The Primal Hunter

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Many would say that in a Treasure Hunt with high-rarity items spread throughout a large area, one should not stay in a single place for a prolonged period to procure things that didn’t even count as items. Most would argue that was a waste of time. But to Jake, the true treasure was not the huge metal gate: it was the sense of victory he got when the first door finally fell off the hinges and slammed into the ground, making the entire archive shake and all the ash be lifted off the ground for a brief moment.

Totally worth it, Jake thought as he put the huge thing in his inventory. Swiftly he moved on to the next door and spent another half an hour slowly burning away at the hinge. Was this truly worth the metal of the door? Maybe, Jake really didn’t know as he was quite clueless when it came to metals. He had just decided he wanted the metal, so he got the metal.

All arguments for it not being worth it were swiftly removed, though, as the entire process forced Jake to take a different approach with a skill he often took for granted. Alchemical Flame was a core skill for all alchemists, and Jake just used it to control the heat of the cauldron usually. That usage hadn’t really led to anything… but spending over an hour focusing on improving the flame as he got the doors off? That sure helped.

[Alchemical Flame (Common)] – The flame of an alchemist is one of the most critical aspects of the crafting process. The flame itself is affinity-less and not polluted by the impurities of burning a catalyst. The path to refining one’s alchemical flame is a long and arduous one for all alchemists seeking the pinnacle. Allows the alchemist to create a small alchemical flame, emitting heat. Adds a minor increase to the effectiveness of Alchemical Flame based on Wisdom

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[Alchemical Flame (Uncommon)] – The flame of an alchemist is one of the most critical aspects of the crafting process. The flame itself is affinity-less and not polluted by the impurities of burning a catalyst. You have just embarked on the path of refining your alchemical flame, and may your path towards the pinnacle be swift. Allows the alchemist to create a moderate alchemical flame, emitting heat. Adds a small increase to the effectiveness of Alchemical Flame based on Wisdom

Jake got the notification halfway through getting the second door of the gate off. The change in the description was minimal, and honestly, he couldn’t feel much of a difference. Just that his flame could get slightly larger, heat up or cool down a bit faster, and was generally just all-around improved. Which was nice. Once again, stealing doors was totally worth it.

With the gate gone, he decided to head onwards. He still had a lot of the tower to explore, and according to the recording, there were hidden treasuries. It made sense he couldn’t just sense them outright, as, of course, hidden treasures were… well, hidden.

Walking out of the hallway leading to the library, he frowned as he heard sound echo up from the bottom of the atrium. Jake slowly walked over to the edge of the balcony with an overlook all the way to the base of the tower and towards the top.

He looked down and saw movement in the open space below. Jake saw several groups of humans running around, and even a few that flew or jumped up a few stories. They seemed hesitant to split up, though. He wondered why for a moment but soon got his answer.

Out of one of the terraces flew a figure covered in dark armor.It looked to emit black smoke out of all the gaps in the armor and swung a dark two-handed blade as it chased after a mage who shot a fireball at it to try and blow it away.

[Reamimated Blackguard Golem – lvl 110]

Jake wondered why he hadn’t encountered any of these himself. Then again… he had barely been around the tower. He had walked down two hallways total, one to get to the atrium and the other to enter the library, skipping everything in between.

Looking at this armor a bit closer, Jake felt that the black smoke coming out of its gaps was actually mist. The same mist as he had encountered far above. This made him frown… how had the mist entered the tower? Were there breaches somewhere?

He kept looking down and seeing how the humans below handled these golems, which they were doing quite well. A party of four took it on, and the mage who was being chased was swiftly saved as a warrior with a shield stepped in.

from an archer hit the golem not long after, and when a rogue-like person struck it from behind, its end was clear. Yet, something still felt off. Jake frowned a bit as the golem was on its last legs,

a cloud of black

up the entire tower as the rogue fell to the ground. A healer that was not from their party, as far as Jake could tell, came over as another two people joined the party of four. The healer began doing what

Yeah, good luck.

the rogue’s low innate durability, he doubted it. He was proven right less than a minute later

was what contained the rogue’s loot. Which made a lot of sense… having everything a person had looted just appear in the air and not within

party who came in from the side and stole it. Jake laughed a bit under his breath as he saw the thief use Shadow Vault

his head, Jake decided to

during this Treasure Hunt was unavoidable, and he was actually a bit happy they didn’t just try to kill each other outright. It had barely been a few hours since the entire Treasure Hunt started, so it would sure get bloody if people already began slaughtering now. Once again, though, he was

the balcony and flew upwards. He felt a single gaze land on him from below, but that was it. He turned and saw

could find any good challenge or good loot, it had to be in the vicinity of this boss-type enemy. He

system-constructed scenarios. Everything was just too neatly set up, just like this. Seriously? Collecting keys to access some big final boss, all of them conveniently sealed away in their respective boss rooms? All of it was just too artificial and

the top, he noticed that the layout changed a bit. The mountain narrowed the higher one got – as mountains tend to do – and Jake saw only four total hallways at the top, each of them a good stance

gone to the very top from the start. It turns out… some had. A group of five were far inside one of the hallways, battling

Golem –

Golem

Golem

was the same kind of golems as the one below but at a higher level. One of the golems used a two-handed sword, another dual-wielded

chains of mana suppression the last one. During this time, the mages were trying to swiftly finish off one of the golems, one using lightning and the other water magic. A

from a distance. As a general rule, he didn’t wanna intrude in an ongoing fight as he didn’t really like when people did that to him. He still remembered the asshole birds up on the cloud island. Putting into their fights was fine as they

before the party noticed him, the situation changed. A wooden door at the far end suddenly slammed open as another figure stormed out. This one had a

Golem – lvl

their asses wasn’t out

five, the Knight entered the fray. The warriors were all busy, but their competency showed once more. One of them used a skill to make his hammer smash one of the

the warrior moved to get up and push the Knight back a step… at least he looked like he did. Instead, the Knight simply stepped back as the warrior pushed to dodge the blow and then, with a dexterous blow, cut the warrior deep in his shoulder and smashed him in the

mana. At this time, the mages had picked up the pace and had just finished off one of the three Blackguards, freeing up the second warrior. Sadly he had no way to intercept as the Knight went for the healer who was still holding down a Blackguard by himself, and only the lightning mage could do anything too as the other was sealing in the explosion of mist in a bubble of water. And even if he wanted to help, the Blackguard

across the chest, it was clear this was a catastrophe to