The Primal Hunter

By now, the entire valley was thoroughly cleaned up. Herbs, lockboxes, even beasts were all gone. It had taken hours, and the sun had gone down quite a while ago, but Jake was more than satisfied. While he had managed to get another level, it was the loot that made him most pleased.

For herbs, he had found a bunch he couldn’t recognize at all; however, his Sense of the Malefic Viper told him that they were useful, and using Identify on them confirmed that they were indeed magical herbs. All of them had been inferior or common-rarity except for a bush with berries in the middle of the valley.

[Soothing Bellberry Bush (Uncommon)] – A bush of Soothing Bellberries. The berries growing on this bush are known to have a soothing effect on the mind.

He quite frankly wasn’t sure if this was something he needed… but he took it anyway. His spatial necklace could allow herbs to survive within it, making it a suitable place to store the bush.

So, he did as any reasonable person would do, aka dug it up and threw it in said storage. He could always find out what to do with it at a later point.

Looking at one of the few berries that had already grown on the bush, he decided to at least give it a bite.

[Soothing Bellberry (Uncommon)] – A berry that provides a soothing effect to whoever consumes it.

Even if it somehow turned out to be poisonous, he was confident that his Palate of the Malefic Viper would nullify it. Even if it didn’t, he doubted the berry was able to do him much harm.

Popping the thing into this mouth, Jake did feel a cold feeling spread out from his stomach as he became a bit clearer in his head… but otherwise, he didn’t really notice anything. Then again, he was already pretty calm currently.

Of course, the bush and other herbs weren’t the loot he cared most about. No, it came from the haul he had gotten from a total of five lockboxes, six in total when you counted the one he found the ring in.

Three of common-rarity and two of uncommon-rarity had been found.

The common-rarity ones didn’t matter much, but he did find a dagger among them. The others were a pair of boots granting a bit of endurance, which weren’t exactly useful considering his rare Boots of the Wandering Alchemist, with the last one being a necklace made similar to the Ring of the Jade-eye Tiger. He put it all in his storage, but overall it was a bit disappointing.

The uncommon-rarity ones were, of course, the token as well as something he could actually use.

[Shortsword of Icy Winds (Uncommon)] – A Sword made out of Froststeel and amplified with Ice-affinity mana over a long time. Due to the material used, the blade afflicts anyone it hits with the elemental energy of frost. Enchantments: Invading Chill.

Requirements: Lvl 35+ in any class.

Well, he thought he could use it, but it required his class to be level 35… so in two levels. He also didn’t know if it worked properly with his Twin Fang Style. It wasn’t a weapon made of bone, so that bonus obviously didn’t apply, but he also didn’t know if it counted as a ‘shorter’ weapon or not. He felt like it should, considering it was a shortsword and all, but who knows?

And lastly was the aforementioned upgrade token.

[Tutorial equipment upgrade token (Uncommon)] – Upgrade any common rarity starting item from the tutorial to uncommon rarity.

This was where the real good stuff was at. Jake had been annoyed at his weak arrows for far too long. They simply broke far too easily, lessening the power of his Powershots by quite a lot, and he often found them unable to penetrate as deeply as he wanted to inflict his poisons better.

Early on, he had learned to increase his bow’s durability with mana, making even the inferior-rarity one manageable. After getting the upgraded common-rarity bow from the archer who had been in the party with the Blade of Nature warrior, he hadn’t had a single issue with it. At least not for now.

or less instantly upon injecting it. It did the same with the bow, but as he had his hands on it at all times, it didn’t really matter. He naturally couldn’t do the same with arrows as they would kind of lose their purpose if he started stabbing people with them like daggers. Something, granted, he had

at his quiver, he reminded himself of the

with the ability to conjure common-rarity arrows

token, he used it on the quiver as light enveloped it for a few moments.

quiver looked pretty much identical to the old one. The only difference was the slightly more delicate feathers on the arrows, along with the leather looking less worn and

Quiver (Uncommon)] - A quiver enchanted with the ability to conjure uncommon-rarity arrows

then again, all Jake had hoped for was just to get arrows that were

them closely. The shaft was still

of broadhead but had changed to a curved broadhead type. The difference was also that the cross-shaped

as deer or boars. Throughout his life doing archery,

like a bullet. Great penetrative force, but the injury would be small, and blood-loss lessened as the arrow itself would plug

damage would be reduced. The build did make them far more durable and less likely to bend and break when striking something. Against armor, it was also often the best type, unless one used special armor-penetrating arrows. However, those would usually be too unwieldy to

that he had before possessed the opposite problem. The arrowhead on those would often break as the arrow attempted to create a too big wound, which was especially challenging

was thin and sharp, making it easily deflected whenever hitting with a less than

single-sided, making it much like stabbing someone with a knife. The tips were also razor-sharp, easily

Now he only had to press a tiny bit before it

far more suitable for what he wanted. It was a tool for cutting, not a tool for substantial impacts. The likely cause of death from these arrows would be

main goal was to draw blood to inflict opponents

bring out the hemotoxins against more powerful opponents. His necrotic type poisons were clearly the deadliest; however, he had encountered beasts who could

small part did rot away due to the poison, it quickly regenerated as the beast charged him. He had to channel Touch of the Malefic Viper for well over a minute before he finally

effective at draining his opponent of vital energy. Most beasts didn’t have high vitality, but this type

It was like getting a new toy. A toy made to inflict horrendous

empty by now, forcing Jake to scale one of the two mountains surrounding it. Of the three volcanic-like mountains he could see, he chose the closest one. It was hard to climb these hollow mountains from

also happened to be the smallest one, making Jake believe whatever was found there had a

middle was far more giant compared to the other two he could see. As he ran up from the valley, he didn’t

mid-forties. Lower level than many

of them brown, and the last one blue. They possessed the fire element, the earth element, and the ice/water element, respectively, based on his previous encounters

that it ultimately mattered. The raptors were far too weak in Jake’s opinion to pose any threat. But they were

to use any poison. Better to

up a Powershot. He decided to go for a powerful one to test the durability of the arrows. After nearly ten seconds of charging, he released the arrow to the usual explosion of force as a wave of dust was kicked up all around

break, please don’t break, Jake

flesh like it was nothing, as it left a triangular wound. The wound itself was larger than the arrowhead due to the pure force

through the beast as it smashed into the ground, boring into the soil for nearly three meters before it stopped. The creature naturally screamed in pain as it fell down due to the force. It fell,

one of them spit out a shard of ice while the other fired out a stream

with a quick sidestep as he

bow as it mid-flight split into four, with three