Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the next two days passed in relative peace. Lev made sure to keep his mana and aura constantly concealed, never stepping out of the bubble unless necessary.

Most of the time, the platinum hunters took it upon themselves to fight all the monsters in their way. Emboldened by Lev's presence, a Master who seemed to be much higher in level than he actually was, they stopped conserving mana and tested the limits of their skills, also providing him a lot to think about.

After all, his team was waiting for him to train them when he returned. Observing the strong hunters let him know what to look out for when sparring with his team, along with what the hunters needed to improve on.

Due to the low-pressure searching, Lev's mana pool was full again. He rarely needed to use more than a tenth of it at once, and also conserved it for when things inevitably went south.

"The blueroots are usually found near water," Kim explained, always running his skills to detect nearby treasures. "Not just water, but running water. We've tried to cultivate them to no avail. It's as if they can distinguish natural water flow and only accept that."

"Same for the flamepetals?"

"They're even weirder," he agreed. "If the commonly accepted theory is correct, then it's not a matter of the natural habitat. Flamepetals are known to take years or decades to regrow, and we can only guess that growing the whole plant from scratch takes centuries. No other reason for failure has shown itself."

Lev noted that information and changed the subject. "I see a stream… a small river, actually. It's surrounded by large blue trees with pink leaves."

"Ah. We're here already? It's difficult to keep track of our speed from inside the bubbles."

The closer Lev got to the new region, the more he realized just how massive the trees were. Nothing abnormal stood out in their branches or leaves, except the height they towered. He had to raise his bubbles for another several hundred meters to observe the treetop, which was unsurprisingly filled with bird monsters.

"Do you think you guys can take them?" Lev asked the scout, curiously watching the birds stir. Despite having cloaked everyone's presence with his bubbles, the monsters could feel whiffs of their presence. It reminded him to buy or look for more potent concealment enchantments.

"No, sir," she replied after consulting both hunter teams. "We can defend ourselves and potentially take them all out with hit-and-run tactics, though it's still unlikely. They will swarm us quickly. There are hundreds of them."

Thought so, Lev told them to stand by and keep their defenses prepared as he prepared his constructs. Dozens of round shields, ten walls, and the hundreds of arrows and lances stored in his bubbles were ready to be used at a moment's notice.

With a deep, steadying breath, the bubble floor underneath him vanished. He hadn't even fallen through completely before something took notice, and immediately, all the bird monsters ran away instead of targeting him.

Fuck, he quickly darted back inside as the whole tree shuddered. Massive pink feathers slowly rose from amidst the branches, shattering the wood as if it didn't exist.

Lev's fear spiked when none of the leaves fell to the ground. As one, they settled into circular rows before picking up speed, creating a localized storm of leaves around the top of the tree.

Fortunately, he was already hundreds of meters away, flying away at full speed with all of his bubbles. A good thing too, for when the large golden eyes met his own, through all of his stealth formations, he suspected staying for even a moment longer would've resulted in death.

[Leafweaver Eagle - ?????]

Lev didn't look away as the eagle scanned him. He didn't even feel a hint of mana, aura, or skills, just its vast, profound gaze that observed all his secrets with a single look. It became smaller and smaller as they flew away, somehow surviving an encounter with a random fourth-threshold monster.

"Kim…"

"I swear to Monarch that thing was never here before," the harvester's panicked reply sounded in Lev's head. "We've gathered the fruits of the same tree dozens of times before-"

"Kim."

"No monsters above level 280 ever attacked us back then-"

"Kim."

"I- sorry, how are we even alive? None of this makes sense."

Instead of answering, Lev slowly bought the bubble carrying the hunters close to his own. Their walls slowly melded, and the enchantments were altered until two large formations covered both of the bubbles.

He then removed the wall between the bubbles, still seated on his driver's seat. All the hunters turned to him, as did the nervous harvesters, but Lev didn't speak immediately.

That was clearly a sentient being and not a monster, he decided as his doubts melted away. Being alive was proof enough of that. Once again, my presence had to turn things upside down.

