Jake stood on the edge of the pond at this cabin, staring out onto the water. His body was fully healed, but the same couldn’t be said about his equipment as it was still in tatters, and he stood with only a single boot on his feet.

He heard sounds behind him as Miranda entered the valley, him not even reacting as he was lost in thought.

“I came here as soon as possible. What happened towards the end? I heard some from Neil, but-“

She stopped as she spotted something lying to his side. Jake also followed her gaze as he looked to the side as he saw the two pieces of wood lying next to him with only a loose string connecting them – a clean cut severing it apart.

Jake raised his hand as he touched his neck, where a small scar was still visible as the feeling of the blade digging into it was still there.

“… I think I lost?”

--

The Noboru clan’s Patriarch’s courtyard was silent as Reika rushed towards it hurriedly, ignoring all the clamoring from the other clan members on the way. With worry, she didn’t even knock as she entered it swiftly.

Inside, she saw a single chair in front of a few paintings with the Patriarch sitting there, his back turned. He didn’t acknowledge her right away, as she took in his weak form. His skin was bare, and he looked weaker than usual.

“Great-grandfather?” she asked, more worried than before, only calmed down a little as he finally spoke.

“Could you help me stand?” he said weakly, turning his head as he smiled.

Reika was confused as she hurried over to him, lending him her arm as he stood. She failed to hold back her curiosity as she asked:

“What happened?”

Her great-grandfather smiled as he touched a small scar on the side of his skull. “I wonder?”

She was only more confused, especially as she felt him lean on her, his steps unsteady. She frowned as she asked once more. “Are… are you okay?”

He gave her a comforting smile as he looked up at the sky, a few sparse clouds hanging above. “After the growth of spring and the life of summer, fall follows where everything wanes before we settle into a restful winter. So to ask if I am okay… right now, no, but eventually, I will be.”

“How long?” Reika asked, having understood somewhat.

The Patriarch shook his head. “You cannot hurry a season to pass like that. Once winter comes, I will return to normal and will have to rebuild myself to prepare for spring once more.”

“Rebuild?” she followed up.

He chuckled a bit, shaking his head again. “According to my level, I am only at 112, with a 135 in parenthesis… I believe I will have to regain those levels before I can call upon another Springtime Advent.”

“That is… what did you do?” Reika asked with distraught. She knew he had powered up beyond what should be possible, but she hadn’t expected the cost to be that high.

“That is something I am still uncertain of even now… but the system calls it a transcendence.”

He didn’t elaborate but simply asked for her to help him into his bed-chamber as he felt tired. For a D-grade, to truly feel tired was something Reika had very rarely seen, and it made her worried as she felt how he was barely stronger than a regular old man before the system. Nevertheless, she helped him as he got into the bed, not even bothering to remove any of his tattered clothes.

The moment he lay down, he thanked her quietly as he closed his eyes and went to sleep, Reika staying at his side till he woke up again, which wouldn’t be before more than twenty hours later.

--

Jake had taken a seat on one of his porch chairs, having asked Miranda to leave as he needed a few moments to himself to gather his thoughts. He had even told Villy to wait, his godly pal understanding and waiting for him to reach out to talk. He sounded curious to know what had happened, but countless years of being alive had clearly honed his patience.

He looked at the broken bow he had placed on the table beside him, the wood cleanly cut through. He remembered the final moment where he released the string, but the sword came up a fraction of a moment faster than he had expected. The final thing he remembered was seeing his arrow only hit the side of the Sword Saint’s head as he felt the swordman’s blade dig into his own neck.

I lost…

The thought dominated his mind as he sat there. It wasn’t his first time losing a fight. He had lost to the damn blue mushroom more than once, technically lost to a bunch of random Cloud Elementals when he couldn’t beat them alone, and some could also argue he lost to the King of the Forest back then.

But this was different. Jake hadn’t lost to some powerful being tens of levels or a grade above him. He hadn’t lost to someone it was expected of him to lose to. Instead, he had lost to another human who had been in the system as long as he had.

Okay, maybe one could argue it was a tie because even if Jake had died, so would the Sword Saint. The old man still had poison flowing through his body at the end, and with his power-up ending, he would for sure have died – likely even without factoring in the poison. So both of them had been saved by the system at the end with the system event ending. There were no two ways about it.

