It took a few dozen monster kills for the team to notice the falcon already flying at them. Caught somewhat unprepared, Amelia opened with a burst of fire, uncaring of the potential forest fire now that the boss monster was upon them.

Kayla's Mana Perception was the highest amongst the group, warning them of the wind mana gathering in its talons, their sharpness improved to lethal heights.

Jack lunged forward to meet its charge, the collision of wind-empowered talons and the shield not in his favor. Sliding back a few steps, he ducked as a crude fire slash flew at the falcon, forcing it to dodge.

Kayla's barrier tried to smash it back into the attack's path. The monster overpowered it with a few flaps of its wings, rushing at Jack again with wind mana gathering around its entire body.

A hammer strike was dodged, and Amelia's plan to capitalize on that also failed when the falcon moved much faster than anticipated. Another burst of wind mana enveloped its wings as its talons screeched against the round shield, pushing it back just enough to carve a deep gash on Jack's left arm through the small elbow joint in his armor.

Kayla almost panicked at that. She was about to drop her buffs to heal Jack, only to pause when he didn't even register the injury. Jack's hammer missed by a hair's breadth, the attack not intended to land.

Amelia's flaming sword burned several of its feathers before it could move out of the way. Flight disrupted, Kayla's barrier finally found purchase and smacked it to the ground.

Unwilling to give up, several thin blades of compressed wind flew at the swordswoman, but Jack was already there, blocking them with his shield. A wide jet of fire burst out of Amelia's longsword and set the boss aflame.

Lev's shoulders relaxed after hearing the grating screeches of the monster. It was going to die in the next few seconds. His team had won without any assistance, which was really good for their first delve. The falcon was also almost double their level and an evolution higher.

All of the monsters remaining in the dungeon rushed towards his team once the boss's screams were heard. This time, they were prepared and deftly dealt with all the monsters. It helped that they had circled the edges once already, and there weren't even a dozen monsters left.

Without any fanfare, they were teleported out after a few minutes, much to the astonishment of the trio.

"Well done," Lev stepped out of concealment and gave them a big smile. "That went so much better than my first delve."

"I thought it would be harder," Amelia blinked a few times, slowly digesting that they had cleared their first dungeon in less than an hour. "Everything apart from the falcon was so weak."

"We already knew that," Jack shrugged and stored his shield. Kayla had already healed the only injury. The area was still sore, but he moved it without any discomfort. "And we also had an advantage with our early detection. Trolls and orcs are going to be a much bigger issue."

"For now," Lev added.

"For now," Jack agreed with a nod. Kayla's face during that small interaction was almost comical. It wasn't hard to guess that she wasn't a big fan of Jack already planning their next few delves, which just so happened to be in troll dungeons.

Amelia was also on the same page, so the healer refrained from commenting.

"Mana?" she instead asked.

"40%," Amelia answered after a few seconds of gauging her pool.

"Over 70%," Jack answered. His enhancement required mana to work, though most of the cost was covered by the stamina expenditure.

"Almost 50% for me," the healer finished with a nod. "We can delve into another dungeon tonight at this rate. What do you guys think?"

"Before that," Lev interjected. "How many skill levels did you guys gain?"

[Warrior - Level 69]

[Warrior - Level 70]

[Mage - Level 68]

"Four."

"Four."

"Five. My passive aura leveled twice."

Hmm, not bad. The gains are almost at the point where they will slow down to a crawl, so it was a good decision to maximize them through an unprepared dungeon delve.

"You guys can decide whether to delve into another dungeon later. Come on, I have new constructs to test."

The bubble became visible for a few seconds. They entered through an opening that closed once they were inside.

"New constructs for you or us?" Amelia questioned before they even sat down.

"For me, this time," Lev answered, controlling the bubble as they shot off to Windkeep. "I told you about my Classer disks before and tried recreating those."

Bringing it from his secondary bubble to the main one, he commanded it to hover a few meters in front of them and spin at full speed, its edge facing the humans.

