The Primal Hunter 9, page 66
"No, that won’t be necessary," the Sword Saint said, smiling.
"Oh, really? Damn, for me, it was quite a challenge to hit the stat cap. Did you have Reika get you some stuff, maybe?"
"No, it is because I don’t need equipment to hit any stat cap," the Sword Saint explained. "Or, more accurately, I cannot get stat points from equipment. I instead simply get stat points when I am wielding my sword, roughly equivalent to the stat cap. A limitation of my class, if you may. Without my sword, I am far, far weaker."
Jake raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t even know that was a thing, but I guess it makes sense."
"That does not mean I shy away from upgrading what I wear. The robe still offers good protection and even increases my resource regeneration, my bracers are defensively focused, my sandals increase the effectiveness of my movement-related skills, and I naturally wear a necklace with spatial storage. It is just that I don’t get stats, and I can only wear a total of five different pieces of equipment."
"Five? So, what is the last one?"
"The item you chose to give me after our last duel," the old man said with a smile.
"Wait… will that work inside the dungeon?" Jake asked skeptically.
The Sword Saint smiled even more as he turned to Dina. "Your friend Bobo can be summoned inside the dungeon, can’t he?"
She seemed surprised at suddenly being asked but still nodded. "Yeah, Bobo is a Guardian."
"That is also the Monarch’s classification," the Sword Saint said. "Though there will likely be some restrictions, considering it is an item I cannot fully control, so I cannot promise we will have another combatant—just that he should at least be able to give out some advice. Not that he could fight for prolonged periods even without these restrictions."
"Hm, alright,” Jake said, nodding. If they could summon the Monarch of Blood at all times… Yeah, that would be overpowered.
Jake knew that the rules about Guardians and tamed beasts and whatnot were quite complicated when it came to dungeons. Sylphie and Jake had their Union Oath that technically made them Companions—hence why he’d been able to take her along on the Treasure Hunt—but that did not mean they could do the same for Nevermore. They each took up a slot, as while they were linked, they were still entirely separate entities. One thing Jake had learned was that those you could bring along without any restrictions were classified solely as Guardians and always had one core aspect:
If their "owner" died, they would die, and their strength would always be directly tied to the "owner" in question. This made them closer to permanent summons, at least in the eyes of the system, than true separate lifeforms.
Of course, the entire thing was more complicated than could be easily summed up. The Monarch was in a gray zone, Casper and Lyra were in a gray zone, and there were so many damn gray zones that one overarching rule simply could not exist. This ultimately resulted in every situation being judged on a case-by-case basis, where the system decided if it was okay or not. Luckily, there were several ways to test it before already being at the dungeon. This was mainly an issue for tamers who, more often than not, had to limit the number of beasts they would bring.
Bringing a horde of ten thousand beasts into a sewer dungeon also probably wouldn’t be very comfortable…
Anyway, their party of five went towards the prepared meeting room in the Order compound where their final preparation would be done and a basic strategy would be formed. In reality, they had not discussed much internally about how they planned on approaching the dungeon and tackling the challenges, as they all knew one thing: they were overqualified.
More accurately, they were overqualified for the early parts of Nevermore.
The dungeon was split into a huge number of floors that got progressively more difficult, so it only made sense for the first ones to be far too easy for a party like theirs. It was possible to skip floors altogether, but Jake and the others had no desire to do this even if they could, as these early floors were a good way to rack up some easy points.
Considering they would likely spend at least a few months going through floors that weren’t overly challenging, they would have that time to also form some synergy and truly learn how the others fought. Jake knew the most in their party about how the others approached combat, and even his knowledge was limited.
So, with this in mind, their preparations mainly consisted of some basic briefings. Oh, and of course, it was a chance to give Sylphie the gift from the United Tribes.
"Alright," Jake said once they were all in the meeting room and he had sent the attendant away. "First of all, Sylphie, come here for a good thing." The hawk flew over, and Jake quickly took out the box. "I got this gift from the United Tribes for you. It is the feather of a super-strong bird, and if you eat it, you can absorb its energy and stuff."
"Ree?"
"No, I don’t know what it will taste like, but probably not too bad. Also, you will have to eat it rather quickly, based on what the phoenix goddess who gifted it said.”
"Ree," Sylphie acknowledged.
Jake nodded and slowly infused his energy into the box to unlock it. The moment he did, the lid slowly opened, and powerful energy radiated into the room and bathed it in orange. Jake saw the feather in the box, its almost crystal-like appearance and radiant red—
Gulp.
He barely had time to study it before the small hawk had pecked forward and gulped it down like a hungry chick.
Jake was momentarily scared something bad would happen and quickly looked at Sylphie. "Are you okay?"
"Ree?" Sylphie asked, confused.
"No, I mean, how do you feel?"
"Ree, ree," Sylphie said, unbothered.
"Oh…" Jake muttered. Yeah, Sylphie claimed she felt full but otherwise didn’t comment much. He was a bit annoyed at failing to Identify the feather fast enough, but based on Sylphie’s response and the phoenix goddess’s description, it was likely that the feather had been prepared specifically to be so easily consumable. "Well, that was fast and easy…” He threw a glance at everyone before asking, "Do you all have any comments? Any personal plans for exploring the city?"
