The Primal Hunter

Dina was enamored with her wooden branch and instantly got to work on a formation that would allow her to properly absorb it, though it didn’t seem like that would be a small project. Absorbing any kind of high-value item like that wasn’t something to be done haphazardly, according to her. Jake’s advice of just throwing it into a cauldron while mixing it with a bunch of high-rarity stuff and just seeing what happens was not taken seriously.

The King was more relaxed with his gift and ate the Soulcore of Minaga the moment he got it and promptly began meditating. The two weeks they waited before continuing was the time it took for the Fallen King to awaken once more. By the time he did, the cracks on the mask were fully healed, but nothing much seemed to have changed, though Jake reckoned he had good gains based on his uncharacteristically jovial mood.

Sylphie was the one who had gained the most precarious treasure, and Jake had to confess he was a bit nervous about her using it. He had insisted on being present the first time Sylphie infused energy into the nest-like treasure. So he had. The bird had just sat in it like a normal nest, and after infusing some energy into it, she seemed to get sleepy and dozed off.

It had taken nearly five hours before she woke up again, only to yawn, say the dream-projection of the Sylph was super weird but kind of nice, before going to sleep again. So, yeah, Sylphie was definitely loved by the wind, putting Jake at ease.

Speaking of Jake… with everyone else playing around with their loot, he naturally also got some alone time in with the Cradle of Soul’s Kindling. At first, he had just been infusing some energy into it while – pretty stupidly – testing how durable it was by trying if he could knick the urn. He couldn’t, and based on all the things he tried, he doubted any C-grade could even leave a mark. That isn’t to say B-grades necessary could either, as Jake honestly had no idea how durable it was.

Ah, but he was also a bit productive.

Jake discovered that not only could he infuse his energy into the urn, but he could also look inside. And what he saw was honestly astonishing. The description of the Cradle had talked about a world inside, but Jake had seen that more as either a metaphor or perhaps just a small space like what could be found inside Sandy’s stomach.

What he instead was met with could truly be described as a world. A massive space resided within the Cradle, making it look like a miniature solar system. At first, Jake thought he was looking at a sea of stars until he noticed it instead was actually tens if not hundreds of thousands of Soulflames burning in space like small stars. Some chased each other, some fled, some did nothing, and some simply found themselves consumed by the environment.

The edges of this space weren’t just emptiness either, but instead solid walls. These walls were of all kinds of varieties and had entire cave systems within them. Some of the walls were made of rock, others of metal, ice, wood, pure mana, water, lightning, clouds, pure light, pure darkness, and many more. Honestly, the entire place just didn’t make any sense based on all the rules Jake knew of affinities. Yet it all seemed to be in balance, and on all of these walls and within all of these tunnel systems, Soulflames were moving about.

As he observed, Jake noticed what he believed was a Soulflame about to be born. He watched with excitement as the energy gathered, but he was soon left with wide eyes as the process didn’t stop. The mana kept gathering until a fully formed elemental was just about to appear.

Right then, the entire world of the Cradle seemed to come down on it like heavenly judgment, and the whole elemental dispersed into pure energy once more, never truly born. Having seen it once, Jake looked for more instances of this, and within less than an hour, he saw hundreds of similar cases. Watching this had answered one of Jake’s biggest questions. The Cradle wasn’t actually doing anything he didn’t already know was possible; it just did what was possible damn well.

The process of a Soulflame being born was the same within the Cradle as in the outside world, except for the environment being more primed than usual, and whenever an elemental was about to be born, it would be instantly killed. That way, the Cradle avoided actual elementals ever appearing, as they would be counterproductive. While alchemists loved their Soulflames, elementals loved to consume them even more as they were pretty much considered top-tier natural treasures.

Anyway, Jake felt a lot better after understanding exactly how the Cradle worked, and he infused plenty of his own arcane mana into it. After he had put in nearly his entire mana pool, he saw a pretty large sphere of it appear floating in the middle of space with some kind of protective film around it, keeping all other Soulflames away as it grew. Jake had a good feeling this orb would continue to grow as he poured in energy, and eventually, his arcane affinity would begin to invade other places in the Cradle than just this one orb.

