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Chapter 71

  Lev appeared in front of the Master guard, lying on the ground. The man scanned him up and down and gave him a respectful nod. Lev guessed that the man could sense how much his aura had grown after clearing that dungeon.

  "How long has it been?" Lev voiced and sat up.

  "Three days since you entered. Thought you were a goner. Well done."

  "Thank you," Lev replied with a curt nod before he started walking back to the surface. His mana was still below 5%, as the constant, abominable headache kept reminding him, so he decided to walk till it was high enough to fly again.

  With how high his Wisdom was now, the flight would take less mana than he regenerated except when he flew at full speed. Lev just didn't want to spend any mana while it was so low, as that would only worsen the pain.

  For half an hour, he slowly trotted back to Windkeep before his mana was high enough to fly. Fifteen minutes was all it took to cover the rest of the distance.

  The questioning at the gates went easier this time as Lev showed his gold badge and told them he was returning from a delve. Walking through the city, he wondered how to broach the topic to Hakim.

  I mean, he probably would appreciate me being blunt. Perhaps I can turn it into a bonding moment? He probably hasn't had any casual interactions with young folk for a long time.

  Getting into the hunters guild, Sherron was also present in the guildmaster's room. Her aura eclipsed all others combined because Hakim kept his own contained to the office. Lev would've held it against the man if he hadn't.

  Hakim's silver light was the scariest thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. Nothing else ever came close.

  With a steadying breath, Lev knocked on the door. They opened to reveal a Sherron, who failed to hide her relief at seeing him again, and Hakim, who looked just as rigid as before.

  Lev took his seat without being prompted. "Permission to be blunt?"

  While he said that, the illusion armor vanished. His bloody and burnt clothes, the damaged skin flaking off, the obvious stream of tears cutting through the bloodstains on his face, and many more such details were revealed. He continued at Hakim's nod.

  "You didn't have to choose such a convoluted method to get rid of me," Lev said with a casual smirk. Both Sherron and Hakim went completely still as his smirk turned into a smile.

  That slowly devolved into a laugh, and Lev laughed even harder at Hakim's confused face. It took him several seconds to bring himself under control and summon the guardian's core.

  "I was so close to dying," Lev spoke up between breaths. "Just a few more seconds, and everything would've been for nada."

  He leaned back and let out a content sigh. "Good thing I'm strong as hell for my level."

  Sherron shook her head lightly, eyes scanning the core as if it may turn out to be fake, before looking at him. "What level was it?"

  "271," Lev replied, his smile growing wider. "For comparison, I was level 155."

  "Boy," Hakim's voice echoed in the room. "Do you resent me for this?"

  Lev just stared. Then he stared some more. "Surely it's not that hard to spot a joke."

  Sherron slapped the back of his head, prompting him to answer properly. "No, of course not. Why would I resent you for telling me a good way to upgrade my title? It's my own existence that caused me so much trouble."

  "I see," Hakim sat up straighter, and Lev was flabbergasted to see some genuine relief on his face. "Would you mind giving the report?"

  Lev straightened too and launched into an explanation of everything that had transpired.

  "There was no indication that something would be out of place from looking at the portal or passing through it. The first monster I saw was a level 189 centiquus golem. It was basically double my height and very tough. It also had an aura of fear but nothing else going for it. Their cores all exhibit minor properties of stone.

  "The second monster I found was a level 200 burrower. I dealt with it by forming a ball of fire and chucking it into its wide maw. The easiest level I have ever gotten. The third monsters were clay gargoyles at level 189. Dealing with them was also simple but their cores were weakened. They also exhibit the properties of body enhancement.

  "The fourth monster I found were imps. There was a commander at level 189 and 29 other imps at levels 155-170. That was a hectic fight but beyond being cooked inside my armors, it wasn't life-threatening either.

  "Lastly, I prepared a lot of equipment to facilitate my escape before fighting the boss. The cave closed off before I could think about turning around after entering the final area," Lev recalled with a chortle. "Never felt so close to pissing my pants before.

  "The boss had sound and stone abilities and was very strong. Even if I was nearly 120 levels lower, I just know for sure it would've completely dunked on any monster of its level. Except maybe generals. Long story short, since it could easily block all my levels, I had to get close and attack by either directly injecting mana into it or with a mana slash. The core, as you can see, exhibits lessor properties of two things and will sell for quite a bit."

