The Primal Hunter

Going through the gateway leading out of the thirty-first floor, Jake wasn’t exactly sure what he had expected. Considering the uniqueness of these next ten floors and Minaga being the one in charge, it wasn’t even sure there would be an in-between room. There was one, but it wasn’t at all what Jake had predicted.

All the prior in-between rooms had consisted of three gates – one they exit from, one leading to the next floor, and one to exit Nevermore. Besides that, there was a place for lockboxes to spawn... and that was it. They were barebones and functional, with it clearly being meant to just be a room you quickly went through.

As for Minaga’s version of an in-between room?

“This is nice,” Dina said just as they arrived, and she looked around.

“Certainly a relaxing atmosphere,” the Sword Saint agreed.

What they had walked into looked like the lounge of a five-star hotel. Red carpets covered the floor, a large open bar, a sitting area with lounge chairs, an elevated platform that looked to be made out of wood already with a lockbox on it, and generally, this entire hall was just a big and welcoming space. In Jake’s sphere, he even saw that there were several more rooms, including five bedrooms with attached bathrooms, with each of these bedrooms also having a “crafting room” attached. Based on the void behind those doors, Jake guessed that the room changed based on who entered. Finally, Jake saw a fucking open-air bath. Did they need an open-air bath? They didn’t, but it was there.

“Minaga is truly an evil mastermind,” Jake said with respect. “Trying to make the parties attempting the labyrinth waste time in these in-between rooms and thus have less time doing the actual dungeon.”

“Now that is just mean,”Minaga said in a fake sulking tone.

“Sure, sure,” Jake smiled. Just then, they also got a bunch of system messages making Jake smile even more.

Thirty-first floor completed. 310 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-first floor in less than a day (24 hours). 500 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-first floor without any party member taking damage from any trap. 300 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-first floor without interacting with any friendly creatures. 200 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-first floor while only entering a maximum of four challenge rooms. 500 Nevermore Points earned.

The achievements were just rolling in as they got far more points than on any floor prior. Jake did find it a bit odd there wasn’t a single mention of the fact they had chosen the Archmage difficulty, but it was also entirely possible that the reward would come at a later point.

“Certainly a lot of points,” the Sword Saint said, satisfied.

“We may have taken the top spot if there was a Leaderboard after the thirty-first floor,” Jake said with a smile.

“Ree!” Sylphie screeched as she flew over to the lockbox in the room.

“Yeah, I guess you can open it,” Jake said, hearing Sylphie excited to see what was inside. Many of the rewards they had gotten had turned out to be natural treasures or even raw materials their party could use, and most of it had thus also been consumed by Sylphie. It was only natural she was excited about opening each and every lockbox now.

Poking the box with her talon, it opened, and from within, a small shield-looking item floated out. It was no more than ten centimeters tall and had a heater shield design with a glowing flame symbol carved into it. The entire thing look to be made of gold, except for the orange glowing flame symbol. Jake used Identify and raised an eyebrow at the description.

[Greater Firebane Talisman (Ancient)] – Infuse power into the talisman and grant significantly increased resistance to all fire affinity attacks for one hour (60 minutes) to you and all nearby party members. Has limited charges, and once the charges are used up, the talisman will break. This item cannot be used outside of Nevermore and will cease to exist if brought out for too long. Charges remaining: 3

“Very clearly an item offered for either a later environment or a rematch with the Demon Lord. Perhaps both, considering it has a total of three charges,” the Fallen King voiced his thoughts.

“It would be good against the Demon Lord,” Dina agreed, having been the one to primarily deal with it. “The passive fire aura was quite powerful even for a level 270 Demon Lord, and if the next time we encounter the demon, it is even stronger, then I am not sure I would be able to properly fight it off.”

“Then we will have to simply deal with it ourselves,” the Fallen King said a bit dismissively.

at full power, the passive shield from that, so he

you

a bit taken

are the support, and you seem good at judging when

the King said, making Jake nod approvingly before he promptly stopped as the King followed up. “I find it admirable that Jake recognizes he would

fair,” Jake

compass on the twenty-fourth floor…”

valiantly came to Jake’s

is right. We didn’t need it, so who cares?” he

strikes me as wasteful, seeing as

case closed,” Jake said as he did the number one strategy to get

a question. If you are willing

am going to answer before you ask the question,” Minaga answered with a

lot, but at the same time, few would have a chance to do it that fast, so is the achievement for doing it within a

less than a week, 200 points for less than five days, 350 points for less than three days, and finally, 500 points for less than a day. Congratulations, you got the best one there, but you did miss out

to ask… was it possible to kill the Demon Lord during

saying doing either would have done you any good, but it was an option,” Minaga said in his usual cheerful voice. “Now, enjoy the break room and relax! At least try out the free

weird guy happy to not get fucked over was admittedly a bit weird… but what can you do about it? Seeing as Minaga made the entire thirty-first floor collapse behind

and a slew of other things, but he had done none of it. So while Jake didn’t think Minaga would outright work against him, it seemed silly to risk it, so he

random, making different drinks. He had about a ninety-percent failure rate, but he did manage to make some stuff that at least didn’t make him reak. His Sense of the Malefic Viper also allowed him to sense the general level of alcohol within each bottle. This was mainly important to make sure Sylphie didn’t

asked, clearly just jealous he was the only one who couldn’t enjoy Jake’s mixing

and some of them are tasty,” Jake smiled. “I could ask

were precious

then,” Jake

The five of them had not even dealt with the oppressive mist for a full day, but being within it just for a few hours was suffocating. Without Jake’s sphere or other things to help you find your way, Jake could see others spend months just

a drink

only stayed for a few hours as they checked

through the gateway, they found themselves in a pretty similar room to the one on the thirty-first. A few seconds after they appeared, the description of the floor once more popped

Thirty-second floor of Nevermore:

the end of the

Bonus objectives: N/A

End reached

events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden

Current Nevermore Points: 16682

two was honestly lazy, and he would have expected more of Minaga.

room, Minaga once more popped into existence, though he didn’t bother with the light show this time

in his usual joking tone. “I guess we all know what we are doing here. Are you going to be pathetic disappointments to all of the gods that blessed you and be the saddest excuse for a Unique Lifeform I have ever seen, or are you going to keep going at

Jake waved him

in a deadpan

Saint began, “the first time around, you mentioned that one could increase or decrease the difficulty by one at the start of every floor.

gave him a mental thumbs up.

there is not. I should probably change the wording in the initial briefing, huh? Well, good

a good question.

announcement surprised all of them as

take them back, but I can make sure you won’t get