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Why did this matter?

Well, for the title, of course.

[Dungeoneer X] – Successfully clear a Dungeon suitable for your level. +20 all stats.

Jake’s Dungeoneer title had upgraded to level 10, also known as the” cap” of D-grade. In E-grade, one could get up to level 5, 10 in D-grade, and 15 in C-grade. Jake also knew that every increase in the title from here on out would give +9 to all stats – tripling from the +3 it gave in D-grade.

Anyway, having an upgraded title was nice but not that impactful, and honestly, not something Jake thought much about as he and the others entered the first city floor of Nevermore.

City layers – or city floors - in Nevermore were quite peculiar. Jake had read a bit about them and knew that he shouldn’t expect overly much quite yet for one simple reason: this city layer had only existed for a few years.

Like the floors, these city layers had also been” reset” and” redone” for the new integration. One could still enter the city from the previous era if no one in the party in question was from the ninety-third universe, but if anyone was, they would end up on this layer. This was another reason why many factions had quickly taken some C-grades and pretty much forced them through these first layers of Nevermore. They wanted to establish themselves and claim space on the city floor. Not that many factions had time to arrive and begin to build much of note quite yet.

Even then, it wasn’t like the city was completely empty.

Jake and the others walked out of the gateway and found themselves in the middle of a nearly completely empty square. Large stone buildings surrounded them at all times, but they all seemed empty. Jake did notice a few eyes land on them shortly after they appeared, and he looked towards an empty-looking building and spotted a man peeking out towards them.

The man was surprised at being noticed and quickly retreated. Jake didn’t bother trying to figure out what the guy wanted, and besides, he had a system message to skim.

You have arrived on the first city floor of Nevermore. You are currently in the northern square.

All violence outside of the arenas is strictly prohibited on all city floors. Challenge Dungeon(s) can be found in the central square. If Nevermore is left and reentered, you will automatically be taken to the latest city floor unlocked.

Short and simple, yet very informative. Like Nevermore City before they entered the dungeon, violence was not allowed, but arenas were supplied. The message also mentioned one of the other important aspects of Nevermore: Challenge Dungeons.

This was the individual aspect of Nevermore. Challenge Dungeons of varying natures that all gave Nevermore Points, just like the main floors. However, Jake had no interest in checking out quite yet. These Challenge Dungeons could be found on every single city floor and were the same throughout. Besides, if he did ever want to go back to this first city floor, he would be able to at any point as one could travel between all the city floors – or leave Nevermore altogether. Because one other big difference between the other floors and a city floor was that one could exit Nevermore from a city floor and reenter again on that same city floor, just like the system message had mentioned. To summarise, city floors were pretty much save points for Nevermore.

Besides that, these city layers primarily functioned as places for parties to replace party members or fill empty group slots if someone happened to die. One could only do floor six onwards with people who had already done the first five, and it wasn’t possible to reenter the first five to get someone up to speed, so people really didn’t have a choice. This was one of the reasons the arenas were established.

Another reason for these city layers was to stock up on resources without having to leave and come back again. Additionally, people could sell special items unique to Nevermore only within the city layers. While Jake and the others hadn’t found any of such special items, he knew one could find tokens that allowed one to travel back to the closest city layer, orbs that released pulses to create maps, and even items granting information on the specific floor one found themselves in.

Finally, factions used these floors for one more thing… time dilation training. One was able to compound time dilation within Nevermore, and the Wyrmgod even provided these chambers for anyone interested. Needless to say, then Jake and the others had no interest in these chambers, and they quite honestly didn’t make much sense for people who were actually talented. They were primarily made for people who just wanted to quickly finish their Nevermore dive and get on the Leaderboards, or maybe to sit down and do a crafting session to not delay their party too much before moving onto the next level.

That was pretty much all these City Floors were for. Ah, but they did hold one more interesting thing:

Leaderboards.

“Do we have a reason to linger on this floor for longer than necessary? It appears deserted, and we have no need for additional resources,” the King said, clearly not interested in staying in this city for long.

It made sense. While time dilation was still in effect, it wasn’t as powerful on the earlier floors as on the latter ones. Jake and the others had no idea how much it differentiated, and even the Sword Saint, who had insights into the concept had time, had no way to determine it. To him, time was not dilated at all due to the system-fuckery making time appear ”normal” within Nevermore.

“I want to check out the Leaderboards first,” Jake said.

“That does sound worth our time,” the Sword Saint agreed.” Though from my understanding, the Wyrmgod is quite stingy with what information is given out.”

“True, true, but it is better than nothing,” Jake smiled. No one else disagreed with quickly going to check out the Leaderboards, so without further ado, they began walking through the empty city streets. Quite a few buildings were pre-constructed by the Wyrmgod, but even more empty lots were present as factions had yet to claim any land.

