The Primal Hunter

”I fucking hate curses,” Jake muttered out loud as he got up. It had taken nearly an hour to fully eliminate the energies in his body, and he had only been up in those dark clouds for a minute or two. Shit, he had even lost over a thousand health during the process. When he imagined what was further up, he shuddered.

Seeing that traveling up the side of the mountain wasn’t an option, he went for just traveling inside it. Before that, however, he took all the plant boxes on the balcony into the inventory. None of them gave off any special aura, but they were made out of some kind of metal, so he reckoned they could prove useful. Also… the storage given seemed borderline infinite, so why not just swipe anything you could?

Walking up the entrance of the mountain, he inspected the large black gate. He frowned a bit as he put his hand on it. He noticed how it almost seemed to reject him, and when he tried to pour in a bit of mana to inspect what it was made of, it was just repelled.

It wasn’t that the door was enchanted either. Perhaps it was once upon a time, but not anymore. Instead, it appeared to be made out of some kind of metal that completely rejected all mana. Jake also saw further inside with his sphere that another gate was only five meters inside the hallway leading into the mountain.

Considering that his danger sense was silent and he didn’t detect any magic, he decided to head inside. Two handles were attached to the door, and he grasped one of them and pulled. The door was heavy as fuck, but he managed to get it open after a bit of struggling. He noticed some mechanism made it close by itself again, making it harder to open as it constantly wanted to stay shut.

Jake was pretty damn sure the door was opened by some kind of enchantment when this place was actually used. That, or they actually kept it well-oiled. Anyway, he went inside and had the door close behind him nearly instantly as it slammed shut.

Once inside, he noticed something, or rather, the absence of something. There was no mist inside, and what had entered with him was quickly dispersing. On a closer inspection… two gates… locking out stuff… yeah, this was totally an air-lock. Well, a mist-lock would be more accurate, as clearly it sought to keep out the mist.

Did those who used to live here fear the mist? Jake asked himself as he went through the second door, now truly entering the mountain. On the other side of the second door was just a long boring hallway with several etchings along the walls and floor. No doubt old inactive enchantments or something. He did test something, though.

*BOOM!*

The Pillar of Encumbrance was summoned, and he slammed it into the wall, feeling his arm hurt from the feedback. In retrospect, not the smartest decision. As for the wall? Well, he had taken a small nick out, so that was something. Needless to say, this confirmed the walls of this mountain were strong as fuck. It was like back in the Challenge Dungeon and the indestructible walls back then. Man, he couldn’t wait till Hank learned to make invincible houses.

He put the Pillar back in his inventory as he began running forward, taking in the environment. After running nearly half a kilometer, he finally reached another door. All the enchantments or other tools to keep people out were long gone, it seemed, and now anyone who could open the door was free to enter.

Enter, and steal all their shit.

Well, at least he hoped they had a lot of stuff because the entire place seemed quite bare so far. Getting through the third gate, he now truly entered the mountain and what was hiding within, and inside he found… more hallways. But! These hallways also had rooms attached to them - a massive improvement for sure.

Sadly for him, what was inside the rooms was the opposite of interesting. All of them reminded him of those small shitty cabins you got on a cheap cruise ship, with only a single small mat in each and none of them larger than the smallest of apartments.

The only objects inside were a few pieces of old furniture, most of them made of stone. He did see some signs of what had likely once been wooden furniture, but all of those had long rotten away. Additionally, he did notice something else. Ash. Nearly all the rooms had ash, often on the mats that Jake assumed had once been used for meditation or maybe sleeping on.

An enlightened race for sure, Jake confirmed to himself.

Now, Jake did say there were no real objects of value… but that didn’t mean he didn’t take anything. For example, if a stone looked slightly shiny, he swiped it. Something made of metal? In the inventory you go! Glass? Inventory!

the mountain. Jake didn’t rush through but carefully tried to get an understanding of the area. He counted thousands of residences. If the construction within the mountain had as many floors as he theorized, then a million people could have easily lived in

a lift. A lift that had long ago become

walking a bit further, he finally spotted something out of the ordinary. There was a large hall ahead of him. A communal area? It was towards the center

wasn’t made of stone at all, but it looked like it had at least been partly hollowed out to make a huge skylight. The entire mountain was truly just a

all properly would take a while even with his sphere, as picking up all the information from it at once

The entire mountain felt… hollow. Not a single ounce of life or trace of mana anywhere. No… there was some mana. The natural mana in the atmosphere was always there. Always seeping into the natural materials of the world. Yet, he noticed some areas had far less mana than others, which meant that something else had to consume it or keep

the balcony and into the open space in the atrium. His wings spread out as he began flying upwards. The lower floors appeared to be where the common people had lived,

it was just where

at the top, he took a turn and landed on one of the over a thousand balconies extending all the way up the structure. This specific

reason: another black metal door. This one wasn’t leading

inside. He found himself in a large room a few

remained was dust where the books had once been. Everywhere… except for one place. Directly ahead of him was a single three-meter tall bookshelf different from

in – no doubt the reason why this bookshelf still stood

all the surrounding mana. Jake walked closer to the barrier… and

good Treasure Hunt without a

of him intensified, and the entire floor lit up with an orange color. Jake didn’t know what he had expected. Maybe some elaborate trap that fired out

Fire.

A lot of fire.

forming around him. At the same time, scales covered his body, and he even used his

caught fire. Next, the balconies and everything else not either within a barrier or made of stone began burning with intense heat. Jake was

for now, he was. The room became hotter and hotter, and sweat began dripping down Jake’s brow as he tried to hold it back. His scales protected him, but they were far from perfect, and for every

high

seconds later, the magic formation died down, and the fire stopped. The atmosphere ceased burning, and all that remained in the room was a single barrier covering the bookshelf. The barrier was the only thing that

egg that cracked a moment later as two crispy wings fell to the ground, an ash-covered

just making pained coughing sounds as his

was something, he just thought instead as he shook his body like a wet dog, sending ash flying everywhere, revealing his mostly undamaged armor beneath.

sense… and throughout it all, it hadn’t really activated. In other words, the trap simply wasn’t good enough to be a serious

still kill half for sure. Well, not really kill them, as they would have plenty of time to choose to leave the

he just needed to find a way to

saw