The Primal Hunter 7: A LitRPG Adventure, page 26
"But—"
"I said it’s fine," Jake repeated as he tried to calm down the snake. "I was the one returning the favor for the save from the frog."
"Okay…"
Jake had made quite a few miscalculations. He had thought the C-grade Alabaster snake had to be some kind of old entity, probably at least the age of someone, well, adult, but it appeared he had been a tad off the mark. The snake had just been acting all mature before, and only now did Jake realize he was dealing with an overgrown teenage C-grade snake.
She had found and consumed a natural treasure that had allowed her to rapidly grow, and, at the same time, accepted a quest of sorts. A quest that clarified a lot of things when she finally described the details of it. Jake had known these special natural treasures had appeared on Earth, allowing beasts rapid growth—Mystie had found the Mystbone, a far less potent special natural treasure, after all.
These more special natural treasures also came with limitations. It had allowed some of the creatures of the Grand Mangrove River to reach C-grade but at the cost of limiting them to the river and ocean beyond. This limitation was only temporary, and she didn’t know when it would end. All she knew was that the natural treasure she had consumed was still being digested, and if she left the restricted area, it would begin acting up, and if she was outside it too long, the treasure could potentially end up killing her.
This explained why no C-grades had attacked any cities or caused any true trouble so far. Jake knew the system had restricted them, but only now did he know the details. This was perhaps also part of the reason why the Termite King had not pursued Jake more than it had—it had gone beyond its restricted zone.
"Excuse me again?" the snake asked Jake after only giving him roughly a minute of silence.
"Yes?" Jake really didn’t wanna be mean to the snake… It felt like a teenager talking to her favorite pop idol.
"Is there, like, anything I can do to help? Even if I am a bit restricted, I can maybe sneak out and—"
"No. Just no. Focus on yourself. Remember, the Path of the Malefic One is about embracing freedom and striving for more power through your own Path. Rather than thinking about how you can help me, think about how you can help yourself and gain more power. Then, when the restrictions lift, you will be able to expand your horizons even more. By then, you can decide for yourself what you want to do in an open multiverse of possibilities. And the more power you have, the more possibilities.”
"Actually acting like my Chosen for once," Villy said, unable to help himself.
"Hey, this is as much my philosophy as it is yours," Jake countered.
"I had it first and called dibs before your universe was even born," Villy joked back.
Jake just smiled at their brief exchange, as the Alabaster snake seemed to have gotten his message.
"Okay, I will keep doing my best and improving," she said with conviction.
At least he thought she got it, but she seemed a bit… too determined? Either way, it wasn’t bad to want to get stronger.
Their party kept traveling through the Grand Mangrove River as the snake asked some more things related to the Malefic Viper, and Jake also knew the other snakes were listening in with interest. He hadn’t spoken directly to any of them, as the Alabaster snake had said they weren’t that good at speech yet. Jake was pretty sure they were just shy, though. For every second he spent with them, he became more and more assured they were just a bunch of C-grade teenagers with all the teenage angst. At least socially. When it came to their abilities as beasts?
They ran into two C-grades when they passed the midpoint of the river, which allowed Jake to see two birds more than twenty meters tall getting ripped apart by four C-grade snakes, their barge-dragger and the Alabaster snake hanging back. The Alabaster snake explained how they didn’t really spend much time at the surface due to most stuff being weak outside of certain areas.
Besides that, nothing bothered them, and the rest of their trip through the danger zone was a breeze. It turned out that being escorted by a group of C-grades, including a mid-tier C-grade considered one of the most powerful in the entire Grand Mangrove River, meant not many beasts dared make a move.
When they reached the final parts of the river, the Alabaster snake had them all stop as she looked at Jake with some regret. "We can’t go much beyond here without leaving the restricted area… I can go a bit further, but—"
"You have done enough," Jake said as he smiled at her. "Thank you for the assistance once more."
"Ah, uhm, my pleasure!" the snake said, embarrassed. Jake knew she still felt bad about questioning his identity and all that, even if Jake was long past it.
The other snakes also all bowed their heads, seeming almost scared of Jake. Even the one who had been dragging their barge using vines bowed. It hadn’t looked back at him even once throughout their entire journey and even now had its head halfway hidden underwater. This made it look a bit silly when it tried to bow gracefully like its brethren.
Jake smiled at them all once more, offering a final farewell before heading off with Sylphie and Carmen, with Sylphie giving them a "ree!" in thanks too. Carmen was quiet but did nod in their direction as they took off.
They had been dropped off at the outskirts of the Grand Mangrove River, and it only took them twenty minutes to reach shore once more, exiting the danger zone altogether.
Only when they were out of the mangrove did Carmen speak. "That was… something."
"Hey, it went pretty well, and we got out of the mangrove forest ahead of schedule," Jake said jokingly.
"We nearly got killed by a C-tier snake," Carmen shot back.
"Nah, we were never in danger. She was a real softie, that one.”
"The first thing the snake did was kill something when we met."
"Details, details," Jake jokingly said. "In all seriousness, yeah, it got a bit risky. I think we should avoid any danger zones. At least ones with unfavorable environments."
