The Primal Hunter

Vilastromoz appeared just as he saw Jake pass out. He crouched down and placed a finger on his Chosen’s forehead, making the hunter twitch slightly as an instinctual response, but otherwise, Jake did not move. The Viper scanned his body briefly before nodding.

He had thoroughly exhausted his own resource pools, and his soul seemed more feeble than usual. Health Points were dangerously low, stamina too, and even his mana was thoroughly drained. The core of his soul remained firm, but the outer layers showed faint cracks all over, indicating low levels of self-inflicted soul damage. Nothing that wouldn’t heal within the day, but it showed how much he had overstrained himself. Vilastromoz also felt something else was missing, but he could not quite place what, so he turned his attention to the result of this entire thing.

The Viper looked down at the core still cradled in Jake’s hand, and frowned as he scanned it. He felt the Records pulsing within, and he did a simplistic divination to see what it would do and what its effects would be if used on the Bee Queen or any other ectognamorph for that matter.

Peculiar.

It was immediately obvious that Vilastromoz would not be able to take the item away. In fact, he felt it only remained stable while in the vicinity of his Chosen, making the Viper believe whatever concepts allowed it to stay whole would disperse if he took it away. Proof it was an item tied directly to Jake. Right now, a feeble balance had been reached, but more than that, the Viper felt movement within the core.

It feels… alive. Yet not.

Vilastromoz could only grin. His divination had failed when it came to showing the actual effects of the item, too, proving that it truly was related to Jake’s Bloodline. He kept scanning it for a while, questions appearing with every passing moment.

In the end, he sighed and shook his head, displaying an even wider grin. ”What a wonderful sensation.”

The Viper felt an emotion that had been oh-so-rare until recently. Curiosity. Interest. It was amazing as he realized he only got more and more questions the longer he looked at the odd core – the longer he spent with his utterly baffling Chosen.

”I have no idea how it works. How he works.”

He waved his hand as a faint mist spread out around him, entering his Chosen’s body to restore him faster. Vilastromoz felt impatient as he wanted to see what would happen next. After observing Jake for a few more minutes to make sure everything was as it should be, the Viper teleported away, excited to view the conclusion of the ritual. The resulting creature he would spawn.

And Jake’s reaction upon seeing his creation.

Jake felt like he had a massive hangover as he slowly awoke. He felt oddly weak, and not the kind of weakness that came from overusing his boosting skill, but something far more… foreign. He inspected his own body thoroughly and found things were not as they should be.

Somehow his resources had fully regenerated, and he sensed remnants of energy in the air and the lingering presence of Villy.

”Thanks for the heal,” Jake muttered to the snake god, continuing his self-inspection.

He moved his limbs a bit and found strength rapidly returning. Yet he still felt like he had lost something. Like something was missing. Within a minute, Jake felt back at full power, and he knew that his combat ability was not affected in the slightest. The fogginess and feeling of having a hangover also faded as he moved about, making his mind clear.

crystal ball or perhaps a large snow globe. The outer shell reminded him of his own stable arcane mana, but it was what was within that interested

edges of the core at regular intervals like whatever was within tried to escape. Jake looked at this spark and knew what it was. Pure energy and Records. Stabilized… at least for now. Jake

that consumes it to embrace its Origin related to the Hundred True Royals.

Requirement: Soulbound.

Mystbone, so that was good, considering he had hoped to make an item reminiscent of that. Its rarity of unique also further added confidence to this. The last two sentences were a bit odd, especially as it talked about the item having a desire and what he could only read as a warning that the item had a limited window of opportunity before it would cease to be. He did not get the feeling they were talking hours or even days, but more months or years… which

following Jake’s will and how it was tied to him was also a bit odd, especially the fact that it used the term ”the Primal Hunter” and not something like the creator or alchemist or any other such generic term. This reliance on Jake was further established by its status as a Soulbound item, which did kill

had made. Such as what the hell the Hundred True Royals of the Ectognamorph Lineage was? Jake took the educated guess that it was those hundred Queens he saw during the odd vision, but that didn’t make all that much sense to him. He

the system transform it into something more

the next string of messages. Jake had hoped to see his Core Manipulation skill upgrade, and it sure

Manipulation (Epic)] – To touch upon a core of pure energy and Records is to touch upon the broken shell of a soul. Allows the alchemist to far more easily manipulate cores and the Records within the broken soul shells with the goal of refining them. Refined cores will, in most cases, be more effective, and you can also choose to amplify certain

-->

of all is sacred, the Truesoul infallible, yet even the impossible awakens when the Origin calls. Allows the Primal Hunter to far more easily manipulate cores and the Records within the broken soul shells to refine and even fuse them for increased effectiveness or amplification. Infuse the essence of your being into a core, allowing its Origin to awaken, resulting in an unpredictable transformation of Records. Be warned that being the harbinger of primeval origins comes with a cost and should not be indulged in lest you wish to lose your Path and Lineage. Delays between each use of essence infusion

Core Manipulation of the Primal Hunter. This was Jake’s first time seeing a profession skill carry that name, but perhaps more than

intangible energy, be it Records or something else, whenever he made these crafts. However, the system

could only interpret this one way. System-fuckery

much, if at all. If nothing else, it had turned the skill more useful. The general upgrade to the Core Manipulation skill was also more than welcome, as he instinctively knew

damn great upgrade. It even referred to what Jake did as being the harbinger of primeval origins and called him the Primal Hunter in the description, which was damn nice. It was frankly better than Jake had expected. Made even better

the skill upgrade had naturally also come the sweet,

successfully crafted [Origin Core of the Hundred Royals (Unique] – A new kind of creation

the Malefic Viper] has reached level

…

has reached level 204 - Stat points allocated, +35

202 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free

[Human (C)] has reached level 203

Jake did not doubt for a second that it was a high-tier legendary skill too. Not to mention the

felt like he was on a roll, and since he was on a roll, he wanted to keep going. It only made sense to ride the momentum

as he was fully regenerated and felt sharp as ever, he saw no reason to delay his

of the ritual was honestly nothing more than a formality at this point. Jake had prepared for it so much, and the ritual circle had been primed in case whatever item Jake made had a very limited duration in which it was usable. Which had

got to work immediately as he headed towards the circle, speaking to the watching Villy as he