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.

an old item he still

of the Lucenti Mage (Unique)] – Allows the user to acquire the class

Lvl 24-99 in any class.

if she was, she didn’t have any light magic yet, making him suspect that even if she could

selfish reasons than anything else. He had a solid feeling the class would be powerful, much like Neil and Abby’s Disciple of Kallox. The Great White Stag had

by. His tracking skill told him Hawkie had been there only a few hours before he

with them by taking out some common-rarity Green Lavender and Evergreen Grass. On another side note, he was

coming his way. A presence he recognized as

Hawk – lvl

hawk detected him a few moments later

things at home. It luckily wasn’t as bad as I feared,” he said, putting the bird at ease. Not that he was sure it

demand more potions. Only reinforcing his theory that Hawkie

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

things’ look, which he could only agree to. The fight with Abby and Donald could

off the cloud with Hawkie at his side, he felt far more in his element than in

the surrounding factions were made aware of his return. Now a week had passed, and

sworn loyalty in the allotted time. Others, mainly those with roots elsewhere, chose to leave. A real storm

factions that pledged loyalty or proposed to vassalize themselves were also many gods and the factions they

universe in the area around where the Viper was born and had risen to power. The planet he

factions appeared in the area he once ruled with an iron fist - the Order confined to

most wondrous existences in the multiverse - a planet larger than thought possible - one that dwarfed any celestial object in any pre-system universe. It was of such unimaginable size that it could contain entire galaxies within. Great Planets were rare,

name posing 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

ascended on the planet now known as Primordial-1. A similar Great

powerful enough to

force

faction of the 11th universe that had risen to be one of the premier forces of the multiverse. Named after the Brimstone Hegemon, their headstrong and powerful leader. A man who had risen

the Viper hoped would reject him. He couldn’t help

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

Church or Malefic 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

for them, however. For in the same vein, then as long as the

his throne within his divine realm. A throne made of the hearts of thousands of stars, in a land forever burning with the heat that would make even

from the Malefic Order but a farce in his eyes. A powerplay to bring them to the negotiation table for better terms. Even if the

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 his realm. One he didn’t have to look long for as a

out in his entire realm as he stared at the scaled man before him. The Hegemon the size of a mountain, with

course. Few have had the