The Primal Hunter

Jake felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he saw Miranda leave. Keeping up his professional persona did take some effort, but he was happy that it wasn’t that bad to interact with Miranda.

For the last two weeks, the lost potential of the Pylon had been bothering him more than it probably should. Jake knew the offered profession was powerful, and he was curious to see what it could give. But as he didn’t have any desire to pick it up himself, it was just lying there.

Which is when he got the idea to offer the job to Miranda. As he talked, he had stretched a small strand of mana down to touch the Pylon, allowing him to offer the profession. When he asked if she wanted it, the system read his intentions. It was a bit of a gamble, but his guts told him it would work.

He was a bit afraid of the prospects of a city where he was essentially the highest authority. Heck, just a small settlement was scary. On that subject, Miranda had offered that he could just keep up his mysterious masked protector persona. She seemed more than happy enough to just do everything while he would be the enigmatic figure standing behind her.

She was clearly reaching for a type of power far more structural than Jake. To make herself indispensable to the city and tie her own fate with the success of this settlement. It wasn’t the same as he would do, but he could acknowledge her path having some potential. Besides, if she did things well, she would likely get many levels and thus stats, making her powerful even in direct combat.

He also predicted that the profession would include several ways for the City Lord to protect him or herself. At least the description hinted heavily at that. But all that was for another time. They had agreed on a meeting at next sundown, where they would go over the profession and some more plans for what to do if or when more people arrived.

For now, his focus would return to alchemy. He had encountered an enemy below that he had to admit his bow could do little to nothing against.

Its entire body covered a few square kilometers, and while it certainly had weak points, he doubted it would die without at least the majority of its body being destroyed. He was even beginning to suspect that the mana crystal he found at the start was its way of luring its prey.

The Indigo Mushroom was clearly an immobile monster, bound to the area where it was born. But if the crystal could attract powerful beasts or even humans like himself, it would surely get plenty of prey to feast upon.

Its attack pattern had been relatively simple for the majority of the fight, but at the end had shown a modicum of tactical prowess when it distracted and limited his movements with roots, only to blast him with the beam of mana. The quick follow-up with the needles was also clearly a part of the 3-step attack.

He did discover the effectiveness of his toxins too. Both his blood and Touch of the Malefic Viper killed the roots and plants nearly instantly. They decayed in seconds, and while that was good for getting the needles off him at the last moment, it wasn’t handy if he aimed to kill the damn thing.

If it rotted too quickly, the poison wouldn’t have as much time to spread. It also made it far more comfortable for the thing to cut off any infected part of it.

In the last few weeks, he had been mainly focused on making potions, more accurately on brewing common-rarity versions of all three resource potions. Now, it was time to shift his focus back on what his profession was really about: Poisons.

He wanted to design a poison directly aimed at the damn mushroom. He needed it to be powerful but slow. No matter what, the fight would be a marathon and not a sprint.

Necrotic poisons were out instantly. That type worked best against flesh and blood targets, and the same was true for any kind of hemotoxin as mushrooms tend not to have blood. Aka, his two most used types of poison were ineffective.

With that being the case, he would need something new - something designed for killing plants. A super-weed killer, if you may. Unluckily for him, he had never been much into gardening, so he didn’t really know what kind of toxin was good against mushrooms.

On the other hand, did it even matter? This thing was clearly not an ordinary mushroom. So he did what he always did when in doubt. He dove his mind into his spatial necklace and summoned the bookshelves he had hidden within.

A small library appeared around him as he began going through them one by one. While he had read a bit about plant-focused toxins in the more general books on poison, he hadn’t ever really delved into it. He had mainly been fighting beasts, after all.

books that may be interesting. Gardening for Novices: Weeds & How to Kill Them, followed by Basic Mycology I, II, III, IV, V, and so on and so forth. It was an entire series. While none of them directly related to concocting a poison, they would make him better understand what he was facing. Of course, these were far from the only ones he had picked to go through, but these were the ones

learned that none of them were considered high level despite the plethora of books available. But they did cover a lot of useful knowledge from F-D grade and would help push him further for an

as he sat on it with his legs crossed. It reminded him of being back in the challenge dungeon once more,

for those with stats. He didn’t know

each page held several times more content than the last. The paper itself was also so impossibly thin that each book had far more

She didn’t approach any closer as he finished up the page he was currently on

said with a smile as he looked up at her. It was amazing how he wasn’t tired despite immersing himself in books for nearly 24 hours. Was this the dividends from investing

And these books… exactly how big is this spatial storage of yours?” Miranda said, staring at

a bunch of bookcases standing out in the wild like that.

how silly it looked. “So, how is it to be the new Principal City

certain systems. For example, I can see how many people are within the domain of the Pylon. This is actually

can’t. It is likely the same thing that also makes using Identify on me harder,” he explained, eyeing his Shroud of the Primordial

city, and even one that increases the amount of experience earned

Interesting to see it is now a skill. Which is quite

and as this looks to be our long-term home, we discussed constructing some houses. Hank got an upgraded Builder profession and actually worked in construction before the system, so I

to me,” he

want to defend the Pylon, correct? Not just from potential enemies, but we need to keep its existence, or at least location, hidden for

they already agreed on

For a good reason,” she added, looking out at the pond and the waterfall.

quite easy, considering the aura it gives off and the fact that it is so clearly located at

to snoop around the strongest person’s personal abode in the city on a mere suspicion

damn clear where it is if you have

me to influence the zone the Pylon affects. In other words, it doesn’t have to be a perfect circle, and I can even restrict it to be smaller. Simply by getting the profession, the area affected has already grown quite a bit compared to just a few days ago, and I

location before becoming the City Lord. And the knowledge I got when I became City Lord

“What are your thoughts on expanding the area? And if a

desired peace, and we can protect the Pylon more easily. Your role, as we talked about earlier, is to be the mysterious protector living here. If luck has it, many will likely even think you are

be some kind of

she chuckled, returning the smile. “But isn’t that good? Who wants

your first plan of action?” Jake asked, changing

you a house,”

“Huh?”

sake. You just have furniture standing on the bare ground right next to a pond. If anyone needs a house, it’s you. Of course, that will also have the practical implication of hiding the

Miranda had come determined to make the first structure his house, whether he liked it or not. And Jake had