Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

The next day, Lev was worried. A wave had appeared way ahead of schedule, even if it was only five-rated.

His team was seated silently in his main bubble next to him. They watched as shells, lances, and arrows bombarded distant monsters in a vacated corner left solely up to him.

"How is this even possible?" Jack asked once again, not actually looking for an answer. "How does one guy form waves by merely existing? It doesn't make sense."

"A lot of things don't make sense in this world," Lev replied casually, his eyes never leaving the treeline. "The System, for example, is a miracle that has no right to exist so freely, except it does, and does so for countless living beings. Then there's mana itself, the source of it all. None of this was on Earth, and some days, it still feels like a dream."

"Then there are monsters, a threat to all life," Jack continued in his stead. "And now, they are forming waves for just one human being. I mean, we are in no way, shape, or form the strongest beings out there. Except, the waves target you. Even dungeons do. How the hell is that fair?"

Lev just shrugged. The question was one without any answer, at least not until he dove into the Pit and looked for them himself. That was still a part of his eventual plans, though their viability remained to be seen. Already, they seemed to be a matter of centuries instead of years or decades. Too many scary beings wanted a bite of him.

A particularly massive lizard exited the forest from his corner, only for its face to cave in when a crackling shell landed on its head. Piercing into the brain, the resulting explosion disintegrated half of the skull from inside.

[

You have slain [Striped Flame Lizard - Level 335]

]

Hmm, the Arcane Archery skill is pretty close to an evolution now. He rubbed his chin, contemplating. How can I push it?

Two methods seemed worth pursuing. The first was to simply push it as he was currently going, eventually tipping it over the threshold. But on the other hand, he could look into exotic weapons tailor-made to train the skill.

It was his current location and situation that made the decision for him. Talking to a Master strategist observing from the wall, he moved further to the south where there were fewer monsters. The wave was further away, providing another obstacle for his shells.

Despite their speed, they still took precious moments to reach the monsters. Right now, the speed was overkill. Only when he faced a third-threshold monster focused on speed would it be obvious if the artilleries were as strong as they seemed.

"Are you going to let us in on your new master plans?" Amelia asked after watching him silently contemplate for a minute.

"Hmm?" Lev glanced at her. "Oh, I'm gonna push my skill towards an evolution."

"The archery one?" Jack asked with a nod, approving.

"Yep. The main hurdle for anything long-range is the time to reach the enemy… I think. Not sure about that, actually. Either way, it seems like a worthy challenge to overcome."

"Why not just use more power so it's harder to control?" Kayla suggested. "That will probably have the same effect."

"Do I need more power, though?" Lev mused, more to himself. "Nah, the artillery cannons are already too strong. Anything stronger will require a much bigger creation, and those are bad for obvious reasons. Don't think my barrier barrels can handle even more acceleration anyway, let alone infusion in the shells."

With a thought, their bubble was hovering over two hundred meters above the wall, just to make aiming even harder for himself. Having monsters in the same line of sight as the artillery helped a lot, which was why he wanted to test himself through a tower view.

"Ten… seems a bit excessive," Jack chuckled worriedly. "Will it not be-"

His complaints died down as a massive barrier platform formed under all of the artillery cannons, resting on the large wall. It was swiftly enchanted with several different wards to cover all sounds originating from the fired shells. He still had to slot cores in the platform, for the enchantments had their limits and needed exponentially more mana to go past them. Muting the explosions from ten artillery pieces was definitely beyond the sound wards.

"That works," the warrior conceded and crossed his legs, now ready to enjoy the show.

"I'm not sure if this is efficient," Lev began as shells started flying out of his secondary bubbles. More were constantly formed as they stacked up near the base of the cannons, already enough to take down hordes of second-threshold monsters. "But it's definitely going to be fun."

The first of the shells was loaded as he settled to wait. In the distance, only first-threshold monsters were visible for now, as the Masters near the treeline dealt with anything stronger. That was also a part of the reason why Lev was at a distance from the rest of the defenders, as to cover that side by himself entirely.

To that end, arrows constantly formed above him, fired automatically by his willpower. Most of them hit the mark, though some missed here and there, largely because of unpredictable monster behavior. Willpower didn't have all that much processing power behind it right now. That would require a lot more conditioning and training.

"Where did you even get this idea?" Kayla asked during the small wait. "I know there are specialized firearms for classes that generally empower all types of bullets. Aren't those weapons only for such classes, though?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"I was mentored by Alec Zar," Lev reminded her. "His fighting style is unique, and also very suitable for me."

The first opportunity arose in the form of a third-threshold monster, one he was quite familiar with. A warg trotted out, its red mane and fur dripping blood-

Hold on, blood?

Sherron's deafening lightning bolt confirmed the monster was, indeed, a blood monster. All of Windkeep was immediately on high alert, and it also came as no surprise when even Hakim showed up within seconds.

Lev wanted to say he could see what happened, but he really couldn't. Hakim took no chances, and within instants and a scant few silver flashes, only a chopped feline remained.

"Did you see anything?" Jack asked. Lev realized his team couldn't even observe that far properly.

"Uh… yes. Some silver and a very dead third-threshold monster," he nodded slowly, still going over the details. The monster would've easily torn him to shreds. Just like he couldn't track Hakim's movements, he couldn't perceive the warg's either.

"Hakim's there?" Amelia exclaimed, immediately on her feet.

"Close to the treeline, yeah," Lev answered, amused at her reaction. "I can take you closer if you want?"

