The Primal Hunter

The wait was short as he heard the sound of cloven hooves hitting the ground. Soon he saw a group of deer approach the pond, just like all the others had. But the fate of these beasts would not be just another peaceful drink.

He had already prepared his arrows with poison aplenty, and his resources were full, which meant it was killing time.

Jake saw no reason to delay his attack as he stood up from his hiding place and took out his bow. Nocking an arrow and drawing the string, he started charging an Infused Powershot, aiming for the stag in the middle.

The moment he started charging the mana, they all turned towards him in a startle to his slight surprise. He was a good sixty meters away, far further than he expected for them to notice him.

His reaction, however, was swift as he released the arrow. Despite them noticing him, it still hadn’t even been a second from them turning their heads to an arrow arriving, penetrating the skull of the stag before it had a chance to mount a defense.

Despite the damage, Jake had not actually managed to kill the beast. However, he had managed to temporarily disable it, as it staggered and fell down on its hind legs.

With their leader out of commission, the four remaining deer briefly showed confusion before they charged towards him in unison. An expected response, as they were met with a barrage of Splitting Arrows.

Without their leader and designated healer, the deer had a hard time putting up a proper fight. Two fell before they even reached him, and a third one died as Venomfang stabbed it in the abdomen, releasing deadly toxins.

Before he got the opportunity to finish off the last beast, a light fell over it, making its wounds heal at a visible rate - the damn stag had gotten up once more, and from the looks of it, it was completely unharmed.

Bloody healers, Jake complained as he kept fighting the deer.

The fight quickly got prolonged, as he time and time again failed to land fatal blows due to the stag erecting barriers, and whatever damage he did inflict got healed right away. The damn stag didn’t even try to attack Jake a single time, seemingly satisfied with just healing the deer.

The standstill continued for a good five minutes before the stag started running low on mana. Jake had been OK with just slowly draining the beast, as the deer had yet to do any damage to him. He knew the Necrotic Poison, and the toxin from Venomfang wasn’t that easily healed.

He had been honed against far more challenging opponents. While the deer was stronger than most beasts, it was still weak compared to an Alpha Badger. And Jake had only grown stronger since he faced off against those.

When the final barrier shattered under his dagger and penetrated the neck of the deer, it collapsed with a yelp as the venom took hold. A swift stab with his sword finished it off before turning his attention back towards the stag. He had expected it to be already charging his way but was taken aback by what it did instead.

It ran. It bloody ran. Ran back towards the center pond, aka back towards the location of the Great White Stag.

Shit. Jake pulled out his bow once more, simultaneously focusing his senses on the Mark of the Ambitious Hunter he had just placed on the stag. Nocking his arrow, he drew the string as the beast disappeared from his sight, hidden by the tall grass.

The paths created by the beasts were not straight lines, far from it. But luckily Jake knew precisely where the thing was even without a direct line of sight.

his time to line up the shot. When it felt just right, he released the arrow, as it exploded forward. The grass was parted like the Red Sea as it tore through everything in its path. The stag didn’t even register it coming before it was hit

barely saw it all happen before the grass flowed back

lvl 67] – Bonus experience earned for

has reached level 48 -

(E)] has reached level 49 -

getting some levels again felt great. It was weird, considering he had leveled less than a day ago, but after his trip

as it just said that it gave him bonus experience whenever he killed a marked target higher level than himself. It wasn’t like he got an exact number of experience earned per kill, to begin with. Could it even be quantified

It barely had any cost to

making it expire faster on stronger foes. He had tested it while doing alchemy by just marking the highest leveled thing he could find and then just leave it be. He had considered just marking the Great White Stag but decided against it as he would likely have to

before an Alpha Badger. It would be a bad idea, but it was not

ample time to gain more levels from all the beasts running around

was one thing that intrigued him, though. The ponds that the deer seemed to patrol around. One still needed sustenance at E-grade, but it seemed like overkill to go about drinking it all the time. Jake himself barely needed to

could get, but that wasn’t the important part. It gave

mana, making it purer and hold certain magical properties. Can be used as an ingredient

the information, once more proving the worth of his knowledge-related alchemy

only a faint sensation, but it was clearly there. It was telling

rocks were scattered on the bottom, but his Identify didn’t give him any

closer inspection, he found what may be the explanation for the trace energy of herbs in the water. On the pond’s side, submerged half a meter or so, several small holes were hidden. They were nearly impossible to see with one’s eyes, but his Sphere of

important was where the holes were leading. They were clearly extending towards the center pond. Which would mean that whatever was infusing this water with mana would likely

could feel the mana in them. The water itself was at

specifically, he

thought to himself as he started collecting the water and stones. However, it didn’t go as planned as when he

saw that it had turned red. He had even lost a few health points. Well, there goes my plan

it. The water would hurt his skin, but he would like to see it hurt his scales. The dark green scales soon covered his hands and arms as he took out one of the

water still clearly tried to burn Jake’s hand but was utterly unable to harm the scales. This meant that he safely collected

having the light-affinity is off the table, he sighed as he put the collected items into his

of his eye. A deer had come from the north path and was currently staring at him… and the four

its action. Instead of attacking, it charged towards the path leading towards the center

running towards the center. He didn’t need his intuition to tell him that letting it get away would result in a bad time - a very bad

quickly charged Infused Powershot. The shot flew true as it struck the doe in its hind leg, the impact