The Primal Hunter

Jake had no idea how many of the damn imps he had killed before they stopped coming. The demon captains who had once led the army of small-winged casters had long been slain, but that didn’t mean the swarm didn’t prove a challenge simply due to their sheer numbers.

His body was covered in burns and wounds by the time they were all dead, as it had simply been impossible to avoid every attack. His party members weren’t in a much better condition, as they had been fighting at other entrances to the large cavern they found themselves within.

Luckily, before more demons could arrive, Dina made her way over. A soothing green aura washed over him as several small plants grew in his vicinity, making Jake nod at her in recognition. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she responded with a smile. “Are there more coming from this way?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Jake responded as he released a Pulse of Perception. “Not from any of the other tunnels either.”

“Alright, we should be safe to regroup, then,” Dina said. “You may also need to have your Golden Mark reapplied in case something does happen.”

“True,” Jake nodded with a sigh. These demons had been a bloody nightmare in that regard. They kept using dispelling magic and disrupting mana, which resulted in them removing the Golden Marks over and over again.

When they made it back to the center of the cavern, Jake also finally dropped his boosting skill as he sat down exhausted. The other three were already there, also recovering from the ongoing fight. Entering meditation, Jake felt Dina reestablish her restorative domain around them. This made Jake not only recover his resources and heal faster, but it also allowed the period of weakness to go away faster.

Which was needed in case more demons came back. Jake had quite a few complaints about floor seventy-nine, but a lack of enemies most certainly wasn’t one of them. In fact, it was nearly the opposite, as there were pretty much only enemies who stuck together in huge swarms.

The fact that the last objective of this floor was to defend the giant crystal within this particular mountain didn’t help either, as it just resulted in all the enemies funneling to them. The only semi-good part was that the long and narrow tunnels allowed their party to not get easily surrounded.

While meditating, Jake checked his system notifications, pleased to see he had gained another level from the fight. The first in a while, as the period of faster leveling from the Challenge Dungeons was well and truly done already, at least when it came to his class. Not that Jake was complaining. The gains had been pretty damn good over the last few years, and he was even getting pretty close to yet another skill selection.

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 284 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 273 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

It had been a bit over ten years since they were all done with their Challenge Dungeons, and Jake had evidently gained quite a few levels during this period if he said so himself. In fact, it had been even faster than after he just reached C-grade. The reason for this was primarily the fact that they had met rather strong enemies on every single floor, unlike when they first entered and had to grind through a lot of easy floors. Especially the bosses had been tough, and on floor seventy-five, they had faced one of those event bosses. That had been the strongest opponent they had encountered throughout Nevermore thus far, being a level 325 variant with respectable power.

The fight had been pretty damn long, but it did help that Jake had significantly weakened it with his opening shot from stealth. In the end, the Sword Saint ended up using two Glimpses of Spring, leaving him weakened for a while, with both Sylphie and Jake also overusing their boosting skills. Dina and the Fallen King had been a bit better off, but that was mainly because the fucker had ignored the Fallen King for the most part, as it had been borderline immune to soul attacks, making the Unique Lifeform the smallest threat.

Dina had been fine just because of her many defensive means. She was naturally still tired afterward, having used her most powerful skills too, but as a healer, she was naturally good at making sure she wouldn’t be the one in most need of healing and recovery after a long fight.

boss on floor seventy-five had been strong to the level where they had to use everything in their arsenal, save for their most powerful trump cards that would leave them incapacitated for a longer period, with potentially permanent consequences. That is to say, the Sword Saint didn’t have to fully use his transcendence, the Fallen

pretty straightforward, with just a lot

if Jake said so himself. But it had come at the sacrifice of some things. They had taken no breaks and even purposefully avoided the city floor after floor seventy-five. For some reason, Jake had a feeling going

up a constant tempo, Jake barely did any alchemy at all during this last decade. He did do a bit to keep them restocked on potions, elixirs, and his own poisons, but

the levels he had gained from popping in

Malefic Viper] has reached level 262

had naturally unlocked another skill selection. All in all, it had actually been a pretty damn interesting selection, if utterly inconsequential for now, the reason of which would be clear when one knew of the skill he selected. Ah, but the two first ones offered had been just a bit

