The Primal Hunter's
Unexpected Meeting 1

So long ago, they had been waiting, generation after generation, era after era. Their hope never dies, their faith is eternal. But the branches died one by one. Now only one hall remains - the once glorious order eroded by time travel.

Only the gods are eternal. Only the gods can resist time and preserve what is. Perhaps the only reason why his aura lasted for so long was because they had one such god among them.

Here, in this world, they were still respected. After all, they have power. But outside, in another universe, their once-powerful order is almost forgotten. Lord Protector, the god who watched over them in their place of Protector, had no desire to leave. So, they can only wait. Wait for the day of his return.

The current Hall Master was one of those waiting. He has been in his position for generations, and like many of his predecessors, he is also patient, never losing faith. Every year he dreams of the return of their Protector. And every year, he feels sad when nothing happens.

If not for the Lord Protector and the great legacy left behind, perhaps even they would have forgotten Malefic One. Many, even today, still doubt he will ever return. But he believed that the Protectors were out there, and as long as they waited, as long as they remained faithful forever, the Evil One would definitely reappear.

He suddenly woke up from his meditation when an old man teleported to his room. He wore a black robe with a snake motif on it, which was similar to his. However, his snake did not give off the same aura as his snake. After all, one had to differentiate the ranks.

“For what do you disturb my meditation?” Hall Master asked, a little annoyed. If this was another minor quarrel with the Brimstone Conglomerate, the head would roll over.

“Honored Hall Master, Protective Lord has ordered you into his territory. Immediately, ” said the man, bowing deeply.

The Hall Master furrowed his brows, feeling a mixture of excitement and fear. This was only the second time he had met the Lord Protector. The only other time was during his inauguration as Hall Master, and even then, only he had appeared for a while. He knew that the Hall Master that existed before him had only met him twice as well, the first was his own inauguration and the second was when he reached the peak of mortality. Lord Protector did not even bother to appear at the funeral.

"I'll leave soon," he replied while teleporting out of his room. He could not teleport directly to the entrance of the Lord Protectors realm but had to walk most of the way because of all the protective wards and spells installed over the centuries. Minor inconveniences compared to the security provided.

As he walked further and further towards the entrance, his nervousness grew. But at the same time, so is his hope. Could it finally happen?

Unlike most large orders or churches like them, the Malefic Order did not build a magnificent castle or tower that pierced the sky. Instead, they build into the ground, creating a vast network of caves, which does not mean that the grandeur of their order in any way can be underestimated. The glory and splendor of their hall was among the best. Caves could easily become much wider than some landmasses, especially with a little bit of space magic mixed in.

The entrance to the realm of Lord Protectors finally entered his gaze after only a few minutes of descending. The portal was unadorned and straightforward, just a stone gate with a portal inside. Taking a deep breath, he stepped in.

This was his first time at the Lord Protectors realm, and his expectations were definitely met. That realm is not very big, it may just be the space of some smaller planet. But many reptilian creatures live on the vast land that floats beneath them. Very few buildings stood in the entire continent, and only one was noticed - the residence of the Lord Protectors, he thought.

"Come, kid, come quickly!"

He heard the venerable voice of the Lord Protector as he immediately teleported to the source. God sounds ... emotional.

After teleporting, he found Lord Protector, alone with a ray in his eyes as he stared at the colossal obelisk made of black stone. The Hall Master had never seen this obelisk before, but he immediately knew what it was. And he knows what this means.

On the obelisk, a rune had lit up - the only rune on it. A deep green aura enveloped the obelisk, an aura that even made the Lord Protector appear weak in comparison. The rune represents one message. A message they have been waiting for so patiently for oh so long.

Malefic Viper is coming.

The Hall Master could only tighten his knuckles as he began to tremble with excitement. Their protector, their only true god, will return to them. After the Era of waiting, Malefic One will finally return and once again bring glory to their order. His eternal faith, their eternal beliefs are not misplaced.

But in a moment, he was brought back to reality. Oh no! So much preparation to do! They have to get everything in absolute best condition. He should brief all other leaders and small branches throughout their world. There are so many! He only hopes paradoxically that the Great One will probably need a few more days before he-she

“HELLO LITTLE SNAPPY! MISSED ME!?"

