The Primal Hunter

Jake had to question if it all was just one cruel joke that everyone but himself was in on. Had Villy put them up to his? Was he the one who had tipped off Draskil to choose this dungeon? Maybe influenced Irin? There had to be more to this than pure randomness. Because what Jake saw was just a hellscape.

The expansive cavern Jake stood before contained a large forest, but it had massive mushrooms rather than trees. The underbrush was just moss and mushrooms, mushroom spores covered the sky and floated in the air, and there were even mushrooms growing on the mushrooms.

And if that wasn’t enough, then the first movement Jake saw was of a large mushroom with mushroom arms and mushroom legs, holding a mushroom shield and wielding a mushroom stalk as a club. The figure was about three meters tall and on the bulkier end, but was overall clearly a low-tier creature, even if its level was decent.

[Mushroom Man Warrior – lvl 171]

“I hate this place,” Jake said as the first person to speak after entering the dungeon.

“Smells like shit,” Draskil snorted, clearly not enjoying the mushrooms either.

Irin looked a bit confused while Reika understood Jake’s hatred. Not because she carried it herself, but because Jake had ranted plenty of times to her about the evil shrooms. Bastilla was even more confused than Irin and just asked.

“Why? Aren’t mushrooms great for poisons?” she spoke in her infinite ignorance.

“Great for poisoning people who don’t know better too,” Draskil muttered before looking at Jake. “We kill everything?”

“Wait!” Irin cut in. “Please do not destroy the corpses too badly as we may need them for materials or to get their life cores. Do we have anyone here with scavaging or dismantling abilities, by the way?”

Bastilla raised her hand. Jake was a bit surprised but didn’t show it. Irin looked at Jake momentarily with approval before nodding. “Very well, then you take care of dismantling all the corpses.”

“I will begin to collect materials and search for them then,” Reika said, but Jake decided to cut in as he looked at Draskil.

“Will killing any of these mushrooms even give you any experience worth mentioning?”

“No, but I would enjoy it,” Draskil answered bluntly.

“Totally fair. I was just thinking that we should have Reika and Bastilla kill those here on the earlier floors while we collect stuff and pass the test. Besides, we have four whole weeks total, and we both know we won’t need that time, and if we do need the time, it is due to the far more time-consuming alchemy aspect and not due to killing things slowly, so better you help me out,” Jake said.

Draskil clearly didn’t like the idea but grunted in approval anyway. “Fine… but if any of those damn mushrooms get in my way, I kill them.”

“Again, totally fair,” Jake nodded with a smile before turning to Bastilla and Reika. “Time for you two to put on your hunting boots and get killing.”

“Alright,” Reika agreed without arguing.

“I… I’m not really the fighting type of gal?” Bastilla said, seeming a bit shy for the first time since they met. She was obviously not a fan.

“Too bad, but sometimes you gotta fight to survive. You are a beastfolk. You are innately a fighter. Just tap into some of that primal instinct and go rip those damn shrooms to pieces,” Jake said encouragingly.

warrior, and it was clear it was damn weak, just as one would expect from a mushroom

agreed after a comforting look

help guard them

sentiment down. “Unless some hidden boss or a horde of those shroomy fucks pops

wanted to protest, but Reika spoke up first. “I must agree. It is no proper fight if we have someone constantly guarding us. I have not fought for a while, and it is about time I get

Jake wasn’t. One had to remember that while Reika was not considered a peak fighter on

pulled out a sword. Jake felt the immense cold emanate from it as

was now both colder and sharper than before. Irin looked surprised, while Draskil seemed far more approving than before. Bastilla was the most

stepped forward and charged. It looked like

itself… whatever. The mushroom swung his club, displaying a respectable amount of Strength and speed. Reika didn’t even flinch as she dodged the attack and swept her blade upwards, leaving a cold trail. The

zone, and Jake saw noticeable improvements in her movements with every exchange. Having seen her fight before, Jake knew she was just getting into the swing of it. The mushroom man was nothing more than a training dummy

as it left afterimages behind. These afterimages froze in the air and turned into

Reika smiled as she walked back to them, not

fight. You are skilled,” Draskil said, speaking to Reika for the first

“But I still have long to go before I would call

yourself to the

is this old man, if I may ask?” Irin asked

that if she wanted it to be shared, it was up to her. She nodded and chose to

and a true swordsman,” Reika answered

he strong?”

taught me just a little bit of swordsmanship, and it has served me

how about we actually do the dungeon now? As you can see, then Reika knows how to handle herself, so let’s leave the two roomies and go find out how to

nodded in agreement, even if she did throw a few more curious glances at Reika. “Let us. We should look for the passageway to the next floor. The

So far, all he had seen in the dungeon was mushrooms, and he wanted to pass this floor fast. The system message when

Nine Floors of the

of the Indigo

that people couldn’t just enter, find out what they needed to do, and then leave the dungeon to make detailed plans or spend insane amounts of time testing and experimenting until a solution was found. Sure, one could leave the dungeon, but Jake knew that time kept passing inside even after one left. At least it did so for a period of time, making it unfeasible. There was also one more thing… Jake couldn’t find any exit. Not that he planned on leaving, but he had kind of gotten used to there being an exit from where they entered, while in

actually as big as Jake had initially thought, but only a few dozen or so square kilometers at

to the next floor. It was a gate like the one they had entered the dungeon through, and in front of the door was a large cauldron with a lid on it. Furthermore, on the wall beside the gate,

with

them all in the cauldron. In order to open the lid of the cauldron,

Warriors killed: 3/100. Poisons placed

and with Reika and Bastilla already killing three, it would get done pretty quickly by itself. So all Jake had to do was

I will toss them together and make a few different

difficulty to begin with, and all set out again. Draskil and Jake both had Sense of the Malefic Viper, and Irin also had her own skills to search for valuable items. Amidst the many normal mushrooms spread throughout the forest were many special ones that counted as

and released from the mushrooms – it was a unique feature of the dungeon and something all the ingredients there relied on. Nothing could be taken out of