The Primal Hunter

Jake returned to consciousness, standing within the checkpoint hallway before Labyrinth Section 151. He felt like he had only blacked out for a moment, but the phantom pain of having his head chopped cleanly into four pieces could still be felt.

He had known from the beginning it wouldn’t be a fight he could win, and true to his prediction, it wasn’t. The B-grade was far more powerful than Jake in every way, making it utterly impossible for him to keep up and land any meaningful blows. Especially after its transformation, Jake didn’t stand a chance at all. He managed to stay alive for quite a long time, but whatever weak attacks he did land didn’t even leave a scratch. The metal monstrosity was simply too durable for him to do anything.

The only time he managed to damage it was during Moment of the Primal Hunter, where he managed to disable one of its scythe-arms temporarily. It was a minor victory but a meaningful one. Jake had barely entered mid-tier C-grade, and he had already managed to injure a B-grade… and it wasn’t even that weak of a B-grade variant. In fact, he would rate it solidly as a slightly above-average creature.

Of course, if it had been something like a True Dragon B-grade, Jake would have been annihilated near-instantly. The prefix “near” only being there because he still had Moment to keep him alive for an extra second or two.

Sighing, he did still find his loss a bit sad. “Oh well, I guess I still have a ways to go before I can fight B-grades.”

“You’re, what, level 257? If you could fight B-grades straight on, I would have put in a complaint with the system itself to have you banned for being too overpowered. The fact you managed to even put up a bit of a fight and last that long is already plenty impressive. Also, what kind of overpowered skill do you have to help you close the gap? My dungeon tools to measure your power and stats read quite the spike the moment you decided to fight that B-grade… actually, don’t answer that; the Viper is currently giving me very unpleasant looks.”

“It’s from my secret skill called The Power of Friendship. It gave me stats because I knew you believed in me and that I could win,” Jake joked with a completely serious look on his face. “Through the power of friendship, any obstacle can be overcome.”

“I know that’s a joke, but those kinds of skills totally exist,” Minaga pointed out.

Jake smiled, knowing that very well. Yip of Yore and, to some extent, Ell’Hakan were perfect examples of this. Their ability to get power from stories and the beliefs of others was ridiculous in Jake’s mind, but did he really have much to say?

Big Game Hunter did something very similar, except it only worked when he faced foes of a higher level. He also knew it was this skill Minaga detected. It wasn’t his highest rarity skill, but it was the signature skill of his class. No, his entire Path as a hunter. It had upgraded every single time he evolved it, and he was certain it would continue to do so.

Even now, it provided Jake with a lot of stats. It was like an extra free boosting skill, except it didn’t have any of the drawbacks, actually made boosting skills even better as it increased stats, and all it required was for him to fight higher-leveled foes. And that was the C-grade ancient rarity version of it.

What would a divine-rarity version of the skill look like? One wielded by a god? Could Jake truly say it would be any less ridiculous than whatever Yip of Yore was doing? Well, yeah, he could because his skill actually made sense to Jake, while Yip did some weird, complicated, and manipulative shit to get his power up, while Jake just had to be the underdog rising to the occasion.

Shaking his head to himself, Jake decided to stop dallying and get a move on and complete the section. He just had to redo what he had done before, with the only change being one number that had changed.

Attempts remaining: 4

Sure, one could argue Jake had wasted a life by fighting the B-grade, but Jake believed the experience was worth it. If he hadn’t done it, he would have wondered what it would have been like to fight it, so now he could just skip any B-grade gatekeepers without any regrets. His remaining four lives would be used as intended and give Jake a bit of leeway if he did fuck up and die to a trap or messed up his routing in a particular section. Something that was getting increasingly likely as he felt like he was trying to do some unsolved math mystery in every damn section.

Alas, it had to be done. And at least Jake didn’t have to do it for this section as he had already done it once. With swift steps, Jake moved to the gate leading onto the section as he looked up and smiled.

“Hey, Minaga, can you keep giving me your power of friendship so I can overcome this Labyrinth Section that I already failed once?” Jake asked teasingly.

“I think you should go fight that B-grade again. You nearly had it. I am sure you can win the second time around,” Minaga tried to bait Jake into making a horrible decision.

