The Primal Hunter

Jake was excited as he stood up once more. Hawkie was confused about why he had asked to fly to the platform only to sit his ass down and make weird faces for half an hour. The hawk had already decided that the human was a bit loony. His sanity was nearly as questionable as his flying skills.

The bird couldn’t give up on its free source of potions that easily, though, so it had to put up with the hassle that was the human mind.

To experiment with skills was one of Jake’s favorite things in the post-system world. He still fondly looked back at smashing into trees while practicing Shadow Vault. Learning and improving a skill was a never-ending process, too, making it an endless entertainment source—the best part of skill practice, of course, being right at the beginning when it is all new.

His first task was to find a suitable target to test it out on. As it was conjuring an arrow, he planned on doing at minimum two tests, to begin with—one against a real foe like a bird and one against the intangible elementals.

As the arrow would be entirely summoned and magical, he hoped it would have the ability to damage the elementals. It wasn’t a given, though. His regular arrows were technically summoned too, but they were made to be fully physical entities and didn’t really hold any inherent mana.

Looking about, he quickly saw a lone vulture. It was around ten kilometers away on the cloud island, but he could see it clear as day. He had a feeling it had a level worth making it a test subject, and Identify confirmed it.

[Bubalinae Vulture – lvl 96]

The names of the things were still weird, and he didn’t exactly know what it meant. Not that it matters. The bodybuilder-bird had a big chunky body that was just perfect for testing his new arrow.

Following the knowledge imparted to him on how to use the skill, he held out his hand. Palm facing upwards. Closing his eyes, he focused on the aura he had felt from the vulture. He furrowed his brows as he tried for a few minutes, getting no results.

He tried opening his eyes once more and staring at the vulture as he focused on it. Just as he was wondering what he was doing wrong, he had a breakthrough. Instead of focusing on the act of summoning the arrow itself, he focused on his desire to slay the beast.

The skill answered him as an arrow began being summoned in his palm. Growing upwards with the tip of the arrow coming out first. A barbed arrow-tip with several jagged etches and a slightly larger head than his regular arrows.

After that came the shaft. Its shape longer and thicker than the arrows from the magic quiver, with the material looking to be some kind of metal. Yet it had a brown wooden color, making the body look rather average.

The final part of the arrow was the fletching at its rear. These weren’t made of feathers but instead looked to be made of cloth or even plastic. They were vanes. Bringing back memories from before the system and his compound bow. It was a type of fletching Jake hadn’t seen after the system hit.

It made the arrow look almost modern. With a metal body that could even be aluminum for all he knew. But the moment the arrow was entirely out of his palm, it became clear it wasn’t some modern arrow.

Runes lit up all over the shaft and arrowhead, and there were even small shining engravings visible on the fletching. They only lit up for a few seconds before the arrow returned to normal, but the markings left by the runes remained.

Jake stood there and stared at the arrow as it still floated over his palm. Its length nearly an entire meter. A bit more than twice the size of his usual arrows. It was honestly… monstrous. The aura it gave off as he stared at it, one of bloodlust and pure power.

He knew that he could only conjure one arrow at a time, the conjuration process of making this one arrow taking the better part of a minute. In other words, it wasn’t a skill he could use during actual combat. It was one he had to prepare before the fight.

With the requirement of having a target already in mind also, it made the application of the skill relatively narrow. It was one that could only be used when hunting. When stalking prey and taking the initiative as the predator.

It had several limitations. Jake could only hope that the power would make up for it.

hand, the arrow fell down as he caught it. In the other, he summoned his bow as he nocked

had only scoffed at the stupid human standing there with his palm held out, but it quickly shut itself up

like it was made with the singular purpose of slaying prey. A prey not that much different from itself. Luckily Hawkie’s instincts informed

Infused Powershot began channeling. The vulture off in the distance was still relaxing, utterly oblivious to what

that yet. This attack was purposefully made to test the power of the arrow itself. And as he would pretty much always use it with Infused Powershot, he saw no reason not to include that skill in the

increased. As Jake reached his limit, he activated Limit Break at 10% for just a bit more. A couple of seconds later and he couldn’t keep

as it was forced to keep itself still perched

The runes and engravings upon it lit up once more, the engravings on the fletching serving to speed up the arrow while the ones on the arrowhead subtly formed

warnings. It tried to react, but it already felt itself freeze up by the

expectations from afar after having frozen the vulture with his gaze. He saw the arrow get closer and closer before finally hitting.

at all. Of course, it didn’t stop at the arrowhead

out the other side, its speed barely lower than when it first hit. But it didn’t cause any impact then as it dispersed into nothing, only a moment after exiting. The only signs of

disappointment at the lackluster wound left behind. The attack had only

– Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your

human. Something Jake hadn’t predicted was for it to die in one shot even if he had hit the brain. Which he hadn’t. It

feedback Jake had about how exactly it dealt enough damage to do that was the feeling he got from Mark of the Ambitious Hunter. It increased all damage

wave that was released when the arrow hit was… massive. Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter had done far more damage than the arrow’s physical impact should ever cause. It wasn’t just

Jake only had a total of 8800 stamina, it was massive. Without all of his big stat bonuses from titles, it would have cost him half of his entire stamina

all the other bonuses. But the fact that it had drained mana was in itself significant. It meant that it was indeed far more complicated than many of his other skills. Splitting Arrow, as an example,

Hawkie was staring wide-eyed at what had just happened. It had noticed that the arrow appeared powerful, but it had failed to recognize exactly how

“Ready for another?”

his new skill. With the vulture dead, he moved on to a different kind of target. His gaze

–

hand. This time, his target was naturally the Cloud Elemental, and the manifested arrow reflected that. It looked the same for the most part, but the arrowhead was now bullet-shaped and looked

it. He also saw that the resources he had

at the massive Cloud Elemental. With a deep breath, he began

loosed. Like a giant spear of destruction, it flew towards the giant elemental that was just doing elemental

the arrow pierced into

destructive power reminding Jake

mighty blast of force, the elemental’s

Bonus experience

his visualized opponent. He wasn’t sure

the hawk

it clearly had a look of mixed emotions. Jake couldn’t quite read its thoughts but saw a hint of fear and a bit of…