The Primal Hunter

Jake had always liked to play strategy games, mainly those of the good old 4X genre. 4X was an abbreviation of Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate, and was in 90% of cases, macro gameplay and economy ruled as one of the most important aspects. While they weren’t the most realistic, he and Casper had spent many hours nerding out over making optimal builds and strategies, and one of the most important factors was always location.

In these games, the resources you had available nearly entirely dependent on the starting location. You may have valuable metals or expensive crystals or be placed close to a forest for logging or seaside with great fishing possibilities.

The placement of the Pylons was a bit of the same. Most, if not all, citizens prefer to be within the scope of the Pylon for obvious reasons. It increased experience gain for non-combat-related activities, and the City Lord also wanted it for all their skills to work properly.

This meant that unless you had valuable resources extremely close by, you would have to travel outside of the safety of the city to get it, something very few liked to do. There was always the risk of some high-level asshole bird descending and killing you or some huge earthworm suddenly come up and gobble you down.

Haven, as an example, had a mine placed within the area of the city with some ores and metals. Perhaps a few gems and crystals too, but nothing worth writing home about, and far from enough to call it a strategic resource. According to Miranda, they already spent all the metal they mined, making them lack that a bit, so it wasn’t like getting more would be bad.

There was plenty of wood to go around being placed in a forest and all, with stones also aplenty primarily because they didn’t feel the need to expand senselessly.

Jake was already fairly confident that they wouldn’t lack monster material – again, forest – and fruits and foodstuff they also had plenty of. Heck, even herbs weren’t that hard to get, and Jake had collected a few during his hunts deeper into the forest, but it still took time, and most herbs he found he didn’t know how to use.

Other materials such as chemicals and cloth Haven didn’t have anything of at all as far as Jake knew. Haven would win out in nearly every area but wood or anything from monsters. They kind of needed everything but didn’t severely need anything. Except for herbs… because Jake wanted that.

The same wasn’t true for other cities. Sanctdomo appeared to lack nearly everything due to their large population but apparently had plenty of gems and crystals. Other cities had one or two resources that they all seemed adamant on not needing a store for.

All of this is to say… no one could fucking agree on anything.

Jake really just wanted to leave or go chat with one of his many acquaintances present, but that was a bit hard with all the borderline yelling going on between the City Lords. It would also just be rude to tell Miranda, Neil, and Lillian to leave the platform for him to invite friends over… so Jake had to wait. The only positive thing was that you really got a good feel for the other cities based on this entire thing.

A ”quick discussion so we can move on to other things” ended up taking nearly two hours, leaving only a single hour remaining before the actual vote would begin. Jake wasn’t even sure any definite agreement was reached; it just sounded like people would vote for their own thing. A massive waste of time. Everything except for the first five minutes where everyone agreed on herbs that is.

Finally free, Jake considered if he should go over and ask the undead a bit more about how their stats now worked, but he noticed a figure approaching before he could do that. He was from one of the lower-ranking cities and was a person Jake recognized by aura over appearance.

It was the sleek-looking man with a bloodline.

His brown eyes were a good brown with what looked like a small flame burning within, and his gaze seemed to pick up something no one else could perceive. Jake felt uncomfortable under his gaze… like his eyes bore into his body, and he was certain of one thing… the man had a perception-based skill like himself. At least it had aspects that allowed to ”see” something. No… it wasn’t a skill… it was his bloodline.

What does he see? Jake wondered as the man got closer. The man’s eyes flickered between Jake’s chest and face as an intrigued smile adorned his face.

”Pleasure to meet you, Hunter; I am Eron,” he said, extending a hand towards Jake.

Jake looked at him for a bit. Miranda and the two others stood uncomfortably behind him, not sure what to do or say. Before Miranda had a chance to come to the rescue, Jake just smiled as he shook his hand.

make it harder for anyone but Eron to hear it. It wasn’t foolproof, and Miranda and the others still heard it as well as anyone using a skill or technique to snoop, but it was good enough to mask it

he

of his own. ”A rarity, those like us. It would be my pleasure to host you in the city of Cardius if you find the time and wish

last words were said a bit

the creepy guy gone. He got the

man, Eron, wasn’t a danger to him. He was a D-grade, and he did have a certain aura to him, but it was far from enough to threaten Jake. Yet,

a meaningless endeavor. He kinda wanted to try fighting all the D-grades present just

hearing Jake’s tentative affirmation, just smiled once more

eyes looked at Jake’s face… not his eyes, but face… or

”Both of you.”

he walked off,

with his eyes closed as he ignored the entire discussion about what resources to get and all that. He knew his opinion wouldn’t

as talking with his

said, her

annoyance of Priscilla and the schadenfreude of Casper. He didn’t want to put her out there just because Priscilla

magic was damn intense, and she seemed to like fighting, which was a relief to Casper. They had even worked on ways for her

but Lyra was stronger than her in pretty much every way when it came to a straight-on confrontation.

to be honest, Casper wasn’t sure exactly how it worked; he was just happy that his girlfriend would be safe in most circumstances. A bit like a lich, actually. It was weird how an item could both be functional equipment and essentially the body of a ”living” creature. He had been warned that certain soul-affecting attacks could still hurt her and that she was even a bit susceptible to them due to her state, but it wasn’t something they had to worry about against

care overly much about this whole negotiation, Priscilla and the others were sure going at it. They didn’t really need stone but actually really wanted wood. Many trees couldn’t grow within

like some gems and crystals, but he

were for his profession as a Dungeon Engineer, and he needed many crystals, gems, and other energy sources to power stuff. Casper was called a Dungeon Engineer, but that didn’t mean he could actually make dungeons… at least not yet. He could make certain areas with desired properties, and with his class as

close to keep him safe. It hurt his experience gain a lot and wasn’t

had been a lot easier than he thought, and it helped him not look ridiculous

do I say it… unsettling. I felt like he knew I was

out how funny it is that a ghost is scared of a human and not

touch my soul or something. I don’t think we should interact too much with him, at least too frequently and only in small

anything on purpose, but better safe than sorry. It also isn’t like people can’t change… and I wouldn’t have thought Caroline able to do

for a while, mainly

quite a few others. The political stage had yet to form into circles and alliances, but more defined

the talks died down, and people began wandering. Casper didn’t think about going anywhere, but his attention was still grabbed as a “confrontation” many

Progenitor vs. Sword Saint.

including the Holy Church, were interested to see what would come of this, as