The Primal Hunter

For hours he had tried to ignore her while working. Hours he had endured that piercing stare. It was far more unsettling than some dungeon boss staring him down. Jake felt like his every action was judged and evaluated. He had endured it… but it was just too much.

He hated whenever people did that. It was why open-concept offices were the spawn of the devil himself. Who the hell could concentrate with someone staring at them covertly, or worse, sitting in plain fucking view staring...

What the hell, woman, was all he could think. He had managed to do alchemy as most of it was routine by now, but even then, he had failed far more than before. His mana practice was just damn impossible; it even took him a few seconds to coat his feet in mana to walk on water.

So he prepared himself to confront the woman. To make her quit whatever she was doing. To give her a piece of his mind about how the hell she had been raised not to know staring at people was rude. So with full gusto, he appeared before her, ready to lay into her.

“Could you stop staring?”

Mission successfully failed. Jake felt that he had just made the situation 100 times worse. Worse yet, the woman just kept staring up at him, like a deer caught in the headlights - like a child caught doing something wrong.

“I… I didn’t mean to…” Miranda stammered, trying to explain herself.

Jake, at this point, was too embarrassed to think clearly either. The entire thing was just too damn awkward. But who the hell told her to stare at him for literal hours?

Miranda was the first to collect herself as she managed to string together a sentence: “I just wanted to see your crafting… it was very inspiring.”

Having a point of conversation to jump into, Jake also calmed himself. Be professional, he told himself as he answered.

“If you have any questions, just ask instead of silently staring. It is counterproductive for both of us.”

What Jake didn’t know at this moment was the floodgate he had just opened. Miranda’s eyes brightened as she began her barrage of questions.

“Can you tell me the profession used to make potions? It’s a profession, right? And what is that telekinetic skill? Is that part of your class or profession? Water walking? Also, the pot-like thing, is that specific to making potions? What does it do? And where did you get the ingredients? Oh and…”

Miranda had spent the last few hours wondering all these things and so much more. She couldn’t understand how she, out of a crowd of thousands, hadn’t seen a single profession that could create potions like the masked man's. All his skills were just too out of the ordinary.

Jake took a deep breath as he motioned for her just to follow him. Might as well just sate her curiosity. Going to the edge of the pond, she nervously yet enthusiastically followed. Taking out two chairs from his spatial storage, he couldn’t help but think about how this was the first time he had needed to summon two pieces of furniture. How he had never had anyone to sit with outside of gods. Maybe it would be nice to have a conversation with someone that wasn’t himself...

Of course, him not just summoning ingredients but freaking chairs only made Miranda all the more interested. Sitting down in the chair, she couldn’t help herself feeling it out, just to make sure it was actually a real physical object.

Looking out over the pond, Jake felt himself relax a bit. It was weird how nerve-wracking he found it to engage with another human compared to fighting monsters.

“One question at a time,” he said, still staring out on the water.

“How do you make potions?” Miranda asked, just rehashing the questions she rapid-fired earlier.

“Alchemist profession. Allows me to make potions along with a bunch of other things.”

“How did you get such a profession?” she asked, frowning. She knew what an alchemist was before the system, but only surface-level - something about pursuing immortality and turning lead to gold.

“Do you know what challenge dungeons are? Or just dungeons in general?”

“No to both. What are they?”

“Separate spaces that you enter through portals. In my tutorial, most of the powerful enemies were found within those. Also, while I can’t speak for every type of dungeon, you receive rewards upon completing the dungeon,” Jake explained.

The thought of not sharing information didn’t occur to him. While there were many things he wouldn’t share, this kind of knowledge would only help others strive. Besides, everyone would learn it in time as it was considered common knowledge that even young children knew in the rest of the multiverse.

“Fascinating… I take it you have completed some of these dungeons?”

“Yeah, a few. To answer your earlier question, my profession was gained through a challenge dungeon, with it being both a requirement and a part of the reward for doing it.”

haven’t encountered one before,” she nodded. “But how did you come across these dungeons? Were they part of the

as he turned to her.

weekly trials… wait, were

Jake had heard from his colleagues earlier about the different tutorials and even recognized a few things she said. It appears that Mike had been in the same tutorial as

Jake talk about how Jake’s had been a forest filled

and professions, and he hadn’t even heard of the so-called ‘social’ professions before. There were of course, also many more

profession. Mark was a builder, and Louise had some kind of artist profession. Out of everyone, she was clearly the

and, of course

I can’t believe I worked in a manufacturing plant just a few months ago.

damn sneaky. Who the hell designed a mask you couldn’t see or even feel wearing? He hadn’t

as he made it invisible. Oh, it was still there, just unable to be seen by anyone. Even the Viper had confirmed that while he knew it was still there, he couldn’t actually ‘see’ it.

been looking at him all this time and was startled as the mask suddenly was just gone. Equally surprising was the face

couldn’t help but ask a bit self-consciously, “…What

normal than I expected, at least. The eyes made me expect something quite a bit different,” Miranda answered, chuckling. Jake really did look far too normal for

Apex Hunter. Not that he had anything against it. Even if it looked

it a skill?”

quite a good one. How about that mind-affecting aura of yours? A profession-related

using it! It says that it only

doesn’t work anyway,” he interrupted, laughing it off. “Takes a lot more than that to affect me. It’s actually good practice when it comes to sensing and adapting to it. By all means, keep

afraid that all the goodwill she had built-up had disappeared. But, for

clarified. He couldn’t help but wonder if people would have to explain stuff like that in the

afraid I was unable to detect it if there was. I bought a skill to defend myself against mental attacks for my tutorial points,” Miranda explained, slightly relieved once more. “Did your tutorial have those

did. That appears to be one shared commonality.

thousand on our side, I think we lost nearly ten thousand. You mentioned

one,” Jake said, Miranda

hundred?

One. As

a few seconds, while Jake tried to save the situation by

made it in the end. They did all

that even possible? Were those beasts that powerful?” she

that happened. However, some psychopath ended up killing

would do that… what happened to

him,” Jake explained

kill another

ease her feelings, explained: “It was

sure as hell didn’t work. Jake had forgotten that it was still only three months since the system arrived. While

Jake had begun to accept it as just another reality of the multiverse. While he wouldn’t go out of his way to kill humans, he, surprisingly even to himself, wasn't very averse to it.

it was no big deal made Miranda shirk back a little. Something

wrong?” he asked with genuine

Miranda apologized yet again for reasons

he said, scratching

she muttered under her breath until she collected herself and raised her head to look Jake in the

us?” she asked, having reached a conclusion

deduced that the only reason why Jake would just confess to it was that he wasn’t planning on letting them go. She couldn’t comprehend any other

reacted differently. But he talked of it like it was just a minor matter. She even had suspicions that he was

such a long

here? I don’t plan on doing anything with you? What?” Jake exclaimed, now wholly dumbfounded. She looked at him like she had prepared

Either he was the most talented