[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
The Primal Hunter — a LitRPG progression fantasy. For her, it had just been another typical and tiring day. She had to get up early, clean her room, and make it all nice and tidy before heading off for breakfast. After that, she would have to do a bit of studying before a nice workout in the yard. Then it was work time, a bit of recreational time in the evening, before her early bedtime. It was a constant routine that she had done now for nearly two years.

## Main Character
Name: Jake | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Jacob, Carmen, Bertram

## World & Power System
level-based progression; class system; skills (e.g. Archer – lvl 2, Geology (Inferior), Concoct Poison (Common), True Standout of the 93rd Universe, Boar – lvl 5, Human (G) – lvl 7, Evergreen Grass (Inferior), Basic One-Handed Weapon (Inferior)); stats (Perception, Wisdom, Strength, Intelligence, Endurance, Agility)
System notification style: "System’,” it explained."

## Writing Style
third-person limited narration, past tense. Narration-focused (0% dialogue). Balanced pacing.

[User]
Write 40 chapter - Defect & Meeting
Target length: ~2900 words

[Assistant]
William looked at the now pitch-black clearing where Casper had disappeared from earlier. He had been standing there for minutes now. William didn’t get it. But more infuriating than that was that he didn’t understand why he didn’t get it.

That power was something William wanted… he needed it. But he couldn’t even begin to understand what it was. No clue remained either, as all of the spikes and the corpses of the beasts they impaled were gone.

Casper claimed it was some kind of emotional power… resentment. William understood being mad at someone, but how could that possibly be so tangible? His claim of doing everything and reaching the power he had due to love was also… ridiculous. Illogical.

He had never gotten it. Love was a weird ethereal word not commonly found in his internal dictionary. He knew that his parents had claimed to love him. But if love was such an all-consuming feeling as the trapper claimed, why had the parents who claimed to love him chosen to abandon him?

Why did people think he was broken?

William had always thought himself a smart kid. He had been quiet, controlled, and done as he was told. His school-years were straightforward and easy. He never had any friends, and he did recall seeing ‘specialists’ who concluded that he just had a hard time understanding empathy. Putting him on some spectrum, something that allowed him to avoid much suspicion later on in life.

At only 11 years old, he had found an old book and looked up the word ‘love’ and tried to do as it said. Do to others as you want them to do unto you, which meant that the next many years were fine. He was a well-behaved child and never did any wrong. The problems only started arriving when his brother was born.

He remembered his parents being happy, having fulfilled their biological quota of two children to carry on the bloodline. He also remembered them being sad when they discovered that the child was a defect. A product that Darwinism would have claimed if nature was to run its cause without the interference of society.

William was 12 when the kid was born, and he would never forget the difficulties it brought. His mother had to quit working, and all semblance of free-time and family outings stopped. William may have had his issues, but he still enjoyed what other children did and sorely missed going to amusement parks and the zoo.

As the years passed, the problems continued, and William tried just to do his own thing. His parents had forgotten their otherwise ‘troubled’ teenager, being far too busy with his little brother who required constant care.

Then, and even now, William never understood why they kept the child. They knew even before the birth that it wouldn’t come out whole. It would never amount to anything; it was a failed attempt. In all other areas, you were told that if a product turned out terribly, you just throw it out and start over or move onto more important matters. But his parents had used the ever-ethereal argument of love to bring the child into the world.

Once more, William didn’t care. As long as he did nothing illegal, his parents didn’t care either. Back then, William had big plans. He enjoyed studying, he liked to learn, and he found great pleasure in learning about other humans, most of all. He learned how they worked and how he was supposed to act around them. But more importantly, how to make them act as you wanted.

His plans were grand. He still remembered the day he found out he had gotten into the best university in his area. He remembered the genuine joy he had felt. ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ But he also remembered his parent’s slightly reluctant attitude to his happiness.

It turns out that having a child requiring a person to care for it every hour of the day, combined with a lot of medicine, is expensive. They never told William, but he discovered it himself as he heard his parents whisper in the middle of the night. They were about to go into debt. William would have to move to go to the university… he would need money - money they didn’t have.

William did not take the news well that his plans for the future wouldn’t become a reality. The child, his so-called brother, was making that impossible. So, William did as he had read in that book so many years ago. He did unto others what he wished they would do to him. So, he helped them.

He knew the law. He knew that the child, now 5 years old, was still wheelchair-bound, and quite frankly, at risk of dying to any unexpected danger. It wouldn’t be suspicious if it happened.

A device was used to allow the child to breathe during the night. The thing they called his brother was so defective it couldn’t even do that without help. The night was also the only time the child was left alone for just a bit of time. Still regular check-ins every hour, but alone in between.

William snuck in that night. Having just turned 18, he got to work. He considered bringing it up to his parents, but he knew no legal defense was better than not having done anything illegal. With that in mind, he decided to do it alone.

Switching off the alarm was easy enough. Guides to those devices were on the internet if one looked hard enough. Next, he did the most straightforward thing and simply twisted one of the tubes delivering oxygen, stopping the flow. And with that, he went back to bed and slept like a baby. He had done a good deed, after all.

It was a pure win-win situation. His parents would be freed from a burden, their economic situation would improve, and with that, his plans of higher education made possible. He saw nothing getting in the way but a possible legal investigation, but he had made sure to make the twisted tube look like it happened on accident. So, if anything, it would be some unrelated caretaker getting in trouble, as she had been the last one to operate the machine and was responsible for keeping watch.

He was awoken an hour later by shouting and screaming as the caretaker panicked, and his mother was even worse off. His father had been at work, as he was working nearly every waking moment to make ends meet.

William had succeeded. His brother had slept in, never having even woken up. And now he would never wake up ever again. William was proud of himself. After the panic and mourning, an investigation was made, and it was ultimately deemed an accident.

Throughout the entire process, he had never once been suspected. He had only been questioned once, and he just claimed that he was sleeping the whole time.

But to William's surprise, things didn’t immediately improve. Despite having removed the burden, his parents didn’t get newfound freedom, and the focus of their family didn’t go to making sure his university plans were fulfilled. Instead, it became endless mourning, and his mother even deliriously wanting to sue both the caretaker and the company that made the machine due to the alarm failing.

William didn’t get why they were so reluctant just to move on. Why they had to act as they did. When the movements to sue got closer and William discovered that the legal proceedings would put the family even further in debt, for what even he could see was a pointless legal-battle, he decided to finally come clean- There was a bit of a risk that an investigation would get reopened, but the risk was worth it.

Their response had been far from what he expected. He knew they would be angry; lying and acting deceitful was not okay after all, but the reaction was way out of proportion. He tried to explain; he tried to reason; his logic had been flawless. He had acted entirely rational throughout it all.

His father had yelled more than ever; his mother broke down crying. After that, he had been sent to his grandparent’s place. He was forced to talk to shrinks, therapists, and many other so-called ‘experts’.

He was sent into programs, homes, and in the end, a fucking closed facility. His parents never told anyone what he had done, and yet they locked him up like he had been the one to ruin their lives. Like he had been the burden.

He was pumped full of drugs, his logic dying, and from then, it all turned into a blur with only moments of clearness - one and a half years he spent living like that. Even now, his memories of the time were shrouded, like a cloud of mist was obstructing his mind.

He only had a single one with a clear head of those many months as he managed to fool some new hire that he was getting. That he understood what they wanted. That he understood the emotions that they all found oh so important. But he could only fake it for so long until a more experienced employee caught on, and he had no peace after that.

The system saved him. It freed him. Not just physically. It freed his mind.

Here, in the tutorial, he had time to think. He had time to do as he always wanted. He would manipulate, exploit, and do everything possible to win. He had viewed his inability to understand these emotions as a perk for the past month, not a fault.

But today, Casper had made a small crack in that belief. Was he missing something? Was he… broken? No, impossible.

There wasn’t anything to fix. It was a strength, his strength. He had been called ‘mentally ill’ before; it wasn’t new. Casper was just an outlier. William had brilliantly fooled Richard, Caroline, Jacob, everyone! Not a soul suspected him. He was perfect.

William only saw the world as consisting of two kinds of people. Those useful to him reaching his goals, and those not. If someone didn’t hold value for him, there was only the value he would get from harvesting their tutorial points and the experience they offered.

The system itself agreed with his reasoning. It only confirmed his thoughts. He was rewarded for every kill. Not punished like the old world. Rules didn’t apply to the strong. And William… William was strong.

He firmly believed that. He was finally untethered. No laws, no parents, no vague moral obligations to anything. The only one he had to please was himself. His only limiter was the extent of his own power. So, he would do anything to obtain more power.

William, lost in thought, found that he had wandered quite a distance. A bit closer to the camp, but not in a straight line. He did see some beasts, but all were below 25, so he was still in the outer area for sure.

As he turned to the camp's direction, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye - a single individual walking through the shrubbery. It was a man from the build, and he was wearing an upgraded common-rank archer cloak, but he saw no bow in sight. Nothing else about him was of interest, as the cloak concealed his entire body.

William considered attacking, but something made him pause. There was a presence to the man. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but through all the evolutions and levels, a certain innate sense had been unlocked. And that sense was currently making him aware that the man wasn’t simple.

William used Identify on the man. He knew he was terrible at remembering to use it, as he hadn't even bothered to use it on Casper before. Or anyone really. Something to improve, he told himself. But when he got the response, his eyes widened.

[?]

It was just… nothing. No feedback at all. A single question mark was all William got. After he had gotten the Identify skill to common-rarity, it had told him the race and level of everyone… but now it didn’t work.

One would typically take that as a sign to avoid combat, but William saw it as the exact opposite. This was a perfect opportunity. Casper was an anomaly; he reminded himself. This lone person in front of him appeared strong. He was alone. William would make him the case-study of why he wasn’t wrong.

“Hello there!” he said with a huge smile. Completely back in his faux persona. “Haven’t seen anyone else for a while out here. What you up to all alone with how things are?”

William tried hard to make the man let down his guard. The man he presumed to be an archer took off his hood too, and William got a good look at the man. Brown hair, forgettable face, utterly dull. The only thing that made him stand out was his eyes. His gaze was sharp, focused.

The teenager had met a lot of people out in the wild. He had seen a wide range of emotions: fear, curiosity, caution, anger, and even happiness and relief at some points. But the eyes of the man was neither of those. He couldn’t quite place his finger on what his gaze held, but William didn’t like it.

He had never tried that before, and it put him slightly off his game. As he was wondering how to proceed, the man answered.

