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.

whipped from side to side and her reptilian eyes darted around to

been floating there stopped observing them and moved on, and Jake also felt the attention of dozens of other similar

you say?” Jake

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

be underestimated. Within that metal dome is one of the most dangerous humans on Earth, and

about her damn scales than a giant dome of metal. The worst part was that

go around destroying stuff to test that

Scarlett said with much indignation as she shook her head and tried to raise her hands, but her movement made her aware she

head and softly let go of her

stared at this hand with disappointment for a moment before nodding. ”If that is

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

made their way back to Haven, Jake led Scarlett toward the lodge. Miranda and the others were still stuck in the

wait here for a while?” Jake asked

still looked curiously around, prompting Jake to explain a bit about

Earth. It’s where I first started to live after I returned from the Tutorial, and it has a lot of sentimental

she seemed to look at the lodge with far different eyes. She closely studied everything

and scratched his head. ”An…

more beast friends. Sylphie and family were all up there, and while Sandy was probably nowhere close, he had a strong feeling they could get to him pretty damn fast. To make sure his sandworm friend wasn’t too slow, he took out the weird egg-that-wasn’t-an-egg and infused some energy into it during his ascent. Once he felt like Sandy had noticed, he stopped and stored the egg away

up a meeting. Jake reached out mentally as the divine connection

thing. ”I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am from seeing you move up in the world and become a proper

guess I should also say I am proud of you for holding back your curiosity and not contacting me right after my most recent vision into your controversial

to do. I was actually doing alchemy, you know? Duskleaf is over the moon,” Villy said, clearly grinning on the other

being rather shit at it. Couldn’t even

greatness,” Villy took it in strides as they finally got down to business.

this upcoming

it, then

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

planet is doomed, and you may as well bail on it now,” Villy mocked him back. ”Even with Nevermore, reaching B-grade or a level where you can hunt B-grades within five or even ten years is utterly unfeasible. The 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

took it all in and nodded in understanding, but he did bite onto one thing: ”Are the diminishing returns really that bad? Isn’t it only really a thing if you hunt a lot of the same kind of enemy or if the fights get too easy? I haven’t noticed

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