The Primal Hunter

Jake stared at the Forsaken Dragonkin as he, more than anything, just wanted to yell, “What the fuck did you just say to me?” but he managed to hold himself back. However, his face did reveal his distaste for the question, showing that he should have maybe worn his mask for this entire thing.

“Oh? Did the question offend you?” the dragonkin asked in an amused tone.

“I merely fail to see how my death would change anything,” Jake answered.

“It would convince me to help. You don’t need to know anything more than that. Now, why the hesitation? With every passing second, more people die, and the chance of the Guild Founder falling only increases. You can end it all by simply ending yourself… a small sacrifice if I say so myself.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed as he actually considered the proposition seriously for a moment. Not because he actually considered doing it, but more to try and understand why it was even offered within this Challenge Dungeon.

One had to remember that Jake had three lives, so that could make one think that killing himself would just be the smart thing to do. However, the rules of the Challenge Dungeon made things a bit more messy as he clearly remembered the text.

“Should you die, you will return back to wherefrom you originally accepted the most recent Courier Job. The Courier Job you died in the midst of will no longer be available. You have three total lives.”

There were a few things here. It only said Courier Job in the description, never specifying anything about Special Courier Jobs. Jake had just assumed that since Courier Job was in both names, both counted. There was also the part about returning back to where he accepted the Courier Job after failing it. Did this mean Jake was just teleported and revived there? Or did it turn back time to the moment he accepted the job? Jake once more assumed it meant turning back time, but he would fail no matter the case.

Unless… the Special Courier Job was completed before Jake was returned. In that case, what would happen? Would Jake just die and exit the Challenge Dungeon while also completing it at the same time? Would he see a nice epilogue slideshow as if he had just finished an RPG?

There were many interpretations, and there even was a chance that killing himself would actually lead to a “good” ending for the world. Of course, there was also the option that it just fucked Jake over completely and sent him back without having done the Special Courier Job at all.

Finally, this could also simply be a test. The kind of thing where Jake would take the dagger, but just before he actually killed himself, the S-grade would stop him and say he had proven his determination simply by showing he was willing to do it.

Now, no matter the case, Jake’s answer would still be a solid “fuck no.”

It wasn’t even a question of if this would work to complete the Challenge Dungeon. The dragonkin had simply asked Jake to do something he wouldn’t ever do. To kill himself would go as directly against his Path as anything could, and even if it probably wouldn’t really matter, Jake didn’t want Records of him choosing to kill himself like this associated with him.

Also, Jake didn’t even think he could try to genuinely do it. Chances are the S-grade could detect if Jake was faking it or not, so the “he will stop me at the very last moment” option wasn’t even valid. If it required Jake to truly be willing to kill himself, how was it different from actually killing himself? Truthfully, Jake simply valued his life too much to even fake it. He wouldn’t even willingly kill himself to save all of Earth, so why the hell would he ever do it for some random world in a Challenge Dungeon?

Last but not least, this simply couldn’t be the solution. To even get to this point of the Challenge Dungeon, one had to be pretty damn good. One had to be a multiversally recognized talent, and someone often called a genius, and while Jake could see the logic in teaching these young geniuses how not to be assholes to others by using their status, he didn’t see a world where the Wyrmgod thought teaching them to be doormats willing to kill themselves was a good idea.

“You are awfully quiet for someone on a timer,” the dragonkin said, as Jake hadn’t said anything for a while. “Are you truly in a position to be considering the offer that deeply? Why do you even need to consider it when I thought you were such a loyal and dedicated Courier, willing to do anything to get the job done?”

Jake clearly heard the mockery in the dragonkin’s tone, making him lose his cool for a brief moment as he replied in a snarky tone. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking the joke had already run its course and was waiting for you to stop fucking around.”

The Forsaken Dragonkin’s smile only grew as Jake said this. “And there he is. The one hiding beneath the mask. Are you now going to tell me now what you really are and what you’re doing here? Because I don’t believe for a second you just appeared out of nowhere and suddenly found your passion by being a Courier.”

