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

top-of-the-line party. If you were

smiled as he leaned back a bit further

It sounds like killing the Demon Lord outright is not entirely out

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

had hoped that it would at

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 of his Transcendence skill in the boss fight is how I expect them to be used. What you do is

me that the labyrinth will make a return on floor thirty-six, ripe for

arrive. Even if it was a labyrinth again – which I am totally not saying it

said that several times before, and yet we always end up with you

“Time will tell.”

will,” Jake nodded with a

be done by your party, you know… if you did things differently, you

as he saw looked at the pedestal with

get the rewards first. But…

“Sure,” Jake shrugged.

loot; it should

time around. Two of them were small, with one large box.

energy spread throughout the room. It was familiar, and they all recognized it as slightly familiar to the Demon Lord’s signature. Which made sense 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

into the heritage of Demon Lords.

fire affinity mentioned?” Jake questioned. He didn’t feel the slightest tinge

have the fire affinity, though it is the most common,” Dina explained. “And to find a Crystalized Heart… I heard that some talented ritualists can

birth some primeval Demon Lord within a few centuries,” the Fallen King said. Jake was

Lords

“Yeah,” Dina nodded.

guess that is a possibility,” the old

“Ree?”

protested as he looked at the green bird. “You are not getting a new little sister, I am not taking that damn heart, and I am definitely not going to make some

teasingly at him.

was disinterested, Sylphie said it looked gross, it did not fit Dina’s Path, and the Sword Saint had nothing to use it for. In

give it to your succubus mistress; I am sure she will appreciate it,” the Sword Saint tried to

don’t have any mistresses…”

don’t,” the old man smiled and

out came a metal box without a lid. This time, Jake did feel the expected wave of fire affinity energy after opening a box. Looking at what was inside, he saw a

supreme mana conductivity towards any fire affinity mana.

come up with anything to use these ingots for. Not that it was a bad reward… this was the kind of metal the armor

want this?”