The Primal Hunter

Jake knew that he had some long days of alchemy before him. Looking at the dungeon challenge window, he exited the bedroom to the laboratory.

Time remaining: 26 Days – 6:21:57

He had only spent a bit over three and a half days in this dungeon. He had, in his mind, plenty of time to find a cure, but not enough time to slack off. With his evolution out of the way and being completely refreshed from the process, he had no excuse not to get to it.

He had days of hard work ahead of him. No way he was going to die here. A plan was already beginning to form in his mind on how to pass the challenge. One he could only snicker at for its sheer stupidity. But sadly, the plan did not include him leaving early. He knew there was an entire tutorial going on outside, but that could wait. Jake couldn’t help but think of his colleagues still outside and decided to check the tutorial panel.

Tutorial Panel

Duration: 58 days & 11:22:58

Total Survivors Remaining: 754/1200

A bit more than a third had died by now. Jake dearly hoped that his colleagues were not among them. While he held no love for Richard, the guy seemed competent enough, and he knew that if Jacob was good at anything, it was to get in the good graces of others. He believed their chances were good unless something very unpredictable happened.

Shaking his head, he threw the thought away. It was a waste of time to worry about others when he was already battling death. He would seek them out when he got out of there. For now, there was nothing he could do to help them in any way. The best way to help them was to help himself.

Determined, he cleaned the bowl, got the ingredients, and jumped right back into making more poisons and potions. He had a long grind ahead of him.

Jacob dragged his fingers across his chin, feeling the stubble that had now grown into a full-on beard. He hadn't had a beard for years now, always going with the clean-cut style. Not that he thought there was anything wrong with having a beard. He avoided one mainly for professional reasons as, while the company dress-code did not directly prohibit beards, it strongly discouraged them. It was a silly rule, but the company directors were quite conservative and believed beards to be unprofessional for some reason.

Not that any of that mattered anymore. The world was fucked. Jacob did feel rather sour in having spent so many years climbing the corporate ladder for it to all turn out to be a massive waste of time. That time would have been better spent going to self-defense classes. Fencing or archery or pretty much any sports teaching you just minor combat skills would be more useful.

He had never been a fighter. At least not in the literal sense. He had never been in a fight his entire life outside of maybe minor scuffles as a child. Instead, he focused on studying, excelling in academics, graduated top of his class in university, and became the youngest department chief the company had ever seen.

But now, in this tutorial, he was low on the ladder. As it turns out, Richard owned a private security firm before the initiation and had come here with many of his employees. Of anyone Jacob had met so far in the tutorial, Richard excelled the most.

He was also the first one Jacob knew of that had evolved and then afterward even the first to also evolve his class. Jacob himself was only level 19 in his class still, but he had evolved his race. The entire race evolution thing was… perplexing.

When someone evolved, they would disappear for a few seconds before appearing again in the same place. The effects of evolution were also interesting. After evolving, one could vaguely feel something in the air. Some kind of energy. It didn’t take long to conclude that this new energy was mana. Not that anyone knew what to do with this new mana sense.

By now, they had been in this damn place for only a bit over two weeks. Even in the beginning, Jacob was well aware of his own lack of combat prowess, but it had only become more apparent. He wasn't the lowest level among his peers, but far from the top.

of the original 10, they were 7, maybe only 6, left as he had neither heard nor seen anything of Jake since

got unlucky and nearly tripped, allowing one of the beasts to bite into his neck. He had not died instantly, but they had run out of health potions. With no healer in sight... he bled out on their way

entirety of Richards group, was not with them at the time. In fact, they only had four healers in their entire camp, despite having already surpassed a hundred people. The highest leveled healer was Caroline, having upgraded her class a day or

easy, then it got a bit more difficult between 10 and 25, and then even harder once more

and Lina. Jacob still remembered the two vibrant youths when they parted. Both stronger than him at the time. Yet they died.

a while, and there were even plans of merging the two. Then Lina and Dennis’s group got ambushed by the other

must have taken the initiative on their own to strike back, as a group from the other camp also

claimed they had nothing to do with the first attack. Fights broke out

to see the number of total survivors falling by the

Tutorial Panel

49 days &

Total Survivors Remaining: 599/1200

five days, but it still flared up on days where larger groups from the two camps encounter each other. On the worst day, 21

more things had been done.

and finding beasts below level 10 was borderline impossible at this point. Most in the immediate area were around level 20, but only a short walk away, and

in geography. It was across the line that the beasts grew in level. Jacob doubted there even existed any beasts below level 10 in the entire forest

people with classes above level 25, but for lower leveled groups like his own, those beasts were formidable. Many of them had

would not stand a chance if they faced

professions, Joanna, who had been the first ever to get one, was still the highest leveled crafter. While she was still a bit away from her profession upgrading at

far from disappointing. Her leg had regrown. The wooden leg had simply been whisked away, and a newly formed leg had

and given all those with

at first, but she had eventually caved with the urging on from the other crafters around her. It had only been two days ago, but she held quite the political power within the entire camp by now, as professions' value had started to show. She had thrown most of her new responsibilities to Jacob, which he

cooked by them allowed wounds to heal faster, and many could even help the body fight off potential infections or

man who had worked as a foreman in a steelworks before the tutorial along with being a heavy warrior, who had even chosen a hammer as his starting weapon. As it turned out, the man even did smithing in his free time and had selected a hammer as it felt more natural in

warrior. He had been the second person to evolve his race after Richard, and if Jacob’s predictions were correct, he was currently the highest leveled when it came to race in their entire camp, despite not having upgraded his class yet. However, he was

he just went by The Smith. Without a doubt, he had proved himself invaluable as time went on, and many of their weapons started to require repair. Many upgrade tokens had been found, giving the equipment self-repair, but it only accounted for less than a fourth of their

all of the work for free

of the newly discovered professions, one going by the name of 'builder'. As the name implied, they could build houses and even possessed

magic. After his evolution, he packed quite the punch, throwing out sharp shards of ice. On a side-note, his new

only Jacob and Joanna had not gained a class upgrade. Bertram, who had been at Jacob’s side through everything so far, had gotten to 25 earlier that same day and a

never got comfortable with the bow and instead ended up getting the trapping skill at level 5. He still used his bow, but now mainly

reason why Casper had leveled up before himself was due to the conflict with the other faction. Night-raids had started happening four days ago, and Richard had increased the number of people on watch significantly.