Zogarth
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Chapter 842 - Nevermore: A Twist to the Twist
🕑 Added 2024-02-02 11:54:00 +0000 UTCThe lines were drawn as the palace in the Human Kingdom capital rapidly filled up. The three Dukes would be in attendance, and not just with projections either, but their real selves. Borderline every noble of any influence had shown up, and when the king also entered along with his wife – a mid-tier A-grade – things got even more intense. Especially when the old man following behind the two of them was seen. He was slightly hunched over, and had a frizzled beard and no hair, with an overall weak-looking demeanor, but his aura told a whole other story.
Jake, who was also taking part in this “party,” if one can really call it that, stood on a balcony and overlooked as these people entered. His gaze temporarily landed on the Lord Protector, as he was called. While he was no Snappy, in the context of this world, he was definitely one of the strongest. A peak A-grade existence that Jake saw even the otherwise arrogant Duke of Flames approach respectfully as he bowed to the old man.
Now, while attending this party was wholly expected based on the trajectory of all the special missions he had done thus far, the way he had gotten his invite was a bit… off. Not because he had gotten one but because Jake had ended up getting four separate invites. One from the Duke of Flames’ daughter and the dukedom she worked, with another one from PETE, a third from the Duke of Flames, and the final one from the Guild itself, which gave Jake a Special Courier Job to attend the party. It didn’t specify what Jake had to do once there, just to attend it.
He wondered if the Special Courier Job was a failsafe if someone failed to get invited or if it was something everyone who had gone down this same quest path received. Then again, everything else revolving around the party was Side Jobs from all the different factions. So maybe he was meant to always get this Special Courier Job? In either case, Jake found It pretty funny getting all those invites, especially as he had to go through a complex “vetting process” before he got each, where every faction wanted to ensure Jake was truly on their side.
How the hell he had passed every single of of them, Jake had no idea. All of them used lie detectors, and Jake even ended up meeting the person who had killed those adventurers who had been with the scalekin mage. It was the Duchess of the dukedom that the Duke of Flames’ daughter had allied with, and an A-grade in her own right. She was a powerful karmic mage, and she also used her magic to scan Jake throughout their entire vetting process, and ended up walking away with the conclusion Jake didn’t have any positive karmic relations with the other factions. She did point out how Jake didn’t have a particularly good connection with her and her husband’s dukedom either, but Jake easily excused that by saying he was being a professional and just working with them. They were still a bit suspicious, but after he passed a lie detector confirming he wasn’t “working for the benefit” of any of the other factions, they approved him and gave him an invite.
This process was pretty much the same with all of the factions, though their means to confirm Jake was, at the very least, not working with the enemy varied a bit. Jake was honestly kind of lucky in this entire process because he could truthfully say he held no positive feelings toward any of the other factions and that he didn’t work to support them. They couldn’t ask if he was working with them, period, because as an infinite loop agent, he naturally was, so as long as he didn’t support them, that had to be good enough, right?
Jake also came to learn that apparently, Couriers were even respected in royal courts. Alright, the low-ranked Couriers probably weren’t, but Jake was considered a highly respected professional by now with lots of experience. Never mind the fact Jake hadn’t even had the job for a year.
As he was standing and overlooking all the guests arriving, Jake considered what his next move would be. The king organized this party, but at the request of two of the three dukedoms because they all wanted to use it to “expose” their enemies. As for how they would expose them? Well, they all had the exact same plan that could be summed up in one word:
Jake.
Not only was he their star witness, but he was also the guy with all the evidence. All of them had asked him to get an ancient rarity Medallion before this meeting, as with it, his trustworthiness would be even higher. Who wouldn’t give a high-ranking Courier with an impeccable track record at least some trust and hear him out?
The problem was that Jake still didn’t like any of them. Exposing PETE’s leader, as well as the fact they worked with another dukedom that hatred the Duke of Flames, seemed like the easiest solution to causing a big conflict. Of course, he could also expose the fact that the Duke of Flames was running an illegal drug and weapon trade in collusion with an enemy country to fund his endless hunger for elementals or maybe that the daughter of the Duke of Flames liked to “punish” those who helped her father for fun behind his back.