“Good question. Just got here myself. Been a bit busy in an oversized cave for a while. Or would calling it an ancient temple be more accurate?” the archer answered, shrugging before he asked. “You heard of any gatherings of survivors around here? A camp or something like that?”

William looked a bit bewildered at the man. The first part was nonsense. He had been in a temple? The young caster had been many places, and he hadn’t seen even the shadow of something that one could describe as a temple. The latter part was also confusing. How could he not know of ANY gatherings of survivors? The two bases hadn’t exactly been subtle with their hardcore recruitment.

“Eh, yeah, we got some bases. I am a part of one of them myself, actually,” William answered, seeing an opportunity. “I can bring you to it if you like? It is a bit far, and it is easy to get lost in the forest after all.”

“Hm… what’s the name of the leader of the camp? Or notable people? And you mentioned bases as in more than one? Just take me as someone absolutely clueless to the situation currently in the tutorial. Because I am,” the man answered, dodging the offer of the escort with his own questions.

“Sure thing! We got two bases, one run by a dude named Hayden and another run by another bloke named Richard. Both are a bit bonkers, and a big war is kinda going on. As for notable people… we got a good smith named Mr. Smith? Or well, some call him The Smith. Anyway, he is excellent, and I am sure he could help fix up your stuff,” William answered, trying to really sell his camp.

Not that he had any intention of the archer ever making it there in one piece. But if they traveled there together, there was bound to be opportunities.

The archer stood a while contemplating. William’s brain was working at high speed, trying to see every possible scenario. He wanted to avoid a straight-up fight if possible, as a direct confrontation with an enemy of unknown power seemed like a bad idea.

Finally, the archer responded. “Sure, I guess you can take me there. Meanwhile, tell me of the other members of your camp. Perhaps I know some of them.”

With delight, William smiled and cheered internally. The sucker seemed oblivious to his intentions, on the surface at least. He hadn’t spotted any openings yet, but the teenager seriously doubted that anyone could stay completely vigilant at all times. The way back to base was far. Especially far, considering William wasn’t going to take him in the direction of the camp at all.

“Of course! My name is William, by the way. A caster, as you can likely see by the robe. It’s a bit far, and my physical stats are a bit bad with my class and all, so it may take a while. But! I will have plenty of time to answer any and all questions you may have.”

William put on the attitude of a true used-car salesman. He also used the age-old trick of downplaying yourself, inevitably making the other party feel superior, making them more likely to relax.

“Well, nice to meet you, William. Now unto the other members of your camp…”

A bit annoyed that the other party refused to even give his own name, William simply endured as he happily started yapping away about his base's outstanding members.

It was going to be a long trip back.

[User]
Write 41 chapter - Intermission 4 - Matteo (1/2)
Target length: ~2500 words
Key events: boss encounter, dungeon content

[Assistant]
3 years before the Initiation began

Matteo got out of the shower after his workout and got something quick to eat. It was just another Sunday night like any other where he had to get up early and get ready for work. But today was a special day as today was the day he would claim his big promotion.

He looked out at the penthouse that he had lived in for the last two months, feeling it was all a bit hollow. His only real possession in the entire apartment was a piano, which he had inherited from his grandfather.

After he put on his suit, he packed his briefcase with all the necessities he would need for the day’s work and rode the elevator down to the ground floor. His employer had insisted many times for him to get a driver, but Matteo had refused time and time again. He preferred to do things himself.

Riding the car that was worth more than the average yearly income of several households, he soon found himself in the industrial zone where the boss had set up their current base of operations. A furniture manufacturer that was more than suitable.

“M,” the doorman said with a small greeting. ”Boss is inside.”

Matteo just nodded and entered the building, crossing the floor and the running machinery, and into the back room. There, he found his boss and a few other members sitting around a table while watching tennis on the television.

“Why do they moan when they hit the ball?”

“It is all about controlling your breathing, and if it happens to annoy your opponent, it’s just a bonus,” Matteo answered upon entering.

“Ah, my boy, just in time! I heard the last job was finished ahead of schedule. Great work as always,” said one of the older members.

“You didn’t disappoint,” said a rough voice as he entered from a side room.

The others instantly turned off the tv and bowed towards the boss.

“Yeah,” Matteo confirmed, nodding to the boss.

“Let’s move,” the boss said as he motioned for the others to follow. Matteo following along without question. It wasn’t time yet, and everything was planned.

“Matteo, you drive.”

As expected.

They got into the armored car and set course for the docks. They had to meet their client there for the handover. Matteo was a natural inclusion in such… volatile situations. Usually, nothing went wrong, but the boss had caught on something was up and wanted him present.

He had been a part of the business and family since he was a kid, and the boss trusted him unconditionally.

In an old warehouse at the docks, dozens of men were already present as they opened up unmarked containers and took out the boxes, stacking them in the corner. A few of the containers were left closed, as they didn’t want issues with the merchandise before the buyers arrived. They had just checked that it was in good condition.

The armored car rode in through the opened gates as it closed behind them. Five men got out, with Matteo the first to do so and the boss next.

“Bronco! Good to see you, old friend!” yelled the seller at the five arriving men.

“Dakila,” the boss replied with a nod.” No issues with this shipment?”

“A few rowdy ones, but they just need to be trained a bit better, and I am sure they will turn into big earners. As for the other goods? No issues there.”

The business had recently expanded quite a bit into the entertainment industry and needed some ’employees’ for that, so they came to this man. He was already their supplier for many other tools of their trade and offered to provide.

Sadly, the last time a container of merchandise was damaged during transport, and they had to dump the entire cargo container into the ocean, inventory included.

48 young women and girls, thrown overboard and drowned due to one person in the container having tuberculosis.

Matteo wasn’t the most morally upstanding person, but that had left a sour taste in his mouth. Even worse so when his boss accepted Dakila’s reimbursement and went ahead with another delivery.

So, today would be the day where he took over. Guns and drugs were enough anyway; there was no reason to expand into human trafficking besides the boss’s greed.

The negotiations continued as expected as they stood there. Matteo had already given the signal during the ride, and soon he felt his smartwatch buzz with the return signal. 30 seconds.

Walking up to the boss, he asked to inspect the guns. He naturally got the go-ahead as none of them were loaded by default, but that wasn’t why he needed to go over there. He leaned over the table as if looking at the guns as he got the second buzz.

“Boss?”

“Yeah, wha-”

Before he could speak, he had a round hole in his forehead as blood and brain matter splattered everywhere.

The other side reacted as expected, and Matteo vaulted over the table just in time as several gunshots went past him. The flashbang he had dropped at his feet blew up, blinding all of them who had turned towards him, and at that moment, two cars smashed the gate in.

A dozen men got out, guns blazing, as they began lighting up the entire warehouse. Dakila’s men managed to return fire, but Matteo’s initial move had left many of them blinded and confused.

Matteo himself stayed behind the table as he prepared himself for the next stage.

The gunfire soon died down as he heard his ’partner’ call him out.

Their main competitor. A man who Matteo had made a deal with, to further his own means.

Smiling slightly at what would come next, he looked at the handgun in his hand and counted his bullets. It should be enough.

He yelled out as he stood up, seeing five guns already trained at him. His smile only broadened. Perhaps he had bitten off a bit more than he could chew.

Yet he moved. The first gunshot took a life before they reacted properly, the second shot took another as they pulled their triggers, and a third shot killed another man before their return fire came.

Matteo had already ducked once more as he remembered their positions. He threw another grenade over the table as he felt it be riddled with bullets, glad that Dakila had always insisted on having these large steel tables.

And then he heard it - screams from within the containers.

The men brought by the competitor, on edge, weren’t as clearheaded or experienced as Matteo himself, so they didn’t notice. They didn’t think. They just fired. It took a full second before their leader yelled for them to stop, but it was too late.

Matteo saw red as he got up again.

He fired his gun, taking down four more before he was out of bullets. He drew his knife and stabbed the first one in the throat, and the second went down with a quick stab to the chest. Matteo felt a few bullets hit him from behind, most blocked by his vest, but one took him in the leg.

Taking a gurgling soldier as a hostage, he used him as a shield and even used his own gun to return fire.

The police arrived ten minutes later, finding dozens of corpses within the warehouse and two containers with a few more corpses and several women who were crying and screaming for help.

The day of the Integration of the 93rd universe

A man in black walked through the foyer as he took the elevator up. Weirdly enough, walking in the blind angles of all the cameras and keeping his head low.

Four minutes later, he exited the building, one briefcase lighter.

Fifteen minutes after that, the building’s top floor went up in flames, a supposedly famous mafia-boss among them.

It was just another killing in a long string of organized crime, all committed by an assailant identified simply as M.

Matteo sat in another penthouse that he didn’t feel like was his own, his only possession still the old piano. He mentally checked off another mark as he prepared to begin his preparations for the next target. That is when the Initiation came.

He found himself in the room. He had asked for a gun but found that he could at most get a profession that could lead him to make guns himself later on. Useless. So Matteo picked light warrior as it suited him somewhat as he was more than confident in his knifework.

After that, he went to a grand hall of sorts, surrounded by thousands of other humans.

He had to specify humans, as he soon realized there were beings in this tutorial that weren't humans. They called themselves servants to the Mistress of Shadows, the sponsor who ran the tutorial - a god known as Umbra.

Most of the servants looked elven, but some were creatures of pure shadows. Dark elementals that were there to guide the new initiates.

In the grand hall at the beginning, they were met with an explanation from the Organizer.

“Welcome, Forerunners of the 93rd Universe.

“Welcome, to the tutorial where you will be given the opportunity to rise to power and discover your own path. The first choice of which will come right after this. There are two other halls like this, each with its own purpose.

“The hall we are in currently is called the Hall of Blades and is for those who wish to walk the path of combat. The hall to the right is the Hall of Creation, and to the left is the Hall of Guides. Creation for those who wish to craft and focus on their professions, and the last is for those who wish to guide others.

“I would advise you all not solely to focus on one path. If you already possess a profession, get a class, and get a profession within a reasonable time if you have a class. Do not fret if you feel like you have chosen wrong; just be aware of the path you wish to walk when you reach the first evolution at 25.

“This tutorial is sponsored and organized by the Dark Mistress, and if you perform well, you may even qualify to receive her favor.”

After that, the Organizer began explaining more general info before sending them all on their way to different halls and such. There was plenty of panic and people doubting the entire situation, but the appearance of dark elementals and elves was enough to convince most this wasn’t some trick.

