The Primal Hunter

The entire rest of the epic item auction went pretty uneventfully. Jake sat on his ass and kept watching the bracers the whole time, even though barely anyone bid on them. Well, he did also spend a majority of his time playing with Sylphie – his arcane conjurations clearly better boxers than Sylphie’s.

The cursed bracers ended up only costing him a bit below two hundred thousand Credits, which honestly wasn’t that bad. A difference between the rare auction and the epic auction was that everything was available until the very end. Jake did feel like it was a bit unfair, as some items were only up for around an hour, while others were up for several hours, but, hey, what can you do about it?

The moment the auction ended, he just had the bracers directly deposited into his inventory without any fanfare, and at the same time, he also saw his total Credits jump more than two hundred million as every single item he had put up was sold off.

Credits Available: 498,870,214

With around forty items for sale total, he quickly calculated they had sold for about five million each on average. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but it sure as hell was a lot better than the rare items by a huge margin. Jake also truly began to realize he had wasted his money-making potential before this event. While he had earned a lot of money by selling, he had also bought a lot, but if he just sold off things like materials or elixirs or potions at a steady pace, he could have probably made a few hundred million.

Then again, what would the fun in that be? Jake didn’t really like just grinding out the same mass-produced potions over and over.

Looking at the prices, he saw that the cheapest epic rarity item had gone for only thirty thousand and was some nugget of metal apparently super hard to work with. The most expensive was that god damn Focusing Iris from earlier, which went for over fifty million.

If this entire auction event had taught Jake one thing so far, it was that rarity really wasn’t everything. Equipment with many potential users had a somewhat predictable price of between two and eight million for epic items, but those specialty items could go for either insanely high prices or barely anything.

He had also been told that epic rarity equipment was kind of in a weird spot currently on Earth. On the one hand, they were rare and powerful, but on the other hand, not rare or powerful enough to not give out and actively use. This meant that most epic-rarity items were actively used by their factions, leading to fewer on the market. According to Sultan, they would still see a way better ratio of epic to ancient items, despite the incredibly low rare-to-epic item ratio.

System Announce-

Jake quickly skimmed it and saw it was pretty much the same as last time, telling him of a one-hour intermission between this phase and the next. Jake considered having some fun with his new bracers but decided not to. Instead, he should probably go talk to Casper to figure out future plans with that entire Root of Eternal Resentment business.

Sylphie communicated with him she was going to chat with Carmen, and Miranda passed by and said she had a meeting with some independent cities about something. Others also quickly left, with Sultan only spending a bit of time putting the altars and coffins up for sale.

With no reason to stay, Jake quickly teleported out of his booth and appeared on the ground below it. He scouted the chamber and spotted the booth housing the undead faction, with Casper and Priscilla both appearing below it.

On a side note, Jake came to learn that not all of the booths were actually being used. Reika and the Sword Saint had both earned a booth as an example, but they used the same, leaving one empty. The undead faction might have been the same as Casper for sure had earned one, and maybe Priscilla too. Either way, it was good they were together as that made things simple.

With a few steps, Jake appeared close to them. It was easy enough to find and approach them, especially with how humans still tended to avoid the Risen. Jake honestly didn’t get it, but then again, he wasn’t racist.

Casper spotted him when he got close and just waved for him to come over. Jake walked over and greeted them both, and after exchanging pleasantries, they began walking towards a side chamber to discuss things.

Once inside, the door shut behind them. The ones who had gone were Jake, Priscilla, Casper, and four other people. Two whom Jake recognized as members of Priscilla’s party, and two that looked and felt more like administrative personnel or traders.

“So, gotten anything good?” Jake asked Casper first thing.

“Eh, a few things here and there, but nothing massive. Saving my Credits for the ancient rarity auction coming up. How about you?” his undead pal asked.

but haven’t bought

we are here? You still got

all of the Risen present perk up.

a conduit of curses that-“ one of the businessmen

the cause of the special mist within Yalsten and was a natural treasure of immense power

back their slightly annoyed looks directed at Casper,

treasure of immense value. Yalsten had unique energy, improving and sometimes even creating items and natural

inherently in a risky position, and it will allow us to potentially flee or relocate off the planet entirely in a worst-case scenario. In a best-case scenario, we can make a land especially suited for our kind and even transform the natural environment to be more suitable for us and the treasures we need. We need far

He looked at Casper, who nodded in confirmation. “Not to come off as a dick, but I had honestly assumed something far more nefarious

after Yalsten is gone for good. The resentment of the curse has no clear-cut target and is thus aimless and undirected. It is only under rare circumstances where directionless curse energy does not simply disperse but remains sealed and accessible,”

any particular desire to do anything while holding it,” Jake recognized. “But I am still not sure what you need the curse energy for and not just the properties of the Root itself. From what I can assume, the World Core holds all the required energy to create the world itself and is one part of the puzzle, so isn’t

know stuff! This is just

on speed-dial,” Casper said, taking an obvious jab. “But yeah, you’re right. The curse energy itself is

“For real?”

us can properly use it. If we go by pure energy, the divine item left by Sanguine could turn our entire solar system to dust if extracted and turned into a weapon. It is a bit of a moot point, though, as anyone actually capable of doing that would be able to do so anyway,”

on planting the Root somehow?” Jake asked. He saw the officials behind Casper shift a bit as they no doubt didn’t like Casper and

mentioned, there are several ways to do that. All we need the Root

it take a long time to suck out all the curse energy? As you said, there

my existing

as he got an idea: “Speaking of

it kept getting stronger. Growth items were damn rare as far as he knew, and to him, it seemed like

at the weapon in Jake’s

was quasi-Soulbound due to Jake using his arcane

cursed,” Casper added

“Yep.”

were the requirements when you got it first?” he

explained, not really seeing the need to hide anything. He briefly summarized the weapon, how he got it, how he changed it, and how it now grew from absorbing vital energy. Casper seemed

also explained that not once had he repaired it. However, it was when he explained it mentioned it had absorbed souls Casper looked

you destroyed the souls it had absorbed…

on the Root was all about exterminating vampires, and with the total destruction of Yalsten, the resentment has been satisfied. Even if the goal of the resentment is impossible to reach, then the curse won’t get stronger. The Records and curse energy are constant unless it absorbs curse energy, an

asked, confused at the term he had never seen

concept rather than a cursed weapon created to fulfill a specific goal. In your case,

his words as he tried to summarize them. “So, I got

it to a new medium. And to call it a growth curse should kind of set off some red flags… Sin weapons are fucking dangerous. One does not normally use Sin curses in weapons due to it having a

Jake asked, and this time Priscilla