The Primal Hunter

”You two had a lot of fun with this one, huh?” the Viper commented as he watched Jake perform Courier Job after Courier Job. Despite it not being outright confirmed yet, he had the strong impression that both Minaga and the Wyrmgod had been heavily involved with this particular Challenge Dungeon.

”Fun? Do you have any idea how much work it was?” Minaga said with a sigh. ”Out of every Challenge Dungeon, this one took by far the longest. Well, besides the Test of Character, but I wasn’t much involved with that, so it doesn’t count.”

”I take it Nevermore itself also got quite involved with the balancing?” Vilastromoz further inquired.

”The sheer complexity of having so many starting points, all the quest paths, and keeping it all dynamic and adapting to the Nevermore Attendee required far more work than initially estimated. The original plan was to have this Challenge Dungeon ready last era, but we had to delay it primarily due to Nevermore and the system not accepting the balancing,” the Wyrmgod explained; many gods who were capable of listening in very interested in getting some insights into the World Wonder.

”Not certain I would call this balanced,” the Blightfather decided to chime in. ”Seeing Azal also doing the Challenge Dungeon pretty much confirmed the lack of critical thinking from many of the characters. They are too trusting and, in certain cases, either too easily fooled, while in other instances, getting any kind of advantage is borderline impossible.”

”We are well aware,” the Wyrmgod sighed. ”However, it was necessary to do it like this. If we tried to adhere to realism too much, the time required to unlock any high-level quest path would simply take far too long, so we had to tweak the logic of the world quite a lot. With the aim of the Challenge Dungeon taking around two years on average for the high-performers, this is the solution we settled on.

”Also, you cannot argue that some individuals aren’t simply this trusting, even among the higher grades. People can get blinded by their goals and consider what they do so important and justified that they automatically assume everyone else will share their opinion, thus seeing no need to be critical. Having the ability to identify these people and distinguish them from the less fanatical is most definitely a skill worth learning,”

”Even so, it teaches many unrealistic lessons along with the healthy ones,” the Blightfather insisted. ”Additionally, it makes little sense to remove all status from everyone. As a variant Risen of the highest echelon, Azal should have been recognized, yet the denizens of the Challenge Dungeon seem incapable of doing so, even daring to treat him like a lesser. It goes against their very Records to act like that.”

”Race isn’t something that should give an advantage in this dungeon, same as Blessings, and even the status as a Bloodline Patriarch or Transcendant also won’t offer any notable advantages,” the Wyrmgod argued back.

”Such a fundamental change to social dynamics for certain races shouldn’t be taken that lightly. How would you view it if…”

Vilastromoz remained quiet, not really having much to add as the two Primordials discussed openly for all to hear. It was rare for such a lively discussion to appear, and while both of them went at each other, the Viper also knew both enjoyed it. As sad as it sounds, it was rare to find people even willing to argue back who wouldn’t just take anything you said as gospel, so to get pushback was almost .

The Viper considered getting involved just for the fun of it but decided against it as the topic didn’t overly interest him. The only thing he really cared about was the information that the Challenge Dungeon was new, and it being new meant one thing:

It was exploitable.

All the Challenge Dungeons had obvious exploits that got fixed with every new iteration. Minaga’s Labyrinth and how he improved his special mist was a prime example of this, with every one of the Challenge Dungeons having similar improvements and ”nerfs” to certain Paths every new era. Seeing as this was the first, it meant many things had yet to be fully ironed out, as it was simply impossible to account for every Path without some live testing. The only reason the system accepted it despite the flaws that would be revealed was that every attendant who competed had the same circumstances and the same opportunities to take advantage.

As for what specific exploits were to be found… well, Vilastromoz already had one minor oversight in mind. One he was certain Jake would be able to take full advantage of, even if he did so unknowingly. In fact, he had already been exploiting it despite not realizing it yet.

No one else seemed to have really noticed either, making the Viper smile to himself. This should be a good one…

Time quickly passed as Jake was back on the job, on that grindset. The Courier Jobs were similar to the ones he had done before, but there was a slight twist. After Jake had done exactly twenty, he was contacted by the Infernal Baron, who informed him that an important job was upcoming and that Jake would need to upgrade his Medallion within three months to be able to accept it. So, he had some more pressure on him to get promoted in time… alright, not really. Jake had plenty of time.

He completed the jobs incredibly quickly and efficiently, and he never once really ran into any problems. It was to the level where Jake questioned what was actually being tested, as the scams he was exposed to all seemed way too obvious to Jake.