  Both Sherron and Hakim looked at him silently as he filled them in about all the smaller details. Lev was expecting them to at least compliment him for a job well done but there was no reaction.

  Until Sherron grabbed him in a tight hug from the side.

  "Erm…" Lev let the silent question hang in the air. He wasn't used to such a response.

  "Let me guess," Sherron began, smiling. "You think any of us could have done the same?"

  "… Maybe? Probably."

  Even Hakim chuckled at his reply. Lev looked between the two of them, realizing something.

  "You couldn't have? Neither of you?"

  "No, boy. I most certainly couldn't have. Just the first golem alone would've been my end. Even if Sherron's class back then was stronger than mine, she couldn't have ever landed a hit on the boss. You haven't explained how you won, and I'm incredibly curious about how."

  Lev blinked, some gears shifting in his mind. Maybe he really was as strong as his monstrous status suggested, yet it was only beginning. He launched into a retelling while Sherron was still holding him.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  "I, uh, was almost taken out of the fight instantly. It used a scream attack that floored me and crushed my left arm with a boulder. The pain made me gather myself and dodge the rest but it had merged back with the stone cave already. I dodged its projectile while looking for a way to attack it, which it gave me by luring me in an obvious pattern and physically attacking me.

  "The first attack I landed was an overloaded lightning slash but that also opened me up for a boulder. Some of my ribs cracked from that. It tried to skewer me with a spike, so I let it mangle my left arm even further and punched it with a lot of lightning. That was satisfying. Much of the fight played out the same way. I let it attack me and traded hits in exchange.

  "I taunted it when it both failed to finish me off and got another face full of lightning. Dozens of spikes, pillars, and boulders dropped from above, and I was already running low on mana. I didn't know the boss was hiding in one of the large boulders, so I launched an overloaded fire slash upwards to avoid being crushed.

  "It hit the boss, who emerged at the last moment. I barely survived the barrage by hiding under a lot of enchanted domes and clashed in close range at last. When all my projectiles failed to land, I made it raise a wall to block a lightning slash. Its vision was impaired, and the wall was damaged, so I crashed through and grabbed it in a hug and dumped all of my remaining lightning mana into it.

  "Then I pretty much just punched it to death," Lev finished, awed about his own achievement. In the moment, it had felt right to do all that but only now was he realizing how extraordinary the whole encounter was. Someone killing not just a monster an evolution higher, but while also being a hundred levels lower in the previous threshold. That was nothing short of mythical.

  "You're an idiot," the comment obviously came from Sherron. "The whole dungeon was clearly fucked up from the start. What form of stupidity made you keep going?"

  "Uh, levels? How the hell was I supposed to know the boss would be a second-threshold monster?"

  "Surely you felt it well before going to the final area?"

  Lev opened his mouth to reply, then clicked it shut. "I could feel its aura from an hour of slow travel away…"

  She cupped his face and turned it to make Lev look into her eyes. The very dangerous 'smiling' eyes.

  "You could feel the aura from kilometers away, yet you kept going?" She spoke every word deliberately, looking for confirmation.

  "Yep," Lev cheerily answered. "Can't explore space as a weakling."

  Sherron's anger faltered at the reply as concern took over. "You shouldn't-"

  "Stop. Just stop. If no one has ever done it before, then I will simply be the first to do so. None of you can change my mind about this."

  "That's not what I was going to say," she chided him, the words lacking any heat. "Space can be explored rather easily, but getting away from Monarch is impossible. Its skies are far worse than the underground. Be very, very careful about when you want to go to space."

  "If you will even want to. There is much you haven't seen yet," Hakim added. "We haven't even explored the plains fully, let alone the forest or the maze beyond that."

  Maze? Lev noted the name for later.

  "Only time will tell," Lev agreed. "In the meantime, I will continue to prepare. Besides, who knows how far I can push my crafting with all my advantages. I even got four more runes from the dungeon."

  Lev checked again to make sure they were new.

  Minor Body Enhancement Rune

  Basic Sound Rune

  Fire Coalesce Rune

  Minor Stone Control

  "They seem pretty useful. How badly would it be received if I share them freely?"

