Zogarth
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Chapter 1193 - Nightmare of the Olthorn
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 11:23:40 +0000 UTCJake overlooked the snowy wastes that stretched out endlessly before him. Far in the distance, mountains pierced into the sky, and below him, deep crevices of ice could be seen, monsters dwelling nearly everywhere whenever he felt for them.
As planned, he was back in the Hunting Ground he had briefly visited after getting his World Tree bow and had to go test it. He had told himself back then he would return, and now, while waiting for Minaga to go tell him that the Sword Saint and Sylphie were ready to leave, he would go for a little hunt.
Scouting the area, he soon spotted a lone Olthorn wandering the wastes, using a staff to walk. The bipedal goat-like monsters were a perfect target in Jake’s mind, as not only were they incredibly weak for B-grades, but they also apparently reproduced at an absolutely insane rate.
Not to say all members of the Olthorn race were weaklings. As with most races, they had their powerful variants, and Artemis had warned him before going that if he spotted one, leaving would be his best option.
Spotting the powerful variants was also relatively straightforward, and they could be easily avoided. First of all, none of them wandered the surface, but all dwelled within the mountains or deep beneath the ground, surrounded by their kin. Secondly, they looked quite different, as every single variant worth its salt was female.
For a quick lesson on Mystical Olthorn biology and their reproductive cycle, it could be summed up that the males were weak and all the females were powerful. In some ways, they reminded Jake a bit of Vesperia and the ectognamorph race, except not really.
The Mystical Olthorn weren’t drones but creatures that could, in theory, evolve past B-grade and forge their own Paths, and there were very rare instances of powerful male variants, but those wouldn’t be found in B-grade.
In fact, if Jake ever encountered an A-grade male Olthorn, he would have to be wary, because for one to even evolve meant it had forged a Path far beyond the norm, and it could be said to have truly broken free of its destiny, no matter how much Jake hated that word.
Anyhow, one could only find the male Mystical Olthorn on the surface because they were the only ones doing the work of their Matriarch. They were wandering the wastes to collect natural treasures, slay elementals, and collect their cores, and do all sorts of other tasks for their mother. However, perhaps most importantly for the males, they went to gain some power on their own, because if they got strong enough, they could be lucky enough that another Olthorn tribe’s Matriarch took them as a mate to sire the next generation.
This happened around once a year, and each round of these mating sessions created hundreds more Mystical Olthorn who would grow to B-grade in just a couple of years, at which point they would be put to work and go to the surface, and the cycle would start all over again.
To call the male Mystical Olthorn pitiful was an understatement, but at least they were blessed with relatively low intelligence to make up for it, likely as an evolutionary trait not to think too much about how much their existence sucked.
For the Pantheon of Life, these Mystical Olthorn were a great race, as they reproduced quickly and created plenty of prey for the Hunting Grounds. For Jake, it also gave him plenty of targets that he didn’t have to fear accidentally overhunting or – Villy forbid – exterminating the local populace entirely.
Last he heard, the monkeys in Haven’s forest back on Earth had yet to recover and only survived due to preservation efforts by certain good Samaritans...
What made the Olthorn even better targets was that there was a large number of mages amongst them, far more so than with other beast races. Only around one in ten was a warrior, with the rest either being magic users or walking other, more squishy Paths.
Again, likely an evolutionary trait. With how weak they were overall, an over-investment in durability would result in them being unable to kill any B-grade, while if they leaned fully into their offensive prowess, they would at least kill some foes, especially when working together.
A caster being squishy didn’t matter as long as they weren’t attacked directly and were just durable enough to handle wayward attacks that the one durable Olthorn taking the frontline couldn’t stop.
Of course, what Jake was about to unleash on these casters was more than just wayward attacks, and going by his experience the last time he was in the Hunting Ground, Jake knew he was capable of taking them down in one hit.
Even if he failed, he was confident in taking his target down within a minute. More realistically, not even close to that. What this meant was that as Jake scoured the wastes for targets, he wouldn’t even need to avoid groups of Mystical Olthorn... he could simply choose one target and kill it even if it was surrounded by dozens of its kin, after which he could make a swift escape, recover, and return to take down his next prey.
For now, he would start with striking down the lone Olthorn he’d already spotted and was actively following as he summoned his Protean Arrow. That was another thing: the more he knew about his foes, the better his Protean Arrows would become, which should theoretically speed things up.
Additionally, since Jake was in this Hunting Ground last, he had upgraded his archery skill, meaning he was even more confident in killing his prey before they even had a chance to respond.
As was the plan, Jake would also take this opportunity to begin working on his next archery upgrade. However, while that was one of his objectives, his primary objective was still to farm experience points before returning to the Order of the Malefic Viper.
