The Primal Hunter

Jake just sat and stared into the wall for a good few seconds, wondering what the actual fuck had just happened. It was as if the vision had been interrupted somehow or maybe forcefully ended. Or, maybe it was always meant to end in this fashion? Though that would also be incredibly odd.

The skill had allowed Jake to do something he thought was impossible. He had experienced a Transcendence, a skill that should be outside the system. Based on what Jake knew, a normal skill like his Path of the Heretic-Chosen should not have allowed this, in the same way that no skill would allow someone to hide from Jake’s Bloodline-made Sphere of Perception.

Yet, it had. Maybe it was because Jake experienced Records of the past as they were? Though this experience did make him wonder if it truly was like that. Jake remembered how it felt like Valdemar had, in some vague way, been aware of Jake. Meanwhile, this time, the First Sage had one-hundred percent been aware.

Did this mean that all the way back in the first era, these two actually saw him? If that was the case, didn’t it kind of play into the whole theory of pre-determination as it would mean that the system knew, all the way back in the first era, that Jake could be born in the ninety-third era and then get a skill to view these Record Fragments?

Or maybe it created a new kind of reality if they noticed, a bit like the simulated world sim-Jake came from… it was hard to tell.

Then there was the entire Transcendence itself. Villy had said the First Sage had several, and this was Jake’s first time seeing one. What it actually did, Jake had no idea, but he reckoned it had something to do with skill creation or modification somehow. If that was the case, it was a damn strong one, especially as it could be used on other people, though it did make Jake question the repercussions of using such a skill. The First Sage had clearly wanted to avoid using it and had said he would only help once, indicating there was a good reason to not overuse this Transcendence.

Though Jake could not argue with the result. Even now, Jake remembered the feelings he shared with the Viper. The sheer level of comprehension as he felt like every book was at his fingertips. How his mind was clearer than ever, and only his desire to create the skill mattered. To call it enlightenment was not quite accurate, as it felt… different. Like it was more than that.

Jake shook his head as he tried to focus on what he could control and what mattered. To upgrade his Sagacity. While this vision had been the weirdest one he had ever experienced by quite a margin, it had done its job quite efficiently.

Visualizing a skill was not anything new to Jake. He was pretty good at visualizing things, his Soulspace being proof of that with a massive cursed chimera monster roaming about. Jake was a very visual person by nature, something his insane Perception should maybe have indicated. Seeing the library that the First Sage had Villy build made Jake understand far better what Sagacity truly was.

And allowed him to upgrade his own version.

Jake sat down in meditation as he got to work to properly condense all he had learned and all he wanted into the skill. He felt right at the cusp even before the vision and was now more sure than ever. In fact, he felt a bit bolder than before.

It still ended up taking nearly a full day for Jake to get what he wanted, but he got it in the end.

[Sagacity of the Malefic Viper (Ancient --> Legendary)] – Blood containing Records, personal teachings, insights from a sage, and the knowledge of a traditional alchemist. Combined, you bring honor to your Patron as you strive for omniscience. Allows the Alchemist to extract knowledge from a fragment of the Malefic Viper’s Records to claim his knowledge as your own. Grants the Alchemist of the Malefic Viper a far better understanding of mana and of most affinities. Grants the Alchemist knowledge of a myriad of alchemical ingredients, allowing him to far more easily Identify them. Allows the Alchemist to make creations he does not have the associated crafting skill for (does not receive stat effectiveness bonuses without associated skill). Passively provides 3 Wisdom per level in Alchemist of the Malefic Viper. May your search for knowledge be as inexhaustible as the Malefic One.

Jake felt like an influx of knowledge slammed into his head the moment everything fell into place. It was like a library - akin to the one Villy constructed - appeared in his head and was being reorganized to be more systematic and useable. Almost as if all the alchemical knowledge Jake had before had come from a massive pile of books that had now all been sorted and categorized.

This knowledge was also far more than what he had before. One had to remember that Jake only really had knowledge of herbs and toxic materials, with the Identify skill also being restricted to these two categories of alchemical ingredients. What would have been the geology, metallurgy, and several more skills were part of Sagacity now.

It was all sorted into this metaphorical library, the books ready to be pulled out whenever Identify found something it corresponded to. It was not like Jake suddenly knew a shitload more about rocks, just that he could now at least pull out the knowledge.

This part of the upgrade was great, even if it was more wide than deep, with Jake not immediately seeing much value from his newfound abilities as he couldn’t exactly use rocks and metal for much with his usual alchemy methods.

