The Primal Hunter

Jake had never wanted to leave a dungeon faster as he promptly exited the Endless Journey before the Forsaken Dragonkin could properly understand what Jake had just said. He kind of snickered to himself as the chamber got replaced with a white void similar to the ones he had seen before fully leaving other Challenge Dungeons.

Speaking of the Challenge Dungeon… Jake had done pretty well, hadn’t he? While he was doing the Endless Journey, Jake honestly had a hard time getting a feeling for where his level of performance was at, but considering he got a Mythical Medallion and even did this without losing a single one of his three lives, he had to have done pretty damn well. He wouldn’t say it was at the “impossible” tier, though… which was why he was honestly a bit surprised when he read the Grand Achievement.

Grand Achievement earned: Successfully completed the Endless Journey while proving yourself a truly Mythical Courier. With minimal errors during Courier Jobs, a persistently near-perfect performance, and fast deliveries, your performance as a normal Courier was unquestionable. During Special Courier Jobs, you showed great skill to get yourself out of perilous situations and using your far overqualified stealth abilities, managed to operate near-unimpeded during all your jobs. Your Journey may not have been Endless, but seemingly, your talent is. 100.509 Nevermore Points earned. Due to completing a Grand Achievement, you will receive a 25% multiplier of all Nevermore Points at the final calculation.

Jake smiled a bit as he read the description… and for some bloody reason, it finally only clicked for him now why the Endless Journey had seemed to be “off” and easier than it probably should have been. It mentioned his stealth skills were far overqualified, and while his Unseen Hunter was a great skill, he wouldn’t say it made him overqualified… but Shroud of the Primordial sure did.

It explained a lot. The only times Jake ever got attacked was when he went straight into an ambush or approached enemies by himself. No one ever tracked him down and attacked despite several Courier Jobs saying he would be hunted. So, it seemed like the skill had been far more of a cheat than Jake already knew, and coupled with the cheats Jake used knowingly, he could see how he had gotten the 25% bonus. It was just on the margins, though, if this theory that you needed at least 100,000 Nevermore Points was true.

Jake wasn’t going to feel bad about “cheating,” though. Everyone who was talented was a bit of a cheat in their own right. Just looking at his party should make that clear, with it having another Bloodline, a Transcendent, a weird borderline-never-seen-before hawk-elemental hybrid, and finally, a Unique Lifeform, who were literally born cheaters.

What especially didn’t make him feel bad about cheating was the reward he got from it… because Jake had succeeded. He felt it in his body he had succeeded even before he saw all his system notifications and, more importantly, that his little theory had been right.

Back when Jake cleared his first Nevermore Challenge Dungeon, and gained the 25% multiplier, it had come with a title reward. It was the only title he had gained from any of the Challenge Dungeons, as the title specified one could only have one at a time. The title itself had been good but not overly exciting.

Colosseum of Mortals: True Grand Champion – You have proven yourself the one true Grand Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals, defeating beings that stand at the apex of the multiverse and exited the Colosseum of Mortals with more than 10,000,000 Colosseum Points. Even a Primordial was slain on your path, making you truly worthy of the title. Only one Nevermore Challenge Dungeon title can be held at a time. +200 to all stats.

Jake had theorized that there was more to it, though. He believed that if one did reallywell, there would be some kind of meta-achievement for doing extremely well in all Challenge Dungeons. And, as always, his intuition that was the case proved true as he saw the notification.

Reward gained: Nevermore All-Star Challenger Title.

Being right felt awesome, especially when being right also meant you got an even more awesome title.

Nevermore All-Star Challenger – Prove yourself a being standing at the apex in not one but multiple different disciplines. Achieve at least a 100% Nevermore Points multiplier through Grand Achievements from the five Challenge Dungeons available in the C-grade version of Nevermore. This must be done while actively competing on the Nevermore Leaderboards. Only one Nevermore Challenge Dungeon title can be held at a time. +300 to all stats. +5% to all stats.

Comparing this title to the one just giving +200 to all stats wasn’t even fair. It now being +300 to all stats was nice for sure, and for someone like Jake, it was a few full levels worth of stats, but the 5% was where the real meat was at. Percentage titles weren’t easy to get and were considered pretty rare – even if Jake had his fair share already. Their impact throughout one’s entire Path simply made them so meaningful, as they would give massive benefits even when one reached S-grade… potentially even in godhood.

with this title. He had gained a title for getting a big multiplier that could likely help him get yet another title once Nevermore was over. At least he expected there to be another title, as that only made sense… the big

of his Nevermore Point multiplier by now, Jake smiled. He had gained two times 5% - once from the Dark Witch, and another time during the climb – along with the 25% from Minaga’s Labyrinth. Adding on top of the now 105% from the Challenge Dungeons, Jake was sitting on a comfortable 140% Nevermore Point multiplier. And it

Nevermore Points: 1,242,425

is. There was still time to clear some

His item reward. He hadn’t really made many considerations as to what he would get, as most of the rewards so far had been kind of novel or only really things that were useful circumstantially. So,

crystalized splashing wave or something, but from it, Jake felt an intense aura… and when he saw the name in the system notification, his eyes opened wide. They opened

of mythical rarity. If the item is already at mythical rarity, all existing Records will still be empowered. Contains faint Records related to the Wyrmgod of Nevermore, making this item especially suited to upgrading items related to the space

Requirements: C-grade. Soulbound.

of those moments. Jake didn’t even have

this tale on Amazon, know

a long time ago, all the way back in E-grade. It was the Token of Akashic Awakening he purchased during his first meeting with Sultan, a token that could upgrade an item to epic rarity. Needless to say, this one was far, far more valuable. Epic items were a dime a dozen, while mythical equipment was incredibly rare.

good enough innate Records – Jake had a feeling he would use it once more on the boots. Jake had already upgraded them two times,

appeared outside of the entrance to all the Challenge Dungeons. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised,

them, making him wonder if he was really the first. At least he did wonder about that until he returned to the Order

had finished their five Challenge Dungeons already, and had both returned back to a prior floor to do their own thing for a while. Jake also remembered the weird time-painting he had been given by the Sword Saint before he entered the first Challenge Dungeon. It was made to track time, so they all would spend only a total of ten years doing the dungeons to still have another ten remaining

was actually a lot ahead of schedule. All of them seemed to be. Despite having done all five Challenge Dungeons, only around eight and a half years had passed. Seeing as Jake was the third to be

floor – probably just the one just before this city floor – but after a bit of thinking, decided not to. Instead, he went to one of the private rooms in

taken a break to properly go through stuff, and he decided now was a better time than ever. He had just gained the Wyrm’s Breath that he could use to upgrade an item, plus he also had another Challenge Dungeon reward saved, namely the

a page infused with the Records of a skill will grant you an opportunity to upgrade the skill. The effect is lower, the higher the

Requirements: C-grade. Soulbound.

reason to delay using it any longer. Plus, he wanted to be at his best when it was

party members would probably want more potion and elixirs and such for when they continued. So much to do, and

was finishing up the Challenge Dungeons. Many powerful parties were getting them done, though Jake’s was one of the first of the Leaderboards teams to do so, as their speed had been high just reaching the city floor where

Challenge Dungeons, they didn’t do so quietly. Instead, their results were announced and spread throughout the city floors and quickly picked up by the different factions. Davion from Valhal did all five, ending with a multiplier of 70%, with his best performance in the Colosseum of Mortals and House

Life, Dao Sect, and pretty much every other faction. Soon, those who had gotten even better than that also reared their heads as a few 75% scores were