How do I kill this thing? Lev thought with a grimace as restoration mana cycled through his body. He couldn't even add more of it, for the relatively small amount was already difficult to control.

A large stream of lightning mana was constantly coming out of his converters, equally distributed to all of his constructs to act as small buffers. It was the only reason he could fire so many attacks at once.

He continued flying backwards as the monster found its bearings again, its eyes more worn out than before. With a loud, grating growl, it whirled onto Lev again, who was sending dozens of barrier orbs into the ground.

Still nowhere strong enough to outlast a third-threshold monster, he exhaled slowly and prepared for a final burst. Unlike the fight with the beetle, he didn't have Harun's extreme mana regeneration buff, nor his instant healing.

Killing the monster was still pretty much impossible, but he was determined to give it the best shot. All of his preparations were close to done, and he started by infusing dozens of arrows with as much lightning as he could.

A barrage of blue streaks flew at the monster, most of them passing through its now normal heat sphere again. It growled again at what must have been a lot of prickling bites, before lunging at Lev.

Some color drained from the world as he focused deeper than ever before. Manipulating more lightning than he thought possible, divided amongst all of his constructs, he waited until the last moment.

Forty ropes connected to two bubbles shot down with shrill whistles from their sheer speed, wrapping around the monster's entire body. Bracing himself, Lev commanded them all to pull it back, immediately arresting its momentum at the cost of feeling like someone had dropped an anvil on his brain.

Blood trickled down his nose, but his concentration didn't falter. Too much was at stake, and he felt like he had something to prove. That he was no longer weak, and wouldn't fall over at the feet of the next third-threshold monster.

Tens of orbs infused with enough lightning to blow up Lev himself to smithereens popped up near the gecko's face. The monster's spikes turned blue again, eyes darting between the massive lance hovering above Lev and all the orbs next to it.

Some cautious instinct took over as it immediately released the blue wave of fire just as the orbs exploded. The ground was incinerated for hundreds of meters around as all the ropes disintegrated, and Lev defended himself with all of his remaining shields and walls as the final lance, infused and imbued with more than a third of his and Stargazer's mana, rushed forward with a titanic boom. His orbs had only bought him a single, decisive moment.

The lance parted the incoming wall of blue flames faster than he could track, giving him enough time to fly up as fast as he could. It landed in the same instant, blowing up in a giant blue cloud of lightning that immediately tried to fry him alive.

Lev blocked all the lightning tentacles and stray bolts with his shield and walls as best as he could, suffering more than a few jolts as his flight quickly took him nearly a kilometer high.

The moment he was out of the blast's range, a final torrent of mana entered one particular enchantment of Stargazer, as well as the lightning converter. Both of them greedily ate up the fuel as flesh sloughed off his arms and legs, overwhelmed by the insane channel despite the healing mana coursing through them.

Down below, he could feel the monster's stationary aura, stunned for a precious few seconds by the lightning mana. As Stargazer's weight continued to increase exponentially, Lev tilted his body until it was horizontal and started spinning.

The glaive spun in a circle around him, forming a ring of blue as mana gradually leaked out of her, too much for him to control all of it. Just before his brain could become dizzy, he timed his movement and let go of Stargzer the moment it was aimed at the gecko.

Carried tangentially by the extreme centripetal force, she blasted downward like a meteor, leaving a giant, sizzling trail of blue in her passing. In a blink, Stargazer vanished through the still roaring flames before landing on the monster, the exact positioning unknown to Lev.

Another blast rose, this one much more concentrated. A large pillar of lightning shot upwards, nearly engulfing Lev as he hastily darted away. Even so high up, it still dwarfed him like a giant thunderbolt before all of it exploded in flames, turning the night into day.

Nothing moved after that. He cautiously lowered to the ground, taking in the utterly ruined landscape for kilometers around while regrowing his missing flesh and mending his softened bones. Massive charred craters marked all the places the monster had used its heat waves, and similar smaller holes denoted the impacts of Lev's arrows and lances.

Everything else was also burned to a crisp, devoid of any greenery. All of it caused by just two beings, the scale of the destruction far beyond anything short of Earth's large-scale weapons. Even then, it was merely a start. Lev was only stepping into the Master rank, but the notifications told a story far different than his level alone.

[

You have slain [Flamebreather Gecko - Level 511]

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 256

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 257

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 258

Arcane Barrier Authority has reached 4th Level 2

Wrath of the Arcane has reached 4th Level 2

Expeditious Empowerment has reached 4th Level 1

Mage Conduit has reached 4th Level 2

Consistent Mana Channeling has reached 2nd Level 3

Wanderer's Repository has reached 2nd Level 2

Your title has been upgraded.

