The Primal Hunter

Each level in C-grade mattered far more than those in D-grade. It was just simple math, really. However, there was still one thing that could make up for this gap in stats: titles. Jake had over 70% more in all stats just from titles increasing them percentage-wise, and this was not counting all of the pure stats he got from some of them.

Jake also had a pretty damn good class in D-grade and an excellent profession. The Malefic Viper skills added even more stats, allowing Jake to truly stand out from nearly any other newly evolved C-grade. All of these advantages had already meant that Jake outclassed a level 239 Hive Queen and her Protector by quite a bit, but this Hive Queen was 272, with an even more powerful Hive King at 272. When he last visited, Jake had estimated the Hive King to be quite a bit into C-grade but not mid-tier C-grade. That meant it had probably gotten over forty levels since his last visit. If that speed could be sustained, the Hive King and Hive Queen could be in the late tier of C-grade at least by the time the Prima Guardian arrived, making their bid to take over the planet not at all unrealistic. This showed they were talented and pretty good variants with a bright future ahead of them.

A future they had now put in jeopardy by challenging Jake directly.

Guards came at him from all around, but to Jake, they weren’t much more dangerous than the ones thirty levels lower. They were still big and bulky, proving that the Queen wasn’t all she made herself out to be. Jake dodged a few before allowing one to clash with him directly. He pulled out both katars and countered the moment it attacked. One katar hit it on the side of its head, right through its eye, while Jake twisted his body to stab the other weapon into its side.

The Guard tried to turn around and attack again, but Jake got on top of it and punched down into its neck area. An arcane explosion sounded out as Jake infused mana into the Blackpoint Burst enchantment. The resulting explosion was far weaker than a true Blackpoint Burst, but it still managed to blow up half of the neck. Another rapid stab from Eternal Hunger with Descending Dark Fang severed the head entirely, killing the Guard.

Less than two seconds had passed since Jake had started his attack till the Guard was dead. Standing atop its corpse, he turned to glance at the Queen, seeing the anger on her face. On that note, her having a semi-humanoid form was kind of nice, as he could at least read her reactions far more correctly like this.

Sadly, the humanoid form was short-lived. Quickly, the Queen’s body morphed as the top half of her human body got absorbed into the termite, and its head changed to resemble the Hive Queen he had killed earlier that day. The body of the Hive Queen remained the same size, making her smaller than the other Queen, which he deemed a deliberate choice on her part.

Have it your way, Jake mentally shook his head. Physically he didn’t waste the movement as he had more Guards to deal with, ten or so rapidly coming for him. The one Guard that attacked him had probably just meant to restrain him for the Queen, but upon seeing it die nearly instantly, she switched up her tactics.

The ground beneath him rumbled as walls surrounded him, trying to seal him in. Jake scoffed and blasted a hole through it, swiftly escaping as two termites were hot on his ass. He turned and kicked one of them in the face, releasing a blast of energy to launch himself backward as he pulled out his bow.

Nocking an arrow, he shot off a Splitting Arrow, making it split as much as he could. The goal was to create a lot of large explosions, but explosions of low intensity. All to buy himself some time to get off some good shots. From the previous Hive Queen, Jake knew that simply damaging a Guard was not enough, he had to kill them for good, or they would just get healed.

He also kept an eye on the one being in the cavern he was actually worried about. The Hive King had been marked first-thing, allowing him to know if it ever moved, even if it was outside of his sphere. So far, it stood unmoving beside the Hive Queen, guarding her like the Protector had before.

Jake reckoned that this Queen was a better variant than the one he had killed despite both Queens being called Hive Queens. It was entirely possible that the other Hive Queen only had the Protector while this one was capable of giving birth to a Hive King. It could also have something to do with hierarchy. If this was the Hive Queen that led the hive and had given birth to all the others, then it was possible it was the only one capable of having a Hive King.

