The Primal Hunter

Outside Nevermore, in the Order of the Malefic Viper, the old mansion that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper used to live in looked much the same as before he went to the World Wonder. Despite not really having permission, Meira and the others kept using the place for all of their meetups, and Meira lived there full-time. It was simply the best meeting spot, even if the majority of the library was locked off to them.

This wasn’t because Meira didn’t have her own place now… it was more that she only really ever felt at home within the mansion. Whatever bad memories she had from the place were long replaced with good ones. Besides, she had taken care of parts of Jake’s garden for so long and had several experiments ongoing there, so moving would really be a hassle.

Teacher also said it was fine to stay, and Meira saw no reason to question that.

By now, it had been a few months since she evolved to C-grade and threw off the last traces of her former identity as a slave. She still had some parts of her past that lingered, and it was about high time to address them. It was also just something she wanted to do… something she had looked forward to doing.

”I’m surprised you didn’t wait for the Chosen of the Malefic One to return before doing it,” Izil, whom Meira had invited over, said. ”I’m sure he would have agreed to come along if you asked him.”

”I know,” Meira nodded. ”But this is something I have to do myself, okay?”

”Are you sure it counts as yourself when you take me along?” her fellow elf teased.

”It’s different, okay?” Meira said, a bit flustered. ”Anyway, there is no need to bother him with something that trivial. Besides, it’s about time I do it. I’ve delayed enough, and Teacher said that going would be good for my mental state. Records of who I am and where I come from are there, and… I want to go, okay? I want to do what I can.”

”I understand, trust me. But, I have been wondering, how will we get there? It is quite a distance away based on what you told me, and there is no gateway leading anywhere close,” Izil asked.

Meira just smiled. ”Well… I am the Chosen of the Grand Elder now…”

It still felt weird to say, even after several months, but it would be silly not to take advantage of that fact at least once in a while, right?

The spear shot past his temple, Jake barely avoiding the hit by tilting his head to the side and twisting his body. He dove into close range of the spearman, but his opponent was ready and stepped down hard to release a shockwave of wind, spewing up sand while propelling himself backward, trying to land another stab during his retreat.

Jake deflected the spearhead and gave pursuit, closing in and trying to land a solid blow. The hobgoblin quickly reacted as a gust of wind pushed him backward even more as he raised his other hand and released a blast of condensed fire mana toward Jake.

With a swipe of his katar, Jake pushed away the fireball, stabbing forward into the chest of the spearman. The katar penetrated slightly before Jake was forced to retreat away from a swiping spearhead, aiming to separate his head from his body. Almost like an echo, a flaming wind followed the spear, making Jake block with a surprised look on his face.

surprised on purpose as he slightly side-stepped the spear, turning his side to the spearman. With his left hand, he grabbed the spear shaft after putting the katar away

clearly intended to either make Jake let go or break his wrists, either case resulting in him being in a prime position to attack. Neither of those things happened. The hobgoblin’s smile quickly faded as

energy swirled around his gloves as he had infused them with it to trigger the enchantment, effectively freezing his own hand. He was fully aware that the gloves wouldn’t survive the ordeal, but hey, insurance

disarmed, he knew the fight was over. Considering his body already had plenty of wounds covering it from

the hobgoblin said with a sigh

the mana fade from his left glove as it disintegrated from the far too potent arcane energy before he tossed the spear back to

to land a single hit, though,” the poor guy said in a defeated

them exited the arena to the usual commentary from the announcer. Despite

he had been promoted to Warlord, Jake had hoped for the fights to get harder but had expected disappointment. It turned out his opponents were all actually pretty damn good. He didn’t find himself fearing for his life, and his consistent performance meant he walked out of all fights where his opponent couldn’t make some large-scale attack he chose to tank unscathed. There were even a few times, including versus this spearman, where he used his Fear Gaze defensively to avoid taking a nasty wound during an exchange. If possible, Jake wanted to avoid major injuries, as that would mean he potentially couldn’t fight the next day, and he had a streak to

who was just strong. He had good stats, could do a lot of different things, and was incredibly skilled with magic, but especially with that spear of his. To call him a spear master

with the Emberlight Blademaster illuminated how important experience fighting against certain weapons was. Even if C-grades were far faster, more skilled, and had more tools, the basics were still the same, and all of these fights allowed Jake to get a good basis for fighting against a wide variety of opponents and

other words, it was a fantastic sparring ground. One that allowed every person who progressed through the Challenge Dungeon to build up a wealth of experience in a relatively safe environment. An environment where geniuses had been gathered from all over the multiverse to fight you, something that couldn’t be found anywhere

First of all, because he could kill whatever he fought without thinking twice, and second of all, because Jake was uniquely talented at fighting against multiple opponents. Also, while he had a lot to learn when it came to fighting humanoids with different weapons, that was definitely not

the Colosseum of Mortals had finally become truly fun. While Jake – as weird as he was – liked practicing day in and day out, having a single fight every day to look forward to

also began to do one other thing to practice, something Jake had

Spectating.

teaching experience, and he surprisingly learned a lot just from being an observer, once more proving that Perception was truly the best stat, even outside of combat. The reason he hadn’t really gone and seen many matches before, only sometimes checking out Owen’s fights, was due to a rule of the Colosseum that said one was not allowed to watch matches above their own rank… a rule that made absolutely no sense if this was a real place, but

promotion matches would be too big of a reward for doing nothing, not to talk about the monsters Jake didn’t doubt were in the Champion rank. If one

view this ability to spectate higher-level matches as a reward, and upon reaching Warlord rank, Jake found it worth it to watch at least a few fights here and there. It also counted as research if he watched

view it. Jake suspected this was not something that would really ever happen to someone actually doing the Challenge Dungeon. If it did happen, it would

Owen, and Polly decided to attend the match of two other combatants Jake had faced before, namely the Earthborn Faithful and the Benevolent Monk. Both of them were also Warlords at his point and were definitely top contenders to get promoted to Paragon.

it was taking place, he definitely wanted to go watch. Based on the Battlemaster, there were some people in charge of scheduling that tended to

either case, it looked like the organizers thought the two were roughly equal and wanted to set up an exciting match. While it was true the two of

and bowed toward the dwarf. ”Greetings, he who serves and is served by the earth. May I propose a friendly

bloody competition, ya freak. Face me