"MARTHA'S TITS, LEV! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"

  "I'm fineeee, stop screaming into my mug,"

  The words were slurred to his ears, which was pretty funny. His right arm also felt extra funny, though some part of him whispered it was no laughing matter.

  Lev laughed. "I'm dandy, just need, uh… I'm sure we will find something to make me happier."

  Edward didn't seem to be convinced. Lev knew he was in a weird state but his delivery was flawless. Why did the lecturer not believe him?

  "You stupid idiot, I can feel the mana poisoning even outside your armor."

  Mana poisoning, that word sent a jolt down his spine and cleared his head. The pain, that his addled brain had suppressed so far, returned with vengeance.

  Less than 5% remaining mana, an arm turned to mush from mana overuse, the mental overexertion from using so much mana in a short period, and the fading adrenaline, all the factors combined into something exquisite that knocked him out cold in moments.

  ****

  "Why was he hiding it?" Elias broke the silence for the first time in a few hours. The remaining hunters and Edward were all in a room behind the wall, waiting for Lev to wake up. The Final Cavern was fully cleared, now only assaulted by stray weak monsters.

  "Hiding what, exactly?" Edward questioned.

  "Surely it wasn't just me that felt the amount of mana in that attack," Elias scratched his head. "That's more mana than any silver hunter I've ever heard of. Hell, it was more than most gold hunters even."

  "Why does it matter? It's his choice," Sabrina, a warrior who hadn't yet interacted with Lev, piped up.

  "I'm not trying to berate him," Elias looked at her in exasperation. "If he shared his strength, surely he would be assigned a support squad to bring out his best potential,"

  "That would weaken his class evolutions," Bernard commented, his tone confident.

  They all lapsed into silence again. With the unexpected attack from Lev decimating the Threader, the final cavern was back to its normal state. But that left them with much more disturbing questions.

  "You don't need to worry about him keeping it a secret. He's Alec's student. Those who need to know already do," Edward said. "More importantly, we need to report this to the guild as soon as we can after Lev wakes up."

  "You don't need to worry about that anymore," a new voice interjected as an angry aura washed over them.

  ****

  Is this how it feels to be a dishwasher?

  The thought was groggy in Lev's head, his mind still hazy. It took several long moments to get used to all the pains in his body, as well as the lethargy from mana overuse.

  "I left you alone for just over a month," a familiar voice called out, "and look at you."

  "… Happy to see you too, teacher."

  "Don't try to sugarcoat it. What happened down here, and why are you like this?"

  "Do you even need to ask? I'm sure you've heard from multiple people already."

  Lev heard a sigh echo throughout the room before he decided to get up from the bed he was perched on. "Why are you here, even?"

  "Someone tried to open your armor," Lev stiffened, "but I have my ways to find out. It just took a few hours to get here."

  "I see… did they succeed?"

  "No," Alec instantly replied. "Edward wanted to give you a healing potion but he couldn't get through the locks. Here,"

  Lev deftly caught the potion, the movement of his barrier armor unhindered despite the physical pain. "Thanks," he muttered before coming out of his armor and gulping down the healing potion.

  The effect was instant. Lev's knees shook from the intense pain in his right arm, and he looked at it properly for the first time.

  The best he could describe its current condition was… fucked. The arm was a dark blue mess of bruises and pus, bloated to almost twice the size of his left arm.

  "I think the arm looking so ugly has an additional pain," Lev remarked, continuing to observe the appendage with a grimace.

  "That's what your mind goes to? Lev, your arm was very, very close to being permanently damaged. How are you even staying upright?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "The pain, boy," his mentor replied, agitation clear in his tone. "No one your age should be able to withstand that much pain so easily."

  Lev looked at the arm, then back at his mentor. "I've went through worse, I guess?" He shrugged.

  Alec had nothing more to say, and Lev was fine with that. Putting the painfully healing arm out of his mind, Lev pulled up his notifications instead.

  [

  You have slain [Blighted Threader - Level 348]

  Mana Tempest has reached Level 121

  Mana Tempest has reached Level 122

  …

  Mana Tempest has reached Level 131

  Colorful Destruction has reached 2nd Level 6

  Colorful Destruction has reached 2nd Level 7

  Rapid Infusion has reached 2nd Level 5

  Rapid Infusion has reached 2nd Level 6

  Unerring Volley has reached 3rd Level 2

  Mage Conduit has reached 3rd Level 2

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  55 Free attribute points

  Your Title has been upgraded.

  Your Title has been upgraded.

  ]

  Lev sighed. The gains were beyond anything he had expected. He could already guess what titles had been upgraded.

  "You may want to hear this," Lev called out with a snort.

  "Let me guess, you got an inordinately huge reward for your stupidity?"

  "There was no stupidity," Lev muttered. "If you think I could've left them down there, maybe you don't know me so well."

  "It would've been much easier to run away with them instead," his mentor commented, calmer now.

  "… I blame the threader's aura for not letting me think straight. Besides, there were only low level hunters on the wall. They would've been slaughtered."

  "Fine, fine. What did you get?"

  Lev checked out his new titles.

  [

  [Goliath Slayer II]

  Slay an enemy a threshold above you with minimal assistance.

  Only attainable below half the level of your threshold.

  The title can be upgraded.

  +20 to every attribute

  ]

  [

  [Daunting Steps II]

  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.

  +10 to all attributes.

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

  ]

  The Goliath Slayer title gave an additional +10 to every attribute, while Daunting Steps gave an additional +5. That was another 90 attributes for pretty much free on top of his other rewards, which made Lev curious about the nature of titles.

  "How common are titles that give bonuses to all attributes? I feel like The System is giving too much for free."

