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

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

to remember that leveling got more challenging with every level gained. So for him to keep up such

of the levels, he had naturally gotten some more skills too. Sadly the rate at which he earned them had decreased. Now

Jake had been offered five new skills, and they were all… well… a

checking out one of the skills sent a shiver down

Malefic Viper. Makes the alchemist appear more trustworthy when

others

him, though, he had learned something valuable from the Viper he could apply at this moment. It was common knowledge that two closely related skills could fuse… so he picked

a rough feeling of their properties. An alchemist must be able to find the materials to craft his products after all. Adds

of the Malefic Viper having possibly trolled him occurring to him for only a moment before another notification had

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 better sense the poison you have inflicted on others. Adds a small increase to the effectiveness

the two skills fused, he had gotten an even more useful one. He 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

a bit surprised the fusion wasn’t mentioned in any of the books, though. It was two fundamental skills for Alchemists of the Malefic Viper, so it being noted wouldn’t be out of place. Jake had a sneaking suspicion that the system had somehow removed this information,

It had to be said that the information wasn’t that plentiful on skills and evolutions,

gains didn’t end there. Ten levels later, at 40, he got this second chance to get one. He half-expected to

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 determined based on

and a juicy one at that. He predicted Epic to be

was great. A bit disturbing to think about your blood turning into a deadly poison, but Jake was kind of relieved to find out that it wasn’t a passive ability. He

yield any results, but he could clearly feel it was different. His new Sense of the Malefic Viper gave him a good idea of how different it was to regular blood. The toxin was somewhere

nature of the toxin yet, so he saved that for later. Of course, the

catalyst, especially in concert with the blue mushrooms. Just adding

plan for completing the challenge dungeon, and he had been working

and had even crafted a couple at inferior-rarity to practice. Still, he was unsure as

have worked weeks ago, but he had confidence with his newly improved stats. Speaking of his status, it had gone through a metamorphosis along with

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

(E)

[Archer –

[Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper

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

of the New World],[Holder of

(Inferior], [Basic Stealth (Inferior)], [Advanced Archery (Common)], [Archer’s Eye

[Herbology (Common)], [Brew Potion (Common)], [Concoct Poison (Common)], [Alchemist’s Purification (Common)], [Alchemical Flame (Common)], [Toxicology (Uncommon)], [Cultivate Toxin (Uncommon)], [Malefic Viper’s Poison (Rare)], [Palate of the Malefic Viper (Rare)], [Touch of the

[True Blessing of the Malefic Viper (Blessing

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

of the Primal Hunter (Bloodline Ability