The Primal Hunter

”It’s hard to believe,” Levi said as he stared at the blue bottle in his hand. “How do you even make something like this?”

“How do you shoot magical blades at people, and how does Neil teleport us thousands of kilometers at a time?” Christen scoffed before continuing. “And how does Silas heal wounds in seconds, or Eleanor’s arrows appear from thin air or-“

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. No need to be a bitch,” Levi said, handing the potion back to Silas, who was keeping them for now.

“Sorry I hurt your feelings, me being a bitch has totally nothing to do with my stomach being constantly on fire,” she said sarcastically.

“Sorry…” Silas apologized meekly. He was still trying to heal it, but all he could do was to keep it in check as the power of the curse slowly ran itself out.

“It isn’t your fault,” Neil cut in. “We didn’t know they had made an alliance and got overconfident. Hopefully, this mysterious ‘owner’ can help us.”

“I still don’t like trusting some unknown person we don’t even know is human,” Christen sighed.

“We can’t keep running either,” Levi said. “And there is no way in hell we hand the orb to them. Not like they are going to let us live either way.”

“Won’t this ‘owner’ want the orb, though?” Eleanor asked. “I doubt we can keep it hidden if we actually need his assistance.”

“Let’s just hope he isn’t interested then,” Neil smiled. “In the meantime, we shouldn’t idle. They are for sure on our trail, so not preparing would be foolish.”

“So we are staying here?” Silas asked as he was channeling what little mana he had recovered into Christen’s wound.

Neil looked at the two and saw the wound that still appeared to have small embers burning in it. “Christen is not in any shape to travel like she is now, and I used the last remaining ingredients I had on the last teleportation circle. We may be able to outrun them still, but is that really a way to live? So, yes, we are staying. For better or worse.”

At the current time, they had created some distance from the lodge and the four other survivors. A discussion was in order on how to move forward. But in the end, decisions nearly always fell on Neil to make.

“Should we involve those four?” Eleanor inquired.

Neil nodded once more. “I think it would be wise. They must have some rapport with this ‘owner,’ so having a working relationship at the minimum would be preferable. They may also be able to provide further assistance and help with preparing for the inevitable arrival of my cousin’s group.”

“Speaking of assistance, why don’t you take a swig of one of these little wonder-bottles?” Levi asked Silas, who was clearly out of mana again.

They already used Identify on the potions, and it had returned the same message as back in the tutorial.

[Mana Potion (Inferior)] – Restores mana when consumed

[Mana Potion (Common)] – Restores mana when consumed

It didn’t show the values, and in their eyes looked identical to the ones they consumed back then. The only difference was the common-tag on some of them, so these were likely of higher quality.

be poisoned,” Silas said a bit

them out,” Levi said with a big laugh. “Don’t worry,

took out the potion. “Here goes

the liquid enter his body as a flood of mana spread throughout. Far more mana than those

while after drinking

“Holy shit.”

anything wrong?” Levi asked, concerned about his earlier jokes

than 2200 mana,” Silas said,

mana pool,” Levi exclaimed in

looked on with interest. Christen and Eleanor didn’t really use mana, but if the mana potions were that good, chances are the stamina potions were too. Neil, on the other hand, began to see possibilities he

no side-effects?”

tell there is the same one-hour cooldown too. This is just crazy,” Silas

Especially if they got more of these potions,”

the lodge, where Miranda and the others still sat. They agreed to work together as Neil also came clean about their reasons for coming

in an archipelago of islands with bridges connecting each one. Each island had a

childhood friends, while Neil and Levi went to the

of them were only in their early to mid-twenties, and Neil was the

cousin, a woman named Abby, had also entered. She had joined with a group of her own friends and her

Eleanor scouted and made ranged attacks, while Neil and Levi provided most of

group of nearly two hundred people. There they found a unique challenge dungeon. All casters below 25, which was all of them as

fail. It was designed for one to win it, but something unexpected happened. Two people managed to, against all odds,

Both had upgraded it to an even more potent version at 25 too. From that point onward, they came to dominate the tutorial. Both

going their own way to find and hunt more beasts. By some miracle, or perhaps by design, they reached the final island

as well as their respective companions, encountered the ‘final boss.’ The disciple of the one who had given them the legacy in the challenge dungeon. The one who had given them their class

than they could possibly handle. Luckily, he wasn’t there to fight them. He

army she had at her command. Of course, she protested at the limitation of only five people, but the disciple insisted,

and Neil had competed. Which was when the disparity between the two became apparent. Not in their personal skill, but

from the start, which meant that he had an immense advantage throughout the trial. Their party even cleared two dungeons prior,

other hand, Abby had put herself and her father before everyone else. In personal power, she was above Neil. Her father was also slightly stronger than any of Neil’s party members.

her father surviving. As a reward, Neil was granted the Orb of Kallox. Named after the one they had inherited their

his final days. Left to his disciple to grant to any worthy inheritor of his path. The orb was made by condensing a microcosm to physical form in the shape of an orb. It is nigh-indestructible by any being below B-tier. Due to the very life of Kallox being consumed in its crafting process, it contains insights into his understanding of the concept of space. The orb contains a spatial storage

Class

and excited at having gotten it and believed she would share in my excitement as we would move forward into this new world together,” Neil said with regret. “Outwardly, she did appear to do so. Until we returned from the tutorial, and the Disciple of Kallox was no longer there to interfere. That is

Louise said as she

naturally refused and even offered that we could both study and use the orb together. This wasn’t good

manage to escape when surrounded by

ran for half a day, being pursued all the time. We managed to shake them off for the better part of a day, just enough time for me to set