However, it did not end there. Herbology and Toxicology were now gone, but both had been intrinsically tied to another skill of his that now also showed signs of evolving.

Identify was a skill that had last evolved when Jake got his profession and thus the Herbology and Toxicology skill. It had not shown signs of upgrading since, which Jake partly recognized was his fault for never truly trying. Now that it showed signs anyway… Jake dove in as he still felt his mind be clear and focused from the Sagacity upgrade.

The skill did one thing and one thing only: it allowed Jake to peer into the Records of an entity. It could be protected against, but Jake had found ways to circumvent this protection before using his high Perception, so that was the first thing he thought about. Secondly, Jake had spent over a decade practicing how to sense and thus veil his own Blessing. It made no sense for him to not leverage this.

He thought it would have been harder to upgrade the skill… but surprisingly enough, it took little effort as long as he put his mind to it.

[Identify (Common)] - 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.

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[Identify (Rare)] – An improved version of the standard Identification skill, a 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. Allows for the detection of Blessings. The identity level limit and effectiveness is based on Perception. Cannot Identify any creature above your own grade.

The skill went up not just one but two entire rarities. The added effects were as expected, and honestly, Jake didn’t feel anything different about the skill now compared to before. Seeing the limitation of still being unable to Identify anyone above his grade, it wasn’t like being able to see a potentially higher level-cap mattered either. Though hopefully, it would be useful in C-grade. The effectiveness part linked to Perception was definitely the biggest bonus, as that could probably allow him to pierce a lot of veils people made to hide their levels. Finally, being able to see if people got Blessings was a nice addition.

Jake had also made it so that he pulled on the drop of blood that contained Records of the Viper quite a bit for the Blessing detection part. Jake knew how to detect if someone had a Blessing but was clueless as to what god had given the Blessing unless it was from someone he recognized. So he definitely needed system assistance for that part.

Leaning back on the sofa, Jake took a deep breath, satisfied by his results. Upgrading Identify had not been on his to-do list but doing it was definitely a welcome addition. He had even gotten some ideas as to how other alchemy skills could maybe be merged with the Viper’s Legacy skills with time, but that was not something he would pursue. No, for now, he was more than happy.

All nine Legacy skills at Legendary.

That had to be considered quite the feat, right? Jake at least assumed it would have a positive influence on his upcoming evolution. Jake knew that his profession was unique, so anything he did now could result in a better version that gave more stats or maybe better skills when the time came. At least, that was his working theory.

Smiling to himself, Jake checked off the last thing that had to do with his profession before the evolution. Jake decided to pull up all his profession skills to check if he had missed something or had an obvious one he could try to upgrade.

Profession Skills: [Path of the Heretic-Chosen (Unique)], [Brew Potion (Common)], [Alchemist’s Purification (Common)], [Alchemical Flame (Uncommon)], [Craft Elixir (Uncommon)], [Cultivate Toxin (Uncommon)], [Concoct Poison (Rare)], [Malefic Viper’s Poison (Epic)], [Soul Ritualism of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Ancient)], [Advanced Core Manipulation (Ancient)], [Blood of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Sagacity of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Sense of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Wings of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Touch of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Legacy Teachings of the Heretic-Chosen Alchemist (Legendary)], [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Pride of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Scales of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Fangs of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)], [Anomalous Soul of the Heretic-Chosen (Legendary)]

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There were some skills of low rarity. Purification and Cultivate Toxin were two obvious ones. However, Jake firmly believed upgrading either of these wouldn’t matter much for his evolution, especially not as Jake now believed that Cultivate Toxin would one day become one with the Legacy skills.

Jake concluded that he was indeed done with his profession for the rest of D-grade. Now, it was time for his class and the goal of creating a skill of a higher rarity than Jake had ever done before.

He and sim-Jake had considered this skill a lot and quickly come to realize that they were indeed arrogant idiots who thoughts creating a mythical skill was far easier than it actually was. However, more than arrogant idiots, they were stubborn idiots who would keep working on it until it worked. But to stand any chance of creating the skill, they needed time.

Well, they needed time to not pass as fast as it tended to. If not, then Jake could see himself missing a certain Prima Guardian coming to Earth, all his friends reaching C-grade and getting well into it, and not seeing his family for too long… Shit, maybe there would be a bunch of other timed system events he would miss. Also, going missing for a bloody long time could lead to unexpected issues, especially with bastards like Ell’Hakan still around.

Besides, all Jake would need to do was sit on his ass and meditate.

