Zogarth
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Chapter 1107 - An Odd Little Encounter
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 11:19:32 +0000 UTCJake had been more injured than he initially thought. The destructive energies running through his body due to his boosting skill had obscured much of the internal damage, but once it was dispelled, Jake could see and feel just how dangerous sound-based attacks could be.
As he meditated to recover, Jake also analyzed the battle and admitted that the poison had proven more effective than he first assumed. It wasn't just due to its efficiency but also how it made those affected act.
Inducing panic in his opponents was a powerful weapon, and it was natural to attempt to flee to safety if suddenly thrown into a highly toxic environment. The mental effects were perhaps even superior to the toxic ones, as Jake felt confident he would have had a much harder time if the Rainbowfeathers had stayed down in the jungle and tried to kill him.
The poison wouldn't have killed them quickly. In fact, none of the birds died due to exposure but were all finished off by arrows or other attacks. The poison helped deal damage, but more importantly, it hampered their natural healing and allowed all of Jake's other attacks to deal more damage.
Admittedly, it had been quite an investment to set up the poison mist field of death. He had spent over a hundred rare bottles of poison mist, and the ingredients and time consumed to make these weren't negligible. It had definitely been worth using all the poison, but Jake concluded that making bigger poison mist bombs would probably be a good idea.
Jake took a lot of mental notes, and even if he hadn't achieved much progress in archery, he had learned a lot about his poison gas. Trying to actively train and understand a concept during combat wasn't easy at all. He had tried to apply the concept of time to his arrows several times during the fight, but it never succeeded. Technically, he had succeeded in infusing them with energy, but all this energy he infused into the arrows with the intent of altering their speed instead just wasted away during flight, utterly directionless.
All he could do was keep trying until things finally fell into place. He really wanted the ability to shoot arrows with vastly differing speeds so he could alter the balance between dealing damage and flying faster, just as Artemis had displayed. Jake knew just how impactful this would be for him, and Artemis had agreed as she used these sped-up arrows in a similar fashion to what Jake was planning, even as a god.
While speeding up the arrow with the concept of time would consume some of the attack's energy, thus lowering its damage, it wouldn't affect the arrow itself and anything that may or may not be coated in it. In other words, Jake would be able to shoot arrows that would fly incredibly fast but deal little damage. At least they would if they couldn't still inflict their full poison payload, which in reality, would make the overall damage not be lowered that much.
Artemis did something similar with her special arrows that would grow life. She shot arrows so fast they practically teleported to their targets, the seeds embedded in the arrows sprouting upon arrival with full power.
Having great ideas but lacking the ability to pull them off was frustrating, especially when Jake knew the only thing stopping him was his own brain not letting things click into place yet.
Trying to dispel these negative thoughts, Jake refocused his efforts on recovery. His recent Meditate readings proved helpful as Jake healed faster than nearly all other people with the Meditate skill. The connection to his Soul and whatever concept governed passive recovery was strengthened through the methods of the First Sage, and Jake would only take a couple of hours to be back in top form once more.
As he meditated, the poison gas around him also finally dispersed fully. It had been slowly corroded away by the mana in the environment, the many living things within the jungle, and even the ground itself that had absorbed quite a lot of it.
This left the jungle looking more dead than alive, and things only got worse during Jake's recovery. He was happy he had chosen to sit on a stone as many of the trees around him were now black and rotting, and he felt lucky that none of the dead debris falling from above landed on him during his meditation session.
Jake had guessed it would take a long time for the environment to recover, likely years. However, Jake soon realized just how wrong he had been. It only took minutes after all the poison mist was gone before the aura of life welled up all around Jake. Many things had died, yes, but those that survived took full advantage of all the newly provided compost.
New small plants sprung from the ground and began to grow in real time. Rotten bark peeled off the trees that had survived as a replacement layer began growing, and all of the dead organic matter was practically slurped down into the soil as the jungle itself ate it up.
When Jake was done meditating two hours later, the signs of recovery were already stark. A lot of green filled Jake's vision as he opened his eyes. The aura of death was nearly entirely gone, even if the jungle still looked mostly rotten and dead in most places, especially when one looked up as the canopy that usually provided complete cover was gone. As Jake had stopped controlling the poison mist during his recovery, much of it had floated upwards, corroding the cover to enter the skies above, where it had rapidly dispersed, allowing the rays of the suns to shine through unimpeded.
