The Primal Hunter

Chapter 37

The Malefic Viper stood in the desolate middle of nowhere, surrounded by the ever-present white mist. He had stood here for days now, unmoving. The decision to leave had been made, but the last step still stumped him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t or that he didn’t want to go. A single thought would bring him away. But he still felt doubt. It had been a long time since he last left… a very long time.

Suddenly, he felt a small trickle of faith come to him, for the first time in many eras. Of course, he knew from where it came. He had only one being in the entire multiverse who held his blessing after all. The prayer was simple if a little insulting.

The Malefic Viper couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as peered through the void into the challenge dungeon, observing Jake drink his concoction.

“Crazy bastard,” he muttered to himself, smirking. “And entirely pointless. Should I tell him that his body would be powerful enough to survive the poison already and how he is unnecessarily putting his life at risk? Nah, gonna save that one.”

Looking at Jake drink down the sludge, his own hesitation seemed like a joke in comparison. He feared the unknown, while his one blessed mortal faced death with courage and a bit of foolhardiness.

“I guess I should stop stalling.”

With those words, he disappeared from the desolate realm.

A ripple went through the multiverse as he passed the veil. An aura that hadn’t appeared for eras washed across existence, only detectable to the most powerful of gods. Some had already felt the movements of karma when he granted his True Blessing, but now there was no doubt.

The Malefic Viper had returned.

Two mighty giants stood on the metaphorical battlefield, one representing life, the other, death. Equally matched as they tried to fell the other. Their fight had allowed them both to grow, but at the same time, had whittled away their strength. The end was near.

Yet, at that very moment, the third, forgotten, entity struck. A mighty arrow of life surged forward, utterly destroying the avatar of death. The giant of life took this chance to leap on the fallen avatar but was only met by the consuming grasp of the hunter. It had no recourse as it was too weak from the long battle.

The war of life and death had finally come to a close. It had only been a bit less than an hour; however, the pain had been utterly consuming, and Jake felt delirious despite his body now slowly healing. Yet he felt triumphant. He had won, all the poison now either firmly nestled harmlessly away in his body or wholly eliminated.

Jake suddenly heaved in a breath of air as his throat finally finished healing, and he could once more draw in air. The experience had also inadvertently taught him that he didn’t really need to breathe much anymore. Not that it made the inability to breathe any less hard to get used to.

He stayed on the ground for several minutes as he became aware of his surroundings, noticing he was still in the dungeon. His head was a mess, and he couldn’t move a single finger. The pain had subsided significantly, but it still hurt as his body kept healing. Whatever vestige of poison remained in his system was pretty much gone by now, and his natural resistance would handle the rest.

His mind started clearing up, and as it did, he couldn’t help laughing. Or at least he tried but ended up just gurgling out blood instead. After spitting out a lungful of blood and grime, his attempted laughter did go through, though.

He had lived. His foolish gambit had worked. Honestly, he did feel a bit like an idiot currently. Based on the power of the poison, a single well-made inferior-rarity antidote would likely have cured him or at least suppressed the effects enough for his body to handle the rest. Maybe his body could have taken it even without any external help.

His own little concoction had only amplified the flare-up and turned it into the nightmarishly potent poison that nearly took his life. Not that any of it mattered now. He had won after all. And with his victory came a slew of system messages.

You have assimilated a potent source of vitality.

+1 vitality

You have assimilated a potent source of vitality.

+2 vitality

a potent

+1 vitality

assimilated a

+1 vitality

…

a bit, and Jake could see that it had periodically given him

vitality. The energy naturally came from the Argentum Vitae mushrooms, which would have granted him 10 vitality if he just ate them straight up. While fewer stats, that wouldn’t have

the poison cured, he had

Dungeon Challenge:

of poison

have successfully cleared the Tutorial

on performance during all

shutting down in

taken him only a couple of hours for his body to heal enough

just one but two titles. However, these were more in line with his initial Forerunner of the New World, compared to Bloodline Patriarch,

– Successfully clear a Dungeon

Pioneer I] – Be the first to clear a dungeon suitable for your

of them, in his honest opinion. This clearly indicated

as he noted the bottles of health potions inside one of the cabinets. With nothing better to do, he began

cabinet to get the potion, cursing himself for even closing it, to begin with. Why did he need to close cabinets? Or doors for that matter. Not like anyone else was going to wander

way minded it. He was alive. And he was feeling great. Well, aside from the whole body-being-paralyzed part. Looking at his health points, they were at a measly

as the vital energy functioned as the fuel that healed the body and kept a living being alive. Undead

do so. When one took damage, an initial portion of health is consumed, with another part used to

points instantly disappear. He would remain alive, and his health points would keep healing his

that the brain was still the organ that served as the director of consciousness. The mind existed within the soul, but it couldn’t do anything or even be aware of itself without the brain. Memories, personality, what makes you, you, exist disjointed from the physical body. Many beings in the multiverse

his current rank, losing the brain would mean losing all semblance of control and consciousness until it is regenerated once more. If Jake had lost access to this control, he would no longer be able to affect the two opposing forces at all. He would be unable to fight on the

but guessed that skills existed that allowed a human to still act despite having no brain. Perhaps it would naturally

acquiring a health potion had reached a critical stage. He

a few more minutes, as he was finally getting close to fully opening the cabinet, he felt a bit of his mobility return. At first, he could move

a waste of time. Dragging himself off the floor,

so easily overcome. From what he

Sphere of Perception

single minute detail memorized. But in the room where he had initially gotten his profession, two lockboxes now sat

enter the room and check them out. One of the boxes was rather large, while the other one small. Both were jeweled,

magical lockbox enchanted with the ability to block off all types of attempts to peek inside before opening. Awarded for passing the Challenge

Opening

a dull grey color. Small scratches and minor imperfection marred their surface, and the soles looked like they had accompanied their last wearer for countless steps. In all honesty, they looked far worse

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