The Primal Hunter

Martial artists had a long history of chopping down on stones – or tiles - to show off how strong they were. Now, this wasn’t actually the martial artist having tougher hands than the tile but just someone that took advantage of physics and generally weakly-constructed and brittle tiles to make themselves look cool. Some did it with bricks, too, even though that also didn’t make sense as these bricks were not constructed to resist force applied to the edges, making them rather brittle too.

Lots of tactics were applied to do this. The simplest of which was to always make sure there was a small gap between the surface and the object before hitting. This increased the force applied significantly as the object was smashed down and thus breaks more easily – the fact that there are always small gaps between stacked tiles is for this exact reason.

All of this is to say that actually smashing rock with your hand isn’t going to happen. No martial artist before the system could break a normal everyday rock with his or her bare hands. What would break instead was the hand of the person. The reason for this was basic damn physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and all that.

This law of physics was also mostly true after the system. There were magical ways of making it not really a thing anymore, but when punching someone or clashing using weapons, it mostly existed. There were some examples of martial arts being able to circumvent these laws, such as when the Sword Saint blocked Jake’s weapon back during their duel and more or less nullified or fully redirected the force.

Carmen clearly didn’t have any such skill. Neither did the Earth Elementals. With how the system worked, one would also think that the bodies of the Earth Elementals were, on average, more durable than the exposed fists of a human.

But… well, looking at what was currently happening, Jake wasn’t so sure, at least not when the elementals were compared to Carmen’s fists.

She flew forward as her fist smashed into an elemental, sending it flying back as shards of rock flew everywhere. It rapidly regenerated as the tunnel itself seemed to attack her with dozens of spikes erupting from all sides.

They all hit a golden set of phantasmal armor as Carmen kept up her attacks, utterly annihilating the Earth Elementals. Jake had to admit that she was a lot better at melee fighting than he, not just in that she had higher Strength, but her technique was also far superior.

Some blows were large and flashy, but others were far more complicated. When an elemental charged her, Carmen countered by landing three quick jabs that each left microcracks on the elemental before she followed up with a straight to shatter the entire central part of its body.

Jake, for his part, wasn’t slacking off either. He teleported and sometimes floated through the tunnel as he fired off arrows, went into melee, used magic attacks, and was just generally switching it up for whatever was appropriate. Needless to say, he couldn’t use his full power when with others and in an enclosed space. If he was alone, the entire area would already be filled with poison mist and arcane explosions.

However, the one who was thriving the most was a little murder bird who was like a tornado of razor blades just shredding the elementals one by one. Sylphie flew around faster than the poor elementals could handle as they were cut to pieces.

As for the elementals themselves, they were a lot like the Cloud Elementals Jake and Hawkie had fought. They were pretty slow but incredibly durable and annoying to put down for good. They kept re-constructing themselves until they ran out of mana, and the only good way to kill them was to just break them repeatedly.

Offensively they were a bit meh, primarily manipulating their surroundings to strike at their target or by just hitting with their huge bulky bodies consisting of stone and soil. They weren’t a threat to anyone in the party of three and were, on average, very low-tier creatures. The same as most common natural-spawning elementals, actually.

Elementals were a bit interesting in how their races worked. Basic elementals like Fire Elementals, Earth Elementals, Wind Elementals, and even Cloud Elementals could vary pretty widely in power even within the same level. The way the race gained stats per level could vary, and one Earth Elemental could gain 100 stats per level while another got twice that. This was more or less always tied to the area in which they were born and resided, and sometimes maintaining this growth required them to remain where they had spawned.

Measuring the strength of an elemental was still pretty easy, even without Jake’s instincts. You just had to measure the mana levels they gave off and compare that to their level. As mentioned, these Earth Elementals were on the weaker side, making the three of them do quick work.

their path. Another general trait of elementals was their lack of intelligence, making them little more than environmental hazards with a bit of instinct tossed in. Needless to say, elementals were often the prey and not the predator. The cloud island was a great example of this, and the only way they tended to survive long was if they dominated an area like the

annoying elementals. They took too long to kill and would keep chasing anyway, so they just let them pile up and then took down bigger groups. When they got further in, the entire tunnel also expanded to a large cavern with several pockets in between narrower tunnels. Carmen began making a few stops and made Jake and Sylphie follow to loot some precious metals and other natural treasures she needed for

was all-good doing this as these open spaces where the precious materials existed in were also ideal hunting grounds for Jake. It allowed him to get more distance

against many elemental types, but following pocket monster logic, electric-type moves didn’t work against rock and ground types. Of

have expected: corrosion. Stones were durable and steadfast but also slow at adapting and expelling energy. A stone could not easily change shape or shake off acid, and the elementals were always forced to take solid form in some way or another. Of

the elemental? Infecting not only the physical body but the mana itself with the power of corrosion? Jake didn’t have any good anti-rock

mana, but Jake still found it worth his time to learn and improve this aspect of his profession. It wasn’t like these elementals would put up a good fight anyway, and Carmen was damn slow at times getting the metals she needed as the extraction processes weren’t always as simple as just smashing the ground and grabbing whatever gave off the most mana. It was a bit like collecting some herbs, though Jake tended to swipe

who was he kidding? He just scammed ancient vampires

good?” Jake asked as he finished off the last elemental that tried to stop Carmen from slowly getting the small gem out of

it. Last push for the Prima?” she

he sensed the air and took a deep breath, practically smelling the unique mana of the Prima. “It’s

air hampering her wind mana. Jake knew she had to spend more mana than usual, something Jake luckily didn’t have to due to his arcane mana being so closely connected

said, getting quick confirmations from the others. None of them were tired out yet,

Earth Elemental slaughtering and to reach the Prima. Many Orbs were collected along the way

Jake had guessed, the first cavern they reached was devoid of any Primas, making them swiftly move through. By now, the areas were getting pretty big, and it especially began opening up when they

ahead,”

crystals that seemed to hold the ceiling of the cavern up. It was humming with power, and Jake instantly recognized the pillar as a natural treasure similar to the lightning tree on the cloud island. The tree did give off more power, though, and Jake was certain the tree

but faintly humanoid features. It was more than fifteen meters tall as it stood with both its arms on the pillar and was practically pulsing with power. Jake and the others used Identify on it, and it was indeed the strongest thing around and had the

Elemental Prima

knelt down and pressed her fists to the ground, giving Jake a nod as he also began to

Powershot. Sylphie also began glowing green as a small whirlwind began revolving around her. Their actions truly got the attention of the Prima as the entire cavern began moving. Dozens of elementals

go of the string as he exploded

of stone fragments heading for Jake, who was already charging his second Arcane Powershot while at the same time beginning

Earth Elemental Prima a second later. One of them was an explosive arcane arrow that sent shards of rock flying, and the second was a hawk that just pierced straight through,

central pillar. Its outer shell also began changing and taking on a crystalline form as Jake noticed the many shards embedded in the walls of the cavern give off similar energies to

clear, this entire cavern was the domain

ground. A shockwave traveled all throughout the surfaces of the cavern, and within an instant, thousands of crystals exploded, taking away a large part of the elemental’s home-field advantage while making crystal

the middle still stood strong as the Prima displayed a level of intelligence Jake was not used to seeing from elementals. It retreated by sliding up the pillar as it sent the many regular Earth Elementals

the Prima that had begun changing its form. It transformed into a long snake-like creature instead of its humanoid form as it coiled