Besides, it soon appeared that many of the types who had been brought there were not simple. Most of them hardened criminals, killers, soldiers, or assassins like himself. There was also more regular folk that Matteo assumed to be there to make up for numbers. In total, he saw they were 9000 initiates in the tutorial.

Of them, he surprisingly enough counted more than a hundred children who were all taken aside to be given some special elixir of some kind. Many of the ones who went to the Hall of Guides were those intending to help care for them.

Some others didn’t look very fit for combat either - old people, people who were clearly civilians, pregnant women, the ones who appeared more mentally unstable. These people tended to go towards to Hall of Creation or the Hall of Guides.

Matteo looked up at the high ceiling in contemplation. This wasn’t the first time he had been tossed into an entirely different world. When he was nine, he saw a rival gang member kill his brother. That also happened to be the first time he took a life himself.

With resolve, he began his journey to power.

The days quickly began passing as everyone fell into a groove. Matteo practiced a bit but spent most of his first week within the Shadow Trials. The Shadow Trials was where combat took place, a type of dimension that they were told was a dungeon.

In there, there were floors with progressively more formidable enemies. Every 10th level had a ’boss,’ and if they managed to beat all 50 floors, they could fight the final boss. But it was made pretty clear from the beginning that this final boss was more or less impossible to reach, much less beat.

Matteo entered the Trial for the first time less than an hour after the whole introduction-sequence. He alone entered the Trials and exited hours later with more than ten levels. This continued as he hunted down creatures one after another, honing his craft.

He also discovered why they had all been taken here, what they all had in common. Every individual in the tutorial had an affinity for dark mana, and most of the training and material provided played into this fact. An assassin like Matteo had already gained several skills related to dark mana.

When Matteo evolved his class, he was still relatively low on the level ladder. The reason for this was simple; he had yet to pick a profession. He had earned a private chamber due to his high performance, and that was where the servant came to discuss his lack of profession with him.

“A profession is highly advised, due to the levels in race an-”

“Piano.”

So, he got a piano and a profession that very day - a simple profession called ’Novice Musician’ that offered only four stats total and didn’t appear extraordinary in any way. But it gave race levels, and Matteo enjoyed it. It was his type of meditation before actually gaining the meditation skill.

His leveling speed kept being insane, only increasing further as he also got levels in his profession. A month in, they had their first evaluations - the leaderboard for the top 10 with Matteo solidly winning.

Leaderboard: Shadow Trials

1st: M – 19th floor

2nd: NBS – 17th floor

3rd: HJ – 17th floor

4th: GAS - 16th floor

5th: KIL - 16th floor

6th: PJH - 16th floor

7th: V - 16th floor

8th: YH - 16th floor

9th: CT – 15th floor

10th: KL – 15th floor

The first boss on floor 10 was only level 25, but it progressed fast after that, with the average enemy on the 19th floor around level 50. Every person in the top 10 did the trials solo as they only got harder if you entered with more people. You also {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} had to share points from the kills, making it even less attractive.

After the evaluation, Matteo was offered even more power. A blessing from a subordinate god of Umbra, increasing his agility by 5% and giving him access to even better skills. He also officially joined the Court of Shadows and became a follower. Though, that wasn’t the term they used. They called them members instead of followers as the entire structure of the Court was more akin to a business than a religion.

Matteo didn’t know if others had also been offered a blessing, and frankly, he didn’t care. He just kept pushing forward.

[User]
Write 41 chapter - Clash
Target length: ~3400 words
Key events: class event, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Jake walked beside the young caster as the teenager happily chatted away. Jake was taken aback from learning about two massive camps that combined held nearly all the remaining survivors in them. He had come here looking for the source of mana before, but instead, he found a caster, and from his aura, it didn’t feel like it was him. Oh well, this is fine too.

The archer was able to remain relatively relaxed as he walked. He had naturally inspected the young man when they first met.

[Human – lvl 24]

He was happy to see that it now worked on humans finally. It only showed race level, making Jake have no idea about the teenager's class or profession's details. He knew he was a caster based solely on his clothes.

Jake didn’t feel like sharing any personal information either, despite the other party's subtle, and not so subtle, probes. The caster called himself William or Will for short. He had stressed the last part quite a bit. Being friendly was all well and good, but Jake seriously didn’t like the guy. He was far too chippy and animated to appear genuine.

All of that was naturally ignoring the fact that William was likely going to try something. He wasn’t sure what, but he had a feeling. If he had to make a guess, Jake would guess a classic ambush, or maybe he would just try to backstab him at some random point?

Jake wasn’t afraid, though. He was low-key looking forward to it. With the kid being a well of information, he saw no reason not to travel together for a bit. It would also allow him to better understand the level of power other survivors possessed. Even if Jake couldn’t win, he was confident in escaping with his high vitality and toughness.

They walked a while, the teenager still talking and Jake giving short brief answers. His Sphere of Perception passively making him aware of his surroundings like always. He was still half-expecting an ambush to be somewhere, but no matter how long they walked, he saw nothing.

Suddenly William stopped as he knelt, motioning Jake to do the same. Perfectly aware that nothing was in the area, Jake nevertheless played along. This is silly.

“Did you spot that? I have a skill that allows me to see hidden concentrations of mana, and there is a big ambush just up ahead. They haven’t spotted us yet, but I am unsure how many there are,” the teenager said as he pointed down the small hill they were approaching.

“What do you want me to do?” Jake asked, trying to act as seriously as he could. His sphere still didn’t pick up quack. While he wasn’t going to rule out people being able to hide from it, there sure as hell wasn't anyone close.

“You are an archer, right? Can you maybe go up that hill we passed earlier and try and see if you can spot anything from up there? I know you guys got, like, super high perception, right?” William asked, motioning with his hands once more. “Don’t worry, I will keep watch here and help in case they try anything!”

Jake nodded along as he listened. Cool story. Yet he followed the directions. Was he really going with that?

Jake started slowly walking up the hill, going backward, trying to act as if he was still actually looking for an ambush. William had turned his back to Jake, as he seemingly focused hard to keep an eye on things.

After a few meters, Jake turned his back to William, and the moment he did, a barrage of daggers flew soundlessly out from beneath the casters robe. Jake couldn’t help but smirk internally as the expected attack came, but he quickly frowned his brows a bit at the power and number of attacks.

Fourteen daggers were coming. Without any hesitation, he jumped to the side, all the blades missing their initial attempt to skewer him. As he barely got a footing, the daggers turned in the air and swiftly came his way once more. A bow appeared in Jake's hand with ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) a quick motion, as he dodged once more and returned an arrow towards the caster.

William had turned towards Jake at this point, surprised that the archer had dodged his sneak attack. Even as he dodged the second and third blow, the archer seemed to have eyes on his back. The counterattack was quickly blocked by William, as he was once again surprised.

What surprised him this time was not the power, but the lack of it. The arrow had been weak. He doubted the attack was from someone with even 100 strength. Something pretty much all physical fighters had - especially one an even higher level than himself.

The arrow thus easily got blocked by his iron wall, as he continued to manipulate the daggers. This was by far the most slippery foe William had ever faced. He wasn’t as fast as others he had met, but he seemed to be perfectly aware of all the attacks aimed at him.

The arrows continued as he blocked again and again. It felt like a waste of time, but the archer just kept shooting. Not wanting to lose momentum, William started deploying walls of iron to try and trap the archer, but he kept weaving in and out, never having more than one side blocked at a time.

He wanted to throw a disc, but the arrows made it hard to focus. He couldn’t lessen his control too much on the daggers or the walls, either. It was beginning to annoy William, and he was starting to get impatient.

Jake was in his own mind relatively relaxed throughout all this. He felt in control, and he felt the kinetic energy of the daggers lower than expected. The walls were a bit of a problem, but he reckoned the other party was draining mana fast.

Another thing he quickly noticed was the control of the daggers worsening as he moved further away. With a plan in mind, Jake kept retreating more and more, as he saw the caster start chasing him. The wall of iron always floated in front of him, making Jake only able to see that. With his eyes, that is.

As he managed to jump a reasonable distance back, he felt the caster somehow slide himself forward, almost as if he was flying. No, he was controlling his own body like he controlled the daggers.

Jake took this chance to stop retreating, deposited the bow in the necklace, and charged towards the caster. Dagger of Bloodletting in hand, he managed to close half the distance as the daggers caught up to him from behind.

Taking a gamble, he chose to betray expectations as he allowed five daggers to hit him in the back, penetrating into his flesh. However, his movements were unaffected as he vaulted over the wall of iron, swiping down with his dagger.

William was surprised by Jake's gamble as he scrambled to activate mana barrier, one of his starting skills. The barrier barely did anything as the dagger came down. William did manage to slide himself backward slightly, only taking a minor cut to his forearm.

Smirking, he had the daggers resume their assault at full power, forcing the archer on the defensive once more. In William's eyes, Jake had taken far more damage from the daggers in his back than the minor cut he had inflicted. Of course, he didn’t know about Jake’s ridiculous vitality. And he hadn’t noticed the blood already on the dagger before it cut him.

He only noticed as he started getting slightly dizzy, losing control for a moment allowing the archer to close in a bit more. William, in panic, looked to his arm and saw the wound, now black and festering.

What the fuck? he yelled in his mind, now genuinely panicking. He had experienced poisoning from the evolved badgers before, but this felt way worse. To make matters even more horrifying, the archer was nearly upon him once more.

As the archer was only a couple of meters away, William made his final gambit. No longer aiming to necessarily kill his enemy anymore, all he thought of was to escape. Even if he won, the poison would simply consume him anyway.

The final card William had up his sleeve was called Flashing Steel. The newest skill in his repertoire. His entire body lit up with a bright light reminiscent of a flashbang, as small pieces of scrap metals exploded out of him. The whole area around him exploding as a small crater formed.

Jake was already too close and even with his danger sense he was taken entirely by surprise and only managed to raise his hands as the metal hit him. The metal's momentum shot him backward tens of meters before he finally hit a tree, unfortunately only pushing the daggers in his back further in. It was like he had just been hit by a super-powerful frag grenade at close range.

The final thing he saw before the caster left his sphere was William flying backward himself, as he manipulated his own body once more. Jake quickly lost track as he saw the caster disappear into the trees.

Pushing himself off the tree, he had smashed into, groaning as he tried to reach for the daggers sticking out of his back. They hurt like hell, but his bodily strength was not comparable to an average human anymore. Ripping the daggers out took a while because some of them were tricky to reach, but he got it done in a few minutes.

