The Primal Hunter

After the initial panic from having the entire teleportation network destroyed, things in the many cities across Earth were pretty calm again for a while. Most didn’t even know why the attack had happened, and those who did quickly moved to apprehend those responsible or to calm the masses. The cities belonging to the United Cities Alliance also willingly destroyed their own teleporters to sabotage the forces of Earth after making sure that they were ready internally.

Food had been stocked up if they still needed that, and defenses had been strengthened. They also had enough materials stocked up for their crafters to tide over the coming conflict. In time the teleportation network would be re-established, so they just had to wait.

One of the issues the teleportation network had helped address was the beasts and other monsters attacking settlements, but that wasn’t really that big an issue anymore. The beasts had been united by stronger alphas, and large groups had been formed, none of which attacked human settlements. Especially not after the last World Congress, where they had voted on the Unusual Unions Path, which had resulted in many people evolving into classes that worked well with beasts or professions that could make things beasts wanted. This had even formed diplomatic relationships between many cities and beast hordes as they had begun to be called.

All of this is to say that the only beasts who bothered cities were solitary ones or smaller packs. Sometimes natural phenomena also spawned elementals or the like that attacked cities, but nothing large or organized. There were also many D-grades around by now, and even the weakest cities had a few. This is why what came next was a massive surprise to many.

A guard stood bored in a tall watchtower and looked all around. He hadn’t seen anything try to attack for over a month, and his only real job these days was to report whenever caravans or something, anything, approached. He had thought that with the destruction of the teleporters, he would have more work, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Not that no work wasn’t good. They were just a small settlement who were lucky to have a Pylon with about four thousand people living there, of which only five were D-grade. So nothing was probably the best outcome.

As he stretched a bit and looked to the side, he saw some dust being kicked up. The land was dry all around, and he wondered if it was another dust storm. Those could be nasty and sometimes even had a few elementals in them.

Yet as he saw it come closer, he froze. A massive form emerged from the dust cloud, tens of meters tall. It looked like a massive moose and was no doubt well in the D-grade. Behind it, hundreds of smaller beasts were revealed, all charging with their leader. All of these were E-grades, but some D-grades were also there. The guard doubted his eyes for several moments before he collected himself and yelled: ”Attack! We’re under attack!”

With slight panic, he sounded all the alarms as the town went into lockdown. The D-grades present, who had simply been working on their professions, hurried out, and the City Lord rushed up the watch tower. Standing beside the guard, he stared out and also saw the beasts.

”Get everyone ready,” the City Lord said with fear as he gritted his teeth.

Similar scenes played out all over the planet. No beast tides had been seen for many months, but now they had suddenly restarted. The fragile peace that had been established by the most powerful monsters crumbled in seconds as if a spark had been lit.

Or, more accurately, like what had been holding them back had disappeared.

Thousands of cities suddenly found themselves unprepared after having relaxed their defenses following the last World Congress. Armies of elementals, tides of beasts, and other monsters took advantage of the stockpiles of resources in all these cities. Their attacks were indiscriminatory and went for every faction. The Holy Church, Noboru Clan, United Cities Alliance, or completely unaffiliated factions or individual cities found themselves under assault.

Nobody seemed to know the trigger for this, and quite frankly, most didn’t have time to care. All they knew was that the monsters humanity had finally begun to soften up to suddenly did a one-eighty and once more viewed human settlements as nothing more than food and experience sources.

Jake didn’t know why it kept happening… okay, he did know; he just felt a bit weird about it. Why was it that whenever Jake entered a new area with a new type of monster, it turned into Jake effectively committing genocide?

The worm was happy, sure, and Jake wasn’t that sad about it as they still made good progress. Both in levels and distance. All the Scorpion Lords were of roughly equal strength, and what little variance they did have wasn’t of any consequence as Jake grew stronger and more accustomed to them between every kill. Moreover, after the first kill, Jake was familiar enough with the scorpions to open every fight with an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, instantly giving him an advantage.

There ended up being a total of nine stones and nine C-grade Scorpion Lords. Along with the hundreds of high and peak tier D-grades Jake also ended up killing, he had truly done a number on the local scorpion population. In some ways, he had been lucky to stumble across so many weak C-grades to hunt. They were barely evolved, he was a good matchup, plus they were weak for their grade.

This hunting spree had also naturally led to quite a few levels gained.

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 175 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 179 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 176 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 177 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 180 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 178 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

slowed down the more of the same enemies he killed, and the fights got easier. But it was inarguable that hunting C-grades was way, way more effective than D-grades. Not once had he gained a level after a D-grade kill despite killing hundreds, and every level came

as he had eaten it with Palate of the Malefic Viper to get an idea of what they

Meteorites.

maybe astral affinity. Gravity affinity? A mix of it all, probably. Either way, they contained powerful energies. Jake could likely find

stones was above five meters tall and one and a half meters across, making them small enough for Jake to store in his spatial storage. The worm had made it clear that all of them had to be gathered before

final stone with a dead Scorpion Lord in the background, Jake turned to the very excited worm. It had only popped out the top parts of its body,

as he stood in front of the

worm said

am not going to take your meteorites. I feel these were once part of one large meteorite and broke part when they entered our atmosphere. Or

bring them together again. The scorpions were just dumb and didn’t like each other, so

spent most of his time meditating and

have been thinking,” Jake asked. “Do worms have

hermaphrodites, and he had been wondering if maybe these

decide, I heard. They got a skill to change shape or something and using that skill, they kind of make a preferred form that can have a sex. Not sure why they would. Do humans

“Missed the fifty-fifty,”Jake chuckled.

look strong and rough, right?” the worm asked. The words sounded a bit insulting, but Jake felt not the slightest amount of

saying that out loud. Telepathically. Wanting to change the topic, he asked something else.

asked, even more

A way to identify who you are and differentiate you from other worms,”

a Sand Worm,” the worm asked before it seemed to get it. “Wait… oh, I think I get it! Like,

said, glad he got

differentiate another worm in the network, and our soul signatures are entirely unique, so if we want to mention a specific worm, we just relay their soul signature. Way better than names,

admitted as he thought about it. He could identify people using only their mana signature, which was part of their soul signature and was utterly unique. If the worms could relay this signature using telepathy and only spoke using telepathy, then why the hell would they need names? At least not between them. They only had

worm said

want you to have

“Why?”

for my own internal thoughts, I want to have a name to refer

weird. Do all humans have names? What is your name?” the worm

Jake, and yes, all humans have names. At least

Like, my Identify does not work on you, and is that

There is only one of me, and Jake is nothing but a name. I am a human, and my name has nothing to do with my strength or anything; it is just something my parents gave me. That is how names work. They are given by someone close to you, most likely your parents, and then you have that name until you die or decide

Just by saying I am suddenly supposed to

“Yes,” Jake said.

then… how about Super Sand Worm? Or maybe Best Sand Worm? Oh, I know, Awesome Sand Worm!” the massive worm spoke out loud as Jake saw

you have heard other names to

said that names are given, right? Can’t you just give me one?” the

not sure that would be a good idea. I have repeatedly been told that I am bad at giving names,”Jake tried to

are experienced at it. Just give me one then,” the worm said. “But after you give me a name, can you let me have the tasty rocks? You said that people give names to

didn’t bother trying to correct it. Instead, he thought of a name. The first thing that sprung to mind was

to be a unisex name. Thinking long and hard on the issue, Jake took inspiration from the environment and the worm in front of him as

you Sandy,”Jake said with pride. Truly his naming sense had improved by leaps and bounds since the day he