The Hunter’s Code: Book 1: A Progression Portal Fantasy Series, page 1
Yuri Vinokuroff & Oleg Sapphire
The Hunter’s Code
Book 1
A Progression Portal Fantasy Series
Published by Magic Dome Books
The Hunter’s Code
Book # 1
Copyright © Yuri Vinokuroff, Oleg Sapphire 2023
Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin
English translation copyright © Alix Merlin Williamson 2023
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2023
ISBN: 978-80-7693-042-1
All Rights Reserved
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
New and upcoming releases from
Magic Dome Books!
If you like our books and want to keep reading, download our FREE Publisher's Catalog, a must-read for any LitRPG fan which lists some of the finest works in the genre:
Tales of Wonder and Adventure: The Best of LitRPG, Fantasy and Sci-Fi (Publisher's Catalog)
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
About The Authors
Chapter 1
“SIR, WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” the guard said, opening the limo door. “But you have nothing to worry about. We’ll take care of them. You can just stay here and relax.”
“As you say,” I answered him lazily and kept on staring listlessly through the window.
I was bored to tears. From outside the window I heard the crack of gunfire and the boom of spells being cast. Strange people in strange masks doing strange things. They wanted to eliminate the heir of a noble family, i.e. me.
An amused smile touched my lips. Another attack? How many was that this week? Five? And all had failed. Pathetic amateurs! In the third attack, I’d even felt myself starting to root for their side. At some point I wanted to open the armored and enchanted door to help the hapless fighters, but the central locking kicked in the moment danger struck.
All I could do was put my hopes in my attackers’ professionalism. They might at least kidnap me in one of their attempts, so that I could start living a normal life. Although pigs will fly before that happens.
It was funny, really. Every time I found myself in one of these situations, I was on the side of the attackers.
Mine is a hard life... The life of the next in line to rule the Family. If this had been my first life, everything would be different. But alas, it wasn’t so, which is what made my situation such a disaster.
“Are you hurt, Alex?” another guard said, running up to me. He happened to be a master of fire.
Making like he was worried about me. Oh, come on. I knew all about rats like him, who smiled to your face and gave the finger to your back, or even just stuck a knife in it. And that was just a guard! The less said about my ‘relatives’ the better. A damned snake pit full of damned lies for a damned life. I might be seventeen right now, but before... Before, I was far older... And believe me, I ate types like that guard for breakfast every day.
I used to love breakfast. And my life. It had been a happy one. At least for me. I doubted that the local slimeballs shared my happiness.
I took the remote in hand and pressed the button for the mirror, which came right out of the roof, and leaned forward a little to get a better look at myself. The leather seats of my armored car gave a pleasant squeak. Yes, my apparently ordinary limousine was stronger than an army APC on the outside, and comfier than many houses on the inside.
Come on, Xander, what’s happened to you? You’re dressed like some hotshot, riding in a fancy car that doesn’t belong to you, but to your pompous Family. In fact, you don’t have anything of your own, not even a future. This wasn’t the reincarnation the Hunter’s Code promised me...
Sometimes I have moments of weakness, when I think too much. They usually happen when there’s a battle going on right outside and I can’t join in with it. That really annoys me, but there are reasons for it.
There was a powerful explosion outside my window, but my car didn’t give a honk. It was a family car, and better protected than many poor aristocrats’ manor houses.
More explosions followed, these ones signifying that it would all soon be over. Again, without me.
The bridge support beam behind which those amateurs had launched their ambush crashed down to the ground outside. After it, two partially burned bodies thumped to the asphalt. And one of them, it seemed, was still alive. Reaching out a hand, the almost dead attacker tried to cast something with the last of his strength, but an ordinary bullet from a simple pistol took off the skull of the unfortunate Gifted. A sad death for a foolish man.
I chuckled and turned back to my mirror. The same sad-looking young man that I’d hated looking at for all these years looked back at me from the mirror. It wasn’t that he... I mean, I — it wasn’t that I was ugly, exactly. Actually, by local standards, I was almost handsome. Tall, dark-haired, with a chiseled athletic build. Dumb habit. I just COULDN’T let my body be weak. Sometimes I got carried away and caused gossip among the servants, shocked by my training sessions.
But damn! Where were all my scars? I’d had so many in my past life as a Hunter, and I was proud of them. Was...
