The Primal Hunter

Jake charged forward to the changed rhythm of Minaga’s boss theme. It had once more shifted in this so-called final hidden phase, and the stars also seemed to pulse with the beat. The number of attacks descending from above was staggering, and only Jake had a chance to even approach the Unique Lifeform without having to take several hits on the way.

Vaulting over a meteor, Jake got closer as he didn’t dare use One Step due to how warped space was from the meteors that clearly had some kind of strong gravitational pull. Minaga raised a hand and released a large beam toward Jake, forcing him to dodge as a meteor also went straight for where he was dodging. Before it had a chance to hit, a crescent wave of water cut it apart, allowing Jake to keep going without slowing down too much.

Jake focused on what was inside of his mouth as he got closer. He was squashing the liquid around as it burned his throat while it mixed, creating a truly unstable amalgamation. Necrotic Poison. Hemotoxin. Sleeping Night Toxin. Ethsoul Toxin, and finally, his best Neurotoxin. All of it tossed haphazardly together as Jake mixed it inside of his mouth.

He knew this mix wouldn’t actually work. It would be impossible for him to turn it into something useful… unless he had help. A way to combine it using powers far beyond what he was capable of. So Jake pulled out the final item.

[Vision’s Venom of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] – A single droplet of pure concentrated energy and Records related to the Malefic Viper. Significantly increases the potency of any toxin it is mixed with. Using this venom during the creation of any alchemical toxin increases the chance of activating Malefic Viper’s Poison, empowering the final product with the Records of the Malefic Viper. If used by the Chosen himself, the activation of Malefic Viper’s Poison is ensured if the created item is applicable.

It was a gift from the much-hated statue Felix had gifted, but Jake could not deny the item’s power. The small drop was in a bottle, and he quickly pulled out that single drop as he threw it into his mouth, and used Concoct Poison on the amalgamation inside of his mouth.

Right as he did so… something descended. A power far surpassing anything else momentarily appeared within the arena as the aura of what was inside Jake’s mouth changed. It became something that should not be able to exist, but through the power of that single drop, it had. Right as he knew it had worked, Jake encased all the liquid in stable arcane mana and created an orb.

[Malefic Viper’s Poison] has been activated! The transcendent power of the Malefic Viper has forcefully increased the rarity of your creation to Ancient, increasing all effects substantially.

*You have successfully crafted [Volatile Malefic Soulbane Poison (Ancient)] – A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned*

Moving to only be within only around a hundred meters of Minaga, Jake sent the signal through the Golden Mark that he was ready. Even if the poison was currently being held together by the power of Malefic Viper’s Poison, it would soon break apart.

Reacting to the signal, Sylphie made her entrance as a light green breeze swept through, speeding up Jake further and making several meteors change trajectory and miss him. In the very next moment, a green bullet descended with unprecedented speed, heading straight for Minaga. Her Green Shield was active as she barrelled through dozens of meteors while her body burned with energy. Minaga looked up at her as the barrier protecting his body met the diving bird.

A massive explosion sending a green burst of wind flying everywhere erupted as Sylphie was blasted back, tumbling through space as her body was destroyed, forcing her to transform into wind. She was heavily injured, but she had accomplished her goal as she flew back toward Dina and the others.

The barrier protecting Minaga was filled with cracks as large steam of water shot through the cosmos as a voice echoed.

“Glimpse of Spring: Erosion.”

The stream of water impacted the barrier as the Sword Saint stabbed through every single obstacle in the way, disintegrating everything the attack met. He could not move in closer, but his Transcendence-empowered Erosion Stab still managed to finally break the barrier as it shattered like glass and even left another nasty wound on Minaga’s chest while making him stumble slightly.

Without his defenses, Dina and the Fallen King made their move. Vines sprung from three places on Minaga’s very own body, rapidly spreading and attempting to restrain him. At the same time, a golden aura descended upon the entire battlefield as the King unleashed a powerful suppressive force. Minaga froze as he was unable to move, and Jake closed in as he felt hairline fractures spreading across the mask from the Fallen King exerting himself.

Despite everything, Minaga was not entirely hopeless. He made eye contact with Jake as powerful pressure descended from the stars. A deep rumble went through the entire arena as every single star shot out a concentrated light beam straight toward Jake. His only direction to dodge was backward… but that was never going to happen.

