The Primal Hunter

Four people stood starring at the massive cube. The bearded man had truly just taken off, not bothering to stay and try to solve it. The earth mage, the rogue, the gunman, and Jake were the only ones left, and from the looks of it, the gunman and rogue were also close to leaving. Jake wasn’t sure if the earth mage actually had a clue about the puzzle or if he was just staying out of pride.

The puzzle itself was very much a Rubik’s Cube, but not the kind with colors or easy symbols. There weren’t only six types of symbols but instead hundreds, and from Jake’s initial assessment, he believed that before one could figure out how to solve the Rubick’s Cube part of the puzzle, one had to first determine what each of the six sides should look like.

Compared to the puzzle he had solved with Reika, this one was far harder.

”Could we just try all the combination and solve it like that?” the guy from the Court of Shadows asked.

”Sounds like a great way to waste the rest of the Treasure Hunt,” the rogue woman said, speaking for the first time.

Jake nodded. While he had never been that much into Rubik’s Cubes, he had watched online videos on them while bored. A simply 3x3x3 cube already had possible combinations in the quintillions. He doubted he would manage to brute-force a 15x15x15 cube even if he spent the remainder of his entire D-grade lifespan.

He considered if even trying to solve it was worth it. It would no doubt take a while, and he could clear more Vaults if he found some he could open just by killing stuff. Well… he could try if moving the rube around incorrectly would trigger some combat mechanism like the tree.

”I’m going to try and manipulate the cube. It may cause enemies to appear, so be on guard,” Jake said as he extended a string of mana. The cube happily responded as Jake moved one of the rows, making it turn, and-

”-oody waste of- wait, what the fuck?”

Just as Jake manipulated the cube, the bearded man suddenly appeared. Jake looked confused at him as he looked back at them with a confused expression. ”Did you drag me back or what the actual fuck just happened?” the bearded man asked.

”We just moved the cube,” the shadow assassin explained.

”Oh.”

Jake ignored their conversation as he sensed the area. Faint traces of space-affinity mana surrounded the spot where the bearded man had appeared, and when Jake really focused on himself, he noticed something. A small mark, not dissimilar to his own Mark of the Avaricious Hunter was on his body, or more accurately, his soul.

”Someone try to leave the valley,” Jake said, needing a guinea pig.

”Here we go again,” the bearded man said, not even asking twice as he took flight and began flying away. Meanwhile, Jake turned the cube repeatedly. The moment the fire and ice mage was a few hundred meters away, he got teleported back where he had originally been, still firing flames out of his feet.

”Okay, fuck this,” he complained. ”Ya messin’ with me, or we actually stuck?”

”Seems like it,” the shadow assassin said, looking quite worried. The others did so too, especially the fire and ice mage and the rogue looked very bothered. The earth mage didn’t visibly display any signs of being annoyed or put off, though Jake theorized that had more to do with honor than his actual feelings.

Jake sighed internally. That pulse earlier had likely been the source of the mark, and when Jake inspected it more closely, he had no idea how to remove it. He did feel like it would disappear within a day or so, though. He guessed the lower duration was the trade away for it being hard to remove… or maybe it was just far above his level.

So, solve the puzzle or be stuck here for a day doing nothing… I guess this is the system’s way of not just letting people run between the most straightforward challenges, Jake concluded.

”What’s the game plan?” the rogue woman asked, looking up at the cube. ”I don’t know anything about these magic things.”

”I know a bit,” the shadow assassin chimed in, seeming truthful.

mage said, making it obvious

in magic circles,” the earth mage

just shrugged. ”I don’t really

the truth. Jake really didn’t have any solid grasp on these kinds of magic circles or runes or anything like that. He was just a fast learner and generally good at magic, which he leveraged

fucked,” the

day,” Jake informed the others. ”Also, the teleportation only triggers when

realized the way his words could be interpreted before he saw three of them back

glance, making them only back off

sure

that works, but it also seems risky. Someone else could just come around and move the cube and teleport me back. Imagine if that happened during a

jail free card,” the fire

me into believing going full murderhobo is the best option would

ahead of those morons,” the elemental mage snickered as he took out a small

onlookers seemed to realize the best choice was to actually try and

not before Jake tried firing an

That didn’t work either.

the local land. It was why settlers and explorers always tried to subjugate or

these natives were not friendly. Sometimes diplomacy simply wasn’t working, or, more often than not, it wasn’t

than aware of this, as he appeared in the Treasure Hunt. He had done what few could and forcefully employed the local wildlife. The Ekilmares were in his eyes not foes to hunt down but beasts to use. They knew of the land and where the valuables were,

his side going into the Hunt. It was the pathfinder named Summer whose primary skill was her ability to mark and see through the eyes of others. This ability proved extremely useful during this Treasure Hunt, especially in concert with the temporarily

smart choice. He was aware of her stalker tendencies, and he was surprised that when Ms. Wells had given her the choice of being under the confinement of Haven or to stay with

realized that those stalker tendencies had been turned to him. She was the kind of lunatic that fixated on a single target, and her type seemed to be the man who had everything… and apparently, Sultan fit that

had followed – she had only become more servile and obsessed. Ultimately, however, he decided just to make use of her. She was in his mind an indentured servant, working with him until anything else was demanded of him or circumstances changed. He did not fear betrayal either, as she was bound by the rules

being related to Haven granted him. It was like a protective shield hung over him. Once people knew where he was from, they didn’t dare to strike at him out of fear of retaliation. Retaliation he doubted Lord Thayne would dish out even if people went for Sultan, but the fear of the possibility proved enough most of the

feared getting into a bout. He

be poor. Not again. Wealth in the old world had been synonymous with power. Money could buy you the

he took advantage of Sultan’s mother, no one dared complain, not even she. His mother had been a servant but was in all but title a slave. She had no possibility of fleeing, no passport to travel, and was worked to the bone with only a single bed and a bit of

up or said anything. When she got pregnant, the man simply tossed her out onto the streets, not a penny to

birthday presents’-poor, but the ’barely surviving’-poor. His mother had done what she could to survive and raise her son, but he still had to do many things to survive. Out of all the people he had ever known, his own mother was still the person he respected the most. That was also why he would never

everything from him. The day he destroyed his own ’family’ and left the formerly prestigious man in shambles, a poor beggar on the street. His wife divorced him, his children shunned him, and

he saw his own father working as a servant. Sultan had believed the old man would have killed himself, but no, the old bastard had been too much of a coward to do that. Could Sultan have ended his father’s life? Yes, he easily could… but the day he saw the pure misery in his eyes, he knew a life of servitude was a worse punishment than death. He had come to believe that for those in power to be dragged from their high towers into the streets to struggle with at the lowest rung of society was the best punishment. Ah, but that didn’t mean

him as a hypocrite who was just as bad as those he despised, and he wasn’t going to argue against it. He didn’t need to be

as the merchant managed to identify those and play within the Chosen’s rules, he should be fine. In the end, it was all about benefits and perception – so as long as Sultan stayed a benefit to Haven and not a liability, he would have a

closest Vault

would be silly – and set course for where Summer directed. He leaned back as they sailed through the air at high speeds, rivaling most individuals with powerful movement-related skills. His vessel was not cheap, after

he found the Ekilmares fighting. Those controlled by him were clearly losing, but that was only to be expected. An unfortunate downside with domination was that often the dominated targets weren’t

right. Ultimately, it could simply be system-imposed rules, but alas, it was just something he