To attract more monsters, Lev let about a fifth of his aura hang around his body freely. The rest remained contained inside, somewhat hidden from monsters and other humans.

It was a gamble on his part, as even the little amount could attract all manner of monsters. But he had to take at least some risks to advance, and as long as nothing stronger than a low third-threshold monster showed up, he could run away reliably as well. The stacks of formed projectiles in his bubble were always present for that reason.

Four enchanted walls, the strongest version of his shields, remained ready to be deployed outside the concealed bubble at a moment's notice, which came early in his shift.

Lev felt the attack before seeing it, immediately pulling the walls out of the bubble, in the path of the approaching projectiles. The resilience enchantments were immediately powered to full with a considerable draw on his reserves, primed to block the incoming threats.

His eyes narrowed when several icebolts struck the walls in quick succession, each leaving deep scratches on their surface. They were repaired in a blink, leaving behind some concerning implications.

Any remaining casualness vanished when dozens more icebolts followed. Lev's armor was immediately overloaded with mana as the bubble's enchantments came alive. Melding his feet with the bubble's floor, he manipulated it to dodge and weave between the barrage.

Instead of relying on his willpower, Lev manually controlled his walls, the eight more shields joining them, as well as the bubble. None of the icebolts came close to landing on the last as the walls blocked them with minor damage. His shields shattered one by one however, despite the durability rune etched on them. It seemed that the resilience rune had more to it than he expected.

Another barrage came through. Lev was ready this time, expertly evading and blocking the icebolts while keeping his eyes wide open. The caution was rewarded when long spikes of compressed ice blurred directly at him, only to be intercepted by lightning lances. They collided a few hundred meters away from the bubble in a brilliant blue flash, disintegrating both projectiles.

Icebolts, hmm? For monsters found in this region, there are only like four that use the element of ice.

Having a pretty good idea of what he was facing, Lev casually hurled a few fire lances towards the origin of the icebolts. A small horde was suddenly revealed when the illusion was dismissed to dodge, and each monster stood significantly taller than he.

Around two hundred trolls were suddenly rushing him at full speed, shaking the very earth with their coordinated march.

Very nice, Lev grinned under his armor, already liking the amount of practice he was going to get in. Another set of invisible shields was slowly taking form around the bubble, numbering twenty. Time to let loose for once.

It didn't take long to identify all the potential threats, which were five trolls.

[Troll Commander - Level 308]

[Troll Shaman - Level 295]

[Troll Shaman - Level 299]

[Troll Shaman - Level 296]

[Troll Shaman - Level 301]

Curiously enough, the highest level shaman was also constantly channeling mana into the commander, which he belatedly realized was a buff like Kayla's. Not only was the commander getting empowered by the shamans, but the monster's presence also improved the whole horde's strength. It was quite the horde for a lone hunter to deal with, yet Lev couldn't have been happier.

This just keeps getting better and better, his grin widened as he burst out of the bubble, flying straight at the monsters while torrents of lightning imbued his armor. He used only Stargazer's mana for that, just in case he needed to keep his pool full.

Nearly three dozen shields and four walls followed his flight, most of them invisible. As another barrage of icebolts sought to kill him, Lev gave the invisible shields a single command.

Protect me.

They jerked from their positions, struggling to follow the sudden instructions. That was fine, since the bubble flying at the edge of his manipulation range was no longer targeted. Lev was a much smaller target, and with the help of his walls, none of the attacks even came close to hitting him.

Landing in front of the commander ways ahead of the horde, Stargazer's haft easily blocked its blurring fist without problem. The ground around them was ripped apart from the sheer might of the collision, yet the brawl was only starting.

Lev continued to increase his glaive's weight until it was more than a hundred kilos, a weight he slightly struggled to control. Powering through the significantly higher mental strain, he darted to the right to dodge the next punch and slashed at the troll's arm.

It reacted with admirable agility, pulling the limb back just enough to earn a deep cut on the bicep instead of losing the arm. Lev's excitement dimmed at seeing the outcome, and he quickly reduced the amount of mana going into the sharpness enchantment.

Jumping back to avoid another barrage of icebolts, he mentally pointed out all the incoming projectiles without manipulating his shields. He could feel his subconscious mind working to act on the given order, just barely managing to block a fifth of the attacks.

Progress, Lev thought to himself, and advanced on the commander. Due to the extreme attribute advantage of being second-threshold monsters, the commander and the shamans were well ahead of the remaining first-threshold horde. The monsters were running to their position at full speed, leaving no more than half a minute for Lev to brawl freely with their leader.

A clash of titanic blows ensued. Instead of relying on insane instincts, the commander showed some rudimentary intelligence in its focused yet maddened gaze.

