The Primal Hunter

Jake woke up with a yawn after his nap and was instantly struck by the stench. He held his nose for a moment as he looked around and saw the source of it. The ground was black and rotting, the treants already well on their way to getting decomposed by now.

With a bit of panic, Jake turned to the Ethgleam Mothertree, and luckily it still looked fine. For a moment, he was afraid he had broken the damn thing, but the wood still looked unblemished, and he felt the energy still within.

It did not take him long to locate his loot as he dug it out from within the center of the tree.

[Ethgleam Mothertree Lifecore (Ancient)] – The Lifecore of an early-tier C-grade Ethgleam Mothertree. Contains potent life energy attuned towards the soul, making it a highly suitable ingredient for any vitality-increasing potions or life and soul-based toxins. Directly consuming this Lifecore may have an adverse effect. If this Lifecore is planted and nourished adequately, regrowing the tree may be possible.

The Lifecore was a stone quite a bit bigger than Jake had anticipated. It was about the size of a human torso and looked difficult to use in alchemy simply due to its size. He would have to extract the energy and not use the core itself, that was for sure.

Looking at the description, Jake, first of all, considered if it felt longer and more substantial due to Identify and Sagacity upgrading or if this was just the expected information. Secondly, he considered the part about potentially regrowing the tree. Was it worth it to try? Maybe he could do some fancy stuff with it…

Shaking his head, he decided to just put it inside his Palate of the Malefic Viper space for now. Jake had not really had anything in there for a long period in recent times, as there wasn’t really anything worth studying deeply. He did know he wanted to make better soul poisons, so maybe this core could help a bit.

On a side note, no, time dilation did not have any effect on Palate. It worked solely in Realtime, unaffected by all fancy time magic stuff.

After Jake was done eating, he decided to start a minor forest fire. He still felt dense energy from within all the wood of the tree, and rather than bring it with him by cutting up the trunks and branches into small enough pieces to transport, he decided to turn the entire thing more transportable.

Alchemical Flame activated as Jake used telekinesis to manipulate all the wood. Jake drove his fire to form a large flame and began lowering the wood down into it. It instantly caught on fire and seemed to simply disperse into nothing to the naked eye. However, Jake saw that some byproduct was made. Ash. Not a lot of it, as it looked like he had to burn around a kilo of wood just a few grams of ash, but when one considered the size of the entire tree, it was pretty damn good.

He collected the ash from the burnt tree in glass jars with a hundred grams in each. Jake noticed that the more he burned, the less ash was generated, but once he was all done, he still ended up with forty-two and a half jars of ash. Identifying it, he nodded in satisfaction.

[Ethwood Ashes (Rare)] – The ashes left behind by burnt early-tier C-grade Ethgleam Mothertree. Used in a myriad of recipes as a catalyst when the creation is related to the soul and mind. Has no effect upon direct consumption.

Jake had remembered the Forgotten Sewers dungeon and the staff he burned back then, generating Lesser Ethwood Ashes, and reckoned he could make some himself. His theory proved accurate, and he managed to walk away with not just a Lifecore but a nice extra bounty of ash he could use in alchemy.

With everything gathered up, Jake took a seat on the ground again. It seemed that he had only slept for an hour or so, and while the weakness from Arcane Awakening was mostly gone, it was still there. As he had some time to spare, Jake checked out his evolution quests. Two of them had arrived with his level-up, and he started with the class one.

Class Evolution Quest

A hunter at heart, you seek out worthy prey with avarice. While a bow is your preferred weapon, you gladly make use of any tool available to you, embracing your Legacy as a human. Yet you also deviate, willingly picking up weapons shunned by your kind, delving into and holding onto curses and realities best forgotten. Your Path is wide, rife with exploration, myriad prey fearfully awaiting their encounter with you. You have proven yourself a hunter standing at the apex more than once, and only death shall stop you from continuing to do so.

Objective: Slay ten C-grades (10/10). Slay at least one C-grade more than 15 levels above your own (1/1)

had gone through the grade and acknowledged some of the things he had done. Jake was surprised by it talking quite a bit about curses, though, making him slightly worried about the impact on his

would be fine.

to see it didn’t count above the requirements of the quests, though. Then again, all it would do was give him a nice summary, and

on, Jake opened to

often not apparent before you saw it. Jake could make educated guesses for class and profession and had a good idea of

determination, Jake opened the description of

Race Evolution Quest

be found who has walked it. Yet you have managed to create your own Path, claiming what you desire from the Legacies of others as your own while

Objective: N/A

the elephant in the

N/A.

Not applicable.

could be interpreted off the top of his head. Firstly, Jake had already fulfilled the evolution requirement, so it didn’t bother

simply didn’t apply to him. If that was the case, why? He already knew the most likely answer… Bloodline. However, Jake had a hard time seeing the Bloodline outright cause this, as it usually didn’t interfere – or wasn’t allowed to interfere – with system stuff like this. Of course, this was only worth worrying about if his situation

who had sufficient Records would always just get N/A. But he had a feeling it wasn’t so… and he failed to hold himself back

a question,” Jake reached

using Ethwood Ash. It comes out tasting a

the race evolution quest?” Jake interrupted

it tastes like shit. But a usual objective? I know a few of the common archetypes. There is the Find Your Path style, this one tends to be annoying, but you only get it if you have serious problems. Then there is the Affirm Your Path type, which is something people who are already doing well often get offered to reflect on their Path and properly articulate it. The third big one is Enact Your Path, where you have to do something in accordance with your Path. Pretty similar to the one before, but this one is offered to those who already know. Due to that, this one is the easiest by far

there those who don’t get

example, as her actual grade is considered higher than she is currently at, making evolutions just a formality. Children of beings at a higher grade also dodge this requirement, which is

any other cases?”Jake kept

are not asking for a friend. There are race quests that are already completed once you get them, but this is not the same scenario. For these individuals, it is just a formality, and the

“Not applicable,” Jake answered.

Several seconds passed as none of them spoke before Villy just

“Your objective says N/A?”

“Yep,” Jake confirmed.

sounds of me to ask, I need to confirm. Your race is human, right. Not a variant

and matches the descriptions in the books to the letter,” Jake answered. Then he got an idea, and his eyes lit up. “I did get that Anomalous Soul of the Heretic-Chosen skill we talked about a while back

how it works,” the Viper shut him down. A few more seconds passed before he spoke

just thinking about the option made me… wait… damn, it really

“Explain.”