The Primal Hunter

Jake, Miranda, Lillian, and Neil all stood at the lodge as the timer ticked down.

The question of who would attend the World Congress had never been an issue for Jake. In fact, he didn’t have any input at all but just left it all up to Miranda to handle. The only ones he could possibly bring along were birds, and birds aren’t known to be great political negotiators. Or maybe they were? Mystie did come off as very smart, even by human standards…

Either way, Miranda quickly managed to fire off a few quick bullet points in the final seconds. Mainly just: avoid fighting, politics and good relations first, no starting wars, agreeing that she should take charge of the primary negotiations, no killing other City lords and/or owners, and other such essential things.

When the timer reached zero, Jake and Miranda both got the option to join along with the ability to invite up to two people total. Neil and Lillian were naturally chosen.

With everything in order, they accepted as they disappeared from the valley.

Jake appeared with the three others inside a large circular room that was much akin to a conference room of the old world. He stood on a small platform with a table and four chairs in front of him. He also immediately noticed similar platforms to his sides, except the one he was on was slightly raised compared to the others, and the design of the table was also a bit different. The most significant of which was a sign saying “Haven – Earl.”

The one to his immediate right had the name: “Saya – Viscount”, with the one to his left saying: “Sanctdomo – Viscount”. Jake counted nine of these Viscount platforms total, with theirs being the only one with the Earl tag.

Ten or so meters separated each platform, and Jake felt that each had a barrier of sorts surrounding it, one Jake naturally completely ignored with his Sphere of Perception. Well, that wasn’t that significant a thing as the barriers were invisible and didn’t affect sight at all.

“Do we take a sea-“ Neil tried to ask before figures appeared to their sides. Before Jake even had time to inspect anyone in his sphere, he felt the auras.

To his left, a serene presence appeared that sought to soothe all around it. It inherently had magical and mind-affecting properties and was one Jake recognized instantly as his old superior: Jacob. There was also one other presence mixed in by a middle-aged man, but it was nothing compared to Jacob’s. Besides those two, there was also Bertram and a woman.

To his right, the aura he felt was far different, and it was the reason that the first direction he looked wasn’t towards his old boss, Casper, or even his own brother that he had already noticed with his sphere. No, he looked straight at an old man who met his gaze with a smile.

This was the first human that Jake had ever met that made his instincts warn him so directly. That old man… wasn’t simple. Not at all.

The old man looked towards Jake as they both sized up the other until finally, he bowed. Jake returned his greeting with a deep nod. Their eye contact never breaking as both saw something similar in the gaze of the other: a desire to fight.

Yet they both knew now wasn’t the time as they broke their staring contest just as they began attracting the attention of their companions. Jake saw the old man speak but couldn’t hear his voice. Guess I just found out what the barriers do.

“Who is that?” Miranda asked, also feeling the aura, though she was more affected by Jacob based on how she kept throwing glances his way.

“Someone strong,” Jake answered as he looked to his left towards Jacob. Jacob also turned to him with a nod, Jake gladly returning it. Well, Jacob seems normal… as normal as someone with that Augur stuff going on can be.

“Alright,” Miranda said as she also now truly inspected the platform with Jacob on it. “Sanctdomo… and the Augur… how do you know him?”

Miranda had read the notebook Jacob had given Jake, and in that, the Augur class was described. She was smart enough to put two and two together, especially after talking with Neil about having met the man. The only thing she had never figured out was Jake’s relation to the Augur.

“He used to be my boss,” Jake answered nonchalantly, as he turned his attention towards the two other people in the large hall that he knew who looked his way. Miranda just shook her head, not even bothering to deal with the bomb Jake had just dropped.

guy?” Matteo asked as he looked over to the highest platform in the entire room – the

off quite a mysterious and unapproachable aura. Thinking about it, the guy would fit in quite well with the rest of the

Identify him,” Nadia said as she shook her head, getting a glance from Matteo and the current manager of trade of Skyggen, the sole city controlled by the Court. Nadia had an upgraded version of Identify that allowed her to better pierce normal obscurations,

He met his yellow eyes, and despite their outward change, found his brother’s gaze as familiar as ever. He saw the mix

to see you

the system brought in people based on nobility, with 1 earl and 9 viscounts present so far. And while Jake’s platform attracted a

by humans… at least not the

off that platform was different from all others. It had an inherent concept of death seeped into it, making it automatically repulsive to most living beings

around the chamber, especially by the ones with the old man as they were placed right beside the undead faction. The same was true for the faction on their other side, one consisting of a bunch of burly men and women who looked straight out of a medieval festival. All of them holding axes or maces for some reason. Well, it wasn’t

and saw Casper on the platform along with three others. The one in the lead was a woman with long white hair and equally white skin. She smiled like the negative attention didn’t bother her and looked

himself, honestly feeling bad for his old friend. There was power in wearing a mask, and Jake knew he would

Hang in there, buddy.

each other up and a bit of a dick-measuring contest in the form of auras, it

less than that. In total, 94 new platforms were occupied, meaning a total of 104 Pylons of Civilization had been captured. Four more than the day it announced a week was left till it

once more. Of the 10 first factions, six of them had at least one D-grade on them. The

for these new arrivals, all of them were E-grade except for three. All of them were automatically noteworthy for their strength, but one

two less noteworthy D-grades were a young red-haired woman who already looked annoyed at being there, and the other a man wearing

up only with two and

back hair and a small mustache. Jake’s first impression was that

unique, something no one else possessed in the room beside them. A power that was their

A Bloodline.

his finger to his lips and made a shushing motion. Jake answered back with a toothy smile as

on board with

he was the sole D-grade, but Miranda, Neil, and Lillian also suffered quite the scrutiny. Miranda looked unfazed, Lillian like she didn’t care, and Neil a bit uncomfortable. Jake himself hated every moment

Which luckily, it did.

first World Congress

connections and an arena for discussion, voting, and international politics that can impact the planet as a whole. Note that no fighting will be allowed during the

Congress, three votes will be held with one three-hour intermission between each

a World Leader. The World Leader will automatically have their noble rank advance one stage. Becoming a World

stopped for a moment as they took in the information. To be

Jake had expected this entire World Congress to just be a big room they were all tossed into like the tutorial, and Jake having to dunk on some morons to set

he would like to fight that old

relevant here and now. Seriously, even if Jacob went full-on mental interference with his Augur stuff, he couldn’t convince 60% of the attending to vote for him. It only became more apparent how daunting the task would be with the next message

rules of

of the attending members. The number of votes

Earl: 10