The Primal Hunter 15: A LitRPG Adventure, page 57
Those sound attacks had really done a number on him, but it wasn’t as if the rest of his body was any better. His muscles had been destroyed by his own destructive arcane energies, and when he observed his legs, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand up yet, even if he wanted to.
His vital energies were hard at work repairing his body, but such a thing took time. It wasn’t even as if consuming a healing potion would work, as this wasn’t the kind of damage that could be fixed using that. Checking out his Soulshape, he also confirmed a slight bit of damage there, once more caused by Arcane Awakening’s overuse.
Overall, Jake concluded that during this fight, he had pushed himself beyond his limits and then a bit further. He had kept Arcane Awakening going for longer than ever before, and without Arcane Supremacy and his upgrade to Anomalous Soul, he would have lost and had to flee far earlier.
Using his internal clock, Jake estimated he had been knocked out cold for around two days. Which is to say that his current state had already benefited from healing the worst of it, really hammering home just how far beyond his limits he had pushed himself.
Closing his eyes, Jake entered meditation to hopefully expedite his recovery. Luckily, even if his body was a complete mess, his Soulspace remained undamaged and a great refuge. Meditation’s ability to cut off all other senses also came in handy when this injured, as the constant pain wouldn’t distract him.
Inside the Soulspace, Jake finally also took the time to check out his notifications. Because of the sudden entrance of the Rainbowfeather Sovereign, Jake hadn’t really been able to revel in the kill, but now he could.
You have slain [Grand Simivita Warlord – lvl 354] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
It couldn’t be forgotten that this was Jake’s first B-grade kill. In all honesty, it felt anticlimactic, as the Warlord hadn’t even been that powerful, and with all that had happened right afterwards, his fight with the Warlord seemed almost insignificant.
Which was also why Jake found it surprising, yet reaffirming, when he checked the next two notifications.
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 308 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 311 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 309 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
He had hunted so many damn apes and barely made any progress, but one relatively easy fight against a B-grade had resulted in two levels. Sure, there was a bonus in Records from it being Jake’s first B-grade kill, but the experience increase from jumping grades couldn’t be denied. Especially for someone like Jake.
Had he also killed the Sovereign, the experience would have been way more insane. Speaking of the Sovereign…
Jake allowed some of his senses to seep into the outer world as he felt for something. After a few seconds of struggle, Jake subtly detected the Hunter’s Mark he’d left on the B-grade, confirming the Sovereign was still alive. Incredibly far away, but still alive.
With this knowledge, Jake breathed out a sigh of relief and let his consciousness sink back into his Soulspace. Knowing the Sovereign still lived meant Jake had a chance for a proper fight. However, before the Sovereign, Jake now had nine other B-grades to also hunt down. They had ruined his fight with the powerful B-grade, and even now, as Jake reflected on the battle, he did not know who would have won if the two had kept going. All he knew was that he still wanted to find out next time they met.
One of the reasons Jake had any degree of confidence in his victory was naturally the epiphany he’d had shortly before he had to flee. Even if he hadn’t managed to get the kill and the experience points from his fight with the Sovereign, he had definitely not come out of it empty-handed.
Though he hadn’t gotten what he’d expected and aimed for, either.
Sadly for Jake, when it came to upgrading his archery skill, he had completely failed. Perhaps his failure wasn’t entirely his fault, though. Nor was it Artemis’. He had a skill she wasn’t aware of and that he himself barely even thought about, but if he had just taken some more time and truly considered matters, perhaps he would have realized he’d had the perfect skill to make his “time arrows” all along.
Because, while Jake had failed to gain a skill upgrade to his archery skill, he had succeeded in gaining an upgrade to the passive skill Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon... now with an added Arcane in there.
[Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon (Ancient)] – To allow your arrows to reach the horizon unblemished and unobstructed is nothing but a given for a Hunter of the Horizon’s Edge. Allows your arrows to gain significant resistance to all environmental factors and far more easily destroy any environmental energy or material. Grants a slight increase in penetrative power against energy-based defensive barriers and magical interference that may obstruct the arrow. The potency of the Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon skill is determined by the inherent power of the arrow. The maximum and minimum potency of Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon is determined by Perception.
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[Unblemished Arcane Arrows of the Horizon (Legendary)] – To allow your arrows to reach the horizon unblemished and unobstructed is nothing but a given for a Hunter of the Horizon’s Edge. Allows your arrows to gain significant resistance to all environmental factors and far more easily destroy any environmental energy or material. Arcane energies allow this effect to expand and affect certain concepts, eroding and altering conceptual influence on the arrows. This aspect of the skill requires active control and input by the Hunter. Grants a slight increase in penetrative power against energy-based defensive barriers and magical interference that may obstruct the arrow. The potency of the Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon skill is determined by the inherent power of the arrow. The maximum and minimum potency of Unblemished Arrows of the Horizon is determined by Perception.
Not much of the skill description had changed. In fact, it was mostly the same one as before, except for one added sentence in the middle about concepts. The more Jake thought about it, the more this upgrade also made sense.
