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.

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 on by such a skill would be a waste of time. Jake’s level of perception was truly disgusting, and the Viper was not just talking about the

help him upgrade it now, but the

his old days. A skill 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

in his day, he remembered not picking up quite a few skills… one of them he had skipped for a long time had been called Scale Armor. Instinctually the Viper had passed it back in F-grade before he even had anything close to sapient thought. Back then, it had been useless as

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 miasma

had no other skill choices he truly wanted at the time, Vilastromoz took a gamble and picked up the weak skill. The day he got it, he was disappointed as it did nothing besides making his scales a bit tougher to physical attacks…

reduction. A flat damage reduction on every blow that is. Its effect was so weak right when he got it, but it got stronger and stronger as time progressed. He adapted the skill, made it his own, fused it

the Malefic

he now barely saw any, and those he saw were all towards the peak

these foes were beings born of struggle or created from extraordinary circumstances. They had just grown up in an environment with high mana density, making them grow powerful just by time passing and hunting

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.

as a target, but it had taken off before he got a chance to properly assess it. A third

his current target that he had been

with sleek fine hair covering it. Four paws soundlessly hit the underbrush as it hunted peak D-grade beasts and

the name

–

on it to get an idea as to how powerful it was and what it was capable of, and 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

take down its foes. The Panther was a bit of a glass cannon, though, and he saw it take a few minor wounds here and there, and even if these did rapidly heal, the mere fact that these D-grades could hurt it was a testament to

beneath the hair, was black and how it bled entirely black blood. The way the wound healed also looked

eleven hours left till the system event. Smiling a bit, Jake knew it was enough time as he made all his preparations. He marked the Panther as he kept tracking it and waited as he took to the air. It had just engaged a beast to fight, and he would wait till the moment

he could still land quite the opening blow.

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

nocked an arrow as his danger sense exploded, making him stop what he was doing and

stepped down again as the beast rushed him with

at it, and just before it charged, he turned and shot an arrow again as he used Gaze of the Apex Hunter, finding it worked even better than expected as the Panther froze

do better than

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

as he was pushed back. Another swipe left a nasty cut on his arms

tumbling down even further. Four black crescent waves were sent in return as a swipe tore up space itself, but Jake managed to dodge between

Jake had predicted its movements as the Powershot slightly curved and smashed into the Panther’s stomach, sending it barreling down towards the ground, creating

was no way a C-grade would go down that easily… no matter how weak it was. And damn, this one was weak. The mere fact that