Primal Hunter Volume 7

Back in the Laboratory

Flying on the Sandy Express was definitely faster than riding the Jake Carriage, even if Sandy wasn’t in top form. After only about a day, they returned to Earth, where Sandy dropped off Jake at Skyggen before heading back to the Order. Jake did end up asking how Sandy even traveled back and forth, as he usually had to use his connection to Villy when teleporting, and the answer was as obvious as it could be. The teleportation circle made by those snakes had just been altered a bit to allow Snappy to do the same thing the Viper did.

With Jake and Sandy split up once more, Jake made a quick visit to his family, who were all surprised to see him back so soon. Luckily, the moon being haunted was a universally good explanation for why he hadn’t wanted to stick around there. It did have the slight downside of Adam being very suspicious of the pretty rock Jake had brought back, and it took a lot of effort to convince him that particular rock wasn’t haunted.

Jake ended up staying in Skyggen for another day before he decided to head back to Haven. This time around, he didn’t have any stops on the way, so he just took the teleportation circle back. Honestly, the best new thing Jake had gained during all his time in Nevermore was definitely the Unseen Hunter skill, as it allowed him to travel around without being bothered by anyone. He could even take public teleporters and stuff without a whole crowd gathering to stare at him.

Plus, he could skip queues. A bit unethical, but a perk of being invisible for sure.

As Jake had already discussed with Sandy, he truly didn’t have plans set in stone. Yet it felt like he didn’t really need any plans either, as the Prima Guardian stuff was right around the corner. Having spent fifty years in Nevermore had changed his perspective on time quite a lot, and now a two-year wait was barely worth mentioning. It was a few good alchemy sessions at most.

Once back in Haven, Jake started out by quickly stopping by Arnold’s place. The man wasn’t surprised when Jake came at all, clearly able to see through his stealth skill. Truly, further proof Perception was the best stat.

“Hey there,” Jake said after he was let in and joined the scientist in his workshop. As always, Arnold was working on stuff Jake didn’t at all understand, but a lot of it seemed focused around space exploration stuff. Jake got the feeling this was the topic the guy obsessed the most over these days.

“My satellites spotted you returning from space. Did you arrive on the moon safely?” Arnold asked with a genuinely curious tone.

“Well, we did arrive safely…” Jake scratched the back of his head. “Can’t say it ended well, though.”

Arnold raised an eyebrow, clearly communicating he wanted Jake to elaborate. So Jake did. He told Arnold everything that had happened on the moon, including the presence of the Ghostvine and how Sandy believed the B-grade had merged with the core. Likely irreversibly so. He also included his future plans.

“Hm,” Arnold said after thinking for a bit. “If this was before the arrival of the system, I would call anyone wanting to destroy the moon someone aiming to doom this planet and humanity. Now, I am not even certain the gravitational forces applied to us by the moon have any tangible effects, nor that there will be any noticeable fallout should the moon cease to exist.”

“I kind of assumed you would have told me trying to blow up the moon was a bad idea,” Jake muttered.

“I have no attachment to the celestial object. Meanwhile, I can see the risks associated with an antagonistic, instinct-driven, planet-sized plant living this close. Especially one that seems to carry an innate hatred for life. Getting rid of, or containing it, might be a necessity, not a matter of your vanity.” Arnold, it seemed, was fully on board with Jake’s brilliant plan.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a bomb capable of blowing it up lying around, would you?” Jake asked.

“No,” Arnold said, shaking his head. “I will not be able to make one before B-grade, either.”

The way he said it made it clear the guy had already very much considered the limits of how destructive he could make his bombs. Jake wasn’t sure if that should make him worried, but he decided not to be. Just to make a small mental note to not piss off the guy unnecessarily.

“Do you still have the Blackpoint Nanoblade Katar?” Arnold asked after a bit, changing the topic entirely.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I do.” Jake nodded, surprised, as he took out the weapon and quickly checked it out.

[Blackpoint Nanoblade Katar (Ancient)] – A katar with a nanoblade made of a composite alloy formed into an ultra-thin blade. The blade itself can cut most materials effortlessly, but has little to no effectiveness against magical wards or defenses when not infused with mana. The tip of the blade appears to have been touched by the void. A coating on the blade allows it to have an incredibly high level of mana conductivity and handle most types of mana. The handle contains a series of energy cores capable of storing mana of any affinity. This stored energy can all be released at once through the tip of the Nanoblade.

