Chapter 115 – The Lever of Level Sixty.

Diana's logic for that morning was calculated down to the tip of the quill.

In the ground-floor parlor of the Lower Cauldrons Estate, the Commander finished cinching the straps of the Dragon Chestplate across her chest and looked at Zarek, who sat on the coffee table honing his moon swords with an oilstone.

“You are Level 60,” Diana said, her clear voice breaking the silence of the house. “Hunting Level 45 monsters with me offers safety, but the experience return for my soul is slow. If we push up into Level 55 territory, the level disparity bonus will quadruple my growth rate.”

Zarek stilled the blade against the stone, raised all six eyes toward her, and spread a broad grin:

“You want to hunt Level 55 beasts at Level 41, using a Candidate for Wrath as a meat shield?”

“I want to use available resources with maximum efficiency,” Diana countered without hesitation. “You absorb the impact of heavy monsters with your silk web, and I unleash my magic on their weak points. It is a trade of pure utility.”

“I love the way you think, gorgeous.” Zarek sheathed both swords across his back with a twin snap. “Let's head to the Gorge of Black Magma Titans.”

***

The Gorge of the Titans lay a two-hour march north of the city, in an area where the Third Circle's geological rift dropped into deep pools of pure lava.

There, the fauna did not consist of ordinary boars or manticores.

It was the hunting grounds of colossal predators from Level 53 to 55, creatures with over five thousand hit points that demanded full veteran squads to contain.

The pair found their first target in the bed of a molten basalt crater: two Black Magma Golems (Level 53) and an immense Abyssal Flame Drake (Level 55 - Rift Boss), whose fifteen-meter reptilian body vented a suffocating yellow smoke of sulfur.

A solo Level 41 mage would be crushed in three seconds in that environment.

But Diana possessed a Level 60 lever on the front line.

Zarek rocketed from the rock's edge like an ash-gray comet.

His four secondary chitinous arms wove a web of Moon Steel Silk between the crater walls, binding the wings of the Level 55 Drake before the creature could take flight.

ASCENDANT FURY!

With ten fury stacks accumulated in the first second of combat, Zarek's lunar swords spun in a continuous whirlwind of slashes that deflected the strikes of the two magma golems and ripped open deep wounds across the drake's chest.

Diana positioned herself fifteen meters away, the Crown of Arcane Sovereignty blazing upon her brow.

Armed with 201 Intelligence and 1,340 mana points, she operated like a piece of heavy artillery:

She cast [Mana Prison] to lock down the Drake's fire breath for four seconds. Next, she channeled the [Obsidian Horns' Igneous Focus], loosing the concentrated beam of white fire that drilled through the creature's left eye straight into the skull bone.

While the monster thrashed in Zarek's web, Diana finished off the two Level 53 golems with two [Arcane Ice Lances] chained into [Greed's Flame], freezing the molten rock and devouring the monsters' mana in black flames.

The Level 55 Drake crashed dead upon the red earth as Zarek plummeted from the air and severed the reptile's head with a crosscut of both swords.

***

The slaying of three Level 53 to 55 monsters unleashed a colossal surge of experience across Diana's soul.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

[LEVEL 55 MONSTERS DEFEATED!]

- Experience Gained: 6,400 EXP (+1,280 Disparity Anomaly Bonus).

[HISTORIC MILESTONE REACHED!]

- DIANA HAS REACHED LEVEL 43! (2 Levels Gained!)

[ATTRIBUTE ALLOCATION - DIANA (LEVEL 43)]

- Progression: Level 41 -> Level 43 (10 Free Points).

- Class Passives (+3 INT, +2 PER, +1 WIS per level x2): Applied.

- Allocation: +6 Free Intelligence (181 + 6 passives + 6 free = 193 INT! + 20 from Crown = 213 INT!), +4 Vitality (61 -> 65 VIT -> HP reaches 650 POINTS!), +4 Perception (80 + 4 passives = 84 PER!), +2 Wisdom (36 + 2 passives = 38 WIS!). (MP reaches an incredible 1,460 MP POINTS!)

[COMMANDER'S LOOT ACTIVATED (+30% BONUS)]

- Direct Coins: +35 pure Silver Coins!

- Rare Items: 1x Abyssal Drake Core (Level 55) + 4x Black Magma Plates.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

***

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

[FULL FINANCIAL AUDIT]

Previous Balance: 443 Silver Coins and 50 Bronze.

Loot from Level 55 Beasts (+30% Bonus): +35 Silver Coins!

[NEW ABSOLUTE NET WORTH: 478 SILVER COINS AND 50 BRONZE (47,850 Bronze / 47.85 GOLD COINS!)]

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Four hundred and seventy-eight silver coins stored in the faction vault. Nearly Forty-Eight pure Gold Coins.

Diana at Level 43 with 213 Intelligence and 1,460 mana points.

***

Late in the afternoon, after gathering the loot and selling the scales at the outpost, the two returned to the Lower Cauldrons Estate.

Diana did not head to the bath right away.

She went into the inner courtyard, adjusted the Runic Gravity Circle matrix to three times normal weight, and drew two heavy wooden training daggers from the weapon rack.

She looked at Zarek, who leaned against the wall:

“You are a Level 60 Blade Master. I want you to test my close-quarters reflexes.”

Zarek arched his eyebrows, sheathing his actual swords and picking up two rustic oak staves from the ground with his main hands:

“Close-quarters combat under three times normal gravity? You truly waste no time, Commander.”

For two hours, the gravel courtyard was filled with the dry clack of cracking wood.

Zarek attacked from swift, unpredictable angles with all six arms, forcing Diana to react at the very limit of her 84 Perception.

The swordsman corrected the girl's posture flaws with practical precision: he taught Diana how to use the cant of her obsidian horns to deflect downward slashes without compromising line of sight, how to plant her back foot so as not to lose her center of gravity against heavy impacts, and how to pre-charge mana into the soles of her boots to execute [Arcane Teleportation] without the slightest casting delay.

Diana absorbed every correction with the speed of her sharp mind.

Near the end of the session, Diana executed a flawless sidestep, parried Zarek's staff with the base of her right horn, and drove the palm of her left hand hard into the center of the man's chest, shoving the arachnid demon three paces back across the gravel.

Zarek halted, rubbing his chest with his main hand, all six eyes gleaming with unadulterated admiration:

“You learn faster than any warrior in the Seventh Circle, Diana.”

Diana wiped the sweat from her forehead with her shirtsleeve, feeling her body sturdy and her breathing controlled even under triple gravity.

Only seven levels remained until the milestone of Level 50.

And the Commander of Greed was inching ever closer to shattering the frontier of the Third Circle.