The Primal Hunter

Jake decided to find a nice tree and take a seat as he opened his notification window to go over the last few days of hunting. There were many kill notifications, all of them giving experience as naturally a stealth archer was always the one engaging, and why would Jake choose to engage lower-leveled foes?

As for levels… well, it was pretty good as his hunting speed kept picking up, and in his fervor to upgrade the skill through trial and error, he probably ended up hunting faster than before. Especially when he considered the ever-growing level of power of his prey.

Checking it out, he was at least satisfied.

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 161 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

…

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 164 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 165 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 166 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

Jake looked at the notification and saw his level. 166. Having gained four class levels and two race ones from that. This has to be enough, right?

He believed it was. Draskil had done it at 173.

That’s right…

With a bit over a day left till the system event, it was time for this stealth archer to take down his biggest prey yet:

It was C-grade hunting time.

Now the issue was just finding one. No, not just finding one, but finding one suitable to hunt. One Jake was good against would be preferable. This meant it needed to be flesh and blood, probably a beast of some kind, and if it was not on the more durable side, that would also be nice. He wanted to avoid prey with healing powers if possible, as Jake knew that he would risk running himself dry. Fighting any C-grade would require Arcane Awakening to be active from start to end, putting him on a timer, so facing a foe able to turtle down and wait him out would suck.

The reason why It needed to be flesh and blood was naturally for his rare Hemotoxin Poison, his most potent toxin to date. He had made it with C-grade hunting in mind, so finding an elemental or something like that would be inadvisable.

His other requirement would be a good hunting ground, but honestly, the jungle was fine if not downright great for him. He had a lot of space to kite, and he had already tried and tested the effectiveness of striking from above to land Stealth Attacks with excellent results.

With all of that in mind, he set out on his hunt.

observed as always and nodded as he saw Jake’s recent skill upgrades. Nothing was overly unexpected so far, not because what Jake was doing was normal, but because Vilastromoz had gotten used to it. Pointing out the fact that usually it could take months of deep meditating to identify and become familiar with the conceptual changes brought

upgrading them. Doing so would only lead to adverse effects down the line. Perhaps it would help him upgrade it now, but

starting at low rarity was just that – a starting point. While getting one that was higher rarity was all fine and good - in most instances the preferable choice - there were also cases where it was not. Stealth Attack was a case where picking it was clever. The Viper had never wanted to ask or question Jake about getting

before he even had anything close to sapient thought. Back then, it had been useless as the Viper was small and an ambush predator. Chances are, if he was caught and hit, he would lose anyway, so running away was better,

useless inferior rarity skill was ignored, and the Viper had already gained other defensive means. The Malefic Viper had always been a magic-focused beast, so getting magical defenses just made sense. Who needed stronger scales with a powerful mana shield and a cloud of

these low rarity skills could be worth it. As he had no other skill choices he truly wanted at

but it got stronger and stronger as time progressed. He adapted the skill, made it his own, fused it with Dragon Scales when he reached B-grade and refined it more… until one day, it became a skill many alchemists and

of the

other areas of the jungle. Rather than encountering beasts or Vinewood creatures every few minutes, he now barely saw any, and those he saw were all towards the peak of D-grade. Jake hunted a few, but they were not his target, and even the stronger ones didn’t offer a

density, making them grow powerful just by time passing and hunting each other. Nothing compared to genius-level beasts like Sylphie or the hydra Snappy had been back in the day. They were just regular beasts… and so were the vast majority

for a powerful C-grade. All C-grades were already powerful to him, and he knew he didn’t stand a chance against something like the Termite Hive King. No, he needed a lower-tier C-grade, and as he spent the next many hours searching, he thought he had found

magic that Jake did consider as a target, but it had taken off before he got a chance to properly assess it. A third had been a Vinewood Elephant that was

his current target that he

larger than a regular specimen of its species. Its entire body was black with sleek fine hair covering it. Four paws soundlessly hit the underbrush as it hunted peak D-grade beasts and creatures and consumed their cores or other natural treasures, with Jake covertly observing from

the name

– lvl

he had to say… it was weaker than expected. It was undoubtedly a C-grade, but the fact that it hunted peak D-grades should already be evidence enough it was struggling to

bit of a glass cannon, though, and he saw it take a few minor wounds here and there, and even if these did rapidly

bled entirely black blood. The way the wound healed also looked weird, but who was Jake to comment on what kind of physique

Panther as he kept tracking it and waited as he took to the air. It had just engaged a beast to

physique, but he could still land quite the opening blow. He had prepared his arrows already with his rare Hemotoxin Poison and now pulled one out. He activated Arcane Awakening in the

was still unaware as arcane wrath descended upon it. It reacted only a moment before impact as it rapidly dodged, but the arrow was too fast, and the beast was hit in its side, opening up a deep and nasty wound – Stealth Attack naturally

the Panther instantly locked in on him. He had just nocked an arrow as

had just been as the Panther had teleported right up to him. Jake quickly stepped down again as the beast rushed him with

and managed to land a potshot before rapidly flying upwards to get some distance. He glanced back at it, and just before it charged, he turned and shot an arrow again as he

you can do better

stared at him for a moment before it began to emit black smoke. The smoke absolutely obscured the form of the Panther as it charged once more. Jake smirked a bit as it entered his Sphere, and he easily side-stepped the beast as he pulled out Eternal Hunger and managed to

but the Panther seemed to have read him and followed a moment later. Jake blocked the paw and found his arms buckling as he was pushed back. Another swipe left a nasty cut on his arms as his bracer was torn apart, but before it could land the third blow, Jake used Gaze once

that exploded in a torrent of arcane energy, sending it tumbling down even further. Four black crescent waves were sent in return

slightly curved and smashed into the Panther’s stomach,

fact that Jake had time to properly consider how weak it was during the fight was proof of that. It reminded him a bit of his