The Primal Hunter Chapter 1297 - How One Would Expect

Jake truly despised only a handful of creatures. Not for any rational reason, but simply because they rubbed him the wrong way. Topping his list of hated enemies were undoubtedly the wicked mushrooms scattered across the multiverse, all of which merited total annihilation or tossing into alchemical cauldrons to be transformed into something worthwhile.

Other beast types grated on him intensely too. Mosquitoes ranked high among them. No one enjoyed mosquitoes, and Jake dreaded the moment Vesperia might drag him to a casual gathering with a True Royal from the accursed Lineage those pests hailed from.

A few more existed on his dislike list, yet spiders had always been a particular aversion for Jake. The cause? He couldn't quite pinpoint it. Fear didn't factor in, and rationally, he recognized spiders as beneficial, even aiding against those very mosquitoes. Still, an instinctive dislike lingered, perhaps from some childhood horror flick or similar. He never bothered delving deeper. What struck him immediately upon spotting the beast the Shaman indicated was an urge to incinerate it in flames... or blast it apart with arcane power. Its grotesque appearance only worsened matters.

Through Identify, he verified it was unquestionably a spider.

[Arachnec Deathstalker – lvl 388]

This spider bore a name echoing the Arachne race, which Jake knew from before, though ordinary arachne weren't undead at all. Rather, they resembled spider-women, blending half-spider and half-humanoid forms. Quite formidable monsters, numerous examples populated the multiverse.

Arachnec appeared quite akin, yet fully undead and far less humanoid than the arachne images Jake recalled. Arachne typically adopted near-complete humanoid shapes and, as an all-female race, frequently mated with enlightened beings. Overall, Jake bore them no ill will since they weren't true spiders. Spider-esque, yes, but not genuine spiders.

A cursed abomination, this Arachnec fit neither standard spider nor arachne category. Its lower half mirrored a spider's, while the upper defied spider norms, though Jake balked at labeling it humanoid.

The upper torso consisted of bones crudely bound by spiderwebs. No head showed, and five elongated, bony arms jutted out awkwardly. The remainder evoked a decaying spider, exposing more skeleton than meat. Eight legs ended in spear-tips that stabbed the earth with each step, while a potent miasma constantly poured from it. Jake gauged its length at roughly seven meters, height at five, rendering it sizable yet not enormous.

“Is it... sentient?” Jake inquired of the Shaman, hovering high above the expanding death realm below. Earlier, the Shaman had conjured a barrier for concealment, keeping them hidden, as Jake activated Unseen Hunter too—while staying visible to the frogs.

“Yes, they possessed great intelligence, and though only one appears now, more lurk nearby for certain,” the Shaman replied, eyes scanning eagerly as if hunting another Arachnec to validate his words.

Emitting a Pulse, Jake detected two matching Arachnec just beyond his Sphere of Perception, traveling as a pair, plus dozens further within the death land's advance. That blight stretched vastly afar, implying countless others evaded his range.

“Do they have settlements and such?” Jake probed.

“They do, hidden underground, though no nest should exist here,” the Shaman clarified. “A nest would prompt the village to dispatch elites for eradication. Even the Oracle might intervene. No, merely a scouting band of Arachnec, here to level up by generating and devouring miasma.”

“Sounds classically undead,” Jake murmured, a standard tactic for undead across the multiverse. They advanced by disseminating death and harvesting the miasma yield. Effective, yet it bred foes aplenty—hence why Risen built domains yielding death affinity energy passively, skipping the need to ravage life for it.

“You also have creatures like these outside the Boundary?” the Shaman inquired with interest.

“Exactly like this? I’m not sure, but probably,” Jake shrugged. An existing multiverse race seemed likely for Arachnec, though certainty eluded. “As for undead creatures in general? Oh yeah, plenty of those.”

The Arachnec possess the power to resurrect the fallen and turn their victims into minions, making them our sworn foes for yet another cause,” the Shaman declared, his face twisting in clear fury for the first time. “It’s a profane ritual that traps the spirit, preventing it from finding peace or rejoining the Ancestral Spirit Pool.”

