The Primal Hunter's
Clashes

Jake walked beside the young caster as the teenager chatted happily. Jake is shocked to learn about the two large camps combined housing almost all of the survivors left inside. He had come here to search for the source of mana before, but instead, he found a caster, and from his aura, it did not feel like him. Oh well, this is also fine .

The archer can remain relatively relaxed as he walks. He naturally examined the young man when they first met.

[Human – lvl 24]

He was happy to see that now it finally works in humans. It just shows the level of race, leaving Jake clueless about the class or details of the teen's profession. He knew he was a caster based solely on his clothes.

Jake also doesn't want to share any personal information, although the other party's investigation is subtle, and not so subtle. The caster calls himself William or Will for short. He has emphasized the last part a little. Being friendly is nice and nice, but Jake really doesn't like the guy. He was too cheerful and excited to look genuine.

All of that naturally ignores the fact that William is likely to try something. He's not sure what, but he's got feelings. If he had to guess, Jake would have guessed a classic ambush, or perhaps he would have tried to stab him in the back at some random point?

But Jake is not afraid. He was humbled to wait for it. With the boy being the source of information, he saw no reason not to travel together for a while. It would also allow him to better understand the level of strength the other survivors possessed. Even if Jake cannot win, he is confident to escape with his high vitality and toughness.

They walked for a while, the teenager was still talking and Jake gave a short answer. His Perception Scope passively made him aware of his surroundings as usual. He was still half expecting an ambush somewhere, but no matter how long they walked, he saw nothing.

William suddenly stops as he kneels, gesturing for Jake to do the same. Fully aware that there is nothing in the area, Jake remains in the game. This is ridiculous .

“Did you see that? I have a skill that allows me to see which concentration is hidden, and there is a big ambush ahead. They haven't seen us yet, but I'm not sure how many there are,” the teenager said as he pointed down a small hill they approached.

"What do you want me to do?" jake asked, trying to be as serious as possible. The ball still doesn't accept shamans. Although he would not rule out anyone who could hide from him, there was naturally no one close.

“You're an archer, right? Can you go up the hill we passed earlier and try to see if you can see anything from up there? I know you guys have, like, super high perception, right?” William asked, gesturing with his hand once more. "Don't worry, I'll keep watch here and help if they try anything!"

Jake nodded while listening. A cool story . But he followed his lead. Did he really go with it?

Jake starts walking slowly up the hill, retreating, trying to act as if he's still looking for an ambush. William has turned his back on Jake, as he seems to be focusing hard on keeping an eye on things.

After a few meters, Jake turned his back on William, and as he did so, a barrage of daggers flew silently from under the castor robes. Jake could only grin inwardly as the expected attack came, but he quickly furrowed his brows slightly due to the strength and number of his attacks.

Fourteen daggers came. Without hesitation, he leaped to the side, all the blades losing their initial attempts to stab him. Just as he had just gained a foothold, the dagger spun in the air and quickly came towards him once more. A bow appeared in Jake's hand in quick motion, as he dodged once more and returned the arrow towards the caster.

William had turned towards Jake at this moment, surprised that the archer had dodged his sneak attack. Even as he dodged the second and third blows, the archer seemed to be watching his back. The counterattack was quickly blocked by William, as he was once again shocked.

What shocked him this time was not his strength, but his flaws. The arrow is weak. He doubted the attack from someone with even 100 strength. Something that almost all physical fighters had - especially those whose levels were even higher than his.

The arrow was easily blocked by his iron wall, as he continued to manipulate the dagger. This was the slickest enemy William had ever faced. He was not as fast as the others he had met, but he seemed to be well aware of all the attacks aimed at him.

The arrow continued as he blocked again and again. It felt like a waste of time, but the archer kept shooting. Not wanting to lose momentum, William began to mount an iron wall to try to trap the archer, but he kept moving in and out, never having more than one side blocked at a time.

He wanted to throw the disc, but the arrow made it difficult to focus. He also could not reduce his control too much on the dagger or the wall. It started to annoy William, and he was getting impatient.

Jake in his own mind was relatively relaxed all along. He felt in control, and he felt the kinetic energy of the dagger was lower than expected. The walls were a little problematic, but he assumed the other party was spending mana quickly.

Another thing he quickly noticed was the control of the dagger that was getting worse as he moved further. With the plan in mind, Jake continues to retreat more and more, as he watches the casters begin to chase him. An iron wall always floated in front of him, making Jake only able to see it. With his eyes, that.

As he managed to jump backwards at a reasonable distance, he felt the caster somehow slide forward, almost as if he was flying. No, he controlled his own body like he controlled a dagger.