PETE was the easiest to deal with. They were the weakest stand-alone faction by far, and Jake had a hard time not seeing them burn to the ground no matter what he did to expose them. He had learned that nobody, not even their allied dukedom, knew the true identity of their leader, so that was something Jake could expose to get rid of them.
However, Jake had begun to form another plan.
What if he just exposed all of them at once to the king and just sat back as he watched the world burn? What if he made some false statements to involve the third dukedom that otherwise wasn’t part of anything? Or maybe even a foreign country?
As Jake was still deep in thought and saw that the final guest had just about arrived, he noticed someone walk up beside him. Jake was leaning on the railing of the balcony, and this person joined him in looking at all the esteemed guests below.
“Quite the gathering,” the man said with a smile.
“It is indeed,” Jake said as he glanced at the newcomer. He gave off the aura of an early B-grade and looked on the younger side. He had long, combed-back hair and gave off a confident demeanor, and while Jake didn’t recognize him, he already knew who it was as he picked up the presence the man was disguising.
Ah… there it is… Jake thought to himself. He had been waiting for the final twist to reveal itself, and here it was. During all this time when Jake had worked with all of these different factions, there was one place that did know everything Jake was up to. Not his thoughts or plots, but they did know he did work for all of them at the same time.
He was naturally speaking of the Guild itself.
“I heard you are quite the distinguished guest today,” the man stated as Jake subtly felt the area around them shift as a sound-isolation barrier appeared without anyone around noticing. “Many friends in high places.”
“Not sure I would call them friends, but my work indeed takes me around, and I am here for work today as well,” Jake said with a shrug. “I am a Courier, after all. Completing jobs is what I’m meant to be doing.”
“And quite a Courier you are. Within a year, you went from a total newcomer to someone so highly respected,” the man said with a big smile. “I even heard that you have a borderline perfect track record, never really messing up any jobs, despite what hiccups you may have encountered.”
“Just doing my best,” Jake said as he kept leaning and looking down at the crowd while talking to the man who did the same.
“That I believe… the question is, what will you do now?”
Jake turned and looked at the man as he answered. “I don’t know quite yet… does the Guild Founder have any suggestions?”
That’s right, the plot twist was that the Guild Founder was also going to at this party and approach Jake! Had he kind of predicted this would be the case? Not fully, but he did suspect there would be one more twist, and the Guild Founder revealing himself during this party would be entirely on-brand for the Challenge Dungeon.
However, Jake didn’t want to lose his agency and momentum by having the Founder reveal himself at an inopportune time. Besides, Jake being able to recognize the S-grade despite his technique to hide who he was, even from the peak A-grade, had to impress him, right?
The Founder frowned at Jake’s question. “Guild Founder? I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression, but I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Jake smiled a bit as he turned back to look down at the crowd, who were far too busy socializing to notice the two of them. “You know, none of those people down there can recognize you, so I understand why you question how I could. It wasn’t anything you messed up; I just have a little something that is also part of the reason I am a good Courier: Good intuition.”
“So you believe I am this Guild Founder just because of some gut feeling?” the man who was totally the Founder questioned.
“No, I knowyou are the Guild Founder because of my gut feeling,” Jake answered in a confident tone. “You have hidden your S-grade aura well, good enough to fool pretty much everyone in this world… but not me.”
“Quite loose reasoning for such an impactful statement,” the man said with a light smile, seemingly not really trying to hide who he was anymore.
“My instincts are more trustworthy than anything anyone can ever tell me,” Jake shot back.
“In that case, what are your instincts telling you to do in this situation where you look down upon the people gathered here, knowing you hold the power to upend the entire political landscape with nothing but words?” the Founder asked in a serious tone, having dropped the act.
“They aren’t telling me to do anything, but they do make me fully aware that things are, for the lack of a better word, fucked. Powerful nobles are fighting while the uninvolved people just living in their territories suffer, and everyone is doing shit under the table, trying to get one over each other all the time, never daring to openly confront anyone,” Jake said with a sigh.
The Guild Founder slowly nodded as he spoke. “It is shameful, but yes, things are indeed a mess. Tell me, do you know why the Guild was initially established?”
“Enlighten me,” Jake offered as he felt another option to resolve this entire mess of a storyline slowly materialize. He remembered the dwarf attendant in the very first Guild he ever entered telling him the Founder had made the Guild around forty thousand years ago, but never the reason, so he was also a bit interested.
