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.

found… well, Vilastromoz already had one minor oversight in mind. One he was certain Jake would be able to take full

have really noticed either, making the Viper smile to himself. This should be

grindset. The Courier Jobs were similar to the ones he had done before, but there was a slight twist. After Jake had done exactly twenty, he was contacted by the Infernal Baron, who informed him that an important job

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

it was just because Jake had grown up on Earth where one could – for some inexplicable reason – sell through social media with little oversight or regulation, with every second seller just being

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

the end, the time limit indeed didn’t prove an issue, as he, well ahead of

who is beginning to build up 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

Requirements: Soulbound

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

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

taken without authorization.

naturally went straight to the 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

informed PETE of what the Duke wanted him to do, and they,

this conference, just as he suspects, and we will need you to ensure they are 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

was two tasks that weren’t mutually exclusive, and Jake naturally

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

conference was another mid-sized city, but one slightly larger than the one the infernal Baron had been at, showing Jake was truly moving up in the world. For this entire conference, only C-grades were present, likely because no country wanted a bunch of B-grades and above to be in their lands due to how big of a security risk it was. They would still communicate using

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 a mix, but it was clear this Empire had a lot more beasts and beastfolk compared to

toward the Duke’s people. They were oddly fine with Jake, even when he was with the Duke’s people, showing how overpowered

hand, the entire conference was a bit of a mess, if Jake was being honest, but he did discover many exciting things he disclosed to both PETE and the dukedom, making them trust him 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

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 were one hundred percent

that both 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

more snippets of information were revealed as Jake got further ammunition 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,

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

a strong reputation. This Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided

Requirements: Soulbound