The Primal Hunter

Jake’s second nap of the day was quite a bit longer than the first one. He ended up sleeping nearly ten hours straight, the longest in quite a while. And yes, he still categorized that as a nap.

Honestly, sleeping at higher grades was a weird thing. You didn’t need to sleep, and Jake had heard that some races just straight-up couldn’t, but those who started at lower grades where sleep was a necessity still retained this ability. As you then evolved, sleeping changed from being about physiological needs and became closer to a hidden skill of sorts. During sleep, one regenerated resources far faster, even when compared to meditation, and it especially helped refresh mental energy. Finally, and perhaps most importantly… sleeping was just nice.

Waking up, Jake struggled to get out of bed, not due to his body still being weak, but the allure of just laying there five more minutes. Alas, he had to get moving, so he got up and did some unnecessary stretches. Looking over his own body, he found most of his armor still in shambles, but at least he wasn’t outright dirty, as the arcane energy had thoroughly destroyed any blood that had gotten on him during the fight. He still went for a dip in the pond outside of the lodge to freshen up before heading into town to check up with Miranda.

Jake took out the cloak from his inventory – an item he didn’t really bother wearing anymore due to how useless it was – to at least cover up the broken armor. Looking at least a little representable, Jake made his way to the main office building of Haven, releasing a Pulse of Perception to confirm Miranda was there. She was currently alone in her office, giving Jake a perfect opportunity to sneak in.

He quickly made it there, and before he had time to knock on the door, she spoke from within.

“Come on in.”

Jake complied as he opened the door, seeing Miranda surrounded by papers and seemingly hard at work as always. He also felt that she had not quite reached C-grade yet, but she was close. Very close.

[Human – lvl 199]

He reckoned she was dealing with a quest or two, as Jake heard that it usually took most a bit of time to do those. Especially the race quests. Something Jake had not experienced due to the… peculiarity of his circumstances.

It was also possible Miranda was just delaying her evolution on purpose to upgrade some skills. A bit like how Jake wanted to upgrade all his Malefic Viper skills before his own evolution.

“How did your adventure in the termite hive go? None of the drones sent out by Arnold caught you leaving, and I suddenly just detected you back at your lodge, so what happened?” Miranda asked, her voice not really concerned but more curious.

“I would say it went pretty well. I am relatively sure I took down the top Queen as well as the strongest fighter in the form of the Isoptera Hive King. Afterward, I had to tactically retreat as C-grade warrior termites came swarming, which does confirm there are more C-grades around,” Jake answered.

“We are aware. Arnold’s drones have scouted quite deeply, and while the hive does appear weakened, it is far from doomed. There are dozens of D-grade Queens still, and I am having a meeting with the World Council later today to discuss how we will address this threat looming under our feet. I assume we will likely create hunting parties and assemble an army of sorts to go and clean it out, at least as much as we can. In the deeper reaches, the termites seem busy dealing with other C-grade monsters, so hopefully, cutting off their resource supply from the surface and severely limiting their potential for growth will deal a heavy blow. Based on my understanding, a C-grade Queen cannot birth another C-grade Queen directly, requiring these D-grades to grow and evolve on their own. As long as we kill all the D-grades, we should thus cut off their future potential,” Miranda explained.

“Sounds like you got things handled,” Jake nodded, happy to hear that Arnold had agreed to help and, from the sounds of it, even done a stellar job.

monsters capable of breaking into the deeper layers from the oceanside and create some chaos,” Miranda smiled. “Don’t worry about allowing more C-grades to enter human land.

would not have to deal with any of the cleanup or hunting of the termites himself. While he would welcome another Hive King to fight, he didn’t want to just go on a rampage

is one thing I have been meaning to ask you. Haven, as in the city here in the forest, is at the moment rather limited in area and population very much purposefully. However, we have had a flood of applications from people who want to move here, especially influential figures and

is already here stay, and still allow in people actually worth having around. High-level individuals who have some level of actual power, not just political clout. I don’t know about you, but

the powerful adventurers who have taken up residency. Many former mercenaries of the Holy Church, Risen, and United Cities Alliance

for everyone. No one wants endless queues at the nice skewer shops. Anyway, overall, I think you are a lot

still value your input,” Miranda nodded. “Now, was there more you wanted to

thing: when are you evolving? What is stopping

C-grade,” Miranda answered. “As for when I will evolve… should not be too long, but it all depends on if I can actually find time to practice my magic and not be stuck in endless meetings or distracted

world-threatening termite hives in the future?”

shrugged. “It would have been outstanding if you had decided to spend a few months wiping out every termite in the hive and never told me about it. But we both

do I feel like you aren’t really

only consider the expected course of action? You being

am getting bullied here,” Jake said, faking hurt. “Screw this place;

have your fun,” Miranda waved him off, indicating there wasn’t more for him to deal with. If she did

to his underground lab as Jake headed for the teleporter he had set up down there. A

first thing he did was check in on the Bee Queen ritual, where he saw things were going as expected. It was pretty much ready for the final push to actually awaken the Queen, and even if he decided to do this final push now, a C-grade would hatch. But Jake wanted more than that to test if he could actually control

Let’s get to work.

and he felt like his energy control had improved quite a bit from this fight,

thought. He had several more insights too, and he didn’t bother to

for some basic input, he did not allow himself to get distracted as he reflected and experimented. Reflected on how he would create an item capable of truly affecting the evolutionary trajectory of

Malefic Viper had been involved… but to call what Jake did transmutation during those times didn’t feel entirely accurate. He had recognized before that aspects of the skill still had to be applied as Jake was ultimately transforming Records and energy. However, Jake was now beginning

and it obeyed rules set by the system. Strict rules. The most central of which was the often-discussed law of equivalent exchange. More Records were never created during a transmutation, but all one truly did was mix and change those already present. If one

to upgrade his boots when he was in D-grade or what the Sword Saint had told Jake about having done to his old ancestral sword. In Jake’s case, he had brought out Records related to the item, while the Sword Saint had amplified and heightened the quality of the

However, improving Records through outside items was not only possible for