Soon enough, his Protean Arrow was ready. Jake nocked the massive arrow made with Eternal Hunger as its base and took aim at the monster below. As with the last time he was there, Jake held nothing back – except for a certain new class skill he was still waiting for the “right” time to use.
When his arm could no longer handle his Arcane Powershot, Jake released the string as it descended upon his unsuspecting prey below. It tried to react when its danger sense warned it, but Jake’s Primal Gaze was ready and waiting, stopping it from mustering any response.
The end result was exactly the same as the last time Jake did this.
You have slain [Mystical Olthorn Cryomancer – lvl 351] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
One arrow, one kill... and contrary to last time, Jake was far from done after slaying a single one. He recovered Eternal Hunger, and as it was already in its arrow form, he began to weave another Protean Arrow while at the same time recovering the relatively minor damage he had taken from Arcane Awakening and pushing Arcane Powershot to its limits.
He hadn’t gained a level with his first kill, something he hadn’t expected either. Not considering how easy it had been. However, he was still killing B-grades, and no matter how strong a C-grade Jake was and how weak the B-grades were, he was still hunting above his grade, making that “bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level” part of the notification have a serious effect.
Not to mention Jake’s other skills that increased experience gained from killing foes above his own level, which also experienced a massive boost when crossing grades. It all resulted in Jake having easy hunts with great rewards.
The only thing Jake risked by acquiring experience like this was damaging his Records, but honestly, Jake didn’t view that as a serious downside. With the quality and quantity of Records he had at this point, a few dozen levels from what was effectively low-effort hunting wouldn’t matter in the slightest.
Either way, after killing his first Olthorn and recovering sufficiently, Jake moved on before he spotted three walking together towards one of the usual elemental hunting spots.
They never got there.
Jake killed the first one with his initial attack, something that genuinely surprised him as he had purposefully held back to keep himself in decent shape to fight afterwards. Either way, with one dead, Jake entered a more prolonged battle with the other two. One of them was a Cryomancer, while the other wielded a crudely made bow and shot arrows seemingly made from the goat-like monster’s own horns.
Within half an hour, all three B-grades lay dead in the snow, leading to another small period of recovery before Jake moved on to his next prey.
Like so, Jake continued turning the Hunting Ground into a domain of death for any creature that dared wander the surface. He even began taking down a few elementals here and there just for the spice of it, and while he failed to kill those in a single arrow, they were still weak variants for the most part.
There were instances where Jake chose not to engage, primarily if he spotted particularly high-level elementals or the one time he spotted a rare female Olthorn Matriarch near the peak of a mountain. Even from afar, he could tell it wasn’t a fight he was confident in winning, especially not when taking into account the roughly five thousand Mystical Olthorns surrounding it and the mountain.
Throughout, Jake popped potions like no tomorrow to keep himself going as more and more Olthorns fell. In just the first day, he killed seventeen, and on the second, twenty. From there, it only went up as he had already slain well over a hundred by the fifth day.
Two weeks in, more than three hundred B-grade Mystical Olthorn had been wiped from the surface of the planet. While just waiting for Minaga to show up, Jake continued his hunting spree, only slowing down his pace a little as he began to have a harder time finding Olthorn to hunt down, but also because he wanted to diversify a little.
While he still got decent experience from the B-grades simply on account of them being B-grade, there were still diminishing returns when hunting down the same type of monster over and over again. Luckily for him, the Hunting Ground was ripe with prey.
There were many other types of monsters than just Olthorns and elementals, including a wide variety of beasts. Jake killed a couple of snow leopards, a large bear, several scaled creatures, and a wide variety of other beasts, many of which he didn’t even have an Earth creature to compare to. Of the thirty-one beasts killed, only two died in a single attack, both of which had been speed-focused monsters.
The strongest monster he killed was a snow fox capable of creating powerful illusions that warped the sense of reality of whoever was affected, making it the most dangerous creature in the Hunting Ground outside of a few named monsters or the Olthorn Matriarchs, and one that hunters should generally try to stay clear of unless they wished to find themselves killed.
At least that was what the Hunting Grounds Manual said.
To Jake, the fox was easier than many of the other beasts. He saw through the illusions it used to hide itself while roaming the desert of ice and snow, and even if he failed to win in a single blow, its illusions had little effect on Jake. Tricking the mind of someone who was an expert at turning off their mind and fighting solely on instinct tended not to work out well, and neither did it for the fox.
