The Primal Hunter

A massive area of the forest burned, enough so that it would constitute a huge natural disaster in the world before the system. Yet, oddly enough, none of the tall trees had toppled, but all stood strong. Their bark burned, their leaves perhaps gone, but their trunks stood strong, and their auras of life remained powerful. A low-tier C-grade was simply not capable of destroying these trees unless they dedicated a long time and a lot of power to do so.

If this fact benefitted Jake or the bears was hard to determine, but in reality, it didn’t matter. Jake would take advantage of the terrain either way. Be it a forest with nothing but massive burning pillars of wood or an empty burning field, he would still dominate.

Arrows flew around the massive trees, hitting the bears when they couldn’t even see the shooter. The beasts were separated and blasted in opposite directions to spread them out so Jake could more easily kill them alone. Meanwhile, poison built up within the bodies of the bears, and Hunting Momentum built up within the body of Jake.

After the first bear died, the second fell not even ten minutes later. The third bear fifteen minutes after that, and the fourth only a few minutes after the third. Only the Den Mother and Den Protector remained, and as their children lay dead, their bodies decaying on the ground, a glimmer of sanity finally seemed to have returned to the beasts as they had stopped attacking mindlessly and teamed up.

Not that it ultimately mattered. All it did was extend the fight. Between Jake’s higher mobility, his advantage in ranged combat, and his ability to easily get out of any tricky situation and even strike with Eternal Shadow, they never had a chance. They had a horrible matchup versus Jake, and once he forced them into the air from some flying combat, his advantage only grew, as clearly the bears sucked at flying.

Still, C-grades were C-grades. They did have some hidden cards and powerful skills, the most impressive of which was one Jake named Fireheart after their names. From a distance, Jake could feel the heat emanating from the two bears as their bodies heated up to insane levels, enough to turn the ground beneath their feet to lava. Their furs caught fire but clearly didn’t hurt them, and the two got stronger in every way as they seemed to become one with the burning forest around them.

Giant blasts of fire and flaming tornadoes summoned with a single paw-swipe, beams of pure heat able to sear off parts of the otherwise incredibly resilient trees. They even had the ability to seemingly combust the air itself, making it blow up, lit only by a single spark released from the fur of the bears. Moreover, the heat from each bear seemed to empower the other, making it difficult to approach.

So, Jake didn’t approach. He kept a distance as his arrows bombarded the two bears that tried to chase down and kill them. Explosive arrows were too unstable to reach his targets, but the bears simply couldn’t destroy the stable versions.

Jake did run into one of the downsides of Eternal Shadow here. The explosions would nearly always still hit Jake, and the Eternal Shadow could barely handle taking any damage and was instantly destroyed by explosions whenever Jake tried to use it to attack. Luckily it did not get destroyed by something like the heat alone, but even any semi-direct hit would make it disperse.

As always, Jake took this fight as an opportunity to learn and improve, but after it had gone on for nearly an hour total, there really wasn’t more to it, and it just became a hunt of attrition. The bears also noticed this and knew they were losing, so they resumed an earlier strategy.

They ran.

Jake chased.

Marks were on both of them as Jake hunted them down, arrows curving around the trees to find their target. The occasional Arcane Powershot blasted forward, tearing off a slab of flesh and making one of the beasts roar in pain and anger.

In the end, the Den Protector died first, unable to handle the building poison any longer. The Den Mother was stronger and held on, but in the end, it became the victim of Jake unleashing all his built-up Hunting Momentum in the form of a final Arcane Powershot with the good old Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter for a true killer finishing blow.

With them both dead, Jake flew down and landed in front of the dead Den Mother, finally checking all his notifications. He was a bit disappointed upon reading them through.

*You have slain [Fireheart Ursine Den Mother – lvl 215] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Fireheart Ursine Den Protector – lvl 211] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Hunter] has reached level 197

level 198 - Stat

has reached level 198 -

levels from this fight was impressive enough in Jake’s mind due to how damn easy it had been. The only thing these bears had going for them was durability and some decent firepower, but they were in no way proper threats to someone like Jake. The fire had left Jake looking a little haggard, though, with

to recover anyway, Jake extracted all the Beastcores he could and took whatever else of value he could find. He also considered looking for the den of these bears, but after some more thought, he decided to just go back to the soul tree and

the tree, and when he got close, he saw the barrier was still up. The treants looked to be in a dormant state, roots extending from their bulking bodies into the ground. Jake landed in front of the

extinguishment of souls of fire felt from afar. Destroyers destroyed, I thank thee, human of the edge,”

the tree, an altar of roots grew out of the soil. On it was a glowing white orb, giving off potent energy. Some

tree spoke once more. “Consume to nourish, heal,

the item offered more closely, Jake

of an Ethgleam Mothertree. This fruit has been made with an extreme level of effort by its creator and contains incredibly potent energy capable of nourishing and improving the soul of whoever consumes it. Must be consumed within the domain of

bit and initially smiled. However, quickly his expression changed. Something was off. It was as if the words didn’t fit properly in the description. As if something was wrong with it. He squinted his eyes, and it

as the three also noticed

a convincing and oddly soothing

– fear of missing out - marketing on him. He also knew that those who abused these sales tactics tended to be less than savory… something

birch, Jake cursed as he focused and

Ethgleam Mothertree (Unique)] – The Soulfruit of an Ethgleam Mothertree. This fruit contains incredibly potent energy capable of negatively influencing the soul of whoever consumes it. Warning, consuming this item may

would harm Jake severely and give the soul tree quite the opening. If it was even its plan… something Jake got a feeling it wasn’t. No, he

will merge it with

and gain power; I shall assist,” the tree

ticking time bomb controlled

had been proven wrong, and a tree that focused on Perception had turned out to be an

right in front of Jake. “A human weakened, his soul

tired from fighting the bears, his armor was burnt and broken, and he looked utterly spent at a cursory glance.

soul energy worm its way into his mind. That is when Jake understood what the tree wanted. It wasn’t to kill him… it was to use him. His hunch was proven correct as words materialized in the air in front of

free,” the tree spoke as Jake

wasn’t a slave contract… but it was just as bad. It wanted Jake to bring it humans so that it could enslave and use them as vessels to grow itself. It wanted to plant seeds within their souls and spread through human bodies. In return, it would allow Jake to survive as long as he agreed to never be antagonistic to the tree again. If

to survival given.

“No deal.”

and the period of weakness was bypassed instantly. The treants behind him moved immediately, but Jake was faster and stormed forward towards the tree. At that moment, Jake’s sense of danger flared, and