Oh... I never noticed, there are three suns, Jake suddenly mentally noted, wondering how he had missed that. It also didn't look like it was later in the day than when Jake had arrived. Considering he had flown quite a ways around the planet using the jetstream, he should have noticed some change to the day-night cycle by now. Considering he hadn't, Jake made the educated guess there was no such cycle, and instead, it was day... well... all day.
Standing up within the rapidly recovering jungle, Jake felt a bit better that he hadn't caused any long-term ecological damage. As for the damage he had dealt to the Rainbowfeather Songbirds... well, from all Jake had read in the pamphlet, they had been some real assholes, and no one would miss having them around.
Cracking his neck after sitting down for a while, Jake decided to continue his exploration of the jungle. Not before gathering his loot from the hunt, though. In the pamphlet, he had read that the monster cores – something he didn't normally even bother gathering – were highly requested to be brought back and sold at the outposts. Being a good little hunter, Jake decided to gather those immediately nearby, and it only took him a few minutes to get thirty of them. These cores were only common and uncommon rarity, showing that the Rainbowfeather Songbirds weren't exactly peak creatures, at least not individually.
Nothing else had entered his sphere during his recovery, likely because no monster wanted to enter the domain of the Rainbowfeathers or the newly-created domain of rot, meaning Jake hadn't seen anything else the Hunting Ground had to offer. That also meant nothing had taken his loot, and with nothing else nearby, he had no reason to remain unless he wanted to try and gather every core there was, which would not only take too long but, more importantly, be too tedious.
Rather than fly into the air for quicker movement, Jake decided to run while staying down in the jungle. Not only would that allow him to better explore his environment, but it was also a great excuse to practice some basic movement techniques and his One Step, as there were a lot of obstacles in the overgrown jungle.
Getting a move on, Jake continued his exploration as he ran toward where he knew what the pamphlet called the Grand Lake of Area 1 was located. The closer he got to it, the more powerful the monsters would be, and he was still hoping to encounter a B-grade to have a good fight.
After exiting the domain of the Rainbowfeathers, Jake still kept running for quite a while without seeing much of anything, which really hammered home how territorial the damn birds had been. On the way, he did see a few dead beasts hanging from vines or trees, most of them with their skulls crushed and a few discarded rainbow feathers embedded in their bodies, likely serving as warnings to stay away.
He ended up running for another five minutes before signs of non-plant life began to appear. Tracks from other monsters and even a few bones could be seen here and there, and through a Pulse, Jake saw several creatures ahead of him, all with several kilometers between one another.
As he was analyzing all these creatures in the distance, he released another pulse to see a small monster suddenly appearing only a few kilometers ahead of him. Jake was upon it in mere seconds as he slowed down and tried to take a more sneaky approach.
However, Jake had been going too fast and released too much energy between his running and teleporting, meaning he had already been spotted. Jake quickly stopped as on a branch a dozen meters up and thirty or so meters ahead, the creature that had suddenly appeared sat and stared down at him as Jake stared back at it, using Identify on instinct.
[Shimmerfur Warpsnatcher – lvl 346]
It was a small four-legged creature, no taller than Jake's knees, as it sat on its hind legs. Soft-looking blueish-white fur covered its body except for a back with glimmering spikes, reminding Jake a bit of a porcupine. The small, cute sort that is. It also had many cat-like features, including its face and limber body, making it overall look like a fusion between a cat and a porcupine.
Subtly, Jake double-checked the pamphlet as he was pretty sure he remembered this creature's name from the endangered animals list. However, before he could fully confirm, the creature disappeared, only to reappear a few steps in front of Jake.
He didn't react in fright as he felt no sense of danger from the cute-looking beast that stared up at him with big eyes. It tilted its head back and forth a few times before cautiously approaching. Jake remained still as the little thing sniffed Jake's boots before looking up at him again as it lifted its small paws up and cupped them together.
"Gift!"
The little creature mispronounced the word quite badly, and Jake was momentarily surprised as he just stared down at the thing in confusion.
"Me. Gift!"
Jake shook himself out of his stupor and, without really thinking much, took out one of the uncommon monster cores from a Rainbowfeather Songmender. He knelt down and placed the core in the creature's paws. It stared at the core for a little while before looking back up at Jake.
