The Primal Hunter

Jake knew he wasn’t exactly a tracker. He could track a little, and his senses were sharper than ever. With some clues, his tracking skill would allow him to chase mana signatures and other signs, though, of course, there were many who were significantly more qualified. Jacob was probably the best on the planet, but there had to be many more who were far more effective than Jake. Something he felt like he did need to voice.

“While I can track, I am not exactly good at it compared to others. I am sure you can ask some seer or something who is far better at it,” Jake said.

It was primarily that she wanted to find her family, which meant it was solely a tracking job. Jake had kind of assumed she needed help tracking some powerful beast or something, but if it was just some humans, she could find far better. Jake had kind of assumed she asked him because fighting strong stuff would be involved.

“I am already on it and have worked with some to boil down the general area. However, it looks like they are on the other side of a large body of water. Based on some space mages from Midtgaard, it is probably around where that guy Arthur and many of the independent factions are located,” Carmen explained but still didn’t address one point.

“I am still sure you can find better once you get there, and if you wanted assistance getting across this body of water, you could have just asked for that,” Jake answered a bit suspiciously.

Carmen just sighed. “Yeah, but I want someone to help who isn’t affiliated with Valhal or anything like that. This is purely a personal thing.”

Jake finally nodded. “Okay, fine. Do you have any plans on when you want to go and how we are supposed to get there? You know, all the logistics.”

“No fucking idea quite yet, but from what I hear, the space mages in a nearby port-city should soon have a circle up and running. Once that works, I can get word to Miranda, and she can contact you about getting to the port? It will be a bit from Haven, but hopefully, the teleportation network will reach there by then, making the journey not too annoying,” Carmen answered. “I know you are currently busy elsewhere, but you can return to our universe, right?”

“I can,” Jake nodded. “How do you know I am not on Earth currently? And does everyone know?”

“Miranda told me, and no, I don’t think others know. Apparently, you are super hard to track. Ah, but don’t blame her for telling me. She did it after getting permission from those gods who blessed her. By the way, how does that work? I thought you could only be blessed by one god at a time,” Carmen explained, quickly derailing herself into a barely tangentially-related question.

“A mix of god stuff and system-fuckery, I reckon,” Jake answered incredibly accurately.

“Makes sense,” Carmen nodded, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Well, it did make sense as much as any other answer. “We have an agreement then? I will tell Miranda, and then she will send a response back? Don’t worry, I already got ways of contacting her. Or, well, she's got ways of contacting me with her weird witchy magic.”

“Miranda does have weird witchy magic,” Jake nodded in understanding. He had to admit, he had no fucking clue how any of her skills worked. Even as he began learning a bit about formations and such, he only came to realize her magic was even more complicated and reliant on an entirely different school of thought than the kind of magic Jake wanted to learn.

The two of them kept talking a bit longer about random stuff as Jake learned how Carmen was taught. Apparently, she could set up virtual battlefields of some sort and fight echoes of individuals located pretty much anywhere, even in other universes. The echoes had corresponding magic circles on their end set up by Valhal to facilitate all this, with Carmen essentially being a summoner. These echoes couldn’t actually interact with anything non-simulated outside the battlefield, but it was still an incredibly valuable tool.

a concept, which had also led to Valdemar being called the God of War. Legends spawned from war, the songs of bards, the concept of morale, armies clashing, celebrating after a victory, or dealing with the emotions after a lost battle. All of this was part of what Valhal

a scary story one would tell their kids. The tales of the times it had happened where Valdemar had picked

were constantly at war. The Holy Church and the Ghostlands – the land of the Risen – were at constant war. Several factions not fans of the Court of Shadows had declared war against the assassins. Jake also learned that the Automata and the Endless Empire were also at war and had been for the last thirty Eras. The Endless Empire was a faction Jake had never heard of before and consisted of some of the most powerful Ectognamorphs in existence, led by a large coalition of powerful Hive Queens. Insect Queens who had ascended to godhood and commanded armies of unprecedented scale. They were, in general, incredibly warlike

wanted a war

war, they pulled out all the stops and made it a war where one side was annihilated. Meanwhile, Villy would ensure that even if the

Valhal were primarily known as incredibly powerful mercenaries who joined the side they agreed with the most in a conflict. Carmen even told Jake it often happened that two members of Valhal found themselves facing each other on a battlefield. The result of that would nearly always be one of them dead and the other one having a toast for

for battle maniacs, and Jake felt like he would have fit in pretty damn well. Carmen also seemed happy with it and had an interesting perspective on fighting former comrades

was normal to fight friends or former colleagues. I was in quite a small town with only one noteworthy gym, and I often ended up fighting people in tournaments I had trained with and gotten along with before. That didn’t mean I would show the slightest restraint in the ring, though. The same is true for the warriors of Valhal… in fact, holding back when you see another member on the opposing side would just be disrespectful. Valdemar allegedly once said that dying in battle is an honorable death, and an honorable death is a good

to loot entire beast corpses as he found it disrespectful. His opinion had eventually been refined, and Jake now no longer cared as much about a concept such as honor. He had his own rules of sorts, and

Carmen was like him, also a battle maniac, and as they talked, they both looked back on the fight with the Monarch of Blood fondly, even if Carmen had found the

we are plotting an alliance or something,” Jake suddenly asked jokingly. “Not that I am complaining. I am

get closer to Haven and the old

by the way?” Jake asked. He wasn’t at the World Congress, which was

ago and has yet to get out. Who knows, maybe they all died,” Carmen just shrugged. “Not sure if people can enter the World Congress if they are in a dungeon or if they were just too busy doing other stuff. He is there with a party of five, and he would only bring one of them if he went to the World Congress, so bailing on more than half the party would also be a shitty move. Sven had at least made plans in case he and the

done the dungeon? Is

probably not the part he was supposed to bite onto. Jake hadn’t found any good dungeons in a while, and he knew his class was probably going to get a bit behind his profession if he

level 140. It was not that hard, honestly, and I saw nothing that could

that dungeon if he could. 140 was way too low for him, though it was possible more powerful foes would appear

you beat that masked monster?” Carmen finally

of overpowered bullshit items meant to specifically counter him, a lot of luck, me being awesome, and then another massive dose of luck to tie

you are confident in winning again? I will be honest; I don’t trust that masked freak for even a second. He may have the King title, but that doesn’t make him a good leader. Shit, you are an Earl,

but yes, I am confident in bringing down the King if he gets

but that doesn’t mean

the primary qualifier for being a noble so far is one’s ability to kill

fucked up when you think

“Sure is.”