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.

saw the sprawling world that lay upon the cloud. Countless ivory trees were scattered about, with a giant tree off far in the distance - a giant tree that he could only see because of the bright

bursts of electricity from all other trees on the island, acting as the epicenter of the entire

tree and lightning, the next thing that struck him was the many sources of movement he saw. Countless birds flew

white and

Elemental –

existence from books he had read on alchemy and from the description of his bow. Concerning alchemy, it mainly discussed how elementals were great sources

small orb of its element. A Cloud Elemental, as an example, would drop

because his alchemy branch didn’t really use those sorts of items often, he doubted it would

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

fully aware of. The cloud elemental Jake had just identified was dived upon by a group of five

a small fingernail-sized white orb. One of the birds, the

around the island. Most ended with dead cloud elementals, but sometimes they turned it around on the birds and killed

them die, he saw just as many emerge from the island below. Like climbing out of the ground,

thrown out of his thoughts by a blast of wind from 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 own right, nothing was better

they each went for a target. The hawk was going for another bird 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 being overconfident in their ability

–

he landed on the cloud in front of it. He wasn’t stupid enough to try and fight while flying. Jake knew his own limitations. On the ground, he was far more potent and far more

arms were as thick as its torso, and

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

done barely any damage. Only a few remnants of mana had invaded the body of

compressed beam of steam towards him without making any sound. Its movements were slow, but the beam more powerful

as 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. He hoped the extra arrows from the skill counted as magical or something

disappointed, they too just passed through the cloud elemental. Not

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 out of literal clouds. Having no blood.

was good at killing

hadn’t tried before. He burned the blood within the wings, as the poisonous mist slowly seeped

elemental… and then just swirled around it as it was slowly dispersed. Like

seriously doubted that swinging at it with his sword and dagger would do

wind and pure mana to disperse and kill the elementals.

came to offensive magic. One could count his Gaze of the Apex Hunter as

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