The Primal Hunter

Should Jake question why Carmen was half-covered in blood? Maybe. He didn’t overly care, though, as he waved when he saw her come over. “Hello again.”

“You got here faster than expected, huh? Didn’t anyone wanna host you longer or what?” Carmen commentated, and Jake saw his escort grimace at her curt tone. Even the poor S-grade threw Carmen a look, which she seemed to not notice or care about. As things should be.

“No, they all threw me out on the streets,” Jake said with an exaggerated sigh. “I only came here because I accidentally started four or five wars due to my sheer political incompetence and reckoned Valhal would be on-theme as my next visit.”

“Oh, so you’re looking to hire us, eh?” Carmen smiled. “Not gonna be cheap. I hope those potions have been selling.”

“If all else fails, I’ll just have to take out a payday loan… or does Valhal do commissions on credit? I can pay back in installments,” Jake kept joking.

“If the Chosen desires to hire any mercenari-“ one of the three bald warriors commented as Carmen threw him a look, making him shut up.

“For fuck sake,” she muttered before looking back at Jake. “See what I’m working with here?”

Olaf also sighed at the warrior, who looked confused for a moment. It appeared as if he had the situation explained to him telepathically in the next moment, as he looked like he wanted to somehow make himself smaller. Quite a tough task for someone of his size.

“Oh well, that killed the mood,” Carmen shrugged. “Guess I should do that formal stuff. Welcome to the Nevermore Valhal Compound or whatever the official name is.”

“Thanks for having me,” Jake smiled. “Now, I feel like it’s only polite to ask, but who did you just beat to death?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, no. I was just having some light spars with some of the young ones who just got here and talked shit and groups who already did Nevermore and didn’t accomplish fuck-all,” Carmen scoffed, clearly annoyed. “They were bitching about there being no one from Valhal on any of the top 10 Leaderboards; who the fuck gives them the right to talk? These are groups who didn’t even hit the top 1000… they deserved a good lesson.”

“I see,” Jake nodded as he smiled teasingly. “Say, why didn’t Valhal take any of the top spots?”

Carmen glared at him as she shook her head. “Because we had a few dead weights in the party, and the Challenge Dungeons were absolute shit. Seriously, they sucked ass, every single one of them. Test of Character only tested how much bullshit I could keep up with, Neverending Journey was like going back to my old retail job, Minaga’s Labyrinth was just shitty equations and puzzles, House of the Architect was a bloody waste of time, and the one with any promise, Colosseum of Mortals, was ruined by its idiotic rules.”

“I would have thought you would do decently in the Colosseum?” Jake questioned.

“See these,” Carmen asked, raising a hand. “Yeah, right now, I can catch a speartip or use my palm to deflect swords. In the Colosseum, I would lose a damn hand if anything sharp hit it. I had to go back to how I fought before, making me feel like I regressed, and ultimately I had to pick up some fist weapons and stuff… it sucked.”

Jake slowly nodded. “Yeah… does sound like a bit of an oversight, honestly.”

“Sure as hell does,” Carmen sighed. “Anyway, wanna go show off in front of them or have a look around first?”

“Are you offering a tour of the compound?”

“I feel like Olaf here would get mad if I didn’t,” Carmen said, throwing the S-grade a smile.

“It does sound like I’m no longer needed here and am just getting in the way,” Olaf said with a nod. “I will be in the central building if there is anything. Do not hesitate to come by.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jake responded as he saw Olaf leave, the man not even trying to hide his smile from Jake and Carmen’s interactions. It was pretty understandable why, too. Jake and Carmen didn’t make it a secret they were close, and if Olaf had been tasked with trying to make Jake feel welcome, it had to be a huge relief to see the two of them interact.

“Now, what do you wanna see first?” Carmen asked once the guy was gone as she pulled out a washcloth and cleaned herself up a bit.

“Any recommendations?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just a few. First of all, we could go check out the arena and maybe even go for a bit of a spar if you’re up for it and not afraid of me hurting your pride. Secondly, we could go check out some of the training facilities, as Valhal has some interesting ones, including an archery range where you can spatially expand the range itself. Third, we could visit my personal residence, where having another kind of spar is possible,” Carmen offered, giving him a knowing wink.

“You know what… I think I’ll take the second one first,” Jake responded. “A spatially expanding archery range sounds pretty damn cool.”

her head. “My place

weirdly as Carmen

of his head, Jake couldn’t help but look toward where he thought

Jake incredulously for a bit before just shaking her head and smirking. “Fine, let’s go play at

reach the top of the Leaderboards,” Jake said, trying to look deep in thought. “Arnold also placed pretty highly,

“We’re definitely also making a

fun,” Jake agreed. He was genuinely interested in seeing just how strong Carmen

and it felt kind of… odd. It was incredibly stable, to the level of it being unnatural. Usually, people leaked energy all the time, but Carmen barely gave off anything. He knew part of the reason for this was her lack of mana, but even with stamina, one burned it all the time just moving around. Carmen surely did, too, but it seemed either far less

top-tier one. So, a little visit to the arena to see just how tough she had gotten sounded fun, and he wouldn’t say no to another kind of

But first… archery range.

damn, was it everything

panel floating in front of him. Turning a single knob, he saw the target move further away and come closer again, based on

if detected on Amazon,

the range to what looked like an entire planet away. The only limitation was that Jake had to

her arms crossed as she looked at Jake, playing with the options. “You like

just insane, though it was done using some ingenious means. By limiting what had to move within the expanded area, the space had to be far less stable all around, while it also didn’t have to house any living beings. It also didn’t really add any details when

making any expansion far, far cheaper, as spatial shrinking is a lot easier. Valhal has a few similar training grounds here and there similar to this, though in many cases, they

a few arrows. All of them hit, as Jake tried to expand the range a

just me, or are your arrows somehow accelerating the further they

“Yep,” Jake nodded.

make

“Nope,” Jake agreed.

it’s pretty damn

“Definitely is.”

another three hours or so in the training hall, also seeing some of the other facilities. There were

weren’t really to train but to become more aware of your own power and how you applied your different muscles while completing tasks. This area was also pretty damn busy,

The difference between getting punched by someone who knew how to throw a punch and someone who didn’t wasn’t small, and with ethereal elements such as concepts also getting more and more mixed into every action

Jake understood why someone might need machines like these… it was just that he couldn’t see why he, in particular, would need them. He already had a good grasp of his own power, and he felt as if he was pretty decent at using his body optimally. At least he felt like he

a high understanding of themselves and that the differences wouldn’t be like the one between a

a shot?” Carmen asked as they stood before

shrugged as he took

full power on this one, but all about

Malefic Viper. They all looked on with interest as Jake grabbed the two handles and lifted up without really thinking much, making sure to engage the right back

back memories of going to the gym before the system,” Jake smiled as he got up. “Anyway, how

with a

Jake asked,

seem like a good percentage if Jake said so himself. The approving looks he got all around from the observers

I break a record or something?” Jake asked Carmen as they walked

her

“… sorry?” Jake muttered.

least one

past, not gonna make that promise,” Jake said defensively as they approached

still smiling as he teased the shapeshifter, not really paying much attention to Jake playing

visage changed as he returned to his “usual” form. He stared at the Viper with a level of seriousness the god rarely displayed. A

to know what’s going on. The mystery is too intriguing for him to handle,” the Viper concluded, as he couldn’t help but broaden