The Primal Hunter

Calibration of Pathfinder-18 was complete as he tested the basic specs and parameters of the new scouting drone, finding the stats within expectations. Offensive options had been limited in favor of higher speed and increased stealth capability, making it a more specialized drone than most others. The added light refraction enchantments had made it near-invisible for most mid-grade C-grades, with the rest of the enchantments allowing it to hide from other senses. He was not aiming to hide it from the senses of someone like Lord Thayne, but just the average monster.

Arnold released it as it went for a test flight, the sleek drone taking to the air, having long moved away from those same unstable and slow rotor-based designs but instead used anti-gravity and air enchants to make it move. Far more efficient than any old-world design.

He was still working on making them self-sustainable for long periods of time, but alas, that would come with time. Batteries were not difficult, but generators small enough for scouting drones had many potential challenges before a stable version was possible.

For now, Arnold regarded the monitoring screen, seeing everything was as expected as he sent it on a scouting mission to map out more of the area humans had not scouted or mapped out properly yet. A 3D map of the part of the planet they occupied appeared, including general reads of which territories powerful creatures occupied, with his current aim being an exploration of the ocean and other continents. On a side note, he had attempted to map out the forest but found his drones quickly getting picked off as their movement capabilities and ability to sense dangers were significantly hampered in there, with ambush predators often taking them down. It was a waste of valuable resources to keep attempting to scout it, so he would have the other humans do that. News had come back that Lord Thayne had recently cleared out many of the powerful C-grades in there, so perhaps it was time to reassess.

His workshop was rapidly expanding as he examined some of the other in-progress projects, primarily the ones he was about to restart after a resupply from Lord Thayne. A lot of what he did had been automated by now, and the mana-gathering dynamos were working at full capacity to power the enchantments that would be placed on the weaker drones.

Arnold had primarily gotten the inspiration for the dynamos from the half-destroyed Altmar Census Golem given to him by Lord Thayne. The technology had been incredibly impressive and, frankly, far above anything Arnold had any chance to comprehend while still only in C-grade. It reminded him of when he was eleven and went to university for the first time for a special lesson with one of their professors. Rather than intimidate him, it just expanded his horizons of all there was to learn.

It was an emotion he had felt rarely in the last few years before the system arrived and one he greatly welcomed. There had always been more to learn before, but it all felt so limited. Unapplicable in most cases, even.

The field of theoretical mathematics was interesting in its own right. However, it often dealt with concepts and hypothetical postulations improvable and inoperable in the material plane, making them little more than inspiration for future scientists. It was not uncommon that a theory or hypothesis would be proposed by a scientist or great mind decades, if not centuries before it was proven or at least partly demonstrated through empirical evidence as research methods and tools evolved.

Societal constructs that dominated the scientific culture rewarded this prescient way of thought with social capital to further one’s career and acquire future funding by gaining recognition through the lens of the public eye. They desired the articles and to create public discussion, not true discovery. Arnold had never strived for such vain recognition, but then again, he had never truly attempted to innovate and shift the current paradigms – simply to comprehend what was already there and apply it in the most efficient way possible.

At least, this was his methodological approach before the system. However, the scene changed, reality flipped, and limits were removed. No longer would he create a theory for a future scientist to prove in a hundred years; he would be that scientist himself in a hundred years.

Some realities remained, such as the constant requirement for funding, but he had found such a thing was attainable through simple trade, and with the man called Sultan, he had a financial broker to handle any products he no longer needed while acquiring new raw materials.

Of course, one could not forget Haven itself and Lord Thayne, providing him with new interesting objects and paths for obtaining high-level goods. The Treasure Hunt and subsequent Auction had already been an exemplary learning experience, allowing him to collect technology of Yalsten to disassemble and learn from.

construction, hundreds of blueprints had been created, and his head contained ideas for thousands of potential inventions or recreations. His most

their planet had entered space since the integration. It had not been an easy task making that a possibility. Firstly, the skies on Earth were now incredibly dangerous, and there were many natural barriers. He also theorized that the atmosphere would kill most creatures mid-to-late-tier C-grade trying to pass through, and even if one made

of a vacuum for New Horizen to still have constant acceleration as it absorbed mana from the atmosphere. But once more, the biggest

had been an item

long distance. This pod was originally made to allow the weaker denizens of Yalsten to travel outside their realm safely through wormholes, and the vehicle has an incredibly high resistance to all space magic. The inside of the pod is spatially expanded. Due to damages incurred during an escape and subsequent

a special metal that

as he filled the pod with modules to

kind was difficult to transmit without mana or other concepts interfering, but that is what he had the skill given by his Blessing to handle. He was grateful

of the exploratory vessel was not entirely determined, though it

contacted for the second time that day. The City Lord had sent over a message, and as she rarely contacted him, Arnold established it had

he frowned for a moment before realization struck him. For a while now, he had measured seismic activity, but he had assumed it was perhaps just C-grades fighting deep beneath the earth or perhaps just a natural shifting of the environment. Now he hypothesized

current scans were accurate and the seismic activity was truly caused by these

thoughts known before being sure would be unwise, so Arnold decided to

the workshop – one Lord Thayne had never bothered using. Not that

produced the weaker drones, such as the ones used for collecting data. Pathfinder-18 had just been made, but Pathfinder-17 had been in mass production

was no longer as inexperienced as he was back then. His drones had also improved in both quantity and quality, allowing them to function far more effectively. After little consideration, he decided it was time to operationalize all of them and attempt a full field deployment and

enchantments to feed him mana and make sure he wouldn’t run out. As he sat in the chair, its back opened up. A helmet was attached and lowered towards him before placing itself on

a mental command to initiate the

it would likely take some time to hear anything back. She hadn’t expected him to respond within an hour and was actually a bit surprised at the swift answer. It

deployment of scouting

meant, she also wasn’t sure. Luckily – or unluckily