The Primal Hunter 4, page 3
Jake had considered at one point if this was exploitable… You know, having a skill that effectively turned 500 mana into 1000 health, and then a skill that turned 500 health into 1000 mana. Couldn’t you go infinite with that? Sadly the Viper shot that down quickly. He learned that you didn’t truly transform the energy; you just allowed it to act as another kind of energy for a bit. You had to use it, or it would just disperse, like if Jake consumed a mana potion while full.
Going back to Splitting Arrow, that skill was entirely a "physical" skill. It required stamina to use, even if the stamina acted a lot like mana normally would as it duplicated the arrows. One could say the quiver was the same, too, as it summoned physical arrows. At least they were viewed as physical entities by the system. Jake’s arcane arrows, on the other hand, were considered entirely magical. Honestly… the easiest way to spot the difference was just what stats the skills benefitted from. If it benefitted from physical stats, it was a stamina move; if it benefitted from mental stats, it was a mana move, and if it used stats from both camps, it had a mixed cost—his own Arcane Powershot was an example of this.
The arcane arrows only benefitted from Wisdom and Intelligence for the exploding ones and Wisdom and Perception for the stable arrows. Perception was a stat that didn’t really fit into either camp as a physical or mental stat, but was a bit of both. That was because, objectively speaking—according to Jake—Perception was the best stat.
In summary, Jake needed to change the Splitting Arrow skill to work with his mana rather than his stamina.
However, this was easier said than done. Summoning an arcane arrow was naturally easy for Jake, considering that was the point of Arcane Hunter’s Arrows … No, the issue was doing it while in flight and at the same time allowing them to retain their innate power and momentum.
Any attack used had inherent power in it, and not just in the form of physical momentum or force. Jake’s attacks, especially, were different. All his arrows dealt damage based on distance and Perception because of his Archery of Vast Horizons, so he had to make sure the arrows were still considered archery—no matter how weird that sounds.
With all that in mind, Jake went to work.
He kept trying to use the skill, making small changes here and there. Dozens of Lighttail Monkeys fell during his experimentation, but even more of them were just perplexed at how bad the accuracy of their attacker was. A few of the shots were made with the intent of the arrow splitting, after all.
After half an hour, another small group of D-grades showed up. Two Crushers in this one, both around the level of the one he killed earlier, as well as four of the more regular D-grade Tri-Lighttail Monkeys. One of them was the straggler who’d run off earlier.
Another five minutes after that, there were two dead Crushers and four dead regular D-grade monkeys. Jake didn’t let any of them run off for reinforcements this time, as he wanted to spend some time figuring out the whole Splitting Arrow thing, and doing that while having two buffed-up, hulking monkeys try and smash him would be a bit distracting. He would come to them in due time.
The next few hours were spent with Jake trying different things. Around two hours in, he had some progress when he managed to split the arrow while in mid-air, but the new arrow just fell harmlessly to the ground instantly, having lost all momentum.
He needed the "physical" aspects of the skill to work, too, so he began experimenting with a mix of stamina and mana.
The hardest part was having it all work with the Splitting Arrow skill. He had an innate connection to any attack he used, and to activate his intent for the arrow to split using the Splitting Arrow skill took quite a bit of practice. If he tried to do it without using the skill as an anchor, he had no confidence at all in getting it to work. It was a good example of why skills were still valuable; they did stuff that was honestly far too complicated for Jake to do on his own, and it wasn’t even like Splitting Arrow was the most complex.
During his progress, only a single more D-grade showed up after that large group, and that one was swiftly put down. No levels yet, but he hadn’t really expected any either.
Five hours into his practice, most of his time was spent considering how to improve things while looking for more prey. He felt absolutely no regret about slaughtering a few hundred monkeys, and even if he questioned whether committing monkey genocide was acceptable, a single shit-flinging bastard was enough to deter that sentiment.
It was on the sixth hour that he met his first partial success as an arrow was summoned and lasted for a few seconds before flickering out. It even managed to strike a tree before doing so, penetrating deeply into the bark.
Fifteen minutes later, his improved version of Splitting Arrow passed the threshold of improvement set by the system, and a notification appeared.
[Splitting Arrow (Uncommon)] – One arrow becomes many; one fallen prey becomes a field of death. Fire an arrow that splits into several copies while in flight. Each arrow strikes with the power of the original. Adds a small bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using Splitting Arrow.
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[Enhanced Splitting Arrow (Rare)] – A skill most often used by archers, now usurped and reformed by the Avaricious Arcane Hunter. Allows you to clone your arrows while in flight, allowing them to retain innate magical properties. Each arrow strikes with the power of the original. Adds a small bonus to the effect of Agility and Wisdom when using Enhanced Splitting Arrow.
With the upgrade, the system assistance was entirely in place when he fired his Enhanced Splitting Arrow. It consumed both mana and stamina as he did so—quite a bit more mana than stamina.
It only split into three arrows—far fewer than before—but each struck with impressive power.
Three giant explosions sounded out as the forest shook, and monkey parts were sent flying everywhere.
