The Primal Hunter: A LitRPG Adventure, page 4
The plan was simple: Fire off ranged attacks from a distance, trying to damage or maybe kill one or two, with Bertram trying to go in the front with his shield and get their attention, while Jacob and Theodore flanked him to cover his sides. The plan held the assumption that the beasts were stupid and aggressive if attacked.
Planning so much was maybe a bit overboard for overgrown badgers, but no one seemed willing to take any risk. A sentiment that Jake understood, but disagreed with. Wouldn’t a fight without any risk be a bit… boring?
The only problem with the plan was that apparently the casters only had around ten meters of range on their bolts—any longer than that and they would fizzle out of existence, according to what Ahmed, the last of the casters in their group, had been told during the introduction.
They easily dismissed Dennis with his throwing daggers, having no faith in his accuracy at thirty meters, or even ten for that matter, assuming he could even throw them that far. This left Jake and Casper. And as for Casper… The first time he had ever held a bow in his life was earlier that same day when he got it from choosing the Archer class.
"So, Jake, you got confidence to hit one from here?" Jacob inquired, seemingly not holding much faith in the plan they had spent the last ten or so minutes making. That the planning had been a waste, Jake agreed on. The beasts would already be dead if it was up to him.
"Of course," Jake answered, once again slightly less awkward than before with everyone staring at him. His well-hidden frustration at the passive group outweighed his social anxiety.
He took out an arrow from the quiver on his back and inspected it. Wooden shaft, steel tip, and fletchings made of a kind of feather he did not immediately recognize. The weight was good and balanced, the arrowhead sharp, and overall, it seemed to be of good quality.
"Okay, ready when you are," Jacob said, getting ready along with everyone else. From the looks of everyone, the lack of confidence was all around. They weren’t fighters. The only one who appeared to have some kind of proper training was Bertram.
Jake walked up over the small hill, followed by everyone else just behind him.
He looked at the beasts and nocked the arrow. He raised his bow as he focused. His vision instantly sharpened, instinctively knowing that Archer’s Eye had activated. Time seemed to slow down ever so slightly as he pulled back the string.
For the first time today, something felt right. The morning routine, work, the introduction, and everything else was just… wrong. But at this one moment, as he held the bow, everything felt like it was as it should be. He smiled, took aim, and shot the arrow. Before even seeing the result, he had already taken out another arrow, preparing to shoot once again in one fluid motion.
The arrow had been aimed at the neck of the strongest beast, the one at level 4. He had briefly considered the heart or the head, but he had limited knowledge of their physiology. The heart might not have been placed where he assumed, and the hardness of the skull was way too unpredictable. The arrow flew in a straight line, with more speed, power, and accuracy than Jake had ever shot an arrow before.
The arrow hit the beast straight in the throat as it raised its head from the carcass of its prey.
It fell back over, and before the other badgers had even registered what had happened, the second arrow arrived, hitting the left-most badger square in its chest, penetrating deeply. The remaining two badgers looked over at the hill and instantly charged at Jake, showing no regard for their lives.
Before they had even moved five meters, another arrow arrived. This time, they were ready, however, and dodged a head-on hit, only leaving a shallow scratch on the one on the right as it dodged. Jake only managed to get off two more arrows before they arrived at the group, both leaving minor injuries on one of them.
Before the beasts could sink their teeth into Jake, a huge figure moved in front of him, carrying a huge shield and a shortsword, followed by Theodore and Jacob off to each of his sides. Jake flanked around, still hidden behind the three men in front of him, trying to see if he could get off another shot.
The first badger to reach them was the uninjured one, smashing into Bertram’s shield and predictably getting knocked back from the impact. Following just behind it was the injured one, this one slightly more cautious as Jacob tried to keep it at a distance by pointing his sword at it and making threatening motions.
As Jake took his time to line up a shot, the beast that had smashed into the shield was stabbed by Theodore, who had somehow managed to get it in its hind legs. With the thing disabled, the two warriors quickly managed to hack away at it.
Jacob was still attempting to take on the injured badger, swinging his sword back and forth, with the beast jumping around and trying to attack him while not getting hit by the sword. Jacob had gotten several scratches on his arms already, and the badger also seemed to have taken a couple of hits.
Jake aimed his bow, and just as the badger jumped away from the swipe of the sword, Jake released the arrow, hitting the badger in the side. Before the thing had a chance to collect itself, Jacob's sword fell, cutting into its head and promptly ending its life.
Bertram and Theodore had also managed to finish off the last badger around the same time. Looking at the two initial ones he had hit, he saw both were also dead. The first one he had hit in the throat had died instantly, while the other one had managed to run a couple of meters toward them before it succumbed to its injury. Judging from the blood, Jake had hit something important, likely even the heart.
"Holy shit, we did it!" yelled Theodore, swinging his bloody sword around.
Behind them, Caroline was rushing up to Jacob. She started mumbling some words, and a white light appeared around her hands as cuts and bruises on Jacob's arms slowly healed. Jacob thanked her and looked over at Jake with a weird look in his eyes.
