The Primal Hunter

Hello there. This is not a part of the chapter, but I have to write it here instead of in the auhor's note because scalping bots don't copy those when people steal my novel and put it on pirate sites.

Reading this novel on any site where I do not officially host it hurts me both mentally and potentially legally and financially. One place where it certainly hurts me is time-wise, as I have spent the last 2 days that were meant to be my holiday to recharge instead trying to deal with it. This isn't cool.

I already publish it for free on Royalroad.com.

Please don't be assholes and if you give even the tinniest little shit about the novel, don't read it on pirate sites, because you doing so only contributes to less being written and me getting one step closer to being burnt out. There is a lot of nuance and complications to dealing with a pirated novel and I HAVE TO GET IT REMOVED OR GET CONTROL OF IT or I will be fucked in several ways.

Additionally, make it clear to your resident pirate site, that pirating ALREADY FREE CONTENT seriously isn't okay. We can argue about taking from certain Chinese websites (and I would be on your side), but to copy something that is already free and hurt the author... really?

To make it clear, I considered just posting this notice and not a chapter till it was taken down, but decided to be nice because of people who actually aren't assholes. So, if you want to keep an author happy (and productive)...

Don't be an asshole. Read on sites where the Author actually hosts the novel.

Trying to explain to two anxious hawks that their daughter was just relaxing with a Primordial that also happened to be a living natural disaster wasn’t the easiest. They seemed more than a bit worried, but Jake kept assuring them it would all be fine. It did help that Sylphie was still on top of his head, looking to be asleep.

Anyway, the two of them got the gist of it quite quickly and overall seemed to be approving of the entire situation even if it wasn’t optimal. They did get that now Jake and Sylphie had “solidified” their relationship, which appeared to be the most important aspect to them. In the end, they waited in silence for Sylphie to also wake up.

Jake also had a few other things he had to go through himself during this wait, so the silence was welcome. One of which was a notification, or rather, notifications. Ones he had gotten during his time in the space with Stormild, but he hadn’t checked through them yet as he knew what they were about. It was the most random levels Jake could remember ever getting.

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 124 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 125 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 127 - Stat points allocated, +15 free points*

Two levels for… nothing? Or perhaps something. He decided to send a quick one towards Villy to get an explanation.

“So, what was all that stuff about? And why did I get two profession-levels for it?” Jake asked his Patron Primordial.

Villy responded promptly, having no doubt expected Jake to demand an explanation.

just gambled with your life to get a few personal benefits without telling you beforehand. Alright, in all seriousness, I expected the response you had there. Why do you ask? Because do you have any idea how hard it was to even give you a blessing? One that wasn’t even conditional in any way, but a pure benefit? You don’t even seem to be aware of how damn annoying it was in the first many months. I felt constant aggression through the connection. That has disappeared now after your evolution. So yeah, I put two and two together and

it?” Jake also asked, accepting the rest of the explanation. Those things kinda made sense, right? But the

from the start. As I said, it was a gamble. Honestly, what I get out of it has little relevance to you. I would have told you if it was possible, but then you wouldn’t

could hear in the Viper’s voice he actually was trying to justify it. It was a weird kind of apology, but Jake understood. Apologising wasn’t something he liked doing either, but sometimes something was just your fault, and it was better to apologize. He also perfectly understood the Viper not wanting Jake to harbor some hidden resentment or anything like that. Hence he dispelled that right

she does seem a bit eccentric. Just give me a heads-up when you can, and if nothing else, I’ll be sure to get some petty revenge,

around and take care,” the

too,”Jake answered out loud, still smiling. More weird looks from the hawks. Jake just ignored it as he stayed silent and waited for the

her eyes, made a cute yawing sound, and oriented herself. However, she did

Stormild have a nice

before she began a bird-charade of everything they had talked about. Jake naturally didn’t get half of it, but her parents

Sylphie, but only when he really focused. It wasn’t like anything he had quite experienced before, and the connection felt far weaker than the one had

quality to it. Like he couldn’t break it no matter what, which was the same as what his bond to Villy had changed into after his last evolution. The connection was naturally of the

he already could do that before. That is how he managed to come and stop the Prima in time. Was it just pure intuition from his bloodline? Did they have some hidden connection before already? He had no idea, and quite frankly, it wasn’t something he cared much to explore. It was there, it was good. Ultimately, the whole bond was worth it just for Sylphie’s ability to enter the Treasure Hunt and likely also get some Records and stuff from Jake. Apropos the

Jake said, getting her attention as she stopped chatting with her parents. “The Treasure Hunt is in a bit under two weeks. I give you thirteen days. Thirteen days, and if you aren’t level 110 by that time, you aren’t coming along to the Treasure Hunt. Oh, and if you get in trouble and need help again – which I will know or have Stormild tell me – you also won’t come. This is all for your own safety, so do I make

be splitting up or something for a lot of the time, so she needed to take care of herself and also get used to her new strength as a D-grade. She was green in all ways when it came to fighting – and in color - and she needed to be able to stand on her own feet, even if

she made a screech and motioned for them to leave.

come along to the Treasure Hunt, and she will need to learn to fight alone. It will only hurt her in the future if she gets too used

calmed her down, agreeing with Jake. Jake threw his old bird-pal a nod, and while he felt like Hawkie didn’t like it, the hawk at least understood that

As for Sylphie?

“Ree!”

through her mom’s protest. All the focus turned to her as she made a few more screeches making her mom back down and her dad look incredibly proud. Jake didn’t need to speak hawk to get the gist of it. She, too, approved of his message, even if he could feel her feet shake a bit atop his nogging as she was obviously a bit nervous. She had never really been hunting enemies truly around her level or

Her parents stared after her for a moment, made a screech at one another before they also took off – in a slightly different direction than Sylphie. They clearly didn’t

He did guess Stormild had also said something,

Go get them, Sylphie.

his cauldron. No, instead, he took out his bow. It was the new bow he had gotten from Sultan that during the fight with the Eagle Prima had proven to be more of a liability than anything else. Looking at it in his hand, he Identified it

fire-affinity mana for a long period of time without being burned and then infused with a dozen of other valuable materials. All brought to life by an incredibly talented bowyer. The bow’s structure is resilient yet flexible, the string near-unbreakable for anyone below C-grade, and the

105+ in

bit of fire energy, making them, in theory, more effective. This would make all normal arrows deal a bit extra fire damage and make arrows already of the fire-affinity even more powerful, which made sense if that bowyer Maria was an archer focusing on fire magic

Jake didn’t shoot regular arrows but arcane arrows. Heck, the only reason his arrows played well with his poison was that it was his poison and not someone else’s. The fire

a bit of arcane mana, resulting in a net-negative. The stable version was better in that it completely rejected the fire mana. All this did was make the fire mana disperse into the atmosphere and not have