The Primal Hunter

Due to the inability to give out concrete information about the floors of Nevermore, no one even knew how many there were in the C-grade section. Jake and Co naturally also didn’t know, but they could infer based on how slowly the levels of enemies increased. To see the average levels of enemies go up by 1 to 3 per floor was expected, which meant that the “easy” section of Nevermore that they planned on blazing through was much longer than they had initially expected.

Nevertheless, they went through with impressive speed and cleared floor after floor as the levels of their foes slowly increased.

Floor fifteen had a Floor Boss at level 224, with the optional event boss at 235 only.

Floor twenty, level 232 for the Floor Boss, with the event boss only at 240.

Floor twenty-five, Floor Boss level 238, event boss level 245.

Floor thirty, Floor Boss 245, event boss 250.

This seemed like a semi-rapid increase to some, but one had to put it into perspective.

Jake, on his lonesome, had managed to take down the Hive King and Hive Queen, which were both above level 270, so for him to face level 250s, even if they were event bosses, wasn’t too difficult as he had also grown stronger since then. The Fallen King also displayed power equal to Jake, the Sword Saint having not needed to get serious yet, and Sylphie and Dina easily doing their jobs.

Some of the floors they encountered could be cheesed, and the challenge it offered circumvented entirely, but on the majority, they just had to face whatever challenge it provided head-on. As they also began encountering floors more like the first ones where a big part of the task was finding the Floor Boss, Jake finally bit the bullet and did his damn job as the resident hunter of the group:

He started tracking.

While sending out seed soldiers or having Jake fly really high up and scout was effective, it was far from the most efficient approach they could take. With that in mind, Jake took out his old tracking skill and got to work.

The first thing he identified was that all Floor Bosses did indeed have unique advantages in the form of increased resources, which was important for the next part. Because they also all had a particular… trait to their energy signature. Once Jake figured this out, things got a lot easier as he no longer had to search only for powerful energy signatures but one particular aspect of a mana signature.

Jake also began to truly embrace his instinctual nature when tracking. He began to trust his intuition more, relying less on physical evidence and more on faint, nearly undetectable traces of auras left behind. His ability to recognize these auras was something he worked on together with the Fallen King, as the Unique Lifeform could often detect “echoes” of presences, but he had no way to properly differentiate them. Jake could.

By floor thirty, Jake had gone from being a shitty hunter in the tracking department to quite a proficient one, which was also reflected by his new tracking skill.

[Traditional Hunter’s Tracking (Uncommon)] - The hunter does not sit silently in his lodge but actively hunts for his prey. Unlocks proficiency in tracking down prey based on limited clues left behind, including both magical and physical ones. Also allows the hunter to more easily identify characteristics of the game, including mana signatures and aura. Allows the hunter to more easily distinguish and analyze physical tracks. Adds a bonus to the effect of Perception while tracking.

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[Bestial Hunter’s Tracking (Epic)] – A hunter tracks his prey with his mind; the beast tracks through instinct. You use both. Grants high proficiency in tracking down prey as long as you know their basic signatures, be they physical or magical ones. Makes it far easier to distinguish different kinds of tracks. Relying on your instincts, you are capable of picking up tracks and clues about your prey that others may be unable to, and while tracking, all your senses can be focused on the act. Adds a noticeable bonus to the effect of Perception while tracking.

Two skill upgrades later, the Floor Bosses could no longer hide. Not that they tried to, or that if they did, it would have helped, as Jake’s extreme Perception allowed him to track them down even if they made simplistic attempts to obscure their locations.

This ability to track down their targets far quicker sped up the non-linear floors significantly, but even then, it still took them a long time to reach the city floor after floor thirty. Fourteen months and a few days, to be accurate. That was from when they entered Nevermore till they reached floor 30, mind you.

While Jake had not gotten any levels out of the first five floors and only a single level in his profession from the next five, doing twenty more floors with ever-increasing levels over so many months still resulted in some progress.

Jake would not call it fast, considering how long it had taken, but it wasn’t terrible either if one took into account how long it could take to level in C-grade.

For his profession, he had ended up netting 4 levels since entering Nevermore – or a bit more than one every four months.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 207 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 210 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

With him barely doing any alchemy outside of when they had downtime and him primarily experimenting whenever he did do alchemy, it wasn’t that bad, honestly.