Toxin Theory

[Acid Chemistry Theory (Rare)]

have any effects when crafting. At least not anything Jake didn’t feel confident doing with freeform magic or, more importantly, through Sagacity of the Malefic Viper. Sagacity already had Records related to these two knowledge skills he just hadn’t fully unlocked yet, so selecting either would only be done with the

and should anyone try to rob you, leave them with nothing. Allows the alchemist to create a seal of arcane magic to cover an object or several objects at once. While the object is sealed, energy leakage is nearly entirely eliminated due to the stable arcane mana. The sealed object will be hidden from nearly all senses and be unaffected by all outside sources. Should anyone try to forcibly destroy the

been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon,

but because of what it represented. This skill – much like the two before – was clearly based on what he had done in House of the Architect. For Jake to be offered an ancient rarity skill just for sealing an item in his arcane mana was honestly bonkers. Sure, some of the obscuration features in the skill

told him that the simple act of sealing something in mana was roughly equivalent to, at the very least, an epic skill through pure conceptual power from his arcane affinity. So, yeah, this skill offering was damn

selection, but in truth, it made a lot more sense to

you will be rewarded with a better Offering Fragment. The Offering Fragment contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. All offerings must surpass a certain threshold to be submittable, and out of respect to the Malefic One, there is an internal cooldown of the skill dependent on the value of the Offering Fragment received. Whenever an offering is

To infringe upon the domain of the Malefic Viper and rob the Primordial’s Records is a great achievement. Allows the alchemist to make an offer to the Malefic Viper and be granted an Offering Fragment. Based on the value of the Records and energy in the offering, you will be rewarded with a better Offering Fragment. The Offering Fragment contains Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper and can help empower other sources of Records and energy related to the Malefic Viper. All offerings must surpass a certain threshold to

They allowed Jake to make an offering and get an Offering Fragment in return. An Offering Fragment that could then be used while crafting to infuse Records from the Malefic Viper into the creation, functioning a bit like a light version of when Malefic Viper’s Poison activated. Jake sure as hell didn’t doubt that using an Offering Fragment as a catalyst during crafting would prove

something that would bother them if others saw either of these skills. Why would a heretic care about becoming more heretical, or a Chosen care about being closer to his Patron? They naturally wouldn’t. In fact, walking further down either

between being a Chosen and a Heretic. He was both at once. A living paradox.

to directly push him down either Path couldn’t end well. Jake’s instincts also warned him about both of them, yet the longer he looked at them, the

of those skills would prove detrimental, but what if, ya know… he just picked both. If he could offer both Heretical and Chosen Offerings at once, wasn’t that a Heretic-Chosen offering right there? At least, that

to not trigger this

ingenious plan was that Jake would select a legendary skill he would purposefully avoid using or even thinking about for the next thirty levels. Then there was also the slight risk that picking one of them would lock him out of the other, making Jake end up pretty damn screwed. Oh yeah, and

had asked the Sword Saint to flip a coin for him to determine which one he would go with first. It had resulted in Jake picking Chosen’s Offering, so worst case scenario, Jake would just have to fully lean into being a subservient and ass-licking Chosen… or just never use the skill until he one day found a way to get rid of it or merge it with something

present, Jake opened his eyes and stretched a bit, having meditated for a bit over two hours to heal up. Drinking a potion, he also used a Pulse of Perception and saw that the attacks were pretty much over. Sylphie was down one of the tunnels, shredding a few stragglers, but that was it. The other large entrance was guarded by a floating Unique Lifeform,

Sword Saint had also joined her, and while he couldn’t use time magic as that would screw up the maturation process, he could at least help

to break apart as all its mana was sucked in, and they witnessed the birth of a powerful natural treasure. It was an impressive one for sure, not that their

them, both of them powerful B-grade variants with sapience. They thanked the party for defending the crystal before taking it away, and with that done and dusted, a few notifications popped

floor completed. 15800 Nevermore