The Primal Hunter

Jake was taken aback as he looked at Jacob with confusion clear on his face. “Why did I do what?”

With a lowered voice, making sure no one else could hear them, Jacob elaborated. “Why did you decide to provoke the boars without any thought, not consulting anyone in the group? Look what happened, Joanna lost her damn leg, Jake. We are in a god-forsaken forest filled with monsters that want to eat us, and within mere hours, one of us is crippled.

“What do you suggest we do now? Bunker down and hope nothing finds us for over two whole months. Or what, leave Joanna behind to die? What exactly was your plan when you decided to shoot into a bush, without having any goddamn clue what was in there? There are other people in this forest too, what if it had been one of them? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Jacob got visibly redder in his face as he kept barraging Jake, also getting louder and, of course, getting the attention of the others. Everyone was staring at them by now, and looking around, Jake spotted open hostility in some of their eyes, with others looking down at the ground. Bertram and Casper the only ones truly neutral, both just looking sad. That is beside the one person who didn’t have any emotions visible on his face, Ahmed. However, he didn’t seem inclined to voice his opinions.

Jake had never seen Jacob this angry before. Right, what was I thinking? He just saw a reflection of something. In hindsight, it was the eye of the small boar. Something in his head told him to shoot. It was just… instinct.

He indeed hadn’t been thinking. From the beginning, he hadn't. Except for his internal pondering, when it came to any kind of combat or tense situation for that matter, he gladly ran on auto-pilot. Allowing his instincts to take over and intuition to be his guiding light when making split-second decisions.

“I… I am sorry, I was just… I don’t know…” Jake couldn't properly express himself, his incompetence at social situations once again evident. On the one hand, he did feel bad about the outcome of the situation, but he didn’t truly think it was his fault.

Not taking the shot would have been stupid too. It could have been a predator waiting to ambush them or even a trap of some kind. Besides, it was a foe they could clearly handle. The only reason why Joanna ended up like she had was that she screwed up and tripped.

“You don’t know? Well, you should know! Just think for god’s sake! We are humans, not beasts who attack anything we see. Think about the consequences. We are a group. A team. What would have happened if we weren’t here? What if you had been alone?” Jacob got more and more aggrieved with Jakes's passive demeanor and lack of feedback to his critique. Not due to Jake not taking it to heart, but because he simply had no idea how to respond.

He took the question very much to heart. What would have happened if he had been alone? Replaying the fight, he began from the beginning.

He was climbing the tree when the boar came out of the bushes and ran towards him, already out of reach of the beast. While it did make him temporarily lose his grip, he was never really in any danger of falling. The increased stats made him stronger, faster, and he had no problem holding himself up with only one arm. With his stats, he would have thus been able to climb the tree quite easily.

The arrows he fired into the beast did more than enough damage to make it bleed to death too eventually. Towards the end, more than 50 arrows had penetrated it, and even if he did run out, he could start conjuring more. Ultimately the boar would be forced to leave or stay below the tree and wait for him to keep shooting. And judging by the behavior of the thing, it likely would have stayed until it succumbed.

The tree was more than strong enough to take the hits, having barely taken any damage. With its circumference easily being large enough for 7-8 grown men to stand holding hands around it, he saw no scenario where it would be falling over. So, to sum it all up… if he had been alone, he would have gotten solo experience and TP, and no one would have gotten seriously hurt, though the fight would have taken longer.

On top of that, Jake had an inherent unwillingness to ignore his own instincts and intuition. As most people would, he assumed. While he in his work-life before the system was very calculating, always taking an analytical and data-based approach, he also relied on his guts a lot. The same for tests in university. He trusted his intuition to an almost unhealthy degree.

When it came to archery, and pretty much everything else in life, he had come to prefer taking everything as it comes, trusting in his own judgment.

And he felt like his instincts and intuition had only gotten stronger after the system came. Even taking a more objective look at his performance in this tutorial so far, he had made little to no mistakes… if he was alone, that is.

What if he had hesitated to climb the

was likely going to attack them as either way, making the fight with the big boar inevitable. The result of his actions may not have been optimal,

from our team

improved physique, she should be fine soon, and maybe we can even attempt to make a wooden leg or something for her. Or we can just have her guard our camp

addressed everyone. Jake himself also having opened

[Tutorial Panel]

63 days &

Total Survivors Remaining: 1112/1200

TP Collected: 319

the beginning, and yet nearly a hundred people had died.

say. It was no secret that Jake had been the main contributor of the group so far, performing the best in combat and scouting ahead for potential dangers. He even led them away once from an area

them having only been here for so little time, and only been in two fights, Jake had more than shown his proficiency. Even

tell us your thoughts before just jumping into motion. To not be making the decision for all of us…” Jacob sighed, not willing to dwell on

a bit behind him, and the rest of the group silently following his lead. Finally, as it was also starting to get slightly darker,

the group what he heard. Everyone was relieved, and after only another five minutes, they made their way to the top of a hill and saw a

all settled down on the grass. For the first time since the beginning of this tutorial, everyone finally relaxed - everyone resting except Jake, who was sitting with

as his mana had dropped down to 11/120. Stamina was still looking fine at 116/140. The maximum had been increased by 10 due to the point in endurance given by the level-up in his class. Looking at his stats, he was once again reminded of his 4

prior fight had been his ability to deal damage. Against small targets, his arrows dealt major damage, and he

But he wasn't sure if a couple of stats in strength or agility

he decided to put 1 point in strength, 1 in agility, and 2 in perception, just following his class distribution. Looking

Stats

Strength: 15

Agility: 16

Endurance: 14

Vitality: 13

Toughness: 11

Wisdom: 12

Intelligence: 12