The Primal Hunter

Alone again, Jake had time to think. As Villy had said, then the core of Sagacity was knowledge, also reflected by it granting Wisdom. Yet Jake had not really received any instinctual knowledge when he got the skill about anything related to alchemy. It did add knowledge through the drop of blood, but Jake didn’t count that as it was just another potential source. The knowledge of mana affinities did kind of count, but that was more just another way to identify things… which led to Jake’s realization.

Jake had learned a lot since he became an alchemist, especially in recent times after joining the Order. He had gone through so many damn books, studied the drop of blood quite a bit, and eaten like a madman for Palate. Yet, even if he had done all of this, he had not been given a single upgrade to the two skills he had that dealt with alchemical knowledge. Herbology and Toxicology

[Herbology (Common)] – Grants knowledge of herbs found throughout the multiverse. The most numerous source of natural treasures comes in the form of herbs found throughout existence. The knowledge of plants and their effects is, therefore, essential to any alchemist. An alchemist must know what he works with in order to create his products after all. Grants the ability to recognize herbs at a glance and correctly Identify their properties.

[Toxicology (Uncommon)] – The knowledge of all that is toxic. Be able to recognize poisonous substances at a glance and correctly Identify their properties. To concoct the deadliest toxins, one must know what to mix after all.

Jake had these skills since the very beginning of his journey as an alchemist, neither of them upgrading or even showing signs of getting upgraded. Not getting one upgraded in E-grade was kind of understandable, but how could he not have upgraded one of them at D-grade? Especially Herbology that was stuck at common rarity? Toxicology, too, should have at least shown some signs of upgrading. That, or Jake should have at least an idea of how to improve them.

Now, Jake realized that these two would never upgrade. Not because Jake sucked so bad at learning things about toxic materials or herbs, but because the Records required to upgrade the skills went somewhere else: Sagacity of the Malefic Viper.

The Legacy of the Malefic Viper was a complete system for alchemy. With those nine skills alone, a monster or even a member of the enlightened could become an exceptional alchemist in no way inferior to more traditional ones. At least not when it came to poisons. To achieve this, the usual skills alchemists got from their profession had to also exist in some shape or form within the Legacy, including the knowledge-related skills that allowed him to know what he was looking at. Would it not only make sense for Sagacity to be where this knowledge was focused?

In fact, wasn’t this logic also true with other passive skills or even active skills Jake had? Cultivate Toxin was already heavily related to Palate of the Malefic Viper, and Jake could also see Touch be related to Alchemist’s Purification… maybe even the Alchemical Flame, though Jake had a suspicion that one was a bit different. Stuff for later. Focus on Sagacity now.

Jake believed that Toxicology and Herbology had both become obsolete, yet they still remained skills. Which led him to the most obvious conclusion: have Sagacity absorb them. He had tried two skills seemingly unrelated to the Malefic Viper influence and even formed a Malefic Viper skill before, so he knew it was possible. One had to remember that Sense of the Malefic Viper had come from the merging of Sense Herb and Sense Poison all the way back in G-grade. However, back then, it had happened by itself, making Jake think there was more to upgrading Sagacity than merely merging the skills. Or maybe he didn’t know how to merge them?

As he kept considering the skill, he went in the direction of what Sagacity was linked to. Sagacity was a bit like the focal point of all knowledge his other skills gave him. It was fed by Palate and Sense all the time. All he learned went into the Records of Sagacity, but also things he didn’t know went into it. That is when another light bulb went off.

Back when Herbology and Toxicology had been gained, another skill had been affected. A skill that was even mentioned in both their descriptions: Identify. Jake slapped his knee and grinned as he activated his Path of the Heretic Chosen skill. He hadn’t been sure, but the system thought he had considered the skill enough to be granted a vision.

Do you wish to experience the Legacy of the Malefic Viper? Uses remaining: 1

It was the final use, and Jake smiled to himself as he was whisked away.

”The system is limitless in possibilities. Even an immortal could spend an infinite lifetime to try and learn everything, yet after countless years the immortal would only come to learn that he has not progressed at all. For as he learns, new knowledge appears. This very same folly is what you are pursuing right now,” the old man said with a smile.

In front of him sat the Malefic Viper, deep in thought, as he considered the words. Jake had appeared as usual, and predictably, he had popped in with the First Sage present. Jake was sure by now that the system wanted him to keep seeing this old man… that, or he had so much influence on Villy’s formative years that seeing him was unavoidable.

”So you are saying I need to change course?” Villy asked with a deep frown.

”You misunderstand, for omniscience does exist; it is merely reserved for the system itself. It knows all, and sometimes the key is not to learn everything yourself but find a way to make the system give you the knowledge you require. To prove yourself worthy and entitled to the knowledge you demand. Your approach so far has been good, but it is not sustainable. You seek to learn of all herbs or toxins yourself, developing general skills based on your experiences, but as you progress, you will come to learn how unfeasible this is,” the First Sage continued.

