The Primal Hunter

Soulflames were something Jake had pushed to the back of his mind ever since he first learned about them. Primarily because in learning about them, he learned how screwed he was if Jake wanted a Soulflame that fit him, and since replacing one was incredibly difficult, he had just resigned himself to do without for the foreseeable future.

He was aware that having a Soulflame that fit you was strictly better than not having any. However, having a Soulflame not suited for your Path was worse than none at all. The issue with Jake was his arcane affinity. Soulflames were created from freak accidents where mana of a certain affinity gathered in an area and an elemental was about to be born, but for some reason, this process failed and mutated, resulting in a half-born elemental only retaining a bit of spirituality, effectively making a Soulflame a half-elemental, half-natural treasure.

This meant Jake’s only option if he wanted a Soulflame was to artificially create an environment for one to be born… or wait till he got strong enough to influence huge areas passively with his mere presence and Records, resulting in his arcane affinity appearing naturally throughout the multiverse, thus turning it into a true affinity. Even then, the circumstances in which Jake’s affinity would appear were probably few and far between, so Jake had just assumed he was fucked if he wanted to get lucky and just ever find a Soulflame.

So for Minaga to offer him a treasure related to Soulflames… Jake truly had no idea what to think as he read the description of the item.

[Cradle of Soul’s Kindling (Mythical)] – The Cradle in which a flame may be kindled as it awakens its own spirituality. Nascent Soulflames of hundreds of affinities burn within the internal space of the Cradle, experiencing a cycle of life and death as they struggle and absorb one another while growing in power. Waiting for one of them to ascend to the world outside. Only a single Soulflame can truly be born from the Cradle, the item getting destroyed upon extraction as all others become fuel for the chosen one. The Cradle can be infused with energies to sustain and influence the internal world. The internal world of the Cradle cannot be entered by any being with a Truesoul, and any Truesouls born within will immediately find themselves destroyed, their energies only nurturing the Cradle further.

Requirements: Soulbound.

“This is…” Jake muttered as he looked at the odd urn that he guessed was made out of some ceramic material, though it was far from fragile, as Jake doubted anyone present, including the peak C-grade Minaga, could even leave a mark on it. Minaga held it out as Jake tentatively accepted it, not exactly sure what he was dealing with even after reading the description. Not because he didn’t understand, but because it just felt too… good? Convenient? Jake wasn’t sure.

“I noticed you didn’t have a Soulflame, which is honestly pretty odd considering you are the C-grade Chosen of the Malefic Viper. At least, I thought so at first. The problem with people like you who are so heavily reliant on the one affinity that cannot be found in the wild is that no Soulflames can be found either. At least not before you get a lot stronger and create a special environment to nurture one… or cheat using an item like the Cradle,” Minaga explained in a judgemental tone, the explanation more for the other four than Jake himself.

“Will I be able to create a Soulflame related to my arcane affinity using this?” Jake questioned. “From what I was told, it usually takes a very long time for one to form…”

“Of course you can form one; that is why I gave it to you. Duh,” Minaga said, sounding almost offended. “After you bind the Cradle, just send in a lot of mana and keep feeding it once in a while to influence the environment within. You are ultimately still relying on pure chance that a Soulflame with your arcane affinity is born and then manages to rise toward the top, but the more time passes, the more attuned the Cradle should become to you. It isn’t a quick and easy guarantee, but it is borderline the best solution you will ever find for a C-grade, and that Cradle is worth more than you can imagine. Not gonna lie, the other stuff I gave out is good, but the Cradle is probably the most valuable if we go by pure resale value, as it is rather unique. Way more unique than the actual unique Soulcore I gave my fellow Unique Lifeform, though I did make up for that by actively empowering that core.”

“Huh,” Jake nodded as he inspected the Cradle. He knew that getting a Soulflame couldn’t be that easy, and it seemed he was right, as even the Cradle had a strong element of luck if he wanted to create an arcane Soulflame. However, it would undoubtedly save him a shitload of time. As Minaga mentioned, then he would have had to set up a special environment to nurture one, which Jake did plan on doing at some point, but this Cradle made that unnecessary.

