Zogarth
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Chapter 786 - Nevermore: The Test of Character Begins
🕑 Added 2023-11-09 11:55:42 +0000 UTC<AUTHOR NOTE>
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<AUTHOR NOTE OVER>
It took Jake a good week of sitting in meditation before he got the feeling he could handle the world around him again. Upon reflection on his current state, Jake would liken his injuries to as if he had strained some mental or soul muscle far more than he should have. As if he had torn something metaphysical that wouldn’t simply heal in a few days. Luckily, though, it was healing. In just a week, Jake had gone from feeling either wholly overwhelmed by his surroundings or having all stimuli nearly completely suppressed. In fact, he felt confident enough to walk all the way to where one entered the Challenge Dungeons now.
However, Jake still had one thing that seriously bothered him. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t recall how he felt during the moment he unleashed his Bloodline, and he honestly didn’t quite understand what exactly he had done. He remembered everything he had done, but the methods as to how he had done things eluded him. He had tried to replicate aspects to no avail, as he realized that during his full unleashing of his Bloodline, he had somehow embodied concepts he simply had no way to touch upon now.
While this was annoying, Jake wasn’t that demotivated. Because he knew that it was something he could replicate in the future. Perhaps one day, that state of clarity would just be how he felt all the time, and he couldn’t wait for that day to arrive. A man can dream.
Oh, Jake did also discover one more thing that did genuinely suck. During these thirty years of doing Nevermore, Jake had built up quite a lot of Jake Juice – or Origin Energy, as boring people called it – but that was now pretty much all gone. It had functioned as the fuel to allow him to do what he had done, and without it, the backlash would probably have been way fucking worse. Of course, that energy would also come back in due time, but it was the one true “loss” he suffered.
Either way, during this one week of healing, he tried to keep himself distracted by focusing on things that could keep his mind occupied, which luckily included messing with some of his items. His energy also moved normally, so he used what he had to infuse into the Soulflame Cradle. Sadly, the Puzzle Box wasn’t really useable, though, as that required him to use his senses.
The Cradle had been out of his possession for more than a year and a half, yet when he checked it out, the inside looked just like it had when he entered the Challenge Dungeon. He guessed that time inside had been frozen by the system during his absence, which was probably for the best. Jake could already imagine someone like Dina, who walked around with a garden in a spatial storage, entering the dungeon only to see her garden entirely ruined the second she got out due to lack of maintenance.
Inside of the Cradle, his arcane affinity was gaining more and more ground. A few small areas now consistently birthed – and instantly killed – elemental-like creatures made of his affinity. By now, it was only a matter of time before an Arcane Soulflame would appear… Jake just hoped it would be a high-grade one. If not, well, he wasn’t in a hurry and could wait for some better to come along. Working on the Cradle was a nice distraction, for sure.
Another place Jake felt all fine was within his own Soulspace. There, all his senses worked as they should without any problems, making it a place he could seek out if he needed reprieve. Unfortunately, him immersing his consciousness in his soul seemed to slow down, if not entirely halt his recuperation, so he only checked out his Soulspace sparingly.
He still took the time to make sure his curse energy was fine. Having all his equipment back was great, too. Especially Eternal Hunger had been dearly missed. The Sin weapon luckily also hadn’t starved during his time in the Challenge Dungeon but had been frozen in time the same way as the Cradle.
Anyway, after this week of just healing, Jake believed it was time to stop stalling and get a move on. He didn’t want to be that one guy on a group project who dragged everyone else down by being late with an assignment, so he had to get his ass moving if he wanted to avoid being the last person to finish all his Challenge Dungeon.
He just hoped this Test of Character dungeon would indeed be one he could do even in his messed-up state while hopefully even finding the space to heal in there. Also, he seriously hoped it wouldn’t be as hard, but it shouldn’t be, right?
Jake wasn’t all that confident he would do super well, though… he had always sucked when taking tests. Well, besides multiple-answer tests where he could pretty much cheat by just getting a feel for the correct place to set a cross or fill in the circle. He doubted this test would just be him having to pick between a few choices on a sheet of paper, though.
No matter what, he didn’t really have any other choice as he made his way to the entrance of the Challenge Dungeons and began his second Challenge Dungeon out of five: Test of Character.
--
And boy, was the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon an odd one. Jake immediately recognized that.
