The Primal Hunter 15: A LitRPG Adventure, page 42
The more he learned, the more he considered how his Bloodline had seemingly turned his Perception stat into something that could only be described as transcendent in quality. At least some of its effects were, and he couldn’t help but wonder if anything bad might have happened if he hadn’t invested sufficiently in his Perception stat. Could he have potentially lost some of the Bloodline-empowered abilities he’d begun to take as a given?
It was all hard to tell, but Jake suspected that the power of his Bloodline was intrinsically tied to the Perception stat one way or another.
He also began to consider that it was possible Villy had already known or suspected this. Jake had told the Primordial that he got a percentage increase in Perception from his Bloodline—something that was apparently not at all normal. He at least hadn’t ever come across any accounts of others having it.
While most factions kept the powers of Bloodlines secret, they did reveal some things about them to convince others they were powerful. It was also a pretty normal thing for factions with powerful Bloodlines to form alliances and attempt to have children with mutated fusions of these Bloodlines, and in this process, exact descriptions of these Bloodlines sometimes leaked.
Jake considered whether he would have to talk to Villy more about it at some point, but for now, he chose to move on. While deepening his understanding of his Bloodline was all well and good, it didn’t help his current predicament much.
The talk about concepts continued for a couple of more days. These days all felt overly long and detailed, every second revolving around concepts. Jake tried his darndest, but in the end, it boiled down to him indeed being a bit of an idiot when it came to understanding them. Assuming he wanted to do so the traditional way, that is.
Ultimately, he and Artemis decided that the best way for him to see some real progress was for him to put himself under pressure. He needed to stimulate his own instincts and, during moments like those, seek an understanding of the concepts he wished to improve.
Jake wasn’t all too happy about it, though. He felt a bit like a failure, having to accept that training with Artemis alone likely wasn’t going to cut it. Even if he did manage to experience some real progress, it would be far slower than if he just accepted reality and went out for some practical experience.
Training’s primary issue was that it couldn’t add real pressure. Within the Colosseum, Jake wasn’t at risk of dying. Artemis never attacked him with genuine intent to kill, even if she could kill him within the Colosseum.
Back in Nevermore, the Colosseum had felt far more realistic, even if he also had multiple lives there. It had been real enough that even if Jake had known it was a Challenge Dungeon with multiple lives, he’d still instinctively treated every battle as a genuine life-and-death struggle.
This was most easily demonstrated by his survival instinct not kicking into gear during these duels within the Emblem. Jake wouldn’t have willingly surrendered himself to his instincts and allowed himself to do whatever he’d done at the end of the Colosseum of Mortals, but in this instance, he couldn’t even if he wanted to.
It didn’t help that while in the Emblem, Jake could still see what surrounded his actual body in the real world. That led to a weird double-vision effect where he had to filter one environment out and focus fully on the projected forms within the Colosseum, which forced him to constantly recognize that the world within the Emblem wasn’t real.
Anyway, the Emblem was overall great for this type of practice, but it wasn’t enough for someone like Jake. He was confident that if the Sword Saint had used it to train with a god specializing in swordsmanship, he would’ve already upgraded several skills.
Artemis, clearly recognizing that Jake didn’t feel happy about the conclusion the two of them had reached, sighed and spoke, “Don’t think there’s anything wrong with this kind of approach; everyone’s different, and no method is necessarily better than the other. Given the lengths you’ve already gone on your Path, you’re far ahead of the curve and being way too hard on yourself. I myself was never good at learning anything outside of hunts. Perhaps the most famous example of someone notoriously horrible at getting anything out of training on his own is the War God. The Primordial, which many recognize as the most powerful god in the multiverse when it comes to pure combat, doesn’t possess the three traits we spoke about at all. From my understanding, his moments of enlightenment all came during combat, and due to his Transcendence, he was able to take massive risks against more powerful opponents to eventually break through his current limitations and upgrade his skills. As you’ve probably guessed by now, the most common expression of someone deepening their understanding of a concept is a skill upgrade. It’s not a requirement, upgrading a skill to better understand the fundamental concepts behind it, but if I had to guess, it would be the most common one.”
Jake genuinely appreciated Artemis’ attempt to keep him positive, but he still felt that the only way to alleviate his own frustration was to see some actual progress, and the best way to do that would be through combat.
“Thanks for your encouragement... and I think it’s time we head out to one of the many fabled hunting grounds I’ve heard so much about,” Jake said with a smile.
“They won’t disappoint you,” Artemis said, nodding. “Now the only question is which one you are interested in.”
“You know what? Surprise me.”
“Oh? Well, sure. What kind of level range are you aiming for?”
“Late and peak C-grades... maybe a few weaker B-grades mixed in, depending on the power of the variants,” Jake said. He wasn’t confident he could get proper competition from anything in C-grade at this point, so if he truly wanted to push himself, fighting a B-grade could be necessary.
“Alright, I have a few places in mind that could use a culling,” Artemis said with a smile.
