The Primal Hunter 9, page 1
THE PRIMAL HUNTER 9
©2024 ZOGARTH
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Also by Zogarth
Also in series:
The Primal Hunter 1
The Primal Hunter 2
The Primal Hunter 3
The Primal Hunter 4
The Primal Hunter 5
The Primal Hunter 6
The Primal Hunter 7
The Primal Hunter 8
The Primal Hunter 9
The Primal Hunter 10
Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)
Contents
Previously on the Primal Hunter…
1. Focus Perfected
2. Choice
3. An Eternal Shadow
4. An Even More Prodigious Prodigy
5. (Mostly) Checked-Off Checklist
6. A Whale of a Time
7. Soul Tree & Fire Bears
8. Promise of a Good Thing
9. Blinding Gleam
10. Always Has Been
11. A Final Act of Vanity
12. C-Grade
13. The Ups and Downs of Evolution
14. A Way More Professional Evolution
15. An Even More Skilled Heretic-Chosen
16. An Impossible Path
17. The Status of a C-grade & Silliness
18. A Childish Apocalypse
19. A Wise Choice, in Retrospect
20. Complicated Rituals & Annoying Issue
21. Experiments Requiring Varying Degrees of Violence
22. Extremely Difficult Questions of Varying Complexity
23. A Conversation Long Overdue
24. Meeting Before the Meeting
25. The Most Important Aspects of Culture
26. Complicated Confusions & Blowing Off Steam Time
27. Blackpoint Nanoblade
28. Hive Dive Time
29. Carefully Calibrated Preparations
30. A Wholly Unrecommended Experience
31. What Does That Even Mean?
32. An Offer Jake Can('t?) Refuse
33. "Don't Falter Too Fast."
34. A Petrifying Experience
35. All For the Hive
36. The Endless Empire
37. Rules Are Made To Be Broken
38. Passing Down One's Records
39. A Hundred Eggs
40. Origin Core
41. Vespernat Hive Queen
42. The Great Lineage Wall
43. Vespernat Metamorphosis
44. The Significance of a True Royal
45. A Long Overdue Decision
46. Happy Little Accident
47. Getting to Know One Another & Equipment Status
48. Shopping & Business Meeting
49. Shopping Trip = Loot 6.0
50. A Big Surprise for Everyone Involved
51. Lack of Humor
52. Getting That Booty
53. Surreal
54. Same Same. But Different. But Still Same
55. Mysteries & Intrigue
56. Questions for the Altmar Empire
57. Complicated Gift Plans & Surprise Chosen
58. Lodge Meeting
59. Towards the Order They Go
60. The Power of Jinxing
61. ”The time has come."
62. Chosen of the Malefic Viper
63. Any Questions?
64. A Grand Declaration
65. “Why does it have to be so complicated?”
66. Party Introductions
67. Chosen Ceremony = Loot 7.0
68. Behold, The True Vision of the Malefic Viper's Chosen!
69. A Private and Totally Not Contentious Meeting
70. Leaving the Nest
71. An Old Man's Assessment
72. Nature's Attendant
73. Onwards, To Nevermore
74. Nevermore City
75. Nevermore Leaderboards
76. Last Say
77. Into the Abyss
Thank you for reading The Primal Hunter 9
Previously on the Primal Hunter…
What better way to start the day than a good round of mushroom slaughter? And by mushroom slaughter, I don't mean actually eating a salad containing mushrooms, but the art of slaying every single mushroom man for their heinous crime of daring to exist.
You sure wouldn't ever catch Jake eating any mushrooms if it wasn't required for work, yet he would gladly go out of his way to kill any mushroom man and make the world a better place.
Together with Irin—Jake's aide at the Order, and a succubus; Draskil, a Malefic Dragonkin; Reika, the Sword Saint's great-granddaughter and fellow alchemist; and finally Bastilla, a beastkin who was literally only brought along because they needed a fifth member and she happened to be Reika's roommate at the Order of the Malefic Viper, Jake ventures deep into the dungeon that can only be considered a crime against humanity, filled with Mushroom Men from beginning to end.
Toward the end of the dungeon, he accidentally reveals to the dungeon group that he is the Chosen by using his Path of the Heretic-Chosen. This mistake creates an insurmountable task for Reika: explaining Jake. Luckily, they all seem accepting, so no harm, no foul, right?