Jake nodded in satisfaction as he dismissed his bow and began traveling further into the domain of the Lighttail Monkeys…
Leaving only more dead monkeys in his wake. One could even say that the monkey tribe was having quite the shitty day.
Chapter 3
Dervish
Sometimes in life, one must take the good with the bad, and disappointment was an unavoidable element of existence. To be honest, Jake shouldn’t really have been disappointed, though, as it was a bit unrealistic to expect it to work…
But damn it, Jake wanted his Splitting Arrow to also duplicate the poison. Was that really too much to ask?
Shortly after upgrading the skill, Jake had, with much excitement, tried putting his blood on the arrow—the type of poison most aligned with himself and his mana—and duplicating it with Enhanced Splitting Arrow. It did exactly the same as the normal Splitting Arrow, with only the "real" one retaining the poison.
No big deal, Jake had thought. He was already on a roll and had just upgraded the skill in rarity, so couldn’t he just keep working on it and upgrade it again? Allow it to also duplicate poison on it?
Jake wasn’t even going to be greedy… it was fine if it only worked with his blood. That shouldn’t be so hard, right?
Wrong.
It was damn impossible. No matter what Jake tried, nothing worked. The poison simply wasn’t at all considered part of the "arrow," so it didn’t duplicate. It wasn’t an issue of resources or methods… The skill just wasn’t compatible at all with what he wanted it to do. It was like trying to use his Brew Potion to make a shotgun…
Well, there was one consolation to it all, at least. A lot of dead monkeys. A lot. Even a good bunch of D-grades, allowing Jake to net his first real level in his class after reaching D-grade.
* ‘DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 101 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*
Jake checked the quest to see how much time he had before the World Congress and noticed that he still had a bit over four days left. It would take him a few hours to get back to the city with how far he had traveled, but that still meant he had plenty of time to explore the rest of the monkey-infested area of the forest he found himself in.
Where he was now, he nearly only saw D-grades, and almost all enemies were monkeys. The vast majority were the normal Tri-Lighttail Monkeys, but there were also plenty of Crushers and even another one called a Suppressor. Yeah… their names weren’t exactly subtle. To the surprise of no one, the Suppressors specialized in suppressing things with their weight magic.
Besides those two, there was also another variant. One Jake was looking at right at that moment.
[Tri-Lighttail Dervish – lvl 123]
It was tall and slender with three tails like all the other monkeys, but its tails themselves were different. While the Crusher had far bulkier ones, the Dervish had tails that looked almost flat. Jake had wondered why they looked like that, but he soon learned the reason.
When Jake came across the group of monkeys, they were in the middle of a battle against another beast: a large, bulky bear that was almost ten meters long and had to weigh many tons. Sadly for the bear, its large size became a detriment to it.
[Brownhide Ursine – lvl 131]
The beast was being pelted with literal shit by the D-grade monkeys, and was slowed down from its forcibly increased weight. Its hide grew harder as it tried to shield itself, but all it did was limit its own mobility further as it got covered in feces.
It tried roaring, sending a wave of force out, but the monkeys hid away up in the trees and just jeered and laughed at it. Jake didn’t like their way of fighting, but he still chose not to interfere. He didn’t like interfering in the fights of others even more, and besides, the Dervish looked like it was about to make its move.
After leaping from its tree, it instantly accelerated manyfold and plummeted the nearly one hundred and fifty meters separating it from the bear.
During its descent, it spun around itself, leaving its tails rotating at a tremendous speed by the time it landed right in front of the bear. The three tails tore into the bear, acting like three whip-like blades that sent blood flying everywhere and made the bear roar in pain and anger.
The suppressed beast instantly began burning with energy as it entered some kind of enraged state, and for a brief moment, it managed to shrug off the weight-increasing effect and move. It attacked the Dervish before it, and when Jake saw its paw land, he thought the monkey would be done for… but instead, it was just sent flying.
Like if the bear had punched a feather, the Dervish harmlessly flew away and landed on the ground. It had a few bloody marks left by the claws, but the impact itself seemed to have barely affected it. It decided to counterattack immediately.
It rushed towards the bear with frightening speed and, using a weird spinning technique, quickly cut into the far larger beast.
Definitely an Agility-focused beast, Jake thought as he saw the bear slowly get finished off. The Dervish inflicted many wounds in quick succession, but it wasn’t exactly a fast killer. In the end, two Crushers joined in when the bear became too weak to put up any resistance at all, quickly finishing the fight.
Just as the monkeys stood triumphantly and cheered, something descended from above.
BOOM!
An arcane arrow fell from atop one of the tallest trees, right through the skull of the one Suppressor that had been the primary force to immobilize the bear. It didn’t even have time to react before its life was ended, and with its demise, panic quickly spread among the monkeys.
A second arrow arrived a few moments later. It hit one of the regular D-grades right in its noggin, blowing its head off and ending yet another life. The remnant energy of the Arcane Powershot became evident as the air itself seemed to vibrate.
