"Quite the introduction," Elias remarked as he walked up to Lev. "Does that mean you're still quite a bit lower leveled than everyone present?

  Lev couldn't detect any hostility or foul play so he nodded, slowly. "Unfortunately. For now."

  Elias smirked. "For now, indeed. I-"

  "You can talk about that later," the healer interjected. "I'm Lisa. Did you say your mentor was Alec Zar? The Alec Zar?"

  "Yep."

  "Wow," she breathed out, starstruck. "Is it true that he carries an arsenal of arcane equipment wherever he goes, while crafting under an illusion?"

  "I, uh, don't know? I only saw him fight once," Lev lied, taking a step away from her.

  "Oh," her face fell, "that's unfortunate-"

  "That is enough, too."

  Elias pulled her back by the shoulder, sending Lev an apologetic grin. "What I was saying is, what you managed is quite impressive. Would it be alright if I extended an invitation to you to dangerous large quests in the future?"

  Lev pondered the implications for a second before shrugging. "Sure, that sounds fine to me. I can't guarantee that I'll show up, though."

  "Naturally," Elias nodded before returning to his team.

  Did I make my first connection? Lev wondered, confused.

  The interaction was weird, at least to him, so he put it out of his mind. "Where are we going?"

  Edward answered. "Underneath the spires. One of the final caverns was almost overrun last night, which is our destination."

  "Final caverns?"

  "Oh, you're new to Runespires?" Lev nodded. "I see. Final caverns are the last line of defense before the truly untamed caves begin. They are always holding back hordes of monsters. The place is good for practicing against as many monsters as you want in a somewhat safe environment. Well, safe until shit like this goes down," he finished with a scoff.

  Lev kept quiet. Perhaps he should adopt the role of a wandering guardian sooner rather than later. The negative effects of his presence were already showing.

  Or perhaps something entirely unrelated had transpired. He was about to find out.

  The manmade cave they were traveling in kept going in circles, inclined rather deeply. Lev wondered how far down they were after half an hour of walking.

  He decided to ask. "How far below ground are we right now?"

  "Just over a kilometer," Edward replied. "We should be there soon- ok here we are."

  The path opened up to a wide cavern. It was Lev's first time being underground, and he was understandably blown away by the stalactite-covered ceiling and uneven ground.

  It was beautiful in its own right.

  "Watch out for the monsters," Elias whispered, casually grabbing a short sword off his back.

  "Levels?" Lev questioned.

  "Dormant monsters, nothing to worry about."

  Oh.

  Lev summoned his bow regardless. The present company observed him curiously, no doubt because of the lack of arrows on his being.

  "Is anyone scouting?" Lev asked after a minute of silence.

  "I am," replied a mage from behind him. "Two kobolds to our left."

  Lev was a bit stumped by why nobody turned to them. Was the level two low or what?

  "For the newcomer, I'll explain," Bernard suddenly voiced. "My skills focus on taunting monsters. They will all try to pile up on me, and you guys can easily finish them off. Just don't let any second-threshold monsters near me."

  Trying to repair a burnt bridge? Lev almost quipped but held himself back. He appreciated the effort regardless.

  "Makes sense," Lev remarked before ascending a few meters. Seeing two kobolds hundreds of meters away, Lev formed two arrows and put them down in quick succession.

  [

  You have slain [Kobold - Level 60]

  You have slain [Kobold - Level 64]

  ]

  "You're an archer?" the scout mage asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.

  "Mage," Lev replied without explaining.

  The cavern eventually ended in another narrow cave, where Lev got to see a mine for the first time. Without slowing down, Edward passed through a cave filled with iron deposits in the wall. Lev continued to observe the patches of crude metal with childish curiosity before they walked in a different direction.

  The journey continued the same for ten more minutes, going from cave to more caves before the sounds of battle reached the group from ahead. Lev tensed in preparation but calmed down, realizing there were no screams, only blasts from different spells.

  The cave opened up to a vast expanse, a cavern so huge that it boggled the senses. Hundreds of meters above, Lev could see the dark gray stone ceiling but he couldn't see the end of the cavern up ahead on two sides.

