The Primal Hunter

Two weeks after Jake had returned to the Order, he was hard at work with the many cores he still had in storage. Meira had continued to buy new cores to keep the ritual going during his absence and had quite a stock built up to complement all those Jake had also dropped off.

Working on the cores was slow progress as Jake tried to figure out how to infuse this energy he had decided to call Primal Energy. Could he call it Origin Energy? Yes, perhaps, but he felt like it wouldn’t be as accurate.

From the beginning, he knew this energy was pretty much just his arcane affinity. At least a part of the arcane affinity. If his arcane affinity had a unique name, Jake would naturally name it the primal affinity, as that seemed to fit him well, hence why he landed on Primal Energy.

Anyway, Primal Energy was something Jake had a hard time properly understanding. It seemed utterly unrelated to the two concepts of destruction and stabilization. It leaned more into the concept of simplicity as far as Jake could tell, though that also didn’t perfectly fit either.

There was also the ultimate question ne needed to answer… what exactly was an Origin? The word held great meaning, and Jake had met it in so many different contexts. The very first time he saw it was when he got his Bloodline, more specifically, in the Bloodline Patriarch title.

[Bloodline Patriarch] – Unlock a unique Bloodline ability. The power found in the Origin of your Records is yours, and yours alone to wield and pass down throughout the multiverse. May your Bloodline prevail. +15 Vitality, +10% to Vitality.

It said Origin of his Records. Origins and Records were tied intrinsically to one another. In fact, when one spoke of an Origin, one always spoke of Records. From what Jake had gathered, most, if not all, things in the multiverse had an Origin of some kind. A place where they first appeared. That is to say, the first person to ever create a sword would have created the Origin of Swords. However, even that would still be far behind someone who made the Origin of Weapons or someone who somehow was the first to ever craft anything.

All of this is to say the word Origin stemmed from the word original. The first. Jake was the first one to ever have his Bloodline, and hence he was the true Origin of the Primal Hunter. In the same vein, Sanguine had been the Origin of all vampires.

There was some power in being the first in something, but being first did not hold innate power if what you were the first at had no meaning. A bit like back on old Earth and world records. Being the world record holder for running a hundred meters was damn impressive, but being the world record holder for eating the most sausages during a skydive, while impressive, didn’t exactly hold much meaning to most.

All of this made Jake think. Sandy had Genesis in their name, a word that was often synonymous with Origin and also meant the beginning of something. In fact, out of every evolution Jake had been the cause of, Sandy was the most straightforward example as it had happened through one natural treasure. A natural treasure that Jake amplified to bring forth some kind of Origin through his transmutation and infusion of Primal Energy. So the question is what he amplified.

The full name of Sandy’s race was Juvenile Cosmic Genesis Worm. If he took the genesis as a standalone, it didn’t mean much, but what if the two were meant to be read together? Cosmic Genesis. The beginning of the cosmos itself. Based on what Jake had gathered on cosmic energy through recent research, it was often seen as some combination of space, creation, and the concept of matter. It was the presence of space and objects existing within the space.

Many theories put forth the claim that the first matter to ever exist was cosmic dust that then slowly formed into everything else tangible. Based on what Sandy had said and their ability to always sense this cosmic dust like it was sand in space this did seem entirely possible. Cosmic dust was present anywhere space was present, after all.

So, if what Jake thought was correct, Sandy had become infused with Records of the Origin of the cosmos itself, which would explain the worm’s level of power. He had felt some energy within the meteor back then he had amplified, and Jake now believed that a tiny bit of energy very close to Primal Energy was present within it for him to grasp onto.

If that indeed was true, then what about Sylphie? With her, there had not been this spark of Primal-adjacent energy. Back then, Jake had clearly amplified the Origin of Wind, which had ended up being related to sylphs, an extremely powerful variant of wind elementals. How exactly that had happened, Jake wasn’t sure about, and there were too many factors in the ritual circle back then, but one thing was for sure: whatever this Origin was, it had an extremely profound effect on the Records of Sylphie.

