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?”

I’m not confident they would have allowed me to land anything decisive. Besides, you would also have way stronger offenses if that happened, and while I’m tough, I’m not invincible. Using boosting skills too much also negatively affects my durability; I learned that the hard way quite

see, I see,” Jake nodded. ”Say, is it okay for you

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

touching on the subject further. Even if he trusted Carmen, he wouldn’t share with her details about how his relationship with the Malefic Viper truly was. The fewer knew about his status as a

don’t really think you should join,” Carmen said after a few

”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 said, smiling during the

become Valdemar’s Chosen?”

want to even try and keep up with all of you other damn monsters… seriously, why the fuck are so many of the strongest people

clue,” Jake smiled, shaking his head, at least happy to know others shared

weird,”

while. After a bit, Jake took out the disc he had been handed by the Demon Prince, having decided to read it over. Carmen saw him take it out, Jake having

her personal residence to do some training. Jake got curious and decided to see how she was training before he fully immersed his mind

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

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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 small part of it active, seemingly facilitating and

and the archery range, maybe Jake should just see if he could join Valhal as an honorary member. Or, at the very least, blackmail Villy into giving

really wanted an

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 done before. There was also a lot of new to it, though, and it was a more complex ritual than anything Jake had ever done before. Besides maybe the one that helped birth Vesperia, however,

saw that he would not be doing this ritual alone. Several C-grade demons would assist him, but Jake 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

not a mid-tier C-grade. Moreover, based on Jake’s analysis, the person performing the ritual had to be within only a dozen or so levels of the Demon Prince, or it simply wouldn’t work due to the disparity in quality.

the ritual master – the one in charge of the ritual – Jake could see how it would be difficult to find someone qualified. It was also easy to see, especially when the Demon Prince also factored in Jake’s identity as the Harbinger of

one ultimate question remained: did Jake

before, but Jake had also grown a lot stronger since he last

In addition, he specialized in Soul Ritualism, which this ritual definitely 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

thing did

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

to please figure out

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

have to consider

thought as he opened his eyes and stared into

Jake smiled as he didn’t move. ”And for the record, I did see you

as hell didn’t

I?”

Carmen shot back, leaning slightly

what may

leaned in and whispered in his ear: