The Primal Hunter

As expected, Jake didn’t take long before he made it to the Fort. On the way, he took note of one thing in particular… he never left the influence of the Pylon. Even when he stealthily entered the outskirts of the Fort, he was still within its range.

The Fort had expanded even more than before. Jake could see why Hank had to be there. If construction in Haven was rapid, the expansion of the Fort was just insane. He knew a lot came from caravans or smaller settlements that chose to integrate themselves, but this was far more than expected.

From what Miranda had told him, one of the major reasons why so many came was the lack of regulations yet still-ensured safety. Many other cities had a faction ruling them, and that faction wanted to at least ensure a modicum of loyalty, or at least an assurance a group or a powerful individual wouldn’t work against them.

Miranda had asked if they should do something similar, but to Jake, that wasn’t needed. Sure, there were some basic rules that pretty much just boiled down to: don’t start fights, don’t be an asshole, and if you piss off the leadership of Haven, get the fuck out. If you choose to stay anyway? Well, that luckily hadn’t happened yet. Jake guessed this was where he would possibly have to come in as the owner to take out the trash.

Jake thought it was nice he hadn’t needed to do that yet. Phillip was apparently the guy in charge of security, and considering the man had half a rifle-bearing army already, it made sense. Should he go by and check up on him too? Nah, no need. He was pretty sure Phillip wasn’t a huge fan of Jake anyway.

Having the Fort now be actually a part of the Pylon’s area after Miranda evolved was great news to everyone involved. It would allow the people of the Fort access to all the system-stuff City Lords made possible and Miranda to get a better handle on all those who lived there.

Sneaking through the outskirts of the settlement, Jake became aware of exactly how much construction was going on. Brick houses were being made by the dozen, and hundreds of workers were visible within his sphere at any time.

It appeared that Hank had gone for a more normal look for the Fort. Brick houses, stone, and even something that looked a lot like concrete. If Haven was the city of wood, this would be the city of stone. Which, in retrospect, probably was most cities, also in the old world.

While Jake enjoyed looking over the city, he still prioritized getting to the central Fort itself.

No one noticed him as he jumped over the walls and into the courtyard that was a wealth of smithing and crafting as usual. The gun production was still going strong, and Jake noticed that the level of the crafters had increased yet again. Maybe some of them had evolved their profession already… if not, they would soon.

Entering the building, Jake saw all three people of note instantly. Arnold was in his workshop as always, while Neil and Hank were in the same meeting room he and Miranda had gone to back when they first came to the Fort. Seeing them all together made everything a lot easier. Being a bit cheeky, Jake marked both Hank and Neil with Mark of the Avaricious Hunter as he went to talk with Arnold – just in case they left.

Jake tried to sneak into Arnold’s workshop but found something odd at the door-entrance. A shimmer of sorts covered it. He could see it both in his sphere and with his eyes ever-so-faintly. Jake didn’t know what it was exactly, but it didn’t give him any feeling of danger.

Now, Jake did also notice one other thing. A doorbell right beside the door. It took him a few seconds to decide between trying to sneak in and just ring the damn doorbell, and in the end, he decided on being polite.

In one smooth motion, he rang the doorbell, opened the door, and used One Step Mile to the other side of the room where he crouched down, focusing on the stealth-functionality of his cloak and the Expert Stealth skill.

He saw Arnold turn around towards the open door, looking confused. He then took a quick look around the room suspiciously. Jake, being childish, tried to sneak up on him as he began moving forward, but at that moment felt that he had been detected.

great to see you back. How did the field test go?” Arnold asked nonchalantly, not even questioning why or how Jake had tried to sneak in. Shit, he

saw his detector. A floating eye-ball-looking machine was suspended at the ceiling, looking straight at him. He had to admit, Arnold was very industrious and had quite a number of

the grenade exploded with pretty good force. Could deal noticeable damage to D-grades around level 130. Not that effective against the variants, though,” Jake answered, deciding to stop messing around and just get down to

out to be accurate,” Arnold said as he wrote down some notes on a tablet-looking device. “How would

explosive arcane arrows, after all. Considering the spheres were slightly bigger than an arrow, and the arrow was from an epic-rarity

down. “I noticed you have a spatial storage. How much energy dissipated before you used them? And how long went between

as he had kind of agreed to it when he took the metal balls to begin with, and

Arnold could only cause some minor damage to a D-grade, and it had taken dozens of them along with dozens of other attacks for the man to kill some. Yes, apparently, Arnold had been killing D-grades to test out his stuff. It suddenly made a lot more sense why the man had managed to reach D-grade. His class wasn’t as low a level as Jake

Arnold fought. Well, he did have a good idea based on all the drones and different robotics around. If he had a class that synergized and allowed him to make better use of all his creations,

level 41 soldier threw a sphere too. Quite drastically, I might add. Suggests even consumables items like these have inherent scaling to the level of the user. Quite peculiar how the same item can have

need more?” Jake asked. He could

but overall less destructive. Yours reduced in effect at a substantially slower pace. May be due to you being the infuser or due to the unique properties of the affinity,” Arnold explained, shaking his head. “I decided to settle on pure fire-affinity mana instead.

was worse than regular-fire affinity? Thankfully, he didn’t do that. Lucky man. If not, Jake would have had to ‘discipline'

40 minutes, while after that, the pure fire-affinity becomes more effective due to the lack of

a bit later. He figured out dark mana, so

you as you seem to be one of the best crafters. I understand you aren’t a typical craftsman, but I thought to ask anyway as the Nanoblade

record, I am not in need of Credits. I have sold a few choice items to

was as Jake had expected. Thankfully, Jake had something far more

this won’t be a fair trade no matter what. I am certain

but nodded

It was a head and a torso made of metal. Both of them looked badly battered with dents and scratches, as well as many signs of Jake’s arcane affinity having burned into it. The neck even had signs of what looked like rust from Touch of

this?” he asked as he knelt down and placed a hand on the torso. Jake saw his hand emit some mana as a pulse seemed to try and go

his face grew by the second until he finally stopped infusing mana but

and all my attempts at scanning are completely blocked. I have no way of even researching it beyond the surface without trying to split it apart, and even if I

way, does that mean you aren’t interested?” Jake asked teasingly. He

His hand was still caressing the metal. He was already looking towards the head too, but Jake quickly came in and

what you have to offer. I need equipment or if you have any other cool gadgets,” Jake answered, tossing the