Enchantments: Extreme Conductivity. Blackpoint Burst.

Requirements: Lvl 200+ in any humanoid race

“Did it serve you well during Nevermore, or did you switch to another weapon?” the scientist asked as he took the katar from Jake without even asking.

“I used it all throughout,” Jake said. “I even had it repaired… three times? All done through system stuff or on city floors. It did a good job, but—and don’t take this the wrong way—it did fall off quite a lot toward the end. Especially the Blackpoint Burst was barely worth using anymore, as I could, in many cases, do more damage without it, and the slight wind-up time made it difficult to even land. But the katar as a whole was still damn sharp and did its job the whole time.”

Jake had genuinely liked the weapon. It was a real stabber. When he first entered Nevermore, it had been sharper than even Eternal Hunger, though by now, there was a vast gulf between the two weapons, with the mythical Eternal Hunger having far surpassed the Nanoblade in every area. Not surprising, considering the weapon constantly grew as Jake killed more enemies and fed it more souls.

“That’s only to be expected,” Arnold said as he inspected the weapon, finding quite a few chinks in it from the many years of use. “Do you need it currently, or may I have it back for a time?”

“You’re gonna upgrade it again?” Jake said with a big smile.

Arnold shook his head. “No, I’m going to melt it down and make an entirely new one. The methods used during this one’s creation process aren’t up to par anymore. However, I shall analyze its Records for use in the creation of the new katar.”

“Fair enough,” Jake said, nodding. “I would be more than happy to get a weapon upgrade before the Prima arrives. Do you need any payment, or…?”

“I already owe you for the Automaton Spaceship,” Arnold said as he pointed and made a wall see-through, revealing the giant spaceship and the robot arms poking it all over, doing science stuff. Jake had naturally already seen it in his sphere, but observing it with his eyes was still impressive.

Jake smiled. “In that case, thanks in advance. I’ll be in Haven for the most part should you need to contact me for anything.”

“Very well,” Arnold said with a nod.

Having nothing more to talk about, Jake headed out and back to his little lodge. He was still impressed by how utterly massive Haven had become, and it was honestly to the level where it made him a bit uncomfortable. One thing was for sure: it was good Miranda was the person actually in charge of everything and not him.

Returning to his lodge, Jake didn’t wait before heading down to the alchemy lab in the cellar. The last time he was there, he hadn’t really checked out every room, but this time he did. One room he had remembered was the basin room or whatever it was called. It was a room with a lot of different basins that Jake had planned to use for making and storing various liquids in large quantities.

He hadn’t ever really used it, but now he believed it would be perfect because he knew what he wanted to spend the next two or so years working on:

Acids.

Jake had only begun to touch upon them during the House of the Architect and realized how well his arcane affinity synergized with that particular branch of alchemy. It would be a waste not to explore it further. The large basin room, with several square basins sectioned off by glass walls, would be a perfect place to test things out and store different acids.

This was one of the contraptions Hank had proudly shown off during his tour of the place after Jake came back from the Treasure Hunt. Arnold had helped make it with the glass walls and stuff, and those glass walls were honestly perfect. They meant Jake only had to put down a glass bottom on every basin, and he would have perfect containers for acids.

As of right now, not all of the different sections were raised, but a few were, and one of them even had water inside it. That was when Jake remembered what he’d done when he was here way back then. Checking out this particular section, Jake saw a stone lying at the bottom of the water. He smiled and shook his head.

[Dewstone of Serenity (Legendary)] – A small stone created by the combined effort of a group of water nymphs to help heal a close friend. This stone was eventually acquired by a powerful vampire and brought to Yalsten, where it has been ever since. Will passively transform surrounding water by infusing the power of serenity into it. Effect lessens, and transformation process becomes slower the larger the pool of water. Has many alchemical uses.

“Yeah, I had completely forgotten about that,” Jake said to himself as he also checked the water itself.

[Concentrated Serene Water (Epic)] – This water calms the mind of anyone who consumes it, allowing them to more easily focus while suppressing the effects of most mental afflictions. Will restore a bit of mana, health points, and stamina upon consumption. Continued consumption will help heal some soul injuries. Has many alchemical uses.

