The Primal Hunter

Miyamoto felt the cold winds sweeping across his body as he trekked up the mountain. Many of the ice elementals noticed him, but none approached as he soon reached the summit where this powerful beast known as the Northpeak Wyvern should reside.

Admittedly, an environment like this was far from favorable to him, as his water affinity was severely weakened due to the cold, but he was still confident. Its level more or less matched him, and while the vampire raid team described the wyvern as powerful, the mere fact any of them managed to return alive and that they could injure the beast was proof that it shouldn’t be a threat to him.

As described, he found the cavern atop the mountain, and within, he felt the presence of a monster. The last update he got before he headed off from Haven said that the captured vampires were still alive, but he feared things may have changed as he only felt the presence of a single living being within.

If it was so, the least he could do was enact vengeance. The Prima Response Team, as the people in charge of preparing for the Prima Guardian’s arrival called themselves, had designated this wyvern too dangerous to leave alive anyway, so someone would have to slay it anyway. May as well be him.

Walking through the cavern, he was ready should it attack with a breath, as he had been informed the wyvern was extraordinarily aggressive and impossible to talk to, and the design of the cave made it a perfect choke point to-

“Excuse me, can I help you with anything?” a voice echoed through the cave as the Sword Saint stopped and frowned. The tone did not carry the level of arrogance he had expected, but he wasn’t going to let his guard down.

He responded as he infused his voice with energy. “I hope for your sake you can. A group of vampires recently fought you here, and I believe a number of them were captured alive.”

“That… that was all a misunderstanding that has been rectified,” the wyvern responded in a meek tone, making the Sword Saint frown even more. Usually, the data provided by members of his clan was extremely accurate, but the current situation certainly wasn’t in line with his expectations. Had he somehow gotten the wrong mountain? No… no, that wouldn’t make any sense.

“I question your claims, but please enlighten me as to the nature of your rectification,” he responded, not far from his goal.

“It’s… fine if you come to the big cavern to talk…”

Continuing through the cave, he soon reached the inner cave, where he saw the large wyvern nested in the middle. He was ready to draw his sword but felt no aggression as he got a nervous impression from the wyvern.

“Gre… greetings,” the wyvern said, seemingly trying really hard to be polite.

The Sword Saint didn’t respond immediately but scanned the room and saw no immediate signs of any trapped vampires. “What happened to the vampires you captured?”

“They left,” the wyvern responded quickly. “I, eh, I let them go, and they left a few days ago…”

Narrowing his eyes, Miyamoto placed one hand on the handle of his sword. “And why would you just let them go?”

“I saw the error of my ways?” the wyvern responded before seemingly nodding to itself as if to confirm the answer.

“Do excuse me if I question the validity of any creature changing their entire manner of acting so abruptly,” the Sword Saint said skeptically as he looked directly at the wyvern. “Unless there is more than one Northpeak Wyvern, you are known for attacking indiscriminately any who dares set foot atop this mountain, and you mean to tell me that has suddenly changed within a couple of days?”

“Yes?” the wyvern responded, staring unblinkingly at the Sword Saint. “I, eh… learned my lesson and will no longer be a menace, but always talk first and not just attack.”

“Forgive me for my continued skepticism, but what was the impetus for this change?”

“Impetus?” the wyvern asked, seemingly not understanding what the word meant.

“Reason. Cause. What event caused you to have such a sudden shift in behavior?” the Sword Saint elaborated. He hoped the wyvern had a satisfactory answer; if not, he wasn’t averse to doing what he originally came to this mountain to do, even if the wyvern claimed it had suddenly wisened up, as everything could easily just be a ruse to avoid powerful people actually slaying it. It would need a really good rea-

“The Chosen of the Malefic Viper visited, and-”

Yeah, alright, that’ll do it.

More than two weeks passed, with Jake doing almost fuck-all in the progress department. Instead, he spent all this time just relaxing with his family, doing a variety of activities. He watched pretty bad TV shows with his dad, went shopping with his mom, and talked with Maja while playing with Adam.

still the Judge of the Court of Shadows,

wasting his time just relaxing with his family. He barely did any alchemy, only when Adam was sleeping – yes, children still had to sleep – or when everyone else was preoccupied. When he did do a bit

of his day, and in some ways, he even felt like a moment of downtime

Jake didn’t help Caleb with any kind of presence-resistance training either. Partly because Caleb didn’t want to go with Jake and do it, taking them both away from spending quality family time. Jake wasn’t complaining either, as he was totally fine, not

anymore, and many of the usual woes of children were no longer a factor. Kids were also a lot more durable. Adam could climb a dozen meters up into a tree and just jump down without any issues,

that it's taken without

the problem. Still, Maja was very protective at times. As an example, she rejected Jake and

a scolding afterward, even

could from that entire part of his life. It was a nice reprieve for sure, and he had

he was sitting with Adam playing with stable arcane mana constructs, Jake making whatever shape Adam wanted to see, he

contact him for them to begin their own little adventure. He had expected this to only take a few days, but as mentioned, it ended up taking more than two weeks, with Arnold definitely

the sounds of it, when Jake talked to the worm later, Sandy only left because the scientist had run out of snacks the worm’s dietitian approved of. While the dietitian couldn’t go out of Sandy’s stomach, he could check

with what he had gathered from the spaceship Jake had been gifted during his Chosen Ceremony and what he already knew from researching the ruined

like he was primarily working on improving his satellites before making any ships designed for travel. Plus, knowing Arnold, he would definitely want to do a lot of testing first to make sure he got things right the first

a living spaceship

had sent to Jake as they headed off from Haven, which also marked the end of his family visit. “Should be there in a

the right term? Not

term is wriggling. What else would it be? I am wriggling, after

as he looked at his family, who had noticed his change

time for you to head off?” Caleb asked, having realized pretty

nodded

leaving?” Adam asked,

Jake smiled as he ruffled the little guy’s

going?” his nephew

as he pointed upwards. “To the

Jake’s mom scolded him. “You shouldn’t just make up

a deadpan look. “I’m

rocket ship?”

something even better,” Jake

also wasn’t joking with this one, making Jake’s dad chuckle. Adam

“You don’t believe me?”

didn’t answer but looked at his mom as if he

I won’t let you meet the big space worm,” Jake said, acting offended

not like he had much of a choice because if he knew Sandy, the worm would have absolutely no sense of caution or forethought with how they would approach Jake. He was also sure Sandy would

remember that Jake carried around a weird rock-egg-thing Sandy had given him, which was apparently the result of the skill Sandy had gained upon receiving the True Blessing of the

weird item allowed Sandy to always be aware

chaotic manner as Jake expected. With little warning, a hundred-meter-long giant space worm fell from the sky, landing right in the middle of the road outside, barely missing any of the houses, though definitely doing plenty of

ran outside the

he ran forward, Maja going to grab him

little human! And other humans that are also little, but not as little!” Sandy said in a cheerful tone. “Also, did I stick that landing or not,

walked forward and introduced the worm. “This is Sandy, everyone. A friend of mine and my travel companion for my upcoming

the very mode of transportation itself!” Sandy

you gonna ride the big worm?”