His frontside was perhaps even worse than his back. The scrap metal that William blasted him with at the end had quite the power behind them. Luckily his cloak had absorbed a lot of the impact, leaving it in tatters. He really hoped the self-repair enchant still worked despite the extensive damage.

Sitting on the floor breathing heavily, Jake meditated as he thought back on the fight. He had underestimated the other party. He had seemed carefree and inexperienced during their walk, but the caster had been ruthless and calculating in the battle. The control of his abilities impressive.

Jake had only met one survivor so far, but his plans of approaching his colleagues just yet were already questionable. He didn’t have any clue as to William's relative power compared to everyone else. He knew that the teenager was a part of Richard’s base, which led Jake to believe that Richard had to at least be stronger.

Lack of information was a great weakness for him currently. What if William was just an example of a regular member of Richards base? He had confidence in facing one caster of that level, maybe even two if he got the jump, but anything more, and he would surely be on the losing side. Even then… he had only won because of his poison. If the caster had known about it already, Jake wasn’t one hundred percent sure things would have gone as well as they did.

William had during their conversation been very careful to reveal nothing about the powers of others. He did, however, mention that both bases combined had numbers in the hundreds. If facing just one other survivor had ended up with him losing nearly a third of his health, facing any random small squad would likely be fatal.

Worst of all, while Jake had won, he had likely failed to kill the opponent. He used the word likely as there was still a chance the caster wouldn’t make it. Before his charge, Jake had used Blood of the Malefic Viper to soak his dagger in his toxic blood, effectively poisoning the enemy. He would need a healer for sure, as Jake doubted the kid had high enough defensive stats to battle it himself. That, or he would need a potion.

Which was another thing Jake didn’t know about. Did they have any alchemists? If they did, could they make any detoxification potions? Smiths, tailors, and builders had all been mentioned, so them having professions was indisputable. It was also very believable that they would keep any knowledge of alchemy hidden from outside sources, along with other powerful profession types.

All of this ultimately led to Jake being very hesitant in trying to seek out his former colleagues. He had parted with Richard by killing a bunch of his men, so he had serious doubts that the guy would just welcome him with open arms.

No, for now, he needed power. Power to be able to seek them out with his head held high, and at least the confidence to escape if things went sideways. So, he decided to hunt. His class was only level 13, and he could efficiently kill level 20+ beasts for some quick levels. His colleagues would have to wait for now.

After meditating a while, he took out a health potion and drank it. It filled his pool back up quite a bit, his body visibly healing. I need to get stronger.

Turning towards the depths of the forest once more, he started searching for new prey. It was power-leveling time!

Caroline looked at the gloves in her hand as she smiled proudly at her creations. They were only inferior-rarity and didn’t offer any stats or anything. But it did give her plenty of experience to her profession.

“Oh, those are nice. Made for a certain someone, eh?”

Turning her head, she saw Joanna taking a seat. The premier tailor and the one who had taught her a lot of the techniques she currently used. Caroline jokingly hit Joanna on the shoulder, reprimanding her. “Stop it… I just thought he needed some gloves, you know?”

“Hehe, don’t get me wrong, I am supporting you 100%! You and Jacob are so cute together; it reminds me of when I first met Mike…” Joanna said, her bright smile dropping towards the end.

“Joanna, we don’t know what happened to everyone else,“ Caroline said, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder. “I am sure he is just in another tutorial, and I am just as sure that he is fine. Mike was always a tough guy; he can take care of himself.”

Smiling, Joanna snuggled up to her young former colleague. “You are such a sweetheart. No wonder Jacob couldn’t keep his hands off you. Talking of Jacob, have you guys talked to-”

But before she could answer, an archer stormed over to them, yelling loudly.

“Is Caroline here!? Come quickly, we got an emergency! Richard is asking for you asap!”

Without any hesitation, Caroline got up as she ran after the archer. Around the gate to enter their camp, she saw dozens standing around, a few of Richard’s men keeping them away.

As she got to the gate, she saw one of the other healers sweating as he tried to heal the caster on the ground. As she saw that the wounded person was William, she was taken aback. One of his arms was entirely black, and protruding veins were visible, extending from his shoulder onto his chest. Instantly she knew that he had been poisoned by something powerful.

Richard stood at the side, throwing her a glance. She looked questioningly back at him. When he nodded, she got to work.

Focusing, she started casting a curing spell, as she allowed the other healer to continue trying to keep the young man stable. The poison was strong. Very strong. And to make it worse, it even had magical properties making it only harder to cure.

But Caroline was not the strongest healer in their base, possibly the entire tutorial, for nothing. She flooded the teenager with a pulse of mana, washing away some of the toxins. A couple of powerful pulses later, the black color had started fading slightly. With a final push, she managed to dispel every trace of poison within the teenager.

William himself was unconscious as she and the other healer managed to finally fully heal him. Caroline felt that he only had one wound on his body was a small cut on his arm. If they hadn’t healed him, he would have died without a doubt. A significant weakness of casters was not getting any defensive stats from their classes, and from the looks of it, William really had terrible physical stats.

From her assessment, a warrior like Richard, especially with his class evolution, would be able to fight the poison himself, solely due to his higher toughness and health pool.

William, now healed, still hadn’t woken up. From what Caroline felt as she flooded his body, both his health pool and mana pool were pretty much empty. She didn’t know their values, but she could get a rough estimate that he was low.

After making sure William was fine, the next task was to find out what exactly had happened. She put up the barrier around them with a wave of her hand, only her, the archer, and Richard within.

“What happened?” she asked.

The archer, who was, in fact, the Scout who had been following William, shook his head.

“I don’t know. I was following the little psycho as always when I failed to notice a trap. I don’t know what the hell it was, but I was stuck there for hours, it didn’t even do anything, I was just stuck… until suddenly I saw him fly over me, and the second he did, the magic binding me was dispelled too… it was fucking weird.”

“So, it’s Casper?” Richard said frowning.

“No,” Caroline shook her head. “This isn’t the same type of attack as his at all. He is focused on curses, dark mana. This was poison. Moreover, the cut on his arm was made with a weapon for sure. This isn’t a beast, either.”

“An accomplice then… or an entirely new player. This isn’t Hayden. Casper would never work with him, and if Hayden had poison this strong, he would have used it before. Shit, this is all getting needlessly complicated,” Richard sighed with annoyance.

“What’s the plan?” the Scout asked. “Make the kid wake up, get info, and finish him off?”

“We could, but I have a better idea,” the former heavy warrior said. “For now, get him in one of the cabins.”

The entire situation was a shitshow, and everyone was aware of it.

Someone or something had potent poison, and Caroline was the only healer who could cure it. The other healer could heal through it, perhaps giving the person a chance to rely on their own stats to survive before they ran out of mana. But it wasn’t a reliable method at all.

The matter of William nearly dying spread throughout the camp like a wildfire. William was viewed favorably by most in their base, especially the crafters. The Smith, without a doubt, the one favoring him the most of everyone

None of them really knew about the kid from Richard’s understanding. They only knew the persona he had cultivated while within the camp. Which meant a lot of people had gathered around his cabin, asking worried questions. Even if they wanted the teenager dead, it would be incredibly difficult. Plan C then, he thought.

Jacob had also gathered outside with the others. While he was undoubtedly worried about William, he was more concerned with Casper. It wasn’t a secret that the trapper had called William out, and now the caster was nearly dead… he could only fear the worst. Either he had tried to kill William, or he was a victim himself… damn it.

Taking a deep breath, he looked towards the sky, the artificial sun hanging above. Even if everything was bad… he couldn’t be the one to break. He knew others relied on him. Jacob had a responsibility. He refused to let others lose hope, so he would grasp for anything he could. Because at times, he felt like hope was all he had going for him.

[User]
Write 42 chapter - Intermission 4 - Matteo (2/2)
Target length: ~4400 words
Key events: class event

[Assistant]
Around the 1-month mark, Matteo got a weapon he had been waiting for.

“It’s ready?” he asked as he went up to KL, one of the other rankers.

”Of course, the materials you provided were more than enough. I should have a second one ready by the end of tomorrow. Remember, you owe me one,” KL said, as he handed him the handgun.

[Dark Handgun of Umbra (Uncommon)] – A gun made by a talented gunsmith from the 93rd universe during the tutorial. Can fire [Dark Bullet (Uncommon)] when infused with dark mana. Does more damage when striking from the shadows.

Requirements: lvl 25+ in any humanoid race

KL was the best gunsmith in the tutorial and had even gained a lesser blessing from one of Umbra’s subordinate gods, granting him a skill to infuse his creations with the god’s Records. The gun was frankly better than he had expected and was exactly what he needed.

The next day he indeed got his second gun.

After that, he only sped up his progress. His killing speed got faster as he also picked up skills related to his new weapons. The god that had blessed him even had skills related to guns, making it all the better.

He kept climbing the floors, fighting day after day. His only reprieve was when he meditated or practiced the piano. Through his profession, he had gained a few skills that helped him in combat too. Through sound, he could warp the perception of his foes and manipulate sound to muffle himself or even create supersonic attacks to throw his enemy off.

Never once did he drop below first place in the rankings. He knew there were other training grounds too, but this one was the most important. He even knew there were optional dungeons to do, and while Matteo had done one of them, he didn’t believe it was worth the +1 in all stats title to do it. While the dungeons did have combat, they were more focused on traps or different kinds of trials.

As the days progressed and they approached the tutorial’s end, the Organizer and servants had already recruited the most influential tutorial attendees.

It was apparent to him that this tutorial was partly to prepare them for the new world and partly for the Court of Shadows to recruit members. Many in the Hall of Guides members had gained priest-like classes and prepared to recruit even more members upon their return to Earth.

The Hall of Creation was prone to create tools of the trade for the fighters. Nearly everything revolved around dark mana, which was fine as everyone possessed it. It also explained why many of them carried classes revolving around assassination with great damage, stealth, and mobility over durability.

They were an army that would return to Earth and begin to establish their dominance. Without a doubt, one of many groups nurtured by a religious faction. The Court of Shadows made no secret of this but made them very aware of who they would contend with.

Matteo planned on standing at the helm of that group and proving his worth.

He had failed to become the ’boss’ in the old world, but he could do it now. Sure, he wouldn’t be the highest-ranking member of the Court, but he found it more acceptable to have unparalleled power be the dividing line.

This is why he showed up to the final ranking battles with assurance and conviction to win and claim the leader’s title. All who had any interest in becoming the leader got a quest, and deciding who was to be the leader would be done through a tournament. It was the final day of the tutorial, and nearly every single attendee was there.

