The Primal Hunter

“My fondest memory?” Jake asked, a bit confused at the sudden question. He didn’t know why the Sword Saint asked him, much less why he had such a sincere look in his eyes. Like the answer to his question genuinely mattered.

Thus Jake considered it seriously. When he thought about fond memories, he was surprised as he quickly noticed something… none of them were from before the system. He tried to remember some positive memories from before and did find plenty. That time they went to the theme park, and Jake had just gotten tall enough to ride all the “wild” attractions. Or when he won his first big archery competition.

But… comparing them to the post-system ones, they seemed so much less. The first time he got a notification from a kill, the times he defeated any of the Beast Lords… his victory over the King of the Forest… the D-grade Storm Elemental he bombarded from long range… the damn blue mushroom… Altmar Golem… so many memories appeared over those traditionally happy childhood memories.

Yet, one memory emerged before any of the others. One that had been the beginning of Jake’s true journey into this new world.

“It was the first day of the tutorial… I was with my colleagues, and we made a camp to wait out the night. I was on watch alone. Ah, I need to add that we didn’t do jack-shit for the first many hours but just walked around and sometimes fought weak foes. Everything except killing a big boar was a waste of time. During this night, we were ambushed… three men came for me. All of them were several levels above me - all of them stronger and faster.

“By all accounts, I should have been fucked, but instead, I felt like I awakened after sleeping for a long time. Suddenly the world was more vivid than ever before, and I fought the three ambushers. No, I didn’t just fight them. I dominated and killed all three of them while barely taking a scratch. That was my first true fight to the death and the first time I ever killed another human. The euphoria I felt when I stared out into the night as I stood victorious… is something I will never forget,” Jake finished as he shared. It truly was his most precious memory. It was the day he stopped being Jake the office worker and became Jake the Primal Hunter.

Across from him, the Sword Saint nodded along to his words. He smiled as he looked at Jake. “In some ways, we truly are similar. My fondest memory is not one I have ever shared… one I have been embarrassed to regard as my fondest.”

He leaned on his sword as he sat down, making it clear this would not be a short story.

“When I lay dying, expecting my life to end at any moment, I recalled so many memories of my life. My marriage, the birth of my children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. The day my wife passed, and the day I buried my firstborn son. I remembered all of it oh-so vividly, happy and sad times both,” the Sword Saint said as he sat there.

His body was covered in wounds. They both knew a winner was clear, and Jake merely stood there and listened. “Yet out of everything… I remembered one thing. One event that shaped me more than anything else. My fondest memory and my fondest moment as I looked back upon my life.”

The Sword Saint spoke as his eyes lit up, and he remembered ages past. Jake did not choose to interrupt him but simply listened as he heard the man speak with genuine passion and emotion. Even more so than anything before.

”It was during a war… a terrible time. Young men and women died, believing there was honor in such an honorless time. Oh, were we foolish. We thought ourselves heroes, and we wanted to stand out and bring praise upon our names and families,” the Sword Saint began as he stared up towards the sky, reminiscing what happened so long ago. Yet, there was a small spark of something else in the air Jake couldn’t quite recognize.

”We achieved nothing but to prove our own foolhardiness as we unwisely tried and go above and beyond our call of duty. You see, we were not the defenders at this time but the attackers. In a foreign land, unknown to us besides a sparse few hours around a table and a small booklet that only one of us had read. This is all the knowledge we wandered in with. We had no personal animosity towards the enemy but solely went to war due to our national pride demanding it and our honor not allowing us to say no.

”There, we fought and battled faceless enemies as we got further and further from home. Deeper and deeper into the unknown, we fared, but all we found on our way was desolation and desertion. The villages ransacked and destroyed as our foes retreated,” he said, as his look turned sour, yet that spark remained.

”My squad and I tried to be clever. To get ahead and make ourselves stand out - so we went where we were not supposed to. A single vehicle and not enough rations were all we had. How could we have known our journey would end as it did? Perhaps we should have… but we were young and dumb.

