The Primal Hunter

Jake sat with a book in one hand, skimming through it as he stroked Sylphie’s feathers with the other. She lay napping on his lap, seemingly very content with the situation. She had been working hard as always based on how she managed to bring back the core of a D-grade monkey. He felt an odd sense of pride that she managed to solo kill D-grades while still not a fully-fledged D-grade herself.

She was getting there, though.

[Sylphian Eyas – lvl 91]

Considering how she only spent a bit of time every day hunting, it was impressive how she still got more than a level every two days. Hawkie had leveled far slower than she had. Of course, Sylphie could just sleep and reach level 100, but her hunting sped it up by quite a bit. Visually she seemed to have settled on her ‘final form,’ so to say.

A bit smaller than Hawkie, a good deal smaller than Mystie, and overall just a cute, cuddly green feathery ball of death. Others perhaps looked at her as something other than the adorable little thing she was, but Jake didn’t care about those people. He was just proud of how strong she was.

Was she as strong as Jake had been at her level? No. Not even close. He had killed D-grades a lot earlier, and the monkey she had hunted down had only been around level 100 to 105 as far as he could tell from the core. That didn’t make her weak, though, far from it. On the contrary, she was a damn strong beast for her level, and he was sure she would only grow stronger as time went on.

From what Jake had seen of her fighting, she had extremely high-level skills and abilities but struggled with prolonged battles and keeping up the pressure. She consumed insane amounts of mana with practically all her skills, even if they were a bit overpowered. Especially that green bubble she summoned to protect herself was impressive and was in part the inspiration to Jake’s Arcane Barrier.

Ultimately though, it didn’t matter. Jake didn’t need her to be strong; he just wanted her to be happy. He understood that happiness and power were often tied together in this new world, and Sylphie did seem to have an innate desire to grow more powerful. Jake would happily help foster that if it made her happy, and if not… he would protect her. She was already like family to him, which made him think about his ‘real’ family. He hadn’t gone and seen them yet, even if he really should have. But… some parts of him were afraid.

Caleb had adjusted well, but how about his mother and father? Caleb said they were well, which had put his mind at ease, but he still worried. He especially worried about how they would receive him. Jake felt like he wasn’t the same person now that he was before the system. Far from it. He feared they wouldn’t recognize or would reject him. Shit, he had killed more humans than most of the famous serial killers from before the system.

It was likely a senseless worry as their other son, the leader of a shadow-assassin-cult, was accepted. So they had to be adapted to the new world at least a bit.

Jake wasn’t worried about Maja or his newborn nephew as much. He actually knew most medical issues from birth and all that were practically non-existent post-system. His only worries there were if the two of them were safe, and if Jake knew one thing about his brother, it was that he would keep his family safe above everything else.

Also… if they were ever truly in trouble, Jake fully expected Villy to give him a heads-up. If not, the two of them would have issues. Villy also fully knew this and told Jake not to worry but focus on himself. Well, himself and the bird. Even Villy seemed to have taken a liking to Sylphie and called her ‘interesting,’ which was Villy-code for someone he liked.

The small hawk on his lap roused from her slumber and shook her feathers a bit as she looked up at Jake with her big eyes. Jake smiled back and rubbed her head, and scratched her beneath her neck. She nuzzled up to his hand and looked to be enjoying it very much.

“You hungry?” he asked, getting a happy screech in reply as she flapped her wings in excitement.

Jake took out a pellet and offered it up to her. She gulped it down and nuzzled up to his chest.

“By the way, Sylphie, remember to not go too deep into the territory of those monkeys, and if you see one of the thin and long ones of them, get away from it. Those are pretty fast, and it may get dangerous, okay?” Jake warned her as he knew the hawk would dive into the forest again soon.

She looked up at him with doubt, not entirely believing Jake’s advice.

“Trust me on this, okay? Even your mom and dad can’t handle those without working together, so they may be a bit much for you for now, alright? I am not sure I could have taken them easily, if at all, before reaching D-grade myself,” he patiently explained.

Sylphie looked up at him, still skeptical, but seemed to accept what he said. Jake nodded as he gave her another pat, and she got up, ready for another day of adventures. He saw her off with a smile as he dove into his work again.

It was the day he had made his first common-rarity elixir, and for the rest of the day, he wanted to practice that. He hadn’t consumed any of them yet but was waiting. It wasn’t like Agility really helped with his alchemy, after all.

He had more than 600 stats to fill with eating or drinking stuff, and he had already decided to have most of that be Agility and Perception. Perception would be the best due to the whole percentage amplifiers, but Agility was a close second because it was great for combat.

he couldn’t get more titles or maybe skills to

begin working on the uncommon-rarity version. It was a great plan, and he was sticking to it, and

mind-reading abilities existed—another hard rule of the system, and the sanctity of the Truesoul and all that. You could skim and even enter

it was something pretty close to what the Viper

not that special, but the way this one did was just something else. It pulled out Records directly; it allowed Jake to see the entire situation not just from the

other factions liked to have these kinds of ”experiences” for their members, but it was always a well-curated thing. It would show a pre-determined moment,

level 110 in his profession and had unlocked another use of the skill. Maybe he couldn’t use it

It was a powerful beast for its level, and Jake hadn’t even begun to realize how much he had affected it. Being born growing up and in his presence had some…

playing with an admittedly cute bird? Did he seriously prioritize that over a potential legendary skill and the ability to dive through time and space and experience

can’t

That was exactly it.

was back, and even those were spent reading books on elixirs meanwhile. The books were from the dungeon still, and he had to admit they weren’t that useful anymore, but they had to do for

on elixirs wasn’t bad either. Not at all. He had entered a near trance-like state, only focusing on his alchemy, cutting everything

of ingredients coming in from Lillian, who monitored the System Store – both system offerings and from other people who sold through the store – as

Soon, Jake had well over a hundred elixirs, all giving +3 Agility for anyone above D-grade. That is when Jake also switched to something

Jake less than thirty hours from when he switched to the

A new kind

along with a few uncommon ones and a D-grade Monstercore of a Deepdweller Warrior. Allows any who drink this elixir to

Requirements: D-rank or higher.

of Deepdweller Warrior cores, which he had significantly fewer of, but he would have to make do for now. Well, all in all, it wasn’t an issue as he had even more Deepdweller

Jake didn’t know and didn’t care about. Jake just handed off the elixirs to Lillian by placing them outside his lodge and had her sell them. Later, he learned that Sultan bought

another major success as he crafted an item he had

successfully crafted [Sensus Elixir (Common)] – A new kind of creation has

common ingredients, along with a few uncommon ones and a D-grade Beastcore of a

Requirements: D-rank or higher.

communicate that a canyon deeper within the forest was heavily

it

with more cores before leaving again for a longer trip. He was limited in these cores, but for now, Jake would just make all he could. Oh, and these

have assimilated a powerful energy

+3 Perception

…

have assimilated a

+3 Perception

days till the Treasure Hunt and Jake ran out of cores to use for his

Nice.

he stopped. It just meant he began pushing for the uncommon-rarity version of the agility-enhancing elixirs. This proved to be a quite different experience than other times he tried to push himself to upgrade a rarity. He dove in

it took was more energy and better ingredients. Thinking