From the very beginning, Jake had viewed the removal of wind resistance as the best aspect of Unblemished Arrows. With less environmental factors in play, his arrows could shoot faster and further. Before, he'd had to consider the environment as the medium in which his arrow traveled, so if it flew through water, Unblemished Arrows would reduce the slowdown.
Why did the skill have to be restricted to only resisting the most obvious things, though? Well, it turns out it didn’t. Resisting the more complex was just significantly more difficult, and Jake was fairly confident he couldn’t have done it without “cheating” using his arcane affinity.
The additional effect also wasn’t passive, as per the new description:
“This aspect of the skill requires active control and input by the Hunter.”
Unblemished Arrows had always just been a background skill Jake could comfortably forget, but now he had to actively use it if he wanted his arrows to resist the concept of time. Or any other concept, for that matter. The key was that Jake had to actually comprehend the concept to actively control its resistance, and he was fully aware that if his new skill could passively make his arrows resist the concept of time itself, he wouldn’t have gotten just a mere legendary skill.
Jake had a lot of things he wanted to test, including the upgraded skill’s interaction with Penetrating Arrow, which increased the effectiveness of Unblemished Arrows, but all of that would have to wait for when Jake was able to physically move. For now, he had to focus on recovery... and figuring out how to upgrade his archery skill.
He also realized that he had to think more for himself when it came to forming his archery skill. From what Artemis had said, her archery skill had the ability to manipulate conceptual effects on her arrows, but evidently, Jake didn’t need that since he had an entirely separate skill to do so. There was also a chance that Jake could merge Unblemished Arrows and his archery skill one day, but such considerations were for the far future, and he doubted he even wanted to do that.
Looking at his current archery skill, it stood out due to being only epic rarity, yet its effects remained extraordinary. It allowed him to bend arrows by infusing them with Willpower, but more importantly than anything else, it increased all the damage Jake did with a bow based on the distance of his shots and his Perception. Especially the Perception part.
Jake did not know how much stronger it made his arrows, but he had a feeling it was meaningful. The increased effect of Strength and Agility while wielding a bow was naturally also nice, but all archery skills had that by default, though Artemis said hers only increased her Wisdom, likely because she heavily relied on her special plant arrows. In many ways, Artemis was halfway to being a summoner that used archery to deliver her summons, while Jake was an archer who used magic to enhance the damage done by his arrows.
Looking over his skills a bit more, Jake continued considering matters for the next few hours as he meditated and recovered. After he had done all the thinking he possibly could without losing his mind from being unable to actually experiment, he turned to a certain tome left by the First Sage to get his mind off things.
Nearly half a day passed with Jake studying before something moved in the cavern. He opened his eyes to find the Warpsnatcher back, and a second later, a picnic table was summoned into the air before falling down onto a pile of loot. The critter didn’t even look at Jake as it dismantled the table, took out a few metal plates that had been hidden within, and then waved its small paws to destroy the useless wood.
Several more items were summoned over the next half a minute, then sorted into different piles using a system known only to the Warpsnatcher. With business handled, the beast finally turned to Jake, jumped over, and looked up at him with big eyes.
“Better?”
Jake couldn’t help but smile as he gave a painful nod. “A little better.”
The Warpsnatcher tilted its head back and forth a few times before jumping closer and placing a palm on Jake’s leg. It tapped his leg two times before jumping back again. “Be better?”
“I’m working on it,” Jake said, smiling again as he resisted reaching out to pat the creature. He did not know if doing so would be considered rude, and he really didn’t want to make the otherwise friendly near-peak C-grade mad.
The little thing seemed happy enough with Jake’s answer, as it picked up a small piece of fruit and offered it. Jake fought through the pain to take the fruit and put it into his mouth, finding it quite tasty. It reminded him of a more flavorful avocado.
Satisfied at seeing Jake eat something—almost as if the Warpsnatcher viewed Jake as some poor, hurt baby bird—it clapped its little hands and patted his leg yet again. “Home safe. You rest.” The Warpsnatcher then promptly jumped away again. With its fourth jump, its entire body shimmered and disappeared, no longer even within Jake’s Pulse range.
Would give Sandy a run for their money when it comes to running away... though I guess Sandy is a lot tougher in case they get hit, Jake thought, shaking his head a bit. Or at least he tried to, stopping himself halfway through turning his neck when a sharp pain shot through his body and reminded him not to move.
Alone once more, Jake closed his eyes and reentered meditation. It would take a while before he was back in fighting condition once more, and during this time, he would have little else to do but read the tome left by the First Sage and ponder existence.
Outside of reading the tome, which could get mentally exhausting, Jake kept himself motivated by summoning statues of nine creatures within his Soulspace. Each was a B-grade on his shit-list, and he had plenty of time to decide which of them he was going to hunt down first once he recovered. He hadn’t been able to get a good read on their individual auras, and thus didn’t know their respective strengths, but going just by the snapshot of their appearances he’d taken with Pulse, he was already starting to home in on one of the B-grades.
