The Primal Hunter

Actual traveling.

Who would have thought that the job as a Courier would include traveling? Sure had Jake fooled after he only ran around a city for several days. Sure, it hadn’t been the worst, and there was plenty of diversity thrown in there to make it entertaining.

Nevertheless, Jake was glad that phase of the Challenge Dungeon was over as he proceeded with Courier Job 20. It wasn’t like he had to go far, but it did feel good to finally be out in the open. He had traveled around a bit in the House of the Architect while in the worlds there, but he didn’t go full speed most of the time as he had to actively scout out the environment and couldn’t just focus on speed.

Now, speed was the only thing that mattered. Jake used One Step repeatedly as the city had long turned into just a blip on the horizon. Every single step passed around a kilometer of distance, having improved quite a lot during all his time in Nevermore. He was still quite a bit from passing a thousand miles like the name indicated it technically could, but with the sheer speed he could trigger the skill, that wasn’t really a problem.

Jake had experimented a bit with actually trying to increase the distance a lot, and it was possible. His record was about a hundred and thirty kilometers – or eighty miles or so – with a single step. However, that step had taken him well over a minute to perform and had been done under perfect circumstances with nothing in between him and his target destination. This is to say that if Jake just wanted to travel quickly, smaller but faster steps were far more effective. Also a lot more efficient, as a One Step taking him a hundred and thirty kilometers consumed way more than a hundred and thirty times more stamina than those taking him only a single kilometer.

With his speed, Jake was the fastest in his Nevermore party when it came to purely traveling, though Sylphie beat him thoroughly in shorter distances. His relatively high stamina pool and constant supply of potions also meant he wouldn’t really ever run out of energy as long as he didn’t push himself too hard.

For his very first job outside of the city, the Challenge Dungeon had even picked something super exciting, too. Jake had been tasked with – wait for it - delivering a tax form for a local small mayor to fill out. He even had to bring it back again once it had been filled, making it twice as exciting!

Alright, yeah, the Courier Job sucked ass, and it was clear the entire intent of this was for Jake to travel a longer distance than usual. Jake wouldn’t really call it long-distance travel, though, as it only took him a bit over five hours to reach the small town in question. It would probably have taken longer if any of the wildlife in the way dared get in his way, but luckily, they were all on their best behavior, as blasting his aura pretty much worked like a max repel.

Reaching the small town in question, Jake saw that there were two guards at the entrance, both barely in C-grade. They looked tired with slightly damaged armor, and observing the area, it looked like they had been struggling quite a bit with monster attacks recently.

I can almost smell it…

Entering the town by flashing his Medallion, Jake headed to the mayor’s office straight away without any problems and delivered the tax form to a secretary there. Right as he did so, the mayor himself exited his office and saw Jake, and it looked almost as if a wave of relief washed over him.

“Ah, you’re the Courier, am I right?” the man said with a bright smile. “Thank you for the delivery. Tax papers, right? I will get to it immediately so you can bring it back, but…”

Here it comes…

“… we have recently been dealing with excessive monster attacks from a nearby monster nest, which have put a strain on the guards. Seeing as you made it all the way here safely, you look like you can handle yourself, so would it be possible to look into it while I do the form?”

A side quest!

Right as he thought this, a system prompt appeared before his eyes.

Courier Side Job: Eliminate the nearby monster nest.

Objective: Monster nest eliminated (0/1)

Accept Side Job?

take a look at it in the meantime. Do you know where this nest is

Courier Side Job Accepted.

relieved. “I believe the guards mentioned all the attacks usually come from the north, so I reckon it is in that direction. As for any details, I couldn’t possibly tell

said reassuringly. “Just have those forms ready by the time I

way, he released a Pulse of Perception and about a hundred and fifty kilometers to the northeast, he saw a big collection of monsters gathered around a few small hills and rock formations. The monsters all looked to be of the insect type, but with their small number, they definitely weren’t of the eusocial type. If

Jake decided to make this an express delivery

and using a few quick Identifies, he saw they were all in the 210-220 range. This made Jake feel like one wasn't necessarily meant to fight the robbers in the first Courier Job if this was supposed to be the first job with

he took aim and let loose, firing a quickly-charged Arcane Powershot. Right as the arrow was released, Jake nocked another, which he charged ever-so-slightly longer before letting go of the

began flying downwards, and as he did, the first arrow arrived and split into dozens right before it hit the

as Jake was flying downward, he got a system notification along with

Objective: Nest eliminated (1/1)

minutes. He did so fully expecting the mayor to still be busy filling out paperwork, but to his

the form, all filled out! Once again, I cannot express the depth of my and the town’s gratitude for your help, and I wish you luck on your way back. Of course, should

Side Job Completed!

Side Jobs Completed: 1

nodding. “I only did as I should, and thanks for the offer, but I

a sense of admiration. “Truly a man of duty! Even after a grueling

harrowing battle with the local monsters. Right as Jake exited the office, a few local townsfolk thanked him, and even the guards at

questions, even if he knew the true answer to all of them was probably

the nest was eliminated minutes after it had happened? How had he filled out the form so fast? How did everyone else in town also instantly know? What were these Side Jobs actually for? What did they give? Actually, to extrapolate on that point…

carried out twenty Courier Jobs now and had yet to earn a dime. No one had even mentioned any payment. Was he doing charity work or something without knowing? How the hell did the Courier industry even work? Wait… maybe he was meant to be an independent contractor

and a better achievement at the end of the Challenge Dungeon. Simple as that. But Jake

bit less time than the way to the town as Jake hurried back. Turning in the tax records to the dwarf, Jake picked up another quest to go visit a town, and from there, it continued as Jake became the dedicated Courier for the local area, visiting most of the cities one by

The difficulty also went up a tiny bit as he went to more and more dangerous territories monster-wise. There were also a few cases of trickery here and there, such as someone whom Jake was supposed to collect money from upon delivery claiming he had already sent the payment prior and thus didn’t need

like these were honestly pretty normal, and in most cases, it didn’t end in violence. Just a bit of pressure was enough to make most people crack in this early part of the Challenge Dungeon, and the slightest mention

but they were becoming more numerous. From what he gathered, these Side Jobs were jobs not directly related to delivery but were auxiliary tasks. Many could even be completed during the Courier Job, such as one time Jake was asked to kill a certain number of monsters on his way to a town, or another where it was requested if he could check out a certain area to see if a new powerful beast had made the place its home. All while running to a town anyway,

Jake three days to get somewhere he could reach in three hours was honestly just sad. Alas, he was in the easy part of the Challenge

35 and returned to the

man a smile as he didn’t even bother

“Job’s done,” Jake said.

the dwarf gave Jake a big smile. “Here, let

placed it on the table. The dwarf didn’t even try to pick up but just pointed at