The Primal Hunter

Haven had a lot of land around it. Especially between the Fort and Haven existed a vast plain of nothingness. Jake had originally wanted to have the trolls live in this kind of area but quickly found out that wasn’t a good option.

The Undergrowth Cave Troll clearly didn’t like the vast open space outside of the forest, and Jake could feel its hesitancy. The small trolls were also hugging their parent closely when they got to a more open area, making Jake reevaluate.

They appeared to have something akin to reverse-claustrophobia, something Jake was informed was called agoraphobia by Miranda. With that in mind, they settled on the Cave Troll going back into the cave close to the dungeon entrance. The biodome was pretty large and mostly unoccupied by now, and the troll did seem to like the area. Probably also felt familiar with the passive mana output of the dungeon entrance nearby.

Once the troll was in there, it instantly began making a new cave in the wall, Jake seeing it use some earth magic of some sort to dig. By now, he had also fully confirmed the troll’s mere presence encouraged growth in plant life nearby as if it had a life affinity aura.

Thinking a bit more about it, that was perhaps the reason the troll had been in the dungeon originally – to ensure the growth of plants down there. That, or it was because a life affinity troll just fit well into a life affinity-themed dungeon.

Jake had plans of turning the biodome into a garden, and he proposed this to the others who agreed. He then asked the troll and tried to communicate his intent, and after a bit of gesturing and motioning as well as Sylphie making bird noises, the large troll seemed to get it.

Now, there were some concerns about having a level 149 D-grade chill right below their city, especially as they really didn’t know much about trolls, but so far, it had been perfectly calm around others. Shit, the large troll seemed more afraid of humans than anything, with the small trolls just acting like curious children. A few D-grade workers had even come by and seen the troll. They had waved at it, and the troll had just done a big wave imitating their actions before going back to making the cave.

The next day or so was spent with Jake talking with the troll and beginning to plant some stuff in the biodome. He would primarily place life affinity herbs there, so he had no plans to make it a mushroom-filled place… well, except if it was life affinity mushrooms.

After he had done some initial work and was sure the troll was nicely settled, he went through some other things he needed to get done. Well, and some things he wanted to do, like spend some time with Sylphie and hear about the adventures she and her parents had been on as they explored the forest.

The three of them had really been busy. A lot of Haven seemed to have as the dungeon had finally begun to be used, not just by Miranda and the others, but also Neil and his party, who were still in there. He even heard from Sylphie she and her parents wanted to go in there at some point too.

It was nice to touch base and get a lay of the land of how everyone was doing.

He also talked with Miranda about what he had been up to and his recent adventure, his respect for her ability to hold back judgment improved afterward as he saw her manage to hold in her words when Jake talked about making Eternal Hunger.

She, in turn, told him that his lab was done as of last week, and he was excited to check it out. They still needed his input on furniture, but that wasn’t a rush job. He was also told to go check out an area at the Fort where Chris, that guy Villy had blessed as a semi-joke, had done something and asked for Jake’s presence. Miranda emphasized how he hadn’t wanted to hurry him but that he still clearly wanted Jake’s presence there soon.

He then talked to Sultan about getting his Altmar Cauldron of Supreme Simplicity fixed, but the man was clueless and did not possess any wares that would be of help. A bit disappointed, Jake just handed Sultan payment for getting the troll out of the dungeon and reimbursed the materials he had spent to make it possible.

Anyway, with Sultan not able to find a solution to fix his cauldron, Jake did the only other logical thing: he went over to the Fort to ask Arnold. At the same time, he could check out what Chris had been up to.

With a teleportation circle getting to the Fort was only a matter of seconds. When he passed through it, he went straight for Arnold’s workshop, which had once more expanded as the man had taken over the entire citadel and courtyard at the center of the Fort. A metal dome now covered all of it, and the magic circle once placed within the citadel had been moved just outside into a new building designed to house teleportation circles.

When he went to enter the dome covering the workshop, hexagonal metal panels just slid away to give him entrance. To see how it worked, he moved upwards and saw the hole in the metal following him as he felt a subtle pulse of mana touch him. Some kind of scanner and malleable metal?

Once more, Jake had to admit that Arnold was some weird mad genius with all of the shit he was up to at all times. Inside the dome, it looked much the same except everything was more well-lit, and he also saw that drones and robots were still working on the dome itself, so it appeared to still be a work in progress.

