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.

entirely different word, like insane or impossible? Seriously, what is wrong with using harder? It perfectly communicates it is harder than hard,”

could have made up your own word or something, too. It is ultimately your choice. Just… at least don’t tell me there is a difficulty even higher than harder that you decided to call

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 I made fun of you

named it

you again?” Minaga said as he made the

to make sure,” Jake smiled as he waved the Unique Lifeform off and infused energy into the rune to select the boss

the Sword Saint said as he joined Jake. “Prioritizing practicality and making the options easier to understand is more important than

revise my complaint letter to

looked orange, primarily filled with sand and mudstone based on what Jake could see.

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

like a large fusion between an elemental, lizard, and scorpion. It had eight legs and a stinger like a scorpion, but its entire body was covered in dense sandstone, with its head and

Jake saw its level was at

Beast –

so the beast is the source of the impact?” Jake muttered, a bit surprised. Seeing the beast was above even the Demon Lord in level was also really

one. Upon impact, the egg

actual education about the multiverse

we should be

magic. All Meteorborne Beasts 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 level should not be overly impressive, so I think we will be fine.

nodded. “So, no

to,” Dina shook her head. “Unless the

forward as he began to gather power, and Sylphie let out a low screech as she ascended into the sky, ready to

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

and blasted it with repeated waves of force. The Sword Saint dove into melee range as he began

Dina had mentioned. Spheres of condensed space were summoned all around it, making Jake’s next arrows miss as it was thrown off-course, with the Fallen King’s

tons of soil and sand at once. It pressed all of this together, making incredibly durable

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

arrows within thirty seconds of the battle starting, and despite its durable natural armor, 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 admit that dodging a meteor shower that covered

no need for strategizing. With Sylphie landing the finishing blow by creating another smaller impact crater within the existing crater, the three

– lvl 285] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy

has reached level 219 - Stat points

itself had pleasantly surprised him even more. It had been straightforward, more so than he would have expected. 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 – but more importantly, they had all just

Brokers who asked for assistance with tasks had

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

some difficult decisions when it came to his Free Points. This was partly spurred on by actually talking to Dina while on the city floor, as she had some more experience with the multiverse and stuff. She had said heretical things,

right there, which Jake thought was

entering the next in-between room and licking his orb while placing the Free Points Jake just got, he took status as the others took

show all the changes since he entered Nevermore to get an idea of how much he

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

– lvl

[Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge – lvl 203