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 Nevermore:

floor, at least for the most part. The story was that a faction of different enlightened 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

natives were not happy with these

settlements for when help arrived. This help in the form of the arc would arrive after

horde of rampaging monsters. They were a mix of dinosaur-looking beasts and based on what Jake and the others later learned, the beasts

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

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

out and expand even if you are not forced to? This faction merely wishes to grow and has

and forcing out the natives already living there has a very

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

a situation. I learned that plenty by attending the World Council we established. Yet they are also utter hypocrites in many matters, including happily encroaching on nature to expand their settlements and industries. As long as they don’t hurt other humans, they tend to show little care,” the Fallen King

together and their Path is to grow through working in unison and sharing Legacies and whatnot. To care about the preservation of humans over the lives of others is

arrives in… like thirty

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

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 he wanted to be challenged, so he wanted to

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

Edge] has reached level

bit more fighting, all the attackers were dead. At this point, he had already informed his party of his level-up. Everyone gave him knowing looks as Jake retreated from the frontlines and found a little spot to sit and chill

content belongs on Royal Road. Report

Horizon’s Edge class skills

quite a while since Jake 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 traces of

usual and went through his options one

(Rare)] – You have shown

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

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

during the House of the Architect and was an interesting merging of curse energy and Jake’s arcane affinity. Having life-stealing arcane bolts definitely did seem intriguing, even if he wasn’t sure how useful it would actually be if it

skill to look at, but not really an option. Especially not with such a low rarity. Not that the next skill was that much of an improvement either, even if the rarity at

Allows the hunter to erupt in a destructive arcane explosion with the aim of disrupting all energy constructs and the concept of stability itself in your immediate surroundings. This arcane explosion will significantly weaken all environmental mana and objects and is incredibly effective at dismantling enemy energy constructs. Adds a bonus to

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 acid Jake had made also

upgrades. He was a bit surprised at one thing, though. This was the

him theorize that the reason the skills weren’t that awesome 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. Not to say

stability as you become impervious. Allows the 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 creation will be significantly suppressed within the barrier and a slight area around it. Mana or stamina will be consumed depending on the nature of the blocked attacks. Adds a bonus to the effects of Wisdom and Endurance

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

Malefic Viper whenever he had to block an attack he couldn’t simply avoid. Then again, that was also the biggest reason

to the question of how much better it even was than just a few layers of freeform stable barriers coupled with Scales. Jake naturally had no

useful in some cases. He was more interested in just improving his freeform arcane magic instead, perhaps taking some inspiration from this skill. He had taken inspiration from the last barrier skill offered, too, partly in