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And at its center, one could find it: Nevermore.

A floating flat landmass that looked like a continent just sitting there in space at first look, but once one came closer, it became obvious it wasn’t one. Instead, it was a ring. This donut-shaped object truly didn’t look like much to an onlooker, but once one got near, things changed. Beneath the hole, darkness stretched, coated in nothingness surpassing even the blackness of space all around it. Stretching down what felt like infinitely.

Not even the most powerful of gods could pierce this dark pillar. This dark space. An indestructible concept blocked their path, with the only way in through the large pit on the floating ring. When looking down this endless pit of darkness, it looked like certain death, but in reality, it was an entrance to the single-largest dungeon in the entire multiverse. Floor after floor extended downwards, and entire cities on ”safe” floors were interspaced throughout.

Despite the floors making it sound like it was a linear path, this wasn’t even true. The pit allowed you to fall to where you belonged, and when the system decided where to send you, you simply appeared there. Nobody could even know one truly appeared in a space inside this pillar.

Nevertheless, this place was a place no faction in the multiverse could neglect.

Even the ring itself had become home to a massive city, barely any space unoccupied as every single faction had made their own compounds, and merchants had taken what was left. All this was under the purview of the Wyrmgod of Nevermore – the dungeon master of this World Wonder.

And on that day, a party of five appeared in the ringed city that had aptly been dubbed Nevermore City.

Nevermore.

Jake had heard so much about it for years. William had used it at D-grade to get a huge level advantage, and many D-grades who weren’t considered top-tier talents went there to get an edge and often to try and overcome their current limitations. Nevermore was a well-spring of Records, surpassing other dungeons by quite a margin as the mega-dungeon had something none others did:

Unique titles.

The deeper you went, the better the title, so if you had little confidence to reach far into D-grade, going to Nevermore after evolving was a great way to ensure you would at least have some progress. For these people, C-grade was still a long shot, but Nevermore would at least give them a chance.

To people like Jake and his party members, they went there only at C-grade to compete on the Nevermore Leaderboards. These Leaderboards mattered not only for reputation and to show off to others but would give tangible titles based on how well you did. How the Leaderboards worked was also simple as could be.

Rack up points based on how you did in Nevermore. All scores were individual, and points could be gained both during solo portions of Nevermore and group portions, with the final score being cumulative, meaning to be the best, you had to be good at both. With a time limit of fifty years, it was a marathon to get as many points as you could.

The easiest way to gain points was to clear floors, do quests, complete challenges, get achievements, and participate in events. Simply killing a lot didn’t necessarily give any rewards, though level-gain during this period did also reward points. The fact levels gave points was also one of the reasons it was generally considered best to be at close to 200 as possible, though being at a higher level could help allow you to dive further down.

Getting to Nevermore was also far easier than one would expect. The Wyrmgod himself had set up teleportation beacons that were incredibly easy to hone into even for forces that didn’t have any gods, and through direct aid by the system, even the cost of teleportation was significantly reduced. During one of their long conversations, Jake had briefly talked to Villy about the Wyrmgod, and the Viper had revealed that out of every single Primordial, if not all gods, period, the Wyrmgod was the top expert when it came to space magic.

This is to say that Jake and his party of five arrived at Nevermore City without any issues. More accurately, they appeared within the compound controlled by the Order of the Malefic Viper. Even if the Order had become derelict throughout the ages, they had still maintained this compound, and it still remained one of the largest in Nevermore City since the day it was established in the second era.

”Welcome to Nevermore City, Chosen of the Malefic One and his comrades in arms,” an attendant spoke as soon as they stepped off the teleportation circle.

Jake allowed his sphere to spread out and even released a pulse immediately to scan the area. He saw a massive compound that looked like it could house millions, if not billions, without issue, though it appeared mostly empty. Besides that, he felt quite a few presences lock in on him after he appeared, most of which were of a divine nature.

There are at least a dozen gods here, Jake quickly realized. All of them were within the Order compound, too, indicating they were members. A few seconds after he detected these auras, they all pulled back, leaving Jake to wonder.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter as Jake greeted the attendant. ”Thank you, is everything prepared?”

”Yes, please follow me,” the attendant quickly nodded and motioned for them to follow. Their odd party moved through the halls of the large building they had appeared in as Jake took the chance to ask the Sword Saint something that was on his mind.

”Do you need to go shopping for equipment?”

