The Primal Hunter

Jake bent his back as he avoided a wooden spear trying to impale him from behind, and in a spinning motion, cut the Deepdweller that attacked him in two with his scimitar. The kill didn’t even make any of the other Deepdwellers hesitate as they came bearing down on him.

He released a wave of arcane mana with a scoff, pushing back the closest Deepdwellers as he once more turned to kill the Fungalmancers. The hulking abomination Fungalmancer attacked him in response, its figure now nearly eight meters tall with its arms even longer than its entire body was high. They looked more like long vines with hands attached to their ends.

Jake dove under the first swipe and cut into the arm with both his blades as he ran alongside it. The Fungalmancer hissed in response and tried to squash him with its other hand, but the hunter was too fast as he jumped and went straight for the head.

Four large vines sprung up from the ground, but Jake had already seen them coming in his sphere and used Shadow Vault to move forward just a little bit faster to dodge them. It was a skill he didn’t use that often, and he quickly remembered why as he felt his mana and stamina drain significantly. It used more based on how strong his body was as far as he could tell, and he even took note that the spores in the air needed to be “faded through,” only increasing cost further.

But it got the job done, as Jake was free from interference. He stabbed his sword down towards the forehead of the Fungalmancer. Or, well, at least where he expected the forehead to be. It was so mutated with cancerous growth and fungi it was hard to recognize the hulking form as even remotely humanoid.

The sword penetrated straight into the head of the Fungalmancer, sinking in to the hilt without any issue. Jake frowned as it felt wrong, and the movements of the abomination appeared unaffected, forcing Jake to withdraw his blade and jump back.

On the way, he saw the wound close up at a visible rate. Is it natural vitality or life magic of some kind? he questioned himself as he jumped to the side, avoiding another round of attacks. The small army of Deepdwellers was getting a bit annoying, but he would rather just kill the Fungalmancers. Also, it was an enjoyable new experience to fight while at the same time being hounded by a group of weaker enemies. Well, they would die eventually anyway… they bathed in his poison mist even now.

With the hulking monstrosity a bit too annoying to kill, he moved to the three others first. Well, two others, as one had sunk into the ground. Jake did see the guy sitting a good hundred meters below, as he was the one who manipulated all those vines.

The two he could target were the spore-spewer and the one with its hands in the ground - the one who seemed to slowly infuse the ground with life-affinity mana. Was it strengthening them? Some kind of long-term ritual? Well, he would love to find out, so he went for the spore-spewer first.

It had yet to stop spewing them out, and Jake could see why. The entourage of weaker Deepdwellers got stronger by the second as more and more growths appeared on their bodies from the spores. Their plan had likely been for the vine-guy and the big guy to keep Jake occupied while two of them powered up and overwhelmed him with the army.

Sadly for them, they were thoroughly outmatched.

Jake stepped through space and appeared right before the spore-spewer. It was the first time he had used One Step Mile in the fight, taking them all by complete surprise. The Nanoblade was horizontally swept as he cut the Fungalmancer deeply in its abdomen.

Before striking again, he jumped to the side, avoiding an incoming assault of vines, and attacked with the sword. This time he managed to cut off an arm as the Fungalmancer tried to block in vain. The monster spewed out even more spores towards Jake as retaliation, and he felt them invade his entire body and take root on his skin.

He felt the fungi dig into him and begin to consume his blood and the vital energy in his body. It felt unpleasant, and he even felt that the spores carried a slight paralyzing poison – one that naturally didn’t have any effect.

Drink up, he smiled as his blood turned toxic. All the spores withered instantly and turned to dust, and the Fungalmancer only had time to flash its nostrils in surprise before Jake landed a finishing blow. His blade burned with dark and arcane mana as he stabbed the monster right in the mouth.

*You have slain [Deepdweller Fungalmancer – lvl 126] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

One down

of vines. He turned his attention to the hulking guy as he didn’t want to deal with the one infusing energy into the ground. It was guarded by

it again, making simple and heavily telegraphed attacks. Each of its blows tore

around it, slicing and dicing its body. Each cut was incredibly deep and made pus and blood spew out, yet the hulking Fungalmancer seemed unaffected as the wounds healed at a visible

to put down. He decided to get just a tiny bit more serious as he jumped back and summoned a bottle. It contained common-rarity Necrotic Poison that he had made during his

dodging the Deepdwellers and vine attacks, he moved in to attack the monstrosity once more. All of his sword cuts from

as the hulking abomination screamed in pain while the poisoned swords dug into it again and again. Jake could feel the constant fight between his poison and the

he stabbed the blades deeply into the abomination and quickly placed both palms

Jake was done and dodged back again to avoid another vine attack - two dark green

down, only two remained. The one with its hands on the ground huffed a bit more with its nose holes, and Jake assumed it was stressed or scared. Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to tell as they

underground. He didn’t have any effective attack that

dodged all the Deepdwellers attacking him to keep him busy, not caring that much about them at all. Their weapons of choice were even coated with venom, he had come to learn, making him care even

finale. He could now feel that the life-affinity in the air had grown to an extreme level, and he felt it was soon

happened. The Fungalmancer did what he assumed was

washing over all the Deepdwellers and Jake alike. At the same time, he saw the Fungalmancer begin sinking into the ground like its comrade, making him frown for a moment… but he didn’t have

mold had grown on his shitty cloak, and he saw the fungi begin to glow green as it absorbed the green energy. The same happened to all the moss-covered Deepwellers that surrounded him as they all pounced… and for the first time today,

coming? Jake thought as the intensity of the green light they all gave off intensify. He barely had time to save the cloak by burning the fungi off with arcane mana and throw it

scales and summoned a bubble of arcane mana around him as he

Fucking mushrooms.

*BOOM!*

several kilometers in diameter exploded in an intense green light that sought to destroy everything and leveled an entire

most other cities and factions, they had begun a push to have as many D-grades as possible available for the Treasure Hunt. Of course, Jacob and the rest of the leaders were fully aware that the strongest participants would obtain the best rewards, but that didn’t mean numbers were useless. Especially as the system had dropped hints that the event wouldn’t just be a pure death game, but one that

in his small office and went over some reports of possible prospects and had hundreds of pages flying all around him. Mana control had never come easy for him but had gotten a bit easier after reaching D-grade. It

next 2 months to attend the Treasure Hunt. He did this every day as he

of many he hadn’t talked to in a long time, and the last time they spoke, he had been stuck at level 68, and Jacob had

With 40 years of experience, he had heavily ingrained habits, and he had his own way of doing things and

and gone into teaching, he had seen things he had never even considering doing before, and in his attempt to teach better, he had found inspiration and broken through. His mindset had changed, and his barrier overcome. Now, he was open to improvement, no longer set in his old ways, but still with four decades of experience to pull from. He had transformed from someone who likely wouldn’t ever level again in his life to an elite prospect with an assured path to D-grade, if

figuring things out and experiencing enlightenment were worth infinitely more than