From there, it would still be a matter of chance if a good Soulflame would appear with his arcane affinity. The entire purpose of the Cradle was to play into this chance and, through the sheer number of Soulflames born, create one that was really good.

This was how two weeks quickly passed before it was finally time to head onwards. Truthfully, they weren’t all in peak condition yet, but considering they were heading onto a city floor and the fact that they assumed the difficulty of floor forty-one to be lower than the Minaga fight, they moved confidently through the gateway.

Congratulations! You have arrived on the eighth 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 first portion of Nevermore, successfully entering the middle floors of the C-grade section. From floor forty-one onwards, all floors will be significantly larger in scope. All basic floor completion bonuses will be increased tenfold to compensate for the increased floor sizes moving forward.

“Did any of you know that Nevermore had portions like this?” Jake questioned after reading the message. He was mainly asking Dina but phrased it as an open question to be polite.

As expected, everyone shook their head except for Dina, who seemed to be in thought for a moment before answering.

“I didn’t know for sure, but I had heard that sections exist… but… I had expected Minaga’s Labyrinth to be viewed like one of these sections, not that there was any kind of official segregation,” she answered, looking a bit apologetic for some reason.

“Aight,” Jake nodded. “Well, can’t say I don’t welcome change as I hoped Nevermore wouldn’t go back to the usual stuff before Minaga’s Labyrinth. Let’s hope the difficulty is also higher on these floors.”

“If they are larger, there may be space for a wider range of difficulty on each floor,” the Sword Saint pitched in.

“Even if that is not the case, simply splitting up to complete the floors faster while facing challenges made for entire parties will naturally result in an increase in difficulty,” the Fallen King also added.

“Ree,” Sylphie contributed with an excellent point too.

“True, true,” Jake nodded as he smiled a bit at the others. “Before we move on…”

He got a few smiles all around as they all knew where they were headed.

Jake and company once more sought out the Leaderboards, curious if they had managed to take the top spot back. Jake had confidence they did, as they had thoroughly cheesed floors thirty-six through thirty-nine and did as well as anyone could on floor forty.

When they saw the Leaderboards, he could only smile at the current top record.

Average Nevermore Points (Floor 1-40): 12521

Current Nevermore Points Record (Floor 1-40): 54373

The top Points Records was the exact score they had, meaning they had indeed reclaimed the top spot once more. The difference was for how long. As mentioned, they had likely been faster than many other parties, and there was a good chance they just hadn’t arrived yet.

Looking at the average, Jake found it so low it was a bit silly, especially considering some people had less than this – it being average and all. Then again, seeing the more than four times higher Points Record that he and his party members held did put things into perspective.

Any party capable of even beating floor forty this early on in the integration and getting on the Leaderboards had to be pretty talented. A regular “elite” party from Earth likely wouldn’t even be able to beat the average, at least not yet. They would likely also take far longer than Jake and company. There were many floors before Minaga’s Labyrinth where one could just stay and grind levels for a while if they so desired.

This would also not be done while beating many of the events, skipping a few bonus objectives, limited achievements, and things like the Demon Lord or Minaga fights were entirely out of the question.

“We reached the top spot again,” Dina smiled as she looked at the Leaderboards.

“For now,” the Sword Saint nodded.

“It is no excuse to-“

“Yeah, yeah, no complacency, but keep going hard. You gave that speech the last time,” Jake smiled at the Fallen King.

“Words that should not be forgotten,” the Unique Lifeform still insisted.

Jake couldn’t really argue against that as he looked at the Leaderboards for a while while the others chatted. He did also take note of how few people were on this floor. Compared to Minaga’s city floor, this one was practically deserted. A few curious people had thrown glances their way, all of them far above their levels. Considering they were scouts from different factions, Jake reckoned they also knew who Jake and the others were and thus left them alone.

As he stood there looking at the Leaderboards, Jake did get curious about who else had passed them. Closing his eyes, he released a Pulse of Perception, scanning his surroundings and the people observing them. One of them wore a familiar robe and was located within a large building in the middle of the city with several deserted houses around it.

