The Primal Hunter

Jake was sure Arnold was just joking when he asked Jake to make bombs, especially with the deadpan delivery. It turns out the man was earnest, as he scurried over and picked up a box of tennis ball-sized metal orbs.

He also spotted something on the table he recognized. It was a sword with pink-purple lines running through it, and on closer inspection, it indeed was one of the many swords he had experimented on and had transmuted with Arcane Conductivity.

While he did remember handing some over to Miranda and Lillian for them to maybe break them down for parts again or find some other use, he hadn’t known Arnold picked one up. Several, actually, as he saw a few more scattered across many different worktables. One could say a lot about Arnold, but organized sure wasn’t one of them.

Arnold walked up to Jake with the box of metal balls as he spoke. ”I will need you to infuse that destructive type of mana you used to create the swords into these balls to-”

”Now, why would I do that?” Jake asked, raising an eyebrow. Miranda had told him that Arnold needed his help with something and had something he wanted to show Jake, which was why he decided to go. Yet the first response he got was to immediately be told to work without any context.

”Oh,” Arnold just said, looking confused. ”These orbs are made to more easily absorb and integrate any mana affinity and store it till it is released in the form of an explosion, and of all the mana affinities I have seen, the one in the swords seem to carry the most destructive potential.”

”No, I mean, what’s in it for me?” Jake clarified, now also looking a bit confused.

”… You can keep some?”

The man scratched his head after putting the box down, clearly not prepared for that question. Jake reckoned the guy had gotten used to just having the things he asked for, and he struck Jake as quite the one-track mind kind of guy. A bit like himself, actually.

It made sense in some ways, as Arnold clearly was one of the most influential people in the Fort, and he had even surpassed Phillip in levels. Not by a little either, as the man was now in the D-grade. Something Jake hadn’t seen coming.

[Human – lvl 101]

”Fine, I’ll look at it, but I want something else too. Any idea where I can get a good sword or dagger?” Jake answered, only agreeing because he did want to try and mess with the balls a bit.

”Hm, I can make you one?” Arnold said, scratching his head again as he scurried off to one of the shelves and took down a case as he explained.

”Energy-based weapons seem to be the most efficient against most entities, but I have found that sometimes you do need a tool more suited for close combat and dealing with enemies with tough defenses, so I have worked on blades that can be attached.”

He opened the case, and inside, Jake saw three approximately 60 centimeters long blades, each black as night and looking incredibly thin. Jake used Identify on the first one and was surprised at the result.

[Carbon Fiber Nanoblade (Uncommon)] – An ultrathin Nanoblade made out of Carbon Fiber, making it both incredibly durable and sharp. The blade itself can cut most materials effortlessly but has little to no effectiveness against magical wards or defenses. Due to the materials used, enchanting this blade is incredibly difficult.

Requirements: lvl 80+ in any humanoid race

The rarity itself was surprising but even more so was that these were just the blades, not the entire weapons. Jake knew from experience that if a good handle were made, it would be possible to make a rare sword… making him realize that Arnold was actually pretty damn talented. If him being D-grade wasn’t enough. He couldn’t help but ask as he stood there:

”Say, have you been blessed by a god yet?”

my profession last time. Quite

new thing?” Jake

days. I did not bother with that perfect evolution thing; I cannot see any value in delaying my work for a few more stats. I did not have any immediate field tests planned, so waiting for my class to evolve simply wasn’t worth it,” he

cared far more about his profession than his class, even if his class was also at a relatively high level. Jake also realized that Arnold had evolved his profession before

see,” Jake answered with a nod. ”If you can make a weapon using these blades,

an issue, I have some handles already, but I will need to modify

to make sword-wielding robots?” Jake couldn’t help but a

the same somber deadpan expression. ”Sword-wielding robots are

severe issues determining if Arnold was joking or not… because, by all

infuse these

given it. But yes, that destructive variant, and please inject it till the pin is fully inserted into the orb and then stop,” he explained, showing Jake a small pin with a ring on the end. This is

of them split up and got to work. Was it an entirely fair trade that Jake would get a weapon for

table with the box, took one of the orbs

of a composite metal by an extremely talented craftsman. Due to the materials used, this sphere has incredibly high conductivity and can effortlessly absorb and store most types of mana affinities. Once the orb has absorbed enough mana, the trigger pin will be fully inserted. Pulling the pin will release all the stored mana at once after

mana into the first one. He didn’t use Touch of the Malefic Viper as he didn’t aim to transmute it and knew doing so would likely ruin the orb or make it Quasi-Soulbound like everything else. Arnold only needed

as he had now infused three thousand mana and was afraid something would go

just looked like a near-perfect round sphere with the pin sticking out the top. It had a bit of

mana was what it took to charge a single orb. Jake saw dozens of orbs in the box and knew he had a task ahead of him as he got to work

about the loot. He had hoped for a rare-rarity blade, but that hadn’t happened.

(Uncommon)] – The blade is an ultrathin Nanoblade made out of Carbon Fiber, making it both incredibly durable and sharp. The blade itself can cut most materials effortlessly but has little to no effectiveness against magical wards or defenses. The blade itself has little to no mana conductivity. Infusing mana into the handle will

in

had changed was the level requirement. The blade was now officially a D-grade weapon, and Arnold had said he gave it one final round of tempering before it was put together. The handle had the same enchant as the one the man had wanted for his robots, so it wasn’t that useful to Jake

to ask him about details. He didn’t ask what god blessed him either;

infusing them, and only getting 10 did sting a bit. Oh, and it wasn’t

make running steps; it was closer to powerwalking. It took quite a bit of concentration to use the skill consecutively like that. Also, he didn’t exactly make himself go faster by putting his hands behind his back and trying to look like a mysterious old master either. The skill required one to ”walk” when making consecutive steps, though there was some leeway in what

twenty minutes. Jake could have gone faster for sure, but he found it more important to further improve his familiarity with One Step Mile

his valley. There, everything looked just as usual, making Jake a bit surprised as Hank should have started doing stuff by now, but as he got closer, his sphere picked up that

and four other men were down there and what he

the men touched the ground, and a deep hole already being made got deeper before large parts were dragged upwards, and another of the man waved his hand and directed

it… but he decided not to

no one could see as he wore his

things going?” he asked in a casual tone,

including Hank, turned around, and a few of them yelped when

meters down now, and based on our estimates, we can begin

expected,” Jake admitted as he frowned. ”Will the Pylon be able to reach down

blocked by solid objects such as soil, but it can enter through that when there is an opening. It doesn’t go as far up or down as sideways, but Miranda said that is largely due to her own actions. She has chosen to focus all her energy on encompassing the Fort as soon as possible. It’s a waste they’re