Hunting in her name.

Skill unlocked: Piercing Shot lvl 1
By enchanting the tip of an arrow with magic, increase the piercing power of it twofold. Later levels might add other traits like bleeding damage or increase the piercing power even further.
Cost: 4 mana

Achievement unlocked: Pinpoint Accuracy
Hit an enemy precisely in its vital area and kill it
Reward: Skill Book: Predator's Gambit.

Predators Gambit (passive, lvl 1)
What good is a shot if it does no damage?
Highlights enemy vital points with a soft red glow. Intensity can be increased by observing while being unseen or killing enough of an enemy’s subspecies.

Achievement unlocked: Seizing the Moment
Cut short a moment of jubilation, teaching someone a lesson that the higher they get, the harder they fall
Reward: Skill Book: Opportunist

Opportunist (passive, lvl 1)
The law of the jungle dictates that there is always something stronger; with this, that might as well be you!
Deal 1.5 times more damage to enemies that have their guard lowered. When used with a crit, the max damage multiplication will be 2.5. No, you are not breaking the game that easy, mister!

John looked at the popups and tossed the rewards into his inventory, to be used later as the achievement made im realize that, if he could kill something while it least suspected it, so could another creature kill him when he did the same. With a small jump, John got to the ground, letting out a little ‘oomph’ from the fall but not losing any health.

He quickly made his way over to the corpses of the animals, retrieving his bloodied arrow first, noticing it was still usable, so he put it away in his inventory. Then he tapped both creatures on the head, getting some leather, a plate of chitin and two trophies. A sharp sabre from the predator and a piece of antler from the moose. Apparently it recognized him as the killer for it too after he killed the predator. Or at least, John thought that was how hunting trophies worked: you kill it, you get the trophy. He might have to experiment with that a bit, he suddenly thought.

With the loot retrieved and scent of blood still in the surroundings, John tactically retreated back onto the branches he had come from. Jack purred softly as John moved onwards, hearing the soft swishing of animals coming closer to the spot he just vacated, and when he was about a hundred meters away, he broke into a small sprint, startled by a low roar that came from behind him. Whatever it was that made the sound, John had no intention of finding out.

After running for two minutes, John hoped he had put enough distance between him and the site of the battle, looking around for a covered spot so he could use the skill books. The boy hunched on his branch, scouring around but not finding any space that fit his requirements.

What he did see, however, were three deep gashes in the trunk of the tree he was standing on. He immediately became vigilant, readying his bow as he moved closer to investigate. “Jack, keep your ears open; if you hear anything, let me know immediately, okay?” John whispered as he ran his fingers across the gashes. To his surprise, the gashes were symmetrical, each as deep and wide as the others. “I doubt this was made by an animal, or there are some intelligent animals around here,” he mumbled. As he stared intensely at the markings, they faintly started to glow in a sickly yellow; when John looked up from the trunk, he saw that small yellow markings had appeared on the trunks in a certain direction as well as the way he came from. “Hmmm, interesting.”

Next the information from his tracking skill appeared in his head. ‘Metal claw weapon, 3 blades.’ Nothing more than that, but it was a start. “So there are more people here, hm?” he talked to Jack, the feline yawning slightly. John looked at the claw marks some more, trying to remember if any of the hunters he knew used anything similar to it. But no, he couldn’t remember anyone using such weapons; to his knowledge, all of Artemis’ hunters used ranged weapons, even those that didn’t use bows and arrows. And it would be ridiculous to think that people on elk back used claw weapons; they would never reach their prey with them.

With his curiosity stimulated, John decided to follow the trail, slowly moving from one branch to the next as he followed the claw markings. A few moments later, Jack mewed into his ear, causing John to look up at the branches above him. However, whatever it was that Jack had seen, John couldn’t find it. He vigilantly looked around when a small flash of pain came from his wrist the next moment. To John’s surprise, a small, finger long snake was hanging from it. A pop up appearing in front of him.

Status effect acquired: Poisoned, minor poison, will lose 1 hp every 10 minutes.

John’s face paled as Jack clawed at the snake, the small feline’s claws easily cutting it into slices as a mournful yell came from above them.

“No! My baby! My preciousss baby!” a female voice cried out from behind them. John turned around as quickly as he could, only to get slapped square in the face and sent crashing into a nearby tree, knocking the wind straight out of him but allowing him a good look at the creature that attacked him. A lamia, a snake person: top half of a hispanic woman, clad in primitive clothes, and the lower body of a snake, brown and green scales covering her body. A forked tongue slithered out of her mouth as she glared angrily at Jack, still tightly holding on to John’s shoulder.

“Lissssten here, kiddo, give me that furrball and I will let you go,” the lamia spoke with an open trace of disdain mixed in with her anger.

“One, what the fuck? Two, who the fuck do you think you are, and three! Your snake attacked me! My pet protected me!” John barked back angrily; what the hell was up with this snakewoman? First he gets attacked, then she demands he hands over Jack just because it killed the creature that attacked him? The hell?

“Fine then,” the lamia shrugged, lifting herself up on her snaketail and launching herself at John, fingers curled into claws and a maw full of sharp teeth spread wide open. “I will make you hand him over! For my baby!”