The Primal Hunter

It ended up only taking two weeks more before the whole gang was back together. Jake spent this time primarily working on some of the things he had been putting off a bit, like making sure everything was still running smoothly in the Cradle for his budding Soulflame and then doing the very important work of briefly checking out his Puzzle Box of the Seeker. He planned to just play with it for a day or two, so it was very understandable Jake felt slight annoyance when he was interrupted after only a couple of weeks.

Sylphie and the Sword Saint had already returned to the Order compound at this point and were all doing their own thing until it was time to meet back up, well ahead of schedule. Jake ended up being the last to arrive at their reunion, as he just needed to get in one more attempt for the puzzle he was currently on, something he was certain everyone would understand.

Walking through the small compound, Jake already saw the four of them gathered in a sealed-off meeting room. He enjoyed the feeling of the walk due to his even more comfortable boots, as he couldn’t help himself from feeling for natural treasures using the boots’ function. He detected a few, and he quickly realized their range covered the entire damn city floor.

Arriving in the meeting room, Jake checked out the situation just before entering. Sylphie was sitting on a small nest she had made on a table from what looked like tablecloths, looking very comfortable. Meanwhile, the Sword Saint and Dina were both sitting in chairs while the Fallen King floated menacingly in a corner. None of them looked different compared to the last time they met, though that wasn’t really a surprise.

But that didn’t mean they hadn’t changed. When Jake entered the room, he instantly took in their auras. Compared to eight and half years or so, everyone had gotten quite a lot stronger. Even if their levels hadn’t grown due to the nature of Challenge Dungeons – besides Sylphie and the Sword Saint, who had gained one on the sixty-ninth floor – that didn’t mean they hadn’t gotten stronger. Everyone had gained at least one title for a few more stats, but what mattered most were the skill upgrades and improved overall abilities through conceptual improvements and such.

Jake himself had also gotten quite a lot stronger. He was the one who had gained the most levels due to his little meeting with the gods and aura-measuring contest with Valdemar, along with the All-Star title. Not to mention all the skill upgrades he had gained, as well as just overall improvements across the board.

”Ree!” Sylphie instantly greeted Jake as she zoomed over and sat down on her usual spot atop Jake’s head. Jake just smiled as he scratched her head, making Sylphie flap her wings happily. He had to admit he had missed the little featherball.

”The last to arrive as expected,” the Fallen King commented.

”Says the person who was the last to get done with all the Challenge Dungeons,” Jake shot back.

”Yet I still finished within the agreed-upon deadline. Also, I thought it was viewed as impolite for humans to finish prematurely? Especially for you male versions,” the Fallen King retaliated verbally.

”Pretty mean of you to insult an old man like that,” Jake muttered as he shook his head with disappointment, throwing glances at the old man in the room.

”Good to see you too, Jake,” the Sword Saint said with a light smile. ”Now, rather than sit around and take jabs, let us get everyone up to speed. We will have plenty of time for banter when we continue our descent.”

The Fallen King didn’t argue, and Jake also knew when to shut up as he kept scratching Sylphie, who was also being a polite little hawk. For now, at least.

”To begin with… let us get a mutual idea of our shared growth during this period, as I am certain it has been most fruitful for us all. Let me begin with how I did in the Challenge Dungeons,” the Sword Saint volunteered as he summarized his Challenge Dungeons first in a brief manner. When he was done, he gave the floor to the dryad of their party as she did the same.

Dina had done pretty damn well, with a total multiplier of 70% from all the Challenge Dungeons, tying the Sword Saint perfectly. Broken down, she had gained 15% from the Colosseum of Mortals, 15% in House of the Architect, 10% in Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth, 20% in the Endless Journey, and 10% in Test of Character. Jake had to admit this was actually pretty good from her, considering she was a healer, and healers tended to struggle in places like the Colosseum of Mortals.

That was until she shared how she won pretty much all her fights by spreading poison spores in the arena to slowly kill her opponents. She did this by getting around the rules of the Colosseum that one could only bring weapons and tools bought for the arena to a fight. Using her skills and innate talent, she spread spores from outside the entire Colosseum before any fighting even began. She did this through a special flower she grafted by combining different herbs to allow it to have controllable spores while in flight, something she could then use her Bloodline to control. Overall, her tactics had been pretty damn gruesome, yet effective for someone who wasn’t the best in a regular fight. The mental image of her just delaying as her opponents slowly coughed up blood and died was a pretty dark mental image, though.

