The Primal Hunter

The inside of the cabin was far too hot for William, and yet he couldn’t make himself look away. With every swing that brought the hammer down and every spark released upon impact, he got more and more entranced.

The Smith had been planning all of this for a long time. He was currently doing the finishing touches on his magnum opus with vigor and skill that William could only sigh in admiration at.

He was making what looked like a breastplate at first sight, but if one looked closer, it could be seen that the shape was slightly off. This piece was only part of the final product, after all. A single layer of the armor that would be combined with the rest upon completion.

William’s greatest weakness was, without a doubt, his defensive capabilities. While he could kill almost anything in moments, the same was true for himself, being killed in return. The fight with Jake was a great example. A single cut and he had nearly croaked.

The Smith was aware of this weakness. Or he at least had assumed it was so. What he was making was not just a chestplate, but an entire set of armor. The metal looked like silver but based on how hard the man was hitting it, and how little it gave away, it clearly was something else.

He wanted to ask but based on the man’s facial expression; he seemed to be in deep concentration. William had quite a bit of insight into metals due to his class’s nature, and he could nearly see the mana and stamina oozing out of the man as it entered the armor. But what was even more impressive was how easily the armor absorbed everything.

When he injected mana into metals to attune them to his use with his manipulation skills, it usually came with a lot of waste. Especially if he had to take control of metal, he had not used before. But this armor greedily took in everything like a famished man at a feast.

He briefly considered it worth killing the man just for the metal alone, but for some reason, the thought just felt… wrong.

Wiping the sweat off his brows, the Smith smiled at William as he summoned another piece of the final armor as he started attaching them together. With his hammer raised once more, he continued the work. It looked simple, almost comically so, but William could see the intricate patterns in which the mana moved through the hammer as it entered the armor with every hit.

Hours passed, and even though it had been so long, neither of them felt the passage of time. William was too engrossed in the creation process while the Smith was wholly absorbed in his work.

Nobody came to disturb them during this time. Everyone was busy preparing for the final fight with the now-dead Hayden’s faction. With the isolation barrier in place, the cabin’s intense creation process didn’t make any disturbances to outsiders either.

Finally, the Smith breathed a sigh of relief as he put the hammer down. Taking the completed piece off the anvil, he smiled in satisfaction as he started cleaning it. William wanted to jump forward and grab the armor but decided against it. It was his, to begin with… but it felt wrong to take it before the Smith gave him permission to.

With a nod, the man finished cleaning the now shining silver armor. It looked like only a piece of plate mail that only covered the chest. It was solid but looked easy enough to move around in. But of course, William knew it wasn’t so simple. The Smith had attached several pieces of armor to it. Parts now seemingly integrated into the plate mail - a complete set of armor covering one from head to toe. Helmet, leg-guards, bracers, gloves, all of it had been melted into this final piece of armor.

This clearly showed how prepared the Smith had been. All of these were made from the beginning. He only had to do the final part. And for some reason, he had wanted William to bear witness to this last part of the armor’s creation.

Placing the now finished armor on a table, he called over the young man waiting in the room with him.

“Come over here, kid,” The bearded smith laughed. “Check out the armor. Not bad, eh?”

Not hesitating, William went forward as he identified the armor.

[Expanding Blessed Mithril Armor (Rare)] - An expertly crafted full suit of armor created by a skilled smith pouring in all their talent. Reaching a high rarity, if barely, this achievement has been achieved not through intricate enchantments but through pure strength of the materials used and the craftsmanship required for its creation. Extremely high ability to absorb and store mana. Enchantments: Expanding Armor. Kinetic Force Diffusion.

25+ in a

stats or something, but it sure was powerful. What he didn’t understand was what the Kinetic

Kinetic thing about?” William asked the smith, who, in turn, was closely observing

hits you with a big hammer or something like that. It disperses the force throughout the armor’s surface instead of a single point, effectively allowing the armor

like you can take some hits,” the

effective it was, but it sure as hell made the

are you satisfied?” The Smith asked

back. Not the fake smile he was used to but a

with anyone else in this tutorial. But for the first time, perhaps the first time in his life, he felt indebted to someone. He felt like

left some information on this for you… it’s about the war and the armor and what I hope for you to do. Open it when

eye for a second before continuing. “Now… for the

hunter was faster than thought possible by any pre-system human as he sprinted up the mountainous path. Despite his speed, however,

his waist, the small beasts zoomed up the path as they

teeth all dripped with acidic spit, making sizzling sounds

assault. The second he landed, he turned around as he fired an

by the arrow quickly started festering and rotting as the beast thrashed in pain and confusion. The other creatures simply ignored its death-throes as they leaped

beasts were relentless.

started chasing Jake nearly half an hour ago after he sniped a big buffalo-like animal. The beast had managed to survive the Powershot and had promptly charged at him. Jake had believed himself to be safe considering the nearly 100-meter tall cliff that he stood on as

wall. It was honestly one of the silliest things Jake had ever seen, but sadly he had been too occupied not getting smashed by

been rather long and only ended after he managed to

fight, but it had made quite the spectacle - a spectacle that had attracted a few of these pests. To his dismay, the first one who saw him started making loud shrieking noises, which attracted even more of the damn

retrievers. But they were incredibly fast and agile while also having highly toxic bites. Jake could handle being bitten as the poison didn’t really affect him due to his Palate of the Malefic Viper,

already killed more than ten of them, and yet five still chased him.

away from the two that had gotten closer as he landed another poisoned arrow on one of

The speed of the liquid was too fast for Jake to avoid as he simply covered his head and let it rain down on him. It did hurt a bit, but it honestly wasn’t

that the poor beasts were incredibly poorly matched against Jake. Their power focused on the use of acid and poison, two things Jake had significant resistance to. At the same time, they didn’t really have any particularly strong poison resistance of their

majority of Jake’s attempts to strike back, but in the end, it was a battle of

came through the venom excreted through their bites, which in the end only helped Jake recover a bit of mana every

ground. When it was down to two of them, Jake didn’t bother dodging anymore as he simply met them in melee. Getting hold of

the sky. Another reason he

taken from the archer who was with the nature warrior, he had used all the arrows in both

quiver. It should also help make his arrows better, making them not always break whenever he shot them. Even now, they often