"Thank!"
With those words, the little thing scurried off, jumping a few steps like a squirrel before its body faded away, and even when looking through Jake's sphere, it had disappeared somewhere else.
Standing there for a few seconds, Jake scratched the back of his head before mumbling, "Did I just get scammed? Robbed? What was that all about?"
He was confused enough to pull out the pamphlet before finally checking if the Warpsnatcher had indeed been considered an endangered species, and yep, it was right there on the list. Pulling up more information on the thing, Jake saw it was pretty limited, though there was some.
"Shimmerfur Warpsnatcher. Known entities within the Hunting Ground: 1. This creature is extremely mobile, able to cross vast distances, enter and exit its own subspace realm at will, and has proven itself to have potent magic within the realms of space and mysticism.
From reports, this creature does not show outward aggression unless attacked first. Instead, it has been known to steal the bounties reaped from others' fights without ever engaging in combat itself, giving rise to the theory it's a scavenger pursuing a Path focused on the consumption of natural treasures. If spotted, do not attack or antagonize, but seek to retreat or wait for it to leave."
It didn't have any section about the creature using cuteness to scam people out of loot, nor anything about it being able to talk. While all C-grade beasts could learn to talk, most of them never did. First of all, it took time to learn to communicate in a way enlightened races understood, and while Jake's translation skill was potent, it couldn't translate random bird screeches... not to say people couldn't learn to understand them, especially if a beast in question wished to communicate its meaning to enlightened.
Sylphie was a prime example of this. Did she just screech? Yes, yes, she did, but her screeches held intent and willpower that could communicate what she wanted to say to people familiar with her and able to interpret her meaning. The Rainbowfeathers never even tried to communicate with Jake, though he did reckon they talked amongst themselves with how organized they were.
Putting away the pamphlet again, Jake shook his head and got a move on again, trying not to think too much about a cat-hedgehog scamming him. At least the thing had been cute, making him not feel too badly about it.
He had already spotted several potential targets for archery practice with his pulses and was now going toward one of the larger ones. It was a beast he hadn't expected to see within a dense jungle, as it seriously didn't seem to fit, but as he got closer and saw the creature in question... yeah, it still made no sense to see that kind of beast in a jungle.
[Crystalhide Oxen Lord – lvl 348]
It was a large ox as the name implied. It was about four meters tall and over six meters wide, with stumpy and sturdy legs that crushed the underbrush as it moved around. Seeing a giant ox that looked as if it was covered in gray glass shards was super weird, and Jake wondered how it even fought, considering the terrain.
Luckily for him, he was going to find out very soon as he approached the large ox. Jake made no attempts to hide as he got within a few hundred meters, and upon doing so, the beast noticed him. It turned its head toward Jake, staring at him for a moment as Jake wanted to see if the beast would make the first move. He had already confirmed this wasn't some endangered species, and while he could have tried to take it down with a stealth attack, what was the point of that if Jake was meant to be training his archery?
A second or so passed with the ox observing Jake. It was long enough for him to consider if it was even aggressive... which was when he felt the rumbling from below. Jumping into the air just in time, Jake managed to dodge out of the way as a forest of crystal shards bloomed beneath him. The ox that had otherwise looked passive began to glow as the environment took on a silver hue, the beast unleashing some form of domain skill.
Crystals grew from the trees all around Jake, pointed toward him and ready to fire and skewer him from all angles. Jake saw these hundreds of attacks preparing, as he nodded to himself.
So that's how it fights.
Comments
Trumangolorian
Tyftc
Dominick Gelardi
It's cracking me up thinking that the oxen lord is mad because he's been neutered by the system
Keegan Smith
Cathog or hedgecat?
Chloe
Tyftc
Wesley Clark
Love the pamphlet digressions, bestiary’s are always great tidbits of lore and world building.
Corvid
Until we learn that the warpsnatcher spends it's free time clubbing baby seals to death using puppies.
A Flashy BR
Cute! Tyftc
bioticisbasic
Tyftc
DirePants
That’s pretty cool for a beast. Looks passive then changes the environment to attack. Clever girl.
