The rest of the day passed without any major incident. Both the platinum hunters and the non-combatants faced over a hundred monsters, each earning several levels for their efforts.

Lev stayed in his bubble for the most part. After testing his arrows and lances against the monsters, there was little for him to be worried about for now. Leaving the creatures entirely up to the platinum hunters would increase their essence gains, too.

Under the dim light of two moons, he sat atop the first cart, able to hear the steady breathing of the non-combatants inside. Their auras were also at peace, indicating that they were sound asleep.

With a sigh, he leaned back and stared at the moon. Instead of seeing the celestial bodies, however, Drakys floated in the sky a few meters behind him.

"Yo."

The Exalted tilted his head with a slight smile, shaking his head when Lev motioned for him to sit down next to him.

"This isn't how you should be treating your seniors, hunter," Drakys remarked and sat down cross-legged.

Lev shrugged and summoned two cups of milkshake from his ring after getting up. "I'm sure my senior has been busy traveling between different groups for the past few days. Here."

The cup was accepted, and both of them enjoyed their drinks in silence. Lev also didn't fail to notice how casual Melvine seemed to be, apparently not at all bothered by the Exalted's presence.

"You know," Lev began once his cup was finished. "I really thought I would be joining some really grand expedition, not laying its foundations."

"It's going to become larger than you want before you even have time to complain," Drakys retorted. "The moment the strongholds are done, we will send out the call to all the hunters who wish to participate, and those who are already prepared to be transported."

"How many will come by your estimates?"

"Tens of thousands?" the man shrugged. "We have enough hunters, so that's not really a concern. Instead, you should be keeping an eye on those who stand out. This generation in particular has shown some strong Exalted candidates, including you and Isabella."

"Who're the rest?" Lev casually asked, always interested in meeting more powerful people.

"In your age group? Other than Aaron and Elias, there is one more girl. She's… an oddball, to say the least. Maybe it is her stoic and calm personality that makes her so strong."

"Huh," Lev mused, not pushing for details. "How likely are we four to reach Exalted?"

"You're as certain as it gets, provided you don't carelessly throw your life away," Drakys answered with a pointed glance. "Isabella's chances are more or less the same, depending on whether she becomes dependent on her team or not. As for the other two… It's difficult to say.

"Aaron's talent with shadow mana will take him very far, but it's not enough. Raw power rarely is. He's going to need to be either extremely strong in what he does or find more strengths. Elias, on the other hand, is a straightforward fighter. The lack of versatility in that case can easily be handled by a team, which in turn becomes the greatest factor behind his chances."

"Do you think those two are gonna come here? It's been a while since I saw them."

"Definitely," the Exalted said without hesitation. "Unlike you, they rarely get a chance to fight at full strength or face dangerous monsters in waves. They're also stuck in the second gap, which is more than enough reason for them to show up by itself."

Pretty well-informed, huh?

"I see," Lev nodded and changed the topic. "So, what is waiting for us ahead in these hills?"

"If I didn't miss anything, only one real challenge. Notify me the moment it shows up, though."

That was good to know. Already, he was considering new types of constructs that helped the non-combatants and platinum hunters with minimal interference. The confirmation made him take them more seriously if his assistance wasn't going to be required all the time.

"One last question," Lev spoke, taking a few moments to gather the words. "Do you think I should risk even getting close to the Deadlands?"

The silence that followed was not a good sign. Even Melvine's head lowered a little, lost in thought. He didn't know what was going on in the mysterious Master's head, though Drakys' flat face was certainly scary.

"If you want to know my opinion, then yes," the Exalted eventually replied. "Most of the danger comes from just how little we know about the region. Spectral monsters are commonly found there, but there's no way that's all. It is why I will accompany you and make sure that nothing goes wrong when something unexpected inevitably happens."

"And you'll be enough?" Lev asked bluntly, finally getting to the main reason he had brought up the question. Melvine gave him a side-long glance at that, for one reason or another. He didn't know why.

"I will be," Drakys replied with a small smile. "The scout teams will also be there. Melvine will be too."

"Alright," Lev sighed and got up, feeling several monsters drilling their way towards the carts. "I'll prepare myself."

By the time he resummoned his armor and powered it up, Drakys was already gone.

****

Morning came with no new surprises. Lev watched as all of the platinum hunters and non-combatants took to their spots on top of the carts, starting the first hour of the cannon rotation.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Today's going to be way more intense than yesterday," he said, mostly for Jared, who was standing by his side. "Are you guys ready?"

"As ready as we can be," the gravity mage answered resolutely.

"Good," Lev said and waved a hand. Three centipedes smashed into a barrier wall that formed in a split second, barreling through while slowing down considerably.

Both the platinum hunters and non-combatants hastily prepared their skills, unaware of the approaching monsters. Even Jared was taken by surprise, almost wasting mana on a strong gravity attack.

When the original monsters fell, both the hills started vibrating around them intensely, this time noticeable even for the workers. Rolling his shoulders, Lev took a deep breath and summoned Stargazer.

Her less concealed appearance made everyone pause in surprise. Melvine turned to look at the glaive too, and then nodded at Lev. His attention, however, was occupied by the blade that was currently taking shape on top of the haft.

Similar to his most advanced creations, it was also composed of different layers. The main difference was that intricacy was sacrificed for the highest enchantment efficiency, and even those were few. Even then, the functions were limited to combining fire and lightning in a single attack to eventually push past the final hurdle of Crescent Decimation.

