The Primal Hunter

To call Scarlett absolutely ecstatic that Jake visited so fast again was an understatement. It only got more extreme when Jake asked her to help out with his experiment of allowing her to follow him to otherwise restricted areas.

”So, I will admit, I am not entirely certain how this works,” Jake said. He did not have a skill or anything to ”mark” people. Well, he did have one to mark people, but that was something else entirely. The World Leader ability was weird, and Jake tried to do the most basic stuff.

He concentrated and willed for Scarlett to be allowed to go anywhere. Nothing seemed to happen, and Jake feared that he couldn’t actually use this ability without a profession allowing it or a lot of practice. Yet after a few seconds, Scarlett spoke up.

”I… I think it worked?” she said, a bit unsure and nervous.

”And you are not just saying that because I want it to work and for me to feel better?” Jake asked skeptically.

”I would never do… I… no… I do feel a bit different. It is weird, and I can’t quite explain it, but I feel more… free? Unburdened?” Scarlett said, still as nervous as before.

”Have you tried using a teleporter before?” Jake then asked her.

”I have,” she nodded. ”But only ones within the Mangrove when Old Grumpy was experimenting. I cannot use the teleporters the humans set up to travel outside of my domain.”

”Out of curiosity, what stops you? You being C-grade or the system restrictions?”

”I do not know; it just simply doesn’t allow me to travel through,” Scarlett shook her head. A moment passed before her eyes lit up. ”Oh! You mean to say that maybe it would work now?”

”That is the hope,” Jake smirked. ”Willing to give it a shot? If not, and you are hit with some kind of backlash, you should be able to instantly teleport back again. Though it is a bit risky, and we could maybe just go to the outskirts of the Mangrove.”

”I trust the Chosen,” Scarlett smiled. ”And I am certain the system would not allow me to teleport if it would simply result in my demise.”

Jake was still a bit apprehensive, but Scarlett had clearly made up her mind. Seeing her determination, he could only agree, and they walked to the teleporter together. With several C-grade snakes watching curiously, the two of them went into the teleportation chamber.

He saw how nervous she was, making him reach out and hold her hand – with gloves on, of course - as he smiled comfortingly at her. ”Are you ready?”

Her otherwise ghostly white face flushed red as she did a small nod. They activated the teleporter, and Jake still held onto the hand as they appeared at the Fort. An entire snake girl was attached to the hand too, and she looked perplexed for a moment before looking around her.

Jake, still holding her hand, led her outside as they appeared not far from the giant metal dome, with a great outlook over the city that had sprung up at the Fort. And, honestly, it really was a city at this point. Jake had no idea how many people lived there – despite owning the land – but he knew it had to be a lot. It was turning into a real metropolis.

he still held her hand as her head whipped from side to

his head, he also looked towards a certain spot in mid-air and gave a nod. An invisible drone that had been floating there stopped observing them and moved on, and Jake also felt the attention of dozens of other similar attentions leaving him. Arnold sure had

you

one place, yet all of them are so weak. The weak are protected by the strong. Hunting

creators, but remember they are not to be underestimated. Within that metal dome is one of the most dangerous humans on Earth, and he is

impressed. Not realizing that it said more about her damn scales than a giant dome of metal. The worst part was that Jake also estimated it to be the

destroying stuff to

her head and tried to raise her hands, but her movement made

shook his head and softly let go of her hand. ”Let’s

hand with disappointment for a moment before nodding. ”If

to the Order, Jake thought but didn’t say much as he headed out of the Fort with Scarlett. The two of them flew, and Jake had to admit that even with him using wings and Scarlett just flying with regular energy manipulation, she was still far faster than him. He didn’t doubt that she could destroy pretty much

Miranda and the others were still stuck in the office discussing stuff, so he

a while?” Jake asked her once

prompting Jake to explain a

to live after I returned from the Tutorial, and it has a lot of

the lodge with far different eyes. She closely studied everything but soon noted something. ”Someone

”An…

damn fast. To make sure his sandworm friend wasn’t

to set up a meeting.

I guess a congratulation is in order, revered World Leader of Earth,” Villy joked first thing. ”I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am from seeing you move up in the

should also say I am proud of you for holding back your curiosity and not contacting

actually doing alchemy, you know? Duskleaf is over the moon,” Villy said, clearly grinning on

and being rather shit at it. Couldn’t even make a health potion,” Jake mocked

got down to business. ”So, another

got this upcoming

appear in five years, but as they both interpreted it, then they only really had to fight the Prima within ten. Five or ten years

you think this Prima Guardian will be B-grade?” Jake asked

time you can spend in Nevermore is still limited, and even if you did choose to just rush levels, you would be hit hard by diminishing returns. If you did somehow manage to make it to a level of power where you could fight B-grades in time, it would be with a shitty foundation

it only really a thing if you hunt a lot of the same kind of enemy or if the fights get too easy? I

yes. So far, you have not really had many issues with it, sure, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. For the Tutorial, it is by design not a problem, and after returning to Earth, you have had a natural and balanced approach. If you had decided to go dungeon hunting in rapid succession after you cleared that one below your city, or maybe went in to explore the forest right away, you would have gained some more levels, yes, but soon you would find the levels just stopped coming all-together or it would get to the point where you could kill a thousand beasts higher level than you and still not level up. It happens to many who try to rush their levels and not focus on other things. In fact, it happens to everyone to some degree as it kicks in after a singular kill granting experience. You can alleviate this issue with qualitative upgrades along the way, like skill upgrades, but it can only do so much. The best thing to do is simply wait and focus on other pursuits. Even beasts have to do this, hence why they rarely hunt but instead consume natural treasures to slowly progress or work on improving other qualitative aspects of themselves. Ah, but I would note that there are windows of sorts. At the start of any grade is one such window where you can do a shitload of hunting without running into any noteworthy issues,” Villy explained as the great god of exposition he