The Curator
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Chapter 119: The Hunt Begins
🕑 Added 2024-12-02 15:35:10 +0000 UTCKargul, Evelyn, and Vorlok had traveled far and wide after arriving at the fourth stage, deliberately avoiding a return to Kael and the others. The memory of what had happened to Thalion lingered, making everything feel wrong. Besides, the others didn’t need their help. Kargul could focus on his body tempering, which conveniently involved smashing himself against hard surfaces—a task well-suited for this harsh environment. Evelyn’s soul cultivation required no external resources, and Vorlok, while he missed Lars' exquisite cooking, seemed perfectly content devouring the massive beasts that roamed the land.
Still, Evelyn couldn’t deny that Lars' food was sorely missed. She had caught herself more than once daydreaming about his delicacies. Perhaps they’d return one day, if only to raid his stores. For now, the trio journeyed under the blazing sun, undeterred by obstacles. Evelyn lounged on the creature’s enormous shell, basking in the sun.
“Oh, look! A big Magmafang Carnotaur!” Kargul’s voice rang out, brimming with excitement. He practically vibrated with energy as he pointed at the hulking dinosaur in the distance.
“You didn’t identify it, did you?” Evelyn muttered, shielding her eyes from the sun.
Kargul’s silence confirmed her fears. Normally, identifying a beast wouldn’t be an issue, but on this stage, any attempt alerted the creature. Worse, the Magmafang Carnotaur seemed particularly interested in their direction. A tense minute passed before the dinosaur released a piercing screech, summoning five more of its kind.
Kargul, utterly unfazed, called up to her. “Eve, they’re not as strong as I thought! The strongest one is only level 73!”
Evelyn sighed deeply. “Fine, let’s give it a try,” she said, sitting up. The situation wasn’t ideal. If the fight dragged on, other beasts in the area could take notice, and then they’d really be in trouble.
“Yeah! I’m gonna smash you all!” Kargul roared, sprinting at the pack of Magmafang Carnotaurs. The massive beasts watched him, their glowing red eyes gleaming with hunger.
Vorlok roared too, taking off with a burst of speed that seemed impossible for his size. Evelyn gripped tightly to its shell, waiting for the right moment. When it came, the turtle dived with incredible force, aiming for the nearest dinosaur.
Below, Kargul collided with one of the Magmafang Carnotaurs, his mace connecting with a thunderous crack that shattered bones and sent the creature sprawling. At nearly the same instant, Vorlok crashed into another, his enormous jaws snapping down on its skull. The sound of crunching bone echoed through the battlefield as he tore off most of the beast’s head in a single, ferocious bite.
Evelyn landed gracefully off to the side, only to find herself the target of another Carnotaur. It roared, its throat glowing red-hot, and fired a molten ball of magma at her. She sidestepped with ease, her movements fluid and controlled. Since her encounter with Cathrin, she had become a master at dodging and running.
The Carnotaur charged, its jaws wide open, aiming to end her in a single bite. Evelyn activated one of her four movement skills, dancing just out of reach every time it lunged. She had turned running into an art form.
The beast, frustrated by its inability to catch her, made a critical error. As its veins began to glow with fiery energy, it prepared for one final charge. But Evelyn had been waiting for this. With perfect timing, she activated a second movement skill, propelling herself far out of its reach.
The Carnotaur, realizing its prey was beyond its grasp, turned its attention to the others—only to witness the last of its pack disappearing into Vorlok’s throat. Kargul was wrestling with a broken jawbone still lodged in the turtle’s mouth, muttering, “Couldn’t you leave me one tooth?”
Vorlok, ignoring him, happily swallowed the rest of the head. Kargul looked around for something else to smash and spotted the lone surviving Carnotaur, which was now frozen in confusion and fear.
“Gotcha!” Kargul roared, sprinting at it with his mace in hand.
Vorlok, not to be outdone, charged forward with equal ferocity. But before either could reach the dinosaur, it froze in panic, realizing a massive hyenadon—towering even taller than itself—was blocking its escape route. The hyenadon bared its fangs, ready to attack.
The last Magmafang Carnotaur turned tail to flee, but it was too late. Vorlok and Kargul slammed into its side like a living avalanche, the force of their impact sending the beast sprawling to the ground.
