The Primal Hunter

Jake sprinted through the mist, Sylphie flying along with him. His Sphere of Perception was a bit over 300 meters in radius as he scanned the area at the ground level and even scanned to see if anything was hidden beneath. With his eyes, he scouted the area ahead, seeing movement here and there within the mist. It was incredibly subtle shifts in the background, a bit of mist not moving as uniformly as the rest, or it swaying in a too predictable pattern.

Yet, he wasn’t aware exactly of what lurked within. It was clearly some invisible creatures, and they were hiding from not only his eyes but his other senses too. None had entered his sphere either but seemed to keep a very healthy distance. He didn’t doubt they were aware he had seen them.

Not simple beasts, he thought. On the contrary, they were careful and calculating. Smart… but not smart enough to avoid Jake’s curiosity.

He threw Sylphie a glance, and she seemed to get it as he took a step forward. Jake teleported, took another, and teleported again. He repeated this seven more times until he was at the shimmering form that was hiding. It knew he had found it, and instead of trying to futilely run, it attacked.

Jake saw four long claws reflect a tinge of light out the corner of his eye as it swiped for him. No, it wasn’t claws; it was nails. Long nearly sixty to seventy centimeters long nails came for him, but Jake was ready. With one hand, he blocked the blow as a barrier of mana appeared around his hand, as with the other, he released a blast of arcane mana.

A high-pitched scream sounded out as his foe was blasted back, its invisibility now dispelled. He had naturally already seen its form in his sphere, but it was just something else when done with his eyes.

It was a thin figure with one large black eye in the middle of its forehead and a giant circular maw of teeth beneath. Its hands were disproportionally large and had what looked like useless thumbs and then four extremely long nails. Its skin color was grayish blue, and it looked sickly and thin. Unfortunately, his Identify didn’t exactly help him understand what it was.

[Young Ekilmare – lvl 118]

I would ask what the fuck an Ekilmare is, but this appears to be it. Huh, Jake thought. He was honestly a bit more used to what was essentially just mutated Earth creatures. But this? This was something entirely else. Well, the Deepdwellers were also kind of weird, but they were mushroom-loving assholes so that at least made sense.

At first glance, it actually reminded him a bit of the undead, but at the same time, he clearly felt a strong sense of vitality.

The creature stumbled to its feet, but this time it didn’t attack but just slowly backed away as it turned invisible again. This was totally okay for Jake as he wasn’t really that interested in them. He did find it interesting how this was only a Young Ekilmarre, making him wonder what the mature version looked like. But alas, he wasn’t in the mood to bully some lower-leveled creature to find out.

Sadly for the Ekilmare… Jake’s bird pal was totally fine with it.

Sylphie zoomed past him as she headed for the creature. A domain of green wind spread out around her, and Jake saw the mist appear to almost be locked down as it stopped moving. simultaneously, the creature’s invisibility was dispelled, forcing it out into the open where it had to fight.

Jake saw it shimmer again, but this time it didn’t turn invisible. Just as Sylphie got close, it swayed and teleported to the side, and a fraction of a moment later, it teleported again, this time behind Sylphie, ready to cut up her small body.

Yeah…

A glowing wing met the claw as a blade of dense green wind cut forth, severing the arm of the Ekilmare.

That was dumb…

with as it hastily retreated. Impressively enough, Jake saw its arm already regenerating while it retreated. Alas, it was far too slow. The small hawk attacked again, and this time the Ekilmare didn’t have a response in

dash, her wing extending like a lucent blade as she passed. Then, she did half-loop in

seconds later, a severed head landed on

a bit, but soon it died for good. Some kind of active regeneration skill… not

teleport. Especially the invisibility was respectable. However, to Jake, it was far

it in his inventory anyway as he had decided just to take everything,

you store it?” Jake

looked at him a bit and flew down. She poked the corpse with her talon, and the

felt the corpse enter his own inventory.

ground. This only made Jake frown even more. “Okay, Sylphie, I’ll

to her confusion, but she did as

for the bird to put it

I see no indication of a range limit… isn’t

talked. “It appears we share an

“Ree!” Sylphie screeched.

yeah, good idea on that one,” Jake acknowledged as he took out a bunch of potions from his usual inventory and put them in the Treasure Hunt one. “But, it also means we can split up and get twice the

eyes went wide at the thought as she screeched in agreement. It was lucky they could split up, as, quite frankly, they weren’t exactly good

was how difficult she was to put down. In fact… he would say she had a higher chance of escaping than he did if they met a foe he couldn’t handle. Her fully stepping into D-grade had not been a small upgrade. Far

“Ree! Ree?” Sylphie screeched.

smile. It was something else both had easily noticed after their contract. Both could vaguely feel the location of the other, mainly just the general direction, but also if the other was still in good condition. It was nice to have, as Jake only believed he could get a warning if Sylphie was in

booty be plentiful,” Jake said snickering, getting a confused head-turn from Sylphie, making him re-word it: “Good

he rubbed her head. Then, with a determined look, she

hill Sylphie had chosen was a far ways off, and this mountain was even further in… and damn did he hope there would be more worthy opponents

did spot a few minor things, like a rock his Sense of the Malefic Viper picked up on containing a lot of mana, a herb here

treasures, likely waiting for something to come by to try and claim them. Or were they just close because they themselves absorbed a bit of mana from the items? It was hard to say, and frankly, it didn’t matter. The creatures ran whenever Jake got close, not a single

one with the highest perception in this entire Treasure Hunt, he easily spotted them all before they had

there was some collective agreement that it simply wasn’t time yet. Jake did not hold doubt

treasures this time around. Even if the person were incompetent, over

wanted to rob him, it would only be fair to rob them back

for nearly an hour as he ran at high speeds. He avoided using his One Step Mile to not miss anything with his sphere and also to give those invisible stalkers time to get out

super comfy boots and their ability to feel earthbound herbs and natural treasures. This did expand his searching perimeter quite

to be having fun, he thought with a smile as he pulled out an uncommon-rarity sword from the ground and