The Primal Hunter

They did not get along.

Well, more accurately, Sylphie seemed to not get along with Sandy in the slightest. She zoomed around the giant worm, making angry noises as her blades of wind tried to harm the giant worm while Sandy, in turn, just laughed.

“He he, the little bird tickles!”

Jake just shook his head and smiled. Sylphie probably could do some real damage if she wanted, but she at least had enough awareness to hold back. Then again, Sandy could also just leave in a heartbeat if Sylphie got a bit too much.

Hawkie and Mystie just stared at the giant worm that wriggled in the air from the constant assault of the peak D-grade hawk. An assault that would tear most D-grades to shreds in seconds, even if it was just Sylphie playing.

“Hi hi,” Sandy still laughed as they asked. “So… so you said I can now go anywhere? I did feel something when you focused real hard before.”

“That is how things should be,” Jake answered. “Give it a go?”

“Sure!”

In the next moment, Sandy disappeared, leaving an even angrier Sylphie behind to miss her blows. Jake frowned as he felt the ripples of space from where the giant worm had just been. A moment later, Sandy popped their head out of the clouds below. “It works!”

Jake opened his mouth to speak but ended up just shaking his head again. “Let’s visit Haven then. There is someone else I want you both to meet.”

He spoke telepathically out loud so both the hawks and Sandy could hear it, even if he knew Sandy could also hear him if he spoke normally. Sylphie, hearing this, looked at Sandy with a challenging gaze before flying towards Jake with great speed, right into his arms. Jake reacted on instinct and caught her as she nuzzled up to his chest and got herself comfortable, still throwing looks at Sandy.

“I think your bird is jealous,” Sandy joked with him. “Ah, but I get it! Wind magic is kind of just worse space magic, isn’t it? Must feel inferior. Poor thing.”

Sylphie took great offense to this as she screeched. “Ree! Ree!”

“Oh, you got super wind? Well, I got super cosmic space! No! Genesis cosmic space!”

Sylphie momentarily looked taken aback but soon retaliated. “Ree!”

This time Sandy seemed to have taken a hit as Sylphie brilliantly argued that space was just boring wind, and as her wind was kind of green, it was superior to space magic in all ways as space didn’t have a color. An argument Jake had no idea even made sense. Especially as Sandy then began to argue that colors actually made things worse…

Which just made even less sense as Sandy had no eyes and couldn’t see colors.

I may have made a mistake,Jake realized as he led the two arguing beasts down toward his lodge. He did notice one issue there, though. Sandy was a bit… big. Could probably find a place to lay in the valley, but it would be problematic to bring them around anywhere.

Jake voiced his concern, which Sylphie just took as ammunition to argue she was superior. However, this time around, she had to admit defeat.

“Oh yeah! Well, space magic is so cool it can do stuff like this!”

In an instant, Sandy’s body began to shrink. Jake felt the intense movements of space mana doing the work, and Jake knew that Sandy technically wasn’t getting smaller; they just compressed the space around themselves and created a pocket of sorts. Jake knew that a good wave of destructive mana would destroy this technique, and it probably also took quite the upkeep, but he nevertheless gave Sandy a thumbs up.

Sylphie tried to show off as she tried to puff herself up by breathing in as much as she could, trying to make herself look bigger to prove she could also grow in size, ultimately just making her look silly. Sandy laughed in triumph as a worm, now about the size of a large horse, flew down next to him. Quite a bit slower than before, mind you. This only hammered home that the impromptu shrinking technique had little to no practical application outside of fitting into spaces Sandy couldn’t before.

their sight, and Jake frowned as he didn’t see Scarlett anywhere. Upon landing, he also didn’t see her anywhere within the house. Jake wondered if she had gone to explore the laboratory below the lodge. Rather than wondering, Jake

down to

what had attracted her there as Jake motioned for the group of birds and worm to follow. On the way, Sylphie

Once a sandworm, always a sandworm, it seemed. Jake felt Scarlett ahead, and upon entering the biodome, he saw her walking behind a large troll that motioned to different plants with three smaller

Jake asked

turned around and bowed, with Rick

was simply receiving teachings from Sir Rick,” Scarlett said. “He attends the garden of the Chosen, does he

job, too,” Jake said with a smile and gave Rick a big thumbs-up.

the biodome. Did he actually use the garden down there? No, not really. In fact, he had kind of forgotten about it and all of his plans for it, including the artificial sun he wanted to install and all that

would have been a bad idea, as Rick seemed to do best with underground plants anyway. However, even if Jake didn’t use the underground garden much, it didn’t make it useless. He could always use what grew there to sell or maybe to help train new alchemists or something. Or,

Sylphie finally made herself known. Not that Scarlett hadn’t noticed the entourage, which consisted of three hawks and a large floating worm. Sylphie seemed to have found yet another rival as she stared up at

a moment, Jake got the feeling that Scarlett was jealous of Sylphie? He looked down at

hawk of wind,” Scarlett said, also looking at Hawkie, Mystie, and Sandy. “Hawk of lighting, of

assessment,” Sandy answered. “Nice to meet you too,

them, and they all knew it.

guess I should introduce you

each other. Rick also joined in, very interested in having guests.

Boundless Hydra, as fancy people called him. Not doing so was probably a good idea as Jake was entirely uncertain how Scarlett would react, and it would also ruin one of the best

argued snakes were just better worms, Sandy vehemently disagreed and came up with weird arguments for worms being the best, and Sylphie kept screeching how hawks were

Scarlett, however, also had memories of before the system and talked about how snakes ate the eggs of stupid birds who just left them lying around… With Sandy then saying that worms didn’t care as worms just ate anything, thus proving they were

only after Jake gathered all these beasts together he finally got around to asking a quite pertinent question:

Scarlett was to bring her to the Order, but did he need to call for Sandy and allow the worm to travel into human territory? Well, no, he didn’t have to. Sandy probably wouldn’t even like being in

that Jake had wanted to. He wanted to, at the very least, give the beasts the freedom to go whereever they wanted. It was funny how his mind had instantly made granting them more freedom

like this was amusing. Sylphie had long left his arms to fly around and argue louder while chasing Sandy. Scarlett, in turn, tried really hard to look dignified while three kid trolls poked her

their squabbles, and Jake could finally get to the important part after they at least chimed

Order of the Malefic Viper, and while we are going, I would

eat,” Sandy instantly shut it down. “And the many-headed guy says that staying on Earth

head, understanding the sentiment but seemingly happy where he

Sylphie also explained, expertly outlining

then, Scarlett,” Jake

happily. “I once more thank the Chosen

work on

on what?” Scarlett asked, confused

to not publicly recognize me as such. To not slip up by accident, it would be

could use My Excellence?” Scarlett tried, though it looked

there. It wouldn’t make any sense. We both got a Blessing, and the one I am hiding my True Blessing to look like is not that high, so you speaking to me like an authority makes

words, just

best if you could just

red, and her eyes went wide as she looked