The Primal Hunter

Jake sat on his porch, staring out over the pond as he pondered – pond-pun intended.

It felt like forever ago that he theorized that the nine stat-giving skills with “Of the Malefic Viper” in their names were actually part of a larger set, and so far, he felt like he had only been proven right time and time again. They just had way too much synergy not to be.

So when he got the ninth one to Ancient-rarity, he had expected something to happen. He knew skills could fuse from all the way back when Sense Herb and Sense Toxin merged into Sense of the Malefic Viper, so maybe the skills would finally merge upon them all upgrading?

Yet, no such thing had happened. Jake almost couldn’t hold himself back from asking the Viper if his skills were bugged or if he were just a moron for assuming they would merge.

Well… it wasn’t like he lost anything by them not merging, and while he didn’t ask the Viper about the skills, he did ask one question anyway. One that had been bothering him for a while.

“Hey Villy… should I evolve right when I can, or is there any reason to wait? Would it be better for me to work on upgrading some more skills first or maybe really diving into this whole arcane-affinity thing before doing so?” Jake asked.

All his evolutions before this he had just taken as soon as he could. He had often wondered if doing so had ultimately led to him being worse off throughout the months, especially when it came to his class. He knew that while the class wasn’t ‘bad,’ it wasn’t extraordinary either.

Jake had delved into the books to look for knowledge and hadn’t found much. That is when he remembered another piece of literature he had quite frankly completely forgotten about… the small notebook Jacob had given him on the first day of returning to Earth.

He had only skimmed the first few pages and seen they were related to Pylon’s and making a city and stuff, so he had Miranda read it over at one of their meetings. She had found it quite helpful but had also mentioned that the general info about classes and professions in it was enlightening. It was that little comment that made Jake flip through it… and he was pretty sure the Augur had given out some information he wasn’t really supposed to.

First of all, he had written about his own class, without a care in the world. Well, it made a bit more sense when Jake read on, as he came to understand that knowledge about the Augur classes were pretty well-known, as it was a famous “archetype.”

Jake’s eyes bulged quite a bit when he read the stats given by the class… 32 total was just insane. His own Ambitious Hunter only gave 18 per level in comparison. Well, he did have a cheat of a profession making up for it a bit… but still.

However, as he read on, Jake began to feel quite a lot better about not being an Augur himself.

Professions and classes all came with tied-in ways of leveling them. Jake’s class was all about being a hunter that liked killing stuff above his own level, so the class was made for that. He also came to realize that there likely were some hidden experience bonuses besides his Mark of the Ambitious Hunter tied to killing stronger enemies due to the class, as well as a penalty if he killed weaker foes.

In the same vein, the Augur of Hope had many rules tied into it also. For Jacob to level, he had to realize fates, stay true to his own beliefs, guide others towards paths to power, and do religious stuff… aka all things Jake would absolutely abhor doing.

And on the side of penalties, it was way fucking worse. Jacob couldn’t fight at all. Not because of his class not offering any means of combat – it was a rule tied to his class. He was unable to fight back even if attacked, and if he took the lives of sapient creatures, he would be penalized, possibly even lose his class outright.

That was the reason it gave so many stats. It was to make up for the massive downsides it had. To Jake’s knowledge, he didn’t have any downsides to his class besides maybe that experience-penalty when killing lower-leveled foes, but that one didn’t matter to him anyway.

was 34, while the maximum for

was an example of a restrictive profession. It gave more

for E-grade classes was 28, while for professions, it was 22. So, Jake had won out big time in the profession-department, getting one that nearly couldn’t be better for one that isn’t restricted, while his class still

factor in the “of the Malefic Viper”

his Augur of Hope would give him 96 stats per level in D-grade. If Jake could get a class

for the deferred stats, if one evolved a class or profession before reaching D-grade… well, you would just only get a third of the stats gained,

thoughts when he felt the Malefic Viper’s presence touch upon his mind as a voice echoed out in his head, answering his question about if he should evolve right away or

wouldn’t say it is. There is no reason to delay it even a day. While getting a lot of upgraded skills or improving yourself in other ways matters, so does momentum. Think about it like this; can

try and get better evolutions or simply because they were slow. If it took you seventy years to level from 24-99, it doesn’t really hurt much to wait another thirty years to upgrade a handful of skills and further improve your craft. Possibly finishing off with creating your greatest creation yet before evolving. In your case, however, prolonging your evolution will only lead to you diluting your own achievements or losing momentum,” the Viper said through his divine message-thing, before adding in the end in a smug faux-mocking

I guess it is acceptable for my Chosen. So get off your

to presume I could ever reach the levels of thee, oh my revered Patron. Thanks as always, Villy. Take care and say hi to those three witches for me… and if

you is too. But sure, I’ll tell them to be

what are you talking about!?” Jake joked, shaking his head. “I guess dealing with

so that was nice. Mortals and their fragility, ya know? Actually, I think you know one of them, remember that Viridia girl? Yeah, she was one of the survivors of the little training-tour. Back on topic: I have been lazing about for far too long, so I am basically just reclaiming some stuff that used to belong to me and expanding the Order. You can come by and check stuff out once your universe begins opening up a bit, so look forward to it! But I can feel that my divine-message juice is running out, so cya around, and nice talking

to you, have fun with your world domination,” Jake said with a smile

easier for the Viper to send longer and more complicated messages. Jake didn’t know what the implications were if that was true… but did it really matter? He didn’t see the Viper having any untoward intentions towards him because if he did, the

his head as he dispelled all distracting thoughts. It wasn’t like knowing about stats, and the rules of classes and such would actually help him; it was just nice to know. No, the only thing that truly mattered right now was doing some alchemy and getting that

had a feeling he would need to craft again shortly after evolving anyway, as chances are he could

mistakes than usual, resulting in it

Viper] has reached

level 99 - Stat points allocated, +5

did an internal mini-cheer as he got the two notifications. A feeling

The Perfect

upon evolving

forgotten that he would actually still need another level in his race even

do as he actually did, as he opened his wings and soared upwards towards the cloud island. Mystie, Sylphie, and Hawkie all threw him a glance as he flew off, but only the small baby-bird made a small screech, wondering where he was going, as she tried to fly up and follow him. It didn’t go that well, as she

the island, Jake went on a damn rampage, slaughtering Cloud Elementals and birds in droves. This is when he, to his delight, spotted a giant

Roc –