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.

kind if their names

Guard – lvl

Torturer – lvl

back

Warden – lvl

of all these demons had a theme of sorts. They were all guarding something. That something being large groups of people sealed within barriers

[Prisoner – lvl 175]

area was shrouded. Based on what

a move… those prisoners will be in deep shit,” Jake muttered to

appear to be kept as

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 reach

Sylphie said with a low

many of us are good at

the others

“Ree!” Sylphie said proudly.

tornadoes hiding you, not counting as being invisible,” Jake pointed

“Ree?”

them can

seemed a

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 here. Rather than the hard rock of the chamber floor, it was more like normal soil

looking for?” the

total of fourteen barriers with

another Pulse of Perception to scout the

and I will make sure they

go through the ground, aren’t you?” Jake

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 actions

problem was the size of the room, so they needed someone to get to the back fast, preferably before the Warden had time to make 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

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 the prisoners just stood catatonically within their sealed-in barriers with blank expressions

the team, who had all prepared to launch their own attacks. Jake had been tasked with dealing with the Warden as quickly as possible, and he had

there and began charging his Arcane Powershot. He

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

oblivious even as someone charged an attack behind his back, only a few hundred meters away. Once Jake had fully charged the Arcane Powershot,

so, the cloak failed to suppress his energies any longer as his body exploded with arcane energy, lighting up the entire back part of the room with

or camp with prisoners, vines erupted from the ground and embraced the barriers sealing in the prisoners as bark began to grow all over the vines to protect them further.

entrance area of the room and struck one of the camps without any prisoners in it, resulting in a giant explosion that leveled the entire thing. A green tornado shot

Warden – Jake’s target and the boss of this room – was alarmed and shot up from his seat at seeing roots shoot up all over

and the 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,

He proceeded to unleash a rain of arrows down at the Demon Warden, but a giant red disc blocked it and launched itself upwards

of arrows. The demon once more blocked with a barrier, but all of the arrows suddenly bent and

An inferno erupted around him as burning crystals materialized. He stared at Jake with hatred but didn’t speak as he

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

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…

the hand of the demon and punch him in the stomach with a katar. He reacted by trying to kick Jake, but Jake raised his

the Warden would hopefully lead to some level of

yes, but against this Blackpoint Nanoblade, they still faltered. The indestructible nature of Eternal Hunger also allowed him to not care about the tip breaking as he met the demon punch for

began to set in. The Warden had 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

was never

in deep red spiked crystals.

two Descending Dark Fangs into its chest just before it was capable of moving again and used its full power on the

but rather than crush the human, all its firsts met was the shadowy curse

in the eye and embedded itself deep within its skull – fired

arrow had included all the Hunting Momentum Jake had built up during 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

he still lived, but Jake followed up with an

have slain [Demon Warden – lvl 255] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your

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

pure combat was a good reprieve from just walking through hallways and something Jake got a feeling they all enjoyed – even Dina. Surprisingly

supposed to be! Through pure skill and power, you manage to overcome the floor and conquer! I

the hallways?” Jake asked as they

there. Act like I didn’t say anything, alright?

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