Bryn Thomas
I hope he uses his Jake Juice to help the warpsnatcher evolve haha
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
brjenness
porcucat could reach b grade after scavenging Jake's leftovers. porcucat could also be child of friend of artemis.
dash w
Thanks for the chappy
Rewdan
Thanks Zogarth I’m readying myself for tomorrows cliffhanger 🫤
Biggy smalls
Probably after each one of Jake’s hunts looking for more gifts. This banked goodwill will probably end up saving Jake’s ass at a later date.
Kevin Watson
Shimmerfur Warpswagger, i like that creature
Austin Barton
He’s been doing the arrow thing wrong and our budget sonic is gonna show him space is better for shooting arrows as fast as anyone can react.
inkaral
Don't forget a training arc inside the warp-sub dimension.
Phil Ritter
Those are truly the best characters in any game. Cutest kind of gambling ever
Phil Ritter
Not to mention that angry b-grade will most likely fight in a way larger group so right now he probably doesn’t stand much of a chance if it goes for him with all its hooligans. We may just have the next fight on our hands where Jake is forced to improve mid battle or die trying
Phil Ritter
I’d be all for it. It already seems really unique and I’m excited at the thought of what it could turn into
Phil Ritter
Let’s be honest that’s pretty much a repeat of what happened back then with Hawky and Misty. He doesn’t really need the loot and gambling on some cute rare beast seems only appropriate
Phil Ritter
Okay I’m calling it now. Jake will have a good fight with a B-Grade or something only to be ganked by the Rainbow fucker who clearly isn’t looking for a fair fight but just retaliation so he will likely bring an entire flock or two to back it up. Jake won’t be able to escape from a B-Grade and his flock and gets saved by getting pulled into the warp-sub dimension as a thank you for the gift. Once he gets out after that the Rainbowbirds will be added to the endangered species or just get wiped out. Chemical warfare against an somewhat unprotected breeding/ hatching ground seems fitting
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, thank you for the chappy Zogarth!
Corvid
The imp from the medallion in the webtoon was named Cecil I think. It was basically just an added side character to add interactions and stuff to the early story, it goes into his backstory at one point. Same reason Jacob had his named changed to Adam, just to help with story flow in a visual format I think.
Paulo Furlaneto
Tftc
Corac
Same here actually
ABTelford
Funny that Jake is all “I got scammed but I’m ok with it because it was cute”. Lol!
AfroMocha
I would also like to point out if anyone’s like, read the WEBTOON of this series. There is a small blue creature that is in Villy's medallion. this new blue creature kinda reminds me of the WEBTOON creature I forgot its name . But in the web Sheikh find it in the medallion and it helps him in the first dungeon. I even finish beating Villys mushroom dungeon. So I don’t know if this blue creature turned out to be Villy in the end. but I wonder if there’s any connection or correlation ?
Jan
Nobody stating the obvious? That warpcatcher is apparently moving in „Sonic“ speed 🤔 perhaps it has a red friend that fights with its knuckles?
Jip
Idk why, but i kinda imagined a slightly spikey niffler when talking bout the warpsnatcher
Arieh Sochaczevski
Thanks for the chapter! Have we met the next creature to be “uplifted” with Jake-Juice?
Jason Hardman
Nothing trumps Sylphie for cuteness, but I'm sure a temporary companion is possible.
Shaibene
Will Jake help this warpsnatcher evolve to a new B grade variant?
joel southard
Thank you for the chapter
Ty Cooper
Woo! Hope this fight will give him the challenge he needs to upgrade his archery at least a bit. He needs to power up before fighting the angry b-grade rainbow birdy. Which i fully expect Jake to just stumbled upon by accident.
Tristan Lewis
I'm gonna be another kind of pissed if this thing doesn't become a pet lmao
brjenness
I'm thinking squirrel cat dude shows up again sometime
Corvid
It was Rove's cousin, Grove. Headcannon accepted.
KingGoomba
I can see how a lord variant would have a domain skill. Seeing magical animals is one of my favorite things about fantasy
Tim Johnson
Lu Sen would be having a fit right now with Jake fighting an Ox.
Tom C
Anyone played Nioh 2? That porcucat / catupine, makes me think of the little dudes who reward you for giving them a piece of equipment. Hopefully it will return, maybe Jake will get a new animal companion for a while 👍👍 TFTC
AfroMocha
I was thinking Stitch then sonic
Dave
Ttfc
Kyler
What kind of hunter doesn’t have a pet to help him hunt. Let him bond with it, and then drop some juice on it
Michael Ferguson
I miss Villy too.
