The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1379 - Home Invasion

It was only a matter of time before the response from the cyclopes would escalate in intensity. The Administrators had dealt well with the many Officers and Investigators, with most people running away when they were noticed. Those who ran weren’t as big a problem. It was those who fought back and sometimes even killed an Officer here and there.

As with crimes before the system, the response tended to match the severity of the offense. Granted, the punishment for any offense seemed to be death, but few resources were devoted to chasing down thieves. Murderers were a whole other story, and eventually, when things got too bad, the Investigators called in reinforcements.

Standing atop yet another clock tower, Jake felt the intense release of energy in the distance far behind him. Looking back, he saw a single large figure floating in the air, wearing robes and wielding a simple wooden staff. This figure floated there with the staff raised towards the sky, gathering power, as Jake used Identify.

[Abundant Cyclops Magi: lvl 475]

He was floating right around the most chaotic district that Jake had passed through. The number of Officers appeared limited in each area, and while Investigators could be called, there also weren’t infinite numbers of those, and they tended to always move with big groups of Officers.

That meant some areas had frankly just gotten overwhelmed. Administrators had purposefully targeted Officers and killed them, and it hadn’t taken long before pretty much all of them were dead or so injured they had to flee, effectively turning an entire area of the city into a lawless zone.

This only worked close to the wall due to the reduced number of Officers present there and an odd restriction that prevented Officers from going too far from their original location. Unless they were with an Investigator, that is, which seemed to allow them free movement. Game-like simulation rules or something like that, for sure. The Administrators had all started taking advantage of this knowledge, unaware of what Jake saw as a very obvious outcome.

What the idiots had done was effectively commit enough crimes to get five stars, and now they were dealing with the consequences in the form of this Magi variant. Jake guessed it was a magic version of the Blademaven; at least, it was the kind of being Jake didn’t want to attempt fighting, especially not in this setting, where another one could easily appear.

Jake shook his head as the Magi finally unleashed his magic. Beams of condensed sunlight shot down from above like a barrage of lasers, with Jake guessing they were aimed at all the Administrators down below the cyclops had spotted. The light show continued for a few seconds before the Magi stopped.

Waving his staff, he pointed it downwards as a more concentrated beam shot down on a particular spot, likely to take out a more resilient Administrator that had survived the first onslaught. This happened a few more times before the Magi looked satisfied and lowered his weapon.

With a casual motion of his hand, a magic circle appeared beneath the Cyclops Magi and teleported him away, making Jake frown as he looked ahead towards the Palace of Abundance.

Inside? No, then I wouldn’t be able to detect it.

It had been incredibly bold, but Jake believed in his supreme Perception and took a gamble with the Magi. He’d placed a Hunter’s Mark with the hope it wouldn’t be detected, and fortunately for him, it hadn’t been. At least it seemed like these cyclopes all had rather limited Perception: besides the Investigators, probably: as if not, Jake reckoned these high-tier B-grades could easily have located every Administrator already.

Based on the Magi not detecting the Hunter’s Mark from someone over 100 levels below himself, it more or less proved Jake’s belief. It gave him a lot of confidence in remaining undetected, and now it had also helped him gather some information as he looked ahead.

When the Magi had teleported away, he hadn’t simply disappeared, but traveled to somewhere closer to the Palace of Abundance. Moving forward once more, Jake rushed towards his Hunter’s Mark, hoping to discover where the Magi or perhaps even the other expert-level cyclops were hiding out when not effortlessly killing Administrators.

Passing by any and all shops, Jake quickly made his way through the city, using One Step repeatedly as he traveled across the many kilometers-long rooftops. He was still a fair deal ahead of the other Administrators, meaning the level of chaos was low in this area and the local cyclopes were less on guard, but the vibe was still tense as rumors of what was going on closer to the wall had started spreading throughout the entire Inner City.