That damn Black Hydra devoured me... But I took the beast down to the underworld with me. I had hunted it for so long and achieved success where many had failed. That ancient and graceful beast was old, and ve-e-ry strong! I could still smell the stench of the noxious fumes of the Adyghe Swamp, where that creature had reigned supreme for centuries, invading other worlds to sow pain and chaos.
That had been my final trophy... What a shame...
A pleasant warmth spread through my chest at the memory of the hydra. A straightforward job. Excitement. The surge of adrenaline and pride at a job well done. Oh, how I missed it all!
It was a good hydra. A dark grin spread across my face, one that tended to strike primordial fear into all who saw it. I checked myself and quickly hid it away, bringing back to my face the bored and distant expression of a spoiled and dimwitted brat of a noble Family. Others couldn’t see it yet; it was too soon.
Or maybe it was the perfect time? I was traveling to see my father, who was supposed to officially announce who his successor would be. If only I wanted to be it. That said, my relatives didn’t really want it either. But tradition...
Really, I had a feeling that it would all go fine. My famed intuition, which my brothers applauded and even envied. They knew that it was better to listen to what I said than live to regret it.
The attack ended almost as soon as it had begun, and my convoy resumed its journey. But before we had gone far, the attack started anew. Maybe the last one was just a practice run?
This time there were more attackers, and they were a little better prepared. The leading car in our convoy flew into the air in the flash of a magic-strengthened explosion. That car wasn’t as well protected as my limo.
The attackers cast themselves at us from all sides, yelling. I grimaced again. The yelling was a sign of uncertainty and a desire to bolster oneself and one’s comrades, forming a unified crowd. Why bother doing that if you can just kill your enemy? Silently and effectively.
If only they killed all the guards and I went missing without a trace! Oh, I could only dream! Until my father announced his decision, there was no way in hell I’d be allowed to go anywhere. My ass was too valuable to just up and lose, let alone allow to be killed.
No, I was no dutiful son who would wait for an answer and shake in fear beneath his father’s gaze. I had tricks up my sleeve in case anything went wrong, but for now everything was going fine.
Two minivans screeched to a halt beside my car, covering it from the attackers. Reinforcements called by my guards.
I sighed heavily. Not today... Well, at least — not now.
* * *
“You’re late,” was the first thing my father said.
Henry Goddard looked like he always did — immaculate and imperious. Just like the noble head of a famous family should look. A tall gray-haired man with a straight back like he’d swallowed a broomstick. That expression on his face, that eternal displeasure. He never seemed to smile, and he looked upon the circumstances and events around him as upon an unfortunate and unpleasant misunderstanding.
I, incidentally, am Alex Goddard, but in my last life I was just Xander. True, I’ve been called by many na
“We were attacked three times in one journey. I think that might be a record,” I answer him in a voice as indifferent as his own. “We had to stop and explain to the attackers that they weren’t in the right.”
“I’m sure he defeated them all,” my younger brother drawled in his shi... his unpleasant voice. “And now he’s going to tell us how they died of fear, trembling before his Gift.”
All those present smiled. There were even a few quiet titters.
“A picture says a thousand words,” I said, shrugging my shoulders impassively, and summoned my Gift.
At that moment, out of my palm flew a Kreoskian Ash Dragon infected with rot. It soared up to beneath the high ceiling of the Council Hall. Spreading its mottled wings, it looked around and roared in fury.
There were no guards present, since there were only family members in the hall, and my dragon dove down at my brother, filling the ancient hall with a sinister scream.
The little shithead had been sitting at ease in a comfy business chair and hadn’t been expecting anything of the kind. He fell off that chair in surprise and started shouting.
“I’ll kill you, you bastard!” my brother screamed in a high falsetto. He was still going through puberty, and his voice broke as he shot up from the floor, already activating his Gift of lightning.
Unlike mine, his strike was real, not just an illusion.
My relative’s face filled with a broad spectrum of feelings. Rage from being humiliated yet again screamed from his eyes. Particularly as the man who had humiliated him was higher in status by birth, but lower in strength.
My real brothers were back in the Order. There, all were brothers and all had a special relationship with each other. What did the randomness of being born in the same family have to do with that, particularly in one so... pathetic? Not in its power or nobility, but in its nature. But here I am going off on a tangent... In the meantime, my odious brother fired a white-hot ball of lightning straight at me.
