The Primal Hunter

Hawkie and Mystie had been busy birds as far as Jake knew. His visits to Haven had just never really intersected with when they visited, and after Sylphie left with him and Carmen, the two hawks bothered visiting even less as they didn’t really have any reason to go.

Instead, they focused on leveling, hunting as a pair in the sky and in the vast forest Haven was on the outskirts of. Jake knew that neither of them were particularly strong for their levels, but they weren’t weak either. He would place them firmly in the mid-to-high-tier level of beast variants, primarily due to Mystie’s unique type of magic and Hawkie’s high striking power. Together they were especially strong with their developed combo-attacks and skills, bringing them firmly in the high-tier category.

Yet, even knowing this, Jake was surprised when he saw them from afar as the two of them waited on a branch just at the entrance to the forest.

[Stormsong Hawk – lvl 178]

[Mystsong Hawk – lvl 176]

You go, mate! Jake thought when he saw Hawkie had surpassed Mystie in level. It did make sense; Mystie was more of a supportive fighter, with Hawkie being the one going in and dealing most of the damage. But, damn, them both having reached such a high level so fast was impressive to him.

Neither of them were living cheats like Jake, Sylphie, or most of the other people around him. They were just kind-of-strong beasts. Well, okay, that wasn’t entirely accurate. They were the parents of Sylphie, and in the same way that Jake’s parents benefitted with Records by being his parents, so did Hawkie and Mystie benefit from Sylphie. Them being friends with Jake also helped them quite a bit, though Jake reckoned their relationship with Sylphie meant more. Then again, Sylphie benefitted a lot by being close to Jake, so he did help quite a bit by proxy?

Anyway, Records were complicated, and even if he helped, it was still their own effort that brought them to high-tier D-grade.

Jake smiled as he saw them and raised a hand to wave. Sylphie remained cradled in his arms, clearly content with not having to move as Jake flew over to her parents.

Mystie looked a bit judging down at her daughter while Hawkie flew down towards him. What looked like a fork of lightning appeared and floated in mid-air in front of Jake as Hawkie landed on it at eye height with Jake.

”Good to see you again, mate,” Jake greeted the hawk. His first monster friend, if you didn’t count the King.

Hawkie simply nodded his head and looked at Jake holding Sylphie.

”Does feel a bit bad to be surpassed by your own daughter, huh?” Jake asked.

To his surprise, Hawkie didn’t agree. Quite the opposite. Jake felt only happiness at how strong Sylphie was, with not a shred of jealousy. This only made Jake smile more. Here’s to healthy family dynamics.

What was the saying… Jake couldn’t remember, but he remembered the gist of it. Celebrate the success of others and mourn their losses. Feeling jealous or angry because someone you proclaimed to care about experienced success was just a sign of you being an egotistical asshole. It was fine to feel a bit miffed, sure, but that should be trumped by the happiness of seeing someone you care about succeed.

”Or maybe not,” Jake corrected himself as he looked down at Sylphie and nuzzled the feathers on her stomach. Like an angry cat, she fought back with her talons, but Jake just grinned as he adeptly dodged them to tickle her. ”She sure has grown, eh?”

”Ree!” Sylphie screeched in agreement as Hawkie just gave a slight nod. Hawkie was as reserved as ever, and Mystie still seemed a bit cautious around Jake even after all this time. At least she seemed happy to stay at a distance and just observe what happened.

”Should we head back?” Jake asked. ”You can tell me what you two have been up to in the meantime. How about you join us too, Mystie?”

He looked up at the hawk with a smile. She quickly relented, not due to Jake, but the wide eyes of Sylphie staring up at her, making her fly down and join them as they slowly made their way through the forest. He already kind of knew what Hawkie and the others had been doing and what they hunted, but it was always good to hear it from the primary source.

The two of them had mainly focused on safe hunts and not biting off more than they could chew. Mystie was damn good at stealth by now, from what he gathered, and allowed them to ambush foes or escape areas with dangerous monsters they could not beat. Jake also came to learn that, apparently, the massive lightning tree in the sky had died several months ago after Hawkie had gone for a round of absorption. That made Jake a bit sad until he heard Sylphie chip in about how there were many more of those trees up in the higher cloud layers where C-grades lived. Bigger ones, too, making Jake wonder where the hell they came from.

With more than one, he could only assume it was some breed of a tree. He had assumed that the massive lightning tree had been the ”main tree” and the smaller crystal trees spread around were its seedlings, but now Jake began to wonder… what if the big one had also just been another seedling itself? Did this mean there was some massive awesome lightning tree somewhere?