Your title has been upgraded.

—-

[

[Goliath Slayer - III]

Slay an enemy a threshold above you with minimal assistance.

Only attainable below half the level of your threshold.

The title can be upgraded.

+40 to every attribute

]

[

[Daunting Steps - V]

Through sheer grit and desire, you have faced down an adversary of a much higher level in a higher threshold and come out on top. Something considered improbable by even the strongest of your kind, despite their hunger for more power.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

+30 to all attributes.

This title can be upgraded. It is recommended not to spread the specifics of this title.

]

]

I did it? Lev just hovered above the destruction, blinking a few times to process the situation and blink away the tears from his hurting body. His team couldn't be allowed to see those. Rereading the notifications a few times, he had to admit that things were too real to be a hallucination.

Three levels, he chuckled, only for it to immediately turn into a wheeze. His lungs burned, and every part except his head was in a lot of physical pain. For obvious reasons, his head and brain were spared from the mana channeling to prevent any damage, but mana overuse ensured that they were in agony regardless.

The notifications were also about what he expected. Goliath Slayer and Dauting Steps had both reached a threshold, or perhaps it was reaching Master, that increased their rewards. Either way, the former now gave another +20 to each attribute, whereas the latter gave another +10, double their usual bonus increase. Lev wasn't going to complain. The attributes provided by his class levels were swiftly overtaking the titles.

Sherron exiting the bubble close to him brought Lev out of his contemplation. He also got an idea after remembering his teammates, stopping the stream of restoration mana entering his body.

"Return to the bubble and move away. I'll deal with the incoming scouts," she immediately said, and Lev gratefully nodded before following her instructions.

Inside, he beheld frozen teammates. Not paying their state any mind, he dismissed his armor and slumped on his seat with a sloppy thud, covered in blood and bits of ruined flesh.

"Kayla," Lev called out with a deep breath, jolting them all out of their trance. "Heal me."

"What?" she blinked in confusion before her gaze roamed Lev's poor state of being, eyes widening all the while. "What the fuck!?"

She immediately ran up to him, quickly kneeling beside his chair while scanning all the wounds. Lev could see her breathing pick up as she found missing flesh and a little bleeding wherever she looked, the number of wounds overwhelming her mind and nonexistent practice.

"Calm down, Kayla," he gently said, not letting any of the pain show in his eyes or expression. "Take a deep breath and close your eyes."

She acquiesced, shutting her eyes with a shuddering breath.

"Good, now focus on one wound at a time. There's nothing at stake, so get a feel for your skills."

"Nothing at stake!?" she rebuked harshly before covering her face with her hand, the color slowly draining from her face.

Lev merely chuckled lightly. "I'm used to it."

Kayla had nothing to say to that. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes again and let her mana slowly enter his body. She struggled to control it while doing so, needing all of her mental faculties to just make the mana reach the wounds.

A smile remained on Lev's lips as the wound healed in excruciating slowness, especially because he heightened his Perception to observe her skill in action. Similar to his own, it was slowly regrowing flesh. The major difference was in the way both mana types went about the task.

Where restoration mana worked on recreating the body in the best shape, as in reforming the flesh and bones from scratch, Kayla's skill sought to 'fix' the damage by stitching it back together. It was a more efficient method of healing, but it was also unfit for Lev's use, for he was quite ignorant about human anatomy. Restoration mana took away most of the burden by being mostly automatic in its working, and Lev was slowly learning more about his body about the constant usage.

Her mana is gonna run out well before she can finish healing me. Lev smiled to himself and looked at his status. It was coming along nicely, only slightly miffed about the new 4th rank providing no benefits.

[

Name: Lev

Class: Arcane Maelstrom - Level 258

Titles: Reinforced Mind, Extraordinary Soul, Youngest Prodigy, Goliath Slayer III, Daunting Steps V, Champion Delver, Hunter, Seen, Survivor I, Titan Slayer, Master Pioneer

Attributes:

Strength: 270

Dexterity: 270

Constitution: 625

Intelligence: 735

Wisdom: 905

Perception: 610

Class Skills:

Arcane Barrier Authority - 4th Level 2

Unerring Volley - 4th Level 1

Wrath of the Arcane - 4th Level 2

Arcane Protection - 4th Level 1

Superior Senses - 4th Level 1

Expeditious Empowerment - 4th Level 1

Arcane Passage - 3rd Level 9

Mage Conduit - 4th Level 2

General Skills:

Consistent Mana Channeling - 2nd Level 3

Identify

Aerial Maneuvers - 2nd Level 10

Mana Perception - 2nd Level 10

Arcane Archery - 2nd Level 10

Barrier Carving - Level 2nd Level 10

Wanderer's Repository - 2nd Level 2

Crescent Decimation - 2nd Level 10

Self-Taught Beginner Glaive Mastery - 2nd Level 2

]

While Kayla healed his right arm, Lev slowly channeled healing mana into the left side of his body. She didn't have nearly enough mana to heal him completely, so he could spare himself the pain.

