The Primal Hunter

That was pretty cool if I say so myself, Jake thought walking away from the valley, trying to look as cool as he possibly could. It had nothing to do with how he had no idea where the hell to take the conversation after his whole ‘murder is fine’ speech.

Besides, maybe it was time to go for a bit of a walk. Jake hadn’t left that small valley for the better part of two weeks before today. While some immortal god may scoff at him for thinking of that as a long time, he did feel like it was.

He just needed a bit of a push to get him out of there.

Talking with Miranda had been very enlightening in many different ways. He had learned a lot about other people’s thoughts on the system and even learned quite a lot about other classes, professions, and other tidbits. He was also coming to understand that his tutorial was very much an outlier.

The Viper had told him that, but it helped to have a human reiterate and put it into perspective. Just the sheer amount of god-fuckery and interference that had been going on. Grand designs of fate and all that bullshit.

While in Miranda’s case, she hadn’t spoken of gods a single time, and Jake hadn’t felt like bringing it up either. Perhaps she didn’t even know they existed. It was a very teaching moment. He had heard that other tutorials were very closely related to a god… but clearly, hers wasn’t.

Having a tutorial like Jake’s hadn’t exactly turned out well from an outside perspective. Only having one real survivor, with four others only living due to weird items or skills bringing them back from the dead… or made them able to ‘live’ on as undead. Again, this was a testament to how different his tutorial had been, as people were actually revived during it.

It did allow those who made it out to be well ahead of the curve.

Miranda had been in a far more normal tutorial. None of the thousands of people she interacted with had a level close to him, Jacob, Casper, or even Bertram from what she said. Anyone that reached level 25 in their race level before the tutorial ended was seen as a pinnacle elite.

Even just having a class or profession at level 25 put you into the ‘elite’ tier. Hank had been one of the stronger ones in her tutorial. Not the strongest, but strong enough that no one messed with them. Likewise, Miranda was one of the most recognized ‘professionals’ as they called those who focused on professions.

Those who focused on classes were talked of as fighters and those with professions as professionals. Why they hadn’t settled on ‘classers,’ he didn’t know, but the word ‘fighters’ was pretty descriptive of their focus and purpose, so it was fine… though he did like classers more.

If you focused on both, there didn’t really appear to be a name. Besides, nearly everyone ended up being more in one lane than the other. Even someone like Hank, who had both an evolved class and profession, was considered a fighter with both being very close in level.

It was all fascinating. It was a part of the tutorial Jake never got to experience. Granted, others hadn’t experienced dungeons and fighting D-grade unique lifeforms, so maybe he wasn’t the one who missed out on the action.

While thinking, he soon found himself in front of one of the two cave entrances in the valley. It was his target, after all.

Last time he only briefly went in and looked around, finding nothing of particular interest in the first part of it. The only thing interesting was that he had no idea exactly how far it went. Or how deep it was.

Walking in, he could tell that it was indeed leading slightly downward. He also detected the small differences in the atmospheric mana - Sagacity of the Malefic Viper allowing him to tell the difference far easier than before.

places like the Forgotten Sewers dungeon, it was like this everywhere. The forest outside was also like this,

feel a difference. The humidity in the air increased, and with it, water-affinity mana. The intensity of earth-mana increased too, with even tiny

reminded him a lot of vital energy, making him guess it

Sense of the Malefic Viper. Closing his eyes,

It was a nearly forgotten skill for the longest time, where he

on the skill. His knowledge of mana had grown even more than that. Which resulted in a system

natural treasures on its path to power; it is only natural to learn to sense them. Having walked further on your path as an Alchemist of the Malefic Viper, your senses for poisons and herbs only sharpen. Gives a passive ability to detect herbs and poisons in different forms and a strong feeling of their properties and affinities. Allows you to far better sense the poison you have inflicted. Allows

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Viper. The overlap was truly beginning to show in his mind. Palate gave him instinctive knowledge of herbs and toxins, Sagacity allowing him knowledge of mana affinities and ingredients, and Sense to detect

of the Malefic Viper were affected by all the poisons he had consumed. Even Scales, which was a bit of an outlier, did allow him to obtain and handle the poisonous substances

skills with ‘of the Malefic Viper’ were part of a set. It was once a complete whole. Either by design or through natural means, it was now split up into many

Malefic Viper to ancient rating would net him another stat bonus per level in his profession. Perception most likely.

Viper would end up giving intelligence. It was the only directly offensive skill the profession granted him thus

awarded that along with his profession itself, clearly marking it as a stat significantly associated with the Alchemist of the Malefic Viper profession. As for strength and agility, however… he wasn’t sure

which was one of the main reasons he was rushing to 70. Only one more

upgraded glory, he sensed far more things and even noticed minuscule, almost ethereal, fragments floating in the air all around him.

were. He even tried using Identify on them but failed. So instead, he just followed one of the small things. Very slowly, it floated through the air and landed on the moist ground, only to sink into

was the cause. Small mushrooms on the ground occasionally released

Microscopic spores were how these mushrooms propagated and spread. Walking up to some of them,

colored spots on them - one with yellow spots and one with blue ones. Identifying them, their

Causes stiffness and mild paralysis. Not fully grown yet and will have

poisonous and cause blood-thinning. Not fully grown yet and will have a weak effect if used as an alchemical

eat for his Palate skill but decided against it. Instead, he would give them time to grow big and strong. Then

cave. By now, he was around sixty or so meters in. Looking back, he could still see the entrance, but it was slightly obscured by the ground of the cave,

able to level or hadn’t done what was required for them to do so. In nearly every way, they were just ordinary animals. If

was buried next to was only a few kilometers away, making the area the Pylon covered pretty big. Exactly how big he didn’t know, but the group of four

after walking only for a few more minutes. Now around 300 meters into the cave, the entrance was entirely gone from sight, and darkness dominated. Not that it bothered him, as his vision was clear as day. The only difference

was also the time he spotted the first actual monster. Though

[Flyeater – lvl 8]

beasts Jake saw, perhaps no bigger than one