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:

I assume you can find me

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

and summoned his wings. Hunting with the hawk was safer and more manageable, but it wasn’t

of condensed cloud-mana when they

was fun to collect things. Hawkie seemed to like them 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

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

sat staring into empty air, looking lost to any outsider. In reality, she was reading a system panel that was part of her profession as Principal City Lord. Before the profession, the system had been minimal with giving out any kind

upon getting it. This profession, however, was different. The knowledge it came with directly was minimal, and instead, it

only by her as the city lord, related to a city’s functions. Several panels that she had specific new skills related to. Other panels she felt were there but currently inaccessible for her. Likely because she lacked the

showing much vigor, to begin with. However, that vigor quickly deteriorated

a real-time strategy game. The reality, however, was far more disappointing. While she could give specific properties to

needed others to create the city. If not, what would be the meaning of having builder

of hidden information in the many panels of information, however - conclusions she could

all, merchant-type professions existed. Despite 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

being one such thing. A currency used by the system, given to

at least some credits. The thing is… the credits were indeed just a currency. They weren’t like

of a strong currency. Paper money had long moved away from being bound to the value of gold and was before the system more digital than ever. As some economists have

Paper money now worth nothing more than the paper it was printed on. All the money people had in stocks or bank accounts, gone for

system to provide a currency was a godsend for 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

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 in the multiverse had still found ways to exploit

insignificant Earth was in

or something to find a way to exploit the system’s currency was a given. But a part of her made her want not to try for fear of retaliation from the system itself. She still wasn’t quite sure if it held any kind of ego or not, especially after meeting the humanoid entity

in a city. Several types of

and two chairs. Oh, and a waterfall and pond that she

much to take in. So far, Miranda felt like she barely scratched the surface and hadn’t really used any of her new skills quite yet. Only to try and better shape the area

these Pylons were the cornerstones of the new settlements on Earth. Possibly their entire universe. They

long ago gone through the current menus she could see, and most of them were barebones so far. The first

City Overview

City name: N/A

Population: 4

City Owner: [?]

City Lord: Miranda Wells

City Tier: Earl

as, for some reason, the system didn’t count the masked man. She knew he was the owner, but even the system didn’t display his name

rather useless so far, but she 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

showing the area affected by the Pylon. It was a handful of kilometers

panel, she was really looking