Chapter 72: Endless Devourer, The Stealth Leveling

The descent felt endless.

The air in the deeper labyrinth grew stale, thick with the scent of oxidized iron and rotting fungi. Condensation dripped from the jagged ceiling, echoing in the pitch-black tunnels.

Saile walked near the center of the formation. His cheap iron sword rested casually in his grip. His eyes, projecting a fake, innocent blue, scanned the shadows. He did not need a torch to see. The Endless Devourer fed him the exact location of every living pulse in the cavern.

"Stop," Elian whispered.

The blind runecrafter raised a pale, shaking hand. He pressed his palm flat against the damp stone wall.

"Vibrations," Elian said, his breath hitching. "A lot of them. Moving fast."

Riya drew her poisoned daggers. She signaled the boys carrying the cracked wooden shields.

"Form the wall," Saile commanded. His voice cut through the dark, cold and measured. "Angle the edges. Funnel them into the narrow pass."

The four shield-bearers rushed forward. They wedged their cheap timber frames

together, blocking the tightest section of the tunnel.

A low, guttural growl echoed from the blackness ahead.

Red eyes ignited in the dark. Six bipedal creatures crept into the dim light of the students’ pale fire spell. They possessed gray, hairless skin and long, jagged bone claws protruding from their knuckles.

System text hovered faintly in Saile’s vision.

[Target: Abyssal Scavenger x6]

[Level: 45 (Platinum Tier)]

These beasts were agile pack hunters. In a fair fight, they would tear the F-Rank students apart in seconds.

Saile did not intend to give them a fair fight.

"Spears behind the shields," Saile ordered. "Do not thrust until I say."

The first Scavenger lunged. It vaulted off the cavern wall, sailing over the frontline.

"Riya," Saile said softly.

The red-haired beast tamer spun. She whipped her dagger in a tight arc. The blade, coated in centipede neurotoxin, slashed across the beast’s exposed calf mid-air.

The monster shrieked. It crashed into the dirt, its leg muscles seizing violently.

Saile stepped forward and drove his iron sword through the creature’s temple. He

pulled the blade free before the beast stopped twitching.

Two more Scavengers crashed into the wooden shields.

The kinetic force threw the front line backward. Wood splintered. A beast’s bone

claw pierced a shield, biting deep into a boy’s forearm.

The boy screamed. He dropped to one knee, losing his grip on the timber. The beast opened its jaws, aiming for his exposed neck.

Saile did not use his unreactable speed. He used positioning. He shifted his weight, driving his boot down onto the Scavenger’s knee joint.

The cartilage popped. The beast’s leg buckled, throwing its bite wide.

"Thrust!" Saile barked.

The student standing behind the injured boy drove his iron spear forward. The crude metal pierced the beast’s throat. Dark blood poured over the rocks.

"Hold the gap!" Saile shouted, gripping the injured boy’s collar and pulling him back to safety.

The remaining students rallied. Empowered by their sudden victories, they fought with desperate, unified coordination. They parried bone claws and struck at exposed joints.

Saile lingered in the shadows behind them.

He acted as the invisible architect of the battle. He kicked a loose rock to break a monster’s footing. He deflected a lethal strike with the flat of his blade, redirecting the momentum so a classmate could land the killing blow.

He made the F-Rank misfits look like seasoned veterans. They believed they were fighting the beasts on their own.

They had no idea Saile was stealing the spoils.

As each Scavenger died, a glowing core rolled into the dust.

Saile lowered his left hand. The Endless Devourer stirred in his chest. Microscopic tendrils of dark mana snaked down his trousers, slipping across the bloody stone floor.

The dark magic wrapped around the dropped cores. It dissolved them silently,

pulling the raw energy back into Saile’s boots.

A golden light tried to flash in his vision.

Saile squeezed his core, suffocating the bright system notification. He forced the golden glow down to a dull, unnoticeable flicker. If the students saw a holy light radiating from him, his disguise would shatter.

[Endless Devourer Activated. EXP gained: 60,000.]

The raw experience points flooded his veins.

The energy rushed into his muscles. His bones ached, growing denser. The sheer

volume of absorbed magic pushed him right against his physical ceiling.

[Host has reached Level 61.]

[Diamond Tier Capacity Expanded.]

Saile gritted his teeth. A sharp, stinging pain radiated from his spine. His body was adapting to the dense magic. He swallowed a gasp, keeping his face entirely blank.

He was climbing toward the peak of mortal power. The air felt thinner in his lungs. His perception of the cavern shifted, breaking the world down into raw mathematical angles and mana currents.

"Do you feel that, kid?" Naicul whispered. The Fallen God’s voice hummed with dark satisfaction. "The air bends around you. You are outgrowing this fragile cage."

"I need more," Saile replied mentally.

The students cheered.

The last Scavenger collapsed, its chest pierced by three rusted spears. The F-Rank misfits slumped against the cavern walls, gasping for air.

Riya wiped sweat from her forehead. She looked at her trembling hands.

"We killed them," Riya breathed. "Level 45 monsters. We actually killed them."

The injured boy tore a strip of cloth from his tunic. He wrapped it tightly around his bleeding forearm. He hissed in pain but offered a tired smile.

"I thought we were dead," the boy said. He looked toward the back of the group. "Gabriel... your commands. They kept us together."

Saile picked up a discarded iron shield from the ground. He handed it to the injured boy.

"You held the line," Saile said softly. "I just told you where to point the spears."

The students exchanged amazed glances. They were gaining confidence. They felt their own mana pools expanding slightly from the combat exertion. They truly believed their teamwork was conquering the labyrinth.

Saile turned his back to them. He walked a few paces down the dark tunnel.

He felt no guilt for manipulating them. A frightened group was unpredictable and prone to breaking ranks. A confident group followed orders and provided the ideal distraction.

They were his shield, and he was their invisible sword.

"The ambient mana is thickening," Naicul noted. "We are descending into a highly contested zone. The beasts ahead will not die so easily."

Saile narrowed his eyes. The shadows in the distance seemed to writhe.

He could feel the pull of the Divine Fragment. It was a magnetic, physical ache

in his chest. It rested far below them, buried beneath layers of ancient rock and lethal guardians.

Elian stood up. The blind boy leaned on his staff, turning his head toward the ceiling.

"Gabriel," Elian whispered.

The panic in the runecrafter’s voice made the other students freeze.

"What is it?" Riya asked, drawing her daggers again.

"The vibrations," Elian stammered. He pointed a pale finger straight up. "They aren’t coming from the monsters. They are coming from the rocks above us."

Saile looked at the cavern ceiling.

His sharp Diamond-Tier senses caught it immediately. A sudden, unnatural spike of

aggressive fire magic flared hundreds of feet above their current position.

It was not a beast. It was a triggered spell.

The nobles in the upper levels had not just bribed the proctors to drop Class F off the map. They were actively ensuring the trash-tier students never found a way back up.

A deafening, explosive roar ruptured the silence of the labyrinth.

The stone ceiling directly above their heads groaned. A massive fissure cracked across the rock, raining jagged debris down onto the tunnel floor.

"Move!" Saile shouted.

The cavern ceiling began to collapse.