He noticed that the guy hadn’t changed that much stuff, at least not outwardly, since their duel in the Treasure Hunt. His robe was new, and the bracers he wore also looked newish, but the sandals looked the same, and his sword was his old ancestral weapon. Jake naturally couldn’t see the old man’s jewelry, but he knew that if he had to rely only on stuff from Earth, he would have been struggling. Considering how recently the Sword Saint hit C-grade, it only made sense he would need some upgrades.

”No, that won’t be necessary,” the Sword Saint smiled.

”Oh, really? Damn, for me, it was quite a challenge to hit the stat cap,” Jake commented. ”Did you have Reika get you some stuff, maybe?”

”No, it is that I don’t need equipment to hit any stat cap,” the Sword Saint explained. ”Or, more accurately, I cannot get stats from equipment. I instead simply get stats when I am wielding my sword, roughly equivalent to the stat cap. A limitation of my class, if you may, that without my sword, I am far, far weaker.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. ”Didn’t even know that was a thing, but I guess it makes sense.”

”That does not mean I shun away from upgrading what I wear. The robe still offers good protection and even increases my resource regeneration, my bracers are defensively focused, my sandals increase the effectiveness of my movement-related skills, and I naturally wear a necklace with spatial storage,” the Sword Saint further clarified. ”It is just that I don’t get stats, and I can only wear a total of five different pieces of equipment.”

”Five? So, what is the last one?”

”The item you chose to give me after our last duel,” the old man smiled.

”Wait… will that work inside the dungeon?” Jake asked skeptically.

The Sword Saint smiled even more as he turned to Dina. ”Your friend Bobo can be summoned inside the dungeon, can’t he?”

She seemed surprised at suddenly being asked but still nodded. ”Yeah, Bobo is a Guardian.”

”So is the Monarch classified as,” the Sword Saint said. ”Though there will likely be some restrictions considering it is an item I cannot fully control, so I cannot promise we will have another combatant, just that he should at least be able to give out some advice. Not that he could fight for prolonged periods even without these restrictions.”

”Hm, alright,” Jake nodded. If they could summon the Monarch of Blood at all times… yeah, that would be overpowered.

Jake knew that the rules about Guardians and tamed beasts and whatnot were quite complicated when it came to dungeons. Sylphie and Jake had their Union Oath that technically made them Companions – hence why he could take her along to the Treasure Hunt – but that did not mean they could do the same for Nevermore. They each took up a slot, as while they were linked, they were still entirely separate entities. One thing Jake had learned was that those you could bring along without any restrictions were classified solely as Guardians and always had one core aspect:

If their ”owner” died, they would die, and their strength would always be directly tied to the ”owner” in question. This made them closer to permanent summons, at least in the eyes of the system, than true separate lifeforms.

Of course, the entire thing was more complicated than could be easily summed up. The Monarch was in a gray zone, Casper and Lyra were in a gray zone, and there were so many damn gray zones one single rule simply could not exist. This ultimately resulted in every situation being judged on a case-by-case basis, where the system decided if it was okay or not. Luckily, there were several ways to test it before already being at the dungeon. This was mainly an issue for tamers who, more often than not, had to limit the number of beasts they would bring.

Bringing a horde of ten thousand beasts into a sewer dungeon also probably wouldn’t be very comfortable…

Anyway, their party of five went towards a prepared meeting room in the Order compound where their final preparation would be done, and a basic strategy would be formed. In reality, they had not discussed much internally about how they planned on approaching the dungeon and tackling the challenges, as they all knew one thing: they were overqualified.

More accurately, they were overqualified for the early parts of Nevermore.

The dungeon was split into a huge number of floors that got progressively more difficult, so it only made sense for the first ones to be far too easy for a party like theirs. It was possible to skip floors altogether, but Jake and the others had no desire to do this even if they could as these early floors were a good way to rack up some easy points.

Considering they would likely spend at least a few months going through floors that weren’t overly challenging, they would have that time to also form some synergy and truly learn how the others fought. Jake knew the most in their party about how the others approached combat, and even his knowledge was limited.

So, with this in mind, their preparations mainly consisted of some basic briefings. Oh, and of course, it was a chance to give Sylphie the gift from the United Tribes.

”Alright,” Jake said when they were all in a meeting room, and he had sent the attendant away. ”First of all, Sylphie, come here for a good thing.”

The hawk flew over, and Jake quickly took out the box. ”I got this gift from the United Tribes for you. It is the feather of a super strong bird, and if you eat it, you can absorb its energy and stuff.”

”Ree?”

”No, I don’t know what it will taste like, but probably not too bad. Also, you will have to eat it rather quickly based on what the phoenix goddess who gifted it said,” Jake explained.

