Chapter 1124 - Craters (Patreon)

The Forest Fae floated above the massive crater alongside two other B-grades; one a small treant and the other a female lion-like creature in humanoid form, making her resemble a beastkin. Below them, energy pulsed with their every breath, fissures of pure destruction still marring the land from what had happened there only half an hour prior.

“Did they deploy a B-grade hunter?” the lion asked, her face full of concern.

“We cannot rule it out, though whoever it is must be related to that human,” the Forest Fae answered as she floated down to further inspect the odd energy that still lingered. It had a purple-ish sheen, and when she moved her hand to touch some of it, it jumped to her hand, attempting to destroy it. With little effort, she dispelled it, but the mere act of the energy was concerning.

“I’ve never encountered energy like this before... It’s an unknown affinity. An unnatural one,” the Forest Fae continued. “Whoever this hunter is, I doubt they’re a member of the Pantheon of Life.”

As one of the older creatures living in the Hunting Grounds, the Forest Fae knew more than most, including the true nature of their home. She had survived many purges herself and seen over a thousand B-grades fall to hunters during her life, but this recent development concerned even her.

“If... a B-grade... why this way?” the treant asked in a slow fashion, not able to communicate that well with its summoned avatar.

“Chances are, it’s the hunter who went after the Warlord and fought the Rainbowfeather Sovereign,” she answered with a frown. “Which means we are indeed dealing with a C-grade... just a powerful variant of one. It’s also possible the human hid his level and is truthfully a peak C-grade. I’ve encountered hunters capable of fooling Identify before.”

The two others nodded in agreement, that explanation being the only one that made sense. The reason they doubted the hunter had been behind this and not someone with a similar affinity was because of the human’s level. They had all seen he wasn’t even level 320, so it made little sense that he had been the source of recent happenings. Instead, it made more sense that a senior or perhaps the teacher of this C-grade had arrived and begun to take revenge.

That, or the human, had hidden his level all along, and he was just a single step away from B-grade. Because the alternative was that his level was indeed only barely in late-tier C-grade, which none of them could accept logically, as that would simply be too ridiculous a notion.

Floating up above the crater once more, the Forest Fae considered their next steps. The three of them had been formally allied for the last decade or so, but their alliance was fickle, to say the least. The treant couldn’t move his own body easily, while the lioness was less than trustworthy. Moreover, they all had their own domains... and of course, there was perhaps the most important aspect:

This hunter, who was causing a ruckus, was clearly outstanding. The Forest Fae had been looking at an opportunity like this for a long time, as she knew something else the others didn’t: the ultimate reward for slaying a young genius like this.

The Hunting Grounds was a limiting environment, but if one proved themselves talented or powerful enough, they could escape the planet and seek the wider multiverse. She had tried to leave many times, even tried going to one of those so-called Outposts, which was where she was told about this opportunity. All she had to do was kill a single C-grade hunter...

“What... we... do?” the treant asked after a while.

“No matter what, we need to be careful,” the lioness said with crossed arms.

“Do you two believe yourselves weaker or stronger than the ones who have fallen so far?” the Forest Fae asked them.

Both didn’t answer, making her nod. “Then we go our separate ways. Allow this hunter to give his best shot, and rather than allow this human to use us as a whetting stone to sharpen himself, let us reverse it and use him to temper ourselves.”

Opportunity and danger nearly always went hand in hand, and while the B-grades of the Grand Lake were notoriously averse to conflict, they hadn’t managed to evolve to B-grades in the first place without a lot of ambition.

“If... he come... he dies,” the treant spoke before quickly wilting away and turning into dust as it was unsummoned.

“Whatever he does to attack does seem powerful...” the lioness said with a smile. “But what does it matter if he can’t hit?”

With those words, she also disappeared, showing off her incredible speed. Meanwhile, the Forest Fae stayed floating there for a while before letting out a sigh as she summoned a portal of mystic light and stepped through it to return to her own domain.

They were all confident, yes... but so had the five other B-grades been, yet the only proof of them having ever existed was now a crater in the ground.

--

Jake stood far up in the air and watched as the Forest Fae stepped into a portal after the two other B-grades had already left. This was his first time getting a proper look at the monster, and he had to admit she was definitely the strongest of the bunch. Definitely stronger than the crocolisk and the four other B-grades Jake had taken down after that, including the B-grade that had been living on the island below.