Jake entered the gate as the timer started, and the section began. Shooting down one of the hallways, he answered. “Alas, your words earlier convinced me of my inadequacy. I shall henceforth avoid all foes.”

“No, no, you misunderstood me. I just meant that with more practice, you got this. It was totally weakened toward the end and nearly out of resources and stuff. Come on, give it a go,”Minaga said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

“Even if I tried again, I would only find death,” Jake answered as he kept moving quickly, weaving around corners and jumping up and down floors as he proceeded through the cube labyrinth.

win on your second attempt… but surely, all good times three? You got five attempts. With that many, surely you can beat it! Heck, with nine lives, you managed to best a Primordial in battle. What is a mere B-grade gatekeeper to one such as you! Come on, do it for friendship! You just have to believe in me, who believes in you! Be confident! Believe

so I don’t clear any more of your labyrinth,” Jake said, soon closing in on the trap-filled hallway

such a thing? These are groundless accusations. I’m innocent until proven guilty, and you

why you’re trying to stop me now. I get it, I get it…” Jake muttered as he would soon reach the hallway with the many traps. Another reason he had faced the B-grade in this section was due to how

What kind of

answering until he was in front of the trap hallway again. “Oh, I just figured that… ah, damn, I am here already, huh. I just

know that

on purpose,” Minaga

now, busy,” Jake grinned as he jumped into the trap hallway. Having already done it once more, Jake quickly made his way through, dodging everything

on,” Minaga said. Jake, deciding to be generous and not make him wait any

You want to stop me from discovering this by making

doing conspiracy

Let me first clarify: all of these Labyrinth Sections are

“Yes?”

not. That would quite literally be impossible to have done. Assuming you designed all of them, there must be a limited number, thus making it not endless, and your claim saying it

clear all of them in fifty years or if there are ones that just become straight-up impossible later on, it

wouldn’t be truly endless, now would it? What if someone with my Bloodline and a Transcendent skill that allowed them to effortlessly phase through walls appeared? They would be able to pass every section within

going to fight the B-grade again, he had to take a big detour of just running through hallways, moving walls, and dodging the occasional

struggle quite a bit. Ah, by the way, the only reason I am even sharing this is that she ended up dying quite a dumb death in S-grade when she tried to use her ability to break into somewhere she shouldn’t have and got a hit put out on her, the Court

got any

illusion. A prison of the mind. He was certain that he needed to achieve enlightenment and elevate his third eye to see through my tomfoolery. Yeah, anyway, he ended up wasting all five attempts in the very first section, still convinced even as

cookie

joking tone, “Much less one of the Daolords. Ah, but not the Soulfist one. Another monk. Can’t say which one, that would be breaking

already broke those by sharing he was one of the Daolords. Kinda narrows it down to a handful, especially when you even exclude one. If I then also exclude the

never encountered before. It worked off throwing random acorns on the walls and going by the sound, deciding where to go. I thought she was fucking with me for the longest time until it was confirmed this was an actual form of divination magic. I fixed it with my next mist upgrade,”Minaga seamlessly changed the topic away from his own privacy violations. His second slight to consumer rights that

quite a few things. Fighting gatekeepers was confirmed out of the question, and even the trap corridors were something he had to reconsider doing. He

was mandatory. That, or one where avoiding these two, resulted in Jake simply not having enough time to make the run, even at full speed.

only one barreling through my labyrinth near-effortlessly, making me question my current employment. It’s someone

the labyrinth? Was it maybe Jacob? Nah, his divination was like the definition of standard, even if it was very powerful. Casper? No, it couldn’t be Casper. If it was him or any other dungeon-focused person, Minaga would be fine with it. Arnold? No… if it was Arnold, it was

someone like Ell’Hakan, but he didn’t think that guy had anything… wait… could

isn’t it?” Jake asked with a smile as he got an

should really stop giving too many

Endless Labyrinth, a bird was flying through the mist, flapping her wings pretty casually as she bee-lined for the

explain what it means when you

“Ree.”

is no wind. It’s

“Ree.”

in the air, but that is a requirement for the mist to have a medium to exist in. You need to fill the air with something, and what’s