The Primal Hunter

Jake wasn’t the only one staring at what lied beyond the gate. Reika seemed a bit surprised too, and the many others who had attempted the puzzle also seemed highly interested in figuring out the big prize for solving it was.

Yet, he doubted many of them noticed the uniqueness of the room. Jake felt an odd aura in the room, different from anything he had encountered prior, yet also slightly familiar. He sensed curses within. Not just one but many. Yet even these curses felt different. They somehow felt less insidious, like they didn’t carry any hatred towards him. Usually, curses seemed to just want to destroy anyone and everything, lashing out at whoever came into contact with it.. but not these ones.

He walked inside with Reika, none of the observers daring to follow.

“It’s an armory of some kind… but these items,” Reika said as she frowned and inspected a common-rarity sword that looked to be made of silver. Jake also threw it a look, and the conclusion was obvious.

“These are anti-vampire weapons.”

He identified a random one placed on a racket.

[Sword of the Pure Ones (Common)] – A shortsword made of an unknown metal created by the Pure Ones, enlightened inhabitants of the Yalsten world who had not turned vampire and were hunted down and made into food as the hunger of the vampires grew. The enchantment placed on the sword is specifically made to hunt down vampires and will deal extra damage. All attacks against vampiric foes will deal extra damage to their vital energy.

Requirements: lvl 100+ in any humanoid race.

“Quite the lore,” Jake noted after he read over the item.

Reika looked his way as she asked. “Just to make sure there is no disparity in information, what have you learned of this world so far? To my knowledge, it was inhabited by some humanoid race that eventually chose to become vampires, and some catastrophe happened, and their civilization devolved and fractured, especially after the dimension became isolated.”

Jake proceeded to give the information he had gained from the projection and also came to learn that the other factions had found a lot of similar things. Small crystals with recordings on them located in the plains, written messages or even projections in the abandoned houses in the Mistless Plains, and of course also information from other towers. However, Jake also came to learn that the information didn’t precisely match up everywhere.

The projection had told Jake some people either didn’t choose to or weren’t judged worthy of being vampires… but the existence of this room and some information Reika had learned made him believe it wasn’t quite that simple. No, there was an entirely other faction in this world who opposed the vampires, known as the Pure Ones. People who refused to become vampires and opposed the establishment.

How they hadn’t just been slaughtered by the Kings or something like that he wasn’t sure about. Maybe they were deemed a necessary evil? Good fighting practice? Or perhaps they did co-exist until shit hit the fan down the line and the vampires began hunting down anything they could.

Or maybe, just maybe, this entire world was just fake as fuck, and set up as a scenario by the system for the Treasure Hunt, and everything was just background lore to make it all more interesting. Either way, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had just found an entire armory of anti-vampire weapons.

“There are hundreds of weapons here,” Reika noted as she checked the weapon-lined walls. The armory was cross-shaped, with a long hallway at the start and a path to each side. Weapons lined the walls, including swords, spears, knives, crossbows and bolts, scimitars, glaive-like weapons, and overall just a lot of stabby things. Interestingly enough, no blunt weapons, making Jake think blunt damage probably wasn’t very good against vampires. He would have to try hitting one with the Pillar next time.

“That there is,” Jake agreed before adding on. “But let’s get to the good stuff.”

He could see that she also wanted to check out the central room, where a large cube of non-transparent glass was placed that gave off an aura making it obvious valuables were within. The glass had a magical opening where it seemed to almost be made of water. In fact, the entire cube seemed more like a mix between a magical barrier and a physical one.

“I’ll head inside first,” Jake said as they stood in front of it. He decided to be the first to enter in case it was a trap. He was confident he could escape due to his danger sense if things went south, or probably just tank the damage.

Upon entering, he finally discovered where all that curse energy came from… it had been leaking from that cube. Jake saw a total of five items within. Four weapons, all surrounding a central pedestal with a floating… wooden… stake.

system actually fucking with

for Reika to enter after him, and when she did, she also saw the wooden stake

that a wooden stake?” she asked

is,” he answered in a deadpan

“Made by vampire hunters.”

“Yep.”

why… is the system messing with us or what?” she asked in

appears to be completely serious,” Jake answered back with a smirk as he identified

the hunger of the vampires grew. The stake gives off an aura that hides the wielder from a Count of

Requirement: N/A

was indeed a real item with very real effects. In addition… it was a damn quest item, 100%. The item also made something else clear… Jake had really done this entire Treasure Hunt in the wrong order. Likely the plan was to first collect information, get to know of

had identified the stake as similar to the quest items during the tutorial he had used to fight the King of the Forest, though those back then were far stronger. In retrospect, it was actually quite insane. That

to be the primary reward of this puzzle, and considering you were

bit surprised. He was sure she would have wanted it. There was just one thing.

me? What? Why not” she asked with a

of Blood to fight them more easily. Why would I ever do that?” Jake just answered

“Thank you then. I believe it only fair

thing,” Jake agreed. They could figure out what to do with the rest of the armory later, but clearly, this room was where the good shit

one of the four weapons –

and made into food as the hunger of the vampires grew. The enchantment placed on

in any humanoid

vampire hunting weapon that even had venom that worked especially well against vampires. The other three weapons were a sword, a halberd, and a dagger. All of them rare-rarity,

as Reika put the stake in hers. As they moved out of the room, Jake took out the dagger again

Reika yelled as Jake made sure not to drip any blood on the

of this venom,” Jake shrugged. Part of it was to fuck with her, but the main reason was to actually get a feeling of the toxin and analyze it with Palate of the Malefic Viper. He didn’t plan on replicating it, but just having experienced it would allow him to maybe use some of the concepts of the venom with Touch

even work?” Reika asked, her voice a mix

alchemy-related I consume and absorb. That includes poison that has inflicted me. Very handy to have, but it does have its downsides… such as being forced to eat copious amounts of mushrooms,” Jake answered,

seriously

move down the next corridor,” Jake said as he walked towards one of the wings of the armory.

the armory, they found a smithy and a bookshelf filled with books. Jake swiftly pulled one of the books off the shelf and checked it

off the shelf and quickly scanned through a

Unless the Noboru clan has some vampire problem, I don’t know about?” Jake commented on the books, not very interested in them

threw him a glance. “This Treasure Hunt is my first time encountering

and here I was hoping Earth secretly had hidden vampires trying to meld in with humanity,” he joked as he skimmed a few more of the books. They were truly all about

we would have found any Earth vampires already as they would surely be

back at