The Primal Hunter's
The Big Pig 2

Jake sauntered in front of the mighty beast. It easily towered over it, reaching the size of a small van. It did not grow massively compared to the previous evolution, but Jake could feel the power hidden within his fat body. The boar was built like a tank, with skin that might be comparable to it.

As he got closer, the beast seemed to wake up from its stupor as he turned towards him, glaring. Maybe the system did its magic since night, but did not directly attack. It just looks at him. He instinctively felt that if he moved just a few steps closer, the beast would attack with disregard.

The logical step would be to take out his bow using the maximum charge Powershot to do massive damage or even kill him with a single strike, but where was the fun? Where's challenge? He didn't even use any poison.

Instead, he took a step forward and entered his range, and as expected, the beast screeched as it walked towards him. An accusation he was happy to meet on his own. A little foolish in retrospect, but he believed in his strong body.

The result was as he had expected when the beast hit him, making him fly backwards, but not before landing a nice puncture with a bone dagger on the muzzle of a large pig. This was nothing more than making him even more angry from trying to trample him along with everything around him.

This time he decided to dodge as he rolled to the side and started moving around the pig as if dancing. If he had learned one thing, these things had terrible mobility. However, this was greatly made by the skin on its side that was almost impenetrable by ordinary attacks.

All of this is true, for the Irontusk wild boar. But the evolved Steeltusk has more tricks. As Jake moves sideways, the ground beneath him suddenly shifts, almost making him lose his balance. Simultaneously, the earth itself seems to help spin the mighty boar, making it spin much faster than Jake first calculated.

Forced to retreat due to unforeseen circumstances, Jake is not desperate but happy. The stronger the beast, the more interesting the fight. He could kill the creature much faster and easier if he used poison, giving him a reliable backup if his pure melee approach failed.

But he'll be damned if he doesn't even try. Training oneself using dual-wielding was all well and good, but it was nothing compared to the experience one would gain in a head-on battle.

That was the main reason why he chose to engage in this death dance. It had absolutely nothing to do with having fun with the first beast above level 25.

The moving ground made her dance difficult, her steps sometimes did not find the expected footing, but she managed to avoid the fangs from time to time. He knew that even with his durable body, it would be extremely painful if it was pierced.

The problem that quickly materialized was the weakness of the initial blade he used. Against the formidable wild boar defense, he could not even leave a mark with his slash. Only when he stabbed did he manage to leave a mark. Even the bone dagger had only managed to make a light wound. However, the enchantment worked, making each of those small wounds bleed far more and longer than usual.

A few minutes passed as Jake dodged and weaved, stabbed, and cut, while the beast angrily tried to pin him down and stab him. As the damage to the creature increased, so did his anger and bloodlust. With a hint of warning, the beast's eyes suddenly began to emit a red glow, as the entire wild boar began to give off a similar red aura.

Jake felt his danger light up as he raised his hand to block, and with an angry scream, the boar turned his head and hit him with one of his tusks, making him float in the air for a few moments. However, the boar was still far from finished as the earth seemed to reach out and grip him as the beast began to attack with full force directly towards him.

With no way to move, he threw his two daggers into the air and prepared to meet the beast. His size is both a strength and a weakness, as Jake manages to glide between two tusks that point at him and instead makes the beast's muzzle hit him.

He felt all the air coming out of his lungs as he managed to grab the boar, avoiding being trampled under him. The ferocious beast with a berserk motion tried to let go, but Jake continued to hold it in as he somehow managed to rise from the creature's back.

Through his ball, he managed to find the bone dagger and, with an unprecedented level of skill, weaved a series of mana that pushed the sword down into his hands. He felt like a warrior from the past in a galaxy far, far away as he caught a dagger and stuck it into the back of the beast.

The beast's response was to throw itself aside, trying to suppress it beneath him. Jake pulls himself close to the creature's skin and avoids finding himself between the land and the van-sized pig.

