Chapter 686: Nevermore: A Healthy Team Dynamic

The thirty-fifth floor had been the first one to truly push their party. It had also been the most fun, in Jake's opinion.

After they all entered the in-between room, the boosting skills were deactivated one by one as Jake tossed himself in one of the lounge chairs. The others also sat down, with the King even stopping his usual levitation to sit on a large chair. They would all need a good while to fully recover, and they had already agreed to stay in the room until they were all back in peak condition. Even if the next floor was a city floor, this place was just safer.

Jake closed his eyes and relaxed a bit as he waited for the system message to appear. It didn't take that long before he saw the notifications, but when he saw them, he couldn't help but frown.

Only two?

How was that possible? Jake instantly checked them and saw that the first one was the expected basic one.

Thirty-fifth floor completed. 350 Nevermore Points earned.

Some-fucking-how, they had only managed to get a single achievement, and he felt kind of pissed before he even read it.

Achievement earned: Kill the fully empowered Demon Lord Gubrothas along with all three Tower Demons within five hours without any party members dying. 5000 Nevermore Points earned.

Okay, Jake was totally fine with just getting one achievement after reading the one they had gotten. It seemed like the system or Minaga or whatever managing these achievements had just decided to throw them all together into one massive achievement.

5000 Nevermore Points was more than they had earned on any prior floor by a significant margin and were a more than twenty-percent increase in overall points just from that one achievement.

"A good windfall," the Sword Saint smiled, having also read the achievement.

"Satisfactory indeed," the Fallen King agreed.

"Ree!" Sylphie also screeched gladly. Being the smart bird she was, she knew big numbers were good.

"I wonder how this will affect later floors?" Dina questioned out loud. "Clearly, the Demon Lord was set up to appear on one of the later five floors for one final fight."

"Good question," Jake said. "Man, if only there was someone who really loved telling us about the great story he has been spinning up. Someone who has been surprisingly silent for a while now, not having a single comment during the entire boss fight."

"Hey, I just didn't wanna distract you from the big fight with the Demon Lord. Imagine if a comment of mine made you lose your focus, and it ended in your death? That would be silly, wouldn't it? Can you imagine the number of complaints I would get if that actually happened? Definitely not worth the hassle," Minaga reappeared. Well, he did not really reappear. Jake knew he had been watching all along as he usually did.

"Why do I get the feeling that has happened before?" Jake mused with a smirk.

"No comment. Anyway, thoughts on the big boss fight?"

"Pretty good," Jake admitted. The Demon Lord had been strong and not as "gimmicky" as Jake had feared. "You needed to be good in many different areas to win, but I have a really hard time seeing barely any parties beating it. The Tower Demons being summoned with full parties is pretty brutal, especially if you have a more classic setup. I guess the healer and tank can handle the boss, but the three damage dealers having to handle a Tower Demon each is a tall order. Not to mention the final phase where the Demon Lord felt near-invincible with his armor on full power. I can see him outlasting many groups simply due to how damn durable he was. Especially if they don't have any good methods to address the Demon Lord's Heart."

"The end part, too," Dina chimed in. "Without knowledge of rituals or soul magic, killing the Demon Lord and not allowing him to escape seems impossible. Maybe you could seal him due to his weakened state, but..."

"It wasn't meant to be easy or even beatable by any parties that could consider themselves in any way average. That is also why you got the escape talismans as rewards for floor thirty-four. You only get those if you unlock the possibility to face the Demon Lord with empowered artifacts, so you get the chance to reset and try again without empowering the artifacts. Something a lot of parties have done, mind you. Overestimating your own abilities is quite a normal thing for young C-grade geniuses, and I do recognize that the difficulty spike was quite severe," Minaga explained. "Not to mention the difficulty of fully killing the Demon Lord after he merges with the sword. The most common method is a big formation that drains the energy of the artifact over time, but that isn't very effective or fast. My sample size is also pretty pathetic... but hey, I would say you guys - courtesy of an overpowered mythical weapon - probably set the kill time record from sword stage to death."

"So, to summarize, we are just damn awesome?" Jake grinned.

"Duh. Not to toot your horns, but you all are a top-of-the-line party. If you were not, there is no way you would have beaten this," Minaga acknowledged.

Jake just smiled as he leaned back a bit further and relaxed.

"How about the impact on later floors? It sounds like killing the Demon Lord outright is not entirely out of expectations," the Sword Saint asked as he took a seat at the bar and grabbed a bottle.

