The Primal Hunter

Jake stepped through the gateway to the forty-first floor and instantly felt the sunlight upon his skin and the light breeze of the wind. Immediately, he knew he had come to a massive space, which honestly felt damn refreshing after Minaga’s Labyrinth.

Greenish soil was beneath his feet as he opened his eyes and saw that they found themselves standing on a vast desolate plain of nothing but barren ground. The soil felt dead and bereft of energy, and looking around, Jake noted they were standing atop a small hill with a very slight incline, giving them a good look at their surroundings.

“A planet of some sort,” the Sword Saint noted.

“Ree!” Sylphie added, saying that there was a lot of wind there, indicating it was a larger planet. Jake still remembered the planet they had been on during the very first floor, though he was unsure if that had even counted as a real planet or if it had just been a big meteor or something. Planets after the system just all seemed so damn big, though Jake had to admit he hadn’t seen that many, and using Primordial-4 as any kind of frame of reference seemed like a horrible idea.

He also had to remember the message about these floors all being a lot bigger. As Jake was having these thoughts, the notification welcoming them to the floor appeared.

Welcome to the forty-first floor of Nevermore: Tri-World

You have arrived on Tri-World, a planet occupied by three major factions vying for control. First is the Beastfolk Alliance, a faction consisting of beastfolk and beasts alike that have united after finding themselves suppressed by the two other factions for years.

Second is the Enlightened Republic, the most powerful faction of the three. Elves, humans, and dwarves used to be in conflict, but many years ago formed a republic to battle the two other factions, thus becoming the most powerful.

Finally, the Risen Kingdom is an offshoot of undead who have long lost contact with the true Risen Empire, yet they still retain much of the heritage from their faction. Despite being the smallest faction in both population and area controlled, they are considered second only to the Enlightened Republic.

These three factions have been at odds for millennia with no signs of stopping. As new arrivals on this world, you belong to no faction. Your actions from here on out shall be entirely up to you as you can explore and find all there is to Tri-World. Including the deep secrets of this planet. In this quest, you have only one objective:

Determine the fate Tri-World.

Main objective: Determine the fate of Tri-World

Bonus objectives: N/A

Current progress: Fate Determined (0/1)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Current Nevermore Points: 54373

They all rapidly read it over as Jake was left with a feeling of uncertainty.

“What exactly are we supposed to do?” he questioned out loud, half to himself and half to the others.

“It does strike me as very open-ended,” the Sword Saint nodded.

“Grandpa did mention that some trials like this exist in some dungeons, so it being present in Nevermore isn’t too odd,” Dina nodded as she seemed to be in thought. “In these instances, there usually isn’t a wrong or a right thing to do, as long as you finish whatever objective the dungeon gives, and I heard from Grandpa that many just use dungeons like these to experiment in. However, seeing as it is Nevermore and we earn Nevermore Points… I am not sure. I would guess some things would give more points than others.”

“Three factions all competing in a large world. I tentatively see a few approaches, but none of them are feasible before we know more. In either case, I would assume the most basic solution would be to assist one faction in completely taking over the planet, with another one being to wipe out every faction. All it says is that we must determine the fate of the world, not that the fate has to be good,” the Fallen King theorized.

“Those do seem like the most obvious scenarios we can choose,” the Sword Saint concurred.

“There… is one more,” Dina said. “We are on a planet, right?”

She asked that last part to Jake, who gave his surroundings a good look. “Definitely seems like there is some curvature to the place, yep. The place is quite a bit smaller than Earth, though, but still pretty big.”

“I don’t know how big Earth is, but all planets have one thing in common: their core,” Dina said.

Hearing her say this, Jake instantly knew what she was getting at. Villy had mentioned this more than once when they were drinking, every time in relation to planetary sacrificial rituals. “Are you sure we wanna destroy the planet?”

Jake knew that rather than destroy a planet’s surface, then one could doom a world by going straight for the core, bu-

“What?” Dina asked, looking horrified. “No! No, I was thinking we could take control of the Planetary Pylon in the core, if there is one, and then have one faction take control of the planet through that. Why… why would we just destroy a planet?”

“I do believe destroying the planet would qualify as determining its fate,” the Fallen King chimed in.