After gaining some levels killing mushrooms, Jake returns to his residence. Meira has some friends over, including an elf from the Altmar Empire and a scalekin named Nella accompanied by her half-ogre crony.
While Izil is nice and is mainly there to discuss Meira no longer being a slave—something Jake is entirely on board with—Nella and the half-ogre are not so nice. In fact, Jake comes to learn that Meira doesn't even seem to know what a friend is and is just getting bullied and abused.
Jake decides to take this opportunity to teach two assholes the potential consequences of being assholes while giving Meira a chance to finally stand up for herself and realize how shitty her so-called friends are. He knocks Izil out—as she isn't part of the asshole friend category—and proceeds to have a cordial discussion with Nella and her crony, resulting in a dead half-ogre and Nella shipped off for slaughter, with the Order of the Malefic Viper helping clean everything up.
With all that sorted, Jake returns to doing alchemy, gets new skills, and goes on fun trips to questionable shops Irin recommended while procuring some proper new equipment. Generally, he relaxes until one day, Jake feels something is wrong as he is promptly dragged back to Earth.
Ell'Hakan, the Chosen of Yip of Yore, and the other Bloodline Patriarch Jake met at the Seat of the Exalted Prima, arrive on Earth, assisted by Arthur, Jacob's father and the leader of the United City Tribes—a major faction on Earth opposing all the divine factions on the planet.
In an instant, the internal teleportation work on the planet is destroyed as Ell'Hakan goes to Haven with several of the companions he brought along to Earth. Jake quickly returns to his home planet, and the moment he does, the monument constructed, allowing him to even travel out of the universe, is destroyed, as its builder, Chris, is killed.
(Side note: Chris is not the same person as Felix, who is working on the statue for the Primordial Church. They are two different people entirely who are very often confused with one another… probably because they were both kind of working on statues.)
Jake, understandably so, flies into a rage and attempts to kill Ell'Hakan, the other Chosen's Bloodline, amplifying his emotions. However, it turns out that Ell'Hakan never intended to truly fight Jake and uses a ritual to fling Jake all the way to the other side of the planet. Jake barely manages to kill two opponents as he is thrown away.
Jake is temporarily out of commission, so he will have to make his way back. Given the planet's increased size, that task will take months.
In the meantime, other factions take advantage of the invasion. The Holy Church, after sending Jacob out of the universe, launches an invasion on the Risen with intentions to wipe out the undead from the planet.
During this, the Fallen King is also attacked by another U
Back in Haven, Miranda has activated the city's defenses, as Ell'Hakan makes it clear he has no interest in attacking her but does warn that the United Cities Alliance is seeking her death. Ultimately, she leaves her defensive spells in place as she teleports away while Ell'Hakan remains in Haven.
At this point, Jake is stuck in a massive desert, and to get back faster, he decides to try to make one of the many local giant sandworms transport him. He ends up tricking a particular sandworm into eating him raw, at which point he discovers that these sandworms are far from stupid. Hemakes a deal with this particular worm to help him travel if he kills stuff so the worm can eat natural treasures.
The two of them begin their travel back to human lands as they slowly make friends, and Jake ends up naming the sandworm Sandy. Sandy, being close to C-grade, has Jake help collect parts of a meteor, and once it's all collected, Jake feels an odd connection with it and decides to infuse some energy into it, almost in a trance.
Afterward, Sandy eats the rock and evolves into something called a Cosmic Genesis Worm, a race that not even the Malefic Viper had heard of before. To Jake, all this truly means is that he just got a way faster mode of transportation back to Haven as the two of them continue their journey of gaining levels and eating stuff as they get home.
Having escaped from Haven, Miranda is making her way through the mangrove forest Jake and Carmen traveled through. Was it one or two books ago? Either way, Jake told her, Neil, and a few others that should they ever get in trouble, they could go there, but they are being pursued by an elite team from the United Cities Alliance.
As things look bad for them, Scarlett—Jake's fangirl and extremely powerful mid-tier C-grade snake—appears. Once she realizes Miranda is with Jake, she promptly kills all her pursuers and brings Miranda to the small settlement she has established.
Carmen, who is hanging out with Sylphie during all this, also isn't happy about the status quo, but Valhal has decided to stay out of the conflict, though it does seem like there is more to their neutral stance than meets the eye.
