The Primal Hunter

Jake spent the next day or so refining and making more of the poison that he would use to take down the Unique Lifeform as he waited for it to appear below. It took about twenty-six hours before Jake spotted the Ashen Phantom Devourer move roughly a hundred kilometers below himself.

Its form was truly massive, and to Jake, it looked like the sandstorm he had seen in the desert but made of ash and not sand. Without knowing better, he would not even have thought it a living creature. Black ash simply swept across the mountains as if a strong wind carried it. As it approached the residence of the Fallen King, the ash began to condense itself into a vaguely humanoid form a bit more than five meters tall.

The figure raised a long log-like arm as space seemed to distort. A giant bullet of ash was collected that was fired out of the domain and towards the residence of the King. The King responded as a barrier appeared, and the Unique Lifeform emerged.

Ash can leave the area, forcing it to generate more, Jake quickly concluded as more ash just seemed to appear within the domain. Focusing, he tried to look deeper and get a feeling for what he was facing. His high Perception had already allowed him to look past the clouds that blocked out his vision, but now he wanted to see something not visible to the naked eye.

The domain of the Unique Lifeform was its Soulshape, which meant it had to leave something there. Some part of itself, at least in the metaphysical realm. Usually, Jake saw the Soulshape of a creature by relying on the poison running through their bodies and using Sense of the Malefic Viper. However, in this case, he could not feasibly poison the Unique Lifeform to do this without it discovering his presence.

According to him, the King could see the full body of the Ashen Phantom Devourer. His sight was not the same as that of a human’s but far more magical in nature, and Sandy could likely also have sensed the body of the Unique Lifeform. The environment it occupied simply had to be different in some way, even if it was not currently within his visible spectrum.

The human eye had limitations. Examples were such as how it could not see infrared or ultraviolet light and overall had a relatively narrow spectrum of wavelength visible to it. Probably a good thing, too, as being able to see outside of it would be a miserable experience considering all the wavelengths in the air at all times stemming from phone signals, radio waves, the internet, and whatnot. Yet humans had found ways to still see these things. Measure them using devices to translate them into something humans could see and understand.

Jake had none of such measurement devices, and post-system, they likely wouldn’t even work either. What he did have was a superhuman body and Perception above anything a D-grade human should ever have. He could see mana of different affinities, use tracking to detect things that weren’t truly there, and even adapt and get used to these things, such as when he got used to dark mana. So why should he not be able to also see outside of the visual spectrum of humans and see the metaphysical? Gaze of the Apex Hunter already allowed him to “see” his opponent’s soul based on the description, and that skill had permanently modified his eyes to allow this. Shit, at times, he felt like he had seen someone’s soul, such as when he tried to get around Identify protection.

At this point, it was no longer just a theory that he could do it but a conviction that he simply hadn’t found the proper method.

The battle below continued as the two powerful entities crashed repeatedly. The Fallen King purposefully played it defensively and blocked most attacks with his powerful telekinesis while allowing the weaker blows to merely fizzle out upon encountering his barrier.

Ash formed into different shapes appeared to be the primary method of attack deployed by the Ashen Phantom Devourer, but Jake quickly saw it wasn’t that simple. The ash was not simply compressed but layered in odd ways. A single spear of ash looked like it was made of obsidian, making it far more condensed than what made sense. To add on, the ash could also change shape even when in flight, and rather than fly straight, it often seemed to teleport.

Because it did teleport.

Another thing the King had already mentioned was the ash’s ability to not only do damage but multiply by itself. Jake was not entirely certain what affinities ash existed of, but he assumed it had to do with fire of some kind. Now that he observed it in action, he became more and more certain of one thing that also made the Phantom part of the Unique Lifeform’s name make sense.

Dark mana. The ash is heavily infused with dark mana, Jake concluded. The dark mana materialized as the ash consumed the mana of the King whenever they clashed, and a reason why ash constantly filled the huge domain was due to the Unique Lifeform absorbing energy from outside into its territory at all times.

Every particle of ash also had dark mana within, absorbing some of the King’s simply by passively touching his barrier. This dark mana appeared weaker than its space and ash magic and pretty much only included the assimilation parts of the dark affinity. From Jake’s initial assessment, the King was superior in both power and resources, but the Devourer won out in durability and endurance.

Not that either of them wasn’t considered pinnacle creatures, even in their weak areas.

began to see an outline. Following that path, the outline turned entirely black as huge parts of the mountain range

he now also knew he had severely underestimated the size of his foe. It truly was nearly as large as the C-grade whale had been, but

remaining, Jake then

naturally move. The King retreated out of it several times, and that was when Jake noted down one more crucial aspect. It moved using physical ash. In order to move the domain, the ash had to “push” the perimeter of the domain by flying in the direction the Unique Lifeform wanted to go, meaning that a physical barrier would obstruct it. Jake breathed out a sigh of relief upon realizing this as that ruled out the

become more transparent. He then began to see that light also refracted here and there

of pure force met ash as the two Unique Lifeforms fought, leaving the entire area broken and destroyed - even more than it already was. The King’s golden attacks seemed to do significant damage to the Ashen Phantom Devourer whenever ash was destroyed,

the center of a ritual circle, condensing a

this condensed body would do more damage than striking anywhere else, as it contained more energy than anywhere else. If the Unique Lifeform had been C-grade, it could likely have made far more of these forms or perhaps not

taking around an hour. After an hour, the King began to launch larger and larger attacks, damaging the Devourer more and more. Yet

attack, the Ashen Phantom Devourer simply retreated. The domain moved away the same way it had come, and Jake stared after it as he saw it reach a large hole in the ground more than fifty kilometers from the King. When it reached the hole, the entire domain shrank and entered. The domain was only about sixty to seventy percent of its regular size at that point, too, visualizing the damage it had taken. It had clearly gone to absorb more energy again and return at

good strategy if you are not in a rush and play it safe… to bad it read the

saw the King

that was fast. So, how you holding up down there?”

about half resources now, and by the time it fully recovers, I would barely be able to reach around sixty to sixty-five percent. I used my boosting skill liberally this time around to appear more desperate too. In reality, I can consume a few Soul Marbles, and I should be back to over eighty percent. Before you ask, potions do not help; besides, potions barely work on Unique Lifeforms. My guess is that the Devourer shall return within the next twelve hours in an attempt

enough time. Miranda, be ready to inform the Sword Saint. I will eat my bow if that orange bastard doesn’t have some method of coming to

your preparations now. Neil has also prepared, and if everything goes as hoped, we should be able to also

Phantom Devourer can do now, and I believe it will be in for quite the surprise. You have confidence

last part was naturally asked

ready,” the

arrives. I will prick

was execution, and Jake had twelve hours to make sure everything was perfect. Luckily, he had already done most of these preparations by

A working neurotoxin.

had sought deep and taken out everything he had stored and bought from all around. He had experimented a lot and found one ingredient that mixed incredibly well with the kind of toxin he wanted to make.

This leaf is incredibly poisonous and releases dark-affinity mana all around it. Consuming it may lead to adverse effects. Many alchemical uses and

even had the lotus leaves. As he didn’t have enough of them to actually experiment, Jake had one in Palate since the day he began working on the neurotoxin and

ingredient was naturally

Emperor Urchin, an incredibly poisonous creature only found in areas with extremely dense water affinity. Its very blood is toxic to consume and especially toxic if directly injected. The Lifeblood is of a neurotoxin nature. Has many alchemical

he hadn’t really ever made use of. A reward from the entrance-exam dungeon of the