The Primal Hunter

Jake had never used his Jake Juice on a skill before. In fact, he wasn’t even entirely sure how to do it. So far, he had only really used it for two things. The first one was naturally amplifying Primeval Origins within existing items, making them incredibly valuable and unique treasures. He had even done it to some of his arcane mana for a very interesting result.

The thing is, using it on anything external was very different from using it on a specific part of himself, such as a skill. In fact, using it on himself was still something Jake had never truly done.

To say he had used the Origin Energy or Jake Juice on himself during fight fight with Valdemar wasn’t entirely accurate, either. It was more correct to say he had used it on his Bloodline, and while Jake and his Bloodline were intrinsically intertwined, there was still a big difference.

Origin Energy came from Jake’s Bloodline in the first place, so it was only to be expected it was capable of handling the energy. Moreover, Jake didn’t have to think about applying it to his Bloodline. It wasn’t a conscious action made with intent… it was pure instinct. Jake viewed it as fully awakening his survival instinct, choosing fight over anything else.

All of this is to say Jake had to figure out how to use his Origin Energy on a skill before he could get further, and even then, he had no idea what the result would be. He was also very skeptical if it would even work, but he hoped that with Palate of all skills, it would have some kind of positive effect.

Palate was all about absorbing stuff, after all. Jake reckoned it had built-in concepts and Records related to consuming and integrating energy, and hopefully, Origin Energy would be something it could gulp up for a big upgrade. If not, something else interesting was bound to happen, right?

As for what aspects Jake wanted to upgrade… he wasn’t sure either, and in all honesty, he wasn’t under the delusion he could actually control what would happen. When Jake used Origin Energy, he never controlled it. He simply let it be the impetus of change, allowing something to return to its Origin.

Using it on Palate should allow it to at least transform into something closer to its Origin, right? Jake asked himself, and the more he thought about it, the more he thought he was onto something. Maybe Villy could even somehow interfere and give a hand like he’d done when Jake consumed the drop of blood. He was the Origin of his own skill, after all.

With a bit more confidence, Jake sat down within his own Soulspace and observed the separate space where the Palate stomach was currently being made desolate by the Planetary Core. He considered if he could just try and pour Origin Energy into the stomach, but that felt wrong. It would also be odd if the way to apply this unique energy worked only on Palate. No, Jake would need some universal method, and as he thought about it, he quickly formed some kind of idea.

Eternal Shadow had a visual representation in the form of the shadowy version of himself Eternal Hunger had taken on after fully merging with Sim-Jake. Jake could also manifest his actual skills within his Soulspace, so Jake wondered… couldn’t he create some kind of symbol representing a skill in there?

The Soulspace was all metaphysical and metaphorical nonsense in the first place with what form objects and other things took in there. Usually, it was mostly empty, with Jake’s being a bit weird as he had eaten some stuff that he chose to house in his soul – something that seriously wasn’t recommended – but he still didn’t see why one couldn’t create some physical manifestation of a skill, same as Jake could manifest his own body in there.

These manifestations would just be representations of Records. A mental connection with the skills of sorts.

Jake thought about how he would go about this as he considered his skills for a moment. What was the simplest skill to really represent? Without even thinking much, one instantly sprung to mind, and willfully, Jake manifested it… yeah, he was honestly a bit surprised it worked.

Within the Soulspace, another person appeared. A large, muscular, and shirtless man, covered in blood and wounds, wielding an axe made from the fang of a dragon, stood there with a bit grin a moment later, seemingly a frame frozen in time. It was naturally an image of Valdemar from the vision of when he’d beaten the living hell out of Villy back in the day.

This was the first thing that sprung to mind. Perhaps it was because of Jake’s recent plot where he used the skill to fool others, but the Valdemar from Path of the Heretic-Chosen’s vision was also such a vivid memory burned into his mind. If he thought about Fangs of Man, no other representation could do it justice.

It also felt right. Like the image in front of Jake truly did contain Records of the skill. Smiling to himself, he had to admit that perhaps he had overthought this entire thing about manifesting skills, as it did seem to come down to one simple question:

What was the first thing he thought of when thinking about a particular skill?

To confirm he was right, he tried with a few other examples, as he purposefully stopped thinking as much and just thoughtlessly summoned the first thing that sprung to mind, starting out with the easy ones. When he thought about his Arcane Arrows skill, an arrow that was constantly shifting between two forms appeared, looking as simple as the skill was. Arcane Powershot, Jake saw an image of himself in his usual draw-stance. Many of his skills were incredibly simple like this.

