Before the adrenaline could die down and pain could make itself known, Lev’s brain kicked into overdrive for the second time. His aura, which he had unconsciously stopped controlling, was reigned in entirely. His willpower smothered it like a blanket, masking any traces.
Pushing his Perception as much as he could, he also sent enchanted orbs into the ground. They were spread out far and wide, not revealing any approaching enemy or similar vibrations. Mana Perception was also silent.
While Drakys melded the unconscious harvesters with Lev’s bubble, he looked around. The skies were clear. No birds could be seen this far out— thank Monarch. Nor were there any monsters around them.
Then Drakys also fused Lev and Aurora with his bubble. Before the barrier mage could voice his confusion, the construct shot off, opposite where the battle was taking place.
Lev expected to feel dizzy from such acceleration, but Drakys’s control was too smooth for that. The bubble sped up, eventually turning everything into a blur. Only two colors remained: the grass and the sky.
…
“I won that bout, by the way,” Lev casually tossed out.
“No, you did not!?” Aurora rose to the bait, very much like he expected her to. “We were interrupted at an unfortunate moment. A second more, and you would’ve required immediate rescue.”
“That goes both ways, you know?” Lev countered, nonchalantly. “If I went all out, you would’ve never stood a chance.”
“Bold claim—”
“Please,” he interrupted. “I have twelve hundred Wisdom, a Wisdom Boost, and another boost to mana capacity from my class. Disintegrating you is far from impossible with all that mana.”
That one struck a nerve. The truth in his words was undeniable. What appeared on the noblewoman’s face, however, was indignation. Aurora almost seemed to struggle with the fact that a nobody like Lev had just interrupted her. The same nobody who had also won the spar, in Lev’s opinion.
“Fine,” she breathed out, some of the anger lingering in her eyes. Lev decided not to push it anymore. She was still the marchioness of the two. “Let’s assume that you could’ve won. It doesn’t change that you lost every exchange. How can you even channel all of that mana? I could feel your body breaking apart. Even right now, it is barely staying whole.”
Lev blinked. He raised his arm and hovered it in front of Aurora. “I’ve got a healing mana converter.”
Upping the mana input, he let her observe the amount of restoration mana constantly streaming into his body. The process was, by his standards, very slow. Only the thought of conserving mana stopped him from using more than what he naturally regenerated.
For the next few minutes, only three more huge pulses of mana reached the humans. Drakys stood atop the bubble, arms crossed behind his back, standing ram-rod straight. Seeing that he wasn’t worried, Lev gazed at the last addition to the bubble.
A metal box with glass windows contained the Equalizer core. It was cut off from all forms of mana, hovering mid-air. Even now, it had a negligible aura surrounding it, beckoning the ambient mana that was rebuffed by enchantments.
“It’s marvelous, isn’t it?” Lev asked after finding Aurora also staring openly. “You should’ve seen the real thing.”
She snorted, eyes crinkling slightly. “You choose now, of all moments, to try and impress me?”
Lev opened his mouth, a finger raised to contradict her, then closed it. “That was not my intention.”
“Sure,” Aurora conceded with a slow nod.
I am pretty sure you’re just being a sore loser, Lev thought, keeping that to himself. Oh well. I guess I would be mad too if a random Master suddenly matched me like that. Makes me wonder how surprised she is by my existence.
Squinting at Drakys, he decided it was the right time to ask. “So, why did you come all the way here to meet me?”
Aurora appraised him without hiding it. “What makes you think that?”
“The dots aren’t that hard to connect,” Lev answered. “Drakys has no use for the Goliath corpse. You brought harvesters with you to benefit from that kill. Which leaves why the body went to you in the first place. Not long after arriving, you agreed to test me, both my strength and character. About time you tell me where I fit in all of this.”
“Someone has had a lot of time to think,” Aurora commented, looking at Drakys for permission. “Work for me.”
“No?”
