The Primal Hunter

Jake narrowly ducked under the flying glaive before jumping right as the floor collapsed under him. Kicking off the wall, Jake managed to launch himself away from the pit that had opened up beneath him right as a piston-like block of labyrinth shot down, nearly pushing Jake into the hole.

Landing on solid ground, Jake quickly knelt down and braced himself as he crossed his arms and summoned a stable barrier of arcane energy to defend himself. A barrage of small mana spikes hit him right as the barrier was done manifesting fully, blasting Jake further down the labyrinth hallway but failing to penetrate the barrier.

He knew he couldn’t land on the ground as spikes would just pop up, so Jake ran on the wall for a bit as he made his way down the long trap-filled labyrinth hallway while avoiding all the remaining traps. At least he tried to. A net of lasers shot after him not soon after, followed by an incredibly fast-moving spike that came out of seemingly nowhere, but before Jake could even address these two, he had to consider something else.

Runic circles began glowing on the ceiling and walls as energy intensified. Jake instantly understood what was about to happen as he gritted his teeth and blasted arcane mana to launch himself down the hallways as quickly as he could while also dealing with the damn everpresent mist.

This decision did mean a sacrifice had to be made as one of the lasers hit him, taking his left arm clean off. It hurt like hell, but it had to be done. Flying down the hallway quickly, Jake hit the back wall and kicked off it as he got around the corner.

Right as he did so, an explosion sounded out as the entire hallway erupted with intense mana, the ceiling even collapsing in a scripted event, blocking off the path. Jake didn’t doubt for a second he would have died if he had stayed there or been just half a second slower.

“Maybe I should have taken the non-shortcut route,” Jake muttered to himself as he regarded his missing arm. Taking out a health potion, he quickly chugged it and focused on his Blood of the Malefic Viper skill as the arm began to regrow at a visible pace.

“Wow, really? But that would have wasted an entire hour or something horrendous like that!” Minaga chimed in, always ready to add his two cents.

“Oh, good point. Yeah, definitely picked the right hallway,” Jake said with a smile.

These trap hallways had begun to get quite dangerous. By now, everything could kill him, and the attacks moved so fast that Jake could only react due to his near pre-cognitive instincts. He had noticed that some attacks could still be blocked even if Jake should logically not be strong enough to. The barrage of small mana spikes being one such example. If it was dungeon-fuckery or some unique properties of these attacks, he didn’t know, but his stable arcane mana did wonders.

For most attacks, blocking was entirely out of the question, though. The lasers would burn through anything Jake could summon, with him only feeling confident in blocking with Eternal Hunger if he absolutely had to. However, even then, the remnant energy that hit him scorched his flesh. Any physical attack was also not gonna happen as the sheer impact would rip both his arms off.

“So, is it hard enough for you yet?” Minaga asked.

“Considering I managed to do the hallway while only losing an arm, I am sure I can handle it getting a bit harder. But yeah, things are definitely improving with every section,” Jake said with a smile as he continued onward. Walking a bit forward, he saw a hole in the ceiling, and without further ado, he jumped as he went up a floor.

A new kind of Labyrinth Section appeared at number one hundred. One that Jake hadn’t even considered before, but honestly, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was a multi-layered labyrinth with two floors. It was as if the labyrinth had gotten a basement that one had to use to pass certain sections by either passing through on the first or second floor.

This in itself wouldn’t be that difficult… except the walls could move up and down, with some of them being triggered by the person doing the labyrinth. However, you could only trigger a gate on the opposite floor of the one where you needed to move the wall, making it all quite a complicated puzzle. Well, it was complicated for regular people. Jake, on the other hand, could easily piece together which walls he had to move and see all the trigger mechanisms right as he entered the Labyrinth Section.

So section one hundred hadn’t added the feared third limiter obstacle Jake hoped wouldn’t come. When he reached section one-hundred and three, the labyrinth was expanded once more as a third floor was added. At one-hundred and seven, a fourth one came, and at one-hundred and ten, the fifth one arrived.

