The Primal Hunter

Everyone knew by now that mushrooms sucked. No, they didn’t just suck; they went above sucking. Their level of suck was so high they were endless vacuums of suffering. One of the reasons mushrooms sucked so much was because of how they worked.

Jake had encountered it before and knew that fungi were sneaky fucks. They liked to hide in things and make it look like there totally was an entire cavern full of mushrooms when it was actually just one single god damn fungus. This final boss floor was the same as Jake quickly came to realize. He tracked his poison in the large mushroom as it spread throughout the entire system of the fungus - the curse energy was divided and conquered by what had to be millions of mushrooms.

This made the entire fungus have an absolutely massive body covering well over a dozen square kilometers. And all of this was somehow linked to the Mushroom Man King. No, this wasn’t a case where the huge fungus was actually the body of the little guy, but far more likely one where the small Mushroom Man had stumbled upon an incredibly powerful natural treasure and then grown it to the huge fungus Jake and Draskil were now seeking to destroy.

Based on what Jake could see, it was possible to just repeatedly kill the Mushroom Man King until the massive fungus ran out of energy, but it was far faster to kill both at once. It would probably take Draskil in excess of two hours with the current speed he was expending the energy of the mushrooms, and Jake wasn’t even sure if the dragonkin would last that long if he had his boosting skill active. This approach of destroying the fungus also fitted way better with the theme of the dungeon as it wasn’t as much a fight against an individual as it was a task to poison an entire ecosystem.

Jake used One Step to get to the stem of the massive mushroom as he was surrounded by the blue glowing fucks. Spores were released from all of them, trying to poison Jake, but all it did was make him more aware of the nature of the fungus.

Kneeling down, Jake blew away some soil as he took hold of the massive root system beneath the ground. The largest roots were around the massive mushroom, and Jake would use that as his point of entrance.

Above him, explosions repeatedly sounded out as the Mushroom Man King tried to get Draskil away from him, but the dragonkin shrugged it all off as he continued his assault. One party released dozens of different spells every second while the other simply ripped and tore with his claws and tail, with Draskil dominating it handily, giving the Mushroom Man no opportunity to address Jake.

Jake had grasped hold of the massive mushroom and closed his eyes for a moment. Touch of the Malefic Viper activated, and with his high Perception, he quickly came to understand the massive network of roots. The cursed concoction had nearly run out of power while Jake got in position, but some of it still remained. He decided to take advantage of this.

Poison was pumped in as Jake sought to strengthen the cursed poison. At the same time, he delivered some more common fungicide to deal massive damage to the entire root system. He didn’t need to use any of the aspects of subtlety from the soul poison he used on the last big blue mushroom he killed but could just go all in.

A barrage of spells was then released down towards him, but Draskil moved to intercept as he teleported with a flap of his wings. Jake would have been fine either way, but his dragonkin buddy had clearly decided that the little king was not even getting a sliver of a chance.

Focusing on his task, Jake kept poisoning the monstrosity of a fungus. He believed he was doing a good job until suddenly he felt something… a push. Usually, when one used Touch of the Malefic Viper, it was an infusion. But to make an infusion, a connection had to be formed, and through this connection, the fungus now attacked.

Dense energy flooded through the fungus’ roots and into Jake. He considered letting go but knew that the fungus was now awake and would rapidly destroy the poison he had used if he gave up now. Even more importantly, then Jake didn’t want to lose out and give up when his dragonkin buddy was watching and doing a splendid job himself.

Gritting his teeth, Jake felt the energy invade his body and begin to ravage him from within. The fungus contained far more energy than Jake did… far, far more energy. It was like a massive battery of pure power, and Jake’s only saving grace was that it couldn’t discharge much of it rapidly. The closest comparison Jake had to the fungus was the curse energy in Eternal Hunger, but that was a pretty bad comparison considering the curse energy had not been actively antagonistic towards Jake and was also on an entirely different level in both quality and quantity. This fungus did contain a lot of energy, sure, but if what was within Eternal Hunger went rampant, Jake knew entire planets could be consumed by its hunger.

