The Primal Hunter

On reflection, Jake’s sense of time had truly gotten warped since after the system arrived.

He had spent decades training with Sim-Jake, and while that had indeed felt like it had taken a while, it didn’t feel longer than a few weeks, tops. This was odd because the Tutorial was still clear in his mind, and if he was asked how long that had taken in comparison to that training session, he would have said the Tutorial was definitely longer.

The same was true for the Treasure Hunt, which had been even shorter than the Tutorial by quite a deal, yet still felt long… maybe because something was happening all the time. Nevermore was a bit similar to this, though it did also have a lot of nothing in there. Floor after floor proved challenging in different ways, and whatever downtime he did have could be filled with alchemy or experimenting. Even when that was not an option, and things began to drag on, he had pretty good company to talk to.

Jake was speaking of Sylphie, of course.

In conclusion, Nevermore was an odd mix of feeling extremely long and extremely short at the same time. Somewhere in between the Tutorial and Sim-Jake duel. Even if he logically knew it had taken a while, he was still kind of surprised when they left the in-between room and entered yet another city floor as the Sword Saint made a comment.

“Just a bit under three decades already, huh?” he muttered partly to himself. “Time certainly flies.”

“Truly, it has already been thirty years? Hmm, I suppose the last few floors did take longer than expected,” the Fallen King commented.

“Yeah,” Dina nodded to both the comment about how long they had been inside Nevermore and how these last few floors had taken much longer than they had wanted them to. Floor seventyhad ended up taking them nearly two full years due to how damn annoying it had been.

“Damn, you are right,” Jake muttered. “Doesn’t feel that long, huh?”

As they were talking, an expected notification popped up in front of them.

At least Jake had thought it would be the expected one…

Congratulations! You have arrived on the Fourteenth City Floor of Nevermore.

All violence outside of the arenas is strictly prohibited on all city floors. Challenge Dungeon(s) can be found in the central square. If Nevermore is left and reentered, you will automatically be taken to the latest city floor unlocked.

You have successfully completed the second portion of Nevermore and is now entering the latter floors of the C-grade section. From floor seventy-one onwards, all floors will be even larger in scope. All basic floor completion bonuses will be increased twofold to compensate for the increased floor sizes moving forward.

Challenge Dungeons’ growth limit has been reached. All available Challenge Dungeons have been unlocked.

Jake stopped walking as he read the message. “Second portion completed? Damn, I was sure it would be after floor eighty.”

“Not entirely unexpected,” the Sword Saint commented. “This may indicate there are a hundred C-grade floors in total.”

“Even if that is so, we have two decades left,” the Fallen King added. “Clearing more floors will net more points, but we should reconsider if that is the best approach.”

“Ree?”

“Yes, exactly,” the Fallen King nodded.

Jake considered, and Sylphie was probably right. Alas, before they would have to make a decision, they wanted to go check out the Leaderboards.

No one came to meet them on this floor, which was also a bit surprising as, on most prior ones, someone from the Order had appeared. They even had someone from the Pantheon of Life pop up at one point to talk to Dina and give them some basic intel.

Moving toward the Leaderboards to check how they were faring, the Sword Saint made another comment.

“Just got a telepathic message with an update,” he said, Jake frowning. He hadn’t even noticed anyone out of the ordinary observing them.

“Who? And why just send it to you?” Jake questioned.

“Shyness perhaps? It is another follower of Aeon. Anyway, the latest scoop is that…”

He gave them a brief update on the latest happenings as they quickly reached the pretty empty city square and saw the big Leaderboard.

Average Nevermore Points (Floor 1-70): 336,381

Yeah, none of them really had any comments on this. It was damn low; what else was there to say? Was the number kind of big? Sure, but one must remember that the basic floor completion bonuses had increased significantly. Just completing floors forty-one to seventy would net 166,500 Nevermore Points, so to only get around a hundred thousand and fifty thousand above that from the prior forty floors and all kinds of bonus objectives… yeah, it was pretty bad. Of course, one also had to factor in that any party that could even make it this far wouldn’t be in any way ordinary.

As for the Current Points Record, well, it was actually only a bit more than double the average.

Current Nevermore Points Record (Floor 1-70): 744,673

Jake and company had kept the top spot. After floor sixty-five, they also had it, and not losing it was great. Of course, not everything was great. The Sword Saint had gotten an annoying update on other people also doing Nevermore.

As far as they were aware, a bit over a dozen groups they knew of were ahead of them, most of which Jake had no idea who was, but apparently, that beast group that had overtaken them a few times was one of these groups. Another one of those ahead he, unfortunately, did know quite well was Ell’Hakan, who had managed to cheese far more of these floors than they had been able to. The fundamental problem was that most floors had people on them, and Ell’Hakan’s Bloodline was simply too well-suited for those kinds of situations. In places where Jake and company had to act solo or purposefully avoid the attention of B-grades or others too powerful to handle, Ell’Hakan had been able to actively enlist them.

