The Primal Hunter Chapter 1239 - Dragonslayer

Jake slipped into a meditative state, letting his perception of the physical world drift away. This transition had the fortunate benefit of dulling his agony, allowing him to concentrate entirely on his recuperation while scanning through a backlog of system notifications.

He paused to reflect on his brief encounter with Yrelstromoz’s aunt, recalling how she had referred to him as a Dragonslayer before her departure. At the time, the comment felt peculiar, especially given her specific delivery.

The title had carried the weight of both a commendation and an omen. It felt incredibly strange until he finally looked at the very top of his system logs. He hadn't realized it in the heat of the moment, but Dragonslayer was far more than a mere nickname; it was a legitimate title recognized by the system.

Title Gained: [Dragonslayer]

[Dragonslayer] – Slay a dragon. This title identifies you as a warrior who has brought down a True Dragon in a fair duel. Carry this mark with pride, as your achievement will be known to all, for better or worse. Dragons possess an inherent instinct to recognize you as a killer of their species. Provides a negligible amount of resistance against the Draconic Language skill.

Scanning the details, Jake saw that the mechanical benefits were underwhelming. It reminded him of the Kingslayer title he had earned after defeating the King of the Forest. Such titles were famously lackluster because skills based on nobility or authority rarely affected truly powerful entities. Those abilities were designed to influence masses, and sometimes, having resistance to them was more of a social hindrance than a help. As far as Jake could tell, Kingslayer had never actually served him in any meaningful way.

Yet, the lack of combat stats didn't make the title worthless; its value lay in its function as a warning. A King recognized by the system would instinctively know that Jake was a regicide.

In that same vein, this new mark would signal to any dragon that Jake was a dragon-killer. It functioned almost like a brand on his soul, marking him as a prime target for draconic retribution—not unlike being labeled a heretic by a church.

Jake wasn't particularly worried about offending the dragon race. He highly doubted any dragon would risk starting a feud with the Chosen of the Malefic Viper over a dead relative, so he planned to wear the title proudly. Furthermore, even a tiny bit of resistance to Draconic Language was better than nothing.

Still, the nature of the title was curious enough that he made a mental note to ask Villy about it later.

Moving on, Jake looked for his experience gains, but first, he checked the kill log to see Yrelstromoz’s actual level. He had suspected she was at the very bottom of B-grade, and the system confirmed his theory.

She had barely crossed the threshold of evolution and hadn't gained a single level since reaching B-grade. Her Path was likely fractured beyond repair; she had probably only reached her current rank because of her bloodline, which allowed her to advance simply by surviving long enough.

Regarding her race, the Luxellian Dragon, Jake understood it to be one of the most common lineages within the Lumenflight—as common as a True Dragon could ever be.

While Yrelstromoz was undoubtedly on the weaker end of the draconic spectrum, she was still a True Dragon. The death curse she had attempted to weave at the end had carried significant power. If Jake hadn't possessed Eternal Hunger, making him nearly immune to curses of that caliber, he would have been in a dire situation.

The system acknowledged the feat as a significant kill despite her relative weakness. Jake certainly wasn't going to complain about the experience payout.

Five class levels at the tail end of C-grade was an incredible haul, especially since his opponent was only a fresh B-grade. Jake had hunted plenty of higher-level B-grades in the past without seeing his experience bar move nearly as much.

Looking at his updated status—his race level was now 341—he chuckled, wondering how Yrelstromoz would feel knowing she was killed by a level 338. A C-grade human slaying a True Dragon was a monumental accomplishment, but doing so before even hitting the peak of C-grade made it even more absurd.

In all honesty, Jake felt that if he had been at the peak of C-grade, the fight would have lacked any real tension. While those extra levels wouldn't have made him a god, the stat difference would have been decisive.

He didn't intend to test that theory anytime soon. Hunting True Dragons wasn't on his immediate to-do list, though he couldn't rule it out for the future. He felt the same way about dragons as he did about hunting other sapient races; it felt a bit wrong. He knew it was hypocritical, considering almost every B-grade entity that wasn't an elemental or a mindless beast was sapient.

Shaking off those thoughts, Jake turned to the final reward: the compensation for letting the aunt take the dragon's remains. He hadn't expected much, especially since he had used up a fortune in rare dragon components just to craft his Dragonsbane Poison. However, the result of his Identification left him stunned.

[Light-touched Luxellian Dragon Heart (Mythical)] – The heart of a Luxellian True Dragon, infused and bolstered by her kin immediately following her death. It holds the concentrated Records of a Luxellian True Dragon, pulsing with massive amounts of light-affinity energy and the raw essence of dragonkind. While it possesses immense alchemical potential, the power contained within is volatile and extremely difficult to harness.

Jake usually worked with Legendary-grade Dragon Hearts in his alchemy, and often only fragments of them. He had anticipated another Legendary item at best, but it seemed he had vastly underestimated the power the aunt had poured into the organ.

As for its use, Jake was stumped. He briefly considered consuming it with Palate, but he still had a half-eaten, corruption-filled World Core sitting in his stomach. While the logical choice was to finish off the core first, Jake stubbornly decided to keep it there until he could extract enough benefits from breaking his Palate skill to justify the risk.

Reflecting on the battle, Jake realized this was one of the few major encounters that hadn't triggered a skill evolution. Usually, he’d walk away from a fight like this with at least one or two upgrades, but this time, there was nothing.

