The Primal Hunter

Jake’s perception-related abilities, primarily courtesy of his Bloodline, were quite mysterious and odd at times, even to himself. As he sat there in meditation and felt Identify after Identify hit him as nothing more than a background stream of information, he constantly felt how the skill worked.

He had the ability to know whenever someone looked at him. Jake always had that skill. Perhaps it was an extreme version of that sixth sense every human seemed to have, which made one aware someone was looking at them even when one shouldn’t.

This was merely intuition and instinct. The same was true for Jake detecting danger… detecting anything related to anyone, really. But he also took it to the next level. While others could perhaps get a feeling someone was looking at them, Jake could feel where they were looking and sometimes even had an intuitive sense of what they were looking for.

Why this was relevant for programming the Shroud of the Primordial quickly became apparent the more time passed. For every passing moment that Jake just focused on sensing it and understanding it, the more powerful his bond with the Shroud became. The more the skill became familiar to him, the more control he could exert. It was like any other skill: the more you used it, the better you got at using it.

Now, Jake had to admit that, like with other skills, he had tried all his tricks to somehow make the skill more “his” but failed at every turn. No amount of arcane affinity could affect the Shroud, at least not at Jake’s current level of ability.

All of his other tricks were also in vain as Jake just kept trying his tactic of slowly figuring out whatever parts of the Shroud were triggered by Identify and then proceeded to control those. He slowly began forming a map and model of the Shroud and what parts were affected in his head. As with most other things, it was just a metaphysical representation that only really made sense to Jake… but that was fine. It wasn’t like Jake planned on teaching anyone else to use the skill.

Like this, time passed. Days turned to months as months turned to years. Jake barely registered any of this as he was too busy forming his model. Within his Soulspace, he looked towards the sky that was now no longer black, but filled with countless stars, forming hundreds of constellations. This was his metaphorical model of the Shroud… the sky that covered his soul.

As he stared up at them, certain stars repeatedly lit up as an Identify triggered them. He began rearranging the stars, creating new constellations out of them, or simply using the same stars to form identical constellations corresponding to another form of Identify.

Most of his time now was spent within his Soulspace by now.

The only reason any of this was possible was due to Jake feeling the Shroud so vividly now. It was to his soul like an atmosphere protecting a planet. The Shroud did not only create something new, but it also empowered some existing parts of the natural protection of Truesouls. All of it used concepts and levels of magic that were truly outside the scope of comprehension for someone like Jake.

This is why it was the stars in the universe. If the usual protection to a soul was the standard atmosphere, the Shroud of the Primordial constructed an entire galaxy of protection. And slowly, Jake was now beginning to comprehend many of the stars inhabiting that galaxy as he got nearer and nearer to his goal

Vilastromoz stared at Jake as Duskleaf appeared by his side.

“You called me… but he is not done?” his disciple asked.

“Nope.”

“It has already been a bit over three months, hasn’t it?” Duskleaf asked.

“To you, maybe. To Jake, it has been thirteen years, give or take,” the Viper answered with a smirk. “But I have a feeling he is nearing comprehension.”

“Partial comprehension of a divine skill in only thirteen years?” Duskleaf asked, nearly in disbelief. “Doing so in less than a few centuries in D-grade is remarkable.”

VIlastromoz looked at his disciple as he raised an eyebrow. “I am surprised you aren’t questioning a mortal who was less than thirty before this began how he could spend thirteen years sitting still in meditation.”

longer with the alchemical puzzle box if he wasn’t on a time limit back before the Trial of Myriad Poisons. I am more questioning

or more Realtime passing in the rest of the multiverse, but to change back and forth was a process, not unlike diving deep beneath the water and going up again. This process was often slow, or the backlash would leave someone crippled as their bodies and souls

However…

grown since last. This level of dilation was chosen not because it was the most he could handle, but because it was

Vilastromoz had seen it activate hundreds of times already and had become clear

Jake from the usual rules of time to, in essence, be faster. This was not something a mage could learn… it was no spell or even a real skill in the Viper’s eyes. In fact, based on the Viper’s theory, it was only a skill because

he explained his Bloodline. He had told how the system had upgraded it from rare to legendary and created a new one that even carried the same name as his Bloodline. Which meant Jake was the true Origin of the skill, or more

meant the system had made it. Based it on something a Bloodline had done. A Bloodline existed outside the system much like a Transcendent skill, so what happens when a Bloodline does something that would break the rules and create a Transcendent skill under normal

at Legendary. The internal cooldown of the skill was arbitrarily imposed, the actual slowdown and duration probably less than it

that Jake could, in theory, keep the skill he referred to as Moment active near-infinitely or at least every time he was attacked. Well, he would do so until he just outright died due to over-exhaustion if someone or something kept triggering the skill. However, it had removed this activation cost in trade of the cooldown, breaking another fundamental law. This meant the skill served both as a limiter and

a skill given during a level upgrade unless you yourself chose to give it up through some upgrade. It also seemed like the system had chosen not to offer him a skill he could similarly upgrade again to perhaps balance it out a bit. Of course, it

academy, should he learn some time magic?”

but he should learn about the concept of time and to control time energies for crafting

By the way, I have been looking

was against that idea,” the Viper cut

as embarrass myself by showing

just conservative; Jake is from a

“I am not even-“

from the chamber Jake was in. Inside, Jake opened his eyes as if he had just awoken from a dream. Vilastromoz smiled as he felt the change, and Duskleaf at his side

“Level 169 Malefic Dragonkin?”

with thousands of gears all turning independently or in small groups linking up together and working flawlessly. Jake could almost feel the evident

ready to form at any moment to give a response to an Identify. Something he had done right away as Duskleaf used the skill

169 Malefic Dragonkin – the evolution he had skipped over. As for the

did want to make it 69 but found that he couldn’t. He was still confined to his grade, it appeared, but within that, he could freely make himself appear to be any level from 100 to 199. He also instantly modified the part related

lesser Blessing, or you will stand out a lot,” Villy said as

he changed it, so it looked like he had a lesser Blessing. He also instantly cleaned up some of that heresy stuff by just blocking it in entirely. He hoped it worked, and luckily

in interest. “I can’t even feel that overwhelming aura of a heretic

I was a heretic all along?” Jake asked Duskleaf. “Also, hey, long time no

though. When you came here after the Tutorial, it was faint, but feeling you here

“And

just shrugged. “I didn’t

bit before shaking his head. He had nearly forgotten how little Duskleaf seemed

what now?” Jake asked