As for sharpness and durability, the glaive's own enchantments were the best ones by a long shot. He had no plans to replace those.

The result was a blade almost as tall as him and considerably wider than usual. Using the Gravity Core enchantment, he made the construct weigh as much as he could without ruining his own balance, and streamed a large amount of blue fire and lightning inside.

Both destructive elements clashed immediately, requiring him to exert all his control over them to keep the blade stable. It took a few seconds before he accomplished that, at which point over two dozen centipedes were about to break out of the walls.

Dashing in front of the first, he thrust Stargazer towards its head, keeping an eye on how the increased weight changed things. The glaive easily pierced the wind armor and the chitin, the added force behind the thrust making the task even more trivial.

Problems arose when the blade was embedded deep inside the monster. Like all living beings, it was supremely difficult to control mana inside another creature's body. Lev had a unique advantage in that regard, as his weapon was of Superior rarity and the lethal part of it was also made of his own element.

Regardless, his control was greatly diminished inside the monster's body, and blue fire immediately pounced on the weakness. He had to scramble to swing upwards and launch as much of the mana as he could in a mana slash, just barely succeeding.

The crescent attack flew up at high speed, exploding in a cloud of bright colors. Unfortunately, it hadn't flown out of the narrow passage before blowing up, and tons of stone were now falling on them.

Melvine sighed from behind him. Before she could get up and take action, a massive barrier roof appeared above them. Another layer formed on top of it, and then another before Lev enchanted all three of them with the standalone durability rune.

A burst of mana was channeled into the barriers to overload their durability as well as the runes. Mentally preparing himself, he waited as the stone rain fell on the barriers, each impact registering separately in his mind.

At first, the roof held without much trouble. A few cracks appeared here and there, and he made the weight less problematic by stabbing the barriers into the hills on both sides, using them as leverage.

When the first boulders crashed into the roof, he winced from the mental feedback. Large cracks appeared on the top layer, which shattered entirely after a few seconds. The carts were almost out of the danger zone when the second layer shattered too, and a particularly massive chunk of stone shattered through the remaining line of defense, on track to land on top of the last cart.

Before it could, Lev's bubble rammed into it with the strength of a runaway train, throwing it off track and almost shattering it. Both the stone and his bubbles were riddled with cracks from the impact, though the latter was repaired in a few seconds, whereas the former landed right behind the carts, failing to damage them.

That was close, he thought to himself, giving his glaive a long look. Note to self: don't use blue fire and lightning together for anything other than mana slashes.

With a sigh, he landed back on the first cart under the driver's stare. She just shook her head once when Lev shrugged back, knowing he had messed up. The destructive combination was still too much for him to handle outside of his armor and normal bursts.

The rest of the monsters had been killed rather easily by the platinum hunters, who had deemed the number too high to leave them to the workers alone. With their combined might, they had already harvested a few cores and ignored the rest of the corpses by the time Lev landed on the cart.

A few hours passed in the same routine. The cart occasionally attracted a group of monsters, ranging from one to three dozen. It was as if they were passing clumps of the centipedes, though that wasn't going to last long.

Far ahead, Lev could see the end of the hill rapidly approaching. Despite their high speed, it had taken a day to cross the first one, and now, they were about to set foot into the open.

No doubt, more variations of monsters were waiting for them out there, but he was still relieved. The tight confines of the hills were dangerous, and the recent accident had only hammered that home. Fortunately, there weren't many such passages up ahead.

Two hours later, the carts stepped out into the open for the first time, and even Lev had to summon a chair and sit down. For someone who had never visited beautiful places on Earth or ventured much on the plains, the view in front of him was one he could only dream of before.

In short, it was breathtaking. Towering green mountains and snowy peaks dotted his vision, requiring him to crane his neck to observe them fully. Wherever he looked, the massive structures completely dominated the horizon, and the scene behind him was much more terrifying in comparison.

From top to bottom, the whole mountain they had just passed through had a narrow cut. That wouldn't be so terrifying, as Lev could also do the same with a few weeks of effort and automation.

Instead, it was the uniformness and stability of everything that scared him. It was as if the mountain hadn't even been disturbed by the carving of the narrow passage. The trees, the grass, and the snow all looked untouched and natural.

… I really need to know what type of runes Drakys uses.

If he could also get his hands on things that made carving a whole mountain so safe, it would be quite nice. He didn't know why he wanted such powers, but he did. Monarch knew his own tactics would end in a landslide of epic proportions.

Shaking his head, he focused on the closest visible adversaries. As beautiful as the vista was, it was also brimming with danger. The more he looked around, the more his eyes darkened, and a glance at Melvine was enough to know that she agreed with what he was thinking.

Two third-threshold cores appeared in her hands, which she carelessly tossed to him.

"Jared," Lev called out to the hunter, who ran up to him in a few seconds. "Tell the workers to run the concealments at the highest potency. Take these."

The gravity mage nodded and ran off without a word to inform the workers of their task.

"Are you ready?" Melvine asked him, both their gazes locked onto the nearest dangerous monster. The centipede was utterly gigantic, nestled between jagged boulders. Extending for dozens of meters, Lev could only see the joints and the legs as potential weak points.

[Gray Ripper - ????]

"Yep," he replied and took a few constructs from his bubble. There were many new orbs, spikes, rods, and other things that he planned to test. Granted, they were unlikely to see any use in such a confrontation, but he wanted to have them prepared, just in case.

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