“I think I already told you my matters are my own, but true, I’m not just doing this work out of the goodness of my heart,” Jake said, having already decided.

Clearly, any usual strategies for convincing the dragonkin wouldn’t work, so he tried to switch up the tactic a bit and act more like he usually did.

“But you do genuinely need my help,” the Forsaken Dragonkin pointed out.

“Need your help? No, not really, it would just make things easier for me,” Jake shrugged. “The people fighting up there do need you, though. If not, they’re fucked for sure.”

“And what would happen to you if they all die?”

“I would probably just leave,” Jake said honestly. “No reason to stick around if everything is just a burning mess. But don’t misunderstand, I do want to complete my current job, which is to have you help the Guild Founder and the others, so how to make you do that? And no, I’m not fucking killing myself.”

“I see… so what if I just kill you instead?” the Forsaken Dragonkin asked as his aura was released. It pressed down on Jake with actual energy, making his knees slightly buckle, but Jake quickly responded by infusing stable arcane energy into them… meaning that rather than bend, they would get squashed like under a hydraulic press if the pressure got high enough.

“That would also be highly annoying,” Jake said as his lips tore just from moving while under the pressure.

“Annoying? What an insignificant word to describe the end of your Path with,” the Forsaken Dragonkin scoffed as he kept up the pressure. “You’re telling me you won’t kill yourself, but dying to me barely matters?”

“You can’t kill me… at least not for good…” Jake said as he kept staring the dragonkin in the eyes despite his own body repeatedly taking damage.

The Forsaken Dragonkin tilted his head as the pressure severely lessened. “Now you got me curious. I don’t need a lie-detector skill to know you truly believe that… what gives you such confidence?”

“Tell you what…” Jake said as he popped both his shoulders back in place after they had been dislocated from the aura. “I’ll tell you after you’ve dealt with that dragon tribe.”

Heh,” the dragonkin shook his head. “I may be curious, but at this point, I am inclined to believe you are just insane rather than there being any actual reason.”

“Fair, fair,” Jake nodded as he took out and drank a health potion. “But isn’t it worth the gamble? From how I see it, you have four choices. Either you wipe out the dragons and side with the Guild Founder, you help the dragon tribe and kill the Founder, or you wait for both to fight it out and swoop in to beat down the winner and have them serve you. That winning side very likely being the dragon tribe. Fourth, you just kill all of them and don’t bother with any factions.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The dragonkin kept looking at Jake as if he were some interesting specimen, and he seemed more and more amused. “And now you talk about wiping out everyone with such casualness…”

Jake shrugged, partly to roll his shoulders and make sure they were correctly popped into place, and partly to, well, shrug. “Not my first time seeing a world be destroyed. But I can’t recommend it unless you really hate everyone here.”

“If your goal is to intrigue me more, you are doing a good job,” the Forsaken Dragonkin said with interest. “I already had the belief you didn’t originally come from this planet or even any of the nearby solar systems, and seeing as I believe you have seen the fall of a world and that I am aware of any planets falling nearby, that only enforces it. So, where do you actually come from?”

“If I told you, it would stop being such an intriguing mystery, now wouldn’t it?” Jake answered with a smile.

“Alright… then how about this. Have you ever met a god before?”

Raising an eyebrow, Jake was a bit surprised by that question. Partly because this felt like people with connections to gods would have an advantage with this one. Alas, Jake saw no reason not to tell the truth.

“Obviously.”

“So a god sent you here?”

“In a roundabout way, you can say that,” Jake nodded. “Now, not going to answer more, but I am kind of getting the feeling what you wanna ask about… you want to know how to achieve godhood, don’t you?”

“We all do, don’t we?” the Forsaken Dragonkin shrugged as he asked without an ounce of seriousness. “Why? Got any tips or tricks?”

“No, of course not,” Jake said with a deadpan expression. “But I may be able to help you… after you help me.”

