The Primal Hunter

Jake and company appeared on what would more likely than not be the final floor of Nevermore. Their spawning location was on top of a large ruined tower, giving them a clear view of the surrounding area. However, before Jake had a good chance to look around, he noticed the mana in the air and how it was filled with death.

Luckily, he didn’t have to speculate long why this was as the floor description popped up right then.

Welcome to the Eightieth floor of Nevermore: Plateau of the Twin Emperors

In a vast land ruled by two tyrants in constant conflict, you are tasked with ending it. These two tyrants are at constant war, with their armies clashing in war zones between the two empires of the land known simply as the Vast Plateau.

You find yourself standing in a long-abandoned war zone where remnants of battle still remain. Due to the nature of these wars, cursed lands and vast areas have appeared that are considered inaccessible due to the accumulation of death-affinity mana, resulting in the appearance of many undead. This is one such land you now find yourself in.

To end the deterioration of the Vast Plateau, the war must come to an end. Decide your next course of action. Will you join either side of the conflict? Will you attempt to negotiate peace by making them realize the doomed Path they are walking down? Or will you be the enemy of both, as you become a danger so significant you force the two warring emperors to come together? Another option altogether?

The choice is yours.

Main objective: End the conflict.

Bonus objectives: Join either side of the conflict or choose to remain as a third party.

Current progress: Conflict ended (0/1)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Current Nevermore Points: 1,953,950

Jake and the others read the long description of the floor as they got a general gist of the place. It was a pretty basic setup, basically just giving them an excuse to fight in a war if they wanted. There was probably more to it, but their goal wasn’t to figure out who was right or wrong but what decision would give them the most excuses to fight and gain levels while unlocking the event boss.

Addressing the Nevermore Points, Jake did feel pretty fucking good about how many he had racked up in the last ten years or so after the Challenge Dungeons. It was just about seven hundred thousand, with every floor giving more than the last – except for floor seventy-five being a bit of an outlier due to the event boss.

For reference, floor seventy-nine had rewarded just under a hundred thousand Nevermore Points, which was a bit less than double what floor seventy-one had rewarded. It was a big increase, but not that out of pocket, especially not when one considered how much the difficulty also spiked. Jake and his party, straight out of the Challenge Dungeons, would have gotten their asses handed to them against the event boss on floor seventy-five and also had serious trouble with the floors after that.

Jake sure as hell doubted many, if any, of the Leaderboard groups were capable of challenging anything above the lower floors in the eighties, assuming they even had the time. That still was a lot of potential Nevermore Points one could earn. He knew Ell’Hakan had been ahead of him time-wise with all the Challenge Dungeons, with approximately a full year extra to do floors, so assuming they matched Jake and company’s speed, they would end up doing one more floor than them. It wasn’t a lot, but it was something.

All of this is to say that things could get a bit hairy here toward the end. Alas, the only thing Jake should focus on was himself and clearing this floor. He would disappoint himself if he didn’t at least beat that orange fucker, but beating him still wasn’t Jake’s primary objective.

“You notice anything? Outside of the environmental mana clearly communicating that we are in undead territory,” the Sword Saint asked. Asking Jake about his thoughts at the beginning of every floor was pretty much standard by now, as he often could either see something with his adequate Perception stat or had some gut feeling. In other cases, primarily in worlds filled with nature, they also asked Dina for some insight from the local fauna. Not that there was any living thing for her to ask on this tower or anywhere nearby.

Jake looked around and saw dead land spreading in all directions. The ground was gray and dry, with some movement here and there from undead. Skeleton creatures, ghosts, zombies, large abominations… all the good stuff. Their levels were also all around level 290, with some of the larger undead just around 300.

undead lands, Jake saw a few watchpoints established, likely to contain the undead. Further back than those, Jake saw plains, wilderness, some forests, and even some cities. It was very much the same in both directions, though he did also spot another contained land, and

anything, but due to the peculiar layout of this world… because they sure as fuck weren’t on a planet. There was absolutely zero curvature anywhere, and the land was surprisingly flat, with not a single mountain of any kind in sight. Even with massive planets Jake could usually notice the

largest of which nearly matches the overall surface of a Great Planet, with the Heartlands of the Endless Empire placed primarily on these Great Plains. I have only seen some pictures from Grandpa, as getting to visit the Great Plains is quite difficult… though I don’t think Jake would have any problems,”

us hope this place is not that big,” the Fallen

seen so far,” Jake shook his head. “Anyway, what’s

we have to take the hardest path possible, which I would reckon is not teaming up with any

ree,” Sylphie added helpfully, making

from Royal Road. If you read it

will also give us the most potential enemies to

familiar with the world. If these Twin Emperors are B-grades or above, we may be forced to at least act like we are allied with one of

they are,” Jake shook his head. “I think it’s way more likely at least one of them is the event boss. But you do have a point; learning more

the cities Jake had spotted. On the way, they learned a bit about what kind of races they were dealing with. Unsurprisingly, it was a mix of many different enlightened races, but it did surprise them to see that most were orcs of different kinds. Orcs weren’t a rare race in the multiverse, but they were often looked down on compared to other enlightened races, primarily because they tended to be on the... simpler side. However, from the looks of it, the orcs in this world were a variant race

orcs also came a lot of goblins. Why these two were often grouped together, Jake had no idea, but a theory was that goblins tended to have strong mental stats, while orcs were more on the physical side, making the two

the enlightened, with the rest being a mixture of the usual dwarves,

they believed it would be possible to enter cities and study the

said as the party approached a large stone city gate.

while wielding a

[Orc – lvl 284]

The few enlightened Jake had seen on the way were also all at least mid-tier C-grade, even the

into a situation like this beforehand. The Sword

appeared. On the tall walls, some goblin mages who had been listening in stood and had raised their staves the moment the old man mentioned fighting

with pity. “Either you are incompetent spies or even worse adventurers, walking up to a guard and

admirably tried to save the situation as he looked taken aback. “We… we were not aware we had broken any

as Jake noted the magic circle below them growing in intensity. “Now, try to stop acting stupid for just a second and surrender. Who

yeah, negotiations

one to act. The Sword Saint simply nodded, and before the orc had a chance to open his mouth again, his head flew into the air. This clearly surprised the goblin mages on the wall, who prepared

Emperor was in charge of this city definitely wasn’t an option anymore. Especially not after their group effectively leveled the place, killing everyone who didn’t flee in terror from the five newcomers. Jake asked if he should pick off those who ran, but the group decided against it. Which Jake honestly prefered, as he didn’t like shooting a bunch of

spent most of his time in the office. In fact, barely anyone they encountered looked like they belonged outside of a battlefield. Even the average citizens were C-grade and took to

- they learned more about the Vast Plateau. There was a lot of boring history, but to summarize, two powerful, nearly peak C-grades appeared less than a hundred years ago, calling themselves emperors after uniting a bunch of

fought with the excuse of wanting to preserve power, but soon, it was D-grades, and now, there were barely any D-grades left outside of some

least a few billion had died within a single century, all concentrated on big battlefields. Battlefields that both emperors had made it illegal

to everything, Jake couldn’t help but

death. Working together to do so,” Jake said as

Dina questioned. “What would the purpose