As for how they knew this, for sure? Well, through the guy bragging openly and spreading the news. He simply beat floors faster than them and was thus ahead.

The only good thing was that he appeared to get far fewer points. Likely because convincing B-grades to help you wasn’t unheard of, even for a C-grade. Now, convincing a god, that was awesome. But Ell’Hakan hadn’t bragged about getting those Starcross Twins on his side, so Jake assumed he had failed or possibly not even dared to try.

Besides that, they suspected Eron’s group was also ahead of them. They knew pretty much every other group they knew was not, and many weren’t really going for high spots on the Leaderboards anymore. Caleb and Maria had both communicated they were just trying to do as many floors as possible for levels, while Carmen and Jacob’s group wanted to go for high-tier placements.

Jake had no bloody idea what Arnold was up to.

Overall, Jake would still expect pretty much all the groups he knew to make it to around floor seventy. He would rate floors forty to seventy rather disappointing in the challenge aspect, and they had only gotten a single more Grand Achievements outside of the Dark Witch one. That one also “only” provided a 5% bonus at the final calculation, making the Minaga one still stand out. Then again, the Minaga fight was still the biggest challenge so far, even thirty floors later.

It had certainly gotten harder, with many foes above level 300 appearing, but fights worth comparing to Minaga were few and far between. The final boss on floor seventy had been stronger than Minaga, true, but the thing is, so had Jake and everyone else in his party.

It had been more than two decades since Jake battled Minaga. Two decades was not a long time to a C-grade, but it was a long time for Jake and his party members, especially considering they were actively progressing all throughout this time. As they were walking toward a small house to discuss future plans, Just to put things into perspective, he compared his current status to his status shortly before the Minaga fight.

And there had been quite the development.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (C) – 222 --> 253]

Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge – 219 --> 256]

Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper – 226 --> 251]

Health Points (HP): 139,110/139,110

Mana Points (MP): 298,921/298,921

Stamina: 149,651/149,770

Stats

Strength: 10922 --> 17707

Agility: 15391 --> 23894

Endurance: 10476 --> 14977

Vitality: 11053 --> 13911

Toughness: 8986 --> 11062

Wisdom: 14357 --> 19131

Intelligence: 11698 --> 16021

Perception: 30882 --> 40308

Willpower: 12336 --> 16664

Free points: 0

He had gotten a lot of levels and stats; no two ways about it. Jake also continued to lick his Perception marble throughout, which was part of the reason why he had gotten such a massive growth in Perception. His Strength and Agility had also both grown immensely, which was of great benefit in combat. This came very much due to his high level of investment of Free Points. Jake had only chosen to put Free Points into Strength, Agility, and a bit into Endurance during this time, as while Perception was indeed the stat, he didn’t like the feeling of seeing the Sword Saint slowly begin to catch up to him in speed and power, so he had to invest some stat points to stay ahead.

However, even if he knew he had gotten a lot stronger and gained many levels, Jake still considered it pretty subpar at times. It felt slow, especially during the last few levels. After he reached level 250, it felt like leveling slowed down even more than before – which was really saying something, considering how it had already slowed to a crawl before he even reached that point.

One could well and truly say he was over his initial C-grade growth spurt. They all were, including even Sylphie. Sure, she had reached level 267, making her the highest-leveled one in the party by quite a bit, but that she wasn’t higher was proof of how much slower levels became with time.

The Sword Saint and Fallen King were the ones who handled this slower leveling the best, with Sylphie and Jake both being pained the most. Dina was kind of neutral, having clearly expected it and not carrying any particular feelings on the matter. She expressed that it was normal for growth to slow down as life matured and that as long as one didn’t begin to wither but kept growing, there were no causes for concern.

So, yeah, asking a damn tree lady about impatience in growth was a bad idea.

Overall, even if Jake complained, he had to admit he was a lot stronger now than when he fought Minaga. In fact, while Jake couldn’t say it with certainty, he would estimate that should he face Minaga alone in his current form… he would have a legitimate shot at victory, and not only due to his stat growth. Because while numbers had certainly gone up, his skills hadn’t been entirely stagnant, and he looked through his skills menu while mentally highlighting those that had improved or been added since the fight with the Unique Lifeform.