"That was not a monster," Lev announced. The hunters didn't understand at first, the words echoing in their heads without meaning. Slowly, obvious from the widening eyes, they stared at him with their mouths ajar as understanding trickled in.

"I'm sure you guys would've realized it sooner or later," he spoke again before anyone else could. "If it were a monster, all of us would be long dead. It probably only took notice because I was about to attack the birds with big attacks."

Lev didn't miss that both Kim and Jay didn't seem surprised at the revelation at all.

One of the warriors found the courage to speak up, "You mean to say-"

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"Yes. Probably," Lev overrode him. "Look, I'm just as much in the dark as you guys, but this is not common knowledge."

His eyes roamed the arrayed hunters, meeting all of their gazes to show his seriousness. "Humans are not the only sentient beings on this continent, as you just saw. But if the Exalted haven't made everyone aware of these beings, then there must be some damn good reason behind it. Don't go against their wishes and keep this to yourself."

Before anyone could ask more questions, he separated the bubble again. Recreating the mana concealment and invisibility formations took all of a few seconds before he leaned back in his seat with a sigh, wondering why everything had to go wrong one way or another.

Still… he looked back to where the eagle was perched, the tree a mere dot on the horizon. The eagle had carefully kept all of its aura hidden inside its body, careful not to overwhelm the relatively puny humans.

Maybe it was willing to communicate?

No, no, no. That's how you end up in its belly. He stood up and started pacing around in his bubble. The quest is as good as done. After the first report goes through, the area will be marked as a lethal zone. It might just be my last chance to talk with such a creature… and die by its hand. Damn brain, why do you have to be rational now of all times.

In the end, he decided it wasn't worth stupidly risking his life. It was a good thing the eagle hadn't taken offense at him prepared to fire at the tree, and the more he thought about it, the easier it seemed for that to change. Who knew what kind of thoughts went through such a creature's head?

"Kim, what now?"

"Let's return," Jay's shaky voice answered. "Please."

"I'm with him on this one," Kim added.

"The experience hasn't settled in for most of the hunters yet," the scout also interjected. "It's best for them to be behind walls before they realize how close they were to dying."

Lev didn't point out that she herself was barely standing straight. Given his experiences with auras, the eagle might have been too far for most of the hunters to Identify. It explained why some of them were calm enough to stand straight, whereas the others were sitting on the bubble's floor.

Pouring more mana into the kinetic enchantments, the bubbles started flying faster towards Whitefall. The scout's words held merit, and Lev didn't want to deal with hunters having panic attacks.

Good thing he was used to such creatures finding him, letting him keep his wits about him.

****

Several hours of flying in a straight line later, Lev dropped the hunters and harvesters in front of the city and left them there. Quickly passing through the gates without any concealment to let them note his return, he jumped back in his bubble and flew to the hunter's guild.

"Welcome back, Hunter Lev," the receptionist who had noted him for the quest greeted. She didn't ask why he was back early.

Lev nodded lightly. "Is the guildmaster here today?"

"He is. Should I inform him about your return?"

"Also ask him if I can see him right now," Lev added gratefully and took one of the waiting seats. The receptionist returned after only a minute and informed him that the guildmaster was expecting him.

Thanking her, Lev gathered the words in his head and ascended the large stairs. Knocking twice on the guildmaster's office doors, he waited for Varun's call.

"Come in."

The doors swung open at the same time, and Lev entered as they closed shut. Varun looked at him for a silent second and waved at him to take a seat.

"I take it everything is still fine?" the guildmaster initiated the conversation, sensing the seriousness.

"Yes. Somehow. Do you have a map of the forest's edges?"

Varun nodded and summoned one on the table. Lev blinked in surprise when a massive map encompassing more area than the human lands suddenly appeared in front of him, almost making him forget why he was there.

Quickly locating Whitefall on the northern corner, he traced their path until a silver dot revealed itself.

