Jake was a moment too late when Arnold was attacked. The man had stayed a reasonable distance away and even applied some stealth field around himself during the fight, but when the Prima Guardian—which Jake could barely believe was still able to move around so fast—teleported behind him, the man hadn’t been able to react before the blade fell.For a brief moment, Jake was filled with panic as he saw the scientist get cleaved in two… until the sky exploded, bathed in a blue blast of fire and electricity. Jake momentarily saw a spark before the explosion, as the inside of Arnold’s body did not have any flesh and blood to be seen. Instead, it had apparently all been explosives.“What the hell just happened!?” Carmen yelled through her Golden Mark.“I just felt the Mark upon the mechanic disappear,” the Fallen King responded before Jake quickly clarified the situation.“It was a robot of some kind; I would assume the real Arnold is fine,” Jake said as he shot out a barrage of arrows almos

The world around Jake began to fade, all concepts in his surroundings breaking down into nothingness, and he shot after the Guardian. When using Wings of the Malefic Viper’s escape function, he couldn’t really do more than change the general direction he was going in, as he sacrificed all accuracy for pure speed and the ability to break through layers of space and anything else that might impede him.However, this time, he wasn’t just traveling randomly. Instead, he was in hot pursuit of the Prima Guardian, homing in on the Mark he had left on it. He felt it ahead of him, with the exact distance impossible to determine due to how the skill worked. However, he wasn’t willing to disengage his own use of Wings before he knew the Guardian had also stopped.This proved… difficult. Jake was already beaten and battered, and as he chased the Prima Guardian, he felt his wings getting burned away, running out of energy. They were taking the brunt of everything, and it was clear the chimera’s wi

Most of the time, Jake felt like skill selections only really had one, maybe two valid options. Other times, none of the skills were any good, such as Jake’s last skill selection for his class where he had gone back to pick Penetrating Arrow. Sure, the skill he had gained was great, but he had only chosen it because nothing better had been offered.However… this time around, Jake didn’t find himself with a typical list. He didn’t instantly see three options he wanted to write off. Instead, he saw a list of five pretty fucking awesome skills, all of high rarity and all with their own great aspects.To set the stage, the very first skill offered was ancient rarity and looked incredibly useful.[Disruptive Arrow of Arcane Shadows (Ancient)] – With a single arrow, cover the skies in arcane shadows as you fade into nothingness. Allows the Hunter to shoot an arrow infused with arcane shadow energy, creating a large cloud of arcane shadows upon destruction. This arcane shadow cloud will obsc

Likely due to the passive nature of the Lone Hunter, Jake didn’t really feel any different after getting it. He considered testing out the one aspect he could right now—the improved effectiveness of stealth—but he reckoned there would come a better time after returning to Earth. Right now, all it could potentially do was make it harder for Sandy to find him. Besides, there would definitely be many chances for Lone Huntering around during what was to come with the Prima Guardian Alliance.As Jake had felt, Sandy appeared not long after, popping out of what looked like a hole in space. Jake regarded the worm, and once more, he could only be happy to have a living spaceship available. Otherwise, it would have taken an annoyingly long time to fly back to Earth, especially with his Wings of the Malefic Viper unavailable.“Couldn’t even have begun flying to meet me halfway?” the giant space worm asked in an admonishing tone.“Shouldn’t expect an injured patient to move around too much,” Jak

Back in the Prima Vessel, Jake headed straight for where most of the strike team had already gathered. The barrier that had been sealed not only due to the lack of a key but also surviving Primas now only had the key symbol left, signifying every single Prima was indeed dead.“Good for you to rejoin us,” Caleb said with a smile as he poked the barrier. “Need the Keymaster.”“Eh, does anyone really care about opening it?” Jake asked casually. “It’s just the loot room. Who has time for the loot room?”“Just open the damn thing already,” Carmen said, sighing. “Let’s not act like we’re expecting anything good. The real reward is supposed to come after the system event is fully concluded.”“Who knows, maybe we get a pleasant surprise,” Jake said, walking over and placing a hand on the barrier without delay. The moment he did, it naturally faded away, revealing what looked like a large storeroom. Large and pretty much completely empty.“Unsurprisingly disappointing,” the Sword Saint said, s