Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

The last vestiges of twilight painted the sky in bruised shades of purple and orange as Seth ran, his boots thudding a steady rhythm against the hard-packed earth of the northern plains. The lights of Oskon's walls were a distant shimmer behind him, and the vast grasslands stretched out in every direction with a silence broken only by the whisper of the wind through the swaying grass.

He finally came to a halt, judging the distance to be sufficient. No one would see them out here. With a wisp of aether, he drew Nightmare from the teardrop necklace. The direwolf materialized beside him, shaking out his dark fur and sniffing the cool night air, his crimson eyes gleaming with anticipation.

'Can I also come out?' Colossus asked through Link.

"Sure," Seth said aloud, a faint smile touching his lips. He brought the massive scorpion forth, and Colossus appeared with a soft thud. His stony carapace looked almost black under the rising moon as he clicked his mandibles, seemingly happy to be hanging with them.

Seth reached into his Endless Pouch and retrieved the ornate quartz jar containing the Tears of Ebon Snakes. It was cold to the touch, and the liquid of absolute nothingness within drank up the moonlight.

Repeating the process from the Brown-Peak Mountains, he placed his palm flat against the smooth surface of the jar before focusing to draw a stream of aether from his Well and channel it into Nightmare's teardrop. Seconds ticked by. The whole jar flickered, then in an instant, it simply… vanished.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Nightmare moved back into the necklace, and a second later his irritation came through their bond. Seth could see the direwolf inside his pocket-realm inches away from the jar, which now stood in the center of his den.

'I barely feel any Darkness affinity at all,' Nightmare growled.

'It's not Gold-Tier like the Heart of Brown-Peak Mountains,' Seth retorted. 'You cannot expect the same amount of aet—'

Before he could finish, Nightmare sprang forward inside and struck the quartz jar with his paw. The enchanted container shattered into a thousand glittering shards.

Seth's eyes widened in shock. 'Why the hell did you do that?'

The direwolf's response came not in words, but in raw sensation.

The moment the vessel broke, the Tears of Ebon Snakes were released and the liquid unfurled into a dense, inky gas that spread through the den like a living thing. The oil-slick cloud of pure shadow clung to the stone and ground, transforming the space into a sanctuary of absolute Darkness.

Through Link, Seth could feel a tidal wave of cold aether surge outward, Darkness in its purest form so intense and overwhelming that he gasped, staggered by how suffocating it was.

The jar wasn't necessary in the Pocket-Realm, Seth realized as the smoke remained in place inside the den.

The container was probably used to keep the Essence stable in the outside world. In an adaptive domain of a pocket-realm, it could be free. A moment later, Nightmare moved out of the teardrop, trotted right up to Seth, and stared at him, a low growl rumbling in his chest.

'Better. Now the spell-shard,' he said. '...please.'

Rolling his eyes at the direwolf's impatience, Seth reached into his Endless Pouch and pulled out the jagged spell-shard, which he then tossed up into the air. Nightmare snapped it up with a flash of his yellowed teeth, crushing the obsidian shard between his jaws.

Through their bond, Seth immediately felt the foreign energy flood into Nightmare's body. New grooves began to carve themselves alongside the existing ones in his Well, interlocking into a balanced system. The process unfolded steadily with a natural rhythm. The moment the final network took shape, shimmering with a dark glow, Seth examined it; it rivaled the complexity and size of Chains of Darkness, Nightmare's other Epic-grade Iron spell.

'Congratulations,' Colossus said, his voice filled with a simple and honest admiration for his packmate.

Nightmare, whose body still thrummed with the residue of the new spell's aether, dipped his head to acknowledge the scorpion's words. Then, his crimson eyes locked on the dark, endless plains ahead of them. 'Let's find something to test this on.'

"Alright," Seth agreed readily.

With that, Seth moved Colossus back into the teardrop necklace to keep the massive scorpion out of sight, then began to run through the tall grass with Nightmare. They didn't have to travel far to find prey. In a shallow basin where the grass grew shorter, a small herd of creatures was grazing under the moonlight. They looked like oversized rabbits, with powerful hind legs, long, tufted ears, and a pair of curved fangs jutting from their upper jaws. From the faint aether signature drifting from them, Seth could tell they were Copper-Tier.

So did Nightmare.

Not waiting for a command, the direwolf dissolved into Illusionary Emptiness, his form vanishing completely into the shadows. Seth watched as Nightmare crept closer to a lone hare strayed from the herd as the creature nibbled on a patch of tough roots.

A ripple in the air was the only warning before the direwolf's attack.

Nightmare burst from his invisibility with a predatory grace, landing silently in front of the creature before immediately pushing aether into Mantle of Terror's freshly carved grooves. The spell flared to life and caused a wave of pure, unadulterated dread to pulse outward from the direwolf.

The hare froze mid-step, its fur bristling and its dark eyes going wide with fear. Its limbs locked, trembling violently as it stared up at the direwolf. An invisible pressure clung to the air, dense and oppressive. It pinned the creature in place as if roots had spread from under its paws.

From the edge of the basin, Seth watched in silence, his breath caught in his throat. He stood just beyond the aura's reach, but its chilling echo rippled through him. Thanks to Link, though, it had no hold on him—just as Nightmare and Colossus could see through Night Veil's fog whenever he used that.

Seizing the moment, Seth cast Intermediate Identify on the direwolf's prey.