The Primal Hunter

He briefly reflected on the battle between the Sword Saint and his brother but quickly shook his head as he got to work. There was loot to categorize, and when he got the message about the Auction a moment later, he naturally also added that on his to-do list.

Just as he was exiting the office, someone else slammed the door open, surprising Caleb as he saw one of the workers there.

“Judge! Hurry, we had an invader, and something is going on at your home!”

Caleb stopped for a moment as he let the words sink in. Without any hesitation, he activated a skill as his body turned to lightning, not even giving a chance for his aide to elaborate on the situation.

He flew through the city for a few moments before his residence came into view. He saw it surrounded by people, including some of the recently returned D-grades. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he slammed down in front of them all as he turned corporeal.

Pushing past the people around, he saw that they were taking a defensive perimeter. The situation was tense, but when he saw his wife holding his son while standing with some of the guards, Caleb breathed out a sigh of relief as he hurried over.

“Maja, what happened!?” he said loudly as soon as he was within earshot, running over to her.

She looked calmer than he expected with all the commotion, and when she saw him, she just shook her head. “I already told them everything is fine, and they’re just overreacting.”

“Ma’am, an intruder managed to break through all the barriers and enter the residence without being detected…” one of the guards beside her said.

“And he didn’t do anything besides talking once he did,” Maja countered.

“Give me a rundown,” Caleb ordered the guard.

“Sir, approximately two hours ago, an individual managed to sneak into the city and get through the barrier around the residence and entered without being detected. We only became aware when he triggered an alarm on the way out, and guards are currently in pursuit, joined by Matteo and Nadia,” the guard quickly answered.

Caleb frowned as he considered it. Someone had purposefully waited for the Treasure Hunt to enter, and based on his ability to sneak in had to be D-grade at least, so he chose not to join it on purpose. Who the hell?

“What did he want?” he asked his wife.

“Just to talk, he wanted information about you and Jake. Just regular stuff… like who you were and what you did before the system. He even asked questions about you two growing up, and it didn’t feel malicious in any way,” she explained with a shrug.

“Who was he? Did you get a name?”

“Just a young man. Now that I think about it, he never gave a name. He said he was friends with Jake and knew quite a lot about him, he even told me about Jake’s tutorial, and it was pleasant enough. Debra and Robert didn’t even consider not answering as we all assumed he had gotten in with permission with a proven identity. And again, nothing seemed weird, just an old friend of Jake who had gotten split from him after the tutorial and wanted to get to know him and you better,” she kept explaining. “It was only once he left we figured out something was wrong as he tripped the alarm, and then all hell broke loose. That was fifteen minutes ago or so.”

Caleb’s frown deepened as the entire situation was just too damn weird. The alarm when exiting was far easier to avoid when getting in. Why sneak in, to begin with, if he didn’t do so with bad intentions? Much less clearly purposefully trigger the alarm when he left.

“Where are mom and dad?” he asked

“Just inside, I decided to go out and handle it,” Maja answered as she held the sleeping baby. “I don’t really think any of this is a big deal?”

Nodding, Caleb considered her words as he turned to the guard. “What direction did they leave in?”

The guard made it easier than a mere direction by giving him a locator for Matteo.

“Maja, go inside and wait, okay? I’ll check it out,” Caleb said as he gave her a hug.

“Okay, please don’t get into any unnecessary fights; he didn’t seem like a bad person,” Maja answered.

“Of course.”

With that, Caleb took flight again as he turned to black lightning and followed the locator towards Matteo. His head was filled with potential scenarios, none of them quite making sense. Was it the Holy Church? It was a possibility as he was never quite sure what they were doing. It had to be someone powerful, not just in infiltration but also mental magic… because Maja sure as hell wasn’t acting normally for just having had someone break into their home.

Was it the undead? No… no, Maja would have noticed even with the mental influence. Valhal? Why would they? Also, using mental magic was not in their MO. An independent faction? Did they even have anyone strong enough to break in? Honestly, Caleb was lost for possibilities. Unless it was an inside job, it was hard to determine who it could be, and even then, he would know of someone with such skills.

I guess I will have to investigate directly.

