The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1104: 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, about a fourth the size. Earth after the system, 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 Jake couldn’t see it even if he turned around. A powerful barrier covered the entire place, and it was only while holding his pamphlet that he could 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 accidentally invading 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 find worth fighting.

So, his first task was to move toward another area of the jungle. He detected the mana density to be higher in a certain direction, and without much further hesitation, Jake set off, flying and teleporting toward somewhere he could find worthy prey.

Jake had already noticed that there weren’t many creatures occupying the sky. Usually, natural sky islands were 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 beneath, 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 he was on had been split up into – and yes, it was a planet. The entire surface of the planet was split into five zones, each centered around five massive lakes. These five lakes were all nearly entirely circular and may as well have been oceans when going by sheer size. They also each created thousands of rivers flowing in all directions around them and were 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 entire center of the planet wasn’t made of rock, soil, and all the usual stuff it was on places like 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 entire underground of the place 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 read the reason why.

At the very center of this planet, a single entity lived. A plant had consumed the core of the planet and began growing from there, creating a web of seaweed that covered the interior of the entire planet. 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 if maybe this utterly massive piece of seaweed was potential prey, but 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. Who even knows how many liters of poison it would 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 as he shot upwards for a few hundred kilometers before he found 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 jetstreams in the sky connecting all the lakes, with the outposts built beneath these streams. Traveling within it, Jake’s speed increased several times over as 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 jetstream, it didn’t take long for the giant lake to reach Jake’s line of sight. He’d aimed for the lake as, by all that he’d read and according to what he felt, 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 by his assumptions, 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 as he approached the entrance to the jungle.

Blasting through the dense foliage creating the roof of the jungle, Jake soon found himself in what seemed like an entirely new world. Greenery filled his vision as the massive jungle world could be seen in all directions, and the air was filled with a mix of life and water mana due to the high moisture in the air that was reminiscent of a rainforest.

Looking down, Jake was still over a kilometer above the surface of the planet, but he could barely see the bottom due to all the plants in the way. Trees and tall plants were in all directions, with vines and other growths connecting everything, creating a web of life.

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Floating down, Jake studied his surroundings carefully before he soon spotted a creature. It was hanging upside down from a vine, seemingly ready to move should any prey get too near.

It had two long legs that reminded Jake of an ostrich, except these legs were both armored with scales of some kind. Above was a relatively thin chest covered in feathers with two wings to each side, both with three-fingered hands at the end, which gave Jake faint bat vibes, except these wings remained full of multicolored feathers. Finally was the head, which was the most colorful of all. It looked borderline identical to the look of a macaw, including the thick beak that Jake didn’t doubt could crush most living things into dust.

Using Identify, he guessed that if he went by level, it could definitely also crush his skull if it managed to catch him.

[Rainbowfeather Songcrusher – lvl 332]

The name of the parrot-ostrich-monstrosity was pretty fitting as it did look like it was wearing a rainbow coat, though he still had yet to learn what the songcrusher thing was all about. Something he saw no reason to delay finding out.

When down on the underbrush below, Jake dispelled his stealth while behind a tree. He wanted to see how the bird would react when it saw Jake as he soon moved forward and entered its line of sight.

He instantly felt a gaze land on him, and he looked up to stare back at the bird’s eyes as it opened its beak.

A faint sense of danger instantly made Jake retreat behind a tree as he heard what sounded like an over-tuned subwoofer. The bassy sound released a directed wave of force that blasted past where Jake had just been standing, blowing off a piece of bark from the tree Jake had just retreated behind while tearing up the ground.

Alright, straight to fighting, I see.

Moving to the other side of the tree, Jake pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. Peeking out, Jake released the arrow toward the parrot monster, but it reacted quickly as it released another sound wave that blew apart Jake’s arrow and made him go back behind the tree again as it blocked the blow.

Out of curiosity, Jake tried to infuse his elbow with a bit of destructive mana as he slammed it back into the tree he had his back up against, only to find his simplistic attack capable of barely damaging the bark, showing just how durable these trees were. Which, in retrospect, made sense because if the trees were so easily felled, two C-grade monsters fighting would have leveled entire sections of the jungle already.

Having confirmed the durability of the local greenery, Jake went back on the offensive. The damn parrot had yet to even move from its vine, and Jake was planning on changing that. Before, he’d also placed his Mark on the bird should it move, but his sphere alone was large enough to still encompass it as Jake went on the offensive.

Rather than go out from behind the tree and shoot, Jake instead shot to the side. With Jake’s guidance, the arrow flew in between trees and vines as it curved around to hit the parrot in the side, but once more, the bird reacted in time as it flapped its wing, releasing a wave of rainbow light that blew the arrow away.

