The Primal Hunter

Jake momentarily basked in the feeling of his new class, even if it was only a few stats gained. But as with the last class upgrade, it came with a bit more than a few stats and a fancy new notification for every new level.

It came with skills. Well, the first of which wasn’t really a skill but an upgrade to an existing one.

[Big Game Hunter (Rare)] – A true hunter seeks not the easy prey but a true challenge. Having hunted bigger and stronger prey than most, the Ambitious Hunter has become more accustomed to facing higher-level enemies. Increases the user’s resistance to auras and gives a small increase to Strength and Agility while facing enemies above your highest level class or race. The bonus is based on the disparity between the level of your prey and you. Limit of 1.25x your level or 50 levels, whichever is highest. May your hunt be fruitful and your ambitions reached.

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[Big Game Arcane Hunter (Epic)] – A true hunter seeks not the easy prey but a true challenge. Your hunt has taken you further than ever before as your methods improve, and you have embraced the Arcane. The Avaricious Arcane Hunter has, through his many hunts, become more accustomed to facing higher-level enemies. Increases the user’s resistance to auras and gives a small increase to Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Willpower while facing enemies above your class or race level. The bonus is based on the disparity between the level of your prey and you. Limit of 1.25x your level or 50 levels, whichever is highest. May your hunt be fruitful and your Avarice sated.

Big Game Hunter was one of those oft-forgotten skills that just did awesome things behind the scenes. It was a noticeable buff that he experienced nearly constantly, making him faster and stronger when fighting enemies of a higher level, aka always.

He hadn’t really ever noticed the resistance to auras part of the skill. Still, any increase in stats was always welcome, and now that increase had been extended to also include his intelligence and willpower. In summary: it’s free stats. Free stats rule.

With the gained skill first at epic-rarity, he was already quite pleased with himself, and it only got better when he saw that the second skill was epic-rarity too.

[Arcane Hunter’s Arrows (Epic)] - A mage and a hunter both, you combine your talents as you conjure your tools of destruction. Allows the Avaricious Arcane Hunter to conjure arrows made of highly-condensed arcane mana, focusing on either destruction or stability. A stable arrow will be sharp and durable, while a destructive arrow will explode upon impact. Conjuring arrows consume mana, and the conjuration is instant. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Intelligence and Wisdom when using destructive Arcane Hunter’s Arrows. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Wisdom and Perception when using stable Arcane Hunter’s Arrows.

If Jake had to mention one big weakness he had currently, it would without a doubt be his shitty equipment. Sure, compared to the rest of humanity, he was doing quite well for himself, but as a D-grade powerhouse Progenitor, he was a poor sap.

His new scimitar did help a bit, but the rest of his equipment was still far behind. He was even afraid that his bow would soon become lackluster, and he would become unable to make full use of his Arcane Powershot.

Most of that gear was even rare-rarity, but some were still uncommon-rarity. The worst offender of them all was, of course, his shitty cloak – because it sucked – but a close second was his quiver. It had served him well for a long time, but all his arrows had broken on impact for a long-ass time, and he could already imagine how fragile they would feel in D-grade.

Arcane Hunter’s Arrows was pretty much just a new quiver boiled into a skill, except it now scaled with him way more. He was incredibly excited to see the ability to make two different kinds of arrows. Explosive ones would surely be great at handling crowds of enemies or larger foes, while the stable ones would just be great overall.

The stable arrows even scaled with his perception, a stat he could never get enough of. His intelligence for the destructive arrows was a bit low, but it wasn’t terrible, and with his new stat-gains from the class, it would surely only improve.

Jake couldn’t help but hold out his hand as a pink-purple crystal-like arrow instantly appeared in it. There was barely any visual aspect at all to the skill; the arrow just appeared in his hand almost instantly, just like the description promised.

This arrow was of the stable variety, and it looked and felt entirely solid. It had simple fletching on it and a single-edged arrowhead, making it very suitable for cutting and penetrating. Perfect to deliver poisons with, just like Jake’s current arrows. The mana within was entirely sealed, too, making it not affect any poison coated on the arrow at all. It was perfect.

Summoning it had consumed a bit of mana, but outside of doing alchemy, Jake had never ever been close to running out, so it wasn’t an issue. Well, there was that time he bombarded that Storm Elemental, but that was a bit of an outlier.

He did a few tests and tried to break the arrow but found it incredibly resilient. To prove his point further, he took out one of the arrows from his quiver, and with only a bit of pressure, easily snapped it in half.

instantly he both felt and saw the difference. The arrow itself looked much the same, except for small purple light-bolts crackling within the crystal, and the mana it gave off was also quite a bit more than the stable version. It had also consumed more mana to

and there, but he decided to be a bit patient. Mainly because he had just seen Mystie and Hawkie entering the valley from above - 200

two new skills, which were the same as his Ambitious Hunter one, so it wasn’t exactly disappointing. Besides, he had many other skills to upgrade now that he had gained

saw the two parent-hawks landing in a tree beside his lodge and observe him closely. This was the first

Hawk –

fact that he had even gained two levels was

tree on the cloud continent above. The hawk liked spending time up there, absorbing the

– lvl

a bit longer. She also clearly gained experience from just practicing her magic, and

and both seemed partly confused

and screeching, and even a flew colored flashes of mana back in return, perfectly explaining what

evolving. It’s what’s inside that matters, you know?” Jake said a bit jokingly. “But if you have any concerns about the effects… how about

his every move. He really wanted to go practice a bit,

each other for a minute before agreeing. They

at the level 27 bird and shook their heads, Jake deciding to be the

to be reckoned with, but it isn’t your time

made her a bit happy, it clearly didn’t dispel her disappointment. The two hawks jumped over and also made

at all three of them as she jumped back, summoned some wind magic around herself, and began practicing right there and then. While Jake surely appreciated the sentiment, he wasn’t so sure about seeing the ground and a few trees be cut up by green-tinged blades

a glance at the two D-grade hawks who both took to

was even using magic to make herself fly faster, with Hawkie still a bit faster than Jake, but that was expected considering speed was the

a human and two hawks. All the birds in the area scurried away when they saw them, not daring to get near. One D-grade was enough to scare them off, with

the two hawks that had landed opposite him as

smiled a bit, seeing how the two hawks were clearly used to fighting together. Mystie being a grade ahead had hampered their ability to fight as a party, but now that they were both D-grade, they could do it again. It also answered some of his questions about

towards his head. Jake smiled, happy to see the

with a bit of his own mana as he took a step forward, instantly teleporting back more than 100 meters. While his Sphere of Perception had given him quite the headache – literally – now that he had adapted

dodged the attack, he took out his bow and fired an arrow. He was actually a bit taken aback as he did it because he hadn’t really thought but just moved. As he reached for the string, an arrow had just appeared

but it encountered a barrier of magic. If it had been Jake’s old arrows, it would have broken on impact… but these weren't his normal arrows. The crystalline arrow

but it was enough to make her open her eyes with fright as she became

as he cut apart the blade, parting the clouds below. Simultaneously, the second arrow arrived at Mystie, who swiftly dodged it, but the moment it was

BOOM!

to her assistance as he summoned a tornado of wind and lightning, tearing up the entire cloud continent in

step, but the tornado quickly followed after him, Hawkie attacking with wind blades and exploding thunderbolts meanwhile. Mystie had