He soared across the terrain and the settlement built within the hidden valley, seeing the evergrowing city. Soon, he was outside the border, and he kept flying onwards as he felt himself get closer and closer to where Matteo and the others were.

It only took him ten or so minutes before he spotted something in the distance, and what he saw wasn’t what he expected. He saw a large cube of silver-like metal. Matteo somewhere within.

Without any hesitation, Caleb summoned his staff, and he smashed down onto the cube, breaking the roof as he hit the ground within. Orienting himself, his eyes opened wide as he saw Nadia and a dozen or so other assassins all lying on the ground. Some were missing limbs and covered in blood. Some turned partially to metal, and in the center, a single armored figure holding the passed out Matteo.

“You got here faster than expected,” he heard the armored figure say as he let down Matteo’s unconscious body.

Caleb did a quick check and found not a single one of the assassins were dead. Who the fuck?

He tried to use Identify but got a somewhat expected response.

[Human – lvl ?]

A skill to obscure it.

Caleb took a defensive position as he didn’t underestimate the person before him as he asked: “Who are you, and why are you here? What the hell do you want with my family?”

The person just regarded him as he spoke: “You two look a lot alike, and even your demeanors are similar. Seeing you, it makes more sense as I was beginning to doubt Debra and Robert were truly his parents. I do wonder how such regular people can give birth to you two… but I guess it is related to the Bloodline?”

Frowning, Caleb listened as he worked his identification skill to pierce the other guy’s obfuscation skill. He managed to after a while and was shocked when he saw the level.

[Human – lvl 172]

How the hell, Caleb thought as he began formulating a plan to retreat. But he also had an idea who the person in front of him was.

“You must be William.”

Caleb just didn’t see any other possibilities, and when the armor of the person in front of him retracted, he got his suspicions confirmed as he saw the man appear. But he looked slightly different than what Caleb had heard. He was supposed to be a teenager, but he was clearly older by at least a few years.

“Well, at least you know my name… your brother didn’t the last time we met,” William answered calmly. “I guess you are the one who inherited all the intelligence points, huh?”

“Why are you here?” Caleb cut to the chase, not wanting to bicker meaninglessly. Another reason was due to the constant influence he felt. Some kind of mental skill was slowly attempting to bore into his mind, so the longer he spent, the more dangerous it would become.

“Wow, both of you somehow managed to develop such rudeness despite having two perfectly polite parents. As for why I am here? Master always talks about how information is the true path to victory and the best way to overcome gaps. So I am gathering intelligence,” William answered with a smile. “I must admit, it was more pleasant than expected. It turns out that having non-shitty parents does a lot for a kid’s development, allowing even a freak like your brother to learn how to function within a civilized society.”

Frowning, Caleb felt more and more unsure about the entire situation. For the disciple of Eversmile to show up like this was clearly no coincidence, much less the timing. He had somehow known when the Treasure Hunt would end, timed it, so he left just before Caleb returned and then baited him to follow. It was a trap he had walked straight into, but he had no idea what the purpose of the trap was quite yet. So instead, he tried to probe for information.

“My brother has always been a bit special, but I don’t think he was ever quite a basket-case like you. I do wonder, how did you manage to find a way out of our universe this fast? Much less spend all your potential time in D-grade within Nevermore?” Caleb asked.

Off-world teleportation was something the forces of Earth were all working on to connect with their factions in other universes. While they could not offer much assistance, it would give the inhabitants access to areas and opportunities elsewhere. Such as where William had clearly been based on his aged appearance: Nevermore. It was the only dungeon Caleb was aware of with built-in time dilation without any negative consequences, besides the limited amount of time one could spend there per grade. Based on Caleb’s estimates and his aged appearance, William had to have spent a few years in Nevermore to get to his current level.

But, even if he could leave and go to Nevermore… why do it? He had not attended the World Congress, which one could argue wasn’t really missing much, but the Treasure Hunt? It gave a title that was massive by multiverse standards, and, of course, it was a lot of loot lost just to do something anyone could do anyway once they found a way to other universes. So why would Eversmile make William do that, or if it was William’s own idea, allow him to?