Jake takes this opportunity to stop retreating, put a bow on the necklace, and storm towards the caster. The Blood Spill Dagger in hand, he managed to close half the distance as the dagger chased after him from behind.

Taking a bet, he chose to betray hope as he let the five daggers hit his back, penetrating into his flesh. However, his movements were unaffected as he jumped over the iron wall, swiping down with his dagger.

William is shocked by Jake's gamble as he attempts to activate the mana barrier, one of his early skills. The barrier barely did anything as the dagger fell. William managed to shift himself slightly backwards, only to have a small cut on his forearm.

Smirking, he asked the daggers to continue their attack at full strength, forcing the archers to defend once more. In William's eyes, Jake had received more damage from the dagger on his back than the small wound he had inflicted. Of course, he doesn't know about Jake's ridiculous vitality. And he did not notice the blood that was already on the dagger before cutting it off.

He only watched as he started to get a little dizzy, losing control for a moment allowing the archer to approach a little more. William, frantically, looked at his arm and saw his wound, now black and festering.

What the fuck? he cried out inwardly, now completely panicked. He had suffered poisoning from the evolved badgers before, but this felt much worse. To make matters even more dire, the archer nearly approached him once more.

Since the archer was only a few meters away, William made his final move. No longer aiming to kill his enemy anymore, all he thought about was running away. Even if he won, the poison would still eat him.

The last card William held was called Flashing Steel. The latest skills in his repertoire. His entire body lit up with a bright light reminiscent of a flashbang, as small pieces of iron burst out from him. The entire surrounding area exploded as a small crater formed.

Jake was getting too close and even with his danger he was completely shocked and only managed to raise his hand when the metal hit him. That metallic momentum pushed him back tens of meters before finally crashing into the tree, unfortunately only pushing the dagger on his back further inside. He was like he had just been hit by a super strong shrapnel grenade from close range.

The last thing he saw before the caster left his ball was William flying backwards on his own, as he manipulated his own body once again. Jake quickly loses track when he sees the caster disappear into the trees.

Pushing himself from the tree, he crashed, groaning as he tried to grab the dagger sticking out of his back. They were in pain once, but the strength of his body was not comparable to that of an average human anymore. Tearing the dagger took a while as some of them were hard to reach, but he finished it within a few minutes.

The front of it was probably even worse than his back. The old iron that William had blown at him in the end had considerable power behind them. Fortunately his robe had absorbed a lot of impact, leaving him in tatters. He really hoped the enchant self-improvement was still working despite the severe damage.

Sitting on the floor with breathless breaths, Jake meditated while rethinking the fight. He had underestimated the other party. He looked carefree and inexperienced during their journey, but the caster was ruthless and calculating in battle. The control ability is impressive.

Jake has only met one survivor so far, but his plans to approach his colleagues have been questioned. He has no clue about William's relative strength compared to others. He knows that the teenager is part of Richard's base, which leads Jake to believe that Richard should at least be stronger.

Lack of information is a big weakness for him at the moment. What if William was just an example of a permanent member of Richards' base? He had confidence in facing one caster of that level, maybe even two if he jumped, but more than that, and he would definitely be on the losing side. Even so ... he only won because of the poison. If the caster already knows it, Jake is not one hundred percent sure everything will go as well as they do.

Worst of all, when Jake wins, he most likely fails to kill his opponent. He used the word possibility because there was still a chance the caster would not succeed. Before duty, Jake had used the Blood of the Malefic Viper to immerse his dagger in his poisonous blood, effectively poisoning the enemy. He definitely needed a healer, as Jake doubted the boy had high enough defensive stats to fight him himself. That, or he'll need a potion.

Something else Jake doesn't know. Do they have alchemists? If so, can they make detoxification potions? Smiths, tailors, and builders have all been mentioned, so they have an indisputable profession. It was also very trustworthy that they would hide their alchemy knowledge from outside sources, along with other types of powerful professions.

All of this eventually makes Jake very hesitant to look for his former partner. He had parted ways with Richard by killing a group of his men, so he was very doubtful that the man would welcome him with open arms.

No, for now, he needed strength. The power to be able to search for them with their heads held high, and at least the confidence to escape if things go sideways. So he decided to hunt. His class was only level 13, and he could efficiently kill 20+ level monsters for a few quick levels. His colleagues have to wait now.

After meditating for a while, he took out a health potion and drank it. It filled its pond back a little, its body seemed to heal. I have to be stronger .

Turning into the depths of the forest once again, he began to search for new prey. It was time to level up the power!

Caroline looked at the gloves in her hands while smiling proudly at her creation. They are just low scarcity and offer no statistics or anything. But it gave him a lot of experience for his profession.

“Oh, that's good. Made for a certain someone, right?”

