The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1128: A Diabolical Strategy

Jake couldn’t help but feel that this entire planet was fake somehow. After arriving in Area 5 and spotting the Grand Lake, it looked nearly identical to the one on the other side of the planet. This one was also almost perfectly circular and about the same size, while being filled with similar-sized islands. It all felt like someone playing a planet-building video game and, after making one Area, got lazy and just copy-pasted it a few times to finish quicker.

Thinking about it a bit more, Jake wouldn’t even be surprised if that was close to the truth of how this planet was made. It all seemed so designed to create an environment with monsters between high-tier C-grade and ones barely in B-grade. The mana density was perfect for it, with the most mana coming from the lakes, hence why the B-grades naturally gathered, forming a natural progression of power when one moved closer to a Grand Lake.

And then, of course, there was the creature that resided at the center of the planet. The mere fact that this plant wasn’t more involved in the happenings of the planet but seemed more like just a regulator of the mana in the environment convinced Jake it had to be planted, or at least controlled in some way. If not, would the Pantheon of Life even risk sending their young talents, knowing that some unknowable entity could decide to kill them and all other life on the planet when it randomly decided to?

Jake thought not.

He estimated all the Hunting Grounds were similarly designed and curated. Yet at the same time, the planet was also left alone for the most part, with no powerful people sitting watch to make sure nothing unwanted happened. Jake could have totally died to the Sovereign, and no one would have stepped in, which, in retrospect, was probably a requirement for it to be a good Hunting Ground in the first place.

The best way to sabotage a young genius was to coddle and always watch over them, after all. Without genuine danger, the Records would be crap.

Shaking his head, Jake soon spotted the island he had been aiming for. It was towards the center of the Grand Lake, and it looked like the description in the Hunting Grounds Manual except for one tiny little detail...

Was there always a giant mound of soil there?

In the middle of the island, a large clearing had been made, and a huge pile of soil and rock had been gathered, constructing a small mountain that reached over sixty meters into the sky. Flying closer, Jake was confused about what he was looking at, but when he was within Pulse distance and released one, he realized what was going on.

It wasn’t just a pile of soil, but a deep hole had also been dug and hollowed out partly. Beneath around a hundred meters of soil and rock, the Rainbowfeather Sovereign sat, seemingly waiting for Jake’s arrival.

Scouting the rest of the island, Jake frowned. One of the strengths of the Rainbowfeather Sovereigns and a huge reason why Jake hadn’t gone to this island right away was that he knew how dangerous these birds could be in large flocks. Jake had estimated there to be several hundred around the Sovereign, and that was conservative.

He had come with full expectations of having to make this a prolonged siege where he would kill peak C-grades and whittle down the number of Rainbowfeather Songbirds before he could engage the B-grade Sovereign, but it appeared that wasn’t needed at all.

There was not a single other bird or living being larger than a squirrel within a thousand meters of the Sovereign. He was all alone within his mound, genuinely confusing Jake. Not to say it wasn’t a good strategy to make a physical barrier to defend itself against Jake’s opening attack, though it wasn’t enough to fully deter Jake if he wanted to land a Protean Arrow. The attack would be weakened, sure, but not by that much, as his destructive arcane energies were remarkable as paving the way for his arrows.

The Sovereign had misunderstood one thing, though... Jake had never planned on handling this B-grade like all the others. His fight with the Sovereign had been interrupted by others, and even if the Rainbowfeather had attacked Jake in ambush initially, he had no intentions of returning the favor.

Instead, he wanted to pick up where they left off. Fully healed this time around, sure, but Jake didn’t want to start the fight with a massive advantage. Additionally, the more he looked at the scene on the island, the more Jake felt that something was... off.𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Could the Forest Fae have gone here? Jake also questioned. While he couldn’t feel her observing him, it was possible she was hidden somewhere nearby and would make her move once the fighting began. If that was the case, things could get hairy, but well... Jake still had Wings if he needed to escape again. Doing so would be super embarrassing, but the option was there.

Landing on the island, Jake approached the mound. He heard a soft clicking sound from within, and a second later, he knew the Sovereign was aware of his presence. Despite this, the B-grade didn’t move, but kept sitting down in the center of its small cavern.

Walking into the mound, Jake looked for traps and had his senses on high alert, but even as the B-grade entered his line of sight, he felt not the faintest sense of danger... which didn’t make any sense. He should feel something being this close to the Sovereign, one of the most powerful B-grades on the planet, yet there was nothing.

