The Primal Hunter

Jake flew up into the air as he headed towards the cloud island once more. His mood was pretty good for most of the flight, but he ran into one tiny little issue a few hours later. He couldn’t find it.

Now, how does one lose a giant cloud the size of countries with a tree on it the size of a mountain? Quite simple; you just need to have the same sense of direction as Jake. How it was possible for him to be that incompetent at finding things with his supernatural intuition was quite frankly a miracle.

During his descent, he had been a bit in a hurry and hadn’t really bothered considering how to get back again. In fact, he had barely registered what direction he was supposed to go. He had a general idea and was pretty sure of himself, to begin with, thinking that heck, how could he miss it? Well, it turns out he could.

It was kind of impressive when you think about it. Especially considering that Jake’s monstrous perception allowed him to see hundreds of kilometers away. Sure, many things obstructed his vision, but he could still see quite far.

Up in the air, it was a bit harder as countless clouds and a constant mist covered everything, making it hard to see more than a few tens of kilometers away, even with his perception.

And while he found that fact plenty worth complaining about, his perception did end up being what led him back once again.

A trip that should only have taken half an hour tops ended up being a half-day journey. But in the distance, Jake finally spotted it - a giant mass of clouds. Occasional purple flashes of lightning jumping between the trees was the first thing that caught his eye, and the rest of the journey was straightforward from there.

He had ended up being a bit higher than expected this time and was floating well above the island. But with it in sight, it wasn’t hard to make his way down there. Now his next objective was just to find his and Hawkie’s own private mini-cloud island. That was where they had parted, after all.

That part turned out to be super easy, barely an inconvenience. While many smaller islands were floating around the giant ones, the ones holding trees were very sparse. From the directions he had come upon the island, he also had an excellent general idea of where it was.

He still had the Pylon act as a compass of sorts after all, and he could remember that there weren’t any large-scale cloud islands between it and the massive cloud country, meaning it had to be on that side.

This was then the point where he remembered one of his forgotten skills - Hunter’s Tracking. As luck would have it, he had become quite familiar with the mana signature and general aura of Hawkie over their many days spent together.

Activating the skill heightened his senses as he focused on finding Hawkie. The skill did its work better than expected, and nearly instantly, it felt like a particular island lit up in his eyes. In the air, it was like several small mist-like trails came into existence. He instinctively knew these were trails left by Hawkie.

Flying to the island, he found it deserted. It was kind of expected, but still a little disappointing. In retrospect, however, it was likely for the best. He needed to meditate and refill his dwindling mana and stamina reserve anyway.

Sitting down with his legs crossed, he entered meditation as he thought back to his last talks with Miranda back at the city.

The plan moving forward was relatively simple. They now had more than fifty people and would begin construction of a place to actually live. The valley had been designated as a no-go zone, with the barrier around the lodge remaining indefinitely.

As long as it wasn’t attacked, it would sustain itself solely from atmospheric mana. Jake and Miranda were the only ones who could walk through it by default, so it would serve as a great way to ensure no one getting close to the Pylon. To make things better, Miranda had figured out how to ping him with a bit of an exploit. She could offer another to take up the position of City Lord, but to do so would require an acceptance from Jake, meaning he would get a system-prompt. In other words, she could offer it to Hank, Jake would get a prompt, and Hank could then just decline it with Jake notified. The only issue was that she couldn’t offer it to the same person within a period, but that shouldn’t be an issue. She was also only to call him in case of emergencies.

With Neil and his party staying, a modicum of safety was also ensured anyway. Jake would guess that the five of them were pretty far up the earthling’s power ladder. They also had the advantage of working well together and being a somewhat balanced team. Their lack of understanding of basic energy manipulation was a big problem, but he hoped they could learn it quickly.

Before he left, he also gave Miranda a few things. Some equipment he knew he would never get to use, some books with general knowledge, and the notebook Jacob had given him. Jake had skimmed it through already, and it mostly contained basic knowledge of the system as well as the man’s own thoughts. But he also discovered that it contained knowledge of how a Pylon of Civilization worked and the role of a City Lord. Needless to say, it was beneficial for her. As to how Jacob knew Jake would get a Pylon… well, it was pretty obvious as the Viper had told Jake that him being a Progenitor wasn’t exactly a secret, and the only way to become a Progenitor would be to kill a D-grade boss and hence be able to claim a Pylon. It was a simple deduction, so no divination-bullshit involved with that one.

He also gave her a bunch of potions. Which meant it was also time for him to begin making some more. He had spent two entire weeks just making potion after potion upon first returning from the tutorial, and now less than two weeks later, he already felt like he needed more.

It put his mind at ease, however, to have given them out. Many of them were for Neil and them to use during their leveling sessions, with the rest being saved for emergencies. He had also more or less ordered her actually to spend some time training and getting her class upgrade.

old item he still had in this spatial

the user to acquire

24-99 in any

compatible. And even if she was, she didn’t have any light magic yet, making him suspect that even if she could technically use it, her

he also threw away, more due to selfish reasons than anything else. He had a

slowly ticked by as he meditated, and soon a few hours had gone by. His tracking skill told him Hawkie had been there only a few hours before he arrived, making him guess it was either hunting on its own or on a trip back to

at the moment, so he started with them by taking out some common-rarity Green Lavender and Evergreen Grass. On another side note, he was finally below half of his storage of the three basic lavender types. And nearly entirely out of

stamina potions later, he detected a presence coming his way. A presence he

Hawk –

a few moments

at ease. Not that he was sure it was actually concerned or just annoyed and surprised

more towards the latter as the first thing the damn bird did was to demand more potions. Only

am slightly apologetic I just bailed on you like that, he grumbled inwardly as

Abby and Donald could barely be called a fight. They were far too weak to truly pose any threat towards him unless he

felt far more in his

and the surrounding factions were made aware of

loyalty in the allotted time. Others, mainly those with roots elsewhere, chose to leave. A real storm had been going through an area containing the millions

the factions that pledged loyalty or proposed to vassalize themselves were

the area around where the Viper was born and had risen to power. The planet he had made a desolate wasteland on his path to power was seen as a holy land for pilgrims, members, and those who came just to

the Order confined to only a few thousand life planets in total. The only remaining Hall found on

any pre-system universe. It was of such unimaginable size that it could contain entire galaxies within. Great Planets were rare, even in the vastness of space itself. To make them even more impressive, the mana

no specific meaning besides being named that was because it was the closest Great Planet to the rise of a Primordial. A planet the Viper had wandered during his ascension and fought many powerful foes on.

ordinary. All knew the Holy Mother had ascended on

none of the factions large or powerful enough to dare stand against the Order and the Lord Protector that guarded it, much less the

one force

Brimstone Conglomerate was a faction of the 11th universe that had risen to be one of the premier forces of the multiverse.

precisely the type of entity the Viper hoped would reject

enough to believe the Malefic Order wouldn’t be stupid enough to actually attack them. It would mean war with an organization with roots in several

Order, it had one fatal flaw. Its namesake. The Brimstone Hegemon himself. If the Holy Mother or the Malefic Viper perished, so would their organizations. If the Brimstone Hegemon were

For in the same vein, then as long

divine realm. A throne made of the hearts of thousands of stars, in a land forever burning with

Malefic Order but a farce in his eyes. A powerplay

than anywhere else. It was their world, after all, created from their very essence. The mana within was theirs - every single speck of energy theirs to command. It was an

next surprised the Hegemon so much. The god felt a presence forcefully enter

be honored or offended?” the Brimstone Hegemons voice echoed out in his entire realm as he stared at the scaled man before him.

the privilege,”