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?

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.

collect all ten. There had to be some kind of extra

having a few cracks. The pedestals also adding a lot of flavor to the room. Moving into the hall for only a brief moment, he confirmed that this hall also fired spikes at people.

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 meters into the hall,

them with his high perception and agility, as

1/10 silver mushrooms collected

sprinted towards the next one. Another spike was fired towards him after

the frequency of spikes was increasing

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 three spikes fired at once, one of them coming from a

avoided getting hit during the final sprint as he rolled over the 10th pedestal, using it for cover and collecting the last mushroom in one fluid motion. The spikes were coming rapidly by now, and

towards the exit, practically rolling into the next hallway. This one was, to everyone’s

expected eight mushrooms, the last two still held in his hands as he placed them into it. The system then once again made its appearance by informing him of his

at least four silver mushrooms in the next

10/10 silver mushrooms collected

Challenge completed!

at said mushrooms and used Identify,

end, he half-expected another challenge room like the others but was instead met with a new kind of hall. If it could even be

everything was the same bland color palette, but that is where the similarities ended. The

were several platforms

of the many platforms. On it were growing even more of

giant water lilies. They were around 1½ meters in diameter, enough for one person to stand on, but not much more. From where he stood, he saw a blue, glowing symbol of sorts on each

entered the room by stepping out of the hallway,

Make it to the other side of the hall by using the platforms. The time limit per

to the other

Time remaining: 14:59

just as he thought ‘that doesn’t seem so hard’, he was

stats reduced to a static 10. All skills are disabled. Stats and skills will be

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 done running four marathons while lifting weights on

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

felt weird 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 detail that he was stuck in

made the entire challenge quite a bit more complicated. But that didn’t mean Jake had time to waste as he began analyzing the room. Using his Sphere of Perception,

Wait, what?

was still active. It hadn’t even weakened or been affected in any way. Why did it still work? Was it not considered a skill? But even if it was not, he knew that perception increased its potency, and yet with his

to, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. What exactly was a bloodline ability? Why did he have

than pondering on bloodlines, such as how not to die. Walking

different animals. Jake saw three different types, the first one a coiled-up snake with a… with a damn mushroom

creature, but this one had wings and spikes growing all over its body — a winged serpent of sorts. The serpent was flying