"No," the Fallen King said dismissively.
"No more preparations can be made that will truly assist us within the dungeon," the Sword Saint said, shaking his head. "Though I would like to take a look at Nevermore City. Not doing so would be a waste."
"Ree!" Sylphie said, agreeing they should just get going.
"Grandpa gave me everything I need, so…" Dina said, making fast progress in being able to talk like a normal person.
Jake nodded in acknowledgment. They truly didn’t have any more preparations to do. It wasn’t even possible to gather information on the floors they would explore, as that was censored to foster competition. It was censored in such a way that even if Villy tried to tell Jake, he just wouldn’t hear or see anything, and even if Villy wrote something down, the words wouldn’t appear. Perhaps there were some ways to get around this with Bloodline bullshit or some Transcendents, but Jake saw no reason to try and cheat.
"Then we should get a move on," Jake said, smiling.
He was naturally also ready and had a stock of more ingredients than ever stored away in his spatial necklace. High-level stuff, too. Most of the gifts he had left over had been given to Haven or stored back at his mansion for use upon getting back, as he couldn’t use much of it quite yet. Oh, and if Jake did need to get more stuff, it wasn’t like one was stuck in there. As long as one had reached one of the city layers, one could always teleport away and back there again. This would still waste time for the Leaderboards, so it wasn’t advised, but it was a possibility.
Their group of five thus left the Order of the Malefic Viper compound shortly after they had arrived and headed towards Nevermore. However, even if they did not need to do any preparations in the city, there were still a few places they wanted to stop by.
The first of which was the place dubbed the Leaderboard Square. This was where one could see all the Leaderboards of Nevermore, though not all of them were displayed at all times. The Leaderboards also only displayed the top ten, though one could pay Credits to search up specific individuals, and as long as they hadn’t made their entries anonymous, one could still see it. A lot of factions also had special tokens to see individuals from their own force or even enemy forces. Oh, and one could naturally always see their own ranks.
It was also announced to the entire square whenever someone got a good score, though this usually didn’t happen more than a few times a year.
On the way there, Jake and his party gathered quite the attention. They stood out even among geniuses, but Jake still had to admit he felt slightly humbled by the number of powerful people he saw while walking toward the square. He did not encounter any he would consider truly top-tier, but he did see some parties that he believed could give him quite the challenge if they all came at him together. All these parties were below level 210, of course. The square they were going to was the one with the C-grade Leaderboards, after all.
Luckily, no one bothered them. Even without Jake there, the Fallen King alone would scare anyone off. Those able to Identify Blessings especially stayed out of their way, as Jake didn’t hide his identity as a Chosen, and Sylphie and the Sword Saint naturally didn’t hide their Blessings either.
This is to say they made it to the massive square quite easily. It still required them to teleport once and walk quite a distance, as flying was not allowed in Nevermore City, nor was fighting of any kind—outside of the arenas, of course.
Walking into the square, Jake’s eyes instantly landed on the four massive monuments on display. Each of them was over a hundred meters tall, and each had only ten golden names written. Jake quickly scanned them all as he marveled at the craftsmanship, the old swordsman at his side also nodding and complimenting them.
Two of the leaderboard monuments were related to the 92nd that had just ended with the integration of the 93rd Universe, while the two final ones were related to his own universe. He had not expected anything to be on the last two, but when he got closer, his eyes opened in surprise.
People have already reached C-grade and done Nevermore to get on the Leaderboards? How in the actual fuck!?
Chapter 75
Nevermore Leaderboards
Jake instantly understood how the list was full when he laid his eyes on the first wall, which displayed the top ten individuals of the 93rd Universe.
Nevermore Leaderboards (C-grade): 93rd Universe.
1. Holy Templar – Low Tier
2. Holy Knight – Low Tier
3. Holy Priestess – Low Tier
4. Holy Ranger – Low Tier
5. Holy Knight – Low Tier
6. Holy Mage – Low Tier
7. Holy Duelist – Low Tier
8. Holy Mage – Low Tier
9. Holy Knight – Low Tier
10. Holy Templar – Low Tier
They were all shit scores. For reference, there was no actual display of points; people were just placed into a "tier" based on their performance, with the lowest being the Low Tier. After that came Middle-Low Tier, High-Low Tier, and then Peak-Low Tier. Then, from there, one moved into the Low-Mid Tier, Mid Tier, High-Mid Tier, and so on and so forth.
All of this is to say that Low Tier was the bottom rung. Jake was still a bit surprised, especially when he saw the list dominated by people who chose to remain anonymous and only post the archetype of their classes. Moreover, they were all from the Holy Church, based on their names.
The reason he found it weird was that having "completed" Nevermore already shouldn’t really be a thing, right? To complete it would require one to spend the full fifty years inside, which would be at least a year or two, even with great time dilation by getting to the lower floors—and these people clearly hadn’t. Jake and his party members had only managed to reach C-grade recently, and this list was only for people from the 93rd Universe.