The further they moved toward the central square, where the Leaderboards and dungeons could both be found, the more people they also began encountering. All of them were naturally C-grade, but Jake was still taken aback as he noticed something was off: their levels.

While Jake and his party members were all below level 210 and hadn’t even gained any levels yet from the first five floors, Jake saw a slew of people even towards the end of C-grade. He quickly guessed these were people brought to this floor specifically to establish a presence for whatever faction they represented and weren’t actually there to do the floors.

Jake wondered if the Order had boosted some people to the floor yet, but then realized he didn’t actually care as they soon enough made their way to the central square, where they finally laid their eyes on the two Leaderboards there.

”A bit lower than I expected,” Jake commented as they looked at the first of the Leaderboards.

”It is the average, and considering the many groups that don’t aim to accomplish anything but to get the bare minimum while taking their time, it isn’t that surprising,” the Sword Saint said, with the King and Dina agreeing with him.

Jake still thought it was a bit low.

Average Nevermore Points (Floor 1-5): 226

Of these, 150 were guaranteed just for completing the floors. That meant the average group only got 76 extra points from achievements, bonus objectives, and events. Once more, it had to be noticed this was only groups who qualified for the Leaderboards by having nobody above level 210. If one counted the groups that rushed through with a bunch of people in late-tier C-grade, then the points would have been far higher. A bunch of people at level 300 boosting one lower-leveled native from the ninety-third universe would have demolished the floors quite easily, after all, and gotten all the bonus points for speed.

Looking at the next Leaderboard, Jake was once more a bit surprised.

Current Nevermore Points Record (Floor 1-5): 553

”Also lower than I expected,” Jake once more commented.

”There, I concur,” the Sword Saint agreed. They had gotten 465 Nevermore Points, and that had been by rushing through, so to see the top group only earn 88 more points than them was honestly surprising. Then again… considering how long it had been since the integration, it was doubtful any team from the new universe had even been close to reaching the maximum threshold yet. The groups going right now consisted of those with high levels of talent and high confidence, who only cared about raking up points on the later floors.

”Are there no Leaderboards that include the Challenge Dungeons?” the Fallen King asked inquisitively. ”Or one that includes bonus points gained from any level-ups?”

”Doesn’t seem like it,” Jake shrugged.

”As I said… stingy,” the Sword Saint smiled and shook his head.

Either way, the Leaderboards were a bit disappointing, and their party of five quickly moved on.

Being at the central square and in the vicinity of any challenge dungeons, they decided to check out the dungeon on this city floor. Yes, dungeon, singular. It appeared there was only a single Challenge Dungeon on this floor. More would come on later floors, but Jake had still expected to see more than one.

Oh well, at least there would be more on later city floors. All Challenge Dungeons that would eventually become available could be entered from all city floors they encountered, and as they also all had limited attempts, then it was often advised to wait to enter them. Considering one couldn’t truly die within the Challenge Dungeon, limited attempts were pretty much a requirement to make sure one couldn’t brute force it, and honestly, giving people more than one try was already nice. On a side note, one could leave and enter, and attempts were only considered consumed if one chose to leave in the middle of a challenge or died.

Inspecting the one available dungeon, it appeared to be some kind of arena from the looks of it. Exactly what it was about, they naturally couldn’t know, but Jake looked forward to checking it out later on, as some arena battling seemed fun.

Not knowing it, Jake would have his hopes of arena battles fulfilled sooner rather than later as they moved toward the sixth floor.

Now, when it came to how he would feel about these arena battles… that was an entirely different story.

In Nevermore City, activity was buzzing as always. Even during normal times, it was one of the areas in the multiverse with the most traffic, but with the new integration, it had reached a new level. A new era did not only bring with it an age of new geniuses, but the wave of Records it sent echoing through the entire multiverse also benefitted the geniuses that already existed. This was a time of countless talents to compete, and those from the ninety-two other universes gladly rose to the occasion to challenge the newly integrated fighters.

But… even these geniuses still needed someone from the new universe to go with them if they wanted to compete on the new Leaderboards where getting titles was far easier. Finding someone who would fit in the group was hard, especially someone who could keep up with the pace of a multiversal genius. Unless they themselves were supreme geniuses, of course. Or… if they, for some reason, were specially qualified for dealing with Nevermore.

Which was the exact scenario Casper found himself. He had been busy working on New Yalsten with the others and had reached C-grade only a week prior. Shortly after his evolution, he had been contacted by his Patron – the Blightfather – and been given a direct task for the first time since the Tutorial:

Go to Nevermore and be the one party member from the new universe in a group put together by the top brass of the Risen. Casper had expected to go to Nevermore with Priscilla and others from Earth, but when the order came from the Blightfather, he had no choice.

