The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1112: Simivita Island: Outer Region

Grand Lake 1.

Lame name aside, these lakes, numbered one to five, were the source of mana and growth for the entire Hunting Ground, nurtured by the powerful entity living within the planet. Each Grand Lake served as the center of every Area, and due to the way environmental mana propagated, the more powerful monsters could be found closest to the lake, with the most powerful ones residing on islands within the lake.

Though perhaps calling them islands wasn’t entirely accurate, as they were more akin to entire continents before the system. Then again, continents were technically just islands called continents, and it was all down to semantics.

Either way, Jake had decided he was done scouring the lake’s shore for powerful peak C-grades and set his sights on one of the islands. Before he departed from Keerla and Solana, they had helpfully pointed out which island to “avoid at all costs,” which was precisely the one he was now headed towards.

He activated stealth while flying over the water, not wanting to catch the attention of any other creatures during his flight. Expanding his senses, he felt the powerful auras from the many different islands, indicating there were quite a few B-grades on these islands, with most of them having at least one.

From what Jake had gathered, fights between B-grades were incredibly rare. It was risky to fight, and the gains were minuscule compared to the risks in the eyes of these B-grades. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t take advantage of a weakened rival if the opportunity arose, which meant that even if one B-grade killed another, should it suffer any injuries in the process, it would be hounded by others until fully slain.

Of course, these B-grades being this passive also meant most of them were barely making any progress on their Paths. They were slowly gaining power, yes, but as this was a Hunting Ground, few B-grades ever lived for more than a century before eventually getting hunted down. Some did leave the planet entirely, but most ended up killed, often by a talented C-grade like Jake.

Artemis had truly chosen this Hunting Ground well, knowing Jake intended to hunt down a B-grade, and these B-grades were prime for that. They were relatively weak variants, all at the beginning of the grade, and many of them lacked proper experience fighting with their B-grade power. They were also generally lazy, confined to their domains, and more concerned with sleeping while absorbing the energy given off by the lake than improving their skills and qualitative abilities.

Not that this meant Jake had an easy task before him. A B-grade was, in the end, a B-grade. Even the weakest B-grade was equivalent to an incredibly talented peak C-grade variant and, in many instances, even stronger simply due to their higher stats and the qualitative boost given upon evolution.

Usually, there was another concept at play that Jake had never noticed. Artemis called it “suppression of grade” or something like that, and it ultimately boiled down to those of a lower tier doing less damage and taking more from those of a higher grade. This apparently wasn’t only a thing with grades but even levels. This naturally left Jake quite confused until Artemis made it clear that someone like Jake wasn’t affected.

Pure power could counteract this concept somewhat, and there were also skills that could fight against or even nullify this concept entirely. One such example was a skill Jake had since the beginning of his Path as a hunter, namely Big Game Hunter. While Jake wanted to criticize the wording used, it was mentioned in the skill as part of a section that Jake never really cared about:

“As you forever chase the horizon, you have become more accustomed to facing higher-level enemies. Increases the user’s resistance to auras and gives a small increase to...”

Aura resistance wasn’t really a thing to Jake, but it was apparently the aura of every living being that created this concept. This also made Jake wonder if his Bloodline made him immune to what was effectively a debuff when fighting higher-leveled foes. Not that it would be a massive effect, as Artemis made it clear, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who regularly hunted down higher-leveled foes not to have an effect similar to Big Game Hunter’s aura resistance. In summary, it was mainly a problem for weak people.

Learning about this concept did make Jake interested, though, as he wondered if it only worked one way. As in, did it only work when those of a higher level suppressed those beneath them? If not, what stopped Jake from making use of this concept even when hunting more powerful foes? What’s to say he wasn’t already using it unknowingly at times?

He had noticed that whenever he unleashed his aura – often in concert with Pride – his foes were far more vulnerable. At first, he guessed this was due to them not reacting properly to attacks as they were taken by surprise and perhaps even a little frightened, but he began to consider if there was more to it.

Doing a bit of testing about that also seemed like a nice way for Jake to not feel as bad about his utter lack of progress when it came to improving his archery. Not that deciding to have melee duels with apes had helped him any, either.

