The Primal Hunter

It may be difficult to believe, but Jake had barely done any proper dating or really gone to any bars throughout his life. On second thought, it probably was entirely believable, considering he was just coasting through life before the system, with little care about anything, just taking it one day at a time.

Even after the system, he hadn’t really done that much with other people that would be considered “normal.” Due to this, Jake felt far from confident as he entered a bar and looked around the place. It was old and medieval-looking and was filled with people in black hoods, demons, and women and men who wore less than they probably should. Jake Identified a shirtless man currently chatting up a cultist and saw the general level.

[Courtesan – lvl 204 - Innocent]

“Gotta admit, I thought Courtesan was reserved for women,” Jake muttered to himself while still at the door.

“Gender-neutral, actually,” Minaga spoke.

“Really?” Jake asked. “Huh, I guess you learn something new every day.”

“Not gonna lie, I am actually unsure if it is gender-neutral, but if it isn’t, then why did your translation skill translate to it? Definitely couldn’t be my mistake, so let’s just go with it being neutral, alright?”

Jake nodded and smirked, not wanting to get into the most useless argument imaginable.

Nobody in the inn reacted despite the echoing voice of Minaga and Jake standing right there in the doorway. It was as if he was invisible before he made his presence known by speaking to anyone or making too big of an action. Looking at the person the male Courtesan was talking to, he saw a hooded man at quite a lot higher level.

[High-ranking Demonic Cultist – lvl 256 - Undetermined]

It was Jake’s first time running into the Undetermined tag. He would likely have to learn information about the person before he would know if they were a valid kill target or not, but he didn’t really need to. Instead, he chose to just go to the bar and order something to drink. Before he had entered, Jake had taken a break in an alley and dolled himself up a little.

And when he said he “dolled himself up,” he meant that he had used Shroud of the Primordial to change what he Identified as.

Without any idea if it would work or not, Jake had made himself appear as a level 240 Prodigious Demonic Cultist. He had considered adding another tag, like saying he was high-ranking, but had settled on Prodigious instead, as the system already used that word quite a lot for very talented people. He hoped that if these people – or NPCs – could use Identify, then they would find him worth approaching simply due to his tag, while at the same time not expecting him to actually know stuff as he was a prodigy, not some official. It was a gamble, for sure.

Lo and behold, the moment the bartender turned to him, he called Jake “young master,” and within a minute, three Courtesans had taken the seats around him. Jake channeled his inner arrogant and disinterested young master as the two women and one man spoke to him, and he responded with one-word answers.

The attention was a bit annoying, but Jake wanted to make himself known to catch a bigger fish. Thus he sat at the bar for around half an hour while having people buy drinks for him – something he had never tried before. So that was kind of fun, at least. Finally, after this half an hour, a new courtesan came up to him and handed him a small piece of paper while giving a wink.

Jake quickly checked the note and saw it had an address and a name on it. Jake called it an address and a name… but…

The Ninth Mistress would like to meet you, Prodigious Demonic Cultist, at her home, Residency Nine.

Yeah… Minaga had truly outdone himself there. Oh, to make it all better, Residency Nine was located just through the Ninth Gate. The Mistresses all had their own separate rooms with hallways leading into them, and Jake had discussed with the others through their telepathic link why this may be, and they settled on it being to allow some form of combat. As a fog wall still separated all the rooms, information would not instantly spread, and random wayward attacks would never hit this “main” city in the middle.

Without delaying, Jake left the bar, with no one even making an attempt to try and follow him. In fact, he saw through his sphere that the moment he left the inn, they all just went back to making the same motions as before, with the bartender having cleaned the same unused glass a few thousand times by now.

Finding the gate in question was incredibly easy as there were street signs everywhere informing him of the way to the different gates. Did it make sense that there would be street signs specifically pointing toward the homes of Mistresses? No, no it did not.

Reaching the gate, Jake didn’t even have to say or do anything as the guard bowed. “We were informed you would come. Please enter.”