As for who he was then going there with? As far as he could tell, the best the entire Risen faction had.

That day, Casper had arrived at the Risen compound at Nevermore. There, he had promptly been escorted to his four upcoming party members who had already arrived beforehand. Casper would lie if he said he wasn’t nervous, as he could feel an aura ahead of him that surpassed his own by quite a margin.

Nevertheless...

Casper entered the room without seeing a need to knock as a woman sitting close to the door looked his way. She was the only one at the entrance, with the others likely in some of the many side rooms.

”The Dungeon Engineer, huh?” she smiled, her fangs showing. She was some kind of Beastfolk Risen.

”That’s me,” Casper said noncommittally. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about being there.

”Well, ain’t you a peachy one,” the woman grinned even more as she jumped off the chair she had been lounging on and went closer. ”Hey, I heard that new universes don’t have native undead, is that true? Doesn’t that mean you are a newborn?”

”No.”

”No to you being a newborn or no to no undead exis-”

”Maltrax, leave him be,” a voice spoke as a tall man entered the room. The moment he did, Casper felt the entire atmosphere of the room change, and even Lyra within his locket was alarmed. The sheer level of blight energy he emanated… Casper knew who it was instantly.

He was the party leader of their group and the youngest Ghost King within the last billion years. A genius nurtured within the Ghostlands from birth, who had been assessed to have a high chance of reaching godhood even in D-grade. He was, based on all Casper had heard, an absolute monster.

”I was just kidding around; no need to be so serious,” the undead beastkin woman said. ”Though he does feel a bit too weak to join us, doesn’t he?”

”He is an engineer, is he not?” a third voice said as a woman wearing what looked like a wedding dress walked in. Thin semi-transparent cloth seemed to float around her, obscuring her form entirely outside a faintly female outline, with her body giving off intense death energy.

”I am,” Casper nodded.

”Still, you should be strong, too,” the beastskin complained.

”You’re right; I vote for removing me from the group and me going back home,” Casper said semi-jokingly.

”Hehe, at least you have some guts,” the Ghost King said as his abyss-like eyes stared at Casper. ”Name’s Azal; a pleasure to meet you… Casper, was it?”

Casper nodded, not surprised the other party didn’t really comment on his willingness to just go back home. They both knew that nobody had any say in who was in this group.

Besides, Casper had not been selected for nothing. While Casper did fall behind the usual elites when it came to pure combat prowess, this was Nevermore, not some battlefield. This was a mega-dungeon, and Casper was a dungeon engineer. To be an engineer did not simply mean he was capable of making dungeons… it also allowed him to analyze dungeons when within them. See the ”code” behind their functions, and discover things a normal person couldn’t, most of it through system assistance.

This advantage became readily apparent immediately upon entering the first floor.

The moment they appeared, Casper didn’t delay and knelt down as he placed his palm on the hot sand. The other undead shielded themselves and him from the life-infused sunlight as Casper closed his eyes. Thirty or so seconds later, he opened them again. ”Are we going for any hidden events?”

”Are there any easy ones?” the woman in her ghostly wedding dress asked.

”No, not really; they are all time-consuming. Better to just go for the boss right away,” Casper shook his head. ”Though I would collect those fragments for the bonus objective. There are far more than is needed, and while chances are we would get an achievement for collecting far more than a thousand, I don’t believe that worth it either.”

”Where is the boss?” Azal asked.

Casper quickly took out a small orb and infused some energy into it before throwing it to the Ghost King. ”Should take you straight to it, but for reference, it is straight down and through the planet.”

”Distance?” their fifth and final party member asked. He was a three-meter tall and lank abomination with limbs not truly fitting together, and he wore an entirely black cloak, hiding his grotesque body.

Casper did a quick scan before he sent the exact distance from them to the boss. The fabric of the dungeon was so easily readable as they were still only on the first floor.

The lank abomination nodded as spears of bone embedded themselves in the sand all around him. Energy surged as space seemed to warp, and with a nod, he stepped back as Azal entered the formation. A black abyss opened up beneath him as his body distorted, and he disappeared into the spacial tunnel digging straight through the planet.

At the same time, the ghostly bride had sent out an army of specters to collect Sunlight Fragments, joined by the beastkin woman.

Not even a minute after Azal disappeared – and less than ten minutes after entering the first floor – they got the achievement telling them of the death of the Floor Boss, and within less than an hour, they were off the floor and on to the second.

Casper simply went along with the flow and did his job. He had heard Jake had also entered, and he couldn’t help but wonder how his speed compared to his old colleague and friend. Though he did feel a bit sorry for Jake… because he had to be bored out of his mind dealing with these early floors.