The Primal Hunter

Time marched on, and even if Jake and the others had returned to Earth, not much had changed besides stability returning to a lot of factions. Arnold’s workshop was once again running non-stop – though, to be fair, it nearly already had during his absence, too – while factions such as the Court of Shadows finally had their Judge and a few elite members back.

Funnily enough, the Court was one of the factions that suffered the most from this stability on the planet. They were, in the end, an assassination organization, so if there was no one hiring assassins, business wasn’t going well. Alas, they were getting by focusing on training and doing hunting jobs of beasts and whatnot, with the occasional job here and there, though it was often nothing consequential, and more often than not, they were hired by the World Council or people related to the Council.

Quite a number of religious leaders and such had been nipped in the bud, but most of them hadn’t been targets worth talking about.

The Fallen King had also found himself a busy Unique Lifeform after returning. It turns out that a supreme tyrant ruling through power doesn’t establish the most stable organization, so after he had been gone for a while, internal competition within the faction he was building had gotten so bad that the Sky Whale had to get involved.

Now that the Fallen King was back, there was a lot to do. Something that actually suited him quite well. During Nevermore, he had few chances to use the aspects of his Path related to being a King, but now that he had a kingdom in ruins, there were ample Records to be reaped from putting everything back together, and he reckoned there were many levels to be gained while awaiting the coming of the Prima Guardian.

Valhal, who had been keeping a mostly low profile after the Ell’Hakan incident, were starting to rear their head a bit after Carmen and other high-ranking members had returned from Nevermore. It wasn’t much, but they had recruited a bit and expanded their influence to some more nearby towns – all with permission, of course.

Arthur, the one doing most of the work for the World Council, was the one who had given permission, which was a big development after he had been so firmly anti-divine factions. But, he began to give a few permission to grow and prosper… while hiring the Court of Shadows to handle those deemed on the harmful side.

Other smaller factions were also simply doing their own thing. As an example, Maria – the follower of Gwyndyr – was busy working on establishing some form of mercenary band of her own, while the Noboru Clan was solidifying their own power on Earth now that the Sword Saint was back.

All in all, Earth had only gotten a tinge more busy after the first batch of Nevermore Attendees returned. Things had slowed down after Miranda and many others left for Nevermore, but now things were at least picking up again, if ever-so-slowly. Moreover, as time passed, the day marking the return of Miranda also grew near, as the planet would soon have all its leaders back to finish the final preparations for the Prima Guardian.

Jake dipped the piece of meat in the clear liquid as he observed what would happen. After a few seconds, nothing happened, and he nodded, satisfied. Then, with his other hand, he raised it, and it began to glow green for a moment.

The second it did, the meat was instantly corroded away. Jake’s hand glowed green again as he lowered the big piece of meat further, it again remaining unharmed. With a bit of telekinesis, he then lifted a metal rod from behind him and dipped that into the liquid, too.

This rod also remained unharmed until Jake had his hand glow for a third time. As Jake wanted to see, the metal was corroded away while the meat remained whole without the slightest trace of damage.

With a big smile, Jake flashed his hand green one final time as he dropped both the meat and metal rod into the liquid and saw both were consumed.

“Pretty damn good,” Jake praised himself as he picked up the big class cube he stored the acid in. It was made to slot perfectly into those sections of the basin he used to store all the different acids Jake had made over the last… definitely over half a year. Jake’s sense of time tended to be quite off, but it seemed about right. It had been less than a year, though. Definitely.

it did come with some pretty severe limitations, such as the limit of only being able to switch “target” once. That was the first thing he

and arcane energy. Upon coming into contact with any energy it has been attuned to corrode, this acid will turn highly destructive but doesn’t react to any other forms of energy. Has an increased ability to intrude into physical objects and corrode the energies within. This acid is significantly more effective against passive environmental energy. This Arcane Acid is highly controllable by its creator and can adapt accordingly when commanded. By default, this acid is in a passive state, where it will not corrode anything, and it will naturally return to this passive state after a while

Jake’s best iteration to date. It was highly malleable, and while it did have some problems, such as not being as effective as the acid he’d made during the Challenge Dungeon yet, due to its

he’d already stored up, but otherwise he’d just popped by the Order of the Malefic Viper real quick to swipe some stuff. It also gave him an excuse to check in with Meira and Irin, who both volounteered to help get some ingredients Jake was

a productive time, and the shift in environment and momentum in his profession after the Challenge Dungeons he

of the Malefic Viper] has reached

…

the Malefic Viper] has reached level 271

reached level 279 - Stat points allocated,

reached level 280 -

not seem like a lot to many, for a mid-tier C-grade like Jake, it kind of was. Especially when one considered Jake was doing the kind of alchemy that usually didn’t give a lot of experience. He would have gained a lot more levels if he’d just only crafted his best Heartrot Poison over and over again while making small improvements. Or, of course, if he’d done

As Jake was considering how he wanted to refine the acid mixture further, the phone-like thing Jake discovered Arnold had installed in his lab at some point went off.

“They’re back from Nevermore.”

Quickly cleaning himself off Jake didn’t wait as he headed to the lodge

Haven had grown into. Further, grown into. It had expanded even further during her time away, which was definitely a good sign. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t expected things to

smiled at Lillian, who stood beside her. The woman wore a white mask covering the upper part of her face that she’d begun to use after evolving to C-grade. The primary cause for this was the fact that during the evolution, she had done away with her scarred face. That she had promptly then shifted to a mask instead was a bit weird, but Miranda wasn’t going to question her

normal to look back fondly

Miranda shook her head. “Any

Lillian answered promptly.

her office the second she returned to swarm her with all the issues that had propped up.

been both a great and a harrowing experience. Miranda had never been an exceptionally skilled fighter. She was more of a prepper. She could set up traps and such, but if she was jumped outside of her

at all. Her party had consisted solely of members of the Order. As she wasn’t trying to compete on any Leaderboards or anything like that, the levels of her party members also hadn’t been limited at all, resulting in one of them being another witch from

usual setup, but it was never a secret the party was put together by the Witches of the Verdant Lagoon to nurture Miranda. In the beginning, the entire

cleared many floors, and Miranda gained quite a few levels. She even spent a bit over five years in the House of the Architect Challenge Dungeon. For reference, as she wasn’t competing on the Leaderboards, there were no Nevermore Points or anything like that to speak of, and the only thing you got for a good

handful of people on Earth could beat her. Pretty much all the people who’d placed well on the Nevermore Leaderboards would be able to defeat her, bar maybe a few who would struggle if their fighting styles