”Ree,” Sylphie acknowledged.

Jake nodded as he slowly infused his energy into the box to unlock it. The moment he did, the lid slowly opened, and powerful energy radiated into the room as it was bathed in orange. Jake saw the feather in the box, its almost crystal-like appearance and radiant red-”

*Gulp*

He barely had time to study it before the small hawk had pecked forward and gulped it down like a hungry chick. Jake was momentarily scared something bad would happen and quickly looked at Sylphie. ”Are you okay?”

”Ree?” Sylphie asked, confused.

”No, I mean, how do you feel?”

”Ree, ree,” Sylphie said unbothered.

”Oh…” Jake muttered. Yeah, Sylphie claimed she felt full but otherwise didn’t comment much. He was a bit annoyed at failing to Identify the feather fast enough, but based on Sylphie’s response and the phoenix goddess’ description, it was likely that the feather had been prepared specifically to be so easily consumable.

”Well, that was fast and easy,” Jake muttered. He threw a glance at everyone before asking: ”Do you all have any comments? Any personal plans for exploring the city?”

”No,” the Fallen King said dismissively.

” No more preparations can be made that will truly assist us within the dungeon,” the Sword Saint shook his head. “Though I would like to take a look at Nevermore City. Not doing so would be a waste.”

”Ree!” Sylphie said, agreeing they should just get going.

”Grandpa gave me everything I need, so…” Dina said, making fast progress at becoming able to talk like a normal person.

Jake nodded in acknowledgment. They truly didn’t have any more preparations to do. It wasn’t even possible to gather information on the floors they would explore as that was censored to foster competition. It was censored in such a way that even if Villy tried to tell Jake, he just wouldn’t hear or see anything, and even if Villy wrote something down, the words wouldn’t appear. Perhaps there were some ways to get around this with Bloodline bullshit or some Transcendents, but Jake saw no reason to try and cheat.

”Then we should get a move on,” Jake smiled. He was naturally also ready and had a stock of more ingredients than ever stored away in his spatial necklace. High-level stuff too. Most of the gifts he had left over were given to Haven or stored back at his mansion for use upon getting back, as a lot wasn’t something he could use quite yet. Oh, and if Jake did need to get more stuff, it wasn’t like one was stuck in there. As long as one had reached one of the city layers, one could always teleport away and back there again. This would still waste time for the leaderboards, so it wasn’t advised, but it was a possibility.

Their group of five thus left the Order of the Malefic Viper compound shortly after they had arrived and left towards Nevermore. However, even if they did not need to do any preparations in the city, there were still a few places they wanted to stop by.

The first of which was the place dubbed the Leaderboard Square. This was where one could see all the Leaderboards of Nevermore, though not all of them were displayed at all times. The Leaderboards also only displayed the top ten, though one could pay Credits to search up specific individuals, and as long as they hadn’t made their entries anonymous, one could still see it. A lot of factions also had special tokens to see individuals from their own force or even their enemy forces. Oh, and one could naturally always see their own ranks.

It was also announced to the entire square whenever someone got a good score, though this usually didn’t happen more than a few times a year.

On the way there, Jake and his party gathered quite the attention. They stood out even among geniuses, but Jake still had to admit he felt slightly humbled by the number of powerful people he saw while walking toward the square. He did not encounter any he would consider truly top-tier, but he did see some parties that he believed could give him quite the challenge if they all came at him together. All these parties were below level 210, of course. The square they were going to was the one with the C-grade Leaderboards, after all.

Luckily, no one bothered them. Even without Jake there, the Fallen King alone would scare anyone off. Those able to Identify Blessings especially stayed out of their way, as Jake didn’t hide his identity as a Chosen, and Sylphie and the Sword Saint naturally didn’t hide their Blessings either.

This is to say they made it to the massive square quite easily. It still required them to teleport once and walk quite a distance, as flying was not allowed in Nevermore City. Neither was fighting of any kind – outside of the arenas, of course.

Walking into the square, Jake’s eyes instantly landed on the four massive monuments on display. Each of them were over a hundred meters tall, and each had only ten golden names written. Jake quickly scanned them all as he marveled at the craftsmanship, the old swordsman at his side also nodding and complimenting them.

Two of the leaderboard monuments were related to the ninety-second era that had just ended with the integration of the ninety-third universe, while the two final ones were related to his own universe. He had not expected anything to be on the last two, but when he got closer, his eyes opened in surprise.

People have already reached C-grade and done Nevermore to get on the Leaderboards? How in the actual fuck!?