The Primal Hunter

The thirty-fifth floor had been the first one to truly push their party. It had also been the most fun, in Jake’s opinion.

After they all entered the in-between room, the boosting skills were deactivated one by one as Jake tossed himself in one of the lounge chairs. The others also sat down, with the King even stopping his usual levitation to sit on a large chair. They would all need a good while to fully recover, and they had already agreed to stay in the room until they were all back in peak condition. Even if the next floor was a city floor, this place was just safer.

Jake closed his eyes and relaxed a bit as he waited for the system message to appear. It didn’t take that long before he saw the notifications, but when he saw them, he couldn’t help but frown.

Only two?

How was that possible? Jake instantly checked them and saw that the first one was the expected basic one.

Thirty-fifth floor completed. 350 Nevermore Points earned.

Some-fucking-how, they had only managed to get a single achievement, and he felt kind of pissed before he even read it.

Achievement earned: Kill the fully empowered Demon Lord Gubrothas along with all three Tower Demons within five hours without any party members dying. 5000 Nevermore Points earned.

Okay, Jake was totally fine with just getting one achievement after reading the one they had gotten. It seemed like the system or Minaga or whatever managing these achievements had just decided to throw them all together into one massive achievement.

5000 Nevermore Points was more than they had earned on any prior floor by a significant margin and were a more than twenty-percent increase in overall points just from that one achievement.

“A good windfall,” the Sword Saint smiled, having also read the achievement.

“Satisfactory indeed,” the Fallen King agreed.

“Ree!” Sylphie also screeched gladly. Being the smart bird she was, she knew big numbers were good.

“I wonder how this will affect later floors?” Dina questioned out loud. “Clearly, the Demon Lord was set up to appear on one of the later five floors for one final fight.”

“Good question,” Jake said. “Man, if only there was someone who really loved telling us about the great story he has been spinning up. Someone who has been surprisingly silent for a while now, not having a single comment during the entire boss fight.”

“Hey, I just didn’t wanna distract you from the big fight with the Demon Lord. Imagine if a comment of mine made you lose your focus, and it ended in your death? That would be silly, wouldn’t it? Can you imagine the number of complaints I would get if that actually happened? Definitely not worth the hassle,” Minaga reappeared. Well, he did not really reappear. Jake knew he had been watching all along as he usually did.

“Why do I get the feeling that has happened before?” Jake mused with a smirk.

“No comment. Anyway, thoughts on the big boss fight?”

“Pretty good,” Jake admitted. The Demon Lord had been strong and not as “gimmicky” as Jake had feared. “You needed to be good in many different areas to win, but I have a really hard time seeing barely any parties beating it. The Tower Demons being summoned with full parties is pretty brutal, especially if you have a more classic setup. I guess the healer and tank can handle the boss, but the three damage dealers having to handle a Tower Demon each is a tall order. Not to mention the final phase where the Demon Lord felt near-invincible with his armor on full power. I can see him outlasting many groups simply due to how damn durable he was. Especially if they don’t have any good methods to address the Demon Lord’s Heart.”

“The end part, too,” Dina chimed in. “Without knowledge of rituals or soul magic, killing the Demon Lord and not allowing him to escape seems impossible. Maybe you could seal him due to his weakened state, but…”

“It wasn’t meant to be easy or even beatable by any parties that could consider themselves in any way average. That is also why you got the escape talismans as rewards for floor thirty-four. You only get those if you unlock the possibility to face the Demon Lord with empowered artifacts, so you get the chance to reset and try again without empowering the artifacts. Something a lot of parties have done, mind you. Overestimating your own abilities is quite a normal thing for young C-grade geniuses, and I do recognize that the difficulty spike was quite severe,” Minaga explained. “Not to mention the difficulty of fully killing the Demon Lord after he merges with the sword. The most common method is a big formation that drains the energy of the artifact over time, but that isn’t very effective or fast. My sample size is also pretty pathetic… but hey, I would say you guys – courtesy of an overpowered mythical weapon – probably set the kill time record from sword stage to death.”

we are just damn awesome?” Jake

party. If you were not, there is no way you

he leaned back a

the impact on later floors? It sounds like killing the Demon Lord outright is not entirely out of expectations,” the Sword Saint asked as he took

who is to say what it would mean for the later floors? What I can say is that it is a requirement to perform the most rewarding achievement available within my labyrinth later on. It will be the most rewarding by quite a margin, too. Let’s just say

had hoped that it would at least throw you off

killable? No, what throws me off my game is people using Bloodlines or Transcendence skills to screw up everything and ruin all my hard work. Not that I dislike these two by default. The swordsman’s use

will make a return on floor thirty-six, ripe for my exploitation?” Jake

arrive. Even if it was a labyrinth again – which I am totally not saying it will be – that doesn’t mean it is as easily exploited

that several times before, and yet we always end up with you complaining about how I broke

“Time will tell.”

it will,” Jake nodded with a

you relax? Facing the Demon Lord didn’t just have to be done by your party, you know… if you did things differently, you

said as he saw looked at the pedestal with

rewards first. But… lore time

“Sure,” Jake shrugged.

Enjoy your loot; it should

just have Sylphie fly over and unlock the boxes, they all went together. There was not just one box but three this time around. Two of them were small, with one large box. The large one was even bigger than a

considering the item that floated up. It was a small fist-sized version of the large artifact Jake had corrupted, though Jake wasn’t sure it

– The crystallized heart of a Demon Lord. The immense energy contained within the crystal can be absorbed by any demon, allowing them insight into the heritage of Demon Lords. Grants

questioned. He didn’t feel the

common,” Dina explained. “And to find a Crystalized Heart… I heard that some talented

am sure we will see him birth some primeval Demon Lord within a few

Demon Lords

“Yeah,” Dina nodded.

guess that is a possibility,”

“Ree?”

looked at the green bird. “You are not getting a new little sister, I am not taking that damn

Sword Saint smiled teasingly at

and the Sword Saint had nothing to use it for. In the end, Jake did end up grumbling as

you can give it to your succubus mistress; I

have any mistresses…”

you don’t,” the old

came a metal box without a lid. This

– An Obsidian Hellfire Ingot. This metal is incredibly hot to the touch and has a supreme mana conductivity towards any fire

ingots for. Not that it

want this?”