Lev flew over the endless grassland, taking his sweet time to reach the mistcrawler dungeon. The armwrestling match and the subsequent test had used nearly 15% of his total mana. It would take a few hours for his pool to regenerate to full.
The last time he had entered that dungeon, it had been a traumatizing experience. That would've been enough reason to never enter it again, and even Lev would've refrained despite his stubborn nature.
But now he had The System's reassurance. His Seen title explicitly stated that such events were highly improbable to occur around him again.
Swallowing his fears, Lev spent his time gazing at the vast, clear skies for hours. The suns were past their zenith by the time he landed in front of the dungeon entrance.
The same Master organizer from before recognized him immediately. With a nod, Lev moved to the edge of the camp and waited. There were fewer people compared to his last disastrous attempt, and he entered after just an hour.
Mist met him. The familiar sight quickened his heartbeat but Lev didn't allow it to last for long. With deep, steadying breaths, he sent mana into his armor and Stargazer and made his way deeper into the dungeon.
Mana concealment kept his position obscured to distant enemies, and his recently improved Perception let him slightly further in the mist. Most of the improvement came from the very slightly slowed perception of time, which let him observe things easier and further.
Despite that, mistcrawlers found him well before he noticed them. Lev only saw the monsters when he was within ten meters of them, at which point he didn't hesitate to launch two fire slashes at them.
The attacks stunned them with their large explosions, allowing Lev to reach them in a burst of speed and behead them.
[
You have slain [Mistcrawler Fiend - Level 179]
You have slain [Mistcrawler Fiend - Level 180]
]
Harvesting the cores, he moved on while thinking about the interaction between the two formations on his armor. Mana concealment wasn't interrupted by his enhancement formation, which was a good thing. It meant he could hide the mana powering the enhancement along with his armor.
Several mistcrawlers fell much the same before a juggernaut showed up.
[Mistcrawler Juggernaut - Level 188]
To test his newly improved skill, Lev flew forward. Three scythe arms raced towards him, and each was dodged with the grace of an eagle. Lev easily flew through the small gaps between them, stopped just in front of the monster's lunging bite, and thrust Stargazer into its skull, releasing a fire slash inside.
[
You have slain [Mistcrawler Juggernaut - Level 188]
]
The core was harvested in moments. More and more of the same monsters tried to kill him, which only served to expand his core collection even further. He barely even had to focus on the fight as he simply rained death on the monsters from above, not giving them a chance to get close, let alone endanger his life.
The boss is still a big question mark, Lev thought to himself, harvesting cores from the four mistcrawler fiends and two juggernaut corpses around him. I can probably kill it much the same, but it's best not to risk it. Time to prepare a few traps, just in case.
Dismissing his armor, Lev summoned his earth mana bracer from his ring and put it on his arm. Barrier armor blinked into being again, and several minutes later, Lev was off.
Forty-nine mistwalkers fell before Lev felt like he was approaching the boss. Just like before, there was not even a whiff of the monster's aura. Lev was starting to get worried again as history seemed to repeat itself.
A faint, nearly inaudible scraping sound was all the warning he got. Eyes wide and heart thundering in his chest, Lev whirled with Stargazer in hand, ready to unleash his entire pool if need be.
He was instead greeted by a monstrous feline preparing to pounce on him. The closest thing Lev could compare its visage to was a collection of wispy clouds with milky white eyes.
The cloudy body blended flawlessly with the mist as it aborted the lunge, disappearing into the magical fog. Lev was barely able to Identify it in time.
[Mist Stalker - Level 233]
Quite the jump in levels, just like the spider matriarch. This will be fun.
No longer on the brink of a breakdown, Lev rolled his shoulders and flew higher. Tens of fire arrows landed on the wet ground, clearing the fog around him in a large area.
Only one landed close to the stalker as it dodged them with graceful finesse, revealing its position. Lev immediately capitalized with an overloaded fire slash, which showed him an entirely new side of monsters.
