The Primal Hunter

The path up to the mountain wasn’t as easily traversed as he had hoped. Unlike the badger valley, he didn’t find any easily accessible way forward.

Instead, he was met with a wall of stone – a steep cliffside. He tried climbing it a few times but quickly found that his climbing skills, coupled with the smooth stone surface, made it improbable that he could climb up there. He tried to use his weapons to climb, but it was more than a little unwieldy… Venomfang was too strong, and the cold from his sword made it break the stone as it cooled down.

After walking back and forth for a few minutes, trying to find a spot to climb, he got an idea. Could he use his mana strings?

He had made several strings over time and even used it to retrieve dropped weapons and such. In theory, he should be able to make a rope of his strings and climb up the cliffside.

Thinking it was quite a shot in the dark, he was surprised when he quickly strung together an invisible rope of mana. After practicing for a few minutes, he managed to make it longer and sturdier and even managed to hoist himself up in a tree using it.

Damn, I am good, Jake thought to himself as he marveled at the immense progress he had made in his mana control. He had slacked a bit recently, but with his stat growth and alchemy skills improving, he had gotten quite good without even noticing.

It still hadn’t materialized as a skill, discounting Spectral Hand. He remembered that his focus on the practice came from those few words given to him by the Malefic Viper during their first meeting. Those words had opened him up to the possibility that mana control was possible outside of using it for skills.

By now, he was sure that many others had also caught on, but he still felt like he had an early-starter advantage compared to many others.

With this new mana rope, Jake managed to attach it to small protrusions on the cliffside. Climbing to those protrusions, he made another rope attached further up and slowly made his way up the cliff.

Granted, it would have likely been faster just to go back the way he came and find a more direct path, but he believed that he hadn’t wasted his time in the grand scheme of things.

Finally, reaching the top, he smiled triumphantly. The ropes had dispersed already as they turned to nothing whenever they lost contact with his body. He felt like controlling mana outside the body, without him touching it, should be entirely possible. He just wasn’t sure how to do it yet.

Having gotten out of the valley, he didn’t delay as he rushed to the dungeon entrance.

The layout was incredibly similar to the other mountain, and he quickly reached the long passageway leading into the hollow volcano. He had a sneaking suspicion that he was in for another mountain filled with long passages whenever he entered the dungeon itself.

Only a few raptors were in his way, but they were swiftly handled with a few barrages of Splitting Arrow.

Reaching the mountain’s inside, he quickly spotted the door to the dungeon and wasted no time rushing to it, placing his hand on it.

Tutorial Dungeon Discovered!

Dungeons throughout the universe offer groups and individuals a chance to pursue strength and treasures through exploring the pocket dimensions known as dungeons. This variant is only found within the Tutorials provided by the system to newly integrated races.

Requirements to enter: N/A

Requirements to enter met.

WARNING: Only 5 challengers allowed per party attempting the dungeon. Only one party allowed at a time. Note that dungeons can be entered and exited at your own discretion.

Enter Dungeon?

Y/N

The message was exactly the same as when he entered the badger dungeon. He accepted the prompt and felt his vision and body shift.

shitty cave, Jake joked with

him aware he was in a rather large open space. The next thing he felt was… a breeze? In a cave? But as his vision returned, he found himself not standing in his anticipated cave but instead on a

have entered the dungeon:

Defeat the Great White

aback. The change of scenery was

he had entered so far had been enclosed spaces - one an ancient temple and another a cave. But this… this was a god damn open plain

could see a large number of beasts running around. They were groups

mix of tall grass and open ground. The grass was easily three meters tall, where it

soon became apparent that it was, in fact, quite limited. He saw that only a hundred meters

was in an oasis in the middle of a desolate world - an oasis consisting of a plain with herds of

attention back towards the beasts, he used Identify on one of the

Deer – lvl

Deer – lvl

–

Stag – lvl

The levels themselves were only slightly higher than the badgers had been, making Jake feeling quite

identified a few problems. The

Stag

plains. It had antlers that looked like they were made out of the most delicate ivory, the purest white color

and a stag or two in them. They all seemed to keep a reasonable distance from the Great White

didn’t mean it was alone. Around it were three

but without the antlers. They seemed almost to give off an aura of gentleness as they stood

them, it became clear that they were also

Doe –

– lvl

Doe – lvl

levels were higher than any of

did help confirm a theory he had about the Identify skill. He had wondered where the

This made him guess that this was likely the maximum. His current level in his race was 48, making those with quick math realize it quite easily. He had already kind of theorized it before,

72 was his current limit. But he would have to test it further to fully confirm it. If he was lucky, then one of the other does would be level 73. Of course, he needed to level up for that to

a problem considering the many meat-bags of experience populating the

second problem. Or well, the

stationary like in the Badger’s Den. Instead, they ran around, making it far too hard to pin down a group.

as particularly powerful. They were the same deer and stags that he had hunted many of before, save for their higher level, and even without his new Scales of the Malefic Viper, he felt like he was more than capable of

didn’t mean he was eager to engage an army

time to observe from where he stood. It didn’t take him long to notice that there seemed to be a pattern to their movements. The same routes were followed, as paths had been made

to and from they were running

of them with Mark of the Ambitious Hunter as he followed it. He noticed it going into an area he couldn’t see due to the tall grass where it stopped. It didn’t move for a good twenty minutes before Jake got impatient. He felt like he was wasting his time just

to put his Basic

short journey as he noticed that these beasts had a far larger area of engagement than the

was hiding. Jake tried to make himself smaller as he stood utterly still. In his sphere, he could see the

him. As the stag walked up to the edge of the tall grass, he closed his eyes as he focused on calming down his beating heart and held his breath while, at