Before the monsters could jump on him, Lev darted back. He avoided going deeper into the Deadlands and let the monsters chase after him, which they did while ignoring everyone else present.
My aura works on them, he noted, observing just how fast they were. As far as he could tell, there were no external skills at play, only the sheer power of their bodies.
When there were only a few hundred meters between them, arrows formed behind him. Lightning was channeled into them without holding back before they were fired. The dim sky turned bright blue in their passing, and it spoke to Lev's improved control and willpower that none of the mana leaked during the flight.
His opinion about the ghouls was revised several times when they dodged most of his arrows, dashing diagonally with precision that made him do a double-take. Craters formed underneath their feet with each step, providing them more than enough speed to come out relatively unscathed.
Lev was already flying higher and away from melee when a burst of spectral mana reached him. Originating from both monsters, it quickly enveloped a large area surrounding him, immediately reducing the effectiveness of his Perception.
Then it rushed towards his armor and Stargazer's blade, attempting to corrode both barrier constructs. Lightning mana pushed back the assault, reducing the corrosion to a crawl.
Instead of simply continuing or backing off, the spectral mana condensed, attacking again with renewed vigor. Brute force was deployed this time, and before Lev could think of countering it, both of the ghouls flew at him.
Caught off guard, he hurled himself towards the ground, avoiding their lunge. Knowing what to expect, he was prepared for when they absorbed their momentum and changed direction quickly, only for a barrage of infused arrows to rush towards them.
It didn't have the desired effect, however. Spectral mana corroded their forms and caused a significant portion of the infused lightning to leak before the arrows reached the target, and when they did land, much of the attack was negated by the body enhancement.
The ghouls sped up and pounced on the small opening. Lightning slowly flickered out in his armor, replaced by bright blue flames that also rushed into his glaive. Stargazer blocked the punch from the first, one that launched him backwards like a missile.
Before the second ghoul could reach him, Lev quickly took control of his flight and landed on the ground and dashed to the right, just barely dodging the second ghoul's kick. It had accounted for that, and a blob of spectral mana flew at the approaching glaive, attempting to snuff out the blue flames inside and break the barrier blade.
The Superior weapon didn't even register the interference. Blue fire roared out of the blade in a crescent slash, one piercing through most of the ghoul's defenses. A deep gouge was carved on its chest before the slash exploded, throwing them away from each other.
Lev wasn't given a moment to orient himself before a massive fist crashed into his chest. All of the absorption formations and the enhanced durability just barely saved his armor from exploding into pieces, but even then, several enchantments were damaged.
The heat rose exponentially as Flameforged Constitution suddenly stopped working. He hastily took control of all the blue fire melting through his armor and released it in a wave all around him. Grass was immediately set alight in a two dozen-meter radius before the flames exploded outward, saving him from another attack that would've surely destroyed his armor.
Making use of that opportunity, he sent a large stream of lightning into the construct and flew straight up. Enchantments were hastily fixed with the help of his carving skill's second rank, all the flaws and inefficient sections standing out.
Projectiles don't work, and my armor is also just barely enough to survive the corrosion effect. A concentrated attack still pierces through, though with difficulty. What a vile type of monster.
He couldn't help but grin after realizing that. Their specialty left only one effective type of combat. Lightning and blue fire streamed into his armor in equal measure, raising both his speed and strength explosively while also making his armor more durable.
This time, he didn't wait for the ghouls that had just noticed his new location. Lev descended like a comet, targeting the one bleeding from its chest. The wound healed at a speed noticeable to the naked eye, and he would rather not let the effort go to waste.
The ghoul, noticing his approach, raised its leg high before slamming it down. Around it, the ground splintered and cracked as clumps of dirt and stone rose. Hardened by the spectral mana seeping into the land for ages, the chunks were durable enough to survive the kicks that launched them towards Lev.
Walls flew out of his bubble and blocked most of them. A few were dodged with ease, courtesy of his high Perception even in its diminished state, and the rest were destroyed by lightning arrows.
When he got close, an especially large chunk of stone almost hit him. Lev swiveled around it by imbuing a large chunk of lightning, and raised Stargazer to block the kick of the ghoul stuck to the boulder's back.
It launched him straight towards the second monster, one that was smashed into the ground when a fully powered shieldwall dropped on top of it. The construct moved out of the way in the same instant with considerable effort on his part, and he landed in front of the ghoul that was already on its feet.
Too late, it raised an arm to block Stargazer. The glaive enlarged the cut on its chest, the blue flames searing it in the meantime. In the same motion, Lev deflected the second monster's arm with the glaive's pole before smashing its tip on the monster's head.
With its weight raised to obscene heights for that single moment, the ghoul's skull rocked back. Instead of pursuing the opening, he turned around and slashed at the wounded ghoul's neck.
It reacted fast enough this time, ducking the blow and backtracking to create distance. A shieldwall behind its back blocked its retreat and made it stagger, and Lev raised his right arm, one on the cusp exploding from the sheer amount of lightning stored inside.
His world turned blue for an instant. Notifications rang in the back of his mind, but another ghoul was lunging for him. Ducking under its meaty arms, Lev also staggered back when a dense chunk of spectral mana flew at his face.
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Several of his enchantments shut off, mainly the enhancement formation. Speed and strength suddenly much lower, he couldn't react in time when two big hands grabbed him from either side.
Releasing a wave of blue flames didn't make the ghoul let go, though it finally did when the bottom edge of Lev's invisible bubble smashed into its face. The barrier construct cracked from the impact, yet the ghoul quickly righted itself, dodging Lev's thrust and retaliating with a blindingly fast punch.
This is getting a bit ridiculous, he thought, fixing his dented and damaged armor as he flew back like a bullet. If it wasn't for the versatility afforded by his class, Lev wouldn't be able to face the monsters with his current physical strength.
