The Primal Hunter

The wheel of time spun as the days passed one by one.

Beasts fought, humans struggled to survive and expand their settlements, and a good deal of them battled to claim the many Pylons still scattered across the planet. Every Pylon was far apart, often separated by thousands if not tens of thousands of kilometers.

Jacob had taken fourteen days walking with his entourage to the Pylon second-closest to where he had arrived back on Earth. Granted, he hadn’t rushed, but it was still a vast distance.

Day nine of Jake entering his alchemy-frenzy, he was interrupted as he got a notification that wasn’t about a successful craft or a new level gained.

Announcement to all Nobles: 10 Pylons of Civilization have now been claimed. Once 100 Pylons are claimed, the World Congress will automatically form.

Jake stared at it for a few seconds before shrugging and turning back to his cauldron. Miranda unsurprisingly came in later that day. They talked a bit, but as it was more of a forewarning than anything else, they didn’t take any particular actions besides discussing it a bit.

Everyone with any nobility title had seen the message, Phillip and Miquel included, as well as one other person Jake didn’t know.

Phillip already knew about Pylons and apparently knew they had one, but to the other two, it was news. They knew nothing more about Pylons than that their lord title allowed them to control one.

Miranda shared the fact that they had a Pylon with all of them, making it official, and with Jake’s approval, they also stopped being all secretive about it. Of course, no one knew where the actual Pylon was, though it wasn’t far-fetched that many suspected it was in Jake’s valley.

To everyone’s big surprise, no one wanted to try and scout out the valley even if they suspected he kept some good stuff there. Maybe it had something to do with the overly protective D-grade Mystsong Hawk sitting in a nest inside. It had already placed quite a few defensive and detection spells around the place.

The egg still looked like it could hatch any day, and he was looking forward to it.

Jake had just gotten done with a round of crafting some inferior-rarity poison that he was practicing with. Neither of them were very useful, but they were still new creations and a stepping stone on his path to slaying a certain giant mushroom.

[Weak Herbicide (inferior)] – A weak poison created to kill plant life and similar lifeforms. Breaks apart the physical body and membranes that hold the plant together, making it wither.

[Weak Fungicide (Inferior)] – A weak poison created to kill fungi and similar lifeforms. This type of poison is made to spread through any physical connection of the fungi, quickly infecting large parts of it. Deals low damage but is hard to cleanse.

Both of them kind of sucked compared to just splashing a shitload of blood on stuff, but they did help him learn quite a lot. He wanted to make a potent poison, or fungicide, to kill the damn mushroom lurking below, and for that, he needed to start from the bottom.

A poison that worked against plants and fungi was fundamentally different from regular human or beast-killing poison. Plants and fungi were rarely ever vitality-based lifeforms but instead lived off a type of life-affinity mana. So poison, such as Necrotic Poison and - in an even more extreme case - the Hemotoxin had barely any effect. They still did a bit of damage just because they were infused with harmful mana, but the result was absolutely minuscule.

The method behind crafting was a lot different from other types of poison he had made so far, and it was an exciting challenge to throw himself headfirst into.

It was eighteen days since he began his grinding, and he was already working on making his first common-rarity mushroom-killing poison. His speed was without a doubt impressive, and he had also gained another level that day, bringing him to 78.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 78 - Stat points allocated, +5 free points*

days, and while that did seem slow compared to his prior speed, it was actually quite fast. At least Miranda said so after comparing him to many others. Well, Miranda leveled super fast,

the area outside his lodge. He barely had time to notice it before he heard the cries of Hawkie and Mystie,

and rushed outside, already fully aware of what was happening. He faintly felt another aura had begun appearing and was growing in presence

was

he joined the birds at the nest, acting just as anxious and panicked as them. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was supposed to do anything as he saw a small crack appear on the egg. Mystie, the majestic D-grade hawk that seemed to always be

he saw a small figure with fluffy down slowly poke itself

anxious but still waited patiently for the little one. It struggled to break out and eat the shell from within, slowly pecking at it. Jake had to admit… it looked a bit creepy, but

a mighty peck and finally got its head

”Chirp! Chirp!”

making – what in Jake’s eyes – was the cutest chirps as all three of them moved closer to watch the little thing. It looked back at them with its big beady eyes as it just continued making its small chirping noises as

on it to see what kind of bird it was. He had kind of

– lvl

Hawk. As for Sylphian, he assumed it had something to do with Sylphs, which he recalled were spirits of wind or something. I’ll ask Villy at some point, Jake thought. No reason to bother the god with random questions all the time. He didn’t want to be that friend who keeps pestering others with constant inane

was a powerful variant, could it naturally grow to D-grade, and how long would that take? How

“Chirp!”

all that, Jake thought, as he just extended his finger towards the

looked up at him for a brief moment before its small beak tried to close around it. It failed miserably and just began pecking at his hand harmlessly. He couldn’t help but chuckle as the small bird gave up and returned to eating its

the rest of its shell. When it was done, it finally got up on its two thin legs and took a few small steps forward,

“Burp!”

and helped it stand by gently nudging with its beak. The baby hawk managed to stand up proudly again, walked a single step more this

with its talons, the small bird trying to stabilize itself. This time it didn’t walk around but just stood there, looking around at the three of them. It blinked with its big eyes as if it

worried. He feared that he was intruding on something. He wasn’t really

had both looked happy, almost elated when Jake was showing so much interest. He felt them warmly look on when the small hawklet tried

family lived because Villy told him,

up and leave now, using One Step Mile into the horizon… he knew that wouldn’t be a wise choice. For now, it was best to focus on his own strength and make it so that when

time, pulling Jake out of his thoughts. He saw

recalled some memories,” he said, smiling at the two, as he extended his finger towards the small bird again. “It has nothing to do with

an annoyed screech, practically punching Jake with

mini-Mystie?” he said, chuckling. “So you’re a little

still looked at him disapprovingly – likely due to the bad nickname – but

all the way out its shell, and it was already waltzing around the nest quite comfortably. It was quite a contrast to pre-system newborn birds that were borderline immobile for

use Identify on it

Eyas – lvl

other ways than combat already, but it was the speed that surprised him. Hawkie had also gained a level while protecting the nest and doing nothing else, proving it even worked at higher levels, but clearly, it was far slower for him. Hawkie had gained levels way, way faster while hunting up in the sky with