The Primal Hunter

”Lucky bunch! Found your way to the first room right off the bat without encountering any dead ends! Now to find the key… if there even is one here!” Minaga said with his usual glee as Jake and company walked out of what looked like a wall of fog and entered a massive chamber. As their host had explained, these large chambers did not have any of the usual mist, and it felt liberating to finally be free of the restrictive environment.

On second thought, merely calling the chamber they had entered massive was a bit fallacious. It was pretty darn humongous and seemed to be at least a good hundred kilometers deep with a width of about two kilometers. This narrowness was heavily used, as what appeared in the distance was a derelict-looking massive castle with plenty of defenses in front of it.

In front of the castle, a dozen rows of ramparts went from wall to wall, with every one of these walls filled with creatures. Taking a deep breath, Jake could practically smell the death energy emanating from the chamber, which made sense considering the enemies he saw on the ramparts.

Using Identify, the theme was pretty damn obvious.

[Skeleton Swordsman – lvl 240]

[Skeleton Spearman– lvl 240]

[Skeleton Marksman – lvl 240]

[Skeleton Mage – lvl 240]

[Skeleton Captain – lvl 245]

“Skeletons, huh,” Jake muttered. ”So original.”

He and the others waited for a few seconds, but nothing came. Jake looked at the ceiling of the chamber, wondering if their dear host had decided to leave, but he still felt them being observed. Maybe he didn’t talk while they were inside the chambers?

“I assume there is some kind of boss here,” the Sword Saint said.

“Let me check real quick,” Jake said as he jumped and summoned his wings. He flew all the way to the ceiling in little time and peered past the many ramparts towards the castle. There, standing on a large tower atop the castle, he saw a large skeleton in fine ivory armor surrounded by several Skeleton Captains.

[Skeleton Bonelord – lvl 250]

”Found it, level 250 at the central castle. Likely the one with the key. If not, it should be easy to find if we make it to the castle,” Jake said through the golden mark left by the King.

Now, why was Jake so sure the key was there in the room?

Finding the room itself had been pretty simple using his Pulse of Perception. Throughout the last fifteen months in Nevermore, Jake had to use far more Pulses than ever before, allowing him to slowly build up more and more resistance to the point where he could now do it pretty comfortably at regular intervals without getting a headache.

dozens of dead-end paths, traps, and hallways that would make you walk in circles for a few hours, if not days, while heading straight

wasn’t the only room he saw. In fact, Jake spotted four during their run, but this was the only one he had bothered entering, which leads back to the original question… why was he so sure the key was in this room and not

Intuition.

him this was the room to check out, so even if Minaga tried to muddy the water by hinting that maybe the key wasn’t there, Jake

Arcane Powershot. He saw no reason not to rush through this room and move on quickly, and on the

expected it to soar toward the boss and potentially even blow it off the tower, but things did not go as expected.

Mages stand and channel with their staffs, led by a Captain also holding a staff. The barrier extended up from the ramparts but did not cover the gate leading below, making it quite apparent you were meant to through there and not use ranged attacks from afar. In essence, Minaga wanted to force them into a

rampart individually,” the Sword Saint said,

bombard the barrier until it breaks,”

to just go

waste of time,” the Fallen King

was already charging the first rampart. When they got close, the mages stopped channeling energy into the barrier

above their opponents, and the other three

into a crowd of skeletons, crescent waves of water cut bones apart and sent limbs flying, arcane explosions bombarded all the skeleton mages as arrows fell from the sky

met with a green whirlwind that scattered their attack. Without even bothering to make sure they finished off all the skeletons, their

went ham at the sixth one as a fully-charged Arcane Powershot one-shot the Captain of the skeletons while blowing up several more skeletons unlucky enough to stand too close. Joining in on the fun, the Sword Saint went in first on the seventh as he used his Rainblade and released a torrent of slashes, killing dozens of skeletons within a minute while also taking down the Captain. Sylphie and Dina didn’t get to take down a rampart solo as Jake, the King, and the Sword Saint all felt competitive while facing the remaining

roar, the Bonelord released its aura as all the remaining skeletons seemed to get some kind of buff. The Captains around the boss also seemed to get stronger as they all jumped off the tower and ran down the side of the castle walls towards Jake

had even gotten a quarter of the way, with a second getting embedded by a substantial wave of force. The Bonelord seemed angry and jumped off the tower, too, as it pulled out a giant axe of bones and

the Sword Saint met it mid-air, and after a brief exchange of blows, the Bonelord was forced back with a few cuts on its otherwise pristine armor but was otherwise unharmed. What little injuries it had taken rapidly healed as it released a dense white aura of pure death energy. All around it, the death mana from the many slain skeletons began to gather and empower the

ever get any substantial advantage, even after he made slight use of his boosting skill. Jake ended up joining in as the constant army of skeletons storming out from within the castle started to die down, and Dina handled all those chasing after them from the earlier ramparts. Sylphie and the Fallen King would also soon be done with the Captains and

that died around them. It was burning through energy at a ludicrous pace as Jake counted himself blowing off the Bonelord’s head at least ten times. It kept fighting with its axe

King had the remaining skeletons handled, they finally managed to get the decisive blow, and soon enough, the Bonelord stopped regenerating and died. The second it fell, the wisps of deathly fire burning within the eyes of all the

crumbled to dust, a magical rune floated up from its body before flashing and disappearing. Jake faintly saw that a small tattoo of the same rune had appeared on the back of his hand. Needless to say, this was one of

next key was. As they made it back to the

Three more to go, and you can open the gate and continue. You got lucky once, but I shall still

volcano, and hundreds of dead elementals

key into the next! Almost makes me think you found a way to circumvent all my checks and balances and aren’t just getting extremely lucky, but that can’t be, right? Nah, definitely not, so watch out for traps and find the right path to the next key…

something unlikely happening two times is a coincidence, but three times? Now, that is a pattern. Then again, some people are really just that lucky, you know? Even I cannot get around some of the more intangible aspects of this world, and I guess it is entirely possible you merely have increased luck or perhaps some kind of reality-bending skill? Though my

be aware of the layout of the labyrinth but also correctly determine which rooms hold keys, which is honestly impressive. See, if you, my dear guests, could do one of these

complain about their group. It had to be noted that he only complained. There was no interference or even