Class Skills: [Arcane Stealth (Rare)], [Superior Stealth Attack (Rare)], [Bestial Hunter’s Tracking (Epic)], [Splitting Arcane Arrow Rain (Epic)], [Archery of Expanding Horizons (Epic)], [Piercing Cursed Arcane Fang (Epic)],[Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter (Epic)], [Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows (Epic)], [Arcane Powershot (Ancient)], [Protean Arrow of Avaricious Horizons (Ancient)], [Steady Aim of the Apex Hunter (Ancient)], [Arcane Awakening (Ancient)], [One Step, Thousand Miles (Ancient)], [Fangs of Man (Ancient)], [Big Game Arcane Hunter (Ancient)], [Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon (Ancient)], [Moment of the Primal Hunter (Legendary)], [Gaze of the Apex Hunter (Legendary)], [Relentness Hunt of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter (Legendary)], [Arcane Supremacy (Legendary)], [Eternal Shadow of the Primal Hunter (Mythical)]

Profession Skills: [Path of the Heretic-Chosen (Unique)], [Grimoire of the Heretic-Chosen (Unique)], [Alchemist’s Purification (Inferior)], [Alchemical Flame (Common)], [Brew Potion (Uncommon)], [Craft Elixir (Rare)], [Concoct Poison (Rare)], [Soul Ritualism of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Ancient)],[Malefic Viper’s Poison (Ancient)], [Arcane Curse Manifestation (Ancient)], [Blood of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Sagacity of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Sense of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Wings of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Touch of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Legacy Teachings of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Legendary)],[Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Pride of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Scales of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Fangs of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Anomalous Soul of the Heretic-Chosen (Legendary)], [Core Manipulation of the Primal Hunter (Legendary)]

Blessing: [True Blessing of the Malefic Viper (Blessing - True)]

Race Skills: [Endless Tongues of the Myriad Races (Unique)], [Legacy of Man (Unique)], [Wisdom of the Hunter (Unique)], [Identify (Rare)], [Serene Soul Meditation (Epic)], [Shroud of the Primordial (Divine)]

Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability - Unique)]

Five class skills and six profession skills had improved since that fight, though during the last twenty or so floors, only one class skill and three profession skills had seen any improvement. And the improvement on pretty much all of those was far from interesting.

Arcane Powershot had gotten upgraded as Jake pushed the skill further and further, partly due to Arcane Supremacy, and his understanding slowly deepened, allowing him to pour in more and more energy. He simply fired so many of them that the feeling of the arcane energy moving through his body became so familiar, and as he actively sought to improve it through his ever-increasing understanding, the skill upgraded. Once more, there was no functional change. The skill was just better in its wonderful simplicity.

It was definitely still his favorite archery skill.

Brew Potion was far more boring than that. He hadn’t even expected the upgrade; he just got it the moment he crafted a mana potion that restored more than 100,000 mana for the very first time. So that was kind of nice, and even if it was surprising, he really shouldn’t have been. That upgrade was purely automatic, and out of every single skill Jake was aware of, it had by far the most well-defined upgrade path. Well, besides maybe Concoct Poison, but the two were super similar.

Craft Elixir was not as similar, and the upgrade came to be from Jake being his party’s only damn source of elixirs. Could they buy it on a city floor? Sure, they totally could have, but the Fallen King and Sword Saint agreed that Jake could easily just make it for them, considering all the natural treasures he was hoarding. Jake had semi-reluctantly agreed, as getting in a bit of elixir practice once in a while was fine, and he kind of wanted a break from working with Curse Fragments at the time. Working with fragmented curse energy representing the concept of insatiable hunger could be mentally taxing, after all. Who knew?

No, the only exciting upgrade had been Soul Ritualism of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist. There were plenty of chances to interact with rituals throughout the years, and he had honestly been in for an upgrade for a while with both the Vesperia ritual and the Dark Witch one. Especially so as Jake dove further and further into the Curse Manifestation skill, and he began to see ways to utilize the fragments in rituals. After a while and a bit of testing, he upgraded the skill to work even better with curse energy, though he still felt like he had a ways to go, as he still wasn’t able to do a big ritual with Eternal Hunger as the power source.

As for why he wanted to do a massive curse ritual using Eternal Hunger? Well, to see if he could, obviously.

Having gone through all his skills, the only menu he hadn’t bothered addressing mentally was his titles, as nothing had really changed there.

In conclusion, two decades spent in a mega-dungeon led to some solid-ass growth. However, Jake also knew that things would only get slower from here unless he could find some truly challenging fights. The kind that put his life in legitimate danger.

Perhaps floor seventy-one would have that as they could now enter the third portion. However, with twenty or so years left to go, perhaps it was high time to consider another aspect of Nevermore they had neglected so far.

Challenge Dungeons’ growth limit has been reached. All available Challenge Dungeons have been unlocked.

Reaching a house, they could sit down for a discussion on if it was time to decide that perhaps if they couldn’t find proper challenges on the regular floors, it was time to do some Challenge Dungeons. Challenge Dungeons had to have good challenges, right?

It was literally in their name.