The Primal Hunter

There are a few rules one must remember when invading an ancient temple and the surrounding area run by supernatural many-tailed monkeys that can use weird weight magic. Forgetting these rules may lead to being covered in unnaturally heavy feces or just be smashed or cut up by a monkey tail.

The first rule was to stay high and avoid the ground. Being able to move in three dimensions against enemies unable to fly was an incredible advantage and made it far easier to deal with issues arising from breaking the second rule.

Lighttail Monkeys aren’t the strongest individually, but fighting a crowd of them is what in the hunting industry is called a very bad time. They buffed each other up while slowing you down, allowing their strikers in the form of Crushers or Dervishes to finish you off. So the second rule was to always only engage small groups at a time, and if possible, isolated prey.

The third rule was to always make sure the Prima wasn’t around because the Prima was clearly the big boss. One should always save the big boss for last – this is just basic hunting protocol and best practice. Always remember: kill from weakest to strongest. It was a bit like how you don’t eat your dessert before the main dish, no matter how tasty it looks. He would have to make do with all the Beastcores he collected from their corpses after the fight so far.

Then we have the fourth rule, one quite unique to Jake. It was a rule that invalidated the prior three if followed adequately every time, even if it often was a bit difficult to follow. The rule was actually quite straightforward: always kill with a single shot.

A rule Jake was actually doing incredibly well not breaking currently.

An arrow tore through the terrain as it narrowly passed in between trees in its flight. Its target was just relaxing on a branch, keeping an eye out for any potential invaders to swiftly strike down. It was a Dervish, a creature that rarely found worthy challenges this far into their domain. It was too relaxed, too unaware… though it was doubtful if its preparedness would have made a difference.

It noticed too late as it tried to move. Tried because it suddenly felt like it had been thrown into an icy pit with a predator – nay, hunter - staring down at it, penetrating into its soul. The nearly one-meter-long arrow arrived as it penetrated deep into the creature without any issues, releasing intense amounts of destructive energy. If that wasn’t enough, the arrow was even coated with incredibly potent poison and fired with the ridiculously powerful Arcane Powershot.

To strike down a beast nearly 30 levels above yourself in a single strike was a rarity, especially in D-grade, where every level mattered even more. But coupled with the low resilience of the agility-focused Dervish and the power of the attack, it was made possible.

*You have slain [Tri-Lighttail Dervish – lvl 131] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

The arrow he had used was naturally his Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, and it had been quite easily summoned the moment he tried. He had hoped the summoning time would reduce after reaching D-grade, but it had stayed the same… but that couldn’t be said about the power.

Without noticing, the already overpowered arrow had gotten better. A large element of the arrow was the destructive energy it contained, and through Jake’s arcane-affinity, Jake had come to understand that type of energy quite a bit better. While it wasn’t exactly the same type of concept, it was close enough so that the arrow simply accepted when he poured in a bit of arcane mana.

Not too much, or it would destabilize the arrow, but just a little - a far cry from ever being enough to upgrade the skill, but more than enough to make it just a little better.

to remember in conjunction with rules four and two. This rule was that after making

swiftly flew away as he made sure to hide behind trees and stay high as he could hear the screeching monkeys off in the distance. His way of killing wasn’t the most subtle as Arcane Powershot was quite flashy by nature, so he had

arrived, Jake was already

same fate. Either way, that

as even more monkeys joined the search, yet it was all for naught as Jake was already way ahead of them. He flew around up high among the crowns of the trees,

Hunter. Before going up the tree, he would place a Mark of the Ambitious Hunter on his next chosen target, using that to

all its time in the temple itself and didn’t appear to care

he had

come to investigate the source of mana it detected was sent flying. Not

reason for this simple… the ones before were created by conjuring Arcane Bolts and stabbing them into trees, knowing they would explode within a few minutes with their unstable mana, while the last explosion was caused by three exploding Arcane Hunter’s Arrows, fired with a Splitting

temporary issue for Jake. An issue that was further alleviated as arrows rained down on them from a tree far away, the D-grade Monkey’s bodies occasionally freezing when they tried to dodge as they were pierced. All four of

from atop the trees continued for over a day. He consumed a potion every single hour nearly on the second as he tried to keep his resources stable. Jake quickly found that the extra regeneration from his mask was even more effective than back in his city, boosting his

four Matriarchs always had at

even more rapid progress with his archery and mana control, but also just in pure tangible levels. His notification menu

has reached level 104 - Stat points allocated, +10

reached level 103 - Stat points

reached level 105

free points he had gained into agility, the stat became his second-highest, naturally still far behind perception. Jake

that it was likely architecture taken from old Earth either; it was something about the mana in the air. The entire aura of the place

thing… yeah, one of those massive monkeys had chosen to personally try and hunt down whatever was killing all its children. Jake at least assumed it was so, as, for some reason, it looked even more pissed than

one foe Jake was truly wary of. Jake did a careful count and saw 7 Dervishes, 4 Crushers, and 3 Suppressors

enemies for Jake to handle at once, so he would have to do a bit of picking off before engaging the Matriarch herself. He was actually thankful that she had left the small monkeys behind at the temple area,

carefully preparing himself as the Matriarch moved further and further away from the temple, moving

that he proved itself not really to actually be an issue at all. Jake had summoned all his

doing that. While it didn’t work with his explosive arrows as they would explode within