Zogarth
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Chapter 856 - Nevermore: Floor Seventy-One
🕑 Added 2024-02-22 11:46:47 +0000 UTCWelcome to the Seventy-first floor of Nevermore: The Nine Towers
You have arrived on a planet long abandoned by those who once lived there. Yet artifacts are left behind. Nine massive towers are scattered across the planet, once part of a greater purpose, each holding secrets and power of the civilization that once was.
Your goal is to explore each tower and then ultimately decide if you wish to activate or destroy them. But be warned, for even if much time has passed, the defensive systems of the towers still remain, and who knows what entering them might lead to, much less the outcome of their activations.
Main objective: Activate or destroy the Nine Towers.
Bonus objectives: Discover the true nature of the Nine Towers.
Current progress: Towers activated (0/9), Towers Destroyed (0/9)
Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.
Current Nevermore Points: 1,242,425
It was almost nostalgic reading the long system message about the floor they had just arrived on. Jake would rate it just about as nostalgic as the feeling of the Golden Mark left by the Fallen King, allowing them all to stay in communication even when far apart.
The five of them had appeared on top of a small hill, giving them a pretty bad view of what they were dealing with. Jake, taking the job of scout as usual, quickly flew into the sky and scanned the area before he made a rough calculation of the curvature of the planet and ultimately concluded it was pretty fucking big. It was not as big as Earth after the system, but maybe about two-thirds the size.
“You see anything?” the Sword Saint asked when Jake landed back on the ground.
“Bunch of beasts, but they are all weak and barely in C-grade. Ah, but there are quite a few elementals here and there, all levels around 280. I also spot two towers, one over there and one over there,” Jake said as he pointed in two directions. The others could see one of the towers far off in the distance, but only Jake had the Perception to see the tip of the second.
These towers were all roughly ten kilometers tall each, looking like huge skyscrapers. One of the two Jake saw had a red crystalline color, while the second looked more yellowish. So, it appeared that the towers had been nicely color-coded, which was nice as it made it a lot easier to communicate about what towers people were at.
Jake also shared the size of the planet and other characteristics as the others listened. Once he was done with his explanation, Dina briefly shared that the plants around told her that this planet was rather special in that it had absolutely no underground nor any bodies of water any larger than lakes anywhere on the entire planet. It was definitely a weird place, but confirming those two things was helpful as it meant they wouldn’t waste any time looking for hidden achievements underground or underwater.
“So, I guess we all know what we’re doing?” Jake asked after they were done talking.
“Split up,” the Fallen King answered without any hesitation.
“That does seem like the best way,” Dina nodded.
“Ree!” Sylphie agreed.
“Alright, and if anyone is in trouble… well, better make it on your own and get the fuck away because no one will be nearby,” Jake added with a grin. “Then we can all group back up and take down whatever may be the issue.”
“Sounds like a plan,” the Sword Saint said, seeming almost giddy to set off on his own. They all were.
After a brief division of where to go, they all set off. Dina would take the second-closest tower, while the Fallen King would take the closest. Jake, the Sword Saint, and Sylphie would head off in three other directions to try and find a tower each. The Sword Saint did stay behind for a second, though, as he took out a canvas and began to paint one of his teleportation paintings so he could return to the hilltop if needed.
Setting off, Jake quickly used One Step-
Everything warped for a second as Jake suddenly found himself far beyond where he had wanted to step down, temporarily disorientating him. What was… oh.
Jake had made some estimations of how good his newly upgraded boots were, and concluded it was good but not overly impactful. That is until he took that very first step. He had traveled nearly twice as far as a usual One Step and consumed even less stamina than before… and that wasn’t even the crazy part.
The crazy part was how Jake felt space warp around him, yet he remained so utterly stable within this warped reality. It was like he was an untouchable entity within the fluid and warping space, as he only now truly realized the meaning when it said Jake would always find a solid foothold. What also surprised him was the concept behind this effect. It was pure stability. It was a slightly different concept from his arcane affinity, but definitely similar in many ways.
Taking a few more steps, Jake continued to feel space warp as he began to pick up speed. The reason why space warped as it did was because the skill was getting pushed beyond what it normally allowed Jake to do forcibly… which introduced the easy fix of just following the advice he had given the Forsaken Dragonkin in regards to using the skill:
To get good.