“Thank you,” Jake nodded as the gate opened and let him through, making Jake take a mental note that he then promptly informed his party of.

“If someone else enters a gate to another room, you can sneak through with them, and with the mist, you will be hidden. The random residents here do enter the gates at times,”Jake shared.

“Ree,” Sylphie informed him.

“Alright, never mind then,”Jake said. The hawk had already snuck inside a residence of a Misstress, it seemed, and was currently making friends with the Second Mistress – who had the great name “Two.”

Jake had finally met his match when it came to sucking at naming stuff.

The room he entered after a very short hallway was just one large residence, which consisted of a large main building in the middle and four smaller houses off to the side. One of them was a guardhouse, one had other employees, and the last two looked to be guest houses that had Courtesans living there. From a quick Pulse, it appeared this layout was standard for all these rooms.

Shortly after he had entered the room, the same Courtesan that had handed him the note met him. How she had gotten there so fast, considering Jake had headed straight there and not noticed her on the way, was a mystery. One he didn’t bother to question as she escorted him to the main residency where he would meet the Mistress.

Once inside, he went straight for her chambers as the Courtesan waited outside. Walking to the door, it opened by itself, and through it, he could see her obscured form.

[Ninth Mistress – lvl 253]

Jake instantly took notice of the lack of “Undetermined” or “Innocent” after her name, which meant she was a person they were free to kill. If they wanted to kill her, if that would lead to other problems… now that was a whole other issue.

“My name is Nine, a pleasure to meet you, Prodigy,” the woman said as a large veil hanging from the ceiling hid her form, only allowing Jake to see an outline while still somehow allowing Identify. Of course, with his sphere, he could see her clearly and noted she was a beastkin of some kind, which did surprise Jake a bit as he had expected all of these Mistresses to be demons considering the race of the Demon Lord. Then again, all the Courtesans were not demons, either.

Jake considered these things as he didn’t even notice that several seconds had passed without him answering, so he quickly collected himself and spoke. “I am honored to be invited by the esteemed Ninth Mistress.”

“Please, call me Nine,” she answered, making Jake want to reach through space and punch Minaga.

“As you wish, Nine” Jake nodded, keeping his cool. “May I know why the Mistress wanted to meet with me?”

Rather than fish for information, have her divulge it of her own volition.

“You are new to this city, correct? From what I was told, you do not belong to any faction yet, and I hoped to recruit you to mine,” the Mistress said.

“While I am flattered, I will need to know more about what your faction is. I am currently unaware of the political landscape as I just arrived in the city today,” Jake said.

“Very well. I belong to the faction of the Prime Consort, while we are competing with the faction formed by One, the First Mistress, who wants to become the Prime Consort. Our faction has three Mistresses within it, while the First Mistress has four others with her, meaning they have two more Mistresses than us, while we, of course, have the Prime Consort. The one remaining Mistress remains neutral, and we hope to turn her to our side in the upcoming power struggle,” the Ninth Mistress explained, once more gladly spreading all the information there was.

“I see. In that case, I would be honored to join you. However, how would my joining your faction help?” Jake asked.

“It is possible a conflict may happen when we next convene, and we will need as many powerful individuals on our side as possible to intimidate the other side. If you assist us in securing that the Prime Consort remains in her position, I am certain she will even allow you an audience with the Demon Lord himself so you can swear your fealty. Only the Prime Consort can open the Demon Lord’s castle while it is sealed, after all,” she answered, pretty much outlining a way to finish this floor.

The goal was to find the exit after all. Something Jake had technically already done, as it was just past a sealed gate marked the “Demon Lord’s Castle,” but they naturally had to open this to gain entrance to go through and finish the floor.

“Are there any ways I can assist you and earn the trust of the Prime Consort?” Jake asked. He saw no reason to beat around the bush but just asked directly.