It wasn't entirely unexpected. Improving a skill in the middle of a fight was supposed to be a rare phenomenon that many cultivators never experienced. He remembered Dina mentioning back in Nevermore that she didn't really have "mid-fight breakthroughs."

Instead, she would gather insights during the heat of battle and then carefully integrate them into her skills afterward. From what Jake understood, this was a deliberate, taught method of progression.

It was similar to how Jake had delayed his Meditate upgrade until he could secure a massive jump in quality. Some people took this to the extreme, refusing to upgrade a skill without a perfect plan. They would even ignore a potential upgrade if they feared it might lead their Path in the wrong direction.

The logic was sound. A "bad" upgrade could clutter a skill with unwanted attributes, making future progress much harder. For instance, if Jake upgraded Arcane Powershot and accidentally infused it with a dark affinity that created smoke clouds, the skill would now be tied to those Records.

That might provide a temporary boost, but it would muddy the skill's identity and potentially make it a mess of conflicting powers. In the long run, Arcane Powershot could end up less effective than its lower-rarity predecessor.

However, Jake had never let logic stop him from evolving skills during a fight. He preferred to trust his instincts when it came to combat. While he could sit down and map out a path, he simply wasn't that type of person. He believed that even if he made a mistake, his instincts would eventually guide him back to the right track.

Even so, he would have welcomed a new upgrade. Regardless, he was satisfied with the outcome, particularly the performance of Event Horizon.

He had only used it briefly, but the memory of that single arrow kept playing in his mind. The velocity and raw power that the Mythical skill provided were beyond anything he had ever produced. Knowing he had only scratched the surface of its potential filled him with anticipation.

The skill did have significant drawbacks, though. First, the resource drain was staggering; it had consumed far more stamina and mana than he had anticipated. Second, it was strictly a single-target ability. If he used it against a group, it might actually be a liability. Once a target was marked as his Event Horizon, all his ranged attacks were pulled toward it, making it impossible to hit anything else. Since he couldn't seem to cancel the skill early, he was forced to wait for the timer to run out.

These issues would likely fade once he could do more than just "glimpse" the horizon, a day he looked forward to with excitement.

For the moment, he was content to sit and heal. His upgraded Meditate skill was doing wonders, and though he felt the urge to peer at the Gate of Enlightenment, he restrained himself. He was, after all, on an alien world in the middle of nowhere.

Several hours passed as Jake’s body knit itself back together. After four hours, he felt significantly better, even if he wasn't at a hundred percent. He opened his eyes, cracked his neck, and stood up. Floating out of the massive crater Yrelstromoz had made, he surveyed the aftermath of their duel.

The landscape was a graveyard of geography. Craters pockmarked the earth, and massive fissures split the ground. In the distance, mountain peaks had been sliced clean off by draconic beams. He was glad he had moved the fight to this side of the planet; if they had stayed near the resorts, those luxury lakes would have been evaporated alongside the tourists.

“They’re currently in the middle of a mass evacuation due to ‘unexplained seismic events’ and energy waves,” a voice remarked from behind him. “Also, there was one death. Not from the fight, though—just some ancient E-grade who drank himself into a grave.”

“Nice to see you’re keeping an eye on the locals,” Jake said, turning to find the familiar snake god hovering in the air.

“I’m not. I just thought it was a funny way to start a conversation,” the Primordial replied with a shrug.

“Fair point,” Jake said, then paused. “Wait, is it okay for you to be here? Won’t this cause a scene?”

He remembered the Viper saying he couldn't just show up in territories that didn't belong to the Order. Teleporting into the Pantheon of Life’s backyard, for instance, would be seen as an act of war.

“This sector of space is unclaimed, and the only ones nearby with a half-decent argument are the Lumenflight,” Villy explained. “Did I make a bunch of local gods panic? Absolutely. Do I give a damn? Absolutely not.”

“That also makes sense,” Jake laughed. “Speaking of the Lumenflight, are you sure there won’t be blowback? The aunt took the body, and while she seemed chill, you never know with dragons.”

“Individuals might hold a grudge, but the Lumenflight as an organization won't,” the Viper said. “Remember when I told you she killed a kid belonging to a United Tribes demigod?”

“Yeah.”

“She was a walking corpse anyway,” Villy said. “You think she was going to get away with that? She would have been hunted down ages ago if I hadn't basically reserved her for you. If I were you, I’d be less worried about dragons and more worried about the Court of Shadows, since I may have technically stolen their contract.”

“Oh,” Jake muttered. “Right. I did wonder if being exiled was her only punishment.”

“From the Dragonflights' perspective, it was,” the god explained. “But the moment she was cast out, she lost her diplomatic immunity while keeping the bounty on her head. Speaking of which...”

Villy flicked a token toward Jake.

Catching the object, Jake looked at it with a blank expression. “What’s this for?”

“It’s the contact info to collect the bounty,” the Viper said, sounding like Jake was being particularly slow.

“So Yrelstromoz actually had a price on her head...” Jake mused.

“Of course,” Villy shrugged. “Like I said, she was doomed the moment she crossed the United Tribes. I think her aunt was genuinely relieved you were the one to do it. If she had to die, dying by the hand of a Primordial’s Chosen is much more honorable than being jumped by bounty hunters or ending up as a specimen in the Shadow Realm.”

“I guess so,” Jake replied. “Anyway, what did you think of the fight?”

“It went about how I expected, though I have one question,” the Viper said, his casual tone suddenly sharpening into something more serious. “That Event Horizon move... was that actually a class skill?”