Despite being a spawn of the Hive Queen, the Hive King was by far the most dangerous being in the cavern. Besides Jake, of course.

That is why it confused him when the King remained behind, not joining the fight. It allowed Jake to methodically kill the Queen’s Guards one by one, the Queen herself helping out with the usual buffs and heals, but even her efforts felt half-arsed. Jake was almost offended as it felt like they didn’t actually take him seriously yet.

Guards had been killed. Eleven, twelve, thirteen. With thirty-two in total, they were down to nineteen, the fight just getting easier with every kill. Jake began to wonder if the Queen hoped for Jake to tire himself out or something. He also noticed how the

can’t be fucking

with ectognas was that they didn’t really give off any killing intent or bloodlust, as they didn’t have any will of their own. In fact, ectognas like these Guards

intelligence, with Jake still not sure if the Hive King was sapient. Not that it ultimately mattered. He would make her or both of them pay for the arrogance shown by not even

to heal or protect the Guards. Not that he was sure she even tried. Jake guessed that the Queen could just respawn all these Guards in a pretty short period of time once he was gone, with the only true loss being if the King died. The Guards were pawns, and them just wasting a few of his resources was likely a worthy trade

tactic, and to his annoyance, it kind of worked. Her healing made the Guards durable, making him sometimes fail to kill them in his first assault, allowing her to heal it up for another go. This made Jake burn through both mana and stamina, though he still paced himself, and his large resource pools meant he didn’t risk tiring

displayed by the Queen. While they were not dangerous individually, they could still have proven problematic fighting alongside the Queen

between two large corpses, Jake looked over at the Queen. “What exactly did you hope to accomplish with

he saw her face, he felt something was off. She

not that far into C-grade yet still display such power. You truly are an exceptional specimen of a human, with Records surpassing my expectations,” she said while looking him over. “The offer still stands; you have proven yourself worthy of respect. Have your humans join the hive, and you can lead them. Whichever god you serve

bullshit was over,” Jake

do not struggle too much and make it worse than it has to be. Ah, but do show me what you are truly capable of. I wish you luck, human,” the Queen said as she turned and looked at the Hive

“Go.”

*BOOM!*

he blocked, barely in time. The Hive King smashed into him, blasting him back several kilometers before smashing into the cavern wall, spreading cracks across it. He

first, allowing it to leap instantly at Jake once more. Jake dodged and

to dodge, but it managed to scratch him with one of its blade-like outgrowths on its legs, leaving a nasty wound on his side. Rolling to the side, Jake was forced purely on the defensive as he barely avoided having his arm bitten off, followed by a leg missing his thigh by

few dozen times more, Jake began to get in the groove and finally managed a counterattack. The Hive King snapped forward, Jake dodging by diving forward and under the attack, leaving an opening on the leg of the termite, which he exploited. Eternal Hunger stabbed into the leg, and just as Jake did so, he stepped down and teleported away to avoid suffering

penetrate the chitin as it hit at a bad angle, and the King instantly jumped. Rather than dodge, an Eternal Shadow appeared from his body, dodging to the

saw the King’s mandibles sink into the Eternal Shadow from behind, only to see the Shadow disperse.

he blasted it again, finally getting some level of a read on the insect. His arrows barely did any damage, the chitin still entirely unscathed, though he did see some scratches on the leg he had hit with his Arcane Powershot earlier, indicating he

for that purpose. All the magical help was supplied by the Queen, allowing the King to put all of its power into physical combat. It was specialized

her before he could finish the King off, but for now, he would focus on the threat in front of him. They clashed hundreds of times in the next few minutes, neither

his Blackpoint Nanoblade into its lower mouth using Descending

can be seen as underhanded, but there was another motive for allowing their death. You see, resources are limited, and I believed it only proper for my King to have as

on the Hive King. Then, it happened. Jake felt several auras suddenly appear within the chamber, and his eyes opened wide. It came from all the Guards he had killed,