The Primal Hunter

Barry had worked in the service industry for thirty years before the system apocalypse, as some had come to call it, happened. He had believed such a momentous event would have meant the end of his life or at least have severely changed it, but honestly? It was much the same as before, just a lot more relaxed as he didn’t need to fear burning himself while working the grill and didn’t need to try and balance shitty work hours and tryïng to get enough sleep in between grueling fourteen-hour shifts.

The best part was probably that he now was his own boss and even had his own small restaurant, having upgraded from a booth. He was primarily just selling his signature meat skewers – a specialty that had even been enjoyed by the city owner Lord Thayne – both at the booth and in the restaurant.

Now, there were also issues with running a restaurant, mainly that people didn’t really need to eat much anymore, if at all. E-grades still had to eat, especially at the lower end of E-grade, and the few F-grades that somehow still existed needed quite a bit of food. Still less than pre-system humans, but a good deal.

This meant those who came to eat did it for the pleasure or for the temporary stat boosts from the food. A lot of crafters frequented his place, but it was rare he was more than at fifty or sixty percent capacity, and that only happened if big parties came.

But… that day, something had been different. Barry had been snacking on his own creations a bit more than usual as he felt a rumbling in his stomach he hadn’t for months. It wasn’t the usual “oh, I can take a bite” kind of rumble, but the “I need food” kind of rumble.

He was hungry.

And he was not the only one. People began coming into the restaurant almost immediately, ordering food and putting him to work. Barry frowned as soon over 80% of the seating had been taken, and people kept coming, all talking about how they suddenly felt hungry and had an urge to eat.

It wasn’t just his restaurant either. He saw out of the window that the guy across the street selling that heretical vegan stuff was also at full capacity, truly proving the desperation of the masses.

Back at his own place, customers just kept coming as soon no more seating was there, and they waited all the way out the door as Barry had his best day of business ever since opening.

An emergency meeting was being held as the governing body of Sanctdome was under heavy pressure. Jacob sat at the end of the table as the man in charge of the food supply explained the situation, all while failing to snack on something looking a bit like jerky.

Jacob had also failed to hold himself back as he had eaten a sandwich just before this meeting, and even now, he failed to restrain his desire to grab another just after.

“We are under significant pressure from several groups and parties as the kitchens have run out of food. Even the private sector is facing a shortage due to the sudden influx of customers… what is happening? Are we under attack by something?”

“Sir, there is signs of civil unrest, and many complain at the lack of proper preparation from our side… we need to do something, and fast, or we may face a legitimate crisis,” the man in charge of security explained while snacking on some fruit on the table. They had actually just been there for show, but only a few berries remained by now.

Jacob wracked his mind as the same issue was playing out in every single settlement of the Holy Church. Some places had enough food by themselves, but the megacity Sanctdomo was simply too big. They could normally handle the food situation, but suddenly everyone became hungry and wanted to eat something, nearly simultaneously.

The timing couldn’t be any worse either as the System Store had just disappeared, making easy acquisition hard. Merchants had already been pressed for everything they had to sell, but they hadn’t exactly banked on such a situation happening either.

“All we can do is damage control,” Jacob finally said as he prepared to head out and try to placate the masses before any true rioting and looting began.

Similar scenes played out all over the planet. Cities found themselves facing an issue none had predicted as suddenly food became a much-needed commodity. Some merchants became rich, others cursed their own luck, while everyone was hungry and needed to eat.

did not require food at all. They still lived off mana and felt like they wanted to absorb a little more than usual, but it was something

hunger as fighting broke out all across the world. The corpses usually eaten by weaker

the cause of this strange occurrence was. Cities struggled, the ecosystem was in an uproar as beasts

it was all because Jake wanted to make a

that was left in his wake. The once sprawling colony had become a wasteland of death and destruction as Jake tore through it, killing anything that moved in his path. He went deeper and deeper as

Giant insects the sizes of trucks, mandibles able to tear any pre-system

tore foe after foe into pieces. A particularly massive termite suddenly shot up from beneath, but Jake naturally reacted in time as he had seen it coming through his sphere a long

body, and he soon found himself in a stomach full of acid that failed to do anything to his body. Jake began hacking away at the inner walls of the stomach as blood mixed with the acid. Every slash

inner walls, but all the wounds it made only made Jake bleed poisoned blood, speeding

of the massive termite when his blade stopped absorbing vital energy as he ran forward to

sated after a big kill. It was only for a brief period, but

with the insects getting stronger. The last

vitality-increasing elixirs, herbs of various kinds, and even a few beast cores he found compatible had

with some items he was rather fond

- The Lifevine of an Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza. The Lifevine is a part of the main body of the fungus. Contains intense amounts of vital energy and

Indigo Fungus Mycorrhiza. Contains a massive amount of life affinity mana and vital energy.

plan was to make elixirs with them, but he was out of options. Jake consumed a potion as he simply used Alchemical Flame to melt down the Lifecore and let it drip unto the blade, as

Lifevines. All of this allowed Jake to get a good half an hour of meditation in as soon, the hunger

rampage continuing. His only remaining mental faculties were used to loot everything he could come across, primarily every single core

everything he came across. The deep caverns were fields of death as

splattered it on his foe. Mana burned all around him as arcane explosions blew up the tunnels to make them collapse, sometimes giving him a bit more time to

to subside no matter how much

Jake began to have genuine moments of blackouts. Moments were his vision went black, for him to only be aware again when suddenly he found himself standing on a mountain of corpses lacking an arm. Focusing for a moment, he

when he

The weapon is breaking.

became fully aware: the Chimera Weapon was not powerful enough to contain the curse. He didn’t know what would happen if it

More.

a way out. Just… something. He needed to improve it. A transmutation, an improvement, something. He racked his

Make it stronger…

refused to see himself lose as his body exploded with arcane power, and standing on a mountain of corpses began yet another crafting session. Two items appeared floating around him as he kept pressing on with

– The heart of a powerful C-grade Nalkar Vampire. This type of vampire is a rare variant with extremely high innate abilities in illusion and mind magic. It often possesses a larger reserve of blood energy than most other vampires. The rarity is higher due to the high innate talent of the Nalkar Vampire

type of carbon and is known to be able to bond and mix with most other materials in existence, making it incredibly potent as a catalyst in most crafting endeavors. This Carbonic Focusing Catalyst is of extremely high quality and has absorbed affinity-less mana to allow itself to grow for countless years, making it reach legendary rarity. Has a wide variety of uses in alchemical creations and will increase the power of