Sadly, Jake had yet to take down a B-grade in a single hit. The resilience and wellspring of vital energy B-grades possessed had simply proved too much, even when Jake had faced weaker B-grades than the Draconic Crocolisk – at least weaker when it came to durability. Overall, the Draconic Crocolisk had likely been the weakest B-grade at this Grand Lake, and definitely the stupidest, as all the others had at least tried to evade or block his attacks. Purposefully trying to use your skull to dodge definitely wasn’t the strategy.

What wasn’t sad was what Jake had gotten out of his hunt thus far. Seeing as how leveling only got harder the further Jake got, and the relatively simple strategy and ease of these hunts, he had assumed that levels would be hard to come by at this point. However, those expectations had been entirely wrong, as so far, it had been one level per B-grade kill, including the one he had just killed.

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 314 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points

While every level wasn’t a massive power increase, Jake did get stronger with every kill, making the next one easier. He also made subtle improvements to his methodology, and while the difference and thus increase in power from this had been insignificantly small compared to the raw stat increases from every hunt, progress was progress.

Having killed five of the nine B-grades who had interrupted his fight with the Rainbowfeather Sovereign, Jake had been a bit afraid he was running out of targets he wanted to hunt soon, but luckily, the treant that had just shown up hadn’t been part of the initial group.

Jake had scouted out and was aware of this B-grade. It was an evolved stumpy tree on one of the islands, one that looked like it grew in reverse, as the only thing above the ground was a thick tree stump, while a deep web of roots formed a canopy beneath.

Before, this tree and lion woman hadn’t been targets, but now that they had shown itself to be working with the Forest Fae, they had just added themselves to the shit-list. The lion-like woman's taunt that Jake likely couldn't hit her made her a tempting next target, and while he considered going for her next, he moved elsewhere to make himself more unpredictable. Also, those three were likely the strongest B-grades Jake planned on facing in the short-term – excluding the Sovereign.

Plus, he also had to recover a bit before his next hunt. Loosing his most powerful arrow took quite a toll on his body, and he needed a good hour between every shot to assure maximum power. Plus, Jake felt safer beginning every fight with full resources, as things were bound to go south at some point.

After recovering, Jake moved toward his next target. It took him a little while before a B-grade sufficiently exposed, and while he had considered going for the lioness or big tree, he wanted to save those for later. The three at the crater had been the most powerful B-grades at the Grand Lake, after all.

Soon enough, he was at another of the B-grades who had interrupted his fight. He did all his usual preparations and observed the creature for a while to get a bit more Hunting Momentum built up for his initial hit.

The target this time around was an odd lizard and wolf hybrid, and the creature had set up a defensive and detection aura all around its small grove in the middle of the island, likely believing that would be enough to detect Jake’s attack before it was too late.

Spoiler: it wouldn’t be.

Once everything was good to go, and the B-grade was sufficiently isolated away from its peak C-grade minions that patrolled around the barrier, Jake unleashed his arrow.

Another pillar of pure arcane destruction descended upon an island on the Grand Lake, no barrier or detection magic enough to help the B-grade in the slightest. Similar to the other B-grades, this one was also confident in its ability to survive even if surprised, sinking quickly into the ground as soon as it sensed danger, but at that moment, the hunter’s Primal Gaze immobilized its soul, freezing it completely.

The barrier meant to protect the wolf was shattered, and detecting the lethal attack evidently hadn’t worked in the slightest as Eternal Hunger struck down and pierced the wolf through its back, exploding once more upon impact as the entire clearing was leveled.

C-grades tried to help, but Jake knew the drill by now and didn’t let up his assault, all boosting skills fully active right from the get-go. Like a rain of death, the arrows fell upon the B-grade, and no matter how hard the C-grades tried to save their leader, the conclusion was already written when Jake’s open attack struck true.

Soon enough, the B-grade’s aura of life faded away, the list of targets reduced by another one.

You have slain [Alpha Terrascale Greatwolf – lvl 355] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 315 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 314 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

Jake smiled upon seeing the notification, as he really felt his Path had begun to pick up speed after he switched to hunting B-grades consistently. With the wolf dead, Jake was once more chased by a small army of C-grades, but through the power of being pretty damn fast, Jake quickly got away and found a safe place to hide and recover before any other B-grades had a chance to try to interfere.

This recovery session ended up being a bit longer than usual, as Jake also stocked up on poisons and even decided to make a few that weren’t Heartrot Poisons. Namely, he made a poison he believed would be more effective when used on the tree monster, and while it was a lot worse than what he had for flesh and blood lifeforms, it would have to make do.

He also decided to make a few of his neurotoxins. More accurately, he brought back and used an old recipe he hadn’t touched in quite a while. Back when Jake had visited his parents and Caleb’s family before the Prima Guardian event fully ended, Jake hadn’t walked away entirely empty-handed.

