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.

the way, they avoided dozens of dead-end paths, traps, and hallways that would make you walk in circles

run, but this was the only one he had bothered entering, which leads back to the original question…

Intuition.

had all his other totally balanced advantages. His intuition had told 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

reason not to rush through this room and move on quickly, and on the way there, he and the others had agreed to do things fast. Jake

things did not go as expected. The second the arrow appeared above the first of the many defensive ramparts leading further

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,

go through each rampart individually,” the Sword Saint said, having seen Jake’s

the barrier until it breaks,”

many… it will be faster to just go through

with the swordsman; trying to destroy each barrier individually is a waste of time,” the Fallen King agreed. “It isn’t like the

he flew downwards to join his party that was already charging the first rampart. When they got close, the mages stopped channeling energy into the barrier to face them in combat as nearly

levels above their opponents, and the other three humanoids, a bird, and a Unique

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 while roots shot

of arrows, but the attacks were all met with a green whirlwind that scattered their attack. Without even bothering to make

followed by the third and the fourth. For the fifth, the entire wall was torn apart as the Fallen King released a golden beam of energy to blow away all the skeletons guarding it. Jake, not wanting to be outdone, 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 five, going all-out until they finally reached the

as all the remaining skeletons seemed to get some kind of buff. The Captains around the boss also seemed to get stronger

angry and jumped

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

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

at a ludicrous pace as Jake counted himself blowing off the Bonelord’s head at least ten times. It kept fighting with its axe and released death affinity attacks and ranged bone spurs, occasionally forcing the two

the Bonelord stopped regenerating and died. The second it fell, the wisps of deathly fire burning within the eyes of all the skeletons were also snuffed out as they crumbled like marionettes with their strings

dust, a magical rune floated up from its body before flashing and disappearing. Jake faintly saw that

next key was. As they made it back to the hallway and into it, the disembodied voice of

There was even a key for you! Three more to go, and you can open the gate and continue. You got lucky once, but I shall still wish you

second room with the second key in hand, a crumbling volcano, and hundreds of dead elementals of the lava

must say, you are quite a lucky bunch! Straight from one room holding a 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

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

See, if you, my dear guests, could do one of these things, that would be one thing, but both? Really? Isn’t that a bit too much? This is why designing a perfect dungeon is impossible and why

Minaga complain about their group. It had to be noted that he only complained. There was no interference or even direct questions posed to any of them. It was more like he was just voicing his own thoughts