The Primal Hunter

Casper smiled and nodded as he picked up speed and began running down the hallway to make sure he could pass it in time. Doing at least one hundred sections was his goal, and based on what he knew, that should put him as one of the absolute top performers for this Challenge Dungeon.

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Jake completely ignored the way-too-fucking-complicated huge magic script at the beginning of the section as he shot into a hallway at full speed, not stopping for a second. Arcane Awakening activated at 30%, giving him even more speed as he approached a hallway with a few traps in it. Right as the traps triggered, Jake jumped to the side as a spear shot by him, the air pressure alone leaving bloody cuts on Jakes torso and tearing flesh off his arm despite flying by him more than three meters to the side.

Continuing forward while ignoring his wounds, he soon triggered another trap. Dozens of lasers activated, filling the entire hallway and leaving no room for a human to get through, forcing Jake to block one of them. Eternal Hunger, with its form changed to resemble a shield with sharp edges to still be considered a weapon, appeared in Jakes hand as he blocked one of the lasers and kept running.

Even the mythical rarity weapon wasnt left unscathed, as a hole was slowly being burned into it. Gritting his teeth, Jake barely managed to reach the end of the hallway, where he had to jump up to another floor. Summoning his Eternal Shadow, Jake barely managed to delay the laser for a fraction of a second, proving just long enough for Jake to get through the ceiling and into the next hallway.

Eternal Hunger was still simmering with energy as a clear small hole had been burned into it, the weapon already mending itself. Considering not even the B-grade he fought could leave a single scratch on the weapon, he took that as proof Jake was somewhere he really shouldnt be.

Because he was pretty damn sure those lasers or that spear earlier could have killed even a True Dragon in one shot. A low-tier B-grade one, sure, but a True Dragon nevertheless. Then again, this probably shouldnt come as a surprise to Jake.

He was in Labyrinth Section 214, after all.

Jakes original goal of reaching two hundred sections had long been passed as Jake just kept going. He had briefly checked out one of the gatekeeper rooms as he passed by it on the previous floor, and while he couldnt tell the creatures exact level, Jake was pretty sure it was around mid-tier B-grade. That was a being above level 400 so, yeah, Jake didnt even have the instinct to give that fight a go. He was already pressured enough on time and attempts as things were.

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It was to the level where he had to use his boosting skill from the very beginning of a section to be fast enough. He had learned that when he didnt make it through in time in section one-hundred and ninety-eight, and with that loss and his other fuck-ups, he was down to his final attempt.

Attempts remaining: 1

His first life had naturally been lost against the B-grade. Another life had been lost when he learned he couldnt do the trap hallways at all anymore, a third life was lost when Jake thought that maybe he could still do a slightly smaller trap hallway, and a fourth one was, as mentioned, lost when Jake simply didnt run fast enough due to his lack of boosting skill.

By now, there wasnt really much to discuss regarding his approach to each Labyrinth Section. Jake didnt even have time to make a route properly anymore, but he just had to follow his intuition in the first part as he fired out Pulses of Perception and created a mental map to navigate through. Everything that wasnt the smallest of traps had to be entirely avoided, and he also tried to stay away from teleporters whenever possible. He had encountered one in Labyrinth Section 200 that he got very bad vibes from, giving him the feeling that should he take it, Jake would get teleported right in front of a gatekeeper. Or into a water level. Both would be equally horrible. Actually, scratch that. Hed rather die to a B-grade than be stuck in a water level as the timer slowly expired.

Anyway, all it came down to was pure speed and pacing. Jake had five whole days to complete the section, and he would need every moment simply due to how massive it was. It was a true marathon where pacing and conserving resources were as important as simply being fast.