The Primal Hunter

Chapter 311

Treants, oh treants. It was a creature type that was present in so many video games, fiction, and general fantasy. No doubt humans from ages past had seen trees and wondered: “what if that massive fucking tree could walk around and smash stuff?” and just let their imagination take things from there.

Yet when Jake finally got to meet them, he got some scuffed broken versions that were far closer to elementals than actual trees. He felt cheated and betrayed that they even kept the treant-tag. They couldn’t even do proper tree magic! No spearing roots, no long vines extending from them, or razor leaves fired after him. Just a bunch of rotting trees that blew up with a single arrow and reassembled themselves using their curse energies.

Jake did what he could as he worked to make the world right. He tore the trees apart one by one, starting with the Lord. It was the biggest of the bunch and the only one Jake hoped would at least give him a bit of entertainment.

Well, the first thing he did was to take out the Root of Eternal Resentment, hoping he could just bonk them to death and be done with it. Sadly it didn’t work, Jake assuming it was because these weren’t truly part of the Yalsten curse… just generally fucked up by curse energy. If the Yalsten curse directed them, wouldn’t they hold more hate for the vampires sitting around the edges of the valley trying to take advantage of the fight than for Jake?

No, even if cursed, they were still directed by the fake-metal-tree-that-wasn’t-even-a-metal-treant tree. That damn tree was a big disappointment too. Sure, Jake got cheated out of fighting real treants, but a mech treant could still be cool, right? But noo, he just had to fight these shitty rotting things. They even smelled.

Still… not as bad as mushrooms.

As for the fight itself, it was just the usual stuff. The wannabe-treants used simple attacks, mainly just trying to smash Jake with a bit of curse magic mixed in here and there. The Treant Lord used its weird tentacles to try and grasp Jake and infuse him with its curse, which was also the reason why he targeted it first. Those damn vines were a bit too mushroomy for his liking. Cursed and mushroomy, even.

What he had to hand to the treants was their durability. He kept blowing them apart time and time again, yet they kept regrowing the broken wood. In the end, Jake blanketed the entire valley in toxic mist and, with his blood-soaked arrows, poisoned the fake treants one after another, whittling them down. While his poison didn’t do much… it did take its toll.

Needless to say, destructive arcane energy also did plenty of damage.

For nearly an hour, the valley was a hellscape of broken and rotting pieces of wood flying everywhere, pink-purple explosions, and a constant poisonous mist blanketing everything. Occasionally the entire valley would light up for a brief moment as a Mark of the Avaricious Hunter was activated, making it quite the show from an outside perspective.

Sadly, all the vampiric observers had taken off in fright, not wanting to get involved at all. Probably a good decision on their part.

In the end, Jake stood in the middle of the valley, destruction all around him as he cleaned his cloak that looked to now be covered in mold. Cursed mold. Good thing he got it upgraded. Altmar technology sure was something, that’s for sure. To his surprise, he had even gotten a level from the entire endeavor.

*You have slain [Cursed Vault Guardian Treant Lord – lvl 150] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Cursed Vault Guardian Treant – lvl 140] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

…

*You have slain [Cursed Vault Guardian Treant – lvl 140] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

[Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level

(D)] has reached level 133 - Stat points allocated,

level after he killed the last Count of Blood, and he had gotten a bit more experience since then too. Granted, the fights hadn’t been the hardest,

relatively easily dozens of levels and hundreds of elixirs ago. On the other hand, he had a feeling these enemies weren’t truly designed to kill anything but just stall people more than anything. They were overly defensive, after

dead, Jake summoned the Root of Eternal Resentment again, and this time it reacted. It began absorbing some of the energy from all the dead enemies, but only a bit of it. Once it was done absorbing the energy, he put it back in his

walked up to the metal tree and placed his hand on it again. This time, he got an entirely different response. It felt almost like an invitation… and without further ado, he accepted it as he disappeared – teleported into the hidden space

He stood on a platform surrounded by a barrier in front of him, with the space behind

he had no idea how to get through the barrier. He placed his palm on it and felt like it was utterly impenetrable

could finish his thought, a figure suddenly appeared off to the side of the metal sphere. It was a woman in an odd uniform, and Jake instantly recognized that it was some kind of projection and not a real

made him think the same, and she had an odd symbol on her forehead, reminding Jake of a third eye. Identify didn’t return anything as it wasn’t actually a person,

this place?” she said, her voice filled with venom as she made it sound like Jake had

to claim whatever is stored in this Vault, so would you kindly lower the barrier and allow me to take it all? Yalsten has long fallen, and there will come no one else to claim it,” Jake

took offense

recognize as above D-grade. C-grade? Possibly even B-grade? Either way, it wasn’t one with any true intent, just the aura and nothing more. While Jake knew that would often be enough of

“Well?” he asked.

Jake. A part of him had assumed this projection wouldn’t show any real intelligence but just be like the Counts or something. That there were pre-determined responses and such… but the look of utter confusion on her

you?”

see through it with his eyes or other magical senses, his Sphere of Perception sure could,

decided to take

stared at her as he faked anger and related his own aura. “A better question is who you think you

was normally

Vault was a medallion with the motif belonging to the Order of the

were a pure gamble… one that paid

the woman paled – something he was impressed that a vampire, much less the projection of one, could even do. Jake allowed her to bathe in his aura as he let it sink in who he was, gladly playing the arrogant young master to

seconds, she seemed to come to her senses as she

Nalkar line greets the Malefic’s Chosen; I apologize for my disrespect and not

and amazed at the

I tell you to open up the damn Vault already?” Jake said, literally

a member of the Nalkar line arrives or someone holding

disappointment. “And here I thought the Nalkar’s were smart… but it appears even

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