The Primal Hunter

Jake hadn’t been back to his own universe for over three years, and if he was being perfectly honest, he wasn’t looking forward to what Haven had become during his absence. He was afraid it had changed more than he liked, and he especially feared learning what had happened with his good old lodge. He was pretty sure Miranda or someone else had taken care of it during his absence to make sure it wasn’t too horrible, but what if they had turned it into a tourist destination or something? Fuck, maybe someone had constructed a viewing deck overlooking it!

He could totally see that happening, especially with Miranda gone for Nevermore herself. Actually… who was even in charge of Haven right now? Lillian and Miranda were usually the ones doing everything, but neither of them were there. Maybe Hank? Jake sure as hell hoped it wasn’t just some random person who Arthur put in charge.

These were just some of the thoughts Jake had as he went through the void. The only change he knew of for sure was the teleportation circle back in Haven allowing him to teleport back there directly. Those snakes in Scarlett’s former territory had improved their special magic circle significantly to the level where Jake could easily teleport to most regular teleportation circles back on Earth. From how Jake understood it, it was a bit like a phone forwarding a call, with the call, in this case, being someone teleporting through the void with a shrunk-down cosmic worm on his shoulder.

A few seconds after stepping on the teleporter back in the Order, Jake was back on Earth, the void treating him nicely this time around, with no eldritch beings wanting a chat during his travel. He was actually a bit surprised to see how Sandy wasn’t at all affected by the warping space, despite using space magic on themselves, but he wasn’t going to question how any of that worked.

”Home sweet home!” Sandy said with glee as they appeared within the large basement complex beneath Jake’s lodge. Through his sphere, he naturally saw it all, including that nothing had really changed down there. Honestly, seeing it made him feel kind of bad when he remembered all the work Hank had gone through to make it, only for Jake to never really use the place.

The facilities are still pretty good, though… considering I just need a cauldron to do alchemy, I should stay here more, Jake reckoned. Plus, there were some actual benefits to doing alchemy there due to the Pylon of Civilization – an often forgotten aspect of how cities on Earth now worked. It was also a bit more private, with no one able to contact him as easily.

Looking at the Pylon Jake owned, he saw it was still there, though it had changed slightly as expected. It had grown denser with more energy as Jake and especially Miranda had grown in power. Standing there, he also felt the slight increase in mana regeneration he benefitted from within the borders of the Pylon. There was also that minor increase in experience earned for non-combat activities. However, Jake didn’t even think that worked anymore. It was just an early incentive to make people seek out cities outside of the safety they offered.

Shaking his head, Jake smiled at Sandy’s expression of being happy to be home. ”Good to be back, indeed.”

Making his way up to the lodge, he felt quite nostalgic. Especially when he entered the lodge itself. Everything looked as the day he left, even the bed Jake had dragged from the Tutorial Challenge Dungeon way back in the day. The rest of the furniture was also mostly the same that he had dragged with him back then.

”Looking cozy,” Sandy said, wiggling a bit around. ”Not much to eat around here, though… except for that tree outside.”

”It’s not a tree,” Jake quickly corrected the worm.

”It looks like a tree.”

”But it’s not.”

”If it looks like a tree, smells like a tree, and sounds like a tree, it’s a tree,” Sandy insisted.

”You literally don’t have eyes,” Jake pointed out.

”And yet I can see it’s a tree,” Sandy said in a disappointed tone. ”Look, I can test if it also tastes like a tree, and-”

”I’m going to give you a full lesson about the difference between a musa and a tree if you keep this up,” Jake threatened.

the clearing. Going down the steps from the porch, Jake took in the sights as everything here also looked very much the same. The trees

went over to it for a quick inspection. There were a few bananas growing on it, and the magic circle Mystie had placed a long time ago was gone with time. Size-wise, the musa was pretty much the same as it had been the last time he saw it, though he did feel that it had grown at least a

use it right away but stopped himself, as it was definitely better to have someone

them not far from the musa. That way, they would

commented. ”Wait… it’s not soil, is it? Did you really just take out literal bags

Jake defended the bags that he could see come off

little taste, pretty please?” the worm

moment before shaking his head.” Sorry, it’s for the musa, maybe if there are some leftovers,

Tom would have let me have

Sandy entirely, Jake went over to the small pond and waterfall as he felt something within it. Looking down into the water, he saw a lot of small eels swimming around, making him

D-grades. Looking down at them, he saw a few stare back up

deep into the ground from the pond,

you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has

more before he decided it was time to head out

I want to go explore a bit without attracting the

really a stealth skill, but I can disappear,” Sandy answered as the worm wiggled a bit before suddenly popping out

the worm popped back into existence. ”I can just enter Sandy’s Sand World and hide there while putting an anchor on you, and don’t worry, I can still feel and smell

know what Sandy’s Sand

or something like that… or was it what I called something called subspace? Either way, it’s like space but different. Gotta be there to understand it,” Sandy non-explained,

the worm did as he asked, and they left Jake’s lodge after Jake engaged his stealth skill. On the way out, he did notice the addition of more magical barriers to keep people

always been a small quaint place with tree houses, and wooden structures spread relatively sparsely around the foresty

through the non-paved roads of Haven. Looking toward some of the larger buildings, Jake saw even more activity in those, especially the building that had served as the home of Miranda for the longest time. It was more of a

had been considered a city for the elites for a long time, and that showed as Jake spotted more than a few C-grades, with most average folk in D-grade. Of course, there were also those weaker, such as the family members of the strong people who settled there or the original residents of Haven. As far as Jake knew, it wasn’t as if you got thrown out if you had a low level

on all the statistics Jake had heard about how strong people from newly initiated planets usually became, Jake got the feeling

that had come to Earth due to his little Chosen ceremony. There

it was time to check out the other part of what many called Haven but that Jake usually called the Fort. He had definitely expected that to expand quite a bit… but Jake really wasn’t prepared

but on a closer look, he did spot the dome that was Arnold’s workshop. It was a bit off to the side and had a cleared area all around it, but

looked straight out of huge cities pre-system shot up by the dozens, making a respectable skyline. Many of them even

far from as advanced as the world Temlat had come from within the Nevermore Challenge

did see that a strip of plains had been designated as a no-build zone between the Fort and Haven itself, keeping the two of