More and more Administrators were also entering the Inner City, and while some died, it wasn’t even close to the number who made their way there. With the stores closest to the wall also being robbed quickly, these Administrators were forced to go farther into the city, increasing their risk of discovery as there were more Officers around and the stores began to have built-in security features.

After about an hour of high-speed travel with no distractions, Jake finally spotted the building he believed the Cyclops Magi to be currently dwelling within. He had expected something grand, but instead, he saw a rather simplistic yet official-looking structure. It wasn’t huge or small, only three stories tall, and reminded Jake a bit of an office building.

It really didn’t stand out, seeing as there weren’t really two identical buildings to be found anywhere in the Inner City. Jake could have easily passed by it, and if he hadn’t felt the aura of a powerful creature within, he would have just assumed the Magi he saw through Pulse was yet another random C-grade civilian.

Jake considered moving closer to the building, and after concluding it would be incredibly risky, he headed straight for it. Risk and reward tended to go hand-in-hand, right?

While most of the places they robbed were stores, there were instances of treasures being found in other buildings; it was just that the stores tended to have far more, and of higher value. However, how about somewhere a high-tier B-grade resided? Wasn’t that bound to have something valuable?

Of course, Jake could be entirely in the wrong, and all he would accomplish was provoking a creature he really shouldn’t be. He gambled on being correct, though, and such gambles tended to work out for him.

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Getting closer to the building, Jake also realized there wasn’t that far to go before one would reach the Palace of Abundance. It was still borderline impossible to fully judge distances due to the stupid level of spatial distortion that made the palace always seem “kind of close,” but now he actually believed it was within viewing distance, even if space wasn’t messed with.

It made sense that the high-tier B-grades would live kind of close to the palace, though it did make Jake wonder what kind of being would be inside the actual final area of the Central Domain. Would there perhaps even be an A-grade there? It seemed possible, but also like questionable game design.

Soon, the building with the Magi inside entered his Pulse range, and he carefully inspected what he saw. The inside of the building was very open, with each floor having only a few rooms, and the Magi was sitting in a chair downstairs in what looked like a living room. He was reading a book with pages larger than football fields, looking very relaxed after having just killed what were likely hundreds of Administrators not too long ago.

There were four other cyclopes also in the building, just mulling about, doing their thing. They wore civilian clothes, and based on how two of them were busy cleaning in a very orderly fashion, Jake guessed they were employees or servants.

If he’d seen this place without having placed his Hunter’s Mark on the Magi, he wouldn’t even have thought twice when he passed by it. Most of the houses were filled with cyclopes just going about their day, resting, sleeping, eating, or engaging in other pastimes.

Even as he got closer, Jake failed to detect any kind of treasure within the building, making him question if his idea had been stupid in the first place. However, when he landed on the ceiling of the building with the Magi inside, Jake felt something from his boots. A potent response that made him grin.

Definitely something in there.

Now the question was: how to get in? Something that was also pretty common in houses this deep in the Inner City was an alarm system to detect intruders, making doorways and windows harder to break through. Standing on the roof, Jake also detected that the walls had been magically enhanced further than what one normally did during the construction process. There were magic circles placed within the stone, meaning that if Jake tried to dig through using his Alchemical Flame, he would definitely trigger something.

Seeing this, Jake’s smile only grew. The only reason the defenses of this place would be so high was that there was something worth getting inside. Scanning the building more closely, Jake looked for any gaps in the formations he could exploit, and after searching for a while, he found one.

While the glass in the windows was covered and the wall beside the window also had formations within it, the wooden parts of the windows showed nothing out of the ordinary. With the use of Alchemical Flame, Jake dug his way through like a burning termite, quickly making his way through and entering the building on the third floor.

Jake found himself in an empty room he believed was for guests, since it didn’t appear to be currently occupied. There wasn’t anything worth looting there, making Jake continue through the house as he snuck under the door through the gap. It still felt novel even after doing it so many times to sneak around like a small insect in a giant world, and he had a feeling he would never get tired of seeing furniture that was comically huge.