Jake realized that Minaga had decided to increase the difficulty of the labyrinth, not simply by making it longer but by adding an entirely new dimension. A usual labyrinth was very much a two-dimensional puzzle, but the further he got after section one hundred, the more it became a cube as it turned into a three-dimensional labyrinth.

It only got more and more complicated the more sections he passed until soon, even Jake had to admit he began to struggle and get challenged. It had to be mentioned that even if Jake had an overpowered Pulse of Perception, the labyrinth could still get so damn complicated Jake still had to take his time and think about how to solve it.

He had to consider which walls to raise and lower, which teleporters could potentially be used, which paths he had to avoid entirely, and finally, to create an entire route that he could complete in time. Okay, the time limitation still wasn’t a real problem quite yet, but he had a feeling it would be soon.

Because right now, Jake was in Labyrinth Section 151, and by now, it was pretty much just a giant cube. He had to climb up and down all the time to get to the exit that was often incredibly far away, with a shitload of near-impassible obstacles in between. These trap hallways were something Jake could still do, but he had reached his limit somewhere.

Jake, having run for a few hours and with a newly fully regenerated arm, snuck around a corner and took a quick glance in to confirm something. What he saw was a creature that stood in front of a large barrier, with a shimmering wall nearly right in front of him. He knew that if he passed this wall, he would be trapped in there with the gatekeeper until one of them died, so he couldn’t just escape even if he wanted to. The shimmering wall also marked when space would be expanded, as each gatekeeper pretty much had an entire arena to itself. Fighting in a hallway wasn’t going to happen, after all. Especially not when it came to the kind of gatekeepers Jake now found himself facing if he wanted to pass these barriers.

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What stood in there was a large mammal-like beast with massive arms, each with long blades growing out of it. Its body looked more metal than flesh. It was about five meters tall, very bulky and bear-like, and looked to be a slower tanky variant. As it stood on two legs reminiscent of a werewolf, and even with the shimmering wall, he could feel its presence subtly come through.

[Scytcheborn Gatekeeper – lvl ???]

He had been right… after facing peak C-grades from around section one-forty, he had now truly graduated beyond the grade and found himself before a true-blue B-grade. And, based on what he guessed, it wasn’t necessarily a horrible variant either.

“Hey… Minaga…” Jake muttered.

“You’re thinking about doing it, aren’t you?”

“I was just wondering… are there any rewards from getting to a certain section without dying?” Jake asked. “Like, if I somehow died now, would it screw me over in any way?”

“I can’t answer that. Oh, by the way, on an entirely unrelated note, did you know that B-grades aren’t really meant to ever appear in this C-grade version of the Challenge Dungeon? So, if you do ever happen to encounter one, surely it is indicative of you having gone far beyond the norm. Just food for thought,” Minaga super subtly hinted.

Jake smiled at the response as he kept observing the B-grade for a little while, trying to get a feel for it.

He still had five lives or attempts remaining. Five resets, so to say. While it probably wasn’t necessarily the smartest, Jake believed he couldn’t let go of a chance like this. To face a B-grade in an actual battle without any genuine risk of death was a rare opportunity and would give him invaluable experience for when he would truly hunt one down.

Yeah, it definitely wasn’t just Jake really wanting to fight it. It was definitely a decision rooted in logic and reason.

“Wish me luck,” Jake smiled as he walked toward the shimmering wall, not bothering to make any real preparations. He was just testing the waters, after all.

“I hope you die a horrible death that demotivates you so much you become unable to do any more sections. Oh, or maybe the experience makes you dead-set on revenge, making you spend all your other attempts going back here over and over again to exact vengeance upon the gatekeeper,” Minaga said with a hint of hope in his voice.

“Both very realistic scenarios for sure,” Jake shook his head as he reached out his hand and touched the shimmering barrier. “Now let’s see what a B-grade can truly do.”

Minaga stayed silent as Jake focused. Passing through the wall, the entire world warped as the wall expanded rapidly. Jake soon found himself standing inside a massive chamber with the B-grade gatekeeper at the far end. He thought for a moment it didn’t know he was there until its attention firmly landed on him, making Jake temporarily freeze.

