you pull strong the whole way through. What you need to do is find the balance where you can draw steadily without running out. Stopping and starting is less efficient than moving slower but steadily.”

“Not that much slower,” Rachel said, grinning. “Especially with all my points in Spirit.”

“Well, that’s not fair,” Laurence protested.

“When is anything fair?” Levi asked. “She’ll be better able to recover stamina, but slower to heal and run out of mana quicker. I bet you’re more balanced, yeah?”

Laurence nodded. “Two each in Spirit and Psyche, since Fighter already gives extra health every level.”

“You’ll want a few points in Strength anyway, to get your health regen up,” Levi warned. “Don’t neglect regen just because you have a higher base. Later on, regen can be the difference between success and death.”

“I may be resetting my levels, though,” Laurence admitted. “I want to be a mage. A real, proper one, not a fighter with some magic.”

“It’s not an easy path.”

“I don’t care. There’s no way I’m giving up the chance to be a real proper wizard.”

“Then your best bet is to unlock one of the spells once you hit threshold, practice it until you can do it without system assistance from memory, then reset and go cast it on the first dungeon monster you see. That should unlock the requirement.”

“You can’t teach me one?”

Levi considered. He’d gotten out of the habit of using his repair and cleaning spells, simple utility in the future, but a heavy expenditure of mana for someone still below the second threshold. Mana Ping, and its weird cousin, Mana Push, weren’t magical enough to count for unlocking Mage. He doubted the cleaning spell would work either; it was more of a scout ability.

He’d never learned any offensive spells. Why waste mana on an attack spell when you could throw slashes out from your sword with less power and do more damage? Unless you had the mage perks to alleviate the expansive costs, it was impossible for spells to stay relevant.

“I can show you how to find one in the system, but not teach it directly.”

Rachel came over to listen as he walked Laurence through finding the wind spells in the system. It was something like trying to walk a blindfolded person through a 3d maze without being able to watch their progress, but Laurence was determined to succeed.

“Ability points. Yeah, we’ve heard about those.”

“Every threshold level, you’ll get some. The amount depends on which threshold it is and your class. Most standard classes get 3 per level until you reach the fifth threshold, and advanced classes give at least 5. Subclasses can compound at higher levels, but it’s generally a better idea to stick with one class at a time unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise.”

“What does that mean, compound?” Rachel asked.

“Once you evolve one class, the other class is counted toward the ability point gains. But it’s almost never worth the amount of health and stamina you’d sacrifice. By the time you’re that high level, two or three more ability points aren’t as valuable as a hundred health.”

“Are you sure?” Laurence was frowning as he scribbled on his notebook. “Abilities seem way more important.”

“That’s what I was told.”

“And that’s another thing,” Doug spoke up from where he sat watching. “Told by who? Where are you getting all this information about high levels and advanced classes?”

“I was involved with a military group for a while,” Levi said carefully. “They knew a lot more about all this than anyone else.”

“And they don’t mind you sharing it with the world?”

Levi shook his head. “They don’t mind at all. In fact, they’d be happy to hear that as many people as possible had access to their knowledge.”

Doug squinted at him, clearly still suspicious.

“My branch was dissolved, so now I’m on my own. If you really want to hear my life story, sure. It’s your time we’re wasting, not mine.”

Before Doug could continue being annoying, Laurence jumped in with more questions, and it was nearly an hour before Levi was able to bring the topic back around to their stamina practice.

“The next step is to learn to use stamina consciously on a single action. Frosty, can you help set this up? I need a line here, and another here.”

Frosty gladly set to spitting web, leaving a broad white sticky patch across the dungeon floor, then a second.

“These are too far apart for you to jump without stamina. But…” Levi pushed stamina into his legs, crouched, and took a soaring leap past both patches, landing smoothly on the other side. “That took me about thirty, a little more. You can use stamina in focused bursts as well as steady draw. As you practice, you’ll want to use it for all kinds of little things. Reinforcing an attack, reacting to enemy attacks faster, absorbing impact. I want you to practice using it on-demand until you can jump between these two lines five times in succession without falling short. You can pause as long as necessary between attempts, as long as they’re made consecutively.”

This exercise took them longer to master. At first, the sense of competition with one another was enough to keep them focused, but as the initial enthusiasm wore off their already-tired state made it harder. Which was exactly what Levi had hoped for. Anyone could accidentally use stamina or mana in a moment of stress and panic. If they couldn't use it on demand it would be an unreliable tool.

The next step after this would be learning how to not use stamina in a circumstance where it would be instinctive to use it, but he wasn't sure if they'd reach that stage before he left. This time it was the ranger who managed the task first, taking it slowly and methodically, with quick runups but not attempting the jump until he was ready. Laurence and Rachel seemed to be intensely attempting to outdo each other, but both were making mistakes in this pursuit.

Doug only watched, interjecting the occasional encouraging word for his team members. He seemed particularly keen to cheer on Rachel, Levi noted.

Eventually, all but one of them achieved the task, the last man unable to get more than three jumps in a row regardless of what he tried.

"This is fine," Levi told him. "It's not the sort of thing you're supposed to do once and be done with it, anyway. Set up a course somewhere and practice it every day. Once you can get it five times in a row the first time every time, then you'll be ready to start training more complicated applications."

The group broke up, everyone but Doug and Laurence heading to bed. It was well into the morning by now, still a few hours before dawn, but much later than most normal people would stay out.

Laurence, though, refused to waste even a minute with sleep. He drank a stamina restorative, got out his notebook, and started asking about other training methods.

Levi ran him through as many of the basic exercises as he could recall, outlining a comprehensive training program for mana and stamina usage, weaponry, monster fighting, boss elimination, dealing with Essences, and group formation.

By the time Gordon showed up in the morning, Levi was convinced that Laurence would never run out of questions.