Jake ended up spending a total of thirty-nine days in the Hunting Ground, with his longest break during his stay being just shy of two hours. He had consumed hundreds of potions, often drinking a new one as soon as the hour-long cooldown was up, all while alternating which resources he restored to always be at acceptable resource levels.
After what would end up being his final kill in this Hunting Ground and likely the Pantheon of Life – at least for now – he felt the familiar presence of the Unique Lifeform. It was only a few hours short of hitting day number forty, as Jake, who was standing on a bank of snow, looked up right as the god teleported in.
“You look like something a more posh person like me would describe as tremendously unsightly,” Minaga commented with a laugh as soon as he appeared.
Jake quickly gave himself a look-over, and he couldn’t really disagree. His armor had suffered a fair amount of damage, partly from his own arcane energies, but also from the monsters he had to fight with in more prolonged battles. Sometimes, he also just took a hit on purpose to finish off his foe or land a bigger blow in return.
One also couldn’t discount the healthy amounts of blood and grime covering him. Overall, yeah, Jake definitely looked haggard and like someone should throw his clothes with him still wearing them into a laundry machine.
“I’m not gonna disagree that I could be more aesthetically pleasing,” Jake said, using a bit of destructive arcane mana to clear the worst off. As for the damaged armor, it would fix itself in time as long as Jake kept pouring mana into it.
“That’s an understatement,” Minaga smiled, landing beside Jake. “You definitely look like you’ve been busy, and you also feel like it. Had a nice hunt?”
Jake smiled in return while checking back on all his notifications before giving a nod. “A good hunt? Debatably. There weren’t really any good fights. However, if you asked me if it had been a productive hunt-“
“Was it a productive hunt?” Minaga quickly interrupted him.
“Sure was,” Jake chuckled, looking at his notifications.
Filtering out the hundreds of kill notifications, Jake focused only on the level-ups, but even so, there were a fair amount, as he had honestly gained more experience than he thought he would.
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 324 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 332 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points
Despite how easy the hunts had been and despite the near-complete absence of risk, Jake had gained nine class levels in just shy of forty days. That was more than one level every five days, which didn’t sound like a lot considering the speed at which Jake slaughtered B-grades, but for someone approaching the peak of C-grade, it was damn impressive for sure. Especially when one considered Jake’s Anomalous Soul and all that, making him require more experience per level than others, even if he did make up for this with his skills that increased experience gain.
With the class levels naturally also came the race ones.
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 324 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 329 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
All in all, this brief trip to the Hunting Grounds had certainly been a good idea, even if Jake had ended up neglecting his plans to upgrade his archery skill a little in favor of getting more levels.
“Now you’re making me feel bad for cutting your adventure short,” Minaga mumbled as he saw Jake going through his gains. “But I do feel obligated to inform you that the bird of ruined labyrinth dreams and the swordsman who’s way too good at seducing demons are both ready and waiting back in your far too big palace.”
“Better not keep them waiting any longer, then,” Jake smiled as he gave the Hunting Ground one final look. He was going to miss it... Though he had a feeling the local wildlife wouldn’t miss him quite as much.
Comments
Trumangolorian
Tyftc
Chloe
Tyftc
Koby
A POV of a pack of Olthorn being wiped out would have been cool. Especially if Jake had used his Event Horizon skill on one of them
Koby
I find it hard to believe Jake wouldn’t have used his Event Horizon skill even once during his time in the hunting grounds. I can just see the giddy childlike excitement of using a new mythical skill. Could be argued Jake forgot he had it but I guess it’s more likely nothing was worth it
Pharaoh Atem
Kida the same records and experience are kinda interchangeable. Basically think of it as you need a certain quantity of records to reach the max level of your grade but need a certain amount of quality to evolve so you need to balance both. In Jake's case with his soul he needs more records to fill up that experience bar to reach his max level but he has already reached the quality level needed for him to evolve.
Phil Ritter
I thought anomalous soul didn’t make it so he needs not experience to level up but instead be needs more records when he goes up to B-Grade. Now that I think about it could be the same thing tho
WaxDinosaur
Doubtful. The trip there was slow because they wanted to be noticed as an official delegation from the order to the pantheon of life. I assume Jake going back should be some quick teleports. Might be a couple chapters of goodbyes and closing any last storylines, but my guess would be a line like “after several teleports, Jake was finally back home…”
Adam Taylor
I'm crying 😭 best wishes navigating this new chapter bro
Zogarth
Fix
Biggy smalls
We don’t know most of that stuff about the side characters. The main earth crew is somewhere around Jake’s level, sometimes we get their overall race level with POV chapters or when Jake uses identify. We know very little about all of their skills.
