The Primal Hunter

The figure leaped from atop the tree as it flew several hundred meters through the air, landing on another crown before swiftly taking off once more. A few beasts below considered attacking, but once they felt the difference in grade and power, they swiftly changed their minds.

It was far over three hundred kilometers from Haven, and the density of trees was only increasing, as well as many of the beasts now reaching around level 80. It was a bit deeper in than where Mystie and Hawkie had placed their nest back before they relocated to the city.

The figure was naturally Jake, who had decided to ditch the wings and do some tree-hopping instead. Would flying be faster? Most definitely, but making massive leaps from tree to tree just felt awesome.

One Step Mile wasn’t that useable due to the sheer density of trees making it hard to travel in a straight line on the ground. The trunks could be many meters in radius and reach hundreds of meters into the air, reminding him a bit of the outer area of the tutorial.

Thinking about it, perhaps the tutorial forest was inspired by the true forest here on the reformed planet, or was it the other way around? Maybe a bit of both? Either way, it wasn’t the first time he had noted the familiarity. It was quite certain this wasn’t the same thing, though…

Because sadly, no lockboxes.

Jake would really like some new gear soon. His whole getup was beginning to feel a bit dated, even if it had only been a few months. The only great gear he really had were his necklace, mask, new scimitar, and surprisingly enough, boots.

Were those boots the ones with the lowest required level and still only rare-rarity? Sure, but they were also still the toughest damn things he had besides his mask, which he still hadn’t managed to put even a slight scratch on.

He doubted he would find anything within this forest, but one can always be hopeful. Even if he couldn’t find a lockbox, maybe he could find some good materials to use in the future.

One might wonder why Jake didn’t use his newly upgraded Touch of the Malefic Viper to transmute his current gear, and the reason for that was quite simple… because he was 90% sure it would end up making the majority of his gear worse than it currently was.

Jake’s version had to rely on the existing enchants, and as his many tests had shown, using Touch would ruin what was already placed on the gear. A lot of his gear had stat-giving effects, and Jake honestly had no idea how to replicate that. The only thing he would do was turn those stats into possibly making the armor poison people touching it or maybe use his arcane-affinity to make the armor a lot more durable. Oh, or he could make it self-destruct by transmuting it with a shitload of the destructive part of his arcane mana.

Quite honestly, he would prefer just to have stats over that.

The only item he was considering actually transmuting was his Windsoar Bow. It wasn’t because he didn’t want or like the enchant on it; in fact, he found its ability to remove wind resistance and even turn the wind into an assisting force as damn good. No, the issue was that he feared it would break if he didn’t.

Arcane Powershot was not a gentle skill, far from it. While he charged the attack, the bow and his body would both be put under considerable strain, and the bow would be forced to absorb obscene amounts of energy and have the highly destructive mana also coat its exterior.

He could handle his body breaking a bit; that would heal by itself, but he couldn’t handle his weapon suddenly exploding in the middle of a fight. He still vividly remembered how the first Infused Powershot he ever used absolutely destroyed the tutorial starting bow.

Without a new bow or transmuting his current one, he feared that could happen in not that long. For now, it was fine as the bow still held up, but as time went on, it would surely become an issue. Not just because he gained levels or more stats, but also just because he would get better at using the skill and pour more mana into it.

Actually… can it handle a full-throttle Arcane Powershot with Limit Break active at 20% as it is? he suddenly wondered, remembering that he had never used Arcane Powershot while using his Limit Break… yeah, I really don’t know.

but he really didn’t want to. His entire body felt restless, and he really needed a fight. He had yet to truly battle anything after reaching D-grade, after all. No, the fight with Mystie

Cursed Hunger, too, didn’t he? It would be a shame if he just one-shot most

as he noticed barely any beasts below 80 in the area. A few of them saw him and ran away, but some of them acted a bit more suspiciously as they began following him. They were

–

related to their low weight. He noticed how even the small branches they used

follow me, Jake thought a bit cheekily as he smiled. He didn’t feel any danger from them, but only a strong

the only type of beasts in the area of a decent level. Honestly… it couldn’t be more obvious that this was their territory even if they put

followed him also made him believe they weren’t happy with him being there.

by his Pylon, but it was clearly different… actually… wasn’t it a bit closer to the energy released by the giant lightning tree? Not as in it being

the reason why the beasts were able to evolve as

monkeys ate them as soon as they were, but he believed every

seconds later, a second and a third joined the first one. A small smile crept onto his lips as he felt that all three of them were D-grades.

had to remember… he was still in the outer parts of the forest as a

him. They all looked a lot like their E-grade

Monkey –

Monkey –

– lvl

surround him in his sphere, hiding in all the trees surrounding the one he was standing on. He was standing on a branch nearly 100 meters in the air, with the three D-grades only a few hundred meters in front of him, just

another presence arrived. One quite a lot stronger than the other three… but far from enough to make

Monkey Crusher

powerful variant of the other three. It had “crusher” in its name too, which was kinda

magic? Gravity?

to fight. The moment the two wings appeared, the monkeys saw it as a sign of aggression and attacked. Well, they had planned on attacking all along based on how

begin condensing some kind of substance in their hands that they promptly threw after

in the supremely robust bark, showing that clearly some magic had been used on it. It was more condensed, heavier, and more robust than it should naturally be… because Jake saw exactly what the monkey had

just throw

80 used their own shit as their chosen weapon… making Jake’s

The monkey in his crosshairs didn’t even have time to adequately react before its head was blown

[Lighttail Monkey

of only earning experience from higher-leveled or at least equal-leveled opponents is true, he thought, as he