The Primal Hunter

Jake had long gotten used to not really having to eat or drink anything. Whatever he chugged down here and there appeared to be enough to keep him going. He could barely remember the feeling of hunger or thirst anymore.

However, what he had kept doing was breathing. It just felt far too natural to do. All living beings he had seen did it. Yet, he had now been submerged underwater for nearly an entire day, and he hadn’t even thought about having to breathe before mere moments ago.

Breathing still had to have some kind of benefit. Why else would anyone and everything do it? He doubted all the beasts had the same lingering instinct as he and other humans from before the system did.

Well… not having to breathe is nice, I guess, he thought as he decided to pop his head up above the surface of the lake.

As his head got above the water, he saw the sunlight hit the shimmering water of the lake, as he peeked towards the shores. He saw nothing.

It appeared the boars weren’t having a drinking-session right now. Jake had kind of hoped for them to be there as the poison made its way to the upper echelons of the lake to observe its effect. He would have to wait a bit for that, though.

Jake decided to spend the time productively as he kept an eye on the entrance to the gorge. He had gotten many still lingering inspirations concerning the use of mana, and he decided to test out a bit of it now.

Earth mana had a weirdly solid feel to it, and it had inspired him to try if he could use it to enhance his own use of mana.

His first test was to place both his palms on the water’s surface as he began channeling mana to them and tried to push them downwards. He felt himself getting lifted a little as his hands sunk into the water.

Despite the failure, he was elated as his theory had been proven immediately right. Placing his palms on the water once more, he continued as he tried lifting himself out of the water once more, using the water as support.

With zeal, he continued his practice for half an hour until he finally managed to stretch out his arms, lifting his entire upper body out of the water, with the only support being his hands on the water.

The next step was to extend the same concept to other parts of his body. It took him only another hour or so until he stood triumphant on top of the water. Finally, he had realized a long-held dream since childhood. Following in the footsteps of a certain orange-dressed ninja, he could now channel his energy to stand on water.

He tried taking a few steps back and forth and found great success. Even going into a light jog, he managed to keep himself from falling through. His next test was to take out his bow as he tried firing an arrow - great success once more as he pulled back the string.

Next, he tried the ultimate test. Taking an arrow this time, he began channeling Infused Powershot, and… he plopped straight down into the lake. He would have to work a bit more on that one.

An opportunity he didn’t get quite yet as he heard the sound of trotters hitting the ground in the distance.

Stopping his antics, he pulled up his hood and activated the camouflage feature. He kept himself submerged with only the top of his head sticking out.

He had already established that the eyesight of the boars sucked. By blending in with the colors of the lake, he had a feeling that he could remain undetected, especially with the mana-rich water around him shrouding him further.

all around him. The entire lake had been well and truly

he remained unmoving as he crossed his fingers. Like the last time he saw them, they all

Leader. His heart pumped with a mix of anxiety and anticipation as he saw it lower its snout. It briefly froze before it began

its neighbor boar didn’t

over at its comrade and seemed to do what Jake interpreted as

of the others hesitated either as they all began draining the lake. Jake reveled as he started feeling the poison enter them

could really ‘feel’ it or how exactly they manipulated it. All he knew was

to be the sharpest of the bunch, but even it hadn’t noticed anything yet, perhaps because

not hundreds of liters. It was honestly amazing how the lake didn’t appear to shrink at all. Jake hadn’t seen any signs of new water, so he wrote it off as

by one of the boars that had now stopped drinking. It backed away

and made an angry squeal at its companion. It, however, seemed to notice something was off as it had now stopped drinking too. It shook its head and took a few steps forward, falling into the

they all

all stumbling about as if drunk, hitting each other, with

expected… he had hoped for it to deal significant damage, maybe even slowly kill them.

Instead, they were… blind?

of dark mana was to limit perception, and now it appeared these boars were infected by just that. Their already absolutely terrible perception hampered even more, directly to the point of absolute

had entered. There was a bit of an area now clear of beasts, one he quickly reached as he climbed up on

squealing and splashing around in the water, the others running around hitting each other in confusion, with

took out his bow and his quiver. He mentally smacked himself for not applying poison to his arrows, but then again, it would likely have been

blood into the bottom of the quiver, making do with what he had and what he could apply most quickly. As he did so, he

first arrow, he aimed at one of the boars smack in the middle of the mayhem. He channeled his Infused Powershot as he waited till he

to reach its target more than 150 meters away, easily breaking the sound barrier. Not that the expected sonic boom was heard. Another part of physics that was likely altered or broken

its target, it did exactly as Jake expected. It blew a substantial barrel-sized hole in the side of the boar, blasting it away. It smashed into several others, mainly

but the boars’ response was… more chaos. Not a single one of them seemed to notice him at all but instead started panicking in a

for the creatures was that they had consumed too damn much of the water. Even if their body slowly cleansed it, Jake reckoned he would have hours

itself far faster than the others. The Horde Leader. But even so, while

dead boar. This repeated four more times before the boars finally seemed to catch

it helped them. In fact, it

flying all around. Spikes of earth shot up, one of them even hitting the side of the Horde Leader, bringing it out of its state of concentration. It appeared to think it

were smart enough to do that, though. They just attacked everything around them. And the

the same time, continued shooting. He had to make use of the time as efficiently as he could. Most boars died in a single shot through the

were durable, they were all currently in a weakened state. Their vital energies were entangled in a struggle against the poison in their bodies, weakening them all significantly. An unexpected blow from Jake’s most powerful Infused Powershot