"Here," Lev put a finger on the spot, and thought about what to say. He eventually decided to be honest. "I was about to clear all the bird monsters atop the tree, but uh…"

"I can already guess where this is going," Varun interjected with a short sigh. He brought out a small pen filled with mana. "Write the result of Identify near the tree with this."

Lev grabbed the pen and looked it over, finding some odd runes inscribed along its length. No other meaning revealed itself, so he did as he was asked.

A trail of solidified mana formed words above the tree as Lev wrote. Using the 'ink' was as easy as just thinking about using it, which also let him control how thick or thin the mana was. He didn't mess with the settings and returned the pen after he was done.

[Leafweaver Eagle - ?????]

The ink was… odd. When he looked at it, it suddenly became opaque to make it easier to read. The moment his eyes moved on, the words became transparent again, not hindering anyone who merely wanted to look at the map.

Realizing something, Lev was about to look for more hidden labels before Varun stored the map with a smirk.

"Not so quick, hunter," the guildmaster stressed the title, hinting at needing higher access for the information. "A team of scouts will be dispatched in the next few minutes… or maybe you can convince Sherron?"

Lev blinked a few times. "Why would I?"

"Because of her eyesight, of course," Varun answered, tone contemplative. "She can easily look at the creature from afar and run away if things go wrong. With her speed and the stealth equipment, it should be simple to lose the creature in the woods."

"… I'll inform her," was all Lev said, not liking the idea one bit. No way he was willingly going to put Sherron in danger. Regardless, he was going to let her know in case she was willing to do it herself.

****

Keeping his aura fully contained under the mana concealment and invisibility formations on his armor, Lev flew above the park his team was currently sitting in. Just like he usually did, they had also chosen to lean against a thick tree trunk, preferring the shade over the cozy sunlight.

Hmm, he grinned, having decided that a jumpscare was in order. The only issue was how much of his aura he wanted to reveal without repeating the Beatrice situation…

Ok, yeah, let's not, he thought and stored his armor. Amelia noticed him first, suddenly feeling a new source of heat in her vicinity.

"Welcome back," she gave him a little wave, prompting the other two to turn around too.

"Huh," Kayla grinned. "Do you usually pop up-"

Jack covered her mouth. "How'd it go? Wasn't it supposed to last another day or two?"

Lev nodded, creating a dome around them. It was swiftly enchanted with invisibility and sound-cancelling before he sat down, slightly further away from the trio.

"It was," Lev agreed with a snort. "Then we ran into a fourth-threshold creature, and well, that was that."

Kayla freed herself from Jack's hold and used her healing on Lev. She nodded in approval when no wounds revealed themselves, completely ignoring Lev's exasperated stare.

"So you actually retreated," Kayla deduced with a sagely nod. "Well done. I know it must have taken a lot of restraint-"

"What brought this on?" Lev interrupted her, not minding the joking at all. Something else was dominating his mind. "I thought you guys would be mad at me for lying."

"You bet I was," she huffed, unable to hide her amusement still while pointing at Jack. "Then this loaf started making too much sense. Something about finding a middle ground and making sure we don't become disheartened. A bunch of blabbering, really."

"What she means to say is," Amelia said and shook her head a little. "We don't mind as long as you don't try to do it again."

"… That's it?"

"What?" Kayla piped up again. "You want to pay for it?"

"Remind me who didn't want to take anything from me before?" Lev stared at her. "Something about earning all the equipment by themselves."

"No idea," she shamelessly waved a hand. "All I see is someone too poor to make up for their blunders."

Lev grinned. Jack and Amelia immediately noticed, a hint of panic appearing in their eyes. Kayla also realized something was wrong after a few seconds, at which point Lev's grin widened even further.

"So you want equipment?" Lev slowly voiced, taking his sweet time. Kayla tried to say something, but he overrode her. "Oh, and of course it will be of the highest quality possible. I'll personally make sure of that. You will not reject my sincere attempts at mending our relationship now, will you?"

She could only nod, having messed up too much to recover. Which was great as far as Lev was concerned. He had a lot of ideas in mind for their future equipment.

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