Michael Ferguson
Maybe Lindon (from Cradle) kills a few void monsters with Jake and gives him some directions back to his reality, when he is in the void.
Michael Ferguson
So what if at B rank Jake gets into it with a god and instead of dieing Jake goes through the void and ends up in Zach's universe, from Defiance of the Fall. Then he does some mercenary work for Zach, in return for using his bloodline to awaken both polaritys of the void in Zach. Then Zach sends him home by tearing a hole on the void. But Jake ends up in He Who Fights with Monsters iner world. So Jake helps him out in return for some soal shaping lessons that help him travel the void better. Then he gets home safe with a resurrection technique for Villy's family.
Zuuuuuri
That sounded so very wrong…
AfroMocha
We need a chapter from Billy's point of view of him sitting, eating popcorn and watching Jake do stupid shit like take on the Songbirds lol
Shadowessence
Jake is going to use his Jake juice and vesperia is going to be a big sister.
MarineDebris
A lesson on hunting to compliment Hawkie's lesson on flying??
Corvid
*Shudders in Cheeto fight*
Corvid
Nope, that's a um, well... Pretty unique response. You might have some kind of condition, friend.
Bladehawk256
Spiky WudWuds, I approve!
C0bra$
Thank u for the story
Corvid
My initial thought when I got to the Warpsnatcher was just "Oh. It's Ratatoskr." In my head I also imagine that it just teleported away to go steal the other 80 or so beastcores afterwards, thinking Jake was a sap. Fun little chapter! Totally should include the divine cellphone squirrel at some point since Yggdrasil is a thing too. Would be hilarious, especially if it's just a Minaga clone dressed like a squirrel.
Dougie Mitchell
Get that cat hedgehog a cape and hat and a contract as a Sandy Pilot
Michael Ferguson
What gifts does the grate and powerful Sylphie wish for today?
Michael Ferguson
Early bird gets here first most.
Michael Ferguson
Yggdrasil's hunting grounds are pretty cool. Can we do this forever? I don't care as much about time archery.
Sylphie
REE!
Michael Ferguson
I'm cute, gift me tomorrows chapter.
Jordan Rogers
🤷🏻♂️when a feller has access to pretty much unlimited resources maybe he has decided to be nice and just leave the uninteresting stuff to scavengers
Colton Horton
With it being cat-like, why do I get the feeling the thing is going to start leaving small gifts for it's new friend? Like a cat that leaves mice for its human because it thinks they don't know how to hunt. Loll
Loststar7
TFTC “it wouldn't affect the arrow itself and anything that may or may not be coated in it.” May want to change to “and anything it may or may not be coated in.”
Zuuuuuri
Anyone else imagine what the shimmerfur looked like then somehow manage to subconsciously punch a hole through their bed frame/wall without even noticing they did it till a few seconds later?
Clint
Possibly a new friend for Sandy?
Apollo Greed
TYFTC!
Xander
TFTC :) Uh oh Jakes found another cute creature :) hes making a collection. Figure Jakes just gonna have a pantheon of friends hes made along the way in 20 books time. Suggested edits: "especially if *a* beast in question wished to communicate" in context it should be "the beast in question..." "Putting away the pamphlet again, Jake shook his head and got a move on again," repeated "again" maybe just ditch the first.
Kt-x
Thanks for the chapter
David
I'm relatively new to patreon and have been dreading when a single encounter would span many multiple chapters, I thought the birds would be that and I'm happy it didn't turn out that way.
Matthias
Tftc
Staudi
Tyftc!
Unwillingmainer
All kinds of fun and interesting critters in this jungle. Some of them aren't even aggressive!
Profile Name
Tyftc
Beemoss
Tftc
Morgan LF
Thanks!
Frédéric Cantin
Tyftc
Ritsu
Heads up, boys. A possible new friend has appeared.
Max
When did Jake stop taking monster cores? Oh how he changed from gathering up all the loot.
Straat Junon
Tyfc. Little nitpicking thought about the plants growing in "real time". Unless time is slowed or accelerated then it's always real time. Plants growing fast doesn't really fit the description imo. But of course you're the author and it's a super minor thing. Cya tomorrow
Tilen Praprotnik
Thanks for the chapter
Yahyo Malikov
Not first
Connor
Thanks for the chapter
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