Soon enough, Jake reached Simivita Island, as it had been lazily dubbed. From the estimates in the Hunting Ground Manual, as Jake had been told the pamphlet was officially called, there should be around three thousand C-grade Simivitas on the island, all above level 325 at least.

Alright, there were actually at least ten thousand, but Jake didn’t count those below level 325 as he had no interest in fighting those. While Jake had thought about making the Simivitas go extinct, that had very much been hyperbolic.

Killing Simivita children and those not even fully grown yet wasn’t something Jake had any interest in whatsoever. Killing those weaker than himself still gave Jake an icky feeling, and he hoped that the tribe would be smart enough to keep those too young to fight properly away from any battlefields, as he really hoped he wouldn’t be forced into a situation where he had to kill a bunch below level 300.

Landing on the shore of the island, Jake released a Pulse while keeping stealth active. He immediately spotted several of the apes, and to his surprise, he saw some of them even fighting other monsters. That’s when Jake remembered something else the dryad Solana had mentioned briefly. Sometimes, monsters did travel between the islands, all at the encouragement of the B-grades. They would then bring back anything they killed and even try to steal some of the natural resources from one another. In some ways, it reminded Jake of the “planned” battles Villy talked about, which the Risen and Holy Church used to nurture talent and keep their members on their toes.

The presence of enemies on the island only helped Jake, as it would make the Simivitas take longer to notice his presence. He also decided that while practicing archery was important, the hunt itself took precedence for now.

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With those thoughts, Jake snuck into the less dense forested area close to the shore. It turned into a full-on jungle the further one went inland, but there were mainly trees with a lot of spacing between them for the first fifty or so kilometers closest to the shore on the mostly round island.

He quickly noticed an isolated Simivita sitting atop one of the larger trees. It looked out over the water with a careful gaze, and it didn’t seem concerned about being spotted itself, likely due to its respectable camouflage skill. In front of Jake’s Perception, it naturally didn’t stand a chance, and he easily Identified it.

[Grand Simivita Scoutmaster – lvl 343]

Jake had already guessed there would be scouts keeping an eye out for any invaders. Seeing it sitting there so casually, Jake got into position straight beneath the branch the Scoutmaster was sitting on. Aiming upwards, Jake began charging an Arcane Powershot as Unseen Hunter kept him undetected. He even activated Arcane Awakening for an additional boost, as he didn’t want this to be a prolonged encounter.

The Scoutmaster was picking its nose and only noticed the attack far too late. From beneath, the thick branch was ripped apart, and an arrow penetrated the ape through its bottom and exited its skull in a perfectly straight line, destroying everything in its path.

Death was instant, and the C-grade barely had time to register that it had been hit before it died.

Okay, yeah, these Simivitas are definitely weaker on average than the Rainbowfeathers, Jake confirmed to himself, as he knew he shouldn’t dally. His attack hadn’t exactly been subtle, seeing as it created a pillar of arcane light, and as expected, he heard two incredibly loud screeches just a moment later, and with a Pulse, he confirmed it was two other Scoutmasters.

A huge squad of apes would no doubt assemble and be there shortly, but by that time, Jake would be long gone as he re-entered stealth and snuck away toward his next target. About five minutes later, another Simivita was slain, followed by a third seven minutes after that.

Using his Pulses of Perception, Jake saw a decently large squad of tightly packed apes moving together, chasing after where he made his moves. It had only taken about ten minutes for more than twenty to gather, and while Jake had confidence in taking them all on relatively easily, he didn’t want to reveal all the cards in his hand quite yet. For now, he was more than happy being regarded as a one-trick ambush predator as he kept up his hunt of isolated apes.

Soon enough, over an hour had passed, and Jake had taken down another nine apes, all but one killed with a single attack, with the lone straggler requiring a follow-up barrage to finish off.

The pursuit squad had grown to over fifty by now, and the effects of his assault could even be seen elsewhere. On what he considered the eastern section – Jake had entered from the southern one – invaders from another island had gotten newfound life through Jake’s distraction. Around thirty mantis-like creatures had made rapid progress as the apes were busy dealing with issues elsewhere and had begun to turn into a problem of their own as they made it further and further inland, something the apes definitely weren’t a fan of, and for good reason.

