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.”

I really 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 assist the elemental through a variety of means. Probably things such as giving land-bound

Of course, to Jake, this wasn’t really unusual but just

prove correct as the elemental responded. “It appears we underestimated the insight of 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 retain my

just dismissed it. “You just keep doing you, and as long as you don’t act like an asshole, I don’t see why we would

all of Valhal, but we wouldn’t just begin hunting down

their honesty,” the elemental said. “In that

the summoned figure of water was dispelled as the 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 careful

benefits to humanity and Earth in

saw one of the men gave off a faint aura similar to the

make this into any kind of diplomatic mission,

said, doing the most cliché thing you can when

a smile. “Now, let me lead you to the

happily accepted as the space mage led them through the city while making small talk. This particular teleportation chamber was placed underground 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 deployed by the mage wasn’t the same branch of space magic as

over water being far faster and easier, even potentially allowing underwater cities

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 affinity mana given off

of the hidden talents all over Earth. He clearly had his

the other direction than the Grand Mangrove River. The man did

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

just before the

the water all around him. An image of the endless ocean flashed in his

are we wet?”

feathers 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 was a

fixed the issue with the teleporter,” a female attendant said as she entered the hall they had been teleported into. She was only E-grade

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 times besides special

merely traveling through and get to… what was the

something,” she

attendant asked, a

Carmen

pass and register your arrival,” the

The fact that the Church was

said, in no mood

on performing

tell the guards to stop hiding. What are they doing

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