The Primal Hunter

While it was true Jake usually didn’t like to get involved in the fights of others, he didn’t really count this one. They were barely fighting but just throwing stuff at each other, accomplishing nothing. What did the bears hope for? That the big tree would run out of energy? They had a limited time to be there from the looks of it as the tree gave off a constant aura slowly wearing them down, and coupled with the thrown root balls, they could end up getting hurt unless they left at some point.

In some ways, looking at it annoyed Jake. Neither side was willing to take any risks but just tried to play it slow and safe. Suddenly it made a lot more sense why none of these beasts had managed to properly progress in C-grade with so long passing… they were slacking off.

It honestly was an excellent area for beasts. The passive mana alone would allow most to grow into C-grade if they managed to form a den and properly absorb it for long enough. The problem, as always, was the quantity of this energy. It was well-known that it was limited, and if one packed an entire group of beasts into the area and had them all absorb it, the environment would be unable to keep up. This was why singular, powerful beasts often claimed large areas for themselves to monopolize the energy allowing them to grow. The source of this energy seemed to often be a natural treasure, or maybe it simply came from the land itself, though Jake was honestly not sure. Probably a natural formation formed by a concept that appeared exclusive to the system.

The area Jake was in currently was more akin to the peak of the mountain that the Frost Wyvern was in than the vast ocean and the open skies. It was a small alcove of dense energy, but there was not enough to sustain many monsters. That was probably also why none of these monsters had grown much despite having been there since around when Jake returned from the Tutorial. They had to share the energy between too many individuals, and they didn’t make up for this lack of energy by hunting for more experience points.

Okay, Jake could maybe excuse the Ethgleam Mothertree for not moving about and hunting down other beasts, but the bears were just damn cowards. Jake considered his approach as he looked at the bears, still throwing their weak attacks at the seemingly impenetrable barrier.

Should he break the barrier to spur on the bears? Attack the bears to make the tree try and take advantage of the opening? Stay and keep a look at the situation until either side decides to retreat and ambush them when they try to leave?

Or, the most fun option, rain down destruction on the entire area and create some chaos?

It naturally wasn’t even a question as Jake flew up and stared down from above. Sadly, he could not do a big barrage as there were trees and stuff in the way, but he could do a bit of arrow rain.

Nocking an arrow, Jake took aim. He released it quickly before nocking another and firing it immediately. Both arrows curved around any obstacles before splitting once they had a clear line to their targets.

Neither side of the warring monsters below had expected his arrival. The bears were taken by surprise as destructive arrows exploded in the midst of them, while the tree’s barrier was impacted hard by dozens of explosions too.

Both sides stopped what they were doing for a moment, neither hurt by the relatively weak attack, but the bears sure looked stunned. The tree didn’t really have any facial expressions to read. Jake smiled to himself and flew below the canopy of some of the trees, his stealth disabled and his aura flaring. The attention of the many creatures below landed on him as Jake smiled.

”Ladies, gentlemen, bears, and trees. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Jake spoke, his smile deepening, knowing the monsters understood him. ”Now, let’s decide who gets to claim this forest as their own, once and for all.”

They seemed confused for a moment before, surprisingly enough, a voice came from the large Den Mother below. ”How dare a mere D-grade come here and-”

Jake activated Arcane Awakening in its destructive state, his body overflowing with arcane energy. ”I didn’t come for a talk but a fight.”

”Human of the city on the edge, may I offer alliance of benefit?” he, even more surprisingly, heard from the tree. The telepathic message also included an explanation of some sort. It showed Jake the tree able to influence weaker beasts and monsters and allow them to give memories, showed the tree knowing of Haven, and guessed Jake was from there. Finally, the tree wanted to trade and work with humans.

He wanted to just reject both and get fighting but ended up sighing. Should he agree? A soul tree had to be helpful if it was telling the truth-

”Begone, you pathetic creature, or be consumed by the fires of-” the Den Mother spoke again, Jake making up his mind.

”Sure, but they are all mine, so don’t get in my way, and if you change your mind and want to fight to the death afterward, I am up for it,” Jake answered the tree as he turned his attention to the bears. He saw some of them were charging up some kind of energy to attack him, just waiting for an opening.

”I feel thee soul, powerful human; I desire no fight,” the tree simply answered, having quite the Perception for a tree to get such a good read on Jake’s aura and soul. Jake knew at that moment that an alliance was more than possible, as any tree with a high Perception stat had to be a good tree. It was just science.

