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

wearing nearly all-black clothes, giving off quite a mysterious and unapproachable aura. Thinking

an upgraded version of Identify that allowed her to better pierce normal obscurations, so if she failed to Identify

brother’s gaze as familiar as ever. He saw the mix of relief and happiness in his eyes, and Caleb could only

to see

viscounts present so far. And while Jake’s platform attracted a lot of attention

by humans… at least not the

living beings who didn’t possess the affinity themselves. Needless to say,

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 that

undead and saw Casper on the platform along with three others. The one in the lead was a woman with

a mask, Jake joked to himself, honestly feeling bad for his old friend. There was power in wearing a mask, and Jake knew he would in no

Hang in there, buddy.

sizing each other up and a bit of a dick-measuring contest in the form of auras, it was time for the rest of the

four people, but there were a few with 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

Of the 10 first factions, six of them had at least one D-grade on them. The old man, Jacob, Jake, the white-haired undead woman, the leader of those

arrivals, all of them were E-grade except for three. All of them were automatically noteworthy for their strength, but one was more noteworthy than anyone else

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

had shown up only with two and not the

and had deep brown eyes and combed back hair and a small mustache. Jake’s first impression was

held something unique, something no one else

A Bloodline.

a while before the other guy raised his finger to his lips and made a shushing motion. Jake answered back with a toothy smile

could get on board

their platform was focused on him as he was the sole D-grade, but Miranda, Neil, and Lillian also suffered quite the scrutiny. Miranda looked unfazed, Lillian

Which luckily, it did.

the first World

World Congress is an opportunity for the newly integrated Earthlings to establish political connections and an arena for discussion, voting, and international politics that can impact the planet as a whole. Note that no

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

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

suddenly stopped for a moment as they took in the information. To be honest, it was a lot more... formal than he had

into like the tutorial, and Jake having to dunk on some morons to set them straight. Luckily – or perhaps unluckily – this wasn’t

fight that old man with the sword… maybe

Jake expected was 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

number of available votes is based on the nobility rank of the attending members. The number of votes per

Earl: 10