The bubble landed gently, not anywhere in the open, but in the emergency hideout they had found on the peak before leaving to scout. A cave.

  No one deemed speaking worth it. They just stared into empty air, just as lost as Lev. It didn't help that the monster was also massive, almost half the Stoneblessed Hound's size, and despite the distance, it positively reeked of blood. Identifying easily showed them the result.

  And now, they were contemplating life choices, for there was no way to escape. Dungeons usually came with portals to get out through. None had revealed itself from the brief scouting, not even close to the boss to give them false hope.

  They were well and truly stuck in an Irinite dungeon, the second-highest human rank based on strength.

  Consequently, their earlier bravado and semi-forced calmness evaporated. Only Melvine seemed to retain some semblance of wits in the storm of revelations, though that didn't help much. What could a lone Master, regardless of how strong, do against something like that stag?

  I never did ask where the ranks originated from, Lev mused, welcoming the distraction. Is it a compound of iridium? Or perhaps a new metal entirely with differing properties? It could just be an infused version.

  The same was true for Oscium, the final rank. Even someone uneducated like Lev knew about the rarest earth metals due to unrestricted internet access. They were extremely pricey, and when Mana was involved, rarer things were usually stronger, too. He spent a moment imagining how good a powered armor of Oscium could be before bringing himself back to the present.

  "Did anyone notice how big the dungeon is?" Lev asked through the mental link, for he himself was too shocked by the boss to look at anything else.

  "It's much bigger than the portion of the mountains we had explored so far," Melvine answered. No one else seemed like they wanted to talk right now. "As far as I could tell, the stag is very close to the entrance point of the dungeon. If we keep our distance and circle around, there might be a lot of monsters for us to hunt without attracting the stag's attention."

  A valid strategy, except it wasn't the right time to discuss that. Instead, Lev lowered the bubble even further into their hideout, and once they were about two hundred meters below the ground, he created a few mundane wards on barrier plates. They were arranged around the bubble, blocking all sounds and vibrations from his steps as Lev stepped out.

  The stealth enchantments on his armor were also running at half their strength, and combined with his keeping his aura tightly contained in his body, the group was as safe as they could be from all monsters.

  Well, almost all of them.

  One thing Lev realized immediately upon gazing at the stag was that his presence had doomed them all again. Even in an Exalted-level dungeon, the monsters would have at most a gap of 100 levels from the edges to the boss. The stag, however, was way beyond level 600 or 650, just like how the Core Guardian was once a whole evolution higher.

  That also meant that the dungeon didn't follow the norms. The boss was way higher in level, the number of monsters was also ballooned, and the second boss waiting just outside their cave was also truly anomalous, especially because it had shed its guise of madness that it used to blend in with the monsters.

  Wide eyes stared at his back. His companions could feel that there was a presence outside, and Lev was stupidly walking towards it.

  "WAIT!" Isabella broke out of her reverie first, quickly catching up to him. He also stopped walking, curious about what she had to say. "DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?"

  Fair enough.

  "No," he grinned. "In fact, I might have just found a way for us to live."

  "Don't be stupid, that's a dungeon boss," she insisted, then paused. "Why are you smiling like an idiot?"

  "Maybe because I am one?" he remarked, unreasonably amused. Something inside him was reaching a dangerous tipping point, and becoming a Master with heightened mental resilience wasn't going to magically solve the lasting mental scars caused by his usual experiences. They could only be pushed back down for so long.

  Facing something both intelligent and far beyond him once again reminded him of how life never left him alone, and it was not something one wished to be reminded of. Not in the least.

  Elias tried talking him out of it, and so did Melvine. She could feel the being's strength better than anyone else, and with intelligence added into the mix, there was no hope in confronting it.

  Yet, what else could they do? Lev marched on, clutching Stargazer tightly while taking stock of his reserves.

  Just over half of my pool, and the same for Stargazer.

  The glaive's core followed a more normal rate of regeneration compared to his own pool, which had access to regeneration buffs for the past hours. With them combined, he could reliably take out the boss in a suicidal explosion if the worst came to pass.

  He still studiously ignored that the being hadn't stepped inside the cave, only politely waiting for someone to come greet it. It could very easily be a trap.

  And as much as he wanted to tackle this problem by himself, by the time he reached the cave entrance, Elias, Viktor, Zack, and Melvine were also walking next to him. A few dozen meters behind them, the rest of the combatants were also tensely waiting, their eyes never leaving the second boss.

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  It was the Veil Hunter.

  A tense standoff took place. Lev didn't let his eyes falter, chin held slightly high even in the face of likely death. No one would find him cowering in the face of death, that he swore to himself.

  Then his brain halted when the hunter bowed at the waist.

  "This one greets the Blessed of the Lord," came a subtle, scratchy yet smooth message.

  Unfortunately, it was sent to all of them, and the reaction was just as expected. Gobsmacked gazes turned to him, some from the sides, some from behind. Lev just flatly stared ahead, both caught unprepared and very bemused.

  Just what did a man have to do around these parts to keep dangerous knowledge a secret? Only Isabella was supposed to know about this, not two whole teams and some.

  "Rise," he sighed, just going along with it. What else was he supposed to do? "And don't do that again. How do you even know about that?"

  "To beat the curse is a monumentous occasion, err…"

  "Lev."

  "… Lev. When I triumphed against the madness, our Lord deigned me worthy of his words, informing me about my circumstances and blessing me with guidance. Long have I waited in this place to gather strength and plot the boss's demise to escape, and now, if you wish to leave this place, I will finally have the support to make that possible."