It was only a bit disappointing, but Jake guessed the bears would have to make do. Six C-grades, two variants, and four weak beasts who had barely reached their grade. Looking down at them, he knew that the only reason they hadn’t attacked yet was because of the soul tree. Perhaps they feared getting distracted with killing Jake would leave an opening. In fact, their attention was barely on him… proving these bears had shit-tier Perception and were thus bad bears.

Let’s stop delaying, Jake thought as he nocked another arrow and took aim. Drawing back the string, time seemed to slow down as Steady Aim activated, and the arcane energy began to build up. The bears below seemed to finally pay him more heed as the intensity of energy grew, and the Den Mother roared as two of the Fireheart Ursines released two beams of highly condensed fire.

Jake let go of the string as Arcane Powershot barreled down. The beams of fire were utterly repelled as the arrow struck true, hitting one of the bears straight in the mouth. An explosion of energy from the Powershot alone sent the bear flying back, the attack having torn off a large part of its mouth and heavily injured its entire face. Sadly, the beast was far from dead as it quickly got up.

Now, finally, the bears paid him full attention… and reacted by performing a strategic retreat, also called running the fuck away.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Jake muttered to himself as the beasts began running. He nocked another arrow and released it, hitting one of the running bears. Flapping his wings, Jake gave chase while repeatedly firing arrows, focusing on the same C-grade he hit earlier.

Jake had really hoped for a good fight before evolving but grit his teeth as he found everything so far just annoying and insulting. At least the termites would have fought him properly, making him reconsider if those tunnels were really that bad.

Then, something happened that made Jake’s eyes shoot open. He chased the bears into a denser area of trees, forcing him to fly lower to allow him a clear line of sight. The moment he went in between two large trees, he felt a sense of danger from both sides, making him quickly step down and teleport backward. Just in time too.

Two massive explosions rocked the area he had just been in, two trees entirely consumed by flames. At the same time, six blasts of flames came towards him from the directions the bears had run, all beasts having turned around in a coordinated motion.

Once more, he was forced to dodge as the entire forest around him set ablaze from the massive attack. Jake was still flying downwards as two bears came flying towards him, their bodies both burning. It was two of the normal C-grades, but a C-grade was still a C-grade.

The first one swept its massive claw upwards as the ground was torn up from the swipe. All the rock it pulled up turned red as a torrent of lava headed towards Jake, with the second bear going straight for Jake.

It was a good attack.

Unfortunately for them…

Jake charged straight toward the bear going for him. His body turned shadowy as he punched forward, Eternal Hunger appearing in his hand. At the same time, he dodged to the side. The bear smashed into a shadowy version of Jake, the impact sending the bear flying back in a large explosion of mixed dark and fiery energy that would also have severely hurt Jake. If it had been the real him.

The Eternal Shadow dispersed as Jake moved to the side while pulling out his bow, firing a barrage of arrows, not toward the bear he had just struck, but at the four preparing another attack in the distance. All of them seemed confused by two versions of him appearing, making the bear he had aimed at not react as its already torn-up face was injured even further by six condensed explosive arrows.

Below him, the second bear on the attack tried to follow up its own lava swipe but instead found itself freezing up as Jake glanced its way right at he stepped down. Jake appeared right in front of the bear’s face as he stabbed Eternal Hunger forward right into its skull.

To penetrate the skull of a C-grade while in D-grade would usually take an extremely high level of skill or an insane Strength stat… or an overpowered Mythical weapon.

The katar penetrated deep as Fangs of the Malefic Viper pumped venom into the bear. He grinned a bit at how the skull of a C-grade bear felt less durable than the scales of a peak D-grade hydra but didn’t have much time to ponder on this as the bears in the distance finally seemed to realize the gravity of the situation.

Jake let go of Eternal Hunger- still embedded in the bear – as he moved around the beast to dodge its attempt to retaliate. Planting both his hands firmly on its hide, Jake began pumping in poison with Touch of the Malefic Viper.

Once more, the disadvantage of a large body was made apparent. The bear tried to get Jake off, but he easily dodged its repeated attacks as toxicity built up within the beast. It was only when the other bears arrived Jake was forced to retreat.

Eternal Hunger was still stuck in the bear even as he went away, and Jake could only grin as one of his theories had been proven correct. Fangs of the Malefic Viper made the weapon appear as if part of his Soulshape. Recent events had made the weapon far more intimate to Jake. The end result?