Perhaps there were some beasts and whatnot already inside, but the final score would only appear on the Leaderboard after one was done in there… so how had the Holy Church managed to speedrun the place? Jake wasn’t the only confused one.
"Have I misinterpreted how Nevermore functions?” the Sword Saint asked. “I believed one would have to spend their full term inside before the score displayed?"
Jake was about to comment when Dina spoke, "It’s normal."
"Could you elaborate?" the Sword Saint asked, looking at her while smiling.
She nodded enthusiastically as she explained, "The Holy Church always does this. Every new era, the Wyrmgod changes up the dungeons, and the Church sends in C-grades from the new universe to effectively scout it out for their later, more talented parties. While those who get through it can’t relay any direct information, they can use different methods to determine the kind of environments, mana types, and of course, the general sizes of the floors. They even often wear equipment capable of tracking distances traveled through subtle means. To see the new version within the first decade, one must bring along at least one person from the new universe, too, so that is why they are on the list."
"Huh," Jake said. "But how did they complete the dungeon that fast already? They can’t have reached C-grade that long ago…"
Dina looked at Jake before she gazed back at the old man, and it was only after he nodded that she answered, "They don’t try to complete it… they just get helped by four far more powerful individuals to the first city layer. There, they enter a time-dilation chamber just to wait out the time and get their names on the Leaderboards. They do this to communicate that they have knowledge of the floors and try to recruit people and sell intelligence.”
"That… sounds like such a waste?" Jake said, confused.
"The Church often does things that seem like a waste… and I am sure they’ve also got other parties going to the floors after the first city layer. They usually only bring one member who is getting helped by the four others, and then that person is abandoned for someone they deem actually talented for the floors that provide actual challenges."
Jake nodded as he kept staring at the Leaderboard. "So, they are pretty much sacrificial pawns?"
"Sounds like it," the Sword Saint said with a frown.
Dina didn’t deny it as she subtly nodded.
"Is this knowledge they gain even worth that much?" Jake asked. "Or the advertisement by having a bunch of low-tier scores on the Leaderboards?"
"No, not really," Dina admitted. "But a bunch of C-grades aren’t worth much either."
Jake wanted to protest… but after just thinking for a moment, there was some truth to it. If the Church had just had some people who weren’t judged to be very talented level to C-grade quickly, ignoring Perfect Evolutions or even good classes or professions, it shouldn’t have been that hard. Especially if the Church had invested extra resources in them to help raise them. Maybe these people wouldn’t even have been able to reach the grade naturally.
Or maybe the Church had just thrown away talents because they viewed them as a dime a dozen. Either way, it left a bad taste in Jake’s mouth, and he looked at one of the other Leaderboards that showed the scores from the 92nd Universe to try and better his mood by seeing the performances of some actual geniuses.
That didn’t make him feel better.
Nevermore Leaderboards (C-grade): 92nd Universe.
1. Yip of Yore – Pinnacle Tier
2. Altius of the Blade – Pinnacle Tier
3. Holy Templar – Pinnacle Tier
4. Hand of Umbra – Pinnacle Tier
5. Chosen of the Blightfather – Pinnacle Tier
6. Warrior of Valhal – Pinnacle Tier
7. Monk – Pinnacle Tier
8. Anonymous – Pinnacle Tier
9. Scion of Life – Pinnacle Tier
10. Altmar Prince – Pinnacle Tier
Jake read over all the names, and his eyes naturally settled on number one. Yip of Yore. It seemed that even in C-grade, he had been at the top of his game. As for the others, Jake didn’t care much. Most chose to just name themselves after their faction rather than using their real name. The only exceptions were the top two, which did make Jake wonder who this Altius of the Blade was. Not that it truly mattered.
Instead, he inspected the Leaderboard showing the scores from the 93rd Era. While the prior Leaderboard had only displayed individuals native to the 92nd Universe, this one displayed every single C-grade who had completed Nevermore during this era. In other words, the top geniuses of nearly fourteen billion years.
Jake opened it… and while it shouldn’t have been unexpected, he saw a familiar name at the top once more.
Nevermore Leaderboards (C-grade): 92nd Era.
1. Yip of Yore – Era’s Pinnacle
2. Monk – Pinnacle Tier
3. Anonymous - Pinnacle Tier
4. Altius of the Blade – Pinnacle Tier
5. Anonymous - Pinnacle Tier
6. Champion of Valhal
7. The Eldritch Dancer
8. Anonymous - Pinnacle Tier
9. Estrastromoz Regalflight – Pinnacle Tier
10. Chosen Son of Gwyndyr – Pinnacle Tier
This list was of the entire era. The top ten C-grade geniuses for billions of years. Yet Yip of Yore still found himself at the top, recognized as the Era’s Pinnacle. Jake was also surprised to see that the guy called Altius of the Blade had managed to come in fourth overall, making it seem like there’d been two supreme geniuses in that era. Jake wondered what had happened to that guy… though the most likely explanation was that he’d failed to become a god. In fact, Jake got the feeling that one of the reasons few names were used was because most were dead. At least it would help someone like Gwyndyr to have his name referenced on the Leaderboards even if this Chosen Son died.