It wasn’t as if the boots actually made movement skills twice as effective and barely cost anything. It was that Jake was horrible at using One Step according to the standards of the mythical boots. Making the baseline improvement from the boots incredibly effective. Which was fair enough. One Step was just an ancient skill, after all.
Hours quickly passed as Jake zoomed forward, pretty damn proud of his speed. He had improved a lot, but as he felt the Golden Marks and the locations of his other party members, he realized he was definitely not the one who had improved the most. The Sword Saint, Dina, and Fallen King were also definitely moving faster, but Sylphie? Sylphie was on a whole other level as she was just zooming.
At first, he wondered if she was using her sprinting skill and was quickly running out of gas. But she kept up her utterly ridiculous speed for hours as she moved far faster than Jake… no, not just Jake. The four other members of the party put together.
“Hey, Sylphie,” Jake asked through the Golden Mark. “You sure got a lot faster, eh?”
“Ree! Ree ree ree,” she responded, gladly explaining how she had managed to drastically improve her ability to move incredibly swiftly while at the same time remaining ridiculously efficient.
“I am not entirely sure what “riding the wind super swooshyly” means, but if it works, it works, I guess,” Jake responded, realizing no Sylphie explanation would ever help him.
Not long after, the Fallen King was the first to reach his destination as he had gone to the closest tower. Right as he arrived, he contacted the group.
“Allow me to send you some mental images of what I see,” he communicated to all of them, as it appeared he had made an upgrade to his Golden Mark skill, now allowing one to also send pictures. What the Fallen King sent couldn’t really be called a picture, though.
Jake received an odd mental image of sorts that, while clearly visual in nature, just looked off in every way. He saw a strong outline of the tower, but the color of the tower was an odd shade of gray with weird lines going across it. He also saw what looked like veins running through the entire tower, as well as small wisps of energy in the ground and even some floating in the air all around the Fallen King. Because, oh yeah, the picture wasn’t exactly a two-dimensional one, but more of a semi-three-dimensional snapshot where what appeared in front of the Fallen King was far clearer than what was behind and to his sides.
“Is… is this how you see the world?” Dina asked pretty quickly after the message was sent.
“I tried to make it more interpretable to your minds,” the Fallen King answered.
“Imagine not having eyes,”Jake joked, even if the lack of eyes was the reason the King’s sight was so odd. He viewed everything through some weird soul-sight or something at all times, which definitely had some advantages but also many disadvantages, as his view distance was quite limited.
The King didn’t say more as he entered the tower through a gate. Inside, the tower was clearly spatially expanded, and from what Jake saw in the limited vision pictures the Unique Lifeform repeatedly sent, everything was a mess inside. Nevertheless, he began exploring as he looked over the lobby, trying to find any clues for the bonus objective.
After searching and not finding anything, he began to climb the stairs of the tower. There was also what looked like an elevator there, but it was clearly broken, and the Fallen King also quickly confirmed that breaking walls and ceilings wasn’t feasible as everything was incredibly strengthened. That wasn’t to say it was impossible, just way too time-consuming.
Reaching the second tower floor, the challenge of the tower began to appear as they got their first clue as to what kind of creatures had built these towers in the first place. Robot-like golems were stationed as guards on the second tower floor. Eight in total, with four of them patrolling, with four others sealed-off side rooms. Their levels were all 275 to 280, making them relatively strong… but far from strong enough. This was also where the King’s vision was good, as things like walls didn’t matter when it came to detecting living beings nearby… which kind of made Jake feel dumb for when he tried to hide behind trees from the King back in the Tutorial.
The Fallen King didn’t hesitate as he simply floated into the room with the four guards. He was instantly noticed by the guards, who quickly proved to be aggressive as they attacked on sight. The four of them charged at once as the Fallen King raised one of his ivory claws that began to glow with golden power.
A wave of golden force was blasted out the very next second, hitting all the guards. They all stumbled back, physically seemingly unhurt, but through the vision of the Fallen King, Jake could see it definitely wasn’t so. Golden cracks had formed on their Soulshapes, signifying some significant soul damage.
Before they had a chance to attack again, the Fallen King continued forward as a second golden wave released. The four guards fell back further as a third wave came soon after. One of the four Soulshapes shattered on impact like it was made of glass as the golem fell dead to the ground. A fourth wave spelled the end of the other three as the King kept up his casual demeanor.
