The Primal Hunter

Jake awoke from meditation and stood up, stretching a bit. It didn’t really do anything as the system had thoroughly changed his physique, and he wasn’t even sure how things like muscles mattered anymore, but he still felt better after doing it.

He looked towards his target in the distance and saw that the Storm Elemental had confidently moved closer to the giant tree to soak in its mana. Jake had clearly ruined the natural balance that the Thunder Roc and Storm Elemental had created by killing one of them…

So wouldn’t it only be fair to finish off both?

His tactic for the Storm Elemental would be far different, however. Instead of just fighting it straight-up, he would challenge himself another way…

Jake had always been pretty decent at long-distance shooting, and he had to admit that he always admired the Longbowmen. Jake remembered that the longest range ever achieved with a longbow was a bit less than 350 meters, and that wasn’t even with any focus on accuracy.

He once read that using a longbow was more similar to golf than any actual archery. Jake wasn’t sure how accurate that was.

With what Jake planned, he knew that his usual attacking tactic wouldn’t work.

Even at around a dozen kilometers, there was practically no drop-off for his arrows due to the sheer power behind them -- the Windsoar bow’s enchantment that helped with air resistance also being immensely helpful.

But Infused Powershot was what really made it possible. The problem was that… the mana within the shot would run out before hitting. It would slowly fizzle out, making the arrow slow down and begin dropping far more than before.

Jake didn’t know the exact maximum range of Infused Powershot, but he didn’t believe he could keep his arrow flying in a straight line for more than 20-25 kilometers, if even that.

So to shoot a Storm Elemental from where he currently stood would be… difficult.

He focused his eyesight and could barely see the humongous figure of the Storm Elemental far, far off in the distance. When he focused, it was like he was looked through a telescope; well, except it didn’t limit his peripheral vision at all.

That 1978 perception is about to be put to good use, Jake snickered inwards as he began to make some quick calculations.

So, based on my calculations, if I shoot up and the arrow goes whoosh and then it goes wee, hitting the elemental with a boom, it will do big damage, Jake nodded, approving of his own brilliance.

In all seriousness… this kind of attack was where he did a bit of calculation, but otherwise, he just did what felt right.

When it came to pure archery, this would, without a doubt, be his biggest challenge yet, which is why he was still excited for it. It wasn’t as much a life and death battle as it was Jake overcoming his own limits.

Gazing towards his target one more time, he saw that it indeed hadn’t moved for ten minutes or so, just standing right at the tree, one of its massive arms placed on the trunk. He estimated the distance between him and the Storm Elemental to be…

175-177 kilometers.

His last Infused Powershot at full power passed around 15 kilometers in 3 seconds. That meant even if he could shoot with that much speed, it would take the arrow 35 seconds or so from shooting it till it arrived.

But he wasn’t shooting in a straight line but a curve. It would also travel significantly slower for a lot of the journey… meaning he effectively looked at more than a minute of travel time.

It was about the same time it would take him to summon another Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter.

Did he need to be that far away? Probably not.

Was he confident in hitting from that range? Not really.

Would he do it anyway? Hell yeah.

Jake had already decided that he wanted to accomplish a few things before reaching D-grade. For his class, he had wanted to beat a D-grade in one-on-one combat without any gimmicks. But he also wanted to explore exactly how far his current skills in pure archery could take him. And what was more critical to archery than precision?

Ambitious Hunter as he focused on the Storm Elemental. What appeared was an arrow similar to the one he had used on the Cloud Elemental, and once more, it had also drained far more mana than stamina to make. He was fully

he wasn’t sure exactly how the elemental’s resources worked, he had a strong feeling that it wouldn’t be able to regenerate itself faster

deep cut on his own wrist as he focused on Blood of the Malefic Viper. He soaked the entire arrow in the blood, as he knew it was his most effective

far off in the distance it wouldn’t even register in a

was begging for an arrow from half

his increasing stats.

strength and agility even further. Limit Break activated at 20% as he knew he would handle the weakness while recovering his

Jake understood it. He used the Mark on the Storm Elemental even though

but then

he did the last-second calculations and got a feel for the perfect angle. He took a

go of the string, and the arrow exploded out as it flew

creatures during its flight, but the risk was actually quite low. Most of the birds tended to stay lower as they hunted the cloud elementals on the continent below. A few did note the shadow of the arrow passing over them, but as it wasn’t

already begun creating another Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter. With his eyes closed

it did… and if it didn’t, he would

the arrow. It slowly began

10…11…13

34… 35…

minute passed,

63… 64…

he opened his eyes. The first thing he did was to throw his gaze towards the Storm Elemental…

like a small needle as it impacted the

a wave, it tore through the massive form, and Jake was certain that it was making loud booming noises based on the many small forms of panicking

He once more drenched the now-finished arrow in his blood as he nocked it and once more

BOOM!

and he felt a lot of it be blown apart… he would have to find another one

in a great arc towards the horizon as he consumed a

landed, this one missing the massive elemental by nearly 100 meters. It sounded like a lot, but with the gigantic shooting distance, it really wasn’t. The Storm Elemental had moved slightly in the direction he had shot

So he shot again.

BOOM!

its worth. With wind resistance non-existent, his arrow didn’t lose much momentum as it flew; the only thing working to slow it down was

was something poetically ironic about using a bow blessed by elementals to get revenge on someone slaying elementals… to

descended like a great artillery strike, hitting true as once more the massive Storm Elemental was invaded with destruction incarnate. It writhed in pain as it tried to locate its attacker

Cloud Elementals. It moved only on instincts and refused to leave the giant lighting tree… it was just a sitting duck, never going more than a few kilometers away from it. Well, Jake would call its instincts pathetic, but he wasn’t the

BOOM!

The cloud island below him couldn’t take a single shot more before being

uplifted to nearly fifteen thousand with the potion, was consumed with five arrows. Jake’s stamina was also down to a third, the constant strain of Limit Break at 20% and, of course, the investment in the arrows.

distance. He couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking of the beasts below the island and the birds

BOOM!

and final arrow was released, the cloud island below him now wholly blown apart. He quickly made his way to another

entered meditation as he felt the

he opened his eyes and consumed a mana potion, and then reentered

hour after that, he chugged down a stamina potion before continuing his

stamina and 3 mana potions – before he opened his

was less damaged than six hours ago… but far from healed. All signs of toxicity from his blood were long gone,

the saying goes, one must smith when the iron is