The seriousness in the Shaman’s eyes made Jake nod in understanding. Curiosity burned in him about Venusian beliefs on the afterlife and the nature of this Ancestral Spirit Pool, yet he restrained himself. Instead, he offered a gesture the frog was bound to value shortly.

With a hand extended, Jake summoned his bow into his grasp, drawing a startled expression from the Shaman.

“A space bag?” the frog inquired, astonishment evident.

“We term it spatial storage, available in various shapes. Mine takes the form of a necklace,” Jake replied.

“Tools like that are exceedingly scarce around here, mostly because gathering the required materials is so challenging,” the Shaman explained while eyeing Jake’s bow intently. “And what might that be? A type of weapon?”

Jake initially suspected the B-grade frog was joking, but realization dawned that this Venusian might never have encountered a bow or grasped its purpose. The query still shocked him, given the bow’s straightforward design. It wouldn’t shock him if bows had arisen independently in even minor Worlds, influenced by multiverse Records.

However, Venusians’ webbed hands and builds weren’t suited for bows. They might craft adapted versions, but likely favored alternative ranged attacks, like various magics.

After a momentary stun from the question, Jake simply affirmed with a nod.

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“Yes, a bow is my weapon of choice. Rather than explain its function, let me show you,” Jake stated, gesturing toward the frogs. “Please pull back a bit and stay beyond the Arachnec’s detection. Rest assured, my stealth skill will conceal me.”

“Very well,” the Shaman agreed with a nod. “We’ll withdraw, yet stay vigilant should you require aid. One more caution: Deathstalker variants strike fast and lethal, so target their weak defenses carefully. Harming them is simple, but killing one outright demands depleting its energy completely. Thus, crippling the limbs to hinder movement could—”

“Appreciate the tips, but I know the undead’s traits well,” Jake responded, charmed by the Shaman’s worry yet unnecessary it was. “Trust me, this battle ends quicker than you imagine. So, relax and watch.”

Skepticism flickered in the Shaman’s gaze as he nodded hesitantly, then withdrew with the other four Venusians. Weapons at the ready, they poised to rush in if Jake faltered—a thoughtful gesture.

To be fair, Jake had just reached B-grade evolution. From their perspective, challenging a foe some thirty levels superior was reckless. They couldn’t know Jake was an anomaly, capable of defeating that B-grade Deathstalker even pre-evolution, judging by its aura.

Post-evolution? The outcome would prove everything.

Beneath the intense stares of three frogs, Jake openly crafted his opening strike. Forgoing his quiver, he formed a basic Protean Arrow before them, infusing it with raw destructive arcane energy. No need for complexity; poison-wise, post-evolution options were slim, so he selected his own potent blood as the toxin.

With the spear-length arrow finished, Jake applied a final venom layer, then oriented it toward the distant Arachnec. He gripped it, activated Penetrating Arrow’s effects, and nocked it. String drawn, Jake inhaled deeply, igniting Arcane Awakening as arcane devastation enveloped his form.

Jake selected the offensive option, boosting those stats by 50%. He had thought about diving straight into 60% across all stats, yet he reined himself in—a decision that was likely wise. The burden of enhancing skills, particularly one like his, proved far more intense immediately after evolution, preventing him from deploying it as freely as during the closing stages of C-grade.

Arcane Supremacy offered him a key edge, along with his exceptional tolerance to his own arcane affinity, which was truly why Jake’s boosting skill functioned at all. Regardless, 50% would suffice for the moment, and the Venusians’ reactions indicated they viewed it as utterly remarkable already.

A second surge of energy twisted the space near Jake as he channeled Arcane Powershot, and without Unseen Hunter, the Deathstalker would surely have spotted him now. The undead beast stayed oblivious to the lurking hunter, even while he powered up his Arcane Powershot completely.

Every other passive skill of his hummed at full strength, with Hunter’s Mark applied as Jake lined up his ultimate shot. He kept Sight of the Boundless Horizon and Event Horizon ready in case the initial strike missed—though he struggled to imagine that occurring.

