The Primal Hunter

One skill selection was great.

Two skill selections? Now that was just awesome. And today was truly an awesome day.

Jake was already pretty happy with his new profession skill, even if he didn’t have the chance to start experimenting with it right then and there. Sure, he would like to sit down for a few weeks and just make Curse Fragments and see if he could find anything to use them for immediately, but that didn’t mean he was any less excited to get another class skill or maybe even upgrade one of his existing ones.

In fact… having both skill selections at once like this was double-awesome because it meant that it didn’t matter if the next floor had a lot of downtime for crafting or was filled with combat; Jake would have something new and shiny to play with.

So, feeling in a good mood, Jake began the skill selection.

*Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge class skills available*

And was instantly disappointed because, as was almost becoming customary by now, there, of course, had to be one shitty magic skill on offer.

[Devastating Arcane Orb (Rare)] – Harness your destructive arcane mana to bring devastation upon the world. Allows the Hunter to summon an explosive orb of arcane mana at a target location within your range of perception. The arcane orb will be highly destructive and especially effective against environmental mana, with energies tailored to wide-scale destruction over focused damage, allowing each Devastating Arcane Orb to destroy large areas. Multiple orbs can be conjured at once for optimal devastation. Adds a bonus to the effectiveness of Intelligence when using Devastating Arcane Orb.

Man, Jake was definitely feeling regret now. He should totally have picked Malefic Plague Theory as his profession skill, as he now realized he had missed out on a huge opportunity. Imagine the synergy. With a plague, he would wipe out a civilization of E-grades, and then he could blow up their cities with Devastating Arcane Orbs once everyone was dead! One for killing, one for destroying, the perfect combo to wipe out people too weak to fight back.

Alas, Jake had failed to predict he would be offered such a perfect skill in his class skill selection.

All kidding aside, why the hell would Jake want a rare skill that was tailor-made to blow up stuff? Not even enemies, just… stuff. Also, the reasoning behind him getting offered the skill felt pretty damn thin. Did it really all come from Jake blowing up some cities during floor forty-one? Sure, he did sometimes use highly destructive arcane magic to blow up large areas or as distractions, but enough for one of his five skill offerings to be taken up like this?

Yeah, it felt like it was a bullshit skill just there to fill the list. Something the next one on offer also kind of was, though at least there was some solid reasoning behind that one.

can be given to others. Weapons created will deal a small amount of bonus destructive arcane damage, while armor will be strengthened by the concept of stability. The duration and durability of

skill selections ago. He also remembered that skill had been an upgrade to one

question… why was the system so damn insistent on Jake learning how to summon armor and weapons? Three times getting offered effectively the same skill definitely felt like overkill. Additionally, why would he even need it in the first place? A summoned katar would definitely be worse than both Blackpoint Blade and definitely way worse than Eternal Hunger. Could he maybe make some armor out of it? Nah, that also seemed bad, as Jake was fully dedicated to dodging stuff and trying to gear himself out in arcane armor just seemed like it would weigh him down. The two only real use cases Jake could see were to make things for his allies, as he assumed even monsters could use summoned items like this. The other one was to summon arrows… in other words, something he didn’t

from his creation of Protean Arrow. Both were about designing things using arcane mana, after all. Of course, that upgrade had partly been facilitated by

negative emotions towards that wonderful little box of puzzling

at it, things were

arrows in a massive area. Cloning arcane arrows or creating Arcane Arrow Rains using arcane arrows has a far lower mana and stamina cost. On an internal cooldown, the Hunter can push himself beyond his usual abilities and create an arrow that, upon activation, will explode several times on a slight delay for multiple Arcane Arrow Rains. Doing this will temporarily make the skill unavailable. Adds a bonus to the

This skill is unlocked by and will serve as an upgrade to your existing Splitting Arrow Rain, resulting in the loss

to his class, too, making it even more interesting. Reading over the actual effects, Jake was both impressed and a little

be even better than before, with the entire Arrow Rain aspect becoming far better. Even the way the rain happened had improved, as

pretty damn obvious upgrade he should probably implement himself if he didn’t take this skill. It seemed incredibly simple and was just something he had never considered prior. Adding his arcane affinity to the skill never seemed relevant,

better cost-efficiency, and a more effective method of creating Arrow Rains. All of

to “push himself beyond his usual abilities” and create a self-sustaining Arcane Arrow Rain. If Jake read it correctly, using this effect would allow him to create a massive Arrow Rain that lasted for a prolonged period of time without him even needing

and Palate also kind of did with

was the concept between it? Usually, things that allowed you to break your own limits were classified as boosting skills, and even extremely powerful single-cast spells usually came with either a long cast time or some form of backlash or period of weakness after use. This skill didn’t mention that Jake would experience any of this, only a cooldown. Just to find out exactly how that worked, Jake nearly wanted to

the next one having a suspiciously similar line in the

Allows the Hunter to create a Penetrating Arcane Arrow that will pierce through nearly any natural barriers and have a far higher penetrative effect on any defenses manifested or possessed by the target. Will temporarily lower the defenses of the foe if they are struck successfully. These effects are more powerful the higher the enemy’s defenses and the level disparity between you and your opponent. On an internal cooldown, the Hunter can push himself beyond his usual abilities and forcefully infuse the concepts of the Penetrating Arrow of Horizon’s Edge into another self-created arcane arrow. Doing this will temporarily make the skill unavailable,

ability to “supercharge” the skill and put it on cooldown. Was this maybe something inherent to the Hunter of Horizon’s Edge class? Like how Avaricious was all about making his attacks

thematically with the concept of chasing the horizon. The horizon was just a metaphor for something unattainable that was incredibly far away, with any progress made toward the horizon just moving it further away. Perception played into this, as the further one could see, the more ambitious the horizon he chased. The scaling based on levels also made some level of sense, as every enemy reflected what obstructed him on his Path toward Horizon’s Edge, and

a representation of that? That he would reach beyond what he could reach beyond his own station and, at the cost of putting the skill on a cooldown, supercharge the skill for one

knew he wouldn’t get an answer by just thinking about it, so

very well as an opener of sorts when Protean Arrow wasn’t an option.