The Primal Hunter

For over three weeks, a crisis had shaken the planet. It quickly became known as the Great Famine, where suddenly all living things on Earth felt unbearable hunger. The first few days were the worst by far before many became more used to the feeling and found ways to cope.

The predominant opinion was that it was some part of the system. A trial or a hidden event or something to test humanity. The only problem with this theory was that it had affected every living being and not just humans. When it then suddenly just stopped one day, people were just left more confused.

Only a select few people on the planet actually knew what had happened. Casper knew but didn’t share with anyone, and Miranda had an inkling as Jake had informed her of his plans before leaving. As for everyone else? Well, it was difficult to figure it out. All kinds of divination into the issue were met with a wall, and no gods gave any information to their believers, only strengthening the belief it was system-imposed. Some did figure out it was related to a curse, but the only high level curse mage anyone knew of was Casper, and all their probing found him busy with the dungeon.

In the end, with it disappearing, it just became another oddity of the new world. As these weeks passed, the many factions had begun to find ways to deal with the curse with time. However, the economic and reputational damage to many of the larger factions or those who had mismanaged the crisis was unquestionable. The hardest hit had been the Holy Church by far.

Any strategist would agree that if this entire scenario dubbed the Great Famine had been an attack on the Church, it was one excellently done.

As for the true culprit? Well, he had been busy playing with his new weapon.

Jake sat leaning back against the cave wall as he breathed heavily. He looked down at his legs – or what was left of them – as he groaned a bit while waiting for them to heal. Asshole termites had drilled up from below and attacked him while he was already fighting two massive termites, one of them level 181 and the other 183.

He had no idea how far down he was by now. Probably a few hundred kilometers? It was hard to say, and the tunnel network only kept expanding. Each tunnel was more than twenty meters in diameter, the walls magically reinforced by the termites.

Entire biodomes found below the ground had been consumed by the termites, leaving nothing behind. Jake went through them as he left death in his wake, and by now, he was beginning to feel a bit more like himself. The constant hunger subsided both because Jake had learned to cope and due to the weapon beginning to be sated.

The curse’s influence was still there, and Jake had a feeling it wasn’t going to go away. Eternal Hunger was never going to be fully sated no matter how much he killed. However, it would become sated enough for Jake to ignore its constant nagging for more sustenance.

Jake also learned that after it had been fully created, it had become a lot easier to feed. It ate borderline anything. It consumed his own mana, health, and stamina, it absorbed mana from the environment passively, and any natural treasure or useless item he found was also happily eaten.

But… the best way to feed it was still killing. After the upgrade, it now didn’t only absorb vital energy, but all kinds of energy. Stamina, mana, health, probably even unique resources that something like the Risen had. But the absorption rate did not only increase because of the energy it absorbed during the killing but also because of what happened once a foe was slain: the Souldrinker effect.

Jake had wondered how someone like that man Donald had managed to bring the Scimitar to epic-rarity and made it as powerful as it was. He was pretty strong for his level, but only due to his weapon, and clearly, he had made it a lot stronger since the day he got it.

The explanation had been the souls all along. Jake had happily seen that effect gone when he transmuted it the first time, but he could see the worth in it now. Souls contained a type of energy that Jake couldn’t quite identify, but he knew it was good for the weapon.

Now, this led Jake to another discovery. To absorb energy, Jake had to use the weapon. But to absorb a soul? Nothing specified he had to actually use Eternal Hunger to do that. As long as Jake slew a foe, the soul would be absorbed, and Jake had only learned that just now as he had been forced to pull out his bow when the situation got tricky.

was an awesome discovery and greatly increased the viability of Eternal Hunger. Another thing that improved the viability was the fact that he could “get rid of it” entirely by storing it not within his storage space

problem. Jake also discovered he could do the same with the mask, though that didn’t have any practical applications as he could already make it invisible. Well, maybe it could be a defensive measure against the King in the future if the Unique Lifeform could influence

Chimera thing in there, which was nicely sealed up in arcane strings. He was fully aware that the Eternal Hunger Jake used now could barely display a fraction of its true power,

a worthy weapon for a

with other skill upgrades, he could still use prior versions, including the Serene Meditation he had gained and briefly skipped over. That

using her special skill only to confirm he was fine. She had apparently tried to do so a few times earlier, but that had been during Jake’s crafting, so he had not even noticed. Jake had told her that he would return soon as long as he

with humans around? Jake didn’t

item that seemed completely unbreakable, but that was mythical items for ya. He wasn’t sure how to fix it, but he would have to look around if it was possible once he got back, and if it wasn’t fixable, Jake would have to switch to the epic rarity cauldron he had also bought. The one with

many notifications gained during this long period. He saw tens of thousands of kill messages, the majority of them done on insects that did not give any experience, but the further he got down into the hive

encounter some variants who put up a good fight, primarily

the can and were giant versions of the termites like the one that had eaten him before. Jake had a feeling the primary objective of that termite was to bring food deeper into the

the soldiers and workers. Both basic termites and what he killed primarily. Then there were ones that shot acid called Spitters and finally the type he

– Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above

have slain [Isoptera Queen’s Guard – lvl 183] – Bonus experience earned

them, Jake knew he was closer to the true heart of the hive, and once he was recuperated, he would head in and explore. The C-grade he felt somewhere below was still a good distance away, so he wouldn’t risk running

a plethora of cores. The cores these insects gave were

Queen’s Guard Ectognacore (D-grade)] - An Ectognacore left behind by a D-grade Isoptera Queen’s Guard, containing remnants of its Records within. Can be used as an alchemical ingredient for many

slain d-grades.

such killing had naturally also

level 144 - Stat

…

has reached level 149 -

seem like a lot, one had to consider how little time total Jake had actually spent killing as well as the relative weakness of his foes. Jake had spent less than three weeks actually slaying things, which was still more than a level every few days. That was good considering how “low risk” this entire thing had been. Shit, the only reason Jake had ever been in trouble was due to his reckless approach due to the hunger and nearly only sticking to melee. That sentiment had begun to change recently as he got lower, and he had a feeling things

wouldn’t even necessarily disagree as a good fight less than an hour long could reward a few levels against a worthy foe. Truthfully, the fights

that what Jake had done was ultimately a transmutation. He had made Eternal Hunger… and the system recognized

Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level

…