The moment the Mamir was unbalanced, Melvine pounced with a mighty thrust. Her greatsword, thrumming with mana, slid smoothly inside the monster’s chest, and ice immediately began to form on the torso.
Inside was even worse. A wail of pure agony erupted in the dungeon, yet the humans moved with ruthless efficiency, coordinating their assaults to bring down the titan within seconds.
The punch that Lev deflected landed on Viktor’s shield, who blocked it even as his bones creaked from the impact. Undeterred, he jumped on top of the fist and used all the stored kinetic energy to smash it into the ground, effectively locking it for a few moments.
On the other side, eight whips of blue flames coiled around the second arm, just as Elias, Aryan, and Zack pummeled the tail and its sides.
Just like that, a giant was brought down, no match for the combined might of human intelligence, strong classes, and all the other advantages they had as sapients surviving on Monarch.
[
Your Group has slain [Mamir - Level 580]
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 298
]
Another level, Lev noted and breathed out, mentally drained. Before he could scan for more enemies, his Perception notified him of massive air displacement.
He turned to the Hunter’s battle just in time to see a Neraf topple to the side, dead before it even hit the ground. Underneath was a lake of still-warm blood that did little to cushion its fall.
The sheer impact rattled them all, and so did the massive crash that echoed throughout the dungeon.
They recovered quickly, however, for the show was not over yet. More monsters were about to reach them, but the Hunter’s raw might was nearly impossible to look away from.
Lev distractedly made the bubble scoop up all the humans. Kora buffed his regeneration without prompting, barely realizing she was doing so as her jaw hung open.
The second Neraf, the gigantic beast, was powerless. It roared, using sonic waves to get the Hunter off its back, but the being only dug inside its flesh, nullifying those attempts.
Long claws also allowed the Hunter to easily stick to the monster even as it thrashed violently, and while the Neraf had more than enough size to flatten cities, it could do nothing about the persistent creature that slowly tore it to shreds.
That, however, was going to take time, time they didn’t have.
“Report?” Isabella asked, taking the lead.
“Unhurt,” Elias intoned, looking over his team. “Mana levels below half.”
“Above half and fine,” Melvine added.
“Too low, and fine as well,” Lev finished.
Isabella’s brows furrowed, glancing at the towering mountains surrounding the flat grassland and the lake. Monsters were rushing towards them in large numbers, and they were almost there.
“I’m assuming you have a plan?” she questioned, turning towards Lev.
“Less a plan and more of a viable strategy that may or may not be that effective. I’m gonna have to hog the mana regeneration buff again.”
Kora waited for the signal from Isabella before using her entire buff on him. She tilted her head slightly, and Lev also noticed that her skill had leveled. Curiously enough, the improvement was more than the numerical increase in the status would’ve suggested.
It is about… 5% stronger overall, which is quite a bit more than the 2% increase in the total number.
She and Lev shared a glance, and a silent understanding was reached. Both had an inkling of why such a thing was happening. Revealing it to others was not going to do them any favors.
In the present company, Melvine was probably the only one who would understand and not be harmed by the information. It wouldn’t even be wrong to say that the others hadn’t yet earned it.
With a smile, he turned his attention inwards, looking at his reserves. Peering deeper through meditation was impossible, for too many thoughts swirled in his mind.
Around 30%, which is far from enough to face all of the monsters. Guess I’ll have to rely on my new skill.
Through tacit agreement, the humans returned to where the stag was still deep inside its mind, fighting something that humans were blissfully ignorant of.
The Hunter also joined them, looking over the humans with approval before turning to the Neraf corpses. A tinge of regret was visible in the Hunter’s eyes, most likely because of the cores that they had no time to harvest.
Lev also wanted the cores. They probably showed some decent properties like size or toughness, both of which he could use in his armor and bubble.
Unfortunately, looting the monsters wasn’t in the cards for them. Instead, he created dozens of orbs and chucked them in a tub of normal sap. The miraculous fluid improved their conductivity with a small intake of mana, and within a few seconds of hasty treatment and enchanting, his traps were ready.
Below him, the barrier floor was also upgraded. Multiple layers formed on top of it, and the shieldwalls and all the connected cables also rose higher to accommodate it. Between all of the big defense constructs, the orbs flew down and slotted themselves into the floor, ready to accept an influx of destructive and shadow mana to surprise the enemies.
Whatever little mana he could get from Kora’s buff was already in his pool. Time for preparation was up as the bubble lowered, depositing them on the barrier ground.
For a brief moment, the stag opened its eyes, looking directly at them. Everyone other than the Hunter froze, breath caught in their throats.
Then the boss closed its eyes again, eliciting a collective sigh of relief.
Scary motherfucker, Lev thought, unable to hold back a chuckle. How strong did one have to be to so casually paralyze some of the most promising human combatants with a single look?
Once they formed their groups, with Melvine taking the lead and the other two teams staying on either side of her to support her, Lev made the bubble ascend again and brought forth his shadow converter.
Beyond the disk that he wasn’t going to risk using again, it was the most mana-intensive thing in his arsenal. That would normally be fine, but he was hovering around 35% of his combined reserves, and the shadow mana was necessary for making good use of his Trapping skill. The cost was going to be relatively immense.
No two ways about it, I guess, he breathed in, then sighed.
Orbs were constantly scanned and enchanted, as Lev kept repeating the carving to practice even in the tense situation. Each minor improvement was going to count, though he couldn’t properly assess the changes from repetition.
The first monster that revealed itself didn’t come from deeper into the dungeon. Instead, it stood upon the mountain peak close to where they had entered the dungeon, looking at the assortment of humans with flaring nostrils.
Hah, I knew our hideout wasn’t natural.
