The Primal Hunter

Willpower.

Out of all the stats, it was the one Jake understood the least. Intelligence made him a bit faster at calculating stuff and probably helped with other mental things while making magic more potent. Strength made him stronger. Wisdom made it easier to remember things and increased his mana pool.

All of them made sense and had some form of scaling in combat. Perception was also a difficult stat to understand at times. It increased all his senses, even if he suppressed most of them the majority of the time, as knocking yourself out from every bad smell seemed like a bad idea. But… Jake knew what it did, with it also improved his reaction speeds and such. Jake also noticed a very noticeable correlation between high Perception and increased energy control. However, another factor for energy control was Willpower.

Willpower as a whole was weird. Every single action someone performed included aspects of Willpower. Of the more tangible aspects, It also increased mana regeneration, but Jake would definitely say the primary benefit of Willpower was assisting in controlling energy. It was the primary stat together with Perception when it came to controlling pretty much anything. That was why when Jake used the domain part of Pride of the Malefic Viper, he could summon far more magic in his immediate area as his Willpower was “buffed” inside the domain, so to say.

This was a very overt and obvious application - the conscious use of Willpower as Jake actively tried to control something. However, when Jake was merely swinging his weapon or firing an arrow, he did not actively infuse Willpower into the process but just went through the motion. As these motions were willful, Willpower would naturally come into play and enhance the effects. It was subtle, but Willpower more or less made everything done more powerful, as long as the action was done intentionally.

Then there were Words of Power, the absolutely most direct use of pure Willpower there was. It was when you only used Willpower and a bit of energy mixed in to make something happen. You quite literally imposed your will upon the world and made your words law to make it obey. Be it by forcing something to move a bit or ordering an entire planet to explode, both things were possible depending on how much Willpower an individual had and their ability to apply it.

Words of Power were to speak your will to further amplify and focus it. It was incredibly standard, and the most common use of Words of Power was when speaking the name of a skill or an incantation related to one. Some skills even required one to speak to muster enough Willpower to make it possible. The Sword Saint was a good example of this, as many of his skills made use of Words of Power. This did not mean speaking the skill was a good idea every time. Jake, as an example, had no skills where it would help with anything, and Words of Power also had the downside of increasing the cast time of skills. Also… it would look stupid if Jake went around screaming “Arcane Arrow!” every time he shot one.

The one place where it made sense for Jake to use Words of Power was when he was practicing using his Willpower or ordering a pen to fly to his hand while working. This incident happened to fall into the first category, albeit accidentally, as Jake finally found the trigger for Stealth Attack.

One so simple it was stupid.

He just had to will for it to happen. To actively infuse his Willpower into an attack to make the stealth attack concept appear. He did this instinctually with physical attacks due to the common skill, but not with magic skills. Jake naturally tried and willed for his magical attacks to work with Stealth Attack, but it was not enough without him actively focusing on that aspect. It was not a matter of stats either, as influencing more energy naturally required more Willpower.

However, the concept was reinforced when he spoke – no, ordered – the explosive arcane arrow to work with the skill. Not just the small physical impact, but the entire arrow was thoroughly infused with his will and intent for it to be a Stealth Attack.

He saw it fly forth as the concept remained strong until it finally hit the unsuspecting Vinewood beasts that looked like a mix between a bear and a horse with long thin legs. The resulting explosion was more powerful than any explosive arcane arrow Jake had ever landed before without using Arcane Powershot or Arcane Awakening.

About a third more powerful.

The Vinewood Beast was enraged at being attacked, but Jake was not in the mood to play. Arcane Awakening activated at 30% as he engaged it and quickly finished the level 172 creature off before he retreated and once more returned to being a stealth archer.

He searched for his next foe and nocked another explosive arcane arrow. This time he did not speak but merely focused on the arrow, as there was no way he would make speaking a habit when trying to be stealthy. That would be utterly moronic and look very, very stupid.

And a little bit funny… but mostly stupid.

it to work. He soon enough felt the same sensation as before. He released the

[Stealth Attack (Common] -->

The strongest blow is the one not seen coming before it is too late. Increase the power of the first attack made on an otherwise unaware foe. Adds a bonus to the effects of Enhanced Stealth Attack dependent

with all skill upgrades, it had to come through conscious thought and not just happenstance and accident. Of course, there were some cases where it was arguable if something was truly intended, but

as he flew forward and finished off his

but from reading it, he now guessed it was all attacks, no matter what kind they were. It also changed the scaling of the skill

people would be happy and lay off a bit when getting a skill upgrade, but Jake felt the exact opposite. He was already so engaged in upgrading and analyzing the

it remained useless against beasts and enemies with even halfway decent senses and Perception. Using his newfound

wanton slaughter of foes more than a dozen levels above himself as he enthusiastically tried to find

attack the group, but several barriers sprung up to block the ranged blows. Most of the barriers broke, but the hunting group managed to hold on through

even non-projectile ranged attacks rained down on the Vinewood lizard. Individually only a few of these attacks would deal noteworthy

compacted as the Vinewood creature was suppressed by the spatial bindings, allowing the

blades raging and burning with deep red flames as they smashed the creature. Fire damage was highly effective on Vinewood creatures,

Sterling said as

171 beast with their group consisting primarily of individuals between 120 and 130 was an achievement, even if he was 143 himself. They were twenty-two total in this party, quite a lot more than the customary five, but Sterling had always found the number five needlessly arbitrary. As long as you avoided dungeons, it was better to have more

and power up. The United Cities Alliance had a lot of internal competition, and even if Sterling was highly valued due to

later, they found their next foe. It was a large sloth-like beast at level 179 – a bit above what they usually went for – that was lazing around

do. The archers had their

just before he gave the

from the heavens as the entire tree exploded, with something impacting the sloth itself. It was smashed onto the ground as the ground shook from

finally managed to see the attacks and saw… arrows? They bent around the trees and struck from unexpected angles from above, making the sloth utterly unable to escape. Moreover, he saw the sloth bleed

just stared as he made his group pull back. Only he and the two warriors remained as the sloth finally succumbed to its injuries. The moment it died, a figure descended. Black wings of death and a body burning with powerful energy akin to the

instantly knew who it was. Sterling froze and took a few steps back as the man turned towards them. Beastly yellow eyes stared him down as Sterling bowed and retreated fully, cold sweat running down his back. The warriors did not hesitate for a moment either and followed suit. As

“Still not there yet…”

brief moment, less than a hundredth of a second, the stealth attack concept had persisted even after being discovered. It was such a short time, but it was there. Jake would not fault anyone for believing their senses

retreating hunting party as they hastily ran. He didn’t bother with them but did judge them a little as he found that hunting in a big crowd like that was highly inefficient. Five was the sweet spot for a reason,

finally believed he was onto something. It had soon been a week since he upgraded the skill to uncommon rarity, and while that seemed like a long

was