The Primal Hunter

Jake was not the only one experiencing the Colosseum of Mortals or who had at least experienced it prior, for that matter. There was, of course, the Sword Saint, who was also hard at work, and as a far wiser man, had heeded the warning upon being confronted with the Benevolent Monk. He had responded by buying a good sword as well as some basic equipment, which had ended with him drawing blood early on in the fight without taking any major damage himself. This didn’t mean the fight had been easy… just that he had offensive prowess allowing him to easily bypass the challenge.

Carmen had also chosen to enter the Colosseum as that appealed to her far more than any of the other Challenge Dungeons. Losing her variant human race and becoming a G-grade once more did shock her at first, as suddenly becoming a soft shell of her former self was difficult to accept… but then she adapted.

She had been an okay boxer before the system arrived, and she was acceptable for her age group and weight class but still firmly an amateur. But now? Now, she would have been able to beat the living shit out of every single boxer that had ever lived pre-system. Not just because her physical specs matched any male boxer if they had equal stats, but because of the sheer quality difference between pre and post-system martial arts.

All stats equal, Carmen was superhuman with conceptual empowerment in every single one of her punches or kicks. Even without her skills, she could still imitate some of the weaker ones she had in lower grades, and even if her body had become far less durable, she knew how to make up for that with proper equipment. A good pair of gloves and high-quality bracers could go a long way for any pugilist.

Was reaching the rank of Champion possible? Hard to say, but she was sure as hell gonna give it a shot.

However, there were people who had a far harder time. Caleb had attempted it but quickly found himself facing difficulties. His fighting style simply didn’t fit the Colosseum, and while he could go decently far, he was in no way a contender to become the Champion. It was a bit embarrassing to say, but Matteo, who Caleb was doing the dungeon with, performed way better, being a skilled fighter even before the system.

Casper was much the same. In fact, he had it harder than Caleb, as adapting to his level 0 body was more difficult for him than others. He hadn’t become human again, but a level 0 Risen, something he had never tried to be before.

Even if he had been able to adapt, his fighting style also sucked. Plus, he didn’t have Lyra with him anymore, nor could he properly wield his curse magic, use his traps, or his dungeon architect skills. All of this is to say the guy was fucked.

Maria fell into a weird middle ground between Carmen and Caleb. She was a skilled archer even before the system and had only gotten better. Plus, fire magic was known for its power, even at low levels, making her pretty strong even at level 0.

And then there were two more individuals of note when talking about people from Earth. Both were considered monsters and pinnacle geniuses in their C-grade forms, but when they were reduced to only G-grade… well, the outcome spoke for itself.

Arnold was thrown out of the dungeon after getting promoted to Initiate Fighter, having already lost two lives as a New Blood from goblins clubbing him to death. Eron, having lost all his skills and being too used to being effectively immortal, had no idea how to fight at all, and while he did manage to reach Fledgling Fighter due to his arcane affinity and having some basic knowledge of vital points due to his former life as a surgeon, he also flunked out spectacularly.

This was a very important part of Nevermore. Most people simply did ”okay” in the arena, even among the top geniuses. Many believed it was unfair that some were put in worse situations than others due to the nature of their Paths, but they all had missed one vital purpose of the Colosseum: adaptability.

If they had truly wanted to, Eron or Arnold could not have fought every day but spent time training with weapons. They had the stats to fight and were still C-grade, with insights and developed Paths far beyond what any G or F-grade could ever have… but perhaps they both knew they didn’t have the talent to become skilled in combat and thus chose to focus their efforts elsewhere.

When looking at people of note, not from Earth, there were many outstanding individuals, but also many who did far worse than expected. People like Ghost King Azal did just as well as expected, cleaving through the ranks while happily building up power by consuming the spirits of every single opponent he met in the arena to use them as resources for when times got tough.

void freaks were hard to figure out. Many other elite groups also entered, with the difference

the Challenge Dungeon, there was also Ell’Hakan, who performed as expected. As for

but every individual in each group, was one of the primary reasons why it was often said that the true winners on the Leaderboards

as individuals but sucked in a

one had to remember there were five Challenge Dungeons in total. Each of them tested different things and had different themes. Reaching the top of the Nevermore Leaderboards wasn’t just about being the strongest in a fight but about having well-rounded abilities and the ability to adapt. Some would perhaps claim this was unfair, as being at the top of the Leaderboards didn’t even mean you were strongest, just that you

well-rounded, was multi-talented and skilled at adapting. That is

more thing to consider with the relationship between these Challenge Dungeons and the Leaderboards outside of the top contenders needing to be multi-talented. One big difference-maker that in many prior

Challenge Dungeon that it made up a mediocre performance in the

master of kicks who had become a Gladiator by only using his feet. Even when he evolved to the Arcane Doomfoot, he was still a martial artist and a connoisseur of the art of kicking… but that all ended the day he met the

his hands, and there was no going back from that. Not that anyone in the audience, nor the announcer, had expected the Jake that

Based on his opponent’s movements, the orc also seemed to realize Jake was

of his foe and knocking him back with a massive bleeding wound on his stomach. Jake didn’t even need to do a follow-up as the orc

was done playing around. He had nothing to learn from his opponents in the arena, and it wasn’t even worth it trying to practice there. Hence why he just viewed it as something to get

informed him he would face a tough opponent to get the best thing possible. That was another big change from then till now: information gathering. He even once spent a few points to buy information on an opponent Polly warned could have been dangerous. The elven mage didn’t turn out to be that strong in the end, but he didn’t regret

once more found himself at ten wins and ready to meet his next opponent for

to him and requesting the match, the Battlemaster looked a bit befuddled as he sighed

big anomaly stands in your way, this one a dwarven mage that also hasn’t faced any real difficulties in his ascencion through the ranks,” the Battlemaster warned him. ”There is no way to tell if he is stronger than the Benevolent Monk, but he doesn’t strike me as the sort

made it sound like this scenario was truly out of the ordinary, but Jake had fully expected it. How couldn’t he? The bonus objective last time had very heavily hinted at

Jake would not go in

you have any information on what kind of mage he is, or should I just gather it myself?”

It’s a dwarf using some nasty earth magic, and he is real good at it. As I told you, he has yet to face any problems so far, simply because no one can break through his stupidly robust defenses, and if you mess up just once, you end up with an earth spear through your gut. Ah, but he doesn’t seem to be able to control the sand but has to fuse it into larger rocks before he strikes with it. At least he has done that in

nodded along to the man’s explanations as he also checked the notification he

Bonus Objective gained.

couldn’t have been swifter. If you wish to keep this streak going, you will

will lock out many

Objective: Defeat the

a full day before he would fight the dwarf and spent that time researching with Polly to make