The Primal Hunter

As Jake was relaxing, he reflected on how weird stamina was. He was not tired per-se, as he did not feel like taking a nap, and his muscles did not ache or anything like that. He had not felt even a second of exhaustion during the fight itself, and yet the second the battle was done, he felt drained.

It was likely just mental exhaustion over physical exhaustion now that he was thinking about it. There was no stat for that. Or does willpower help with that? Naturally, he didn’t know, so he could only guess, but since he hadn't really felt less mentally taxed even with the stat increases, he felt like it didn’t.

It did kind of make sense that it was tiring to focus on interpreting the feelings from his Sphere of Perception all the time while also being under constant pressure. At the moment, it was still active, vaguely making him aware of everything within 8 meters or so, but he was not really directly using it. He couldn’t really put it into words, but he guessed one would say it had an ‘active’ and a ‘passive’ mode.

Not that he had any clue how it worked. He just knew what was within it. He did not expressly ‘see’ anything; he just knew the shapes and sizes of everything. It would take a lot of experimentation to truly figure it out if it was even possible ever to do so, and for some reason, Jake doubted he would get any answers from just sitting there. Instead, he decided to go through his system notifications and level-ups. And boy, were there notifications.

*You have slain [Human (G) - lvl 3 / Warrior (Light) - lvl 6] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 365 TP earned*

*You have slain [Human (G) - lvl 2 / Archer - lvl 5] – Experience earned. 243 TP earned*

*You have slain [Human (G) - lvl 3 / Warrior (Light) - lvl 7] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 471 TP earned*

*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 6 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (G)] has reached level 3 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*

*You have slain [Human (G) -lvl 3 / Warrior (Light) - lvl 6] – Experience earned. 394 TP earned*

*You have slain [Human (G) -lvl 3 / Archer - lvl 7] – A small amount of bonus experience earned for killing an enemy with a class above your class level. 654 TP earned*

*You have slain [Human (G) -lvl 4 / Archer - lvl 9] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 1167 TP earned*

*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 7 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*

The gains were good, and he was especially surprised to see that Nicholas had been level 9 with quite a lot of tutorial points too, indicating that he had indeed killed a lot of beasts. He was strong, after all. It made Jake wonder if Richard lied when he said that he was level 9, but it was honestly inconsequential for now.

He only had a single free point left from the last level-up, as he mid-way through the fight threw all his points into perception. Perception was, without a doubt, the stat that he liked the most, and he felt like it had great synergy with his bloodline ability. Based on that, he decided just to drop his one free point into perception, as he opened his newly upgraded status menu.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (G) – lvl 3]

Class: [Archer – lvl 7]

Profession: N/A

Health Points (HP): 257/340

Mana Points (MP): 88/140

Stamina: 151/210

Stats

Strength: 21

Agility: 22

Endurance: 21

Vitality: 34

Toughness: 13

Wisdom: 14

Intelligence: 14

Perception: 37

Willpower: 12

Free points: 0

making his current also increase by 40. Which ultimately

Tutorial Panel

63 days

Total Survivors Remaining: 987/1200

TP Collected: 4629

213 people dead. More than one-sixth of the total amount of those who had entered the tutorial. Not that Jake helped that

or little, but according to the rules, he got half the TP of people he killed, so he assumed it had to be a lot. If Nicholas gave him 1167, he would have had double that at 2334 which was still only a bit over half of what he currently

points was rather respectable, though, as Nicholas had been level 9, while Jake was only level 7. But it did kind of make sense, as he took the accumulated points of people who had killed plenty of enemies to get to their levels. He also had no clue exactly how much TP different enemies

level 4 one. The sample size was way too small, but maybe the points just doubled for every level? Though that seemed insane. It did kind of fit with a level 10 boar giving a total of 512, and him

that would mean a level 11 beast would give 1024, a level 12 2048, then 4096, and so on. It just seemed way too extreme to work like that. A level 20 beast would give a whopping 524.288 points, which was just absolutely insane if true. Granted, he had no idea how strong a level

to think about, and he would just have to go hunt beasts to find out how many points

closed all his menus and got up feeling refreshed in both mind and body despite only relaxing for ten minutes. He walked over to where he had fought Nicholas walking up to the dead man’s body. Jake could still

to dig with. He refused to leave the man’s body for a bunch of overgrown badgers or deer to eat, so just leaving the body out in the open was not an option. Logically, it was a waste of time, but one

by creating sparks with two daggers, one of which he had taken from one of the dead archers. It was in no way a glorious pyre, but it got

same place for a couple of hours while preparing and burning the body, no one showed up. Jakes guessed that Richard had decided not to send any more would-be assassins

bathed in full clothes, his dress-shirt and

having his cloak return to being more brown than red, he decided to set out once more and finally get his solo-hunting underway.

hour ago. They knew to return to their original camp once the job was done, and he had nearly expected to meet them there. It took

good at reading people, and his group of survivors clearly listened to him and respected him. He was protective of them, but Richard only saw that as a bonus. Despite only interacting with the young man for a bit over half an hour, he had already come to have a modicum of respect for

only thing he was annoyed at was the lack of information he got on the

He seemed to barely know the guy. The only thing he knew was that he was good with a bow

him returning made him worried. The young man had been self-confident to the level of being ridiculous, and Richard was starting to fear that it had not all been bravado. Most of it had been without a doubt as he was pretty sure he remembered one of

two would be more than annoying. They had poured quite a few resources into them after all, raising

Richard had no confidence in fighting the man head-on. He was strong before the tutorial, and in here, he was only stronger. He did have

new arrivals looked about, with Richard nodding at the progress in his absence. The camp was basic, to say the least, but they had started constructing some make-shift huts using sticks and leaves, with some grander buildings

immediately recognize him. A haggard teenager with cuts and bruises all over stumbled out the trees, making

youth. Richard instantly turned serious as several questions quickly popped up in his head. Could they have met a dangerous beast out there? Another group?

he practically collided with him. Before the kid could open his