Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

Three days later, Lev was sitting on the western wall after a brief sleeping session. His legs dangled, and for once, he wasn't hidden by the bubble's enchantments.

The effects were obvious as dozens of weak monsters streamed into the open, rushing out of the Dreadwoods. His mind barely even registered them, more curious and concerned by the small amount.

Why?

For three whole days, he had trained with his team, pushing their skills as much as possible, all in front of the creepy forest. Except, even if his aura was hidden, nothing had attacked them.

If it's my aura causing all of this, how the hell were monsters like the warg and threader able to detect it from so far away?

That was the most worrying line of thought. If monsters were detecting an Adept from so far away, what about now? Was he constantly risking humanity by releasing even a little bit of it, and if so, why? How was it even possible?

The monsters down below provided no answers, though he had a better use for them. Next to him was an artillery tower, the design shamelessly stolen from Alec.

It was slim, with the barrel and the tower itself barely wider than his arm, though the base stand was spread out to cover a greater area. If it worked as intended, the recoil was going to be reduced.

Lev wasn't particularly worried about the recoil. The experience from his barrier cannons had taught him how to mentally negate the recoil by manipulating the barrier cannons, and his willpower was also getting relatively decent at automating it.

Most of the effort was dedicated to the enchanting. A three-part array was installed in the barrel. The first part removed all manner of friction, created an airflow for the shell to spin more easily, and primed the rest of the process for activation.

After that, the second part connected the enchantments on the shell and barrel together. A weak adhesive rune pair kept the shell in place while it was made to spin as fast as possible, as well as shape a payload of lightning and fire inside. Fire was kept in a sphere deep inside the shell, compressed to the very limit, and attached to a lightning input rune at the minimum requirement.

That way, the moment lightning went out of control, it would cause a chain reaction, and the runes controlling the fire would stop functioning. The explosion would be renewed in the same instant, with the lightning now containing a deep wealth of flames.

Lastly, the third part was responsible for all manner of acceleration. It accounted for the spinning speed and power, ensured that there was little resistance in the shell's path, and sped it up to obscene heights.

Lev's mind acted first, moving the shell to its maximum speed inside the lengthy barrel. Next up, an acceleration formation, the best one he had, improved its speed drastically, before a kinetic acceleration further empowered it.

The end result was a projectile empowered by his class skills, since the shell was made of his barriers, and turned into something extremely deadly by the extra enchantments on top.

A sound ward was the only reason the entirety of Windkeep didn't hear the shell explode out of the barrel, immediately going past the sound barrier. It landed on the leading Kombas in a blink, faster than both he and the monster could ever hope to trace.

He still watched with his high Perception as the monster folded on itself, its resilient body unable to handle the sheer amount of force transferred to its body from the impact. An explosion followed, over two dozen meters behind the creature. Lev hadn't even seen the shell penetrate the body.

Unfortunately, the explosion wasn't anything to write home about, and neither was it meant to be. The shells were designed and enchanted to penetrate deep, and the raw power was meant to be unleashed inside monsters. Only then would it truly shine.

[

You have slain [Scaled Kombas - Level 330]

]

Hmm, Lev started a timer in his head the moment he fired. It took around four seconds to form and load another shell, and another two seconds to prepare it for firing. Seven or so seconds. Not bad for the result.

Since he had already killed the strongest monster down below, his bubble cannons easily took care of the rest, none at the second threshold.

Issue is, he brought the main bubble close to him and pondered. Where exactly can I put these artillery on my bubbles?

The safe bet was to create a new construct for these, and an even better approach would be to tweak their designs and construct them with different detachable parts to rebuild them anywhere quickly, but he had no idea how to do that.

Unlike Alec, I don't need the stands either. My mind can easily handle the strain of the recoil.

In the end, he went with putting an artillery each on top of his secondary bubbles. They were always under his tight control, and the added recoil wouldn't hinder his other activities.

The suns had just barely risen a few minutes ago, so he was in no hurry to go get his team. They were beyond tired and probably still asleep.

Lev instead created another section in his main bubble, one smaller than the rest. It was meant to hold shells like a beverage rack, all of them stored vertically to save space. He didn't really need it, for the bubble was as big as a room by now.

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Either way, a few neat stacks formed in the corner, and he started creating shells in pairs. The formation took longer this time, almost ten seconds per pair, because of how focused he was and the added difficulty of creating two at once.

Distractedly, his mind also noticed how easily he could calculate the passage of time. There was a time when ten seconds was barely a blink, but now, it felt so long. Not in a sense that ten seconds was suddenly a lot of time, more that it was an eternity in the middle of combat. Good thing he always had big stacks of weapons.

After an hour of leisurely crafting, he finally knocked on Kayla's door. They were all surprisingly still asleep.

She blearily opened it after a few seconds and told him to wait a minute or thirty. Lev hoped it wouldn't take that long.

Amelia was already out and waiting for the other two.

"How do you feel?" Lev initiated the conversation casually. "Any thoughts or problems so far?"

"Only that you're not taking it seriously," she shrugged. "At the same time, there would be no training if you were."

"I plan to limit myself today. You will be facing me seriously now."

"Oh? Already?"

"Hmm?" Lev raised a brow. "The next few days are not going to be better than the last three, you know."

She actually gulped at that. "How exactly are you going to limit yourself?"

"To the same speed and strength as you guys, to begin with. It's just that my skills are way stronger currently, so I will need to eventually lower my capabilities even further."