"N-no, it's fine," she shakily answered and sat back down, trying and failing to discern any of the distant clash's details. Lev didn't let it linger on his mind. There was a lot he still didn't know about her, and such a reaction could've been caused by literally anything. He would know in time.

Fortunately, the next strong monster showed up soon enough. It was a… thing Lev really didn't want to face.

By his side, Amelia was slowly blinking, trying to discern if the monster was real or not.

"That's a giant centipede," she eventually voiced, hands tightly gripping the cushioned barrier chair's armrests.

"Scared?" Lev teased, though internally, he was also wondering how the fuck anyone was going to kill that creature. It was massive, thoroughly armored, and showing no signs of taking damage from stray Master attacks.

"Very much so," she answered without hesitation. "How about we let Lady Sherron deal with that one?"

"I agree with her about this one," Kayla added, already holding Jack's hand. "Can we please not go near that?"

Lev and Jack shared a glance, though the former was very surprised to find a hidden message in Jack's eyes. He wanted Lev to face the centipede, take it down, and do it with style.

How Lev was able to deduce all of that from a look, he didn't know, but he had a task now. The opportunity to really cement himself as reliable was in front of him, even though his team already trusted him, and Lev was inclined to make full use of it.

Another part of Jack's silent communication revealed itself. It was one thing to fight something strong, and another to fight off someone's cause of fear. The warrior had somehow noted that from the moment the centipede showed up.

Scary.

Lev scanned the monster way more closely this time. There were little gaps between its carapaced body, which meant that he would have to break through the tough red armor while surviving the hundreds of sharp yellow legs on its side, each bigger than him.

A pulse of lightning from several kilometers away somehow became noticeable in his senses. It felt… off, for lack of a better term. Lev's brows furrowed for a moment before they shot up, the meaning clicking in his mind.

Waiting.

[

Mana Perception has evolved into Advanced Mana Perception.

Advanced Mana Perception - 2nd Level 1:

Perceive the mana in your surroundings with heightened clarity. Differentiating different mana types is made trivial.

2nd Rank: Decipher the flaws and deficiencies in the mana flows of runes and barriers more accurately.

]

The hell is that 2nd rank?

He ignored it for now, even though it was very interesting. Sherron was waiting for him to make a move, and currently, the centipede was busy tearing apart different monsters trying to run away from it.

"Stay in the bubble," he said to his team and flew out of it. Sherron was just barely visible far to his right, almost on the other side of Windkeep. Somehow, he knew she could see him clearly and was waiting for his next move.

At least it's a good opportunity to test my limits, he thought to himself, taking in the giant monster's appearance and visible defenses. Dark red in color, all of its body, except the legs, was covered in thick, dense, and compressed bone armor, similarly angry red.

It didn't take more than a few seconds to deduce that Lev had no chance in the confrontation. From end to end, the centipede was hundreds of meters long, and some parts of its body rose for over a dozen meters even as it simply slithered around to eat monsters.

Strangely enough, it wasn't focused on Lev. Now that he was out of the bubble's constantly overloaded concealment, every monster was gradually turning to him, even those facing other Masters.

The centipede however, casually kept munching on them. It was a monster, of that there was no doubt, except it was proving to be different than expected before the battle even began.

"What do you think?" Sherron asked after having taken the crystal from Jack. "Any chance of winning?"

"Not even close," Lev replied without hesitation. "The big blue fire slash I launched back then would barely even char its armor. No way I will actually kill it."

"I gathered as much," she sent. "What now?"

"Limit testing, I guess?"

Lev could almost feel her exasperation. New Masters weren't supposed to so casually saunter up to extremely dangerous monsters.

It's not like I'm hoping to win here, he mused, taking stock of everything in his secondary bubbles. Even damaging a portion of its armor will count as a victory for me.

[Stoneshell Centipede - ????]

The closer he got, the more ridiculous the centipede became. It was truly massive, magnitudes bigger than anything he had seen before.

A short chuckle burst out of his lips when one of his artillery pieces fired. The shell became smaller and smaller, and it was so comically tiny compared to the monster when it landed close to its head. As expected, the explosion did absolutely nothing except attract the centipede's attention.

The gaze settled on his shoulders like a mountain of raw power. Lev's breathing became heavier from the simple look, and his aura flailed to try and defend itself. It failed to accomplish anything, so he prepared himself for when the centipede eventually lunged.

A small storm of wind formed in its passing, demolishing the land around it for dozens of meters as it rocketed towards Lev close to the ground. Overloaded walls were effortlessly barreled through, lightning slashes barely hurt its face, and all he could do was throw himself upwards with all his might.

Even then, mandibles snapped shut alarmingly close to him, the sheer shockwave sending him tumbling for a long distance.

"I can't do shit here," he immediately sent to Sherron.

"But you can."

"Really?" Lev asked back, mind whirring. There was only one potential answer, and it was the Superior weapon in his hands. The lack of reply from Sherron was also another indicator of what she wanted him to do.

This is going to suck.

Sighing to himself, a storm of lightning channeled into Stargazer as a barrier blade slowly took shape. It was gigantic, enchanted with the best durability runes he had to be paired with the glaive's sharpness enchantment.

Once it was done at thrice Lev's size, he imbued his armor with lightning instead. Kinetic Absorption was carved on its entire surface, and by now, he was covered in runes from head to toe.

The formation was linked to channeling the absorbed mana into the enhancement formation's durability function, keeping it running at maximum with every hit. No doubt, it was going to be the most important asset in the upcoming fight.

Resolving himself, he waited for the monster to stop observing him with an eerie gaze and make a move.