Jake walked in and had already detected Arnold’s location. The man also clearly knew he was coming based on the many cameras and drones flying around. The central citadel had been even further reinforced, and by now, Jake wondered if the inside of this dome wasn’t the safest place in the entire city… well, besides inside his lodge with the shield from the Pylon.

Inside the central building, Jake headed straight for Arnold, who was currently working on a sleek-looking drone. The rotors were all gone, and it looked more like a surfboard of metal than anything else.

“Yes?” the man said as he kept working. He wore an odd pair of glasses Jake had not seen before, and he felt clear magic from them, making him know they were an item.

“Two things,” Jake said. “First of all, thanks for the help with the alchemy lab, and secondly, do you have any advice in fixing this?”

Jake took out the Cauldron of Supreme Simplicity from his inventory and placed it on one of the tables.

[Altmar Cauldron of Supreme Simplicity (Ancient)] - Sometimes less is more. A cauldron made by the Altmar Empire’s expert crafters, it was created with the express purpose of efficient alchemy. Given to the royal alchemists in training, it often becomes a cauldron for life for even the most talented. The runes inscribed are easy to use and greatly enhance mana efficiency and conductivity while also making the entire working process far more transparent for the user. Enchantments: Mana conductivity (Supreme). Mana Transparency (Supreme). Durability (Extremely High).

Requirements: Soulbound

His Identify still worked as before, and the cauldron only had a few cracks in it… but he wasn’t sure if it was fixable. He had thought it was indestructible at one point, but the sheer power of the curse had still managed to damage it when he finally completed Eternal Hunger. In fact, it was likely due to the cauldron Jake had not accidentally blown himself up.

Arnold went over and inspected it, and Jake stood there nervously. Arnold turned it over and looked at the bottom a bit as he nodded.

“You have refrained from using the Altmar Alteration Rune?” Arnold asked.

“What?” Jake asked, confused.

Arnold turned it to him and showed him a rune inscribed on the bottom. “A rune made to allow the user to progressively strengthen, repair, and maintain the cauldron. From preliminary research, it appears this is standard practice to implement on most high-value Soulbound items in the Altmar Empire.”

Jake looked at the man weirdly as he was nearly afraid to ask. “So I can just infuse mana into that rune and repair the cauldron?”

“No,” Arnold answered, making Jake feel both a wave of disappointment but also relief that he hadn’t been so dumb to not know he could hav-

“You need to infuse all energies directly from your soul at once using the Soulbound connection, and the process will both strengthen and restore the cauldron in accordance to its original design.”

“… has that rune always been there?” he asked.

“This bottom plate holds the majority of the item’s properties and is the core, so yes, that is reasonable to assume. Moreover, this plate appears near indestructible as far as I can tell and is made of a metal I have yet to uncover the nature of… the same is true for the rest of the cauldron. Would you mind me studying it for a while?” Arnold asked in return, Jake feeling grateful there was no one else around to see how stupid he had be-“

“Haha! Finally! I have been holding my laughter for months and already won four bets with Duskleaf on how long you would take to figure it out! My poor disciple had so much faith in you, but I guess no amount of Perception can make you truly perceptive,” he suddenly heard Villy’s voice roar in his head as he felt the delight and schadenfreude of his patron god.

“This… huh. So I just do it like this?” Jake asked rhetorically as he picked it up and began channeling energy into it, purposefully ignoring Villy. He felt as all his resource pools were depleted as he focused on the rune. “What are the consequences of not having done this sooner?”

Arnold was busier observing the effects of the rune than listening to Jake but still spared Jake a look. “Based on my estimates, none.”

“Kind of rude to assume the Altmar don’t make foolproof cauldron. It is one of supreme simplicity, so I guess it is purposefully made so even the simplest of men can use it,” Villy’s voice came again, Jake trying so damn hard to ignore him.

Jake nodded in acknowledgment as he kept infusing his energies, Arnold watching on with interest. The guy even took out some measurement tool or something and began recording, Jake naturally letting him. As Jake infused it, the sillier he felt about not realizing there was some innate way to fix it earlier.

The description of the Altmar Cauldron of Supreme Simplicity said it sometimes became cauldrons for life for even the most talented alchemists, and based on Altmar standards, Jake assumed that was better than D-grade by a fair bit. If Jake could break the cauldron now in mid-tier D-grade, he sure as hell would be able to in C-grade, so for it to be so “fragile” didn’t make much sense with the description. He didn’t think it was one he could use forever, though, but it should still hold up for now.

