The Primal Hunter

Jake stared up at the puzzle door, no one answering his inquiry right away. He could get why it could be a bit unsetting to chat with the guy who had nearly just killed someone, but in Jake’s defense, the guy hadn’t died. The lack of a notification confirmed that, and Jake was pretty sure people were healed when exiting.

“Uhm, it’s a magic puzzle of sorts,” some young man finally answered. He looked rather unassuming, and while Jake had seen him before as one of the observers, he wasn’t exactly someone Jake had taken special notice of. Just another level 105 in the crowd.

“Hm, I see,” Jake said, already inspecting the magic circle himself. Well, that was useless information and exactly what the message written there also said. However, it appeared that no one had really made any progress with the entire thing, so Jake decided that he wasn’t in a rush as he went over to the side of the chamber.

People looked towards him, but when they saw that he just summoned a comfortable chair and sat down, they turned back to the magic circle – a few glances were still thrown his way now and then, though. Once Jake was sitting comfortably, he deactivated his Limit Break and slumped down a bit. If push came to shove, he could reactivate it and suffer a worse backlash later if anyone tried to mess with him. It proved to be completely unnecessary as it seemed to only make them relax more when Jake stopped giving off his aura.

Jake decided now was a good time to go through some of his gains before he could tackle the big puzzle gate thingie.

The first items he went through were those he had looted from the Count of Blood, starting with the black sword.

[Count’s Vampiric Blade (Rare)] – A blade wielded by a Count of Blood that has been soaked in the blood of countless enemies throughout the ages. Crafted using a special type of steel, the blade can absorb the lifeforce of vitality-based lifeforms to repair itself. The Records left during this time have allowed the blade to evolve and transform even further, allowing it to steal a portion of the lifeforce of anyone injured. This blade was originally crafted in a set of nine using the unique environment of the hidden world and can absorb the weapons of other Counts of Blood to enhance itself. Note this functionality is only available within the Treasure Hunt area and will disappear once the event concludes. Enchantments: Hemoabsorbant Self-Repair. Vampiric Blade.

Requirements: lvl 125+ humanoid race.

Jake read it over a few times and reached one conclusion… it was pretty damn similar to his Scimitar of Cursed Hunger. Scarily so. Had Jake accidentally transmuted the cursed sword to make a vampire sword? Or were swords with vampiric abilities just not that rare? Thinking about it, it was a pretty basic effect to steal vital energy on each hit.

It was the kind of passive ability Jake didn’t really notice while fighting. It was just there and nice to have, much like many of his other passive effects. Now, the sword was good, but Jake didn’t really feel like using it. He liked the Nanoblade due to its longer length and insane sharpness, and he felt like the scimitar was still better as a vampiric sword. However, that wouldn’t necessarily last forever.

The ability to upgrade the sword by absorbing the other weapons was super interesting and, once again, pretty game-like. It did mean that Jake would have to hunt down all nine Counts himself or possibly trade with someone to get all the weapons. Well… he would have to do those things anyway due to the other item he had gained: the infamous key.

[Key of Blood (Unique)] – One of nine keys held by the Counts of Blood within the Treasure Hunt area. When combined with the eight others, this key will grant you the potential to earn bonus rewards. Holding any of the keys, even if unused, will contribute greatly to your final reward.

While the sword being able to absorb other weapons was ‘pretty game-like,’ having a set of nine keys one had to collect to open some secret place was super-gamelike. Or maybe movie-like? A plot about collecting MacGuffins was a prevalent trope, after all. Not that Jake was particularly complaining about it, he liked collecting stuff and unlocking bonus events.

Additionally, even if he failed to get all nine keys, he would still get bonus rewards. What this bonus reward entailed, Jake didn’t know, as he felt like all the loot he gathered was enough rewards in itself.

Moving on, he got to the red crystal the Count had transformed into. It turned out to not be a crystal at all, but a heart.

– The heart of a severely starved Balnar Vampire. This type of vampire is a rare variant with high physical strength and incredible durability. The rarity has been downgraded due to the starved

or weakened. Wouldn’t the boss that loved exposition begin talking about how “even in my weakened state, I am still superior” or something like

Jake wasn’t a vampire expert, he could see how one that hadn’t fed for many years could be weakened. Also… it was true the Count wasn’t exactly a top-tier foe in Jake’s mind. It

was for later. Chances are he would learn more about it as the Treasure Hunt progressed, and if

with the loot gained from the Count of Blood, he moved on to what had been in the Count’s chamber. It was the items the thief had stolen, and upon

and the coffin were two separate items,

of an unknown metal. The metal of the altar itself makes it near-indestructible for any being below A-grade. This altar has absorbed vast amounts of blood to empower it further, as countless sacrifices have been made upon it. It has been enchanted further to increase the effectiveness

Requirements: N/A

was going to make a joke about it if he knew about it. However, one had to remember that

there would be a big auction, and there was sure to be someone in attendance who could use it. Shit, couldn’t Miranda use it? She was

was also the accompanying coffin that Jake

and the concept of time. The metal of the coffin itself makes it near-indestructible for any being below A-grade. The runes on the coffin allow any who slumber within to be preserved longer, as time is distorted while inside the coffin. Once inside, enter a special type of meditation

Requirements: N/A

interesting. First of all, it was a coffin in a vampire tower, so it was already great thematically, and he also saw

part was also interesting, though not that relevant to Jake at all, as he didn’t have any plans to enter some eternal slumber anytime soon. These two items were probably the worst ancient-rarity items Jake had ever obtained. At least for him. Oh well, if he ever made a vampire friend, he had some cool stuff for them, and if not, he could always have someone melt all the stuff down and make something else. Because no, Jake was not going to sleep in

the thief’s actions made a lot more sense. He had likely banked on Jake not knowing the true value of the items and attempted to make Jake not think getting rid of the thief was worth the potential

think Jake would hesitate. The thief knew nothing about Jake. He had only seen Jake in this tower in person, and what had he done? He had fought a monster terrorizing others, helped many people, and even given out a healing potion

had handled the problem just fine. What was the thief

Yeah, no.

just been sitting there and going through the items, slowly having the period

have disappeared within the last half an hour,” the man said as he kept track of hundreds

was standing within a cleared house in the central Mistless Plains, hidden by enchantments and

worse,” Caleb shrugged. “Any particularly noteworthy

towards one of the towers disappeared less than fifteen minutes after he reported back about getting a big score. Apparently, someone

was a unique role of the Court of Shadows dealing with getting jobs, but also assigning them. More often than not, they took the role of handler for many assassins too and kept track of their successes, failures, and potential deaths. While the

probably got found out and refused to hand over what he stole. I am a bit interested in who was able to catch him; he was quite the sneaky one if I recall correctly,” Caleb said

not certain… let me check if there have been any other reports,” the Solicitor answered as he began going through the wisps. Each of them corresponded to

such long-range communication wasn’t small,