Like water, the stalker bent around the incoming attack and blurred forward to avoid the explosion easily. Lev had to do a double-take when the boss started running on solidified platforms of mist, appearing in front of him in an instant.
He wasn't caught unprepared. Stargazer flashed to meet its oversized claws, sporting several nicks as a result but deflecting the attack. The wielder however, was sent flying from the sheer strength of the monster.
Stargazer's blade was repaired in a blink as Lev kept his eyes peeled. Just before the impact, five fire arrows landed on the stalker's body. Lev let out a relieved breath when they hit a solid body underneath that misty exterior, otherwise he would've been in trouble. He needed something tangible to target to kill the monster.
The damage from his fire arrows was negligible. Flames from their explosions were doused by the mist coating the monster immediately, reducing their effectiveness to almost nothing.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
They are sharp and swift. I cannot ignore the damage done to its body due to that.
There was no way to confirm, so Lev didn't put any hopes into them either.
Now, where is it? There's no way to track it at all, Lev thought, amazed. Shields formed around him and were enchanted with durability when he felt mana to his right.
Quickly turning to the source, two shields moved in front of him and blocked concentrated blasts of mists. His shields cracked and were repaired in a blink, but the blasts released a large volume of mists around Lev, obscuring his vision to the extreme.
Change of plans, Lev thought, wary. He was confident in taking on the boss in a melee, but the element of surprise thoroughly tipped the confrontation in the stalker's favor.
Fire mana rushed out of him, filling up dozens of arrows. Lev descended and fired them all on the ground surrounding him. Sweat rolled down his neck when the boss turned out to be mere meters away from his back.
It quickly fled as the mist cleared. Not wasting any time, Lev quickly started making his way to the portal.
The mists came alive near as an ear-splitting roar washed over him, making him stumble. There was no mana in the attack, just raw loudness. Lev increased his speed to the maximum as the mist surrounded him, covering him like a blanket.
The aura of the stalker became obvious as the monster stopped holding back as well, empowering its own movements to an incredible degree. Despite all of Lev's bonuses to flight, he was quickly losing ground.
Thickening mist increasingly hindered his Perception, and Lev had to act before he reached his destination. Lances formed one after another as he overloaded Stargazer with lightning, ignoring the arcs of electricity landing on his wet armor.
The first two fire lances flew as a blur, landing at the boss' position, only to reveal an empty patch of dirt as the mist cleared in the area.
Understanding what was happening, Lev descended without missing a beat. The monster's aura suddenly appeared behind him, and it passed through where he was a moment before. Lev couldn't even see it in the near-solid dome of mist following him.
He didn't let the chance go, either. Overloading his armor, Lev quickly headed in the direction of the portal again. When the monster's aura became obvious again to his left, he fired a barrage of fire arrows at it.
Small explosions once again revealed an empty patch of dirt ground as Lev slowed down to a stop. Contrary to his expectations, the boss didn't immediately charge.
The fucker is smart, Lev grinned. He would have to improvise.
Two dozen fire lances formed above, eating nearly a tenth of his mana. They descended with vengeance on the surrounding area. Explosion after explosion forced Lev to keep himself stationary on the ground and not be sent flying while six shields hovered around him.
Blasts of concentrated mist hit his shields, once again shrouding him, but Lev was prepared as the monster appeared immediately after.
Two huge spiked chains burst out of the ground, wrapping themselves around the monster's hind legs. With sickening squelches, they tightened as the spikes enchanted with sharpness runes dug into the limbs.
The chains enchanted with mana concealment grew taut, stopping the monster a meter away from him. Lev's triumphant smirk died before it could even form as mist started to rush into the monster's open mouth.
A jolt of fear ran down his spine as the memory of the chaoswalker resurfaced, and Lev loosed all the lightning in Stargazer from point-blank. With more mana than he had ever used for a slash, he didn't even have time to snap out of his fear-induced actions before the world morphed.
Mana rushed to overload the armor's durability as reality itself seemed to have been charged. Large, crackling tongs of lightning landed on his wet armor, scorching and blackening it wherever they made contact and jolting the muscles underneath.
