"Good fight," the archer nodded distractedly, moving back to her team. Similar to the warrior, she hadn't let herself use too much mana, for it could be needed at any moment. They were far enough from the wall for that now.

Lev nodded back and waited for the next person to come up. A warrior answered his look, holding two wicked shortswords. Both of them were wreathed in a blood red mist, though unfortunately, it wasn't blood. The mist was simply a corrosive vapor, similar to acid in its composition.

He would've loved to see just what made Blood so strong as an element. Blood Tide's strength was spoken about in hushed whispers, and even blood monsters were feared universally.

Holding his glaive, he adopted his usual stance and waited for the warrior to make a move. The man was content with staying stationary, so Lev attacked first.

With a shrill whistle, the glaive shot forward, colliding with barely raised shortswords and veering off track. Lev had held back considerably, though the speed still caught the warrior off guard.

[Warrior - Level 227]

Taking a step back, his opponent finally took things seriously and lunged. This time, Lev had to suppress his surprise, swinging his glaive in a wide arc. His opponent ducked under it, smoothly sliding forward and slashing at his armor's waist.

The shortsword stopped dead on the glaive's pole, though the second one almost scratched Lev's armpit. Tilting out of the way, he had to jump back to disengage when the first shortsword recovered quicker than expected, already primed to fly at his neck.

Now this is getting interesting, Lev thought to himself, crouching slightly. His opponent was someone he had never heard of before, but the skill he displayed was no joke. Lev wanted to learn from it as much as possible.

Taking things up a notch, he advanced. Utilizing his greater reach, Lev thrust and slashed at high speed, not looking to end the match. Instead, he observed the warrior in front of him with a slightly slackened jaw as the man weaved around the strikes.

Content to dance amidst his attacks, the warrior blocked his glaive with ease, deflecting all those strikes that had too much power behind them. A few dodges were thrown into the mix, and all of that combined in a beautiful battle style that left Lev metaphorically scratching his head.

Whenever he tried to push ahead with his restrained speed, the warrior effortlessly deflected his swings, positioning himself away from any effective retaliation with a few quick steps. Slightly overwhelming strength also failed when the force behind the attack was turned against the attacker, only providing the swordsman more ways to create distance.

He can't do anything to me, either. Guess that means I win anyway?

He couldn't decide what to think of it. The man knew his way around shortswords to a degree that made Lev feel somewhat envious, but at the same time, the offense that had been displayed so far wasn't anything stellar either.

Upping his strength for a moment, he smashed away one of the shortswords and backhanded the other to step into the warrior's guard. The man was already dropping the weapons and punching, as there was no chance to disengage from such a close range.

His efforts were thwarted when the fist landed with a dull thud, doing absolutely nothing. Lev could've ended right there, then decided against it. Taking a step back, he waited for the warrior to grab his swords again.

The next clash took place much faster than before. Red mist, a simple corrosive mist and not blood as he learned in that moment, tried to envelop him, though a layer of lightning coating the edges of his armor easily repelled it.

His glaive struggled against two weapons, though it was a good learning experience. Limited as he was, Lev was always overusing his mind and mana, so the spar was teaching him plenty of things.

Mainly about how well the attack range translated into an advantage when facing other humans. A cloud of lightning was left in the glaive's wake, forcing the warrior to dance around it, right into Lev's slashes and stabs. Given how evenly matched they were, Lev's Perception inevitably won out as the destructive element stunned his opponent for a precious moment.

Even if he couldn't end it immediately, a powerful sweep pushed back the warrior. Too shaken by the difficult block, Lev immediately stepped closer, his right arm outstretched and imbued with a relatively small amount of lightning.

It reached the warrior's chest faster than the swords could reach his neck, launching the guy for several meters. He rolled on the ground for a few seconds before pulling himself up, wincing while holding his chest.

"Not bad," Lev said, dismissing his glaive. "Are you usually so confident?"

"No," the warrior answered, breathing in deeply while standing straight. "I've just faced too many humans to be afraid of them anymore. Monsters are the real problem."

"You'll be surprised," Lev shook his head, though he couldn't really fault the man. Humans were, at the end of the day, united to survive the threat of monsters. It was only natural to be less wary of them, at least until someone suddenly turned on you. He himself didn't know why he still believed that, but the most probable answer was his past life.

Regardless, he didn't press the matter and looked at the next person willing to face him. It was a woman with short pink hair, her black eyes staring intently into his own.

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"Is there something on my face?" he asked politely, curious.

"Are your eyes natural?" she asked.

Lev just sighed and prepared his glaive. "Yes, they are."

****

"Boss," Melvine spoke— a rare occasion. "I see the hills."

Squinting his eyes, Lev had to focus fully to notice the briefest of shapes on the horizon.

She saw them before me?

Whoever Melvine was, she was stronger than him, and by a very big margin. The sheer Perception she just displayed was proof of that.

"We'll get there in a day," Lev replied, contemplating. "The hurdles are centipedes that use wind mana through their legs and possess decent speed. Not very strong overall, though the numbers will pose a problem."

"Correct, boss," Melvine added, her tone amused.

"I'm just reminding myself," Lev grumbled and coughed into his hand, not speaking his thoughts out loud again.

