Exiting that cursed cave and seeing stars was an experience Lev would never forget. Relief crashed into him, breaking through all of the metaphorical chains holding back the recent experiences.
All of it slammed into him at once, and he only stayed upright by willing his armor to keep him standing.
Death had almost claimed them many times. Had Lev and Melvine not been prepared and gotten stuck near where they first teleported, the stag would’ve found them and ripped them to shreds.
If they had gone deeper into the hideout, the Flame Draco would’ve fried them in such a small space. If the Hunter had not found them first and warned them, the stag would’ve torn them apart sooner or later.
Had Lev not made his bubble invisible in time after killing the first Draco, he and Melvine would have been eviscerated. Had the Hunter not distracted the stag for long enough for them to have ventured deeper into the hills, it would’ve resorted to close combat instead of a ranged slash and easily killed them all.
If the boss had taken offense to Lev refusing the offer to put it down, they would’ve died. If the Dreamforger butterfly had managed to dodge his disk, Lev would’ve died. No one was close enough to save him.
If the stag had lost itself to the curse at any moment, the humans would have died. If the Veil Hunter had come out of the portal to the other instance and reached them, the humans would’ve died. If the ally Hunter had lost to its crab-like adversary, they would’ve died.
If the creature of Chaos had snuck up on them, they would’ve befallen a fate worse than death. If the stag wasn’t strong enough to deal with it, it would’ve died alongside them.
And, at the end, if the exit portal had snapped shut just like the stag had closed the portal to the other instance, they would be trapped forever and eventually killed.
He was acutely aware of each possibility. The negative thoughts that threatened to spiral had been contained with painstaking effort, for everyone was looking up to him and Melvine. They both had faced the worst of them, and yet they refused to break.
Morale was the only reason they survived. Masters weren’t supposed to face third-threshold monsters except on rare occasions, and yet, the ten of them had faced many with Lev’s support at times.
That wasn’t to say it was easy. No, they had pushed themselves every moment, coordinating through telepathy and forcing their skill to improve drastically.
By now, every single one of them was considerably stronger than when they had entered, in part due to the notification he had just received.
[
Champion Delver has evolved into Rift Explorer
You have proven yourself and survived in a dungeon far beyond you. Two sapient lives have been rescued, and an insidious plan has been thwarted by your timely escape.
The System acknowledges your feat and resolve.
+10 to an attribute. (Wisdom)
+15 to an attribute. (Wisdom)
+25 Free Attribute Points. (Distributed)
+40 Free Attribute Points.
]
Lev distributed the influx of points like he usually did. Ten of them were put into Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, and Perception. He debated putting less into Wisdom for once, then decided against it.
More mana solved more problems than not.
Now, what the hell does the title mean by insidious plan? What kind of a plan? Who is orchestrating it? Why does it exist in the first place? What does it involve? Was the Hunter also a victim, or a variable that stumbled into the dungeon?
Lev was hoping to leave the dungeon in the past, but life had other plans. He was reasonably certain that the abomination at the end was a part of this ‘plan,’ and that he would’ve died to it otherwise.
More importantly, was someone already aware that I would step into the dungeon, or did I also just unknowingly walk into the machinations?
Too many questions, absolutely no answers.
With a sigh, he dismissed the notification. Before talking to Hakim and the others, he wasn’t willing to disclose any information about Chaos or the title, not even to his friends.
Bringing himself back to the present, he pulled the cart out in the open and covered them all with concealment wards. He would’ve liked to create a barrier dome, but the Hunter was staring wide-eyed at the open skies, transfixed at the sight of stars.
“Did everyone get the title?” Lev took the initiative after ten minutes of silence, wondering if anyone would bring up the mention of a plan, or if it was just his title referencing it.
“My Champion Delver got a straightforward upgrade,” Melvine voiced.
“I got Patient Delver,” Aryan said with a shrug. “Something about exploring a rift far beyond me while being in tune with my skills. Can’t say I had the opportunity to be reckless.”
Further answers revealed that everyone had received some form of an evolution. Surprisingly, Melvine’s version of the title provided a whole 50 attribute points as opposed to Lev’s 40. Since he also had her title before, it wasn’t hard to deduce that the act of guiding others through such a dungeon had triggered that particular upgrade.
“I…” the Hunter added distractedly, too engrossed with watching the clear skies. “I did too, Blessed Lev. Escaping the dungeon with my mind and sanity has given me a ridiculous total of 300 points. I must thank you all again for saving our lives, and for coordinating with this doomed creature.”
“No thanks are necessary, Hunter,” Lev remarked before another session of bowing could ensue. “We would be just as dead without your help.”
“Be as it may, I did not dare picture myself escaping the dungeon before. It is only the mark placed on you, one that burns brighter than the brightest of stars, that the stag managed to push back against the curse. It saw hope and risked it all. You may have to deal with another bout of reverent gratitude, I’m afraid.”
Lev wasn’t so sure about that. The stag was incredibly powerful and just as proud. That had been readily apparent in how it dealt with the portal and all the other creatures in its path.
He really didn’t expect the boss to be humble. Gratitude there would be, but not to a degree like the Hunter.
“Before any of that,” Lisa began, sharing a glance with Luna. “We should heal the stag, or at least accelerate its regeneration.”
Lev turned to the unconscious boss, noting all the wounds that were caked with dried blood. An ungodly pus still lingered, hampering the regeneration and tissue regrowth.
More white fur was missing than not. An agreement was reached not long after, with the Hunter keeping an eye out while everyone else tried to help the stag’s recovery.