“At least listen to my offer first,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “It will not be a binding contract. You will be a hired freelancer, primarily for crafting. In return, you will be provided with a facility to hone your skills, create a specific number of Rare items for my house, attempt to create Epic items every once in a while, and also be given access to some of our resources based on your contribution points.”
“That’s… straightforward,” Lev mused, suspicious. “What’s the catch?”
“Your items need to be up to par,” Aurora commented, bemused. “Do you expect a high noble to scam you or something?”
“The world is a big place.”
“Brat, I’ve been alive since—”
“You were hitting on a brat earlier?”
“Oh, fuck off. You’re more than old enough. How old are you now? Thirty? Forty?”
“…Twenty. Not even that.”
Aurora’s mouth hung open. “You’re kidding me.”
“I am not,” Lev laughed. “How come this is the second time someone has done this? You should be happy I’m not gonna tell Orianna this time.”
The noblewoman stiffened even further. The reaction was intense enough that even Lev could feel it through her powered armor.
“I see,” she replied, trying to feign calmness. “No need to go that far. Had I known more, we wouldn’t have needed to deal with this awkwardness.”
Lev nodded with a smile. “Sure.”
He also didn’t match the stare when she squinted at him. The fact that he was playing with a lioness, one that could slap his head off, was not lost on him.
“Uhm,” Lev coughed, changing the subject. “About the contract. I guess it makes sense with all that is going to happen next, but I can’t exactly sign anything without knowing what I’m getting into.”
“That’s fine,” Aurora waved him off. “Mila will show you around our crafters’ workshop at the fort.”
“And what about the timeline?” Lev pressed. “How often will I need to create something?”
“That varies greatly,” Aurora began, adopting a more professional tone. “Considering our circumstances and the sheer number of hunters participating, there are never enough items. House Flynn doesn’t have as many people as some others, but we have still hired elite teams that break items on every mission. Replacements take time, and time is what we don’t want to waste. So you will likely be required to make at least ten Rare items every month. That much should not cut into your other missions.”
…I can craft ten Rare items in an afternoon, not a month. Only if I have the resources on hand.
Lev nodded to show his understanding, carefully masking what he thought about that requirement. Not everyone could produce immensely conductive and durable barriers with a thought. The advantages of his class continued to outshine his expectations.
More than that, hmm. Crafting, huh? I’m surprised it took that long for me to start considering creating strong items for someone else instead of just myself.
The equipment for his friends didn’t count. Till now, Lev had only tested his runes with different Rare items. It would be the first time he would create proper blueprints to eke out the most power from limited materials for Rare equipment.
That alone wouldn’t have made him consider working for the noblewoman. His team, however, would join him in the not-so-distant future. Providing them with strong yet not overly so items was going to be a priority. Any experience in managing that was welcome.
“I’ll decide after seeing the workshop,” Lev eventually voiced. No point in being cryptic about it.
Aurora nodded like she expected that. “Rest assured, you will not be disappointed.”
Wasn’t worried about that, anyway.
Since there was nothing else to do, Lev looked at how Drakys had fused the humans with his bubble. No secret techniques were used. He had simply shaped the bubble around their limbs and locked them in place.
The bubble itself moved far faster than what Lev himself could manage. Before he could study why their flight was so smooth, the spherical construct jerked to a halt. Lev jumped out of it before the harvesters awoke.
Outside was more of the same dumb grass. It was getting really tiring seeing all the green. There was, however, no Goliath core keeping monsters away. Lev waited until the last moment before overloading his armor. A round kick, and it tore the head of a diving harpy clean off.
[
You have slain [Mature Harpy - Level 297]
]
Several more perished when an orb materialized between them. Lightning arrows followed through the blast.
Ah, I missed this. Lev smiled to himself. The sweet, sweet battles to death…
The line of thought should’ve been worrying, but after sitting still for so long, only class and skill levels were on his mind. Which also reminded him to check the previous notifications.