“Say, wanna go check in with someone who might know a bit more about everything going on?” Jake asked.

“Oh, the Order of the Malefic Viper has someone here?” Dina asked, instantly picking up on what Jake was asking.

“That, or some creep stole a robe from the Order and is impersonating a member,” Jake smiled in response.

“I see no harm in that,”

the Fallen King answered non-committedly.

“May as well,” the Sword Saint also nodded.

Thus Jake began to lead them toward the building with the scout inside. Not that it was needed, as Jake saw the scout already make her way over to Jake the moment he began walking toward the house. A bit before, even, showing she had decided to make contact already.

A few minutes later, a scalekin in a cloak with a familiar motif imprinted on it jumped down from a roof and landed in front of them, already on her knees. “This one greets the Chosen of the Malefic One and his comrades.”

“Hey there,” Jake nodded as he identified the female scalekin.

[Acidfall Wyvern – lvl 294]

Jake was a bit surprised at seeing a wyvern in humanoid form having taken up the job as scout and informant within Nevermore rather than just practicing themselves. He wasn’t going to ask thou-

“Why is a wyvern with decent talent wasting their time playing attendant on a city floor like this?”the Fallen King questioned.

Before Jake could even throw the Fallen King a glare, she responded.

“I am not competing on any Leaderboards and have no need to hurry. I have only stayed here for a year while nurturing a natural treasure and will continue my own descent in a few months. Thank you for your concern,” the scalekin smiled with that kind of smile that wasn’t really a smile.

Jake just threw the Fallen King a glance as he turned his attention back to the attendant from the Order. “Ignoring that annoying interrupting Unique Lifeform, do you have somewhere we can discuss privately?”

“Would right here be acceptable? My current base of operations is under a protective circle due to an ongoing experiment,” she questioned.

“Sure, go ahead,” Jake shrugged as he whipped out a set of chairs and a table he totally hadn’t stolen from one of Minaga’s in-between rooms. Totally not. And if he had, then it was the furniture’s own fault for being too comfortable.

After they all took a seat, Jake began questioning the attendant about the event as he made sure no outsiders were listening in.

“We don’t know exactly how many parties have passed the True Ending event of Minaga’s Labyrinth, much less how many have done it without suffering any losses, but it is estimated that the number will rise to at least in the dozens over the coming period as more elites make it to floor forty. The event is only doable by parties who are competing on the Leaderboards, and even then, it has other requirements we are not entirely certain of,” the attendant said in a careful tone.

“I also believe there are other requirements that are purposefully obscured. We also need to consider that not all parties manage to have every member make it through the entire fight. In fact, there is often at least one weaker link that is eliminated or just someone who finds themselves ill-fit in the fight, particularly during the period where each combatant is separated into individual fights. If they are unable to hold on long enough themselves, that is an easy spot to lose a comrade,” the Sword Saint nodded as he spoke curtly.

“That is true, but we have no good way of determining either case, and we can only make educated guesses on who passed the True Ending event unless they outright state if they did or not,” the attendant nodded.

It quickly became clear that while the attendant would happily give out information, she truly didn’t know much, and she wasn’t even overly aware of the other big parties. Jake kept calling her an attendant, but in truth, she too was just doing Nevermore herself and had been asked to stay on this floor in case anyone from the Order came by with questions, as she could work on her project on any city floor. That was also why she had been hidden when they arrived.

Jake and the others left the city floor soon after, seeing no reason to stay there. A few Pulses from Jake also confirmed no one else they knew was there. The lack of reason to stick around was probably also why it was so deserted. Especially not for the stronger parties, as there was an assumption that the following floors would be easier than the Minaga battle or even whatever fight one would have if they didn’t face Minaga himself. An assumption that was probably correct.

Alas, there was only one way to find out as Jake and company continued onwards with the hope that the following floors wouldn’t be too boring.

Who knows, maybe they could even be fun?

Or horrible...

But hopefully fun.