The Primal Hunter

”Good luck, have fun!” Sandy said before disappearing, leaving Jake with the Meteorite Fragment floating in front of him. He didn’t even bother putting it in his inventory or anything as he quickly nocked an arrow and turned his attention to the many charging Lunewood Stalkers.

Seeing no need to hold back, Arcane Awakening even activated at the stable 30%. Jake felt his body brimming with power as he released the first arrow rain down upon the many charging creatures who were all roughly the same level as the first Stalker. Another thing they had in common with the first Lunewood Stalker was that they didn’t even try to dodge but simply tanked the blow as parts of their bodies were torn off. However, with around thirty of them, this reckless strategy was far more viable, as Jake now also understood why the first one had acted as it did.

These creatures were indeed just one part of a whole. They were individual limbs of a greater lifeform and simply had no sense of self-preservation. For them to dodge would be the same as Jake making his arrows dodge the attacks of enemies… which he actually did pretty often by making them curve around, but that was beside the point and, at most, just a commentary on how the strategy of these Lunewood Stalkers could still be optimized.

The point is, individually, these Lunewood Stalkers weren’t valuable and were just defenders of the forest and life domain they came from. Attacking recklessly like this also tended to have a better chance of landing blows, as it would give the foe far less time to respond, even if the tradeoff was that you risked taking far more hits in return. The term “tended to” was used very deliberately in this case… as Jake just happened to be the exception to that rule, as few things ever had a good chance of landing blows, but less when they were as predictable as these Stalkers.

Arcane explosions lit up the skies above the moon, and Jake began to retreat as he kept shooting arrow after arrow. A constant barrage of attacks flew for him, forcing him to dodge all the time as the Lunewood Stalkers closed in ever-so-slowly. If Jake didn’t have to dodge ranged attacks, he could have outrun them pretty easily, and if he abandoned attacking, he definitely still could, but retreat wasn’t on the table. Not knowing how far they would chase, it was potentially even faster to just kill them all.

So, he upped his offenses and mixed in arcane bolts with his attacks, and before any of the stalkers even reached him, four were slain as their lifeless bodies fell toward the surface of the moon below… only for a giant space worm to swoop in and chomp them down before they could land, all while sending an encouraging message to Jake before disappearing again.

Right as the fifth one fell, the first Lunewood Stalker was also upon him. Jake dodged as the creature spun in mid-air, its tail whipping around as it cut through the, well, not air, but whatever existed within the thin exosphere of the moon.

After its initial attack missed, the Stalker tried to bite him with its thorn-filled mouth, as long vines erupted from all over its body, shooting forward to entangle Jake. Pulling out his katars, the vines were easily shredded as Jake closed in and landed a solid punch to the side of the Stalker’s head. He wanted to continue and attack the core directly, but two more Stalkers arrived right at that moment, making Jake use One Step to teleport away and pull out his bow again.

A barrage of exploding arrows created some more space as Jake blasted himself backward. A heavily injured Lunewood Stalker shot after him, and Jake’s eyes glowed for a moment as the creature flew past him, lifeless, as its already feeble and weak soul crumbled.

You have slain [Lunewood Stalker – lvl 309] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level

Turning around, he released an Arcane Powershot, blasting away another Stalker while taking off two of its legs as he used One Step again to dodge two tail swipes from even more of the annoying plant creatures. His sphere expanded slightly as he made sure to keep an eye on all of them, every single Lunewood Stalker also hit with a Hunter’s Mark.

It wasn’t that hard to keep track of them, though. They didn’t attack with any strategy at all but just charged for him in a straight line. There weren’t even any attempts to surround or cut off his paths of retreat, making the fight far easier than it had any right to be.

One by one, he killed the Lunewood Stalkers, not taking any injuries himself. They simply weren’t fast or strong enough to pose a real threat, and shortly, the final creature had its midsection exploded by an arrow as it fell dead toward the moon.

The entire fight hadn’t even taken that long, as he methodically tore them apart. He also noticed that they seemed to grow a bit weaker the further they got away from the forest, just making things even easier.

Dispelling his boosting skill, Jake sighed as he hoped there would be better foes further inside the forest. While the levels of these Lunewood Stalkers were impressive, their power sure as hell was not. They were so weak that Jake doubted he even got any good experience from them. Disappointing was really the only emotion he felt toward them so far, and while they could offer the flavors of a horde battle if even more attacked him, Jake had always preferred singular powerful foes.

Meteorite Fragments they all had. It effectively served as their cores, and during the fight, Jake noticed striking these

Sandy said after the worm teleported

what he had chosen to dub the Lunewood Forest to test

said. “I would guess that the second we reenter the forest, all the Meteorite Fragments will instantly give us away, and another attack will arrive to try and reclaim them. I doubt hiding the fragments in my stomach

confidence in his stealth skill either when it came to hiding the fragments. If Sandy wasn’t confident, Jake sure as hell wasn’t. He did have one thing he wanted to

tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's

the two of them flew down with impressive speed. Jake did kind of like how he could travel a lot faster in space, even without subspace nonsense. He could simply fly a lot faster and even near-constantly accelerate to a far

the surface of the moon. Stopping just before he landed, Jake stood a few centimeters off the ground as Sandy looked at him, confused. Jake cleared his throat and raised a foot as he

small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Jake said with a stupid grin on his face as he

Sandy commented, confused. “Also, wouldn’t it be a man and

have this moment,” Jake said, throwing a glance

it a try,” the giant space worm sulked before seemingly getting an idea as they also floated down to be just a few meters off

small wiggle for

the local area

wiggle for

at the worm as Sandy giggled.

move on to the actual reason he had wanted to touch down

he got a massive response. Closing his eyes to focus, Jake felt hundreds, no thousands of responses below the ground,

they contained an absolutely ridiculous amount of power. What’s more, they had the ability to produce mana, making them incredibly valuable and near-endless power sources. Jake couldn’t feel if anything was siphoning power off the core,

based on the response, he felt that the true meteorite was far, far larger. He wouldn’t necessarily say that the size of the fragments had to proportionally correlate with power, though, as if that was true, the meteorite would likely have contained more power than

you’ve noticed something,”

theorized,” Jake answered as he opened his eyes. “I think you are right on the money with that Wood Meteorite thing, and I want to go confirm for myself, but before that… do you want those Meteorite Fragments?

with anything else, which is what tends to happen with these things. The life energy will evolve with time as the Wood Meteor flies through space, undergoing a constant evolution as what may as well be an entirely new form of life affinity is born once all is said and done. Not quite an arcane affinity, as it isn’t a cohesive fusion of concepts, but

case, can I have them? And would it be fine

but you do know that the moment one of them breaks, every single living being

point,” Jake

would suggest maybe seeing if it’s possible to merge them together or perhaps to return them to the Lunewood Meteorite? That way, you can absorb or use everything

indeed only be described as poluted. He had nothing to use it for alchemically, and the imbalance and the relative weakness

when they notice a Wood Meteorite has