"Agreed," Carmen said. "Let’s reach the port city already?"
"Let us," Jake said.
They took off once more, traveling towards the port city of Changlun. On the way, Jake kept the Prima fragment close and tried to scan for any energies but found nothing. Only a bit over a day later did they reach Changlun, and Jake had to admit, he had underestimated the place.
Jake and Carmen stopped atop a hill overlooking the plains leading up to the city, and both just stared. In front of them was plenty of farmland with large crystal pillars spread throughout for kilometers leading up to the city itself.
The city had a wall more than twenty meters tall surrounding it, and from the looks of it, this wall even extended into the ocean, defending them from any maritime threats. When Jake had first read about Changlun, he’d thought it was a small place, but seeing it in person made it clear this was no minor settlement. There had to be at least hundreds of thousands living there.
"Damn," Carmen said. "This is quite something."
Jake nodded as he more deeply considered the placement of the city. Changlun was quite an isolated city. To one side, it had the Grand Mangrove River that cut it off from everything else, with the river itself leading into the ocean. Due to the layout of the shoreline, there wasn’t even that much land area to the other side. It was like Changlun was placed in its own little cut-off plain.
"It looks like it goes on forever," Carmen continued. Jake was confused for a moment, then realized that she wasn’t speaking of the city, but what lay beyond it. The vast ocean.
"Yeah." Jake nodded once more.
With his Perception, he could see all the way to where the water fell below the horizon with not a single thing in between. It just kept going for thousands upon thousands of kilometers. The oceans had covered around seventy percent of pre-system Earth’s surface, and he had no reason to believe this had changed. With how big Earth was now… it was hard to imagine just how humongous the body of water truly was.
Much less to imagine the creatures dwelling within. The Alabaster snake had said that the oceans were entirely open to all C-grades, and it made sense. There were no enlightened species to protect, making the open oceans a true hunting ground for all. There had to be so many C-grades dwelling deep beneath. Heck, he felt like there were even C-grades pretty close to the shoreline. They still seemed to keep a safe distance, though, probably due to the aforementioned restrictions.
"Ree?" Sylphie asked.
"Yeah," Jake repeated.
"Ree, ree?"
"There was a teleporter in Changlun, right?" Jake asked Carmen to confirm Sylphie’s question.
Carmen looked zoned out, taking a moment before answering, "Uh, yeah. There should be. Just two jumps, and we should make it to the other continent. We need to stop by an island about halfway before teleporting all the way due to the distance."
Jake nodded. He was aware of many of the intricacies with long-range teleportation gates and knew that even with the favorable conditions offered by the ocean, a mid-way point was probably for the best. In the same way that a barrier like the Grand Mangrove River could disrupt teleportation, then a path without any obstructions—such as over an ocean—would offer no issues and make the process far more manageable.
"Let’s head in," Jake finally said after they had stood there for a good while.
They barely managed to get down the hill before Jake sensed someone approaching. A second later, he felt several gazes land upon them, making it clear they had triggered some kind of security measure. Jake was surprised he hadn’t detected it, but then again, he was certain there were plenty of ways to make trip alarms he didn’t know about.
"Incoming," he said casually, getting a nod from Carmen.
Moments later, Jake spotted three cloaked figures approaching. The one at the front was a bearded middle-aged man wielding a bow, instantly making Jake think he couldn’t be that bad of a guy. He also had a decent level.
[Human – lvl 142]
The man stopped together with his two companions a good hundred meters away as he regarded them. "Lord Thayne and Miss Carmen, I assume?"
"That would be correct," Jake confirmed, not really that surprised they knew they were coming. Them going wasn’t a secret, and Jake knew both people from Valhal and Haven had been in talks with them about when the teleporter was up and running.
"Aight,” the man said. “Just one thingL The boss said he wanted to invite you for a visit before you head off.”
Thinking it would be the polite move, Jake agreed, and Carmen didn’t care. There was just one thing. "Before that, can you point us in the direction of a hotel or something? I need a damn shower after spending days within a damn mangrove forest."
The man nodded. "Aye, just follow me back, and I can show you some of the fancier places.”
Jake and Carmen followed the man as he led them through the plains and farmland towards the city, getting a brief history lesson on the way.
"Changlun was founded by a party of five from the tutorial," the man explained. “We began recruiting everyone interested nearby while fortifying the city. Ah, why build so close to the ocean? Because while that big puddle is a bit dangerous, it is also filled with good stuff. Parts of powerful beasts sometimes wash up on the beach, natural treasures are plenty in the coral reef just a few hundred meters out, and the ocean is also like a big, infinite mana battery able to power all the stuff the crafters need.”
Those were just the major points, but it was clear Changlun had not been made without thought. After they entered, they saw the well-paved roads, clean streets, and modern-looking buildings. It did look a bit industrial, but otherwise, everything looked nice. The main building material was a kind of white limestone brick, giving the city an interesting color scheme.
They were led into a hotel, where they quickly booked rooms and got washed up. They naturally got separate rooms, and Jake had fun playing with Sylphie in a bathtub since the little featherball loved splashing him. He did toss her out as he showered, though, as it wasn’t proper for a young lady to be present.