About halfway between the center of the island and the outer regions was a belt where most of the Simivitas lived. This included those not suitable for combat and the young too weak to fight yet. While Jake had no intentions of wantonly killing these, the group of mantis creatures certainly didn’t have the same sensibilities. In fact, they seemed to target this region purposefully, trying to avoid fighting as they hurried inland.

Jake saw this and decided to give the apes a little hand. He purposefully killed two Simivitas ahead of where the group of mantises was moving, baiting his pursuit squad over in that direction. He succeeded, and not too long after, he had not only shaken off his pursuers, all while likely making them think they had dealt with the invasion, but also avoided helping a bunch of murderous insects do something he found unacceptable.

He considered continuing his hunt immediately, but instead decided to take a small break upon realizing he was no longer being pursued. He also wanted to head toward the northern area of the island to check that out and hopefully lessen the number of Simivitas further.

For now, he wanted to make some preparations should he run into a huge crowd of apes at once. From the fight with the Rainbowfeathers, Jake had learned that poison gas was definitely effective, even if it did have some pretty serious downsides, primarily that the enemies could just move out of it.

Against the Rainbowfeathers, things had still worked out fine because those birds were actual psychos who would rather die than retreat, but the Simivitas had proven themselves more than willing to retreat should they find themselves in an unfavorable situation. That’s why Jake wanted to create a poison gas that was a bit more... subtle.

The kind that his enemies wouldn’t even know they had been infected with before Jake decided to awaken it through Touch of the Malefic Viper. Jake already had practice making this sort of poison when in liquid form, and applying it to poison gas shouldn’t prove too difficult.

Besides, he also reckoned he could do with a re-stocking of potions.

Jake spent the next three days doing some alchemy before he moved on once more, continuing his hunt. For about six hours, he was a scourge to the island’s northern section as he hunted down a few dozen Simivitas, even going as far as to take on small groups of up to three, always making sure there were no survivors to report back about him.

He only stopped because the group hunting him got too big, and he found a good hiding spot where he hunkered down for a bit more alchemy until things calmed down once more. It ended up taking another three days before Jake moved back to the eastern section and continued his rampage, getting bolder and bolder with every success as he tested his limits. Not the limits of if he could beat the Simivitas, but if he could do so fast enough before assistance arrived or before any of his prey could escape.

This hunting pattern continued for a few weeks as Jake cycled between alchemy and killing, his progress good in both fields as he even began to refine the poison gas he was working on to work better against Simivitas by including some of their cores in the crafting process.

Jake was happy with his progress in both areas, and he generally had a good time doing two things that he loved: killing the local wildlife and creating alchemical weapons that would definitely be classified as war crimes if ever used.

--

As Jake was having a good time hunting, and quite a few of the top figures from Earth had left the planet to seek out their factions across the multiverse, their home planet was calm as everyone was settling in with the new normal after the system event ended.

For a few months, anyway.

Because, while it certainly wasn’t on the mind of someone like Jake, Miranda was more than a little busy preparing for what would happen soon. In fact, most of the factions in the ninety-third universe were preparing themselves for a new, unknown normal.

A new normal where the ninety-third universe wasn’t just the ninety-third universe but a true part of the wider multiverse, as the day when the first outsiders could travel to their universe drew nearer with every passing day.

On Earth, Miranda had naturally also done all she could to prepare. With the level limitation in place, she wasn’t overly worried too powerful people would arrive, but she still remained cautious.

She and other smart heads had considered for a long time how they would approach visitors from other universes, and for a time even considered closing down the planet entirely, not allowing anyone to come... but ultimately, they decided on quite the opposite.

There would still be some restrictions, as if not, Miranda feared the planet would be overrun, but in general, they would have few limitations. What they instead had were rules every visitor was expected to follow.

Was this the best approach?

Miranda had no idea. Nobody really did, though she had gotten some advice from her Patrons, many of which weren’t that useful, as Miranda wasn’t interested in ruling the same way the Order of the Malefic Viper did.

Besides, if their approach turned out to be a bad idea... they would find out very soon as the day the ninety-third universe opened up – at least in a limited capacity - finally arrived.