It was a good thing they hadn’t gone deeper and always remained under concealment wards, for the creature wasn’t exhaling air. No, it breathed fire with every breath.
Lev was already preparing his shieldwalls for a heavy assault when a group of monsters became visible in the opposite direction.
A strong Scaled Draco, and three Earthen Destroyers. This is going to be tough.
Before, the two teams had taken down three Earthen Destroyers without struggling too much, but that battle had taken over half an hour. They only had minutes now.
At least Aryan’s class is going to shine here.
Giving his friends a mental salute, he turned back to the distant Draco. Not only was it visibly gathering all the heat from around it, but there was also a massive ball of fire forming on top of its snout.
Lev did the obvious and fired an overloaded lance at the giant fireball, only for it to swivel out of the way. Brows raised, he took a risk and charged the two cannons on his bubble.
Limiting the fire mana input, his eyes never left the fireball. The mana in it was ballooning swiftly, though he was more wary of the willpower infusion.
Not interested in letting the monster evolve its element, he launched the first beam. It was much weaker than usual due to the low amount of mana used, but that didn’t matter.
The draco ducked, bringing the forming ball out of harm’s way, only for its eyes to widen when another beam roared towards it.
Lev watched with his eyes peeled, using every iota of his Perception to observe the wall of blue flames that rose to block his cannon. The beam collided with it with enough force to disperse the flames, which is when Gaze of the Marksman pulled its weight.
One last overloaded lance parted the explosion, accurately landing on the fireball. It immediately disintegrated from the heat, releasing the stored lightning mana inside.
The resulting blast was glorious. Despite the distance, Lev was forced to close his eyes. He could feel where his friends were fighting between the shieldwalls and cables, and he quickly covered them with his barriers.
Underneath, a few barrier shovels dug holes into the dirt ground, where he deposited the human and covered them with temperature wards to keep out the intense heat.
That was all the time he had to prepare. Shieldwalls stacked up around the stag, completely covering it in protection enchantments, whereas his bubble was blown away.
He didn’t resist the shockwave, gliding along with it, the task made effortless due to his high Perception. Still, he didn’t let the others fall out of his manipulation range and rose higher to negate much of its force after the initial wave.
His eyes and mana perception were mostly useless, so he relied on the feedback from runes. The wards around his friends were devouring all the mana he could provide them, which was a difficult task with all the fire mana between him and the enchantments.
The stag’s protection dome was more stable, for the explosion wasn’t as powerful as it could’ve been. A few long seconds passed before another shockwave reached them, though this time there was something else mixed in.
Worried, Lev dared to open his eyes and finally realized what was happening. Fire mana was moving in reverse, much of it returning to the draco that was shaping another attack.
Oh no, you don’t.
Streaming shadow mana and lightning mana into one of his orbs, he created a simple barrel. Carving kinetic enhancement runes took another instant, at which point he had already slotted the concealed orb into the barrel.
Aiming where he could feel a chunk of fire mana even through all of the interference due to the earlier explosion, Lev fired.
Shadow Mana, ever the elusive element, fully showed its properties for the first time. All the wild flames should’ve hindered its passing, except they struggled to find purchase, batted aside by the higher-tier element.
Speed was also similarly enhanced by shadow mana, letting it glide straight towards the monster whose sneak attack backfired.
Hurt and battered from the failure of its own attack, the draco had no way to sense the orb as it flew straight at its face, clinking against one of its fangs.
Monstrous eyes widened in realization, but it was already too late. Lightning erupted, empowered by his trapping skill. The second fireball, holding even more mana than the previous one, exploded prematurely once again, putting down the draco for good.
Not willing to take any chances, he infused a large amount of pure mana and a bit of his willpower into the protections around his friends and the boss. The Hunter was already safe and deep underground, so he flew up at full speed, moving away from the approaching wall of flames.
This time, the shockwaves tore through his barrier floors, even uprooting a few shieldwalls that were stabbed into the ground. Cables shattered from the pressure, dispersing into barrier shards that disintegrated soon after.
A suction force dragged his bubble back when air rushed back at the site of the blast, and he immediately checked on the people under his protection. Fortunately, the stag was still stationary and busy with its meditation, probably only feeling tremors inside the dome.
His friends, on the other hand, were sneezing from how cold the hole they were in had become. Chuckling, he dug out a path to the surface and went back to fixing all the damage to his prepared battlefield.
The floor was cracked in more places than not, and repairing it took a few long seconds even with his Perception. Broken shieldwalls were remade post-haste, though he didn’t have time to slot cores inside them.
Cables were swiftly formed, enchanted, and tied between the shieldwalls, and that was all the time he had.
The first monster that rushed the humans wasn’t something they had ever seen before. It had six legs… or limbs, he wasn’t sure. Half-spider and half-worm, it flew through the air, unnaturally smooth.
Its speed, too, was just as unnatural, forcing Melvine to go all out from the very start. Her mist zone came alive, visibly thickening with every instant as she dashed towards the monster.
The others, however, didn’t follow at the same pace. They created distance, covering her left and right to keep the other monsters from disturbing their battle.
Making sure that there was no other extreme threat in the area, Lev spared a glance at the notifications.
[
You have slain [Flame Draco - Level 583]
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 299
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 300
Trapping has reached Level 8
Trapping has reached Level 9
]
Level 300… he noted, searching inwards. While there was nothing new in the notifications, nor did he get any titles, Lev knew for certain that leveling had just slowed down even further. Something had just happened to his soul, something he couldn’t detect.
This, he suspected, was what Masters talked about when they mentioned progress gradually slowing down. It was not a fun observation, nor did he truly understand why it happened, but such was the reality.
He had no choice but to roll with the punches.