Jake and the mushroom continued their battle of push and pull as both tried to combat the energy they were injected with. Jake felt that the energy flooding him was surprisingly pure, not having any affinity. It was still trying to kill him, but he was now sure it was all controlled by the Mushroom Man King.

Draskil and Jake were fighting the same foe in the battle of attrition as Jake pushed in more and more energy. He allowed the mushroom to attack him in kind, believing in his body’s ability to take it. Considering the lack of affinity in the mushroom, Jake also began to pump in some dark mana. The nature of dark mana was to consume other types of mana and propagate itself, and Jake happily helped it do that to consume more of the mushroom’s energy storage. He controlled the poison through Touch and tried to attack the most essential parts of the massive fungus to kill it faster.

It was a game of cat and mouse. The fungus tried to eliminate the toxic energy Jake poured in, while Jake wanted to keep pumping. In the meanwhile, he also needed to keep avoiding getting what he had already put in eliminated. If the massive fungus could lock down what toxic energy he injecting, it would be able to instantly just flood it with mana and destroy it.

He condensed the toxic energy as he focused. A vivid image of a giant network of paths appeared in his mind, and he instinctively knew it was a representation of the Soulshape of the fungus. It almost felt as if Jake

It saw Jake as the primary threat, and the now four versions of the little king began waving

roots of the massive fungus, kept his eyes closed as he focused. The tendrils flying for him suddenly began withering and turned into black

these moving parts, essentially sending toxic payloads into the tendrils to instantly destroy them. With the lacking ability of the Mushroom Man King

fungus like never before. At the same time, he also managed to do something else he usually didn’t: amplifying

toxins into the creature itself… what if he injected it directly into the toxin he had already placed there? Sure, it had to go through the fungus, but currently, it was more like Jake connected a facet of toxins to the fungus and just let it drain

with Sense of the Malefic VIper and

201] – Bonus experience earned

[Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 172 - Stat points allocated,

level 173 - Stat points allocated, +15

looked up and saw Draskil with his mouth still open and a large black line cutting the

as the dragonkin teleported down. ”It died,” Draskil

felt the crumbling roots of the fungus

be

wish to experience the Legacy of the

for a moment as he went on a journey to experience the Path

a male elf wearing golden

all wearing different equipment and wielding powerful weapons. Jake, who was observing this, instantly knew all of them were C-grade… mid-tier

on someone else. A human-looking male with long black hair, wearing a relatively simple robe. He didn’t appear particularly threatening, and from how he was in the back and his equipment,

familiar eyes and aura. This was the weakest iteration he had ever seen of him, but it was clearly the Malefic Viper fully disguised as

asked as he turned to the one

going by Strolas – answered in a meek tone. “Just remember not to take too much

trust you,” the elf said with a smile. With that, the Viper handed out flasks to everyone in his group. They headed closer to the den, and once they did so, another caster of the group cast some magic before nodding.

elven leader nodded.

consumed his own instantly, making everyone else follow suit. Jake barely noticed a glint in the eyes of the Viper

attacked. Jake watched on as the battle raged with what he quickly identified as a late-tier C-grade. It was a real struggle and a damn close fight from the looks of it, but the party of eleven persevered. Everyone took damage and was hit back, and Jake had to admit that any

to the entire fight getting fast-forwarded through - the giant beast lay dead, with not a single one in the group falling. The elf in his golden armor now had a bare chest as his armor had been broken, and one of the mages was missing an arm. The one healer in their group was spent, and everyone looked exhausted. All of them had done their utmost and pushed

Viper had gone easy. He had avoided nearly all hits and only allowed some attacks to hit him, making it look like he had taken significant damage with his

a genuine smile and also turned to the Viper. “Strolas, you have gone above and beyond once more. Those flasks surpassed my expectations. You truly are the best alchemist in the empire, and I will make sure