There was also no doubt in his mind that they had both lost their heads towards the end – him nearly losing it in a literal sense. It had truly become a fight to the death as they both refused to give up. But he didn’t blame the Sword Saint at all, and he had a feeling the old man didn’t blame him either. Both had willingly put their lives on the line.

He still wanted to figure out what the old man had done to get so powerful, but he would later ask Villy for some insight. For now, he chose to focus on something else entirely to make himself feel a little better:

Rewards.

Jake had seen the system messages right as he returned and finally opened them as he read.

The Treasure Hunt has ended!

As the Treasure Hunt ends, the winners become clear as the truly talented Treasure Hunters are separated from the others. Due to your performance against the Cursed Monarch and subsequent triggering and victory over the Monarch of Blood coupled with all treasures collected, you have proven yourself a Premier Treasure Hunter. Know that you stand at the apex, achieving the highest reward possible.

You have earned the title: [Premier Treasure Hunter]

Note: All treasures within the Hunter Insignia must be retrieved within the next 24 hours before the Insignia disappears. Any items not received will be dumped in your immediate surroundings.

It was short and sweet in many ways. It didn’t contain much superfluous information and more or less just told him that he was a good boy who had found a lot of treasures and beaten the Monarch of Blood. Maybe he had even gotten first place in the entire Treasure Hunt? It was possible, and it did help him feel better to know that he had at least maybe won that one over the Sword Saint as it seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the Monarch of Blood fight.

Also, he did find it a bit funny how it mentioned just dumping everything if he didn’t take it out. That would honestly be funny to just see someone walk in the street a day from now just to see the entire area filled with stuff.

Shaking his head, trying to cheer himself up with happy thoughts, he moved on. Next up, he naturally checked out the title, going in with pretty low expectations but finding himself pleasantly surprised.

[Premier Treasure Hunter] – You are at the apex of Treasure Hunters, not only a true talent when it comes to retrieving what was once lost, but also in defeating any who dare stand between you and your rightful bounty. +10% Perception, + 10% Agility, +5% Wisdom.

That is a lot more than expected, Jake thought. He had expected it to be more like the title from a dungeon or something like that, not a percentage amplifier. He also noted that it was in his three highest stats, making him assume that was no coincidence. That did help him feel a bit more vindicated with drinking a lot of agility-enhancing elixirs, as he now had the percentage amplifier for that increase.

He quickly got to the thing the note mentioned as he summoned items from his Hunter Insignia, seeing it still work. Out of curiosity, he tried to redeposit something but found he couldn’t. So, only taking things out.

Jake spent the next few minutes just taking all of the stuff out of the Insignia and into his storage necklace. At least he tried to, until he got to a few massive gates of black metal that just fell to the ground making the earth shake as he failed to deposit those into his necklace.

Staring at them a bit, he asked himself why he was so adamant about getting those again but swiftly just moved on cleaning up the Insignia. To his surprise, he even found his own scimitar in there, the system having been nice enough to give it back after the collapsing world of Yalsten swallowed it up.

When all of that was done, he sat down once more, looking at the crater in the ground formed by the metal gates with a small snicker. He got an idea of what to do with them, but that could wait for later.

Jake stretched on the chair as he opened his status menu to get a feel for his progress over the last ten days or so.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (D) – lvl 137]

Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter – lvl 143]

Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper – lvl 131]

Health Points (HP): 30620/30620

Mana Points (MP): 48025/48025

Stamina: 27640/27640

Stats

Strength: 2243

Agility: 4202

Endurance: 2764

Vitality: 3062

Toughness: 2302

Wisdom: 3842

Intelligence: 3083

Perception: 8546

Willpower: 3012

Free points: 0

Titles: [Forerunner of the New World],[Bloodline Patriarch], [Holder of a Primordial’s True Blessing], [Dungeoneer VI], [Dungeon Pioneer VI], [Legendary Prodigy], [Prodigious Slayer of the Mighty], [Kingslayer], [Nobility: Earl], [Progenitor of the 93rd Universe], [Prodigious Arcanist], [Perfect Evolution (D-grade)], [Premier Treasure Hunter]