"It's enchanted now," he explained, and summoned a few thick branches he had gathered in the dungeon. "Durability, spinning, and sharpness. Watch."

Casually, he flicked one of the branches at the disk. There was almost no sound as the two halves of it fell to both sides, the cut so clean that one would expect it was created by a laser.

"Well, yeah. They're much better than the last versions I used, but not nearly as sharp and strong as Stargazer. The good news is that I wasn't expecting them to match a Superior weapon, so they're pretty good as they are."

"Erm," Kayla gave him a long glance. "Have you identified the disk?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Huh?

[

Whirling Razor - Rare

]

"Oh… That changes some things," Lev mused, head tilted slightly. "Didn't think it would count as Rare."

"Wait, so you created a Rare item in the same time we cleared the dungeon?" Amelia questioned, both shocked and amused.

Lev gave her a sidelong glance. "I actually tested like ten different versions of them and settled on this one."

"Right…"

****

During the flight back, no first-threshold monsters attacked them. The dungeon was only a few hours away from the city by normal standards, and Lev landed in front of Windkeep after less than fifteen minutes.

As his team grew stronger, they handled his flight speed more easily. He still couldn't accelerate to anywhere near the maximum speed without hurting them, and neither did he need to. Their speed already far outclassed traveling by carts or running.

The disks were just as potent as expected. Chunks of orcs and goblins were left in their wake as three disks neatly separated them into several pieces. Lev was feeling rather optimistic about the whole process, especially because Kayla's comment earlier had sparked another line of thought.

He could sell these!

Drakys had given him some pretty strong anti-theft formations to hide the runes or shatter the construct if someone pried too deeply. Without worrying about that, he could sell the disks at a reasonable price after Hakim's approval. The man would know if he wanted such sharp weapons in the hands of gold or platinum hunters.

Lev wasn't going to make it easy on them either. Just like the tri-shield bracer, he was going to ensure that the disks acted as training tools to improve the mana control and mental faculties of the wielder.

Which should further increase their price, he snorted, passing through Windkeep's gates after a brief identity check. I mean, since I have kinetic energy runes, I can also sell one-time use weapons, but that sounds more effort than it's worth unless I somehow overload them with destructive mana types.

Either way, these disks could serve as the starting point of his career as a crafter. No matter how many constructs he created for himself, The System had already told him that he would need to arm humanity with them too. The disks sounded like a good idea for that.

His team returned to their rooms to decompress and digest the experience. Lev himself made his way to the hunters guild, feeling both Sherron's and Hakim's auras inside. They were concealed like usual, but now that he was a Master, his steps almost faltered once his increased sensitivity registered them. Those two were unbelievably strong.

A bit later, he knocked on the office doors and waited. They swung open in their usual delayed fashion, and he bowed his head deeply after taking a few steps inside.

"Take a seat," Hakim waved him in, his voice almost physically weighing on Lev's shoulders. "Is everything alright?"

Lev nodded and moved his seat a little closer to Sherron's. "Yeah, I just returned from my team's first delve. It went swimmingly if you're curious. While watching them, I had a lot of spare time, so I created a newer version of my disk."

Saying that, he summoned the slightly bloodied disk on the table. Hakim and Sherron merely looked at it for a moment before turning to him.

"Now, I'm pretty sure that thing can cut through second-threshold monsters up to like level 300. So, what I wanted to ask is, will it be a bad idea to modify the disks and sell them? It will be pretty simple for me to make them controllable by others and make channeling mana into the runes harder. That way, it will also double down as training equipment that improves with your skills."

"Why do you want to sell them, though?" Sherron questioned to pull out more of his thought process.

"Hmm, mainly because I need to start making a name for myself, too," Lev grinned. "Crafting will be my largest timesink going forward, and I can't exactly hunt for every single needed material. Which reminds me, I should have some merit points to my name, right?"