Looking at the top 10, he noted down those who were participating.

Leaderboard: Shadow Trials

1st: M – 39th floor

2nd: NBS – 37th floor

3rd: HJ – 36th floor

4th: CT – 35th floor

6th: UA – 32nd floor

9th: KM – 32nd floor

KL, the gunsmith that had now claimed the 7th spot, didn’t participate, while the 5th place person didn’t either. Matteo only saw the tournament as having one other real contender. The woman NBS.

Nadia was her name. A ruthless woman that Matteo knew of even before the system. A corporate spy and sometimes assassin who specialized in social hacking and information gathering. She was also a mean lass with a rifle with more than her share of kills.

Which was precisely the kind of magic she had now. A large black rifle infused with shadow-energy. She had gained the rifle itself as a reward for passing one of the many Challenge Dungeons and acquired the legacy of a dead veteran of the Court of Shadows. Rumors had it the rifle was ancient-rarity if not legendary.

Matteo had wanted it, but as with everything bound to a Legacy, it was Soulbound. A shame. His own equipment was also decent, with mainly uncommon and rare gear, but a powerful rifle would be welcome. Well, it wasn’t all bad as they were essentially teammates, and it wasn’t like she was squandering it.

The battle took place in an arena that looked like an old worn-down city in some post-apocalypse Earth. It was the semi-final but was by many viewed as the actual final. The arena itself didn’t particularly favor any of the fighters, and even if it did, who were they to complain? The truly strong could come out on top, even in an unfavorable situation.

They dropped into the arena, and the 30-minute timer began. Both immediately faded into the shadows as they began hunting each other: one, trying to snipe Matteo, with Matteo trying to remain undetected and bring down Nadia.

Weaving through the ruined cityscape, Matteo blended in with the environment. Within the shade, he became practically invisible, his movements gave off the faintest of sounds, and even his mana, heat, and other detectable signature were hidden.

At the same time, Nadia had found a position on the 34th floor of a decrepit building. The rooftop was suicide as she would be too easily detected, and there wasn’t enough shade to keep her hidden. The battle took place at dusk, with only sparse rays of sunlight lighting up the city.

Nadia activated a skill called Eyes of the Specter, an upgraded version of her Archer’s Eye that she got upon her class evolution. Walls and other physical obstacles quickly faded away in her sight as the city lay bare before her.

Her left eye, the only one she had used the skill with, began bleeding a few seconds after using it. Her toughness simply wasn’t high enough to sustain the skill for an extended period, but it had been enough.

Like a silent wind, a beam of dark mana tore across the battlefield. Matteo felt it coming with his danger sense skill as he barely managed to avoid having his head blown off and losing the match. He still got a nasty wound on his shoulder, but it was nothing he couldn’t deal with.

More importantly, he now had her position. His bait had worked.

Sprinting faster than before, dark mana swirled around him as he sped up. Getting to the building, he didn’t stop, but began running up the side of it. He dodged another four shots on the way up. Just as he thought he had her, the entire side of the building was suddenly imploded into something akin to a black hole.

Grenades. Shit.

He was forced off the building by the unexpected attack, but instead of dropping to the ground, he shot out a tether and swung around the building, rolling into one of the lower floors. Pointed his guns upwards as he released a blast of dark mana up towards Nadia's position.

She returned fire, but it quickly became apparent that she was outgunned. Matteo slowly made his way up to her as she tried to retreat slowly. She threw grenades, used different skills, but it was all in vain.

With a final Shadow Vault, Matteo crossed the distance and landed a cut on her chest with his knife. Her body dissolved into shadows as four copies ran away in different directions. Sadly for her, he had a perception skill of his own to counter these kinds of techniques.

He quickly chased down the real version, where they were thrown into a melee. Well, he wanted to be in melee while Nadia wanted to create some distance.

She released a blast of mana and threw some knives, but Matteo deflected them as he went in for the kill. A few moments later, she fell dead to the floor as the world around them dissolved.

”M moves on to the final where he will face CT. The match will begin in 5 minutes.”

The Organizer nodded at him with approval as Matteo looked over at a frowning Nadia.

[Human – lvl 51]

”Good fight, you’re strong; it will be a pleasure working with you in the future,” Matteo said to the woman.

”… just be sure to win the final,” Nadia said with disappointment in her voice.

The matches in the tournament were done through some kind of magical simulation. They technically were fighting themselves, but it was some kind of projection of their souls and not their actual physical bodies. It still tired you out mentally, but it didn’t drain any resources or cause any bodily harm.

While the Court of Shadows was considered a rather ruthless organization, it would just be utter stupidity to kill off most of their new talents. Death was a very real thing in the tutorial as he saw that 1400 people had died in their tutorial so far - the vast majority of them within the Trial of Shadows.

Matteo nodded at Nadia with a reaffirming smile. He understood that she wasn’t content with losing and that she at least wanted to have lost to the champion. They were all prideful people. Or at least he assumed them to be. Because the person he would face in the final was a bit… uncharacteristic compared to the other top rankers.

CT was a relatively mild-mannered young man. He looked to be in his mid-twenties and didn’t have any significantly distinguishable features. However, what made him stand out was how he fought and behaved during the tutorial.

Firstly, he had chosen the Hall of Guides and not the Hall of Blades like every other ranker participating in the tournament. The other rankers in the top 10 who had chosen not to participate mainly focused on other things than combat.

CT appeared to have an affinity for children as he had taken responsibility for them as he helped both them and their parents. In fact, Matteo saw him as a very valuable and caring person. He believed he would be a great help in the new world.

Secondly, his fighting method was not like the others. Most rankers used magical versions of pre-system weapons. Guns, rifles, knives, things they were familiar with, to begin with. They were all fighters before the system, after all. CT wasn’t, it appeared. He was a caster who used some kind of lightning magic mixed with dark mana, of course.

Third, the man had spent a lot of time on the dungeons Matteo himself avoided. He still climbed the floors in the Trial of Shadows, but he did so far less than the other rankers.

Looking over at the man, he saw him surrounded by children who cheered for him as they prepared to watch the match.

[Human – lvl 49]

He was a few levels below Nadia and quite a few levels below himself. Matteo had reached level 55 himself, out-leveling everyone else by quite a margin. In fact, many had believed this entire tournament to be unnecessary with Matteo so far ahead.

The seeding of the tournament had also been off. Matteo defeated the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th place on the rankings on his way to the final, with CT only beating the 9th place. The match had been rather one-sided, which was expected with the level difference and noticeable power difference based on how many floors they could each do. CT had just shot a few lightning bolts, and the other side had surrendered.

But Matteo would not underestimate him. He was an outsider who had risen to power with conviction, surrounded by murderers, assassins, and hardened warriors. He had managed to help and be a gathering point for the less combat-orientated survivors - the children and women who needed someone to lean on. He had never seen the man flustered himself.

Their arena would be a lot more straightforward. It would be a giant colosseum with pillars placed around the battlefield. Matteo wasn’t very familiar with the other’s fighting style, but he had been a ranged fighter so far. His spells were fast and deadly, but his attack speed was low, and he hadn’t shown any potent mobility skills yet.

The finals began with the Organizer’s proclamation:

”This battle will determine the nominal leader of the Court of Shadows on Earth; in other words, the Judge. Of course, there will be support, but it will be limited due to the restrictions in place. Let the fight begin, and may you forever walk in the shadows.”

They both touched their respective orbs as their projections appeared in the arena, a hundred or so meters between them. The two men stared at each other for a bit before Matteo spoke.

”Give up.”

His words were straightforward. Matteo didn’t see the other man winning in any way. CT was out-leveled and frankly outclassed, and there was nothing he had shown that cou-

”I was about to say the same,” CT answered in a calm voice while still having his hands in his pockets before asking. ”We each have our reasons for this fight. What is yours?”

Matteo stared at the man for a bit. What did he want? Well, of course, that answer was simple.

”I want power, same as everyone else. Only strength can bring influence in this world, and I will lead the Court to that. I will lead us to be a true standout force on Earth, to make our members respected, and to make even a whisper of our name be met with shivers.”

”Maybe you are more fit to be the leader,” the other man said with a sigh. ”I just want to protect those I care about.”

”Do you need to be the leader to do that? Protection of significant others will, of course, be prioritized whenever possible,” Matteo said. He would have just fought usually, but he knew that CT held a lot of influence with the less combat-oriented members of the Court. It was best to stay on the best of terms with him.

”I guess I don’t really need to be the leader…” CT said as he looked up with a smirk. ”But at the same time, I would prefer to be in a situation where I can guarantee it. Besides, it’s only fitting for the strongest to be in charge, isn’t that one of the creeds of Umbra?”

”I see,” Matteo said, understanding as he smiled back. ”Then may the best man win.”

He didn’t hesitate as he attacked, planning to end it quickly.

CT kept smiling as he made his move too. Four orbs of black lightning condensed in mid-air as they began floating around him, crackling with energy. At the same time, he looked towards Matteo, the orb releasing a bolt.

Matteo easily side-stepped the attack as he scoffed a bit internally. The attack held power, but the opponent was inexperienced in fighting other humans. The lightning caster kept throwing bolts from the orbs making Matteo slow down but ultimately failed to land a single one.

Predictable.

Matteo Shadow Vaulted closer as the four # Nоvеlight # orbs circled CT, protecting him. When he got within 50 meters, he pulled out his two guns and returned fire. Dark bullets flew through the air as they encountered a dark barrier of mana protecting the caster. It appeared to slightly crack with every shot, but it was quickly repaired again.

Fine, Matteo thought as he pointed his gun towards the caster and used one of his skills designed for this exact scenario.

Disruptive Bullet (Uncommon)

The bullet flew forth and tore straight through the barrier of mana, but CT still managed to lean to the side and avoid it. He appeared to have quite the reaction-time for a caster.

Another barrage of bullets put the caster on the defensive as he just kept using the orbs and the barrier. Sometimes two orbs moved together to create a whip of lightning, while at other times, all four came together to create magical circles in the air that released different kinds of lightning magic.

Matteo was fine with just learning what the man was capable of… but he was disappointed. The power behind the magic was indeed great, but alas… it wasn’t enough.

Dark Infusion (Rare)

He activated his boosting skill, which increased his agility, strength, and intelligence by 20%,and he charged. Dark mana swirling around him, partly obscuring his figure.

Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Uncommon)

With another vault, he came within ten meters. A single bolt of lightning hit Matteo, but he was more than capable of taking the blow as long as it allowed him to close in. His two daggers had now replaced the guns as he dove in.