“Back in the day, before the Guild, all of the enlightened races were united to some extent to fight back the monster factions led by the dragon tribe. The borders were open, there was free travel and trade, and friendly meetings between monarchs were frequent. Despite the constant conflict with an enemy faction, it was a more peaceful time for the regular citizens back then, living far from the battlefield,” the Founder began explaining the lore of the Guild.
“It was a tough time for those of us who did live close to the frontlines, though, and I grew up right on those borders. I found out at an early age I had potential and quickly rose to power with the sole intent of finally bringing peace by defeating the Dragon King and ending the war. When I made it to S-grade, I challenged the Dragon King and managed to come out on top. The dragon tribe crumbled after that, and the monsters united under the tribe scattered, some forming their own factions that stand to this day. I genuinely believed my actions would be the end of conflict… but in the world of politics, there always needs to be an enemy, it appears.”
Jake nodded along. Having an enemy meant you had something to unite against. In fact, Jacob’s father, Arthur, had used this strategy to gather the United Cities Alliance against Jake and those with divine factions, making a boogieman out of them.
“The once peaceful alliance between the enlightened races fractured, and the lines were drawn. Borders closed, wars began to brew, and things were looking more dire than ever. No one talked. Everyone expected others to plot against them, as they, too, were plotting against someone else. I at first tried to calm everyone, but I was treated with nothing but fear and heard nothing but false promises and platitudes. Something had to be done, and in the end, I settled on making the Guild.”
“You did it to create a neutral faction that could operate across borders to get people talking?” Jake questioned.
“Precisely,” the man smiled. “At least at first. The scope of the Guild’s dealings only expanded from there until it became the organization you see today, but the original plan was for Couriers to be wholly neutral parties whose primary job was to travel between countries to lessen the information gap. This did help, as some line of communication was opened up between the different factions… but that was then. Things have changed yet again, and it seems like the idea of what a Courier is has faded from memory. At least what the status of a Courier used to mean.”
Jake remained silent, but he was beginning to get a good idea as to where this entire thing was going, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.
“And you… you are a prime example of this change,” the Founder said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “The intent was for Couriers to remain neutral, not getting too involved in politics, but now, nearly every force with any influence actively exploits the Courier system for their own gain. They make Couriers work with them despite that being contrary to what they should be doing. I was truthfully disappointed when I looked into you. Your track record was so brilliant, your word ethic impeccable, and I believed you were one of the most promising Couriers I had ever seen… yet you have chosen to work with these factions and gotten yourself so deeply embroiled in their factions, supporting them and-“
“Wrong on that one,” Jake quickly cut him off.
“Hm?” the Founder exclaimed with a frown. “Are you claiming you haven’t completed Special Courier Jobs for these factions in droves, each Courier Job submitted to further their goals?”
“That isn’t what you said. You said I supported them. Have I worked with them? Yes, but supporting would mean I helped them more than I hurt them, and right now, I think I’m pretty even on that one with all of them.”
The frown on the Founder’s brow deepened. “What are you saying?”
Jake turned to look at him directly again. “That I don’t support any of them. Also, don’t get it twisted; I wasn’t the one who chose to work with them. The Guild did. The Guild accepted all these Special Courier Jobs. Shit, I got involved in this entire mess because of one such job, and now here we are. Or are you going to fault me for accepting jobs offered to me?”
Not gonna lie; Jake was a bit offended at what the Founder said, and he got the feeling he had to dispute it. He also just didn’t like the insinuation he was allied with any of the assholes in the hall… but from the looks of it, this Founder didn’t believe him at all.
“Have you truly deluded yourself that much, or are you simply trying to fool me for whomever you support? I know why you are here today, and I know of this internal conflict in the Human Kingdom. I also know you have come to assist one of the factions present in this hall,” the Founder said, shaking his head.
Before Jake had a chance to react, the man placed a hand on Jake’s shoulder. Some form of magic activated as the man infused a smidgen of power into Jake’s body, as Jake felt it search for something. “Even if you attempt to deceive me, I am far from new to this game. Your clear karmic connection with… with…”
The Founder just stared at Jake for a second before he cleared his throat. He lifted his hand slightly and placed it down again as another bit of energy was infused. “As I was trying to say, karma cannot be hidden even if… if…”
His words tailed off as he stared at Jake with wide eyes. “How is this possible? There is… nothing… what’s going on?”
