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.”

thing going for them. Jake smiled as

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

mana, blew up the sand and sent

Sunlight Fragments of the Dunes

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

Perception

orange thing?” Dina

was even talking to

Dina nodded. “Okay.”

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, she sent out a green blast of energy that

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

Seed Soldier –

level, but he also felt like it was summoned and

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

that will work?” Jake

do,”

He did wonder how they would bring the shards, but he had no idea how

and move on to the

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

boss, and I do still think we need to collect these thousand fragments, so finding this Lord’s Treasury

nods and a ree in

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

testing. We good?”Jake reached

the Sword Saint said

was communication over 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 weakened within the mega-dungeon. The same was true for many other supporting items, formation discs, and pretty much anything that one

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 on something akin to signal flares by shooting magic into

the topic of them being lucky… one thing many groups needed more than a proper method of communication in dungeons was

by one of the individuals in the party. Their effect 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

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 pointed out seeing Sunflight Fragmented with his sphere. As he took off, he

down on him more and more strongly the further up he went. As far as Jake could tell, it wasn’t even a false sun either, like

were allowed to fly up. 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

minutes, but soon he had to stop. Using his stable arcane mana, he condensed a parasol to cover himself as he turned to look down at the desert

walkie-talkie. “Got a diameter of around nine to ten thousand kilometers based on my estimates. Can’t spot any boss quite yet,

for the Lord and this hidden treasury?” the Sword Saint

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

job was hard… Jake had not

hour while scouting the ground below, he finally noticed the environment truly begin to change in the distance. It wasn’t that it was no longer a desert but because a huge shadow stretched

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 looking ahead, he felt a

Ice elementals.

that dominated the other 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

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

– lvl

creature’s form was dispersed,

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 had an easy time spotting anything

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 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

of the Dunes –