The Primal Hunter's
Big Pig

As Jake still enjoys the feeling of leveling up and post-battle euphoria, he opens his status window. The daydreams of his comrades were not very attractive to him, because as he enjoyed the victory, he did not really see it as a monumental achievement. They are rodents overgrown .. badgers are rodents, right? Maybe not. Be afoot.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (G) – lvl 1]

Grade: [Harmer – lvl 2]

Profession: T/A

Health Points (HP): 130/130

Which Points (MP): 120/120

Durability: 111/130

Statisticians

Power: 13

Agility: 14

Durability: 13

Vitality: 13

Toughness: 11

Wisdom: 12

Intelligence: 12

Perception: 18

Willingness: 10

Free points: 3

Headings

[Predecessor of the New World]

Thinking back, he had not opened the window since the introduction. Even to confirm his class or degree. And it must have grown. His agility alone nearly doubled with titles and levels added together, from 8 to 14. With Perception being a stat that increased by 2 points per archer level, it had grown by as much as 8 points. And he can feel it. The sound was clearer, his vision sharper than before, except when he focused on using Archers Eye.

It could have been his imagination, but he felt his perception was still increasing as he stood there, venting it out. Either the new statistics are just applying their bonuses gradually, or maybe someone just needs some time to get used to it. Had to experiment with it, he thought, while smiling at himself.

Statistics are a strange thing. During the fight, he had moved faster and stronger than before at the level of an athlete in peak form, at least. But everything felt so natural that he did not even question it for a second. It is almost scary how easy it is to adapt to your body's performance through such a major change.

Deciding to remove it as a magic-system, she ignores the status screen, finally realizing that everyone is staring at her or a dead ferret.

"Thank you, Caroline," said Jacob, gently pushing the now flushed Caroline away from her. Turning to all of them as he praised them. “Good work, everyone. Especially you, Jake.”

Jacob looked back to normal again, the same passive smile and glint in his eyes as before. The tension after the fight had left everyone behind now. On a side note, Jake had completely 'destroyed' their carefully crafted plan by killing half of the beasts before the fight even began. The only profitable part of the plan still in effect is what to do with the corpse afterwards. They need a food source, so. Yea?

Figuring out how to transport badgers is troublesome, as no one wants to take a dead and bloody animal. Especially not the one that was killed by Bertram and Theodore because it was completely messy, filled with holes. They end up taking only the two killed by Jake at the start of the fight, as they are the most intact. The transport goes to Ahmed, who feels bad for not contributing to the battle, and Dennis, who seems to want to help. Nobody even talks or asks Jake to take anything. Not something he would complain about.

As they walk forward, still searching for a source of water, Jake examines his arrows and notes that he has 54 arrows, having fired 6 arrows in the previous fight. Focusing on the arrows, he once again identified it:

[Enchanted Quiver (Common)] – A quiver that has the ability to juggle quality arrows [common] when injected with mana.

Now I just need to figure out a way to inject something with mana, he told himself, only to find out four seconds later that injecting something with mana is much easier than he anticipated. He just needed to hold it in his hand, and then think hard to do so. It's almost instinctive.

When mana slowly left him, it felt a bit strange, but not too uncomfortable. In place of the arrow, he saw the arrow slowly appear, seemingly growing from his side. After about half a minute, there were once again 60 arrows in place of the arrows. Trying to inject mana again 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. Understood. Damn, this would have been useful in the past, he thought while admiring the magic tube, before adding, or not, because I had no mana...

He had considered recalling the arrows, but there were some reasons for not doing so. First of all, he had to clear the arrows somehow before they were useful again. Second, their penetrating power would be reduced if it had been used once, if only slightly. Third, he could magically conjure them. And if he himself started to run out of mana, he could only ask one of the soldiers to replenish it because they did not use their mana for anything else.

All of that ignores how time consuming it is to remember the arrow when it only takes a few seconds to conjure a new one.

As they continued walking, Jake quickly ended up in front, walking beside Bertram. Bertram seemed to be hesitating about something, but finally opened his mouth,

“Jake... Are you in the military or what? Or maybe you go hunting from time to time? he finally asked.

