The Primal Hunter

Jacob sat in his office and stared at the item lying on the table in front of him. He picked it up and felt its metallic surface. Their smiths had already tested the metal and found it completely unrecognizable. Even those who had Patrons said they were unable to identify the metal, meaning it either had to be new to the universe or made by the system specifically for this item.

[Key of the Exalted Prima (Unique)] – A key to the Seat of the Exalted Prima. Allows entry to the Seat of the Exalted Prima.

The key belonged to the Church, as most items of value did, and Jacob was the current safekeeper. He stared at it for a while as he considered… well, everything.

The upcoming event was all about different Paths if one had made different choices. Jacob had made many choices that he questioned himself about, all the way back to the day the Tutorial began. Shortly after entering the forest, Jake shot a boar that attracted a larger level 10 boar that had attacked them. While Jake had killed the beast, Joanna had come away crippled.

Back then, Jacob had admonished the man for his decision. He had blamed Jake, and Jacob believed that decision had been what initially had torn a wedge between him and the rest of their group. Then when Jake defended himself and killed three men… they all blamed him again.

He couldn’t blame Jake for leaving the group and going off on his own when confronted by Richard. If he had stood up for Jake then, things would have been different, but Jacob’s bad decisions didn’t end there.

Jacob had been used by Richard, fooled by Caroline, and ultimately tricked by both to lead Jake into an ambush… he had stood by and done nothing worthwhile as all the people he felt responsible for had been killed one by one. He had been cowardly and stuck by his own rules of non-aggression… he had decided the fate of so many people.

That had “rewarded” him with the class of Augur. A fate Jacob was quite comfortable with. He liked who he was now for the most part, but he still couldn’t help but wonder: what if he had done differently?

What if he had pushed Caroline and maybe started an uprising against Richard? What if he had tried to keep Jake close? What if he had killed William when he had the chance?

He did know that even if he did end up killing William back then, it would only have led to everyone dying later on due to a beast tide when Jake eventually progressed far enough in his quest to defeat the King of the Forest. However, would that truly have killed them all if they had done all they could to progress and fortify their settlement?

So many doubts haunted him, and they had for a long time. He couldn’t even claim that he now only did what was best for the Holy Church. He made decisions not necessarily beneficial for the Church but for his own personal feelings. Jacob had warned Casper about the goals of the Church and that plans were being made to crack down on the Risen. Needless to say, then sharing such information was clearly not in line with the goals of his faction.

Jacob even had to do so during the World Congress, too, as it was only there the gods could not peek at his conversations. He was fully aware there was already much scrutiny on him from several internal factions due to a number of factors. His friendship with Casper was just one of them, but that he still stayed relatively close to Jake was even more of an issue to many. While the Order of the Malefic Viper was not an enemy of the Holy Church, they were definitely not allies either. They were more of a faction that the Holy Church ignored and left alone - an approach they had wanted Jacob to take with Jake too. Add to that the fact that the Holy Church was losing more and more influence on the planet and their ever-falling chances of becoming the World Leader… things were rough.

What if I had made different choices? Jacob repeatedly asked himself.

He was reasonably sure he would be dead, actually. That wasn’t the most important thing, though. It was a question of if the planet would be in a better state if he had died. Without him, the Holy Church would still be there, but he knew they

work of the Church had also only become easier in recent times. The former King of the Forest seemed to have reined in the wild beasts quite well, and attacks on settlements had practically dropped to zero. The system event of Unusual Unions had also helped immensely with many beasts and monster factions now even working with human settlements. There was still conflict, and many humans did not want monsters in or too close to their cities. Attacks

a bit hypocritical that his job

have made my

the Risen, and Bertram still lived by his side. Even his own survival mattered as he knew things that would be beneficial due to his class. He knew that undercurrents were building and that the independent factions were preparing something.

the key down on the table, he decided it would go to Maria, the strongest fighter in their city – possibly excluding Bertram - even if she was only a mercenary and not a member of the Church. It would benefit her the most. She had been part

land scrutiny on him. Nothing would be said or done openly, but just small whispers in the corners questioning him. He could seek to silence it, but he saw no point. No, he would stop questioning himself as

I know my task.

Path for Earth. The best Path for the most

that Path did not include

Needless to say, Jake wanted to beat that by killing one even earlier. While Jake wasn’t entirely confident he could beat Draskil even if they were the same level, he had a large advantage when fighting higher-level foes due to

to improve it. He checked the time for the event and saw he had nine days left till the system

Nine days of hunting.

the jungle, he would tear up a path and kill

him know if his foe was aware of him, allowing him to more easily land stealth attacks. Except he quickly ran

far weaker than Jake’s Bloodline-empowered ability, it was still there.

attacks. He did notice that he could get stealth hits in melee for beasts, but only if he struck when they were right next to him. He managed to barely land

would trigger Stealth Attack, but a stable arcane bolt would not. Ignoring the absurdity of that, Jake quickly found more and more lacking aspects of the skill. Then again, what

when it did hit. Jake did not know what he had expected when he had picked it up. Maybe a few

it was hard as hell to actually land a Stealth Attack, and it was limited to one a fight, but it was so much more powerful than he could have ever expected. He did regret not picking it up earlier in some ways, but then again, he had not really picked any skills he didn’t like. A few had fallen to the roadside like Descending Dark Fang, but he was confident he could improve them with time. Shit, it

but landing an Arcane Powershot with it triggering was borderline impossible. The energies it gave off just made it too easy to notice for anything with halfway decent senses, making it only applicable against foes such as elementals. And even if it did land, Arcane

that, he first had to figure out what exactly did Stealth Attack do? Not what its effect was, but why there was an effect at all? Jake quickly bit onto the fact that he did not expend any extra energy at all, but that did not mean

subtly. The energy did not truly change but was somehow “primed” to work as a Stealth Attack. Jake reckoned this

the first step. Even if he saw changes, he also needed to know what happened with these changes when actually

attacking it. Jake was lucky and found two foes fighting and confirmed that his Stealth Attack did work, meaning the foe just had to not be aware