Jake was also confused for a moment until he understood what had happened, and a lot of things suddenly fell into place. Without even thinking about it, he checked out a certain skill… and there it was in the description of Shroud of the Primordial.
“…The karmic threads in your wake, an endless web impossible to unravel…”
So… well… it turned out that no one being able to detect his karmic connection was pretty damn good when trying to hide who he had any connections to.
--
The Malefic Viper smiled as he saw the horrified look on the Wyrmgod’s face as he realized what was going on at the same time as Jake. Minaga only flashed a giant grin filled with schadenfreude as he pointed at the Wyrmgod.
“I told you using karmic magic to detect faction allegiances was going to be a problem!”
“It is the most reliable way a person could detect something like that… and with them being A-grades and above, no C-grade should be able to block or avoid it…” the Wyrmgod answered in a defeated voice.
That’s right… in truth, what Jake had been doing this entire Challenge Dungeon was a horrible fucking idea for anyone normal. Fence-sitting and trying to get one up on everyone would have been discovered a long time ago by any of the many A-grade karma mages working for all of the larger factions. Simply lying wouldn’t be enough, and the second they detected Jake sewing good karma with any of the factions through efforts that helped them in any way he hadn’t been expressly told to, he would have been discovered.
But with Shroud of the Primordial, they simply couldn’t see anything. Mind you, Jake formed karma just like everyone else; Shroud did nothing to block any of that. But it sure as hell did make it impossible for a bunch of mortals to see jack-shit and coupled with their simplistic and over-tuned level of trust… yeah, it was a recipe for disaster, and the Malefic Viper was all for it.
“Wait…” Minaga suddenly said. “Won’t this also mess up the-“
“No spoilers,” the Viper interrupted him, enjoying this more than he probably should. “Let us all just enjoy the show as you take notes for fixes in the next iteration."
Comments
Bockus
Best challenge dungeon by far. Still telling a great little side story while not taking up too many chapters. Cheers 👍
Hunter Thornton
Somebody call maintenance. Jake broke the challenge dungeon. Also sow Minaga’s lips shut. He drops too many spoilers
Steven Thompsen
Oh my God I cannot tell you how much I f****** love this chapter you did it so well. I just I can't stop smiling and chuckling lol thanks loved the chapter.
Chris Morgan
So the supposition is that the system would assist the karma mages finding out if someone like Jake has positive karma with their faction, but isn't currently assisting them with finding out if he has negative or neutral karma with them and/or if he has positive or neutral karma with the factions he is supposed to be working against?
Christian
Ya and this dungeon was both made and is the first active interaction so it would make sense that a system enabled flaw would pop-up.
Justin
I think you are really missing the point of Shroud. The "of the Primordial," gets some of you. They were the original 12. There wasn't a system as we know it, they created their skills. Villy may actually be the only one to create this skill, at this power. It wasn't given to all Primordials and anyone coming after pales in comparison in regards to strength.
Rezkin
Same
Justin
It was, in fact, exactly a lie. He told him he had a Bloodline. He made him him a skill with it in the name. William got called out for boasting about the Bloodline. They told him,"you were lied to." Where's the gray area there? As to the power of the skill, I didn't comment on that in any way.
john henderson
I would think the mission assignments are system assisted, meaning they would be able to detect that positive karma, so that patch wouldn’t be fully effective.
Eofad
Sylphie got a skill that let her create a bond with Jake, Miranda got a skill that let her visit the Verdant Lagoon when she sleeps, Jacob got a skill that let him sense and understand the emotions and desires of those around him better, William got a skill that gave him resistance to passively creating karmic bonds. Every blessing from a god comes with a skill, the rarity and strength of the skill varies based on the level of blessing and the strength of the god, but they all come with a skill of some sort.
