Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

"So, what's the plan here?" Kayla sent after twenty minutes of easy slaughter. "Are you after the cores?"

"Yes and no," Lev answered, deflecting a spider's thorny limbs. The haft of Stargazer slapped away another as he thrust it forward into the spider's face hard enough to make it slam to the ground. Not giving it a moment, he twirled the glaive around, and after firing a lightning bolt from his right arm, pierced its head. "I'm after improvements too, but things can get too dangerous if I go deep because, you know. Hopefully, I'll be able to fight something decently strong here."

On the wall, another group of spectators was now watching him fight. Hakim had the foresight to realize that Lev was going to attract a lot of monsters to his location, and there was no point in letting perfectly good resources go to waste. The harvesters were waiting for their chance, and the fight had just died down.

A carrier quickly carried them to the corpses while Lev kept an eye out. A few lances were fired at distant second-threshold monsters, killing them on the spot. Before long, all the valuable corpses had been stored and taken away.

"They work pretty fast," Jack commented from the wall, impressed. "The increased Perception is already showing its worth."

"I had a lot of Perception as a Classer, and I was still always impressed by the harvesters," Lev mused, reminiscing. "Good days."

"How many times did you almost die in that rank?" Kayla needlessly asked. Really, he used to be quite careful back then.

"Only one, and because of soul trauma from bottoming out. Never did come close to dying, though."

"That's odd. Did you hit your head after that?"

Lev just snorted and didn't reply. She was getting more and more casual, which was a good thing. Someone needed to keep him in check, because he was already contemplating going deeper into the Dreadwoods. Her words were a timely reminder.

"What did you fight to reach that point?" Amelia questioned.

"A shade brute," Lev answered with a smile. "It was level 182, I think, and I was at the level cap. A glorious battle I won only because of the lopsided matchup."

"182…?" she asked again to confirm.

"Yep. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not nearly dumb enough to fight it to death. The plan was to train my skills under a Master's supervision-"

The words died in his mind when the world turned darker. Sunlight became bleaker, the winds stopped, and breathing became a herculean task. Lev's eyes whipped around, quickly scanning his left and right before returning to the Dreadwoods looming in the distance.

It seemed far more threatening now. Every tree towered in his vision, reaching hundreds of meters high. A form slithered out of there, dark like the blackest night, one that devoured all manner of stars.

The cobra stared at him from a height that dwarfed the outer wall, closing the distance between them at an alarming pace. A third-threshold monster, so casually overwhelming his willpower.

Lev took offense.

Bright fire pushed away the encroaching darkness, banishing most of its influence in a single burst. He reigned in his panic, slowly coming to terms with the difference between him and the snake.

The good thing was that it wasn't that strong. Sure, it might be beyond his ability to kill, but it wasn't a windstrider warg either. Lev actually had a decent chance in the confrontation.

First things first, though, he quickly dumped lightning into his armor and flew away, perpendicular to the cobra. Fighting so close to the wall was a horrible idea for a myriad of reasons, and he was going to be damned if he ever risked his team so stupidly.

The snake only had eyes for him, its chilling stare peering into his very soul. Lev endured. His willpower, while robust, wasn't nearly enough to contend with the monster's aura. It was a good training.

In the distance, a pulse of lightning let him know that Sherron was watching over him. That was enough to relieve the tension in his shoulders. He could go all out now once he was further away from Windkeep.

Once he was a few kilometers away, Lev prepared himself. The snake sensed his intent, and before he could fire the first wave of arrows, the world turned dark. Only the sun in the sky was visible, thoroughly failing to pierce the swirling mass of shadow mana.

Oh boy, he chuckled, the sound strained from the mental assault. This is getting dangerous.

Seeing no other way, he infused lances with blue fire and launched them, thankfully able to teleport the element through his barriers.

The shadows receded, and he was hyper-aware of the moment the cobra lunged out of it. An extreme pulse of lightning was launched in its direction from his armor, slowing it down by precious moments that let him jump over the charge.

Stargazer's massive blade, imbued with a veritable storm of lightning, impacted its natural defenses. Barrier and scales clashed for a long instant before the latter gave way, letting the blade sink a few inches into the body.

Lev had a small window to release a lightning slash inside, but it was taken away from him by the sheer speed of the snake. Before he could launch the slash, Stargazer was pushed out of the nick, effectively wasting the late attack.

Tsk, he didn't let up and imbued even more lightning into his armor. Both of his secondary bubbles floated above him, and he fired wind bullets and lightning bolts from their cannons as often as he could. Treated orbs were also slowly being filled with lightning to be used later.

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Unfortunately, the attacks didn't as much as make the shadows twitch. The snake probably didn't feel the impacts if they even landed.

No point in waiting for it to eat me, I guess.

Stargazer was infused with a large amount of fire, the expenditure handled solely by its core. The fire then turned blue and was infused into dozens of waiting lances that flew into the darkness before the monster could lunge again.

A good thing, too, for it was already coiled to strike. Lev charged straight towards it, yanking himself to the side with all his might once its maw flew at him. The charge missed by mere inches, and this time, he was prepared.

With a roar, he thrusted Stargazer into its side until it obliterated the targeted scale and sank deep. Lightning followed in the same instant, making the cobra stagger for a brief instant. All the lightning stored in his orbs was transferred into another wave of lances that was fired at its head.

Explosion after explosion washed over him before a deafening hiss scattered the resulting flames and lightning. The monster rushed back into the darkness's embrace, but Lev was having none of that.

