Chapter 271: Level Rush
The following weeks passed faster than anyone expected.
No celebrations.
No long breaks.
No wasted days.
Every sunrise began the same way, hunters gathering before dawn, training fields filling before the sun cleared the rooftops, research continuing late into the night, guilds coordinating like it had always been this way.
The Hunter Association tracked newly appearing Gates almost hourly now, and whenever a B-Rank flickered onto the board, someone was already moving before the notification finished loading.
Kai looked over the latest Association board one morning, more markers crossed off than the last time he’d checked. Only a handful remained.
He smiled. "We’re getting close."
Sera adjusted the strap on her shield. "Then let’s keep moving."
They stepped through another Gate together.
A frozen mountain rose around them the moment the light cleared, ice wolves already circling in tight packs. Kai launched Tempest Fang skyward, lightning racing across the frozen cliffs and scattering half the pack in a single strike. Sera leaped off an icy ledge, Light Wave cutting a golden crescent through the rest.
The boss went down within minutes.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Boss Defeated.]
[Distortion Applied.]
[Reward Quality: Optimized.]
[Level Up.]
[Level: 66.]
...
Another gate, another world entirely. A volcanic canyon this time, molten beasts erupting straight out of the lava flows. Raze laughed, charging straight through a river of magma like it was shallow water. Mira smashed apart a towering magma titan with a single overhead swing of her maul, and Kai landed the finishing strike before the fragments even hit the ground.
A flooded underground temple came next. Lily’s Spirit Archers took up position along ancient rooftops half-submerged in dark water, while Elden’s gravity fields bent entire underground rivers off their natural course, redirecting the flow to crush the dungeon boss beneath a wall of collapsing pillars.
[Level Up.]
[Level: 66.]
Then an endless crystal forest, every monster inside it reflecting mana attacks back at whoever cast them. Kai adapted on the fly, cycling through Rootbreaker, Pulse Fist, and Thread Caster in quick succession until the reflections had nothing left worth bouncing back. The boss fell without ever landing a clean hit.
[Level Up.]
[Level: 67.]
A poisonous swamp followed, and this time several newly promoted Abyssal hunters fought alongside Kai’s team instead of watching from the sidelines. Instead of struggling to keep up, they moved with real confidence, covering angles without being told to.
Kai noticed it immediately. "They’ve actually improved."
Sera smiled, watching one of them land a clean finishing blow. "They’re finally catching up to us."
...
The last dungeon in the run stretched out as a sky bridge suspended high above the clouds, monsters darting between floating islands too far apart for normal footing. Kai Air Stepped through open air without hesitation. Sera Position Swapped between platforms faster than the eye could track. The boss went down and fell straight into the endless sky below, never touching solid ground again.
Notification after notification stacked up across each clear.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Distortion Applied.]
[Reward Quality: Optimized.]
Not every reward got a close look anymore, just flashes of rare ore, mana crystals, crafting materials, finished equipment, occasional blueprints, all of it flowing back through Association workers straight into the Hunter Market within days of each clear.
While Kai’s team worked through the remaining B-Ranks, other hunters across Mythal kept the C-Rank dungeons moving just as fast. Abyssal Guild members. Stormclaw. Silver Vanguard. Independent guilds nobody had heard of a year earlier. Recently awakened hunters barely out of their first month.
Everyone was growing at once. One rookie landed the finishing blow on a C-Rank boss and got mobbed by his own teammates in celebration. A newly awakened healer kept an entire party alive through a fight that should have killed half of them. A support mage hit Level 42 and immediately got congratulated by three separate guild leaders who happened to be standing nearby.
Mythal wasn’t relying on Kai anymore. It was simply improving, on its own, every single day.
...
The city kept changing shape around all of it.
Relay towers finished construction one after another. Barrier pylons activated across every major district.
Emergency supply stations opened their doors for the first time.
Medical centers expanded their capacity. Guild cooperation had stopped being a novelty and become routine.
The Hunter Market thrived, blacksmiths forging fresh equipment from the steady stream of dungeon materials pouring in weekly. New hunters walked the streets in guild uniforms with a confidence that hadn’t existed a year earlier.
Mayor Ko watched the city from his office window one afternoon, an official approaching with a fresh report.
"Our hunter casualties have dropped again this month."
Mayor Ko smiled. "Preparation is working."
Back in the field, Kai and Sera stepped through another B-Rank, and the fight that followed moved faster than any before it, months of teamwork now so ingrained neither of them needed to speak through most of it.
Kai swapped weapons before Sera had even fully moved to cover the gap he was about to leave. Sera closed openings on instinct, no words exchanged between them at all.
The boss unleashed one final massive attack near the end, and Kai redirected it cleanly, Sera already moving into the opening it created before the redirect had even finished. One final strike, and the boss collapsed.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Boss Defeated.]
[Distortion Applied.]
[Reward Quality: Optimized.]
Then another window bloomed beside it.
[Level Up.]
[Player: Kai Rosefield.]
[Level: 68.]
Kai exhaled quietly. "Level sixty-eight."
The dungeon began collapsing around them, and the two of them gathered the rewards fast, mostly enhancement materials, finished equipment, general crafting resources. Nothing especially unusual this time. Exactly the kind of steady, useful haul the city needed most.
The ceiling cracked overhead, and they ran without needing to discuss it, stone collapsing behind them in a rolling wave, mana flooding the tunnels at their backs. They leaped through the gate just ahead of the collapse, and the dungeon imploded behind them a heartbeat later.
Outside, the gate shattered into scattered blue particles.
Silence.
Sera checked her own status window, and a slow smile spread across her face. "Level sixty-nine."
Kai looked over. "You beat me by one."
She grinned, proud of it. "I’ll enjoy it while it lasts."
Kai laughed. "You should."
They started the walk back toward the city, the afternoon sun hanging low over the rooftops ahead of them. Association staff were already logging the clear by the time they reached the registration post, one employee glancing up from a tablet mid-entry.
"That makes ninety-seven."
Kai paused. "Ninety-seven?"
The employee nodded, still typing. "Ninety-seven B-Rank Dungeons cleared across Mythal total."
Sera looked out toward the city skyline, quiet for a moment. "Only three more."
Silence settled between them.
Three. After everything. Hundreds of dungeon clears behind them now. Thousands of monsters fallen along the way. Months of preparation stacked one careful layer on top of the last.
Only three dungeons remained before the System’s first great trial arrived, whether Mythal was ready for it or not.
Kai looked toward the city, watching workers still installing relay towers along the skyline, hunters still training in the streets below, researchers still carrying relics between buildings even at this hour.
Everyone was still moving.
He smiled quietly. "Then it’s time."
Sera glanced over. "For what?"
Kai watched the bustling city a moment longer before answering. "The final phase of preparation."
Sera nodded once, steady. "Let’s make sure we’re ready for it."