Making his way into the hallway, Jake finally spotted one of the cyclopes in the building, but that didn’t make him slow down as he continued running across the wooden floor. Now that he was inside, he could feel that the other cyclopes present besides the Magi were all only C-grade and had no chance of detecting Jake even if he floated right in front of their faces. Unseen Hunter was truly stupidly powerful in situations like this, making him not even register in their perceptual paradigm.

He doubted the Magi would be that easy to fool, though, and as he moved through the building and started detecting the locations of the treasure, Jake started getting a little nervous... because it was down in the living room with the high-tier B-grade.

Given Jake’s small size, comparable to the Magi anyway, he could try to sneak into the room, but he really didn’t want to risk being discovered. That would really suck, even if Jake still genuinely believed he would be able to get away. While the Magi wasn’t a creature Jake believed he could defeat: at least not without going beyond his current means of combat: that didn’t mean he couldn’t escape, especially not with the sewers being considered a “safe space” he could always flee to. The combination of Wings and Moment was also nothing to scoff at, allowing Jake to escape extremely far away quickly should the need arise, though again, he really hoped that didn’t happen.

Sneaking his way closer to the living room, the Magi remained occupied reading his book, looking very relaxed. Still outside the door, Jake tried to get a better feel for the exact location of the treasure he was searching for. Going by the direction he detected it in and what was there...

Nah, that can’t be it.

Jake double-checked, as he had to hold himself back from cursing out loud when he confirmed he’d been right the first time around, keeping his negative thoughts internal instead.

Fuck me.

The treasure Jake had come to steal was not only in the room with the Magi, but was leaning against the wall right next to him. It was the staff that Jake had seen the cyclops wielding earlier, and rather than put it in some kind of spatial storage, the Magi just had it lean there right next to him.

Taking a small chance, Jake snuck under the gap between the wall and the door, peeking around the corner as he laid eyes on the Magi. The low Perception of the cyclops was evident once more as he still wasn’t noticed despite being only within a handful of steps of the giant creature. Jake also fully confirmed that the staff was indeed the only treasure within this entire building.

However, as Jake considered making his way a little closer, he stopped, his intuition and danger sense screaming at him not to enter the room. That’s when Jake detected a very faint shimmer in the air that he could barely register with his Sphere of Perception when he focused. It was incredibly faint, but there was definitely something there. It was as if the Magi had done something to the environmental mana, and Jake was very confident that the second he stepped into the actual living room, the B-grade would instantly become aware of his presence.

Stepping back instead, Jake furrowed his brow and considered his next course of action. For a moment, the thought that he could just wait for the situation to turn chaotic again and have the Magi leave on his own crossed his mind, but that obviously wouldn’t work. If the B-grade was leaving, he would take his staff with him.

That meant Jake had to make the cyclops leave the living room but without bringing along his staff. Jake also thought about maybe breaking something somewhere, but if he did that, wouldn’t the Magi go investigate while carrying his weapon? Also, wasn’t there a good chance the B-grade would start actively searching for the cause of the disturbance? While Jake could remain undetected right now, he wasn’t so sure Unseen Hunter would remain effective against a high-tier B-grade actively using magic to search for him.

In other words, he had to make the Magi leave the living room without them being on guard or suspecting anything was amiss, thus making him leave the staff behind. Alongside that, he had to hope the detection magic in the living room wouldn’t work without the Magi there. He had no way of knowing whether it would or not, but for now, Jake chose to conclude it wouldn’t persist. Not due to any insight into the magic used or anything like that, but solely due to his expectations of event design for this simulation. There had to be a solution, and while it didn’t have to be easy, a scenario had to be possible.

At least he expected it to be possible... the issue was that even if it were, he was on a bit of a timer, as other Administrators had the same idea as him to make it deeper into the city, and what he really didn’t need right now were others creating trouble and making the Magi stop chilling.