The Primal Hunter

Jake had a lot to think about. Annoying things to think about.

He knew he wasn’t the most moral of people, considering his rather liberal approach to killing. He did not hesitate when he went out into the world and hunted down sapient C-grade beasts simply for experience points, and he had killed plenty of other humans during his Path so far. Some were more deserving than others, with quite a few just being at the wrong place at the wrong time or having chosen to trust someone they really shouldn’t have.

But that didn’t mean he was entirely amoral, and he had some things he wouldn’t do. Likely due to his upbringing and the culture of Earth and because, quite honestly, these things had nothing to do with his Path. They were unrelated to his goals. One of those things he wouldn’t do was use his position to take advantage of others. It just felt icky and wrong to him to even consider it.

Miranda, Meira, pretty much anyone in the Order… it just felt wrong to even consider any kind of relationship that was more than friends. Meira more than anyone else. He had watched enough movies to know she may feel attached or something due to not being treated like shit, which just made it even slimier.

Perhaps more importantly than anything else, Jake didn’t want any romantic relationships. At least nothing serious. It didn’t even have to do with his bad prior experiences anymore, but just that he didn’t have time and didn’t want to dedicate the necessary mental energy to it.

Jake had already talked a lot with Caleb and how he struggled with balancing family and his role as Judge of the Court of Shadows. Caleb did not regret his way of life, and if he had to choose between the Court and his family, he would pick family every time. Jake could honestly not say he was the same. In other words, he would be a shitty partner.

There was also the entire thing about his insane innate fear of betrayal, but that was a whole other can of worms he really didn’t want to address.

In conclusion, Jake wanted to avoid relationships, and if acting oblivious made that easier, he would continue doing so. It was honestly just easier to never try and read more into anything others did, and he would rather assume people were being friendly and not make any conclusions. The result would be nothing happening, no matter what.

The whole thing with Meira was a complicated issue and one Jake was far from qualified to deal with. All he knew was that entertaining her emotions would be unhealthy for both of them. He could handle casual relationships, like the one with Carmen, but anything more would be too much.

These annoying emotions were a lot to deal with and, quite frankly, not worth the mental energy. Hence, he moved on to something far simpler:

The ritual circle.

It took him about a week to fix the most outrageous of issues with the ritual circle, and while there was still room for improvement, it wasn’t anything important. All they really resulted in was the circle being less efficient and draining the many cores of energy faster, with more energy going to waste, but Jake didn’t really care overly much about that.

During this week, Jake tried to approach Meira to talk, but she seemed to try and avoid any long conversations as much as possible. At the very least, her actions allowed Jake to consider excuses to talk to her, which was when he handed her the list from Arnold that he had totally remembered. Having her do all that shopping and then confirming all the purchases afterward would be a perfect segue into the conversation he wanted to have with her.

Additionally, it set a deadline for Jake to get his act together. Luckily, it seemed like it would take a bit of time to get everything together as some of the things the scientist had asked for weren’t readily available.

After the week of ritual circle work, Jake moved on to another important task. The improvement of cores. For this, Jake had the Advanced Core Manipulation skill, one of those skill choices Jake had semi-neglected but now felt more than happy about having picked.

upon a core of pure energy and Records is to touch upon the broken shell of a soul. Allows the alchemist to far more easily manipulate cores and the Records within the broken soul shells with the goal of refining them. Refined cores will, in most cases, be more effective, and you can also choose to amplify certain effects. Having taken it further, you have learned that the layers of souls can be malleable in some circumstances, and applying this knowledge,

being offered the Harbinger of Primeval Origins profession and recent revelations about his ability to affect the

even allowed him to merge several cores

push to evolve the Bee Queen to C-grade, Jake would need a few powerful natural treasures, but more importantly, a core of pure Records.

he didn’t manage to do it, that would be fine too. He wasn’t in a rush and wanted to get this one right. As Villy had said, this would be Jake’s first time intentionally trying to create some super variant using

have a core yet, he would go get one after he practiced a bit with what he already had, as well as some cheaply bought cores. Insectoid monsters were far from rare, and getting the cores was easy and

to them, and Jake did have some better variant versions. Like the Queen’s Guard

An Ectognacore left behind by a D-grade Isoptera Queen’s Guard, containing remnants of its Records within. Can be used as an alchemical ingredient for many types of creations

more cores. More specifically, he wanted some C-grade cores from the Queen and to get some revenge on the Termite King. But that was only for when he

a break from

clear there: the two gods wanted to

Jake was against this as

white void as he observed the landscape before him. Ice covered everything, and he felt the intense mana in the air. What had the humans called this… the pole, he believed? An odd

required him to keep his barrier constantly active or risk his movements being affected,

moving as five bulky blocks were put together. One larger one with four smaller blocks functioning as feet, the entire body

Ice Elemental –

had hoped for something better. 226 was low, but sometimes he had to take what he

Nevermore, the witch of Haven, having told him about it. He knew he had a level limit of 210 until the humans were ready, but he still wanted

Gold, Soul, and Force. Those were the three schools he practiced, and everything he could do was one of those three or a combination. Was this limiting? Perhaps, but with enough power, anything

just named for the color. In reality, it could be more closely compared to an arcane affinity, but naturally, Unique Lifeforms could not possess arcane affinities. They were born with their inborn magical powers, and

had far more mana, and using his golden

condense the first type of magic he could now use. Force magic could be used as a form of telekinesis, and it allowed him to control objects directly or form constructs or waves of force. He would do the

spear, but he felt its weakness. Force magic and the concept of piercing never worked well together, as while focusing the

him, and he created a golden orb about a meter across. He slightly began to reform it and discovered that if he remained in contact with his

the elemental, he saw that it, too, had taken notice of him. There was little movement of life within the icy plains, making him stand out as his very presence disturbed the land. The elemental didn’t seem keen on conversation as magic began

sent the barrier of gold flying toward the elemental. It slammed into it with force capable of making mountains crumble, and the King followed up with the orb. Golden energy still extended to it as he swung it like a flail, slamming it into the side of

Adequate.

room for

nothing quite fit him. Ah, but there was one that came to mind. A weapon he rarely saw people use but that the King believed