The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1048: A Harsh Lesson

This was the first time Jake ever felt any kind of real pressure while within his own Soulspace and he took longer than he probably should have to muster a response. He’d nearly fallen to his knees by the time he braced himself and forced his body to stand as he released a wave of energy stopping the compression, and-

Suddenly, his vision split in two as he saw the First Sage stand with a finger pointing toward the ground. It and everything else was cut in two as Jake was perfectly bisected down the middle, intense pain flooding his mind.

“Slow.”

Jake’s body instantly regenerated and reformed, only for him to get blasted back with one of his arms exploding like a balloon of blood from him trying to block right at the end.

Just then, some of what slumbered within his Soulspace came alive. A shadowy figure appeared behind the First Sage, wielding a katar and stabbing for his body, but before any attack had time to land, the figure was blasted back...

Only to reappear instantly, but this time, there were five versions of Eternal Hunger attacking at once. However, they were instantly crushed as the space around the First Sage imploded, leaving the sixth – and real – version of Eternal Hunger that had just teleported to appear above the First Sage remaining.

A bubble of energy formed around Eternal Hunger and simply fell down on the old man as he lightly tapped it, banishing it to who-knows-where.

The attack hadn’t managed to touch the First Sage, but it had still given Jake some time to stabilize once more, and honestly, it had done far better than Jake expected.

“Aren’t you embarrassed?” the First Sage asked. “A single skill. A weapon, merely of mythical rarity, nearly matching you in the power it can display. Did I overestimate your Records?”

Jake knew he was being taunted, but he more than willingly fell for it nevertheless as he counterattacked. He still had no idea what the First Sage was trying to do or what lesson he was teaching Jake... but he knew that he had to fight, or this could end really badly for him, making the soul damage he took when he fucked up trying to upgrade Palate look like a mere flesh wound.

A storm of arcane energy gathered around Jake as thousands of arrows formed, and with a single thought, he sent them flying toward the First Sage like a massive fish school as they curved in the air.

However, right before they hit the First Sage, the old man merely tilted his head. The barrage of arrows flew into an invisible hole, only to get teleported right above Jake as he was hit by his own attack from a portal he couldn’t even see.

The arrows tore into Jake as he forced them all to explode at once, attempting to hit the First Sage with the resulting explosion before they all had time to enter the portal. At the same time, Jake stepped down as he teleported.

Teleported right into his own arcane explosion, taking him by complete and utter surprise as they evidently wasn’t where he’d wanted to go. The blast sent Jake flying, but he didn’t get even a moment to relax as the space around him twisted and compressed once more, and before he had time to properly respond, his body was crushed into a peanut-sized marble.

Regenerating instantly, Jake made himself appear down on the ground, only for said ground to rise up and crush him between two massive slabs. Immediately, he regenerated again, not even thinking about attacking the First Sage as he only sought to dodge whatever would come next.

Space once more twisted, but relying on his senses, Jake barely dodged in time and got away, only to get hit by a follow-up that exploded his body into thirty-nine equally sized cubed pieces.

Appearing yet again, Jake blocked the next attack as he tried to make some distance, only for space to compress yet again, making it impossible to escape. As the world was shrinking, Jake focused on making it stop, and he did successfully slow down the compression for a second before the First Sage gave it a good push and crushed Jake into fine paste.

“How long can you allow this to continue?” the voice of the First Sage echoed.

The old man had yet to move a single step within Jake’s Soulspace as he controlled everything as if this was his world. Jake tried to fight back but was constantly one-upped and had his body destroyed over and over again. Every single death hurt a shitload, and to make matters worse, he felt himself begin to grow weary with every death.

Gritting his teeth, Jake tried to do everything he could as he mobilized his energies. Maelstroms of arcane mana formed to defend him, and he felt his body grow more powerful as he dragged out more power with every resurrection. He was faster and more durable now than in the beginning... but every time he improved, the First Sage merely upped the ante.

“You are like an adult having only ever fought children. You’ve never had to actually try to win; you were just naturally stronger,” the voice of the First Sage echoed, making the skies churn. “Do I need to remind you that this is your Soulspace? Clearly, you can access it freely, yet this is the best you can do?”

