The Primal Hunter

Jake ripped his knife out of the fallen Irontusk Boar, the same kind he had killed when he was still with his party. The level 10 beast had been quite the challenge for their entire team then, but this time he took it down solo with little trouble. It still took a bit more than twenty arrows in total, but the beast did fall. It was by far the most resilient beast out there.

Like its brethren, this one was surrounded by a bunch of small level 1 and 2 boars. All of which were quickly culled during the fight.

The boar was strong, fast, and a boss when it came to taking hits. But all it did was charge back and forth, attempting to trample him. He just had to kite it around and make it smash into things until it died.

However, his reason for attacking this particular boar-group was not solely for the sweet experience. The reason was that he had spotted an object in his Sphere of Perception hidden within a hollow log in the middle of the pig’s clearing.

In the log was hidden a small box. However, this box was not a nice jeweled one, but just bronze. Using Identify confirmed it indeed wasn’t as good as the jeweled one.

[Magical Bronze Lockbox (Common)] – A system-created magical lockbox enchanted with the ability to block off all types of attempts to peek inside before opened

Nevertheless, beggars can’t be choosers. He opened the lockbox and found a small round object. It looked like a stone coin. Not wasting any more time wondering what exactly he was holding, he identified it.

[Tutorial Equipment Upgrade Token (Common)] – Upgrade any basic starting item from the Tutorial to common-rarity.

An item that was by far the most game-like he had encountered. Just a straight-up upgrade token. Not that Jake was in any way disappointed by the result. The thought of upgrading his cloak or bow was a welcome one.

He did not even consider upgrading his knife despite how much he used it. After all, his goal was never to use the dagger unless absolutely necessary, and a stronger bow would allow him to kill things easier.

His quiver was also out of the question because it was already common-rarity. Quite self-explanatory, really.

It was a toss-up between the bow and cloak then. Looking at this cloak, it was tattered and badly damaged, so Jake wondered what the effect of upgrading it would be. If it mended the thing, it nearly made it worth it.

The bow would likely increase the damage he could do. He had thought that his increased strength would make the bow less effective by now, as he would draw it fully. He even feared that he would end up snapping it at one point. However, the bow held up strong, and he did not feel its durability reach any limits quite yet.

In fact, it almost felt like it kept getting more durable along with him. Like it somehow adjusted to his higher stats and kept the string taut and the wood healthy and resilient. It was a bit like some of the more modern compound bows with adjustable draw-strength.

Those used technology and physics, though. While Jake’s current wooden bow used magic or system-fuckery of some kind. Ultimately it didn’t matter much; what mattered was that his current bow was still capable of fully supporting his fighting style.

Thus, he decided to try and upgrade his cloak. He took it off and laid it across a stone as he held the token up. He wondered how to use it as a window popped up.

Use [Tutorial Equipment Upgrade Token (Common)] on [Archer’s Cloak (unranked)?

He quickly agreed as the token turned to dust that was carried off by the wind. At the same moment, his cloak rapidly mended and was cleaned of all the blood and dirt. It was like new again. It didn’t look like it had changed much except for a good dry-cleaning in a quick visual inspection.

Touching it, however, it felt far less coarse than before and far more comfortable to wear. Jake quickly focused on it and used Identify.

[Archer’s Cloak (Common)] – A cloak handed out for the Tutorial, now upgraded with a token. Made of resilient cloth that is resistant to slashing attacks. Enchantments: Self-Repair.

Requirements: Tutorial Attendee. Archer Class

While certainly less impressive than his bracers, the self-repair enchant itself made it worth it. Finally, he would not walk around looking like a murderhobo. Well, he kind of still looked like a murderhobo, just one wearing a nice cloak.

constant smell of sweat and blood enter his nostrils at every moment. He proceeded to scout a bit around, looking for more lockboxes. Finding nothing, he noticed it starting to get a little darker.

Tutorial Panel

62 days &

Total Survivors Remaining: 965/1200

TP Collected: 7335

the timer saying 15 hours now, that meant it had to be around 6 pm

what his plans for the night would be. He did not feel tired in the least as of yet, the improved stats doing work. He also took small

to be very active, but he doubted they would just leave him alone if he started to attack them. The problem, however, would be

of scouting his immediate surroundings,

seen earlier when he looked for loot. His sphere would be incredibly useful in a small closed-off space. And

not the ideal place to fight for a ranged combatant like him, but he

to burn, beasts to hunt, and loot to…

for boxes and killing beasts, but quickly noticed the issue of finding high-level beasts. He

to ignore anything below level 8 but did kill a couple, but quickly noticed

plague, but that did result in him missing out on several beasts to kill. He wasn’t going to attack other humans either. While Jake had killed quite a handful already, all of them were

wasn’t going to go full psycho and begin hunting

get really dark, he

his new bracers. They were incredibly strong, and he even had a level 9 badger bite down on them, discovering

a few small holes during his hunt, but they repaired

leaning against a tree as he conjured more arrows. It started to get too dark to hunt properly, and the beasts had also begun going idle. He had seen a group of deer that all

had seen embedded in a hill earlier, with it being too late to hunt anymore. Or perhaps calling it

he had encountered, but this one gave him a bit of a special feeling. He

he quickly found himself in complete darkness after barely entering and taking a single turn. The hill hadn’t been that big from the outside, but the

a musty cave. As he got in further and further, he spotted faint light in the distance. His sphere instantly made him aware that

to be met with a generic [Mushroom] message. Yeah, he was going to avoid touching those as he

with the downward pattern continuing like a spiral staircase. The mushrooms only got more numerous as he descended, soon not only being on the ground

dark-green moss also started appearing on the wall, he considered going back. He was not very educated when it came to fungi, but he knew

closed-off space surrounded by them, with potentially deadly spores floating in the air all around him. His Sphere of Perception was quite overpowered, but it did not allow him to spot minuscule objects like spores or particles

human lungs. The fact that a fungus can take

family who had a bad case of mold in their house, and they only found out when their youngest kid got really sick. It was an invisible, silent

infect him and take root within

was unique. And if Jake had learned anything from videogames or novels, it

reward, he thought to himself

he could not avoid stepping on mushrooms as he walked. Small spores were swept up, visible in the blue light, as he

danger-sense was

he had descended quite a bit, and the mushrooms were at peak-growth. The moss had

too late if these things were infectious anyway, so he decided

to this place. Nothing had changed for the entire hour; it was just more of the same. He even guessed he was stuck in a loop or something

half an hour after that, he had still not encountered his arrow. If he wasn’t walking in a circle, exactly how far had he

was that something good just had to be down