The Primal Hunter

Why the hell would he leave a dungeon when he had spent so much time gathering those goddamn mushrooms? He had yet to use more than a handful of them, and he still had more than a dozen of the Infused variant.

When Jake chose to remain in the dungeon, the entire door lit up as the runes sprang to life. He felt some energy enter his body, and he tried to remove his hand but failed. It was like a pulse went through his entire being before entering the door again.

Finally, he could let go, and he retracted his hand as the door began opening.

Jake was shocked at what had happened… it felt like the damn door had scanned him or something. Whatever it did, it appeared wholly unrelated to the Deepdwellers. He looked through the opening of the gate and saw it led into a new chamber. He also saw it in his sphere, but so far, nothing was visible in that either, so Jake decided to just venture further in.

His danger sense was entirely silent still. He frowned as he was confused about what the hell all of this was leading towards.

When he exited the tunnel and reached the other side of the hall, he found himself in an absolutely massive chamber. Before he had even fought the Heartwarden, he had noticed how there were vines in the chamber and that they were all gathering towards one point… and he finally saw what that point was.

In the center of the chamber was what looked like an inert metal sphere with several metal rings around it, all held up by vines that had overgrown on it. The metal itself was completely unscathed, even if it did look like the vines had tried to break through the exterior of the sphere.

Jake could instantly see why… because the inside of that sphere was completely solid. Not with metal but pure fucking energy. He could only see inside with his sphere, and even his Sense of the Malefic Viper didn’t react at all, meaning the sphere completely isolated whatever energy was within.

He inspected the rest of the chamber, and he spotted quite a few things, the first of which was a wooden door in a small cave off to the side of the chamber, not leading to anywhere. It didn’t take a genius to know it was an exit to the dungeon, and Jake stepped over to investigate. Putting his hand on it, he confirmed it was indeed a way to exit.

Did that mean if he left and re-entered, he would be put back in this chamber? If nothing else, that would confirm dungeons could have different “checkpoints” of sorts. Then again, maybe it truly was just an exit like so many other dungeons, as this chamber would be the last thing to explore.

He at least hadn’t seen any other exits or entrances to the chamber than the gate he had entered through.

Another thing he noticed in his sphere was a slew of stone slabs with magic circles on them like those outside. All of them were covered in vines, making Jake believe the Deepdwellers had cleared the ones outside.

I guess this is what the mushrooms are for, he thought as he began clearing out the vines. He summoned his bow and fired a few exploding arcane arrows to make all the slabs visible. He could have gone and placed the mushrooms then and there to see what would happen, but instead, he chugged a potion and sat down on his ass, and meditated.

Why would he face whatever was about to come on low resources? The Heartwarden hadn’t been that dangerous, but it had still taken plenty of resources. Hence he meditated.

…

Jake got up, fully refueled and ready to face whatever was to come! He was a few potion bottles poorer but in excellent health and in good spirit as he began going around the chamber, placing mushrooms.

He hummed as he did so, excited to see what would happen. As the magic circles lit up, Jake began to see a pattern. All of them had a single line leading into the middle of the chamber, directly below the metal sphere floating above.

It turned out that there was exactly one mushroom for every circle in the dungeon. The last two were sadly not Infused, but Jake still hoped it would be good enough for whatever was to come.

As he placed the last mushroom… everything hummed to life.

destination being that the sphere itself. It greedily absorbed the energy for a while until all the

mushrooms not being infused had made everything fail. He was about to admonish himself as he heard a sound

turns out it did

keep up with how fast they went. Somehow they didn’t send out any wind. Even if it were just looked at like a fan, the sheer speed would have ripped the entire hall apart,

tense. The amount of energy that dynamo was giving off was not something that should be in a goddamn D-grade dungeon. The amount of energy was way above that… perhaps even above C-grade. A part of him considered bailing, but his instincts had yet to warn him,

Finally, something happened.

hanging above projected a blue screen into mid-air with

Welcome, Human of the

part of the dungeon and

groups based on their levels. If all challengers belong to the

Group 1: 100-125

Group 2: 126-135

Group 3: 136-145

Group 4: 146-155

Group 5: 156-200

Challengers detected: 1

117. Assigned to Group 1. Solo challenger detected. The difficulty will be adjusted accordingly. True Talent

for assessment. Rewards will

its rings, and it landed right below the floating sphere. It formed a magic circle in less than a fraction of a section, once more showing a level of power that did not belong in a D-grade dungeon. The teleportation

he just had a lot

tell. It had a lot of weird text in it, like assuring him it was still a part of the dungeon and how doing this assessment of theirs would count towards system rewards. What was all this grouping nonsense? This was the first time Jake had seen a dungeon that had challenge dungeon-like mechanics within. Well, he hadn’t done that many before, but it still seemed out of

even more. How did they know his level? Did

he had so many

dungeon? Moreover, why the hell did this thing recognize such? Was this dungeon not a natural one like Villy had said it would be? Who else could have made it… how the hell had an elven empire managed to make a dungeon in a new universe? Jake hated

Those elves are always up to something, I tell ya. Just do it normally; you are still in a natural dungeon. Act like all of it is the flavor text for now, and just do your best,” Villy answered promptly before cutting off the connection again, clearly amused on his end by Jake’s

cauldron offered by the Altmar Empire? Were they just suppliers of cauldrons and dungeons to the system or what? It really didn’t make any sense to him what the fuck was happening, so he did the most natural thing to

and went straight for the

a chamber suddenly lit up. Screens lining the walls began showing images of the chamber below, and many different devices came to life. It happened as the dynamo also hummed to life,

of it all, a hologram-like projection appeared. It was that of a humanoid elven figure. It instantly made a motion, and a small device lowered itself from the

motion to summon the recording device. It looked confused. The projection observed

is… hm, an error. Unknown newly integrated Universe or pocket dimension outside of the 92 main ones. Take special note if this is a code

to Group 1, level 117, human. True Talent Assessment Program has been initiated. It appears we have a good seed here. Potential divine or factional relations yet to be confirmed. Challenger does not wear any discernable equipment that would indicate faction. All additional readings failed, indicating a skill able to block a full scan, meaning only the dungeon-bound analysis tool succeeded. Blocking skill must be powerful. A smart choice in case you listen

projection cut itself off as it watched the screen

the assessment. May indicate a type 7 personality. Further analysis is required. Beginning vocal transcript of