The Primal Hunter

Jake grinded it out like never before as he did his alchemy while completely and utterly ignoring the entire auction going on around him. He had chosen to focus on mana potion primarily but also done a fair deal of health potions because he knew those usually sold the best.

He actively used his arcane mana even more than before in place of pure mana. While he could still control pure mana and even had to in some instances, the more he crafted, the more he could phase out. He still had to infuse pure mana into the entire brew to make the potion as if he didn’t, it would fail, or at best, he would end up making a potion only he could use that wasn’t even as good.

How did he know this? Because he had made one batch of such potions.

[Arcane Mana Potion (Common)] – Restores 11783 arcane mana when consumed.

At first, Jake was shocked upon seeing they were not Soulbound in any way and promptly had Sylphie test one by drinking it. The result? She thought it tasted “yucky” and did not restore any resources for her, killing Jake’s dreams of having found a new way to make better mana potions.

But… even if others could use them, his regular ones were just better:

[Mana Potion (Common)] - Restores 14314 mana when consumed.

In his humble opinion, fourteen thousand mana was a fuckton, but one had to remember Jake had a mana pool of over forty-eight thousand now. He was also still considering when he would learn to make uncommon-rarity versions and should probably just get his shit together and read a book on it or ask Villy, but that was all stuff for later.

Secondly was, of course, health potions. While they were great, they were far from as good as his mana ones.

[Health Potion (Common)] - Restores 9138 health when consumed.

Still respectable, if he had to say so himself and in proportion to his thirty thousand health pool, it was about as good as the mana ones. Jake had around a hundred and twenty health potions and over two hundred mana potions made during these six and a half hours, and when he looked at Sylphie, he was still confused about what she was doing.

Sylphie had made two small green wind elemental-looking things that were now in a fistfight as Sylphie both seemed to control them and cheer whenever one landed a hit. Jake did not say anything as he would always advocate for more mana practice for the young. He still thought it was kind of weird, especially how the elementals seemed almost alive.

Must be that Sylphian heritage, Jake reckoned as he took a look around the room, seeing everyone still immersed in the auctioning.

Jake just shook his head as he saw there were only five or so minutes left. Not enough to start another batch, that was for sure. Instead, he began considering ways to use his arcane mana more, also if it was just to make Jake-specific potions.

The issue with his arcane affinity being mixed into an actual potion was that it wasn’t really safe for consumption. The stable element could be consumed but would take more energy to break down and reabsorb than if it was just pure, and the destructive element would rather burn his insides than restore mana.

Jake had a feeling he could reach an equilibrium where he would be able to reabsorb the energy, but that would take some time. During this time, Jake had also reflected a bit on his talk with Eron about vital energy to try and improve his health potions, but it was actually surprisingly useless.

Eron was all about controlling your own vital energy and only your own. Making a health potion was all about making energy others could absorb easily within the parameters set by the system. The two philosophies just simply didn’t mix. There were a few parts just on general manipulation, but it was negligible.

Well, there was also the notebook, but Jake still didn’t get anything in it. To his eyes, it was all just headache-inducing scribbles.

As he sat there thinking, he noticed most of the others were more focused than ever as he saw the timer about to reach zero. Sultan looked sweaty and tired, like he had just been in a battle to the death, with Roman scowling and muttering curses at “some bloody bastard” that kept outbidding him.

Jake stood up and looked down at the hall with the same situation playing out everywhere. He smiled as he also checked the menu himself and saw that most of the items had been sold by now. Looking at the logs in the interface, he saw that all items had only been up for an hour total before being sold unless active betting was still going on. This meant that here in the last stretch, the most hotly sought-after items and the last batch of five hundred were the only things left.

Out of curiosity, he checked out the most expensive item, sitting at a whopping six million Credits.

[Damaged Transportation Pod (Rare)] – A pod created to transport individuals over a long distance. This pod was originally made to allow the weaker denizens of Yalsten to travel outside their realm safely through wormholes, and the vehicle has an incredibly high resistance to all space magic. The inside of the pod is spatially expanded. Due to damages incurred during an escape and subsequent decay of the entire vehicle, it has led to a severe decrease in rarity. The pod is still functional but has severely limited speed and limited spatial expansion. During the escape, the generator was damaged, making the pod require a constant power infusion too.

be so popular made perfect sense to him. Vehicles like these were big and often worth a lot just for their materials alone and were items one could often

repair it created by a vampire from Yalsten and some basic details of how the pod worked, the size, and stuff like that. He wondered if the person who had

on it. He didn’t need a car, and besides, teleport-walking was way more

saw it slowly go up a bit more in price until finally, the first phase of the auction ended, and a wave of relief went through the room at an almost palpable level. Sylphie also cheered as the small elemental on the right won the fight as she flew up and landed

as he stood there in front of the glass panel – two big piles of potions on the ground off

she got up. “Only a few things for myself personally, primarily for rituals… what have you

an actual question as Jake just gestured to the potions, but before he could say anything, Sultan spoke up: “You’re selling those during the

answered. “Because I would sell them way too cheap or end up just giving them all away for

an “urgency and expedition fee” or some bullshit like that. Jake agreed as he ultimately would earn more, and he really didn’t want to sell himself. As for getting Miranda to do it? Well, she was already on her way out the moment

System Announcement:

now be a one-hour intermission before the next phase begins. The next phase will include all epic rarity

next phase,” Miranda said as she bowed and swiftly left the booth, teaching Jake that anyone could leave at any point. Jake didn’t need to think

Jake had signed the contract before disappearing too. After a brief talk with Roman and the others, they all dispersed, with Roman and Felicia chatting a bit with Neil and his party. Sylphie jumped off his head and disappeared by herself without a chirp

as she escorted him to one of the side rooms along with many other members of the clan. During this week, she had fought off snakes and opportunists left and right who attempted to take advantage of the Patriarch’s weakness. What frustrated her the most was that she couldn’t even protect him properly, as he had forbidden her from sharing details of why he was weak, including the fact that

had inadvertently led to many concluding it would

but she trusted

would you kindly ask the others to stay

face and an almost physical aura all around him. Compared to the time they solved the puzzle during the Hunt, he felt much more powerful… and he truly was based on his fight with

a glance for any of the clan members around. Jake and the Patriarch’s

Saint smiled. “That we do,” he answered as he motioned for Jake to follow him into the chamber. Reika prepared to stay outside as he spoke up

not know it, but Jake approaching the Patriarch like an equal was a massive wrench in the works

eye for political maneuvering than she gave him credit

and Reika entered the side room together as the door shut behind them, cutting off the room from the outside world entirely through the power of system-fuckery. Jake guessed he was the only one

to sit down, Reika and the Saint on one side,

the first thing Jake said with a

the old man agreed with a hearty laugh. “But perhaps we lost ourselves a little towards the

doing okay? That kind of skill

weak, but in due time I shall return to my usual state,” he answered, not explaining more. Jake

that Legacy thing and all

put it up for

aback but swiftly caught on. “Damn, I didn’t know yelling about springtime led to a

for who actually won… I believe it

small scar above the Saints ear as he shook his head. “No…

“Oh?”

at a higher level and just did worse than you. Besides… I would have died first,”

I shall respect your decision. However, I cannot fully accept the victory, so how about we make a deal? One of those altars and a single coffin, and you will have unlimited access to the artifact, and I will even throw in something extra?” the Sword Saint

what are

for now,” he

get the better of him as he summoned a coffin and an altar

Sword