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.

was initially a medium warrior but began picking up more magic skills and eventually evolved into a hybrid

Neil. The sole caster of their party and a weird one at that. He was specialized in kinetic magic, or more accurately recently, space magic. Displacement, teleportation, whatever the hell struck his fancy, he somehow figured out how to do, which

have constructed a lodge in the valley, and from the looks of it, know that we

as to their classes or capabilities?” Neil asked

33 and 34, with the one at 34 wielding an axe, and the other wore the standard caster robe from the tutorial. The last two looked like teenagers,

a bit troubled at the answer. “This doesn’t make any sense.

a single monster or beast since coming here?” Levi theorized. “Perhaps we are within a protective

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

is truly nothing here, we should have created

hundreds if not thousands of kilometers. This wasn’t the first teleport either, but one of many they had been forced to

and her quiver on her back. If Jake were here, he would recognize the quiver as identical to his own. Also upgraded to uncommon-rarity from a

on anyone except himself. Not a single one of them was wearing their starting gear,

was Neil at level 52. Followed by Christen at 48, Silas and Levi both at 47, and herself lowest at only 45. She said ‘only,’ but that was only in

just shook his head as he wasn’t entirely done healing the wound yet. Then again, perhaps it

the narrow passage leading into the valley. The first sight meeting them was the idyllic lodge positioned right next

level at 48 - fourteen entire levels above his own. And a quick glance at the other members of the group of five made it very clear exactly how outmatched they were - especially the young man in

two groups stared at each other for a while before Neil stepped forth

“We come in peace. So no reason to be that tense, I would just like to ask a

we can help, we would be more than happy

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

us. My comrade here is quite the builder,” Miranda said, nudging at Hank. “As for the particularities of this place, while we have noticed them, I cannot tell you the reason why

“Lie,” Silas interrupted.

lying in the second sentence,” Neil chuckled. “For transparency, my friend here happens to have a skill 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

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

owner, you say. Who might this owner be?” Neil

to me,” she answered, praising the fact that she had forgotten to ask

you could tell? What makes you think this mysterious owner

strongly suspect 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 begin with,” she

work?” Neil asked, a bit confused. “As in, not at

at all. It just returned a single question mark,” Hank

encountered that phenomenon once. It was the entity that had rewarded him the object leading to their current precarious situation - the same entity that

would have to get to the bottom of

believe he will return within the next three to four days due to it being the deadline set for finishing his new lodge,” Miranda

make her answers fulfilling to avoid too many follow-up questions. She wanted to, at all cost, avoid any mention of the Pylon. Luckily, she was the only one aware of

see… exactly how strong would you reckon this individual is?” Neil asked as he looked

out of fear he will retaliate when he returns,” Hank cut in once more. Giving an answer way better than Miranda had