He was a bit miffed the description had not mentioned the rune, but Jake wrote that off as the system sometimes being annoyingly selective with such things, probably due to how the Identify skill worked. Whenever Jake investigated a plant, he would often get a feel for its properties within seconds with his Identify, including what kind of properties it had and what alchemical creations the item was useable in.

Meanwhile, if he used Identify on most metals, he would most often just get the name. Considering he didn’t have any skills giving him direct knowledge of runes or crafting of something even adjacent to cauldrons, it probably made sense it didn’t tell him. Ultimately, it was his own fault for not properly investigating his own tools.

“Is this kind of rune really that normal?” he asked Arnold as he infused energy.

“No. It requires the item to be Soulbound, and the materials and skill required in crafting it are not to be underestimated. By my assumptions, the creator of this cauldron must be at least B or A-grade, with it being purposefully made weaker for one of any grade to bind it initially,” Arnold explained as he kept recording Jake’s use of the rune.

Jake nodded as he kept infusing it with energy. It was slowly being repaired, but it also quickly became clear this was not something he could do in a single infusion. It was tiring work, and soon he was down to half in all resources with only a few of the cracks being sealed off again. At that point, he stopped, took out a health potion, and decided to continue later.

Arnold looked a bit disappointed at him stopping but didn’t say anything as he took out his tablet-thing again and began taking some notes.

Getting an idea, Jake took off another Soulbound item he had been wearing for a long time, wondering if that too contained some hidden secret. It was the very first epic rarity item Jake had ever obtained and perhaps still one of his most valuable. However, it was also an item that he had begun wondering why was Soulbound a while ago.

[Prodigious Alchemist’s Necklace of Holding (Epic)] - An amulet awarded to a prodigious young alchemist upon completion of a trial. An ornate creation of high craftsmanship made of metal attuned to the space-affinity, holding a spacegem in place. Allows the user to store items in a small pocket dimension found within the gem. Due to the nature of the gemstone used, living, non-sentient entities can be stored without harmful side effects in temporal suspension. Enchantments: Alchemist’s Spatial Storage. +25 Wisdom. Requirements: Soulbound

The spatial storage ring he and the others gained after they solved the Rubik’s Cube had not been Souldbound as an example. It would still be bound to someone through the usual mana connection, and one would have to empty it before being able to unbind it and hand it to someone else, but it could still be handed off. Jake had once believed spatial items maybe just had to be Soulbound, but that clearly wasn’t the case.

Jake showed Arnold the necklace, and the man frowned a bit as he inspected it. “I apologize; this seems to be out of my expertise.”

“Damn,” Jake said. “So no obvious enchantment to strengthen it or something?”

Arnold just shook his head. “Not self-evident ones, but I can take a deeper look?”

He had to admit he had just gotten his hopes up. The spatial storage on the necklace was damn great, but he did have to admit the 25 Wisdom were beginning to feel a bit… sucky. Like, he got hundreds of stats on everything else that gave stats, and yet his Soulbound spatial storage gave a measly 25.

So, needless to say, Jake would like a necklace upgrade. He had seen many other necklaces throughout the Treasure Hunt and even the Auction but had skipped all of them. A lot of them even contained spatial storages, but Jake liked his current one too much to switch it.

It was perfectly made for alchemists, and overall just worked great. It was also Soulbound, meaning killing him or somehow getting it from him wouldn’t allow someone to steal all his stuff. Even if he didn’t get it upgraded, Jake still wanted to keep using it… but he wasn’t going to say no to improving it.

“Please do,” Jake agreed to Arnold, hoping the oddball in front of him could figure something out.

Jake knew he wasn’t an expert judge of character or even good at all that social stuff in general… and yet when he reflected on the day, he thought that he had actually managed to gather a lot of interesting people around him. Miranda, Lillian, Hank, Arnold, Neil and his party, the entire hawk family, newly added troll, and in some ways also the former King of the Forest and Sultan, who he had more of a pure working relationship with. So maybe he did have a good eye for people?

Oh… and of course the most important friend of them all.

“You know I can feel that you receive every single message, and you also suck at hiding that twitching in your left eye whenever I say something you disagree with, so I know you understand it. Even if you don’t answer me, at least acknowledge your failure to poor Duskleaf; he is down more resources than your planet is worth many times over.”

His Patron god, the respected and revered Primordial known as the Malefic Viper, currently acting like a teenager who had just gotten away with a prank.