The real problem is whatever is going to come for me and the supplies, he continued in his head. There are bound to be strong second-threshold monsters here, or perhaps even one or a few third-threshold ones. If there's more than one, then we need to retreat while keeping everyone else alive. I still have no idea how strong our driver really is to plan for such a scenario.

All in all, he was confident in defending everyone while dealing with the large numbers. The Exalted could've easily demolished the nest in front of them, except that would have only served to rob the Masters of extra progress. Given the low danger, most hunters would benefit greatly from fighting the massive numbers.

Taking out his communicator, Lev contacted Drakys. It took a few seconds for the connection to snap into place.

"Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Drakys replied. "Report."

"We're going to enter the hills after resting for a few hours today. Is there anything I should know or keep an eye out for?"

"Beyond the debriefing, just be wary of their speed and don't let too many of the monsters gather in one place. Their skills work weirdly and empower each other's attack when they combine instead of disrupting them. Use explosives without holding back if that starts to happen."

"Noted," Lev sent and stored the communication crystal once the connection was cut off. Drakys sounded confident in his ability to handle the threat, but he wasn't gonna let that get to his head.

"How long are we going to rest for?" he asked the driver, who seemed just as at ease as before.

"Six or so hours," she answered. "We will move again at dawn."

Seeing no problem with that, he jumped back into his bubble and resumed his scouting from an elevated position.

Time passed in a blink as he continued to train with his lightning orbs. While progress in terms of skill levels had stalled, improvements continued all the same at a stagnating pace. By now, he could juggle nearly ten small lightning bolts in a single orb, though that number lowered a little as he made his willpower train with the other four orbs without messing with the fourth layer.

By the time the suns were up again, he could see the hills with stark clarity. Shrouded in fog that faded rapidly under the sunlight, Lev deemed it necessary to scout ahead by himself first.

Lightning rushed into his armor as he took hold of it. His flight accelerated to the maximum speed within moments, startling everyone to a completely awake state because of the noise. That may or may not have been the secondary purpose of his stunt.

As for the primary one, it took a few moments to cross the remaining kilometers. When he landed on the closest slope, his mind took a moment to appreciate the scale of the structures before focusing on his surroundings. The barrier armor vanished, letting him breathe the cool and refreshing morning air.

Fresh and clear, he deduced after a few seconds. No negative auras or effects from the location itself, and neither can I feel anything deeper inside. Seems to be safe to enter.

Flying back up, he searched around for a few minutes, finding both what he was looking for and what they were going to face today.

The centipedes were oddly refined in their appearance, possessing a dark, dull exoskeleton and moving around without making any sounds. They also seemed to possess a passive skill that masked the air waves produced by their passing, making them dangerous stealth predators.

Lev, however, wasn't bothered by either of those things. His Mana Perception and high Perception could clearly feel the mana coursing through their chitin and legs, as well as its distinct flavor of wind.

Returning to the cart, he nodded to Melvine in the direction of the crude road that cut through the hills, one that the Exalted had paved for them for convenience. Turning around, he gave all the hunters standing atop the carts a long look.

"My barriers will surround you all. Make use of their durability and amount. Keep an eye on the non-combatants mounting the cannons, and retreat into the first cart immediately if I give you the signal and activate all the enchantments at full power. It doesn't matter how many cores you need to waste; we will get more of them later."

"Yes, sir!"

Lev didn't let himself show any outward reaction. Being called sir by so many was bad enough, but the way he was quickly adapting to being addressed that way was much more unnerving.

He wasn't turning into some sort of a leader, was he?

I need to become an adventurer to spend time only with my team, he thought to himself, more resolute about achieving that quickly. Already, he was dreading any accidents that were inevitably going to happen with so many lives under his command.

A single command from Melvine made the horses start moving again. They picked up speed quickly at first to get the carts rolling, then settled into a neat pace while gradually accelerating.

By the time they reached the maximum speed, Lev had to make another decision, one he needed consultation about.

"Should we slow down?" he asked Melvine. She was bound to have more experience in such races.

"No point," she answered, unpreturbed. "The slower we are, the more monsters that can pile on us."

Lev nodded slowly and turned around. Jared and his team were the closest to him on the first cart, so he called out to the gravity mage.

"Tell the workers to stop holding back on the weight reduction enchantments. If they need more cores, take them from me."

With a nod, the mage quickly jumped into the cart. More mana was channeled into the carts, further increasing their speed as the horses were also commanded to move faster.

Before long, Lev's hair fluttered as he stopped himself from going fully into combat mode from the very start. Monsters were going to show up soon, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the breathtaking scenery ahead.

Given the nature of the Exalteds' vast power, the carved road was so hauntingly beautiful. The visible part of the slope had been cleanly split into two, opening up to create a narrow gap. At the bottom, the train of carts slowly neared the base of the hills, the natural structures towering higher than anything Lev had seen so far.

Why, exactly, are they called hills?

Mount Tamara was supposed to be massive, except these hills were even bigger. Sure, the difference wasn't that large, except the hills were still way larger than he was expecting. If he wasn't horribly mistaken, each of them was larger than the usual mountain from Earth.

Why, then, were they still hills? Just how massive were the usual mountains on Monarch if these landforms were named after the smaller variants?

As such questions plagued his mind, the horses carried on without ever slowing down, dragging the carts into what could be mistaken as jaws waiting to close on them from both sides.

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