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.”

going for them. Jake smiled as he closed his

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

one and, with a blast of mana, blew up the sand and sent the shard flying into the air.

Sunlight Fragments

the others. “Aight, the shards appear hidden beneath the

Perception

orange thing?”

Jake smiled, happy she was even talking

Dina nodded. “Okay.”

Then, she pulled out a handful of seeds and threw them onto the sand below. The moment they landed, she sent out a

and a wellspring of vines popped out everywhere. This happened to every single one, as soon there were several

Seed Soldier

but he also felt like it was summoned and not a “true” creature. Closer to an ectognamorph drone than a truly living

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

that will work?” Jake

do,” Dina said with

the shards, but he

out already and move on to the next floor rather quickly,” the Fallen King

lean towards agreeing. Attempting to fully complete this floor would be a waste when all subsequent floors give more points,” the Sword Saint also voiced his

end boss, and I do still think we

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

Fallen King nodded as he held out his ivory claw. Four golden orbs condensed and took on a solid, physical form before flying out to each of them. Once they touched the orb, they simply allowed it to be absorbed into

We good?”Jake

clear,” the Sword Saint said in

vast distances. Jake had initially just wanted to bring in some walkie-talkies made by Arnold but came to learn that items like that were either not allowed or significantly

orb could also be used to track through. The entire thing

of communication in dungeons was consumables. More specifically, they needed that good shit Jake chugged down

would be “capped” to be far 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

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 the immediate area where Jake had

upwards and felt the oppressive sun bear down on him more and more strongly the further up he went. As far as Jake could tell, it wasn’t

Jake felt 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

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

around nine to ten thousand kilometers based on my estimates. Can’t spot any boss quite yet, but there are quite a few

this hidden treasury?”

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 Saint were not particularly helpful in this part but instead made sure no elementals or other creatures

hard… Jake had not seen

the environment truly begin to change in the distance.

moved to 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 rotation. The sunlight energy had slowly been weakening for a while now, and

Ice elementals.

side of the planet. Jake informed his party 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 on his body and even his parasol. Seeing no need for it anymore, Jake dispelled

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

–

form was dispersed, but it managed to reform itself behind

on his resources to fight off the unfriendly environment was an annoyance, but he still had an easy time spotting anything of note on the planet

pole, and Sylphie also confirmed this was the case as she was scouting south. This made him question if this was 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

Dunes – lvl