The Fallen King was next up to summarize his last many years, and it turned out he had done quite a bit worse, with a final multiplier of 45%. In the Colosseum of Mortals, he ended with a respectable multiplier of 15%, and in the Endless Journey, he repeated that feat, earning another 15%. However, things only went downhill from there as he only got 5% in the House of the Architect, Test of Character, and Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth. Jake saw the clear dissatisfaction from the Unique Lifeform, even if Jake understood why the Fallen King had faced so many problems… because these Challenge Dungeons truly weren’t made for something like a Unique Lifeform.

He didn’t have the diversity for the House of the Architect due to his Path, and he wasn’t overly fast for Minaga’s Labyrinth. Additionally, he wasn’t as good at deciphering the runes as all his magic was purely instinctive and not something he had studied to learn, teaching him the required skills. As for why he had done badly in the Test of Character, though… well, Jake wasn’t going to pry too much there.

Sylphie shared her results next, and Jake saw the Fallen King looked a bit grumpy that she had gained the same level of multiplier as him. Something Sylphie clearly also noticed as she very proudly screeched at her great accomplishment.

”All you did was find an exploit within a Challenge Dungeon and use that to your advantage. That is not a true representation of power, and a Unique Lifeform such as I am merely disadvantaged due to the bogus rules,”the Fallen King argued to make himself feel better.

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”Ree!”

”Having a unique skill does not make you a Unique Lifeform.”

”Ree!” Sylphie refused to back down as she even jumped on the table to look more defiant.

”She’s got a point,” Jake added. ”As she is probably the only Sylphian Hawk in existence, calling Sylphie a lifeform that is unique isn’t entirely inaccurate.”

”That does not make it the same,” the Fallen King tried to shut Jake down. ”Unique Lifeforms such as I are clearly defined by the system, not by a bunch of C-grades that think they know better.”

”Ree.”

”There is no agreeing to disagree here; we are discussing indisputable facts,” the Unique Lifeform, who everyone was bullying into feeling a little bit less unique, argued. ”Unless you have a title quite literally proclaiming you a Unique Lifeform, you are not a Unique Lifeform.”

”Ree, ree.”

Now it was Jake’s turn to look confused as he stared at the hawk. ”Wait, you do have such a title?”

”She does not, I can detect other Unique Lifeforms, and she isn’t one,” the Fallen King said dismissively.

”Ree!” Sylphie said madly as she screeched a few more times, and Jake’s eyes opened wide as everyone looked surprised. He and Villy had talked about Sylphie probably being unique, but they didn’t really have any way to truly know. Turns out they could have just asked the little hawk to get a definitive answer all this day.

Sylphie apparently had a title called Lineage Progenitor, which said Sylphie was one of a kind and the first in a new Lineage of powerful beasts. It quite literally called her unique and the first of the Sylphian Hawks. As for the effects of the title, Sylphie didn’t share anything as her parents had told her not to share such things. A good politic, making Jake happy that Hawkie and Mystie had at least taught her some responsible things even if they pawned Sylphie off to Jake for most of her life.

However, even if Sylphie didn’t give many details, they did have someone in their party who knew a bit more.

”Lineage Progenitor… I heard about that title before. It usually appears when a regular beast or monster mutates or has a particularly impactful evolution into a powerful variant that differs a lot from any others, effectively creating an entirely new Lineage of races… sometimes even entirely new species. Naturally, the level of change has to reach certain thresholds, and the Lineage Progenitor is always particularly powerful. To think Sylphie was one, I will have to tell Grandpa about this,” Dina added some of her precious knowledge of the multiverse.

”Pretty sure he already knows, considering a whole bunch of gods is having a fun-time streaming party with the Wyrmgod watching us right now, your grandfather among them,” Jake added casually with a shrug.

Everyone turned to look at Jake with confusion as Jake realized. Oh… oh yeah, they definitely didn’t know that.

”Alright, things will make a bit more sense with context, so I guess it’s my turn to summarize my time doing stuff? Let’s start with the Endless Journey and work backward,” Jake said as he did just that.

After Jake was done telling about the Endless Journey, the Fallen King called him a cheater, as everyone else congratulated him for his great performance. After the House of the Architect, they remained impressed, as Sylphie had to get the jab in that Jake had already tied both her and the Fallen King regarding the multiplier with only two Challenge Dungeons. The small bird truly went for the jugular, gladly accepting mutual destruction.

