The Primal Hunter

The five Challenge Dungeons were something many parties attending Nevermore delayed doing for a variety of reasons. Partly because they were naturally easier once you got stronger. Even in the ones where your stats were normalized or reduced, your conceptual comprehension should increase over the decades of doing all the other floors. Another reason many waited was to do the entire Challenge Dungeon at once.

Once the seventieth floor was cleared by many groups, they decided, like Jake’s, to tackle them. Some also did the dungeons before, as while the fourteenth city floor did mark when all the Challenge Dungeon would be fully unlocked, some of them were fully unlocked even beforehand. As an example, the Test of Character was fully unlocked after doing the floors that were meant to teach “lessons” to the Nevermore Attendees, such as the one about Plagues. The Test of Character was also one that would either be fully unlocked or entirely unavailable due to how it worked.

Before that, the Minaga Labyrinth one was fully unlocked after the Minaga floors were done, making it the first Challenge Dungeon to fully unlock. The final one that fully opened in this incarnation of Nevermore was the Colosseum of Mortals, where one had to clear floor seventy to become able to challenge the Grand Champion. If one did the Challenge Dungeon without having done floor seventy, the Battlemaster would have said that the Grand Champion wasn’t available and to come back at a later date. Later, in this case, being after you had cleared floor seventy.

Many of the best parties had begun reaching this stage by now and were moving onto the Challenge Dungeons properly. As had been mentioned many times before, the Challenge Dungeons were where the true top of the Leaderboards would be found, and they were, by far, the most efficient way of getting points for those talented.

Each Challenge Dungeon could give a Grand Achievement upon completion, though it would only be a normal achievement without any percentage multiplier if the performance was too bad. The Grand Achievement usually ranged from 5-20%, with 20% being given if one fully completed the Challenge Dungeon with an outstanding performance. It was usually viewed as the maximum, though, of course, Jake knew there was one step higher. 25% was only given if one did the “impossible” within a certain Challenge Dungeon. If they achieved something that no one was meant to achieve.

With 20% usually considered the limit, the “maximum amplification” one could reach was thus 100% if one had a perfect performance in all five Challenge Dungeons. Needless to say, this never happened, as just getting a 20% multiplier in any of the Challenge Dungeons already put you in the top tier.

On that note, someone like the Fallen King was not expected to get a peak score. In fact, no one expected Unique Lifeforms to. Unique Lifeforms had very narrow Paths by definition, and while they could often do extremely well in some dungeons, they nearly always completely flunked in others if they didn’t suit their particular talents. They could still go pretty high, though, just not the peak.

An overall amplification of 30% from all Challenge Dungeons was considered excellent, as just getting 10% was extremely hard, and this was around where many would expect a Unique Lifeform to land. 40% was at the level of true geniuses and were individuals many factions showed interest in. 50% was where one reached the territory of truly versatile monsters. For reference, getting to the Grand Champion in the Colosseum of Mortals – while expending all lives - would give just 10%, so one had to be at that level in every single Challenge Dungeon. Most people would be over the moon for just beating the seven Champions, but one had to repeat similar feats five times over to reach 50%.

Above 50% was where one entered the realm of genuine monsters. Beings that already had high levels of divine attention on them who were already recognized by the gods. Some were expected to get at least 50%, such as Ghost King Azal, Davion of Valhal, and several other peak geniuses from major factions. Jake, Dina, and Ell’hakan also fell within this group, which was expected to reach at least 50% overall.

However, even if they were expected to reach at least 50%, reaching 60% would be considered absolutely exemplary. Anything above 70% was practically unheard of, and the stuff of legends. Those who reached that level were considered the true contenders for the very apex of the Leaderboard. Going above even this, one reached the level of being an all-time record contender.

So, with Jake being at 35% after only two out of five, he was definitely on track to make his dear Patron a proud snake. Even if he did believe that bullshit Test of Character had been complete bullshit.

and in all honesty, one that he

was an odd Challenge Dungeon by design. Jake’s inability to understand why it worked as it worked was entirely purposeful, and while it did provide part of the challenge,

role wasn’t necessarily to offer a challenge… that was just a requirement by the system to turn it into a Challenge Dungeon that qualified to be part of

Not really. It wasn’t even made for people like Jake or

allowed him to categorize people who even got “low” scores based on their personalities and character. It allowed him to learn of their morals, quirks, mental thought processes, and sometimes even red flags that one had to be worried about. Not red flags, as in someone turning out to be a psycho killer, but red flags, as in potential weaknesses that would display down the line, such as an inability to show patience or deal with long periods of nothing. Something anyone who truly wanted to reach the peak had to be capable of to not go insane. And with the system actively not allowing someone without a mentality capable of evolving to evolve, it could potentially

subscription of sorts to get information on anyone from the faction it was worth getting information on. Especially places like the Holy Church used this data to weed out or address people who could turn into dissidents or problems for the

this story on Amazon, be aware that it

had open calls on interesting new prospects. Someone getting a very high score in the Test of Character could indicate someone had a unique talent or was suited for specific Paths. The personality and character of some people even resonated with some extremely powerful Paths, to the level that such a personality and sense of character

magic was nowhere near good, he couldn’t fight for shit, he wasn’t adequately assertive at all but a total pushover, and he entirely lacked

after. One recognized as a peak Path among mortals. Because what he did have was an uncanny ability to understand others, an unwavering will to guide them, and a selflessness that was almost nauseating. He would do what he believed was the best for others, even if it meant setting himself on fire. The Augur was simply born to be an Augur… but he did need a little push to get there. He needed the interference of the gods in the Tutorial to set up

of Character could be close to such a realization. They just needed a small push that some factions would gladly give them. The

his planet used to have. Nevermore was free to enter and participate in, but it still had to bring in resources for the Wyrmgod and others who were involved in developing and maintaining it, and one of the best ways to earn Credits was to sell information. As the saying goes, if something is free,

privileges to not get theirs sold. Usually, the Wyrmgod would refuse to sell any information on young prospects to rival factions, while he would never sell anything related to someone like Jake, considering he was a Chosen. He would keep all that under lock and key and only give it to the Malefic Viper. Save for a few scenarios like the Colosseum of Mortals, where others had made deals

someone they, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t

is done with the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon now!” Minaga said with a big smile, getting the attention of the others in the room. It took some of them a second to remember that Jake was the

had arrived, and things hadn’t gotten calmer. Nobody had left, as frankly, two years was barely any period of time to them. As immortals, their sense of time was entirely warped, and even just sitting still and staring into nothingness for a century or two could go by entirely unnoticed. Especially when one had several avatars at the same time. The primary focus of the god could always just shift elsewhere

it had only made the room more packed, though naturally, the Wyrmgod could just spatially expand it if he saw fit. As the Viper had expected, the gathering of five Primordials and Nature’s Attendant in one place did not go unnoticed. In the first few weeks, factions were apprehensive about doing anything as some sent representatives to figure out what was happening, which was when

Sect had sent one of their Wanderers, as they called them. People who actively

The Starseizing Titan, Rigoria, and Aeon never showed up unless expressly asked to, Stormild didn’t show up even when asked to, and Eversmile and the Daofather were both too unpredictable. As for Yggdrasil… well, she always just sent Nature’s Attendant as her

of the United Tribes, the Altmar Empire, and many smaller and larger Pantheons. These gods were naturally

their faction felt they were present if anything important did happen. The chances of something noteworthy happening when half of the Primordial’s meeting had to be high,