The Primal Hunter

Jake narrowly ducked under the flying glaive before jumping right as the floor collapsed under him. Kicking off the wall, Jake managed to launch himself away from the pit that had opened up beneath him right as a piston-like block of labyrinth shot down, nearly pushing Jake into the hole.

Landing on solid ground, Jake quickly knelt down and braced himself as he crossed his arms and summoned a stable barrier of arcane energy to defend himself. A barrage of small mana spikes hit him right as the barrier was done manifesting fully, blasting Jake further down the labyrinth hallway but failing to penetrate the barrier.

He knew he couldn’t land on the ground as spikes would just pop up, so Jake ran on the wall for a bit as he made his way down the long trap-filled labyrinth hallway while avoiding all the remaining traps. At least he tried to. A net of lasers shot after him not soon after, followed by an incredibly fast-moving spike that came out of seemingly nowhere, but before Jake could even address these two, he had to consider something else.

Runic circles began glowing on the ceiling and walls as energy intensified. Jake instantly understood what was about to happen as he gritted his teeth and blasted arcane mana to launch himself down the hallways as quickly as he could while also dealing with the damn everpresent mist.

This decision did mean a sacrifice had to be made as one of the lasers hit him, taking his left arm clean off. It hurt like hell, but it had to be done. Flying down the hallway quickly, Jake hit the back wall and kicked off it as he got around the corner.

Right as he did so, an explosion sounded out as the entire hallway erupted with intense mana, the ceiling even collapsing in a scripted event, blocking off the path. Jake didn’t doubt for a second he would have died if he had stayed there or been just half a second slower.

“Maybe I should have taken the non-shortcut route,” Jake muttered to himself as he regarded his missing arm. Taking out a health potion, he quickly chugged it and focused on his Blood of the Malefic Viper skill as the arm began to regrow at a visible pace.

“Wow, really? But that would have wasted an entire hour or something horrendous like that!” Minaga chimed in, always ready to add his two cents.

“Oh, good point. Yeah, definitely picked the right hallway,” Jake said with a smile.

These trap hallways had begun to get quite dangerous. By now, everything could kill him, and the attacks moved so fast that Jake could only react due to his near pre-cognitive instincts. He had noticed that some attacks could still be blocked even if Jake should logically not be strong enough to. The barrage of small mana spikes being one such example. If it was dungeon-fuckery or some unique properties of these attacks, he didn’t know, but his stable arcane mana did wonders.

For most attacks, blocking was entirely out of the question, though. The lasers would burn through anything Jake could summon, with him only feeling confident in blocking with Eternal Hunger if he absolutely had to. However, even then, the remnant energy that hit him scorched his flesh. Any physical attack was also not gonna happen as the sheer impact would rip both his arms off.

“So, is it hard enough for you yet?” Minaga asked.

“Considering I managed to do the hallway while only losing an arm, I am sure I can handle it getting a bit harder. But yeah, things are definitely improving with every section,” Jake said with a smile as he continued onward. Walking a bit forward, he saw a hole in the ceiling, and without further ado, he jumped as he went up a floor.

even considered before, but honestly, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was a multi-layered labyrinth with two floors. It was as if the labyrinth had gotten a basement that one had to use to pass certain sections by either passing through on the first or

floor of the one where you needed to move the wall, making it all quite a complicated puzzle. Well, it was complicated for regular people. Jake, on the other hand, could easily piece together which

wouldn’t come. When he reached section one-hundred and three, the labyrinth was expanded once more as a third floor was added. At one-hundred and seven, a fourth one came, and at one-hundred and ten, the fifth one

by adding an entirely new dimension. A usual labyrinth was very much a two-dimensional puzzle, but the further he got after section one hundred, the more it became

soon, even Jake had to admit he began to struggle and get challenged. It had to be mentioned that even if

avoid entirely, and finally, to create an entire route that he could complete in time. Okay, the time limitation still wasn’t a real problem quite yet, but he had a

down all the time to get to the exit that was often incredibly far away, with a shitload of near-impassible obstacles in between. These trap hallways were

a quick glance in to confirm something. What he saw was a creature that stood in front of a large barrier, with a shimmering wall nearly right in front of him. He knew that if he passed this wall, he would be trapped in there with the gatekeeper until one of them died, so he couldn’t just escape even if he wanted to. The shimmering wall also marked when space would be expanded, as each gatekeeper pretty

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tall, very bulky and bear-like, and looked to be a slower tanky variant. As it stood on two legs reminiscent of a werewolf, and even with the shimmering wall, he could feel its presence subtly

–

he had now truly graduated beyond the grade and found himself before a true-blue B-grade. And, based on what he

“Hey… Minaga…” Jake muttered.

about doing it, aren’t

to a certain section without dying?” Jake asked. “Like, if I somehow died now, would it

that B-grades aren’t really meant to ever appear in this C-grade version of the Challenge Dungeon? So, if you do ever happen to encounter one, surely it is

as he kept observing the B-grade for

it probably wasn’t necessarily the smartest, Jake believed he couldn’t let go of a chance like this. To face a B-grade in an actual battle without any genuine risk of

just Jake really wanting to fight it.

Jake smiled as he walked toward the shimmering wall, not bothering to make any real preparations. He was just testing the

sections. Oh, or maybe the experience makes you dead-set on revenge, making you spend all your other attempts going back here over and over again to exact vengeance upon the gatekeeper,” Minaga said with a hint of hope in

very realistic scenarios for sure,” Jake shook his head as he reached out his hand and touched the shimmering barrier. “Now let’s see

the entire world warped as the wall expanded rapidly. Jake soon found himself standing inside a massive chamber with the B-grade gatekeeper at the far end. He thought for a moment it didn’t know he was there until its attention firmly landed on him, making Jake temporarily

ready to attack. Pulling out his bow apparently registered as an act of aggression, making the B-grade react instantly, making Jake’s danger sense immediately respond, Arcane Awakening even getting triggered at the

the far end having raised an arm. Surprised at Jake dodging, it let out a low growl that sent a shockwave of