The Primal Hunter

Jake and company spent a bit over two weeks just relaxing in the in-between room, as they all had exerted themselves perhaps a bit too much during the Minaga fight. The fact they had also just all gotten cool new items they wanted to either absorb or experiment a bit with was certainly also a factor.

During this time, the Sword Saint managed to set up the Sword Formation within one of the bedrooms and even had a light spar with the Minaga clone. They also tested and discovered that only the Sword Saint could use the formation, so that was a bit of a bummer but probably a necessary limitation for Minaga to even give it out. If not, it could maybe even have been used as a defensive formation, as it quickly became clear the Minaga clone in the formation could pretty much exert whatever force it deemed necessary.

Dina was enamored with her wooden branch and instantly got to work on a formation that would allow her to properly absorb it, though it didn’t seem like that would be a small project. Absorbing any kind of high-value item like that wasn’t something to be done haphazardly, according to her. Jake’s advice of just throwing it into a cauldron while mixing it with a bunch of high-rarity stuff and just seeing what happens was not taken seriously.

The King was more relaxed with his gift and ate the Soulcore of Minaga the moment he got it and promptly began meditating. The two weeks they waited before continuing was the time it took for the Fallen King to awaken once more. By the time he did, the cracks on the mask were fully healed, but nothing much seemed to have changed, though Jake reckoned he had good gains based on his uncharacteristically jovial mood.

Sylphie was the one who had gained the most precarious treasure, and Jake had to confess he was a bit nervous about her using it. He had insisted on being present the first time Sylphie infused energy into the nest-like treasure. So he had. The bird had just sat in it like a normal nest, and after infusing some energy into it, she seemed to get sleepy and dozed off.

It had taken nearly five hours before she woke up again, only to yawn, say the dream-projection of the Sylph was super weird but kind of nice, before going to sleep again. So, yeah, Sylphie was definitely loved by the wind, putting Jake at ease.

Speaking of Jake… with everyone else playing around with their loot, he naturally also got some alone time in with the Cradle of Soul’s Kindling. At first, he had just been infusing some energy into it while – pretty stupidly – testing how durable it was by trying if he could knick the urn. He couldn’t, and based on all the things he tried, he doubted any C-grade could even leave a mark. That isn’t to say B-grades necessary could either, as Jake honestly had no idea how durable it was.

Ah, but he was also a bit productive.

Jake discovered that not only could he infuse his energy into the urn, but he could also look inside. And what he saw was honestly astonishing. The description of the Cradle had talked about a world inside, but Jake had seen that more as either a metaphor or perhaps just a small space like what could be found inside Sandy’s stomach.

What he instead was met with could truly be described as a world. A massive space resided within the Cradle, making it look like a miniature solar system. At first, Jake thought he was looking at a sea of stars until he noticed it instead was actually tens if not hundreds of thousands of Soulflames burning in space like small stars. Some chased each other, some fled, some did nothing, and some simply found themselves consumed by the environment.

The edges of this space weren’t just emptiness either, but instead solid walls. These walls were of all kinds of varieties and had entire cave systems within them. Some of the walls were made of rock, others of metal, ice, wood, pure mana, water, lightning, clouds, pure light, pure darkness, and many more. Honestly, the entire place just didn’t make any sense based on all the rules Jake knew of affinities. Yet it all seemed to be in balance, and on all of these walls and within all of these tunnel systems, Soulflames were moving about.

As he observed, Jake noticed what he believed was a Soulflame about to be born. He watched with excitement as the energy gathered, but he was soon left with wide eyes as the process didn’t stop. The mana kept gathering until a fully formed elemental was just about to appear.

Right then, the entire world of the Cradle seemed to come down on it like heavenly judgment, and the whole elemental dispersed into pure energy once more, never truly born. Having seen it once, Jake looked for more instances of this, and within less than an hour, he saw hundreds of similar cases. Watching this had answered one of Jake’s biggest questions. The Cradle wasn’t actually doing anything he didn’t already know was possible; it just did what was possible damn well.

The process of a Soulflame being born was the same within the Cradle as in the outside world, except for the environment being more primed than usual, and whenever an elemental was about to be born, it would be instantly killed. That way, the Cradle avoided actual elementals ever appearing, as they would be counterproductive. While alchemists loved their Soulflames, elementals loved to consume them even more as they were pretty much considered top-tier natural treasures.

Anyway, Jake felt a lot better after understanding exactly how the Cradle worked, and he infused plenty of his own arcane mana into it. After he had put in nearly his entire mana pool, he saw a pretty large sphere of it appear floating in the middle of space with some kind of protective film around it, keeping all other Soulflames away as it grew. Jake had a good feeling this orb would continue to grow as he poured in energy, and eventually, his arcane affinity would begin to invade other places in the Cradle than just this one orb.

From there, it would still be a matter of chance if a good Soulflame would appear with his arcane affinity. The entire purpose of the Cradle was to play into this chance and, through the sheer number of Soulflames born, create one that was really good.

This was how two weeks quickly passed before it was finally time to head onwards. Truthfully, they weren’t all in peak condition yet, but considering they were heading onto a city floor and the fact that they assumed the difficulty of floor forty-one to be lower than the Minaga fight, they moved confidently through the gateway.

Congratulations! You have arrived on the eighth City Floor of Nevermore.

prohibited on all city floors. Challenge Dungeon(s) can be found in the central square. If Nevermore is left and reentered,

section. From floor forty-one onwards, all floors will be significantly larger in scope. All basic floor completion bonuses will be increased

know that Nevermore had portions like this?” Jake questioned after reading the message. He was mainly asking Dina but phrased it

who seemed to be

like

as I hoped Nevermore wouldn’t go back to the usual stuff before Minaga’s

larger, there may be space for a wider range of difficulty on each

not the case, simply splitting up to complete the floors faster while facing challenges made for entire parties will naturally result in an increase in difficulty,” the Fallen King also

Sylphie contributed with an excellent point

a

as they

top spot back. Jake had confidence they

Leaderboards, he could only

Points (Floor

Record

was the exact score they had, meaning they had indeed reclaimed the top spot once more. The difference was for how long. As mentioned, they had likely been faster than many other parties, and there was a good chance

it was a bit silly, especially considering some people had less than this – it being average

regular “elite” party from Earth likely wouldn’t even be able to beat the average, at least not yet. They would likely also take far longer than Jake and company.

of the events, skipping a few bonus objectives, limited achievements, and things like the Demon Lord or Minaga fights were entirely out of the

top spot again,” Dina smiled as

the Sword

no

going hard. You gave that

forgotten,” the

did also take note of how few people were on this floor. Compared to Minaga’s city floor, this one was practically deserted. A few curious

of Perception, scanning his surroundings and the people observing them. One of them wore a familiar robe and was located within a large building in the middle of

someone who might know a bit more about everything going

Viper has someone here?” Dina

Order and is impersonating a member,”

no harm in that,”the Fallen King answered

the Sword Saint

make her way over to Jake the moment he began walking toward the house. A bit before, even, showing she had