The Primal Hunter's
Lueh

There was a bit on the road as he walked down the path. He traveled on a slightly higher hill, with valleys on each side as he ran at brisk pace. A speed that could easily allow him to overtake several cars.

The road is steep, but it seems unnaturally made. Jake doesn't call it a road for no reason. It was clearly formed in a very deliberate manner, becoming an almost flat land, without a single ferocious beast on the way. And if one needed more evidence, it only became clearer as he got closer to the peak, with the entire route becoming extremely flat.

On the way, he also conjured a new arrow to fill his newly upgraded quiver. Not surprisingly, the mana requirement per arrow was much higher than before, easily increasing tenfold. An increase without consequence given wisdom is still its highest status.

As he ran, he also carefully observed his surroundings. From his point of view, he could now see the area much better. It was as he had expected, with the general setting of mountains and valleys.

There are five mountains - four on the sides and one larger than the other in the middle. If Jake's game theory survives, the strongest beasts, without a doubt, will be found around or inside the huge mountain in the middle.

After looking around well, he noticed that the valleys around the mountain he approached all had one thing in common: Abundant badgers. He had killed an incredible amount within the valley that he cleared, but it seemed that it was only a fraction of their total number. It's not like Jake's afraid of hunting those creatures to extinction.

Moreover, this entire tutorial was not initially a sustainable ecosystem. Sure, ferocious beasts fought and killed each other, but the scale they did was too low. Each animal also looks like a carnivore, which is also strange given the abundance of vegetation. Despite considering how levels and systems work, it makes sense for almost any living being to focus on killing.

Deciding to increase his speed, he started running as he got closer to the top. The path did not reach the top of a volcano-like mountain but ended several hundred meters below. But as he got closer, he saw a hole in his side.

More precisely, the cave. The entrance is not large, it may only allow small cars to pass through, but it is more than big enough for Jake to get in.

As he was within about 25 meters of the cave, he stopped. Attacking doesn't seem like the best idea, even with the Sphere of Perception and its perception of danger. He did not feel any particular danger at the entrance of the cave, and his intuition told him that nothing was wrong.

To be safe, he prepared some poison arrows. With the arrow ready, Jake slowly walked towards the entrance of the cave. He may be too careful, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

As he got closer, his ball naturally encompassed the cave and allowed him to see.

There's no animal or living thing in this, and it's completely anticlimactic. However Jake decides not to let down his guard as he slowly walks through the entrance.

The cave leads into a tunnel that gives Jake a flashback to a mushroom-filled tunnel. Of course, this one has no fungus, in fact, it has no light source at all. But that doesn't matter; it's not long enough to prevent Jake from seeing the light at either end.

Getting closer to the tip, he noticed that it opened into a vast circular space - a hole inside the mountain.

Walking through the entrance, he found himself in a crack overlooking another hidden paradise.

Regardless of what he predicted, beneath him was a small forest. Calling it a forest might be overkill as there are not even a hundred trees due to its limited size, but it does look very calm and beautiful. It was more of a small bush or a small forest, really.

The brief scan did not reveal any animals, which made Jake somewhat suspicious.

Jumping down, he started walking through a small patch of greenery. He did find some herbs but there was nothing to notice. As he walked towards the center, an object suddenly entered his ball - an object too familiar to him.

A door. The last time Jake found such a door, it had changed his life drastically.

He did not hesitate as he approached the wooden door. After putting his hand on it, a message appeared like time with the Challenge Dungeon.

Underground Prison Tutorial Found!

The dungeons throughout the universe offer groups and individuals the opportunity to pursue power and treasure through exploring the pocket dimensions known as dungeons. This variant is only found in the Tutorial provided by the system for newly integrated races.

Requirements for admission: T/A

Requirements for admission are met.

WARNING: Only 5 challengers are allowed per party attempting the dungeon. Only one party is allowed at a time. Note that basements can enter and exit at your own discretion.