For a moment, Jake even wondered if this was the real Sovereign, but all his other senses told him it was confusing him further. It didn’t help his confusion when Jake fully entered the small cavern and stopped less than five meters from the still-sitting B-grade.

“You’ve come,” the Sovereign spoke in a calm tone.

“Expectedly so, I would assume,” Jake commented, not letting down his guard. The Rainbowfeather in front of him had proven itself resourceful and cunning so far, with the warnings on the Hunting Grounds Manual also reiterating this. He knew the B-grade had some kind of scheme or was up to something. He just couldn’t figure out what.

“Indeed,” the Sovereign nodded solemnly. “I’ve heard of your recent actions. Overlords of their own domains have fallen one after another, the power balance in Area 1 completely broken.”

Curious as to how the Sovereign knew what was happening on the other side of the planet, Jake raised an eyebrow. His first guess was that it was related to the Forest Fae, but he still joked around. “Do you have an information agency or something?”

“Word spreads fast. Some of the more powerful beasts from Area 1 have fled here after their leader died, and besides that, I do occasionally send my kin to gather information. We have many roosts spread across the planet and means to communicate between them,” the B-grade explained, being surprisingly forthcoming.

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“Then I guess you also know why I’m here?” Jake asked, still ready for the B-grade to leap up and try to kick him in the face.

“I do,” the Sovereign nodded as he sighed and changed the topic again. “Since last we met, you’ve grown stronger. You’ve proven yourself able to slay B-grades in rapid succession, turning yourself into a scourge nearly every creature on this planet fears. Moreover, you’ve proven that even if we try to slay you, if we cannot hinder your escape, you will simply return stronger and strike unseen from a clear sky with unfathomable power.”

Jake didn’t say anything as the Sovereign spoke, everything he said pretty accurate. He still wasn’t sure where the B-grade was going with it, though.

“I considered my approach to deal with such an opponent carefully. Please, allow me to explain my thoughts. My first instinct was to gather my flock, but tell me truthfully, would you not just have thinned it out until only I remained?” the Sovereign asked.

“Probably would have,” Jake more or less confirmed.

“That’s also my assumption. You could kill a few every day before retreating again, and I would be able to do nothing about it. All such a strategy would do was delay the inevitable, sacrificing the lives of my kin. Unacceptable,” the B-grade said.

“I naturally also considered forming alliances with other B-grades, but I am fundamentally averse to such tactics, and here in Area 5, I would be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to put themselves in your crosshairs to assist me. Most would prefer to just lie low and treat you like a storm they hope to pass quickly.”

Jake frowned even more as he allowed the Sovereign to keep speaking, the Songbird really living up to its name as he really loved the sound of his own voice. Luckily for the B-grade, Jake was curious enough to keep listening attentively.

“Then I could go into hiding, but that would leave my flock exposed to attacks from outside forces, and it would risk you attacking them instead of me... except I don’t believe you would do that. When such a thought struck me was when I decided on my strategy,” the Sovereign said, raising his head and looking at Jake.

“You’re a hunter who seeks a challenge. The thrill of the hunt. You do not care to kill those weaker than yourself. So, I will shamelessly appeal to your spirit as a hunter and present myself as prey not worth hunting.”

Now Jake was really confused, but he soon realized what the B-grade was getting at right as the Sovereign elaborated.

“I know that if we fought now, I would lose. Die. Even if I have a shallow chance of winning, I do not have confidence in my victory. So I will not fight you. I will do nothing but sit here, and you can do whatever you wish to do next. No matter what, I will refrain from resisting, even if my passiveness results in my own demise, so be it.”

Jake realized the strategy the Sovereign had chosen, and it was downright diabolical. He could only stand there and stare at the B-grade, and looking at the B-grade, Jake felt confident the Rainbowfeather was being one hundred percent serious.

“This is...” Jake muttered, genuinely unsure of what to do in this kind of situation.

If the Sovereign refused to fight back and would just allow Jake to kill it, what would the point even be? He even felt that the Sovereign suppressed its own energies and power, meaning that if Jake wanted to, he could walk right over and cut the B-grade’s head off without much effort.

He can’t be serious, right? Jake asked as his face turned serious. Without any warning, Jake stepped forward as Eternal Hunger appeared in his hand, and with full force, he stabbed the katar forward, even using Piercing Fang.

The blade rapidly approached the eye of the Sovereign... yet the B-grade stayed unmoving. Right before he hit the eye, Jake stopped himself, the tip of the katar not even a full centimeter from the pupil of the B-grade. Arcane energy sparked around the weapon like lightning, a bit of it jumping toward the eye.

