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.

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

quiver, he reminded himself

with the ability to conjure common-rarity arrows when injected

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

only difference was the slightly more delicate feathers on the

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

had hoped for was just to get

quiver. Jake took them out and examined them closely. The shaft was still made of wood, but Jake couldn’t even

big transformation too. They were still a type of broadhead but had changed to a curved

boars. Throughout his life doing archery, Jake had mostly used bullet-type arrows, where the shape of the arrowhead was similar to that

type of arrows, however, also had the issue of leaving a wound like a bullet. Great penetrative force, but the injury would be small,

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

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 hide and

worse as the small tip was thin and

design of the arrowheads was a middle-point between these. It was single-sided, making it much like stabbing someone with a

of pressure on his hand while grasping the arrows to draw blood. Now he only had to press a tiny bit before it penetrated the skin. This would make applying poison with Blood of the Malefic

he wanted. It was a tool for cutting, not a tool for substantial impacts. The likely cause of death from these arrows would be hemorrhage compared to

Jake. His main goal was to draw blood to inflict opponents

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

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 overpowered the

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

he got up and threw the new quiver over his shoulder. It was

was 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 the

of the volcanos. The closest one also happened to be the smallest one, making

to the other two he could see. As he ran up from the valley, he didn’t encounter any beasts for a bit, until he finally met

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

one of them brown, and the last one blue. They possessed the fire element, the earth element, and the ice/water element, respectively,

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

to use any poison. Better to just

durability of the arrows.

don’t break, Jake prayed

like it was nothing, as it left a triangular wound.

arrow penetrated straight 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

Elemental energy gathered in their mouths 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

the two beasts with a quick sidestep as he counterattacked.

split into four, with three of them hitting the brown