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.

was intrigued by my skills and wanted to learn more about me. Tell me, Jake, from what

had been insanely talented and

was not a fighter, not because he couldn’t fight, but because he chose not to. I understood why. There was not a single entity on our planet that stood a sliver of a chance

having a Bloodline, why didn’t he evolve into B-grade? Or did

something more. Your talents are bizarre but specialized, while he was a universal genius. A jack of all trades, master of all. With no effort, any skill he had would reach legendary rarity and beyond. It was like he didn’t truly exist within the world like the rest of us. As if he stood above it and observed. By the time I was in peak C-grade, I knew I still would not have stood a chance against him. Not that I would have

just getting more and more confused here,”

have become a god. But he 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, for he was also pained. Tortured. He did not wish to keep

but he didn’t interrupt without

had never even imagined, but more than that, he helped refine my mindset. If you haven’t noticed, I like to find ways to take advantage of the system. This man was the one who originally instilled those thoughts into me. He was also the first one 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 that man had was out of this world… and before you ask, then yes, he was a

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

he said he wasn’t curious. Especially

Bloodline of the Immortal Mind. It gives no stats, no boosts to anything… besides one thing. It gives perfect memory,” Villy explained, leaving a pause for

that already with high enough stats?” Jake

was a big contributor 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 perfect memory, which makes me question

you wanted it? Wait, how did you even get it?”

a reward. I asked for the Bloodline of the First Sage, and to my surprise, the system gave it. Not cheaply, but cheaper than expected. Once more, I felt like the old

answered. “Why did you leave your first master? I cannot believe you learned everything from him in

not,” Villy said, hesitant

“Then why?”

his student. You see, he was obsessed with Records to a probably unhealthy level and wanted to ensure that 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

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

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

was not only talking

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

you know?”