JJB4345_80_815
@ Eofad - Jake got the skill from Villy because Villy blessed him as his chosen. I don't believe that any other blessing besides chosen comes with a skill from a god. Did Sylphie get a skill from Stormild? I don't remember. I also can't remember about the blessing of the Sisters of the Verdant Lagoon and what that entailed... In short, not many C-grades have been blessed as a chosen by a god yet and there's a myriad of non-combatant skills that aren't Shroud related that could have been picked. It's a rare cheat.
Michael Meyer
its pretty smart tho
austin kutz
It wasn't exactly a lie, but rather a skill with bloodline in the name. It may have truly been powerful enough to do what Jake did. In fact, I'd say it probably is
Chris Morgan
Yes, it can't be seen by the karma mages. if the factions karma mages check for positive karma they wouldn't be able to make it out.
Michael
But he does have the karma connections for it, they just can’t be seen
Josh Fulk
Welcome to the relentless spending of money to stay up to date lol. Can’t back out now unless you want to wait months to read for free again 😂
Travis G
Welcome to being up to date!
Levi Lowry
I finally caught up on royal road not long ago to then just catching up on here and before all that I was catching up on audio books so it feel so fricking weird not to be able to consume this series daily. Love it btw Zogarth great stuff man
Chris Morgan
The simplest patch is that they have to have positive karmic connections with a faction to get an invite from them. I think with what we learned inthe chapter with William on Redmans planet. His bloodline shouldn't help him much here, because they way he manipulates emotions leaves noticeable karmic inconsistencies
Christian Sullivan
5% saving witch 5% for God level 25% for minaga kill 25% for mortal coliseum 10% for test of character 20% for house of architect 25% for endless minaga That is 105% without counting his Courier dungeon and it's exploit.
austin kutz
That results in him getting either +105% or +110%, depending, for the challenge dungeons alone. He also gets +25% for Minagas labyrinth, 5% for saving the witch, and another 5% for the God level iirc. So he ends up with at most +145% to his multiplier. Am I missing anything? Wasn't an 80% multiplier supposed to be like divine talent level stuff?
austin kutz
Many of them probably have those skills but I doubt they're good enough to fool an S grade while they're only in the C grade. Neither the Viper nor Jake are exactly normal, and I'm pretty sure that Jake gets mad bonuses to that skill for figuring out how to operate it manually
Eofad
Jake can’t be the only one with a skill that hides his karma behind the records of a god. Umbra likely has an army of assassins blessed with the [Shroud of Umbra] or some such skill that lets them hide/falsify their records and karma so they can reach difficult to reach targets. The shadier mercantile gods likely bless their followers with a skill to either hide or mitigate their karma so they can do precisely this kind of playing all sides against the middle. Eversmile may have blessed dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others with skills similar to the one he gave William to avoid receiving karma all together. I can’t wait to see how this turn out!
Tim Schillinger
Love it!
Damon Moore
Calling +5% for bug bounty.
Thenais
Sewing good karma is funnier
Thenais
Come on, let’s twist again
Justin
William doesn't have a Bloodline. That was a lie from Eversmile. Jake and the King call him a dumbass for it after they kill the devourer.
JJB4345_80_815
We do get spoiled with cliffhangers though...
JJB4345_80_815
Palworld?
Christian Sullivan
Prediction: Jake is going to get the 25% achievement for each faction since he is completing all of the quests by spilling the dirt of each.
Michael Edwards
You know what’s crazy? They would have already realized this exploit if Eversmile didn’t fuck over William by telling him to go to Nevermore in D grade. Pretty darn sure William’s whole bloodline ability was about severing karmic connections.
The Grey Area
I've finally caught. Now we wait
Blackened
Right. It seems like this weekend will feel longer than expected.
joel southard
Nice thank you for the chapter
John Grizzly
"Told you I was just being professional. Now, about this groundless accusation you have of me ..."
None ya
Zogarth is a master at cliffhangers...
Luke Scheffe
It’s an exploit because you were supposed to declare for a side, and Jake has found a way around it. The dungeon isn’t built for you to not declare a side at this point. Normally, if you were still neutral at this point, you would only have gotten the default guild invitation. As is, he got invitations from all factions for supposedly supporting them.
Buck
Now we have to wait until this coming Monday…?! 🤨
Aerlevsedi
How does he line up the worst cliff to hang from with the weekend every week? Every. Single. Week.
