The Primal Hunter

Jake was pushed back by a wave of dense space mana as he quickly stabilized himself. The entire tower had erupted, sending stones falling to the ground below as the Lord Protector imploded the entire expanded space they had been sitting within, throwing them out.

The Lord Protector had an oddly empty, yet enraged, look in his eyes. His body was burning with power as a sword appeared in his hand. Yet he seemed to hesitate as if the gravity of his situation only hit him now that he had actually gone and attacked. His mind was clearly still a mess, and he genuinely looked confused, as if unsure why he had such an emotional outburst.

”Alright… it is confirmed now,”Jake communicated through their mark. ”The Otherworlders are quite heavily affected, too, though the effect is slightly different. I guess this settles it.”

Rather than make them lose all ability to question anything, it just made them, what was the word… accepting of the status quo. They didn’t see the need to say no. Like with the natives, it was an insidious kind of magic. The kind Jake really hated to think about even existing.

Karmic Plagues didn’t always look like this… in fact, most plagues in general, didn’t. Most just killed people or made them weaker; the Karmic part was only related to how something would spread. A plague could be anything, and this Karmic Plague on Tri-World was just of the mental-magic variant. It fucked up your head.

He remembered all the way back when he had fought the Minotaur Mindchief when he was only in E-grade. Jake still remembered the slimy feeling that the mental magic of the Minotaur had given him. He remembered feeling like he was the friend of the Minotaur and questioned himself why they were even fighting. This Karmic Plague was like that, except people never snapped back to reality.

Mental magic did have the weakness that it had limited energy and wouldn’t work forever. If you made someone think they were your friend, that illusion of the mind would pretty quickly begin to unravel even if you kept applying the magic. The target would build resistance, and the illusion would break, making long-term mind control not really a thing… unless it was something like this Karmic Plague.

The natives had been infected from their birth. What made it worse was that the source of the mental magic was not viewed as coming from another entity. It was coming from your own soul as if they had tried to influence themselves. The closest thing Jake had was comparing it to getting possessed by Eternal Hunger. That curse also wouldn’t just wear off. Of course, with Jake, the effect wouldn’t be permanent as he would just have been sealed away in his own Soulspace and eventually break out and regain control, but there were plenty of instances where people fell to curses or the alike in the history of the multiverse, never breaking out and changing their entire being permanently.

These Otherworlders were in a similar state to someone possessed by a curse. They could potentially be cured. Potentially being a strong word here. Jake guessed that someone at least at A-grade made this strain of Karmic Plague. Probably even higher. That is to say, he had no way of curing people already infected. Considering they were in a dungeon, there was no way to bring them out and have someone actually able to find a cure look at them, either. Well, the right way would be to bring that powerful person to the planet, but that obviously wasn’t an option either.

Moreover… the Karmic Plague made them heavily resistant to anything that would “hurt” the plague. Another potential nasty as fuck trait of a Karmic Curse. The ones infected felt protective of it. Happy they had it. Close to it, like family, and any mention of a “cure” was like telling them to kill their best friend. The ones infected didn’t even notice this unless directly put in a scenario where they had to choose if they wanted to be cured. Which is what Jake had done with the Lord Protector to confirm.

That entire thing about a teleportation gate to leave the planet was also just bait. Jake reckoned they could even have been punished with a point penalty if they made it, considering they had just broken one of the few multiversally approved laws in existence, dictating the isolation of any plague-infested areas.

“We all know our objectives, then?” the Sword Saint asked.

“Yes,” Dina said with determination. “Sylphie and I shall head towards the marked spot on the map where the fourth faction once resided.”

“Ree,” Sylphie confirmed.

The Fallen King merely made a noise as the Sword Saint sent a mental nod. Without any further warning, the swordsman took off in one direction, the Fallen King going in another, each towards one of the other two factions on Tri-World. Sylphie and Dina hesitated for a moment as they stared at the enraged, yet conflicted, space mage calling himself a Lord Protector.

“He is mine,” Jake just spoke out loud.

Sylphie didn’t need any more prompting as she took off, Dina following after.

The Lord Protector seemed very surprised as he looked at Jake.

still time to reconsider… fighting like this is useless. We are both Otherworlders. If you want to end the Karmic Plague, doesn’t that mean you would also have to end yourself? You,

infect people. That is the incubation period where it slowly builds up, and as long as you leave within that time, you are

nature of the Karmic Plague, Jake noticed that all five of them had indeed been infected. At least, kind of. It was so non-existent that Jake hadn’t even noticed before he did a thorough scan of his body. He had then promptly removed it using Palate of

it is. Why… why do you need to ruin it? Why not just accept that life is good here? With

could potentially leave at some point, thus spreading the Karmic

“You either kill me here and chase after my party members, or we will end the Tri-World as you know

mouth was still halfway through a word arguing that they didn’t have to fight the plague as Jake said his piece. The man just froze as

“Then you must die.”

Protector of the Enlightened Republic’s sword. There was no hesitation in his movements as

blocked it instantly, but Jake easily dodged the large opening strike. A few more attacks followed, only confirming Jake’s first thoughts. Through that first attack only, he had already gotten a good idea of what he was dealing with. It wasn’t simply overconfidence that had made Jake choose to face this Lord Protector

He’s a fucking houseplant.

indoors and doing his own experiments. His moves were big and flashy, not at all efficient, but made more to look cool than actually be useful. Sure, those kinds of attacks would still work against other people who sucked at fighting or people

could block them all and failed to react when an Arcane Powershot blasted his passive barrier apart, sending him tumbling back through several buildings before he hit the ground, structures tumbling down upon

Enlightened Republic rapidly became aware they were under attack. Many presences appeared all over the city as figures

noticed four individuals of note, all of them

of the Enlightened Republic – lvl

Enlightened Republic – lvl

Enlightened

of the Enlightened Republic –

Republic!” the only elf

pulled back the string, and Gaze of the Apex Hunter activated, freezing all the figures surrounding the elven king, along with the king himself. An Arcane Powershot sent an explosion of arcane energy blasting out of him as the arrow hit the Elf-King right in the chest, blasting him back. Jake gave chase as he used One Step several times, making distance from the Lord Protector, who was already emerging from the rubble, and

the outskirts of the capital, leaving a giant crater. Yet before he could even properly stand up, Jake was upon him. From above, an arrow pierced down, hitting the unprepared

– lvl 266] – Bonus experience earned for killing

to the other figures of interest. They had all given chase but stopped the moment

he proclaimed loudly as hundreds of small groups began floating into the air. They were

as the General released some group buff. Jake knew there were several Otherworlders mixed into these

their way and opened his

had said. Some of them were faster than others. The Otherworlders mixed in were taken by surprise as they were attacked by the ones right

before they had any

any Otherworlder that is

told to stop. The entire situation was funny if you didn’t think too long about it. This repeated several times as the natives in the

Protector, who had reemerged, looked on with

part of the army: kill

followed was them doing just that. An eerie sight played out as thousands began falling out of the sky, their eyes glazed over as they