Gotten a lot stronger, Jake mentally noted as the Unique Lifeform continued exploring the floor. However, it quickly became clear this wasn’t going to be a fast endeavor. On a wall, he found a floor plan that depicted around a hundred floors in total for the tower, with the lower levels being residential while the higher ones were research-based. The ones at the very top had no information on them at all, but just looking at the floor plans, Jake already had a good idea of what they were dealing with.
“Each of these towers are probably mini-dungeons of sorts that get progressively harder the further up you go. Also, expect a boss of some kind towards the top,” Jake communicated through the Golden Mark. “Also, since there are nine… if you get the chance to activate the tower, don’t do so right away, alright? Getting a feeling we shouldn’t just activate these towers willy-nilly.”
“As you will,” the Fallen King responded, not trying to argue. The other three also quickly agreed, no one questioning Jake. They had learned over many years that questioning Jake’s gut feeling led to nothing good, and to just trust it instead.
While the Fallen King continued his tower climb, the others continued exploring the planet. Dina also soon reached her tower and began to climb it, and not that long after, Sylphie also discovered one, which she promptly entered.
Jake was flying very high up in the sky as he peered down, trying to get a proper lay of the land. Most of the planet was wide open plains with a few lakes here and there, with intermitting large deserts in between. There were barely any mountains or hills. The only tall things were the towers.
What really surprised him was that he saw no buildings anywhere. No traces of any civilization having ever lived there at all, despite the floor descriptions. The beasts roaming were also surprisingly low in number. There were far fewer than Jake assumed there would be on a planet this big.
His big clue as to what was going on came when Jake saw what looked like a small forest. All the trees still looked young, making Jake frown as he sent a message to Dina. “Hey, Dina, can you ask some of the plants you encounter how old they are?”
“You also noticed?” she quickly responded. “Something is wrong for sure. Meadows of grass can often be extremely old, yet I didn’t meet any that was more than fifty years old. Actually, I have yet to encounter any plants older than a few decades at most…”
Frowning at the revelation, an idea had begun to form in his head. After a week or so, they had all arrived in towers and were exploring them. The Fallen King had taken nearly half a day just clearing one tower floor, and finding the way to the next one proved challenging simply due to how big they were while being filled with enemies.
Jake was quite a lot faster, and despite reaching a tower only on the third day since their arrival, he had already overtaken the Fallen King as he did something very cheat-like. Rather than fight all the guards, Jake used Unseen Hunter as he snuck through the tower, using his Sphere to navigate.
Only on tower floor fifteen Jake began having to fight as there were methods of detection he couldn’t avoid… such as golems blocking doorways he had to pass through. Jake was making rapid progress, but he was not the only one, as all of them were breezing through the towers.
When they had finished Nevermore floor sixty-nine, they still did well, but things had begun to get hard toward the end, and getting good achievements started to prove difficult. Now, it was as if they had been given a second wind from the Challenge Dungeons. They had gotten stronger, refined their skills, and become refocused. However, that wasn’t the only thing that had happened.
After just reaching C-grade, one would have a lot of momentum for gaining levels. They came fast and easy, at least for a little while. But, soon, one began to run out of momentum as experience accumulated faster than quality Records, resulting in lower leveling speed. This was inescapable, even for someone like Jake, who had insane Records due to his Bloodline and Path as a whole.
Jake and all the others had begun to level slowly for the last many years of doing floors… but that too had changed now. The Challenge Dungeons had given jack shit when it came to experience but had instead refueled them all with new Records. It had filled up their momentum tanks, and now…
*You have slain [Tower Golem Enforcer – lvl 287] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 257 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*
*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 258 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*
Now, the fast levels were back on the menu, as Jake, with excitement, slaughtered his way up the tower, feeling the same glee from the rest of his party as a second growth spurt was underway.
Comments
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter
Dave
Ty
Harbby
He had mentioned previously that he could only step something like.. 130km if he really tried, but it used too many resources. With his newly upgraded boots his normal stepping distance is far too short, so he has to get used to taking longer steps to match the quality of his boots. That's my guess
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Carmelda Labaze
Why is Jake so bad at the one step skill? Isn’t that all he used throughout his mythical courier career???
Seen Death
What a backwards demand lol
Seen Death
I dont think Wyrmgod will ever be an opponent in Nevermore. My reasoning is because i just dont see any benefit for him. Hes already able to view everyone in nevermore (minus what the architect blocks), and fighting him would only expose some of his potential secrets. Im not entirely sure why minaga agrees to let his clones fight, but maybe its because they actually overall benefit from the engagements, even though some of them would die
bennett emerson
Will book 9 be on audiobook?