Habits are hard to lose. Common phrases for the most part, one would imagine. But Jake never thought that 'habits' could get old after less than a month. Without thinking about it, he found himself chewing on mushrooms. To his horror, he even found pleasure in it. What you get is a good bonus too.

One thing leads to another, and now Jake finds himself sitting under a tree with a mixing bowl in his hand with moss and mold floating in pure water. After her fight with the boar and plenty of practice with her new Shadow Vault skills, she is excited to find a powerful new opponent to test herself with.

But after hours of looking around, he had only found a few weak beasts, none of them had even broken through level 20. It is almost not worth getting out of bed. So instead, he got bored and started doing a little alchemy. It helped calm his nerves, and he also needed to practice using his Alchemical Flame.

He had already mixed up some rare poisons and considered whether he should start learning how to concoct stamina potions. He did not need them during the dungeon challenge as he only used stamina passively, but with his new archer skills, it had changed significantly.

He had yet to obtain a level, but it was no surprise considering he had only been doing alchemy for a few hours, and the herbs were some that he had trained in many times before. He still had a lot of materials left in his spatial necklace, so he wasn't too worried about running out any time soon.

As he was about to start another potion, he felt someone staring at him. At first, he thought it was one of those birds that wasn't a bird, but it wasn't. Raising his head abruptly and turning his head to the side, he activated Archer's Eye instinctively and saw a man standing on a hilltop wearing an archer robe similar to his.

Before long, he saw four other figures appear around the archer. From the looks of it, three different types of warrior classes and castors. Jake, with his high perception, uses Identification on each of them, as they seem to have no interest in approaching him either. It was also likely that all of them were trying to identify him at this moment.

[Man – lvl 19]

[Human – lvl 20]

[Man – lvl 18]

[Human – lvl 21]

[Human – lvl 20]

From a glance, he noticed that they all seemed to have relatively good equipment. The archer bow even looked a little nicer than his. All of their armor or robes were definitely upgraded, none of them looked like they only had what started the tutorial.

From what he saw, there were four men and one woman. He couldn't see their faces properly, but from their posture, they were all clearly restless - a very understandable response when looking at Jake, an unknown human in the middle of nowhere. If possible, Jake wants to avoid conflict and move on with his day. Although the information would be useful, as he had some doubts about the validity of what William said, considering that the man turned out to be a traitorous bastard.

Jake, seeing no reason for the conflict, acts like he's putting a mixing bowl under his cloak as he keeps it in his spatial storage. There is no reason to publicly advertise that he has one. He then got up and started walking towards the five people in a non-threatening manner. It means he walks with both hands outstretched in front of him, indicating that he is unarmed. Something he could change in the blink of an eye with his spatial storage.

The soldier with two hands took a step forward from the group and shouted. "Who are you? Why are you alone here? And what was it in your hand before?”

Jake, seeing no reason to lie, doesn't really feel like sharing things, mostly telling them the truth. “I'm just an archer, and I'm alone because I like it that way. Also, it was just a bowl earlier, see? ” he said as he took out the bowl once more, making sure to make it look like he was pulling out from under his cloak.

However, they did not seem to care much about the bowl, as their gazes all sharpened when he refused to mention its name.

"Are you Jaka?" The caster asked as he stepped forward, glaring at him with a hint of hostility.

Jake was a little surprised by the question. The only people in the tutorial who know his name are the ones who have been shared by his colleagues. Richard also found out about it without hesitation, and even though he wasn't really friendly with Richard, he doubted the man would still make people hunt for him after such a long time. In addition, if they know their peers, it is more than worth the risk to start a conversation.

"Yes, where did you hear my name?" he asked, hoping to finally get some useful info.

What he got instead was a hunk of ice followed by an arrow. The three warriors also did not stand idly by as they all attacked once they confirmed his identity.

Jake took a moment to react, as he barely managed to jump to the side to dodge the long-range attack due to his danger. What's wrong with them? he asked himself as he looked at the other party's eyes. Hostility was almost noticeable as the casters shouted.

"It's for Mickey, you psychopath!"

"Don't lose your cool and let him run!" the warrior with the greatsword said in a resolute tone before he sped up, green light swirling all over his body.

