The Primal Hunter

Challenge Dungeon Entered!

Objective: Survive to the end of the dungeon while accomplishing all challenges represented along the way. Failure to complete challenges may result in death.

Jake felt his vision shift as he blacked out for a brief moment. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a giant hall. Looking around him, he saw only shattered stones and broken pillars littering the ground, all of it the same monotone gray color. The only slightly different thing was the braziers hanging from the ceiling emitting a faint blue light.

To his horror, the braziers emitted light not through magic or fire, but by being stuffed with glowing blue mushrooms, the same kind as in the cave. It seemed like even in deadly challenge dungeons, one cannot escape the power of fungi.

He also noticed that his bow, daggers, and quiver were all mysteriously gone, and checking his satchel, so were all his potions. He really hoped the system would give those back…

Shifting his attention back to the hall, he began looking for where to go. The only entrance or exit was through an opening that looked like it once held a door. Walking through it, he entered a long hallway. It was filled with the same blue light, emitted from even more mushrooms, but this time growing on the walls. Not exactly an improvement.

He found himself in yet another hall after walking through the hallway, nearly identical to the one he had arrived in. This hall was a bit cleaner, a bit less broken, and even a few cracked pillars were still standing. Casually strolling into the room, his danger-sense exploded as he swiftly retreated into the hallway he had just entered from.

A long metal spike penetrated the floor where he had just been standing, piercing into the solid stone like it was butter. To make it worse, Jake then heard a sizzling sound as he saw the ground slowly being eroded. Stupidly, he decided to walk forward and get a closer look.

Before he could examine it properly, another spike came flying straight at him. Like the first, this one was also easily dodged. Jake didn’t consciously need to avoid attacks like this; he simply had to follow his instincts. At least that is how he justified moronically walking back into a room he knew wanted to kill him.

Triggering the second spike wasn’t completely useless, though. He had noticed it came out of a small hole in the wall, one that disappeared right after firing. He did a few more tests and noted down where in the wall the spikes came from.

After a bit longer, Jake felt confident enough to make a run for it towards the hall’s exit. Sprinting forth, he quickly dodged the three spikes that were fired after him. A few seconds later, the second barrage came, and he avoided these just as easily.

As he moved in between two pillars that marked the hall’s midway-point, they both fired spikes at him simultaneously. Jake was surprised as he was forced to throw himself on the ground before they hit him, barely managing to roll away as another spike came from one of the walls.

What the fuck is this supposed to be? heyelled in his head as he scrambled back on his feet. Luckily the two pillars didn’t shoot again, giving him ample time to keep going.

With no time to waste, he kept running as he closed in on yet another two pillars just in front of the exit. Tohis slight annoyance, these two didn’t do a thing as he safely ran past them, finally leaving the spiky hall behind. Only to find himself in another mushroom-filled hallway.

Nothing was happening in the hallway as Jake breathed out in relief, the blue mushrooms now slightly less sore on the eyes. Without his bloodline, the very first hallway would have likely killed him, or at least maimed him badly. Was this place just some bullshit deathtrap?

A single scratch from those spikes was enough to erode the stone floor, and as he looked back into the hall, he saw smoke rising from where the spikes had hit. Whatever was on those things would likely eat through him in seconds.

As he got up and walked to the end of the hallway, he was met by another system message.

Dungeon Challenge: Collect at least four silver mushrooms in the next room.

0/10 silver mushrooms collected

What the hell is up with this dungeon and mushrooms, he grumbled to himself. At least these were silver mushrooms. That must be an improvement, right?

opening to the challenge room, he inspected it thoroughly. He saw small pedestals scattered across the hall, each pedestal holding a single silver mushroom. He could currently only see seven pedestals, but he assumed there to be ten in total based on the system message. The rest

had to be some kind of extra reward or bonus tied to not just doing the bare minimum.

barely having a few cracks. The pedestals also adding a lot of flavor to the room. Moving into

planning his approach carefully, a very detailed plan appeared in his mind. A plan that could roughly be boiled down to ‘just wing it’. Entering the hall after getting a running start, his sphere informed him that the wall behind him closed itself off when he was five

effort to avoid them with his high perception and agility, as he approached

1/10 silver mushrooms collected

he thought, as he threw the mushroom into his satchel and sprinted towards the next one. Another spike was fired towards him after taking only a

four mushrooms, he confirmed that the frequency of spikes

while attempting to stay as far away from the walls and pillars as possible. There were several dangerous situations, one particular event standing out where he nearly got hit by

last mushroom in one fluid motion. The spikes were coming rapidly by now, and without his current stats and bloodline ability, he doubted that he would have been able to gather all

made a mad dash towards the exit, practically rolling into

still held in his hands as he placed them into it. The system then once again made its appearance

least four silver mushrooms in the next

10/10 silver mushrooms collected

Challenge completed!

He looked at said mushrooms and used Identify, only to

as he got to the end, he half-expected another challenge room like the others but was instead met with a

the same as all the others, and everything was the same bland color palette, but that is where the similarities ended. The pillars were now gone, and nearly the entire floor-space was replaced with a huge basin of water, extending

only parts of the floor not underwater were several platforms and the beginning

hallway would make him step onto a small ledge just in front of the many platforms. On it were growing

They were around 1½ meters in diameter, enough for one person to stand on, but not much more.

the room by stepping out

hall by using the

the other

Time remaining: 14:59

‘that doesn’t seem so hard’, he was met with

disabled. Stats and skills will be restored upon completion of

wave of weakness wash over him as he knelt down on the floor. His senses dulled as he was struck with vertigo. He felt sick to his stomach and felt like throwing up. It was like he had just gotten

the feeling went away just as quickly as it had come. But the weakness remained. Jake tried using Archer’s Eye

to lose his skills; in fact, everything felt off. It was like he had returned to before the system and the tutorial. Well, except for the tiny

course, made the entire challenge quite a bit more complicated. But that didn’t mean Jake had time

Wait, what?

way. Why did it still work? Was it not considered a

he had no answer to, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. What exactly was a bloodline ability? Why did

the thoughts. He had more important things to deal with than pondering on bloodlines, such as how not to die. Walking to the edge, he began inspecting

three different types, the first one

over its body — a winged serpent of sorts. The