The Primal Hunter

”But it’s actually just pure mana?” Carmen asked, still not entirely believing Jake’s claims. ”Definitely didn’t feel like mana.”

”Pure arcane mana,” Jake corrected her. ”The stable variant, that is.”

”Hm, the stabby ones did feel borderline identical to the exploding ones… though the exploding ones maybe felt a bit more aggressive in nature?” she pondered aloud.

”They are definitely more aggressive, hence why they wanna explode,” Jake smiled teasingly as he turned his head and looked at Carmen, who was lying with her hands behind her pillow, staring at the ceiling.

The two of them were currently at Carmen’s place in Nevermore City, inside one of the private residences available only to top members. As someone who had been able to attend the get-together for those who did well on the Leaderboards, Carmen was naturally viewed as a top member. Then again, even if she had done horribly, the mere fact she was a Runemaiden of Valdemar was already enough to get her this designation.

Their duel in the arena had gone on for a few more minutes, but ultimately, there was little progress on either side. Jake could do some minor damage here and there, but Carmen was self-healing quite well. At the same time, Carmen couldn’t land any good hits on Jake. Finding a winner would have required them to keep going until one of them ran out of resources, and while Jake didn’t doubt the crowd would have enjoyed that, Jake and Carmen couldn’t be bothered.

Without any skills, their resources would have lasted for hours, and who really had the time for that? Sure, they could have switched over to using skills, but the arena spar wasn’t a real fight, and if Jake was being honest, he didn’t want to reveal his skills in front of a crowd.

After their fight, they had naturally both been a bit worked up and decided to go to Carmen’s place to ”compare notes” and ”reflect on their battle.” Which was definitely what they did. Definitely. Why else would they now both be lying naked in the bed?

”Maybe I should also work on getting an arcane affinity,” Carmen muttered. ”Then again, the only two people I know with one are you and Eron… well, besides the gods and stuff.”

”It isn’t like arcane affinities are necessarily better either,” Jake shrugged. ”They just seem like that because the affinity naturally fits the person who made it extremely well. Look at Sylphie; she just has the ”basic” wind affinity, and I sure as hell wouldn’t call that weak.”

”Pretty sure she has more than just basic wind. I heard something about Sylphs being a thing, and I’m pretty sure she’s related to those,” Carmen pointed out.

”Still just wind affinity,” Jake shook his head as he sat up. ”Maybe empowered a bit and of a certain flavor, but it’s still wind magic.”

”Hm, I guess you’re right,” Carmen relented as she looked deep in thought.

”Honestly, I’m more curious as to how exactly your level of durability even makes sense,” Jake said as he leaned over and poked her arm. ”Feels and looks like soft human skin, but it felt like striking metal whenever I hit it.”

Carmen didn’t even comment on his pokes as she also sat up. ”I guess it’s a mix between reacting to what is considered attacks and not attacks mixed with… what did you call it again? System-fuckery? Yeah, that thing.”

”Huh. Well, thank fuck for system-fuckery, then. I assume this is also why you can move normally despite your durability and tough skin? I would assume it to be less flexible by default.”

”Probably,” Carmen semi-agreed as she opened and closed a fist. ”It’s pretty sweet, though. I used to be really careful when fighting, and I had to make sure not to take any hits… now, I can take quite a beating without much struggle while giving plenty more back.”

”That actually got me thinking… this Runemaiden stuff also empowered your internals, right?” Jake asked curiously.

”Yep, it’s all-around,” she said with a grin. ”Though some parts are more affected than others. My bones and skin more than anything else. So, pro-tip: if you ever need to kill another Runemaiden, aim for the eyes. That’s probably our biggest weakness.”

”Thanks for the tip, but I was more thinking: how nerfed were you in our little spar? I remember you using a lot of boosting skills that took a heavy load on your body, and these must be a fuckload more powerful now, right?”

better than yours, but I’m not confident they would have allowed me to land anything decisive. Besides, you would also

Jake nodded. ”Say, is it okay for

cares? Valdemar sure as fuck doesn’t strike me as the sort of guy who would,” Carmen shrugged unbothered before turning a bit more serious. ”He does seriously want you to join Valhal, by the

further. Even if he trusted Carmen, he wouldn’t share with her details about how his relationship

really think you should join,” Carmen said

”Hm?” Jake exclaimed, surprised.

it. If you join, you’ll likely be made the Chosen of Valdemar, or at least someone with a higher position than me, which will make things really fucking awkward. Moreover… I wouldn’t want the competition,” she

become

even try and keep up with all of you other damn monsters… seriously, why the fuck

a clue,” Jake smiled, shaking his head, at least

just weird,”

the disc he had been handed by the Demon Prince, having decided to read it over. Carmen saw

him, Carmen got dressed and went out into the courtyard of her personal residence to do some training. Jake got curious and decided to see how she was training before he fully immersed his

followed by several more strikes into thin air. She barely moved faster than a regular pre-system human as she boxed with a seemingly invisible opponent, and she even dodged and weaved in between unseen blows. After about a minute, Jake realized something. The way she moved,

without permission from the

he looked at her practice a bit longer. Even from within the building, he could feel the odd energy surrounding Carmen and her intense and unbroken focus as she was entirely immersed in her imagined fight. Some pretty powerful concepts were also at play, and Jake even felt some faint energy come out of the ground beneath her. With a second inspection, he noticed that the huge magic circle spanning the entirety of Valhal’s compound faintly responded, a

smile. With things like this and the archery range, maybe Jake should just see if he could join Valhal as an honorary member.

wanted an

only a bit more before he decided it was time to focus on his own matters. Delving into the disc, Jake began to study the proposed ritual by the Demon Prince, and his first impression was that it felt… kind of familiar? It definitely had many conceptual aspects in common with some of the rituals Jake had

would be the main maestro. The conductor who controlled everything. It was a bit similar to the ritual he had done with Mystie and Hawkie to help hatch Sylphie. This one would require the

so levels of the Demon Prince, or it simply wouldn’t work due to the disparity in quality. While each grade was a massive jump, each level within every grade was also a small step, and having someone atop the

to see, especially when the Demon Prince also factored in Jake’s identity as the Harbinger of Primeval Origins, that Jake seemed like perhaps the best choice in the multiverse. And while the process of creating creatures like Vesperia was

mind, one ultimate question remained: did Jake

would give it at least a fifty-fifty. It was definitely harder than anything he had ever done before, but Jake had also grown a lot stronger since he last did

fell under. From his analysis, the primary bottleneck with this ritual also wasn’t pure skill or the knowledge of the ritual master but as much the insane minimum requirement of control and stats. There was a lot of powerful energy to keep track of at once, and some of this energy would be related to the Cerulean Devil. Most

thing did become clear,

need to throw in some Jake Juice as a binding agent of sorts, he noted to himself. Not a lot of it, just enough to nudge things to merge together. Maybe other alchemists or ritual experts could find some way to make them merge without this method, but Jake sure as hell didn’t know any. With what he was reading from the disc provided by the Demon Prince, the demons sure didn’t have any set plans either but would ”leave the

asking him to

after just checking over all the information once, but he still had to fully familiarize himself with the role of every one of his would-be assistants and get a comprehensive understanding of everything that would go down. At least one good enough so that he could handle everything that went wrong on the fly by following

did also have to consider

at it for hours,” Carmen’s voice interrupted Jake’s train of thought as he opened his eyes and stared

”And for the record,

as hell didn’t

would I?”

shot back, leaning slightly closer.

what may you

whispered in his ear: ”I want