The Primal Hunter

Jake walked beside the young caster as the teenager happily chatted away. Jake was taken aback from learning about two massive camps that combined held nearly all the remaining survivors in them. He had come here looking for the source of mana before, but instead, he found a caster, and from his aura, it didn’t feel like it was him. Oh well, this is fine too.

The archer was able to remain relatively relaxed as he walked. He had naturally inspected the young man when they first met.

[Human – lvl 24]

He was happy to see that it now worked on humans finally. It only showed race level, making Jake have no idea about the teenager's class or profession's details. He knew he was a caster based solely on his clothes.

Jake didn’t feel like sharing any personal information either, despite the other party's subtle, and not so subtle, probes. The caster called himself William or Will for short. He had stressed the last part quite a bit. Being friendly was all well and good, but Jake seriously didn’t like the guy. He was far too chippy and animated to appear genuine.

All of that was naturally ignoring the fact that William was likely going to try something. He wasn’t sure what, but he had a feeling. If he had to make a guess, Jake would guess a classic ambush, or maybe he would just try to backstab him at some random point?

Jake wasn’t afraid, though. He was low-key looking forward to it. With the kid being a well of information, he saw no reason not to travel together for a bit. It would also allow him to better understand the level of power other survivors possessed. Even if Jake couldn’t win, he was confident in escaping with his high vitality and toughness.

They walked a while, the teenager still talking and Jake giving short brief answers. His Sphere of Perception passively making him aware of his surroundings like always. He was still half-expecting an ambush to be somewhere, but no matter how long they walked, he saw nothing.

Suddenly William stopped as he knelt, motioning Jake to do the same. Perfectly aware that nothing was in the area, Jake nevertheless played along. This is silly.

“Did you spot that? I have a skill that allows me to see hidden concentrations of mana, and there is a big ambush just up ahead. They haven’t spotted us yet, but I am unsure how many there are,” the teenager said as he pointed down the small hill they were approaching.

“What do you want me to do?” Jake asked, trying to act as seriously as he could. His sphere still didn’t pick up quack. While he wasn’t going to rule out people being able to hide from it, there sure as hell wasn't anyone close.

“You are an archer, right? Can you maybe go up that hill we passed earlier and try and see if you can spot anything from up there? I know you guys got, like, super high perception, right?” William asked, motioning with his hands once more. “Don’t worry, I will keep watch here and help in case they try anything!”

Jake nodded along as he listened. Cool story. Yet he followed the directions. Was he really going with that?

Jake started slowly walking up the hill, going backward, trying to act as if he was still actually looking for an ambush. William had turned his back to Jake, as he seemingly focused hard to keep an eye on things.

After a few meters, Jake turned his back to William, and the moment he did, a barrage of daggers flew soundlessly out from beneath the casters robe. Jake couldn’t help but smirk internally as the expected attack came, but he quickly frowned his brows a bit at the power and number of attacks.

Fourteen daggers were coming. Without any hesitation, he jumped to the side, all the blades missing their initial attempt to skewer him. As he barely got a footing, the daggers turned in the air and swiftly came his way once more. A bow appeared in Jake's hand with a quick motion, as he dodged once more and returned an arrow towards the caster.

William had turned towards Jake at this point, surprised that the archer had dodged his sneak attack. Even as he dodged the second and third blow, the archer seemed to have eyes on his back. The counterattack was quickly blocked by William, as he was once again surprised.

What surprised him this time was not the power, but the lack of it. The arrow had been weak. He doubted the attack was from someone with even 100 strength. Something pretty much all physical fighters had - especially one an even higher level than himself.

The arrow thus easily got blocked by his iron wall, as he continued to manipulate the daggers. This was by far the most slippery foe William had ever faced. He wasn’t as fast as others he had met, but he seemed to be perfectly aware of all the attacks aimed at him.

The arrows continued as he blocked again and again. It felt like a waste of time, but the archer just kept shooting. Not wanting to lose momentum, William started deploying walls of iron to try and trap the archer, but he kept weaving in and out, never having more than one side blocked at a time.

He couldn’t lessen his control too much on the daggers or the walls,

own mind relatively relaxed throughout all this. He felt in control, and he felt the kinetic energy of the daggers lower than expected. The walls were a

retreating more and more, as he saw the caster start chasing him. The wall of

managed to jump a reasonable distance back, he felt the caster somehow slide himself forward, almost as if he was flying. No, he

the caster. Dagger of Bloodletting in hand, he managed to close

back, penetrating into his flesh. However, his movements were unaffected as he vaulted over the wall of

surprised by Jake's gamble as he scrambled to activate mana barrier, one of his starting skills. The barrier barely did anything as the dagger came down. William did manage to slide himself backward

damage from the daggers in his back than the minor cut he had inflicted. Of course, he didn’t know about Jake’s ridiculous vitality. And he hadn’t noticed the blood already on

started getting slightly dizzy, losing control for a moment allowing the archer to close in a bit more. William, in panic,

fuck? he yelled in his mind, now genuinely panicking. He had experienced poisoning from the evolved badgers before, but this felt way worse. To make matters even more horrifying, the archer

only a couple of meters away, William made his final gambit. No longer aiming to necessarily kill his enemy anymore, all he thought of was to escape. Even if he won,

a bright light reminiscent of a flashbang, as small

only managed to raise his hands as the metal hit him. The metal's momentum shot him backward tens of meters before he finally hit a tree, unfortunately only pushing the daggers in his back

as he manipulated his own body once more. Jake quickly lost track

back. They hurt like hell, but his bodily strength was not comparable to an average human anymore. Ripping the daggers out took a while because some of them were

was perhaps even worse than his back. The scrap metal that William blasted him with at the end had quite the power behind them. Luckily his cloak had absorbed a lot of the impact, leaving it

on the floor breathing heavily, Jake meditated as he thought back on the fight. He had underestimated the other party. He had seemed carefree and inexperienced

yet were already questionable. He didn’t have any clue as to William's relative power compared to

He had confidence in facing one caster of that level, maybe even two if he got the jump, but anything more, and he would

very careful to reveal nothing about the powers of others. He did, however, mention that both bases combined had numbers in the hundreds. If facing just one other survivor had ended up with him losing nearly a third of his

likely as there was still a chance the caster wouldn’t make it. Before his charge, Jake had used Blood of the Malefic Viper to soak his dagger in his

did, could they make any detoxification potions? Smiths, tailors, and builders had all been mentioned, so them having professions was indisputable. It was also very believable that they would keep any knowledge of alchemy hidden from outside sources, along with other powerful

trying to seek out his former colleagues. He had parted with Richard by killing a bunch of

able to seek them out with his head held high, and at least the confidence to escape if things went sideways. So, he

potion and drank it. It filled his pool back up quite a bit, his body visibly healing. I need

depths of the forest once more, he started

proudly at her creations. They were only inferior-rarity and didn’t offer any stats or anything. But it did give her plenty

nice. Made for a certain someone,

who had taught her a lot of the techniques she currently used. Caroline jokingly hit Joanna on the shoulder, reprimanding

so cute together; it reminds me of when I first met Mike…” Joanna said, her bright smile dropping towards

happened to everyone else,“ Caroline said, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder. “I am sure he is just in another tutorial, and I

such a sweetheart. No wonder

archer stormed over to them,

an emergency!

archer. Around the gate to enter their camp, she saw

was William, she was taken aback. One of his arms was entirely black,