Not far from the Prima Vessel, most of the strike team had gathered after Jake and the Prima Guardian disappeared. Eron was busy healing those injured, as Sylphie had taken off to help deal with some of the regular Primas, having taken the least damage of them all. Well, not counting Eron, who seemed impervious to getting killed over and over again. But no one really counted him.
“Think he’ll be okay?” Carmen asked, a bit worried as they waited to hear something – anything – about what was going on far above them in space. Jake had cut off all communication as he focused on the fight, and no one could really fault her for not feeling entirely certain Jake would be fine. He was facing a peak creature at level 349, all alone. A creature that all of them had struggled against.
“He sounded confident,” the Fallen King said. “I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t win.”
“I think a bigger concern is how long it’ll take to fetch him,” Caleb said as he massaged his shoulder, addressing the swelling from overusing his boosting skill earlier.
“Sandy has been informed and is on their way,” the Sword Saint said, sitting in a chair he had taken out of his spatial storage.
“Right,” Carmen nodded as she sighed.
To say they didn’t all feel a bit conflicted that Jake was going to finish this fight alone was an understatement. However, they also recognized that Jake was the only one capable of chasing the chimera, and even the Fallen King knew that while he could be summoned to Jake’s side, he would likely be more of a burden than a boon.
Out of them all, Jake was the strongest in a regular fight; no one disagreed with that. Especially when facing off against a foe many levels higher than himself, he truly stood out. He walked a Path all about killing that which was stronger, making him incredibly suited for doing so. Unless the Sword Saint fully used his Transcendent skill, he wasn’t at all confident about fighting Jake. Not during the Treasure Hunt, and not now.
As they were all sitting there, they all suddenly felt the change. The Prima Vessel behind them began to glow as a beam of light shot toward the sky, and a new opening appeared on it. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what had happened… especially not when she saw the system message that arrived alongside this change.
You have slain [Exalted Prima Guardian – lvl 349] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
“Well, I guess I shouldn’t have worried,” Carmen smiled.
“About us not getting any experience because they both ran the fuck away?” Caleb asked a bit cheekely.
“Oh, that too,” Carmen agreed.
“Did have me worried for a second,” the Sword Saint said with a sigh.
“In case anyone cares, Jake has confirmed the Prima Guardian is indeed dead and that he still lives,” the Fallen King shared. “But yes, it is good we didn’t miss out on the experience, as that would indicate our contributions weren’t recognized, which would prove detrimental to our Records and the overall rewards from this event.”
Truly, they were all focusing on what was most important.
--
Miranda was sweating despite not doing anything physically strenuous. She had just been forced to focus a bit too much for a prolonged period as she kept directing the flow of the battle while maintaining the domain in her own defended section. The incredibly durable Primas resulted in it taking way too long to kill each one, and alongside their damn armies, she felt like they needed way more fighters.
Then again, this definitely wasn’t how this system event was meant to be beaten. One was meant to fight the Primas one by one after they spread out, killing them to weaken the Prima Guardian before finishing off the big bad boss.
They were effectively doing this boss on hard mode, using a strategy that made it even harder. In other words… the highest difficulty with speedrun tactics.
She wasn’t sure what to think when she got the report that the Prima Guardian had fled the battlefield using some form of emergency escape skill… nor if it was a good or bad thing that Jake had chased without even hesitating. Probably good, right? Seeing as it was Jake who chose to chase.
Continuing to deal with all of the reports she got, Miranda kept sending reinforcements where needed. Lillian had formed a second strike team of sorts to quickly travel around and help where needed. Neil was even part of this team and served as their mode of travel as he rapidly took them around the battlefield using his space magic.
“Arrived at section nine and engaging the Prima… priority on suppressing it over killing,” Lillian reported as one of the stronger Primas had been causing trouble.
“Keep safe for now; once section eight is secured, I’ll send more assistance,” Miranda answered, turning her attention elsewhere.
