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Chapter 853 - Nevermore: Story Time
🕑 Added 2024-02-19 11:52:36 +0000 UTCJake still felt extreme confusion when he thought about the First Sage. All Jake really knew was that he was a man from the first universe who died in C-grade while also being the teacher of Villy. Well, and the fact he had apparently been so ridiculously talented it beggared belief, and that he also had a Bloodline, which the Viper had gained many years after his teacher’s death.
However, even taking into consideration his extreme talent, things didn’t really make any sense. How was he capable of leaving messages on boots he had owned trillions of years ago? How was a C-grade even capable of doing that in the first place?
“Do you think all this boots-business could have been orchestrated by the First Sage?” Jake said after a brief pause but instantly felt a bit dumb for even asking.” No, nevermind, that’s-”
“He could have,” the Viper cut him off.” One thing I learned while spending time with him was that he truly encapsulated the meaning of the phrase ”never say never.” He did things as a C-grade that I would think impossible for anyone who wasn’t a god.. or even above that. And that was just what he showed me. I am sure there was far more I never saw.”
Jake listened to what the Viper said as he frowned. ”But… how? He was just a C-grade. Aren’t there certain rules about equivalent exchange and one having to pay with energy for things? Unalterable rules set by the system that even Transcendent Skills cannot ignore?”
“There are, but where there are rules, there are also ways to bend them, and the First Sage was a master of bending the rules. Never once did I hear him say something wasn’t possible when I asked, just that I hadn’t found the right method to do it yet. Moreover, when I pressed enough, he often revealed clues, making it clear he had already found a solution to my inquiry. That is the kind of monster he was… someone truly limitless.”
Jake was silent once more for a bit before he asked a bit tentatively. ”If I had a way to meet him…”
”You should do it,” the Viper just said. ”Even if the notions sound silly… but I guess you are a bit of a silly existence yourself in the first place. I think he would have found you interesting if the two of you had ever met. Or, from the way you asked your question, it appears he does indeed find you interesting. Let me take a stab, you’re going to try and use Path of the Heretic Chosen?”
”Yeah,” Jake nodded. He still wasn’t sure how much he wanted to share with Villy about what he knew about the man. Not for any insidious reasons; he just didn’t feel like anything he could say would help the Viper. But he did still ask one thing: ”Also… if I could ask him a question for you, what would it be?”
”If it was me meeting him, I would ask a question I am not willing to share… but if it’s you, I guess I would have you ask him… how come he never found a solution to the one problem that caused his death? Why did someone I do not doubt would have become the first god just… give up? Or… if he even did give up in the first place or had some higher goal in mind…” the Viper said, his voice filled with more emotion than usual. The kind of emotion Jake only ever heard when Villy talked about the family he once had as well as the First Sage.
”Alright,” Jake said as the conversation naturally died out. Which made it the perfect chance to change the topic as Jake asked:
”What are your thoughts on all this Nevermore Challenge Dungeon stuff? Mainly the multiplier scores. Should I go out and advertise my score to smack down some fools, or…?”
”That’s up to you,” the Viper answered, clearly not opposed to the change of topic. ”But if you want me to decide, I wouldn’t share it. Doing so won’t really do you any good, especially not if you wanted to do so with the intent of harming Yip of Yore’s Chosen. In fact, you may just end up aiding him. He is writing a story where he is the underdog, so if you come out in a clear attempt to suppress his reputation, I am certain he would spin it as you showing fear toward his growth. That you felt the need to come out and show off how much better than him you were. No, if you really want to mess him up, the best thing you can do is nothing. Don’t acknowledge him, but just do your thing and regard him as nothing more than an afterthought. You will end up clashing on the Leaderboards whether you want to or not, and you will end up clashing more in the future, so try to not be caught up in his tempo, but walk to your own beat.”
Jake listened to the Viper’s words as he sighed. ”Why couldn’t you have made enemies and begun some conflict with someone like Valdemar so I could fight his Chosen instead? You know, someone who would actually want to fight me and not all this complicated meta-story bullshit.”
”Boohoo, this is a good lesson for you! And as I said, you will have your epic showdown someday. Every great story ends with a final battle at the climax… you just have to make sure this turns out to be one of those stories where the villain wins in the end.”
”Wait, why am I the villain? He’s the guy who attacked me first.”
