The Primal Hunter

Chapter 991: An Impetus of Possibilities The closer Jake got to completion, the harder it felt and the more nervous he became as he questioned if he’d gone about this the right way. The external time pressure of the final Prima Guardian being slain and the potential of communication opening up with the wider multiverse didn’t help either, but Jake knew he couldn’t let it impact him too much. He simply resigned himself to the fact he wouldn’t be done with his project in time…

And then a day passed. No news of the final Guardian being slain or any system messages appearing.

A second day went by. Nothing.

Followed by a third, a fourth, and soon, an entire week had passed by, at which point Jake no longer felt grateful he had some extra time but pure confusion about what the hell was going on. Enough to contact Miranda directly to ask if she had somehow missed telling him there were no red planets left. However, the response she sent made it clear she also wasn’t sure what was going on.

“I know it’s odd, and I’m doing what I can to figure out what is happening. So far, all we know is that the final planet is one firmly under the control of Ell’Hakan and the Holy Church, and honestly, one we expected to have had their Guardian killed far sooner. It took some effort, but we managed to locate a family who had once been living on this planet before the Prima Guardian event and had left because the Holy Church fully took over, and from the sounds of it, the planet is far from weak. It’s really odd that they didn’t join the Prima Guardian Alliance, though, even if they were powerful enough to deal with the system event alone. While I still can’t be sure yet, putting all this together, we can only conclude that they’re purposefully delaying killing the Prima Guardian for some reason. As for what this reason is… who knows? One would think the Church was also keen on reestablishing contact with their Patrons, but apparently, they want to get something done before that can happen.”

To summarize, some kind of scheme was going on. Jake genuinely had no clue why they were delaying like this, especially considering there was a chance some kind of reward existed based on how quickly the Milky Way finished dealing with the entire event. The Church and Ell’Hakan were, in essence, griefing the entire galaxy by refusing to kill the last boss to the benefit of everyone.

Maybe they wanted Jake or someone else to travel there to finish the event, only for it to be a trap? Or were they waiting to fully stabilize their power? Some internal conflict? There were so many possibilities that Jake didn’t even want to think about it but just kept focusing solely on his arrow.

There really was no need to stress about the outside world when he already had such a big stressor right there with him.

He felt like someone who’d been building the world’s largest house of cards and was now placing the last few dozen cards. With every touch, he feared the entire thing would come falling down, even if he knew that wasn’t really a possibility before he activated when. When Jake realized he only had about a day or two left of intense work, he contacted Miranda and told her not to contact him or allow anyone else to bother him until he was done. This final part would take absolute focus throughout.

Jake even went so far as to drink some of the soul-soothing dew water he’d used while healing to calm his nerves to ensure he could do the last touches properly. By now, only the top of the large arrow tip had to be covered with the rest of the formation. From there, Jake only had to make some finishing touches, and it was go-time.

Hours passed as Jake’s careful hand continued crafting the arrow. He connected the magic circles, drew the runes perfectly, and put it all in an interconnected web that should hopefully be powerful enough to merge with Eternal Hunger without instantly being overwhelmed and consumed.

For the first time in a long time, Jake was sweating as he willed the final bit of arcane energy to cover the tip of Eternal Hunger’s form. He added the required layers on top after that, double and triple-checking everything was according to how he wanted it. With a small nod, Jake lifted his hands away from the arrow that was now complete…

… alright, one more check-over to ensure nothing was out of place was definitely in order. And a good thing he did, as Jake spotted a flaw which was quickly rectified. He ended up spending nearly five hours just staring intently at the arrow from top to bottom before he felt satisfied and stepped back, having seen nothing obvious out of place.

the translucent formation that covered it. It looked kind of bad, honestly, with the formation turning the arrow too bulky to look usable. It was as if Eternal Hunger was trapped in a crystal prison one was meant to break it out from, and the thing definitely wasn’t shootable

had the last step left to go. Jake didn’t have enough surface area to make the intricate runes and scripts he needed, which was why he added so many layers to give him space to inscribe, but naturally,

that would encompass and cover Eternal Arrow from top to bottom and merge with the mythical weapon. By far, this was the most crucial step, and Jake already half-expected something to

the innate concepts of his arcane energy and its ability to change would be enough to accomplish his goal, but this was unexplored territory… and let’s be honest, something usually went wrong when Jake did things like this, and he had to do some hail mary to

arcane energy which was core to the skill. For something to be Protean meant it was able to easily change. That it was versatile and adaptable. If that versatility was pushed to the extreme, then maybe, just

to rush in and fill the room, putting him on a timer before it had any way to affect the in-progress arrow. Next, he reached out with his right hand and

Here goes nothing.

been stolen; if detected on Amazon,

but right now, he didn’t need control

was trust he hadn’t fucked anything up as the first crack sounded out. The outermost layer of the formation collapsed in upon the layer right beneath it, merging the two together in an instant

merged, with hundreds of small reactions happening every second, and Jake did nothing but infuse his intent and energy.

one beneath it. The intensity of energy grew as all the arcane

becoming more and more complex. Jake, despite his insane resistance to his own affinity and mana, felt his hand begin to burn with the insane amount of energy at play, as most of it was completely wasted and dispersed into the air or

was about to reach the most crucial stage. On Eternal Hunger itself, Jake had placed several runes that were there to merge the formation and the arrow-shaped mythical weapon that the system refused to recognize as an arrow. When the final layer collapsed and fell upon these runes, it was make it or break it if all of Jake’s preparations had been good enough, or all he had accomplished

the hardest, but so far so good. He didn’t exactly have the choice of stopping

weapon itself, as all the runes

the room changed. The arcane affinity turned from the usual pinkish-purple to an incredibly deep purple as curse energy was released and mixed with it. Jake

of crystalized arcane energy fell on the ground, as the grand formation seemed

the runes on Eternal Hunger continually grew in power. At this point, even with Jake’s incredibly high Perception, he wasn’t capable of keeping track of all

he’d missed

the arcane and cursed light began to slowly fade. The

at Eternal Hunger and its