He continued to give puncture after stab until he was finally forced to let go and jump, when the beast started rolling around while at the same time manipulating the earth itself to try to let go. The beast's raging state was still active, making him immediately stop rolling around and continue his reckless attack.

However, Jake can sense that the animal is starting to slow down. Blood was everywhere now, in the creature, on the ground, and even himself. Dozens of bloody holes covered his skin, still bleeding.

With the beast's speed dwindling, and Jake having adapted to the shifting ground, the fight becomes much easier. He dodged and jumped around the beast, landing piece by piece, as it grew increasingly desperate in his attempts to lock it up.

After a few minutes, the animal only managed to inflict a few minor injuries on Jake, the worst of which was a long wound on one of his shoulders. Jake called it a minor injury, though, before that system, it would undoubtedly require a trip to the emergency room. But his high vitality kept him in top shape, and he felt his health was still in good shape.

A few minutes later, the beast finally fainted from its injuries, no longer able to gather strength to resist. The manipulation of the ground continues even after the creature cannot move as it continues to try to hit Jake with a very weak attack.

Jake begins to feel bad for it, and finally pulls out his bow and shoots Powershot at the head of the immobile beast, ending his life instantly.

*You have killed [Steeltusk Boar – lvl 28] – Experience obtained. 16000 TP obtained*

*'DING!' Class: [Archer] has reached level 20 - Allotted stat points, +1 free points*

*'DING!' Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 32 - Allotted stat points, +5 free points*

Despite the unsatisfactory ending, Jake still enjoys the fight a lot. There is something about fighting a strong enemy.

Looking at his health points, he found they had only reduced by a sixth. Much less than he lost during a brief exchange with a caster manipulating metal, which suggests that other humans are indeed a real danger from his tutorial.

Although he had barely lost his health, his robe did not avoid catastrophic damage once again. Fortunately the self-improvement spell remained active even after being completely destroyed by William's last attack, but now it was once again ragged.

He also found that if he injected mana into the robe, the repair function would improve significantly. It still takes time. Speaking of injecting mana into an item, it was another important thing that he had been exploring for the past few days.

Without injecting mana into his bow, for example, it would definitely break while using Powershot. He was still in the early stages of training, but he believed that it was also possible to raise an already enchanted item somehow. Right now, he could not inject mana into his bone dagger. Although not enchanted, the normal archer's dagger also rejected most of the mana he was trying to inject.

Of all the items, only the items with their own improvements and bows received the mana injection. He could use mana with his other belongings, like his spatial necklace, but it wasn't an actual injection. Mana injection is more like how one would directly fire electricity into a metal bar to heat it up and eventually make it melt if too much is injected.

However, for the necklace, it's like you inject mana into a transformer, which then applies mana correctly to fulfill the desired function. Like taking things in or out of storage. As for how this metaphorical transformer works.it's way above Jake's salary.

He learned a lot about mana lately, but he was also very active in learning it. Before he met the Malefic Viper, he had taken many properties for granted. He has seen it only as a system that does its job and sees no further reason to question it. And even if he were to question how it worked, he couldn't do anything with where it was at the time.

But now he is actively questioning everything he can. He experimented with glee with mana manipulation at all times, and his control had improved tremendously without a doubt. His little trick of pulling a bone dagger into himself during the fight was more than proof of that. Also, it feels really amazing to do. Could it be that he kept it in his necklace and did not throw it into the air? Sure, he can, but the other way is much cooler.

The fact that no skills appeared or were available regarding mana manipulation was a bit strange to him. He could clearly levitate objects and do things similar to telekinesis, but no skills came.

After all, he also had no skills related to manipulating stamina or health points. He had tried to control both of those energy sources and found it much more difficult. He can control his vital energy to focus on a specific area as he did during the last part of the dungeon challenge, but Jake cannot shape it to the best of his ability with mana.

Stamina, on the other hand, is a dead end so far. He has theorized that he should be able to use it to improve his own body, as it is known as deep energy. The fact that almost all physical skills use stamina to function proves that stamina can affect the body significantly.

