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.

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 reckoned your bloodline – and thus you – hated ever being put in a position where you have to recognize another existence

asked, accepting the rest of the explanation. Those things kinda made sense, right? But the Viper

into soul magic I do not, and I wanted to find inspiration through her skill. I couldn’t tell you about it beforehand because then you couldn’t have accepted the contract if you knew as you would have done so partly with the intent of breaking it 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 have gotten those levels or made the contract, so everything turned out fine, right?”

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

even if she does seem a bit eccentric. Just give me a heads-up when you can, and

See you around and take care,” the Primordial said, sounding a

as he stayed silent

Jake nearly falling off his chair, but she just opened her eyes, made a cute yawing sound, and oriented herself. However, she did not

Stormild have a

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

began instead inspecting what this whole Union Oath ritual had all been about. He could vaguely feel a connection to 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 with the Viper.

did feel a certain 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 weird metaphysical sort, so it did make him wonder if he could

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

coming along to the Treasure Hunt. Oh, and if you get in trouble and need help again

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

she made a screech and motioned for

she will need to learn to fight alone. It will only hurt her in the future if she gets too used to having her parents as support and build her fighting style around that, so this time

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 what Jake said

As for Sylphie?

“Ree!”

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

Jake’s shoulder, rubbed her head against his cheek, and took flight. 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

proud of her. He did guess Stormild had also said something, but that

Go get them, Sylphie.

himself didn’t pull out his cauldron. No, instead, he took out his bow. It was the new bow he had gotten from Sultan that during the fight

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 two gemstones passively absorb and transform mana into that of the fire-affinity, making all arrows fired by this bow be imbued with fire energy. The two gemstones can be emptied

in any humanoid

imbue every single arrow fired with a 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

issue was, 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 mana, in this case, was without

the fire mana would just fight the arcane mana and end up being destroyed, expending 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