The Primal Hunter

”Oi! That was bullshit out there, pure bullshit, I tell you! How can you even call that a proper fight, huh?” the annoying dwarf yelled at Jake, who was just trying to enjoy his sandwich in peace.

”You’re just mad because you lost,” Jake muttered.

”Damn straight I am! What was that shit out there? You aren’t a bloody mage, so why do you use magic like that? You didn’t even give me a chance to do anything! Do you have any idea how much time I spent on making this staff and each of the stored spells in the gems? You only gave me time to use one of them! One!” the dwarf kept complaining as Jake hunched down his food.

”Sounds like a severe case of skill issues,” Jake said in a deadpan tone.

”You…” the dwarf muttered. ”I swear, we’ll meet again for a rematch, and next time I’ll also come prepared! Mark my words!”

With a huff, he walked away, limping slightly due to the big bandages covering his chest. Jake just kept smiling to himself. While he did find the situation amusing, he also took the threats of a rematch very seriously.

Jake was fully aware he had won that fight far too easily due to his preparation and a bit of luck. The dwarf had done exactly as expected at every turn, falling into very much the same trap Jake had found himself in before his fight with the Benevolent Monk.

Every single fight for the Earthborn Faithful had been far too easy, and nobody had managed to even injure him due to his high defenses. As Jake was doing before, the guy was just going through the motions, expecting easy victories.

So when he met Jake, the dwarf was taken by surprise. As he had alluded to, he had far more to show off, but Jake had just never given him a chance as he had struck fast with deadly precision.

That was something else to consider in these G or F-grade fights. As a C-grade, ending a battle in a single blow when there wasn’t a massive disparity in power was incredibly difficult. Piercing someone’s heart, blowing off a part of their body, or stabbing them fifty times wouldn’t necessarily kill them, and even if you cut tendons or hit vital organs, it wouldn’t really impact their movements… primarily because neither of those things really mattered to C-grades anymore.

G and F-grades were different. A stab to the heart would kill you nearly instantly, a hole through the stomach would result in bleeding to death, and just a few good stabs could easily lead to death. Not to talk about the far lower average pain tolerance. This meant fights could easily end with a single attack, something Jake was fully aware of, considering that is how he won nearly every single fight after he began using katars.

Having to only land one good hit meant that even the weaker of two combatants could easily win if they got lucky or went in with a good strategy. A single mess-up from the stronger of two fighters could mean their loss or even demise. The tools one had to fight with as a level 0 were also simply incomparable to a level 200+, further exasperating any small fuck-up..

Perhaps this was Jake’s biggest advantage in all these fights… the lack of tools others had. Because when it came to melee combat especially, Jake never had a lot of tools to begin with. He had always relied on his Bloodline, something he still possessed even in the Colosseum of Mortals. Taking Jake by surprise and landing a single fatal hit was far more difficult than perhaps anyone else in the entire arena. In fact, this led to arguably an even bigger advantage than anything else: consistency.

Anyway, even if the dwarf was salty about losing, and Jake had beaten him before he could really show off his skills, the rewards were very much still there as Jake stepped into the rank of Master Gladiator.

Congratulations! You have reached the Master Gladiator rank, proving yourself as a pinnacle Gladiator in the Colosseum of Mortals. As your notoriety and fame grow, so does the strength of your opponents, and you have begun to catch the eye of some of the more powerful entities involved with the Colosseum of Mortals.

As a Master Gladiator, you are still limited to one fight a week against another Master Gladiator.

All crafters will now have better equipment and items available.

In addition to gladiatorial battles, you can fight against non-Master Gladiator opponents in Show Matches once a day. These Show Matches are against a variety of foes and have far looser rules and regulations than regular arena fights. The possible opponents one can face in Show Matches are decided daily. Winning Show Matches reward Colosseum Points based on the opponents fought. Show Matches and battles against other Master Gladiators cannot be scheduled on the same day.

The difficulty of all Show Match options has been increased.

For reaching the Master Gladiator rank without losing a single time or losing any lives, you are rewarded an extra 10000 Colosseum Points.

are rewarded

fight, and claim your glory as you prove

for just this one promotion match felt oddly cathartic to Jake. That was the number of points he had spent on all

did account for nearly half of his total points

Be promoted from Master Gladiator

Master Gladiator

Colosseum Points: 73910

Lives remaining: 10

all points gained, which did make Jake wonder if that was how the next few ranks would be… but

known it was the one after Master Gladiator, and based on all he had heard, every single Warlord was a real monster. Then again, Jake remembered Polly also talking about every Gladiator being a real monster, so he wasn’t sure how accurate that

difficult challenges, but alas, that did not turn out to be the case. The very next day, Jake had his first Master Gladiator fight against a hobgoblin rogue who also used some weird poison magic. Aside from the odd feeling of no longer

he did have to cut off the hobgoblin’s right arm, but

Jake returned to his usual schedule of practicing archery and working on some basic magic practice. Part

Show Matches once more doubled in Colosseum Point value – 1200 each - with the first Master Gladiator Match rewarding 1000 points, so another doubling there. But this turned out to only be the case for

to improve with 100 more for every win, meaning when he won his fifth Master Gladiator fight, he got 1500 points. The next day when he went to sign

buying a proper bow, but he restrained himself. At this point, not showing off his archery wasn’t just him wanting to play around with his

if that was the case, it was unquestionable that the very first fight he used a bow would be the most impactful one. No one knew Jake could use a bow, not truly. Sure, they could probably figure out he had a deal with the Quartermaster

lying if he said he wasn’t looking forward to the day when pulling out his archery seemed like

the fights getting harder. When it came to scouting out opponents, he had also improved his methodology. Rather than begin to gather information on every foe, Jake tried to have Polly or Owen locate his next opponent for him. While direct contact between yourself and your next opponent was frowned upon, and making threats straight-up against the rules, there was

this proved a great method to figure out if further information-gathering was even necessary. If Jake felt like his next opponent was too weak, he wouldn’t bother, but if they felt strong enough to be a challenge, he would give Polly

that go-ahead. He got close a

before he met the Benevolent Monk… for if he did, Jake

was next, so Jake had naturally gone to the Battlemaster, who had a huge surprise announcement

coincidence, so maybe some of the higher-ups in charge of scheduling are actually

shocked. Shocked, I

Bonus Objective gained.

Colosseum of Mortals couldn’t have been swifter. If you wish to keep this streak going, you will have to defeat an opponent with power

will lock out many similar future

Objective: Defeat

sort. He used light and fire magic to enhance

what the Battlemaster told him and even went and checked

a horrible match against Jake, this so-called Blademaster ended up having an even harder

Saint while delving into Nevermore. Not only had Jake seen the old

this fight with any game plan but had just researched his opponent to know about any dangerous trump cards, but all in all, it ended up being a pretty straightforward fight that Jake won after landing dozens of blows over a five-minute

and get his pants, gloves, and chestpiece replaced afterward, as all had taken

than any of the other two special promotion matches. The differences in power between the Emberlight and the dwarf hadn’t been that big, though… which was why the points