“We are not destroying the planet,” Dina said resolutely, staring daggers at Jake.

“You were the one who suggested it first…” Jake muttered.

“I didn’t!” Dina protested loudly.

“Pretty sure you did,” Jake smirked as he looked to the side. “Oh look, people.”

“I am not falling for that,” Dina said, still looking at him with piercing eyes.

“No, Jake is right; there are people,” the Sword Saint said as he followed Jake’s gaze.

In the distance, a caravan of sorts appeared, moving rapidly towards them. More than a dozen large wooden barges flew a few meters off the ground, with people standing atop each of them. The one in the front looked bulkier than the others, and from a distance, Jake could Identify the figure at the helm, along with those standing with him.

[Caravan Guard Captain – lvl 215]

[Caravan Guard – lvl 204]

Jake was a bit taken aback at the results, as they all looked humanoid yet identified not as humans. If not human, then at most elves or some other race that closely resembled humans. It wasn’t entirely clear as they were all hooded or wore armor covering their heads, but they struck Jake as part of the enlightened races for sure. Ultimately, he wrote it off as system-fuckery, or more accurately, a sub-section of system-fuckery known as dungeon-fuckery.

Their levels were also disappointingly low, as in way too low for them to ever be supposed to fight them.

“I would assume that caravan is here to serve as an introduction to the floor in addition to the initial welcome message,” the Sword Saint said.

“Very likely. We should interrogate-“

“Talk to,” the Sword Saint interrupted.

“- talk to them and learn more about the different factions and decide if any is worth supporting. The fact that the welcome message clarified where each faction is in the power hierarchy makes it obvious that more points will be earned should we support a weaker faction. Though, ultimately, I feel that simply supporting one faction or another would be too simple of a solution,” the Fallen King said.

Jake had to tentatively agree as the caravan got closer and closer. By now, they had also spotted Jake and company and decided to slightly change their course to move straight to them. It was a bit surprising they didn’t decide to avoid the five strangers with higher levels than anyone in their caravan, but Jake wasn’t their boss.

A few moments later, they got close enough for them to hear each other, and the Guard Captain at the helm of the caravan yelled out loudly.

“Be careful! You shouldn’t just be standing there!”

“Is that a threat?” the Fallen King’s voice echoed out in an offended tone. However, the other party didn’t seem affected in the slightest, as he responded.

“No such thing! Some nasty Tunellers are found in this area, so I just wanted to warn you that standing on the ground can be dangerous. They react to vibrations and such,” the Guard Captain shared. “Wait, how did you even get here? Where is your ship, or did you fly by yourselves?”

“Freak-accident teleportation,” Jake responded.

“Oh…” the Guard Captain said. “Where from?”

Jake briefly shared a glance with the others and saw their unbothered expression as he just answered. “From another universe entirely, we think. Or at least another planet.”

“Ah, alright, I got it,” the Guard Captain said as he laughed, the other guards also chuckling along after he made a hand motion. “You should just have said you got isekai’d.”

“I… what?” Jake stood with an open mouth.

“You teleported here from another world, right? Yeah, we call that getting Isekai’d around here,” the Caravan Guard Captain explained casually. “Happens quite frequently. Heck, that is why we have so many different races on this planet. I myself was teleported here quite a few years ago.”

“What kind of dungeon is this?” Jake questioned out loud.

“This planet is a bit peculiar indeed,” the Guard Captain laughed.

“You do know we are in a dungeon, right?” Jake tried to ask, seeing as the guy seemed to have some level of intelligence.

“The planet is called Tri-World, though I think that name is still semi-recent as a few still referred to it as Quad-World when I first got here, but the fourth faction was eliminated a century and a half ago,” the man answered, confirming something to Jake.

“Yep, dungeon-fuckery makes them not know they are in a dungeon,” Jake communicated through the Golden Mark.

“An odd word that these Tri-World denizens have come up with to describe people getting teleported here,”Dina commented.

“Yeah… you know what, I am just going to assume that the word I hear is not the same one you do, as that would be very weird,” Jake said, blaming everything on the translation skill.

“If it is any comfort, then I hear the same word, I believe,” the Sword Saint said. “Takes me back to before the system. You know, one of my great-grandchildren was really into that sort of thing.”

