Jake hummed as he finished up another batch of elixirs. It had been a few days since he got the new skill and the Pride upgrade, and he had spent this time practicing that skill and doing alchemy. He hadn’t used that teaching skill at all. Mainly because he hadn’t spoken to or interacted with anyone.His practice with Pride of the Malefic Viper had been pretty simple. Infusing his presence with mana came naturally to him due to the instinctive knowledge from the skill, and the effect was quite prominent. He felt like everything around him became more familiar to him when he did it, and summoning magic around him became far more effortless. Shit, he could make more Arcane Bolts than ever while having the presence active.There was one minor issue, though. It drained Jake’s mana pool at crazy speeds. It was like a turbo-charged version of Limit Break, but for mana. Well, maybe it was nearly exactly like Limit Break? Limit Break improved him internally, and infusing his presence increase

Jake felt a lot better as he stared at the downed Goldsun Eagle Prima before him. The eagle’s one wing lay on the ground beside it, and its radiant feathers were now no longer glowing. He had called for the birds to come and finish it off, as quite frankly, Jake had no desire to.He hadn’t enjoyed the fight at all, only the purpose behind it. The Eagle Prima hadn’t been powerful enough for him to feel challenged, and this was the kind of fight he would usually try to avoid or finish as fast as possible. However, he felt this wasn’t his decision to make. It wasn’t his kill to claim.If Jake turned around and left now, the Eagle Prima would live. It was already slowly healing while under the sunlight, and he had purposefully not used a lot of poison. He wanted to leave the hawks a choice: to kill the eagle or leave it alive. That’s what he would have wanted himself—a chance to come back at a later date for a rematch.However, he knew this mindset wasn’t exactly considered normal, so he

Jake felt it before he saw her. A new presence emerged a split second before she was fully back. A small bird appeared back on top of his head, having shifted from a sitting to a standing position."Welcome back, Sylphie," Jake said with a smile as he inspected the hawk.[Sylphian Eyas – lvl 100]Well, okay, not a hawk but an eyas, I guess. Level 100 and still a little kid, heh, Jake thought, chuckling internally.Hawkie and Mystie also jumped over, and he ended up sitting surrounded by the two hawks as they both inspected and made bird noises at their daughter. Jake kept smiling as she happily narrated something, and both of them kept making questioning screeches. While Jake was okay-ish at speaking bird, he wasn’t fluent at all, so much of their conversation was lost on him. He could only really read intent and emotions.Jake waited for them to finish, trying to piece together what it had been about. Luckily, he didn’t have to, as someone else clued him in."So, I went ahead and got

Trying to explain to two anxious hawks that their daughter was just relaxing with a Primordial that also happened to be a living natural disaster wasn’t the easiest. They seemed more than a bit worried, but Jake kept assuring them it would all be fine. It did help that Sylphie was still on top of his head, looking to be asleep.Anyway, the two of them got the gist of it quite quickly and overall seemed to approve of the entire situation, even if it wasn’t optimal. They did get that Jake and Sylphie had now "solidified" their relationship, which appeared to be the most important aspect to them. In the end, they waited in silence for Sylphie to also wake up.Jake himself had a few other things he had to go through during this wait, so the silence was welcome. One of which was a notification—or rather, notifications. Ones he had gotten during his time in the space with Stormild, but hadn’t yet checked, as he knew what they were about. They were the most random levels Jake could remember

While Jake was working on his elixirs in a trance-like state, everyone else around the globe also progressed. Parties dove in dungeons, hunted down more and more powerful beasts, and crafted items more potent than anything they had ever created before.Every single day, more D-grades appeared. In these last two weeks, the daily rate of advancement had easily reached the triple digits. At this point, Neil and his party had also all managed to reach D-grade and begun hunting as a group to get in a few more levels.Sultan had spent fewer days within Haven, but had gone hunting with the one remaining slave who remained under his charge to get some more levels in too. Miranda had taken charge of the other, and she would also join the Treasure Hunt.There was some bad news, though.Miranda was in her office in Haven, Phillip in front of her, sitting slumped over on a chair."I guess I’m just not really that up to it anymore," Phillip said as he sighed.Miranda also sighed as she sat togethe