The Primal Hunter

The second phase of the Treasure Hunt started out as a mad dash for the closest Vaults. The Risen had a headstart and had already located and mapped out the location of several before the phase began and had looted everything in and around these Vaults.

Other factions simply rushed for them. For most, it would be a half-a-day journey or more to the closest Vault and included much combat and challenges along the way, making it potentially take even longer. One had to remember that someone like Jake had a powerful movement skill, while a party often had at least one member – often the healers or the heavy warrior – who had difficulty traveling fast.

Due to the danger, as one moved further away from the central Mistless Plains, it wasn’t viable for most people to go solo either. Only the more powerful individuals could do this, as the average rogue, caster, or archer from a party would find themselves in hard-fought battles against several Ekilmare variants.

All of this ultimately resulted in only the most powerful parties or individuals making it to the Vaults first, and while this would, in the eyes of many, look like an advantage… in many cases, it wasn’t.

Jake made his way through the mist towards another Vault. The journey took him more than half an hour due to the distance, even with the constant use of One Step Mile. This one was about as close to the center of the Treasure Hunt as the one with the Nalkar vampire, just in another cardinal direction.

He had spent a good while killing fake treants and a good bit of time talking with the projection and looting. He knew it was unrealistic to be the first to reach this Vault, too, but still hoped for it. Yet as he got closer, it became clear he wasn’t the first.

Flashes of light lit up in the distance, only visible through the mist due to his high perception. No doubt a fight was going on, and Jake considered if he should interfere or try and head elsewhere further in, hopefully being the first to reach that one.

Ultimately, he decided to say: ”fuck it,” and just headed to his current target. With around a week left of the Hunt, it was fine to begin robbing a bit if people wanted to compete. If it was a puzzle or something, he could just beat people fair and square, and it was solely a fight to unlock the Vault… well, he would deal with that situation too.

Making his way over another hill, he saw that this Vault was also in a small valley. The plains had many valleys, and the further one moved from the Mistless Plains, the more verticality got added to the terrain, with hills, valleys, and even the occasional small mountain beginning to pop up - real mountains this time, not the live-in mountains.

He had a good vantage point at the top of the hill leading into the valley and saw the situation below.

A mish-mash group of people was fighting an even larger group of vampires of the Ekilmare variant. It was the usual Nocturne version, except for one of them that was larger than any of the others. It didn’t have the same sharp claws either, but something far closer to human hands. Its head was also disproportionally too large, and it had a huge belly.

Jake used Identify on them to get an idea.

[Young Nocturne Ekilmare – lvl 133]

[Young Nocturne Ekilmare – lvl 135]

[Juvenile Nocturne Ekilmare Matriarch – lvl 142]

He then turned his attention to the humans. There were eight vampires in total, while the human side had four. One of them used shadow magic and dodged around while firing bullets from a magical gun. Another was a mage alternating between fire and ice magic, the third a rogue with two swords, and the final person a mage surrounded by a massive stone armor.

From what he could see, these four weren’t party members but individual fighters. They clearly weren’t used to working as a team but did so nevertheless. Jake used Identify on them all, seeing they were fairly similar in level.

[Human – lvl 121]

[Human – lvl 118]

[Human – lvl 119]

[Human – lvl 124]

While the fight wasn’t easy for the group of four, they did seem to be winning. The Matriarch was more like a support variant than a true fighter as far as he could tell, and Jake saw the guy that he determined was from the

his attention to the thing giving off the massive pillar of red light, marking a Vault’s location - the thing in question being… nothing. The pillar just fired up

would undoubtedly shift some attention to him and interrupt the fight, considering they were sometimes battling even within the red pillar. He hated interfering with fights without any reason and robbing others

the reason why the vampires were there. Monsters just loved areas like this with special mana or a higher mana density. It allowed them to passively level and stay powerful while also making their resources regenerate faster. Well, Jake and other humans also got the benefit of faster mana

the ice and fire mage - was suddenly jumped by four of the vampires at once in

Excuse!

guy about to be ripped to shreds. If this had been an actual party and not just four random people, this

Matriarch opened her large circular mouth and fired

he was about to be torn limb from limb, Jake

of a second later, four arrows arrived, piercing through a vampire each, sending the bloodsuckers tumbling back. It was

pulled with his mind just as the vampires stabilized themselves and tried to jump the caster again, only to

fired off another round of arrows, this time more focused on killing and not only delaying. He rapid-fired, each of his arrows now covered in his own blood. The vampires barely had

and fired off another beam. Jake simply looked over at her and took a single step, avoiding the beam at the very last moment, before he loosed

perfect target for explosive arcane arrows. The arrow split at the very last moment, and she was hit by five massive explosions, blasting her backward

vampires again and saw that after the initial confusion, the rogue, gun-guy, and earth mage all resumed their own assault.

and had begun smashing it down into the ground, reinforcing said ground and making it slightly spiky all the meanwhile. The assassin with his guns was blasting a single vampire repeatedly with black bullets that exploded on impact. Finally,

glance, and returned to the battle. He helped

the work despite joining so late. He wasn’t entirely certain, though, as the group had worn down the vampires quite a bit, and based on the corpses of the ground, had already killed

The four people looked at him, with only the

help mate, I would’ve been fucked without ya,” the elemental mage said as he laughed. Jake finally looked him over properly and saw he was a middle-aged man with a full beard. He was solidly built, and if he were smaller,

said, his attention already more

the earth mage noticed this as he spoke:

was a magical cube, reminding Jake a bit of a Rubik’s Cube... making him already have a

you get it up?” he asked, looking over at

of stone, making him a five-meter tall golem-looking dude. Jake could still see him

Vault, leaving us all with nothing?” the earth mage asked with an

at him as he smiled beneath his mask. “First of all, from what I have learned, these Vaults aren’t just something you instantly open and empty out. My guess is this one is a puzzle

He wasn’t as nice with the second thing. His aura bellowed out, infused