[
Unerring Volley has reached 4th Level 8
Arcane Intuition has reached 2nd Level 4
Dance of the Elements has reached 2nd Level 6
]
Two of the notifications were expected; one of them was hugely unexpected. Dance of the Elements was already a ridiculous skill, both due to its distant potential ceiling and how much it already did for chaining attacks. What Lev wasn’t expecting, however, was for it to benefit even the Connection rune. It helped on that front as well, fine-tuning his brain to combine multiple constructs at the most opportune moments.
Regardless of the few levels, the spar had taught him a lot. He was grateful to Aurora for the experience, though he also really wanted to see her go all out. Whatever was about to happen at the end, she was going to broaden his horizons by a lot.
Maybe some other day, he consoled himself. She’s not going anywhere, and given how she fought, I doubt she’s averse to a rematch.
“What’s the plan now?” Lev called out to thin air.
“We wait for a few hours in case something decides to flee towards us,” an Exalted replied. “After that, it’s back to the fort. You will have plenty of monsters to deal with in the meantime. Worry not.”
“Oh, you know me so well,” Lev voiced with a slight smirk. He could feel Aurora’s gaze linger on his back as he flew away, high into the air.
For many kilometers around… there was actually something more than grassland for once. Curious, Lev infused lightning into his armor and glided towards the treeline at high speed. Within seconds, he was close enough to realize what seemed off.
All the trees were covered with webs. And those webs were also sparkling like gems.
Wow. Lev took in the scene. I would’ve been entranced if I couldn’t see the spiders lying in wait.
They were camouflaged ridiculously well. Limbs and hair blended in perfectly with the webs, and the pale white eyes were also hard to notice, at least without his two Perception skills. As it stood, he could see the silhouettes of at least a hundred, and the auras of many more spiders.
Just in case, he brought out his communication tablet. There were no relays this far out, but proximity to Drakys let him initiate contact.
“Have you seen this forest?” Lev sent.
“The Diamondsilk spiders?” Drakys asked. “Try not to burn them all. The nest is carefully controlled, though it was due for a trimming anyway. Lure them out before fighting them. Watch out for the threads, they don’t break easily.”
Lev took that in before returning an affirmative. He wasn’t aware that any sort of resource farms existed this far out, though it made sense in hindsight. The forest seemed well-defended by the webs, and without the stray human factor, it was likely in a constant cycle of growth, trimming, and harvest.
Until now, that is. Lev set his willpower to convert lightning at a slow pace, for fire would cause too much damage. Landing next to the treeline, he waited. Monsters were ultimately monsters, and the threads that appeared after a few seconds belied their impatience.
Stargazer’s blade tried to cut the first, failing due to how elastic the thread was. Lev’s brows rose a bit when he failed to pull the glaive back. It was glued to the thread, immediately making things dicey.
That was fine. Deploying a pillar between him and the trees, he sapped the kinetic energy of the other incoming threads and focused on the one clinging to Stargazer. Lightning infusion failed to fry it, and the more he tried to pry it off, the more of it covered the glaive. The damn web was persistent as hell.
Fine. Lev squinted. Let’s see you survive this.
It didn’t reply, turning his thoughts into a monologue. Good thing nobody could hear those. With a small amount of mana, he fired a Fracturing Wave away from the forest, destroying the thread. That was the distraction the spiders needed to lunge at him, almost catching him off guard.
Releasing a burst of lightning from his armor, he dashed backwards. The spiders plunged through the blue wave as if it didn’t exist, smashing down on his previous spot.
[Diamondsilk Orb Weaver - Level 399]
[Diamondsilk Orb Weaver - Level 401]
[Diamondsilk Thread Controller - Level 380]
Decently high levels, Lev noted, preparing himself. Lightning and fire weren’t going to be effective against the monsters and their obvious durability. Stargazer would cut through limbs just fine, and the threads would also force him to get creative with kinetic energy.
After weeks upon weeks of staying still, it was like a Christmas present. Until they needed to depart for the fort, the spiders would keep him busy quite nicely. He was itching for action anyway, the kind where he didn’t need to do his best every moment.