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.

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 even from this

or 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 ever-so-slightest curvature if he went far enough up, but here, there truly was none at all. A fact he

overall surface of a Great Planet, with the Heartlands of the Endless Empire placed primarily on these Great Plains. I have

place is not that big,” the Fallen King

it is based on what I’ve seen so far,”

path possible, which I would reckon is not teaming up with any

Sylphie added helpfully, making

been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it

will also give us the most

B-grades or above, we may be forced to at

his head. “I think it’s way more likely at least one of them is the event

of 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

had no idea, but a theory was that goblins tended to have strong mental stats, while orcs were more on the

up over seventy percent of the enlightened, with the rest being a mixture of the usual dwarves,

anyone yet, they believed it would be possible to enter cities and study the place a

approached a large

a halberd. He looked like a common low-level

[Orc – lvl 284]

on this floor. The few

diplomatic person in their party stepped forward, and luckily, they had discussed what they would do if they got into a situation like this beforehand. The Sword Saint

some goblin mages who had been listening in stood and had

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

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

below them growing in intensity. “Now, try to stop acting stupid for just a second and surrender. Who knows, maybe the upper brass

yeah, negotiations broke

on the wall, who prepared to activate the magic circle, but before they could, the Fallen

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

a mini-boss of sorts in the form of the mayor. A level 310 orc wearing heavy armor and a battlehammer, who definitely did not look like some official who 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 weapons without

based on records found in the city’s rubble – as well as some captured survivors - 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

At first, only E-grades 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 crafters. Even low-tier C-grades

within a single century, all concentrated on big battlefields. Battlefields that both emperors had made it illegal to enter, much less

Jake couldn’t help but reach a

of curse energy and death. Working together to do so,” Jake said as

would the purpose of that even