From the name alone, it gave plenty of clues, but Jake honestly hadn’t expected it to just test the character of the person who did it, despite the name. How would that even work? What were the criteria for judging a person? What type of character was “best” and deserving of a better evaluation?
Also, how would the Wyrmgod and system even test someone’s character? By having them take some silly personality test? Maybe it would use his horoscope and star sign or throw some tarot cards in the mix? In either case, Jake found the notion of a dungeon judging someone’s character kind of dumb, so he couldn’t really see it being that simple.
Turns out it wasn’t simple indeed.
Upon entering the dungeon, after a brief moment of nothingness, Jake found himself lying in a large, comfy bed. He was momentarily confused as he couldn’t quite move his body, but with a little push, he raised an arm.
His senses were still off, but he felt like his stats were all normal. As he was thinking this, he lost concentration, and his arm dropped down again, as he lost control of his own body. Jake was perplexed and taken aback as a system message appeared before him.
Nevermore Challenge Dungeon Entered!
You have entered the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon. This dungeon is composed of an anthology of events and scenarios for you to experience and live through as you influence the stories while embodying characters within these stories.
As a character, you are both the controller of the outcome of this story and a silent passenger. You are free to choose between controlling the current character you inhabit or letting the original story play out as a simple bystander. Taking control allows you to change the course of the story to create an outcome you find ideal based entirely on your own judgment.
During this Challenge Dungeon, you are fully capable of using your full stats, though some skills may be limited. All current items and equipment have been confiscated and shall be returned upon exiting the Challenge Dungeon. Each story has a final choice you will be presented with that will also mark the beginning of the end of the current story and allow you to move on to the next. Stories can be ended before the final choice is presented should certain actions be taken. Be warned that should the character you are inhabiting die, the story will immediately end, and you will move on to the next. The death of the character you are inhabiting will have no negative effects on you but may influence your evaluation during the Test of Character Challenge Dungeon.
Objective: See the anthology through to its end.
Current objective: Experience the first story.
Reading the entire message, Jake was more certain than ever. This dungeon was weird as hell. So weird that Jake, in all honesty, had no idea what he was actually supposed to do.
An anthology? Stories? Taking the place of characters? This all seemed incredibly weird, especially considering he was clearly in his own body right now… wait, was he in his own body? He felt like he was, but upon focusing really hard on his sphere, he saw that something was different. He was a human, yes, but this wasn’t him.
Forcing himself to take control of the body, Jake moved to touch his own face, only to feel his body instantly morph. The second he had taken control, the character he was currently inhabiting had morphed into Jake’s body fully.
Letting go of his control, it instantly morphed back. Jake let it be as he tried to understand the dungeon a bit more as a minute or so passed. Then, without warning, his body began moving on its own as the character he was currently inhabiting appeared to wake up.
Sitting up, he stretched and yawned before getting out of the bed. Jake watched everything out of his own eyes, truly feeling like a passenger going along for the ride. His character soon walked in front of a mirror as Jake saw who he was supposed to be. In the mirror, a man who looked in his mid-thirties stared back as he stroked his beard a bit, seemingly considering if it had gotten a bit too long.
From there on, the guy just began his day. During this period, Jake realized that even if he saw everything the body did, he didn’t know the character’s actual thoughts or motives, forcing him to interpret any actions by himself. Perhaps this was part of the test of character? Again, what the hell was he supposed to do right now?
Time moved on as the man soon finished up at home and left his house. Jake still had his murky shitty sphere, but at least his eyesight and other “normal” senses were good enough for now. He couldn’t see even close to as far as before, but he could manage. Moreover, from the looks of it, this entire scenario he found himself in was filled with only weak people. His ability to sense presences was also still intact, and so far, not a single being above E-grade had appeared, with most even in F-grade. The body he was currently in seemed to be in late E-grade, if barely.
Jake felt like he was watching a weird and very boring POV movie as the character went through his very mundane day. After leaving home, he went and got some breakfast at a local café before heading to work as a guardsman for the city. He guarded the walls, checked the documents of traders and travelers who wanted to enter the city, and shot the shit with his fellow guards. Only once did any action happen that day as a single late E-grade beast got too close to the city, and a few mage guardsmen quickly killed it.
After getting home, the guard went into a small woodworking shop at the back of the house, where he worked on a full dining set. Once he was done for the day, the sun had long gone down, and the guard went and relaxed a bit in his small living room, reading a book for an hour or so before he headed to bed and went asleep.