Lowering the bubble close to the gecko's corpse, slowly being revealed amidst flames, he focused on Stargazer's presence. Grabbing the barrier threads inside her, it took several seconds to drag her out of the ground. She was buried over a dozen meters deep, having pierced through the monster's brain.

As expected, he grinned as the glaive landed in front of him, showing her completely unharmed form to everyone present. Even Kayla paused with a shiver, quickly taking her eyes off Stargazer.

Ignoring the reaction, he summoned his canteen and rinsed the glaive, the dirty and bloody water draining through a hole formed in the bubble. A bit of scrubbing with a rag held by a barrier hand later, she was as good as new.

The top of her pole only held a small metallic base for his blade to grow out of, giving him the maximum freedom to elongate and widen the construct. Lev reckoned it was intentional because he could not fathom wounding the gecko with a normal-sized blade. His blade had naturally shattered upon impact despite the durability enchantment working on it, as well.

"Why did you not ask for help?" Jack abruptly asked, tone disbelieving.

"What would the point of that be?" Lev answered the question with another question.

"To kill the monster quicker?" he answered in confusion. "You were slowly killing yourself to hurt the monster. That doesn't sound sane."

"Let me rephrase it then," Lev looked into his eyes. "If I asked Sherron to kill it, what about the next time when nobody will be near me to help?"

Jack opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it. His eyes darkened as he looked away, face grim. Amelia observed the exchange silently, arriving at the same conclusions.

"Amelia," Lev gazed directly into her eyes as well, finding an unexpected amount of fear inside them. "This is not normal for me. If Sherron wasn't present, I would've run away immediately."

He glanced at Jack briefly before finishing, "Slowly killing myself for hurting monsters isn't something I make a habit out of."

Conversation petered off after that. Lev had given them far too much to think about, and he hoped they would learn from it instead of being disheartened by the grand display of strength. There was no doubt about how strong their Master teammate was, despite having evolved recently.

A group of scouts reached Sherron after a few minutes, the Exalted casually seated around the monster's corpse. There was something to be said about the cause of its death being a hole in its head, something lightning wasn't proficient in, but the scouts didn't dare.

Some back and forth later, they left again. Sherron returned to the bubble at that point.

"Didn't think you would be acting on your plans so quickly," she remarked after seeing Kayla focusing deeply with her eyes closed, oblivious to the Exalted's return.

"Life happened," Lev grinned. "It would've been a waste not to make good use of it."

Sherron pointedly gave all his wounds a long stare. Lev coughed and looked away. Sure, life had been unexpectedly dangerous, but the end result was what mattered. He had just gained a decent bit of strength, and Kayla had a lot of injuries to heal. It was mostly a win-win situation.

Ten minutes later, Kayla ran out of mana after healing a quarter of his right arm. Her mana regeneration boost still cost too much to produce a net-positive result when used on herself, so she only relied on her attributes and healing skill.

Lev healed the rest of his body in a few minutes after that, resuming the patrol. Plenty of monsters attacked them still, all of them easily perishing under his lightning arrows. He was in no mood to fight any longer. Time passed as he rested in his seat while waiting for his mana to regenerate under Kayla's passive aura when the scouts returned again, this time with four more people.

They were decked out in red clothes, marking them as a group of Harvesters. Their job was to harvest cores and other useful materials from monsters, but the current ones were too low-level for that. The reason became obvious when they brought out several large roofless carts before connecting them to a mana-powered engine. Joined like a train, the gecko corpse was hauled onto them with Lev's help before the carts started rolling forward, taking the body to be dissected in some underground chambers or wherever they conducted the bloody business. He didn't know.

Sherron had already asked how much he was willing to give the hunters guild from the harvest. Given the sheer size of the monster, Lev requested to keep the core and half of all the materials. At most, he needed the hide for Kayla's armor and the core for Amelia's sword. That was all.

The guild could make better use of the remaining materials that he was going to sell anyway. Better let them get to where they mattered instead of some rich merchant's collection.

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