Jake closed his eyes for a moment and entered his Soulspace. He saw sim-Jake stand ready, giving him a nod, affirming that he was ready.

Now the only problem was figuring out how to have time pass a little differently to not miss stuff…

“Vil-“

“Hey again,” the snake god popped up right behind the couch once more, even faster than last time. “This time, I am interested in knowing what the vision showed you as it relates to Sagacity. What did you see?”

Jake was a bit surprised at the Viper seeming to actually care so much. He decided not to hide anything as he told him what he had experienced from start to end – including the First Sage recognizing him.

After Jake was done talking, the Viper was sitting in an armchair across from Jake with a hand on his chin, thinking.

“Very… interesting. But not unsurprising,” Villy finally said. “It is a unique skill, so perhaps it makes sense that you can experience a Transcendence, though it does sound like you didn’t truly feel its effects. I can promise you that what you went through is nothing compared to me. First of all, for me, it felt like I was in that other world for... I would say about fourteen or fifteen years? At least it felt that long to me.”

“It did not feel that long to me… though it explains how you could do everything swiftly and perfectly from my point of view. But how about the fact that the First Sage saw me there? Could even see things about me? That is not normal,” Jake said.

“I tend to not comment on things I have limited understanding of. The problem isn’t that there is no explanation of what it means but that there are too many explanations. You peer at a Record Fragment, right? This means you cannot alter the fragments, only view them. I don’t subscribe to your theory of pre-determination, but more to the theory that the world you see is the same world from back then. It is a mirror of it. If it is a simulation like the Seat of the Exalted Prima event, or maybe the skill even creates a second true universe with a split timeline or something else insane like that upon you being seen. I have no way of knowing,” the Viper shook his head.

“Let me say it like this. There are other skills to see certain Records, or there have at least been prior system events where it happens. Tell me, have you ever felt someone observing you? Besides me, of course. I am talking about if you have ever felt like someone observed you the same way you observed me during your Path of the Heretic-Chosen?” the Viper asked.

“Not that I recall,” Jake said with a deep frown. Yeah… Villy had a point. If Jake had been observed, he would have damn well noticed it. At least, he believed he would have. So the only explanation would be that no one had traveled back and looked at him. He saw a few reasons that could be. A: Jake never made it to godhood and was thus not worth looking at. B: He couldn’t notice if they were looking at him. C: no one will ever, in the history of infinity, get a skill or anything like that to observe his past the same way Jake could with Villy.

He called bullshit on all three of those. It was way more probably that these Record-peering skills just didn’t truly interfere with the past.

“You got a point. But even so, no comments on what he said? Something about my Origin… also, the way the vision ended was so weird. Like it was forcefully stopped. I didn’t even feel the usual transportation out of the skill,” Jake said with doubt.

“No comments indeed,” Villy said. “It is your skill and your Origin. I am sure you have come across the word Origin before, so refer to that.”

“Aight…” Jake relented.

He had come across the word Origin before, and he had a pretty good idea of what it was. Something to do with the core of a Truesoul or perhaps the “true essence” of stuff. Okay, Jake had to admit, he was still a bit iffy on the details.

“Now,” Villy said with a teasing smile. “You said you had something else you wanted my help with before you went on a mental journey? What can I do for my dear Chosen?”

Jake was happy Villy brought him back on track as he nodded. “Yep. My simulacrum and I have been talking, and we will need some… time.”

“You are asking for a time-dilated chamber?” the Viper asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That was the plan. Why, isn’t it possible? I know you said too much time dilation can fuck you up, and I did spend a long time learning about Shroud…” Jake said, a bit deflated.

“Jake, you spent less than fifteen years in time dilation while in D-grade. That is well-below average for people like you. As long as you don’t plan on actually fighting or doing any crafting, I see no issues with it. Will it primarily be meditation?” the Viper asked.

“And a bit of light practice, maybe, but yeah, it will just be me and myself,” Jake confirmed.

“In that case, sure,” Villy shrugged. “Though I do have to point out the absurdity of asking me for a time-dilated chamber personally when the Order offers them already for its members.”

Jake… did not know that.

“Well, you know, I want the best of the best. Top of the line time chambers only,” Jake joked.

“I doubt Aeon can be arsed to come by.”

“I guess the second-best is acceptable, too,” Jake grinned.

“Acceptable compliment. Wanna go right away?”

“May as well,” Jake said. “Though I have no idea how long it will take.”

“Nor do I know how much I can crank the time magic,” Villy grinned, almost a bit too giddy.