A few other skills were a bit odder, though. When Jake thought about One Step, Thousand Miles, he just summoned his old boots, perhaps because he had begun to associate those with the act of stepping down now. Meanwhile, a skill like Core Manipulation of the Primal Hunter ended up just showing him an image of Jake giving Vesperia head pats… followed by Arcane Curse Manifestation showing him the cursed figure of Temlat after his transformation.

There were a few other odd ones, but some also just didn’t work at all. In fact, the majority didn’t seem to work properly, perhaps because Jake just didn’t have any set mental image associated with them. At least not one strong enough for it to manifest with the current method Jake was using… a method that was really just him trying to forcibly be impulsive. So, chances were that nothing would appear if there wasn’t one singular powerful image that sprung to mind when he thought about a skill.

Some skills had kind of the opposite problem. Big Game Hunter didn’t show anything, but it wasn’t because he didn’t have any vivid images in mind. He simply had too many thoughts associated with the skill. When he actively tried, he managed to summon several different representations, such as one of him fighting the Badger Den Mother all the way back in the Tutorial or even his fight against the B-grade within Minaga’s Labyrinth Challenge Dungeon. All were valid representations of that skill and seemed to work.

Jake wasn’t really sure if what he was currently practicing was at all useful outside of being a fun thought exercise to anyone but himself and what he hoped to accomplish next. The implications if things did work out were huge, though… because if he could infuse his skills with Origin Energy and upgrade them like this, it would be incredible.

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He summoned many mental images during this little practice session and quickly dispelled them all as he focused on a single skill: Palate of the Malefic Viper.

For this one, he had a clear mental image already. One that he wasn’t the proudest of when he saw it.

What appeared was a small black snake about to eat a blue glowing mushroom. It was from the vision Jake had seen from the mural back during the Tutorial before he had even gotten the skill himself.

To Jake, Palate was significantly associated with beginnings. It was the very first Legacy skill Jake had chosen from his profession all the way back at level 5 in the skill. Without a doubt, it was the most instrumental skill to Jake’s Path as an alchemist, and so had it been for the Viper all the way back when he began his Path. It had been what truly got him started, and the mushroom wasn’t without symbolism either, as Jake had eaten way too many of those little fuckers. 𝙍АNǒβƐŚ

That was why, despite not being very proud of what he summoned – and how potentially heretical some people would even find it – he wasn’t surprised at it. Jake just smiled as he knew it was time to gamble.

He had already wasted more than enough time doing all his practice, and despite Eron clearly being fine with things dragging out, Jake didn’t want to risk potentially taking some permanent damage from the desolation or wasting too much of the core’s energy by being a slowpoke.

Jake sat down with his legs crossed in front of the small snake that was no longer than his own forearm. He focused as a small magic circle appeared beneath the snake and mushroom and Jake teleported himself and the image so the image appeared within the cocoon of scales he’d made earlier. Jake took a deep breath as the small snake and mushroom were nestled within, and he knew it was time. Holding out a hand, he reached deep within himself… and pulled.

The sound of a heartbeat echoed throughout the entire Soulspace, making everything shudder. Jake pulled again as a second heartbeat sounded out, and in his hand, a small string of energy reached out and went toward the small snake and mushroom.

With a final push and a third heartbeat more powerful than those prior, the string connected with the snake…

And at that moment, Jake knew:

This was not going to go according to plan.

Sometimes it was good with a holiday. Alright, it wasn’t as if Vilastromoz was actually taking time off and doing nothing, but he did at least have a break from Jake and all his shenanigans. A forced one, mind you, as the god would still have preferred keeping an avatar dedicated to enjoying the livestream of his Chosen messing about.

Alas, for now, he was cut off due to the system event and decided to just take this mental break in strides. On this particular day, he was having a meeting with one of the many people who had come not to seek out the Order of the Malefic Viper but the Primordial himself.

An elven man in a pristine light blue robe with shoulder-length hair sat with a casual smile as he seemed to enjoy the tea-like concoction he had been offered, admiring the liquid. “Quite an interesting combination. How long did the withering of the Timeless Winterback Lotus Leaves take? And what method did you use to avoid melting them?”

“It seems counterintuitive, but the best way to wither the leaves without melting them is using extreme heat, activating the innate survival instincts of the lotus, making it use up all its own energy to try and survive, thus withering away. You do need to get the environment and temperature just right, though, and I will admit it took quite a bit of trial and error,” Vilastromoz answered honestly. “Now, how goes the work on that odd crystalline cluster I heard you were working on?”