Jake sadly didn’t have the ability to sleep as he just lay there in darkness. At any moment, he could take charge of the body, but he didn’t. He hadn’t done anything throughout the entire day either but had just followed along.
During this time, Jake contemplated the Challenge Dungeon introduction and noticed that one option he did have was to skip any current story by simply killing himself. Or, well, killing the character he was currently inhabiting. It said that would end the story prematurely, along with there being no negative consequences for death. Not that he planned on doing that… but it was an option.
Six hours later, the guard woke up, and another boring day went by. It was far from stimulating, but Jake didn’t feel rushed to do anything. Sure, it did feel like he was wasting time, but hey, he was slowly healing up and improving. Plus, he had plenty of time to work on his Bloodline-related senses while he was on cruise control.
On the fourth day of this “story,” something finally happened. A group of traders had come, and one of them said that they passed an area nearby that was usually peaceful, but it seemed like there had recently been a lot of activity from beasts. It wasn’t much, but it was something. That something being incredibly obvious foreshadowing.
The next day, there was more action than any other as a lot of scaled horse-like creatures got close to the city and had to be put down. On the sixth day, it got even worse, and there were even reports of travelers being killed on the road. Rumors began to be whispered around the city that a Beast King had emerged and united the nearby monsters, causing much concern. The bar that the guard Jake was riding along with sometimes visited was buzzing with activity that night, and Jake’s character actively tried to calm everyone down.
Yet Jake knew he himself wasn’t confident things were fine, not based on how he couldn’t focus while at work and his constant nervous ticks. He obviously hoped it was just a false alarm.
Well, on the seventh day, it became clear this was no time to be calm. A scout had arrived and confirmed that a Beast King had indeed emerged, and based on context clues, Jake was pretty sure this so-called “calamitous monster” was just some D-grade. However, to these people, such a beast would be dangerous, even if it had just evolved. From the sounds of it, Jake also doubted it was even a strong variant.
On the eighth day, it became clear the city was in trouble. The Beast King was on the move and headed toward the city, likely to grow the power of its army by killing all the inhabitants of the city off for experience points. Human cities were the best kind of farming ground for beasts if they could get away from it, and clearly, this Beast King knew it.
A large meeting was called with the governor, officials, and many of the guards, including the guard captain, who was close to a peak E-grade. The meeting proceeded as several ideas were thrown out, including evacuation, fighting back while making use of the city walls, laying traps, having only a select few leave, or maybe trying to somehow make the Beast King not attack, with some even proposing that perhaps they could negotiate. Offer tribute to the Beast King to leave them be.
As everyone came up with ideas, Jake’s character didn’t say anything, but suddenly, as there was a moment of silence, the guard captain suddenly addressed him.
“You have worked as a guard here as long as me… do you have any suggestions?” the guard captain asked as he looked straight at Jake. Well, Jake’s character.
As he did this, time slowed down significantly as a message appeared before him, but at the same time, he knew he had to make a decision relatively quickly.
Make your final choice. With the Beast King coming, choose how you will influence the city’s response to the crisis.
Jake felt like he was put on the spot and doing a damn quick-time event… except he didn’t just have to press a button really fast.
What’s worse… Jake still had no idea what in the bloody hell the purpose of this place even was… so he just stopped trying to figure it out as he took control for the first time and spoke:
“Let’s just hunt it down before it attacks?”
Comments
Hunter Thornton
Mera is sad 😢. Jake has used up “Jake Juice”
Michael Fannon
Idk, I think this dungeon could be very interesting. Step one is a normal mortal guard tasked with defending a village that Jake can easily do with his stats. What about step 5, or 10? Will Jake do ride alongs in S-grade or gods? And if so, will he gain more members to his audience?
Tyler S.
I would think it close to shows like quantum leap, take over a body and puppet that body to an unknown check mark and the game can grade on amount of time the body was controlled as well as how different the controled actions ate to the puppet set script. This along with the ripples of change that have occurred due to the choices made
RedFaux
I'm liking Nevermore just fine, and this test of character seems like a nice switch up. Also, what I was originally gonna comment before I saw all the negative nancys was that yeah, it would kill hundreds, maybe even thousands of them, but if it's not a particularly strong one killing it first would work. Assuming they can work together that is.
UMCDaEMON pp
Loved the story from first chapter. For me however, fast forward this dungeon, seems like a 'it was a dream' trope from TV, just annoying waste of time filler.
