The bubble scooped them up once they exited the park. Lev could feel a presence on the west wall that eclipsed all others in the city. Sherron stood there alone, eyes scanning the dreadwoods and everything moving in them.

"Should I run?" Lev bluntly asked once they landed. Sherron raised a brow at seeing him travel with Beatrice.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm helping her to Master. This wave will probably push us both to the second gap."

Beatrice blinked twice, more than a little surprised at the estimate. She didn't say anything, still.

"Nothing that seems concerning for me or Hakim so far," Sherron replied and turned back to her observations. "I'm assuming you want an elevated position for this one?"

"If possible," Lev nodded.

"Alright," Sherron walked to his bubble, and Lev created an entrance for her to get into. "Go North."

He did as he was told without question. Mana concealment and invisibility enchantments were working at full power, masking their travel to everyone.

"Now, I need a promise to not speak of the locations involved to anyone," Sherron looked at both of them, dead serious.

Lev and Beatrice nodded in unison. They knew well how important it was to keep such things secret.

"Beyond the Dreadwoods are mundane ravines, which we know were caused by some great battles. Your task is to stay at the edge of both regions and catch any stragglers that escape the Master teams. Make no mistake, there will be a lot of monsters that will run at the walls."

"Anything to look out for?"

"Stay inside the concealed bubble at all times, just to be safe. There are only a few flying monsters that can challenge you, but keep an eye out regardless."

Beatrice timidly raised a hand. "Should I, um, try to support the Masters?"

"No," Sherron immediately answered. "Lev can do better and for much longer. Stay with him. He has no reason to hold back here."

"Hold back?" the aura mage echoed.

"You'll see. Good luck, both of you."

Walking out of the hole in the bubble Lev created for her, Sherron vanished with a loud shockwave. He still couldn't track her flight, or even see a blur.

"What did she mean by that?" Beatrice questioned with a light frown, her nervousness vanishing with the Exalted's departure.

"Exactly what she said," Lev replied and expanded the bubble. Several large trays took shape by their sides, on which arrows started appearing in neat stacks. One by one, all of them were enchanted as Lev answered. "My role on the central spire was always one of being in the spotlight, so I couldn't quite go all-out. Same for the dungeon. Since you know of my Wisdom Boost, though, I can do whatever I want."

"And it's a good idea for us to be in the middle of nowhere like this?"

Lev gave her an amused glance. "Say, how far do you think we are from windkeep?"

She took a few seconds to reply. "… I don't know? Like two dozen kilometers?"

"Something like that," Lev nodded while looking at the distant wall. "Which means we're still well in range for her projectiles."

Her mouth formed a comical 'O' shape as realization dawned on her. Lev thought the explanation better than the other option of saying 'She wouldn't endanger me like that.'

Wordlessly, they both started looking out for any monsters, both on the ground and in the sky. Since their task was simple in nature, it was up to them to keep it that way by being vigilant.

"Three hundred arrows," Lev voiced to get her attention. "I'll probably lose track of the count when things get heated, so buff my regeneration to remind me when there's less than a hundred."

"Will do."

"Now, we wait."

Hours passed as he lazily sniped regular monsters. Notifications kept piling up, bringing with them not a single level-up of any kind.

[

Your Group has slain [Goblin - Level 41]

…

Your Group has slain [Harpy - Level 188]

…

]

Dozens of different monsters had fallen to his arrows. Most notably, thornlings and galeworms were the ones he hadn't seen before. The former were like an unholy mix between monkeys and spiders, with four spindly limbs sprouting out of their backs.

Galeworms were centipede-like monsters that flew like snakes moved on the ground, eating distance in zigzag maneuvers. That also made it considerably difficult to hit them mid-air, which Lev solved by throwing barrages of twenty lethal arrows at each of them. He had more than enough mana for that.

"Lev," Beatrice brought his attention to their left, where a new kind of monster was exiting the treeline of the dreadwoods. It looked like an elephant, except none of the bulk associated with the animal was present on its tall body.

Nearly four meters in height, the group of monsters moved eerily fast with their long steps, rushing the wall of windkeep with single-minded focus.

[Scaled Kombas - ???]

[Scaled Kombas - ???]

Dozens of overloaded arrows landed on the small herd. Lev swallowed unconsciously when they all turned to him as one, somehow finding his location despite the two layers of concealment constantly running on his bubble.

