The Primal Hunter

The treants had both grown significantly more powerful after the infusion of power from the Ethgleam Mothertree, making it apparent there was great synergy between them. It did not come as a surprise considering the treants were called Ethgleam Elderbark Treants, but it was still fascinating to see how two completely separate races would end up influencing each other as such and end up becoming intimately linked.

It was good too. As that meant Jake at least got some entertainment value from the fight. The two of them barreled at him like two hulking monstrosities, a faint layer of magic protecting their bodies and a shimmer of soul magic revolving around their vine-like appendages.

One of them reformed its hand as it came to resemble a club, and it swung down hard in an attempt to squash Jake, missing as he teleported away. Soil flew everywhere from the powerful impact, and Jake felt the ground shake a bit beneath his feet where he had just stepped.

As he looked at the flying soil, he got an idea.

”You know, this will likely be my last major fight before C-grade,” Jake spoke to the tree that didn’t respond anymore. ”Which means I should probably begin cleaning up some of the things I no longer need. Like these.”

Jake teleported and waved his hand as several bottles appeared. A blast of mana sent the liquid splashing forward, all of it hitting the soil and slowly seeping into it. He repeated this as Jake began to make it rain, even throwing some of the better ones straight at the treants or soul tree.

What he was throwing was some of all the poisons he had stocked up throughout his entire time in D-grade. Jake tended to use his best first and work his way down, resulting in a stock of hundreds of bottles of poison that wasn’t even that good when he was in early D-grade. It was creations he would never use anyway and would be even worse once he reached C-grade.

So he decided to do some illegal dumping to fuck up the local environment. It was completely wasteful and inefficient, and quite frankly, not even super effective… at least not right off the bat. Because all he wanted was to get some poison into the tree, something that immediately succeeded as the Mothertree absorbed energy from the soil itself and was too slow to cut off its absorption.

What poison it did absorb would be easily eliminated. If Jake allowed it to, that is. Reaching out, his hand began to glow dark green as he took hold of the poison within the tree and infused it with energy. Cultivated it using Touch.

The treants still came for him, but Jake simply threw more bottles at them. He had some leftover fungicides that they seemed to really not like, and while things like necrotic poison or hemotoxins sucked against non-flesh and blood lifeforms, it still did some damage simply due to the energy within.

With so much poison thrown out, the environment itself began to change, and the created barrier by the soul tree became a detriment. The poison vapor that rose into the air impacted it, draining mana from the soul tree’s resources.

Jake soon stopped using Touch of the Malefic Viper on the tree as he found it not that effective. He was also already out of poison bottles, having thrown them all wastefully at the two treants, doing barely any damage. What it had done was distract them all long enough for Jake to get a great opportunity to get close to the tree once more and take it by surprise.

With full speed, he flew into the Ethgleam Mothertree as he infused all his Hunting Momentum built up so far into a Descending Dark Fang. He punched forward and penetrated the passive barrier of the tree, the katar digging into the bark and wood. With the barrier gone, Jake easily pushed it in all the way to the handle before he retreated, leaving the weapon in there.

What? It had worked great against the bear, so why not give it a shot again. That you could kill a tree by hammering a nail into it was common knowledge, and Jake had effectively just hammered a cursed nail into the Ethgleam Mothertree.

From a distance, he felt the influx of energy as Eternal Hunger absorbed more resources than usual. The curse seemed to really like the soul tree and drank to its heart’s content. Jake made it his mission to ensure that the treants couldn’t assist their boss and attacked the two treants that rapidly charged him.

The first was blasted back by a quickly charged Arcane Powershot, and the other one tried to punch Jake but found itself restrained by his gaze before he walked forward and punched it in the chest, making it fly back to its comrade.

due to the gloves. Switching back to his bow, Jake pelted the two trees with even more explosive

the tree screamed in desperation from behind as Jake felt it try to push out Eternal Hunger in vain. The weapon seemed to almost

for one of the treants, arrow after arrow firing it back. They had no good ranged method of combat, allowing Jake to shoot them away faster than they could approach. It felt almost like he was playing a turret section in a video game where he repeatedly

dumb as bricks and just protectors of the soul tree. They were pawns made to act as its agents, so even if they were C-grade, they had no ability to adapt or

from behind as Jake felt a pulse wash over him. Then came the sound of wood exploding as Eternal Hunger was thrown away, the

destruction of twin souls!” the tree

reckoned it meant twin souls in that it would go

disappeared mid-air and appeared within his Soulspace once more, ready to

the Mothertree and two treants. ”You lost all chances of not becoming a pile of timber the moment you decided that trying to forcefully

make him leave, but it seemed to finally become a bit more decisive. It knew killing

their bodies began glowing as Jake felt their auras surge intensely. For a moment, he believed they were going to blow themselves up and was ready to retreat, but once more, they defied expectations. The glow turned almost blinding as

[Ethgleam Elderbark Treant – lvl 211] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above

210] – Bonus experience earned

the moment this happened, as his interpretation of the “destruction of twin souls” turned out to be off. It was not talking about his

now truly gleaming. Jake regretted looking at the tree the very next moment as he felt like a hammer whacked him straight in the brain, making him all wobbly. The light before him only grew more and more intense as soon the entire

stood completely still in the outside world. Around him, the white void began to warp as hundreds of trees sprung up all around. Thousands of vines shot at him from all directions, far too many for Jake to evade. His foot was caught first, and

felt like he was in two places at once, the real world seen through his sphere in no way reconcilable with what all his other senses felt. It was as if his brain

drain – one that hit his very soul. The Mothertree was consuming him, and Jake’s mind kept telling him it was okay. That struggling was a waste of time and that it wasn’t that bad. The vines around him slowly began entering his body, merging with it.

delusion? Something in between? Jake didn’t know, and his brain refused to even try to understand. Gritting his teeth, he still resisted. He began fighting back against the many vines as it became a battle of will. Pulses

cleared. Massive large vines surrounded the world of his Soulspace in all directions as if he was on the inside of a snow globe. While Jake was in full control of everything within… he had no influence on anything trying to crush the glass from

take far too long,” Jake muttered within the Soulspace as his mind jumped to the first and most strenous approach – a direct battle of wills. While he did think he could win this, it would not be fast. No, he needed an advantage. He considered solutions, found some, and disregarded them as he just did

a katar appeared in his hand. While he was unable to move his body, that didn’t mean he was unable to do anything. With quite a bit of effort, Jake telekinetically pushed the katar towards the

failed to put up any defenses, allowing the weapon to embed itself only a few centimeters

went all-out as his eyes glowed yellow. Gaze of

roared as his body exploded with destructive

black color in water. It invaded everything, making its way up the trunk of the many trees surrounding

of destructive mana, tearing them apart before they could reach him. His mind was finally clear,

overtaken by the corruption from Touch of the Malefic Viper. The Ethgleam Mothertree seemed to realize it had failed, and in a flash of light, Jake was thrown out of the void,