“And I’ll gladly be the hunter that gets the job done,” Jake responded, beginning to feel a little hyped up to finally get his body moving again after spending so long only training with mortal stats in the Emblem or meditating.
“Great,” Artemis said as she took out a token and tossed it to Jake. “Use this before going through one of the gateways, and you will reach an outpost close to the hunting ground. I figure you can handle the rest from there.”
Jake caught the token and nodded, yet he also wanted to clarify one more thing. “No one will be watching me while I’m doing this, right? You won’t assign me people who are hiding and making sure I don’t mess up and get myself killed?”
“There won’t be anyone,” Artemis promised him.
Jake nodded. “Good.”
“But I can’t say whether Yggdrasil will step in if you do somehow die,” Artemis added.
“I hope she doesn’t,” Jake said, as he didn’t even like the thought of that.
Artemis didn’t say anything to Jake’s comment, instead just nodding. “Now go. Chances are I’ll still be around when you return, and in any case, you can use the token I just gave you to contact me at any time. You know, if you need extraction or help in any way... or just want a chat. I’ll also use it to contact you if anything happens.”
“I may just take you up on that casual chatting offer.” Jake smirked as he stood up and stretched. “In that case, I’m off. Going to be good to get in a few more levels.”
“Enjoy yourself,” Artemis said as she watched Jake walk out of the living room and toward the gateway.
Jake felt better as he held up the token to the gateway and infused energy into it. The gateway reacted, and without further hesitation, Jake walked through it.
He stepped out of the palace atop a mountain and into a tall, wooden outpost floating on an island in the sky. As Jake saw the blue skies stretching out before him, he walked forward onto the platform where the gate had been constructed. With his Sphere, he saw the entire island and the eight buildings it had on it, with seven of them being small wooden lodges or huts.
The last building was a lot larger than all the others and looked a lot more official. Jake also saw a single person sitting within, and as he observed this person, they also noticed Jake’s arrival.
Guess I’m supposed to go inside and check in or something, Jake thought to himself as he walked toward it while observing his surroundings. The entire place definitely gave off cozy vibes, and while there was no one else on the island besides Jake and the person inside the large lodge, there were traces of others occasionally staying there.
Entering the large lodge, he instantly made eye contact with a beastkin sitting behind a counter about five meters from the entrance. Without thinking, he used Identify—just as the same skill was used on him.
[Beastkin – lvl 349]
The beastkin, who looked to have descended from some kind of rodent, observed Jake and was the first to speak. “A human, eh? Are you here alone, or will you be bringing any companions?” His voice was super casual, which surprised Jake a bit.
That was when Jake realized... he hadn’t even made his mask visible. During his time with Artemis, he’d naturally made his mask invisible rather than walking around all day with his face covered. He’d entirely forgotten to make it reappear, and he guessed that was why the beastkin hadn’t recognized him.
Normally, a mask was used to hide one’s identity, but for Jake, the mask was almost his hallmark by now. Considering all this, the beastkin probably just saw Jake as some C-grade hunter dozens of levels beneath himself who’d come to the outpost for a little hunting trip.
And Jake had no interest in correcting him.
“No, it’s just me,” Jake said with a smile. “Hoping to get in a good hunt. I have a few things I wanna practice.”
“I can only wish you luck,” the beastkin said with a polite smile. “I will warn you, though, that the jungle has been a bit restless ever since two new, decently powerful B-grades appeared in the last couple of years. You can check the wall over there to get a better understanding of the areas to avoid and where it’s safest to hunt. Oh, and do remember to check the list for no-go targets.”
Jake looked over and saw a massive map covering one of the walls. It was clearly magical, as it looked like the ink was moving ever so slowly, and on it, he also saw a lot of small blips, which he at first thought were targets to hunt down. Then he saw a list off to the side, displaying about five hundred names.
“Those are the individuals currently registered and engaged in hunting.” With a chuckle, the beastkin added, “Based on how you’re acting, I’m going to guess this is your first time at one of the hunting grounds?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“No worries, no worries.” The beastkin shook his head and pointed to a small stack of pamphlets on the desk in front of him. “Take one of those before you leave; it contains some basic etiquette and whatnot. It also helps with keeping track of endangered creatures you aren’t allowed to kill. It will also serve as the tracker for the map, and if need be, you can tear off the back page, and it should alert anyone else holding a pamphlet nearby.”
“Alright,” Jake said as he walked over and picked one of them up. “How many B-grades are there in the Hunting Ground?”
“Locally, in this district? Forty-seven. It fluctuates a bit, as some of them migrate around, and some evolve while others are killed off, but this is one of the areas with relatively few, so don’t worry too much. They aren’t the strongest, either, and they tend not to bother with weaker C-grades, so you should be fine.”
The beastkin obviously assumed Jake was being cautious about encountering beasts well beyond his power level, and he couldn’t help but just smile and nod. “I guess we’ll see. Thanks for the introduction.”
“No problem, and I hope to see you again,” the beastkin said, nodding back with his own smile. “Happy hunting.”