Anywho, the two proud hawk parents had explored far more of the forest than anyone else. Jake had already known that C-grades existed deep in the forest, but they had indeed confirmed their presence and how there were a lot of them. Needless to say, Hawkie and Mystie were not equipped to fight C-grades quite yet, even if they had gotten a lot stronger.

They had an enjoyable talk as they made their way back to Haven, Mystie even joining in and adding some information with images made of Myst here and there.

Soon enough, they reached Haven, Jake feeling the many presences within. Everyone had gathered, it seemed, the group now also including Carmen. He did not detect another monster with the King but kind of assumed he had thought of one. Not that it mattered, they could always find this last council member after Jake was World Leader.

Jake waltzed into the main office, still holding Sylphie. However, she seemed to want to keep her dignity as she wrestled herself free and flew up to land on top of his head to prove her dominance. Jake cracked a smile as he entered the room, and everyone looked at him.

”I apologize for my late arrival, but I have to announce a change in plans. Going by hierarchy, it has become clear to me that the true leader of Earth should not be me but the mighty Sylphie,” Jake joked with a wide grin.

”Sold,” Carmen answered with a smirk.

”Wouldn’t it be the same? Not like you plan on actually doing any work,” Miranda shrugged.

”I have no complaints either,” even the Sword Saint chimed in.

The King did not even dignify his joke with a response, while Arthur looked genuinely confused for a few moments before realizing it was just a bad joke.

”Thanks for the support and confidence, everyone,” Jake chuckled as he went to take a seat. Hawkie and Mystie had both chosen to stay outside and had flown towards the good old lodge. Probably to steal his bananas.

“Let us get to work,” Miranda cut in to actually get something done.

”Arthur was just telling us how he has spread the word of our arrangement, and despite quite a bit of pushback, things seem to be on track, with most understanding the nuance of the situation and choosing to support us. During the Congress itself, we should be able to convince the rest by actually displaying a united front,” Miranda explained.

“As for the Noboru Clan, things have mostly calmed down,” the Sword Saint sighed. “There shall at least be no opposition to voting you World Leader.”

“We have claimed more Pylons and expanded, and naturally, all shall vote according to my will,” the King said. “When it comes to this final member of the council, I have attempted to seek out this whale you spoke of, but I ran into an obstacle.”

“Oh?” Jake asked, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

“You asked me to find a sea creature in a vague direction, one living far away in an area filled with C-grades that you expect me to hopelessly search through with a damaged soul,”the King explained very aptly.

“So what you are saying is that you suck at tracking and stealth. Got it. I guess I will just have to call the divine hotline to try and get this whale guy on board. After the Congress, of course,” Jake smiled.

“I congratulate myself for not wasting my time on such a pointless task, then,” the King scoffed before falling silent.

“I guess it’s my turn?” Carmen spoke up after a brief pause. “Eh, those from Valhal will vote for you; at least Sven, that bastard, told me so. He also told me to apologize to you, so I am sorry that Sven and the moronic moron higher-ups fucked up like the morons they are.”

“Apology accepted,” Jake said with a nod. “Partly. Valhal is not getting out of this scot-free, but we can talk about what form of compensation I find agreeable. Quite frankly, it wouldn’t matter if they refused to vote for me anymore, does it?”

“No, it does not,” Miranda confirmed. “Based on my estimates, you sit on well over eighty percent of the total votes. Remember that many of the nobles who are on the fence are only Lords with their one vote while we have all higher-level nobles on our side.”

“See? Even if Valhal decides to be assholes again, we’re good,” Jake said to Carmen.

Carmen looked offended for a moment but then took a deep breath. “I had nothing to do with what they did. I didn’t even hear anything about that orange fuck or that bullshit Alliance before everything had already happened.”

“I know that,” Jake said comfortingly. “But Valhal still needs to pay some kind of recompense. I am sure Sven already predicted this?”

“Probably did,” Carmen answered. “I didn’t really listen to much of what he said after he told me to go apologise. Ask him at the Congress. It is his damn fault for asking me to act as a diplomat like this.”

“Fair enough,” Jake nodded as he turned to Miranda again. “Anything from the Risen at all?”

“No,” Miranda shook her head. “But I did confer with my Patrons, and it appears like they have left Earth for good. Which was, according to them, probably better for everyone involved.”

Jake frowned. “Why?”

“Well… while the Risen do usually go the diplomatic route, the end result is often still the total domination of any planet they operate on, including eventual terraforming. Chances are they would have left by themselves at some point anyway or only left a small outpost at most,” Miranda explained. “At least they would have gone for another planet nearby to make their own and not actually remained on Earth.”

Her explanation reminded him of the final force he wanted to ask about: “What about the Church? They still have some cities, as far as I recall.”