Oh boy.

Beatrice used both her buffs at maximum on him without prompting, and he got to work. Lightning left his skinsuit in a large stream, which was equally infused inside his stock of enchanted arrows.

They exited the bubble and hovered around it, waiting to be fully prepared. Before the first could fly, the leading Kombas raised its trunk and aimed at the bubble.

Three of Beatrice's barriers formed in the nick of time, blocking the concentrated sound blast. The impacts painfully echoed in his ears and elicited a wince. Lev didn't dally any longer and shot the arrows downward at the ten charging monsters.

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A trail of lightning left in their wake as arrows clinked against the dark scales, doing minimal damage for the most part. Some of them found softer flesh through the gaps, injuring two of the monsters without even slowing them down.

Lances took form next and were infused with massive amounts of lightning and fire. They started glowing ominously almost immediately, but Lev continued pumping more mana into them. His own barriers joined Beatrice's as the sound attacks became coordinated to target their defenses.

When the Kombas' were only a few hundred meters away, all four of the lances were launched in unison. Like descending stars, they crashed amidst the monsters in all their harrowing glory. A gigantic cloud of charged flames rose into the air, tossing their bubble far away with its sheer might. More than a third of his mana had combusted at once, and all of windkeep could see the result.

Lev's eyes were still grave. His arrows were supposed to be potent and useful against armored foes because of their raw speed and extreme sharpness. Yet they had been neutralized so easily by the first monster that left the dreadwoods.

The disappointment only lasted until he checked the notifications.

[

Your Group has slain [Scaled Kombas - Level 354]

Your Group has slain [Scaled Kombas - Level 349]

…

Your Group has slain [Scaled Kombas - Level 345]

Mana Tempest has reached Level 213

Mana Tempest has reached Level 214

Mana Tempest has reached Level 215

]

Ummm… What the fuck? I killed a group of level 350 monsters just like that?

He glanced at Beatrice, who was also frozen in shock. Identify revealed why.

[Mage - Level 220]

She also gained three levels from the small battle, if it could even be called that. The entire event could be summarized as Lev trying out the second approach when the first failed.

"How… how much mana did you use?"

Lev smiled nervously, a little shaken himself. "A third or so?"

"Right… three levels?" he nodded. "Okay… let's just… keep going. Yeah."

"Perfectly fine by me," Lev shook his head and brought himself together. Sherron was probably watching them right now, which made his smile even wider.

The flames raged on as wild lightning charred the surroundings, killing several weaker monsters in the vicinity. By the time they finally died down, Lev and Beatrice gawked with terrified eyes as the Kombas herd was revealed, along with their… alarmingly intact bodies.

In fact, they were so whole that Lev was starting to doubt the notifications. Not only were the scales barely blackened, but their limbs were completely fine as well. They were both prepared to run at full speed if the corpses even as much as twitched.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. Closer inspection revealed the cause of their deaths, which was lightning. Since Lev had used a fifty-fifty distribution for fire and lightning, both of them were enhanced to great heights by his class skills.

Yet, fire had done almost nothing against them. If he hadn't used so much lightning, or if the monsters had actually tried to dodge, all of that mana would've been largely wasted.

Lev acknowledged the bead of sweat rolling down his neck and closed his eyes with a deep breath. Life was very close to teaching him another harsh lesson, but he avoided it by a hair's breadth.

… Duly noted.

****

Hours passed as Lev and Beatrice dealt with any monsters that exited the dreadwoods near them. Most of them perished at the waves of his arrows, but several tough beasts made themselves known.

One such large horde was currently throwing rocks at them. Each was the size of a small boulder and didn't pack much of a punch, but the quantity was a quality of its own.

Hundreds of them assaulted his bubble at once, but neither he nor Beatrice was worried. The encounter served as an excellent training opportunity, which they were making full use of.

Twelve enchanted shields hovered between them and the group of stone hounds down below, blocking their attacks to the best of his ability. Four of Beatrice's barriers were also participating, but their accuracy and speed left plenty to be desired.

Regardless, Lev was proud of her for testing her limits out there, in front of humanity's greatest nightmare. Even in platinum hunters, not many could boast to be so composed to test and try to evolve their skills while holding a portion of the dreadwood's treeline.

