The Primal Hunter

Maybe it was Jake’s fault for expecting too much, but he had very much assumed he would meet some kind of opposition during all his travels. He had set out to find people to decipher the runes, but on the way to the first one, he didn’t get intercepted by a single enemy. Were there times when something looking like an ambush was hidden in the most obvious flight path? Yes, but Jake had just easily avoided that or kept his stealth skill active to pass by unnoticed.

After his visit to the first rune-reading person, he was told that she alone couldn’t decipher everything, but she managed to make some progress before sending him off to the next person with her notes. At this second person’s place, a bit more deciphered, and at the third, a bit more than that.

Days turned to weeks, and soon Jake had spent over a month traveling between these rune decipherers. Each of them, for some fucking reason, liked to live in bum-fuck nowhere, meaning Jake had to travel a lot to get to them. With time, he did notice the search parties looking for him increasing, but with a mixture of Pulse of Perception, a legendary stealth skill, and probably also Shroud of the Primordial doing its stuff, Jake remained undisturbed for the most part.

It did annoy him that some of the rune deciphers were stereotypical shitty quest NPCs that would only help Jake if he helped them first by doing some dumb side job, but Jake didn’t really have a choice. In total, Jake spent nearly three months before he finally met the final rune decryptor. The old man looked at the notes done by the others who had looked at the horn, and after about an hour, he succeeded in solving the final rune.

Right as he did so, all the golden runes covering the horn gave off strong light as they warped and changed. Jake quickly reached out and took hold of the horn, and the moment he did, two things happened. The first was that he suddenly knew exactly where he could find the Forsaken Dragonkin… and that a giant beam of light shot into the sky as the full aura of an S-grade dragonkin blasted out.

Jake was pushed back slightly as he saw the old decipherer fall to the ground, knocked out by the blast. This wave of aura spread further than Jake could see, and with how big it was, they could likely feel it all the way to the frontline far up in space. Quickly running outside, Jake stared up as the sky rumbled, and he didn’t doubt for a second that many powerful beings were approaching. What’s more, he got a feeling things had suddenly turned for the worse elsewhere, too, confirmed as he got a notification.

Final Special Courier Job Updated: While carrying the Horn of the Forsaken Dragonkin, meet the Forsaken Dragonkin and convince him to join the war against the dragon tribe. While carrying the horn, you will be repeatedly pursued by allies of the dragon tribe, who are now aware of your location. The frontline is rapidly falling, and time is not on your side.

Yep… things were definitely a lot worse now than before, and Jake didn’t delay for a second as he headed straight to the teleporter in the city. He was lucky that the horn had only given off that one giant blast of aura and didn’t continue to give it off, but it had still pinged every single person on the planet to this location.

However, Jake soon met another problem… the second he activated the teleporter to a new city and went through to the other side, a whole new blast of aura shot out of the horn. Due to how many people were near the teleportation gate, Jake knocked out over ten thousand people with his first teleport alone.

Fucking hell, Jake cursed, but he didn’t stop as he teleported again three more times to get as close to his destination as possible. Tens of thousands, if not far more, were knocked out in Jake’s wake as he sent off a sequence of pings to whoever was pursuing him, informing them of what direction he was heading.

When Jake had finally done his final teleport, he stormed off immediately. His wings were naturally available once more after he used the escape skill before, and he quickly summoned them and used One Step for maximum speed. He quickly got a bit away from the city, found a quiet place, and went down to activate his stealth skill. With it active, Jake continued his journey as he used Pulse of Perception every thirty seconds or so for the first period of travel despite the headache it induced as he was feeling pretty damn paranoid.

And for good reason. Powerful beings were coming his way, no longer limited to just C-grades either. With the fall of the frontlines rapidly approaching, those on the planet who had been lying in wait were now moving far more openly. Through Pulse, he did spot some people also fighting against them, as the war had pretty much broken out everywhere, and shockwaves of energy from B-grades fighting could be felt in the distance.

Jake had to fly more carefully than ever as he slowly approached a mountain range in the middle of nowhere. There were no towns anywhere close to it, and he had to cross a desert-like plain just to reach it, with nothing living there. Even the mountains were entirely bare rock, with not a single plant growing anywhere.

knew everyone was coming his way now. Things were

had been fortified to a level where he doubted even

He had already scouted ahead and knew he was in

The floor was covered in a large magic circle that seemed to be feeding this person power, and he didn’t even react when Jake made his entrance. Yet Jake felt the attention of this being upon him… and he knew it was the strongest creature he had met in this Challenge Dungeon so far, and not by a little. He didn’t even

has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found

and I heard she is close to the peak

said with a polite bow as he stopped a good distance away, not entering the range

“That horn… I had nearly forgotten I even gave it out. Tell me, what is a mere C-grade doing here, interrupting me? It wouldn’t

facing a crisis, and I was tasked by the Guild Founder – the man whom you gave the horn - to seek you out and request your

of him as the Final Special Courier Job had

Job Updated: Successfully convince the Lost Dragonkin to

read the objective, he cursed internally. He had a bad

asking me to help the man who killed my father? What’s more, what he wants my help with is to kill my half-brother and other family members?” the Forsaken Dragonkin asked as he tilted his head and flashed a toothy grin. “Now, why would I ever want

it meant that simply explaining the situation in detail wouldn’t get him on Jake’s side, so he had to actually do some convincing. The problem with that was Jake had no

he left him alive back then and even given him a horn to find him with? It wouldn’t make any sense if he actually gave a shit about his “family,” so Jake would gamble on the Forsaken Dragonkin not liking

that make me want to help you? The dragon tribe doesn’t matter to me much anymore. If I wish to see them wiped out, I may as

Jake got more and more confused. Why

convincing. As an S-grade, why else would he bother talking to some random C-grade? If he had already made up his mind to not help, he could just be doing this for

I would still try and do my utmost to convince you to assist us, so please, is there anything I can do to sway your mind? I am most certain the Guild Founder and all those who oppose the dragon tribe would be more than willing to compensate you in

why not ask him how to? Who

that you mention it, there may just be one thing you could do to

beside Jake as he spoke. “You know, I’ve been watching the happenings of this world for a while. Ever since my dear brother contacted me a few centuries ago and informed me of his return while asking for my help, I kept an eye on things. Considered if this world even stood a chance and if either side would rule, who I would be able to tolerate the most. I do not care about ruling anything… I am merely pursuing whatever lies beyond my current level of power. What comes

dragonkin stood beside

need whatever side wins to stay out of my way when I want