The Primal Hunter

Upgrading skills was indeed something one had to do with a lot of forethought and consideration. Well, that didn’t really count for most Legacy skills as, ultimately, they all led toward the same Origin, so even if you misstepped once, it was easy to realign. However, with skills like Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter that had no set progression path, it was easy to fuck up the skill’s future potential.

While it was true that entirely removing a concept from a skill was difficult, what was even more difficult was adding it back again, especially if it was a concept you didn’t truly comprehend. As an example, then adding dark mana to something or taking it away again wasn’t overly hard for Jake, but what if he, let’s say, tried to upgrade Big Game Hunter? What if he fucked up and removed the passive ability that straight-up gave him stats when fighting stronger opponents? If that happened, he would be shit out of luck with a skill that was likely just worse than what he had before.

Jake was certain that something like Big Game Hunter relied on some concepts Jake could eventually learn to manipulate himself – just look at Yip of Yore, who somehow manipulated insane concepts to make himself stronger to a ridiculous degree - but for the current Jake, there was no way in hell.

That means if he lost that conceptual aspect, he had no way to add it back. That had been Jake’s biggest fear with upgrading Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, as his arcane affinity tended to be somewhat overpowering whenever he applied it to anything. Thus he had decided to avoid messing with the true core of the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter by adding an arcane layer all around it to keep all influences from other concepts away from it. He would still affect these concepts a little, as not doing so was impossible if he wanted to improve the overall capabilities of the skill, but he did so with a steady hand.

The upgrade to epic rarity had been easy enough, but going beyond that would be quite a challenge. One once more had to remember that this was all Jake working on improving the skill. There was no pre-defined way to upgrade the skill; he was going purely by feel and what he wanted to do.

Jake didn’t know how much time he would have before he was needed elsewhere, so he got to work right away. He informed the Fallen King that they shouldn’t contact him through the Golden Mark unless it was an emergency or they needed to ask something vital. The Unique Lifeform naturally didn’t argue but understood that Jake was working on something important, leaving him wholly alone to improve the skill.

Well, he was not entirely alone as he was surrounded by a bunch of innocent beasts that would become test subjects. There were also a few nearby villages of natives if that became relevant… Jake would have no shame using those as test subjects either, considering they planned on cleansing the planet anyway.

After meditating a bit on the subject, Jake began to draw a mental map of what he wanted to do. The very first thing was to deconstruct the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter-part of his newly upgraded skill. More accurately, he wanted to isolate the concept responsible for the skill dealing more damage to more powerful foes. After that was done, he would work on improving. Jake already knew that one potential direct improvement of the Ambitious concept was the Avaricious one, so that was an obvious contender. The Horizon-Chasing concept from his new class was also an option as that seemed even higher-tier… but Jake did sometimes know when to limit himself.

The reason he needed to isolate this concept was to make sure he would place it at the very center of the skill. Right now, Jake didn’t need to “place” it anywhere as the skill had an automatic summoning process, but if his improvements worked as he desired, then he would have to design the entire arrow by himself with minimum system assistance. There would still be some system assistance – if not, it wouldn’t be a skill – but it would be far from an automatic process.

In addition to this Ambitious or Avaricious concept, there was whatever made him deal more damage to foes he was more familiar with. That one was equally confusing and difficult to understand, so he also had to make sure he isolated that. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how much he would touch it; he just hoped to successfully retain the concept with everything else he planned. If things did work out, it would change from being a requirement to something that would allow him to make a better arrow if he knew more about his opponent.

Essentially, these two concepts were ones he would isolate but not really touch much besides just trying to give them some overall improvements. Those improvements would likely come naturally from him just infusing more energy into the skill and the system coming in with an assist when the skill upgraded in rarity, but he still had to keep an eye out.

Now, when it came to the arrow itself… well, the idea of having a layered arrowhead was useful, and Jake did consider going forward with this same concept but ultimately decided against it. The reason he had even made the Double-Layered arrow upgrade was to confirm that this next part of the plan would work. And it had. Also, if Jake wanted to design and summon the entire arrow from scratch, what could he possibly create it from, if not his own arcane affinity?

