The Primal Hunter

Waking up, Jake found himself covered in sweat as he abruptly sat up. The damp cave and the high humidity of the forest just outside not doing him any favors either. He could still remember parts of the dream, but what mostly remained was a feeling.

Loneliness.

He had spent so long without any real interaction with others, the only reprieve being his meeting with the Malefic Viper. He couldn’t exactly count the meetings with William and the group he had fought earlier. The first meeting was with someone clearly plotting, and the other ‘conversation’ had few words that weren’t curses tossed at him.

Perhaps he was rushing into things, but he felt a need to clear up the misunderstanding. To at least have the possibility of reuniting with his colleagues. While they hadn’t been super-close, they were still the closest thing to friends he had.

Especially Jacob, Casper, and Caroline. Mainly the first two, though. More than a month had allowed him to rethink the silly crush he had on her in the past. He realized now that it was only a pipedream, that he had idealized and romanticized the thought of having a relationship once more. While she was physically attractive, he didn’t even know her that well, actually.

He just hoped they had all managed to survive. Based on the importance Richard seemed to place on healers, Caroline should be fine. With Caroline having feelings for Jacob, chances are she would do everything in her power to also keep him safe.

If he had to go by competency, his bet on survivors would be that Ahmed and Bertram were also still kicking, with Casper also having a good shot. As he thought about it, he couldn’t help but realize how lightly he took life… how he was ‘fine’ with expecting people he had called colleagues a month ago to be dead.

Then again, did he truly have the right to mourn the deaths of friends? He had taken many friends from others himself already… his number of kills being firmly in the double digits by now.

Shaking his head, he got off the bed and depositing it in his spatial necklace once more. After that, he took out a barrel of water to quickly clean his sweaty body. While it was a bit of a waste of purified water, it wasn’t like he couldn’t just purify some normal water later.

Feeling clean, he threw everything useful into his storage and exited the cave. The artificial sun was up, and beasts were once more roaming about, making sounds he could faintly hear in the distance.

Having decided to attempt to make contact with his former colleagues, he started heading inwards towards the tutorial area center.

It took him only a short while with his speed to head inwards. He was aiming for the area with the least amount of animal cries.

Continuing, he spotted something in the distance between the trees. It looked like a curtain of water extending towards the sky. Behind the curtain, he couldn’t see anything correctly, yet at the same time, it appeared utterly transparent.

Getting closer, he soon found himself standing right in front of the barrier. The first thing he noted was how his Sphere of Perception got completely thrown off by the barrier. It wasn’t that it blocked him per se; everything just felt… distorted. It was a weird feeling he honestly couldn’t quite describe.

Extending his hand towards it, he felt nothing from his danger sense. Identify also yielded no result. Deciding to risk it, he attempted to place his hand on the barrier, only for it to pass right through.

Quickly retracting his hand, he backed away from the barrier once more. If his guess was accurate, this barrier was some kind of entrance to an inner area of sorts. While he certainly wanted to go, for now, he had already decided to contact his friends.

Not knowing if the barrier was a one-way thing, he thus decided to postpone it.

Instead, he started walking around the edge of the barrier in search of Richard's camp. If his friends were anywhere, it had to be with him.

Luckily it didn’t take him long to discover a camp. Or a small village would be more accurate. It was a few kilometers away from the barrier, but it wasn’t that hard to locate due to all the smoke it emitted.

It looked relatively simple, with a small wall and quite a few wooden cabins encompassed within. Climbing a tree, Jake got a better vantage point as he started scouting the place.

of them busy working on different things. Some were smithing at a small makeshift smithy, including a huge bearded man who seemed to be in charge. Others worked surrounded by tens of strung-up beasts as they were

last group he saw was a group of women and a few men sitting together, working with what seemed like threads and needles. Where

could only smile happily as he saw a familiar face after such a long time. She even had her leg back

but finally, he saw two people walk out of one of the cabins. One of them, a blonde-haired man that even at this distance, Jake could identify as Jacob. The other was a woman wearing

as he saw them. At least three of them still lived. He decided to stay hidden in the treetop for a while as he observed the base's happenings. Jacob was walking about, talking with people,

pen from his spatial storage; Items he had brought along from the challenge dungeon. He decided to write a note, as walking into

from the stalks of a common-rarity herb. A waste for

he took out his bow and waited. After only a few minutes, Jacob and Caroline entered a clear area as Jake aimed at the ground in front of them. The distance was hundreds of meters, but Jake had absolute confidence in the shot even without using

or so in front of Jacob and Caroline, who both jumped back in fright, with Caroline even summoning a magic shield of some kind. Jake, however, didn’t stick around as he

in case anyone was coming to investigate where the arrow came from. The ball was in their court now, and he dearly hoped that they would be open for dialogue to clear up this

had occurred as everyone thought they were under attack. Jacob quickly managed to calm them down, but not before Richard made his way over

of the ground with a piece of paper tied to it. Picking it up, Jacob got it loose

walked up to see Jacob holding

decided to send a message by an arrow; it seems,” Jacob answered, as

“Who?”

and saw the name at the bottom as

he answered. “He wants to meet. Says there’s a

it here,” he

saying that Jake wanted to meet and explain himself with a promise that he wasn’t looking

Richard asked had nothing to do with this request

he get the paper? And this is clearly written with some kind of

and Caroline as well as all the onlookers. Where

that he hadn’t entered the tutorial with them. The paper wasn't regular kind either, but a grayer and coarser version. The

made the things

using paper and pen taken from the challenge dungeon would cause this much debate and confusion in Richard’s camp.

were found, many would keep it a secret. Perhaps to enter later or to make sure no one else

all items used by the survivors besides Jake were self-made either through skills or pure human ingenuity. The diverse collection of

few people advocating to capture Jake to learn of his secrets. Especially the crafters got

Jacob along to his own cabin for a sit-down. While the mystery of the paper and pen were intriguing, Richard already had other

with Richard earlier, and they had agreed for him to leave

Richard quickly identified as

communication. This can still be solved diplomatically,” Jacob said,

friends alone for easy pickings. Our best healer included, as I doubt I can talk her out of following you,” Richard

meet him

“No.”

it is