After that, he met up with Carmen and had some food before they headed back to the hotel again and decided to have a good rest while arranging for the archer to meet them the next day. Jake and Carmen agreed on getting a good rest before heading to the other continent as they settled in, and for the first time in a while, Jake got a good night’s sleep with a bundled-up bird lying on his stomach.
Chapter 30
Crossing the Great Pond
Jake woke up the next morning to a bird nipping at his hair. Sylphie clearly hadn’t been able to sleep as long as he had—assuming she had slept at all—and had gotten bored. He shook his head to get her off, then scooped her up as she put on a fake struggle.
"You’re a little bully, aren’t you?" Jake teased with a smile as she looked up at him.
"Ree!" she answered defiantly.
"Excuses.” He chuckled as he let her go.
She flew a few rounds around the room as Jake used his spatial storage to get on all his armor. Just in time for Sylphie to finish her morning exercise and land on his shoulder. Apparently, she had decided that today was not a bird-on-head day.
Being up and about, Jake knocked on the wall to Carmen’s room, quickly getting a knock in return. They had no plans of staying in Changlun more than that single night and promptly headed out to meet the boss their escort had mentioned. Jake was intrigued, as the presence of a boss contradicted the narrative of a party of five founding the city.
However, as Jake and Carmen met up with the escort and went toward the waterfront, Jake began to understand. He and Carmen were led into a pretty well-sealed-off room—half of it was water, with an underground connection leading straight into the ocean.
"Seems like we will be meeting more C-grades," Jake said with a chuckle, getting a surprised look from both Carmen and their escort. The escort due to Jake figuring it out, and Carmen due to, well, surprise. The archer, knowing the gig was up, said his farewell as he headed out.
The surface of the water within the sealed-off bunker suddenly churned, and Jake saw a figure rise from it. A humanoid form of pure water soon took shape. Jake used Identify but got nothing in return. This was just a summon of sorts, or perhaps remote manipulation.
"I welcome you, Malefic’s Chosen and warrior of Valhal," the creature that Jake assumed to be an elemental said.
"Hello there," Jake said, wondering what the presumed elemental wanted.
Carmen just waved, equally restrained. The amount of mana he felt from the apparition wasn’t extreme, but it did carry the faint aura of a C-grade. It only seemed to be early-tier, though, not quite matching up to the Alabaster snake or even the Termite King.
"I apologize if I disturbed your travel plans, but I believed it would be a waste to not at the very least make your acquaintances," the elemental said. The more the elemental spoke, the more Jake became certain it wasn’t any usual elemental, primarily due to its level of intelligence.
Elementals were notoriously stupid, and even if they awakened some sapience, they tended to be a bit on the juvenile side, often having the mental age of a child at most. Not in the same vein as Stormild, who just had a childish nature, but more like Sylphie and her general naivety due to her genuinely young age.
So, if an elemental displayed high levels of intelligence, it often stemmed from it either being a powerful variant or related to an affinity that naturally lent itself to high intellect. Assuming this was a water elemental of some kind, Jake assumed it was the former option.
"It’s all good," Jake answered.
They didn’t really get to say anything more as Jake felt six people enter the bunker through his sphere. It was the archer from before walking with five other men. For a second, Jake wondered if this was some poorly planned ambush, but he didn’t feel any sense of danger coming from them, and they clearly didn’t even try to hide their approach.
Carmen and Sylphie also noticed them, and the three turned around. The five men all looked to be in their late thirties to early forties, with the one in the middle wearing a white robe. Jake vaguely felt the space affinity float around the man, making it clear he was a space mage like Neil. His level was also pretty good.
[Human – lvl 151]
The four with him were also all between 145 and 150. It didn’t take a genius to guess this was the party of five that had founded the city of Changlun.
"I believe it is only proper we also greet the Chosen and the warrior of Valhal," the space mage said as he bowed. The others mimicked the motion, and Jake nodded in acknowledgment. "I am sure you have questions about why we are working with a C-grade monster, but I assure you it is nothing malicious."
"No, I really don’t," Jake said, shrugging, to the group’s surprise. "But let me guess: The elemental helps protect the city and gives you natural treasures and materials from the ocean, and in turn, you assist the elemental through a variety of means. Probably things such as giving land-bound treasures the elemental can’t get due to the restrictions C-grades are currently imposed with."
In fact, he would argue this fit pretty well with the entire Unusual Unions theme from the World Congress. Of course, to Jake, this wasn’t really unusual, just logical. Why would humans and monsters not work together when it was mutually beneficial?
His deduction also seemed to prove correct as the elemental responded, "It appears we underestimated the insight of the Chosen. I apologize for our hubris; we merely wished to avoid any misunderstandings, and I would personally prefer to not get a mark on my back, instead retaining my and my follower’s friendly relations with humanity."
"Ah, no worries," Jake said, dismissing it. "You just keep doing you, and as long as you don’t act like an asshole, I don’t see why we would have trouble. Well, some humans might dislike you, but I am sure you and your pals can handle that."
