The Primal Hunter Volume 1

4

*You have obtained the Archer class*

As soon as those words appeared before his eyes, he felt a weird tingling in his head, neither unpleasant nor comfortable. At the same time, some items appeared on the table in front of him. Before he had any chance to look at them further, he was once again greeted by several system messages:

*Gained Skill*: [Basic Archery (Inferior)] – An Archer's best friend is the bow in his hand, and the arrow in his foe's heart. Unlocks basic proficiency with bows, crossbows, and adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using a ranged weapon.

*Gained Skill*: [Basic One-Handed Weapon (Inferior)] – The Archer may not be a master in the arts of close combat but is far from helpless. Unlocks basic proficiency with most one-handed weapons and adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using a fitting melee weapon.

*Gained Skill*: [Archer’s Eye (Common)] – The eyes of the Archer are trained to track down and spot the weakness of their foes. Allows the Archer to more easily spot prey. Passively gives a minor increase to the effect of Perception on visual organs.

As he read through the three messages, his suspicions of this new system being extremely similar to videogames or perhaps tabletop RPGs was once again confirmed. All three seemed rather basic, especially the two skills that literally had “basic” in their names. Both were only “inferior” in what he assumed to be their rank. The last one seemed a bit more interesting, being less basic and even considered a common-rarity skill.

Furthermore, he instinctively knew how Archer's Eye worked. He tried to focus and suddenly felt his vision become far clearer than it had been before. It was like he gradually switched from low quality to full HD in around five seconds or so as he focused. He looked around, enamored with how distinct everything appeared. As he deactivated the ability, and his vision returned to normal, he looked at his resources and saw that stamina had dropped from 70 to 68, with mana and health both remaining maxed out.

He closed the window and looked toward the items on the table. He looked at the thing sitting eerily still, and inquired, "I assume these things are for me?"

"Yes," it answered. "They are basic starting equipment based on your starting class. Now, on to the final step of the introduction. Some necessities are given to all new initiates of the system."

And as it finished those words, Jake was once again greeted by a screen appearing before him.

*Gained skill*: [Identify (Inferior)] – Basic identification skill, known by all but the smallest of children of the myriad races. The skill allows you to attempt to identify any object or creature you are focusing on.

A skill that would actually allow him to get some semblance of information, maybe? Something he felt like he severely needed. Only more and more questions kept appearing throughout this entire introduction ordeal, with little to no answers.

"The time allotted for the introduction is coming to an end in ten minutes, and you will be transported to the tutorial,” the thing said. “It is recommended to acquire the equipment given before the end of the introduction, or the items will be lost.”

Jake panicked slightly as he went up to grab the stuff on the table.

The items included a bow and quiver, a brown cloak, a knife, and a small satchel attached to a belt. They all looked rather medieval, the bow being wooden compared to the modern compound bows he was used to, which were normally made of aluminum and other modern composite materials. The string itself was made of what seemed like silk, perhaps. He was honestly unsure.

The cloak was from a rather coarse material, reminding him of burlap, but it seemed quite durable. The quiver was made of wood with leather spun around it, and a leather harness to wear it on the back.

The knife seemed to be as simple as they come and was just a steel blade attached to a wooden handle. The quality of all the items was rather good, in his opinion. Last but not least, he looked at the small satchel and, upon opening it, found a couple of small bottles.

As he wondered what they were, he nearly slapped himself across the head, remembering his identification skill. He started focusing on one of the bottles containing red-tinged liquid, and after three or four seconds, a new screen appeared:

[Health Potion (Inferior)] – Restores health when consumed.

What did he expect? As simple as they come. He used Identify on the other items in the satchel one by one, finding a total of three health potions and three stamina potions, which did the exact same thing as the health potion, but for stamina. As he closed the satchel, he moved on to the other items. The bow, knife, and cloak yielded no results, simply informing him that the wooden bow was a wooden bow and that the brown cloak was a brown cloak. With little hope, he inspected the quiver, and was positively surprised:

[Enchanted Quiver (Common)] – A quiver enchanted with the ability to conjure common-rarity arrows when injected with mana.

That sure as hell seems useful, Jake thought. As he was finishing up his inspection, he was once more kindly reminded that he did not have infinite time.

"Two minutes until the start of the tutorial."

Jake, in a rush, got the cloak over his head, started attaching the belt with the satchel on it, and threw the quiver over his shoulder. Luckily, it already had dozens of arrows in it. The belt also came with a small sheath, which he promptly placed the knife in, and closed the small leather buckle meant to keep it in place. Finally, he took the bow in his hand, having no obvious place to attach it to his person. After a bit of thinking, he put it over his shoulder and stood ready for whatever was to come.

"Ten seconds to the start of the tutorial," the humanoid thing reminded him.

"It was nice to meet you, I guess, whatever you are," he said as he waved it goodbye. He was a bit afraid, but more so than that, he felt a small sense of excitement build up in the pit of his stomach.

*Introduction sequence completed. Transporting to tutorial…*