"I can't say I've heard anyone have that issue before," Drakys commented, both of them now back in runespires. "There are some explorers that border on suicidal, but no one that felt a calling."

  "It's weird," Lev agreed, observing the upgraded Stargazer in his hands. She was just as beautiful if not even more so, with the same blue streaks running through her length. Only now, her entire being was brimming with enchantments.

  [

  Stargazer - Rare

  Enchantments: Durability, Blade Sharpening, Mana Channeling

  ]

  "No description?"

  "Descriptions are up to the creator of the item to keep. The one who upgraded it didn't feel like it."

  Huh, that's news to me. The more you know.

  "What do the enchantments do? I don't think I've seen them anywhere," Lev questioned, curious.

  "Little wonder you haven't," Drakys commented, lost in thought. "I had to go see someone who only crafts gear to counter the influence of blight. Much of the durability enchantment is focused on keeping foreign influences at bay. It also has an active portion to increase the durability further."

  Lev was suitably impressed. "The other two?"

  "Blade sharpening will scan your barrier blade and encompass it into a large sharpness formation. Mana Channeling simply lets you channel different mana types through the entire thing. We will get Mana Slash to make full use of that aspect."

  "I was going to get that skill anyway," Lev nodded. "How does the skill work with different mana types normally?"

  "Like any other skill," Drakys answered, dismissive. "You force different mana types into it, and they become a part of it in 2nd rank. Let's go."

  Lev followed without question, knowing he no longer needed merit points to advance. Hakim hadn't even batted an eye at Drakys' request to let Lev advance freely, which Lev had mixed feelings about.

  It was nice to not care about merit points but taking handouts sucked. Only the first ever ring and the hundred gold coins were acceptable to him because he had nothing to his name back then.

  "Since I only need to grow in levels now, do we need to do quests?"

  "Not anymore."

  Proving his words, Drakys led him straight to the central spire, where they took an elevator to the lowest floor.

  Lev was expecting stone or perhaps a small outpost to defend against monster attacks. He was instead greeted by a small town next to the base of the spire, housing many of the hunters of runespires.

  "Well, this answers some questions," Lev remarked, head on a swivel like a country bumpkin. "There were too few hunters above the surface to account for all of them."

  "This is still nothing compared to the total number," Drakys added. "The final cavern you visited was far from the largest. Many of them stay there for weeks or months."

  Not stopping at any of the stores or inns, they left the perimeter without any obstructions. Lev wondered how many people recognized the Exalted from a glance. Drakys' aura was hidden to an unbelievable degree, to the point that Lev needed to keep him in his vision so as not to lose track of him. The man moved as silently as a ghost.

  "Where are we going?" Lev finally asked. Curiosity could be surprisingly painful to hold back.

  "To the largest final cavern. Being the deepest and furthest from runespires, it has a high chance of attracting something too strong to handle. We will train there."

  Surprisingly considerate for a man on a break.

  Not voicing the thought, Lev followed him through the caves without any more questions. It took a few hours of too many twists and turns, and hundreds of dormant monsters, before they walked into an open cavern, not unlike the one where he had met the threader.

  The only major difference was the size. Where Lev could see the ceiling of the previous final cavern far above, this one was far too high for him to see. The same was true for the other end of the cavern, shrouded in darkness somewhere far away.

  Before Lev could ask about their next steps, a bubble of mana enveloped him and Drakys, masking their presence.

  "Letting them know of my presence will reduce all essence gains and skill improvements," Drakys explained without prompting. "Since most of the monsters come from the cave system at the other end, we will stay near that."

  Despite being in the presence of one of the strongest of his kind, a seed of fear had rooted itself in Lev's heart. His presence always caused mishaps, and now, he was far below runespires and right in front of caves endlessly spewing out monsters.

  They both walked at the edge of the cavern floor, Lev noting the high number of defenders atop the wall. Spell after spell rained down, painting a surprisingly beautiful scene.

  There were several new elements present too. Balls of acid splashed onto groups of unlucky kobolds, and a streak of black blurred from monster to monster, beheading them in a single strike.

  "It's pretty surprising you can even notice that," Drakys broke him out of the observation. "That young hunter is a radiant hunter, one of the rare few humans to ever get shadow mana before Master. Quite special, that lad."

  "Shadow, huh…" Lev mused. "Do shadow mana converters exist?"

  Drakys nodded, slowly. "Less than ten, and I have one of them now that I think about it."

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Will they even do anything to my barriers?" Lev questioned, not particularly interested in a hidey mana type.

  Drakys just laughed at his face. "You will need to evolve your Mana Manipulation twice to even move it."

  "…What?"

  "Shadow mana, boy, is incredibly difficult to bend to your will, even for me. This is why the hunter is so special. He can use skills with shadow mana because of that absurd class."

  That dimmed Lev's view of his own accomplishments somewhat. Despite the raw power in him, he couldn't manage anything as impressive as that rogue.

  "I can feel your thoughts through your aura quite clearly," Drakys glanced at him. "The rogue will not hold a candle to you. Have faith in your abilities."

  I seriously need to learn something to hide my aura. Why is it even necessary to be a Master to do that?

  "I see," Lev remarked. "Just thinking how my class will only use basic things to do everything."

  "For now," Drakys added without hesitation. "Your barriers specialize in absorbing mana types, do they not?"

  "Hmm," Lev tried to play it off casually, failing miserably. "Fair enough."

  Drakys didn't comment on how his steps had suddenly become lighter, or how his aura was happy all of a sudden.