Jake released a massive wave of arcane power that seemed to cover the entire world, but it was parted like the sea as Jake once more found himself cut in two.

“Are you beginning to understand my disappointment?” the old man continued as Jake’s entire Soulspace was torn apart and reassembled several times over as the First Sage kept asserting more power and control.

“It’s like you’re an archer who learned how to nock an arrow and then decided it was good enough. Like a warrior who knows how to hold an axe no longer seeing the need to practice. You stopped at the starting line.”

Jake desperately tried to make all the arcane mana in the sky heed his call, but the First Sage raised a hand as a barrier covered the sky, sealing in the energy Jake tried to move. At the same time, the ground below was seized and rose as millions of massive spikes erupted all over.

“But why would one bother to learn how to properly shoot a bow or use an axe if they are so naturally gifted they beat all their peers without ever trying? This is the mentality you have seemingly embraced... so much so you don’t even appear to realize you can and need to improve. And now you are seeing the folly of your foolishness and arrogance.”

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The intensity and speed of attacks only increased as Jake struggled more than ever before. He felt his Bloodline seething as he pulled out all he could, making all his specs also continue to rise. Meanwhile, the words of the First Sage seared themselves into Jake’s mind as he was getting a good scolding.

Problem was... Jake had no idea what the First Sage wanted from him. He got the gist of it: he wanted Jake to train his soul somehow, but how in the hell was he expected to do that now? Practice took time, and if things continued like this, he wouldn’t have much more time.

Jake felt somewhat insulted by the barrage of words, but he couldn’t deny them either. It was true that Jake had never actively trained his Soulspace in any way; he had just relied on it from beginning to end. But in his defense, he questioned if the Soulspace could even be “trained” in the first place.

The Soulspace was just the world within one’s soul. Everything in there was a representation of Records and didn’t truly exist. That was why Jake’s body could get destroyed over and over again, as it wasn’t really his body but just how he viewed himself within his own little internal world. Same for the terrain that would be instantly rebuilt whenever broken.

All the other external things in Jake’s Soulspace, like Eternal Hunger and the drop of blood from the Malefic Viper, were also merely representations of Records. The drop of blood didn’t exist physically anymore after Jake had absorbed it, and Eternal Hunger’s true form was essentially just a mass of pure curse energy sealed within a form-changing weapon and not the odd fusion between Sim-Jake and the curse chimera Jake normally had sitting about.

So, with everything just being representations of Records, how the hell did the First Sage expect Jake to do more than he already was? He was already drawing out all the power he had, yet he kept losing out even as he was slightly improving all the time.

“You seem stuck. Are you truly that ignorant?”

For the first time, the old man moved from where he had been standing. He took a single step forward as he teleported, appearing right in front of Jake.

“Ask yourself why.”

Jake couldn’t move a muscle as the First Sage raised a palm and released a shockwave that atomized his entire being.

“I am just a mass of Records. This is far from everything I truly am, and what you see is nothing but a mere fragment, yet you are so powerless... why is that?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Jake responded with a growl as he regenerated again, this time appearing behind the First Sage as he attacked. He failed spectacularly as both his arms were merely erased simply by getting close to the First Sage’s body.

“Is it because you’re weak?” the First Sage asked as Jake found space around him fold once more, the old man crumbling it like origami paper. “Are you lacking in potential?”

That clearly wasn’t the reason, as Jake felt pretty damn confident in his talent above anything. His Records were of such a high quality that he felt as if he should be more powerful than the First Sage, seeing as he was indeed just a Record Fragment. Oh yeah, and they were in his bloody Soulspace, where he should have an advantage.

“You’re still confused? Why? Think,” the First Sage seemed to have lost a bit of his patience as he turned a palm toward the sky. The entire ground beneath Jake was torn up as a tornado descended and caught his newly regenerated body in the swirling debris and powerful wind.

The tornado began to grow and get more powerful as it even started to drag in and consume the sky of arcane energy. Caught within, Jake was trapped in a loop of death and regeneration as he struggled to try and keep his body from getting destroyed too quickly.

