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.

bit of the same. I got some cursed epic bracers but haven’t bought anything else, though I have buy-orders out for

things,” Casper said, smiling. “Isn’t that why we are here? You still got the Root

Risen present perk up. “Now, what is

one of the businessmen began as

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

not hold back their slightly annoyed looks directed at Casper, as Jake ignored them. “So, what exactly do you

a treasure of immense value. Yalsten had unique 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 even an S-grade cared so much about it. Some even say the world itself was

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 more death-affinity treasures and materials than anyone else, and I doubt the other inhabitants of Earth

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

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

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

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

surprised; you’re usually amazingly ignorant for someone with one of the most knowledgeable gods in the multiverse on speed-dial,” Casper said, taking an obvious jab. “But yeah, you’re right. The curse energy itself is not needed,

“For real?”

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

plan 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 Priscilla sharing so much, but Casper

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

suck out all the curse energy? As you said, there

believe it could be great fuel for one of my existing curse weapons, or maybe I

he got an idea: “Speaking of which,

it kept getting stronger. 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 stronger the curse got. Considered

weapon in Jake’s hand.

Jake confirmed. It was quasi-Soulbound due to Jake using his arcane affinity and Touch

cursed,” Casper added

“Yep.”

requirements when you got it first?” he

how it now grew from absorbing vital energy. Casper seemed

E-grade to now. He also explained that not once had he repaired

say the description says it was made of steel soaked in blood… indicating some ritual… and then you destroyed the souls it had absorbed… yet the curse remained and is still growing more

The curse 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 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

asked, confused at the term he had never seen

a cursed weapon created to fulfill a specific goal. In your case, it

considered his words as he tried to summarize them. “So, I got a growth weapon of sorts based

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

and