”Our only means of transportation broke down in the middle of nowhere, and as we tried to fix it… it came,” he said, as his voice slightly cracked and his hand still holding the sword shook.

sounded like he was back in the past… that whatever happened back then was so thoroughly etched in his mind that he didn’t need any wisdom or magical stats to remember every detail perfectly, even if it happened nearly

winter arrived. Ill-equipped and lost, we tried to return home, but we were too far away from anyone else. We had to seek refuge in a small abandoned village, with only a

life began. A squad of four, we tried to keep ourselves warm and our spirits high. They were my brothers and felt as close to me as my family at the time. I trusted every one of them with my life, and they trusted me with theirs. Which is why what came next was so hard,” he said as tears fell from his eyes. His hand gripping the sword handle hard enough to make blood fall to the ground

the first day. The small book told of the brutal winters of the land. A winter we would never survive… so the hard choice was made. The hardest choice… made. We knew not all

asked for the one who remained to tell his family he died with honor and to take care of his wife and child before he ended himself. Ibuki followed him soon after, leaving only his brother and sister in the care of the survivor.

it was almost tangible. Jake felt the intense pain

we died, our lines would end. There was no good choice… so… we flipped a coin. I won, and

tears flow down the Sword Saint’s cheeks as he stared up towards the sky. Jake felt like he saw clouds far above but couldn’t quite make them out. He looked back at the old man and saw that glint in his eyes

was affected somehow. Not just

struggle to simply stay alive, every second torture. Cold, alone, forgotten and abandoned. After the first month, my family would have no doubt received news of my death. After the second, they would have come to believe it. The

my fallen comrades… but I had made a promise to them. One I would keep. I was also simply not willing to accept death. Not a single fiber of my being believed that winter was supposed to be my end before seeing at least one more spring,” Miyamoto said as Jake noticed something

he saw tiny snowflakes falling. He saw them even in his sphere… and he couldn’t detect any mana or energy… they’re real. Not constructs, but

long; willpower only take one so far. We had underestimated the relentlessness and mercilessness of winter. It was rougher than even those that came before it, more adamant than anything my

Day after day, I weakened, but I remained. Until finally a day… I heard a

old man suddenly livened up, seemingly unbothered by

starved. Yet, I recognized it right away. I managed to lift myself off the ground and pushed myself to the door. I will never forget opening it that

in months, I felt hope; I felt a desire to truly live and believed that I would make it. I laughed out loud and yelled far louder than I thought a man in my state should ever be capable of. Then, however… a moment of pure relief and happiness swiftly changed as

as he continued his narration - Jake not even sure if the old man

It had disrupted not just me but the natural balance. Spring had come later, and the animals suffered for it… especially those who usually hibernated through it.

become the sustenance to allow the survival of the other. Or… perhaps only I thought that, for clearly, the bear did not view my small and weak form

from the ground as he held it towards the sky as if

I left home, I had taken with me an heirloom. Something many families and clans did back then. I had chosen the sword that had been passed down to me. This very sword I hold in

had some melted snow to keep me alive for the past few weeks. Yet, as I stood there, sword in hand, the rain falling upon me, I felt none of this. All

felt the mirages of snow around him turn to water as he felt the atmosphere shift. He was not the only

and utterly outmatched in durability. It was a battle I was not meant to win, but one I at the same time couldn’t afford to lose.

weather and lack of maintenance, was barely able to penetrate the skin of the beast. The beast seemed unaffected and kept pushing me back. My body was fraught with pain. Yet at the same time, I felt my body overflowing with more

the Sword Saint at the center. It felt like the world itself was feeding him power as he stood there, seemingly unaware

the physical difference larger than I could have imagined. Neither of us was willing to die or surrender, and neither willing to give up. At one moment, I slipped on the wet snow below my feet, which made me unable to dodge as the bear hit me in the side. I felt my arm break, my ribs bent, and the air was knocked out of my lungs. I rolled and fell to the ground, my body bloody