The Primal Hunter

Jake woke up the next morning to a bird nipping at his hair. Sylphie clearly hadn’t been able to sleep as long as he had – assuming she had slept at all – and had gotten bored. Shaking his head to get her off by scooping her up as she put on a fake struggle.

“You’re a little bully, aren’t you?” Jake teased with a smile as she looked up at him.

“Ree!” she answered defiantly.

“Excuses,” he chuckled as he let her go. She flew a few rounds around the room as Jake used his spatial storage to get on all his armor. Just in time for Sylphie to finish her morning exercise and landed on his shoulder. Apparently, she had decided that today was not a bird-on-head day.

Being up and about, Jake knocked on the wall to Carmen’s room, quickly getting a knock in return. They had no plans of staying in Changlun more than that single night and promptly headed out to meet this boss their escort mentioned. Jake was a bit interested as the presence of a boss contradicted the narrative of a party of five founding the city.

However, as Jake and Carmen met up with the escort and went toward the waterfront, Jake began to understand. He and Carmen were led into a pretty well-sealed-off room where half of it was water, with an underground connection leading straight into the ocean.

“Seems like we will be meeting more C-grades,” Jake chuckled, getting a surprised look from both Carmen and their escort. The escort due to Jake figuring it out and Carmen due to, well, surprise. The archer, knowing the gig was up, said his farewell as he headed out.

The surface of the water within the sealed-off bunker suddenly churned as Jake saw a figure rise from it. A humanoid form of pure water soon took shape as Jake used Identify but got nothing in return. This was just a summon of sorts, or perhaps remote manipulation.

“I welcome you, Malefic’s Chosen and warrior of Valhal,” the creature that Jake assumed to be an elemental said.

“Hello there,” Jake just said, wondering what the presumed elemental wanted.

Carmen just waved, equally restrained. The amount of mana he felt from the apparition wasn’t extreme, but it did carry the faint aura of a C-grade. It only seemed to be early-tier, though, not quite matching up to the Alabaster snake or even the Termite King.

“I apologize if I disturbed your travel plans, but I believed it would be a waste to not at the very least make your acquaintances,” the elemental said. The more the elemental spoke, the more Jake became certain it wasn’t any usual elemental, primarily due to its level of intelligence.

Elementals were notoriously stupid, and even if they awakened some sapience, they tended to be a bit on the childish side, often having the mental age of a child at most. Not in the same vein as Stormild, who just had a childish nature, but more like Sylphie and her general naivety due to her genuinely young age.

So, if an elemental displayed high levels of intelligence, it often stemmed from it either being a powerful variant or related to an affinity that naturally lent itself to high intellect. Assuming this was a water elemental of some kind, Jake assumed it was the previous option.

“It’s all good,” Jake just answered the elemental. They didn’t really get to say anything more as Jake felt six people enter the bunker through his sphere. It was the archer from before walking with five other men. For a second, Jake wondered if this was some poorly planned ambush, but he didn’t feel any sense of danger coming from them, and they clearly didn’t even try to hide their approach.

Carmen and Sylphie also noticed them as the three turned around. The five men all looked to be in their late thirties to early forties, with the one in the middle wearing a white robe. Jake vaguely felt the space affinity float around the man, making it clear he was a space mage like Neil. His level was also pretty good.

[Human – lvl 151]

The four with him were also all between 145 and 150. It didn’t take a genius to guess this was the party of five that had founded the city of Changlun.

“I believe it is only proper we also greet the Chosen and the warrior of Valhal,” the space mage said as he bowed. The others mimicked the motion as Jake nodded in acknowledgment. “I am sure you have questions about why we are working with a C-grade monster, but I assure you it is nothing malicious.”

don’t,” Jake just shrugged to the group’s surprise. “But let me guess, the elemental helps protect the city and give you natural treasures and materials from the ocean, and in turn, you

to Jake, this wasn’t really unusual but just logical. Why would humans and monsters not work together when it was mutually

the Chosen. I apologize for our hubris, we merely wished to avoid any misunderstandings, and I would personally prefer to not get a mark on my back but

don’t see why we would have trouble. Well, some humans might

but we wouldn’t just begin hunting down an ally of an ally without

thank the Chosen and the warrior for their honesty,” the elemental said. “In that case, I shall

water collapsed and became one with the rest of the ocean once more. Jake wasn’t sure if this entire conversation had been necessary, but he assumed the elemental was just the

that such an alliance can bring great benefits to humanity and Earth in the future. Even if we are not directly aligned with Haven or the Order of the Malefic Viper, we have no desire to stand in your opposition. No, we wish to try and remain neutral and friendly with all,

hadn’t noticed the shared god, but now that he scanned a bit, he saw one of the men gave off a faint aura similar to the elemental.

seemed to honestly not give a shit. They had never planned to make this into any kind of diplomatic mission, so

the most cliché thing

the space mage said with a smile. “Now, let me lead

and quite far toward the sea. The mage explained it was for safety reasons and because they used the powerful mana of the ocean to power the teleportation. In fact, the type of space magic

Changlun somehow mixed water and space magic. This led to travel over water being far faster and easier, even potentially allowing underwater cities with working teleportation gates. He even said

kilometers from Chunglun, making this the longest teleport they would ever do. This was only possible due to the unique talents of the space mage to borrow the water

was a reminder of the hidden talents all over Earth. He clearly had his head on right

the teleportation chamber, they saw there were only three circles active. One to the island and two leading to smaller cities inland in the other direction than the Grand Mangrove River. The man did explain that he hoped to get past

with everything,” Jake said as he, Sylphie, and Carmen stepped onto the

was my pleasure,” the man said just before the

around him. An image of the endless ocean flashed in

we wet?”

to get the water off her. Jake was also surprised as they were all utterly soaked from the teleportation. As he began considering if it

into. She was only E-grade and didn’t seem to recognize them at all. “May I

been established to avoid constant people coming through. It was to make administration easier, and there was an hour each day for people to use the teleporters, with it being off-limits at all other

traveling through and get to… what was the place

or something,” she

the attendant asked, a bit

one,” Carmen

a visitor’s pass and register your arrival,” the attendant said apologetically. “This is all

as he knew this was obviously just a half-truth. If the name of this island – Saint Helestras – didn’t make it clear, then this city was one established by the Holy Church. The fact that the Church was in charge of

just said, in no mood

on performing the

hiding. What are they doing anyway? Trying to cosplay the Court of Shadows? Doing

Perception. They realized hiding was useless when he called them out and exited the room with their guards high. Not that it mattered… Jake didn’t even need to use Identify to know none of them were even