The Primal Hunter

As he ran through the forest, telling the others to try and keep up, Hank truly regretted convincing them all to go camping that week. But how could he possibly have known that something as world-shattering as the initiation to some goddamn multiverse could happen?

The only lucky thing was that at least they had all entered the same tutorial. They had entered the tutorial with nine people - Hank, his wife, his two kids, his sister, and her husband and kids, and a long-time mutual friend of theirs.

Out of the tutorial walked only four. Hank, the family friend Miranda, and his two kids. Not that they liked being called kids anymore, his boy Mark being 19 and his daughter Louise at 22.

In the tutorial, they had stuck together initially but had ended up split up due to circumstances out of their own control. They were forced into these trials in groups of five. Due to their class choices, Hank and his wife had chosen to split up, his wife joining his sister and her family.

None of them returned from the first trial.

Now it was just those four. Thrown back to Earth into the middle of a forest that had clearly been altered significantly from before. They had been only a few hundred meters from the road upon the initiation, but now no such road was to be found anywhere. Instead, they found themselves walking through a seemingly endless forest for a bit over two weeks.

They managed to fight off the beasts, most of them not being above level 24. Hank, his trusty axe in hand, easily able to handle them. His son, Mark, a healer who was able to fix any immediate issues. It had gone well at first, with the four of them surviving without losing anyone - until today.

A beast had appeared. One that Hank, even with his race at level 31, couldn’t identify.

[Oakwood Tiger – lvl ??]

He became unequivocally sure that any beast he couldn’t identify was far above his ability to handle from the tutorial. He was powerless against the tiger that was a weird mix of wood and flesh. Yet it hadn’t simply killed them.

They met the tiger nearly three hours ago. They tried to run at first, hoping it would ignore them like most other high-level beasts, but this one was out for blood. It cut them off with incredible speed and attacked them, showing that it clearly was also strong. Hank felt like his arms were about to be torn off from every casual swipe of its barbed wooden claws.

Yet whenever Hank thought he would die, the beast simply switched target and attacked someone else. It only did small wounds, clearly enjoying itself… it was just playing with them.

Hank was furious, but no matter what he did, it proved useless. In the end, their only course of action was just to run.

Louise was also an evolved caster, but her spells did even less to the beast than his own axe. Miranda wasn’t a fighter at all, having focused on her profession instead of class during the tutorial.

He wasn’t entirely clear on her profession, but it was some kind of social type. It did, however, give her some insight into mana and an intuition skill. A skill that had guided their direction of fleeing for the past few hours. Needless to say, Hank was beginning to doubt it.

They ran desperately, encountering several weaker beasts on the way, resulting in even more injuries. Mark was already dangerously low on mana, and Hank could barely keep his legs moving with his nearly depleted stamina.

But suddenly, something changed. The tiger appeared to be unsettled by something. Unsettled enough that it decided to stop playing around and finish off its prey.

he ducked and blocked with his axe. Despite his efforts, he was still sent to the ground, a large gash on

enough to only receive a gash. His entire right arm was torn to shreds as his axe, and the claw both smashed into it, sending him flying through the air into a nearby

heard his son yell out and his daughter firing spells on the beast. His vision was waning but still clear enough to see a bolt of electricity hit the creature from the side. It did little more than inflict a small burn mark, yet it was

register for the beast. His son was standing beside his sister, right in the crosshair of the charging tiger. Hank’s eyes

having a body to bury. His friends in the tutorial suffered the same fate. The final promise he made to his wife before parting for the last time was to protect their

all he could into his one good arm. Instantly he felt it fill with power unlike ever before. Everything poured into

mist. The pain was unimaginable, but he remained clearheaded enough to see the axe fly true and strike the tiger midst its

its midsection, embedding itself deeply. The impact also made the tiger stumble, missing its charge as it tumbled to

quickly turned to despair as the tiger turned its eyes to him. Two vines sprung from its back, pulled

a new charge, this time to finish off the man who had wounded it. Hank knew it would barely matter either way. His eyes were heavy, and his entire body numb and cold. Blood pooled beneath him from the shoulder where an arm had once

was that his sacrifice was enough to buy the others a bit of time to escape. He could see the tiger was anxious for some reason in a rush. He hoped it would leave after finishing him. A naïve hope perhaps, but it was all he

flew towards him from the tiger - one for his head, the

the blow never

shaking. He saw the tiger trembling for some reason

traveled several meters. A mask covered the face of the new arrival, but the build made him identifiably male. He didn’t appear to carry any weapons… it was

saw them. It reminded

Hank's eye retracted, but instead of switching target to the new arrival, they merged back into the tiger. And with that, the beast that had

It stopped abruptly and tried to get around him but was instead met with a bone-white dagger that looked like a fang. Hank was a bit surprised as he hadn’t seen where the weapon came from, but the beast

vines sprung up once more, trying to block, but like when Hank tried to block in vain earlier, the beast’s struggles were also in vain. The vines were simply pushed down, unable to pierce

the tiger that the group of four had believed to be their death instead met its own demise. Completely dominated

be dead, but what about this new arrival? Was he human? Some kind of creature brought by the system.

front of Hank. The middle-aged man tried to shy

worst, he was instead presented with a bottle containing

a distinctly male voice. One that sounded significantly

by the tiger earlier, while his second arm was entirely missing. He looked up at the piercing yellow eyes. They resembled a beast more than a human, making Hank believe even more than whatever he

of awkwardness followed as the bottle was presented to the man who couldn’t move to accept it. The masked man just standing there with an extended arm. Luckily the situation was saved as Miranda rushed

still barely open his mouth, allowing the woman to pour the liquid down his throat. Instantly he felt a rush of vital energy enter his body. It was like when his son

arm had once been starting to itch and wriggle as a new arm slowly began growing out. His mangled

but even that shouldn’t even take an hour from the still overflowing vital energy in his body. He checked his status and, to his surprise, saw that his health pool of around 1800 was

stamina was still dangerously low, and he was exhausted, but

father, who had managed to

Miranda asked their masked savior,