The Primal Hunter

It had all started four days prior.

The house's construction was pretty much done, and Hank was considering making some simple pieces of furniture. They also had a sit-down to talk about plans to make a few more buildings elsewhere for themselves.

That is when Miranda got pinged by her skill that others had entered the Pylon of Civilization’s area of influence. Other humans. She was immediately filled with a paradoxical feeling of both concern and anticipation.

Concern about how many they were, their intentions, and their strength, and anticipation at the potential of having more citizens join the city. Maybe begin to actually to make it worthy of being called a city.

She notified Hank and the kids as they talked over what to do.

“Louise and Mark should go hide in the cellar of the house,” Hank started out with. At Miranda’s request, the cellar was rather well hidden, and you wouldn’t find its entrance without looking around for it. Which is to say they had put the pelt of an animal over the hatch.

“Not going to happen,” Louise said adamantly. “We both evolved too. If they want a fight, let’s give them one!”

“We should avoid fighting if we can. No matter how strong or how many there are,” Miranda sighed as she tried to calm down the fired-up Louise. The system clearly hadn't fixed the illogical mind of the young woman.

“I don’t want to hide either,” Mark said a bit meekly.

Hank chose to concede as they quite frankly didn’t have time for the discussion right now. “Fine, but no fighting unless absolutely necessary. And keep quiet.”

They spoke a bit more, all gathered around the house still, as they waited for the arrival of whoever was to come. The skill Miranda had that made her aware they were here did nothing more than that. It just gave her a vague feeling that someone had entered.

Not how many, not how strong, or where they were now. Miranda wasn’t even sure if she could feel it if they left the area again. So all they could do was to wait in trepidation.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, they didn’t have to wait long before someone arrived.

A hooded figure was hiding at the entrance to the valley and peeked out from behind a rock.

She saw the four people there, in front of a wooden lodge. The large bearded man with an axe over his shoulder, a woman, a young man, and a young woman all wearing robes. Two casters and a healer from what she could tell.

A quick Identify of all four showed that none of them were overly high leveled while they were all E-grade. The woman and the man being the highest leveled individuals at 33 and 34 respectively.

She quickly retreated to her group, waiting a few hundred meters away at a small clearing within the forest. As she walked out from behind a tree, exiting stealth, the group turned towards her, a young man in the lead.

“That was fast. Did you find anything?” he asked with a slight smile.

His face was pale, and his eyes seemed a bit listless despite his smile. He was wearing a robe with golden runes and a small chain around his neck, with the necklace itself hidden beneath his robes. But even with his weak appearance, she knew that he was by far the strongest in their party.

They were a group of five that had met and survived the tutorial together - from level 0 to where they were today without losing a single member.

The party consisted of herself, Eleanor, the archer of the group. Next was their defender, Christen, the only other woman on the team. She was currently sitting in a chainmail set resting against a log with their healer Silas tending to a large wound on her stomach - a particularly nasty one that was resisting his healing quite effectively.

their weird magic swordsman who didn’t quite fit into a role. He was initially a

kinetic magic, or more accurately recently, space magic. Displacement, teleportation, whatever the hell struck his fancy, he somehow figured out how to do, which is also how they had arrived where they

constructed a lodge in the valley, and from the looks of it, know that we are here. At least they are on guard,”

levels, and were there any clue as to their classes

caster robe from

a bit troubled at the answer. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why would we be

you noticed how we haven’t encountered a single monster or beast since coming here?” Levi theorized. “Perhaps we are within a protective barrier of

With their levels, they aren’t a threat,” the

nothing here, we should have created a lot of distance between them and us,” Neil

Teleported a vast distance, likely hundreds if not thousands of kilometers. This wasn’t the first teleport either, but one of many they

over her shoulder and her quiver on her back. If Jake were here, he would recognize the quiver as identical to his own.

had gear at a level Jake hadn’t encountered on anyone except himself. Not a single one of them was wearing their starting gear, and those that were had upgraded versions. More surprising was

Christen at 48, Silas and Levi both at 47, and herself lowest at only 45. She said ‘only,’ but that was only

as she stood up. Silas just shook his head as he wasn’t entirely done healing the wound yet. Then again, perhaps it was best her natural regeneration did the rest of the

The first sight meeting them was the idyllic lodge positioned right next to the pond with a waterfall - and the four people standing in

woman in front and seen her level at 48 - fourteen entire levels above his own. And a quick glance

for a

no reason to be that tense, I would just like to ask a few questions, and then we will be on

be more than happy to,” Miranda

what is up with this place? The absence of monsters is quite something. And did you build that

was indeed made by us. My comrade here is quite the builder,” Miranda said, nudging at Hank. “As for the particularities of this place, while we have noticed

“Lie,” Silas interrupted.

start, lying in the second sentence,” Neil chuckled. “For transparency,

her spine. If that was true, it threw off 90% of her plans for this interaction. That is already calculating in the fact that they were at a level of power far beyond

sorry, I mean that I don’t know exactly why this area is as it is. Only that it is related to the owner of this land. The lodge behind me is also built for him, and this entire valley was already his home when we found it,” she explained. If lies didn’t work, she would have to

say. Who might this owner be?” Neil

forgotten to ask his name time and time again. “What I do know is that

tell? What makes you

he is human, but since Identify does not work on him, I couldn’t confirm. His level of power also making me doubtful of his humanity, to

bit confused. “As in, not at

all. It just returned a single question

that had rewarded him the object leading to their current

get to the bottom of this. “Where is

or so. We don’t know to where. But I believe he will return within the next three to four days due to it being

avoid too many follow-up questions. She wanted to, at all cost, avoid any mention of the Pylon. Luckily, she

individual is?” Neil asked as he looked to be

not tell you out of fear he will retaliate when he returns,” Hank cut in once more. Giving