The first slash tore the barrier apart as the next approached the man’s neck, stopping just before he slit it.

”What the fuck are you doing?” Matteo asked with a bit of anger in his voice.

He wasn’t blind and had obviously noticed… from start to end, CT hadn’t moved a single step. He hadn’t even taken his damn hands out of his pocket. He had just summoned those four orbs and stood there. That had been enough to win against the 9th place ranker, but Matteo just found it insulting.

”I should ask you the same,” CT answered with a chuckle.

”Get serious,” Matteo insisted.

”M… I am serious,” he said as he leaned forward into the dagger… electrocuting Matteo as he felt the crackling dark lightning around the dagger as it simply phased into the caster.

What?

He quickly pulled back as he saw CT finally take a hand out of his pocket. He raised it towards the air as he opened his palm.

The sky above the arena darkened as dark clouds appeared out of nowhere. What appeared like a thousand bolts of lightning struck down onto the lifted hand just as the caster summoned a black metal staff out of thin air.

Matteo stood wide-eyed at the display of power but soon noticed the clouds above had already calmed down after shooting lightning into his staff and now only hung there threateningly.

”I sought power to protect my family,… my wife, my unborn child… my brother, and my parents. I will find them after this, and I want the Court to help me protect them. Besides, I found out… I am quite good at this,” CT said as he pointed the staff towards M.

Dark Lightning Bolt (Uncommon)

Matteo barely managed to dodge as the side of the colosseum wall behind him was blown up from the blast. He knew he had to get serious as he closed in once more, hoping to finish off the man.

Based on how the dagger faded into him before and how he had avoided the disruptive bullet, he reckoned mana-based attacks would work as he coated his weapon in dark mana.

Shadow vaulting forward, he slashed down with the dagger, but CT blocked it, much to the surprise of Matteo.

It felt like his dagger was drawn to the metal staff as electricity wormed its way up the veins in his arm. He felt superior in both skills and strength, yet he kept encountering the staff every time he swung. It was a frustrating experience.

CT kept his casual smile, but his eyes were clearly focused as he fought the tutorial’s top ranker. But…

He had yet to take a single step. One hand was still in its pocket.

Matteo’s eyes sharpened as he pushed in further, his attacks getting more aggressive. The dark lightning coursing through his body from the staff was annoying but manageable. Still, he knew he couldn’t keep up the status quo.

With one hand, he stabbed down with the blade while he twirled the other around to a backhanded grasp. Dark mana began swirling around both weapons as his entire body sped up.

Dark Tempest Strike (Rare)

A small tornado made up of black daggers appeared around him and began tearing into CT’s mana barrier, and it quickly began cracking.

But Matteo wasn’t done yet.

Domain of Shadows (Epic)

A suppressive field appeared around him that bathed the entire area in shadows. The mana barrier was whittled down in seconds, and for the first time, CT’s eyes shot open as he took the other hand out of his pocket to grab the staff with both.

He blocked most of the blows but ended up getting kicked by Matteo and flew back and smashed into the wall, coughing up a mouthful of blood. He was, without a doubt, far less durable than Matteo himself or any other melee fighter.

Matteo was already charging towards the man, who got up quickly and swung his staff, releasing a storm of lightning, forcing the charging assassin to leap back.

”Damn, you’re good,” CT said with a chuckle as he spat out a mouthful of blood before looking up with the same smirk as before.

“Finally going to get serious?” Matteo asked, the domain of shadows dominating the surroundings.

CT laughed a bit as he breathed in. “My turn.”

The four orbs revolving around him all this time turned far darker than before and began crackling with ever-increasing dark lightning. Without any warning, three of the orbs entered his body while the last one entered his staff.

An aura spread throughout the arena as Matteo felt his domain be suppressed, as CT spoke three simple words.

“Ascension of Tenlucis.”

Above, the dark clouds churned with life once more. CT’s body burned with dark lightning as the entire projection seemed to shake, and the onlookers outside observed with terror.

Even the Organizer was shocked beyond anything an S-grade entity like her should ever be.

Tenlucis, a powerful god that died during the third era… said to have only left very scarce legacies that he gave to select powerful friends. He was an arrogant god who had slain hundreds of gods with his dark lightning and had been one of the Court of Shadows’ leaders.

The god's powers were domineering and powerful towards both the opponent and the user. It was said that the Legacy would drive the user insane unless they had the mental resilience to suppress it... but to cultivate that innate resistance was borderline impossible unless done since birth. Even then, it wasn't something you could just do. Yet this E-grade mortal appeared unaffected by it...

They had already confirmed that he didn't possess a bloodline upon first entering the tutorial... so how?

Why would the Dark Mistress make such a decision? To give such power...

Inside the arena, CT began his counterattack. His entire body was filled with untold power, as he released massive blasts of lightning one after another. Charging towards Matteo, the former top-assassin could barely defend as he got smashed in the side with the staff.

Matteo tried to close some distance as it was obvious the power-up skill CT had used was temporary. It indeed was… but CT still had enough time to finish the fight. Matteo didn’t even have time to raise his daggers to form a proper defense before the next strike arrived.

Thundershadow Vault of Tenlucis (Ancient)

CT turned into dark lightning as he soared through the body of Matteo, frying him from the inside. He appeared behind him as he swung his staff, smashing it into Matteo’s head. The blow cracked his skull, and with a follow-up blow coming milliseconds later, shattered it completely, ending the battle.

Before he even fell to the ground completely dead, CT’s power-up skill ended as he also fell to his knees, utterly spent.

”The winner of the battle is CT!” the Organizer said, still a bit confused about the entire situation… but she still had a job to do.

”As the winner, he has received the Lord title, will be named Judge of the first Court in the 93rd universe, and together you shall claim a Pylon of Civilization to establish our foothold upon your return to Earth.”

All the other fighters looked at CT with awe as he let go of the orb that had projected his soul into the arena. The man just smiled as he let out a tired sigh, walking over to the man he had just fought.

”Thanks for the match, mate, it makes me feel a lot better to know there are great people like you around me when we return. Because damn, you’re good,” he said as he raised his hand to shake the man’s hand.

Matteo looked at the man that had just beaten him and just smiled. It had been a long time since he lost to someone… and it wasn’t all bad. ”It will be my pleasure; you won because you were stronger today. Just don’t start slacking now, or I will depose you,” he said as he raised his hand to take CT’s hand.

”Of course, but for now, you will take the second-in-command spot,” CT said with a laugh. Everyone around them, including the Organizer, looked on with approval. It didn’t appear like internal strife would be an issue… at least not immediately.

”For now,” the second-in-command said. ”Name’s Matteo, by the way. No last name, I never had one.”

”Pleasure to meet you, Matteo,” CT said, introducing himself. ”I’m Caleb Thayne.”

[User]
Write 42 chapter - Twin Fang Style
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
Jake held the bowstring as he felt his stamina slowly drain. When he finally let go, the arrow literally exploded forth from the bow as it smashed into the ostrich. The arrow itself broke into splinters upon impact due to the massive power behind it. Not that the ostrich fared any better.

The arrow had hit it on its neck, effectively blowing its head off. Jake could only smile at the tremendous power of his new Powershot skill. The stamina drain was quite insane when he made shots like he just did, but it was still oh so satisfying to do.

The skill had many drawbacks, though. First of all, you had to stand nearly entirely still while channeling the shot. You could make minor movements by turning your upper body but taking a step would ‘drain’ a bit of the charged up energy and force you to sometimes start over entirely, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the second big drawback.

It was a very slow skill to use. It took several seconds to charge a shot that did just half-decent damage, while it could easily take close to 10 seconds to fire a shot like Jake just had. The skill’s power increased exponentially as he charged, but so did the stamina drain and the general drain on his body.

Funnily enough, his high defensive stats turned out to be very useful with the skill. He could imagine if he tried to use the skill after simply leveled to 10 in his class a month ago. He wouldn’t even be able to charge the shot for 5 seconds without his arm giving out.

Earlier in the day, he had tried to do the maximum charge he could. He held it for 12 seconds before his arm simply gave out as it’s veins burst, and half his arm got covered in blood along with a very sore shoulder and upper body. However, this did show the skill’s potential as the arrow hit a tree carving a fist-sized hole into it. The wooden arrow was borderline disintegrated upon impact, completely splintered in all directions.

If he had been able to use that skill against the metal-manipulating caster, he would have been able to pierce straight through that wall of iron, or at least have the kinetic force behind the impact be strong enough to send the wall smashing back into him. Too bad the guy didn’t allow him to stand still and charge a shot for over 10 seconds. Quite rude, actually.

Checking his notifications, he noted that he had put another level under his belt.

*You have slain [Velocta Ostrich – lvl 24] – Experience Earned. 4000 TP earned*

*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 19 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*

The leveling was getting quite a bit slower now, and that was disregarding the difficulty in finding beasts. He had yet to see a single one above level 25 so far, but he had also purposefully avoided heading further into the forest.

It had been around two days since he met the caster who called himself William. He knew the caster still had to be alive as he had never gotten any notification for the kill. He wanted to avoid other people for now as he still deemed it too risky to meet others. A squad of Williams would very likely result in certain death.

So, he leveled. His plan currently was to get to at least level 25 before making contact. It all depended on how long his leveling would take, but for now, he had time. Looking at the tutorial panel, he noted that less than a month was remaining.

Tutorial Panel

Duration: 29 days & 23:17:03

Total Survivors Remaining: 389/1200

He said less than a month, but it still was still nearly an entire month - plenty of time for a lot to happen. A month in the dungeon had resulted in him getting a profession, level it 44 times, evolving it once, and even evolve his race twice. Oh yeah, and he met a god.

Jake was still worried about his colleagues, but if they had lived to now, he saw no reason to rush to their side. If they hadn’t survived… he would process that if that time comes.

The levels had naturally also come with a skill at level 15. Jake had honestly been expecting nothing and had thought of going with the basic tracking skill he passed up at level 5 over a month ago. The logic behind it being to try and use it to locate his colleagues when the time came.

He also considered getting basic dual-wielding briefly. Jake preferred using a weapon in each hand a lot more than just a single dagger. So when he finally leveled and saw the options, he went with a new option that was a welcome addition for sure.

[Basic Twin Fang Style (Uncommon)] – The twin fang style is an ancient dual-wielding fighting technique. Fighters of this style prefer shorter weapons and do not shy away from using afflictions to take down their foe. Unlocks basic proficiency in the Twin Fang Style and adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of agility and strength when using a fitting melee weapon. Grants an increased bonus while wielding melee weapons of bone.