However, this move had left it open as another two arrows came from the other side, followed by a third descending from above. Trying to react, the parrot blew away one of the two with a soundwave but was struck by the third right as the arrow from above severed the vine it had been hanging from.

Trying to get back to an upright position, the beast wasn’t ready for Jake jumping out from behind the tree, an Arcane Powershot already channeling. It saw Jake just as he released the powerful arrow and tried to blow it away with a shockwave of sound, but the Arcane Powershot proved too powerful for its usual tactics to work.

The bird was struck by the Arcane Powershot in the wing, as the bird managed to turn its side to the arrow right at the end to reduce damage. Meanwhile, Jake was struck by the soundwave that had been aimed at his Powershot, and as it washed over him, Jake felt a slight tang of pain ring through his body as the attack had damaged even his internals slightly.

It wasn’t a bad attack, but it was clear which of them had come out of this looking worse. While the bird was still trying to stabilize, Jake released another barrage of arrows toward it, striking it with three more before the parrot retreated behind a tree.

Jake tried to curve his arrows again, but the beast had seen that trick before and wouldn’t just sit still and be hit. With impressive speed, it began flying and using its long legs to jump around the perimeter of where Jake was standing, looking for an opening to strike as Jake kept shooting arrows after it.

His next twenty arrows ended up missing as it was evident the parrot knew this environment extremely well. It took advantage of the cover afforded to it while slowly closing in as safely as possible, having clearly decided to kill Jake rather than do the wise thing and escape.

Jake faced the challenge head-on as he continued trying to hit his foe, actually getting some good practice in. The jungle was filled with obstacles Jake had to consider when shooting his arrows, and with such a fast-moving target, it was difficult to even release arrows that could threaten the bird.

Yet he did manage to. In tandem with the Rainbowfeather Songcrusher getting closer, Jake also got more accurate, hitting a few minor strafing blows even as the bird did everything it could to avoid taking any damage. It even released waves of rainbow light that obscured its location and created mirror images to confuse Jake, none of them having any effect on Jake.

In the end, it decided to stop delaying. Jake had gotten into the zone and perhaps even a bit too comfortable with the parrot slowly approaching that he wasn’t completely ready when it suddenly stopped on a dime and changed directions before charging directly at Jake.

A whirlwind of rainbow light surrounded the parrot as Jake got off a final arrow that hit the bird in the wing just before it was upon him. With incredible momentum, it aimed straight for Jake’s head in an attempt to crush his skull before he even had a chance to dodge.

The rainbow light that surrounded Jake and the parrot seemed to slightly affect Jake’s mental state as he felt Pride of the Malefic Viper react, and a deep bassy sound let out by the Rainbowfeather Songcrusher just before it went for the killing blow sought to stun him.

At that moment... Jake was disappointed he hadn’t been able to get more archery training in. With little to no effort, he dodged the snapping beak of the parrot and used his overly durable bow to slam the bird into the ground head-first.

Before it even had a chance to realize how outmatched it was, Jake followed up by grasping the back of the parrot’s head and pushing it down further as his hand began to glow dark green. The beast tried to kick Jake and gave off rainbow explosions, but Jake was too strong in comparison to the bird. It definitely wasn’t a monster that focused on Strength and found itself utterly suppressed as the malefic toxins invaded its head and the rest of its body from there.

Jake also activated all the poison that had been on the arrows he’d hit the bird with throughout the fight, seeing no need to drag things out. He felt the toxins corrode and break down the parrot’s skull, but just then, the parrot let out a loud screech that made Jake react as he pressed down hard, crushing the skull of the beast into the ground, killing it instantly.

You have slain [Rainbowfeather Songcrusher – lvl 332] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level

The incredibly loud screech toward the end had genuinely hurt Jake’s ears, and he stood up and observed the beast closely as he shook his head to get off all the rotten biological matter that covered it.

A creeping feeling welled up in his mind as he looked at the dead bird. A faint sense of danger lingered, and Jake decided to check out the magical pamphlet as something clearly felt wrong.

“Rainbowfeather Songbirds (including variants hereof): Agile monsters of the avian variety. Attacks include...”

Jake skipped forward in the description until he saw a bolded note at the end.

“Note: Generally avoid engaging Rainbowfeather Songbird, as they are rarely found alone and shall call the flock if their life is threatened. Upon death, Rainbowfeather Songbirds will release a dying call that marks their killer and summons their entire flock. Should this happen, immediately seek assistance and evacuate to the outpost.”

Just as he finished reading this, he heard dozens of loud screeches echoing through the jungle, more joining them as the sounds grew closer.

That day, Jake learned that doing his homework on opponents was a good idea... if he was boring and didn’t want a bit of excitement in his life, that is!