The Umbral Lotus that was planted beneath Skyggen had truly bloomed over the years and had been close to reaching mythical rarity, but even if it hadn’t fully gotten there, Caleb had still gotten Jake a few Umbral Lotus Leaves in exchange for Jake helping train some of the Court’s assassins with aura resistance.

With those lotus leaves and other ingredients Jake had procured from the Order and elsewhere, he had enough materials to make a poison he believed would be quite effective on the tree monster.

[Soul-Petrifying Shadow Poison (Rare)] – A special poison created by combining several powerful ingredients with the singular goal of creating a potent neurotoxin able to affect the soul. This is a soul poison that will actively attempt to affect any Soulshape it touches due to its nature. Once infected, the Soulshape will become more rigid, severely limiting all mobility. The dark energy makes all movements of energy more difficult for any affected target. This poison is incredibly difficult to cleanse and has a slight ability to self-replicate if not actively challenged, and it will strengthen itself the more poison is injected.

It was the very same poison Jake used to help the Fallen King slay his fellow Unique Lifeform, the Ashen Phantom Devourer. Back then, during the invasion of Earth by Ell’Hakan, this poison had proven very effective, and now Jake had made an even further improved version with better materials.

Jake didn’t hesitate to invest all the materials he had available to make six batches, resulting in a total of twenty-two bottles of poison that he planned on unleashing upon the tree when the time was right. For now, he still had a few other B-grades to hunt down first.

Having taken a week to recover and craft his poisons had also allowed the Grand Lake to calm down a bit more than before. Perhaps the other B-grades assumed the wolf had managed to harm Jake, or maybe they hoped he was gone, but either way, the B-grades still hadn’t been smart enough to band together and face him as a group, as that was quite frankly the only way Jake could see things not working out for him.

Moving on to his next target, it was a large bull monster that looked a lot like a Minotaur in that it had hands and legs, but it used its hands to walk on all four a bit like a gorilla, and on its head, it had two massive curled horns that looked as if they were made of glass.

It was definitely impressive and strong-looking... but it turned out to be a creature primarily specialized in magic. Plus, it was one of the rare solitary B-grades that didn’t have an army, so even if Jake ended up taking longer than usual, the result was still inevitable after the creature’s defensive illusory formation couldn’t trick Jake’s superior Perception stat, allowing him to hit the right monster despite hundreds of illusions patrolling the island.

You have slain [Grand Lightburn Mirrorhorn – lvl 357] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 316 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points

Jake retreated with nothing more than a few burnt holes in his clothes from laser beams the B-grade had unleashed as a final desperate gambit to kill him. Needless to say, despite the quick attacks, Jake hadn’t been seriously injured and went to recover once more.

Another half a day later, he was at his next target, striking before the B-grades likely expected him to. His target this time was the largest monster he had killed so far. It was a massive crab, its shell alone about fifteen meters across. Its island was a relatively unique one, in that it was made up entirely of sand, with most of the island technically under water, but just surrounded by a sand bank, which was likely what separated it from the Grand Lake itself.

How and why a crab like this had joined the Forest Fae to mess with Jake was truly a mystery that Jake didn’t care to solve. This was also another mostly solitary monster, though there were other peak C-grade crabs also present on the island. They clearly weren’t there to help with anything, though, as they were all spread out and alone, most of them were buried beneath the sand in the shallow waters.

So was the B-grade Jake was targeting, and while it would have definitely helped if the crab had dug itself a few dozen or perhaps a hundred meters down, trying to hide just a measly two or three meters beneath the surface was just a great way to limit its own mobility and allow Jake to see if he could break through a B-grade crab’s shell. It also had a decent stealth skill capable of fooling Jake’s eyes before he used his boosting skill, which was definitely impressive.

Its shell was also impressive... at least it was until it was cracked by an Eternal Hunger arrow. This fight also proved itself to be on the longer side, with more difficulties than the others as this monster had some serious water magic it tried to fight back with, it still ended predictably, as after nearly ten minutes of constant bombardment of arrows, the B-grade fell lifelessly on the ground, leaving nothing but a shell filled with rotting flesh within.

You have slain [Aquaclaw King Crab – lvl 358] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 317 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 315 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

With this one down, Jake only had three left on his current list of targets. A lion monster, a treant, and the most powerful B-grade at this Grand Lake, the Forest Fae. However, seeing as he kept getting levels with every kill, Jake began considering...

Should I just do a clean sweep of all the B-grades?