“And how exactly will you help me?” the dragonkin said, looking even more amused than before, and from the look in his eyes, Jake knew the path he was going down was correct… because he saw a small smidgen of hope.

“I cannot tell you directly how… but I can show you instead,” Jake said as he took a deep breath. “Please, I would stand back a bit; this isn’t something I can easily do.”

The thing Jake was about to do had come to him as they spoke, and in all honesty, it was a huge gamble. Even if things seemed to be going well, Jake had the feeling the dragonkin still wasn’t going to actually help him. He was beginning to realize he truly didn’t care what happened, and Jake’s guess he was just fucking around by talking with Jake was actually mostly correct.

Would he have still helped if Jake had killed himself? Maybe, maybe not. Again, it didn’t matter, as Jake firmly believed it hadn’t been a real choice unless one was maybe on their last life or something. So Jake had cooked up this little ploy instead. He would, for a moment, convince the dragonkin in front of him he was actually the avatar of a god, just long enough to get him to help Jake. Genuinely help Jake.

The Courier Job was to convince the Forsaken Dragonkin. Jake believed there probably were things you could say to make him side with you, and maybe someone like Miranda could have done it by offering him things or making good arguments why assisting the Founder would be wisest… but Jake wasn’t able to do that. He had kind of tried but failed badly. So, he would just go with something only he was capable of by lying and deceiving using his special abilities.

“Alright, I’ll bite,” the dragonkin said as he raised both hands and backed away a bit. “But let’s make this your last chance. If you fail to be convincing I’ll kindly throw you out of here… because, honestly,… that fourth option of wiping out everyone does actually sound quite appealing.”

Jake didn’t say anything as the words of the dragonkin pretty much served as confirmation. That had probably been his plan all along. To have the two sides fight it out, and then rather than make the winner his servants, he would just kill them all. It made sense… he was Forsaken, after all. He hadn’t bothered making anyone his servants before now, despite being capable of all this, so why would he even bother now? Plus, the dragon tribe had clearly betrayed and thrown him out, while the human side, even if they served him for a while, would all despise him simply for his herritage. Simply put, he had no love for either side, but Jake still believed he could be convinced to at least tolerate the enlightened races.

Sitting down, Jake crossed his legs as he took a deep breath, and the S-grade observed him with interest. Entering Soul Meditation, Jake dove into his Soulspace. There, he saw the shadowy figure that looked a bit like himself representing Eternal Shadow, some other collections of energy here and there and a shitload of arcane energy covering the skies.

However, right in the middle of the world floated a small black object. A single droplet of dark blood. Jake approached this blood drop as the intense aura of the Malefic Viper could be felt from it. This was the blood Jake had absorbed all the way back in the Trial of Myriad Poisons just following the Tutorial. It wasn’t just regular blood either, but blood containing Records and energy from the Malefic Viper. A fragment of his power.

Jake hadn’t really messed with it much, even if he did study it when using Sagacity of the Malefic Viper. It was still filled with knowledge for him to unlock, but doing anything forcibly with it simply wasn’t possible. The only reason it was even dormant and that having such a fragment inside of him didn’t kill Jake outright was because of his Bloodline being able to suppress it, and the Viper never actively trying to take it back.

Throughout time, Jake had many theories as to how he could maybe use this small droplet but never dared. Jake had no idea what messing with it could even help him with, so there had been little reason to even try before. He was already slowly absorbing it, and with time, he would make all the Records inside truly his, so trying to mess with it directly was high-risk, borderline zero reward.

Now, things were different as Jake was going to try one of the things he had theorized was maybe possible. Something that, even if he could do it, would be utterly useless outside of this particular Challenge Dungeon. Besides, with it being a Challenge Dungeon, even if Jake messed up, he wouldn’t actually die.

