The Primal Hunter

To use his own life and death as a mere resource in his preparations did feel odd to Jake, but in truth, he had no other choice. Valdemar was simply too overwhelmingly powerful for Jake to possibly defeat him in a single attempt, and Jake also suspected he was just a straight-up cheat, as while he didn’t use any skills… well, it wasn’t like the S-grade Valdemar fighting the Malefic Viper in the vision had used many either. The only real thing Jake remembered him using was that Fang of Man skill, along with what Jake assumed to be a self-made brew to help cleanse the toxins.

So, all Jake could do was keep dying as he accumulated knowledge through several deaths.

When he only had five lives remaining, Jake fully confirmed that Valdemar had indeed entirely transcended the limitations of a G-grade human body. For Jake, in his current state, having a kneecap broken or his tendons severed would make him unable to move properly, even if he could force some movement using his internal energy. The action would be stilted and far slower than usual, though.

Valdemar did not have these same limitations. During this life, Jake had managed to fully destroy his one kneecap during a borderline suicidal attack, only to see Valdemar continue running toward him, the entirely crushed knee somehow just holding up due to the golden aura. Ultimately, he concluded the only way to limit Valdemar’s range of movement was to cut off a limb entirely… or some-fucking-how kill him outright.

As for how Jake could accomplish that one? Well, he had hoped that his big arrow could be a solution… so when he had four lives remaining, Jake stayed at his own entrance area as he took out his quasi-Protean Arrow and began charging his skilless Arcane Powershot before Valdemar even entered the arena.

It was a bit scummy, but he had to at least give it a go. Valdemar had walked up to the arena as Jake finished charging the attack. Without hesitation, he had let it go, only for Valdemar to laugh loudly as he took it head-on. Axe met arrow as a massive explosion rocked the arena, sending destructive shards of arcane mana flying everywhere as the large arrow fragmented like a grenade.

When the dust settled, Valdemar still walked out of the cloud of dust, small wounds covering his chest, but otherwise completely unharmed, his body burning with golden aura. So, in conclusion, Valdemar swinging his axe really hard was roughly equivalent to Jake’s strongest attack…

That life had ended pretty quickly after that, as Jake had caused some self-damage with his quasi-Powershot, making him a tiny bit slower than before, which naturally resulted in a rapid demise. Jake did get a bit more experimentation in during that life, though… because he had noticed one thing already several lives ago.

While Valdemar’s stats were through the roof, he was lacking in Perception. The arrow Jake had shot up that hit him in the collarbone hadn’t been a one-off… so that was where Jake could focus. He would exploit the one weakness he had found to land meaningful blows and hopefully pull out a victory that way, if possible.

When he had three lives remaining, Jake began to implement some level of proper strategy as he also finally did something he should have done far earlier. While Jake wanted to figure out how the hell Valdemar’s Transcendence worked and had done many things to test it, there was one thing he had neglected to try:

Just asking the guy.

After a few clashes, Jake found himself on the backfoot but also managed to land some hits. So far, the fight hadn’t gone terribly, and Jake finally questioned the Primordial.

”How does that golden aura of yours even work? It’s a Transcendence, right?” Jake asked, in all honesty, not really expecting any answer. It was actually pretty dumb of him to even ask. Why would someone like a Primordial just tell some random mortal something like tha-

”System does sure call it a Transcendence,” Valdemar nodded as he looked to really rack his brain for a moment. ”As for how it works… well, it just does.”

”It.. just works?” Jake questioned the pretty empty statement with a deadpan expression.

”Oh, look at you judging! Then tell me, how does that weird mana of yours work!” Valdemar asked, crossing his arms.

”Well, it’s an arcane affinity, so it’s pretty normal that I don’t know exactly how it works,” Jake answered promptly.

”So you don’t know how it works,” Valdemar stated with confidence.

can make it stable and destructive, making it either incredibly durable and practically

just sounds like normal mana,” Valdemar scratched his beard. ”Ya sure ya didn’t just accidentally color your mana

sighed. ”And it’s inspired by

full of satisfaction as if he had just won some major argument. ”As I said… ya don’t

who didn’t rely on logic, as he countered. ”Well, I answered you, so at least tell me what your odd golden aura does. To me, it just looks like it

aura! It’s from my fighting spirit!” Valdemar grinned widely. ”At least that’s

spirit?” Jake asked. That just sounded so… vague? Undefined. Jake also had fighting spirit – a lot of it – but that didn’t make him

Primordial laughed as he raised his axe high. ”The spirit of a legend!

golden aura erupted again as he was firing himself up as

but just looked at Jake for a moment, almost waiting for him

the right time, aren’t ya?”

subtly nodded as Valdemar nodded in turn, recognizing the situation. He seemed almost

Challenge Dungeons and events where you can’t really die. It’s all so damn fake,” Valdemar shook his head as he looked Jake straight in the eye. ”Without putting our lives on the line, how can we feel truly excited!? How

he said this, though it didn’t

a good nose for these things… and looking at ya, I can see ya got something in here,” Valdemar said as he pounded the left

story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon,

also only agree. Jake had just died several times without really caring. Instinctually, he understood that death in the Challenge Dungeon was not true death. It

this was the real world and Jake found himself facing Valdemar at a similar level… he would not have fought as he did in the Colosseum. He would have fought with true desperation and pulled out everything he had… he would have

in an elated voice. “Ya still got some lives… but when ya have only one attempt left, properly challenge me. Challenge me to a duel of the ages! Challenge me to create the ultimate Legend of the Colosseum! If ya do that, I shall face ya with the respect such a challenge requires. Ah, but be

Jake nodded solemnly. “Now, let’s

Valdemar laughed. “Should make the true duel far

faced him for nearly six minutes before

Two lives remained.

have to not hesitate in the slightest but do all he could. While it was possible for Jake to just go back to the save point before he issued the challenge and spend a year practicing, he never considered it. Instead, he turned toward something he had written off as not an option a

Boosting skills.

viable. Instead, Jake had switched to using short, controllable bursts of arcane energy while fighting to

Awakening… well, he couldn’t. Boosting skills were skills for a very good reason. They were borderline required to be skills, as consciously controlling the extreme flow of energy through your body while fighting was pretty much impossible, and the only reason why boosting skills were widespread was that the system

impossible, it wasn’t entirely impossible. The Lightning Monarch had an arcane affinity extremely well-fitted to boosting yourself, which also meant that in a situation where he lost control, it wouldn’t damage him too much. For Jake, if he was running arcane

the skill part would likely take Jake years. So, he decided not to do that but just accepted the

to making sure he didn’t kill himself too fast during his

of pure destructive energy coursing through his veins, slowly destroying him from within with the promise of power in return. A power that it delivered as

quite a few arrows. For a while, it looked like he could truly fight equally with the Primordial - a while being a good fifty seconds, in this case, before he reached his limits. His resources began to run out, and his body could no longer take the forceful circulation of destructive energy as it began to fall apart. He didn’t even have the time to die to his own skill, though, as Valdemar’s

One life remaining.

extra prep time but because he wanted to spend the time getting in the best