The Primal Hunter

Felix walked out of his small treehouse and took in a deep breath, enjoying the refreshing air of Haven. One would think that having a city inside a forest would get annoying, but Felix enjoyed it quite a lot. It did help a lot that no beasts were wandering about, and the number of insects was also far fewer than one would expect.

The builders even had an enchantment of sorts that made all those small lvl 0 insects avoid people’s homes, which did wonders for having the windows open even during the night. Anyone who had ever lived close to any kind of greenery knew the pain of having mosquitos and a whole slew of other annoying tiny pests enter just because you felt warm during a hot summer day.

Felix was thrown out of his thoughts when he heard his neighbor already out on her porch in another tree nearby, working on her tailoring.

“Good morning, any good progress lately?” he asked with a smile on his face, getting a nod and an answer in a stern tone in return.

“Not bad, but yarn and wool supply is getting scarce; I hope those merchants will soon return with a good batch,” the middle-aged woman answered, reminding Felix of that group that had come by earlier in the week.

They had come from some city down south. It was some religious city or something, but they hadn’t been overbearing, so that was fine. They had asked some questions about the city, but every new arrival did that, so nothing weird in that.

Felix himself had bought some special clay to practice his profession with along with some glass to shape, also for his profession.

Felix had entered the tutorial full of hope. A struggling artist before the system, he had been a failure both by his own metrics and the metrics of his parents and peers, so when the system arrived, he suddenly felt hopeful. He felt like it was his second chance. This time he couldn’t fail.

He felt like he had done everything right in the old world. He had gone to university, gotten a degree, but yet he failed to find any success. He tried to do some sculptures – his specialization – as a freelance artist, but all he got from that was being lowballed by people who thought you could make marble bust for five bucks or people who wanted things done for “exposure”. Fuck those people.

This resulted in him falling into what he would describe as a deep depression even if his parents kept telling him he was just lazy. Every day was spent laying in his bed, staring into the ceiling hopelessly. The only thing that managed to get him up every day was his computer and video games.

Felix immersed himself in the online world, made friends, and finally felt like he had a place he belonged. He was great at games, and his creative mind allowed him to excel in most scenarios, earning the respect of his fellow players. Sadly, it wasn’t to the level of earning any money, so his peers in real life still saw him as an utter failure. This only brought him closer to his online friends, as that was the only place he could find comfort.

Back then, he had always played a mage because can you ever go wrong with magic?

So, of course, when he was asked to pick a class, he went with being a caster. The tutorial itself had been somewhat relaxing, at least to begin with, and the enemies they faced were these half-robot things. It was really like a video game, and Felix went with his preferred school of magic: fire. Again, how can you go wrong with burning your enemies?

Once more, he found himself excelling. He joined a group of the peers that used to shun him, who now looked at him with awe and respect as he weaved his fire magic. It felt damn great.

fire mage, and that was supposed to be when his true rise to power would begin…

ever fought at that point was those robots. Tin cans that moved like living things, but they weren’t actually alive. It was a game to Felix, a game he was good at. He loved melting his foes and seeing the levels just roll in, but sadly he would soon face an opponent unlike

been in a run-down city of sorts, and during one night, they had taken refuge in a run-down apartment building. His party had consisted of four people: a girl and two other guys, and he had to be honest that he crushed on the girl in his party quite a bit. She was a supportive caster, and could also do a bit of healing magic, so she was great without a dedicated healer in the party. The two other guys were a heavy and a medium warrior originally and were the muscle of the group. It

Felix had been trying to sleep when he heard some noise from another room – the one his crush was in. A bit groggily, he had gotten up and gone to investigate,

been injured and nearly out of mana when they stopped to rest, and he saw the despair in her eyes as

just seen was no big deal. The other warrior spoke up and

flames blew the warrior with the dagger off the woman and through the wall of the building, sending him tumbling down. The second warrior cursed as he ran at Felix with his broadsword and swung. Felix didn’t know how to respond as he took a deep cut on his arm before instinctively reacting by

after the warrior he had blown away, and he didn’t stop until he got the notification of killing the man half a dozen levels lower than himself.

saw that the warrior he had blown out of the building earlier had rushed up the stairs and stabbed him in the back. He was far from durable as a fire mage, but he still managed to stumble back and turn around as he was wrestled to

fire mana. A torrent of flames sprung from his body and burned the man

enemies… but that was precisely also why it was

skin melted and stuck together as the eyes looking down on Felix slowly liquified, and he saw the burning empty holes staring down on him instead. Felix passed out, seeing the man die a gruesome death on top of him,

awakened nearly twenty hours later, based on the tutorial timer. Alone in the apartment room. A small barrier to hide him had been set up, and he knew It had been done by the woman without a doubt, but she was nowhere to be found. Both corpses of the men were long gone too, and Felix even thought the entire thing

the floor as he sat there shaking and heaving

huddled up in one of the small apartment rooms. He didn’t see

day, Felix hadn’t used his magic to fight but instead focused solely on his profession. The mere thought of using his fire magic on another living thing made him nauseous as it brought memories to his mind he

priest-like man led the group she had left with that day when they returned from their tutorial. He was well-known as apparently he had been

the ground, landing softly on the grass

themselves were actually rather large, having several rooms and built around the trunks of the

house to house without ever touching the ground. The way to get up to the treehouses themselves was decided by the people who lived there, with Felix having just decided on a simple rope to hoist himself up. Another thing that would be impossible before the system, but now many people could even

went to the closest noticeboard to check for new quests. He had worked on a glassware commission over the last two weeks, putting his sculpting skills and magic to use. He refused to use

many quests, one instantly

Open Quest: Sculptor Needed

must be at least level 60 in their profession and

hour, extra bonus upon

it for a while before smiling. This

preachers and priests included. He knew that gods were now far more tangible entities and that some could even communicate directly with them. He felt like he was more than suited for the job, his profession at level 67. Also… that reward was way above the usual. The