Fangs of the Malefic Viper remaining active despite Jake no longer physically touching the weapon. It kept on forming poison on its form like usual, though Jake did notice the constant upkeep having increased and a strain on his mental energy. Nevertheless, it was effective. Something the bear clearly noticed as it tried to get the weapon out of its brain.

It was firmly stabbed in there, and with its large paws, the bear had no way to get it out by itself, meaning it needed help. Jake was sure any of the others could tear out Eternal Hunger. If Jake let them, that is.

Jake went straight for the five other bears, who were now fully engaged in the fight. His attention was on the Den Mother and Den Protector from the beginning, as they were clearly superior variants. Cowardly variants from the looks of it, but variants nonetheless.

At close range, Jake shot several Splitting Arrows primarily to cause chaos as he allowed his wings to pump out poison mist. The bears seemed to care more about killing Jake than helping their comrade, not realizing the folly of their actions.

He easily dodged the first few bears who got close, their attacks big, powerful, showy, but so, so slow. Jake outclassed them all in Agility, no question about it, even with the boost evolving to C-grade had given the bears. In fact, Jake no doubt had more raw stats than all of the bears. It wasn’t only the stat disparity that made fighting between grades more difficult – it was as much the disparity in the effectiveness of stats. Every evolution made every stat point matter more, after all.

But this disparity was overcome as Jake engaged not one but five bears in direct combat. With Eternal Hunger preoccupied killing a bear by itself, Jake only had his bow and bare hands. Getting distance between himself and the bears would probably be best, but he wanted to keep them all occupied, so he stayed in the middle of them as he finally got the chance to apply something that had not been feasible against the hydra.

Bows were ranged weapons, yes. However, that did not make them only useable as range weapons. In fact, Jake had learned from his sparring with sim-Jake that an Arcane Powershot straight to the face from a few centimeters away was quite effective.

Effective versus sim-Jake… and Fireheart Ursines. A bear was blasted in the side of its belly as it was sent flying right as the Den Mother went for Jake. He stepped down and teleported over to another bear. The Den Protector came next, and Jake smirked as he grabbed the pelt of the bear he had teleported to and, to the horror of the group of beasts, swung it straight into the paw of the Den Protector, tearing off a considerable swat of flesh.

Just as he prepared to follow up, the ground beneath his feet rumbled, and Jake was forced to jump back to avoid a spout of lava from beneath. Looking to the side, he saw the bear whose face he had nearly torn off earlier with both paws on the ground, infusing it with fiery energy as it looked like red veins spread throughout the forest.

Finding openings was a challenge, but the longer the fight dragged on, the greater Jake’s advantage became as he landed blows left and right. The large bears had some level of cooperation, but Jake was just too tricky of a target, and they clearly had no experience fighting someone his size. In fact, the one who had taken the most damage from their fight was the forest itself.

The flames all around him also intensified with time as it looked like the entire forest had been set aflame. Jake cared little as he knew it had little chance to spread, and besides… the fire would lose most of its energy once all the bears died.

Speaking of which, a certain bear still hadn’t managed to get Eternal Hunger out of its skull. It had tried valiantly, but in the end, it was just a weak beast barely at C-grade.

*You have slain [Fireheart Ursine – lvl 203] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Jake smiled as the bear behind him finally collapsed from the constant poison pumping its body. With the death of the beast, its Soulspace and Soulshape also ceased to be, meaning Eternal Hunger was no longer considered inside a creature, so…

The Den Mother, enraged at Jake for killing what he assumed to be its cub, released a giant wave of flames as it shot forward to try and bite down on him. With a smirk, Jake met it head-on as Eternal Hunger was once more summoned, and his Eternal Shadow appeared to face the Den Mother as Jake dodged back and pulled out his bow to aim toward the most injured bear.

His arrows struck true as the enraged Den Mother and Den Protector both tried to desperately kill him. Explosions able to destroy minor towns began to be released as they attempted to simply destroy the entire area, hoping to catch out Jake in the midst of it.

Sadly for them, dark green scales had already covered his entire body. All the explosions managed to do was force Jake away before he landed on a flaming branch on a tree that had been burning for several minutes already, yet it still stood strong.

He stared down at the angry bears and saw the rage in their eyes. The intelligence he had seen earlier was gone, and all he now faced were monsters relying solely on their bestial instincts. Jake shook his head to himself as he decided to get fully serious, activating Arcane Awakening at max power.