MilkTheShark
Hey zogarth, do you have a big spreadsheet with all the characters current stats and levels and skills for when they show up or do you just have to go back and see what stuff is called?
OldandGrumpy
I'm getting divorced so I had to cancel my membership next month anyway. You're so thoughtful to plan your holiday just to accommodate my impending financial ruin. What a bro. Thanks. ;-)
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
Joe Foreman
and that the rumors of him wiping out other biomes will make them even happier which will cause them to train harder so that the nightmare may never return.
Ender419
I suspect this will be first hunting ground where every beast & elemental will come together to celebrate Jake’s departure without any bloodshed. 😂
Xander
TFTC :) Welcome back all :) Speaking to the subject of breaks, take off whenever you have the need fella :) Suggested edits: " it *would* be summed up" should be "could" "do all *other sorts of* tasks for" doesnt read right. Should be "sorts of other" since all sorts is a phrase in itself. "mind of someone ** an expert at turning " missing words "who was"
WhiteLeeopard
Woop! Class levels, hundreds of B killed, and apparently about to leave to go to the Order. It's going to be a great week. The increase of next grade monsters killed compared to C from D also shows the gap is increasing.
Kt-x
Thanks for the chapter
Cerby
You make a lot of amazing chapters & built a incredible story take breaks whenever you want your human too author. I'd rather have you in top form then near burnt out. 🥰🥰🥰
Prospects
I really hope this entire week isn’t just Jake in transit back to the order
joel southard
Thank you for the chapter
Jason
Pretty much at seducing everything. Though Minaga wouldn't know about the vampire.. just what the SS did in his Nevermore levels.
Daniel Golding
Shouldn't it be the swordsman who is way to good at seducing vampire-gods?
Lemonsqueezy
yeah at most it should have been 5 levels.
DrReverseCallout
I think he means that Jake was the nightmare for the Olthorn
Jared Bell
Tftc
Lemonsqueezy
Why do you say that?
Lemonsqueezy
I expected some grand fight with the title, but then started reading and realized what you really meant by saying "Nightmare of the Olthorn". They are a nightmare because they have a high reproduction rate, but the extreme difference in power between the Males (being extremely weak) and the Females (being ridiculously strong) makes hunting them not as much fun because there is no in-between and it is repetitive. You either have a boring and less beneficial fight, or you have a really good chance of being killed. Thus being a nightmare for Jake and his path. The fights were not challenging or lasted long enough for Jake to upgrade his archery. He just ended up spending 40 days experience farming.
Takoda Heitz
Enjoy your breaks and your life, especially if it means we get better chapters.
Lemonsqueezy
TYFTC. Take the time off you need. I will miss the daily chapters, but I will deal with it. You could write several chapters before the vacation and just post them that way. Would be nice if Patron allowed you to schedule posts like YT does. That way you can write 7 - 10 chapters and then have them automatically post while you are on vacation.
Zogarth
Fixed stuff
ThatGuy
I think it’s because he didn’t do the majority of the work. He did the final binding process, but with eternal hunger he did everything by himself
Daniel
I love Dota, good luck with the tournament.
Namorat
The title made me believe we get a different pov :D
Jordan Rogers
I wonder why we didn’t see any update to his title or whatever it is with the creation of the bow like he got with eternal hunger.
Arieh Sochaczevski
Thanks for the chapter!
Jeryd Greer
Do what you need to keep refreshed. Honestly, I like the idea of some weeks without chapters more than months without chapters. That’s too much like… the before patreon days. *shudder*
Exaiter
Great chapter Zog, ttfc.
Exaiter
often drinking a few one as soon as the hour-long cooldown A new one
Cees Tollenaar
Edit suggestions: "For now, he would start with striking down the lone Olthorn he’d always [already] spotted" "Not with [No matter] how easy it had been." (As he was talking that he should have gained guite a bit of xp despite the easy kills) and even if he [it] failed to win a single blow, (otherwise he would have lost?) often drinking a few one as soon as the hour-long (remove "few" or "one") Thanks for the chapter!
Daniel Jackson-Woods
And fixing palate
John Durrett
Tyftc
John Durrett
Yeah. I bit into that for a while then scrolled past the descriptions until I found a fight. Was filler commentary for me, meat from world building for others.
Matthias
Tftc
Borbino the great
I wish zogarth was my boss
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, thank you for the chappy Zogarth!
Ben Cox
Tyftc
Jonathan Venn
Go have your well deserved break Mr Zog. My subscription ain’t going nowhere
IntenseSushi
Tftc
Cory S.
Teasing us with all that explanation about powerful goats. I was waiting for him to inadvertently attack one of the “super rare” males you mentioned. TFTC Zog
Devillelouch
He upgraded it to ancient a few chapters ago. He is a hobbyist archer. He is trying his best but he is not Artemis' chosen.