"If you hadn't killed the Demon Lord here, who is to say what it would mean for the later floors? What I can say is that it is a requirement to perform the most rewarding achievement available within my labyrinth later on. It will be the most rewarding by quite a margin, too. Let's just say that the five thousand from the Demon Lord is far from the highest a single achievement can give," Minaga answered.

"Man, and here I had hoped that it would at least throw you off your game a little," Jake smiled.

"Because you kill a boss that is designed to be killable? No, what throws me off my game is people using Bloodlines or Transcendence skills to screw up everything and ruin all my hard work. Not that I dislike these two by default. The swordsman's use of his Transcendence skill in the boss fight is how I expect them to be used. What you do is just willfully ruining my labyrinths," Minaga said, clearly still salty about Jake ruining the exploration on prior floors. Jake also felt something else...

"So what you are telling me that the labyrinth will make a return on floor thirty-six, ripe for my exploitation?" Jake grinned.

"I did not tell you that, no. And if that is the case, you will find out yourself when you arrive. Even if it was a labyrinth again - which I am totally not saying it will be - that doesn't mean it is as easily exploited as the ones before."

"You have said that several times before, and yet we always end up with you complaining about how I broke something of yours again," Jake shot back.

"Time will tell."

"Indeed it will," Jake nodded with a smile.

"Now... want some nice lore bits as you relax? Facing the Demon Lord didn't just have to be done by your party, you know... if you did things differently, you could have brought many helpful allies along," Minaga teased.

"In a bit," Jake said as he saw looked at the pedestal with loot.

"Oh, fair, get the rewards first. But... lore time afterward?"

"Sure," Jake shrugged.

"Great. Enjoy your loot; it should be useful."

Jake sure hoped it would be. Rather than just have Sylphie fly over and unlock the boxes, they all went together. There was not just one box but three this time around. Two of them were small, with one large box. The large one was even bigger than a mini-fridge, and Jake kind of wanted to open it first, but with permission from the others, he started with one of the smaller boxes.

He opened it and instantly felt the odd energy spread throughout the room. It was familiar, and they all recognized it as slightly familiar to the Demon Lord's signature. Which made sense considering the item that floated up. It was a small fist-sized version of the large artifact Jake had corrupted, though Jake wasn't sure it was the same kind of item after using Identify.

[Crystalized Demon Lord Heart (Legendary)] - The crystallized heart of a Demon Lord. The immense energy contained within the crystal can be absorbed by any demon, allowing them insight into the heritage of Demon Lords. Grants demonic powers to any item it is fused with. Can be used in a limited number of alchemical products of a demonic nature.

"No fire affinity mentioned?" Jake questioned. He didn't feel the slightest tinge of fire energy either.

"Not all Demon Lords have the fire affinity, though it is the most common," Dina explained. "And to find a Crystalized Heart... I heard that some talented ritualists can transform a Demon Lord into one. They are incredibly valuable artifacts to all demons and warlocks."

"Let us give it to the hunter, then I am sure we will see him birth some primeval Demon Lord within a few centuries," the Fallen King said. Jake was about to protest as the Sword Saint looked at Dina.

"Can Demon Lords be female?"

"Yeah," Dina nodded.

"Then I guess that is a possibility," the old man nodded.

"Ree?"

"No!" Jake protested as he looked at the green bird. "You are not getting a new little sister, I am not taking that damn heart, and I am definitely not going to make some Demon Lord."

The Sword Saint smiled teasingly at him. "Then who else wants it?"

Nobody said anything. The Fallen King was disinterested, Sylphie said it looked gross, it did not fit Dina's Path, and the Sword Saint had nothing to use it for. In the end, Jake did end up grumbling as he tentatively took the damn thing.

"If all else fails, you can give it to your succubus mistress; I am sure she will appreciate it," the Sword Saint tried to comfort him.

"I don't have any mistresses..." Jake muttered.

"Sure you don't," the old man smiled and chuckled.

"Let's just open another damn box," Jake grumbled as he went straight for the larger of the two remaining lockboxes. It was quickly opened and out came a metal box without a lid. This time, Jake did feel the expected wave of fire affinity energy after opening a box. Looking at what was inside, he saw a dozen black metal ingots.

[Obsidian Hellfire Ingot (Legendary)] - An Obsidian Hellfire Ingot. This metal is incredibly hot to the touch and has a supreme mana conductivity towards any fire affinity mana. Its innate properties also grant this metal high natural resilience to all types of attacks. Limited alchemical uses.

