The Primal Hunter

A scrap of paper floated in the air as if a small string was attached to it. It was slow as it weaved out the door, evading obstacles in the way. It finally floated into another room before it landed in the palm of a hand, as a small cheer sounded out.

Jake could barely contain his laughter as he finally succeeded in his exercise. He had made it a habit to do this kind of practice daily, following the advice of the Malefic Viper.

Through mana alone, he had managed to lift and manipulate a physical object. It didn’t seem like much, but for Jake, it was huge. Through sheer mana manipulation, he had managed to create a small tether or string that he had then attached to the paper. It was incredibly weak, no more durable than a thread of spider silk. But it was something.

He had hit the books hard on the aspect of mana and how to use it and found a lot.

Mana was, after all, a natural force found throughout the entire multiverse. It was known as one of the big three prime energy sources. Health Points was also known as the vital energy, Stamina, the inner energy, similar to martial artists in legends.

Mana, on the other hand, was the worldly energy. It is the energy used to shape the elements, the laws of the universe itself.

One might be led to believe that one of these energies were superior, but that assumption would be wrong. In many ways, mana was simply another form of stamina, stamina, another state of health, and so on and so forth. One type of energy was able to transform into another.

Potions were perhaps the most straightforward example of this happening. In crafting a health potion, only mana is spent, yet it directly restores health points upon consumption, which isn’t to say that health potions are liquified energy of life. While the ingredients did contain some life-energy, most of the potion was still the original crafter’s mana. That mana would be transformed, with the entire potion held together by system-fuckery.

In addition, some beings only possess stamina, some only mana, and some don’t even have health points. An example of this was a race known as the automatons. According to the books, the automatons are a powerful race of mechanical beings who only possess mana to keep their bodies running.

Another example of peculiar races was the very plants he so often made alchemy with. Some plants had the power to evolve and gain levels and sentience, the most powerful even achieving sapience. These plant-like lifeforms very often don’t have stamina but simply have health and mana.

Stats naturally also changed according to race. These stats’ names varied and often had similar functions as the ones humans had, but some also changed significantly. Having nine different stats like Jake also wasn’t a necessity. Some had less, and some had more.

But the point was that all the resources one had available could, through specific methods, achieve most of what all the others could. None of the books detailed any of such methods, keeping it very vague.

Through the two weeks since the meeting with his new snake pal, he got a better grasp on why the Malefic Viper had told him to focus on mana. It had helped immensely with his concocting, and his practice was very close to reaching fruition.

Looking at the timer, he took a deep breath.

Cured yourself of poison 0/1

Time remaining: 23:58:42

Less than a day remaining. The thought that he could be dead in less than a day was a bit weird. For nearly a month, he hadn’t felt anything from the poison whatsoever.

But his progress had been impressive. Actually, impressive was an understatement. Around two weeks had allowed him to grind more alchemy than ever before. He had leveled and leveled a lot, which had even ended up netting him his first “true” race evolution at 25.

The evolution was as he had expected. It had come with a prompt telling him: “yay, you made it to 25, this is just the first step, keep it up, pal!”

There had been little fanfare during the evolution itself, either. Nothing special had happened; he had just appeared in the weird middle-of-the-universe-place again. There he waited, marveling at the absolutely insane density of mana, before being returned back to his bed.

Not that he was complaining about the evolution and what it came with. First of which was the improved stat gains.

Human (E) – A human confidently climbing the evolutionary ladder. The human race is known as one of the most balanced and numerous races of the multiverse, being able to walk many different roads on their path to power. Stat bonuses per level: +2 to all stats, +5 Free points

What was a bit different was that the evolution had actually come with a skill.

[Meditate (Common)] – Enter a state of meditation, cutting off the outside world. While in meditation, regenerate stamina and mana significantly faster. While meditating, no other actions can be taken, and your perception of the external world is reduced immensely.

Meditate was very similar to sleeping. Once one entered it, all one’s senses would be muted to nothingness. One couldn’t smell anything, hear anything, or see anything. Only the feeling of touch remained… for most people.

Jake, however, was a bit different. All his senses were pretty much completely cut off like everyone else… but his Sphere of Perception remained. Completely unaffected. This meant that he could meditate without being completely defenseless. But more importantly, it meant he could keep practicing mana manipulation within his sphere.

And oh, speaking of his bloodline, it too evolved with him.

[Bloodline of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability - Unique)] – Dormant power lies in the very essence of your being. A unique, innate ability awakened in the bloodline of the newly initiated human, Jake Thayne. Enhances innate instincts. Enhances the ability to perceive your surroundings. Enhances perception of danger. +15% to perception.

added. Jake couldn’t detect anything besides that. Not that

grind had allowed him to reach level 43, getting a bit more than a level a day on average. It didn’t seem like much, considering that he grinded out the first 25 in less than two weeks, and that also including way more research through books and him learning the basics of

every level gained. So for him to keep up

skills too.

been offered five new skills, and they were

of the skills sent a shiver down

spread the sacred words of the Malefic Viper. Makes the alchemist appear more trustworthy

four others weren’t any better either. One of them was

could apply at this

must be able to find the materials

right away. Jake felt the instinctive knowledge begin to enter his mind, the thought of the Malefic Viper having possibly trolled him occurring to him for only a moment before another notification had come. Telling

Viper has earned Sense of the Malefic Viper. The Malefic Viper sought out many natural treasures on its path to power; it is only natural to learn to sense them. Gives a passive ability to detect herbs and poisons in different forms and a rough feeling of their properties. Allows you to far

wasn’t exactly sure if it could sense herbs and poisons equally well, and his testing had been inconclusive so far. However, the fact that it now allowed him to

Viper, so it being noted wouldn’t be out of place. Jake had a sneaking suspicion that the system had somehow removed this information, or maybe the skill

evolutions. It had to

this second chance to get one. He half-expected to once more be disappointed by choices

is a toxin more deadly than most poisons. Allows the Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper to turn their blood poisonous, imitating their Patron. The blood can be used as an ingredient in alchemy and as a deadly weapon against your foes. The nature of the poison is

that. He predicted Epic to be a tier above Rare mainly due

find out

feel it was different. His new Sense of the Malefic Viper gave him a good idea of how different it was to regular

hadn’t had the chance to test the nature of the toxin yet, so he saved that for

blood as an ingredient would have any usefulness. It turned out he was wrong on that one. His blood was an excellent catalyst, especially in concert with the blue mushrooms. Just adding a bit to the mix also made the mana-injection far more comfortable, as he was literally adding a

the challenge dungeon, and he had been working

crafted a couple at inferior-rarity to practice. Still,

with his newly improved stats. Speaking of his status, it had gone

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

(E)

–

Alchemist of the

Health Points (HP): 2460/2460

Mana Points (MP): 2890/3150

Stamina: 528/580

Stats

Strength: 61

Agility: 64

Endurance: 58

Vitality: 246

Toughness: 139

Wisdom: 315

Intelligence: 90

Perception: 205

Willpower: 159

Free points: 0

New World],[Holder of a

Stealth (Inferior)], [Advanced Archery

Toxin (Uncommon)], [Malefic Viper’s Poison (Rare)], [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Rare)], [Touch of the Malefic Viper (Rare)],[Sense of the Malefic Viper (Rare)],

[True Blessing of the Malefic

of the Myriad Races (Unique)], [Identify (Common)], [Meditate (Common)], [Shroud of the

[Bloodline of the Primal