The Primal Hunter

Nevermore shook her head after she threw the young human out of the Challenge Dungeon. The instance of the dungeon he had been occupying was already dematerializing and getting recycled, with the only thing remaining the ten Creations he had submitted and his new personal domain.

Of the Creations, the arcane marble was by far the most interesting and would be a great item to absorb for the World Wonder. She also had plenty of thoughts on the one who had submitted it and his… peculiar nature. Nevermore also couldn’t help but find it funny he had asked about the 25% bonus as if it was something anyone ever expected to get. Though, it was hard to blame him, considering he had already obtained it two times.

Perhaps if he had spent longer, he could have reached the 25% he strived for, but she doubted it. If he had wanted to reach that evaluation, he would have had to thoroughly expand the scope of what he worked with. As an alchemist, he already had many different advantages, but, as odd as it sounds, his Bloodline became his ultimate limiter.

Alas, he had been one of the better ones for sure. Nevermore wouldn’t say she was disappointed at the lack of interest from most young geniuses when it came to crafting. It was a bit discouraging, though. Creation was, after all, one of the most important abilities one could ever have for spreading their Records.

This is also why she truly appreciated when someone showed up who was a true creator. Someone who didn’t merely achieve a high score through using their Bloodlines or Transcendents. That Chosen of Yip of Yore had already left a bad taste in her mouth with the way he had achieved his albeit impressive score.

Luckily, there had been one person also related to the Chosen of the Malefic Viper who had truly impressed her. A man without a Bloodline, Transcendant skill, or anything like that. Just a creative mind.

He didn’t even walk around with a title like the Chosen of the Malefic Viper but had simply gone by Arnold. He was a man who didn’t radiate the slightest arrogance or even confidence. He was a blank slate that seemed entirely unbothered with anything that didn’t interest him.

His actions were cold. The worlds were nothing more than a means of production to him, and despite the fact that the resources on the planets weren’t meant to be used for crafting, he had done so anyway. The student of the Viper’s Chosen had wiped out one of the worlds… Arnold had transformed all seven of them as he drained them all of their resources. Except for two, that is, which he deemed unsuitable for harvest. For those, he instead managed to tap into the energy powering the portals and absorbed all the energy that way, turning them into generators.

The Creations submitted had all been sublime and incredibly diverse. The man was not limited by affinities, nor did he limit his use of materials. The void-based Creations he submitted were all sights to behold, and the sheer scale of all his actions was beyond impressive. To turn the world that the Malefic Viper’s Chosen’s student had come from into what was effectively one big industrial planet within only two years didn’t even seem realistic for a C-grade, yet he had done it.

He achieved this through self-replicating constructs. He would make one construct that could then make others, which snowballed endlessly. Usually, this would not be possible, but their original Creator made it so by constantly remaining connected to them. He had a way of feeding them energy through a void-based connection, she didn’t doubt Oras had a hand in and allowed himself to effectively function as a central hub.

In many ways, he reminded Nevermore of the automata race. His mentality, approach to things, general lack of emotions, and analytical problem-solving technique… except he put them to shame with how extreme he took the concept. Moreover, he took full advantage of the fact he still remained a human and didn’t have the same limitations automata would have – primarily their severely lacking evolution and biological self-adaptation options.

Nevermore had told Jake that there were others out there who could also stand before a god unaffected without influence from his Bloodline. This man was one of them. It wasn’t because he was resistant to the difference between grades, nor that he didn’t recognize the gap. It was simply that he didn’t actively consider it a relevant factor to his interactions most of the time. To try and suppress him with a superior aura was like trying to shine a bright light to blind a man without eyes. He simply didn’t appear to have a brain that computed the difference like everyone else… which was probably also the reason he could carry the Legacy of Oras without breaking his mind:

It was already broken from the beginning.

Yet the Bound God saw nothing wrong with this. To be slightly broken was to be different, and in trade for parts of Arnold not functioning as one would expect, he gained a brilliant mind in turn.

Looking at the two of the most impressive Creations he had submitted, she felt in awe at both. One of them was one of the odd devices he had used to drain the energy of the portals. It was filled with odd void magic and had been capable of exploiting the endless energy provided by the system to keep the portals active. It was an item split in two, looking like two rings with a thin black thread between them, where one part entered the portal, and the other remained on the other side. At least it looked like that.

In fact, the two items were constantly switching positions countless times every single second. Every time something entered or exited the portal, a very faint wisp of energy would be released, an amount so little that it barely registered. However, there was still some energy. These two odd void rings would absorb this energy at every position swap. As they switched what had to be easily trillions of times every single second, the energy absorbed was astronomical, with every shred of it feeding into Arnold, who merely functioned as a conduit to spread it out to his other machines. At least, he did for a good while until he made the second Creation she looked at.

