The Primal Hunter

Jake stared at the Forsaken Dragonkin as he, more than anything, just wanted to yell, “What the fuck did you just say to me?” but he managed to hold himself back. However, his face did reveal his distaste for the question, showing that he should have maybe worn his mask for this entire thing.

“Oh? Did the question offend you?” the dragonkin asked in an amused tone.

“I merely fail to see how my death would change anything,” Jake answered.

“It would convince me to help. You don’t need to know anything more than that. Now, why the hesitation? With every passing second, more people die, and the chance of the Guild Founder falling only increases. You can end it all by simply ending yourself… a small sacrifice if I say so myself.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed as he actually considered the proposition seriously for a moment. Not because he actually considered doing it, but more to try and understand why it was even offered within this Challenge Dungeon.

One had to remember that Jake had three lives, so that could make one think that killing himself would just be the smart thing to do. However, the rules of the Challenge Dungeon made things a bit more messy as he clearly remembered the text.

“Should you die, you will return back to wherefrom you originally accepted the most recent Courier Job. The Courier Job you died in the midst of will no longer be available. You have three total lives.”

There were a few things here. It only said Courier Job in the description, never specifying anything about Special Courier Jobs. Jake had just assumed that since Courier Job was in both names, both counted. There was also the part about returning back to where he accepted the Courier Job after failing it. Did this mean Jake was just teleported and revived there? Or did it turn back time to the moment he accepted the job? Jake once more assumed it meant turning back time, but he would fail no matter the case.

Unless… the Special Courier Job was completed before Jake was returned. In that case, what would happen? Would Jake just die and exit the Challenge Dungeon while also completing it at the same time? Would he see a nice epilogue slideshow as if he had just finished an RPG?

There were many interpretations, and there even was a chance that killing himself would actually lead to a “good” ending for the world. Of course, there was also the option that it just fucked Jake over completely and sent him back without having done the Special Courier Job at all.

Finally, this could also simply be a test. The kind of thing where Jake would take the dagger, but just before he actually killed himself, the S-grade would stop him and say he had proven his determination simply by showing he was willing to do it.

Now, no matter the case, Jake’s answer would still be a solid “fuck no.”

It wasn’t even a question of if this would work to complete the Challenge Dungeon. The dragonkin had simply asked Jake to do something he wouldn’t ever do. To kill himself would go as directly against his Path as anything could, and even if it probably wouldn’t really matter, Jake didn’t want Records of him choosing to kill himself like this associated with him.

Also, Jake didn’t even think he could try to genuinely do it. Chances are the S-grade could detect if Jake was faking it or not, so the “he will stop me at the very last moment” option wasn’t even valid. If it required Jake to truly be willing to kill himself, how was it different from actually killing himself? Truthfully, Jake simply valued his life too much to even fake it. He wouldn’t even willingly kill himself to save all of Earth, so why the hell would he ever do it for some random world in a Challenge Dungeon?

Last but not least, this simply couldn’t be the solution. To even get to this point of the Challenge Dungeon, one had to be pretty damn good. One had to be a multiversally recognized talent, and someone often called a genius, and while Jake could see the logic in teaching these young geniuses how not to be assholes to others by using their status, he didn’t see a world where the Wyrmgod thought teaching them to be doormats willing to kill themselves was a good idea.

“You are awfully quiet for someone on a timer,” the dragonkin said, as Jake hadn’t said anything for a while. “Are you truly in a position to be considering the offer that deeply? Why do you even need to consider it when I thought you were such a loyal and dedicated Courier, willing to do anything to get the job done?”

Jake clearly heard the mockery in the dragonkin’s tone, making him lose his cool for a brief moment as he replied in a snarky tone. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking the joke had already run its course and was waiting for you to stop fucking around.”

The Forsaken Dragonkin’s smile only grew as Jake said this. “And there he is. The one hiding beneath the mask. Are you now going to tell me now what you really are and what you’re doing here? Because I don’t believe for a second you just appeared out of nowhere and suddenly found your passion by being a Courier.”

“I think I already told you my matters are my own, but true, I’m not just doing this work out of the goodness of my heart,” Jake said, having already decided.