“Ah, also to add, since you can only ever extract one Soulflame from the Cradle, only go for one with good quality, alright? It would be a damn waste if you decided to take out an elementary or even a low-tier Soulflame,” Minaga said in an almost scolding tone.

Jake nodded along to the words. “Yeah, definitely not gonna accept anything below a pinnacle-tier Soulflame.”

Soulflames had the qualities of elementary, low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, pinnacle-tier, and Supreme Soulflames. Elementary were ones that barely passed as Soulflames but actually did have the good thing about them that they were prime for growth, while Supreme Soulflames was the best that one could get bar-none. The reason why Jake wanted at least a pinnacle-tier one was due to the relative ease of raising a pinnacle Soulflame to a Supreme Soulflame. Relative doing a lot of heavy lifting in this case, as it was still bloody hard while raising a Soulflame of an even lower tier would be borderline impossible and more akin to gambling than anything else.

Getting a good Soulflame right off the bat was incredibly important due to their semi-permanent status. A Soulflame Jake got in C-grade would stick with him for the rest of his life and grow with him forever, so if he got a bad one, he would have to either accept mediocrity or spend way more resources than anyone would find reasonable to upgrade the one he had. In either case, Jake sure as hell wasn’t ever going to fuse with a low-level Soulflame. He was way too much of a spoiled Chosen for that.

Naturally, Soulflames were still more complicated than simply being split into these qualities, but it was a good estimate. The way one decided what quality a Soulflame had was also relatively simple as it was just a question of Records, and Jake knew that one could easily distinguish good and bad Soulflames just using Identity. At least you could become able to. Jake didn’t know if he currently could, but maybe with Sagacity…

“Hey… is he totally spacing out right now, or is it just me?” Jake vaguely heard Minaga whisper to the Sword Saint as he threw glances at Jake.

“He is simply stunned by your generosity,” the old man smiled.

nodded. “That makes total sense. I am stunningly

reward

used to seeing you think, I guess,” Minaga shrugged. “Glad to see

thinking thing again while completely changing the topic. “Why did you have a cooldown period after each of your combination spell casts? Is it some kind of special application of magic to make it stronger, or do you overload your body or something? I found it odd,

one is correct,”

sighed.

have been utterly fucked indeed,” Minaga said cheerily. “And it was

that entire cooldown period was entirely

their party – if not any party.

god. If Minaga was not doing free-casting but had used actual skills, Jake guessed many, if not all, of the combination spells would

I decided that I didn’t like someone and went all-out to kill them, or I was bribed by some faction to kill other young talents, then things could get bad real fast. The system put in a preemptive measure to avoid that ever

slowly nodded. He – and likely most of the others – had already guessed this was the reason for the special rule

said, scratching the back of his head. “That last death explosion was a bit over the top and not really a part of the script… I just thought you also cheated,

“I am shaken. Shaken, I tell you! How dare you accuse me of cheating when I am the

felt the presence of the Malefic Viper from your damn mouth!” Minaga

through entirely legitimate and normal

normal to you,” Minaga refused to back

“Oh, wow, great argument.”

using my Transcendence?” the Sword Saint raised a hand as he

Maybe if you had fully used it, I would have maybe called you a cheater, but as things are, only this guy with his stupid Bloodline is the cheater,”

“I never thought you would be

into paste, with the system even recognizing I am too awesome to be allowed to kill you,” MInaga

excuses,” Jake waved him

anything more as the

generated by the system?” Dina asked as she looked down at her box

got everything myself. Well, one of me did. For Nevermore, the system

a while, sharing tales of how he had obtained many rewards

he was just there to give out loot. All good things had to come to an end, and Minaga appeared

have bright futures ahead of you, no matter how infuriating you may be. Either way, I

those words, Minaga disappeared in a final flash of light, forever

torn up from their constant exchange of attacks. Azal, the Ghost King, fought the third-phase Minaga in a nearly equal duel, though he

space in an eerie pattern as he clashed with Minaga. The blight energy burned on his body, making him look like an avatar of the Blightfather himself, allowing him to even push back Minaga and land blows. He

both been thrown out due to taking lethal damage, leaving only three people left to fight in the final phase. The banshee during the phase where they split up, and the abomination during this third phase to one of Minaga’s major spells after the rest