One thing had to be clear, traveling to another universe wasn’t actually that hard. Well, it was, but it only had to be for one side – either the receiver or sender. This meant the other side could soak all the cost of bringing someone from the 93rd universe and doing the same when sending them back. All you needed was someone sufficiently skilled to put down the transfer formation on Earth, which a talented mid-tier D-grade space mage should be capable of.

“I have my means and my reasons. So does my master. But enough about me… I am not here to fight, as if I was, everyone around us would be dead. We would also already be in the midst of it – if you wouldn’t be dead already, that is,” William answered nonchalantly,Caleb, annoyingly so, was unable to dispute it. While he did believe he could escape… the level gap was too high for him to want to risk anything.

“Not here,” Caleb answered. He still didn’t rule out it could lead to a fight, and fighting with his unconscious allies around him wouldn’t be wise. Also… he had already sent back an emergency message to Skyggen, making his family go to a safe house, so he needed to buy at least a bit more time. Assistance was also coming, but not to fight. They would not be helpful, and he only called them to retrieve the injured.

Smiling, William happily agreed as the metal cube surrounding them folded up and shrank as the caster absorbed it into his body.

The moment it did, Caleb’s eyes opened wide as he finally detected them. All around him, a net of thousands of strings of wires unraveled as William absorbed them too, Caleb only now becoming fully aware of how much of a trap he had just entered.

“Let’s go then,” Caleb said, faking being unfazed as he headed off directly away from the city, William following after.

While William clearly wanted information off Caleb, Caleb would also try and use this chance to figure out what the hell William had been doing. Most importantly, who had managed to make a teleportation circle able to transport out of their universe ahead of any of the major forces. The fact that he didn’t know about it also meant the Court of Shadows didn’t know… and while it was incredibly difficult for the gods to peer into their universe, the fact that no one had known had to mean it was the Primordial who had blessed William that was ultimately behind it.

Now, the only question was if William was a player in the game of his master or just another pawn thinking he was.

Present day

Four entire fucking days was how long Jake spent just zooming through the terrain as he traveled faster than two commercial planes stacked on top of each other – with better fuel efficiency too, and way less carbon emission.

Since the start of the tutorial, this had been the most boring period with seriously nothing interesting happening. Jake felt bad about nagging Villy, so he didn’t want to constantly ask him about stuff, and while Sylphie was interesting to communicate with, it had to be done in small doses.

Additionally, the King sleeping in the mask was a real lazy one, not waking up a single time during this period no matter how much he poked it. Or maybe he was just being ignored. Either way, it sucked.

But! Finally, he noticed that the compass seemed to move more back and forth whenever he didn’t run in a straight line, indicating he was getting close. And it truly was about time.

For these four days, Jake had not had a single good fight. He had had a few scuffles with beasts, but all of them either got out of his way or weren’t strong enough to put up a good fight. It had been mostly flat land between Haven and Skyggen, and the few mountain chains, forests, or large lakes he came across could either fly over or just run through. Well, he did dodge a single especially large mountain as it quite frankly would take too long to try and get over. Jake had really wanted to explore it but had held himself back.

Anyway, to summarize, Jake had found at least a few interesting places to explore if he had to run back to Haven again or just wanted to go on a bit of an adventure someday.

A few more hours passed before Jake finally saw something far in the distance. It was night by now, and he saw faint lights on the horizon. He sped up as he finally felt his journey be near its end, and he promised himself to next time ask about how long there actually was. Though to be fair… chances are Neil hadn’t known.

With a final push, Jake came over a hill as the city finally came into view. It was a large settlement, even larger than the Fort by a great deal, and Jake had to admit he was impressed so much had been built in such a short amount of time.

The entire city was placed on the plains with a large mountainside to the east and a wall surrounding it. Jake headed down, but when he got closer, he felt like something was off.

Courtesy of his Bloodline, Jake always had a good general feeling about the overall aura of an area. He could get a rough estimate for how powerful the people or beasts were, and when he was close to Skyggen, it just felt too weak. Sure, there were some D-grades, but far from as many, as he would assume.

Frowning, he still naturally headed over as he double-checked the compass was still pointing directly to somewhere in the city. So he was going in no matter what.

Now the only question was… should he sneak in or use the front gate?