A giant blue fire slash followed its tail, pushing back the shadows by a large distance. Dark blades and spikes sought to pierce him, only to falter against his walls. That didn't matter much, for the closer he got to the snake, the more projectiles flew at him.

Two of his twenty walls shattered in the same second, but he was too deep to stop now. The cobra also realized that and turned at him abruptly, its giant maw wide open to swallow him whole.

Lev was hoping for a similar scenario as well. It was already obvious that he wasn't going to kill the monster normally, for the previous wound was already healing at an alarming pace.

All of the generated lightning from his orbs was transferred to his armor and Stargazer. The former's lightning bolt enchantment was desperately shaping as much of it as possible, whereas the latter quickly launched a massive lightning slash inside the approaching monster's mouth.

Time slowed down as it flew, signifying the activation of his passive skill. The cobra, realizing that something was wrong, hastily tried to close its mouth and move aside, but lightning wasn't so easily bested.

The slash landed squarely on its tongue. A storm of shadow projectiles was approaching him in the meantime, but the explosion from the slash quickly dispersed a large portion of them.

Unfortunately, Lev was also close enough to be engulfed completely. His armor's durability was strained to the absolute maximum, and restoration mana healed all the self-harm and burns as quickly as it could. It was fortunate that the damage was so extensive. He could dump healing mana into his body without worrying about negative effects.

The snake was faring much worse, except it was far from dead. A sound somewhere between a hiss and a roar burst out of its maw, almost breaking his armor on the spot from its loudness.

He pushed through. Finding its bearings already, the cobra turned to him and unleashed a wave of darkness, one that negated all his senses. Lev was already expecting the extreme debuff after his fight with Aaron and released a large pulse of lightning from his armor.

The shadows dispersed, and so did the closest projectiles. The snake was wholly unprepared too, and Lev's right hand was already facing its maw.

His eardrums almost exploded as the disgustingly overcharged lightning bolt exploded out of his arm. A large wave of fire formed as it passed, right down the monster's throat.

He was already flying under its head without caring about the result. Stargazer's long blade bit deep into the underside, charring the flesh and scales from the lightning inside. Even more of the mana constantly streamed into the blade as he hacked the flesh as fast as he could.

Bursts of lightning were released with each strike. The monster struggled with all its might, going as far as to roll over and squish him. Lev saw the sluggish movement coming from a mile away, immediately moving out of the way and firing another lightning slash at its head.

Too stunned and damaged now, he landed on top of the thrashing snake and once again sliced off chunks of meat as well as scales. Even closer to the brain, his lightning immobilized it completely. Taking advantage of that, he thrust Stargazer deep inside and, after creating distance, released one final burst of lightning in its head that erupted in an explosion of brain matter and gore.

[

You have slain [Dreadprowler - Level 501]

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 263

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 264

Expeditious Empowerment has reached 4th Level 3

Mage Conduit has reached 4th Level 3

Consistent Mana Channeling has reached 2nd Level 6

]

Two levels, he chuckled and winced, suddenly realizing how… crisp his entire body was. Healing was going to take a bit of time.

"Well done," Sherron sent, making her exasperation clear. "The harvesters and the scout are now borderline traumatized. Your bubble saved your teammates from the brunt of the mental attack."

"Not my fault the snake showed up out of nowhere," he shrugged. "Also, it's good training."

"Not everyone is deranged like you, Lev."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" he sent back, but Sherron was already flying back to the wall. Now that no shadows were obscuring the snake's form, he looked at it properly.

Even in death, it was majestic. Each scale was perfectly aligned with the rest, creating a defense that required a crap ton of weight behind Stargazer's extreme sharpness to cut through. If the weapon wasn't of a Superior rarity, Lev doubted it would've created anything more than scratches.

All the ropes coiled around his bubble unfurled and wrapped around its head. Storing such a massive monster was impossible, even if it was much smaller than it first seemed without the mental attacks. Regardless, he dragged it to the wall, wincing all the while because of just how heavy it was.

There was more to consider, too. The cobra was way weaker than expected, and it made sense because it was newly evolved. Even worse than that. Level 501 indicated that it had literally just evolved. Lev wouldn't have had such an easy time otherwise, and the low level gains reflected that.

"Woah," the tense remark came from Kayla. "You actually killed it. What level was it? I only saw four marks."

"501," Lev replied after Sherron returned the communication crystal to his team. "The fight wouldn't have been nearly as simple if the monster weren't so unused to its strength."

"Meaning?" Jack questioned.

"I mean, you're at the level cap right now. The moment you evolve, your class will level to 101, just like the cobra's leveled to 501. It was as green a third-threshold monster as it gets."

"That was weak?" Kayla repeated, exasperated. "Lev, we saw nothing but a giant dome of darkness from up here. That was shadow mana, wasn't it?"

"Also, what were the flashes of light inside it? Your doing?" Amelia added.

"Did you guys not feel the mental assault?" Lev chuckled. "The shadow dome was far from the most dangerous. The monster's speed and its aura were far worse, constantly trying to overwhelm my mind and ruin my skills. It wasn't that good at that, either, so it's no surprise that the snake was at the edges. Probably evolved not long ago as well.

"The light show was mine, yes. I fought a shadow user in the tournament, and it taught me that, despite being a higher element, shadows can be blown away by lightning and fire. I made use of that."

"So you countered what should've been an extremely dangerous field with… brute force?" Jack sent with a laugh. "Quite fitting."

"Fitting, huh?" Lev replied with a challenging undertone. "We will see about that tomorrow."

No one spoke after that.