  "… Okay, hold on," Lev took a few steps back and actually looked at the being properly. Towering, domineering, and terrifying. Corded and thin muscles like the Night Hunter, except the boss was four times Lev's height instead of only being slightly higher, and it was also considerably thicker in stature. Overall, it still looked like a black bundle of humanoid ropes, one that wished to work with him and escape.

  Lev believed that, too. No one would dare use a God's name so lightly, not even the worst of sapients.

  "Let me get this straight. You are apparently not a monster and are stuck in this place. So there is really no portal?"

  "There is none, Blessed Lev. This dungeon is meant to be challenged by beings of my strength, and yet, something is strange about this… instance, if you can call it that."

  "The stag?"

  The hunter nodded. "The stag."

  "I suppose we need to talk about this in more detail. My companions are very tense, and for good reason. Shall we relocate to a more suitable place for discussion?"

  No answer came, only acceptance in the form of body language. Lev decided that was enough and turned around, motioning his frozen friends to return to their previous spot. It was also a good thing that they were too confused, entranced, and wary to ask questions, electing to remain prepared to act at a moment's notice.

  That was ideal. He really didn't want to explain why his own knees occasionally shook, nor why his face was a cold mask of indifference, concealing his emotions about the matter.

  ****

  Back inside, Lev expanded his bubble and allowed the boss to walk inside. It peered at the construct curiously, easily looking past the stealth enchantments hiding his stock of weapons and defensive constructs.

  The Veil Hunter, however, didn't look at all worried. Lev didn't want to let it show how much that terrified him, nor the thought of having his instincts turn out to be incorrect about the being's trustworthiness.

  "Arcane creations?" the boss mused conversationally. "A rather fitting path for the bearer of a Manawell."

  It mimicked Lev, sitting down on the giant chair in front of the arrayed humans.

  "I was told that my… advantages make me uniquely suitable for barrier manipulation, and it has constantly proven to be true."

  "An astute observation, whoever deemed it so. What do you require of me, young lord?"

  "First and foremost, call me Lev."

  "As you wish, Blessed Lev."

  "I-, you know what, that's good enough. We can plan our escape and moves later. Are you willing to answer some questions?"

  "Only a scarce few, I'm afraid. Knowledge is as much a blessing as it is a curse. It would be foolish of me to reveal things you have no business knowing."

  "Even if I am constantly targeted by an outsider force? Even as an Adept, I had to face a level 687 Windstrider Warg. Surely that warrants a few reveals, yes?"

  Lev was pushing his luck, both grasping at straws and risking hostility. A chance to gather true answers had presented itself, and he didn't know what to make of it, despite the hunter's clear warning.

  Fortunately, it took the choice out of his hands.

  "I am truly sorry, Blessed Lev. Not only will I never put your life in danger by painting a target on your back, but I will also refrain from tainting your path with my own views. The mysteries are your own to uncover, and the lessons you will learn will stay with you forever. Be wary of knowledge without a price, young Lev."

  That… is a very good warning, actually. I'm gonna have to keep this in mind going forward.

  He could imagine how badly it could end. What if someone willingly spread the knowledge about a fifth-threshold monster, and the abomination somehow traced it back to unsuspecting humans? That would be an extinction-level event for all of mankind.

  Granted, that was a very extreme example, but Monarch was vast and unfathomably dangerous. Better safe than sorry.

  "Why do you keep calling me young?" Lev asked, leaning back with an exhale. It seemed the answers he so desperately sought were going to remain out of grasp for now.

  "Your soul is still young. We hunters are a curious race, especially when compared to the usual creature in the dungeon. Sensing souls has always been a specialty of ours, yet peering into their secrets has only become possible with my awakening. To describe what I see within your body, there is fascinatingly little. It speaks about your short life, most likely comparable to a hundred of your long cycles."

  "Do you mean a century? How do you even know about those? And no, I'm not even a fifth as old."

  "You're not even twenty?" Isabella blurted. Then her face paled as she gulped and looked at the hunter.

  "How commendable," the boss praised, not showing any signs of offense. "To have garnered such merits within the System despite being so young? It is the mark of greatness. As for 'centuries,' the knowledge was revealed to me in the case of encountering other sapient beings. I see now that our Lord was referring to your kind."

  You don't have to lay it on so thick…

  "Alternatively, it is the consequence of my life being way harder than it should've been. Are you sure I can't know who is responsible?"

  "I truly regret not being able to help you."

  "Alright, I don't think the boss is going to harm anyone," Lev sent to his companions, through the item on Isabella. Both curiously and frighteningly enough, the hunter's eyes flicked to each individual packet of mana carrying the message faster than it could reach the humans.

  "Ask about how to deal with that stag," Melvine replied, still just as tense as before.

  "That stag," Lev began, mulling over how to phrase the question. "It wasn't always a monster, was it?"

  "It was not. The mighty being once chased me to the depths when I foolishly decided to ambush it, as any monster would. Through some stroke of luck or misfortune, I still haven't been able to tell, a dungeon formed on top of both of us. We were dragged to this hellish instance where I was once the weakest monster, and yet, no matter how many I killed, the creatures kept appearing again.

  "As for the stag, it naturally overpowered them all. None even came close to it, let alone cause it to become serious. Time, however, wears down even the tallest of obstacles, and the stag was no exception to the dungeon's influence. Just like how I slowly purified my conscience, it inevitably fell to something insidious, becoming a monster like the rest of the denizens of the dungeon. Now it stays in place, waiting to be set free, or perhaps retaining some semblance of self and hoping to be released from its eternal prison."