The Primal Hunter

Nevermore was often called the greatest dungeon in the multiverse, but it wasn’t just one dungeon. In fact, it was a multitude of dungeons stacked on top of one another, and even if Nevermore broke conventional rules, it was still classified as a dungeon. However, be it due to fairness from the system or the will of the Wyrmgod himself, every single floor did not count as its own independent” dungeon.”

Instead, a set number of floors in a row would as be classified together, with the five first in C-grade counting as” one dungeon.”

Why did this matter?

Well, for the title, of course.

[Dungeoneer X] – Successfully clear a Dungeon suitable for your level. +20 all stats.

Jake’s Dungeoneer title had upgraded to level 10, also known as the” cap” of D-grade. In E-grade, one could get up to level 5, 10 in D-grade, and 15 in C-grade. Jake also knew that every increase in the title from here on out would give +9 to all stats – tripling from the +3 it gave in D-grade.

Anyway, having an upgraded title was nice but not that impactful, and honestly, not something Jake thought much about as he and the others entered the first city floor of Nevermore.

City layers – or city floors - in Nevermore were quite peculiar. Jake had read a bit about them and knew that he shouldn’t expect overly much quite yet for one simple reason: this city layer had only existed for a few years.

Like the floors, these city layers had also been” reset” and” redone” for the new integration. One could still enter the city from the previous era if no one in the party in question was from the ninety-third universe, but if anyone was, they would end up on this layer. This was another reason why many factions had quickly taken some C-grades and pretty much forced them through these first layers of Nevermore. They wanted to establish themselves and claim space on the city floor. Not that many factions had time to arrive and begin to build much of note quite yet.

Even then, it wasn’t like the city was completely empty.

Jake and the others walked out of the gateway and found themselves in the middle of a nearly completely empty square. Large stone buildings surrounded them at all times, but they all seemed empty. Jake did notice a few eyes land on them shortly after they appeared, and he looked towards an empty-looking building and spotted a man peeking out towards them.

The man was surprised at being noticed and quickly retreated. Jake didn’t bother trying to figure out what the guy wanted, and besides, he had a system message to skim.

You have arrived on the first city floor of Nevermore. You are currently in the northern square.

All violence outside of the arenas is strictly prohibited on all city floors. Challenge Dungeon(s) can be found in the central square. If Nevermore is left and reentered, you will automatically be taken to the latest city floor unlocked.

Short and simple, yet very informative. Like Nevermore City before they entered the dungeon, violence was not allowed, but arenas were supplied. The message also mentioned one of the other important aspects of Nevermore: Challenge Dungeons.

This was the individual aspect of Nevermore. Challenge Dungeons of varying natures that all gave Nevermore Points, just like the main floors. However, Jake had no interest in checking out quite yet. These Challenge Dungeons could be found on every single city floor and were the same throughout. Besides, if he did ever want to go back to this first city floor, he would be able to at any point as one could travel between all the city floors – or leave Nevermore altogether. Because one other big difference between the other floors and a city floor was that one could exit Nevermore from a city floor and reenter again on that same city floor, just like the system message had mentioned. To summarise, city floors were pretty much save points for Nevermore.

Besides that, these city layers primarily functioned as places for parties to replace party members or fill empty group slots if someone happened to die. One could only do floor six onwards with people who had already done the first five, and it wasn’t possible to reenter the first five to get someone up to speed, so people really didn’t have a choice. This was one of the reasons the arenas were established.

Another reason for these city layers was to stock up on resources without having to leave and come back again. Additionally, people could sell special items unique to Nevermore only within the city layers. While Jake and the others hadn’t found any of such special items, he knew one could find tokens that allowed one to travel back to the closest city layer, orbs that released pulses to create maps, and even items granting information on the specific floor one found themselves in.

Finally, factions used these floors for one more thing… time dilation training. One was able to compound time dilation within Nevermore, and the Wyrmgod even provided these chambers for anyone interested. Needless to say, then Jake and the others had no interest in these chambers, and they quite honestly didn’t make much sense for people who were actually talented. They were primarily made for people who just wanted to quickly finish their Nevermore dive and get on the Leaderboards, or maybe to sit down and do a crafting session to not delay their party too much before moving onto the next level.

That was pretty much all these City Floors were for. Ah, but they did hold one more interesting thing:

Leaderboards.

floor for longer than necessary? It appears deserted, and we have no

idea how much it differentiated, and even the Sword Saint, who had insights into the concept had time, had no way to determine it. To him, time was not dilated at all due to the system-fuckery making time appear ”normal” within

check out the Leaderboards

sound worth our time,” the Sword Saint agreed.” Though from my understanding, the Wyrmgod is quite stingy with what information

further ado, they began walking through the empty city streets. Quite a few buildings were pre-constructed

the central square, where the Leaderboards and dungeons could both be found, the more people they also began encountering. All of them were

gained any levels yet from the first five floors, Jake saw a slew of people even towards the end of C-grade. He quickly guessed

the floor yet, but then realized he didn’t actually care as they soon enough made their way to the central square, where they finally laid their

expected,” Jake commented as they looked at the first of

minimum while taking their

thought it was a bit

Nevermore Points (Floor 1-5):

the average group only got 76 extra points from achievements, bonus objectives, and events. Once more, it had to be noticed this was only groups who qualified for the Leaderboards by having nobody above level 210. If one counted the groups that rushed through with a bunch of people in late-tier C-grade, then the points would have been far higher. A bunch of

next Leaderboard, Jake was once more a bit

Record (Floor

than I expected,” Jake once

that had been by rushing through, so to see the top group only earn 88 more points than them was honestly surprising. Then again… considering how long it had been since the integration, it was doubtful any team from the new universe had even been close to reaching the maximum threshold yet. The groups going right now consisted of those

King asked inquisitively.

like it,” Jake

said… stingy,” the Sword Saint smiled and

disappointing, and their

check out the dungeon on this city floor. Yes, dungeon, singular. It appeared there was only a

later city floors. All Challenge Dungeons that would eventually become available could be entered from all city floors they encountered, and as they also all had limited attempts, then it was often advised to wait to enter them. Considering one couldn’t truly die within the Challenge Dungeon, limited attempts were pretty much a requirement to make sure one couldn’t brute force it, and honestly, giving people more than one try was already nice. On a side note, one could leave and enter, and attempts were only considered consumed if

appeared to be some kind of arena from the looks of it. Exactly what it was about, they naturally couldn’t know, but Jake looked forward to checking

fulfilled sooner rather than later as they moved toward the

to how he would feel about these arena battles… that was an

integration, it had reached a new level. A new era did not only bring with it an age of new geniuses, but the wave of Records it sent echoing through the entire multiverse also benefitted the geniuses that

far easier. Finding someone who would fit in the group was hard, especially someone who could keep up with the pace of a multiversal genius. Unless they themselves were supreme geniuses,

only a week prior. Shortly after his evolution, he had been contacted by his Patron – the Blightfather – and been given a

member from the new universe in a group put together by the top brass of the Risen. Casper had expected to go to Nevermore with Priscilla and others from Earth, but when the order

he was then going there with? As far as he could tell, the best the

had already arrived

Nevertheless...

woman sitting close to the door looked his way. She was the only one at

smiled, her fangs showing. She was

He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about being

one,” the woman grinned even more as she jumped off the chair she had been lounging on and went closer. ”Hey, I heard that new universes don’t have native undead, is that true?