Due to the still relatively low level of the enemies he faced and the fact he was doing everything with a party, there had been little that could challenge them so far. Due to that, they got fewer levels. Still, he had gotten a total of six levels in his class, so it wasn’t all bad.

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 204 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 209 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

And with that had naturally also come the race levels.

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 205 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 209 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

Annoyingly so, desite his progress, this still put Jake below the level 210 limit… as the only one in his party.

[Fallen King – lvl 214]

[Juvenile Sylphian Hawk– lvl 222]

[Dryad – lvl 212]

[Human – lvl 211]

It had rapidly become clear that Jake earned less experience than everyone else, with Sylphie leveling up far faster than the others. Jake knew this was partly due to her still “growing” as she was only a juvenile. That, coupled with all the treasures she had consumed throughout their exploration of the many floors, it shouldn’t be that surprising.

Then there was the Fallen King, who was also a monster and could consume natural treasures to gain experience. However, compared to Sylphie, the King was far more fastidious and only consumed very specific items, and the items he did want were often something Sylphie also wanted.

The Sword Saint and Dina outpacing Jake’s leveling speed was simply due to the difference in their Paths. Dina was also part monster, and she could level her race passively, but according to her, it had no impact. As a dryad, her way to level passively included her “taking roots” and sitting still for a few centuries. So, for her to level fast was due to her druidic nature, and her supporting the group with different magical buffs and whatnot still had a tangible impact, even in easier fights.

When it came to the old man, he just didn’t have the same demerits as Jake’s class, even if he did express that he got more out of duels rather than group battles.

Jake was a bit miffed at finding himself the lowest-leveled individual, but it was made up for by reaching the city layer after the thirtieth floor, where they once more made their way to the Leaderboards.

One thing they had gotten aplenty during this descent was Nevermore Points. The growth in this department had been quite substantial, the last twenty floors nearly increasing their total tenfold.

Nevermore Points: 14622

Honestly, looking at the points made Jake feel a bit silly for even caring about whatever they may have missed on earlier floors. What truly mattered was completing more floors than anyone else to get high scores; the biggest achievements always seemed to come from doing the hardest challenges. The prevalence of these event bosses on every floor before a city meant that unless a group was good at fighting, they would miss out on a lot.

Putting it into perspective, just completing floors 26-30 had earned them 1400 points without any bonus objectives, achievements, events, or anything like that. 1400 was nearly as many as they had made on floors 1-10 total, truly hammering home how much the points on later floors mattered compared to the earlier ones.

As for how this compared to the average? Well, quite favorably.

Average Nevermore Points (Floor 1-30): 5503

Jake wasn’t quite sure what to think about this average. It seemed so unbelievably low, but then again, the average was indeed just the average. He did wonder when they would stop seeing a true average, as there simply weren’t enough people doing it, but clearly, that wasn’t quite yet.

As for why Jake felt better about his level after seeing the Leaderboards… well, it was due to the final one. Had they taken the top spot yet? No, but they were pretty damn close.

Current Nevermore Points Record (Floor 1-30): 14954

332 Nevermore Points. That was all that separated Jake’s party from the current record-holders. One good achievement or event away from claiming the top spot.

Jake had talked to the others, and it probably wasn’t actually the same team who had the top score on these floors. Chances are that by floor 30, the people who could get a high score and have also already gone so deep this early in the integration were people like Jake and his group that wanted to reach the later levels as fast as possible to get as many points as they possibly could. Fifty years was a long time, but Jake and company had already burned through a year and three months. No one knew what kind of levels they would encounter later on that potentially had mandatory waiting periods like the arena. Floors 11-30 had all been relatively simple, all just big worlds with different objectives and no big scenarios, meaning they had been allowed to do them relatively quickly. There had only been one partial water level too…

Standing and looking at the Leaderboards, the Sword Saint also noted something.

“Pretty empty here, isn’t it?” the old man spoke while looking around.

They were the only ones standing in the massive square in front of the large Leaderboards, with only empty buildings surrounding them. Well, mostly empty.

“There are a few people around, but they seem to mostly be scouts or something,” Jake shrugged. “All of them are high level too, so they probably don’t expect to be detected.”

“I merely find it peculiar the difference is so stark,” the Sword Saint smiled.

The city after floor twenty-five had been surprisingly populated, far more so than even the ones after floors fifteen and twenty.