Class Skills: [Basic One-Handed Weapons (Inferior)], [Basic Twin Fang Style (Uncommon)], [Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Uncommon)], [Hunter’s Tracking (Uncommon)], [Expert Stealth (Uncommon)], [Archery of Vast Horizons (Rare)], [Enhanced Splitting Arrow (Rare)] [Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter (Epic)], [Arcane Powershot (Epic)], [Big Game Arcane Hunter (Epic)], [Arcane Hunter’s Arrows (Epic)], [Descending Dark Arcane Fang (Epic)], [One Step Mile (Ancient)], [Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter (Ancient)], [Moment of the Primal Hunter (Legendary)], [Gaze of the Apex Hunter (Legendary)], [Steady Focus of the Apex Hunter (Legendary)], [Arcane Awakening (Legendary)]

Profession Skills: [Path of the Heretic-Chosen (Unique)], [Herbology (Common)], [Brew Potion (Common)], [Alchemist’s Purification (Common)], [Alchemical Flame (Uncommon)], [Craft Elixir (Uncommon)], [Toxicology (Uncommon)], [Cultivate Toxin (Uncommon)], [Concoct Poison (Uncommon)], [Malefic Viper’s Poison (Epic)], [Blood of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Sagacity of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Wings of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Fangs of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Sense of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Touch of the Malefic Viper (Ancient)], [Legacy Teachings of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Legendary)], [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Pride of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Scales of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)]

Blessing: [True Blessing of the Malefic Viper (Blessing - True)]

Race Skills: [Endless Tongues of the Myriad Races (Unique)], [Legacy of Man (Unique)], [Identify (Common)], [Thoughtful Meditation (Uncommon)], [Shroud of the Primordial (Divine)]

Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability - Unique)]

Growth across the board, especially in Perception as Jake had continued his path of putting all free points in it, but also good growth in Agility and even Toughness, primarily due to his Scales of the Malefic Viper upgrading to legendary during the Hunt.

Speaking of skill upgrades, he had also gotten a few of those. Naturally, there was Scales, but also Alchemical Flames in the early day of the event, and during the last fight and the lead-up to it, where he got three whole rarity upgrades to his Limit Break, making it into Arcane Awakening.

He had undoubtedly gained a lot from the Treasure Hunt… but…

Jake sighed as he stared up into the sky. He heard another noise behind him as someone entered the valley. He had told Miranda to leave him be for now, but there was someone who really sucked at heeding orders.

Sylphie flew over to him and landed on the table next to him. She stared at the broken bow and back to him as she screeched. Jake shook his head as he nuzzled her, and she happily wriggled her head as he scratched her.

Smiling, he lifted her up as she didn’t resist while he sat with her like she was a cat, just petting her as she enjoyed every moment.

After a while, Jake finally spoke. “I’ll win next time. And not in a way that will leave anything up to ambiguity.”

To which Sylphie gave an encouraging screech in approval, clearly not having a single trace of doubt in her mind.

--

As the Treasure Hunt ended, humanity and the Risen were all returned to Earth once more, swiftly finding out that even if they had been gone for nearly ten days, not even ten hours had passed outside of the Hunt.

A few settlements had experienced minor attacks by beasts during this time, but most had made preparations to be gone longer, meaning none of the major settlements had any real issues. There were even signs that beasts had been less inclined to attack during the nearly half a day of absence of nearly all D-grade humans and Risen. This led to theories that perhaps they had their own event to participate in or opportunities, but nothing was proveable.

An hour or so after everyone had returned, another message appeared before all of the recently returned people, reminding them and informing them of what was next to come.

System Announcement.

With the end of the Treasure Hunt, the Auction will begin a week from now. Further information will follow a day before the Auction begins. Note that any participant of the Treasure Hunt can also attend the Auction.

Many instantly began scrambling to prepare, while others took it more calmly. One such place was Haven, where nothing much happened for the first many hours after the Treasure Hunt ended. Miranda planned a meeting where they went things over, the city owner suspiciously absent, yet none dared to go and check his valley without permission.

With so many items gathered from Yalsten, everyone knew the coming period would be even busier as the entirety of Earth, and all of the factions had just received a big influx of valuable items to help them in the future, with the upcoming Auction a huge opportunity to get rid of items you did not need yourself and receive items useful to you.

But for now… for now, Jake just wanted to enjoy a few quiet hours with Sylphie and have a nice chat with Villy.