  The group exited from a hole in the wall several dozen meters above the battlefield. To Lev's left was a large wall, twenty or so meters in height, and to his right was the huge cavern floor, littered with monster corpses.

  "So, what exactly is our job?" Lev finally asked. Seeing the droves of dormant and first-threshold monsters trying to scale the walls, he knew they would go down there.

  "Exterminate and find any potential source of their new behavior," Elias summarized. "Harvest some good money while we're at it."

  "Why does the last part sound a tiny bit suspicious for an official mission?" someone Lev didn't know commented.

  "Focus," Edward snapped, eyes focused on something in the distance. "There are more first-threshold monsters than ever before. No dilly-dallying."

  Lev mentally approved of the present teams when nobody joked about the order. The situation seemed more serious than expected, and Lev was starting to get slightly nervous being far away from the safety of walls.

  Perhaps I should've given the offer more thought. Lev scoffed mentally. What's done is done. Now, let's get some levels.

  While Edward talked to the lead combatants on the wall, Lev formed two large barrier shields. Each was nearly two meters in width and three fingers thick but due to the nature of barriers, they still weighed little.

  I should look into an Earth mana converter now.

  Filing away the thought, Lev carved out large durability runes on them. It took several minutes to adjust the runes till they were as good as he could manage, and by that point Edward had returned.

  "Putting my teachings to use already?" He smiled. "Let's go."

  The gates opened with loud groans, betraying their weight and rusty nature. Lev took a good look at the exterior of the wall before dozens of monsters focused on Bernard.

  Nobody spoke a word as the warriors all moved to the front. Lev's role was left up to him, so he flew back and up into the air and started firing normal arcane arrows.

  [

  You have slain [Kobold - Level 87]

  You have slain [Kobold - Level 85]

  You have slain [Cave Troll - Level 98]

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  …

  ]

  The notifications kept piling up as Lev loosed one arrow after another. The normal arrows only ate up a minuscule amount of mana. With a bit of downtime in between, Lev could keep going for days.

  Bernard mowed through the horde with a large mace while Elias and his team cut down dozens without any visible effort.

  Edward on the other hand, was fighting with… needles. Small metal needles enchanted to the brim. The tiny projectiles moved faster than Lev could track, ravaging the poor monsters with punctures.

  The monsters in a large radius around them fell within moments. Bernard started jogging forward in that massive armor of his, the sound probably attracting more monsters than his class skills.

  True to Edward's words, the monsters were frantic. Usually, they would try to tear off Lev's face without any other thought present in their monstrous heads. That was still true, but now the insanity had a desperate quality to it.

  Several cave trolls between levels 120-140 charged them. Despite the hundreds of meters between them, their almost-fearful roars reached them without a problem.

  With unconcerned steps, Bernard jogged forward to meet them. The monsters all focused their ire on him, completely ignoring the rest of the company.

  Grabbing the punch of the first troll, Bernard mangled the skull of another with his mace while several physical attacks landed on his huge armor. Beyond loud thuds, it remained undamaged.

  Elias accelerated to an insane degree, at least to Lev, and several heads flew away from bodies before he came to a stop, all within two seconds. The remaining trolls fell quickly, two to Lev's lightning arrows and the rest to the scary needles controlled by Edward.

  The carnage progressed smoothly. Hundreds upon hundreds of monsters fell in front of their sheer might in the next hour. It was going well.

  Too well, really.

  Edward tensed, halting midstep.

  Lev had already seen such a reaction before from his mentor, and even back then he only had one thought.

  Masters simply had too much control over their bodies to ever react like this.

  Lev ignored all the monsters rushing at Bernard and flew higher, squinting his eyes to peer through the darkness in the distance. He wished he hadn't when a bright, sickly crimson thread almost pierced his head.

  Only Edward's timely intervention of pulling Lev lower saved his life, and even then the thread passed through the top left corner of both his armors without encountering any resistance.