Clearly, any usual strategies for convincing the dragonkin wouldn’t work, so he tried to switch up the tactic a bit and act more like he usually did.

do genuinely need my

things easier for me,” Jake shrugged. “The people fighting up there do

happen to

honestly. “No reason to stick around if everything is just a burning mess. But don’t misunderstand, I do want to complete my current job, which is to have you help the Guild Founder and the others, so how to make you do that? And no, I’m not

on Jake with actual energy, making his knees slightly buckle, but Jake quickly responded by infusing stable arcane energy into them… meaning that rather than bend, they would get squashed like under a hydraulic press if

would also be highly annoying,” Jake said as his lips tore just from moving while under

Forsaken Dragonkin scoffed as he

Jake said as he kept staring the dragonkin in the

tilted his head as the pressure severely lessened. “Now you got me curious. I don’t need a lie-detector skill to know you truly believe that… what gives you

shoulders back in place after they had been dislocated from the aura. “I’ll tell you after you’ve dealt with

but at this point, I

worth the gamble? From how I see it, you have four choices. Either you wipe out the dragons and side with the Guild Founder, you help the dragon tribe and kill the Founder, or you wait for both to fight it out and swoop in to beat down the winner and have them serve you. That winning side very likely being the

unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report

Jake as if he were some interesting specimen, and he seemed more and

they were correctly popped into place, and partly to, well, shrug. “Not my first time seeing a world be destroyed. But I can’t recommend it unless you

Forsaken Dragonkin said with interest. “I already had the belief you didn’t originally come from this planet or even any of the nearby solar systems, and seeing as I

told you, it would stop being such an intriguing mystery, now wouldn’t it?” Jake answered with

how about this. Have you

bit surprised by that question. Partly because this felt like people with connections to gods would have an advantage with this one. Alas, Jake

“Obviously.”

god sent you

kind of getting the feeling what you wanna ask

don’t we?” the Forsaken Dragonkin shrugged as he asked without an ounce of

a deadpan expression. “But I may be able to help you… after you

and from the look in his eyes, Jake knew

directly how… but I can show you instead,” Jake said as he took a deep breath. “Please, I would stand back a bit; this isn’t something I can

they spoke, and in all honesty, it was a huge gamble. Even if things seemed to be going well, Jake had the feeling the dragonkin still wasn’t going to actually help him. He was beginning to realize he truly didn’t care what happened, and Jake’s guess

it didn’t matter, as Jake firmly believed it hadn’t been a real choice unless one was maybe on their last life or something. So Jake had cooked up this little ploy instead. He would, for a moment, convince the dragonkin in front of him he was actually the avatar of a god, just long enough to get him to help Jake. Genuinely

Dragonkin. Jake believed there probably were things you could say to make him side with you, and maybe someone like Miranda could have done it by offering him things or making good arguments why assisting the Founder would be wisest… but Jake wasn’t able to do that. He had kind of tried but failed badly. So,

dragonkin said as he raised both hands and backed away a bit. “But let’s make this your last chance. If you fail to be convincing I’ll kindly throw you out of here… because, honestly,… that fourth option of wiping out everyone does actually sound quite

It made sense… he was Forsaken, after all. He hadn’t bothered making anyone his servants before now, despite being capable of all this, so why would he even bother now? Plus,

his Soulspace. There, he saw the shadowy figure that looked a bit like himself representing Eternal Shadow, some other collections of energy here and there and a shitload of arcane energy covering

the blood Jake had absorbed all the way back in the Trial of Myriad Poisons just following the Tutorial. It wasn’t just regular blood either, but blood containing Records and energy from the Malefic Viper.

the Malefic Viper. It was still filled with knowledge for him to unlock, but doing anything forcibly with it simply wasn’t possible. The only reason it was even dormant and that having such a fragment inside of him didn’t kill Jake outright was because of his Bloodline

dared. Jake had no idea what messing with it could even help him with, so there had been little reason to even try before. He was already slowly absorbing it, and with time, he would make all the

things he had theorized was maybe possible. Something that, even if he could do it, would be utterly useless outside of this particular Challenge