Lev repaired the armor as quickly as he could and darted back, only managing to escape the electric storm after several seconds of struggle. For the first time, a stream of mana entered his restoration converter.
The healing mana that came out of the output was grabbed by his mana manipulation with great effort, barely controlled to dissolve into his body.
Before evolving Mana Manipulation once more, there was no way to make accurate use of the healing mana beyond that. Lev let it suffuse his body as it saw fit. With keen interest, he watched it travel through his shocked limbs, easing the tense muscles and restoring the minor damage. The minor healing used up all of the converted mana for that.
Just that little bit of healing alone had taken nearly 2% of his total mana, mainly because of the converter's low 52% efficiency. A single use was enough for Lev to decide to upgrade the converter soon.
He didn't even need to check the state of the boss. The huge amount of lightning clung to it like a wet shirt, frying it to death.
[
You have slain [Mist Stalker - Level 233]
Mana Tempest has reached Level 179
]
I hope the core survived, Lev thought, observing the dispersing lightning storm with pursed lips. It would sting to lose out on free money.
When the lightning finally dispersed after nearly a full minute, he thanked Monarch for the skinsuit that kept the smell at bay and pried open the boss' body.
The beast underneath the cloudy exterior was small, barely the size of Lev. Stargazer struggled to cut into the dense muscles, and Lev had to use his empowerment formation and the sharpness formation on the weapon to avoid accidentally damaging the core, which turned out to be whole, if somewhat burned.
[
Mist Stalker Core
Exhibits minor properties of obscurement. Useful in crafting.
]
Doesn't seem to be damaged, Lev observed, scanning the core the size of a tennis ball from different angles. He stored it in his ring and waited to be teleported outside. Lev also mentally prepared himself to be questioned about clearing the dungeon so quickly at his level. With his slowed perception of time, the dungeon had been cleared before the instance could even cycle.
Lev appeared in front of a surprised Master. They both stared at each other.
"No questions?" Lev quirked a brow.
"I'll hear about you in the future anyway," the Master woman said with a smirk. "You're free to leave."
He didn't waste time and shot off, ignoring the two teams coming closer to him.
Such ominous parting words, Lev smiled. You will hear more than just a little about me in the future.
Returning to Sherron's manor, he thought about the dungeon and his next steps.
The whole thing took only 25% of my total mana, and I was very wasteful as well. This huge mana pool is already so amazing.
Windkeep's next wave is… still not here. Once it's done, I will go visit Haven and see if there are any competitions or tournaments to join without having to wait too long. This will be the last chance to see how I compare to my peers.
The next evolution was, to Lev's knowledge, a huge step-up in power. Master rank signified fully embracing one's chosen path and improved every aspect of the class.
Lev's barriers would become permanent, his manipulation would see huge improvements, his mana pool would increase by a ridiculous margin, and even enchanting would see some form of inclusion in the class, be it directly or indirectly.
Consequently, he would most likely be way too strong for tournaments. Reality could be different, of course. Either way, Lev wasn't interested in sparring after evolving.
For two days, Lev cleared the mistcrawler dungeon whenever he could. That netted him seven total stalker cores. He didn't dare enter the portal without a full pool and equipment triple-checked. The lesson taught by the chaoswalker would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Perhaps because of familiarity with the dungeon, or maybe because of the ease with which he could clear it, he only got one level during all those delves.
Lev was practicing sweeping attacks, along with thrusts, and keeping the haft of Stargazer in position to block attacks in the basement of the manor when a tinkling sound passed through the city.
The monster bell…
Ten seconds passed before another chime was sounded. Again and again, the monster bell was struck.
When the seventh chime reached his ears, Lev sat down. Seven was the threshold for disasters. Nobody ever wanted to hear more than seven chimes.
Seconds passed with torturous slowness. Twenty seconds later, Lev let out the breath he had been holding. It seemed windkeep would remain standing for now.
Seven-rated wave. Good. I will qualify for a title if I give it my all.
He was more than ready to do so.
