The Primal Hunter

Carmen knew she had messed up when she accidentally spilled a bit too much to the snake and ended up offending it. She was ready to use the talisman she had prepared to hopefully temporarily distract the snake enough for them to make an escape, but she was relieved when the snake said it would still let them go.

And then Jake decided to piss off the C-grade even more by acting all offended himself. She nearly wanted to smack him over the head and drag him away while apologizing, but a few moments later, she could only stand there dumbstruck.

She knew people who had high-level Blessings or a class or a profession related to their Patron could give Blessings with the help of their gods, but this usually only happened after a long process. Not just casually when Jake decided to one-up the snake by proving himself by giving it one.

The situation after that only made it worse. Carmen still didn’t get at all how they had gotten to where they were currently.

Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen were sitting on a small wooden barge as a large brown snake that had to be well over a hundred meters long dragged it across the Grand Mangrove River. Now, this would usually be hard due to all the roots and trees and whatnot, but the snake got around all this by just fucking bulldozing through and creating a path.

How did it do this, you ask? By being another god damn C-grade. After Jake had given the snake the Blessing, the white Alabaster Crimsoneye Snake seemed to have an entire shift in personality and began acting all shy and careful. The damn snake had then nervously asked them if they wanted an escort and transport through the rest of the river, which Jake had accepted.

The C-grade had then somehow summoned not just one but five god damn C-grade snakes, leading to their current situation where they sat on a barge constructed by a C-grade snake able to manipulate wood while being escorted by a total of six C-grades.

But this wasn’t even the worst part…

“Are you sure?” the snake asked nervously as she swam alongside the barge.

“You already apologized enough, and this is more than enough to repay the misunderstanding,” Jake once more tried to assure the C-grade. He had to admit that he hadn’t expected what was currently happening to take place. It turned out the Alabaster Crimsoneye Snake wasn’t a sole operator but had a small crowd of C-grade snakes following her around – likely the kin she talked about earlier.

“But-“

“I said it’s fine,” Jake repeated as he tried to calm down the snake. “I was the one returning the favor for the save from the frog.”

“Okay…”

Jake had made quite a few miscalculations. He had thought the C-grade Alabaster snake had to be some kind of old entity and probably at least have the age of someone, well, adult, but it appeared he had been a bit off the mark. The snake had just been acting all mature before, and only now did Jake realize he was dealing with an overgrown teenage C-grade snake.

She had found and consumed a natural treasure that had allowed her to rapidly grow and, at the same time, accepted a quest of sorts. A quest that clarified a lot of things when she finally described the details of it. Jake had known these special natural treasures had appeared on Earth, allowing beasts rapid growth, Mystie having found the Mystbone, a far less potent special natural treasure.

These more special natural treasures also came with limitations. It had allowed some of the creatures of the Grand Mangrove River to reach C-grade but at the cost of limiting them to the river and ocean beyond. This limitation was only temporary, and she didn’t know when it would end. All she knew was that the natural treasure she had consumed was still being digested, and if she left the restricted area, it would begin acting up, and if she was outside it too long, the treasure could potentially end up killing her.

This explained why no C-grades had attacked any cities or caused any true trouble so far. Jake knew the system had restricted them, but only now did he know the details. This was perhaps also part of the reason why the Termite King had not pursued Jake more than it had – it had gone beyond its restricted zone.

“Excuse me again?” the snake asked Jake after only giving him roughly a minute of silence.

snake… it felt

help? Even if

your own Path. Rather than thinking about how you can help me, think about how you can help yourself and gain more power. Then, when the restrictions lift, you will be able to expand your horizons even more. By then, you can decide for yourself what you want to do

like my Chosen for

as much my philosophy as it is

called dibs before

their brief exchange as the Alabaster snake seemed to have gotten his

best and improving,”

she seemed a bit… too determined? Either way, it wasn’t bad to want

to the Malefic Viper, and Jake also knew the other snakes were listening in with interest. He hadn’t spoken directly to any of them as the Alabaster snake had said they weren’t that good at speech yet.

midway point of the river, which allowed Jake to see two birds more than twenty meters tall getting ripped apart by four C-grade snakes, their barge-dragger, and the Alabaster snake hanging back. The Alabaster snake explained how they didn’t

through the danger zone was a breeze. It turns out that being escorted by a group of C-grades, including a mid-tier C-grade considered one of the most powerful in the entire Grand Mangrove River, meant not many beasts dared make

stop as she looked at Jake with a bit of regret. “We can’t go much beyond here without leaving the restricted area… I can

have done enough,” Jake said as he smiled at her. “Thank you

felt bad about questioning his identity

Jake. Even the one who had been dragging their barge using vines bowed. It hadn’t looked back at him even once throughout their entire journey and

with Sylphie and Carmen, with Sylphie giving them

the outskirts of the Grand Mangrove River, and it only took them twenty minutes to reach shore

they were out of the mangrove did Carmen speak. “That was…

out of the mangrove

a C-tier

danger. She was a real softie, that one,” Jake said

first thing the snake did was to kill something

said. “In all seriousness, yeah, it got a bit risky. I think we should avoid

reach the

took off once more and

to scan for any energies but found nothing. Only a bit over a day later did they reach Changlun, and

up to the city, and both just stared a bit. In front of them was

more than twenty meters tall surrounding it, and from the looks of it, this wall even extended into the ocean, defending them from any maritime threats. When Jake had first read about Changlun, he thought it was a small place, but seeing it in person made

Carmen said. “This

cut it off from everything else, with the river itself leading into the ocean. Due to the

was confused for a moment before he

going for thousands upon thousands of kilometers. The oceans covered around seventy percent of pre-system Earth’s surface, and he had no