Jake is getting confused. Who the hell is Miki? But he did not have time to ponder any further, as he leaped backwards, dodging the soldier's first blow. It must be some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe another guy named Jake killed that guy? It is not impossible if more people named Jake are in a group of 1200 people.

“Listen, I think there's some sort of misunderstanding here! I didn't kill anyone named Mickey as far as I can remember! Please, just calm down! There's no reason for us to fight,” Jake tries, while continuing to dodge that soldier's punch.

“Don't listen to him! Richard warned that he tried this kind of nonsense against metal witches!” one of the other soldiers, a warrior of light who was enhanced as far as he could see, warned.

Jake, when he mentioned the two of them, straightened his gaze. William and Richard worked together. And it seemed like the caster was completely unhappy with their last fight, even now sending people to chase after him.

Things suddenly seem much clearer to Jake. They're not here to take revenge for some guy named Micky; they're here to kill him. Heck, maybe Mickey is the man from the army Richard sent to chase him long ago. Not that it's all that important. In his mind, these five people were now undoubtedly marked as enemies. Yet he would not give up trying to get something useful from them.

“So you are with Richard and William the metal maker. Tell me, do you know any other survivors in his camp? Names like Jacob, Casper, or Joanna?” She asked.

The efforts were fruitless as they all continued their attacks. Okay, Jake thought, do as you please .

They were slower and weaker than him in every way. Sure, the warrior had without a doubt a higher strength than him, but overall, he still saw them as weaklings. Compared to William, none of them showed anything that could really threaten him. Well, he would have been greatly hurt if he had let those two big hands hit him, but he wouldn't have let that happen.

After deciding to stop being diplomatic, he no longer held back. He quickly summoned his bow as his Shadow Vaulted retreated, leaving the audience shocked when they saw him turn into a shadow and fly backwards.

With a bow in hand, he decided to attack the weaker one first. However, as he prepared to shoot the caster, an arrow with much greater strength than he expected headed towards him, allowing him to dodge it. The part of his robe was still torn from the wind pressure alone. Powershot, fuck .

A quick glance told him that the archer had started charging another Powershot, making Jake instantly shift his focus to him. He knew the strength of that skill, but also its enormous weakness.

Shooting an arrow, he shot it towards the archer, but his attack instead struck the ice wall that appeared in front of him. Condemning, Jake can only dodge once more when two other warriors reach him, one light soldier and the other medium soldier from what he can see. Both classes were upgraded as well, of course.

With his weak defense, the light-warrior became the next target, as he quickly released his bow and unsheathed his bone dagger along with one other random archer. Without time to poison anything, he had to do it. The warrior was faster than Jake by his movements, but Jake had a small advantage in strength and a relatively large advantage in technique with his Twin Taring Style, insane perception, and instincts.

Positioning himself to block the line of sight of the archer and caster, he dodged the sword of the intermediate warrior as he approached the warrior of light. In a slight panic, the man tried to jump backwards while throwing a small knife at Jake. Knife, he decided to ignore it because he let it hit his body. The robe blocked almost everything, leaving only a few meaningless scratches on his hard body.

However, the soldier was much more durable than Jake. Surprised that Jake had just endured the attack, he took several cuts to his chest with a bone dagger before Jake tried to finish him off by thrusting another dagger into his neck. Unfortunately, he had no time to judge whether the man was dead, as the two remaining soldiers had contacted him once more.

Shadow Vaulting left, he once again drew his bow and began bombarding the two of them with arrows. The heavy warrior manipulated the aura around his body to block them, with the intermediate warrior choosing to dodge. His dodging attempt failed, as an arrow stuck it in the leg.

Seeing his chance, Jake manages to land two more arrows on the man before he has to go to the Shadow Vault once again as another Powershot approaches him.

With a certain distance, he pulled out a bottle of necrotic poison and retreated to the back of the tree, still keeping an eye on the fighters who were still within his Perception Scope. He had been stalling for time to apply the poison as he watched the party try and save their comrades. He had faith in the damage to the deadly light-warrior.

However, the middle soldier seemed to have woken up, as his injuries had already started to heal quickly. Not a natural health point quickly, but a quick self-healing skill. Something that will not happen again is that easy with a mixture of poisons. More than a dozen arrows that were now soaked in some of the most potent general scarcity poisons returned to the place of the arrows.

Okay, second round.