The Primal Hunter

The arrow whistled through the air towards the unaware boar. It penetrated deep into the chest of the beast as it whimpered and walked only a couple of meters before collapsing. The second beast wasn’t any luckier as an arrow hit it first in its snout, followed by another to the eye shortly after, endings its life nearly instantly.

The final overgrown pig managed only to get hit by a single arrow before it finally saw the attacker. A rather unimpressive man stood on a small hill overlooking the clearing. Brown hair and eyes, a mediocre face, donning a cloak with a color palette a mix between brown and dried blood.

It charged at the man, and with its head kept low, managed to avoid any fatal hits. However, it helped it little as the archer dodged the boar just before it hit him and proceeded to stab his dagger into the side of the beast.

Squealing in pain, it tried to hit him with its tusks, only to once more be evaded and have yet another dagger plunged in its throat. It barely managed to gurgle out a few noises before it, too, collapsed.

Jake smiled to himself as he ripped his knives out of the beast, cleaned them on his cloak, and put them back in the two sheathes he had in his belt. He was starting to enjoy having two melee weapons, having kept the one he took from one of Richards archers.

He even considered getting the dual-wielding skill at some point, but that was for when he got his next skill selection. And speaking of levels, he took a brief look at his notification, noticing none had been gained yet. Then again, it was only the first group of beasts he had killed since burning Nicholas.

*You have slain [Boar – lvl 5] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 16 TP earned*

*You have slain [Boar – lvl 6] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 32 TP earned*

*You have slain [Boar – lvl 8] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 128 TP earned*

The one thing he did get out of it was to confirm his temporary theory that each level of the beasts doubled the amount of TP earned. He still severely doubted that it would work like that all the way, as the multiplication would just get silly at some point.

He also took notice of the part about bonus experience. His current level in his class was 7, yet he was counted as at a lower level. The only explanation he could find was that level was based on his Race Level and not his class level.

It did seem a bit imbalanced working like that, though. For him to kill a beast at his own level was incredibly easy. Even if one ignored his bloodline, he believed that even someone as untalented in combat as Jacob could manage a beast with an equal race-level as his own. Were humans simply favored by the system?

He had also noticed that the levels of enemies did indeed increase as he moved further and further into the forest. The place was huge, and he looked forward to knowing what was at the center of this whole tutorial area. In the beginning, the tutorial announcement had mentioned beast lords or something, so perhaps those were there.

Not that it mattered at the current time. What mattered now was levels. He felt free for the first time since entering the tutorial. Like the entire world was open for him to explore. Well, the entire world currently being this tutorial area.

Jake, however, quickly noticed a problem. The number of beasts in this area was severely lacking. So, to find more, he kept running inwards towards the center of the tutorial area. After only half an hour, where all he encountered was a group of low level badgers, he finally came to a big clearing with a waterhole in the middle.

Around the water, he counted five deer and what looked like a stag. It had a huge crown of antlers and seemed to be teeming with power. The antlers themselves were unnatural, to say the least, literally glowing with dim light that he saw reflected on the surface of the water.

Jake quickly used identify on it and was pleasantly surprised.

[? – lvl 13]

the beast had some kind of magical ability. Jake himself was only level 7, and he was a bit unsure

the stag were also all level 8 or 9. He was confident that he could kill a couple of them before they managed to reach him if he used good positioning, but if they did catch up to him… yeah, he was not going

his arrows, and that didn’t even kill it. While he doubted that the stag was as resilient as the boar despite its

him quite a bit more power. By then,

look for other

bird, based on the fact that their wings were way too small and their build way too bulky. From their long legs, he also

was the fact that he could hear them clucking. They, however,

really only carnivores in this damn place? he thought. It just felt like a kind of fucked up and unoptimized eco-system that, quite frankly, made no sense. There were plants and

the arrow like it was nothing. He could not identify them, so he had no idea if they were secretly overpowered super-beasts. But whatever

he had decided to just call them. He used Identify on them one

were good prey. Their necks were incredibly exposed if

through its neck, hitting a tree behind it. The beasts that hadn't been hit raised their heads from the badger they had been pecking at and spotted Jake as another arrow came. The one that had been hit only

Not really intentionally, though, as they were just shifting their legs to get into

He managed to shoot another arrow, hitting one of them in the chest, only doing insignificant damage based on it barely reacting. They reached him in mere seconds, as

ostriches fighting style revolved around quick pecks with their beaks, reminiscent of a snake trying to bite, and powerful kicks. Without his danger sense, he would have been pecked to death within

was how exposed their necks were when they snapped forward. With a backhanded blow, he managed to plunge his dagger into the neck of the one he had wounded earlier. This, however, left him open as the other kicked him. He barely managed to raise his other

dislocate. He barely

knew where it was due to his

his arm hung uselessly to his side. Dodging was easy enough with only one enemy left and

was unable

for a bit before it, too, finally fell dead from the blood-loss. He quickly checked his notification but was quickly disappointed by

– lvl 8] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your

– lvl 8] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy

[Ostrich – lvl 8] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy

Most of them seemed just to be ‘generic animal’ even if they weren’t completely equivalent to that animal. Then

more questioned why he wasted so much time pondering

shoulder that was clearly dislocated, and while he knew that you could ‘snap’ it into place, it was not something he had ever done or tried. He had seen some videos on the internet of it

hour positioning his arm in weird ways, slamming his shoulder into trees, and doing weird movements trying to snap it back in place. The

from his self-inflicted torture, he sat down on a stone as his shoulder sent waves of pain throughout his