“Well… there are only that many C-grades from the new universe, right?” Dina said. “If they are good enough to bring to floor thirty, don’t you want those C-grades to keep going and not settle down?”

“I guess that is possible,” Jake said.

“It is also possible they simply travel back to floor twenty-five. Is it not pointless to perform major constructions and invest in every single city layer when travel between the layers is so easy?” the Fallen King asked.

“They do it for the prestige,” the Sword Saint smiled. “To be on a higher floor is a show of power.”

“Ree,” Sylphie chimed in.

“Good point,” Jake nodded as he translated. “Same as how the best birds get the highest nests in the trees and can look down on the worse birds while not getting pooped on.”

“That… kind of makes sense?” Dina said, a bit confused.

“Ree!” Sylphie screeched, offended.

“Yeah, of course you always make sense,” Jake smiled as he rubbed her feathers.

“Sure…” Dina muttered, not entirely convinced. Overall their group dynamic had improved over all these months, and Dina had opened up more. She was still pretty shy, but by now, Jake was certain that was pretty much just her personality.

“Let’s not delay anymore and proceed to the next floor? Hopefully, the difficulty will begin to spike soon,”the Fallen King said, his impatience growing over this period.

“Yeah, let us,” Jake agreed. Seeing as there were no complaints, the group proceeded to the next gateway leading toward the next floor. They all shared the hope that things would get harder from here and get offered a proper challenge.

Little did they know that the thirty-first floor would become the first major roadblock for most parties, even the extremely talented ones, as they were about to encounter something quite a bit different than any prior floors.

While Jake and his party were busy diving further and further into Nevermore, they were unaware of the competition that had now begun arriving in Nevermore City. The records they had seen on the Leaderboards on floors five, ten, fifteen, and twenty had all been surpassed already by new parties diving into the dungeon. If it was due to the Chosen of the Malefic Viper entering or simply that the invisible hand of the system was at work, no one knew. All they did know was that a time of competition had truly arrived at Nevermore as pinnacle groups appeared from all over the multiverse one by one.

Yip of Yore’s Chosen, Ell’Hakan. The disciple of the former champion of Nevermore in the last era, entering shortly after the Chosen of the Malefic Viper.

Ghost King Azal. One of the most talented Risen ever seen arriving shortly after.

High Justicar Elevian, entering with the Augur of Hope, Jacob, as the representative from the new universe.

Warlord Davion of Valhal. Entering with a party of supreme elites, his mandatory party member from the new universe, a Runemaiden named Carmen. As simply the person from the new universe they needed to enter, there were few expectations of her, yet the first thing she did after arriving at Nevermore City was enter the arena. A hundred consecutive victories later, she was dragged away by her party to enter the dungeon, little doubt remaining of her skill.

Countless more factions arrived within weeks of each other, many of them not even advertising their participation. It was suspected that nearly all major factions sent several elite groups, with additional groups also arriving from the Order of the Malefic Viper only two weeks after the Chosen had entered, led by the Malefic Dragonkin, Draskil.

Several independently powerful people also made their entrance along with many more parties from major factions. Three additional Unique Lifeforms after the Fallen King were even spotted, two of which hailed from the new universe. The United Tribes appeared to have allied with one of these darlings of the multiverse, making many also consider them contenders for the top spot on the Leaderboards.

When the usual information brokers began to believe no more exceptional groups would appear, a surprise addition few had expected stepped out of one of the public teleporters in in Nevermore City as this particular faction, despite their prominence, did not have a permanent compound at Nevermore.

A party had arrived from the Dao Sect – the organization founded by the Primordial known as the Daofather. They were a faction that rarely even sent people to Nevermore as they preferred to isolate themselves from the rest of the multiverse. They even had a philosophy counterproductive to most norms, as they viewed killing as something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

Yet they had shown up, and they had shown up in force. The high-level information brokers quickly gathered information on four of the individuals in the group, all of which were personal disciples of gods. Still, when it came to the apparent leader of this group, they had difficulties. They knew he had to be from the new universe, as none of the other four were.

In the few hours this group spent in Nevermore City before entering the dungeon, these information brokers learned only two things about this mysterious leader.

The first was that he was the Chosen of one of the twelve Daolords of the Dao Sect, the Lifesoul Daolord. A true pinnacle god.

Secondly was a name. Not a Daoist title, which the members of the Dao Sect liked to adopt, but an actual name:

Eron.