The other item she looked at was something called a control matrix. A device made to keep track of and – as the name implied – control everything else he had made. It was an item he repeatedly expanded upon during the entirety of House of the Architect, slowly improving with new layers of magical scripts. Like an artificial mind of sorts, it slowly took the mental load and jobs off Arnold as time progressed, allowing him to free up his brain for other projects without slowing down any production.

They had both been legendary items and not bad legendary items either.

Arnold had been well on his way to a remarkable 20% score until the very last Creation that pushed him over the edge. With every item Arnold turned in, he had made exact replicas so he could keep using them because they would all be necessary for his final submission.

His final submission wasn’t merely an item but the entire system he had created. He had thoroughly made the entire House of the Architect his own, integrated every single Attendant, and set up automatic purchase orders with the Merit Point Store. He effectively exploited that putting together raw materials from the store would nearly always result in a product one could sell back for more Merit Points than the cost. With the entire crafting process turning entirely automated, he made what could only described as an ever-growing machine that would continually expand and never run out of resources.

Everything he had done had been building toward a whole that, when it came together, allowed Arnold to produce whatever he wanted completely autonomously. He had created something that would persist even after he had left the Challenge Dungeon and submitted that as his final Creation. It wasn’t merely an item, but if Nevermore had to classify it as one, and considering all the parts in play, it would no doubt have been considered mythical rarity.

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The sheer level of forethought, planning, and ingenuity had been inspiring. Especially the fact he had taken everything the House of the Architect provided into consideration and integrated it into his grand plan proved he hadn’t simply pre-planned the entire thing before entering the Challenge Dungeon. Proof that he had simply relied on an incredibly high level of base skill to make everything happen, actively exploiting the dungeon in every way he could, all without relying on any abilities considered outside the system.

He was a legitimate genius in the realm of creation, no doubt about it.

As for how good he was in other areas… well, he was very lopsided in his skills. He could go far, but he wasn’t truly a contender for the Nevermore Leaderboards, especially not with people like the Chosen of the Malefic Viper in the mix, who had a far more general set of abilities and a high level of adaptability to his environment.

Which was bound to serve him well in the final Challenge Dungeon… something she couldn’t say about Arnold’s skills in there.

Vilastromoz opened his eyes just as another god in the room had a somewhat expected outburst.

”Finally! God damn, I was getting tired of that horrible Challenge Dungeon. It sucked all the fun out of this otherwise wonderful viewing party!” Minaga complained loudly, waking many of the gods in the room from their temporary slumber.

Alright, perhaps slumber was not the right word for what had just been them focusing their attention elsewhere than the avatar in the room. The majority of them were only there to observe what the influential gods said, after all, so they didn’t bother to focus on it most of the time.

For the last two years or so, the Holy Mother, Blightfather, Valdemar, Malefic Viper, and Nature’s Attendant had all simply observed their own private livestreams of those they were interested in, and any communication had happened through telepathy. In truth, the only person the gods openly discussed was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, Jake.

Not to say the gods weren’t interested in how others did. As they were in Nevermore anyway with an avatar, they had little excuse to not peek at how their C-grade prospects were doing. Valdemar and the Blightfatherdid also have a brief exchange when the young Ghost King known as Azal managed to gain Valdemar’s recognition within the Colosseum of Mortals.

Besides these small comments and exchanges here and there, when a member from one of the Primordial’s factions did something impressive, there had mostly been silence. That is until Minaga suddenly had his outburst, marking that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was out of the Challenge Dungeon and available to be observed.

”You know why the rules are in place to restrict any viewing,” the Wyrmgod sighed.

”Yeah, because Nevermore is stingy as hell and anti-fun,” Minaga grumbled, clearly not a fan of the Bound God of the World Wonder.

From what the Viper knew, this dislike stemmed from the Bound God being what could best be described as a balancing voice in the World Wonder. She was the one who imposed restrictions on Minaga here and there, and as she spoke for the system, she had quickly become the boogieman in the Unique Lifeform’s eyes.

”Are you still angry she won’t give out any details about the Creations submitted?” Vilastromoz asked. ”The information she can give, I mean.”

”Damn straight I am,” Minaga nodded. ”Bending the rules of the system is just what you’re supposed to do, so why is she being such a stickler with things like that? In my opinion, the right to privacy is a scam and not something anyone needs. Heck, look at me. I’ve never been alone for a single conscious moment in my entire life, and I turned out just fine!”