He kept going as the beams arrived. He never stopped his eye contact with Minaga as time slowed down. Moment of the Primal Hunter activated, and Jake used the slowed-down time to cross the final distance while taking the orb of stable arcane mana into his hand, also holding Eternal Hunger as he appeared right in front of Minaga.

Time resumed just as Jake unleashed every shred of his Hunting Momentum as he stabbed forward with full force. Piercing Fang empowered the strike further as he aimed for Minaga’s stomach, the Unique Lifeform not able to react in time. The orb with the Malefic Soulbane Poison was firmly grasped in his hand as it pierced into Minaga’s stomach, enough for him to embed his entire hand before the Unique Lifeform had any chance to respond.

Without hesitation, Jake used his other katar and severed the hand inside Minaga right as DIna’s vines wrapped around his body and pulled him backward out of another barrage of light beams.

Minaga stared as Jake flew away before looking down at the hole in his stomach. Jake reached out with his hand, and it began to glow with the familiar dark green light of Touch of the Malefic Viper as he pushed the unstable amalgamation over the edge. The stable arcane energy keeping it trapped also disappeared from a mental command as the poison was unleashed.

“Well, shi-“

The Unique Lifeform’s entire body erupted in a dark green aura as the poison shot through his body, making his entire form distort as if his Soulshape was trying to escape the physical confines of its body. His appearance warped for a second as reality seemed to flash, the stars above blinking in an uneven light as the constellation tattoos on Minaga’s body broke apart one after another.

His entire Soulshape began breaking as his left arm rotted into black dust within a second, followed by one of his legs, while the rest of his body convulsed.

Suddenly, he stopped contorting as Minaga seemed to get a final moment of clarity as he grinned widely. One last time he looked straight at Jake and the others with a taunting look while showing off his usual goofy smile.

“You should know by now… I always go out with a bang!”

With those words, Minaga went supernova as his body exploded. Jake’s eyes opened wide as he crossed his arms and summoned an arcane barrier. The shockwave reached him first, making the entire barrier crack, the blast itself following soon after.

Jake’s entire vision was one of pure white light as the barrier broke, and the scales covering his body crackled and broke… until suddenly, the pressure was gone. A faint green color instead appeared as Jake was dragged all the way back to his party by Bobo, as Dina stood holding her staff high and her entire body glowing with green light as a massive projection of a tree covered all five of them.

The supernova washed over the tree, the projected bark burning and getting peeled away as the Sword Saint and Fallen King tried to help by summoning two barriers. Jake also quickly joined them as even Sylphie tried to help. Heat began to enter the protective zone within the tree trunk just as the blast subsided and the cosmos became still.

*You have slain [Minaga – lvl 275] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Right as the notification came, the projection of the tree faded, and Dina’s transformed state disappeared as she fell over to the side. The Sword Saint was quick to catch her as Jake still stared at where Minaga had been.

There was nothing left but a few broken pieces of rock from the central platform floating through space. Even most of the stars were gone or dimmed to a level where one could barely see them. Jake finally allowed himself to calm down as his intuition told him the danger was over, and he let his own Arcane Awakening fade as weakness embraced his body.

Turning to his party, it quickly became clear they were all in a horrid state. The Sword Saint looked utterly haggard, having used his Glimpse of Spring twice in one fight. Dina was unconscious, so she naturally wasn’t in good condition, and the Fallen King stood with a mask that had quite a few cracks in it, giving off a weaker and far more unstable aura than before. Sylphie was the one who came out of the best, though her energy reserves were close to zero. As for Jake himself… well, he could definitely be better.

“We won,” Jake smiled to the others just as the entire space shifted, and Jake felt himself be teleported as he appeared within an in-between room surrounded by his four party members. Being confirmed safe dispelled a lot of the tension from the fight that still lingered as Jake felt everyone relax. The Sword Saint quickly took Dina and put her on one of the sofas in the room to relax as Jake also dragged himself over to a chair.

“That idea of yours was reckless,” the Sword Saint said as he looked at Jake and nodded. “But it worked, so good job. A better solution than mine, as I feel uncertain I could even have accomplished finishing him that quickly even if I went all out.”

Jake smiled lightly as he leaned back. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Sylphie had also slowly flown over and landed on Jake’s chest as he held the tired bird, who seemed more than happy to just snuggle up to him. She had done a good job and deserved some head pats.

