The Primal Hunter

Manticores were sure interesting creatures. Clearly pretty powerful for their levels based on how well the one Jake fought handled things. They even had mouth magic that impressed Jake as it could both breathe fire and shoot a beam of pure energy.

However, the most impressive was the stinger by far. Anything it hit was instantly petrified and turned to stone, and it could even shoot a weaker version of this effect out as bullets of petrifying poison. Physically it was also monstrously strong, and even if it was a bit slow, it made up for it with its bulky build and ranged attacks.

Overall it was pretty strong. Jake at least looked back at the fight as a good time as he sat in meditation with the half-decayed corpse of the Manticore right behind him. It had taken him a while, but ultimately, it didn’t even stand a chance. Jake had dominated from start to end and just kept a distance throughout as he slowly poisoned it to death before finally finishing it off with an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter.

While it had an okay poison resistance, it only seemed to work against its own petrifying poison, so it wasn’t really that great. Ultimately Jake could have won even without poisons… even if poison did account for far more than half of his overall damage – with it only increasing the longer a fight goes on.

As Jake sat there in meditation, the projection popped up in front of him.

“Congratulations on passing the combat test with flying colors,” the scalekin said with a genuine tone of respect. “I can’t remember seeing such a dominant performance for a long time.”

“Does that mean I get a good grade?” Jake asked, hopefully. He didn’t know what the criteria were, and he did actually feel a bit cheated as he had been unable to truly show what he was capable of. Combined with his alchemy performance, this should result in an okay overall grade. At least he hoped so.

“Naturally,” the projection confirmed.

“Good,” Jake said with a smile. “Because I feel like it wasn’t that hard, you know?”

The scalekin returned his smile. “That brings us to the next topic… with this combat encounter done, the test is technically over. However, due to your performance in the combat portion, there is an eighth elective test you can choose to partake in.”

Jake instantly became alert. “Something even stronger? Wait, does this mean the alchemy portion also had an extra test if I performed well enough there?”

“Yes, but needless to say, your performance in alchemy was not good enough for that. This extra test will be a large step-up from those prior, and as always, you will risk true death if you fail. Are you interested?” the projection asked.

Jake found the question almost insulting. “Of course.”

“Very well. This test will be combat like those prior but last at most a total of one hour. This means that if you are on the losing end, it merely becomes a game of survival, yet at the same time also a test of your ability to deal damage and kill your foe within the allotted time. Trust me, it may seem easy with an hour, but what you will fight is not a simple creature,” the projection said gravely before continuing.

“What you will face will be the incarnation of the Lord Protector himself back when he was only a mid-tier D-grade. A beast of relatively low intelligence back then, but incredible might that swept across his planet as he devoured everything in his path. I am certain you know of the Lord Protector, correct?”

“A little bit, but a refresher would be nice? Been a few eras, and our understandings may vary,” Jake said honestly. Being ignorant was not being a heretic, was it?

still is – a Hydra. I assume you know what a Hydra

confirmation, assuming it was the same kind of

he was merely a two-headed Hydra – the one you will face - but as he grew, so did his power and number of heads, as is customary. A nine-headed Hydra at C-grade, hundred-headed Hydra by B-grade,

heads coming out like hair? Just a big squid thing? Or… was the body just so massive it could facilitate it? No, that would just mean the heads were smaller. Was there even a real body… perhaps the heads did not exist in the physical plane all at once? It was impossible to know,

saved copies of the Lord Protector come in ten-level intervals, and as the test does not allow you to face those lower-level… you will have a steep hill to climb. Let me say this

knows? That sounded like a problem he

it

as it summoned a new token. “Use this when you are ready for the final test… and

closed his eyes again and entered meditation as he thought to himself: Time to see what Villy’s

sent to the Humanoid Resources department. Under an alias, of course. They couldn’t know it was from him, but he was already smiling

fight Snoarix’s Legacy Incarnation within the trial,” Duskleaf

the Viper answered. “Gonna be

“Thoughts?”

it is gonna be fun. Well, only for Jake, Snappy wasn’t the sharpest tool in

seen quite a few reach this stage before, and it nearly always ends with the testee forced to flee to survive or dead. Knowing Jake… he

I guess he will just have to win then,” the

course not. Snappy was a freaking monster even back then. But then again… so was Jake. Snappy did also have some glaring weaknesses, at

was just one little

it sure is a bad

looked at the token a bit, tossing it up and down before he made his decision and activated it. He had fully regenerated and was in the best shape possible, so if there was a time to fight a Hydra, it was now. The environment changed again, just

A swamp.

the shallow water hid pits here

all. Moreover, it was a

themselves lifted and raised so one could hide underneath. He kept low as

A head.

dark gray scales and spiky scales covering its body, feet like a dragon, and two necks far larger than its bulky body. A long tail was behind it, and the heads themselves looked like snakes, except their

and water to create a large pit, opening its maws like an excavator. Jake finally used Identify to

Perennial Consumption –

Then again, he had a profession with an equally long name, and it wasn’t like his class name was short either. As for this particular name… perennial consumption did sound like it was something