The Primal Hunter

Just after Jake was contacted and told his teammates were done, he just happened to find himself standing in front of a large gateway that he didn’t doubt led to the next floor. One thing did confuse him a bit, though. There was also another smaller teleportation circle of some kind near the wall of the cavern, but it was slightly damaged.

“Pretty sure I found it, but there is also this other teleportation circle. It looks like a short-range one, though,” Jake sent through the link to the others and even included a mental image.

“Peculiar,” the Sword Saint answered and sent the mental image of an identical magic circle down at the south pole. This one wasn’t broken, though. “Is yours operational?”

“Nope, is yours?”

“Appears to be, but with yours broken… we shall begin making our way north now,” the Sword Saint sent.

“Eh, gimme a minute,”Jake said as he looked at the magic circle a bit. He tilted his head and went closer. Touching the circle, he closed his eyes and studied it for a minute or so while comparing it to the one at the southern pole.

“Pretty low-level one, huh,” Jake muttered as he infused his energy. Analyzing it and finding the flaws had been easy enough, and soon enough, the broken lines were restored as the entire magic circle hummed to life.

“Ours just seemed to activate. Did you do something?” the Sword Saint asked, surprised.

“What can I say? I know a bit about formations,” Jake grinned.

A minute later, the party of five all appeared in the cave on the north pole. The second the last person was there, the large archway that served as a gate activated as a portal appeared.

First floor completed. 10 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the first floor before the light of the sun could have ever reached the Lord of the Dunes. 5 Nevermore Points earned.

Nevermore Points: 26

“That’s one floor down,” Jake smiled as he turned to the others. “Anyway, what did you get from that treasury?”

The Sword Saint proceeded to take out two rare items, and a bunch of stuff clearly meant to help battle the Floor Boss and the environment, such as crystals that gave resistance to the sunlight and what looked like a grenade. These items would disappear upon entering the next floor, so, honestly, the only reason to even do the bonus objective was for the points.

Without further ado, the five of them entered the portal to the next floor. Upon entering it, the party found themselves in a large square room about fifteen meters on each side with a gateway in front of them, one behind them, and one off to the side. The walls were of dark gray stone, and Jake’s sphere informed him that there was nothing outside of them but the empty void of nothingness.

Jake instantly understood what this room was. The gate in front of them had a sign saying “second floor,” while the gateway off to the side was an exit. Mind you, if one exited Nevermore before one reached a city, then they would have to go through the first floor once more to progress. And not “go through” as in do the boss again and whatnot, but literally travel through the already completed dungeon, making it just a waste of time.

Anyway, In the middle of this new gray in-between-floors room was a small platform with a lockbox on it. The loot from the first floor.

“I must say, it is a bit underwhelming,” the Sword Saint said as he looked at the lockbox. “Though we must consider this is simply the first floor, and it only took us a few hours to clear it all.”

“True, true,” Jake said as he walked over and unceremoniously opened the lockbox. Within was a rare rarity sword, and Jake could only look teasingly as he went over and handed it to the Sword Saint in an overly formal way, even going down on one knee as he held it up. “For you, our resident swordsman. It is only proper you receive this bounty. I hope there are no complaints?”

“Will… will he use it?” Dina questioned, looking confused.

“No, no, he won’t,” Jake grinned as he stood up.

“Then… why?”

nodded. “Let’s move

was still confused as they all

the gate was like stepping into an entirely new world. Probably because they did step into an entirely new world. Jake’s sphere spread out, and he saw a familiar-looking environment filled with greenery

thousands of kilometers. When the others came through the gateway, they also just appeared standing beside him with no actual gate to come out of,

the second floor of Nevermore: The

Defeat the Lord

Find 10 Illusory

progress: Lord of the Valley (0/1),

objectives may be hidden

Current Nevermore Points: 26

nodded. Only ten lotuses this time, but going by their description, these lotuses would be a bit harder to find than the Sunlight Fragments, as their name indicated an ability to create illusions to hide. The Lord of the Valley

low-effort by the Wyrmgod as most good parties

Sword Saint

the Evergreen Forest. Then we could have had a

is far from as funny as you believe it to be,” the Fallen

that is just

aware of, as no one else here has known me as anything other than the Fallen King,” the Unique Lifeform didn’t

and kill the end boss, and move on to

there,” Dina pointed northeast into the nearly endless forest spanning before them. Jake was about to question as as she looked down at all the trees

of land around five meters across being carried by vines by handing the patch off to one another. Within a few minutes, the patch was dumped on the ground just beneath them in the valley, and looking down, Jake saw the small landmass

you just?” Jake

confused and tilted her head. “I just asked if the trees wanted to help, and they agreed. They were very nice and even offered to bring the lotuses to us, so we didn’t have to go through the forest and potentially ruin anything.

thousands of vines extending endlessly into the valley to slowly carry lotuses toward them. This was… kind of overpowered, wasn’t it? Like, pure cheese of an entire floor. Would the Wyrmgod penalize them for

smiled and gave the dryad a

Is it your

a slightly darker shade of green – the dryad way of blushing – which did make Jake wonder what color

easier,” Jake smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Even Sylphie gave

also tell you where the

and pointed in the same direction as

boss if we go for the exit?” Jake

moves around… but if we hurry, yeah,” Dina

“Can you handle collecting the

take them a few hours at least to bring all the lotuses to their group, and while waiting

okay,” Dina nodded as she looked out at the forest. Jake didn’t feel the movements of any energy or any indication whatsoever she was doing anything, yet a few

“Okay, they will help.”

“Then

they had six of the ten. Killing the boss took them less than thirty seconds as the five of them descended on the poor level 208 beaver-like monster that was just trying to enjoy a good meal

chance to fight, and the only reason it stayed alive as long as it did was due

the Lord of the Valley before it

Slay the Lord of the Valley within 12 hours of entering