Even the Fallen King had taken a seat in one of the chairs as he worked on his unstable aura. Jake knew he had severely overexerted himself with that final attack of his. It had been far more than just an attack to stop Minaga from moving… it had weakened his soul and made it far more susceptible to Jake’s poison.

As they had been sitting there for nearly a minute, they finally got a notification that felt pretty damn delayed. Jake read the first two and was a bit disappointed, but then he remembered the Demon Lord situation and continued, grinning from ear to ear as he saw the third one.

Fortieth floor completed. 400 Nevermore Points earned.

Bonus Objective Completed: Do not allow a single party member to be defeated during the battle (0/5). 1000 Nevermore Points Earned.

Grand Achievement earned: Complete the True Ending event by defeating a fully empowered Minaga in an exemplary manner. 10000 Nevermore Points earned. Due to completing a Grand Achievement, you will receive a 25% multiplier of all Nevermore Points at the final calculation.

“That is… quite something,” the Sword Saint muttered as he read the notifications.

Jake could only agree as he stared at the Grand Achievement – something he didn’t even know was a thing. 10000 Nevermore Points was already a shitload, but the 25% bonus was… massive. It also answered why getting to the top of the Leaderboards was so coveted. Doing something like this Grand Achievement was something only the true top elite could ever accomplish, and with how massive the bonus was, Jake reckoned it was pretty much mandatory if you wanted to aim for the top. Making up for a 25% deficit seemed pretty damn impossible, and it did make him wonder if there were other such multipliers.

“A hard-fought battle rewarding an achievement I doubt many can accomplish. A level 275 Unique Lifeform is no easy feat to defeat,” the Fallen King said as he had managed to mostly stabilize, but he did remain quite weakened. It didn’t strike Jake as the kind of weakness that would disappear within a few hours or even days either.

“Ree,” Sylphie let out a light screech in agreement as she looked up at Jake with begging eyes, making him pat her again as he reaffirmed how good of a job she had done. Dina was still down for the count as she had clearly gone above and beyond by blocking that damn supernova, which Jake did think was kind of overkill.

Having a brief moment of respite, Jake decided to check something else important. Level-ups. He instantly saw he had gotten one level from the poison, which was honestly fair as Jake had kind of cheated when he made it.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 227 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points*

As for his reward for killing Minaga… well, Jake couldn’t really complain

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 222 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 225 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 224 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 226 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

Four levels from killing Minaga was a lot, but also not really a lot, considering how much stronger he had been. If Jake had won this fight alone, he reckoned he would have gained at least ten levels. Not that he believed he could have won alone.

Dina stirred soon after Jake was done looking at his levels as her eyes shot open. She rapidly sat up while looking around, and before any of them could say anything, her Guardian, Bobo, seemed to inform her of the situation.

“We won,” she smiled.

“I already said that,” Jake smirked in response as he gave her a thumbs-up. “You came in tight towards the end. Great job.”

Dina just nodded, but before she could say anything… well…

“Man, I sure did a number on you all, huh?” a voice echoed as an all-too-familiar figure popped right into the room with a big smile on his face.

Dina jumped slightly as Jake turned to look at the newcomer who had just popped up and instantly noticed this wasn’t the same Minaga as the one they had just thought.

[Minaga – lvl 349]

“Please tell me this isn’t some final-final super-hidden phase?” Jake sighed as he looked at the Unique Lifeform.

“Would you like for it to be?” the Unique Lifeform grinned.

Jake stared for a second as he sighed, doing something he very rarely did: turning down a fight.

“Fuck that.”

“To be fair, it wouldn’t be a fight even if you were all in peak condition,” Minaga shrugged.

“True, true,” Jake nodded. “Should we apologize for killing you, by the way?”

“Nah, it’s all good; what’s a bit of murder between friends?” Minaga waved him off. “Nice touch there at the end, by the way.”

“Was that a Touch of the Malefic Viper pun?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” the Unique lifeform smiled jokingly before he suddenly turned extremely serious.

“By now, I guess some of you have guessed why I am here. That’s right, it is related to loot… but…” Minaga seemed incredibly conflicted as he let out a big sigh and sat down. “I must apologize about something. All this time, I have been deceiving you all, and it is only fair I make this confession. You may not believe it… but... I’m actually a god.”

An absolutely shocking revelation.