"And we will be getting beat up in the meantime," she finished with a chuckle. "Makes sense."

Kayla and Jack left the room at that moment, already armored and prepared for battle.

"Before our routine brawling," Lev gathered their attention after landing back on the western wall. "I want to test these fancy new cannons I made."

"Don't you have…" Kayla took a moment to count. "Nine of them already?"

"Yep, nine general-purpose cannons. These ones are specialized."

"In?"

"Killing bigger stuff."

As he spoke, two dozen shells flew into each secondary bubble through small openings. His team peered at them curiously, not questioning it. They had seen lances, arrows, and other barrier projectiles fly around in his bubbles regularly.

"Where are these new cannons, though?" Amelia asked.

Oh right.

"On top of the other bubbles. They're invisible right now to not spook the residents of Windkeep. The size turned out to be bigger than I initially expected."

Now they were excited. Killing monsters with big things was always the best way to impress hunters, and his team was getting first-class seats for the upcoming show.

After half an hour of slow flight, Lev and his team hovered above the treeline of the Dreadwoods. All of the concealment enchantments on his bubble and armor were running at maximum, and yet, several strong monsters noticed him.

[Purpleback Spider - Level 390]

[Troll Commander - Level 355]

[Troll Shaman - Level 337]

He stared at them impassively even as they sniffed around. The spider was a few dozen meters away, and it still didn't even try to pounce on the trolls who were supposed to be easy prey. Instead, they searched with single-minded focus.

"They're looking for you…" Jack whispered, eyes wide in realization. Amelia and Kayla were similarly stunned, watching the wild beasts somehow go against all known facts just to hunt their teammate better.

"That's why we can't take it easy, even if we want to."

Lev sighed to himself and loaded a shell in both artillery pieces. The monsters noticed the small mana usage immediately, but he was already moving his bubbles out of their range.

A barrage of purple acid shot towards one of the bubbles at extreme speed. Two dozen invisible shields were already waiting for it, and even then, nearly five of them disintegrated from the initial block and the resulting splashes.

It was a good thing the main bubble was still hidden, allowing him to track the speedy spider as it crawled towards the new cannon. Shields slammed against its thick limbs, slowing it down ever so slightly, and Lev was forced to form and fire a few lightning arrows just to allow himself a single opportunity.

The lightning explosion made it swivel to the right, and that was enough. Like a streak of blue, the shell landed on its face, immediately compressing it to half its original length. The thorax then quite literally exploded, unable to contain the raw force within, killing it on the spot.

His team held on tightly as the shockwave of the blast reached them, doubly so when it was renewed by the unleashed wave of fire hidden inside the shell.

[

You have slain [Purpleback Spider - Level 390]

]

"Anyone want to guess what level that was?" Lev asked with a smile and sat back down in his driver's seat. The troll duo wasn't even worth mentioning. Two shells easily erased them.

"300?" Jack voiced.

"Definitely above 350," Kayla added. "It moved way too fast."

Lev looked at Amelia, who was giving it more thought than the other two.

"390."

"Huh… It was exactly 390. How did you know?"

"Your shields didn't do anything against its venom-acid thing. That's pretty unusual."

"Correct," he nodded and sighed theatrically. "Still not a single level. Just what does a Master have to do to get stronger?"

"Accompany Drakys and a Duke's daughter," Kayla muttered.

"Or maybe solo third-threshold monsters?" Amelia said, amused. "Seems to be pretty easy these days."

Lev opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. His team was learning to get a rise out of him, something he didn't know how to feel about. It was probably a good thing.

"I'll do that, I guess," he snorted. "Why was I even questioning that in the first place, right?"

"Why do you not get more levels, though?" Jack asked, putting the joke to rest.

"No clue," Lev shrugged. "At first, I thought it was the class being too strong, crippling my essence gains. The monsters I can fight now are way higher in level, however. That theory doesn't make sense anymore."

"Have you asked others?"

"If they knew, they would've told me already. The Crafter Exalted already talked about levels taking months in the third gap, except that will become the case for me much earlier."

"I mean, isn't the solution pretty simple?" Amelia suggested with a grin. She at least had the decency took look slightly embarrassed when both Lev and Kayla turned to her, bemused.

It wasn't like Lev could easily kill even weak third-threshold monsters. His armor was far from infallible, and a single mistake would be his last.

"I'm afraid the answer is most likely what you're suggesting," Lev broke the ensuing silence. "Drakys wouldn't be accompanying me otherwise."

That took the wind out of their sails rather quickly. It was easy to forget how much danger the spearheads like him and Isabella were going to be in.

"Alright, cheer up," he grinned, now enjoying their sour looks. "We've got a lot of training ahead of us."

Amelia, the least unbothered of them all, brought out her longsword and cycled a bit of fire mana through the carved dragon. It pulsed to her whims, spewing comically small puffs of fire from the tip of the sword. At least someone appreciated the same design as him.

"You two got any preferences?" he asked the other two. "The dragon looks pretty cool, in my opinion."

"Hmm, what would fit the concept of toughness and strength?" Jack asked thoughtfully.

"Shade Giants," Kayla answered, breaking out in a big smile when the warrior stared at her flatly. "For me, can you carve a dreadbane crystal? I've heard it is very useful in healing semi-permanent mental injuries."

Lev tilted his head slightly. "Sure, but why that one, exactly?"

Her smile turned rueful. "The last quest my parents accepted was to gather that crystal."