Similar reports came in from all around as Miranda felt the pressure mounting. Many sections were still doing fine, but far more were struggling. Even the section William had been expertly handling was now a bit of a shitshow, as the ones there couldn’t work together to save their lives, and William himself had to deal with five Primas as he had gone to assist the Prima Guardian strike team indirectly. Was this going against his orders and their agreement? Yes. Was Miranda going to make a stink about it? No.
Sylphie going to help them was great, but she was still only one hawk. While she could certainly kill a few Primas, in the grand scheme of things, all she could do was lighten the load on a few sections. The same was true for the assistance Arnold had begun to provide, though based on what the scientist said, his contributions would be limited as he had spent quite a few resources already dealing with the Guardian.
All of this isn’t to say that Earth was losing. The fight was just taking longer than Miranda had hoped, and they would incur more casualties than was optimal. Especially now that many were beginning to run out of mana and stamina.
However, suddenly, things changed. She saw the pillar of light that erupted from the Prima Vessel, and for a moment, all the Primas stopped. Hundreds of screeches and roars sounded out from all over the battlefield as Miranda saw the Primas shaking as something seemed to be leaving them. Some of them lost a bit in bulk, their injuries worsened, and their auras became far less imposing.
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“The Prima has weakened significantly,” Lillian informed Miranda right then, telling the witch something she already knew, courtesy of the fifty or so other reports she got at the same time. Sending a message to everyone at once, she held up the phone provided by Arnold.
“The Prima Guardian has been slain. I repeat, Prima Guardian is dead. However, don’t lose focus, but make this cleanup smooth,” Miranda said, as she suddenly got a message and smiled. “Oh, and if you are feeling tired, retreat. Reinforcements are incoming.”
The system message for this event had said that beasts couldn’t participate in fighting against the Prima Guardian if they consumed system-given unique items… but now there was no Prima Guardian. It was still a bit of a gamble if they could now participate, but the Sky Whale informed Miranda he felt like he could. So, with that in mind, he and an entire army of beasts and monsters arrived through the teleportation circle behind the backline.
Taking his true form, the massive whale took to the skies, as the frost wyvern Miranda remembered Jake mentioning also ventured forth, releasing its breath on the weakened Primas. Thousands of powerful beasts, all mid-tier C-grade or above, entered the battlefield, as this was indeed nothing more but a cleanup.
Many of the beasts that had arrived with the Primas began to flee, with a few of them even trying to surrender. The vast majority still fought alongside their Prima as they faced death together. Noble, perhaps, but Miranda didn’t really want to think too much about stuff like that.
She was already looking forward to what came next. The Prima Guardian Alliance, the intergalactic politics, and the inevitable clash with Ell’Hakan and those who served or worked alongside him… there was still much to do in regards to this event.
Of course, before they could really do anything like that, they needed to claim the Planetary Pylon. And for that, they needed their World Leader, who was still floating somewhere in space, waiting for his giant space worm taxi to arrive.
----------------------------------------
Everything hurt, and Jake wasn’t a big fan. After he deactivated his boosting skill with the confirmed death of the Prima Guardian, the pain really came rushing in. He was pretty much out of skin on his body at this point, and his internals looked like several bombs had gone off inside him.
But he lived, and at least his body was strong enough to survive outer space even when Jake was in his severely weakened post-Arcane Awakening state. That didn’t mean he felt any less like shit, though, as he waited for Sandy to arrive. The Fallen King had already at least confirmed that the worm was on its way, so Jake wouldn’t have to fly all the way down there himself. Something he really didn’t do, and it wasn’t like his wings would be available any time soon for an expedient return. The skill wasn’t meant to be used for that kind of travel anyway, and chances are Jake would end up just appearing halfway inside the planet or still far away from it due to the severe lack of accuracy.
Still… it was a good upgrade, and without it, he wouldn’t have caught the Prima Guardian. Stressful situations were truly the best time to upgrade skills. Also, while Jake was complaining, he was totally okay with having a moment to himself to properly digest the fight he had just been in.