  Two ominous blobs of red deep into the distant darkness made their presence known to the group as an oppressive aura washed over them. Each and every one of them unconsciously took a step back, even Lev with his increased willpower.

  W-what on Monarch is that?

  Lev unknowingly tried to Identify the creature and to his horror, the skill triggered from more than a kilometer away.

  [Blighted Threader - ???]

  "Edward," Lev whispered, his voice cracking. "What level is that thing?"

  "Three…" Edward gulped. "Three fifty."

  We're so fucking dead. Lev summarized with palpable terror. His breathing quickened just like his heartbeat, and the sweat dripping down his back was only making things worse. Despite trying his best to not lose sight of the monster, the thing's aura was starting to make his vision swim.

  "The only way is to fight, yeah?" Lev whispered again. Elias, Bernard, Edward, and several other people jerkily nodded, rooted on the spot just like him.

  The monster made the first move as a dozen threads shot forward, their speed almost too much. It was only Lev's sheer perception that let him bring his two large shields in front of the group.

  Large streams of mana flowed into the durability runes at the last moment. Lev held his breath as the threads slammed into the shields.

  The first shield held up admirably against the first three impacts before cracking. Lev repaired it as fast as he could before it inevitably shattered, successfully blocking most of the threads.

  "Retreat! Do not break formation and do not let the threads touch you no matter what!" Edward ordered frantically, on the lookout for threads coming his way.

  While Lev hastily formed another three shields and durability runes on them, he noticed a peculiar detail. The monster launched thread after thread, eating up Lev's mana at an alarming rate by forcing him to repair and power the shields and runes, but…

  Why the fuck is it only targeting me!?!?

  "I won't last long like this!" Lev yelled, desperately hoping someone would take its attention off him.

  "Just give me a moment!" Edward yelled back. "When I signal you, fly far back."

  Lev held on desperately, dodging and weaving between the threads whenever possible without being too risky while blocking the rest with his shields. Even his armor's durability rune was eating up his mana, in case he missed something.

  "Now!"

  Lev dove down and back, maneuvering out of the way of the lethal threads. Now safe, he took a moment to catch his breath while observing the rest of the group in case they needed help.

  The enchanter brought out four different tower shields, each hastily enchanted to counter the decay from blight. While blocking the threads with two of them, he threw one to Bernard and the other to Elias.

  "Bernard, can you distract it for one second?" Lev called out, keeping an eye out for any stray threads.

  "I don't want to fucking die, you brat. That thing will turn me into a mummy in the blink of an eye,"

  Lev growled under his breath but didn't argue further. The man had a point, even if it went against the spirit of his class.

  He was considering his next steps when the air morphed to their senses, turning from something breathable into an abominable gas that needed to be eradicated. The monster's aura, now actively interfering with their mental states, surged out with full power, towering and domineering.

  Lev's flight buckled as several of their group fell to the ground, unconscious. Edward, Bernard, Elias, and another warrior above level two hundred moved ahead and stood together, shields joined together to not leave a gap between them.

  "BEHIND US! NOW!"

  Feeling the urgency in Edward's voice, Lev formed threads of his own grabbed all the immobile hunters, and moved behind the vanguard. Dome after dome of barriers covered Lev and the unconscious hunters when they were all grouped together before a wave of mana originated from the Threader.

  Twisted, vile decay, a threat to all life and its wonders. That was the only way Lev could describe the wave of blight. It washed over the group and Lev's barrier domes like a harrowing tide, slowly eating away at their durability and lives.

  The shields at the front held but the people behind them almost didn't as the wave passed. The warrior whose name Lev didn't know coughed and wobbled, visibly straining to stay upright when a thread pierced his head.

  Just by staying in contact with the thread, the hunter's face turned into disgusting shades of red and purple before the blight spread through the rest of his body.

  Lev almost emptied his breakfast inside the armor, closing his eyes to look away from the hunter's shriveled body to preserve his sanity. The wall was still far behind them, and it would be no use to run there. The combatants there were even lower leveled than his present company.