Isley
good chappie
Scott Schluter
BIGDADDY
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Shukketsu
The freedom to do as you please regardless of the rules you are supposed to follow
Hodge Wasson
Not likely. Minaga mentioned that there are diminishing returns for insane performances. Otherwise Jake would have gotten more than 25% in his labyrinth.
Benjamin Mages
It's the same type of exploit that El'Hakken's (or whatever his name is) bloodline would give him, in that it's an external factor capable of giving great advantages that the challenger was not supposed to get. It's definitely an exploit in that the dungeon's mechanics are being exploited in unintentional ways.
Ty Cooper
I love it. Villy hacking the system second hand and messing with the wyrmgod
Valhazstromoz
He's gonna claim OT hours
Not sure this feels like a cheat/ exploit story of thing, just a very powerful side effect of a skill. It's nothing specific to the dungeon, but a way that parties would verify his trustworthiness in other scenarios as well.
EmmericH.
Cliffs like this are why I hate but also love good storytelling
EmmericH.
And claim his Villydamned salary
Pip Mitchell
Also, sewing good karma = sowing good karma
Pip Mitchell
Now this was fun - Tftc! Minor edit, word ethic = work ethic (albeit word ethic kinda funny in context!)
Michael Fannon
I don't know, combining greed and freedom does feel like it should add to shamelessly cheat whenever possible.
Michael Fannon
No, Jake also used it to speed run the floor that was about respecting gods with the twin gods.
thendavesaid
Why do I hear Megumin yelling "EXPLOSION!" in the back of my head?
Michael Fannon
I hope that after this dungeon is over, Jake is again invited to the god meeting to give a review and suggestions on the new challenge dungeon.
austin kutz
Lol, I'm just imagining the rest of the gods seeing the watch parties stunned expressions and wondering wtf is going on
Michael Fannon
Jake already kinda did that in Minaga's dungeon. So I'm guessing Jake is going to get 25% here too with the blatant exploit.
Michael Fannon
Least we have palworld to entertain us until Monday.
Tommy
This cliff dao is impeccable 👍 TFTC!
Michael Fannon
Now that is a proper glitch exploit. Well done.
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
JJ Bb
My hope is the dungeon tied the bonuses to completing the storylines. 3x storylines completed successfully == 3x 25% bonuses == 75% total completion bonus for a single dungeon.
Jana
Good old times when cheating was still some kind of Easter egg and companies hadn’t noticed you could make people pay for it ;-)
Kenneth Welever
Haven't heard anyone reference age of empires in a long time. Good on ya.
Cordell Patrick
The Founder wanted to discover what Faction Jake was going to support. The Shroud stopped those attempts by virtue of completely obscuring his Karmic connections. Even with him having Karmic connections to each Faction because he did a bunch of work for them. My guess is that the Founder is supposed to use Karmic magic to discover which Faction if any a Challenger supports and then try at least once to completely throw them off their convictions to help. That's what the stuttering attempts end was about.
Owen Kaz
He wanted to prove that Jake was in this for something other than just a job. Any hint of a Karmic connection with any faction at all would mean he has been doing more than just delivering packages to them. However, since there's none at all, the S-grade will see it as Jake being completely separate from their scheming by his own actions.
Kirivina
Ahh! I need the next chapter! Stupid weekends. Look at this! You make me hate weekends, ruthless author.
Karim Saadi
This is amazing, I love it. Thank you!
Naotsugu97
TFTC! Have a great weekend!
Naotsugu97
I think and would be better than a comma, but that’s just my opinion.
Jana
Are you sure Villy is a good of poison, greed and freedom? Feels like a God of shameless cheating to me. Notify me when he starts typing words and gets a rocket throwing car to drive around in a medival/roman setting.
Numbzy
That's a good idea actually. Now I'm hoping for it.
Cameron Yourell
Good twist, forgot about the shroud while wondering what was specific to Jake that would cheese the challeng. Tyftc
I dont't understand,karmic bonds form from actions with little or no influence from intent,so my question is: what was the founder wanted to discover? Jake has karmic bond to all factions? He already know that or that he "support" one faction and just pretend in the other two?
Sam Rosenberg
Jake is awesome!
One Winged Angel
a quotation mark to end the last sentence wouldnt go amiss Mr. Zogarth.