”Because he’s the self-insert author, so you are a villain automatically simply because you are antagonistic toward him… ah, but do watch out. With your growing reputation as a Harbinger of Primeval Origins, they may change up their tactics and try to make you into a redeemed villain instead who ends up joining the good guys to take down the big bad. You know… me.”
”And I repeat: please choose a normal enemy next time. Someone with a big sword or something.”
”How is Yip’s Chosen that different? He uses a halberd that’s got three blades,” the Viper very helpfully pointed out.
”Small blades.”
”Very villain-like of you to insult another man’s weapon for being too small…”
”You know what, maybe I should join him as a valiant hero who helped take down the evil Malefic Viper once and for all,” Jake joked.
”Now that would be a plot twist I didn’t see coming,” the Viper answered in the same joking manner. ”Anyway, the Wyrmgod is giving me nasty looks, probably afraid I am trying to give tips or share things I shouldn’t, and I am sure he is mighty uncomfortable that he has no idea what we are talking about. So when I cut the connection, do something mysterious that makes him question if I broke the rules, alright? See ya!”
Right as Villy cut the connection, Jake frowned deeply as he muttered out loud. ”To think it worked like that…”
To really play his part, Jake kept looking thoughtful. At least he did it to play the part for a few seconds until he did get thinking about everything they had talked about, especially about the First Sage. Villy clearly suspected things with his teacher weren’t as they seemed, and he didn’t at all seem surprised when Jake said he could potentially interact with him. As if nothing the C-grade could do would ever surprise him. He even recommended for Jake to meet him if he could… which Jake most assuredly would.
I just need to reach level 300 in my profession first, Jake thought. It seemed far away, but Jake believed it wouldn’t be that bad.
Refocusing on the task at hand, Jake put his mind off all those thoughts of the future and turned his attention toward the now. Taking the mythical boots off the table, Jake quickly put them on. As his foot slid into the first boot, his eyes opened wide.
This… this is… the peak of comfort-wear.
It was perhaps the most magical aspect of the boots: how damn good they felt to wear. It was truly out of this world, and Jake couldn’t help but smile as he put both on. Oh yeah, the stats and other effects from the mythical item were also good, but if comfort was an enchantment, that would definitely have been their best one by far.
Sadly, Jake couldn’t really test them here and now. He instinctively had some idea about how they had improved, but seeing as the room he was in was sealed off from the outside, he couldn’t even test out the treasure-detecting abilities.
However, he did feel one change. It was incredibly subtle, but when Jake stood up to revel in the feeling of the best boots in the multiverse, it was as if he stood more… stably than before. He tried to move a bit, but nothing really seemed different besides this minor odd feeling. It was as if he would have a harder time slipping and falling or something.
Shrugging, Jake shifted his attention to the second thing he wanted to get done before his party gathered. Taking out the Storybook Page from his inventory, Jake studied it a bit as he considered what skill to use it with. He had a few already in mind, but the nature of the item made things a bit more complicated than just selecting a skill below legendary rarity he wanted upgraded.
The problem was that the item didn’t give a skill upgrade, just the opportunity to get one. As per the description:
“Ripping a page infused with the Records of a skill will grant you an opportunity to upgrade the skill. The effect is lower, the higher the rarity of the skill, and the page will not accept Records of certain skills… Skill upgrades are not guaranteed.”
If this wasn’t the case, Jake would have used the page on Big Game Hunter without any hesitation. However, while he couldn’t confirm it, Jake felt pretty damn certain that the skill was included in the “not accept Records of certain skills” part. Another thing he felt sure was included was the archery skill, as well as any of his basic crafting skills, as those kinds of skills were always considered a bit special. That being the case, Fang of Man was more likely than not also restricted.
Jake also pretty quickly decided he wanted to upgrade a class skill, as he wanted another boost in combat capabilities. While sitting there, Jake began going through his skills one by one. As this was just an opportunity to upgrade a skill, and seeing as the effectiveness was lower, the higher the rarity of the skill, he decided on going for one of his epic rarity ones.
He also wanted the skill to be one he would find difficult to upgrade on his own without any new inspiration. This meant a skill like Piercing Cursed Arcane Fang was ruled out, along with something like Splitting Arcane Arrow Rain. Jake felt pretty confident about upgrading those on his own if he just worked on it actively.