Sadly for Jake, that was the last easy kill. All the monkeys had now managed to take cover, and he didn't have time to charge another Powershot for a one-shot. He had previously wanted to fly above the forest to more easily bombard them from above, but found that the crowns of the trees made it impossible. It wasn’t just a question of his sight being physically obstructed, either, as clearly the crowns formed some kind of barrier sealing off the forest. Like a giant, naturally formed array or magic circle, the entire forest protected itself from attacks from above. Which, in retrospect, probably made a lot of sense with powerful flying beasts everywhere. Or, you know, winged humans with bows.
The trees themselves were also damn tough, especially the largest ones. Jake couldn’t even destroy them if he wanted to… It was like being back in the tutorial during the first days, where just penetrating the bark with a dagger had been a damn struggle.
It likely had something to do with the mana intensity being different here. Everything was just tougher, and D-grades were aplenty. Just how he wanted it.
With his wings out, he flew around the trunks of the trees and loosed arrow after arrow towards the monkeys below, every single one of them exploding whenever they hit an enemy or a tree. A few monkeys were even taken by surprise when the exploding arrow suddenly duplicated, and instead of one nearly lethal explosion, it became three very much lethal explosions.
To Jake, the regular D-grade monkeys just weren’t worth much. They were too slow and too weak to pose any real threat, and the entire Lighttail species hadn’t shown itself to be very robust yet. They were a race that focused on not getting hit to begin with, while Jake was quite good at hitting stuff.
He had to deal with a total of eleven normal Tri-Lighttail Monkeys, one Crusher, and one Dervish. After already killing one Crusher and a few of the normal ones, that is.
Jake had already decided to save the Dervish for last… if it allowed him to.
A single figure stood on the ground below, five hundred meters down. Bending its legs, it jumped.
Wha—? Jake barely managed to think before he had to do a flap of his wings to dodge two blade-like tails.
The Dervish tore through the air, and just as it hit the top of the forest, it turned and landed on only a few leaves of the long branches as if it was solid ground. With another mighty jump, it once more flew like a meteor towards Jake, but this time the hunter was ready.
Jake looked up at it and used Gaze of the Apex Predator as the Scimitar of Cursed Hunger appeared in his hand. It froze up just as Jake swung the blade and smashed it into the side of the beast. He felt his blade cut a bit into his target, but after barely managing to leave a wound, he felt all resistance disappear, as if he was striking something without any mass—or in this case, weight.
The Dervish was sent flying away, and just as Jake was about to take out his bow, he saw it purposefully bounce off a tree and behind another, clearly fearing the arrows that had killed several of its brethren earlier.
You don’t like magical attacks, eh? Jake thought, understanding their weakness. Blunt force or even cuts did little to the Dervish, but an exploding arcane arrow was a whole other story. Well, not like the other monkeys fared that much better. Very few things weren’t susceptible to being blown up.
With his target lost, Jake switched to killing off the regular D-grade Lighttails below, patiently waiting for the Dervish to make its next move. He could feel its attention on him as it looked for a chance to strike.
To make it a bit harder for the quick monkey, Jake made sure to fly around the different trees to never give it a straight line of attack while he whittled down the monkeys that were quickly rushing up towards him. He had to dodge quite a few blasts of force and shrug off several waves of weight-increasing mana, but he managed to get quite a few kills in return.
However, the monkeys soon managed to climb up the trees and reach him, and he had to contend with several of them leaping between the trees and trying to hit him. A single one was easy enough, but when five came at once, shit got difficult.
Luckily, he had a few tricks up his sleeve to handle it.
The wings on his back began glowing a dark green color as they emanated a dark, toxic gas. Jake had mixed a bit of dark-affinity mana into the poison, and soon large parts of the treetops were covered in a layer of dark smoke.
This made it significantly harder for the monkeys to strike back, while Jake barely noticed the dark cloud. He had learned quite a while ago that his Perception alone made him able to peer through many magical obstructions of sight, and even if it didn’t, he was accustomed to dark mana anyway.
Moreover, when the monkeys passed through the cloud, they were ever so slowly infected by the poison. The poison didn’t actually do much damage, and even the effects of the dark affinity weren’t noticeable to them… No, the real value lay in Jake being able to detect them far more easily.
Sense of the Malefic Viper allowed him to effortlessly detect poison he had inflicted, and the poison fumes from his wings naturally counted. It was technically just his burned blood, after all.
Jake used everything in his arsenal as he slaughtered the entire group of D-grades. He launched bolts of arcane mana, exploding arrows, and the occasional Powershot, which tore up entire sections of the forest he was in. None of them posed any threat besides the Dervish.
Well, the Crusher would hurt like hell if it managed to strike him, but Jake was never in any real danger of that happening. It was slower than even the regular monkeys and didn’t have much chance of pinning him down. They kept trying to ground him by sending their weight-increasing waves of mana, but Jake countered that by constantly releasing disruptive waves of mana around himself. Was this damn draining on his mana pool? Yes, it sure was, but Jake was a bit of a cheat when it came to that.
A single mana potion restored more than 10,000 mana with the bonus from Palate included, allowing his entire mana pool to effectively be above 40,000. His mask increasing his mana recovery to a large amount also sure helped.