Once more, the Viper was deep in thought. After a bit, he voiced his considerations.

”I do see the problem… trying to design a method for every kind of potential product and with every single combination of ingredients is impossible. Just learning enough about different ingredients is utterly unfeasible…” the Viper spoke.

Jake nodded along as he knew the direction it was going. He saw on the face of the First Sage that he was also hoping for the Viper to realize what he meant. It felt good that Jake knowing he had figured it out before the snake god. Second time in a row too.

The Viper asked a few more minor questions as he slowly understood. With realization, his eyes opened wide. ”Will the system allow such a thing? No… will it actively help to do something like that?”

”Never has the system demanded perfection, only adequate proof that you are qualified. Invisible thresholds are in place for us to discover, and all it requires of you is to pass this threshold, and it shall assist you,” the First Sage answered.

As for what they were talking about? Well, system assistance, or more accurately, to have the skill recognized as what the Viper wanted it to be. He had hit the nail on its head already: manually improving everything was simply impossible.

When Jake used Brew Potion, the system assistance from the skill always did the same thing – at least if one focused on the outcome. However, in reality, its effects varied for each individual craft. No two ingredients were one hundred percent identical, sometimes it took a millisecond later to heat something, or perhaps a single more point of mana was injected. All of this led to variation, and with each variation, the minor corrections from system assistance varied in turn.

This is to say that if Villy wanted to make Sagacity based solely on his own experiences, then it would never work as he naturally couldn’t have an identical experience as anyone else. No, what Sagacity – his current version, too – did was adopt the functionality of the usual system assistance. Because the system obviously knew exactly what corrections had to be made.

As for how the Viper had realized this goal... well, Jake guessed it still had to do with a shitload of trial and error and learning how to craft a myriad of different things manually. Then, at some point, he had passed a threshold, as the First Sage said, and the gaps had been filled in.

Of course, none of this related to the upgrade Jake wanted. This was just Jake finally understanding how his current version worked. However, realizing how it worked with the crafting skills allowed Jake to understand that the same concept applied to the alchemical knowledge skills.

Almost as if the old man had known of Jake’s thoughts, he continued.

”The same is true when it comes to the knowledge of what. Learning the how of crafting only matters after you know what you can craft with and become able to recognize potential. Right now, you use ingredients you have consumed countless of, or at most variants. You know them, but what about when you encounter something new? You eat it, I would reckon, but is that truly the best approach to learning even just the basics?” the First Sage asked.

Jake barely had to listen anymore as he already knew what he wanted to do and what direction he wanted to take the skill. He had not even reached the crucial part of the vision yet, where he merged with the Viper, but had already begun his own process of upgrading the skill.

Merging Herbology and Toxicology into Sagacity was a given. Keeping the crafting skills separate had a purpose, at least for now, so he had no interest in merging those, but the knowledge-related skills had no extra bonus. They just passively gave knowledge that he could access through Identify.

So, if he combined the two, it only made sense for Identify to also pull from Sagacity. It perhaps already did; Jake had no way of being sure. Jake reckoned it did pull from Sagacity, as Jake guessed one of the reasons he even got the skill selection option was because of the Trial of Myriad Poisons, which gave him a lot of knowledge through Palate. An event that should, in retrospect, have resulted in at least Herbology evolving.

But… Jake was not satisfied with merely pulling on Sagacity when he used Identify. The First Sage talked about pulling knowledge directly from the system. The Sagacity skill already did this in his usual form, but Jake did not have the usual form. He had a bastardized version tied to a drop of blood from the Viper. A drop of blood that Jake controlled inside his Soulspace. So, why couldn’t Jake pull on this drop too? Link himself more with it and extract knowledge in a similar fashion to the old Herbology and Toxicology did?

Jake split his attention between his own internal thoughts and plans and the conversation between the Viper and the First Sage. The old man spoke more words of wisdom as the Viper worked on properly creating the Sagacity skill for perhaps the very first time. It likely hadn’t been called Sagacity back then, but Jake knew it was a massive undertaking, nevertheless.

It was creating a framework. An entire methodology separate from traditional alchemy, all boiled into a single skill. Some corners had to be cut – such as the lack of stat effectiveness bonuses – and several other minor things here and there. This first version would be a far cry from what Sagacity was during the ninety-third era, but it was a monumental feat for a C-grade.

Such a monumental feat that the Viper obviously struggled. He had a hard time getting it all together and creating a framework capable of facilitating such a massive undertaking. He had clearly worked on it a lot, but even as the time in the vision sped up, he lacked progress. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. The Viper was unmoving for more than a decade as the First Sage never left his side. He remained there to answer any questions the Viper possibly had, even if months could pass between each time the Viper exited meditation.