Turning her head, she saw Joanna sitting down. The master tailor and the person who had taught him many of the techniques he used today. Caroline jokingly hit Joanna on the shoulder, reprimanding her. “Stop... I just think he needs gloves, know?”

“Hehe, don't get me wrong, I support you 100%! You and Jacob are very funny together; it reminds me of when I first met Mike..” said Joanna, her bright smile falling towards the end.

"Joanna, we don't know what happened to anyone else" Caroline said, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. “I'm sure he's just in another tutorial, and I'm also sure he's fine. Mike has always been a tough guy; he can take care of himself.”

With a smile, Joanna curled up in front of her young ex-partner. “You are very dear. No wonder Jacob couldn't take his hand off you. Speaking of Jacob, have you guys talked to—”

But before he could reply, an archer charged at them, shouting loudly.

“Is Caroline here!? Come on, we got an emergency! Richard asked you as soon as possible!”

Without hesitation, Caroline got up as she ran after the archer. Around the gate to enter their camp, he saw dozens of people standing around him, some of Richard's men distancing them.

As he reached the gate, he saw one of the other healers sweating as he tried to heal the caster on the ground. When he saw that the injured man was William, he was shocked. One of his arms was completely black, and a protruding blood vessel was visible, extending from his shoulder to his chest. Instantly he knew that he had been poisoned by something powerful.

Richard stood to the side, glancing at him. He looked back at her with question marks. When he nodded, he started to work.

Focusing, he began chanting healing spells, as he allowed the other healers to keep trying to keep the young man stable. The poison is strong. Real strong. And to make it worse, it even has magical properties that make it harder to cure.

But Caroline isn't the strongest healer in their base, maybe the whole tutorial, for no reason. He flooded the teenager with a pulse of mana, washing away some of the poison. A few strong pulses later, the black color started to fade a little. With a final push, he managed to eliminate every trace of poison within the teenager.

William himself was unconscious when he and the other healers finally managed to heal him completely. Caroline felt that she had only one wound on her body - a small wound on her arm. If they hadn't healed him, he would have died. A significant disadvantage of the casters was not getting any defensive stats from their class, and from the looks of it, William actually had poor physical stats.

From his judgment, a warrior like Richard, especially with the evolution of his class, would be able to fight the poison himself, solely because of his toughness and collection of higher health.

William, who was now healed, was still not awake. From what Caroline felt as she flooded her body, both the health pool and where the pool was quite empty. He didn't know their grades, but he could get a rough estimate that he was low.

After making sure William is okay, the next task is to figure out what really happened. He put up a barrier around them with a wave of his hand, just him, the archer, and Richard in it.

"What's going on?" she asked.

The archer, who was actually the Scout that followed William, shook his head.

"I don't know. I followed the little psycho as usual when I failed to see the trap. I didn't know what it was, but I was stuck there for hours, not even doing anything, I was just stuck, and the second he did, my magical bond was also dispelled. ”

"So, is this Casper?" richard said while frowning.

"No," Caroline shook her head. “This is by no means the same type of attack as hers. He focused on curses, where dark. It's a poison. Moreover, the wound on his arm must have been made with a weapon. This is also not an animal.”

“An accomplice then ... or an entirely new player. This isn't Hayden. Casper would never work with him, and if Hayden had a poison this strong, he would have used it before. Shit, this is all getting complicated, ”Richard sighed in annoyance.

"What's the plan?" ask Scouts. "Make the kid wake up, get the info, and finish him off?"

"We can, but I have a better idea" said the former soldier. "For now, take him to one of the cabins."

The whole situation is a shit show, and everyone is aware of it.

Someone or something has a powerful poison, and Caroline is the only healer who can cure it. Other healers could cure him, perhaps giving the person a chance to rely on their own stats to survive before they ran out of mana. But that is by no means a reliable method.

William's near-dying troubles spread throughout the camp like wildfire. William was looked upon favorably by most at their base, especially the artisans. Smith was, without a doubt, the one who liked him the most from everyone

None of them really knew about the child from Richard's understanding. They only knew the persona he developed while inside the camp. Which meant many people had gathered around his cabin, asking alarming questions. Even if they wanted the teenager to die, it would be very difficult. Plan C, he thought.

Jacob had also gathered outside with the others. While he was undoubtedly worried about William, he cared more about Casper. It was no secret that the trappers had called William out, and now the caster was about to die. Either he had tried to kill William, or he himself was the victim .

Taking a deep breath, he looked towards the sky, the artificial sun hanging above. Even if everything was bad .. he couldn't be the one to be destroyed. He knew others were counting on him. Jacob has a responsibility. He refused to let others lose hope, so he would reach for whatever he could. Because sometimes, he felt that only the hope he had for her.