The Primal Hunter

There was one good thing about exterminating ectognamorphs compared to other races. If someone wanted to wipe out a faction of humans, one had to kill every single one to be successful. Failing to do so risked that the survivors could keep reproducing and reviving the faction, with there even being a chance a talented individual could be born and make the faction more powerful than ever.

Such was not the case with ectognamorphs. Ectognamorphs needed a Queen to survive, and if all Queens died, so would the faction crumble. A common ant could not evolve into an ant Queen, so you could eliminate the entire faction as long as all of them were killed. So that is what Jake planned on doing. He usually didn’t like killing things too weak to even give him experience, but this time he would make an exception.

Leaving a nest of this size so close to Haven and within the territory of Earth humans lived on was simply too risky, and he had a hunch that after the Prima Guardian ordeal, the limitations of where monsters could go on Earth would be removed entirely. If that were the case, Jake would prefer not to instantly hear news of millions of termites swarming nearby cities or, worse, attack them from below with both D and C-grades. As the new World Leader of Earth, he had to do some things to protect the planet, right?

Sure, Jake had only seen two C-grades the last time he had visited, but there was one other scary thing about ectognas – their rapid growth. Due to funneling so many resources into their leaders, they often leveled up fast, so Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the Queen and Termite King he had encountered last time were now far more powerful.

Not that he was worried… because he had grown even more than he believed they possibly could have.

Jake flew down and landed on the ground right in front of one of the mounds. He kneeled down and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. As he breathed out, he unleashed his Sphere of Perception for a moment, getting a snapshot of everything a couple of hundred kilometers down into the hive. It was straining, but what appeared in his mind was a massive network with millions of termites everywhere. Moreover, the network expanded not just down more than two hundred kilometers but was also massive horizontally. Far larger than he could see even with his Pulse of Perception – as he had decided to call it.

He scanned the mental image quickly and located an area that stood out. Two, in fact. Egg chambers, one of them quite a lot further up than the other, with Jake suspecting the one further down was the one he had been to before. If there had come a new D-grade Queen or if he had just missed this chamber last time while killing the other D-grade Queens, he didn’t know, but what he did know was that both were in for a purging.

Jumping into a hole, Jake entered the tunnel system and just started running. He ignored anything in his way, not bothering with the termites at all. They were only F and E-grades at this layer, so they were not even worth his time to even look at. They would all die shortly if the Queens fell anyway.

Jake considered trying to just drill down or even use his newly gained Unblemished Arrows skill to see if he could just blow a massive hole in the ground, but he decided against it. Doing so would be far too time-consuming compared to just running through the tunnels. Ah, but he did create personal shortcuts here and there by blowing a hole through a wall or floor to enter another tunnel.

His utter lack of subtlety naturally made the termites aware of his invasion and put them on high alert. He didn’t really care much about it as he didn’t see much they could do about it, but he was soon proved wrong.

While running down a tunnel, he spotted that the path in front of him was now blocked. It had not been during his Pulse. Blasting a hole into the tunnel below, Jake ran through that for a bit until he hit another thick barrier of earth. No… more than that. The soil and stone had been strengthened magically to make it harder to break through, which made Jake realize what these damn termites were doing: they collapsed their tunnels to stop his descent.

Sneaky bastards.

Not that it would stop him.

He began breaking down more walls, blasting more floors apart, and continued his descent at a rapid speed. Termites tried to attack him, but none of them could do anything as they were simply too weak. Soon, he approached the area where D-grades could be, and this area was also where he would find his first egg chamber.

Beelining for it, he saw how the termites multiplied, and high-level D-grades began barring his progress. They formed walls with their bodies, blocking the tunnel entirely. He also saw a few of the Royal Guards around, making it clear there was a Queen in the egg chamber ahead.

Looking at the wall of bodies ahead, Jake pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. He didn’t hesitate as he fired a quickly charged Arcane Powershot, making the entire tunnel rumble as he blasted a hole through the wall of bodies, giving him an opportunity to use One Step to the other side.

A few more of these walls tried to stop him, but soon he reached his first destination. He blasted his way through a wall and entered a large egg chamber with Queen’s Guards and a single Queen.

–

felt the hatred from the ectogna but paid it little mind. They were

the egg chamber, destroying every single egg, Queen’s Guard, and even the Queen. Nothing was left alive within the chamber as the blast faded, except for

a bit with all these D-grades, but now they weren’t

tunnels from their futile actions. Deeper and deeper he went, not stopping for anything – not even to pick up the cores. He

to his destination was still annoyingly long, and on the way, he occasionally released pulses to search the

enough time, but with no comprehension of exactly how large this hive was, it would be foolish for him to attempt. Unless he wanted to potentially waste weeks, if not months, just running

to stand in. Activating Arcane Stealth, he hid as he took

got the time?” Jake asked, not wanting to

she answered

had first anticipated. I am talking absolutely massive, expanding hundreds if not thousands of kilometers horizontally, and

it immediately. Leaving a nest of ectognas alone seems like a very

doing?” Jake asked. “It is huge… sending a few parties like Neil’s won’t be enough

to survey the situation, and I know just the man

Arnold?”

“Naturally,” Miranda confirmed.

down the hive to take down some of the C-grades further down. See you around,” Jake

ignore the potential ramifications of leaving a

he was on an extermination mission. While others from Earth could handle all the D-grades, Jake knew few could kill C-grades, especially not on their home turf deep

up his dive. Trying to stay stealthy was impossible since he had to break down

now

vibrant, and as he entered this

many there were, he knew It wasn’t just a dozen or two. It was hundreds, all of them organized, no doubt delaying their assault till he made it further down the tunnel system in case he wanted

termites. Through the snapshots, he saw

through several tunnels until, finally, he made it to a large cavern he presumed to be natural, filled with greenery. Sense of the Malefic Viper made him aware of several herbs,

towards the wall of the cavern as parts of it crumbled, revealing four large forms. Each one was about the size of a horse, with large mandibles and thick

–

tunnels opened up all around the cavern from all sides as Jake was truly surrounded. He counted more than sixty groups, making the total number of termites over two hundred. All of them were between level 200 and 205, and all their attention was on Jake as they prepared their attack. Energy gathered within

Jake just smiled.

interactions. The qualitative difference between variants only grew with every grade, the difference between the weakest and the strongest becoming a nearly impossible gap

the lowest rung and nothing more than disposable footsoldiers to the C-grade Queens of the hive. So despite being

dodged all but one that he caught by its back legs and swung into another, sending both falling toward the bottom of the