The Primal Hunter

Wings of the Malefic Viper was honestly a bit of a weird skill in Jake’s repertoire when Jake thought about it. Mainly in that he didn’t really need one of its primary functions anymore: the ability to fly. Jake could fly just using mana manipulation already.

This meant the skill now only served as a way to pump out poison mist. It did add a bit of maneuverability while flying, but it was not that major. Jake knew that a lot of the skills Records went into simply summoning the wings in their phantasmal form and adding them to the Soulshape, but that wasn’t exactly something Jake ”needed” either.

Jake still used the wings a lot due to their relatively low upkeep, which meant the only time he really spent resources on them was with the initial summoning and when he pumped out poison. The poison pumped out also wasn’t exactly impressive. It mostly just served as a way to keep his current poison active and the occasional area of effect attack.

Upgrading the poison mist aspect of the skill did not appeal to him either. Besides, if he upgraded his Blood of the Malefic Viper, he would inadvertently also upgrade the mist. There was also the approach of trying to make them more durable or perhaps increase the maneuverability and overall flight speed. There was even the approach of going the same direction as Draskil, where his wings allowed him short-range teleports and speed-ups in battle. His version was clearly one specialized for movement in combat and taking advantage of his existing physical stats. But that wasn’t the direction Jake wanted to take it.

During his vision, where he saw Villy get smacked by Valdemar, he had seen Wings of the Malefic Viper be used as an escape skill to great effect. He had felt how the wings had somehow been activated, and a ”tunnel” of sorts had been formed that allowed him to escape. Jake wanted something like that.

He wanted an escape skill, not necessarily to run from a fight he could not win like Villy had, but to escape situations that rendered him stuck or sealed in some way. Like the skill, Ell’Hakan had used that had seemed to isolate Jake from the rest of the world for its duration.

One Step was already better at long-distance movement anyway. It was a legendary skill specialized in travel, while Wings had so many other aspects. There were some issues with upgrading it, though.

Having already been shown the skill twice, Jake was not sure if he could see it again. It did say that he could only view a vision of a skill once, but did the one he had count? It felt more like that one had been about Fangs of the Malefic Viper rather than Wings.

Nevertheless, Jake tried to use the Path of the Heretic-Chosen skill as he focused on Wings of the Malefic Viper. Not necessarily to use it, but to see if he even could, and to his disappointment, the skill did not activate right way. This left him even more unsure as he still didn’t know if it was because he didn’t fulfill some requirement to see the vision or because he had used his one chance on the skill.

He also tried to reflect on the feeling back during the vision he had before, but it was all too blurry for him to remember. His focus back then had been on Fangs of the Malefic Viper and Fang of Man and not Wings, so even when he had felt the escape technique, his mind had partly been elsewhere.

”You busy?” the worm suddenly asked Jake as he meditated on the issue.

”Only a little,” Jake answered. ”Why do you ask?”

”You said you wanted to hurry, right? The problem is that up ahead is the territory of scorpions, and they like to hide in the sand and attack if we try to go through, so we tend to avoid them. Avoiding them and going around will be slower, though… but if the human is strong, then maybe…” the worm said very leadingly.

”Let me guess, they have a C-grade leader of some kind?”Jake asked.

them off once but was hit, and it took weeks to recover from the nasty venom. We aren’t that good at fighting, if you haven’t noticed, and trying to swallow them wouldn’t end well as they have tough bodies and are very poisonous even when eaten. A few worms have eaten

the well-being of worm society?”Jake asked a

rock that I wouldn’t complain if I happened to eat,” the worm admitted, making its intentions clear. Even if worm society was very altruistic and they believed in sharing, then there was still some greed when it came to unique, powerful natural treasures. The C-grades tended to monopolize these according to what the worm had told him, and the only exception was when a treasure was found

scorpion guarded was one that fit the criteria of both C-grades and those wanting to evolve being able to use it, according to his worm buddy. It was also one that no other worms dared go for due to the scorpions guarding it. Jake considered it for

Jake answered as he

advanced magic truly mattered before supreme power. If Jake had been a C-grade and just released

the excuse of helping out the worm that was already helping him and the worm even mentioned this way would be faster. Did the worm specify

can’t really grab our skin… oh, but they could probably cut off

them wouldn’t just be a quicker way to find out as, quite frankly, they just sounded like normal scorpions.

to be

but Caleb had agreed nonetheless. As the Judge of the Court of Shadows in this branch, he was obligated to. The reason was that the leader of the United Cities Alliance had not come to invade the Court. He

approached

sat across from Caleb in a small tent constructed between the group from the United Cities Alliance and Skyggen. Both had men stationed nearby, but Caleb wanted to avoid a fight if necessary. He had to admit that looking at Arthur, he wasn’t sure if he could

meet me under four

not meeting Caleb Thayne, the brother of the Malefic Viper’s Chosen, but the Judge of the Court of Shadows. I am here as a client looking to hire the Court. Nothing more, nothing

you show up with an

your brother is not the man you once thought he was. I am sure you are aware of what the Order of the Malefic Viper is. It is an organization that is not about working together and prosperity but one of domination and death. Recently, after their Patron returned, what did they do to strengthen themselves? They forced every other faction on the planet that the Order was placed on to submit or die. Those who refused they slaughtered or enslaved. While you may hold the belief that your brother is not a person who would do that, I do not. I look at a

there to be any conquest, there must be intent. Jake has absolutely no interest in taking control

be here. Always hold influence. Even if he truly does not care, it doesn’t mean others won’t. Being the Chosen, there will be significant interest in our planet once they are aware he is from here. His lack of interest will only fuel their desire to

since the very first Era. Which leads me to… isn’t Jacob your son? You know, the leader of the Holy Church on

a puppet. But you are right. Even if I got the opportunity, I could never bring myself to kill my own son, which is why I made sure he was not on the planet when all of this began. He is just a cog in the machine, and the Holy Church will gladly make use of him by just deploying him

Jacob was off the planet. It kind of made sense based on the recent movements of the Church. Even so… Caleb still wasn’t certain what the man wanted of him. ”You still haven’t said what

to have the highest echelon be made up of gods. My problem is with the religious aspects. The missions of these gods. The Court of Shadows is more a business than organized religion, and you operate not based on faith but a far more understandable concept: money. I am here to hire the Court of Shadows to assist the United Cities Alliance in our mission to take control of this planet by having you get rid of

be a list, and Caleb took it almost instinctively. He skimmed some of the names but recognized only a scarce few as City Lords belonging to the Holy Church and City Lords who had refused to join any other faction.

your own family or friends is something I know you couldn’t