  "Poorly," Sherron didn't miss a beat. "Crafters need to earn a living, and this would go directly against that."

  "I see. Can you let go of me now? You can continue when I'm cleaner."

  Sherron ruffled his hair, and it took all of Lev's willpower not to show that he liked it. She noticed nothing thankfully, and he was free to leave and clean himself. Just before he left, Hakim addressed him again.

  "Good job."

  Lev left with a spring in his steps.

  ****

  Cleaning and food took only a little time before Lev was back in the park again. He sat down in the same spot and started testing with the new runes.

  The minor body enhancement rune formed slowly on his armor over ten seconds before Lev tried to activate it. The mana slowly cycled through the pathway… and fizzled out.

  Expected, I guess, Lev thought with a sigh. Body enhancement required bodies with mana running through them and a structure to enhance intricately. His armor was just a barrier.

  Lev ignored the sound rune. Without an incredibly detailed formation to control the sound, there was no point in testing with it. It would just produce random noises that might not even be audible to human ears.

  Minor stone control was unique. The single rune was almost as complex as the enhancement formation on Lev's armor, which told him it needed willpower to operate. It also needed to be carved on stone to manipulate it, and Lev didn't have any, so the rune was ignored.

  The fire rune was… intriguing. It was a long rune, meant to be placed along the edges of a surface, so Lev put it on Stargazer's blade. It was relatively simple to carve because no willpower was required, and it only took five seconds.

  From his only intact gauntlet, Lev sent a tiny stream of fire mana into Stargazer's blade. With his Perception stretched to the limit, he could observe the fire mana react the moment Lev put mana into the fire coalesce rune.

  The fire mana was attracted to the rune, and within a few seconds, Lev was looking at a blade that had fire mana tightly held together at the edge of the blade along the length of the rune.

  This is bloody great, Lev thought, pleasantly surprised. Now, where can I learn a similar lightning rune?

  Just by holding Stargazer, he knew its edge was extremely hot and also considerably sharper, and that was excluding the sharpness formation on the glaive. To see if they were compatible, Lev sent mana into that too.

  The formation scanned the enchanted blade and gave him a mental nudge to move the fire rune slightly further behind. Lev blinked.

  What on Monarch? How can a formation scan other enchantments and tell me how to move them while serving an entirely different primary function?

  His curiosity about the enchanter was thoroughly peaked but he had no idea where Drakys was or if he would even answer Lev's questions.

  Shrugging off his fascination, he filled up the fire rune to remove it before carving it slightly further away from the edge. This time, the sharpness formation enveloped the blade smoothly, and Lev could still make use of the fire rune.

  Just this one addition enhances both my Mana Slash and sharpness of Stargazer.

  The haul was pretty good for almost dying. Lev didn't know if that trade could be considered worth it, but he also knew that life would keep putting him in such situations.

  Sherron appeared by his side in a flash after a few minutes. Lev just glanced at her before going back to messing with the fire rune.

  "Why are you usually in the office, anyway?" Lev broke the silence.

  "Hmm, what do you know about long-range communication?"

  "That's a thing?" Lev replied, confused. "I thought we had specialized runners and carriers for such jobs."

  "We do, but direct communication is also possible… sort of. The other reason for the guild's current operation is a breakthrough in that field. Regardless, if there is an emergency, the first message comes to Hakim through a communication crystal. Me being present in the room saves any time it might've taken to find me."

  "Yeah, that sounds reasonable. What kind of emergencies?"

  Sherron laid back down as a sound ward covered them. "The kind that we cannot let the people know of. If 50% of all the Masters are always stationed at the ravine, then another 25% of them are always scouting the plains and the edges of the grand forest. There is always something new to deal with."

  "When will I be asked to scout like them?"

  "Whenever you want," Sherron plucked a few blades of grass. "Tell the guild you can fly indefinitely and have great eyesight and Perception. Someone will reach out to give you a schedule. Though I doubt you want that."

  "Not if it's something long-term. Volunteer work is perfectly fine by me."

  "Then you're better off preparing. Get all the well-known titles and level your skills. Scouting is intense work. Just a small mishap can result in a catastrophe, especially when the forest is involved. Nobody knows when some calamity may decide to walk out unnoticed."

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