Going back a bit to when the Prima Guardian died, Jake had honestly been perplexed what the hell had happened. Everything was still a bit blurry, and all he remembered was that he tried to stab the damn thing with time slowed, and right as the Guardian tried to also slow down, it just fucking died. Jake knew his Moment of the Primal Hunter was special, but not to the level of it being deadly for the chimera to try and mimic it.
Ultimately, the chimera effectively killing itself didn’t change much. Jake’s attack would have killed the Prima if it hadn’t been able to use a skill like Moment anyway; it just sped up the process by half a second. From the looks of it, it wasn’t like it hurt Jake’s experience gained from the fight, either.
Oh yeah, and something Jake hadn’t noticed earlier either… as always, with a skill upgrade to his Malefic Viper Legacy skills, there also came a nice reward of experience points, giving Jake even more levels.
’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 276 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 278 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
Three levels from upgrading his Wings of the Malefic Viper was more than he expected but not really more than he usually got. It was also a while since he last upgraded one of his Legacy skills, so perhaps that played into him getting more experience than usual. In either case, more levels were great, putting him closer to level 300.
Having killed the Prima Guardian, there was naturally also plenty of class experience to be gained.
You have slain [Exalted Prima Guardian – lvl 349] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 290 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 292 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
Alright, Jake said plenty, but in his opinion, 3 levels as someone who was nearly high-tier C-grade was a lot. Now, Jake would definitely have gotten a fuckload more if he had done this entire fight alone, but that was never going to happen. Jake also seriously doubted he could have beaten the chimera alone… though it was hard to say.
Its ability to adapt still confused him. He still wasn’t sure if it could only use skills it had seen or if it could just use all sorts of skills based on the people it fought. Perhaps a combination of the two… or had they just all been scanned when they entered the Prima Vessel or something?
Perhaps if Jake had been the one to fight it alone, it wouldn’t have been able to copy from anyone else but only him. That would have made it weaker, yes, but Jake wasn’t sure by how much or if it would have copied more from him. Though, even if it had… Jake would have loved to see it try and copy him if Jake pulled out some Jake Juice, especially after what happened to it from trying to copy Moment.
Oh well, the thing was dead, so it didn’t really matter anymore. It was not like Jake was ever going to encounter a similar creature, as the chimera wouldn’t have been able to exist in the wild. It was purely an event boss created by the system to test Earth.
As a final thing in regards to levels, Jake had naturally also gained 3 race levels.
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 283 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 285 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
Thinking about it, Jake getting 3 levels from this fight was 2% of all the levels he needed for C-grade, and all done in less than a day… so as long as Jake could find another Prima Guardian and convince everyone to fight it tomorrow, Jake could reach B-grade within a month easily! They could even take a few weekend breaks.
Joking aside, it didn’t seem like much, but it was honest work.
After the Prima Guardian had truly died, Jake also saw that a second symbol had appeared on the back of his hand, signifying he now had both keys to the barrier around the Planetary Pylon. As long as he got back, it was ripe for the taking, and they would finally lay claim to the planet once and for all.
The second key was, sadly, the only loot Jake got from the boss. He didn’t know if it was because of the way it died or because it was a system entity, but it left nothing behind. The Fallen King did mention that the Prima Vessel had opened up a new entrance back on Earth that none of them could enter due to a barrier. It was kind of assumed Jake would be able to go in, though, so maybe there was loot in there? One can only hope.
Entering meditation, Jake focused on healing for the next good while, as he at least wanted his body to stop hurting a little before he moved on to the next task. Because while Jake had “only” gained three levels, those three had made him pass an important threshold when he got to level 290 in his class.
That’s right: it was time for a skill selection!
And, to make things things even better, while waiting for Sandy to arrive, Jake had plenty of time to painstakingly go over every single skill choice in excruciating detail as Jake opened up the system menu once he felt well enough to think clearly.
Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge class skills available