“Progress is slow and steady, but I do believe a demonstration will be possible should you choose to visit,” the elf answered.

“I might just have to stop by at some point,” Vilastromoz smiled before getting down to business. “We both know you didn’t just come here for pleasantries, though. What do you need?”

“As curt as ever, I guess some things never change no matter how many eras may pass,” the elf shook his head. “I am in need of a certain acid. I have all the ingredients, but the alchemists I have visited so far have looked full of despair before saying they could not do what I asked, while others outright called my commission impossible. Which is odd, considering you made me the same – albeit a less powerful – variant all the way back then.”

“What can I say? If you want the best, you come to the best. Show me what you need,” Vilastromoz said, holding out a hand as a crystal appeared in it. He quickly scanned the information in the crystal and nodded. “Yeah, I can see how this one can mess others up. It does look impossible at first look. Took me a while to make it possible back then.”

“I take it the expanded list of ingredients doesn’t pose an obstacle?”

“If you don’t count my increased commission cost as an obstacle, then no,” the snake god said in a teasing tone, knowing the elf wouldn’t care.

“Oh, It’ll be no problem. I’ll even help make the cores you want myself,” the elven man reassured the Viper. Something that was an actual reassurance.

Few – if any - in the multiverse could compare to the Autarch of the Altmar Empire when it came to magic engineering. It was often a discussion if he or Rigoria stood at the apex of magic engineering, which honestly was a useless endeavour as they both specialized in very different areas, even if they looked similar to an outsider.

With business concluded, they had some more time for recreational discussion as the two of them talked about some more unimportant issues until the Autarch brought up something that, while not interesting to Vilastromoz himself, did pertain to his Chosen… and a certain other Chosen.

“I was also informed through the grapevine by one of the noble family heads that your disciple has taken on a disciple of his own and even made her his Chosen?” the Autarch asked. “I wouldn’t have expected Duskleaf to do that, considering his disdain at people even suggesting it in the past. What’s more, I heard his disciple is a C-grade elf with an old connection to the Altmar Empire?”

“Not sure about the part where they have a connection to the Altmar Empire,” the Viper shook his head. “But yes, everything else is correct. Including the part where it’s weird that Duskleaf decided to take a Chosen.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, we simply looked into the clan of this… Meira, was it? From what we discovered, the clan she comes from was originally founded by an exiled member from a lesser noble house, so while the connection is minor, one does exist,” the Autarch insisted, Vilastromoz knowing what he was getting at.

“Without you even asking me, I’m sure the little elf will visit the Altmar Empire at some point,” the snake god said. “It isn’t really up to me, though. Mainly because I don’t care to get involved in any of that. If you want to convince anyone to accelerate the timeline of her visit, it’s either Duskleaf or my Chosen you should be talking to.”

“Oh yes, I nearly forgot. This elf was originally a slave of your Chosen, wasn’t she?” the Autarch said, no sense of animosity in his voice despite his hatred of people ever enslaving elves. Probably because, in the eyes of many, including his, becoming the slave of a Chosen didn’t even count but was viewed more as a fortuitous encounter.

“Yep, she was. And before you ask, dear Jake never wanted a slave of any kind. I just forced one on him as I thought it would be interesting and fun to put him in an awkward situation while also confronting him with a bit of how the multiverse worked, seeing as he’d just come here from his far too peaceful planet. He unsurprisingly didn’t like it and ended up freeing and uplifting her to where she is now. Not sure her becoming Duskleaf’s Chosen was ever in his plans, but I’m pretty sure he’s on board with it,” Vilastromoz said, remembering the good old times.

“I see… now, this may be a bit presumptuous to ask, but did their relationship evolve enough for her to potentially-“

“Nope, and if you hoped to recruit her to the Altmar Empire and potentially get a little bundle of Bloodline joy out of it, I wouldn’t count on that happening,” the Viper said, cutting off the elf and shaking his head. “In fact, I wouldn’t expect to-“

Just then, the Viper felt something. A faint echo, a memory awakening, and a connection formed that shouldn’t exist.

“What is it?” the Autarch asked, surprised. He looked like he had also faintly detected something amiss, an expert in reading the flow of Records and fate, but the elf wasn’t sure what he’d felt either.

Not that the snake god was either, as Vilastromoz frowned deeply as he did at least have a good idea of what had happened. “My Chosen just did something… something incredibly questionable.”

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