Lev's eyebrows rose when it feinted an elbow, transitioning the move into a backhand that hit his chest directly. The barrier armor's instantly enhanced durability was stressed dangerously as the blow pushed the air out of his lungs, sending him flying in a straight line with a thunderous shockwave.

Wobbly shields struggled the block the dozens of icebolts and the few ice spikes mixed in, showing no signs of immediate progress. Righting himself quickly, Lev fired a small lightning slash to make the commander abort its lunge, digging its feet into the ground to jump to the side. A condensed fireball was already waiting for it, launched from Lev's palm.

Not bad, he double-checked his armor's enchantments and structure, finding them both perfectly fine and functioning after some quick repairs. Didn't think a commander could still breach my armor.

The one he was facing had certainly come close. Granted, Lev could've completely negated its strength advantage by imbuing the armor with earth mana, but that would've also crippled his speed.

Utilizing that same advantage, he dashed past the commander and entered the remaining horde, effortlessly weaving between their number and wild attacks.

All of the shields came along, the main reason why he was doing something so stupid. The previous order was still in place, now giving them far more opportunities to block stray icebolts, punches, kicks, lunges, bites, etc. It was the perfect training, really.

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Putting the rest of his plan into action, he tapped into his pool for the first time as several long lances formed before drilling into the ground. When they were over ten meters deep, scattered all around his manipulation range, he infused them with fire mana. Waiting for a few long seconds, he detonated them all at once.

A giant cloud of dust rose all around them, enveloping both the monsters and the lone human in a thick veil. Seeing that his maneuver had succeeded, Lev recalled his aura fully to conceal it and reduced the amount of mana imbuing his armor. He only needed enough to be fast, not overwhelmingly so.

Let's play.

Rolling his shoulders, Lev whirled towards the closest troll aiming to grab his back. Twisting faster than it could react, his palm closed around its meaty arm. A burst of lightning was imbued as he yanked it forward, nearly tearing the limb out of its socket as the troll fell onto his rising knee. A shower of blood burst out of its mouth from the devastating hit, but Lev wasn't done. Spinning around from the rebound of the collision, his right leg flew in a round kick and his heel dug into the back of its skull with a disgusting squelch, pulping the brain underneath.

Before the corpse even fell to the ground, he was already rushing to his next victim. Under the barrage of constant icebolts guessing his location in the large veil of dust, he killed one troll after another with only his fists and legs. Much of the ice attacks only hit other trolls in friendly fire, but the monsters didn't seem to care. Lev didn't either, only keeping an eye on the aura of the approaching troll commander and the distant shamans.

Kicking a troll's head hard enough that it saw the ground behind it, he clutched Stargazer tightly and parried the commander's lunge, throwing a straight kick to its face. His foot landed with a crisp smack, disorienting the monster momentarily. Instead of beheading it in a single move, Lev punched its wide stomach, releasing a point-blank lightning bolt from his hand to temporarily put it out of the fight.

Turning to the remaining horde, he crouched slightly before shooting off to his next target, utterly eviscerating it with a single swing of Stargazer with her weight increased manifold.

****

Lev lost track of time as the one-sided battle continued. Time passed far quicker than one would expect, and before long, the suns were rising over the horizon.

Thirty trolls were still alive, their regeneration and endless stamina ensuring that they continued to fight. The commanders and the shaman were amongst them, though the latter rarely fired more spells.

Unfortunately for them, the two dozen invisible shields hovering between the monsters blocked all their icebolts, shards, and spikes much better now. They were still far from smooth enough for Lev to trust them with his life, but the improvements were undeniable.

No more was there any dust hiding their forms. It had settled to the ground long ago, which was also torn open for hundreds of meters around, just from his clashes with the commander.

My shift's ending soon, he noted as eight thick ropes slithered around him. Stargazer was far too strong for these trolls, so he resorted to testing his different constructs to see how they held up after the evolution.

Each rope shot forward with shrill whistles, their precision unwavering despite the messy brawl. The next chosen troll found both of its arms tied by them, bound tightly enough that their flesh was flayed as the ropes tightened.

Smacking away the commander with two of his walls, Lev pulled. All of his mental faculties were pitted against a level 223 troll, a monster notorious for its extreme strength. The ground beneath its feet exploded from the force of the pull as it flew forward, unable to stop itself, right into a waiting barrier glaive that went through its head.

The ropes were almost unscathed, Lev observed, while another troll met the same fate. It makes sense, I suppose. They survived the full output of a troll's strength and even overpowered it. Small cracks were a good price to pay. I haven't even enchanted them yet.

Lightning mana entered his arm in a steady stream. Several bolts were primed at a heavy mental burden, before he fired them at the shamans one by one. Ice walls were raised in time to block the incoming attack, but the lightning bolts pierced through them and the monsters both.