“And I’m pretty sure that was only rare rarity before,” Jake continued muttering. “I guess it grew more potent over time, hence the ‘concentrated’ tag.”

This was a nice little pleasant surprise that really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all, but Jake blamed the way the system improved memory. You had to think about something to remember it, and Jake sucked at thinking about stuff not related to his immediate surroundings or current situation.

“Hm, maybe I should clean up my spatial storage at some point,” Jake said to himself before quickly dismissing the idea. That sounded way too much like work. Better to just leave everything in there till he randomly remembered something. It wasn’t as if he had anything important stored away that he should really be remembering, right? Yeah, definitely not.

After inspecting the basin room and taking a swig of the Serene Water for fun, Jake finally went to the large glass bubble serving as the main lab. Inside, things were as pristine as ever, and he was happy to be back in the laboratory. Thus, he gladly sat down and got to work, as it was time to finally make some proper acids.

Well, more proper acids than what he’d made in the House of the Architect, anyway.

“Thank you for your assistance, Miss,” the big man said.

“Ree,” the noble bird answered.

“The upper layers of the sky are difficult to cover, especially as many of the more powerful beings are nomadic in nature and rarely stick to a single area for long,” the big man that Sylphie knew as the Whaleman continued.

“Ree?”

Whaleman shook his head. “Even if I am a Sky Whale, I cannot cover the entire sky on my own, and I am still more of an aquatic animal than an aerial one.”

After Sylphie returned to Earth, the bird really hadn’t known what she wanted to do. So, the first thing she’d done was find her parents, whom she hadn’t seen in a very long time. In the process, she’d run into Whaleman, who knew a lot of stuff and helped track them down. The wind had also helped a lot when she got closer. After Sylphie had gotten that Authority skill, the whispers of the wind had become even clearer than before, and sometimes even offered hints without Sylphie asking, so that was nice.

Reuniting with Mom and Dad had been nice. Both of them were getting close to becoming big and strong C-grades like Sylphie. It was a bit slow, in Sylphie’s opinion, but Sylphie did know that Sylphie was awesome, so maybe Mom and Dad were just more normal? No, they were definitely better than normal. They were her Mom and Dad, after all.

Sylphie ended up spending about three days flying around with them before they split up again. She was too strong to help her parents in battle, and the two hunted best as a pair. They did have a good time together, but they also all had their own things to do. One thing was for sure: her parents were happy Sylphie was doing well, which made Sylphie happy, and she hoped that her parents would also do well.

With the reunion done, Sylphie had flown back to Whaleman, who was hard at work preparing for when the big boss called a Prima Guardian arrived. He was doing that by ensuring the many powerful beasts spread across the planet wouldn’t become too big of a problem: They had to be either killed, made into allies, or pacified through special contract magic stuff the Whaleman could do. Something with him being blessed by a guy called Karroch.

Sylphie, being the best bird she was, had volunteered to help Whaleman do stuff. She was super fast and good at finding strong bad guys, and she was also super good at negotiating! Plus, she was strong enough to do stuff only Whaleman or the Whaleman’s most powerful allies could do. Whaleman was very convincing when he appeared… because Sylphie was pretty sure Whaleman was one of the highest-leveled, if not the highest-leveled, creatures on the planet.

[Sky Whale – lvl 333]

Also, even if Whaleman was strong… Sylphie wasn’t afraid, because Sylphie was also strong.

“Can you handle this area and scout it? It’s rather large, but I believe you are more than capable,” Whaleman asked, recognizing Sylphie’s greatness. “The Crimsonfang Darkbat Lord was last seen in the area east of here, and with its trajectory, we believe this is where It’ll be. Also, if it proves too strong, feel free to⁠—”

“Ree,” Sylphie interrupted.

“Right, you know,” Whaleman said, nodding. “Just be careful, alright? I wouldn’t want to face Lord Thayne if anything happens to you.”

Sylphie nodded, understanding him perfectly, and then offered some words of warning. “Ree, ree.”

After a pause, Whaleman asked, “Why would he hit me with a cauldron that smells?”

“Ree…” Sylphie shook her head as she took off to find the bad-guy bat, leaving Whaleman behind to mutter again by himself.

“I guess you’re right… I wouldn’t want to find out…”