The Primal Hunter

”You two had a lot of fun with this one, huh?” the Viper commented as he watched Jake perform Courier Job after Courier Job. Despite it not being outright confirmed yet, he had the strong impression that both Minaga and the Wyrmgod had been heavily involved with this particular Challenge Dungeon.

”Fun? Do you have any idea how much work it was?” Minaga said with a sigh. ”Out of every Challenge Dungeon, this one took by far the longest. Well, besides the Test of Character, but I wasn’t much involved with that, so it doesn’t count.”

”I take it Nevermore itself also got quite involved with the balancing?” Vilastromoz further inquired.

”The sheer complexity of having so many starting points, all the quest paths, and keeping it all dynamic and adapting to the Nevermore Attendee required far more work than initially estimated. The original plan was to have this Challenge Dungeon ready last era, but we had to delay it primarily due to Nevermore and the system not accepting the balancing,” the Wyrmgod explained; many gods who were capable of listening in very interested in getting some insights into the World Wonder.

”Not certain I would call this balanced,” the Blightfather decided to chime in. ”Seeing Azal also doing the Challenge Dungeon pretty much confirmed the lack of critical thinking from many of the characters. They are too trusting and, in certain cases, either too easily fooled, while in other instances, getting any kind of advantage is borderline impossible.”

”We are well aware,” the Wyrmgod sighed. ”However, it was necessary to do it like this. If we tried to adhere to realism too much, the time required to unlock any high-level quest path would simply take far too long, so we had to tweak the logic of the world quite a lot. With the aim of the Challenge Dungeon taking around two years on average for the high-performers, this is the solution we settled on.

”Also, you cannot argue that some individuals aren’t simply this trusting, even among the higher grades. People can get blinded by their goals and consider what they do so important and justified that they automatically assume everyone else will share their opinion, thus seeing no need to be critical. Having the ability to identify these people and distinguish them from the less fanatical is most definitely a skill worth learning,”

”Even so, it teaches many unrealistic lessons along with the healthy ones,” the Blightfather insisted. ”Additionally, it makes little sense to remove all status from everyone. As a variant Risen of the highest echelon, Azal should have been recognized, yet the denizens of the Challenge Dungeon seem incapable of doing so, even daring to treat him like a lesser. It goes against their very Records to act like that.”

”Race isn’t something that should give an advantage in this dungeon, same as Blessings, and even the status as a Bloodline Patriarch or Transcendant also won’t offer any notable advantages,” the Wyrmgod argued back.

”Such a fundamental change to social dynamics for certain races shouldn’t be taken that lightly. How would you view it if…”

Vilastromoz remained quiet, not really having much to add as the two Primordials discussed openly for all to hear. It was rare for such a lively discussion to appear, and while both of them went at each other, the Viper also knew both enjoyed it. As sad as it sounds, it was rare to find people even willing to argue back who wouldn’t just take anything you said as gospel, so to get pushback was almost novel.

The Viper considered getting involved just for the fun of it but decided against it as the topic didn’t overly interest him. The only thing he really cared about was the information that the Challenge Dungeon was new, and it being new meant one thing:

It was exploitable.

All the Challenge Dungeons had obvious exploits that got fixed with every new iteration. Minaga’s Labyrinth and how he improved his special mist was a prime example of this, with every one of the Challenge Dungeons having similar improvements and ”nerfs” to certain Paths every new era. Seeing as this was the first, it meant many things had yet to be fully ironed out, as it was simply impossible to account for every Path without some live testing. The only reason the system accepted it despite the flaws that would be revealed was that every attendant who competed had the same circumstances and the same opportunities to take advantage.

already had one minor oversight in mind. One he was certain Jake would be

one else seemed to have really noticed either, making the Viper smile to himself. This should be a good

After Jake had done exactly twenty, he was contacted by the Infernal Baron, who informed him that an important job was upcoming and that Jake would need to upgrade his Medallion within three months to be able to accept it. So, he had some more pressure on him to get promoted in time…

incredibly quickly and efficiently, and he never once really ran into any problems. It was to the level where Jake questioned what was actually being tested, as the scams he was exposed to all seemed way too obvious

could – for some inexplicable reason – sell through social media with little oversight or regulation, with every second seller just

stick to the agreement, almost to a fault. Oh, did the client want to change the delivery location last minute? Nope, Jake would go to the original place. Someone else was sent to pick up the delivery? Not gonna happen; only the client would get it. While this did make people mad, Jake wasn’t going to risk things needlessly. Sticking to just a few basic principles like this seemed to serve Jake very well, and in the instances where he did have to show some flexibility,

as he, well ahead of time, got his Medallion

quite the renown. This Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs are completed and your reputation

Requirements: Soulbound

get Special Courier Job 3. As for this one… well, things just liked to get

the Phoenix Wing Empire. We of the Human Kingdom will naturally send a delegation. I need you to deliver something to someone I have working in an outpost in the Empire before the delegation arrives and work with my subordinate there to uncover any potential people related to this organization who may attend the conference. But for now, go to the organization and see if you can discover more and report to my subordinate once you arrive in the

story has been taken without authorization. Report

elemental rights organization, which Jake had decided to rename the People for the Ethical Treatment of Elementals organization for no particular reason. PETE, for short. Yes, it was a very original name that Jake had thought up entirely on his

PETE of what the Duke wanted him to do, and they, of course, also had

not discovered by the Duke of Flames. Go to the Phoenix Wing Empire as the Duke wants, and once there, make contact with one of the members and work with them to keep them safe, and while you’re there, attempt to discover if the Duke has any allies within the Phoenix Wing Empire.

mutually exclusive, and

his act as an infinite loop agent as he made executive decisions as to what information he would share, giving just enough to keep both sides happy. PETE wanted Jake to help extract those the Duke suspected? Alright, Jake would help the majority of

this entire conference, only C-grades

could be found in the Human Kingdom. The architecture was much more vertical, with large hollowed-out trees sometimes serving as buildings, with the general architecture taking heavy inspiration from nature. Population-wise, it was still

had were elementals in human form, all of which were more than antagonistic toward the Duke’s people. They were oddly fine with Jake, even when he was with the Duke’s people, showing how overpowered the status of

even more than before. During the conference, he even completed four entire Side Jobs by sneaking around and discovering stuff others wanted to keep hidden… oh, and one job where he had to convince a noblewoman not to get married by finding evidence that some guy was only after her because of her family. It had

conference was done, Jake remained in the Phoenix Wing Empire, with the Duke thinking he had successfully infiltrated PETE further, while PETE believed Jake was working with foreign agents of the dukedom to get them more information, both of which

sides said he should await the next time they needed him, Jake returned to doing regular Courier Jobs. Weeks turned to months as Jake kept completing jobs before the next Special Courier Job came in, which he also promptly completed, and through it, he finally met one of the higher-ups in PETE for the first time. It was the shadowy figure he had spoken to many times, and she turned out to be a B-grade Marquise from the

to use on either side, only letting a bit spill here and there to keep both happy with his work. Jake still wasn’t certain what his endgame would be, but the more he learned about both sides, the less and less

about two months in this mid-sized city, Jake had done about one hundred jobs there, and with it

Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs

Requirements: Soulbound