Yet even after this long, the Viper was not done. Frustration began to appear on the future Primordial’s face.

”I… It’s difficult,” the Viper said, shaking his head. ”There are too many elements, too much to slot into place…”

”Visualize it,” the First Sage said. ”A metaphor is there to ease understanding. Simplify elements into a concept you do understand. What does your skill look like in your mind?”

”I…” the Viper said as he frowned, not saying more. It was obvious he wasn’t sure where to go or what to do.

The First Sage sighed. ”Once. Once I can assist you.”

The Viper perked up. ”Really, Master?”

”Yes. But only this once,” the old man nodded as he stood up. He went over to the Viper and knelt in front of the cross-legged snake in human form. He smiled at his disciple as Villy began to look a bit conflicted. Worried, even.

”I already promised. Now, allow yourself to indulge in creation. Open your mind,” the First Sage spoke as he raised a hand… and Jake felt like the world twisted.

He felt something he had only ever felt once more. Like the bounds of reality shifted to allow the impossible through sheer will and enlightenment. The hand gave off an aura that pressured him on a fundamental level as he even felt his heartbeat speed up. There was not a shred of doubt in his mind…

A Transcendence.

Jake had no idea what it did… but he knew he was about to find out. This had to be the most important part of the vision, and the system also clearly agreed as Jake felt himself merge fully with the Viper the second before the old man laid his palm on the head of the Viper.

A cool sensation spread throughout the Viper’s – and thus Jake’s – body. His mind felt clearer than ever before. Then everything changed. The walls of the room they were in disintegrated, revealing a world of nothingness beyond. A perfect white void, reminiscent of the spaces the system had conjured at times.

“Everything needs a foundation. Allow your mind to form the Origin,” the voice of the First Sage echoed. He was nowhere to be found, and yet it felt like he was everywhere.

The Viper focused as a massive disc of stone appeared below his feet, more than fifty meters in diameter. Jake felt how Villy somehow knew what to do, despite not being entirely sure why he knew.

“Visualize your desires. What do you want – nay – demand of the skill? Breathe in, and with your exhale, may your reality materialize.”

Villy inhaled as some unknown particles entered his body. In the next second, he breathed out as a storm of colored wisps exited his mouth. They swirled as a wood-like structure appeared on the edges of the disc in all directions as if the Viper was building a tower around him.

The wood-like structure began to morph further as it was divided all over. It took Jake a moment until he realized what was being made. They were bookshelves.

These shelves shot upwards into the white sky, expanding beyond Jake’s realm of Perception within a mere second as they just seemed to keep going. Then, from the bottom, books began to appear. All of them had the exact same black blank cover, but each gave off a slightly different sensation.

A hundred, thousand, million, billion… the books kept multiplying. Infinitely into the sky, though at some point, they stopped giving him any sensations. He knew it was because they had no content… no Records.

“A library of a sage. Its contents are not infinite, but it contains infinite space for expansion. The system allowed the role of the scribe as the blank books are filled with insight upon your demand. You, the sole librarian. With time, omniscience the goal,” the First Sage spoke, narrating what the Viper made.

“An ambitious desire. Can you truly realize it?”

The old man appeared as he stood in front of Jake and Villy. He held out his hand with the palm up as the Viper reached out. Villy held his own hand in front of the palm of the Sage as he gritted his teeth. Blood began to flow out of his eyes, ears, and nose as a bloody mist began to seep out of his body. There was something off with the blood, though.

This entire place was not real, or at least it wasn’t directly linked to the outside world. The blood seeping out represented something different from physical damage. A sacrifice. An offering. It took Jake a moment to realize, but soon enough, he knew what it was. It was the Records of another skill. Villy was upgrading it or maybe sacrificing it to get what would eventually become Sagacity.

Jake watched on intently as the blood pooled together and formed a single drop. Then, in the very next moment, the entire library tower that Villy had created began to turn red and melt into blood. The blood pooled together towards the center of the platform they stood on before rising up and merging with the droplet. Finally, even the platform turned into blood and merged with the droplet.

“An offering made, a framework created, an Origin formed. Now claim it,” the First Sage said as his own body faded away.

The drop of blood floated forward and entered the forehead of the Viper. The moment it entered his body, the white void around them shattered like it had been made of glass. As the world itself fell apart, Jake tried to understand everything that had happened. He had so many questions, and he hoped to maybe figure out what the hell the First Sage had actually done.

Villy’s body disappeared, disconnecting Jake from him and leaving him to float alone, ready for time to rewind again. He really wanted to once more experience the-

The collapsing world froze. It was as if time itself had stopped, and Jake felt an attention focus on him. In the next moment, the First Sage appeared right in front of Jake and stared straight at him.

“Records not of this time. An Origin that-“

And then Jake was back in his living room.