Rui Lourenço
It's funny that this is the first time where being Villy's chosen is a bigger cheat than his bloodline.
Namorat
Weekends are the bane of my existence...
JJB4345_80_815
I agree! I feel dumb now. This is why Zogarth is the writer and we are the readers. I had even made a wild speculation about an image of Eversmile being in this challenge dungeon just because someone else had posted a concern about Jake getting embroiled in all of this Karmic magic (Edit: that post was made by Ansordia in the comments section of Chapter 839 - Nevermore: Special Side Job) but did I even think about the Shroud of the Primordial!? Nope! *Smacks head* I was also wrong on the daughter as well...
Hodge Wasson
That's a good expansion/twist on the "play all factions" exploit presumption people had last chapter. This chapter is definitely getting me to care more about this challenge dungeon. It'll be interesting to see what spoiler Minaga was referring to.
Jonathan
His gaze temporarily landed on the Lord Protector, as he was called, and while he was no Snappy, in the context of this world, he was one of the strongest. A peak A-grade existence that Jake saw even the otherwise arrogant Duke of Flames approach respectfully as he bowed to the old man. His gaze temporarily landed on the Lord Protector, as he was called, While he was no Snappy, in the context of this world, he was one of the strongest. A peak A-grade existence that Jake had seen. Even the otherwise arrogant Duke of Flames approached respectfully as he bowed to the old man. One from the Duke of Flames’ daughter and the dukedom she worked with another one from PETE, One from the Duke of Flames’ daughter and the dukedom she worked with{comma} another one from PETE,
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, Thank you for the chappy, Zogarth! Grazie!
Chris Warner
Tftc
Arrogant Savant
Jake turned on console commands to Ally with every faction.
You mad man I want the new chapter now, stop it.
ABTelford
Haha! Yes! I was grinning from ear to ear as this expected twist unfurled in an unexpected way. I love it when an author can surprise me and still be true to plot and character and not make things cheese. Yay! Fantastic job on this one! I honestly hadn’t considered karmic magic connections being obscured - totally forgot about that. 😀 Let the shenanigans commence!…next chapter…which is next week…crap. I hate waiting. 😅
ABTelford
Friendly edit: “His words tailed off as he stared at Jake WITH wide eyes”
Tomer Yud
Haha 'no spoilers'
CinnamonHawk263
Ah yes the most difficult/challenging path to walk “true neutral”
Gnothi Seauton
"Hi, I'm Jake! A bloodline patriarch with a cool way to cheat scenarios, and that's the only way I can cheat. Nope, no other possible way, so you shouldn't even look deeper."
Valhazstromoz
"munches popcorn" poor old wyrmy Jake's totally gonna shove this down his throat at the end it's gonna be hilarious
ABTelford
Friendly edits:1) “How the hell he had passed every single ONE of them, Jake had no idea.” 2) “The guild founder was also going to BE at this party…”
Michael
Vilas just got a lot more embroiled into this challenge dungeon
Kaibutsu
That will score juicy achievement for sure xD challenge dungeon became challenged dungeon hahahahahaha xD
Jason Hardman
I wonder if they have a bug bounty achievement for when someone totally breaks the scenario 😁
mitchell kaiser
Great Friday twist thanks Zog!
Austin White
Was waiting for that part of the skill to come into play! Great chapter Zoggy!
ABTelford
Yes! I couldn’t have said it better!
Nikolai Beckel
heheheha
Tyler S.
WyrmGod's feeling kinda dumb
Yaldabaoth
Leewetsssss GOOOOOOOOOOO!?!?
Baconwargod
That was a great twist obvious in hindsight but still utterly unexpected. I love that.
luke wells
Holy wow, I love that twist, didn't see it coming in the slightest!
Gavin
Fascinating. S grade over here is about to feel kinda dumb 😂
Tucker Glick
A CLIFF HANGER ON FRIDAY WHO WOULDA THUNK? 😂
Athyrium
Well that's fun
Aaron D'Aaronheir
S-Grade keyboard catting :)
Phallusar
Oh to have been an eagle-eyed reader who remembered that description!
Max Pollack
So much better than the twists I had imagined
Strato Junon
Oh man. This is going to be good. Tyfc
Witherstormmod
TFTC