Chaotic Chaos
Thanks for the clarification!
Gabriel Garcia
If we are still in nevermore, then the same.
Seen Death
Come back in a week or 2 and see how u feel then
Seen Death
As everyone is C grade doing this test, theyre all easilly capable of killing the beast. Which makes me think theres some system shenanigans actually judging character. Im not sure how true to himself ellhakan is, he might fail because he tries too hard? Idk
Seen Death
Idk it could be the opposite aswell!
Gabriel Garcia
I’m so over Nevermore and ready to move on. How many books is this going to take up.
kingofshibainu
Elhakan is probably going to run away with this test of character dungeon. His ability to manipulate emotions and being Yipper's chosen gives him OP story shaping abilities.
Bobby B
Well. Hopefully Jake will be fully recovered by the time he finishes this dungeon. That way he can meet Artemis and Valdamar properly. At full strength.
Victor Augusto Dantas Ferreira
Yeah, the fact that zorgath is not a native speaker is crazy to me, I could never write a novel in my language, in engish? Insane.
Iron
But I like nevermore. And yes I find it a change from before, no tension, if the character Jake plays dies then so be it. It's a play, a scene. Something chill with no repercussions.
Thenais
make him chose between snaky and elfy, that would be funnier
Caelum
A change from before? Jake has been in nevermore forever and will continue to be for quite a while still if things don't change. This is books worth of content where only a small % of it matters in any of the story threads.
Iron
I for one am quite satisfied to see a change from before. I would likely suggest an inspiration from "bloom" by 'xel' on royalroad for fast story telling (skipping even the fight scene, imagine). Thanks for the chapter.
Michael Fannon
The last arc had a slow start too. Though I do hope that at least some of the remaining Challenge dungeons are a speed run. I'm ready to get out of nevermore.
One Winged Angel
Not gonna lie, this new trial does not sound as fun as the last one, i like the idea of seeing Jake in more of a leader role to build off of but this new section looks like its gonna be a slough to get through. Coming off the high of the Trial of Mortals and the transcendent he accomplished at the very least, this section looks like it wont be as hyped at all.
Hayden Leech
Kind of bummed. I think I might pass on the nevermore trilogy when it comes out on Amazon.
Daniel Hogan
Sigh, this kind of challenge does not fun reading make. So much telling, not showing. I get why, to show us properly would take up a huge chunk of chapters, but I always find it boring being told the overview of a scenario and then seeing the resolution of something I'm not invested in. Also, if I see 'anyway' to start a new paragraph again, I'm going to scream.
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Athyrium
I don't think it's bad writing at all, I just want to binge 50 chapters at once and see how the gods are reacting. It will be great in the context of a full book, but with daily releases it's just torture lol
BelligerentGnu
If a chapter feels slow, something is off with the writing, regardless of the events involved. Jim Butcher for example balances character asides with action in his novels, but you never feel annoyed or wish he'd return to the plot.
BelligerentGnu
Elaborate?
James Evans
I thought for sure he would run into the sword sage to let him know which to enter also since it seemed like he end his fighting at the same time.
John Balman
LoL only Jake
SwiftVogel
W chapter
Michael Fannon
So, this challenge dungeon is a "choose your own adventure" VR? Sweet.
Tommy
TFTC!
Isley
good chappie
Richard Horner
Now that we're out of the coliseum arc, I just want to take a second and brag about how right I was before the break. Thanks for the chappie.
Matthew Avery
After vesper, Jake was asked about creation, and answered the insect faction that it was possible, but answered the mech faction that he wasn't planning on creating more queens any time soon. The 'how often' question was left as vague to the factions as the with recent power of 'can be used again' with unknown limitations. The jake juice I am guessing is part of this limiting he and his bloodline is doing. Letting origin permeate him slowly enough not to break him. I liken this to something heavy on thin, low leveled ice. And using it in a blaze of power doesn't tax the something, only the ice keeping it 'existing'. Needing time to freeze solid again. In the future when the ice becomes bedrock or he gains control over the blaze, he keep it simmering at all times.
Seen Death
I was kinda hoping he woulda been able to keep his crafted g-grade bow from the dungeon haha. Prob way too weak to use in actual combat, but an extremely valuable specimen for research. It seems against the rules to take physical items out of the dungeon tho so oh well
Zizawah
For my part I enjoy this arc and I don’t usually like fights or dungeons at all. The writing and Jake’s team makes it fun. And the scenarios are creative as well.