Jake was a little surprised, not expecting to get such a question. “No to both. But I did a lot of archery when I was young, and still practiced when I visited the elderly at home. Why are you asking?"

Jake is really confused. If he had to say it himself, he did it politely in the last fight, but that was it.

"I just think you handled yourself really well there, nothing more" Bertram said, not urging further. Although he did not seem like a satisfactory answer at all.

Jake nodded at him and looked forward again, observing the leaves. One thing he noticed was that there were really no insects or maggots or any smaller animals. There were birds above the trees, but even they were all the size of pigeons.

The forest is very dense and full of hills, fallen trees, and giant bushes, which makes knowing what is 10 meters in front of you a daunting task. This made them move rather slowly, barely able to keep up with the walking speed.

After a few minutes of walking, Jake finally noticed some movement on his left. He immediately poked Bertram at the side, who was following his line of sight, also seeing a rustling bush. Bertram raised his arm, gesturing for the rest of the group to stop. Jake took a bow from his shoulder and took an arrow from his tube, plucking the arrow. Ready for whatever is there.

After a while, the bush stopped rustling, and everything became silent once again. As the seconds passed, everyone seemed to begin to relax. Everyone but Jake. His intuition told him that there was still something there.

He focused and used Archer's Eye, observing the bush very closely. He looked at the light reflected between the leaves, and without hesitation, he released an arrow.

A huge scream rang out, and stumbled out a small wild boar, no higher than their knees. After stumbling a few steps, it fell to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his left eye.

*You have killed [Boar-Beast – lvl 1] – Experience obtained. 1 TP obtained*

Everything was once again silent as they stared at the dead pig. Jacob opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a louder voice.

“ SQUEEAL! ”

A loud scream was heard, followed by the sound of a bang, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

"RUN!"

Jake doesn't know who's yelling, and he doesn't have to think twice before following that advice. He ran back and found his way around one of the larger trees. Without hesitation, he took out another knife and arrow from his tube and slammed it into the tree, piercing through easily.

He started climbing as he registered the rest of his group, all of them running to hide behind the trees. Bertram was the only one still in the open holding the back. His shield is pointing towards the incision.

As Jake makes rapid progress climbing trees, the shrub from which the little pig originated was previously torn apart. A large wild boar, even taller than Bertram, the highest member of their group, appeared.

The boar completely ignored Bertram and the others and directly attacked the tree that Jake was climbing. It shatters the ivory-first into the tree, making it vibrate excessively. The collision made him lose his grip on the arrow, but he managed to hang on to the blade and avoid falling into what would most likely be death.

As Jake stabilizes himself by taking out another arrow and plugging it into the bark, the rest of the group just stood frozen gathered around another tree nearby with everyone just gawking at the huge beast. Finally, Jacob collected his dung and asked the castors and Casper to start firing spells and arrows at the object.

The beast, completely ignoring the group of 9 that was preparing to attack, instead continued banging its head against the tree while making loud screams. A bad move in retrospect, as it gives enough time for humans to attack.

Three mana bolts, followed by one arrow shot into the side of the boar, finally made him pay good attention to the other humans. The mana bolts made small explosions as they smashed into him, leaving a small hole and burning his skin, while the arrow seemed to be unable to pierce through his skin.

The big boar, now with a much more affordable new target, began to step on the group. No one, not even Bertram, had the intention to test the power directly with the thing, as they all started running behind the trees.

This had the effect of making him unable to attack them, as it tried in vain to stab anyone. They continue to dodge behind the trees, taking advantage of the beast's inability to turn sharply and maneuver properly, buying time for Jake to climb branches and secure a foothold.

From his new point of view, Jake starts shooting arrows at it. Compared to the arrow shot by Casper, Jake pierced through his thick skin and immersed himself into the beast. Once again, he tries to charge her, but only ends up crashing into a tree without danger again in his folly. Do more damage to yourself than anyone else.

What follows is what looks like the age Jake shot the boar, the castors firing whichever bolt whenever possible. Meanwhile, the soldiers tried to keep the beast's attention on them by making loud noises and waving their hands and swords towards him.