Among the skills, he ended up with two he heavily considered. The first of which was Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows. It was the epic skill Jake used to just generate his regular arrows, and seeing this upgraded would lead to a significant damage increase. It was also a skill that was kind of difficult to upgrade, as it had the avaricious tag along with its ability to instantly summon arcane arrows. Both of these added quite a lot of complexity, and he really didn’t want to lose either effect if he tried to upgrade it himself.
The second skill Jake considered also had the avaricious tag, and was even more complicated than the Arrows one. It was one of the core skills Jake used all the time to do more damage than usual and was, in some ways, one of the reasons his amazingly high Perception allowed him to do as much damage as he did. It was naturally Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter.
As he considered these two skills, Jake brought up both their descriptions and studied them closely. However, after a while, he closed the Arcane Hunter’s Arrows one. He looked at Mark closer as he was kind of impressed by the many things it did despite only being in epic rarity.
[Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter (Epic)] – Your prey is chosen; the hunt is on. Covertly mark targets, making you aware of their positions at all times until the marks expire or are dispelled. All damage done to marked targets is increased. Arcane damage has its damage amplified further. The extra arcane damage inflicted while the marks are active will be built up in the form of an arcane charge that you can detonate to release all the stored-up energy. Additional bonus experience earned for slaying a marked target above your level (this effect remains even if your target dies to the mark detonating or within a short duration of the detonation). Adds a bonus to the damage inflicted, the duration of the marks, the subtlety, and the number of marks available based on Perception.
The skill did a whopping four things at once. It allowed him to mark and track creatures, deal extra damage to those tracked, store up an arcane charge to explode, and even more experience gained for kills. What’s more, everything was scaled solely with Perception. While Jake wasn’t all clear on the math, he was pretty certain the damage amplification of Mark was responsible for a good percentage of Jake’s total damage output due to this Perception scaling.
Moreover, this was a skill so complicated Jake didn’t really have any good ideas on how to upgrade it while at the same time being “only” epic rarity, meaning the Storybook Page should have a good effect. It was a bit of a gamble, but unless Jake wanted to rely on another skill selection to get a system-given upgrade, he felt this was the best way.
He could spend a long time thinking up more reasons… but after only a few more justifications for this being the best choice, Jake decided to stop delaying as he held the page and began to infuse it with the Records of the skill. He did this simply by thinking about wanting to do it while holding the page, and he subtly felt energy leaving his body as the page began to glow and fill with runes Jake couldn’t at all recognize.
Once the runes were complete, Jake tore the page in two, and a flash of energy was released as his consciousness shifted.
--
As Jake was busy being knocked out by the Storybook Page, his party members were quickly getting done with their Challenge Dungeons. This included the Sword Saint and Sylphie, who had already finished theirs and had both returned to the prior floor to do some minor practice by hunting down monsters and sparring a bit.
During their joint hunting efforts, it was also naturally shared how they had done over the last few years – even if communication was a bit strained due to the Sword Saint still not being fluent in the language of Ree.
In the Challenge Dungeons, Sylphie ended up with a pretty good total multiplier of 45%. Her best performance had been Minaga’s Labyrinth, where she got 25%, being the little cheat of a bird she was. The second best was the Colosseum of Mortals, where she had ended up with a 10% multiplier, though admittedly, many would come to claim the version she did was easier. Instead of becoming level 0, she had only become level 200. The opponents were mostly the same – even if there were some monster opponents thrown in there - and the arenas had changed to accommodate the fights of larger scope. Also, even if skills were still removed from everyone, Sylphie was pretty lucky in that much of her magic was just innate manipulation which was how she had done as well as she did. A place she had also done okay in was the Test of Character, where Sylphie had ended up with only a 5% multiplier, a feat she repeated in the House of the Architect.
Her personality was simply too flighty, and her Creations came mainly in the form of skill upgrades she decided to work super hard at, along with some other small things she tried to create. These creations included a nest the size of a smaller city created entirely by collecting every single tree and plant occupying a huge part of the jungle world. Finally, to finish out the list of Challenge Dungeons, there was the Endless Journey, where Sylphie didn’t even get a Grand Achievement, meaning she only got some Nevermore Points but no multiplier.