Jake did not feel like having any unnecessary social interaction, and as the adrenaline slowly wore off, he looked at the system messages he had missed during the fight.
*You have slain [Badger Cub – lvl 4] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 8 TP earned*
*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 1 – Stat points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*You have slain [Badger Cub – lvl 3] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 4 TP earned*
*You have slain [Badger Cub – lvl 3] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 2 TP earned*
*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 2 – Stat points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*’DING!’ Race: [Human (G)] has reached level 1 – Stat points allocated, +1 Free Point*
*You have slain [Badger Cub – lvl 3] – Bonus experience earned killing an enemy above your level. 2 TP earned*
Well, Jake thought, that was a bit more than expected. He felt good. Right. The warm glow from the increased stats sure helped, but it was more than that.
He had won. It had been an easy battle, but it still felt great. The feeling when he’d hit each of the badgers was still clear in his mind, carrying the satisfaction that came with every kill. He wanted to hunt more.
Chapter 5
Big pig
As Jake was still basking in the feeling of his level-ups and post-battle euphoria, he opened his status window. The reverie of his colleagues was of little interest to him, as while he enjoyed the victory, he didn’t exactly view it as some monumental achievement. They were overgrown rodents… Badgers are rodents, right? Probably not. He moved on.
Status
Name: Jake Thayne
Race: [Human (G) – lvl 1]
Class: [Archer – lvl 2]
Profession: N/A
Health Points (HP): 130/130
Mana Points (MP): 120/120
Stamina: 111/130
Stats
Strength: 13
Agility: 14
Endurance: 13
Vitality: 13
Toughness: 11
Wisdom: 12
Intelligence: 12
Perception: 18
Willpower: 10
Free Points: 3
Titles
[Forerunner of the New World]
Thinking back, he hadn’t opened the window since the introduction. Not even to confirm his class or title. And it sure had grown. His Agility alone had nearly doubled with the title and levels added together, going from 8 to 14. With Perception being the stat that increased by 2 points per Archer level, it had grown by an entire 8 points. And he could feel it. Sounds were clearer, and his vision sharper than ever—save for when he focused on using Archer’s Eye.
It could be his imagination, but he felt like his Perception was still increasing as he stood there, venting down. Either the new stat points only applied their bonus gradually, or perhaps one simply needed time to get used to them. Got to experiment with it, he thought as he smiled to himself.
Stats were truly a weird thing. During the fight, he had moved faster and been stronger than ever before, at the level of an athlete in peak form, at least. Yet it had all felt so natural that he hadn't even questioned it for a second. It was almost scary how easy it was to adapt to his body’s performance going through such huge changes.
Deciding to write it off as system-magic, he dismissed the status screen, finally noticing that everyone was either staring at him or the dead badgers.
"Thanks, Caroline," Jacob said as he gently pushed the now blushing Caroline away from him. He turned to the rest of them as he praised them. "Good job, everyone. Especially you, Jake."
Jacob seemed back to normal again, the same passive smile and glint in his eyes as before. The tension after the fight had left everyone by now. On a sidenote, Jake had entirely “ruined” their carefully made plan by killing half of the beasts before the fight even began, the only beneficial part of the plan still applicable being what to do with the corpses after. They needed a source of food, so… badger meat. Yay?
Figuring out how to transport the badgers was a hassle, as no one wanted to pick up the dead and bloody animals. Especially not the one killed by Bertram and Theodore, as it was a complete mess, filled with holes. They ended up only taking the two killed by Jake at the start of the fight, as they were the most whole. The carrying went to Ahmed, who felt bad for not contributing in the battle, and Dennis, who just seemed eager to help. No one even addressed or asked Jake to take anything. Not something he was going to complain about.
As they walked forward, still looking for any source of water, Jake checked his quiver and took note that he was down to fifty-four arrows, having fired six in the previous fight. Focusing on the quiver, he once again Identified it:
[Enchanted Quiver (Common)] – A quiver enchanted with the ability to conjure common-rarity arrows when injected with mana.
Now I just have to figure out how to inject something with mana, he said to himself… only to figure out four seconds later that injecting something with mana was way easier than he had anticipated. He just had to hold it in his hands, and then think really hard about doing it. It was almost instinctual.
As the mana slowly left him, it felt a little weird, but not really uncomfortable. In the quiver, he saw arrows slowly appear, seemingly growing out of the sides of it. After half a minute or so, there were once again sixty arrows in the quiver. Trying to inject any more mana seemed to have no effect at all. Looking at his mana, he saw that he was down to 102/120.
So, three mana per arrow. Got it. Damn, this would have been useful back in the day. Admiring the magical quiver, he mentally added, Or not, as I didn’t have mana...
He had considered recollecting the arrows, but there were several reasons not to. First of all, he would have to clean the arrows somehow before they were useful again. Secondly, their penetrative power would be reduced if already used once, if only by a little. Third... he could just magically conjure them. And if he started getting low on mana himself, he could just have one of the warriors fill it back up since they didn't use their mana for anything else.
