2. Enhanced Splitting Arrow

With one D-grade down, Jake focuses on the Crusher while noting its passive weight aura. He coats Venomfang and his dagger with Blood of the Malefic Viper, siphoning health and poisoning the Crusher through continuous cuts. Using Gaze of the Apex Hunter, he stuns the trio, decapitates a regular D-grade, and endures intensified overlapping auras as E-grades resume feces barrages.

Unable to evade under the pressure, Jake erects a practiced mana barrier to catch the corrosive projectiles. He draws his bow despite crushing weight, then blinks backward with his sphere as the Crusher strikes. Jake answers with an Arcane Powershot, obliterating the Crusher, and immediately kills the last D-grade. The earlier flung D-grade glimpses the slaughter and flees.

Turning to his core problem, Jake analyzes why Splitting Arrow fails with arcane arrows: the stamina-based, “physical” skill cannot clone mana-formed arrows. He outlines energy interactions and decides to rework the skill to use mana while preserving archery traits and momentum tied to Archery of Vast Horizons.

Jake experiments amid constant harassment, killing E-grades and successive D-grade reinforcements—including two more Crushers—while testing mixed mana-stamina approaches. After hours, he achieves partial splits that lack momentum, then a brief success where a mid-air clone persists and bites into a tree.

Fifteen minutes later, the system recognizes his rework: Splitting Arrow upgrades to Enhanced Splitting Arrow (Rare), now cloning magical arrows and scaling with Agility and Wisdom. A test shot splits into three arcane arrows, each retaining full power, detonating the forest and scattering monkey remains. Satisfied, Jake advances deeper into Lighttail Monkey territory, leaving a trail of bodies.