The Primal Hunter

Levels truly worked in peculiar ways, and the correlation between levels and actual combat prowess was often muddy and difficult to pin down. For example, a low-tier genius D-grade could sometimes beat even pinnacle D-grades who focused primarily on crafting if they also happened to counter their skillset well, and the individual they fought was just overall weak for their level.

Jake was a great example of this, having even a class focused on fighting more powerful foes and a profession offering him many benefits in combat too. For him to fight an enemy tens of levels above himself was just to be expected. He was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, after all, and a Progenitor. He had titles making his stats far exceed what one of this level usually would have, a class and profession offering, even more, stats further amplified by this, powerful skills, and so on.

This did mean that level itself was truly a poor indicator of actual power, yet it was the best people often had if someone didn’t outright release their aura and kept their presence and whatnot suppressed. Of course, anyone could still feel the grade someone was, but it was uncertain if the Monarch had any idea as to Jake’s actual level considering he couldn’t be Identified.

Now, using Identify not being a good way to gauge anyone’s strength didn’t mean there was no way. In fact, almost anyone with any talent in fighting could get a rough estimate for how powerful someone was merely by looking at them.

Jake’s bloodline didn’t create new instincts; it merely enhanced those that were there before to wholly ridiculous levels. As many beasts had displayed, some basic danger sense was present, some spatial awareness was to be expected, and even intuition was just a natural occurrence everywhere.

Intuition and danger sense working in tangent was what allowed one to estimate how powerful someone was by simply looking at them. Jake had both these boosted to levels beyond perhaps any other being in the multiverse meant his instinctual gauge of how powerful someone was proved far more effective than merely using Identify. Of course, it was not entirely perfect. Something like the damn blue mushroom down in the biodome was a good example of this, as while Jake could feel it was strong, he simply couldn’t properly understand it either.

Now, all of this is to say that Jake noticed some people be relieved for a moment after they saw the now-named Monarch of Blood had dropped more than twenty levels. Perhaps they believed he had given up some of his own power to spawn the elementals and the huge blood-like celestial object hanging above. But, unfortunately, this was an entirely incorrect assumption.

Because while they breathed out in relief, those in the air all prepared themselves. The Sword Saint got into a defensive position, Carmen used some magic to fully heal herself right away, and Sylphie, Casper, and Caleb all backed off even further away, knowing the situation had changed.

The Monarch made his speech as he talked of the True Ancestor as he spread his hands and launched the final act.

“Come. Let the will of the True Ancestor be done!”

Jake had no time to think about what the whole ‘crafty True Ancestor’ thing was about before he was attacked. He wasn’t the only one either. The Monarch had raised his hand and fired off a beam in each of their directions.

The Sword Saint pointed his blade up as water revolved around it. The beam struck the tip of the sword and was redirected away, hitting a Vampiric Blood Elemental below. Carmen crossed her arms as she blocked, her bracers activating some enchantment to facilitate this. Caleb dodged to the side along with Sylphie while Casper summoned a black wooden shield, successfully blocking the blow.

Jake simply stepped to the side, his danger sense having given him ample warning as he released an arrow in return. Not towards the Monarch, but someone else. He had noticed that the many spawning elementals below actively ignored a certain unconscious man, making Jake guess something.

be knocked unconscious and die for real to a single arrow, he wouldn’t be worth shit anyway, so Jake decided to take a gamble and shoot him with one. The arrow fell and exploded when it hit

of him just as the air ripped where he had just been standing, the

talk much more but attacked Jake again, this time simply flying towards him. In response, Jake decided to get a bit more serious himself. Mana began condensing

clashed with the vampire, finding himself outmatched in both skill, speed, and power. But not diversity and defensive abilities. Dodging the sword several times, he didn’t manage to retaliate but only

side. That is when he noticed the Nanoblade that had already taken a beating begin to struggle. He saw a faint smirk on the face of the vampire

grew to resemble a two-handed heavy sword and, with a mighty swing empowered further by

heard the crack as the heavy sword hit the far more narrow and fragile-looking Nanoblade, and Jake could only grit his teeth as he was blasted away – the only thing remaining being half of the body of

dozen or so

flying even further away. He didn’t have time to mourn the loss of his weapon as he instead drew his bow again and fired into the remnant arcane

as he still vividly felt the Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter he had left on the vampire, and with this attack,

made around himself. Two large cuts were left on it, one leaving a barely noticeable trace, while the other caused faint cracks. The Sword Saint was naturally superior to Sylphie when it came to fighting prowess, but the bird was

now in

get him away

also a risk the Monarch could absorb the blood of those below like the Counts could, making them all living health potions. He didn’t want to risk that happening at all cost as he

swiftly dodged by the Monarch who chased him again. By now, it was clear he was the primary target. Perhaps the Monarch believed Jake was dangerous if left alone, or maybe the boss just wanted to fight him as he was the

he blocked, the Monarch gave chase as the crystalline blade repeatedly fell. To make it more difficult, the weapon changed shape to

where he was today. The first truly strong foe he had fought was the Alpha Badger back in the first tutorial dungeon, and against that beast, he had been so outmatched it wasn’t even

and magic and all that, it was his

one step ahead – sometimes literally with One Step Mile. The game of cat and mouse was one where the mouse clearly had the upper hand as every move of the cat was predicted

frustration of the Monarch but paid it no mind as he was in the zone, focused only on his sphere and danger sense. Every faint movement of blood energy, every twitch of a

the Monarch and not divert his gaze for even a moment. Finally, the Monarch made a too wide swing, and

technique. Magic began burning brighter around him as blood clones appeared all around him, all of them summoning their own crystalline weapons of blood

left a Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter on each of them to keep track. There were five clones in total, and three of them headed towards the approaching humans – and Casper – while the other

counterattack and sent all of them towards one of the clones as he prepared himself. The clone dodged two of the arcane bolts but was hit by

to his back while the clone attacked from the front. Jake chose to charge ahead towards the blood clone and engage that, avoiding the blow