All of that was ignoring how time-consuming it would be to recollect the arrows when it only took seconds to conjure new ones.
As they kept walking, Jake quickly ended up at the front, walking beside Bertram. Bertram seemed to hesitate about something, but eventually opened his mouth.
"Jake… were you in the military or something? Or maybe you went hunting from time to time?"
Jake was a bit taken aback, not expecting that kind of question. "No to both. But I did a lot of archery when I was younger, and still practice when I visit the old folks back home. Why are you asking?"
Jake was honestly confused. If he had to say so himself, he did decently in the last fight, but that was it.
"I just thought you handled yourself so well back there, nothing more," Bertram said, not pressing further, though he didn’t seem like the answer satisfied him whatsoever.
Jake nodded at him and turned his head forward again, scanning the foliage. One thing he had noticed was the complete absence of insects or grubs or any of the smaller animals, really. There were birds up in the trees, but even they were all roughly the size of pigeons.
No insects were good, though. Normal animals seem to have mutated, or perhaps become something else entirely. Imagining mutated mosquitoes, ticks, or spiders, he could easily see their entire group being wiped out without even knowing how they died.
The forest was extremely dense and full of hills, fallen trees, and giant bushes, which made knowing what was ten meters ahead of him an uphill task. This made them move rather slowly, barely keeping up a walking pace.
After a couple more minutes of walking, Jake finally spotted some movement off to his left. He instantly poked Bertram in the side, who followed his line of sight, also seeing the rustling bush. Bertram lifted his arm, motioning the rest of the group to stop. Jake took the bow off his shoulder and took an arrow out of the quiver, nocking the arrow. He was ready for whatever was in there.
After a few moments, the bush stopped rustling, and everything went silent once more. As the seconds passed, everyone seemed to start relaxing. Everyone but Jake. His intuition told him there was still something in there.
He focused and used Archer’s Eye, observing the bush very closely. He spotted light being reflected between the leaves, and without any hesitation, he loosed an arrow.
A huge shriek was heard, and stumbling out came a small boar, no taller than up to their knees. After stumbling for a few steps, it fell on the ground, an arrow sticking out of its left eye.
*You have slain [Boar-Beast – lvl 1] – Experience earned. 1 TP earned*
Everything was once again silent as they stared at the dead pig. Jacob opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by an even louder sound.
A deafening squeal rang out, followed by the sound of stomping, causing the ground to vibrate slightly.
"RUN!"
Jake had no idea who had yelled, and he didn’t need to think twice before following the advice. He ran back and found his way around one of the larger trees. Without hesitation, he took out his knife and another arrow from his quiver and slammed them into the tree, penetrating easily.
He started climbing as he registered the rest of his group, all running to hide behind the trees. Bertram was the only one still out in the open holding the rear. His shield was aimed toward the direction of the stomping.
Just as Jake was making rapid progress climbing up the tree, the bush where the small boar had come from earlier was torn apart. A massive boar, taller than even Bertram—the tallest member of their group—emerged.
The boar completely ignored Bertram and the others and charged straight at the tree Jake was climbing. It smashed tusk-first into the tree, making it shake excessively. The impact made him lose his grip on the arrow, but he managed to hang on to the knife and avoid falling to what would most likely be certain death.
As Jake stabilized himself by taking out another arrow and plunging it into the bark, the rest of the group stood frozen gathered around another tree nearby, everyone just gawking at the huge beast. Finally, Jacob got his shit together and called for the casters and Casper to start shooting spells and arrows at the thing.
The beast, completely ignoring the group of nine preparing to engage, instead kept smashing its head into the tree while making loud squeals. A bad move by it in retrospect, as it allowed enough time for the humans to attack.
Three bolts of mana, followed by a lone arrow shot into the boar’s side, finally made it take proper notice of the other humans. The mana bolts made small explosions as they smashed into it, leaving small holes and burning its hide, while the arrow seemed unable to even penetrate the hide.
The massive boar, now with new, far more reachable targets, started stomping toward the group. No one, not even Bertram, had any intention of having a head-on test of strength with the thing, as they all started running behind the trees.
This had the effect of making it unable to charge toward them, as it tried in vain to impale anyone. They kept dodging behind trees, making use of the beast’s inability to make tight turns and maneuver properly, buying time for Jake to climb up to a branch and secure a foothold.
From his new vantage point, Jake started shooting arrows at it. Compared to the arrows fired by Casper, Jake's penetrated its thick hide and embedded themselves in the beast. Once more, it tried to charge him, but it only ended up smashing into the tree harmlessly again in its stupidity, doing more damage to itself than anyone else.
What followed was what seemed like ages of Jake shooting the boar, the casters firing mana bolts whenever possible. Meanwhile, the warriors tried to keep the beast’s attention on them by making loud noises and waving their hands and swords at it.
