The Primal Hunter

Jake walked through the shithole that dared call itself a dungeon with sloppy steps. Once in a while, a damn rat jumped out at him before swiftly being executed. He had stopped caring about elaborate tactics many hours ago.

The first few hours went fine and all. Shoot a burning arrow, kill rats, repeat. It got a bit tedious after the tenth time, sure, but Jake kept it up. The experience was frankly shit compared to what he had gotten in both of the other two dungeons.

He had kept up his tactic of following the left wall all along, but he felt like he was getting nowhere. That was until he saw the corpse of a rat he had slain earlier, meaning he had started circling back again. Jake kept going, however, thinking at worst he was just going to end up at the crossroad around the beginning of the dungeon.

It was as expected when he came across a bunch more corpses, but it started getting weird after that. Taking a few turns, he found living rats, which he quickly got rid of. A few minutes later, he once more found himself in front of the same dead rats from earlier.

Jake began marking the walls here and there, something he should have likely done far earlier. It took him hours where he kept walking, seeing his signs left behind at times, but when he came across his first sign for the second time in an hour, he started to realize that something was well and truly off.

After several more fruitless hours, he finally found the problem; the damn walls were moving. Or at least something made the layout change all the time. In other words, following the left wall had proven not to be a foolproof strategy.

He had to find some other way out… and sooner rather than later. He was still on a timer if he had any hope of facing the King of the Forest. Two days had already passed since he entered.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Jake had managed to gain two levels during those two days. It was far less than the other dungeons, sure, but it was something. Still faster than the outside too probably…. the darkness was a bit tiring, though.

This had put him at level 59, only a single level away from his next class skill gain. He couldn’t help but be hopeful of unlocking something akin to his Moment of the Primal Hunter once more. His speed had been fast if he said so himself, even considering the bullshit that was this dungeon. But he had a strong feeling he shouldn’t bank on getting random legendary skill upgrades.

The rest of his time, he had just spent trying to practice with his mana threads. They were far harder to summon in here as the mana in the air seemed to suppress it. It made him consume far more mana than usual and make the threads disappear the instant he stopped focusing on them.

Weirdly enough, he hadn’t needed to drink a single mana potion, though. For some reason, his mana regenerated far faster within the dungeon than outside. Likely because of the high mana density he theorized.

He also began to be able to make his threads of mana last longer and longer. He wanted to find a way to let his threads remain in the air without him having to provide them with massive amounts of mana continually.

The method he was trying was to make use of the mana in the atmosphere. He would do this by mimicking the mana, allowing his own to ‘survive’ within it. Maybe even tap into the mana around him to be self-sustainable if he really outdid himself.

So far, it was actually looking promising. Jake seemed to slowly adapt to the environment as the dark-affinity mana became more familiar to him.

Another thing he practiced was his senses. He had relied overly much on his sphere and sight for the entire tutorial he had begun realizing. If he was in an environment where the sphere got completely suppressed along with his sight, he would have no recourse at all.

Which was why he also tried using his hearing and, with much suffering, his sense of smell. The molerats could somehow smell him despite the all-encompassing stench permeating the sewers. He wanted to see if he could replicate some of that.

It had been… less than successful, especially on the smelling side. Jake had started getting used to the stench, but whenever he tried to focus on his sense of smell, he felt like someone threw a stink-bomb in his face.

In the hearing department, he had some more progress, though. He had gotten better at zoning out unnecessary noise, but it was far from having any practical applications yet. But as he had fuck-all else to do while walking through the shitty maze, he decided to at least be constructive. The one thing he wanted to avoid was not doing anything.

Not doing anything meant that he had time to think about things he didn’t want to think about - distracting thoughts unrelated to his current goal of defeating the four Beast Lords and finally the King of the Forest. And that was something he wanted to avoid at all cost.

He continued his multitasking practice as he kept himself entirely occupied both mentally and physically as he continued walking forward. He decided to ignore his stay-on-the-left-strategy and switched to a just-go-wherever-strategy.

Which turned out to actually help as in only a few hours he found himself back at the crossroad he had first chosen to go left at. He decided to check the dungeon’s entrance and found it exactly where it had been before. However, he didn’t even consider exiting. He had come here to defeat the dungeon boss, cost what it may.

this time but decided just to sit down and meditate at the crossroad. He wanted to learn how to properly control his strings before he continued. So with his full focus on the dark mana around him, he entered meditation as countless strings of mana sprung

face - a silent guardian walking by his side, marveling

Jacob had not perished, but he still instantly knew that he was no longer in the tutorial. He had ‘failed

had lost half of his tutorial points, not that there were many of them to begin with, and he could no longer

that he ultimately cared much for the entire tutorial. In fact, he was happy to no longer be there. He was unsure what his future would be like, but he was looking forward to whatever was ahead. After leaving, he had tried to divine the future, but it had been far too vague

he had survived? His legendary skill

worked, but he didn’t feel everything suddenly becoming black

could have been hours or days, he found himself standing on a magic circle. His spirit form was enveloped by light as he once more returned to life. Shortly after reviving, a slight tug was felt in the back of his mind. He responded

of a tall man beside him. It

stood naked, clothes apparently not being transferable across realms in the form of a

had appeared in. Everything was made of what appeared to be pure white marble, with only

room, and now they walked through the hall. Bertram looking all around him with Jacob simply feeling genuinely relaxed and serene for

mean you

something I am pretty sure I still

You know what I mean,” Bertram answered, not as amused by the joke as

It only works once. I still have the skill, but I can feel that I would truly die if I were to die once more. Maybe things will change later, but for now, I am as mortal as anyone

grunted as they continued walking

reasonable. Then again, it was likely not made with weak

of the hall. Something, or someone, was making it very clear that they were supposed

hallway as they entered yet another, somehow

thing, however, was the walls. All of the

particular, they both stared at one showing a woman in a yellow

robe, not much unlike their own. Her appearance could only be compared to the beautiful

Jacob said, quickly collecting himself. Not because of her beauty, but because of how much she resembled

with her next we meet,” she answered with a smile. “Perhaps she will even gift

am unworthy of such a

bowed slightly. “It has been a while since anyone arrived here, everyone being busy with

raised his eyebrows but kept his

I still had a bit of

clearly quite confused

a pleasant experience, I must say. But enough about me, could you tell me what we are here for?” Jacob asked as he

say you come from? It is unusual for new members to come here directly. I haven’t seen you before, so I assume you are new, right? Ah, but I also just started, so if you have been here before, I am so

many years around people faking everything about themselves, and he could tell that the girl in front of him

And not just by a bit. He felt a bit of

from the tutorial,” Jacob answered, not thinking much

turned her head

“What?”

“What tutorial?”

system, dear,” a man’s voice