The Primal Hunter

”So, Arnold, what made you decide to get blessed and enter a pact with some sort of otherworldly being of the void that usually turns people insane merely by laying their eyes upon it?”

Jake had barely entered the sphere of metal and made his way to the mad scientist before he popped the question burning in his mind. He hadn’t even taken out the creepy cube yet. Jake had just been invited in by Arnold’s assistant and walked into his workshop asking about his Void God pal first-thing.

Arnold, to his credit, didn’t get fazed and didn’t even look up from his workbench as he answered: “By all estimates, being blessed by a god is superior to not being blessed by one, and the offered benefits outstripped all other offers at the time.”

It was the kind of answer Jake had expected, but he still pressed further. “But… have you seen this god?”

“Naturally,” Arnold nodded, still unbothered as his hands kept working.

“And? No comments on the appearance of a floating thing of infinite eyeballs?”

“The appearance of Oras shifts according to the observer,” Arnold shook his head. “I saw not an eye but a string of numbers. All perceptions one can have are related to the act of observing. You saw a representation of a visual organ while I saw a language able to relay what is observed.”

“Are you trying to tell me you see the world as being made up of numbers or what?” Jake asked further, wondering if Arnold thought he lived in a simulation or something.

“No. Just that all can be reduced to numbers. Even the system itself,” Arnold nonchalantly answered. He soon stopped his work and looked up at Jake. “I do not believe you have come here to discuss divine alignments?”

“No, I came to ask about something else… okay, just one more question, do you talk to Oras?” Jake couldn’t hold himself back from asking.

“Talk? No. Communicate? Yes. Conversation through spoken words such as the one we are having right now is a severely limited and highly inefficient way to relay information from one source to another. The communication thus happens through images, arrays, patterns, and formulas, which is far more efficient and helpful,” the scientist explained.

Jake couldn’t help but imagine the two biggest nerds in the multiverse talking with each other by using god damn formulas to spell out stuff. But… Jake began to understand how Arnold could deal with Oras. “Okay, final question. What is Oras to you?”

He had a hunch and wanted to confirm it.

“Unknown as of yet,” Arnold shrugged.

“What is your best guess?”

“Knowing when you don’t know something is knowledge in itself. I don’t need to guess when I know I can’t comprehend something yet. I still have many steps to understand before I can comprehend a being such as Oras, making my lack of comprehending the creature a natural conclusion,” Arnold answered. “The human mind is limited in scope, and we must accept there are some things we are not meant to understand. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t try to comprehend them and observe the impact they have on phenomena we can see. Through those observations and evolution brought upon us by the system, perhaps one day we can transcend our current limits. But that day has yet to come.”

He remembered talking to an old acquaintance from school during a reunion who was studying physics at the time. The guy talked about quantum mechanics and how there were so many things we simply didn’t understand

talked of tools to measure what these incomprehensible things did. He talked about how humans tried

he did get the simplified explanation Arnold

what it did. That has changed now, as the body has evolved to, in many ways, become the best measuring device in existence and the mind the best computer to simulate hypotheses and confirm theory. I have already become able to understand flows of energy, comprehend patterns not understandable to the human mind before, and I am certain you are the same. Your senses now also encompass mana. You can feel the flow of energies within your own body, and even metaphysical concepts are now understandable – something we couldn’t even observe before the system. In due time, even a being

felt like he had gotten a far better understanding of Arnold during this brief talk and, in concert, also understood Oras

nerd-loving knowledge-seeker, AKA also a mega-nerd. Simple as that. At least, that is

pulled out the weird

a while as he asked. “I am

as he opened the barrel and pulled out the bundle of cloth containing the box. “I would advise you to close your eyes or something. Looking

putting those on. Jake was anticipating

as he went over and took it off Jake’s hands. Jake himself just stood there with closed eyes as Arnold carried it

contained it now,” Arnold said, making Jake open his eyes, and instinctively he looked

felt no headache but could inspect it freely. The box was just black without any patterns on it, and there were no shifting eyes or weird energy surrounding it. It was just a black box, with its only extraordinary feature being how

it out of

walls displaying a map. Jake instantly saw a few familiar markings on it. Haven, Skyggen, Sanctdomo, and several other cities he recognized were marked on it, as well as some noticeable landmarks such as the Insect Plains and the large mountain Jake had passed on the way

map drew attention to a small

it was about four times as far as his journey to Skyggen had been. Luckily there appeared to be other

times of death of the eagle Prima and the monkey you have slain previously, we have a rough estimate of this Prima energy half-life. Primas all

was all tied to Records, and needless to say, then all humans had

interest and the fastest routes to follow,” Arnold further

and the level of detail, Jake

the upper layers of the sky have proven impossible to break through with my current methods. Even that is secondary to making anything able to survive in space for a prolonged period without getting destroyed. This map

quite

Jake to follow. “I have also worked further on the requested weapon. However,

the energy infused into it. It was as thin as ever too, and Jake wondered what it needed

and the box you brought should help me finalize the product. We both share the fact that Perception is our primary stat, and I aim to infuse the

mean Jake would eventually run around with a cursed blade seeking to consume all of existence in one hand and a

on second thought, that sounded pretty cool. “It looks damn impressive already. Keep

this tablet is general information of the areas you will encounter on your way, such as settlements and noteworthy territories of certain creatures. The map is naturally also included, and if you hold onto the tablet, it will track

on the