“Kind of?” Miranda said. “It is more just City Lords refusing to accept what happened and still waiting for the Church to call for them. They have fallen one by one in the last month, and only a scarce few remain, all of them in minor settlements of little importance. No, the biggest problem is the refugees from all the major cities, especially Sanctdomo.”

Jake once more nodded, knowing there was quite a refugee crisis going on. If the King had not managed to rein in the monsters and their attacks dying down, things would have gotten far worse. The cities the Church used to own were primarily taken by the United Cities Alliance, with the Noboru Clan and even Valhal managing to snatch up a few.

The meeting continued for a bit longer, but there really wasn’t much to discuss ahead of this World Congress. They didn’t even know what kind of votes would happen besides the one for World Leader, so it was impossible to discuss that. All in all, everything was set, and Jake decided to head back to his lodge to chill with the hawks.

Carmen decided to follow him, something he definitely didn’t complain about. It was good to hear about the adventures of her and Sylphie with actual human words. The fact that neither Mystie, Hawkie, or Sylphie spoke actual words using telepathy or something like that surprised him a bit, but then again, did they have to? The only one Hawkie and Mystie seemed to care about talking to was Jake, and he understood them. And if they didn’t bother learning telepathy, he also doubted they would rush to get human forms.

In fact, it wasn’t that unusual for beasts to never bother getting a human form. A human form had no value for a monster living in the wild and was, in many ways, only a weakness. It also took quite a bit of skill and time to create a usable one, making many lower-tier creatures simply give up and never bother. Then, finally, there was the fact that many beasts saw the human form as inferior and it as a slight to their honor to adopt one for even a second. Villy once told a funny story about why all dragons always chose to retain draconic features in their human form without having to: because they were braggarts who wanted anyone even catching a glimpse of them to still know they were indeed dragons. He didn’t think Mystie and Hawkie were like that, but it was still a toss-up if they bothered to make one when they reached C-grade.

They also had the advantage of their small forms, allowing them to still travel around places built for human-sized individuals. Big beasts not fitting into human-sized houses was by far one of the primary reasons for human forms being such a widely-adopted concept.

As they entered the valley, Jake was thrown out of his thoughts as he saw the two hawks again, having indeed stolen some of his bananas. They were lucky he was in a good mood and couldn’t scold parents in front of their own kid.

“Hey… are you ready to evolve soon?” Carmen asked him after they had gotten into the lodge and settled down at the table.

Jake finally Identified her and saw that at least she was.

[Human – lvl 193]

“Yeah, pretty damn close; I just need some class levels. And I got some stuff I want to finish beforehand,” Jake answered.

“Your class?” Carmen asked with surprise. “I only need levels in my profession… been kind of slow recently. Didn’t really feel like dedicating kills to Valhal or doing any of their bullshit rituals after they lied and tried to screw over my home planet.”

“Fair,” Jake nodded. “But in their defense, I don’t think Valhal actually tried to screw Earth over, and from my understanding, some complicated shit is just going on between a bunch of gods.”

“Why would you bother defending them after just talking about wanting compensation?” Carmen asked with a frown.

Jake just smiled. “I am the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. I know stuff. Secret stuff.”

“Ass,” she shot back.

“I do have one of those, yes,” Jake confirmed with a stupid grin.

“Assho… ah, never mind. So, what the hell have you been up to? I don’t know shit compared to everyone else, it feels like,” Carmen complained.

“Oh man…”

Jake once more narrated what had happened, including everything with Sandy and his journey across the planet. Sylphie and the other hawks stayed for a part of it until all three of them left to have some quality family time terrorizing the local wildlife, leaving just Carmen and Jake back at the lodge.

“Fucking Ell’Hakan. Dude is definitely coming back to make trouble, isn’t he?” Carmen said after Jake was done talking.

“No doubt,” Jake nodded. “Though I don’t know if he will mess with Earth again or just aim for me directly. Maybe a mix of both. Either way, I will handle him later. For now, I got too much other stuff to take care of.”

“I guess,” Carmen said before groaning. “Why does shit have to be complicated? Can’t we just have proper villains who show up and challenge you directly or something like that?”

“That would definitely be preferable,” Jake smiled. “I much prefer when people can just be direct and cut all the bullshit.”

“Agree,” Carmen nodded.

They were both silent for a few seconds before Jake scratched the back of his head. “You know, we got at least a few hours before the World Congress and nothing to do.”

Carmen smiled. “I thought you just said you preferred when people were direct?”

“Other people,” Jake clarified.

“God damn hypocrite,” Carmen laughed before dragging him outside the lodge for a sparring session.

Followed by dragging him back inside for another kind of sparring session.