With that sendoff, Jake exited the lodge, ready to see what the Pantheon of Life Hunting Grounds had to offer.
Chapter 47
Introduction to the Hunting Grounds
Jake stood in the air, observing the grand jungle that spread out endlessly beneath him. When he looked into the distance, he faintly detected curvature, indicating that he was no longer on the Great Planet. He guessed he was on another planet, likely smaller than Earth by a fair margin—a fourth the size, perhaps. Post-system Earth, that is, as by pre-system standards, the planet would still have been considered decently large.
The jungle below was insanely dense, to the point where Jake couldn’t see anything down there. He estimated the plants and trees to be incredibly tall, with an entire world existing beneath their canopy, teeming with life.
Occasionally, during the few minutes Jake spent observing, he saw creatures appear above the treelines, some fighting, some merely traveling, and others running across the dense growth, likely to avoid obstacles in the jungle below.
Not too far behind him, the outpost still floated in the sky, but he couldn’t see it even if he turned around. A powerful barrier covered the entire place, and only while holding his pamphlet could he detect its exact location. He could also just remember where it was and fly there, as the barrier only blocked occasional energy attacks from beasts fighting below and not anything that entered.
Jake assumed the beastkin he’d met there also had the task of dealing with wayward beasts that accidentally invaded the outpost. With all the other formations placed up there, Jake reckoned he could easily deal with even low-tier B-grades. Or he could just call for help.
Either way, the chances of that happening were very low, as Jake could distinctly feel that no B-grades were nearby. The creatures in the immediate vicinity seemed to mostly be mid-tier C-grades, with one of the monkeys he saw jumping above the treetops at level 286. Well below anything Jake would ever consider worth fighting.
So, his first task was to move toward another area of the jungle. He detected higher mana density in a certain direction, and without much further hesitation, Jake set off, flying and teleporting closer to worthy prey.
Jake had already noticed that there weren’t many creatures occupying the sky. Usually, natural sky islands formed from clouds or other dense collections of mana, but nothing of the sort could be seen anywhere. That likely also meant that many monsters didn’t permanently live and hunt in the sky, making it far easier for Jake to travel far above the jungle.
While flying, Jake studied the information in the magical pamphlet he’d been given to become familiar with the local endangered species. He purposefully avoided reading anything about the monsters actually living below, as he wanted that to be a surprise. Plus, it wouldn’t be fair if he knew about his prey’s abilities when they didn’t know anything about him.
What he did read up on was the local geography and the different zones the planet had been split up into—and yes, it was a planet. The entire surface of the planet was divided into five zones, each centered around its own massive lake. These five lakes were nearly entirely circular and may as well have been oceans when going by sheer size. They also each created thousands of rivers that flowed in all directions and served as the source of all the growth in the jungle below.
This wasn’t the most impressive part, though. It was that all of these lakes were connected despite being spread out evenly across the planet. It turned out that the planet’s interior wasn’t made of rock, soil, and all the other stuff common to Earth. Instead, if one dug down just a few hundred kilometers, no matter where it was, one would find water.
I did complain about water levels... and this feels like half a water planet, Jake thought to himself upon realizing that the world’s core was just one massive ocean. That being the case, Jake was surprised as he read further and realized that the planet barely had any aquatic creatures... until he encountered the reason for this.
At the very center of this planet, a single entity lived. A plant had consumed the core of the planet and begun growing from there, creating a web of seaweed that covered the interior of the entire world. The pamphlet made it very clear that no one should dive too deeply into any of the five lakes, as if one went too deep, they risked being caught by this plant.
Jake did consider making this utterly massive piece of seaweed potential prey, but upon reading that it was estimated to be peak B-grade, he thought again. Besides, Jake reckoned it would take way too long, even if he wanted to go for the big seaweed. How many liters of poison would it even take to contaminate a planet-sized body of water?
Continuing to read the pamphlet a bit more, Jake saw a certain section that made him look upwards. Narrowing his eyes, he soon spotted what he was looking for and shot upwards for a few hundred kilometers, only to find himself blown to one side as incredibly powerful winds caught his wings.
This feels almost by design, Jake thought with a smile as he began to fly toward the lake in this section. There were massive jet streams in the sky connecting all the lakes, with the outposts built beneath these streams. Traveling within one, Jake’s speed multiplied, and even if he just sat still, he would be blown across the planet at tens of thousands of kilometers an hour.
With the use of this jet stream, it didn’t take long for the giant lake to come into view. He’d aimed for the lake since, according to what he felt and had read, the most powerful creatures tended to live in its vicinity due to the intense and powerful mana given off by the water. As Jake got closer, he even spotted what looked like a few floating islands spread across the surface of the lake, and he assumed this would be where he could find B-grades, as they likely preferred to live closest to the water—and what could be closer than your own private island?
That was for later, though. For now, Jake wanted a bit of a warmup and to see what the local wildlife had to offer. Diving downwards once he estimated he would be able to find things worth hunting, Jake entered stealth and approached the entrance to the jungle.