She didn’t care much, though. Sylphie had never wanted to compete on those silly Leaderboards when she knew Uncle was going to be the best there anyway. However, Sylphie did notice her current fighting partner seemed to not be all that happy about all the Leaderboards and big score stuff. Even if Sylphie was not the smartest bird when it came to seeing when others felt sad, she could see that the old swordsman she was training with seemed frustrated. Sylphie had gone to this floor because she was bored and wanted to fly around and fight, but the swordsman had come after all of those big announcements of performances in the Challenge Dungeons. As if he felt like he couldn’t delay his progress for even a second lest he would fall behind.
Again, Sylphie didn’t care about all those scores… but the old swordsman sure seemed like he cared a lot.
Comments
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter
Endless Nature
Thanks for the chapter
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Hunter Thornton
No. Stop it right here. Sylphie is not growing up. She must remain sweet, innocent, mudery, and dam adorable
SmokeJam
Lovely filler episode, didn't know we need it, but Zog provided anyways.
JJB4345_80_815
@ Seen Death - yesterday the chapter with Sandy was released to Royal Road and in it Sandy was complaining to his space god teacher that he was starving and the god said that he was a C-grade and because of that it was impossible for him to starve, so a bit of proof to back ya up
jb qspam
Lol once knew a girl whose feet didn’t smell. Like, she’d wear shoes all day and you could put them to your nose and smell nothing. She didn’t use anything either, no powder or whatever.
Seen Death
Ye, i was busy recently and had like a week and a half to catch up on. Was a real treat haha. Im jealous u got to binge so much
Martín Ballesteros Arias
Can I just show my apreciation for the story and the creator? Yeah? well Thank you very much Zogarth, your creation is amazing, you're doing what most long novels cant, you're keeping the novel novel and full of enjoyment, I can't at the moment, but I'll be buying this novel on hard cover, cause it deserves to be on my limited space library. Hope you keep yourself healthy and motivated, and I think I speak for most of this comunity when I say "Thank you"
Seen Death
Lol. If/when sylphie expands her species and they only speak with Ree!
Seen Death
I want to say at a certain grade, beings bodies just dont produce any waste. They dont need to sleep, eat etc. Im not sure when it happened (maybe D-grade or C? [Well maybe its just gods that dont Need to eat, although beasts gain strength from consuming some stuff])... but i could be wrong. I think i remember some instances of people taking baths but i think it was more for enjoyment than necessity. In conclusion, i think socks would also only be used if one found comfort in them.
JJB4345_80_815
I'm kinda wondering if Minaga's Labyrinth was a huge stumbling block for him. Casper and Arnold had significant cheats in that dungeon and yet they only got 20%, not 25%. Considering in the Colosseum of Mortals you even had to REACH Valdemar just to get a piddly 10% (which the Sword Saint did achieve) I can imagine that the Sword Saint's strengths didn't match up well against Minaga's Labyrinth. I mostly agree with everything else. He's an old man who has always been successful and at the pinnacle before, so to even be trailing even a little bit has to sting the pride. Edit: So with the release of the next chapter I found out that I was wrong about Minaga's Labyrinth. My bad!
JJB4345_80_815
He received a 10% multiplier from the Colosseum of Mortals by facing Valdemar just once but losing quickly and without gaining Valdemar's recognition. It wasn't revealed what his multiplier was in the Endless Journey but a general idea was given to how he did, receiving a Legendary Courier Medallion. Does that mean 15%, or 20%? Mythical Courier Medallion = 25%. Legendary probably means 20%, but might be divided into 15% and 20% based on if it's Low Legendary vs High Legendary. The Sword Saint should have done well in both the Test of Character AND the House of the Architect due to his longevity and his variety of life experiences. Although, the older one is generally the harder it becomes to think outside the box so he might have struggled thinking of 10 different quality submissions in the House of the Architect. The one Challenge Dungeon that I could see the Sword Saint struggling in would be Minaga's Labyrinth. All told my GUESS would be 10% + 15% + 20% + 15% + 0% = 60%-ish give or take 5-10%??? I could see him getting 70% or more if I'm wrong about Minaga's Labyrinth BUT if he's unhappy then I expect that he ended up with a lesser multiplier. 🤷 Edit: The next chapter was released and instead of truly spoiling it, let me just say I was a touch low on my estimate mainly due to my guess on Minaga's Labyrinth...
Rahsheem Reid
Ahh I see thank you for the clarification.