“Let’s please just move on and learn about this damn place and continue,” Jake insisted. He felt like the system was trolling him with the kind of words it used sometimes, but… fuck, it fits in this situation, so what the hell could he do.

“Where do you folk plan on heading anyway?” the Guard Captain said. “Seeing as you got two humans with you, the Enlightened Republic seems pertinent, but as you are Otherworlders, you are pretty free to go wherever, though things may get a bit tougher there.”

“Enlightened Republic? What is that?” Jake asked, trying to be smart and get information from the guy. He also thought it would be weird if they knew about the factions on a planet they had just been teleported t-

“System sure screwed up not even giving you the basic information package, eh? People usually get a notification,” the Guard Captain said, looking a bit confused. “Oh well, I guess mistakes happen. Hey, kid, do we have an extra map somewhere?”

He said the last part to one of the other guards, who promptly saluted him. “Yes, sir!”

A few seconds passed before the Guard Captain spoke again in an impatient tone. “Then give it to me?”

“Yes, sir!” the guard said as he took out a map and handed it to the Guard Captain. The Captain proceeded to throw it down to Jake as he sighed.

“This world’s natives are all a bit… odd. They don’t really do much unless prompted and just move through their routines, so it is a safe bet that anyone who approaches you and speaks first with semi-normal conversational skills is Otherworlders like us,” the Guard Captain explained. “This odd trait of the world’s denizens has its ups and downs, but… overall, you get used to it.”

He didn’t sound entirely like he believed the last part himself.

“Where are you headed to?” Jake asked.

“The Enlightened Republic’s capital, which was also why I proposed going there first, but we will make stops in the other faction’s territories on the way if you five wanna tag along,” the Guard Captain said in an enthusiastic tone.

Jake checked with his party and got agreements all around. Seeing as they needed to gather information, sticking with the Caravan guy for a while seemed like a good idea. Plus, the floating boat was actually pretty damn fast, making it not a horrible mode of transportation, especially considering the Fallen King, Sword Saint, and Dina were not in absolutely peak condition yet after the Minaga fight.

“Sounds like a fine idea,” Jake smiled.

“Then welcome aboard!” the guy smiled and laughed. “I am not going to complain about having five people stronger than myself along. Man, now I nearly hope we get attacked on the way so I can harvest some materials to sell to the Beastfolk Alliance. Having actual people to talk to isn’t too bad either.”

“Can’t even say I would complain if we got into some fun fights, and we are more than interested in learning more about this world,” Jake grinned as the boat began to move just as they all got on it, making them skirt across the landscape at impressive speeds.

The Caravan Guard Captain spoke casually to them all for a while before he adopted a serious expression. “I do have one warning, though. Make sure to follow local laws and customs in any territory ruled by a faction. These small villages are rather normal, but when we enter the bigger cities, and especially the capital, things change. The culture here may seem odd and different to you as new arrivals, but the nobles are set in their ways. Be careful, some powerful people are lurking about.”

“Oh, what kind of differences are we talking about?” Jake asked curiously.

The Guard Captain sighed as he clenched his fists. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Three weeks later.

The large tower crumbled behind him as a massive pit opened up, consuming the streets below. Even now, the remnants of Jake’s destructive arcane mana still ravaged what had once been a city as Jake stood there floating in mid-air.

Far in the distance, a golden pillar descended as the landscape lit up from the power unleashed by the Fallen King. Elsewhere, a massive tornado ravaged the terrain, leaving a wake of pure destruction as entire villages were sucked up and shredded to pieces.

In another direction, massive rainclouds hung far up in the sky as a drizzle turned the world below into Swiss cheese. Finally, an entire forest had overgrown and seemingly turned against any beings who lived too close or were unfortunate enough to have been present within upon their arrival.

Jake looked at the destruction with a steely look, not even bothering to look at the thousands upon thousands of notifications his actions had brought him.

“So everyone’s in agreement?” Jake asked through the Golden Mark.

“Yes… this seems like the only way to stop this… this… place,” Dina said in an angry tone.

“And if your idea doesn’t work?” Jake asked.

“Then perhaps getting rid of the planet altogether is for the best,” Dina answered, not a shred of mercy in her voice.