Ty Cooper
Tftc Man, Jake and his archery skill. Wish he would hurry up and upgrade it. Kinda lame on Jake's part. I know he is a hunter and not just an archer but his archery skill is slipping. Hell that was one of the main reasons he came to POL. I am trying not to hate but was looking forward to this hunting trip getting his archery skill more in line with his path.
Rewdan
I’m kinda looking forward to the gang getting back together.
Rewdan
Cheers Zogarth, nice start to the week.
Dave
Tftc
Kris Boxall
Thanks for the chapter! Small correction the first race level Jake gains is 326 not 324
Devillelouch
Probably. With no antagonist or time crunch we are a bit up in the air. Possibles: Mushroom World Wonder, Tussle on Earth, or System Event. My guess is the second two. Both of those cases would be less than 4 months.
Rick Delallata
Information requested: The death of Elder Whisper.
Vincent Heins
What do y’all think? B-Grade before the end of the year?
Devillelouch
Because he was waiting for Minaga to pick him up. Being interrupted in the middle of a good hunt would also be the worst. Jake also has a reputation for being late, so maybe he is improving on that aspect.
Devillelouch
Well Jake is not fully to blame as a certain murder bird followed up with more monkey mayhem. Even after they so graciously donated her favorite banana musa to munch from.
Jason
He gained 9 class levels and .. 6 race levels? (Also, “few one” -> “new one”)
Devin Trero
Tftc and have a great vacation. Side note small typo "often drinking a few one as soon as the hour-long cooldown was up"
Fdrugc
Tftc have a good vacation
Devillelouch
He already did that in Nevermore with the Dungeon on Earth. No the clones can not leave the dungeon and create a "native of the 93rd universe" clone. Even with the clone in the dungeon being God.
RnR_ RnR
Jake lamenting that the hunt was just meh really highlights that hes in it for the thrill. Why didnt he make it harder for himself then? Only use one arm. Not use eternal hunger, I get that we need to move the story forward and get him some levels, especially before he gets to the order. I just think he would of rather handicapped himself or tried different tactics just to make the hunt more interesting.
Stevean Bozek
I like that sneaky little update on those monkeys Jake damn near genocided to extinction because they threw poop at him. A fun little throwback
Grant Anderson
often drinking a few (new*) one as soon as the hour-long cooldown was up
kiewitz
Honestly it's insane that you can keep posting 5 chapters a week, almost at the same hour. Some authors drop to 20-30% of their promised chapters after a while and take breaks to edit the finished books for publication but you're always solid, my subscription stays as long as I'm doing well enough financially (or the series finishes after like 100k chapters)
Michael Fannon
So am I the only one thinking Minaga is going to send a clone with Jake back to the 93rd universe? Also, if that clone produces another clone, wouldn't that 2nd Minaga be a native and not level capped? Minaga could easily become the first native god of the 93rd universe if that is the case.
Grant Anderson
TFTC Z
Devillelouch
"The strongest monster he killed was a snow fox capable of creating powerful illusions that warped the sense of reality of whoever was affected." Poor Elder Whisper, should have stayed in the Cradle. The multiverse is dangerous.
GeneralBlack
Nearly time for b grade only few dozens of levels and one dragon left
Wimsey's daughter
I'm honestly glad you're not pausing billing. Every creator I know of who did, had nothing but a bucket full of headaches for their troubles for weeks afterwards. And you've more than earned a little "paid time off" 😁
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Yiskah
We need a Zogarth clone. Minaga style. One to write an entire series for every character in this universe.
Loststar7
Yes you definitely qualify as the bane of labyrinths.
Alex
Best profile pic
Matthew
Wow that time of year again. Man time flies.
Sylphie
REE!!
mitchell kaiser
Thanks Zogarth!
brjenness
Quick, we need to convince the EU that dota2 tournaments are a fascist recruiting tool and all tournaments need to be banned. Begin making vids and reddit posts and recruiting sleeper agents to stir up trouble. The punishment for attending a dota2 tournament should be suggested to be handcuffed to their keyboards and forced to post 3 chapters a day to their patreon.
Shadowind
Tftc
GeneralBlack
Enjoy your vacation Zogarth and thanks for the chapter.
Connor
Thanks for the chapter
Loststar7
Thanks for the chapter and I’m happy to see TFTC has stolen first again.
Beemoss
Tftc
C0bra$
Thank u for the story
Devillelouch
Thank you for the wonderful monday morning chapter.
Levi
First
Jan
Tftc