Maybe he lost his self-control to some extent, but not entirely. The lightning was flying slower than usual, and even an ungifted man could easily dodge it.
And so could I... But why bother? I stayed standing right where I was and looked at my brother with a smirk, enjoying the confused and perplexed look on his face. It’s all about thinking before you act, brother! Use your head!
The lightning wouldn’t kill me, but he didn’t know that, and neither did all the others. Including my father’s wives, three of which were there at that moment.
If he killed me in front of the whole family, there was no way he’d ever get to take his place as head of the household, which he was so hoping for after the death or retirement of old man Henry.
I stood and smiled, staring straight at him. Dumb, naive upstart. Too dumb to understand that I wasn’t one of his friends who he could spook with his power. Ooh, such power! Heh, basic lightning…
Everyone in the hall watched for what would happen next, but nobody risked getting involved. Although the mother of the younger one clearly wanted to intervene, to correct her favorite son’s wayward action and dispel his magic. She was strongly Gifted, and it would have been child’s play to her. But father was the boss here, and the one who would decide what would happen.
When the lightning ball was only a few feet away from me, and I could already feel the heat from the red-hot orb on my skin, the elder Goddard finally reacted.
“Enough,” he said calmly, and the ball lightning exploded. Particles of high-temperature plasma splattered in all directions, burning through my feast day clothes, scorching my skin and sending pain lancing through my body. The room began to smell noticeably of burnt meat.
But not so much as a muscle moved on my face.
“Well done, brother! I have no power, and you have plenty to spare. But your soul is pathetic,” I spat right in his face, in the hope of causing another fit of rage.
That rookie weakling who... I didn’t have time to finish my thought. A mental attack from my father sent me flying into the wall.
Of course, I sensed him preparing to attack. The old man’s much-praised speed only made me smile. But I still sensed it in time, even if I couldn’t resist. Oh, well... That’s life for you. Father was strict, and an asshole to boot.
“Don’t get cocky,” was all he said as he watched me slide helplessly down the wall. “We are a fighting family, but all you can do is use your foolish jokes. How many times have I told you not to use your power on your brother?”
Right... So it was all my fault! Damn, sure would be nice to break something heavy over his head right now! But I couldn’t...
The first time I used my powers on my brother at a reception, he had responded the same way. But back then it had been an Andalovian Snake, around ninety feet long from head to tail.
It had made my brother piss all over his reputation. Quite literally, haha... Henry had said then that I was no use at all. Not only could I not help the family in my way, but I also harmed its reputation. It had been ten years since then, and of course, I never listened to him. I had done similar things many times since.
“If you aren’t dying and are ready to hear why I bought you here, then sit down,” father said, addressing me again and pointing to a chair.
With a grunt, I sat down on the ancient carven chair, showing tranquility in my every move, although my skin burned with invisible fire. I wanted to tell him everything on my mind, but I couldn’t... How tired I was of telling myself the word ‘couldn’t’ for all these years. The Code had declared that my next life would be lived at my leisure. Well, then I had a question for the Code — where the hell was that leisure?!
“You are my eldest heir, and in a month you will be eighteen years old, which means that I must declare you my successor,” father said, looking at me intently. “And so, I have made my decision...”
Go on, I’m hanging on your every word. What’s your decision?
“I’m listening,” I said, my face still stony.
“You should die!” came the furious answer from my father, slamming the silence of the grave down on the hall. “Your Gift is a mistake that will bring our family neither to success nor glory. But I cannot avoid declaring you my successor. I give you a choice. A fake death or a real one.”
With all the words and letters in the world I couldn’t convey how hard it was in that moment to say nothing. It had been a long time since I’d had to exert such effort to control myself.
“A fake death,” I said, trying not to give myself away, though I was feeling properly nervous.
Did I just imagine my brother and his mother sighing with disappointment at my words? Hoping to be rid of me for good, eh? With a guarantee? The hell with them!
“You always did have plenty of smarts,” father said, and smiled. “It is a shame that fate played such a cruel joke with your Gift.”
The Gift of creating harmless illusions in a fighting clan that always sought out more strength probably was indeed a joke of fate.