  "They are pretty common," Alec waved off his concern. "Your titles stand above the rest but there are still a lot of them that you will get eventually. From common things such as defending cities from waves with a rating of seven or higher, or doing difficult dungeons, or by simply becoming a gold ranked hunter."

  "Becoming a gold hunter?" Lev questioned in amusement.

  His mentor nodded. "The System considers it a milestone of your commitment. Something I doubt you've worked towards."

  Lev coughed. He kept forgetting about the merit points requirement. "I'll look into cave exploration next."

  He took a few minutes to apply his free attributes, which was becoming easier to get used to. His attributes looked glorious after he was done.

  [

  Attributes:

  Strength: 90

  Dexterity: 90

  Constitution: 250

  Intelligence: 325

  Wisdom: 350

  Perception: 250

  ]

  "Why don't we address the elephant in the room?" Lev began after a few moments of silence.

  "You've probably guessed it already."

  Lev looked at Alec for a long moment. "Should I leave?"

  "No, we just need to patch up all possible pathways to the ravine. If your presence lures blighted monsters from so incredibly far away, it will not matter where you stay. Better be behind walls than out in the plains, where you will be alone,"

  The logic was sound but Lev still felt uneasy. The Crimson Ravine was outside the outer wall, many thousands of kilometers away from Runespires. It was the only known location with blighted monsters, which made it extremely odd for one to show up here.

  The Threader could've just been a stray, wandering the caverns below for years or decades. Nobody wanted to put their hopes on such an optimistic theory however, which left only one possible answer.

  Lev's presence was far more enticing for monsters than they had first estimated. With his growing strength, if he was already starting to attract monsters from the ravine, how long would it take to for monsters of The Grand Forest, or Monarch forbid, the ocean to take notice of him?

  "I need equipment," Lev voiced, slowly but firmly. "Specifically something to counter Mana Poisoning."

  Alec dashed his hopes quickly. "There is nothing that will help you long-term. To begin with, you will need to have devices drilled into your shoulders to directly take mana without it needing to travel through your body. But there is no metal that will be able to handle your growing output for long, and the downside of interfering with all your manipulation will be too much. The effects of Constitution will also constantly try to push those devices out of your body."

  "Nothing more natural?"

  "There are some ways but…"

  "I need to become a Master first?" Lev guessed, unamused.

  "It's similar to how potions work. Before becoming a Master, your body and soul are simply not ready to adapt to such thorough changes. Even then, the benefits are… little."

  "What kind of benefits?"

  "Increasing muscle flexibility is the most common treatment. It simply makes the body more malleable, improving the effects of dexterity and overall being a great boon for warriors. Sounds great on paper but the actual effects are nothing to write home about, only slight improvements. Mana conductivity increase will be even less noticeable, negligible for the amount of mana you will possess."

  Lev processed that in silence before exhaling deeply. "What now?"

  "Did you get the enchanting skills?"

  "Give me a few minutes," Lev replied before sitting cross-legged on the ground.

  The remaining skill, Wanderer's Repository, was the last he needed to really begin his enchanting career. The requirement was, at least to Lev, redundant.

  The system rewarded it to those who wanted to explore their world. Monarch, humanity's current world, was far too big to explore which was why even those who wanted to explore just their continent would be able to get it.

  Not Lev, though. He had his eyes set on goals beyond Monarch. It was not even a question of desire, just a matter of time.

  [

  You have earned the General Skill: Wanderer's Repository.

  Wanderer's Repository:

  Perhaps it was your wanderlust, or maybe it was necessity pushing you to step out of safety. Either way, you have qualified for the skill.

  You may learn new runes by observing or being a part of significant events. You may acquire new runes by being subjected to natural extreme phenomena. You may learn new runes by fighting beings of significance.

  Runes stored in the skill are categorized based on use. You may also learn new runes normally.

  ]

  "The hell is significance?"

  "We don't know," Alec shrugged. "No matter how we try, The System refuses to explain anything related to it."

  "So, the extent of knowledge about significance is just the guesses everyone can form?"

  "Yep."

  Lev pushed down his bubbling annoyance and deciphered the description. It was everything he was promised. Learning runes was just a matter of being a part of important events and facing different types of monsters.

  Natural phenomena got a hard pass from him. The only common one was the storm, and it was nothing short of lethal. Even for the Exalted.

  Being able to learn runes normally was also nice. Lev could store all the runes he had been shown by Edward and other enchanting notes in the skill without issue. In the same vein, he could buy more runes in the future if that was possible without worrying about the skill locking them out.

  "I have the skills now," Lev said, still lost in thought.

  "We… no, this changes nothing. You will continue to do whatever you have planned. Now that we know of this issue, I will see if Orianna or Sherron can be stationed here instead," Lev's eyes lit up at that. "Most likely only Sherron will be free to do so. Her flight speed and insane range allows her a lot of leniency."

  "I still can't understand how she can take orders so easily," Lev shook his head.

  "They're not orders, Lev. It has been tried and proven time and time again that rotating Exalted methodically saves the most lives. You think its stifling to abide by such a restrictive schedule right now but all it would take is one breach in the city walls to change your mind."

  Lev replied after a few seconds of silence, "Be as it may, is there no way to make travel faster?"

  "Me and many others are trying to solve that issue," Alec replied cryptically.

  When he didn't explain further, Lev asked another question on his mind. "Susaine mentioned something about delving dungeons to reduce their absorption on a large scale. What was that about?"

  "Someone will reach out to you when the time is right," came another mysterious reply.

  "Fine, keep your Monarch damned secrets," Lev huffed. "Is there anything else before you leave again?"

  Alec looked at him for a long moment without moving. Lev didn't give him a chance to change his mind, moving up close and holding his arms out.

  His mentor chuckled before hugging him.

  "Stay safe."

  Lev snickered, "Hell no."