The Primal Hunter

For a moment, Jake and the Lunewood Hunter made eye contact. Jake knew it could see him through his stealth immediately as he prepared himself mentally for what was to come. However, even after a solid second, the Hunter just kept observing him without making any aggressive moves.

Frowning, Jake tried to step to the side as its gaze followed him. Was it looking for an opening or something? Its actions didn’t make any sense at all. Even when Jake began walking, it just kept looking at him.

When he tried to pick up speed, the Hunter finally moved but still did not attack him. It just followed Jake as he made his way further into the forest, confused as hell. The Hunter even kept the same distance from Jake, its eye never leaving his body for a split second as it ran after him. He had already cut off his conversation with Villy, but now he seriously considered asking if this Hunter was broken.

Something definitely felt off, and Jake released a Pulse of Perception to scan his immediate area and instantly saw that three more Hunters were making their way toward him, all coming from the direction of the Wood Meteorite.

Is it not attacking because it judged it can’t beat me alone and is waiting for backup? Jake questioned as he once again prepared himself for a fight.

Yet when the three Hunters arrived, they proceeded to just join the first one in looking at him. It was honestly eerie as fuck, having four large creatures made of vines and stone constantly just stare at you without doing anything. They even stood entirely still when Jake didn’t move, only adding to the creepiness.

Deciding to just say fuck it, Jake proceeded toward his target. The four Hunters followed along as Jake got closer and closer to the Wood Meteorite and the army that surrounded it. While he wasn’t confident in beating them, he was confident in escaping should things go south, as while the Hunters were the strongest Lunewood creatures he had seen, they were still low-tier.

Soon enough, he reached the Wood Meteorite. Jake entered a large clearing created from the impact crater of the Wood Meteorite, finally laying eyes on the thing. It honestly looked a bit like a spherical spiky pinecone, except it was utterly massive and pulsating with power, as blueish veins covered the entire meteorite.

Through his sphere and with another Pulse, he also saw how extremely long vines extended down from the Wood Meteorite, piercing many kilometers into the moon. These vines spread like the roots of a tree in the immediate area, but they primarily reached downward in a pretty straight line, going directly for the core as far as Jake could see.

Yet he didn’t feel as if the Wood Meteorite was actually siphoning any energy out of the core, making him guess it hadn’t reached it yet. Even if it did, Jake wasn’t sure it would be capable of absorbing anything, as the moon’s core remained a lot more powerful than this meteorite.

Checking with the four Hunters, who had now been joined by five more who had been chilling around the Wood Meteorite, Jake saw the nine of them still didn’t seem interested in attacking. To check further, Jake floated into the air as he made his way toward the meteorite, but even as he approached, they didn’t make any moves.

They clearly knew he didn’t fit there, and yet they didn’t see him as an enemy for some reason. It didn’t make any sense at all. Was it that they didn’t judge him a threat? Or because he hadn’t attacked them or destroyed anything yet? Or were they broken somehow? They hadn’t even alerted all the other Lunewood creatures to his presence, and Jake felt that it was only the Hunters who even knew he was there due to the peculiar nature of Unseen Hunter.

Once more, trying to ignore them, Jake studied the Wood Meteorite more closely as he flew right up to it. He felt it pulsating with energy, sending waves of its corrupted life energy into the world. This energy also tried to affect him, but he had made sure to cover his body in a few layers of stable arcane mana to ensure his own safety.

Reaching out, Jake touched one of the spikes of the meteorite. The moment he did, he felt a pulse of energy enter his body, but more than just energy; it carried some kind of… desire. Jake felt something go for his soul, as he allowed just a little bit in to understand what was going on. He felt as if he heard a faint whisper telling him to accept it.

The spike Jake was touching then broke off, and he knew what it wanted him to do. It wanted him to take it and absorb it into his body, allowing the Lunewood energy to take over his body and become one with the forest like all the other creatures there.

No… more than that.

It wanted him to become the Lunewood Forest. To merge with the meteorite and be its host. Perhaps it instinctively understood its own shortcomings, and it wanted something to help control it and grow. Jake wasn’t sure why, but it seemed to believe he was a good option to make that happen.

Jake was confused, though. Why did it need him? Sandy hadn’t mentioned anything like this. According to the worm, these Moon Meteorites didn’t have any ego or control at all but were more like a natural force only seeking to expand, and-

It was wilting.

the grass was wilting. That’s also when Jake understood why it wanted him. A Wood Meteorite only sought to spread its affinity and grow, but this one was broken, and it needed something. That something

to say, that wasn’t

rest on top of another part of the meteorite. Once more, a pulse of energy was released, and

He still didn’t feel any traces of hostility, even as he walked away from the meteorite. They just kept staring creepily, even as Jake began to explore the rest of the crater, finding many

this the fragments it made new creatures from? As Jake was thinking this, he saw something in his sphere. A Stalker was approaching him,

of the pile of

on his face.

for certain, something very weird was happening

confirmed after Jake had spent an hour or so inspecting the crater while considering how he would put down a ritual when he received a message from Sandy, passed along by

”Run.”

have, they quickly realized the quickest way toward the center of the celestial object. It wasn’t even that

only a few weak elementals here and there, all way too slow for Sandy. Many of the snacks weren’t

closer to the core. It was a bit odd, but in the cases of most planets or even larger celestial objects like the moon, the core wasn’t some large super-dense area of pure molten lava and metal. Instead, it

healthy environment. Not that it bothered Sandy much the times the worm had seen other Planetary Cores. None of the weird phenomena that could happen close to a planet’s core ever really bothered Sandy before. However, as Sandy got closer to this

wasn’t an alchemist like Jake, the worm was pretty sure large vines weren’t supposed to grow this deep underground. What’s more, all the vines felt really weird. Like, they had the same aura, but one that felt a bit different than the Lunewood stuff above. It was clearly still related to the Wood Meteor, as they looked

the moon, where the worm quickly went straight for the

vines also only multiplied in number and looked even weirder the more Sandy saw. Some of them went through solid rock but didn’t penetrate it. No, it was more like

There was no doubt in Sandy’s mind that these vines were related to the B-grade, so caution was key. Even if the B-grade hadn’t shown

few more tunnels, Sandy finally entered the large open space that also contained the core. However, rather than see a core, Sandy saw a giant mass of vines where the

in diameter, yet Sandy felt that the environment was oppressive. The cause of

it sent a powerful telepathic message filled with… a lot of things. It wasn’t

”Why are you here?”

Sandy could

here to explore,” the worm responded in a neutral tone, as Sandy tried to be as non-threatening as possible.

some time to take in the entire core room and detect

expanded their senses and felt the traces of what had once been a great natural treasure inside the core room. One provided directly

seeking out the greatest energy source available: the core. It had succeeded most of the way, as it had likely sent some of its creatures down to

was currently seeing. Sandy also vaguely felt the concept of death in the air, so it was even likely the creature had died and been brought back to life. Maybe it had been cut off by the Wood

creature spoke

”Leave.”

”I didn’t mean to intrude, I was just curious, and

B-grade creature that Sandy didn’t at all understand. It was some weird undead creature that somehow still gave off eerie life energy. What’s more, Sandy hadn’t even found anything they could Identify yet. It didn’t work on the

message echoed

Sandy responded as they turned around and began flying toward

”Leave… now.”

bad feeling and picked up