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.

summoned his bow as he nocked the arrow - a bit awkward with its

stupid human standing there with his palm held out, but it quickly shut itself up internally as the skill began

scary. Hawkie didn’t like it. It felt like it was made with the singular purpose of slaying prey. A prey not

vulture off in the distance was still relaxing, utterly oblivious

It wasn’t time to test that yet. This attack was purposefully made to test the power of the arrow itself. And as he would pretty much always use it

by as the buildup of power increased. As Jake reached his limit, he activated Limit Break at 10% for just a bit more. A couple of seconds later

forced to keep itself

arrow itself was flying through the air with unprecedented speed. The runes and engravings upon it lit up once more, the engravings on the fletching serving to speed up the arrow while the

as its instincts flared with warnings. It tried to react, but it already felt itself freeze up by the time it noticed anything was wrong, the

after having frozen the vulture with his gaze. He saw the arrow get closer and closer

into the flesh of the vulture unimpeded. The natural defense of the feathers offering no resistance at all. Of course, it didn’t stop at the arrowhead as the rest of the arrow penetrated into

But it didn’t cause any impact then as it dispersed into nothing, only a moment after

at the lackluster wound left behind. The attack had only carved out a fist-sized hole through its body and with the natural

– Bonus experience earned for killing an

one shot even if he had hit the brain. Which he hadn’t. It was a gut-shot. Unless vultures had their brain and heart in a neat line

died. The only 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

the Ambitious Hunter had done far more damage than the

drained more than 2000 stamina and 1000 mana. Considering 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

13000 mana with the 25% bonus from the Mask of the Fallen King along with all the other bonuses. But the fact that it had drained mana was in itself significant. It meant that it

happened. It had noticed that the arrow appeared powerful, but it had failed to recognize exactly how powerful

“Ready for another?”

the vulture dead, he moved on to a different kind of target. His gaze fell upon a giant cloud elemental that was just minding

Elemental – lvl

skill as he held out his hand. This time, his target was naturally the Cloud Elemental, and the manifested arrow reflected that. It

feel powerful echoes of mana from it. He also saw that the resources he had expended for the arrow were vastly different from before. This one had cost him 2500 mana and only

Cloud Elemental.

unparalleled might was loosed. Like a giant spear of destruction, it flew towards the

the arrow pierced into its incorporeal form, but what happened next did surprise

arrow exploded with energy that seemed to somehow stay contained within the elemental's body. Pure destructive power reminding Jake of the energy his Mark

grand explosion or mighty blast of force, the elemental’s

[Cloud Elemental – lvl 93] – Bonus experience earned for killing an

arrow did indeed customize itself based on his visualized opponent. He wasn’t sure if

the hawk that was still perched on

Jake couldn’t quite read its