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.

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

himself of the description for one last

Quiver (Common)] – A quiver enchanted with the

him well, but it was time to upgrade it. Taking the token, he used it on the quiver as light enveloped it for a few moments. Within

pretty much identical to the old one. The only difference was the slightly more delicate feathers on the arrows, along with the

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

again, all Jake had hoped for was just to get arrows that were of higher quality,

examined them closely. The shaft was still made of wood, but Jake couldn’t even bend

to a curved broadhead type. The difference was

Throughout his life doing archery, Jake had

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

best design to penetrate an animal’s skin, but each shot’s 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

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 when it had to go through

as the small tip was thin and sharp, making it easily deflected whenever hitting with a less

someone with a knife. The tips were

a bit of pressure on his hand while grasping the arrows to draw blood. Now he only had to press

he wanted. It was a tool for cutting, not a tool for substantial impacts. The likely cause of death

perfect for Jake. His main goal was to draw blood

out the hemotoxins against more powerful opponents. His necrotic type poisons

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

opponent of vital energy. Most beasts didn’t have high vitality, but this type of arrow would be far better for

and threw the new quiver over his shoulder. It was

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

the volcanos. The closest one also happened to be the smallest one, making Jake believe whatever was found there had a lower difficulty

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

were only in their mid-forties. Lower level than many of the badgers, and far lower

the fire element, the earth element, and the ice/water element, respectively, based on his previous encounters with their

Jake’s opinion to pose

out, he decided not to use any poison. Better to just test the use

for a powerful one to test the durability of the

please don’t break, Jake prayed as

it was nothing, as it left a triangular wound. The wound itself was larger than the arrowhead

for nearly three meters before it stopped. The creature naturally

as one of them spit out a shard of ice while the other fired out a stream of small sharp rocks, each with the power of a bullet fired from a modern automatic

but at the same time, far too slow for Jake as he quickly dodged the assault from the two beasts with a quick sidestep

bow as it mid-flight split