The Primal Hunter

The clattering got louder as Jake felt tensions rise. He summoned his bow and nocked an arrow, prepared for whatever may appear. He could hear the sound coming from the far end of the basin below. Whatever it was, it was coming from there.

The barrier of mana felt completely impassable when he touched it, and it had also cut off his strings of mana. With even those strings cut off, he seriously doubted he had any way of getting through it even with Shadow Vault, which meant he was stuck with whatever was coming towards him.

As the sound echoed, he saw the first sign of movement in his sphere. Dozens of small rats entered his sphere at once, heading towards the stairs leading up to him.

Jake didn’t even hesitate as he released a Splitting Arrow. He multitasked and identified one as he nocked another arrow.

[Molerat Swarmer – lvl 46]

His first arrow gave him several kills, but it barely made a difference. Hundreds of the things inhabited the basin below and were all now swarming towards him.

Jake managed to shoot four more Splitting Arrows, killing more than twenty rats before the first one reached him. He cursed his injured shoulder that had slowed down his speed as he summoned his sword and dagger.

The first rat was cut cleanly in two as it jumped towards him, with the second one suffering a similar fate. They were all the size of common housecats, which made them huge for rats but relatively small compared to anything else he had encountered so far.

Five more rats died before one managed to slip through and tried to bite him on the leg. Its teeth didn’t sink into flesh as expected but were stopped by the fur pants he wore. It still did some damage, but it failed to draw blood.

This made Jake jump back from the pain as he attempted to keep the beasts at bay. Individually they didn’t pose a threat; heck, a dozen didn’t even matter to him.

The issue was that he wasn’t dealing with just a few dozen rats. In his sphere, he only saw more and more rats entering. It was as if an endless wave of rodents had been unleashed upon him, and if he didn’t do anything, he would soon drown in it.

The only thing giving him any respite currently was the limited space on the stairs leading up to him. But even that advantage was slowly being removed as the endless stream of rats started piling up below as they all tried to climb towards him.

Rats also began ascending the walls of the basin below, slowly closing in on from his flanks. He was well and truly surrounded. The only place with no attackers was behind him, where the barrier blocked him off.

He cut them down one after another until he could no longer keep them all at bay.

A rat slipped through and was about to land a bite on his stomach when a set of black scales appeared and blocked it. Instead, its teeth chipped as if it had tried to bite steel.

Jake no longer held anything back as he covered his upper body in scales. His pants and boots protected his legs and feet, but his exposed upper body needed protection badly.

dagger danced through the air in a reckless assault to anything around him. He no longer focused on defense but only on

feel the mana drain. While the rats couldn’t bite through his scales, they still wore them down and forced him to spend mana repairing and maintaining them. It was unsustainable in the long

Jake as he was in a constant state of focus. His instincts and sphere worked in tandem as he fought less like a human and more

the hundreds of dead enemies, he didn’t feel like he had even

level 60 already, but he didn’t have the option to choose a skill despite that. The system wouldn’t allow him to do so while still fighting, closing off the possibility of getting a skill to get him

Instead of staying where he was, he charged forward, slicing and dicing anything in front

Jake’s progress was impeded by waves of rats trying to climb over each other to bite him. He stepped on several, nearly falling, and was repeatedly

carve a path through the beasts for over 60 meters when his sphere finally picked up something - a

stood at the opposite end of the basin in front of yet another dark barrier blocking off what he assumed to be

was barely humanoid. It stood on two legs but had a chubby body covered in

a lot like an average rat, but it wore a ragged robe covering its fur. He focused on it

Controller

level was far higher than any of the rats, and the name made its role pretty

target in sight, he continued with renewed vigor. The problem of the constant swarm of rats didn’t

thousands. They were spread throughout the basin initially,

fast. Taking a risk, he started building up mana within himself as he continued getting closer to the controller step by step. After a few seconds, he felt that he had built up sufficient energy

appeared around him, briefly pushing back everything. The rats, air, even the dark mana was pushed back. It

it. At the same time, threads of

but all he needed was a single shot. Taking out his bow, he began channeling

to dig their claws into the ceiling as they tried crawling towards him. At the same time,

just barely inside his sphere, and even without it, he had used Mark of the Ambitious Hunter on

broke, he released the stored energy as the arrow flew forth. The explosion of mana broke

summoned a wall of dark mana in front of it in a last-ditch effort, but to no avail. The arrow shot right through the wall of rats and pierced the dark mana like it hadn’t even been there. It continued right into the controller’s chest, blowing a hole the

the arrow hit, all the rats seemed to freeze up briefly. Those on the ceiling and walls lost grip as they fell down, and the rats fell over each other in

While falling, he quickly soaked his dagger and sword in Blood of the Malefic Viper,

forth upon hitting the ground and used Shadow Vault in one fluid motion as he launched towards the still

into the ground. When it hit, it echoed throughout the basin, and all the

stab it. The ratman managed to block with its staff at the very last moment, but it failed to stop the follow-up kick to its gaping wound, making it tumble backward. It didn’t manage to collect itself before a

around him once more lost their cohesion. Jake reached out and grabbed the staff

used to control the Molerat Swarmers. Lost upon exiting the Forgotten Sewers. It can only be used with