That thought was further proven when the ghoul ran up to him, uncaring about how much mana it used to empower itself. Even now, the monster either didn't have or refused to show ranged attacks, and it raised both arms before bringing them down.
A shieldwall appeared in front of them, giving Lev enough time to fly out of the way before it was smashed to the ground. The force behind the attack uprooted a large chunk of the grassland around it, momentarily providing him a bit of cover.
The ghoul barreled through the risen dirt and stone, right into his waiting glaive. It ducked, and as Stargazer harmlessly flew over its head, invisible cables tightened around its waist.
They survived for a single instant, and that was enough. A condensed beam of fire landed squarely on the ghoul's chest, hurling it back. The monster, disoriented and skipping on the ground, was somehow still alive.
Lev was moving before the blast from the beam could dissipate. Skirting around its edges, he shot towards the monster while leaving a trail of lightning and fire in his wake. Stargazer was swung wide, the blade slamming into the ghoul's chest as a shieldwall dropped in its trajectory, stopping its momentum as its back slammed into the construct.
The prepared fire slash was released halfway inside its chest, completely decimating the monster's torso.
[
You have slain [Spectral Ghoul - Level 440]
You have slain [Spectral Ghoul - Level 439]
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 274
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 275
Arcane Protection has reached 4th Level 4
Fracturing Wave has reached 2nd Level 2
]
The points were invested quickly; five into Wisdom, and just as many into Intelligence. He still hadn't gone wrong with the usual distribution of 20 into Wisdom, and ten into Constitution, Perception, and Intelligence for every 50 attribute points, though the next 15 levels were going to skew things a bit so he could hit 1000 Wisdom quicker.
Surely, there was a title waiting for him at that point.
"I was prepared to intervene," Sherron remarked from above. She landed quietly and let the robot-spider-thing extract the only remaining core.
Lev didn't reply immediately, observing the first ghoul his overloaded lightning bolt had killed. The blank shot had let him accurately target the head, which was the only reason it died so quickly. The rest of the body was fully intact, and within a minute, the spider proudly exited a cavity on its chest while holding the core above it with two limbs.
"A warning wouldn't have hurt," Lev said, grabbing the core with a barrier thread.
[
Spectral Ghoul Core - Rare
Possesses extraordinary mana conductivity and decent mana capacity. Useful in crafting.
]
Hmm, it's usually the other way around.
"You wouldn't have gotten two whole levels, then," Sherron commented, unapologetic. He understood enough not to blame her in any capacity, not like he would've even if there was a reason to.
They both flew back to the original spot. Drakys started moving deeper into the land without speaking, and the rest followed behind.
While they advanced at a controlled pace, scouting thoroughly for any dangers in the meantime, Lev paid more attention to the ambient mana.
Spectral mana was elusive, except it also… wasn't? Unlike Shadow Mana, which was incredibly difficult to Master, spectral mana was simpler to access and control. Then there was the matter of utilizing it for something, and everything suddenly came to a stop.
The small amount he gathered did absolutely nothing when infused into his armor, and imbuing it was similarly impossible. It was simply not built to be used by humans, and Lev also hadn't ever heard of a class that used spectral mana.
"What does spectral mana do for humans?" Lev asked out loud once he failed to find anything else.
"Kill you, if you try to channel it through your body. Slowly at first until you're too damaged and broken to resist it."
He looked at Sherron silently for a moment before returning to staring ahead. They were approaching what seemed to be another threshold into the Deadlands, and he could feel the density of spectral mana inside rise sharply.
"This is the second layer of the Deadlands," Drakys explained after stopping a few hundred meters away. "The monsters don't get stronger, and they also don't appear more frequently. Only the ambient mana sees both a qualitative and quantitative change."
"Why?"
"You really expect us to know?" Sherron said, shooting him a smirk. "It just does."
"How very… knowledgeable," Lev drawled, his tone oozing sarcasm. A lightning dart appeared above the Exalted's raised finger, so he shamelessly took a few steps to hide behind Drakys.
"Protect me," he whispered, eyes locked onto that dart. Now that he wasn't at the risk of dying from a small graze of Sherron's element, she might just shoot one at him.
"I feel like our roles are reversed here," Drakys mused, glancing at Lev with mock seriousness. "Aren't you supposed to protect your elders?"
Lev stared back for a full second, silent all the while. It took considerable power of will not to reply with something sassy or sarcastic. Instead, he took a deep breath and opted to stare at the wall of darkness in front of him, ignoring Melvine's curious gaze.
"Right," he changed the subject. "Second layer?"
"Let's stay here for now," Drakys said, gazing intently at the start of the layer as well. "If something does jump out, we will have a few moments to react."
That made sense, so Lev also summoned a barrier platform for himself. Stepping on it, he flew back and ascended a few hundred meters before summoning a chair.
The vantage point ensured that he got a clear view of the flat surroundings, and his invisible bubble also hovered directly behind him to prevent any nasty surprises. Several more concealed walls were present nearby, covering him from every angle.
I wonder why the spectral mana is so harmful to humans. Going by the name, it's more suited for undead beings or something similar, and the spectral creatures we have seen so far fit the bill. But we can also channel so many different mana types through our bodies. Why is this one any different?
Such questions plagued his mind, resulting in several theories without any substance. It was also reasonable to assume that researchers hadn't dove deep into the mana that seemed like a dead end, and if even Exalted like the two accompanying him didn't have answers, then no one did.
Leaning back into his chair, Lev peered deep into the second layer of the Deadlands. Its boundary was distinct, as if a new video game biome suddenly started after a fixed line, and it also didn't block any attempts at observation and scanning.
Absorbed in his thoughts, he had no way to detect when space rippled around him, and the flow of time stopped entirely.