Jake would classify this as another dud. None of them were blacksmiths, and Jake couldn't really come up with anything to use these ingots for. Not that it was a bad reward... this was the kind of metal the armor of the Demon Lord was made with. Potentially the sword too.

"Anyone want this?" he asked.

Silence all around for a moment before Dina spoke up a bit shyly. "I... I can maybe use them?"

"Oh?" Jake said, surprised.

"I... have a plant that can maybe absorb them, but not sure," she said, clearly uncomfortable asking for it. Probably because this was one of the first actually valuable items they had found.

"Take it then," Jake shrugged. He already knew the three others didn't care.

"Alright," Dina relented, storing away all the ingots. Jake did know that their way of distributing loot was different from the norm. Dina knew it too, as she had apparently been taught how loot distribution usually worked before going to Nevermore, and was a bit surprised when Jake and the others went and broke the conventions she had learned.

It was considered pretty standard that crafting materials would be sold if no one needed them badly, or the materials were so rare they were impossible to get your hands on under normal circumstances. Any profit would then be split. Even if someone got the materials, it was usually expected they would compensate the others, either by paying a fair market price or giving up something else. Their laissez-faire approach to loot distribution, where they just gave it out semi-randomly if someone wanted it, not really caring about "fairness," had thus come as a bit of a surprise to Dina.

They did still follow some norms. Such as the norm to give loot to the people who truly needed anything, as that would help everyone clear more floors. Case-in-point? The reward from the final lockbox.

[Supreme Firebane Ring (Legendary)] - A ring crafted for an incredibly talented knight that was slain by the Demon Lord before he was able to reach his prime. Passively grants the user resistance to all fire-based attacks. This effect can be further amplified by infusing mana into the ring, also extending it to affect all their energy. Enchantments: +600 Toughness, +600 Vitality, +500 Willpower. Supreme Firebane.

Requirements: lvl 230+ in any humanoid race.

A certain old man in their party could surely use this item. Something Jake and everyone else knew as he grinned.

"Hey, old man, you should just take this. You kind of lost your cool during the fight with the Demon Lord, so hopefully, this can help you chill if we meet more fire affinity opponents," Jake said teasingly.

"Indeed... much of your offensive prowess seemed to evaporate before the flames of the Demon Lord," the Fallen King even chimed in, Jake feeling oddly proud of the Unique Lifeform for his joke.

"In the heat, you just couldn't cut it," Jake piled on. "I hoped you would have rained on the Demon Lord's parade a bit more."

Dina looked confused for a second before smiling.

"Ah! I understand now!" she said before thinking deeply for a moment. Looking full of inspiration, she grinned at the Sword Saint. "They are giving you heat for your performance."

"Good one, but I think we should lay off flaming him for now," Jake grinned, damn proud of his party. Only Sylphie didn't join in, but she had a good reason not to. She was busy trying to open a bottle with some kind of juice at the bar counter, sad there was no snack for her among the lockboxes.

"I do not even fully understand the last one... but I guess I do feel the burn," the Sword Saint chuckled, taking it in strides. They didn't even need to argue as he picked up the ring. Sadly, he couldn't use it yet due to the high level requirement, but he should reach level 230 soon enough.

"What a healthy team dynamic. Now that you are all done bullying the old swordsman like you bullied that poor Demon Lord with your constant insults, wanna hear some lore about why the Demon Lord got so offended by these insults?" Minaga asked.

"I didn't bully him; I just deployed a tactic taught to me by a master to keep the attention of the boss on me by speaking constantly," Jake smiled. "I call it the Minaga stratagem."

"That is just hurtful... anyway, to the lore. Remember that Old Royal Mage? Yeah, he could have helped you during this encounter if you had..."

Jake relaxed as he listened to the Unique Lifeform happily explain a bunch of scenarios, some of them so silly Jake doubted if they were real - such as one where a party member became the Prime Consort and would be able to sneak in and land a sneak attack - but knowing Minaga, it was probably real.

The others also just recovered, with everyone staying in the lounge. Even the Fallen King chose to not leave for one of the rooms, tolerating Minaga. The Sword Saint was busy infusing energy into the self-repair enchantment of his robe that had been burnt, and Dina once more tended to her hidden garden.

Time slowly passed as they all rapidly approached being back in prime condition. Soon, it was time to check out the city floor, though they didn't really plan on doing that much there. They did have some things to check, such as how many of the solo dungeons there now were. Of course, there was one thing they wanted to know more than anything...

Had they finally claimed that top spot on the Leaderboards?