Zogarth
Fix
elkress
It's moreso that doing so would be tremendously difficult. Not to mention Jake doesn't have any idea how to even begin getting about doing so. He did introduce his arcane to touch so he has already taken the first step in that regards atleast
kingofshibainu
I think he'll have to on order to become a God. I wonder if becoming involved creating skills above mythical that are all based on one's records, so Jake will have to make all his skills based on him to confirm his path.
Ty Cooper
It does drive me a little crazy that he won't upgrade one step or touch for that matter. Well not making them of the primal hunter versions. He is sticking to the preprogrammed settings. Maybe he is waiting to do that at a higher grade.
Numbzy
Na, just eat it!
Numbzy
I mean, it took 30 years for the first 50 levels. I doubt anyone, including Jake, can go another 50 levels in 11.5 years.
Numbzy
It faded during the challenge dungeons I believe. It was covered before they entered the dungeons. Also I don't believe they did. When they asked the viper about it he said to redo it after all of Nevermore. So presumably it will happen after Nevermore is finished.
Samantha Sandlin
Rainbow towers? Maybe they have to be activated in rainbow color order?
kingofshibainu
Will these comfy boots show Jake how to incorporate his primal affinity into One Step and surpass the debuff of Arcane Supremacy?
Aaron J
Nice to see them all together again and I can’t wait to see how far they make it
Trevor Mergen
Thanks
Vega
Time skips would be good. At this point i feel the scores & leaderboard have been built up so much and for so long, especially with the challenge dungeon & multipliers, that many readers are getting a little impatient
Inv7ctus
They only really split up physically. Because of their insane speed, instant communication, and warped perception of time, they arent really split up. They're going to be constantly talking and updating eachother on their findings. I have no doubt there will be plenty of interaction.
Drumic
Probably the 'learn what the artifacts do before you activate them' lesson.
John Balman
I love the fact that these floors are almost public service announcements for the universe to teach up and coming powerhouses how to handle situations I don't know if this is a floor like that, but I'm getting those feels
Dark Light
It's a Halo array isn't it?
Ty Cooper
Well right now they have the King's golden mark and Jake is fluent in the language of Ree.
Ty Cooper
They have the SS painting to travel to the far out ones and back with ease though.
Ty Cooper
Agreed. I think with the Kings VR chat function will make them do the towers "together" and be on a new floor soon.
hachetnif
Yeah I'm looking forward to the floor I like the karmic plague floors part of nevermore and this feels like it'll be like that I also liked the endless labyrinth but only some parts
Because it was only supposed to last ten years and was already weak before they started the challenge dungeons.
I can't see the Void Party having any comm difficulties either. The might not be able to split up as easily, yet they can also make long range teleportation formations after Arnold maps the world with satellites.
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, thank you for the chappy, Zogarth!
Isley
good chappie
Christopher Hendrix
I’m sure that won’t be the case, they have the king’s IM service and can talk to each other. Also they will probably split up and come back together several times in these floors.
donvitogonzalle
Kind of a bummer that they split up again. What made the challenge dungeons so freaking boring imo was that Jake had nearly no interactions with anybody anymore, and it looks like after just 2 chapters this will continue :/
Osamaru Ta
XD Sylphie got the Zoomies.
Eskil
Yes, everything is lager because of the system especily planets
ItsFin
He does still have to go beat up that frost wyvern back on earth
Daermon
I have been wondering at traveling speeds and sizes of these "planets". Back when Jake first got One step he mentioned that he was traveling faster than a traditional airplane now I have to assume he is at least 2-3 times faster. If he travels for 3 days, since he doesn't require rest, at that speed he covers a ton of ground. Are these floors just that big?
Jason Hardman
Yeah, I was thinking talking about floors while also climbing towers is easy to confuse.
Jason Hardman
The contract used was temporary and would fade over time, although I forget the duration.
Skyler Brown
it was talked about a bit before they went into the challenge dungeons i think the viper said it would be fine for a wile longer also the bond is more for the newly initiated universe so that Sylphie can join in on the opportunity's with jake nevermore is accessible to every universe considering Diana as long as they can get a lift
Eofad
Never mind… I just reread the part where they discussed it expiring and they were going to make a new one after Nevermore not after the challenge dungeons.
