The Primal Hunter

The level 255 Demon Warden – one of the bosses on the thirty-third floor of Minaga’s Labyrinth on Archmage difficulty – dodged as the blast of pure kinetic energy flew past him. He quickly got his footing as the woman followed up, diving in close.

Several deadly strikes flew out as she relentlessly attacked. The Demon Warden summoned barriers as he retaliated, manifesting a spear of crystal he thrust down toward his opponent. Rather than dodge, the woman followed through with her attack, punching the demon in the chest right as she herself was speared in her shoulder.

At least, that is what the Demon Warden had expected to happen.

The crystalline weapon shattered upon impact with the woman, tearing up her leather armor but failing to penetrate her skin, leaving only slight marks. In return, he was punched square in the chest, launching him backward.

With confusion, he attacked again, his crystalline magic failing every time to truly damage his opponent and his attacks as a pugilist failing even more disastrously. It was as if her body was made of metal, with none of his physical attacks working. The Demon Warden thus switched up his strategy and began to use fire magic.

However, even that proved ineffective. The second the magic hit her, runes lit up on her body, weakening the flames. Growing more and more desperate, the Demon Warden kept trying different things. He knew his comrades were struggling elsewhere in the prison camp, but no matter what he did, nothing worked.

The only good thing for the Demon Warden was the low offensive prowess of the woman, but that didn’t help when he failed to do any meaningful damage either. In the end, the battle turned into a long slugfest. One the Demon Warden would never win. Soon, four individuals appeared nearby, simply watching the fight.

Ultimately, the outcome was determined when the Demon Warden fell after what felt like the ten-thousandth hit, his entire body broken from the repeated pummelling and his health points utterly depleted.

”Well fought, Carmen,” the young druid said as he flew over. He was a weird one because even if he tried to talk like an old man at times, he only looked to be in his twenties.

”Finally learned to use my damn name, huh?” she scoffed. ”Also, no… that wasn’t well-fought, but a drawn-out pummelling. Fighting without using big finishers seriously sucks.”

”I truly meant no offense with my comment or failing to use your name as you have asked of me. Customs were simply too ingrained in my being, Runemai- I mean, Carmen,” the druid said apologetically.

”She was taking the piss. At least with the name part, Carmen does suck at actually killing anything,” a bare-chested large man said as he walked over, his chest not actually visible due to how much blood had drenched him. This was Carmen’s favorite guy in the party. He was a berserker that used two massive swords. A pure brawler. He also wasn’t as uptight as many of the others and the leader of their party – Warlord Davion.

”Well fuck you too,” Carmen scoffed.

He just laughed as he took a seat and looked at the pummeled Demon Warden and back at Carmen. ”That mini-boss couldn’t manage to overcome your defenses either?”

”No,” Carmen shook her look.

”Well, fuck me indeed. Damn Runemaidens… then again, I guess you are a special case,” he shook his head.

The last two members of the party were a shaman and a seer, which made up the casters of their group. It had to be mentioned that even if druids were usually casters, their druid sure as hell wasn’t. While he liked to act all refined, his primary mode of combat was turning into a large scaled tiger with wings that could breathe lightning. So at least he could fight properly.

didn’t have that many complaints about her party, and they were overall pretty okay people. Though if you had asked her just a few months before entering Nevermore, she would have said there

off to no end, and she had even been told not to associate with pretty much anyone on Earth outside of those who belonged to Valhal. She had not attended all the meetings Jake had held with all the other factions, been unable to go to that big ceremony of his, and honestly hated belonging to the faction she had chosen to be a part of. It wasn’t like she could just leave, either. Not without

end, Carmen had reached a breaking point. The status quo had to change, or she would go crazy, and she only saw two choices: either abandon Valhal and her entire Path or make Valhal tell her what the fuck was going on. With this in mind, she had reached out to Gudrun and laid

wanted to “be in the know,” she had

she had been walking the Path of a Runemaiden. Runemaidens were quite a peculiar thing, as it was considered

lower grades out of respect. To walk the Path of a Runemaiden was to willingly risk your life to survive the Runemaiden Ascension Ritual.

of crafting it. As the name indicated, the “metal” was created from bones. The usual way this special quasi-metal was made was through the bodies of the fallen - a final way of

to someone who still lived? There would be two results. One was that the person would die, their flesh would melt away, and only the metalized bones would remain. The second outcome was a

was any and all ability to ever do magic. Something Carmen was fine

to prepare for this ritual, such as the process she went through to strengthen her fists. She had even focused primarily on Toughness and Vitality, especially towards the end of D-grade. It had made

to become a true Runemaiden. If she was satisfied with just barely becoming one, that is, for not all Runemaidens

a true Runemaiden were numerous and rare, and Valhal remained secretive about what they were, but the most vital ingredient was well-known

Blood.

a

was to successfully become a Runemaiden of one of the gods of Valhal by using their blood in the ritual. Gudrun had advised her about what god they could use… but Carmen already knew who she would pick. Usually, one would avoid the blood of gods during the Ascension Ritual due to the overwhelming Records of the god,

answer was pretty

splitting from Jake as she grew into her own. If she wanted to have even the slightest chance of wanting to keep up with all of these supreme geniuses, she had to take a risk. Carmen didn’t think she was a supreme genius like the rest… but she was too stubborn to not

chosen

The risk of the Runemaiden Ritual was directly proportional to how powerful the blood of the greater being was. That meant getting blood from Valdemar would carry a risk higher than anyone else… so

on using his blood anyway. Ultimately, Gudrun surrendered before Carmen’s stubbornness and agreed on one condition…

level 199, she was thus teleported from Earth and left the ninety-third universe - straight to the headquarters of Valhal itself. She had appeared in the Grand Hall of Valhal. Stood before the gods of Valhal… and found them less intimidating than she probably should

them more than anything… because while she didn’t find most of the gods intimidating, the feeling was vastly different when she met her blood donor in the flesh. This was not an instance of her getting teleported by the system or talking to a projection. He was truly there,

sweat, but she had managed to stand before him, something he clearly liked. Their eyes

blood and risk everything to gain a small advantage over those just

opinion. “I’m not

your pursuit to get stronger,” Valdemar

Carmen shot back before

Nobody said anything, not even Gudrun. Several seconds passed as the strongest human in the multiverse

has the guts. Let her do as she wants,” Valdemar said in a cheerful tone as he looked at her. “But you have to take an oath before I

of thing, and fighting through the pressure of

mug of mead after the ritual.

Carmen couldn’t help but chuckle. “Better have some good fucking mead