From several kilometers away, it just stared at him with two large beady eyes. Jake resolved himself as he pulled out his bow, ready to attack. Pulling out his bow apparently registered as an act of aggression, making the B-grade react instantly, making Jake’s danger sense immediately respond, Arcane Awakening even getting triggered at the stable 30% right off the bat.

Jumping to the side, Jake barely avoided two crescent metal blades stabbing out of two small slits in space, the B-grade at the far end having raised an arm. Surprised at Jake dodging, it let out a low growl that sent a shockwave of sound through the chamber. Jake felt Pride of the Malefic Viper get impacted as the mental attack hit, but he managed to stay unaffected and even dodge the follow-up as space once more warped around him as scythe-like blades pierced out.

Pulling out an arrow, Jake released a potshot toward the B-grade. It didn’t even move to dodge but simply motioned as a blade appeared to block it. Jake smirked a bit to himself as the arrow flicked itself to the side, dodging the blade and continuing its way toward the B-grade that seemed genuinely surprised.

In the end, it chose to take the blow directly as it swatted at the arrow. Jake wanted to manipulate the arrow to dodge the blow, but he wasn’t fast enough. The metal-covered claw made the arrow explode, dealing no damage at all. All he accomplished instead was to annoy the B-grade as it became even more offensive than before.

Using the same arm that it blocked the arrow with, it swung widely, releasing an odd wave of energy. Mana gathered around the energy of the wave as soon spinning metal scythes manifested in mid-air, with hundreds flying toward Jake less than a second later.

Jake reacted by flying into them, dodging every single one as he even got off another potshot that was once more easily blocked. His ability to dodge and even launch annoying small attacks only seemed to trigger the gatekeeper as it released another annoyed growl.

A silver-like aura appeared around the beast as it bent its legs. Jake instantly dismissed his bow and pulled out his katars just in time as his opponent shot toward him. Air and space were cut in its wake as it soon reached Jake, swinging down its massive glowing claw.

Minor cuts began appearing all over Jake just for being in the beast’s presence and looking at the descending blow, he knew he had no leeway to hold back. Arcane Awakening activated at full power as the claw reached him, smashing into his body.

At least a body.

Curse energy dispersed as his Eternal Shadow took the hit, Jake having launched himself forward straight for the beast. Stabbing forward with Eternal Hunger, Jake got in a surprise hit as Penetrating Fang struck the beast in its stomach. The metal-like skin and fur offered incredible resistance, but Jake’s stab was designed to penetrate armor, allowing him to get through.

A loud roar resounded as the beast clearly hadn’t ever expected to get injured. Jake, with his hand still firmly stabbed into the beast, opened his eyes widely as he let go of his katars and jumped back as fast as he could. The entire body of the gatekeeper began to shimmer as every single one of its hairs seemed to turn into metal scythes, its aura and the white energy surrounding it rapidly growing in power.

However, even as he dodged back, his sense of danger still went strong. The beast let out a long, drawn-out growl as its body began to glow more and more, Jake making as much distance as he could. The sound of the growl slowly started to sound more… metallic and high-pitched as the gatekeeper’s aura stopped spiking, and the silver light reached a crescendo.

In the very next second, its body exploded. Every single hair-scythe shot out and began to revolve around the B-grade in a tempest of silvery spinning blades. In the center, the light subsided as the B-grade slowly stood up, having entirely changed. Its formerly bulky body had grown from around five meters to more than ten and turned lithe and lanky, with all its limbs now just thin scythes. It looked more like a silver statue or mannequin than a beast at this point, with even its face entirely gone, making Jake doubt if it had ever been a beast, to begin with.

Jake took a defensive stance as a loud, high-pitched sound echoed in the room. His vision temporarily swayed, and he barely managed to dodge a scythe-like appendage that struck down where he had just been standing. The floor of the labyrinth exploded from the impact, sending stones flying everywhere as Jake scrambled.

Before he had the slightest chance to do anything, the monster was upon him again. The spinning scythes came in from all sides as the faceless and emotionless gatekeeper descended with speed far above what Jake could handle, and as the many attacks closed in, Jake felt pretty confident.

Not about winning, mind you.

Yeah… maybe I shouldn't be facing B-grades quite yet.