Chris
Yup. Out of Nevermore than many of months of compelling story.
Decibel790
...I'm confused. Why would they need to reforge the bond?
Decibel790
Thanks for the chapter!
Jerrid Klassen
I would really like a bonus chapter or something that just has Jake's full status and skills listed now that a bunch have been upgraded as well as the new stat numbers
Eofad
I assume Sylphie and Jake re-did their bond before leaving the city floor. Did it happen differently this time now that Stormild was aware of Jake’s bloodline and Jake knows more about the process or did it break again?
Erik Leiden
I'm sure all parties have different utility abilities, but I imagine that Jake's ability to see where the towers actually are using pulse and FK's Golden Mark allowing them to split up and maintain comms the whole time would be a game-changer compared to other parties, especially when it comes to speed in clearing these late floors.
bauspar
thirded
Connor Higdon
Tyftc
Vega
threedimensional > three-dimensional Thanks for the chapter
Jockameanie
Not complaining but I cant wait for Nevermore to end. I want to see what happens next.
KenTX325
I’d like to see Jake above level 280 before the prima war for earth. This is assuming he will be fighting a peak C grade, possibly low B grade. The Nevermore reward will probably be good and he may have a year or two to train with Artemis or others before the war kicks off. Still it’s my opinion that Jake and others need to get stronger. Jake will not get better facing low level opponents. Get us out of Nevermore but Jake also needs some hard fights.
One Winged Angel
Seconded
Drason
Somehow, 3 am or 4 am doesn’t come soon enough.
Crystal Hill
I’m with you there and B-grade’s the minimum for dragons. Jake should be able to grade-jump once he’s around 50 levels off. He can already handle peak C grades. If he has the room and the time, he could repeat his performance with—what was it? The Ash Devourer something or other Unique lifeform that King was up against during El’Hakan’s invasion. Basically nuke him from orbit with tons of poison and explosions after building up ridiculous amounts of Hunting Momentum during his prep time.
Ben Heystek
can we please get a update at what levels each of them are? and thank you for the chapter keep up the great work maybe someday i can write a book as well as you
Tyler S.
I still believe that a C/B grade WyrmGod to be the final boss
KenTX325
Good chapter, glad we’re getting experience- levels again, but I am still hoping for big time skips to get out of Nevermore faster. I would love to see the end of Nevermore in a week or less. I would also like to see more challenging fights. Glad we didn’t go back to low level opponents like each of the challenge dungeons did.
Linzey17
Great chapter! Thanks for the content
Crystal Hill
And we’re back to the sort of levels Jake and gang can cheese their way through and El’Hakan can’t, hopefully letting them catch up as the script is flipped from the previous several levels where his manipulative bs let him get the dungeon denizens to do all the hard work for him. Also, I really hope Jake gets to fight a dragon in the final level. He’s been looking forward to that since G-grade and he should be able to swing it by the time he gets close to 300, the way his class works.
Seiryus
There were two paragraphs in the end, one talking about floor 15 and the other about floor 69. It took me a while to comprehend that the first was talking about the tower in this planet and the other was about Nevermore in general. I suggest a rewrite to make that distinction clearer.
Skyler Brown
it was stipulated up to king rank
Eric Dontigney
And this is where I check out for a few weeks. Hopefully, by then, this interminable Nevermore arc will finally be over.
Rad
Just food for thought but whoever got elected world leader got an increase in noble title, so if the Fallen King got elected would he become the Fallen Emperor or whatever comes after king? Unique lifeforms are weird af after all.
Alexikon
Is it possible the towers do something like the Rings in Halo? (Destroy all food sources)
TheAverageNerd
xD
Valhazstromoz
The gang is back together and let the leveling commence!!.................poor FK imagine not having eyes
Zogarth
Fix
Gavin
Oh I missed our speedy little goddess bird.
Naotsugu97
Good chappie, cheers!
Mack
Fun times! Good to have the gang back together. A little sad we didn’t get to see them socialize a bit more. Dina especially. I enjoy getting to know her as the newest member.
joel southard
Nice thank you for the chapter
Max
Good chapter
Josh Waddill
Possible edit? level as the was just zooming. level as she was just zooming.
Rue
Tftc
Thenais
Grrr
Roland Thomas Junior
Tftc
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Bob Fight
Rawr
