The Primal Hunter

This continued as he killed Knight after Knight. Jake was little more than a machine churning through golem after golem. Hundreds of hallways had been left scarred. The atrium had been passed a dozen times as he circled the building, with clear signs of their battle. Then, finally, he kicked away a golem, it exploding a moment later as he drew his bow and prepared an arrow. Yet he stopped up, a flash of confusion passing his otherwise tired blank eyes.

There was no movement in the hallway.

Jake just stood there with an arrow nocked for five or so seconds as nothing happened. Realization finally struck him as he lowed his bow and dispelled the arcane arrow. He exited his battle haze and only had the energy to summon the same comfy lounge chair he had used in the puzzle room.

He fell back in it as he breathed loudly, not caring about the blood he dirtied it with or the bow that fell on the floor beside him. Jake closed his eyes as he slowly slipped into meditation, which quickly became him just taking a nap.

Hours later, he reawakened, his body still sore from the incredible overuse of Limit Break and from having his pools so strained during the fight. “Fuck those tin can fucks,” Jake muttered. They weren’t even fun to fight; it was just god damn tedious.

Looking at the timer, Jake saw the Treasure Hunt had now officially entered the second day, and by quite a few hours even. He had spent far longer killing those damn Knights and Blackguards than expected, just because he felt a natural treasure somewhere above.

Sadly, he couldn’t just go up right away, as he was still low on resources and felt sore. So he chugged a stamina potion and entered meditation again as he went through all the notifications.

*You have slain [Reanimated Black Knight Golem – lvl 131]*

…

*You have slain [Reanimated Black Knight Golem – lvl 142] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 132 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 131 - Stat points allocated, +15 free points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 133 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 134 - Stat points allocated, +10 free points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 132 - Stat points allocated, +15 free points*

Jake had killed… a lot. Three hundred and eleven Knights in total, two hundred and ninety-two of which gave him any experience points. That had resulted in three whole levels… which meant that in the day since Jake entered this Treasure Hunt, he had already gotten five total class levels. He had to admit that he didn’t think it would lead to this much experience when he entered the Treasure Hunt. However… it wasn’t all great.

While the levels were good, there was one negative aspect… he had just spent nearly a full day without getting a single piece of loot. The damn reanimated armors blew themselves up upon death, and whatever metal was left behind was rusted and broken like the metal gate that broke apart. It also only fell into smaller pieces and tried to curse him when he touched it. In addition, Jake had killed so many, but none of them dropped an orb or a fragment or a shard or anything like that.

At least he still had more than eight and a half days left to get something, as he could well and truly say that his idea of speedrunning the Counts had been utterly ruined.

Hours passed as Jake healed up and consumed potions whenever he could. He was a bit surprised not a single person had come to the tower during all this time… but maybe it was because it looked abandoned and the constant mist within? Or they chose to focus on towers closer to the Mistless Plains and their basecamps? According to Reika, all the large factions had made temporary camps on the plains, after all, so it made sense if they wanted to stay close.

When he felt up to snuff, he picked up his bow with a string of mana, and got up off the comfortable lounge chair, and put it back in his inventory, hoping he hadn’t lowered its value too much by getting it bloody. He had also discovered that the reason it was so tiring to recover was that damn curse again. He was really getting fed up with these curses.