Then again, maybe it was just because Jake had grown up on Earth where one could – for some inexplicable reason – sell through social media with little oversight or regulation, with every second seller just being a straight-up scammer. From that, Jake learned some basic lessons about making deals like this and was taught some damn common sense.

His number one rule was to always stick to the agreement, almost to a fault. Oh, did the client want to change the delivery location last minute? Nope, Jake would go to the original place. Someone else was sent to pick up the delivery? Not gonna happen; only the client would get it. While this did make people mad, Jake wasn’t going to risk things needlessly. Sticking to just a few basic principles like this seemed to serve Jake very well, and in the instances where he did have to show some flexibility, he believed he managed well and showed proper caution.

In the end, the time limit indeed didn’t prove an issue, as he, well ahead of time, got his Medallion upgraded along with yet another promotion at work.

[Courier Medallion (Rare)] – A Courier Medallion belonging to an experienced Courier who is beginning to build up quite the renown. This Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs are completed and your reputation grows.

Requirements: Soulbound

With his promotion, Jake could finally get Special Courier Job 3. As for this one… well, things just liked to get more complicated, as the Duke of Flames was the first to give Jake a task.

”There is a political conference taking place in the Phoenix Wing Empire. We of the Human Kingdom will naturally send a delegation. I need you to deliver something to someone I have working in an outpost in the Empire before the delegation arrives and work with my subordinate there to uncover any potential people related to this organization who may attend the conference. But for now, go to the organization and see if you can discover more and report to my subordinate once you arrive in the city of the conference. We will post an official job tomorrow morning for a Courier to deliver a package of important documents to the outpost, so make sure to accept it.”

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Right after Jake had gotten this task, he naturally went straight to the elemental rights organization, which Jake had decided to rename the People for the Ethical Treatment of Elementals organization for no particular reason. PETE, for short. Yes, it was a very original name that Jake had thought up entirely on his own without any inspiration whatsoever.

Anyway, Jake naturally informed PETE of what the Duke wanted him to do, and they, of course, also had a task for him.

”Some of our core members will also attend this conference, just as he suspects, and we will need you to ensure they are not discovered by the Duke of Flames. Go to the Phoenix Wing Empire as the Duke wants, and once there, make contact with one of the members and work with them to keep them safe, and while you’re there, attempt to discover if the Duke has any allies within the Phoenix Wing Empire. Also, we believe the Duke may be suspecting some of the plants within his dukedom working with us. Try to find out who he suspects so we can extract them in time.”

It was two tasks that weren’t mutually exclusive, and Jake naturally decided to kind of do both.

He kept up his act as an infinite loop agent as he made executive decisions as to what information he would share, giving just enough to keep both sides happy. PETE wanted Jake to help extract those the Duke suspected? Alright, Jake would help the majority of them get away, not telling them that the way the Duke located them in the first place was due to Jake.

By the way, the city Jake had gone to for this conference was another mid-sized city, but one slightly larger than the one the infernal Baron had been at, showing Jake was truly moving up in the world. For this entire conference, only C-grades were present, likely because no country wanted a bunch of B-grades and above to be in their lands due to how big of a security risk it was. They would still communicate using projections, but all of the powerful people worked from home.

This second mid-sized city in the Phoenix Wing Empire differed vastly from what could be found in the Human Kingdom. The architecture was much more vertical, with large hollowed-out trees sometimes serving as buildings, with the general architecture taking heavy inspiration from nature. Population-wise, it was still a mix, but it was clear this Empire had a lot more beasts and beastfolk compared to the Human Kingdom.

What they also had were elementals in human form, all of which were more than antagonistic toward the Duke’s people. They were oddly fine with Jake, even when he was with the Duke’s people, showing how overpowered the status of a Courier was.

When it came to the job at hand, the entire conference was a bit of a mess, if Jake was being honest, but he did discover many exciting things he disclosed to both PETE and the dukedom, making them trust him even more than before. During the conference, he even completed four entire Side Jobs by sneaking around and discovering stuff others wanted to keep hidden… oh, and one job where he had to convince a noblewoman not to get married by finding evidence that some guy was only after her because of her family. It had fuck-all to do with anything else he was doing, but Jake had done it for some bloody reason anyway.

After the conference was done, Jake remained in the Phoenix Wing Empire, with the Duke thinking he had successfully infiltrated PETE further, while PETE believed Jake was working with foreign agents of the dukedom to get them more information, both of which were one hundred percent true.

Seeing as Guilds were in every major city and that both sides said he should await the next time they needed him, Jake returned to doing regular Courier Jobs. Weeks turned to months as Jake kept completing jobs before the next Special Courier Job came in, which he also promptly completed, and through it, he finally met one of the higher-ups in PETE for the first time. It was the shadowy figure he had spoken to many times, and she turned out to be a B-grade Marquise from the Phoenix Wing Empire.

