The Primal Hunter

Complicated.

That was the word Vilastromoz would describe the situation.

He had an odd relationship with the unknown. On the one hand, the unknown was a nuisance. It represented an obstacle one potentially had to understand to continue moving forward. Yet, on the other hand, it represented a chance to learn something new. Something truly new.

After ninety-two full eras, there wasn’t much new to learn about the system besides whatever new things it decided to introduce at every initiation. However, the core mechanics never change. The rules of skill rarities, the level at which you evolved, the races and the stats they gave, the stat limits… all of these things were set. Unchangeable. Not even Transcendents or Bloodlines could touch these.

While it was never quite on the same level, the rules of evolution for the popular enlightened races were also set in stone. Not because some inherent concept meant these were theoretically unchangeable, but because they simply hadn’t ever changed. Ninety-two full Eras. Throughout the history of the multiverse, they had remained stagnant. Not due to a lack of trying either.

Sanguine and the creation of the vampires was an attempt to make a better version of humans, but it ended up just creating an entirely new race. The Holy Church had tried, Valhal had tried, and every single other major faction of the multiverse had tried to create a better version of the base races at one point or another. None had ever succeeded.

The existence of High Elves had long been a point of pride for the elven race, as they were capable of being born at C-grade, a grade above all the other regular enlightened races. However, this was not a given, as it was mostly up to chance if two B-grade High Elves or above would have a regular elven child born at D-grade or a C-grade High Elf. Humans did not have any ”high human” version and would always get a D-grade, no matter what.

This low base Origin of humans was also what allowed them to multiply so quickly. The higher the grade of your race – and thus the children you could produce – the harder it was to have a child. But this was all based on the grade that the child could potentially be. Two A-Grade True Dragons trying to have a child would be incredibly difficult, while two humans at S-grade could pump them out one after another as the kid would always be D-grade. It was a quantity-over-quality kind of thing. This did mean that elves had a lower rate of reproduction compared to humans, partly due to their ability to sometimes have High Elf variants and partly their longer lifespan.

Everyone knew these things. It was public knowledge, and even E-grade forces on desolate planets could manage to get this kind of information.

But…

Then there was Jake.

High Elves were born with the name of Elf, but it could be determined if they were High Elves due to some special features the kid sometimes had and magical measurements. These measurements were developed by the Altmar empire by the Autarch and the council, and relying on magic was very much unique to the elves. The point was that only an elf would know if there was a High Elf, and that was only through these means.

On the other hand, Jake was a human. Vilastromoz did not have a shadow of doubt in his mind about this… at least he didn’t. Now he began to wonder. An unknown had been introduced, one of many related to his young Chosen.

This was nothing new when it came to him. From the very first moment that Vilastromoz saw Jake, he had felt the Bloodline. One thing he was confident of back then was that Jake’s race had not yet changed into what it was now. It had slowly morphed, and the Viper now believed it was at the D-grade evolution he set his Path as a human in stone.

Variant humans were seen at times, but one could not pass down this variance to children. There were already so many differences between two humans due to professions and classes, so it wasn’t necessary to change the race. As long as one wanted to remain human, that is.

Jake was different. He was just a higher variant of humans. Not a different human, just… more of a human. A straight-up more powerful version. A High Elf that reached maturity at a higher level than C-grade. An impossible outlier, now made possible.

Ultimately this left the question… what would this mean?

the expected? How would his ability to reproduce be affected? Humans were already the race in the multiverse the best at passing down Records

stalking some rodent, seemingly unbothered by what he had just revealed to the Primordial. Jake did not know what all this

The result could mean nothing, just that Jake would get a race with a slightly different name and ultimately be unable to reproduce other variants like himself. Or, it could be a

didn’t know, and if he had to be honest,

more and shutting down the topic did indicate that this was way out of the ordinary and something far more impactful and important than Jake perhaps realized. But Villy also did point out that none of this mattered right now. He was like the wyvern to a True Dragon – on the same

wasn’t one, it meant Jake was still not yet at his ”intended” grade. In fact, he would prefer to just stay

now, and Jake was back in near-top condition. Still a bit low on stamina and mana, but nothing major. Nothing that would impact what

another race level to evolve. A part of him had hoped the Ethgleam Mothertree and treants would have just given him two levels total so he could evolve right away, but on the other hand, this was fine too as it allowed Jake to

was naturally to one-shot a

if he found a weak one. Hence, he went looking. On the way to the center of the forest, Jake had run by many C-grades, a lot

large beetle with a resilient exoskeleton, and the other a beast Jake did not quite recognize, but it had a shell of some kind covering its back. Both of them were big and lumbering monsters, meaning they had high vitality and toughness. Bad targets,

incredibly fast and seemed to be hunting peak D-grades for itself. It struck with insane speed and slammed its oversized feet into its prey, releasing a shockwave that sent them blasting back. Based on

and fight back for a good while before finally succumbing to repeated

[Sonic-Springfoot Wolpertinger - ???]

as he stalked it around, waiting for it to calm down and rest. It hunted a few peak D-grades, consuming their beast cores once it killed them. The one time it did

observed, Hunting Momentum slowly built up, and Jake learned more and more about the beast. He didn’t really have to learn much, as mammals like this were very familiar to him. An Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter condensed within his quiver

if the beast killed a few weaker beasts than itself, it even ended up running from a peak D-grade it didn’t feel confident against. Jake guessed the rabbit had either eaten something really good to reach its grade or that

far up, forcing Jake to also reposition to make sure he was not spotted while still having a line

length of the tree, far enough up for several thick-leafed branches to appear. The rabbit made its way onto one of these branches and hunkered down. Jake did not feel any magic move, but he clearly

Camouflage.

He was certain that the rabbit indeed had some kind of high-level camouflage skill, a bit reminiscent of Jake’s own Arcane Stealth. The rabbit’s version was way better, though, and without Jake’s high Perception, he would not have seen through it. With its high speed and ability to hide, Jake could understand how it managed to stay alive this

for it. However, it was still a weak C-grade that was a prime subject for Jake’s desire to prove he still had it - it being the ability to kill something an entire grade above

Big Game Hunter, and extra damage added by his

and of

far up into the air, as far as he could possibly go, while still allowing him a clear line of sight. Mark allowed him to know where the rabbit was even if the camouflage could fool his insane Perception from

was utterly still and did not look like it wanted to move anytime soon, as it was probably busy digesting all the cores it had gathered. Jake had flown nearly a hundred kilometers up in the air at his point, but he sadly couldn’t go any further. He would have to shoot at a small angle due to the tree the rabbit

string. Slowly, he drew back the string as he slowly breathed,

energy, and Arcane Awakening activated at full power to empower him further. Slowly, he began to charge the shot. From practice, he learned that starting slowly allowed

ticked by. Ten seconds, fifteen, twenty. Ever-so-slowly the amount of arcane energy grew as Jake kept steadily breathing in and out. The air around him began to shudder, faint cracking sounds were heard from who-knows-where, and the entire environment around him

struggled, but