The Primal Hunter

Everyone likes loot. It is the reason why people bother to defeat the same bosses and maps over and over again in videogames, just for the slight chance of getting an item with insignificantly bigger numbers on it to flex on your friends.

Jake, of course, was no different. With the items now no longer merely being pixels on a screen but tangible tools allowing him to become stronger, it turned that entire sentiment up to eleven.

But it also made the disappointment worse when he got something he didn’t want . And the first item, a shield, was one such disappointment.

[Bulwark of the Horde Leader (Rare)] – A shield made from the rock infused with the Records of the Horde Leader. The Horde Leader’s Bulwark is highly resistant to all physical attacks while only offering medium resistance to magical ones. Allows the user to channel mana into the shield, increasing its size and resistance accordingly. Enchantments: Self-Repair.

Requirements: lvl 60+ in any humanoid race.

Yeah, sure, he didn’t have a decent shield, but he didn’t plan on using a shield either. Any attack he would be forced to block would likely be better blocked by his Scales of the Malefic Viper anyway. Not that he planned on tanking many hits. He preferred not to get hit at all.

Trying it out, he injected mana into it and felt it bind to him. He already kind of knew he had some kind of earth-affinity as the Soilwater didn’t hurt him, but it was good to have it reaffirmed. After trying out the shield’s ability a bit by making it grow in size and shrink it back down, he got a bit bored.

He put the shield in his inventory as he turned to the second, smaller lockbox. The small box was no larger than his hand, making Jake predict jewelry of some kind. What he found instead, however, was a small bottle with red liquid within.

It looked a bit like a health potion, actually, but his Sense of the Malefic Viper informed him that it was so much more. His Identify further confirmed it.

[Stonescale Heart Elixir (Epic)] – An elixir created from the heart of a Stonescale Quillbeast, along with a myriad of other rare ingredients. Allows any who drink this elixir to receive some of the innate power of the Stonescale Quillbeast. Consuming this elixir will permanently strengthen the hunter’s toughness and vitality: +25 Toughness, +20 Vitality upon consumption.

Requirements: E-rank or higher.

He had to do a double-take as he read it over once more. Jackpot, he thought, as he picked up the small bottle to get a closer look. He had only ever come across one other item that permanently granted stats, and that was the Argentum Vitae Mushrooms in the Challenge Dungeon. The main ingredient he had used to pass said dungeon.

And now he had found another such item. But this time, it was not ingredients but a completed elixir.

Jake had read up on elixirs already. Elixirs are consumables that alchemists can make, that permanently increase the stats of the drinker. It was noted as very difficult to make, often requiring rare, expensive, and hard to find ingredients.

On top of that, one had to at a minimum be D-rank to make them. Something he could learn to make after his next evolution if he met all requirements to do so. But all of that was for later. For now, it was drinking time!

Opening the bottle, he got a quick whiff of it before he downed it. The taste was quite interesting. Weirdly sweet for something made from the heart of a beast.

A few seconds after he drank it, he felt the warm flow exit his stomach and enter the rest of his body.

You have assimilated intense energy of toughness and vitality.

+25 Toughness

+20 Vitality

Slowly the feeling subsided as the system message appeared. He didn’t feel much different from before, but his stats had indeed increased upon checking the status menu. Vitality and toughness were two stats that were hard to really ‘feel’, compared to perception or strength.

loot, the elixir was terrific. An elixir was even better than gear as it even worked with his percentage amplifiers on stats. Gotta ask

in his class. Quite a bit for how fast he had managed to get through it. He wasn’t going to complain about his Touch

than hunt down the final boss. A task he had around three and a

[Tutorial Panel]

3 days

of +4 all stats combined. Both were at rank five now, giving

an update to the

Quest: The

Lords each guard their dungeon as their King commanded, waiting for a suitable challenger to appear. With the death of his lords, the King is sure to be forced into the light. But be warned, the Lords will not meet

notice but has yet to make a move. Continue with the quest, and you

beginning to become 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

his horde disposed of. All the Beast Lords now lay slain before you, with only

Defeat the Beast

Current progress: 4/4

Quest Completed!

Lords and defeated all of them. A thought of how he didn’t get any rewards did cross his mind, but

he exited the dungeon. His vision temporarily turned black. And then he felt it. Before

returned, and he saw the source of the aura. On the barren ground inside the hollow mountain stood a figure unlike any

more a tree than a person - two thin arms that looked like branches and legs that ended in ivory claws. The hands, too, were more beastly, as they were made of the same ivory

Its face was… nothing. Like a wooden mask

of the head was no hair but a web of entangled thorns, in a shape that very much resembled a crown. He didn’t need his Identify to know what it

Forest – lvl

the King, unsure of what to do

such, the hunter comes before me. His hunt complete, his valor

and not his ears, sounding like it

gone beyond anything I expected. But alas, the journey ends here. I do not seek your death, but simply your surrender. Let this farce end, and may we

as the words sounded

been granted the Tutorial Quest:

these woods. The tutorial’s end is nigh, and it is now

1: Choose to leave the tutorial now and retain all current Tutorial Points as well as any other rewards earned. Gain a one-time bonus of 50.000.000 Tutorial Points, as well as any other rewards associated with the conclusion of the

Fight to the end. Kill the King of the Forest or risk dying in the process. Gain a one-time 300.000.000 Tutorial Points as well as any other rewards associated with

tutorial ends at the conclusion of either

choice offered in the quest was simple. Take the victory Jake had already earned and end the tutorial

told him to fight, but his mind told him to run. His intuition very clear that the King of the Forest was a being

If the three question marks in the Identify message

The power a beast would grow from 24 to 25 was immense. The next gap… even

he didn’t want to give up. His fire within was burning for the challenge that the creature represented. His bloodline humming with fervor. He wanted