It was essentially a kind of dual-wielding specialization. How Jake unlocked it, he didn’t know. Maybe it had something to do with the Dagger of Bloodletting being made of bone, but it also mentioned the use of afflictions, which was very closely aligned with his profession.

Of course, there also was the whole Malefic Viper angle to consider, fangs being easily associated with vipers after all. Not that it mattered much in the end, he was just happy with the skill.

As with other skills of its nature, it came with a lot of instinctive knowledge. But compared to an inferior-rarity skill, this one also came with more ‘true’ knowledge. Like he had been thrown a guide-book into his memory, but he still had to learn and practice it himself, which he had spent a while doing whenever he had time. Yet he found that he barely used what it taught. He only used it to improve his existent style, if you can even call it that. Currently, he just acted based on instinct when fighting, relying on making split-second decisions over anything else.

Speaking of other skills he was offered, they were all rather basic. One of them even gave a small passive danger sense, which he found kind of funny considering he already had one through his bloodline. He did consider picking it up to see what would happen but skipped over it.

Having obtained another skill requiring practice did give him more to do while not hunting. He was already practicing his mana techniques whenever possible, so having a physical exercise was actually pretty nice.

His mana manipulation was improving steadily. He had gotten some inspiration from his spatial storage necklace and learned how to use mana better intuitively. Using items, however, wasn’t close to the same as having to manipulate the mana yourself. It was as if the system pretty much did everything for you. You just had to think about what you wanted.

On the topic of items, he had tried hard to locate more lockboxes but had ended up with not even a single common-rarity item or token. The area seemed to have been entirely scoured by other survivors, which was likely also the reason why nearly no beasts remained. He remembered before the dungeon that if one looked for beasts, you found beasts within minutes. Now he was happy if he saw two small groups within an hour.

Jake knew this meant he would have to move inwards soon. He hoped to get a skill, either increasing his speed or his defenses at 20. Beasts were naturally not his concern; in fact, he hoped to meet stronger beasts than he currently was as those below 25 were a bit boring.

Walking through the forest, Jake still enjoyed the atmosphere, something he doubted most did, considering that some war was apparently going on. But he liked it. Perhaps the confinement of the dungeon was still at the forefront of his mind, but he loved how open it was. The weird ‘immortal birds of ambiance’ even appearing endearing now. Yeah, those were still a thing. Somehow dodging every single arrow effortlessly. He couldn’t even use Identify on them.

As an extension of that, then if he had to mention one thing he hated about the new world and the tutorial more than anything, it was the lack of information. Jake liked to know things. While instinct was good most of the time, that didn’t mean knowledge wasn’t just as important.

So not knowing anything was annoying him endlessly. Not knowing how his parents were or if they were even alive, the state of his other family members, how the world was currently looking outside… what would happen to all the animals on earth. All of this was disregarding his general lack of knowledge about the system and the tutorial itself.

All of this, with him being fully aware that he knew far more than most, heck, he was still carrying an entire library-worth of books around with him. He hadn’t really had the time or desire to read since leaving the dungeon, but at least he had the option.

Everyone else had to be far more in the dark than himself. Unless Jake had missed another massive happening besides the whole faction war going on, they should all be utterly clueless as to how pretty much everything worked. Which kind of made Jake think that for a tutorial, this place sure sucked at teaching them anything.

Though despite that, Jake still thought he was doing pretty well. A bit less well after meeting that William fellow, he thought he was pretty strong on average. Looking at this status, it sure also amplified that thought.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (E) – lvl 31]

Class: [Archer – lvl 19]

Profession: [Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper – lvl 44]

Health Points (HP): 2986/3100

Mana Points (MP): 3248/3680

Stamina: 694/1040

Stats

Strength: 105

Agility: 126

Endurance: 104

Vitality: 310

Toughness: 157

Wisdom: 368

Intelligence: 107

Perception: 247

Willpower: 180

Free points: 0

Titles: [Forerunner of the New World], [Bloodline Patriarch],[Holder of a Primordial’s True Blessing], [Dungeoneer I], [Dungeon Pioneer I]

Class Skills: [Basic One-Handed Weapon (Inferior], [Basic Stealth (Inferior)], [Advanced Archery (Common)], [Archers Eye (Common)], [Powershot (Uncommon)], [Basic Twin Fang Style (Uncommon)]

Profession Skills: [Herbology (Common)], [Brew Potion (Common)], [Concoct Poison (Common)], [Alchemist’s Purification (Common)], [Alchemical Flame (Common)], [Toxicology (Uncommon)], [Cultivate Toxin (Uncommon)], [Malefic Viper’s Poison (Rare)], [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Rare)], [Touch of the Malefic Viper (Rare)],[Sense of the Malefic Viper (Rare)], [Blood of the Malefic Viper (Epic)]

Blessing: [True Blessing of the Malefic Viper (Blessing - True)]

Race Skills: [Endless Tongues of the Myriad Races (Unique)], [Identify (Common)], [Meditate (Common)], [Shroud of the Primordial (Divine)]

Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability - Unique)]

His stats had experienced significant growth, especially his agility and strength, now both being above 100. He had decided to put all his free points into strength and agility, trying to get them to an acceptable level. It was a bit sad that wisdom, his highest stat by quite a bit, did nothing for him in direct combat. He had his Touch of the Malefic Viper, but he only used that in emergencies as he prioritized using his daggers and bow for now.

He had also collected quite an amount of tutorial points too.

TP Collected: 313.920

He called it quite the number but compared to most everyone in the tutorial, it likely sucked. Which, by the way, was another bullet point on his list of information he would really like to have. What the hell are tutorial points even used for? A frustration he very much believed he shared with a lot of others in the tutorial.

He also made a mental note that he had yet to sleep since he left the dungeon. He had made it a habit only to meditate to restore stamina and mana, partly due to the weakness that came from sleeping. It did take him quite a while to mentally filter out the constant feedback from his sphere when he wanted just to rest his head. Yet, at the same time, he didn’t want to completely cut off the outside world, leaving himself vulnerable.

Instead, he had somehow managed to relegate the sphere solely to his instinct. It was still active, and he had been woken up from his meditation once when a lone beast came close. His sphere had reached a radius of around 15 or 16 meters by now also. It was far more potent closer to him than further away.

Where most growth was found was his ability to also feel the mana, however. After his first level 10 evolution, he had been able to vaguely feel something, while now it was nearly second nature for him to detect it.

After sitting down and meditating for a few hours, both his mana and stamina were fully restored, and his health points had also managed to regenerate passively.

One peculiarity Jake had noticed with how health worked was the interaction between toughness, vitality, and to a lesser extent, endurance. While vitality increased health and health regeneration, it didn’t mean that they # Nоvеlight # increased 1 to 1. Someone with 100 vitality and 1000 health would take longer to regenerate from 1% HP than someone who only had 10 vitality.

Toughness made this process even slower. With higher toughness, health got harder to lose as the body durability increased. But it also got harder to heal the now tougher body. Jake had also discovered that endurance did make the body slightly more durable, but far from as much as toughness. He wasn’t exactly sure how exactly it made him more durable, but it clearly did something.

Oh, another thing just got on the list of information that I very much hate not having, Jake thought. If the system would be so kind as to just send him a spreadsheet of how stats worked exactly, it would be fantastic.

Shaking off the frustrating feelings, he got up, fully restored, and started hunting for prey once more. It was dark by now, but that didn’t really affect him at all. He doubted it really affected anyone by now, as most would have gotten significantly higher perception just from race levels.

However, the beasts were still docile during the night, making the fights more manageable, but finding them harder. At least they sometimes made loud noises during the day.

As he walked, his sphere continuously scanned his surroundings as he practiced levitating a pen above his hand. Levitating it was easy enough; the difficulty lay in keeping it tethered to his hand while he moved.

After more than two hours, he finally came upon a beast, and as he Identified it, he could only smile.

[Steeltusk Boar – lvl 28]

The big piggy had gone from being an Irontusk to a Steeltusk boar. Relatively linear evolution tree it got going on there.

This was naturally the evolved version of the first level 10 beast he had ever fought. He felt a strange excitement when staring it down. This had been his first real challenge in the tutorial, and back then, he had faced it together with his entire group of colleagues. They had won after Jake emptied his full quiver in the beast… but not without taking significant damage to their group. He hoped Joanna had somehow managed to stay alive. Jake realized how much of a dick he had been back then, and not just to her, but pretty much everyone. He felt a lot of regret from how he handled things. Not leaving them and going his own way, but how he left.

Shaking his head, Jake dispelled the thoughts. He shouldn’t dwell on a past he couldn’t change. He could only move forward and attain more power. Only then could he reunite with them. And it wasn’t as if there was anything wrong with enjoying that process a bit…

With a smile on his lips, he drew the bone dagger in one hand and a starting dagger for archers in the other. Perhaps this beast would finally give him an exciting fight…

[User]
Write 43 chapter - Big Pig II: Steeltusk Edition
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: new skill acquired, dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Jake sauntered before the mighty beast. It easily towered over him, reaching the size of a small van. It hadn’t grown massively compared to its prior evolution, but Jake could feel the power hidden within its porky body. The boar was built like a tank, with a hide perhaps comparable to one.

As he got closer, the beast seemed to wake from its stupor as it turned towards him, glaring. Perhaps the system was doing its magic since it was night, but it didn’t immediately attack. It just stared at him. He instinctively felt that if he moved just a couple of steps closer, the beast would charge with abandon.

The logical move would be to take out his bow use Powershot with the maximum charge to do massive damage or even kill it with a single attack, but where was the fun in that? Where was the challenge? He didn’t even use any poison either.

Instead, he took a step forward and entered its range, and as predicted, the beast squealed as it made its way towards him. A charge he gladly met with his own. A bit stupid in retrospect, but he trusted in his powerful body.

The result was as he expected as the beast rammed into him, making him fly backward, but not before landing a good stab with the bone dagger on the snout of the big pig. This did little more than anger it further as it tried trampling him along with everything else in the surroundings.

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, it was that these things had horrible mobility. However, this was highly made up for by the hide on its side being near-impenetrable to regular attacks.

All of this was true, for the Irontusk boar. But the evolved Steeltusk one had more tricks up its sleeve. As Jake moved to the side, the ground beneath him suddenly shifted, nearly making him lose his balance. Simultaneously, the earth itself seemed to help rotate the mighty boar, making it turn far faster than Jake had first calculated.

