The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t know how long they were falling. It felt like minutes, yet also hours. No notification ever popped up, and no prompt asked them to enter. They did not have to register or do anything to confirm they were a party, as the system handled all that. All they had to do was enter together and fall together.

Then, suddenly, Jake felt solid ground beneath his feet, and his sphere spread out to reveal the world around him. He also opened his eyes and was nearly blinded by the bright sunlight beaming down on him from above.

He and the others found themselves standing on a large rock in the middle of a giant desert-like landscape. Sand stretched infinitely no matter where one looked, and the wind was utterly still. Jake did not see a single living being anywhere either.

“So, this is Nevermore,” the Sword Saint spoke.

“It’s-“

Jake was about to say something when he was cut off by a notification.

You have entered Nevermore.

Welcome to the first floor of the C-grade portion of Nevermore: the Sunlight Dunes. In order to progress to the next floor, the main objective of this floor must be completed, and the entrance to the next floor must be entered together with all surviving party members.

Completing events, achievements, and objectives rewards points that count towards the leaderboards and final rewards.

Main objective: Defeat the Lord of the Dunes.

Bonus objectives: Gather at least 1000 Sunlight Fragments of the Dunes to open the Lord’s Treasury.

Current progress: Lord of the Dunes (0/1), Sunlight Fragments of the Dunes (0/1000)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Godspeed, Chosen of Vilastromoz; I look forward to your performance. Do not expect any assistance.

Current Nevermore Points: 0

Jake read the notification and smirked a bit at it getting personal towards the end. While this was indeed a mega-dungeon and a World Wonder, it was also the domain of the Wyrmgod. Even now, Jake felt an odd presence observing him. It felt different than when Villy looked and more like it was passive in nature. Rather than an individual looking, it was more like a trained AI kept an eye on things.

“Lord of the Dunes, huh? And a thousand of these Sunlight Fragments?” the Sword Saint once more commented.

“Ree,” Sylphie complained loudly.

“The wind is oddly silent, huh?” Jake commented. The lack of wind affinity energy in the air was an issue for Sylphie for sure, and when he looked at the Sword Saint, the old man simply nodded.

“I do feel this environment is less than beneficial than it could be,” he said. “However, it is not truly an obstacle. Besides, this is not one of the difficult floors, now is it?”

He then turned to Dina, who looked to be in thought. “How about you, Dina?”

“There aren’t that many here,” she said in a sad tone. “This land is… dead.”

Not good for her either, huh?Jake thought. He suspected she was talking about plants, so the environment was also bad for her.

“I am unbothered,” the Fallen King said. “How about you, hunter?”

“All good here,” Jake smiled. “Now, let’s not delay and get going right away.”

one thing going for them. Jake smiled as he closed his eyes and released a Pulse of Perception.

identical shard-like items hidden in the sand, all about ten to a

up the sand and sent the shard flying

Fragments of

the shards appear hidden beneath the sand and are pretty much indestructible. Should be easy

his Perception build

orange thing?” Dina asked

was

Dina nodded. “Okay.”

a small pouch that she could somehow put her entire hand into. Then, she pulled out a handful of seeds and threw them onto the sand below. The moment they landed,

grew as a stalk first appeared, then a flower at the head, and a wellspring of vines popped out everywhere. This happened to every single one, as soon there were several hundred. Jake curiously used Identify on one of them, not

Seed Soldier –

level, but he also felt like it was summoned and not a “true” creature.

find the Sunlight Fragments,” Dina talked to the many Vine Seed Soldiers. Without any indication they even understood her, the many plants

that will work?”

know what to do,”

they would bring the shards, but he had no idea how long they

move on to the next floor rather quickly,” the Fallen

floor would be a waste when all subsequent floors give more

this show on the road, then. First, we need to find the end boss, and I do still think we need to collect these thousand fragments, so finding this Lord’s Treasury is

in confirmation. “Great. Aight,

flying out to each of them. Once they touched the orb, they simply allowed it to be absorbed into their bodies as small golden tattoo-like drawings appeared for a moment

We good?”Jake reached

Saint

Arnold but came to learn that items like that were either not allowed or significantly weakened

King was capable of condensing these golden orbs people could infuse into themselves and then communicate over pretty much unlimited distances due to soul magic stuff. This was one of the kingly abilities the King had, and as the Unique Lifeform explained, the skill was originally made to keep in contact with his servants, and each orb could also be used to track through. The entire thing functioned by using the King as the focal point of their telepathy which did have the slight drawback of everyone hearing everything anyone said through the orb unless the King purposefully blocked it. A small drawback, all things considered, as many other groups simply relied

communication in dungeons was consumables. More specifically, they needed that good

was naturally an attempt by the system and the Wyrmgod to

had been assigned: scouting. Jumping, Jake took to the air as Sylphie threw a gust of green wind his way, propelling him up faster than he could possibly fly on his own. The others spread out in

as Jake could tell, it wasn’t even a false sun

his skin begin to hurt a bit from the sheer heat, and he identified some other concept mixed into the rays. Scoffing, he covered his body in scales as the

to stop. Using his stable arcane mana, he condensed a parasol to cover himself as he turned to look down

others through the soul walkie-talkie. “Got a diameter of around nine to ten thousand kilometers based on

this hidden

kicked up tornadoes to send anything and everything hiding under the sand flying up into the air. The King and Sword Saint were not particularly helpful in this

had not seen a single creature above level

scouting the ground below, he finally noticed the environment truly begin to change in the distance. It wasn’t

had also correctly flown counter to the planet’s rotation. The

Ice elementals.

as he kept flying into the darkness, and soon after, it was as if he had passed some threshold. The warmth of the sun was gone, and rime began to form

in front of him, and finally, Jake faced his first enemy. A floating ghost-like creature

Wraith – lvl

spears of destructive arcane mana and blew it up. The creature’s form was dispersed, but it managed to reform itself behind him. Luckily for

but Jake easily handled it. He did begin flying a bit closer to the ground as the constant drain on his resources to fight off the unfriendly environment was an annoyance, but he still

also where this Lord of the Dunes was. However, not long after, this theory was dispelled as he saw something on the horizon. A large mountain of some kind of limestone-looking rock appeared, the entire thing covered in dense ice. At the peak of this mountain, on its spire-like tip, was a large six-legged chameleon-looking creature. Its entire body had a blueish

Dunes