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.”

environment was maybe shit, but they still had one thing going for them. Jake smiled as he

items hidden in the sand, all about

the sand and sent the shard flying into the air. With a string, he quickly caught the orange crystal, and

Fragments

quickly made his way back to the others. “Aight, the shards appear hidden beneath the sand

Perception build proved

the shard that orange thing?” Dina asked

happy she was

Dina nodded. “Okay.”

threw them onto

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 expecting it to work, and was surprised when it

Soldier

it was summoned and not a “true” creature. Closer

Sunlight Fragments,” Dina talked to the many Vine Seed Soldiers. Without any indication they

will

know what to do,” Dina said with

reason to question her. He did wonder how they would bring the shards, but he had no idea how long

and move on to the next floor

a waste when all subsequent floors give more points,” the Sword Saint

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 also a priority. That sounds good?” Jake asked the

three nods and a ree in confirmation. “Great. Aight, Fallen King,

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

testing. We good?”Jake reached

clear,” the Sword Saint said in a rather

either not allowed or significantly weakened within the mega-dungeon. The same was true for many other supporting items, formation discs, and pretty much anything that one didn’t

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

of them being lucky… one thing many groups needed more than a proper method of communication in dungeons was consumables. More specifically,

worse and below that of what an average alchemist could make at their levels. All this was naturally an attempt by the system and the Wyrmgod to introduce some level of fairness for those who weren’t swimming in wealth or had huge backings. It was naturally impossible to truly curb all

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 the immediate

As far as Jake could tell, it wasn’t even a false sun either, like what he had encountered in so many other

hurt a bit from the

arcane mana, he condensed a parasol

small planet,”Jake told the others through the soul walkie-talkie. “Got a diameter of around nine to ten thousand kilometers based on

this hidden treasury?” the Sword

time before he began flying. Down below, the others got to work collecting fragments, with Dina covering a huge area with summoned vine soldiers while Sylphie kicked up tornadoes to send anything and everything hiding under the sand flying up into the air. The King and Sword

that job was hard… Jake had not seen

the environment truly begin to change in the distance. It wasn’t that it was no longer a desert but because a

the other side of the planet. Seeing as the shadow seemed to get closer faster than he flew, he had also correctly flown counter to the planet’s

Ice elementals.

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

began to condense in the air in front of him, and finally, Jake faced his first

–

and blew it up. The creature’s form was dispersed, but

on his resources to fight off the unfriendly environment was an annoyance, but he still had an

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

the Dunes –