The Primal Hunter

Jake would never claim to have in-depth knowledge of the happenings in the sky. He would never claim to be a meteorologist or a weather forecaster. While he had managed to get decent grades in physics and chemistry, he for sure wasn’t an expert.

But, despite his lacking knowledge, he was pretty sure that clouds weren’t supposed to have trees growing on them. About as sure as that one shouldn’t be able to walk on said clouds. This is precisely why his current situation was a bit perplexing.

He was currently standing on a cloud. Looking out into the vast sky. Behind him sat the hawk perched on a branch from an ivory tree that grew on the cloud. Its leaves were a light blue, with dark-blue veins running through every part of the trunk.

The cloud wasn’t even very big. It only had that single tree on it and wasn’t even five meters across. Jake knelt down and scooped up a part of the cloud into his palm.

It felt fluffy. Not quite like wool, but more like a soft water balloon. Letting go of the piece of the cloud, it just began drifting through the air, now its own separate mini-cloud. Which was likely the same as what had spawned the current cloud they were on.

The two of them had flown up for quite a bit until they reached around 25 kilometers high. If Earth were the same as before the system, they would have well and truly entered the stratosphere by now. Heck, commercial planes didn’t fly above 12 kilometers - less than half of where they were now.

And yet, the air didn’t even feel any thinner. The mana density the same as closer to the ground too. The only difference was a shift in the affinities. Wind-affinity now being far more prevalent, with earth affinity, on the other hand, severely lacking.

Looking further above, he only saw the endless sky expand even further. Exactly how far one could travel before reaching space, or at least just the outer parts of the atmosphere, was a mystery.

But back to the equally as mysterious cloud. As Jake noted earlier, he believed it to have once been a part of a much greater cloud. His belief in that theory stemming from the absolutely massive cloud floating just a few hundred meters below them - One made of the same tangible type of cloud.

And when he said massive, he truly meant massive. It was too big for him to see where it began and where it ended. He reckoned it was the size of an entire country from Earth before the system. Just hanging up there in the sky, far above where his so-called city was located. Well, not directly above. A hundred or so kilometers north and 25 up, but hey… relatively close.

Sadly the area affected by the Pylon barely extended upwards even if it was directly above. Only a couple of hundred meters at most even now. This meant that even if the Pylon began extending upwards, it would be a very long time before he was able to claim a sky-city. If ever. Though he was pretty sure the cloud was moving slightly… so maybe it would just float away.

Speaking of the Pylon, he could still feel its location. Which was honestly quite lucky as without it, he was pretty lost. He had just followed the hawk as they flew. And with his sense of direction, getting back without a beacon such as the Pylon would prove more than a little difficult. As in, he would likely go in the direct opposite direction and never return.

He had only been gone for a few days, and that Hank guy said it would take a week to make the house. So he didn’t plan on returning for that time at a minimum, which gave him plenty of time to explore the enormous cloud-continent in front of him.

Something the hawk was clearly on board with. In fact, Jake was pretty sure it was the reason it had brought him here, to begin with. Maybe because it wanted a companion for some added safety, or just because it wanted to continue leveling itself.

Either way, after a brief break and a potion each, they took to the sky once more. Flying down to the giant continent floating below, Jake felt an almost child-like excitement at the thought of exploring a freaking sky-island made of clouds.

It spoke to an adolescent part of him that wanted adventure. So far, the things he had encountered in this new world were rather… unimpressive from a spectacle-standpoint. It was caves, giant forests, plains, and so on. But a giant cloud… now that’s something.

The entire cloud was extremely thick too. The hawk and human had flown up parallel to a wall of cloud as they ascended. It had to be at least three or four hundred meters thick. But it was nothing compared to the sight that met him when he got above the edge of the cloud.

distance - a giant tree that

epicenter of the entire continent. It made Jake believe that these trees were the

he saw. Countless birds flew above the island,

walked several figures. Vaguely humanoid but clearly not. They were entirely white and looked to be part of the cloud continent itself, but

Elemental –

encounter with an elemental. He knew of their existence from books he had read on alchemy and from the description of his bow. Concerning alchemy,

slain, an elemental will always turn into a small orb of its element. A Cloud Elemental, as an example, would drop a Cloud Orb. The orb would contain

any need for it, however. Mainly because he didn’t know any recipes that required orbs. Secondly, because his alchemy branch didn’t really use

a type of mana like that would most often be found in beneficial pills, flasks, or elixirs - not poisons. But of course, that wasn’t the only reason to hunt them. Experience was a universal gain for any being with levels, after

The cloud elemental Jake had just identified was dived upon by a group of five birds. In its semi-intangible form, it ignored the purely physical attacks but took damage

orb. One of the birds, the largest one,

observing this, he saw several other similar occurrences all around the island. Most ended with dead cloud elementals, but sometimes they turned it around

to affect the population of the elementals, however. As Jake saw them die, he saw just as many emerge from the island

the hawk behind him. It tired of his useless gawking. He understood what it wanted, and he couldn’t agree more. While observing the many birds hunt was entertaining in its

at level 93, while Jake aimed for an elemental larger than nearly all the others he saw. One that had just killed a group of birds

Elemental – lvl

to try and fight while flying. Jake knew his

two arms were as thick as its torso, and it didn’t have any legs but only a swirling mass of clouds that floated slightly upon the island

took out his bow, and channeled and fired off an Infused Powershot without any hesitation. The elemental that was just floating there didn’t even react before the arrow reached it - an arrow that pierced straight through it, leaving a big gaping

to him. His mark informed him that the attack had done barely any

making any sound. Its movements were slow, but the beam more powerful than he anticipated. It kicked up smoke as the cloud

it continued firing out a constant stream of steam. Jake used his One Step Mile to create some distance as he tried firing a Splitting Arrow towards the elemental.

they too just passed through the cloud elemental. Not doing any damage

tried a few more times and even fired off an arrow coated in his blood in the hope of it having any effect. Unsurprisingly poison didn’t work on a being made

he was beginning to recognize that he may have a minor hole in his repertoire of skills. He was good at killing things

before. He burned the blood within the wings, as

slowly dispersed. Like a constant current of air flowed around the elemental at all times, his mist didn’t even make contact. Well

his sword and dagger would do much good.

used blasts of wind and pure mana to disperse and kill the elementals. Wind magic appearing

attack. The closest thing he had was Touch of the Malefic Viper when it came to offensive magic. One could count his Gaze of the Apex Hunter as a magical attack, but

didn’t hit, and its movements were way too slow to catch