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.

around him. Except for unique places like the Forgotten Sewers dungeon, it was like this everywhere. The forest outside was also like this, with the

mana. The intensity of earth-mana increased too, with even tiny fragments of the dark-affinity, though nowhere near enough to begin

course, many more were present that he couldn’t detect. One of them reminded him a lot of vital energy, making him guess it was

on his Sense of the Malefic Viper. Closing his eyes, relying solely on the sphere to guide him,

the moss, the mushrooms. It was a nearly forgotten skill for the longest

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

Malefic Viper (Rare --> Epic)] – The Malefic Viper sought out many 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 the Alchemist to far more easily detect affinities in the environment and detect areas optimal

version before it, he noticed that the main difference was that it now also included sensing mana and mana affinities more

but compare it to Sagacity of the Malefic Viper and even Palate of the Malefic 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

the others. And as Jake grew, so did the power of other skills. Blood of the Malefic Viper and Touch 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

It was once a complete whole. Either by design or

ancient rating would net him another stat bonus per level in his profession. Perception most likely. Something he very much

only directly offensive skill the profession granted him thus far, making it seem very likely. Which meant he still had three other skills to discover. If he was correct, that

clearly marking it as a stat

He firmly believed himself to be correct, which was one of the main reasons he was rushing to 70. Only one

focused on the skill and basked in its upgraded glory, he sensed far more things and even noticed minuscule, almost ethereal, fragments floating in the air

small things. Very slowly, it floated through the air and landed on the moist ground, only to sink into it. It went down a few

find another fragment to focus on. This time he instead tried to trace its source. It didn’t take him long to find out what exactly was the cause. Small mushrooms on the ground occasionally released one of the small fragments, and it was only due to the ground being

propagated and spread. Walking up to some of them, Jake saw two different

them - one with yellow spots and

earth-affinity. Causes stiffness and mild paralysis. Not fully grown yet and will

mushroom of the water-affinity. Safe to consume, but its liquids can be highly poisonous and cause blood-thinning. Not fully grown

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

so meters in. Looking back, he could still see the entrance, but it was slightly

far, he hadn’t encountered any living things besides small bugs that were all identified as lvl 0. In other words, they weren’t 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 slightly stronger from the

the Pylon covered pretty big. Exactly how big he didn’t know, but the group of four he saved were all nearly 5 kilometers away from the Pylon

and darkness

also the time he spotted the first actual monster. Though not a very impressive

[Flyeater – lvl 8]

while it was large for a plant, it was relatively small compared to beasts Jake