The Primal Hunter

As with most things, there were many different approaches to achieve the same result. This was also true when it came to transferring a curse from one vessel to another and when using a catalyst to empower the curse further.

Casper would most likely do it through a large ritual circle, using several items as buffers for the curse, maybe even spread out the curse energy and integrate it a little at a time, potentially taking days, if not weeks, to get it all done.

The Holy Church would potentially choose to spread out the curse energy to hundreds of people at once and then have them work together to tame it before infusing it in a new vessel or something. Jake wasn’t sure; these were just some of the methods he had come across when it came to empowering a Sin curse and infusing it with compatible outside energy.

There were dozens of ways, but Jake had ultimately decided to go with one of the simplest ones, as he liked simple. It was also the ones that would lead to the least waste and likely also the one with the highest compatibility in this particular instance due to the nature of the curse.

Jake had been the one who transmuted the curse, to begin with, transforming it from a Sin curse of Debuchery into one of Hunger. Before all of this research into curses, Jake didn’t really know the exact meaning and implications of such a thing, besides getting him an actually useful weapon that didn’t require him to do fucked up shit to empower.

But after his research, he came to realize what he had done wasn’t normal. Not with any stretch of the imagination. He had effectively taken a curse and whittled it down to its absolute core component, bringing it back to its base Origin, which was Hunger in this instance. One of the most basic of Sin curses in existence.

He had also begun to realize he had done similar things before. It was linked to his arcane affinity to simplify and make things into their most basic state. Stability and destruction were as simple as they could get, and the thing is, sometimes there was power in the Origin of anything, but it did require luck.

Sylphie had been a “victim” of Jake discovering this - victimhood that she gained significantly from. Jake had not fully formed his arcane affinity back then, but some parts of it had still been mixed in and helped her become a Sylphian Hawk. Villy had also helped a lot there, of course, but it had also in large part been luck. Not everything brought back to an Origin would make it stronger or more useful. Sylphie could just have easily have become the weakest basic hawk, like a “wind hawk” or something.

Without the Mystbone, Villy, and the many Cloud Orbs and all that, that may have just happened. All of this knowledge he had gotten partly by accident by studying curses would no doubt be useful when it came to the Pollendust Bee Queen and his plans for that. Because he could 100% see himself just try to use arcane affinity and make it evolve into a far weaker “Flower Bee Queen” or something.

Back at the whole making-a-cursed-weapon-thing, Jake was just about ready with his simple setup, which was actually just a small protective barrier he had prepared in advance. It was primarily to hide him away and make sure he was undisturbed as he went through everything.

As a final thing, he took out the vat of water he had prepared. It was little more than a larger than average barrel with a lid on it. Inside, it was filled to the brim with the rare Serene Water to hopefully allow him to keep his head calm throughout the process.

He also chose to trust the King as he played with the marble in his hand.

With everything ready, he took out the three main characters of this event. First was the scimitar, the current vessel of the Sin curse he wanted to use. Next was the ancient rarity Chimera weapon from the Treasure Hunt that would serve as the new vessel. Finally, there was the Root of Eternal Resentment, which is where the true lunacy of what he was doing stemmed from. The pure curse energy in it far surpassed the scimitar by more times than Jake could even estimate. But as it was directionless, it was also easily consumed.

The Hunger curse was perfect for absorbing all this curse energy. If it had been another kind of Sin curse, like one of wrath or tyranny or something like that, he doubted it would work. Without him having consumed the Root with Palette for a few months, he also wouldn’t be as confident. Even if he still held some doubt, this should work out well.

Everything was ready as Jake did the only logical thing, which was to jump into the Serene Water with all three items. The first thing Jake would do was to transfer the curse, or at least begin the process. That would be the easy part and one he wasn’t particularly afraid of.

He would channel the curse of the scimitar through himself and try to place just parts of it into the Chimera weapon. This would not work out as the Chimera weapon was frankly just too powerful, which is why once the link was established with him as a bridge, he would bring the Root into the mix. How would he do this? Well, the Root was originally designed to infuse its curse into whatever it was stabbed into, so he would naturally stab himself and forcefully absorb all the energy of the curse. Of course, this would again only work due to the passive nature of the curse.

Jake inhaled a bit of the Serene Water within the vat and felt his head cool down. Then he popped the golden marble into this mouth and honestly didn’t feel much difference except a bit of energy entering his body and gathering around where his heart – and soul - was.

other, he began – the Root held by a string of mana just

to him after all. But once he really began taking, he felt the resistance. Jake pressed on as he dragged and pulled, feeling the

of the weapon. It almost attacked him as an instinctive act of survival but found no purchase. So

weapon was also a weapon well-aligned with the concept of consumption and Hunger. It had been wielded by vampires and could drink the vital energies of others just like the scimitar, making the curse feel right

established as he hoped for. His mind was still cool as he was now over the “hard” part, at least when it came to the skill requirement. Now came the part where he would probably lose

stabbed it into his own back. It hurt only a little, and not much happened as he did. He knew why, as the curse energy was passive. It was just passively within the Root, doing

odd, and it was as if his emotions were amplified, both bad and good. He gritted his teeth

as it wanted more, the Hunger curse having begun to take effect and exert control over the former vampire weapon. The scimitar was still slowly being burned as

Jake was still able to hold calm, feeling the effects of the Serene Water on

a dent in everything within the Root. There was so much to absorb it was ludicrous. Yet, with the exponential increase in the absorption rate of the Chimera

the process, something changed. Jake felt the hand holding the scimitar close, and it felt as if he had grasped a handful of sand. The scimitar had turned to dust as the last shred of the Sin curse exited it.

hungry. He felt like he needed more. Jake began absorbing all the water into his

break out of his state of concentration, a warm glow emanated from his heart and protected his sanity. Jake knew it was the marble that had activated, and Jake used

felt clear-headed. With both hands free, he grasped the Chimera weapon and activated the

and what was better than the method of transmutation

All of the water was finally absorbed into his body, as the sheer pressure of the curse energy broke the water vat apart. The ground

as dark mana took its place, only to

the marble had been used up, and Jake suddenly felt a flood of emotions. The first of which was hunger, but then annoyance and anger as the weapon dared to try and consume some of his own resources. When he was already starving? How fucking

own hunger. He needed something more. He had already consumed all the Serene Water, so he ripped out a barrel of normal water and emptied it as he drank more than his own bodyweight… but it

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transmutation process, but he felt restless. It wasn’t like Jake completely lost control; it was more an unfightable urge to do something about the sheer feeling of wrongness he was experiencing. Anyone with Restless Legs Syndrome trying to sleep or some other physical or mental compulsion pre-system

found

ground that had not completely collapsed after his and the King’s fight. He ran down and

the network of tunnels made by the termites, and soon enough, one entered his sight. It didn’t even have time to react as

entered his head to transform it into a sword as he ran on, finding another termite. And then another. He tore them apart one by one as he dove deeper and

that was edible and even went as far as tearing off the flesh of the newly slain termites to try and sate his hunger, no matter how disgusting it

energy it drained. It

every kill, the weapon grew stronger, and with every moment, the curse’s influence took more hold of Jake. It didn’t attack him. It didn’t necessarily force him to do anything. It just

knew there was an invader. The more powerful members of the colony would come too. Jake didn’t need tothink to know this, as this was simply how weak prey

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a whirlwind of blood, killing hundreds within only a dozen seconds. Nothing was left alive as he dove

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