"Ha! Finally got one!" Kargul roared triumphantly. Before Vorlok could devour the entire creature, Kargul pried loose one of its massive teeth, holding it aloft like a trophy.
Evelyn watched with a satisfied smile as the illusion of the hyenadon she had conjured dissolved into the air. The spell had drained a considerable amount of mana, but it had been worth it. Without it, the Carnotaur might have outrun them, and every second spent chasing it would have increased the chances of attracting other predators.
"This was a good hunt," Kargul declared, slipping the tooth into his spatial ring. "We should head back to Kael and the others. Lars' inn is waiting, and I’m ready to celebrate with a proper feast!"
Evelyn nodded, her own thoughts drifting toward Lars’ cooking. Vorlok’s eyes glimmered at the mention of the inn. Without hesitation, the trio began their journey back to Kael’s base, the sky dimming as twilight painted the horizon.
<--
Nari and her ghouls trudged through the endless savanna of the fourth stage. She was one of the weaker vampires of the undead faction in this tutorial. Her task was simple yet tedious: find and kill the living, or if the situation grew too dangerous, ascend to the next stage. It was an annoyance, but at least she could amuse herself by hunting beasts to create more undead.
Unfortunately, the colossal dinosaurs of this stage had proven resistant to her craft. Frustration simmered within her as she scanned the horizon. She hadn’t encountered a single human in weeks, an unsurprising fact given the stage’s vast expanse.
Her boredom turned to intrigue when she spotted a curious scene. A drunken man had been thrown atop a large rock jutting out above the high grasses of the tundra. The man who had thrown him was now sprinting back to a hidden position, seemingly waiting for something to emerge and claim the man as a meal.
From her vantage point, Nari observed the intoxicated man flailing and cursing as he attempted—and failed—to stand. A grin crept across her lips. She signaled her ghouls to wait. Mindless and loyal, her undead puppets were ideal for reconnaissance. They lacked finesse, but their brute strength and speed had served her well thus far.
She briefly considered sending one of her weaker ghouls to finish off the hapless drunkard, but then the true spectacle began.
A massive black salamander, over ten meters long, slithered out of the underbrush, its eyes locking onto the thrashing human. The creature climbed onto the rock, its enormous maw opening to reveal a glistening tongue that shot out like that of a frog. In one fluid motion, it ensnared the man and swallowed him whole.
The man nearby remained oblivious, something clutched in his teeth as he crouched low in hiding. Only when the other man’s screams ceased did the guy realize something was amiss. His eyes widened in panic, and the weird man activated a movement skill, teleporting directly in front of the salamander.
Nari’s amusement turned to fascination. The man moved with a fluid grace, summoning a telekinetic purple blade that sliced cleanly through the salamander’s legs. Moments later, she severed its head with the same ruthless efficiency.
What happened next even shocked Nari.
From the man’s arm, a dark purple tentacle emerged, slithering into the decapitated creature’s body through the stump of its neck. Moments later, it retracted, pulling the drunken man free from the acidic innards of the salamander. His skin was pallid, the acid having already begun to dissolve it.
The man coughed and sputtered, immediately launching into a tirade of curses at his savior. The man, seemingly unbothered, used the tentacle to gently scrape away the remaining acid. The gentleness didn’t last long, though. He began spinning the man at dizzying speeds, slinging the corrosive residue off his body.
When he finished, he plopped the stumbling man back onto the rock, gave him a thumbs up, and disappeared into the former hiding spot. The drunkard, now significantly quieter and barely moving, remained slumped on the stone.
Nari’s eyes gleamed with a mix of intrigue and horror. This human man displayed a brutality she hadn’t encountered before, even among the royal families who hunted humans in the mountains or bought them as slaves. This behavior was something else entirely.
The weak man was excellent bait, Nari noted with approval. Perhaps she would emulate this strategy.
Signaling her ghouls to stay back, Nari conjured a blood spear and crept closer to the man's hiding spot. As she prepared to strike, the man dropped a piece of meat, turning to retrieve it. Their eyes met. Both moved simultaneously.
Nari hurled her blood spear with deadly precision, but where the man had stood was now a massive squid, its writhing tentacles whipping through the air. The spear struck one of the tentacles but failed to penetrate its rubbery hide.
She didn't want to infuse more power into the bloodspear at first, as the gathering of energy could have alerted the warrior. She dodged to the side, trying to escape the tentacles, but was struck by a telekinetic wall that smashed her body against the ground from above. The force was so strong that the bones in her right arm shattered.