  Getting to the end of the cavern took over an hour despite running at low speeds. Covered by Drakys' bubble, no monster or human noticed their passing.

  The small trip was enlightening. Lev could see craters and huge cracks in the ground from previous battles, along with other burns and marks telling their own story. The monsters too, were pretty strong.

  [Cave Troll - Level 150]

  [Cave Spider - Level 122]

  [Kobold Shaman - Level 174]

  [Illusionist Trapper]

  What on Monarch is that?

  "Hey, are you seeing that?"

  "The trapper? It's pretty easy to spot. That one is also just dormant," Drakys commented off-handedly, scanning the distant ceiling still too far for Lev to see.

  My Identify skill was defeated by a dormant monster, Lev thought with a sigh.

  Putting the weak skill to the back of his mind, Lev observed their destination. They had stopped near the corner of the spacious cavern, with all the huge cave entrances visible to their left.

  Drakys was already preparing the area to train him, his preparations entirely undecipherable to Lev. He could tell the air and ground were changing in some way, but nothing beyond that.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Blocking out all tremors and sounds. What happens in the sphere, stays in the sphere."

  So he wants to train me under the nose of all these monsters. I can't rule out having to face monsters randomly either. In fact, that seems to be the main purpose of this spot.

  It was completely fine by him, though. Their greatest enemies were monsters, and Lev was more than happy to train against them.

  The sphere surrounding them kept growing in size, eventually reaching dozens of meters in each direction. However, it was still only a small part of the corner they were occupying.

  "Before we begin," Drakys straightened, leveling a stern stare at Lev. "From now on, you will not question my orders unless strictly necessary. You can ask questions, but only a few of them, and nothing that will defeat the purpose of our exercises. Understood?"

  No hint of casualness or joviality remained in Drakys, the man now a teacher instead of an observer. Lev straightened too, knowing there was no more time to mess around. He had been throwing spells from afar for long enough. That had to change.

  "Yes, sir."

  Drakys nodded. "Good. Send your mana underground."

  Lev did as he was told without missing a beat. Normally, he would be sour about someone expecting unquestioned effort from him, but this was an Exalted teaching him during a personal break. He was not nearly dense enough to not see how extraordinary the whole opportunity was.

  Lev was prepared to do his best, for there was no other option. There was a lot of responsibility waiting to land on his shoulders. He had to be prepared.

  His mana went underground without obstruction, easily passing through the solid stone due to its incorporeal nature.

  "Do you see the pathways?"

  "I do."

  "They are enchanted to absorb mana. Your task is to find the finishing points while keeping control over your mana. Go sit on that chair, I will stay here and make sure nothing attacks you."

  Lev did not question what finishing points were, why he was doing this, or how long he had to accomplish the task. He walked up to the single stone chair in the center of the sphere and sat down.

  Opening his senses fully to the world, Lev sent a small stream of pure mana, small enough to be covered by his regeneration alone, into the carved pathway and started moving it. The stream moved for all of an instant before the pathway absorbed it without even coming into contact with the mana.

  What just happened?

  Lev tried again, sending a small stream of mana down again. It dissipated without telling him anything, so he tried again.

  On the seventh attempt, he finally noticed the mana getting instantly absorbed into the enchanted pathway the moment it came within a fixed distance. The process was so fast, he couldn't tell how his mana had even vanished before.

  So I have a narrow circular path, much smaller than the pathway itself, to move my mana through. If my mana comes within like two inches of the enchantments, it vanishes.

  [

  Mana Perception has reached 2nd Level 2

  ]

  Lev tried again, carefully keeping the stream moving in a straight line and in the center of the pathway. For several meters, he could keep a somewhat stable stream of mana going before he ran into another issue.

  Lack of familiarity.

  So far, Lev had been converting his mana and teleporting it from barrier to barrier. Only now was he realizing how little he had trained with mana without his class. It also revealed the purpose of the exercise, which was to evolve his general skills.

  Gently, at the cost of a mild headache, Lev slowly coaxed the stream to move forward. It kept elongating, wobbling a little but staying out of reach of the enchantments.

  Lev couldn't stop smiling as the stream improved almost negligibly with each passing minute. The obvious signs of progress kept pushing him on, still requiring great care to not let it be absorbed.

  Minutes passed, which turned into hours. Lev was oblivious to the passage of time, his entire being focused on the stream slowly inching forward.

  The first hurdle made itself known when the first passage turned into two, requiring him to make a choice.

  Lev didn't think it would be an issue, so he chose the left. The stream curved a little… and then dissipated entirely.

  … Why did that just happen?

  Disgruntled, Lev replayed the whole thing in his mind. His stream hadn't come into contact with the enchantment, which meant it was his fault.

  To test it, Lev formed another stream of pure mana above ground. Elongating in a long yet straight line, Lev tried to curve it. Just like before, it dissipated.

  Oh, I see. This will take a lot of practice to deal with.

  The moment Lev's mental input to curve the stream went through, his unfamiliarity with intricate manipulation caused the order to clash with all the previous mental input, which was to keep the stream in a straight line.

  Predictably, it caused the whole thing to come tumbling down. Lev had barely even started, and another challenge had presented itself.

  [

  Mana Perception has reached 2nd Level 3

  ]

  Still, he refused to take the easy way out. Instead of learning to curve the stream from scratch, his next step was curving the stream without letting the previous straight line dissolve. It was bound to be intense and tiring, but Lev had the time and mana to spare.

  Mana rewarded honest effort above all, and Lev was loving the process of giving just that so far.