“So many Records, so much potential, so much power... yet this is all you are capable of, huh,” the First Sage said, waving his hand as the tornado exploded, sending Jake flying back as his world reassembled along with his regeneration, the gray rocky ground and sky returning to normal.

“This world is made up of your Records. It’s a representation of your Path,” the First Sage said, his tone calmer than before as he seemingly gave Jake a small breather. “That being the case, why does it look like this?”

The words sent out a shockwave that tore up the ground and also destroyed Jake’s body yet again, showing just how outmatched Jake continued to be. By now, he also really began to feel the strain.

He had died hundreds of times... far more times than the Demon Prince had back then. Every time, he easily regenerated his body, but an odd feeling of weakness had begun to sneak into his mind. A sense of tiredness that felt foreign.

It wasn’t the same as when Jake overspent his mental energy, but it did feel somewhat similar. It left a feeling of tiredness - a sneaking exhaustion that made Jake want to close his eyes and take a nap... but he knew that the moment he surrendered and rested would be the end. Granted, he wasn’t sure what would actually happen as the invader into his Soulspace was the First Sage, but if it had been an entity like the Cerulean Devil, the result would be Jake effectively dying as Records would fuse, creating an entirely new being.

As for the First Sage’s question...

“This is how it’s always looked,” Jake groaned as he took in the terrain.

“I asked you why,” the First Sage spoke once more, really not showing any kindness as he cut a finger across the air, separating space and cutting Jake apart again.

“That’s like asking why the sky is blue,” Jake answered, regenerating and trying to counterattack, only to have the ground rise and crush him.

“A good question... why is it blue?”

“Refracted light and stuff...” Jake muttered, on the watch for the First Sage’s next attack.

“So you do have an answer to that one. So let me ask you something else... why is the ground gray and dead here?” the First Sage asked, stomping down and splitting said ground as a large fissure opened up and rose to consume Jake.

Jake wanted to blurt out something again, but he stopped himself as he considered the question: Why was the ground looking as it did?

It had always looked pretty much the same ever since the first time he entered his Soulspace. In fact, his entire Soulspace looked like it had the first time he entered it, save for the new objects in there and the sky now being made up of arcane energy. He had never questioned why it looked like this, as he just assumed this was the default look for a Soulspace created by the system or something like that.

However, from the sounds of it, this wasn’t the case.

“Are you finally beginning to realize?” the First Sage asked, still not showing any kindness as he kept up the pressure by attacking again, manipulating the environment as if he owned it.

“Or are you still wandering in ignorance, unable to understand?” the old man continued, once more moving as he teleported again to appear in front of Jake and blasting him back.

Jake spun through the air as he was knocked upwards toward a First Sage already waiting there.

“This is your Soulspace.”

Reality folded and crashed into Jake as he was torn to shreds three times in rapid succession, barely able to keep his mind straight.

“A world created based on your Records, true...”

A casual handwave sent a palm larger than Jake could see crashing into him, seemingly destroying the entire Soulspace again as Jake was killed again. However, rather than focus on what was happening to him, he was focusing on the First Sage’s words as a realization began to sneak into his mind.

“But made entirely by you.”

The folding space consumed Jake as he didn’t even try to stop it but felt for something deeper.

“So I ask you again...”

Raising a hand toward the sky, the First Sage took hold of all the arcane energy up there and formed it into the shape of a massive spear.

“Why do you allow me control in this world that is yours?”

The massive spear descended toward Jake as something seemed to click in his mind. For some reason, the descending attack no longer felt as threatening as he reached out, and right before it hit him, he clenched his fist and stopped the spear.

As the spear stopped, the First Sage smiled for the first time ever since they entered the Soulspace. “Good... but not enough.”

With a push, the spear was forcibly sent down, but Jake was quick enough to dodge out of the way as he landed in the air not far away.

“Now for the second task...

Stretching out his arms to each side, energy began to gather around the First Sage as Jake prepared himself, a renewed sense of confidence as realization had begun to sneak in.

“Fight.”