Dennis Pineda
Finally caught up from reading nonstop for a month. GOOD SHIT
Sean Wilner
Hakan got 90 and Jake got 105 IIRC (the 145% boost is overall, not just from challenge dungeons -- and I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed that others including Hakan got grand achievements outside the challenge dungeons too)
Johnny_B
Ree!
kingofshibainu
New skill and character dev for the SS along with first sage stuff, I'm happy with the chappie
Ty Cooper
I hope SS makes it in the top 10, truly hoping in top 5 but really not sure if that will happen.
Rahsheem Reid
The difference in the closest score to jakes is what Sylphie made all together
Bent Sommer
Which were? 15% colloseum?
Yaldabaoth
woooooHOOOOOOOO!!? LESSSSSGOOOOOOO!!?
joel southard
Nice thank you for the chapter
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Allan
Please make the language of Ree an actual language that half elementals speak in
Austin Richins
It's best not to consider whether Jake wears socks with his boots. We don't want to ruin our positive image of him.
Tucker Glick
If the silly old man listened to the wind his number would be higher.
Isley
good chappie
NOTM
Thanks for the chapter! Does Jake wear socks? I figure he doesn’t need to.
Ty Cooper
Dang, ok thanks.
Silver
Poor old man. Worrying about a silly number. But if a bigger number helps protect his important family...
Numbzy
We don't know exactly. We only know the results of two of the dungeons for the SS.
jazz
Finally excited for chapters again. Just please please do not drag out the last levels. Was always said the challenge dungeons decide the leaderboards
ThatOneDamnWeeb
TFTC
Numbzy
Remember the leaderboard opened in like 600 days for the 93rd Era to prevent a cheese win like that.
TKOva
Cheeto and Jake I think he knows that current Jake would beat him and Cheeto would be pretty even with him so it'd be a toss up. And he calls himself the sword saint. Mind you he's the 2nd or 3rd strongest on earth but he's falling behind. And he knows it. /shrug
KenTX325
If you only have to have the top score for a short period of time, then Jake should try to get the rest of his party to exit 1st. He should also exit before El Hakan to make sure he doesn’t get a reward.
Tommy
Yes
Nate Oppy
Got 2 things “He felt this this as the best way” “Would ever surprrise him”
Drew
Tftc! Also, typo: even more experience for kills -> even earn more experience for kills
forgetfulposum
surprrise -> surprise; he felt this this as the -> he felt this as
One Winged Angel
I really hope Sword Saint doesnt fall under, i really hope they keep fighting through every level like they have already. Jake and the Sword Saints Dynamic has always been a serious positive of the series.
Ty Cooper
Also what did the SS get for his multipliers again?
Ty Cooper
Ah Monday cliffhangers. Cannot wait to see the skills upgrade.
Charlie Jones
Tftc
Nate Oppy
Got a question. Why is Ell’Hakan being referred to as Cheeto? Is it cuz he is orange?
ReadingObsessed
The language of Ree 😂
Zach Neumann
TFTC
Tyler S.
He is still comparing himself to Jake and El'haky. With Cheeto getting 95% and knowing Jake got about the same I can see him feeling underwhelming. Especially if SS wants to fight Cheeto again himself
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
Michael Fannon
Nice chapter. The sword saints final tally should be around 70 or more though right? Comfirmed was 10 in the Coliseum and 20 in never-ending journey. Probably got 20 in test of character (old man energy) and 10 to 20 in house of architect (teacher, politician, and painter). That leaves Minaga, and probably got only 10 there. So total points between 60 and 80. Respectful scores, so why does he feel a need to drive forward?
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, thank you for the chappy, Zogarth!
Naotsugu97
Thanks for a bright spot on a Monday!
Vega
He was said to have been brought to Nevermore by SS in chp 653, potentially as a non-combatant, but as someone to turn to for advice
Austin Barton
Tftc
Matthias
tftc
AsuraFalling
Thanks for the chap
Alex Testa
Isn’t he at the miyamoto clan?
Decibel790
Tftc!
Valhazstromoz
QUICK!! Look enlightened to piss old wyrmy off!
Vega
Thanks for the chapter! As we’re nearing the end of Nevermore, it would be great if the Monarch of Blood could make a brief appearance in the arc. Bobo’s had his time, it would be good to see the other guardian and the group dynamics with him next.
TwistedVanity
Thank you
Angelo
TyftC.
Nate Oppy
Wooo
Mack
First Sage content is always fascinating to ponder.
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Ryan Thomas
Hi
Thenais
Rofl, 25 sec too late
Overlord1993
Tftc