Go to the dungeon?

Y/T

Reading the message, it quickly became clear to him that this was not the same type of dungeon as the Challenge Underground Prison.

This one looks a lot better. It doesn't warn Jake of an imminent death, and even allows anyone who enters to simply walk out if the place doesn't live up to your wishes.

That dispels every last doubt as to whether he should enter or not. Accepting the request, he feels his gaze change for a while before Jake finds himself inside another cave. A few moments later, a new system message appeared.

You have entered the basement: Badger's Den.

Goal: Defeat the Mother Den.

Reading it, he nodded at its simplicity. This dungeon seemed more like a videogame type, he thought, while looking around the cave.

The walls of the cave are not made of stone, but earth and earth, leading Jake to believe that he was actually inside a hole in the ground.

He saw some small weeds and such growing everywhere, and as he knelt down, he could feel the moisture of the ground. This place was completely different from the inner area, where most of them all had a rocky texture.

Even the ground was filled with small rocks and pebbles everywhere. But the soil here is clean and pure soil, the kind of soil that any gardener would appraise in his garden.

He didn't see any movement so far in his ball, but then again, it just showed a long narrow tunnel in front of him.

His tutor must have loved tunnels and caves; he thought to himself as he began to walk forward. He was also happy to know that he still had all of his equipment and his spatial storage was functioning as expected. In any case, the challenge basement has taken all of its weapons, making Jake a little afraid this place will do the same. A pleasant surprise, of course.

After walking for less than a minute, the tunnel began to widen. First, just a little, and then a lot, until it completely opens into a vast basement. This was where he finally found what he hoped to find: Animals. More precisely, weasel.

They were all well placed around the place in small groups of 4 to 6 people, as they pondered what looked like a small, pre-determined area.

At the back of the cave, he saw a lonely ferret. The weasel was much bigger and more threatening than the others. The color is no longer the same blend of brown and black, but is completely black with pointy fur on its back that has a purple sheen on the tip.

[Venomfang Badger – lvl 56]

It was almost 10 levels above that he usually encountered outside. The most powerful he had ever encountered was level 52. But this one seemed to only be at the lower end as he identified a slightly larger one from the same group.

[Venomfang Badger – lvl ??]

It was at a level he could not identify, but his intuition told him that it was not much higher than the others.

On a side note, he was still unsure as to exactly what the level range was for his Identification. After he gained his profession and class, it became rare, where it still exists. It allowed him to use Identification on humans and to identify more items than before, especially those that were alchemy, likely also due to his Herbology and Toxicology skills.

But with the level, he was not sure. He also could not identify the buffalo, and now he could not identify this badger.

Turning his gaze towards the large badger at the end, he noticed that the exit of this cave was located right behind him, meaning he would have to pass through it if he wanted to continue. He tried to also identify the badgers, for some success.

[Alpha Venomfang Badger – lvl ??]

As expected, he could not see his level, although he could see his name – was Alpha. He could faintly sense that while the beast was stronger than the others so far, it had yet to evolve to D-rank. He could only imagine the power surge that would occur in such an evolution.

The direct increase in strength of an evolved ferocious beast was far more than a human than what he could say. The difference between a level 24 beast and one in 25 was huge. The latter could quickly kill the first few.

However, to humans, it was not that big. Evolution does provide some immediate benefits but compared to animals it can be considered small.

He remembered when he had obtained the evolution of a level 25 race; it had not changed much. He did grow a few centimeters, but other than that, nothing really happened. He was not suddenly twice as strong and fast. But he noticed over time that he was more adaptable to his stats.

The difference for humans when evolving their race seems to be more qualitative than quantitative. It did not provide a large direct stat increase, but it was more gradual, as the stats provided by the evolved race or class were far more numerous than before, with the evolution of race it only serves to build the foundation for all such stat improvements.

Of course, all of this is a discounting skill. Beasts tend not to have too many skill notes. They may have one or two, but that's it. The Venomfang Badgers, for example, have poison in their fangs and.

