The Primal Hunter

”Yes, that’s good. A bit more detail there to the le- yeah, just like that.”

Miranda directed the young man before her while he controlled his flames with grace and beauty as he carved the large statue. It depicted three hooded humanoid figures standing on top of a Lagoon with small rune-like symbols inscribed upon it. The details were impeccable, and she had spent many weeks with the sculptor to get the details down to perfection, or at least as close to as mortally possible.

Felix had done wonderful work on all of the statues he had carved and had already made ones for several gods. He was the resident statue-maker of Haven and was so far the only one who had crafted them, always in collaboration with someone blessed by the god in question or someone knowledgeable about said god. As to why it was him every time? For fairness, so there wouldn’t be any discussions about better sculptors being allowed to make certain statues.

Well, there was still a bit of light bias as Miranda had waited with the statue of the Sisters of the Verdant Lagoon till after the young man evolved his profession. She thought it was a shame, but the young man had been adamant about only focusing on sculping and not his class, thus missing out on the Perfect Evolution. She could tell he wasn’t confident in fighting at all and began sweating just at the thought of it. Some trauma, she reckoned.

It wasn’t anything new. Trauma from certain events still happened now, even if it was a bit less than before the system. People had an easier time overcoming it due to their willpower stat, but one had to truly try and overcome it to make any progress. Doing nothing and expecting things to improve on their own never worked before the system and didn’t work now either.

Felix had found a new path that he had thrown his all into. He had, in some ways, turned his trauma into pure focus elsewhere. It had worked well for him as he had evolved his profession at level 100 and would reach D-grade at some point without a doubt. Not before the Treasure Hunt – not that he would join it anyway – but surely he would in the future.

His level of skill was incredible, and he improved by the day. So far, of the over a dozen statues for different gods he had made, nearly half of them belonged to the Holy Church, and one of them was of the Holy Mother herself.

That statue was standing right beside one of Umbra, and the one she had just gotten made would stand even more prominently than both of those. This had earned some criticism, but Miranda didn’t care. Some believed a statue like that of the Holy Mother should be in a higher position, but they didn’t have any power to change it.

As with the statue of her Patron Gods, the statues didn’t actually depict the gods in person, but more often just their symbol or some persona of them. No mortal sculptor dared to truly try and depict a god. At least not one only at E or D-grade.

The reason why someone blessed had to be involved was so they could ‘imbue’ the statues. It gave them a faint remnant of the god’s aura and allowed them to serve certain functions. One could pray to a god or make an offering and such using the statue.

Miranda went up to the newly made statue and placed her hand on it. She made a small prayer and got an almost automatic response as her blessing activated and sent a sliver of energy into the statue. The statue began giving off an aura reminding her of her Patrons, albeit far less intense and completely bearable.

“I will have the statue moved to the temple. Thanks as always Felix, great work again today.”

She had it relocated into the temple, which was a huge wooden structure with large logs used as walls. It was the largest building in all of Haven and was quite frankly massive. It was the kind of building that couldn’t possibly be built pre-system, mainly because trees hundreds of meters long didn’t exist then.

The entire building was formed like a cross with three sections to it. The left and right sections were primarily for “lesser” gods, while the one straight ahead was for the “greater” gods. Deciding where things should go was actually quite easy, as the auras of the statues semi-clashed, and if a weaker god were in the same room, its aura would be suppressed. An exception to this was if the gods were affiliated. All gods of the Holy Church didn’t at all interfere with each other.

Miranda knew that her Patrons weren’t at the same level as those like Umbra or The Holy Mother, but she still placed it there, and its aura was more powerful than any others – because

visit. There were only four statues total with an aura infused, and three of those were from people related to the Holy Church.

dared make. One that would require the involvement of the god’s Chosen himself – the Malefic Viper. A spot

Miranda expected it to last a

in mushroom spores, praying to mushrooms, infusing energy into mushrooms, tending to mushrooms, talking about mushrooms, and thinking

evil acts had attracted a hero of justice. One who had come to put an end to

down and blew up entire parts of the village, leaving the Deepdwellers scrambling. Their leaders began mobilizing to face the threat, but they

descended, creating far larger explosions than any of the arrows. These explosions didn’t do even close to as much damage to the Deepdwellers, but they did plenty to destroy the village and the environment and cause widespread panic

to step forth had an arrow penetrate it through the top of its head and

for a moment, but the next arrow split into three just before they hit the already lying down Fungalmancer, ending its life. All of its wounds were festering with necrotic energy, making sure even its own healing powers

forth that could bring some order to the mess. It was a large bulky Deepdweller

Shroomguard –

It jumped up and blocked an arrow aimed at a Fungalmancer and barely reacted to the explosion as it stood hidden

injuring more of the Shroomguard’s brethren. It made a screeching noise in anger as it stopped trying

of the village’s destruction: a small figure standing on air right at the dungeon’s

of the Apex Hunter but found that he couldn’t - the damn Deepdweller’s entire body was hidden behind the mushroom shield, not allowing

to the side, making Jake miss his shot. Well, he said miss, but it still

crush him between the shield and the dungeon wall. Jake had

*BOOM!*

Shroomguard charged again. Once more, he dodged, two black wings on his back offering him far more mobility

as he fired potshots at

first time facing a Shroomguard. Far from it. They were a lot like Warlords, and there was often only one in every village. Jake had been on the Deepdweller warpath for the last three days since he parted with the troll and had gone

stuff, and mostly figured out the Deepdwellers. They tended to be extremely protective of Fungalmancers, making those the best targets. Fungalmancers had a lot of support options, also just making them smart

for different spells and rituals or annoyances during combat. Having an army of them gang up on you could be annoying,

stats and levels, and he deemed them medium-threats. Being ganged up on them and surrounded could heighten them to a high-level threat, especially if they were with one of three leader types he had encountered so

with warriors and even normal Deepdwellers. All of them wielded crystalline weapons that they could stab themselves with to mutate and hulk out by absorbing their comrades. Even without being pushed to do that, they were strong in their own right and buffed up all others around

to kill. Regular Deepdwellers only had high vitality but low toughness, which meant they were easy to hurt but healed the damage incredibly fast. Shroomguards were both tough and had high vitality,