The Primal Hunter

It didn’t take long before they used the access code to finish off the seventy-first floor, having done so quite a lot faster than floor seventy. Also, while it was true these floors were quite a lot bigger than those before, everyone in the party had also gotten quite a bit faster, and when fighting didn’t slow them down as much, it added up.

Activating the Revitalization Protocol took place within one of the towers as all five of them stood together as Jake pressed the big red button. When he did, all of the towers hummed to life, sending beams of light into the sky as they released waves of mana that washed over the landscape. All of the satellites in orbit also began to shoot down beams that infused the world with mana and different affinities, doing just as the protocol said it would. Soon, the satellites would run out of energy and shut down, and the towers were also quickly emptying themselves, putting an end to the experiment once and for all.

With time, the planet would recover, and the towers would just become empty relics that would eventually break down due to environmental factors. Jake and company naturally had no intent to stick around for that long as they saw that behind them, where the teleporter taking them to different towers was, a door had appeared right beside it.

“Well, this floor could have gone worse,” Jake muttered as they all entered the door to the in-between room. Sadly, this one was as boring as the prior ones, with only Minaga having had interesting ones. It still had the same features, such as a door to the latest city floor, one to the next floor, and, naturally, the one they had just entered through.

“The Nevermore Points are adequate, if fewer than I expected,” the Fallen King said.

“I just think our sense of what we should get was warped by the Challenge Dungeon’s rewarding so many,” the Sword Saint responded as Jake also checked over all the Nevermore Points they had gained from the floor – minus the two bonus objectives Jake completed early on.

Seventy-first floor completed. 14200 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Activate five tower teleporters within a month (30 days) of each other. 3000 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement Earned: Never once allow any of the Researchers to enter the top floor of a tower. 3000 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Defeat the entire command structure of the Researchers. 5000 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Defeat the Chief Overseer without ever allowing it to trigger any of the satellites. 5000 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement Earned: Do not cause needless destruction or kill unnecessary wildlife. 1000 Nevermore Points gained.

Achievement earned: Activate the Revitalization Protocol. 10000 Nevermore Points earned.

Achievement earned: Complete the seventy-first floor within 500 days while triggering the Revitalization Protocol. 7000 Nevermore Points earned.

Current Nevermore Points: 1,296,125

Overall, the floor had given just a bit over 50,000 Nevermore Points, making it quite good. Less efficient than the Challenge Dungeons, yes, but those had honestly been overpowered when it came to getting points, just as the Sword Saint said. Speaking of points from the Challenge Dungeons, Jake wondered:

“So, I need to ask… do I have the most Nevermore Points with-“

“Yes you do, Jake,” the Sword Saint cut him off before Jake had a chance to unsubtly humble-brag. “Now, do we need a recovery period, or should we proceed immediately?”

Jake was a bit bummed, but with the other wanting to get a move on, he agreed as they went to floor seventy-two.

Right as they entered the door, they found themselves in the middle of what looked like a hastily constructed city square, as the floor description popped up.

to the Seventy-second floor of

species had sent people to this planet far away using some special teleportation measure to set up a city in preparation for the rest of the citizens to arrive in a big ark at a later date. The problem was that they had kind of fucked up when measuring what

natives were not happy

from rampaging beasts from different monster factions present on the planet while even expanding and placing two new settlements for when help arrived. This help in the form of the arc would arrive after five years

an attack arrived from a horde of rampaging monsters. They were

moral question here regarding settlers just coming to a new planet and trying to take it over

colonialism,” the old man nodded. “Though the matter is complicated by these settlers having been forced to

is it complicated? Isn’t it normal to want to spread out and expand even if you are not forced to? This faction merely wishes to grow and has sent a seed to sprout on this

act of expanding and forcing out the natives already living there has a very negative history, and for good reason,” the Sword Saint answered

living being needs to keep expanding to realize their Path, it’s natural that others will be pushed away. A tree’s growing crown steals sunlight from those in its shade, and there is limited mana for all to share in the ground below,” Dina said, not sounding like she was trying to argue but was simply confused about why Jake and the Sword Saint

I learned that plenty by attending the World Council we established. Yet they are also utter hypocrites in many matters, including happily

live together and their Path is to grow through working in unison and sharing Legacies and whatnot. To

we’re getting all philosophical again, which we frankly don’t have the time to as the attack arrives in… like thirty seconds,” Jake said. “So, quick vote, do we do the objective and defend the city or

as they simply didn’t have any strong feelings either way, making everyone abstain in case someone did have an opinion. Jake also didn’t particularly care if these settlers were evil colonialists or desperate refugees; he was just there for the levels, and if defending the budding city gave more levels,

side note, Jake did think his leveling had been a bit slow on the prior floor, even if he had admittedly avoided combat when he could, as the hunting teams and whatnot weren’t that interesting opponents. Also, the Path Jake walked was one where

out part of the reason Jake had leveled slowly was that he was just before a level-up when they killed the Chief Overseer… which translated to Jake also getting a level only within

Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 260 - Stat points allocated,

he had already informed his party of his level-up. Everyone gave him knowing looks as Jake retreated from

this content belongs on Royal

Hunter of Horizon’s Edge class

had his last new class skill. Back then, he had selected Arcane Supremacy, which had been a great boon, and he was definitely looking forward to what was on offer this time around. With all the Challenge Dungeons, there had to be

as usual and went through his options

Kick (Rare)] – You have shown yourself an experienced martial artist,

only four new skills available because fuck that shit. So, he moved on to the first real

(Rare)] - Allows the hunter to summon bolts of arcane mana containing curse energy to defeat your foes. Two kinds of bolts can be summoned: a stable and a destructive version. The destructive bolts will explode upon impact, and the stable version will be tough and piercing. Stable cursed arcane bolts will have the curse energy be slow-acting, while destructive cursed arcane bolts will act aggressively. Due to the Sin Curse of Hunger, the overall

what was possible. It was clearly gained due to his research and improvement of his control of curse energy during the House of the Architect and was an interesting merging of curse energy

Especially not with such a low rarity. Not that the next skill was that much of an improvement either, even if the rarity

disrupting all energy constructs and the concept of stability itself

sure what to think about this one. Was he going to pick it? No, definitely not, but the concepts in play were a bit surprising. The description told him that it was possible to directly attack the concept of stability itself using his arcane mana, which was… well, wasn’t that pretty much what the

one of those skills to keep in mind for future freeform magic and when considering other upgrades. He was a bit surprised at one thing, though. This was the third skill,

was due to Jake having improved some himself already. Seeing an upgraded version of Mark was definitely something he could have imagined, along with a better stealth skill. So it seemed like the system had to make skills more from things Jake had done rather than the innate Records of the class itself.

Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge to summon a barrier of pure, stable arcane energy, blocking out any kinds of direct attacks that attempt to pass through – both physical and magical attacks alike. This effect is further improved when blocking attacks made from a far distance and from higher-leveled foes. All affinities not of your

“real” skill to consider. It was very similar to the barrier skill that had been offered back in D-grade, even having the same concept-suppressing effects. This one was quite a bit better, though. He especially liked the part that made it better, the more powerful and

did kind of lack a good defensive skill. Right now, he relied on freeform stable barriers and Scales of the Malefic Viper whenever he had to block an attack he couldn’t simply avoid. Then again, that was also the biggest reason why he maybe didn’t

barriers coupled with Scales. Jake naturally had no way to determine that, but it

arcane magic instead, perhaps taking some inspiration from this skill. He had taken inspiration from the last barrier skill offered, too, partly in his Unseen