The Primal Hunter

Meditating on the small island of clouds sat Jake with the hawk lying beside him, wings out to its side. It hadn’t even bothered to perch itself on the crystal tree behind them, too exhausted to care about its dignity.

Jake had used Identify on it on their way to their little island and seen that their struggles had paid off for the bird. It had gained yet another level in only one fight.

[Galesong Hawk – lvl 92]

He, too, had gotten plenty of gains. Not counting the sheer satisfaction he earned from the first excellent fight after exiting the tutorial, of course. By looking through the notifications, he had also managed to land himself another level.

*You have slain [Flare Crow – lvl 92] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Flare Crow – lvl 95] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Flare Crow – lvl 94] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Cloud Elemental – lvl 99] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*’DING!’ Class: [Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 86 - Stat points allocated, +4 free points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 78 - Stat points allocated, +5 free points*

The level was unexpected as he had just gotten one in the fight before it. Then again, he was still quite a few levels lower than the ones he fought. Even if his experience was lessened due to fighting with the hawk and the damage the crows had already done to the elemental before they interfered.

He also had to remember his Mark of the Ambitious Hunter, increasing his experience when fighting enemies above his own level. As always, he used the skill almost instinctually on any target he faced. He felt a bit bad to admit it, but upon meeting Hawkie for the first time, he had marked it.

Closing the menus, he chose to focus on recovery for now. The flames were extinguished with the death of the crows, but his body was still a mess. He'd lost more health than he had thought, and his stamina and mana reserves were also severely drained.

After waiting a while longer, he opened his eyes and drank a healing potion. He also placed a healing, stamina, and mana potion by his side for Hawkie to take. He wasn’t afraid of it drinking all three at once as even beasts innately knew not to.

Meditating once more, he felt the hawk open its eyes a few minutes in and take the healing potion, as it had also clearly lost quite a few health points during the fight.

The brief respite continued for a few hours as he downed a few more potions, and Hawkie finished off all three of its brews meanwhile. Both back in near top form, he turned to the hawk with a questioning gaze.

“Ready to go again?”

It looked at him for a moment before shaking its head. Jake was confused but saw its look turn towards the ground far below them. That is when he remembered the hawk’s tendency to leave every day for a few hours.

What it did, he could only speculate on. He wanted to follow, but every time it had denied him. And he wasn’t curious enough to ruin their partnership to discover its secret.

Today too, it motioned for him not to follow. He just nodded in acknowledgment and said:

here then. I assume you can find me

he got a brief nod and an annoyed gust of wind, questioning how he dared

his wings. Hunting with the hawk was safer and more manageable, but it wasn’t good to become reliant on others. Besides, he felt like

Elementals were perfect just for that. An adolescent part of him also immensely enjoyed the fact that each of them turned into a small orb of condensed cloud-mana when they died. It felt like he was getting

too, so he could just give them to his feathered friend. He still had many random things in his spatial storage that he didn’t have any use for. Two different kinds of water with a magical affinity, just to mention some things he questioned himself for collecting more than a few times. So chances are the orbs would

of clouds, he quickly located his target and began charging up three bolts. The poor Cloud Elemental didn’t even know what hit it as it suffered the assault of the three bolts. Followed by another three. And then

In reality, she was reading a system panel that was part of her profession as Principal City Lord. Before the

profession, however, was different. The knowledge it came with directly was minimal, and instead, it opened up

to a city’s functions. Several panels that she had specific new skills related to. Other panels she felt were

her the day before to talk over the new city-system, the young man showing much vigor, to begin with. However, that vigor quickly deteriorated when he came to understand precisely how limited her power as a city lord

was far more disappointing. While she

required citizens. It needed others to create the city. If not, what would

information, however - conclusions she could reach from the pure conjecture of

the many individuals she met during the tutorial, she had never heard of that before. Then again, trading and bartering wasn’t exactly a practice she saw anyone engage in. It was viewed as shameful

such thing. A currency used by the system, given to everyone in the tutorial,

buy something for their exact number of points, everyone had to have at least some credits. The thing is… the credits were indeed just a currency. They weren’t like tutorial

long moved away from being bound to the value of gold and was before the system more digital than ever. As some economists have said, the faith in

money collapsed. Paper money now worth nothing more than the paper it was printed on. All the money people had in stocks or

any kind of trading. It was a guarantor far more reliable than any entity before the system. An omnipotent system that she couldn’t see simply

the money being a part of the system itself, it couldn’t as easily be stolen. There was no bank account to hack or financial system to exploit. However, she was sure that someone

the name of - told her of how insignificant Earth was in the vast multiverse. How

of retaliation from the system itself. She still wasn’t quite sure

returned her attention to the menu before her. It was describing the possibility of taxation in a city. Several types of taxation, none of which she

‘city’ consisting of one in-progress lodge, a bunch of trees, and two chairs. Oh, and a waterfall and pond that she naturally would have to charge a special tax to gain

scratched the surface and hadn’t really used any of her new skills quite yet. Only to

their entire universe. They allowed access to so many systems, and there was even a whole ‘diplomacy’ tab

current menus she could see, and most of them were

City Overview

City name: N/A

Population: 4

City Owner: [?]

City Lord: Miranda Wells

City Tier: Earl

now, is there? she thought. The city didn’t even have a name yet. The population only showed 4 as, for some reason, the system didn’t count the masked man. She knew

was sure it would expand. However, the part about City Tier was at least a bit informative. From the owner, she received the title of Nobility: Viscount. So her guess was that his current title had to be

city. It was rather bare, too, just showing the area affected by the Pylon. It was a handful of kilometers

she was really looking forward to