If he did this, he would also have more leeway when it came to what he would add with this upgrade. The reason he was so insistent on being able to design the arrow himself in such detail wasn’t just due to his desire for control but due to what he would add to this creation process. What he would mash into the arrow during its creation.

As for what he wanted to add? Well, this was where his desire to make the arrow go in all directions at once came in.

Jake could have chosen to go an upgrade path where he would infuse the arrow with a shitload of destructive arcane energy attuned to the inherent concepts in the skill, and he didn’t doubt that would be very powerful. He could also have chosen to instead lean into his poisons… or dark mana. Maybe even curses.

He had considered getting a skill using curse energy as an example, but it was hard to dedicate a skill for just that, especially if the skill could only be used in limited circumstances. Of course, skills being hard to use could also lean into also making them stronger, Touch of the Malefic Viper being a prime example of a skill that was limited by design in its current grade to optimize power. This wasn’t exactly what Jake wanted, but he did purposefully add complexity to the skill, making the summoning process longer in trade for a better final product – and a more customizable product.

In fact, part of Jake’s inspiration for this upgrade path he had chosen was a way to shore up a potential weakness: what if he faced an opponent he knew was weak to something but didn’t have a good way to deliver the super-effective attack?

hoped this new skill could become: a way to deliver whatever kind of arrow he

Jake wanted to create an arrow he

be created, consisting of stable arcane mana locking in conceptual energy related to the Avaricious, with the arrowhead containing the “better against an enemy I know” concept. Around it would be a second layer of arcane barriers housing energy Jake could choose entirely on his own. Blood from the Malefic Viper, poison mist from Wings of the Malefic Viper, curse energy from Eternal Hunger, destructive arcane mana, dark mana, or even just fire mana or whatever else he decided to toss in there. The point was he wanted

it that way. Of course, he knew that, in reality, it was far from easy to accomplish what he wanted. So he did the only thing he

try shit until suddenly everything somehow works

the right solution. He was instead the kind to

as he tried to get a good read of what exactly was happening when he summoned it. With some effort, a single string of arcane mana formed, followed by a few

And it broke.

again

Broke again.

Alright, what if he-

energy fell all over

Ah, but-

was a bitch, and now Jake had quite a few burn-like marks across his hand as it got frayed.

later, he was down to one hand, but in his defense, he had

had imagined, right? He should have sufficient time with his party members traveling to their respective destinations, so he just

had confidence. It

A long time later.

seemed to shimmer as a film of extremely thin arcane mana appeared, showing the outline of a shaft. Stamina, health points, and mana left his body as this shimmer condensed into barely visible energy within this fine film. Once it had reached a certain threshold, Jake sent out thousands of strings with a mental command. They all wrapped around the arrow like he

tip of the would-be arrow. Another fine barrier of arcane mana appeared as Jake focused on the native Tri-Worlder in the distance. An odd energy Jake could not truly describe gathered within the arrowhead as

ball as it sheared off parts until, finally, a broadhead tip was formed. Jake nodded, satisfied as he moved on with the next part. Another firm fill covered the entire arrow at

arrowhead. He kept pouring in destructive arcane mana as it became denser and denser until he stopped just before it would explode. He had

saw nothing outrageous. He had to constantly focus on all of the different energies and keep them stable throughout this process while

so good, Jake

barely able to fit his hand around it. It was more than two and a half meters long and quite thick, with a large broadhead that didn’t look especially sharp, but Jake knew looks could be deceiving. Giving the shaft a good

down to

too careful, as he wanted to make sure the entire thing wasn’t too unstable – Jake nocked the frankly too-large arrow, the size so stupidly big he had to use some light telekinesis to keep it level. As he stood there with it nocked, he took a deep breath and felt for the final concept he wanted to introduce. One that he hadn’t really thought he would

slowly grow out of the arrow. They were subtle and looked plastic, but Jake knew they were far from simple as they practically radiated with a familiar energy. It was true that Jake didn’t have confidence in infusing the concept from his class into it…

This was far from his first time getting to this point, and he took a deep breath as he prepared for

Here goes nothing.