After one last breath, Jake unleashed the arrow, which blazed toward the Arachnec Deathstalker. The B-grade creature was devouring the fading life force from a writhing cactus-like plant when the arrow struck, concealed by Stealth Attack right up to the final instant.

The B-grade spider’s primal danger instinct flared much too late. In those closing seconds, miasmic energy exploded from the Deathstalker’s form, only to halt dead from a perfectly timed Primal Gaze, denying the B-grade any chance to mount a defense.

The five Venusians and Jake observed the Protean Arrow rip first through the skeletal “humanoid” section of the Arachnec Deathstalker, shattering the bones before plunging onward into the rotten spider torso. There it barreled ahead undeterred, annihilating all in its wake while unleashing a blast of ruinous arcane energy across the B-grade’s entire frame.

At last, the arrow burst out the underside of the Arachnec, detonating upon ground contact in a cataclysmic release of destructive arcane power that ravaged the spider from beneath. Jake saw vast swaths of his quarry vaporize instantly within the fresh crater on the island, as the surrounding terrain cracked with fissures stretching almost a kilometer outward in all directions. This outcome drew a tsk from Jake.

Too much energy from the Protean Arrow squandered on wrecking the surroundings rather than slaying the foe, he reflected inwardly, noting that while most power still hammered his target, excessive waste revealed his post-evolution control issues. He lacked even the justification of maxed-out Arcane Awakening, which would have added volatility to his strikes due to the boosting skill’s inherently erratic quality.

This control shortfall also highlighted how much tougher this Minor World’s landscape was compared to Earth or typical planets. Back there, such an impact would have spawned fissures dozens of kilometers wide at least, but here they barely reached a kilometer each way. Constant drenching in powerful toxic energies had undoubtedly fortified and honed everything, energies potent enough to foster B-grades and possibly A-grades.

Aside from terrain observations, Jake’s assault on the Deathstalker yielded precisely the anticipated results. Its rotting flesh twitched briefly, resisting the onslaught of destructive arcane forces, but ultimately yielded. Jake’s poison contributed little, underscoring the undead’s formidable toxin resistance.

That hardly signified, though—for without poison, the Protean Arrow combined with all else ensured Jake’s debut B-grade “battle” concluded as expected, especially against no mid-tier B-grade or elite variant.

The B-grade’s lingering remnants dissolved into miasma that soaked into the soil, widening death’s grip. Even defeated, these Arachnecs lingered as a blight, evidently.

A Pulse revealed distant Arachnecs stirring at their kin’s demise, sensing either Jake’s energy burst or the loss itself. Yet none approached Jake’s group, suggesting indifference to one permanent casualty.

Jake glanced at the Shaman and shrugged. “You’re right, Deathstalkers are pretty squishy.”

The Shaman fixed his gaze right back at Jake, with the four other Venusians nearby now clearly on high alert, the three warriors gripping their weapons with iron fists. The cause was plain to see.

Until now, they had probably assumed that Jake, as a low-level B-grade, posed no real danger to their group of five even if he suddenly flipped and attacked. But that belief was now thoroughly shaken, thanks to the peek Jake had offered into his true capabilities.

Thankfully, the Shaman remained somewhat at ease, appearing more awestruck than alarmed while alternating his gaze between Jake and the crater holding just a handful of the Deathstalker’s scattered bones.

“That... did not proceed as I’d expected,” the Shaman muttered aloud as he focused on Jake. “While the very thought frightens me, do tell: are all humans as powerful as you? Or are you a special variant?”

“Something like the latter,” Jake clarified, amused at being labeled a variant. Not surprising, really, since enlightened races didn’t exist in this world.

“Truly, I have been enlightened today,” the Shaman slowly nodded, pondering if he should even pose the next question. “I find myself hesitant to even ask, but did that attack you just unleashed take a huge toll on you, or...?”

Jake smiled while glancing toward the vast field of death stretching to the horizon. “How about we look for another Arachnec and find out?”