Lev still took note of how durable those walls were. Not only were they compressed, they also sapped the power from his attacks. It was a good reminder not to become complacent. Monsters were rarely predictable, and stronger shamans would've been much harder to kill. It would suck for their ice to just absorb his lightning and fire it back.

When there was only the commander left, he slowed down to consider what last-minute practice he could sneak in. Stargazer slapped away its large fist with a shockwave, further tearing apart the ground, and Lev lunged forward and smashed its sternum with the flat of the blade. The large monster folded from the massive blow, at which point Stargazer cleanly passed through its neck, her sharpness raised to the maximum.

I forgot about all these cores I still need to harvest, he looked at all the corpses strewn around in localized pools of blood. Not to mention the spectators observing me for the past few minutes.

Gazing directly at the distant scouts flying above, Lev gave them a little wave. They were probably asked to examine his capabilities and check out the large-scale disturbance. It helped that all monsters within the area were attracted to the messy brawl. He didn't let them join it, though. They died to a few lances and bullets from his bubble's cannons.

Two women landed on a dry spot near the commander, devoid of blood and gore.

"Was this… necessary, Hunter Lev?" the first gazed at the carnage, failing to hide a gulp.

"Are improvements ever necessary?" Lev questioned back with a small smile. "Besides, I think I cleared the area quite well," he waved to the distant corpses of monsters other than trolls. There were thornlings, panthers, orcs, harpies, and bears. Wraiths didn't leave behind corpses, only cores that were in his ring already.

"We have to apologize in advance," the second dipped her head, her regret obvious. "The strategist demands a precise report."

"That's fine," he replied. "All that happened is in front of you."

Both of them simply nodded, too entranced by his calm movements as Lev casually tore open the commander's chest and pulled out the core. Washing it with his refillable canteen, he dried it and stored it in his ring.

One by one, all the shamans and other cores received the same treatment before he moved on to the other monsters. Thornlings required him to use Stargazer's enchantments, so he made sure that her enchantments and rarity were cloaked before using them.

Going by the lack of reaction from the scouts, the cloaking worked as it was supposed to. If anything, they didn't even bat an eye at the glaive's appearance. Lev was quite happy with that.

[

Arcane Barrier Authority has reached 4th Level 1

Consistent Mana Channeling has reached 2nd Level 2

Arcane Barrier Authority - 4th Level 1:

Shape arcane barriers anywhere inside your manipulation range regardless of distance. Barriers formed are 212% more resilient. Control over arcane barriers improves with the skill level.

Arcane Barriers gain the following benefits from the skill:

- Sharpness of your formed edges is increased by 81%.

- Speed of your projectiles is improved by 81%.

- Your connection with the barriers is greatly enhanced, allowing you to utilize and track them better.

2nd Rank: Imbue and Infuse different mana types through different sources dictated by your class skills. Mana Conductivity of your barriers is improved by a static 50%.

4th Rank: You may change the physical properties of your barriers, such as color, weight, and bendability, to a small extent.

]

Wordlessly, the scouts and Lev flew up and started moving towards the castle, his invisible bubble silently following behind

This is interesting, Lev formed a barrier thread in his hand, the construct only as long as his arm. A new 'button' immediately made itself known in his head, one responsible for the new addition.

The first thing he tried was making a thread behave like an actual thread. So far, Lev had mentally bent such constructs, but that wasn't feasible until his willpower was sharpened to extreme heights.

Fortunately for him, the thread immediately became softer, hanging from his closed palm as gravity finally asserted itself. Grabbing its other end, he pulled it from both sides to test its durability.

Slowly applying more and more physical strength under the curious gazes of the scouts, he had to reconsider some things when the thread endured rather easily. When his mental strength joined in, it finally showed signs of strain. Even then, he had to apply a lot more of it before the thread finally snapped, giving him more than a few ideas.

Their durability suffered a little from the change, he thought to himself, brain whirring. The loss was far from crippling, though. If anything, the reduction in durability is negligible compared to the ability to soften my barriers.

There were too many paths suddenly revealing themselves. Threads and ropes were going to become a crucial part of his arsenal for one important reason.

Threads could be enchanted individually. Lev was still far, far from possessing such expertise, but the possibility wasn't just real anymore, it was the next major goal. The moment he could craft intricately enchanted clothes for himself, his survivability would shoot up. His ropes too, were going to become drastically more powerful. With three-dimensional runes, the options were going to be even more limitless.

For the weight change, Lev immediately checked if the new skill covered his armor. It did, so he instantly raised the armor's weight to the maximum. If it weighed a few kilograms before, now it weighed around thirty. The increased burden didn't even register in his mind as he continued flying towards the castle.

The added weight was entirely positive with no downsides.

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