Seen Death
U do realize the "slow chapters" are exactly what make the not slow chapters so good right? Without setting the scene, and putting things in perspective, nothing would be valuable
Caelum
I just want to get back to where things actually matter. If I ever do a re read, I'll definitely be skipping 95% of the nevermore content.
MillionLittleE
Chapter 619. Jake upgrade his skill and in the skill description it said that it is recommended to wait a period of time before another use.
Dominick Gelardi
He still has all of his stats and some of his skills, so I wouldn't be so sure
TFTC. Love that this chapter had absolutely nothing to do with yesterday’s… oh to be a fully caught up patron hahahaha🙃
Dominick Gelardi
The excuse was also technically true, but the excuse was more focused on limited skill usage rather than an energy bar. Jake did talk about needing time to be able to do it again
Mathias
Yeah, once he gains his senses back, he will probably implement the things he learned (maybe more also) and gain some upgrades.
Jonathan
In just a week, Jake had gone from feeling either wholly overwhelmed by his surroundings or having all stimuli nearly completely suppressed. In fact, he felt confident enough to walk all the way to where one entered the Challenge Dungeons now. In just a week, Jake had gone from feeling either wholly overwhelmed by his surroundings or having all stimuli nearly completely suppressed to where he felt confident enough to walk all the way to where one entered the Challenge Dungeons now. avoid being the last person to finish all his Challenge Dungeon. Dungeons. a man who looked in his mid-thirties a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties Human cities were the best kind of farming ground for beasts if they could get away from it, get away with it, “You have worked as a guard here as long as me… do you have any suggestions?” “You have worked as a guard here as long as I. Do you have any suggestions?”
hachetnif
Of course Jake would be like why not just hunt it down which is not a terrible idea it has multiple advantages over what the other people are saying first it gives it the least amount of time possible leveling up second it keeps all the civilians and people safe away from the monster third if they fail to kill it they can make a better backup plan with information that they have gathered about it.
Nicolas Maganto
Jake had gone from feeling either wholly overwhelmed by his surroundings or having all stimuli nearly completely suppressed. => 'or' should be replaced by 'to'
Clint
Yep, this. He brings a ton of new insight out of the Colosseum, but he won't actually upgrade the skills until he *uses* them in new ways. In the Colosseum he was explicitly *not* using his skills, which were blocked.
StuBee3
TFTC 😎
Asas
I like this. I like the concept of the anthology a lot.
Ritsu
I may be way off base here, but is this a freaking visual novel?
Areshan
Another one of nevermore's criminal background checks lol
Chaotic Chaos
Ok I may be misremembering something, but I thought the idea that Jakes origin altering power that he can use on beasts was unlimited use when ever he wanted. I remember that after vesper was born there was a need for some excuse to why he couldn’t do it all the time, in order to get other gods and powerful factions off his back. To discourage just using him to boost the factions records. Has that changed? Or is the ‘jake juice’ / ‘origin energy’ referring to the temporary spending of his records? Any clarity anyone can provide would be appreciated.
Victor Augusto Dantas Ferreira
About Jake's skills, I belive the system will compute the changes only when he uses them again outside the CD. From what I understand from the system perspective the changes didn't happen because it wasn't present on the CD monitoring it.
Klown Keidra
Jake probably doesn't know himself. With his senses all messed up, he couldn't put into practice anything he learned to actually upgrade the skills.
Decibel790
Lmao. Love to see Jake being Jake and seeing the reactions of everyone around him.
Kris Boxall
Thanks for the chapter, but seriously no skill upgrades?
Rubeno
Let's not forget also changes to his archery. I scantly remember what it was but he definitely improved!
bauspar
yeah, at least fear gaze and his arcane empowering skills hould have evolved right?
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Rubeno
What happened with changes to Jakes Skills after his training in the Colosseum?
Kyle Pemberton
No mention of how Jake's skills were upgraded by his time in the challenge dungeon?
Naotsugu97
Thanks for the chappy!
kyle
What!.....NOOOOO🤣
Athyrium
And the slow chapters begin. Hopefully this won't take to long. I really want to get back to all the God shenanigans.
Arrogant Savant
Jake might finally have to use the tactics of the weak in this dungeon!
Smit
Woo!
The Dyslexic Cloud
tftc
Deimos
Thanks for the chapter