With the Risen, the Holy Church also launches a full assault, ultimately resulting in the undead leaving Earth for good on a floating landmass with a dungeon containing an internal world within, created from the World Core of Yalsten – with this new world given the name New Yalsten to commemorate its origins.
Time slowly passes as Earth is in turmoil, and Jake slowly grows in power. He also finds ways to counteract the way Ell'Hakan had yeeted him from one side of the planet to the other. On the way, as they get closer to human lands, they encounter many interesting things. As they are flying over the ocean, even a giant Sky Whale actively assists Jake and sets himself up as a potential future ally.
During this time, Jake also uses his Path of the Heretic-Chosen skill a few times, but one vision stands out more than any other. In it, he sees someone known as the First Sage, a person the Malefic Viper calls Master with genuine respect, surprising Jake quite a lot. This First Sage appears to be ultra-talented, to the level that it doesn't make any sense at all despite the old man being C-grade.
After the vision, Jake discusses this First Sage in detail and learns that he died while still in C-grade, killed by the Malefic Viper himself at the old man's request. This man was the original owner of the Bloodline that the Malefic Viper has now, called the Bloodline of the Eternal Mind, giving perfect memory, something that haunted the First Sage endlessly.
Small hint… the First Sage is not just a random person we see once in a vision.
Not soon after, Jake is finally back to human lands that Sandy sadly cannot enter, having to leave him. Oh, minor side note, Sandy also became the Chosen of the Lord Protector from the Order of the Malefic Viper during this time. All hail Sandy and all that.
To counter Ell'Hakan's plan, Jake decides not to directly confront the other Chosen himself but instead assists in killing the Ashen Phantom Devourer together with the Fallen King. Meanwhile, the Sword Saint faces the Chosen, revealing a new form of expressing his Transcendent Skill as he makes Ell'Hakan retreat from the planet – something Jake later comes to learn was part of his plan all along.
Oh yeah, and then there is the entire thing with William, everyone's favorite character. Throughout the book, he helps Ell'Hakan in different ways. Still, after the fight with the Ashen Phantom Devourer, Jake finally confronts him again, only to discover William has just been gaslit and taken for a ride by Eversmile. Once Jake helps William realize this, William denounces his Blessing, evolves to C-grade, and heads off to find his own Path.
With the help of Sandy once more, the Fallen King and Jake head back toward Haven as they prepare to deal with the aftermath of the invasion. While Ell'Hakan is gone together with all his fellow nahoom (the name of his race), there is still the United Cities Alliance and those who sided with him or took advantage of the situation to consider.
After much discussion back in Haven, with Miranda and the Sword Saint also there, they ultimately end up concluding that it's best for Jake to become the World Leader, as part of this entire conflict was the United Cities Alliance trying to take that title.
Naturally, Jake won't actually lead anything, but instead, a council will be established. While preparations are made, Jake takes a trip to Skyggen and chills with his family a bit. On the way, he encounters a very rude Northpeak Wyvern who blasts him off a mountain with a frost breath, so that's definitely one to visit in a later book.
Spending time with his family is nice, but soon Jake heads back to Haven to make plans for this World Council they planned. Much to Jake's protests, it's agreed that Arthur will be on this council, with the reasoning that many of the regular humans trust him to not divide the planet further.
When all of that is dealt with—primarily by telling Miranda to deal with stuff—Jake visits a few friends and associates, including Arnold, who remained unswayed even when Ell'Hakan tried to recruit him, and Scarlett to thank her for helping Miranda.
Now that things have calmed down, Jake refers back to his C-grade checklist, which includes upgrading all his "of the Malefic Viper" skills to legendary rarity. To do this, he uses more charges of Path of the Heretic Chosen, including a vision where the Viper is struggling to create healing potions and doing regular alchemy. However, during this vision, Jake notices something… the presence of the First Sage observing him. Very odd indeed.
Sylphie also comes back soon after, as they have a reunion just before the third World Congress takes place, where Jake becomes World Leader, and a semblance of stability is returned to Earth, even if there is still much to deal with, including a few factions to get rid of.
The Holy Church is forced to abandon Earth, as well as many other minor factions, with Valhal on thin ice as Yip of Yore seemingly has an alliance with them. The Court of Shadows, who were forced by higher-ups to take jobs from the United Cities Alliance, also suffered some scrutiny, and overall, things are tense.