When it came to Eternal Hunger, Jake was also somewhat stumped. He knew that he had simplified the curse into the base emotion of hunger. Perhaps one could say it now held Records related to the Origin of hunger itself. On that note, distinguishing hunger from consumption or gluttony was essential.

Gluttony was the act of overconsumption to the level of unhealthiness. Consumption was the act itself, not an emotion at all. Hunger, on the other hand, was a constant gnawing feeling of never being full. Rather than gluttony, where one consumed simply because one wanted to, hunger felt like a necessity. You needed to eat, or you would die. At least you would feel like if you didn’t eat, you would be at death’s door, making it a far more powerful emotion, and thus curse.

Anyway… finally there was Jake himself.

What was Jake’s Origin? Well, he had many. That was another thing; few concepts had only one Origin. Jake was the embodiment of the Primal Hunter, but he was also a human, meaning he was related to the Origin of humans. Had his innate PrimalEnergy from his Bloodline amplified his Origin as a human? Mutated it into something that wasn’t quite human at all? Knowing the answer to that was honestly far above his pay grade. Who knows, maybe his race variant was only possible to have for someone with his Bloodline?

to use Primal Energy and why this Primal Energy could even influence Origins. But more

a normal profession to have Origin Amplifiers? What made it

try to transform some of the energy

lead him toward success was repeated experimentation. So far, he had chosen not to use Touch of the Malefic Viper in any way, but he knew that, at the very least, he would have to introduce aspects of the skill with time, however, wanted he wanted was not simply

to get done with the core he was currently working on. Jake saw her through his sphere but still continued his current experiment. After a few minutes, the

patiently stood outside the lab

all the requested goods, Lord

I want to see exactly what that mad scientist

wanted Jake to get. Additionally, he wanted to frame this not as him distrusting Meira to get the

using the same a-bit-too-cordial tone she had adopted ever

with Jake studying Meira closely throughout. She was good at hiding her nervousness, but Jake still picked up on it. She was on edge all the time, almost fearful. Based on Jake’s conversation with Duskleaf, he now also understood why. She probably had legitimate fears of Jake no longer wanting her around, something he also now knew probably shouldn’t surprise him. In fact, getting rid of her would be considered standard

lower were considered far less useful. It was also a problem of status for

C-grade. In her eyes, he had pretty much told

made it to the garden, Meira got started right away. “Does Lord Thayne want to view all the items or only those

the standouts; based on what I remember, he also wanted a whole bunch of boring, mundane stuff,” Jake

assistance from Izil for two of them as they were manufactured exclusively in the Altmar Empire, but for the others, the usual channels proved adequate,” Meira explained matter-of-factly. Jake did bite onto how she seemed to emphasize she had gotten help from Izil… almost as if she tried to say: “hey, look, I do have some personal connections I

the Altmar Empire

out a weird sphere filled with holes in it, all of which looked to be filled with some kind of glass, as well as something quite recognizable. A human-sized golem,

certain kinds of attacks, while the second one is an Altmar Battle Golem, both the model number

will use them for?” Jake asked, trying to start some conversation. “For context, the guy who requested them is a mad scientist who loves

of the greatest factions when it comes to technology-based concepts, so I would argue he primarily got them to study. However, this will likely prove incredibly difficult

nowhere, Jake muttered

Meira respond as they went over all the items of note. Jake tried damn hard, but Meira remained annoyingly stoic throughout, making his efforts wasted. He really couldn’t figure out what her plan was… did she think acting more

Jake stored them all in his own spatial storage. There was honestly a shitload of goods, Arnold having ordered tons of different metals Jake didn’t even know the name of before being sent

been satisfactory. If

are you acting so weird?”

confused but quickly collected

just to rip the bandaid off.

stammered out: “If… if

have done I dislike is acting like a robot,” Jake shut her down as he motioned for her to get moving. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but Jake’s insistence made her stay silent. He saw her skittering hands as they

went through his mind several times, but ultimately he knew he couldn’t

sit on the couch as he sat across from her. His mask was already made invisible, and he looked at her as she just

find an alternative before C-grade, what did