The hounds were giant compared to the normal animal. Each was more than three meters tall at the shoulders, and their skin was made of light brown stone that resisted his arrows without much trouble.

[Stone Hound - ???]

[Stone Hound - ???]

Lev tried not to waste mana anymore after the earlier experience. His pool was hovering near full from the low exertion and Beatrice's buffs, but the lances that formed were only infused with a moderate amount of destructive mana. Most of it was lightning to increase their speed, but some fire was sprinkled in to enhance the explosions.

They shot forward like blurs, piercing stone bodies and blowing up to finish the job. Every projectile brought with it a notification, and one of them pushed him to level 218.

[

Your Group has slain [Orc Commander - Level 158]

…

Your Group has slain [Thornling - Level 110]

…

Your Group has slain [Forest Panther - Level 202]

…

…

…

Mana Tempest has reached Level 216

Mana Tempest has reached Level 217

Mana Tempest has reached Level 218

]

Levels slowed down to a crawl after the initial bombardment. The Kombas were also much higher in level than him, and gave an appropriate amount of essence per kill.

"Is the wave ending?" Beatrice asked during a lull in battle.

"Nope," Lev replied, going off a hunch more than anything. "Seems like there's still much of it left."

As if summoned by his words, a voice reached them. It belonged to Hakim, who didn't waste words.

"Return to the wall. You should see this."

They shared a glance as Lev carried his bubble to the specified destination. His curiosity about the random 'voice mail' aside, it was the first time Hakim had ever contacted him. Lev was immediately wary.

Atop the west wall, both Sherron and Hakim were gazing south, towards the grand forest. Confused, Lev followed their eyes. It took several seconds for him to notice small… dots, really.

"The hell are those?" Lev asked, stepping out of the bubble. Beatrice followed.

"Averosts," Sherron replied without looking back. "A pain in the ass, to be precise."

He stared, surprised that Sherron actually sounded angry for once. Lev redoubled his efforts to try to make out the monsters, but nothing could be deduced from so far away.

Hakim didn't even bother to reply as a massive concealment formation covered them. Only Lev, Sherron, and Hakim were inside it. Beatrice took the hint, walking nearly a hundred meters away.

I don't like where this is going, Lev thought to himself, eyes darting around. If the two Exalted were about to make a move, he wanted to be anywhere but next to them.

"Don't take this personally, boy," Hakim voiced in his usual rigid voice. "You took down those Kombas' way too easily, which is not ideal. You need to know what awaits you out there. So, gaze upon what you're aiming to surpass, because I'm far from the strongest on this continent."

No time was given for him to question anything when the world paused. Lev's knees went weak, and he suddenly found himself flopping to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut and gasping for air. Sherron turned to eye his prone form, sympathy in her gaze, but she still didn't help him.

Another formation came to life around them, covering the three in impenetrable invisibility. Preparations complete, Hakim's aura rolled out in earnest, proudly announcing its presence in the tightly concealed sphere.

If Lev was struggling to stand up before, he was now utterly paralysed. Breathing became a herculean task as his mind threatened to unravel under Hakim's aura, unquestionably the strongest human to have ever set foot on Monarch. It was filled to the brim with silver moonlight, one so serene yet hauntingly potent.

The next moment, the silver manifested in the real world. A greatsword appeared, defying all conventions of the weapon. From the hilt to the blade's end, it was twice Hakim's size. Its mere existence caused the world around it to cower as ambient mana was absorbed into the silver metal, slowly rousing depthless enchantments.

Then the Exalted's body enhancement came alive. His already breathtakingly terrifying aura morphed into something far more dreadful as Lev blacked out several times in that split second.

Perhaps seeing his worsening condition, Hakim proceeded quickly after that. The massive silver greatsword was raised high above, before it was swung down in a crescent arc. A waning moon took form along the blade, infused with so much mana that Lev momentarily passed out again.

Finally, that endlessly stretched moment passed, and three Mana Slashes flew from the sword's edge. Each faithfully represented the goddess's domain in their crescent shapes, reaching the distant monsters faster than Lev could ever hope to perceive.

Before he fully passed out, the only thing he saw were the three black dots falling as six, cleanly separated into two, and the notification from the Identify he had hurled at the greatsword before losing consciousness.

[Chains of Freedom - ??????]

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