Jake talked about Endless Minaga’s Labyrinth next, where he shared how many Sections he did… and… well, alright, he had probably overdone it a bit as he had done sixty Sections more than Sylphie, who had also gotten 25%. At this point, the Fallen King was truly looking salty over how much of a cheat Jake was. Especially as he had already tied the record-holders of their party with two Challenge Dungeons left to go.

When it came to the Test of Character, Jake had naturally done the worst of all his Challenge Dungeons, but the non-existent face of the Fallen King fell when Jake told about the end of the Colosseum of Mortals.

”So, one thing led to another, and I ended up killing the image of Valdemar, which sure raised quite the ruckus,” Jake shared. ”I am not going to give any details, but man, it was one hell of a fight.”

”You… killed that thing?” the Fallen King questioned. ”I faced a level 100 version… and I find it difficult to imagine any being I can remember, even in mid-tier D-grade, ever facing that creature without any skills…”

”I used my spores and reached Valdemar without any deaths at all, even if it got really close against both Umbra and the Undying General… but I couldn’t do anything against him, as he was entirely immune to my spores,” Dina muttered. ”I died ten times in a row without ever even standing a chance, no matter how many preparations I made. I even tried filling the entire arena with seeds, and he just cut everything down.”

”Ree,” Sylphie also said, a bit depressed that Valdemar had apparently just said he ”really liked her wind and found it refreshing,” before cutting it apart, Sylphie quickly getting torn apart despite her semi-elemental wind form. Valdemar’s Transcendent skill simply didn’t care if something could be cut physically – he would cut it anyway.

”Well, as you all noted, it sure as fuck wasn’t easy, and apparently, killing the image is so rare that Valdemar himself decided to come by… followed by a few others, including Dina’s Grandpa who came along with Artemis,” Jake shared.

”Why would Artemis come? I know she had an image in the Challenge Dungeon, but…” Dina said, confused.

”Eh, private reasons,” Jake just waved it off, not wanting to share more than he had to. In order to not get questioned, he decided to add something he knew would surely shift everyone’s attention. ”Oh yeah, the Blightfather and Holy Mother also stopped by, and when they came, a whole lot of other gods also arrived… by now, it’s a whole party up there.”

”You… talk as if you’ve been there,” Dina said a bit tentatively.

”I have,” Jake confirmed, seeing no reason to deny it. ”Was an experience for sure, even get a few levels from it. Anyway, let’s get a move on already. No time for banter, right?”

”No, I am actually very interested in what happened,” the Sword Saint commented, not letting Jake get away that easy. ”For you to have gained levels must mean you did something, right?”

”Just a small presence competition with Valdemar for the fun of it,” Jake once more tried to wave it off.

”Why would you ever openly oppose a god like that!? Much less a Primordial!” Dina said in a very critical tone. ”That was just so needlessly reckless.”

”In my defense, we both had a good time,” Jake defended himself excellently.

”Ree?”

”Oh no, Valdemar is way fucking scarier in real life than just his image,” Jake answered as he still vividly remembered the presence of the man. The sheer bloodlust he had built up and the overwhelming power that would have crushed Jake into paste if the Primordial had poured in the slightest energy.

”Are we just going to ignore how this living cheat also got a 25% in the Colosseum of Mortals?” the Fallen King finally brought the conversation back on topic. ”If my math is correct… that puts you on a total multiplier of 105%.”

”Truly a math genius,” Jake smiled.

”That is… impressive,” Dina muttered. ”With that, you can really compete…”

”You’re not going public with it?” the Sword Saint asked.

”No,” Jake shook his head. ”Everyone will know when it matters anyway.”

”Fair,” the Sword Saint nodded as he smiled. ”While it saddens me to know that my own chances are slim on these Leaderboards, there is one thing we can all still do: prove we are the best party. Also, while Jake can indeed compete, his final score is still reliant on everyone here… so let’s show them.”

Jake smiled at the small pep-talk as he stood up. ”I assume that means no more fucking around?”

The old man nodded. ”Let’s get back in gear and see how far we can truly go. Even if I cannot find my own name atop the Leaderboards... I guess it’s acceptable to be known as one of the four party members of the top record holder.”