Approaching the drop of blood, Jake carefully reached out and stopped just before touching it. Controlling himself as best as he could, Jake lessened the suppression of the drop ever-so-slightly as it passively began to fight back, and its Records began to run rampant, not unlike the time he had absorbed all the cursed energy from the Root of Eternal Resentment.

A dark green aura spread from the drop of blood as it mixed with Jake’s Bloodline, and with full focus, he projected it outwards. At the same time, he released his Bloodline aura fully as he opened his eyes out in the real world.

His aura exploded with the presence of his Bloodline as it blanketed the entire room. However, his presence was different from usual as it faintly mixed with that of the Malefic Viper’s from the drop of blood, giving it a slight divine quality.

For the very first time, the Forsaken Dragonkin looked at Jake with genuine shock. Jake saw his legs slightly shake from the mixed presence, but before anything more happened, Jake had to pull it all back as he fully suppressed the drop of blood once more. As everything returned to normal, Jake coughed as blood filled his glove, and he made damn sure the dragonkin saw it.

“What was…” the dragonkin muttered.

“A preview,” Jake said as he wiped the blood away and looked at the dragonkin.

“A preview of what exactly?” the Forsaken Dragonkin said with intense interest.

“Godhood,” Jake just smiled. “And if you want to learn more… you know what to do. Help me to succeed in my task, and I’ll be sure to help you afterward.”

The Forsaken Dragonkin looked at Jake for a moment, and Jake knew he had deployed plenty of magic to see if Jake was telling the truth. Perhaps he detected some of Jake’s words were half-truths, but he had never really outright lied, so in the end, the dragonkin simply nodded.

“Very well… you have a deal.”

Final Special Courier Job Updated: Await the outcome of the war.

“Pleasure doing business,” Jake smiled. “You can find me back here when you return.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” the dragonkin said as he teleported to the entrance of the hall, and as he did, Jake felt the entire place seal off.

Jake just shook his head as he released a Pulse of Perception. He saw that outside of the mountain he was in, hordes of people had gathered, ready to strike at any moment. With a second Pulse, he saw the Forsaken Dragonkin appear in the air outside. The third showed not one of his pursuers left alive, with only wayward ashes falling.

Pretty scary.

Leaning back, Jake lied down as he put his hands behind his head as he looked toward the ceiling of the cave. Now, all he had to do was wait for the outcome of the war just as the quest said. As he was lying there, Jake felt pretty satisfied if he had to say so himself. He had pulled off the damn bluff of a century.

Jake had initially considered trying to bluff using his Bloodline alone, but he knew that wouldn’t have worked. The dragonkin knew about him, and nothing Jake did would make sense if he was actually some godlike being already. Sure, there was a minuscule chance Jake was just some immortal monster playing a delivery man with self-imposed rules for fun, but Jake wouldn’t bet on the dragonkin reaching that conclusion.

However, by mixing in the aura from the drop of blood, Jake changed his presence slightly, and the divine quality it added was unquestionable. He knew any S-grade could sense it and know the sheer difference in grade between that energy and their own. Plus, the aura of the Viper’s clearly wasn’t the same as Jake’s, communicating that there indeed was some god backing him.

Now, one may ask why Jake had never tried this kind of bluff before, and the reason was pretty obvious… this shit would only work on anyone who had never actually met a god before, much less the Malefic Viper. If Jake tried to blast the aura from the blood in the wider multiverse, it would easily be detected as “off,” and Jake would get bitch-slapped for trying to fake it, while probably getting a heresy charge slapped on top.

Plus… why the hell would Jake need to do this kind of bluff when he had a True Blessing to blast people with if he wanted to intimidate them based on his connection to the Malefic Viper? It wasn’t like blasting the aura from a fragment of Records from the Viper made Jake’s connection to the Primordial any less recognizable.

No, the only reason it had worked here was because of the rules of the Challenge Dungeon. Jake had effectively found a way to still flaunt his Blessing despite being unable to, which felt pretty damn good. Now, he just had one minor problem.

I hope I don’t actually have to give that dragonkin tips on how to become a god…