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 a physical object, while

”Ya sure ya didn’t just accidentally color

it’s inspired by normal mana,

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

he countered. ”Well, I answered you, so at least tell me what your odd golden aura does. To me, it

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

but that didn’t make him glow like some golden god who could display insane levels of power. It couldn’t

as he raised his axe high. ”The spirit of a

he was firing himself up as he looked straight at Jake.

Jake for a moment, almost waiting for him to

for the right time, aren’t ya?” he asked.

slightly as Valdemar seemed to know something. In the end, Jake only subtly nodded as Valdemar nodded in

in the eye. ”Without putting our lives

as he said this, though it

said as he pounded the left side of his chest. ”But why pull

been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report

times without really caring. Instinctually, he understood that

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 fought with

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 careful… I may

will keep that in mind,” Jake nodded solemnly. “Now,

Valdemar laughed. “Should make

charged, and Jake faced him for nearly six minutes before he

Two lives remained.

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

Boosting skills.

viable. Instead, Jake had switched to using short, controllable bursts of arcane energy while fighting to help himself, but the increase was far from the

Arcane 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

also meant that in a situation where he lost control, it wouldn’t damage him too much. For Jake, if he was running arcane energy through his body and lost total control, his entire body would disintegrate

that but

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

He had felt the burning sensation of pure destructive energy coursing through his veins, slowly destroying him from within with the promise of power in return. A power that

stabbed him a few dozen times. All that coming after he landed 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

One life remaining.

time getting in the best mental state he could while also enjoying his remaining two weeks with Artemis, Owen, Polly, and even chatting with the Battlemaster. No matter