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.

a core from an ectogna anymore, but more like some 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

the center was a dark purple spark, flashing with energy, and tendrils of lightning-like energy hit the 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 used Identify on the changed

the Ectognamorph Lineage. This vast amount of energy and Records will allow any ectognamorph Queen that consumes it to embrace its Origin related to the Hundred True Royals. The core desires to fulfill its purpose and will dissipate if not allowed to. Follows and is tied to the will of its

Requirement: Soulbound.

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

and not something like the creator or alchemist or any other such generic term. This reliance on Jake was further established

True Royals of the Ectognamorph Lineage was? Jake took the educated guess that it was those hundred Queens he saw during the odd

the system transform it into something

the next string of messages. Jake had hoped

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 effects. Having taken it further, you have learned that the layers of souls can be malleable

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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

This was Jake’s first time seeing a profession skill

included some explanation as to this odd weakness. It looked like Jake did expend some intangible energy, be it Records or something else, whenever he made these crafts. However, the system did not include a warning to never do it, only one telling

this one way. System-fuckery

him too 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,

called him the Primal Hunter in the description,

skill upgrade had naturally also come the sweet, sweet

the Hundred Royals (Unique] – A

Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 201 -

…

Viper] has reached level 204 - Stat points allocated,

reached level 202 -

has reached level 203 - Stat

C-grade was no easy feat, and Jake did not doubt for a second that it was a high-tier legendary skill too. Not to mention the sheer act of creating the Origin Core, a potentially never-seen-before item. It put Jake at 203, still leaving him plenty of leeway for Nevermore, but no longer entirely a newbie

better than expected. Jake felt like he was on a roll, and since he was on a roll, he wanted to keep

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

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

immediately as he headed towards the