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.

did well, as expected, while Arnold’s party of void freaks were hard to figure out. Many

of notable people who did the Challenge Dungeon, there was also Ell’Hakan, who performed as expected. As for what this expected performance was, not even the Malefic Viper knew. Because

stark difference in performances, not just between groups but every individual in each group, was one of the primary reasons why it was often said that the

entirely as they were weak as individuals and only strong in groups. Naturally, those who were only strong as individuals but sucked in a group had a

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

despite not being a person many would describe as well-rounded, was multi-talented and skilled at adapting. That is one of the reasons both he and the Malefic Viper had confidence

the top

than everyone else in a Challenge Dungeon that it made up a mediocre performance in the

ranks of the Colosseum of Mortals. He was a true master of kicks who had become a Gladiator by only using his feet. Even

nor the announcer, had expected the Jake that entered the arena the day after his ”victory” over the monk. Nor did they expect

the orc also seemed to realize Jake was still injured and wanted to capitalize. Jake couldn’t really blame him and

the orc’s sword, Jake stepped forward and punched once, his katar penetrating the chainmail 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 promptly surrendered, probably not wanting to bleed to death as Jake had hit

nearly instantly as Jake was done playing around. He had nothing to learn from his opponents in the arena, and it wasn’t even worth

but wanted to wait till Polly 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 being a bit more cautious

to meet his next opponent for a promotion. When he went to the Battlemaster to schedule his Promotion Match for the next day,

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

know how this happened… but it looks like we got a similar situation on our hands as we did when you were about to be promoted to Veteran Gladiator. Another 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

ordinary, but Jake had fully expected it. How couldn’t he? The bonus objective last time had very heavily hinted at him unlocking these kinds of fights as long as he managed to

would not

you have any information on what kind

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

also checked the notification he had received from the system about a new

Bonus Objective gained.

to keep this streak going, you will have to defeat an opponent with power out of the ordinary for

will lock out many

Defeat

wanted to find out. He had a full day before he would fight the dwarf and