The Primal Hunter

The rest of the thirty-sixth floor proved relatively trivial as Jake and company soon completed the entire thing and entered the in-between room. There had indeed only been six rooms and their accompanying labyrinths, but when they arrived at the break room, he was a bit disappointed at seeing they had only managed to get three achievements along with the usual completion bonus.

At least he was disappointed until he saw the achievements in question.

Thirty-sixth floor completed. 360 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-sixth floor within one day (24 hours). 750 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-sixth floor while selecting the highest difficulty at every room. 600 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the thirty-sixth floor without straying from the shortest possible path by any more than 10% of the total distance. 900 Nevermore Points earned.

That was a whopping 2250 Nevermore Points from achievements alone. Counting in the Bonus Objective and the floor completion, they had earned 3110 points from this floor alone. Sure, it wasn’t incredible compared to the Demon Lord, but it was pretty damn solid.

“These are all sliding-scale achievements, right?” Jake asked as he went over to the usual bar in Minaga’s in-between room and poured himself a drink.

“They are indeed,” Minaga answered instantly, ready to jump into the conversation.

“Nice. So…”

“Yeah, you got the best ones. Won’t say if you missed any other achievements, though. Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t.”

“Eh, it’ll be fine,” Jake shrugged as he chugged the beer-like liquid he had poured. It was okay, but not as good as what Villy usually brought.

“Do we need a recovery period?” the Fallen King questioned.

“I do not believe we do,” the Sword Saint answered.

Dina and Sylphie both seemed fine with just getting a move on immediately, so without further ado, they continued and moved onto the thirty-seventh floor, Jake quickly rushing after them while finishing his drink. As Minaga had already mentioned, the next floor was practically identical to the one on the thirty-sixth, though there were a few extra things added here and there.

The traps differed, and one especially nasty trap they ran into would teleport whoever stepped on it to a random place elsewhere in the labyrinth. At least Jake called it nasty until he got an idea. They sent Dina’s vine soldiers through a particular trap, and after seeing it actually put them closer to the exit, they all activated it together and skipped a good forty-five minutes of walking. Sadly not all of the traps could be repeatedly activated like this, with most only working on individuals before dispersing.

Room-wise, it was also much of the same, and Jake would say they got kind of lucky with what rooms had the highest difficulties. Of the seven rooms on the thirty-seventh floor – because yes, there were seven on the floor – they had combat in three of them, collection in two, and another had traps before they got the most interesting option of them all on the final room. It even had a never-before-seen new highest difficulty.

1. Crafting (Hard)

2. Boss (Harder)

3. Combat (Medium)

4. Random (Hard)

Jake just had one note when he saw the difficulty:

“Really? You named the difficulty after hard, harder?” Jake made fun of the dungeon master.

to use an entirely different word, like insane or impossible? Seriously, what is wrong with using harder? It perfectly communicates it is harder than hard,” Minaga quickly came

said, shaking his head. “It looks kind of lame. You could have made up your own word or something, too. It is ultimately your choice. Just…

dungeon master here, I see no reason to listen to your ridiculous critique. You try and make your own dungeon and then come at me with that kind of “feedback.” Forever the critic, never the creator. How would you feel if

named it hardest?” Jake

threaten you again?” Minaga said as he made the entire

just wanted to make sure,” Jake smiled as he waved the Unique Lifeform off and infused energy into the

Jake. “Prioritizing practicality and making

my

a room with mountainous terrain. Rather than the usual rock color, the entire place looked orange, primarily filled

over thirty kilometers in diameter, and with the large boss in the middle, it did look like the creature

rocks before properly seeing the boss in the distance. It looked like a large fusion between an elemental, lizard, and scorpion. It had eight legs

Identify, Jake saw its

Beast –

source of the impact?” Jake muttered, a bit surprised.

the egg will shatter, and the newborn Meteorborn Beast will absorb a lot of the energy released

nodded. Damn, having someone with actual education about the

things we should be wary of?”

have powerful gravity magic, and based on this environment, I reckon this version is also good at earth magic,” Dina answered. “But its overall power

the old man nodded. “So, no need to

her head. “Unless the

took out his bow. The Fallen King had also floated forward as he began to gather power, and Sylphie let out a low screech as she ascended into the sky,

him with her staff in hand. The Meteorborn Beast soon took notice of the two people approaching as it awoke. After seeing them, it also noticed Sylphie above. As for Jake and the Fallen King… well, it would be hard not to notice the two attacks that hit it less than a second after it woke

blasted it with repeated waves of force. The Sword Saint dove into melee range as he began to fight the beast directly, with Dina

Meteorborn Beast was instantly put on the back foot. It responded by using the exact two types of magic Dina had mentioned. Spheres of condensed space were summoned all around it, making Jake’s next arrows miss as it was

thousands of tons of soil and sand at once. It pressed all of this together, making incredibly durable weapons it could then control with its gravity magic. Getting hit by those would

an unfortunate time in their lives. See, they had finally been given a good fight after so long on that damn city floor, making them all quite eager to let off some steam. Even Dina seemed excited as she activated her boosting skill

the Meteorborn Beast had its defenses ripped and cut apart within mere minutes. It released its trump cards at that point, and Jake did have to

Sylphie landing the finishing blow by creating another smaller impact crater within the existing crater, the three remaining legs of the

[Meteorborn Beast – lvl 285] – Bonus experience earned for killing an

reached

Jake did also notice why. They had all grown in levels during the time on the city floor – Jake and the Sword Saint more than anyone else

Sylphie both complained a lot, but Jake saw how they had both gotten more refined at using all their magic. The Brokers who asked for assistance with tasks had all required them to push

his improvements in prowess primarily from that brief period he had spent with the Puzzle Box he hadn’t even solved

more experience with the multiverse and stuff. She had said heretical things, like how just sinking all your Free Points into Perception could become a problem for him later on, and despite Jake obviously knowing that couldn’t be the case, he

1000 points right there, which Jake thought was pretty responsible of

entering the

to get an idea of how much he had gained so far… and it was honestly

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

[Human (C) – lvl 204

Hunter of Horizon’s Edge –