Of course, it could have been a system that did system things. However, one energy can exhibit other properties. In the end, Stamina, Health, and Mana were just different forms of energy. Not to say that one can combine the three to make something stronger. Before that how you made divine energy or something like that, he joked to himself.

Out of his mind, he entered the system menu.

*Archer grade skills available*

Checking the list, he found the suspect he used to offer at level 10. While some of them were still attractive to him, especially the Active Camouflage skill, he chose to ignore them all for now. However, he has been offered two exciting new skills - both fall into the avoidance type. A rather strange first skill.

[Disengaging Shot (Common)] – An arrow is not only fired to injure or kill but also as a means to escape. Allows the archer to shoot arrows that direct and amplify all kinetic energy into a retreat force. Must have a suitable weapon to use. Added a small bonus on the effects of agility when dodging using Disengaging Shot.

Speaking of immediate shortcomings is the fact that it requires a bow and arrow. This, of course, severely limits the ability. He could not use it in close proximity to his dagger, and he could not use it in a split-second emergency situation because he had to actually fire an arrow to activate it.

However, on the plus side, it would be a godly thing when playing kites. Depending on the stamina requirements, Jake will be able to use it continuously to completely blow himself up around the battlefield. Inevitably he imagined himself trying to fly through the air by shooting arrows repeatedly on the ground. That would definitely be really cool .. although it might look really stupid if possible.

Moving on to the second skill, the first thing that surprised him was his name.

[Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Rare)] – Shadow power is a frequently used tool for anyone who wants to escape. Tapping on the Umbra Note, embracing the shadows for a moment, became subtle. Allows the archer to momentarily become one with the shadow. Can only be used in straight lines. Add a small bonus on the effects of agility and discretion when using the Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra.

The skill was somehow related to something or someone called Umbra. Thinking about it, he checked his bracelet.

[Skin Braceer of a Beginner Villain (Rare)] – A pair of leather bracelets made of fine leather, originally designed for a new initiation in the Umbra Order. Charm: Self Improvement. +5 agility, +3 strength. Increase the effectiveness of all stealth skills, further strengthened while remaining hidden behind shadows.

Requirements: Lvl 5+ in all classes or humanoid races. Demon based skills.

Did he somehow manage to obtain the Notes related to some entity named Umbra just by using the bracelet that held that name?

He understood why he had gained skills related to the Malefic Viper because the profession was literally named after him. Could the act of having that bracelet somehow affect him in such a way that it would open up a whole new skill option for him? To be honest he was somewhat surprised by the prospect. He somewhat assumed that Umbra was a god .. would it be considered blasphemy to pick up a skill when he already had the Malefic Viper?

At least the Malefic Viper didn't seem to be the type of person who cared too much about it, and the skill looked very attractive. The fact that it takes advantage of its high wisdom is also a huge bonus. He also assumed the skill was utilizing mana and stamina, but he did not know before taking it.

As a basic skill, it was also very appetizing. Basics imply a lot of room for improvement, aka skill improvement. Jake had improved his archery skills by becoming an expert in archery, so would he be able to improve those skills as well by becoming clever?

The description of the Shadow Vault effect also honestly sounds really awesome. Being one with shadows and dodging sounds like a fantasy, but more importantly, it sounds really useful.

Ultimately the skill choice is a no-brainer. One needed a bow and somewhat attracted attention, and the other actually allowed him to dodge such a shadow without any immediate weakness. With that in mind, he chose it.

*Acquired Expertise*: [Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Rarely)] – Shadow strength is a frequently used tool for anyone wanting to escape. Tapping on the Umbra Note, embracing the shadows for a moment, became subtle. Allows the archer to momentarily become one with the shadow. Can only be used in straight lines. Add a small bonus on the effects of agility and discretion when using the Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra.

Jake instantly felt a flow of knowledge into his mind. Faintly he also felt like a dark night became some darker color as he felt the information implanted.

A few seconds passed, and everything was back to normal as Jake now had a vague idea of how the skill worked and how to activate it, but it was far from enough. Needless to say, it was a testing time!