Forced to move back due to the unforeseen circumstances, Jake was not distraught but happy. The stronger the beast, the more interesting the fight. He could kill the creature far faster and easier if he used poisons, giving him a reliable backup if his pure melee approach failed.

But he would be damned if he didn’t even try. Training dual-wielding yourself is all well and good, but it was nothing compared to the experience one would get in live combat.

Which was the ultimate reason why he had chosen to engage in this dance of death. Totally nothing to do with having a bit of fun with the first beast above level 25.

The moving ground made his dance difficult, his steps sometimes not finding the expected foothold, but he nevertheless managed to avoid the tusks time after time. He knew that even with his durable body, it would hurt like hell to get impaled.

An issue that quickly materialized was the weakness of the starting knife he used. Against the formidable defenses of the boar, it couldn’t even leave a mark with his slashes. Only when he stabbed did he manage to barely leave a mark. Even the bone dagger only managed to make light cuts. The enchantment was doing work, though, making each of those small cuts bleed far more and for longer than usual.

Minutes passed as Jake dodged and weaved, stabbed, and cut, while the beast furiously tried to pin him down and skewer him. As the damage to the creature increased, so did its fury and bloodlust. With little warning, the beast’s eyes suddenly started to emit a red glow, as the entire boar started to give off a similar red aura.

Jake felt his danger sense flare up as he raised his arms to block, and with a squeal of fury, the boar turned its head and hit him with one of its tusks, sending him airborne for a few moments. However, the boar was far from done as the very earth seemed to reach up and grab hold of him as the beast began a full-power charge straight at him.

With no way to move, he tossed his two daggers into the air and prepared to meet the beast. Its size was both a strength and a weakness, as Jake managed to slide between the two tusks aiming at him and instead have the snout of the beast crash into him.

He felt all air leave his lungs as he managed to grab hold of the boar, avoiding to get trampled beneath it. The beast with berserk-movements tried to shake him off, but Jake kept hold as he managed to somehow get up on the back of the creature.

Through his sphere, he managed to locate the bone dagger and, with an unprecedented level of skill, weaved a string of mana that nudged the blade to fall towards his hand. He felt like a warrior from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away as he caught the dagger and shanked it down into the back of the beast.

The beast’s response was to throw itself to the side, attempting to squash him beneath it. Jake pulled himself up by the hide of the massive creature and avoided finding himself between the ground and a van-sized pig.

He kept delivering stab after stab until finally he was forced to let go and jump off, as the beast started rolling around while at the same time manipulating the earth itself to try and get him off. The beast’s berserk state was still active, making it promptly stop rolling around and continue its reckless assault.

Jake could, however, feel that the beast had started getting slower. Blood was everywhere by now, on the creature, the ground, and even himself. Dozens of bloody holes covered its hide, still oozing out blood.

With the beast’s speed reduced, and Jake having adapted to the shifting ground, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the fight had gotten significantly more straightforward. He dodged and jumped around the beast, landing cut after cut, as it increasingly grew desperate in its attempts to lock him down.

After several minutes, the beast had only managed to inflict a couple of minor injuries on Jake, the worst one being a long gash on one of his shoulders. Jake called it a minor injury, though, before the system it would without a doubt have required a trip to the emergency room. But his high vitality kept him in top shape, and he felt that his was health still in good condition.

A few minutes later, the beast finally collapsed from its wounds, no longer able to muster any strength to fight back. The ground manipulation kept going even after the creature couldn’t move as it continuedly tried to hit Jake with pitifully weak attacks.

Jake was starting to feel bad for it, and finally pulled out his bow and fired a Powershot into the head of the unmoving beast, endings its life instantly.

*You have slain [Steeltusk Boar – lvl 28] – Experienced earned. 16000 TP earned*

*’DING!’ Class: [Archer] has reached level 20 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (E)] has reached level 32 - Stat points allocated, +5 free points*

Despite the less than satisfying ending, Jake had still very much enjoyed the fight. There was just something about fighting a powerful enemy.

Looking at his health points, he found them only having been reduced by a sixth. Far less than he had lost during the short exchange with the metal manipulating caster, which showed that other humans indeed were the real danger of his tutorial.

Despite him barely losing any health, his cloak didn’t avoid suffering catastrophic damage once again. Luckily the self-repair enchant remained active even after being utterly ruined by William’s final attack, but now it was once more tattered.

He had also discovered that if he injected mana into the cloak, the repair function would speed up significantly. It still took its time, though. Speaking of injecting mana into items, that was another important thing he had considerably explored over the last few days.

Most materials could be made stronger by injecting mana into it. The primary reason why the trees were so strong was their ability to absorb the ambient mana. The same was true for nearly anything, even anything completely non-living. Stones, metals, even the properties of the air itself changed and got amplified by mana.

Without injecting mana into his bow, for example, it would without a doubt break when using Powershot. He was still in the early stages of practice, but he believed that it should be possible to also improve already enchanted items somehow. Currently, he couldn’t inject any mana into his bone dagger. Despite not being enchanted, the normal archer dagger also rejected most of the mana he tried injecting.

Of all his items, only the ones with self-repair and his bow accepted mana injection. He could use mana with his other things, like his spatial necklace, but that was not really injection per se. Mana injection is more like how one would directly shoot electricity into a bar of metal to heat it up and eventually make it melt if too much was injected.

However, for his necklace, it was like you injected that mana into a transformer, which then correctly applied the mana to fulfill the desired function. Such as taking an item in or out of storage. As to how this metaphorical transformer worked… that was way above Jake’s paygrade.

He was learning a lot about mana these days, but he was also very actively studying it. Before he met with the Malefic Viper, he had taken a lot of its properties for granted. He had seen it as just the system doing its thing and saw no further reason to question it. And even if he did question how things worked, he couldn’t do anything with the mana then.

But now he actively questioned everything he could. He experimented happily with mana manipulation at all times, and his control had vastly improved without a doubt. His little trick of pulling the bone dagger to himself during the fight was more than proof of that. Also, it felt really awesome to do. Could he just have deposited it in his necklace and not throw it into the air? Sure, he could, but the other way was way cooler.

The fact that no skill had appeared or been made available regarding mana manipulation was a bit weird to him, though. He could clearly levitate objects and do things akin to telekinesis, and yet no skills had come.

Then again, he didn’t have a skill related to manipulating stamina or health points either. He had tried controlling those two sources of energy and found it way harder. He could kind of control his vital energy to focus on specific areas as he had done during the final part of the challenge dungeon, but Jake couldn’t shape it as he could with mana.

Stamina, on the other hand, was a dead-end so far. He had theorized that he should be able to use it to enhance his own body somehow, as it was known as the inner energy. The fact that nearly all physical skills used stamina to function proved that stamina could significantly affect the body.

Of course, it could just be the system doing system things. One energy could exhibit the properties of another, after all. In the end, Stamina, Health, and Mana were all just different forms of energy. Not to say that one could necessarily combine all three to make something more powerful. In before that’s how you make divine energy or something like that, he joked to himself.

Exiting his thoughts, he entered the system menus.

*Archer class skills available*

Checking the list, he found the usual suspects he had been offered at level 10. While some of them still appealed to him, especially the Active Camouflage skill, he chose to ignore them all for now. He had been offered two new skills of interest, though - both of them falling into the evasion type. The first skill of which was a bit weird.

[Disengaging Shot (Common)] – An arrow may not only be shot to wound or kill but also as a tool of escape. Allows the archer to shoot an arrow that directs and amplifies all kinetic energy into a backward force. Must have a suitable weapon to use. Adds a minor bonus to the effect of agility when dodging using Disengaging Shot.

Talking immediate drawbacks was the fact that it required a bow and arrow. This, of course, limited the ability quite a lot. He couldn’t use it in melee with his daggers, and he couldn’t use it in split-second emergency situations as he would have to actually shoot an arrow to activate it.

On the positive side, though, it would be godly when kiting. Depending on the stamina requirements, Jake would be able to use it continuously to quite literally blow himself around the battlefield. He couldn’t help but imagine himself trying to fly through the air by repeatably shooting arrows towards the ground. That would sure as hell be cool… though likely very stupid-looking if even feasible.

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

[Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Uncommon)] – The power of shadows is an often used tool for anyone looking to escape. Tapping into the Records of Umbra, embrace the shadows for a brief moment, becoming ethereal. Allows the archer to momentarily become one with the shadows. Can only be used in straight lines. Adds a small bonus to the effect of agility and wisdom when using Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra.

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

[Leather Bracers of the Novice Rogue (Uncommon)] – A pair of leather bracers made of fine leather, originally designed for new initiates in the Order of Umbra. Enchantments: Self-Repair. +5 agility, +3 strength. Increases the effectiveness of all stealth skills, further amplified while remaining hidden in the shadows.

Requirements: Lvl 5+ in any class or humanoid race. Stealth-based skill.

Had he somehow managed to acquire Records related to some entity named Umbra solely through using bracers holding the name?

He understood why he got skills related to the Malefic Viper as the profession was quite literally named after him. Could the mere act of having those bracers somehow influence him that much that it would open up entirely new skill options to him? He was honestly a bit taken aback at the prospect. He kind of assumed that Umbra was a god… would it then be considered blasphemy to take the skill when he already had the Malefic Viper ones?

Well… at least the Malefic Viper didn’t seem like the sort of person to care much about that, and the skill was looking very juicy. The fact that it made use of his high wisdom was also a huge bonus. He also assumed the skill made use of both mana and stamina… but he couldn’t know before taking it.

As a basic skill, it was also very appetizing. Basic implied plenty of room for improvement, aka skill upgrades. Jake had improved his archery skill through being good at archery, so would he be able to improve that skill too by being good at… Shadow Vaulting?

The description of the effects of the Shadow Vault was also quite honestly very awesome-sounding. To become one with shadows and dodging around sounded very fantasy-like, but more importantly than that, it sounded pretty damn handy.

Ultimately the choice of skill was a no-brainer. One required a bow and was kind of gimmicky, and the other one literally allowed him to dodge like a shadow without any immediate drawbacks. With that in mind, he picked it.

*Gained Skill*: [Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra (Uncommon)] – The power of shadows is an often used tool for anyone looking to escape. Tapping into the Records of Umbra, embrace the shadows for a brief moment, becoming ethereal. Allows the archer to momentarily become one with the shadows. Can only be used in straight lines. Adds a small bonus to the effect of agility and wisdom when using Basic Shadow Vault of Umbra.

Jake instantly felt the knowledge stream into his mind. Vaguely he also felt like the dark night became several shades darker as he felt the information being implanted.

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