The Primal Hunter

The Primal Hunter - Chapter 671: Nevermore: A Different But Welcome Experience | Light Novel Pub VIP

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For the first time since entering Minaga’s Labyrinth, Jake had truly met his match. Minaga had claimed Jake wouldn’t be able to ”cheat” on this floor, and Jake had obviously not believed him. It wasn’t that there was no way to cheat him, just that doing it would fuck over others far too much.

Make the labyrinth randomly shuffle around to make Jake’s Pulse of Perception useless? That would make it utterly impossible to find anything and have all exploration just be pure luck, something Jake was certain Minaga didn’t want.

Make it so the rooms only reveal what is inside when you enter? Well, the rooms existed and weren’t generated when they entered, so this would be a huge change in how the entire dungeon worked. It would also mess with people who used more mundane skills. Minaga even commented on Jake using tracking as a way more legit way of finding things, so he doubted the dungeon master wanted to stop everything.

Increasing the distances to make Jake’s scanning range not big enough would also just ruin the entire labyrinth. If the only way to nerf Jake was to make things take too long, it would make all the time-based achievements useless.

Minaga did also reveal that these labyrinths were, of course, the same for everyone. Even if Minaga messed around, he still had a strong sense of fairness and cared a lot about balance. That was why he had not made any direct moves to make Jake less of a cheat but just allowed him to do as he did while complaining. However, on this floor, things were different.

”Do you see now? Tell me, Jake, how are you going to ruin all sense of exploration on this floor?” Minaga said, sounding like a true maniac.

He had won. Jake had to face that. Staring through the now-open gate leading into the labyrinth and after using a Pulse of Perception, it was clear that Jake had indeed been thoroughly countered by Minaga designing this floor in a fashion he hadn’t even imagined would make sense for a labyrinth.

”You can’t, can you!? Ha ha!”

”You are an absolute madman,” Jake muttered as he stared at his mental map of parts of the floor. ”How does this even qualify as a labyrinth anymore?”

What Minaga had done was indeed ingenious. He had gotten rid of all of Jake’s usual advantages when exploring the complex mix of hallways with one small trick:

Just don’t make it a labyrinth.

”That’s right! Completely linear, on-rails floor with not a single ounce of exploration! Just run straight down the middle till you reach the next floor, and you’re done!”Minaga laughed. ”Of course, you can also choose to stop and save the prisoners, so maybe you think you can use your cheating skills to locate them… but they are also right there out in the open! No secrets here!”

”I am not certain this even qualifies as a labyrinth,” the Sword Saint commented.

”Alright, so I did admittedly take some creative liberty with this design, but you only see it as a problem because you view this floor in isolation. I see these floors as one continuous labyrinth, so even if this part is straightforward, it is only a small part of the whole,” Minaga explained, sounding significantly less maniacal.

”That makes sense,” Dina nodded.

”Ree!” Sylphie chimed in.

”See, they get it! Especially the Sylphian Hawk!”

”I guess so,” Jake muttered at Sylphie’s apt metaphor. She said that saying this floor was not a labyrinth was like saying that if a beast in the forest had a hill as their domain, then the hill wasn’t a part of the forest anymore, which of course, wouldn’t make sense because while hills were not forests, hills could still be in forests. Same as a straight path could not be called a labyrinth, but a labyrinth could have parts that were straightforward.

”Rather than discuss the definition of a labyrinth, shouldn’t we proceed into the floor?” the Fallen King said.

”We should,” the Sword Saint agreed.

Jake didn’t complain either as they walked through the gate leading into a small hallway that was no more than twenty meters long before they entered their first room. These hallways had extra-thick fog that not even Jake could see through in any way, and they limited movement so much that they had to just walk.

Entering the first room, Jake understood why the thick fog was there: it was to do so one couldn’t just look through the fog and scout the next room… but also to do so whatever was on the floor couldn’t spot them before they entered.

They found themselves standing within a large open room more extensive than the one the Prime Summoner had been in. Jake estimated it had to be at least fifty kilometers long and about ten kilometers wide, and it was filled to the brim with life.

not the friendly kind if their names were

– lvl

–

of spread camps and villages, with one large tower at the back of the room. There, from over

Warden – lvl

one hadn’t noticed yet, then the names of all these demons had a theme of sorts. They were all guarding something. That something being large groups of people sealed within barriers in all of the

[Prisoner – lvl 175]

noticed that this entrance area was shrouded. Based on what Jake could see, nothing could detect them ten meters

move… those prisoners will be in deep shit,”

kept as potential sacrifices,”

to save as many as possible or rush this entire floor. If we split up and secure a camp each, we should be able to ensure to

Sylphie said with a low

of us are good at it?” Jake asked. “I can do

at the others

“Ree!” Sylphie said proudly.