“Ow,” the Sovereign muttered in a monotone voice, blinking a few times, but not moving in any other way.

Jake frowned and pulled back his katar while just staring at the B-grade. He had never encountered a situation like this, and Jake was genuinely unsure of how to respond. Even if Jake killed the Sovereign now, he would get absolutely fuck-all out of it.

In order for one to earn experience and Records from a kill, the other party had to at least fight back. That’s why top factions couldn’t just have their young genius kill some D-grade slave while still only in F-grade to earn a title and a massive amount of experience.

This scenario was effectively the same.

“You’re a real bastard, you know that, right?” Jake said, dismissing his weapon.

“I’m fully aware this strategy is incredibly cowardly,” the Sovereign nodded in agreement. “However, I remain insistent it’s the best approach I could take.”

“You know, I could just go slaughter your kin one by one until you decide to get off your ass and try to stop me,” Jake said.

The Sovereign just smiled. “You won’t. I believe you won’t.”

Naturally, the B-grade was entirely right, and Jake had just tried to rile him up a little.

“Most creatures would at least try to fight back when cornered,” Jake muttered. “This strategy of yours is recklessly risky. It’s downright unnatural.”

“You are only here on this planet to hunt. To gain levels. Records. If I take away your purpose for killing me, all that’s left is any animosity you may have towards me. Admittedly, it remains risky as I ambushed you, and you have reason to kill me outside of the system rewards that doing so would bring.”

“But I won’t,” Jake sighed, as he had to admit... he’d now lost to the Rainbowfeather Sovereign twice. Killing the B-grade like this would just feel wrong in every way. Jake didn’t just want to kill his foes. He wanted to fight them. He knew himself well enough to know that to him, hunting was inherently about proving himself superior to his foes while slaying them was merely the natural conclusion of that process. With the Sovereign, his opponent had already admitted defeat and refused to fight, making killing him meaningless.

“Is that how you older B-grades lived this long?” Jake asked after a while. “Through underhanded tactics and being cowards? First that damn Forest Fae, and now you.”

“The Forest Fae also dodged a direct confrontation?” the Sovereign asked, looking a bit surprised.

“Yeah,” Jake nodded, annoyed. “She’s gone. Searched all over the Grand Lake in Area 1 and from the looks of it, she’s entirely abandoned her own island and isn’t hiding on any of the other islands.”

“I see,” the Sovereign spoke, looking in thought for a moment as he lowered his head. After a few more seconds, he looked up at Jake. “How about a proposal to alleviate the dissatisfaction born from the conclusion of our enmity?”

“Not sure I would say the enmity has concluded, but sure, what do you propose?” Jake asked.

“I have a method to locate the Forest Fae.”

Jake instantly perked up as he raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

The Sovereign nodded. “If you will allow me to demonstrate... without you taking it as an invitation to strike.”

“Go ahead,” Jake said, waving off the damn bird. “I’m not gonna attack someone not even willing to fight back.”

“Very well,” the Sovereign said, and in the next few moments, his aura flared to life once more. He stopped suppressing his own power, and the Rainbowfeather stood up. “We should go outside.”

Jake nodded and followed as the two walked out of the cave. A small part of Jake was still cautious, but the sheer lack of danger he felt from the Sovereign made him confident the B-grade indeed had no intentions of fighting him at all.

Once outside, the Sovereign led Jake toward a small clearing, stopping a bit before they entered. “Ahead, you will see a ritual circle. This circle is not made in an attempt to- “

“Dude, I get it. No fighting,” Jake sighed. “Just do your thing.”

The Sovereign did as Jake said as he entered the clearing. Jake proceeded to watch as rainbow-colored mana gathered around the B-grade and sent out faint echoes of mana that seemed to sweep across the land.

“We Rainbowfeathers are masters of sound,” the Sovereign spoke, once more unable to hold back his Songbird heritage from taking over. “Sound can come in many forms, but what many don’t know is that each being has their own... rhythm. Their own sound. Every soul lets out a distinctive and unique hum, and while telling them apart or even hearing them in the first place is usually impossible, there are methods. Having known the Forest Fae for a long time, I remember her sound... and now I hear it.”

The mana seemed to reach a crescendo as the B-grade was filled with energy before turning in a particular direction, his eyes opening wide. “Found her.”

“Where?” Jake asked, beginning to believe he may have a fight on his hands yet.

The Sovereign seemed conflicted for a moment before he raised a clawed hand and pointed. “Merely two islands over that way... in the domain of the creature hailed as the most powerful B-grade on this planet.”