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.

got some cursed epic bracers but haven’t bought anything else, though

said, smiling. “Isn’t that why we are here?

seeing all of the Risen present perk up. “Now, what is this Root? And don’t give

a conduit of curses that-“ one of the

is the cause of the special mist within Yalsten and was a natural treasure of immense power before the curse corrupted and eroded the entire tree till only a single

annoyed looks directed at Casper, as

energy, improving and sometimes even creating items and natural treasures due to it, making it an incredible land of treasures and one of the reasons why A-grades and

a world similar to it. We Risen are 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

come off as a dick, but I had honestly assumed something far more nefarious considering it is a Root filled with immense curse

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

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 the Root

Priscilla both looked at him, a bit surprised. “What? I know stuff! This is just like alchemy, but

said, taking an obvious jab. “But yeah, you’re right. The curse energy itself is not needed, but we can transform a part of it and use it

“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,” Casper

the Root somehow?” Jake asked. He saw the officials behind Casper shift a bit as they no doubt didn’t like Casper and Priscilla sharing so much,

as I mentioned, there are several ways to do that. All we need the Root and tree itself for is the properties that allowed it

along. “Won’t it take a long time to suck out all the curse energy? As you said,

Casper acknowledged. “But it is also highly condensed. I believe it could be great fuel for one of my existing curse weapons, or maybe I will use it to create something else. Again, many possibilities

an idea: “Speaking of which, got any idea what exactly is up with this

Growth items were damn rare as far as he knew, and to him, it seemed like the damn scimitar just kept getting sharper and more durable the

Jake’s hand. “Sure, I

quasi-Soulbound due to Jake using his arcane affinity and Touch to bind it, so it

cursed,”

“Yep.”

you got it first?” he

weapon, how he got it, how he changed it, and how it now grew from absorbing vital energy. Casper seemed very interested throughout as he asked some follow-up questions like if it wanted to compel him to do stuff –

especially when he said he had used it from the time he was mid-tier E-grade to now. He also explained that not once had he repaired it. However, it was when he explained it mentioned it had absorbed souls Casper looked really

and then you destroyed the souls it had absorbed… yet the

won’t get stronger. The Records and curse energy are constant unless it absorbs curse energy, an exact replica of itself. That is how curse-users like myself function. We are the source of the curse. However, what your scimitar does is different… it doesn’t have a goal nor a true source. If my guesses are correct, then you have what is

at the term he had never seen

fulfill a specific goal. In your case, it went from the concept of Debauchery to the concept of Hunger. Also, you mentioned that the scimitar

I got a growth weapon

Casper answered. “You got a growth curse, not a weapon per-se. The weapon itself is merely the medium in which it is stored, and if the medium breaks, the curse itself will merely disperse as it is part of a larger concept. Well, that or you can transfer 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 user but rather infused in items like altars or other ritualistic items.

asked, and this time Priscilla jumped