The Primal Hunter

“Fucking die already!” William yelled as the huge beast in front of him refused to submit. It was far from the first time he had fought the damn thing, and this had to be the time he would win.

The Den Mother was covered in wounds as the huge sawblade cut into its side, managing to cut into its guts until its dense muscles stopped it. The damage from the blow was far from lethal, but it was starting to build up.

William heaved for breath as his mana pool was far closer to empty than he felt comfortable with. It was barely enough for one more spear. It had to be enough.

Spear of Ferroras

He summoned the ornate spear and pushed himself forward with Metal Manipulation. The beast was one step too late, exhaustion making it slow and sloppy, as the spear penetrated it through one of its eyes.

With every last point of mana, he pushed himself and the spear forward, forcing it into the brain of the damn dungeon boss.

*You have slain [Den Mother – lvl 82] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 124000 TP earned*

*’DING!’ Class: [Metal Savant] has reached level 59 - Stat points allocated, +6 free points*

Seeing the notification, he let himself fall backward as he laughed out loud.

“Fuckin’ finally.”

He had spent more than a week in the shitty den, but it had all paid off in the end. He had finally defeated the last boss and cleared the dungeon.

It had been quite the journey. It took William only two days to get through the first Alpha, but then another five for the next room with the alphas and the Den Mother. He had to leave the dungeon a few times between to exit and grind out a level here or there to get an extra edge.

He even went outside at one point after he saw something interesting. After only a week remained of the tutorial timer, the dinosaurs were no longer confined to the inner zone. He had gone out and found tens of them rummaging through where Richard’s base had once been. It was quite comical that he had even considered not killing them when they would all have been ripped apart by beasts anyway. No way they could have resisted dozens of level 40+ raptors storming the camp. The dinos gathering in the camp had allowed him to kill a good deal, though.

It had been a long grind, and now it all felt worth it with the damn Den Mother lying dead. It was his 8th attempt where he finally managed to kill it. Luckily the design of the dungeon made it easy as pie to retreat if shit got bad. The tunnel between the rooms was too small for both the alphas and Den Mother to fit through, allowing him just to leave whenever.

Which was especially good after he was very close to dying after his first fight with the Den Mother. When three freaking alphas had appeared in the middle of it all and started chewing him out, he barely managed to retreat to the tunnel where he hid and meditated.

Afterward, he went in and out of the tunnel, killing the alphas around the Den Mother one after another, retreating and regenerating between kills. Finally, he had only the final boss alone, allowing him to focus solely on the oversized rodent.

He didn’t know if he would call it lucky or unlucky that the dungeon didn’t reset upon leaving and entering again. On the one hand, it was nice that his progress stayed, but on the other, a resetting dungeon would be a godlike grinding spot.

The grinding with the current setup had been rather mediocre, averaging just a bit over a level a day. It did get harder to level the further he went, so it really wasn’t that bad. His main limiter was the long time it took for him to regenerate. His ability to absorb metal did help a bit, but it was far from enough.

Getting up from the ground, he looked at the corpse of the large Den Mother. He didn’t bother dissecting it but couldn’t help himself with kicking the corpse a few times and spitting on it before he moved through the last chamber.

A single lockbox with the loot was there, making him smile. He doubted he could get anything close to the armor Herrmann had made him, but he wasn’t going to complain about getting free stuff.

He opened the box, grabbed the loot, and exited the dungeon. He did get a title giving him +1 in each stat, which he honestly didn’t care for. There was less than a week left of the tutorial, and he still had that one last survivor to get rid of.

He didn’t know how strong the archer had grown, but William doubted Jake would be worth much. From what he heard, he nearly died to Richard and Hayden, even taking severe injuries. Besides, he had spent a week exiting and reentering the dungeon without catching sight of the guy or any kills left by him.

know better, he would guess that Jake was just hiding in some hole somewhere, hoping for the tutorial to

grind out one more level, reaching 60 and

him. It was going to be so sweet to cut him up,

time, he began grinding once more, still daydreaming of

Tutorial Panel

days &

Being drained from the dungeon and farming, he decided to take a quick nap

green eyes came to him and whispered what he wanted to hear: His prey’s

dungeon but was just thrown out the moment the countdown finished. Well, teleported out was perhaps more accurate as he found himself, still in meditation, suddenly in the dark hole outside the door where he

and soon noticed an odd phenomenon. The dark mana in the hole started disappearing as he meditated. Only half an hour later, one could see through the once perfect darkness with the naked eye, and a

eyes and saw that the door still appeared to leak small shrivels of dark mana, and in a day or so, the hole would likely return to the same darkness as before. Not that

quick Badger Jump later, he found himself atop the hole once more within the hollow mountain. Finally, he bothered to check his notifications,

a Dungeon

Be the first to clear a dungeon suitable for your level. +12

to wonder if those two would ever cap out or something. It seemed ridiculous if he could continuously clear dungeons and upgrade the title infinitely. He could only imagine someone with Dungeon Pioneer M increasing all stats by 3000…. Actually, that didn’t sound that bad, considering one would have to be the first to clear dungeons a thousand times, and the levels alone from that would likely make those stats insignificant

though. He wasn’t sure; he just had

been updated was his one

Quest: The

their King commanded, waiting for a suitable challenger to appear. With the

has yet to make a move. Continue with the quest, and you shall inevitably

truly worthy of notice. The King of the Forest will not sit idle as you attempt to dismantle the careful balance his domain has attained. With only a single Beast

the Beast

Current progress: 3/4

bad King of the Forest. But before that, he still had a dungeon left to clear out. Checking the

Tutorial Panel

days

wasn’t confident in doing it and still have time to prepare and face the King. But he would have to make do with the time he had and hope that the final dungeon turned

healing potion, he began moving forward, his health, mana, and stamina all at a healthy level. He didn’t have the luxury of delaying any more as he made

lucky that he hadn’t suffered as terrible wounds in the sewers as he had against the Great White Stag. Perhaps it was because the type of damage he received against the stag was of the light-affinity while the Nest Watcher’s

forces, and it was likely the same with fire and water affinities. He

they noticed him, clearly not interested in a fight. It was a bit disappointing as he would have

as he practiced a few times while running. It reminded him a lot of the Explosive Punch he had unlocked quite a while ago. This attack didn’t require blowing up his own arm, though,

one used mana. And while Jake didn’t know how powerful the blow was, it sure did wonders on the boulder he tried it on, blowing it to pieces. It was like walking with

And it wasn’t one he had killed himself, as he had never been there before. The wounds also appeared to have been

for a bit. Had some

it has nothing to do with me, Jake thought to himself as he prepared to keep going. Barely managing to turn around, he spotted something standing there

to be silver. It looked like a mannequin, but it was clear that it wasn’t as it started walking towards him. As he walked, metal peeled away from the

as he looked down on Jake. Both

genuinely unsure. It was something with ‘W,’ right…