If he had to make a hypothesis, it was because the ferocious beasts were more focused. He already knew that not all races had the same nine stats that he had. And even if they do, no one says it should be as varied as Jake's statistics.

If an animal doesn't really need statistics like intelligence, wisdom, willpower, and even things like perception as much as humans do, they will have far more energy left to focus purely on improving their bodies.

Of course, humans could do the same with their class. Ambitious hunter Jake himself is a great example because it only provides physical statistics. However, its race gives bonuses to all stats, pretty much forcing a balanced approach to some extent.

In terms of skills, maybe animals also only have passive skills, or maybe they don't really have a lot of skills, to begin with. Jake has only two skills from his own race: Identification and Meditation, with the other two skills he has from external sources.

With the limited number of skills, there appeared a slight diversity in attack methods and strategies for ferocious beasts, which were most likely the best, as well, given that ferocious beasts act like beasts and use their instincts above all else, something that humans need not do. Perhaps the most significant advantage of the more enlightened race.

A bit of hypocrisy comes from Jake, who uses his instincts and trusts his intuition far more than any reasonable person should. But at least he also had a conscious mind to make tactical choices along with his instincts.

Taking his bow, he took out one of the poisonous arrows he prepared before entering the basement and discovered that it still had poison on it.

Due to the passive effect of the Malefic Viper's Poison, the toxicity of the arrow was still there. A skill that was almost forgotten during the daily battles for only doing his duty passively, but still very valuable.

Suppressing the arrow, he fired a Powershot at the largest ferret in the group he had identified earlier. A total of 4 animals are in groups, with only one being unidentifiable.

The arrow flew just as it hit the badger on the side of his head, penetrating into the brain. The poison was sent directly to his brain, killing him almost instantly. Or at least not wake up because it just lies on the ground.

This attack made all the other ferrets become excited as they all turned towards him in a terrifying simultaneous movement. A tendency they repeat when they all attack it simultaneously.

Suppressing another poisonous arrow, he shot it in the weakest direction at level 56. The beast tried to dodge, but the forward momentum left it still exposed on the side where the arrow pierced straight.

As the others got closer now, his Shadow Vaulted retreated as he shot another arrow at the already injured beast.

He repeated this jumping tactic, fired an arrow, and then jumped once more, as he slowly picked up the ferocious beasts one by one, easily flying them.

The Shadow Vault seems to confuse the monsters every time he uses it, giving Jake perhaps an extra half-second of time per jump as the creatures take less time to adjust.

After a few minutes, two of the beasts died on the ground, with the remaining two now only limping after him. They have done an excellent job of avoiding blows in their vital parts, often being able to shift their position slightly to avoid piercing their hearts or brains.

But in the end, it doesn't really matter. The poison was working through their system, slowly making them lose their lives.

As the latter fell to the ground and the murder notification entered, he also felt a warm stream level up.

Checking the messages, he noticed the level of the beasts as well.

*You have killed [Venomfang Badger – lvl 60] – Experience bonuses obtained to kill enemies above your level. 80000 TP obtained*

*You have killed [Venomfang Badger – lvl 56] – Experience bonuses gained for killing enemies above your level. 72000 TP obtained*

*You have killed [Venomfang Badger – lvl 57] – Experience bonuses obtained to kill enemies above your level. 74000 TP obtained*

*You have killed [Venomfang Badger – lvl 57] – Experience bonuses obtained to kill enemies above your level. 74000 TP obtained*

*'DING!' Class: [Ambicious Hunters] have reached level 34 - Allotted stat points, +4 free points*

*'DING!' Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 40 - Allotted stat points, +5 free points*

The one he could not Identify was the 60-year-old, while he could identify the one at 57. He was starting to have a good idea of where his limits were, but he was still not entirely sure. Fortunately, he had many subjects to test.

Looking into the badger cave and the fact that one group of things had given him a level.