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*

Hunter] has reached level

he double-checked. That seemed way too low. Several badgers had been in their 60's and were so much weaker. He trusted the instincts that told him the beast hadn't evolved to

beast was different. A variant, like how he could have gotten a worse class or profession, so could one perhaps get worse races. Or maybe only beasts could, as Jake

the Malefic Viper. 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. Several considerable changes to his race appeared through that line of evolution, though always keeping the reptilian theme. For him to have had several variant races throughout that journey could only

same. Variants appeared among them, providing better stats and skills. It would certainly explain why a level-gap of only a ten

future. For now, however,

as it 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.

fine. Jake had feared that it would be damaged, and as it didn't possess the repair enchantment, he would have no way

back at the notifications list and saw the

The higher the magnitude of the charge, the greater the stamina and mana expenditure. Charging Infused Powershot may empower the skill further. Adds

his attempt and given him a new skill. He could feel the system helping him there towards the end, though

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 did have Touch of the Malefic Viper, but that skill required him to touch his opponent,

got 2 for every race level-up, giving him a total of 150 intelligence

had to admit that the stat likely brought benefits he was unaware of. It was one of the big three 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

the stat mentioned as providing bonuses to a

solely on his stamina along with his physical body's ability to

more. The limiter on the amount of

corresponding amount of mana as stamina. The damage inflicted by overcharging the skill was

by the amount of mana and stamina combined, naturally making the skill far stronger. Though it wasn't a simple addition, making the power double. A fast shot without any charging time wasn't close to as strong as

it wasn't like he couldn't do a Powershot like before, relying purely on stamina. He couldn't

The release of the skill was entirely the system's doing, while Jake had only willed the way it was supposed to happen. How it managed to release the energy into the attack so perfectly was way, way

bit weird in many areas. Skills could clearly be unlocked or upgraded according to the user's actions, but he had yet

coincidentally, was very relevant currently as he had just hit

class

to delay, he accepted the prompt to unlock a new skill, as the

usual suspects were still there, with all the weapon skills still clogging up the beginning, followed by all the skills he had passed over while

Expertise quite a bit but had ultimately passed them in favor of Splitting Arrow.

situations where they would be useful, but he just didn't really feel like they appealed to him yet. Perhaps next time, he told himself, knowing full well that another, more

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

in simplicity. Charge a melee weapon with mana, striking for additional damage. Adds a minor bonus to the effect of intelligence and strength when using Infused

Perhaps it could be useful, but Jake doubted it would be anywhere

with. While he saw himself as somewhat competent at it, the goal was ultimately just to find an opportunity to