talked about giant tornadoes hiding you, not counting as being

“Ree?”

none of them can see anything,” Jake

Sylphie seemed

someone had to say it. As they were trying to figure out what to do, Dina was kneeling on the ground and feeling the soil. That was Jake noticed that the ground was indeed different

looking for?” the Sword

total of fourteen barriers

Pulse of Perception to scout the room and nodded. “Yeah,

and I

to go through the

will create protection for them by summoning vines,” she nodded as Jake saw her begin to infuse energy into the ground. Jake noticed the formation hiding their presence, beginning to slowly fade as she did this, and he responded by creating a barrier of stable arcane energy all around them that he colored the same as the background. Was this perfect stealth? No, but it appeared to be good enough, as Dina’s

a move. Jake ended up taking this upon himself as he opened a small hole in the stable arcane barrier and snuck out as he activated his stealth skill for the first time in a good while. With it, he also used something else he hadn’t really used before: his new cloak. It allowed him to be far more

being on guard, despite being called literal Guards. The Enforcers were mainly inside buildings chilling, with the guards just lazily patrolling about and the torturers seemingly working on their torture tools that none of them seemed ever use. All

prepared to launch their own attacks. Jake had been tasked with dealing with the Warden as quickly as possible, and he had more than gladly taken that task

in the shadows, Jake took out the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter he had prepared on his way there and began charging his Arcane Powershot. He remained undetected as the cloak didn’t just hide his person but even his actions

their presence and all of their actions, including energies. Improved further if already dwelling

would work and was fully prepared to be discovered instantly, but the Demon Warden remained oblivious even as someone charged an attack behind his back, only a few hundred meters away. Once Jake

unleashed his attack. The second he did so, the cloak failed to suppress his energies any longer as

moment, they all made their moves at once. In every single village or camp with prisoners, vines erupted from the ground and embraced the barriers sealing in the prisoners as bark began to grow all

green tornado shot across the terrain towards the middle of the room and one of the larger villages with one of the larger prison populations,

shoot up all over the place. He had barely managed to

arrow sank into his chest, sending the demon flying backward. In mid-air, the Demon Warden managed to stabilize as a fist-sized hole now marred his chest, but he didn’t even have to orient himself before another shot hit

jumped into the air after releasing the initial arrow to launch one from an upwards angle to ground the Demon Warden. He proceeded to unleash a rain of arrows down at the

of arrows. The demon once more blocked with a barrier, but all of the arrows suddenly bent and flew around it the moment they got close, hitting the boss

a roar, the Demon Warden flew up from below, his body filled with wounds. An inferno erupted around him as burning crystals materialized. He stared at Jake with hatred but didn’t speak as he flew forward, wanting

as they clashed in mid-air, and it quickly became clear what he was dealing

crystal-like skin and even used the floating crystals around him to further empower his attacks or launch strikes using them. Sadly for the guy, Jake had fought far better… and he was not at all the same melee fighter as he had been

Less skilled than Carmen…

stomach with a katar. He reacted by trying to kick Jake, but Jake raised his own leg to block as he stabbed the demon in its already outstretched arm. The Warden tried to pull away, but Jake gave chase and

was on a bit of a timer. The death of the Warden would hopefully lead to some level of panic amongst the guards, so for the first time since entering Nevermore,

focused on destroying its hands first. The crystals were strong, yes, but against this Blackpoint Nanoblade, they still faltered. The indestructible nature of Eternal

failed to meaningfully land any blows on Jake, and the assistance he had expected to come was occupied elsewhere. Realizing this, the Demon Warden went on one last offensive,

never going to

its entire body was temporarily covered in deep red spiked crystals. Jake flew to meet

Hunter momentarily froze the Demon Warden as Jake slammed two Descending Dark Fangs into its chest just before it was capable of moving again and used its full

explosion of crystals and flames, but rather than crush the human, all its firsts met was

arrow pierced it straight in the eye and embedded itself deep within its skull – fired from the real

the fight, and it resulted in the arrow only stopping when it reached the back of the demon’s skull. The Warden stumbled as Jake switched the balance

still lived, but Jake followed up with an Arcane Powershot,

Warden – lvl 255] – Bonus experience earned for killing an

single demon there. Hey, it had to give an achievement, right? Of course, Jake didn’t expect to get that achievement quite yet,

hallways and something Jake got a feeling they all enjoyed – even Dina. Surprisingly enough, there was one

supposed to be! Through pure skill and power, you manage to overcome the floor and conquer! I knew you could do it! Definitely giving

the rooms but only the hallways?” Jake asked as they were still not done with the demon

like I didn’t say anything, alright? Good not-a-talk,

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