The Primal Hunter

Vilastromoz was prepared to have Jake begin the next phase of the training, but the human just displayed a satisfied smile at his success as he slowly leaned forward until he fell flat on his face on the floor, already knocked out.

“Or we can wait, I guess,” the Viper said, shaking his head. This was far from the first time Jake had collapsed in exhaustion and fallen asleep, and it wouldn’t be the last. To overwork yourself perhaps seemed like a bad thing, but not to Vilastromoz. It could be, but you also needed the ability and drive to stay dedicated to a singular goal for extended periods of time. Sometimes ridiculously long amounts of time.

This in itself would often end up putting a natural limit on the strength many could achieve. While stats did help, and time did slowly make one adapt better, many just never became able to focus and dedicate their entire selves to tasks for sometimes months or years in D-grade. Taking a decade to do something in C-grade was not out of the question either. A century to a B-grade was nothing. A millennium to an A-grade was the same as spending a single month for a pre-system mortal on a task.

To gods? To gods, time began to matter less. Some gods had projects they worked on tirelessly for hundreds of billions of years. The isolation and lack of additional external stimuli were maddening to some, and you needed to be the right kind of person who could handle this.

The Viper had to admit this had been one of his fears regarding Jake. He walked a path of alchemy that would require long crafting sessions, with someone like his disciple often just sitting with a cauldron for a few thousand years to make something.

It wasn’t a necessity to have this skill. Valdemar would not be able to sit down and work on something for just a single year, yet he was a Primordial. But it was a valuable trait, also just to be able to deal with the concept of immortality down the line.

So to see Jake not lose focus for half a year besides when he passed out from pure exhaustion was promising. He had already done some long crafts, but all of those had been very involved and not as boring as something like this training was. Not that Jake seemed to care much… in fact, the more time passed, the more Jake insisted on succeeding.

The Viper had expected Jake to take around a year to first learn how to let Identify work on him. This was already with what many would call ridiculously unreasonable levels of expectations, but the Viper believed in his Chosen. Besides, while it seemed like a long time, with the time distortion going on, it barely mattered. Even if half a year had passed within the chamber, it had not even been a week back on Earth.

Anyway, now it was time to see if he could beat the Viper’s next expectations of Jake learning to control it within five years. A practice session that would also once more test Jake’s ability to persevere and focus on a monotonous task with limited short-term improvements.

Jake awoke, feeling pretty well-rested. He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling filled with telescopes – a sight he had met quite a few times already during the last many months.

“How long was I out this time?” he asked.

“Just three days, so not that bad,” Villy answered, as Jake saw him just leaning back in a chair, relaxed.

“I’ve been thinking… do you really have nothing better to do than sit here with me for half a year? With the Order and everything?” Jake asked curiously. He had been thinking about it for a while, but that the god had time to just stay there was just odd.

“Well, I don’t really have better things to do; this is actually my immediate priority. But that doesn’t mean this is the only thing I am doing. Avatars, remember? While this is my true body, I have a few avatars scattered around the place, including in my realm, working on stuff,” the Viper answered nonchalantly. “I am not really doing anything Order-related, though. I guess one of the benefits of being a no-show for ninety percent of the time the Order has existed means they have become quite self-running, and what does take divine input I got the Witches of the Verdant Lagoon handling.

work counts towards me being a dutiful Chosen then, as I am following my Patron’s

job on getting the first part down. Now you have some semblance of control over the Shroud, but this is minuscule

summoned two projections with nameplates

bubble of sorts around him, which was no doubt a

named after the most basic skill gained by nearly anyone called Identify. It doesn’t have to be called that, as there are many other versions with varying names, but

the Identify skill allows the user using it to view the innate Records embedded in something and get a description. The description is based on your own existing knowledge and Records – often through

to their souls. A veil always covers it, making the information of Identify only the basic, which often boils down to just race and level. Better variants of the Identify skill may also offer information on general classes or professions, the level of danger they pose, the affinities they possess and specialize in, and a slew of other things. But know that you won’t get a long description sheet even

exist to make it even harder. These skills, and what yours does right now, do not block Identify but simply make the information gained into nothing. Sometimes only part of it, while yours does it for the whole thing. In other words, it identifies something one cannot quantify into information with one’s current abilities, hence getting a question mark. This is also why you can’t Identify things many levels above yourself. Also, this can be alleviated with better Identify variant skills. Either way, this is the basics

of these skills before?” Jake asked, remembering the first

and everything can be overcome with enough power. Your high Perception allows you to more accurately see things, even if you still require proper context for a correct Identification. Whatever means are used to obscure it will just be more easily pierced by you,” Villy

be able to Identify me

But the skill you have is not the Shroud of Jake, but the Shroud of the Primordial. It is bound by the Blessing and bound by my own power rather than yours. As I said, it is based on my own Records. In some ways, it can be said the True Blessing is being used as the hardware for a scrambler while you do have limited control over the software. The skill is yours, not mine, so you can

to learning control,” Jake said with a

his hand again, bringing attention back to

the Shroud and the other you without. One of them is just the usual level 150 human, while the other is that one big question mark. You have now learned to allow yourself to appear as one without the Shroud, at least to the Identify skills. The Shroud is,

bubble changed color, and the level changed to 160. At the same

Let through small morsels and control it to deliver a response that says whatever you damn well want it to say. This will need to be done with not only level but also your Blessing. Turning off and on if it can detect the Blessing is something you can already do right now towards those weaker, but that part will also need some improvement, especially towards those

because I know you like that – you need to forge a new identity through the Shroud by feeding it false information and give what will be considered a valid response. You

Jake sighed, not even sure where to

with a smile as the room around him began warping as the mirrors were all swapped out with a new

these will try to Identify only your race. Some will try to identify your profession, others your class, a fourth type the level of your Blessing, a fifth type simply your general level of power. There are between a hundred and a thousand mirrors and between fifty and five hundred telescopes for each. Your first task is

activate as he suddenly found himself Identified, or at least the attempt to. His Shroud was active again, so Jake focused as he deactivated it, which just made him aware he was

or what information they were scrying. He already had some ideas on how to figure it out, such as beginning to filter what information came through to “feel” which ones were successful

entered the next stage of the training session, only a good sleeping session after

a mistake most make. A man who is a thousand but has grown up within a greenhouse is as much a child as the beggar’s son, no more than twenty, who had to learn to survive by himself

in hand. A man who is twenty simply hasn’t been able to experience the same as a man at fifty. Perhaps the older man has