The Primal Hunter

There was little in his way as he made his way up the path. He was traveling on a slightly elevated hill, with a valley on each side as he ran at a brisk pace. A pace that could easily have allowed him to overtake some cars.

The road was steep, but it seemed almost… unnaturally made. Jake didn’t call it a road for no reason. It was clearly formed in a very deliberate way, being nearly flat ground, with not a single beast in the way. And if one needed more proof, it only became more apparent as he got closer to the peak, with the entire route being perfectly flat.

On the way, he also conjured new arrows to fill his newly upgraded quiver. To no surprise, the mana requirement per arrow was way higher than before, easily a tenfold increase. An increase of no consequence considering that wisdom still was his highest stat.

As he ran, he also carefully observed his surroundings. From his vantage point, he could now see the area far better. It was much like he expected, with a general setup of mountains and valleys.

There were five mountains - four off to the sides and one that was more massive than all the others in the middle. If Jake’s game theory held, the strongest beasts would, without a doubt, be found around or within the big mountain in the center.

After taking a good look around, he noticed that the valleys surrounding the mountain he was approaching all had one thing in common: An overflow of badgers. He had already killed an incredible number inside the valley he cleared out, but it seems it was only a small portion of their total number. Not that Jake was afraid of hunting the creatures to extinction.

Besides, this entire tutorial wasn’t really a sustainable eco-system to begin with. Sure, beasts were fighting and killing each other, but the scale at which they did it was far too low. Every single animal also seemed to be a carnivore, which was also weird considering the abundance of vegetation. Though considering how levels and the system worked, it made sense for pretty much any living being to focus on killing.

Deciding to pick up the pace, he started sprinting as he got closer and closer to the top. The path didn’t reach all the way to the peak of the volcano-like mountain but ended a few hundred meters below. But as he got closer, he noticed a hole in the side of it.

More accurately, a cave. The entrance wasn’t big, perhaps only allowing a small car through, but more than large enough for Jake to enter.

As he got within 25 meters or so of the cave, he came to a halt. Charging in didn’t seem like the best idea, even with his Sphere of Perception and danger perception. He didn’t feel any particular sense of danger at the cave entrance, and his intuition told him nothing was off.

To be safe, he prepared a few poisoned arrows. With an arrow at the ready, Jake slowly walked towards the cave entrance. He was perhaps overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.

As he got closer, his sphere naturally encompassed the cave and allowed him to see… nothing - just an ordinary damn cave leading into the mountain.

Not a single beast or any living thing for that matter, and It was honestly kind of anticlimactic. Yet Jake decided not to lower his guard anyway as he slowly walked through the entrance.

The cave led into a tunnel that gave Jake flashbacks to a certain mushroom-filled one. Of course, this one had no mushrooms, in fact, It didn’t have any light-sources at all. But it didn't matter; it wasn't long enough to prevent Jake from seeing light at both ends.

Getting closer to the end, he noticed that it opened up to a vast circular space - the hollow inside of the mountain.

Walking through the entrance, he found himself on a crevice overlooking yet another hidden paradise.

Despite what he had predicted, below him was a small forest. Calling it a forest was maybe overdoing it as there were not even a hundred trees due to the limited size, but it did look very serene and beautiful. It was more of a small thicket or grove, really.

A brief scan didn’t reveal any beasts, which did make Jake rather suspicious.

Jumping down, he started walking through the small patch of greenery. He did find a couple of herbs but nothing else worth noting. As he made his way towards the center, an object suddenly entered his sphere - an object that was all too familiar to him.

A door. The last time Jake had encountered such a door, it had changed his life quite drastically after all.

He didn’t hesitate as he approached the wooden door. After placing his hand on it, a message appeared just like the time with the Challenge Dungeon.

Tutorial Dungeon Discovered!

offer groups and individuals a chance to pursue strength and treasures through exploring the pocket dimensions known as dungeons. This variant is only found

Requirements to enter: N/A

Requirements to enter met.

party attempting the dungeon. Only one party allowed at a

Enter Dungeon?

Y/N

the message, it quickly became clear to him that this wasn’t the

It didn’t warn Jake of imminent death, and it even allowed whoever entered to just waltz right

the prompt, he felt his vision shift for a few moments before Jake found himself within yet another cave. A few moments later, a new

entered the dungeon: Badger’s

Defeat the Den

it, he nodded at the simplicity. This dungeon seems more like the videogame kind, he

made of stone, but earth and soil, making Jake believe that he was literally in

everywhere, and when he knelt, he could feel the soil’s moisture. This place was

the soil was filled with small rocks and pebbles everywhere. But the ground here was clean, pure earth, the kind any gardener

in his sphere, but then again, it only showed a long

thought to himself as he started walking forward. He was also pleased to discover that he still had all his equipment and that his spatial storage worked as expected. After all, the challenge dungeon had taken all his weapons, making Jake slightly afraid this place would do the

for less than a minute, the tunnel started expanding. First, only a little, and then a lot, until it completely opened up into a vast underground space. This is also where he finally had discovered what he had hoped

around the place in small groups of 4 to 6, as

badger that was all on its lonesome. The badger was far bigger and more menacing than all the others. Its colors were no longer the same mix of brown and black,

badgers in the small groups and was a bit

Badger –

was nearly 10 levels above the ones he usually encountered outside. The most powerful he had met had been level 52.

Badger – lvl

at a level he couldn’t identify, but his intuition told him it wasn’t that much higher than the other

the level range for his Identify was. After he had gotten both his profession and class, it had gone up to common-rarity, where it still was. That had allowed him to use Identify on humans and to identify far

was unsure. He hadn’t been able to Identify the buffalo either,

exit of this cave was located right behind it, meaning he would have to go through it if he wanted to proceed. He tried to

Venomfang Badger –

the level, though he could see the name – it was an Alpha. He could vaguely feel that while the beast was stronger than the others by far… it hadn’t evolved to D-rank yet. He could only imagine the power-spike such an evolution

power from a beast evolving was far more than humans from what he could tell. The difference between a level 24 beast and one at 25 was massive. The

as big. Evolution did provide some immediate benefits but

remembered when he got his level 25 race evolution; it didn’t really change much. He did grow a few centimeters, but other than that, nothing really happened. He wasn’t

their race seemed to be more qualitative rather than quantitative. It didn't give a massive immediate stat increase, but was more gradual, as the stats provided by any evolved race or class was far more than before, with the race evolution just serving to build

not really have many skills of note. They maybe had one or two, but that was it. The Venomfang Badgers, as an example, had

races possessed the same nine stats that he had. And even if they did, no one said it had

really require stats such as intelligence, wisdom, willpower, and even things such as perception as much as humans did, they would have far more energy left to focus purely

as it only gave physical stats. However, his race provided a bonus to all stats, pretty much forcing a balanced approach to some