The Primal Hunter

The newly gained Infused Powershot shot the arrow at an unprecedented speed as it hit the Alpha Venomfang Badger right in its midsection. The powerful attack tore straight through the beast's body as it exited out the other way, piercing any vital organ in the way.

Jake was overjoyed at his method working and wanted to read through the notification with the upgraded skill, but was quickly brought back to reality by the Alpha's mad roar, as it charged towards him with reckless abandon.

He quickly realized the gravity of the situation as he was forced to jump to the side to avoid its mad charge.

His bow had broken upon releasing the arrow, his sword was still hanging from the beast's chin, as it seemed to have gotten stuck on something, and his other bow had been thrown who-knows-where after the mad rampage of the creature.

But he did have one big thing going for him in the big hole torn straight through the creature, coupled with the wounds left behind by a few arrows and the piece of flesh it had torn off itself. Instead of the bleeding stopping from these wounds, it had now started again, the hemotoxin doing its work.

The beast was also no longer as bright as before. The Infused Powershot seemed to have thoroughly enraged it, making it thrash around uncontrollably. However, the large movements only served to worsen its wounds.

A problem for Jake, though, was his inability to capitalize on the situation further. He didn't have a bow nor a sword, and trying to stab it with arrows or his dagger in melee didn't seem like a good idea either. So, he went with perhaps the most boring approach and kited it around, letting blood-loss do the job for him.

After running around for a few minutes, he finally found his bow as it appeared in his sphere. With it in hand, he could continue to land potshots on the beast whenever an opportunity presented itself. These arrows were the ones soaked with Necrotic Poison, making them all the more deadly.

In an attempt to take less damage, the beast ended up taking more as it ripped out all the poisoned arrows shortly after they hit it. Huge chunks of flesh were torn out, but the Alpha could not regenerate as every last shred of vitality was spent trying not to succumb to blood loss.

The badger started getting slower as pools of blood soaked into the already moist soil. Its screeches got less intense as it got weaker and weaker.

This naturally only made it easier for Jake to do more and more damage to the beast, making the conclusion of their fight inevitable.

Finally, the beast fell on the ground after Jake landed an arrow on one of its legs. It still tried to crawl forward, but with it barely moving, he safely finished it off by finally landing an arrow in its eyes, penetrating into the skull.

With a breath of relief, he looked at the dead beast. It had been the strongest enemy he had ever faced by far. The fight had given him a feeling he had missed for a long time. Everything had been too easy after he exited the challenge dungeon.

He didn't count the ambush by Richard as that wasn't a fight but a one-sided attack. A battle he didn't even want to have, based on false pretenses. That time had only been about escaping… he hadn't been in the right headspace, but if it ever happened again… no, he would never allow himself to be so stupid as to land in such a situation a second time. And if he was, he wanted just to be strong enough to dominate the opposition.

To do that, Jake needed to challenge himself and improve, but every other fight had just been too simple. Jake had barely taken damage in most of them, and both his stamina and mana rarely took a hit.

A few good fights had been here and there, but nothing to really stroke his desire for a real challenge. But now, he had finally gotten one. It was a satisfying feeling, to be sure.

Looking at his notifications, he got a level, but what he instead focused on was his surprise at the badger level.

*You have slain [Alpha Venomfang Badger – lvl 71] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 102000 TP earned*

has reached level 40 - Stat points allocated, +4

so much weaker. He trusted the instincts that told him the beast hadn't evolved to D-grade

he could have gotten a worse class or profession, so could one

He had once been a snake, a beast of some sort. But he had transformed to become a dragon, and even now, he had the form of a scaled, very human-looking man.

stats and skills. It would certainly explain why a level-gap of only a ten or so between badgers could mean

get in the future. For now, however, he had

been stuck between two teeth, and the creature had only made it worse as it tried to get it out, pressing it down into the flesh. Painful, to

and as it didn't possess the repair enchantment, he would have

at the notifications list and saw the

mana as a guide. Unlike a normal Powershot, the Infused Powershot does not require a long charging time but can be charged in a brief moment. The higher the magnitude of the charge, the greater the stamina and mana expenditure. Charging Infused Powershot may empower the skill further. Adds a small bonus to the effect of

system helping him there towards the end, though it was only slightly. Honestly, he did

been improved from Uncommon to Rare-rarity, and the charging time had been nearly removed. The scaling of the skill also now included intelligence, making Jake happy to finally use the stat. Well, he

while he also got 2 for every race level-up, giving him a total of 150 intelligence currently. It was his lowest stat by quite

mental stats, the others being wisdom and willpower, so it had to do something. Willpower, as an example, increased his mana regeneration, while his wisdom, of course, increased his maximum mana. If he had to guess, then intelligence maybe had

good to finally have the stat mentioned as providing bonuses to a

powerful than the old Powershot. Or, the potential for it to be powerful was higher. Powershot relied solely on his stamina along with his physical body's ability to withstand the pent-up energy until he released

making that also matter far more. The limiter

use a corresponding amount of mana as stamina. The damage

skill far stronger. Though it wasn't a simple

purely on stamina. He couldn't imagine many scenarios where he would do

doing, while Jake had only willed

I guess, Jake thought as he shrugged mentally. The system was a bit weird in many areas. Skills could clearly be unlocked or upgraded according to the user's actions, but he had yet to

coincidentally, was very relevant currently as he had just hit

class skills

a new skill, as the

the weapon skills still clogging up the beginning, followed by all

quite a bit but had ultimately passed

they would be useful, but he just didn't really feel like they appealed to him yet. Perhaps next time,

newcomers, after all. Of which there were a few - the first one not

– Sometimes, there is strength in simplicity. Charge a melee weapon with mana, striking for additional damage. Adds a minor bonus

useful, but Jake doubted it would be anywhere close as

at it, the goal was ultimately just to find an opportunity to create some distance and return to using