”Sure, sure,” the Viper just shook his head. ”Now, what is this Endless Journey Challenge Dungeon? The first time I remember seeing this one. Minaga’s Labyrinth was too, but at least that one was easy to see through.”

”It is new indeed,” the Wyrmgod said. ”It replaced the Adventure Time Challenge Dungeon. Too many issues arose from having to escort others around for extended periods, and it proved too detrimental for too many Paths, especially the non-humanoid ones. Even when we added a beast to be escorted alongside the humanoid. So it was replaced with this one. Similar concept, though with some more complicated interactions. But overall less escorting and more-”

”Mailman,” Minaga chimed in, interrupting.

”Courier,” the Wyrmgod corrected.

”I see,” the Viper slowly nodded as he smiled. He got a pretty good feeling about how Jake would do in that one…

”For the record, I already placed a bet on Jake’s performance in this one while he was doing my labyrinth floors,” Minaga said.

”Who did you even bet with?” the Malefic Viper questioned. No one else had arrived at that point, and the Viper hadn’t made that bet, while the Wyrmgod tended to avoid making bets with Minaga, considering the Unique Lifeform tended to worm his way out if he lost.

”This friend of mine called Minaga. Great guy. You should meet him someday and definitely bet with him,” the Unique Lifeform said shamelessly. ”Of course, I can’t be responsible if he doesn’t pay up. In fact, I’m not even sure he’s gonna stay true to our bet.”

The Viper didn’t even bother responding as he just looked at the Wyrmgod, ignoring Minaga. ”Is this Challenge Dungeon fully spectator-friendly?”

His fellow Primordial looked at him and smiled. ”Naturally… so enjoy the show.”

Jake headed straight back to the Challenge Dungeon entrances, where he promptly laid his hands on the final one before entering. While he could have sat down and chilled a bit, maybe even taken a slight break to craft some poisons before starting it, he decided against it. Considering its name was Endless Journey, he would be surprised if he didn’t at least get the chance to find some time for himself at some point if he really needed to craft anything.

After his vision went dark for a moment, Jake felt solid ground beneath his feet once more. Opening his eyes and feeling his surroundings with Sphere, Jake instantly got an idea as to where he was.

He was currently standing in front of what looked like a checkpoint leading into a quite frankly massive city. A city that looked quite a bit different from what Jake had expected.

There wasn’t any wall, but instead, just a tall metal fence surrounding it. The buildings he could see looked… modern at least by the usual standards of medieval cities. If Jake had to place the city in a time period, he would say the nineteen twenties or maybe thirties. Modern, yet still not exactly contemporary.

As he was looking at the city primarily through a snapshot from Pulse of Perception, the expected system message appeared.

Nevermore Challenge Dungeon Entered!

You have entered the Endless Journey. A world of conflict, intrigue, powerful beings hidden in the shadows, and uncountable tasks and missions left unfinished. Your job is to maneuver this realm as you travel in an endless journey.

As a newcomer, you are trusted simply because you have no other affiliations. Trusted to take up one of the most risky yet important jobs in the realm: that of a courier.

Your task is to accept Courier Jobs as you travel the land and deliver whatever goods are provided to their predetermined destination or target individuals. However, beware that there are many who have their eyes on you and covet whatever you are transporting, not to mention those who seek to exploit your work.

Courier Jobs have varying difficulty ratings, and as you accept more and more difficult Courier Jobs, you can move on to more dangerous areas of the realm to complete jobs. In fact, as you complete jobs, your reputation will grow, making easier Courier Jobs no longer available while unlocking more and more difficult ones. Note that even if some Courier Jobs have identical difficulty ratings, the actual difficulty may vary, and every job may have unexpected twists.

Now, go forth as you maneuver the complex political climate of the realm. On your journey, watch out for those who wish to take what you are to deliver and those who wish you harm or to lead you astray. Trust is not to be given lightly, so stay forever vigilant.

Should you fail a Courier Job in any way, you will be teleported back to wherefrom you originally accepted the job. The Courier Job you accepted and failed will no longer be available. Should you die, you will return back to wherefrom you originally accepted the most recent Courier Job. The Courier Job you died in the midst of will no longer be available. You have three total lives. Failing a Courier Job without dying will not consume a life.

Good luck, and may the road be smooth.

Objective: Complete Courier Jobs.

Current objective: Accept and complete a Courier Job.

Lives Remaining: 3

Jake quickly scanned it and couldn’t help but flash a wry smile. ”And here I swore to myself I would never work a delivery job again after graduating uni…”