Everything seemed to be working fine until they all heard the screams. Jake sees that Joanna has fallen on something and is now lying on her stomach on the ground, just a few feet away from the boar. He appeared completely out of it from the fall and did not even look like he was trying to wake up.

The boar was stupid without a doubt, but at least smart enough to recognize vulnerable prey when it saw it, as it instantly turned its attention to it. Bertram tried to run to help her without hesitation, but he was too far away and too slow when the beast attacked Joanna.

It didn't even try to stab him in his tusks, it just attacked him. His huge nails hit the ground with every step. As it ran over her, a loud voice rang out, followed by Joanna who was screaming in pain.

Before being able to turn around and attack him again, Bertram finally reached him and thrust his sword at his side, piercing through with almost a third of his sword. The punch made him instantly turn his focus towards her as it seemed to finish ignoring the screaming woman.

With a quick sweep of his head, he smashed his fangs into the heavy warrior who made him fly back and hit the tree with a thud. Still leaving the sword stuck to the side. However, this entire chain of events allows Dennis to reach Joanna and begin dragging her behind a tree.

From his point of view, as he continued to bombard the beast with arrows, Jake saw everything. It has nothing to do, he thought as he continued to attack. He should at least make use of the space created by the woman's incompetence.

The beast began to look like a hedgehog with all the arrows sticking out of it, and with the occasional bolt of mana burning its flesh, the beast began to look slower in its movements. He snorted loudly, now staring at Dennis with red eyes, who was covered in Joanna's blood.

Before the beast could begin another reckless attack, its eyes were hit by another arrow fired by Jake. Trying to retrieve the others, Jake sees his tube empty, as the animal attacks the tree he is in once again. Blood seemed to pool in the bushes, and the boar itself looked like it had been dipped in a bath of red paint. Two other mana bolts hit the boar on its back, and Casper still fired arrows, despite inflicting only minor damage.

The beast was on its last legs now, and the warriors finally felt confident enough to get close. They all started stabbing him, except Bertram, who had previously hit a tree quite hard. He was still conscious but struggled to get back up.

With a few more stabs, the warrior sword, and the continuous loss of blood, made the beast finally fall.

*You have killed [Irontusk Boar – lvl 10] – Experience bonus obtained for killing enemies above your level. Split experience with the rest of your party. 302 TP obtained*

*'DING!' Class: [Archer] has reached level 3 – Allotted stat points, +1 free points*

Jake feels a warm glow from those levels, but decides that fussing with notifications can wait. Jake jumps down from the tree and rushes to where Joanna is lying. Caroline was already with him using her healing magic. As he got closer, he was initially relieved that he was still alive, until he saw his lower body. One of the legs was completely crushed, while the other was lost entirely from the knee down. The wild boar's massive weight had crushed it completely into pasta.

"Use the healing potion too!" ahmed shouted, took out one of his own and gave it to Dennis, propping up his head. He quickly unscrewed the bottle and poured the red liquid into Joanna's mouth.

The effect was immediately noticeable as the crushed leg began to heal quickly, and Theodore quickly grabbed it and placed it in the right position, ignoring the screams from the former receptionist. His legs were healed, but the situation on the cut-off was less positive. While the wound closes, no new limb grows back.

Bertram slowly walked over, holding an empty bottle in his hand. Judging from his condition, he must have consumed a healing potion as well. Joanna had lost consciousness, likely due to pain, and the atmosphere had become more somber than before. There was no celebration after the victory this time.

“We need to move. This much blood will definitely attract something,” Ahmed said with a sigh. Dennis and Theodore decide to carry Joanna with one shoulder each. The two badger corpses had been dropped when the boar swarmed them, and to be honest, no one felt like looking for them. That was if they were not actually trampled by that jeep-sized beast.

As they begin to walk, Jake picks up the tube in his hand and starts juggling more arrows just in case there is another fight. They couldn't let a small setback like this stop their hunt. There is still daylight.

As the 4 arrows had been generated, Jacob and Caroline slowed down and finally walked beside her. Jake is confused as to what they want when Jacob turns to him and looks him in the eye.

"…Why did you do that?"