Before she could get up, one of the giant tentacles grabbed her and, with incredible speed, moved her toward the beak in the middle of the mass of tentacles. On her way to what she knew was certain death, Nari commanded her ghouls to attack. But it was probably too late anyway. The beak between the writhing tentacles grew closer, and a moment later, she was no more.
Jack was surprised when, out of nowhere, he was attacked. Luckily, his reflexes saved him—he activated one of his telekinetic abilities, sending a crushing wave forward that obliterated everything in front of him. It was perfectly suited for catching fast-moving threats; some might even argue it was designed specifically for moments like this.
Turning back after killing the vampire, Jack saw Josh struggling, surrounded by corpses with sharp teeth.
"Oh, not again," Jack thought as he teleported over, arriving just as the first ghoul sank its teeth into Josh's arm.
It took time, but Jack managed to kill the undead pretty quickly. Thankfully, they had no skills or special means of escape. Thinking back, he realized he probably shouldn't have ignored the ghoul that had been chewing on Josh's arm for so long.
"Well, hindsight is always clearer," Jack thought happily as he walked over to Josh. Josh's arm looked bad, but it wasn't life-threatening.
"Jack, get me off this stone immediately!" Josh shouted, his voice exhausted and strained.
"No, this is good! You're getting a ton of credits and experience—especially for the salamander," Jack rejected his proposal.
"I said I would help you, and that's exactly what I'm doing," Jack continued, confidence radiating from him. "In the future, you'll thank me. It'll make for a great story to tell."
"Please, just get me out of here. I don't want to be the bait," Josh pleaded.
But Jack pretended not to hear him. By the time Josh finished speaking, Jack had already teleported back to his hideout. From the safety of his position, Jack reflected on the situation.
"It's tough, having all the responsibility," he thought with mock solemnity. He was convinced that he was doing the right thing. After all, it was a foolproof method of power leveling: a beast would come to eat Josh, and Jack would swoop in to smash it.
"Sure, Josh might get bitten sometimes, but he could handle it. Josh was always so strong, after all."
<--
Outside the tutorial, whispers began to spread among the gods that Ankhet had appeared in one of the tutorials.
This revelation sent shockwaves through the divine realms. Many gods, especially those near the eternal dominion, took immediate action. They joined Solarion's alliance and began blessing participants in the tutorial, aiming to prevent the Eternal Dominion from gaining such a powerful ally.
Yet one faction—among the strongest in the multiverse—remained maddeningly neutral, the elves. Known for their vast reserves of ancient knowledge and a pantheon of incredibly powerful gods, the elves’ refusal to intervene was seen as a slight by their divine peers.
From the perspective of other gods, these arrogant beings were forcing others to invest more heavily in the tutorial. This strategy could have significant implications:
First, every blessing and ounce of power spent in the tutorial would be unavailable for future battles. The gods’ chosen warriors—destined to clash in the new universe after the tutorial—would face altered dynamics.
Second, if a god’s chosen warrior was killed during the tutorial, the investment would be gone. The power lost would set the god back by millennia unless they took extraordinary risks to recover it. While this may not sound catastrophic, for gods playing the long game, repeated losses could render them irrelevant—or worse, cost them their dominion over their domains. But one other god's silence was even more unnerving than the elves' neutrality.
The Spider Queen, a powerful black spider, was among the first gods to emerge after the apocalyptic event. She was easily one of the most powerful beings in existence. Her vast web spanned galaxies, entrapping lesser gods like flies. In past conflicts, the Spider Queen had often sided with the undead. This time, however, she chose the same neutrality as the elves. But unlike the elves, no one dared question her motives. Her long life was marked by destruction; she had single-handedly obliterated factions of powerful gods. Her daughters were beings of immense power, each rivaling the might of pinnacle gods. If a god saw her web expanding toward their domain, they didn’t fight—they fled, seeking weaker gods to challenge for territory instead.
This time, though, the Spider Queen’s silence was chilling. What plans could such a being have that outweighed the significance of Ankhet’s rise? The question loomed, unanswered, casting a shadow over the multiverse.
Comments
Brian Mirando
Killing someone who's helping is just wrong.
hawkshe .
I hope Josh gets strong enough to kill Jack for all the abuse he's received.