"Only from the mythril quests," Hakim answered, seeing Lev's angle properly now. "We trade materials for merit points, but you're better off buying specific runes. It will not be easy to accumulate enough merit points to buy crafting materials in bulk."

Lev fell into thought after that. The others gave him time. A crafter's first steps were the hardest, after all.

More options, great. So now I can hunt for materials, buy them for merit points, or trade excess resources with other merchants or hoarders for the more exotic stuff. There's also the question of what manner of runes I can buy from the guild. Actually, it would be better to ask what can I not buy from them? The strongest are all hunters or adventurers.

"Let's return to the disk for now. Thoughts?"

"They're good," Sherron commented. "Good enough that even new Masters would happily buy them."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Not everyone wants to fight stronger and stronger monsters for a living. A bunch of them want to take it slow, explore their skills to the limit, and only fight dangerous monsters when strictly necessary. They have all the time in the world."

"So it's more just a good tool for them, and not a training aide," Lev added thoughtfully. "I mean, it should be possible to make it even harder to control them, but that will take a few days or weeks to really make. How do I spend my merit points in the meantime?"

"Talk to the guild accountant for that," Hakim answered.

The guild accountant, Alina. Last I heard, she kept track of all promotions and quests, storing the records in large stacks of papers.

"I see. Where do I find her?"

Instead of answering, a pulse of mana traveled through the table and up into the ceiling, alerting someone several floors higher. Lev just leaned back to wait. Grabbing Sherron's left hand, he put it on his head, silently asking her to mess with his hair until the accountant arrived. She hadn't done that in a while.

Hakim only glanced at them once before ignoring them.

A few minutes later, someone approached the guildmaster's office. That was way longer than Lev expected anyone to keep Hakim waiting, especially since the accountant was in the same building.

The doors opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with bright white hair and piercing black eyes. Their gazes locked, and Lev immediately knew something was wrong. Sherron's hand still ruffled his hair, something he noted that she should've stopped by now, and the sounds from beyond the open doors were also muted. His eyes struggled to move away from the woman's, though a long blink solved that.

Despite the odd occurrence, he still bowed his head to show respect.

[Historian - Level 426]

Alina let her gaze linger for a few more instants before straightening and bowing to Hakim and Sherron for a full second.

"I'm sure you've heard plenty about Lev," Hakim began, his voice relaxed, unlike usual. "He wants to learn about how our merit point exchange works."

Alina didn't show any outward reaction, but her disappointment was impossible not to notice. "Is that all?"

"Pretty much," Hakim answered. "Tell him about the extent of what he can trade right now, and how material exchange works."

"Can I do it here?" Alina asked. Lev deduced the question was unexpected because Hakim took a moment longer to reply.

"Sure."

"There is much I wish to ask," she started, turning to Lev and summoning a large, comfortable chair for herself. "Much about you is shrouded in questions without answers."

"For good reason," Lev added before she could rapid-fire questions.

"That is yet to be seen," Alina deflected, unbothered. "First, Alec took in a random orphan as a disciple with Orianna's approval. The latter makes sense, but the former doesn't even begin to. I don't like it. What made him choose you? How did he even find you, or was it the other way around? Alec is known to be uptight about his knowledge."

"You clearly don't know him well enough," Lev spat, unreasonably irked. "I've never found him to be stingy or 'uptight.' Perhaps try again once you start treating him better or fixing whatever else you're doing wrong."

Sherron's hand pressing on his head stopped him from going further, only now remembering who he was talking to.

Alina, however, didn't seem to mind in the slightest. "So he shows such a favorable side to you? Interesting. Did he teach you about his techniques?"

"No, only the basics."

"Why is that?"

"Because I didn't ask for more," Lev gave her an irritated look. "I'm not answering any more questions about him."

"Fine, what about Sherron? This is the first time I've seen her make such casual physical contact with anyone."

Lev didn't answer and instead turned to Sherron. "It would be entirely reasonable for you to zap her right now."

The lightning Exalted merely chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the bizarre questioning session.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.