It was the bipedal, crocodile-like creature, and the reason Jake focused on that one was because of its facial expression in the snapshot. It had a smile that made its face very punchable, and while, sure, perhaps attributing human intent to inhuman expressions wasn’t the fairest thing to do, Jake had to decide which one he disliked the most somehow.
Not like it overly mattered, as he had no intention of leaving any of them alive.
Chapter 65
Ree-Covered
“We’ll arrive shortly,” the god said as she looked at the hawk that was roosting on top of her bed, having gathered all the bedding to make a small nest.
“Ree!” Sylphie responded happily before flapping her wings and flying up.
“I want to bring attention to the fact that our late arrival is primarily because you insisted on taking detours.” The god sighed, wondering why she had even taken this job... well, alright, she knew why she had taken it. Escorting the Sylphian Hawk had been a sought-after assignment, in part because it was expected to be incredibly easy, but primarily because it would help them form better relations with the leadership of the Pantheon of Life.
Potnia had also taken on this task because of the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. She had risen to godhood only three eras ago and had been the Chosen of Artemis before her ascension to godhood. After becoming a god, she had remained close with Artemis, which was also why she found the current situation quite... puzzling.
Things had changed after Artemis went to Nevermore just a few years ago. When Potnia heard that her former Patron was busy visiting the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and spending quite a lot of time with him, Potnia had at first theorized that Artemis was trying to strengthen the relationships between the Order and the Pantheon of Life, which would make some sense. Artemis was a hunter goddess, after all, and the Chosen of the Malefic One was also a hunter specializing in archery, so if she could color his Path just a little and help him, it could be great for the relationship between the two Primordial factions.
However, as the days progressed, and after briefly meeting Artemis following her visit with the Chosen... Potnia had begun to believe that what Artemis was hoping to nurture wasn’t the relationship between two factions, but two people. Namely, herself and the Chosen.
What’s more, Artemis didn’t deny this at all, which only confused Potnia further. Artemis had the reputation she did for a reason, but now she was suddenly interested in getting close to a mere C-grade mortal. An impressive one, sure, but still just a mortal who some would argue had barely begun his Path.
Potnia didn’t have to guts to interrogate Artemis directly, so when the mission to escort the Sylphian Hawk was presented, Potnia had seen it as a great opportunity to learn more about what was going on from the person she and others considered closest to the Chosen.
With a Path that revolved around rearing and fighting alongside beasts, Potnia was the ideal candidate, and with her power at the Fifth Circle of Divinity, she was neither too strong nor too weak to serve as a proper escort.
The place they were visiting was led by a Sylph at the Seventh Circle of Divinity, so if someone too powerful had served as escort, the Sylphs would likely have found themselves pressured, while if someone who had only just become a god came along, it could be viewed as disrespectful... even if Sylphs weren’t known to care about that sort of thing.
Anyhow, Potnia had run into some problems with her plan of learning things from the Sylphian Hawk. Maybe she had gotten too content, but Potnia usually had a really easy time convincing any and all mortal animals to tell her whatever she wanted to know. Her Path made them innately trust her and view her as a safe person, but none of that had shown any effect on the Sylphian Hawk... at least not in the way Potnia had wanted it to.
The only effect it seemingly had was making the hawk more comfortable and willing to request random stops from Potnia and their entire flight crew whenever the “wind whispered” about something interesting in the vicinity. Granted, these minor excursions had all been fruitful for the hawk, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t delayed their arrival.
Luckily, the journey was at its end now, and Potnia walked with the happy hawk out to the deck of the flying ship. On a side note, yes, they could have used teleportation, but they’d opted for a more scenic route so the hawk could see more of the Great Planet.
Arriving on the deck, the massive pillar of wind was visible in the distance. The tornado stretched upwards into the sky, where it was swallowed by a wormhole connected directly to the Vortex Pinnacle, a World Wonder Potnia didn’t dare visit due to how dangerous it was.
Around this tornado, sky islands had been constructed. They all floated around and turned with the tornado, albeit at far lower speeds. The remnant energies from the World Wonder leaking through the wormhole made this blessed land for any creature walking a Path using the wind affinity, and even at this distance, the hawk could feel it.
“Ree!” she screeched gleefully while flapping her wings, making Potnia smile.
“Our presence has already been noticed,” she said. “I will retreat to the background and allow Miss Sylphie to handle matters from here on out.”
“Ree.” The bird then politely thanked Potnia for her work, making the goddess smile even more.
“Just call for me if you need me for anything,” Potnia said as she teleported to a hidden room within the flying vessel. Chances were, she would stay there until Sylphie wanted to leave again. Not that Potnia would complain. This was exactly why escort work was considered a simple job. Unless things went really wrong, one wouldn’t really have to do anything, and even in cases of conflict, diplomacy was nearly always the solution, as no one wanted to create an unnecessary conflict with a god simply due to the actions of a mortal.
