The Primal Hunter

He reached out and instantly felt the connection form. “Hey Villy, I-“

“Jake, just know that Duskleaf and I are both here for you in your time of need. You do not need to resort to self-harm like that, okay? We are willing to talk, so you can stop cutting your hand off. It has suffered enough… no, you have suffered enough,”Villy’s voice descended with the fakest tone of concern Jake had ever heard.

”Ha, ha, very funny,” Jake responded to the quip from the Viper. Just because Jake had cut off his hand a hundred times or so over the last few days didn’t mean he was into self-harm.

Well, except if it was productive self-harm, in which case he was all for it.

“Heh, so, got a good upgrade this time around? From a cursory glance, it seems like you finally managed to upgrade Blood. I had quite honestly expected that to be one of the first ones considering you stole a drop from me,” the Viper said.

“Yep, I got it, as well as a vision…” Jake.

“Spill it. What kind of embarrassing moment did it show you now? Oh, I know. Is it this time I filled an entire lake with my blood and turned it into a “healing potion” to help the local wildlife, only to poison them all and end up killing off an entire army, to then just get pushed out of the area by a giant weasel that was immune to my toxins?”the Viper asked.

“No, but I am sure there is an interesting story there. This vision was quite a bit more relaxed but far more intriguing. First of all… I didn’t know you once had someone you called Master?” Jake asked a bit teasingly. ”You seemed to respect him a lot too. Truly a loyal disciple.”

A few seconds passed. “I have had several people whom I would call Master throughout my life. But based on me actually showing genuine respect, only one comes to mind. The original owner of my Bloodline.”

“That is the one,” Jake said. “So, what is the story there? I have so many questions.”

“You know, Jake… you are the first one besides my wife to ever know about him. Not even the other Primordials are aware he existed,” Villy said in a very out-of-character serious, and melancholic tone.

“I never even learned his name, only knowing his title. He was simply known as the First Sage. For reference, the country he belonged to had sages as their elders of sorts, and he was naturally the highest-ranked one. He, too, was alive when the system arrived and was already an accomplished, if troubled, man. I took quite a bit longer to progress through the grades than many others and, quite honestly, fell behind. The area of the planet I was from was considered weak and desolate, so by the time I reached C-grade, the world was already full of them. However, on my planet at the time, there was no doubt who the most powerful person was. He was a man who I believed I could fool, and I wanted to take advantage of him to teach me alchemy. The old man saw through my disguise like nothing and instantly knew I was the feared Wyvern of the Desolates. But what did he do? He invited me in for tea.”

Villy spoke with far more emotion than Jake was used to, making him just shut up.

my skills and wanted to learn more about me. Tell me, Jake, from what you saw

man had been insanely talented and

In fact, he never truly chose to specialize anywhere but always ended up pursuing new things. On top of that, he was not a fighter, not because he couldn’t fight, but because he chose not to. I understood why. There was not

strong and talented, along with having a Bloodline, why

any skill he had would reach legendary rarity and beyond. It was

getting more and more confused here,” Jake said. “Why not evolve then? What

had no desire to be one. He had barely any desire at all. Like such desires were beneath him, or perhaps just not something he cared about,” the Viper explained. “I partly understood why,

only deepened, but he didn’t

to teach me what a Transcendent was. He was a premier scholar in all things system and what he discovered back then is now common knowledge throughout the multiverse. The knowledge

then you would be entirely correct. I have told you it is not one that offers combat power, and that is entirely correct. In fact, many would call its effects rather mundane if not useless. I have never told you what it does, and I guess it is about time I tell

would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. Especially after

no boosts to anything… besides one

that already with high

to his power. Allow me to explain. As I said, like me, he existed before the system arrived, and yet he had a Bloodline that allowed

Wait, how did you even get it?”

asked for the Bloodline

your first master? I cannot believe you learned everything from him in only a

did not,” Villy said,

“Then why?”

even after death, they remained known. To him, they were the truly perfect form of memory. The memory of the world itself. I don’t know how or why, but he clearly believed that I would be able to reach the pinnacle and thus chose me. He wanted to immortalize his existence through me and through the system,” Villy said

came in those final days. The only thing he ever asked me was to remember him and absorb his Records once and for all.

then I truly became aware of how much he suffered. You see, usually, memories are controlled. Your brain only pulls something up when you need to remember it, but for the First Sage, it wasn’t like this. He remembered everything all the time. Don’t even begin to think you can comprehend what that is like. He spent ages simply becoming able to function. But what truly made him suffer was remembering all that once was. Every little negative thing, every setback, every period of grief he experienced every day. Do you think negativity bias is bad for normal humans? For him, it was all-consuming. He never showed it, not truly, but after I got the Bloodline myself, I understood. It is said time heals all wounds, and trauma and grief eventually fade? To him, every second of every day was filled with those emotions, like he had experienced mere moments before,” Villy explained, but Jake

talking about

a stark difference between him and me. First of all, I got the Bloodline after becoming a god and can handle all this far better. Second of all, I was not born with it and thus had ways to still separate it from the core of my being. Thirdly, and perhaps the most important one: his mindset differed from mine. He was more emotional on a base level, and he grieved more than I ever did. Even when I suffer,

you… you know?” Jake