More and more snippets of information were revealed as Jake got further ammunition to use on either side, only letting a bit spill here and there to keep both happy with his work. Jake still wasn’t certain what his endgame would be, but the more he learned about both sides, the less and less he liked them.

After about two months in this mid-sized city, Jake had done about one hundred jobs there, and with it came yet another promotion.

[Courier Medallion (Epic)] – A Courier Medallion belonging to a highly experienced Courier with a strong reputation. This Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs are completed and your reputation grows.

Requirements: Soulbound

Jake had now worked for several months, and even if he was rapidly getting promoted, he had yet to see a single payslip. He was definitely being exploited, even if things were a bit… weird. PETE kept talking about rewarding Jake handsomely for his help, and the Duke of Flames said the same thing, but nothing ever came of it. This was despite even the Guild attendants sometimes noting how some jobs ”gave quite a lot!” but when Jake turned in a completed job… nothing.

So, yeah, Dungeon-fuckery galore. He sure as hell hoped the final reward would set things right, or he would have to sue for unpaid wages.

When Jake was done in the mid-sized city, he got a Special Courier Job to go to a large-sized one in yet another country. This job wasn’t directly linked with the Duke of Flames or even PETE, but when he got to this new city, Jake discovered both had a presence there, primarily because PETE just followed the dukedom wherever they had any people.

More Courier Jobs followed as Jake worked his ass off, not even taking lunch breaks or accounting for unpaid overtime. He was definitely also breaking a lot of work safety rules with the way he did the Courier Jobs, but so far, he had luckily avoided a fine.

A few more Special Courier Jobs came in while Jake had an epic rarity Medallion, each Courier promotion taking longer than the last. Jake also kept learning more about his two biggest clients until he finally discovered a very juicy piece of information that also kind of answered something he had been wondering about.

The Sealed Elemental Jake was meant to deliver had an elemental inside that PETE already knew about, despite Jake thinking they shouldn’t be able to. This elemental was meant to be delivered to the Infernal Baron who would then send it back to his little sister to assist her in her Path. What Jake didn’t know was that the one who had requested this specific elemental was the daughter of the Duke and that she had made the request at the behest of PETE.

In this large-sized city, Jake even came to meet with the girl, where she spilled her heart out about how she hated her family’s Legacy and didn’t want to consume elementals to progress, which was also why she was still only in early C-grade despite not even being that much younger than the Infernal Baron. Quite the plot twist that she was working with PETE, and definitely not something her family knew about.

Except, it turned out she wasn’t really working with them but was just being taken advantage of. Despite her assisting them, PETE still hated her guts just because of her family and wanted her dead alongside everyone else in the dukedom. So she was pretty much just an idiot being fooled.

But wait! That wasn’t actually true either! She had figured out they were trying to take advantage of her a long time ago and was now working with a third party, which was where Jake came into play as she also began to offer him jobs to destroy both the dukedom and PETE.

In another huge plot twist, the daughter of the Duke was the one who had gotten another dukedom of the Human Kingdom involved to take down the Dukedom of Flames as they called it. In the process, they also wanted to eliminate PETE using the Duke of Flames to do so, weakening the Duke of Flames in the process.

The mess had turned even messier, and Jake was smack in the middle, now effectively working for three factions at once. Was he still an infinite loop agent? Jake wasn’t sure at this point… in fact, he even considered if perhaps a fourth party should get involved.

Nevertheless, Jake kept chugging along, and soon, over nine months had passed since Jake entered the Challenge Dungeon. Hundreds of regular Courier Jobs had been completed, along with eleven total Special Courier Jobs, and who even knows how many Side Jobs and Special Side Jobs. The plot was also thicker than ever, with even more intrigue, Jake finally beginning to get a clear picture of everything. With all these jobs done, the Guild naturally also recognized his efforts.

[Courier Medallion (Ancient)] – A Courier Medallion belonging to an extremely experienced Courier with an excellent reputation. This Medallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs are completed and your reputation grows.

Requirements: Soulbound

With another upgrade under his belt, Jake got a Special Courier Mission to return to the capital of the Human Kingdom. He knew the leader of PETE – an early A-grade – would also be there, along with every other dukedom in the country along with the royal family. Powerful people from other factions had also snuck in, and Jake felt a final showdown would soon occur.

As for Jake’s role in this final showdown… well, that was yet to be decided, but considering he hated every faction he had met so far, he reckoned things were about to get even messier, and Jake would gladly be there to take advantage.