  "Bernard, you need to hold its attention for a moment or we will die here," Lev breathed out, dry heaving.

  "Kid-"

  "Don't 'kid' me, if you have a better idea I'm all ears."

  Bernard grimaced. Lev didn't know if from the echoing impacts from the growing number of threads, Lev's statement, or the deteriorating state of his shield.

  "Lev's right," Edward spoke up just as another unconscious mage was grazed by a stray thread. Lev instantly looked away, his senses acutely telling him of the decay spreading through her body regardless.

  "Take these," Lev tossed four shields with durability runes to Bernard, "and wait for my signal."

  Nobody questioned him, knowing damn well that there was no way for them to survive here. The only Master amongst them was a newly evolved crafter, someone who had seen little truly dangerous combat.

  The twin dark red orbs, the threader's eyes, slowly moved closer, and before long the monstrosity was revealed. Four slim, corroded arms adorned its sides while half a humanoid head remained on its shoulders. It walked on two legs, though Lev didn't know if they even classified as limbs from their poor shape.

  Despite his short hunter career, Lev knew there were many things out there that could strike fear into everyone's hearts just by existing. But nothing would've prepared him for seeing the ghastly humanoid abomination slowly shamble in his direction with even a hint of an expression on its half-intact face.

  It's just a monster… the thought echoed in his head, struggling to break the vice grip of fear.

  Just a monster that will kill all of us without breaking a sweat… the fear whispered back, urging Lev to give in and surrender.

  Something deep inside him rebelled at the ridiculous notion. Despite the situation, Lev couldn't hold back a scoff as he broke out of that mental state.

  How fucking stupid does that sound? Surrender to a fucking monster? Blighted monster, no less.

  There were also several people around him who would die if he didn't do anything. Running away was…

  Fuck no.

  A huge, several meter long lance slowly formed above Lev before he enchanted the tip with a sharpness rune.

  "Be prepared, Bernard."

  "Just hurry the fuck up, kid."

  Lev snickered but did as he was told. Mana flooded his gauntlets, 3/4th of it into the lightning converter and the rest into the fire converter. The converted mana streamed into the lance, lightning filling up most of it as the fire mana was held tightly in the middle.

  Several seconds passed before pain bloomed in Lev's right arm. The amount of mana being channeled slowly overwhelmed his meager constitution, the attribute devoid of any skills to empower it.

  With gritted teeth, Lev ignored it to the best of his ability. His breathing slowly turned ragged before his eyes started to lose focus. Yet the channel continued all the same, filling up the huge lance slowly but surely.

  Twenty seconds later, Lev's limb was less an arm and more a giant pus-filled blue bruise. Over 80% of his mana pool was channeled into the lance before it couldn't take anymore. When the attack was prepared, Lev flooded the sharpness rune to keep it active for a minute or two.

  "NOW!"

  Several things happened at once. Bernard's aura surged, blatantly shouting out a challenge, the provocation empowered severalfold with mana. The Threader's threads paused before changing direction. Edward dumped a ton of mana into Lev's shields, keeping them afloat with his own mana manipulation in front of Bernard as the threads impacted, shattering one of them with ease.

  Before the second could shatter, Lev's lance embedded itself into the Threader's chest, and the world turned white.

  The first thing Lev noticed was the defense wall rapidly closing in. The second thing he noticed was that he was going to collide with it at an extreme speed. Panic-fueled adrenaline woke him up quicker than any shower ever could, and Lev powered through a harrowing migraine and the burning agony in his right arm to arrest his momentum, coming to a stop only a few meters away from the walls.

  Behind him, the entire cavern was visible, courtesy of the huge bright blast in the middle. Where there used to be a ghastly Threader, there was now a towering mushroom of fire and electricity.

  Lightning crackled like dozens of snakes in the wall of fire, letting him know in no uncertain terms that it was the product of his lance.

  Everyone conscious was also observing the scene with wide eyes, barely remembering to assume a defensive formation in case the Threader was still alive.

  They shouldn't have worried.

  [

  You have slain [Blight Threader - Level 348]

  ]