“First things first,” Lev sent to everyone. “Back off. I will test how this… substance reacts to my barriers.”
A small barrier knife formed as everyone, including Lev, created distance. The construct slowly moved forward and, with a flick, cut off a tiny amount of pus.
Immediately, his connection to the knife was severed. The pus consumed it entirely within instants, turning into a dark mass that was swiftly devoured by the ambient mana.
… What the hell just happened?
“Just to be safe, let’s move even further away.”
From nearly a hundred meters away, Lev first formed even more plates with stealth and aura concealment formations. Powering them up, he took a deep breath and raised his hand.
Atop it, another knife formed. This one, however, was swiftly enchanted with the best durability runes he had on hand and was also imbued with willpower.
Manipulating willpower was tricky. He had trained it at every moment to help with his usual skills and combat, but using it directly was something he had no experience with, except for when he had tried to reach the unknown bird’s feather. The Leafweaver Eagle had given him quite the scare back then.
Now, after only minor testing, he was going to give it a proper shot. Willpower, the intangible and unnoticeable force, streamed into the knife, not interacting with it physically yet empowering it in a very obvious manner.
His connection to the construct was strengthened greatly. The enchantments also saw a benefit, though Lev couldn’t quite infer anything from that feedback. All he knew was that, while the enchantments were just as potent as before, they did something more.
Centering his thoughts and banishing all distractions, he tried again. The knife slowly floated forward. It’s tip scratched a clump of pus, and the reaction was immediate.
An eerie force tried to drill into his willpower, only momentarily held back by the enchantments and the barrier’s innate durability. Lev only had a moment to pull back his willpower before the knife disintegrated once again, devoured by ambient mana when it transformed into the sickly substance.
“No luck?” Isabella asked after Lev remained silent, too lost in thought.
“It’s like a form of corrosion, but it was almost able to latch onto my willpower. That would have been bad… very bad.”
“Meaning it will react the same way to our skills,” Luna deduced, more than a little fearful.
Before Lev could reply, the ground parted not far from them. A spooked and prepared-for-war Hunter emerged, looking around warily before its eyes landed on the stag’s wounds, specifically the noticeable bump in the pus where he had tested the knives.
“I felt a minor disturbance deep underground,” the Hunter said, still tense. “Did something attack us?”
“Nothing of the sort,” Melvine spoke. “We merely wanted to help the stag recover faster, but that substance assaulted Lev’s barriers as if possessing a mind of their own.”
“Young huntress, and Blessed Lev. I implore you not to go near the stag again. The source of those wounds is something that scares even me to no end. Any further prodding might cause a disaster so soon after we’ve just escaped one.”
No one had anything to say to that. Slightly abashed, Lev nodded in assent and brought his bubble closer. Contacting Drakys and revealing everything that had happened was a priority, and so was confirming their safety. The dungeon had completely cut them off for a few days, which had probably raised some alarms.
“I’m going to fly to the edge of the region and notify my superiors,” Lev sent to everyone, mainly to get the hunter’s attention. “Can you look over them in the meantime? Who knows what the stag might attract?”
Getting a positive response, he jumped into the bubble and made it fully invisible. He hadn’t forgotten that the Hunter could peer through the invisibility, so he ascended for a few hundred meters before slumping in his seat with an explosive sigh.
Still alive, huh?
Truly, there was no end to his luck. The same way it kept fucking him over with all of these random encounters, it also paved the path for a truly ridiculous pace of advancement. Over a dozen levels in a few days? That was unheard of after evolving to Master.
Oh well, something will do me in eventually. Might as well make the best of everything till then.
Summoning his water canteen, he gulped down a few mouthfuls and sighed again, this time to banish the melancholy. Life had failed to kill him, and he had no plans to let it come so close again.
First things first, he thought and moved to where he had felled the Lightbending Serpent. Surprisingly, after a few minutes of high-speed flight, he found the corpse still present, though there were obvious signs of battle near it.
Barrier ropes unfurled from his bubble and wrapped around the serpent’s tail. They tightened audibly, digging into the scaled body.
Bracing himself, Lev tried to drag out the monster’s corpse. It barely budged, so he formed a few large barrier shovels and used them to widen the hole it was buried in.
Dumping mana into the bubble’s driving enchantments, he gradually pulled it out, finding more than a few missing bits. It took several minutes before the entire monster was resting in front of him, riddled with cuts and bites.
Another surprise came in the form of a clump of mana near the middle. The core was still inside. Excitement surging, Lev cut open the patch of scaled skin and brought out the sphere brimming with mana.
[
Lightbender Core:
Possesses Decent Mana Conductivity and Extraordinary Mana Capacity.
Shows properties of Stone, properties of Hardening, and Minor properties of Light.
]
Fucking jackpot.
Lev couldn’t stop a massive grin from forming on his face as he read the description. In one day, he had not one, but two cores that showed properties of light. To his knowledge, the sources of that vaunted mana type in the plains, under humanity’s control, could be counted on one hand.
It was a truly remarkable find.
Storing it in his ring, he stepped back into his bubble, leaving the corpse as it was. Harvesting the materials could wait for a bit. He had to give a report.
The next half an hour passed in silence. He let his mana regenerate, flying at only half his maximum pace. Taking the communication tablet from his ring, he waited for it to catch a pulse and connect to the communication relay.
That took another fifteen minutes. He had to move a few kilometers away from the first mountains they had crested and into the grassland.
“Lev?” came Drakys’s voice the instant the tablet connected.
“I’m still alive and well,” Lev sent back, his voice coming out tired even in telepathy. “And I have one hell of a story to tell.”