“If you can recruit more Courtesans to our cause, it would be incredibly valuable and strengthen the faction. While the guards currently remain neutral, if you could make them support us, it would also be of massive assistance. Finally, if you can turn any of the Mistresses to our side, it would be most helpful. If not, then see if it is possible to perhaps eliminate some of them, either through killing them or making them lose their positions to Courtesans allied with us,” the Ninth Mistress once more answered way too matter-of-factly.

Jake nodded as he decided to take a chance. “I have also heard rumors of the Mistresses guarding Secret Scrolls, but I did not quite understand what they are.”

“They are called Secret Scrolls for a reason,” the Mistress said dismissively.

Aight, worth a shot.

“I shall not ask more about them, then. It is just that I heard some unsavory individuals were looking for them, so I wanted to warn you to make sure they are kept safe,” Jake said.

“Do not worry. They are all safely guarded already.”

Hey, he had to at least try if that one worked, right?

“Once more, I thank you for this audience. Do not hesitate to ask anything more of me I can help with, but if not, I will set out,” Jake bowed.

“Do well, and you will be rewarded,” the Mistress said from behind the veil, clearly happy with Jake and what he had done and said. Walking out of her residency, Jake was given access to two other Mistresses that were also allied with the Prime Consort. From there, Jake headed to one of the many abandoned houses, where he went inside and took a seat leaning against a wall. For some bloody reason, he felt kind of tense after that meeting, despite feeling pretty relaxed while doing it.

After a quick break, Jake shared what he had learned with the others, with the Sword Saint confirming that the Third Mistress had told him the same five minutes earlier. A Mistress who, it turned out, was allied with the First Mistress.

Sylphie was with the one neutral Mistress, the Second Mistress. From how Sylphie spoke, this Mistress did not like any of the others and, surprisingly enough, seemed outright hostile towards the Demon Lord. The Fallen King had also managed to join the guards and some-fucking-how instantly gotten promoted to a Team Leader with several guards working under him. Through that, he had learned that one of the Secret Scrolls was guarded by the current Guard Captain of this entire city area.

All in all, Jake was the one with the least progress, he felt. Except, his goal had never really been to gather information. It was to get to the Prime Consort as fast as possible. Now, however, he felt like there was another way forward.

“Hey, I got an idea,” Jake spoke through their link. “While you all work on finding the Secret Scrolls, maybe I will team up with Sylphie, and we will try to organize a big get-together with the Second Mistress hosting with the excuse that she wants to join a faction. Then once we have all the Mistresses in one room, I can prepare a little special something through the power of alchemy.”

“I doubt getting them together is that easy,” the Sword Saint answered. “But I do think it would be an idea to work with the Second Mistress. As a sole individual, her position is weaker than everyone else’s, so I could see her “winning” leading to the best rewards. Also, she seems more hostile to the others, so maybe she will have some ideas on how you can apply your power of alchemy.”

“I guess that is an option,”Jake agreed.

“Can I maybe come along too?” Dina asked.

”That would probably be for the best,” the old man said. ”Try and find out exactly what her stance is and what she wants to accomplish. Based on the pattern, I would expect her to be the odd one out and actually be an enemy of the Demon Lord, and she will offer us an alternative method to conquer this floor outside of partnering with either faction. Perhaps she will even give us access to the option where we simply kill them all.”

”Sounds reasonable,” Jake agreed. ”Dina, let’s meet close to the gate, but not actually group up. I think entering separately is best to not get suspicion placed on us, as people already know you are associated with the Sword Saint.”

”Alright,” Dina said. ”I already got an invite from a Courtesan, so I should be able to enter. How about you?”

”I will figure something out.”

”In the meantime, I will further integrate myself with the faction belonging to the First Mistress,” the Sword Saint said. ”I am on my way to meet the Fifth Mistress now, and it may take me a few hours.”

”Are you seriously going to… you know?”

”Dependent on how it goes, then yes, we may enjoy a cup of tea together.”

”Ah, alright… for a second there, I thought you were actually going to-”

”That was innuendo.”

”…”