The Primal Hunter

The silence within the throne room was absolutely deafening. The king, queen, general, and ministers stared at the now broken roof, all unable to utter a single word. Finally, the silence was broken as one of the ministers fell to his knees and muttered: “No, it cannot be… it was meant to be a legend…. how?”

This was the very same minister who only days before, claimed that the rumors going around were simply just that: rumors. But who could blame him? Who could possibly believe that such preposterous stories could be true? Who would ever believe in this silly tale that in the many different kingdoms, even in the one empire, this very same figure had appeared? A masked man wearing all black clothes suddenly showing up out of nowhere without any warning, wielding a bow in the middle of the throne room. Sometimes even in the middle of festivals or other large gatherings with many powerful people. It all sounded so incredibly silly.

In fact, the minister’s theory had been that the other factions had made up this mystical figure to excuse some grand magic ritual they were working on. Many had observed the pillars of energy shooting up where each “attack” happened, but who would believe all of this was due to some person firing an arrow into the air with enough power to slay the most powerful person in the realm?

Well… perhaps they should have believed.

“Your… your majesty… should we follow or-“ the general began to utter.

“No!” the king quickly yelled to shut down the notion. “No… we cannot risk angering such an entity further. Even without provocation, it attacked us within your heartlands.”

“I wonder,” the queen muttered. “Why did he speak as if we assisted him?”

The king shook his head. “Who are we to try and understand such a being? Who is to say it even possesses logic similar to ours?”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a human?” the queen questioned further.

“Impossible,” the king said as he suppressed a shiver. “I met the eyes of that thing before it delivered its message of destruction. That was no man.”

No one else spoke for several more seconds before someone finally raised a hand. “Should we… you know… find someone to fix the ceiling?”

A good idea… sadly for the kingdom, all the craftsmen who specialized in building castles were already busy repairing the roofs of other royal buildings throughout the land, even if some held back on repairing, fearing the entity would return.

Alas, he never did… but the legend of the mythical Roofbreaker would live on for generations to come.

“Submitting two Creations at once, I see,” Nevermore – the Architect – said right as Jake entered her room.

“I figured I would shake things up a bit,” Jake smiled. “Why, isn’t it allowed?”

“No rules state if you can submit more than one Creation at a time. Even if you couldn’t, what would stop you from submitting them one after another, having to merely exit and enter a few times? That simply sounds like wasted time for both of us,” the Architect answered. “Also, it isn’t uncommon for people to submit all ten Creations at once. Likely to ensure they have ten they are satisfied with before locking themselves into any of the Creations, considered a submission cannot be taken back.”

“Wait, should I have done that?” Jake wondered out loud.

have, but in your instance, I doubt it would have benefitted you much. Based on my observations, your creation process is very sporadic, and I doubt your methods are very

of planned Creations I made,” Jake muttered. “And, in my defense, it isn’t like I haven’t stuck to it for the most part. Besides, the best plans and strategies aren’t those set in stone, but those fluid

that case, you truly are an expert strategist,” the Architect definitely called him out, but before Jake could further respond, she cut the conversation short. “Now, let us skip these pleasantries. Please proceed with

agreed as he decided to submit the Creations

strong feeling that just revealing the cover of the book wouldn’t be a good idea, as his Path of a Heretic-Chosen could be seen as… well, heretical. Especially

submitted hidden so the Grimoire wouldn’t leak and be revealed to the outside world. Jake was fully aware his Path

Architect took it and

hidden. This little tome could cause quite the uproar if I leaked its properties,” the Architect said with a

add to its value, right? People love forbidden things,” Jake said in a

answered as the Grimoire disappeared. “Now, what

already knew,” Jake

need you to vocalize

submit a skill I improved? Also,

will happen. As for how you submit it…

evolving into Unseen Arcane Hunter.

eyes flashed golden for a second before she gave him a smile. “Submission complete. Now,

“No, tha-“

of the room again, finding himself standing outside

of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you

by the happiness he felt from his newly improved stealth skill. He was also confident it was a damn good submission, especially when you

would be thrown out of Nevermore from running out of time before that would happen. Even an upgrade still staying within the legendary rarity would likely take long enough to piss off Jake’s party members due to Jake taking years in excess doing the Challenge Dungeons. So, yeah, Legendary had to be good enough. Besides, Jake believed

well, and he had a high level

admired the

wonder: was it merely the wind, or has the Unseen Arcane Hunter chosen you as his next prey? Allows the Hunter to blend into the environment, making you unseen even to the eyes of some of the most alert predators as your form escapes the very realm they are capable of perceiving. A layer of stable arcane energy covers your body, suppressing all energy and aura emanating from your body, making you near-undetectable to anyone who cannot notice your physical form. The arcane mana perfectly seals in any inner energy released, allowing some skills to be used. When standing still, this stable layer can be expanded, sealing the

description and even a bit of fun flavor text in the beginning. The effects were exactly what Jake wanted, and the only thing he had ”lost” were some of the now-useless stat scaling and the ability to make himself look like a rock. Instead, he could create a stealth field where no one could see or feel any of his energy within. Only

in. Before, Jake had to dedicate some mental energy to make sure the skill didn’t lose its effect, while now, everything was on auto-pilot. He didn’t have to think about anything

upkeep, the cost was also nearly non-existent. The skill did require an upfront investment that was quite steep to create the arcane layer and ”shift” Jake’s entire being on the visual spectrum. It also took a good ten seconds to activate the skill fully, meaning it

jumpscare. His little student was improving nicely even while Jake was busy with his stealthy escapades and was rapidly approaching evolution time. He still had a few more

[Half-elf – lvl 195]

worried if he would get good evolutions, either. His improvement speed was high, and Jake was nearly done nurturing his curse of hatred with his own Sin Curse. Temlat’s curse wouldn’t evolve into a Sin Curse of Wrath quite yet, but Jake would bet good money it would either

energies that were usually too powerful for him and tempered his mind to stay calm even when under pressure. Jake wouldn’t quite say it made the Willpower stat better, but it definitely

his Bloodline, though, and he definitely wanted to throw a little bit of the already limited Jake Juice he had into a Creation. Far from enough to do something like help birth a new True Royal or perpetually hungry space