The Primal Hunter

At the higher grades and levels of power, the scaling of survivability and damage output was not balanced. Killing an F-grade human as another F-grade human was easy. Just stab them in the heart, and they die.

For an E-grade, you had to stab them a few times in the heart and maybe land a few more blows before they went down for good. D-grade it got even harder, and nothing short of blowing off the head of another man would work as an instant kill. And even then, many could survive losing their head dependent on their skills and stat distribution.

C-grades losing their head rarely meant death. The Soulshape became stronger and easier to regenerate, and each part of it was less vital than in prior grades. Even the functions of the brain were all gone by C-grade, allowing one who had lost their head to keep moving. Sensory organs still mattered, and regenerating the brain and head was a huge burden, but most humans could overcome it.

Now, this was humans. Beasts were even harder to kill, with elementals harder than beasts. Due to how survivability scaled, it meant that the other party escaping was the likely outcome unless one party was at least a good deal stronger. Assuming the losing side decided to flee, that is.

All of this ultimately resulted in that when two beings of similar or equal power met, there would be no true winner. This was doubly true when the two beings facing off were Unique Lifeforms at the peak of D-grade. Both of them could slaughter weaker C-grades easily, and even higher-tiered C-grades wanted to avoid them due to their uncertainty in killing a Unique Lifeform. For failure would mean a delayed death just a few years later when the Unique Lifeform caught up, and victory would mean nearly nothing as even if their strength was equal, then killing an opponent in a lower grade wouldn’t be rewarded by the system.

What they would instead do was take a side and support the Unique Lifeform for future benefits. That is unless there was more than one. If the supremacy of the Unique Lifeform was challenged. There would be sown doubt if supporting the Unique Lifeform was worth it, and even more so, then this would be a good chance to break off and attempt to do your own thing. To pursue personal goals… to get revenge.

The Fallen King and the Ashen Phantom Devourer had battled for nearly four hours with neither getting any advantage during the first encounter. The mountains were torn asunder, and thousands of unlucky observing beasts died in the process. After the fourth hour, the Ashen Phantom Devourer chose to disengage. A day later, it attacked again, and their fight resumed.

It was like a neverending cycle. The Ashen Phantom Devourer was a being that was near-impossible to kill. Its body was more like a living domain rather than an actual physical entity, making dealing damage incredibly difficult. At the same time, the King of the Forest had a powerful, constantly active barrier, and even if one managed to break it, all one found was a bark-like armor that offered incredible resistance to all damage.

This made it all a battle of endurance, and with both of them able to escape easily, no true winner would be found unless one party made a breakthrough or found something to truly exploit. They both knew this, which is also why they wanted to keep fighting. It was rare that a Unique Lifeform could find a being able to stand up to them and even rarer to find another Unique Lifeform. Other Unique Lifeforms were the closest they could ever get to kin, and this sparked an intense innate desire to prove themselves. Prove their Paths and prove that they were superior Unique Lifeforms.

Neither cared that their fight left a power vacuum ripe for exploitation and that those who before found themselves held back now chose to act.

William stared at the ritual circle as he operated it, karmic magic revolving around him. The oversized squirrel sat in its middle for a moment before openings its eyes, anger burning within from what it had just experienced. Not directed at William, but someone it had forgotten and now remembered. It bowed towards him before leaving, going towards the teleportation chamber.

What am I even doing?William asked himself for what felt like the umpteen time in the last… year? Years? A long time that is for sure.

Shaking his head, he decided not to think about it too much. Whenever he made his own decisions, things just turned to shit anyway, so it was better for him to just do as was told by someone wiser: his master.

The ritual circle he was operating on was one he had been working on for a good while. It had been the final requirement for his Profession Evolution Quest, and taken all of his skills to pull off. Of course, it wasn’t the only thing he could have made; all it required was for him to make something related to his profession at a sufficiently high level.

been easy. But his Race Evolution Quest was just… he

Race Evolution Quest

Path of discovery of yourself and what you want to be. Yet you have not found it. Without determination and vision, there is no Path. Without desire, there is no progress.

Find your

his Path already, so he didn’t get why the fuck he hadn’t completed the quest already. If he had completed it, he would be C-grade and one step closer to being useful to his master. But no matter how much he tried to figure it out, the quest remained uncompleted. It made absolutely no sense to him, and he had asked his master, but his master just

it out later, he told himself as he prepared for the next somewhat confused beasts to enter the ritual circle. William worked his magic as he pulled on the karmic strings and increased their strength. He gathered them almost into a ball which he used to weave a tapestry and allowed the beast to see. And see, it

and it even threw William an angry glance. Not that he could blame it. He had allowed it to experience something that most

Memories. Memories of

saint back then, but the crimes he had committed were nothing compared to some others. Individual researchers had killed thousands of mice, and just how many fish were caught every day? How many deer were shot and killed? How many

would

was no true

an outlet and a new goal. He would find anyone

what he was doing was. He knew the goals of Ell’Hakan and his master’s expectations. He knew what the beasts were planning and about

he still

helping some alien? Why is all I am doing still not enough? Why am I still afraid and still have

to see the Augur of Hope. A man he had killed. The Augur had greeted him without a care for their history and had shown only pity. He had then helped William find some

mountain back then, but all I

William already had a Path and now he suddenly didn’t, despite finally finding meaning with his master.

he just had to work on the tasks given by his master, and he was sure he would find his Path. He had wanted to visit this former girlfriend of the Malefic’s Chosen but simply

the Malefic Viper’s Chosen out of commission for at least three and a half months, with the expected time being over half a year. William did not fault the alien for not fighting the Malefic One’s Chosen outright. He was a damn monster. But he did think it a bit stupid to just piss him off

any of his concern. William just did as he was

for a

one where One Step would not simply allow him to step out. One would have to do something special to get out – or just go crazy with destructive energies in Jake’s case –

summoned his wings. Time to upgrade these bad

just dumb luck, but this was a perfect opportunity for him to practice. He informed Sandy of what he wanted to do, and Sandy responded by playing along. Jake felt the walls harden and the