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.

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

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

hypocritical that his job was to guide others to their ideal Path while he

I have made my

had been realized partly due to his choices. Jake had become a Progenitor, Casper an influential figure of 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.

Church. It would benefit her the most. She had been part of the hunting teams for one anyway, and Jacob knew she wanted one.

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 he reaffirmed himself. He

I know my task.

best Path for Earth. The best

that Path did not include the Holy

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 his class and even his profession. Alchemy allowed him to often come out on top in drawn-out fights – something any bout with a C-grade was bound to

Attack, he had even more confidence. Not right away, necessarily, as he planned on spending the next few days practicing and trying to improve it. He checked the time for the event and saw he had nine days left

Nine days of hunting.

up a path and kill everything that attacked him, but now Jake went slow. He would slowly stalk through

not seen. His senses made him know if his foe was aware of him, allowing him to more easily land stealth

was far weaker than Jake’s Bloodline-empowered ability, it was still there. This meant that the moment Jake released his attack and his

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

rock 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 could he expect from a common rarity skill? He did not doubt it would have been way better back at level 50 and E-grade in general, but it was pretty damn hard to

had picked it up. Maybe a few percentages

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,

made it too easy to notice for anything

do 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

the energy already in the attack was affected subtly. The energy did not truly change but

were the things Jake could swiftly discover himself, but it was only the first step. Even if he saw changes, he also needed to know what

its nature, but just that something was attacking it. Jake was lucky and found two foes fighting and